YMMV / Adventure Time

YMMV tropes for the Adventure Time series

YMMV Tropes with Their Own Pages

• Alternative Character Interpretation
• Ensemble Darkhorse
• Harsher In Hindsight
• Hilarious In Hindsight
• Moral Event Horizon
• Nausea Fuel
• The Woobie

---

Other YMMV

• Adventure Time: Distant Lands
• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

---

A-E

• Abandon Shipping:
  • Some Fubblegum shippers sorrowfully tied up their ships and left them at the dock after "Too Young" revealed that Princess Bubblegum won't date Finn because of the age difference, and she told the boy to "move on."
  • Some Finnceline shippers did this after Marceline's ship sinking with Finn in "Go With Me."
  • Some Finnceline and Fubblegum shippers left their ships to join the ranks of the canon-in-the-past Princess Bubblegum and Marceline ship.
  • After the premiere of "Incendium", various shippers (but Fubblegum in particular) left their old ships in favor of Finn/Flame Princess. Finn/FP shippers jumped themselves after Finn's behavior in "Frost and Fire" and "Red Throne".
  • This happens In-Universe in the episode "All the Little People", where Finn ships and abandons several pairings.
  • Most Lemonzest shippers stopped shipping the Lemongrabs after "Another Five More Short Graybles" reveals that they are actually brothers. Even more left after the eating and "Too Old".
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • This:
    Finn: Princess! Put your butt here! Now, shove this in your mouth! It's hot!
    Princess Bubblegum: Finn, I don't understand—
    Finn: Please, Princess! Just stick it in your mouth!
  • From "Freak City":
    Finn: Kim! Get underneath Trudy!
    Kim: No, man, please! I frickin' hate Trudy!
    Finn: KIM! I WILL DESTROY YOU!!
    Kim: Okay, okay!
    Jake: Heh-heh-heh... Yeah...
  • From "The Pods":
    Jake: It's squirting!
    Finn: Squirting?!
    Jake: See? Squirting! ...Tastes good.
    Finn: Dang, man! Don't just lick stuff! It's evil!
  • From "Evicted!":
    Finn: I'm feelin'... I'm feelin' like we did it. I feel... completely satisfied..
  • From "Incendium":
    Finn: I can't keep pushing this down... any deeper.
• Accidental Aesop:
  • "You Made Me!" has spawned a ton of these. "If you can't love yourself, you can't love somebody else"? "Everyone has a soul mate"? "A negative times a negative equals a positive"? "Friendship makes everything better"? "You are your own worst enemy"? Take your pick- they all work out nicely.
  • One moral that could be construed from "Too Young" is "Inexperienced, immature people should not be given positions of leadership."
  • One interpretation on "Wizards Only, Fools", is watch out for bootleg medicine, that may actually be fake.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: If you viewed Lemongrab 2 as an example of this, then this trope would definitely hit you when Lemongrab devours him.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Upon seeing Gumbald blast a piece of candy with one of his weapons, Lemongrab wordlessly hands Princess Bubblegum a slip of paper that just says "Unmake me". Was he frightened by Gumbald's display, and asking Bubblegum to end him to avoid having to face Gumbald in battle? Or was he suggesting that Bubblegum also destroy something as a display of power, that something being Lemongrab himself?
• Alternate Self Shipping:
  • The existence of a canon Rule 63 universe which also happens to be in-universe fanfiction lends itself to a lot of this. One of the most common ships is Finn with his counterpart Fionna (though just as many people tend to depict Fionna as Finn's long-lost twin sister), though Bubblegum×Gumball and Marceline×Marshall Lee are common pairings.
  • Although the pairing is uncommon, there are some fanworks which ship Finn with Fern. Even those which take the stance that the characters are currently completely different people are still in this zone, because Fern still used to be a version of Finn from an offshoot timeline (and they even share all their memories from before their timelines diverged).
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: In "We Fixed a Truck", Starchy claims that Princess Bubblegum is actually a reptilian shapeshifter. There are people who actually believe that world leaders are shapeshifting alien lizards.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Many people did. Due to the simplistic art style and how admittedly silly and nonsensical the original short was, it was thought that the show would not be that popular; in fact, Nickelodeon rejected picking the show up for production. Cartoon Network decided to take the risk and the first episodes got over 2 million views and Adventure Time quickly became one of the most popular cartoons to come out in The New '10s.
• Angst? What Angst?: Subverted with Finn, who for the first few seasons is bizarrely upbeat about everything. But as he gets older, "the vault" is seen as not a good idea, he fucks up hard regarding romance (losing Princess Bubblegum to outside influences and Flame Princess due to his emotional manipulations), and he goes into straight clinical depression regarding his father and losing his arm; the fact that Finn didn't have a despair-induced Face–Heel Turn is astounding. Same goes with Jake and his kids. At first he's fine with them growing up so fast because looking after them was too much responsibility, but then really gets melancholy about it, and season six goes into their point of view, as although he misses them, all they know is that he's neglected them all except Jake Jr.
  • In-universe (and played for attempted laughs), Ice King didn't care at all that Princess Monster Wife died, instead despairing over the fact that she "gave away all [his] stuff". He also got over Finn's "death" pretty fast in "What Have You Done?" to the point that it's depressing for Finn.
  • Lemonhope is a cheerful, chipper little boy despite a life of being abused by a violent, unstable father, witnessing the abuse of all of his siblings, and eventually witnessing his father eating his other father. Despite all of that, he remains, seemingly, optimistic and hopeful, hence his name. This turns out to be because he is very self-absorbed; if he is happy and free then he doesn't have to worry about anything else.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Orgalorg was set up as some world-destroying monster along the likes of the Lich. When he makes his appearance, he tries to absorb the Catalyst Comet, ends up being cut out from the inside by Finn, and goes right back to being Gunther due to latching onto Banana Man's rocket in a weakened state.
  • Despite his grand return being teased several times, the Lich's last fragment is ultimately destroyed rather easily by Sweet Pea (who decides not to become evil) in "Whispers", while Finn is stuck and unable to contribute.
  • For all his buildup, GOLB ends up being this in the Grand Finale. He's essentially defeated by BMO and his singing due to his chaotic nature. Then he gets hijacked by Betty without doing much.
    • On the other hand, GOLB isn't actually defeated by BMO's song; it's simply enough to drill a hole to GOLB's stomach so Simon and Finn can beat a hasty retreat, and even that takes literally everybody singing together and Jake amplifying the sound by turning into a megaphone, and the hole begins healing almost as soon as it forms, as GOLB adapts to the circumstances. And GOLB!Betty is still out there as a menace; she simply won't attack Ooo at the moment because it would hurt Simon. It's about as good a win as you can get from an impossible being from out of space and time.
• Applicability: "All the Little People" has been interpreted as being one big, long Take That! to obsessive shippers [1] and/or symbolic of Finn's "pubescent sexual awakening", the start of his manipulative side, and/or symbolic of the crew's creative process. [2]
• Ass Pull: Cinnamon Bun's sudden boost in intelligence by means of baking was debated to be this by the fans, mainly because he was wearing the Flame Shield, which was supposed to protect the wearer from extreme heat.
  • That, and the fact that the writers seem to flip-flop on whether he's competent or not after being baked.
• Award Snub: Some fans felt that the Adventure Time episode "Too Young" was robbed of the 2012 Emmy by Regular Show's "Eggscelent". Because the Adventure Time fandom largely overlaps with the Regular Show fandom, many fans thought that AT winning the Emmy would have robbed Regular Show!
• Awesome Art: The title cards are all really freaking pretty, and also many of the backgrounds.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Lumpy Space Princess. Some enjoy her presence and find her funny while others just find her annoying, irritating, and obnoxious.
  • Tree Trunks. Some enjoy her naive yet kindhearted personality while others just find it grating. Her Dirty Old Woman tendencies are even more divisive, with some fans finding them hilarious and others feeling uncomfortable about them (especially since some of her suggestive comments are directed towards the teenage Finn). It doesn't help that in recent years, due to Values Dissonance, the latter opinion has grown quite a bit to the point where some people find it hard to see Tree Trunks as a likable character at all unless her early characterization is outright ignored.
  • Cinnamon Bun. Some find him to be endearingly naive as a foil to PB while others just find him annoying. However, this has dialed down a bit thanks to him becoming more intelligent and mature after the events of "The Red King".
  • Princess Bubblegum is one of the most infamous examples; one half of the fandom views her as an adorable, smart and likable character while others view her as a tyrannical and manipulative Jerkass. The show, however, seems to present both interpretations as being somewhat accurate, portraying PB as wanting to be kind and meaning well, but having been alive for so long she's prone to making decisions based solely on the long-term and not taking into consideration of other people's immediate needs or feelings. Her Character Development in Seasons 6 and 7 seems to have decreased this.
  • Lemongrab is possibly the most divisive character in the entire series. To put it simply, he's either a Tragic Villain and Jerkass Woobie or an unsympathetic and loathsome monster. It doesn't help that a lot of his detractors find his constant screaming extremely grating rather than funny or terrifying. And then there's the debate over whether or not he's an offensive portrayal of people with autism and other mental disorders. Fans are quite split on him to say the least.
  • Lemonhope. Some people see him as a sympathetic and likable character while others think he's an uninteresting jerk that lacks Lemongrab's humorous quirks. The fact that he causes fellow base breaker Lemongrab to explode causes fans to be even more divided by him.
  • Neptr. Is he a poor lonely little guy who doesn't get enough love and attention from his "family" (Finn and Jake ignore him and BMO seems to show some animosity towards him), or an annoying useless character people would rather soon forget?
  • Gumbald. While some think he's a cunning and menacing antagonist that's worthy to be one of the show's final villains, others find him to be a shallow, underdeveloped villain that can't compare to the show's former big bad, The Lich.
  • Jake's son, Kim Kil Whan, splits the fandom a lot. Either he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who only wants what's best for his family and to teach them responsibility, or he's a completely unlikable and amoral jerkass whose Well-Intentioned Extremism in his debut feature and the generally cold treatment of certain situations makes him a Scrappy.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Given the Mind Screw nature of the show, there are a lot of these, be it subtle and small Noodle Incidents or Orphaned Punchlines or in-your-face, full blown BLAMs. Some of the stand-outs are:
  • The Abraham Lincoln scene in the pilot. When he shows up again in the series proper, it's just as jarring to people who haven't watched the pilot.
  • The ending to "The Other Tarts."
  • Jake's Dream Sequence when he falls asleep during Princess Bubblegum's lecture:
    Jake: Where am I?
    (the camera pans over to show a tiny giraffe, a tiny snowman and a tiny version of Tree Trunks)
    Tiny Snowman: Jake, you're president now!
    Jake: Oh my gosh!
    (Jake proceeds to sway back and forth while the tiny snowman, giraffe and Tree Trunks all clap.)
  • The scene in "Beyond This Earthly Realm" when the Ice King breaks the fourth wall and proceeds to make an elaborate speech to the audience.
  • Finn's premonition dream in "The Lich" is incredibly random, aside from the key moment where the Lich kills Billy.
  • The scene in "A Glitch Is a Glitch" where Jake's arm and PB's hand make out. Yeah...
• Bizarro Episode: "BMO Noire" makes no sense, even by this show's standards.
  • "King Worm". Which bizarrely acts like something of a Mind Screwdriver for the Gainax Ending of "Evicted"... Sorta.
  • Also the "Fionna and Cake" episodes, which have gender-flipped versions of everyone in the cast.
  • The best contender so far has to be "A Glitch Is a Glitch" for its CGI Art Shift and exceptionally weird presentation.
  • "Puhoy" is an episode spent almost entirely inside a pillow world that may or may not have been a dream. Similarly, "Rainy Day Daydream" is an episode about Jake inexplicably gaining Reality Warper powers via his imagination. Expect weird stuff that doesn't normally occur to happen when there's a knife storm (which is in itself weird).
  • Another of the guest animator episodes "The Food Chain" and especially "Water Park Pranks" tend to be seen as not only bizarre but divisive among fans.
  • "Sad Face" is all about Jake's tail living a double life as a clown when he goes to sleep and features no previously established characters in the actual plot. Even "Blue Nose"'s more artsy numbers at the circus are freaking strange.
• Broken Base:
  • Some people were psyched with the announcement of the Gender Flip episode. Others... not so much.
  • Fans who only want adventurous episodes (because the show has "Adventure" in its name) versus fans who want more episodes focusing on shipping potential and/or just general weirdness. Most episodes are of the former kind◊. Ironically enough, season six's "season one-like" episodes ("Walnut and Rain" for example) didn't get as good a reception as the more philosophical episodes of that season.
  • Those who like that creators are very aware of the fandom and those who feel that the show has gone too far pandering to the fans, chiefly regarding the existence of Fionna and Cake.
  • "A Glitch is a Glitch" as a lot of people really enjoyed its unique art style and unusually bizarre premise while others despise it for the very same reasons claiming it's too different.
  • "Too Old." Those who like it are fond of it for its darkness, drama, and suspense. Those who hate it absolutely despise it for the Fridge Horror of Lemongrab's actions physically and verbally abusing of his kids and clone, and eventually committing presumed murder and the fact that only Lemonhope was rescued at the end.
  • "Breezy" got a lot of controversy. Most would agree it's uncomfortable, but whether it's a necessary look at depression and a realistic using "kissing" to fill the void, or too much and made LSP cross a Moral Event Horizon depends on who you talk to.
  • The Stakes mini-series for a lot of reasons, such as the feeling the villains didn't get enough screen time, Marcie turning out to be a demon turned vampire (though some argue she is a half human hybrid, so that's why the change was so effective) or even that Finn was mostly useless throughout. The biggest point of contention though is easily the Status Quo Is God ending; it doesn't help that "Everything Stays" is basically "Status Quo: The Song".
  • The entire fact that the show has never been allowed to explicitly reference Marceline and Princess Bubblegum having previously been an item despite numerous actors and crew giving Word of God about it. After shows like The Legend of Korra and Steven Universe have made huge inroads in portraying homosexuality in western animation, many fans are wondering even more what the hell is the problem with this show joining them. This was resolved in the series finale, when the two share The Big Damn Kiss and a Relationship Upgrade.
  • Weirder episodes played not for laughs, such as existentialist or symbolic episodes, tend to get mixed reactions. One side loves their depth, while the other side hates them for being confusing, some accusing the writers of invoking Faux Symbolism that doesn't really mean anything.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After seeing how much of a despicable, cannibalistic, insane tyrant he's become, watching Lemongrab be blown to smithereens upon being forced to hear Lemonhope play his harp is extremely satisfying, especially to his detractors.
  • While it's certainly terrifying, the Lich briefly taking control over Sweet P's body and subjecting the King of Ooo and Toronto to unholy visions of monsters, causing them to run for their lives while screaming, is nonetheless quite satisfying, considering what horrible scumbags they are and how they manipulated and threatened poor Sweet P into helping them con people.
  • Even though her replacement is a Jerkass, Princess Bubblegum being overthrown by her own subjects in favor of the King of Ooo is satisfying for some, considering some of the more morally questionable acts she's committed over the series.
    • And to those who didn't like seeing her get booted off her throne, the Candy People coming to her aid during the events of the Stakes miniseries, standing up to the King of Ooo, and reaccepting her as their ruler can definitely be this.
• Character Perception Evolution:
  • Tree Trunks, while never exactly a fan favorite, was originally fairly well-liked due to her Intergenerational Friendship with Finn and Jake, her kindhearted personality, and being a Cool Old Lady. While her Dirty Old Woman tendencies initially grossed out a few fans, especially since some of them were aimed at the 13 year-old Finn, most were willing to write it off as harmless, helped by the fact that she never showed interest in Finn after her first two appearances, making it look like a case of Early-Installment Weirdness. However, thanks to the #MeToo movement exposing how bad the Double Standard of adult women grooming male children really is, an increasing amount of fans have come to regard Tree Trunks' crush on Finn as incredibly creepy. Although she still has some fans who prefer to ignore her first two appearances, several are unable to look past her early characterization to see her as a sweet old lady at all.
  • Ice King, despite initially being the series' main villain, didn't have a great reception at first, being viewed as a somewhat annoying and incompetent crazy old monarch whose only goal was to find (or rather kidnap) a princess to be his wife, and to a lesser extent, become friends with Finn and Jake. However, after later episodes beginning with "Holly Jolly Secrets" fleshed out his backstory, revealing him to have once been a human named Simon Petrikov who slowly lost his mind due to his crown's influence and lost the love of his life because of it, Ice King quickly became acclaimed as a character, with many praising him for being a great example of a Tragic Villain. As an added bonus, many of his previous antics are now viewed in a much more depressing yet three-dimensional light.
  • The (original) Earl Of Lemongrab was originally very popular in his first appearance, "Too Young", for his memetic catchphrase, "UNACCEPTABLE," and for coming off as Unintentionally Sympathetic in Finn and Princess Bubblegum's pranks. However, when he started appearing more often, many started to find his voice and constant shrieking annoying, and what few fans he had left jumped ship after he started abusing Lemongrab 2 and their children, which became very Harsher in Hindsight after his voice actor, Justin Roiland's abuse allegations in 2023. Another point of contention is how his behavior and mannerisms make him come off as an ableist caricature of Autistic people.
• Common Knowledge: A common misconception is that Fionna the Human is the same age as Finn just because she is his Distaff Counterpart, when there is evidence making it more likely that Fionna is intended to be much older. Aside from the fact that it's clear that gender isn't the only difference the Fionna and Cake characters have (such as Cake the Cat obviously being a different species from Jake the Dog, Flame Prince and Turtle Prince being implied to be attracted to each other in "Five Short Tables" when their female counterparts were clearly shown to be straight and the tie-in comics, which Fionna and Cake creator Natasha Allegri considers canon, giving origins for the Ice Queen and Flame Prince that are completely different from those given for the Ice King and Flame Princess), there's also how the episode "Mortal Recoil" made it explicit that the Ice King draws the line at underage girls when he gave up pursuing Princess Bubblegum after she de-aged to 13 years old and his expressed desire to make Fionna real so he could marry her would be hypocritical if he intended her to be the same age as Finn. Fionna's article on the Adventure Time wiki did once say that she was estimated to be around Finn's age, but has since been revised to remove the Age part of her character template when it was realized that there is no evidence supporting Fionna being the same age as Finn and that any guess at how old she actually is would be purely speculation.
• Complete Monster: The seemingly-sweet land of Ooo has many villains, but while many are either very tragic or not serious, the same cannot be said of the following:
  • The Lich is an evil, ancient sorcerer, the "last scholar of GOLB", and the series's defining Knight of Cerebus who returns time and time again from seeming destruction focused solely on one thing: the destruction of all life.
    • The original Lich escapes his amber prison and attempts to use his well of power to restore his power and bring about the end of Ooo, only to be foiled by Finn. The Lich then possesses Princess Bubblegum to use her body for his purposes. The Lich later murders Billy in retribution for his past defeat, wearing his skin to trick Finn into giving him the Enchiridion so he can enter the Time Room and wish for the extinction of all life across the multiverse. The Lich spitefully murders Prismo and his physical body and tries to use an army of cosmic breakouts to destroy a billion worlds across the universe, turned into a harmless baby named Sweet P afterwards.
    • The "Farmworld" incarnation of the Lich is an alternate version that possessed the body of an alternate version of Jake the Dog. The Lich manipulates his world's version of a grief-stricken Finn to gain access to The Multiverse, planning to slaughter the denizens of every reality, over and over again, until he has made a "mountain of broken bodies" from his victims. Escaping into the world of Ooo, the Lich mentally tortures Sweet P for nights on end to try and turn him back into the original Lich. After his final death, the Lich resurfaces in Distant Lands, where Farmworld Lich manipulates New Death into killing his father and uses him as a puppet to annihilate the cycle of reincarnation, stopping new life from blooming.
    • Comic Book: The Lich, as vile as in the cartoon, continues his crusade to destroy all life after his defeat in Princess Bubblegum's body, taking physical form again to use a Bag of Holding to suck up thousands across Ooo, with the ultimate intent to suck up the entire planet and throw it all into the sun. Even destroyed, the remnants of the Lich's power continue to horrify and torment Finn, with an echo of the Lich's power creating a dungeon to Mind Rape the heroes—taunting the Ice King/Simon Petrikov with an image of his old love Betty and forcing him to watch as she fell apart—and twisted a sapient tree into a horrible monster, both in preparation to eventually recuperate and destroy life again.
  • "Preboot" & season 8's "Islands" miniseries: Dr. Gross was formerly a scientist and doctor on the series of islands founded by Minerva Campbell as a refuge for the remnants of humanity, training children to become "Seekers", with no hesitation in brainwashing them and having them brutalize their own friends to prevent any escape from the islands. Dr. Gross eventually turned to twisted experiments on sapient beings, with her recklessness accidentally unleashing a virus that killed off two-thirds of all humanity on the islands—to her complete apathy. Escaping the islands, Gross continued her experiments, scheming to return to the islands and forcibly augment all humanity into cybernetic abominations like herself, even trying to cut apart Finn and his friends to use as raw material. An unfeeling scientist with zero empathy, Dr. Gross proves that, sometimes, Humans Are the Real Monsters.
  • Distant Lands "Wizard City": Dr. Caledonius, supposedly a Cool Teacher at Wizard City's school for preeminent young wizards, is actually a deranged cult leader worshiping an eldritch horror named Coconteppi. Caledonius takes an obsessive interest in the amnesiac, childlike Peppermint Butler, knowing he used to be the most evil dark wizard in Ooo's history, and so manipulates and corrupts him into drinking the ichor of Coconteppi and becoming the monster's host, all so that he'll annihilate Wizard City and usher in the "Second Age of Terror". Caledonius has no compunction murdering her own teenaged students; she murders Spader in a failed ritual to summon Coconteppi, then remorselessly orders Peppermint's friend Cadebra murdered when she tries to help him break out of Coconteppi's influence.
• Continuity Lock-Out: From Season 5 onwards this kicks in, and only gets more and more pronounced. Many episodes later on expect you to fully understand the lore of the series and recall events from 20+ episodes ago.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Finn and Fionna. Yes, it exists, though just as many people depict Fionna as Finn's long-lost twin sister (in the early days, she also tended to be depicted as Finn's mother interchangeably with Susan Strong). Likewise for Bubblegum/Gumball and Marceline/Marshall Lee.
  • Fionna and Flame Princess.
  • Lemongrab and Prince Gumball or Lemongrab and Tree Trunks. GumGrab and LemonTrunks.
  • In-universe with Finn shipping BMO and Ice King and him mixing different couples of the toy version of his friends like LSP/Mr. Cupcake, and Marceline/Peppermint Butler.
  • Now that the Lemon-Gay ship has burst into flames and plummeted, a few fans◊ have decided◊ to ship◊ Morbidly Obese Lemongrab with his pudding. Also counts as a Cargo Ship.
  • Ever since his debut in the series, the Japanese and Korean fanbases started shipping Finn with Fern.
  • Finn and Bronwyn, Jake's granddaughter. Although this ship has gotten slight traction thanks to their cameo appearance in the end of "Obsidian". Which has an Adult Finn and an slightly older Bronwyn making an appearance together.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • That Schrödinger's Cat thing in the dungeon episode - mostly because of his compelling voice (provided by Clancy Brown) and him saying, very casually, that he would "unzip Finn's skin and wear it like a little coat."
  • Lemongrab get a dose of this in "You Made Me!". He reveals that his sword shoots sound blasts, and it's implied that he's an inventor of sorts. He apparently made a room whose sole purpose is to electrocute people through the floor.
  • The Lich. He's the Big Bad of the show, and is so scary that he's somehow amazing.
  • Goliad! A cute candy sphinx with a baby face and the voice of a little girl, who mind-controls people using her psychic powers.
  • MAGIC MAAAN!!! On one occasion, he whistles, which causes a bird to flutter down and land on his finger. With a wave of his free hand, the bird gets turned inside out, and flops away.
  • I'm going to cut out Princess Bubblegum's heart AND MAKE OUT WITH IT! Ricardio is awesome for being voiced by George Takei, for being one of the most unexpectedly horrifying villains in the show, and for being all of the Ice King's most evil attributes incarnated into a heart.
  • Hunson Abadeer. He is essentially the Adventure Time universe's version of Satan.
• Creepy Cute: Me-Mow, especially in her debut appearance when she was just a pint-size cat, is so damn adorable, despite being a literal assassin.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Surprisingly, for a cartoon, it crosses it many times.
  • Special mention goes to the scene of Jake reading his pups "The Baby-Eating Fox and the Babies" storybook in "Jake the Dad".
  Jake: (after reading through a few pages) This is a lot darker than I remember it…
  • The Castle Lemongrab video straddles the line between hilarious Stylistic Suck and terrifying propoganda.
• Crossover Ship: Marceline is paired with Vanessa Doofenshimrtz as friends. The fact both are Dark Action Girls who have a punk, goth aesthetic helps. They also have a Companion Cube in the form of an old doll they got from a father figure helps.
• Cry for the Devil:
  • It's easy to feel sorry for the Ice King at times, especially after we learn his past life as Simon Petrikov and how he lost his beloved fiancée.
  • Lemongrab can get this in his most sympathetic moments, considering he's so mentally unstable that he doesn't know how to connect with people…although any sympathy previously given to him is pretty much gone by Season 5.
• Delusion Conclusion: Though mostly restricted to the first three seasons, several Adventure Time theories claimed that Finn only imagined the Land of Ooo and him being a famous hero in it, due to everything from coma to schizophrenia to a coping mechanism for domestic abuse.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Many have noted Neddy bares a lot of resemblance to someone with special needs, being very frightened of the world around him, demonstrating Immortal Immaturity, and remaining isolated while sucking on the roots of a tree to keep himself calm, reminiscent of someone with crippling anxiety and emotional development problems using a coping mechanism to remain calm. His sister's acceptance of him while acknowledging he's just "built different", but they should accept him regardless, is very reminiscent of a parent or caretaker willing to accept someone as having special needs while loving them regardless, and wanting others to do the same. "Come Along With Me" in particular ends with Bonnie and Lolly singing a lullaby to Neddy, like a pair of family members caring for someone that can't care for himself.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Flame Princess got this initially just for being a Third-Option Love Interest to Bubblegum and Marceline, but later got a more subdued version of the trope because she couldn't even touch Finn without hurting him. It eventually all but evaporated after she and Finn permanently broke up.
  • When this trope is applied to her, Princess Bubblegum becomes a sociopathic monster who only fake cares about others as long as she can use them.
    • Bubblegum also gets hit by what can only be called a reversed version of the trope, as people will ship her with anyone, especially Finn and Marceline, despite her showing clear and firm signs of not wanting to be in a relationship.
  • Heck, even Marceline gets hit occasionally.
  • After "Too Young", a lot of fanart depicting Lemongrab's demise sprung up on the internet.
  • On the genderswap side, Marshell Lee is often depicted as jealous and possessive of Fionna (espically in Fionna/Flame Prince works). The fact that unlike his female counterpart, he actually seems to have romantic feelings for Fionna, does not help his case.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • The Ice King, now that we know his past. He's easily much more sympathetic, and the show itself has toned down his evilness and upped his doddering insanity since past the first season, but some people go so far as to say he isn't a villain and his kidnappings are harmless and alright. The show often follows up a woobie episode of his with something that hammers in that he's a Not-So-Harmless Villain (like "Princess Monster Wife" followed "Holly Jolly Secrets").
  • Lemongrab, thanks to being what amounts to a mentally handicapped child with social issues…at least until he took a flying leap off the deep end in Season 5.
  • Ash, too, for the same reason Marceline ignored his bad traits: He's a punk rocker bad boy.
  • Hunson Abadeer is the closest thing to Satan, rules the Nightosphere in a state of chaos and disarray, and his love for his daughter Marceline is his sole redeeming trait. Fandom tends to portray him as a Bumbling Dad, probably because he's a light parody of one.
• Dry Docked Ship: Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Olivia Olson confirmed that they were ex-girlfriends, but that the show wasn't allowed to portray it as TV executives for kids' shows are usually wary of showing same-sex couples out of fear of backlash from advertisers and viewers (though Steven Universe, Clarence, and The Amazing World of Gumball have shown that it can be done with little to no controversy^note besides being edited/altered on international airings in countries that aren't as tolerant of homosexuality as North America is). They come out of dry dock in the series finale.
• Ending Fatigue: The sheer amount of content and complex lore this show has with all of it spanning across 11 years it can be hard to keep getting invested until you reach the end with the Distant Lands miniseries.
• Epileptic Trees: It's extremely likely that Phlannel Boxingday is actually Princess Bubblegum in disguise: both are pink; have an identical face apart from the mustache; have the same initials and same number of letters and syllables in their first and last name, Boxingday's last lines include Gratuitous German ("In deinem Kopf."), references to being unable to interfere in Castle Lemongrab's policy due to treaties and Techno Babble. The only other possible explanation is that Boxingday is a "sibling" that came from the same pile of goo where she came from.
  • Finn pulled something very similar in "Davey" so she could've had a coach on how to pull it off.
• Escapist Character: Finn the Human Boy lives in the fantasy world of every kid's imagination, enjoys fighting evil with Charles Atlas Superpower, and has a talking, stretching dog as his brother and sidekick. When he's not adventuring, hangs out with the likes of a living video game console and a sexy, fun-loving, and all-around fun vampire girl in a Treehouse of Fun with a room full of gold. Unfortunately, things get rougher as he grows older. Namely, dealing with different sides and hidden secrets of his friends, the ramifications of being (possibly) the last human alive, and most painfully, dealing with his love life with very little guidance and no prospective romantic partners that match both his age and his species. ^note  Even the room full of treasure got addressed realistically. The only reason it got so big is because Finn and Jake didn't know they could spend it. Once they did, they blew it all in less than a day.
• Evil Is Cool: The Lich is this in spades. While most of the show's villains are lighthearted, comedic, and/or tragic, The Lich's popularity comes from the fact that he is NONE of these things, being a completely evil and absolutely terrifying undead monster who wishes to wipe out all life in existence.

F-M

• Fan Nickname:
  • The muscular robot-armed Finn from "Mortal Folly" has been named Guts Finn by users on /co/.
  • Fans often call Alternate Universe Finn "Huckleberry Finn."
  • Lady Rainicorn and Jake's offspring are often called "corndogs".
  • The Ice Queen is often named Simone Petrikov by fans.
  • Prismo is sometimes referred to as "Gay Origami Jesus" by Tumblr users.
  • Betty after taking Magic Man's powers is often called Magic Ma'am for the pun.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • With Regular Show, though the creators are colleagues, both shows helped in reinvigorating Cartoon Network after its infamous Network Decay, and there are Adventure Time fans who also like Regular Show (and vice versa).
    • And then it got a crossover (granted in comic book form, but hey a fantastic one nonetheless).
  • And with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, mostly for both being popular kid's shows that have a large adult fanbase.
  • With Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar's own show. One camp believes the latter to be a more streamlined version with much faster plotting and character exploration. Others thought Rebecca Sugar's departure merely took her talent with her to pour her attention into. Doesn't mean there are not fans of both, and generally fans of the former tend to be of the latter, though the reverse isn't universal across the SU fandom.
  • A very tense one developed with Teen Titans Go!, because when it started airing it quickly became Adored by the Network while Adventure Time was given a more erratic broadcast schedule with no repeats of old episodes. The fact that TTG got a theatrical movie, which AT was supposed to have, only adds fuel to the fire. The show prematurely ending against the production team's wishes doesn't help.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • The fandom is overflowing with crossovers in which the usual cast interacts with their gender-flipped counterparts from the "Fionna and Cake" episodes, despite those stories explicitly taking place in in-universe Real-Person Fic written by the Ice King, and later other characters. (Though Word of God says that Fionna and Cake may nonetheless exist in an Alternate Universe.) Sometimes the characters meet via magical means, but just as often they act as if their doubles have been around this whole time, and it's especially common for them to be each other's siblings (Fionna is Finn's twin sister, Gumball is Bubblegum's older brother, etc.). It probably helps that there is official artwork◊ of them interacting◊. Ice King would even write this very type of fic in an issue of the comics.
  • Once that fandom realized that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum were old flames, the floodgates for high school and college AUs for the pairing burst wide open. Strangely enough, in conjunction with the above, these fics have the tendency to give Marceline a brother in the form of Marshall Lee while forgoing the other opposite sex versions of the characters.
• Fanon:
  • The Rule 63 world is sometimes referred to as "the Land of Aaa," even though the "Fionna and Cake" episode still uses "Ooo."
  • Generally people assume that facts about the normal world carry over to its gender bent counterpart—for example, that the Ice Queen knew Marshal Lee during the Mushroom War. However, many fans depict the Ice Queen not as a female version of Simon Petrikov, but as his fiancée Betty, suggesting that in this world his "gag" was putting the crown on her instead of himself.
  • For a long time fans assumed that the Lich was the cause of the Mushroom War. Season five would go on to reveal that he was actually created by the war.
  • Most fanartists who draw Finn in a realistic or Animesque style ignore that he has bad teeth, he's a bit pudgy, and his hat is made from a bear's head; instead drawing him as a Bishōnen with normal features, perfect teeth and a fluffy fabric hat (or none at all). It's also interesting to note that fanart usually shows some of his hair sticking out from under his hat, which only occasionally happens on the show. (This was popular even back when his hair color was only known through Word of God.)
  • Doctor Princess is said to resemble Betty, leading to speculation that they might be the same person. This was Jossed by Word of God, and later the show itself.
  • Bisexual Marceline and Princess Bubblegum (or, alternatively, bisexual Marceline and lesbian Princess Bubblegum) was a very common fanon due to the high amount of Homoerotic Subtext between the two, even before Word of Dante confirmed that the two were a couple in the past.
  • Whenever you read fanfictions that center on Princess Bubblegum, you will probably hear the word "Candy Council" where she always discuss with them regarding the current issues on the Candy Kingdom, or how they utterly detested her relationship with Marceline for various reasons and wanted Bubblegum to break up with her ala Naruto's village council. Not only do we have no proof regarding if she even have a council in her kingdom but she also stated that most of the Candy People are too idiotic to see the bigger picture along with her own tendencies to work alone with only Peppermint Butler to accompany her.
  • Up until it was Jossed later in the series, the most popular fan theory for how Jake got his shapeshifting powers was that they resulted from rolling in a puddle of radioactive sludge. This theory was even referenced in "Wizards Only, Fools" when Princess Bubblegum rejects the idea that Jake is magical.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Pretty much everyone nowadays would like to forget that Tree Trunks ever had a crush on Finn, mainly because of the huge age gap between them and the fact that Finn was 12-13 years old at the start of the series. The writers might as well have made it Canon Discontinuity since it's never brought up again after "Crystals Have Power".
  • "Water Park Prank" has to be the most unpopular episode of the whole show. Besides the off-putting art style thanks to the guest animator, the episode is two 6-minute plots pasted together, with Finn, Jake, and the Ice King all reverting to their Season 1 characterizations.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: For the series of "Fionna and Cake" episodes, Marshall Lee/Gumball became a quite popular ship, garnering a ton of shipping fan art during the height of the gender-bent characters' popularity despite the show clearly favoring Gumball and Marshall Lee being rival love interests for Fionna's heart. It likely helped that the later comic series seemed to support the ship as well, as they implied that like Bubblegum and Marceline, Marshall Lee and Gumball may have also had a past relationship.
• Faux Symbolism:
  • Fans have been relating that scissors incident in "The Lich" to Finn and PB's general relationship. PB accidentally cutting Finn supposedly represents PB hurting Finn without intending to, something she's been doing frequently. Finn trying to gain PB's gem and her telling him to back off supposedly represents her rejecting Finn's love, and in the process, unintentionally hurting him.
  • The catcher's mitts from "You Made Me" inspired a load of theories on the nature of their existence and their symbolism. Thomas Herpich, the writer of the episode, refused to tell the fans what they meant, because A) he wanted it to be mysterious, and B) he found the fan theories to be fascinating. However, the lead character designer, Andy Ristaino, later revealed the symbolism of the mitts on his Formspring. As it turns out, the real symbolism was so complicated and strangely obvious that no one would have guessed what it actually was!
• Fountain of Memes: Ice King and Lemongrab, for their tendency to say very strange and unsettling things.
• Franchise Original Sin: Princess Bubblegum's darker side, shown as early as Season 3, was initially praised for adding depth to a character who was otherwise viewed as morally perfect. However, Seasons 5 and 6 ramped up Bubblegum's darker side to outright sociopathic levels, causing her to lose a significant amount of popularity among fans. Season 7 thankfully made attempts to address this issue by having her be temporarly dethroned from her own kingdom.
• Genius Bonus:
  • There is such a thing as an enchiridion. This also counts as Bilingual Bonus. Enchiridion is a Greek word (although spelled differently) meaning, among others, 'manual'. It is also Latin (spelled as written in the episode) for "handbook."
  • The cat that knows "where you might be" might be a reference to Schrödinger's Cat.
  • The White Mask of Doom Princess Bubblegum wears in "What Have You Done," is the mask the Beak Doctors wore during the times of the Black Plague.
  • PB's chalkboard in "Too Young" describes and demonstrates the Big Bang. Also counts as Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • Princess Bubblegum instructs Marceline "begin playing triplet quavers in mixolydian mode," which is just full of advanced music lingo known only to those who have studied music at a college level.
  • During the video of the fight between Marceline and Finn in "Daddy's Little Monster," Jake gets hurt and shouts "Ow, my hippocampus!". The hippocampus is the part of the brain that contributes to forming long-term memories, so Jake was right when he said "That explains why we got amnesia."
  • A chalkboard in "Goliad" shows a molecular line diagram for the molecule carbon trioxide. Not much of a Genius Bonus if you paid attention in high school chemistry.
  • "Ignition Point" borrows heavily from "Hamlet". The voice Finn and Jake hear through the vents is reciting lines from the play.
  • In "Friends Forever", when Ice King says he wanted Drawer Dresser to be his improv coach, Drawer Dresser replies "Yes, and?"
  • Much of the imagery of Finn as a baby is strikingly similar to many classic images of "Bala Krishna" (the infant Krishna) in Hindu religious art. In particular: he's frequently depicted sucking his toe and reclining on a leaf, just like Krishna. This is appropriate, since Finn is eventually revealed to be one of several incarnations of a "Catalyst Comet" (a powerful cosmic entity), just as Krishna is believed to be one of many mortal incarnations (or "avatars") of the deity Vishnu.
• Growing the Beard: The third season and beyond has better animation, more serious tones, more Character Development, more Story Arcs and emphasis on continuity (though comedy is still paramount). This could be also said to start with the second season's two-part finale. There's more episodes not focusing on Finn and Jake, and fleshing out other characters or the world itself.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Jeremy Shada had already proven himself to be quite the capable voice actor, especially considering his age, but his performance as Finn Mertens after he takes the crown and loses his mind in "Finn The Human" was absolutely chilling.
  • Tom Kenny, who is mostly known for Spongebob and other comedic and petty-type roles, got this reaction with Simon Petrikov's final tapes in "Holly Jolly Secrets" and the Ice King crying in "I Remember You."
  • Justin Roiland with Lemongrab running into the night wailing in sadness in "You Made Me", Lemonjon's sudden onset of compassion in "All Your Fault" and the brief speech given by Lemongrab 2 in "Too Old".
  • Andy Milonakis sounds youthful and likable whenever he appears as NEPTR.
  • Ron Perlman as The Lich. Seriously, his "Fall." speech in "Escape from the Citadel" is the prime example of how good Perlman's work is.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • "The More You Moe, the Moe You Know" was the last episode to feature BMO's creator Moe and ended with BMO reflecting on his right of passage after defeating AMO to avenge Moe. In light of the passing of Moe's voice actor Chuck McCann, the episode comes off as a touching send-off to Chuck McCann.
  • Several episodes like "Bad Little Boy" and "Mystery Dungeon" show that Ice King wishes for his fan fiction characters (Fionna and Cake) to become a reality. Come 2023, he would get his wish.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Fionna. She was designed to be "chubby cute" according to her designer, Natasha Allegri, and certainly appears to be thicker in the concept art, but she looks a lot slimmer in the show◊. In concept sketches by Natasha Allegri◊ and Rebecca Sugar◊, she looks genuinely plump, but she looks very average in the show.
• I Knew It!:
  • Quite a few fans correctly guessed the reason Marceline was after Maja in "Sky Witch" to get Hambo back from her after Ash sold Hambo to her.
  • A common fan theory was that the Grass Blade would result in Finn losing his arm. The only shocker is how quickly it all transpired.
• Incest Yay Shipping: The Lemongrabs, fullstop. The revelation that the two are brothers surprisingly heightened the desires of Lemongay shippers.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: "Betty" is an episode that a lot of people feel really should have been a two parter. Given that it deals with Ice King's lost love making her way to present day Ooo, many feel that the episode goes by too fast considering what an important event it deals with.
• It Was His Sled: It has become general knowledge that the Ice King used to be a human named Simon Petrikov, and that he raised Marceline for a time. Something that took time to build on in the show.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • The Ice King. Despite kidnapping several princesses, he really does just seem to want a nice wife to make her happy. Taken to extremes when his horrifically miserable tragic backstory is revealed.
  • Lemongrab. As unlikeable as he is, you kinda feel sorry for him since all he really wants to do is connect with people. Sadly, he drops the Woobie part and becomes a straight-up Jerkass by Season 5. Fortunately, he gets a happy ending when he's reborn as Lemongrab 3.
  • Magic Man. It was heavily implied in "Sons of Mars" that he was a relatively decent person once, and loved his girlfriend dearly. But when she died, he turned into a near-sociopath, inflicting horrible chaos onto people for his own amusement. As much of a bastard as he is, the scene of him caressing her picture, saying her name softly shows there was humanity in him once.
  • Donny. Throughout his episode, he went from a jerk to a nice guy. Then, he was bullied back into jerkdom, and revealed at the very end that he still cares about Finn and Jake, even though his life requires him to be a jerk to everyone.
  • The Pup Gang from "You Made Me!". Even after all they've done, they didn't deserve getting electrocuted that many times.
  • The Door Lord. Yeah, he stole everyone's stuff, but did he really deserve to get the shit beaten out of him and get tied to a chair?
  • Clarence. He killed Ghost Princess, but like Achilles, he fell in love with her as she died and killed himself over it.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Finn has been paired with just about every female character, including his gender-bent self.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Marceline/Bubblegum is highly favored within the LGBT community, as well as their genderswaps.
  • As of "You Made Me!," so is Lemongrab/Lemongrab clone, and again, with their genderswaps.
    • But not so much as of "Another Five Short Graybles" and "Too Old."
  • Princess Cookie to the transgender community.
  • A con panel confirmed that BMO is genderfluid.
• Love to Hate:
  • The Lich. To say that the fanbase really took a liking to the dreaded, unfunny, dark, murderous monster is an understatement, mainly because he took such a drastic turn from the show's usual silly tone. The base was intrigued with him long before he made his first full (non-cameo) appearance in season 2. The love got boosted when he cleverly outsmarted Finn in the season 4 finale by exploiting his heroic traits and using them against him.
  • Magic Man, mainly because he's funny, despicable, and scary at the same time. This died down however once he was drained of his magic, being cured of his insanity as a result, and pulled a Heel–Face Turn as Normal Man, later King Man once he became ruler of Mars.
  • Hunson Abadeer, the affable, comedic, demonic, Bumbling Dad of Marceline.
  • Lemongrab, an awesomely creepy, nightmarish, weird character who moved all of Season 5 into Darker and Edgier territory. However, the hate seems to be slowly dying down now that he's been merged with Lemongrab 2 to become the overtly more stable Lemongrab 3.
  • Big Destiny as well. Despite being a greedy bully, he's entertaining to watch and has some memorable lines.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Prismo the Wishmaster is a charming Cosmic Entity in charge of granting cosmic wishes which have an ironic twist. In his introduction, Prismo, after befriending Jake the Dog, helps him find a way to save his brother Finn the Human by altering a wish to send them back home to safety. After being killed by the Lich, Prismo concocts an elaborate scheme to bring himself back to life by using Jake the Dog's memories of his friend Prismo to trap an alternate version of Jake in an eternal dream which will revive Prismo. Prismo later uses Jake and Finn to stop Farmworld Lich from ending all life in the multiverse and later skillfully helps edit reality to allow the Farmworld version of Finn a happy ending. In Fionna and Cake, Prismo illegally creates the alternate gender flipped world of Fionna and Cake and helps bravely defend it from the cosmic entity Scarab. Using his powers to gather all of Fionna and Cake's allies across The Multiverse, Prismo helps them earn the right for their universe to become an accepted part of the main multiverse. Prismo ends the series taking Scarab under his wing and teaching him the joy of creating worlds.
  • "City of Thieves": Penny is a thief and resident of the titular city. Taking advantage of Finn's heroic nature, Penny plays the part of a helpless little girl, tricking him into stealing the King of Thieves' treasure chest for her under the claim that it contained her stolen flower basket. After escaping with the treasure, Finn and Jake soon find Penny and scrub her down in an attempt to purify her. Penny then seemingly goes through a Heel–Face Turn, only to run off with Finn's clothes and continue her thieving lifestyle.
  • Stakes miniseries: The Vampire King is Marceline's archenemy who once led the vampires in hunting the humans of Ooo to ensure his race's survival. Coming into conflict with Marceline after she slays the rest of his kind, the Vampire King allows himself to be stabbed and killed in order to get close enough to bite her, ensuring that there'll always be one vampire. Come present day, when he and his subjects are resurrected, the Vampire King chooses to reject his old ways and try to make peace with Marceline. After his subjects are slain, he attempts to convince Marceline to remove his vampirism and free themselves from their eternal conflict. When Marceline refuses to hear him out and attacks, he chooses to not fight back, defiantly expressing that he can change destiny, and would rather die than be subjugated to the wheel of fortune; which convinces the Vampire Queen to allow Princess Bubblegum to remove his vampirism; leaving him to live the rest of his days as a peaceful lion.
  • Season 9: Aunt Lolly, alongside Uncle Gumbald and Cousin Chicle, was created by Princess Bubblegum to be a part of her family before their attempt to overthrow her led them to be turned into hapless candy people. When the three are restored to their original forms in the present day, Lolly conspires with Gumbald to get revenge on their creator and conquer the Candy Kingdom. Not wanting to go to war, Aunt Lolly forms a plan in which she sabotages the lift Finn, Jake, and Gumbald are on, knowing the duo would save Gumbald from falling, has Gumbald invite them to dinner out of supposed gratitude, then has Chicle douse Finn and Jake with Gumbald's dum dum juice; which would turn PB into a dumb candy person once she makes contact with them; leaving the Candy Kingdom theirs to conquer. After her plan just barely fails, when Bubblegum and Gumbald appear to make amends, Aunt Lolly, seeing through Gumbald's ruse, sabotages his attempts at backstabbing PB and sincerely makes peace with her niece before fighting alongside the heroes against GOLB.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Lemongrab is starting to appear like this, after the summary of "You Made Me!" revealed that Lemongrab peeps on Princess Bubblegum and the Candy People while they sleep. Lemongrab watches you while you sleep.
  • Lemongrab has got nothing on The Freak Deer. It's a bizarrely human-like deer that licks people. It doesn't talk or anything, it just licks people.
  • Ice King has been this since the pilot, thanks to his tendency to kidnap princesses and force them to marry him.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Misblamed: While it doesn't justify the lack of timeslots in recent years, many have accused Cartoon Network of forcing the show to end early in favor of more Teen Titans Go!, when much of the production staff have indicated that it was ending on their terms, rather than the network's, with Cartoon Network even having given plenty of time to plot out the Grand Finale. ^note Also it's hard to say "end early", given that it's one of the longest running shows on Cartoon Network with a whopping 9 seasons.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Ash was created as a Take That! to Bastard Boyfriends. Guess what? A lot of the lady fans love him.
  • One of Finn's lessons, especially in season five, is learning he's not entitled to a relationship, and treated Flame Princess badly. Cue a lot of young male fans angry that FP "friendzoned Finn", or hate Bubblegum for not being interested in someone she's always made clear sees as a younger brother.
• Moe: Flame Princess when she's being dere-dere. Most especially when she's happy.◊
  • Gunter and all those penguins are supremely adorable at all times. Too bad the cuteness doesn't last.
  • Prismo, all because of his Adorkable personality and his relaxing, laid-back South Asian accent, plus his [3] adorable reaction to Jake saying he loves him.
  • Finn, and for good reason.
  • BMO is certainly moe, and Flambo even more so. Helped by their cute accents.
  • Princess Bubblegum, especially when she is 13.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Adventure Time began as a lesser known, if memetic, short from Random Cartoons, as mentioned on the main page.
• My Real Daddy: Rebecca Sugar has this reputation among the fandom. During her time on the show she provided many episodes that were the first to delve into serious Character Development, brought more attention to the post-apocalyptic elements, and made many memorable songs that are fan favorites to this day. Some have expressed the sentiment that after she left to work on Steven Universe, the show's just not quite been the same without her. This criticism died down over the years after Season 7 premiered.
  • This also applies to Larry Leichliter, the episode director for the first four seasons. His departure early into Season 5 left the series without a consistent director, and more than a few fans have argued that it had an effect on the show's overall quality.

N-Z

• Narm:
  • Lemongrab. Even when his situation and backstory are genuinely Played for Drama, Nightmare Fuel, or a Tear Jerker, he's still a screaming, Large Ham with the voice of an awkward teenager. The sad thing is that even when he's written to be serious, we can't take him seriously because of his rather unfortunate voice.
  • The same applies to the present-day Ice King to an extent in "I Remember You," but it's mitigated by hearing his past self speak in "Holly Jolly Secrets".
  • Finn's battle cries in earlier seasons, back when his voice actor was going through puberty.
  • Farmworld Lich's hand talking... with its fingers. It's bad enough that it is shown to both not need this to talk as well as having shapeshifting powers, meaning that it either has a twelve year's old's idea of being intimidating or that the Lich is a Daffy Duck level egomaniac. Such mystique and wonder for the show's most horrific villain.
  • "Skyhooks II" has a very intense moment where Finn, much like the other people in Ooo, is very close to transforming into an elemental being. As a candy person touches him, starting to put him in extreme agony, Finn lets out his common girlish scream stock sound effect. While it's obvious he'd be terrified out of his mind, considering what it did to those he knew, it still is the same effect he's used when he was snuck up on by Princess Bubblegum and had his nipples twisted by Jake.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Yes, Princess Bubblegum has committed some morally questionable acts, but most PB detractors remember her solely for those specific acts of atrocities instead of the overall kind and well-meaning princess that viewers know and love. The character's voice actress has come to view her as a sort of "selflessly evil" type of character, but Black-and-White Morality is a thing in every fandom.
    • "The Cooler", as well as several events throughout Seasons 6 and 7 have had her undergo Character Development, which has somewhat redeemed her in the eyes of some of her haters.
  • Despite it never being brought up again after "Crysals Have Power", Tree Trunks will always be remembered by some fans as a Dirty Old Woman with a crush on Finn.
• Nightmare Retardant: The Lich's initial appearance in "Crossover". His face is still terrifying, but it does lose some impact when it's attached to the body of a chubby Bulldog.
• No Problem with Licensed Games:
  • Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal our Garbage?! is a fun Zelda II clone/Metroid Vania, with an superb soundtrack composed by Jake Kaufman, even featuring a guest vocal song by Cristina Vee. Its only criticism being its short length as the game can be finished in about four to five hours, not counting the New Game Plus.
  • Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is a charming and fun adventure game that takes most of its cues from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Its main criticism are the many moments of Guide Dang It! that the player is bound to run into, but overall is regarded as a pleasant experience.
  • Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion is a throwback to old school RPGs. While the gameplay is as basic as it gets, the solid writing and its ties to the show's final season make it well worth playing by fans of the series... unless it's the Nintendo Switch version.
  • The LEGO Dimensions levels based on this show - one a Compressed Adaptation of "The Enchiridion" and "Mortal Folly", the other a free-roaming Adventure World - pack a ton of fanservice and enjoyable gameplay into some of the game's most vast add-ons yet.
• No Yay: In the middle of "I Remember You" Ice King trying to kiss Marceline when she accepts his hug, which she's squicked out by. After seeing "Simon & Marcy," it's clear from her point of view, she might see this as Wife Husbandry.
• Once Original, Now Common: This was the show that popularized the trend of animated children's series with Thin-Line Animation, Cerebus Syndrome, and an ongoing story arc. With later shows like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and The Owl House following in its footsteps, Adventure Time might not feel as special to people who watched them first.
• One-Scene Wonder: Many due to the large cast, such as Breakfast Princess in "Hitman" and Huntress Wizard in "Reign of Gunters".
• One True Threesome:
  • The shipping base was mostly divided over Finn x Marceline, Finn x Bubblegum, and Marceline x Bubblegum. Naturally, some fans have asked the question "Why Choose?" With the introduction of Flame Princess and Huntress Wizard, there's new pairings with all of them. Two different time travel stories in the non-canon comic book strongly imply that Finn, Bubblegum, and Marceline actually do all get together, with the Mnemonoid arc being particularly unsubtle about it. Then there's Penelope, who is implied to be the child of Bubblegum, Finn and Marcline.
  • Shipping Bubblegum and Marceline with Fionna has more than a few supporters.
• Pandering to the Base: Fionna and Cake started off as a one-shot non-sequitur episode used to further establish the Ice King as a crazy loser, and to mock the concept of fan fiction, and the fanbase, in general. But after Fionna and Cake aired, the fans loved the genderbent characters seriously and unironically. Some fans feel like "Bad Little Boy" was unnecessary, and was only pandering to this part of the fanbase, though the audience-mocking subtext is the same.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • "I'M GOING TO TAKE IT FROM YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP."
  • This promo for "The Lich," which features the Lich's horrifying face zooming in on you. This could air during any commercial break between the first airing of "I Remember You" and the first airing of "The Lich," giving your screen a face full of Lich before you know it.
  • The Lich lying dormant in Sweet P. just waiting for an opportunity to come out is enough Paranoia Fuel, but now that a piece of the Lich has been dropped into every single alternate universe takes paranoia over the Lich up to eleven.
  • The Ice King's backstory.
• Periphery Demographic: This show has been renowned for consistently entertaining little kids, older kids, teenagers, and adults alike.
  • For having a wide range of female characters with different body types, making fun of pick up artists, the morals of Fionna and Cake episodes, and a scene where Marceline and Finn beat down Ash (Marceline's abusive boyfriend) because of a Stay in the Kitchen comment (and selling Hambo), the show's got a huge feminist following. Impressive considering CN apparently didn't want the show to appeal to women at all.
    • The feminist following seems to be aided by the hints (perceived or real) of Bubbline.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • "Fubblegum/Bubblefinn" (Finn/Princess Bubblegum) and "Farceline/Finnceline" (Finn/Marceline) show up often in forums. Lately we have "Bubbline/MarceBubble/Marcegum/etc." (Princess Bubblegum/Marceline), though it's usually shortened to Pb/M.
  • Bubblegum and Marceline is also known as Sugarless Gum.
    • This is usually used to denote Rule 34 depictions of their ship.
  • Lemongrab/Lemongrab clone is known as "Lemonzest" or "Lemongay," but without much surprise, it is not called "Lemonparty". In the comics, the name for the shipping of the genderswapped "Lady Lemongrabs" is "Lesbilemon."
  • "Finntress" or "Fintress" for Finn and Huntress Wizard.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Unfortunately, this fits the bill with Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW!, as it is a repetitive, boring and very unimaginative Gauntlet clone, which is especially bad considering the series it's based on. The only thing that really keeps the game from outright Fanon Discontinuity is that it does have the distinction of being canon and the first time we are given Princess Bubblegum's origin story (later corroborated in "Bonnie and Neddy").
• Replacement Scrappy: Both Gumbald and GOLB are seen as this to the show's former Big Bad, the Lich, in Season 9. Gumbald is considered an uninteresting antagonist that lacks the Lich's menace and coolness. Meanwhile, GOLB, despite being the Lich's superior and the show's Greater-Scope Villain, didn't get a chance to do much due to a lack of screen time and had no real character to speak of, to the point where he came off as a Generic Doomsday Villain. It doesn't help that the Lich is often considered one of the best cartoon villains of the New 10's.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Flame Princess, after her Freudian Excuse was revealed, and she finally found suitable companionship and became a noticeably nicer, sweeter person.
  • Lemongrab 2, Lemongrab's nicer, more empathetic twin. Especially since he dies sacrificing his life in order to save their kids from his brother's tyranny. Fortunately, he was merged with his brother.
  • The events of "The Mountain" have done this for Lemongrab himself. After being combined with Lemongrab 2 into Lemongrab 3, he has mellowed out (and thus yells a lot less), his kingdom is in good order, and he has become at peace with who he is - no longer letting it drive him crazy or blame other people and things for it, and even moving forward at sincere self-improvement. While he is still a Base-Breaking Character, it is a definite step up from the universally reviled monster that Lemongrab 1 had become, to the point where most fans are actually OK with him being a part of the heroic alliance in the Grand Finale.
  • For some, the "Elements" miniseries did this for Lumpy Space Princess, due to her acting less selfish, being generally more supportive of Finn, and ultimately being the one to save the day in the end.
• Retroactive Recognition: "Bad Timing" has additional animation provided by future The Owl House creator Dana Terrace in her very first animation job.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Princess Bubblegum has received a lot of flack from fans over some questionable acts, especially in the fifth and sixth seasons. She does occasionally lapse into morally ambiguous areas in her determination to protect her kingdom, but certain parts of the fandom unfairly view her as a sociopathic tyrant who must be destroyed by any means necessary. Multiple entries in the WMG pages even paint a narrative of her secretly orchestrating much of, if not all, the bad things that happen in the show, as well as plotting to betray Finn, exterminate the remaining humans, and Take Over the World.
  • Flame Princess sometimes gets this, especially from Fubblegum supporters. Although it's now been revealed that she isn't evil and doesn't want to be, and that she has a pretty good Freudian Excuse for her early behavior, there are still those who persist in portraying her as merely a destructive psycho.
  • Peppermint Butler also gets this to a lesser degree. He may be into the dark arts, but he is still clearly loyal to Princess Bubblegum (he was the only one who followed her when she was dethroned, and keeps weapons (like stakes) stockpiled to protect them) but some fans have gone so far as to accuse him of being pure evil and doing things like brainwashing and mind-controlling Bubblegum just For the Evulz.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Some fans had complaints about parts of season 5, particularly with Finn taking a level in jerkass and sabotaging his own relationship with Flame Princess, Lemongrab (who was already a divisive character) getting more involvement in plots, and Princess Bubblegum pushing the boundaries for the grey morality area.
  • Season 6 is arguably the point where the series lost some steam. While critics praised its newfound cosmic, Contemplate Our Navels direction, a lot of fans were put off by this kind of storytelling placing more emphasis on the philosophical and less on the humor. Not to mention that after the premiere (which was very well-received), the resolution with Finn's arm and the lack of focus on plotlines in the first half of the season also put off many people. And once the season's main comet plot got off the ground, it suffered an anti-climactic outcome. It doesn't help that this was after Pen stepped down as showrunner.
  • The final season became this for some fans, especially after seasons 7 and 8. While some of the episodes were praised, many fans considers episodes like "Ring of Fire", "Blenanas" and "Son of Rap Bear" unnecessary for the season. Others criticize Gumbald for not being an interesting and menacing final villain, the half-assed resolution to Jake's shapeshifter plot, some episodes feeling rushed and some questions being left unanswered. And then there's the finale, which ended disappointing some fans due to the lack of closure of Finn's romantic arc.
• Self-Fanservice:
  • Most fanartists who draw Finn in a realistic or Animesque style ignore the Word of God that his lack of a nose is a genetic mutation, he has bad teeth and his hat is made from a bear's head; instead drawing him as a Bishōnen with normal features, perfect teeth and a fluffy fabric hat (or none at all).
  • The girls get this treatment too, for example artists will turn Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, and Flame Princess into Ms. Fanservices. Heck, even Lumpy Space Princess (who on-screen is a floating Blob Monster whose only human features are her face and hands) is depicted as a Big Beautiful Woman.
• Ship Mates: Some who were reluctant to ship Princess Bubblegum/Marceline because they didn't want Finn to be alone decided to welcome the Finn/Flame Princess ship with open arms.
  • Some fans also came up with the 'Fubbline' solution, a threesome between the trio. When Flame Princess came along, a few others evolved to 'Flumbaline'. The fanbase adapts, alright.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Finn/Princess Bubblegum vs. Finn/Marceline. This goes double for their gender-swapped counterparts.
  • A third party has risen in the ever-expanding and ultimately victorious Marceline/Bubblegum ship.
  • There may be a fourth candidate in the rising Finn/Flame Princess ship. And after Natasha Allegri designed Flame Princess's gender-swapped counterpart, Flame Prince... welp, The Great Mushroom War might as well be occurring in this fandom.
  • Finn/Flame Princess fans thought they were safe after some teases during Season 6. And then Season 7 introduced Finn/Huntress Wizard.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The show can be kind of a slog at first, throwing you into the deep end of completely random humor. It takes a while to build up any real sense of the characters and it isn't until the third season that any serious Worldbuilding and backstory was explained.
• Squick:
  • In "Lady and Peebles", Ricardio clearly has a sexual interest in Princess Bubblegum, saying he wants the "full package" and to be "united as man and wife".
  • Tree Trunks has a crush on Finn. Tree Trunks, by the way, is a very old small elephant woman, while Finn is a young boy. Also 12 at the time of her confession and she's been married multiple times by this point.
    • In-universe (and to many fans), Tree Trunk's full on make-out sessions with Mr. Pig literally everywhere they go in "Dream of Love".
  • Also, the fact that that the Ice King ships Fionna, Finn's Distaff Counterpart, with himself. This is made even more troubling when it's revealed that Fionna is in fact a character in the Ice King's fanfiction about Finn and Jake.
  • Although this was in a platonic, comforting way, Princess Bubblegum leaning close to Finn and putting her hand on his leg in "Burning Low." Out of context, it's just uncomfortable.
  • The nature of the relationship of the two Lemongrabs. It's entirely possible that they're twin brothers, or a couple... or both.
    • The episode "Another Five Short Graybles" confirms that the Lemongrabs are brothers.
  • Bubblegum passionately making-out with her own hand in "A Glitch is a Glitch" to keep from having to date the Ice King.
  • Lumpy Space Princess' advances on Finn in "Breezy" that's strongly implied to be G-Rated Sex of very Questionable Consent. It's all the squickier when remembering that LSP is voiced by series creator Pendleton Ward.
• Tainted by the Preview: "The Suitor" was a base breaker from the previews because many people were worried about the character potentially sinking ships involving Princess Bubblegum. This was not the case as A) PB had no interest whatsoever and B) the episode was a complete deconstruction of Dogged Nice Guy.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Several examples pop up now and then:
  • For some, it was kind of cathartic seeing Lemongrab in "Mystery Dungeon" having all of his bodily fluids profusely squeezed out of his head as he screams for his mother and almost dies. Some thought he had this coming after what he did in "You Made Me."
  • Also, Tree Trunks doing something very simple: scolding Lemongrab for being an annoying, selfish asshole and telling him, "You'd better be nice!" He lowers his head and apologizes in a much quieter tone. You go, Tree Trunks.
  • Ash getting punched out by Simon in "Betty". He didn't even know who he was. He just wanted to take his flying carpet. If he had known, he'd probably have done worse.
• Theme Pairing: Elsa from Frozen is shipped with the Ice King because they share having ice powers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Martin, Finn's father, an effective Hate Sink and Shadow Archetype to Finn with a mysterious backstory. We first meet him when he was in the Citadel for some kind of "Cosmic Crime," the likes of which include killing a god. Clearly this guy is Big Bad material, right? Not so much; he appears on and off during the sixth season, mostly just as a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk conman, before being Put on a Bus without any real backstory revealed, including what he did to wind up in the Citadel. We find out a bit more about him during the "Islands" miniseries, but even then there's a huge gap and it just opens up more Alternate Character Interpretation. Also, given his Put on a Bus status at the end of season 6, you might think that someone like him would be much more suited to make the final sacrifice of fusion-dancing with GOLB at the finale, if it meant saving his old world and family and achieving his new mode of existence as the catalyst comet promised.
  • Rattleballs is a badass sword-fighting robot who was made by Princess Bubblegum, and narrowly escaped death at her hands. This connection to PB's colder side would make for great episodes, as would the fact that his introductory episode ends with him deciding to protect the Candy Kingdom from the shadows. But since his introduction, he's only been seen in a small handful of minor cameo appearances.
  • Orgalorg is the true form of Gunther, an Eldritch Abominaton from outer space that has been around since before the Big Bang. The episode of his namesake sets him up as one of the most dangerous and powerful villains in the show, and his Affably Evil personality provides a humorous contrast to said power. He could've been an interesting new Big Bad, but as seen with the Anti-Climax Boss entry above, he is quickly dealt with and is back to Gunther by the end of the episode he appears in. There are a few scattered references to Gunther being Orgalorg every now and then, but it's never truly touched upon again.
  • Maja: her introduction episode left a very strong impression and many were looking forward to what she had planned in the future. Come her next appearance, most of her plan is already underway, she gets taken out halfway through the episode and a later episode pretty much states she's not coming out of her coma anytime soon. So it's fairly obvious the writers ran out of ideas with her. Doesn't help that said second episode was meant to be a movie, meaning she would've had a larger role there.
  • Patience St. Pim, for reasons similar to Maja. During her introduction, her backstory and motivations involving getting the other elementals to use their powers was an interesting setup that could have been spun into a more involving plot about her history with the other elementals and trying to rebuild her "friendships" with one another, probably leading to a conflict with the other elementals later on in the series. Instead, she just freezes herself at the end of the elements arc, never to be brought up again, while the supposed conflict role is instead filled by Gumbald, essentially wasting any prior development on the former character for another character that literally pops up just as quickly as Patience vanishes, leaving any potential background and resolution for her elemental sub-plot to be desired...
  • Dr. Gross, a Creepy Awesome and eccentric yet terrifyingly amoral villain who paved the way for Finn and Susan Strong's origins. She goes out when her ship explodes in her debut episode and never returns, even in the miniseries that showed the impact of her past experiments. We also don't see much of her interactions with the rest of Ooo, which would've been interesting given her extreme evolutionary philosophy.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Princess Bubblegum being turned into a 13-year old at the end of season 2 would have been a great opportunity to show how a relationship between her and Finn would have worked out, but it was undone after she was in only one episode, before it could be explored in more depth.
  • Maja and her plan to take over the Candy Kingdom. They could've built it up, made her an Arc Villain for a season leading to her invasion. Instead her plot is a one and done episode, and that's pretty much it for her.
• Too Cool to Live: Grob Gob Glob Grod is taken out halfway through season 6 so that they can't prevent Orgalorg's impending return.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Princess Bubblegum becomes this in "The Duke."
  • The Ice King. He's old, he's got a shaggy beard, a gravelly voice, and a skeletal body. But many fans want to hug him anyway. Some even think he looks cuddly.
  • Some of Marceline's demon forms, for similar reasons to the Ice King.
  • Goliad. A strange "candy sphinx" with a round baby face and the voice of a young girl. Especially fits when she becomes a Creepy Child and extends her third eye.
  • Some fans see Tree Trunks as this at times.
  • The children of the Lemongrabs. Most of them are extremely ugly and horrid-looking, yet there's something strangely endearing about them.
  • The Lemongrabs themselves are seen as cute by more than a few fans. Mostly in an awkward sort of manner.
  • Sparkle the giant deformed baby from "BMO Lost".
  • Martin 2 and the other koala bear people from "On the Lam."
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Lemongrab's expressionless eyes. If they were more cartoonish and less human, he would be a lot less unsettling to look at.
  • Goliad. She sounds like a little girl, has the head of a baby, and is hell-bent on Mind Raping everyone.
  • The Freak Deer◊. The combination of intense stare, completely regular deer appearance with tiny grabby hands makes him unsettling.
  • Despite bringing joy and happiness wherever he goes In-Universe, James Baxter's unnatural bounciness and big horse teeth, combined with how utterly unexplained he is, can kind of weird out viewers.
  • Ricardio, whose face is much more detailed and realistic than the other characters. It's unsettling to say the least.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Only for earlier parts of the series. Certain episodes in Season 1 (and even Season 2) often bordered on Random Events Plot. Particular gags like Finn's ability to auto-tune his voice (at a time when auto-tune was an oft criticzed element of pop dance music), BMO's vaugely Retraux video game collection (around a time where pseudo-8-bit and retro games were seeing a surge in popularity), and some passing references to internet culture at the time feel particularly contemporary. More severe are characters like Party God and Party Pat (especially with his fedora) who follow fashion trends and stock character tropes that wouldn't survive very long into the 2010s. Together, these elements date the seasons to their 2010-2011 airing. Of course, when the series experienced a tonal shift, this datedness essentially disappeared.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • For many, Bubblegum comes across as this regarding her more morally dubious actions, at least in regards to her citizens. While she's meant to be seen as a morally bankrupt individual and Control Freak, her citizens are shown time and time again to be too stupid to function without her, easily falling for con artists like the King of Ooo, getting themselves into trouble if she isn't constantly monitoring them, and being blind to danger like her test for the Banana Guards in "Root Beer Guy" or "Nemesis", which only results in them growing unruly and organizing secret protest groups. And while she did make them that stupid to begin with, its shown with Gumbald and Chicle that they're naturally jerkasses otherwise, something carried over by the smarter Candy People eventually becoming the same like with Starchy, making it harder for many to judge her specifically for how she treats her citizens when said citizens are more often than not a pain in the ass. Even when she's deposed by the King of Ooo temporarily, rather than seem like Laser-Guided Karma for her treatment of them, many instead shared her frustration with them and were happy she didn't have to deal with them anymore.
  • Lemongrab was this in "Too Young," because he appears to be severely mentally handicapped and had a job he was incapable of doing right (ruling a kingdom). Finn and Princess Bubblegum are disproportionately hard on him, up to the point of actually beating him up and making him cry. Averted in later episodes, where A) Princess Bubblegum helps Lemongrab, and B) Lemongrab is genuinely being a horrible person and deserves what's coming to him.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Kim Kil Wan in "Ocarina." He's supposed to come across as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is understandably upset at his father's immaturity and wants him to learn some desperately needed lessons in responsibility. He doesn't by merit of the fact that Jake did try to be a responsible father and most of the disconnect between them is on the children since they aged so fast that they didn't really need a father, he grossly mishandles his plot by not informing Finn and Jake about details they are clearly unaware about but need to know, and that he makes Finn suffer Aesop Collateral Damage when his problem is strictly with Jake.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Ice King and Magic Man. Also Lemongrab to one side of the base.
• Values Resonance: "The Suitor" was already a deconstruction of the Dogged Nice Guy trope, but the episode only became more poignant in the late 2010's and the 2020's due to the rise of incel culture/"Involuntary Celibates". Broco is depicted as being infatuated with Princess Bubblegum, having a delusional perception of her and thinking she needs him despite her clearly having no interest in him or being in a relationship at all at the time, with Bonnie outright calling his feelings "infatuation". The fact that he goes as far as to mutilate himself just so he could make her "love" him, only to be entirely placated with a glorified Sex Bot of her, makes it very easy for viewers to identify him as an incel, if more innocent due to him being literally born for the purpose of being Bonnie's suitor, making him come across just as much a victim of grooming as an incel.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: BMO. Word of God states BMO, being a robot, has No Biological Sex, and is called a "he" more out of convenience.
  • BMO seems mostly settled on being male, while his possibly Imaginary Friend Football is a girl.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The 3D animation in "Guardians of Sunshine" (all animated by one CalArts graduate) and the fourth-dimensional bubble animation in "The Real You."
  • The portal from "The Lich."
  • The perspective drawings of Lemonjon looking down and walking to the Candy Kingdom, and the incredible animation of Lemonjon exploding and dissolving into thousands of little lemon candies.
  • In-universe, Princess Bubblegum's wax dummy melting in "The Creeps." It's even on the Nightmare Fuel page here for that reason.
  • All of "A Glitch is a Glitch."
  • The wonderful Stop Motion animation in "Bad Jubies". There is even a "making of" video for it.
• Wangst: Marceline and Lemongrab sometimes lapse into this. When Marceline is upset, she writes angsty songs and plays her bass guitar. When Lemongrab is upset, he screams, cries, and blames everyone around him for his distress.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Despite the PG content and rather mature overtones once in a while, Adventure Time is still very much meant for kids. The writers do a very good job of leaving in enough to imply, but never any literal words to be inappropriate.
• Win Back the Crowd: After CNReal bombed and Adventure Time turned out to be a smash success, Cartoon Network gained a renewed interest in animated series.
  • After Seasons 5 and 6 divided the fanbase with questionable writing decisions and a turn towards philosophical storytelling, the show returned to its goofy roots with Season 7.
  • Thanks to "Islands" and "Elements", Season 8 managed to bring back many viewers who abandoned Adventure Time after the series' Seasonal Rot, as well as bring new viewers to the series.
• Writer-Induced Fanon:
  • The relationship between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Whether intentional or not, the relationship can be interpreted as a friendship that went sour, or a romantic relationship that went sour. Olivia Olson confirmed that it's the latter. The series finale moves it from fanon to fully canon.
  • It's strongly implied that the Lemongrabs are a gay couple, because they love each other, live together, have no problem with hugging or nuzzling while they're naked, and have children together. But it's never been explicitly confirmed by anyone working on the show, or any of the characters. Then confirmed to be brothers which really sank that ship... and then Lemongrab eats Lemongrab 2.

---