- Today's video is
brought to you by Candid. Hey, brother! Guys, one of my favorite
episodes of "Avatar" is Sokka's Master. It's the rare episode that
focuses on the non-bending Sokka, his trials to become a master swordsman, forge his own sword, and
find a way to stand out as a warrior in a group of people who can literally do elemental
magic with martial arts. It's just one of those
episodes that elevates the entire show and makes it so great, because, like, it would be so easy to just skate over this
character development. I mean, it's already the final season. We already know Sokka really well. And it's not like he's useless at all. I mean, by now he's proven himself to be a formidable warrior, and more importantly,
like a master strategist who everyone turns to to
come up with the plans. - Where are you all looking at me? - You're the idea guy. - Plus, he's the funny one. - And who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time? - And yet, he can't bend, and there's just no getting
around how useful bending is in this show. I mean, it is the super power
we keep coming back for. In fact, the entire first
season of "Legend of Korra" deals with this exact issue, the feeling of inferiority
of being a non-bender in a bending world. So it's totally natural
for Sokka to feel left out, which is why I'm so happy
he gets this episode, and even more importantly his sword, because let's face it, it is
a pretty awesome space sword. I mean, I don't know if
you noticed but it's black and that makes it awesome. I mean Ben surprise
ordered black silverware for the office the other
day and it's awesome. Like imagine this but a sword. Or, you know what? Better yet. Hold on. I got it. Imagine this but black. Can you guys guess what this is from? It's "Name of the Wind." You should totally read it. This thing is like no-joke sharp. But the reason Sokka
calls it his space sword, and the reason it's black, is because he forges it out of a meteorite that falls earlier in the episode. But let's talk about the meteorite, because as much as I love this episode and as much as I love that it
ends up being the final thing that gets turned into the sword, it always just sort of
felt super random to me. Like how convenient
that it just so happened to fall earlier that episode. Like you guys really went out of your way to give the sword a
cool gimmick, didn't ya? - You've never not seen
anything like this. - But guess what? It turns out the meteorite
is not random at all, and the backstory behind
it will blow your mind and probably break your
heart a little bit. Today, we discuss the space sword. (upbeat instrumental music) Hey, brother! (logo whooshing) Guys, before we dive on in, we need to give a huge thank
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promo code SCB. Link is in the description down below. So, how did Sokka end up
with a black space sword? Well, the story actually begins, as I'm sure you were expecting, way back in the early 1900s
with this guy, Robert Peary. Robert Peary was an American explorer who was trying to be the first person to ever reach the North Pole. But what he's actually famous for is *maybe* being the first person to ever reach the North Pole. See, technology wasn't
quite as advanced back then. They couldn't use like
satellite tracking or anything, and you can't even just use
a compass and follow it north because magnetic north is
actually a different pole from the actual North Pole. Look at this, you guys. We paid the science and the
history budget this month, which can only mean you can expect some terrible math in the future, but I think it was worth it. But back to the North Pole. Even if you managed to
find it without technology, it's hard to prove that you found it. I mean, it's not like getting
to the top of the mountain where you were very clearly
at the top of a mountain. Or like very clearly being on the moon. The North Pole was only a
feature because we say so. Otherwise it's just a spot in the middle of an arctic wonderland. But of course, by
wonderland, I mean wasteland. It is nothing but a deadly,
cold, icy, windy wasteland. I think I might've said
wasteland one too many times in that last sentence, but I
really want to hammer it home. It is... You don't wanna go there. Not only that, but the
opportunity to go up there and freeze your butt off
in the middle of nowhere while you search for a coordinate that nobody's ever found
before is extremely expensive, so your opportunities are limited. Which also means then you're
just highly incentivized to lie about succeeding because, again, who's gonna prove you wrong? Unrelated, I recently just
got back from the Moon and I took pictures and it was awesome. Look. Now, that being said, I'm not saying that Robert Peary's plan was to lie about finding the North Pole or that he wasn't actually
trying to find it, but whether or not he did is
still up for debate today. He was actually credited
with this accomplishment for quite some time but modern
day reviews of his journals have resparked the debate,
and we may not ever know. Personally, I have trouble giving him the benefit of the doubt, but it has nothing to do with his journals or his skills as an explorer, but really just 'cause he's
not a super great dude. But don't worry, more on that right now. At this point, I'm sure you're wondering, "How does Sokka fit into all of this?" But don't worry. I promise
you, we are getting there. See, seeking out the North
Pole was not the only thing Peary did whilst he was
poking around the Arctic. He was also interacting
with the indigenous people and was on another quest
to discover the source of their mysterious metal tools. The people in question
here are the Inughuits. That's Inughuit, I-N-U-G-H-U-I-T, which as far as I can tell
is pronounced the same way, but if you can correct me,
please do so in the comments. This particular group,
though, is also known as the Smith Sound Inughuit,
or the Arctic Highlanders. They're located in Greenland and are notably the northernmost group of Inughuit people in North America. Now, you might be wondering
why would any group of people settle in what has to be a
really harsh climate to live in? But the answer to that
mystery was actually solved by another explorer by
the name of John Ross. Ross predated Peary by about 80 years. He was a member of the British Navy and had been sent on a mission to discover the Northwest Passage, which
would be a shorter trade route between Europe and China. But on his journey, he
became the first European in 500 years to encounter the Inughuits, and he had the same question,
"Why are you living here?" And it turns out they had
traveled to the region centuries ago to take advantage
of a unique source of iron. The iron was used to
make harpoons and knives and other tools which
were far more reliable than the wood or bone or stones they had been using before that. And I bet you can guess what the mysterious source of iron was? Yes, a meteorite. Three of them, actually. Or one that broke apart anyway. And all though they actually
told Ross where it was, bad weather and stormy seas kept him from ever investigating the matter, but he did include the
information in his logs and guessed that the
source must be a meteorite. Which I have to say, really good guess. Now, even though he
turned out to be right, it was only a guess. And at the time, natural history museums were extremely interested in
meteorites, so the hunt was on. This is just the sort of thing an explorer who needs to prove himself so that he can fund his
attempts to find the North Pole can latch onto. And so, Robert Peary enters the fray. And yes, he finds them,
but not just outright. He actually asks some of the
Inughuit people where they are. And one of them agrees to
show him in exchange for, at least according to one source, a gun. Great. Even so, it's still a 10-day journey to find the meteorites,
but they do find them. And then Peary takes them. Well, I say take, but let me be clear. They are extremely heavy and
this was a three-year process. The three meteorites, though,
are named respectively the Dog, the Woman, and the Tent. Of the three, the Tent
was the largest one, although it got renamed
by Peary to Ahnighito, after his daughter's middle name. It took him a while to get that one, but on his first journey,
he did manage to bring back the three-ton Woman. Getting the other two took
a little bit more doing. As I said, it took three years. The Tent actually weighs 34-tons, and they actually had to build
a small railroad to move it. And bear in mind as this is happening that the Inughuit people
moved to this region specifically because of the meteorites. I mean, the meteorites advanced them from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. But hey, at least Peary
was able to sell them to the American Museum of Natural History for a cool 40,000, where they
are actually still on display. Like, you can actually go see them. I say that like I'm surprised. Like, of course they're still on display. It's a 34-ton rock. How are you gonna move it? The point is losing the
meteorite is a really big deal to the Inughuits because it was their
greatest natural resource. Is natural resource the right word? Extraterrestrial resource? I guess that's right. Right? It's a space rock and they were using it. And the meteorites are not all he took. He also asked six of the Inughuit people to come back with him to
America to be studied. And in exchange for this, he
told them he'd bring them back in a one year's time with guns
and tools and grand gifts, which doesn't sound like
a super fair trade to me but six Inughuit people
did come back with him on the boat to New York. And when they got there, they
actually remained on the boat for another 10 days while
20,000 people paid 25 cents each to come look at not just the
meteorites, but the people. Yep. After that, they were
moved to the museum itself where they lived in the cellar. And eight months later, four of them had died due to tuberculosis. I warned you it might be heartbreaking. We're not even there yet,
'cause yeah, it gets worse. One of the guys who died was the father of one of the survivors,
a young boy named Minik. Minik was then adopted by a
staff member of the museum, a guy named William Wallace. And despite being an orphan
in a brand new country that he was extremely unfamiliar with, things seemed like
maybe they were starting to look up for Minik, until he learned that the museum had faked
his father's funeral. By which I mean they had in
fact not buried his body, but instead a log wrapped
in a cloth wearing a mask. And his actual bones ended
up in their collection, which they refused to give
back to Minik upon request. Ugh, this is seriously like
one of the saddest stories I've ever heard. In case you're wondering though, Minik does eventually
make it back to Greenland, but it's not for like another 12 years since his original departure. Also, I probably don't
have to tell you this, but Peary did not actually
deliver on his promise to bring back the gifts a year later. Honestly, it's like a really
sad and nuanced story. If you wanna read more
about the whole thing and get all the details, I've included links to all of our sources in the description down below. It is seriously quite the rabbit hole. But for now let's shift
gears back to "Avatar" and Sokka's sword. The Water Tribe in "Avatar," as I'm sure you're probably aware, is broadly based on Inughuit culture. And Sokka's sword is
pretty obviously inspired by this exact story, except in reverse. In real life, the technologically
advanced Robert Peary arrived in Greenland and
promised riches and weapons, and then stole the meteorite
from the indigenous people. In "Avatar" however, it is Team Avatar, who is one-half members of
the Southern Water Tribe, who are secretly hiding out in the more technologically
advanced Fire Nation. And it is them who steal the meteorite and then later turn it into a weapon to help defeat the Fire Nation. Ah, it's just like so extremely poetic and such an excellent explanation for the meteorite in "Avatar." At the end of the episode, Sokka reveals to his master Piandao that he is not actually
of the Fire Nation. And Piandao, in turn, reveals
that he already knew this. He knows that Sokka is
from the Water Tribe. - You might wanna think of a
better Fire Nation cover name. Try Lee. There's a million Lees. - He explains that he decided
to teach him anyway, because- - The way of the sword doesn't
belong to any one nation. - Just because Piandao
lives in and grew up in the Fire Nation does
not mean that his knowledge belongs to them, which I feel like is also really similar to the meteorite itself. Like, it fell from space
and landed on Earth. And the Inughuit people used it, but they never claimed it was theirs. Robert Peary, on the other
hand, does claim it as his. He literally takes it and
sells it to profit himself. And yeah, now you can go see it in person, but was it worth the
cost of it being there? Which is honestly probably
just a good question to ask for any given thing in a museum because I have a feeling this
story isn't totally unique, although it might be the heaviest one, physically and emotionally. Anyway, guys, thanks so much
for watching today's video. Don't forget to hit that Like
button if you haven't already, and subscribe by clicking that button so you don't miss any future
"Avatar" content from us. If you want to know the real
reason Azula's fire is blue, you can check out this video right here. But Ben, until next time, I will see you in another life, brother.
