Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book 3/04 Sokka's Master

"You told me you didn't know if you were worthy, but I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."

After the Gaang use bending to stop a forest fire caused by a falling meteorite, Sokka feels Overshadowed by Awesome and expresses his frustration at being the weakest member of the group. Deciding that he needs to be cheered up, the group goes on a shopping spree, and Sokka hears of a Master Swordsman that lives nearby, known as Master Piandao. Katara, Aang, and Toph urge Sokka to seek training from him, as much for his sake as for the Gaang's.

With Sokka preoccupied temporarily, the Gaang attempts to do Sokka's old jobs, including his sarcastic jokes. Hilarity Ensues. And Iroh, still locked in his cell, secretly exercises, eventually becoming a One-Man Army.

Tropes:

• A Day in the Limelight: For Sokka.
• Badass Grandpa/Cool Old Guy: Piandao and Iroh
• Battle Butler: Notice how Sokka usually goes against Piandao's butler during the actual training.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Katara.
  • Aang as well. At the very least, neither can do it on the spot.
• Chekhov's Gun: The meteorite turns out to be very useful for creating swords.
• Combat Compliment: Piandao does this during his final test of Sokka.
• Flynning: The last fight between Piandao and Sokka.
• Foot Focus: Katara, Aang and Toph go barefoot for most of the episode, while Sokka is away training with Master Piandao for a few days.
• Forging Scene: For Sokka's "Space Sword".
• Mythology Gag: While Toph plays with the meteor rock, one of the shapes she forms is the Nickelodeon splat.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Iroh to the guards.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As said above, Iroh to the guards.
• One Steve Limit: Lampshade Hanging on the aversion of this trope, actually. Piandao suggests "Lee" as an alias for Sokka: "There's a million Lees." There have been at least three or four other characters called Lee in the series up to this point, and it was Zuko's alias during season 2.
• Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Iroh's subplot.
• Scary Impractical Armor: Spoofed with the suit of armor that Aang tries on while shopping; the humorous look is the current page image.
• Scooby Stack: Katara and Aang.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Aang briefly discusses the idea of making a 'Wind Sword' this way.
• Take That: One against Scary Impractical Armor, and by proxy toy makers who asked for this sort of stuff as Environment Specific Action Figure fodder.
• Tasty Gold: Faced with a selection of metals with which to forge a sword, Sokka picks up a hunk of the stuff and gnaws on it.
• Thunderbolt Iron: Sokka's sword
• Took a Level in Badass: Essentially the whole episode, although Iroh was already badass before his secret exercise routine. Oh, and so did Sokka.
• Wax On, Wax Off: Piandao's training of Sokka includes calligraphy, landscape painting, and rock gardening in addition to actual swordplay. Unlike most instances of the trope, however, he explains the purpose of each element as he goes along.
• Why Don't You Marry It?: When Toph says she misses Sokka, Katara tries to make a joke about it.

Katara: Ooo. I got one. If you miss him so much, why don't you marry him?