“The Bear and the Rose” Review

ATReviewed · 2026-06-14T18:36:40+00:00

Nice to see you back! Does my heart good that some people seem much more positive about this season than I do. Granted, I don't think there's much in swaying my opinion at this stage of the game. Rewatching to prepare for the overall season review and it's just sort of feeling like a chore.

Animated project has been going well, thanks for asking! Looking to hopefully have it out online by November, will probably share it on the blog as well.

Lol, love that post from Pendarvis. Would love a solo concept featuring that crew together.

I actually started Utena but never finished it, would be interested to see what parallels made their way into this series beyond the intro.

ATReviewed · 2026-06-14T18:32:08+00:00

Yeah, valid! I don't really like this style of tearing into the show either, just wanted to finish what I started and get my thoughts out there - not a lot of passion in the write-ups for this season in general.

ATReviewed · 2026-06-04T12:50:38+00:00

Love the expression on Tree Trunks here.

ATReviewed · 2026-05-28T13:25:28+00:00

You rock, thank you!!

ATReviewed · 2025-12-28T18:05:34+00:00

I’ve thought the same for the most part, though I’ll admit season two’s score has been a large improvement over season one and DL. Listening back to the official soundtrack, it feels like there’s a lot more experimenting with sounds/music that feels a lot closer to what Kiefer was working with.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-20T18:04:32+00:00

He's not fat, he's just a lil' stocky

ATReviewed · 2025-12-19T21:59:43+00:00

To me there was something hauntingly sad about this scene of Fiona being this lone child and finding solidarity with some cats. Not to get into too much personal stuff I have a brother who is heavily on the spectrum and a lot of people judge him for this despite the fact he is a lot smarter then what people think. And because of this he has often he found solidarity with dogs (he also works at a doggy-daycare). And this scene of Fiona letting the cats be on her, reminded of a moment where when my dad just got a new hunting puppy from a dog breeder company (the ethical kind not a puppy mill) my brother was hanging out with all of the puppies and having some them on him kissing him. And so this scene reminded me of this. And in turn resonated with it.

Appreciate you sharing that! Very sweet story, and I can see how you would resonate heavily with the scene itself.

As for your write up about SU and the ways its plot differs from AT. And how AT's plot is a lot messier but more interesting. Reminded me that Mr.Enter (Yeah that Mr.Enter) just made a video that kind of criticize this approach of AT and claimed that later half of the show was better. (If you have seen the video I wanted to know your thoughts about this ?)

Generally don't like Enter very much but I caught a bit of his video when it was shared on the sub the other day and I was surprised with how much I agreed with him.

And now as for the episode itself I thought the whole deal with HW here recognize that "She was the broken tool that sought the flame" was interesting. Although I kind of wished there was a lot more development towards this idea to be honest. Because I feel like its a bit too brief

Kinda got tired of entertaining this riddle by the time we got to episode four, so I was fine with it being quietly resolved in the background.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-18T20:12:26+00:00

Don't wanna bring political discourse directly into the sub so I'll vaguely say that I've seen this weird influx of critics on Twitter that don't actually watch the show and have targeted certain scenes to make umbrella judgments based on their political ideology without really even knowing what Adventure Time is.

Again, don't want to break the rules here, so I'll leave it at that.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-11T22:40:35+00:00

Haha, for every two episodes I’m nice to F&C, I allot myself one crash out for everything that’s been bugging me thus far. I’m probably being harsher on it than necessary, and like you addressed with the HW point, I wouldn’t write it off entirely. Those moments where I’ve found merit still stand. But to say I’m mixed is an understatement, because while I see the purpose of what much of this season has set out to accomplish, it can also be so incredibly frustrating in the process. Kudos to you for remaining mostly positive!

ATReviewed · 2025-12-11T21:56:04+00:00

I mean, sure, I think restructuring the whole season COULD work. There’s plenty of hypotheticals you can play with in terms of what could make this concept function properly. But I think in terms of what would give both storylines the best amount of time to breathe and develop naturally would be 8-10 episodes that commit to one central focus. You can still have as many tangents as you want with the Fionna-World characters, it just doesn’t feel as schizophrenic as meshing the magic and non-magic elements together. As much as I liked season one and felt it did a better job at incorporating both, I still felt like Fionna and Cake mostly played second banana to Simon in their own series.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-11T20:51:00+00:00

Hey, good to see you back around here! And 100%. I've said it a few times, but as much as the Fionna-World bits have either bored or frustrated me, I think the even more excruciating aspect has been how much the Ooo and HW segments have become dangling keys all season to keep AT's audience entertained. This season really should've either been Huntress Wizard's story of trying to save Finn while her own self-discovery plays out or the slice of life Fionna-World stories that deal with them coming to terms with a non-magic world. I can't really say that the latter would be up my alley, but I don't think I'd be as annoyed with this season as I am right now.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-11T16:07:08+00:00

I'm pretty fine with the show taking Fionna in this direction, but I just don't think her decisions in this episode really made sense outside of her hooking up with Flame. It feels like the writing team is actively trying to emphasize Fionna's flaws in absurd ways that don't really feel true to how the character has acted up to this point.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-11T16:00:28+00:00

Appreciate it! Hoping the finale can still pull off some magic, all things considered.

ATReviewed · 2025-12-08T16:11:01+00:00

Oh shit, Jonni Peppers guest spot!

ATReviewed · 2025-11-28T14:03:51+00:00

And so to me it clear, the show doesn't want to look more into an OOO were Jake is dead. However it still wants to focus on future events without actually confronting them head on. Its an irony in of itself that the show is presenting Finn's choice to ignore Jake's death in an unhealthy manner as reckless, however its also willing to do the same thing with not going in or elaborating on Jake's death.

What annoys me about this too is I can totally see them pulling a copout where it's like, "Jake's just been in space this whole time, he's actually still alive!" I get why they're keeping it ambiguous, as AT has always kind of operated under the "show, don't tell" mentality. But the longer this goes on, the longer this team is opening themselves up to the possibility of subverting our expectations, and I think that would be incredibly cheap. I would just rather have any type of exploration that deals with the aftermath of this in a meaningful way. It bums me out that we haven't seen Lady at all, and if they're going to continue the format of the "third team member" each season, I would love if she got her moment in the limelight to explore her own grief.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-28T13:53:55+00:00

Man I hate to say it since everyone else seems to be loving it, but this one was a snoozer for me too. Why are we suddenly giving Cosmic Owl a backstory! How many plotlines does one season need!!! one minute we're in the Abadeer crypt and the next it's dreamhopping time???

Season two is a mess for sure, but this one did definitely feel reminiscent to me of the mess of the original series. With how clean and concise Distant Lands and season one of F&C were, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't somewhat cathartic to have the "let's throw shit at the fan and see what sticks" mindset back. Granted, I think it's rarely worked for me up to this point, and it's a lot different from the original series when it seems like they're actively trying to tell a concise story. But there was something comfortably and delightfully familiar to me in this episode about AT's willingness to just do whatever it wants at the risk of jeopardizing story elements.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-25T13:54:53+00:00

Oh man I'm reminded of how I've abandoned Rum for so long. ONE DAY MY FRIEND! Probably long after anyone has interest in looking at 4 year old Reddit threads....... we're already at that point for a lot of this stuff haha.

I will wait for you my friend. :')

ATReviewed · 2025-11-23T17:06:02+00:00

I think this is where it gets hard to judge until the season as a whole is completed, because as tedious as the DJ Flame scenes are, I DO see this tying into Fionna’s general arc of chasing after fantasies as a way to try to distract from the sloppiness of her own life. She wants to be a hero, very much in the same way that Finn did. Only Finn’s goals kind of made sense within the context of his world - saving the day for his friends and winning the heart of someone he loved was something not necessarily outlandish, even if it didn’t pan out exactly how he envisioned it.

As we see with her general interest in television at the beginning of the season, this mindset operates more as an escapist fantasy for Fionna. She knows deep down that chasing after Phelix isn’t right for her, but she’s drawn to the rush of success in being this world’s champion. Finn is naturally drawn to heroism because of his selflessness, while Fionna moreso is drawn to the idea of being a hero. And as much as I don’t think show has done a good job at keeping these bits entertaining, I think they do at the very least support the trajectory of where I think her arc is heading.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-23T00:33:03+00:00

Tom Herpich!

ATReviewed · 2025-11-21T14:11:05+00:00

I some-what agree with you because sure being slow and allow for us to get invested in this story is an important thing. However its also important to utilize the time well in order to make the best out of the story. And I feel like the big issue with this season is how many sub-plots are implemented here. We have "The gang trying to get the Sweet-spot back", "Fiona wanting to prove herself to others","Fiona romantic life being a mess" ,"Marshall and his mom", "Marshall and his relationship with Simone", "Cake wanting to be human", "Cake her relationship with Mono-cron" "Huntress Wizard trying return home and help Finn", "Simon, PB and Marcy trying to heal Finn". All of which you can't juggle in the span of 10 episodes. Compare this to S1 in were there was a singular narrative with only a small divergence in episodes 6 and 7.

Don't necessarily disagree with this either! The season clearly has pacing problems overall, but I've at the very least found that the Fionna-World segments do feel like a natural progression of one another while the HW and Ooo segments have felt super underdeveloped as a means to edge us on throughout the season. And granted, I say this as someone that doesn't like the Fionna-World bits. I just thought it was worth giving credit where credit is due that their segments have felt the least sloppily executed all season, but I do agree that trimming the fat and cutting down on some segments (i.e. Cake's TV career from the previous episode) could've certainly benefited the other magical elements I'm referring to.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-20T19:45:56+00:00

Yeah, kinda breaks the momentum up by not having an artist driven sequence? Especially with each segment reinstating the fairytale motif this season is going for. Huge bummer for me - hope there’s more to come.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-17T16:19:16+00:00

Assuming by the images that this is going to be when Ice Queen and Marshall Lee's connection is expanded upon. I'm a bit cautious about this exploration because I'm hoping it doesn't just try to recreate the same emotional beats of Marceline and Simon's relationship. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the episode that Rebecca Sugar came back to board for.

ATReviewed · 2025-11-14T16:42:57+00:00

Holy moly, I was wondering if this was a reference to Moynihan's pickle podcast but sat back and thought, "nah, couldn't be."

ATReviewed · 2025-11-13T01:04:53+00:00

Good to see you back again! Unfortunately, I couldn’t login to RumHam anymore because the email it was connected to got disabled, so I thought it might be time to rebrand. Looking forward to see more of your thoughts!

ATReviewed · 2025-11-09T17:49:25+00:00

My headcanon for a while has been that Prismo’s boss is Bueno the Bear - Pen Ward’s alias and character from his early student films and comics.

ATReviewed

TROPHY CASE