The Ember Island Players

"The Ember Island Players" is the seventeenth episode of the third season of the American animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 57th episode overall. The show follows Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), the last airbender and the “Avatar”, on his journey to bring balance to a war-torn world by mastering all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. On his quest, he is joined by companions Katara (Mae Whitman), Sokka (Jack DeSena), Toph Beifong (Jessie Flower), Suki (Jennie Kwan), and Zuko (Dante Basco), and hunted down by Fire Nation princess Azula (Grey DeLisle).

The episode, written by Tim Hedrick, Joshua Hamilton and John O'Bryan, and directed by Giancarlo Volpe, follows Aang and his friends attending a play about them, only to find it has major inconsistences with reality. The episode serves as a recap episode of the story so far, while also leading into the series finale "Sozin's Comet", which would air the following day. The episode released on Nickelodeon on July 18, 2008, and was watched by 4.53 million viewers. The episode received positive reviews.

Plot
As Aang and Zuko practice their firebending at Ozai's beach house on Ember Island, Sokka and Suki arrive from the market bringing a poster with them. The poster announces that the Ember Island Players, a Fire Nation theater troupe, is debuting a play about the group's adventures. When the group arrive at the theater that night, but they find many inconsistences with reality. 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. Aang is heavily angered when he sees his counterpart is being played by a woman and Appa is designed similarly to a Chinese festival dragon. Zuko, while watching the play, begins to realize how terribly he treated his uncle Iroh when the two were travelling together. However, Toph Beifong enjoys every aspect of the show.

As the show continues, the play depicts adventures the group has had such as Bumi challenging Aang to a fight for Katara and Sokka, the Blue Spirit saving Aang from Zuko, and Yue becoming the Moon Spirit after she tells Sokka he ate pickled fish. After the intermission, the actor playing Toph is revealed to be a big buff man. While Katara assumes Toph would hate the portrayal for its inaccuracy, she loves it and wouldn't cast it any other way. The play continues until Jet's death, which Sokka states is "very unclear". For the scene where Zuko and Katara are trapped in the Crystal Catacombs of Ba Sing Se, the actress Katara states she has a crush on Zuko and that she thinks of Aang as a little brother. This angers Aang who walks out of the play.

Katara finds Aang during the second intermission and he tells her that he had hoped they would be together after he confessed his feelings to her on the day of the invasion. Katara confesses she is confused and that she doesn't want to enter into a relationship with a war going on, but Aang kisses her regardless. Katara gets angry with this and goes back to the play. Inside, Zuko talks with Toph about how he feels he has betrayed his uncle, and that the play is just shoving all his bad decisions in his face. Toph reassures Zuko that Iroh would be proud of him, and she would know as she met him once and all he got talk about was Zuko. Sokka and Suki go backstage where Sokka gives his play counterpart's actor some tips on Sokka's comedy, which the actor uses during the play to Sokka's delight.

In the play, Zuko joins the group on a whim. The play then depicts its own version of events which showcase Azula killing Zuko on the day of the comet, and Aang losing to Ozai. The Fire Nation audience cheer revealing the play as nothing more than propaganda. As the group walks back, they comment on how the play was not good but Sokka states "the effects were decent."

Credits
The episode contains the main characters as well as the Ember Island actors who play them in the play: Zach Tyler Eisen and Rachel Dratch play Avatar Aang and his actor counterpart respectively; Mae Whitman and Grey DeLisle play Katara and her counterpart respectively; Jack DeSena and Scott Menville play Sokka and his counterpart respectively; Jessie Flower and John DiMaggio play Toph Beifong and her counterpart respectively; Dante Basco and Derek Basco play Zuko and his counterpart respectively.

Additionally, Dee Bradley Baker voices Appa, Momo, the actor playing Bumi (originally played by André Sogliuzzo), the actor playing Jet (originally played by Crawford Wilson), and the actor playing Fire Lord Ozai (originally played by Mark Hamill). DiMaggio also voices the actor playing Iroh, who was originally played by both Mako Iwamatsu and Greg Baldwin. Also appearing as a guest star is Jennie Kwan as Suki and the actor playing Princess Yue (originally played by Johanna Braddy).

The episode was directed by Giancarlo Volpe and written by Tim Hedrick, Joshua Hamilton, and John O'Bryan.

Production
The animation was done by JM Animation.

The episode aired on Nickelodeon on July 18, 2008, and aired as part of the promotional event "Countdown to the Comet" where episodes of the show aired all week in the leadup to the four-part series finale on July 19, 2008. The original idea of the episode came from writer Tim Hedrick who pitched that the gang would encounter a group of performers who retell their story. The writers then used the idea as a way to recap the story right before the series finale. The episode also bears similarities with the 2004 book Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker which also features characters watching an inaccurate play about their adventures.

Unlike most recap episodes, which are usually created as a result of a show's lessened budget, "The Ember Island Players" features a plethora of original designs for new characters and locations, as well as accompanying animation, all of which required significant effort from the production crew. The action sequences in the episode were inspired by Shaolin stage shows and Chinese acrobatic performances, and the ending scene where Sokka states the only thing good about the play were the effects was believed to be a reference to the upcoming film The Last Airbender by the show's creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. However, the writers of the episode have never confirmed this.

Reception
The episode received positive reviews from critics and fans.

Hayden Childs of The A.V. Club stated the episode "raises fan service to an art form" and refers to it as "an endlessly quotable installment for fans", while writing "The play itself is an embarrassment of riches, from the callback to the surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage to actor-Zuko’s princely long locks. The caricatures of the characters are generally spot-on, especially with how each embarrasses the character themselves (with the exception of Toph, natch) while making his or her friends laugh." Tony Ireland Mell of IGN gave the episode a rating of 8.9 out of 10, writing that "Watching the play was also a nice choice by the writers to give the characters a glimpse at how some people may view them, and it all seemed pretty accurate. Much like the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 where they poked fun at the show, "The Ember Island Players" did the same type of thing, and in my opinion, that's what good television and great story telling is all about."

In 2020, Millie Mae Mealy of The Harvard Crimson ranked the episode as the 20th best of the show, writing that "When a standard show does a recap episode, they recycle old footage, maybe throw in some animated bloopers or a new voiceover. “Avatar,” on the other hand, chose to gloriously satirize itself and raise the new question that will lead us into the finale: Should Aang kill the Fire Lord?"