What Time Is It?

I only recently got into Adventure Time--I trust I don't have to explain what Adventure Time is to you--and so I decided to make a post about it since it is a big part of my sophomore year of college.

The way I see it, people either love or hate Adventure Time. Sure, there may be people who don't give a rat's behind but they probably haven't seen it or they just don't wanna get into the societal structure that comes with liking/hating AT. And I think my theory is true because I used to be one of the gray people who neither love nor hate AT. In simpler terms, a gray person is someone who doesn't want to love or hate Adventure Time because he or she doesn't want to conform to what everyone else is getting into.

Let me tell you the history of Adventure Time and Me. The first I heard of Adventure Time was through my friend, Paolo, in the summer after Freshman year. He just finished taking the entrance exam for transferees and we were on our way to have lunch. He had actually mentioned Adventure Time before but I didn't really ask him to explain more. I thought AT was a series like Game of Thrones, I didn't really think it was a cartoon so I wasn't interested. But I was feeling generous with my attention that day so I listened to him talk about a boy named Finn and a dog Jake. He was talking about a girl vampire that was really cool, named Marceline. And he wanted to share something funny but he couldn't remember so that brought us nowhere.

Fast forward a couple of months, when he was already settled in the unit next door. The first few weeks of my sophomore and his freshman (he had to go back to 1st year) year, I used to go to his place a lot and he would force me to watch his series over dinner or while we were trying to study.

By then he had a new favorite character named LSP, whom I know now to be Lumpy Space Princess. He made me watch her debut episode, "Trouble in Lumpy Space" and the episode "The Monster." Paolo really enjoyed the masculine, valley girl accent of LSP and I caught on, too. I began enjoying mimicking the voice, and the line "no, Jessica, don't cheat on Tony with me!" and how she was very rude to her parents, calling them "horrible idiots." [If Paolo's reading this, I bet he's laughing his head off.]

But after a while, when we focused on other series like Downton Abbey, Pretty Little Liars, Game of Thrones, etc. I slowly forgot about Adventure Time. But I discovered that my blockmate, Bridget, was really into it during one of our Accounting classes. She often asks me to teach her (imagine me teaching Accounting haha!) before classes start. She pulled out her phone on time and asked me to listen to her ringtone. It was Jake's "HAHAHAHAHA" laugh. I laughed only politely because I wasn't interested in Adventure Time that... time. I remembered, though, LSP. And we talked about her for a while.

Sometime later, Bridget posted a video of LSP's quotes on my Facebook Timeline and I told her I'd try to memorize them all. I actually still wasn't all that interested in Adventure Time then. When I watched the LSP video, I got sucked into the YouTube phenomenon that is watching a whole lot more videos related to that. I somehow ended up with the Fry Song, the one Marceline sang lamenting the fact that her Daddy ate her fries. But the version I watched wasn't called the Fry Song, but Marceline's Song. I had stumbled on the demo version by one of AT's storyboard artists, Rebecca Sugar, posted by her dad on his YouTube account.

I guess it was the whole acoustic, ukulele, simplicity thing that got me attracted to the song. I learned it immediately on the guitar (and began longing for a ukulele) and sang it to my heart's content. Soon after, I began watching the other demo videos and played them on my guitar. In fact, I learned Rebecca's version of songs before I even heard them on their episodes.

By now it was term break, and I had to go to the previously mentioned NLDC. I gave me brother some money and asked him to buy me a ukulele. I got the message that he got me one already and I couldn't wait to go home and start playing. Once I got home, I began playing all of Rebecca Sugar's AT songs. When we went back to Pampanga, I brought my ukulele and my brother's external hard drive with the first three seasons of Adventure Time on them and had a week of Adventure Time fun.

Today, I love AT but I don't think I'm quite the fan. I don't know every single character and every single episode by heart yet so I'm gonna work on that. With so many things to do, I wonder though if I'll be able to re-watch the episodes.

So now I'll talk about my views on the characters. I will try to get even the minor characters, but it could be that I don't have enough feelings for them to give them a description. In no particular order:

Finn

Finn the Human

He's a pretty cool character, and I appreciate how though he is the main character, the show doesn't always make him the center of attention. His sense of honor and integrity are admirable, especially in a cartoon character. When I think of Finn I often think of the impression he gives on the children watching the show and so far, it's a good one. Kids today can stand to be more like Finn.

Jake

Jake the Dog

The most adult character in the show, in my opinion, and I don't mean adult in the "adult" kind of way. His humor is more attuned to the older generations and even his wacky antics make me laugh (though they might not to others). Despite being rather simple, his ability actually makes for good entertainment, something I found quite pleasing. At first the thought of a stretching dog was kinda boring, but AT makes it fun.

Lady Rainicorn

Lady Rainicorn
One of the cutest characters, I love how Lady Rainicorn speaks only in Korean. The random weirdness of that is exactly why I love Adventure Time. Her relationship with Jake is also shown nicely. It was clear from "My Two Favorite People" that she was Jake's girlfriend and they had a relationship that was believable and not just for cartoon comedic relief. In " Lady & Peebles" we get to see more of her but not too much if you know what I mean. Like, sometimes when creators want to show more of a character they go overboard and lose the character, but Lady Rainicorn was consistent throughout the series as this semi-aloof, polite-ish Rainicorn. And that's what I like about her character.

BMO

BMO
We don't exactly know the gender of BMO. It is voiced by Niki Yang, who also voices Lady Unicorn. BMO has a noticable East Asian accent, and I love it for that! BMO is a media player, musical instrument, and video game console all in one, and in "BMO Noire" a pretty awesome detective. I love listening to BMO's voice because it reminds me of my Korean friends.

Princess Bubblegum

Princess Bubblegum
Okay, this is sort of a semi-rant. I don't like PB. As a princess, she's naturally made out to be kind and all that and I don't know if it's just me, but PB seems rather mean and often lacks foresight. I admit, I haven't really analyzed most of the episodes in Adventure Time, but from the episodes I can remember, PB wasn't shown in good light. She lacks empathy and is quick to have some of her enemies killed or punished. Sure, she visits the orphanage and is really concerned with the welfare of her people but like Sirius Black in the Goblet of Fire said,

 "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." 

In this case, it's how she treats her enemies and I think that is still a good indicator.
But there are some things I like about her. I like that she spends time with Finn and the others despite being a princess. It makes the line between her and her people thinner.

Marceline 

Marceline Abadeer / Marceline the Vampire Queen
I you know me at all, you'll know that Marceline is easily my favorite character. And I think I share that with hundreds of thousands of AT fans across the world. I always pick as my favorite character the characters that break social structures, or in a lamer way, the "rebels." Marceline is actually a stereotypical character. She doesn't want to rule the Nightosphere but prefers traveling (until "Evicted!"), she has 'daddy issues', she doesn't like being all formal (sort of seen in her interactions with Princess Bubblegum), and she's closed off from society both physically and emotionally (she lives in a house in a cave which nobody is allowed to go in, and doesn't like her emotions being revealed, "It Came From the Nightosphere" and "What Was Missing").
Despite being a stereotype, Marceline has the most depth of all the characters in AT. So far she is the only one with a history that is engaging and makes you want to know more. Her relationship with the Ice King and what happened in the Mushroom War, her fight with Princess Bubblegum, what happened to her mom, is she a vampire? (There's a long article on reasonable, fact-based speculations on the Analysis of Marceline's origins on the Adventure Time Wiki.)
Aside from the depth of her character, another reason I like Marceline is, well, because she has powers. Jake can stretch and Lady Rainicorn can change objects' colors but Marceline is the only protagonist with deadly powers. Also, she plays musical instruments and sings about her feelings, which I think is cool. But perhaps the number one reason I relate to Marceline and other characters like her is because she doesn't like showing her emotions.

EDIT: In addition to that, her voice is like "liquid love." I got that from a top YouTube comment haha.

Ice King

The Ice King
I congratulate the writers of Adventure Time in making my feelings for the Ice King take a 180-degree turn. Honestly, one of the main reasons I avoided AT before this was because of the Ice King. And the reason is rather pathetic. I hated the Ice King because his voice actor was Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. And I hate Spongebob. The voice was difficult to bear for a while but when the showed (gradually) that the Ice King was actually a sad, lonely, creepy perverted old man, he kinda grew on me.
Also, the fact that he also has a tragic history like Marceline's is another reason I got less annoyed. Having an empathetic ability like mine, I understand how certain experiences and how people treat you can affect your personality. And that made me feel for him. And the helplessness he felt in "I Remember You" not only gives the viewer an insight on his past as Simon Petrikov, but it also leaves you to wonder what could have possibly happened that would take him away from Marceline, or what the crown made him do that would make her leave.

LSP

Lumpy Space Princess

If a stranger decided to watch Adventure Time and came across any LSP-centered episode, he or she might get annoyed. LSP is a rude and assuming lump, but that's what we love about her. She is an exaggeration of a typical teenage girl inclusive of high school drama. No one can say LSP lacks confidence. I am embarrassed to admit that I like her for the same reason Paolo likes her: she's totes mean and easily insults people.

Earl of Lemongrab

The Earl of Lemongrab
Yes, it's kind of odd to have the Earl of Lemongrab in this list. But I just wanted to take this time to mention how creepy he is. I think it's mainly his creepy, high voice. Thinking about it on a psychological perspective, I think the reason his high voice creeps me out is because it sounds like he's in a state of panic. And when I hear his panicky high voice juxtaposed with the calm state that I am in (laying on the bed watching Adventure Time) my mind conflicts with itself--should I panic? Why? I'm just on the bed!
What... anyway, despite being totally creepy, like the Ice King, I feel for Lemongrab. According to the Wiki, he's got a sort of Frankenstein thing going on with him, and trying to see inside his head, you begin to realize it must be a crazy ride and that it's not really his fault that he acts that way. You just wanna try to relieve him of the sourness that goes on.








If I could, I'd talk more of the Lich and other characters, but I don't have a lot of time to talk about them. So I'll talk about relationships now. There are only two relationships I want to focus on, the more controversial ones.

"You threw me off!"

Between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline

When I first heard 'I'm Just Your Problem' on YouTube, I saw most of the comments were about the relationship between these two. The issue of homosexuality in children's cartoons is nothing new. In fact, I just searched for it on Google, and there are a bunch of results.

I can't be sure if it's because I watch it, or because I hadn't really noticed the other, but Adventure Time is the first children's cartoon that I watched that features a most-likely-homosexual relationship. I say 'most-likely-homosexual' because it is possible that they aren't and that our society is just so inclined to believe that an unorthodox relationship between two girls is a sign of lesbianism already (ahem, Paolo). Are viewers just jumping the gun?

Let's try to look at this objectively. The speculation began after the episode "What Was Missing" when Marceline let out her feelings in singing 'I'm Just Your Problem'. After that, the t-shirt that Marceline evidently gave PB, and the blush on Marceline's cheeks when PB said she wears it every night. The blush may have been the reason people believe that Marceline has feelings for PB. But what does blushing mean? We blush when we're embarrassed. But because of similar situations in other media (especially in anime), blushing means affection. So it's possible that Marceline was actually just embarrassed.

In her song 'I'm Just Your Problem,' Marceline makes it out that the two of them had a falling out in the past. She seems to say that it was because of something Marceline did or was doing that PB didn't like ("I'm sorry I don't treat you like a goddess... I'm sorry I don't treat you like you're perfect") which may be because of Marceline's personality or behavior ("Am I not sweet enough for you?"). And Marceline knows that but she believes it's not her (Marceline's) problem that PB feels that way ("I shouldn't have to justify what I do... shouldn't have to prove anything to you... I forget what landed me on your blacklist") but despite that, she still wants to make up and be friends (or whatever they were) again.

As someone who had a fall out with a girl friend before, I can understand where Marceline's coming from heterosexually. It's possible to have feelings like that when you've had a fight with a friend and you strongly believe it's not your fault but in the end it doesn't matter who's wrong or who's right because you just want to be friends again. There wasn't a t-shirt in my situation but if the other person had kept something that I gave her I would also feel embarrassed because I would realize that she values our friendship more than I did, and I should just put my ego aside and apologize (like Marshall and Lily's fight).

Right now it might seem like I am against the 'Bubbline' pairing, but I'm actually not. As a proud friend of gays and lesbians (that's just half true, but not my fault. It's not exactly easy to force a friendship!... or to figure out which ones are gay...), I completely support the representation of the LGBT community in cartoons. With regard to the arguments going over the internet between those anti-Bubbline and those pro, a shrew top comment from YouTube cleared things up and posed a more important issue: the YouTubers weren't protesting the validity of the Bubbline pairing, they were protesting the fact that the person from the Mathematical! channel who issued an Adventure Time promotional video that explicitly questioned the possible relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum was fired from his job. The message being sent there was that it was wrong to expose children to the idea of homosexuality.

So with all of that said, I am for relationship but won't go so far as setting it in stone. I'll leave that up to the writers.

Marceline hugs the Ice King

Between Marceline and the Ice King

I find the relationship between these two very interesting. I was also relieved that it was more of a father-daughter relationship because, honestly, eew at a Marceline and Ice King pairing (what would you call that, Marceking?). The relationship brings a lot of depth into the characters. And raises a lot of questions, too. I mentioned some of those questions above.

Simon consoling little Marceline

The episode "I Remember You" showed us more of the great Mushroom War, or at least the aftermath of the war. A lot of facts become clear to us: (1) the Ice King is older than Marceline, (2) Marceline wasn't a vampire yet (already clear from 'Marceline's Closet' but now we're more certain), (3) the crown is what makes the Ice King live so long but at the same time, makes him forget his past, and perhaps the greatest discovery was (4) that it was the Ice King who gave Marceline her beloved stuffed toy Hambo. And one of the questions raised after this episode was the question of her father, Hunson Abadeer, and how this little kid came to be the Vampire Queen and in line to rule the Nightosphere.

The huge gap between this time and the present is what seems to be the new main plot of Adventure Time (remedied by the exciting cliff hanger of the season 3 finale, "The Lich"). Answering the questions and filling in the gap will give a lot of depth to the series as well as the characters. What attracts viewers to Adventure Time may be the seemingly random adventures that Finn and Jake go through but as evidenced by polls in the Wiki, the most liked episodes are the ones that have a sense of continuity in them. My only wish for the writers and Pendleton Ward is to continue building on their already strong fan base, but at the same time not forgetting the random adventures. There are only a few episodes that have continuity and I believe they have reached the perfect balance between the two.

And finally, the last part of my Adventure Time blog post is the gender-bender episode, Fionna and Cake.

Titlecard for the 'Fionna and Cake' episode

I love the idea of a gender-bender episode, because it adds to the creative imagination of the viewers. Also, it generates preferences. Some people might like Fionna better than Finn, or Prince Gumball than Princess Bubblegum (although that may be just because the great Neil Patrick Harris voices PG). Or in another case, make a pairing of the alternate character such as the Marceline and Marshall Lee pairing.

Marshall Lee

Doing the \m/ sign

Needless to say, my favorite gender-bent character is Marshall Lee. And though he was on screen for less than ten seconds, he has already developed a large fan base that includes the author of this blog. But as I learned in my recent lectures in Filipino and Western History, you learn a lot from the things that aren't said. And Marshall Lee is one character I bet millions of fans have created stories about. His cool demeanor and plaid shirt is enough to make a girl (or guy, sure) fall in love with him. Personally, I had in my mind a sort of aloof guy who is surprisingly nice. He looks like a bad boy but is actually a gentleman... 

What... anyway, I can't wait to see his debut in "Bad Little Boy". This storyboard art from the Wiki hints at a possible romantic relationship between Marshall Lee and Fionna (to the disappointment of those wishing for a Prince Gumball and Marshall Lee pairing, as well as the Bubbline one because if their male counterparts don't have the hots for each other, it's possible that the writes have in mind that Marceline and Bubblegum don't either).

Storyboard art for "Bad Little Boy"

This concludes the Adventure Time post. I have a lot more to say, but I have to leave early for school tomorrow. Good night!