Discover Distant (Yet Familiar) Lands #AdventureTime

We’ll go to very distant lands… the fun will never end…

For those of you late to the party (don’t worry, there aren’t too many adults here yet), Adventure Time is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward (here in Australia it airs on Cartoon Network Australia (censored) and Go (uncensored)). I love Adventure Time and sit down to watch it with my kids whenever it’s on.

I even record it when we’re out – not for the kids, but for me! I love adventure (as anyone who’s read one of my as-yet unpublished novels will know)!

The stars of Adventure Time are ‘Finn the Human’ and ‘Jake the Dog’, who travel around distant lands being heroes. When they’re not being heroes, they live in a tree house and play computer games on their friend Beemo.

Finn & Jake’s tree house.

But of course there’s always someone to save or help, and so they have plenty of sword fights and save plenty of princesses, though they also get ripped off and beaten up along the way. The show is a great metaphor for modern-day life – there’s no turn-taking on this show and not everything is fair!

In fact, here’s some of the ideology I’ve encountered recently on the show…

• Don’t be nice to mean people. Some people will always be mean-hearted and there’s no changing them.
• You may desire ‘click-click’ armour (really, really good armour), but sometimes what you have to go through to get that armour isn’t worth it. Also, even once you have the armour, it may not be as ‘click-click’ as you were expecting.
• Don’t be duped into believing someone has changed just because they look different on the outside.
• Sometimes people really do mean exactly and specifically what they say.
• Love hurts.
• If something seems too good to be true, look for the catch (an oldie but a goodie).
• Being lazy will lead to a loss in your skills.
• Working in a team can often yield quicker and better results than working alone. However, sometimes you have to trust that someone else’s skills are more suited to a task than your own. Everyone has limits.
• If you do something wrong, just say sorry.
• You can easily become corrupted by your surroundings.
• There’s always a reason why people are the way they are, and do the things they do.

Everyone knows someone like the Lumpy Space Princess!

Adventure Time not only satisfies my love of exploring new lands and discovering new and interesting people (for once without having to leave my armchair!), but I really appreciate some of the lessons Finn and Jake learn as they pursue their goal of helping as many people as possible.

Oh-My-Glob, the humour in the show is spot-on too.

What the stuff are you doing, you guys… watch it already!

For me, life is an adventure full of princesses and witches, ice kings and lab rats. Like Finn and Jake, we can do a lot worse than try and help each other – even if it does mean getting hurt along the way.

Finn the Human.
He gets beat up when he tries to help people.

As a writer, Adventure Time also serves as a reminder that, though there may be only seven main types of story in the world, each generation has to face its own battles, and there will always be stories to tell about that. I love writing about the battles my generation faces – whether it’s a perfect storm set in this world, in a world far away, or somewhere that nudges you away from the everyday yet stays so close it’s only when you shut the book you realise you’ve been away at all. I hope you get to read my novels soon! In the meantime, there’s some great short fiction to read over here.

Also in the meantime, there is Adventure Time. Have you watched Adventure Time recently? Maybe you’re a fan like me? If not, why not watch an episode or two and find out… an average episode is only 11 minutes long! 🙂

Me watching Adventure Time with my two kids.