Adventure Time - It's Not My Fault: Difference between revisions
m
Text replacement - "’" to "'"
m (Text replacement - "”" to """) |
m (Text replacement - "’" to "'") |
||
Line 1:
When my wife and I got married, we decided that we were not going to own a television. Yes, we were one of those couples. Early twenties and ready to make the kinds of lifestyle choices that went against the norms of society. We
So on Halloween night (believe me, I know how cheesy that sounds at the beginning of a creepy story, but that was actually the night) we went to the store and bought a flat screen like all of our other married friends. Then we picked up a PS3 because we still
We set the screen at the foot of our bed and for the next month we rented movies and I beat my first video game since middle school. My remorse slowly lessened and I began to feel that we had made a worthwhile addition to our home. Sometime in early December, my
It was seductively easy to watch an entire season in a single day, especially since each episode is only about eleven minutes long. Although the first episode seemed strange and a bit pointless, but by the fourth episode we were addicted. By the time we got to the fourth season, the randomness of the earlier episodes had transformed into coherent narrative arcs that could span multiple episodes and the continuity meant that certain plot elements could often reappear a dozen episodes later. Cryptic hints of an elaborately tragic history within the show (a "Great Mushroom War" is frequently mentioned) made us begin paying attention to even the slightest references and passing remarks made by the characters. The schizophrenic nature of the
For those of you who have not watched the show, I feel that I should give a brief explanation. "Adventure Time" is a cartoon that follows the adventures of Finn the human and Jake the dog in the colorful Land of Ooo. Finn is the last remaining human on earth and is determined to be a great hero. Jake has magical powers and is there to protect Finn on his adventures. Their adventures usually center around rescuing one of the many princesses in Ooo. Dozens of races inhabit Ooo (the candy people in the Candy Kingdom would be one example) and each has their own princess (Princess Bubblegum in the case of the candy people). The primary cause of trouble in the Land of Ooo is the kidnapping of princesses by the lonely Ice King. More misunderstood than actually evil, the Ice King desperately wants to marry a princess and Finn and Jake regularly have to invade his Ice Fortress on rescue missions. However, there are rarely any hard feelings between them and in several episodes the Ice King even begs the heroes to be friends and hang out. When not battling the Ice King, Finn and Jake play video games, fight monsters, and travel Ooo looking for anyone who needs help. In many ways the show is a cross between Calvin and Hobbes and Where The Wild Things Are.
Line 11:
Needless to say, my wife and I loved the show and soon we arrived at the final episode on our hard drive―the Season Four finale. I had talked to my brother-in-law earlier that day and told him we were almost at the end of our last season. He got really excited and told me that the last episode was titled "The Lich" and that it was a cliffhanger that carried over to the first episode of Season Five. I was pretty excited myself when I got off the phone and we hurried home that night to watch our final few episodes. It was after midnight by the time we reached the last remaining file on our PS3 hard drive, but there was no way we were going to sleep. I quickly selected the file.
However, when I highlighted the final episode the title read "
As I clicked on the file, I noticed that instead of being a usual eleven-minute episode, the menu showed it as being a full thirty minutes long. I assumed that this was either wasted space or perhaps whoever had created the torrent had included whatever cartoon came on after Adventure Time. I
The show opened with Finn chasing Jake around their treehouse. Jake had found
The next scene showed Finn and Jake leaping through the window of the Ice
At this point we were about eleven minutes into the episode and I assumed that Finn would give the Ice King his usual speech about how it is wrong to kidnap people and the episode would end. I was wrong. Instead of calming down now that the vanquished Ice King lay at his feet, Finn continues to shake in anger. He began to scream and raises his sword above his head. The Ice King is surprised and asks Finn
I glanced at my wife. Her eyes were wide with disbelief. On the screen I could see the blood gushing from the body and the head. It had a surreal quality, almost as if the animators had used a mixed media technique. The blood did not appear to be drawn, but rather it was as if someone was pouring actual liquid onto the image. A hint of steam even rose from the ice floor as the hot blood pooled upon it. The caged princesses were now screaming uncontrollably. Jake had wrapped his arms around himself, his face frozen in a silent scream. Finn, slowly coming to his senses, stares at the Ice
"This is your fault." Doctor Princess had moved to the front of the cage and was now looking directly at Finn. "You had already defeated him. You
"B-b-but
"No Finn," says Doctor Princess. "You have done something very, very serious. The Ice King is dead and
"
Princess Bubblegum and Lady Rainicorn arrive and Jake tells them what has happened. They free the rest of the princess and leave to search for Finn. The princesses return to their kingdoms.
But they have seen too much.
The next scene showed Finn hiding inside a snow fort. He is trying to process what he has done. He reminds himself that is a true hero and that everything he has done was only for the good of others. He says that he might not have meant to kill the Ice King, but it only happened because he was trying to do the right thing, trying to protect the princesses. His thoughts are interrupted when one of the penguins discovers him.
For the next several minutes, a gruesome montage played out across the screen. Beginning with Doctor Princess, Finn proceeds to brutally murder every princess in an attempt to erase his crime. In every kingdom across the Land of Oo, the same scene plays out. Without a word, Finn approaches a princess, swings his sword, and spills more hyper-realistic blood across the screen. By the end of the montage, I could hardly see the characters through the red streaks.
After murdering the princesses, Finn realizes that there is only one witness left: Jake. He travels to the Candy Kingdom and confronts Jake in front of Princess Bubblegum. Jake transforms into a giant dog with a sword hand and fights with Finn. Finn demands to know whether Jake thinks it was all just an accident or if he too considers Finn a murderer. Jake says that he knows Finn. He knows that he would do anything to help anyone―that he true spirit of a hero―but that this time he went to far and that even a hero should be willing to face up to their crimes. Finn drops his sword and bows his head He begins to cry. Jake shrinks down and begins to hug him. Suddenly Jake screams.
I looked around. I was now standing across the room from our TV. I looked behind me. The image on the screen showed the main menu as the first 5 seconds of the episode continuously looped. Yet the sobs continued. I looked down at my feet and saw my wife crumpled on the floor. In my hand was a knife from the kitchen. "Please
My wife erased the files from the hard drive in morning. She said she never wanted to watch that show again. When I asked her what she had seen, she said that the episode had ended after eleven minutes like all the others and that as soon as it had ended, I had slipped into some kind of trance. She said she had no idea what I was talking about when I tried to describe the rest of the episode to her and discussing it only made her cry. I begged my brother-in-law to show me where he had downloaded the files from, but he
Now you may wonder why I am choosing to share this story.
{{by|Ward Hocut}}
|