Review: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake “The Star; Jerry”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Fionna, Cake, and Simon travel to two more worlds, both ravaged by war and death, but Fionna and Cake start to turn on each other as the remote starts to break down. Meanwhile, Scarab pleads his case to his superiors to stop the travelers, while Marshall Lee and Gary get to know each other better.

OUR TAKE

We’re coming up on the end of the season, possibly the series, and we are starting to see several plots reach the boiling point. Our multiversal trio hit two more stops on their journey, both post-apocalyptic dystopias, which is interesting considering that the regular setting of Ooo is itself a post-apocalyptic setting. In the first, we see a world where Simon died in the initial apocalypse and Marceline was taken in by the Vampire King (a universe possibly coming from a wish that Simon never found the crown?) and so the world is overrun by vampire hordes, with only an eyepatch having Bubblegum, less green Huntress Wizard, and Finn’s dad are left to fight them. While these appearances are partly just for us who know them from the main series, it is neat to see the Vampire King again, first seen in the Stakes miniseries that I mostly remember pretty well for its ending song, but also its set of Vampire enemies that were all named after Tarot cards. Neat to see that Marceline would be The Star if she had been a part of that, but who will fill out the other Jojo cards? We already had Hierophant and Fool, but still need Hermit, Magician, and Chariot.

The other world is one where the Lich, once again voiced by Ron Perlman, actually won his battle to destroy all life, leaving just Beemo and signs that this world was basically the world of the original show but…everyone is dead. This gives the characters a chance to cool down when tensions are high, especially between the title characters as Fionna questions what she’s fighting for after being so easily manipulated by The Winter King, while Cake simply wants to make their world magic again. This is something that is given extra weight as we see the developing relationship between Gary and Marshall, paralleled nicely with the fight between evil Marceline and eyepatch Bubblegum, showing again that these relationships aren’t always guaranteed in every universe. Oh yeah, and Scarab is there too. He’s still kinda neat but probably the least interesting thing about this show so far. We got two episodes left and we’ll get to see everything wrapped up hopefully but maybe leave something open because I’m very much liking the show so far! Onward to the finale!