The title card for "The Music Hole"
TV

Come Along With Me: “Five Short Tables” and “The Music Hole”

Five Short Tables

Air Date: May 26, 2016 | Written & Storyboarded by Aleks Sennwald and Kris Mukai | Story by Jack Pendarvism, Kent Osborne, Adam Muto, Ashly Burch | Directed by Elizabeth Ito | Reviewed by Malcolm Rambert

For some reason, I always keep thinking back to this episode on rewatch; it’s certainly a nice breather from the previous episode with the downer ending of Finn breaking his sword and losing connection with it. But the more I kept thinking on it, it really feels like a good meta-commentary on how stories in general

Ice King starts off the episode making a “remix” of his already written work; we have Cake the Cat making flapjacks that are meant to be eaten in a specific order, alluding to certain acts in a story, Flame Prince is trying to check out books at the library, and we even have Ice Queen read her own fanfiction. This scene itself is exactly the reason why I wanted to write about this episode:

Ice Queen: Lounged atop their comfortable sense of ennui, Flynn the human being and Jacques the raccoon listened to the Ice President read his fiction.

Ice President: “Lynn the person looked at Janet and asked, ‘Am I my feelings? Do I exist because I can’t stop feeling?’ Janet the fox answered her. ‘Feelings are action, and like all mortal action, they are doomed to failure.'”

Ice Queen: Flynn and Jacques sighed. They totally got it. The end! What do you guys think? Too philosophical?

Now as you can see, YouTube user “semiotic salmon” titled the episode “double-gender-bent recursive ice king’s writing borrows from a pessimistic continental philosophy”. It’s certainly a funny title, but also speaks to something that folks might have caught onto when thinking about the Fionna & Cake world for a hot minute. As this YouTube comment shows:

 When Natasha Allegri first made the characters, the original intention was to make rule 63 versions of Finn & Cake, and when those characters were originally made on 4chan, they fit perfectly in that box. But when it came to developing stories with said characters, they started adding more ideas and aesthetics and characteristics to them and their world. In short, the only reason we think of these characters of “girl Finn & Jake” is because we are constantly reminded of their origin, both in-universe and outside of the show.

Like think about it: Cake is a female magic cat, while Jake is a male magic dog, so that automatically puts both characters as different species. Fionna herself is depicted as being more older than Finn, as well as more voluptuous in character (this has been criticized by fans thinking this was an instance of “sexy Halloween outfit” approach, but I believe this post by Tumblr user dash-n-step from May 2023 gives a good defense).

Returning to the Fionna & Cake seems like an excuse to do more kitschy fanfic stuff (and it is), but it’s also a new world to put different twists on characters. Like, I’m not sure people were DYING to see the Fionna & Cake counterpart to Peppermint Butler, but I’m sure those watching were at very least, pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t just Pep with long eyelashes wearing a maid outfit or something. Heck, giving Butterscotch Butler a Scottish accent is actually quite inspired, (Elle Newlands does a great job with the role too):

Speaking of, let’s take a look at Ice Queen’s characters, Flynn and Jacques:

All the Finn, Jake and Ice King variants are back to being male, but one could argue this is WAY more different than the Fionna & Cake world. Not just the blue, gloomy color palette or the fact that Flynn is wearing a suit, but their characteristics feel more in line with something like Daria or Ghost World than the typically joyous duo we are familiar with.

This all reminds me of a write-up a writer I follow by the name of Jack Elving did on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (read his take on Into the Spider-Verse if you haven’t yet). Harry Thornton, a mutual of mine, is here as a guest, and when talking about the character of Pavitr Prabhakar, he brings up the Ship of Theseus, you know, the famous thought experiment regarding identity:

In his words: “Yeah, in the case of Pavitr it comes back to the Ship of Theseus thing. Which, okay as a slight digression I also see this in fanfiction. There comes a point where a fanfic author has changed so much about the world and the character they’re essentially writing new characters anyway. With Pavitr they’re similar enough to Peter that it’s not a huge leap, but for me (this includes fanfiction as well) it’s always a balancing act between doing something new but also keeping what’s fundamental to their characters.”

As someone who’s been starting to read more fanfiction lately, this is 100% on the mark. There is a user whose work I’ve taken a liking to by the name of KriegsaffeNo9; their favorite go-tos for fanfiction are Amphibia and Little Witch Academia. But as you will see with most of the fics, they are all AUs, to the point where changing the names could easily pass this writing off as original stories. One might ask why folks do this, and it can be for a number reasons. One being that people just happen to have certain attachments to these characters, a hyperfixation if you will. In my realm, you end up watching a cartoon and really get attached to a specific character design, or archetype, or dynamic, that you hold onto that and want to replicate it with your own specific interests. 

A great example is this tweet someone made regarding folks who make a lot of fanart of one specific character:

The original tweet link

For those who don’t get the joke, it’s basically poking fun at the fact that people who make fanart and end up making their own characters down the line tend to leave remnants of where their inspirations came from. The most infamous example of this at this time is brujo_ari’s still-in-development I Wanna Eat Your Guts animated series, which is self-admittedly the evolution of them making JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure shipping fanart between Jotaro and Kakyoin.

In fact, this type of way of doing things with character design is older than people realize. Here’s an example from one of my personal inspirations, mangaka Osamu Tezuka:

Left: Fanart of Columbia Cartoons’ Scrappy by Osamu Tezuka; Right: Kenichi, Osamu Tezuka’s original character

There are folks who will read this and aren’t fans of how this type of inspiration takes hold. Fanfiction and fanart to them should only be supplementary pleasures and not the main source of one’s creative work. That’s their take, but it seems to be an eventual thing all around.

Like Adventure Time’s identity is connected to the Internet, not just with fanfiction, but online fan culture as a whole. So many of the storyboard artists, writers, etc. are people who made webcomics and art online. The original Random! Cartoons’ TV pilot that was rejected by Nickelodeon went viral online, which is what led to Cartoon Network taking notice and picking it up. There was a blog made by the crew to showcase production art. Sure, it wasn’t the first blog to be made by a crew for an animated series (the earliest I could find was My Life As a Teenage Robot), but it was a first for many online, and let to many others for other shows on Tumblr, such as (but not limited to) Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, Clarence, Sanjay & Craig and O.K. K.O.!: Let’s Be Heroes!

Heck, there was a whole episode featuring a fan character a kid sent in.

This type of thing isn’t even exclusive to Adventure Time. If you’ve seen The Amazing World of Gumball fanart, you probably know that a lot of fanart depicting the characters as human has Darwin being a black kid (in reference to all of his voice actors being black). It’s hard to pinpoint when all of this started, but the most popular one I recall was this fan animation by Mike Intel drawing everyone as anime characters:

Clearly some people on the TAWOG crew took notice, because 3 years later, the episode “The Shippening” would air. Basically a bunch of fanfiction about the people of Elmore comes to life (it makes sense in context) and one particular case of this is an anime-style wedding between Gumball and Darwin, with the latter having dark brown skin:

They’re step-siblings so it’s not COMPLETELY weird, I guess.

In fact, it seems that this fan admiration for Darwin being black has led Cartoon Network as a whole treating him as one of their signature black characters, which is really funny considering he’s a fish, but it’s also really cute.

2024 Black History Month graphic. From left to right: Wilt (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends), Numbuh 5 (Codename: Kids Next Door), Garnet (Steven Universe), Darwin (The Amazing World of Gumball), Sunny Bridges (Class of 3000)

So, what am I trying to say with all of this? If anything there are two things that I hope I conveyed. The first is that people appear to be more open about their inspirations now. With the Internet having a display of things in real time, you get to see all the inspirations they have as something of a timeline. The second thing is that art is a conversation. Art is interpreted and sometimes even changed not just by the audience, but by how it’s produced as well, especially when it comes to making art under capitalism, for better or for worse. I could go on and on about how everything from adaptations, translations, dubs, reskins, reviews and etc. help add to or give commentary on the original work, but I’ll leave you with a personal example:

I wanted to write this review way long in advance to show off my knowledge of weird esoteric instances of fandoms being in conversation with, as well as make this be more clear and something I’m more proud of. But alas, stuff got in the way, I kept putting it off, and I’m writing this at the last minute in the basement of my parent’s house, recovering from a bad headache after work yesterday. One could say the fact I still pushed through to finish this take on an episode that aired back in 2016 is in some way art in itself, or at least I’m adding a different perspective.

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Fionna & Cake Seasons 1 & 2 Spoilers

I didn’t just bring up that blog post discussion with my mutual as a way to smooth into the discussion of fanfiction. The Fionna & Cake series premiered on HBO MAX 2 months after the big splash of ATSV, and let’s just say people were quick to recognize the similarities between the two works’ protagonists and stories.

Original art by cartoonbudartz and ven-finn, circa 2023

Namely the fact that they both had to do with the multiverse, jumping to different dimensions and being seen as anomalies by those looking to get rid of them.

It’s also worth noting that Simon Peptrikov brings up the Ship of Theseus in the episode “Destiny” as well. My friend hasn’t even seen a SINGLE episode of Adventure Time, so you know how on the money he was with that.

I also can’t forget to bring up Huntress Wizard, who both me and CedricTheOwl agreed in the comments is basically “the Boba Fett of Adventure Time”, based on the fact that both the crew and the viewers took an enormous liking to her just based on her design, voice and attitude (although Cedric will note the difference here is that all the new stuff we learned about her actually fleshed out her character)

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Stray Observations & Quotes:

  • In this episode alone, Keith Ferguson replaces Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of Prince Gumball, and he does a decent job. You may know him as the voice of Bloo (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends), Basch fon Ronsenburg (Final Fantasy XII), Marluxia (Kingdom Hearts series), Lord Hater (Wander Over Yonder), Flintheart Glomgold [DuckTales (2017)], Reaper (Overwatch) and Lightning McQueen in all Cars spin-off media. As of writing, this is the 2nd of 4 voices this character gets. Usually this would be annoying, but it’s not like Gumball is a primary character.
  • Speaking of Gumball, looking at the Adventure Time Wiki, a lot of the stuff from his dreams are allusions to real world art. I’m sure some folks here would have a better time deciphering it all.

Recommendations:

Seeing as how I took the opportunity to mention how art can be a conversation, namely with the work itself and its audience, I figured I’d recommend some examples of interesting cases in the form of essays and video essays:

The Music Hole
Originally aired June 23, 2016
Directed by Andres Salaff
Written by Polly Guo and Andres Salaff, from a story by Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Pendleton Ward, Patrick McHale, Derek Kirk Kim, and Adam Muto

This is, thanks to an inconveniently-timed power outage, the second time I’m writing this review. The first time was pretty conventional, the sort of review I’ve written a dozen times for this series. But the vicissitudes of fate spared you all from that simple recap and I have more of an angle this time.

Finn is still grieving the loss of his Finn sword, but Jake and PB have a plan to help him get through it. A Plan C, for Concert. They’re going to set up a battle of the bands with Finn as their celebrity guest judge. But a beautiful harmony that only he seems to hear drives Finn to distraction, and with Jake and Lady in tow he discovers its source: The Music Hole (voiced by Ashley Eriksson, whose “Island Song” has been the end theme for Adventure Time from day one), an ancient entity built into the very foundations of Ooo who can only be heard by those who are either truly innocent or faced with a deep sense of loss in their hearts. And Finn has sure been both lately. In one another, Finn and the Music Hole find someone who can truly perceive them and feel blessed and able to move forward in life.

Nowadays when I feel seen, it’s usually through crosshairs. But seeing this episode reminded me how fundamental a human urge it is to be understood. It’s shot through in this episode, from Finn and the Music Hole’s experience of unity to the Ice King attempting to engineer his way into being in the show, to the centerpiece of the episode, Marceline’s heartrending cover of Mitski’s “Francis Forever”, accompanied by Death and LSP.

Of course Marcy would cover a Mitski song, and of course it would be an album track about feeling isolated and adequate and separated from someone she loves most. And of course she’d crush it and make me a (relatively casual, by the standards of Mitski fandom) fan in one fell swoop, and of course it would be one of the major songs of one of my longest-standing romantic relationships and still a huge part of me long after I’ve moved on from that relationship. But we all know especially what it means for Marceline, and when she’s interrupted and loses her pick (I would have assumed Marceline plays bass fingerstyle, but I guess if you have a pick harvested from a bone demon you gotta use it) who else could possibly be the one to find it but Bonnie? Who else is Marcy’s inspiration, her muse, the song in her heart, but Bonnie? And who else could return the favor to PB by providing a stable floating platform to bean the interrupting Ice King with a t-shirt cannon, if not Marceline?

What a surprise, Rachel’s talking about Bubbline again.

Stray notes:

  • Bubblegum is wearing the same necklace Marceline was in “Broke His Crown”, which in turn was worn by PB in the flashbacks to her time with Shoko in “The Vault.”
  • I didn’t even talk about Susan, or about Phoebe and Neptr, but they’re great. The latter two have a collab out, including Cinnamon Bun at the merch booth.
  • The Music Hole’s vocalizing comes from Ashley Eriksson’s song “Minor Loop”, her duet with Finn is “I Look Up To You” with Ashley’s band Lake.
  • This episode and next week’s “Daddy-Daughter Card Wars” were produced right after and supposed to come right after “I Am A Sword”, which explains why Finn is only getting down in the dumps now.
  • During Finn’s final duet with the Music Hole, his other self can briefly be seen reflected in the sword’s hilt. Feeling seen has helped Finn reconnect with himself.
  • Here’s Mitski’s full version of Francis Forever, still my favorite song by her: