Brilliant, Adventure Time!

Since I've been in Korea, I've been falling way behind on TV. I finished rewatching six seasons of Gossip Girl before I got here but I have no way of watching other TV like the new season of Project Runway or my favorite, Adventure Time. Yesterday, late last night, I couldn't sleep so I caught up on 3 episodes of Adventure Time through online streaming. I wish I had written 3 whole posts about each episode but a las. Season 6 is back on point! I am so excited about the upcoming episodes after some disappointing ones.

I will always be advocating Adventure Time so just in case you forgot, here's a short little paragraph explaining why I enjoy this show.

I started watching Adventure Time four years ago as a freshman. I was captivated by the art and the characters even if it felt like my intelligence was going down. I'd dabbled in some other Cartoon Network shows but none of them really captured me like Adventure Time. I wasn't a serious watcher until sophomore or junior year. I'm not really sure when the surging love for Adventure Time took place but I'm sure it was somewhere between season 4 and season 5. Season 5 was amazing in every single way.

We all have a childish side that we repress at most times. Maybe that was the first hook to my long term love with Adventure Time. As I matured, the show was maturing with me. There was such smart dialogue and quirky, fun lessons that were extremely profound. The characters that were so one sided had such an intricate backstory.

I hated most of the characters at first and watched mainly for the art. I'm not sure why but this show struck me as such a boy's show and something that I shouldn't be watching. However, over time, there is a side of empathy that just makes you feel for the characters, like Ice King or Marceline.

Adventure Time is always able to fit a story of epic proportions into a neat little 10-12 min slot. I appreciate the way you can watch any episode out of order. There are some key episodes but the facts we glean from them aren't necessary to understand the next episode. This really encouraged me to continue watching through the stressful years of sophomore, junior, and well senior. Other TV shows were just too much of a hassle to keep watching for 45-60 mins every week. It's overwhelming when you have ten or eleven episodes you suddenly need to catch up on. With Adventure Time, there is never that burden.

You grow with the characters and find such thoughtful meaningful advice tucked in this strange, post apocalyptic world. I was disappointed in most of season 6 because it seemed like the producers/writers/everyone at Adventure Time were working too hard. The beauty of this show is that it feels so effortless and that after a 10 min adventure, you have learned something profound. It's a sudden realization that is slowly built through dialogue and plot that isn't always harping at you with every scene change. The fun and moving aspects of the show are back in harmony and I cannot be happier.


Something Big
This was an okay episode by my standards. AV Club thought it was great but I wasn't that captivated by this one. The basic plot is that the Candy Kingdom is under attack by some weird ancient tree solider thing and Maja the Sky Witch. Maja comes back ever so often and she's an interesting and quirky character. I don't know that much about her yet but I'm hoping she becomes a regular. I'm really missing Marceline though. Princess Bubblegum (hereby known as PB) is no match for this ancient tree thing and Finn and Jake save the day by bringing an ancient war elephant back from somewhere. After the battle has ended and the Candy Kingdom is safe, this elephant doesn't know what to do anymore. The only thing it knows how to do is fight and that's not useful anymore.

The one part that I did like about this episode was the conversation this elephant had with the sun. The sun tells the elephant that it can be whatever it wants to and not to be what everyone expects it to be. The sun goes on to say that it's going to engulf the universe.

The message was embrace change and it was okay overall.

Little Brother
This is one of my FAVORITE EPISODES now. I loved this episode so much, more than Sad Face. Shelby the Worm is one of those characters that pops up every once in a while. Shelby is still very young and into that party life style inside Jake's violin. After the spotlight is given to another bug, he tries to show off with his parkour skills. He gets sliced by some string thing and when he wakes up his butt has been chopped off. It regenerated into a little head--and therefore Shelby's little brother. Shelby doesn't know how to be a brother so he asks Finn and Jake. Jake tells Shelby to give Kent (this little brother) something sharp and to tell him to go fight things. Kent takes off after sprouting little arms and legs and goes to fight bad guys. He gets beat up pretty badly after losing to some rats but is taken care by other blobby figures living under the tree root.

He wants to defeat the rats that are draining all the nutrients from the tree. In order to do so, he needs a weapon. Kent has to complete three tasks to retrieve the items needed for the sword. With each quest, he is tempted by wealth, everlasting life, and a beautiful bride. However, he so nonchalantly gives personal gain up for the better good of humanity.

Because he defeats the rat king, Kent is able to save the tree and allow it to flower and be healthy again. He is such a little guy but is able to make such a huge impact. I really love anything that has to do with the theme that anyone can make a difference.

The ending scene featured Kent and Shelby together again. The ending song about being brothers really got to me. Even though they must be apart (Kent was healed from the dew of the underground, he must stay there), they will always be brothers.

This was a really good example of why I love Adventure Time. Although it follows the hero's journey, this episode puts its own spin on it with classic Adventure Time humor and lovable characters. There is a moral at the end of the episode that warms my heart up but it's not forced throughout and only at the end do you realize the moral.

The Ocarina 
This might be the second or third episode that features Jake and his kids. I thought this episode was okay...

Jake is a really negligent father. He doesn't pay attention to his kids and is often doing his own thing, trying to have fun. He refuses to grow up and his life after kids is the exact same as life before kids. His children (all except one) don't really like him or know him. One of his kids, Kim Kil Kwan (Lady Rainicorn is Korean) tries to take action to change his father. He buys up the treehouse that Finn and Jake live in and since they spent all the gold, Finn and Jake must live on a little ladder.

Tired of the living situation, Jake tries to fix things with his son by giving him a handmade Ocarina (a type of flute thing). It doesn't work but Kim Kil Kwan realizes that his father does care in his own way.

I was kind of disappointed by the lack of maturity in Jake. I wanted to see that Jake understood that he couldn't just abandon his kids and that he needed to be there for them. Perhaps in the coming episodes, there will also be growth in Jake.