Adventure Time

Adventure Time

Episode 9: When Wedding Bells Thaw/Freak City

By: Carlos Uribe

Adventure Time is about the adventures of Finn and his dog Jake

Spoilers Ahoy!

When the Ice King begins the “When Wedding Bells Thaw” segment by announcing that he's getting married, there is a specific line that he said. He stated that the girl fell in love with him as soon as she put on her engagement ring. This seemed like a weird line and it wasn't even a punchline. While it's foreshadowing the twist at the end of the segment, the line manages to work because of the world that Adventure Time has established. It's an absurd world where logic doesn't always apply. It would make sense that there would be characters who fall in only only after they accept a marriage proposal. The line stuck out but it didn't feel out of place. While it did make the twist predictable, it didn't reveal it. Adventure Time is a series that is very odd at times. While it generally has followed a basic story structure, there are moments when it simply does something unexpected. This is not one of those segments. As it turns out, the Ice King's fiance hates him and the engagement ring has cursed her. The Ice King has therefore managed to capture a princess without having to physically kidnap her. It's a basic story and it has a plot twist that the series technically gave away from the beginning. Finn and Jake save the day, of course, and the Ice King is defeated.

The basic story might have been expected but what it explored wasn't. The segment might have revolved around the forced nuptials between the Ice King and some princess but it was also a great study of the Ice King. He might have asked about marriage in this segment but it really wasn't an exploration of marriage. Oh sure, there were some metaphors. If he gets married then he can't capture (or date) other girls. He'll have to be satisfied with just having one. What this segment was exploring was the Ice King's relationship with Finn and Jake. The two don't like the Ice King very much and he almost accidentally kills him. He does ask them to celebrate the wedding and he seems to regard Finn and Jake with a surprising amount of respect. One could state that to the Ice King, Finn and Jake aren't just his rivals but also his friends. It should be noted that the only guests who showed up to the wedding were Finn and Jake. The segment ends with the Ice King begging for Finn and Jake to celebrate his unmarriage to Jake. The entire segment might have been about marriage on a superficial level, but it was one that was about what the Ice King thinks of Finn and Jake. It's also the latest segment that has the Ice King be more than just a one-dimensional villain.

The next segment, “Freak City”, is an interesting one to tackle. A lot of Adventure Time segments like to end with Finn and Jake having learnt something. This is a segment that seems to poke fun of the supposed educational value this program has. It starts with a beggar asking Finn and Jake for some food. Since Finn wants to help everyone, he gives the beggar some sugar. The beggar reveals himself to be Magic Man and instantly turns Finn into a giant foot. Don't worry-he's a good-smelling foot rather than a stinky one. Finn doesn't like this “gift” and he tries his best to get back to normal. Jake actually likes that Finn is a giant foot and tries to convince Finn that this curse is actually a blessing in disguise. A lot of events lead to Finn discovering that there's an entire group of people that have been turned into body parts. When they get together to try and beat the Magic Man, Finn finally learns the lesson that the segment's villain had been trying to teach him. That lesson is to realize just how big of a jerk that Magic Man really is. It's odd that Finn had almost learned another lesson but the Magic Man makes it pretty clear which lesson Finn was supposed to learn. The “wrong” lesson being that you shouldn't expect to get rewarded when you do good.

While the “wrong” lesson is actually a good one to have, there's yet another lesson that could be learned from this segment. That lesson being that complacency is bad. This isn't just something that this segment explores as it's a recurring theme for Adventure Time. Considering it's nature, this theme shouldn't come as a surprise. Finn has to get the other body parts to work together in order to end the Magic Man's curse. Finn might have realized just how big of a jerk that the Magic Man was, but it wasn't until Finn got the group to work together to beat the Magic Man that he got to that lesson. The segment might have made fun of the weekly lessons, but it's also one that teaches kids to be good to be good and to never give up. When I said that Adventure Time can go into unexpected places, I meant it. This segment had a pretty basic story outline and it's a similar one that even other segments have followed but what it ends up accomplishing with it is quite a lot. That's something that many live-action traditional comedies can't say.