Come Along With Me: Adventure Time – “The Suitor” and “The Party’s Over, Isla de Senorita”

The Suitor

Boarded by Jesse Moynihan and Thomas Wellmann

Originally Aired: May 20, 2013

Review by: CedricTheOwl

The last few seasons have devoted a lot of screentime to Finn’s love life.  From introducing a new love interest in Flame Princess, to pouring out his broken heart to Princess Bubblegum in a messy but cathartic confrontation, to just an episode of him on a date with his new flame, Adventure Time has dedicated quite a bit of time to its romantic sideplots recently.  This episode checks in on PB’s romantic life, and in doing so touches on a lot of interesting topics.  But will it answer the question of which romance arc in the show contains the most demonic possessions?

Our episode opens on perhaps the most Jesse Moynihan scene ever devised.  Peppermint Butler performing an occult ritual, rendered with a level of detail that can only from an enthusiast, to summon and bind a demon into the willing (but likely uncomprehending) body of Cinnamon Bun.  The ritual succeeds, but Pep Buts’ dark purposes must for now go unfulfilled, as the Gumball Guardians drag him away to attend to his butlering duties to Princess Bubblegum.

Princess Bubblegum has apparently been holed up in her lab for nine weeks straight, neglecting to see her subjects or to even care for herself.  We’ve seen this behavior before; the last time Princess Bubblegum threw herself into her work like this it was to create Goliad, the living embodiment of her existential crisis over her own mortality.  The specific goals of her research are less clear in this episode, but it’s not a stretch to imagine the source of her anxieties being the same.

The Gumball Guardian deposits Peppermint Butler near a collection of suitors waiting to try their hand at courting the princess.  Despite their advanced age, they still like their odds at scoring a date with PB, even if Peps rightly points out that she would never date them.  Some claim to have been waiting to court her for hundreds of years, and the only conventionally attractive number in the lot of them inherited his father’s position in line after he died of old age.

Fig 1: The average student at the college I went to in the month leading up to finals

Peppermint Butler decides to give the least terrible suitor a chance, a lovelorn fellow named Braco who vaguely resembles a Banana Guard with chocolate hair.  PB isn’t exactly looking her best, but Braco nonetheless throws out his best lines.  Princess Bubblegum is quick to shoot him down, underlining for him (and likely also the audience) the difference between love and infatuation.  Braco persists, and eventually PB decides to humor him for the sake of her research.

As it turns out, she’s not being facetious.  She tolerates Braco’s flirting and romantic gestures just long enough to get some readings from him, then bounces with the help of her bird Morrow.  Braco masterfully manages to delude himself into thinking she’s still into him, but he’s only fooling himself.  Even the Candy Citizen gardeners know that PB isn’t on the market.

With his own ideas coming up short, Braco decides to consult the wisdom of the ancients.  He raids the tomb of his grandfather, and takes his prized possessions: a suit, an elaborate hat, and “Mind Games” by Jay T Dawgzone, the gift that keeps on giving for the writers.  Braco is peacocking hardcore, and yet PB is as unfazed by him as she was by Ricardio before him.  When that fails, he tries to win her over through grand displays of devotion, taking over a quest she gave Finn and Jake in order to impress her with a showy deed.

Braco’s hopeless pursuit of PB feels like an especially pointed jab at Finn’s own romantic overtures towards her in seasons 1 and 2.  Back in “Mortal Folly” I mentioned how that episode played to the more positive aspects of a Knight and Lady relationship; this episode drills down on the more widely known negative aspects of that trope.  To Braco, PB is just a goal to achieve, a lonely maiden with nothing going on in her life if she lacks romance, just waiting to be swept off her feet by romantic gestures or feats of derring-do.  Finn and PB’s rapport in the early seasons wasn’t quite as shallow, but there’s definitely far more to the princess than Finn learned in his awkward, fumbling tweenage impression of romance.

Braco manages to retrieve the Soulstone PB asked for despite, or perhaps because of, his reckless disregard for his own safety, but by then PB has already whipped up a reasonably close facsimile for her experiment.  All the pain and hardship he put himself through was for naught.  Much like Braco, we shall ignore why exactly PB needs to program and manipulate a soul, and rejoin Braco as he ruminates over his failure.

He’s taking it well

Unfortunately for him, Braco has learned nothing from his misadventures.  He begs Peppermint Butler for help in wooing Princess Bubblegum, and of course the little guy’s first recourse is dark magic.  The demon he imprisoned offers to turn Braco into one hot hunk of fudge… for a price.  Pep Buts is wisely reluctant to deal with devils using terms he doesn’t understand, but Braco is not.  The bargain is made, and Braco is transformed into a hideous, deformed monster. 

He would do anything for love.  But he shouldn’t have done that.

Back at Princess Bubblegum’s lab, we finally see the fruits of her research:  a robotic duplicate of herself.  Her duplicate is earnest, eager to date, and frankly, a lot closer to PB’s personality when she’s flirting with Finn in early episodes.  PB made this aspect of herself, a clone programmed to put on a shallow performance, specifically so Braco could have the happy ending he was killing himself over while also leaving her in peace.  Upon seeing Braco’s mutated form, she lets him down as gently as she can:  she loves him, but only in the unfavoring way a ruler can love her subjects, or a mother can love her children.  Any hesitation Braco has at the nature of PB’s bargain is swept aside when P-Bot swoons over him.  He’s happy to accept the shallow imitation of his beloved, and he leaves with her in his arms, never to be seen again.

The Adventure Time creators clearly have a complex relationship with the way they wrote Princess Bubblegum over the seasons.  From the beginning she’s had more dimensions to her than the average love interest in a children’s show, but it’s also hard to argue that her early treatments seem like an entirely different character than the one we see now.  This episode does a good job at bridging the gap between the two Bubblegums:  her early appearances were just a part of herself, a public face she put on for others.  It’s no more her true self than any persona we put on for the sake of society.  But her brush with death at the hands of the Lich changed her, and she just can’t be that person anymore.  She can’t even be bothered to pretend to be that person anymore.  The best she can do is devote herself to protecting her citizens (even from themselves) and making them all as happy as possible.

I can’t believe Adventure Time went through its entire run without ever using the world “buttle”

Notable Quotes –

• “Alright guys, all you guys are gross, how long have you been waiting to court the princess?”
• “Peanut Butler… uh, Peppermint Butler.  Cease these dark magic activities.”
• “I am peacocking you to rally your attention.”  “Mmhmm.”
• “What do you think of that Braco guy?  I mean, he seems kinda weird.  And passive.  And baby lambish?  And too unheroic for Peebs.”  This bit from Finn did a lot to inform my comparisons between Braco and early season Finn.

Stray Observations –

• I once again love how the AT crew uses association with pickup artist language as shorthand for how not to go about handling romance.
• Braco’s quest for the Soulstone has a lot of fun random encounter monster designs.  The mantis monster that shouts “Hey, I see you!” is a particular favorite.
• On a rewatch, you can see what looks like a half-completed version of P-Bot in her lab when she calls in Finn and Jake.  She really was working on her for a while in advance.
• Since I brought up so many comparisons between Braco and early season Finn, it begs the question:  would Season 2 Finn have also gone for P-Bot?

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The Party’s Over, Isla de Señorita

Boarded by Kent Osborne & Cole Sanchez

Originally Aired: May 27, 2013

Review by: Mrs Queequeg

The episode opens with Season 1 Ice King attempting to kidnap Princess Bubblegum so he could wake her up with breakfast in bed.1I bet Simon loves bad 90s romcoms. I hope he is able to watch the Golden Era of Hallmark. The Season 1-ness of it is played up, he only calls her “baby” and says cliches like “we agreed not to make our private problems public.”

It’s a bit jarring when we had him receive an invitation to a party hosted by Princess Bubblegum two weeks ago, but it’s all intentional to show how much the character’s changed. Continuing bad relationship tropes, he asks her to honestly tell him that she wants him gone. She does, and he’s shocked, but he agrees to be taken away. Finn and Jake have a cameo, probably looped dialogue from Season 1, and Ice King angrily pushes past them to leave. After crying in the shower,2Peak relatability from Ice King he realizes that he needs a fresh start and decides to leave Ooo. He takes a rowboat out on the big scary ocean,3Finn was right to be scared of it. We’ll see more in Season 8 and washes up on an uninhabited island. 

I love the bit with Ice King fashioning an explorer hat, after he decides he won’t need the crown anymore. I did wonder if the shower scene is the first time we’ve seen him without the crown on, but as I forgot to do this in advance, I have no time for research. Josephus, I need you to fact check me. The Wizard Formerly Known as the Ice King realizes that the island doesn’t have a lady, it IS a lady!

We know her backstory immediately when her first line is to ask if her singing bothers him. She follows that up with the revelation that she’s dating Party God and Ice King has to hide, because Party God is “crazy jealous.” Party God’s first line is to insult her appearance. Then, he looks for stuff he stashed at her ‘place’ and talks about himself before she asks if he will spare her a thought and spend time with her. Isla hasn’t introduced herself, but we’ve already heard Party God’s name a few times. Continuing the theme of bad relationships, he tells her not to be mad and takes off. 

The addition of Party God is smart, because I always find characters who just suck to be entertaining and he’s a good foil for the Ice King. There’s a writing corollary that if you want the audience to like a character, you have them save a dog. We’ve seen Ice King for years, so he can’t suddenly save someone, the audience like Stars would never buy that; but you can have him show kindness while pairing him with someone who is terrible to showcase how much Ice King has changed and grown. 

Ice King is not amused by the frat bro douche that is Party God, but Isla weakly defends him. We get a nice interlude of Ice King and Isla de Señorita talking out their relationship woes with Ice King developing his first emotionally mature and platonic relationship with a lady. Hilariously, he makes wine for their girl talk. They both decide that they deserve better than what they’re settling for and resolve to end their relationships.4Again, we’re looking at a Season 1 Ice King, who sees his relationship with Princess Bubblegum as romantic, instead of antagonistic. When Party God returns, Isla can’t bring herself to end it, which is painful to watch and extremely realistic. Ice King can’t stand to see his friend hurt, and vows to end things for her. 

He chases Party God into the sky, trying to explain that Isla de Señorita deserves to be treated better, but all Party God hears is another man hanging out with his woman and we get a fun action sequence. Ice Magic, which is near unassailable on Ooo, doesn’t serve much purpose against divinity. Party God shoots lasers at Ice King and creates some mini mes to avoid a lightning strike, but eventually Ice King gets the knock out blow by freezing a cloud above Party God, dropping him into the ocean. Ice King animates Party God and visits Isla, prompting her (repeatedly) to break things off with him. She credits the advice from her emotionally mature friend, which touches Ice King. He in turn tells her, still via Party God ventriloquism, that he will end his own bad relationship, and he will visit her. Ice King then yeets Party God into outer space. 

Ice King visits Princess Bubblegum and breaks up with her, because she treats him poorly and is always away at parties. He needs to do what’s best for him, so they are over! She calls for the Banana Guards and he tells her to, “Banana Guard yourself!”

He flies away, whispering that they’ll work it out, but that’s just the button. This era is finito. 

I am amused that Ice King takes the wrong lesson from this – that Princess Bubblegum is the toxic part of this relationship – but this is a good way to kill and bury the remnants of that archetypal relationship that no longer fits this version of the show. Gravity Falls threw Dipper into an underground lair to kill his obsession with Wendy. We have arrived at the same moment in Ooo: Ice King is no longer a TVPG sex pest. Good for you bro. 

I am very fond of children’s shows that look to their future in their plotting and lessons. Adventure Time is a show meant to age with the viewers, at this point Finn’s in a real romantic relationship, but he – and the audience – have no experience with unhealthy relationships. They won’t know how to spot it or why it feels bad, so Adventure Time does some modeling for them. They even go to the point of practicing break ups. A few years ago, I had the reputation of telling my students to “just break up” rather than work through problems. Sixteen year olds don’t need to “make things work.”5Something a student argued in class, which I think spurred my stance. You need to learn when your relationships don’t suit you and your growth [anymore], and you need to know how to break things off in a way that is respectful of your partner. That year, I heard a lot of kids talking about how frequently they were cheated on, and I get that you’re a teen and dumb, but don’t cause future baggage to your partner, just break up!

Adventure Time is maturing quickly and after seasons of unrealistic, unrequited love, we have the Ice King swearing off Princess Bubblegum, and Finn embarking on actual romantic arcs. Jake also hits a new level with Lady Rainicorn, but they started out in an emotionally mature relationship. His emotional growth will focus on his kids, instead of his partner.6Apparently next week. The show will continue developing relationships and what it means to be healthy and happy within one, and I am so, so excited for the plotting that kicks off in a few weeks.