Month: October 2023

Adventure Time

“Prismo the Wishmaster” Review

Adventure Time Reviewed


Original Airdate: September 7, 2023

Written & Storyboarded by: Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jim Campbell & Lucyola Langi

I’m glad I took some time to let these episodes sit a bit before jumping in to review them, because there’s A LOT that Prismo the Wishmaster dishes out. The entirety of this episode essentially acts as an answer to one of Adventure Time‘s most unusual questions after the events of the episode Fionna and Cake and Fionna. I previously lambasted that episode as the worst in the series, because it seemed like it was just throwing shit at the fan to try to mystify Fionna and Cake at a point in the series where it felt like they really had no place anymore. Turns out, Fionna and Cake and Fionna was actually setting up an idea that the crew played around with for a while but never really had the time or place to explain it in full detail. According to Adam Muto in an interview with Inverse, Prismo’s introduction in season five naturally came with the idea that he would be the true creator of Fionna & Cake. I do admire the current place AT is at where they can just come back later on and address unopened doors in the past, while continuing to plant seeds for the future. And Prismo the Wishmaster is just that – AT at perhaps its most convoluted, chock full of answers to questions and questions raised from those answers. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.

The episode begins with a neat little cold opening taking place in The Drift from BMO, which also doubles down on this season’s personal goal of having as many Cheers references as they can possibly squeeze in. This one’s mostly just for gag purposes, though it may show that even a cosmic being like Kheirosiphon craves the mundane and simplistic life that Simon and Fionna so vehemently reject. Or maybe it was just to feature an alien version of Norm, which I’m also okay with. This is also the moment we’re introduced to Scarab – the main antagonist for the season. He’s a character that I have pretty lukewarm views on overall; I think Scarab at the very least boasts a cool design and presence in the general worldbuilding of the series. I like his crystal scythe and his little Tamagotchi-esque captor eggs, and I think it’s cool to have some kind of understanding of how cosmic crimes (or what seems to be cosmic misdemeanors in this case) are addressed from an authoritative level. As a character, Scarab’s not really anything to write home about. AT in general has been kind of struggling with villains since the last season of the OG series and I think it just boils down to them never being funny or intimidating enough. Aside from The Lich and rare instances of genuinely threatening baddies (Ricardio’s presence in Lady & Peebles comes to mind or Hierophant in May I Come In?), Adventure Time villains are kind of supposed to be lame. The idea is always taking a concept that should make for a terrifying villain in any other fantasy series but making them super humanized and pretty mundane. Like, Kee-Oth is a demon that belongs to this super distorted underworld-type dimension but he also takes Pilates classes. Or Hunson Abadeer, the literal ruler of the Nightosphere, who uses karate moves when he’s pissed off at his daughter and vocalizes those exact karate moves when he uses them. There are other villains, such as Lemongrab or Dr. Gross, that have interesting pieces of psychological baggage that make them more engaging, on top of being funny as well. But Scarab just doesn’t really get any committed character depth and isn’t given anything particularly funny to say or do, so he just kind of ends up being a foil. I don’t really totally fault the crew for not taking the time to flesh out this character when there is already so much else going on, but I also wonder why they chose to include him in the first place. I like how his role further explores the presence of cosmic beings in the universe, but any other time he shows up is just kind of a reminder of the stakes of the situation at hand.


But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself – after the detour in The Drift, we once again see a depressed Prismo shirking his duties in the Time Room. Similar to Choose Goose, it is really funny how committed the staff is to including Wyatt across multiple different iterations. Though, unlike CG, I think Wyatt’s inclusion is much less overdone and it is funny to also see those parallels painted as to how he ended up (and stayed) within the First Dead World (who knows what type of cosmic crimes he committed on his own to get there??) It’s also pretty clear that Prismo gave up caring about the consequences that came with making wishes a long time ago, and honestly, why should he? Wyatt probably would’ve wished for Tree Trunks to rub his shoulders for all of eternity or something, it’s not really the type of wishes that require him to be extra careful and caution. And also, you get the clear idea that not really any other person who has entered that Time Room in years has had any kind of concern or interest in Prismo’s life. Honestly, Jake might’ve been the only non-cosmic being to ever show interest or compassion for Prismo, so it really adds to how much he’s sunk into desolation. Also worth noting is that Prismo has a new voice actor as of this episode, making for another point where I’m just going to divulge into production notes that all of y’all have probably heard already! Prismo’s original voice actor, Kumail Nanjiani, did not return to the role because of a representative of his passing on Nanjiani’s behalf without his knowledge. It is sad because Nanjiani’s reaction on social media shows how legitimately bummed he was by this and how even with how big he’s become, he has a special place for Prismo in his heart. Nanjiani brought so much natural charisma to the character, it’s a performance that will be truly missed. Though it’s not all in vain, because Sean Rohani, who voices Prismo in Fionna and Cake, does a pretty great job taking over! It definitely took some getting used to – I think even if you sound very much like the actor that you’re replacing, there’s still an adjustment period to the new performance and inflections that impacted my immersion slightly on a first watch. However, watching it again and having seen the whole season by this point, it’s much less noticeable and easier to appreciate what Rohani brings to the table. Also, as many people have mentioned, Prismo being depressed definitely supports Rohani being a bit raspier than Nanjiani was in the role.

I love the little black-and-white sequence that results from Wyatt’s wish. I like that the design of it didn’t immediately jump to rubberhose as a main inspiration point and instead just uses weird, more stylistic interpretations of 20’s designs. Graham Falk boarded the entire sequence, which really gives him a chance to shine with his more expressive style. The animation for the scene was done by Nick Cross, who seems to have been the main source for in-house animation during the entirety of Fionna and Cake. Cross animated the intro for F&C as well and it’s delightful to see energy that he instills to knock an already well-boarded segment out of the park. This is the man who animated the entirety of the Highway Man scene in Over the Garden Wall, after all! It’s also cool because Cross’s work with Falk dates all the way back to when Cross was a storyboard artist on The Untalkative Bunny, so things have really come full circle here.


I mentioned that Cake the Cat felt like it was plodding a bit and held on certain bits that felt like they could’ve been used for other space. Prismo the Wishmaster is definitely an episode the earns its 24 minute runtime and not even because every second is jam-packed with knowledge overload. It does have some little moments of Prismo interacting with Fionna, Cake, and Simon, while still managing to sprinkle in some dialogue that establishes Prismo as the true creator of F&C (more on that in a bit!) We get a few good glimpses as well into what Ooo’s inhabitants are currently up to, though it’s not especially juicy. Kind of odd that Finn has had extensive changes since we last saw him while Huntress Wizard looks exactly the same as she did 10+ years ago in-universe (they even use her pre-Flute Spell model sheet). In fact, everyone in these clips looks like they could use a little time gap update. You mean to tell me Susan is still wearing her same pre-memory jog outfit? I can’t imagine that smells even remotely decently, but good to see her and Frieda are still traveling together. One clear change is that Pep appears to be advancing through wizard school with his pal Blaine. The most jarring change of all, however, is when we see a brief clip of Lemongrab later on, with a… very noticeable voice actor replacement. Justin Roiland has been outed as a big ol’ creep since F&C went into production, but my guess is this news didn’t break until the scene was fully animated or at the very least in the process of final animation taking place. Jinx Monsoon, who provides the voice for genderbent Lemongrab 1, does her best imitation of LG but it REALLY falls flat. Can’t really blame her or the staff for this as it was clearly a last minute decision that had to be made, but man, if Prismo’s voice change altered my immersion slightly, this nuked it on a first watch.

As the episode moves along and we get into Prismo’s introduction to Fionna and Cake, the puzzle pieces start to come together about his connection with the two, along with Simon. Prismo being the true creator of Fionna and Cake is something I’m still kind of grappling with. I think I was much more negative to the idea off the bat, grew a bit more positive to it, and now I’m kind of in neutral territory. I think the main reason it put me off to begin with is that it doesn’t really fully mesh with the timeline that Adventure Time has set up. Fionna and Cake, the episode, takes place two full seasons before Prismo is introduced in Finn the Human, and I wasn’t really satisfied with the theories to combat this, such as how Prismo is omnipresent and seems to exist outside of time. We know that the Time Room itself exists outside of time, but the way that Prismo interacts with Ooo, along with Finn and Jake, seems to at least exist in a linear way with how Ooo perceives time. Even Prismo himself seems to be mourning Jake’s death in a process that meshes with Ooo’s general timeline, so it wasn’t a theory I was willing to roll with. I think the easiest justification for this is that Adventure Time episodes, outside of clear continuity points, don’t really need to be seen as entirely linear storytelling. They’ve even broken this on occasions, with BMO Noire and Princess Potluck occurring on the same day but being a full season apart, or the flashback in Joshua and Margaret Investigations happening without a clear framing device. So, I’m pretty much fine with accepting that this as part of Adventure Time‘s lore and don’t believe it truly accounts to discontinuity. However, I feel generally mixed about Prismo’s role as the true author. This kind of feels similar to a development like Orgalorg, where the execution of the concept is fun, but the concept itself sort of overly mystifies a relatively simple idea. I liked that Fionna and Cake stories were something that came from Ice King’s obsession for Finn and Jake and that it was actually something he was good at! Ice King couldn’t really constructively do anything worthwhile in his condition, but it was cool to see that Fionna and Cake was the one thing that he actually seemed to pour his heart into and that he gradually accrued a fanbase over time. It’s somewhat of a bummer to me that this small accomplishment was taken away from him, though it depends on how you view creative ideas a whole anyway. I do love the construct that creativity comes from a magic source and is channeled further by peons in an almost spiritual experience, so I don’t reject the mysticism of it entirely. There’s also the implication with how the stories are told that Ice King DOES have some control over the direction on how they are told and that he’s adding his own unique spin to them. It is additionally confusing that Fionna is the central protagonist in all of these stories – wouldn’t it make more sense for Prismo to center them around Jake? Maybe he’s taking their relationship, and Ooo as a whole, and looking at it at a glance, but it’s just strange because Prismo and Finn have never had a very developed relationship. There’s even that dumb line that they included in Hoots where Prismo doesn’t even immediately remember who Finn is – this is the kid you based an entire fanfiction off of?? Though I guess it’s more the fault of that episode than this, so generally speaking, I’m still a bit polarized with my sentiments for this development, though not totally opposed to how it presents itself in the series mythos.


Additionally, some of the lore about wishes being made is cool, namely that wishes only occasionally add to the multiverse and create entirely new dimensions, which supports that Shelby wishing for his GF to have a pony did not in fact create an entire alternate wish universe (a damn shame). Also, this is where we get the hilarious Flapjack cameo, which at this point, I’m all for. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m pretty opposed to any Adventure Time crossover opportunities and I wouldn’t be into the idea of this explored further (as Adam Muto mentioned was an original episode idea), but fuck it, if the multiverse is being explored in detail, I’m fine with a cute little cameo homage to Adventure Time‘s granddaddy. Also super sweet that they chose an episode and clip that was boarded by Pen Ward himself. We also get the neat little tidbit that Beyond the Grotto‘s dimension hopping was created by a wish (possibly the Sea Lard’s?) It really only opens up for the possibilities that other instances of guest animation and unique reality jumps, like Pillow World, also factored in multiverse theorem.

It does seem like Ice King’s individual achievements are slowly whittling away from him, though again, I’m kind of fine with this in how it plays into this specific series. Ice King and the crown have been used for a number of different allegories throughout the franchise’s run, and while I’m bummed that the events of Skyhooks II never really further elaborated on Ice King’s existence as an independent being, Fionna and Cake is clearly going for a different take on it. Addiction is a theme that Simon & Marcy briefly toyed around with when dealing with the crown, and it’s the main thematic push that Fionna and Cake often deals with. Simon being left to look at old memories of himself while everyone in the room praises how funny and cool he used to be when he wore the crown feels like an alcoholic being knocked at for becoming sober. Simon knows that the crown was something that completely disconnected him from his humanity, but you really can’t blame him for becoming increasingly pro-magic as the episode continues when everyone around him is making him feel like he doesn’t have worth in his current state. They’re harsh sentiments from Fionna and Cake, though you can’t really blame them entirely either. Simon spends most of the episode at his absolute worst, defaulting to self-blame and general apathy to everything and everyone around him. Almost to the point where you think, yeah, maybe he would be better off as Ice King! He was out of it and often tortured by the powers of the crown, but at least he was often aided by a clueless joy that took away from any of the pain he is currently experiencing. Of course, this is only looking at one side of it, and only further aids the addiction comparison.


The general interactions between the four central characters of this episode are lots of fun. I like Prismo’s growing understanding of Fionna and Cake’s ability to comprehend things outside of the traits he has already given them, such as Fionna’s difficulty wearing shorts and her opinionated responses to the information being divulged to her. I also love Cake’s experimenting with different shapeshifting abilities that often feel like a child’s wobbly sketches as opposed to fully articulated formations. As mentioned, Simon’s general “fuck this” attitude and him chugging beers with Prismo was quite funny, and I loved how unsentimental the foundation of Fionna and Simon’s relationship is. The implication that she’s going to level with him and then smacks him is great, though it does lead to a genuinely somber speech from Fionna. Again, Madeleine Martin (incorrectly referred to her as board artist “Madeleine Flores” in my Fionna Campbell review – my bad!) does a great job at breathing life into the character and makes her entire situation feel dire, as it is.

It’s always fun going on a little detour of the Time Room and its surroundings, as Is That You? established. I like all the added bits of worldbuilding, like the clock titans that help to communicate the construct of time across the multiverse. This seems like an addition that would be important later on, but it ends up just being a cool little tidbit that helps expand the world – even maybe something that could be elaborated on later on! Speaking of which, Prismo’s boss is name-dropped once more after being mentioned in Crossover (didn’t even mention that “crossover” is the official term for overarching pieces of the multiverse, neat!) I won’t go into this now because there’s more little bits we get later on and I don’t want to spoil anything in case someone is reading these episode-by-episode, but I’ll share with y’all my own headcanon about the boss once we get to the end of the season. The whole exploration of the Time Room is a visual treat, expanding on the spiraling cyberspace-esque backgrounds that first appeared in Is That You? The original series didn’t really have the budget for especially rich backgrounds, so Prismo’s Time Room was limited to mainly flat colors and gradients, but we get some cool textural additions to these landscapes that really help it pop. The entire episode is just a treat from the color front – I love the black light colors that emerge when Prismo begins presenting F&C‘s world to them. The whole episode in general is illuminated by great color choices, I implore you to check out the great color script from background paint supervisor Carolyn Ramirez here. Speaking of staff contributions, I’m starting to recognize new board artist styles a bit more with this episode! I believe Jim Campbell’s contributions chime in when Prismo begins to attempt to hide Fionna, Cake, and Simon from Scarab; his take on Prismo is especially notable, giving him a much rounder head that looks similar to Jesse Moynihan’s take on Prismo in Crossover. Lucyola Langi appears to take over once Fionna and Cake try to escape the Time Room entirely until the end of the episode – her style is notable in just how large the pupils are on each character, perhaps most apparent when Fionna pleads her case to Simon and when F&C ponder how the time remote must work. Kudos to Digamma-F-Wau in the comments for help bringing light to some of these production notes!


Other miscellaneous highlights from this episode include the introduction of Prismo’s Pickle Room; I like how Prismo’s special pickles started from just a one-time gag to now escalate where he has an entire section of his cosmic home dedicated to his pickle storage. I like all the small cameos of cosmic criminals on Scarab’s crystal, including Martin (who is pushing that TV-14 rating with the middle finger inclusion). Any mentions of primordial lore were rad, like the implication that Prismo was chosen to be Wishmaster instead of it just being conceived with his creation. And I think it was easily the funniest portion of the episode when a butt-naked Simon was beamed in, only slightly annoyed at the inconvenience of Prismo summoning him.

Like I mentioned, it’s still one that I’m grappling with from a revelation perspective, but the episode itself is tons of fun. It really gets the ball rolling and kicks the season into full gear, with this being the last bit of set up that moves things forward. Again, it’s always fun that Adventure Time can manage to provide clarity on certain arcs and plot points that feel like they’ve been lost to the wayside, while also committing to making things more convoluted and rich for interpretation in the process. For the most part, that’s kind of how the season operates – digging deeper into certain elements of expansion while also committing to leaving doors open by the end of it. It’s one of the hallmarks of the series that I truly love and I think Prismo the Wishmaster plays around with that in a great way that never bogs down the experience. It’s an episode that easily could’ve been weighed down with its heavy dosage of exposition, but in typical AT fashion, it has the most fun with it that it can.

I’ve kind of exhausted all the production notes I had for this one throughout the blog, so we’ll skip over the footer tidbit this time.


Favorite line: “This is the multiverse, a huge web of all the different realities elegantly connected like an anthill or a camp counselor relationship chart.”

Adventure Time

“Cake the Cat” Review

Adventure Time Reviewed


Original Airdate: September 7, 2023

Written & Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Jacob Winkler, Haewon Lee & Nicole Rodriguez

Cake the Cat follows in the previous two episodes’ method of developing characters that, up to this point, we really didn’t know too too much about. I’d argue that, of the three main characters, the necessity to flesh out Cake beyond what we already know about her from the original F&C episodes feels a bit frivolous. Cake is probably my favorite of the Fionna & Cake bunch up to this point because she was really the only character who immediately set herself apart from her male counterpart; she was sassy, more no-nonsense, and Roz Ryan’s terrific voice presence gave her an immediate sense of charisma. Of course, she also shared some elements of Jake’s personality, mainly that she doesn’t take anything too seriously and is often there to lighten up the mood when things get too heavy. In that sense, she already kind of established herself early on where the rest of the F&C cast of characters were kind of left with fragments of personality and depth that were most left unchecked. So, with that being said, I don’t think spending extra time on giving Cake her own arc in this story is entirely necessary. Of course, she has some nice moments of development throughout the season, but I think what really made her work in these ten episodes is just whenever she just offered moments of comedic relief.


Before gettin’ into Cake stuff, there’s a brief little precursor to the episode I’ll tackle. We see Prismo once more, only this time he’s very clearly depressed. I really like all the small moments of Prismo mourning Jake’s loss – it’s all very understated moments of grief that really paint how much of an impact Jake had on Prismo’s life. And it’s even sadder to wonder just how long this has been going on, though it’s still unclear of when exactly Jake kicked the bucket. The clip of Finn and Jake at the Bird Temple has questionable implications, namely that Finn got the tattoo of his brother before he died. I think that idea is pretty dumb, so my current headcanon is that this must be an alternate universe where Jake survives, but Finn ends up getting the tattoo anyway. I’ve seen the idea thrown around that the tattoo could’ve been the result of Finn losing a bet to Jake, which I think is relatively unsentimental, but I could get behind it if only Finn was super happy about losing said bet. Like, he doesn’t even care, because he’s like, “hey, I get to have my favorite person on my chest forever!” I think that would be pretty sweet. The little sequence itself of their adventure feels similar to the pretty surface-level quest we see at the beginning of Together Again, though it has some neat little additions. I like how the temple itself seems to be partially based on Ghostshrimp’s design for a Bird Temple from the scrapped season one episode The Helmet of Thorogon and the cockatykes on copter-trikes does feel like a very AT-specific concept. Seeing Jakesuit again is also fun, though I feel like it’s reaching the point of oversaturation after appearing pretty recently in Together Again. You can’t just throw the Jakesuit around willy-nilly, it’s for special occasions!

As mentioned, the rest of the episode mainly focuses on Cake exploring Ooo and discovering her own self. It’s a lot of moments that, in my opinion, mostly feel unnecessary to explore. Like, was the exposition of Cake trying different size-altering fruits and acknowledging that she enjoys shapeshifting something that we needed to see happen? Or even her feeling at home with the magic surrounding her, only to be ganged up against by the very beings that made her feel inspired? I feel like most of what is established here can be cooked into Cake obtaining her magical abilities in the following episode without much having been lost. AT often got flack for jamming too much into the span of 11 minute episodes during its original run. While there are definitely instances where that is the case, and there are ways that the added runtime in Fionna and Cake helps stories to flourish, there are instances where these 25 minute episodes tend to overexplain and spend a little too much time trying to set things up. This is of course most noticeable at the beginning of the season, and I really feel like moments from this episode could’ve been baked into the first one, which also was paced a bit awkwardly. Again though, this is coming from someone who was less enthralled by the Fionna and Cake world in general and was more interested in Simon’s plight and the exploration of different Ooo-like worlds. There arguments for keeping this episode the way it is, with how it establishes Cake and Fionna’s relationship and Cake’s feelings of wanting independence from Fionna. Though, I’d argue that this only really leads to incidental drama down the line, so again, I don’t really feel like I personally got much from trying to expand Cake’s character in this great of detail.


The rest of the episode is also pretty middling. I never expected the Marc Maron squirrel to appear again (I kinda just figured he’d be riding that frisbee through the air for all of eternity) but it was nice to see him once more. I think F&C, like Distant Lands, is still kind of struggling to capture the weirdness of the original series, and it’s probably most apparent here. The additional return of the Jim Cummings woodland critters feels like it’d be a prime opportunity for classic AT silliness to shine, but they mostly just show up, get fucked up by Cake (in one of the only instances from the season where I felt the use of blood was a bit gratuitous), and don’t really do anything funny. I’m always down for recapturing the light oddness of Adventure Time, though I feel like this is something the new team is struggling with the most. It’s not without moments that do feel spirituality-aligned; the Squirrel going on about how he involuntarily became an apple salesman one day was great and his boss being irrationally angry with everything she expresses was also fun.

And because I’ve already harped on this in a previous Distant Lands review, I’ll get my whining out of the way now so I don’t harp on it in the future: it still impacts my immersion slightly not having Tim Kiefer composing. Amanda Jones joined the series starting with Obsidian and I just feel like a lot of what she offers up doesn’t always mesh with the series/what Kiefer brought to it. There are so many bits of score in Fionna and Cake that feel kind of generic; the scene where Cake is trying fruits at the market is supplemented by a flute tune that just kind of sounds like typical medieval fare, while Kiefer would always experiment with different sounding instruments, like the dulcimer score heard at the market in Blade of Grass, to support Adventure Time‘s unique and quirky tone. I don’t know if this is really a jab at Jones per se, I think Kiefer was just always so essential to the series in ways that I don’t really see discussed much. Again, I think Jones does an alright job from time to time at capturing the same energy that Kiefer did (I think the theme song for Fionna and Cake itself is particularly great) and I will commend her in the future for times that I think she did knock it out of the park, but I had to get it off my chest at least once so I don’t bitch every time I think the score is ill-fitting.


While on the subject of music, I actually do like Cake’s song in this one! I think it plays out a bit awkwardly in the episode itself, but it is a pretty catchy tune and is actually one of the tracks I find myself humming the most from this season. I quite like Roz Ryan’s singing voice and people may also forget that she was actually on Broadway before getting into film and television. It’s nice that she gets her own song outside of her part in Bad Little Boy, though she deserves just as much praise for that. Oh yeah, and Rainy’s back! She was one of the few recognizable characters from the batch of Ooo residents and apparently she hasn’t aged a day in 15 years or so. I did like how the civilians were all pretty much new designs based around commonplace species from Ooo. I really dig the one tree guy painting portraits that apparently got bored at one point and started painting a house instead. Or maybe that’s just what he sees, I guess.

On the other side of the episode, we see Fionna desperately searching for Cake while Simon continues to lose his mind and attempts once more to summon Betty. Again, it’s more so just moving things along before the ball gets dropped and everything starts moving, but there’s nothing going on that’s particularly of interest. Fionna drinking wine out of a paper bag with Marshall and Ellis P. was fun, but otherwise I didn’t find any of Fionna or Simon’s scenes particularly noteworthy up to her entering Ooo. And with how fast Fionna gets launched into a whole other world and quickly accepts it, I’m shocked that they decided to just kind of tack on this development on at the last minute! I don’t really mind it and I don’t think you have to spend an extended amount of time doing a fish out of water story with her, but with how much the episode takes its sweet time with other things, it’s kind of funny how much Fionna’s introduction is quickly glanced over. She gets some fun moments towards the end – I’ve never related to anything more than when she brushes off her clothes to provide a handful of Cake’s hair, and her just straight up murdering weird creatures around her sets up her longstanding arc of murdering other weird creatures around her throughout the season. It’s cut short when Fionna and Cake are beamed up to Prismo’s and Astrid is left without her hat. I was kind of convinced that Astrid would tag along in this journey and hold a role similar to the Distant Lands sidekick characters, but I’m kind of glad that didn’t end up happening. Astrid is cute, but I think it would probably just overcrowd an already jammed series.


Otherwise, this one is probably the most lukewarm I am for a Fionna and Cake episode. I’m usually fine with letting things breathe a bit, but with such a small amount of episodes for the season, I just feel like a lot of it is kind of padding out setup. Again, nothing against Cake as a character, but I think spending a decent amount of time developing her character in ways that could kind of just be implied feels like there could’ve been some tweaking in terms of how this episode slot is used. The stuff with the squirrel and gang is fine, but isn’t really fun enough either to justify its role in the episode. But generally speaking, it still isn’t bad, it’s just time I felt could’ve been used for something funnier, more insightful, or experiment a bit more with the themes they’re going for. As is, I still think Cake plays a great role in the season, just not from a stance of personal growth.

Also, Minerva gets a small cameo in the human city! There’s actually a full deleted scene from the episode where Minerva interacts a bit more with Cake, which you can see here. I think the additional scene is cute, but I think I’m more happy with the little glimpse/cameo that it was cut down to. The boards for this scene I believe were drawn by Hanna K. Nyström, though feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Favorite line: “Literally, some apple guy came up to me and said, ‘this will be your life now and it will be a life of loneliness.”

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“Simon Petrikov” Review

Adventure Time Reviewed


Original Airdate: August 31, 2023

Written & Storyboarded by: Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jim Campbell & Lucyola Langi

Hope y’all are diggin’ the new site updates! I went a bit manic last week with messing around with the layout and testing out different images and styles. Hopefully you weren’t too alarmed hopping around on the site at that point in time – everything should be squared away for the time being!

One thing I love about AT is the motif they’ve committed to over the years with naming episodes after main characters, and usually use that episode space to demonstrate how that particular character ticks. I kinda figured Fionna Campbell was just using it as an opportunity to showcase the more humanized world of F&C, but the rest of the season mostly commits to working hand-in-hand with this theme. Simon Petrikov, of course, delves into the psyche of Simon as he continues to try to get adjusted to his life after being Ice King for so long. And, in terms of how these episodes typically go, this one is particularly grim. Finn the Human showed that Finn is just generally a very selfless person no matter what his circumstances in life are like. Jake the Dog demonstrated how Jake typically goes with the flow even in the midst of certain disaster. Marceline the Vampire Queen depicted Marceline’s struggles with her own inability to change and her making a conscious effort to try to progress in a very stagnant world. Bonnibel Bubblegum got to the root of PB’s wildly naïve perspective gained from ruling over others in a less mature state of mind. Simon Petrikov is really just about how Simon doesn’t want to be alive. Sad!


A lot of the foundation for Simon’s arc throughout the season is laid out pretty early on in Simon Petrikov. The flashback scene with Simon and young Marcy pretty much sums up Simon’s fears of having to be comfortable in his own skin, and it makes sense. So much of what we know about him up to this point is that he had a deep connection with Marceline and a deep connection with Betty. Aside from his own interest in anomalies, his identity is really built around the idea of how much he cares for these two people, so it’s not really hard to believe that he was kind of dependent on them. Not to say that Simon’s not a good egg – he’s not some egomaniac who uses people for his own wellbeing. But so much of his identity has been built around his dedication to others that there’s never really been much flex time to develop himself beyond that. Which would probably be easier to stomach if that was the only problem he’s having, but add in the fact that he’s been out of his mind for 1,000 years and he has no one that he can actually relate to and you have a real recipe for a madman.

The Cheers theme song comes in once more to really hammer in those feelings of isolation that nag at Simon. His desires for escapism are all laid out in the lyrics themselves and I think Cheers in general is a show that Simon has some sort of sick relationship with. We see him watching it at the beginning, but I don’t even think he likes it! It’s the one piece of media that reminds him of his own humanity but makes him feel equally isolated through his inability to actually achieve even the mundanity of going to a bar and connecting with others (which, more on that later). It doesn’t help that he’s essentially an alien in the eyes of Ooo residents. His day consists of explaining what ironing is like to former Islanders and getting roasted by a little girl about how he used to be really cool when he wasn’t himself. It was cool seeing the newly established Human City after the events of Come Along With Me, and even cooler recognizing their expressions as a staple of Graham Falk’s boarding! Falk returned to the series as a board artist after being absent from Distant Lands. It’s a little bit more difficult this time around to pick up on the style of individual artists, but the expressions of the humans, the monobrows, and the way everyone will occasionally stand at a very titled angle have him written all over it. It was good to see that element of familiarity while I continue to get to understand the newer writers and board artists better.

Speaking of newer board artists, Iggy Craig has also returned to the series after working on the first three Distant Lands specials! His boarding begins after Simon breaks down and closes up shop. Craig’s drawings of Simon are really spectacular, nailing all of his pent up disdain in really expressive ways; Simon rubbing his face in frustration, longingly staring at the statue of GOLB, and all of the wonderful close-ups of Simon’s discomfort in the bar are courtesy of Craig. Hopping into the bar scene, this whole section of the episode is really great. Part of the fun of the series being rated TV-14 is that they can have Simon be a straight-up alcoholic! But it’s not the escapist fantasy that the Cheers theme song promised – Simon’s not able to take a break from all of his worries at Dirt Beer Guy’s Tavern. Instead, he’s once again faced with a community of people he can’t relate to, constantly reminded by those around him of his troubled past, and left to get drunk off of poorly mixed cocktails. Of course, that’s not to say that everything facing Simon is purely antagonistic. Those around him aren’t trying to make him feel bad, but they really only know one side of him and I don’t really get the feeling that Simon really has a grasp on who he is outside of the fact that he used to be Ice King. And that he’s an antiquarian, but I don’t know how much of a use that position has in an area like Ooo. So the reminders from his past by the likes of Dirt Beer Guy aren’t exactly compassionate, but DBG’s at least trying to connect with Simon on some level that he thinks might make him feel important. Also, holy shit, adult Finn!!!!!!!!


I knew we were going to get a little bit of a glimpse into his ventures based on the Fionna and Cake trailers, but I assumed it would all be limited to multiverse stuff. I didn’t expect for him to just hop in and be featured in a majority of this episode, but honestly, I loved it. The glimpses we get from adult Finn’s life are almost exactly what I would expect his late 20s/early 30s to be like: still selfless and affable, still very repressed emotionally after losing Jake, and a bit of a himbo. His interactions with Simon hit on the same missteps that Dirt Beer Guy covered; Finn’s not trying to be malicious or make Simon feel bad, but wants him to lighten up a bit. It’s just not what Simon wants to hear. Of course, it also makes sense why Finn wouldn’t be able to relate to this issue either. Despite his humanity, he’s grown up surrounded by magic his entire life, so he’s not exactly the key person to necessarily relate to his problems either. I think of all Simon’s turmoil, the moment that hits the most for me is when he discusses dressing up like Ice King in order to cope. What started out as a silly gag in Obsidian is painted as a moment of true baggage for him. The way Simon looks at Finn when he mentions it, probably assuming that Finn would probably be horrified when he heard that, shows how deeply ashamed he is of it. Of course, this gets a bit too heavy for everyone involved, so Finn counteracts it the only way he knows how – by taking Simon on an adventure.

I did just mention that Finn was selfless and I think that dedicating his entire day to making Simon feel better is a clear indicator of that. But it’s also clear that this is something that would cheer Finn up, not necessarily Simon. In a lot of ways, I think Finn has become more similar to Jake in his adult life. Jake was never too savvy when it came to dealing with emotional turmoil and would usually resort to mostly surface-level modes of cheering Finn up, like taking him on a quest in Dungeon Train to help him deal with his break-up or providing him with a shit-ton of waffles in The Music Hole. It’s not because Jake is careless, he just only really knows what would personally make him feel better based on his own life experiences. Finn seems to be operating in the same way, with the added factor that he is likely carrying his own heavy baggage of moving through life without Jake, and has found his own ways to distract himself so he doesn’t spiral. Also, really sweet how he’s hanging out with TV in this episode after being seen traveling with Bronwyn in Obsidian. He’s a great uncle! Also nice to see that he still kicks ass and slays beasts as an adult. Come Along With Me left me a bit perplexed with how it left off Finn’s character, in that he kind of followed the Steven Universe route of pacifism that just didn’t necessarily seem fully true to the sensibilities of the character. In hindsight, it seems clear that this move was a life lesson for him that not all of his problems can be solved by fighting, but he’s still open to fucking shit up every now and then. I also love the added bonus of him quietly thanking the beast for its sacrifice. Man is totally picking up all of that woo-woo stuff from hanging out with Huntress Wizard and I love it. HW gets a few mentions in passing and I think it’s pretty apparent that the two still are romantically involved, or at the very least still very connected. I like to think that they have a relationship similar to Jake and Lady’s in the early days, where Finn and HW mostly live their own lives but are still very connected and understanding of each other’s boundaries. Also, they definitely have passionate forest sex in the brink of the night. This I’m certain of.


The quest with Simon goes about as well as one would expect it to go. Simon clearly isn’t into it and is generally mortified by the array of (very cool looking) beasts. That’s not to say that the trip is devoid of pleasures, as Simon and Finn have a very sweet moment by a campfire. I really love the little sentiments of Simon sharing some old outdoorsy stories with Finn, and (I’m going to be saying this a lot in these reviews) Tom Kenny does a terrific job at delivering these lines with a full sense of sincerity. It seems like Simon is actually starting to find connection through sharing these stories, but is once again bogged down when recounting Betty’s presence. This is probably where Finn could’ve been more supportive in letting Simon vent his frustrations, but again, he’s operating from a stance of survival from falling down an emotional rabbit hole. Of course, this backfires and their trip is cut short. It’s cool to see that, despite Finn’s adversity towards emotion, he does seem to embrace the wisdom he learned in his developmental stages. Namely, he blindfolds himself to find a way out of the forest, akin to The Hall of Egress! Really missing Tom Herpich having a vital role in the series, so this was as good a homage as ever. The two part ways (the way Finn flaps his hand as he’s talking offscreen kills me) as Finn exclaims, “I love fixing people!” What a sweet lil traumatized boy.

We get the return of Rebecca Sugar in song form, as “Part of the Madness” plays over Simon aimlessly walking through a disconnected landscape. I’m basic, but this is probably my favorite song from the season. It’s always really nice to have Sugar show up in any capacity and I just think there is something evergreen about her singing voice and the tunes she plays. There’s just something so relaxing yet somber in everything she produces, I truly think she can do no wrong when it comes to music. Looking forward to her upcoming solo album as well! And speaking of Sugar staples, we get an instance of Simon finally attempting to reach out and connect with Marceline, to no avail. She’s too preoccupied having fun with PB, in what is probably the worst timing ever. I think Simon talking to her is something that Marceline would totally be open to, but having her seem totally enmeshed with her own life wasn’t really motivation for him to open up any further. I’ve seen a lot of people annoyed at Marceline’s behavior in this instance, but I think it simply can just be chalked up to the relationship between a parent and their adult child. I think as a child you kind of just automatically assume that your parents are always doing fine because they don’t generally keep their struggles hidden, and it’s difficult for a parent to open up because they don’t want to weigh down someone that they’re supposed to be taking care of. I think it was all done as a way of playing out their dynamic as they continued to become reacquainted following Simon’s revival.


The way I really knew Adventure Time was back in full force was seeing the reveal that Evil Choose Goose is now being kept captive in Simon’s apartment. What is more AT than setting up a big cliffhanger for what’s to come only to unceremoniously reintroduce it in a very underwhelming way?? Of course, I don’t really mean that as a legitimate criticism. I don’t think I really wanted a series that featured Choose Goose as the main antagonist, so this was a fun little twist to wrap up that previous teaser. Also, I will never understand what the fucking obsession is with Choose Goose all of a sudden. Dude appeared like, 5 times total in the original series and currently he shows up every 10 minutes in every Adventure Time iteration now. It’s almost like they got rid of the snail but couldn’t cope with the idea of not having any reoccurring character show up in every episode. Speaking of the snail, that dude is dead now apparently! It felt like this was a final attempt from the crew to distance themselves from him after he re-appeared in Together Again. Though I guess that didn’t work too well either because he appears a few other times in Fionna and Cake. They just can’t get rid of the lil guy. The final scene with Simon attempting to make contact with GOLBetty is a great, tense conclusion. Come Along With Me definitely made me a bit more hungry for more content dedicated to GOLB, and jumping into that with a dark, ritualistic spell was enough to get me sucked back in. The episode wraps up with Cake exiting Simon’s mind and a brief transition into Prismo’s timeroom, showing that he’ll be more involved in what’s to come. I wonder what will happen, I say having seen every episode of this season already.

But in all seriousness, this was just what I needed to get me back into Adventure Time. Of course, I think a lot of that is incentivized by the great moments with adult Finn, but I also genuinely love all that we get from Simon too. The events of Come Along With Me left me a bit polarized, mainly because I felt like it was a bit of a copout to have Simon AND Ice King both have a happy ending. By that point in the series, I had appreciated what the show was doing with displaying Ice King as his own functioning, developed person, so it bummed me out that they gave Simon what seemed like the happier ending and just tacked on that, “oh yeah, Ice King is here and fine too I guess.” But Simon Petrikov, and the rest of the season, prove that this wasn’t necessarily a happy ending for Simon. The episode does a great job at painting just how miserable his life is and doesn’t just limit it to him missing Betty. I’m often reminded of those terrible Simon & Marcy comics from a few years ago that just dialed back on all of the sacrifices made in Come Along With Me and provided Simon with an almost unequivocal happy ending by rescuing Betty. Simon Petrikov throws those stories aside by showing very candidly how much Simon is struggling in his body, even beyond just his connection to Betty. But again, my clear bias towards adult Finn has probably bled through this entire review. We eating good with this stuff, AT fans!


My little production tidbit is that, according to a tweet by Brian A. Miller, “Part of the Madness” was a homage to the former internal tagline used at CN Studios. Of course, this might just be speculative on his part, but it’s really sweet to think about. Sugar adds a bit of a personal touch to each of her songs, so it’s not a stretch to consider that the song revolves around her considering her life outside of CN. And, with CN Studios shutting down not too long ago, it’s especially bittersweet to entertain.

Favorite line: “Why isn’t it a phone?”