I wondered what would have happened during the Boiling Rock if Sokka had been captured instead. Spoilers in the story but fairly mild.
Solitary Confinment
Mai hated guard duty. It was so boring. She wanted to do something interesting, not watch over some useless peasant.
"What are you groaning about? You aren't the one about to be tortured for information," the Water Tribe prisoner demanded, glaring daggers at her from those foreign blue eyes.
Mai threw some daggers….verbal ones this time. Next time, she wasn't so sure. "I'm bored," she said mournfully.
"Of course you are," the prisoner agreed. "I'm not surprised."
Mai's hand had already gone to her shuriken. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, wondering if he would entertain her in more bloody ways.
"You are some spoiled noblewoman who has never accomplished anything in your life. You never caught your own meal, you never helped anyone, you didn't even sew the clothing on your back. You have nothing to make your life interesting!" the boy snapped.
Mai yawned. "That's for peasants," she said, trying to hide how his verbal darts had hit a bit too close to home.
"Well, what do you have?" the boy demanded. "You don't care much about your own brother, as you were willing to let him die. You are the handmaiden to a sociopath who doesn't care much about you. You are just existing. But what makes that existence worthwhile?"
Mai shrugged. "Not having to listen to you. You bore me," she said. She didn't know the answer to the questions he asked, along with so many others. It was easier to be bored than to admit…that she was alone, that Zuko had abandoned her, that she had nothing left. "Keep talking if you want. It doesn't matter to me."