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    D 
  • Damsel in Distress: Finn and Jake's adventures frequently revolve around saving one or protecting one.
  • Dance Party Ending: "Trouble in Lumpy Space", "All the Little People" and "Shh".
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • "City of Thieves" is this compared to the rest of season one. As is "What Have You Done?"
    • "Ocean of Fear" is all about facing the physical embodiment of fear, which makes for a much darker episode. In addition, Pat McHale's quote at the end of the show gives one pause. This is also one of the earliest times we get serious evidence of Ooo's post-apocalyptic feel.
      Pat McHale: ...And so fear is forced deep within the soul of a hero. Conquered. At least, for now...
    • The second season, especially the finale.
      Princess Bubblegum: If you fail... he'll kill everyone.
    • Season three seems to be heading this way as well... and even MORE so.
      • "No One Can Hear You" is perhaps the worst one to date. A sadist deer, a brain-damaged Jake who went Cloud Cuckoolander verging on Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant and kept Finn prisoner, the Candy People's fate, and the fact that the deer was hit by a brick and falls into a whirlpool.
      • "Jake vs. Me-mow" features an assassin named Me-mow, a tiny cat who stabs someone to deliver a death threat to Wildberry Princess, and threatens to inject Jake with a deadly poison if he doesn't kill Wildberry Princess himself. Jake just grows his liver and detoxifies himself.
      • The Ice King's origin in the episode "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II". It was probably the darkest back story in Adventure Time and on Cartoon Network - He was once a human named Simon Petrikov, driven insane by his arcane crown.
      • The fruit witch scene in "Dad's Dungeon", which happens to feature blood and bones. Specifically the blood and bones of anyone who eats one of the small apples, as those turn them into giant apples on the outside. Finn had a pretty good idea of what would happen if he ate the food, but was going to anyway due to feeling like everyone he cared about turned against him. Jake saves him by swiping the apple and forcing one of the three witches to bite it, causing her to transform and the other two to eat her.
    • Marceline once inhabited a realm known as the Nightosphere, a type of Hell where demonic creatures petition Hunson Aberdeer for boons. Due to his tendency to wear a mystic amulet of chaotic evil, he usually grants them in grotesque ways.
      Marceline whilst wearing amulet: You sure dude? Don't you want 'abs'?
      Demon: Yeah, gimme abs!
      Marceline: *transforms the demon's head into abs*
      From the same episode, a Half Monster Demon helps Finn and Jake:
      Half Monster Demon: Get in my flippin' belly and I will transport you. My insides are habitable. You will not be digested.
    • From "Goliad":
      Princess Bubblegum: I'm not gonna live forever, Finn. I would if I could. But modern science just isn't there yet.
      • Also, Goliad's monologue about the bee.
      Goliad: Bee doesn't care about flower. Bee will hurt flower to get what it wants. Bee is stronger than flower. *crushes bee under its palm*
    • In "Princess Cookie", Finn and Jake have to take care of a hostage situation, orchestrated by a cookie named Baby Snaps. Baby Snaps escapes with Jake only to have this sequence when the pursuit gets close: (He gets better.)
      Baby Snaps: I'm sorry, Jake. It's over. *zoom to close, falls backward over cliff, smashes into pieces*
    • The series as a whole has become much darker. While theres still loony silliness all around, there are way more melancholic undertones to the show than before. Compare a recent episode to one of the earlier ones which featured candy parties and thawed out businessmen.
    • "Lady & Peebles", in which Lady Rainicorn is revealed to be pregnant in the last seconds and set in the organic lair of a conscious heart often tombed in the Ice King, mostly.
      • In that same episode, Princess Bubblegum challenges Ricardio to hand-to-hand combat, before expertly dismantling him.
      Princess Bubblegum: You think we're intellectual equals?! It only took me seconds to get you off your guard! And this body you designed is self-congratulatory garbage! See, I know a thing or two about building a body out of biomass, *Detaching leg* and you don't... leave your heart exposed!
      Ricardio: I just wanted to impress you!
      Princess Bubblegum: You didn't. *Pounds Ricardio's face with his own leg* Get out of my sight.
    • "The Lich": It's bad enough to see the Lich wish for the extinction of life, yet when Finn wishes for the Lich not to exist, it has unforeseen consequences. Mushroom War's radiation never happens. Add in the fact that the universe's 'Jake' ends up turning into the Lich when Finn finds the crown of the Ice King, and you've got one seriously messed up episode. It gets better, though.
      • For that matter, any episode where The Lich is directly involved will go through a severe shift in tone. The stakes are much higher than usual and previously established characters may actually die.
    • In season 6's "Breezy," Finn explores the darkness of lust to search for a warm feeling he's lost. It's exactly what it sounds like.
    • Season 9's "Three Buckets" has Finn brutally and inadvertently murdering his alternate self with a weed whacker. True, the victim is made of grass so there's no gore, but it's still incredibly disturbing and all happens on-camera.
    • The series went from Finn protecting the Candy People from a Zombie Apocalypse while keeping it a secret after one of Princess Bubblegum's experiments goes awry, Jake getting bitten by Lumpy Space Princess, forcing Finn to journey to Lumpy Space to find a cure for "The Lumps", Finn and Jake helping a little old elephant find a mysterious apple, Finn and Jake rescuing a group of businessmen from an iceberg, who decide to make Finn and Jake their bosses, and Finn struggling to face his newly-discovered fear of the ocean to Finn losing his arm while trying to prevent his dad from leaving him after defeating the lich who was revived and defeating a golb, a giant red creepy monster that turns other characters into hideous monsters while Finn and Jake's tree house is destroyed beyond repair and the golb "digests" Betty by making the walls close in on her.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: In the episode "The Apple Thief", Jake mentions that he stole purses and hawked stolen bicycles; which could explain his actions in "City of Thieves".
    • Ice King.
    • Baby Snaps was an orphan who had his dreams of being a princess created and ruined by Princess Bubblegum reading to the orphanage, then laughing at his idea that he could become a princess to help people like her.
    • Most of Marceline's thousand-years-long existence can be described as this. Her tragic backstory even ties in with Ice King's.
  • Darkest Hour: Finn goes through this for a short time in "Freak City"... Complete with awesome music!
    • Throughout the series, his sunny and heroic demeanor suffers through several more of these, including after "Frost & Fire," "Escape from the Citadel," and "Three Buckets."
  • A Day in the Limelight: The ''Snow Golem' in "Thank You", of all people!
    • BMO gets one in "BMO Noire". Then again in "BMO Lost," "Be More," "Football," and "The More You Moe, the Moe You Know."
    • Princess Bubblegum and Lady Rainicorn show how much of an Adventure Duo they can be in "Lady & Peebles".
    • Gunter gets one in "Reign of Gunters", since they're the main antagonist.
    • The Ice King, Tree Trunks, Lemongrab, NEPTR and Shelby (the worm that lives in Jake's viola) note  get one in "Mystery Dungeon".
    • These episodes start to get a lot more common beginning in Season 5, as the show gets more comfortable broadening the world beyond its heroes. "Root Beer Guy" is a Lower-Deck Episode following a citizen of the Candy Kingdom, "The Cooler" focuses for the first time on Flame Princess without Finn being involved at all, and Lemongrab gets a starring role in "The Mountain."
    • Each of Jake's puppies gets at least one episode focusing on them.
      • Jake Jr.: "One Last Job"
      • Kim Kil Whan: "Ocarina," "Wheels"
      • T.V.: "The Diary," "Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension"
      • Viola: "Summer Showers"
      • Charlie: "Daddy-Daughter Card Wars"
  • De-aged in Death: When an individual passes on to the land of the dead, their disembodied spirit is able to take on as young of a form as they want or one they were transformed into when they were alive. And in cases like Finn and Jake, their past incarnations.
  • Deader than Dead: Magic Man's wife Margles, who was "taken away" by the Eldritch Abomination GOLB. Even a wish from Prismo can't bring her back, which shocks even him.
  • Dead-Hand Shot: The title card for "The Jiggler". Of course, it has nothing to do with the episode.
  • Decadent Court: The Flame Kingdom is an officially Evil hotbed of backstabbing, plotting and fratricide. Flame Princess tries to reduce this, but the fact that she seized the throne by force and imprisoned her father rather reduces her claim to the moral high ground.
  • Deadly Prank: Played with in "Heat Signature"; Marceline's ghost friends actually wanted Finn and Jake to die. They and Marceline had tricked Finn and Jake into thinking they were vampires, whose powers include flight. The extended prank culminated in the ghosts teaching them how to fly by knocking them off a tower (Marceline, drawing the line at actual harm, catches them). The ghosts did it because it would have been funny.
  • Death by Gluttony: Clarence in "Ghost Princess."
  • Declaration of Protection:
    • Finn, towards Princess Bubblegum. And he has a Bodyguard Crush on her, too.
    • Simon Petrikov towards young Marceline during the Mushroom War.
    • In "The Red Throne," Cinnamon Bun towards Flame Princess.
  • Decoy Protagonist: In Elements Mini-series Jake seems to be one of the protagonists until he is assimilated by Slime Princess and Lumpy Space Princess takes his place.
  • Demonic Vampires:
    • Marceline the Vampire Queen is the daughter of Hunsen Abadeer, who's not just a demon but a Satanic Archetype. It's played around with, though. Marceline's vampirism has no direct link to her demonic heritage. She is actually the offspring of a demon and a human, who only became a vampire after being bitten by the Vampire King.
    • The aforementioned Hunsen, while he is a demon, looks like a vampire and is shown lurking around at night, preying on mortals so he can devour their souls.
  • Denser and Wackier: "City of Thieves".
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "If you fail, Marceline will be trapped in eternal sleep... FOREVER!"
    • From "Tree Trunks":
      Jake: "I want to carve my face on the moon... so the moon will look like my face!"
    • From "Hitman":
      Ice King: A leg cramp! In my leg!
  • Depending on the Artist: Each episode (especially in the second season onward) has slightly different character appearances due to the art style of the storyboarders of that episode.
  • Depending on the Writer: An in-universe example would be the Fionna and Cake fan-fiction. Each time a Fionna and Cake story is presented, including the comic, it's told by a different person, and the characters reflect that person's personality.
  • Deranged Animation: During the more acid-driven moments of the show, things get crazy.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Finn goes through this in "Incendium", to the point where he actually cries.
  • Detect Evil: The gumball guardians of the Candyland have this, but neither the Ice King nor Marceline trigger it.
  • Determinator: The snow golem from "Thank You"; it goes on a trek through the Fire Kingdom to get the fire wolf pup back to its family.
    • Finn in "Another Way". Whenever he hits a road-block, he's convinced that he can still continue using his own methods - it's the plot.
      • Finn in general, constantly. Highlights include throwing off mind control, ignoring two broken legs, rescuing his friends even as his mind and body are taken over by the Lord of Evil, withstanding a day-long Training from Hell, building a tower through the atmosphere using his psychic rage, and crossing most of Ooo with his eyes closed.
      Finn: You just gotta believe that every bruise is a hickey from the universe. And everyone wants to get with the universe.
  • Deus ex machina: At the end of the episode "Dungeon", Finn and Jake are unexpectedly saved from Eye Demons by Princess Bubblegum.
    • At the end of "Jake vs. Me-Mow", a bird tries to grab one of the sausages from Jake's ears, knocking Me-Mow out of his nose.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Ricardio.
  • Didn't Think This Through: From "Her Parents"
    Jake: Nah... That could never happen.
    Finn: You didn't think this through enough. IT COULD HAPPEN!
  • Did They or Didn't They?: In "Breezy" Finn pecks Lumpy Space Princess on the lips, which makes her tell him that she doesn't want to be stuck in the "kiddie pool"; she wants to go to the "deep end" instead. There is a Fade to Black, and the next scene shows Finn and LSP lying down, separated.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In a misguided if courageous example, Jake almost kills Marceline, someone who effortlessly defeated Finn and him in an early episode, all while dressed as a strawberry and fighting his monumental fear of vampires to save his friend.
    • Finn gets a turn when he defeats the Lord of Evil, Marceline's dad with two swords, a smiley face, bug milk, and some magic words, all while screaming to the top of his lungs.
    • When Marceline's dad tries to suck out Gunther's soul, the little guy nonchalantly slaps him in the face.
    • The legendary hero Billy casting down the Lich. Bonus points for it being said that he pummeled him into a tree where he imprisoned him in amber.
      • Finn and Ice King manage to defeat the Lich again when he gets free. Finn tears out the Lich's skull with a sweater!
    • In "Betty", the titular character walks up to Bellanoche, who has so far been winning effortlessly against an army of powerful wizards, and knocks her out cold with a single punch. This was most likely due to the fact that Bellanoche's power allows her to absorb magical energy, which means a Muggle like Betty would be unaffected.
    • In "The Comet", Finn's grass arm destroys Orgalorg.
    • Marceline defeats the Vampire King twice: once in single combat during her backstory and once by sucking up his soul. More like "Did you just eat Cthulhu?"
    • A throwaway line from "Whispers" suggests that versions of Finn in every alternate universe have defeated their own versions of the Lich's hand.
  • Digital Piracy Is Evil: "Video Makers" is about Finn and Jake deciding to make their own movies for movie night, since (pre-apocalyptic) federal law prohibits unauthorized exhibitions of movies.
  • Disappeared Dad: Finn's biological dad. That is until the Season 5 finale where Billy tells Finn that his dad can be found at the Citadel.
    • Marceline's father Hunson wasn't present during her early life. He briefly returned after Simon summoned him to take care of Marcy when he no longer could.
  • Disaster Dominoes: Surprisingly averted in "Apple Wedding", despite all the pieces being there like Cinnamon Bun shaking up the bottle of apple cider and Finn trying to prevent LSP from crashing the wedding. The only thing that amounts to anything is Princess Bubblegum hijacking the King of Ooo's balloon.
  • Dismemberment Is Cheap: Finn ends up losing his arm trying to prevent his father from escaping the Citadel. Aside from being in a depressed funk for a few episodes, the loss doesn't affect him that much. Later, the flower that grew on his stump matures into a tree before breaking away to reveal a new arm, with a green thorn in the palm. When he loses his arm again a few seasons later, Princess Bubblegum swiftly replaces it with a robot one, and he goes on like nothing happened - to himself, at least.
  • Disposable Woman: Magic Man's wife Margles, who died in the Backstory to give him a Freudian Excuse for his callous behavior.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In "The Witch's Garden":
    Finn: What did you do to him?!
    Witch: I stripped him of his magical powers.
    Finn: For stealing one of your billions of donuts?!
    • "Twelve years dungeon! Seven years! No trial!"
    • Flame Princess turns a few Fire Kingdom dittelantes of court into baby flame elementals for whispering.
    • In the video game, Lumpy Space Princess tries to destroy the world... because Finn threw away the clay ashtray she gave him for his birthday.
    • In "Princess Day" Lumpy Space Princess and Marceline trash Breakfast Princess's room, destroy her car and leave her stranded in the desert just because she called Lumpy Space Princess a 'Bum' and threw her out for mooching.
    • In "Happy Warrior," the entire Fire Kingdom adopts this as a way of life.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Finn cheerfully decides to repress his memory of the real ghost in "The Creeps".
  • Distaff Counterpart: "Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake" introduces a world with a distaff counterpart for every character.
  • Distant Duet: Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig in "Dream of Love".
  • Distant Finale: Implied in the ending of Lemonhope Part II which takes place about a thousand years into the future. Hallmarks include a futuristic-looking Candy Kingdom that has been destroyed and is devoid of life, Finn and Jake's treehouse has grown past the clouds, the Ice Kingdom is gone and Castle Lemongrab is abandoned.
  • Distressed Dude: Finn gets this from time to time:
    • He got tied up and forced to run in a wheel in one episode. He was rescued by Jake.
    • And then— he got kidnapped by crystal guardians to be made into a crystal. He was, again, rescued by Jake.
    • "Dungeon" has Finn and Jake both doomed until Princess Bubblegum suddenly flies in to save them... on a giant laser-shooting swan.
    • In "Lady & Peebles" Princess Bubblegum & Lady Rainicorn saved Finn, Jake, & Ice King from Ricardio.
    • Jake had to save Finn from the resurrected Lich in "Jake the Dog."
    • By the end of 'Elements,' Jake has been absorbed into Slime Princess while Finn is surrounded and trapped by extremely-candified Candy citizens. It takes Lumpy Space Princess to rescue everybody.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    Goblin criminal: Gimme those hot buns, lady!
    • Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig are discovered in a literal closet when the residents of Ooo find their love "icky" and they are explicitly told they must "hide" it.
    • Also, the final form of Marceline's dad. Paging Dr. Freud...
    • Bubble from "BMO Lost" is popped and "finally freed" and "doesn't have to hide anymore" right after he confesses his feelings towards BMO. (Then again, neither Bubble nor BMO actually have a gender to begin with...)
    • "Frost & Fire" FULL STOP. The whole episode is pretty much about Finn getting off on Flame Princess beating up the Ice King. The dream he's trying to finish is almost too blatant to count as innuendo.
    • In a somewhat darker example, the Ice King used to be a normal man named Simon Petrikov. His crown granted him powers, but also slowly destroyed his sanity and memory in a manner reminiscent of Alzheimer's.
  • Doing In the Wizard: If you believe Princess Bubblegum, all "magic" in Ooo may actually be sufficiently advanced technology. Of course, that's a big if...
  • Door Stopper: The UNABRIDGED version of Rainicorn history in "Paper Pete".
  • Doppelgänger Attack: Jake does this in "The Chamber of Frozen Blades".
  • Double Entendre:
    • From "City of Thieves":
      Finn: You made me steal. And you took my purity. You ruined me!
      Penny: I'm sorry, Finn!
    • From "Dungeon":
      Finn: Don't flaunt it if you're not going to give it up!
    • From "It Came From the Nightosphere":
      Marceline: You're like an ant to him.
      Finn: Well, this ant's about to get in his pants!
      Marceline: What. *amused look*''
    • Same episode:
      Finn: No one flicks me in the butt without my consent!!
    • From "Gut Grinder":
      Finn: Oh, Jake! You never turn into a monster when I ask you! It's always "Not now, Finn, I have a headache!"
    • From "The Duke":
      Finn: How can the dude be evil if he pets puppies, kisses babies, and lies with his wife?
      Duke of Nuts: Why would you want to sack my nut castle?
    • Lemongrab. Think about it, adventurers...
      • Even better, his name in the storyboards was originally Lemonsnatch. If you can't figure it out, sourpuss.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: "Breezy" sees Finn kissing Lumpy Space Princess, only for her to demand they go further. Finn doesn't explicitly say no, but he also doesn't seem entirely on board with this plan. She persists and it cuts to the two of them in separate sleeping bags, Finn silently staring at the sky. It's somewhat debatable whether or not this was played for laughs, and the plot has touched on the aftermath, but nowhere near as overtly as it has when the genders have been reversed.
  • Double Take:
    Bufo: Now I release the elder Jeremy from his pledge. Razzamafoo!
    Elder Jeremy: It's about time. *crumbles into dust*
    Bufo: And you take his place for the rest of your natural life.
    Finn: Awesome!!! ...Wait WHAT?
  • Downer Ending:
    • The episode "I Remember You" ends with Marceline singing the song written by Simon with The Ice King, while sobbing after trying the whole second half of the episode to make the Ice King remember who he was. He doesn't, she just cries as they both sing, Ice King completely oblivious to the situation, and it cuts to a Happy Flashback of Marceline when she was a crying little girl alone just after the apocalypse. Simon finds her, wipes her tears, and gives her the teddy bear she loses in Memory of a Memory.
    • "Frost and Fire" in which Flame Princess breaks up with Finn.
    • In "Puhoy" Finn finds himself in a dream-like world made of pillows. He soon realizes he can't leave and get back to his world and the episodes shows him marry, have kids, and become an old man until he eventually dies with his entire pillow family at his bedside. He suddenly emerges from the pillow world at the same place, time and age he was at when he first entered it. Finn mentions to Jake that he had a crazy dream, but is distracted, and when asked again later he has completely forgotten the experience.
    • "Escape from the Citadel" Finn and Jake hitch a ride on the frozen body of the Lich and arrive at the Citadel. They end up finding Finn's father, named Martin, and the Lich manages to escape and free the other criminals, including Finn's dad. However, Finn's father has no memories of Finn, or why he even abandoned him in the first place. He ends up completely using Finn and tries to leave him in the Citadel and escape with the other criminals, while Finn and Jake try to fend off the Lich. Finn ends up coming close to being killed by the Lich, but manages to use Guardian Blood on the Lich(which restores Flesh and heals wounds) which causes it to be reborn as a giant baby. Finn then tries to stop his father from leaving by trying to hold back the craft they try to sail away through a portal on, but is close to reaching his limit and you can really see the strain on his face as he tries so very hard to keep his father with him. Eventually, the Grass Sword completely engulfs his arm to try and help him hold it back, but Finn finally can't hold on and lets go, ripping off the Grass Sword from his body, which severs his arm in the process. As he falls down, a drop of Guardian Blood lands on his severed arm, which only grows a flower in its stump because there were no bones or anything left of his arm to heal, implying that he may have lost it for good. Jake(and Shelby) comfort Finn and return back to Ooo, and they leave the Baby Lich with Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig.
    • "Betty". Ice King is temporarily turned back into Simon, who opens a time portal to apologize to his fiancee Betty before he dies. Betty instead leaps through the portal to help him, and successfully saves his life. However, Simon reverts back to the Ice King and completely forgets about Betty. She sadly leaves to find a way to cure Simon of his curse.
    • "Bad Timing" has LSP hooking up with Johnny, one of her old classmates. However, LSP gets paranoid that Johnny might be cheating on her with Princess Bubblegum, and inadvertently "kills" him by misusing a time bubble on him. Devastated, LSP has PB erase all her memories of Johnny to escape the pain, and reverts to her old Jerkass self. Meanwhile, it's revealed that Johnny has been transported to the "border world" and witnesses LSP erasing her own memories. Even though Johnny is still alive, PB has no way of knowing, much less finding a way to bring him back.
  • Drama Bomb:
    • Played straight and of course the Trope Namer is called out by Lumpy Space Princess in "It Came from the Nightosphere" when Marceline's dad hears Marceline's song.
    • The BIGGEST drama bomb in Adventure Time history came with the Christmas special "Holly Jolly Secrets" when Finn and Jake view the Ice King's biggest secret, on video, when he himself is right there with them.
      Jake: DRAMABOOOMB!
    • Season three in general has been one great big drama bomb.
      • Season four didn't skimp either.
    • The first three episodes from the Flame Princess arc, but especially "Burning Low". The fourth, "Ignition Point", was a lighthearted fetch quest/dungeon crawl.
    • The ending of "Lady & Peebles", without question, is one of the biggest the show has ever had.
      Lady: (In English) I'm pregnant!
    • "I Remember You" has Marceline's discussion of the Ice King's 'song inspiration'. The 'inspiration'? In the city ruins immediately after the Mushroom War, Simon Petrikov (before he lost his mind and became the Ice King) found Marceline as a young girl, alone and crying. He became sort of a father figure to her.
  • Dramatic Wind: Happens whenever Sir Slicer shows up.
  • Dramedy: Would you believe a cartoon like this has its dramatic moments? One example is Marceline's song in "It came from the Nightosphere". Starts out with her talking about her dad stealing her fries, then turns into heart-breaking ballad about how he neglected her.
    • The show gets even more dramatic in "What Was Missing" when Marceline sings a deep song saying that she's annoyed that Princess Bubblegum treats her in an estranged manner, and then implies that she (Marceline) wants to make up with her in some way.
    • Jake gets some of these moments in "No One Can Hear You," and there's also him nearly making Finn cry in "New Frontier."
    • The Ice King has now been made into an extremely tragic figure, but even before then, he had sad scenes.
  • Dreadful Musician: Finn when playing the viola, according to Jake.
    • It has been established that the Ice King is NOT a good singer.
    • Played with in regards to Lemonhope. He playes the harp very well, which Lemongrab hates. He tries to play the flute, but is awful at it, yet Lemongrab loves it.
  • Driven to Suicide: Happens to Finn after believing that his father didn't think much of him in "Dad's Dungeon". Fortunately Jake manages to snap him out of it.
    • Also happens to Baby-Snaps in "Princess Cookie."
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Root Beer Guy in Something Big. Actually, the manner of his death is perfectly respectable, but still very anticlimactic since it happens off-screen before the episode even starts.
    • Even more egregious is that when the Big Bad is defeated, all of the candy soldiers that were killed are resurrected except for Root Beer Guy, meaning he's explicitly been Killed Off for Real.
  • Dual Wielding: Finn uses two swords in "Slow Love" and "It Came from the Nightosphere".
  • Dungeon Punk: The world is full of technology, such as Lady Rainicorn's universal translator device and holographic computers, mixed with magical items like wands and freezing potions.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Played with in both "Incedium" and "Hot to the Touch". At the end of "Incendium", Finn is fighting off a demon of fire which extinguishes itself by Princess Bubblegum's water rockets. Only when the demon is extinguished is it revealed to be Flame Princess. Though she slaps him in the face after he says he likes her, he remains adamant on stopping her destruction while not hurting her in "Hot to the Touch", which begins directly after the end of "Incendium".
  • Dying as Yourself: Simon considers letting himself die in "Betty" instead of becoming the Ice King again.
  • Dying Declaration of Love:
    • Amazingly, in "Who Would Win," Jake's game of Kompy's Kastle does this when Finn breaks it.
    • Inverted in "Bad Little Boy", where Marshall Lee tries to get Fionna to admit she loves him while he's (fake) dying.

    E 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The tone of the first season is generally more fast-paced and cartoony, with zanier expressions and over-the-top dialogue. After the crew received a massive overhaul in season two, the show began to tone down those traits and start expanding on the show's lore, resembling the series people are most familiar with today.
    • In the first few seasons the show seems to flirt with Negative Continuity, with Finn and Jake not retaining their wizard magic or ice ninja abilities after the episodes that introduced them. Later on, well, check out the Continuity Nod page for the full list.
    • The famous "what time is it?"—"Adventure Time" exchange happened in a number of episodes of the first season (usually toward to the end of the episode), accompanied by a title-card that showed a sword sliding behind the words "Adventure Time." This was quietly dropped beginning in season two. Presumably, it started to feel forced.
    • The art style is also far less consistent in season one, and often far grittier and less happy-go-lucky. In particular, look at "What Have You Done." The Ice King looks completely different from his normal design, and the Candy Kingdom has some sort of bizarre Empathic Environment thing going on that makes it look nothing like it normally does. Jake's design also fluctuated to a very great extent, and his current proportions were nowhere to be seen.
    • The first 8 episodes' title cards had "With Finn & Jake" after "Adventure Time Presents". From the 9th episode onward, it's no longer there.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending:
    • "Ghost Princess" had a very sweet one, which required death and post-mortem trauma from a couple characters, but was rewarded with two lovers ascending to the next plane together.
    • "Incendium" had a more subtle example. Jake tried to get Finn to move past the heartache he'd been suffering all season. The beginning of the episode had Finn hit an all time low, losing the will to do anything but curl in a ball and stare at a picture of Princess Bubblegum. Jake's lengthy Indy Ploy to snap Finn out of it, requiring a harrowing trip to the Fire Kingdom and a dangerous chase back, finally got Finn off his butt. Jake's efforts were rewarded with the words, "Dude. I think I have a crush!"
    • Finn's entire romantic life can be seen this way. After spending the first three seasons as Bubblegum's Hopeless Suitor, destroying his relationship with Flame Princess by poorly handling his own sexuality, remaining upset about that for at least a year afterwards, and having brief and unfulfilling relationships with several princesses (along with poor Breezy), his relationship with Huntress Wizard seems to finally indicate he's figured out how to exist around girls. Whether or not his latest crush works out, he seems happy and content pursuing it, without all his usual turmoil.
  • Easy Amnesia: In "Death in Bloom", Jake gets amnesia from drinking the water in the River of Forgetfulness. Finn casually inflicts this on himself in "The Creeps", apparently something he regularly does when he experiences something disturbing.
    • Happens again in "Return To the Nightosphere" where Finn and Jake find themselves in a prison somewhere in a nightmarish realm with no idea how they got there and a banana near Finn. The sequel, "Daddy's Little Monster", later reveals through Jake's cell phone that they were hanging out with Marceline in the Nightosphere, but an evil amulet given to her by her father who wanted her to continue family business caused her to turn into a chaotic evil Eldritch Abomination knocking out the duo and giving them amnesia.
  • Eat the Camera: The end of the first part of "Holly Jolly Secrets" where Jake is screaming while the camera zooms into his mouth.
  • Wearing the mystic amulet. Anyone who happens to wear it becomes chaotic evil and turns into a demonic ruler of the Nightosphere in form and concept.
  • The Lich and Princess Bubblegum after he possesses her and regains his true power. It's so powerful it requires an Enemy Mine with Ice King to defeat it.
  • The "Lub-glubs" from the episode "Beautopia" are most definitely this, only apparently inhabiting pool toys.
  • In "Dad's Dungeon", the final monster that Finn and Jake fight.
  • All sorts of creatures in the Spirit World from "Beyond This Earthly Realm," especially the head spitting spirit. Even the Ice King is freaked out by it.
  • It's increasingly strongly implied that Peppermint Butler of all people is one. One of the Gumball Guardians even refers to him as "The Dark One".
  • In Everything's Jake, there's an amusing nod to this trope. Dr. Erik Adamkinson, one of the Jake-People, manages to make his way out of Jake's body. When he sees Finn he begins to cry about how hideous the globs are, eventually melting into nothingness. Not only that, Finn is eating noodles in such a fashion that he vaguely resembles Cthulhu.
  • The Lich's monologue in Gold Stars mentions that "before there was anything, there was nothing. And before there was nothing, there were monsters". We actually get to see said monsters and they are quite a sight to behold.
  • Orgalorg can be considered one.
  • GOLB, the embodiment of chaos and Greater-Scope Villain of the series is one as well.
  • Eldritch Location: The crystal world and the Nightosphere. The Hall of Egress as well.
  • Elemental Nation: The Ice Kingdom, the Fire Kingdom, the Candy Kingdom, the Slime Kingdom and the Lumpy Space Kingdom feature locations and residents mostly made of the Bizarro Elements they're named after.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Lampshaded in "Heat Signature," when Finn and Jake are being attacked by some ghostly friends of Marceline after a prank gone wrong.
    Marceline: Finn, Jake... I'm so sorry I got you into this. I should've never pranked you so perfectly.
    Finn: It's okay. You're here now to beat up those ghosts... and save us!
    Marceline: Oh no, vampires can't beat ghosts. It's like a rock-paper-scissors thing.
  • Embarrassing Cover Up:
    Jake: You shouldn't marry Finn. He pees his pants. Constantly. All the time.
  • Emoticon: Beemo's screen shows a "D:" when his controller is stolen in "What Was Missing".
  • Empathic Weapon: Finn's grass sword in "Blade of Grass", though until he accepts its clinginess it leans closer toward an Evil Weapon.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Finn tends to get this, but only for an episode at a time:
  • The End... Or Is It?: In the last two seconds of "Jake vs. Me-Mow", Me-Mow is seen flying on a bluebird after it was believed she had fallen off a cliff.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Finn and Jake teamed up with the Ice King to stop the Lich-possessed Princess Bubblegum after she went One-Winged Angel.
    • He does this again in a short heralding in the third season, he seems to enjoy it, even though the duo bluntly told him to commit a Heroic Sacrifice in the process.
  • Energy Weapon: Princess Bubblegum has a flying swan that shoots lasers.
  • Episode Title Card
  • Eskimos Aren't Real: Flambo, a catlike creature made out of fire, insists that ninjas "ain't real for nothing no-how."
  • Eternal English: The businessmen's weird grammar in "Business Time" can be taken as an aversion of this trope.
    "We love work for you!"
  • Eternal Recurrence: Episodes like The Vault and Evergreen show that at least some of the characters have had past lives and that history is repeating itself. In Evergreen it's implied that the Lich has some connection to a Comet that destroyed the dinosaurs. At the end of the episode it's revealed that a second comet is making it's way towards Ooo.
  • Eternal Villain: The Lich is this trope to many versions of hero in the show, born from the comet that destroyed the dinosaurs which was attacked by the heroic Ice Elemental Evergreen and the force of malice that destroyed the world during the Mushroom War. He eventually fought and was sealed away by one of the Precursor Heroes Billy before getting free and entering conflict with Finn. He eventually spread across the Multiverse, and becomes a constant defeated enemy of the Finns of the Multiverse.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Ice King will kidnap unwilling princesses left and right and try to make one of them his bride, but he loses interest in Princess Bubblegum when she's aged down to 13. He's creepy, but he's not THAT creepy.
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending:
    • The ending to "When Wedding Bells Thaw", complete with an Iris Out.
    • Also the ending to "Apple Thief".
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Most of the royalty in the show, excluding Marceline. Princess Bubblegum also might be an exception since Bubblegum is really her surname.
  • "Everyone Is Gone" Episode: In "No-One Can Hear You", Finn is badly beaten by an evil stag, and wakes up in an empty Candy Kingdom Hospital to find out that everyone except Jake has disappeared, and Jake is insane. It's eventually revealed that the evil stag has all the Candy People trapped in the sewers, where he plans to eat them.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: My god, that glorious HAIR!
  • Eviler than Thou: Marceline's Dad to the Ice King, and earlier, Gunter to Marceline's Dad.
  • Evil Overlooker: The title card for "The Eyes" gives this vibe.
  • Evil Redeemed in a Can: After Marceline's vampiric powers have been drained, and the efluvium spilled, releasing the various vampires whom she had killed and absorbed, most of them take up their old ways, except for the Vampire King, who decides that he's tired of the repetitive cycles. When he encounters the heroes, after his comrades have fallen again, in the same way they'd been defeated before, proving his point, he simply surrenders, offering to have his vampiric essence drained.
  • Evil Versus Evil:
    • The final scene of the Farmverse: Ice King!Finn vs. Lich!Jake
    • Marceline's Dad vs Gunter, saying he's the most evil thing he's ever encountered.
  • Exact Words: In "Mystery Dungeon", the Ice King throws the book containing his Fionna and Cake fanfiction into a magical fire since it is said that anything thrown into the fire can be brought to life. However, only the book itself is brought to life, much to Ice King's dismay.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: No, not the title itself (Thought it would kind of fit). In "Mystery Train" Jake grabs a train schedule. It has "you got a schedule" written on it.
  • Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: See Attack Its Weak Point, above.
    • In "Jake Vs. Me-Mow", Me-Mow boasts that she has injected Jake with enough poison to kill a dog fifty times his size. Which prompts Jake to use his powers to grow his liver fifty-one times its normal size, curing the poison.
  • Exposition: From "Videomakers":
    Finn: ...And a thimble of milk for Shelby, the worm who lives in Jake's viola.
    Shelby: ...You can just call me Shelby.
  • Expository Theme Tune: Quoted above.
  • Expressive Ears: The ears on Fionna's (and to a lesser extent Finn's) hat.
  • Expy: According to the creators, Fionna is partially based on Sailor Moon.
    • Highlighted with the dress Fionna wears to the ball, it's almost Princess Serenity's.
    • The Lich is an expy for the main villain of the Black Cauldron.
  • Evil Tastes Good: It's not really portrayed as evil, but BMO's "special sentient sandwich" is exactly what it sounds like. Every single ingredient has a face and the only one that doesn't suffer significantly is the pepper mill that supplies the "fresh pepper fart."
  • Extra Digits: Billy has 6 fingers on each hand.
  • Eye Beams: Tree Trunks.
  • Eyebrow Waggle: In the episode "Bad Little Boy," both the Ice King and Marceline do this at various points. The Ice King's is meant to have a lecherous tone, but considering who it is and how it's done it's more funny than anything. Marceline's is purely for humor as she's poking fun at the Ice King.
  • Eye-Dentity Giveaway: Any vessel that the Lich possesses gains his Glowing Eyelights of Undeath. He eventually ceases to use direct possessions once he realizes how easily this gives him away.
  • Eye Scream: Peppermint Butler suffers this when he gets Princess Bubblegum's spicy potion in his eye in "Too Young".
  • Eyedscreen: "Ricardio the Heart Guy", This trick shows up when Finn says that Ricardio is "up to something."

    F 
  • Face Doodling: Finn and Jake do this to the Ice King when they steal the gems from his crown while he is asleep in "The Lich".
  • Faint in Shock: Princess Bubblegum faints with relief after her people were saved from a plague by the Ice King's pained howls. After trying to flip over a bed and shouting in Gratuitous German first.
  • Faking the Dead:
    • Finn in "What Have You Done?" to make Ice King wail and save the citizens of the Candy Kingdom.
    • Finn, Jake, Beemo, LSP, and Cinnamon Bun do this in "Conquest of Cuteness" to make the Cute soldiers feel better about themselves. LSP exaggerates hers by pretending to fall in love, then fall out of love with one of the Cuties, and consequently have a fake heart attack... for laughs.
    • Marshall Lee pretends to die in "Bad Little Boy" for the purposes of playing with Fionna's head and trying to get her to admit she loves him.
  • Familiar Maja's crabbit (crow/rabbit), but he really wants to be a dancer.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death:
    • In "No One Can Hear You", a deer's head and neck are crushed by two cinderblocks, and then his body gets flushed down a giant sewer pipe!
    • Ghost Princess died after Clarence stabbed her. Clarence died after stuffing himself with so much soft cheese that he straight-up exploded.
    • The third season is fond of this trope apparently. In "Dad's Dungeon", a fruit witch is eaten until nothing but her blood-covered bones is left. And that was almost Finn.
    • Shoko's death in "The Vault"—dumped into toxic sludge and horribly mutated, dying soon after. For added heartbreaking, she dies happy, since the mutation at least grew back her severed arm.
  • Fan Disservice:
    • Oh, Tree Trunks. You card.
    "I'm the sexiest adventurer in the world!"
    • They also seem to try to slip in as many upskirt shots of the Ice King as possible. You better get used to the sight of that shriveled blue body and dirty-toilet-paper-looking underwear.
    • Morbidly obese Lemongrab. Nuff said.
  • Fanfiction: In universe example. Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake was a fanfic written by the Ice King and continued by Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • The episode "Trouble In Lumpy Space" establishes that there's friction between lumpy and smooth.
    • There is also tension between magic dogs and rainbow unicorns, especially in the wake of the rainicorn/dog wars.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Ninjas, cyborg barbarians, Post Apocalyptic setting, knights, dragons, talking animals, wizards, etc.
  • Fantastic Nuke: The bombs dropped in the Mushroom war released Sickly Green Glow and skulls and howling phantoms. They can also turn the first person they hit into the Lich...
  • Fate Worse than Death:
    • You've gotta understand. That couch is really uncomfortable!
    Finn: Can we just get back to the brain-eating, or whatever?
    • Dying in the Fight King's arena results in you being trapped there as his ghost gladiators forever. Finn managed to kill the Fight King, setting the ghosts free.
    • From "To Cut a Woman's Hair":
      "Well, maybe you should help me get some princess hair, so maybe your friend won't be sucked into my bottomless bottom!"
    • The fate of Princess Bubblegum and the Candy People in the episode "No One Can Hear You".
    • In "Betty", Simon confides that he'd prefer to die than become the Ice King again, but does so anyway, on the off-chance that he can be saved...
  • Fearful Symmetry: The Crystal Guardian of the Crystal Gem Apple. Unlike some examples through, it's not an actual clone, but an imitator made out of hard, sharp crystal. When you punch its punch, you're the one getting hurt, not it.
  • Fee Fi Faux Pas: Finn makes one when he yells at the top of his lungs at a candy party in "Ricardio the Heart Guy".
    Finn: I'M NOT JEALOUS. I'M WEIRD!!!
    Jake: (to himself) WOOF, this is goin' bad.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: Daddy, why did you eat my fries? While this may have been kind of a last straw thing, it's still silly to get so upset over it. On the other hand, it may not have been a last straw thing, but more of a personal hurtful situation she remembers. Sure, the Lord of Evil could go around stealing souls and Marceline couldn't care less, but doing something like that is just personal to her. Plus, it never stated when she wrote the song. It could have been a while before he was banished to the Nightosphere. Then a later episode reveals that the fries were stolen when they were desperate scavengers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, so maybe it was pretty much a felony after all.
  • Fictional Constellations: "The Mountain" introduces a pair of human-shaped constellations standing side-by-side, with the moment their hands touch colloquially known as the "Dap of the Heavens".
  • Fighting Your Friend: The modus operandi of the Fight King is to lure fighters to his colosseum in pairs and eventually pit them against each other. The ghosts of previous challengers moan for the forgiveness of their friends as they fight. Finn uses the Fight King's love of this to trick him into giving him his Soul Jar, which Finn promptly smashes.
  • The Final Temptation:
    • The Ice King pulls this in "What is Life?" to try to get NEPTR to become his son, Ice King takes the robot to his Imagination Zone and offers him a life of capturing (and "mating with") princesses.
    • "Puhoy." A Tear-Jerker as well. It's both played straight, subverted and then played straight again.
  • Find the Cure!: "Trouble in Lumpy Space". Jake gets "the lumps" when Lumpy Space Princess accidentally bites him, so Finn and they must go to lumpy space and find a cure before sunset.
  • Fire-Breathing Diner: Happens to the Earl of Lemongrab in "Too Young" when he gets fed Bubblegum's incredibly spicy cleaning potion.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: Finn and Jake use one each at the beginning of "Business Time".
  • Fisher Kingdom: The City of Thieves is an interesting take on it, as unlike other Fisher Kingdoms, this one just has so many acts of thievery that you're just gonna wind up stealing something back without any actual mental or physical changes.
  • Flames of Love: Flame Princess's flames burn hotter when she's in love, and could potentially destroy the world. Princess Bubblegum makes two attempts to murder her for it.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Princess Bubblegum in "Wizards Only, Fools!" Despite living in a world filled with magic and wizards, she believes that it's all just science that hasn't been explained yet.
  • Flatline: Happens for a short time when Princess Bubblegum is in the hospital in "Mortal Recoil", but then her body mass stabilizes itself.
  • Flat "What": Finn and Jake give one when they hear someone crying for help, only to find out it's a teddy bear that needs help hanging streamers for a party.
  • Flipping the Table: In "What Have You Done?", both the title card and the episode proper, and both by Princess Bubblegum.
  • Foil:
    • Ice King and Scorcher. The Scorcher's fire powers and competency contrasts with Ice King's ice powers and incompetency.
    • Finn's birth parents Martin the selfish con-artist and Minerva the selfless doctor. Taken to extremes after they lose Finn — Martin becomes a cosmic criminal who doesn't care about anything beyond the next amusing adventure while Minerva uploads her entire being into robo-clones to keep the remaining humans safe from a terrible plague — and even more after Finn finds them: Martin does everything he can, consciously or not, to push Finn away (probably has something to do with the fact that he thought he killed his son) while Minerva wants to protect Finn from the dangerous world outside her island and when he refuses she tries to upload everyone's brains into herself to keep everyone safe. The only way they're alike at present (as of the end of the "Islands" miniseries) is that they're both no longer physical humans but this is again "foiled": Minerva has many robot bodies to help people but is limited to the islands due to her signal strength but is able to explain her decisions to Finn; Martin has become/merged with a cosmic comet to explore the universe and to get away from Finn, who he feels he can never come to terms with. They met as doctor and patient, lived as "jailer" and prisoner, and are currently fettered and unfettered. Also Finn to his parents: in gaming terms Minerva's a healer, Finn is a fighter; Martin is a Chaotic Neutral (at best) rogue; Finn is a Lawful Good knight and Finn's birth parents (Opposites Attract) versus his adopted parents (Birds of a Feather / Look-Alike Lovers).
  • Food Porn: The construction of Jake's perfect sandwich. Among other things, it calls for meat prepared sous-vide with rosemary and thyme, organic sweet onions, homemade pickles, tears, and the on-screen deaths of two animals.
  • Foreshadowing: In the Ice King's genderbent fanfic "Fionna and Cake", when Cake joking puts on the Ice Queen's crown Fionna immediately smacks it away, yelling, "No! You might catch her crazy!". In "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II", it is revealed that the Ice King's crown is what caused his insanity.
    • In "The Eyes", where a horse spies Finn and Jake all night, at the beginning Finn remembers all the adventures they have in that week, one of them is rescuing yet another princess from the Ice King, and he screaming: I only want to be happy. The end of the episode shows The Ice King disguised as the horse spying Finn and Jake to learn how to be happy.
    • In "Lady & Peebles", when PB first uses her heart signature machine, there are five heart signatures on her and Lady's location. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that this is because Lady is pregnant.
    • In "King Worm", part of Finn's dream involves Ice King being chased by a giant monster made out of Gunther clones. Two of these Gunther mash-up monsters show up in a later episode, "Reign of Gunthers".
      • There also Finn's reflection in the mirror towards the end of the episode, foreshadowing the alternate universe Finn that appears at the very end of The Lich.
    • This one is a bit of a stretch, but in "Who Would Win" Finn mentions wanting bionic legs. While the alternate universe Finn does not have them, he does have a bionic arm.
    • Lemongrab is obviously very hungry in "Mystery Dungeon." For example, he asks Ice King to make himself into food, and he eats chewed-up pie out of a rat's mouth. This foreshadows "All Your Fault" where it's revealed that he starved himself because he uses all his food to make new life for his kingdom.
    • In "Marceline's Closet," Marceline is shown to have a diary with the name "Gunther" on it, which foreshadows her history with Ice King.
    • In a way, "Billy's Song" from the episode "His Hero." According to the song, Billy:
      • "Slayed an evil ocean" - In a later episode Finn had to face his fear of the ocean
      • "Cast the Lich King down" - The Lich appears in several episodes
      • "And the evil Fire Count captured a damsel fair" - Possibly a hint at the events involving the Fire King and Flame Princess
      • "Also... he fought a bear!" - A specific bear appears in a few episodes, and that bear unintentionally helped revive the Lich for the second time
    • The green lady from "The Creeps" and "King Worm" foreshadows the events of "The Vault." As do all the hints about PB being The Ageless. As do all of the incarnations of Finn that lack a right arm.
    • It was pretty much telegraphed since season 1 that Finn would lose his right arm. He was one of only two incarnations (the other being Fionna) that hadn't lost the arm.
      • That is, until "Escape from the Citadel," where the arm finally came off. It's restored a couple episodes later thanks to the Grass Sword, then falls off again, then it's restored; as of season 8 the Grass/Finn Swords combined to create a flawed copy of Finn and PB gave Finn a robot arm.
    • Hunson Abadeer has a conversation with 'the most evil soul he's ever met" in the episode "It Came From the Nightosphere". The evil soul in question? Gunter. It's later revealed in the episode "Orgalorg" that Gunter is in fact the vessel for an Amnesiac God Eldritch Abomination
    • Many people believed that the crown in Simon's skeleton during the explosion was an animation mistake, but "Crossover" reveals that it was actually foreshadowing the events of that episode: Finn and Jake travel to Farmworld to defeat the Lich that is there, and then Prismo saves Farmworld Finn by sending the crown back to that scene, being destroyed with the explosion.
    • "The Thin Yellow Line" suggests that the Banana Guards fear Bubblegum because of a horrible punishment she inflicted on her own family. "Bonnibel Bubblegum" establishes that they were only half-right: PB's family did suffer a Fate Worse than Death, but it was actually Gumbald being Hoist by His Own Petard.
    • In "Do No Harm" Finn takes over for Doctor Princess who we learn is neither a doctor nor a princess, her last name is "Princess" and she accidentally started working at the hospital when she came in for help and repeatedly notes that "helping people feels right". A few episodes later we find out his mother Minerva was a doctor and a member of the "Helper Class".
    • In "Jellybeans Have Power" Princess Bubblegum feels put out that she can't control her candy elemental powers as well as the other elemental princesses. In the "Elements" miniseries Ice elemental Patience St. Pimm amplifies their powers so they can be equals but it goes out of control. PB in particular becomes so powerful she not only turns everyone in her realm into candy (except Sweet Pea who technically isn't from this era of Ooo and LSP who's from space) she is even able to convert the people of other kingdoms including Flame Princess.
    • Throughout all of "Elements", pretty much every character has been corrupted into an elemental creature. LSP pointedly remains immune, telling Finn she's been in all four kingdoms and nothing bad has happened to her. This is because her very body can No-Sell the effects due to the nature of lumps in the show's cosmology.
  • Forgot About His Powers: Jake does this often when he and Finn face conflicts that would be easily resolved with Jake's growing or shrinking powers.
    • Not to mention his apparent imagination powers which were only used in one episode.
    • Or the ice ninja powers or wizard spells that Jake and Finn gain, neither of which are ever used outside of the episodes that introduce them. Sort of justified in the case of some of the wizard spells, as the creators stated the power disappeared when the robes were destroyed, as said above.
    • This happens to Ice King in "Princess Potluck" when he wonders how he can magically crash the potluck. Then he remembers that he can use ice magic (which he seldom uses for evil anymore).
      Ice King: Oh, lovable, forgetful me!
    • In "It came from the Nightsphere" abadeer claims that Gunther is the most evil creature he had ever encountered.
  • Forgot I Could Fly: In "The Monster", the Fat Villagers cornered the Lumpy Space Princess at a cliffside, even though she could just float up. She also falls down a cliff when being chased by wolves.
  • For the Funnyz:
    Jake: (farts)
    (fart causes avalanche and Finn and Jake are spotted)
    Finn: (angrily) Jake...
    Jake: (regretfully) I thought it would be funny...
    • Finn's entire adventure in "What Is Life?" is for the goal of seeing Jake get pied in the face.
  • Fountain of Youth: Present in the Season 2 Finale. Princess Bubblegum ends up being shattered to pieces in order to defeat the Lich who possessed her body. Not all of her pieces could be located, causing her to revert to a 13 year old girl, who looks even younger.
    • Subverted: Princess Bubblegum is about 847 years old. More mass = more mass to look like a young adult.
    • The REAL fountain of youth is the Crystal Wardens' blood, which grants an unholy healing factor so great that it ENDS THE LICH by resurrecting him! Unfortunately, it's not very smart - it doesn't work right if there isn't a framework to restore lost body parts from.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Varies. Even the character sheets for storyboard artists explicitly state that the characters can have either 3, 4 or 5 fingers, depending on what is needed or looks good.
    • Billy, the legendary hero, has six fingers on both hands, at all times.
    • Parodied in "Five More Short Graybles", where the supposedly finger-themed stories were actually based on the five tastes. Cuber laughs at the viewer for thinking people have five fingers.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Princess Monster Wife, built by the Ice King by taking various random body parts from all of the other princesses.
  • Free-Fall Fight: There's one at the beginning of "His Hero". Finn & Jake vs Swamp Giant.
  • Freefall Romance: season 6 episode 7 "Food Chain," Finn confesses his love to his lady-worm bride as they fall to their doom, probably to be eaten by a bird.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • In every episode a waving snail appears for at least one scene. They actually forgot to put it in "Trouble in Lumpy Space", but added it for reruns. In the second season finale, this takes a dark turn when it turns out that Lich performed a Body Surf to take it over as his new host.
    • A horse in a party hat, a grave robber, a taco, yo whadup, a nerd
    • One scene in "What Have You Done?" has a book with a string of numbers on it: 5318008. Converted to "calculator" font and turned upside-down, this reads "boobies".
    • Can you spot the NES in this background from "Blood Under the Skin"?
    • A license plate on a sunken car briefly seen in "Storytelling" reads "AT43VR": Adventure Time forever!
    • The ducks feeding outside Finn and Jake's house at the beginning of "Her Parents" all have two heads.
    • The heart monitor at the beginning of the episode "Mortal Recoil" displays the first 15 digits of pi, "3.1415 92653 58979"
    • In "Hitman", if you pause at the right time you can read the note the Scorcher leaves behind when the Ice King convinces him Finn and Jake are dead.
    • In "Apple Thief", when Tree Trunks is held up to the mirror, the message "�- - WUZ HERE" can be seen to the side. In Morse code, "�- -" means "A. T." Guess what "A. T." means. No, not "Apple Thief"!
    • In "Beautopia", we see a Lub Glub shaking a skull. Look carefully at this skull; the skull is wearing a hat with bunny ears. Who else wears/wore a hat with bunny ears?
      • There is also a cat skeleton suspiciously similar to Cake on the pile of skulls underneath.
    • In "Marceline's Closet", we get a barrage of bonuses.
      • If one looks at the title card, you'll see that Marceline has no reflection in the mirror.
      • As Marceline enters her room, we can see a copy of Madonna and Child.
      • Marceline's journal has the word GUNTER on it.
      • Her trophies on a wall include a head and arm that look like that could belong to the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth.
    • In Hunson's house, there is a portrait of him golfing with Peppermint Butler.
    • The dictionary in "Mystery Train". It has entries for "mathematical" and "Ice King", and one of the meanings for "pancake" is "Natasha's pet cat".
    • Near the end of "Gotcha!", you can briefly see a page from Lumpy Space Princess's manuscript.
    • Simon Petrikov can be seen holding the Enchiridion in a newspaper clipping in "I Remember You".
    • During the opening of "The Lich" when Billy starts laughing he briefly turns into The Lich during one frame. Foreshadowing his possession by The Lich.
    • During "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," Finn holds up the Ice King's first edition of "Ninjas of the Ice" with the barely visible subtitle "The Art of Fridjitsu."
    • In "All Your Fault" one scene shows Lemongrab's brain imprints. It's far too much to read in one go, of course, but there's some goodies to spot if you freeze the shot, such as "Oh what a good boy am I." You can see some of them here.
    • In the photograph of Simon and Betty seen on the tapes in "Holly Jolly Secrets Pt 2", you can see a furry figure in the background. Later, in the episode "Betty", one of the books is written by the two of them and called "My Friend the Yeti".
    • In "Crossover" The Maid has an additional note after the instructions.
    P.S. don't mess around and point the Maid at your buddy, you goof. You already screwed up once.
  • Forced Dance Partner: In the "Stakes" mini-series, The Vampire King forces a reluctant and uncomfortable cow to dance with him.
  • Friendly Pirate: Tree Trunks is a tiny yellow elephant with a Southern accent who bakes pies, lives at the edge of the Candy Kingdom, and seems largely aloof of the world, especially in the face of danger or monsters. However the flashback episode "Ring of Fire" reveals she was a pirate captain of a ship known as La Femme du la Mer, which ultimately culminated in her abandoning an ex-lover on a secluded island to die, losing her eye, and blowing the ship up to prevent anyone from stealing it from her. Despite all of this, she is genuinely concerned for the safety and wellbeing of others in the present and is one of the closest friends of the series' main protagonists.
  • Friendly Scheming: In "Mystery Train", Finn attempts to solve a murder on a train, only for the entire thing to prove to be an elaborate game staged by Jake as a birthday treat for him.
  • From Bad to Worse: "From Bad to Worse". The Candy Kingdom gets stricken with a zombie epidemic. Okay, nothing that hasn't happened before... except this time, Princess Bubblegum (AKA the only one who knows how to make the decorpsinator serum) gets zombified as well. And then Finn's, Jake's, Lady Rainicorn's, and Lumpy Space Princess's attempts to make the serum cause the zombies to grow wings, become incredibly strong, and get awesome lips.
  • The Full Name Adventures: The old title—Adventure Time with Finn & Jake.
  • The Future: About 1000 years after the present world.
  • Future Slang: A lot. Characters use many made-up words such as "Blooby", "Driz" and "Donk."

    G 
  • Gag Lips: The result of LSP's formula in "From Bad To Worse".
  • Gainax Ending:
    • "Tree Trunks" ends with the titular character taking a bite from the fruit they've been pursuing all episode. She explodes. Then we see her running, laughing, through crystal. It later gets a Mind Screwdriver in "Crystals Have Power."
    • Also "Evicted". After a whole episode of dealing with Marceline taking over Finn and Jake's house, she gives it back... and they return to find a giant worm that blasts them with a ray of some sort and asks them to hug it. This is partially a Brick Joke, as a similar worm appeared earlier in the episode. Later on, the episode "King Worm" gives this scene something of an explanation...but see below.
    • The end of "Power Animal" when Jake suddenly says "Let's go eat Cinnamon Bun!"
    • There was another one in "Chamber of Frozen Blades" when Gunter, one of the Ice King's penguins that he took to the hospital, lays an egg that hatches... into a floating pink kitten. Then the Ice King says, "Gunter, why didn't you tell me? Oh-ho-ho, Gunter-" as he is interrupted by Finn and Jake both kicking him.
    • Another example is at the end of "Her Parents" when Finn and Jake taste "Soy People," which is said to taste exactly like humans... of which Finn is the last because Rainicorns eat them. Not at all helped by Jake actually saying, "Finn, you taste delicious!" The real kicker is Finn, understandably wary at first, taking a bite of the face on his plate and then smiling agreeably.
    • At the end of "Mystery Train", the train falls off an open cliff and lands on a gelatin person. Jake says that this wasn't planned, and if it wasn't there they would have all died.
    • The ending of "Sons of Mars" with the freed tiny manticore.
      Manticore: I am the true coward, hiding from sincere expressions like a vampire in the nude who hides from the light. Thank you, brave hero. I was freed from bottle jail, but my new prison is shame. MY NEW PRISON IS SHAME!
      Finn: What did he say?
      Jake: He said his new prison is shame.
    • The ending of "King Worm". For some reason, it perfectly mirrors the ending of "Evicted!". The staff probably did that just to mess with the audience and make them think the entirety of events from that episode to this one was just a dream. AND THEY SUCCEEDED.
    • The end of "The Lich". Finn and Jake are dragged into an alternate universe where Jake is an ordinary dog, Finn looks like his dream mirror self from "King Worm", and Finn's mom is alive. Oh, and there's no mention of what happened to the Lich. This episode has a followup that explains it, however.
    • The ending of "The Great Bird Man" in which Xergiok meets a lonely mermaid and they fall in love... right after Xergiok was about to commit suicide.
  • Gasp!: Finn and Jake's reaction to the Glasses of Nerdicon in "The Real You".
  • Gayngst: Heavily implied with Bubble in "BMO Lost".
  • Gem Tissue: The Crystal People, who live in the Crystal Dimension. They are made of crystals.
  • Gender-Blender Name:
    • Tiffany from "My Two Favorite People".
    • Also Gary... the Mermaid Queen, from "The Witch's Garden", who does not look anything like a traditional mermaid.
  • Gender Flip: Exaggerated with "Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake". Everyone is gender-flipped. And we mean everyone—even the background characters (e.g., Mr. Cupcake is Ms. Cupcake, the Gumdrop Lasses are Gumdrop Lads, hell, even the staffers). They even changed the Creator Cameo of Adam Muto to Rebecca Sugar in the opening sequence.
  • Generic Cuteness: Many of the characters.
  • Geometric Magic: The incantation for summoning Marceline's dad requires a circle. With a smiley face on it. Also works for banishing him.
  • Get Out!: In "Mortal Recoil", Finn gets so angry at Ice King for accidentally dropping Princess Bubblegum into a well of toxins that he simply tells him, "Just get OUT OF HERE!!"
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: In the "Elements" mini-series, being perpetually cheerful seems to be a side-effect of being turned into candy.
  • Ghost Amnesia: The deceased in Ooo apparently get this, as seen in "Ghost Princess".
  • Ghost City: A futuristic-looking Candy Kingdom that is abandoned and devoid of life can be seen at the ending of Lemonhope Part II, during a Flash Forward to "a thousand years or so".
  • Ghostly Animals: A couple of these show up, with one episode even centering around a ghost mosquito.
  • Ghostly Glide: Marceline on occasion though she usually floating a majority of the time.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: Jake does this to Ash.
  • Giant Medical Syringe: In "Candy Streets", Lumpy Space Princess arrives panicking because she has supposedly been robbed. Princess Bubblegum goes to find something to calm her down, and returns with a needle almost three times bigger than herself that she uses to inject LSP with a tranquilizer. PB says that she might have given her too much, as LSP faints from the injection, but not before saying part of a name that Finn and Jake have to work off of to find the thief.
  • Giant Spider: The episode "Web Weirdos" features these.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: In "All Of The Little People", Finn blushes when he makes Tiny!Bubblegum and Tiny!Flame Princess Cat Fight over Tiny!him. Note that it was foreshadowing his fetish for violence.
  • Glad I Thought of It: From "Wizard":
    Finn: You don't need to quit your job.
    BUFO: I don't?
    Finn: Nah. You just need to stop taking credit for ideas that aren't yours.
    BUFO: Hey, great idea! (to himself) Glad I thought of it...
  • A Glitch in the Matrix:
    • Happens in "Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake".
    Fionna: But there is one guy I'd do anything to date... THE ICE KING!
    Prince Gumball: What?!
    Cake: Me, too! Ice King's the REAL DEAL!
    • In "King Worm", when Finn and Jake wake up for the first time, Finn's hat ears are still unusually long, hinting that it's still a dream.
  • God Is Dead: Grob Gob Glob Grod apparently dies to divert the Comet from Mars.
  • Going Cosmic: The show becomes increasingly philosophical and the scope of the series grows exponentially with each season.
  • Go into the Light: The concept behind "Ghost Princess" was that said character could not move on because she needed to know how she died.
  • Golem: Jake defeats one in "The Limit".
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: In the penultimate episode leading up to the series finale, both Princess Bubblegum and Uncle Gumbald call upon their allies to fight in the Candy War. They consist of many characters and villains that had appeared throughout the series.
  • Gone Horribly Right:
    • In "Incendium", Jake's goal was to find Finn a new love. When he showed Flame Princess "Finn", he made her think that he didn't like her, which sent her on a rampage. She chased Jake back to the tree fort, where she met the real Finn, and slapped him for being screwy with her; Finn somehow developed a crush on her. So all in all, Jake succeeded in getting Finn a crush... on possibly the most deadly princess in Ooo.
    • Further escalates in "Hot To The Touch", when it becomes clear that Finn is truly smitten with her. His attempts at wooing her leads to the Goblin Kingdom nearly being burnt down to the ground.
  • Gonky Femme: Many characters, most of them princesses. Lumpy Space Princess is the most prominent example.
  • Good Behavior Points: In "Gold Stars", an upset Sweet P meets King of Ooo and Toronto, who offer to teach him to dance. Unbeknownst to Sweet P, the two are using him as a distraction so they can rob people. For his work, they give him gold stars, which Sweet P's parents hang on the fridge. Once the refrigerator is one star short of being fully covered, Sweet P heads to King of Ooo and Toronto's house to try to get one final star, only to overhear them discussing their true motives. When Sweet P accidentally gains their attention, they threaten to burn down his orchard unless he leaves his parents and dances with them forever. As they approach him, the fire from their torches end up reawakening the Lich within Sweet P, who thanks them for teaching him before giving them their "education". He tells them that before nothing, there were monsters, then says "Here's your gold star" as black gas comes out of his mouth. After that, Sweet P goes back to normal as King of Ooo and Toronto run away in fear.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: By necessity. However, they do manage to sneak some Parenthetical Swearing in:
    Finn: You just like to say poop that jacks with my brain!
  • G-Rated Sex: Maybe, in a particularly kinky scene in "Breezy" involving Finn and LSP.
  • Gratuitous German:
    • Anytime Princess Bubblegum exclaims something in surprise or shock, it is likely to be in German. For instance, in "What Have You Done?", she says "Ich bin so glücklich, ich könnte, ich könnte..." meaning "I'm so happy I could, I could...".
    • Inside the Banana guard station, there is a random plaque of the word "Polizei" on the wall, complete with a German-esque Brunswick star.
  • Gratuitous Latin: The incantation for banishing/releasing Marceline's dad to/from the Nightosphere is "Maloso vobiscum et cum spiritum", which is roughly "evil be with you and with your spirit" in Latin. Other instances occur throughout the episodes.
  • Gratuitous Princess: The show has dozens and dozens of minor characters who are princesses. There's a princess of every flavor, including some pretty odd ones like Slime Princess or Hot Dog Princess, which might be a Stealth Parody of the trope.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: While Finn and Jake are mainly clear good guys and The Lich is the clearly the Big Bad of the show, the rest of the characters have flaws and redeeming qualities.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Enchiridion.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: As of Season 8, we have solid evidence that GOLB, a mysterious, sinister entity who has appeared in only a couple episodes, may in fact be this to the entire series: his attack on Mars in the past is a central part of Magic Man and Grob Gob Glob Grod's backstories (including rendering Magic Man's wife Deader than Dead, to the point that even Prismo can't bring her back); he is hinted to be as powerful, if not more so, than Grob Gob Glob Grod; and perhaps most significantly, the Lich himself- previously the closest thing the show had to a singular Big Bad- describes himself as "the last scholar of GOLB".
  • Great Offscreen War:
    • Both the Mushroom War and the war between dogs and rainicorns qualify.
    • "You Forgot Your Floaties" implies that there was a war between Mars and the invading GOLB, which ended with his banishment through the combined efforts of Margles, Magic Man and Grob Gob Glob Grod.
  • Green Hill Zone: The "Grassland" region of the Land of Ooo.
  • The Grim Reaper: Just like all the other mythical creatures in this show, he's a bit different than what you'd expect. He's a zen gardener.
  • Groin Attack: Apparently, excellence in this is a heroic attribute.
    • Finn does this one a good number of occasions. One time he even did it to a giant... after being transformed into a giant foot.
    Two-Headed Giant: OUR CROTCH! OUR EEEEVIL CROTCH!
    • Marceline gives Ash a groin attack after he basically tells her to go to the kitchen and make him a sandwich. "Also, pickles."
  • Gross-Out Show: Early seasons of the show had elements of this, but later episodes... not so much.
  • Growing with the Audience: A textbook example. As the original audience for the first season grew up, the show became increasingly mature and continuity-heavy.
  • Grows on Trees: In "The Witch's Garden" the eponymous witch has a garden full of donut bushes (and she plants a cupcake plant in the end). In "The Pods", magic bean sprouts give: adorable pigs, sparkly wands and an endless supply of icecream. The pigs are pure evil, though.
  • Gut Punch: As if it wasn't clear by now that no one is safe anymore both Prismo and Root Beer Guy die within a few episodes of each other. Subverted, though, as both come back to life later on. So far, the only characters actually Killed Off for Real have been Billy, Lemonjon, and some one-shot villains like Kee-Oth.

    H 
  • HA HA HA—No:
    Peppermint Butler: It's just a prank, man, for laughs!
    Lemongrab: Prank...? For laughs...? Yes, of course... Just a prank... for laughs. ...HahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Peppermint Butler begins to laugh, too) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHTwelve years dungeon... All of you. Dungeon. Seven years, no trials. C'mon, let's move it.
    • Happens in "The Vault" when Shoko asks PB for her amulet.
  • Hair Flip: A rather impressive one in "To Cut a Woman's Hair" by Finn.
  • Hair Memento: "What Was Missing" reveals that Finn keeps a piece of PB's hair and sometimes touches it.
  • Hair Wings: The Ice King uses his beard like a pair of small wings to fly. He of course loses this ability when he shaves it in "Loyalty to the King".
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal:
    • Zig-Zagged with Jake: He is in fact wearing a pair of translucent, form-fitting pants spun from spiderwebs by pixies.
    • "Ring of Fire" reveals that Tree Trunks used to regularly wear clothes, so now she's either constantly nude or never needed them in the first place.
  • Halloween Episode: "The Creeps", "From Bad To Worse", and the ''Stakes'' miniseries.
  • Hand Blast: Finn gains this ability after equipping Billy's gauntlet.
  • A Handful for an Eye: Finn and Jake do this to the Farm in "Who Would Win"; throwing mud into his face to blind him before pulling his pants down to trip him.
  • Hand Seals: Fridjitzu requires the use of these.
  • Handwave: Finn is supposed to be the only human in the show aside from Susan Strong, possibly. However there is a recurring background character named "Phil" who is based on a former worker on the show, Phil Rynda, and he looks incredibly human. When someone on the crew is asked what the hell Phil is, they usually say something along the lines of, "He's a Phil."
  • Happily Adopted: Finn the human was Happily Adopted into Jake the dog's family as a baby.
  • Happy Place:
    • Ice King's Imagination Zone.
    NEPTR: Sleep well, Poppy, in your imagination zone filled with beautiful princesses.
  • Hard Truth Aesop:
    • The moral of "Freak City" seems to be that some people are just jerks and that sometimes you have to deal with them.
    • "Too Old": some people are too far gone to be redeemed, and progress made will sometimes be reversed.
    • "Lady and Peebles": if a guy is making sexual threats against you, you're well within your rights to say no violently.
    • "Ocarina" has Jake deliver a cynical monologue about how the wealthy and powerful change the laws to suit themselves.
    • The moral of "His Hero" is that sometimes violence can be more helpful than nonviolence. Considering the show's nature, this might be a joke, but it's not entirely wrong.
  • Hard-Work Montage: The house-hunting montage in "Evicted!"
  • "Harmful to Pets" Reminder: In "Slumber Party Panic", Mr. Cupcake asks Jake (an anthropomorphic dog) if he prefers chocolate or fudge, and the latter claims that both things are deadly to him. Oddly enough though, he eats chocolate ice cream in another episode with no negative side effects.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: In "City of Thieves" this temporarily happens to Finn, resulting in a rather Darker and Edgier version of himself, complete with a Badass Cape.
  • Heal It with Blood: The Citadel Guardians' blood has limited healing properties, as shown when it was used to restore the flesh that had been burned off Martin's leg, and when it regenerated the Lich's entire body. However, it could not replace Finn's missing arm, implying that it does not affect bone growth.
  • Heartbeat Soundtrack: The background music for "Ricardio the Heart Guy" at one point.
  • The Heartless: Fear Feaster, who is the embodiment of Finn's fear of the ocean.
  • The Hedonist: Party Pat's character in "The Belly Of The Beast" suggests this. Laid-back attitude, parties and drinks honey-flavored energy drinks constantly, and doesn't seem to care or be aware that his people are in a monster's stomach and are in danger of being killed and digested.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Marceline's dad in "Daddy's Little Monster"... kinda. It's always "kinda" with this show. On his return in "Marcy & Hunson," he's graduated from evil to just embarrassing, and is probably the least bad of the show's many terrible fathers.
  • "Hell, Yes!" Moment: In "Dad's Dungeon", it looks like Finn's going to die believing that both Jake and Joshua think he's stupid and can't do anything right. Break out the phat remix of his dad's messages and the demonblood sword.
  • Hellfire: The Nightosphere has this. And the Fire Kingdom. Princess Bubblegum summons Hellfire when possessed by the Lich in "Mortal Recoil".
  • Heroic BSoD: Jake goes pacifist in "Crystals Have Power" when he hurts Finn while roughhousing, which makes him recall a time where he did the same with his brother, and his father's response was "You're gonna hurt everybody!" Eventually he has a vision of his father, who says "I meant you'll beat up everyone evil! Let me finish next time!" Jake responds, "Oh, well, I'm over it then!"
    • Finn goes through a short one in "Susan Strong".
    • Finn has another in "Dad's Dungeon" arguably the worst in the series as at one point he was going to eat an apple that would leave him in a position to get eaten by witches, fully aware of what would probably happen to him.
    • The next episode, if you can believe it, has an even worse one. When Princess Bubblegum rejects him again, he just lies on the floor staring at framed pictures of her, and doesn't even respond when his house catches on fire.
    • "Breezy" features what's likely the darkest one yet, in response to Finn being re-abandoned by his father moments after finding him again, and getting his arm torn off to boot.
    • In "The Wild Hunt," Finn cannot fight as he is constantly distracted by memories of brutally killing Fern an episode before. It takes an Indy Ploy by Huntress Wizard to snap him out of it.
  • Heroic Build: Younger Billy.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Stormo, a Candy Spinx created from Finn's DNA, sacrifices himself by trapping himself forever in a duel with the evil, power mad Goliad.
    • Alternate Simon Petrikov sacrifices himself to stop the Mushroom War in "Finn the Human/Jake the Dog".
    • Lemonjohn in "All Your Fault" after he gains emotions and realizes the only way to feed the Lemon people is by becoming Lemon candy.
    • Root Beer Guy sacrifices himself in "Something Big" to buy time for the Candy Kingdom to rally its defenses when Maja and Darren attack.
    • Grob Gob Glob Grod sacrifices himself in "Astral Plane" to stop what he thinks is another Catalyst Comet from crashing into Mars.
    • Betty Grof combines this with a (debatable) Heel–Face Turn at the very end of the series, sacrificing her self (space intentional) to protect Simon. "However it has to happen..."
  • He's Back!: At the end of "His Hero", Billy decides to return to fighting evil after Finn and Jake convince him it still works by showing him an old lady they just saved by beating up a monster.
  • He's Dead, Jim:
    (Susan slams her face to the ground)
    Jake: Oop. Ya killed 'er.
    Finn: I did?!
    Jake: Yep... Felled by surface-world germs.
    (Susan starts crawling on the ground)
    Jake: Heh... Just kiddin'.
  • He's Got a Weapon!: The butterfly from "The Other Tarts".
    Jake: Finn, he's got a laser gun!
  • Hidden Depths: The whole show. For a wacky, colorful kids' show, there's an undercurrent of melancholy to it, especially during Ice King-related storylines.
    Finn: Who in the world is sadder than the Ice King?
  • High-School Dance: Parodied in "Trouble In Lumpy Space" with the Weekly Promcoming Dance.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: It turns out that the horse that was constantly annoying Finn and Jake with its presence is really the Ice King in disguise.
  • His Or Her Name Is: Happens in "Mystery Train" with Colonel Candycorn.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Doctor Princess, who breaks the show's pattern of princesses only being known by their titles (Lumpy Space Princess, Wildberry Princess, etc.) by not being an actual princess at all; "Princess" is just her surname. And "Doctor" is her given name.
  • Hiss Before Fleeing: Peppermint Butler senses the Lich possessing Princess Bubblegum and does this.
  • Historical Hilarity: The famous scene in the pilot where Finn meets Abraham Lincoln, in the past. On Mars. ...In his mind.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Fight King when Finn uses his own plan (forcing warriors to kill their friends) by requesting a bigger sword to kill Jake with. Fight King throws him his own sword, which Finn then snaps.
  • Uncle Gumbald spending eight centuries as a moronic punch bowl after getting covered in his own stupidity juice.
  • Honorary Princess: Most of the kindgoms of Ooo are ruled by princesses. Of these, only Flame Princess and Lumpy Space Princess have confirmed royal parentage; the others seem to be self-proclaimed. And then there's Doctor Princess, who is neither a princess nor a doctor, that's just her given name.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: In "Nemesis", the members of the Veritas Brigade refuse to believe Peace Master when he says Peppermint Butler is the real evil one (over Princess Bubblegum) and defend him even after witnessing Pep But trying to stab him. Why? Because he's adorable and their "bro", he can't really be evil and if he is it doesn't matter.
  • How Dare You Die on Me!:
    Ice King: Princess, if you die on me, I will never forgive you!
  • How Did That Get in There?: Said by the Ice King when Finn finds Doctor Princess in his bag.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Finn has trouble using the Gauntlet the first time around.
  • Hufflepuff House: Princesses have been a staple since day one, and the princesses as a collective group had a number of A Day in the Limelight episodes in the first six seasons, notably "Prisoners of Love", "Loyalty to the King", "Princess Potluck", and "Princess Day". However, starting with Season 7, the princesses became largely Out of Focus and almost never contributed anything to the story beyond a few cameo appearances, save for princesses who are main characters like Bubblegum, LSP, and Flame Princess.
  • Hulking Out: Finn, when something happens to Jake. Then he's talked down by Jake and calms down.
  • Humanity Ensues: At least four different processes are shown to give human attributes to otherwise inanimate objects: cyclops tears, power of the ice crown, lightning from "ordinary" storms, and the ancient sleeping magi of life giving. Usually this will put a human-like face on the object. It is unclear how much this has to do with the general Moe Anthropomorphism of the series.
  • Humanity's Wake
  • Humanlike Hand Anatomy: Played with to disturbing effect on an episode, where a deer is attacking the citizens of Candy Kingdom. During the climax the deer stands up on its hind legs and, to everyone's shock, takes off its front hooves, revealing human fingers beneath.
  • Humanoid Abomination:
    • Marceline's dad in various ways. Do not threaten him while he's sucking souls.
    • Scorcher might count, having vast inexplicable powers and being completely mute.
    • The Freak Deer counts in a way. A lot of the horror in its portrayal is that it's simply a completely silent, completely sinister humanoid deer, with all the alien otherness that implies.
  • Human Knot: In Lady & Peebles, Ricardio shows off his new body by twisting Lady Rainicorn in a knot and throwing her to the side.
  • Human Popsicle: The Businessmen from "Business Time".
  • Human Subspecies: The more optimistic view is that humanity died out in the sense that it was mutated from its original baseline. Kind of like the way dinosaurs are extinct, but birds are still around.
  • The Hyena: The monster at the end of "Dad's Dungeon".
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: The Businessmen.
  • Hyperventilation Bag: The gag shows up when Bubblegum asks Finn to do a science talk. He freaks out and starts hyperventilating, so Jake turns into a paper bag.
  • Hypnotize the Captive: Ice King does this in "When Wedding Bells Thaw" to get a princess to marry him.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • In "Trouble In Lumpy Space", just before Jake goes full Lumpy, he says he'll never turn his back on Finn. Then he goes full Lumpy, and the other Lumpies call him over, and he says he'll be right over, as soon as he turns his back on Finn. And he literally does.
    • In "Dad's Dungeon", when Jake is viewing Dad's prerecorded message, Dad says that since it's a prerecorded message, he can't hear what Jake says. Later, Dad says "Butts are for pooping!" when Jake says "But-".
    • Need we forget Lemongrab shrieking "STOP SCREAMING!! WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?!"
  • Hypothetical Fight Debate: 'Theoretical fightonomics' is taught in a worm college Finn and Jake visit. Werewolf Queen always wins, apparently.


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