#jack pendarvis

[adventure-time-news]

A new pilot from Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and longtime writer Jack Pendarvis will air on Adult Swim at 1 AM Pacific / 4 AM Eastern on the night of the 18th of November (early morning of the 19th).

It’s called Mystery Cuddlers, and that’s about all we know about it.

Fionna & Cake storyboard artist Charmaine Verhagen also worked on it, and says it should be up on YouTube shortly after it airs.

[beeclops]

ALERT: New Pendleton Ward Pilot Coming to Adult Swim!

A new pilot, titled “Mystery Cuddlers”, from Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and Jack Pendarvis from Summer Camp Island is premiering on Adult Swim Monday November 18th at 4am!

Synopsis: “When the world's cutest retired couple turns detective, they put the aww in hawwmicide. From Pendleton Ward and Jack Pendarvis, it's Mystery Cuddlers!”

[marcelinelooks]

“Adventure Time: Distant Lands - Obsidian” SPECIAL BONUS

Marceline in a black hair cutting cape waiting for pb to cut her hair.

Directed by Miki Brewster. Art directed by Sandra Lee. Written and storyboarded by Hanna K. Nystrom, Jack Pendarvis, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Adam Muto, Kate Tsang. Additional cast & crew information.

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: “The Star”/“Jerry”

(Fionna & Cake, Eps. 7–8)

Airdate: September 22, 2023

Story by: Anthony Burch, Adam Muto, Hanna K. Nyström, Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang

Storyboarded by: Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jacob Winkler, & Sonja von Marensdorff

Directed by: Ryann Shannon (supervising), Hans Tseng (art)

It is hard to believe that we are already privy to the penultimate episodes of the Fionna & Cake miniseries. So far, this series has been hit after hit. So do "The Star" and "Jerry" live up to what has come before them? Read on for more...

The plot to "The Star" is deceptively simple: Fionna, Cake, and Simon are transported into a universe where Simon was killed by vampires, which led to Marceline being abducted the ice crown-wielding Vampire King (once again played by the wonderfully sonorous Billy Brown) and turned into his protege, known as "The Star." While the world has been almost entirely overrun by vampires, a Mad Max-esque version of Princess Bubblegum is still putting up a hell of a fight (Mad Max Bubblegum is aided in this task by Peppermint Butler-as-a-Tank, a human[?] version of Huntress Wizard, and a non-psychopathic version of Martin). Cake's shapeshifting impresses Mad Max Bubblegum, and so she decides to enlist Fionna, Cake, and Simon's help in defeating the Vampire King and his evil 'daughter.' Alas, as goes the best-laid plans of mice and men... The episode ends on a purposeful anti-climax: Fionna, recognizing that all is effectively lost, forcibly teleports herself, Cake, and Simon away from Vampire World while Mad Max Bubblegum and The Star struggle in the sky, with neither wanting to land a killing blow. The fate of Vampire World is thus left unresolved.

As a major fan of Stakes, I was delighted to be transported back into the world of vampires in "The Star." And this time, the show does a very solid job showing just how powerful and scary these monsters actually are (despite their Kermit the Frog-meets-Nosferatu appearance). And let us not forget Evil Marceline (oh, where to start)! I quite like that Ooo's Marceline is a heroic anti-anti-Christ, but even I found the titular antagonist of "The Star" to be a terrifying delight. It has been a good long while since Marceline has rightly pranked someone, and while I don't know if killing people or sucking souls count as pranks, it was nonetheless wonderful to see her ornery side return—only this time, turned up to 11. You can tell that Olivia Olson had a lot of fun recording her lines for this episode; her performance is energetic, her tone mocking. When I heard The Star taunt Mad Max Bubblegum and Co., it took me back to when I first heard Olson's voice acting in "Evicted!"

It was a clever move having The Star and Mad Max Bubblegum be sworn enemies, as it allowed the series to explore their dynamic as a couple without focusing on their past or present relationship. In the Vampire World, we learn that the two have never been in a relationship together. But despite this, still found themselves pulled toward one another in an almost preternatural way. Who knows… Just as the souls of Finn and Jake seem to be destined to always find one another, perhaps Marceline and Bubblegum are "soul mates" in a similarly metaphysical sense? Regardless, the hesitancy to kill one another that both characters show at the end of the episode speaks volumes as to how they feel about one another, even in a universe where they are sworn enemies. (Man, I really hope we get a Bubbline spin-off one of these days…)

Ah, I feel like I could talk about the Star for days, but there is more to consider, so let me move on to…

Airdate: September 22, 2023

Story by: Anthony Burch, Adam Muto, Hanna K. Nyström, Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Jim Campbell, & Jackie Files

Directed by: Steve Wolfhard (supervising), Hans Tseng (art)

"Jerry" begins with Fionna, Cake, and Simon finding themselves in a dead and desolate world—humorously dubbed "Crapworld" by Cake—that we later learn was created by the Lich's wish in the season five premiere "Finn the Human." (As a mythological aside, when the Lich made his initial wish, it seems that Prismo did not simply wipe out all life in the Oooniverse; instead, he effectively created a copy of the Oooniverse within the Oooniverse. After killing off all life in this bubble dimension, Prismo then transported the Lich to his new wish-altered reality. Really, it is turtles all the way down…) While searching for the Crapworld ice crown, Simon tries to cheer up an increasingly despondent Fionna by telling him the story of how he and Betty met.

Eventually, our heroes run into Crapworld BMO, who upon learning that Prismo's remote is out of juice, attempts to recharge it with his robot heart. This does not go as planned (it actually results in Crapworld BMO spectacularly exploding, which is somehow both horrifying and funny), and Simon, Fionna, and Cake decide to track down Crapworld BMO's oft-mentioned friend "Jerry" and tell him that BMO has passed. Upon finding Jerry, however, the trio discover that he is actually the Lich… albeit a depressed Lich; it seems that after fulfilling his mission of ending all life, the Lich lost a sense of purpose. (I've been there, dude...) Simon sees this as an opportunity, and using the Crapworld ice crown and the Lich himself as a conduits, he manages to summon GOLB just as Scarab materializes to deliver divine punishment.

To be continued!

"Jerry" is a decidedly bleak episode that more than anything radiates the creative sensibilities of its supervising director, Steve Wolfhard. For those out of loop, Wolfhard was a storyboard artist on the original Adventure Time series, and he helped write some of the show's strongest outings (e.g., "Puhoy," "Lemonhope," "Escape from the Citadel," "Graybles 1000+"). Wolfhard has a unique approach to writing, often using humor/cuteness to paste over more existential horrors, and while he did not storyboard "Jerry," the episode nevertheless feels like the apogee of his "voice," brimming as it does with a darkness that is only lightly covered with a veneer of humor. Indeed, many of the episode's funniest moments (e.g., the scene in which BMO cheerfully, stupidly kills itself, the reveal that the Lich has depression) cannot be described as anything other than gallows humor. Wolfhard often joked in interviews that many of the episodes he pitched involved main characters dying. With "Jerry," he finally got his chance.

Ultimately, what prevents "Jerry" from becoming a bummer-fest is the way the episode is interspersed with flashbacks that tell the story of how Simon and Betty fell in love. Despite their being the emotional heart of the episode, I do not have much to say about these scenes other than they are sweet. They largely expand upon details that we already knew, but in doing so, they enliven those details, infusing them with a sense of affect that exposition or background detailing could never convey. There's a couple easter eggs thrown in for die-hard fans (e.g., several relics from the main series are name-dropped, we see when a photograph of Simon from "I Remember You" was taken), and its all tied-up nicely with a new HALF SHY song, "Everything in You." All in all, these scenes are the sweet, sweet eye bleach we need, given the tone of the episode's other half.

My biggest gripe with these episodes is that they both lean too far into Fionna's failures while somehow not leaning in far enough. The former issue is most noticeable in "The Star," the beginning of which sees Fionna follow up her candy genocide by making a series of increasingly bone-headed decisions, one of which leads to the direct death of a character (although, Mad Max Bubblegum was also quite bone-headed for letting Random New Girl put everyone in danger immediately after introducing them to her few crew members). Put simply, I feel the episode excessively plays up Fionna as a gullible girlfail, which seems a bit much. Paradoxically, in "Jerry," the show did not have Fionna properly, fully, believably consider the ramifications of the mistakes she had made; instead, the episode focuses much of its emotional energy on the story of Simon and Betty's relationship. Yes, Fionna does have a realistic breakdown in the middle of the episode, but almost immediately, the show decides to have Simon distract her with more of his own love story. None of this sinks the episodes, but it does make them less than perfect.

For some, the episodes' bleakness might also be a defect: indeed in both "The Star" and "Jerry," lots of characters die, and the fridge horror is off the charts. But while I have criticized the show for such cruelty in the past (e.g., my review of "Wizard City"), the bleakness in these episodes is not meaningless. Instead, it arguably serves to underscore that without Simon Petrikov existing and doing all that he has in the Ooo Prime universe, the world (any world) quickly goes to hell. (This is perhaps most noticeable in "The Star," given that the big twist of that universe is that Simon was killed by vampires, presumably before he placed the ice crown on his head, thus resulting in Marceline's capture and indoctrination by the Vampire King.) Even in his crazed "Ice King" state, Simon is something like a cosmic lynchpin holding together reality! Considering how much Simon/the Ice King is a woobie in the original series, it is nice to see Fionna & Cake accentuate just how important he actually is.

Final “The Star” Grade: A-

Final “Jerry” Grade: A-

[fuckyeahanimation]

When the world's cutest retired couple turns detective, they put the aww in hawwmicide. From Pendleton Ward and Jack Pendarvis, it's Mystery Cuddlers!

[dysaniadisorder]

[ID: A screenshot of opening credits to the Fionna and Cake show, that's labeled "Story by" and lists; Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang, Hanna K. Nyström, Anthony Burch, and Adam Muto. end ID]

hiiiii anthony

[noriiii04]

WEEK 1 - STORYBOARD

Storyboards are a series of ordered drawings representing a film sequence, breaking down action into individual panels. It includes camera directions, dialogue and any other important details that help in production and make sure the shots go according to plan. Storyboards give camera crews, animators or so on to have direction.

This is my final storyboard which was mostly inspired by Adventure Time storyboards and it follows two characters meeting in the woods.

Adventure Time has since been concluded but in the past it would take them about nine months to create an episode. The creation of an episode starts at the writer's room (Pendleton Ward, producers Adam Muto and Kent Osborne, and staff writer Jack Pendarvis) where they create a very basic two page outline which is then handed off to the storyboard artists to work with.

Afterwards one of four storyboard artists will get two weeks to visualise the episode. Producer Osborne says; “They’re basically directing. They’re writing all the jokes, editing the outline, picking all the camera shots… what the episode is going to look like.”

After the storyboard artist does their thing, the storyboard is handed back to producer Osborne who gives the artists notes then the artists get another two weeks to tweak anything. When finalised, the storyboard is given to the voice recording studio where they do the voice recordings.

Finally, the storyboards are assembled into an animatic.

Adventure Time storyboards

Overall I am happy with my storyboard but I wish I executed the same idea Adventure Time storyboard artists did where they had some space for dialogue, then action and so on. I think it would've made my storyboard more organised and easy to read altogether.

Sources:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-is-how-an-episode-of-cartoon-networks-adventure-time-is-made

[j4gm]

I wanna talk more about why this is so funny to me.

So as you probably know, Water Park Prank was a guest-animated episode from season six by an animator called David Ferguson. It is widely considered one of the worst episodes in the show because of its basic plot, sometimes gross jokes, and offputting style.

It was following up on two incredibly well-received guest-animated episodes, A Glitch is a Glitch and Food Chain, so it had big boots to fill. And more importantly, it was not even supposed to be an 11-minute episode. Ferguson was originally commissioned to only make a five minute short to be posted on Cartoon Network's website and maybe its YouTube channel. And his style would have worked well in this short format, as it does for his other work. But he ended up accepting a deal to adapt his 5 minute online video, which was already mostly finished from what I understand, into a full episode. The deadlines were pretty unforgiving and the result was basically just the original video (consisting of the actual water park scenes) with a b-plot about the "daddy sad-heads" frankensteined onto the beginning and end.

So it was kind of doomed from the beginning to not be a great episode. Difficult deadlines, a doubling of the runtime late in production, a style that was intended for 2015 YouTube being broadcast on TV, and almost certainly the lowest budget of any of the guest episodes. The fandom hated it, and still mostly does. If you ask anyone for their least favourite episode of Adventure Time, and if they didn't stop watching after Breezy, there is a pretty good chance they will say Water Park Prank.

Now one thing about guest-animated Adventure Time episodes is that they are generally not considered canon. If you go to the wiki page for most of them, you will find a note somewhere saying that they are not canon. But this is not the case for Water Park Prank. Because the day before Water Park Prank aired, main series writer Jack Pendarvis proclaimed on Twitter that Water Park Prank was CANON.

An important thing to note is that there is in fact no established definition of Adventure Time canon. Jack Pendarvis probably made the tweet in full knowledge that it meant nothing but that it would be taken seriously. And taken seriously it was, because fandom is fandom. To this day I believe Water Park Prank is considered canon on the fan wiki. For a long time I considered it canon on my own website.

The net result was the hilarious paradox of this random episode simultaneously being the worst guest episode and also the only canon one.

Things went on like this for a while. Bad Jubies came out and was really good, which secured Water Park Prank's legacy as the bad apple among a bunch of awesome guest episodes. Ferguson sort of accepted his episode's reception. Way later the crew got him back to animate a segment in Distant Lands BMO, perhaps as a jokey sort of redemption, or perhaps because his style was actually pretty cool from the beginning and hadn't exactly been allowed to shine under the previous conditions.

Enter Fionna & Cake, which gives us an in-universe definition of what it means to be canon; a canon measure of canonicity, if you like. A dimension is "canon" if it is connected to the wider web of the Multiverse, at which point it also exists as an asteroid in GOLB's realm. Of course, this is still a different thing from actually being canon to Adventure Time, and there is still no official definition of canon in that sense. But it's close enough.

And what was one of the dimensions that Simon steps into ever-so-briefly in GOLB's realm? Is it the iconic 3D environments from David OReilly's A Glitch is a Glitch? No. Is it the wonderfully colourful natural history museum from Masaaki Yuasa's Food Chain? No. Is it the lovingly crafted clay world of Kirsten Lepore's Bad Jubies? No.

THAT'S RIGHT BABY, IT'S THE FUCKING WATER PARK!!! Canon first by word of god, and now by in-universe definition too!

In honour of this momentous occasion I'm not going to implore anyone to actually watch Water Park Prank. But next time you're doing a full watch-through of the series, maybe, just maybe, consider not skipping it.

WATER PARK PRANK CANONICALLY CANON

[kingofooo]

“Fresh Potatoes” from BMO

lyrics by Jack Pendarvis

music by Jack Pendarvis, Jeff Liu, and Tim Kiefer

[digamma-f-wau]

Ever since Craig of the Creek was announced, SU fans have been wondering “who the fuck are gonna replace Matt and Ben on SU? Who’s gonna write the episode outlines with Rebecca and the directors’ input?”. Well you can rest easy because we finally have our answer:

Jack Pendarvis:

previously on Adventure Time (staff writer on the Adam Muto seasons), post-2nd movie Spongebob (one of the writers on season 9B), and Summer Camp Island (story editor on the first 20 episodes). He was also one of the story writers on the SU Movie

Taneka Stotts:

her first animation gig, though she has worked in comics in the past

Kate Tsang:

previously she was the co-creator of the Go Cartoons short Welcome to Doozy

Presumably it’ll be Pendarvis as story editor and Stotts & Tsang as staff writers, but who knows, we might be thrown for a loop in that department

Also means that of the original story writers on SU, only 2 remain: Rebecca Sugar and Kat Morris

[cielotrozodecosmos]

She's always been looking for wires, now she knows none are required, It's magic.

[adventure-time-news]

Season six storyboard artist Derek M. Ballard has confirmed he is working on an Adventure Time project, and I don’t think it’s Fionna & Cake. He might be working on one of the other new shows, or it could be personal or comics related.

He has also revealed he was lead background designer on Mystery Cuddlers, a new pilot from Jack Pendarvis and Pen Ward that will be airing on Adult Swim on Monday night.

As I mentioned earlier today, everyone else we know about on Mystery Cuddlers so far has been a recent member of the Adventure Time crew.

[zelderonmorningstar]

I'm fully prepared for Summer Camp Island to take up Adventure Time's torch

[marcelinelooks]

“Adventure Time: Distant Lands - Obsidian” SPECIAL

Marceline slapping pb and sleeping with a red shirt and one white sock

Directed by Miki Brewster. Art directed by Sandra Lee. Written and storyboarded by Hanna K. Nystrom, Jack Pendarvis, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Adam Muto, Kate Tsang. Additional cast & crew information.

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: "Fionna Campbell"/"Simon Petrikov" (Fionna & Cake, Eps. 1-2)

If you had told me on the day that Adventure Time was canceled that almost a decade into the future, I would still be writing reviews about new episodes, I would have never believed you. And yet, today saw the release of not one, but two new episodes. (It seems that the fun really will never end!) What a world we live in!

----

When I first heard that Fionna and Cake would be the focus of the newest Adam Muto-produced Adventure Time spin-off, I was a touch apprehensive. It is not that I disliked the characters... I just worried that they might not be able to anchor ten 22-minute episodes. After all, the two were always something of a funny gimmick. Other than explaining if they were real, what more was there to say about them?

My tentative apprehension started to dissipate when I learned that the one, the only Simon Petrikov would play a major part in the miniseries. Simon was always a strong character, and there was much to his story that still needed to be teased out. His presence in the miniseries signaled one thing: Fionna and Cake would not just be a fluffy romp, but rather one of mythological significance! Needless to say, my interest was fully piqued, and I began to count down the days when the miniseries would debut.

And now that the first two episodes are out, I am happy to say that my tentative fears were likely misplaced. Indeed, if "Fionna Campbell" and "Simon Petrikov" are indicative of the overall quality of this miniseries, we're in for a good time!

So let's dig in!

Airdate: August 31, 2023

Story by: Anthony Burch, Adam Muto, Hanna K. Nyström, Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Haewon Lee, Jacob Winkler

Directed by: Ryann Shannon (supervising), Hans Tseng (art)

The miniseries kicks off with "Fionna Campbell," which follows the story of Fionna the human... No, not that Fionna the Human. This Fionna does not live in a magic land, and it is only in her dreams that she's a swashbuckling hero. Instead, the Fionna we meet lives in a mundane world very much like our own. This Fionna seems to feel as if she fundamentally lacks any sense of purpose. Accompanying her throughout her non-adventures in this alternate reality is Fionna's (non-magical) cat, Cake. The main plot of the episode begins after Cat and Fionna have a strange dream, whereupon Cake begins to act erratically; it is almost like she desperately needs to be in contact with ice of all things. After a series of humorous set pieces in which Fionna repeatedly discusses the dullness of her reality with a variety of uncannily familiar characters, Cake goes bananas and makes a mad dash for an ice cream cart. As Fionna gives chase, Cake dives into the cart, which turns into a magic portal and teleports Cake to a different world...

Of the two episodes discussed in this review, "Fionna Campbell" was the least impactful. Do not misunderstand me: It was still a fun, charming episode, but it did little more than introduce us to our heroines and set up the plot of the miniseries. The issue with this is that it makes much of the episode, on a strictly narrative level, superfluous (for instance, were you to have Cake dart over to Fionna's ice dispenser and have it—rather than an ice cream cart—the overall story would still work just fine). But while much of this episode is technically "unnecessary," it nevertheless mines a lot of goodwill and humor by introducing us to gender-bent "real world" versions of beloved Adventure Time characters (e.g., "Queen" [Queen of Ooo], "Ellis P." [Lumpy Space Prince], "Gary Prince" [Prince Gumball]). Perhaps I am biased as a Marceline fan, but hands-down the best of the gender-bent bunch is Marshall Lee, played once again by the uber-talented and oh-so-witty Donald Glover. (That said, Pen Ward's oddball hobo-vet character, "Ellis P.," is a close second.)

Regardless of any narrative weirdness, I applaud Muto et al. for approaching this Fionna and Cake storyline from a different angle. It would have been very, very easy to simply drop us back into the genderbent world that we have already visited in the main series. This, honestly, is what I was expecting the series to do. Instead, the writers decided to introduce versions of Fionna and Cake that feel more like they are from our world. This makes them solid audience surrogates. Over the course of the episode, I came to see Fionna as a character in and of herself, not just as a female version of Finn. Likewise, Cake felt less like "feline Jake," and more like a goofy house cat (albeit one that has a case of the Zoomies from Hell). "Fionna Campbell," in a word, gives Fionna and Cake a chance to become their own people before throwing them into the wider world of Ooo.

Airdate: August 31, 2023

Story by: Anthony Burch, Adam Muto, Hanna K. Nyström, Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang

Storyboarded by: Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jim Campbell, Lucyola Langi

Directed by: Steve Wolfhard (supervising), Hans Tseng (art)

After the purposefully abrupt ending to "Fionna Campbell," we are suddenly thrown head first back into the familiar Land of Ooo with "Simon Petrikov."

This episode picks up several years after the main series. Simon is now living a, shall we say, "unorthodox life in a museum-like facility, where he is treated as a relic of the past. He has lost his sense of purpose and direction, and he struggles with loneliness and boredom. Simon, in a word, is depressed. It does not help matters that people keep asking him about "his" Fionna and Cake novels--novels that he repeatedly emphasizes Ice King wrote. Alas, it is no use, and so Simon goes to the tavern owned by Dirt Beer Guy (A+ cameo) to drink his sorrows away. It is here that he runs into a 20-something Finn in all his himbo glory. Finn sees that Simon isn't doing well and insists that he must go on an adventure to reclaim his joie de vivre. Simon reluctantly follows Finn into the most primordial corner of Ooo, where the two are nearly killed multiple times.

At the end of the episode, Simon returns to his museum-home feeling just as bad as he did before. After sneaking off into his closet, we learn that his depression has driven him to create a shrine to GOLB; using the demoniac power of Evil Choose Goose, he subsequently attempts to summon the deity, presumably to reconnect with Betty. But, just like the best laid plans of mice and men, Simon's scheme fails to summon any eldritch abominations, but it does open up the portal we saw at the end of "Fionna Campbell." And out from this portal pops Cake the Cat!

The episode immediately shifts to Prismo's time room, where we see an alarm on the wish-master's remote begin to blink ominously…

Wow, what an episode!

I appreciate the focus "Simon Petrikov" places on depression and the struggle against nihilism. Simon, after all, is a man thrust into a new world. Everything he used to strive for is gone. Even the madness that took his old world away from him is gone. This might sound like a good thing, but interestingly, it seems to have had a deleterious effect on Simon’s psyche: Previously, when Simon was metaphorically locked within the recesses of Ice King's mind, he had something to strive for: He could overcome the crown’s curse and regain his sanity. And then he did! Thus, Ice King ended and Simon was back. But alas, his arrival occurred at the literal end of the story. The big bad was gone. The goal had been reached. All that was left was the ride into the sunset. But Simon could not do that, because even though he regained his sanity, it ultimately cost him his love, Betty.

I won't lie: I found Simon's story to be deeply relatable. For those who don't know, I recently earned my PhD. It was a long, uphill battle, and after I earned that degree… I didn't know what to do. In truth, I still don't know what to do. I have been a student almost my entire life, and now the rest of that life lays out in front of me. I achieved what I originally wanted; it is time to figure out what I currently want. Honestly, it has been an occasionally gloomy time, and I won't lie, I have struggled quite a bit with depression these last few months just trying to figure everything out. In doing so, I have realized just how much of my life I have sunk into my degree. It has been a bit disheartening to realize that while I have a doctorate, but it cost me the entirety of my 20s to get it. So yes, while I did not lose the love of my life to an eldritch demon-god, I still empathize with Simon's listlessness and his existential angst. (As an aside, post-PhD depression is very a real thing, y'all!)

When you have gained what you thought you wanted and lost that which was really important, what do you do? Of course, it is easy to simply collapse in despair. This is capitulation to vulgar nihilism, and it is something that I have struggled with ("Why even bother doing anything..."). At the start of "Simon Petrikov," the titular character is very close to this collapse, too. Indeed, Simon starts off in a dark place, but paradoxically, this darkness holds the seeds that can grow into a life-changing journey. After all, when we are at our lowest, the only (productive) way to go is up. Put most simply, Finn was actually right: Simon needs an adventure to reignite within him that sense of drive and purpose. But the catch here is that that adventure needs to be meaningful to Simon. It needs to spark something unique within his soul. The bizarro arrival of Cake may thus be exactly what he needs. Cake is not just a mystery—she's a mystery that perhaps only Simon can solve, since it was Simon (or, at least a version of him) who dreamed her up in the first place!

Simon now has a purpose.

Purpose.

Once again, Adventure Time is reminding us of the importance of "purpose." Purpose, the show seems to be saying, is what gives meaning to our lives, what motivates us to overcome challenges, and what inspires us to contribute to society. Without purpose, we may feel lost, empty, or hopeless. What, then, is the show suggesting we do to gain this sense of purpose? It is hard to say, given that the miniseries isn't over, but my guess is that the show is emphasizing that while meaning can emerge from even the most chance of occurrences, it is not enough to just recognize these coincidences. Instead, we have to seize them, embrace them, and make them our own. We have to act on our purpose, and not let it slip away. At the end of "Simon Petrikov," Simon is put in this exact spot, and while he might show some reluctance to seize the moment, something tells me that he'll eventually act in a major way.

Am I on the right track? I guess we'll have to wait a few weeks to find out!

----

When news about the series first started to leak, I remember there was a lot of hubbub about its more "adult" tone. I was a bit apprehensive when I heard this; part of what I love about Adventure Time is that it is capable of being scary and profound without having to stoop to the shock value of cheap swears and bloody violence. After seeing these episodes, my worries have mostly been put to rest. After all, most of the "swearing" is pretty mild, and it seems to be used rather judiciously. (That said, I did a double take when Cake told Fionna to "Puke [the bad guy] up"—I thought she said another "-uck" word!) On top of all that, it was often just funny! Queenie shrieking "Jesus!" when Fionna ripped her pants off was comedy gold, as was Finn's line about "bust[ing Simon's] balls" back in the day. I'm a bit more ambivalent when it comes to the gorier elements (e.g., Finn killing that mudskipper in a bloody splatter), but that's largely because it feels a bit incongruous with the lighthearted Land of Ooo that we know. Adventure Time was often violent, this is true, but it was rarely gory. That said, the violence in these episodes is not over the top—this isn't Superjail! or anything—and I hope the show continues to maintain that nice balance. Right now, everything mostly feels "right."

All in all, these were solid episodes. In addition to all the positives that I outlined above, there were a variety of other things that made me smile. I'm quite happy that the show is returning to the multiverse lore, as I always felt that was a story thread that the show never explored to the fullest. The various cameos were also delightful (I had a lot of fun guessing who all the gender-bent normies were supposed to be representative of), and I loved the little post-Mushroom War Simon & Marcy moment. And of course, hearing Marceline say that someone is "pissed" is something that I didn't know I needed to hear!

I cannot wait to see what the series has in store for Simon, Fionna, and Cake.

Final "Fionna Campbell" Grade: B

Final "Simon Petrikov" Grade: A

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Jack Pendarvis just said hes leaving Adventure Time after 10 years now his role on F&C is done, and I might want to cry