YMMV / Adventure Time: Distant Lands

• Angst? What Angst?: In "Wizard City", Spader, an actual child, is murdered by the villains, but the narrative never dwells on it beyond a quick joke regarding Larry looking forward to seeing him, unknowing of his true fate.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite The Lich coming back as the final boss of the series as a whole in "Together Again", he doesn't do much against Finn and Jake, as the duo fights one another to stop him and take New Death's place as the next Grim Reaper. Instead, it's Mr. Fox who stops the Lich by accident, becoming the next Death and allowing Jake to throw the Lich hand into the void.
• Awesome Music: The "Obsidian" special is full of these. Best examples are the Break Up Song "Woke Up", and the Silly Love Song "Monster".
• Broken Base: This has been the consensus towards "Together Again" one year after its premiere. It's either considered a worthy finale to Finn, Jake and the series as a whole or another disappointing send-off that fails to address a lot of the criticism from "Come Along With Me", and that's not even mentioning the controversial plot point regarding Finn becoming suicidal after Jake passed away.
• Complete Monster:
  • The Lich returns. See that page for details.
  • "Wizard City": Dr. Caledonius, supposedly a Cool Teacher at Wizard City's school for preeminent young wizards, is actually a deranged cult leader worshiping an eldritch horror named Coconteppi. Caledonius takes an obsessive interest in the amnesiac, childlike Peppermint Butler, knowing he used to be the most evil dark wizard in Ooo's history, and so manipulates and corrupts him into drinking the ichor of Coconteppi and becoming the monster's host, all so that he'll annihilate Wizard City and usher in the "Second Age of Terror". Caledonius has no compunction murdering her own teenaged students; she murders Spader in a failed ritual to summon Coconteppi, then remorselessly orders Peppermint's friend Cadebra murdered when she tries to help him break out of Coconteppi's influence.
• Continuity Lockout: The miniseries itself is set to take place after "Come Along With Me" (aside from "BMO", which is actually a prequel). May Glob help you if you didn't watch the original series from beginning to end.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Of all the new characters introduced in the miniseries, Dr. Caledonius from "Wizard City" immediately gained quite a following after the episode's release thanks to her design, her personality as a teacher and her true identity as an evil cultist.
• Epileptic Trees: Once the bio of the main cast of "BMO" was published, people immediately started to assume Mr. M's identity as a new robotic body for Moe, who had his consciousness launched into outer space by BMO during the ending montage of the final episode. This theory was strengthened further when a sneak peek of the episode showed Olive taking BMO to the Drift after scanning their body, implying that he created the bot. However, some fans theorize that Mr. M is Martin, due to his name and his body shape being almost too similar. Come the episode, and it's revealed that not only Mr. M is Martin, but it was Moe who sent BMO to terraform Mars, according to Adam Muto.
  • With "Obsidian" confirmed to take place a few years after the finale and his absence from the episode being quite noticeable, everyone immediately started worrying about Jake, with some speculating that he died at one point after the finale. And since "Together Again" is possibly confirmed to take place between the finale and "Obsidian", fans are now clamoring for the episode to come out soon for answers.
  • Once Finn showed up in "Obsidian", many fans started to question what he's been up to since the finale, other than still being an adventurer and having his grandniece as his partner: his relationship with Huntress Wizard, his life with his mother and the humans, where is he living now and so on.
  • This continues with "Together Again", which takes place after Finn’s death but the exact details of his life up to that point are still kept ambiguous.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Regardless of the praises and issues, one thing that most fans despised about "Together Again" and pretend to ignore is the fact that Finn became a Death Seeker after Jake's death, never being able to move on and waited years for his upcoming demise so that he could meet him again. This really left a sour taste in their mouths, as none of them wanted to see Finn as a miserable wreck until his death.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Obsidian" has a gag where Glassassins break into Marceline's home and catch Simon standing in front of an open freezer while dressed as Ice King. It becomes extremely sad after Fionna and Cake, where Simon's depression is explored in great detail, with him explaining he used to dress as Ice King because he started missing when he was too crazy to realize the pain he was in.
• He Really Can Act: Jeremy Shada shows that after more than two years of not voicing Finn, he's still got it. He really nails Finn's Freak Out moment when Jake disappears from his dream as it turns to a nightmare and again when he suffers Heroic BSoD when he thinks his parents (...and Jermaine) were killed by New Death's minions.
• Ho Yay: In "Together Again", the opening has Turtle Princess insist Finn save LSP, complimenting her intelligence and beauty while LSP blushes.
  Turtle Princess: She's beautiful and smart, she's got so much to live for!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Since the miniseries will be available on HBO Max, fans started to joke about how the miniseries is going to get away with so much stuff now, since HBO is well known for their adult shows.
  • Some fans started comparing Olive's design to Plankton, due to their design being almost similar.
  • Fifty Shades of Eugenics/Joshua's keikaku/FINN!^ExplanationAfter "Obsidian" premiered on HBO Max, a lot of fans started memeing about Jake's late father Joshua having a very elaborated plan to generate a new lineage of heroes by making Finn marry his adopted grandniece Bronwyn, which is a very popular Crack Ship among the fandom. It even started overlapping with an infamous Resident Evil meme where Chris wants Leon and Ethan to impregnate Claire.
  • Leaf Man Supremacy. ^ExplanationDuring the time between "Obsidian" and "Together Again", the AT community began memeing about Leaf Man, a very, very minor character to make him have a major role in "Wizard City".
• Nightmare Fuel: The moment Finn and Jake temporarily immobilize New Death, only for the villain to start laughing and twitching, and then an all-too familiar voice says:
  The Lich: Burn.
• One-Scene Wonder: While "Obsidian" is mostly focused on Marceline and Bubblegum, the appearance of Adult Finn and Bronwyn at the end of the episode excited a lot of people too.
• Popular with Furries:
  • Bronwyn was already popular in the original show, despite appearing in only two episodes, but her appearance at the end of "Obsidian" alongside Finn skyrocketed her popularity thanks to her taking over Jake's place as Finn's adventuring partner. Not to mention those who ship her with Finn.
  • New Death from "Together Again" attracted a lot of attention from both the Scalies and the Bara fanbase, mostly because of his design.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • While the announcement of the miniseries was received with praise, the fact that it's going to be exclusive to a single streaming service instead of airing on Cartoon Network turned a lot of people off. This is due to the amount of streaming services available in the streaming market and the fact that HBO Max will not be available on some countries until a year later after its arrival, which will force those fans to watch the series through unofficial streaming sites or commit piracy.
  • When "Together Again" was announced to be the third special to premiere on HBO Max, fans were not only caught by surprise, but also confusion and disappointment, as they wanted "Together Again" to be the finale of Distant Lands instead of "Wizard City", which is focused on Peppermint Butler. This died down after Muto clarified that the specials are airing in their intended order, as the miniseries was originally planned to have three specials, with "Wizard City" being greenlit during production. Even a member of the staff confirmed that "Wizard City" will be an epilogue of sorts.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: With the miniseries over, a lot of fans expressed disappointment by the abscence of popular characters they wanted to see in the specials, such as Flame Princess, Minerva, the Ice King/Ice Thing, Lemongrab, Susan Strong and so on. And while some fan favorites like Huntress Wizard and Bronwyn made a return, they only have a few seconds of screen time and no voice lines.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: While "Together Again" addressed a lot of issues fans had with "Come Along With Me", the special has its own issues as well, especially since the episode is treated as the definitive closure to Finn and Jake's adventures:
  • With the episode taking place years after Finn and Jake's death, you'd expect some mention to what happened to them after the finale, but the episode completely avoids mentioning anything after "Come Along With Me". What happened to Lady Rainicorn? What happened to Jake's kids? Is Finn living with Minerva and the humans? These and several other questions are never answered, and as such, it feels like a wasted opportunity. It doesn't help that Adam Muto, just like the finale, refused to give any information regarding their lives to avoid contradicting the original show's continuity.
  • And just like the finale, Finn's love life didn't get any closure again, let alone a single mention or a hint of who he ended up with, whether he stayed together with Huntress Wizard, got back together with Flame Princess, or found a new love interest among the humans who came with Minerva because of the aforementioned continuity issues. They don't even appear in the episode at all, although in Flame Princess' case, it's possible that she reincarnated before Finn and before New Death's takeover, considering that she's one of the Four Elementals. And as for Huntress Wizard, Finntress shippers were expecting her and Finn to make an appearance in "Wizard City" to finally give it some closure. Come "Wizard City" and not only Finn does not show up, but Huntress Wizard is Demoted to Extra again, only appearing as a background character for two seconds, leaving those who waited years since the finale for some resolution angry and disappointed.
  • Another point of criticism is Finn himself, or rather, his characterization. With the episode taking place decades after the finale, you'd expect to see Finn changed in terms of personality and character, but "Together Again" portrays him as the same 17 year old from the original show with the same personality from before, as if he had no development for the entirety of his life. You can see a little glimpse of something new with Finn as an old man before and after he learns that he died, but the special reverts him back to his old self.
  • One last big criticism from the special is that Finn does not defeat the Lich, the Final Boss of the franchise and his long time arch nemesis at the end, but Mr. Fox does. Once again, he was denied one last big hurrah against the show's final villain.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Everyone assumed Y5 was a boy before the trailer for "BMO" came out. And even after that, thanks to her feminine voice, no one knew what gender she was. It wasn't until HBO Max released her bio in their official website that she was revealed to be female.
• Win Back the Crowd: Some who found "Come Along With Me" a lackluster end for Finn and Jake were appeased by "Together Again". Finn and Jake as the main focus? Check. Finn getting his robot arm back? Check. The Lich returning as the Final Boss? Check.

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