crazy that in the 1970s they were like, "fine, women can play sports. but because they're innately less athletic than men, only in a special ghettoized League For The Frail And Delicate where they get paid less 😊". And not only is that still the system in 2023, but viciously lashing out at the smallest challenges to that system gets framed as Feminist Praxis

even setting aside the fact that gendered bodytype averages aren't universals, and plenty of individual (cis) women and (cis) men could easily go to toe to toe. have we considered that the fact that all the most prominent and well-paid sports are ones that require things like Being Tall and Having Muscle Mass, as opposed to, ex, gymnastics...is itself an artifact of sexism

Also consider the existence of sports where women would have an advantage, and yet, somehow, the most famous and well paid ones are not women.

I'm thinking of jockeys. Jockeys get an advantage from being smaller and lighter, and while obviously you need sufficient strength to stay on the horse, a well-trained horse does enough of the work that you don't need upper body strength to do the job. Given this and that the majority of children obsessed with horses are female, you'd think most jockeys would be women. Yet somehow they are not.

NASCAR at one point threatened to handicap Danica Patrick by putting extra weight in her car to compensate for the fact that she is smaller and lighter than other racecar drivers. If she gets an advantage as a driver, why is she like practically the only female racecar driver, or at least the only one anyone knows about?

Women, apparently, have an advantage in long distance swimming. Higher body fat percentage and higher endurance means that women can go greater distances in the water. Is long distance swimming even a competitive sport?

Women have actually been excluded from competitive Olympic skiing on the grounds that the jumps required could damage their uterus. The people who actually have unsupported reproductive organs hanging outside their body are considered to have better support than the people whose reproductive organs are nestled in alongside unisex organs like the small intestine and stomach. How does this make any goddamn sense at all? If a uterus could dislodge from the force of a skiing jump, so could intestines and the sport wouldn't be safe for anyone.

Theoretically, any sport where you get an advantage from low center of gravity, better balance, higher flexibility, or being closer to the ground, women should have an advantage. This should include soccer (football in non-US places), and might include hockey if the hockey players hadn't introduced unnecessary viciousness to the sport.

So in any sport where women would excel over men, they're either excluded, unfairly penalized, the sport doesn't exist, or the sport is considered unimportant and no one makes money on it. Hmm. I am thinking the problems here are not actually what the TERFs and transphobes make them out to be.

This is exactly the point I've been making in my post-fencing-thing meltdowns, but this is a way better and more succinct version of it

this is poetry to me

this is poetry to me

shapeshifting attempts

thinking about the possibility of, because of Flame Princess repeatedly showing up in Finn's dreams or sub conscious during the time they were dating as a hostile and violent figure portrayed as a violent mood swinger constantly threatening him with violence or having explosive anger bursts over minor things, or just outright blasting him with fire over nothing

that Finn might have been actively scared of Flame Princess to some degree before the events of Fire And Frost

And further, that FP would have picked up on a fear of her and the tension of him being scared of her while FP is trying to be a better person and was getting upset at Finn refusing to acknowledge or admit his fear of her contributed to the fallout between them after the events of that episode

Like, its not surprise that Finn is some kind of a masochist and his dreams of her blasting him with fire is very implicitly a sexually loaded experience, but its also noteworthy how whenever FP shows up in his dreams before that point, or even in ads that can be interpreted as being in his dreams (like the Halloween ad where Finn is menaced by giant versions of PB, Lumpy Space Princess and Marceline), FP comes off as deliberately violent, dangerous and an immediate threat to his well-being.

Consider that ad; if you take it as an actual dream Finn shares with Jake, it actually says a lot about Finn's perception of the characters in it. They're all gigantic, powerful and intimidating, but... PB and Marceline don't actually do anything dangerous or uncomfortable to them. LSP does (smooching him in a way that he is clearly alarmed and distressed by), and Flame Princess is explicitly the most obvious and dangerous threat to him, outright trying to attack him out of nowhere.

PB and Marceline, conversely, don't do anything even dangerous to him. PB laughs maniacally, and Marceline just pops up all innocent before making a big scary monster face, but the key point is that they're not actually hurting him, or even suggesting they MIGHT hurt him; PB just drops them into a test tube while making spooky laughs, and Marceline just gives them a jump scare. Compared to Finn's more panicked response to LSP and FP, they're downright benign.

While PB and Marceline spook him they don't actually do anything dangerous or genuinely upsetting to him at all, but Flame Princess is explicitly a rampaging threat to Finn's well being)

and FP is socially ill-adjusted, but she is perceptive. It's very in character for her to pick up on the possibility that Finn is more than a little scared of her; shying away from her when she moves too fast around him, or gets close enough for him to feel the heat of her flames. It's understandable, sure, but he tries to act like he's NOT worried about her burning him all the time, or that her touching him will hurt him and scar him for life.

FP values honesty. Finn trying to play it off, or pretending its not an issue at all might have been even more upsetting to her than when she accidentally hurts him. We also see that Finn, in Vault of Bones, DOES assume that FP might blast him or otherwise hurt him, even by accident, and while she's quick to reassure him, it might also be the sort of thing to set up doubts.

Finn's actions in Frost And Fire ended things and ended them BADLY, but it might also add further complications and texture to things if FP already had her own doubts, or hurt feelings, about what she might see as Finn's lack of honesty about being scared of her, or that she internalized the idea of her being a harm to others by just existing.

(Note that after she becomes Flame King, FP seems to rarely leave the Fire Kingdom at all. There, she can't hurt anyone just by EXISTING around frailer creatures.)

thinking about Finn and Fern and how The Death of Legacy was essential to their story's resolution

Legacy is a repeated theme throughout the series—legacy, destiny, our ability to change and/or uphold those, whether or not it is our responsibility to do so, even when that legacy or destiny directly conflicts with our morality.

Each character confronts (and usually kills) the legacy assigned to them in one way or another throughout the series: Marceline rebels against Abadeer, PB relinquishes her place of power, King of Ooo has his own fall from grace, BMO confronts and kills AMO, NEPTR refuses to succumb to evil, Cinnamon Bun escapes the "dumb clutz" persona he held in the Candy Kingdom, Flame Princess subverts every expectation held for her and shows an immense capacity for kindness and forgiveness when expected to lash out or become evil, Ice King goes from "evil freak" to "irritable weird old man who cares about people a lot" even in spite of the fact that the Crown was imposing aggression onto him, Gunther/Orgalorg throws away another chance at unfathomable intergalactic power for a chance at the love Ice King was always searching for, Betty became a chaos god rather than accepting the fate of Simon's death because of her own summoning ritual, Jake sacrificed his role as an active father to continue raising Finn when he realized who needed him more immediately, and perhaps the biggest example of this is Sweet P, who is the Lich reborn.

And all of this is not even touching Finn or Fern.

Finn and Fern actually share a legacy of a well-known and generally respected hero (though some of that trust was damaged after the episode, "The Tower," when said tower collapsed onto the Candy Kingdom and, "lotsa folks got squished"). They share the legacy of "The last human in all of Ooo," and as "Son of Martin Mertins and Minerva Campbell," and as "Son of Margaret and Joshua," and as "Little brother to Jake the Dog and Jermaine," and as "Father of NEPTR," and as "Flame Princess' ex boyfriend," and as so much more.

but Fern has this additional legacy attached to him, this separate history where his timeline and Finn's diverge. He has the legacy of "The Sacrifice that brought back Prismo"—a sacrifice that he did not consent to making, by the way. He's got the legacy of "Finn Sword," protecting the version of himself who sacrificed him and separated him from his own Jake, who was also sacrificed for Prismo's sake. And then he has the legacy of the Grass Wizard forcefully imposed on him, this legacy of the Grass Sword's curse, of evil.

And then Finn imposes the legacy of "brother" onto him. forces him back into the old shoes of "Finn the Human, Hero of Ooo," when he's still trying to figure out what he even is now. What all of it means. It's like with the Jiggler all over again, where Finn refuses to address the underlying issue of the fact that there is no space for Fern here.

And Finn never realizes, the self-sacrificial guy that he is, that Fern is seeing all of this for the first time, is finally realizing how Jermaine must feel, because when it comes to Finn and Jake and the bond that they share, there's not really any room for anyone else. but Fern is also only a sixteen-year-old boy—why does Finn deserve to be loved and cared for by his big brother, but Fern doesn't anymore? Why is Finn the only one offering him comfort? Oh. Right. Because he feels like Fern is "his responsibility."

So Fern already feels out of place, and he recognizes that, unless Finn is gone, he will never have Jake again. And he decides that, in order to step into "Finn the Human, brother of Jake the Dog," maybe the legacy of "Finn the Human, Hero to All in Need," may have to fall.

And then we have Finn, who embodies kindness and compassion, who refuses to kill Fern, but ends up doing it, anyway. Who, because he couldn't save this version of himself, feels he has lost the legacy, "Protector," has failed to uphold the legacy of, "Brother," has maybe even lost "Hero," in the scramble.

Tell me, what remains?

i think him and phoebe would understand each other

Quick doodle dump to practice more Krita

PT 3

The existence of both Neddy and Lemongrab, as like, Autistic-Coded relatives of Princess Bubblegum actually adds a lot of Context to the earlier Lemongrab Episodes. Like, the big way Peebles hurt Lemongrab is by sticking him in an empty castle ruling over an empty Earldom. Making him extremely isolated and emotionally frustrated throughout his entire existence.

And she probably did it because Lemongrab’s behavior reminded her of Neddy and she knew that Neddy flourishes when he’s mostly left alone and she…. just assumed the same would be true of Lemongrab. Not really considering the possibility that being left alone actually makes Lemongrab extremely miserable. That even though he can’t get along with Candy People, he needs others who are sour like him to be truly content. 

Just goes to show that the people who are built different can also be built different than each other.

One really interesting thing about Ice King’s development from Villain With a Pathetic Comedic Side to Tragic Awkward Friend with a Silly Exterior is… very early on in the show, when Ice King was written more as a straight-up villain, he also had a tendency to use... I guess, ‘fancier’ words - that the Later, Friendlier and Goofier Ice King wouldn’t really use.

From a Doylist perspective, this is really just a case of the writers needing some time to figure out IK’s characterization. Back when he was supposed to be more of a villain, he would occasionally switch to Dramatic Villain Speech Quirks - which often include Fancy Words. When the AT Crew started emphasizing Ice King’s likability, they also emphasized how goofy and silly and sometimes a bit stupid he is.

But from a Watsonian perspective, it’s pretty easy to read this as evidence that the process of Simon losing his mind to the Crown was still ongoing at the start of the series. Ice King’s occasional eloquence was a remnant of Simon Petrikov’s vocabulary

that he pretty soon lost completely.

(Another example of that is compering ‘Holly Jolly Secrets’, where Ice King did at least seem to know that the Guy on the Tape was him to “I Remember You”, where he seemed to have absolutely zero recognition that Simon is/was him.)

And that’s kind of an interesting development because… ever since “Holly Jolly Secrets”, the audience (and on some level, the other characters) conceptualized the idea of the Ice King Redemption as being about restoring his lost ‘Simon-ness’. That, you know, his memories and identity of being Simon are inherently tied in with any attempt to make Ice King both happier and less harmful. 

But in a fashion... Ice King was kinda getting better at the same time he was losing yet another remnant of his old identity as Simon. You know, I don’t think it’s a direct causation thing. It’s not like it’s good for the Ice King to lose his mind more and more to the Crown. It’s more that… the support and friendship the other characters have given him were not reversing or mitigating the part of the Curse that made him lose his original identity and memory - they were just making him a happier Ice King.

and every time I tried to look at you

there was something obstructing the view

You know, it is kinda funny sometimes…. I joined the Adventure Time fandom around mid-way through Season 5. And from what I remember back then, most of the popular headcanons and theories around the origin of Ice King’s Magic Crown played a very similar tune. Some sort of Evil Ice Wizard creating a Magical Artifact that will allow him to live forever, or maybe just create a legacy of Evil Ice Wizards that will freeze the world. You know, kinda on the same vibe Farmworld Finn was going on about when he was under the Crown’s influence.

But then ‘Evergreen’ came out, and revealed not only that the Crown’s origins lay in a time period much more unique and strange than the Generic Medieval Fantasy a lot of people were imagining

But that the thing standing at the very core of the Magic Crown’s Curse was not just simple Villainous Hubris or an intentional desire to cause Icy Evil - instead the theme surrounding the Crown’s origin and its Curse is the Cycle of Parental Abuse.

Urgence Evergreen is not your run-of-the-mill Evil Wizard, and he wasn’t trying to create a Curse, but he was an Extremely Bad Dad. I mean, he didn’t consider himself a dad at all - but it’s clear that he raised Gunther since he hatched and the Dinosaur saw him as a parental figure. The only parental figure he had in his entire life. And through Gunther’s entire life, it’s clear Evergreen was emotionally distant and deprived him of the familial connection Gunther needed and he just constantly belittled and insulted him

And generally showed very little concern for both his emotional and physical well-being.

He didn’t even do the thing he was supposed to be doing with Gunther, which was teaching him Magic.

And yet Gunther still loved him like a father, and craved his admiration and approval, and wanted to be just like him.

And we see this Cycle of Abuse happen a bit more literally before we even get to the Crown. Gunther clearly loves his pet Nina a lot, but sometimes he channels his own frustrations with Evergreen at her - mirroring the way Evergreen treats him. Because this is all he ever knew.

And so, when the Crown granted Gunther his ‘deepest truest Wish’ and made him just like his beloved Master Evergreen, he became a perpetually-angry madman shouting nothing but ‘Gunther no!’.

Because for all of Evergreen’s pride in his role as the Ice Elemental and his aspirations of being the one to Save the World, this is what he always was in the eyes of his son. Add to it the fact that he never taught Gunther any Magic Basics that could help him control the Crown… Evergreen’s abuse of Gunther literally became a Curse.

One that has not only hurt Gunther and backfired on Evergreen… but keeps hurting any poor soul who comes across the Crown. Generations after Master Evergreen was left as barely even a distant memory, his abuse is still responsible for turning others into Hurt People Who Hurt Others.

And then the Crown ends up with Certified Dad Simon Petrikov.

And, now, Simon’s Good Dad Qualities did not, like, automatically negate the Crown’s influence. But.. he tried, he always tried. He knew what he needed to do to be the parental figure Marcy needed, and even when the Crown made it hard for him, he tried to fight through it and do his best.

And even when he totally lost himself to the Crown, he couldn’t stand the thought of hurting her.

But also.... it's important to remember that Marceline is not the only child-figure Simon raised while under the influence of the Magic Crown.

Ice King’s relationship with Gunter the Penguin was always kind of a fatherly thing - I mean, that is why he named him the same name he’s given to Marceline, the name that’s ingrained in the Crown as the name of the Evergreen-Clone’s son. But in earlier seasons in the show, it was very… fraught. Ice King would shift rapidly from being very caring, affectionate and sweet towards his lil’ Gunter

To very Evergreen-esque moments of callousness, neglectfulness and just… venting his own frustrations at his misery as unnecessary anger and cruelty towards the penguin.

Misery that is, of course, caused as a result of the Curse of the Magic Crown. The Curse that only came into being through Evergreen’s mistreatment of his own Gunther. The Curse that is also subconsciously pushing Ice King into being just like Evergreen. It torments Ice King and ‘teaches’ him to vent this torment out on others - but especially at his Gunter. Simon’s natural nurturing instincts were still trying to fight through it, the same way he did with Marceline, but it was not always enough. It's important to note that Ice King still always gave Gunter the Penguin more genuine care and affection than friggin’ Evergreen ever gave to Gunther the Dinosaur, but it's just as important to also note that the Curse still affected his treatment of Gunter in all kinds of harmful ways.

But as the show went on, and Ice King started to become more stable, and started to get the help and support he needed… he also became a better father to his Gunter. Like, without Betty’s interference, Simon was not able to overcome the Curse as a Dementia Metaphor, or the Curse as an Addiction Metaphor… But as for the Curse as a Cycle of Abuse Metaphor? Ice King/Simon, through his strong pre-Crown parental side, and through his love for Gunter and his genuine desire to be a better parent - he was breaking the magical Cycle of Abuse that Evergreen started through entirely mundane means.

He grew past his bad-tempered outburst and bouts of neglectfulness, and just became this extremely doting and loving and sweet father to Gunter.

And so, next time a Reset Crown lended into the clutches of a Gunther, ready to grant a new Wish, the Gunther once again chose to become just like his beloved father figure

but rather than an irrationally angry madman who cannot say anything but “Gunther, no!”… The very first words Ice Thing says are a reminder of how much he loves his Gunter. How much Gunter knows Simon loves him.

And he just seems like this sweet, harmless and happily content silly lil Ice Wizard. Maybe not the person Ice King always was, but the person he was always trying to be. I mean, he literally achieved Ice King’s original goal of being happily married to a princess.

But also just in a general sense, he’s happy and satisfied with his life and he’s not hurting anyone. And just like the original Curse is the legacy of Evergreen’s abuse, this is the legacy of Ice King/Simon’s attempts to do right by Gunter despite his struggles. He has broken the Curse and now it will never torment anyone ever again. Because, well, because Gunter seems to have fused with the Crown so it’s unlikely anyone else will ever be able to wear it. And if someone could, the ‘Curse’ that will be inflicted on them will not be nearly as destructive as Evergreen’s Curse.

(And let’s not forget that Simon’s Honest Attempt at Good Parenting didn’t just neutralize the Curse, it also neutralized a literal eldritch abomination. The Orgalorg Stuff isn’t directly related to the point I wanna make, but that’s also Pretty Cool)

Of course, we also know that although Ice Thing seems happy and content now, this status quo won’t last forever.

I mean, a thousand years in the future is a long time for things to change. But also, maybe it’s very Thematically Appropriate that the person who seems to be responsible for Ice Thing’s degradation is Gibbon.

Who is himself a result of a Whole Separate Series of Parental Issues.

After all these years, ‘I Remember You’ is still one of the great highlights of Adventure Time Storytelling. And not just in the basic ‘what???? Silly children’s cartoon does something SAD??? HOLY SHIT MIND BLOWN’ way. But with the execution of that Something Sad. How it manages to pack so many Complex Emotions into just 11-minutes of television. And especially the way it utilizes the basic Adventure Time format for that purpose.

So Adventure Time is a Board-based show. Each episode has an outline pitched and written down by the writer’s room, and then this outline goes to a team of (usually) two Storyboard Artists who develop that simple outline into a full story. And with the show’s art-style deliberately eschewing staying perfectly ‘on-model’ in favor of having the animators take direct reference from how the different storyboarders draw the characters

And the show being generally extremely versatile in terms of themes and tone - AT has allowed a lot of their Storyboarders to really express themselves and their unique artistic vision as part of the Big Collaborative Narrative that is Adventure Time. 

Now, the Boarders who worked on ‘I Remember You’ are Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar. These two were a Storyboarding Duo from the start of S4 and until Sugar left the AT Crew during S5, and they always struck me as a curious combination. I think really from all of the individual boarders working on AT during that time, these two really are the closest to having like… Totally Opposite Artistic Sensibilities as boarders. 

With Sugar favoring a style that is very loose and sketchy and also very rounded. Focusing on expressions and subtle body language and lighting. And being famous for going deep in depth into Big Moments of Emotional Catharsis

And Sanchez having a very clear art style that emphasizes strong silhouettes and clear lines that suggest flatness. Focusing more on major poses and the character’s positions in the space. And having just a really great eye for AT’s brand of silly humor.

Like, I almost kinda suspect these two were paired together so they can each cover for the other’s “weakspots” in writing ‘Adventure Time’. 

And there were a few episodes that did some really interesting stuff with this very contrasting pair - ‘Jake the Dog’ is another example. Giving most of the Farmworld scenes to Sugar and most of the Time Room scenes to Sanchez both plays to their personal strengths as storyboarders and helps to emphasize the strong emotional contrast between these two scenarios. 

And ‘I Remember You’ is actually kinda unique among Adventure Time episodes cause… Most episodes will have the two boarders alternate between working on the episode throughout it. Like you’d have Boarder A draw a bit and then Boarder B and then Boarder A again… But “I Remember You” is divided between Sanchez and Sugar… basically perfectly in the middle.

So the entirety of the first half of the episode was boarded by Sanchez

Until Ice King pushes Marceline and then leaves the room in shame.

And then, Sugar takes over.

And, like, even if you don’t know anything about the Behind the Scenes of Adventure Time or who Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar even are - the Shift is noticeable. The shift in tone, in narrative focus, in the subtleties in which the characters are drawn. 

The entire first half of the episode has this thin veneer of just being a Silly Goofy Ice King Episode. Sanchez’s talent for Adventure Time’s brand of comedy is on full display… but there is also this underlying feeling that Something is Happening just under the surface. And these hints of the Big Emotions of ‘IRY’ expressed via Sanchez’s kinda goofy style really create this balance between putting the audience into a false sense of security that this is just a Very Normal Episode about two characters hanging out and the Tension constantly brewing in the subtext. 

And then it all comes to a blow.

And then the Shift happens. And now we are in Sugar’s court.

And this subtle shift in the artstyle and storytelling also coincide with Marceline finally openly expressing her feelings and the Reveal of Simon and Marcy's shared past. The episode changes focus from Ice King's silly antics to Marceline's feelings. Everything changes, everything in the first part of the episode gets recontextualized and... even on the most basic level, the episode is now Noticeably Different.

I would almost say that Sanchez’s half of the episode has Ice King define the tone, while Sugar’s half of the episode has Marceline define the tone. But more than anything it’s the catharsis. The reveal and release of those emotions that were building up so expertly through the Sanchez half of the episode. All of the Sugar-boarded scenes in this episode are really heartbreaking on their own, just through the tragedy of the story and Sugar’s expert knowledge of howto convey emotion in the visual medium - but it’s so enchanted by what came before it.

“I Remember You” is truly a great testament to how ‘Adventure Time’ could use every aspect of its medium to tell a great story in such a short time.

so throughout Dungeon Meshi Thistle is trying to find Delgal. that's explicitly why the red dragon exists

but Thistle isn't just looking for Delgal, afterwards they're going to do something together. by this point Thistle is too far gone to remember what exactly that is, but it's important enough to him that the desire hasn't fully been devoured

in Thistle's house he has everyone's bodies set up around the family dining table. this is very likely the exact same table from his flashback since just behind Delgal you can see an identical hearth, log stacks, and tree painting in the present day home. Thistle is very into keeping things preserved after all

in fact the dining table is so important to Thistle it's one of the last things he remembers as the Winged Lion eats the last of his desires

after the Winged Lion eats him Thistle is left alive but fully catatonic. though the closing chapters Yaad is taking care of Thistle and trying to get him to wake up. when he finally rouses it's in response to hearing the Golden Kingdom kids calling for "his majesty" (Laios) to come eat with them

CONCLUSION: Delgal was late for dinner. after Thistle found him they were going to have a nice family dinner, just like they had been doing for decades

dungeon shitpost

I think we've all had a Princess Bubblegum.

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