The final confrontation begins.
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: The King of Ooo's Caligula attitude since he took over the Candy Kingdom finally bites him on the ass in this episode when the Candy People get fed up with his bullshit and revolt. Bonus Points for Crunchie knocking his ass into an open fire, causing him to melt into a puddle, and crawl away.
- Achilles in His Tent: Marceline feels responsible for the Dark Cloud and refuses to help fighting it, since she considers it futile. It takes a conversation with Simon to snap her out of it and go back into the fray.
- Animalistic Abomination: The Vampire King's essence takes the form of a lion-shaped black cloud that absorbs and mutates everything in its path.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: The King of Ooo falls into a fire and melts like candle wax. He is specifically made of earwax, which in real life burns before it can melt because it's mostly made of dead skin.
- Call-Back: Marceline mentions that her new human experiences helped her grow up a little, which is what she said she wanted to stop being a vampire for in the first place.
- The Cavalry: With Finn, Jake and PB unable to subdue the Dark Cloud, the Candy People come to their aid. Various other inhabitants of Ooo, including Fire Princess and Hot Dog Princess, also lend their help, but it takes Marceline snapping out of her funk and swooping in at the last minute to even the odds.
- Continuity Nod: This isn't the first time Crunchie has tried to take over the Candy Kingdom.
- Cumulonemesis: The unleashed Vampiric Essence is expressed in the eponymous cloud form. Combined with Mix-and-Match Critter given that the quadruped form has a lion's face, a sheep's body, and snake "appendages".
- Decon-Recon Switch: In line with the entry on status quo below, the arc seems to have been a zig-zagged examination on maintaining status quo while also exploring character development. Status quo is represented by the logical conclusion that is the previous episode's point on Eternal Recurrence, which is something the arc of the season has been addressing as a whole, while the song Marceline concludes the episode with also states that things may stay the same when left as they are, they still change on their own as time passes.
- Disney Death: KOO is basically assassinated by being pushed into a fireplace, melting his wax body. However, he's later seen slinking away as a goopy puddle wearing his wig.
- The Dog Bites Back: Crunchie finally has enough of being the King of Ooo's Chew Toy and finally rebels, tossing him into a fireplace and causing him to melt.
- I'm Melting!: KOO is pushed into a fire and slowly melts into a puddle, the first time him being living wax comes up in the series. He survives, though.
- Irony: The extracted vampire essence of the Vampire King, who himself becomes a lion when depowered, looks like a giant ram.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Peppermint Butler was blown to bits by the release of the Dark Cloud. Princess Bubblegum tells Finn not to worry, since he's still alive and all she has to do is reassemble him.
- Long List: The leader of the Tiny Villagers rattles off a list of all the villagers whose help he needs as Bubblegum goes to fight the Dark Cloud.
- Not Quite Dead: King Ooo is shown to be alive after melting, and Vampire King's lion form is also shown to have survived.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: As Marceline races to fight the Dark Cloud, she yells "I'm gonna poop my pants if Finn kills this guy instead of me!"
- Power Up Full Color Change: Marceline goes all out with her soul-sucking ability, glowing with energy as her heart turns into a nested maw.
- Screeching Stop: Marceline leaps into the fight against the Dark Cloud with a shout of "I'm gonna poop my pants if Finn kills this guy instead of me!". Then she comes to an audible halt, and it cuts to literally everyone else being involved in the battle, along with the citizens of the Candy Kingdom and the half-melted King of Ooo, reacting to the sight.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of the episode Toronto, The King of Ooo's "Lawyer" is seen running away with a bag of treasure he looted from The Candy Kingdom's Treasure Room
- Sharing a Body: Vampire King is now living in Marceline's mind.
- Status Quo Is God: Zigzagged. By the end of the episode, Marceline has turned back into a Vampire and Bubblegum is Princess of the Candy Kingdom again. However their experiences without those positions caused them to undergo some Character Development, with Marceline thanking PB for helping her grow up. Also, an apparition of the Vampire King might be inside Marceline's mind now.
- Walking Wasteland: Anywhere the cloud 'steps' things are mutated. The hotdogs knights become mini-cephalopods. Strangely this does not extend to the creatures it has absorbed into its body. They just seem to float there.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: The Ice King fully supports Marceline's decision to not fight the Dark Cloud, proudly endorsing a policy of running from problems instead of helping other people with them. His "praise", especially the part where he compares the two of them to rats and cockroaches, is what convinces her to get back in the fight. She actually thanks Ice King for this, and it's possible Simon was getting some Reverse Psychology through his insanity.
