Ember Island Players is STILL the Best Recap Episode Ever - Avatar the Last Airbender Retrospective

when people talk about Avatar and no I do not mean the blue people Avatar I mean the correct one avatar The Last Airbender it's really easy to get caught up with all the amazing things about it an enticing coming-of-age Story one of the greatest magic systems in all of fantasy in my opinion some of the most tightly written character arcs the many genre tropes it subverts and many many other Stellar things about it but amongst all of that there is a smaller aspect of the series that I don't think gets nearly enough praise for just how much it stands above most other TV shows and that is the recap episode before sozen's comments the Ember Island players for those of you who have primarily watched Western shows you might be lucky enough to have never run into the much dreaded recap week or if you have especially in the age of Netflix and other on-demand streaming services you might have been binging the series and it's just no big deal as you can just skip past it right however if you are not not among the lucky few who have avoided the recap curse well then you know full well just how quickly you can have your day ruined you get your snacks ready you sit down to watch a new episode you're so excited and boom Random clips of things you've seen because apparently you have the memory of a goldfish and need to be reminded of things that happened two weeks ago while not exclusive to anime and other animated shows this is an extremely common practice there and spans all the way back to some of the oldest series out there perhaps not surprisingly when a lot of weekly viewers saw these episodes they just clicked off and chose to skip them and so some shall since have then tried to dress up their Recaps in some sort of retellings from the present-day characters or something like that thereby having at least some current story sprinkled throughout the episode and essentially pushing you to watch it just in case there is something new among all the past episode clips though even with that viewer drop off was pretty severe for the these episodes so Studio started to follow up with the at this point stereotypical Beach episode which was often very fan service heavy just to recapture the audience and boost the ratings back up others like Sword Art Online made special episodes which combined all of these techniques dressing up the main character retelling as a new story adding a whole bunch of fan service for the thirsty thirsty boys and then adding about 10 of the runtime of actually news story and now you might be wondering why am I talking about all of this well my point is that no matter how much Studios try dressing up these episodes into something new for a large part of the audience including myself these episodes were essentially just skip weeks and in terms of actually new material there was either very very little or not at all and as much as I'd like to be the old cynical man in many cases this wasn't actually greed especially with anime it was just technical hurdles that made the filler necessary in the first place as they were behind find on animation and that is where Avatar is an exception right from the get-go the thing with the Amber Island players is that while a lot of the story in the episode is technically reused it is still recap after all 100 of the animation is entirely new so purely from the technical side you'd be forgiven for thinking that this episode isn't even there for the sake of recap unlike with a vast majority of these Recaps the Ember Island players is not there because of a technical and scheduling requirements because again everything in this episode is produced from scratch rather it is actually there to contrast basically the entire story thus far and to better explain this I think it's important to look at what this episode actually represents in the bigger story especially with it being the last moments of Peace before the grand four-part finale normally hearing that this recap takes place before the climax and literally the ending of the entire series you would probably expect torch said pitchforks but not in this case because it serves a very very clear purpose the episode opens with Ang and Zuko training in the heart of the fire nation which immediately begins a long line of callbacks in this episode the very first scene directly mirroring the entire opening of the series instead of Zuko going after Aang they are training side by sides instead of everything being an icy Wasteland we are in a tropical environment instead of running away from the Fire Nation we are quite literally in the fire Lord's home Avatar's story has always been about change and looking back and that is exactly why I think this recap episode here feels so extremely natural even taking the show as a whole episode 1 is titled the boy in the iceberg while the finale is simply avatarang drawing a very clear line between the silly boy Katara and soccer found and the unimaginably powerful Avatar that Aang has become by the end of the series and this is what I think this episode does so so well it essentially shoves the characters past into their faces to show us just how much they've changed it's not recap for the sake of recap rather it's a reminder of how far not just the story but the characters have come instead of just showing us what happens we focus on their biggest insecurities regrets and mistakes all of it is deliberately challenging their own views of themselves and to further illustrate this point I think it's worth taking a brief detour to another bit of recap in Avatar which I'd wager many of you would never even consider to be recap and that is the episode The Guru brilliant maybe one day you will be a guru too obviously a large part of this episode are the many twists and turns in bossing say but when we jump over to Aang and Guru patik what we see is very much recap Seoul design confronting his past and it's that retrospective evaluation of his past actions that are so so enticing we are not being told of the stuff that happened we are seeing Ang reflect on what happened and we just so happen to be looking in and so not surprisingly when in the Amber Island players we see basically the entire main cast faced with that everyone including myself is very very happy and on top of all of that praise those retrospective qualities also extend to the writers and the audience the amount of things we see poked fun at from a meta perspective just makes this whole thing so much more endearing and clearly tells you that the writers were having just as much fun with this incredibly unique opportunity to just break the fourth wall however many times they like I wouldn't even be surprised if a large part of this episode was essentially them taking their last opportunity to let us in on the jokes that had been probably brewing for years at that point again this is the last episode before the climactic finale and so in many ways I also viewed this as the last time for friends to get together and just mess around with the universe they created things like Top's character in the Amber Island play being eerily similar to her original design of a loud brassy boy to them poking fun at Nickelodeon censorship yeah just die you know it was really unclear and all the other shenanigans that are mixed in here the episode oozes in personality and is clearly a labor of love which I think even to the staunchest opposer of recap will seem commendable and even aside from all the story details the design of the play itself is just incredible in a world where we've seen amazing fire bending displays as far back as season 1 and glorified wrestling in season two you have to remember that someone sat down and deliberately decided to make this play be goofy and have them use practical effects to simulate bending but the effects were decent if no extra thought was put into this they would have just used simple bending for the effects but again they did not which just further adds to the Cozy atmosphere of this episode in many ways I think the juxtaposition between the almost laughable practical bending effects and US peering into a potential future where bang is indeed defeated just make this entire higher retrospective Feeling Hit that much harder because here we are our journey has brought us to the final and most important fight of the 100 Year War yet we find ourselves watching a almost uncanny depiction of Aang quite literally being killed at the hands of the fire lord perhaps I am jumping into an entirely separate Rabbit Hole here but Avatar has clearly already explored some very very dark themes such as the almost anarchical rebellions of Jeddah and the Freedom Fighters The Iron Fist censorship of bossing say and many others but here we are seeing indoctrination on a mass scale through this whole silly wacky play that we actually know to be mostly accurate what we're watching here is a nation being conditioned to accept the death of the Avatar who is a literal kid without a second thoughts and will return to this concept in just a second but I also have to mention that in case you still aren't convinced that this entire thing is excellent one of the greatest memes of Avatar also came out of this episode this costume is pretty good put your scars on the wrong side of course with the internet being the internet this has spawned countless curse Zuko meme soap if you are not convinced then I don't know guess you're wrong though something that I still haven't touched on are the character Dynamics we see progressed in this episode because there too the classic recap problem of not moving the story along is very much thrown out of the window as we still see some very meaningful character moments in this one and while I could talk about all of them for literal hours especially the brief talk between Zuko and tough about Uncle iro as that sets up what might just be one of the greatest reunions in television what I want to talk about here is the Ang and Katara dynamic as far back as book one clearly Angus had a massive crush on Katara and much of that comes to a boiling point as his final confrontation against the fire lord looms and he's reminded of all the time they've already shared together in many ways again I do think that Mike and Brian were deliberately trying trying to poke fun at the entire nature of going to a movie or something with your crush as a kid but still elevating that because they are watching glorified portrayals of themselves which just adds to the awkwardness about tenfold for example when the play starts Zuko sits next to Katara and bang just awkwardly says that hey I wanted to sit there uh I wanted to sit there just next to me what's the big deal but again despite all of that comedy there is still a lot of very raw emotion mixed in here perhaps most of all Ang finally just blowing up during the break of the play for a 12 year old who's carrying the world on his shoulders and will have to fight for literally the entire world's future clearly his emotions are already all over the place then there is all of his insecurities being shoved back into his face and making him seem weak when he needs to be at his strongest ever and the worst part he sees himself shot down in bossing say reminding him how his love of Katara stops him from mastering the Avatar States and potentially causing this entire thing to begin with and then as all of that is already boiling up he tries showing that love for Katara by kissing her but being told that now is not the time and that she is confused I just said I was confused try to step in hang shoes for a moment he couldn't clear his chakra because of his feelings for Katara so he sacrificed power for her but she denied him so now he has nothing and clearly that hurts and the tragic cherry on top when he returns to the play he sees the start of the invasion where Katara friend zones Ang so yeah our little monk boy is having a very very bad day and again the fact that all of this happens in a haha silly recap episode is pure Brilliance which nicely leads us into the last talking point of this episode the finale of the play and what it means for Aang just when he had finally gotten his emotions somewhat under control and returns to the play now sitting alone in the back which I think also demonstrates a state of mind considering he'd leave on his own in the very next episode the Final Act of the play begins Saka stands up saying that well we've caught up to the president and it's clearly over right but this is the Fire Nation so no it is not and it is time for propaganda the comet is already here and I'm unstoppable just like I mentioned a second ago we suddenly fade into a possible future where Aang is defeated and the Fire Nation rules over the world quite literally setting the entire floor on fire and while this whole thing is played off as a joke this clearly shakes Ang to his very core and directly sets up his inner turmoil about killing the fire lord if all of the people in this Auditorium just start clapping upon his fictional death then just how ruthless is the fire lord himself is there anything but fighting for his life he can even do at this point and this is one of those things in this episode that just elevated so so much for me because the sheer number of juxtapositions we see in this one is crazy again this is the preceding episode to the finale of the entire show and we literally poke fun at the final battle of not just the season but the entire story not a lot of shows have the courage to do that and I for one love avatar for it like seriously think about it they literally gave us free meme real estate here we Linger on the gang's shocked faces seeing the finale of the play but the episode does not end there because once again the tone is completely flipped on its head as we see the entire gang dunking on it wasn't a good play I'll say no kidding horrible imagine of the finale of the series was a letdown can you even imagine the memes that would have come out of this so again as much as it is a silly joke poking fun at the story I think just how much creative confidence they had in this episode and the preceding finale should not be ignored so all of that said we've been talking about it so what can others in the industry learn from Avatar well first and foremost I think it's just important to acknowledge that the Ember Island players is not an excellent recap episode it is an excellent episode period and that is exactly what I think shows should aim for if they think recap is necessary as we talked about at the top of the video many cases of recap often happen because of a lack of scheduling and other factors behind the scenes like that but when they are done deliberately in my mind Avatar more than proves that a recap episode can be so so much more than just recap and perhaps not surprising Lee I also think this is something that the Legend of Korra excelled in as it too went over and above with its recap it is an episode that I think is worth examining in its own right but even on a surface level it starts off as a Whimsical retelling and Eclipse show but by the end of it it is descended into other chaos of alternate history and full-blown fan fiction where the writers once again poke fun at their least favorite moments and whatnot worst of the worst team up they're led by Zahir biggest meanest scariest kite that ever flew I am obviously not clued into the production side that much but judging by how much new animation there is in the quora recap episode I don't think it's a stretch to say that from a production standpoint it was a much lighter workload but it still gave us a ton of new content as well point is I think if your cast is strong enough I think there are countless ways of going about creative recap that can easily become so so much more than just recap especially when you have the characters themselves but into each other's stories and whatnot reuse animation but snip out important context to page someone in the worst light then have the opposing character yell out that they didn't mention X detail and that this is actually how it happened and so on it is of course still a balancing act but I think there's still a ton of room there to make a easier production on the animation sides and still writing a thoroughly enjoyable recap episode I know I have a whole bunch of One Piece folks on the channel and as much as I love the series I do think that the anime is the epitome of badly done recap as it is always in the form of blatant filler with no real substance or worse yet disjointing the entire flow of something important because they jam and recap for the sake of padding before you leave a comment obviously I am not delusional comparing a thousand plus episode series that basically never takes breaks to a seasonal show with just 61 episodes is not Apples to Apples but I use it as an extreme example more than anything else even if the episodes are meant to be lighter on production I think the most important aspect to draw from all of this is fun even a simple clip show can be elevated with some clever fourth wall breaks that poke fun at past events maybe even slip in some Easter eggs of planned plot lines that never went through and other smaller details that just make it a joy to watch not because of the Practical implications of getting caught up with production but just because it's fun I mean we live in 2022 their entire YouTube channels based around commentary and reactions so why not just make the characters literally react and comment on past events instead of retelling them don't add any animation at all just write some witty dialogue for the cast and repurpose existing animation to just have either fourth wall breaking exchanges between the characters or maybe conversations they may otherwise never have so to boil this entire thing down to a single sentence recap can rise above totalitarian thinking of just being recap avatarp is clearly an extreme case of that with everything being produced from scratch and again the fact that it is literally preceding the finale of the entire series yet people still love it says enough about that already but there is still lots and lots of things that people can draw from it most of all the retrospective qualities of the characters themselves and one thing I will say right here even if you hate the Netflix series of Avatar please just keep watching it we need to pump those numbers up because I can imagine how this will look like in live action I need to see that but anyway all of that said I have a feeling that I may still return to the Amber Island player sometime in the future but until then I'll just say that for like half of this video I've been using pictures with the scar on the wrong side so joke's on you and that's the video oh have I been loving talking about Avatar again and trust me we'll be talking plenty more about about it in the new year as well and yes I'll cover the live action version I'll cover anything that comes out of Avatar Studios and basically if it has anything to do with Avatar I want to talk about it but with that I want to say a massive thank you to our current patrons who allow me to produce even more of these for you all and let's also give a warm welcome to the newest members of the team wise Belladonna and fairly gone I am sorry if I butchered the names again I'm so sorry but without you there'll be a whole lot less of my rambling so seriously thank you thank you other than that I want to say thank you very much for watching I hope you have a great day and hopefully I'll see you in the next one bye bye

Channel: Korotos Mystery Shack

Views: 232,204

Keywords: Koroto's, Mystery, Shack, Korotos, Koroto, Avatar, ATLA, Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 3, Season 3, Ember Island Players, recap episode, ember island players recap, best recap episode, avatar in 2022, avatar retrospective, atla retrospective, last airbender retrospective, avatar the last airbender retrospective, essay, Nickelodeon, Avatar the guru, the guru episode, avatar season 3, sozins comet

Id: CYZX8tL0glo

Length: 19min 48sec (1188 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2022