Normal Man
Written and Storyborded by:
Jesse Moynihan and Sam Alden
Originally Aired: May 12, 2016

So here we are. After so long, we come to the last episode boarded by JMoyns.

Before we get into this, I just want to talk about that title card up there. Go on, go look at it again, the words will still be here when you get back.

So, first off, the design of it is incredible. The world turned upside down and the horizon curves in the wrong direction, reinforcing the ground/sky inversion. The five stars in the sky, one red, representing Glob/Grob/Gob/Grod and Mars. It makes me think of a passage from a Tom Robbins book, about the sky in the desert.

I’m paraphrasing here, but it goes something like, under the right kind of desert sky at night, you can lie on your back, and stare up into space. And if you open your eyes just right, you can become aware of the fact that you’re actually clinging to the underside of a vast ball, hanging above an endless void, and the stars stop being pricks of light against a black backdrop and become objects below you, and space gets depth.

Anyway, back on Ooo, Normal Man, now bereft of his powers, tries to do good by rescuing his brother Glob/Grob/Gob/Grod (or, well, one of the faces of the quadrune deity, at least) and bringing him back to Mars. However, his legacy of being a giant deuce breakfast (god I love this show’s use of language) stands in his way.

What do we owe someone who’s wronged us and wants to apologize? When is it right to let someone who’s been an endless bean show for a century (again, god I love this writing) have another opportunity? How DOES someone actually try and make amends for what they’ve done?

At a time like this, when so many people in our society are engaging in unspeakable evil, it’s easy to get negatively polarized against these kinds of questions, but they’re still worth asking. I’ve never had to atone for turning all the water on Earth into hair that made you bald if you drank the hair, but still, none of us can ever really be perfect people.

In some ways, this episode feels like grappling with karma and original sin. Magic Man and Normal Man aren’t really the same people anymore. He really has changed, it’s not just some act he’s putting on. It’s ironic, then, that Magic Man, who was in many ways a symbol of how capricious and chaotic the universe can be in dealing out justice and hardship, has given way to Normal Man, a new being who has to atone for the sins of his previous life that he may not have had real control over.

In the end, Normal Man’s sincere transformation convinces Glob to forgive his brother, and admit that he, too, was also a bean show.

I suppose that’s the real message, here. You can’t fix the past. But you can do your damnedest to live your life as less of a bean show, and if you really mean it, maybe eventually people will notice. Though you can’t blame them for not believing you.

Concrete gestures can help.

Stray Observations:

• It’s been awhile since there was an episode as joke-y as this one feels. It’s really constantly hilarious, even while being serious about the content. There’s so many little lines that bust me up so hard.
• “What’s even a boomerang? … Oh my gosh I’ve been calling them something different my whole life.” This is my nomination for the funniest goddamned moment in the whole series. I have no idea why but holy shit it just slays me.
• “TWO BOOMERANGS!!”
• “Upon reassessment this is actually a great situation for me.”
• “SURPRISE YOU’RE DEAD”
• “NO PLANES! NEVER PLANES!”
• LSP and Lemongrab having met, on whatever the Ooo equivalent of Tinder is, is just a great little background detail. I love that they apparently keep dating through the end of the series.
• Jake just whanging him unconscious with a frying pan mid-sentence.
• I love that his Normal Man outfit is a button up shirt and khakis, it’s so perfect.
• I like that Moynihan’s last full storyboard and writing credit is such a down-to-earth (… Sort of) discussion of forgiveness and personal growth, literally stripped of all magic and mysticism.
• Him showing up to Mars with a tray of brownies as an apology for a century of unhinged magical hooliganism and it working is possibly the least I’ve ever had to suspend my disbelief with this show.
• The Wiki points out that the squirrel yelling, “I KNOW THAT VOIIIIIICE” is almost certainly a reference to DiMaggio’s work about the voice acting business of the same title, and yeah, I 100% believe they’d do that.
• Kind of fitting I get this one, because Moynihan is one of my favorite contributors to the show. Weirdly, I had no idea this episode was his, I knew he leaves the show around this point so I kind of thought that we’d gone past that point already. But I did know this episode was one of my favorites. At this point, he leaves the show to finish Forming, his utterly fucking bonkers Gnostic comic that draws heavily on the Enochian gospel of the Nephilim and the children of angels as alien travelers and is just generally as completely off the wall as you would expect. I think he comes back to work on maybe an episode or two before coming back all the way for some of the Distant Lands episodes.

Elemental
Storyboarded by: Kent Osborne
Originally Aired: May 19, 2016
Review by: CedricTheOwl

Over the past few episodes, season 8 has started to develop a theme of Finn examining himself and his interactions with others.  In “Don’t Look”, a magical curse externalized his thoughts about himself and everyone he laid eyes on, giving an unfiltered view of how our boy perceives himself and his friends.  “I Am A Sword” metaphorically pitted his adolescent naivete and irresponsibility against his more mature instincts in a literal sword fight.  “Bun Bun” featured Finn displaying a level of emotional introspection and awareness to make a sincere apology for one of his biggest regrets.  These are very low key, cerebral story beats for a high fantasy story to explore, so why not mix in some anime power scaling for flavor?

Back in his section of our Stakes review, Malcolm Rambert made the observation of how anime had influenced Adventure Time over its run.  The super vampires of that miniseries definitely have the feel of a gang of villains in a shonen arc.  I bring this up because this episode, specifically the introduction of Patience St. Pim, screams “new arc villain”.

When the Ice King asks Finn and Jake to help him retrieve his keys from an ice crevice in his home, it ends with them uncovering a multifaceted spheroid of ice hidden beneath his kingdom.  He specifically notes how much harder and stronger the ice is than the kind he can make.  Once they manage to open it up, it’s revealed to be a self-inflicted cryostasis of one Patience St. Pim, the Elemental of Ice.  After a brief moment where it may seem like Patience is on the level, she reveals her true intentions to turn the Ice King into her minion and easily overpowers our heroes.  Classic villain intro sequence.

The concept of elementals in Ooo first appeared in “Evergreen”, which amusingly defined the four elemental domains as ice, fire, candy, and slime.  In that episode, Urgence Evergreen attempted to use his powers to escape his coming death at the hands of the comet set to impact the Earth, while the other elementals were more accepting of their fate.  This handily parallels Patience and her contemporaries; while they were content to pass on so long as their elemental domains survived, Patience used her abilities to ensure she survived the Mushroom War.

With Finn and Jake out of commission, Patience commands the Ice King to bring the reincarnated elementals to her.  Much is made of how overpowered Jake would be if he applied himself, but if anything this episode makes it clear that a focused Ice King would be even more dangerous.  Using the element of ice along with the element of surprise, he quickly snaps up Slime Princess in her palace, Phoebe out playing croquet, and Bonnibel as she’s taking out the trash. Patience reveals to her captive elemental cohorts that they all have the same power she has, namely the ability to generate quantities of their respective elements from their hands.  With that revelation comes the next important anime parallel: power scaling!

Power systems are one of the time honored traditions of shonen anime.  They define what abilities the heroes and villains can use, and their complexities are fertile ground for fans to theorycraft new abilities or just argue who could beat who in a fight.  Though most commonly associated with shonen anime, power systems are endemic through all kinds of genre fiction:  anyone who’s ever min-maxed a sorcerer in D&D or argued about whether a werewolf could beat up a vampire is participating in this venerable tradition.  If there’s a fictional world that lays down concrete rules for how its powers operate, it all but invites fans to explore the edge cases of how it functions.

Adventure Time may be treading familiar thematic ground by introducing an elemental power system, but it’s not about to do so without putting its own comedic spin on the proceedings.  The princesses are quick to realize just how dangerous Patience St. Pim is (opening with a kidnapping will do that) and use their new powers to escape.  Patience’s ice has made a strong showing all through the episode, but a single jellybean from Princess Bubblegum is able to turn the tables on her.  Once she’s rekindled, Flame King is able to melt the ice imprisoning the other princesses as well as Finn and Jake, while Slime Princess pastes Patience to the wall with her ooze.  Our episode ends with our heroes leaving Patience stuck to the wall, promising that her scheming has only begun.

If this review seems light on recaps, it’s mostly because this is already an exposition heavy episode.  There are still fun jokes and Patience makes an immediate impression as a character, having both a strong design and a wacky personality that quickly turns menacing when she’s crossed.  However, the episode also has to plow through both her history and the new power system in its short 11 minute run time, and that leads to long stretches of just Patience talking.  If there’s any episode I would compare it to, it feels like a weaker version of  “Sky Witch”:  both feature the introduction of a new female villain who ends the episode by promising big things in their next appearance.  Maja’s plans were truncated due to the behind the scenes cancellation of her associated TV movie.  Could Patience St. Pim be a second try at this formula?  Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z Adventure Time.

Stray Observations – 

• Starchy’s portrait of a reclining Death is very funny.  He and PepBut would get along
• Then-soon-to-be SNL cast member Melissa Villasenor voices Slime Princess in this episode.  She’s also voiced several minor parts in past episodes.
• Lauren Lapkus voices Patience St. Pim.  She’s probably best known for her roles in Orange is the New Black and Comedy Bang Bang
• This episode is Kent Osborne’s second solo boarding credit.  The first was “Jake the Brick”.