During quarantine, I have been regressing into childhood. I eat chicken nuggets, I play Just Dance, but the one thing I have enjoyed the most is going back and watching children's cartoons. Luckily for me, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra were added to Netflix over the summer, allowing me to experience the beauty of the series for the first time. I also found myself loving the new Disney + Phineas and Ferb film. However, there was one cartoon that to me has always shone more than any other; that show is Adventure Time. I have been in love with this show ever since I watched the first episode back in elementary school, and I truly believe it has shaped me into the person I am today. With my new HBO Max account, I was able to not only rewatch the series, but also watch the new episodes that are currently coming out. On November 19th, the newest installment of the series was released and I believe that it is a piece of perfect television.
For those unaware, Adventure Time is a series that follows a young boy named Finn and his best friend, Jake, who is an alien-dog. They live in Ooo, which inhabits thousands of kingdoms and princesses, whom Finn is chronically saving from the Ice King. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, with majesty and unusual creatures. Adventure Time has always been known to bring emotional depth and humor to an action-adventure cartoon, and Adventure Time: Distant Lands--Obsidian has amplified this by hundreds. The series not only deals with the joys and humor of life, but also the melancholy and tragedy of living. This particular episode of the spin-off does not deal with the boy and his dog, but two of his closest friends: Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen.
Bubblegum and Marceline made history in 2018, being one of the first queer couples to have an on-screen kiss in a children’s cartoon. The couple is groundbreaking, and their relationship was developed deeply throughout the original series. Unlike some “last minute” queer characters, which are revealed in either the last season or the last few seconds of the finale, these characters have been hinted to have a past with each other since the beginning of the series. They have always been a part of each other, for better or worse, and are essential to the other’s character development. Bubblegum and Marceline are queer characters, but it is not the only trait that defines them. In the newest episode, we see that they live together and just do normal couple activities. What I love most about their relationship is the fact that no one cares that they are together. There is no shame or guilt from the two women being in love, which sometimes plays out on television. They aren’t “fighting against the system” or “breaking the rules of society” to be with each other. They are just with each other. I praise the writers immensely for normalizing queer relationships and their hardships, especially in children’s media. Even if you haven’t been watching this relationship flourish throughout your entire childhood, you will still enjoy watching this beautiful and developed connection.
In the most recent episode, the two find themselves in the Glass Kingdom (where everyone is made of glass), where Marceline is named “Saint Marceline” for her effectiveness in stopping a dragon long ago. A young boy with a crack in his head has awoken the dragon after trying to fix his crack while in the town’s furnace. It is Marceline’s job to stop the monster again and save the kingdom. The way she defeated the dragon the first time was through the power of a passionate and angry song. Now, in a happy relationship, she no longer feels that type of pain. She must venture into the past and rediscover what has truly hurt her so that she can create another song to save the kingdom. The story might seem a little contrived, but while watching it, it doesn’t feel childish and the songs really don’t seem forced at all. There has always been a sweetly melancholy filter that has covered the seemingly goofy and immature show. We learn not only about the emotionally wrenching past of Marceline, but also of the grief that each character has been carrying around with them. In Adventure Time’s light, the despair is put into adorable and fundamentally sweet characters, making the viewer feel warm, yet wistful. All of this plus cute cartoon monsters and a soundtrack that gives Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World a run for its money. The songs are arguably the most powerful part of the episode. The title sequence almost perfectly encapsulates a punk sound, and by the end, there is a sort of love ballad.
Growing up with these characters, I have seen how much they have evolved. Going back to them was almost like catching up with friends that I haven’t seen since elementary school. This takes place at least a decade after the original series, so the development and the cameos of some old characters were sometimes too much for me to handle. My ratio of crying to this was once every five minutes, about nine sobs of nostalgia for a forty-five-minute episode. Still, I cannot begin to describe how great this episode of television truly is. I can argue that it is one of the most moving pieces of work that I have ever seen. I implore everyone to watch it, even if you have never seen the original show, even if you think that you are too old to be watching children’s cartoons, even if you don’t like action-adventure. You are going to take something away from this honest and moving work, especially if you aren’t expecting to.