Literally losing my mind over how Adventure Time writes characters and their relationships. Which, like, no shit, but I’m especially stuck on how the way a character is portrayed and viewed by the audience is entirely dependent on their relationship with whoever the focal point of that episode is (typically Finn).
One of my favorite examples of this is Jake versus Martin. We, the audience (for the most part), love Jake and hate Martin. Jake is a cool wise older brother that loves food, Martin is a conniving selfish bastard. What’s crazy is that they’re deeply comparable. Both are reformed criminals that started a family, only to neglect that family and (more often than not) deny their children’s desire for parental affection. In fact, Martin is arguably better than Jake, as he only acts that way towards Finn in the (relative) present due to his repeated head trauma and heavily implied amnesia. In Islands, it’s made clear that Martin is willing to risk everything, including his life, for his son. The only thing that made this change is the injury he sustained fighting the Island Guardian (as was shown in the original promo art for Min and Marty) (There is something so devastating about how protecting Finn made him a worse father oh my goddddd). Jake doesn’t have any excuse, he’s just that way. Not that I am a Jake hater! I love him, but he’s very flawed, as all the characters are.
The reason we rarely consider this is because everything is filtered through Finn. To Finn, Jake is more than everything he needs to be. He’s his best friend, his brother, and his mentor. Whenever he’s in trouble, Jake is there. Martin, on the other hand, made fun of him, manipulated him, and ripped his arm off without second thought. It makes perfect sense that we’d like Jake and loathe Martin.
Another example I like is Princess Bubblegum. She’s an unethical ruler, to say the least. She’s not the worst in the show, but she’s not without (a large amount of) flaws. To Finn, though, she’s (typically) a kind person, so this is how we see her. If Adventure Time were from, say, Lemongrab’s perspective (and I’m soooooo glad it isn’t I hate that stupid lemon), her role in the narrative would be far more comparable to a character like Victor Frankenstein’s.
I actually adore how the writers use point of view in this way because I feel like it’s so rare for narratives to acknowledge it at all? In reality, it’s true that individual relationships with people can vary wildly. Everything is dependent on the context and circumstances under which you know someone, and how they respond to a near-infinite array of factors. Someone could, objectively, be a saintly presence in one person’s life and a major nuisance in another’s. Things aren’t as black and white as good or bad, and the degree to which perceived goodness or badness is dependent on individual relationships (and, honestly, complete chance) is literally mind-blowing. I think in fiction, characters are often written as broadly good or bad. Adventure Time doesn’t really do that, unless the characters are incredibly minor, and it’s one of my favorite things about it.
There’s something oddly comforting in it, I think.
areudirty
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
izzy806
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
