"Yeah," he replies, "I'd tell you that you can rest later."
Sokka wasn't born pragmatic. At least, he's pretty sure he wasn't. It's hard for him to remember what life was like before the Fire Nation raiders destroyed his village and took his mother's life. He mostly remembers the period after, when everything changed and he and Katara had to grow up to hold everything together — Katara stepping up to fill the role that their mother would have occupied, and Sokka trying to protect his tribe after all the men left for war. It's possible, though, that if none of that had happened, he'd have grown to be idealistic, placing his faith in spirits and tabling difficult conversations for a later time.
The thing is, he had to grow into being this way — for the sake of his tribe, at first, but then also for his sister and their friends. Someone has to make the difficult decisions for the group. That's Sokka's job, and he's glad it is. The others can keep their ideals throughout everything they experience, if Sokka is the one who's paranoid enough to see threats everywhere (most of them proven true) or practical enough to keep them moving forward on a schedule no matter what. Once he even slapped a general in the face! For a good reason, but even so — Sokka is the exact person for situations like this, because he's always needed to be, and that isn't going to stop now.
"Ka—" he cuts himself off, then amends, "My sister always wants to do what's right. I do, too, but..." There's a pause here, while Sokka tries to put his thoughts to words. "Sometimes, you have to do things that don't feel right in the moment, in order to do what's right for the future."
He doesn't know if that's clear enough, but it's a difficult thing to say without sounding like he's putting down Katara's approach to problems, which isn't what he wants to do, especially not now. But it's true: from his perspective, Katara tends to be short-sighted. She once called him cold and heartless, and maybe she wasn't wrong — but Sokka tries to stay focused on the bigger picture and the long-term plan.
More firmly, then, as Sokka sits a little straighter: "I have to ask you about what happened, because I need to know what we're up against. It can't wait."
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Sokka wasn't born pragmatic. At least, he's pretty sure he wasn't. It's hard for him to remember what life was like before the Fire Nation raiders destroyed his village and took his mother's life. He mostly remembers the period after, when everything changed and he and Katara had to grow up to hold everything together — Katara stepping up to fill the role that their mother would have occupied, and Sokka trying to protect his tribe after all the men left for war. It's possible, though, that if none of that had happened, he'd have grown to be idealistic, placing his faith in spirits and tabling difficult conversations for a later time.
The thing is, he had to grow into being this way — for the sake of his tribe, at first, but then also for his sister and their friends. Someone has to make the difficult decisions for the group. That's Sokka's job, and he's glad it is. The others can keep their ideals throughout everything they experience, if Sokka is the one who's paranoid enough to see threats everywhere (most of them proven true) or practical enough to keep them moving forward on a schedule no matter what. Once he even slapped a general in the face! For a good reason, but even so — Sokka is the exact person for situations like this, because he's always needed to be, and that isn't going to stop now.
"Ka—" he cuts himself off, then amends, "My sister always wants to do what's right. I do, too, but..." There's a pause here, while Sokka tries to put his thoughts to words. "Sometimes, you have to do things that don't feel right in the moment, in order to do what's right for the future."
He doesn't know if that's clear enough, but it's a difficult thing to say without sounding like he's putting down Katara's approach to problems, which isn't what he wants to do, especially not now. But it's true: from his perspective, Katara tends to be short-sighted. She once called him cold and heartless, and maybe she wasn't wrong — but Sokka tries to stay focused on the bigger picture and the long-term plan.
More firmly, then, as Sokka sits a little straighter: "I have to ask you about what happened, because I need to know what we're up against. It can't wait."