WesternAnimation Season 6: Winning me back
I've been feeling less and less invested in the show since Finn and Flame Princess broke up, less due to liking the relationship than how the break-up was engineered. It'd be one thing for them to be given a better reason, but Finn's character was altered just to facilitate it by making him immature and selfish, after already proving himself a caring boyfriend. It's like devoting an episode to Marceline learning not to be so snobbish, or Bubblegum to becoming more logical. You can't give a character a flaw to overcome that's against their established personalities (usually). Then they just kept coming back to it, making Finn creepier and creepier until they finally dropped it after...whatever the hell "Breezy" was.
However, the last twenty-or-so episodes have been really good. After a decline in the comedy, episodes like "Furniture and Meat" and "The Dentist" were very funny. Bubblegum finally stopped edging closer to absolute evil, we found out where Jake's powers come from, the ice crown's origins, and they finally did something with Jake's kids.
And the Lich. I thought it was a really stupid idea to turn him into a giant baby. I get the whole "life defeated him" thing with the guardian blood bringing him back to life, but really, a baby? Way to ruin an incredible villain. Then "Gold Stars" happened. An innocent child is sharing a body with an immortal being which may have existed before the universe itself. With no idea what's happening to him. And he's still sweet. Wow, they really pulled this off, and I can't wait to see where they're going to take this.
So yeah. The series was stumbling a bit, and admittedly wasted opportunities with Finn's arm, but they're building up for Martin's return, and we've found out a lot about this world. I can't wait for whatever's next.
WesternAnimation Why is the Marty Stu more accepted than the Mary Sue?
I found Adventure Time to indeed have all the merits that are attributed to it. It has a magnificent sense of humour, a natural and realistic dialogue, it tries to develop it's characters as best as it can in a 9-11 minute format, and, of course, it truly shows fathomless imagination.
It is tragic that it couldn't escape marysuedom.
It began as a short that basically has the conventional "rescue the princess" plot, albeit with a 12 year old. In in itself that is quite clichéd and moronic, but it becomes genuinely creepy if you think about it more than once. "Penn" - as the short's protagonist was called - truly is an Author Avatar, being basically Pendleton Ward as a 12 year old slaying monsters with his sharpei and rescuing his preteen crush - who, mind you, in that short didn't even have a personality. This is exactly the sort of thing you see in My Inner Life, the difference being that, for some idiotic reason, Penn is considered "likable" while Jenna is rightfully the subject of ridicule. Frankly, Penn and Jenna are exactly the same character, the difference being that one has a penis while the other has cat-motiffs.
To be fair, a lot of positive changes occured in the remake, the actual series. Bubblegum has an actual personality, the Ice King is a tragic villain rather than [just] a sexual competitor, Pendleton voices another character in the show that is most certainly not based on his actual personality, and Finn does have genuine problems and flaws. And most shockingly, it still manages to be fundamentally a power fantasy, and the flaws and problems do little more than to highlight this. For instance, Finn is stupid and judgemental, and not only do these traits rarely place him in genuine trouble, they either end up being fundamental in a non-ironic way, or are actually idolised. He has problems, but these problems seem to be "masturbatory suffering", on other words, to satisfy the author rather than provide a serious narrative. For example, most of his romantic issues with Princess Bubblegum are basically the sort of thing one sees in "nice guy" fantasies, to the point that one has to wonder if the writers are projecting themselves into the character.
Fundamentally, Finn is more likable than Enoby, but that's like comparing a school shooting to the Apartheid.
WesternAnimation My two cents on the current state of the series....
I can't exactly share my thoughts since its been a while since I watched this series. But basing my opinions on the two recent episodes I saw...
Man, this show degraded in quality.
My current opinion of this show is that its kinda boring to watch, mostly because the comedy got a lot weaker in later seasons. Seriously, compare Season 1's comedy to Season 6's. And I'm sick and tired of them claiming [1]. All of you know what I am talking about here. (Selfies with the Lich? Really?)
Princess Bubblegum is a child: Boom. Adult again.
Jake has kids: Boom. Somehow get older than him.
Finn loses his arm?: Boom. It grows...back? Wtf? This had so much subtle Foreshadowing and they just drop it as if its a copy of [2].
And what the heck is with this show and trying to make PB morally ambiguous? Why in the world is this necessary? A huge example is "Rattleballs". And this isn't going to get addressed anytime soon so....what the hell? What is the point? And to add insult to injury, almost everyone became a Jerk in this series such as LSP (yes, LSP), PB (of course), and Finn.
And why in the world does this show deem it necessary to resolve plot points all the way in Season 1 (Example: Fear deamon in "Ocean of Fear") and resolve them in an unsatisfying way (Example: Fear demon is sliced in half with Grass Sword rather than making Finn conquer his fear himself....ummm...why?)
Now to bring up a few episodes:
"Puhoy"
A chance to explore Finn's mind is turned into a pillow dream that serves no purpose or develops his character. What was the point of this?
"Too Old"
To be honest. I thought this episode was ok. But I agree that turning Lemongrab into an unsympathetic asshole is a terrible idea. Plus, the Finn and PB relationship should have been resolve all the way back in Season...i dunno...3?
"First episode of Season 6 (forgot name)"
The comedy really fell flat in this episode. That's why watching this episode was kinda boring. Plus, how did the Lich just wake up for no reason?
Don't get me wrong, the show still has good plots and ideas in my opinion and is still better than most of the crap in CN. But its starting to forget what made it one of my favorite cartoons to watch.
WesternAnimation Not for all but good 3 out of 5
I have watched a lot of adventure time and I say its an ok show. I personally would watch the show over others.(Datline I'm looking at you.) This could be a family show, it could not,it all depends on the viewer. This show can be flexible, it can be silly when it wants, it could be serious when it wants. It apeals for most audiences, but sometimes the silliness is just to much, or the way they talk and act gets anoying but not unrealistic. This show I do not recomend for people over the age of 28 or so. It doesn't empart anything that you guys would find funny and can be hard to track for those not used to teenage talk.(Yes I know there are exceptions.) This is more or less a show for younger people, especially since the way they talk could be considered annoying to the older generation.(Exeptions again.) This show is hard to review becuase it is so, flexible and is something you either love or hate. This show, like I said before is hard to review becuase there really is no neutral side. So this time around I decided to give it a flexible answer. Final count 3 out of 5.
WesternAnimation Took a Shotgun Blast to the Quality
With Regular Show becoming my favourite current cartoon network show, and the second season of The Amazing World of Gumball proving to be one of the greatest things of the last year, I was left to ponder how well Adventure Time has evolved... the question is, it hasn't done well.
By that I mean the most recent season, so far, has effectively just taken what was originally my number one show on CN and viciously beat the shit out of it with a baseball bat. Oh sure there were a few good episodes in the first half of the season like the premiere, and Simon and Marcy... but there came a point where the show just began to grow more grim and twisted than it really needed to be.
The whole situation with Flame Princess causing yet more sodding drama in Finn's love life (Shouldn't this have been dealt with twos seasons ago?), turning Finn into a massive asshole, and then introducing other crap like Too Old (Possibly being the most horrible episode of... well, anything I've ever seen before) that turned Lemongrab into a fucking monster and made Finn even more of a jackass.
The jokes from then on just felt more hollow than anything, and it seems as if the water supply of Ooo has been spiked with 'asshole tonic' with all the levels of jerkass being thrown around. Not just with Finn, but Bubblegum has done several horrible, horrible things for several episodes in a row, and never seems to get any comeuppance for any of them. Unless the season finale reveals the Lich being behind everything, then I really don't see any hope in liking these characters again by the next season. Finn will likely keep acting like an idiot and the universe will keep dumping on him as a result.
It was while thinking back on the last season that a rather horrible revelation crept up on me- that in many ways the show is stagnating. Any time it seems like a new element comes along, and any hype is given it, it will ultimately amount to nothing and the status quo will resume. PB is a 13 year old? Undone by her next appearance. Jake as a parent? His kids are adults by the end of that same episode.
Honestly, I'm more depressed than anything. Part of me really hopes that I'm wrong, that the end of this series will be like a glorious phoenix rising from the ashes... but I don't hold much hope of that.
WesternAnimation Good, but Weird.
Adventure Time is a happy Cartoon Network cartoon that, for the most part, relies on a lot of randomness. The hero, Finn, starts off as a 'keep it pure' type guy who fights all the evil in the world. Jake, his best friend and talking dog, is a bit more questionable in his morals from the start but helps Finn defeat evil anyway. (Jake is more selfish than anything else, really.) Recently, however, the hero is no longer such a hero - more mature subjects come up and he constantly feels the need to be in a relationship. One of his earlier crushes being someone older than him (enough so to be weird). The main villain seems to have an obsession with wanting to marry princesses clearly a lot younger than him (however he shows to have standards when one princess de-ages to 13 and simply walks out). The show isn't always 'family-friendly' as the episodes may be a little too dark or with too many hidden adult references. Nevertheless, young children can still sit through it without parents needing to worry.
The show has some dark elements to some of the episodes (The Lich arc as well as the latest Lemongrab stories [which are not only weird but disturbing], not to mention some of the other ones), and some episodes often gives you a strange feeling of "What just happened? That was...trippy," to say the least. From the time I first watched the show I felt embarrassed to try and watch it. It seemed like a mindless male action story with weird cartoon drawings and annoying jokes. It was intriguing and I tried it a few more times, but I couldn't bear the stupidity. I didn't even try it again until the "Simon and Marcy" episodes were on, and suddenly, I cared about the show and the characters. Whether the first season just really annoyed me or if the show just needed to grow on me, I now have seen every episode and love the show.
The characters seem flat to me, and I rarely care for them. I do care a lot for the Ice King thanks to the "Simon and Marcy" episodes, and I did (past tense) like the Lemongrabs until the recent episode, but other than that I just don't care for them.
There are a lot of good elements to the show - something about it makes you happy, really. It also has an interesting "beneath the story" story. Even if there are a lot of things to dislike, the show is strangely appealing. It's worth the try.
WesternAnimation Season 5: Soaring Highs and Pitiful Lows
Season 5 has proven to rather controversial within the fandom, and for good reason. Is it the worst season of Adventure Time to date? Yes. Is it the horrifying abomination that some are making it out to be? No.
This season really is a roller coaster ride, jumping between fantastic episodes like Simon & Marcy, Puhoy, BMO Lost, and (perhaps more controversially) the Lemonhope two-parter, and vastly inferior episodes such as Too Old, Red Throne, and Apple Wedding.
The problem with the bad episodes is that overall, they do some serious damage to the characters that they feature, which is what gets everyone's hackles raised.
For example, Apple Wedding. The show obviously wants to impress on us through this episode something that we really already know: Princess Bubblegum doesn't like having her authority challenged. As such, I can understand her having a beef with the One True King of Ooo character, because he's a threat to that authority. But things go truly wrong right at the end, when PB decides to punish everyone at the wedding despite a number of them having done nothing to anger her. PB has always been a divisive character due to her more morally ambiguous nature, but this was something I think everyone could agree was beyond the pale. Combine this with her actions in "Rattleballs", and it honestly felt like the writers were daring us as an audience to continue liking her. I thought the way she behaved in Lemonhope did a lot to rehabilitate her, though.
I know that one aspect a lot of people didn't like about this season was Finn's behavior in regards to his relationship with Flame Princess. Honestly, I didn't find it anything more than mildly annoying because I see the show as having unambiguously acknowledged Finn's actions as being crappy. It's made no bones about the fact that in his zeal he's hurt someone he cares about and that it's entirely his own fault. While I'd rather the show didn't focus so intensely on this particular storyline, I'll deal so long as it continues to play it as a major foul-up on Finn's part. I'm also not a big shipper or anything, so there's that as well.
Overall, this was a season that started strong, crashed in the middle, but I feel recovered at the end, making it a real mixed bag.
WesternAnimation Awesome!
This show definitely marks the return of great cartoon network shows. Some people think that Cartoon Network has gone downhill, but this show proves that there's still some good after all.
Nickelodeon totally missed out on this. They could've had a new Spongebob Squarepants (and finally gotten rid of the old one) but Cartoon Network scored when they picked this show up. It's really weird, but in a good way. Kinda like Flapjack, which makes since, but it's a lot better in my eyes. The characters were each given their own strong personalities, and the plots are original. Pendleton Ward went all out on fitting in so many different themes into one big series.
Over all, it's a big thumbs up to Adventure Time.
WesternAnimation Silly Yet Serious
It is rare to find a cartoon that has silly characters and a wacky setting, and yet has dark and serious back-stories and plots. And yet this show is exactly that. If you have not yet seen this show, you should watch it right now. The show manages to have an amazing, serious tone, and yet also is silly and whimsical. If you judge this show by the first season, you probably won't like it as much as you should. A few episodes I recommend are Holly Jolly Secrets, I Remember You, Simon and Marcy and the season five premiere, Finn the Human/ Jake the Dog. Those episodes show the show's setting and characters with a great back story.
For my final rating of the series, I give it a 10 out of 10, for the brilliant characters and great setting. If you like silliness, but also serious back-stories and amazing characters, this show is for you.
WesternAnimation A Globdamn Miracle
How many animated shows for kids have lasted longer than three seasons?
How many animated shows for kids have gotten progressively better after three seasons?
How many animated shows for kids suddenly and without warning introduced character development and world-building elements in their third seasons? The third season in which, by all rights, they should be dead, because that's just how kids animation works?
Adventure Time is an anomaly. A miracle. It should, by all rights, not exist. It spits in the face of every trend since television animation has even been a thing.
It presents a world of cobbled-together nonsense and implausibilities and then sets about explaining them. It presents us with flat characters and sets about exploring their backstories and hidden depths. Character continuity suddenly starts occurring as Finn and Flame Princess become a thing and Jake has kids. And it takes its sweet time doing this, in spite of the fact that the mere nature of the business should mean it should never get a chance to do so. And it only gets more entertaining, inventive and fascinating as the years wear on, while by this point pretty much every animation kids show lucky enough to last this long had already deteriorated into endlessly hitting the same story beats and increasingly stupid/jerkish character notes.
For the first time, I can look five years into the future and see one of my favorite animated shows still going strong and continuing to surprise and amuse. I can't tell you how deeply happy that makes me.
WesternAnimation "Too Old"
Adventure Time, must you continually and evermore raise my expectations regarding what is true insanity?
This episode follows the relationship of Finn and Bubblegum, something we haven't see since "Burning Low" from last season. I really liked episodes that highlighted these two as it shows Finn at his most vulnerable. With Flame Princess, he is comfortable. With Rosilinen, he lived an entire life with her and needed not continue the story from then on. Princess Bubblegum is still very much an unknown.
As for Princess Bubblegum, this episode NEEDED to make up for her tainted reputation in "Sky Witch". I found the PB from "Sky Witch" cruel and uncaring towards Marceline, with the act of charged words coming harshly. Did the comeback happen? To an extent. I'll give her credit for not completely resorting to being a stick in the mud. Instead, she showed that even in situations of danger, she is still resourceful and caring. Perhaps what Finn said in the end is true. She's an adult and adults are like that. In fact, one of my favorite anime of recent memory, Michiko And Hatchin, had a young girl question the actions of her older caretaker. The caretaker's response was, "That's how grown ups, you know, negotiate."
Speaking of comeback, the Lemongrabs. What the flob is going on? An authoritarian regime, mass cannibalism, electrical torture doled out to innocent citizens. With this episode, the Earldom of Lemongrab officially supersedes the Goblin Kingdom as the most insane kingdom the show has created. What can you do? I just...Lemongrab.
Finally, there's Badlemon Nohope. His design is simple, meant to reflect the morose nature that comes with being under a dictatorship. I'd like to think his human-like design is a reference to The Simpsons, as Pendleton Ward has stated on multiple occasions that it was a chance encounter with Matt Groening as a child that inspired him to enter animation.
Overall, it was an interesting episode, if only to turn some pages in this story. Finn has moved on from Princess Bubblegum, The Earl of Lemongrab is unsalvageable, Badlemon may become a factor, and Flame Princess is back in the mind of Finn. Not bad for only 12 minutes.
WesternAnimation Gets better after Season 2
At first, I liked the show. It had a funny randomness to it that I liked, and they weren't afraid to show some cartoon violence, which gave me the nostalgia of Tom and Jerry all over again in a new show. I liked it, but wasn't really invested in the show.
And then the third season came out, and they decided to get darker and deeper with the characters. And this is when I started to really love the show. That extra depth that they added (and continue to add) really gets you emotionally involved in the characters (Marceline and Ice King in particular). While some episodes are still random nonsense, they do a great job of putting in an episode every now and then that makes you just sit and think "Wow. I can't believe how deep and serious this just got." Especially for someone like me, who really gets attached to character growth and interaction, the show just keeps getting better from Season 3 onward.
WesternAnimation From great and fun to- Lesser fun but still Great
One thing that I've always liked about Adventure Time is that it managed to be surreal in an upbeat, friendly, and funny in the kind of way way that made it fun to watch because you weren't supposed to take it seriously, and you couldn't if you tried. But that was in the beginning; now the show has just gotten a little too plot heavy. It still has the surreal whimsy, but it's just become less funny and fun. Although, I'm not saying I don't like the new plots: the writing is surprisingly incredible and I love the hidden depth of it all, I just wish there was more humor involved and occasionally the lighter plot episode like there used to be.
And I don't like how serious Finn is now, he's become too angsty and mature. I guess they had to do that since Real Life Writes The Plot and his actor sounds much older now, but still.
WesternAnimation Like a correction of Flapjack
When I first started watching The Misadventures of Flapjack, I loved it's creativity, setting, and characters. But Flapjack had some problems, such as the disgusting close-ups and the episode endings, some of which were disappointing. But Adventure Time (which I'm pretty sure is made by the same company) is a lot like Flapjack. If TV shows were assignments and Flapjack was the first, it would get a B- for it's faults. Adventure Time would be a different report by the same kid, which has the same elements as Flapjack but corrects Flapjack's problems. A++ for creativity, effort, and succeeding at being weird.
WesternAnimation Adventure Time...revised!
Okay, to tell you all the truth, I wasn't really a huge fan of Adventure Time when it came lurching out of my TV. Why? First: The random/"funny" humor this show was desperately trying to create slowly falls flat on its face upon deeper inspection (take for example the Magic Man episode. You're thinking it would turn out to be, I don't know, halfway decent with Finn being transformed into something cool, right? Oh how I had been waiting to see Finn as some giant monster thing to squeeze in something about appearance not mattering and what's inside that counts and whatnot... (Beat)...a foot. Really? A foot? I've been waiting and girling over a foot? Cue several foot-related jokes and two Warped Aesops that would soon become a staple of the show's humor; one at the end of the episode about not helping beggars and one where Finn is in a state of despair over being stuck a foot; Jake tells him he should just stay a foot anyway, prompting Finn to yell at him and the other party for giving up and launching into this clearly autotuned song. Jake's supposed to be the best friend here? What does that tell people? Give up and NOT help people in need?)
Second; the crushing disappointment Finn/Bubblegum was and the buildup. Why did they bother with building it up and then crashing it down? It's useless—like building a fortress, then tearing it down for kicks. It was like the writers knew we supported Bubblegum/Finn and just wanted to tease us, then Too Young's ending happens, sliding Bubblegum into jackass territory by dumping him. What was the point of that?
Also, for my last, (probably useless) shred of evidence, is how the writers either have a fetish for Finn screaming, or someone getting hurt. The end of Wizard Battle has Finn screaming like an idiot at Abracadaniel like he did something stupid, crushing his newfound confidence and making Finn look less like a hero and derailing him into a Jerk With Plot Benefits (i.e: still winning despite cheating due to the plot demanding it) and getting a kiss from Princess Bubblegum anyway and a slap on the cheek. It also has the high honor of making Bubblegum look like she supports jerks and she doesn't.
WesternAnimation The Ice King Arc
Let's be honest. Adventure Time is one of only five really great children's animated shows currently in production. The other four are Cartoon Network's Regular Show, Nickelodeon's Legend Of Korra, The Hub's My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and Disney's Gravity Falls. There are other shows that make the mark. They just get muddled each other, getting overshadowed by the shows that nail it. Though, put simply, if I were to make the case why Adventure Time is the best of these, look no further than the Ice King arc.
Often a MacGuffin or major event takes precedence in the arc. However, AT's overlapping arcs manage to run the gamut of different ways of telling a story, often with characters. There's the Enchiridion arc, the Fire Kingdom arc, the Lich arc, and several aborted arcs (remember Billy and Susan Strong? Yeah, what happened to them?). By far, the Ice King arc is the strongest.
The episodes necessary to figure out the Ice King are as followed: "Prisoners of Love", "The Enchiridion!" "The Eyes", "Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil" "Holly Jolly Secrets Part I and II", "Princess Monster Wife", "Beyond This Earthly Realm", "I Remember You", and "Simon and Marcy".
This arc is just fantastically written in terms of pacing and delivery. Like a strange mix of Harvey "Two-Face" Dent and Dr. Victor "Mr. Freeze" Fries of Batman: The Animated Series, Ice King is a character that we initially write off as a one-trick pony. He provides gags but we don't connect with him on a personal level. It isn't until "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II" that we see just who this character is. He has mental damage that scars him and we really have to sympathize with him. The dark chaos that blinds him is just gut wrenching, and we feel terrible for having laughed at him. The next three arc episodes deliver lighter blows until Season 4's penultimate episode, where the team up I have waited for is revealed. Marceline Abadeer and Ice King team up musically and have deconstructions that can't be ignored and the end result is story writing perfection. The past meets the present and we are all floored.
There is a reason why Tom Kenny states this is his current favorite character is the Ice King. SpongeBob SquarePants has run his course. People love emotional characters and will continue to do so for a long time.
WesternAnimation There's something that just caught me off guard...
The overall style of this show. I'm starting to cringe on this show mainly because of the style. Though we all know that there are also shows like this (like The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack), I'm not really seeing anything pass through it. Despite the exciting and original plot, funny humor, smooth animation and the beautiful title cards, it still has that certain animation that looked too lazy and careless because some of the characters change shapes. Such example would be Finn where he's originally tall and skinny, can sometimes look short and stout like a Mighty Bean. Jake is a default case seeing that there is no known extent to his stretchy powers.
They also have facial expressions that looked to be inspired from ragecomics much to my annoyance. That mixed with the simplistic style of Adventure Time, it'll look Off Model. Sad to say that, I would admit that I hate a certain show because of its style. I already hate Flapjack because of its style. Cartoon Network seems to just air any cartoon although the anatomy looks awful. Sorry but, those are not good cartoons in my book. Squishy squashy old cartoons that at least have consistent shapes of the characters are more watchable than this. You say don't judge a book by it's cover but I did just that. Call me shallow but it's the honest truth. It's what I think and if I have to rate this, it'd be: 2.5/5
EDIT: Okay, I just want to clear some stuff up. Maybe what I mean is, in my opinion, I thought when it comes to animation, the art style should be put into consideration. Yes, the cartoon has a plot and a good one I might add but it would be hard to take seriously if the drawings in the cartoon look like simple doodles rendered for the sake of being animated. Seriously, if you have a good story in your mind, write a book. But if you have a good story but decide to attempt a not-so Stylistic Suck-ish Art Style Dissonance, make some permanent concept designs for crying out loud. In fact, the style in its early seasons is more tolerable but later seasons made everyone look like their eyes more shrunken and faces farther apart.
WesternAnimation Unique, but not great.
Adventure Time is like an acid trip while watching an Aphex Twin music video; It's calm sometimes, and other times, It totally bombs. Adventure Time is full awkward dialogue, despite decent voice actors, genuinely exciting moments yet with painful forced romance arks. The show is a unique, and sometimes, very well imagined world. The humor is off - canter, but sometimes a gem shines through the useless rock of crappy dialogue. The characters, while strange, are relatable and sometimes memorable. The writing is sometimes good, sometimes bad. While it's (attempted) romance arks are pretty painfull, the show can have some really good moments. This show, well, it shines sometimes. While it isn't anything special, at least it isn't flash animation... I give it a good 8/10
WesternAnimation A Strange Tale of Discovery
When Adventure Time first showed up on Cartoon Network, it was right after the ended of one of my other much beloved shows. I was naturally, as most people would be, a little upset that some kind of crappy fifteen minute show was appearing where my much beloved show had been before. So at first I gave it no really attention, thinking it was nothing but a junk show. But when my sister started to watch it I decided why not give it a chance.
I happened upon the episode Evection, where the vampire queen Marceline makes her grand appearence. I really liked that episode and watched the rest of the show mearly because of that one episode. The more I watched the more it grew on me. I'm a fan of shows that have an on going story line and interesting characters. Adventure Time luckly has that and more.
Favorite episodes though have to be the season three two parter. The Lich really creeped the hell out of me.
If you want a show that far more interesting then it lets on, Adventure Time is the show for you.
WesternAnimation The most subversively funny show on TV.
A lot of cartoons aiming for Periphery Demographic appeal tend to go for "random" humor that runs out quickly after a few episodes, and comes off as merely bizzare non-sequiters rather than anything actually funny. Adventure Time is unique in that it is an endless fountain of continually-fresh and inventive humor, constantly subverting expectations of all kinds. Everything about the show is jam-packed full of quirkiness that never feels pretentious or condescending. The dialogue, plots, characters, artwork, everything contributes to the experience and manages to retain its charm time after time.
In short, if you're looking for a crazy, unpredictable show that constantly suprises even the most jaded viewer, you'll love Adventure Time.
WesternAnimation A Grand Finale For All But Three Of Its Most Important Characters
Spoilers below.
Adventure Time has always zigzagged in terms of quality. There are good episodes like "Holly Jolly Secrets" and bad episodes like "Jake Suit" or "Breezy". I have mixed feelings about Adventure Time's final season and finale, because while it changes some characters, three feel like they are trapped in the status quo
In the finale, Finn fights Fern, a villain built up to be the final villain, but never really feels in-depth like some of the previous antagonists. Whereas the Lich was the anti-thesis to everything Finn embodied as a hero and Martin was Finn's worst traits personified, Fern feels like a bunch of evil twin tropes cobbled together wrapped up with magic. Really, the whole conflict is meant to distract viewers from the fact Finn mostly unimportant in the finale of Adventure Time. The larger and more important conflict is resolved by PB and Finn is swallowed by GOLB, quickly upon arrival. This seems like a microcosm of Finn's decreased presence in general. Compared to the development of some of the side characters. Finn still seems to lack long term goals, unique talents and passions, or chemistry in relationships. Steven Universe is a show that puts a greater emphasis on crying and selling songs to iTunes, yet the titular character seems much farther in all these areas. Which of these was supposed to be the WA equivalent of shonen again?
Jake is involved in the final conflict, but lacks any major change in development. Since this is the finale of the show, why not change the dynamic? Life isn’t stagnant, when relationships get serious, people move out and prioritize the development of family. I was hoping some of what his son, Kim, said would sink in and Jake would try to be more responsible.
Simon's resolution at the end of Adventure Time is probably the most disappointing. Simon loses the power of the Ice King and gains enough sanity and intelligence to realize how irrelevant an antiquarian is in a land where magic exists and science extends far beyond what can be constituted as physics. The show gives the chance for him and Betty to reunite one final time before practically destroying any chance of ever seeing her again, as if the writers can’t write Simon if he’s not lovelorn and depressed.
The conclusion properly concludes the the personal story of PB, and to a lesser extent, BMO and Marceline. However, it leaves the above characters dead in the water in terms of personal development. I realize the story will continue in comics but considering the mixed reception of ATLA comics that might not be a good thing. Whatever the case this is the finale most people will recognize as the ending of the show, and to me it feels incomplete.