Does anyone know if the Ember Island Avatar play was supposed to be subversive?

Because they put on a story about a sympathetic character with deep emotions who is desperate to find hope, her brother the funny character, and a light-hearted prankster whose stated goal was to bring laughter and harmony to all, and then had them killed at the end by a representation of their leader who was absolutely posed and acted as if he were a villain. And because Ozai wins, nobody can point to the play and say “That’s subversion!”



The people who love Ozai and think he can do no wrong will see a story where Ozai wins. The people who actually understand how drama works will realize that this is a tragedy where the villain wins.

(They did turn Zuko into a buffoon, and they played Azula pretty straight, so it’s not as if they wholly despise their royalty or think Zuko’s a great guy for changing sides… but Ozai is absolutely presented in that story as if he’s a villain, except that in the Fire Nation of course “Ozai wins” is required.)

Like… I’ve read propaganda. In stories which serve as propaganda, they don’t make the entire story be about the “villains” except for approximately two minutes at the end when the “hero” appears, they don’t make the “villains” at all sympathetic, and they spend a lot more time making the “hero” seem heroic and wonderful. Ozai comes across as powerful and dominating, but not at all heroic. The avatar and companions come across as fun, entertaining people that you can laugh at but still sympathize with. The whole thing’s kind of a fun comedy until you get to the end and Azula murders Zuko and Ozai murders the avatar. That’s… not propaganda in favor of Ozai. But because Ozai is shown as powerful and dominating and he wins, the Ember Island Players totally have plausible deniability.

I don’t know whether this was the intent of the creators, or whether they thought the Ember Island Players were straight-up doing a story about the defeat of the Avatar and the triumph of the Fire Nation from the beginning… does anyone know if they’ve ever said anything about it? But to me, it implies there were a lot of Fire Nation peeps who did not approve of the war, or Ozai, but had to keep their mouths shut.

