History YMMV / AdventureTIme

* NauseaFuel:
** Ice King's giant pile of boogers in "Holly Jolly Secrets". Just... '''''[[{{Squick}} eugh]].'''''
** Projectile vomiting into people's faces. There were two instances - Jake puking in Finn's face in "Storytelling," and Lemongrab puking in Peppermint Butler's face in "Too Young".
** Finn and Jake spitting food into each others' mouths in "Jake vs. Me-mow."
** Barb the spider giving birth in "Web Weirdos".
** Magic Man's house. The decaying rat in the corner, the mold on the ceiling, and the giant puddle of ''snot'' on the floor.
** "Five More Short Graybles" has Finn and Jake sticking their thumbs into a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surinam_toad Surinam toad]] that's giving birth. ''Eeuuugh.''
** "Mystery Dungeon" has Lemongrab contemplating eating the Ice King. The Ice King is an old, saggy man who probably smells bad. And Lemongrab wants to eat him. ''Eeewwwww''. Later in the episode, Lemongrab eats a pie out of a [[RodentsOfUnusualSize giant rat]]'s mouth.
** Some of the Lemon Children in "All Your Fault" are rather grotesque. Special mention goes to the giant, fat, bush-looking thing that was drooling on the floor and saying "Blauh, blauh" repeatedly. Also the green, fat one who licked Jake's hand. Perhaps the grosses part of the episode was the scene in which newborn [[TorturedMonster Seed-Wad]] vomits all over himself, and the vomit drips down his little chest and all over the table and floor.
** The video Ice King sends Finn and Jake in "A Glitch is a Glitch" grossed out just about every viewer. What's worse is when Finn ''and'' Jake eat Finn's hair.
** Morbidly obese Lemongrab in the episode "Too Old." ''Euuugh...'' No...
*** To say nothing of [[spoiler: Lemongrab 2's state]]...
** The intense drooling of bird Finn in "The Food Chain" and his death from malnourishment.

* TheWoobie:
** The goblins in "The Silent King" most definitely count as this, particularly Gummy.
** The Royal Tart Toter. That poor, poor man. Although he's actually pretty damn happy and upbeat, he's [[TheMentallyDisturbed completely insane]], blind, and deaf. He's still completely dedicated to his job of delivering the royal tarts, even though he's in no condition to, and he's in a mental hospital.
** Baby-Snaps. As a child, he was in an orphanage. When Princess Bubblegum showed up to cheer up the kids, she asked Baby-Snaps what he wanted to be. He said cheerfully, "I want to be a princess like ''you!''" Princess Bubblegum [[OhCrap giggled]], thus starting Baby-Snaps's StartOfDarkness and SanitySlippage. Baby-Snaps went crazy and started taking hostages in the kingdom in order to get Princess Bubblegum's crown. He was later chased by guards, and he [[DrivenToSuicide blissfully fell off a cliff to avoid being captured]]. He survived, and ended up in a mental hospital, where he was crowned "Princess of the Grass Kingdom."
** Princess Monster Wife. She was created by the Ice King from the stolen body parts of his favorite princess. The princess was hideously deformed, but a genuinely sweet, damaged character who needed a hug. Although the Ice King constantly told her she was beautiful and wonderful, Finn and Jake and the penguins were continuously repulsed by her appearance. She spent most of the episode ''crying'' and questioning her own existence, and she eventually killed herself for the good of the other princesses, by returning their body parts to the rightful owners. It is implied her spirit lives on, though.
** Prince Huge. He had been transformed into a giant, hideous frog, and the only way to break the spell was with a kiss. So he went around kissing everyone, trying to break the curse. Everyone he encountered assumed he was trying to eat them, and he garnered a reputation for being an evil monster. After learning of his backstory, it's impossible to NOT feel for the guy. His story had a happy ending, though- Finn turned him back into his normal form, and all is well.
** To a lesser extent, the squirrel from "Up A Tree" qualifies. He admits that the other animals who live in the tree pick on him for wanting to be a flying squirrel. During his conversation with Finn in the jail cell, it's hard not to feel sorry for him.
** Lemonjon from "All Your Fault" is a HUGE (literally and figuratively) Woobie. When he suddenly gained empathy- he [[HeroicSacrifice exploded in order to save everyone, including his family]].
** The Magi creature from "Little Dude" qualifies. He hid himself underground so he wouldn't accidentally curse anyone. It's revealed the poor guy had an abusive father who kept calling him a bad wizard.
** The Lemon Children. They all almost starved to death. One of their brothers is dead. Their dads ''are the Lemongrabs'', and the one who actually loves them ''is tortured by the other one''. Poor little things.
** Lemongrab 2 is seen by a large portion of the fanbase as a woobie, especially after "Too Old" where [[spoiler: he was horribly disfigured and in very bad shape, as well as being horribly abused by his older brother before finally being eaten whole by him while making a passionate speech to his children.]]
** Johnnie from "Bad Timing". He was picked on by Lumpy Space Princess when he was in high school (she called him "Ugly Johnnie") despite this he still goes out with her and it seems like they would be a really good match [[spoiler: until she goes bat-shit crazy and accidentally traps him in an alternate dimension out of jealousy.]]
** Flame Princess in "Earth And Water". Especially after we learn that [[spoiler: part of the reason she was locked up for most of her life was because Flame King thought she would usurp his throne. He was so afraid of this happening that shortly after she was born, ''he had her thrown out into the woods to die''.]]
*** She is also betrayed and one point and her father promises to marry her off in exchange for helping to overthrow her, because (as they acknowledge) the Flame Kingdom is super Shakespearean.
** Shoko from "The Vault". If her past is to believed, her parents sold one of her arms for a computer, and then abandoned her at a dojo. Then, she's [[spoiler:forced to steal from Princess Bubblegum, who is probably her one and only friend, and ends up falling into a radioactive river, mutating into a horrible monster before curling up under a tree to die. And to top it off, her spirit remains restless for possibly ''thousands of years'' until she's able to return the amulet she stole from PB by acting through Finn's subconscious.]]
** Marceline has gone through some crazy tragic times. First she survives the Mushroom War, and presumably lost her mother as she had to be cared for by Simon in the "wreckage of the world" who is going insane right before her eyes. She also gets turned into a vampire against her will, which kind of forced to remain (as she puts it) "a messed up kid". Then she clearly has a strained relationship with her father, a terrible relationship with her JerkAss boyfriend Ash, a strained relationship with Princess Bubblegum (that they are overcoming), and has to know that many of the people she loves like Finn and Jake will grow old and die before her eyes.
** Even Finn, considering all the things that happen to him, from getting beaten up all the time, to losing romances, and of course possibly the only human remaining, yet he still keeps an unbreakable happiness. Up until season five anyway, and season six's ''Breezy'' is a PG-rated version of depression.
** Fern, by all account. He's basically Finn, and he's a version of Finn that succumbed to his depression. As a paradox clone of Finn, he's got every single memory Finn had until the point he was created, but he has to live as a self-deprecating grass clone that no one will ever recognize as the original. He can't eat, he can't enjoy anything he did enjoy as Finn, and he has to see Princess Bubblegum, Jake and everyone he knew rooting for Finn, a better version of him who gets to live "his" life. Eventually he snaps, and he tries to get back "his" life by getting Finn's place, just to end up as a bucket of still living freshly cut grass. Gumbald offers him a new lease at life, and he ends up as the ''Green Knight'', a deformed warrior, little more than hired muscle for the new ''Big Bad''. Eventually, he makes amends with Finn and frees himself from the grass demon [[spoiler: just to known he's going to die soon because the Grass Demon provided him with a body. He dies, with his last breath asking to be brought to the Tree Fort...that was just destroyed. He barely gets his final wish, as his body turns into a seed, and the seed into a Sacred Tree holding the now restored Finn Sword for Shermy to safekeep]].

* HarsherInHindsight:
** Finn reassuring Susan in her first appearance that "grass can't hurt you". Come later seasons, and grass ''does'' hurt Finn. ''A lot''.
** After "Holly Jolly Secrets," anything the Ice King has ever done that was meant to be funny could be called this, as all of his antics are the product of a deteriorating mental state.
** The scene of PB pushing Lemongrab onto the floor and making him cry becomes cringe-worthy when it's revealed later on that Lemongrab thinks of PB as his mom.
** Marceline standing outside in the snow, staring into the window in "Holly Jolly Secrets II" is a punch in the heart now that it's revealed that Marceline was once a daughter figure to the Ice King, and had to watch him lose his mind.
** At the end of Too Young, Lemongrab leaves on his camel, looking miserable and sulky, muttering to himself as he returns to his home. Then we find out later that he has no friends, or anybody, back home.
** Jake joking in "Jake the Dad" that his kids are grown up. But in "Puhoy," when BMO reminds him of this, we see him struggling not to cry.
** So Marceline's dad just ate her fries. Doesn't seem like it's bad enough to refuse to talk to him ever again, right? But in "Memory of a Memory" we see [[spoiler: the fries he was eating were in a broken-down abandoned diner after the apocalypse. Chances are food of any kind was scarce and teenage nonvampire Marceline probably needed them more than her deathless father...]]
** Related to the above: In the Fionna and Cake episode, Cake wore the Ice Queen's tiara and Fionna knocked it off Cake's head, yelling, "No! You might catch her crazy!" As "Holly Jolly Secrets" revealed, the Ice King's crown [[spoiler: [[SanitySlippage caused him to go crazy]]]]. And the whole episode is a FanFic by the Ice King... so he knows to a certain extent that [[spoiler: he is not the person he used to be]]. Similarly, at the end of "The Eyes,"[[spoiler: Ice King, after spending the entire episode spying on Finn and Jake to learn the secret to happiness, ends the episode with the line [[YankTheDogsChain "I'm...still not happy".]]]] Sad enough in context, but after all the revelations concerning his past, it starts to seem like [[spoiler: he is subconsciously aware of what he's lost, on some level, and cannot be happy because of it.]]
** "Too Young," viewed as the creators of the show intended, is an episode that goes from funny to heartwarming to rather dark. However, when viewed from the failed experiment Lemongrab's point of view, it's depressing.
** An upset Lemongrab left at the end of "Too Young," and came back a year later. He mentions that his castle has no citizens. According to WordOfGod, the only people in his castle are his servants, and he [[FriendlessBackground has no friends]]. When Lemongrab goes home in "Too Young," he's returning to a life of [[GildedCage near-total isolation]].
** Even though Lemongrab is really unlikable in it, "Too Old" makes it painful to rewatch "You Made Me!" After the events of "You Made Me!," Lemongrab becomes a happy, adjusted person who has a wonderful friend, and a creator who worries about him and cares about his feelings. Watching "Too Old" after watching "You Made Me!" is going right back to square one, back to Lemongrab's angry, isolated, self-loathing, sad, friendless, lonely life- and Princess Bubblegum reprimanding him and bullying him when he ends up ''[[TyrantTakesTheHelm royally sucking]]'' at his job.
** Ash selling Hambo to that witch. [[spoiler:It was revealed in "I Remember You" that Simon Petrikov gave child Marceline Hambo when she was scared and alone in the post-apocalyptic wreckage.]] Just when you thought you couldn't think of Ash as more of a dick.
** While Marceline's journal song is already pretty harsh, given that she's admitting to being lonely, hating being immortal and pushing people away so that she won't get hurt, but there's one line in particular that becomes [[TearJerker/AdventureTime unbelievably heartbreaking]] after watching "I Remember You":
---->'''Marceline:''' ''(singing)'' They don't know what it's like to live forever and forget who they even are...
** Similarly to the above, Marceline's line about not having friends was a TearJerker to begin with, and then it's revealed that she [[spoiler: grew up in an irradiated, post-apocalyptic wasteland. She probably didn't have friends because she and Simon were the only survivors around.]]
** Many of the [[MindScrew strange]] events in "King Worm" become this after [[GainaxEnding the end of season 4.]] [[spoiler:Hint: DreamingOfThingsToCome. Watching the episode [[ReWatchBonus again]] becomes [[NightmareFuel/AdventureTime downright disturbing.]]]]
** In "All Your Fault," it is revealed that Lemongrab has suicidal thoughts. Remember the scene in "Too Young" where he walked out of a window? Or the scene in "You Made Me" when he purposefully fell out of one? [[FridgeHorror Yeah]].
** All of the scenes of Lemongrab and his brother loving each other are really cringe-worthy to watch now that Lemongrab has [[spoiler: partially eaten his clone, and is now abusing him verbally]].
** [[spoiler:Creator/ClorisLeachman's character being reduced to a skeleton and later consumed by the molten lava is now now tragic in recent following Leachman's passing in 2021 from both a stroke and UsefulNotes/COVID19.]]

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Many people complained that "Incendium" felt short and should've been a two-parter. Turns out that the season 4 premiere continues ''directly'' from where "Incendium" left off, so the two episodes may as well be considered [[TwoPartEpisode parts of the same episode]]!
** Pen once lamented on the fact that he had to [[http://twitter.com/#!/buenothebear/status/28267009250689025 cut a high five from an episode.]] It turns out that the crew must really like high-fives since [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_GNy2kIa68 this clip from "Five Short Graybles"]] includes a sequence full of [[MundaneMadeAwesome needlessly awesome high-fives]].
** [[http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9398qbuaH1rqdl22.png This image]] becomes a lot more relevant after watching "Lady and Peebles".
** Justin Roiland (Lemongrab's voice actor) apparently predicted the plot of "All Your Fault" (and parts of "You Made Me") two years before the episode aired, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-eOw6W7Vxc a strange freestyle rap from his podcast]]. It's uncanny to say the least.
** In the Japanese dub, Finn is voiced by Creator/RomiPark, who is Korean-Japanese and speaks both languages as well. And he can't understand Lady Rainicorn. Even more hilarious (and ironic) she also voiced by another Korean-Japanese actress, [[CelebrityVoiceActor Bong Young-hi]].
** This is not the first time Romi Park voiced [[Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist a short, blond kid hero who loses his right arm and replaces it with a mechanical prosthetic]]. Perhaps Finn should consider himself lucky that he didn't also lose his leg and Jake's body...
** Lemongrab's very first line in the show was "This castle is in unacceptable condition!" In the episodes "All Your Fault" and "Too Old," his castle is in very unacceptable condition.
** Some fan art reinterprets Me-Mow as either having a more humanoid figure and/or being much taller. Several seasons later, when she does finally appear again, she's taller than Finn and has a feminine shape clearly more like a young woman rather than a FunnyAnimal.
** [[spoiler:Cloris Leachman voices an elderly undead creature whose last words while in her skeletal form were "IWarnedYou, you butt" right before she gets decapitated by the protagonist. Leachman would later on play another elderly undead creature in the form of a zombified CrazyCatLady whose scene involves toothlessly nibbling on a protagonist's butt also right before she gets decapitated by a protagonist in ''Film/ScoutsGuideToTheZombieApocalypse''.]]
** In "The Cooler", Princess Bubblegum infiltrates the Flame Kingdom so she can disable their weapons of mass destruction before the AlwaysChaoticEvil country can use them against hers only to get caught by Flame Princess, nearly starting the very war she was trying to avoid. In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' '''MAJOR SPOILERS''' [[spoiler: it's revealed double-agents infiltrated the walled city so they could prevent the "evil" humans inside (defectors fleeing persecution and potential persons of mass destruction) from using their hidden weapons of mass destruction. The attack winds up exposing the weapons to the civilians who didn't know about them, the enemy country, or ''anyone'' existing outside their walls, panicking the ''only person in the whole city'' who knew how to use the weapons into passing his power to another, and giving ''that'' person many, many, ''many'' reasons to attack the agents' country.]] Additionally [[spoiler: both PB and the double-agents ''should'' know their "enemy" isn't planning on attacking anyone but they think they're clever enough to risk provoking them anyway]].
** [[spoiler: Finn's father Martin was jailed for years as a cosmic criminal, for about the same amount of time Finn's mother Minerva kept nearly all the remaining humans on Founders Island -- essentially as a jailer]].
** In "Preboot," Dr. Gross says that the next logical step forward for human body modification is "scissor-hands and telescopic spider-legs." Fast-forward to 2018, and it seems that [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse Mac Gargan took her advice to heart]].
** One of Creator/CartoonNetwork's blocks in 2016 paired this show with ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' in a block titled "Regular Time Adventure Show" with a catchy rock song for the promos. In 2017, the two shows were given their own {{Crossover}} comic, ''ComicBook/AdventureTimeXRegularShow''.
** In "Her Parents", Jake nervously greets Rainicorn's parents with a gratuitous "Annyeonghaseyo" (Korean for "Hi" or "Hello"). Years later, thanks to the surge of popularity towards South Korean culture due to K-Pop, "annyeonghaseyo" has become something of a meme among K-Pop fans.
** [[https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Ian_Lightfoot The protagonist]] of [[Creator/{{Pixar}} Pixar's]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Onward}}'' looks and dresses like Marshall Lee.
** Creator/KumailNanjiani would later portray a cosmic being in [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Eternals]].
** In "It Came From the Nightosphere," Marceline sings about how her father ate her fries and how she reacted. One year later, [[WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow a completely different Cartoon Network show]] would base [[Recap/TheLooneyTunesShowS1E21FrenchFries an entire episode]] around a character overreacting to another character eating their fries.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** The Demon Cat from "Dungeon" is amazingly popular despite showing up in only one episode. His approximate knowledge of stuff makes him a good source of MemeticMutation.
** The ''entire'' {{Gender Flip}}ped world rivaled the normal one in popularity even before "Fionna and Cake" was made. Special props, however, go to Marshall Lee, who is arguably the most popular one of all, despite his only appearance in that episode being a silent [[TheCameo cameo]]. The episode dedicated to him increased his popularity a billion fold, especially because he's genuinely much more of a mischievous, traditional [[TheTrickster trickster]] than Marceline is.
*** It has gotten to the point where they'll now receive a spin-off show on HBO MAX.
** ''Any'' character that is female, young, and has a fit humanoid body, including Celina, Doctor Princess, Jungle Princess, the Nymphs, the Bikini Babes and others, generally for fanart, shipping and [[RuleThirtyFour Rule 34]].
** Jake's dad, Joshua, seems to be rather popular, if only due to how [[CrazyIsCool crazy awesome]] he is.
** Before "Jake the Dad" aired, [[spoiler:of Jake and Lady Rainicorn's kids, Jake Jr. seemed to be getting the most attention and concern, [[TheFaceless because the kid lacks a face]]]].
** Shoko got plenty of fanart after her debut. Probably because of her [[TheWoobie sad life]] and being voiced by Creator/IsabelleFuhrman.
** Of the various princesses on the show, the two who have gotten the most attention and subsequent fan art are Breakfast Princess and Frozen Yogurt Princess. The former drew attention due to her unique design, willingness to stand up to both Ice King and LSP, and being voiced by Creator/GreyDeLisle, whereas for the latter, while she barely got any screentime, her design and soft voice were viewed as downright {{Moe}}, to the point that she gained a [[TheCameo cameo]] appearance in the SeriesFinale.
** Prismo has plenty of fans thanks to his unique design, OddFriendship with Jake, and being an all-around NiceGuy and BenevolentGenie. [[spoiler: As a result, fans were heartbroken when he was killed off by The Lich…]] [[spoiler: and overjoyed when he was [[BackFromTheDead brought back to life.]]]]
** Rosalinen from "Puhoy" is also quite popular, in part to the fact that Finn forgot all about her and their children.
** James from "James" seems to have a very loving fan base as well. It helps that, coupled with his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} funny mannerisms]] that he's voiced by [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast Brak]].
** During "Five Short Tables", Ice Queen is revealed to also be writing {{Gender Flip}} fan fiction about Fionna and Cake, her fanfic focus on Flynn and Jacques, a gloomy looking boy with bangs covering one eye and wearing formal clothes with his raccoon friend, both got popular instantly. Even Ice President got some fan art and ''his'' GenderFlip fanfiction characters, Lynn and Janet also became popular.

[[/index]]

[[index]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** There is a certain school of thought that says that [[AllJustADream none of what Finn is experiencing is real]], or is at the very least vastly distorted from the true (and likely terrible) reality he lives in. WordOfGod states that Ooo is a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic world]] recovering from what is referred to as [[WorldWarThree the Mushroom War]]. The possibility exists that what Finn views as adventure might be a great deal more harrowing than his mind allows him to process... throughout the series, there is all kinds of SceneryGorn, with destroyed or submerged buildings, half-buried and wrecked cars, broken televisions, abandoned military equipment, and notably, a river of trash. The opening sequence briefly features a barren field of bombs and bare trees, as well as an arm reaching out, and several of the situations in the show could be read as euphemisms for what is really taking place (such as the Rainicorns attempting to eat Finn, then substituting him for 'soy people' as a euphemism for cannibalism; the Ice King's obsession with kidnapping princesses as a euphemism for slavery; the relationship between Finn and Jake being perhaps a master-slave relationship with Jake the master; the absence of Finn's (and most other characters') parents, the fact that he lives in a tree; possible deformity or mutation represented by Candy People and various other non-human characters, etc). WordOfGod states that this isn't the eventual revelation of the series... while throwing in sounds of Finn screaming and machine-gun-fire over a freeze frame. There are some similarities between ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and ''Film/ABoyAndHisDog'', as well. Is he suffering from radiation-poisoning and starvation-induced hallucinations, and repainting his life as a coping mechanism, or is it all true with the context of the story? Who knows.
** Princess Bubblegum may well be '''the''' most [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive character]] in the whole series.
*** A prominent section of fans follow the school of thought that Bubblegum is a BitchInSheepsClothing. For one thing, she treats her creation/"son" Lemongrab as an insane freak, and though she is [[TheMentallyDisturbed more or less]] [[AmbiguousDisorder right]], her seeming lack of compassion towards him and apparent unwillingness to seriously help him makes her come off as negligent, if not outright [[AbusiveParents abusive]]. (For what it's worth, Bubblegum ''is'' shown to regret how her mishandling of Lemongrab's situation made things worse, and did try to make it up to him, though that opened another can of worms; see below). Her handling of Finn is also questionable, seeing as how she rather callously told him to "move on" during ''Too Young'' and to "stop acting weird" in ''Incendium''.
*** '''Or''', Princess Bubblegum is simply a ''very'' [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask stressed out young woman who has a lot of responsibility on her plate]] (being the sole ruler of a whole kingdom and trying to keep her subjects safe from all the weird calamities that occur on a frequent basis, for starters) and no time for a personal life. It's also clear she really fears the possibility of dying and leaving her kingdom under the rule of an InadequateInheritor, which may go a long way in explaining her disappointment with [[LethallyStupid Lemongrab]]. It's telling that Bubblegum's own voice actress has described her as [[NecessarilyEvil "selflessly evil"]] - she means well, but isn't afraid to do bad things to achieve a good end. As for Finn, she could just be [[ObliviousToLove clueless about his feelings]] and/or refuses to date him because he's [[PrecociousCrush still younger than her]], and is just trying to let him down with as much tact as possible. [[LesYay That, or she's a lesbian]] [[DryDockedShip who broke up with Marceline.]]
*** This actually happens InUniverse as well. In the episode ''James'', PB basically [[spoiler: convinces the title character to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] to save herself, Finn and Jake, and then commemorates James by cloning him]]. Was it [[IDidWhatIHadToDo as justified as she claims]], or was she [[KnightTemplar going over the line]] regardless of her good intentions? Finn and Jake themselves aren't even sure.
** As for Marceline herself, it's well known by this point that she survived the [[WorldWarThree Great Mushroom War]] and was just [[HarmfulToMinors a very small child]] at the time to boot. Marceline could be considered the [[OnlySaneMan only sane person in all of Ooo]], as her main motivation seems to be just hiding from the world, and not getting involved, as an apocalypse survivor's primary motivation is generally self preservation.
** What is Princess Bubblegum's relationship with Marceline? "What Was Missing?" heavily implied they had less than platonic feelings for each other, and future seasons [[ShipTease further imply it]]. Still, there are many fans who think they were simply best friends who grew apart over time. If they are in love, that still leads to many interpretations. One (supported by [[WordOfSaintPaul Marceline's VA]]) was that they were a couple once but broke up prior to the series. Another popular interpretation is that they were best friends who slowly fell in love but broke off their friendship before they could date, leading to a lot of UnresolvedSexualTension. At the end of the series, their past relationship is still unclarified [[spoiler:but they do undergo a RelationshipUpgrade]].
** [[LackOfEmpathy Based on]] [[EvilLaugh the ending]] of "BMO Lost", Jake's indifference towards BMO might be [[{{Jerkass}} deliberate]].
** There's also the question if Jake's laziness is actually due to him being afraid of being so powerful that he would constantly receive instant-gratification in everything he attempts, and thus would end up completely jaded with life (as he insinuated to BMO after he got a shard of tortilla chip stuck between his teeth), or if that is just an excuse and Jake just genuinely enjoys being lazy and putting in as little effort as possible, wasting his incredible talents.
** Ice King: A loser and {{jerkass}} who always tries to force princesses to marry him, a tragic {{Woobie}} who just needs a hug and a reason to be happy, [[TakeAThirdOption or]] is [[ChaoticStupid his mind just too muddled]] by [[ArtifactOfDoom the crown]] for him to fully comprehend that what he's doing to other people is wrong?
--->'''Ice King:''' I don't know... I'm complicated.
** Lemongrab:
*** Safe to say he's quite a bit smarter than he would let on, but to what extent? WordOfGod confirmed that Lemongrab was the one who built the Sound Sword. It's not far of a stretch to imagine Lemongrab could even be a GeniusDitz, as it has been demonstrated in RealLife that autistic people can be incredibly skilled in some specialized areas.
*** His first appearance in "Too Young," where he cries after being beaten up: was he crying because he was in physical pain? Or was he really, really depressed? Subsequent events have shown that he is quite immune to physical pain. He has survived to falls from towers and had their brains without skin, with no trace of pain, [[TearJerker so here it is very plausible that he was crying about feeling emotionally hurt being bullied and treated like crap by his own mother.]]
*** In "Too Old", did Lemongrab abuse his children and his clone because of his extreme mental problems? Or was he lashing out because of his grief over Lemonjon's death? Considering the thoughts he had in his brain after Lemonjon's death ("RAGE," "SUFFER," "call me crazy, but it's time we die") supports this.
** Related to Lemongrab, is Princess Bubblegum keeping a hands-off approach to him due to the complexity of legal treaties, or because she simply doesn't want to have to deal with him? Most of the time Bubblegum can't stand to be in Lemongrab's presence for more than a few minutes, and leaves him to his own demented devices as soon as a convenient band-aid can be slapped on whatever problem he's causing: this ranges from dumping him in another castle after his botched creation, to creating a second just-as-flawed Lemongrab (which made the problem far worse), to barely noticing that Lemongrab was electro-shocking his citizens and had half-eaten his brother in her rush to get away from him, and finally to sewing him back together and then ''abandoning him yet again''.
** Before her first physical appearance in the series, Betty got quite a bit of this, due to her having a pretty big role in the Ice King's backstory. The interpretation boiled down to whether she really was as nice as [[spoiler: Simon]] made her out to be, since [[spoiler: she left Simon after he went on some kind of nutty rant under the crown's influence]]. That interpretation was completely {{Jossed}} in her own title episode when it was revealed that [[spoiler: Betty never truly left Simon, [[StableTimeLoop simply jumped into the portal to the future]] to be with him, and showed her dedication to Simon by promising to find a way to free him from the Ice Crown]].
*** Her potential relationship with the Ice King now that she [[spoiler:has Magic Man's powers]] that we now know is linked to "madness" and "sadness". Is it better for her to [[spoiler:become as crazy as the Ice King and let them be crazy together forever and Simon never being healed]] or is that far more tragic than him just dying? Is the only really happy ending [[spoiler: her healing him]]? It really all comes down to how the viewer interprets the effects of M+M+S.
** To some, Braco was a massive woobie who was absolutely deserving of PB's love, and was unfairly rejected. To others, he's an [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled]] [[StalkerWithACrush stalker]], and was ''way'' too willing to settle down with the [[SexBot PB-Bot]] (casting doubt on whether he really cared about her as a person in the first place).
** Was Flame Princess right in dumping Finn after he "betrayed" her, or did she grossly overreact and let one bad experience automatically cancel out all the good times she and Finn had together?
*** Additionally, is she really over Finn? Or is she lying to herself, and desperately trying not to be a {{Hypocrite}} by breaking her own "total honesty" law?
** Vampire King: was he being sincere in that he wanted to break the cycle and remove vampirism from the world, or was it all just a ploy in order to release his pure black essence of vampirism onto the world? Alternatively, maybe both are true; perhaps Vampire King was already aware no matter what the dark cloud of his essence would always be a plague onto the world, but wanted to remove himself physically from the equation. The wheel of fortune still exists as it always has, but he removed himself from that cycle.

-----

YMMV for ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''.

* ''YMMV/AdventureTimeDistantLands''

* EndingFatigue: The sheer amount of content and complex lore this show has with [[ArchivePanic]] all of it spanning across ''11 years'' it can be hard to keep getting invested until you reach the end with the ''[[GrandFinale Distant Lands]]'' miniseries.

** Creator/JesseMoynihan confirming the theory that Lemongrab was written to be autistic can certainly bring this trope to mind. Although it was already viewed as insensitive by some during the early 2010s, by the time of the 2020s, a lot more people are likely to view it as flat-out offensive due to Lemongrab's [[NoIndoorVoice very exaggerated]], AxCrazy {{Jerkass}} behavior, making him come across as an extremely harmful stereotype.

* ValuesDissonance: While it was always seen as [[{{Squick}} awkward and uncomfortable]], the very idea of an elderly [[DirtyOldWoman Tree Trunks]] having a crush on the 12-13 year-old Finn comes across as even ''worse'' nowadays thanks to the [=#MeToo=] movement exposing how bad the DoubleStandard of [[PaedoHunt adult women grooming male children]] really is. Even the writers seemed to have [[CreatorBacklash regretted this]] [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early on]], since, after "Crystals Have Power", Tree Trunks' crush on Finn is never brought up again, implying that she got over him.

* DryDockedShip: Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Olivia Olsen confirmed that they were ex-girlfriends, but that the show wasn't allowed to portray it as TV executives for kids' shows are usually wary of showing same-sex couples out of fear of backlash from advertisers and viewers (though ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' have shown that it can be done with little to no controversy[[note]]besides being edited/altered on international airings in countries that aren't as tolerant of homosexuality as North America is[[/note]]). [[spoiler: They come out of dry dock in the series finale.]]

** The relationship between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Whether intentional or not, the relationship can be interpreted as a friendship that went sour, or a romantic relationship that went [[UnresolvedSexualTension sour]]. Olivia Olsen confirmed that it's the latter. [[spoiler: The series finale moves it from fanon to fully canon.]]

* AcceptableTargets:
** Abusive boyfriends (like Ash, the Party God and Ricardio) are always portrayed like massive {{Hate Sink}}s. [[LaserGuidedKarma Nobody's really complaining when Karma comes into play]].
** Bad parents are also a common target for being {{Hate Sink}}s, with ''four'' main characters (Finn, Jake, Marceline, and Flame Princess) having serious daddy issues in the likes of Martin, Warren Ampersand, Hunson Abadeer, and Flame King respectively. Not even the main characters themselves are immune to being called out by the narrative for being bad parents, notably Jake to his Rainicorn Pups in "Ocarina" and Princess Bubblegum to Lemongrab in both "You Made Me" and "All Your Fault".

** Magic Man, mainly because he's [[LaughablyEvil funny,]] [[{{Jerkass}} despicable,]] ''and'' [[NightmareFuel scary]] at the same time.

** Lemongrab, an [[CreepyAwesome awesomely creepy,]] [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant nightmarish,]] weird character who moved all of Season 5 into DarkerAndEdgier territory.

** The Castle Lemongrab video straddles the line between hilarious Stylistic Suck and [[NightmareFuel terrifying propoganda.]]

** Lemongrab is possibly the most divisive character in the ''entire series'', even beating out Princess Bubblegum. To put it simply, he's either a TragicVillain and JerkassWoobie or an [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unsympathetic]] and [[HateSink loathsome monster]]. It doesn't help that a lot of his detractors find his [[NoIndoorVoice constant screaming]] ''extremely'' grating rather than funny or [[NightmareFuel terrifying]]. And then there's the debate over whether or not he's an [[InsaneEqualsViolent offensive portrayal]] of people with autism and other mental disorders. Fans are quite split on him to say the least.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Many times, but especially the scene of Jake reading his pups "The Baby-Eating Fox and the Babies" storybook in "Jake the Dad".
-->'''Jake:''' (after reading through a few pages) This is a lot darker than I remember it...

** Prismo has plenty of fans thanks to his unique design, OddFriendship with Jake, and being an all-around NiceGuy and BenevolentGenie. [[spoiler: As a result, fans were devastated when he was killed off by The Lich…]] [[spoiler: and overjoyed when he was [[BackFromTheDead brought back to life.]]]]

** Magic Man. Mainly because he's [[LaughablyEvil funny]], despicable ''and'' [[NightmareFuel scary]] at the same time.
** Lemongrab. An [[CreepyAwesome awesomely]] [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant creepy, nightmarish]], weird character who moved all of Season 5 into DarkerAndEdgier territory.

** Hunson Abadeer is the closest thing to Satan, [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans rules the Nightosphere in a state of chaos and disarray]], and [[EvenEvilHasStandards his love for his daughter Marceline]] is his sole redeeming trait. Fandom tends to portray him as a BumblingDad, probably because he's a light parody of one.

** Prismo has plenty of fans thanks to his unique design, OddFriendship with Jake, and being an all-around NiceGuy and BenevolentGenie.

** Jake's dad, Joshua, seems to be rather popular for how crazy awesome he is.
** Before "Jake the Dad" aired, [[spoiler:of Jake and Lady Rainicorn's kids, Jake Jr. seemed to be getting the most attention and concern, because the kid lacks a face]].

** James from "James" seems to have a very loving fan base as well. It helps that, coupled with his funny mannerisms that he's voiced by [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast Brak]].

** Ricardio the Heart Guy, an obsessive stalker voiced by Creator/GeorgeTakei, now seems in incredibly poor taste after allegations of sexual harassment came out against Takei in 2017 following the blow up of the [=#MeToo=] movement.

** [[EldritchAbomination For]] [[MadGod all]] [[GreaterScopeVillain his]] [[NightmareFuel/AdventureTime buildup]] [[spoiler: Golb ends up being this in the GrandFinale. He's essentially defeated by BMO and his singing due to his chaotic nature. Then he gets hijacked by Betty without doing much]].
*** [[spoiler:On the other hand, Golb isn't actually ''defeated'' by BMO's song; it's simply enough to drill a hole to Golb's stomach so Simon and Finn can beat a hasty retreat, and even that takes ''literally everybody'' singing together and Jake amplifying the sound by turning into a megaphone, and the hole begins healing almost as soon as it forms, as Golb adapts to the circumstances. And Golb!Betty is still out there as a menace; she simply won't attack Ooo at the moment because it would hurt Simon. It's about as good a win as you can get from an impossible being from out of space and time.]]

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: Orgalorg was set up as some [[EldritchAbomination world-destroying monster]] along the likes of the Lich. When he makes his appearance, he tries to absorb the Catalyst Comet, ends up being cut out from the inside by Finn, and goes right back to being Gunther due to latching onto Banana Man's rocket in a weakened state.]]

** While it's [[NightmareFuel certainly terrifying]], The Lich briefly taking control over Sweet P's body and subjecting the King of Ooo and Toronto to [[MindRape unholy visions of monsters]], causing them to [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere run for their lives while screaming]], is nonetheless quite satisfying, considering what [[{{Jerkass}} horrible]] [[ConMan scumbags]] they are and how they manipulated and threatened poor Sweet P into helping them con people.

* ValuesDissonance: While it was always seen as [[{{Squick}} awkward and uncomfortable]], the very idea of an elderly [[DirtyOldWoman Tree Trunks]] having a crush on the 12-13 year-old Finn comes across as even ''worse'' nowadays thanks to the [=#MeToo=] movement exposing how bad the DoubleStandard of [[PaedoHunt adult women grooming male children]] really is. Even the writers seemed to have [[CreatorBacklash regretted this]] since, after "Crystals Have Power", Tree Trunks' crush on Finn is never brought up again, implying that she got over him.

** The Ice King. He really does seem to just want a nice wife and make her happy. His modus operandi, on the other hand... Not the mention his [[BackstoryHorror hideously frightening and miserable backstory.]]