#lemonhope part 2

[relatablepicturesoffinnmertens]

[fruitsyrups]

lemonhope . right?

[slymewizard]

IF ANY OF YALL HAVENT WATCHED ADVENTURE TIME OR STOPPED PARTWAY THROUGH AND WANNA BINGE IT BEFORE FIONNA AND CAKE ENDS NEXT WEEK HERES A LIST OF EPISODES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT! (And a few that are just good to watch in general) (Adventure Time lore is dense and filled with references to previous episodes so theres a lot to cover even cutting out unimportant ones. Start as soon as possible so you guys can finish in time for thursday)

Season 1: The Enchiridion, Ricardio, My Two Favorite People, Evicted, What is Life, Ocean of Fear, Freak City, Henchman, Finn Meets His Hero

(9 episodes)

Season 2: It Came From the Nightosphere, The Real You, Death In Bloom, Susan Strong, Go With Me, The Limit, Mortal Folly, Mortal Recoil

(8 episodes)

Season 3: Memory of a Memory, Too Young, Wizard Battle, Fionna and Cake, What Was Missing, The Creeps, Beautopia, Holly Jolly Secrets (parts 1 and 2), Dad’s Dungeon, Incendium

(11 episodes)

Season 4: Hot to the Touch, Return to the Nightosphere, Daddys Little Monster, In Your Footsteps, Sons of Mars, Burning Low, Lady and Peebles, You Made Me, I Remember You, The Lich

(10 episodes)

Season 5: Finn the Human, Jake the Dog, Jake the Dad, All Your Fault, Bad Little Boy, Simon and Marcy, Puhoy, Be More, Sky Witch, Frost and Fire, Too Old, Earth and Water, The Vault, Play Date, The Pit, Apple Wedding, Blade of Grass, Rattleballs, Betty, Lemonhope (Parts 1 and 2), Billys Bucket List

(22 episodes)

Season 6: Wake Up, Escape From the Citadel, The Tower, Breezy, Something Big, Joshua and Margaret Investigations, Is That You, The Cooler, Evergreen, Astral Plane, Gold Stars, The Visitor, The Mountain, Dark Purple, Jermaine, You Forgot Your Floaties, Orgalorg, On The Lam, Hot Diggity Doom, The Comet

(20 episodes)

Season 7: Bonnie and Neddy, Varmints, Mama Said, Stakes (Parts 1-8), The More You Moe the Moe You Know, Kings Ransom, Crossover, The Hall of Egress, Flute Spell

(16 episodes)

Season 8: Broke His Crown, I Am A Sword, Bun Bun, Normal Man, Elemental, The Music Hole, Preboot, Reboot, Two Swords, Do No Harm, Jelly Beans Have Power, Islands (Parts 1-8 except maybe 2)

(18 episodes)

Season 9: Orb, Elements (Parts 1-8), Abstract, Ketchup, Fionna and Cake and Fionna, Whispers, Three Buckets

(14 episodes)

Season 10: The Wild Hunt, Bonnibel Bubblegum, Seventeen, The First Investigation, Jake the Starchild, Temple of Mars, Gumbaldia, Come Along With Me

(8 episodes)

(136 episodes total, 143 episodes skipped, approximately 25 hours and 40 minutes total)

None of Distant Lands is SUPER necessary but I recommend watching all of them.

REBLOG THIS SO MORE PEOPLE SEE IT THE MORE PEOPLE WHO WATCH THIS THE MORE LIKELY WE ARE TO SEE ADVENTURE TIME GET MORE ATTENTION FROM HBOMAX!!!

ANYWAY ENOUGH READING GO GO GO!!!

[lasting-through-the-feels]

Background cameos in S1E1 of Fionna and Cake

Starchy

Betty

Abrcadaniel

Lemonhope

Part 1 Part 2

[adventuretimetournament]

Young Lemonhope

First sung by: Princess Bubblegum in "Lemonhope Part 2"

Young Lemonhope, born from candy and glue, Creator of beauty and ugliness too. Poor Lemonhope, I found you in the dark, You lived in the bathroom, now live in our hearts.

Key Song

First sung by: Finn in "Dungeon"

Oh, key, We're meant to be I want to have Your baby

[adamworu]

People are talking about Ocean of Fear or Business Time in the comments and I also raise you: the opening shot. There are nukes about the land in the first few seconds. Marceline plays her iconic bass under a crumbling highway (which is shown again in Heat Signature). There's so many hints of human civilization having lived but it's not exactly central to Adventure Time. New civilization is situated over old. Even, in the end of Lemonhope Part 2, we see this with the usual haunts we know and love now gone. Even a place as technologically advanced as the Candy Kingdom is reduced to ruin. Many things don't last forever, but life always comes after death. Things die but come back as something else.

The fun never ends.

One moment from Adventure time that stuck with me big-time when I was a kid was the episode where the Lich first showed up, because in the climax Finn is pursuing him and he chases him down into what are clearly the ruins of a contemporary subway station. And that blew my little mind, because up till that point I'd been parsing it as one of those impossible gonzo mishmash anything-goes constructed worlds, and then abruptly without fanfare here's strong evidence that there's some kinda throughline between the world you recognize and the inexplicable fantasy setting on screen. Here's some strong recontextualization of what Finn the human means, in the singular like that, now that we've got a subway recognizably built by modern humans. I mean this was my statue-of-liberty-on-a-beach moment, except it wasn't even the salient twist of the episode- it was just there, a background setpiece which didn't have especial attention called to it beyond being where the bad guy of that week's episode had been chased off to. Love shit like that, clear but understated signifiers that you're actually been looking at a post-apocalypse this whole time.

[experimentalmonster2015]

A full and complete adventure time ranking.

every rank below A is done by episode placement in season not how good it is. however, in rank A these are all episodes i consider "perfect". episodes in rank a are done by how good i think they are not by episode placement. i know its confusing. reblong or comment if you have any questions.

Rank A

S4 E25 I Remember You

S3 E17 Thank You

S3 E9 Fionna and Cake

S1 E18 Dungeon

S3 E10 What was Missing

S5 E5 All the Little People

S6 E7 Food Chain

Rank B

S1 E23 Rainy Day Daydream

S2 E16 Guardians of Sunshine

Rank C

S2 E13 The Pods

S2 E21 Belly of the Beast

S3 E20 Holly Jolly Secrets Part 2

S4 E16 Burning Low

S5 E16 Puhoy

S6 E2 Escape from the Citadel

Rank D

S2 E2 The Eyes

S3 E5 Too Young

S4 E13 Princess Cookie

S5 E33 Time Sandwich

S5 E43 Root Beer Guy

S6 E20 Jake The Brick

Rank E

S2 E9 The Other Tarts

S2 E24 Mortal Folly

S3 E3 Memory of a Memory

S4 E26 The Lich

S6 E36 Hoots

S7 E24 The Hall of Egress

Rank F

S4 E14 Card Wars

S5 E20 Shh!

S5 E45 Blade of Grass

S9 E4 Elements: Winter Light

S10 E1 The Wild Hunt

Rank G

S2 E19 Mystery Train

S2 E25 Mortal Recoil

S3 E13 From Bad to Worse

S4 E2 Five Short Graybles

S5 E48 Betty

S6 E3 James II

S6 E4 The Tower

S6 E24 Evergreen

S8 E27 Islands: The Light Cloud

S10 E4 Bonnibel Bubblegum

S10 E13 Come Along With Me

Rank H

S1 E10 Memories of Boom Boom Mountain

S2 E1 It came from the Nightosphere

S2 E15 The Real You

S2 E17 Death in Bloom

S3 E4 Hitman

S3 E14 Beautopia

S3 E21 Marceline’s Closet

S5 E11 Bad Little Boy

S5 E14 Simon & Marcy

S6 E16 Joshua & Margaret Investigations

S6 E19 Is That You?

S7 E6 Stakes: Marceline the Vampire Queen

S8 E8 Elemental

S9 E10 Abstract

Rank I

S1 E8 Buisness Time

S1 E9 My Two Favorite People

S1 E12 Evicted!

S1 E26 Gut Grinder

S2 E4 Blood Under the Skin

S2 E10 To Cut a Woman’s Hair

S2 E22 The Limit

S4 E15 Sons of Mars

S4 E19 Lady & Peebles

S5 E24 Another Five More Short Graybles

S5 E28 Be More

S5 E46 Rattleballs

S6 E1 Wake Up

S7 E11 Stakes: Take Her Back

S7 E13 Stakes: The Dark Cloud

S8 E10 The Music Hole

Rank J

S1 E5 The Enchiridion!

S1 E11 Wizard

S2 E3 Loyalty to the King

S2 E11 The Chamber of Frozen Blades

S3 E16 Jake Vs Me Mow

S4 E20 You MADE me!

S5 E8 Mystery Dungeon

S5 E26 Wizards only, Fools

S5 E36 Dungeon Train

S5 E39 We Fixed a Truck

S5 E50 Lemonhope part one

S6 E13 Thanks for the Crabbapples, Giuseepe

S6 E40 Orgalorg

S7 E3 Cherry Cream Soda

S7 E5 Football

S7 E8 Stakes: Vamps About

S7 E9: Stakes: the empress eyes

S7 E20 Bad Jubies

S9 E1 Orb

S9 E3 Elements: Bespoken For

S9 E6 Elements: Slime Central

S9 E7 Elements: Happy Warrior

S10 E12 Gumbaldia

Rank K

S2 E14 The Silent King

S2 E18 Susan Strong

S2 E20 Go With Me

S2 E23 Video Makers

S3 E12 The Creeps

S4 E17 BMO Noire

S4 E18 King Worm

S5 E12 Vault of Bones

S6 E11 Little Brother

S6 E30 The Diary

S6 E31 Walnuts & Rain

S7 E1 Bonnie and Neddy

S7 E10 Stakes: May I Come In?

S7 E12 Stakes: Checkmate

S7 E19 Blank Eyed Girl

S7 E22 Scamps

S7 E23 Crossover

S7 E26 The Thin Yellow Line

S8 E1 Broke His Crown

S8 E2 Don’t Look

S8 E6 Bun Bun

S8 E11 Daddy-Daughter Card Wars

S8 E26 Helpers

S9 E2 Elements: Skyhooks

S9 E5 Elements: Cloudy

S10 E5 Seventeen

S10 E7 Marcy & Huntson

S10 E10 Jake the Starchild

S10 E11 Temple of Mars

Rank L

S1 E13 City of Thieves

S1 E16 Ocean of Fear

S2 E5 Storytelling

S3 E1 Conquest of Cuteness

S3 E15 No One Can Hear You

S3 E22 Paper Pete

S4 E1 Hot to the Touch

S5 E2 Jake the Dog

S5 E6 Jake the Dad

S5 E9 All Your Fault

S5 E17 BMO lost

S5 E27 Jake Suit

S5 E29 Sky Witch

S5 E47 The Red Throne

S5 E49 Bad Timing

S5 E51 Lemonhope part 2

S5 E52 Billy’s Bucket List

S6 E8 Furniture & Meat

S6 E15 Nemesis

S6 E23 The Pajama War

S6 E27 The Visitor

S6 E28 The Mountain

S6 E29 Dark Purple

S6 E33 Jermaine

S6 E5 Grables 1000+

S6 E39 Be Sweet

Rank M

S1 E24 What have you done?

S1 E25 His Hero

S2 E12 Her Parents

S4 E5 Return to the Nightosphere

S4 E8 Hug Wolf

S4 E9 Princess Monster Wife

S4 E10 Goliad

S4 E11 Beyond this Earthly Realm

S5 E1 Finn The Human

S5 E3 Five more short Graybles

S5 E7 Davey

S5 E25 Candy Streets

S5 E32 Earth & Water

S6 E5 Sad Face

S6 E6 Breezy

S6 E10 Something Big

S6 E14 Princess Day

S6 E26 Gold Stars

S7 E7 Stakes: Everything Stays

S7 E21 King’s Ransom

S8 E21 Islands: Whippie the Happy Dragon

S8 E25 Min & Marty

S9 E14 Three Buckets

S10 E8 The First Investigation

Rank N

S2 E7 Power Animal

S3 E26 Incendium

S4 E3 Web Weirdos

S4 E22 Ignition Point

S5 E34 The Vault

S6 E25 Astral Plane

Rank O

S1 E4 Tree Trunks

S1 E7 Ricardio the Heart Guy

S1 E19 The Duke

S1 E20 Freak City

S2 E8 Crystals Have Power

S3 E7 Still

S4 E6 Daddy’s Little Monster

S4 E7 In Your Footsteps

S5 E4 Up a Tree

S5 E15 A Glitch is a Glitch

S5 E31 Too Old

S5 E37 The Box Prince

S6 E12 Ocarina

S6 E18 Everything’s Jake

S6 E36 Hoots

S7 E14 The Moe you Know, The Moe you Know

S7 E17 Angel Face

S8 E15 Do no Harm

S8 E24 Islands: Hide and Seek

S9 E11 Ketchup

Rank P

S1 E6 The Jiggler

S1 E14 The Witch’s Garden

S1 E15 What is Life?

S1 E22 Henchman

S5 E23 One Last Job

S5 E30 Frost & Fire

S6 E21 Dentist

S6 E32 Friends Forever

S6 E34 Chips & Ice Cream

S7 E2 Varmints

S7 E18 President Porpoise is Missing!

S7 E25 Flute Spell

S8 E4 Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension

S8 E12 Preboot

S8 E13 Reboot

Rank Q

S1 E1 Slumber Party Panic

S1 E2 Trouble in Lumpy Space

S3 E2 Morituri te Salutamus

S3 E25 Dad’s Dungeon

S4 E24 Reign of Gunters

S5 E22 Party’s Over, Isla de Senorita

S5 E38 Red Starved

S5 E42 James

S8 E3 Beyond the Grotto

S8 E5 I am a Sword

S8 E18 Horse and Ball

S9 E13 Whispers

S10 E6 Ring of Fire

Rank R

S3 E18 The New Frontier

S3 E19 Holly Jolly Secrets part one

S5 E10 Little Dude

S5 E18 Princess Potluck

S6 E22 The Cooler

S6 E42 Hot Diggity Doom

S7 E16 Summer Showers

S8 E7 Normal Man

S8 E20 Islands: The Invitation

S10 E3 Son of Rap Bear

Rank S

S1 E17 When Wedding Bells Thaw

S3 E6 The Monster

S3 E8 Wizard Battle

S3 E11 Apple Thief

S3 E23 Another Way

S4 E23 The Hard Easy

S5 E13 The Great Bird Man

S5 E40 Play Date

S5 E44 Apple Wedding

S6 E9 The Prince Who Wanted Everything

S8 E9 Five Short Tables

S8 E22 Islands: Mysterious Island

S8 E23 Islands: Imaginary Resources

Rank T

S1 E21 Donny

S5 E19 James Baxter the Horse

S5 E41 The Pit

Rank U

S1 E3 Prisoners of Love

S3 E24 Ghost Princess

S4 E12 Gotcha!

S6 E38 You Forgot Your Floaties

S6 E41 On The Lam

S7 E4 Mama Said

S8 E19 Jelly Beans have Power

S10 E2 Always BMO Closing

S10 E9 Blenanas

Rank V

S2 E6 Slow Love

S2 E26 Heat Signature

S8 E17 High Strangeness

[bakuraryxu]

so what was the point of. lemonhope part 1 and 2

[adventuretimequotes]

[Lemonhope plucks at his harp, soothing the monster and luring it in.]

[mindareadsoots]

Huh, that’s the Candy Kingdom. I guess Ooo is due for another apocalypse sometime in the next 1000 years.

I guess that means the tree we just saw was Finn’s tree too.

[relatablepicturesoffinnmertens]

[wallacelovecraftreviews]

Lemonhope Part 2

Lemonhope gets woken up by some traveler who’s been spying on Lemonhope and watching him from above on some cloud machine. Creepy huh? Like there’s so much spying and creepy stuff in adventure time. Like those two words just seem to come up so often when I watch an episode. Anyways, Lemonhope joins the dude in his travels because the guy asked him to nicely. Lemonhope then has more artsy dreams and the visuals are quite nice. He wants to stop having them so he goes back to the Lemongrab Kingdom to save his people.

He saves them by playing the harp somehow. Isn’t it weird that the lemon people just somehow climbed up the walls and got all over Lemongrab? If it was so easy for them to overpower him without the help of Lemonhope then whats the point of Lemonhope being there? Lemongrab then explodes.

PB and Finn show up and she asks Lemonhope if he wants to stay and be king or something. He says maybe in 1000 years. PB then sings a song. It’s 1000 years in the future now and there are ruined down buildings and he’s walking through them. He goes back to the Lemongrab kingdom and no one is there and he’s pretty old now. He goes to his bed and sleeps.

This episode is kinda nice to have since we get to see more of this world but I don’t really see the point of having an episode or two dedicated to him when well never see him again or so I hope. I find nothing interesting about him. If there was a show about him I wouldn’t watch it. I want more randomness and D&D like tales.

[sabertoothwalrus]

what's your favorite adventure time mini arc/story? i recently bought all the seasons and i've been seeing a bunch of new eps. some of them have the same feeling as one of those haunting short stories in american middle school english textbooks... i had seen puhoy before, but lemonhope part 1 & 2 were new for me. the way AT was allowed to break away from other main characters and tell a complete little story abt someone else... and how they show you nothing is permanent even in the seemingly permanent cartoon world?? idk man. it's hits something in my chest

OOH this is such fantastic question!! I feel like by mini arcs you mean shorter continuous plotlines that spanned over a couple consecutive episodes, and there honestly weren’t a whole lot of them since most side character’s arcs were slowly developed over the whole ten seasons.

I think the progression of Ice King’s character is a given, especially up until Simon & Marcy. Like uUUAAHhH learning that Hambo is Marceline’s Most Treasured Object™️ in Memory of a Memory is already heartbreaking, but then finding out SIMON is the one who gives it to her??? Soul shattering.

I will say, my least favorite is how they handled Betty. She was SO underused and I wasn’t interested in her characterization. I think Finn should have been far more invested in her existence— up until then, the only other human he met was Moe (who was practically more robot than human at that point), and maybe Susan.

But Betty? She was a human from the old world, from before the Mushroom War. It was established in the episode Susan Strong that Finn was desperate to know if there were other humans. I think it would have been so interesting to see an arc where Finn wanted to help Betty in her quest to revert Ice King back to Simon. Finn could have struggled with the morality of it, whether he’s truly “saving” Ice King or if wanting him to revert back to Simon was selfish. Perhaps it could have been a more in-depth allegory for alzheimer’s or addressing ableism. I think Adventure Time could have done it well.

[pattercakebakersman]

Time is a slippery devil

Today (March 10th) is the anniversary of Lemonhope part 2 airing for the first time and Lg3 making his debut as a character so happy birthday Lemongrab! I wanted to write something nice for his birthday so here we are :) I hope yous like it. ff.net link. word count: 4.5K MASSIVE THANK YOOOUUU TO @mikelokison for beta-reading for me!!! Your comments gave me SOOO much life! :)

Summary: Lemongrab 3 celebrates his birthday with LSP for the first time, and comes to appreciate the life he’s been given slightly more. Cw for character death (lg1 and 2), as well as the effects of trauma, and also for fatigue negatively affecting a character, plus some internalised ableism.   

"When's your birthday, Lemongrab?" 

Lemongrab looked over at where LSP was lying on the floor of his bedroom - she was reading a magazine while he was doing paperwork for the Lemon Earldom's first ever census. They normally did their own things when they hung out together. It was pleasant not to have to talk if he didn’t want to, or even look at her facial expressions, but he wasn’t sure how normal it was. She'd left her magazine open with her purple hand resting on a glossy page, and her other hand propping up her cheek. Her usually orange star was grey because she'd turned off her power to fly. 

"Pardon?" He asked.  

LSP made a face as she realised what she’d just asked of him and mentally kicked herself.  "Do you have a birthday?” she rephrased. “Like I guess it'd be complicated for you, but do you have one?"

Lemongrab crossed his arms with a hmm and leaned back in his chair. He was still holding the fountain pen he used for paperwork, and twirled it with his fingers as he spoke. "I had not given it much thought. I suppose I was never truly born so I cannot have aaaa birthday. My predecessors had birthdays, but not meee…" 

"What about the day you got brought back to life? I mean, it's basically a birthday. Also you can still celebrate their birthdays as your own, right?" 

"Nnngh no. The day of my activation is the same day that my predecessors died. I do not seeeee anything to celebrate,” Lemongrab said grimly. He didn’t like their anniversary. He was never sure how he should feel about it, and each year that he still couldn’t make up his mind about his emotions, another year had passed, and they were still gone, and the pain never went away. He was still waiting for it to get easier, but it didn’t. 

He normally went down to the cemetery to place some flowers on their graves - Lemongrab 2’s would be covered in lilies and lemon blossom by the lemon people, while he was the only one who put flowers on the first earl’s grave. Mainly because he felt sorry for his older brother. He’d created the lemon people so he wouldn’t be alone, and they’d all decided they didn’t love him anymore. Even if he deserved it after all he did, it was a cruel fate. His worst fear came true. The lemon people avoided him, the third earl, as well. He had few things in common with the first lemon person, but that seemed to be one of them.

“Besides I am not a particularly… noteworthy creature. I do not believe a birthday is necessary,” he added.

"Dude you're worth a ton of notes! But if you don't want to have a birthday then I get it. I just thought…” she trailed off, sounding almost sad, “Anyway, doesn't matter. Sorry. Hope your census stuff is going math." LSP turned her attention back to her magazine. 

Lemongrab was now intrigued. "Whyyyy did you inquire as to my birth?" 

"I dunno I don't wanna like- make it into a whole thing if you don't like birthdays." 

"Tell me."

She fiddled with one of the pages. "I just thought that you might like a birthday present or something," she said quietly. 

Lemongrab’s eyes widened and his pupils briefly narrowed. "Aaaaa present? For me?" 

"Yeah! Like… maybe you don't think you're a big deal but I think you're totally great and acceptable. So I thought maybe you’d like it if I got you something.” LSP slowly raked her claws through her hair, looking flustered. “But I get that it's difficult and I don't want to make you feel bad by like, bringing you a something-something when you're grieving. I understand if you just want to be left alone. I wanna be alone too sometimes," she said the last two sentences softly, gently in a way that sent a tingle down his spine. 

Lemongrab looked down at his paperwork and reread the first lines of the formal clauses to calm down his hammering heart. It always made him feel giddy when she worried about him. He still wasn’t used to someone thinking about his feelings (would he ever be used to it?) so each time she revealed how much she cared about him, it was overwhelming. "I-Iiiii see. Hm. I have never been the recipient of aaaa gift before…” he admitted awkwardly. “A present would beee acceptable. But do not force thineself!" he added quickly.  

"What sort of present would you like?" 

"O-oh. Hm. Let me seeeee… hm. I do not know. Nnngh… surprise meeee?" he said uncertainly. That was something people said about presents, right? He added his signature to another piece of paper, but could barely control the shape of the line as he wrote his name and drew a neat lemon. It was the same signature his predecessors had - no point changing it, he’d have to redo all his paperwork. He turned the sheet over and stopped, smiling to himself. His own birthday…

"My birthday is the 10th of March. This is the day I was reanimated," he told her. 

"Awwww you have a Spring birthday! I guess that fits your personality." 

"It does?" 

LSP nodded. "Yeah you're kind of curious about things and like, you're sensitive, you're nice- I dunno it just feels right I guess? Ha ha.” she coughed awkwardly. “I have an autumn birthday so that fits how I'm kind of moody and sullen." 

"I do not believe you are moody!" 

"Eh. Count yourself lucky you haven't seen me in a bad mood yet.” There was the papery sound of her leafing through her magazine, looking for something. “Also apparently you're a pisces - that's the fish constellation."

Lemongrab smiled, "I like fishing!" 

"I'm a Libra, which is the scales. I was born mid-October, so I narrowly missed being a Scorpio. But I think it still rubbed off on me. Lol. I don't really believe in that stuff though," LSP said as she checked to make sure their signs were romantically compatible in her magazine. They were. Lemongrab made a hmm noise and the soft scratch of his pen resumed. She liked listening to him writing, or turning pages as he was reading while she did her own stuff. She liked that they could hang out without looking at or talking to each other, but she wasn’t sure how normal it was to enjoy it as much as she did. 

She worried a lot about stuff like that: she didn’t want to mess up. She’d messed up with people she liked before in the past, very badly, and she was determined to be better. But being better was hard. At the time when she’d gotten easily upset over every little thing and lashed out at people, and lied about living in the woods until she couldn’t hide it anymore, or when she’d stood people up that she really, really wanted to be close to just because it was easier to leave than to slowly watch them drift away from her like all her friends in Lumpy Space had - she’d thought it was all fine to do that. She’d been so sure. How could she trust herself to know that what she was doing now was the right thing? And Lemongrab was a strong person - much stronger than he’d ever give himself credit for, but he was also so, so very fragile and he didn’t even realise. 

LSP nervously stroked her fingers through her fur again. "Are you sure about me getting you something for your birthday though? I don't wanna do anything uhh, unacceptable. I don’t wanna overstep if you're gonna be like, mourning and sad all day…" 

"That is precisely why I would appreciate a present from you." 

"Oh. Okay." LSP turned back to her magazine but the words were unreadable. It always made her feel giddy inside when she realised how much she meant to him. 

-

Lemongrab had set up his cane seat in the cemetery grass. It was waving in the breeze around his ankles, with a few flowers dotted through the green around the three graves. They read Lemonblombo, and then the same name twice. As he’d expected, Lemonblombo and Lemongrab 2 had been buried in flowers as lemon people came in and out of the cemetery to pour their grief onto the stones. Some of them placed lilies, others roses, and most of them dropped lemon blossoms. Lemonlamb and Ploptop both came up to him to hug his legs when they visited, and he patted both of them on the head. Maybe some of the Lemon People did like him after all? In the corner of his eye he could see the grave laid out in the darkest tree shade, with no flowers anywhere near it. 

He tapped his fingers on the underside of his seat and looked down at the mourning display. White lilies, blue forget me nots and white roses, with a few dark red ones thrown in. A dark red rose meant enduring, undying love for the departed. An oriental lily meant eternal life. A life that carried on being lived after death. A soul not allowed to rest, but forced to go on alone. But at least he got to go on… 

“It is myyyy…. Birthday today.” The word tasted foreign on his tongue, like he’d taken a bite out of a cake meant for someone else. That same stale taste of guilt, no matter what you’d eaten. The grave he addressed didn’t say anything. But that was to be expected. He didn’t know why he’d even said that. 

There was nothing else to do in the cemetery, and he was beginning to grow tired. Some days the fatigue was better, other days it was worse and he felt overwhelmed by lethargy. It seemed today was one of those days- he felt exhausted though all he'd done was sit in the cemetery for a while. It wasn’t shaping up to be much of a birthday. 

Lemongrab shakily got to his feet, picked up one of the dark, brooding roses and tossed it on the first earl’s grave before leaving. Just because he still loved his brother didn’t mean he had to like it, and it didn’t mean he’d ever forgive him for anything. But if it was him buried, he would want flowers, gifts… 

Lemongrab hadn’t actually given LSP a time to show up. Maybe she was waiting for him right now? The thought made the corner of his mouth twitch. He’d felt empty all day but the thought of seeing her made his heart prickle with feeling again. He realised he'd been mistaken when he said no one had ever given him a gift before. LSP had given him a parting gift once… 

“Oh my glob… is she going to kiss me again?” He’d asked her to surprise him. And he got the exciting, tingling feeling that she was going to do just that. “It would be nice if I got given another kiss. Oh goodness. What am I thinking? Maybe she will just get me a pair of socks. Shameful thoughts- my predecessors are dead yet I am preoccupied with courtship. Unacceptable.” But as unacceptable as it might be, Lemongrab kept guessing what his gift was going to be. 

Back up in his room, he leant his cane seat by his desk and rang the servant bell. 

“Squire,” he addressed the lemon subject who scampered into the room. “Has anybodyyyy visited three castle since my absence?”

“No, my lord.”

“Oh. I see. Yes. Yes, of course. Mmmm you may go, BUT-” the lemon subject turned and looked at him over its shoulder, “call for meee if you seee… anybody purple.” The subject looked confused and left. 

Lemongrab sat on his bed. Now that he took a moment to notice it, his body felt heavy. Like he was full of lead, or weighed down by the chains Lemongrab 1 had kept in the dungeon. Unacceptable behaviour from his body. Didn’t it know it was supposed to be his birthday? Of course not. It didn’t mean to hurt him, it just did. 

He changed into his pajamas and lay under his bedcover, his eyes closed. Sleep didn’t come for him anymore the way it once had. He used to be able to sleep in the afternoon, but now he couldn’t sleep even at night. No matter how tired he was, or how much he wanted to escape into the nice dreams he sometimes had. Where nobody was dead, and they were all together again in a way that wasn’t a stitched together mess.  

He was jolted from his misery by something tapping on the glass of his small window. 

“Nnngh WHAT?” he called. He sat up slowly and swivelled around to see who’d distrubed him. LSP was floating at his window, waving at him. “Oh my glob!”

It had slipped his mind that she was going to visit him. He hobbled over to the window and fumbled with the clasp. She floated in like an awkwardly smiling, huge balloon and sat on his bed. She was holding a wrapped present (though it was mainly strips of wrapping paper cellotaped together, it seemed) and a flower bouquet. 

She’d clearly combed her purple fur and put some hair clips in. Her eyelids were a pinker purple than the rest of her face, and her lips were shiny and glossy. Lemongrab realised he was in his pajamas and bowed stiffly at her. 

“Pleeease most gaciouslyyyy forgive me for myy, ahem, unacceptable attire. I was… abed. The tiredness- I apologise.”

She waved her hand dismissively, and he realised she’d painted her claws a lovely, pretty pink colour. “It’s fine. I think you look sort of cute in your pajamas.” 

“O-oh… I see…” Standing up was starting to make him feel dizzy, so he crawled back into his bed. Her weight pressing down on the mattress meant he slid down towards her ever so slightly. “I am sorry for myyy improper conduct. You see… I am fatigued due to myyyy condition…”

“Hey it’s okay! You told me ages ago.” He had? He really was becoming forgetful. “It's fine. Whatever makes you comfortable.” 

“It is a breach of conduct… You are a princess…. Iiii am an earl,” he fretted. 

“Yeah but it’s your Earldom, under your jurisdiction. So it’s fine because you’re in charge over here. Plus I come from another dimension where we don’t have any formality rules anyway, so since I’m a foreign dignitary you have to respect my customs or whatever. Plus you’re my boyfriend so it doesn’t even matter. And it’s your birthday.” LSP smiled at him and extended the flowers. 

Lemongrab took the bouquet from her, trying not to smile too hard. The flowers were shaped like upturned tear drops and each had a speckle of orange nestled inside. Crocuses, purple and yellow. He’d seen a few white ones blooming in the fields when he went out on his camel, and more blossoming in the cemetery, but he hadn’t taken notice of them. Spring had come without him even noticing. He thought about what LSP said about how it fitted him to have a Spring birthday. 

There was something about the earth coming to life again after the cold dead winter, and the sun starting to shine a little more bravely each day that he felt connected to. But it was hard to keep going on like that. Recovery wasn’t linear, and even though the Earldom was prospering and he’d never been happier, he was still so tired all the time. And so weak, and so sad. How did the saying go? March comes in like a lion, and leaves like a lamb. One day so strong the next so weak. He supposed it was something like that. 

“They are nice. Thank you,” he said eventually, and rang his bell so the lemon squire could put them in some water, and set them on his desk. LSP grinned to herself. 

She pushed the gift towards him. “Open it.” 

“Aaaa command?”

“Nah. But y’know, it’s for you so…” Lemongrab took the wrapped present gingerly. It was much lighter than its size would suggest, and softer too. Lemongrab tried to peel the wrapping paper off without tearing it, but the huge amount of cellotape made that impossible. He made frustrated noises and ended up ripping it off to reveal-

“Aaa…” Lemongrab picked up the curious object and held it up to examine it. “Toy?” 

“It’s a shark!” LSP said quickly. “I learned how to sew so I could fix my own clothes and my sleeping bag and stuff when I lived in the woods, so I thought I’d try and sew a plushie for you. And you said you like fish and I thought that sharks sorta have teeth like you, plus there’s a species called a lemon shark!” LSP rambled on and then asked desperately, “D-Do you like it?” 

Lemongrab looked into the lemon shark’s face. It had two black button eyes, and an open mouth full of sharp felt teeth. He ran his tongue over the back of his own fangs as he turned it over, noticing that she’d sewn gills on - he did like sharks, so the attention to detail made him happy. “Hm! I do!” Lemongrab hugged his new doll and stroked his hand down it. Real sharks had sharp dermal scales on their skin, but he liked that this one was soft. 

“It will not break if I drop it. What a lucky lemon I am.” Lemongrab set his shark down next to him, so it’s head was resting on the pillow. “Hm! Thank youuu princess. I was not expecting toys…” 

“Oh my glob do you not like dolls anymore?” LSP panicked. “I thought you said-”

“I dooo! I dooo! I simply, hm. It is a rather frivolous and- and silly past-time. I am after all aaaan adult. Not to mention a government official…” He scratched at his cheek, feeling slightly embarrassed.  

“I think you can still like dolls and toys as an adult,” LSP said, “I mean… I like plushies and furbies and stuff. They’re really cute, and they just make me feel nice, y’know?” 

“Yes. Iii also feel nice, because of myyyy shark. Hm!” Lemongrab patted his shark like a pet. “Iiii shall name him LSP.”

LSP looked flustered. “W-what after me?”

“It stands for Little Shark Playmate,” he explained. “But also… it is named after you I suppose. Thank you. I shall cherish my new boy.” Lemongrab smiled at her and she smiled back. It was early evening outside, so the hazy, fading sunlight glinted off her star prettily and her fur was speckled with shine. She looked soft, and glossy, and so pretty. His hand twitched as he thought about stroking her, but then thought better of it.

Lemongrab looked down at his hands to avoid looking at her any longer. No matter how many times he saw them, they never quite looked like his. He had one hand from each predecessor. His left hand had silvery stretch marks around his fingers and wrist, with a sewed on thumb. Lemongrab 1’s claws were sheathed inside each of his fingertips, and he had to be careful with them. The second Earl was made in a hurry in a pantry, so he didn’t have some of the less necessary lemon features - so no claws. His teeth had been blunter too. His hand had lost each of its fingers in the explosion, so Lemongrab's right hand looked like it was wearing five strange rings with red stitches instead of jewels. 

He pushed his hands under the covers to hide them. While it was obvious even without knowing anything about Lumpy People and their beauty standards that LSP was very beautiful, it was equally obvious that he was the ugliest candy person to ever exist, even without being told this was the case. He often wondered exactly what she saw in him. It was easy to make a list of all the reasons someone might hate him, but like him? Love him? Bring him flowers and gifts and sit with him, comfort him? It was unusual. It was unexpected. It felt almost unreal. 

LSP took one of his forearms in each hand, and he realised he must have been silent for a long time. She seemed concerned. Her black eyes were shiny with worry, and he liked it when she looked at him like that. Like he needed to be looked after. “Do you want to talk about it?”

By it she meant the three graves buried under the lemon trees. He felt quite ashamed that actually, on the anniversary of the death of the only family he’d never had, he’d been worrying about whether she found him attractive enough, of all things. It was a frivolous concern. He’d never told anyone about these feelings, because vanity was ridiculous. And also because he hadn’t felt like he could talk about it, or had anyone who would listen. That meant he hadn’t realised that it did matter to him that he didn’t feel worthy of love, or that this was an important thing to tell the person he loved. 

Sometimes he would randomly remember his mother standing in a stone mirror in the place of his forlorn reflection, smiling at him. Come Earl of Lemongrab, let us enjoy the game of catch. I am eager to relate to you. But it wasn’t her voice coming out of her mouth. It was his way of speaking, his strange, formal, awkward way of addressing people. It hadn’t been real. It had just been his reflection. But when he remembered it, it was like a cold, clammy, corpse-like feeling came over him, because she would never say anything like that to him in real life. Because she didn’t love him, and that was what was real.  

“LSP…” 

“Yeah?” 

At other times he would remember when it was real. The sound of bird wings and the distant smell of smoke. The war was right next to them but for the moment, things were quiet. They were going to die, but they were alive then. And they were together. Oh tender lad, I give you the parting gift of my lips. That was his way of speaking, but it wasn’t stiff and formal, coming from her it was like poetry. His heart had been practically banging against his armour. The adrenaline and the fear of dying, and the danger, and her hands touching him without flinching from how disgusting he was had all felt dreamlike. It had been like a dream. A dream come true. She’d kissed him, but it hadn’t been a dream. It had been real. He kept reminding himself that this - all of it, was real. She did love him. She did. 

But it was one thing to love an earl in shining armour, and another thing to love a grieving, fatigued, neurotic mess who still played with dolls and was hanging on to life by one red thread.  

“Even though I am… not a knight, or a hero,” he began sadly, bending his head over so she couldn’t see his face, “or aaaa prince, or even someone who has a place among theee living. And I am lemoncholy, not to mention I have aaaaa difficult personality. And I look weird.” he glanced up at her, pleading, “But despite all this- am Iiii still your tender lad?” 

LSP’s hands moved up his arms and around his torso. She was warm and the fur against his face was soft. “Of course you're still my tender lad! My dearest chuck. My fine fellow. My glory of the morning and my- Is that too much?” 

“Oh no not at all!” Lemongrab did an anxious dance over her back with his hands as he tried to figure out where to put them. “Anyone would like hearing such sweet things. No one has ever made me feel so okay inside as you do.” He finally rested his hands on the back of her top lumpy, stroking the curl of fur under his right thumb slowly.  

“I like you too, Lemongrab. Happy birthday.” she pulled back and kissed him on the cheek, leaving a clear smear of lipgloss behind. He let out a short scream, because a lemon cared by yelling. And he cared. He really did. 

Lemongrab’s mouth split into a sharp toothed grin, and his pupils narrowed into two thin slits. That meant he was happy. She’d always loved how expressive he was. But all this was probably tiring him out and he'd already been exhausted when she came in. 

“You should probably go to sleep now, yeah?” LSP said pleasantly. 

He nodded and looked like he was trying to muster up the courage to say something. “Princess… if you are tooo leave…” he fidgeted under his bedcover and moved his hand to rest on her arm, “may I offer you aaaa parting gift?” 

“Yeah?” 

“The- the parting gift of myyyy…” Lemongrab paused before mumbling; “sour kiss…” 

LSP looked surprised and then she nodded, blushing. “I accept.” 

Lemongrab leaned forward. He’d never actually initiated a kiss before, so he was scared he wouldn’t do it properly. But once she kissed him back, and let go of him to put her hands on his face so she could hold him there the fear all melted away like it had never mattered. He still wasn’t sure what to do with his hands but she didn’t seem to notice. When they pulled away he leaned his forehead against hers and nuzzled her gently. 

He realised how tired he really was. The realisation had been creeping up on him, and now that he felt safer than he’d ever felt in his life, he wanted to rest. LSP pulled the covers up over him when he lay back down, pulling his soft toy close to him. He flopped one arm on top of the blanket, so she could hold his hand. 

“Goodnight dearheart,” she said to him. 

“Good night, Princess,” he closed his eyes and gave her hand a final squeeze, “My Princess…” 

The thing about the seasons was that they were always shifting. Winter started on a different day each year, due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis and old pre-Mushroom war calendars. Spring normally started in March, sometimes on the 20th, sometimes on the 1st, sometimes it would even start on his birthday. But until then, Spring and Winter could share. 

The hands may have belonged to other people, but the sensations were all his.

[adventuretimetournament]

Time Adventure

First sung by: Everyone in "Come Along with Me"

Will happen, happening, happened Will happen, happening, happened And we'll happen, again and again 'Cause you and I will always be back then You and I will always be back then

Young Lemonhope

First sung by: Princess Bubblegum in "Lemonhope Part 2"

Young Lemonhope, born from candy and glue, Creator of beauty and ugliness too. Poor Lemonhope, I found you in the dark, You lived in the bathroom, now live in our hearts.

[bossmodeplus]

It’s been a hot minute since I last saw both parts of Lemonhope and goodness does it hit like an emotional truck. 

Lemonhope clashes with PB’s ideals: freedom vs responsibility. In Lemonhope’s mind, he is free to do whatever he desires and he has that right. On its own, it’s not a terrible hill to die on. But given the context that his own family saved him, it’s a really awful sting of a response. This is illustrated with PB offering LH two cupcakes. LH argues that Finn can get his own cupcakes and pouts at the prospect of offering him one of his. 

LH spends the bulk of the episode going about things his own way, even after PB’s visit to Castle Lemongrab. He sees a ship passing by a town and stows away on it. The boy realizes that he is a horse with no steed free to make his own path. The quiet peace of the dream is upended by pink footsteps and a half eaten Lemongrab 2. It’s a really nice symbolism that PB is trying to pave the path for him/LH feels smothered by her and that Lemongrab 2 sought LH to escape his situation.

Eventually the ship crashes and its resources dwindle, leaving a weakened Lemonhope to find resources himself. 

Freedom to get water.

LH finds himself in a desert and laments that a cloud above could be free to produce water. But it doesn’t. He comes across Phlannel Boxingday who gets the boy’s plight of doing whatever whenever. Phlannel also states that sure, Lemonhope is free to do as he chooses but he can also save his family in Castle Lemongrab. This is prompted from talks of the boy’s dreams, another of which being that he feels literally bound over the state of his family. Boxingday cannot do so because of treaties (PB talked of being impeded by the same earlier on....). Phlannel also inspires LH to use his harp as a means of helping them both.

The young boy goes back to his own place of conception, the very place which caused him misery by a now, enlarged despot Lemongrab. The corrupt ruler has gone so far as to engorge on Lemongrab 2, who urges the boy to use his harp. The harp is played, causing the despot to explode and with that LH frees his brethren from totalitarian clutches. 

The ruler isn’t dead, however, as PB knits him back together. She states that the ruler is vestigial and his brain will ‘knit’ itself back after some time. Bubblegum asks the supposed ‘heir’ if he’d like to rule Castle Lemongrab considering its original ruler was usurped by him. LH only comes back because he wanted Finn and PB to stop worrying over his welfare. He departs, leaving a disappointed Finn and PB. Bubblegum tells Finn that she even whipped a new room for him as well as a song.

Cut to many years later and we hear Princess Bubblegum’s song of the young child who turned down the crown. It’s a celebratory song juxtaposed to sadly ambient chords and the silent melancholy of abandoned civilization. It’s a harsh metatextual reminder that nothing lasts forever.

He revisits the castle, though this time on his own terms. It no longer holds the oppressive atmosphere synonymous with its halls. But there’s nothing celebratory that comes of traversing these halls one more time. Everyone’s gone. The end of the two parter sees LH sleeping in respite.

For how self-serving Lemonhope was being in the beginning of his episode, this doesn’t feel like some poetic justice or karmic payoff. It doesn’t feel like a win, either.  There’s a lingering sadness in the end for a few reasons. The destruction of civilization aside, there’s the rough duality of freedom. If you go though life as LH did, it’ll prove very lonely. ‘I don’t owe you anything’ goes both ways. If you don’t do anything for anyone, no one has any obligation for you to lean on them when times get tough. When you get vulnerable, all you’ll have is you. There’s also the theme of extancy being sobering. Hundreds of years is a long time and in that time you’ll see your peers as well as loved ones die. LH will spend the rest of his days with no one.