I had a bizarre, hyper high of about 48 hours where I really liked the first two episodes and then I came crashing down from that and decided to talk to no one about it LMAO

I really, quit honestly, do not like anything about it

I MEAN THATS NOT TRUE I LIKE A COUPLE THINGS

+Ellis P, the human boy version of LSP, extremely funny, no notes
+Cake: hugely improved over her OG iteration. very likeable and funny
+Some extremely weird BG character designs in the Winter King were impeccable and I love them

theres a few other little things here and there too but listing every instance feels weird, those are just highlights that jump out to me

I'm still processing my disappointment in it overall, and will eventually process it into pretty much forgetting about it tbh lkmjjkkbsb

I'm definitely going to finish watching! I went from highly anticipating my girl (Betty) to kind of lowkey dreading her episode befaus pretty much everything I've anticipated has been a wet fart

I dont know how this show feels more for children than Adventure Time ever did, but it does

I think the worst thing is how completely unfunny it is

and in second place is how aggressively boring it is

like I cant even sit through an episode without looking at the clock

IM BEING KIND OF MEAN TO IT, I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO LIKE IT or parts of it, it's just soooo

not for me

and I feel like I need to catharsis of saying that and not couching it in like, "well" and "at least"

I dont think anything negative about PEOPLE liking it, I just feel negative things for the show. I'm arguably impossible to please with sequels, it's a real freak accident when it happens

(Looking at you Psychonauts 2 and Blade Runner 2040)

I feel like I have too many thoughts for a 30 min lunch break

I can’t wait for you to be specific about what you don’t like

It’s been so mysterious

Give us the DEETS

it's hard to be specific because so much of it is pure the vibes arent right

But I could probably go point by point through the whole series at this stage and say why I dont like stuff, all of which would be in service of "doesnt capture or otherwise enhance/expand upon what I think made adventure time special"

Even stuff I like at first is being eroded by the show within itself

like, highlights at first for me were a much improved Fionna.....but I think that snapped back after episode 1 because what made Fionna so compelling, it turns out, was putting her in a real world setting? and removing her from that, I think reverted he to being quite boring...arguably more boring than she is in the better original F+C episodes

I liked Simon in the 2nd episode but I havent been impressed with him since that episode and it's making me less impressed with THAT episode by proxy

follow through is very important in character writing

anyone can write one good introductory scene

It's what you do from there that really makes or breaks

I've seen absolutely none of the pathos present in either character in their introduction scenes, since then

or just shadows of it

And maybe it will come back!!

I guess in my heart, I want more of a character who piece and less of a sci fi action

I feel like AT was always more that

It is deeply strange to see an AT that is so expository

and to me it feels like a less mature handling of the material

safelybeds: VERY strange, VERY expository

Not to quote my own Plurk on the subject, but it feels like making the lore fit together matters more than anything else

More time has been spent establishing why they need to jump through the multiverse than how either Fionna or Cake feel about meeting other versions of themselves

yeah???

Even when they set up pathos, it gets weirdly forgotten when it should be paying off

I think about Farmworld, how Simon is at first convinced that Jay is HIS son

It's also like, one of the least interesting handling of multiverse I've seen in recent years. the multiverse concept is so done to death, you have to really thematically use it imo

And then he sees Finn and the only way they address that is Fionna being like “wow, this version of you is hot” and Simon being like “no that’s Finn!”

Like no reaction, no disappointment

especially in a show like AT which is SO metaphysical and about weird themes of identity and loss

safelybeds: RIGHT ITS WEIRD THAT NOTHING IS DISCUSSED AT ALL

Nothing at all, just establishing what’s up for Fionna since she wouldn’t be in a position to know

no one is curious

I think about Crossover. Which is like.

Crossover was an 11 minute episode in the original series that had more of interest to day about the multiverse concept than this whole series so far

Arguably the 11 minute episode that this series owes the most to

LMAO same brain

YEAH

And I remember like, how that episode ends with Finn being like “we have so much to talk about” and wanting to talk to him about things and learn from him and then the way it ends with him seeing his family and this long moment of silence

MHM

Compounded by the fact that Finn has met his father at that point and he certainly never gave him a warm hug like Farmworld’s father did while he watched

EVEN JAKE has a ton going on in Crossover, even as a secondary character there

In terms of thinking killing an alternate version of Finn wouldn’t be a problem for him, and then slowly realizing that he can’t bring himself to do it

And then treating both Finns as his responsibility to protect kind of instinctually

AND LIKE they had a lot more time to have their characters established I guess, but. I dunno, it feels like there is a lot more emphasis being placed on a tight narrative with a lot of lore emphasis

And occasionally super dark moments

Like, I am enjoying seeing my guys run around, I really am. I can separate that from the overall fact that it’s like, weird fanfiction, and I can pluck the ideas I like and spin them into my own version that’s better. I’m easy like that. But it is definitely one of those things where it’s like, well that’s disappointing.

YEAH. and I mean those concepts are established quickly and succinctly

I maintain what I said before in my own Plurk on the subject, and what we’ve discussed, I think the board writer model worked incredibly for AT before because everyone working on it was an extremely good writer and totally on the same page

And huge outlines really weren’t a thing in their workflow, and I feel like it’s not working as well with the new board artists who have different sensibilities

Coming up in animation vs coming up in comics

I think about that very beautiful sequence in the winter king, where the animation is like. Super gorgeous and fluid

And I keep thinking about it and like

It’s super pretty!

But what does it achieve? Why this song? Why is it this moment and that song? What kind of information is it sending other than “wow, pretty animation”

yeah it feels like, nice? but ultimately pretty hollow

I compare it to moments where like the animation would change up in the original series

Like, pretty animation that accomplishes being entertaining for a few minutes is like

Usually in dreams

we get so much of that in life

yeah!

Or like, Finn when his eyes were closed in hall of egress

Or like, that Beyond the Grotto episode

Or Ketchup

It was usually mostly about setting up and teaching you a visual language shorthand that it would then use to like, make a point

And not everything has to BE that deep or anything

It’s just the difference between using every single tool at your disposal to communicate information and like

This will be pretty and will look nice

I think there’s a lot of love in the show for the original source material, I really do.

it’s just like, maybe not on the same page in terms of execution

Like AT in general, a huge theme of it was like

Identity and specifically like, plural identity

Like, Fern, Finnsword, Finn, Ice Finn

It was always very much like, about “what does that mean when you encounter someone who is You”

And what does it mean when you aren’t recognized as “You” by the people you care about, and there is this other version of you that they seem to know better

Which is so much of what the second episode was setting up with Ice King/Simon!

yeah!

Like Fern has probably about 2.5 hours of screen time in the whole series, and that’s including like. Other characters thinking and talking about him.

(sorry I'm back at work so I'm not able to respond as quickly now

Which is like, the equivalent of 5-6 F&C episodes

YEAH

And the sheer amount they did with that time is crazy by comparison

I just wish they’d narrowed the scope a little

Or cared less about Why stuff is happening, especially if it doesn’t actually matter

Them needing to justify them going to each multiverse by giving them a mini maguffin each time

Like it’s all a little linear

yeah!

I feel like comparatively very little is happening in each episode?

especially the last two episodes like. those could be 11 mins, for all for all the story they contain

Yeah

And I think that like, if the concern was not making it too much Finn’s story

I just feel like it is so strange introducing him, someone who would absolutely understand what Simon is going through, perhaps the only person in the entire multiverse who COULD understand

And they never talk???

Like at least have Simon TRY to talk to him

Even if Finn refuses to

YEAH LIKE

It’s just a weird choice! Like, i think about Simon and how much empathy he has for the Candy Queen, and it is very strange that like he couldn’t immediately recognize that this man literally is in his same position

knowing from the beginning that they would meet FWFinn I was certain that would be a situation where they were able to talk in some capacity about the crown

and the fact that they dont is wild

He was under the crowns effect and was then transformed back to himself, and had to deal with the repercussions on that for the rest of his life

safelybeds: YEAH?? it makes simon feel inconsistent and strange to me

ITS VERY WEIRD, it feels like the priority was more about us seeing where Finn is at like

Showing us how he turned out

Instead of tying their stories together

Which is wild, because if you’re going through the work of that like WHY NOT HAVE THEM TALK

Also why go through all the trouble of showing how fucked up he is about it if they’re NOT GONNA TALK

Unless Farmworld Finn comes back or something, like why even waste the time is establishing that he has all this crown trauma if it’ll never pay off in any way

We know the crown fucks people up

Exactly

it feels like a lot of "remember this" without a lot of substance behind it which isnt like, something I associate with this show

also I s2g i better get some BMO and Jake soon or I'm gonna lose it

I know we got a big Marcy ep coming, probably next

YEAH and I’m hoping maybe that’ll have some meat? Maybe?

I do want me some Jake, I feel like they’ve actually been doing a good job priming us for a big Jake moment

The absence of Jake has felt very affecting in a lot of these eps.

I imagine it’ll be like the last episode tho

yeah, that's what I imagine

I STILL GOT SOME MORE THOUGHTS AND IM DONE WITH WORK

but I'm also kind of like, getting to a point of like

SHRUG

I DONT LIKE IT, WHY HARP

no one is putting a gun to my head and making me watch!

I could talk ALL DAY about stuff I dont enjoy and why i dont think it works buttt

I enjoy Adventure Time but it's not anywhere near as dear to my heart as it is for you guys, but even so this new show isn't really doing it for me either

so it's interesting to hear your takes

YEAH....I feel like a lot of what I dont like is very personal, but I also thing there are some things that kind of make it less compelling even generally?