Before Distant Lands: Adventure Time’s Post-Apocalyptic Past in Islands Miniseries
With a new miniseries set to premiere on June 25 on HBO Max, what better way to prepare than looking back at the surprisingly deep Cartoon Network 2018 miniseries, Islands?
First, the basics: Adventure Time was a post-apocalyptic, surrealist Cartoon Network show following Finn, a teenage boy who for most of the show believes he is the last human on Earth, and his brother, Jake, a talking dog that can stretch into any shape he wants, on their adventures. While the first season teetered on nonsensical plots and wrapped-in-a-bow endings, season two of Adventure Time found its niche with catchy half-songs, complex mythology, and philosophical musings often mixed with dark humor. (If you need a recap of the entire show, this 27 minute timeline should do the trick.) Hints at a global nuclear war and Finn’s arrival to the Land of Ooo remain just that– hints.
Even after the sixth season when Finn stumbled upon his long lost father, the question of what happened to all of the humans remained unanswered. Did they turn into zombies? Or get eaten by vampires? Or worse, did they simply become absorbed in the emergence of the Candy Kingdom? In 2015, the first miniseries Stakes showed us that a band of humans escaped the continent via boat. Adventure Time Islands wasted no time in addressing the questions and fan theories swirling around the fate of the humans. In the first installment of the miniseries, a strange ship arrives on the shores of Ooo addressing Finn by a coded name, “Infant PG87 Mertins” and implores him to return to Founder’s Island. “Seeking human, come to safety,” the ship says, hitting Finn with the information he’s been secretly longing to hear.
The mystery of how baby Finn ended up in the Land of Ooo is something Finn has done his best to ignore. Despite the joy found in his adoptive family and his fulfilling life as the local hero, he feels driven to follow the clues of this mysterious ship. While Finn tries to downplay the impact of learning that an island exists, a “Founder’s” island, and that he is known there by his father’s last name, Princess Bubblegum gives us a monologue that assures us this miniseries will be the answer to the human question: “Finn, I get the sense that this trip’s more important to you than you’re letting on. I mean, if you make it to that island, you might find out some pretty heavy stuff. About the humans and where you came from, about yourself.” With each island Finn, Jake, Susan, and BMO encounter, their perspectives, and ours, are challenged and inevitably changed.
The theme of reality– what is real, what is not, and who gets to decide, is threaded throughout Adventure Time Islands. The second island is, as Finn and Jake experience it, a bleak, technology-ridden grey landscape. “Where’s all the dirt?” Jake wonders. BMO uses goggles to enter a virtual reality where they (BMO uses both “he” and “she” pronouns) are free to transform their robot body into any shape they please. Finn and Jake put goggles on and are flung into an outer space virtual reality, which prompts them to “CHOOSE YOUR AVATAR.” The other more advanced bodies begin to gather around and request the moderator: BMO presenting as a giant, muscular, teal human body riding a surfboard. While I wondered about the implications of BMO choosing a humanoid body, the episode reveals that BMO has risen to the top of this virtual reality food chain. They are the queen of the dance party, and giver of complex avatar skins that costs “15 million crypto-coins.” In this reality, BMO transforms from follower to leader, and they bask in the adoration of their fans. They say, “I think I need to stay here… forever?”
When Jake pulls the plug on this virtual world, the humans and BMO are thrown into chaos. Humans crawl along the ground with atrophied muscles realizing, “Now we’re the system dump!” One pleads with BMO to, “Give me one of your patented super-skins made out of blip-bloop cheese or something.” The choice between a world with unlimited individual power and one with limits seems obvious to the people and to BMO, but Jake is certain that he has saved the world. By the end of this episode, Jake is forced to reckon with the idea that each individual should have the power to choose what world they want to live in, and therefore, that world is real.
If home equals safety, then Finn’s discovery of his home island complicates that equation. We learn that Finn’s mother, Minerva, sacrificed her human body to become an all-powerful virtual conscious in control of numerous doctor “bots.” Re-watching this explanation of how a deadly virus wiped out a significant part of the human population, and “100% of the Helpers” is surreal under the dire circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic and the devastating impact on healthcare workers.
Minerva’s decision made her strong enough to beat the virus, but it forever changed the foundation of the remaining human population who are now reliant on the continued functioning of her technology. When Finn meets his mother via a virtual reality screen portal, her instinct is to protect him by forcing him to remain on the island. For Minerva, control equals safety, and the resulting limited freedoms are a worthy sacrifice. Finn’s resistance is met with a chilling solution: to move his consciousness onto the “mind map,” or as Finn sees it, dying. He refuses, and through sharing his memories, is able to convince his mother that his adventurous ways are a perfectly acceptable alternative.
Finn’s rejection of his mother’s virtual reality is interesting because even though he could still interact, and potentially, help protect the island, his heart is set on protecting Ooo. His loyalties reveal where home really is for him. Existing in the physical world is important to Finn, but in this rejection, it becomes clear that existing in a way where his actions have mortal consequences to his physical body is also important. Growing up in the Land of Ooo where strange beasts and creatures made from candy DNA can all be fixed, revived, or even cloned with a combination of magic and science, Finn’s physical body is a relic. His mortality is something that sets him apart in Ooo, and when given the opportunity to “upgrade” and remove this threat, he turns it down.
Finn can see that safety, or at least the illusion of it, has created complacent, non-adventuring humans. When the islanders opt-out of his offer to return to Ooo, Finn is visibly disappointed. If adventures and hero-tendencies are not at the core of all humans, perhaps Founder’s Island would not have been the best home for him after all.
Whether created through technology or terraformed with gum and magic like the Candy Kingdom, Adventure Time Islands tackles one of the biggest questions underlying the worlds of Adventure Time. If any of us had the power to create our own world, what role would we choose to play in it? Would we simplify humanity, or existence, into three neat categories, or would we rule as Princess-slash-scientist, forever bouncing between protecting our citizens and letting their evolution take its own course?
Honor, morality, creation, and free will– Adventure Time is never at a loss to give us something to talk about and connect to the real, non-apocalyptic (well, mostly) world around us. With four parts scheduled for the Distant Lands miniseries on HBO Max, I am excited to see what new adventures and ideas this sequel will bring.
