The Greatest Love Story in Cartoon of All Time

Many Cartoon has interrupted romance as cute, and wholesome such as Luz x Amity from The Owl House, Catra x Adora from She-Ra: The Princess of Power, Phineas x Isabella from Phineas and Ferb, Korra x Asami from Legend of Korra and so forth. While they are good, However, there’s one cartoon romantic relationships that displays it as complicated and yet loving, and that is Marceline x Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time 

While many people think that it’s just cute, and LGBT, but not many go in depth of how they got together in the first place, making it such a well written relationship than any other show I’ve watched. Marceline and Princess Bubblegum isn’t simple as many people think.

1) Character Growth

As Marceline and Princess Bubblegum grew up in a post-apocalyptic world, it left scars as they got older.

Marceline thought her mother had abandoned her due to her demonic powers, making her believe that she was a monster. She came to the conclusion that people ran away from her because she wanted them to.

It resulted her to be unempathic, isolated, and push people away that comes close to her.

Princess Bubblegum made a family to communicate and trust, even though she has Neddy, who is her brother. However, they betray her for power by diagnosing her with dumb dumb juice but their plans got foiled. Although they got juiced, it’s when she started to believe that she needs to be one in control.

It resulted her to focus on her work that made her cold and unempathize to people emotion that she’s trying to protect

Although they made it work at first, despite their differences they had to cut it off due to their character flaws. While apart, they have their own character, facing their demons, and become a better person. 

Marceline faces her past, making her comes to terms with them. Talking to Simon and her, and accepting others to be close to her. She also to show empathy.

Bonnibel realizes she can’t control everything and shouldn’t work too hard. Respect others feelings

They went through their own character arcs, rebuilded their long lost bond.

2) Broke up

While most shows show romance as a positive outlook but for Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, they showed the best and worst parts of each other. They break up because Marceline was too immature and Princess Bubblegum was too focused on her work, pushing her away. She even called her “monster trash” and it drove her to sing “Woke Up”. 

Although neither of them wanted to but it was for the best so they can take the time to develop. 

3) Equals

Marcy and Bonnie treat each other as equals than their archetypes. Marceline never treats PB as royalty but a person. She doesn’t even call her “princess” or “your majesty” throughout the series 

and Princess Bubblegum never treats Marcy as a monster than others would do but as an individual.

They also help each other such as Marceline wants Princess Bubblegum to balance her work and leisure 

4) Baggage

A major factor that makes their relationship so realistic is they tell each other their baggage. Having two characters expressing their negative emotions from past experience to the ones they trust and love the most really shows their bond is stronger than any other romantic relationship in any other show. 

Princess Bubblegum breakdowns, realizing how she had lost everything. Thought that she shut everything to everyone out and  focus on her work everything would be alright but manage to push everyone away and Marceline. It’s also the first time she shows her vulnerable side in the show and it’s the one person she truly cherishes the most. 

Marceline finally opens up about her issues of how she and her mother never talk about bad stuff, and messes her up about being honest of her feelings. It’s a beautiful moment because in “Ketchup”, she said it was hard for her talk about but in “Obsidian” she finally talks open up to it and she’s tell this personal issue to the one person she truly loves. 

Not many shows have showns this level of writing for a romantic relationship 

Conclusion 

Marceline and Princess Bubblegum's relationship  is unique to any other romantic relationship in cartoon history for being more complex than other cartoons I’ve seen. While it did took awhile for them to get together but it worth to watch them develop 

My Thoughts on Young Blood, Old Souls

I am honestly a bit mixed on this finale. There were parts I really love, but there were parts I feel conflicted about and things I felt were missed opportunities. I just want to air my thoughts because I’m not sure how I feel about this episode. 

There was so much build up to this finale and I felt they wrapped everything up a little too neatly. There were things I expected to happen and things I felt were rushed. Eda was saved, Lilith defected from the coven system, Lilith and Eda seem to have reconciled or at least started that reconciliation, Luz got away from the emperor despite destroying the portal and not holding up her end of the bargain, Eda was returned to her normal form, Willow and Gus managed to turn the people against the emperor’s will, and more. This is going to be a mix of like, dislikes, and preferences because I feel like for every negative there’s a positive within that plot point or character moment. This is just my opinion. If you loved this episode and everything about it that’s great! I just felt there were things I would have preferred be done differently or been done later in the show. 

For starters the Eda and Luz relationship in this episode was fantastic with some genuinely heart wrenching scenes. This dynamic has been strong all season and seeing what was built up in Agony of a witch being paid off was really nice. Eda’s relationships with everyone close to her really shine this episode actually. When Luz and then later King echo Eda’s sentiment in the first episode about sticking together and being all they have I couldn’t help but get emotional. They have all had such major impacts on each other. I’m not sure what to say about any of this that hasn’t been said on tumblr already. These were great moments and deserve the praise they are getting.

Lilith is the one connection I am a bit iffy on and only really because I feel we should have gotten more time with her and Eda in the season and had more flashbacks of the two of them when they were younger before this episode. I think if we’d had flashbacks of the two of them getting along and being best friends as children it would heighten the tragedy of them being on separate sides of the law, the reveal that Lilith cursed Eda, and make her decision to go against the coven system and emperor Belos seem less awkward pacing wise. Lilith seems to be driven both by her desire to cure Eda and, what was more clearly evident in the episodes leading up to this one, her fear of emperor Belos. Her turn makes sense with Belos going back on his promise to her but there wasn’t really a moment where she seemed to decide to put aside her fear of Belos and do what’s right. They really want to show that Lilith is now on the real path to redemption instead of trying to make things how she wants them to be, Eda with her in the emperor’s coven and free of the curse she inflicted on Eda, without thought to what Eda truly wants. My one thing is that I felt this realization was rushed for example Zuko and Catra are given 13 episodes where they are forced to realize that upon getting what they thought they wanted they still feel hollow, that the people they’ve hurt and tried to enforce their will upon are really the people they want/need to help, that they need to change their ways, and then standing up to the figure they fear to do what they believe they need to. I guess it’s no use comparing the two with Lilith because these are two different shows. I just wanted to express that I wish there was more breathing room for this realization and change of heart to take effect. I do wish the “sharing the pain” spell was set up earlier in the season, but I think it was fairly well done within this episode. I am really excited about how this will play out going forward because now Lilith is going to be living at the owl house with Eda, Luz, and King. This is going to explore some interesting dynamics and provides a set up for Eda and Lilith working through their problems and reconciling next season. I think this is only the beginning of Lilith’s redemption and the siblings’ reconciliation. 

I think the emotional core of the episode was strong. It knew it wanted to be about the connections that the cast has with Eda and it ran with that. The problem was that it tried so hard to set up so many things that I think distracted from this point. It decided to set up emperor Belos, his plan, a possible uprising among the people, luz having to find an alternative way home, Belos not being invincible, etc. These are all great ideas, but I don’t think the episode had the time to fully and believably set all of this up.

I wasn’t surprised Eda was saved, but it seemed a bit too easy. I liked seeing Luz’s progression from where she started by facing those same guards she did in the first episode. In that episode she was mostly powerless and now she is able to take on the entire prison. That’s where my first issue is. Eda seemed to be having difficulty with the guards in the first episode and as we’ve discovered Eda is an incredibly powerful witch. The argument can be made that Eda wasn’t trying in that first episode but you’d think she’d try hard enough to where there wouldn’t be any danger of herself and her companions being caught or hurt. That didn’t really seem to be the case though because she needed the help of Luz to escape in the pilot as well. This is probably just a case of the writers not wanting to reveal how overwhelmingly powerful Eda was until Agony of a Witch, but it makes the power scaling feel a bit wonky to me on rewatch. Especially with how much Belos has been talked up and feared by all the people around him it felt odd that Luz could crack his mask and that he let her get away when he could have easily stopped her, Lilith, Eda, and King. He just didn’t seem as powerful as I think he should have. This is probably set up for next season I’m guessing. This was built up to be the moment that we see the overwhelming odds the heroes are against for the series, but it didn’t feel like that. It made belos seem less imposing and made me question why he was so feared. If Luz could crack his mask what was stopping Eda or anyone close to her power from rising up against Belos other than propaganda? The Eda we saw in Agony of a Witch, which was a severely weakened Eda I might add, should be able to fight Belos on even footing based on what we saw. I just feel like Belos had his imposing and all powerful facade broken too quickly after his introduction. 

That being said I liked his portrayal. The air of uncaring and single-mindedness that he brought was so interesting. You really got the feeling that he wasn’t threatened by Luz or anyone on the boiling isles (now the fight sort of shattered that but still). There were also hints at things not being as they seemed with Belos like the fact that Luz’s magic repellent cape couldn’t repel his attacks which could lean into the theory that Belos is human and what he uses is technology not really magic or a combination of both. I really loved the way his body would distort when he would move and seemingly teleport which gave him an unnatural and creepy feel. His voice acting also went a long way with emphasizing every trait I just discussed. Matthew Rhys does a fantastic job. I’m very excited to learn more about him and his plan for the day of unity. There’s still so much mystery surrounding everything about him that I think was well maintained in this episode.

There’s also the citizen uprising which was teased. This was another plot point I felt the show was going to build on later rather than have it in this episode. Everything about Belos and his coven system seems deeply ingrained in the boiling isles and there were only a few people who seemed to question it up until this point. The delinquents, Luz, Eda, and some unnamed witches that Belos petrified between this episode and last. Everyone else seems to buy into the coven system even Willow, Gus, and especially Amity don’t really question it. They seem all too happy to accept their place in the coven system. And with Amity it is her life goal to be a part of the emperor’s coven which makes her farther from questioning Belos and the system than the other two. The closest we got was in Willow’s introduction with her being unhappy in the abomination track, but the problem is fixed when she’s moved to the plant track. She was also the one giving Luz the history of Belos and the boiling isles and she didn’t question anything she talked about. Now her and Gus speaking out against the emperor in this scene makes sense. They care about Luz and Luz cares deeply about Eda so they want to help in any way they can. Being able to start an uprising amongst the people against what emperor Belos is saying when we haven’t seen anyone outside a select few meaningfully challenge his ideas about how magic should be used doesn’t make that much sense at this point in the story. If we had seen someone other than Principle Bump change his mind on the flexibility of the coven system and questioned emperor Belos’ claims it would have made this scene more believable to me. Yes a few of the people in the crowd were freed from a prison by Eda, but these people were considered outcasts and looked down upon so I don’t really think their opinion would sway the crowd as much as it did. Most of these people don’t know Eda. They only know what they’ve been told and they’ve been told that she’s a dangerous witch who has failed to adhere to a coven system that they believe is the only way to live. Now I know I just spent quite a while talking about my problems with this scene and while I wasn’t the biggest fan of it I do think it was a good character moment because it shows Gus and Willow’s growth. Willow in her introduction wouldn’t be able to do any of this. She wouldn’t be able to stand in front of a crowd and say that what Belos is doing is wrong. Willow has grown a lot this season and this scene did a lot to show that. I loved that.

I know I sounded really critical in this and I don’t want anyone thinking I hated this episode or this show. I really like this show. I just had a lot of complicated thoughts on this episode in particular. If this wasn’t the finale of the season I think my thoughts would change quite a bit, but as it stands this is how I feel. If anyone has anything they would like to add or give their opinion on feel free to leave comments. You don’t have to agree with me on any of my points. This is just my opinion you can have your own.