"Fionna and Cake": Complex adult-oriented sequel to "Adventure Time," with two out gay couples and lot of back story and butts

  

The Cartoon Network series Adventure Time (2010-18) sent 12-16 year old human Finn (Jeremy Shada, left) and his magical dog companion Jake on adventures in the medieval-style world of Ooo (occupied by sentient candy, slime, and fire beings, plus a few animals and humanoids).  Eventually we learn that this is a post-apocalyptic world where things went wrong during the Mushroom Wars 1,000 years ago.  It gets more complex and much more sinister, with back story after back story, with Lovecraftian cosmic beings pulling the strings of the world, only to discover that there are darker gods changing reality on a whim. 

  All you really need to know about is the only same-sex romance in the series, between the Bubblegum Princess  --really an Elemental, one of the four substances that created the universe and all life, but presenting as a 16-year old girl -- and Marceline, a 1000 year old teenage vampire whose mentor Simon Petrikov put on a magical crown and became the insane Ice King -- got all that?  They become girlfriends in the last scene of the last episode -- typical, no open gay characters until series fade-out. 

Fionna and Cake were a gender-swapping Finn and Jake in the Ice King's fan fiction. Then an omnipotent being decided to bring them to life, and after some adventures, remove their magical powers and memories and place them in a pocket universe designed to look like a 21st century city.  But things are a little off-- generic names like "City Park", backgrounds a little smudged, everything tastes like cardboard, there is nothing but elevator music on the radio, nothing on tv but reruns of Cheers and Friends.  Cake is non-sentient, and Fionna is so discouraged that she keeps getting fired from dead-end jobs.

Episode 1.6, "The Winter King," features a meeting between the male counterparts of the Bubblegum Princess and Marceline: Gary Prince (Andrew Rannells, left), a baker who has discovered a way to give food taste; and Marshall Lee (Donald Glover, below), an aspiring musician who has discovered how to use a guitar. They kiss in Episode 1.7.

Both voice actors are gay in real life.

Left: Gratuitous Rannells butt.

One day Fionna and Cake find their way to Ooo, where they meet Finn from the original series, now middle aged, and the Ice King, now reverted to human form as Simon Petrikov.  After many adventures on a variety of worlds, they decide that they like their original pocket-universe, and return in time to save their city from destruction under a godlike being named Scarab.  End of Season 1.

We hear all of this in the opening sequence of Season 2: it is told in story form to Simon (the former Ice King) and girlfriends Marcelline and the Bubblegum Princess by a little girl whose back story on the fan wiki is too complex to mention.  So maybe the Fionna-Cake universe is still a fan fiction?

I think we're ready for a review of Episode 2.1.

Scene 1: Fionna awakens, relishing her new human life, and sets out with Cake into the still-recovering City.  She helps out at the places where she was fired previously, except for the tour bus ("on your left you'll see more destruction"), where tour guide Queenie (a gender-reversed, child version of the evil King of Ooo) calls her a "deadbeat."

Scene 2: Next the Candy Supply Store, where the shape-shifting, still-sentient Cake transforms into a buxom woman so she can flirt with the owner.  Fionna grabs the last bag of cocoa powder, but the evil Lady Cutter steals it and calls her a loser. They fight.

Scene 3: On the street, Fionna gets a call from Simon Petrikov, back in Ooo, who is living with the Bubblegum Princess and Marceline.  He'll start teaching magical arts at the university tomorrow. Meanwhile, Cake destroys all of the posters advertising DJ Flame, Fionna's ex (the gender-swapped version of the Flame Princess, Finn's ex).

Scene 4: In a forest on Ooo, a lion steals an orange from a tomb, and the Huntress Wizard, the middle-aged Finn's estranged girlfriend, gives chase.  She finds it in a cave with a cow and a duck, squeezing the juice into the mouth of the  nearly-unconscious Finn.  He is dying.   

More after the break

Scene 5: Fionna arrives at a vacant lot littered with decrepit house trailers and shacks, where Gary Prince will open his Sweet Spot tomorrow.  She hands over the supplies he asked for, and greets employees Ellis (Lumpy Space Princess back on Ooo, voiced by Pendleton Ward) and Squirrel (a new character, voiced by Marc Maron, below)  

In Season 2 Gary Prince, the male counterpart of Princess Bubblegum, is voiced by Harvey Guillen, who has played many gay characters. 

Fionna also brings guitar strings for Gary's boyfriend Marshall, the male version of vampire Marcelline (notice the vampire bite on his neck).

Marshall is voiced by Kris Kollins (not pictured), a queer person of color whose music is "a genre bending blend of alt r&b, pop, funk, psychedelic, and touches of progressive soul."

Fionna refuses to accept payment.  "I just like helping my friends."

Scene 6: While Fionna listens to Marshall play his guitar, her crush Hunter, the gender-switched counterpart of Finn's girlfriend the Huntress Wizard, appears with a rose bush -- for the Sweet Spot, but Fionna thinks it is for her, and starts to blush.

Hunter is voiced by actor, drag queen, and activist Vico Ortiz, who uses they/them pronouns.

He notes that Fionna is bleeding, with a wound similar to Finn's lethal injury in Ooo.  Uh-oh, as counterparts, they must have a psychic connection.

Scene 7: Montage of finishing the work on the Sweet Spot, followed by a celebration.  Gary Prince thanks them all for their help, "especially my best friend and hero, Fionna."

Back in Ooo, the Huntress Wizard keeps mixing potions to try to cure Middle-Aged Finn, but nothing works.  She awakens him long enough to ask what happened: "Fought a bear. Get Simon."  Simon is Simon Petrikov, the former Ice King, who is an expert on magic.

Scene 8: In a tower that ascends to the sky, the Young Fionna and Cake are fighting off armies of soldiers. Eventually they kill them all, but a decapitated head calls for her.  It's Gary Prince!  Another is Middle-Aged Finn.  And Hunter -- all of her friends!  

It was a dream.  Fionna awakens to Queenie, the tour bus operator (the female counterpart of the evil King of Ooo, remember?).  "Even before the world was wrecked, this place was a dump!"  She has purchased the property, and as their landlord, orders them all out.  So much for the Sweet Spot.

Scene 9: A private school somewhere on Ooo, with various candy, humanoid,  and animal students. Simon writes his name on the chalk board.  "Welcome to the History of Magical Artifacts."  He promises to leave the Ice King drama behind and be a regular human teacher. 

Suddenly the Huntress Wizard bursts in through the roof with the dying Finn and asks "What happened to him?"

Simon tells her:  "I was attacked by a green bear, and Finn swooped in to save me.  He was thrown into a weird thorny bush -- the Heart of the Forest."  This object did not appear in the original series.

The Huntress Wizard is shocked.  "Keep him alive."  She flies away.  

Scene 10: Back in the City, Queenie the Tour Bus Guide barracades the lot and confiscates everybody's stuff for "back rent."  Gary Prince is heartbroken, but Fionna is ready to fight. "I'm gonna fix this."

Meanwhile, the Huntress Wizard flies to the Heart of the Forest and prepares to take a sample.  The Green Bear approaches. The end.

Beefcake: An occasional muscular cartoon physique.

Gay characters:  Two relatively open gay couples. Marceline and Princess Bubblegum cuddle.  Marshall and Gary fall asleep in each other's arms, and Gary calls him "Babe."

My Grade: The A plot, about Queenie taking over the Sweet Spot, seems less than adventurous, but maybe things will pick up.  In spite of the back story at the beginning of the episode, anyone coming in without seeing the previous series will be utterly lost.  But the LGBT representation makes up for it.  B.

See also: Andrew Rannells and Adam Devine bromance? With bonus bulge, butt, and dick pics.

Adventure Time: Gay-Positive Cartoon Series

The Shada Brothers