I’m kinda leaning towards the idea that the big bad of the series will not the rarely seen Lich, but Princess Bubblegum. I’m guessing that eventually Finn will come to see her in a new light, and end up having to oppose her.
They keep dropping hints that she is actually a cruel, authoritarian, and unethical mad scientist type character. As she has been revealed to have been alive shortly after the mushroom war(or at least what eventually formed her body was alive) she is masquerading as a teenage girl, she explicitly lied to Finn about her age(to manipulate him into liking her romantically?).
She is secretly intending to subjugate all of OOO, remember those quests she is always sending Finn and Jake on to retrieve ancient artifacts of power? As Marceline even said “best not to wonder what she does with them”.
I don’t think she’ll turn out to be the big bad. There are too many times when she really seems to be trying to do the right thing. (Her interactions with the Lemongrabs, for example.)
I think she’s just cold and a little clueless and sometimes gets so caught up in her science that she doesn’t consider the consequences. So I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that she’s been covering up something really awful in her past. (Like starting the Mushroom War.) But when it’s revealed it will be something that she’s been hiding because she’s ashamed of it, not because she’s scheming dark schemes.
Given her concern over Finn recently – specifically, that he can’t be replaced (cloned) like the Candy People – maybe she knows something about the near-extinction of humans.
She’s, like, benevolently evil. Doing bad because she wants good for her Candy People. The ones that she doesn’t cut apart with scissors, that is.
If she’s got some dark leanings, it would explain why Peppermint Butler, who is buddies with Death and asked for Finn and Jake’s flesh and was seen having a seance with Cinnamon Bun suspended from the ceiling, is loyal to her.
You know, I’ve seen individual episodes of Adventure Time but I had no idea there’s any kind of story arc or continuity in it. It just looks so wierd. Humans nearly extinct? Are they supposed to be on Earth? I figured it was an alternate reality, or a “cartoon world” reality.
Yes there is an overarching story arc. It takes place on Earth, sometime in the future, after an apocalyptic event (something so bad that a huge chunk of the Earth is missing, like a big bite was taken out of it, as seen in a glimpse from outer space).
The story arc is told in pieces and very subtly, usually, with a lot of filler episode that really has nothing to say other than stuff you might see in the background or one off comments.
Then sometimes you get episodes like Simon and Marcy that hit you over the head with what happened in the past and are deeply important to how the world got to be the way that it is as shown in the show.
It’s a deep show with a lot going on, but most of it is really silly and stupid. Which is why I love it.
I wish I had known about this when CN were promoing it before the premiere. As it was, I just dismissed it as yet another kids’ cartoon with a primitive/bizarre graphic style (like Chowder, or Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends). Had I known that it would turn out to be an ANIMATED GRAPHIC NOVEL, I would have sat down and watched it.
The Onion’s AV Club put together a list of ten episodes that would be a great introduction to the show without having to watch five seasons worth.
Back to the OP: I don’t think she’ll be revealed as the bad, as I don’t really think she’s evil. Now, hopefully fun will lose his crush on her as he realizes she isn’t as perfect as the pedestal he’s placed her own. I mean yes, she is authoritarian (as seen in “Princess Cookie”) but I don’t think she’s cruel. Everything she does is really for the candy people. She didn’t monitor and have Flame Princess locked up for fun but because Flame Princess is a legitimate threat and could have destroyed the entire world (Earth and Water).
Now, she can cold. She’s sees the pursuit and advancement of science as the be-all end-all. She’d rather be proven right than pretend medicine is magic for the sake of her subjects (Wizards Only, Fools). But this, again is genuinely out of her love for her subjects. She also has moments of warmth: she built a new arm for someone she barely knew in “The Vault” and she built Braco a robot version of herself in “The Suitor” because she knew she could never fully give him the affection he desires.
I think she’s more complex than just good or evil. One episode that shows such is Goliad. Using her own DNA she created a sphinx in order to watch out of her people after she dies, but the sphinx was easily corrupted, whereas the sphinx made from Finn’s DNA immediately sacrificed himself to keep Goliad neutralized. But, she will abide by the rules even to her disadvantage. She gave Lemon Grab the kingdom in “Too Young.”
I do want to know what happened between Marceline and Bubblegum. It had to have been something big for there to be that much anger.
It seems in every fandom there’s a lot of people who want the big good to be a secret bad guy. If they’re depicted as actually being manipulative or hiding information from the protagonists “for their own good” it’s even more fuel to the fire.
The chance of PB being a secret mustache twirler is about 0.1%, but she’s certainly not distilled pure goodness. She was knocked off Finn’s pedestal a long time ago. She’s doing the best she can in a crazy world.