Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (Time Sandwich/The Vault)

Jake makes a sandwich. The most perfect sandwich to ever exist. It’s so perfect it literally glows. Unfortunately for him, Magic Man appears and steals the sandwich before Jake can take a bite of it. Magic Man says Jake can have the sandwich back if he solves a riddle:

When your face shows 7:20,

When green leaves turn brown,

The only way forward is down.

Then, you’ll see, the wetter, the better.

That last line? That’s what she said.

Magic Man then jumps out the window and creates a bubble around himself in mid air. Everything in the bubble moves in slow-motion, and it’s presumed that Magic Man will take a bite of the sandwich when he hits the ground. Finn and Jake can’t enter the bubble because it will only make them move in slow-motion themselves, so they try to find some other way to get the sandwich back. They call on some of their friends, like BMO, Princess Bubblegum, and Marceline, but none of them are able to come up with anything that works. Eventually Jake loses hope completely and cries over the loss of his perfect sandwich, but it’s then discovered that Jake can move in the bubble at normal speed as long as he stays sad. That was the answer to Magic Man’s riddle, Jake has to be as sad as possible (7:20 looks like a frown on a clock… how do they come up with this stuff?). So Jake gets the sandwich back and that’s the end of it.

So, Magic Man being in this episode is a plus for me, because I love that weirdo.

I’m really bad at riddles, by the way. Like really bad. If I had been in Bilbo Baggins’ place, I definitely would have lost that riddle contest to Gollum and he would have eaten me. So I knew I wasn’t going to figure out the riddle anyway, but even so whose idea was it to compare a clock showing 7:20 to a sad face? Who looks at a clock at 7:20 and thinks it looks like a sad face? The other lines in the riddle are pretty standard, green leaves turning brown to represent depression, the only way forward is down as in “feeling down”, it’s better when it’s wetter as in tears. It’s all pretty obvious in hindsight, but that 7:20 line is so out there, did anyone know what it meant before the reveal?

It’s a creative riddle, at least, and the slow-motion time bubble was also a fun and creative idea. The whole episode is just fun, and there’s not much else to it besides that.

Rating: 7.5/10

This episode begins with Finn having a nightmare where he’s being grabbed by a ghostly green woman. He’s woken by Jake, who is unhappy that Finn has been having these recurring nightmare for a while now. He wants Finn to deal with whatever emotions or memories are causing them. In other words, he wants Finn to go into his mental vault, where all of his repressed memories are stored. Jake is even less happy to learn that Finn is apparently fully conscious of repressing things he doesn’t want to deal with, and that he refuses to go into the vault. So, Jake needs to trick Finn into hypnosis, and we find out that the ghostly woman is actually one of Finn’s past lives.

The woman’s name is Shoko, and she’s a one-armed thief who steals things for other people in exchange for money. So she’s kind of like a mercenary, I guess. One person wants her to steal an amulet, and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t get it. She goes to what looks like the Candy Kingdom, though it’s still being built. Shoko knocks herself out and is “rescued” by the owner of the amulet. Princess Bubblegum. Shoko is taken inside the Candy Kingdom and treated, and she and Bubblegum start to form a friendship. Later, Bubblegum shows Shoko her greatest creations, the Gumball Guardians. After activating them with the amulet, Bubblegum gives Shoko a present. The present turns out to be a mechanical arm. Shoko tears up upon receiving the present and runs to her room. That night, Shoko is unsure of whether she wants to go through with stealing the amulet, but then she remembers her client’s threat. She steals the amulet, waking Bubblegum and the Gumball Guardians, and makes a break for it. Unfortunately, she ends up falling in a river of radioactive waste. Bubblegum orders the Gumball Guardians to rescue her, but when one of them reaches into the river its arm is burned off. We later find out that Shoko got out of the river, now in a monstrous form, and died shortly after, still holding the amulet.

Meanwhile, having seen the memory, Finn calls Bubblegum and asks her to come over. When she arrives, he reveals Shoko’s body under the floorboards, and the amulet is still there. He returns it to Bubblegum, having realized that Shoko was haunting him in the hopes that he would return the amulet. And we end the episode with this exchange:

• Princess Bubblegum: Whoa, what?! My amulet?! Wait a second… [gasps] Is that…?
• Finn: It’s me, Shoko! And PB, you’re like a bazillion years old. You’re not freaking nineteen! What the heck?!
• [Princess Bubblegum gives a small, half-hearted laugh.]
• Finn: Weirdo.

Dermatologists hate her! Local princess is like a bazillion years old, looks nineteen!

Bubblegum actually being hundreds of years old isn’t a surprise to me, partly because it was spoiled for me and partly because, well, it’s kind of obvious. There are way too many flashbacks that supposedly take place years ago but still show Bubblegum looking the way she does now. It was clear that she was either older than she let on or aged in a different way. Actually, that second one has been confirmed for a while, hasn’t it? We know that the age Bubblegum’s looks depends on her biomass, when we saw her go from an eighteen year old to a thirteen year old and then back to eighteen. But I wonder if that has any effect on her mental or emotional maturity.

Anyway, I really loved this episode. I love stories about reincarnation and past lives, Shoko is really interesting to me and her relationship with Bubblegum is the perfect mix between tragic and adorable (which means I have a new ship… whoops). What’s not to love?

The best thing about this episode is Bubblegum and Shoko’s relationship, it feels so genuine and sweet even in the short amount of time they have. I liked the scene where Shoko is telling Bubblegum about how her parents sold her arm, hence why it’s missing, and Bubblegum is horrified because “Parents should protect their children!” And Shoko just looks sort of sad and confused, like she wasn’t even aware that what her parents did to her was wrong until Bubblegum said so. It seems like Shoko’s never really had someone who was nice to her until she met Bubblegum, which makes having to betray Bubblegum complicated and painful. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if Shoko had decided to take up Bubblegum’s offer and stay in the Candy Kingdom. Maybe she could have been protected from her clients and lived a much longer and happier life. I also liked that when Shoko fell into the river, Bubblegum wanted to rescue her but didn’t seem to care that much about her amulet. She just wanted to save Shoko and was saddened that she couldn’t, even after what Shoko did.

Rating: 10/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (Jake Suit/Be More)

This episode begins with Finn using Jake’s body as a suit and controlling all of his movements. I’m not totally sure how that works, but okay. Finn does a lot of stunts with Jake’s body without realizing that it’s actually hurting Jake. Later, Jake complains about it, but Finn basically tells him he’s being a wimp. Jake bets Finn that he would hate it if the roles were reversed, and so he shrinks down and puts himself in Finn’s body. Jake isn’t as “graceful” as Finn is and has a hard time controlling his limbs enough to physically hurt Finn. Though like Jake says, there are all kind of pain, so for the rest of the episode he tries some different tactics:

• He forces Finn to read an incredibly boring book. Finn actually likes it though.
• Jake makes Finn his favorite meal, but then won’t let Finn eat a single bite of it.
• At Flame Princess’ family dinner that Finn was invited to, Jake makes him strip to his underwear, rip the tablecloth from the table and stuff his underwear with it, and sing his “I’m a buff baby” song.

Jake is hardcore, but Finn is tough. He won’t admit to being wrong, and so the bet goes on.

The last thing Jake tries is to make Finn dive into a volcano. No, really. Right before Finn would have touched the lava he stops. Jake gives him a chance to surrender but Finn refuses, and tells Jake to go ahead and dip his head in the lava. Jake does and Finn dies a horrible death.

Yeah okay so Finn didn’t actually die because Adventure Time logic. After a few seconds, Jake pulls him out and decides that he was being a wimp, pain isn’t so bad. So he and Finn both dive into the volcano and die horrible deaths. Ha, no, of course they didn’t. They end up in the hospital being looked after by Clown Nurses, to Finn’s horror.

Finn is a masochist, and probably also a sadist. I’m positive of this.

This episode didn’t end the way I thought it would. I figured that Finn would give in and agree to go easier on Jake when he’s wearing him as a suit. Instead, Jake gives in first, and Finn ends up not really learning anything. And Finn really is an ass in this episode, isn’t he? He’s definitely not being a very good friend to Jake, anyway. Would it be so hard for him to acknowledge that hey, maybe jumping off the top of the Tree Fort to land crotch-first on a fence is painful for Jake? Finn can be really insensitive and selfish in some ways. In the end he and Jake both pay for their stupidity, but it’s still much easier to sympathize with Jake.

I’m guessing it was a pride thing that made Finn unwilling to give in no matter what Jake did to him. He was literally more willing to die than he was to lose the bet. Finn can be competitive and he doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of “moderation”, but this is extreme even for him. Jake had to concede just to avoid killing his friend.

Rating: 6/10

We open with BMO hiding under a box and deleting some files on xir screen, and I think we’re seeing how BMO gets high. Xe accidentally deletes a program called coresystemdrivers.sys and this causes BMO to start malfunctioning, so Finn and Jake need to take BMO to the MO factory to be fixed. The MO factory is in the Bad Lands and only MOs are allowed inside, so Finn and Jake must don disguises.

The factory is desolate and no longer in production, but there are still some MOs hanging around. They’re given a tour of the factory and they try to figure out how to fix BMO’s system without wiping xir memory. They’re eventually caught and so have to find their way through the factory while avoiding security MOs. When the other MOs realize that BMO is, well, BMO, they’re awed and no longer violent. Apparently BMO is a very important MO. That’s when we meet the MOs creator, whose name is… Moe. Of course it is. Moe looks like a human, and Finn asks if he is one, to which Moe replies, “My skin is human.” Okay then. While fixing BMO, Moe explains what make BMO so special.

• Finn: So…you made BMO?
• Jake: [Jake stretches to a large size.] Hey, you’re not gonna reset our friend’s personality, are you?
• Moe: Huh? What? No…BMO’s one of a kind. I built BMO to take care of my son. [A CMO brings over a screwdriver.] Oh, thank you. But I guess I never ended up dating any women. So, that’s sad. [Moe chuckles.] I sent BMO off into the world alone. [Moe coughs a couple of times while saying:] Hoping to find a family home. And then maybe even find somebody else’s little boy to take care of.

That’s… actually really adorable.

• Moe: I must’ve built what, like, a million MOs. But BMO is very, very special. I built BMO to understand fun. And how to play. You see, I made BMO to be more.

No comment, I just thought this quote should be posted here.

This episode is interesting, mainly because I had never really thought about BMO’s backstory.

Moe and the factory are both intriguing to me. I like the image of Moe living in the old, abandoned factory, no longer making MOs but still surrounded by the creations that are like his family. How is this guy still alive? Does anyone know where he is? Does it even matter?

And of course BMO’s backstory is really cute. It’s a little sad that Moe made BMO for a child that he ended up never having. I like that he decided to just let BMO go off alone, in the hopes that BMO would find a child to look after even if it couldn’t be Moe’s. And BMO did fine one. Xe found Finn.

I didn’t expect this episode to be so sweet and interesting when it started. The beginning of the episode is a bit slow, but I like how it turned out.

Rating: 7.5/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (Candy Streets/Wizards Only, Fool)

Lumpy Space Princess has been robbed! She tells Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum so while the three of them are hanging out together in the Candy Kingdom. Unfortunately they can’t understand much more than that because LSP is just kind of crying and babbling incoherently about how a thief stole something very important from her. Bubblegum injects LSP with something that’s supposed to calm her down but accidentally gives her too much, so that LSP goes unconscious. Finn tries to ask who robbed her, but all LSP can manage before going out is “Pete Sa-“. Finn and Jake take it upon themselves to find the culprit and search LSP for clues. They find a key to a hotel room, with the number 303 on it. They decide to check there first.

They get to the hotel room and check it out. The room is trashed, but they find many clues in it. Finn discovers what he thinks is blood on the floor and, since LSP’s injuries were “100% emotional”, he thinks it must be Pete’s blood. He tells BMO analyze it. Across the street is a drugstore, and Finn figures that the thief must have gone there to buy bandages after being injured. So they go to the drug store and talk to the clerk there.

• [The scene changes inside the drug store where Ann is talking to a customer.]
• Ann: And if the oozing persists, just come back [leans over] [in a slightly hushed tone] and I’ll give you something a little stronger.
• Finn: [Finn comes up from under the counter, pushing the customer out of the way.] I’m Finn. This is my partner, Jake. [Finn pulls up Jake who is in the form of a police badge.]
• Jake: Hello, citizen. Had anyone in here looking to buy some mini adhesive bandages today?
• Ann: A lot of people come through my store, gentlemen. You can’t seriously think I’d be able to remember any one particular customer among the countless others I see on a daily basis, now, can you?
• Finn: I guess not. Fair dues. C’mon, Jake.
• Ann: Wait! Now that you mention it, there was this one guy in here earlier. Real suspicious type. Had a nosebleed. Said it was the first one he’d had in years. Used to get them all the time as a kid, he said. Can never remember if he was supposed to pinch his nose and hold his head back, or pinch his nose and hold his head forward. Maybe it was a case of being boxed on the nose too many times. Made the blood vessels in his lower septum weak and vulnerable to hemorrhaging. Anyway, his mammy always said it was because he couldn’t keep all those picky little fingers out of his dirty little nose holes. He didn’t buy it though. He always thought it had-
• Finn: Ma’am, can you give us a name?
• Ann: Mmm, nope. No wait, yes I can. Pete Sassafras.
• [Finn and Jake look at each other with surprised looks. A transparent LSP flies across the screen from earlier saying, “Pete…sa…sass…as…”]
• Finn: Did you catch which way he was going?
• Ann: Of course! He said he was catching a train at 11:27, Candy Kingdom Station, Platform 5. Heh. Sorry, I wish I could remember more.

I’m sorry about quoting for so long, but I just thought this conversation was really funny. Oh no, I don’t remember anything about my customers. Except every single word they say to me and every personal detail about their lives that they decided to tell me.

Anyway, Finn and Jake finally catch the suspicious-looking Pete Sassafras and throw him in jail, though he protests that he did nothing wrong. Finn and Jake ask him a few questions about the theft, but Pete says he doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Still, they’re convinced that Pete was the culprit, so they leave him in jail while they go get donuts to celebrate.

While they congratulate each other over donuts, BMO shows up with the results of the blood analysis. It wasn’t blood, it turns out. It was tomato sauce. Finn realizes that LSP wasn’t trying to say “Pete Sassafras”, she was trying to say “Pete Sassy’s”, which is the name of a pizza parlor. They head over there and ask for a delivery man named Pete, but he is apparently out on a delivery. Finn calls Bubblegum to make sure LSP is safe and he finds out that LSP has apparently gone back to the hotel. Finn and Jake rush over there and freak out when they see the delivery car outside the hotel. In LSP’s hotel room, they find her on top of Pete the delivery guy while he struggles to get free. It turns out what Pete stole… was LSP’s heart. Pete says he was just delivering pizzas and now LSP won’t let him leave. Finn and Jake help him get free and tell him to go. Poor Pete doesn’t even get a tip. That sucks. Always tip delivery people, okay? Always. Same goes for waiters and strippers (especially strippers, in fact, since they don’t get an hourly wage) and any type of work where tipping is an option. Don’t be the sort of person who doesn’t tip. I hate people who don’t tip.

Okay, to get back on topic, this episode is pretty enjoyable.

I really liked Jake’s shape-shifting in this episode. It was used pretty creatively and I like it when Jake gets really out-there with his power. They also got some decent jokes out of it. I particularly liked that sort of mean prank Jake pulled with Pete Sassafras in jail, where Jake shape-shifted into a lawyer.

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s entertaining enough, and I did like a lot of the jokes, but it also fades from memory pretty quickly.

By the way, did they ever let Pete Sassafras out of jail?

Rating: 6/10

This episode begins with Starchie in the hospital with a cold, while Bubblegum tries to give him a cure. Starchie refuses to be cured by anything other than magic, since it’s apparently the only cure he will trust. Bubblegum is exasperated and explains that magic is really just science “presented like mystical hoodoo”. Starchie and Nurse Pound Cake are both offended by Bubblegum making fun of magic, so she agrees to get Starchie a magical cure from the Wizard City. She asks Finn and Jake to meet her outside the walls of the Wizard City, but they must all be wearing disguises.

Later, Finn and Jake are waiting by the wall, which just looks like the side of a cliff. Then Bubblegum shows up.

• Princess Bubblegum: Guys, hold up! I got the password from the Ice King. Apparently, the barrier only responds to the voice of real wizards. [Princess Bubblegum brings out a tape recorder and plays it.]
• Ice King: [on tape recorder:] No way! I’m no rat! I am bound by the sacred trust of esoteric knowledge!
• Princess Bubblegum: Say the password, Ice King!
• Ice King: You think I’ll just hand you the keys to the city? I’d rather die.
• Princess Bubblegum: Say the password.
• Ice King: Ow! My pinky! [Princess bubblegum smiles nervously and shrugs] Ow. [sniffles] Thank you. [Finn blushes in embarrassment and Jake facepalms and shakes his head in disapproval] You know, no one has touched me in months. Could you touch me again?
• Princess Bubblegum: Password! Now!!’
• Ice King: Ow! Ohh! Ohh! “Wizards Rule!” THE PASSWORD IS WIZARDS RULE!” AAH–
• [Princess Bubblegum stops the tape.]

Jesus, Bubblegum, your twisted side is showing again. I find it interesting that Finn and Jake seem to disapprove of her methods, or at the very least they feel uncomfortable about it.

Anyway, at the sound of Ice King’s recorded voice, the walls open to let them through. Finn is amazed, but Bubblegum scoffs that it’s just “a vocal registry rigged to a vibration modulator. The wall’s still there. It’s just the density’s all wobbled.” Well, that still sounds pretty amazing, whether you want to call it magic or science. On their way to a shop to buy a cold spell, they see someone being arrested for pretending to be a wizard. This makes them nervous, so they hurry into a shop and order the spell they need. Bubblegum doesn’t want to buy it without any information, though, so she starts questioning the clerk.

• Princess Bubblegum: How’s it work?
• Ron James: [with aggression] It works by magic. It’s a spell.
• Jake: Dude…
• Princess Bubblegum: What? I’m curious. So, what’s in it?
• Ron James: It’s my secret brew, dawg.
• Princess Bubblegum: So you want to sell me a product with no information?
• Ron James: [scowling at Princess Bubblegum] It’s a cold spell.
• Princess Bubblegum: Made from what?
• Ron James: MAGIC.
• Princess Bubblegum: What’s the magic made out of, ding-dong?
• Ron James: Y’all is fakes!

The alarm is sounded and Finn, Jake and Bubblegum are forced to run from the police (Bubblegum also steals the cold spell). They come to a dead end and they meet Abracadaniel. Yeah, he was the wizard from the episode Wizard Battle,the one who really didn’t want to kiss Bubblegum but then changed his mind after winning and Finn knocked him out for it because jealousy issues. Hey, come to think of it, if Bubblegum hates magic so much why did she agree to have her kiss be the prize for winning? Wouldn’t she want nothing to do with a wizard battle? I suppose it’s just a continuity error, but it seems like a really weird one, because if they’re including Abracadaniel in this episode then you’d think they would remember that, in his first episode, Bubblegum seemed fine with magic. Whatever, we’re off-topic now, back to the episode I’m supposed to be reviewing.

Finn, Jake and Bubblegum basically force Abracadaniel to help them escape, but they all end up being caught anyway. Bubblegum demands a parley with the Grand Master Wizard, and the scene changes to the Master’s palace. He tells Bubblegum that since she has always been a friend to the wizard community (haha, really?), he’ll allow her to leave as long as she says “Wizards rule.” She refuses because, “All magic is science! You just don’t know what you’re doing, so you call it magic! And, well.., it’s.. ridiculous.” So they all get sent to wizard prison, including Abracadaniel. Poor guy. He didn’t even do anything.

In prison, Abracadaniel is understandably pissed at Bubblegum, so he challenges her to an “honorable prison stabbing to the death”. Bubblegum has long since reached her breaking point with wizards, so she agrees readily. While they’re fighting, Finn and Jake are trying to figure out a way out of this. They still have the cold spell with them, and when they examine the bottle more closely they notice icy vapor coming from it.  Bubblegum has won her fight with Abracadaniel but refuses to kill him despite the rules. Finn throws her the cold spell and tells her to open it, as it’s really just a spell that releases cold air and snow, not a spell to cure a cold. Bubblegum opens it and is amazed at what it does, but she still seems reluctant to show any appreciation for magic. She, Finn and Jake escape the prison quickly and return to the Candy Kingdom, where Bubblegum just gives Starchie a scientific cure.

Bubblegum episodes are the best episodes. Actually, this is one of those episodes I wish was longer, because I really liked the conflict here. Plus, I feel like we haven’t been getting a lot of Bubblegum so far in this season.

I compare Bubblegum to Hermione Granger a lot, and I’m sure people are tired of it at this point, but it is really striking how similar they are. I’m not the only one who sees it, right?

If you’ve read the Harry Potter books (or at least seen the Prisoner of Azkaban movie), you know that Hermione considers Divination a worthless branch of magic, at least up until Book 5 and even then she’s not exactly fond of it. Hermione’s belief that Divination is unreliable and ridiculous may seem sort of, well, ridiculous. She lives in a world of magic but she’s drawing the line at fortune-telling? Her disdain for it makes sense to me, though. For one thing, Hermione may live in a world of magic, but she doesn’t live in a world of limitless possibilities. Magic can do a lot of thing, yes, but it does have limits, and Hermione understands these limits because she’s done her research. There are some things magic simply can’t do. Divination is a branch of magic that’s known for being rather unreliable, and it’s also not something that you can learn easily through research. It requires a more open mind and if you don’t have the ability naturally, there’s not a lot you can do. Hermione doesn’t do well with subjects like this. She’s very by-the-books and logical, not so much free-spirited and open-minded, so it’s no wonder she wasn’t good at and didn’t like Divination.

Just like Hermione and Divination, the idea of Bubblegum not believing in magic seems a bit ridiculous, because Ooo is such a strange place. There are all kinds of weird things that exist in this world, but Bubblegum can’t accept magic? Well, like Hermione, Bubblegum is very logical and straightforward. She loves science because it makes sense to her, there’s a method to it, it’s something that she can explain and understand. Magic is this thing that isn’t explained, it just exists. Bubblegum can’t understand that. She needs an explanation for how it would work and no one will give it to her, but when she comes up with a scientific explanation no one will listen.

All magic is science, she says, but because they don’t understand it they call it magic. That’s a really interesting idea to me. It’s kind of a funny and slightly sad image, a bunch of people doing amazing things they don’t know how to explain and calling it magic. Another image that’s kind of funny and slightly sad is a bunch of people seeing something extraordinary and rejecting it because it doesn’t fit into their narrow view of the world. So which one is actually happening here? Is it a bit of both? Can science and magic coexist?

Bubblegum’s steadfast belief in science is admirable, but her pride and stubbornness also caused a lot of problems. It would have been easy for her to just say “Wizards rule” and leave safely, but she wouldn’t. In a way that’s bad ass, but but she was also responsible for what happened to three other people who didn’t necessarily agree with her. Should she have swallowed her pride and said “Wizards rule” even if she didn’t mean it? It’s like Annabeth and the sphinx in Percy Jackson (sorry about comparing Bubblegum to another character from a YA book). Annabeth refused to take the sphinx’s quiz because the questions were too easy and she felt it was an insult to her intelligence. That was a bad ass move on her part, but it also meant she and her friends got attacked by a sphinx. (See, interesting conflicts like this are why I love pride as a character trait, because it can be both great and awful, and sometimes both.)

Bubblegum relies on facts and logic and that’s a good thing, but so are faith and open-mindedness. It’s best to be somewhere in the middle. Don’t believe in things blindly, but be open to different possibilities.

Rating: 10/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (James Baxter the Horse/Shh!)

This episode begins with BMO playing some game with an egg, and when the egg cracks xe starts crying. Finn and Jake try to cheer xir up, but nothing seems to work. Then James Baxter, a horse who travels around Ooo balancing on a beach ball, shows up. James Baxter is known for his incredible ability to cheer people up and spread joy… by balancing on a beach ball and continuously whinnying his own name. Huh. Okay then. James Baxter cheers BMO up immediately. Finn and Jake are impressed and decide that they’re going to follow in James Baxter’s footsteps. This means they’re going to whinny their names at people to cheer them up. And they do so, but it doesn’t work out because I guess that’s not as charming when it’s coming from someone other than James Baxter? So they spend most of the episode trying to figure out what they’re doing wrong and how they can improve, and they eventually do find something that seems to work. Until they accidentally awaken an angry ghost that attacks them, and this really sounds like I’m either making things up or I’ve gotten confused and started summarizing a different episode instead but I swear this happens in the same episode. James Baxter shows up and calms the ghost down, then he leaves and the episode just… ends.

The episode before this one, Princess Potluck, was fun because it was silly and weird. James Baxter the Horse is also silly and weird, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. So why is that?

I think it’s because as silly as Princess Potluck was, it was at least about something. Not something important in terms of character development or story, but still something. It’s about Ice King being upset that he wasn’t invited to a party and trying to ruin it. It’s simple, humorous and easy to make entertaining. This episode, though? I just don’t really get it. It’s about… Finn and Jake wanting to imitate James Baxter? Okay, but why? Because he helps people and Finn and Jake also like to help people?

I guess what we’re supposed to take away from this episode is that being inspired by your heroes is one thing but imitation is not always the way to go, sometimes we need to do things our own way. Except there already was an episode with that message, His Hero, where Finn and Jake try to imitate Billy’s ways because he’s their hero but they find that Billy’s approach doesn’t really work for them. Why wouldn’t I just watch that?

A couple of the jokes in the episode are funny, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it’s a bit too silly for me, or not silly in the right way. Whatever it is, it’s just not for me.

Rating: 3/10

Finn and Jake play a game where neither of them can speak, their only way of communicating is by using signs that they wrote at the start of their game but they are not allowed to make anymore. Unfortunately they both forget to make a sign that lets BMO know about their game, and when BMO finds that neither of them will speak at all xe gets scared that something has taken over Finn and Jake’s body. Xe hides in the wall, and Finn and Jake have to find some way to 1) convince BMO to come out and 2) explain their game to him without either of them losing. They a try a few different things but nothing seems to work.

Meanwhile, BMO has apparently invited some “Bikini Babes” (they’re literally humanoid women in bikinis) over for a dance party and they’re gathering outside the Tree Fort, wondering why no one is answering the door. BMO officially has more game than anyone on this show. They hear BMO playing xir favorite song and fly (somehow) onto the roof. Inside the Tree Fort, Finn and Jake are trying to break through the wall with axes, but they open a rift that extends to the ceiling, and the Bikini Babes fall inside. BMO tells them to attack Finn and Jake, and after fighting them for a while Jake finally begs them to stop, which means he loses the no-speaking game. BMO realizes that Finn and Jake were themselves all along and they all have a dance party.

Well, this episode was at least kind of fun.

I liked the game/bet that Finn and Jake were playing, mainly because I like how it’s all just for the bragging rights. They won’t lose anything by losing the bet, the stakes are that the loser will be disappointed that they lost. Yet they still take it so seriously, to the point that they won’t do the sensible thing and explain to BMO what’s happening, because that would mean admitting defeat.

I also liked how those signs that they made are really oddly specific, and yet they don’t have a lot of the ones that would be important. Part of the bet is that the only signs they can use are ones that they wrote up in thirty seconds before officially starting the bet, so they have to think of as many as they can and ones that would be useful. There’s a joke at the beginning about how Finn didn’t make enough signs and therefore has a hard time communicating with Jake, who apparently has more. One of Jake’s signs even comments on how Finn didn’t make enough, which I guess says a lot about how well Jake knows Finn. Neither of them made a sign explaining their bet to people who might need to know, which was a huge oversight, but they had signs for really specific situations or things that would only make sense if they knew what was going to happen. Though if they knew what could happen, they should have prevented it. Anyway, I got a kick out of a lot of the signs they made, and thinking about why they would possibly think to make those signs exactly.

About halfway through the episode I did start to lose interest, but overall I found it entertaining enough, and I did like the premise. It just seems like something we’ve all done with our friends as kids. The bet, I mean. Not hiding in the wall and fighting women in bikinis.

Rating: 6.5/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (BMO Lost/Princess Potluck)

In this episode, BMO gets lost. It happens when xe’s snatched up by an eagle and taken back to its nest, and when xe manages to escape the nest xe realizes that xe’s miles from the Tree Fort. BMO meets a Bubble who is also lost and BMO suggests they go to the Tree Fort together, so that afterwards Finn and Jake can help Bubble find its way home. That’s basically the episode. BMO and Bubble head to the Tree Fort, there’s a part where they find a baby and take it with them but then the baby’s mother find it again, then they reach the Tree Fort. Bubble proposes to BMO and BMO accepts, but then Jake shows up and pops Bubble. When BMO starts to cry, Finn and Jake think xe’s joking and laugh. That’s… kind of messed up? Then BMO hears Bubble’s voice, and Bubble says that it has simply become air, so it’s all around BMO all the time no matter where xe goes. That sounds creepy to me but it makes BMO happy. And that’s pretty much it.

Well. That was a thing.

I really like BMO, xe’s adorable, but episodes about BMO just don’t do anything for me. I guess because I don’t feel like BMO has enough of a character, or the one xe does have isn’t one that can carry an episode. BMO is like Lumpy Space Princess, best in small doses or as part of a group of characters we already know.

There wasn’t a whole lot that I enjoyed about the episode, but there wasn’t anything I hated either. I just don’t have a lot to say about it. Not a whole lot happens, the ending is… something. I can’t decide if it’s more sad or funny, but either way it was the most memorable part of the episode for me. Um…

Yeah, I don’t know what to tell ya, BMO is cute, but that’s not enough to make an episode for me. I’m sorry this review is so short and I haven’t really said much, but all I can say about this one is… that was a thing.

Rating: 5/10

The episode begins with Finn and Jake heading over to Princess Bubblegum’s potluck (Jake is wearing makeup, which I love – Jake gives no fucks about gender roles and it’s glorious… though Finn was right to say he looks like a target). For some reason Bubblegum’s potluck is nearby the Ice Kingdom, and Finn and Jake seem to be the only people there who aren’t princesses. Meanwhile, Ice King is in his castle, doing weird stuff because he’s Ice King. When he realizes that Bubblegum is throwing some kind of party that he wasn’t invited to, he’s upset and decides he’ll do whatever he can to ruin it. Bubblegum thinks she’s going to throw a party and not invite him?! He, like, invented her, you know what I mean?

Anyway, the first thing he does is catch a bunch of rabbits and cats. He ties lemons to the cats and feeds lasagna to the rabbits. I don’t get it. Then he releases the cats into the party, saying that the “sour pusses” will ruin the party. Sour pusses… because they’re cats… and they have lemons tied to them… I get it now. That doesn’t work, because the cats don’t actually do anything except walk around looking cute, and the party was missing lemons to put in drinks anyway. So then Ice King tries to release his “party poopers”, which are the rabbits. They’re party poopers because.. you know. That doesn’t work either because, well, the rabbits did what they were supposed to before Ice King had a chance to let them go. Let’s give Ice King some credit, though, this was pretty creative. Stupid, but creative.

The next thing he tries is to dress Gunter up like a princess and send him to the party undercover, where he can throw punch on the guests and ruin everything. There’s a bit where Ice King thinks Gunter looks attractive as a princess and fantasizes about marrying her, so Gunter has to pull out a taser in defense. So I guess if we need a reminder that Ice King is a creep, there’s that. Gunter goes to the party and he doesn’t throw punch on anyone. Instead he dances with the princesses. Ice King falls to the floor and cries. Maybe they should call him Drama King, amirite? (I’m sorry I know that was terrible.)

Then Ice King tries calling the Banana Guards with a noise complaint. The Banana Guards hang up on him. So Ice King tries throwing his own party to make the princesses jealous but they don’t even notice him. Finally, Ice King decides to just attack the party and hurl ice bolts at the guests. The princesses take refuge while Finn fights Ice King. Once Ice King is held down, they question why he’s attacking the party. He says it’s because he wasn’t invited, but Bubblegum tells him she did invite him (???? why would she do that?), she sent his invite in the mail, which Ice King didn’t check. So the party resumes, this time with Ice King.

This one I enjoyed more than BMO Lost. It sort of feels more like something that would be in Season 1, somehow. It’s really energized and weird and it feels like so much happens yet when you look back on it, not much actually happened. And, of course, it’s primarily driven by comedy.

Ice King’s comedy is usually this weird mix between funny and uncomfortable so I end up kind of laughing but also kind of squirming (which seems to be the intention but sometimes it’s hard to tell), like that joke with Gunter pulling out the taser on him. That was funny, but it’s also a bit uncomfortable. Other jokes in the episode were kind of hit or miss. Some just fell flat, some were funny at first but suffered from being dragged out a bit too long (the joke with Ice King calling the Banana Guards). Still, for the most part I did enjoy the comedy in this episode. It’s not a hilarious episode, but it was funny enough for me, and either way I really enjoyed watching it.

Rating: 7.5/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (A Glitch is a Glitch/Puhoy)

Watching this episode on my laptop was weird. At first I wasn’t sure if there was a problem with the video or with my laptop or if that was just the episode. I’m still not entirely sure.

So, apparently this episode doesn’t actually fit into the show’s canon, and it’s also 3D-animated. Even the opening is 3D.

This episode is about Ice King creating a virus that will delete everything and everyone in the entire universe except for himself and Princess Bubblegum. Apparently Bubblegum once told Ice King she’d date him if he were the last person on Ooo and he decided to take that literally. Finn and Jake find their way into the the universal source code and try to fix things from in there while Bubblegum tries to get the anti-virus out of Ice King. Unfortunately Ice King never created one. He insists on Bubblegum keeping her “promise” about dating him, but she tells him that even if she did make that promise Ice King is not the last person on Ooo as long as she’s still there. Then she starts making out with her own hand. God, I love her.

Meanwhile, Finn and Jake find the Glitch but have no way of defeating it because their own bodies are starting to glitch up. Jake figures out a way to gross out the Glitch by eating Finn’s hair (in imitation of a video Finn and Jake watched earlier where a woman ate her own hair), which makes the Glitch puke up all of the pixels it ate and returns the universe back to normal.

This is a very strange episode. Even by Adventure Time standards.

This apparently aired on April 1st, so it’s basically an April Fools joke, hence the weird style and the fact that it’s all non-canon. I did enjoy the 3D animation, I thought it was decent-looking, but is it me or are the colors in this episode really bright? I actually had a hard time making some things out, particularly facial expressions, because everything was so bright. Was that just my computer/the video, or did everyone have that problem with the episode?

I guess the story is kind of interesting. Adventure Time often borrows from and parodies video game logic, so why not have an episode that goes all out with it? Some of the jokes are pretty funny too. What makes this episode difficult to watch is the animation, though. The brightness of it and the constant glitching (even if that did serve a purpose) isn’t exactly easy on the eyes. The episode itself is fine, but it was brought down a bit by that, at least for me.

Rating: 7/10

This episode starts off with Finn, Jake and BMO making a pillow fort inside the Tree Fort because it’s raining knives outside. Finn is depressed because Flame Princess didn’t laugh at some joke he made and he thinks that means their relationship is over. God, Finn is so dramatic. Jake tries to tell Finn not to get so caught up in imaginary problems but Finn ignores that advice and retreats deep into the pillow fort to let his thoughts fester. The pillow fort is huge and Finn eventually finds a hidden door that he thinks Jake must have added. However, when he opens it, he’s transported to a new world where everything is made of pillows. The door disappears after he goes through it.

Finn is attacked by a Blanket Dragon, which he kills. The Pillow People are pleased and throw a celebration in his honor. At the celebration, Finn meets Roselinen, the Pillow mayor’s daughter. They dance together and seem to hit it off, though Finn is slightly uncomfortable because of his relationship with Flame Princess and the fact that he doesn’t plan on staying long.

The episode then switches back to the Tree Fort for a short time, where Jake and BMO are wondering if Finn is okay. When the episode switches back to Pillow World, Finn and Roselinen are adults. They’re also married and have two children. Quilton, the mayor, visits Finn to let him know that they found a door back to Ooo but that it will only appear for a short time. Finn begins his journey to look for the door along with his family. A few years later (in Pillow World time – it’s only a few seconds in Ooo), Finn changes his mind about finding the door. He decides he would rather stay in Pillow World with his family. More years pass and suddenly Finn is an old man on the verge of death. When he dies in Pillow World, his spirit flies through space and time and suddenly he emerges from the Pillow Fort in Ooo, once again a fourteen year-old boy. He tries to tell Jake about the weird dream he had when suddenly Flame Princess calls to tell him that she finally got his joke and though it was funny. When Finn hangs up the phone, he no longer remembers the dream.

This was another really strange episode, but it’s also a pretty good one.

Going into it, I didn’t think this episode was going to be anything that great. I thought it was going to be one of the more forgettable ones, and in some ways it sort of is. I mean, I don’t see myself wanting to rewatch this one too many times, but I did enjoy it.

The way this episode plays out, with Finn living an entire lifetime in a different world while time barely passes in his own world, is very reminiscent to the Narnia books, particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Pevensie children enter Narnia as children and live there until they’re adults, then find their way back to our world where they’re suddenly children again, and it seems like barely a second has passed, like they were never gone at all. I’ve always loved that idea, that you could spend hours or days or even years in a separate world and then go back to your old one like no time passed there at all. There’s something kind of beautiful yet also eerie about it. It’s especially eerie the way it happens to Finn. He literally lives the rest of his life in Pillow World and dies there, and it’s only then that he comes back to Ooo. He had a loving family and a good life and a peaceful death surrounded by loved ones, and then suddenly he’s back in Ooo, and he quickly forgets everything that happened. It’s kind of tragic.

Rating: 8/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (All the Little People/Jake the Dad)

Hey everyone, when you’re done reading this go watch Agent Carter if you haven’t already. And then, even if you don’t like it, tell everyone you know to watch it too. I know this is random but seriously, you must watch it.

Kay, now on to the review.

The episode begins with a Finn and Jake at a cliff side looking at a sunset, while they talk about relationships. Finn is wondering whether or not it’s better to date someone with a personality similar to yours or someone who is your opposite. Jake says that love isn’t about compatibility or science, it’s about the “pumps-n-bumps” in your heart. It’s a cute conversation, actually. Finn then asks Jake whether he thinks BMO and Ice King would be a good couple, which perplexes Jake and makes me think that Finn is a shipper. I guess that’s something we have in common. As they’re talking, Magic Man is spying on them. He pulls out a bag and says an incantation: “Do as thou’st will be the whole piece of law”. He then says “I’m not coming back” and slips the bag into Finn’s pants.

Finn and Jake walk home, still jokingly debating whether or not Finn’s ship could be canon, when Jake notices the bag and asks Finn what’s in his pants, which causes Finn to say, “What?! Not again!” Hm. Finn then sees the bag and reaches inside it, pulling out a miniature version of himself, Jake with his viola, Princess Bubblegum, and some other characters. The miniatures appear to be alive, which makes Jake suspect some kind of dark magic, but Finn thinks the miniatures are fun and wants to take them home.

At home, Finn removes the important characters from the bag and leaves what he calls the “C-list” people in the bag. He starts playing around with the miniatures, and you know what they remind me of more than anything? The Sims. The way Finn plays with them is reminiscent of the game, and the miniatures even speak in gibberish like Sims do. Finn has the mini!Ice King and mini!Jake play their instruments together, which upsets the real Jake but he does admit that they have chemistry together. The word “chemistry” makes Finn start to think as he watches the miniatures interact with each other.

That night, he starts experimenting with the miniatures. He tries putting two together and watching romance blossom between them, then switching out a character to see the drama unfold. That’s pretty messed up, but anyone who has played The Sims knows that messing with your Sims in awful ways is a lot of fun. Then again, these miniatures are actually alive, aren’t they? Though I’m not sure how much control Finn has over them. It seems like all he has to do is put two of them in front of each other before they start making out. Well, anyway, the next morning, Jake comes over to see what Finn is doing with the miniatures, and he finds out that mini!Lady Rainicorn and mini!Jake have broken up, and that mini!Lady and mini!Finn have started dating. Jake is freaked out by how much Finn has been messing around with the miniature’s relationships, and he announces that he’s going to stay at Lady’s until he can get over all of this.

Finn continues playing with the miniatures, making mini!Finn start a relationship with mini!Flame Princess, which breaks mini!Lady’s heart. Then he adds mini!Bubblegum into the mix, who starts a relationship with mini!Finn as well and results in a fight between her and mini!Flame Princess. Girls, don’t get mad at each other, get mad at the guy who cheated. For the first time, Finn actually seems disturbed by what he’s done.

Jake returns sixteen weeks later to find the Tree Fort a mess and Finn still in the same spot. Finn is distressed because he thinks he’s ruined the miniature’s lives and wants to explain to them that he was the one responsible for everything that happened to them. However, he’s not even sure if the miniatures are aware of him or their surroundings. The miniatures seem to exist on a level different from Finn and Jake. They can be seen by Finn and Jake, but they can’t see or hear Finn and Jake themselves, and the world as they see it looks very different from their actual surroundings. That’s interesting. Finn starts trying to reach his miniature somehow and he discovers that he can be heard if he speaks to the miniatures while shaking them. Kay. So he shakes the miniatures and explains what he did to them and tells them that he’ll never mess with them again. He tells them “I’m not coming back”, just like Magic Man did.

Oh yeah, and mini!Ice King and mini!BMO start hitting it off without Finn’s interference, so I guess that answers Finn’s question.

This episode can be interpreted in a couple of different ways.

There’s the obvious connection to The Sims. I’ll assume that everyone reading this has played the game or is at least familiar with it. It’s one of those games that I don’t think I would describe as fun, but it is definitely addictive. It’s a great game for wish-fulfillment purposes. It allows us to create different scenarios and characters and personalities, we can experiment with it, we can create anarchy with it, we can do anything we want. It’s basically letting us play god, but there are no real-world consequences. Still, I wonder why a lot of the time all we end up doing is finding creative ways to kill our Sims or to mess with them in some way. Does that say anything about us?

There’s also the connection to fan fiction and shipping. I think shippers get a bad rep, but it is undeniable that there are certain elements of shipping that can be… problematic, let’s just say. First of all, it’s noteworthy that shipping is the main cause of drama and fighting within fandoms, which is kind of funny to me. People will fight about which ships are better, people will fight about which ships are canon, people will fight about whether or not ships should exist for that fandom at all, and all of these fights are completely ridiculous. But there are also some legitimate concerns in regards to certain types of ships. Incest ships are generally considered taboo and yet they still exist. Then there are ships that realistically would just be unhealthy or abusive, and there are often discussions about whether liking these ships is unethical and sends a bad message. I’m not going to go into the politics of shipping too much because we would be here for hours, but let’s just say it’s all very complex.

Another way to interpret this episode is as Finn’s sexual awakening. Finn is around fourteen now, right? That means he’s probably starting to go through puberty, or will be soon. Finn has shown interest in romance already, of course. He had a crush on Bubblegum for a long time and now has a relationship with Flame Princess. However, Finn has always expressed his interest in “innocent” ways. He has a very idealistic view of romance and has never shown much interest in physical intimacy. This episode shows him wanting to explore relationships more, particularly physical aspects of one. He experiments with the miniatures, putting them together and watching their interactions that usually end in physical intimacy, and he seems fascinated by what he sees. I can remember being around Finn’s age and having a similar fascination with romantic and especially sexual relationships, but since I was still quite young the subject also made me very embarrassed and giggly, and there was a lot that I didn’t really understand. Still, I was curious, and I spent a lot of time thinking about what I thought they were like, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it was around this age that I started to get really into shipping and fan fiction. Hm.

I think this episode may be a combination of all of these things. A combination of Finn enjoying playing god and of him wanting to explore relationships and romance and sexuality, and him doing so through what is essentially shipping. There’s nothing wrong with curiosity and at Finn’s age it’s totally normal, but he also gets too carried away with his ideas and experiments and ends up doing some damage both to himself and to the miniatures. I think it is just a result of Finn’s immaturity, and how having interest in romantic and/or sexual relationships isn’t the same thing as understanding them and it definitely isn’t the same thing as being able to handle them in real life.

Rating: 8.5/10

In this episode, Lady Rainicorn gives birth to her puppy-Rainicorn things.

They’re pretty cute, I have to say. Their names are Charlie, Jake Jr., T.V., Viola, and Kim Kil Whan. Jake Jr. is the one with no eyes, but it’s not really explained why she doesn’t have eyes. I’m going to assume that the damage was caused when Ricardio tied Lady in a knot and threw her against a wall while she was pregnant. Anyway, it’s cute how much Jake loves his puppies. He tears up with happiness just looking at them. Aaaaw! He also decides that he should live with Lady and the puppies now that he’s a dad.

Jake is extremely protective of his puppies. He won’t even allow himself to sleep at night, he insists on watching the puppies all night, and then wakes them up just to make sure that they aren’t already dead. The next day (when the puppies have already grown significantly), he reads them a book, his childhood favorite, “Baby Eating Fox and the Baby”. The book is apparently about a fox eating some babies. Presumably the babies escape in the end (at least I hope so??), but we don’t find out because right around the part where the babies get eaten, Jake starts to get freaked out by the contents of the book and says to himself, “This is a lot darker than I remember!”

That line made me laugh pretty hard, and it’s something I can relate to. Story time! Two years ago, my aunt adopted two kids. They’ve just turned three and four. Since I’m a huge fan of Disney movies, my aunt asked me a while back if I could recommend some good movies for her kids to watch. The thing is, though, these kids have been through a lot and while they’ve been making a lot of progress, they can still be scared and triggered quite easily. So basically, any movie that has a character death or anything dark that might scare them was out of the question for now. I didn’t think that would be a problem, but then I started thinking about it and I realized that I literally couldn’t think of a single Disney movie that didn’t have a character death and/or something “dark” that might scare them.

Although, even before then, I had noticed that a lot of things I liked as a kid impacted me more when I watched or read them again as an adult. Like when I read A Series of Unfortunate Events about a year ago for the first time since I was a kid, and I found Count Olaf scarier than I remembered him being. I think it’s because I have a better understanding of certain things as an adult. As a kid I knew Count Olaf was the bad guy who was after the Baudelaires’ money, as an adult I really understand the extent of his cruelty and depravity. And it’s not just about finding things “dark” or scary, it’s just… everything seems to mean more to me as an adult. SpongeBob is much funnier to me as an adult. Harry Potter is more complex and less black-and-white to me as an adult. Though sometimes having a better understanding doesn’t make it better. As a kid Eowyn from Lord of the Rings seemed like a feminist hero, as an adult I was disappointed to find that there’s a lot that’s problematic about the way her story is written and she isn’t exactly what I thought she was. Nothing is ever the same as an adult, for better or worse.

This is getting way off topic now. All this to say I relate to what Jake was feeling. Moving on.

Jake throws away the book because he finds it too inappropriate, and then Lady suggests that he take the kids outside for some fresh air. The idea scares Jake, but he does it anyway. He puts the kids on leashes to take them outside. The whole putting-kids-on-literal-leashes-when-outside thing has always seemed super weird to me, but I’m not a parent so maybe I shouldn’t judge. Also in Jake’s case his kids are actually puppies (ish?) so it makes more sense. ANYWAY, Jake won’t let the kids stray too far and they basically aren’t allowed to do anything but walk straight ahead with him. However, Jake is so tired from staying up all night that he falls asleep, and the puppies (who are magic just like their parents), are able to teleport out of their leashes (I’ll assume teleportation is an ability they got from their Rainicorn parent).

Lady calls the babies back inside but Jake, still asleep, gets left behind. Some foxes show up and think that Jake is a baby, so they decide they want to eat him. Jake wakes up as he’s being dragged off but is too tired to fight back. The puppies show up again wanting to help, they ignore Jake when he tells them to go back inside to safety and they quickly defeat the foxes together. Jake realizes that he’s been way too protective of the kids and decides to loosen up.

A few days later, Jake returns to the Tree Fort. Turns out the puppies have grown incredibly fast. Okay then, I sort of figured they’d find a way to have Jake live at the Tree Fort again anyway.

So, this episode’s point is obvious. You can’t be too protective of your children. You need to let them have some freedom and independence. I think that’s a pretty common mistake that parents or anyone can make. It always feels like kids need to be protected from everything, but shielding them forever is only going to do more damage than good in the long run. There needs to be a balance. You need to know when to protect and discipline your kids and you need to know when to let them be free and possibly get hurt. Kind of a weird lesson to have in a show for kids, though I guess parents will likely be watching along with their kids?

I do think it’s a cop-out to have Jake and Lady’s kids grow up so fast. I understand why they’d want to do that, as keeping the puppies around would change the dynamic of the show too much and writing in characters that are babies or really young kids tends to ruin shows, but then again, why have Lady get pregnant in the first place if it’s only going to impact one episode?

Rating: 6.5/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 5 (Five More Short Graybles/Up a Tree)

This is another episode with five short stories, all connected by a certain theme that we’re supposed to guess. I was actually spoiled for the theme this time so I didn’t get a chance to try and guess. Not that I would have guessed the theme anyway. Did anyone guess the theme on their own when they watched this?

Anyway, the first story is about Finn and Jake trying to activate a spell that involves sticking their thumbs into random objects, including a pie. Not sure what the spell does. The second story is about Marceline looking for a certain music store to buy a guitar that plays “the most savory looks in Ooo”. She meets a giant who points the shop out to her, but his arm is so long that she can’t see where he’s pointing. She grabs onto his finger and tells him to point again, which he does, and she rides his finger to the store. The third story is about Tree Trunks meeting someone who makes a rude gesture to her, so she goes to the police for help. When they prove to be useless, she takes matters into her own hands, but then discovers that the person she’d seen was a statue, and Shelby the worm was sitting on its middle finger so that it looked like… yeah. The fourth story is about Ice King marrying his foot. No comment. The fifth story is about BMO talking to zir reflection again, teaching it how to sip tea.

The theme that connects these stories? The five tastes. Finn and Jake had the pie that was sweet, Marceline wanted a guitar that played “savory licks”, Tree Trunks says that incident left a sour taste in her mouth, Ice King cries tears that are salty, and BMO says that the tea is bitter. I would definitely not have guessed that theme. Interestingly, there’s an alternate theme for this episode that gets brought up: the five fingers. Finn and Jake use their thumbs, Marceline rode the giant’s pointer finger, Tree Trunks thought someone was holding up their middle finger at her, Ice King puts a ring on his ring finger, and BMO holds zir pinky up when drinking the tea. I wasn’t spoiled about the alternate theme, and it’s one I actually might have guessed if I hadn’t already known what the theme was supposed to be. Oh well.

So, I guess Season 5 is following in Season 4’s footsteps, by having a dramatic premiere and then following it up with an episode that’s essentially about nothing. It’s just a few of the characters going about their day and that’s pretty much it. It’s actually a pretty good way to balance out the drama from the previous episodes.

Like the last episode like this, there isn’t really a whole lot to say. I like episodes like this, where we just get to see characters doing stuff without there necessarily having to be a bigger story. It’s not something I’d want to see all the time but I would be fine with maybe one once per season or something. But things like this also aren’t something that lend themselves that well to reviewing. It’s just… cute. Yeah, that’s a good word for episodes like this. They’re cute. There’s just not a whole lot to say about them.

Kudos to this show for getting away with the middle finger joke, though. This show really does get away with a lot.

Rating: 7/10

This episode begins with Finn, Jake and Lady Rainicorn (who is visibly pregnant now) going on a picnic. Finn and Jake decide to play a game of Frisbee, and when Finn tries to make the “perfect throw” he accidentally tosses it onto the top of a very, very tall tree. Jake offers to stretch up and get it, but Finn refuses and tries to get it himself.

He starts trying to climb the tree but can’t get a good start on it. He meets a porcupine who suggests that Finn sit on him and that the shock will cause Finn to jump to the top of the tree. Finn thinks that’s a terrible idea and that it wouldn’t actually work that way, so the porcupine tries it by force. It doesn’t work, of course, but Finn is able to use the needles lodged in him to climb up the tree. As he’s taking a rest about half way up (it’s a very tall tree), he meets a squirrel. The squirrel suggests that Finn eat an apple to regain his energy, but Finn says no. The squirrel stuffs it in his mouth by force and it turns out the apple was cursed as it causes Finn to shrink. Finn continues to climb and eventually has to take another break. Jake stretches up to check on him but Finn still says that he doesn’t need help. Jake tells Finn that he’s going to walk Lady home and that he’ll be back for Finn later. After Jake leaves, Finn meets another squirrel and follows him into the tree after the squirrel ignores him.

Finn catches the animals in the tree whispering to each other about how they’re going to stop the human, and he also finds a pile of objects with his Frisbee at the top. Finn gets caught by the animals, who knock him out and lock him up, all while chanting “In the tree, part of the tree”. That’s just a little bit creepy. Finn wakes up in a cell that really doesn’t look like it should hold him, the bars are so far apart. Outside his cell is a squirrel.

• Finn: What are they gonna do to me?
• Squirrel: What?
• Finn: [Louder than before] What are they gonna do-
• Squirrel: I’m not allowed to talk to you. [Finn looks down] [Pause] Anyone and anything that winds up in the tree becomes part of the tree forever and ever. In the tree, part of the tree.
• Finn: So does that mean I’m a prisoner forever?
• Squirrel: Well yes. And no. Are you a prisoner? Yes. Will you ever be free? No. In the tree, part of the tree. It’s very simple.
• Finn: Doesn’t that mean that you can’t leave the tree either?
• Squirrel: No I- Well yes and no. Am I allowed to leave the tree? No. Have I already left the tree? Am I miles away from the tree right now flying around like the flying squirrel that I am? Yes! In my mind! In- my- mind! [Turns and looks wistfully out the window at the clouds]
• Finn: [Looking concerned] Do you like it here?
• Squirrel: Yeah! [Shrugging] Well, yes and no. Do I like the nuts and acorns? Yes. Do I like it when they put me down and say mean things like “You’re not a flying squirrel, you’re just a regular squirrel! Nyaah!”? No. Do I wanna fly away from this place now? Yes. Would I make a break for it if I had a buddy to break out with? Yes.
• Finn: Hey buddy.
• Squirrel: What?
• Finn: [Steps through the somewhat wide bars] Let’s get outta here.

So, Finn and the weird squirrel who can’t just say what he means clearly take off, grabbing Finn’s Frisbee back on the way. They manages to get outside the tree, where Finn throws his Frisbee, thinking that he and the squirrel can just jump on it and fly away. That doesn’t work. So, as the other animals begin to catch up to them, Finn pushes the squirrel off the branch and jumps. Turns out the squirrel isn’t actually a flying squirrel, but just as it looks like they’re about to hit the ground, they land on the still-flying Frisbee and are able to glide to safety. Though Finn is still tiny. I hope he gets that fixed somehow.

I really wasn’t sure where this episode was going, if it was going anywhere.

At first, I thought maybe there would be some moral Finn about accepting help when he needs it. Then when the porcupine and the first squirrel (is it the same squirrel throughout the episode?) forced Finn to take their help with disastrous results, I thought maybe there would be some moral about how good intentions are not always helpful and how literally forcing your help on someone may not be appreciated. Then the episode kind of just… went nowhere.

Basically, this is a filler episode. It doesn’t go anywhere, there’s nothing that remarkable about it, and it feels pointless even as you’re watching it.

As far as filler episodes go, I didn’t find this one too bad. I found the squirrel that Finn escaped with pretty funny, and the animals in the tree were generally amusing. It’s an okay episode. Forgettable and probably not one I’d watch again, but it’s okay.

Rating: 5.5/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Seson 4 (BMO Noire/King Worm)

This episodes begins with Finn missing one of his socks and arguing with Jake about whether or not the latter did something with it. BMO hears the argument and decides to solve the case of Finn’s missing sock to stop him and Jake from fighting. From this point on, the episode is black and white and it basically just follows BMO while ze (I’m never totally sure which pronouns to use for BMO, let’s go with these for now) imagines zirself into a film noir type scenario. It involves zir playing a detective and interacting with household objects, cats, a chicken, and Neptr. Not sure where the cats and the chicken came from. I won’t recount everything that BMO imagines, but long story short the sock was in Finn’s pillow the entire time.

Okay, so, this episode doesn’t really have any, like, character development or even much of a story or anything that would be interesting to talk about, so instead I’m just going to make a list of the things I liked about it and the things I didn’t like about it.

Things I liked

• Parodying film noir
• BMO is cute
• Neptr! I really like Neptr. I feel so sorry for him, he’s always getting the short end of the stick but he doesn’t even seem to notice. He’s so upbeat and loving and innocent regardless.
• I like the idea of BMO using the sock incident to just let zir imagination go wild and have some fun. It reminds me of the kind of thing I would do when I was kid.

Things I didn’t like

• It was kinda boring

I guess whether or not you like this episode probably comes down to whether or not you think BMO can carry an episode, and while I like BMO I don’t think ze can, for the same reason that LSP can’t. But still, this is a pretty cute episode, so I don’t dislike it.

Rating: 6/10

Finn wakes up to find himself in Princess Bubblegum’s castle, sitting on a throne next to her. Bubblegum is calling Finn her husband and king. Aside from the obvious weirdness of the situation to begin with, there are a couple of other things that appear odd. The ears of Finn’s hat are longer than usual and the Banana Guards watching over Bubblegum and Finn seem to be upside down. On Bubblegum’s shoulder is a green worm that Finn thinks he recognizes. Bubblegum whispers to Peppermint Butler that Finn doesn’t know he’s dreaming. Finn is confused as the scene suddenly changes. He’s now sitting across from Flame Princess in a forest, as she tells him to eat the soup in front of him. He eats some of it and the scene changes again to the Tree Fort, and Flame Princess transforms into Peppermint Butler, who is holding the green worm. Peppermint Butler explains to Finn that he’s trapped in a dream, and to get out he needs to find the King Worm and break it. When Finn points out that Peppermint Butler is holding the worm, the worm suddenly turns into a spoon.

Finn notices Jake and Lady Rainicorn in another room through a window, though that room appears to be upside down. Jake looks normal, but Lady has two mouths and is speaking English in a deep voice. One of her mouths spits out tape that Jake is using to wrap a gift. Lady tells Jake to play his viola, but the instrument and the bow are weirdly bent. When Jake tries to play it, a music note comes out, and the note turns into the worm, which then crawls away into a hole in the wall. Finn runs into the room and starts to talk with Jake. The two discover that they’re in a linked dream together, so they team up to find the King Worm. Jake explains to Finn that because this is a dream, that means Finn is capable of doing anything he wants, but if he lets his subconscious fears get in the way, it will fall apart. Finn and Jake shrink down so that they can crawl through the hole that the worm disappeared into.

After encounters with Ice King (who refers to them as Fionna and Cake, ha!), some monsters, and raining Lumpy Space Princess (hallelujah?), Finn and Jake finally find the King Worm and break it, causing the dream to fade away. They wake up in their Tree Fort again and ask each other if they’re okay. The ears of Finn’s hat are still longer than usual, and the more he examines his surroundings the more he notices that things are not quite normal, despite Jake repeating that everything is fine. Jake had pinched Finn upon “waking up”, but Finn never pinched Jake back. When he tries to do so, Jake backs away from him. When he does catch and pinch Jake, it causes Jake to melt, so Finn knows that he must still be dreaming. The King Worm appears and tells Finn that he’ll never be allowed to escape the dream, the King Worm is going to keep him there and consume all of his life energy. Finn voices his fear of being stuck in the dream and the ceiling starts to crack, which causes Finn to remember what Jake had told him about his fears causing the dream to fall apart. So Finn starts to think about all of his deepest fears and insecurities, which include the ocean, the Lich, Bubblegum telling him he’s too young, and other such things. Eventually the worm shrivels up and the dream shatters, setting Finn free.

Have I ever mentioned that I’m really fascinated by dreams? When I was a kid, I had a bunch of books on dream symbolism and I would try to analyze my dreams all the time, and if somebody shared one of their dreams with me you bet I was ready to analyze it, usually to their annoyance. I don’t do that anymore, but I’m still really fascinated by them and could talk about them for hours.

What I like about King Worm is that I think it’s the most realistic depiction of a dream that I’ve seen in a cartoon. A story about being trapped in a dream isn’t exactly something new, especially in animation, but I rarely find the dreamscapes in these stories to be accurate to my own dreams. I know that sounds like a weird thing to say because everyone’s dreams are different so it would be difficult to create something that everyone feels is an accurate depiction, but I don’t think dreams really vary that much from person to person, or at least not in a way that makes it impossible for their to be a universally relatable interpretation. Does that make sense? Just bear with me for a minute. While certain elements of dreams may differ depending on the person, a lot of them are also really similar. Actually, some dreams are even common, like how nearly everyone has had nightmares about falling or going to school and forgetting something important. The dreams might not go the exact same way, but it’s basically the same dream, because we all have similar experiences and fears and insecurities that seep into our subconscious. But anyway, back to what I was saying. Even with dreams that aren’t necessarily common, I think a lot them follow a similar pattern.

The thing that usually makes these dream-centered stories inaccurate, in my opinion, is that they put too much focus on being weird. Dreams are often weird, we can all agree on that, but I think we can also all agree that they’re not weird in the “WHOA WACKY RANDOM STUFF THROWN IN YOUR FACE CONSTANTLY” way. They do follow a kind of logic and order, they’re just very surreal. Sometimes they’re actually really close to reality, but with just a few small details that are wrong or out of place, and what’s interesting is that those details are often consistent from dream to dream. Have you ever noticed that everyone seems to have some strange common element in their dreams? For example, in my dreams, I can never dial a phone properly. Every time I try to make a phone call in a dream, I mess up the number and have to try over and over again and I never get it right. I’ve had people tell me that in their dreams they can never turn on a light, or they can never read, or mirrors are always distorted. Little things like that.

I like that King Worm shows us the surreal world of the dream in smaller ways, not just by showing us constant craziness. There are tiny details like the ears of Finn’s hat being longer, and then we have other, bigger details like rooms being upside down but otherwise normal, Ice King calling Finn and Jake by the wrong names, Jake’s viola being bent in a weird way, Lady’s appearance and voice being altered, or Finn’s reflection not looking right in the mirror. The only really wacky things that happen are Lady having a mouth that spits tape, raining LSP and Gunter turning into a monster, but those aren’t given much focus. That makes it seem much more like a dream that someone might actually have, and it’s actually more unsettling because it’s so close to reality and yet so unlike it. I also like the point about how fears and insecurities effect what happens in the dream, because that’s also very accurate. It doesn’t take much to turn a normal (well, you know, “normal”) dream into a complete nightmare.

Speaking of turning dreams into nightmares, note that the dream only gets really weird and trippy once Finn starts purposefully filling it with his fears. This makes a lot more sense than if the dream had been this way from the beginning, because it seems as though King Worm’s goal is to keep Finn ignorant as long as possible, he’s not supposed to know it’s a dream. Once Finn realizes that he’s dreaming, it all starts to fall apart. Finn can make whatever he wants happen in the dream, but he doesn’t seem to have any control over it once it does, so that’s when things get bizarre and trippy and start to come apart, like a lucid dream gone horribly wrong. Which is exactly what it is, of course. Another thing is, those really wacky things I mentioned before, like the raining LSP and the Gunter monster, those things happen more the closer that Finn and Jake get to King Worm, and even in the second dream things got weirder once he appeared, so it seems as though King Worm’s presence is what really distorts the dreamscape, otherwise it seems normal enough unless you pay close attention.

All of this to say that the dreamscape in this episode was surprisingly realistic. It’s nice to see a story about a dream that actually feels like it’s a dream, and not just abstract craziness for the sake of it or poor attempts at foreshadowing and character development. There are a lot of ways that dreams can be badly incorporated into a story (I won’t go into all of them because that would make this review much longer than it already is), and it’s annoying to see. Adventure Time of all things actually seems to have a better understanding of how dreams work than most media.

Rating: 8/10

Adventure Time Reviews: Season 4 (Princess Cookie/Card Wars)

This episode starts with a hostage crisis in the Candy Kingdom. No, really. Princess Bubblegum, Finn and Jake are outside a store with some Banana Guards, trying to negotiate with the hostage taker, a cookie. Bubblegum is offering him a cowboy hat in exchange for the hostages, but the cookie refuses, telling her he’ll settle for nothing less than her crown. Bubblegum is about to order her Banana Guards to arrest the cookie, but Finn and Jake offer to stop the cookie instead. Jake wants to disguise himself as a mailman to sneak in, but Bubblegum makes him dress as a milkman instead, to Jake’s disappointment. Finn dresses in all black, and the two of them go into the store.

The cookie asks who Jake is, and Jake tells him he’s a milkman who has been tasked with delivering milk to all of the hostages. Somehow the cookie buys this and allows Jake inside, allowing Finn to follow. The two soon discover that the cookie has backup. His backups are chocolate chips, which came off his body and apparently have a life of their own. That’s mildly disturbing, but okay. Finn sneaks away to take out the chips while Jake stays with the cookie. Jake talks to the cookie and tries to find out why he wants Bubblegum’s crown, so the cookie tells him.

• Cookie [voiceover]: I was the new guy at the Candy Orphanage. They called me Baby Snaps. I tried to make friends with the other kids…
• Baby Snaps: [dancing] C’mon, guys, let’s dance it up!
• Cookie: They were always too depressed to play.
• Candy Child: No, no. We’re too depressed.
• [Baby Snaps stops dancing and sits on the couch, depressed.]
• Cookie: Things went on like that for a while, then… one day… [Peppermint Butler opens the door to the orphanage for Princess Bubblegum] she showed up. [The candy orphans laugh and dance around the chair in which Princess Bubblegum is sitting and reading “Baby Whoozlefut & the Wuttlebugs” aloud.] Everything was different.
• Princess Bubblegum: …a thunderous cheer [turns page] as Baby Whoozlefut…
• Cookie: Everything was-was better with her around. And something inside me changed that day, too. And then later she told me I could be anything I wanted.
• Princess Bubblegum: Anything your sweet heart desires!
• Cookie: And I told her I wanted to be a princess like her, so I could make all the children happy.
• Baby Snaps: [on Princess Bubblegum’s lap] I wanna be a princess like you!
• Princess Bubblegum: [stifles a giggle]
• [Baby Snaps’ smile changes to a shocked frown.]
• Cookie: And she laughed in my face, man! It really messed me up.

Okay, but all Bubblegum did was giggle, dude. It’s not like she threw her head back and laughed and pointed at you and said, “Wow, check out this loser who wants to be a princess, like that will ever happen!” All she did was giggle because she thought it was cute. If a kid told me they wanted to be a princess, I’d probably react the same way she did. Chill out. I get that you sort of need to be careful about what you say or do around kids because they can be really sensitive about weird stuff, and since cookie obviously looked up to Bubblegum and saw as her as the one bright spot in his life, of course he’d be extra sensitive when she’s involved. I do sympathize with the cookie, but he still needs to chill out.

As a side note, I think it’s super cute that Bubblegum takes the time to visit orphans and make their days better.

Anyway, Jake sympathizes with the cookie, and suggests that he leave the Candy Kingdom to start his own kingdom that he can rule. The cookie likes this idea, so Jake asks Bubblegum to give cookie a horse so that he can leave the kingdom, promising that the cookie won’t return. Bubblegum refuses, though, and says that because the cookie is a dangerous criminal, he needs to be thrown in the dungeon. So, when the cookie comes out, Jake turns himself into a horse and runs off with the cookie on his back. Bubblegum send her guards after them (Finn follows as well), but as Jake and the cookie near a gorge, the cookie tells Jake to stop.

• Jake: Princess Cookie! Are you all right?
• Cookie: I’m done for, Jake.
• [The banana guards get closer.]
• Jake: No, everything’s gonna be fine. I won’t let them put you in the dungeon. Just let me talk to them. [runs off]
• Cookie: No, Jake.
• [Jake stops and turns back.]
• Cookie: Thank you for your help, but it’s too late for me. [stands up]
• [The banana guards are shown crossing the river.]
• Cookie: I’ll never be a princess. At least for a moment, you helped me feel like a princess. It was wonderful. [sheds a tear] Thank you, Jake.
• [Cookie takes a step back and a piece of dirt crumbles under his foot and falls into the ravine.]
• Jake: Careful, Princess!
• Cookie: You know what? It’s funny, but you sort of remind me of a mailman I used to know.
• Jake: [softly] I do?
• Cookie: Yep. [lets himself fall backwards into the ravine]
• Jake: [looks over the ledge] Princess!

Well.

The cookie doesn’t die, he’s just smashed to pieces. I don’t know if that’s more or less disturbing. We next see the cookie in an institution, put back together and wearing a straitjacket. Jake comes in and gives the cookie a crown while Bubblegum and Finn watch on. The episode ends with everyone bowing down to the overjoyed Princess Cookie.

That was a weirdly dark episode. We have a mentally unstable cookie taking hostages and threatening violence over a crown, and then later trying to commit suicide. I like how they put him in an institution, where he can actually get help, instead of in the dungeon, though. And the ending with Jake bringing him the crown was kind of sweet. I suppose it makes sense that Jake would be the one to sympathize with the cookie, since he apparently has a past as a criminal as well. Their interactions were surprisingly cute.

By the way, I noticed Goliad and Stormo in the background. That was awesome.

Rating: 7.5/10

This episode encapsulates many of the different ways that gaming with friends can go horribly wrong.

The episode begins with Jake sighing sadly over a box in his hands. Finn asks him what’s in the box, and Jake tells him that it contains the cards to a favorite game of Jake’s, Card Wars. Jake is upset because Lady Rainicorn doesn’t want to play with him anymore because he always beats her, leaving him with no one to play with. I actually really sympathized with Jake here, because this is exactly what happened with me and my friends when it comes to fighting games. I always beat them, so they never want to play with me anymore. It sucks, because I really love fighting games and they’re much more fun when you have someone to play with. So, I know how Jake must feel. Finn says that he would like to play the game even though it’s not really his thing, just to make make Jake happy, so the two set up snacks and prepare to play. Jake asks BMO if he wants to play too, but BMO says rather ominously, “I do not play such games… with Jake.”

Finn and Jake decide on the stakes of the game. Jake takes two cups and writes “cool guy” on one and “dweeb” on the other. He fills the “cool guy” cup with soda and the “dweeb” cup with a disgusting concoction of soda, coffee grounds, beetle butter, grape jelly, kimchi, and Ham Chunk Juice to one. The loser has to drink from the “dweeb” cup. Oh goodness, I remember doing something like this with my friends once. We were playing a game and, when one of us lost, the other players would take three ingredients to make a disgusting mix that the loser had to eat a spoonful of. One of my friends threw up. We don’t play games this way anymore. Anyway, Jake starts to explain the rules to Finn and Finn falls asleep. When Jake realizes that Finn fell asleep and missed most of his explanation, he says that he’ll have to start over, but Finn insists on playing the game anyway, and so they begin.

Okay, so, I thought I knew where this was going. I figured that because Finn wasn’t paying attention, he would lose and then hate Jake and the game, just like Jake suspected. But that’s not what happens. Finn wins the first couple of rounds. He’s kind of kicking Jake’s ass, actually.

Oh man, has something like that ever happened to you? Introducing someone to something you think you’re good at, only to have them be much better than you at it, whether it’s just “beginner’s luck” or a natural talent or who knows what? That’s a terrible feeling, isn’t it? You know, I’m a really competitive person. Like, really. But not in the sense that I’m a sore loser or a bad winner, just in the sense that I love competition and challenging myself. I don’t gloat when I win (or if I do, I make sure the other person knows it’s entirely in good fun) and I don’t get too upset when I lose. I just like to compete, that’s all. There’s only one situation that really makes me a sore loser, and it’s the one I described earlier. That’s a crappy feeling, being beaten by someone who barely knows what they’re doing at something you’re supposed to be good at. What’s worse is that you know it’s not the other person’s fault and you really shouldn’t be mad at them, but you can’t help it. Sympathizing with Jake here is pretty easy, but it’s also really easy to sympathize with Finn, because I’ve been on his side of the situation too. It’s not fun to have someone be mad at you because you’re beating them at something they insisted on showing you to begin with. Basically, both sides of this situation sucks. It’s a sucky situation.

Anyway, as the game goes on Jake gets angrier and more aggressive, which starts to worry Finn. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom so he can get away from Jake and find BMO.

• Finn: BMO! Jake’s acting banununununus!
• BMO: Oh, no! Are you winning the game of Card Wars?
• Finn: Yeah!
• BMO: That’s terrible! If Jake loses the game, he gets super depressed! When I beat him, he wouldn’t talk to me for a month!
• Finn: What?! I only played so he wouldn’t be bummed!
• BMO: Finn, you must take a dive.
• Finn: Okay, I’ll try. But… I’m a Card Wars super Amadeus!

Oh. Oooooh. So, this episode is actually just about Jake being an incredibly sore loser. Yeah, I have lots of experience with people like that. I never take a dive, because… integrity or something? I don’t know, but I never take a dive no matter how sore the other person gets. Then again, it’s not like I have to live with the sore loser, so Finn’s probably better off taking a dive. Jake pulls Finn back to the table and demands that he play his turn, and Finn takes BMO’s advice and loses intentionally. Finn congratulates Jake on winning even though Jake isn’t exactly a gracious winner. Jake gleefully hands him the “dweeb” cup, but his enthusiasm quickly dies when he realizes that the drink might be too gross for Finn. Finn drinks from the cup anyway and claims that it’s actually good. This prompts Jake to take a sip of it as well, but he spits it out because it’s disgusting. Finn jokingly calls Jake a dweeb, and the two take turns sipping from the dweeb cup.

Right, so, I really loved this one.

I’m note sure if everyone would love this episode as much as I do, but I loved it because it’s so relatable for me. It’s a great parody of trading card games like this, and how overly competitive some people can get, and how playing games (no matter which type of game it is) with friends can be both wonderful and a complete nightmare.

Thing is, there’s overly competitive in the fun way and there’s overly competitive in the oh-Glob-I-hope-this-doesn’t-wreck-our-friendship way. The funny thing is, when my friends and I are screaming insults at each other and threatening each other and gloating and being completely obnoxious… that’s when I know we’re okay. That’s when I know that none of us are taking this seriously and it’s all in good fun. The louder we get, the safer we are. It’s when we’re quiet that I know there’s a problem, and that at least one of us is going to walk away from the game pissed. And not the funny, over-the-top pissed that’s obviously meant as a joke, I mean like actually pissed.

When this episode started, I think Finn expected them to be overly competitive in the fun way, and that is what it looks like at first. But it doesn’t take long for it to turn into the bad kind of competitive. Jake seems to not be interested in teaching Finn to play the game slowly, he seems to be interested in winning and being able to gloat about it. He also seem to not actually be that good at the game himself, if he’s getting beaten by Finn and BMO, and I think it’s a safe bet that Lady Rainicorn was losing on purpose too. People like Jake are not good people to game with. Finn just wants to have fun and doesn’t really care about winning or losing, which is why it’s so upsetting for him when Jake starts to get too angry.

On the other hand, I can understand why Jake would react this way to Card Wars in particular. The game is obviously really important to him, whereas Finn doesn’t care much about the game either way. I think we all have a tendency to be weirdly protective and competitive when it comes to the things we love. We want to be as knowledgeable as we can be on the the things we love and we don’t take kindly to being made to feel like maybe we don’t know as much as we thought we did. Jake loves Card Wars, so he feels it’s important for him to be good at it, which is why it hurts when he loses.

There’s a lot of ways to read into this episode and relate to it, either in good ways or in bad ways, but I like the way this episode ends, with Finn and Jake sharing the dweeb cup. That was a really nice gesture. When it comes to gaming, not everyone can be a winner, but we can at least bond over the fact that we’re all losers.

Rating: 10/10 (Yeah, maybe this score is a bit too high, but who cares? I love this episode.)