i have never been more instantly influenced by media than when i was a kid in middle school or maybe freshman of hs and witnessed that scene in adventure time where finn eats a sandwich and drinks a whole glass of milk or orange juice i forget which and immediately takes a nap on the couch while smiling. i remember pausing the tv, going to the kitchen, fixing myself up with that exact setup and then falling asleep. completely drone-like in its execution. i’ve never been hypnotized like that by anything before or since
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.
I couldn’t remember the word “doorknob” ten minutes ago.
ok but the onelook thesaurus will save your life, i literally could not live without this website
I could talk forever about Adventure Time but one of my favorite things about it are the overarching themes of growth and change, yet it never drifts too far from the status quo. No matter how much the characters want or try to change, the world itself never does. The world of Ooo just keeps going, keeps balancing itself out.
They addressed this really directly in Stakes.
Marceline decides she doesn’t want to be a vampire anymore. She has that conversation with the Vampire King about how the world just repeats itself over and over but no one lives long enough to see the pattern. She ends up becoming a vampire again. She returns to the status quo…. except it’s a little different this time. She even says, “Nah, I’m cool being a vampire again. Being mortal was good… At the
same time, it was terrifying. Now I’m a vampire with fresh mortal
memories and—I don’t know—more empathy or something… More grown-up.
Bonnie, thank you for helping me grow up. Now, I guess we get to hang
out together forever.”I’m screaming and crying and shitting BUT ALSO!!! THE SONG “EVERYTHING STAYS” ITSELF!!!!
Everything stays
right where you left it.
Everything stays,
but it still changes.
Ever so slightly,
daily and nightly,
In little ways
When everything stays.
This is also a big part of Ice King’s whole… everything. When you go back and watch season 1, Ice King really isn’t written all that differently, yet at the time he felt like SUCH a different character. It’s because we were viewing him from Finn & Jake’s lens, and as they changed their perceptions of him, ours did as well. Ice King probably changed the least of any character throughout the show. And even when he becomes Simon again, his role as Ice King becomes filled by Ice Thing. Again, it returns to the status quo, but different.
The best part about the finale is how it acknowledged how much Finn had changed since the beginning. He started out as a 12 year old hero fighting for justice, and was quickly shown how complicated and morally grey the world was. By the end, he was 17, had been pulled apart and put back together and he felt so much wiser because of it. And, since I was 12 when the show first aired, I got to grow up with him. Adventure Time is a coming of age story that happened in real time. Literally nothing else quite like it.
