Fundamentals - Phoebe Owen

We again did a longer (45 minute) full body sketch, using pencil and chalk. I feel as though I could have played with negative space more with this as I used the pencil both for outlining as well as shading. I could have instead just used it for shading and created a piece without clear outlines, relying on the shadows and lighting to create form.

I got some feedback about the width of both his left arm and his head, which I tried to correct - but looking at it now I think the head is overall too large.

Body:

- Character Backstory (Origins of Trauma): Examples of Marceline’s past, pick out and explain parts that could cause trauma to a child and what the effects of these could be. Introduce the Topic: Throughout Adventure Time the TV show, we see multiple instances where Marceline’s past is revealed. The episode ‘I Remember You’ is the first time we are introduced to Marceline as a child, during a flashback to when she is first found by Simon. Present Arguments: In this scene, Marceline is seen in the ‘wreckage of the world’ all alone and in tears, suggesting that she had been there for a long time fending for herself. A bit further forward in time, in the episode ‘Everything Stays’, we see flashes of Marceline growing up, and we get to a point where Simon too leaves her by herself when she’s about 10 - 12 years old. In this scene we see clear distress as she calls out desperately for him, but he continues to leave. She grows up this way into teenage hood, fending for herself by herself, as seen later on in this episode. The effect of living through a disaster like a war and then being left alone by both a parent and then, subsequently, a carer would create issues of anxiety and would cause the child to become distant to relationships. Evidence: When a child is in danger frequently, such as in times of war they seem to  “form a brain that is almost always wired on hyper alert because the world seems so scary”. Throughout the episode ‘Simon and Marcy’ we see examples of this in how worried Marceline gets for Simon when he wants to put the crown on to protect them - she knows the danger of this, and has the instant reaction to stop him. Conclusion: Marceline’s past is a clear example of what children during wartime experience - constant danger and loss of loved ones. She learned to fend for herself and saw danger around every corner, putting her very on edge and making it difficult to form relationships. 

- Character Interactions  (Product/symptoms of Trauma): Archetypes, interaction with Finn/Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Simon?

Introduce the Topic:  Throughout the show, the main way we’ve gotten to know Marceline’s character is through her interactions with others, and not always with the protagonists. How children learn to interact with others is a big part in their development, and this can be severely affected if they grew up unstably, as Marceline did. Present Arguments:  Although Marceline becomes a positive character as the show progresses and her character becomes more open, she started off as a ‘shadow’ character for the protagonist, Finn. When she is introduced in ‘Evicted’, she’s shown kicking Finn and Jake out of their house, and then following them and taking the new house they eventually find. She comes off as quite abrasive, but there is a hint of something else there, as if she wants to be friends with these people, but has defaulted to only expressing anger and wanting to frighten them. Evidence: As with many people, not just victims of trauma, “anger is usually an expression of fear” – Marceline got very close to a lot of people, and for whatever reasons those relationships didn’t work out, such as her mother leaving her, Simon leaving her, and her friends (according to her) doing the same. Throughout ‘Evicted’ and ‘Henchman’ she acts with what seems like forced ‘evilness’ but when, in the episode ‘What was Missing’ – where several characters are forced into a chase to save things they care about - she is called out for wanting to be with other characters and not just being there for herself, and she expresses anger.

Marceline lost her mother quite young (as evidenced in ‘I remember you’) and lost that very vital attachment, something that every child needs. The lack of this went on to affect her later relationships and made it “difficult to trust others”.

Conclusion: Marceline’s interactions with other characters is the best indicator for how childhood trauma could have affected her, as it’s the thing that is most changed during a child’s development. She didn’t have permanent attachments growing up, and, unlike most children, didn’t have others to play with, something essential to a child’s development. She is shown to express anger and issues with trust in regards to other characters, and has some social awkwardness / antisocial behaviors, something that is predicted in Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory. 

- Representation (Recovery from Trauma): How is Marceline presented in the show? Could talk about how her archetype changes and how this could represent her recovery?

Point: Marceline starts off as a ‘shadow’ archetype and develops into an ‘ally’ to the protagonists, and this represents her recovery from her trauma. Evidence: The first episodes have Marceline being very rude to the protagonists and not wanting to get too close to them, which makes her come off more like a villain. As the episodes go on, she communicates more and more with the cast and more of her backstory is unveiled until she becomes a sympathetic character and an ‘ally’, resulting in a scenario where she’s willing to fight for her friends. 

The Simple guide to child trauma “Children can often hide their vulnerability by acting angry or tough or like they don’t care. But they do care. It’s just a way of protecting themselves because they are so used to being rejected and mistreated.”   (pp 29)

“When a person has been hurt in a relationship, they can only be healed in a relationship” (pp 27)

Conclusion: The show demonstrates what has been said about children recovering from trauma, in that they need to spend time with people in order to recover from trauma that was caused by people. Marceline builds strong bonds with the characters in Adventure Time, and her attitudes almost loop around to wanting to protect them like no one did for her. 

Conclusion:

Answer the question

In conclusion, I think that Marceline’s character quite accurately describes someone who may have experienced trauma in childhood. How trauma can affect children through their development can be quite varied, but Marceline shares some distinct connections to research done on the topic. Her backstory shows clear signs of neglect, lack of attachment and traumatic experiences (as she lived through a war), which lead on to some symptoms she has, such as anger, lack of trust, anxiety and antisocial behaviors. She’s unsure of how to interact with other characters, and as a result it takes her some time to heal. Some elements of Marceline’s character can, however, be described as typical stereotypes of teenagers – something that Marceline is. I believe that there are too many similarities, however, for her attitudes to be mere coincidence, and I think that Adventure Time, through the character of Marceline, portrays childhood trauma well enough that it is recognizable, but still suitable for their target audience.

Marceline as a character represents a teenager/young adult in Adventure Time. She’s in the barrier between being mature and immature, and is overall quite a varied character. She’s a remnant of a war that destroyed modern civilization on Earth.

None of the characters in the show have particularly ideal upbringings, but Marceline’s is the most damaging. She was abandoned frequently at an early age, and this has clearly affected her current attitudes (she’s abrasive and pushes away relationships, ‘hurts people on purpose before she can do it by accident’ etc). 

A point I want to get across in my own work is to support children being brought up in less than ideal situations, and this is something I want to address in my essay. 

I think in order to find a good question, I need to research child psychology a bit more than I have, and find bits that relate to Marceline as a character. This might mean looking into the affects of war on children, which is exactly where Marceline is coming from. 

Possible Questions:

How did the Mushroom War affect Marceline as a character?

Child Trauma (Ebooks)

The Simple Guide to Child Trauma: What it is and How to Help

“form a brain that is almost always wired on hyper alert because the world seems to scary” (chapter 2) “If a traumatic experience happens repeatedly it would be normal for the child to live in a continual state of threat... makes it really difficult for the child to think, reason, negotiate or reflect” (chapter 2) “The threat response impacts a child’s behavior, their feelings and their relationships because they don’t feel safe but instead feel threatened, scared, confused and unstable” (chapter 2) “When a person has been hurt in a relationship, they can only be healed in a relationship” (chapter 2)

When a child is hurt by someone, either on purpose or accident, a child finds it hard to trust that person. They question if they can. Events and that make them feel scared will affect their trust and how well they can relate to other people (adults and children). This can further lead to “loneliness, isolation, bullying or - worse still - being exploited.”

Trauma is known to make children act negatively, and this is because they don’t have enough “internal space to hold all of the negative feelings they feel”. 

When a child ‘acts out’ in these ways, it’s a clear sign that they are in need of help. From this point they can go a few ways, such as becoming a perfectionist to prove that they are good, or progressively get naughtier and naughtier to suit the label given to them. 

“Children can often hide their vulnerability by acting angry or tough or like they don’t care. But they do care. It’s just a way of protecting themselves because they are so used to being rejected and mistreated.” (chapter 2)

Subconsciously traumatic experiences can be linked with senses or situations, leading to the child being able to become ‘triggered’ at certain things, causing emotional outbursts. They are often sensory related. 

“Anger is usually an expression of fear... usually a learnt behavior that has kept them alive in times of extreme fear”

Things that can help a child in recovering from trauma are empathy, kindness, patience and communicating with the child one on one when possible. 

Children in War (Ebooks)

Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to Healing and Recovery

Children that have lost a loved one or caretaker are found to be more likely to develop “emotional or personality disturbances than children who have not”. (page 10)

The age of the child will change how they experience traumatic events - “younger children are more vulnerable to injury than other children”, “experiences that could be tolerated by a 12 year old child can literally destroy an infant (Perry, 1997)” (page 75) 

Perry,B.D.(1997).Incubatedinterror:Neurodevelopmentalfactorsinthe“cycleofviolence.”InJ.Osofsky(Ed.),Childreninaviolentsociety(pp.124–149).NewYork:GuilfordPress.

“Children have been identified as being among the most susceptible among the population to negative effects of trauma” (page 85)

How a child is affected by a traumatic event will depend on certain variables, such as the child’s developmental level, their coping strategies, amount of exposure to trauma and the reactions of the people around them. The results seem to be greater when they “experience loss or devastation, are directly exposed to the event, are separated from their parents or see their parents react in a panicked manner” (pages 85-85)

Reference to Harry Stack Sullivan - Interpersonal Theory https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f6ce/64e590d18de7c4d1c4a832cc06c03d0ea7ab.pdf (pages 226 - 233)

Stages of development: 

Infancy: Tenderness, good / bad mother, good / bad me

Childhood: Protection, Security, Syntaxic Language, Ego skills

Juvenile Era: Living in a world of peers, competition, compromise, cooperation

Preadolescence: Intimacy, affection, respect

Early Adolescence: Intimacy, lust, balance of lust, security operations

Late Adolescence: Fusion of intimacy and lust, discovery of self and the world outside the self

Adulthood

Signs of dysfunction by ‘developmental stage’

Infancy: Avoidant or ambivalent, dysfunctional attachment (mother figure significant) Childhood: Avoiding social interactions, inability to show sadness or empathy, aggression, impulsive, self-doubt Juvenile: Fails socially, motor awkwardness, lacks persistence, poor sense of self-competency (cooperative play important) Preadolescence: Dependant, lacks academic achievement, relationship difficulty Early Adolescence - Late Adolescence: Antisocial behaviors, lacks healthy coping skills, poor peer relationships

“Young school aged children (6-9) often feel responsible for events, loss or death. They still possess magical thinking and may associate loss and death with witches, monsters, violence, mutilation or punishment. Older school-age children (10-12) realize that death is permanent and that everyone dies.”  (page 93) 

Lack of attachment (Website Resources)

Psychology Today:

The long-term impact neglectful parents

“If there was a lack of emotional attachment in childhood, this affects relationships later in life and can make it difficult to trust others. Fear is often expressed and felt without always understanding why.”

“ – Idealization of [his] parents was essential for [his] survival.”

4 ways traumatic childhood affects adult relationships

“When caregivers reject [us] or are unresponsive to [our] needs, we may develop an insecure – avoidant or dismissive – avoidant attachment style. Likely to avoid close relationships or keep partners at an emotional distance. You may hide your feelings, push people away, keep secrets, and shut down when others show emotion.” “insecure-avoidant people often strongly desire relationships and feel alone”

“If caretakers fluctuate between being responsive to our needs and dismissive or neglectful…” “insecure – ambivalent or anxious-preoccupied attachment. Ever watchful of changes in your relationships, sometimes to the point of paranoia. May feel like you’re more devoted to your partner than they are to you, have low self – esteem, and show a high level of emotional dysregulation (mood swingss).

Affects our partners. Hard time recognising your partner’s emotions or responding appropriately to his or her feelings.”

NCBI:

“Children who do not form secure attachments to caregivers risk developing anxiety or other internalizing problems.”

“- insecurely attached children also are more likely to have difficulties regulating emotions and interacting competently with peers.”

“-children form attachments to caregivers who provide protection and care (Bowlby J. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1: Attachment. 2nd ed 1982)

Harvard Referencing

De Thierry and Betsy (2016) The Simple Guide to Child Trauma: What it is and How to Help. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Zubenko,W and Capozzoli,J (2002) Children and Disasters: A practical guide to Healing and Recovery. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Mcbride, K.B. 2017. Psychology Today. [Online]. [27 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-legacy-distorted-love/201708/the-long-term-impact-neglectful-parents

Brandt, A.B. 2017. Psychology Today. [Online]. [27 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mindful-anger/201708/4-ways-traumatic-childhood-affects-adult-relationships

Kerns, K.A. 2014. Ncbi. [Online]. [27 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960076/

Ramires, V. 2016. Fronteirsin. [Online]. [05 November 2019]. Available From: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01783/full

Feist, J and Feist, G. (2008) Theories of personality. 7th. New York:  McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages [chapter 8]

We then took a look at some real world poses. We first drew over each image, and I labelled the important joints and how they were positioned in relation to each other. We then transferred this to our own characters, using the same posing to see if we could get our own character to move as dynamically. 

This session as a whole was quite helpful, and I’m going to use some of the things we did here in the final project, such as for drawing specific poses for my characters in the character bible.

After analyzing poses and walk cycles, we creating some rough contacts and passing points for 3 different walk cycles for our main characters. I went with the moods happy, scared and angry for this test. 

In contrast to the first walk cycle, this one is very jumpy in it’s steps. I realised as I drew over it just how much the body squashes and stretches to achieve this bounce, starting on a down and progressing quickly into the up position and gradually back into the contact. The character spends a little bit more time in the down position than it does the up, emphasising the way he moves like a spring, coiling energy before bursting upward. 

As this character moves their weight is also shifted from lower down on their abdomen to up on their chest, adding to the bouncing sensation.  This character also has a few more moving parts to think about that make it more complex, such as the fabric on their clothing and the secondary action of his hat bouncing on and off his head. These compliment the overall ‘bounciness’ that this walk cycle wants to put across. 

Source

The next walk cycles I looked at really played with the proportions of their characters which gave the artists something to think about when animating them, especially when it comes to weight distribution. This walk cycle was very quick I realised, and it almost snaps between each important frame. As I was tracing it I had a hard time pinning down the important poses, and realised that the passing position was done very quickly compared to other animations I have looked at. This fast movement was jarring when I first noticed it, but it does add to the overall jumpiness that the character is trying to convey. 

There is more focus on the ‘up’ position, where the arms are raised and the head is tilted upward, while the ‘down’ position is used for transferring the arms for the next up. The knees’ movement is also more emphasised on the ‘up’ position, reaching much higher than a vanilla walk cycle would have them go.

In contrast to the other walk cycles I had looked at so far, this one featured more of a twist to the body, most noticeably in the head, which gives the character levity, making them seem cheerful and energetic. 

Source

This walk cycle had the weight centred in the character’s overly round abdomen, and this shows in how it’s walk has been animated. The right arm, holding a burger, doesn’t shift much at all and moved in a looping motion. The left arm completes a full swinging arc to contrast this. The body turns ever so slightly as the character walks, the movement looping very smoothly.

When the feet hit the ground, this animation does have the feet hit the floor heel first and then progressing onto the rest of the foot afterwards, but this is very quick and snappy. This does give more attention to how heavy the character might be. The timing of the frames is very smooth (created on 1s), and extra emphasis is given to the contact frames (where the foot hits the floor) which again emphasises weight in the movement. The character’s knees stay steadily bent through most of the movement, contributing to this further. 

This character has some slight follow through involved in it’s walk cycle with the two strands of hair on it’s head that bounce as the character walks.

Source

This next walk cycle had some personality thrown in also, the character having very emphasised sneaky movements. As I observed this walk cycle and went through to find each key position, I noticed how after one foot touches the ground, the second almost instantly comes up. In order to get across the action of the walk, the conventions of walk cycles are changed, making certain positions less prominent.

The down position after the contact is also very quick, especially in comparison to the up which takes it’s time a bit more, having the character lean backwards a lot more before moving into the next contact. The walk cycle in general is very quick, the full animation being about 12 frames with 1 fps. This makes for a very quick sneak.

This way of making the character move in this way gives them a more light-footed feel which is necessary for a ‘sneaking’ movement. 

·Art of Ooo: - Pendleton Ward on Marceline: “Girls own more than just one outfit”. Marceline wears a variety of outfits throughout the show, all keeping to a ‘teenage’ theme. Some rebellious, others elegant. - Rebecca Sugar on Marceline: “She seems bad, but she’s anxious and doesn’t have a high opinion on herself” “Tries to hurt people on purpose because that’s less painful than hurting people by accident” - Oliva Olson on Marceline: “The World sees confidence, maybe even a hint of intimidation or haughtiness. Yet, deep down, there’s always a reason she got that way. She has lots of layers.”

· Adventure Time Pitch Bible: - “Marceline is a rocker girl. She’s lived for centuries and has developed a disregard for social conventions” “Throws life to the wind” “Finn does NOT approve of Marceline’s mischievous prankster ways, but he’s totally captivated by her butt kicking appeal”

Adventure Time Episode Analysis

Many of Marceline’s relationships are quite rocky, especially at the beginning of the show. She starts off as very antagonistic toward the protagonists in her first appearance, and from that point has either teasing or negative relationships with other characters. These relationships are, however, addressed and developed in a serialised fashion and these relationships become a lot more layered. 

I Remember You - Reveal of Marceline and Ice King’s relationship

This episode starts on the character of Ice King, the supposed villain of the show up to this point, singing to his penguin. He was to write a song to ‘get babes’, so goes to visit Marceline, someone he knows is proficient in this field.

His arrival is unexpected, and when Marceline sees him, all she says is “no”, quietly. She furthers their first interaction with anger, telling the Ice King that she had, on a previous occasion, to “not come around [her]”. She continues to be angry with him, wanting him out of her house, until she sees him struggling with his cables and starts to feel pity for him. When Finn and Jake enter to take him away, she decides to let him stay.

They start off with a song where Ice King talks about princesses and his favourite, Princess Bubblegum. He then gets upset as he lingers on how alone he is. Marceline starts to get uncomfortable at this point. To stop him from destroying her house in his sadness, Marceline tells him to “stop acting like this” and to “stop acting crazy”. He pushes her and instantly regrets it, apologising and getting out of her way”. This leads on to a short song by Marceline where she says things like “I’d like to help you, but I don’t know if I can”, “you know I’m actually glad to see you.” Ice King takes this the wrong way and tries to kiss her, and she tries bringing up his past life. Some of the clippings of newspapers he brought had images of him “before the war”.

Using some notes Simon wrote during the war, they sing a final song focusing on Simon’s sadness at how crazy he’s becoming due to the crown. Marceline gets some insight into what Simon, her parental figure, was feeling during the worst time of his life – slowly losing his memory of her whilst trying to save her.  “Please forgive me for whatever I do when I don’t remember you”.

This episode is the first to show Marceline and Ice King’s relationship in more detail and gives a good overview to it. When Marceline was young, for whatever reason, she was left alone on Earth in the remnants of the Mushroom War. Simon finds her and takes care of her for as long as he can before the effects of the crown drive him to insanity, and at this point, he leaves too. From this we can determine that Marceline was left alone without a caregiver for two stretches of her life where she desperately needed one.

More of their relationship during Marceline’s childhood is explored in the episode “Simon and Marcy”. Here we can see Simon’s drift into madness as he uses the crown to keep them safe. Due to their past, Marceline feels melancholic toward Ice King, wishing that he would remember her as she does him. Later in the show, she gets the chance to talk to Simon again, and they reconcile this issue for the moments they can be together. This happens in the episode “Betty”, where she sacrifices an important thing to her in order to help him fulfil his final wish.

It came from the Nightosphere - Reveal of Marceline’s father

This episode starts with Finn and Marceline singing a song together, where Marceline sings a strange song about her father eating her fries, giving it a very sad tone. “Daddy do you even love me, well I wish you’d show it ‘cause I wouldn’t know it.” In this first scene we can already see some of Marceline’s relationship with her father.

She wants him to care, but she doesn’t seem to want to put in the effort to see him, so Finn does it for her. Hunson Abadeer, Marceline’s father, introduces himself by trying to eat Finn’s soul and has an evil aura to him in general. He then leaves to devour the souls of everyone in Ooo – Marceline seems indifferent to this issue, and instead just wants to get her axe bass back, which her father stole.

Although Marceline is angry with Finn for bringing her father there, they have a light-hearted relationship throughout this episode “Marceline, drop the Finn bomb!”.

Marceline attacks her father to get her bass back, but when he says, “you can’t destroy me”, she stops. “I don’t want to destroy you, look, just stay out of my life!”. She gives up on attacking and talks to Finn and says “I just want my dad to care about me”.

They continue to face Hunson until Finn gets to the point where he gets the axe out of his grip, and Marceline gets it back, and the interactions between her and her father at this victory reflect a teenager / father relationship “in your face dad!” “Give back that axe Marceline! You don’t respect it enough”. They end this exchange by walking away from each other, and Finn tries to keep them together by playing the song Marceline sings at the start of the episode.

“Marceline, do you really feel this way? Of course, I love you.” As they reconcile, Finn finishes his mission by stabbing Hunson to release the souls he’s eaten and sends him back to the Nightosphere. Marceline’s mad at him for embarrassing her, but they end on a friendly note.

From this episode we can gather that Marceline and Hunson’s relationship is complicated but is also familiar, in the way that it’s a teenager and parent relationship. They no longer see eye to eye at all, especially since being separated by different dimensions, and due to a fry eating incident, Marceline feels like her dad no longer cares about her. She would rather pretend he didn’t exist, but still lets her feelings about him eat away at her. Hunson doesn’t seem to notice much tension between them, and while he feels like she doesn’t respect certain family values – such as the axe that was passed down to her – he still loves her and doesn’t see that she questions that. He’s loving but distant.

They interact further in other episodes. We see that in the past it was Simon that looked after Marceline when she was abandoned as a child, and we must question where her father was in the scenario. In a flashback clip in “Marcy & Hunson”, much further on in the show, we see that when Simon had to leave Marceline, he sent Hunson to care for her in his place. In this flashback, he shows no regard for the time that Marceline must have spent alone and acts as if they were already acquainted. In this episode he also shows extreme pride in Marceline’s concert performance but doesn’t realise his boundaries.

Marceline’s relationship with her father is distant. As her only biological family in the show, you would think they would be closer, but there was no attachment to him as a child. He was always just some random guy that popped in and out of her life and didn’t give her the emotional support she needed growing up.

Ketchup - Background to Marceline’s mother

This episode features just Marceline and BMO. It starts off with BMO showing up to Marceline’s house to fight a vampire threat that had already been dealt with, but Marceline finds something else for them to do. She has an old USB that BMO can help her investigate, and whilst it scans, they tell some stories. Animation wise, these are very stylised. BMO’s story has a vert fantastical twist to it, demonstrating their childish attitudes.

Marceline tells a story about her and Princess Bubblegum, and their relationship as best friends, and the recent events in the show.

The USB then reveals its contents, and we see some images, the most important being one of Marceline with her mother. Throughout the show, we don’t get to see much of Marceline’s mother at all, and while she doesn’t reveal anything about their relationship, BMO creates a story with the picture. The story they create suggests that the mother could only be with Marceline for a short time, but she had to leave after a certain period. In response, Marceline says “I think I’ve heard a story like that, a long, long time ago”.

As stated, we don’t see much of Marceline’s mother throughout the show, the most notable other appearance being in “Everything Stays”, where she and a child Marceline are seen in what seems to be a mobile home in the middle of some fields. Marceline’s mum just finishes talking about how she met Hunson and tells Marceline to sleep. She complains that her dreams are too “weird” to sleep, and her mother responds that “something weird might just be something familiar viewed from a different angle, and that’s not scary, right?”

Marceline’s relationship with her maternal mother was short-lived, and while it seemed like she only had her mother there at the time, this area of her childhood seemed okay. But Marceline only has her mother, it seems, which would have created a lot of dependency on her throughout this time. It looks to be before the war started, so before Simon finds her alone, giving some more context as to what must have happened at this time. Marceline’s mother, whether willing or not, was the first person that she cared for to leave her.

What was Missing - Relationship to Princess Bubblegum

This episode is fairly early in the show, with quite a simple scenario – a range of character have something that was very important to them stolen by a ‘door lord’, and they all work together to get it back. In the end, they must perform a song as a band to open the door and get their stuff back. Marceline, being the musician of the group, starts the attempts by singing a song that seems directed at Princess Bubblegum, talking about how she wants to, effectively, kill her.

When PB complains, she grows agitated and says “you don’t like that? Or do you just not like me!”. The song she sings now describes how she’s not perfect enough for PB and hints at an earlier relationship where they ended on bad terms. “I’m just your problem”.

This song ends when Marceline gets very deep into her emotions, and decides to pull back, reverting to more vulgar lyrics that suggest killing PB rather than making up with her.

In the original episode, Marceline goes as far as to spit on PB, causing her to try and leave. Finn pulls everyone back together for one last shot at opening the door, singing a song about their friendship.

When the door does open, it’s revealed that PB’s important item was a band shirt that Marceline had given her a long time ago, something she now wears as pjs.

Up until this point in the show, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum’s relationship was portrayed as teasing and mean, but this episode gave this more context, that something had happened. In future episodes, like “Varmints”, we discover that PB got very busy with creating and managing her candy kingdom, and didn’t have time for Marceline anymore, which is most likely what caused the rift in their relationship. In the series finale “Come along with me”, their relationship is fully reconciled, and they kiss, confirming that they had a romantic relationship in the end.

Marceline spends a lot of the show pushing PB away and not wanting to get too emotionally involved with her again. In the episode “Sky Witch”, she goes to PB for help recovering her childhood toy, but tries to keep it professional – PB was just the only one that could help, that was all.

Stakes (Miniseries) as a whole - Reveal of Marceline’s mother and growing up

In this episode, we get a few flashes into Marceline’s past. We start off with her mother and a young Marceline, who wants to play, but her mother tells her it’s instead nap time. Marceline complains that her dreams are too weird to sleep, and her mother comforts her, saying that “all dreams are weird”, and begins to sing a song:

Let’s go in the garden,you’ll find something waiting Right there where you left it lying upside down When you finally find it, you’ll see that it’s faded The other side is lighter when you turn it around Everything stays, right where you left it  Everything stays, but it still changes Ever so slightly, daily and nightly In little ways, where everything stays

We then move on into the future, where Marceline has lost her mother and now only has Simon. He’s preparing to leave, seeing himself as too dangerous to be near Marceline anymore. Marceline doesn’t want him to go.  We then see a teenage Marceline, hunting vampires. She’s fighting for moral good here, but still has these violent tendencies. 

The same teenage Marceline is then seen meeting humans and being very friendly but not quite fitting in, the people seeing her as an evil vampire. She still seeks their approval though, and wants to help them. This takes some time, and she eventually becomes friends with them after they recognize their connection through music.  She continues to live with these humans to help and protect them from vampires. She wants to rid them of their threats to keep them there, because for whatever reason she can’t go with them.  This accumulates in a fight between her and the vampire king - the humans lose trust for her after this, and she becomes immortal.

Throughout this series of episodes, we see Marceline addressing her vampirism and wanting to be rid of it. She’s seen history repeating itself over and over, and doesn’t want to be around for it anymore - she wants a normal, human lifespan, even if it means eventually perishing.  

“Some bad things happened to me when I was little. When I became a vampire I was a messed up kid. Now it’s a thousand years later and I’m still messed up”

Throughout this mini series, Marceline has multiple dreams addressing her feelings toward the current situation, the first of which shows a distinct wish to not be a vampire anymore, and to separate herself from it. She feels as if this is her identity though, and in the dream her body breaks apart.

In another episode, we see a bit more of Marceline’s past without Simon. As a roughly 10-12 year old child, she had to fend for herself (find herself food, build herself a shelter etc). Other people still didn’t want to interact with her at this time. 

Looking through the art book, it seemed that Marceline’s concept art didn’t have a massively cultural drive in her design. A lot of things were experimented with, inspiration varying from many places. She shows a range of more modern and more dated styles, this putting the idea of how old she is across more strongly. 

When looking into her design, I found a quote from the series creator, Pendleton Ward, where he says that Marceline varies in design because  "girls own more than one outfit". 

Her style is seemingly centered around her being a teenager in many different ways. Some of her outfits (such as below) take on a more rebellious approach to her physical age, whilst some other (such as above) are more stylish. Her outfits also showcase variations in hairstyles, seeming to change with what mood she’s in with the outfit. For example, a torn dress is accompanied by a half shaved, unkempt head of hair, contrasting her more friendly and perhaps more appealing long locks going down her back. 

Her design being kept close to her age is kept as the show is developed, all connecting to her age and, at some points, her character’s point in the story. For example, this design (below) is from an episode where Marceline gets to meet her childhood caregiver again for the first time in a long time. The episode as a whole highlights her less than pleasant childhood, and her outfit makes her feel like more of a child. It also refers to another episode that does actually delve into her childhood, where she first meets said caretaker, and she’s wearing a similar outfit - a red top with a dungaree-skirt of the same purple colour. 

 Overalls are seen as more of something a child would wear in the modern day despite originating as covers for more dirty work in the 1770s. 

While it could be considered that the overalls could both refer to the modern view, which is more childish in appearance, as well as their original use hundreds of years ago, I find this unlikely. The time period of the show suggests that Marceline wouldn’t have been alive for a time where this style choice would have been anything other than a more down to earth and carefree outfit. 

As Marceline’s character develops, her outfits become less and less frazzled and unkempt. The start of the show suggests a lot of instability, some things she needs to work out in order to get along with people and to keep her style steady. She also shows a change of posture, even in the character turnarounds (above and below), where her stationary pose is quite hunched over, and for the concept of a later episode she’s straightened out and appears more confident. 

Marceline’s colour designs, like her outfit styles, varies from episode to episode, but not as much. Her hair is kept black throughout the show, and her skin is a pale blue, and these create the base for all other outfits. Red is a common colour for her to wear, this relating both to her character as a vampire that can ‘eat red’, as well as her character. 

Red isn’t a colour that is used often in the other characters, the ones coming to mind are Marceline’s father and Peppermint Butler, both characters having quite evil traits, which could be hinting at Marceline’s vampire origin. Another character that comes to mind is Princess Bubblegum, a character that isn’t red but pink, and becomes quite a large part of Marceline’s character later on in the show. This colour choice could be suggesting their connection.

The darker colours that Marceline usually wears is most likely to make her seem more foreboding, as you would expect a vampire to be, but as the show progresses this ‘fear’ that she’s meant to inspire becomes more and more diluted as her designs change. 

Marceline has some smaller details that relate to her vampire half, the most notable being the two bite marks on the left of her neck. She does also have fangs, although these are prominent a lot of the time. The concept of vampires has existed for millennia across many cultures, so the exact origin of the concept is hard to pin down. Marceline’s character isn’t too centered around her vampirism in design, but she does use a couple of the tropes this creature tends to carry, such as the bite marks, an aversion to the sun and some other powers (such as floating, healing, shapeshifting). 

The first time it was mentioned in the English language was in 1745 in a book called “Travels of Three English Gentlemen“, but it had been mentioned in other languages before this. How a vampire was created changes between cultures, such as in Slavic and Chinese traditions where there was no biting involved, just a deceased person being jumped over by an animal. Fangs weren’t really involved in earlier accounts of vampires, but they all relate by drinking the ‘vital essence’, mostly blood, from people. 

The most clear tie between Marceline and vampire folklore is in the modern beliefs of vampires, where they have a certain charisma in order to get their prey, for blood or non blood reasons. 

 A lot of her vampiric traits seem to be more inspired by more modern takes on the species, such as in Dracula (1897), Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and The Vampyre (1819). Some traits are easier to find in folklore also.

Although Marceline isn’t shown to need the moon to heal, the vampire that she takes this healing ability from seems to gain strength from it. A possible inspiration for this could be from the 1819 print of The Vampyre, where Lord Ruthven can heal from the moon. 

Shape-shifting when related to vampires originates from the Jewish folklore Estries, but a more modern example would be Dracula who has this ability also. 

Marceline’s pointy ears could be sourced, as much of vampire traits are sourced, from Dracula. In the 1924 play of Dracula, the character is made to ‘disappear’, which could contribute to Marceline’s ability to turn invisible (or a general trait of being able to disappear when needed, either through invisibility or speed).  One of Dracula’s more notable traits is the ability to turn others into vampires, which is something Marceline shares. 

Her ability to turn into a bat could originate from Asian cinema, where in the 1950s a vampire woman, a ‘manananggal’, is said to have bat like wings. This could also relate to how bats are often connected to rabies, which is passed on through bites.

Marceline’s roots in vampire history and fictional culture do make her seem to be a more threatening villain, but she counters this with her personality. Her design holds very little in physical ties to vampires (the most notable being Dracula, a character that had a big impact on this kind of creature) which could be a way of separating the two, so her vampirism does exist but doesn’t define her. 

Personality and Background

When looking into Marceline’s personality as demonstrated in the show, she starts off as a minor antagonist to the main characters. As the show goes on, she maintains an almost cynical and cruel but humourous persona.

Looking into the Art of Ooo again, I found some details as written by people that worked on the show. I also found the Adventure Time Pitch Bible which details her early concept as well. 

From this image from the pitch bible (above) Marceline started out as a musical character that provided an almost guilty pleasure to the protagonist - with the “allure of a daredevil”. Of course, when the show went into production, more was added to her character.

Rebecca Sugar, a story boarder and songwriter for Adventure Time worked a lot on Marceline and this influence really boosted her popularity with audiences. Olivia Olson is her voice actor, and a singer. 

Rebecca Sugar: “She seems bad, but she’s anxious and doesn’t have a high opinion of herself.” “Tries to hurt people on purpose because that’s less painful than hurting people by accident.”

This quote is evidenced throughout the show, starting from Marceline’s premiere “Evicted” in episode 12 where she seems to be friendly with the protagonists, but is meaner than she needs to be to them. Later on as Marceline and Princess Bubblegum’s relationship is shown, it can be seen that she does this to her as well, especially following some relationship that they had before the show. 

Olivia Olson: “The world sees confidence, maybe even a hint of intimidation or haughtiness. Yet, deep down, there’s always a reason she got that way. She has lots of layers.” 

The origin of this attitude could be seen through flashback episodes, such as “I Remember You” where Marceline’s childhood is looked into. She was left alone during the Mushroom War (a nuclear war that wiped out most life) as a child and found by Simon (the Ice King before he lost his mind). Simon then had to leave her to keep her safe from himself, which continues her record of being abandoned by people she looks up to.

The episode “I Remember You” is a turning point not just in Marceline’s development but in the show as a whole, as it shows it’s audience a darker side to such a bright and colourful world, and how they are willing to delve deeper into themes of abandonment and flaws in childhood. 

Marceline’s background is shown through flashbacks, the environment of these seeming to be in the 1980 - 1990s due to some cultural hints within the episodes, such as the singing of the “Cheers” theme song, a show that ran between these years. This show was almost exclusively aired in America, so it’s safe to assume that this is where she started out - despite the mapping of Adventure Time being a lot more scattered compared to real world Earth. 

Essay Question

How does Marceline portray vampires historically and culturally in Adventure Time?

How she diverts (drinking red instead of just blood)

Connections to Dracula

Character design differences to standard vampires

To what extent has Marceline’s childhood affected her adulthood?

Psychology of children and trauma

Effects of mentors (Simon, Ice King, Hunson Abadeer)

Character design (Changes in outfits)

Interaction with other characters (Finn and Jake, other vampires, her father)

To what extent did Marceline affect the popularity of Adventure Time?

Songs (Rebecca Sugar’s influence, Adam Muto)

Backstory