Avatar: The Last Airbender/Characters/The Ember Island Players

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Ember Island Players are an ensemble of actors performing at the theatre on Ember Island, the vacation home of the Fire Nation nobility. They are underpaid hams who dazzle the audiences with impressive special effects and wild costumes. Two of their plays are known: Love Amongst the Dragons and The Boy in the Iceberg. Ursa used to take Zuko to Love Amongst the Dragons, but Zuko thinks the Players "butchered" it.

Team Avatar went to see The Boy in the Iceberg in the episode "The Ember Island Players" and considered it absolutely horrible, despite the special effects. The Boy in the Iceberg, named for the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, is a highly dramatised, propagandistic, exaggerated tale of the adventures of Aang and his silly friends, who are eventually defeated by Fire Lord Ozai. The play is also commentary on Fandom. Here, then, are the Ember Island Players. Hold your applause until the end.

Team Avatar

Player Aang

Voiced by: Rachel Dratch

Player Aang is an athletic young woman wearing a bald cap. She plays Aang as hyperactive and excessively outgoing, with a penchant for playing pranks on people. Player Aang's mission as the Avatar is to bring "joy and fun" to the World. Player Aang triggers the Avatar State by saying "Avatar State, yip-yip!" Aang is dismayed to see that Player Aang is a woman. He is even more dismayed when Player Ozai kills Player Aang at the end.

Player Katara

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle

Player Katara is older and fatter than Katara, and not as beautiful. She speaks in a much huskier voice than the real Katara. Player Katara is melodramatic, prone to crying on any occasion, obsessed with hope, and an incompetent fighter. She wears her heart on her sleeve, especially in front of Player Aang. Player Katara is in love with Player Zuko, and regards Player Aang as her little brother.

Player Sokka

Voiced by: Scott Menville

Player Sokka is much older than Sokka, with buck teeth. He is a fool, a hick, and the comic relief. Player Sokka is constantly hungry, and obsessed with eating meat. Sokka does not like Player Sokka's jokes and sneaks backstage during the intermission to give some jokes he wrote himself to Player Sokka. Player Sokka tries the real Sokka's jokes, and these jokes really do amuse the audience.

Player Sokka: Don't go Yue! You're the only woman who's ever taken my mind off of food!

  • Plucky Comic Relief: He's every bit the Butt Monkey that Sokka is in real life, much to his displeasure.
  • Real Men Eat Meat
  • Throw It In: He uses Sokka's suggestions of making up catch-phrases and throwing in jokes for the third act.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: When Player Suki teaches him the way of the Kyoshi Warriors, she makes him wear the dress and makeup. Player Sokka asks "Does this make my butt look fat?"

Player Toph

Voiced by: John Dimaggio

Player Toph is a big, burly man who is blind, but can "see" using echolocation, emitting a loud scream. Toph likes Player Toph, saying "I wouldn't have cast it any other way."

  • The Big Guy
  • Blinding Bangs: Player Toph wears the real Toph's fringe.
  • Character Exaggeration: Toph is a little brutish and a little loud, with some tendencies to rush in to attack without thinking. Ember Island Players' Toph is a giant hulking behemoth that has no brains.
  • Crosscast Role
  • Disability Superpower
  • In Name Only: Exaggerated. In-universe, she is easily the most distant one of the original version, with the only similarities really being an earth bender and being part of the party. However, as the real Toph clearly wished to be like that, this character is the one who receives most approval of its original version.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout:

Player Toph: I don't "see" like you do -- I release a sonic wave from my mouth, like this: [Releases an ear-curdling scream] There! I just got a pretty good look at you!

  • Mythology Gag: Player Toph is based on an early design for Toph as a man, which was later reused as Avatar Roku's Earthbending master Sud.

Fire Nation

Player Zuko

Voiced by: Derek Basco

Player Zuko is more accurate than other Players, but Zuko considers Player Zuko too stiff and dour, and Player Zuko's scar is on the wrong side. Player Zuko is even more obsessed than the real Zuko with honour and capturing the Avatar, and shouts "honour!" more than he says anything else. He flirts with Player Katara. In Act III, he is killed by Player Azula for his betrayal of the Fire Nation.

Azula: Look, there's your honor.
Zuko: WHERE?!

Player Iroh

Voiced by: John Dimaggio

Player Iroh is Player Zuko's doddering glutton of an uncle. He is obsessed with cake instead of tea, and is trying and failing to give Player Zuko cake. Player Iroh is betrayed and defeated by Player Zuko, which is uncomfortably close to the truth for Zuko.

Player Azula

Voiced by: Tara Strong

Player Azula is older than Azula, with a huskier voice, and wears pink, along with thick makeup and long painted nails. Player Azula electrocutes Player Aang at the end of Act II, then kills Player Zuko in Act III.

Player Ozai

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Player Ozai is the Fire Lord in the play. As the play is propaganda, Player Ozai is a heroic leader, and he looks much more like the real Ozai than any of the Players look like their characters. In the climax of Act III, he kills Player Aang with the power of Sozin's Comet and conquers the World.

Player Mai and Player Ty Lee

Player Mai looks similar to real Mai, albeit with a few differences. Her belt has a sad face on it, her fringe covers her eyes, and she keeps her knives in her "ox horn" hair.

Player Ty Lee is an overweight ballerina. Instead of doing acrobatic stunts, she dances sedately across the stage. Instead of chi-blocking by poking people, she kisses them.


Other Characters

Player Suki

Player Suki looks very close to the real Suki, but her headdress and fans are exaggerated. She has no lines. In Act I, she trains Player Sokka in the ways of the Kyoshi Warriors.

Player Bumi

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Player Bumi is the King of Omashu. He wears a padded suit to simulate the real Bumi's muscles, and wears a feathered hat as a crown, which looks like Bumi's pet Flopsy. Player Bumi speaks in rhymes.

Player Yue

Voiced by: Jennie Kwan

Player Yue appears at the end of Act I. She wears a purple dress with many bows, and her hair is a braid attached to her hair loops. When she sacrifices herself to become the Moon Spirit, she is hoisted up on a moon prop, while Player Sokka grieves below.

Player Jet

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Player Jet, who has spiky hair and chews on a flower, appears in two scenes. In Act I, he floods a village to impress Player Katara, who hugs him and says "Oh Jet, you're so...bad...." In Act II, he appears in Lake Laogai, and is presumed dead when a rock lands on him. He is Brainwashed in that scene, as indicated by googly eyes. Instead of the real Jet's twin hook swords, Player Jet is armed with twin hook hands.

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