History WesternAnimation / AdventureTimeFionnaAndCake

* ForWantOfANail:
** The universe in "The Star" was created because Simon was killed by vampires before he could meet Marceline and instil good morals into her as [[ParentalSubstitute a guiding parental figure]]. Instead, she was found and raised by the Vampire King, and was molded into [[TheDragon his brutal top enforcer]].
** [[spoiler:Ultimately, Simon comes to realize that the reason he and Betty have ended up like they are now, is not just because of the big decisions they made, but all the little ones too. If Simon had noticed Betty's self sacrificing or if Betty had been more willing to voice her wants then its possible none of the events of the show would have ever happened, but also that doing so would have changed other things like what was seen in "The Star".]]

* ForWantOfANail: The universe in "The Star" was created because Simon was killed by vampires before he could meet Marceline and instil good morals into her as [[ParentalSubstitute a guiding parental figure]]. Instead, she was found and raised by the Vampire King, and was moulded into [[TheDragon his brutal top enforcer]].

** The Winter King, an alternate universe version of Simon deals with the loss of things in his life by just making Ice Clones of them, showing that in the process he lost his attachment and morality.

** As a normal cat, upon seeing Fionna in tears over being DumpedViaText by DJ Flame, Cake bats the phone away from her into the toilet.

** Simon starts as a depressed wreck who wishes to reach some form of normalcy and to have a purpose in his life without Betty. When his two attempts of contacting her failed, he decides to become Ice King permanently, both to give him a sense of purpose (I.e. saving Fionna’s world) and to escape from his pain without looking himself as selfish. However, it takes a confrontation with [=GOLBetty=], as he re-evaluates his relationship with Betty, tells her one last goodbye before they both part away, and Fionna urging to not use the crown, that Simon decides to give up with his plan, return to Ooo, and finally moving on.

* RuleOfThree: Throughout the series, Fionna keeps mentioning her top three fantasies. Her fantasies include Cake talking, everything being made out of candy, and becoming giant.

** Simon starts as a depressed wreck who wishes to reach some form of normalcy and to have a purpose in his life without Betty. When his two attempts of contacting her failed, he decides to become Ice King permanently, both to give him a sense of purpose (I.e. saving Fionna’s world) and to escape from his pain without looking himself as selfish. However, it takes a confrontation with GolBetty, as he revalues his relationship with Betty, tells her one last goodbye before they both part away, and Fionna urging to not use the crown, that Simon decides to give up with his plan, return to Ooo, and finally moving on.

** Fionna wants to live magical adventures in a mundane world she grew bored with ([[spoiler: not helped by her residual memories of her past life as a badass warrior before her universe was stripped of its magic]]). However, as she travels through the Multiverse, she realizes that her fantasies aren’t all fun and games if innocent people are getting hurt or killed in the process, to the point that by the end of the series, she refuses to let Simon sacrifice his sanity to save her world, telling him that they are both better off as normal, average humans.

** There’s Fionna and Cake’s universe, although, unlike its fanfic version, it’s void of magic, giving it a more grounded, mundane reality with its people having strange dreams about their magical selves. [[spoiler:In episode 4, it’s revealed they are the same universe, created by Prismo for himself (which is against the rules as a Wishmaster) and hidden inside the Ice King’s head. When the Ice King was changed back into Simon due to his magic being “digested” by GOLB in the original series finale, it also stripped away all the magic of Fionna and Cake’s universe]].

* HappyEndingOverride: Time hasn't been kind to Simon after the events of "Obsidian". An aging old man suffering from a midlife crisis and being treated like a tourist attraction to other humans as some sort of SelfInflictedHell, and also feeling increasingly detached from the crazy world of Ooo, openly admitting that he actually misses being the Ice King. Not helping matters is the people he knows having loved ones (Finn with Huntress Wizard and Marceline with Bubblegum) while he desperately tries (and fails) to bring Betty back to Ooo.

* WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison: Feeling his life has so little meaning to it, Simon sets out on a quest with Fionna and Cake to recover the Magic Crown, forever turning him back into the Ice King. Initially, Fionna and Cake are on board with the plan, as it means that magic will return to their reality and they'll be free from their boring reality. Over the the course of their adventure though, Fionna faces a lot of grim realities to the concept of magic, which eventually culminates in her believing that no, a world of magic isn't worth sacrificing Simon's life, and chooses to fight for her mundane world instead. After a meeting with [[spoiler:GOLBetty]], Simon eventually learns to accept the same, and that his life does still have meaning, even after everything he's lost.

In an alternate universe, Fionna is a 29 year old woman living alone in an apartment with her cat Cake. After being fired from countless jobs, she wishes for a more fulfilling life. Meanwhile in the Land of Ooo, an aging Simon Petrikov tries to find some purpose in life. Their fates would end up bringing them together in a journey across the multiverse. But they're completely unaware of an unseen threat who wants them dead...

** While it’s perfectly normal to wish for something more in your life, you should also appreciate what you have now and make the best of it, even when not everything goes in your way, instead of dwelling on something (or someone) you have lost.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: There are a few things that are true no matter what universe Fionna, Cake, and Simon enter, such as the fact the Crown causes madness to whoever wears it. With relationships as long as they meet Finn and Huntress Wizard as well as Bubblegum and Marceline will be shown to fall in love. For the later two even in a world where they are bitter enemies there is still FoeRomanticSubtext between them.

** All of the relics Simon mentioned during his powerpoint in "Jerry" are relics that have appeared throughout the series. Among them is the Armor of Zeldron from "Blood Under The Skin", the Wand of Dispersment from "Sons of Mars" and "Skyhooks II", the Lamb Relic from "Beyond this Earthly Realm" and The Enchiridion with the episode explaining the newspaper picture from "I Remember You" where Simon was shown to have found it with Betty's help.

* CentralTheme: Coping with loss and moving on. All the main characters, a lot of the secondary characters deal or fail to deal with loss and the concequences of such are shown.
** Fionna longs for a world of adventure, [[spoiler:informed by residual memories of her life when her world was magical.]] At first she's gun-ho about getting Simon a working Ice Crown but as the series goes on, she realizes that she'd be losing so much more to achieve this goal.

** [[spoiler:The Lich, in successfully destroying all life in his universe, has lost his purpose and falls into a vegetive depression, not even caring to kill the heroes when they stumble upon him. ]]

** The gender-swapped, human version of Maja, named Margo, says he loves Gary's cookies because they're "dripping with sentimentality", referencing how the original Maja using objects of intense sentimental value for her magic.

** In the Farmworld dimension, this is surprisingly inverted with Jake, who is presumed dead in the main universe, but is still alive and well (although quite elderly) here. This strongly implies that the main Jake did not die by natural causes, however. This is played straight with Huntress Wizard though, who is heavily implied to have been Finn's wife in this universe, and it's mentioned she died. And of course the versions of Simon and Marceline are long dead here.

** In the Vampire World, the proliferation of vampires has caused the near-extinction of most non-vampire life. The desiccated corpse of Simon (with bite marks in his neck) is seen at the beginning, and the corpse of Billy is seen at one point. [[spoiler:The alternate versions of Huntress Wizard (simply a human named Huntress) and Martin Mertens are killed over the course of the episode, while Princess Bubblegum and Marceline meet an UncertainDoom at the end]].

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Fionna and Simon are both stuck in their own ruts due to this, the former working deadend jobs that she hates in a nowhere town without any clear vision of where she's going, and the latter being a thousand-year old FishOutOfTemporalWater stuck in a future world he can't relate with and without any clear vision of where he's going.

* DumpedViaTextMessage: DJ Flame broke up with Fionna this way. To add insult to injury, Cake's attempt to comfort Fionna is by batting the cellphone into the toilet.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Simon finds himself massively out of place in the magical land of Ooo now that he's no longer the Ice King. He can't even relate to other humans anymore, because they at least grew up and adapted to this world, but he's a 20th century human permanently stranded in a WorldOfWeirdness. What's more, he ''hates'' being reminded that he was Ice King or of the things he did while he was Ice King but ironically also wishes he was the Ice King again, since in his more insane state he was unable to perceive how different the world is to his time and thus could live with it.

** Fionna is dissatisfied with her mundane life in a boring normal town, while Simon is feeling increasingly alienated as 20th century human trapped in the 30th century, a world brimming with magic and chaos beyond imagining.

* HappyEndingOverride: Time hasn't been kind to Simon after the events of "Obsidian". An aging old man suffering from a midlife crisis and being treated like a tourist attraction to other humans as some sort of SelfInflictedHell, and also feeling increasingly detached from the crazy world of Ooo, openly admitting that he actually misses being the Ice King. Not helping matters is the people he know having loved ones (Finn with Huntress Wizard and Marceline with Bubblegum) while he desperately tries (and fails) to bring Betty back to Ooo.

** First he tries by using an evil Choose Goose as an conduit. Unfortunately for him, the ritual backfires after Choose Goose taunts Simon with his Fionna and Cake fanfics, resulting in Goose dying electrocuted and Cake somehow being summoned to the Land of Ooo via Simon's head, the same happening again with Fionna the second time.

** [[spoiler:The third time, Simon uses mud dolls of Fionna and Cake to picture the target and the Lich as conduit. It works insofar as Fionna and Cake are drawn into the world inside his head again, but as he mournfully prepares to don the crown again, the ritual activates just as Scarab is preparing to attack him, pulling them and the Lich to GOLB's realm.]]

* LyricalDissonance: The intro the Fionna and Cake's first episode is a seemingly upbeat sitcom styled intro song with some very depressing lyrics about how meaningless and mundane Fiona's life is.

* MirrorCharacter: [[spoiler:Casper and Nova are very, very similar to Simon and Betty, most notably the toxic AllTakeAndNoGive tone coming from Nova's constant sacrifices and Casper's failure to do anything to support her. This helps Simon realize that he took a lot away from Betty without giving much back in return. For added similarity, the two are chasing an artifact identical to the Ice Crown, and one of the two options at the very end after Simon takes all of Casper's choices is drinking a magic potion to save Nova, but forget her completely, not unlike how Simon forgot everything about his past life as the Ice King despite needing to use the crown's powers to protect a young Marceline.]]

* OminousVisualGlitch: The intro for the series starts off similarly to that of the ''Adventure Time'' until it shows the GOLB figurine breaking, and then it rapidly cycles between different shots broken up by multi-coloured static.

* RealityBleed: After leaving their own universe, both Fionna and Cake and up causing strange phenomena to happen such as Cake toying with a Hot Dog Knight in "Cake The Cat" causes them to suddenly glitch into a regular, inanimate hot dog and later in "The Winter King" when [[spoiler:Fionna accidentally drains the titular character's crown of magic as he goes through RapidAging and dies from turning to dust. It's implied to be the result of their nature as beings from an "off the book" universes, as Prismo compares them to free radicals, which are highly oxidizing atoms, ions or molecules that can cause damage to DNA.]]

* RuderAndCruder: Unlike the previous entries, characters now use actual swears like "Jesus", "Damn It", "Pissed Off", and "Goddamn it" along with other phrases such as "bust your balls". Fionna even gives Queenie a [[FlippingTheBird two finger salute]] after getting fired and [[spoiler:Pawn Swan]] does the middle finger.

** ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' remains important to Simon as it did [[ContinuityNod in the original show.]] Here, he catches reruns of it as part of his 20th century human exhibit, which is reflected by Fiona's television ''only'' being able to pick up the series on all channels in her world. Later on, Fionna and Cake sing it briefly while walking in the Extinct World.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: The last time we saw Choose Goose, he was affected by Coconteppi's ichor at the end of "Wizard City". Two years later, he turned into an evil looking goose, but he's quickly electrocuted to death after Simon uses him as a sacrifice to summon Golbetty to the Land of Ooo. Though the next episode reveals that he actually survived, albeit not in good shape... before ''actually'' killing him when Simon uses him to do a second attempt.

* SymbolSwearing: When Wyatt impulsively wishes for quiet, he's teleported into a world resembling [[MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon a silent, black-and-white cartoon]], where's Wyatt is ChainedToARailway. He curses out Prismo, which shows up as a word card saying ""#!d@!*!#% YOU, PRISMO!!".

* TheThemeParkVersion: Simon, being from the 21st century, lives in a museum that is essentially this to a 21st century apartment.

* TraumaButton: Simon doesn't even want to ''look'' at anything ice-related anymore after spending some nine-hundred years stuck as the insane Ice King, even just some ice cubes in a glass.

** There’s Fionna and Cake’s universe, although unlike its fanfic version of it, it’s void of magic, giving it a more grounded, mundane reality with its people having strange dreams about their magical selves. [[spoiler:In episode 4, it’s revealed they are the same universe, created by Prismo for himself (which is against the rules as a Wishmaster) and hidden inside the Ice King’s head. When the Ice King was changed back into Simon due to his magic being “digested” by GOLB in the original series finale, it also stripped away all the magic of Fionna and Cake’s universe]].
** When Wyatt accidentally wishes to have more quiet (due to be distracted by the beeping noise Prismo’s remote), Prismo creates a universe that resembles a silent, black-and-white cartoons from 1920s.
** Farmworld returns, several years after the events of “Crossover”. The world is turned into post-apocalyptic ''Film/MadMax''-like reality where Big Destiny and his gang rule over the town, because they ([[FakeUltimateHero falsely]]) took credit for defeating the Snowman (a.k.a. Ice Finn). A now adult, rugged Farmworld Finn lives far away from civilization with his kids and still haunted by his past mistakes.

** Baby World is one where everyone on Ooo is a baby tended to by Gumball Guardians. WordOfGod reveals that it was created by [[spoiler:BMO’s wish, who ended up “double-crossed” by the wish’ rules, turning his alternative self into a baby monitor]].
** Vampire World is one where Simon died in the Mushroom War, leaving a young Marceline to be raised by the Vampire King as his right hand henchman, known as The Star. The Vampire King found the Ice Crown and used it to blot out the sun, plunging the world into an eternal darkness, so all the vampires could thrive without being hurt by sunlight.

* WidelySpacedJailBars: The Candy Queen imprisons Simon and the Winter King in a cage bars far enough apart that the two ''should'' be able to easily slip through (the fact the cage is made of candy should make it easily breakable too, even though it still makes metal clanging sounds when Simon pounds on the bars).

* AnAesop:
** "Never give up on your life because you think someone else matters more".
** While it’s perfectly normal to wish for something more in your life, you should also appreciate what you have now and make the best of it, even when not everything goes in your way, instead of dwelling on something (or someone) you have lost.

* FisherKing: A running plot point is that being in Simon's head means the universe inside it [[PlotParallel reflects his experiences and emotions]]. It was a world of magic while Simon was Ice King, but being reverted to a normal human made it a mundane reality as well. Simon's depression over not fitting in and wanting to revert to Ice King reflects on the general melancholy of Fionna's world as apparently every denizen has dreams of when they were magical. Simon coming to accept himself also parallels Fionna accepting her world for what it is.

** There’s Fionna and Cake’s universe, although unlike its fanfic version of it, it’s void of magic, giving it a more grounded, mundane reality, with its people having strange dreams about their magical selves. [[spoiler:In episode 4, it’s revealed they are the same universe, created by Prismo for himself (which is against the rules as a Wishmaster), and hidden inside the Ice King’s head. The only reason why it became mundane was because, when the Ice King changed back as Simon due to his magic being “digested” by GOLB in the original series finale, it also stripped away all the magic of Fionna and Cake’s universe]].

** There’s Fionna and Cake’s universe, although unlike its fanfic version of it, it’s void of magic, giving it a more grounded, mundane reality, with its people having strange dreams about their magical selves. [[spoiler:In episode 4, it’s revealed they are the same universe, created by Prismo for himself (which is against the rules as a Wishmaster), and hidden inside the Ice King’s head. The only reason why it became mundane was because, when the Ice King changed back as Simon due to his magic being “digested” by GOLB in the original series finale, it also stripped away all the magic of Fionna and Cake’s universe)]].

** Fionna longs for a world of adventure, informed by residual memories of her life when her world was magical. At first she's gun-ho about getting Simon a working Ice Crown but as the series goes on, she realizes that she'd be losing so much more to achieve this goal.

** Prismo has gone into a funk after Jake's passing, neeglecting hsi duties as wishmaster and spending his time watching universes where Jake's still alive for comfort.

** The Lich, in successfully destroying all life in his universe, has lost his purpose and falls into a vegetive depression, not even caring to kill the heroes when they stumble upon him.

** Fionna longs for a world of adventure, informed by residual memories of her life when her world was magical. At first she's gun-ho about getting Simon a working Ice Crown but as the series goes on, she realsies that she'd be losing so much more to achieve this goal.
** Simon finds himself unable to adjust to the world of Ooo and lapses into a depression, first trying to bring the woman he loved back and when that fails, seeks an Ice Crown to regain his magic, and lose the ability to conciously feel emotional pain in the process.
** The Winter King, an alternate universe version of Simon deals with the loss of things in his life by just making Ice Clones of them,showing that in the process he lost his attachment and morality.

* CharacterTitle: Every individual episode is titled after a character that has a big role in it, which also goes for the title of the miniseries, which focuses on two of the main characters. This is subverted by the finale, which is instead named after ''{{Series/Cheers}}''.

* RuderAndCruder: Unlike the previous entries, characters now use actual swears like "Jesus", "Damn It", "Pissed Off", and "Goddamn it" along with other phrases such as "bust your balls". Fionna even gives Queenie a [[FlippingTheBird two finger salute]] after getting fired.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: [[spoiler : A theme of the series made apparent in later episodes is giving up everything for somebody else to an unhealthy degree. It's revealed that, while he wasn't intentionally malicious or harmful, Simon wasn't as thoughtful of Betty as he should've been, and allowed her to constantly sacrifice herself - and her own dreams - for him, never returning the favor with any sacrifices of his own. In the present, Simon thinks his life would have more meaning if he became the Ice King again because it would restore Fionnaworld’s magic, something Cake encourages. It's not until [=GOLBetty=] explains how Simon's life is meaningful, even if he thinks it isn't, that he chooses to live his life as himself.]]

* AllGiveAndNoTake: [[spoiler:A theme of the series made apparent in later episodes is giving up everybody for somebody else to an unhealthy degree. It's revealed that, while not intentionally malicious or harmful, Betty gave up so much for Simon that the latter never returned, up to fusing with GOLB to teleport the beast away. In the present, Simon finds his life would have more meaning if he became the Ice King again, so as to make Fionnaworld immortal, something Cake encourages. It's not until [=GOLBetty=] explains how Simon's life is meaningful, even if he thinks it isn't, that he chooses to live his life as himself.]]

** At one point, the protagonists end up in a universe were Ooo is an empty, desolate wasteland and none of its colourful inhabitants are present (except [=BMO=]). It turns out that this is [[spoiler:a universe where [[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E1FinnTheHuman the Lich's wish for the complete extinction of all life]] succeeded. Of course, now that everything's dead, the Lich [[AndThenWhat has no further purpose and actually gotten depressed]].]]

** [[spoiler:The third time, Simon uses mud dolls of Fionna and Cake to picture the target and the Lich as conduit. It works insofar as Fionna and Cake are drawn into the world inside his head again, but as he mournfully prepares to don the crown again, the ritual activates just as Scarab is preparing to attack him, pulling them together to another place.]]

* ApocalypticLog: An accidental example. While Fionna, Cake, and Simon are exploring a version of Ooo where everyone but [=BMO=] is gone, they find some of Ice King's video diary tapes and decide to play one of them. Everything they see is pretty normal (for the Ice King), up until [[FreezeFrameBonus the very last second as it cuts off]], showing [[spoiler:the Ice King suddenly turning into a skeleton]]. It becomes apparently near the end of the episode that the tape [[spoiler:caught the ''exact'' moment that the Lich's wish for the complete extinction of all life was granted]].