I think it’s so funny during the exchange on the balloon when sokka is like, “yeah being good at war seems to run in the family,” and zuko gets all defensive and goes, “hold on, not everyone is like that!” and at first sokka thinks he’s talking about himself, but then zuko reveals that he’s talking about his uncle. and sokka just has to sit there mentally calculating whether it would be a good idea to bring up the fact that historically, his uncle is great at war. if i had to attempt to transcribe his inner monologue in that moment it would just be “don’t bring up the dragon of the west don’t bring up the dragon of the west this guy is willingly sacrificing his life for your self-indulgent suicide mission you need him on your side don’t bring up the dragon of the west…” at which point he then looks back up at zuko and says thru gritted teeth, “haha yeah. no, cuz like, totally. for sure.”