The Ember Island Players

TO WHOEVER ADDS THE SYNOPSIS, DO NOT REMOVE THE TEMPLATES AND CATEGORY, THE ONES AT THE END OF THE PAGE!!!!

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

Director: Giancarlo Volpe

Guest Stars:

This is the 17th episode of Book Three, and the final episode to be aired before the four-part finale. During the New York Comic Con, it was revealed that this episode will feature a play, featuring the groups adventures. A clip of this episode was shown at comic con. It involves the gang and Suki attending a play about their adventures. The episode pokes fun at a lot of the inside jokes in the fandom including the dissatisfaction with episode 1x11 The Great Divide. It has been referenced as one of the funniest episodes in the series by the shows creators. Character designs can be seen in this video clip‎

Trivia

 * The image for the poster shows a 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. For example:
 * 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.
 * Sokka's actor is incredibly thin and has buckteeth; he thinks only about food (mostly meat). 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.
 * Jet is in the play and he´s "a bad boy " according to the actress playing Katara (with a sexy tone); he appears to have anime 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. His death's lack of clarity in the play probably refers to how his fate was never shown on screen.
 * Zuko has the scar on the wrong eye, but other than that, his portrayal is pretty accurate though he too is older (though the real Zuko thinks that they make him look "stiff and humorless," which Katara thinks is spot on).
 * Appa resembles more of a Chinese Dragon in festivals.
 * Iroh is more of a glutton, eating a whole cake, and his love of tea isn't mentioned and seems to instead be replaced with cakes.
 * Momo is a "flying rabbit monkey" and 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 play.
 * The Gang skip over "The Great Divide", referencing the fanbase distaste of the episode.
 * At first the only one who likes the play is Toph.
 * Zhao is seen in the Water Spirit's hand, even though his fate was only seen by Zuko
 * Toph is played by a man. The actor also looks nothing like Toph (be being muscular and at least 6-feet tall) (which Toph very much enjoys) except that he has her Earth Kingdom clothing and her hairdo witch Toph very much enjoys(this portrayal of Toph is most likely a reference to the Earthbender prototype that Mike and Bryan created before they decided that the Toph's character should be a girl).
 * While he has Zuko's original topknot at first, Zuko's Actor will have a spiky haircut, and a long haircut at some point. This parodies the fact that Zuko's hairstyle chaged numerous times in Book 2.
 * During the "cave scene" between Zuko and Katara's actors, it makes them seem like a couple. This is an obvious jab at the "Zuatara" shippers since all the other things about the play was inaccurate.
 * 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 (Episode)
 * The Crossroads of Destiny
 * The Awakening
 * The Painted Lady
 * 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 being killed)
 * Aang is wearing the same hat that Dock wears in The Painted Lady. The coloring style is when he is Xu.
 * Aang will confront Katara about their relationship during the inturlude of the play. This was confirmed by the previews of the next episode shown during the credits of The Souther Raiders.

Translations

 * The top of the plays poster reads its title in Chinese: 冰山上的男孩, meaning "The Boy in the Iceberg".
 * The sign over the stage reads 餘燼島劇院, meaning "Ember Island Theater".

Series Continuity

 * A poster for "Love Among the Dragons" (which Zuko says his mother took him to see every year) can be seen at the post office in The Runaway.
 * The episode makes a reference to the Cabbage Merchant, a reccuring joke in the show, as a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage.

Real World 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 (being forever young and all).
 * The idea of the Fake Sokka thinking of only food is referenced to Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, who also has a large fondness with food. The Fake Sokka's voice also sounds like Shaggy, but as if he hadn't hit puberty, yet.
 * The idea of Momo talking (and the closeness Sokka and Momo shared in the desert when they both got high on cactus juice) could be a representation of Scooby from Scooby Doo.