‘My darling life,

Sweet lily of my desert’

🖤🌸🌵💀

~ DEATH IN BLOOM ~

Adventure Time: Season 2, Episode 17

“Oh wait, wait, wait! Before I die, I’m honor-bound to tell you... Peppermint Butler says hi.” 43 - S2 E17 Death In Bloom

Day in Fandom History: February 28…

After accidentally killing Princess Bubblegum’s plant when left to be watched over while she’s away, both Finn and Jake head off to the Land of the Dead in order to get the plant back to life. “Death in Bloom” premiered on this day, 13 Years Ago.

Death in Bloom: Finn and Jake must travel to the Land of the Dead in order to resurrect the Princess Plant.

Jake the Starchild: Jake's alien sire brings Jake to a faraway planet in order for him to fulfill his destiny.

Death in Bloom Review

Princess Bubblegum tasks Finn and Jake with watching her princess plant while she attends a technology fair. Is it a princess plant because it’s the princess’s plant or is the plant in of itself a princess, Princess Plant? It’s Adventure Time, so it’s a valid question. Especially with other plants being treated as sentient beings in this episode. PB would usually rather have Finn and Jake fight an evil demon or something, but Finn and Jake are still happy to help. Not sure why she doesn’t just have her BUTLER take care of it, though. PB will be back on the Morrow, and with a SCREEEEEEEEEEE, she flies off.

Finn and Jake didn’t learn their lesson with The Jiggler, so our favorite mentally challenged heroes feed the plant cookies, pizza, and grape soda. Finn reads it the most Finn story possible that ends with a monster getting punched in the head and the princess being saved. Finn and Jake don’t notice how dried up the princess plant looks. It then catches on fire, before being put out. Finn and Jake give the corpse a band-aid and a kiss to fix it after it was burnt to death. Finn and Jake going from laying the plant down in bed and pretending everything’s okay to screaming that they killed it is really funny. It’s easy to buy that they would have no idea that its dead, but it's good to know that they aren’t THAT stupid. 

Finn immediately suggests, with no prompting, that “all they have to do” is travel to the Land of the Dead and retrieve its soul from Death as if it's the most normal and obvious solution in the world. Apparently, the afterlife is common knowledge among the denizens of Ooo? Did Finn and Jake ever try to retrieve Joshua and Margaret’s souls from Death? Did Finn try to retrieve Jake’s soul after he died? Do other people try to retrieve the souls of their loved ones? Well, not everyone knows Peppermint Butler. Pep knows Death and knows how to get to the Land of the Dead. Summoning a portal to the Land of the Dead is a little less complicated than summoning a portal to the Nightosphere. All it takes is staring at a corner in a room and slowly crossing your eyes.

Boy, seeing Finn and Jake go to the Land of the Dead hits different now. Funny how Distant Lands retroactively makes this one of the most important episodes in the series. Upon arriving, we get a cool pan of the underworld that lasts about a whopping 15 seconds! And, of course you get down by taking the escalator. The Gate Guardian isn’t suspicious about Finn and Jake not looking like skeletons, despite everyone else we see being a skeleton (he asks everyone their cause of death). This lines up with the lore later revealed in “Together Again”. Not everyone there are actually skeletons. Appearances change based on projection and perception. I love Finn and Jake claiming they died from “being awesome”. Very Finn and Jake answer. The guardian is useless as Finn and Jake easily walk by him. 

Finn and Jake encounter a skeleton who is HORNY for their flesh. Jake “doesn’t know what he’s doing” to him stretching out into a puddle of flesh. He calls more skeletons over and they try to eat their flesh. So, if they aren’t actually skeletons, why do they so desperately want their flesh? Them perceiving themselves as skeletons means they practically are skeletons. Maybe with a different mindset, they could get the flesh they desire. Finn and Jake run away to hide. Jake remarks that the place “wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t folks trying to eat our skin”. MORE Jake death foreshadowing! 

To make matters worse for our heroes, Finn finds out the situation is more dire than he thought. THE MORROW IS A BIRD SCRAAAA! PB will be back soon. Finn and Jake sneak past two skeletons. One of the skeletons, comedically named “Halt”, is trying to picture in his “mind’s eye where the fleshies are hidin’”. The skeletons are all very funny.

Finn and Jake hide above a group of skeletons. Finn says they need to be very quiet, which is followed by Jake farting. The fart echoes, alerting the skeletons of their presence. Jake thought it would be funny. Bad timing, Jake! I’m very picky with my fart jokes and usually hate them, but this one is funny and gets a pass. It ended up working out as the fart-induced avalanche double kills the skeletons. 

They encounter a river and a talking skull with a stereotypically evil voice encourages Jake to drink from it. I love the subversion of this telling Finn that Jake should definitely NOT drink the water. The skull then using reverse psychology and tricking Jake the dumbass is very funny. Jake gets amnesia, “tricked again by the River of Forgetfulness”. Finn crushing the skull with his foot is very based. The River of Forgetfulness is empty in “Together Again”. This caused many to assume the river isn’t real, but another example of appearances changing based on projection and perception. It’s plausible, but I lean towards the river being real and just drying up due to New Death’s neglect. If it’s just an illusion, why would its amnesia effects actually work? Cutting to Finn dragging Jake as he screams for help got a laugh out of me.

We cut to Princess Bubblegum saying goodbye to a bunch of normal looking vegetables at veggie village. And is that Stanley the watermelon in attendance? Are these vegetables sentient or does Bubblegum just pretend they are because she’s lonely and wants geeky friends who care about technology? Either one is possible but I prefer the latter explanation because it’s funnier and something that would totally fit PB’s character. Second science related convention she’s been at recently!

Finn (and Jake by force) arrive at Death’s castle. To get what he seeks, he must defeat Death in a music battle. In the commentary for this episode, the crew say using contests as a way to resolve a story is an easy trap to fall into so they usually like to avoid it. I agree. I think Regular Show falls into this trap a lot. Even though this music contest comes out of nowhere, I think it works fine. Death screaming and playing heavy metal on the drums while Finn rolls around screaming and shaking and stomping on sleigh bells is funny at least. This is what I expect from the Primitive Noise Band! Also, why is a saw one of the instruments to choose from? Too bad Finn isn’t good at the flute yet.

Jake picks Death as the winner. But, Finn mentioning Death’s friend Peppermint Butler causes him to have a change of heart. Death kisses Jake. The Kiss of Death is the key to restoring Jake’s memory. Despite Jake’s love of smooches, even from creepy clowns, this kiss is too gross for him. Death resurrects the princess plant and Finn and Jake return to the Candy Kingdom. 

PB returns on the Morrow and takes a bite of her plant. This magically causes her hair to turn prettier and curlier. This is a holdover from an original version of the episode. In an early draft of the story (that also included a talking rabbit guiding Finn and Jake through the underworld), the princess plant would regulate Princess Bubblegum’s femininity. Not eating it causes her to turn into a man. That idea is really dumb, and too weird, so I’m glad it was cut. I don’t mind this holdover staying though, as it's funny and the right amount of strange. Peppermint Butler says that they still owe him a favor. He wants their flesh. Finn and Jake laugh it off, but his eyes glow menacingly and says he’ll tear it off while they sleep. A good, abrupt way to end the episode. “The Eyes” had our first hint of Peppermint Butler being evil, or at least somewhat demonic, but this episode finally makes it the forefront of his character. And to be fair, this is the first time he plays a significant role in an episode.

All around, this episode is a fun adventure in a new, cool location with a lot of funny moments throughout. Not sure why there are so many cop cars in the Land of the Dead though! The underworld is not a post-apocalyptic location, Ghostshrimp!

Grade: A-

sometimes i randomly think of this scene and it always makes me laugh quietly to myself.

"We gotta be really really quiet

jake farts

I knew that was comming but damn it

huh so uh i just noticed jake's leg went up when death kissed him like romcom up princess diaries up like what

My tumblr sexy man wall

i’ll find you again in every universe. let us be a little more honest, let us have a little more time.

Day in Fandom History: February 28…

After accidentally killing Princess Bubblegum’s plant when left to be watched over while she’s away, both Finn and Jake head off to the Land of the Dead in order to get the plant back to life. “Death in Bloom” premiered on this day, 12 Years Ago.

Drunk Cat

Did a small doodle from this photo I took

there are so many things i could imagine from this but the first that came to mind was Narinder freaking barfing on my baby Bloom!

it could have been her beating him in a drinking contest buuuut ill let him keep some pride XD

I just wanna be with you I don't care about anything else You can be honest with me tooMayb e I want the same thing as you

I don't think it's difficult I just need to get to know you slowly You'll get used to it soon, you and me The feeling of being one - It will be sweet

sweet & easy - wonder girls