10 - Moral Lessons with a Twist

     Some of the episodes from Adventure Time end with good moral lessons. It's great to know that even a show that can be so random most of the time can still leave the audience with something to inspire them or reflect on I guess. However, these morals aren't like the ones you would find in most children's cartoons. They tend to be different or have twists in them. It's as if everything that happens in the show will always be weird in its own way.

     What do I mean exactly? Well, Pendleton Ward explained this in this one article entitled, Pendleton Ward explains how he's keeping Adventure Time weird which is written by Charlie Jane Anders. It was basically an interview about the show. I found this one statement,

Also, he doesn't see the show as having a lot of irony in it, aimed at adult viewers. "I don't know that there's very much intentional irony in it," he says. "I try not to reference pop culture or anything, [to] try to keep it fresh." The only way in which the show might be a little bit ironic is that when there needs to be a moral at the end of an episode, "I like to flip it on its head" and make fun of it a little bit.

 which probably explains why the episodes that do end in morals tend to be as weird as how most of their conclusions are. However, I feel like, by doing this, they are able to retain the show's unpredictability which will continue to stir interest in the viewers. It's another great way to attract more audiences I guess.

     One episode I would like to use as an example would be "Princess Cookie". I just liked how the story went. It was weird and different but it still made sense. It was basically about a cookie who wanted to fulfil his dream to become a princess by any means necessary. However, since he tried to use force to take Princess Bubblegum's crown by keeping some candy people as hostages, he became a criminal. Although, Jake realized that he was a good guy at heart and decided to help him attain this dream. So, in the end, he did become a princess while he resided in a mental asylum (I believe that the lessons there were that you shouldn't do unlawful acts to attain your aspirations and that it's easier to reach your goals if you have good friends to help you). There are a lot of episodes that have these kinds of weird endings and after you watch them, it gives you these conflicts of emotions. There aren't a lot of cartoons that can do that so I find that it's another reason to why this show interests so much people. You would always think that morals are supposed to make you feel good and reflect but when you watch these morals, it sort of makes you think twice.