EP Adam Muto Reveals The Behind-The-Scenes Of The 'Adventure Time' Series Finale

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the series finale of ‘Adventure Time’, called “The Ultimate Adventure” or “Come Away With Me,” so if you haven’t seen it yet, you may wish to turn back now.

The Adventure is over. After 11 years, viewers have been forced to leave the land of Ooo. Cartoon Network’s Emmy Award-winning cartoon series, which focused on the exploits of Jake the dog and Finn the human, has aired its final episode and it was an hour-long farewell, which tied up some loose ends, brought various characters together and changed the status quo for good. Some events were joyous– the confirmation that Princess Bubblegum and Marceline’s connection was romantic in nature– other were wacky– Lumpy Space Princess and Lemongrab’s relationship is also romantic– and some were heartbreaking– Ice King became Simon again, but lost his love Betty.

Executive producer Adam Muto discussed the events of the final ‘Adventure’, offering a bit of the behind-the-scenes happenings that shaped the goodbye episode.

LSP and Lemongrab

Princess Bubblegum and Marceline weren’t the only longtime characters to share a kiss in the last episode. LSP and Lemongrab went out on a picnic in season seven, episode 33, which set up their kiss in ‘Come Away With Me’. According to Muto, that was planned. “We wanted to make sure [their kiss] didn’t come out of nowhere.” Are they a match made for the ages? Muto replied, “Who knows, maybe they’re the perfect pair — they’re both kind of abrasive and loud.”

During the closing montage, LSP is shown being crowned… queen? Muto said, “She might still be a princess, but yes, she’s also the queen. We’re pretty loose with our titles.” The scene was meant to symbolize LSP embracing the “P” in her name, as in “Princess,” after going off to live in the woods for most of the series.

Fern

One character that went out on top was Fern, the Bizarro-like plant duplicate of Finn, who believed himself to be Finn, initially. Although he perished in the final battle, Fern may unknowingly be responsible for the Adventure Times of the future.

According to Muto, “It was important to us that he still exists — he’s just a tree now!”

Indeed, Fern dissolved, leaving behind a seedling shaped like the Grass Sword which Finn and Jake buried at the base of their tree fort. This seedling grew into another tree, with a new Grass Sword inside. More on that in a bit.

Simon and Betty

Ice King started off as a buffoonish troublemaker on ‘Adventure Time’ but over time, it was revealed that he was the most tragic figure in its mythology. Before the Mushroom War, Simon was an ordinary human archaeologist who fell under the power of a magical crown which warped his mind and personality, driving away his finacée Betty. He managed to retain his humanity enough to care for the young orphan vampire Marceline, but after the Mushroom War, he had fully transformed into the Ice King.

After a time-travel exploit, pre-War Betty journeyed to the present where she was determined to free Simon from the crown’s influence. In ‘Come Away With Me’, she wound up merging with the evil force GOLB in order to save Simon, who had been reverted to his old human form before the final face-off.

Muto stated that it was never in the cards for Simon and Betty to have a happy ever after.

“That was something we talked a lot about: How happy of an ending can their story really have? Would that be satisfying or a cop-out? And would something dark feel too hopeless? It was more about finding a way for them to switch roles. She did get what she wanted, but in a Gift of the Magi twist, she became the cursed thing. And now Simon is human and searching for a way to save her.”

It sounds as though, even if ‘Adventure Time’ is over, all is not said and done. Simon will likely spend every waking moment trying to rescue Betty from her dark fate.

Shermy and Beth

While Finn and Jake and the gang might be done adventuring, the finale introduced two new faces, Shermy and Beth. Shermy is a white mouse-like being, whose ears echo those on Finn’s hat, while Beth could easily be a relative of Jake’s. Who are they? Did they just come out of nowhere? In a sense, yes, but in another, no.

Muto said:

“A lot of that was directly pitched by [writer] Steve Wolfhard. He had this massive headcanon of the Ooo 1000 world… He’s been pitching these sketches of these future versions of these characters for years now. He pitched the Shermy visual a few years ago. There are little nuggets in the [finale] intro to show you what the [future] world is like: You see the Pup Kingdom, you see Gibbon, you see some characters who were only in one scene in Season 8. The crumbs are there for fans to put together.”