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Notes -
In the very first episode of Avatar we see the end stage of male disposability: a 13-year old boy trying to train six year olds to be fighters against an industrial war machine. Sokka is brave: insanely brave. He's the butt of the joke for a lot of the series but that first impression sticks with you. An entire fire nation dreadnought shows up on his shores and he puts on his war paint and boomerang and goes to fight them. But there's not a fight. He's not even worth the effort of killing.
That is very, very bleak.
The Southern Water Tribe doesn't have any men left, and he's fighting against wizards with magic powers who have industrial technology. Sokka and Aang fight because literally anyone else that could is either in a gulag or genocided: meanwhile, the Fire Nation girlbosses fight because it's a flex and they can afford wasting resources like that.
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