Adventure Time is
finally ending, an event that should feel epochal and yet somehow isn’t.
If you consider yourself a cartoon fan—one of those
adolescents-to-young-adults who spends their time discussing children’s TV
shows on internet forums—then you’ve probably watched this show, and, more
importantly, you’ve probably been exposed to some of the received wisdom about
it.
Adventure Time changed
everything. It helped pull children’s TV animation out of years of stagnancy. It
captured an audience of older fans who gave the cartoon exposure all around the
internet. Most of all, in the course of nine (or ten) seasons, Adventure Time ended up something very
different from how it began.
However, these facts seem odd when juxtaposed with another
piece of received wisdom: Adventure Time,
as a cultural phenomenon, has massively declined. It has slipped off the radar,
and with shockingly few people noticing. Sure, the show maintains plenty of
fans, and the pop-cultural press has been churning out eulogies in advance of
the series finale. But other bits of the fandom—that great, amorphous mass,
scattered across a hundred websites—have registered the decline, and the
response is one of confusion. How did it come to this? Circa 2012, Adventure Time was one of the biggest
things on the internet. Google search volume for “Adventure Time” peaked in
December of 2012, right around the time of the Season 5 premiere; six years
later, it is almost one-quarter of that.
There are probably several possible reasons for the decline,
but one stands out. If there are still many fans, there are many more former
fans, and both the fans and former fans can agree on one thing: Adventure Time changed, and it changed a
lot. No one—not even many casual viewers, I think—would be able to confuse an
episode from Season 1 with an episode from Season 9.
For this, you will find everywhere the same interpretation: Adventure Time began as a random,
episodic show about goofy adventures, but over time gained character
development, story arcs, and a certain kind of new seriousness. Most Adventure Time fans will agree on
something like this—but there it ends. The real contention comes in whether the
changes were for better or worse.
But is this all so true? Some of
it is. I am hopefully not so arrogant to believe that I can turn conventional
wisdom entirely on its head. However this narrative ignores too much nuance;
the nature of Adventure Time’s
successes and failures cannot be so perfunctorily summarized.
It is perhaps too much to ask
the average internet fan to read really deeply into the reasons a cartoon is
liked or disliked. I may be foolish to think that I can do better; but I stand
by the idea that Adventure Time is a
complex show and an important one. I’m a fan too, after all, and one who wants
to understand this show deeply. With this short essay, on the eve of the show’s
conclusion, I hope to provide some account of Adventure Time, to show what it was, what changed, and what I found
was
the good and the bad.
***
If you’ve ever read or heard about Adventure Time, you might have noticed that there is a pool of
words that people tend to draw from over and over again. Words like “surreal”,
“trippy”, “absurd”, or most of all: “random”. Randomness is seen by practically
everyone the chief quality of the
show, especially in the early seasons before the supposed randomness had to
share room with other interests.
The only trouble with this byline is that it isn’t true.
Well, it is actually pretty true. You’ll have to excuse me
for being a little contrarian for the sake of effect. But this near-universal
characterization of Adventure Time as
random is a gross generalization. It may seem so, but mostly on a superficial
level. Upon closer look, certain features are much less random as they appear.
I think a far more appropriate word is “eclectic”. The
setting of Adventure Time is
unmistakably eclectic. There has never been a landscape quite so hugely diverse
as that of the Land of Ooo. Most episodes will contain any number of
fantastical, science fictional, or just plain weird elements, made all the
weirder by being mashed up against each other. This is probably the main thing
that people are referring to when they call Adventure
Time random. Season 1 especially loves to introduce an assemblage of
bizarre locations or characters in short, sweet sequences. Moments like the
House Hunting Song in “Evicted!”, the dungeon in “Dungeon”, and the long shots
in “City of Thieves” definitely revel in the amount of weird stuff they can
pack in a short amount of time. The princesses, first introduced in “Prisoners
of Love”, with their totally different designs is another example.
Adventure Time’s
eclecticism works in two ways. One, it provides a kind of entertainment in
itself. I wouldn’t necessarily call this comedy. Adventure Time does sometimes include non-sequitur humor, (something
I don’t think works most of the time), but this isn’t always comedic effect. Unexpected
strangeness can be delightful in its own way, and there is an appeal in Adventure Time’s talent at sheer
surprise.
Two, it makes the world seem vast and alive. You might think
that having so many disparate elements would make Ooo seem like a
cobbled-together mess, but more often the effect is opposite. Ooo comes off as
a coherent, believable place. This is because Adventure Time does not really go in for parody or subversion too
often. It wants us, just like Finn and Jake, to genuinely marvel at the wondrousness
of this fictional world and allow ourselves to be immersed in it.
There is one area where Adventure
Time is definitely not random, and that is in its story. It never ceases to
amaze me to hear people making this claim. Is it because the show began with
largely self-contained episodes and only light continuity? Then every
non-serial cartoon would be considered random! Underneath its zany appearance,
the 11-minute episodes of early Adventure
Time have very well-constructed stories.
Take the very first episode: “Slumber Party Panic”. The
episode begins and ends abruptly (with a fart joke, no less), but what comes in
between has an underlying structure. The conflict is that Finn must protect the
candy people from the zombies, without letting them or Jake in on his royal
promise. The action builds up to a climax, where Finn manages to defeat the
zombies without letting out his secret. Sort of. Admittedly, the intervention
of the Gumball Guardians is a bit of a random twist at the end.
Still, most of the episodes of the first season contain plots
with a clear setup and resolution: “Prisoners of Love”, “The Jiggler”, “Ocean
of Fear”, and “Dungeon”, just to name a few. There are some episodes with more
nonsensical story arcs, like “Wizard” and “Rainy Day Daydream”, but even those
follow a definite rising action. Adventure
Time is a comedy show, but it is also an adventure show, and if we tend to
notice the humor more, it is the exciting stories that draw us in.
But Adventure Time
would be nothing without its main characters: Finn and Jake. It has often been
described as a story about a boy and his magical dog, and though they’re the
main characters throughout, no season focuses on them as intensely as Season 1.
They make or break the show, and thankfully it is not difficult to find them
immediately appealing. They’re endlessly energetic and curious about the world
they inhabit. They’re good-natured, friendly to everyone. Most of all, they
share a special bond as friends and brothers. Finn and Jake manage to be both
fully realized characters with tons of dimension, but also likable so that we,
the viewers, care about what happens to them.
Finn and Jake seem to live frivolous, carefree lives, but they
still get drawn into stories with some real stakes. Their adventures, while
funny, are serious challenges. Some present physical dangers, like “Trouble in
Lumpy Space” or “Witch’s Garden”, whereas others test the strength of their
relationship, like “My Two Favorite People” or “Dungeon”. Seeing them encounter
adversity and triumph over it is immensely satisfying because we wish so
earnestly for their success.
However, it is Finn who is the true protagonist. Jake is a
good guy, but he is decidedly more passive and observational than his brother. Finn
is the moral heart of this show. He is no ordinary good-natured, fun-loving
kid; he is a true hero. It surprised me, upon rewatch, just how much Season 1
likes to focus on this point. “The Enchiridion”, the first episode produced, is
all about this idea. It has Finn being tested by, and triumphing over,
obstacles through both cleverness and brute force, but it also establishes Finn’s
moral qualities as just as important.
This is really the main theme of Season 1, if there is one. Finn
is a hero, not so much because he’s a good fighter (though he is), but because
he is a good person who desires justice. This is not to say he has flaws—he is
naïve, impulsive, and often acts without thinking—but these are the flaws of an
idealistic young boy. Finn cannot help but feel aggrieved by the wrongs of the
world, and he will stop at nothing to overcome them. This is the basically entire
point of “Memories of Boom-Boom Mountain”, and “Freak City” wonderfully
observes his determination. Far from being a stupid, pig-headed kid, Finn
actually has a great deal of emotional sensitivity, more than any other
character.
I have seen many people assert that character depth requires
backstory. Season 1 is evidence enough that this is not entirely true. We do
not learn much about Finn’s past in Season 1, but that’s okay. We learn plenty
about his character through his actions
in the stories presented to us. A good show should be capable of
introducing characters that are quite well-rounded from the start, and this is
what Adventure Time does. Jake is not as dynamic as Finn, but he still
springs full-of-life in the first episode, already full of that brotherly
affection and laidback attitude that is further explored in episodes like “My
Two Favorite People” and “Witch’s Garden”. The same holds true for Princess
Bubblegum, the Ice King, and Marceline, whose characters are thoroughly
detailed in “What Have You Done?”, “Prisoners of Love”, and “Evicted!”, among
other episodes.
Season 1 has its flaws, no
doubt. It is rougher, more juvenile, the humor doesn’t always land, and it
often has trouble pacing itself. Nonetheless, all the foundations for what
would make Adventure Time a great
cartoon are already there and operating.
***
Though the Seasons 2-4 really have the show becoming more
complex, I’ll keep my comments on them fairly short.
Adventure Time
definitely began to expand in its second season, and the reasons why its
expansion turned out so well have to do with some of the points I outlined
above. On the one hand, the Land of Ooo is so flexible that it can contain
almost any kind of story, and the lack of a big story arc adds to that
flexibility. On the other hand, the characters are already very developed and
familiar, and they can operate in many different kinds of story without it
seeming like a big departure from the usual. Episodes like “Storytelling”, “Video Makers”, or “Marceline’s Closet” are
not very adventurous in the usual sense, not like the kind of stuff we got in
Season 1, but the storytelling is so good and the character dynamics so strong
that we are just as invested.
I should also mention how much funnier the show became.
Season 1 was very funny in its own right, but its episodes tended to have more
straightforward plots with humorous side business. Each season expands the
range of what stories are possible. Season 2 started including truly comic
plots. Episodes like “The Eyes”, “Death in Bloom”, “Hitman”, “Marceline’s Closet”,
and “Another Way” are just so skillful in the way they wring every last drop of
humor out of their concepts, and stand as evidence for how good Adventure Time is as a comedy alone.
Adventure is still the focus, however, and these seasons
greatly increase the scope of these stories. Episodes now take up martial arts
(“Chamber of the Frozen Blades”), detective stories (“Apple Thief”, “Ghost Princess”),
psychological drama (“Memory of a Memory”, “BMO Noire”), suspense (“No One Can
Hear You”), horror (“Lady and Peebles”) , and murder mystery (“Mystery Train”,
“The Creeps”). Adventure Time plays
with many different genres, but it never departs too far from the core of the
show. Whatever situation they’re in, the characters all act consistently, and as
a result the show maintains its cohesiveness.
But by far the most remarkable change is how Adventure Time gradually digs deeper
into emotional storytelling, bringing to light the sadder side of its world. I
don’t think this is total change. Some earlier episodes like “Evicted!” have
their fair share of pathos. Nonetheless, the first episode of Season 2, “It
Came From the Nightosphere”, feels like a sea change in the way it is able to
blend sentiment with the customary silliness. As you can see from my comments
on Season 1, this was a fairly natural progression. Still, the extent to which
it did explore emotions was daring, especially in comparison to other cartoons
of that time.
This obviously goes hand-in-hand with the development of
characters. “Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil” is significant enough in how it creates
a dark atmosphere with the Lich, but the episode is really a showcase for Finn
to grow. He is still the hero, but to succeed he must learn to rely on others,
first his love Princess Bubblegum, and later his nemesis the Ice King. Character
dynamics can, by themselves, practically carry an entire episode, as in the
case of “Go With Me” and “What Was Missing”.
Finally, with character development came story arcs. This
was the big one. Besides invoking serious sentiments, episodes like “Holly
Jolly Secrets”, “Too Young”, and “I Remember You” pointed towards a story that
went beyond a single episode: a real story arc. It was all the more involving
because it happened so gradually, but the accumulation of detail seemed to
point to big, bold developments in the future.
By Season 4, Adventure
Time seemed to have it all: great humor, terrific stories, characters the
audience highly identified with, tugs on your heartstrings, and now an epic
series-spanning plot. I doubt few people would have guessed that Adventure Time wasn’t even halfway over.
I certainly didn’t. Dynamic as it was, Adventure
Time was about to change even more, but with far more serious consequences.
-Part 2 is coming soon
