This article is about the episode. For other similar uses, see Ember Island (disambiguation).

"Sokka, do you really think it's a good idea to attend a play about ourselves?"

— Katara expressing her skepticism to Sokka.

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

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Overview

Sokka discovers that the Ember Island Players, a Fire Nation acting troupe, is debuting a play based upon the adventures of Team Avatar. After going to see the play, everyone except Toph and Suki 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 Hundred Year 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 whether taking refuge in the Fire Lord's house is safe, but Zuko tells her it is the last place his father would look for the Avatar. 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 doubts the idea of attending a play about themselves. Zuko is not a fan of the troupe performing the play, as his mother used to take him to see the event and they butchered "Love Amongst the Dragons". However, Sokka desperately wants to see it, and so they comply.

When Team Avatar arrives at the theater later that night, Aang tries to sit next to Katara, but Zuko takes the seat first, leaving the young Avatar disappointed. Toph complains about their seats, as her feet can not "see" the play, but Katara promises to tell her what is happening. The play begins with Sokka and Katara in a canoe; the real Sokka and Katara get excited. The actress playing Katara gives a long-winded speech about hope while the actor playing Sokka cracks jokes about how hungry he is, much to the disappointment of the real Sokka and Katara. They come across an iceberg with a puppet of Aang 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. The actors realize Aang is the Avatar, as Appa emerges from the iceberg, designed similarly to a Chinese festival dragon. The actress playing 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 on the wrong eye. Iroh's actor tells Zuko's actor to have some cake, but the latter says he does not have time, that he must regain his honor by finding the Avatar. The real Zuko comments that they made his character stiff and humorless, which Katara thinks is perfect.

The play moves on through Book One: Water. Aang finds Momo, portrayed as a sock puppet in an air temple, which tells the audience "Hi everybody! I love you!" Sokka dresses as a Kyoshi Warrior with Suki's actress and wonders if the dress makes his butt look fat, which embarrasses Sokka and makes Suki giggle. In a scene depicting Omashu, King Bumi challenges Aang to save Katara and Sokka, and Katara faints from the ordeal. In the next scene, the pirates attack the team to get back the waterbending scroll, which actress Katara woefully says she only took it because "it just gave [her] so much hope!", annoying the real Katara. The Blue Spirit saves a captured Aang from Zuko, after which 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 a flood just to please Katara, who is overly infatuated with him. Sokka and Princess Yue kiss at the North Pole, with Sokka suspecting 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 that she did indeed eat pickled fish. This scene causes the real Sokka to shed tears and stuns the real Suki, who could not believe he kissed the Moon Spirit. The actress Aang dons a blue fish-suit and stomps on small models of Fire Nation cruisers, clutching and shaking a Zhao doll and cheering, "The Avatar is back to save the day! Yaaaay!" When the curtain falls over the scene, the audience, including Toph, bursts out in cheers, while the rest of Team Avatar groans in annoyance over the display.

The team goes outside for the intermission, all disgusted at the way they have been portrayed. Contrary to the rest of the team, Toph has been enjoying the play and tells them she knows it hurts, but what they are 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 where 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 is better than a "flying, bald lady", angering Aang. Instead of using his feet to see, the Toph actor releases a sonic wave by screaming. He promptly screams, utterly stunning the entire audience, which is shocked. Toph, however, is wearing a very big smile in delight of her character portrayal.

The play goes on to show Zuko and Iroh going their separate ways because Iroh thinks Zuko's hair is too long. Later, everyone corners Princess Azula, who narrowly escapes by fooling Zuko into looking up at the sky by saying "What's that? I think it's your honor!" In the next scene, Azula and Aang battle atop the drill, the audience is bored to sleep. The play shows Jet being 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 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 and slide away from each other. The Katara actress tells him she does not think of the Avatar in a romantic way at all, and they embrace. The real Aang cannot deal with this 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 cannot 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 team looks on in disbelief.

During the next intermission, Katara meets up with Aang outside, the latter 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 will never be able to redeem himself to his uncle. Toph comforts Zuko, reassuring him that he has redeemed himself 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, save for having the scar on the wrong side. Zuko furiously counters that it was not on the wrong side and pulls his hood over his head as Toph laughs. Backstage, Sokka reads some of his lines to the Sokka actor, who apparently has the same sense of humor as him and tells him not to be afraid to make up some catchphrases. Back outside, Aang tells Katara he hoped they would be together after the invasion, Katara tells him that she is 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, with everyone agreeing to accept him since they do not 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, as the comet has already arrived in the play and the Fire Lord declares himself unstoppable. Ozai and Aang battle, where 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 team 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

Directed by: Giancarlo Volpe



Additional voices: Dee Bradley Baker - Actor Ozai Scott Menville



Production notes

Transcript

Translations

Main article: Writing in the World of Avatar

Avatar Extras

Series continuity

Goofs

Toph has a sole in her shoe while she is relaxing after Aang and Zuko's firebending training.

While Sokka is saying "A day at the theater", his Fire Nation hairpiece in his hair changes from red to gold, and back to red.

Zuko's boots are gold during the first intermission but are black in the rest of the episode.

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.

When Aang was watching the beginning of the play after the second intermission, part of his hat turns a brown color and back to the red after he moves.

When Katara goes to check on Aang after he storms out of the play, she finds him outside standing close to the right edge of a covered deck. After she asks if he is okay, he angrily says that he is not and throws his hat on the ground. After his brief conversation with Katara, the scene changes and shows the rest of the characters' events during the intermission. When the scene cuts back to Aang and Katara, both they and the hat change location to the center of the deck.