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Adventure Time Season 3 Review

The third season of Adventure Time represented a return to form after a lackluster second season, though it wasn’t quite as strong as the first one.

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“Ice king is the hottest hottie,

and I can’t wait to marry him…“

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Conquest of Cuteness is too silly, though somewhat memorable in its manic energy. Morituri Te Salutamus benefits from a memorable ghost realm setting, but the story itself could and should have been stronger. Memory of a Memory is a pretty good, though far from great Marceline-centric episode. She is as great as always, but she deserved a better story here. Hitman is a terrific Ice King episode that features his standard turn to the good side twist ending, but it works every time, so the formula was sound here as well.

Too Young finally reverts Princess Bubblegum back to being 18 years old through a story that is pleasingly odd. The Monster isn’t amazing, but it does benefit from the presence of Lumpy Space Princess, by far the best and funniest princess of them all. Still continues Ice King’s sudden obsession to make friends with Finn and Jake with amusing results. Wizard Battle is definitely silly in its conclusion, though Ice King’s obsession with Princess Bubblegum again produced hilarity.

I don’t get why Fionna and Cake is so popular among fans of the show. This was to me one of the worst episodes of this season as it was a one-off story that felt too strange and disconnected from the rest of the canon. It also had that spoken word theatre feel that simply does not appeal to me. What Was Missing is forgettable, but Apple Thief benefits from the always amusing presence of the goofball that is Tree Trunks. The Creeps has such a strong premise and very good execution. It’s a haunted house tale that was ripe for the Adventure Time treatment.

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From Bad to Worse tries to redo the very first episode of the show with mixed results. Beautopia is not all that interesting, but No One Can Hear You is such a unique supernatural episode that benefits from a strong end of the world tone that made it quite eerie. Jake vs. Me-Mow is one of the highlights of the third season. The titular cat assassin tries to kill Wildberry Princess in this hilarious episode with one of the most memorable one-off characters so far.

A Firewolf strikes a friendship with a Snow Golem in Thank You, the most unique episode of this season that doesn’t feature our protagonists for a nice change in pace. The New Frontier employs dream logic and prophecies to great effect. These darker episodes always work best on this show. Holly Jolly Secrets is by far the highlight of the season and the most important Ice King storyline so far. Both parts are terrific. Part 1 is the funnier and sillier one while Part 2 is the more serious one as we finally get to see Ice King’s tragic backstory. He’s such a great character.

Marceline’s Closet features a hilarious twist and it’s another very entertaining Marceline episode. She’s such a fun character. Paper Pete is inventive in its characters being pages of a book. Another Way is the most genuinely disturbing episode so far that is also ridiculously sexual, which is this mixture that somehow always happens on Adventure Time. Ghost Princess is this very otherworldly, mysterious ghost episode that really worked while Dad’s Dungeon is a sweet, moving episode about Finn and Jake’s father as somehow the two share a dad hilariously so. Incendium is intriguing, though overly concerned with romance.

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