Man, looking back into the Sokkla archive on FanFiction gives you some perspective on where this ship was 10 years ago.
First one published on FF was this one – “Cherry Liquor”, by Chibi Chaos Mage of Chaos. Published February, 2006. Could be wrong about that, but its the oldest one showing up by tags.
To put that into context – by this time in the shows run, Season 2 had not been aired yet (it would start in March, 2006), Season 1 was completed by December, and the only hint that we got of Azula (or Zula as fans back then thought she would be called) was the teaser at the end of the season. Sokka had just lost Yue and Suki was still a one-episode character that fans still speculated on whether she would come back or not. Many ships weren’t even a thought in fans’ minds.
This one definitely set the tone for other stories that would follow. It’s a “capture” story, which means that Sokka is captured, Azula gets bit sadistic, its dark and dramatic, sexual tension is palpable, and then there’s a kiss, etc.
Azula is definitely portrayed as the evil sadistic type here. Keep in mind this was 2006, one month before Season 2 aired. Sokka definitely has a begrudging attraction to Azula and one gets the feeling he just wants to have hate-sex with her.
So, what am I trying to say here?
Nothing, really. Just observing where this small niche fandom started on FF. I don’t know how its survived this long, but it has. By all accounts it should have faded away.
But I guess that’s how ships are made, right? Someone gets the courage to write something or say something, readers read, and maybe they can see it happening and maybe they can’t. Then another story comes up and the process repeats itself until you’ve created a niche for you and others.
And to any Sokkla fan who happens to read this, just know that you are that one story’s legacy in a way. Someone wrote that because they thought it was a good idea and readers read it because they wanted something new and interesting. Heck there’s even a reviewer on that story that I know who said she didn’t ship Sokkla (or Sokula back then). Years later, she ended up shipping it.
I thought the ship was absurd and hilarious when I first heard about it. It’s only thanks to @seyaryminamoto and her Fanfic “Gladiator” that I have a true understanding for the ship and why they would work together.
I like their chemistry and that love/hate relationship dynamic, which Sokkla can provide. They have the same analytical minds and are both clever. They have the same wit, sarcasm and humor. Sokka’s…how do I say it…fair mindedness could easily see past who Azula is on the surface to everything underneath. He is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in or to put aside his personal feelings to save those who might cause him harm. A good example of that is the episode “Jet” in which he sees who are the monsters and who are the innocent.
Yet their views are drastically different. Yeah, they may conflict and clash but that kind of passion on either end can make for great chemistry. Sokka and Azula would be too stubborn to give in but that can lead to some great sex right? xD
That aside…
.I can see Sokka being able to reach Azula and change her mind on many different things and she can open his eyes to the fact that things aren’t always as they seem. They are both warriors who would do anything for their Nation, no matter the sacrifice.
The way I see it is that Azula needs someone who will keep her entertained and on her toes…to challenge her. Sokka certainly doesn’t want an average life either, so Azula would make sure he never gets bored either. I think together, they can benefit.
Azula needs someone to match her fire and not contain it. Zuko is that perfect match as well as Sokka.
Sometimes, Sokka likes to give Azula a kunik, a Water Tribe form of affection toward loves ones that many outsiders typically call a “Tribal Kiss”.
He’ll wrap his arms around her, press his nose and upper lip against her cheek or forehead and breathe in. To Azula its almost akin to a dog sniffing a person, their wet nose against their skin, just before they lick. She’ll grimace at the gesture as if she absolutely hates it, but secretly she likes it. Its the intimacy of it, the strangeness.
Sokka, on the other hand, absolutely hates Fire-bender love bites. Azula says the cultural term is a “Soot Mark”, and once made fun of Mai and Zuko for it when they came back from Ba Sing Se.
Its like any other hickey, but given by a fire-bender. She’ll suckle the skin on his neck and, with a light touch of her bending, leave a very light burn around the hickey. Sokka makes a point to wear something collared until it goes away. Azula says its to let everyone know who he’s with.
The only time Sokka will sing is in the bath or when his life somehow depends on it. He’s picked up a lot of songs in his travels, catchy tunes that he can’t get rid of. In either case he sings horribly, especially when he’s bathing as he tend to go from humming to a sudden outburst and back to humming, all out of tune. Azula can hear him in the next room.
Azula can sing, but she won’t. Ever. Never ever again.
I actually thought about a potential No War AU long ago, but I never made it happen. It’s a possibility that can go in many directions, depending on what you’re aiming towards. My idea was was a classic “everyone meets in a multicultural school” type of thing, like what was shown in that particular ATLA Chibi Short. I really think that’s where I got the idea…
All the same, LordStone’s Opposite Elements is a No War AU, with a lot of smaller conflicts than the Hundred Year War sparkled here and there. I have to say the Pig War idea you suggested looks quite amusing, giving that one a try would be worth it, surely. Humor is one of Sokkla’s best qualities, hands down!
There are lots of ways to approach this sort of AU, all the other pairings’ ideas are evidence of it. You could even have arranged marriage stories like this, setting Sokka and Azula up for a political marriage of sorts. You could even toy with a certain idea I’ve barely seen for Sokka and Azula, which is having these two meeting at young age and befriending one another, resulting in a life-long relationship with an early start.
Really, there are no boundaries for the No War AUs. In itself that change provides a lot of potential, and since this ship has so much potential all on its own, put both things together and you’ll find practicaly no limitations to the stories that could come from a setting like this.
There have been ideas for a deranged doctor recently, yes. I’d think we’ve actually had more horror stories than we realize, since we have Keith B. Real’s extraordinary saga, and there were also certain horror elements in the unfinished p a i n t. While of course it’s not the most frequented genre in Sokkla fics, I think we’ve seen quite a few quality fics featuring horror themes.
The thought of Sokka visiting Azula and discovering a world of terror in the asylum really could work. Whether because Zuko asked him to go, whether because Sokka decided to see her for curiosity’s sake, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that the practices on mentally ill patients may not be completely morally correct, so to speak. Seeing how there’s a history of hideous methods to deal with mental illness in our society, who is to say there wouldn’t be a similar history in the Avatarverse?
So having Sokka finding out that the place Azula has been locked in is far more dangerous than the Princess herself… it really could make for a compelling storyline. Helping Azula can come in many forms, and pulling her away from influences that only attempt to make her worse could just be one of them.
As for a spirit tormenting Azula, that’s another route to take. I guess I’d make it so the spirit somehow attached itself to her while she was out in the forest, perhaps, since it was such a spiritual place. It would have to be a corrupt spirit, though, attempting to take Azula down from within, feeding off her energy. Sokka may not realize what’s going on this time, at least not right away… I think it might take Aang’s intervention for the spirit to detach itself from Azula.
Great ideas, though. We just might need to add more horror to our Sokkla repertoire indeed!
I can’t say there have been, at least I haven’t seen any without zombies. The idea isn’t quite far-fetched, it actually sounds like something very plausible (from my understanding, Sozin’s Comet could have struck the earth, considering it seemed to breach the atmosphere… it just didn’t because of plot reasons, I reckon).
It really would be an interesting change, that instead of Ozai succeeding at burning the world under his power, the comet is responsible for the near annihilation of everything. It would be quite sad, but a struggle for survival of this nature would be interesting, to say the least. Rebuilding the world in this new situation would be quite challenging for the featured characters.
Nice fic idea indeed! Sokka and Azula working together for survival would be a very good way to create a solid bond between those two.
I’m still unwilling to pair her off with anyone. I just want to see her happy.
(artwork by kelly1412)
I’m for this. I think they would be wonderful together, balance each other out.
What if her happiness lies with Sokka? They will be awesome!
Two against one is not fair guys! lmao xD
Oh this nothing. You can count yourself lucky that you haven’t met other crazy Sokkla shippers like seyaryminamoto, singlemanmedia or Fanwright. If we all gang on you, you will have no other option but joining us! Sokkla FTW!
Heeeey, now, we don’t gang up on anyone xD there’s no need to, that’s not our procedure (?) our schemes are far too sophisticated for that, Focusas, you know that
If happy Azula is what you’re after, well, that’s the exact reason I ended up falling as deep for this ship as I did. At first I thought this relationship was funny, I figured Azula would thoroughly enjoy messing with a lovestruck Sokka, but later on I realized this ship has practically unlimited potential. And one of the best things you can do with these two characters is bringing them together so they find in one another what they hardly knew they were looking for.
My fic The Reason was born out of my need to see Azula getting a happier resolution than what she got in the show. Seeing how I had no idea what would happen in The Search by the time I wrote The Reason, I decided to ignore the comic for the time being and simply write the fic, no matter if it turned out well or not. Granted it’s nowhere close to a perfect fic, but it was my first true attempt at making Sokkla happen, and at giving Azula actual happiness.
Granted some people like this ship for other reasons (some actually are fond of darker aspects of it), but what turned it into my indisputable OTP was the realization that this could give Azula the happiness I wanted her to find.
I am just looking for good reasons. Obviously I want her to find true happiness and love. I am a huge Azula follower. (I would defend that girl with my life if that were possible? xD )That’s why I am looking for good reasons. You can’t just jump ship. I want facts and proof. And not just cause “they would be the strongest couple and dominate the earth” LOL
I am unwilling to pair her off to just anyone…My girl deserves the best. Could Sokka be the best for her? Thinking of qualities I can see him being the rational one. The one to calm her if she were angered. Possibly make her laugh? He is pretty much the opposite of what she is. But as the saying goes “opposites attract” so anything is possible.
The famous ‘opposites attract’ idea has a lot to do with the appeal to this ship, but that’s really just the surface of it. Turns out they’re opposites in many things, the more obvious ones being that they’re princess and peasant, fire and water, fighting at opposite sides of a war… all that is true. But see, one of the nice things where they’re also opposites is regarding honesty. Azula is used to people lying to her to stay on her good side, she lies on occassion too and rarely ever trusts anyone, if ever (every single time she has trusted someone, she has been betrayed later on…). But Sokka… Sokka is a brutally honest guy, and even if he tried to lie to her regarding anything he’d do it so poorly he would end up telling the truth later on anyways xD one of the things Azula hates the most is betrayal, and due to Sokka’s honesty, he’s the last person I can imagine doing that to her. So Sokka is blunt, and he’s never going to be dishonest to her. There will be no pity from him, no lies, no attempts to get to her good side just for the sake of it. He’s honest about everything, and that’s something Azula has rarely found in anyone in her life so far.
Moving on, though, turns out that they’re opposites in a lot of things but they share many things in common as well. Their senses of humor are another reason to think they’d work together xD Azula’s weird humor actually might suit Sokka’s tastes (I mean, if he laughed at that ‘Nunya’ joke you can’t expect him to have high standards regarding humor, can you? xD), and I like to think she’d be amused by his nonsense despite not wanting to show it (which results in her either rolling her eyes to mask her amusement, or muffling her laughter, or actually being unable to hold back the laughs). But that’s not all! They’re both the strategists of their groups, and heck, Sokka is quite the leader when put to the task. Azula is, obviously, a leader as well. So they’re both clever enough to actually challenge one another intelectually (granted Azula likely beats Sokka more often than not, but he’d give her a fair contest all the same).
Sokka and Azula, character-traits-wise, are one another’s equivalents in the other team, pretty much. People always draw the parallels between Zuko and Katara without realizing that you can draw those too with Sokka and Azula. Where Zuko and Katara are close to their moms, Sokka and Azula were close to their dads and wanted to be like them (not saying, of course, that Hakoda is at all an example on the same level as Ozai .___. nonononononono). Where Katara and Zuko are humorless and serious, Azula and Sokka are constantly teasing their stern siblings, messing with them even if at times they cross lines they shouldn’t (it needs to be acknowledged that Sokka does this too…). Where Katara and Zuko are emotional and driven to do things because their hearts tell them to, Sokka and Azula do the smart, logical thing instead. They’re practical, they’re capable of making sacrifices, of cuting their losses, of doing what needs to be done to triumph. Soooo, there’s all this to be considered as well 😀 It’s not just opposites attract, as you can see 🙂
You were kidding, I guess, about the thing on how they’re the strongest couple in the world xD but they could be, pretty much. Azula shows no disdain towards non-benders, something some people have falsely assumed about her (it makes no sense to think that when her two best friends are non-benders and she has never belittled them for it o___O), so I doubt she’d care if Sokka is a non-bender, especially considering his skills as a swordsman. Get Space Sword back for him and he makes the most dangerous non-bender I can remember in the show (really, a sword that cuts cleanly through steel… that’s really something). But it’s not just this: regarding strategy, again, Azula is pretty good at reading people, reading through her opponents’ moves, assessing the battle ground… she’s great at drawing plans. But what she’s not so great at is improvisation. When things get a little out of hand, when something goes wrong, she has to pull back and reconsider her approach. Which is cool, nothing wrong with that xD BUT, Sokka’s actual skill as a strategist lies in his ability to improvise. So imagine the pair of them on the same team: Azula draws out the big plans, and if anything goes wrong, Sokka improvises his way through. Who could get in the way of a guy with a sword that cuts through metals and a princess with blue fire and lightning?
So really? Strongest couple in the entire world xD nobody can convince me otherwise.
Another thing to consider is Sokka’s POV. Because while Sokka can be the best for Azula, some people might argue that’s not a two-way street. But it is 😀 and the reason why that is can be found in this post (that way I don’t have to repeat myself too much, my followers will be tired of reading me say the same things all the time xD).
Of course, that is not to say that Sokkla will always be a wonderful thing… they’re not exempt from angst and conflict. It’s actually hard to get things to work out properlyl for these two. It takes a lot of work, and a very very careful balance to make them fall in love and appreciate one another for who he is. If done wrong, Sokkla can turn out to be a mess, and it could easily become an unhealthy relationship (some people like to turn Sokka into a mindless sex slave for Azula, others like to mellow out Azula completely and practically take away her character’s traits… I rather doubt those are the stories you’ll want to read). But if done right… if done right, a simple guy like Sokka can bring unparalleled happiness to a complicated girl like Azula. He can help her put her darkness behind her, and help her appreciate the smaller pleasures in life. With him she’d come to see she doesn’t really need a throne, or glory, or anything of the sort. She can just be Azula, if she’s perfect or imperfect won’t matter to him, and she’ll know that’s the case because he’s too honest for his own good.
My latest discovery, though, was The Gentleman of Weapons by thingsareswinging. It’s AMAZING. It’s such a great AU. I had a ton of stuff to read for school but I said “screw it” and read this instead xD I REGRET NOTHING! it’s really that great. Sokkla aren’t the main focus on this fic (they’re not even together-together as it is xD), but it’s a great fic nonetheless, and you get to see things from Azula’s POV when she’s present in scenes (you get either Piandao or Azula POV). There’s another great story by thingsareswinging, To The Thunder, worth checking out just as much as GoW is.
I’ve also written several fics myself. You can find links to most my stories here, including some of my Tumblr one-shots.
… So, after this crazy rambling + fic recs, I hope you take our humble ship into consideration ^^ As an Azula fan, I really think the best thing to happen to me was joining this ship.
Fanwright 