Charmaine Verhagen – Adventure Time Reviewed

Original Airdate: December 18, 2025

Written & Storyboarded by: Anna Syvertsson, Maya Petersen, Rebecca Sugar & Charmaine Verhagen

Annnnd we’re finally winding down! Or revving up, in this case. Some housekeeping notes before we start, feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you want the meat: I’ll be reviewing the season finale on the day it comes out, take a loooong break from there, and then come back and review season two as a whole. For a couple of reasons – one, because my reviews this season have been about as messy as the season itself. I don’t think there’s really a concise throughline to most of them and they work more as a stream of consciousness. Not to say this format hasn’t worked for me. Honestly, if I wasn’t for the immediate momentum to get my thoughts out following each episode, I don’t know if I’d have a ton of motivation to revisit and review most of these in the future. But I’d like to have something meaningful to say about the season as a whole, and I think I’ll need a good amount of time to collect my thoughts and emotions and see where I ultimately land. Second, because this season has been kind of exhausting! There isn’t a ton of goodwill to be had at this point, even with people who ultimately like this season. I’ve seen plenty of people who like this season act with disdain towards anyone who does not and vice versa. And then there’s the whole subset of weird MAGA inspired discourse around the dynamics of the show that I don’t even wanna touch. It’s just a bummer to be around, so I think a good long break is warranted. I have no idea when Side Quests is coming out next year, but I’ll try to plan to have the season two review done before its release. As for Side Quests, I haven’t fully decided whether I’ll be doing episode-by-episode coverage, but given the nature of the series as a whole, it will probably be one review covering everything. But, for now, let’s get to the episode review.

After dealing with what was possibly the most frustrating episode of this entire spin-off series last week, it’s good to see the season redeem itself again with an episode that is pretty great. Honestly, I think this season has really benefited from the episodes that just have one solid setting throughout, intertwining each segment and character involved. This really worked for me in The Bird in the Clock, and also greatly benefits The Worm and the Orchard. Of course, these are two episodes that additionally really limit themselves on the inner workings of Fionna-World, so I think my biases are also clear. But is it any surprise to anyone that when this series focuses on fantastical elements, people are likely to be more engaged? Just a thought!

This one picks up where the last episode left off, with Huntress finally connecting to the Heart of the Forest through her own “inner mope.” HW’s been looking for answers outside of herself in order to return home when this episode makes it clear that the answers were within her the whole time. It’s cheesy, but also very Ozian, once again tying back into the fairytale woohoo of the season. And the episode doesn’t really hold on this fact too long for it to feel like some massive revelation, it’s quickly acknowledged and expanded upon further when Huntress ends up in the Undergrowth. Along with Fionna, who has fully entered sulk territory. Her absolute apathy towards everything is very funny and connects more to elements of her character that I actually enjoy. I like the Fionna that is just so consumed with her own self-worth that she drowns whenever she’s confronted with her own actions. I think you can’t really get there without having the events of last episode, which I still think were kind of ridiculously executed upon, but I’m a lot more positive about this portrayal than the previous. I don’t think Fionna’s actions ever really nuked her as a character in my eyes, it was more so just exceptionally frustrating to sit through in that singular instance.

Going deeper into the Undergrowth, Fionna is rescued by a mysterious stranger that turns out to be none other than Fern! It’s really neat to see how much the series has kept him in as a valuable player even after his passing in Come Along With Me. I get the feeling that the staff really likes this character, and I get it, I love Fern! I almost didn’t recognize Hayden Ezzy’s voice at first, who has clearly matured greatly since the series finale of Adventure Time. It’s really neat to see him work as a spirit guide to Fionna, seeing as how they’re both kind of cut from the same cloth. Both have had the experience of living in Finn’s shadow, trying desperately to be a beloved hero, but not knowing exactly how to get there and falling into their own sense of self-destructiveness. It was additionally cool to see the exploration of some of Finn’s repressed thoughts, including one that we’ve seen before in Escape From the Citadel, along with some new pain, like getting fully rejected by Huntress Wizard after asking her to move in with him. Ooof! I’m not gonna lie, I did tear up a bit when Fionna touches the massive pain ball that is presumably in reference to Jake’s death. I guess this confirms that Jake died on some kind of expedition and that it wasn’t due to old age. Additionally, it’s so utterly macabre that Finn is referred to as a “sad fruit medley” and that he has tons of repressed memories that he hasn’t yet dealt with. Of course, we know that this has always been apart of Finn’s conscious decision to “vault” thoughts that are just too painful or weird for him to fully acknowledge. It’s clear it’s only gotten worse with time, and I would once again love to see a future iteration of this franchise that has Finn start to deal with these painful experiences that he’s pushed down so far, eventually leading up to him acknowledging Jake’s death on a conscious level.

We get to finally see the Karmic Worm, who was introduced by voice in The Crocodile Who Bit a Log, and who we saw briefly as a background cameo in The Bird in the Clock, as we get to see what he was banished to do after breaking off from his brother. I really like the character, once again portrayed by Sean Rohani, who is just so sweet and likable. They give him a real weight in that he’s spent 1,000’s of years coming to terms with his previous failings and the grief that he’s brought his brother. The way this episode deals with karma as a concept is rather fascinating, having the Worm consume repressed trauma, process it, and then letting that trauma ripen until its ready to be processed on a conscious level. As the Worm indicates, those bits of trauma may cycle back into the Undergrowth time and time again, showing that the cycle of suffering throughout the multiverse is unlimited in its infinite approach to dealing with karmic truths time and time again. I’ve been super into the Buddhist perspective for a few years now, so having the series sort of play around with the concept of saṃsāra is really neat. As the Karmic Worm states:

Thoughts come here to transform. It’s amazing. And not just because of what changes; the changes reveal what stays the same… The truth. It might cycle through here a hundred times, take a hundred forms, but every one is another chance to know it, like you, and the forms you take.

It’s quite a beautiful sentiment that I don’t think has any real concrete answer. The concept of “truth” is so complex that I don’t think it’s exceptionally easy to come to conclusion of what one’s truth is. Obviously, Fionna has majorly struggled with finding this answer in herself after dealing with the often misleading sentiment of “following your heart.” I think the idea here is that, beyond just thoughts themselves, there is an inherent “youness” that always exists beyond thoughts, actions, and states of beings, and that every experience is just another way to find out what works for you and to connect it back to something that expands your worldview beyond making logical deductions. The song is additionally lovely, and had me shedding another tear. It’s another Rebecca Sugar song (more about her shortly) and I think it’s quite incredible how she can whip up these really meaningful songs that are simple, yet so incredibly complex. Like, it’s for sure super sappy, but at the same time I can’t help but watch my cynical heart melt when you have these lyrics that feel like life’s greatest truths are unraveling – the acknowledgement of the darkness and the light, the stagnant, yet always evolving nature of life, and the ability to accept and appreciate the beauty of it all. I really fell in love with this whole section.

Also, yeah, Rebecca Sugar is back on the storyboarding front! The relationship between Adventure Time, Rebecca Sugar, and her series Steven Universe is something that always fascinates me. So much so that I’m going to long ass detour in the middle of this episode review to talk about it. Adventure Time paved the way for the animation industry throughout the course of the 2010s in more ways than one, with Sugar playing a key part in what so many other animated shows have since tried to replicate. The exploration of emotions, intricate character dynamics, somewhat explicit LGBTQIA+ representation, and catchy songs to boot. Granted, Sugar can’t be credited solely for these contributions, but the episodes she’s worked on are so distinctively recognizable in both art and tone that her individual presence is irrefutable. Her own series, Steven Universe, very much followed in the footsteps of Adventure Time, starting out as a goofy, episodic cartoon that eventually evolved into a surprisingly intricate examination into a complex world and its characters. In a lot of ways, Adventure Time walked so Steven Universe could run. SU had all of the hallmarks that made people love AT in the first place, and exceeded upon them in many respects. While AT ended up being somewhat of a prisoner to the status quo in its middle seasons, SU was able to evolve its characters and story beats in a much more progressive way. Steven Universe quickly became more of the flagship show in the animation industry, both in art direction and focus. So heavily that it’s almost hard to ignore how Adventure Time was also influenced by it.

Adventure Time as a franchise has largely revolved around dedicated character arcs with a heavy emphasis on emotion in recent years. Because of the fluctuating nature of the original series, nobody really had a defined character arc outside of individual episodes or long running character themes, and emotion often took the backburner. Not to say that Adventure Time was devoid of emotional moments, but because of how bonkers the world is, the characters, in unison with ourselves, didn’t really know how to react to certain outcomes. You have an episode like BMO Noire where we explore BMO’s psyche, and you’re not really sure if what you’re watching is deeply evocative or entirely silly. You have You Forgot Your Floaties, which is less about the grief Magic Man feels for his lost wife and more about magic and its connection to madness. Even episodes that do inevitably expand upon the emotions of characters, like The Tower, are more of an exploration of how confusing it can be to try and rationalize what you feel in a meaningful way. This isn’t a diss at Steven Universe, by the way. I think it’s a pretty fantastic show that kind of paints an idealistic world where everyone does acknowledge their shortcomings and value truth and love above all. But the sensibilities of these franchises and how they deal with characters and emotions are often day-and-night: Adventure Time‘s characters are almost entirely repressed for a good amount of its run while Steven Universe‘s characters erupt with emotional introspection.

As much as I like ambiguity of how characters feel throughout most of the series, it was kind of cathartic to have something like Islands come around, where Finn finally deals with his curiosity about his heritage, or Elements, when Jake lets out his bottled up stress that comes with being a caregiver. That trend of having characters be more expressive regarding their baggage continued into the spin-off projects, with Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake mostly revolving around characters working through their emotions to the point where I’d argue there is very little ambiguity when it comes to how characters are feeling or what they’re experiencing at any given moment. Even stuff that I think is kind of nuanced in its approach, like Simon’s relationship with Betty, is basically all worked out via a therapeutic monologue he has with himself in GOLB’s realm. I say all of this not to deem one method of writing good or bad, but it is thoroughly interesting to me how much Rebecca’s presence and the impact of Steven Universe seem to have paved Adventure Time‘s future almost as much as its own past has. So it’s fitting that she returns here, to not only once again grace our ears with another banger song, but also to bring Cake’s ongoing internal struggles to a resolution. As much as I kind of dislike how this episode is solely going to be credited as a work of Sugar’s, since many talented artists worked on it and have not been recognized all season, I admit that I’m also kind of a hypocrite! I just spent the last three paragraphs talking about how much of an impact she’s had on this series, and really, it’s hard to ignore what a magical presence she brings to the table. I almost rolled my eyes at the idea of another Sugar song popping up about the beauty of all things – it’s just something that feels like it should be so hackneyed by now. But when it actually plays in the episode, I’m like putty in Rebecca’s hands. It’s hard to ignore what a visionary she is and how much she influenced, and is still influencing the series as a whole.

We also get a ton of Huntress Wizard on the side, which mostly accumulates into a battle sequence between her and Witch Wizard. I don’t know if I really like that Witch Wizard ended up being the big bad of this season, even though I don’t think it really comes out of nowhere, given her role in The Crocodile Who Bit a Log. I think I just did admire the season up to this point for not having any kind of direct antagonist, with time and internal struggles playing the forefront. I don’t think it’s really a huge detractor, and I do like the way their back-and-forth bleeds back into the episode. Witch Wizard struggles to actually transform in a meaningful way (literally) because of how much she’s taken, and her own karma will not allow her evolve as a result. Huntress Wizard is able to reform because she’s connected with her own truth, in a way that I additionally don’t think has been particularly explicit throughout the season’s run. I was bitchy last episode about how little HW has been at the forefront of this season, and I think that stills stands, but I wanna go back to what I said in The Wolves Who Wandered and commend this team for not going the obvious route with exploring Huntress Wizard’s character. I think from the first episode we sort of know what she has to learn already – that she’s mostly closed off and she needs to find a way to connect more with the world around her. The season has mostly steered away from reinstating this, outside of it being a bit overtly alluded to in The Bird in the Clock. I think this episode kind of solidifies the idea that Huntress herself is not necessarily someone that needs to be fixed, nor is Fionna, for that matter. She’s had the opportunity to look over her circumstances over the course of the season and realize that her own form is malleable, and that her role in this world doesn’t have to be so static. Granted, change is only ever so slight. She’s not necessarily a different person from what we see in this episode. She helps the little plant boy recover and then promptly shoos him off before he gets attached. I think a lesser version of this episode would’ve expanded upon the relationship between these two as a clear point of Huntress’s growth, but I think it’s a cool addition into the “everything stays, but it still changes” motif that AT has carried out since the very beginning. Huntress Wizard isn’t some radically different being who is now open to everything life has to offer, but she’s seen the truth of herself and is able to adjust accordingly, for the good of her and everyone in her life. This revelation is additionally referenced in her response to Witch Wizard later in the episode: “You’ll learn to be somebody again.” Even in nothingness, there’s an opening to pave your way into somethingness.

Talked about it more in relation to the Worm, but Cake also has her season long arc wrap up with this episode. It’s once again a nice little revelation for her to recognize that she was essentially transforming for the purpose of others accepting her, and not moving in the direction towards self-acceptance. It’s sweet that she inevitably chooses to stay in a world where she feels welcomed and celebrated, just for a bit to figure things out. It reminds me a lot of Dungeon Train, where Finn learns a lesson, but isn’t exactly ready to give up the comfort he feels in his surroundings. I think it is a lot more understandable here that Cake would want to live here long-term, as it treats her less like a circus attraction and more like her own, special being, but I also think there is a purpose for her in Fionna-World as well. Now that it’s integrated with magical beings, Cake can be a voice for those that are treated differently by society, but it’s nice that she has her own moment of reprieve where she’s allowed to explore what being magical means for her within a mystical landscape.

Fionna’s arc moves forward as well, in a way where it’s hard to necessarily make a judgment on what she needs to do from here. I personally think after the last episode it would kind of be interesting to see her friends not forgiving her and her being left with a way to find her own self-worth that doesn’t depend on the validation of those around her, but I’m open to multiple ways of exploring this. I do still like Fionna, and I think she’s still likable despite all of the baggage this season has churned out for her. I’m not really sure how exactly this team is gonna pull it off, so I am intrigued to see if this heads in the direction of redemption or possibly doubles down on the difficulties of change that this season inherited. We get limited exposure to the citizens of Fionna-World, but it did get a bit of a snide laugh out of me how Gary’s repressed memory revolves around him struggling to be responsible with his family when we just saw Finn watch his brother fucking die. Again, being smug, I don’t think suffering necessarily should be weighed against each other, I just couldn’t help but laugh at it. I really like Hunter’s scene, primarily because I don’t think this world has had dialogue all season that ever felt like it emulated a real human conversation. But Hunter very bluntly stating that Fionna needs to “get her shit together” did ultimately hit me in a very real way. Especially with Fionna’s heavy realization that she’s caused Hunter pain in a way that she didn’t even know could be expressed by them. We also get maybe the most explicit revelation of Fionna’s abandonment as a child, which is about as much as I needed to see. With how much this season has gone to great lengths to just reprise character moments that we’ve already seen examined in the original series, this is a nice, small moment that hits because of everything Fionna’s gone through. It’s not just simply connecting it back to her counterpart, it’s using her counterpart’s experience to accurately build into everything she’s feared and grasped onto for so much of this season. Had this been done earlier in the series or even expanded upon in great lengths, I don’t necessarily think it would work with the same emotional weight that its tackled with here. Ellis’s dream also finally plays out, where we get to hear the Venusian citizen’s words: “go beyond the end of the peach.” One idea about what this could mean – Finn’s referred to as a “sad fruit medley,” with the thoughts themselves growing and ripening like fruits. I think the idea here is to go beyond the fruits, or thoughts, themselves to discover the truth. I think Fionna herself has gotten so wrapped up in what she thinks is her intuition, but it’s just her latching onto thoughts that she’s mistaken as wisdom. Thoughts themselves are meaningless unless given meaning, so simply watching them play out as is and doing your best to use your better judgment is ultimately what leads to that truth. We’ll see if this has further implications in the following episode.

We also get to see the revival of the Cosmic Owl, leading to yet another AT character that beat death. I think many will complain about how short-lived this development was, and how the franchise as a whole seemingly fails to stick to killing off its characters, but I kind of love how finite death as a concept is in the AT world. As the Karmic Worm says, “our kind are like ideas, hard to kill outright.” It’s really neat lore that deities essentially exist based on the belief and thoughts of others, very much in a way that connects to our real world views of gods. And in this sense, we see the thought of Cosmic Owl evolving in real time – he’s gone beyond his role and having had the experience of reconciliation with his brother, he’s ready to move beyond his designated place in the world and become something greater. It’s a really nice way to progress his character in ways that tie back to the episode itself.

We get a brief tangent from Ooo, which made me laugh out loud when the shotgun cocking sound effect plays as PB turns to her last option: calling Minerva. This kinda bothered me at first, because I thought, “oh, NOW you’re calling his mom?” But of course, someone brought up the idea that this is obviously because Minerva will probably advocate for uploading her sons consciousness to the mainframe, which I imagine is something that Finn’s posse, especially PB, are largely against. I’ll be interested to see how much this debate is explored in the following episode, because I think there’s so much you can do with it. With the ever-prevalent concept of AI slowly creeping in to take over the world as we know it, I think there’s a lot you can tackle with this concept that ties back into how we experience this in the real world. Not really sure if they have time to even deal with that, but I’m eager to see it nonetheless.

I really love this one. I feel like there’s so much magic to be had, and aside from The Bird in the Clock, it’s really the first episode all season that made me feel like a kid again. And one of the few that really made me feel anything! Again, it’s not my intention to diminish any contributions of the talented artists that have no doubt worked tirelessly on the rest of this season. Some of which I haven’t even mentioned – the backgrounds in this episode look beautiful, working off of what clearly look like Jesse Balmer’s visual development. I haven’t even properly credited the directors for each episode, this one being Ryan Shannon, which I’m possibly planning to adjust moving forward. But yeah, I can’t deny the chops that Sugar brings to this one. She can’t be solely held responsible, but her segments (lasting from about the 15:10 mark to the 20:50 mark, and I think 7:30 through 8:34?) really reminded me about just how endearing and special this world is. Coupled with a great song, good action, lush landscapes, surprising character cameos, and thematic elements that are just so irresistibly beautiful, this may just be the best episode of this season.

Please, please, please everyone check out The Elephant tomorrow night on adult swim, or next day on HBO Max! It’s an anthology special with Pendleton Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Pat McHale at the helm, each working on a unique section that none of the others have seen. It’s such a unique experiment and the creative process is so fascinating. You can read more about it here, where McHale is interviewed in length about his experience.

Favorite line: “He basically shits therapy.”

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“The Wolves Who Wandered” Review

December 4, 2025December 4, 2025 Adventure Time Reviewed

Original Airdate: December 4, 2025

Written & Storyboarded by: Maya Petersen, Anna Syvertsson, Hanna Nyström & Charmaine Verhagen

The second I finished this episode, I knew people were gonna hate it. And lo and behold, scanning over all corners of the internet, I haven’t seen many positive things to say about it. But I dunno y’all, I actually kinda liked this one? Granted, I can see why people are becoming increasingly more frustrated. It’s episode seven and we’re taken on a huge detour that mostly centers around the aspects of this season that people, including myself, have not particularly liked. When I saw the preview images for this episode and saw that is was mostly just going to be about Fionna and Fennel, a character we barely know and one that I didn’t particularly care about, I was preparing myself to be in the same boat with everyone. Maybe episode five was the point where I just kind of surrendered projecting my expectations onto the season and just let me accept it for what it is, but I thought this one was pretty decent.

This one is mostly Fionna’s story, with a smidge of HW thrown in. Fionna tries to rescue her ex-man after he’s gone missing for several hours with the help of Fennel, who finally gets a dedicated role. I like that Fionna has evolved from “girl loser” to just straight up being an asshole for a good chunk of this one. It never feels like the character herself is malicious, she’s just kind of a dreamer that prioritizes her own needs and struggles to exit on her worldview when it comes to considering the perspective of others. A lot of the episode is challenging that perspective while showing that parts of her beliefs are yet to be shaken. She grows closer to Fennel here, realizing that she’s not the villain that Fionna painted her out to be, and becomes a bit more aware that the people around her are not exactly as put together as she initially thought. Granted, she still fails to really recognize Marshall’s wants and needs throughout the episode, putting them mostly aside because, in her mind, all of what she’s doing has been for him. Though, as it’s becoming increasingly apparent, that’s not really the case. Fionna has pretty much prioritized her own needs throughout the course of the season, chasing after Phelix and becoming buddy-buddy with Hana Abadeer because she doesn’t want to fail. Most of her actions are a result of her trying to act heroic, but it’s feeding into her own egoic desires instead of coming from a place of truly listening to what her friends want and need. As much as people have criticized the Fionna-World segments for feeling aimless and often tedious, I do think this character arc has been pretty solidly executed all season.

A lot of Fionna’s personal development in this episode is connected to her working with Fennel, who honestly has quickly become one of my favorite of the Fionna-World residents. Granted, the bar isn’t super high, and Fennel doesn’t have that much of a character to play around with, but she is quite endearing. I once again like the inverse of Finn and Fern’s dynamic, with Fionna being the one that envies and resents Fennel, while Fennel herself is mostly none-the-wiser to her turmoil. I like their little back-and-forth dealing with magic eyes, as they run rampant in the city in pretty unproductive ways. I usually don’t really like when TV shows tackle tripping on drugs, because I think they often greatly exaggerate and misinterpret what the experience of being on something like shrooms is actually like. It’s usually presented as lots of flashing colors and visual hallucinations, instead of the absolute childlike bliss of a good trip or the terrifying, dissonant experience of watching your ego dissolve in a bad trip. Here, they at least have the excuse of connecting it back to real magic in this world, so it doesn’t have to fully allude to our real world understanding of psychedelic substances. Even so, there are elements of the “trip” that feel true to life, like Fionna and Fennel’s sloppy crying and glowing admiration of one and other as they return to Earth, coupled with our first glimpse at what magic Fennel looks like! It’s really sweet to finally have actualization of these characters’ dynamic in some sense, after their resolution was cut short in Come Along With Me.

It’s nice to see wizard eyes utilized as a concept in the series once more, which goes a bit beyond the usual gaggle of demons and creatures that we’re used to accompanying this realm. We also get a bit more of an added cosmic perspective, with a trip to Venus that occurs quite similarly to Mars’ ventures in the former series. I kind of like that it’s up for debate how much of this has actually occurred, though I like to believe that Venus is a concrete destination that maybe exists beyond the multiverse? It’s kind of curious how planets really work within this series – are there multiple versions of Venus, or just one that can be potentially accessed through all corners of the multiverse? Part of me kind of wrestles on what I think works better. On the one hand, I think it makes the world a lot more massive if you have multiple versions of planets and deities and gods that exist in multiple different spectrums, but it kind of also detracts from the presence of the King of Mars and Glob is there are alternative copies of them across multiple galaxies. I guess the Lich technically does exist in several different universes, so it probably is likely that these gods have their own doppelgangers. It seems like the show has kind of ignored exploring that concept too deeply, which I don’t necessarily blame them for. It seems complicated!

Venus is a great time though. Love the designs, the color palette, and the city-like landscape that mirrors Fionna-World, equipped with several odd-looking landmarks. Also, a banger of a song! Rebecca Sugar was credited for the tune we heard previously in The Butterfly and the River, but nothing in the outro that I saw references who worked on this one. It sounds like a Sugar song at the very least, and it’s probably my favorite song from the season thus far, which isn’t saying much. Song sequences have been used pretty sparingly up to this point. Tuning into Roman mythology, the planet is based primarily on the goddess Venus, with her sensibilities being the basis for the entire ecosystem. It’s even run by Venus de Milo (referred to as Embolina in the credit), the statue, who is now equipped with mods. Granted, that part of me wondering if this is truly a real place is somewhat squandered by the fact that Phelix is apparently trapped here while actually playing a set down on Earth, but he seems like more of a manifested idea rather than an actual, living being here. I think it’s quite likely that Venus does work in mystics as well, with Phelix being a representation of love and lust instead of embodying his Fionna-Worldly counterpart. The battle sequence with the heart warrior is decent fun, once again with a pretty stellar Amanda Jones score complementing the scene. Tying back into Fionna and Fennel’s connection, I really love how much Fennel’s admiration of Fionna immediately kickstarts her transformation, while Fionna only provides half-hearted forms of praise until she digs deeper and recognizes the truth behind her resentment. Along with the funny gag of Fionna’s love for swords actually paying off, whereas Fennel’s did not.

HW’s segment is small but effective, having her search for Fionna, Fennel, and Phelix in an effort to continue to pinpoint the heart of this world, as she recruits Hunter. As much shit as this one is already getting for not progressing the plot, it is quietly moving things forward, just not in such a grand way. Huntress Wizard has been shown to reject opening up to others as a way to maintain her mystique, but we see her development in not only accepting help from others, but directly asking for it. I think a lot of this is in part due to the fact that HW is practically an alien in this world and is somewhat forced to develop these skills in order to survive, which is kind of a neat little tie-in to what makes this world human. Huntress Wizard comes from a mystical world where she can survive off of her own skills and magic as a means to get what she needs, but she’s completely out of practice here. Nothing that she has is helping her get any closer to what she needs, so she really has no choice but to depend on others to help see her plight through. It is somewhat of a fish out of water story in that regard, but I do once again appreciate all of the little bits of her character growth that are sprinkled in subtly. I do think she’s kind of gotten the short end of the stick compared to all we went through with Simon last season, but I will say there may be a bit more nuance to what we’re watching here? Simon’s story was great but it was admittedly heavy-handed. We had an episode like The Star that was pretty much devoted to reinstating in a million different ways how much Simon needed Marceline and vice versa. We really haven’t gotten a dedicated exploration of Huntress Wizard’s journey, which is kind of a qualm I have on some degree, but having HW intertwined with Fionna and Cake’s story this season, while last season had the duo more involved in Simon’s story is a nice reversal, albeit one that I’m not fully enamored by. I also actually have kind of grown on Hunter a bit! I’m probably not gonna go back and change all the times I referred to them as “him” throughout the past two seasons, so please accept my retroactive apology for misgendering you, Hunter. It’s cool once again to have a character backstory that actively distances itself from the original counterpart’s. HW can be seen as quite arrogant and untrusting, though I wouldn’t refer to her as particularly angry. So giving Hunter anger issues, alluding to a side we’ve really never seen from them, was a really nice character touch. It’s additionally cool to see expansion from a character that has kind of outgrown their counterpart? Like, we watch Gary and Marshall planting the seeds for their relationship last season, while we watch the inverse of Finn and Fern’s connection throughout this season. Hunter has had their own character journey and identified aspects of their life that they wanted to improve, while HW has really not been forced to have that level of introspection until now. It’s a neat touch that once again adds a little bit more depth to this world that can bounce back and forth between feeling expansive and completely hollow.

Other shtuff: Cake is, as usual, delightful and provides for some of the episode’s funniest moments. I especially like her one response to Fionna about dreams that is clearly just an outtake from Roz Ryan that they chose to use in the episode itself. Her obsession with M-Cron continues to be quite funny and sweet, and I especially got a kick out of his little horse-like leg shake after being envisioned as his magical counterpart. We do get to see more magical versions of these characters, as well as a return of the timeline expanding trees, which makes me ultimately wonder if we are going to see some kind of reverse in the matrix of this world, returning everyone into their magical counterparts. The return of “what the Björk” was a welcomed surprise. Ellis P’s little opening that appears to be a sign of more mystics to come was fun, with Pendleton Ward continuing to boast the most comedically obnoxious inflections for this character. We also get some moments with Gary and Marshall, which are fiiine. I like how this bakes into Fionna’s central story (no pun intended), but I still don’t really care about Marshall’s story or his connection to Simone. I’m being a bit snide here, but I think the connection they’ve built up with Simone is a little unbelievable. Aside from my feelings of this relationship already retreading the emotional beats from Marceline and Simon’s connection, I think it’s kind of laughable how it’s played up that Hana Abadeer is a villain for interfering with Marshall and Simone’s relationship when he is a child interacting with a adult. Like yeah, within the context of this story, Hana is horrible. But I dunno, I’d probably be fuckin’ pissed if I saw my child hugging a random stranger in the park too! This season has really tried to nail down the fundamental human nature of the world, but I think this is kind of an outlandish situation that they’re trying to convince us is endearing only because we know this relationship from the original series. I just don’t think it really works for several reasons, but I guess I’ll be prepared to eat my words when Rebecca Sugar eventually shows up and writes a song with them that will make everyone cry.

As is, this one is pretty alright! I understand everyone’s criticisms and complaints with it, but like last week, I had a decent bit of fun watching the otherworldly elements play out in relation to the Fionna-World dynamics, so I don’t think it was a complete loss. It was also refreshing to not have an obligated visit to Ooo in this episode and just let the main dynamics play out as is. It’s been brought up again and again, so I’ll once again reinstate that I don’t really think the pacing is that egregious in relation to the Fionna-World segments. I think development has been kind of carefully sprinkled across each episode in favor of exploring the characters in Fionna-World a bit more methodically and building on why we should care about these characters. Does it always work? Definitely not, but I think the people who claim that “nothing has happened” are being a bit hyperbolic. Do I wish that there was more action and comedy packed into each episode? For sure, but I do think there’s a bit more of a calculated approach to the Fionna-World segments than people give them credit for. I see the vision more and more with each episode, and even if it’s a direction I’m still a little wary on, I can at least start to say that I understand what this season is looking to accomplish and why it’s doing what it’s doing.

Not an artist shoutout this week, but if you guys are into the AT comics, you should definitely check out this video by NICKtendo. As someone who has selective experience with them, it was neat to get an all-encompassing look at the various series and arcs they tackled, so even if you haven’t read and you just like the series, I would definitely recommend checking this out!

Favorite line: “One thing that’s not open to interpretation is dreams.”

Uncategorized

“The Lion of Embers” Review

November 6, 2025December 5, 2025 Adventure Time Reviewed

Original Airdate: November 6, 2025

Written & Storyboarded by: Charmaine Verhagen, Maya Petersen, Kris Mukai & Hanna K. Nyström

Shipping has always been kind of an intrinsic element of the F&C world. The first three episodes featuring Fionna and Cake were mainly designed around showcasing the most prominent pairings in the series and letting them run rampant. So to see that the series is still very much interested in playing around with these pairings, while combining them with the dissection of fairytale tropes, is quite a fitting pair. Even if I still have some qualms about the presentation itself.

Let’s tackle the Fionna and Cake stuff first. I’m slightly more optimistic about some character work within Fionna-World this week, even if the story beats still are not doing it for me. I just still can’t really get behind the more grounded elements of this world no matter how hard I try, and think that’s just going to be kind of a constant every time we spend an extended bit of time in this realm. So rather than continue to emphasize my qualms with the direction of the series, I’m gonna focus more on what is working up to this point. I actually like how much of a loser Fionna is! I was worried that, with her arc somewhat completed in the previous season, all of the parts that made her unique in the past would kind of be watered down. There’s been glimpses of her struggling to change in the first two episodes, and while this direction has kind of been teased for a while, I had worried she was maybe a little too conscientious. It’s hard to pull off the notion of a character being selfish when she’s constantly thinking about the others around her, but she’s pretty self-destructive here. She self medicates by binge drinking, throws herself onto Hunter, and is actively resentful of somebody who she doesn’t even know.

Breaking through the idyllic 90’s sitcom backdrop, Fionna’s struggle to actually find stability in her life is quite well done. I remember everyone kind of wincing at the fact when Muto revealed that these characters were somewhere in their late 20s, because the expectation has always been that once you get to that point in your life, you should pretty much have it figured out. Fionna’s role has consistently proven that there’s no amount of guaranteed reprieve for the work that you’ve put in and the suffering you’ve endured, which is a sad truth that she’d rather bury underneath the desire for any type of connection at all. Once again, Madeleine Martin breathes a lot of life into this character, really selling the emotional scenes where she’s at her absolute lowest. It’s additionally sad to see that she seemingly is still traumatized from her experience with the Winter King. There’s a brief flash of his face when she tries to kiss Hunter, and it’s not really explored in much more detail than that. Just a glimpse of how much it’s still lingering in her subconscious, something the season has not shied away from. Also, fans have been speculating that Hunter is trans. There’s a shot of him taking his shirt off, with a scar shown around his chest area. Could just be a wound, but very cool inclusion to see if not, and once again very subtle. It’s nice that this series has been continuing to advocate for the LGTBQIA+ community amidst a world that has grown increasingly oppressive. (UPDATE: The night after this episode aired, Hunter’s voice actor confirmed that the scars are indeed from top surgery)

It’s additionally neat to see how Fionna’s “soul connection” with Phelix is crushed in a way that both connects it back to her Ooo counterpart and also somewhat shatters it. Finn and FP have a bit of a tumultuous relationship back in the original series and it’s no exception here, with Fionna mistaking her connection with Phelix as some sort of prophetic love bond, instead of a stepping stone for moving on to something more healthy. Finn and Fionna both yearn for their former partner and don’t see the potential red flags that come with pursuing something that they probably should’ve left in the past, but the dynamics have changed a bit where the emotional maturity seems much more of a fault on DJ Flame’s side rather than Fionna. I mean, he invited his ex to his concert only to make out with his current girlfriend on stage, with Fennel finally debuting by name (and finally getting a win! Nice flip flop of Finn’s connection to Fern). It’s referenced back in Ooo when Flame Princess mentions that she herself has a new relationship, showing that this is a romance that just simply wasn’t meant to last in all corners of the multiverse. Was gonna wait to talk about her in the Ooo segments, but holy shit, it’s Flame Princess! So wonderful to see her again after years of being absent, even if it ends up just being a notion of debunking true love’s kiss. I think the series has been pretty smart in showing that, even with connections that span across universes, there are subtle dynamics that set them apart. While I’m convinced that Fionna and Phelix’s relationship was purely a mismatch of contrasting wants and needs, Flame Princess shares a poignant moment and acknowledges that she did love Finn. I feel like it would be a bit of a disservice to show this relationship only as a missed opportunity, but the episode very cleverly sprinkles in this impactful moment to remind us that what we were watching for so many years wasn’t entirely surface level.

Granted, I do feel somewhat like it continues to be a disservice to Flame Princess how much her role has been squandered throughout the years. DJ Flame seems pretty one-dimensional, and I’m not sure I really see them trying to do anything to flesh him out further. Of course, I could be wrong, but with so many different characters to explore I somewhat doubt he’ll really get any true time to shine. Not that I really want to see him take on a bigger role, I don’t really like the character that much. But with so many iterations of Ooo’s citizens getting their own loving portrayal in Fionna-World, it seems kind of sad to see FP’s role demoted so egregiously to further add tension in Fionna’s life. And as much as I liked FP’s sweet new fire suit, to have her show up so many years only to reinstate her relationship with Finn is somewhat of a bummer, despite how much I liked the scene itself. It just is kind of sad to me how much promise this character started out with, only to be overshadowed by nearly every other major cast member in the series and even ones who began more in the background, like Huntress Wizard. Poor FP.

Additionally, I actually quite like Cake’s whole arc that the season has been playing with! I enjoy how much Cake has additionally filled Finn’s shoes this season; Finn’s role in the original series was always that he was the only one of his kind contrasted by a world of colorfully odd characters that he struggled to truly relate to. With Cake, she’s the odd one out now, trying desperately to connect to a normal world and not knowing how to. I mentioned in the previous season that I didn’t really think Cake needed to have an arc and that I’d be fine if she was really just there for comic relief, but I think this is a legitimately interesting way to explore the addition to magic in this world. Namely because I’m really not sure how this works. Is it going to be normal for a human man to be dating a magic cat? What are the ethics of this? With all of the ways that this season has ruthlessly been demolishing fairytale tropes, I would not be surprised if this ended in heartbreak for her, but genuinely this is one of the parts of the season where I’m not certain exactly what it’s trying to say or where it’s going. Like last season, I kinda get the gist with where they’re heading with Fionna’s character, and what lessons she has to learn to feel more comfortable in her skin. With Cake, it’s kind of a mystery, and it’s neat “will they, won’t they” that comes with a plethora of different predicaments.

Some other bits I liked in this section: Gary’s little gushing over Marshall singing was funny, as was Ellis P.’s fairly useless attempt at helping the team. I continue to enjoy the special title sequences that play around with different styles, this one feeling sort of like a Little Golden Book story. I initially just saw the transition into Fionna-World as a comparison point for the more fantastical things that were happening prior, but I’m pretty sure this is portraying the exact moment when Simon was zapped of his magic mind. It’s cool how these characters have backstories and whole lives that kind of just happened despite the fact that they just suddenly incarnated into the bodies of late teenagers. Also, Cake origin story! I love how it all started with a sandwich – once again, these characters can only be so strong outside of their universal traits.

Over in Ooo, we’re treated to a return of all the princesses we’ve come to know, including newer entries like See-Through Princess and a deepcut like Cotton Candy Princess. It did my heart good to see so many classics back again, with several getting their own moments grandeur. Wildberry Princess reminding us that she’s bent on carnage and taking out a Banana Guard, Hot Dog Princess trying to get freaky with it, Breakfast Princess still being prissy, and even LSP being up to her usual antics. Although there is a human stand-in for her that we check in with regularly, I truly missed LSP (or LSQ now?)! I also like how tertiary characters like Embryo Princess, Emerald Princess, and Engagement Ring Princess get their moment in the limelight by reminding us of their connection to the Enchiridion’s power. Granted, I would be shocked if they got anything to do outside of a line or two, but having background entities that have been in the series for so long actually have a role in plot development is quite nice. Simon, PB, and Marcy all continue to provide enjoyment in these sections. Simon’s pretty much the only voice of reason among this gaggle of insane princesses who are either just trying to get it on with someone on their deathbed or have no idea what to do. I think this could’ve easily dumbed down Peebs a little too much, but she’s grappled with magic in the past at the expense of her own scientific pride. I’m sure she doesn’t really buy into the idea that “true love’s kiss” is really what is going to help Finn, but her desperation and lack of understanding about the mystical world are quite clear, once again sold perfectly by Hynden Walch’s performance. It’s a bit of a bummer that John DiMaggio isn’t around, even for his smaller parts of a Banana Guard and Muscle Princess. I would guess that they asked him to come back in some capacity, and I wonder if he turned it down either because of a busy schedule or out of a lack of interest in being delegated to bit parts.

Baked into the C-plot is some cosmic junk, bringing a glitchy Prismo, Scarab, and Cosmic Owl back to the forefront. Kumail Nanjiani is once again back as Prismo, which is delightful to see. Again, while I thought Sean Rohani did a fine job last season, it just feels so right to have Nanjiani back in the driver’s seat. I like the little portions in the Time Room, along with the vague explanation of how the mystical world works. It’ll be interesting to see if the Sean Rohani character last episode ends up being some new cosmic being that exists beyond the multiverse; loving the idea of expanding this world even bigger than it already is. I couldn’t get into Scrabby much last season, but I do like his dynamic with Prismo, and it’s nice to see that now that he’s not the primary antagonist of the series, he’s allowed to soak up goofier moments and feel less tryhard. Cosmic Owl is next to suffer a fated recast, though this makes sense with the death of his original voice actor, M. Emmet Walsh. The new voice actor is fine, though I find Walsh’s inflections to be way funnier. I like the lingering tension built around whose croak dream he would be apart of, even if I was nearly certain that it wouldn’t be Finn or Huntress Wizard. To have it be Big D was fun twist, with the implication that we’re gonna be seeing some changes in the exploration of FarmWorld this season. I really didn’t expect Peanut to get any kind of bigger role after last season, so watching him be propped up as a new antagonist is certainly fun. The dream sequence itself is mostly straightforward; I was gonna note how there is also a wolf in this dream as there was previously in The Hare and the Sprout, though this instance appears to be a lot more literal than metaphorical.

And then there’s Huntress Wizard, who is pretty insignificant in the overall story because of her current state. Save for a separate dream sequence that once again incorporates Dream Warrior, once again seemingly confirming that he is the same person as Spirit Warrior. Similar to his role in Who Would Win, he offers cryptic advice ala The Man from Another Place from Twin Peaks (along with more Cheers references that I continue to groan at). I imagine HW will be exploring this advice more as the season continues on, but I couldn’t help but feel these ambiguous offerings also pertained to Fionna’s journey. “Follow the beet to the roots,” i.e. Fionna followed the “beat” of both her heart and DJ Flame’s set pieces to discover the root of her problems, namely her desire for instant gratification. Additionally, “a broken tool seeks the flame,” speaks to Fionna’s inherent sense of brokenness and her desire for a spark to keep her going. This is probably all a stretch, but as I’ve said before, it’s always fun to play around with the different theories and meanings you can derive from each mystery.

One brief aside about this episode: there was a lot of discourse about the frame of PB and Marceline on the balcony when the trailer for this season dropped. A lot of people pointed out how close their eyes were drawn together and used it as a statement to how much the show’s individual style has been butchered over time. While I think there’s an argument to be made for the show’s art design evolving from the beginning of the series to now, the instance that people pointed out is literally just how Kris Mukai draws the characters. The pupils being so close together bleeds through her entire section of the episode (from the 3:20 mark to about the 8:50 mark), but they don’t really look like that in any other portion. So there, everyone can stop complaining about this now! Let’s protect the individual contributions of board artists bleeding through instead of it feeling like one homogenized visual experience. (EDIT: THINK these were actually instances of Hanna K’s style, as opposed to Mukai. Still!)

This one is alright, I think a lot of it does depend on how much you enjoy the Fionna-World stuff, and at the risk of beating a dead horse, I am not super into it. But I think it would be to the detriment of this blog if I didn’t at least try to engage with what these segments are trying to accomplish, and as is, I think they’re doing a decent job at it. There’s plenty I do like in this, it just so happens that the direction of these episodes so far has not particularly been my cup of tea. It just wouldn’t be fair to the talented staff who do continue to put a lot into each episode if I was to dismiss it entirely. As is, I continue to be drawn more into the parts of the show that engrossed me to begin with, while feeling more distant to the human elements. But biases aside, I have to give credit where credit is due to the parts that are succeeding and managing to catch my attention as the season progresses.

This week’s artist shoutout is Elle Michalka, who designed the special opening for this episode. Michalka has worked as an art director for several of AT‘s sister shows, including Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and The Midnight Gospel, as well as Pendleton Ward’s recent pilot Mystery Cuddlers. Michalka’s visual design is gorgeous, and it was a great call to utilize her for the style the intro was going for. Michalka’s designed several other pieces that pay homage to Little Golden Book, like Steven Universe‘s The Tale of Steven and the storybook sequence for the movie. You can check out her portfolio here.

Favorite line: “Don’t use the pointy part. Use the lemniscate end.”

Adventure Time, Animation

“The Hare and the Sprout” Review

October 23, 2025November 4, 2025 Adventure Time Reviewed

Original Airdate: October 23, 2025

Written & Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Kris Mukai, Maya Petersen & Charmaine Verhagen

We are back once again, babies!! Let’s go over the ground rules for this batch: since episodes are airing weekly (something that I’m personally very excited about) I’m going to at least try to churn out a weekly review coinciding with the most recent episode. Granted, there’s no promises with this, one because there’s a very good chance that I’ll lose steam down the line and need a break so that I can have the proper energy to write up something half-decent. Second, some episodes last season definitely benefited from taking time to sit with; I think the reviews for Prismo the Wishmaster and Cheers would’ve looked a little different had I not taken the time to chew on them a little. So, we’ll see as we go. As always, a quick thank you to everyone old and new who continue to support the blog! I deeply appreciate your loyalty, and I hope I can continue to offer something insightful and fun in return.

We kick things off with Astrid retelling the tales of last season, and surprisingly it looks like we’re kicking things off pretty much right where they left off, or at least within a few weeks to a month. Love the beautiful watercolor and colored pencil artwork we’re treated to, painted and drawn by Ala Flora. So nice to see my friends Simon, PB, and Marceline again, and Simon’s living with Marcy now! I like to imagine it was offered by Marceline when Simon mentioned he was looking for another place to stay – kind of like a daughter looking after her elderly father, very sweet. Because he’s an easy target, I also like to imagine him interrupting any moments of intimacy between the girls with some nerd shit that only he cares about. I love that dweeb.

We’re welcomed back to our main protagonist shortly after, where we get a bit of tweened animation of Fionna stretching in her bed (begging the gods that this show never gets demoted to fully rigged animation). A genderswapped Betty is teased by the announcer, which I’m interested to see if those implications mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Love to see that they once again cannot stray too far from the snail cameos, as we get a real snail traveling across Fionna’s TV stand, with the addition of the umpteenth Cheers appearance in the series. Though, it doesn’t last long, as Fionna quickly flips through some other 90’s dreck before landing on a fantasy program. Cheers was Simon’s escapist fantasy of a world that was simple and made sense, whereas Fionna still leans toward sensationalist and exciting sensibilities, away from the mundane responsibilities of everyday life. I’ve complained about not being super interested in Fionna in the past, but this does feel relatable. I’m pushing 30 now, which is the same age range these characters are supposed to be in, and here I am writing a blog on a fantasy show that I’m invested in far more than the drudgery of working a 9-5 job day in and day out. Adventure Time really has succeeded at placing you in the shoes of the main character and watching them guide through life in a way that never seems any less confusing. That relatability is always balanced out with something equally fantastical, and while Fionna’s world is far more urban than Ooo, we do now have the addition of a magical cat living in her own apartment right next door. Complete with the first obligatory bacon pancakes reference in this series (hot dog waffles) which admittedly I didn’t even catch the first time around.

New intro this season! I like it, for the most part. As always, it’s great to see the SmallBu team back at it again with very bouncy, vibrant animation. The anime allusions feel slightly jarring, but its an aesthetic that F&C have played around with since their introduction into the original series. The intro additionally doesn’t really feel like Adventure Time – the music and the lack of an introductory long pan feel like a deliberate stray from what we’re accustomed to seeing. I’m kind of all for Fionna & Cake branching out and adopting its own style this way. After 10+ years of alternative intros that have used the original title sequence as a reference point, it’s refreshing to get something quite different in taste. Although, I will say, I liked the music that accompanied last season’s intro far better. I don’t think it’s a very compelling beat and I don’t think it really aids the visuals that successfully either. I almost wish they repurposed the initial score and made new visuals to go around it – but I guess in true anime style, they wanted to start this one from the ground up. Apparently, a good bit of the intro is referencing Revolutionary Girl Utena, an anime I’ve never seen but I am interested in checking it out. I’ll reserve comments about the little bits of foreshadowing for character arcs and relationships sprinkled in until they actually come into fruition within the season.

Glad to see most of the returning players from last season back again in the title card sequence. Michael DeForge’s title cards are better than ever, complete with little iterations of Fionna and Huntress Wizard in both corners. Also, Kris Mukai is back once again! Mukai worked on a few episodes during the course of season 7, including Varmints, Mama Said, and Five Short Tables. Her style is immediately recognizable in the first chunk after the intro through the bakery store sequence (at least, I’m pretty positive it’s Mukai – I’ve only gotten worse at this with time!) with the eyes a lot closer together, accented by several lines and curvy expressions. Also cool that Turtle Prince’s human counterpart is featured in this scene, as she helped bring him to life in Five Short Tables. Also returning after a bit of absence is Chermaine Verhagen, who previously co-boarded Wheels, and had contributed a lot of bit parts and visual development to the show throughout the years. I’ll definitely need more time pinpointing her individual contributions to this episode – gonna take some time to analyze outside of this review so I can better recognize her drawings moving forward.

Funny to see some of the new iterations of characters, like a female version of Buck Pudding, everyone’s favorite side character. I guess who else would they have as the store manager of Home Depot? I’m also pretty sure that the child in the bus is just a male version of Astrid, so it’s additionally very comical that we now have alternative versions of NEW characters introduced in the series. It’s also driving me crazy – I have no idea who the yellowish person on the bus is supposed to be, if anyone. I’ve been looking at characters on the wiki for almost an hour and cannot identify who this character is alluding to – I’m just gonna open it up for someone in the comments to make me look like a total idiot.

Returning players like Queenie and M-Cron are a pleasure to see too. It’s been a while since we’ve had any Lady rep in the series, so I’m glad to see M-Cron getting a bit more focus, with Cake being absolutely infatuated with him. I’m curious as to where this is heading, which is something I’ll probably be saying a lot in these first few episodes. I do like all of the allusions to fairytales that have been coming into play within the episode thus far: the introduction with Astrid’s “happily-ever-after” story, the naming convention of The Hare and the Sprout, Cake’s cross-species romance, Fionna’s increasing interest in fantasy, the anime-like opening, the focus on mystics in Huntress Wizard’s segments, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire season largely worked as a deconstruction of fairytale tropes, or at the very least, used them as a thematic stepping point to explore ideas about how these characters view their goals and expectations. In the best case scenario, it’ll work similar to the multiverse concept in season one where they allow themselves to have a decent bit of fun with the genre without getting too lost in clichés. Also, the onslaught of new genderbent character introductions is certainly a bit gratuitous at this point, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly enamored with seeing how far they’re willing to take it. Madam Slicer was not on my bingo card for this season.

Simon opening his call to Fionna with “hey, girl!” was irresistibly sweet. It really is a testament to the previous season’s strength that he has become such a beloved presence in the series, after mainly being a gimmick for storytelling purposes in the original series. His awkwardness around PB is additionally hilarious, because I totally think he’s overthinking the kidnapping element and I think PB struggling with her own demeanor is just kind of how she is. Though, I also wouldn’t be shocked if she’s still petty over being called an assistant way back in Broke His Crown. Simon in general seems a lot more well-adjusted after the events of last season than Fionna does, which I’d imagine is a direct result of having several stand-in daughter figures and an outlet for his interest in magic. I was totally prepared for the scene with Simon at the solo tombstone to be heartbreaking, but having it be Choose Goose probably provided the biggest laugh of the episode for me. Not only does this sudden obsession with him since Distant Lands continue onward, but I’ll additionally never understand the absolute vitriol for him that the staff feels. He somewhat unknowingly became possessed after the events of Wizard City, was used and tortured by Simon in the first season, and now is dead with a tasteless rhyme on his graveyard, seemingly rotting in Hell as seen in Together Again. It’s kind of hilarious.

We get our first bits of Huntress Wizard soon after, and I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about the voice actor changes. There’s quite a few recasts this season, which AT is usually no stranger to when it comes to casting celebrities generally outside of the animation industry. This season sees the recast of Huntress Wizard, Gary, and Marshall Lee. It’s always disappointing to see, but none that I feel too strongly about; Jenny Slate is definitely the biggest loss, given that she’s played the character most consistently out of the bunch, but Ashly Burch has been a great presence up to this point in the series and I’m pretty confident she can do this character justice through her work. Donald Glover has been with the series the longest of the three, so losing him is a shame, though understandable because he’s reportedly been struggling with his health behind-the-scenes. As for Gary, it’s just kind of hilarious to me that this character cannot find a voice that sticks. I do wonder what the nature of needing to recast so many of these actors is – the animation industry isn’t exactly thriving right now, so I wonder if it ultimately ended up being that there wasn’t enough incentive to return to the series. In this article, Adam Muto mostly alludes to this being a result of scheduling conflicts, but c’mon, Andrew Rannells can’t show up a few times to voice the gay gum lad?? I guess scheduling conflicts could involve a whole plethora of issues, including travel time, personal matters, and full-time commitments, so I can’t really judge without knowing the whole scope of why they chose not to return.

Anywho, back to the meat. The Vampire King lion was additionally not on my bingo card, and it’s interesting to see him play a bit of a supportive role to Finn, who is in considerable peril. I think Amanda Jones as a composer has gotten progressively stronger from when she first started with the series, as I quite liked the score throughout this episode, especially during the scenes where HW is following the lion to her home. As I mentioned, I think the general sounds complimenting scenes aren’t as odd or experimental as they used to be, but I think think the adventurous, tense stings that accent certain scenes do assist the general tone and scope of the series becoming much more grand. It’s great to see Finn again, even though he largely plays second banana to just about every other character in the episode. It seems his role will mostly be a catalyst for the mission of other characters, namely HW, but I do hope we get some Finn love this season. After seeing him largely repressed and injured a good portion of the recent projects, I’d love to see a brief moment of reprieve for him by the season’s end. At least he’s still having freaky dreams, as indicated by the illusory Huntress Wizard feeding him (Princess Mononoke reference?) Let me just say that the forest backgrounds in general looking quite gorgeous. It’s so cool to see the evolution of certain shots from the original series, like Huntress’s “cliff under a tree,” the originally was composed of flat colors and now transformed into a multi-layered beauty. Shoutout to the many background designers and painters who helped make up this episode, some of which I’m planning to give a shoutout to at the end of each blog entry.

Back in Fionna-World, we’re treated to a few more character returns. Glad to see Marc Maron Squirrel is thriving in his new environment (in his impressionist era, no less!) and we see Marshall really adopting his vampiric roots. There’s a brief moment where he gets a call from “Birthgiver,” with the obvious implication being Hanna Abadeer, though with Ice Queen being taunted in the opening theme, I do wonder how exactly her connection to Marshall will play out in a way that differentiates itself from Marceline and Simon’s history. We’re also treated to Hunter and a quick parallel with Fionna’s injury slightly mimicking Finn’s current state, or at the very least, drawing back to the thorn that Finn had lodged in his hand way back in Is That You? With all of the allusions being made between characters, their physical state, relationships, and emotional wellbeing, I’d love to see this season play around with the ideas of just how much these characters have autonomy over their surroundings, or if they’re destined to falling into the same patterns and soul connections that their otherworldly counterparts are.

I feel as though the nearly half-hour episodes are much better paced this time around, which is a slight contrast from last season’s premiere. I felt Fionna Campbell was somewhat distracting in how it padded extra time, while we have moments in this episode that use time more methodically. We’re set up to a variety of different ideas and stories for the course of the season, but it doesn’t feel like information overload either. We’re still treated to more laidback sequences, like Fionna and the gang setting up for Gary’s grand opening. It’s good to see a blend of both, not rushing us right into the action, but having enough variety that it doesn’t feel claustrophobic in its surroundings. The dream sequence, on the other hand, does throw a lot out in a short amount of time, which is a welcomed addition. The more introspective elements seem to revolve around Fionna’s newfound dedication to helping others and the internal pressures that come with putting aside her own needs for others, along with the guilt and trauma that she surely carries along from her adventures through the multiverse. We get a brief glimpse of Martin’s discarded head, someone who previously counted on her that was hurt as a result of her actions. Also appearing is Winter King’s demented chicken servant from The Winter King, which is a possible sign that all of the terror and insecurity that Fionna’s arc implied she left behind is still lingering and at the forefront. We also get a wolf lurking, with a white wolf in dreams potentially symbolizing hope and a wolf in general connecting to some sort of threat or internal conflict. And hey, the thorn wasn’t the only arm symbolism we get up to this point, as Fionna has her own gnarly bionic arm in her fantasy dream! Cool to see Cake and Fionna sharing dreams is still a trademark of their relationship.

Things start wrapping up, as we’re treated to additional conflict setups, like Fionna feeling indebted to Gary after Queenie shuts his business down, Simon teaching Wiz Biz stuff (treating us to an aged up Blaine, Pep, and Cadebra! I love how Pep’s voice is slowly starting to sound pitch shifted, I wondered when he was going to eventually transform into Steve Little), and Huntress Wizard tracking down the bear that hurt Finn. Already saw a lot of people complaining about the abrupt ending, but like, here I am thinking, “we are so back.” It’s Adventure Time, baby! As is, it was a pretty decent premiere. Like I said prior, it’s kind of difficult to talk about it outside of speculation for future entries, but generally a better start pacing wise and more engaging compared to Fionna Campbell. I’m still a bit skeptical about how much I’m going to find myself intrigued by the Fionna-World stuff this season, as I’m definitely much more drawn to what’s happening in Ooo, but nothing established so far was particularly bad. Fionna-World is, at best, mildly charming. I think there’s still plenty they can play around with to evolve this concept and I appreciate the dedication that is being put into the world building. It just so happens that a lot of my attitude seems to be leaning toward “we’ll see what happens” as opposed to feeling glued to the screen, waiting to see what Fionna and her friends’ journeys bring us next. But I’m not totally cynical, I’m absolutely giddy to have this show back in any fashion. This team especially have proven themselves time and time again, so I’m looking forward to just what this season has in store in all corners of the multiverse.

This week’s staff shoutout goes out to Ala Flora who, as mentioned, worked on the opening storybook sequence. Flora’s work is visually stunning, tapping into childlike wonder and boasting beautiful colors in the process. You can check out her portfolio here.

Favorite line: “Mommies say hi!”

Adventure Time, Animation, Lifestyles

“Wheels” Review

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 Adventure Time Reviewed

Original Airdate: January 24, 2017

Written & Storyboarded by: Graham Falk & Charmaine Verhagen

Wheels is… an interesting episode. One that I think is neither good nor bad… but… interesting. In the grand scheme of things, there’s only about 40 episodes of AT left by this point, and this is sort of the last episode focused on Jake and his kin. With that in mind, this episode focuses less on the relationship between Jake and his son, Kim Kil Whan, and more on Jake and the relationship between KKW and his daughter Bronwyn, a rebellious skater girl. That aspect of Bronwyn’s personality alone seems a bit sitcom-y, and it even plays out mostly in stereotypical sitcom fashion, though by the end of it, Jake hasn’t really learned anything about himself or his behavior to those around him. I’m not saying any of these aspects are really bad things either; the story treads similar waters to the “rebellious kids and dorky elders” trope, but isn’t painful or cringe-worthy in any fashion, and while Jake doesn’t treat his granddaughter in the nicest fashion, it’s mostly in line with his character. However, looking at in hindsight, I’m not really sure this is the story or the conclusion that I really want to see at this point in the show’s run.

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One decision that I am thankful for is that Kim Kil Whan is a hell of a lot nicer and more reasonable in this episode than he was in Ocarina. The interactions between Jake and KKW at the beginning of Wheels are genuinely nice and charming. It honestly works somewhat against the episode that KKW is presented this way, however. By the end of the episode, you kind of end up sympathizing with Kim Kil Whan much more than one would with Jake, and while that’s impressive on its own, I’m not really sure I should be meant to feel such a way. Like, Kim Kil Whan was pretty much an utter asshole in Ocarina, and even though he had reasons for behaving the way that he did, it was much easier to feel for Jake because of how sweet and lovable he is. Here, the situation is kind of flipped (though Jake is way more tolerable than KKW was in the former episode) and it’s a shame that this episode more-or-less paints KKW in the right for thinking his father is essentially a deadbeat. The growth in KKW’s behavior can obviously be seen, as he doesn’t absolutely retaliate against Jake as he previously did, though we don’t really ever get to see Jake “win” in this arc. Ocarina ended with Kim Kil Whan feeling a bit better overall after seeing that Jake at least meant well in his behavior, though Jake himself never really got an opportune chance to prove himself as a father figure or as a person in general. Here… he doesn’t really get to either. The entire arc between these two characters then feels somewhat unsatisfying. I always figured that the series would end on Jake’s status as a responsible father still being highly questionable, but sheesh, Wheels really doesn’t hold back on the fact that Jake hasn’t learned absolutely anything by the end of it.

While we’re on the topic, I’ll repeat myself once more: I don’t think Jake’s role in this episode is necessarily bad or out of character. His desire to be cool likely stems from the fact that Jake probably didn’t really have a true chance to be a teenager. After all, he’s essentially 16 in actuality, and probably didn’t get the full experience to “be cool” and impress the other kids around him. We actually know very little of these formative years in Jake’s life, so I think it’s easy to assume that this could be true and tie into his fear of aging as a whole. Jake also has the laidback, rebellious, somewhat competitive side of a teenager, which also helps to show how he fits into the crowd. Tying back to what I was saying before, it just so happens that I feel this is the exact wrong story and wrong time in the series to have him behave this way. I get that Jake is the one character that kind of stays himself while everyone around him goes through their own personal epiphanies, but I would have liked to see him have a bit of remorse and responsibility towards his treatment of Bronwyn. I do like the moments where he’s legitimately concerned about how the kids view her and tries to help her out, but that kindness quickly shifts into his competitive nature, which is fun, but not really the type of experience that I feel was necessary for his character in any which way. I think this story would have been executed a lot better in general had it just been a group of random teenagers that Jake was challenging, rather than someone from his immediate family. Just felt like they were pushing the envelope a bit too much with how careless Jake can be.

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Bronwyn is somewhat of a cult character among fans. Granted, her fanbase isn’t exceptionally huge, but I have seen a lot of artwork of her character on tumblr, deviantart, and other spaces of the internet (don’t take that the wrong way). Her character is… fine, I guess. I’m not really sure where her appeal comes from, to be honest. I mean, she has a cool design and gnarly powers (love the lightning abilities) but otherwise, there’s not much to her. She’s kind of just a generic teenage rebel character. She isn’t particularly funny, tragic, or intriguing, and I’m not sure the episode really means for her to be, but man, I am surprised at how much people get into her character. I guess it is her design, which is admittedly well-crafted, but otherwise, I think she’s mostly forgettable.

I keep mentioning the “story” of this one, but truthfully, outside of Bronwyn and Jake’s dynamic which is mostly funny, I feel as though the plot of Wheels is somewhat paper thin. A lot of it is just Bronwyn’s group of friends switching back and forth on whether they think Jake or Bronwyn are cool or not. It quickly gets repetitive until we actually get to the final sequence: a big skateboard race between Jake and Bronwyn. Part of what makes this aspect work so well is board supervisor Erik Fountain’s assistance with the skateboarding scenes, which turned out really fluid and delightfully complex in the final cut. It’s a really enjoyable sequence that I initially expected to be dreadful, but it turned out quite nice in its execution. Combine those scenes with some scattered funny lines and enjoyable moments, like Finn’s sleep-fluting (which even summoned his former flame, Huntress Wizard) or Jake’s delirious rambling after face-planting, and we’re left with a half-decent episode.

I dunno, I’m divisive with Wheels. I like parts of it, and even the parts I don’t really like, I acknowledge that they aren’t especially bad or detrimental, but I feel as though it just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. If there was ever an episode that left me feeling as though Jake was a flat out poor parental figure, I think this would be the one. I still believe that Jake as a character is a loving and caring person, but I’m not really sure what exactly this episode sought to accomplish. Was it to show that Jake simply can’t grow beyond his childish and immature demeanor? Was it an apology letter to those who thought Kim Kil Whan was too harsh in the previous episode? Whatever it ended up being, I really can’t grab for a clear, concise reason for this episode. Not that every episode really needs to have a reason or a purpose, but when we’re so far down the line with only so many episodes left, I’d expect an episode centering around Jake and his family to be a bit more potent. Sadly, things end in a bit of a whimper, and it’s a little bit disheartening that this was the culmination of everything that Jake has tried to achieve as a father. We get more moments later on revolving around his relationships with the pups, though, it’s mostly reiterating what we already knew. Wheels tries something new, but in my humble opinion, it’s information that we didn’t really need to begin with.

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Tag: Charmaine Verhagen

“The Worm and his Orchard” Review