Just some thoughts on Adventure Time, so some spoilers though I haven’t even finished the first season, so I’m sure I’m way behind.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, rape and abuse. 

I watched Adventure Time for the first time this weekend. It is Beloved Somebody’s favourite show and as soon as I mentioned I was interested in watching it, she turned up with DVDs of the first two seasons. In addition, I see it all over tumblr and all over, and soooo many queers and feminists seem to love it. So I admit I had high expectations. 

But then I started watching it….and I could see some bits that were funny, and some things which were amusing…I could see all that but I really struggled initially with the Ice King, and the episode in which he abducts and imprisons a number of Princesses. I get that Finn and Jake are the heroes of the show, but the whole concept of these Princesses being trapped and basically having to wait for two male hereos to save them didn’t seem all that amazing to me. 

That annoyed me, but then came episode “When Wedding Bells Thaw”. I actually could not finish this episode. I felt really sick and really uncomfortable. To me, the Ice King, who abducts women, who enjoys abducting women, constantly…the show treated this as if it were a minor character flaw, not the fucking disgusting abuse it is. I know it’s just a cartoon show, and I guess they are playing the idea that when these Princesses get abducted all that happens to them is that they are trapped in a cage for a while (which is fucking appalling and abusive enough). But I can’t separate that from what can happen when women do get abducted and the real possibility of that leading to sexual assault, rape and significant trauma. It doesn’t seem to me that the seriousness of what is happening is ever acknowledged by the show. 

I haven’t watched anymore of the show. I just can’t. But I have read some pieces online and from what I can tell, the Ice King continues to be a constant fixture, an enemy, but someone who isn’t really that bad, someone who is amusing and funny and who occasionally does this thing like abduct princesses! Oh, what a pity! The male heroes will just have to go save them. I understand that later he is given a sympathetic back-story and turned into a 'tragic hero'. That is something I do not ever care to see. 

Personally, I can’t go back to watching the show, it is too much for me. I understand lots of people love it but I’m still surprised that there isn’t more discussion on the show’s portrayal of the Ice King and his abduction of Princesses. This is not a nuanced portrayal of a morally grey character. This is not that. This is turning violence against women into a joke.