Bad Little Boy | Written & Storyboarded by: Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar | Aired: February 9, 2013 | Review by: Katie
We return to the world of Fionna and Cake, after a shockingly long two season gap. The Ice King has been very busy off screen, churning out volumes of F&C stories of, let’s say variable quality. There are still easy jokes about self-insert fanfic, how IK uses these stories to soothe his loneliness. But they mean a bit more now, I’d say, compared to the joke ending of the original Fionna & Cake episode. We saw previously in “Mystery Dungeon” the lengths IK is willing to go to bring his stories to life. These may just be fiction, but they’re real to him, realer than reality. In a way he can’t quite define, like trying to remember a dream, and in a way he can’t really explain to anyone else.1
But despite Simon’s desperation here the stories are bad, and his captives aren’t feeling them. Perhaps it’s fitting that Marceline is the one to try and spruce them up, being maybe the only person on Ooo capable of connecting with Simon on the level he needs, even if he’s incapable of realizing it. She, naturally, uses the opportunity to work through some feelings of her own, but more importantly gives me the opportunity to go on a gender tangent, the true purpose of any Fionna & Cake story.
For instance: Prince Gumball is kinda strange as a Bubblegum analog, isn’t he? The personality is just off. Fionna starts Marcy’s story annoyed at a “lame” mission he sent her and Cake on. He shows up during her axe throwing with creampuffs, and is clearly out of his depth. Hell, he can’t even manage a ladder by himself! PB doesn’t match any of that. She’s, for lack of a better term, badass. She’s capable. She doesn’t bake creampuffs unless they’re sentient subjects for her empire.
To some extent, this could be Marceline working through her emotions. She clearly has history with PB, and based on her song back in “What Was Missing” she feels like PB was a restrictive presence in her life. But, I think this might be another “gender is not an arbitrary “equal but opposite”” thing, outside of any in-universe commentary. Let’s just say it: Prince Gumball is fruity. Right?
And when a dude is fruity, it means he’s more feminine than men are supposed to be.2 Gumball bakes, can’t handle the rain, can’t handle violence, is literally pink. Meanwhile, Bubblegum is hyper-competent, a scientist, a head of state, is maybe a little too comfortable with violence. She’s in many respects a tomboy. Or, put another way, a dyke. AKA a fruity woman.
Not to say this is the only way this story/twice fictional universe understands gender vis-à-vis queerness. Marceline is quite dykey3 herself, and Marshall Lee is still rough and masculine and devil-may-care, just like her. He also, like Marcy, enjoys toying with Fi(o)nn(a)4 and that’s on full display here. He’s flirting pretty hard, trying to get Fionna to shake her ass on stage with him, trying to engineer a “deathbed” love confession, and of course undermining Gumball. (Which, if he’s anything like Marceline, was likely his true target all along).
And, like Marceline, he’s trying to seem more evil than he really is. Fionna doesn’t buy it, of course, as she sings in the titular song. He abducts Cake when he sees how much that gets to Fionna, but still uses the opportunity to sing back about how no really, he’s stone cold evil. (Lotta singing in this one. It’s Rebecca Sugar’s penultimate episode, in case you couldn’t tell) Mostly, he seems to just be doing it for a joke. He’s 1,000 years old, and naturally nothing has much consequence to him any more. But Fionna is mortal. And more than mortal, she’s earnest. Marshall comes off as almost irony poisoned, the way his only goal is to get a laugh and/or rise. He’s a South Park guy, she’s a Steven Universe girl, can I make it any more obvious?5 Fionna’s willing to play along with Marshall, but only up to a point. Things matter to her. They matter a lot, they matter to a degree he doesn’t quite understand, and consequently he goes too far with her almost without thinking.
Anyway this is an in-universe fictional story written by Marshall’s counterpart, and that’s interesting, right? Marceline might be feeling bad about messing with Finn so much back in season 1. He’s a young, mortal boy, and things matter to him on a completely different way than they matter to a millennium old vampire demon. She nearly got him killed by pranking him about ghost powers! Marceline is here because of what Simon means to her, no doubt. But she’s also working through some unrelated stuff. Bad little girl, but does she still want to be?
Stray Observations:
- Fionna’s BMO is here, and he doesn’t look any different. Makes sense; in a world where everyone is the “opposite” gender, the gender fluid BMO would just be unaffected. The whole concept of Rule 63 kind of has binary gender assumptions baked in.
- I love how Lumpy Space Prince looks and sounds exactly like Lumpy Space Princess, except with a shitty little mustache. LSP(m) is just LSP(f) after 3 months of T. (Or is LSP(f) just LSP(m) after electrolysis?)
- Ice King’s story up top is very lolrandom, with the spaghetti, the doctor pills, the dolphin. Maybe a commentary on season 1 Adventure Time? Or maybe just a commentary on lolrandom fics that would have been popular about 10 years prior, ie when Rebecca Sugar was still a kid involved in fanfic instead of a working professional. *holds up spork*
Vault of Bones | Storyboarded by Kent Osborne and Somvilay Xayaphone | Originally aired: February 25, 2013 | Reviewed by Prestidigititis
Okay. So it’s Sunday night at 11:00pm. And I just looked at my Disqus comments to see that I made a mistake. I thought this week I was writing the review for “A Glitch is a Glitch.” Which I got done back on Wednesday. I was so proud. So proud.
Of course I had to glitch that somehow.
Okay! Okay. So um, let’s see. I got a few hours yet, right? I can still do this. Let’s make this less of an overarching review and more of a…watch-along. Maybe? Knowing my brain, I’ll still find bits and pieces of things I’ll really want to talk about.
Because I like this episode a lot. It’s a milestone in the developing relationship between Flame Princess and Finn. As you may know, Flame Princess remains my favorite of the romantic interests Finn had during the show’s run. I love that the two of them really tried to change and grow for one another. And I love (spoilers for later in the season)6. That stuff’s all for another episode or two, though. For now, we’re gonna dive into the meaty center of their flirtatious couplehood.
FP has been haunted by concerns that she’s just too inherently evil a person to be involved with a hero-type like Finn. I’d go so far as to suggest she worries that she’s not a good enough person to be with ANYone, and there’s lots of nice parallels that one can make to the doubts a young person just dabbling in the realm of love might have. It’s nice that they allow FP to have a maturation arc—it would have been simple to just focus on Finn’s growth, and allow FP to remain this idealized partner for him.
Of course, it doesn’t help matters that Flame King is literally whispering in FP’s ear that she should embrace her evilness. She’s had to leave the Flame Kingdom behind just to get some space and figure out whether she can be someone different. But sometimes distance isn’t enough. Finn knows what helps clear up his mind: Dungeon Crawl! Finding secrets, locating traps, fighting monsters, and gaining loot: It’s all the best parts of being heroic rolled into one. Makes sense that’s what Finn would do to get his head set.
As their grand adventure goes forward, we see some bedrock differences between the two come to the fore. Finn’s all about the process: exerting his skill over the dungeon when he can, but taking what he’s given as well. Can’t open the cool treasure chest at first? Gotta be a key somewhere else that’ll work. Key doesn’t fit? Well, that’s not the whole point of a crawl anyway. Confronted with a weird skeleton dude who might have important info? No need to scorch him on the spot—just intimidate the heck out of him with a demand to do the splits! That’ll show him who’s in charge! And get you the info you require!
This isn’t quite doing it for FP. Her skills are beneficial to the whole endeavor at first—she’s able to use her heat powers to locate the trigger to the dungeon entrance, for example—but as the pair go deeper into dungeoneering, it becomes clear that this is Finn’s world. He certainly makes it seem so, and his direction is conflicting with Flame Princess’s instincts about how to handle what’s thrown their way. Even when Finn lets her unlock a strange upright coffin door, and she is confronted with a menacing undead beastie telling her to take her place, her impulse to burn it in self-defense gets a reprimand from Finn.
Finally FP lets him know that this kind of direction just isn’t fun for her. She doesn’t understand why things have to be done Finn’s way, and that makes her wonder if she might actually BE evil. Makes sense—this is Finn’s realm after all, and if she’s not having fun doing things his intrepid and heroic way…maybe it’s just not in her.
To Finn’s credit, he listens to her. Lets her take the lead for real as they move forward. Which…means chaos. Destruction. Flaming arms slicing through doors and jets of fire spewed to all the walls and the vaulted ceiling. Chaos, but a joyous chaos that is obviously part of who FP is in the moment. Poor Finn, already invested in trying to show his girlfriend that she is different than her nature might suggest, has to just choke back his concern and cheer her on.
It’s not until a legion of goose-ghouls appear that things get hairy. They’re powerful enough to stop FP in her tracks, at least temporarily. Releasing fire along their goo tendrils causes explosions, and that further riles up FP’s destructive tendencies, screaming out “Feel my flames, puny worms!!” It seems that there might just be something to her fear of her inherent destructiveness. When Finn’s captured by the biggest, boniest, gooeyest beastie (with whirring chainsaws all over its body), Finn implores her to help him but…not by using flames. Because as he noted earlier, “fire burn goo.”
Doesn’t seem like Flame Princess is too concerned with safety in the moment, what with her flare-ups and proclamations of the glory of “the power of destruction!” And yet…when she leaps toward the giant Boss in fury and rage, at the last moment…she pulls up and demands he do the splits! She invokes the threat Finn used earlier: “DO THE SPLITS, THOU MILK-LIVERED MAGGOT PIIEEEEE!!!!” (One of my favorite line-reads in the whole series.) Grabbing Finn’s sword and letting loose with a bestial war cry, the huge abomination is cowed into releasing Finn and crawling off to risk his groin muscles’ wellness.
Finn is sliced free from his gooey cocoon, relieved that FP didn’t wind up burning him alive. And in her own sweet, chaotic, fiery way, Flame Princess responds with an affectionate, “I’d never do that to my boyfriend.”
In the end, the two of them share a sunset while discussing how much of a stress release the experience was. They adapted and changed for the sake of one another’s experience in the dungeon, and for the sake of their togetherness. Relationships are about positive growth, and these two are certainly trying to change for each other.
But is it enough? It seems like Flame Princess might still be too much of a chaotic fire elemental. She does specify that she enjoyed being able to destroy evil stuff. And when Finn suggests their next outing be to a farmer’s market, she adds “…and burn it.” Are farmer’s markets inherently evil?
NOTES:
—There are so many lovely little dialogue touches. “Nice job, FP!” “Thanks, FTH!” Love that.
—Obviously this episode holds a huge debt to the experience of Dungeons & Dragons, and tabletop RPGs in general. Finn narrates some of the events like a Dungeon Master would, even going so far as to ask about skill percentiles for “throwing a tiny bit of fire.” I’m sure for someone with more experience in that hobby, these lines are huge laugh-getters.
—What the heck even was that treasure at the end? A butt with eyes?
—Sorry, I don’t have more random notes than these. Side-effect of trying to jam this all together at 11:00pm on Sunday night.
Snail
On a branch just above the entrance to the dungeon proper.
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