The Ember Island Players


 * This article is about the episode. For the group with the same name, see: Ember Island Players.

Writers: Tim Hedrick, Josh Hamilton, and Josh O’Bryan

Director: Giancarlo Volpe

Guest Stars: Jennie Kwan (Suki, Actress Yue), Scott Menville (Actor Sokka), Grey DeLisle (Actress Katara), Tara Strong (Actress Azula), Derek Basco (Actor Zuko), John DiMaggio (Actor Toph, Actor Iroh), Rachel Dratch (Actress Aang)

Overview
''Sokka discovers that the Ember Island Players, a Fire Nation theatre group, is debuting a play based upon their adventures. After going to see the play, everyone is furious and embarrassed by the inaccurate and exaggerated portrayals. It ends with the Fire Nation winning the war and the Fire Lord killing the Avatar, frightening Aang and upsetting everyone.''

Synopsis
At the Fire Lord's beach house, Aang and Zuko continue their Firebending training as Katara and Toph watch. Katara asks if it's safe for them to be hiding in a place like this, but Zuko tells her its the last place his father would look. Sokka and Suki return, eager to show everyone a poster promoting a new play called "The Boy in the Iceberg," performed by the Ember Island Players. Katara doesn't think it's a good idea to attend a play about themselves, but Sokka desperately wants to see it.



When they get to the theatre later that night Aang tries to sit next to Katara, but Zuko sits down next to her first, leaving him disappointed. The play begins with Sokka and Katara in a canoe; the real Sokka and Katara get excited. The Katara actress gives a long-winded speech about hope while Sokka's cracks jokes about how hungry he is, much to the disappointment of the real Sokka and Katara. They come across an iceberg with an Aang puppet inside and Katara uses her Waterbending to release him. When the actual actor surfaces Aang reels back in shock upon seeing that a woman is playing him. Appa emerges from the iceberg, designed similar to a Chinese festival dragon, and they realize he is the Avatar. The actress Aang is annoyingly cheerful and enjoys playing tricks on everyone, which irritates the real Aang greatly, much to Toph's amusement.

The next scene shows Zuko and Iroh's actors sailing at sea. Iroh's actor is very short and fat while Zuko's actor has a mask on with his scar, but on the wrong eye. Iroh tells Zuko to have some cake but the Zuko actor says he doesn't have time, he must regain his honor by finding the Avatar. The real Zuko thinks they made his character stiff and humorless, which Katara thinks is perfect.



The play moves on through Book 1, Water. Aang finds Momo, portrayed as a sock puppet in an Air Temple, which annoyingly tells the audience "Hello everybody! I love you!" Sokka dresses as a Kyoshi Warrior with the Suki actress and wonders if the dress makes his butt look fat. King Bumi challenges Aang to save Katara and Sokka, and Katara faints from the ordeal. The pirates attack the gang to get back the Waterbending scroll, which actress Katara woefully says she only took because "it just gave me so much hope!" frustrating the real Katara. The Blue Spirit saves a captured Aang from Zuko, afterwards actress Aang lovingly declares "My hero!" and jumps onto his head to depart, which greatly embarrasses the real Aang and Zuko. Jet destroys a town by summoning water just to please Katara, whom is overly infatuated with Jet. Sokka and Princess Yue kiss at the North Pole; Sokka can tell she ate pickled fish for dinner. Yue bids him farewell as she has important "moon duties" to take care of and ascends into the sky, confirming to him she did indeed eat pickled fish. This scene causes the real Sokka to shed tears and silence the real Suki, who couldn't believe he kissed the Moon Spirit. The actress Aang wears a blue fish-suit and stomps on small models of Fire Nation ships, clutching and shaking a Zhao doll and cheering "the Avatar is back to say the day! Yaaaay!".

The gang go outside for the intermission and are all disgusted at the way they've been portrayed. Toph has been enjoying the play and tells them she knows it hurts, but what they're seeing on the stage is the truth. They go back in for the second act, which starts with them trying to find an Earthbending Master for Aang. The real Toph realizes this is the part of the play she appears, and grows excited. The Toph actor appears a very large, muscular guy who instead of using feet to see, releases a sonic wave by screaming. Katara tries to tease Toph for her portrayal, but Toph is very satisfied, saying it's better than a "flying, bald lady," angering Aang.



The play then goes on to show Zuko and Iroh going their separate ways because Iroh thinks Zuko's hair got way too long. Later, everyone corners Princess Azula, who narrowly escapes by fooling Zuko into looking into the sky by saying "What's that? I think it's your honor!". As Azula and Aang battle atop the drill, the audience is bored to sleep. Jet is hypnotized into attacking Aang by the Earth King, but is crushed by a cardboard rock. The real Zuko is slightly shocked by this and asks Sokka if Jet died, in which Sokka replies "Y'know, it was very unclear".

The next scene shows Zuko and Katara imprisoned in the cave, with the Katara actress flirting with the Zuko actor, making their real life counterparts slightly uncomfortable. The Katara actress tells him she doesn't think of the Avatar in a romantic way at all, and they embrace. The real Aang can't take any more and storms off. The next scene in the play shows Zuko siding with Azula and pushing over Iroh, telling him he hates him for all time. The real Katara can't believe Zuko said that to his uncle, but Zuko laments that he might as well have. In the Earth Kingdom palace, Aang enters the Avatar State but is taken down by Azula's lightning. She exclaims "the Avatar is no more!" and poses with the Mai and Ty Lee actresses. The audience cheers wildly and the gang look on in disbelief.



During the next intermission Katara meets up with Aang outside, who is greatly upset by the play. Sokka asks Suki to sneak him backstage so he can give the Sokka actor some of his jokes. Zuko laments to Toph about how the play is shoving all his life's mistakes back into his face, and that he is afraid he'll never be able to redeem himself to his uncle. Toph comforts Zuko by reassuring his redemption to Iroh because Zuko is with them (that is, Team Avatar) now, and that he would be proud, cheering him up. Followed by an affectionate punch from Toph, a little boy in an Aang costume walks up and tells Zuko that his costume is good but the scar is on the wrong side, making Zuko furiously pull his hood over his head. Changing scene to backstage, Sokka then reads some of his lines to the Sokka actor (who apparently has the same sense of humor he has) and tells him don't be afraid to make up some catch phrases. Back outside, Aang tells Katara he hoped they would be together after the invasion, Katara tells him that she's confused and that "now is not the right time." Aang kisses her, but she gets upset and runs back inside the theatre.



Aang comes back and Sokka summarizes what Aang missed up to the invasion. The invasion starts with Katara telling Aang she loves him like a brother and they shake hands. Sokka's actor asks Toph if Aang and her have a "rocky relationship", and Sokka squeals with joy at the fact that he used his line. Actor Zuko joins the group during the invasion on a whim, which everyone agrees to accepting him since they don't have a choice. Real Sokka gets up to leave thinking the play must be over since it caught up to the present, but Suki tells him the plays not over yet. Sokka freaks out, thinking the play must be predicting the future.

Fire Lord Ozai appears on stage, summoning power from Sozin's Comet. Azula comes in and tells him that Zuko and Aang are at the palace trying to stop him. Ozai demands Azula face her brother while he faces the Avatar. Zuko fights Azula, but is quickly killed. His last words are "HONOR!" and the crowd cheers for his defeat. Real Zuko is dumbfounded, and group looks at him with concern. Aang makes his way to the Fire Lord but is too late; the comet has already arrived and the Fire Lord declares himself unstoppable. Ozai and Aang battle, he fires a giant fireball at Aang, who screams "Noooo!!" as he dies. Azula comes back in and Ozai gives a speech about how the world is now his, the crowd gives him a standing ovation as the gang look on aghast.

The episode ends with the group walking back to the beach house talking about how the play was absolutely terrible, but Sokka thinks the effects were decent, at least.‎

Series Continuity

 * A poster for "Love Among the Dragons" (which Zuko says his mother took him to see every year, despite the fact the players "butchered" it each time) can be seen at the post office in "The Runaway".
 * The episode makes a reference to the Cabbage Merchant, a recurring joke in the show, as a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage.
 * It also refers to Chong and his fellow nomads and the pirates from "The Waterbending Scroll".

Connection

 * The idea of a young, male hero being acted by a woman may derive from the traditional English theater productions of "Peter Pan", where the title character is played by an actress. The portrayal of the Fake Aang is much like the character Peter Pan, who is also known for being very immature and a trickster (since he is forever juvenile). In the commentary track, the series creators indicate that it was a send-up of the pressure on them to cast a woman as Aang's voice rather than a boy close to Aang's actual age.
 * Zuko's voice actor Dante Basco's older brother Derek Basco provided Zuko's stage actor's voice.
 * The black-clad stagehands are a reference to the stagehands from traditional Japanese Kabuki theater. In the real world, the adoption of these stagehands' costumes to signify the invisibility of ninjas in Kabuki plays is responsible for the pop-cultural depiction of ninjas as wearing all-black outfits.

Trivia

 * The image for the poster shows an exaggerated rendition of the Season 1 Boxed Set cover art.
 * On the poster and in the play, Zuko's scar is on the wrong side of his face.
 * The title of the play, "The Boy in the Iceberg", is a reference to the series' premier episode.
 * In the play (in the preview), while the events are true to the first Season, the character portrayals and minor plot details are comically incorrect to make the Gaang look bad. Examples:
 * Katara is played by a much older (and more developed) actress, and portrayed as very melodramatic and exaggeratedly preoccupied with "hope", often bursting into tears and/or melodramatic speeches for the occasion. (This is an exaggeration based on the speech she gave to the imprisoned earth benders in "Imprisoned.")
 * Sokka's actor is incredibly thin and has buckteeth; he thinks only about food (mostly meat—a comic exaggeration of Sokka referring to himself as "the meat and sarcasm guy"). He wears Sokka's season two outfit.
 * While the character is a boy, the actress portraying Aang is a woman who does not attempt to hide her gender (much to the real Aang's annoyance) and is more of a trickster and is much more perky.
 * Toph, in real life, "sees" with the vibrations all around her through her feet, in the play, she "sees" by shouting a seismic scream.
 * Jet is in the play and he is "so bad" according to the actress playing Katara (with a sexy tone); he has exaggerated spiky hair seen in many animes. He is portrayed as summoning a flood to save the village rather than trying to flood the village to kill the inhabiting Fire Nation soldiers, villagers included. He chews on a red rose instead of a twig or piece of wheat. His death's lack of clarity in the play refers to how his fate was never shown on screen.
 * Zuko's actor is played by Derek Basco, brother of Dante Basco, who is the voice of Zuko.
 * Zuko's actor has the scar on the wrong eye and is consistently made fun of for his lack of honor.
 * Appa resembles more of a Chinese Dragon in festivals.
 * Iroh is portrayed as a glutton, eating a whole cake. His love of tea is not mentioned and seems to instead be replaced with cakes.
 * Momo is a "flying rabbit monkey", talks and is portrayed as a hand puppet with a fake arm attached to the end to fool the audience (though only Aang's actress can wear it).
 * The Blue Spirit is a separate entity from Zuko and also saves "Aang" from Zuko, though in reality, it was Zhao who captured Aang. The Blue Spirit is given a gargantuan head and a silly expression on his face.
 * Suki is quite accurate, though some physical details are slightly exaggerated, but to a lesser extent. She has no lines at all during the parts of the play that are shown on-camera.
 * Azula's physical characteristics are over-exaggerated, such as having long nails, excessive makeup, wearing pink, yellow and blue clothings and big hair. She is portrayed as being less cunning than the real Azula.
 * Mai is portrayed with hair covering her eyes, her hair in the style of Mickey Mouse ears and an unhappy face symbol on her chest. Ty Lee is depicted as an overweight ballerina whose chi-blocking is instead simply her kissing her fingers then touching her opponent, which knocks them out.
 * Ozai is portrayed as a stereotypical villain, of the sort commonly seen in old vampire horror movies, with over-exaggerated facial features and even disappearing in a puff of smoke.
 * The Gaang skips over "The Great Divide", poking fun at the fanbase distaste for that episode.
 * Likewise, the audience yawning and falling asleep during the section of the play dealing with "The Drill" is a reference to a vocal portion of the fanbase considering that episode to be "boring."
 * Zhao is seen in the Water Spirit's hand, even though his fate was only seen by Zuko.
 * The portrayal of Toph is a reference to the Earthbender prototype that Mike and Bryan created before Juaqquim Dos Santos decided that the Toph's character should be a girl.
 * While he has Zuko's original topknot at first, Zuko's Actor subsequently has a spiky haircut, and long hair. This parodies the fact that Zuko's hairstyle chaged numerous times in Book 2 (although his hair is portrayed somewhat inaccurately).
 * The "cave scene" between Zuko and Katara's actors makes them seem like a couple. This is an obvious reference to the "Zutara" shippers.
 * Sokka offering his actor advice may be a reference to the way Jack DeSena (Sokka's voice actor) added his own input to Sokka's lines, which changed the original serious Sokka, to the fun-loving Sokka of today. (It might also be a reference to the way well-meaning fans are constantly bombarding the creators of their favorite shows with "helpful suggestions.")
 * The following episodes are referenced in the play (in order of appearance):
 * The Boy in the Iceberg
 * The Southern Air Temple
 * The Warriors of Kyoshi
 * The King of Omashu
 * The Waterbending Scroll
 * The Blue Spirit
 * Jet
 * The Great Divide
 * The Siege of the North, Part 2
 * The Blind Bandit
 * The Chase
 * The Drill
 * Lake Laogai
 * The Crossroads of Destiny
 * The Awakening
 * The Painted Lady
 * Sokka's Master
 * The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion
 * The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse
 * The Western Air Temple
 * Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang (their version consists in Aang and Zuko being killed)
 * During the intermission, Aang is wearing the same hat that Xu wears in "The Painted Lady" to cover his tattoo.
 * The ending to "The Boy in the Iceberg", in which the Fire Nation gains total victory in the war, seems odd considering the playwright is from the Earth Kingdom. However it can be presumed that the playwright was coerced into writing the play this way or is trying to curry favor with the Fire Lord. In the real world, there is a long history of playwrights altering history and fact to portray their current patrons or rulers as more sympathetic; William Shakespeare did this frequently.
 * Sokka's statement about the special effects echoes a common "silver lining" statement made by people who have just been subjected to a lousy movie: the film itself may have stunk, but "at least the special effects were decent." In that light, Sokka's statement could be considered to cast the play itself—a derivative work created at second-hand, distorting the events it seeks to retell—as a reference to the M. Night Shyamalan movie adaptation The Last Airbender that had been announced after the show's second season.

Goofs

 * When Aang says that Katara said that he was only like a brother to her and she says the person on stage said that, Katara called the actress an actor, but the word, "actor" is itself a unisex term, meaning someone, regardless of their gender, who acts professionally.