I've always been known as "the plan guy," but I don't remember when the plans started to evolve into inventions. I guess since everyone else had their super special bendy powers, I kept looking for my own way to contribute. I've only wanted to make things easier, safer, and better in this crazy war-ridden world. Admittedly, it doesn't always turn out the way I planned.

I suppose it all began with the meteorite sword. I remember the thrill of wielding something I made with my own hands. Man, I can still feel the roughness of the hilt in my palm and the touch of smooth space metal against my fingertips. Master Piandao probably never knew he unlocked some combination of creativity, spontaneity, and humility in me during those days he agreed to train me in sword fighting. I never made it back to his village in the Fire Nation to say thanks for the inspiration.

Ha! Inspiration is a funny thing, though, because Sparky Sparky Boom Man gave me some of it, too. That idea sounded much better in my head, though. Hey, how could I possibly know that when the combustion helmet shot laser beams, it would completely knock the wearer off balance and destroy an entire canyon in the process? Thankfully, Toph fixed things with her earthbending, but she exaggerated every movement with deafening force to make sure I knew how she felt about it.

My friends and family had mixed feelings about my inventions. Even though I often used waterbending for inspiration, Katara never seemed to appreciate my efforts. She especially despised the Wash-o-Socko I designed to clean my socks, accusing me of trying to replace her. But she always complained about how much my dirty socks smelled! I was trying to HELP her, for the love of Tui and La! It's not MY fault that she just pressed the wrong buttons, and my machine sprayed her with a huge gush of stinky water. Honestly, the know-it-all waterbender had that one coming to her.

The flying lemur thought translator was a favorite of mine. I love Momo and all, but we could never understand what he was saying. It backfired a bit, though, because the little guy had some, err—shall we say, BIG thoughts. Aang insisted that Momo did NOT have a secret crush on Appa nor was he secretly plotting to kill the Earth King's bear, Bosco. Aang said my gadget must have been broken, but I don't think the thought translator could just make up that stuff on its own.

Of all my inventions, there was one that left a bad taste in my mouth—literally. It's no secret that I love meat, so making a machine that would produce a limitless amount of my favorite fare was going to be the idea to end all ideas. Again, with the help of waterbending and some pretty cool science tricks, I was able to do it, and it was amazing! But then I figured, why stop at meat? Here was my chance to change the world! With entire villages ravaged by war and suffering from starvation, I finally had something of value to offer them.

I was thrilled that I could help so many people! I wasn't just the plan guy or the meat-and-sarcasm guy anymore. I was the guy who could make meatballs fall from the sky. (The details of why the food came down like rain showers… well, let's just say it's complicated. To this day, my waterbender sister taps her foot and tells me, "I told you so.") My invention worked splendidly for a while, and I reveled in the fact that Sokka-the-Savior came up with the Best. Plan. Ever.

Then one day, everything went terribly wrong.