The Ember Island Players


 * This article is about the episode. For the theater group, see Ember Island Players.

"The Ember Island Players" is the 17th episode of season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 57th of the overall series. It debuted on July 18, 2008.

Overview
''Sokka discovers that the Ember Island Players, a Fire Nation theater group, is debuting a play based upon the adventures of Team Avatar. After going to see the play, everyone except Toph is furious and embarrassed by the inaccurate and exaggerated portrayals. During the show, Aang confronts Katara about his feelings for her, leaving both confused. The play 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 it's 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, and Zuko isn't a fan of the theater group performing the play. However, Sokka desperately wants to see it.



When they get to the theater later that night, Aang tries to sit next to Katara, but Zuko sits down next to her first, leaving the young Avatar 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 the Sokka actor 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, irritating 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. Actor Iroh tells Actor 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 which hurts Sokka and makes Suki giggle. 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 [her] so much hope!," annoying 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, who 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 stuns 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 save the day! Yaaaay!."

The gang goes 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. Fake Toph appears as an extremely buff man, which amuses everybody, although Zuko is shown to be stunned at the sight. 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 Toph actor appears to be a very large, muscular man who instead of using his feet to see, releases a sonic wave by screaming. The Toph actor promptly screams, utterly stunning the entire audience, who are shocked, except Toph, who is wearing a very big smile.



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, 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 fake, lightweight rock. The real Zuko is slightly shocked by this and asks Sokka if Jet died, to 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 anymore 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, reassuring him that he is redeemed to Iroh because Zuko is with them now, and that Iroh would be proud, cheering Zuko up. Following 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, leading Zuko to furiously pull his hood over his head. Backstage, Sokka then reads some of his lines to the Sokka actor, who apparently has the same sense of humor him, and tells him not to 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 theater.



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 she and Aang 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 play is 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 the 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 "No-o-o-o-o-o!" as he dies, waving a huge red piece of cloth around him. 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 looks on aghast.

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

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Tim Hedrick
 * Josh Hamilton
 * John O'Bryan


 * Directed by:
 * Giancarlo Volpe


 * Starring:
 * Zach Tyler Eisen - Aang
 * Mae Whitman - Katara
 * Jack DeSena - Sokka
 * Jessie Flower - Toph
 * Dante Basco - Prince Zuko
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Appa/Momo


 * Also starring:
 * Jennie Kwan - Suki/Actress Yue
 * Zach Tyler Eisen - Kid
 * Rachel Dratch - Actress Aang
 * Grey DeLisle - Actress Katara
 * Tara Strong - Actress Azula
 * Scott Menville - Actor Sokka
 * Derek Basco - Actor Zuko
 * John DiMaggio - Actor Toph/Actor Uncle
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Actor Bumi/Actor Jet


 * Additional voices:
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Scott Menville

Series continuity

 * A poster for "Love Amongst 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 in "The Cave of Two Lovers" 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.
 * 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.

Goofs

 * When the Ember Island Players preview was released at the New York Comic Con of April 2008, the Actress Aang's original line was: "I'm the Avatar, silly, here to spread joy and balance!" In the final version of the episode, the script was changed to "here to spread joy and fun!" The Actress Aang can still be seen mouthing the word "balance" in the episode.
 * Toph has a sole in her shoe while she is relaxing after Aang and Zuko's firebending practice.
 * While Sokka is saying "A day at the theater", his fire nation piece in his hair changes from red to gold then back to red.
 * Several of the scenes are out of order. For example, the The Blue Spirit was shown before the episode "Jet". This may be one of the many goofs in the play's construction, such as the actors' appearances, caused possibly by the unreliability of the information gathered to construct the play. If observed closely, it becomes clear several of the play's events are in a different order, like Combustion Man's death, which is depicted before the Invasion when it was actually after.
 * When the Actress Mai pulls the knife from out of her hair and "throws" it at one of the Earth Kingdom guards, it pierces the clothing of the guard and drags him away. But when the Actress Mai is seen in the next shot, she has another knife in her hair.
 * During the first intermission, Zuko's boots are gold, during the rest of the show Zuko's boots are black.
 * When Actress Aang steps out of the iceberg in the play, the pants of the girl playing Katara just vanish. They were present just before and are also there after that scene.
 * When Aang was watching the beginning of the play after the second intermission, part of his hat turns a brown color, then back to the red after he moves.

Trivia

 * This episode puts Team Avatar in a unique situation. While serving both as a recap episode for viewers and a view of what is yet to come on the day of Sozin's Comet for the team, it puts Aang and his friends in the place of the viewers of the series. This makes way for numerous references to past episodes and voices fan opinions, productions notes, and meta-humor through the group's opinion of the play and the events within it.
 * The image for the poster shows an exaggerated rendition of the Season 1 Boxed Set cover art.
 * This is the last episode before Sozin's Comet The Final Battle. Fittingly, it serves as a recap episode.
 * Even though the cabbage merchant's last appearance was in "Tales of Ba Sing Se", he is mentioned here as a "surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage".
 * On the poster and in the play, Zuko's scar is on the wrong side of his face. A fan points this out to the real Prince Zuko later on.
 * The title of the play, "The Boy in the Iceberg", is a reference to the series' premiere episode.
 * Zuko's voice actor Dante Basco's older brother Derek Basco provided Zuko's stage actor's voice.
 * Sokka's stage actor is voiced by Scott Menville, the voice of Robin in the animated series Teen Titans. He voices a variety of small characters throughout the series.
 * In the preview of the play, while the events are true to the first season, the character portrayals and minor plot details are comically incorrect to make the gang look bad. Examples:
 * Katara is played by a much older, fatter, and more "developed" or "robust" actress, and portrayed as very melodramatic and exaggeratedly preoccupied with "hope", often bursting into tears and/or melodramatic speeches for the occasion for no apparent, logical, or comprehensible reason, an exaggeration based on the speech she gave to the imprisoned earthbenders in "Imprisoned". All her actions also seem to be based on "hope". For example, when she and the others steal the waterbending scroll, she claims that she did it because "It gave me so much hope!" She also deliberately waterbends actress Aang out of the iceberg when in reality, she does this accidentally and without waterbending. The actress is also much more flirty than the real Katara. She seems to have romances with Jet and Zuko, but claims she only loves Aang "like a little brother," which disturbs the real Aang greatly.
 * 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. Her glider resembles a fan and whenever he/she flies, she has a flamboyant posture that further exhibits her femininity.
 * Toph is played by an extraordinarily muscular man with Toph's signature hairstyle. To symbolize Toph's blindness, the actor's hair covers his eyes, unlike Toph's eyes, which are not covered but which are very pale to emphasize the fact she is blind. Toph, in real life, "sees" with the vibrations all around her through her feet. In the play, the actor "sees" by releasing a sonic wave from his mouth. Also, much of Toph's background is removed and the gang just meets him/her when he/she comes out of the ground and announces him/herself as an earthbending master.
 * Jet is a character in the play and he is called "so bad" by the actress playing Katara with a sexy tone, and has exaggerated spiky hair. 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. When he is shown hypnotized, the actor wears large glasses to make his eyes appear larger to emphasize the fact he is hypnotized and he has hooks on his hands instead of the hook swords he used in real life. His death's lack of clarity in the play refers to how his fate was never shown on screen. In the play he is killed when a rock hits him on the head, unlike in real life, where he is killed by Long Feng. Also, in the play Jet was brainwashed by the Earth King, whereas in reality it was Long Feng and the Dai Li who hypnotized him, but that might have been a reference to the line "The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai", which triggers it.ActorZuko.png, with the scar on the wrong side of his face.]]
 * Zuko's actor has the scar on the wrong eye and is consistently made fun of for his lack of honor.
 * Rather than Zuko deciding that there's nothing further to gain from traveling together with his uncle, the reason Zuko and Iroh separated on the play is because Iroh criticized Zuko's hair leading to Zuko's decision that they should "split up". Also, Iroh's capture is not shown; instead Zuko pushes him over.
 * Appa resembles more of a Chinese Southern Lion in festivals.
 * Iroh is portrayed as a glutton and a moron, eating a whole cake. His love of tea is not mentioned and seems to instead be replaced with cakes. Also, he goads Zuko to side with him because treachery is "more fun".
 * 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.
 * Bumi's musculature is greatly over-exaggerated by a muscle suit worn by the actor and the feathers on his headdress are colored. Additionally, when he makes Aang complete a series of trials, both Aang and Sokka are seen being being chased around an arena by various objects while Katara is trapped in jennamite and subsequently faints in an exaggerated pose, whereas in real life both Sokka and Katara were trapped.
 * Azula's physical characteristics are over-exaggerated, such as having long nails, excessive makeup, wearing pink, yellow and blue clothing and big hair. She is portrayed as being less cunning than the real Azula. Her speech patten is also strangely bombastic, unlike the real-life 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, while Ty Lee is depicted as an overweight ballerina whose chi-blocking is instead her simply kissing her fingers then touching her opponent, which incapacitates them instantly. Actress Mai also keeps her stilettos in her hair buns, whereas the real Mai keeps her weapons in her clothing.
 * 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.
 * When Aang's actor on stage mentions they're flying above the Great Divide, Sokka's actor jokes that they should just "keep flying". This is poking fun at the fanbase's distaste for "The Great Divide", as it had the lowest ratings of the entire series.
 * 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 fused Aang/La's, or Koizilla's, hand, even though his fate was only seen by Zuko. Although, since it is known that Zhao is dead, it might simply have been an extrapolation on the part of the playwright that Zhao was killed by Aang and La.
 * The portrayal of Toph is a reference to the earthbender prototype that Mike and Bryan created before Aaron Ehasz decided that the Toph's character should be a girl.
 * The pirates seen in the play are actually the real pirates.
 * 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 changed 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.
 * Suki saying "Are you trying to get on my bad side?" in a threatening manner to Sokka reminds one of the creators of his own girlfriend.
 * 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 ends with both Aang and Zuko being killed)
 * Throughout the episode, 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.
 * Though the Actress Azula uses blue ribbons to represent real Azula's blue firebending, when she ultimately "kills" Actor Zuko, she summons orange-red flames instead.
 * Coincidentally, many fan responses to 's  movie adaption is similar to the gang's thoughts of the play; "horrible, but the effects were decent". This is made fun of in a video here.
 * In the beginning of the play, the shots of the audience on the lower levels are shown including both men and women. However, by the time the play is at the Actor Toph's introduction, the shots are of men only. It is assumed the men "lost their dates".
 * The actress playing Aang uses the phrase "yip yip" before going into the Avatar state instead of using it to get Appa to fly.
 * After "Aang" was shot with lightning, the actresses who portrayed Azula, Mai and Ty Lee assumed a pose used by the movie version of Charlie's Angels . This is probably a reference to the nickname by which fans often refer to the trio: "Ozai's Angels".
 * On top of that, Mai and Ty Lee weren't even with Azula when the real event took place.
 * Seeing as how Azula is shown to have shot Aang with lightning, it may mean that Azula's lie about Zuko "killing" the Avatar had become public. Then again, it could have just been one of the details that the playwright exaggerated and ironically got right.
 * Despite Fire Nation propaganda that the war was a way for the Fire Nation to "share their greatness", the Fire Lord is depicted as having clearly imperialistic and megalomaniacal motives, and no one in the audience seems to mind. In fact, they actually cheer when he says the world is finally his, specifically.

Актёры Угольного острова (серия)