#Simon lets betty go in the bus scene | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thecrimsonjaguar · 8 months

Text

i think when it comes to the F+C finale it's important to see where the writers were coming from. And it's easy to do that, the lesson/moral they gave simon is fairly clear: Simon needs to appreciate his life because Betty sacrificed so much to get him here. alright, cool, that's good on paper.

I do Also think that the execution was poor.

up until this point, the crown has represented/could be viewed as many things. Alzheimer's, substance abuse, and anything else people have called it. In this series, a newer interpretation has arose: Suicide. And I'm certain the writers were aware of this. Depression and suicidal ideation are such strong themes in this series that they can't NOT be purposeful.

So their attempt at teaching Simon to appreciate Betty's sacrifice can ALSO be read as: Simon, the suicidal, on the verge of a relapse-man, gets put into a body of a child, (and that is very powerful imagery that does not help, actually) and is told nearly expressly that he fucked up in his relationship with the love of his life. He is told he should have sacrificed more for betty. And he says to himself: "Maybe i wouldn't have even found the crown". Basically it's simon pinning the blame on himself for his 1000 year curse on his mistakes with Betty. Which of course can be read as Simon's self loathing but the show does nothing to refute his statement, which i also have issue with. Simon putting on the crown was stated to be a Mistake. it was an accident. No matter what, the crown cursing him Was Not His Fault. Ever. It's not Betty's fault, it's not Simon's, it. was. a. Mistake.

regardless on if they should or should not have introduced these new flaws into simon's character, having simon learn his mistakes like This feels. icky. to me.

#adventure time #simon petrikov #at spoilers #at fionna and cake #I've been thinking about what I would do to change this #because i feel the need to put my money where my mouth is #i cant just say “this needs to be written better lol bye”#i need to prove that alternate ideas WOULD work #and right now my script has actually deleted casper and nova entirely #because i don't know how to keep them #casper and nova were really fun ideas #and the execution was fun too #but i cant seem to make the whole “simon possessed shermy and plays casper and nova” plot point work with my rewrite :(#will accept any suggestions if anyone's got anything!#another thing about the lesson simon learned #is that it -in universe- could have backfired so badly #simon could have Doubled Down #simon was already so depressed and prepared to throw his life away for someone else #and then he gets confirmation that “Actually. You Didn't Sacrifice Enough.”#Simon lets betty go in the bus scene #but what if he just... failed to learn the lesson she was trying to show him?#what if he goes “you're right betty. I should have sacrificed more for you like how you did for me.”#“i can't sacrifice anything for you now. i'm sorry. but for fionna and cake's world... i still have that chance.”#sorry im in fucked up thoughts land #at thoughts

92 notes · View notes

crocsfroggo · 8 months

Text

The way simon finally realized that betty sacrificed everything for him was...wonderful

I mean, Simon sacrificed himself for her too, but he never really realized what she left behind by staying with him. Even when Fiona asks, "So you got on the bus with her?" he responds, "what? why would I do that?"

And after spending time with Beth and reading Casper and Nova's book, Simon finally understands. He finally understands everything Betty sacrificed for him and his choices. He finally understands that everything could have been different if they had followed the path of Betty's choices.

And in the flashback scene, he tries to change that, he tries to go with Betty on the trip, but he knows that's not what happened. And he know that this cannot be changed.

And I think after all this time, he might finally let her go, when he stayed behind instead of going with her on the bus.

The metaphor of betty leaving on the bus and leaving simon behind was magnificent. But the metaphor of Simon being like Betty's dandelion was also extraordinary.

I mean, Betty blows him away like a dandelion, wishing he could finally live his life on his own, in peace, and the way he wants, in the happiest way possible, without having to worry to bring her back at all costs. Cuz everything that's done is done, and you can't go back.

And the way they looked each other in the eye and said how important they were, I guess this time, it was a goodbye. Not forever, but still a goodbye.

Like, they'll never stop caring about each other, and they'll always think about how each other is doing, but now they can finally live in peace. Knowing that despite the bad choices they made during their lives together, there is nothing to regret.

I saw this fan-comic other day that showed that Simon always picked up objects and pointed them at the sky, because he thought that Betty might be watching him from up there... and I like to think that's what's going to happen. They will live their lives, but they will still be looking out for each other.

After all, they are doomed yuri (hehe *crying*)

#btw sorry about the quality of the prints 😭#excuse me now I'm going to cry for 5 hours straight #simon x betty #betty x simon #simon petrikov #golbetty #fionna and cake finale #fionna and cake #adventure time #petrigrof

5K notes · View notes

j4gm · 9 months

Text

SPOILERS!!! REFERENCES AND EASTER EGGS IN F&C ep. 1: FIONNA CAMPBELL

Here's a bunch of stuff I spotted. Feel free to add more.

During the anime girl hero dream Fionna mentions Hans Brinker, a character from a novel which introduced speed skating to the United States.

The BMO style alarm clock has BMO's voice.

The ducks that steal Marshall Lee's money look like one-headed versions of the two-headed duck from the original Adventure Time title sequence.

Cheers is a real sitcom. Simon previously sang its theme song in the episode Simon & Marcy, and now it seems to have manifested in the human AU due to his connection with it.

Fionna says "stop acting crazy" to Cake with the same meter as Marceline said "stop acting crazy" to Ice King in the episode I Remember You.

We all spotted this in the trailer but there's a Magic Man hat in this shot. Magic Man's hat was most recently seen being worn by Betty.

The Betty statue also suggests that Simon's psyche has significant influence over this world. The fountain includes frogs, a symbol of change that was previously also used in Temple of Mars. And Fionna mentions the statue underwent renovation twelve years ago, which is the same amount of time that's passed in the prime universe since Betty's amalgamation with GOLB.

It would seem Mrs. Abadeer runs a vacuum cleaner company as well as being Fionna's landlady. And Queenie runs an accounting business as well as the tour bus.

The stickers on Marshall Lee's guitar case are all references to real life punk rock bands. X-Ray Pex = X-Ray Spex, Daikini Kill = Bikini Kill, PM might be a reference to AM as in the Arctic Monkeys. I'm not sure what Las Crudas and Dark Eyes are references to. Perhaps someone more familiar with punk rock can let me know?

In case you were wondering, the credits confirm that this is human genderswapped Fern. It's a bit more obvious now that we can see all her green clothes and backpack, and given what she said about her dreams being super messed up. I'm not gonna go through the rest of the cameo characters in this episode because most of them are pretty obvious or already got figured out when the trailer dropped. That said, if anyone knows who the bus driver is meant to be please let me know.

The sword in the window of this games shop looks very similar to Fionna's sword from the original comic series.

The latte that Gumball - ahem I mean Gary - makes in this scene features PB's swan.

Okay one more cameo mention because I feel like it might become significant later. This is Ice Queen.

Fionna and Cake are dreaming about their apartment block in the credits of this episode, but it has a roof like the Tree Fort and the same little boat with a telescope and parasol.

Episode 2 to follow!

#adventure time #fionna and cake #easter egg posts

2K notes · View notes

elasticitymudflap · 8 months

Text

you know, i do find it kind of interesting that betty literally said 'goodbye' to him in all versions of the bus scene/the car scene, at the time fully intending that it was goodbye, except for here...

just thinking aloud here that, symbolically, she's getting on the bus for that 6 month trip. an experience, though long, she was always meant to come back from.

in the perspective of an omnipresent being like golbetty, she would probably have the insight to know if something really was 'goodbye forever', and yet this specific "goodbye" is done through the story of letting someone "go do their own things" for awhile. i think that a "goodbye forever" would have been more appropriate to have in a setting like golb's guts, mirroring the cosmic gate scene with casper and nova. instead, they're back to a point in their lives where their fates were still changeable, although now able to see it through the lens of lived experience.

she may not be going to australia (australians feel free to weigh in on that), but the point is that she's going somewhere he can't reasonably follow her right now, and he has to make peace with it.

and maybe this is the equivalent to them of doing their own things for awhile; being a human, being a god, living, dying, reincarnating, being whatever and whenever, learning and growing until cosmically they can find each other again on equal footing, both the better for having experienced these things as individuals.

i have to believe she isn't golb-bound forever, because what meaning and power does her wish have once simon is no longer in need of saving?

i think betty is now, for all intents and purposes, "free" to go do her own things for awhile. and like a dandelion seed, she's sent him off into the breeze to go find a place in this world to plant himself and grow. and sometimes we need to be apart in order to grow, but that doesn't mean it's "goodbye" forever, just for now.

#fionna and cake spoilers #I KNOW IM JUST COPING BUT LET ME OKAY #petrigrof

386 notes · View notes

iferguerrero · 8 months

Text

How long did Simon and Betty know each other? Timeline

How many years did the stable relationship of Simon Petrikov and Betty Grof last?

Hello, everyone, I bring you this post that is focused on the past of Simon and Betty, in Fionna and Cake we are given more information about their relationship before everything that happened in Ooo.

I have several theories about the dates, which is why I created a timeline.

I filled in some boxes with drawings.

Simon Petrikov & Betty Grof Timeline

1 week

1.The whole story begins when Simon and Betty want to take the same book from the library, but let's not forget that Betty had already been following Dr. Petrikov's work, which is revealed in "Jerry," "I've admired your research for years," which leads us to assume that since she was studying her career, she already knew Dr. Petrikov but only as an author of books. 2. After that, in "Temple to Mars," when they pass the tests, it is revealed that she was planning a trip to Australia to study petroglyphs, and her plane leaves in a week. (This is where she mentions that she left her career for Simon. I consider that she refers to her career not at the moment of the bus but at the moment when Simon looked for her through the Jambo portal in the episode "Betty." This is where Betty's career was cut, I'll explain this further.) 3. She already had the ticket for the trip, but just that week, she attended Dr. Petrikov's lecture, where she expresses to Babette the following: "I touched his hand in the library once." 4. Excited by Dr. Petrikov's lecture, she wants Dr. Petrikov to sign her book. They make comments about a vase, and Dr. Petrikov says it would be very good for her to accompany him on the expedition to search for The Enchiridion. She doesn't think twice and accepts. Dr. Petrikov is surprised but agrees that she can join the trip.

1 month

5. Dr. Petrikov and Betty go on the expedition to search for The Enchiridion. I want to believe that this took them a month, during which they got to know each other better as people. 6. They have fun, and it's clear that Betty is not afraid of anything, and in the end, she doesn't do what Dr. Petrikov says. 7. They return, and the word spreads. Dr. Petrikov wants both to get credit, but Betty doesn't want it. Dr. Petrikov doesn't express himself correctly and tells her that “it's indispensable”, and Betty leaves.

3 weeks

8. A "couple of weeks" pass, which could be calculated as 3 weeks, and Simon reads the note and rushes to Betty. 9. Simon and Betty reveal their mutual feelings, but in doing so, Simon stops Betty from getting on the bus. 10. My favorite scene ❤️

1 year

11. In the episode "Bespoken For," we are shown that they met for lunch at Captain Tasty's, and they used to eat there all the time. They even had a favorite table, and since Simon belonged to the "Book-a-day club," he gave books to Betty because she belonged to the "Book for the bookless" club.

2 years

12. In the episode "Come Along with me," this sweet scene shows that Simon and Betty live together. Simon is reading a book that mentions "GOLB," but he doesn't fully understand it. 13. Betty tells him to stop doing that and suggests they make sundaes. 14. Betty throws a can of cherries at him and accidentally hits him. Here, it's clear that she's concerned, but Simon takes it well, knowing it was an accident.

1 month

15. In the episode "Simon Petrikov," Simon talks about going on an expedition to the Temple of Java with Betty, where they lost half of their provisions, but Betty somehow put together a four-star dinner.

1 year

16. In the episode "Jerry," Simon comments that Betty makes the best soft-boiled egg, not runny, but perfectly jammy. (It is adorable how Simon expresses about Betty)

3 years

17. Betty and Simon write a book together. According to the internet, the average time to write and publish a book is 3 years.

1 month

18. Simon goes on another expedition and purchases the crown in Northern Scandinavia from "an old dockworker" as part of his studies to be an antiquarian of ancient artifacts. 19. Betty "disappears." (Although we know that she actually went to the future). 20. Simon records the tapes.

So, from what we can see here, it would be an approximate total of:

7 years and 4 months

What do you think? :)

From my perspective, this is a very good amount of time to get to know someone, especially considering that they were already living together. This is why Betty Grof was of legal age, and she knew what she was doing consciously. I believe there was a lack of communication towards Simon, and Simon should have asked because if we notice in the episode "Simon Petrikov," he tells Finn that if he is the one leading, making it clear that Simon could easily have gone along with whatever Betty wanted to do. As I mentioned, Betty felt that her career ended when she was transported through time by Simon, not before.

Thank you guys!

#adventuretime #letter #adventure time #ice king #fionna and cake #petrigrof #simon petrikov #betty grof #timeline #years #golbetty #Y.C.P 5547.

90 notes · View notes

petr1kov · 8 months

Note

I dunno, I don't think the fumbled petrigrof personally. I do agree that the casper and nova story missed the "mutual obsession" aspect of their relationship, and it's a lot more black and white than the relationship was shown to be in the series proper and in Jerry. I wouldn't call it a fumble, it just glossed over a lot of the previously established nuance

Their ending though was good. Their little talk, "I don't have any regrets," betty turning into golbetty on the bus, her letting Simon go and Simon in turn letting her go. Wonderful

i liked their final scene in isolation but i feel as though this moment of them moving on and letting go was just not earned through the episode itself, if that makes sense. i was expecting and looking forward to something like this, but my problem with it isn't the fact that they were separated, but Ter fact that their relationship was mischaracterized.

more than that, my main issue with all of it was the fact that betty barely said anything at all to simon. we didn't get her perspective, we don't know how she feels now that she's golb. she still appears to love simon, want to protect him, but that's all we know! it's like she remains a static character and a plot device for simon when she should've been better developed, especially considering that erasing herself in favor of him was always her biggest flaw even on the original show. idk

#fionna and cake spoilers #fionna and cake #ask

64 notes · View notes

sicklyseraphnsuch · 8 months

Text

Episode 9

Let's give Simon an earlier realization of the problems in his relationship. Let's dedicate episode 9 to Simon coming to terms with those problems instead of literally spoonfeeding it to him in one episode. So let's say Simon goes into episode 9, taking Fionna's comments about Betty to heart, and so we revise the Betty scenes.

Fionna and Cake have their nightmare and return to their world like in the show. But when we cut back to Simon...

We see the Scarab wakes up before Simon in that endless void. He sees Simon fully unconscious and he rushes to him. But before he can end him, he looks up and freezes in place. The camera never shows what he sees but he yells at whoever to stay out of it. He tries to finish his job but inexplicably, he turns into tiny bug versions every single time he tries to hurt Simon. Until finally he skitters into Simon's world to escape whatever keeps thwarting him.

Zoom in on Simon's face. Eyes twitch almost as if their fluttering open. Smash cut.

A bus stop. Simon blinks and sees himself standing before Betty, her letter clutched in his hand.

Simon does the same thing he did in the show, he offers to go with her. Then he realize this isn't how it went. And Betty smiles. The world slowly dissolves to the black space. Tetris shapes begin to fill the void.

"Hi Betty, long time no see. It seems I haven't been fair to you. I kept looking to you like you're supposed to be everything. But being someone's whole world is… exhausting." Simon laughs wryly as he scratches his head with the back giving off a telltale sparkle. " I shouldn't have put that on you. And I should have noticed all that you were doing for me…"

Simon begins to transform from his professor looks to his post apocalyptic looks.

"You remain the great love of my life. Nothing can change that. But... we've changed, haven't we?"

Betty in turn begins to change, first into Simon's fiance then into Magic Betty.

Smash cut to Fionna and Cake desperately fighting for their lives.

"It was a long road to get here. And I have found more people to love."

Simon cycles into Ice King before finally transforming into his present self.

"And I should be so lucky that they love me back. I can't... I can't just leave them like this. I'm a sad old man that kept looking for lost things and missing the stuff right in front of his face. I want to do better, Betty. I have to."

Smash cut to Fionna and Cake again.

And Betty makes her final transformation into Golb. Simon finds himself standing in front of her in all her new glory. He feels his pocket buzzing and he realizes that they're in trouble.

"No, no, no. What was all that for? If I just keep going back?" He eyes the Crown before tossing it at Betty. "There has to be another way. I'm not done yet."

Betty's eyes lift up. She pulls out Fionna and Cake's world as in the show.

"Oh. Always rescuing me, even now..." Simon is more than a little bitter. But he takes the world and he gives it to Fionna.

Smash cut to Fionna and Cake as in show.

After, Simon looks up at Betty. The faint image of their past selves lurk over their shoulders as the same moment a thousand years apart repeats itself. With Simon looking up as Betty readies herself to leave.

"I can't do much for you now. But I will tell you what I should have told you then. Thank you for everything. If only I could come with you where you're going but since I can't... Then I hope you find your happiness wherever you go... Goodbye, Betty."

And then Betty does as she does in the show. Episode 9 ends with Simon in the flower field.

Episode 10 is a flashback to present Ooo. In the time since Simon's departure, his family and friends have worked themselves up, crazy with worry. It's a comedy of errors as each callback character comes up with worse and worse ideas to find Simon. Until mid episode Simon comes back to his house with a crown - a flower crown.

"Hey gang... uh... what's going on? are we having a party? ... At my house? Without telling me?"

"SIMON!"

Cue dogpile.

Cue epilogue.

#adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #betty grof #fionna and cake spoilers

136 notes · View notes

sadmitskifanatic · 8 months

Text

Simon and Betty, Change, and Acceptance - my thoughts on their story

(F&C and AT spoilers under the cut!!) (long post warning)

So obviously a big thing throughout the finale was learning to understand just how important letting the past go is.

Simon and Betty were no doubt hopelessly in love with one another, and though it's freaking adorable, you begin to notice how all the Simon and Betty-centric episodes of the main series, without fail, feature Betty making some kind of sacrifice or bending herself over backwards for Simon's sake. And it wasn't as clear back then, since Simon wasn't himself for majority of the episodes (I think the only time where he wasn't Ice King in the present day would be in "Betty"), but it's definitely something that settles in the back of your mind. This is a pretty nice setup for what happens in F&C.

Now fast forward to F&C's eighth episode "Jerry", where we get a LOT of Petrigrof scenes in the form of flashbacks. When I first saw it, I thought it was adorable and wonderfully ideal. But even then, there were still a couple things that rubbed me the wrong way, though I couldn't quite place it then. During my second watch, I started to pick up on hints that maybe their relationship wasn't as perfect as the show previously portrayed it to be. There may be more, but here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Betty readily tossing her 6-month trip aside in a momentary decision to go on an expedition with Simon (who, let's be honest, invited her in a semi-joking manner and didn't expect her to say yes) despite really only being acquaintances at best at the time

She also gave Simon all the credit for finding the Enchiridion, and I actually expected him to insist on Betty getting some credit a little more than he actually did

She tosses her 6-month trip away AGAIN the moment Simon shows up- her roommate(?) also placed a lot of emphasis on not letting her miss her bus, and yet she did in the end anyways

☆When Fionna asks if Simon went on the trip with her, Simon's surprised and confused. He didn't seem to consider it as a possibility at the time, not out of malice, just that it never actually crossed his mind

And throughout all of these, notice that Betty's essentially throwing her research opportunity and even her career's future away over and over again because she wants to be with Simon, and Simon never objected or told her that she should go for that trip, so why not? And you can see from the fourth point that Simon kinda just never thought about it like that, so if he didn't notice, then of course he didn't stop her. In this subtle way, Betty was unintentionally encouraged to sacrifice more and more things for him.

This is still reflected even as she to loses herself to MMS (magic, madness, and sadness), continuing all the way until her ultimate sacrifice of merging with Golb at the end of AT.

---------- ---------- ----------

That was Betty's side. Now let's look at Simon's progress throughout the finale a little more. I think that Casper and Nova (the storybook, not just the episode) was used really well to represent Simon and Betty's situation, specifically from a third-person point of view. It served as a major factor towards Simon's epiphany moment, especially since it bore so many similarities to him and Betty, allowing him to finally understand what it was like on Betty's end as well.

Casper and Nova was a choose your own story adventure novel (or at least the video gamey futuristic version of one), and the nice thing about that is how it lets Simon make his own decisions. And what he essentially does is repeat what he did with Betty all over again, even though he didn't realise it at first.

"No do-overs with this book, I guess"

I'd like to bring your attention to this part. When Simon wants to pick the other option when his first choice didn't work out, the book doesn't let him, and what's done is done. Sound familiar?

"I don't want any of those things to happen; I like Nova! There should be more choices!"

"Well, maybe there would be, if you hadn't picked Casper's options every time."

Aaaaaand cue epiphany. Simon realises that throughout the relationship, he was always put first. But just like Beth said, it wasn't necessarily Casper's (and by extension his) fault. Yet Simon agrees that he could have been more considerate.

When he's given a chance to relive a crucial moment in their story, he acts differently due to his prior grand realisation. And yet, he never gets on the bus. He knows that no matter how he would have handled it in the present, that isn't what he did in the past, and that's that. Same as the story of Casper and Nova- no do-overs.

And yeah, that sucks. But look here.

Simon's sending Betty- his Betty, not Golbetty- off, properly this time. This is their goodbye. And immediately after, he sees Golbetty on that bus instead of Betty. He's accepted that his Betty is gone.

If he had just realised the extent of Betty's sacrifices, he would've intervened because the last thing he wants is to do that to her since he loves her dearly, and then things would've been different. Maybe if he had gone on that trip with her, he would've never even found the crown. But he didn't realise, and it's too late now. They've both made their choices and mistakes- not in loving each other, but in the sort of inequality of it all, even while wholly unintentional. But regardless, there's no way to undo them, and there's nothing else they can do about it but move forward.

This doesn't necessarily mean forgetting the past ever happened- they were a massive part of each other's lives. They'll still love each other, and think about each other, and miss each other. But the difference is that they've accepted that they're just no longer the same people they were before, and that's okay.

Simon won't get his fiancée back. Betty isn't really Betty anymore, and will never be again. They've both learned to accept that change. A fatal flaw in Betty's character back in the original series was refusing to accept the Ice King, instead viewing him and not just the crown as something that's stopping her from getting her Simon back. And we all know how that turned out.

Simon and Betty won't ever be together like they were before again. Though devastating, things like these, at the end of the day, are a part of life. The important thing is that they were both able to learn from these experiences and continue on with the cards they have been dealt, and that's exactly what they did; with Betty's new duties as GOLB (or maybe even possible reincarnation as some have been theorising) and Simon finally seeking help (thank god he realised that being a living exhibition wasn't the best idea) and accepting the life he was put into.

Simon's not gonna just magically be better, and that's okay. Little by little, he's gonna move on from the past and learn to enjoy life again , and I think the realism in the way it's portrayed is absolutely beautiful.

#thank you for coming to my ted talk #this is essentially an essay ngl #there is SO MUCH MORE i want to talk about but if i start i'll never stop #idek if this makes sense so i apologise if im being repetitive anywhere #also if you want to know more or just like talk about the finale more PLEASE DM ME I LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE #adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #fionna and cake spoilers #adventure time spoilers #ice king #betty grof #petrigrof

51 notes · View notes

monstertsunami · 8 months

Text

OKAY ONE LAST POST ABT THE FINALE. aka: how we almost got petrigrof homura/madoka level timeline fuckery

i had a huge revelation while coping. the final bus stop scene is REALLY important, i have a feeling it was a little more than a visual parallel. golbetty was basically communicating with simon the best she could by hijacking his mind and putting him in situations- the whole bit with casper and nova was her heavyhanded way of explaining to him what shes been thinking about regarding their past . not in a breakup way, not in a "were not good for each other" way, she doesnt regret it. its never been about blaming simon, he was only ever a bystander. shes just telling him how she feels, what would need to change. he realizes this and understands! she takes him to the bus stop and we all know how this goes. he passes the "test" and meets her on equal footing, shes so so happy. and she is SO ready to drag him onto the bus before he stops her. the bus stop is an ultimatum. if he follows her, they potentially both die in the mushroom war. he isnt there to take care of marcy and ooo gets overrun by vampires. every other horrific alternate universe without a simon in ooo could come to fruition if they never pursue the enchiridion. but they could start all over here, with a healthier beginning. they could both be so so happy. betty offers him the chance to go back and fix their mistakes, to study petroglyphs together. but there are no do-overs. not unless youre a god of chaos merged with a woman with a penchant for disrupting time to be with your fiance, that is! i believe this was more than a metaphor, she was 100% ready to pull some timeline bullshit to get a new begining. but this time she lets simon decide if he wants this- a chance he didnt get when she jumped through that time portal so long ago. simon makes his choice: this isnt how it happened. he has people that care for him back in ooo, hes okay with where his life has lead him. he has marcy and finn and everyone else- he doesnt want a do-over. now that hes finally seen betty again hes ready to go back and finally live the life she gave him. shes okay with this. its bittesweet but her wish contract is fulfilled, simons safe now, and she can move on. he chooses to continue his life as it is, and so she chooses to continue hers, wherever her reincarnation leads her, without him for once.

TLDR; the bus stop and the petroglyphs were an offer from betty to pull some timeline bullshit and give them a happy beginning. one last crazy chance to fix EVERYTHING. but its time to end the cycle. its been doomed since the start, and they wouldnt have it any other way.

#schizobabble #fionna and cake #fionna and cake spoilers #f&c spoilers #petrigrof #simon petrikov #betty grof #this is 99% copium #but like. i was so fucked up over the idea that what we got was the only option. she leaves him. thats it.#this interpretation feels way better like they both actually made their decisions for a reason #like there is no way that betty- crazy even without magic i love her for it- would just move on that easily #and simon! his only tether to sanity had been betty! shes the only thought that could offer him comfort in his depression!#giving them another option they didnt take makes their motivation and last meeting make more sense. to me.#pleasee understand that this is literally just me being in denial that the canon ending could ever do them bad.#i need this to make sense to me and be satisfying in the most canon compliant interpretation possible. or ill never recover

48 notes · View notes

cathchicken · 8 months

Text

Ok so here is my view regarding the betty and Simon stuff from the finale, cause. I got things to say (spoilers ofc)

basically I am satisfied with the direction they went with Simon, him choosing to accept Betty how she is and learning to move on and find that he is worthy of staying alive even without her is good. Tough, but good. Also the little detail of the Betty statue being golbetty now is nice reminder of that too. Now, for Betty? I’m not sure… when I watched the scene where she says goodbye, it hurt but it made sense. She is letting go to do her own things.

But, then it shows her destination changing to a demonic place, and her becoming golbetty. It makes me think. Is she really happy with this reality? Simon is safe but, even if she’s fairing well as golb, I don’t actually know if this is truly what she wants for herself. I feel like if there’s a season two, maybe expanding on Betty’s true ending would be interesting… I don’t want her to change “back” or be with Simon, necessarily. I want her to become what she wants for herself.

Now ofc, what she really wanted was to keep Simon safe. And as Golbetty she also saved ooo. Maybe she is happy with this, that she can protect the people she cares about. But again, I feel like it… isn’t fair for her. It’s reality, it’s not like we can go back in time and change that. That was the main point of the bus scene anyway. But moving forward, and thinking about Fionna’s “shouldn’t we get to die as ourselves?” line makes me feel that this isn’t Betty’s end. Simon and Betty have reached a consensus and understanding of the flaws of their relationship and how they should move on. But for herself… Betty is still sort of left in the dust.

Now I don’t think this loose end is a bad thing for this season. Like, the whole season was about Simons struggles and Fionna’s. Betty was a very minor character and if anything it makes sense if her current issues are left untouched for now. If they do plan to extend the series in some sort of way, which seems possible, I feel like this Betty conflict might have been intentionally left unresolved. Because hell yes, I would absolutely take a season/mini series dedicated to specifically wrapping up Betty’s story.

I’m not sure how that would fit in specifically in Fionna and Cake though..? Because besides Simon, Fionna’s story was. Wrapped up pretty tightly. I can’t think of anything a second season could do to expand her world more… hmmmm….

All in all, the finale was really good to me. Episode ten definitely felt rushed but they had the right ideas, so I’m not too disappointed. Although I felt like Scarab was a bit underwhelming… he didn’t feel like a big threat to me in the end. Sort of a shame. Oh well. But hey, it leaves me wanting more!! Cause I can’t get enough of this series haha. Or maybe just adventure time in general :)

Edit: also I forgot about this. Erm what is she doing here, it looks like she’s changing form..??? What does it mean WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Like guys there HAS to be more to her story. There’s gotta be.

#fionna and cake spoilers #fionna and cake #text post #theory #(sort of)

37 notes · View notes

panicked-herb · 2 months

Text

Critique of Fionna and Cake’s Season Finale

It’s been a good couple months since the Fionna and Cake series finale came out. At first it felt lackluster to me, then it felt extremely disappointing, then gradually I felt more and more meh about it. I could see what they were trying to do, but it kept bothering me how bad the finale was in comparison to the earlier episodes.

Now I finally have time to write out my thoughts about it and make it everyone else's problem.

Important note before I start: All of this is just my opinions on a TV-14 show. If you disagree, that’s great and I’d be interested to hear why. Just please be respectful.

What I Liked

The animation and visual storytelling was great. I liked that at the bus stop, they initially had Simon place Betty on the step below him, but later had him place her next to him. Too bad the writing doesn’t back this up (more on that later).

The voice acting was good. This isn’t my forte, so no comments besides that.

Most of the jokes landed for me. Especially Pawn Swan. He was easily the best part of Cheers for me.

I loved the Lich speech to Glob

Blue Shift is such a feel good song it almost made me like the ending.

What I Didn't Like

Catharsis

My second biggest issue with these episodes is how little catharsis there was. We got to see Fionna get upset and cry, but that was mostly because the Scarab was kicking everybody's ass. I wished we got to see Cake get upset about how people don’t see her for who she is. Or potentially exploring her fears of going back to being a normal cat.

I especially wished we got to see Simon ugly cry. This man has been through an apocalypse, lost his sanity, lost the love of his life, been depressed for years, and is now trying to curse himself. Dude literally said he missed being the Ice King because he was so out of it most of the time he didn’t realize how messed up his life was. He felt like almost everybody preferred him when he was cursed. Then he finally sees GolBetty after years of searching for a way to cure her, only to fail. There should have been some waterworks going on.

Pacing

Generally, the pacing felt too slow for me. It made the episodes feel more like a second or third draft vs a finale result. The biggest offender to me was all the fights against the Scarab. Each individual battle was fine, but there were too many of them. We know the Scarab isn’t going to destroy their world in the end, so all the fights don’t do much besides look cool. Which would be fine, if they weren’t trying to make it emotionally impactful.

This is relatively minor, but it bothers me that Casper and Nova are mostly in the episode Cheers when in basically all of the other episodes, the titular character(s) are the main focus for that episode. I think this could have been fixed, if they just cut back on the number of times they fight the Scarab.

Pay Off

There were a lot of Chekov’s guns that either didn’t get fired or turned out to have only blanks (basically you could remove them from the story and it wouldn’t affect the plot much).

No Pay Off

Simon and Marceline’s phone call/ relationship: I know I wasn’t the only one hoping to see these two reunite after Simon tried to curse himself again.

Dirt beet guys manuscript: This is minor, but I just feel like it would have been easy to fix.

The time core: This is a classic case of Adventure Time world building, where they introduce a cool concept, but don’t do much with it. I don’t know what I wished they did with it. But I would have liked for them to do something.

Disappointing Pay Off

Cosmic entities that the Scarab imprisoned: Cake lets them go and they fight the Scarab. But that fight lasts for like a minute. We also see Kheirosiphon in the ending credits. But besides that, we don’t see much else.

Everything in You song: The song is only used as a segway into the final flash back of Simon’s and Betty’s relationship. I’ll give it credit, the song is good and the scene is cute. However, you could remove it and there would be almost no effect. Considering Glob’s weakness is harmony (music), I really thought they were going to do something with it.

Fionna’s top fantasy: Throughout the series, Fionna makes references to her dream fantasies (EX: castle made out of candy). We learn what her top fantasy is after their universe already becomes canon and they’re in their final (unnecessary) fight against the Scarab. Her top fantasy turns out to be turning into a giant woman. Ignoring the Totally Spies vibes that scene gives me, I think they really missed an opportunity to make this really sweet. In the final scene, instead of Fionna saying “Just a normal world.” She could have said something along the lines of, “This is my top fantasy”

Fionna and Cake turning things normal in other universes: Ignoring the Winter King, this plot point does almost nothing. Sure, Cake accidentally turns BMO into an alarm clock, but BMO was already dead. There’s also the Scarab’s speech, “All the worlds you've visited, all the people you've infected. Your little trip must have shown you the truth. It would be better for everyone if you were just gone.” But they themselves don’t ruin that many worlds. The only reason for them seriously thinking that is the Winter King. But he was a grade A asshole and removing his magic freed Princess Bubblegum from the madness he imposed on her.

Casper and Nova

Before I start this section, there are two important things for me to mention

I should note that I've had over ten years to theorize about Simon and Betty. Naturally, I’ve probably forgotten some of my head cannons and character interpretations aren’t actually canon. Especially since we never really got much screen time for the two before Fionna and Cake. It also doesn’t help that Simon/ Ice King’s character arc hits close to home for personal reasons I’m not sharing in a tumblr post. But, it does mean that I’ve probably projected some of my feelings onto those characters at some point.

I’ve never particularly liked how Betty’s been written. I wished she got more screen time in the original show and I STRONGLY dislike that they introduced the fact that she didn’t go on an expectation she was really excited about for a man she’s known for one day in one of the final episodes of the show. To me, it turned her character from an impulsive, headstrong woman who for all intents and purposes is stuck on an alien planet and the only person she knows who is still alive has magical dementia to a fucking manic pixie dream girl. She doesn’t need to have always been completely obsessed with Simon to explain why she’s going to desperate measures to save him. Once again, he’s the only person she knows in Ooo, but as the Ice King he’s basically a stranger. She also convinced him to give up his only chance to die as himself with the hope that she could save him. Finally, she loves him and doesn’t want him to suffer.

Casper and Nova are pretty explicitly supposed to be narrative parallels to Simon and Betty and help show Simon the issues in their relationship. A lot of defense I’ve seen against criticism about this part of the story comes from a place of assuming the fandom is owo-ing the male character and doesn’t want to admit he has flaws. To be fair, it is a reasonable knee jerk reaction to have. Fandom has a LONG history of doing shit like this and villainizing women. But, at least in my case, this isn’t what's happening.

Casper and Nova aren’t on equal footing because Nova keeps making unseen sacrifices for Casper and they always do things Caspers way. The moral that Simon is supposed to take from them is that he/ Casper should have realized how much Betty/ Nova was sacrificing for him all the time, stopped, and supported her. However, this isn’t the main issue Simon and Betty have.

There are a total of two times where Simon does kind of stand to the side while Betty sacrifices herself:

The first trip planned to study petroglyphs in Australia: Simon jokingly offers Betty to go on his expedition with him. She accepts, which surprises him, and mentions offhandedly that she had another trip planned. Maybe he could have told her she could always go on another trip with him sometime else. But he could have just as easily assumed she wasn’t really interested in her original plan and if he asked if she was sure, it could come off as him telling her not to go.

The second trip planned to study petroglyphs in Australia: Simon stops Betty before she leaves for the bus and in the heat of the moment he says he always wants her by his side always. Betty still could have easily just given him his number and still go on her trip or they just agree to meet up later. Also, the show makes a point that Simon should have gone on the trip with her. I would like to note that Betty was planning to leave the day Simon realizes she has feelings for him. I don’t know how archeological expeditions exactly work, but joining so last second seems really rude to me. Also, he would have either needed to pack really quickly or bring nothing with him for a six month long trip. To add on, he won’t know what type of funding that trip was. For all he knew, it only had funds to send Betty over.

More often than not, we actually see Simon recognizing the sacrifices Betty is making and actively trying to stop her:

Betty time traveling into the future and away from basically everything she knows: Simon originally time travel calls her to apologize and tell her that he forgives her for leaving him as a way to allow her to move on. Betty chooses to jump through the portal.

Dedicating herself to save him: Simon literally begged Betty to let him die rather than turning back into the Ice King. He only changes his mind after she begs him to give her a chance to save him. Everything she does afterwards, he’s either basically passed out or is cursed.

Merging with Glob: Simon begged Betty to forget the crown and escape Golb with him and Finn. Betty pushed him out of there and merged with Golb. Simon spent years trying to find a way to unfuse her with Golb.

Not getting any acknowledgement for helping to find the Enchiridion: Simon wanted both of them to get credit. Betty told him that she wanted him to get all the credit. He awkwardly, but professionally, told her that she deserves the credit just as much as he does. She still turns down any acknowledgement. (I really don’t like this story beat because it could have been such a good chance to comment on how academia often discredits or ignores women)

We also have moments where they do things Betty’s way (or at the very least Betty does things her way) on their expedition together.

When crossing the river: Simon carefully walks across the rocks. Betty takes her shoes off and just walks through the river. Simon follows suit then slips and falls. I would just like to add that crossing a river without shoes on isn’t safe. It decreases trackson and increases your risk of cutting yourself in an open body of water. They should have just either dealt with the wet socks, brought a spare pair, or use water proof shoes.

When crossing an area full of snakes: Simon advises Betty to stick with the tried and true method for dealing with snakes. Betty decides to do the trick her mom taught her and runs through the area screaming. Simon doesn’t stop her. Instead once he sees that it’s working, he smiles.

As we see, with the exception of two instances (which could easily be changed without impacting the plot too much), Simon doesn’t need to learn the lesson that he should have supported Betty more and stopped her from sacrificing herself so much.

I think the bigger issue in Simon and Betty’s relationship is just how obsessed they are with each other. When the crown drives Simon insane and takes all his memories, the last thing Simon can remember is that he wants to marry his Princess. This leads him to literally kidnapping princesses. Betty time traveled 1000 years into the future after hearing Simon say he never saw her again after wearing the crown. In the process of trying to save him, she went mad herself. They’ve both spent years trying to save the other from and were willing to sacrifice themselves to do so (I’m fully convinced Simon didn’t have a plan for how to leave Golb’s dimension. I think the dude was just going to apologize to Betty then die).

Not Part of the Finale, But Still Bothers Me

Having Prismo be the one to actually write Fionna and Cake removes depth from Simon/ Ice King’s character. I liked how surprisingly good Fionna and Cake was and interpreted that as parts of Simon shining through. But they needed to have Fionna and Cake actually be real for the show, so they had Prismo make them. Instead of Prismo making them out of boredom, I think it would have been cool if he made them as a way to grieve Jake. Maybe after Jake died, Prismo turned to reading Fionna and Cake since his favorite person liked it and Cake’s basically a genderbent Jake. But, after reading everything the Ice King wrote he wanted more. Since he lives in the TIME ROOM, I don’t think it would be a stretch to allow him to interact with the timeline in weird ways (in fact I think we already saw this in the episode Is That You?). So, as a temporary solution Prismo made Fionna and Cake real and stores their universe in the Ice King’s head so he could get more stories out of them. Prismo meant to delete their world before the Ice King turned back into Simon, but he didn’t have the heart to. Also, they could have totally had Simon keep writing Fionna and Cake fanfiction like how he sometimes dresses up as Ice King. Except, this time, he writes them in his own modern day AU as a way to cope with how out of place he feels.

Not part of this spin off, but it’s always irked me that Simon got to time travel to the past, but Betty didn’t. I get that Betty wanted to intentionally create a time paradox. But it still feels really hypocritical. Honestly, I think they should have just made Simon accidentally freeze her when he first puts on the crown. After Frost and Fire, when the Ice Kingdom got melted, have her thaw out and start researching ways to cure Simon. Then, during the episode she’s supposed to debut in, have her be the cause of Bella Noche.

Conclusion

The finale had cool concepts, but it doesn't fully match up with everything that came before it.

#adventure time #adventure time critique #Fionna and cake #Fionna and Cake critique #fionna campbell #cake the cat #simon petrikov #betty grof #mine

15 notes · View notes

glapplebloom · 7 months

Text

I knew Adventure Time never had a series finale...

One thing that bugged me about Adventure Time is that their Series Finale didn’t really feel like a Series Finale. Lots of stuff happened, but not a lot of stuff was given. It felt like they knew they had more stories to tell and they will. And I was right with so many specials coming out since then. And it continues with Fionna and Cake. So let’s see what they got this time.

This one starts off with the Fionna and Cake we recognize: adventurous heroes fighting a bus that kidnapped people. Only it's more Sailor Moon Ish as she’s dressed similarly to her (thank you short wearers) and instead of the Ice Queen being her enemy, she’s being helped by the Ice Prince. And as she was about to accept his quest for adventure, she woke up.

That’s right, this ain’t in the Gender bent world of Ooo, we’re in a more realistic situation. Fionna Cambell (who is thankfully an adult due to public depantsing) is sadly sad that her life isn’t as magical as her dreams. And it is getting worse because Cake, a normal cat, is not acting that well. For some reason, she’s colder than she’s supposed to be. And seemingly obsessed with ice.

After losing her job, we meet Gary Prince who with just one scene is already a lot better than Princess Bubblegum prior to her relationship with Marceline. We also see Marshall Lee looking less vampiric than the past. I should say there are a ton of people who look like others in the Adventure Time universe, only human and genderbent. Even LSP is there acting pretty much like LSP if she was a dude and not royal. Which honestly isn’t that much different.

The episode ends with Cake going into an Ice Cream cart and seemingly disappearing. The second episode, forget everything you saw because we’re back in Ooo and back when Simon was helping young Marceline. It is still nice to see their relationship prior to him going nuts. He even promises that she’ll be fine because someone else will find her and she’ll live in a castle. No trained squirrels, but most of it did come true.

And now back in the modern Oooa as Simon is living in an apartment alone. He’s basically living as a museum piece of a 20th Century Man living in his natural habitat. Yeah, Ooo looks MUCH different than when we last saw it (well, when I did). But there seems to be this young girl more interested in Simon’s old life than his older life. Specifically she loved the Fionna and Cake stories and wanted to know why he stopped making them.

Luckily it seems to be his own business and he can close it whenever he wants. He also is hiding stuff, most likely related to what happened to Betty. Including something hidden in a bird cage and alive. He can’t even escape going to a bar as the Barkeeper liked those stories too. Luckily before another scene could happen, adult Finn shows up.

Like Fionna, he seems to be stuck in a world he just can’t fit in. He’s no longer magical like the others. And the new humans are much too advanced for him. So Finn thinks taking Simon on a quest will help. That’s so Finn. After walking blindly for a while (literally), they find themselves in the Heart of the Forest.

Since this ain’t on TV, we got blood thanks to Finn killing a creature for food. So Finn’s idea is to keep Simon busy and not focus on the sad stuff. I’m pretty sure Finn dealt with that in a previous special, but I didn’t see it. I’m pretty sure fighting a bear that looks like he’s a Persona Joker fan is not the best answer. Especially after a big cut in the arm. And Finn even worse in the back,

After that, the two split off. Finn goes off to see Huntress Wizard as Simon walks the river back to the Human city. And we see a familiar scene only with Simon in this world. Simon decided to call Marceline. Marcy is doing fine with Bubblegum as Simon tries to tell the truth but chickens out. Sadly, not the best time to call Marcy since she’s having so much fun while he isn’t.

After going back home, it seems Simon is deciding to follow Fionna’s advice and deciding to do something. That’s when we find out what’s underneath the blanket: Choose Goose looking like a zombie after that other special I didn’t see. After shutting him up, Simon does an experiment. It fails, but Cake here.

Overall, it is an interesting start. Lots of questions and hopefully they’ll keep the answers within this series and not have more specials. Great to see Simon and it is a nice change of pace from Fionna’s side. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

#one shot

2 notes · View notes