NO NEED TO LOOK THROUGH THE ENTIRE BLOG, JUST LOOK AT THE LATEST EDITS IF YOU WANT THE SHORT VERSION.
Edit (22/08/2012 @ 15:30pm GMT):
Lady & Peebles
This episode was absolutely intense. I'm going to go through it chronologically.
So we start off in the part seen in the beginning or the preview. PB is running towards the dome with the bag on. Turns out she had created and collected a small arsenal of weapons and a heartbeat sensor.
There was a conversation which had Lady speaking completely in Korean, which was kind of funny. Looking at the end of the episode people thought that this would contain hints to Lady being pregnant however Lady didn't tell PB she was pregnant, PB more than likely found out herself when Lady was being treated in the hospital at the end. But in this starting little monologue Lady sadly tells about how she's been having nightmares with undead people in and she is unable to save her family in them, and she said "I keep telling myself it's a dream but I really did see these zombies twice"! This is a reference to the episodes "Slumber Party Panic" and "From Bad To Worse" more than likely. Can't remember if Lady was in "Slumber Party Panic" though.
Well, immediately after that they set off... and enter the "sphincter" of the uncharted cave which Ricardio had biologically engineered into a dungeon.
And then the creepy stuff begins.
Well on the radar we get a little easter egg that Lady is pregnant because there are five extra little dots on the radar, and PB points this out at the end of the episode that she should have figured it out at that point. Instead she hits the radar and their current location turns into an arrow and there are a couple of dots in the distance.
THEN THE HANDS ATTACK! They start off by... stroking... one of them strokes PB's back and another strokes her face and she shows shock at this, very alert. This creeped me out because it reminds me intensely of a form of bullying I suffered from at school, which was borderline sexual harassment. Some boys would do exactly that at random, seeing how I cringe at their condescending intimacy. They'd do other stuff as well but I cant be asked going into it. It's an EXTREMELY unpleasant form of bullying that shatters the confidence of the victim woman.
However, in this case, it isn't bullying - it's real harassment. It's the first part of the subtext that the episode centred on.
So then the FIGHTING BEGINS. Lady is biting the hands while PB tries hard to take out a weapon, and then some awesome James Bond-y music plays as she BLOWS APART THE ROOM but immediately after the bag is stolen from her as is the weapon, leaving her defenceless.
"Lady, phase through the wall!" The way PB handled stressful, tense situations in this episode is pretty admirable. Reminds me very much of my time in the Army Cadet Force where someone would take charge and be the clearheaded one while everyone else panics like mad - they're panicking themselves internally but keeping their cool on the outside. Several times I've been this person, and when I was I spoke in a pretty damn similar tone to PB - slightly angry, commandeering, but focused.
And then we get the thing with Ice King's voice in the vent. They don't know that he is speaking to Ricardio. He rants on about how he's been "at this game for a long time" and talks about what he's been trying to do to impress Princess Bubblegum and expresses that he's pissed off with Ricardio for taking over and cheating. I'll get back to what I mean about that in a moment.
They enter the CAVE WITH THE EYES! "Eew!" Oh look, a slightly funny line! Rejoice, because you're not going to get any more anytime soon!
And then the eyes attack... and Lady is KNOCKED OUT! AWESRAWESGAESG LADY NOOOOO!
But we see a side to PB here that circumstance has usually hidden, and both characters show extreme bravery at what they do in this scene. Lady tries to do a "whatever" and get back up and fails, and tells PB to leave her there. PB says "I'm not going to leave you while you're hurt" and SOMEHOW LIFTS A 20FT HORSE ONTO HER SHOULDERS! Question, could Finn do the same? Well, probably, because he's Finn, but could YOU do the same? Hell no! Whether it was adrenaline or willpower or actual strength she lifts Rainicorn and drags her along the path to Finn and Jake.
Now, the reason this moment impressed so many fans is because they had it stuck in their heads after "Burning Low" that PB deliberately abandoned Finn and Flame Princess to die. I knew that this was incorrect, and that the reason she left them at that risk is because it was Finn or the world, and that if this wasn't the case she'd have probably sought another solution. This episode proved that when there isn't a clearly more important issue that this will be contributing to, PB will try her best to save everyone she can, just like in "Slumber Party Panic" when she revived all the dead people... but unfortunately it turned out they were zombies. Basically PB isn't a lazy ass who doesn't care for other people.
And, oh yes, hello Ice King! ANOTHER devastatingly short moment of comic relief!
...And then the scariest part of the entire series starts.
Ricardio starts speaking to PB, and he says that he was "unfair" and he wants "the full package". He steps forward to reveal that he has created muscular limbs for himself and is creepily wearing some kind of hat that looks like a head, stating that he is a "man" now and that he created this body for PB.
He snatches Lady away from PB and in a show of strength ties her into a knot, something that made me scream WITHOUT knowing that she had babies in there.
And then he throws her against a wall...
and then when PB tries to reach Lady, Ricardio very intimidatingly blocks her and looms over her, effectively pinning her against the wall and continuing with his subtextual terror.
And PB looks at his very weak-looking tendons and makes her decision. "Fine, I'll do it. I'll be your 'wife'."
The way she takes off the coat... almost suggestively and definitely reluctantly... and the way Ricardio seems to be expecting her to and is very happy... that was the tip of the iceberg. The icing on the cake. The last straw.
His intentions were to sexually assault her and all you lot can go on about is how "adult" pregnancy is. It was ALREADY implied that Jake and Lady had reached 'Tier 15' before, and that's why he warned Finn because Finn is a CHILD. Cartoon characters have been pregnant before.
However never before have I seen a scene in a cartoon where a character was genuinely going to get sexually assaulted.
Back on the episode, the clothing that PB is wearing actually has some kind of symbolism to it. It reminded me of what Finn wore in the episode "Power Animal", which is basically Episode of the Pedognomes, and Finn looked completely and utterly vulnerable and unprepared. They probably tried to get the same feeling of vulnerability around PB to make what she did next that much more epic-feeling.
AND SHE SHERLOCKS HIM! IT WAS MAGNIFICIENT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFn8J35BcjY LIKE THIS except without the monologue.
And the most glorious moments in Hynden Walch's voice acting career with a brilliantly delivered speech.
Let's focus on this part:
"See, I know a thing or two about building bodies out of biomass, and YOU DON'T LEAVE YOUR HEART EXPOSED!"
First of all, episode reference. This references Goliad and Lemongrab and Stormo and other candy creations, including herself. I've been wondering how many people in the Candy Kingdom are actually artificial and I am utterly certain PB is one of them.
Secondly, is there a hidden meaning behind "you don't leave your heart exposed"? Taken out of context it certainly seems like it. PB's aggressive actions in that scene were most likely born of emotion and anger. We never usually see PB express much emotion. She seems to deliberately alienate her emotions away from any given situation because emotional influence isn't very logical and usually gets in the way of decision-making (see her decisions in Burning Low) but as a result of this she seems to be very cold and not understanding of when she upsets people. This emotional withdrawal was made apparent in "What Was Missing" and "Incendium" - she had no idea how to deal with awkward social situations like Marceline's singing and Finn's resting his head on her lap and her reactions after caused collateral damage. At the end of "What Was Missing" she actually gives one of the first signs of emotional attachment we've seen in the 3 seasons. The very first time she showed she really cared about someone was in "Mortal Folly" with Finn, the second time at the end of the "What Was Missing" episode in a very awkward conversation with Marceline, the third time seemingly being in "Burning Low" at the end where she is a little upset for Finn and the fourth being in "Lady & Peebles" when she does all kinds of new things for the sake of Finn, Jake and Lady. Particularly Lady.
Basically, PB has an "emotional wall" around her and this is something I can identify with because I am in the same situation. Some of the stuff Marceline sung in her song is very similar to some of the things that my friends say to me, accusations of a superiority complex. Now, my emotional wall/"superiority complex" means that I see things all in a logical sense and don't really know how to deal with emotional people and emotional situations either, however for me this was caused by many years of intense bullying and harassment and a resulting general misanthropy for the human race. Also because I have the symptoms of a higher-spectrum autist and I don't get social cues and cannot predict how people will react to what I say but other than the "paralysis potion" moment in "The Other Tarts" I haven't seen any signs that this could be the case with PB. What has she gone through to get that cold, scientific, socially awkward view of the world? It seems to me like she could have met creeps like Ricardio before, but also that she was in a relationship with someone and the end of that relationship possibly hardened her.
Well, that's an anti-sues flaw to PB's personality if you were looking for one >.> <.< '-' you know who you are.
Talking of hardened PB, look how much she's learnt since Mortal Folly! That was the last time Simon kidnapped her, right? Maybe the fears for her own mortality (and the resulting chaos in the CK) resulting from the Lich episodes made her up her game with the Candy Kingdom's defences. We saw helicopters and radios in "Princess Cookie". We see an armed PB here who kicks ass. Not as badass as Finn (nobody can ever be as badass as Finn) but maybe even more badass than Marceline. I'll hold onto my tongue there though cause I believe Marceline killed all the other vampires in Ooo.
Getting back to the episode itself, we switch to a much more cheerful and less gloomy scene when Finn wakes up and panics about Ricardio and PB calms him down and says -rather understatedly- that she somehow dragged the four of them back to the Candy Kingdom and it took two days. Ignoring the plotholes of how the hell they got out of the mountain and how PB managed this without any assistance, we have a very lighthearted (and possibly heartwarming) moment when we learn she made a heart for Simon out of tendons and maracas and some other stuff. All in 15 minutes. This is possibly my favourite moment in the episode because it was the only moment when things were "back to normal" and Adventure Time-ish and it had Ice King being adorable and PB being not unkind but disliking his continued presence. And, oh yeah, long-time rival debater/friend LittleGhostPrankster said that she actually started to like PB again because of this scene.
So although some people absolutely hated this episode, and it was personally way too odd and fanfiction-like to be my favourite, the fact it shifted LGP's opinion alone is an absolute win for me. I thought nothing could do that apart from a good portrayal in "You Made Me" but it did good.
The reason I'm not going to go into the ABSOLUTE BOMBSHELL THAT IS THE RAINIPUPS is because this has had enough speculation already and I say there is nothing I can contribute to that hasn't already been spoken. I'll say this though, there are at least two more seasons on the way so this isn't the end of AT. And yes, Lady is definitely pregnant with living puppy-corns.
Overall opinion of this episode: It changed the views of 90% of the more illogical PB-haters, the people who I have been battling with ever since the day I joined this wiki. Therefore the resulting fandom respect for PB this episode has given gives it pretty high default ratings. However the contents of the episode itself were very dark and creepy. The Ricardio subplot makes it the creepiest and scariest episode I've seen in the entire series - NEVER BEFORE have I been so scared for the safety of Adventure Time characters, specifically PB which is quite ironic since all the others were already knocked out.
It felt... like a fanfiction, really. Not enough stuff explained. Also quite a lot of plotholes. We didn't find out anything about PB that I personally didn't already see in her personality-wise, but we saw those traits fleshed out a little. Other people however couldn't imagine those traits existed and then found them brilliant when they became more obvious. Looks like my analysing of her character before has been rather correct. ;)
Lady Rainicorn has very suddenly become a far more interesting character in the eyes of the fandom because her involvement is going to change the shape of Adventure Time forever.
I felt uneasy through the entire episode until Ice King started dancing and being cute.
Overall 7/10. Not very Adventure Time-ish. Very dark. Very creepy. Not funny, not even in the first half where it was boarded by Cole. However the things we've seen here are definitely worth analysis. And the way it's made my job as an "ardent PB defender" a thousand times easier... yes.
Next episode is the OTHER one this blog is about - "You Made Me"! I sincerely apologise for not talking about the fantastic looking previews for this episode but I will soon - I just need to post this before I lost it.
Edit (17/08/2012 @ 12:19pm GMT):
PROMO AAAART
Rebecca Sugar's promo art
A very nice drawing from Rebecca Sugar. The colours on Lady look pretty. :) Isn't this the first time Lady has been a promo art?
Anyway, the reason I'm posting about this is because promotional art - particularly Rebecca sugar promotional art - usually depicts something that happens in or is mentioned in the episode. Unlike with "Burning Low" and how I successfully predicted the art showed PB had something to do with FP's imprisonment (and also she caged her to protect Flame Princess from herself as well as protecting others) this promotional art seems a little more random. It goes with the theme of the episode, role reversal, but either PB had to defend herself before Finn and Jake came along (hell no she's not just 18) or this defeats that chain. Lol wouldn't it be funny if hald the princesses of the kingdom could escape IK themselves but didn't do so because there needs to be a heroing profession for someone as goes the traditional order of things?
Edit (14/08/2012 @ 22:35 GMT):
PREVIEWS PREVIEWS PREVIEWS!
YEEEEES! FINALLY! A bit late mind.
These previews show that we're going to be exploring a darker side to the Ice Kingdom. But here's my breakdown:
At the beginning of the long preview we see PB running towards an igloo somewhere deep in the Ice Kingdom. The igloo has a satellite on the top and some equipment inside. It is situated next to an odd black mountain/volcano which looks different to all the other mountains in the Ice Kingdom.
We find out that Finn and Jake have been missing for three whole weeks after an encounter with Ice King. Three weeks... surely something is up.
Then we get what happened in the animatic and the shorter preview, and they lock-n-load to find out what is inside that odd black mountain for some reason.
So how long have they been in that metal dome and what exactly are they there for? PB is wrapped up warm and has a bag full of WEAPONS and other technologies with her, To be honest she looks like a polar expeditionist. Were they there to explore the geography of the Ice Kingdom? Or did they just arrive? How long have THEY been there?
And then the action starts - Lady and PB fly into this volcano thing and it turns out that it's ALIVE or something! It closes behind them. What the heck is it? Does it bear any similarities to the cave in "Beyond This Earthly Realm"?
But they get attacked by all these... organs... limbs and eyes and stuff, and Lady keeps shrieking in korean, and PB is shooting the crap out of everything like a (rather scared) BAMF, and we get a moment where her awesome winter jacket is missing and she's having what is effectively a fistfight, and we get a longer, perhaps more interesting moment where she's walking in the dark with some kind of radar (Finn and Jake radar) and says wonders what the Ice King is up to and she is CARRYING LADY RAINICON! WTH? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, LADY? SPEAK TO ME! D':
Soooo PB is all alone in the face of uncertainty here.
And something shocks her, makes her drop what she's holding.
So, what exactly is going on? What we know is that we're going to get some really cool PB and Lady moments. (Gah, she looks so... cute and innocent in that jacket that I need to draw some fanart)
PB is going to be super geeky in this episode, and Rainicorn is going to be more frantic.
We know Lady is a good fighter, so how does she get knocked out? Right after that final moment with the arms?
The episode is probably going to be a lot less action-packed than the preview, which looks like a trailer for modern action films (more dramatic films rather than the explosive-filled Princess Cookie preview). The music mirrors this well. The PR crew tend to use music to make us think an episode will be more dramatic or action filled than it really is so I wouldn't expect to see much fighting outside of what we've seen in the preview, however I DO expect there to be some drama. It's a Rebecca Sugar episode after all.
So what do I expect to come out of this episode?
I stand on my words that I don't think this is Ice King's fault. Perhaps Ice King was also kidnapped? Who knows? But Ice King isn't the type to set up deadly demon traps.
Perhaps nobody was kidnapped? But why would they be missing for 3 weeks then?
I'm really, really interested into finding out exactly what that cave is and I suspect it's something important.I'm also looking forward to seeing the PB-Lady interaction in this episode. Most of the comic relief must be from Lady speaking in nothing but Korean and then PB's out-of-context responses to what she's saying.
Edit (12/08/2012 @ 22:16 GMT):
Good news everybody! We have EVEN MORE information on these episodes!
First of all, we FINALLY have a synopsis for the episode "You Made Me" and it tells us that we are going to have some really creepy Lemongrab moments:
When a creepy sleep-peeping Lemongrab upsets Princess Bubblegum with his creepy ways, Finn and Jake need to tend to some issues in the Outer Realm.
What exactly does this mean? What is the "outer realm"? What's Lemongrab doing sleep-peeping his mother in the first place?
What issues ARE there in the "Outer Realm"?
This description brings me back to the earier episode ideas that were never used, particularly Adam Muto's idea of Marceline's cave being flooded and then having her move into PB's castle and wreck everything until PB gets pissed and starts a fist-fight (this was scrapped because it was one of many many random unused terrible ideas). The reason it reminds me of this is because I think that Lemongrab for some reason cannot stay in his own castle and is bunking down the Candy Kingdom, living with his mother until whatever happened resolves. I assume that the "outer realm" is where Castle Lemongrab is... but we have no idea really.
The idea of Lemongrab staring at his mother as she sleeps... well, just imagine waking up to Lemongrab's huge eyes and permanent poker face. It would probably be as bad as waking up to Slenderman. PB getting upset about this is not unexpected. I wonder how she dealt with him up to that point though? I know my friend User:LittleGhostPrankster is going to be keeping an eye on this, and probably how she reacts as well.
But I think we are going to see more into Lemongrab's autistic disorders this episode. Staring at people is something I do a lot (albeit subconsciously) and I think it's a part of my own autistic spectrum. Also, is he SCARED of the Candy people? Why is he seeking shelter in that room?
LGP tells me that IanJQ said that it will be a "one-off" episode - a perspective switcher that won't feature Finn and Jake very much - however so far there is no source to this and also I bet "Lady and Peebles" will be doing this too, so although it would make sense it's not incredibly likely. But if it is, it might be done from PB's perspective (again =P).
I guess we'll have to wait until the episode airs to find out.
As for "Lady And Peebles" we have another more detailed synopsis that gives us some information on the circumstances of Finn and Jake's disappearence:
Bubblegum and Rainicorn look for the guys, who are missing after a run-in with the Ice King.
So we find out that the Ice King is involved in this episode.
Ice King HAS kidnapped Finn and Jake in the past, however they have usually escaped of their own accord using one method or another. Such examples are in the episodes "Fionna and Cake" and "Prisoners of Love" (and "Still" where he paralysed them in their own home).
There are several possibilities presented for this episode, such as, how come it's Lady and Peebles searching for Finn and Jake and how did they find out they were missing? PB has never led a search party before as far as I know. They must have been gone for QUITE a while.
Why does the Ice King USUALLY kidnap Finn and Jake? He wants a friend! He's a lonely guy! So I doubt the boys will be coming to much harm if they WERE kidnapped by him.
Which means that Lady and Peebles could be panicking over nothing...
but the description gives the impression that they were present when the Ice King attacked and I reckon Finn and Jake drove him away into a distant battle.
One theory is that the Ice King could have knocked them out and they could have fallen somewhere and become trapped or have encountered another kidnapping enemy.
Another theory is that this could possibly be the episode "Fionna and Cake" from a different perspective, a flashback as such. This would be confusing, but we never saw in that episode how Finn and Jake were captured and how they escaped.
Whatever happens, I now expect there to be some BRUTAL interrogation of the Ice King delivered by PB.
Edit (11/08/2012 @ 18:40pm GMT): HELLO AGAIN!
We have discovered the information, courtesy of Andy Ristaino, that Rebecca Sugar and Cole Sanchez are boarding this episode. This means that this is most likely going to be a relationship-developing episode... Well, of course, we already knew that from the TITLE, but I think this ranges outside of PB and Lady Rainicorn's friendship.
The last Sugar/Sanchez episode was "Burning Low". As we saw at the end of that episode, there seems to be remaining tension between Finn and PB. Did Finn figure out that PB wasn't jealous? Is he still mad with her? Might that figure into the plot of this episode? If these questions are going to get answered in any episode it's this one.
The reason it's so important who is boarding this episode is because each boarder has different strengths and weaknesses and therefore gets chosen to do episodes depending on those strengths.
I'm not entirely sure about Cole Sanchez, who did those adorable scenes at the very beginning of Burning Low, however Rebecca Sugar's main strengths seem to be character and plot development. She has written most of the songs we see in Adventure Time too. She's done most of the more dramatic Marceline-centric episodes and she worked on "Mortal Folly". Of course, not ALL of her episodes are development-based because not all of them contain characters outside of Finn and Jake, but - to note - I'm pretty sure every one of those Finn+Jake centric episodes has put one of them in danger while the other is oblivious, such as "Jake vs. Me-mow", "Morituri te Salatumus", and "Power Animal" (the latter of which is the most disturbing Adventure Time episode yet in my opinion).
In "Lady and Peebles", Finn and Jake are apparently missing.
Therefore I think it's going to be a sweet combination of character development and character torture. And, most likely, Jake being an idiot.
Original: I know that the Worm King episode hasn't aired so this blog is basically made in advance for these two upcoming episodes. There is a popular "Worm King" blog running right now so I feel no urge to create one. Someone suggested I create an "Ignition Point" blog but that episode is way too far away to do that yet.
So I'm combining these two episodes into one blog for now because we havent heard much from them either.
We have had the synopsis for "Lady and Peebles", and although I don't know how far to trust it, it seems pretty legitimate. PB and Lady are FINALLY getting some on-screen interaction and we might just see how their friendship goes, They're supposed to be best friends for glob sake so how come it's taken THIS long for that to be addressed?
The episode title is similar to the "Fionna and Cake" one so I have to wonder if there will be a special intro for this one and we can pretty much tell from the synopsis that it is going to be from their perspective, which - considering "B-Mo Noire" just aired and "Burning Low" didn't exactly have a linear perspective - would mean that this seems to be a recurring theme at this point in Season 4.
Since it appears that this time Lady and Peebles are searching for Finn and Jake we're probably going to see either detective work or some really cool action. We already know that Lady is a brilliant fighter and PB packs some strength (enough to knock Jake off a jelly horse and MAKE A TABLE DO SEVERAL FLIPS IN THE AIR). This will be refreshing, and not entirely unexpected since pretty much *any* piece of media with a damsel-in-distress character turns the tables at least once (eg. Super Princess Peach). It's actually a cliche. But since Adventure Time is full of ANTI-cliches (cliches that turn out not to be cliches), and PB is the biggest anti-cliche of the lot, I wonder how this will play out?
And also, "You Made Me" airing A WEEK LATER! The return of Lemongrab! YAY! LittleGhostPrankster has shared some theories with me regarding the possible events in this episode and we suspect it might ALSO be a perspective-changer, which, so soon after "Lady and Peebles" and "BMO Noire", will probably blow our minds. Will we get to see the guy's perspective on his creator? Might this episode share similarities to "Princess Cookie"? We can pretty much gather from the title that if this is a Lemongrab episode then he's gonna be pretty PO'd with his mother.
Altogether, a LOT of PB coming up. Makes me wonder if they're cramming her appearences together and if she will actually appear in any more episodes before the end of this increasingly-shortening season.
Just like my "Burning Low" blog, but perhaps not to the same extent, this blog will be updated as previews and promos are released and as episodes are aired.