This episode of Adventure Time starts in media res. Not just for us, but for our heroes as well. Jake’s all embiggened and at full sprint with Finn and some stranger on his shoulders. But he has no recollection of what he’s heading off to in the first place. Yeah, it’s basically an exposition-prompt, but it’s a funny angle, and it lets us revel in the fact that our lads are gonna be helping out an in-danger vampire queen. That’s right, this is a Marceline episode!
It’s a pretty deep one, as it turns out. Considering how old Marcy is, and how big her personal history turns out to be in the series down the road, “Memory of a Memory” can be seen as a landmark episode…although it really only seems that way in retrospect. With Adventure Time, it’s not clear how much of the deeper lore was known going in, and how much was decided after the fact. AT’s creative forces had a lot of free rein. They could make bold declarations in an episode, and then fill in the backstories later on, if they chose to. It’s done so well that it rarely feels like retconning.
As for this adventure, creepy-armless-spirit-animal-wizard-guy toe-touches Finn and tasks him with entering Marceline’s memories to snap her out of an eternal slumber. We shift to a dreamscape where Marceline’s history can be explored. I love representations of dreams in fiction, and this episode does a good job of keeping things interesting, disorienting, and unpredictable. And we learn a lot, seeing our first real glimpse of post-Mushroom War Earth, with little kid Marceline all by herself (without bite-marks), dashing through ruins and wreckage with her only friend Hambo. We get to see the moment when Marceline discovers her dad eating her fries…a lot more bleak and strange than I pictured it when the song was first sung. Eventually we get to Marcy in our heroes’ treehouse, when she was first moving in with a strange dude called Ash. They have the look and demeanor of a very early 20-somethings couple: kids who only know they need each other. Ash is a little weasel of a conjurer, getting roses to talk babytalk, and taunting Marcy with a tiny wand ghost that decries her non-geniusness. Of course, he’s the one making stupid decisions like selling off Marcy’s beloved Hambo to a witch. But sure, Ash, Marcy’s not the genius.
Eventually Finn and Jake find Marceline’s memory core, a cool little area of minimalist design, where our bros play hot/cold with the memory they’ve been charged to find. And when they succeed, they are drawn back out of Marcy’s mind by the suddenly-arm-having Wizard dude, who wakes Marceline up with a ba-zolt of magic. He’s “out-brained” our boys! Marceline didn’t cast a sleep spell on herself; Ash has orchestrated things so Finn and Jake can excise the memory of Marceline breaking up with him so many years ago. And now that he’s rid her of that memory, she’s calling him her boyfriend again, and the two jet off to continue their rotten relationship right where it left off.
Of course, this means Finn and Jake have to find a way to get Marceline back to normal, using more memory shenanigans. This time Finn takes Marcy into his memory core, so he can show her his memory of her memory of her breakup with Ash. Wow. I got confused just typing up that sentence, but the show makes it easy to follow, and it’s a neat little solution that Finn might not have come up with even a season ago. No brute force necessary, no loud screams and swordplay. Just a smart solution to a strange problem.
The screams and violence come just a bit later, when Ash returns from chasing off a noisy Jake distraction, reminding Marceline that he has a strict “no chumps” rule. And a strict “get me a sandwich” rule too. Ash is legit a dumb jerkwad of a dude, and it’s clear he’s still just the same schmoe in his whatever-passes-for-20s-among-conjurers who’d sell his girlfriend’s childhood doll to get a cool looking wand. Marceline initiates the righteous beatdown with a swift kick to the boing-loins. Finn gets some licks in, and Jake punctuates it all with a Monty-Python-foot from above. Overall, a thorough Ashkicking.
“Memory of a Memory” takes some storytelling and design risks, and makes a tidy, exciting episode just bursting with information. As noted earlier, it’s hard to know what bits of information were there to hint at a greater history for Marceline, and which were just there to make for an entertaining episode but ended up becoming more meaningful as the series went on. Either way, we end up with a great episode. One that looks great, is breezy and fun, and still gives us a lot to keep in the back of our minds. One of the strongest episodes of Season 3, which is good company to be in.
Randoms:
—Ash is a great creep, even in his Rag Wizard persona. That long, grunting effort when he stretches his foot to touch Finn’s forehead is delightfully off-putting. And the callous and cruel way he speaks to Marceline—in her memories and after—make it easy to dislike him. Even a really subtle thing, like him rustling Marceline’s hair right after she admonished Finn and Jake for touching it, is a perfect indication of everything Ash is.
—A lot of the visual cues and transitions between memories were inspired by The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
—A few big Adventure Time moments come from this episode. One of the most notable being memory-Finn doing his Buff Baby dance. Truly an iconic sequence, choreoanimated by Natasha Allegri, the originator of Fionna and Cake as little gender inversions she designed for her own sketch blogs while she worked on AT.
—For some reason, Marceline’s Dad is listed in the credits as “Lord of Evil.”
—Ava Acres provided the voice of Young Marceline. In a few episodes she’ll also provide the voice of Young Bubblegum.
—Sa-sa-sa-snail!
Are you tired of Finn and Jake always playing the hero? Feel like someone else should be stepping up to the task? Well lucky for you we got a The Ice King episode in which he’s the one doing the saving! Sure, he saves them from a problem of his own creation but still that’s pretty good for the ‘ol IK.
The episode begins with Ice King being real weird with honey in the Breakfast Kingdom. Finn and Jake are apparently on top of it and Breakfast Princess doesn’t even have to leave her bed to make it happen. Ice King’s sort-of acceptance of his punishment from Finn is a bit of a surprise. As is the bubble butt we see as he storms out the door.
Ice King does actually confine himself in his kingdom but uses a loophole of hiring a Hitman named Scorcher to enact revenge. The only problem is that it might end up killing Finn and Jake so it’s time for Ice King to step up and be the bad boy saviour he is by breaking his grounded punishment to save his parental figures!
It does actually feel like Ice King is going out of his way to save Finn and Jake. In past episodes I’m not sure if he would have bothered with it. We see him employ a number of ice abilities, some bartering with Scorcher (including beloved items of his), deception checks on Scorcher and even admitting his mistake to Finn and Jake.
Jake is disappointed in Ice King and lets him know with a sarcastic remark. I think Mrs. Queequeg mentioned this in one of her comments but Jake’s delivery of the line “Good job, The Ice King” is just so hilarious for some reason. This show just has a way with words and making them sound way funnier than they have any right to be.
On that note we got boingloings this episode too!
Ice King has an idea to finally get rid of Scorcher. The proposal involves freezing Finn and Jake to near-death to the point where they don’t even have a detectable pulse. Finn and Jake aren’t fans of the idea mostly because they don’t trust him, but also it seems like a pretty extreme ice spell. Ice King does it anyway and saves the day– but its not ideal and this character trait of steamrolling others will come into play in future episodes.
But for now good job. Good job, the Ice King.
Apologies for how short my write-up is as I’ve been pretty sick and lazy this weekend. Here are some sandwiches
Fail to Snail?
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