I used to love Adventure Time up 'till about the 4th season. After that, I think the creators wanted to get too serious with some issues and started moving away from the light hearted and humorous atmosphere.
Anyway's here are some of my likes and dislikes.
I've always liked cartoons or animations because I found dealing with people and emotions too draining. I mean, I can't seem to even sit still and watch movies or drama because it just feels too much so I now have a habit of playing games or at least crochet whilst watching. It's not the best habit, and I think a part of it is because I feel anxious and useless unless my brain is engaged in multiple things. Cartoons are easy watch. There's no real sadness, no serious issues the character deals with and there's no strong sense of right or wrong within the cartoons and it tries to keep most tones neutral. I liked adventure time because of that. It was about two friends just going around on random adventures having fun being 'good guys'. It had some background stories here and there and interesting characters made the show quite enjoyable to watch.
After a while though, the negatives started to annoy me more and more little by little. I stopped watching after the 4th season, but after watching a youtube video on the possible love story between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, I was interested to see where it all lead and started watching the series again. Not that I'm a lesbian myself, but I was interested in how a children's cartoon brought in acceptance like that. Now that I started watching again from a later season, I'm starting to notice the negatives are bit more frequently shown.
I think the biggest aspect I hated from the beginning of the show is the total... hmm... objectification? that's not really the word I'm looking for, but anyways, the total disregards for characters other than the main characters and some side characters. I've seen living beings being used, killed, disrespected and treated somewhat like a toy from Finn and Jake or other side characters. In a way, it adds to the light and easy hearted atmosphere of the cartoon, but careless death of certain characters just still didn't feel right as I myself, see myself as a minor character in a way. Then there was an episode called "breezy" where all the princesses were wooed by Finn who wanted to get a kiss from each one of them. It really just felt like Finn had a certain disregard of the princess's as another living being. Princess's themselves all being portrayed as someone who just freely gives kisses away felt just weird and out of character. It's happened to the male counter parts as well by characters like Princess Bubblegum and I'm just trying to show that there's a bit of total disregard of minor characters in this show.
Another thing I disliked about the show is that the creators seem to be trying too hard to portray the idea of a 'new age' relationship model. Diversity is good. I'm all for people choosing whatever type of relationship people want to get into and whilst I'm aware that the creatures in the show are supposed to be non-human with non-human emotional desires, it seems the main relationship model for most character is to remain single and open... and or insane haha. There were a few episodes here and there with normal couples in a long term traditional relationship, but that was about it. Finn seems to desire this to a certain extent, but in most case, it seems like it's mostly just to fill his loneliness rather than actually wanting a lasting or meaningful relationship. One character that does strongly desire a long term lasting relationship is Ice King who is insane. Another long term couple, lumpy space princess's parents are joined together which makes it quite a questionable relationship. Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig were almost on the edge of getting a divorce until a baby showed up. Jake is in a long term relationship with Lady Rainycorn whom he still hardly ever sees (except for this one episode, "My Two Favourite People") and even when they have children together, Jake continues living as a child like character who barely even sees his own children after they're some what grown up in a few days. There were some others here and there, but it slips my mind as the rest were probably only in one episode between a character that'll never show up. Whilst the promotion of independence is good and diverse relationship models are interesting, I feel as if a relationship or bond between 2 individual character who builds their relationship through the years is undermined in the show and in a way, almost ridiculed. The only long term relationship Finn has are in dream, and in reality, he basically falls for any female characters that's somewhat relatable towards him. Characters who are supposed to be strong and somewhat of a role-model towards children seem to be mostly single like Princess Bubblegum.
Anyway, I think I will continue to watch the show because it's good background noise whilst doing crochet or some other mundane activity, but I don't know... It does suck to be grown up with a tonne of negative experience because everything I watch draws me back to some sort of a feeling that I don't like because of my memories. I don't want to be wooed by someone who just wants a kiss. I don't want to live single because my career is more important. I don't want to be reminded that someone has stepped on me and hurt me because of their own carelessness.
