When fan service goes to far, something like this is spawned. This episode attempted to emulate the first Fiona and Cake episode and failed. The whole opening sequence went too long, and there was a legitimate 7 minutes of episode, if that. The point of the episode, and I understand this, is to bring back Fiona and Cake, but that could have been done during the premier of the season (however that would have been far worse) the saving grace for the episode was Donald Glover's performance as Marshal Lee. For the no doubt large amount of money they paid Neil Patrick Harris to appear in the episode, he didn't make nearly long enough of an appearance. The musical sequence took up most of the episode which, in my opinion detracts from the episode from the episode as a whole.
Rating 7/10. Worst episode of the season to date and it did not live up to the hype.
I thought that what this episode was really about was a comparison of the characters of Simon and Marceline and how they view their world as expressed in their fanfics, since they're basically telling about a gender-flipped version of their own realities. Sort of a character revelation through secondary storytelling.
ReplyDeleteI found it particularly interesting that Marceline can step outside herself enough to appreciate her own merits and flaws -- notice that Marshall Lee was cool but also a bit of a jerk to Fionna and Cake, who were actually being nice to him, for instance Cake protecting him from the sunlight even after ML pretty much forced Fionna to fight her? Also, it's obvious that Marceline is very aware of the fact that she outrageously flirts with Finn, and that her feelings toward him in turn are very conflicted: on the one hand, she considers him naive for believing in her inherent goodness, but at the same time very much admires his own goodness, and values his friendship, and is simultaneously disturbed and glad that he has a high opinion of her. She said things in her fanfic (putting them in Marshall Lee's mouth) which she can't quite say to Finn's face.
I've never been entirely sure, and I'm still not entirely sure, exactly what Marceline feels toward Finn. I'm thinking the reason may be that she's not entirely sure. They are in some ways very similar (they are both "Blood Knights" who love combat for its own sake) and in some ways very different (he's his world's equivalent of a paladin, she's literally the Devil's Daughter). I think her lack of desire to become romantically-involved with him is more because she accurately-appraises that it not only would fail but would fail in the sense of becoming the material for song-cycles of epic tragedy (one of them having to slay the other) than any lack of attraction (note that Marceline's fanfic very much emphasizes Fionna's beauty, and Marceline is probably a bisexual, so she would like Finn as either gender; plus, she literally stalks him, though that may just be Marceline's normal behavior toward anyone she likes in any sense of the world, she's a creepy girl).
In sheer writing terms, Marceline's was better than the Ice King's. For one thing, she didn't have anyone acting out of character: even though she couldn't resist the chance to take digs at Princess Bubblegum being too prissy in her male form, and she made her male analog even cooler than herself, she didn't have Fionna and Cake worshipping her, merely liking her. By contrast, the Ice King can't really write plausible friendliness toward himself as self-insertion: maybe because it's been centuries since he's known much love or even liking directed toward him by anything other than the Crown or Gunther (if they are different beings, which is a whole other question).
Sadly, I don't think Simon realized that Marceline was reaching out to him by joining in his fanfic world: he was just jealous that the Princesses liked her story better, and that she had her male-analog interacting romantically with Fionna. This is a pity, because he failed to grasp what Marceline did by turning his abduction of the Princesses into what finished as a pleasant social event. Marceline was also showing him that he could interact with people in a better way, and he didn't understand what she was doing.
The epilogue shows the very unhealthy way in which the Ice King is obsessed with Fionna and Cake. Unfortunately, he lives in a world where there are at least three or four ways (*) I can think of offhand to make it come true -- with unpleasant consequences for everyone, including most definitely the Ice King himself.
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(*) Prismo, the Labyrinth Being, the Enchiridion's Portals (if he can reconstruct the book) and ancient leftover sex-changing magic or technology.
I'm not a big fan of the swapped version. I think that the episode was probably made because so many fans of the idea wanted it made and that the Adventure Time staff didn't really want to make it.
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DeleteI got my hopes up in the beginning when the Enchiridion made an appearance. I still believe that one of the universes in the multiverse is the Fiona and Cake one, however, it is known (through the writers) that the Fiona and Cake world is not in any way identical to the normal universe. For example, Rebecca Sugar has gone on record saying that the Ice Queen and the Ice King have different origin stories. The Fiona and Cake arc in this form is done, I believe, but they will continue to be there through the Ice King's obsession in bringing them to life. Also, he could use the amulet from "Reign of Gunters" if they really wanted to expedite the story line. However, considering that Fiona and Cake are marketable, they will not just finish it now.
ReplyDeleteA lot of wierd sexual. Fantasies are on this show
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