Whoever came up with the title for this episode gets a high five.
Well, since Finn’s demon blood sword is broken he now needs a new one. How many different swords has Finn had throughout the show? He buys his new sword from a mysterious figure who gives him a grass sword. Finn loves the sword, since it slices with perfect precision. In fact, when Tree Trunks sees him use the sword, she says it’s “demonically perfect” and declares the sword cursed, but Finn and Jake laugh her off. Later that night, they start to get a little creeped out by it, though. Finn has a nightmare about the sword turning him into grass and when he wakes up the sword has wrapped itself around his arm. He tears it off and dumps it in a river, and he thinks that’s going to be the end of it. Oh Finn, don’t you know anything? It’s not going to be that easy to get rid of a cursed object.
The next morning, the sword is back. See? I told you. Jake wraps the sword up so it won’t be able to attach itself to Finn and the two head out to try and return it. However, the person they bought it from doesn’t seem to be there anymore, and somehow the sword keeps attaching itself to Finn. They find out from Choose Goose (haven’t seen him in a while, he’s still a weirdo) where the original owner of the sword lives and they go to confront him. It turns out to be a grass wizard, and he tells Finn that the cursed sword will be part of him forever. Finn decides that he’s okay with this, and accepting the sword makes him able to control it.
I like stories about curses, and especially cursed objects that have a mind of their own and attach themselves (in any sense) to people. Obvious comparisons for things like this would be the ring from Lord of the Rings or the Horcruxes from Harry Potter, but unlike those objects, the grass sword doesn’t seem particularly malicious. Ever notice that it never actually hurts anyone that Finn fights (aside from monsters)?Well, okay, it did get pretty aggressive about wrapping itself around Finn at first, but it calmed down once Finn decided he was okay with the sword. I like the idea that accepting that the sword is part of him now makes it easier for him to control it, and fighting it just made it worse.
Of all of Finn’s swords, I think the grass sword is my favorite one yet. For one thing, I like that fact that it stays wrapped around his arm most of the time, and he can summon it whenever he needs it. Usually his sword is just stuck in his backpack, or it comes out of nowhere. At least now we can see where it’s coming from, and it also looks far more convenient.
I also like the demonically perfect precision of it. Who knew grass could be so bad ass? (Actually, I knew. Grass is my favorite Pokemon type and people always laugh at me for it. But I knew Grass was awesome. I knew it. Hey, speaking of Pokemon, there’s actually a Grass-type move called Leaf Blade, and it’s a good move too. This had a point but I lost it.)
Anyway, good episode, Finn’s new sword is cool, not much else to say.
Rating: 7.5/10
Finn feels like he’s been slacking on his duty of protecting/helping Princess Bubblegum, and to make up for it he becomes way too over-zealous. He ends up annoying Bubblegum and exhausting himself, so Bubblegum tells him to give himself a break. He wanders around for a bit and ends up in a junkyard where he starts playing around with his new sword. While doing so, he almost gets crushed by a falling car, but he’s rescued by a hooded swordsman. It turns out to be some kind of gumball machine, but it looks different from the Gumball Guardians, who introduces himself as Rattleballs. Rattleballs tells Finn that he has a “warrior’s spirit” but his swordsmanship is terrible. Finn wants Rattleballs to train him and after Finn helps him unlodge a gumball that was stuck in his throat, he agrees.
I was a bit confused by Rattleballs’ criticisms at first, because I was under the impression that Finn was a good fighter, but then I realized two things:
Finn probably does need some practice with his new sword, which is really different from any other he’s used before.
Finn probably has never had any formal training, so he may be decent but he probably would look amateurish to an expert like Rattleballs.
After training Finn (which involves a lot of egg-throwing for some reason… if you can dodge an egg you can dodge a sword?), Rattleballs tells him how he got to be in the junkyard. Centuries earlier, during the Candy Kingdom’s humble beginnings, Bubblegum had created an elite group of gumball robots (did they come before or after the Gumball Guardians?) to replace the incompetent Banana Guards. The robots were great at their job, but they were also ruthless and had an insatiable love for violence. They became too dangerous to have around, so Bubblegum had to destroy them. Rattleballs was the only one able to overcome his programming and realize what was happening, and he managed to escape. He’s lived in the junkyard ever since. That’s… actually really tragic. A race of robots who were programmed for to be ruthless, but ended up being too dangerous for anyone’s good and so had to be destroyed. And it’s done so quickly, with none of them realizing what’s going on. This and the episode about Shoko make me really curious about the beginnings of the Candy Kingdom.
Rattleballs asks Finn not to tell Bubblegum he’s still alive, but Finn does so anyway because he’s vowed to serve her. Bubblegum goes to the junkyad with some Banana Guards to destroy Rattleballs and Rattleballs defeats her Banana Guards easily, though he doesn’t kill them. He then tells Bubblegum: “I no longer crave mindless violence. I have found peace in meditation, gardening, egg throwing. I also hope time has made you less bloodthirsty, princess, but do with me as you will. In my heart I still serve you, 100%.”
He hopes time has made Bubblegum less bloodthirsty. I’ll just let that speak for itself.
Later, Bubblegum tells the Banana Guards that Rattleballs has been destroyed. It’s then revealed that Rattleballs is still alive, Bubblegum only pretended he had been destroyed so that she wouldn’t have to go back on an order. Wait, what? Why would that matter? Has she really never gone back on an order before or something? She tells Rattleballs that he can continue serving the Kingdom in the shadows, and he replies, “Thank you, Princess. That’s marginally better than hiding in a dump.” Ha, I like that line. Bubblegum knights him and he leaves with a smile.
That ending almost got me. I thought for a second that Bubblegum might have killed Rattleballs. I mean, would you put it past her?
I still don’t get why it would be such a big deal for her to go back on an order, but I do like that Rattleballs basically becomes the Candy Kingdom’s Batman. He’ll probably do a better job of protecting the Kingdom than the Banana Guards.
I like Rattleballs a lot. I like how he’s sort of ninja-like, which is funny because he’s a gumball machine and you’d think he’d be really clunky. Not to mention all of that rattling should probably be a hindrance. Seriously, though, Rattleballs is cool, and I like that he’s basically Finn’s wise ninja-like mentor. I also love his backstory. I love the tragedy of it (it sound bad when you put it like that, doesn’t it?), and I love the morality questions it raises. Rattleballs and his race are robots, not Candy people, but how much intelligence and humanity did they actually have? When Bubblegum took them to be destroyed, she didn’t tell what was going on, and she didn’t let them see what was happening to their companions. They all just followed her orders to not look, and only Rattleballs was able to break that order. If the other robots had known, what would have happened? Sucks for Rattleballs, he has to see all of his companions destroyed and then go out and live in a junkyard. And even then, he’s still loyal to Bubblegum in the end. So just how much has he managed to overcome his programming, and how mindless were the other robots?
This episode is exactly what it sounds like. It’s about fixing a truck.
Finn and Jake have found an old truck that doesn’t work, and they want to fix it but don’t know how. They call Banana Man, the one voiced by Weird Al and whose rocket and house were destroyed by Finn and Jake, because he apparently knows how to fix a truck. So they fix it, and Banana Man thinks that Finn and Jake will be his best friends forever but I’m willing to bet that doesn’t happen. They take the truck for a ride through the Candy Kingdom and see Princess Bubblegum being chased by a mob a Candy citizens who think she’s been replaced by a lizard monster. It turns out they’re right, as “Bubblegum” turns into a giant lizard and starts terrorizing the kingdom. The real Bubblegum comes out of a sewer while Finn, Jake and Banana Man defeat the monster, but the truck is destroyed in the process. They drove the truck toward the monster, using Banana Man’s peel to make the car spin faster because apparently it runs on Mario Kart logic, and then jumped out before the truck crashed into the monster. So the monster is defeated, the truck is destroyed, and Banana Man is arrested for being naked out in public.
Soooo… do you like trucks?
Okay, but seriously, this actually isn’t so bad for an episode that’s basically about nothing. There’s no narrative, really, it’s just them fixing a truck and random things happen, but it’s kind of fun? I probably wouldn’t watch it again but it was at least entertaining enough to make it worth watching once.
I know nothing about cars. If someone asks me what kind of car I would like, I’ll awkwardly say “a red one” and I won’t be able to say much more than that. Also I’m terrified of driving. So I can’t say whether or not what they’re doing/saying in this episode is accurate. Does anyone know if it is?
Rating: 6.5/10
This episode is about Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig getting married, and the weird things that threaten their wedding ceremony. One of them is Princess Bubblegum, who Tree Trunks says has “hijacked” the wedding, having planned most of it. Bubblegum expects to be conducting the ceremony itself, but Tree Trunks tells her that the King of Ooo will be doing this instead. I didn’t know there was a king of Ooo. Bubblegum is furious and calls him a fraud, then goes to investigate and find proof of her claim. Meanwhile, BMO is unfortunately stuck listening to the complaints of Wyatt, one of Tree Trunks’ bitter ex-husbands.
Wyatt: Hey, did you know I used to be married to Tree Trunks?
BMO: No!
Wyatt: Heh, yeah… it’s just me and TT. We had some wild times back in the day. Did you know I once taught her to play tennis?
BMO: No…
Wyatt: Yep, tennis! I took her to one of those… uh… paddles… or whatever, you know!
BMO: No.
Wyatt: Yeah, she left me. She said I was stifling her spirit… I mean hehe… You know, what? Not enough tennis for ya?
Well, how can a lady resist a man who played tennis with her one time, amirite?
Also, Finn needs to stop LSP from coming to the wedding at all costs. It’s not specified why. LSP, you would be invited to my wedding for sure. Possibly as my bride.
As the ceremony starts, Bubblegum is snooping around in the King of Ooo’s blimp, and Finn encounters LSP.
[Finn hears some rustling from the bushes and gets up.]
Finn: Lumpy Space Princess? Is that you?
Lumpy Space Princess: Let me go to this party…
[A crow flies out, frightening Finn.]
Finn: It’s not your party, LSP. [tries to find Lumpy Space Princess.]
Lumpy Space Princess: Poor Finn. Don’t you know? [flies up from an old well. The wind blows the picnic mat off Lumpy Space Princess, revealing her in a wedding dress. After all, no wedding’s complete without wedding crashers…] Every party is my party.
Omg I freaking love LSP.
Honestly every single LSP line in this episode is gold and I would quote all of them but that would be annoying. Anyway, Bubblegum apparently does find some dirt on the King of Ooo in his blimp, and she crashes the ceremony. Quite literally, actually. She crashes the blimp into where the ceremony is held and basically ruins it. She reveals the King’s outdated marriage license and places him under arrest, only to find out that he has a renewed one right there with him. He asks her if she’s been looking through his stuff, and she nervously says this:
This might be my favorite Bubblegum line, honestly.
Tree Trunks stands up to Bubblegum, which results in all of them being sent to jail. Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig decide to simply have their ceremony in the cell, though the King refuses to do it. He tells Tree Trunks, “You can perform your own dang ceremony,” before escaping the cell. They realize that the King (whether intentionally or not) has given Tree Trunks permission to conduct the ceremony herself, and she does. Bubblegum, who is watching everything on a monitor, is so touched by this that she orders the guards to set everyone free. We end the episode with this:
Tree Trunks: Looks like we got the whole place to ourselves… if you know what I’m saying.
Mr Pig: Wait, d-don’t you think there might be cameras down here?
Tree Trunks: I hope so…
Tree Trunks is so kinky.
All right, so, I actually enjoyed this episode, but I think it’s one of the not-so-popular ones? I’m not entirely sure because I don’t spend a ton of time in the AT fandom aside from looking at Bubbline fan art since I’m still trying in vain to avoid spoilers as much as possible. But I think I’ve heard/seen people express dislike for this one fairly often? Or at least, I’ve seen/heard a lot of dislike for Bubblegum in this episode. Which, um…
Yeah, let’s talk about Bubblegum for a minute.
I may have a tendency to get really defensive of Bubblegum, partly because she’s my favorite and partly because I’m always particularly defensive of female characters that I like. I won’t go into why that is right now, but let’s just say after being in fandoms for so many years I have good reason to be. Still, as much I love Bubblegum and as much as I always want to defend her, I do understand that she’s not a character everyone is going to like. I don’t think a character that’s universally liked even exists, for one thing, and I can see how Bubblegum in particular may be difficult to like for some people.
To be completely honest, though, Apple Wedding was the first episode where I thought, “Wow, Bubblegum is kind of an asshole.” It’s kind of funny, because it’s not like this is the first episode where she’s done something morally questionable or mean or anything like that. It’s just, in all of those other episodes I found it much easier to understand where she was coming from and sympathize. Even in Wizard Only, Fools. I always understood her and what her goal was (which was usually about the greater good), and while that doesn’t mean what she was doing was any less mean/wrong, I never thought “she’s an asshole”, you know what I mean?
This episode, though? Yeah, she’s being an ass here. She’s still my favorite, but what is up with her in this episode? As I’ve said I generally don’t have a problem with characters acting like jerks if it’s in character, and in fact it’s usually when I think they’re the most interesting, but I don’t really get why Bubblegum is acting this way here? I get that she dislikes the King of Ooo for being a fraud, whatever that means, and he does say some suspicious things during the ceremony. So that’s one thing, I guess. But why does she care so much about doing Tree Trunks’ ceremony? From what TT said early in the episode, Bubblegum basically took control over the wedding plans and TT didn’t seem happy about that. Does Bubblegum just like controlling things and being in charge? And why arrest everyone at the wedding? Is it because she doesn’t like being proven wrong and went overboard? It’s hard to say what I think of Bubblegum in this episode because I’m not sure what her deal is exactly.
Anyway, aside from all of that, I really liked this episode. I actually think it’s of the funnier episodes of this show. There are a lot of great lines and character moments that had me laughing (again, every LSP moment was gold), and it was just really well-written comedy.
Another Fionna and Cake episode! YAAAAAAASSSSSSSS!!
Like the last one, this has Ice King reading his weird Fionna and Cake stories to some unwilling participants, this time to four princesses in cages. The story he tells them involves himself saving Fionna and Cake from Doctor Prince and Fionna asking to be Ice King’s best friend. The story is interrupted by the princesses who say that the story is terrible. Ice King defends his story by saying that it has everything that could possibly want: action, adventure, and “hot older guys” (he points out Wildberry Princess in particular for having a thing for Silver Foxes, though she just looks horrified). The princesses suggest that the story would be better if it were more realistic, or if there was some romance added in to it. That’s when Marceline suddenly appears. She’s apparently been hanging around invisibly for a couple of hours. She opens the cages that the princesses are held in and says that she has a way better story for them, which they all want to hear.
Marceline’s story starts off with Fionna complaining about how the missions Prince Gumball gives her are often boring, when suddenly Gumball himself comes in with a plate of pink cream puffs. He says that he baked them as a reward for Fionna’s last mission, but she declines the gift. Suddenly a noise startles them and a blur passes by, stealing all of the cream puffs. Another noise is heard on the roof and Fionna wants to investigate. She, Gumball and Cake go outside (Cake is in her hat and Gumball has an umbrella because neither of them wanted to go out in the rain… Gumball is also on Fionna’s back for some reason) and find Marshal Lee on the roof. Marshal Lee is Marceline’s genderbent counterpart. He says hello to a flustered Fionna and says an exaggerated hello to an annoyed Gumball. After being taunted and having a cream puff thrown in his face, Gumball decides to go back inside, telling Fionna to do the same if she wants some more polite company. Marshal Lee then invites Fionna to a party thrown by Lumpy Space Prince in the woods, and off they go.
When they get there, Lumpy Space Prince (who has the exact same voice as his female counterpart) has Marshal Lee perform a song. He and Fionna sing together, and these are their lyrics.
Marshall Lee: Good little girl,
Always picking a fight with me.
You know that I’m bad,
But you’re spending the night with me.
What… do you want… from my world?
You’re a good little girl.
Fionna: Bad little boy.
That’s what you’re acting like.
I really don’t buy
That you’re that kind of guy.
And… if you are…
Why do you want to hang out with me?
Marshall Lee: Don’t you know I’m a villain?
Every night, I’m out killing
Sending everyone running like children?
I know why you’re mad at me.
I got demon eyes… and they’re looking right through your anatomy,
Into your deepest fears.
Baby, I’m not from here,
I’m from the Nightosphere. To me, you’re clear… transparent.
You’ve got a thing for me, girl. It’s apparent
Hm. Fionna tells Marshal Lee that he isn’t so bad, and Marshal Lee replies “Not so bad? I’m the son of a demon… and the Vampire King. It’s not something I have to try at. You on the other hand…”. Fionna says that she isn’t trying to be bad, she’s just hanging out with Marshal Lee because they’re friends. Marshal Lee wonders if it’s the same as her friendship with Gumball and Fionna says it’s different. The two then start to fight playfully but Cake breaks it up when it seems as though Marshal Lee is taking things a bit too far. Marshal Lee pushes Cake away and this angers Fionna. She takes Cake in her arms and leaves the party while Marshal Lee follows, telling her that he was kidding and she should lighten up, to which Fionna replies, “Look, I don’t care if you’re being a jerk to me… but nobody messes with Cake.” So Marshal Lee grabs Cake and takes off with her, telling Fionna to come and get her.
Marshal Lee takes Cake to a graveyard where he summons an army of undead for Fionna to fight. While she’s fighting them, Marshal Lee reiterates (in a rap) that he is bad. Disgusted, Cake enlarges herself and begins to fight him. Fionna eventually defeats that skeletons and pulls Cake away from Marshal Lee, which causes him to fall over onto a spear sticking out of the ground. To make matters worse, the sun starts to come up. Cake stretches herself over him so he won’t burn, but things aren’t looking good for him. He wants Fionna to admit she loves him before he dies, which just confuses her because seriously, why is he insisting on this now, after everything that he did?! Fionna is apparently of the same mind: “I-I get that you flirt with me all the time, and it’s funny or whatever, but you’re doing that now?! [Fionna’s voice begins to break and starts to tear up.] What are you trying to do to my head? You think I’ve got some little crush on you? Well, for however long we’ve got left… FOR ONCE, DROP IT, YOU FREAK!” I love Fionna. Marshal Lee then reveals that he wasn’t really stabbed, his shirt was just filled with cream puffs. So Fionna punches him in the face. Good call. Marceline’s story ends here, and the princesses all agree that this was a much better story, to Ice King’s annoyance.
So, it’s pretty clear what this episode is trying to do. Marshal Lee is the archetypical “bad boys” and Fionna is interested in him because of that.
First, let’s talk about this “bad boy” thing. This belief that girls are into bad boy is a common one, but the thing is, it’s not really true in the way people think it is.
I always feel a little uncomfortable when people say things like “girls love bad boys” or “girls always go for jerks” and not just because it’s a generalization. I don’t like the condescending tone it’s almost always said in, like we girls are just too silly to know what’s good for us. I don’t like how more often than not the ones perpetuating this idea are petulant “nice guys” who aren’t actually that nice themselves but need something to blame for why they can’t get laid. I don’t like how people are implicitly putting the blame on girls for “going for jerks” instead of putting the blame on the guys who are acting like jerks. I don’t like how it manipulates girls into thinking that guys being jerks is what they’re supposed to find attractive, and how it allows guys to think that being jerks to girls is fine because it’s what they want anyway. There’s just a lot that’s wrong with this mentality, so I don’t really like the constant perpetuation of it.
Do girls like bad boys? Some of us, sure, but like I said, it’s not in the way that most people think. It’s not that we actually like bad boys, we just like the fantasy of a bad boy. That’s a very important distinction and one that seems to go over people’s heads a lot. That’s why the whole bad boy appeal applies almost exclusively to fictional characters. Most of us know deep down that we wouldn’t want someone like this in real life (those who haven’t will hopefully figure it out), but that doesn’t mean we don’t like the idea of it. You’ll notice that villains and antagonists in stories tend to have a lot of fangirls, but how many girls do you know in real life who honestly are attracted to bad people? It’s important to realize that what’s attractive in a fictional character is not the same as what’s attractive in a real person. An appealing fantasy is not necessarily a desirable reality.
So why is the bad boy an appealing fantasy at all? Well, there’s a couple of reasons, and it can vary from person to person, but here are some of the more common reasons.
The “I Can Change Him” Mentality. This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the idea that even if the guy in question is horrible, you can be the one that fixes him. You can be the one that makes him come out of his shell, you can be the one that gets him to see the light, you can be the one that changes his view of the world, you can be the one that makes him reform. He’ll change just for you, because he loves you that much. It’s a stupid mentality, yes, and one that would be extremely dangerous in real life. But it does make for a nice fantasy. The idea of being the center of someone’s world and the one special thing in it is a powerful and romantic one, but it’s not something that’s applicable to reality, and deep down we know that. We know it won’t happened this way and we probably wouldn’t really want this anyway, but it is nice to fantasize about.
The Draco in Leather Pants. You’ve probably seen the term “Draco in Leather Pants” before, especially if you’re familiar with TV Tropes. This trope got its name from Harry Potter fan fiction. A few years back, it was extremely popular for HP fan fic writers to romanticize and woobie-fy Draco Malfoy (maybe it’s still popular, I haven’t red HP fan fic in a while). It was also popular to make him him wear leather pants for some reason, hence the name. Anyway, the trope refers to a character who, in canon, is antagonistic or evil, but has been given an inappropriate amount of sympathy from fans, who interpret them as “not all bad”. They’ve come up with all kinds of reasons to feel sorry for the character and explain away their bad behavior, whether or not these reasons have any basis in canon, and basically think that the character really is a good person deep down. This usually goes hand-in-hand with the I Can Change Him Mentality, it’s this idea that the bad boy isn’t really bad, just tragic and tortured (“tragic/tortured” is also attractive to a lot of girls for similar reasons as the bad boy archetype), and they just need someone to guide them to the light.
Forbidden Fruit Angle. Once again, this is exactly what it sounds like. There’s a certain thrill to guys who are dangerous and even a bit intimidating (remember: in fantasy, not reality!), and this comes out in interesting ways in fandom culture. Just like there’s a thrill in doing something that’s forbidden, there’s a thrill in being with someone who’s supposed to be bad for you. It’s rebellious and dangerous and exciting, but, it bears repeating, it’s not applicable to real life.
Obviously a lot of this also depends on how the character is written but generally these are the more common reasons. Now let’s take a look at Fionna’s relationship with Marshal Lee.
Marshal Lee is clearly playing the role of the bad boy and even refers to himself as such. Gumball, though he doesn’t have a huge role in the episode, is cast as the nice guy – not in the Nice Guy (TM) sense but like a guy who’s actually nice. The thing is, though, Fionna just isn’t interested in Gumball that way. He doesn’t excite her, and for someone as adventurous and active as her that’s hard to get around. Nice isn’t always enough. Marshal Lee, on the other hand, is not nice at all, but he is exciting. He’s not the sort of boy who will bake you cream puffs, he’s the sort of boy who will take you on wild adventures, and right now that’s what Fionna wants. She wants the danger and thrill, but she also wants to think that Marshal Lee can be more than what he is. She’s convinced that he’s not all bad, but he’s given her no reason to think so and actually insists that she’s wrong. Of course, Fionna eventually learns that Marshal Lee is bad news and a relationship with him really isn’t what she thought it would be.
Basically, the episode got it down perfectly. There is a certain charm and allure to guys like Marshal Lee, but they’re not the kind of guy you’d want to be with in the long run.
Bless this show.
Also, can we just get a Fionna and Cake spin-off? I would watch the hell out of a show about them being awesome and spreading positive messages to girls.
Rating: 10/10
This episode begins with Finn and Flame Princess hanging out inside the Tree Fort. Jake is making tea on the stove, when suddenly Flame King appears from the fire and starts to whisper to Flame Princess that she’s evil. Then he realizes that Finn and Jake are there and that he was mistaken in thinking that Flame Princess was alone, so he leaves. Flame Princess tells Finn that her father has been doing this to her for a while, and she’s worried that she really is evil as he says. Finn reassures her that she isn’t, but she’s still not totally convinced. So he suggests they find a dungeon, since going through them always help to clear his head.
They find a dungeon and since this is Flame Princess’ first time in one, Finn does his best to show her the ropes. He gets a torch, even though Flame Princess points out that she’s made out of fire so the torch is pointless. The two of them soon come across a skeleton, who Flame Princess is keen on burning, but Finn stops her. He tells her violence should only be used as a last resort, and they should first try other methods of getting past it. He incapacitates the skeleton by intimidating it and then forcing it to do the splits. The skeleton points out a treasure chest in the corner, but when they investigate they find that it is locked. They continue on and eventually do find a key, so Finn insists they go back to the chest despite Flame Princess’ protests. The key doesn’t work. Finn isn’t discouraged but Flame Princess is starting to get bored.
Have you ever shown someone a game you love only to have them find it boring or just not get it? Or made someone listen to a song you love and they don’t like it? Or shown someone a video or movie you thought was hilarious but they don’t laugh once? And the whole time you’re telling them that it’s about to get great, that the good part is coming up, that you swear it’s awesome, damn it, but you’re slowly realizing that this was a huge mistake. This episode reminds me of situations like that.
Anyway, Flame Princess and Finn keep going and they come to a vault with a keyhole. Finn had Flame Princess open it with the key and a winged skeleton comes flying out and attacks Flame Princess, demanding that she take its place in the vault. Flame Princess burns it and the vault. Finn chastises her for doing so but she tells him that he keeps forcing her to do things his way and it’s boring. So Finn agrees to let Flame Princess do things her way from here on out. Flame Princess’ way involves burning everything. Finn is uncomfortable with this but doesn’t say anything. At one point, Flame Princess is attacking a large skeleton that has Finn trapped in its arms. Burning the skeleton would hurt Finn as well, so she uses his tactic to defeat it. Finn is relieved and tells Flame Princess that he was afraid she would burn him, but she says that she would never do that to her boyfriend.
Later, after they’ve exited the dungeon, the two are trying to open the chest they’d seen earlier with a bunch of keys they found inside the dungeon.
Flame Princess: Ha, thanks Finn. That was a really awesome experience.
Finn: Dungeons totes clear your head, right?
Flame Princess: [Agreeing] I forget how good it feels to destroy stuff.
Finn: [Confused] Uhhhh…..
Flame Princess: I mean, like evil stuff.
Finn: Oh yeah, cool.
Flame Princess: We should go again sometimes. Do you know any other dungeons?
Finn: Maybe next time we should just go to like… a farmer’s market.
Flame Princess: And burn it.
They finally find the key to open the chest and inside it is… I actually don’t know what it is. Maybe we’ll find out, maybe we won’t, who knows with this show.
Flame Princess needs more episodes.
What’s funny to me about this episode is that Finn seems disturbed by Flame Princess’ violence, but Finn can be violent himself. He loves to fight and he has no qualms about killing when it’s necessary, like with monsters or anything evil. Flame Princess loves to destroy stuff, evil stuff in particular, yet something about her methods is more off-putting.
Part of it may just be that Finn has never doubted that he’s good and that what he’s doing is good, Flame Princess can’t say the same. She doesn’t want to be evil but she’s not totally sure that she isn’t, and as much as Finn says otherwise he doesn’t seem sure about her himself. Flame Princess also probably doesn’t completely understand the differences between good and evil yet. When she got out of the Fire Kingdom, one of the first things she did was try to burn down an innocent village. That obviously wasn’t good, but I don’t think she knew that at the time. She was just thinking about what she needed and wanted. Finn seems to have influenced her a bit, as she’s now more concerned about good and evil, but she’s still confused, and she’s not the same type of person Finn is.
Another part of it is that Flame Princess is a lot more volatile and less disciplined than Finn is. I mean, Finn isn’t exactly the most levelheaded individual and he can definitely be impulsive, but he does try to find nonviolent solutions to things when he can. If it’s not necessary for him to use violence he’ll avoid it, and he spends a lot of time thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. Flame Princess doesn’t care. If something poses a threat, her first reaction is to burn it. She revels in it and she isn’t exactly concerned about who gets caught in the crossfire (pun not intended). Her violence is more chaotic and less controlled than Finn’s.
So, what does this mean for her? Can she really be good?
This post will be going over any kind of world-building that the show has had so far.
During Volume 2, Rooster Teeth released some videos called World of Remnant, which were expository videos about certain things in Remnant that the audience didn’t have a full understanding of, like Dust, the kingdoms, and Grimm. (There’s also one about Aura on the DVD but I don’t own the DVD and therefore haven’t seen it, so let’s leave that one out for now.)
The World of Remnant videos got mixed reactions. Some thought that they were lazy and reeked of bad writing, because this information should be shown to us in the actual show, not in side videos. Others were just grateful to get the exposition at all. I’m in the second group, but I do understand where the first group is coming from.
Exposition is one of the hardest things about writing. You need to explain you world and ideas to people, but your can’t just dump the information at their feet. When writers don’t know how to do it subtly, we get awkward, unnatural explanatory dialogue or long monologues (usually from villains) so that the audience can understand what’s going on. It’s uninteresting and it gets made fun of and called bad writing, and it is bad writing, but at the same time I can’t help having a bit of sympathy for writers who do this, especially when I know that they’re still sort of new at it. Because as an aspiring writer myself, I know how hard it is to write in exposition.
Let’s look at Harry Potter as an example. J. K. Rowling used monologues to explain backstories or plot points way too often. Just about every book ends with Dumbledore sitting Harry down and explaining what has been going on for the last 500 pages, which I appreciated the first time I read the books because the info dump helped me as much as it helped Harry, but on rereads it’s much less welcome. Prisoner of Azkaban has two and a half chapters that are nothing but everyone standing in a room spouting exposition and they’re very boring to read if you already know all of it, but I digress. The actual world-building, however, is done very well for the most part. Since Harry is new to magic at the beginning of the series, we get to learn and experience everything with him. Most of it is done just by having Harry see it with his own eyes, no explanations required, and when he does need something explained to him, it’s usually done in a pretty natural way. Nearly everyone else around Harry has grown up in this world so it’s all common knowledge to them, and they act like it. When Harry has a question, everyone is surprised that he wouldn’t know the answer already, and the answers they do give aren’t always that helpful because they’re dependent on Harry having prior experience with magic.
With RWBY, things have to be done a bit differently. Remnant isn’t some world hidden away within ours, like the wizarding world in Harry Potter. Remnant is the world in this show. All of the characters have grown up in this world so everyone already knows what’s up. There’s very little reason for characters to ask questions about Dust or Grimm, at least not basic ones that we would need, because it should just be common knowledge. Well, fine, there was the scene where Pyrrha explains to Jaune what Aura is, which is just another reason why Jaune clearly should not be at Beacon at all, but in general we don’t get a whole lot of exposition on Remnant because there isn’t a reason for the characters to get it.
It should be noted that Miles is actually infamous for his info dumps, hence the “Miles Luna Info Dump” thing that gets talked about a lot in the fandom. Miles is a good writer, but the MLID is an example of how he’s still quite amateur-ish in a lot of ways. He needs to learn not to rely on info dumps so much, and RWBY might be a good way for him to do that. I mean, there has already been some info dumping about character’s backstories, but it’s relatively better than it was in Red vs Blue. When it comes to world-building, though, there’s no easy way to convey this information to the audience in the show without it being incredibly forced and awkward, so they decided to put it in separate videos. Yeah, it’s a cop-out, but hey, we have a slightly better understanding of the way Remnant works. Plus the videos have a beautiful art style, so you know, at least they’re pretty to look at.
Others criticize WOR for being too vague and not actually being that helpful, but I don’t know, I thought they offered some good insight without being too heavy-handed. Another criticism is that WOR is strangely male-coded, in that the figures in the video all have distinctly male forms and they mostly use male titles in the video, like “man” or “Huntsmen”. Yeah, I think that’s a valid criticism, especially given RWBY’s… history. There’s this idea that male pronouns and titles are gender neutral and universal whereas female pronouns and titles only apply to women and are always “othered”, and RT just fell into this with WOR. I don’t think it was conscious, these things rarely are, but it is worth pointing out all the same (and more often than not the fact that it isn’t conscious is the problem). What I found especially jarring in the WOR videos was the constant use of “Huntsmen”. In the show, “Huntsmen” is the male title while “Huntress” is the female title, and my understanding was that “Hunters” was gender neutral and the general, non-specific title for that line of work, so constantly hearing only “Huntsmen” and never “Huntress” or “Hunters” was weird to me.
Now, let’s get to the actual content of the WOR videos.
The one about Dust is the most vague one, which might be because Dust is a mysterious substance even to the characters in the show or it might be because the writers don’t totally understand it themselves. But basically, what we learn about Dust is this:
It’s a natural substance, seemingly some form of elemental magic.
It comes in four different forms and each has unique properties.
They can be combined to form different, stronger types, also with unique properties.
It can be wielded in its raw form, but this takes a great deal of discipline and skill as it can be dangerous.
It can be made into ammunition, so fighters can insert different cartridges in their weapons to achieve the effects desired. This is the most common and efficient way of using Dust.
There are other more “archaic” methods of using Dust, one of which is weaving it into clothing.
Another method is fusing it with their own bodies, and the ominous tone of the music while this was said makes me think that this is a really dangerous and “dark” way of using Dust.
No one knows where Dust comes from.
Dust is going to fuck Remnant up.
So, okay, now we know some basic information about Dust, the rest can be shown to us in the show itself. And it has been already. We’ve seen Cinder sew Dust into her clothes to great effect, and we’ve seen how Dust can be combined with people’s Semblances. That’s a pretty good start. Weiss uses Dust when she fights and she’s also heiress to the biggest producers of Dust in Remnant so we could probably find out a lot about it from her. We’ll see.
What we learn about the kingdoms is much simpler. We know that there are four of them: Vale (the primary setting of the show), Vacuo, Minstral, and Atlas. There are other smaller cities outside the kingdoms and some people in Remnant live a nomadic life, but it’s safest to be in the kingdoms. Interestingly, three of the four kingdoms seem to be along the equator. The exception is Atlas, which is in the far north. We know that Atlas has a huge military, which implies that life in Atlas in more dangerous. This makes sense, Atlas is the only kingdom in the north and maybe we can assume that Grimm are more dangerous in the north, or that there are more of them. Maybe living along the equator, for whatever reason, is safer. That’s a possibility, right? And that’s something we can learn in the show, maybe during one of their classes at Beacon or something, since something like that might not be immediately obvious to everyone living in Remnant.
During Volume 2, students from other kingdoms started arriving in Vale for the upcoming tournament, which could be a good excuse to get some exposition on other kingdoms if RWBY interacts with students from outside of Vale, and since characters may not know a lot about kingdoms they don’t live in it would be okay for them to ask questions for our benefit. Really, exposition about kingdoms (assuming that any other than Vale will become important) should be pretty easy to get.
Finally, we have the video on Grimm. We already know a bit about Grimm from the show. They’re vicious creatures bent on destruction that don’t have a soul and they inhabit various parts of Remnant. From the video we learn that no one is sure exactly where Grimm came from. Some believe that they’re the spirits of once tortured animals, or that they’re animals possessed by evil spirits, but no one is sure. Doing research on Grimm is difficult because they tend to die in captivity or kill their captors. They don’t seem to require feeding but they do eat humans if they can get their hands on them. They rarely attack animals except in territorial disputes, but they will attack humans on sight. They’re drawn to negative emotions like fear, anger, hatred, sadness, envy, and so on, sort of like Dementors, I guess.
Basically the video on Grimm made them sound much more terrifying than they were ever shown to be in the show.
Grimm haven’t had much presence in the show so far, strangely. There was that big fight with the Nevermore and the Deathstalker in Volume 1, and then two short fights (Weiss’ in class and Jaune’s with the Ursa). Volume 2 ends with a Grimm invasion in Vale that gets taken care of relatively quickly in a very lackluster finale, and there are Grimm that RWBY needs to fight during their shadowing trip but they’re small ones that are also taken care of easily. That’s pretty much it. Considering that the Red trailer, which was the very first trailer, featured Grimm throughout most of it and the fact that RWBY is training to fight them, I kind of thought Grimm would be more important or at least have more presence. Mind you, the Red trailer doesn’t seem to have much to do with anything as far as I can tell so… yeah.
Okay, wait, there was another significant scene with Grimm in Volume 2. Ruby and Dr. Oobleck see these things from a distance during their mission in Mountain Glenn.
They’re elephants! I love elephants!
Okay, not elephants. They’re “Goliaths”, or so the Wiki tells me. But they look like elephants and that’s what matters. Dr. Oobleck says that these Grimm couldn’t be fought by him and RWBY alone. They’re too tough, for one thing, and also too smart. These Grimm have evolved enough to know not to attack people head-on. They’ve learned to bide their time and strike when the moment is right. Intelligent Grimm. That’s scary.
Whether Grimm will actually have some importance in the story of if they’re just plot-devices and time-fillers and cannon-fodder remains to be seen, but they do seem to be setting up something with all of this information about how older Grimm are smarter and more dangerous.
Then we have Aura and Semblances. Aura only got a WOR video on the DVD and Semblance hasn’t gotten one yet, but I’m guessing we’ll get one soon. I haven’t seen the video on Aura and the explanation of it in Volume 1 was sort of vague. From what I understand, it’s this ability Humans and Faunus have that can protect and even heal them, but Grimm don’t have it because they don’t have a soul. I’m hoping Aura is expanded on more in WOR? I’ll have to see about that.
Semblance is pretty easy to understand. It’s something all Human and Faunus have, and it’s basically just some kind of power/ability that varies from person to person. Some of the ones we know so far are Blake’s ability to make shadow copies of herself (similar to CT’s armor enhancement in Red vs Blue), Ruby’s super speed, Pyrrha’s magnetism powers, and how Yang gets stronger the more she gets hit.
Weiss’ Semblance is a topic of debate in the FNDM. Weiss is more of a mage than her teammates, and she often fights using glyphs that have poorly defined properties. She also uses Dust more than her teammates do, and that’s where things get confusing. What’s her Semblance and what is just the result of Dust? From what we’ve seen, she’s able to use the glyphs to propel herself and jump off of and she uses them very well when she fights, but we’ve also seen her use ice against her opponents a lot, and fans are confused as to whether the glyphs are her Semblance and the ice is just Dust, or if it’s the other way around. We’ve seen Glynda use glyphs too, but we’re all pretty sure Glynda’s Semblance is telekinesis. Weiss’ Semblance is just confusing.
Anyway, as mentioned before, Semblance’s can be combined with Dust and the effects are interesting. Blake’s fight with Roman at the end of Volume 2 shows it off quite well.
How did Weiss survive the chainsaw attack?! I mean I’m glad she’s not dead but… how? Whatever, the thing I wanted pointed out was how Blake used Dust to enhance her Semblance. Her shadow copies can be turned into stone or to ice, be made explosive, and she could probably do all kinds of thing that we didn’t get to see because Roman’s really not as much of a bad ass as he thinks he is and he was defeated in like thirty seconds. How cool is it that Blake can do these things with Dust, though? I wonder how other Semblances can be combined with Dust.
Remnant is still a confusing place, but it’s less confusing than it was. They need to work on being able to present this information to us in the show, but until then I’m okay with it coming in separate videos. I just want to get the information somehow.
Finn and Jake are in a swamp because of reasons when a creature that I think is a tadpole comes out and asks for their help. The tadpole takes them to his village and explains that they keep being attacked by the “Mega Frog”. Finn and Jake agree to help and are given a bag of lollypops in return. They set off to find the Mega Frog, using the lollypops to mark their trails, but they soon run out and get lost. Jake tries stretching himself over the trees to find the way out of the swamp, but it’s too misty for him to see anything. Suddenly they hear something that Finn thinks is the Mega Frog. They find a large mound and attack it, thinking it’s the Mega Frog, but it turns out to be a giant nest. The actual Mega Frog then appears behind them and chases them into a cave. Jake stretches to the Mega Frog’s size and fights him, but it isn’t long before the Mega Frog has him and starts to… “gently eat him”. It looks sort of like he’s trying to make out with Jake. Finn apparently think so too, and he realizes that the Mega Frog only wants to kiss someone. Finn kisses the Mega Frog and it transforms into a humanoid prince, who thanks Finn for breaking his curse. The prince wonders why the curse didn’t break until now because he had already kissed “just about everything [he] could get [his] lips on”. Finn tells him that to break curses like this, someone else needs to kiss him voluntarily. The prince thanks him again and flies away.
This episode is like BMO Noire in that there isn’t really much to discuss, so time for more lists.
Things I liked
The scenery. This show is usually so bright and colorful but I like it when they do darker and gloomier artwork. It looks good and it makes for great atmosphere.
The prince’s transformation scene at the end was pretty funny, though I do think it dragged a bit.
That bit with Jake making signals at Finn that the latter doesn’t understand at all. It’s a cliche joke but I have to admit it pretty much always makes me laugh, perhaps because I’m really bad at reading signals and lip movements and stuff like that so I can relate to the character’s confusion.
The way that Finn figures out what the Mega Frog wants is pretty funny.
Things I didn’t like
Boring.
Yeah, I think that about covers it.
Rating: 4.5/10
The episode begins with Ice King searching his room for his Demonic Wishing Eye. Gunter comes in and tries to get Ice King’s attention, but she only manages to annoy Ice King. Finally, Ice King decides to go to Wizard City and buy a new wishing eye, warning Gunter not to break anything while he’s gone. Instead, Gunter breaks every bottle in sight, then reveals her hiding spot, where her kitten offspring (I forgot Gunter hatched a kitten…) is kept, as well as Ice King’s Demonic Wishing Eye.
We next see Finn waking up to find the Tree Fort full of green copies of Gunter. He and Jake try to make the Gunters go away but they wind up being attacked by them, until the real Gunter comes in wearing the Demonic Wishing Eye and breaks two bottles. Finn demands to know where Ice King is, thinking that he’s the one behind this, but Gunter just leaves, the fake Gunters following. Finn and Jake go outside with them and discover that the entirety of Ooo has been conquered by the Gunters, except the Candy Kingdom which they are currently headed for. Finn and Jake rush to the Candy Kingdom’s aid.
While this is going on, Ice King is in Wizard City trying to find out where to buy a Demonic Wishing Eye. After a failed attempt to hit on Huntress Wizard (whose design I absolutely love, holy crap), Ice King walks into a store where he hears some other wizards discussing some secret, resulting in Ice King being attacked.
Back to Finn and Jake. Finn calls Princess Bubblegum, who tells Finn that her Banana Guards and Gumball Guardians are ready to defend the Candy Kingdom. Jake tells her this won’t work so she asks if they have another plan. Finn says that he does have a plan, but then refuses to tell her what its, to her annoyance. Then he hangs up on her, prompting Jake to ask Finn what he’s doing exactly.
Jake: You’re not gonna tell her the plan?
Finn: No, I gotta be mysterious.
Jake: What? I thought you weren’t into Bubblegum anymore.
Finn: I’m not. But this is how I act now with all the ladies, you see? I keep ’em in a state of confusion. That way, I’ve always got options in case Flame Princess doesn’t work out.
Jake: OH MY GOSH! Where is this coming from?!
Finn: It’s called “future farming.” I read it in that book you have by Jay T. Doggzone.
Jake: Jay T. Dogg—awww, dude! Don’t read that book! It’s gonna mess up your brain. I keep that book around for laughs. It’s all really bad advice.
Finn: Oh, okay. I’ll stop it, then.
Jake: No, well… you can still be mysterious—that’s fine.
Finn: What? Now I’m confused.
Jake: [Arriving at the Candy Kingdom] Never mind—I didn’t say nothin’.
I love this exchange for a couple of reasons. One, I like how the awful advice Finn got is from the same source that Ice King got his awful “swing at every ball” advice from. Two, I like it when Jake acts like a big brother to Finn the way he does here. Three, I like that Jake keeps a book full of bad advice about women just for laughs. I guarantee you any book that says it can tell you how to attract potential romantic/sexual partners (no matter their gender or yours) is going to be full of terrible advice and you should definitely laugh at it.
Anyway, they arrive at the Candy Kingdom where Bubblegum (I like the way she’s designed in this episode) is preparing for battle as the Gunters approach. She commands her army to attack them and defend the Candy Kingdom, but the Gunters have no problem getting past them, even the Gumball Guardians. I swear these things are useless. Have we ever seen them actually do their job well? It’s too bad because they have such a prestigious-sounding title and they look as bad ass as giant gumball machines can look, which is surprisingly pretty bad ass, but they don’t exactly live up to their title or appearance. Well, while the Gumball Guardians are getting their asses kicked, Finn carries out his plan, which was to collect all of the bottles in the Candy Kingdom and distracts the Gunter with them. This works for about a minute, until all of the bottles are broken and the Gunters become aggressive again. Bubblegum then says that she has another plan, which is to rebuild the bottles piece by piece forever so the Gunters never run out of bottles to break and therefore won’t attack. That’s a shitty plan, Bubblegum. Suddenly, an injured Ice King shows up and sees Gunter wearing the Demonic Wishing Eye. He takes it back from her and scolds her for having stolen it, the Gunter copies disappear as soon as the Wishing Eye is removed. Well. Problem solved. I wonder why no one thought to remove it before.
This episode is basically eleven minutes of silliness, but it also brings back some stuff from past episodes, which I’d forgotten about until now.
For one thing, there’s Ice King’s Demonic Wishing Eye. We haven’t seen that since When Wedding Bells Thaw, which was in, what, Season 2? Maybe Season 1? That’s a cool throwback. There’s also Gunter’s behavior in this episode that reminds of something Hunson Abadeer said in It Came From the Nightosphere (I hope I got that episode title right). He said that Gunter was the most evil thing he’d ever seen, and since then there have been a few jokes about Gunter secretly being evil and dangerous or maybe a secret weapon of Ice King’s. Plus, Gunter’s always been weird. She hatched a magic kitten, after all. I think the idea that Ice King is the only who preventing Gunter from conquering Ooo, maybe without him even realizing this, is pretty funny.
What exactly is Ice King’s relationship with his penguins anyway? He calls all of them Gunter no matter their gender, usually he seems to think of them all as boys but he refers to the one in this episode as a girl. He treats them like subjects and servants but also like pets… but also like his children? It’s all very strange.
Well, Magic Man is back. That’s a pleasant surprise. The episode begins with him running from a four-faced being from Mars named, I shit you now, Grob Gob Glob Grod. That’s a mouthful, so I’ll be referring to him as G from here on out. By the way, when characters say “Glob” are they talking about G? Anyway, G activates a device that drains Magic Man’s powers, just as Magic Man bumps into Finn and Jake. Magic Man uses what little remains of his powers to switch forms with Jake, and then knocks out Finn. When G reaches them, he takes Jake, thinking he’s Magic Man, and takes him to Mars for a trial. When Finn comes around and realizes what Magic Man has done, he’s of course pissed. He demands that Magic Man help him save Jake, but Magic Man says that it would be impossible for him to do so. He had used the last of his magic to make the switch and now his powers will remain drained until Jake is executed on Mars, and he’s sure that Jake will in fact be executed because “[a]in’t nobody gonna pardon these crimes on [his] head.” I kind of love Magic Man. Though I don’t really understand why his powers are tied to Jake’s execution, but whatever. Finn attacks Magic Man, so the latter decides that he’ll do what he can to help… sort of.
Magic Man takes Finn to his house, which is a disgusting mess (but there is a picture of Magic Man with a woman in there… hm). Magic Man shows Finn a device that’s supposed to get him to Mars, but he says the device has never worked. Apparently, to get it to work, you need to “think stuff about people”. Kay then. Finn thinks about saving Jake and the device teleports him to Mars. Somehow Finn in still able to breathe on Mars. He starts trying to get into the dome where Jake’s trial is taking place.
Abe Lincoln: What happened, Magic? Why did you go crazy? If you had just learned to care about living things again, you could have come back whenever you wanted!
Jake: [as Magic Man] Well, you guys are missing some important details. I’m Jake the Dog! Listen! [gets on all fours] Arf! Arf! Arf! Arf!
Abe Lincoln: You sad Magic Man. Instead, you bummed around Ooo, acting like a jerk for 200 years.
Jake: Yeah, that’s true, except I’m not Magic Man!
Abe Lincoln: Now! Ready the Wand of Disbursement!
Grob Gob Glob Grod: Ready.
Abe Lincoln: Space Dome, open!
[the dome splits open with Finn on it]
Finn: Oh snap. [falls off]
Oh, by the way, the king of Mars is Abe Lincoln. I’m not even surprised anymore. So, Abe starts to explain Jake’s punishment and Jake talks about how much he would miss Finn. Abe is surprised to find out that “Magic Man” would miss someone, and that someone would miss “Magic Man”. That’s when Finn shows up and attacks G and makes him drop the Wand, which falls on Jake and immediately kills him (it also returns him and Magic Man to their usual forms). Finn is devastated and berates Abe for not listening to Jake earlier. Abe feels guilty, so he decides to bring Jake back from the Dead World. He contacts Death and strikes a deal with him. To save Jake, Abe is forced to give up his immortality. Once Jake is resurrected, Abe turns into a statue (the Lincoln Memorial, to be exact), which saddens G. Finn and Jake offer to bring Magic Man to Mars, but G says, ” No. I lost a friend. I cannot lose my brother, as well.” So Finn and Jake leave Mars to attack Magic Man, and then set free the tiny manticore that Magic Man has trapped in a bottle for some reason.
Finn: Go! Get out of here, tiny manticore!
Tiny Manticore: Whatevs. I didn’t need your pity help!
Finn: Jeez. What?
Tiny Manticore: I am the true coward. Hiding from sincere expressions like a vampire in the nude who hides from the light. Thank you, brave hero. I was freed from bottle jail, but my new prison…is shame. MY NEW PRISON IS SHAAAAME!!!
Finn: What’s he saying?
Jake: [stretches his ear back through the door] He said his new prison is shame.
What a weird way to end the episode. I like it.
This is the strangest episode we’ve had in a while, but it also has some interesting stuff in here, and a lot of it is actually kind of subtle.
I really like Magic Man. He’s so unapologetic about what a jerk he is, it’s great. I think he’s also one of the most threatening antagonists this show has. With other antagonists, even the Lich, you at least sort of know what you can expect. Magic Man is just pure chaos. He’s zany, but he’s also powerful and uncaring and sadistic, and it seems like everything he does is just “for the lulz”. He’s like Adventure Time’s version of the Joker. I’m really interested in that picture Magic Man has in his house, though. I noticed that he only told Finn where the transporter was after seeing the picture, and he sounded more subdued than usual. Obviously the woman in the picture is someone he cared about, but what’s the story? (That’s rhetorical, by the way, don’t answer unless you can do so without spoilers.)
I’m also interested in Magic Man’s brother/sister, G (yes still calling it that). I suppose G is some kind of deity, so would that make Magic Man a deity of sorts as well? Anyway, G’s design is pretty cool-looking, but I think the main reason I liked G was his voice. I love that voice. I kept expecting him to tell Magic Man/Jake that he must construct additional pylons. (Points to anyone who gets that reference. The points will be useless but still.)
That scene between Abe and Death is really interesting, too. At first, Abe offers Death a penny in exchange for Jake’s life, and Death says he won’t accept that “this time”. So, what did Abe get for a penny last time? Did he use it to save someone else’s life, or did he use it to gain immortality? When he offers up his immortality, the scene fades and we hear strange noises, including a gunshot. Obviously, this is a reference to Abe’s assassination, but what if Death was taking Abe back to when he was assassinated? As in, giving up his immortality not only caused him to die, it caused his life as an immortal to be erased entirely, and instead he died when he was supposed to? Okay, fine, I guess it didn’t happen that way because then Finn, Jake and G shouldn’t have been able to remember Abe and they clearly did. But, you know, it would have been cool.
So yeah, weird episode that surprisingly adds a bit to the mythology.
Rating: 7.5/10
Hm, a role-reversal of the Incendium title card?
We open with Finn building a new home for Flame Princess. The last time we saw Flame Princess, she and Finn were coming to terms with the fact that being in a relationship with each other meant that they would always be physically hurting each other. Now we find out that they’ve actually gone on a few dates since then? Their relationship in this episode is a complete 180 from what it was like the last time we saw it. A transition episode would have been nice. Oh well, it is good to see Flame Princess again at any rate. She thanks Finn for making her a new home and then the two are about to hug, but are interrupted by Jake. He wraps Finn in tinfoil so that he can touch Flame Princess without burning. Finn and Flame Princess hug and say goodbye, and as their walking home Finn asks Jake for some advice about dating.
Well. I think we all know what Tier 15 is. It’s obviously holding hands.
Finn is hoping to get to Tier 2 the next time he sees Flame Princess. Is he going to wrap his lips in tin foil to kiss her? When they reach home, they discover that Bubblegum has broken into their Tree Fort to collect taxes. Do they need to pay Bubblegum taxes? While Finn goes off to take a shower, Jake reveals to Bubblegum that Finn has been dating Flame Princess. Bubblegum is upset by this and runs off. We next see her running into her room and flopping onto her bed. She pulls out a diary and writes “Finn + Love + Flame Princess”, whispering to herself that she thought she would be ready for this. Uh… you okay, Bubblegum?
The next day, Finn is about to leave to meet Flame Princess when he’s stopped by Bubblegum standing in the doorway. Bubblegum tries to explain to Finn why he can’t see Flame Princess, but he leaves in the middle of her explanation. That’s rude. When Bubblegum realizes that Finn wasn’t listening to her explanation, she asks Jake to tell Finn when he gets home. Jake wasn’t listening to Bubblegum’s explanation either, as he had fallen asleep, but he assumes that Bubblegum is jealous, and that’s what he tells Finn.
The following day, Finn is watching the sun rise, using it as inspiration for a poem he’s writing about Flame Princess. Bubblegum shows up and… well…
Princess Bubblegum: Oh, well, speaking of Jake. Did he explain everything to you?
Finn: Yeah.
Princess Bubblegum: And you understand?
Finn: [Turns around] Yeah, I understand.
Princess Bubblegum: Finn, sometimes you want someone and you [puts hand on Finn’s left knee] want to kiss them, and be with them. But you can’t, because responsibility demands sacrifice.
Finn: [Finn is angered, blushing and he retaliates] What are you trying to say?
Princess Bubblegum: I’m trying to say that you’re a hero, Finn. You’re my hero. So, I’m glad you understand why you can’t be with Flame Princess.
Finn: [Still angered, stands up for himself and Flame Princess] Grr… Bubblegum! I can’t do this anymore!
Princess Bubblegum: What?
Finn: Now you like me!?
Princess Bubblegum: Finn, what are you talking about?
Finn: What am I talking about!? [Sighs and assumes] PB, I was…. geh…eh.. [Blushes] I was in love with you! Okay?! And you didn’t love me back! Now I’m ready to move on, and it’s like…rrmph!! You’re gonna build me up all over again! Well, I’m done! I’m done. [Leaves Princess Bubblegum for herself]
Even though Bubblegum didn’t really deserve that vitriol because she isn’t doing this for the reason that Finn thinks she is, I am glad he said this to her. I’m glad he acknowledged that yes, he did have feelings for her, but he was only hurting himself because Bubblegum didn’t reciprocate those feelings. Now he’s finally ready to move on, and the last thing he needs is for Bubblegum to get his hopes up again. I mean, this isn’t Bubblegum’s fault. She never meant to lead Finn on, she has always made it quite clear that she didn’t feel for Finn the way he did about her, and she still doesn’t. Finn got some wrong information, though, and the way Bubblegum behaves toward him in this scene doesn’t exactly dispute what Finn has heard. Again, it’s not Bubblegum’s fault, she doesn’t realize how her behavior might be interpreted by Finn, especially since her behavior here is really no different from how she usually is with people, but when Finn already has certain ideas planted in his head, of course that’s going to affect how he interprets Bubblegum’s behavior. Anyway, as I was saying, even if it was harsher than what Bubblegum deserved, I’m really glad Finn said something like this to her or to anyone, really. He’s loved Bubblegum for so long, he needed some closure before he could move on with Flame Princess.
Bubblegum goes to see Jake and asks him if Finn is still with Flame Princess. Jake tells her to stay out of Finn’s business, and when she asks more forcefully he yells at her “You heartless monster! Do you have any idea how much he’s cried over you?! Finn deserves to be happy, even if his bloopin’ face gets burned off! You should be ashamed! You’re sick!” Bubblegum is angered and retaliates with this:
“What are you..? This isn’t about some petty love triangle! Flame Princess is physically unstable! Her elemental matrix can’t handle extreme romance! Glob, if Finn tries to kiss her, she’ll burn so hot, she’ll melt right through the planet’s crust, down through the molten core, then she’ll be thrown back and forth by gravity until she burns out the world from the inside! Why do you think I had her father keep her locked up?!”
Whoa. Okay, a couple of things here.
That line about petty love triangles? I love that line. I have a burning hatred for love triangles.
I’m happy that Bubblegum stood up for herself here because she already got some unnecessarily harsh (albeit cathartic) words from Finn earlier and Jake’s vitriol was even more harsh and even less deserved, and it was starting to make me uncomfortable.
How does Bubblegum know that Flame Princess is so dangerous?
BUBBLEGUM IS THE REASON FLAME PRINCES WAS LOCKED UP?!
That last one certainly makes things a bit more interesting. Bubblegum was only doing what she thought she had to keep the world from burning from the inside out, “needs of the many” and all that, but I can’t help feeling sorry for Flame Princess. It’s not her fault she was unstable, and it does seem cruel for her to have been locked up because of something that might happen. Flame Princess may never have fallen in love or been kissed by someone she loved romantically, in which case she wouldn’t have been dangerous. Or at least, no more dangerous than your average fire being with violent tendencies. Still, she was locked away on the chance that it could happen. I don’t blame Bubblegum per se, she was doing what she thought was right, but something like this is a perfect example of how Bubblegum can sometimes be cold and cruel for the greater good.
Quick question, if the Flame King knew why Flame Princess had to be locked up, why did he allow her to go free and date Finn?
Anyway, Bubblegum and Jake rush over to Flame Princess’ new home, where she and Finn are about to kiss. Bubblegum and Jake are too late to stop them, and when Finn and Flame Princess kiss, Flame Princess begins to burn brightly, creating a hole in the Earth’s crust that she then falls into. Finn (whose lips are burned, as well as parts of his face) ties one of Jake’s arms to himself and jumps in after her. Jake struggles with the weight and ends up falling on the hole, sealing it shut. Bubblegum tells him to stay this way, explaining that if Flame Princess is deprived of oxygen long enough, she’ll go out. Jake asks what that would mean for Finn, but we don’t hear Bubblegum’s answer. We see Finn at the bottom of the hole, where Flame Princess has passed out. Finn revives her and Jake pulls both of them back up. Bubblegum says that Flame Princess is stabilized, meaning that they’re safe… for now. She watches Finn and Flame Princess with a sad look for a while, prompting Jake to ask her if she’s jealous.
Well, this is a good episode for Bubblegum. I really liked her in this one. I mean, I always like her, but you know. I think it’s a great episode for her because it really exemplifies the kind of character that Bubblegum is. Smart and sweet, but more of an “ends justify means” kind of person than an outright hero. She kept Flame Princess locked up for years, but she was doing it because she knew Flame Princess had the potential to destroy the world just by kissing someone. It seemed like she was prepared to let Finn die at the end, but only because it was the best way to remove the threat that Flame Princess had become. Her decisions may seem cruel, but they’re for the greater good.
I actually have a lot of sympathy for Bubblegum. It can’t be easy to be in her position. She’s the sole leader of a kingdom where most of the citizens are childlike at best and idiotic at worst. She’s the smartest person in Ooo (that we’ve seen) and a lot of the time seems to be the only one who can think logically. She’s trying to keep everyone safe, and that’s not an easy job, especially in a place like Ooo where there never seems to be a day that isn’t wild. Finn might be more heroic and the one who actively does the fighting and saving and all that, but Bubblegum has a responsibility to protect people in a different way. She has to make a lot of tough decisions and she has to make them quickly, she can’t worry about whether every action she does is “right” like Finn would, she has to think about whether the result of those actions will keep people safe in the long run, whether the action itself is “right” or not. Of course not everyone is going to appreciate what she does, not everyone is going to agree with her decisions, but those decisions keep people safe. They might make her unpopular, they might make her seem like an asshole, she probably won’t get so much as a “thank you”, but she’s doing what she thinks is best, and if anyone else was in her position I don’t think they would do any better than her.
In a way, this episode is a bit uncomfortable to watch, because I think Bubblegum is treated rather unfairly throughout most of it, but it was also a lot of fun for me because Bubblegum herself is pretty awesome in it.
This episode is about spiders, which both terrify and fascinate me. Finn and Jake get stuck in a web and these two giant spiders show up. The spiders are a married couple and they spend most of the episode arguing while Finn basically acts as their marriage counselor. At the end of the episode the wife tries to eat her husband in anger. So I guess she’s a black widow.
Oh, how I wish it was that Black Widow.
Anyway, suddenly her back bulb bursts, revealing an egg sac. The egg sac bursts open as well and thousands of little spiders shower down on everyone and this is literally my worst nightmare. The two spiders are happy that they’re parents and I guess their marital problems are solved? For the record, having children to save a marriage is a terrible idea.
Yeah, so, I didn’t really like this episode. To be honest, about halfway through I got really bored and started browsing Tumblr in another tab for a bit before I realized I should be paying attention to the episode. So that probably says a lot.
I did like that joke at the beginning about Finn’s fingernails. That was funny. And I also liked when the two bugs who were trapped in the web with Finn and Jake told the spiders that they should just break up for their own good. I don’t think we were supposed to agree with them, but I did agree with them. If you’re that unhappy in a relationship, just break up. It’s better for everyone involved. But I guess divorce is kind of a taboo subject on kid’s shows, or any show really, so we can’t have that even if it probably would be the better option.
Anyway, yeah, I think I’ll be skipping this episode on rewatches.
Rating: 3.5/10
Finn and Jake go to visit Tree Trunks in the hopes that she’ll make them some apple pie. When they arrive at her house, they find her with Mr. Pig, who we last saw in Apple Thief and who apparently never left Tree Trunks’ house. He confesses to Finn and Jake that he’s in love with Tree Trunks, and Finn convinces him to tell Tree Trunks that. He does, and she tells him she feels the same way. Finn and Jake decide to leave them alone for a while, but not before reminding Tree Trunks to bring some apple pie to Bubblegum’s concert later that day.
When Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig arrive for the concert empty-handed, Tree Trunks says that she was too distracted by Mr. Pig to bake any pies. Then she and Mr. Pig start making out, and everyone becomes disgusted by their PDA. Even Bubblegum says she’s too grossed out to continue her concert. For God’s sake, guys, it’s just some PDA. Grow the fuck up. I know I’m talking to sentient candy right now, but still. Finn tells Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig to keep their love private from now on and they agree to do so. Unfortunately, they’re really bad at it. It seems like everywhere Finn and Jake go, Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig are there making out. They even manage to get into a sandwich Finn was about to eat. How’d they do that? That’s kind of impressive. Anyway, Finn is fed up and tells Tree Trunks not to spend any more time with Mr. Pig unless they’re in her home. Tree Trunks argues that an unmarried couple living under the same roof is indecent (oh, please, why is everyone in Ooo such a prude? And wasn’t Mr. Pig already living with Tree Trunks anyway?). So Finn suggests that they get married, but Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig aren’t quite ready for that yet. Finn decides there’s no other option, he grabs Tree Trunks and Jake grabs Mr. Pig, and they take them far away from each other. But after seeing how miserable they are when separated, Finn and Jake decide that it’s wrong to keep them apart and they let them go. Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig reunite, and while most people are still disgusted Finn says that he thinks their relationship is nice.
I liked this one a bit more than Web Weirdos, but not much more. It has Tree Trunks in it, at least, and she’s always cute.
I liked the message of this episode, about how they shouldn’t have been forcing themselves into Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig’s business. Too many people make a big deal out of PDA, and to those people I say tough shit. If PDA makes you uncomfortable, I guess I get it, but it’s not your business to tell people how they should or shouldn’t show affection for each other. And while we’re on the subject, I also hate the “old people kissing is gross” mentality, which was probably the mentality that the characters in this episode had. If you’re disgusted by the idea of old people being affectionate or having sexuality, then I’m disgusted by you.
Now that that’s out of the way, this episode didn’t really work for me because it’s just kind of boring. There aren’t that many jokes and the attempt at the end to make me think Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig really need each other didn’t work because their relationship doesn’t do anything for me, at least not on that level. It’s a romance that works better played for laughs than trying to be genuine.
The episode begins with Finn and Jake running to Marceline’s house with an armless wizard who told them Marceline is in danger. Apparently, she has accidentally cast a sleep curse on herself, and the wizard can’t do anything to help her without arms. He tells Finn and Jake that they need to get into Marceline’s head, go to her Memory Core, and find a certain memory to bring back to the wizard. The wizard touches Finn’s forehead with his foot and says that Finn’s forehead will start to glow as they near the memory. Then, after showing them how to get into Marceline’s head and warning them of the consequences of their failure (Marceline will stay asleep forever), it’s into Marceline’s head we go.
We see a few of Marceline’s memories, one from when she was a little girl playing with her very beat-up teddy bear, one where we see her father eating her fries (ha! I love that show us that), one where she moves into the Tree Fort with her boyfriend Ash, and one where Ash turns out to be a terrible boyfriend who sells Marceline’s favorite teddy bear (she breaks up with him for this). Eventually Finn and Jake find the Memory Core, take the memory that the wizard wanted, and get out of Marceline’s head. When they give the memory to the wizard, he reveals himself to be Ash, who tricked Finn and Jake into taking Marceline’s memory of their breakup. He awakens Marceline, who greets her “boyfriend” happily, not being able to remember breaking up with him. Ash then takes Marceline’s back to his house, and it’s up to Finn and Jake to remind Marceline of what an abusive shitbag her boyfriend is.
While Jake provides a distraction, Finn sneaks into Ash’s house to speak to Marceline. Marceline tells him he should go because Ash doesn’t like her hanging out with mortals, but Finn brings Marceline into his memories and hows her the memory of her memory that he has. After seeing it, Marceline and Finn exit his memories. Ash shows up and spouts the oldest sexist cliche in the book, demanding that Marceline get back in the kitchen and make him a sandwich, and Marceline kicks him in the crotch. Repeatedly. I definitely approve of Marceline’s method.
This episode has a really interesting concept, going into Marceline’s memories. Sort of like the Pensieve from Harry Potter except you can actually interact with people in the memories. Which makes me wonder if Marceline’s memories were affected by this and if Finn and Jake are now part of them. Anyway, it’s a cool idea, but I wish they had shown us a bit more.
The bits and pieces of her memories that we do get are interesting, though. I found the one of her as a little girl repairing her teddy bear particularly disturbing. When she says to the bear that she she hurts it because she loves it, it sounds like something that may have been said to her by her parents. Most likely from her father. Plus, the fact that she’s all alone in a dark, post-apocalyptic wasteland (it looks like this memory takes place soon after the Mushroom War) with a teddy bear that look like it’s been through hell raises some questions too. Why is she alone in a place that looks so dangerous? Did she try to run away, or are her parents just neglectful? Actually, where is her mom? We already know that her father is the worst father who ever fathered, but have we ever heard anything about her mother?
The conflict with Ash was interesting too, because it’s not often you see a portrayal of an abusive relationship in a children’s show, but again I think more could have been done with it. That probably sounds weird, like I want to see Marceline being abused, but that’s not what I mean. I just mean that if you’re going to make an episode about this, it’s not something you can leave as a side note. Compare this episode to Mad Love, that episode of Batman: The Animated Series, which was about the abusive relationship between the Joker and Harley Quinn. It’s disturbing to watch, but in the right way, because its point was to show the psychology of an abuse victim and how awful the whole thing is, it’s supposed to disturb you and it was done well.
I guess I shouldn’t expect this episode to delve into the topic as much as Mad Love did, but the fact that it’s little more than a side note doesn’t feel right.
Or maybe it was going into the memories that was the side note.
Actually both of these plots feel like side notes and I’m not sure what the episode is really supposed to be about. So it’s kind of a wasted opportunity for both.
But still, this episode has some interesting, if underdeveloped, parts. I really liked the scene where Finn and Jake reach the Memory Core and it’s designed like a white silhouette. That was a cool visual.
Oh yeah, and I can’t not mention this:
Baby Finn is too adorable.
Rating: 7.5/10
Ice King is a really weird villain, and his relationship with Finn and Jake is even weirder.
Apparently, Finn and Jake can ground Ice King. Even though Ice King is older than them. He’s like this bratty child that Finn and Jake can’t take their eyes off of for more than minute because if they do he’ll run off and capture a princess. That’s what bratty children do, right? Anyway, after being grounded for four whole weeks, Ice King paces his Ice Castle, wishing he could hit Finn and Jake and lamenting that he can’t while he’s grounded. So he hires a hitman named Scorcher, a strange being who somewhat resembles a mummy and can turn into smoke and throw fireballs. Ice King tells Scorcher to hit Finn and Jake and signs a contract to make it official. Here’s the thing, though: HE THINKS SCORCHER IS LITERALLY JUST GOING TO HIT FINN AND JAKE, AS IN SLAP THEM OR PUNCH THEM. HE DOESN’T KNOW THAT SCORCHER’S JOB IS TO KILL PEOPLE. ICE KING IS THE MOST INNOCENT VILLAIN EVER.
Scorcher sets fire to Finn and Jake’s Tree Fort, forcing Ice King to save them. Ice King then explains to Scorcher that he only wants Scorcher to hit Finn and Jake, not kill them. When Scorcher realizes that Ice King put out the fire, he returns to Finn and Jake’s room while they’re sleeping and fills the room with smoke to suffocate them, but again Ice King saves them. After this, Ice King attempts to bribe Scorcher to get him to stop going after Finn and Jake, and even tries to switch Scorcher’s target to his least favorite princesses, Lumpy Space Princes (how dare you, Ice King) and Ghost Princess, but Scorcher refuses to leave his mission incomplete. Ice King even tries to hire a hitman-hitman, but apparently Scorcher is such a bad ass that even hitmen who specifically kill other hitmen can’t beat him. Ice King is left with no other choice but to freeze Scorcher (which won’t last long) and warn Finn and Jake of the danger they’re in.
After Ice King tells Finn and Jake what he has done, Scorcher comes to finish them off. The three of them are forced to flee, but there’s no way to escape Scorcher. Ice King comes up with a plan to lower Finn and Jake’s body temperature enough to convince Scorcher that they’re dead. Finn and Jake are against this plan because they don’t trust Ice King, but Ice King goes ahead and does it anyway. The plan works. Scorcher, thinking his job is done, leaves Ice King with a note that reads “Echos of past events nudge the tiller on my present course, I await it’s [WRONG IT’S/ITS SLAKDJSAL] reflection in the future”. This sounds like it might have significance later but maybe not.
You know what I don’t get about this episode? Why does Ice King care so much about Finn and Jake being killed? Wouldn’t he want them gone? Then he’d be free to do whatever he wanted without anyone butting in (I mean I’m sure someone besides Finn and Jake could stop Ice King too but you know). And he’s apparently okay with Lumpy Space Princess and Ghost Princess being killed even though they can be easily avoided by just not kidnapping them, a thought that I don’t think has ever crossed Ice King’s mind. Not kidnapping anyone with “princess” in their name? IMPOSSIBLE. Seriously though, it’s okay to kill princesses that he doesn’t like, but it’s not okay to kill Finn and Jake?
I guess it’s because of the weird relationship Ice King has with with Finn and Jake. They annoy him, but he also has a strange respect for them, which he has certainly never shown for any of the princesses. Think back to Mortal Folly, when he asked for their blessing when he wanted to marry Bubblegum without even bothering to see if Bubblegum actually wanted to marry him (which she clearly didn’t), because their blessing holds more weight to him than Bubblegum saying yes. Which is really horrible and fucked up. And there’s also the fact that at times, Ice King seems to think of Finn and Jake as his friends, even though they show nothing but contempt for him.
But even then, Finn and Jake’s feelings for Ice King baffle me too. Like in that episode I can’t remember the name of, where Bubblegum has them kidnap Ice King but they let him go when they realize he hasn’t done anything wrong recently. Because even if he’s done tons of awful things in the past and there’s no reason to think he won’t do more awful things in the future, the fact that he hasn’t done anything wrong recently means it’s okay to let him go. They’ll just go beat him up when he has done something wrong. Does anyone else think this is really weird? Imagine if at the end of The Avengers everyone was just like, “Okay, Loki, we stopped your weird alien army. Just don’t do anything like this again, all right?” instead of locking Loki up some place where they won’t need to worry about him until Thor 2. Or imagine if in the X-Men movies… um, okay never mind that because the way the X-Men handle Magneto isn’t much better.
Basically that. But you get my point.
Okay, enough about Ice King and his weird relationships. Let’s talk about Scorcher. I really love Scorcher. I love his dedication to completing the job he’s given even after it turns out it’s not what Ice King wanted. The fact that he’s so relentless makes him more intimidating. The design is pretty cool too, and the fact that he never speaks. His scenes with Ice King were hilarious. Interesting that a character who never speaks can be so funny. I’m guessing Scorcher won’t be a character we see again, but I loved him here.
Overall, this episode is pretty good. It’s jokes are funny and the concept itself is funny, but I don’t think I’ll ever understand Ice King’s relationship with Finn and Jake.
Don’t you just love villains who are tiny and cute and preferably green and one-eyed?
When the Cuties show up at Finn and Jake’s Tree Fort, threatening to kill them, of course Finn doesn’t take them seriously. How can he, when they’re so small and cute-looking? But this displeases the Cute King, who continues to threaten them. Jake seems to take the Cuties more seriously than Finn does. Really, Jake, you could just step on them if they get out of line. That night, Finn sees how scared Jake is and offers to confront the Cuties in the morning, but it turns out they’ll have to deal with the Cuties sooner than they thought, as the Cuties spend the night trying to scare Finn and Jake. This forces Finn, in his words, to “man-handle those guys’s banandles!” This is almost as good as when he said he would get into Hunson Abadeer’s pants.
It quickly becomes apparent that the Cuties are only harmful to themselves, but they’re desperate to conquer something. Taking pity on them, Finn comes up with a plan to make the Cuties happy. He gathers Jake, Lumpy Space Princess, BMO, Cinnamon Bun and a duck (????) and tells them his plan to fake their deaths to the Cuties, so that they’ll be satisfied. And of course LSP must take it even further:
Someone give LSP an Oscar.
They go through with the plan, faking their deaths and spraying themselves with ketchup so that the Cuties will think they’ve won. When the Cute King does his victory dance on Jake’s stomach, Jake laughs, revealing that he and the others are actually alive and that the “blood” is just ketchup. Which should have been obvious because the ketchup bottle was in plain sight when they were spraying themselves. These Cuties aren’t very bright, are they? The Cuties are even more upset after finding out about the trick, so Finn comes up with another idea: show them how to use their cuteness for manipulation.
This episode follows the same style as most of the episodes from Season 1 and 2. Well. I guess I shouldn’t have expected Season 3 to be more dramatic from the get-go.
Since there’s not that much to say about this episode, I’ll just make a list of what I liked and what I didn’t like.
What I liked:
I like that Finn didn’t make fun of Jake’s fear even though it is pretty silly. Finn is a better friend than I am.
“Awww, no! It’s a dead goat, man! Its guts are all over the place! It’s all chopped up and spread around and… [Looks closer] Ah, no, wait, it’s just a blanket. I think I left it here this morning. ” Wtf Jake.
“Jaaaake! Fiiiinn! This is the voice of your moooom! I’ve come back to tell you how dumb you always aaaare!” Well, that’s one way to do a “your mom” joke.
That exchange where Jake tells Finn to shake the Cutie. I don’t know I found that so funny.
“How will we ever splash around in the brains of our enemies if you guys can’t take two steps without exploding?!” That cute little voice saying this makes it sound so funny. Also, why don’t they try exploding near their enemy’s head and hope that it gets blown up too? It’s worth a try.
Finn’s reasoning that by helping the Cuties win it’s technically still a win for him and Jake.
LSP.
What I didn’t like:
The Cuties could have been cuter? They’re cute enough, but they’re not as cute as they could have been.
That’s it, I guess.
There really isn’t much to dislike about this episode in particular. But there isn’t really anything to love about it either. It’s good, but that’s all it is.
Rating: 7/10
When you find a coliseum overseen by a Fight King with the appearance of a decaying corpse who gives off some major Shang Tsung vibes (he even yells “Finish him!” at one point, for God’s sake), the best course of action is to step in and agree to compete, right? According to Finn and Jake, it is. You know, boys, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and you two walk that line every day. So, this Fight King tells them that if they manage to beat all of his Gladiator Ghosts, they’ll get eternal glory or something. After defeating two of them, Finn and Jake are ready to leave. It’s not that simple, unfortunately. The Fight King gives them a palm branch as a prize and then sends them to a cavern beneath the arena to rest before they’ll be forced to fight again.
Finn plans to earn their freedom by defeating all of the Gladiator Ghosts, who seem to be pretty easy to defeat. Jake has another idea. He’ll send a dummy of himself up with Finn while he stays below to dig for lava and forge a molten hula hoop to increase morale. Add that sentence to the ever-growing list of things I never thought I would type before I started watching Adventure Time. So Finn does battle on his own, and he does it well enough to impress the Fight King, who decides to give Finn his favor by knighting him with his sword. The touch of the Fight King’s sword causes Finn to become even more violent than usual. After all of the Gladiator Ghosts have been defeated, Fight King says that Finn must now face Jake. Unfortunately Jake chooses this moment to resurface, and he’s forced to run as Finn’s bloodlust seemingly makes him willing to kill even Jake. Well, Jake doesn’t exactly run, he just stretches his body around the arena, trying to avoid being decapitated by Finn. You know, if Finn really wanted to kill Jake he wouldn’t need to go for his head. I know it’s more dramatic to go for the head, but since Jake’s body is stretched out and vulnerable Finn could easily cut him in half and let him suffer. And then go for his head. Just saying. With that twisted thought aside, let’s move on. Finn asks Fight King for a bigger sword so he can reach Jake’s head, so Fight King tosses his own sword at Finn. Finn then throws the sword to the ground and shatters it (either the ground in this arena is really hard or that sword is really fragile), which kills the Fight King. Finn reveals to Jake that this was his plan all along, but he didn’t tell Jake because Jake always screws up his plans. The two leave the arena together, followed by the Gladiator Ghosts. Finn and Jake notice that the Gladiators are all in pairs, and they wonder if they were friends forced to battle each other in the arena, just like Finn and Jake.
This episode has some interesting stuff going on.
I think what’s most interesting to me is the Gladiator Ghosts. At the end of the episode, it’s thought that the Gladiators were friends who were forced to do battle in the arena. This makes sense, since they’re all in pairs as they leave the arena, and they fought Finn in pairs too. But here’s another thing. When Finn defeats the Gladiators, they shout things that seem out of place and that don’t have anything to do with Finn or even with the Fight King. Actually… most of them shout apologies to someone. “I’m sorry, Hyperion!” “Forgive me, Priscus!” “Amazonia, I’m sorry!” I figured it must be some reference that I just couldn’t place. It wasn’t until the end of the episode that I realized they’re begging their partners for forgiveness. They were forced to kill each other and they’re still trying to apologize for it! Holy fuck.
Also, pretty cool that there was a pair of female Gladiators.
This episode is really violent. It’s not gory, of course. Everyone Finn fights in this episode is a ghost, so obviously we’re not seeing any blood or guts or anything like that. But still, I’m guessing the fact that they were ghosts was the only way they were able to let this slide, because Finn decapitates and dismembers the Gladiator Ghosts without the slightest hesitation. It’s a bit unsettling. What if the Gladiators weren’t ghosts?
About Finn in this episode. Finn is really aggressive, so it’s cool that they’re able to make clear in this episode that the aggression supposedly bestowed on him by the Fight King is more sinister. I guess it’s because while Finn enjoys fighting, he’s not violent for the sake of violence, and he only kills when necessary (which I guess could still be considered dark considering most heroes have a “no killing ever for any reason” rule that never really makes sense to me but whatever). But in this episode, it looked like Finn’s aggression was completely uncontrolled. It wasn’t actually that way, since he was faking it, but it looked that way, and we knew it was wrong.
And as for Finn faking it, is Finn’s resistance to mind control a thing now? In Mortal Folly, it was implied that Bubblegum’s sweater gave him the power to fight the Lich’s mind control, but he’s able to resist the Fight King’s mind control here and there’s no sweater involved. So, is it just a natural ability of Finn’s?
Overall, I thought this episode was pretty awesome. I like the darker elements of it and the general idea behind the episode.
Last thing, I really love the title of this episode. Morituri te Salutamus roughly translates to “We who are about to die, salute you” and it was actually a phrase associated with gladiators.
I think I should clear up what I said about spoilers in my last review, since looking back I’m afraid I may have come off as a bit too harsh.
Obviously, I really don’t want to be spoiled about anything. Part of the fun of reviewing this show is that I barely knew anything about it when I started, and for the most part I don’t what’s coming. The fun is learning more as I go. So to preserve this, I’m trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible, which is proving to be difficult but I’ve actually managed pretty well so far. I think most people know that they shouldn’t directly tell me about future events, like telling me outright that Jake and Lady break up (I have no idea if this happens or not, I’m just making something up as an example). Everyone can agree that that would be a spoiler and should definitely not be said to someone who wants to avoid them. But I think my view on what counts as a spoiler might be a bit more strict than most people’s, because I count even hints and allusions as spoilers. Saying things like “that doesn’t work out the way you think it does” or “that question will be answered in this season/episode” or “just wait until you hear this character’s backstory, it will explain everything”. While I haven’t been told directly what happens, the element of surprise is ruined because I have some idea of what’s going to happen. It may not seem like a big deal, but the fact is that now I know what to expect, so when I finally get there it won’t have the impact that it should have had.
A lot of the questions I ask in my reviews are meant to be rhetorical, it’s just my way of unloading thoughts. However, if you are able to answer any of them without giving away any future events (like if the answer was in a past episode that I simply forgot, or if the answer won’t effect my perception of future episodes), you can answer it. If I specify that I want a question answered and don’t mind if the answer involves spoilers, you can answer that as well. Just be careful about what you say. I don’t want to discourage people from commenting, I love reading comments, but please avoid spoilers. All I ask is that you don’t talk about things I haven’t seen yet, or at the very least warn me that your comment includes a spoiler. Okay? Okay.
Finn and Jake are awoken one morning by a rampaging, firework-spewing monster. At first they think they’re dreaming, but soon realize this isn’t the case and begin attacking the monster. They hear cries of help from the monster’s stomach, and decide to allow the monster to swallow them so they can help whoever is trapped inside. The source of the cries for help turns out to be a Bear (who, like Care Bears, has an image on its stomach), who just wants help hanging streamers for a party. Finn and Jake are confused until the Bear leads them to a huge party filled with more Bears and complete with ravers, flashing lights, loud music and even fireworks (hence the fireworks coming out of the monster’s mouth). Then Finn and Jake are even more confused. Apparently, the Bears are unaware that they’re in the belly of a giant monster. Finn and Jake try to tell them where they are, and that staying here will mean they’ll be digested and turned into “the stuff” (in other words, shit). Their attempts are unsuccessful, the Bears refuse to believe that anything is wrong, except for one little Bear named Cubby. Cubby has been trying to get the bears to realize where they are as well, but is constantly ignored because he’s a child. Cubby advises Finn and Jake to talk to Party Pat, the chief of the bears. If they can convince him to leave, the rest of the Bears will follow.
They find Party Pat sitting on the heart of the monster. To my surprise, he’s not some wild, energetic party animal. He’s almost uncomfortably calm and soft-spoken. And he dressed like a hipster. Before he’ll allow Finn and Jake to speak with him, he says that they must party. So they do. Afterwards, Finn tells him about the danger they’re in. Party Pat doesn’t care. When he announces the news to the other bears, they don’t care either. They like it here in the monster’s stomach and they won’t leave. Finally, Finn and Jake give up. While leaving through the monster’s mouth, Finn reassures himself that the only way to kill the Bears for sure would be if the monster swallowed some hot lava. I’m at least 98% sure that digestion would kill them, but okay. The monster hears Finn’s comment and, wanting to be rid of the Bears and their fireworks, heads straight for the nearest volcano. Finn and Jake rush back to the Bears to warn them. First, they need to stop the Bears from partying, so they kill their buzz with a depressing karaoke song. This effectively quiets the Bears, and Finn and Jake manage to get them to evacuate just as the lava reaches them.
Once outside, Finn tells the Bears that they’re now free to party outside. The Bears aren’t happy, though. Apparently they need a club to party in, and the monster’s gut was perfect for them. The Bears make an agreement with the monster not to set off fireworks inside him anymore, and only use “gentle laser pointers”. Content with this, the monster lets the Bears back into his stomach.
This episode is sort of like Mystery Train in that it’s not very memorable, but it does have more charm and originality than Mystery Train did. I couldn’t predict where this one was going at least, and a lot of the jokes were better too. I think my favorite joke is when, after partying with Party Pat, he tells them that they’re not partying hard enough, that they’re just going through the motions without enjoying the party, then after a moment of silence says he’s joking and that Finn and Jake really are party animals. That honestly fooled me.
At one point, this episode brought up an interesting question that I wish had been explored more. After trying and failing to convince Party Pat to evacuate, Finn and Jake give up and are about to leave the bears in the gut. Is that right? The Bears are happy where they are, they don’t care about dying in the monster’s gut. Should Finn and Jake simply respect their wishes and leave them alone? Is it more important that the Bears are happy or that they’re safe? Of course this whole dilemma that was built up throughout most of the episode gets forgotten when the monster drinks the lava. Suddenly the Bears care a lot about dying. Did they just not realize until then what danger they were in? When Party Pat tells them they’re in a monster’s gut, the announcement is met with enthusiasm, and he conveniently leaves out the fact that they’re all going to die. Which is pretty messed up because it seems like Party Pat is smart enough to know that they’re in danger, but he doesn’t have the Bears evacuate. He lets them think nothing is wrong and keeps them partying. Reminds me of the Latin saying, panem et circenses. And even then, as soon as the lava comes, all of the Bears including Party Pat evacuate. I guess once the danger is more immediate it’s hard not to take it seriously. But then they go back into the monster at the end of the episode. What happened to death by digestion, which is what Finn and Jake were originally warning them about?
Okay, so, this episode seems to have a couple of plotholes. But it’s mostly pretty enjoyable. Don’t think I’d watch it again any time soon, though.
Rating: 6.5/10
After receiving a distress signal from her notoriously stupid Hot Dog Knights, Hot Dog Princess sends Finn and Jake on a mission to rescue them from the Labyrinth in which they were trapped. When they arrive at the Labyrinth, Jake suggests that he simply stretch over the walls to find the Knights, but Finn points out a sign that says “No cheating or you die”. They need to go through the Labyrinth properly to reach the Knights. Jake has the idea of tying himself around a stump outside the maze and then stretching himself through the Labyrinth, so that they can follow their trail back out (like Theseus with his string! I really love references to myths). Pleased with this idea, the two head into the maze. It takes them about five seconds to find the Knights, who apparently didn’t manage to get far. One of the Knights tells Finn and Jake that they had come here for a magical creature in the center of the maze that grants wishes, so Finn and Jake decide to go deeper into the maze to find the creature, taking the Hot Dog Knights with them.
I’m a fan of Labyrinths, but it turns out that isn’t exactly what the episode is about. The episode is about Jake’s stretching powers being pushed to their limit. Or perhaps pulled to their limit is more like it. He’s literally stretching himself too thin, and despite Finn’s worries about Jake’s well-being, the Hot Dog Knights keep cheering Jake on, so they keep going. When they finally reach the center of the maze, Jake is stretched so tight that he can’t even close his eye lids and his organs are so stretched out that they’re in severe danger of being crushed, but the Hot Dog Knights continue to push him forward. The center of the Labyrinth has a statue holding a giant puzzle, which Jake solves revealing a chamber where they meet Aquandrias, a creature that resembles a serpent made out of mud who will grant their wishes. The door of the chamber closes on Jake, which nearly kills him. Finn wants to wish all of them free, but to reach Aquandrias there’s still one last trap they need to get across. Finn convinces Jake to use his last bit of energy to carry them all across the trap. Once they reach Aquandrias, the Hot Dog Knights waste their wishes on useless things. Jake absentmindedly wishes he wasn’t so hungry and gets a sandwich. Finn is left to decide if he should save Jake or wish for the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant that they both wanted. Jake tells him to wish for the Elephant and Finn does so, then tells the Elephant to wish for Finn’s friends to be saved, to Aquandrias’ displeasure. Jake and the Hot Dog Knights become alive and well, and they all leave on the back of the Elephant.
I like this episode because it shows us something we’ve never seen before as far as I can remember: Jake pushing himself to his limit. Maybe even beyond his limit. And Finn of all people is the one who tells him that maybe he should stop. Usually Finn is the one who pushes himself while Jake tells him to relax. The difference is is that Finn’s drive comes from a genuine desire to help people and do good. Jake’s drive in this episode came more from a need to not appear weak. It’s an ego thing more than a helping-people thing. Of course, Finn did eventually join in pushing Jake too far, but only because he knew it was the only way to get them all to safety.
If there’s one complaint I have about the episode, it’s that we didn’t get to see more of the traps and monsters in the Labyrinth. Jake just stretches past all of them. I know it’s not what the episode was focusing on, but it does feel like a waste to have a cool setting like the Labyrinth and then not do much with it. Oh well, I’m guessing this won’t be the only Labyrinth-like setting we see on this show.
Overall, this is a good episode. The jokes are funny, the Hot Dog Knights are enjoyably stupid, and it’s interesting to see something different from Jake, as well as confirmation that his powers do in fact have their limits.
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