Heading into their respective final arcs, both series set within the Avatar universe -- The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra -- decided to recap the events of their respective shows. Both even saw the creators poking fun at themselves. But while The Last Airbender ended up with a genuinely great comedy episode with a surprisingly potent emotional center, Legend of Korra got something of a throwaway episode that felt forced.
"Remembrances" from The Legend of Korra could have -- and should have -- been just as good as "The Ember Island Players" from The Last Airbender.
THE EMBER ISLAND PLAYERS
The last episode before the four-part series finale, "The Ember Island Players" featured Team Avatar finding out about a play based on their adventures that's being performed on the island they're hiding on. The group is initially excited by the prospect, but end up surprised and horrified by the goofiness and inaccuracy of the play. The play serves as a chance for the creators of the show to poke some fun at their own expense, mocking character beats, fan theories, and controversial episodes -- all while succinctly recapping the entire series up to that point.
But the episode also carried a great deal of genuine character depth. It's the final ramp-up of the romantic drama between Katara and Aang, and Aang is forced to confront the impulsiveness of his advances on her. The play only makes it worse by painting Katara and Zuko as a major romance while she and Aang are only friends. Meanwhile, the Fire Nation audience winds up appreciating the play's ending far more than the heroes - because it ends with Ozai and Azula triumphant and both Aang and Zuko dead at their hands. It's a surprisingly effective way to raise the stakes exactly when they need to be and makes "The Ember Island Players" more than just a jokey flashback episode.
REMEMBRANCES
"Remembrances" isn't nearly as late in the season as "The Ember Island Players" was. It comes in as the eighth episode of the season, shortly before a long string of major events building to the battle in Republic City in the series finale. It's a clip show, split across three storylines: in one, Varrick and Bolin ride in a boat alongside Earth Empire refugees and Varrick recounts the events of the series -- only tweaked to make (an increasingly annoyed) Bolin the hero instead of Korra for a potential movie. Meanwhile, Korra recounts her past battles with Asami while Mako explains to Wu how he briefly dated both Korra and Asami.
Because of budgetary problems that forced the creators of the show to produce a filler episode, "Remembrances" wasn't given the level of attention and original animation that "The Ember Island Players" received. Instead, it's a much more conventional clip show, with a handful of scenes that are wholly original. But while all three segments poke fun at the conventions and characters of the series, the episode only really needed one of them to fully compete with "The Ember Island Players."
VARRICK'S PITCH
Mako and Korra both recount important elements of the series, but both of their explanations could have been covered by Varrick instead. In fact, the whole episode should have taken place on the boat ride back to Republic City, with Varrick trying to figure out a way to stuff the entire series into a single "mover." It's already the highlight of the episode, and given a bit more room it could have been something really special.
There are moments of redubbing and re-editing in the segment such as when Varrick has all the core antagonists of the series make an alliance over the phone, which give it a more original sense of humor than just having Mako and Wu make jokes against footage from previous episodes. Similar beats could have placed an annoyed Bolin at the center of Mako and Korra's storylines and further delved into the events of the earlier seasons.
This also would have been an easy way to mock the storylines and characters that don't work with either Varrick complaining about them or trying to cut them from the story. This new focus could have also possessed that human element that helped elevate "The Ember Island Players." The episode could have Bolin defending the actions of his friends, or even slowly convincing Varrick (a former antagonist) that his initial ideas and assumptions about other people were wrong.
The fourth season largely pushed Bolin off to the side of the story, so this would have been a great chance for him to truly come to terms with the relationships he nearly lost due to his allegiance to Kuvira. It's something the episode touches on but would have been far more meaningful with more exploration and time afforded to it.
"Remembrances" as a clip show might have worked, but it needed a centralized purpose and character arc to ground it and make it engaging. Instead, it's just three extended and snarky recaps when it could have been so much more.