I see a lot of discussion about F&C and the mid-to-late seasons, but i don't see much discussion nowadays about the early seasons of AT.
Thoughts on it?
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Early seasons were top comfy
Same, partially because of the music
So comfy and nice that it made 12 year old me borderline suicidal since my real life wasn't nearly that nice and happy. (my parents split up, and things were generally terrible all around)
I still can't listen to Come Along With Me without tearing up a bit.
way too much 2000s humor for me
shit can we actually talk about early adventure time?
by which I mean the entire show plus three of the HBO specials. but mostly the beginning
it came out around the time Homestar Runner went on hiatus, and I was so happy to have it to fill that 2000s humor void. Love that shit. Sorry you don't, man. is there an era whose humor you really dig?
How's Homestar Runner by the way?
COLLAPSE THE WAVE FUNCTION!
early stuff was the best, just like early spongebob. What came after isn't worth accepting.
How many comics does this show have?
75 for the first run
And a bunch of all ones
How much of the country has 7-11s anyway?
More than you think less than you know.
https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt79dc99fad342cc45/bltabeb13235b5239b1/630f763244cff61b783b15b6/corp_about_usmap.png
What is this? I thought Scarlet was dead. Didn't she get turned 4d and was never seen again? Anyway Finn's too big for that little sword now. Clearly whoever made this isn't a real fan.
The comics aren't canon.
So?
The only good seasons
Had a much more consistent and coherent concept than the soap opera it would become.
It was like the doodles of a 10yo boy brought to life. One of the most soulful cartoons ever made.
Jake was kind of an butthole, they really figured him out better later
Dude he got more of an butthole later. Remember that thing with the fly? That was just so unnecessary and evil. It can't be canon honestly, Jake would never...
He got fatter
He can shapeshift though
He looks like he got fusioned with Beartato
There's nothing to talk about. It was just a fun goofy show. Went to shit probably somewhere around when they made the gum b***h a child or something. It leaned too much into the CN curse of trying to be a shitty romance drama
In other words you have not watched the show but still "need" to comment for, some reason?
Cope and seethe. Your favorite cartoon shat the bed. No need to blame me for pointing that out
You just made alot of assumptions and they were all wrong. Is it like funny to you?
I don't think these people know joy, or even anything we'd recognize as human emotion. They're weird broken little robots and it's probably the saddest thing that has ever happened.
weird, man. though I liked the original "Pen" voice. and how weird and crazy it all was... and I liked John Kassir Ice King. It's fricking weird that Tom Kenny ended up doing the exact same voice, but not because he listened to Kassir's, but because he was already using it for Dr. Two-Brains.
Also liked Lady's original voice. and PB's.. and when she kissed him, that was some stuff. and Jake not getting the hint about finding an excuse to leave, just wanting to stick around... That shit made an impact on me back in '08.
What would this show’s legacy be?
Like fanboy and chum chum?
A cartoon everyone hated for being weird and silly and random and dumb?
I hate to speculate but I severely doubt it would have flourished on Nick. They wouldn't have rolled out the Avatarpet, they would have made them make it a shitty spengberb clone and it would have ended in forgettable misery.
and regular show is what saves Cartoon Network.
I have little doubt Nick would've found a way to ruin it.
>Nick cans Adventure Time for not getting Spongebob ratings
>it never takes away the focus from stupid absurd humour in favor of lore and plot
>it never tries to explain too much all the crazy shit in that world
>no crappy romance drama arcs
>the show ends at mortal recoil
>becomes a cult classic
some anon said more or less the same thing months ago
Where?
I saw it on tbharchive
oh ok
do you have a archive source of that. or maybe a link for it?
https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/124128559/#124134067
Alright. Thank you so very much senpai!
The quality of those two seasons would not be as good as they were on CN.
I think it would be closer to the pilot. And I also can see Nick demanding a "squidward" type of character and Finn being way more annoying to try to be another sponge bob. Because they were doing that a lot at the time.
I think the biggest victim of that is planet sheen, that if you look at the concept art and such it was almost trying to a space ranger cartoon but got derailed in to being sponge bob in space but much much more bizarre.
Honestly it would’ve been both kind of adventure time would have been Nickelodeonized and generally worse but it never would’ve spiraled into what it became and probably would be just pretty good consistently rather then great to very mediocre
>You just made alot of assumptions and they were all wrong.
I've seen adventure time. Why try to deny reality? Which """assumption""" is wrong then?
Favorite episode? Mine was Ocean of Fear
meditating
Having just watched the later seasons for the first time-
It becomes a *different* show after season 3. It's not actually worse though. When the relationship drama takes a back seat later on it's actually really fun to watch again
because everyone loves the early seasons and they were "simple" in that they didn't have a lot of convoluted lore to argue over
I get actually depressed thinking about how it was vs. what it became. Perfect concept for a show that could go on forever without getting old, got old anyway.
we were fricking robbed
Late AT feels like a reboot made by a completely different team
funny since it literally was. everyone kept leaving.
aw man that sucks. most people with shitty lives enjoy escaping into something pure and happy.
>funny since it literally was. everyone kept leaving.
No it wasn't, this is just a cope. There were a lot of guys there the whole time.
okay fine, smartass. the team changed over time, it wasn't 100% new
what did they mean by this
it was a a fan art that the crew liked so they animated it iirc
Early season are the best ones, fun dungeon crawler with no bullshit late show is shit with the exception of Justin Roiland character
Remember some old theories? Like Susan Strong being Finn's mom
Neat
so many
shit, I still remember art of Finn with brown hair.
I remember when we did the math and realized Marceline would have been a kid around when Simon was changing, and drew pictures of them imagining being together while reminiscing about those times, as if they hadn't spent time together.
I remember when people were drawing the initial Flame Princess design, having heard she was gonna show up and having seen that design.. god what a wonderful time that was, the creators releasing art to us
Interestingly, Pat McHale had an idea for them to be siblings as part of his explanation for Finn's fear of the ocean.
It would be cool if a few "What ifs" were introspected more
Not much to talk about, it was just a really good and funny show. One of the best kid's cartoons ever made. It was either the Lich's debut episodes that introduced a serious large-scale villain and real lore to the show, the Ice King's backstory being revealed, or the Marceline/Bubblegum ship tease episode that permanently changed its trajectory.
there was no ship tease, anon. there were deranged shippers who pressed the show hard after the show took backlash against one of them who was in charge of their publicity videos
they were very, very, very, very, very, very clearly setting them up as estranged acquaintances who always wanted to be friends but thought they were in too-different crowds.
>they made dumb theories the main plot
Holy shit they made the midwit idea a good plot
Nothing to talk about, it was just dumb fun.
I think one of the fundamental differences between early AT to late AT are the writers feelings towards the show and what they are trying to achieve.
It's been awhile since I watched adventure time properly, mostly because I'm scared shitless of rewatching the show and ruining it for me. AT is a very dear show near to my heart that represents this time of my life that I was genuinely happy. i would sit with my friend and we would watch the show together and quote it and have simple fun, and all the problems I have now that torment my soul and break me trying to drag me to my knees while I vociferate fighting back my hardest to the point of bloody knuckles, more my own blood, against what it seems destiny itself just to keep standing up, moving, seem so alien and distant, it's was not like it was only a different time of my life, it was like I was living in a complete different world, far far away from this horrible place.
And I think this is somewhat reflected on AT writing as a whole. The impression I got from what I remember is that their only real end goal was to have fun, and they were doing only that. There were no pretentious ideas about major plotlines or deep messages, they were not trying to make something artsy or as far fetched as a masterpiece everyone has to love and cry watching it. They seemed just trying to have fun and doing dumb things and having silly fun while doing those things. And this same level of sincerity was also translated to their own more emotional moments and more somber quiet aspects of the show, they were so unexpected but never felt out of place.
Now everything is different, fionna and cake kinda reflects that. That while it carries major artistic merits and individual aspects of each episode, i can't help but feel disappointed in some way as it reached it's end. And the reason why is because is a reminder that the show changed and the show that made I loved in the past is only there, in the past, in my head and in my heart.
yeah AT meant a lot to me and watching it go to shit hurt. a lot.
but the original show and 3 of the HBO specials still hold up. give it a rewatch. you're gonna wanna fastforward through the clown nose episode, but that's it.
you should probably stop fighting back against the misery of the world. The good lord never promised us a good time. All you have control over is making it suck less for others.
>its end
it's over now? phew, finally.
OP here, it's nice to have a discussion about early Adventure Time
Good night.
Will things be better for him?
If only you knew how bad things really are.
he gets to frick plant pussy
I just started watching this show again from the top because of all the discussion about the new drivel being passed off as a spin-off.
It's really interesting to see just where a majority of modern cartoons draw inspiration from, looking back.
Adventure time was the first example of the slice of life, happy kid show turning into a more deep experience with a fleshed out world. Unlike most that try to do that though, Adventure time lets it be a normal wacky random romp for as long as it needs, and it does the real stuff very well.
I was going to talk about the scene where Marceline turns into a vampire as a not-so-early example of this, but then I remembered an interpretation that comes even earlier.
Some seem to think that Marceline's Dad "eating her fries" was actually an allegory for molestation, or rape. With that interpretation, her oddly traumatized outlook on the event makes sense. It makes sense why that's why they were estranged for so long. It's also something that turns the entire thing bittersweet when looking at the ending of that episode. They're not on good terms yet, but on the road to mending their relationship. Marceline keeps her boundaries as an adult, and Hunson learns that he needs to respect them if he ever wants to be a part of his daughter's life again.
While I'd always recommend to anyone who was abused by a parent to just cut ties and never look back, I know that it's not always that simple, and that might not be the only valid solution. It's a topic that's hard to talk about, and they managed to put it in a kid's cartoon with the subtlety to make it work, and leave an impression on the audience without them even knowing.
Eat your heart out Steven Universe.
yeah so many people whine about lore and everything, as if it was the culprit of the problems. Naw, AT did it right. they drip-fed you that shit slowly, but didn't make it some dumb arc with hooks at the end of each episode. they let it coalesce slowly, and it was obvious they didn't have anything planned.
what's hilarious is how the seasons fricked with them so hard. First one obviously written as if not expecting a second, then getting greenlit for like 5 seasons at once, but then CN burns through them too quickly leading to a hiatus that soured a lot of people, and then as they started season 9 they were told "surprise! you've been on season 10 all this time! and it's gonna be shorter than normal too" so they had to rush again. just shows you can be a victim of success.
>people jumped to conclusions about eating her fries
yeah it's fricking sad how many people do that with... basically everything out of marceline's mouth. her whole thing is she's real, maybe too real for some people. you can take everything she says at face value. If she says she wants to make up with someone and that she feels like an outsider, that means she wants to make up and she feels like an outsider. not some weird sexual shit. everything is sex sex sex with people today, criminy.
>scene where marceline turns
man Stakes was amazing. and it came at a time when the show seemed to be winding down in quality, so it was nice to see. Sure, Finn wasn't allowed to be competent or happy, but it wasn't his story so this time (and only this time) it was okay.
I didn't mean that she literally got molested by her father, but that was the allegory in-place. Or at least, that's how I and a few others interpreted it. (we directly see Hunson eating her fries in one flashback, so it was never a theory of what actually happened.)
It's a Death of the Author moment, so any interpretation is just as valid as anyone else's (including the creators)
I wouldn't even say I'm jumping to conclusions about it. It took me like 10 years to think of it on a recent listen of the song. my mind just went running.
Personally, I think seeing the show with your own interpretation, and getting something out of it was the entire point. I'd doubt Pendelton Ward really wanted everyone to think of the show as only what it appears to be at face value without any subtext or deeper meanings.
I take Simon's descent into being Ice King as an allegory for dementia. Bubblegum's whole kingdom is all a bunch of Munchhausen's syndrome which was confirmed more to me by the fact that the candy kingdom was all made dumber through substance. In that vein, you could also relate the dumdum juice to Ritalin, or other psych-medication.
wow. Weird place for your mind to go, but okay. I thought it was a pretty clear allegory for a selfish, absent father. her whole vibe, that's what it fit with. She was not remotely acting like a molestation victim. I don't think they usually write songs about it.. and the entire point of it was like "you never show me any love or attention" which again, opposite of that problem. Like yeah go below the surface, but make sure you go below the right surface. Though I guess maybe my lenses could be tinted too, since my dad was so very opposite of that. he was very involved, even domineering and nitpicky, but always 100% selfless and would never think of eating food til we'd had a crack at it. because of HIS cruddy upbringing and because of a ton of "the dad goes first and gets everything" bullshit he saw in other cultures.
>simon is dementia
okay that one is pretty obvious
>munchausen syndrome
er.. the thing where you pretend to be sick to get attention? I think you got that mixed up with something else. I can see the point about the kingdom getting dumbed down, but... it was more so PB could control them, because otherwise it's a kingdom that runs on nothing. autonomous candy people betrayed her, so she assumes that's just how it would always be if she made more like that. If anything it's an allegory for why God gives us free will, because PB is 'playing God' (in a bunch of ways) and the results are rarely good because she requires everything to be rigidly controlled.
the candy citizens being purposely dumbed down so Bubblegum can keep control over them, and they can't live on their own without her. I just looked it up, and it's actually Munchhausen by Proxy. Usually when a mother convinces her child that he's in some way unfit to care for himself to keep him dependent on her for as long as possible.
I think Marceline writing a song about a trauma is accurate. Have you heard music artists? They can be some of the most depressing people you see. and as for her dad not showing her love and affection, I'd assume neglect would be much worse if any time he did show up, it's a coin flip on whether he abuses you or not. The song is about her desire to be loved by her father, but a child getting molested might not interpret it as an act of love, especially if it's painful and forceful.
Also as we learn in the late-game of the series, her dad came back into her life at Simon's request. He gave her the family axe, and taught her how to **suck** souls. (that last part is definitely reading too deep into things, and my own dirty mind.)
And yeah, I know that you can think of other interpretations for the things shown. As I said, I think that's the whole point.
I like discussing these interpretations because it helps us all flesh out our own understanding on the subtext of the material.
I thought munchausen by proxy was "i'm using another person to get attention from a doctor" not... that. the thing where parasitic mothers try to keep you reliant by metaphorically crippling you. I suppose they are related concepts.
>depressing music exists
yes and it's from the most pampered people you could meet, that's the point. Didn't you watch Daria? anyway I just think you were pretty off on that one, but meh. like you said, you can read into stuff however.
it's how I feel about literally everything now. I have stopped getting attached to things. Even Bob's Burgers, the one remaining thread of enjoyability from fox sunday night, the SINGLE remaining watchable adult animated sitcom. I can already tell it's going to betray me, it's laying down the roots. so I'm backing off and letting go now.
Something seems off about this screencap
fish's face and tail aren't aligned properly. early AT art had a lot of that "hehe it's stylish but really we don't know how to draw" shit, before they sorta ironed that out but also lost a lot of the creative wrinkles in the process.
no, I meant that Marceline is outside when it's daytime, and not dying.
holy shit
i guess they hadn't thought of that yet. or she had really, REALLY good sunscreen that she has not been able to reacquire since.
or maybe those images were just imaginary, like how she or Finn thinks of those moments..
I do recall that one Graybles episode where they actually re-edited her scene to make it heavily overcast, in future airings. Man I loved the Graybles episodes. I'm surprised I never hear people b***hing about em, they seem like the thing people would hate, and they did a lot of em.
Because she's a vampire in broad daylight in the middle of the ocean
Huge oversight seeing as the rest of the episode has her appear at night
How would this show end up if it stayed like this?
Higher lows, but lower highs.
CN in 2010 was really something else. For a tiny brief shining moment, it looked like TV was gonna get good again. Then society shifted and they cracked down harder than ever. No more risky or risque, only gay gay gay. Remember when Regular Show briefly got away with a 'pissed' like it was frickin 1991 again and we were watching Salute Your Shorts?
It shifted in 2015-2016 when the election happened and SJWs took over
eeyup. though there was some earlier shit taking root around 2012. oh well.
That era of American TV animation was an aborted renaissance.
Stuff like ATLA hinted that they could break free from the episodic comedy limbo and dare to explore things only done in live action or anime.
Then what we got was fanfic tier writing for all those shows.
Avatar is a really weird show looking back. If only Korra was more successful, we might've seen more attempts at ambitious action cartoons.
Even more that it was made by Nickelodeon of all studios. Avatar is a fricking anomaly and I doubt we will see something like again that any soon.
You should blame Ward himself for that, the guy let a bunch of tumblr fanfic writers into the show and bailed out once things got out of control
Adventure Time might be the first time I felt betrayed by a franchise I used to enjoy.
I stopped watching around the time they were doing the alternate reality with the long nose Finn, mostly because I got bored with TV and the lore mess was getting annoying.
Then I started reading about what they were doing and I got pissed.
Is this how Star Wars fans felt multiple times?
why do you even care about a show you stopped watching like 10 years ago?
because I loved it
I'm felling like watching those early 2010's show again, but I fear I will get absurdly disappointed the same way I did with FOP some weeks ago. Should I protect my happy memories?
AT holds up for me. the ending still makes me tear up, and HBO's extra-ending does too.
There's still some doldrums but it is a good show IT IS A GOOD SHOW
I think I can pinpoint the exact moment the show turns to shit. At the end of Season 5, the episode "Billy's Bucket List", Finn talks to the ghost of Billy who reveals his dad is still alive in space prison, which then kicks off the plot of the Lich returning and all the other shit with episodes like the "Islands" miniseries. What started as "what silly adventures will Finn and Jake get up to this time?" became a slog of lore heavy episodes, eventually putting "fun" on the bench.
In another world, Finn finishes the bucket list and Billy says some shit like "You are MY hero" and not another episode is made. Every day in Ooo is like a gentle breeze that goes on forever.
Adventure Time ruined western cartoons. Zoomers will seethe about this statement but it's a fact
What good cartoons used to be like from your perspective?
I really like the silly slang. But I'm a sucker for fictional lingos in general.
>lingos in general
I don't know what that is?
>The vocabulary or jargon of a particular subject or group of people.
Early stuff before it got 2deep4u was the best. It's like the writers got a hate-on for Finn after the first few seasons.
>gets yeeted into a shittier dimension in season 4
>might actually die in that dimension and son gets yeeted into yet another dimension anyway
>main crush goes lesbian
>gets turned into a sword
>gets merged with a grass demon losing his identity
>gets cucked by cinnamon bun
>doesn't even really feature in the ending to his own show
The list goes on
Farm World Finn is better off than OG Finn.
Farm world Finn is either dead, or bringing up multiple kids as a single dad with one of his sons mysteriously warped away forever without him knowing what happened.
Hey finn
>I see a lot of discussion about F&C and the mid-to-late seasons, but i don't see much discussion nowadays about the early seasons of AT.
>Thoughts on it?
What's your thoughts on it?
Thought it was pretty fun
What do you mean. what our thoughts are?
Your opinion of the early seasons
so what even happened to pendleton ward? you hear much about him and i don't think he made any other shows after AT
he burned out. realizing it kinda sucked working in the modern animation industry. I'm sure he'll do a little more writing on other board-driven shows for friends of his, once in a while, or do a little comic or something to amuse himself.
he made the midnight gospel not too long ago i dont know what that schizo that replied to you is on about
>not too long ago
it feels like ages, I forgot about that immediately. what a garbage show that was. just a lot of smug hollywood spiritualism wayyy up its own ass.
remember when this show was made fun of for not being enough like steven universe?
I like that it was just 2 bros going on wacky adventures. Fun, lighthearted, and humorous. Jake has always been the best character in the show.
This b***h can't draw
And what artist did that remind you of?
Early AT was great but a lot of fantastic concepts and stories and episodes came in later seasons. Everything changes. I like every era and atmosphere of AT.
Keeping the original tone probably would have led to it being Spongebobified, or Simpsified. (I find AT changed at a similar seasonal pace to Simpsons).
So they had to start trying new things, or rot. I have never seen a series of any kind retaining it’s original charm for long before it weakens. Time dulls edges and changes people. The other option would have been to end it early - and I consider that to be a much more inferior outcome. There were dry aimless paths but also a lot of good shit.
Many criticisms to be had, and what they set out to do in later seasons often could be done a lot better, but it was worth it.
Early AT is still there. It was only ever going to be there. You can’t drag out the bright spring of carefree childhood, as much as you want to.
There's nothing to say, the early seasons were the worst.
Early seasons had much, much better written dialogue than the late ones.
Nat you rascal
Every early episode ended on a joke.
It cannot be understated how effective that is in sticking in your mind.
Incendium was the first episode I remember that ended on an actual cliff hanger with no humor to it.
That's where it began to fall off.
I'm not saying AT became putrid after that. There's plenty of good episodes.
After that though, more and more episodes left off on moments that someone thought was emotionally powerful but fell flat instead.
the thing is, a lot of the jokes were deliberate un-jokes, or abrupt cutoffs, or subversions... so they started focusing hard on that part, without remembering to always make it funny. I did a webcomic for so many dang-ass years, and if I couldn't think of a punchline, I'd just keep going until I did. They got long, sometimes. Being stuck to an 11-minute format is probably much more limiting, I get it.
I still remember when Jake was in Finn's pocket and farted before the episode ended
That was the time when the show made sure to show both protagonists in every episode. There was no place for Jake in that episode so they turned him into a funny fart joke with great setup instead.
Reminiscing the good old days, eh?
it's all we have left
I'm gonna feel a little different rewatching the first (and now, only) six seasons of rick and morty, but there's no other options. Enjoy the records of the thing they took from you, know that the pain you feel represents how fun something was, and remember the things that are flat-out deleted (like increasingly, the entire internet)
I think we all want Adventure Time in our life.
it's funny how the same issues kept showing up in different forms
nevermind the girls, Finn kept getting new swords only to lose them almost immediately
How do you think AT should've ended?
It's mainly about how it was developed, but it should have ended with Finn and Jake defeating a world threat or Finn finding out about what happened to the humans or discovering his origin.
the ending was fine, they just needed the seasons they were TOLD they would have, to fully flesh out the Betty stuff while also making the big war with all the old villains ... actually happen. It's the point right BEFORE the ending that we missed out on. But the actual ending, the power of love and music beating the cosmic whatever, that worked.
so you'd have cut it off after Islands? Honestly not a bad spot.
I agree with the other anon, the broad strokes of the ending were fine, it just would've been nice to have things fleshed out more. It's hard to complain too much given how much AT we've gotten.
You make it sound like a hard decision here, anon.
Early adventure time was one of those rare shows that was completely open to worldbuilding. Most of the fun came from the fact that you could speculate about so many things in a world that seemed to have no limits but which alwso touched on very familiar aspects of modern life. These served to differentiate the show from other more standard fantasy settings. The occurrence of commonplace objects, language and the subversion of some fantasy tropes serves to make the setting both more unique and also open up the question as to why mundane objects exist in such a fantastical world. This was revealed by the mushroom war, which served as the first lore bomb. Kind of foreshadowed by the first time we see Simon, and our world, in the tapes.
Regarding the theme. The episodes were short and mixed in fantasy with subtle subversions of it. Most episodes either ended with a disquieting note or had elements that seemed out of placed for a fantasy setting. Thus making the show very unique. This is easily seen in the interplay between the protagonists, Finn is the classic fantasy paladin and Jake is an amoral father figure with every vice possible. Jake more or less acts as a wrangler for Finn's unrestrained boyish energy and good nature while being mostly the reason why the duo usually comes out on top.
Most of the early episodes are classics precisely because of these disqueting elements, like when they are thrown out of their own house in Evicted!, or when Tree Trunks ends with that character basically dying.
Its a shame the show progressively stopped being about the fantasy and more about mindless romance and Finn's journey to adulthood
yeah, mindful romance and a more carefully crafted journey to adulthood are great. But this wasn't handled well and it felt like they just didn't care at that point. Or weren't allowed, I have to imagine CN was breathing down their neck periodically "hey a kid under 18 can't have a steady girlfriend, that means sex now"
you know, just thinking about that episode, Evicted.. this show really did nail something that's kinda tough sometimes: making it feel like there are very real stakes, and yet keeping within the crushing censorship we live under in a way that feels like characters CHOSE not to murder each other, instead of some contrivance. at no point did you go "well that happened because it's a tv show" even the return to status quo at the end.
they're the highlight of the series obvis and i rewatch them a lot, but like unfortunately i only really love the first 4 seasons so i've watched the same episodes many times
Early seasons
>Boy and his loyal dog go an wacky adventures in a wacky whimsical land
Later seasons
>UHM the world is actually what's left after le war, every major character has actually a background, this silly penguin is actually a demon WE NEED MORE LORE PEOPLE!