This has been on my to-watch list for a while, as well as my to-review list. It’s a pretty obvious choice, isn’t it? It was created by Rebecca Sugar, who wrote a lot of my favorite Adventure Time episodes. Plus, everything I’ve seen and heard about it makes it sound awesomely progressive for a kid’s show, and even for most adult shows. I didn’t plan on reviewing this immediately after Adventure Time originally, but since it only has one season out anyway I figured I might as well review it now.
I know a little more about this show than I did about Adventure Time when I started it, but there’s still a lot that I don’t know. Here’s a quick list of what I do know (some of which may not be totally correct):
I know the names of most of the characters.
The Crystal Gems are alien space rock things and some of them are dedicated to protecting earth while others are… not.
I know about Garnet being a fusion even though I’m not 100% clear on what a fusion is exactly or how it works. But the two gems who fused are named Ruby and Sapphire and they were totally a couple which means Garnet is literally made of lesbians, and if you don’t think that’s the raddest shit you’ve ever heard get out of my face.
Steven is half gem and half human, his mom is Rose Quartz, and Rose Quartz… died? I think? She’s not around anymore, at least.
Steven’s dad, whose name I think is Greg, is a former musician and though he isn’t raising Steven they’re still pretty close.
Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet raise Steven for some reason.
Pearl has a cute design. Just an observation.
No seriously. Look at her. She kind of looks like a bird and it’s super cute.
I know Amethyst has some kind of tragic backstory? Something about her not wanting to be made but I’m not really sure what’s meant by that, I just see a lot of sad fan art with a quote that goes something like that.
Pearl had a huge lesbian crush on Rose Quartz.
Steven has a friend named Connie, and at one point they fuse (but I’m not sure if Connie is a gem?) and make Stevonnie.
So basically I know some small details, but I’m missing a lot of context and don’t have the bigger picture.
I actually am really excited to start reviewing this, it sounds like a wonderful show.
This overview isn’t going to be as detailed as I would have liked it to be. I had a really hard time writing this thing, for a couple of reasons. The beginning of this week was filled with exams, which means my time was mostly occupied by studying, and then the day my exams ended was the same day Mortal Kombat X came out, and I bought it immediately after my exam and my time lately has been mostly occupied with playing it (it’s amazing, by the way). Writing the Season 5 overview hasn’t really been on my mind very much, and even when I tried to set aside time to sit down and write it, I had a really hard time coming up with much to say because honestly I don’t remember a whole lot from this season. So, sorry if this overview seems rushed and ends up not being very good.
Hey, so, wasn’t this season supposed to have a lot of dramatic episodes? Because I don’t remember there being that many. Yeah, there were some, but people always made it sound like the majority of Season 5 was dramatic and serious and it didn’t feel that way to me? Do I just have a different definition of “dramatic and serious” than most people? I’m not necessarily saying this as a criticism nor as a good point, it’s just something I noted.
I guess there were a lot of weird and experimental episodes in this season, though. This show is pretty weird and experimental to begin with, but it did seem like they were pushing what they could do a lot more this season. Not just when it comes to drama but with their comedy and story-telling and even their animation sometimes, like in A Glitch is a Glitch. Sometimes being more experimental paid off, sometimes it didn’t, but hey, at least they were trying. We also got to learn some more about the Mushroom War and the beginnings of Ooo, which was interesting.
So, Finn was a raging ball of hormones for most of this season. Realistic for his age? Yes. Fun to watch? Eh… depends on the episode and who you’re asking. People often like characters and stories that are more “realistic”, but only in certain ways or to a certain extent. Like, it would be more realistic if in a book taking place in medieval times there was more mention of how bad everyone smells and how disgusting their teeth are, but you wouldn’t actually want to read that, would you? It’s better that those details are left out. Just like, for most people, it’s better to not have to see a character’s hormonal teenager phase. Personally, I don’t mind seeing Finn go through it, but I do understand how it would irritate people.
Another thing I’ve noticed about Finn in this season is that he seems less heroic than he used to. Part of that may just be the surprising lack of adventure episodes this season, but it feels like Finn has been becoming more selfish lately, and more apathetic about being a hero. I guess this is sort of the point, though. Finn was distracted for a while by his relationship with Flame Princess, and he may also have been trying to distance himself from his heroic duties after Billy’s death (by the way, I thought Billy’s death was going to have a way bigger impact on this season). Toward the end of the season Finn and other characters actually start acknowledging that Finn hasn’t been doing much adventuring lately.
As for everyone else, I don’t have a lot to say about them individually. They’re all more or less the same as they were in other seasons, I don’t feel like they’ve really changed much. Jake became a dad this season, but it was one episode and then his kids are all grown up. As usual most of my favorite episodes in this season are the ones where Princess Bubblegum plays a big role and her presence makes everything better. Her “dark side” is starting to come through a little more, but that only makes me love her more. I enjoyed learning more about Ice King and Marceline’s past together, but neither character has changed much in general. Marceline doesn’t appear much in this season, just like she doesn’t appear much in other seasons, and that’s a shame because she’s a great character. I also liked that we got to know Flame Princess a little more in this season. I’m really starting to love her. I enjoyed the Lemongrab episodes, I liked the darker turn they took, and I wonder what’s going to happen with him next. Assuming he’ll be coming back, that is.
All right, wrapping this up because I’m out of stuff to say. Even though I haven’t actually said that much. I think I can kind of see why this season is so polarizing. It does have a lot of good episodes, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression overall. Or at least, it didn’t for me. The good episodes are really good, but there’s also a lot of mediocrity. Also, this season is way too long.
Again, sorry this is so short and kind of crappy, but I have surprisingly little to say about this season as a whole.
Season Rating: 7.1/10
Best Episode: Sky Witch and The Vault
Worst Episode: The Box Prince
Now, about what happens next. I won’t be reviewing Season 6 of Adventure Time right away. Even with the cliffhanger. Besides, all I said was I wouldn’t be reviewing it right away, not that I wouldn’t watch it right away. I have decided on what show I’m going to review next, though. I won’t tell you what it is right now, but I’m sure everyone can guess. You’ll find out which show I’m reviewing on April 27th, when I’ll make a quick introductory post, and then reviews will officially begin again on the first of May.
Why do episodes happen to characters who can’t carry them?
The episode starts with Princess Bubblegum showing a small crowd her new invention, which is a means of time travel. The time-travel machine is orb shaped and needs to be operated with special gloves. No one seems that impressed with the invention, since, as Jake points out, they’ve already seen Ice King achieve time travel with magic. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go over well with Bubblegum. LSP bursts in and demands that Bubblegum let her use the time machine to go back to a time when her ex-boyfriend Brad loved her.
So that happened. Oh, and the borders in the video are there throughout the whole episode.
LSP goes to the Candy Tavern, depressed about Brad, and she meets a Lumpy Space Person named Johnnie. Except he’s not very lumpy and he’s also nowhere near as snobby as other Lumpy Space People. He’s someone she knew back in high school (wait, how old is LSP supposed to be?), and she used to bully him and call him “Ugly Johnnie”. But she says she can’t call him that anymore, so I guess that means she finds him good-looking now. The two hit it off and Johnnie tells LSP about the business he runs and how he has a meeting with Bubblegum. He invites LSP back to his apartment that night where they continue to get along great, and then he has LSP sleep on the couch because it’s late and he doesn’t want her going out alone. The next day, Johnnie leaves for his meeting with Bubblegum, and when he returns he tells LSP that it went really well, and that he has another meeting with Bubblegum that nigh. This doesn’t please LSP, she starts to think that Bubblegum will steal Johnnie from her. She sets fire to part of the castle to distract Bubblegum, and while she’s gone LSP sends Johnnie back in time with the time machine so they can have a second chance, whatever that means. When Bubblegum comes back, she finds Johnnie has disappeared and the time machine sitting there.
We next see LSP in the empty tavern, calling for Johnnie, when Bubblegum appears.
Princess Bubblegum: He’s not here.
Lumpy Space Princess: [gasps] What? But I sent him back.
Princess Bubblegum: The sphere would have had to log his molecules before you engaged the time travel function.
Lumpy Space Princess: Well, then where is he?
Princess Bubblegum: I don’t know.
[Johnnie’s head begins materializing in the border around the screen.]
Lumpy Space Princess: [crying] Then if he’s gone, can you send me back…?
[Johnnie’s body materializes in the border.]
Lumpy Space Princess: To before I met him so I won’t have to remember this heartache?!
Princess Bubblegum: If that’s what you want.
Lumpy Space Princess: Do it. Do it!
[Princess Bubblegum places the sphere around Lumpy Space Princess and pushes buttons on her glove, sending Lumpy Space Princess’s molecules back to when she first entered the sphere. Meanwhile, in the border, Johnnie reunites his head and body.]
Lumpy Space Princess: You witch! Give them to—huh, wha? What? Where are we?
[Johnnie reaches out to Lumpy Space Princess.]
Princess Bubblegum: You asked me to use this.
Lumpy Space Princess: Don’t touch me! [floats away] You pretty skunk! You don’t know heartache with the whole Candy Kingdom in love with your bubblegum buns…! [floats out the window]
[Johnnie bows his head, crestfallen, as the border fades to black.]
Princess Bubblegum: [sighs] [sits down and pours herself a drink]
Well, that ending was more emotional than I was expecting.
LSP episodes generally aren’t a good idea, because as mentioned she’s the type of character who works best in small doses, or if she has other characters she can work off of. This one did at least have a few good things in it, though.
This episode ends up being surprisingly emotional. I think LSP’s sudden attraction initially had less to do with Johnnie himself and more to do with the fact that she met him when she was heartbroken. She kind of just clung to the first decent guy who would pay attention to her, and the fact that there’s some nostalgia between her and Johnnie (even if it’s not exactly positive) doesn’t hurt. Johnnie is nice, and he and LSP do seem to have a connection, but I don’t know if LSP’s feelings were really that deep. The thing about LSP is that she really seems to value herself based on what other people think of her. We’ve seen how she takes pride in being able to attract people, and she seems to take it badly when she can’t. That’s not healthy, and it definitely doesn’t make for healthy relationships. LSP ends up freaking out when Johnnie is in proximity to another woman, even though there’s really nothing to worry about, and as a result their relationship has a very unhappy ending. Jealousy isn’t cute and it doesn’t make for a good relationship, no matter what romance novels would like you to believe.
The border around everything in this episode has a purpose, as we find out at the end. It seems to represent a different dimension, and the people in the dimension can look out but if you’re on the outside of it you can’t look in. I’ll admit, the border irritated me, and even now that I know what it was for I still think it’s annoying. I mean, it’s clever, and it certainly makes the ending even sadder when you know that Johnnie was right there trying to get to LSP, but still annoying.
Rating: 6.5/10
Finn is feeling down about the death of his hero, Billy, and he runs into Canyon, Billy’s ex-girlfriend. Canyon gives Finn Billy’s loincloth and instead of thinking it’s gross Finn thinks it’s awesome and is pleased to receive it. Okay then. Canyon and Finn decide to check out Billy’s hideout together and there they find Billy’s bucket list, which has two items that have not been crossed out yet. One of them is “Tell Finn that thing”, but neither of them is sure what that thing is. The other is “Take Canyon on one last ride”. Finn and Canyon go for a ride on Billy’s motorcycle together, therefore fulfilling at least one of the items on the list. Once Canyon leaves, though, Finn discovers another item that they hadn’t noticed before. This one says “Lie on my back in the ocean. Just float.” Ha, that’s right, Finn is terrified of the ocean. He wants to do it anyway, for Billy, but when he gets to the ocean he has a hard time bringing himself to do it. So Fear Feaster appears from out of his belly button. Wow, I forgot Fear Feaster was even a thing. This is a callback to the Season 1 episode Ocean of Fear, which is when we first find out about Finn’s phobia of the ocean, and Fear Feaster is the manifestation of Finn’s fear. That lives in his belly button. I don’t know. Fear Feaster starts taunting Finn, but Finn knocks himself out so that he’ll fall into the ocean without having to think about it. Um, never do that, kids. When Finn wakes up and realizes he’s floating in the ocean he starts to panic, which makes Fear Feaster come back. Finn kills him with the grass sword and with Fear Feaster gone, he no longer fears the ocean. Billy appears as a constellation in the sky.
Billy: You finished my list. Now I can rest like a great hero. Thank you, Finn.
Finn: You’re welcome. Canyon helped, too.
Billy: Tell Canyon I watch her sleep. Man, love is weird, Finn.
I hope you didn’t do that when you were alive, Billy.
Finn: I know. Is that the thing you wanted to tell me?
Billy: No. Goodbye.
[The constellation disappears.]
Finn: Wait. Billy!
[The constellation reappears as quickly as it disappeared.]
Billy: What?
Finn: What’s the thing you wanted to tell me?
Billy: Oh, uh, you must go to the Citadel. That’s where your father is.
Finn: Joshua’s not alive. Me and Jake buried him behind the—
Billy: Not Joshua! Your other dad. Dad the Human.
Finn: What?
Billy: Your father, Finn. He’s alive.
[The constellation disappears as Billy’s words echo in Finn’s head. The Crystal Citadel is shown floating somewhere in space, and Finn’s dad’s silhouette is seen trapped in a crystal.]
Oh snap.
Well, it’s nice to see Finn dealing with losing Billy, and I like that he’s able to bond with someone else who was close to Billy. I think it would be a big help to both of them, especially since Finn can’t really talk to Jake about it because Jake is apparently in complete denial. Finn and Canyon actually had a nice relationship, I hope she’ll be in more episodes.
I also liked that they brought back Finn’s fear of the ocean and Fear Feaster, that was a cool throwback and it made me feel pretty nostalgic for the first season.
But who cares about any of that stuff. What about that cliffhanger? I bet that drove people crazy! It’s funny because this episode is pretty laidback, especially compared to other season finales for this show, but it still manages to hook you with the last minute or so.
“The one thing I wish I could go back and change would be handling Carolina’s injury in 12. […] I’m still unbelievably proud of season 12, and I’m so happy with how it turned out, but I do wish I’d had a little more time to kinda come up with a better way to deal with Carolina’s OP-ness. Out of everything I wrote that’s probably my biggest regret and the thing I’d love to go back and change. And Carolina fans out there, I’m so sorry, I love you. She’s gonna fuckin’ shine this season.”
Miles Luna said that in this interview a little while ago (here’s a transcript), and since then the quote has been spreading around Tumblr because, well, it’s really important to a lot of us that he said this.
The interview is really nice, Miles is humble and sweet throughout it, and then there’s this apology. Humility and apologies are not things I’m used to hearing from anyone at Rooster Teeth, so this was a very pleasant surprise, and I was glad to hear him say this. The way Carolina is written and treated is important to me, not just because I like her but because she’s one of very few female characters Red vs Blue has. Plus, she’s the closest thing to Tex, my favorite character who is very unlikely to return. I love Season 12, but I was less than pleased with Carolina’s injury (and I know I wasn’t the only one) so having Miles apologize for the way it was handled was great, and I hope he’s telling the truth when he says Carolina will get to shine in Season 13.
Since it’s come up again, in a way that I really didn’t expect it to come up again, I want to talk about Carolina in Season 12, and particularly Carolina’s injury, for a bit. There was quite an outcry from some of the fans about the injury, but I think that other fans misunderstood why we were upset. I think they thought we were upset because Carolina was beaten, or that she was beaten by Felix in particular. I think they thought we were more or less saying “Carolina should be unbeatable, how dare you have her lose to Felix”, and as a result there were some arguments about whether or not we were overreacting or if Felix actually could beat Carolina and blah blah blah, I’m not going to get into this whole “Felix vs Carolina who would win” thing because honestly I don’t give a shit. That’s not why I was mad. I guess I can’t speak for everyone about why Carolina’s injury was upsetting, maybe for some it really was about “who would win”, but for myself and for a lot of people I saw talking about it? It wasn’t as simple as that.
I wasn’t upset that Carolina was beaten by anyone or by Felix in particular, I wasn’t necessarily upset that she was injured. Actually, if done right, it might have been interesting and it could have led to some nice character development for Carolina. No, my problem with Carolina’s injury wasn’t that it happened at all, it’s that it wasn’t done well. The way it happened to begin with was clunky and awkward, and the way it was handled after was disappointing at best and insulting at worst.
Let’s start with how it happened. So, in Episode 10, Felix and Carolina have a short fight that ends with Felix stabbing Carolina in the leg and giving her an apparently very serious injury. Fair enough, but the thing is, when Felix stabs her, Carolina is just… standing there. And it’s not like Felix is exactly subtle and graceful when he stabs her, yet Carolina just… she just stands there. Carolina, with her incredible speed and skill and reflexes just stands there while Felix sinks a knife into her leg. Can we just agree that it should have been harder for Felix to get the jump on her? Can we just agree that Carolina should have been doing more than just fucking standing around?!
Okay, so clearly the animation in 12 was not as good as it was in 9 and 10. I know Monty didn’t work on the animation for 12 since he wanted to focus on RWBY, so they got someone else to do the animation. I don’t know much about the person doing the animation in 12, so I don’t know if it was a lack of time or if they just lacked Monty’s experience/skill, but either way the animation in 12 is definitely wonky. If you wanna blame the awkwardness of Carolina getting the injury on just not-very-good animation, you could do that. I still think that they could have done better (why was she just standing there??), but I could have forgiven it if they had handled the aftermath better.
Carolina is incredibly competitive and incredibly hard on herself, and she hates showing any kind of weakness, especially physical weakness. You’d think that being beaten and injured like that would have had some effect on her, but she doesn’t really react to it. She exchanges a few bitter lines about it with Doctor Grey and Epsilon, but that’s it. For the rest of Season 12, Carolina is sidelined in favor of Epsilon and the leg injury doesn’t come up unless it’s to tell us that it’s a hindrance to Carolina. And that is my problem with Carolina’s injury, the fact that it was so clearly to keep Carolina out of the way as much as possible. It’s obvious that the only reason they brought Carolina back is so that they could bring Epsilon back, they didn’t actually plan on doing anything interesting with Carolina herself. I understand feeling the need to tone down Carolina’s abilities in order to make the villains look more threatening, but the leg injury was so obviously a way of making sure she couldn’t do too much, they didn’t even try to make it into something more interesting when they could have. They could have made it a great opportunity for character development, but they didn’t, because they don’t care about developing Carolina.
Season 12 has gotten some praise for having better female characters than previous seasons. (Whether or not that’s actually saying much is debatable but I digress.) For the most part I agree. At least, I did love the new female characters in 12. Kimball, Jensen and Grey were all fantastic and I really hope they’ll be sticking around. With Carolina, though, they definitely dropped the ball. Having her back should have been great, but if they’re not even going to treat her like a character, what’s the point? Why have her back at all?
So that pissed me off, but at least Miles acknowledged the fuck-up and apologized for it, and he’s made it sound like they’re going to try to do better with Carolina in Season 13. Good. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much for fear of being disappointed, but I really do appreciate what he said.
In Season 13, already the animation looks way, way better. It was wonderful in the first episode of the season, they did a fantastic job of showing Felix and Locus’ characterization through their movements (by the way, I’m actually a huge fan of those two, especially Felix). I could gush about how much I loved the first episode of 13 for a long time, but that’s not what we’re here for right now. The point is, the animation is clearly much improved. Since a large part of Carolina’s characterization has always come from the way she’s animated, it means good thing for her.
I don’t just want to see Carolina fighting well again, though. I want her to get some actual character development, too. I want her to make some friends in the New Republic and the Feds like the guys did, I want her to have positive interactions with other female characters (because I’m fucking sick of the hostility between female characters on this show), I want focus on her angst and trauma like we saw focus on Wash’s last season. And since the Counselor is back, that last one should be easy. I want Carolina to be treated like her own character in Season 13. I want her to fuckin’ shine.
I’m just going to write this as one big review, because there’s not much of a point in reviewing them separately.
Part 1 starts off with Lemonhope having a dream in which he has wings and is flying through a dark landscape. There are several doors and he hears knocking behind one, but he can’t get it open. He has a lot of dreams similar to this throughout both episodes. He’s woken up by Princess Bubblegum for school, and she shows him this video:
Jesus. This is the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen on this show. Which is saying something.
Lemonhope was obviously not paying attention, which disappoints Bubblegum because he’s supposed to save the Lemon People eventually. Lemonhope doesn’t want to though. He doesn’t see why he has to. He likes being free and he doesn’t want to go back to the Lemon Kingdom. You know, I kind of like that Lemonhope is like this? It’s just, it’s something I often think about when it comes to the “Chosen One” narratives similar to this. What if the Chosen One just doesn’t give a shit? What if they refuse to help? What if they don’t want the responsibility, and not just in a “I’m going to angst about it a lot but ultimately I will take it because selflessness” way, but in a way “I’m kind of an asshole and I literally just don’t care, deal with it yourselves” way? Plus, it’s sort of understandable that Lemonhope would be like this. He’s still being a little shit, but I mean, if you were freed from being a prisoner in a totalitarian dictatorship, would you be eager to go back for any reason? Also, Lemonhope is a Lemon Person, aren’t they all kind of selfish?
Still, someone has to save the Lemon Kingdom and for some reason is has to be Lemonhope. Bubblegum tries her best to convince him, but Lemonhope ends up running away. He stows away on a ship and he gets knocked out for a while, during which he has another weird dream. It’s about Lemongrab 2 falling off Lemonhope, who is for some reason a horse in this dream. He ignores Lemongrab 2’s pleas for help and steps on a piece of gum, which is Princess Bubblegum in his dream. While he attempts to get her off his hoof, she screams that he is “Unacceptable!”, and she sounds a lot like Lemongrab. When Lemonhope wakes up, the ship is in ruins and in a desert, and there’s nothing for him to eat or drink on board. He wanders the desert for a while and eventually passes out. This is where Part 1 ends.
Part 2 picks up right where we left off, with Lemonhope passed out in the desert. He’s found by a man who introduces himself as “Phlannel Boxingday”. It’s obviously Princess Bubblegum in disguise. I mean, it’s never confirmed exactly, but the pink skin kind of gives it away and there’s something Phlannel says later that very heavily implies it’s Bubblegum. Anyway, Lemonhope spends some time with Phlannel Boxingday and keeps having weird dreams about the Lemon Earldom. He decides to talk to Phlannel about it.
Lemonhope: [sighs] I’m free now, Phlannel, to do all whatevs I ever wanted, but all I think about is my old life. What does it mean?
Phlannel Boxingday: Well, it’s true you are free—free to help the Lemon People or leave them be—but a debt unpaid is not easily forgotten. So you are a prisoner still in deinem kopf(in your head).
Lemonhope: Huh. That’s what Mistress always said, and I didn’t even listen.
Phlannel Boxingday: Ah, Lemonhope, you’re a doer, not a listener. You learn with your heart and hands, not your head. So… what will you do, Lemonhope?
Lemonhope: I’ll… I’ll go back, and I’ll help my people, and maybe I’ll feel better.
So, Lemonhope goes back to the Earldom, and of course it’s raining and storming and dramatic. After scaling the wall of the castle, Lemonhope is confronted by Lemongrab himself.
Well. That was a thing. Is it ever explained why Lemongrab hates the harp so much?
Later, Bubblegum sews up Lemongrab again, using pieces of the original and his brother. She says that he’ll need some time to recover, but will soon be back to his lonely self, his only stable relationship model (her words, not mine). She also tells Lemonhope that she’s set up a room for him in the Lemon Earldom and asks him if he would mind overseeing the Earldom for the time being. Lemonhope says no, to her surprise. He came back only so he could stop thinking about them all the time, he doesn’t want to stick around. He says he’ll be back when he’s tired of being free. Bubblegum is disappointed, as she really thought he was going to stay and she even wrote a song about it. Omg Bubblegum you’re such a dork I love you. Finn convinces her to sing the song and she does, the episode ending like this.
God, I love that ending. It’s so haunting, seeing Finn and Jake’s tree overgrown, a futuristic-looking Candy Kingdom that looks abandoned and destroyed, a seemingly untouched Lemon Earldom that is now eerily silent, Lemonhope returning to the Earldom after a long life of freedom for his final resting place while Bubblegum’s voice sings softly about his life.
So ends the Lemongrab arc, and I think it might be my favorite arc in the series so far? I like how in his first appearance Lemongrab seemed annoying but relatively unthreatening. The more we see him, though, the more we realize that Lemongrab really is dangerous, but also pitiful. He’s too selfish and narcissistic to be around anyone, let alone ruling an Earldom. He doesn’t want to be alone, but being alone is also his only stable relationship model. I think Bubblegum does care about Lemongrab. He was her creation just like the Candy People and she thinks of all of them as her children, so I think it’s safe to say she thinks of Lemongrab the same way, despite… everything about him. Plus, she obviously feels some responsibility for the way he turned out and all of the suffering it’s caused him and other people. There’s not a whole lot she can do, though. He ended up being a tyrannical ruler, and he only got worse and worse every time we saw him. He even turned on his brother, who was supposed to be the one person he could relate to and get along with. What do you do with someone like Lemongrab? What can you do?
As for Lemonhope, well, I think he was just so relieved to be free that he didn’t want to risk going back to the Lemon Earldom. He seemed pretty terrified of Lemongrab and can you blame him? I think he needed time to come to terms with his responsibility and how everyone was counting on him. I like that he didn’t stay after saving the Earldom. He came to help them and he did, and he never wanted to stick around so why should he? He comes back once he’s had enough of freedom, which is a long time later, because he’s tired and probably dying soon and he wants to be home, even though I’m not entirely sure whether the Lemon Earldom was ever home to him.
The episode begins with Flame Princess listening to the problems of the Fire citizens and helping them. She seems to be doing pretty well as a ruler. Suddenly, she’s visited by Don John the Flame Lord (I really wanted to fit an Avatar reference in here but couldn’t) who tells her she isn’t evil enough to be ruling the Fire Kingdom. When she tries to fight him, she finds that her powers have been drastically weakened. It turns out that her handmaiden, Ursula, has been poisoning her. Well, what did you expect, Flame Princess? Her name is Ursula. Ursula is the name of the sea witch in The Little Mermaid. It’s the name of Phoebe’s mean twin sister in Friends. Don’t trust anyone named Ursula. Anyway, this was all apparently Flame King’s plan. He wants his throne back and he also wants to give Flame Princess to Don to marry. Luckily, Cinnamon Bun shows up on a Fire Wolf and helps Flame Princess escape.
The two start thinking of people they can call for help. They consider Princess Bubblegum but decide against it. Flame Princess doesn’t trust her and Cinnamon Bun describes her as “devious”. Hm. I’ve noticed that Cinnamon Bun is one of the very few Candy Kingdom citizens who doesn’t seem to like Bubblegum very much. Flame Princess decides that Finn would be her best bet, so they head to the Tree Fort. Finn takes this the wrong way. Despite the fact that Flame Princess tells him that she doesn’t want to get back together, he still thinks he has a shot.
When they get to the Fire Kingdom, Finn charges through the door and challenges the guards, but Flame Princess doesn’t want him to fight them because they’ve been entranced. She and Finn are captured and only Cinnamon Bun manages to escape. While in the dungeon, they’re visited by Don the Flame Lord.
Finn: Trust me. It’ll be fine.
Flame Lord: For soon you shall be mine. [chuckles] If you’ve forgotten, I’m reminding you now.
Flame Princess: Never!
Finn: Yeah! It’s because you secretly still have feelings for me.
Flame Princess: No!
Finn: [sadly] Hmm.
Flame Princess: [to Flame Lord] I can never marry you, because I don’t even know you, much less like you, and forcing me to marry you is gross.
[Flame Lord squints and walks away. Flame King is looking out over his kingdom and jumping joyfully.]
Flame King: Whoo! Whoo! Man, I love staring out over things. Whoo! [jumps] It’s so good to be king.
Flame Lord: You said she’d do whatever you told her.
Flame King: Umm, okay…
Flame Lord: But she refuses to marry me. She’s her own woman, you liar!
Damn that Flame Princess, thinking she gets to decide if/who she marries. Next thing you know she’ll be demanding the right to vote, too. While Don and Flame King are fighting, Cinnamon bun breaks Flame Princess and Finn out of the dungeon. As they try to escape, they’re attacked by the hypnotized citizens. One of them shoots fire at Cinnamon Bun, and this has a strange effect on him. The Fire citizens suddenly come back to themselves and, when told who brainwashed them, turn on the Flame King and Don. Flame King tries to get them angry at Flame Princess again by pointing out what a softie she is and how she’s unfit to rule because of this, but…
Cinnamon Bun: You’re wrong. Flame Princess may not be the most ruthless of all despots, but she is strong where it really counts—in her heart. And that is good.
[A Flame Person sheds a tear and wipes it away.]
Cinnamon Bun: I have learned so much watching this beautiful woman work, and with her example, I have become a better man. I will be by her side as her champion and knight every step of the way because… I love her.
Flame Princess: Thank you.
[They hold hands.]
Flame Person: Aw, how sweet!
[Cinnamon Bun walks her up to her throne, and she takes her seat. The Flame People cheer.]
Flame King: [growls loudly]
Finn: Jeez. Did I just get shown up by Cinnamon Bun?
Haha, yeah, you did Finn. That’s a new low.
I like this episode mainly for Flame Princess and the Fire Kingdom, because I really do love the Fire Kingdom and I also love Flame Princess. Getting to see how she is as a ruler was nice, especially because she actually seems really good at it. It looks like it’s good for her too, like it’s helping her keep control of herself more.
Other than that… man, it really doesn’t say good things for Finn when Cinnamon Bun looks better by comparison. Finn obviously isn’t over Flame Princess yet, and that’s making him act out. It’s like what happened in Too Old, he’s not taking the situation seriously as he normally would because he’s too focused on trying to impress the girl he likes. As a result, he ends up looking like a donkus.
I think I’ve figured out why I’m bothered by Finn taking so long to get over Flame Princess. It’s not that he shouldn’t be taking a while, or that it couldn’t be interesting to see, it’s that he doesn’t seem to be making any progress. Every time Flame Princess comes up, we see Finn dealing with things in the exact same way. He’s either trying to distract himself or he’s thinking he still has a shot with her and trying too hard. I mean, I get it, Finn is emotionally immature and he’s always been both melodramatic and clueless when it comes to romance. I actually used to find it endearing, but I think they’re pushing it now.
Rating: 6.5/10
Betty???? Like, Simon’s fiance Betty?? That Betty????
Okay, so, some wizards are meeting with Bella Noche, a being of pure anti-magic from another dimension. Ice King shows up but he doesn’t really understand what the meeting is about. While the other wizards are distracted by Ice King, Bella Noche steals their magic. This causes Ice King to turn back into Simon. For a moment Simon wonder if he’s just gone so insane that he’s imagining being normal again, but then discovers that he actually is normal again. Suddenly he’s confronted by Ash, Marceline’s shitbag of an ex-boyfriend, but Simon knocks him out and steals his magic carpet so he can get back to the Ice Kingdom quickly. I’m not sure why that was added but I’m not going to object to seeing Ash get punched in the face.
At the Ice Kingdom, Simon goes through his old possessions and finds a book on mystic rituals that he and Betty had written together. Inside the book he finds a picture of a young Marceline. He calls her and tells her how he’s become normal again, and asks her to come to the Ice Kingdom right away. Marceline is understandably surprised by this (she faints at first) but she heads over to the Kingdom with Finn and Jake. Marceline and Simon are happy to see each other again, though Marceline points out that without the crown’s magic keeping him alive, he will likely die soon. With what little time he has left, Simon wants to create a time portal so he can apologize to Betty for driving her away, and he needs Marceline’s teddy, Hambo. Aw, didn’t she just get that thing back?
So, Betty is now in Ooo, and Simon is dying. Wonderful. After finding out that the crown is what kept him alive all this time and it’s magic has been taken by Bella Noche, Betty decides that she’s going to go confront Bella Noche so that Simon can be saved. She takes Simon with her on the magic carpet, and no matter how many time Simon tries to explain that he would rather die than go back to being Ice King (oh my heart), Betty insists that it will only be temporary and that the crown will at least buy her some time to find a way of keeping Simon alive without it (OH MY HEART). So if there’s one thing we can learn about Betty from this episode, it’s that she’s incredibly determined. Maybe to a fault. Once they find Bella Noche, Betty knocks him out and the magic is restored to the wizards. Death, who has been following Simon and waiting for him to die, tells him, “You lose, Simon. Sorry, man.”
Simon becomes Ice King again, and he doesn’t remember much of what happened. He remembers a woman saving him, but he seems to think she died. Then we see Betty, watching Ice King sadly from outside before flying away on the magic carpet.
Okay. So. Betty.
Reaction gifs aside, I wish this episode had been a two-parter, because there’s so much going on here that would have been great to explore more. It still resonated with me enough, but a lot of it did feel too rushed.
Like, Simon and Marceline’s reunion, for one thing. Having Marceline faint at the sound of his voice was both funny and kind of sad, I thought that worked well, but when they actually reunite, shouldn’t it have been more dramatic? I mean, after she gives Hambo to Simon, Marceline is ignored for the rest of the episode. I know that the episode was meant to be more about Betty than Marceline, but still. Or how about Finn reacting to the fact that he’s not the only human in Ooo anymore? Nothing? Really?
Ice King turning back into Simon while still in Ooo felt like it should have been a much bigger deal, and it could have been if we’d had longer than eleven minutes. Betty coming to Ooo also could have been more dramatic than it was. She barely reacted to the time portal message before deciding that she’s going to jump through it. She doesn’t react at all to any of the weird things in Ooo. She doesn’t react to being in the same room as a vampire, she doesn’t react to Death following her fiance, she defeats a monster she knows nothing about. I guess she would have some experience with magic, since she coauthored a book on mystic rituals, but would she really be so quick to adjust to life in Ooo?
I think the episode works well enough on its own, but man, it would have been so much better as a two-parter. There’s good, emotional stuff in here, the feels were felt, as my reaction gifs suggest, I just wish there had been more time.
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