And it gets more depressing from here...
Be My Escape
is an Adventure Time fanfiction created by TheMasterHama.
This is perhaps one of the most depressing Adventure Time fanfictions by far. It involves Finn the Human escaping an abusive ringmaster from a vile circus, being adopted by Jake the Dog and his brother, Jermaine, and meeting Marceline the Vampire Queen. As the story progresses, Finn begins to learn to live with the others and it explores his past as well.
There is also an add-on made by DarkWrath20 called Be My Escape: What Was which adds-on more story detailing how Finn, deals with the loss of Marceline, & not to mention his encounter with the Lich.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- Finn is the most obvious here. He was never adopted as a baby, which led to him getting captured at one point and placed in a Circus of Fear. Said circus left him deeply traumatized to the point where he can barely function mentally.
- This version of Marceline is even more messed up than her canon counterpart, having been forced to wander the Land of Ooo all by herself and develops some level of dependency on Finn to maintain her mental health.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Jermaine the Dog. In canon, he has some moments of bitterness, but it was evident he was a still good person at heart. In the story, he's very cold and openly rude towards Finn. note
- Adaptational Villainy: Princess Bubblegum turns out to be the psychotic ringmaster that Finn and the other circus members are so deeply terrified of.
- Broken Bird: Poor Finn...
- Circus of Fear: Finn lived in one of these in the beginning of the story.
- Darker and Edgier: To many points in Adventure Time in general, most specifically as the consequence of Finn never being adopted by Jake's family and not becoming the hero Ooo needs. And there's an in-story example of this when it's revealed that the Ring Master is Princess Bubblegum.
- Dysfunction Junction: Marceline and Finn's relationships have tremendous shades of this. It's suggested that the main reason they can function at all is due to each other's influence, and when they're apart from each other they have a tendency to psychologically collapse.
- Downer Ending: Okay, if Marceline getting killed and Finn being recaptured by Princess Bubblegum isn't this, then what is?!
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Fortunately & Hopefully, the add-on story succeeds in making the above trope null & void thank's to Finn's important wish in Prismo's time chamber.
- Driven to Suicide The Cyclops in the circus did this.
- Fantastic Racism: The Land of Ooo is inhabited by a wide variety of creatures, and most of them seem to hate (or are indifferent towards) Finn solely because he's human.
- Foreshadowing: Early on, Marceline mentions painkillers to Finn and advises him to avoid them in case he gets addicted to them. When he's recaptured by Bubblegum after Marceline's death, he's constantly drugged on painkillers and unable to do anything on his own.
- Horror Hunger: Marceline's thoughts periodically indicate that her instincts compel her to eat Finn. In the first chapter alone, she outright admits in the narration that she's as dangerous to him as Rainicorns are.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: While it doesn't happen in-story, Finn's flashbacks allude to him being afraid of this happening to him at the hands of the Ring Master, and the short moments from her perspective indicates that this was her original plan.
- Jerkass: Jermaine the Dog is this towards Finn. It eventually gets his arm broken by Marceline.
- Last of His Kind: Finn, naturally. It's what caused his abuse at Bubblegum's hands; she was drawn to a pure human like Finn and wanted to break him into her own.
- Only Friend: Jake and Marceline were the only ones in the whole story who treated Finn with any genuine kindness.
- Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Finn has scars all over his back from years of physical torture at the hands of his former ringmaster. And it's pretty clear that the torture he endured left a lot more scars that just those.
- Shout-Out: Katara of the Southern Water Tribe is mentioned by the narration in one chapter as a contrast to a general lack of hopefulness.
- Song Fic: Every single chapter has at least one song in it that is appropriate to said chapter's situation.
- Wretched Hive: Candy Kingdom has become this. Hell, ALL of Ooo itself is this as well.
- Yandere: The Ring Master A.K.A. Princess Bubblegum reveals to be this.
