the essence of zukka is incredibly easy to nail down it still confuses me that people ARE so confused but it's like ok... other than toph sokka was the most open one to actually accept zuko into their group in a non-hostile way (not that say katara was wrong at all but he was definitely not as mad as her) and as much as the life changing field trip jokes are funny they were ALREADY somehow ride or die the second zuko said no we'll take my war balloon. they didn't even take the damn trip yet.

they're enemies to begrudging acquaintances to immediate ride or dies for life. they're the plan guy (sokka) and the runs into action without literally ANY thought guy (zuko). hey JERKS how's your JERKBENDING 😙. they're the blue spirit and an honourary kyoshi warrior. in the comics they had a little club where they "swordbended" together bc they both fight with swords... like that is so stinking cute... they were taught by the SAME GUY actually... they're both the eldest of the group and brothers to prodigy sisters, they both lost their mother and in a way their father... nonbender/bender duo, firelord/ambassador or prince/son of the chief of the southern water tribe.

they were both raised with expectations, sokka was a parentified child and zuko an infantilised one. zuko is an idiot and sokka ISN'T but he's prone to silliness and having fun over the course of his narrative arc and zuko needs to relax once every 30 hours or he'll die from a stomach ulcer. they both tell dogshit jokes and are the only ones who probably think they're funny and they both hate each others jokes. they would probably invent their own language if they could. they're the most different ever and yet the exactly the same person. they're stupid teenage boys and child soldiers and forefront leaders of a nation. they're going to grow up together.

in 2021 there was an article pointing out we don't know who sokka was with as an adult and we do know zuko was a single father and mai and him DID break up and it would be weird for 100% of them to stay with the person you were dating when you were 16. it's one of sokka's va's favourite ships who is arguably knowledgeable about his own character. it IS the live action actors favourite ship and they call each other their boyfriend or whatever. one of the first full convos zuko had with him was him trying to make him feel better in the most insane autistic way possible talking about silver sandwiches. they would probably smoke weed together and invent a brand new brilliant machine that only one of them can run. IT'S EASY WHAT'S NOT CLICKING HERE.