Much like the original show, Fionna and Cake knows how to tug on the heartstrings.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
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"Fionna Campbell"
- The first episode shows how sad Fionna's life is. Already depressed by her mundane lifestyle and her terrible financial situation forcing her to work in jobs she doesn't even enjoy to afford living, her cat Cake begins to act weird, which she takes to her current job where she ends up fired due to her poor performance, going to less than trustful people in order to cure her cat and losing her beloved pet at the end of the episode where she teleports to Ooo.
- The episode starts with Fionna having the time of her life as a magical girl fighting a rat bus to save the citizens inside alongside her pet Cake and meeting a mysterious Ice Prince who helps her defeat the rodent. Before she can celebrate, her alarm wakes her up, bringing her back to her depressing reality.
- The intro of the episode is a seemingly upbeat sitcom styled intro song with some very depressing lyrics about how meaningless and mundane Fiona's life is.
I'm not really feeling like my self today
Hated every job I've had, what’s wrong with me?
Every day's the same
Painfully mundane
'Cause I'm running from my feelings and my fear of sudden change
Every time I leave my room, I wanna die
Even with my friends, I'm alone inside
'Cause nothing really matters
And I don't know what's sadder
The fact I even try or that my hopes and dreams are shattered
I'm not really feeling like myself today, hey-ey-ey-ey…- During the intro, it's shown that Fionna had a lovely relationship with DJ Flame, only for the next scene to reveal that it didn't last long, as Flame broke up with her, devastating the poor girl.
"Simon Petrikov"
- Even after being freed from the Ice Crown permanently, Simon still can't catch a break. At the start of this series, he’s just a depressed mess who feels alienated by the madness of Ooo, and who can’t even connect with his fellow humans due to the huge age gap between them, not helped by the fact that people constantly remind him of the Ice King’s escapades (which includes his Fionna and Cake fanfic). He admits that sometimes he misses being the Ice King, because in that state at least he was too insane to understand what he had lost or realize how messed up his life was. He even refuses to talk about it with his loved ones (especially Marceline) out of fear of bumming them out, instead opting to perform a ritual in order to bring back Betty (who is still fused with Golb), just to reach some level of normalcy in his life.
- While Finn is in a better position than Simon, enjoying life as an adventurer, it’s implied that he’s hiding deep-seated issues, presumably due to the death of Jake. In fact, it’s possible that a major reason Finn is taking Simon into quests is not only because he wants to put Simon out of his funk, but also because he’s unable to process Jake’s death properly, distracting himself from his problems.
- In a Freeze-Frame Bonus, when Simon is looking through his contacts, you can see he doesn't have any contacts that start with the letter J.
"Prismo the Wishmaster"
- Prismo is in a pretty sorry state when we see him, and it's implied that it has to do with the death of Jake who was the Wishmaster's first real friend. He's laying at the bottom of the jacuzzi which is full of beer cans, he has lines under his eyes as if from lack of sleep, and has lines indicating stubble.
- Prismo's fate is ultimately awful as well. The Adorkable wishmaster ends up trapped in a light cube, then dropped into his own hot tub to sit forever. Poor guy.
"Destiny"
- Farmworld Finn has not lived a kind life. He's (perhaps justifiably) regarded as an evil menace who nearly doomed the world, his enemies have built power out of "defeating" him, and he can't even live in peace with his family without strangers reminding him of his vile acts underneath the crown's influence. His life has been toyed with by otherworldly forces he never fully understands, and he leaves the story impaled while trying to defend the very outsiders he wanted nothing to do with.
"The Winter King"
- Simon is clearly envious of the Winter King having managed to beat the madness of the Ice Crown, considering himself a failure for not having the "will" to overcome it. Although Simon is pleased with himself learning that the Winter King only retained his sanity by pushing the madness onto someone else, it also dashes Simon's only hope of possibly keeping his sense of self as the Ice King. In reality, it really is impossible for anyone to overcome the Ice Crown's madness.
- Fionna is horrified when she inadvertently causes the Winter King's death by draining the magic out of his crown during their kiss. Even worse, she almost immediately learns afterward that he brainwashed Bubblegum into becoming crazy, making the poor girl wonder if she might hurt people of the multiverse by her mere existence.
- And also, Simon has to watch himself (an alternate universe version, but still) die right in front of him, leaving him with a shellshocked expression. Even if the Winter King turned out to be a wad, that still likely rocked him.
- While the presence of the ice copy of a young Marceline can be interpreted in a number of different ways, the only thing that can be said for sure that for one reason or another, despite how close they were, Marcy hasn't been a part of the Winter King's life in a very long time.
- Speaking of ice Marceline, like the rest of the Winter King's subjects, she's reduced to nothing but a puddle.
"The Star"
- Given that this world's Martin isn't the loathsome deadbeat his main counterpart is, his gruesome death at the hands of Marceline is pretty tragic. Doubly so after he seems to take a shine to the baby world's Finn and likely would've been a much better dad to him than the main Martin was to Finn.
- Seeing how Marceline turned out without Simon is pretty heart-wrenching. Similar to the Winter King becoming more psychopathic without Marcy, Marcy without Simon becomes totally evil under the Vampire King's parenting style.
"Jerry"
- The entire episode takes place in a desolate wasteland where every living thing in Ooo was killed by the Lich's wish. As a result, normally colorful and lively locations like the tree fort and the Candy Kingdom are left in ruin and decay.
- The Ice King of this world's last moments are inadvertently caught on tape. He dies while bawling his eyes out after Gunter ruins one of his routines; an end that is as pitiful as the wizard himself.
- BMO, being the Sole Survivor, clearly hasn't been taking any of this well. He's convinced himself that everyone in Ooo simply left and tries to go about his life as if things are still normal, to the point where he assumes the role of Princess Bubblegum under the delusion that she's still alive.
- BMO ends up performing a Senseless Sacrifice in his attempt to charge Prismo's remote with his own power source, only to fail and blow himself up. This is followed by Fionna, Cake, and Simon giving BMO a funeral.Simon: BMO chose to make the ultimate sacrifice for people he barely knew. It didn't work, but that made it no less noble. Farewell, you little miracle.
- Surprisingly, this world's version of the Lich ends up being a pretty pitiful figure. Now that he's destroyed all life, the Lich has become a depressed shell of his former self who no longer has a purpose and can't find the motivation to do much of anything as a result.
- This also shows that despite how dangerous and scary the Lich is, he's still a pitiful being on a very primordial level: no matter how he accomplishes his goal, he's destined to not get any joy or satisfaction from the fulfillment of his purpose.
- Cake spends most of the episode very bitter over how Fionna prevented her from getting the Ice King Crown from the Vampire King in the last episode. Fionna already feels terrible about it, but it reaches its breaking point when BMO reveals he can't actually fix Prismo's remote, causing Cake to blame Fionna for that too and throw a tantrum, causing Fionna to flee the room and break down sobbing.
"Casper and Nova"
- After searching for Betty for so long, Simon finally arrives at where she is, but she is so utterly alien that the two can no longer interact as they did, with Simon mostly speaking to GOLBetty as she quietly stares at him.
- Simon goes to put the Ice Crown on his head while triumphantly announcing that he finally has a purpose. Luckily, GOLBetty transfers his consciousness away at the last second to stop him.
- Just before this moment, GOLBetty's eyes start shaking far more, almost as if in silent rage. She'd given up practically everything for him to be free of the crown, only for him to go right back to wearing it and likely with no intention of even resisting it this time. She would be entirely within her rights to be furious at him for making her sacrifice in vain. Fortunately, her solution neatly nips this problem in the bud for good.
- The Lich dies lamenting his lack of purpose, feeling himself abandoned by GOLBetty after devoting his entire existence to destroy all life in order to please her and angrily demanding her to give him a new purpose, only for her to force him into a painful transformation out of anger, shattering his bones and transform into just another one of her numerous green puzzle pieces surrounding her.
- Further adding to it, if one thinks about it further, he was acting on a flawed assumption from the get-go. GOLB was a mindless embodiment of chaos itself prior to Betty merging with him, and if anything, a world with no life, in perfect order, is the exact opposite of chaos, and thus GOLB. Not only will the Lich never be able to enjoy victory, his actual goal was beyond his reach from the very beginning.
- One overlooked aspect: With the Lich being transformed into a mindless green block, and BMO's failed sacrifice in the previous episode, the Extinct World loses its two only survivors and gets completely abandoned, with nobody to inhabit it anymore.
"Cheers"
- As a seething Scarab approaches Fionna and Cake, Fionna points out that he doesn't need to chase them anymore since they're back in their own world. In response, Scarab gives Fionna a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech:Scarab: All the worlds you visited. All the people you infected. Your little trip must have shown you the truth. It would be better for everyone if you were just... gone.
- Upon reaching the bad ending of the Casper and Nova game where Casper is forced into a Morton's Fork of losing Nova in both choices, Simon laments the lack of choices, only for Beth to point out that they could've got more choices if he'd chosen to follow some of Nova's choices, making Simon realize too late that Betty always sacrificed herself in their relationship while he never did the same for her.
- Simon recalls when he caught Betty before she got on the bus and realizes he should've gone with Betty to support her dreams instead of asking her to stay, seeing that he was enabling her self-sacrificial tendencies. As his past self boards the bus with Betty, he remembers it's only a memory and gets off, with the two reaffirming their love even if they didn't always make the right choices. Betty then gets on the bus, merging with Golb again and leaving Simon behind.
- Simon struggling to put on the Ice Crown before chucking it away with an absolutely raw scream:Simon: I didn't ask for this responsibility! It's too much!
- Despite having managed to start working on his problems, and being in a much healthier headspace now, Simon tells a Minerva-bot acting as his therapist that he's worried that he'll backslide.
- There's something extra upsetting about how throughout Simon and Betty's final moments together Simon is carrying most of the conversation as GOLBetty is unable to speak.
- It's played for Black Comedy, but a deleted scene shows that Ellis P.'s beloved pet squirrels were deleted by the Scarab. Ellis P.'s reaction is as devastating as it is comical.Ellis P.: No! NOOOO! MY BOOOOOOYS!
