Review: Adventure Time “Stakes” “The Dark Cloud”

The kingdoms of Ooo stands against the Dark Cloud, but nothing they do can stop it. After some usurping, Princess King of Ooo shows his real, earwax colors, and Princess Crunchy the Unforgiving takes the throne.

Marcy, unwilling to face the shadow of her past, gets advice from an unlikely source, and races toward her destiny. Diving into the belly of the beast, she devours the monster, but not before it leaves its mark on the former demon.

Even though I threw Parts 5 and 6 to lions over not being able to stand on their own, and “The Dark Cloud” loses a lot of its punch without “Check Mate” setting it up, it’s still a great end to a story that stops where it began.

Aside from the profound message that it’s our mortality that makes life magic, the depth that Part 5 and 6 bring to “Stakes” is the highlight. Marceline’s struggle transcends the character, and speaks to everyone’s existential fears in a surprisingly grown-up way.

“Everything stays, but it still changes… in little ways, everything stays.”