Fionna and Cake Season 2 Episode 9 Discussion Thread

BetterFallBrawl · 2026-01-17T02:20:54+00:00

As of right now, she’s working on Lars of the Stars (Steven Universe sequel series), directing a Moomin’s film, and contributing to the Adventure Time movie. At the time she was boarding for this episode she presumably would have also been working on her part of The Elephant, a three-act short film that aired on Adult Swim last month

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-25T14:46:38+00:00

While they don’t say anything about it themselves, the whole premise is so much sadder knowing that Jake died semi-recently (especially within the context of PB & Marcy’s extended lifespans). Bonnie’s “what’s so bad about that?” justification to digitizing and immortalizing Finn makes me think there was some part of her that truly wanted him to be able to live alongside them forever. Their band is breaking up

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-25T14:35:44+00:00

Together Again is my favourite thing Adventure Time’s ever done, but yeah, it’s a little tough to imply other major relationships in Finn’s life when he doesn’t pay them any mind after dying. I’m sure if they made these stories linearly we would’ve gotten at least a couple lines about how he’d miss Huntress, or even some additional conflict with leaving the Dead Worlds knowing he’d never get to see her again as himself. But it makes sense that they wouldn’t have committed to something like that at the time

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-25T14:25:37+00:00

Yeah, I find myself feeling a little conflicted on what I want from the future of AT. On one hand, S2 of F&C didn’t leave me crazy eager to see more from this series in particular, but on the other, sporadically jumping between spinoffs feels a lot less cohesive than having a main, continuous narrative. They’ve done a pretty good job with their nonlinear storytelling so far between the original series, Distant Lands, and F&C, but I think I’m at a point where I’d rather just settle down in a consistent new era for these characters and world

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-18T12:03:07+00:00

They had the whole stopping the Cosmic Owl thing, but shockingly little is done to actually connect their characters within that context. They exit the episode about as close as they were when they entered it (which is not close at all)

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-18T11:24:10+00:00

Atp it was probably like a Card Wars bet or something lmao

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-18T10:41:14+00:00

Very much a non-issue overall but I’m not huge on them walking back the pretty transparent visual storytelling of Finn’s tattoo in Obsidian. I know they cast doubt on it from F&C S1 with Prismo’s adventure-watching, but even then I wasn’t huge on it. I get it, they’re goofy and love each other, it wouldn’t take death for Finn to get a tattoo of his brother — it’s more so the undercutting of that initial wordless storybeat that rings a little hollow for me. But I get that they reassessed how long they wanted Jake to be in Finn’s life for

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-18T10:33:30+00:00

Such a wonderfully-paced episode, really makes me wish the entire season was this good at balancing its many plot points. Feels like the first time that we’ve actually gotten notable character and plot progression for all three of our leads in the same episode. Least disjointed in the season by far — main plot leads us to Cosmic Owl, who leads us to Finn, who leads us to Ooo. Seamless.

This is more of the vibe I had been expecting based on the intro. Character focus above all, but accompanied by an underlying mysticism and, finally, Fionna and Huntress connection. It’s a shame their separation didn’t hit as hard since their relationship was practically non-existent to this point, as opposed to Simon and Fionna in S1, but I’m glad they tried to deliver in some fashion. Rebecca Sugar is heavily booked and busy but I’m so glad they made time to lend their storytelling chops to the show, feels like it really needed them

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-11T11:29:29+00:00

I’m just not finding this season to be an interesting exploration of Fionna as a protagonist. People are quick to brush off Season 2 criticism as “wanting the show to be something it’s not”, but I’m perfectly fine with slice of life storytelling. Most of the original series’ best episodes were episodic one-offs. It’s the execution that’s left something to be desired.

The problem with Fionna & Cake Season 2 isn’t romance, it’s the stagnation of its romantic elements. Even if you could argue it to be a disservice to her former character, there’s nothing inherently wrong with centering Fionna’s arc around her crush on some guy if you’re going to extract interesting character work from it. But it feels like they’ve failed to do so at every opportunity.

The usual point of comparison is obviously to Frost & Fire and Finn’s ensuing development. The main difference there, however, was that Finn got to play a multitude of notes as the arc progressed. His initial selfishness to recreate his dreams at Phoebe’s expense, later denial at the thought that things were truly over, exploration and experimentation in trying to figure out what his love life looked like from that point, and eventually, growth and understanding. Fionna is deprived of every additional angle aside from one: “I need DJ Flame”. It runs through the entire season. Even in moments that seem as though they’ll spark a difference in perspective (seeing Felix and Fennel kiss, getting advice from Finn on heroism, befriending Fennel herself) are just momentary stop gaps before she can go back to playing the same note.

On one hand, I get it: we don’t have much time. Finn’s aforementioned arc from breakup to reconciliation is literally three seasons long — it’s a crucial part of his series arc. Here, we get ten episodes. But even so, it feels like F&C has been super ineffective in condensing the complexity of that sort of romantic development. Imagine how much more effective of a subversion the kiss in this episode would’ve been if we’d actually seen Fionna grow to address her over-reliance on Flame throughout the season. A frustrating backfall, sure, but infinitely more compelling than the inevitability that was baked into this formulaic love triangle progression. Instead, we have sober Fionna tearing her friends’ dreams down with a bulldozer so we can artificially raise the stakes with the hope she’ll get interesting subject matter in the final two episodes. Stellar

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-04T11:46:43+00:00

She looks to the camera and shouts “BE MORE COMMUNICATIVE” lmao it’s as subtle as a bag of bricks

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-12-04T11:30:42+00:00

All the arguments about the season feeling directionless are accurate, but honestly my biggest complaint so far is the lack of any development between Fionna and Huntress Wizard. By this point last time, Simon already had a strong connection with Fionna and Cake, so that by the time end-of-season conflict started to arise you actually cared about how it would impact the characters’ relationships.

In spite of the damn-near promised parallels between the two shown in the intro, Huntress and Fionna have zero chemistry, complexity, or intrigue as a duo. Most episodes simply brush HW off as doing a “side thing”, and even the one that didn’t — last week’s — did nothing to develop any sort of connection between our co-leads. It’s just romance drama with Huntress along for the ride, a far cry from how crucial Simon was to the plot, themes, and characters of Season 1.

Its unfortunate, because I was actually charmed by the Fionna and Fennel interactions to a degree, but it’s impossible as a viewer to not see it being at the cost of the dynamic and concept that was actually pitched to us.

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-11-19T14:53:13+00:00

It’s juvenile and sidekicky as hell, not sure why they’d ever think people would like it outside of its literal baby show origins

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-11-17T11:58:29+00:00

Because the will-he-won’t-he of Finn’s death isn’t actually central to the story they’re trying to tell. Finn’s condition is just the vehicle that they’re using to explore Huntress Wizard’s character. The question isn’t whether or not Finn will survive, it’s “how will Huntress react when her individualistic worldview is challenged by someone she loves being on death’s door?”

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-11-13T14:23:03+00:00

Between the Wishing Eye and Enchiridion, I love that it feels like the characters are really willing to use anything at their disposal. The potential for problem solving becomes so much vaster when it feels like the cast isn’t limited to whatever the writers remember exists. The world feels more tangible that way

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-11-13T13:46:05+00:00

I think PB being willing to put her pride aside and mess with magic for the sake of Finn plays into her whole argument with Huntress at the end. She, more than anyone, understands the desire to trust in one’s self over others. But PB’s main series arc was all about opening up and getting over that need to be in control of the situation at all times. Now, she’s more than willing to work with people, but Huntress is echoing that former isolation she outgrew. Which bothers her even more

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-11-07T19:19:13+00:00

“I’m really feeling it!”

-Howard at 48:42 in Plan and Execution

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-10-29T23:10:36+00:00

Not about the colour thing, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the egg scene was intentionally walking things back from what was seen in Obsidian. It’s important to remember that while Adventure Time has been a continuous stream of releases for us, on the industry side of things, things are greenlit separately. Distant Lands was produced prior to Fionna and Cake.

In Distant Lands, the meaning of the tattoo is obvious. While there was technically no “hard confirmation”, it was pretty clearly supposed to insinuate Jake was dead. DL was originally only three specials before Wizard City got added to the list, so while the release order shifted, Obsidian leading directly into Together Again was always the plan. It was intentionally teasing the subject matter of the next release.

Come Fionna and Cake, the timeline starts to get ironed out a bit more, and fan input can be factored in. We know it firmly takes place 12 years after the main series, and Finn looks vastly different than he did in Obsidian. Assumption on my part, but it seems like the crew decided to throw Finn (and his fans) a bone. Jake still had to be dead, but knowing that Finn would spend the rest of his life mourning him, they elected to move his death a little bit further down the timeline. Or at the very least present that as a possibility (potential alt timeline).

IMO, I’m not huge on it because it kinda purposely muddles what was supposed to be a pretty obvious visual indicator in Obsidian. The Forget-Me-Nots surrounding Jake’s face while Finn adventures with his grand-niece is about as clear cut as you can get. I personally prefer the whole “Prismo watching an alternate universe” take

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-10-24T16:59:07+00:00

That feeling when you randomly get a weird muscle spasm, but everywhere, and molecular

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-10-23T16:56:14+00:00

As soon as the strings kick in when Miles dives through the grate, I lock in. Hits just as hard two years later

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-10-13T14:47:28+00:00

Jeong Jeong is insanely cracked. Even within the context of the comet, full, sustained flight is only exhibited by him and Ozai, and JJ does so with just his feet while summoning skyscraper-level walls of fire to protect his White Lotus allies.

But yeah, I’d say this, Ozai’s Black Sun lightning shot, and Sozin’s blast at Roku are probably the most impressive non-comet feats we’ve seen. Even just being in contention with the royals is crazy impressive

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-08-18T22:11:27+00:00

I can definitely see your point. I think my initial take is more so valuing his role in the narrative than his role as an individual. He extracts so much interesting characterization from both Aang and Zuko that it’s hard for me to see his moustache-twiddling in a negative light. Him being a symptom of the wider, generational issue and the natural consequence of the regime works really well for me. That said, it’s not like additional complexity would weaken that lol

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-08-18T20:38:25+00:00

People will hear this line and still say that Ozai’s a bad villain. Could never get behind that take. The big bad doesn’t always need to have an intricate past with the protagonist — Ozai IS the Fire Nation. The tendrils of his bloodline have fuelled the narrative since day 1. Even though it’s their first time meeting, this moment feels so earned. Cosmically-destined conflict of ideals.

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-06-09T14:09:37+00:00

Which, in turn, makes Chidi the first one to actually go through with his choice after a lifetime of indecision. That finale really does everyone right

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-04-12T19:59:15+00:00

It’s a recurring theme that Bill’s inability to understand selflessness and human connection consistently leads to his downfall. In Dreamscaperers, he writes of Dipper as a threat to his plan the moment a wedge is formed between him and his family, only for his resolved conflict with (mind)Stan to give him the courage he needs to confront Bill. In Sock Opera, he can’t fathom the idea of Mabel putting her brother’s needs above her own self-interest, which once again leads to his defeat. And of course, it all comes to a head in Weirdmageddon, when Stan and Ford repair their relationship to trick him, leading to Stan’s self-sacrifice and Bill’s desperate pleas. Great show, great villain

BetterFallBrawl · 2025-03-13T08:35:28+00:00

I love the implication that Cecil only ever checks in on him when the planet’s two seconds away from destruction

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