I feel like “The Ember Island Players” is an episode you either love or hate (CAN YOU GUESS WHICH SIDE I LANDED ON), and I think that’s perfectly fine. I’m still holding out that Iroh has one last secret plan left. I can’t even guess! I think I’d love this even more if he were alongside Zuko right now, but this journey is one Zuko must conquer on his own, and ultimately, he’d have to let go of his uncle anyway. It is sad to think that Iroh is off doing…I don’t even know. While Iroh isn’t around to witness Zuko’s genuine transformation, Toph is quick to point out that she knows from experience that there’s nothing Iroh would want more than to see his nephew happy and on the right side of history. Even if they got things “wrong” about him, he can’t avoid that in his path to where he is right at this moment, he lost his Uncle. Despite that the play enraged Katara and Aang, inspired Sokka to intervene, and brought joy to Toph, there’s no one who could feel quite as embarrassed as Zuko, who has his life’s mistakes laid out before him. I like that the writers have not made Zuko’s transition to Team Avatar easy for him, and to do so would have seemed too convenient for me.
I wondered if Toph would ever reveal that she once met Uncle Iroh, and this was a perfect time for her to do so.
IT’S SHITTY WHEN YOU DON’T.ĭespite getting absolutely NO CLOSURE AT ALL from these two characters, Toph and Zuko have a conversation that’s pretty much the polar opposite of Aang and Katara’s talk. I’m glad the message coded into this scene was pretty obvious: HEY DUDES. I do get that Aang is young, confused, and immature about the whole thing, and having to face that sort of rejection certainly didn’t make things easier. Kissing her at that moment? Oh, Aang, what a REALLY BAD DECISION. And she makes a hell of a good point: Given the political (and emotional) situation they’re currently wrapped up in, how can Aang expect her to sort out her feelings for him in the midst of the war? Given that Katara never rushed to Aang to confirm her feelings for him after the invasion, I’d had a sinking feeling that this was not going to turn out like he’d hoped. In hindsight, this was the most natural place for the writers to take these two characters. I think it’s so shocking not because it’s unrealistic. The biggest development of them all, however, is Aang’s confrontration with Katara, where he outright tells her that he likes her more than a friend. This was a pleasure (though a very awkward one) to witness and even though most of it had me laughing, the few serious moments were necessary character developments before the finale.
USE FIRELORDS EMBER SERIES
I could already see how people might dislike “The Ember Island Players” purely based on the fact that it’s sandwiched in between the super intense “The Southern Raiders” and the series finale and tonally, it’s a jarring experience. I am going to be an asshole and say that The X-Files did this very same concept (characters within a show watch an adaptation of their lives in another medium, producing wonderfully hilarious results) much better than this one, BUT THIS IS NOT BECAUSE THIS IS BAD. Once I figured out what sort of format “The Ember Island Players” was going to take, I couldn’t help that my mind went straight to one place: “Hollywood X.” I love the idea of a well-executed re-cap episode, and this specific one not only wove a thread of absurd humor throughout, but it contained multiple meta moments of reflection from the writers. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar. It is not at all what they expected, and then MOST HAWKWARD ENDING EVER. In the fifteenth episode of the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka convinces Team Avatar to watch a play that is an adaptation of their lives since discovering Aang.
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