Avatar: Here’s Why Sokka Can’t Waterbend!

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is finally here, and we on Fiction Horizon are going to be covering the series, explaining all the changes from the original animated series, as well as some crucial story elements that you might be wondering about. This article will be dedicated to Sokka, one of the most important characters in the whole series, as well as one of the most interesting ones. We know that Sokka is a powerful warrior, but he is not a Waterbender, like his sister. Why? This article will provide you with an explanation for that fact, so keep reading if you want to find out more.

Sokka is a very skilled warrior, but he cannot bend…

Sokka is one of the series’ best-known characters. Due to his relationship with Aang, Sokka became one of the series’ most popular figures and that is why fans keep talking about him so much.

We know about his tragedy and his hatred towards the Fire Nation because his mother was killed in one of their raids. He trained to become a warrior and later joined Aang’s team, although he was initially skeptical of his ability to save the world. And while Aang made him a better warrior, Sokka is nevertheless a specific character.

Namely, as we all know, he was a master warrior. He has exceptional skills with weapons and is a great hand-to-hand combatant, but unlike his sister, Katara, he is not able to use Waterbending techniques. This is a very specific thing, as he is a member of the Water Nation, but he was never able to master Waterbending.

This makes Sokka specific, and because of that, we have decided to dig deeper into this phenomenon. In the next section of this article, we are going to try to explain why Sokka is actually unable to use Waterbending, while, at the same time, his sister is able to use it.

The series never provided us with an official reason, but it is assumed that it has something to do with genetics

And while we do know that Sokka cannot use Waterbending, sadly, the series never provided us with an explanation about the reasons behind this. This is not just Sokka – the same goes for basically all characters who were unable to bend. While we don’t have any official explanation, we have several solid theories, and the one by Quora user Ethan Araki seems great to us:

I’d assume it’s because of hereditary reasons

Sokka’s father and mother are unable to water bend

However his sister, Katara, is able to water bend

We also know that their grandma, Gran Gran, could not water bend

I would assume this is due to dominant and recessive alleles

A gene that allows some people to bend some not to

My theory is that when the Lion Turtles gave bending to the humans to live, it was as if they opened up a whole other gene pool

If Sokka’s mom and dad were both carriers of the gene, then there would be a chance that they birth a water bender

Sokka simply got the dominant gene instead of the recessive one like his sister

That’s my guess anyways, but I was never exactly good at biology so I might be forgetting a couple things

-Asian Out

(Source)

And while Ethan Araki might not be a geneticist, he seems to be right. Almost all fans on the Internet think that it has to do with genetics. No one knows how and why (but we can only blame the creators for that), but it seems to be a genetic trait in most cases. We have some knowledge of Sokka’s family, so we can deduce more than in some other cases, and seeking how genetics work, this seems to be a very solid theory that we can only agree with as well.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!