The world of Adventure Time has always felt alive. By that, I mean whenever time passes between
episodes, it always felt like the characters, even the minor ones, would continue to live
their lives while off-screen. Adventure Time’s cast has always been dynamic and ever-changing,
and as a result, the world feels like it evolves over time, even when we aren’t there
to witness it. The series finale, “Come Along With Me,”
takes this transformative aspect and runs away with it 1,000 years into the future.
We’ve seen glimpses of this future multiple times before, but the concept that life goes
on in this fictional universe intermingles with the finality that this is the last time
we’ll get to watch it unfold. The last episode of Adventure Time begins with a reminder that
things come to an end. The ruins and relics of the pre-Mushroom War era have been replaced
with the ruins of the Land of Ooo we once knew, and we begin the series finale not with Finn and Jake, but with Shermy and Beth. But before I talk about those two bozos, let
me revisit the new custom opening for the finale real quick. I already made a video
about it (quite some time ago), but I missed something “cool” in literally the first
few opening frames of animation. Also Steve Wolfhard posted an interesting comment after
that video was created, which leads to a lot more connecting of the dots. To those heavily
into fan theories and speculation, I’m sure the following will be nothing new to you,
especially since the finale premiered like 8 months ago, but I still want to talk about
this as I find it very neat. To quote Wolfhard: “I wanted to include
a new fire elemental and slime elemental to give closure on Flame Princess and Slime Princess
to give closure on Flame Princess and Slime Princess (the other elementals are accounted
for in the intro.” So, first off, if you take Wolfhard’s comments
as canon (which you may as well, there’s little reason not to), then Flame Princess
and Slime Princess are confirmed to have died. I would imagine most of us assumed this already;
they don’t have the immortality trait of Princess Bubblegum nor would they preserve
themselves in cryostasis like Patience St. Pim, whose protective ice ball has yet to
thaw in Ooo’s future. That was the thing I missed in the first few frames of the opening;
that Patience is literally right there. These two battling creatures – they would
be the new fire and slime elementals. If we assume these two elementals are still in charge
of their respective kingdoms, the Fire and Slime Kingdom may be at war with one another
in Ooo’s future. So that just leaves the candy elemental…
Bubblegum. Guess it’s pretty obvious who these pink hands belong to now. The Ice Thing
is kidnapping Princess Bubblegum, just as Ice King used to do in days of old. And that just leads us to connect the dots that this character might be Marceline trying to save PB, as Finn and Jake are obviously no
longer alive to take care of that task. The stone duck is from her debut episode as I
mentioned in my video on the intro, and that does feel like a deliberate clue placed to
suggest this is Marceline, in addition to the markings on the monocular being M A, which
could stand for Marceline Abadeer. In prior episodes she marked her name with just an
M, but at the start of the series she also had a very rocky relationship with her father,
and that has since been hashed out a bit – at least enough for her to hang a portrait of
him in her house – so hey, maybe in the future she now takes pride in her last name
and uses M A for her initial. Lots of people all across the internet have
come to this conclusion in the weeks following the finale, and I have to say I agree with
it. Especially since there’s a complete lack of an alternative explanation backed
by evidence; I think it’s very safe to conclude this is indeed Marceline trying to save her
partner from the Ice Thing. I bet Marceline has to bust Bubblegum out fairly regularly;
this is probably a recurring event, considering that classic Ice King was a chronic kidnapper
until he became semi-reformed, and the opposite of that seemed to have happened to the Ice
Thing (refer to my video on the pups). So yeah, those were the additional comments
on the custom opening that I wanted to squeeze in before we move on to the rest of the review. The finale starts with Shermy and Beth having
a picnic. While Shermy and Beth are the new stand-ins
for Finn and Jake and continue the legacy of “the fun will never end,” it’s not
clear whether we can consider them full-blown reincarnations of Finn and Jake. It’s pretty
much up to the viewer to decide, and it wouldn’t be the first time there’s an extremely strong
allusion to such a relationship without confirmation either way. Beth is a descendant of Jake and Lady Rainicorn
though, and I’ve got to say that reincarnating into the same general species of creature
is a tad boring for me as far as reincarnation in the Adventure Time world goes. The vague
“essence” of a person that reincarnates can become any being, so when it comes to
my personal preference, I’d prefer a bit larger of a biological gap. As for Shermy, well again we can consult Wolfhard’s
notes, and there’s a bit of an implication that he might just be Finn’s direct reincarnation.
Wolfhard writes that he made Shermy a cat due to dialogue from Finn in the episode “Mortal Recoil.” [Finn: I’m a cat. I'm an agile cat. Jake, duck!
Mneow, Ice King!] It’s always been fun for me how little one-off
bits of dialogue in Adventure Time often give rise to new ideas way further down the line. Attending the picnic at the episode’s start
is also Princess Zip, who seems related to those aliens that appeared in the episode
“High Strangeness,” y’know the ones that had hybrid children with Tree Trunks
and helped Bubblegum seed candy life on other planets just in case it ever goes extinct
on Earth. Princess Zip being an established princess in Ooo is further evidence that space
travel to and from Earth has become even more commonplace 1,000 years in the future. Since
it appears the planet has become an intergalactic hub of sorts, perhaps life on planet Earth
is even more diverse than ever before due to new extraterrestrial inhabitants making
it their home. Although alternatively, future Ooo appears to be in an even more post-apocalyptic
state than former Ooo, so who knows how much life failed to survive into the post-apocalyptic
conditions we see now. It’s all ripe for our own imaginations to fill. I think the main reason future Ooo feels like
it’s on the more recent side of an apocalyptic event is simply the color scheme. While the
former Land of Ooo was also filled with ruins of the past at nearly every turn, it was always
so lush, vibrant, and gaudy. In the future, Ooo visually appears more dreary and bleak,
with a sky that’s painted in gray tones when it’s not completely covered by ashen
clouds. Even the final shot of the episode, which has the sun directly behind Shermy and
Beth, retains the faded color scheme and sullen sky. Perhaps the latest apocalypse was caused
in-part by climate change, or if not, whatever did cause it certainly led to climatic changes
and polluted the atmosphere. As I already said, it’s all ripe for the imagination. So, Shermy and Beth try and fail to trip the
gigantic Prize Ball Guardian that strolls across the landscape, and the technologically
souped-up flying Banana Guard hovering over its shoulder makes me think the events we
witness with Shermy and Beth chronologically take place shortly after the events we saw
in the episode “Graybles 1000+.” Cuber’s shenanigans caused the partial destruction
of the Prize Ball Guardian, so I figure Princess Bubblegum wanted an extra set of eyes… er,
an extra two sets of eyes? Do these things even technically have eyes? Anyway, PB likely
didn’t want a similar scenario to repeat so she added an extra layer of security to
the Prize Ball Guardian. Later in the episode, we see the first deployment
of Banana Guard 500s for the Gum War, and this future Banana Guard seems to be the next
installment in that series, and apparently based on the logic that two heads are better
than one. Anyway, Shermy and Beth uncover Finn’s robotic
arm, and while it doesn’t hold the same meaning for them as it does for the audience
watching the show, they still hold the object with a degree of reverence. [Beth: It’s beautiful! Let’s take it home,
and I’ll learn about it with my brain. Shermy: You and your brain!] The several minutes we have with Shermy and
Beth repeatedly establish that Shermy is brash, energetic, and immature, while Beth is the
more thoughtful, composed, and laid back one. While their dynamic is obviously reminiscent
of the early Finn and Jake, where Jake often took the role of pseudo-guardian for preteen
Finn, from what we’ve seen thus far, Shermy might just be even more puerile than 12 year
old Finn was (and that’s saying a lot). Beth, on the other hand, is definitely more
focused and grounded than Jake, which I’m sure she has to be in order to keep Shermy
out of too much trouble. Shermy is still physically lacking and might not be able to punch buns
as well as Finn could. Beth is also a tinkerer based on all the various
tools and knick-knacks sprawled around what was formerly Marceline’s house, which is
where the two reside. Her to-do list also demonstrates the sort of handiwork she engages
in around the house:, and that she’s the one who keeps their home in suitable conditions
for living. Fix sink
Drain bathtub Upgrade generator
And of course… you can’t forget to mash them taters. Shermy appears to lean toward the arts as
a hobby, as there’s tons of drawings up all over the walls. Shermy’s art skills
though… they leave something to be desired. Keep on practicing, little dude. I guess I should also mention, lest people
yell at me that I missed it, that Jake’s tropical island song from season 3 was somehow
preserved into the future. That was an amusing little musical reference.
Guess he must have sung it to his pups at some point and the tune stuck. Speaking of references, apparently the King
of Ooo lives atop Mt. Cragdor, which is where Finn got the Enchiridion all the way back
in season 1. We get the best kind of bait and switch, because
apparently BMO now calls himself the King of Ooo, and I dunno about you, but honestly
I’d much rather see BMO in the future than the lump of wax that formerly went by King
of Ooo. By the way, I adore that BMO has a guillotine
atop his house. That’s amazing. Inside BMO’s house, there are sooo many
objects we’ve seen throughout the course of the show. Apparently, BMO is a bit of a
hoarder for the days of old. My personal favorite items of the bunch include the helmet of Grob
Gob Glob and Grod (god, I still struggle to say their names), the casket of The Jiggler
(which presumably also contains the deceased body of The Jiggler), Finn’s grass arm that
ripped off in the episode “Escape from the Citadel” – I would love to know the story
of how BMO acquired this item, as it could have potentially ended up anywhere in the
universe, and last but not least, BMO has The Maid. For some reason, BMO has Prismo’s
extremely powerful interdimensional tool from the episode “Crossover.” Again, I’d
love to know how the hell BMO got his grubby little mitts on this object.
Also, because of BMO, the book Mind Games by Jay T Doggzone continues to exist in the
distant future. For Glob’s sake, just burn that accursed item, BMO, burn it! I’ve said some of my favorites, but pointing
out every item would take way too long, but Steve Wolfhard – he’s a real MVP when
it comes to concept art for the finale – he already uploaded images with every prop labeled
for anyone curious about identifying them all. So if you want to see these images in
higher resolution, I provided a link in the video description that you can follow to get
to them. Shermy and Beth wreaking destruction on BMO’s
collection was hilarious, although my heart did sink a little when the skull of poor ‘ol
deceased Mr. Fox got shattered. [Beth: Be careful, this stuff isn’t ours
– whoop!] Another highly humorous but mildly upsetting
moment is when BMO fails to remember the name of none other than Frank the Human. So normally, BMO is an extremely unreliable
narrator. Not too many episodes ago, we saw what happens when BMO recounts events that
happened only recently. However, it’s pretty safe to overlook that concept in this specific
scenario. BMO telling the story is more of a thematic and structural framework – BMO’s
biased perspective does not become part of the narrative itself.
Basically, I’m just saying the events we witness as an audience are accurate representations.
I dunno exactly what Shermy and Beth hear, that’s a whole different story, but what
we see on-screen is reliable, especially since BMO wasn’t even there to witness most of
it directly. So let’s talk about those events, let’s
finally talk about the Gum War. [BMO: And so the princess was mother to her
own uncle, and that made him mad.] Finn is still against the war, but is at his
wit’s end to think of how to achieve a peaceful resolution, resorting to weak sentiments about
bad omens in the sky… which, those “omens” won’t actually matter until the war is already
resolved. Finn’s quest to avoid the conflict has pretty
much become an obsession. He seems to be operating on more of a primal gut feeling than anything
else – committing to his instincts that the war will set a bad precedent for the future
regardless of the result. [Finn: This is all wrong. Even if she wins
now, this is never gonna end. I can feel it. It’s like the whole world’s going crazy,
man…] While I’m unsure of how much conscious thought
Finn has given it, his worries are not without merit. The Candy Kingdom under Princess Bubblegum
has always had an imperialistic vibe to it (when not outright being imperialist), and
PB has always desired an extreme level of control not just over her own citizens, but
even over other Kingdoms. She almost ended up at war with the Fire Kingdom after all,
since she chose to meddle in their foreign affairs and mess with their sacred relics
to make them less of a potential threat to her. While it’s undeniable that Gumbald is an
ass, a lot of what he has done has already been carried out by Princess Bubblegum to
even greater extents. PB is quite notorious across the Land of Ooo for her iron rule and
desire for control, and wiping out a neighbor faction for acting in the same manner she
herself used to (and still kinda does to an extent) – that’s not exactly a good look. To go on a bit of a tangent here, and I might
talk about this more in a future video, but I think one possibility of why PB shut herself
and her citizens away in the Prize Ball Guardian in the future – maybe PB decided to withdraw
from all the chaos in Ooo rather than dedicate her life towards endlessly trying to control
and conquer it. But I’ll save more discussion on that topic
for another time, let’s get back to why Finn is against the Gum War. While Gumbald
is very much a villain, when he’s trying to form a relationship with others (to manipulate
them), he puts on a cheerful demeanor where he acts like he’s your buddy – your cool
friendly uncle figure, not too dissimilar to the approach used by the King of Ooo. An
approach that amassed quite the following may I remind you. We’re not exactly sure
what the average denizen of Ooo that isn’t closely affiliated with any kingdom thinks
of Gumbald, but it’s probably safe to assume they don’t view him anywhere near as harshly
as Princess Bubblegum does. The argument I’ve been making for why Finn
feels the way he does is undermined a bit though by the fact that Flame Princess and
Slime Princess are willing participants in the Gum War on Bubblegum’s side. I guess
the Ice Kingdom is technically siding with Gumbald, but y’know, not really – but
regardless, the powers that be are basically all united against Gumbald and see him as
an enemy. Of course just because the rulers hold this view doesn’t mandate that the
populace of Ooo in general agrees (especially since none of the residents of the Fire or
Slime Kingdom seem to be joining in – just the two Elementals), but I still do think
if the conflict was kept purely between the two Candy Kingdoms and the other kingdoms
stayed entirely out of it – that would’ve made a far stronger case to de-escalate the
war through non-combative means. We are discussing Finn’s gut feelings here
though, so rational reasons aside, there are probably a lot of personal feelings mixed
in. For one, obviously Finn doesn’t want Princess Bubblegum to rely on war when things
get tough. PB used to be this idealistic figure for Finn, but since he’s grown up and matured,
he realized she’s human and can be prone to faults just like anyone else, and when
you have an entire kingdom to maintain, those faults are very prone to manifesting. (And
PB is not actually human, but y’know what I mean. Let’s not be pedantic here.) Let’s reference the episode “The Thin
Yellow Line,” where Finn actively worked to oppose PB because he assumed PB was going
to unjustly punish someone. In this moment, Finn assumed the worst of PB because of her
prior tendencies – and it wasn’t exactly a bogus assumption on his part. I’m sure Finn thinks carrying out a war
won’t bode well for how Bonnie rules her kingdom in the future; maybe he’s worried
she’ll slip back into the harsher dictator that she once was. Then, in regards to Fern, there’s Finn’s
own personal drama (that’s probably not the best word for it, but whatever). Finn
sees Fern as family and desperately wants Fern to come around again and be friends with
everyone else. I’m pretty sure Finn projects this desire onto Bubblegum and Gumbald who
are also each other’s family. Finn sees his own struggle reflected in Bonnie’s conflict
with her uncle, so of course he would want things to resolve peacefully. So yeah, that’s my attempt to dive into
Finn’s head-space and try and parse why he’s so intensely opposed to the Gum War. Finn is not the only one advising Bonnie to find an alternative – Marceline also makes an attempt. I love how Bonnie’s preoccupied and headstrong
demeanour briefly gives way when she’s face to face with Marcy. [Princess Bubblegum: All right, just make
it quick. Please.] Bonnibel is putting up an austere front as
commander, but going through with the war is not an easy task for her – it’s an
emotionally heavy toll, and it’s a very nice detail that she only shows this brief glimpse of vulnerability when in the presence of Marcy. Marceline’s request is succinct and sincere,
and the smash cut during her appeal was powerful stuff. [Marceline: …but I’ve lived through something
like this once before, and… I’m just not really trying to help start
that all up again.] And while Bubblegum expresses sympathy, this
of course is still not enough to sway her mind. Now on the other hand, somebody who seems
to be deadset on carrying out the war effort and expresses strong dedication to the cause
via direct action is Huntress Wizard. I mean she’s not on the enthusiastic level of,
say, Kernel Candycorn or anything, but she seems to have a comparable level of conviction. I guess she must be extremely fed up with
how much Gumbald’s creations have messed up the ecosystem she watches over or something. So, I’m not going to mention every amusing
joke or comical moment that happens, but the Lemongrab note does deserve a special mention
cause it was quite hilarious. So Finn decides his final course of action
is to use the vial of nightmare juice he acquired from Nightmare Princess to send the parties
involved into the dream realm where they can hopefully hash out their problems. For Finn
to already know what effects the juice has, there’s an implication that somebody has
already tried it out – my bet is Jake wanted to eat dream sandwiches at some point in the
past. Princess Bubblegum agrees to the parlay because
she is reminded of Shoko, and I personally didn’t care for this reference. It felt
rather arbitrary. Like, PB definitely feels guilty over what
happened with Shoko because if she was more attentive the tragedy may have been avoided,
but it’s not as if Shoko and PB disagreed over some course of action that led Shoko
to her demise. There is not enough overlap in circumstances for the Shoko callback to
feel appropriate in my opinion; I felt like it was thrown in because it’s the series
finale and there won’t be any more time to bring up Shoko ever again, so they went
with it even if it doesn’t fit that cleanly. But the parlay happens, operation nightmare
juice is a go, and our characters end up dead. No, not dead. Some of the visuals here were
neat, but a little underwhelming by Adventure Time standards. Given that five people are
sharing the dreamscape, I figured the base room would be far more cluttered and bizarre,
but the setting was rather plain, especially when compared to some of the excellent imagery
we saw back in the episode “Orb” or even in other dreams like the one Jake had in the
episode “Abstract.” Creatively, I felt the background designs didn’t match up to
what we’ve seen before, and for a series finale you generally wanna go big for these
sorts of things. I really didn’t like the singing poodle
who was actually Cosmic Owl in disguise – to me, it was just awkward, but not the good
kind of awkward. Like, not dream awkward, just… awkward. The awkwardness continues
when everybody covers their eyes because they expect the sudden burst of weird light to
blind them… or something? I guess they assume it’s going to be like a solar flare from
Dragon Ball, although in Dragon Ball nobody ever shuts their eyes against that attack
for some reason even though it’s really telegraphed… but woah I’m getting super
off topic here. Anyway, Gumbald realizes everything’s fine and just... runs away. It was weird,
and again not dream weird, it just felt like incongruous storyboarding in my opinion. It was a rocky start to the dream adventure,
but things do get a whole lot better and way more interesting as it goes on. Before I get to those events I do wanna point
out… not the obvious mug that reflects how PB feels about her uncle, not how creepy the
deceased Jake the Brick looks (although that is very unsettling and I love it), but what
I wanna point out is the note on the ground which states “I’m happier this way”
signed by Cousin Chicle. Obviously Chicle/Crunchy isn’t in the dream
– this is representative of something from Gumbald’s psyche. I think Gumbald feels
some remorse; somewhere deep inside him there is regret over Chicle having to be a victim
of the lobotomy juice again. Gumbald quells these feelings by thinking that Chicle is
better off as Crunchy; Gumbald is engaging in some mental gymnastics which manifests
in the dream as this note. Uncle Gumbald does come off like a caricature
of a character, but that’s just because his lust for power and control completely
overwhelms everything else. Gumbald is capable of having empathy, it’s just that he’s
still willing to throw those feelings aside to get what he desires. Which is a trait that’s shared in the gum
family – Bubblegum is literally about to murdle an immobile Fern after all. That’s
actually really dark. For one, Fern’s not even the instigator of the war, but let’s
also remember Fern up to a certain point in time was Finn, he kind of still is Finn in
a way, which PB herself understands. She literally was the first one to understand this. [Finn: So, that guy is definitely an alternate
reality evil doppelganger, right?] [Princess Bubblegum: Huh. No, he’s not even
from a different timeline. Finn, he’s just you.] And yet she’s still ready to take the shot.
She in fact tries to take the shot. Like, geez girl, you got war-mania all up in your
brain-ia. Seems like Finn was right about war not being good for your mind. So in response to Gumbald fleeing, Fern roots
to the ground because he’s emotionally shocked – he freezes in place and is overwhelmed because he’s on the receiving end of a supposed family figure [Gumbald: You looking for an uncle?] abandoning him yet again, which of course
was a very painful event to deal with before. [Finn: I don’t like being abandoned! I’m
sensitive to it!] After the shock wares off, he takes flight
as a pterosaur-ish thing, which almost seems abrupt after he took root just moments earlier,
but I think it actually works. He goes from being frozen in place and not knowing what
to do to feeling like all the bonds he had were severed; he’s no longer tied down by
anyone, he no longer has connections to anyone, but he also feels like he doesn’t belong
anywhere, so he’s experiencing an angry sort of freedom where he’s just lashing
out at everything around him. [Fern: I’m gonna fly around and wreck things
until I feel better. Or until I tire myself out.] It works figuratively. I also think it’s
a neat little callback to the episode “Orb,” where Finn also flew and also was briefly
rooted to the ground, although for very different reasons than what Fern is experiencing now. To try and calm Fern down, Finn takes the
form of a butterfly, and of course it’s only fitting for the butterfly appearance
to match the butterfly that Finn was himself in a previous life. During all of this, Jake is screwing around
with a dream Jermaine that he conjured up. The real Jermaine would probably not be this
silly in such dire circumstances, even if dreams do make it easy to get carried away.
Also, this behavior from the conjured-up dream Jermaine is representative that Jake feels
he has a very wholesome relationship with his brother ever since the events of the episode
“Abstract,” and this wholesomeness is both adorable and hilarious. [Jake: Everybody gets an evil doppelganger
but me. Jermaine: I’ll be your evil doppelganger.
Jake: Jermaine, you’re the best!] Of course, Jake does come through to help
by realizing that he needs to show Finn and Fern their collective vault in order to make
Fern realize that Finn’s words are not just empty platitudes. [Fern: I’m tormented!
Finn: I’m also that sometimes!] Meanwhile, Bubblegum and Gumbald’s toothbrush
jousting resulted in the two experiencing the past in each other’s body – they switched
psyches so to say – they walked a mile in the other’s shoes. Aren’t dreams great?
They can make the figurative literal. Gumbald gets to be the lonely child that had
his own family turn on him and had to grow up alone, while Bubblegum gets to experience
life under the influence of the lobotomy juice. And it was actually incredibly sad when both
characters break down crying – I deeply felt the raw emotion present in that scene.
The image of Gumbald melting into Bubblegum atop the ruined kingdom with the cut to black
reminiscent of when a lightbulb goes out – that was some superb visuals and editing when it
comes to evoking an emotional response. It was a very brief scene, but it packed such
a strong punch; such an effective way to share the grief both of these characters feel. It
was by far my favorite bit out of all the stuff that occurred in the dream realm. Jake had some really interesting experiences
too though, and to boot his were very open to interpretation. Jake and Lady appearing physically merged
despite the fact that Jake spends a considerable amount of time away from Lady signifies that
he nonetheless feels incredibly close to her. Although being merged to someone could imply
that you’re being smothered, I think for the most part, this was a positive representation,
and it’s good to remember this happens before Jake’s actual fears manifest. The manner
in which Jake and Lady are joined does not inconvenience him and he doesn’t even seem
that phased by it. I see this as Jake feeling that he and Lady have a close, intimate, and
healthy relationship. Lady is even the one who brings him to the door where Finn’s
vault is buried, meaning Jake sees her as a very helpful and guiding component to his
life. Before Jake was able to uncover Finn’s vault
though, he had to first face some nightmares of his own. I chuckled at all the writing on the boxes:
I wouldn’t, no, nah, think again. Yeah, Jake has his own slew of stuff he’d rather
keep closed. However, one of the boxes is labeled “perhaps,” which, yeah, that’s
the part I found really amusing. It’s curious that the dirt and potted plants
seem lifted directly from Magic Man’s house – they are so strikingly similar. Maybe
having been turned into a bowl of soup really traumatized Jake or something – I’m not
exactly sure. Vampire puppies is a pretty basic callback
to Jake’s fear of vampires, although I guess it could double up as a general fear of your
children growing up to be bad people, or people who you no longer recognize or people you
can’t relate to. The next bit where Lady leaps forth to cook
her children is some very psychologically deep stuff, and feel free to take your shot
at psychoanalyzing this morbidly wacky scene. While both parents love their pups, we do
know that Lady has stayed far more involved in their lives than Jake has; Lady has overall
put more time and effort into raising them and staying in contact with them. This could potentially be a representation
that if the pups get into trouble, Lady won’t be able to save them, but I feel there’s
a more poignant and much darker repressed feeling that may be at play here; maybe Jake
fears Lady raised the pup in a manner that left them unprepared for the dangerous world
at large, which sort of is a generational extension of what Jake’s parents kind of
did to him in a way, and thus Jake may be projecting that fear onto Lady and the pups. As I already said, this scene is very open
to interpretation because it deals with potentially irrational emotions you would rather bury
and forget about, and I love this kind of stuff, even if it can be kinda hard to parse. As if this wasn’t already traumatizing enough
for Jake, he then gets a direct blow to his ego. [Charlie: Your farts aren’t funny, dad.
Jake: Nooooo!] Yeah, fart jokes. Gotta have one every now
and then I guess, but Jake’s butt does come through and digs up Finn and Fern’s collective
vault. [Jake: Ugh, nightmare fart!] [Finn: What reeks?
Jake: Repressed memories! Finn & Fern: My vault!
Jake: Proof!] I’m actually a little surprised the crew
decided to have only four images emerge from the vault, but I guess Finn has been putting
in work to lighten it over the course of many seasons, and also this is the collective vault
of both Finn and Fern, and would presumably leave out some of the stuff that would only
apply to one of them. Everyone who appears has the eyes of the Emissary
From Beyond for obvious reasons – that’s what the scene is building toward. The Lich wearing Billy’s skin is a very
obvious choice and his appearance in the vault is incredibly straight-forward. Honestly,
the ultimate evil wearing the body of your beloved hero as a disguise – that’s a
ghoulish enough image to reserve a seat in someone’s vault forever. That’s the kind
of shit that scars you for life. The creature Finn turned into in the episode
“Don’t Look” is there, which goes to show that while the support of friends allows
Finn to feel positively about himself, the deep-rooted fears and insecurities that Finn
has about being like his father remain. I already had a thorough discussion about this
transformation in my review of “Don’t Look,” so check that video out if you wanna
hear more on that subject. Now, whether having your insecurities be vaulted
away is healthy – that’s a whole other lengthy topic: I do think one needs to be
aware of their potential faults and negative attributes in order to be mindful and counteract
them, and merely blocking that stuff out might not be the best course of action – but this
kind of stuff takes time to cope with an internalize in a healthy way, and Finn is still very young
so he’s got plenty of time for that. Now in regards to Fern, there is the fact
that Finn transformed into this Martin-like creature way after Finn Sword came into existence.
Fern did not directly experience turning into this monstrosity, but apparently he must have
witnessed the whole event in the tree house, and all those insecurities surfacing in Finn
must have powerfully resonated with Fern for this creature to also be in Fern’s vault.
Even if it was a second-hand experience of sorts for Fern, I can buy this creature being
in Fern’s vault. I think that checks out. Muscled-up giant Susan from the episode “Reboot”
makes sense as well – Finn was pretty darn traumatized from having to fight a friend,
being unable to stop her, and most of all from leaving her so egregiously injured by
the battle’s end. Fern was of course there for the whole thing too, still in the form
of Finn Sword. And of course, the Grass Sword nearly killing Susan is what leads to the
Grass Sword and Finn Sword merging into Fern in the first place – the battle with Susan
was sort of ground zero for that event. Thus, the presence of Susan here represents a whole
lot of repressed emotions for both lads, and I actually really like that she shows up in
the vault. Last, but not least, it’s Princess Bubblegum.
Just… regular Princess Bubblegum, good ‘ol Peebubs, or bad Peebubs I guess in this case.
This harks back to the whole Gum War thing – Finn (and Fern too apparently) are both
worried about Princess Bubblegum compromising her morals and sliding back into the role
of an imperialistic dictator. And just in general, Princess Bubblegum is a person they
both to an extent revere, but are also both afraid of. I really like that certain negative
attributes of PB are extreme enough that they had to be vaulted away in the minds of Finn
and Fern. Upon confronting their fears and torments,
the boys cause the Emissary From Beyond to manifest in the unconscious realm, and apparently
Finn really thought things through with this nightmare juice plan. [Finn: Fern, this is why I brought us here.
We can defeat him together.] Not only did he intend for PB and Gumbald
to reconcile and thus end the Gum War with no bloodshed, but he also planned to rid Fern
of the influence from the Grass Sword in the world of the unconscious. While Finn has never
seen the grass octopus spider thingie before, he is still well aware Fern’s mind has been compromised by the influence of the Grass Sword. As the two dive deep into the Vault, Finn
hears the voice of Princess Bubblegum. [Bubblegum: No fear.] While this might seem odd to some considering
we just saw PB presented as evil emerging from the vault, this is actually super in-line
with what Adventure Time has been doing for quite some time now, and I’ve discussed
this before in a couple videos. Finn’s internal guiding compass, his conscience
manifested so-to-speak, takes the form of an idealized goddess Bubblegum who (by this
point) is nearly completely removed from the actual person Bonnibel Bubblegum. This is
whose voice we hear, just like we have in episodes past. [Bubblegum: My hero, arise. Let love be your
guide.] [Bubblegum: At the seashell’s center lies,
the cornucopia’s smallest door.] Like I said, this is very different from PB as a
person who Finn sees as a very close friend. And then like I already talked about, there’s
also PB the conqueror, the worst of which Finn locks away in the vault, but otherwise,
he sometimes does try to balance the component of her that’s a ruler with the preferred
perspective he has of her as a beloved friend. But yeah, what I’m saying is Finn’s mind
has essentially split PB up into three components: Bubblegum as his moral guiding compass, Bubblegum
as his friend, and Bubblegum as a dictator. I actually plan to eventually do an entire
video on the topic of the three Bubblegums in Finn’s mind because I personally think
it’s pretty cool stuff. It’s actually sort of funny, I once hypothesized
that the cornucopia dialogue we heard from goddess PB in “The Hall of Egress” may
refer to Finn having to save the day by searching deep in his vault, and apparently I wasn’t
that far off. I mean, I wasn’t that close per say because back then I hypothesized it
might be to save Ooo and that he would have to seek out something from his past life,
but I was at least on the right track. And actually I think that’s pretty cool because
back then I thought I was reaching a bit. The bit of dialogue from the goddess Bubblegum
voice at this exact moment, however, drives that connection pretty well I think. The death of the Emissary From Beyond was
quite comedic in how purposefully anti-climactic it was. Finn holds onto it while Fern-Finn
stabs it with the leg of a chair. Done and done. While comical, I do think it also goes
to show that the hardest part is getting your mindset right. Identifying and confronting
your fears is tough, but carrying out the task after that can often times be quite simple.
Once the two Finns are able to work in harmony, defeating the evil is actually very easy. After the Emissary is vanquished, we see that
the weird poodle in a wig that appeared earlier was the Cosmic Owl all along, and it flies
off with a snake in its mouth. The snake is a very deliberate detail, so
it’s pretty safe to apply what snakes are presumed to mean in dreams towards this whole
situation. In western thought, snakes in dreams are often
inferred to signal danger, and there’s that whole Judeo-Christian aspect where the snake
is an evil tempter, which further ties in with shameful desires in general, so yeah,
in that sense it all ties quite cleanly toward representing the Emissary From Beyond as malevolent
creature that’s being purged – a creature that tempted and corrupted and got the best
of Fern’s psyche. There’s of course also a fairly common idiom that
occurs in multiple languages: snake in the grass. The grass has been dispersed, and there’s
the snake – the figurative as literal. Like… c’mon. Need I say more? I mean, I will say more, because there’s
also eastern interpretations of what snakes can represent, which includes wisdom, renewal,
and transformation. Fern is now unburdened from the influence of the Emissary From Beyond,
and while tragically his life draws to a close, he is at least free. He sheds his skin, so
to say, like a snake. Fern finally transforms into his own person figuratively, and then
literally will go on to transform as well by the episode’s end. So the snake in the mouth of the Cosmic Owl
can be viewed as two-pronged symbolism – referring to both the purging of the Emissary From Beyond
as well as Fern being reborn anew. A small detail that goes a long way to reinforce
the themes at play. Little touches like that are one of the many reasons I love Adventure
Time. Our characters all end up on what can basically
be called epiphany island. I love this imagery. What everyone experienced was akin to being
lost and adrift in a volatile sea, and then finally finding land to stand on, becoming
grounded once more. The imagery of washing up on an island works so well to illustrate
what the characters are currently feeling. To bring up Judeo-Christian mythology again,
PB and Gumbald are coughed up by a fish, a clear allusion to the story of Jonah and the
Whale, which has a central theme of redemption and second chances. It all just works so well,
even if Gumbald chooses to still be a backstabbing bastard in the end. So yeah, Gumbald doesn’t come out changed
from the dream world; his conviction remains intact. [Aunt Lolly: He never was the epiphany type.] The guy’s complex is way too ingrained,
so despite experiencing what Bubblegum felt throughout her life, his lust to be the only
ruler of the Candy Kingdom remains. I can appreciate when villains have too much conviction,
because not everyone can be redeemed, and some people are just unabashedly stubborn
and bad, and usually what’s portrayed is the hero’s unwavering conviction saving
the day, so it’s nice when conversely a villain’s unwavering conviction leads to
their downfall. So while I can see how some people can think this resolution is a little
lame, I personally have no gripes with it. Opportunistic Aunt Lolly is content with taking
Gumbald’s spot and calling it a day, and thus... [Princess Bubblegum: Two Candy Kingdoms it is!] [King Man: We donked up for real.] Yeah, I’m sure literally everybody saw that
coming. It’s finally time for Golb. It’s Golb
time, everybody. [LSP: Oh nooo~!] I was pretty amused that upon the appearance of Golb, Marceline angrily assumes PB is somehow responsible. [Marceline: What did you do?
Bubblegum: It wasn’t me!] Despite how close the two have become since
their reconciliation way back, they still aren’t exactly in the business of giving
each other the benefit of the doubt. I really appreciate that they’re willing to hold
the other accountable when things go bad, in my opinion it makes their relationship
dynamic feel far more real and fleshed out. Ice King failing to recall information about
Golb but we as an audience getting the expository flashback anyway was a real hoot. The unexpected physical comedy had me bust
out laughing. [Betty: You want some cherries with that
chocolate syrup? Simon: Oh! Sure.
Betty: Catch.] Simon’s head injury aside, we do learn that
Golb is a dank semi-omnipresent entity that embodies chaos, which slightly explains Golb’s
appearance in the episode “Puhoy,” because Finn’s head-space was certainly an extremely
chaotic festering mess at the time, to the point where he may have even subconsciously
created an entire “dream”(?) universe to escape to. And regardless of whether he
created it or his escapism allowed him to traverse to it, crossing back to his home
dimension via death and finding Golb in that inter-dimensional space seems like a pretty
cool concept honestly. As for the Lich calling himself the last scholar
of Golb, well, y’know what, I’d love to get into it, but I think I’m gonna save
that discussion for a video specifically about the Lich. I’ve always wanted to do a bunch
of character study videos after Adventure Time ends, and the Lich will certainly be
among those, and let’s be honest, this finale review is already lengthy enough as it is. So… Golb. That red, weird, creepy, bare-bottomed
baby. For the most part, Golb just sits there and stares blankly ahead throughout the whole
finale. Its stanky demon breathe transforms candy people into this abomination that spreads
chaos and destruction across the landscape. This is actually the only creature Golb creates
directly, after that first wave of bad breathe, Golb just chills out amid all the pandemonium. The monster eventually turns one of the Gumbald
Guardians foul, which in turn transforms Princess Bubblegum’s jellybean attack into these…
angry birds? Yeah, that was kind of weird – it didn’t really fit with the internal
organ inspired designs of the big monsters, and it’s not exactly an interesting design
anyway – it’s just angry birds. I wish these had looked different. There was actually a whole lot more concept
art for these biomass creatures than what ended up in the episode, and unfortunately,
I think the unused concept art is way more interesting than what we got. Instead of the
bland angry birds, I wish we could have had some of these fellas. This guy in particular
is so morbidly grotesque – I love it. Marceline crushes the primary monster, and
it still reanimates off-screen and just keeps on going as if it was never taken down, so
one of the ways these other designs could have been implemented would be to have the
creature reform into a new design every time it was defeated. Something else that bummed me out is that
the Candy Kingdom haters Gumbald assembled, which received quite a lengthy introduction
may I remind you, got absolutely no play whatsoever during the battle. We see them standing in
place or running away in a few scenes here and there, but at no point do they actually
fight. A case could be made that they were left out
because there’s probably not enough time in this 4-part episode to squeeze in extra
fluff content without negatively impacting the pacing of the key events that hold actual
importance. The central characters allied with Bubblegum already got very brief screentime
as is. While this argument does have some merit to it, I still feel like Scorcher could’ve
been thrown into the background of some scene tossing fireballs – small stuff like that
would have been sufficient. The characters that are cowards could still be trying to
avoid getting killed in ways that are interesting or amusing. Just a few brief glimpses of these
characters actually doing something proactive in the background would’ve been nice. I mean, potentially, we could have had a giant
busy action scene where the camera quickly pans across all the characters that are simultaneously
engaged in combat, but that might have stretched the animation budget too thin. The more complex
a scene is and the more moving parts there are to it, the more expensive it gets, and Adventure Time has never excelled at its action scenes anyway. While nobody watches Adventure Time for amazing
combat choreography, I still do wish we could have had at least a little bit of that for
the series finale. Maybe those additional cool monster designs also didn’t make it
in because of budgetary restraints, but obviously I’m just speculating here.
Ultimately though, these complaints do end up being relatively minor for me, because
as I already said, I don’t watch Adventure Time for splendid action scenes. I value Adventure
Time because of its ability to tell emotionally resonating quirky tales packed with humor
and surprising levels of depth. So yeah, while a bit of a bummer, it’s not that big of
a deal because I’m literally just asking for more fanservice honestly. Alright, let’s move on: I of course have
to mention the two kiss scenes that occurred on that battlefield, both of which were absolutely
amazing, and no those do not count as fanservice – those are legitimate developments. Yes,
even the one with LSP and Lemongrab. LSP making her move on the sour Earl – that
romantic advance is not unprecedented. The two had already gone out on a date back
in the episode “Normal Man.” [Lemongrab: It’s stressing me out that there’s food
on a blanket. I have to go home. This was nice.] And while Lemongrab did cut the date short
only to get bonked on the head, he did proclaim that his time with LSP was nice, so this hook-up
feels like a sensible continuation of that. The two are both incredibly awful and grating,
so maybe their combined terribleness could actually work. And their kiss scene was downright hilarious.
I think that was the thing I laughed at the most out of the whole episode. [LSP: You’re welcome.] And then, of course, the moment so many have
been waiting for – after so much time wondering whether we will get to see it happen on-screen… Simon and Betty get to kiss! I do wonder how
Simon will break the news about the disembodied AI head he’s been smooching, assuming real-world
Simon and the personification of Simon within the Crown realm are the same consciousness
or share their memories if they’re not the same consciousness... Okay, okay, I’ve yanked your chains enough,
Marcy and PB kiss! It’s not just gay space rocks any longer, it’s now gay gum and gay
vampires too! Hell to the yeah. All it took was thinking Bonnie died to make
Marcy emotional enough to finally, finally, finally plant a peck on them candy lips. Seriously though, it is so awesome that Adventure
Time was able to depict them as romantic partners in the finale, unlike some shows. *coughs* Marceline’s dialogue also further supports
that they were indeed romantically involved in the past but broke up, and while I’m
sure most people already viewed the show through this perspective, it’s nice to not have
to rely on subtext for a gay relationship – we’ve had enough subtext,subtext is
for cowards, gimme that good shit. Oh, and Marceline can now do the Dark Cloud
form – apparently when in an emotionally heightened state she can channel that raw
vampire essence that she absorbed back in the Stakes miniseries, that’s cool, that’s
cool. She was already arguably the most powerful fighter in Ooo, and now even more-so. After
all, she was the only one able to actually take down this monster, even though it just
becomes revitalizes and keeps on trucking. While all this was happening, Ice King was
attempting to break Betty out of her trance, which thus enrages Betty, and in turn kills(?) Maja. I mean, Betty herself got exploded before
and just ended up on Mars somehow – which was kind of weird – so yeah, the Maja situation
sort of reminds me of what happened in Avatar: The Last Airbender with Jet, where it’s
implied a character died, but it’s also left nearly comically ambiguous. Anyway, Betty’s plan led to some ironic
results. [Betty: For me to save my Simon, and for you to finally pull Margles back from the maw of Golb.] And yet, her and Simon end up literally falling
into the maw of Golb. Finn jumps right in after them, because that’s
just how he rolls, and luckily only loses his robotic limb in a very close shave. It’s interesting how Betty states that Golb’s
guts break them apart into their essential forms, and Finn’s essential form is one
that remains armless. It’s indicative that Finn has come to terms with his inevitable
body that has been foreshadowed as far back as the second season I think. Back in the episode “Breezy,” when Finn
was at the peak of his depression, his desire was to circumvent his missing limb, because
its lack represented a loss of innocence and purpose, among other things. Now, Finn is content with himself; he has
self-actualized by accepting loss, learning from it, and growing into a beautiful flower,
as Jake recently put it. Buff little bionic baby no more; Finn is now a man. But no, seriously,
Finn has really really grown up, he’s been doing so much growing up over the past couple
seasons. Jokes aside, he’s also no longer a buff little bionic baby because he chooses
to leave the robotic arm behind on the battlefield rather than search for it, and toward the
end of the finale, we see Finn chooses to forego a robotic prosthesis altogether. Thematically,
I think that’s very powerful, and I’m happy that Finn is happy with himself. I am getting ahead of myself though to all
the sappy sentimental stuff. At this point in the episode, the tree house we all know
and love gets smashed to bits. In order to defend the tree house, Jake gives
it his all. [Jake: Okay Jake, you can do this. You can
stop ‘em solo.] He channels the maximum potential of his stretchy
alien DNA and transforms into his blue form that resembles his progenitor, he steels his
mindset ready for battle, and then gets completely and utterly crushed. The abomination tag-team renders him powerless to protect what he cares about. Standing in the wreckage of the place he called
home proves too much for him to bear on top of everything else that’s happening, and
the poor guy comes down with a full-blown panic attack that makes him transform to be
as small and feeble as he feels in that moment. That’s when sweet precious BMO comes to
the rescue and shows why he deserves to be the future King of Ooo. [BMO: It’s okay Jake. You always try and
protect me and Finn, but sometimes, we are going to get hurt. How about today, you let
me be the papa?] The song BMO sings, titled “Time Adventure,”
is so damn good. Rebecca Sugar and Tim Kiefer really hit a homerun creating it. The first time I heard it in the episode it
sent chills right down my spine and lubricated my tear ducts – y’know what, it still
sends chills down my spine and causes me to tear up just ever so slightly. Watching this
scene multiple times to construct this review was actually quite a challenge because the
song evokes that sentimental bittersweet feeling of something you love coming to an end ever
so well, and it makes you happy and appreciative in this weird passive manner but it also really
fucking bums you out, man. Or at least that’s the effect it had on me. And for the duration that BMO performs his
art solo, it really does feel like the world might just come to an end. It has this melancholic
acceptance to it – a wistful affirmation that the characters’ lives were well spent,
and that it’s okay to say good bye. It was just a very emotionally heavy scene
before we find out that Golb’s chaos can be reigned back by musical harmony. After everyone joins in and unites in musical
harmony, or at least something approaching that, the sentiment remains just as powerful,
but there’s a more uplifting, hopeful, emboldening spirit to it. So let me get this out there, using music
to combat Golb is pretty cheesy. It’s actually really cheesy. It is, I think, undeniable
cheese. But it’s finely aged, exquisitely crafted, deliciously delivered cheese, and
you can find me gobbling down pounds of that shit in the middle of the night in front of
my open fridge. The point I’m trying to make with that is
that a cheesy concept can still be carried out in an amazing and emotionally evocative
way. Also “Time Adventure” is such deliberate
meta-level commentary on the show itself – the lyrics are clearly reflective of how both
the creative staff and us fans feel about the show coming to an end, and it’s just
hard not to have that resonate with you. It’s a two-pronged approach of melancholic sentimentality
that hits you right in the feels for critical damage. Also, as Marceline points out, music does
not end up beating Golb; you cannot beat Golb with music. It merely holds back the monstrous
abominations that Golb unleashed. The musical harmony buys time – that’s all it does. Well, the musical harmony also paves a path
into Golb’s guts through his tummy, which was a little weird, but I’m of the opinion
that this is an understandable substitute for having Golb literally shit himself on-screen.
Basically, music has the same effect on Golb’s stomach as Taco Bell would have on ours, and
there was pretty clearly an illusion to a bowel movement and a sphincter. [Finn: Guys, it’s clenching!] Harmony makes Golb prone to emptying his guts,
and yeah, I can totally buy that. I do wanna talk briefly about the scene leading
up to this though, because it was heavy, and as anyone who watches this channel should
know, I love the heavy stuff. The indomitable Finn actually gave up and accepted that death
was at hand. [Finn: I always figured I’d go out saving
somebody.] [Simon: Hey, no one gets to choose how it happens.] Had this scene occurred before the big musical
number, I would have probably been on the fence as to whether Finn, Simon, and Betty
end up biting it. The dialogue delivery is just so excellent in this moment from both
Jeremy Shada and Tom Kenny, it’s so real, so raw, so visceral, and so full of vulnerability
and love and compassion – it completely sells the emotions these characters are experiencing.
I think this is my personal favorite bit of dialogue from the finale just due to how sad
yet loving it is. Okay, so, it turns out Death was wrong about
Ice King. [Death: You’re gonna be the Ice King ‘till
the sun blows up!] Apparently not, Simon is restored to his original
personality, because Betty chose to self-sacrifice to save not just her loved one, but the entire
Land of Ooo. I was definitely not the only one wondering
how the Simon and Betty plotline would be resolved without sacrificing the elements
that made it so tragic and meaningful in the first place. While a happy ending for the
two would be nice for the characters who had been so heavily traumatized, I did always
feel that the happy route would not gel that well with the Ice King saga, but I was also
curious how a tragic or semi-tragic end might be carried out. At one point in time, I considered the one
viable “good end” to be the semi-reformed Ice King and the insane Magic Woman Betty
to accept what the other person has become, and love each other for who they are in the
present. The saddest part of the Elements miniseries
was when Betty could not settle for this. Despite trying her best, she was unable to
move beyond the memory of Simon that surfaced every time she looked at Ice King, and she
could not accept the person who she viewed as a debased form of her loved one. So after Elements finished blowing through,
I could not foresee a happy end for the two. And indeed, the conclusion is assuredly semi-tragic,
with the two ending up separated from one another forever. While Simon does get to spend
the rest of his life in the company of loved ones, as we see in the montage at the finale’s
end, he also likely dedicated a substantial portion of his life to pursuing Betty, in
a similar manner to how Magic Man pursued Margles, which assuredly does not bode well. The resolution to the Simon and Betty arc
is a mixed bag of emotions, and… I absolutely loved it.
I definitely would consider this an interesting and clever resolution, and I adore the open-ended
cosmic nature of it all. Betty stopped Simon from being an altered
immortal entity by herself becoming an altered, immortal, and omnipresent, omnidimensional,
eldritch entity. She saves Simon from the Crown by using the
Crown on herself, and submitting to a cosmic force beyond our own understanding. It’s
a ramped-up role reversal, and it’s all just so on-point. And it’s heartbreaking. The thing thing
in particular that gets me a little teary eyed is that after multiple seasons of Betty
determined to be with Simon at any cost, she is able to separate from his life with a smile
on her face. [Betty: However it has to happen, I wish for
the power to keep Simon safe.] Even if she can’t be with him, in her last
moments of existing as Betty, she manages to feel content simply knowing that she is
able to protect him. That’s an emotional gut punch for me. The transformation that results from Betty’s
decision was a visual gut punch. Going all black and white graphite sketchy-like
– while this sort of visual appearance is relatively common for intense scenes in anime,
I was not expecting this stylistic flare to show up in Adventure Time, and the very first
time I saw this, it did take my breath away a bit. On repeated viewings, it’s not quite the
same level of impact, since for me personally, the unexpected nature of it packed a lot of
the punch that was there, but still, seeing Golb screech is still awesome intense stuff. I might actually love the sound design for
this scene more than the animation. That screeching, grinding, contorting roar
of the transformation sounds really good. As for the nature of this new god-beast, there
are many questions that won’t ever have concrete answers, as it should be when dealing
with eldritch forces beyond our own understanding. How much of Betty’s mind still resides after
merging with Golb? The Golbetty meets the gaze of our characters, and directs her gaze
upward when traversing through the portal, which is in pretty stark contrast to Golb’s
dead-eyed stare directly ahead at all times throughout the finale leading up to this moment.
While this suggests Golbetty has an active interest in her surroundings, she did also
come into existence as something entirely new mere moments ago, so it’s possible she’s
merely processing the world around her for the very first time in this new body rather
than consciously acknowledging Simon’s presence. While it’s a nice thought that some amount
of Betty’s will remains within, you’d think a cosmic entity embodying chaos would
be far too overbearing on her psyche. But then again, Betty’s presence in the fusion
did cause a drastic change to Golb’s visual appearance, so who’s to say? And I also have to pose the question, did
Golb willingly allow for this to happen because it might lead to a net gain in chaos later
down the line? It’s all an open-ended mystery. Perhaps
Betty’s mental influence was still present when she departs from the Land of Ooo, but
shreds of her original individuality would become more subdued and lost with time, similar
to what happens when a person is under the influence of the Ice Crown. I mean, those
parallels are like of direct thematic importance after all, but again, I’m merely speculating
and that’s all we can do. There are multitudes of reasons why Golbetty would remain out of
Simon’s reach, some reasons sadder than others and as I said, we’ll never have concrete
answers – just as Simon himself won't. You’ve got to feel for the guy.
I’m not sure how much comfort it is to know that your loved one’s presence can be felt
wherever chaos lurks. That seems like something that could potentially even drive you mad. I love the open-ended nature of this resolution.
The level of the tragedy is entirely open to your own personal interpretations and wherever
your imagination happens to takes you. This applies not just to the Simon and Betty
plotline, but the entire finale really. There’s a reason the creative staff expressed ambiguous
opinions as to whether the finale could be classified as a happy end or not, and that’s
because it really is up to the person watching to decide how they feel for themselves. Even the stuff that’s amusing and comical
when it happens, providing temporary relief from the heartache happening all around, like
Gunter wishing to be Ice King – that still becomes quite sad after you give it 1,000
years. I love the manner in which Adventure Time is able to intersperse comedy between
(or sometimes into) tragedy. Every now and again I have this sobering moment
where I have to take a step back and appreciate just how much Adventure Time is willing to
portray that life can sometimes suck. Life can be a real grab-bag, that’s for sure,
and I feel like that level of emotional honesty is rather rare in all-ages entertainment. But yeah, the silly cyclical wheel of history
continues to turn. Gunther’s deepest truest wish was to be
like Evergreen, which eventually led to the creation of an Ice King, and now Gunter’s
deepest truest wish is to be like Ice King, and that leads to the creation of the Ice
Thing, who has an even more friendly, scatterbrained, and wackier personality than classic Ice King.
It’s quite touching that this is reflective of the love Ice King had and expressed toward
Gunter, but now we’re about to have one of those sad sobering moments I just talked
about, because Ice King’s love for Gunter was manufactured into the Crown’s magic
from the machinations of Gunther’s mind, because Gunther desired love from his master
Evergreen which he never received. A whole lot of sadness (and madness) paved
the way for an eventual penguin (whose actually a monster that existed before time) to fall
under the influence of the Crown and experience happiness. It’s a fascinating history of
passing down desires and perceptions which led to the Ice Thing being what he is. And here comes that sobering part about how
life can suck: circumstances later in the future played out such that Ice Thing still
ended up being a victim of tragedy. If some of you are a little lost as to what
I’m alluding to, Gibbon, who we see in the new opening, took one of the Crown’s jewels
and reprogrammed it to acquire immortality for himself, which in turn may have led to
the Ice Thing becoming further debased than it was back when Gunter first turned into
it. I speculated about this in my video on Pups and Ooo’s future, so I guess go check
that out if you want more details. The legacy of the Crown throughout the series
has been extremely interesting. Speaking of tragedy though, there’s more.
Oh, Fern. Our dear, poor, tormented boy, Fern. His redemption comes at the heavy price of
his physical body, and his final request to be planted at the tree house makes me wanna
tear up. [Fern: Just promise to plant me there.] What gets me right in the feels about this
is that Fern, just like Betty, was able to be content in the brief few moments leading up to the shedding of the old body and being reborn anew. Finding a way to be content at the end is
most definitely a central theme of the finale, and obvious meta-commentary for anybody who
has ever been invested in Adventure Time or any show for that matter. Just the small smiles
these two characters have gets to me so much because it’s so representative of what the
series is all about: overcoming hardship, and even in the most dire circumstances, trying
to find a way to be happy. The sword seed that Fern leaves behind turns
into a tree upon being planted, with the Finn Sword embedded into it. Whether Fern is within
this new sword – that’s again something we have to decide for ourselves, because there’s
not going to be a concrete answer. Thematically, I feel like loss and transformation bears
a more poignant message if Fern is full-on reincarnated as the tree itself, the tree
that one day will tower high above the Land of Ooo, but I can see a case being made for
how Fern/Finn’s essence being retained within the sword could be interesting. That being
said, life as a sword was akin to a prison, especially in the visual manner that it was
portrayed, so I’m not too keen on that rendition of it. As cool as it could potentially be
for Shermy and Beth to have a weapon that holds memories and knowledge of the last millennium,
I’d rather have meaning over lore. Either way, the sword certainly embodies the
spirit of adventure that continues into the distant future, and that’s certainly the
most important part. While talking themes here, I also do want
to point out how the tree is able to grow big and tall on the foundation that represents
Finn’s childhood. Finn himself has gotten taller and is now ready to leave the nest.
Finn and Jake have both been shaped by their experiences growing up in the tree house,
but they have matured and are ready to leave it behind and take the next step of their
lives. What a nice little sentiment to end BMO’s story on. Of course, I can’t end this review without
mentioning that we find out who canonically sings the Adventure Time end credits. Music
Hole! Music Hole was singing this melody the entire time – that’s genius. I wanna remind
everyone Music Hole is voiced by Ashley Eriksson of the band LAKE who composed the Adventure
Time end credits in the first place. And this montage – this amazing montage
in the finale – is another thing that just makes me feel like crying, but happy tears!
The ending montage puts much of the sweet into that bittersweet feeling of something
coming to an end. Rebecca Sugar’s “Time Adventure” provided
the melancholic sentimentality, while Ashley Eriksson’s “Island Song” provides the
euphoric sentimentality. I’ve always been in love with the Adventure Time end credits
music, and it’s just beautiful to have the show end with an extended version where we
see brief glimpses into the lives of many characters that inhabit the Land of Ooo. I could go through the montage and list every
fun and amazing little detail that happens, but, do yourself a favor and just go watch
it instead. I’m planning to do an eventual video where I ponder and speculate on the
characters’ futures, so that’s when I’ll extrapolate some discussion from the montage.
For now, I’m content with just saying that it’s a wonderful way to end the series. If for some reason it’s not already obvious
to you, I really enjoyed this finale. Before it aired, a lot of people were keeping their
expectations in check and were concerned about whether it would feel like a legitimate end
to the series, myself included. I’m so very happy with the end result. I still vividly
recall the emotional high that I was experiencing after the episode first cut to a close. Knowing that the finale would have to tackle
both the Gum War and Golb, I was worried that pacing issues might arise, but I think “Come
Along With Me” generally nails it when it comes to pacing, which is an opinion that
might be controversial. I’ve seen people call the finale rushed,
but I just don’t see it. The pacing of Adventure Time has always been on the brisk side; I’ve
personally always been astonished by how much Adventure Time can pack into a small time
frame without feeling bloated. So yeah, given the context of how this show usually tells
its stories, I did not think the pacing detracted from the experience. Now, would I have loved more episodes leading
up to the finale? Yeah, sure, of course, I would have loved that. But did I think the
finale itself was rushed? No, I did not. The framing device of starting the episode
in the future, and having BMO recollect events from the past did wonders not just for the
world-building and the themes at play, but I also think it helped even out the pacing.
The occasional flash-forwards allowed for a quick breather between certain events, while
also placing what we witness into a far greater context, which kept things smooth around the
edges and rolled them along nicely. The only part that I thought was too abrupt and didn’t
gel well with everything was the transition from the end of the Gum War into the Golb
conflict – and y’know, the creators seemed to have realized this too because they made
the characters joke about it in a way that almost broke the 4th wall. [LSP: So, I guess everyone’s just going
home, huh?] [Jake: Yup.] Besides that transition, yeah the pacing was fine. Shortly after the “Come Along With Me”
came out, I did skim the net to see what reasons people had for disliking or even hating the
finale, and none of the complaints I saw back then resonated with me. Some were precarious
nitpicks, others were just desires that were left unmet, some seemed to miss the point
of the show entirely, and then there’s that subset which makes me want to facetable – in
particular, I’m talking about the people who continue to whine about how Finn is useless,
he’s no longer a hero and barely a main character – and yeah, that’s not even
worth dignifying with a response. And then, I wish I didn’t have to mention
this, but there’s the worst kind of people: the stupid goddamn homophobes.
Bigotry is not criticism, and if you have a problem with gay people, I hope that one day you become a better human being, but until then, fuck right off. Okay, let’s get back on track, cause I’m
going off the rails a little, but hey, reading people’s thoughts on the internet tends
to do that to you. So, I’ve seen some dissatisfaction with
so much being left open-ended in the finale; I personally think the creators struck a great
balance between tying up certain events while letting others breathe. You don’t NEED Finn’s
love life to be this concrete settled thing – Finn is still 17, let him live his life
and figure that stuff out as it comes. That goes for most of the unknowns in the characters’
futures. The fact that it feels like characters get to continue living their lives off-screen
is not bad – I think it’s an amazing testament to the fictional world that was built. People
and places are always changing, and Adventure Time was always about capturing a brief glimpse
of that dynamic chaos. I LOVE BMO’s response to Shermy and Beth
wanting to know more. [Shermy: But what happened to Phil and Jake
after that?] [Beth: Or Princess Bubblegum?
BMO: Eh, y’know. They kept living their lives.] The lack of closure is deliberately woven
into the story and its themes. The adventure is supposed to feel like it’s just about
to begin. The fun will never end, it’s adventure time, that’s in the friggin’ opening theme
to the show; and it bums me out so much that despite it being such a blatant core theme
to the finale, some people seemed to have just missed it entirely. I really don’t have any large-scale criticisms
of the finale. Personally, my biggest wish if I could change something would simply be
for the animation budget to be higher, and as I said before, that’s a minor complaint
as far as Adventure Time goes. All things considered, I thought “Come Along
With Me” was a great way to wrap up the show and remind us what the spirit of Adventure
Time is all about. I am personally completely satisfied. Okay, so we are finally approaching the end
of this review, which is great because I’ve been recording this all in one session and
my voice feels like it’s about to give out at any moment. Just to reminisce a little bit before I go:
I got to witness “Come Along With Me” a week earlier than its release date, since
I was fortunate enough to attend a special screening held in LA. (I lived relatively
close at the time, otherwise I would have never been able to make it out there.)
It was a wonderful event that I’m extremely happy I was able to attend, and watching one
of my most beloved series conclude on the big screen in a theater packed with other
enthusiastic and teary-eyed fans was an extraordinary experience. It’s something I doubt I’ll
ever forget. What’s amusing is that not a single person
there recognized me, or if they did they said absolutely nothing, which I personally think
is fantastic, cause the thought of somebody recognizing me out on the street scares the
bajebus out of me, and if it didn’t happen there, I don’t think it’s gonna happen
anywhere. Also, I got a shirt that might have been to
small for me, and I gifted it to somebody else, and if that person happens to be watching
this video, hi, I hope you remember me! Alright, reminiscing over. While this review
took an exorbitant amount of time to finish and release, I’m glad to have finally uploaded
my thoughts on the show’s conclusion. Finding closure at the end can be tough, and hopefully
this video was able to help some people out at coming to terms with Adventure Time’s
end. That being said, I’m not gonna stop making
videos about Adventure Time. There’s so many events I never even discussed, and so
much more discussion to be had about the events I did. The show may be over, but I’m set
on keeping the dialogue around it going… forever. I hope you all stick around for future
videos. Thank you ever so much for watching if you
made it this far. If you enjoy my content and want to help me make more, consider supporting
me on Patreon by giving me your money. I’m so very, very poor. Also Twitter, Twitch,
I got accounts on those so… follow me if you want.
And yeah, I guess that’s it. [Shelby: Check please.]
Finally!!!
Man it's already been a month since this came out, I'm so shit at replying to things fuck me.
Some shit looks like it went down in this thread and I don't wanna contribute to that, and I don't know if Elk is even responding anymore, but I want to say first off cool video and thoughts! Definitely some stuff there I hadn't picked up myself and always nice getting another perspective. The Finn/different sides of PB video sounds really cool. Think it's a shame that this video got so much less views than the other stuff from around the time of the finale, what a crappy time for depression to strike, but I know you don't do it for the views, do it for the love of the show.
I will say though I was disappointed that your response to people criticizing Finn's role was to say it wasn't even worthy of a response because, well honestly that's my biggest problem with the finale haha so a matter of personal interest there, but really even if it wasn't I'd like to hear a genuine explanation as to why you don't think it's the case. To me this complaint isn't so monumentally stupid and obviously false that it's common sense as to why it's wrong so that just came off as being pretty condescending.
I'm fine with Finn not stabbing something, I'm fine with him not kissing a girl in the end, but when his own show feels so apathetic to his existence that makes me super bummed. Despite all the emphasis the show puts on "the adventure is continuing" this is still the last time we as the audience are gonna see Finn in action, and unlike practically every other character his ending was really lame. Like even if it's part of the theme you gotta give the protagonist of your tale some kind of grand, satisfying final show and to me stopping the war and saving Fern didn't nearly cut it. For pretty much half the finale he did nothing which sucks! I never could've dreamed of an ending to AT which has so little of our main boy in it, even with the show expanding to far beyond him after a certain point.
Maybe I'm whining, maybe I missed the point, but it's how I feel and I can't change it. Regardless eager to see what the rest of your videos on AT will eventually look like Elk, even if I disagree with you at times you're the best AT content creator in the video sphere. Stay well.
My 1st post to Reddit was about Flame Princess and Neptr, I do like how Uncivilizied Elk helped confirm my Theory.
https://www.reddit.com/r/adventuretime/comments/9u9103/an_interesting_tidbit_i_love_in_the_adventure/
Takeaways from the review:
-It was astute for him to say that climate change must at least partly be the cause of Adventure Time’s bleak environment from 1000 years in the future. If that theory is right, it makes Adventure Time’s 2000-year story arc for humanity a tragic saga; first they ruined their world in a nuclear war, then they ruined it through pollution.
-His observations about how Finn views Princess Bubblegum revealed an unsettling aspect in their relationship. Elk says that though Finn views her as a good friend and even a godlike figure, he also views her as a dictator who can cause harm despite her good intentions. Now that Finn is older, it seems he’s starting to think politically, and he’s applying this to how he views this powerful friend of his.
-Elk made the perfect interpretation of the “I’m happier this way-Chicle” sign from Gumbald’s dreamscape, which is that it represented Gumbald’s suppressed guilt for the sacrifice of Chicle. That detail adds the appropriate complexities to a character who’s seemingly one-dimensional and totally devoid of empathy.
-I didn’t realize how cruel Bubblegum’s attempt to kill Fern was until Elk pointed it out. I guess it makes more sense when you consider that Bubblegum was trying to stamp out any remotely potential threats at that moment.
-Elk revealed the Christian symbolism that was present during the dream sequence, such as the scene where Bubblegum and Gumbald got spit up by a whale after finding inner peace. His whole monologue about the topic felt so surreal, since statements about Jonah from the Bible were put next to statements about cartoon characters. But that’s what the writers apparently intended for commentators to talk about.
-Elk’s comments about the conclusion of the stories of Betty, Simon, and Fern made me feel newly powerful emotions for them. He pointed out how Simon is now going to think of the presence of his transformed loved one wherever chaos lurks; how Betty’s last moment consisted of an accepting smile about her loss of Simon and her imminent loss of existence; how Fern’s final moment paralleled this as he also smiled. Sometimes Elk’s commentary brings out emotional gut punches from the show that one hasn’t yet fully considered.
I'm sorry, but the last part of the review was godawful to listen. No, I'm not talking about the Bubbline hate, but the part where he talks about what people didn't like about the finale:
"Shortly after the “Come Along With Me” came out, I did skim the net to see what reasons people had for disliking or even hating the finale, and none of the complaints I saw back then resonated with me. Some were precarious nitpicks, others were just desires that were left unmet, some seemed to miss the point of the show entirely, and then there’s that subset which makes me want to facetable – in particular, I’m talking about the people who continue to whine about how Finn is useless, he’s no longer a hero and barely a main character – and yeah, that’s not even worth dignifying with a response."
There's a bunch of reasons why most of the people don't like the finale, and yet he decides to bash everyone who disagrees with him. And this is the guy who, despite being a huge AT fan, criticizes a lot of shit in the episodes he reviewed, like Jake the Starchild. And Finn being uninportant at all in the finale is one of the criticism people don't like about the finale.
And also...
"You don’t NEED Finn’s love life to be this concrete settled thing Finn is still 17, let him live his life and figure that stuff out as it comes."
So sick of seeing this excuse.
I watched the review but his arguments just didn't resonate with me. I'm not gonna merit them with a response.
This is so awesome, thank you for this OP and Uncivilized Elk!
So the review was great like all his reviews. Some nit picking; I wish he would of pointed out some of the Easter Eggs in the same way he pointed out King Man, Betty, and Maja flying in the background of the dreamworld. You know pop up video style (if your to young to know what that is look it up) he does not even have to mention it just add in an arrow with some small dialogue. I am not talking about every little thing in The King of Ooo's house which he provided links for. Some examples of the things I am talking about are Slimmy D's helmet on Slime Princess, the words/letters behind the Finn door (NAV ( g or q) HT with C 'ERE? on the bottom. Does anyone know what this means?), the BRB note pinned outside the door when Jake and Jermaine enter the underground balloon mall, Stormo/Goliad cameo, and the "MA" symbol on the telescope showing up upside down on the sign of the shop where Susan, Bad Lemon No Hope, and Frieda are at.
That last one really needs to be talked about more in my opinion. Also maybe not in this video though he did mention the finale was not rushed which we all know it was, talking about how the writers/artists/creators had to turn a season finale into a series finale. This robbed us of a Season 10 and also the cancellation of the series was given to the writers during or right after finishing Gumbaldia. Which I think greatly impacted the plans of the finale. They had so much build up for the Season 9 finale that there were so many plans/ideas forcefully lost. I just think this is an important aspect that he needs to talk about.
I am glad we finally got it though and I know this is not the last video we will see from him on this episode. I think he could even edit this episode to add some pop up information but that is just my silly idea.