When I first heard this show was gonna be a thing my initial reaction was kinda.. confused. Doing a spin off focussed on Fionna and Cake seemed like a fun idea but I also thought it was  weirdly timed being 3 years after distant lands finale and 5 years after the shows finale. Then Tom Kenny said the show was “the most emotional thing he has ever recorded”, which both confused and intrigued me more. Tom Kenny, the voice of Ice King who’s the centre of a lot of Adventure Times most emotional moments, is calling THIS more emotional than I Remember You? What the fuck happened?! I was confused by this until my mind went into adventure time fan theorist mode and I realised the potential that came with this. This shows gonna have focus on Simon and be quirky and emotional like his Adventure Time episodes! From here I went from curious to fully hyped and this was only increased when the trailer(s) dropped and my theories for what this show would be were essentially confirmed, and now after over a month of being hyped for this with insanely high expectations based on everything we knew going on….

Fionna and Cake still managed to blow me away with how good it is, this is everything I could’ve wanted out of a post Come Along With Me Simon story. From the glimpses we got of him in Obsidian I was initially disappointed that he didn’t get a full Distant Lands episode since he’s argueably the character with the most potential to explore in his new state and this show more than filled that gap, even mentioning one of his parts in Obsidian and tying it into his arc in this. Everything with him here is phenomenal from his very first episode where we see just how hard it is for him to adjust to his new life not just living with the loss of Betty but in what is essentially a completely new world to him, as well as having to deal with his reputation as the ice king on top of that. It’s such compelling stuff and definitely the biggest hook of the show. However the show still has so much going for it aside from this. Fionna and Cake themselves obviously get a lot here being the stars of the show. All of the character stuff with Fionna is really great I love all of her growth they get a lot of really interesting stuff out of her grappling  with what she wants to do with her life and how much that changes over the 10 episode(plus some of her character stuff reminded  me of Fern so yeah high praise!) and how they tie this into Simons stuff is amazing as well, especially with how it all culminates in the last episode it’s so incredibly satisfying. Plus Fionna and Cake have a really strong dynamic here even moreso than they do in their original episodes.

Moving on from the character stuff the technical aspects here are amazing too. Style arguements incoming but the animation here looks soooo good just like Distant Lands it feels like a nice upgrade of adventure times usual style, and the show utilises this really well in parts there’s a lot of really beautiful looking shots, most notably the shots of Simon looking existential in his first episode look incredible and add even more to how compelling his character stuff is, plus the design of the forest is really beautiful as well. And oh my god whenever there’s a scene with a different animation style it looks so so cool. From the opening of the first episode, the songs in The Winter King and the Casper and Nova segments in Cheers it’s all just eye candy I love looking at it and best of all it’s purposeful! Those moments are still incredible on their own the different style is just there to boost that. As well as that this somewhat being a show targeted at adults is a welcome change as well, it goes beyond just them showing blood or using mild swear words tho that stuff is neat and feels natural and not forced. A lot of the concepts here are just… super dark even with how dark the original show can occasionally get, I don’t think regular Adventure Time would have an episode where all of Ooo is dead and BMO commits suicide, and as someone who’s favourite Cartoon Network show is Infinity Train I absolutely welcome all the dark shit this show does it’s all done so well.

Speaking of the Ooo is dead timeline, this show is such a fantastic utilisation of the multiverse concept. All of the different universes they go to and how they differ from Ooos regular timeline are all really interesting to see play out not just for the characters in the different timeline but also how these timelines affect the main characters. Particularly The Winter King uses this concept really well showing us a completely fucked up version of Simon who quite literally projects his problems onto others and acts like everything is fine, the way they tie this into the character stuff for our Simon is amazing I love how he starts valueing his humanity more after this point it’s a pivotal moment of character growth that uses a really neat “what if” scenario for Adventure Times timeline so well. Glad to know James Gunn’s disasterpiece across the spiderverse has been topped for best multiverse content of the year!

And oh yeah to go back to the shows technical  aspects briefly but the songs in this show are all fire too I’ve had them in my head constantly all month. The first episodes opening song “Not Myself” is really catchy and up beat despite the depressing lyrics and introduces   Fiona’s struggles really well. “Part of The Madness” proves even further Rebecca sugar should just stick to music it’s another incredible song by her that shows Simons struggles so so well, “Cake on the Loose”  in her episode is really fun and catchy as well, and most likely my favourites are “Winter Wonderworld” and “Baked with Love” from The Winter King which are both super catchy with some of the best visuals in  Adventure Time in general, as well as foreshadowing the events of the episode really neatly too. “It’s as easy as… manifesting your own reality”. “Everything in You” is a really nice yet bittersweet song that’s utilised so well in context. Plus the opening is really neat too and this show gave me an even bigger appreciation for the Cheers theme song than I already had from Simon and Marcy! Oh and Marshal Lee got a brief song which was neat though one of my only complaints is that he definitely should’ve gotten a full one cmon use Donald Glovers singing talent it worked out really well before >:(.

Oh yeah speaking of Marshal Lee his subplot with Gary/Gumball is the nicest shit I love all of it it’s such nice levity from how heavy the rest can get. I like how differently they’re characterised than their original versions it feels more similar to how Marceline and Bubblegum are at the end of Adventure Time which is fitting and plus their dynamic still stands out a lot on its own and is a joy to watch. As a massive Marshal Lee fan this stuff was extremely satisfying for me, not super deep like the rest of the show but still just really really nice. 

Probably my last note on this but this show like Distant Lands does such a great job at utilising previous adventure time things. Prismo, Farmworld Finn, fucking SHERMY AND BETH and even our boy Finn himself get fantastic character moments in this it all feels like a natural progression of how they’d be at this point, and then I could go through pointing out all the neat adventure time Easter eggs but I’ve already pushed the serialzd word limit a lot with this.

wait shit I forgot to mention Scarab uhh he’s awesome too he’s a really fun villain and geniunely really threatening in the last 2 episodes! 

Overall for a show that I had such monumentally high expectations for Fionna and Cake delivered more than I could’ve imagined. Somehow tops Distant Lands.  Even with much I love the rest of the show this is by far the best thing Adventure Time has done. Couldn’t be more satisfied with this my favourite 2023 thing by far! This rating is definitely somewhat subjective it’s not absolutely perfect but still this show does so so many things that I love that I’m willing to go with the subjective 10 I love this shit to death. 
