Adventure Time's Princess Bubblegum Problem

What can you really say about adventure time. Its pretty much one of the greatest and most influentual modern cartoons ever made. What started as a silly and nonsense kids show had truly evolved into a genuinely compelling series with such great and inventive character development, engaging story telling and lore, and a feeling of maturity that lies so much deeper than what it seems at first glance. The show wanted to mature with its audience as it slowly went and made more compelling and deeper

storylines and character growth, to the point where even the most recent series Fionna and Cake is pretty much an adult show and takes the series to a much darker direction thats still fantastic and fun. It's really a testimate to this series that it has lasted over 10 years now and its still telling new and compelling stories where you still want more and more. I honestly think its a practically perfect series. I can't think of many things seriously wrong with it. But there is one exception. T

he characterization of Princess Bubblegum. Its definetly a hot topic many people completely hate her and others will defend her with their life. Most arguements just seem to be "Is she evil?" but I think it goes beyond that. I think it actually it leads to a serious problem with the series that her characterization becomes inconsistent as the show continualyl gives her serious character flaws and horrible actions but never actually wants to pay it off or do anything with it in a serious way. Des

pite what she does, the show constantly treats her as someone you should like or root for despite the fact that she is rarley called out for her flaws and actions making for a very fustrating expirience for a character who never really seems to grow. But I'm going to have to really get into it. So I'm going to go through all of Princess Bubblegums major negative characterization and analyze how it affected herself and the show. And there's quite a lot to talk about. Also if you're one of those p

eople who look at her doing horrible horrible things and go "Oh she's just a Gritzy Gatekeeping Girlboss" then just...please shut up. I also wanna say, I don't want to do this. I did not make this channel to be negative. I don't want to be like every other animation reviewer who whines about cartoons not meeting their expectations. I love Adventure Time. But this is a very hot topic and I want to give my own insight on the situation. And I want to clarify, no I did not watch or get insight from

any other video on this topic, a lot of what I go over is pretty my actual feelings on the episodes when they came out and were not influenced by other peopl. And let me just say for like 80% of the shows, she's fine. She doesn't do anything directly bad, She's usually just someone who helps out, proactive in the plot, or just kinda there. Buts its that last 20% that just goes bananas. But let's start at the very beginning. Ironically the first episode of the show is pretty much all about her. A

zombie apocalypse plot is weird for your first episode but hey thats Adventure Time for you. In these early episodes Princess Bubblegum is usually just a very kind a just ruler of her kindgom, beloved by all. She has a bit of a well bubbly personality, a bit airheaded and eccentric but also very intelligent and can get lost in her own thoughts. Though occasionally a more cynical side can leak out so she's not just all sweet. She does come across as very royal fitting well into the Princess role

with her mannerisims and other duties she has. She's suprisingly likeable here and doesn't do anything really wrong. Well I guess The Duke had her be super unhinged but TBF it was a very bad situation she's in so its kinda understandable she would crack here. There is one notable exeption in the first season, and its near the end of it, with the episode What Have You Done. So Bubblegum gets Finn and Jake to kidnap the Ice King without telling them why. They take them back to a weirdly dark and

diseased Candy Kingdom where the Princess tells them to put Ice King in the dungeon and prepare to make him howl in pain. But she clarifies he didn't do anything but they still are going to pretty much beat him. The two are convinced he did something wrong but Ice King clarifies he didn't do anything. And it makes the two reluctantly let him go since they can't capture and potentially torture someone innocent. When the Princess returns she prepares to physically beat him, she's furious to see hi

m gone,and makes this amazing face. And then she finally clarifies what happened. The Ice King used some ice magic to snow in the Candy Kingdom to impress her, but this accidentially created a plague that the only cure she found was to make him howl in pain. And another key thing is she first went to try and plead with him to cure her people, but he's much to dense to catch on, which made PB forced to kidnap him and torture him to cure her people. But the thing is Finn calls her out on it. He sa

ys he can't beat an innocent man. It's against his hero code. And another important thing is that PB aknoledges it. She says she knows its cruel. But she has no other chose and she feels remorse and starts to break down. Now this is seriously crucial on, but notice how each character is reacting to the situation. Finn calls out PBs cruel plan even if it seems to be the only option and PB actually feels about what she's doing and admits its wrong. But to her there's no other choice. She didn't do

this with malice but just a sense of duty (Except for this part in the intro weird) And later on you'll see just how this attitude is non-existant going forward. And they did it in the first season. So keep this in the back of your mind as we go further. Now luckily everything worked out fine in this story. So Season 1 was pretty good at making Princess Bubblegum likeable and understandable even in her worst moments. And it pretty much goes on in Season 2. A lot of her involvement in these plot

s involve her use Finn and Jake for a particular task. I've seen people say she pretty much just manipulates Finn to do her dirty work and doesn't really care for him, but no I do not agree. We see Finn will help anyone and everyone who needs it, even other Kingdoms. So Finn and Jake would help her regardless, its just she's also a good friend to them as well. And PB does care about the two..though maybe a little bit in a weird way. But no its not manipulation at all. Yeah Finn has an obvious cr

ush on her but its not like she's aware and uses it against him. I mean Season 2 did end with her becoming 13 after the Lich's possesion with Finn finally having a chance to get into an actual romantic relationship with her and her seemingly also wanting to as well...until it gets completely dropped by the next episode. Well okay that is a bit unfair as it does result in Finn's eventual breakdown at the end with his one chance at happiness with her gone and him being so young and alone effective

ly its understandable. Honestly its really unfair to call him like a simp because its just a really rough situation. And yeah Season 3 really doesn't have any notable Princess Bubblegum actions. I mean she does raise the dead again but he every single cartoon has a character raise the dead its mandatory. But yeah nothing too notable. Until Season 4. Season 4 is where the show started to change up Princess Bubblegum. Its not super drastic like we see later but there are hints to a darker part of

her. Now I can understand why they might want to. I guess they wanted to break away from the usual princess stereotype and make her more interesting. Now she's still not evil but she's starting to push some boundaries. Noteably in the episode Goliad. So after her near death with the Lich, Princess Bubblegum wishes she could live forever to take care of her kindgom, but since she can't she makes a Candy Sphinx from her DNA named Goliad to serve as her heir with powerful psychic abilities and immo

rtality. But Goliad is pretty quickly drawn into Megalomania, believing that since they are more powerful than anyone else they can and should have the right to control everyone with an iron fist. So PB thinks Goliad is a failure and too dangerous and she should be dissasembled and then try again. Which if you really think about it is pretty messed up. This was supposed to be her heir and surrogate daughter, but in less than a day she finds them a failure and want to kill them and try again with

out much effort in trying to change them. Though its not long before Goliad goes completely maniac and tries to take the Kingdom by force. Though considering she was appearntly going to be killed....maybe its more understandable. Also its concering how quickly Goliad turned to Megalomania as if its literally apart of Princess Bubblegum's DNA . Now you may say that has nothing to do with DNA. But that's literally how the conflict was resolved since Bubblegum uses Finns DNA on a new Sphinx, Stormo

, which has his heroics and is able to fight Goliad to a standstill. This episode was concerning if you think about it too hard but its not too bad. We get a bit more in Princess Cookie when Baby Snaps takes a convienence store hostage wanting PB's crown. As PB refuses to give it up. Which is kinda iffy since its just a crown its not like he'll get any title from it. I dont even think its really that valuable does she have any extras? I mean I guess it has the Gem of Power but that wasn't a thin

g until the season finale. "No princess you are the problem. The Problem Princess" Oh Buddy you have no idea just wait. Finn and Jake offer to use espionage to stop the hostage situation with Jake really wanting to be a mailman but PB insisting that he should disguise himself as a Milkman which really bothers Jake. He even uses it when he tries to talk Baby Snaps down that he's really unhappy with how the Princess treated him. And after replicating a conversation with a good chunk of the Adventu

re Time fanbase "Isn't she just the worst. Wait you hate PB too? Yeah she's the worst!"Baby Snaps tells his story where as a lonely orphan the Princess visited and brought joy to the kids with Baby Baby Snaps wanting to be a Princess like her to bring joy to people. But she giggles at him, leading him to feel she was mocking him and causing him to hate her and forcing him to do this to get what he wanted. Jake pities them and tries to get the heat off him by negotiating with the Princess but the

Princess makes it clear that once this is resolved she will put him in the dungeon for the rest of his life which is pretty messed up considering Baby Snaps didn't really hurt anyone. It kinda comes across more personal for him wanting the crown. Which honestly should be a really easy thing to give up if she REALLY wanted to stop the conflict. Honesty this episode kinda hits me in the feels in some way. But luckily Jake did seem to get to the Princess after as Baby Snaps is gifted his own crown

to be Princess of the Grasslands. Again the Princess is pushing some moral boundaries but its still within reason. Though I wanna talk about Burning Low. The episode that cements Finn and Flame Princesses relationship and also ending any kind of Love Triangle. Now I wanna say any kind of "PB is just exploiting Finn's love for her for her own means" claims should be stopped by this episode since PB really didn't care if Finn had a relationship with anyone else nor cared if he loved her. She just

cared about Flame Princess accidentally destroying the planet. But thats not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is this little scene. "Collecting taxes" YO DONT YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CANDY TAX THAT S**T IS WHY I CANT SAVE FOR UPGRADES IN THIS GAME YOU GREEDY BI- But enough of my video game trauma the fact that she pretty much breaks into her house and steals their money and is barely aknowleged is eyebrow raising to say the least. Like the grasslands are not considered to be a p

art of the Candy Kingdom especially in Princess Cookie so its not like she has dominion over them. Maybe its since they're alleged to her? Okay I take it back Princess Bubblegum may not be exploiting them in terms of love but she is definetly exploiting them monetarily. I mean these guys are morons it wouldn't be hard. Pretty iffy there. Though a big point is the episode You Made Me which is pretty much Lemongrab just being obnoxious and whiny as hell and honestly I kinda hate him. Honestly I do

n't blame her for anything with Lemongrab honestly there's just so much you can do with this massive manbaby and even then he'll just screw himself over. What I really wanna bring up is the fact that Princess Bubblegum for some reason installed security cameras everywhere and even in her citizens houses. Which is a big....why? I mean its been repeatedly shown the Candy People are too naive and stupid to commit serious crimes...okay maybe not all but still. This extreme invasion of privacy is nev

er aknoledged In this episode let me make that clear. And it just kinda comes out of nowhere though at least it serves the plot regardless of its implications. And lastly the smallest yet the most infamous moment in the Season 4 finale...this....Yeah what the hell. I mean we don't have any context for this but her just cutting the limbs off these cute little farming guys and then pasting them back on to see what happens. I mean like what can you say but...what the? Okay so at least they don't se

em to feel any pain but they definetly have some level of sapience. Its some sort of expiriment she's doing but why? Its just so jarring and we get no explaination. But its probably not going to lead credence to her potentially having a god complex at all. I promise. But okay okay, all things considered all of those weren't that bad. She's definetly pushing some boundaries but you can't really call her evil. Though she is starting to get some issues which aren't getting addressed but its not too

bad right now. And then Season 5 comes. Now here the change starts to become super notable where she becomes especially standoffish, antagonistic, and just meaner. And she starts to actively do more bad stuff mostly without reprocussions. And it gets to the point where its hard to even see them as the same character. But let me explain. What really marks the turn is the episode Wizards Only Fools where PB out of nowhere is hellbent on believing that magic doesn't exist. Which in the land of Ooo

in an entire Wizard City is the stupidest thing ever. Even though in earlier epsiodes she actually respected Wizard City's customs and did magic herself the freaking hypocrite. And AT's usually good at Retcons they even aknoledge it in this episode. "Since You have always been a dear friend to this community" Yeah until she got infected with the random-characterization Virus. "This dont look like magic to you? It looks like a Mutation" I hate how she was right. But I guess it was later revealed

that she herself is a magical being so HAHA. But that's not even the worst part in order to get into Wizard City she recorded herself getting the information from Ice King which involved her recording herself BREAKING ICE KINGS FINGER as he screams in pain. What the hell?! And Finn and Jake...pretty much do and say nothing. What heroes they are. Hey remember back in Season 1 where PB was going to torture the Ice King, and Finn called her out saying its not right for her to do that and she agree

d and admitted it was a horrible thing to do? Well now who cares PB can just torture this insane old Man who at this point the two have grown much more sympathy for but if PB does it she can get away with it. And later on when they get caught Bubblegum just needs to swallow her pride for a MOMENT to say Wizards Rule and they can all go. But she just refuses to and insults them and throws them all in prison. She is never called out on this and never apologizes or say she may have gone too far. An

d it doesnt even matter after since they dont even use the magic cure and just force the normal one on Starchy so what was the point in any of this. So yeah PB was insanely unlikable and pretty much recieved no consequences. Which you will soon see is a running theme. Then to go into Sky Witch, one of the earliest PB and Marcy episode, and no I will not go into their relationship, this video is long enough as it is. But yeah PB gives us this gem. "Or Raggedy Princess can BE your new Hambo. She'd

do it too, that girls got like zero self esteem" HEY DONT YOU GO DISS MY GIRL RAGGEDY PRINCESS SHE IS A WHOLESOME CINNAMON ROLL AND I LOVE HER DONT YOU GIVE HER THAT DISRESPECT SHE IS PURE UNLIKE YOU" "Thats mean don't tell her I said that" Yeah you better. But yeah I really can't see PB going to petty gossip about other Princesses earlier in the series she did seem to have respect for them, even LSP. "By the Laws of My Kingdom I must honor the exchange of goods for legal tender"Oh sure you're

Kingdom's law respects a recipt but breaking and entering, torture, incarceration of innocents, genocide and destroying the infastructure of an innocent kingdom is just A-OK right? I'm getting ahead of myself. One notable thing is that we see in the episodes the Vault and James is that Bubblegum is far older than she appears being about 800 years old and created the Candy Kingdom herself and all the inhabitants. Which we do see has given her practically a God complex. Since she created her Kingd

om from nothing and all the inhabitants she pretty much believes she has full control of them, identities, and their fates. And this is even shown to extend to other Kingdoms where its like she feels she has the upmost authority over them and their own Kingdoms which I can't begin t tell you how that is problematic. But even in her own Kingdom its disturbing how many times we see so many of her subjects like expiriments and those that can be easily replaced as seen with James. Honestly why were

they so worried about the candy people in the first episode just clone and replace them if you really wanted to. And also we see with Goliad who was effetively her daughter and heir was pretty quickly about to be destroyed and replaced as if they were a failed expiriment. And this is seen in no worse case than the episode Rattleballs. Where we see long ago in order to reinforce her security she created an elite team of soldiers perfectly able to stop any threat. However they worked too well and

got into shady fight clubs against themselves. Seeing her soldiers go behind their back PB immediatly decides to terminate all of them. And they are all sapient, which is the reason why she decided to destroy them all, because she could not completely control them and their skills would provide a potential danger. And she did not think twice about it. What did that one lamp say "Oh Ice King, to Selfishly create life and destroy it, there's no crueler fate" Oh you'd have a field day with her. Rat

tleballs was the only survivor after barely breaking his programming and had to live in isolation in secret for hundreds of years. And he begs Finn to not tell Bubblegum about his existence or else she will surely kill them...And Finn immedeatly does. Sigh. Its because Finn's loyalty to PB is too much for him to ignore. But its gotten so consistent that its pretty much just a part of his character. Which is a huge problem since it will effectively let Finn enable Princess Bubblegums actions desp

ite his hero code because of it. So Princess Bubblegum can effectively do anything at this point and Finn will allow it and not speak out at all. So it just becomes a cycle of stagnation where the characters cant actual grow or develop at all. Which yeah, is a big problem. You'd think after the whole Nice King debacle he'd learn from blindly swearing alligence to royalty. And yeah despite living in peaceful isolation Bubblegum immediatly tried to kill him. And only after fending off her guards a

nd explaining that he no longer craves violence, and still has his alligence to her does she allow him to live in secret. Is she ever called out on her genocide of her own creations? Of course not. Hell when its aknoledged later she pretty much washes her hands of all consequences. You see a running theme here? Thing is, if you do not call out a characters actions, you pretty much enable it. You pretty much go "there's no problem with it" and a character can't actually grow from it. Its written

like its acceptable and they'll keep doing it. Which kills characterization and growth and makes the audience pissed off that a character isn't developing from their bad choices. But hey that's not all. In Apple Wedding Tree Trunks and Mr Pig are getting married. PB wants to officiate it but Tree Trunks says she doesnt have the wedding authority. Which...she might be kinda right I dunno do Royals have wedding vow credibility higher than a priest? She's going to let the King of Ooo officiate it w

hich...yeah he has even less authority but PB takes it personallly and breaks into his house to get documents to prove he's a sham. But he actually did have the documents so here at least he did 100% have the authority to officate the wedding and he questions if she broke in to his home and stole his property. And PB just completely snaps and sends him to jail. But for I think the first time in the series, she gets called out for her BS as Tree Trunks cannot stand this blatant abuse of power on

her wedding day. And Bubblegum responds by immediatly sending her and literally everyone else in the wedding, even Finn and Jake to prison. Yeahhhhhh. Overreaction much? So Tree Trunks is forced to have her wedding in jail. And only then is Princess Bubblegum moved to actually free everyone she threw in jail. If that didnt happen who knows what. So yeah PB completely oversteps her authority and threw innocent people in a dungeon because she had a temper tantrum because she was wrong. And she is

not called out on this nor recieves any consequences. Well except for Tree Trunks hating her afterwards but its not like she cares. So yeah this season had a pretty notable trend in Princess Bubblegums actions. She'll be completely standoffish and unreasonable, then do something horrible and then never get called out on it, nor recieve any actual consequence from it so everything she's done is completely ignored. Nobody grows from anything and its just frustrating to watch. If a character doesnt

know if they did something wrong they can't grow from it and develop like a character and just go on with destructive acts as the world pretty much enables it. Which is why it is so important that a character can be called out on it and realize it. Like imagine if Princess Peach was written normally as just a dainty princess but suddenly is written like a morally grey character who does atrocities and thinks nothing of the consequences nor other people, but the game and all the characters still

treat her like she did normally and nothing bad happened. It wouldn't work. Though in Oddysey she did steal Mario's vehicle and strand him on the moon so maybe its not too far off. But nearly all of what I said is just peanuts compared to what she does in Season 6. And with my actual most hated episode of the entire series, The Cooler. People say Frost and Fire is the series "What the Hell were they Thinking" episode, and yeah its a jarring character change for Finn and lead to a controversial

breakup, but at LEAST that episode had consequences, at LEAST that episode called Finn out on his actions multiple times, at LEAST it lead to permanent changes in every character involve. They didn't cop out on it. This episode can't even do that. The episode is about the Flame Kingdom going a complete enviornmental crisis with the core cooling which is sickening, weakening, and even killing the citizens as their kingdom is being destroyed. With no other options Flame Princess gets Princess Bubb

legum to help her out and save her Kingdom. She says she can't trust her, which is valid after everything she's done to her, but she has no choice to save her kingdom. And at least earlier PB offered to help her not be such a danger to everyone so its not like they don't have any relationship. PB convinces them to let her into their most sacred santum to save their kingdom, which Flame Princess explains houses the Fire Giants, the oldest and most sacred artifacts, and she believes she can use th

eir power to save her kingdom as a last resort. And then PB behind her back starts to SABOTAGE AND DEPOWER THEM. What? Flame Princess notices this and sees PB actively sabotaging her Kingdom as PB pretty callously explains that she can't allow them to have such dangerous devices and be a potential threat to her kingdom. Flame Princess says pretty much what we're all thinking and that she has absolueltly no authority on their Kingdom or what they should have and attacks. But Princess Bubblegum us

es her anger and power to destroy the other Fire Giants. "The Fire Kingdom has always been a threat to my realm" not until this episode they were! So after actively proviking and firing upon Flame Princess until pretty much every other Fire Giant is destroyed as PB depowers Flame Princess. Princess Bubblegum admits this ENTIRE THING was by her, she sent Ice King to cool the Core, to completly cripple her kingdom and inhabitants, to intentionally sabotage their ancient technology, and that she wa

s spying on her Kingdom to get intel. What the actual hell. No like seriously, this was actually evil. She didn't even TRY to take any diplomatic approach to ally herself with the Fire Kingdom. She just went straight into sabotage. And she doesn't show an OUNCE of remorse for it. She did not care. She crosses the line in this episode and crosses it HARD. And what does she get in retribution for her literal warcrimes? "You're a bad person" thats pretty much it. But oh no PB feels bad now. HOW DEN

SE ARE YOU? You think that you can commit actual atrocities against an entire kingdom and not think you're a bad person. Are you a genius or are you a dumb**s? This did not deserve a "You're a bad person" this deserves a "I am going to war with you, you pink psychopath!" Because there is no justification to not to. She pretty much made an active assult against on innocent kingdom due to nothing but paranoia she deserves to reap what she sows. But no the shows not gonna that.It's not gonna commit

. So all we get is "You're a bad person" but PB HAS THE GUMBALLS TO SAY "I guess you can keep just one" Oh how f***ing generous of you thinking that you have literally a speck of authoririty over another Kingdom. Also considering you own just as many giant laser beam behemoths at your beck and call you are an immese hypocrite. But hey thats not all "I'm not a bad person, I want you to see that" literally 10 seconds ago "I'm PB I spy on everyone no big d" Did anyone even read this script?! BTW sh

e never apologizes. She never says she's sorry about what she did, or maybe she went to far. That's all we get. And what does she get after her dozens of crimes, rewarded with a friend in Flame Princess. No this is the fakest s**t I have seen. You did not earn this. You did not earn this at all. This is the most forced resolution I've ever seen. I consider this genuinely bad writing. But hey at least PB is learning and she's not gonna spy on people anymore I sure hope this won't be contradicted

in a future episode. I mean I would start personally with reperations for the Kingdom you singlehandedly ravaged but hey baby steps, baby steps....thats literally all we're gonna get from this so just baby steps. Yeah this episode is completely terrible and its my most hated episode of this entire series and maybe of all time. But wait you might say, Flame Princess's brother out nowhere wanted to destroy the Candy Kingdom for literally no reason, Bubblegum actually did have a reason to do what s

he did. And I say...yes that did happen. But counterpoint this character hasn't appeared before this episode and isn't seen or MENTIONED after this episode, and this entire plot point is never brought ever again in the entire rest of the series, so its clear they were never even planning to commit to it and its just an insanely lazy way to justify PB's action since it comes right out of nowhere and never comes back. So it might as well not exist. So to recap Princess Bubblegum Crimes: 1. Effecti

vely used bio-warefare on an innocent kingdom to weaken and even KILL the inhabitants 2. Used surveilance camera to get intell on a Kindgom she has literally no authority in 3. Used it and betray the trust of the people who thought she was there to help them. 4. Intentionally went to sabotage the Kingdom's most sacred and powerful artifacts needed to save the kingdom in catastrophe 5. Actively provoked and assualted the Leader of the Kingdom Consequences: 1. Gets Called a bad persons 2. Stops su

rveling people, which doesnt even last 3. Gets a friend ...If this episode doesn't prove the series will bend over backwards to avoid giving Bubblegum consequences for her actions than I don't know what will. This episode made me genuinely hate PB I don't know how I cant. This is legit some of the worst character writing I have ever seen. It's like the show goes out of its way to make sure Bubblegum won't actually change or gets called out. And whats even worse is that they really don't seem to

care. The next episode is the Pajama War is like a slap in the face after watching The Cooler since its all about PB being cute and innocent in a slumber party oh look at her isn't it cute she does a silly thing she can't be a bad person if she does a silly thing look at her its so precious ignore the war crimes she did she's so silly. Watching this gives the same Tonal Whiplash as Bambis mom getting shot. Like are you manipulating me or something? I dont know if this is just an airing order thi

ng but it feels so jarring. And no if you write a character this badly you either have to give them genuine remorse and a character arc instead of just ignoring it and pretending like it doesnt happen. She needs to be called out. And no, not just "you're a bad person" like actually called out. But I think Adventure Time has a problem where..no one really can call them out on it. Like really think about it. Finn and Jake are too loyal to her to call her out on her actions as seen multiple times l

ike I've shown so they can't change her, Ice King is too insane and dense to even realize comprehend whats she's doing, Marceline...might actually but the thing is they're so focused on pairing her up with PB that she can't actually do any serious callout and drama for what she's doing since she's in love with her, Lady Rainicorn hasn't been with her since forever, BMO is way too unware and in his own world to comprehend anything, and LSP is pretty much too as well and even if she did its not li

ke PB would respect anything this conceited teenager says. So...who's left....Tree Trunks? Okay Tree Trunks it is then, Tree Trunks shall be our vehicle to go and call out Princess Bubblegum on her cruel actions and incite meaningful change and you see why this cant work!! Adventure Time kinda wrote themselves into a corner, where every character at this point is written to pretty much just enable anything she does. The thing is Adventure Time wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to m

ake Princess Bubblegum a darker character with big character flaws and bad actions but it still wants her to be the friendly princess ally they can use for most episodes. But you can't do that you have to pick one. You can't have a character constantly do bad things and everyone just ignores it. It's like having pretty much just two characters who can't actually coexist. I've seen people say "Oh you just cant handle a morally grey character" and fine, the show has had a few morally grey characte

rs before. The problem is they dont treat her like that. As I said pretty everything Bubblegum does has no consequences whatsoever and she's still constantly treated as the freindly princess despite all of her crimes. Imagine if Martin in every self serving manipulative action he took was still treated as a great guy by everyone regardless of his crimes that everyone ignores. That PB. And at least Martin had a genuinely tragic fall from grace saving his son what's your excuse? At least Lemongrab

exploded after being a cruel cannibalistic Dictator...Though he also was put back togehter and people still treat him like a normal dude we're supposed to care about despite him being practically evil in all apperances. Maybe Adventure Times real problem is that they refuse to give royalty consequences for their actions. Except if your King of Ooo then you just die. But at least Lemongrabs just a massive manbaby. Hell lets go count every time PB was actually called out by anyone. Sooo Tree Trun

ks in Apple Wedding which she responded by imprisoning everyone, You're a bad person with Flame Princess which we've gone over, Tree Trunks in a future episode which again she does not care at all, and uhhhhh Oh yeah marceline said she was a kinda a dictator once...in one line...in a song...after the series ended..in a flashback hundreds of years ago which can't contribute anything you see the problem here!? Okay there is one more with the Veritas Brigade which are a group of Candy Kingdom citiz

ens who consider Bubblegum to be a fascist tyrant which at this point she practically is. Now this can actually be really interesting and might lead to actual consequences so you know where this goes by now. Its only in 2 episodes and its treated like a joke and is barely the focus so again no actual consequences. Of course. But moving on in the Season 6 finale Hot Diggity Doom Princess Bubblegum finally recieves some consequences for her actions since its shown she made the Candy people stupid

on purpose so she can never have an intellectual rival, and if she did she'll probably kill them, and further focuses her god complex. But because of that they are easily tricked by the King of Ooos lies to elect him over her and kick her out of the kingdom since they can't think for themselves. This is a real "if it isnt the consequences of my own actions" moment but nice to finally see something. So for a bit of the series she's exiled from the Kingdom. But it does lead to the Season 7 opener

Bonnie and Neddy where we see Bubblegums origin spawning from a Gum Hivemind. look at her I just wanna. Bonnie was curious and loved the outside world where her brother Neddie was terrified and baby like. But despite Neddies underdeveloped nature Bubblegum does love him and provided for him since he's all the family she had. Its a sweet episode and kinda an allegory for living with a mentally disabled sibling. And it would be wholesome...if it wasn't for this line. "People get built different, w

e dont need to figure it out we just need to respect it" You Hypocritical b***h! You spent literally the entire series picking apart people in the name of science and manipulating them to be your vision of perfection. You literally engineered life to be stupid so it can follow your commands and make sure you can have no intellectual equal. The first episode of this series was you manipulating life and death. You are the last person on the planet who should say this. You are only in this situatio

n because you specifically engineered people to your whims. And this is done without any hint self awareness or irony. This is one of my biggest proofs that the writers really didn't know what they wanted to do with Bubblegum since there's no way a character who does the exact opposite for the entire series would say this. Her characterization is practically random at this point. Though High Strangeness is probably the only episode where she actually apologizes for her actions and seems remorsef

ul. I mean I would prefer it if this happened in The Cooler instead of *you're a bad person* and not in one the most incomprehensible episodes in the series but hey I'll take what I can get. I'm not gonna count anything she does in Elemental since even though she did a ton of messed up things she was driven insane by the elemental energy so I can't blame her for it. And besides it was one of the inspirations for this years Halloween Art so I cant be too upset. Though it does lead to the final ar

c of the series which is Bubblegum based. The Gum War. We get a flashback to Bubblegums past before she made the Candy Kingdom and was alone with Neddy. Wanting a true family she decided to engineer one. She creates three other clones of herself, Aunt Lolly, Cousin Chicley and Uncle Gumbald. They work together to make what will become the Candy Kingdom, but Gumbald takes matters into his own hands wants to make his own Candy Kingdom. But Bonnie doesn't want him to as she wants to lead, and sabot

ages Gumbalds plan to force them to do hers since she believes its better. Though the thing to point out is that the episodes frames both in wrong, as both go behind eachothers back to do what they feel is right. But the episode really makes Gumbald as the bad guy when it also shows that he a right to do what he wants as well its not like he has to do what Bonnie says. Though yeah later on he does hactch a villainous plan to get Bonnie out of the equation by making an elixr to turn her into a st

upid candy person and also backstabs the others. Though Gumbald does bring up how technically they are equal and she treats them like her playthings. I don't get why they technically make a good point but also make gumbald so cartoonishly evil so you can't really do anything with it. He's a bad person if you will. And of course there's the last part where they're all turned to dumb candy people,but they also show that she feels they're happier that way being stupid and that they're pliable and s

he can command them. Again really morallely questionable and of course is never elaborated on. You just have to deal with it. Its also implied being like that is a living hell but who cares. But now that they're back Gumbald has commited to his plans and made his own Kingdom and plans to go to war.Though Finn for like once does try to talk to Princess Bubblegum to not rage for war against her Uncle and tries to convince Gumbald to stop. Yeah Bonnie would never pointlessly insight war and attack

a kingdom unprovoked. But Gumbald is hellbent on destroying PB and after loosing Peppermint Butler she goes on all out war. Though in the Finale they present. Too bad it does anyway. Gumbald is turned dumb again things get pretty much reverted to how they were. This can still happen again but who cares nothing really got resolved he's just no longer a threat. And any of those questions earlier have just become completely irrelevant. Well okay that's unfair there is one moment where Bubblegum doe

s apologize for what he went through as a candy person and stealing the Candy Kingdom from him, but its undercut off with Gumbald immediatley trying to assasinate her so any moral points were just thrown out the window. Giant Space baby shows up the end. So the show pretty much ended with basically no resolution to Princess Bubblegums actions, problems, and she effectively never grew as a character. But wait you may say, in Distant Lands she did change she gave up her kingdom and distanced herse

lf from the power and a became a better person and stuff. Yeah no, all of that is implied AT BEST. We only get to see barely a glimpse of anything and you can't resolve a character arc like that. After so many seasons of this you can't just go "Oh she becomes better probably" that's not an arc thats just a statement. Literally anything could've caused that or maybe something else happened its not actual development. Hell maybe she got thrown out after another election thats just as valid. And at

this point you need to actually commit to it and they don't.Also is Peppermint Butler really the best character to rule in the vague amount of time that's elasped he's one of the most evil characters in the show. And Fionna and Cake did pretty much nothing for her development wise. I've seen some people say her arc is like Iroh from Avatar which like...how? For once Avatar has a much more realistic take on Warefare and thats just an objective fact, you can't blame an entire war on one general.

Second, Most of his war actions are left entirely vague in the show so you can't really say for certain what he did. And third, even if its vague the show does show Iroh has spent the rest of his life in remorse for his action, he treats Zuko like his own lost son trying to save him from his self destructive nature, and repenting for his action. He literally ends the series by him saving the city he once tried to conquer. So yeah he still had a compelling character arc even if what started it is

vauge. In fact that's actually a good comparison, while Iroh's actiions are vague, the entire show was dedicated to his arc to repent and overcome it so it still feels satisfying, while Bubblegum we see all the things she did wrong, but with the actual resolution to the arc left vague. So yeah really not satisfying in the slightest. So what are we left with. Look...I don't want to hate Princess Bubblegum. I said before she was perfectly likeable in earlier seasons. And they broke out of the pri

ncess stereotype a lot with her. She's an active character, she can get her hands dirty, she can hold her own in a fight, she's incredibly inventive and hard working and cares about her people and diplomatic matters. Its just until they decided to make her a lot meaner and do horrible actions and basically get no consequences is where things got a lot worse. But like...its not all she is. As I said before I'm mostly focusing on the negatives but she's done a ton to help other people like in the

Lemonhope episodes or in the Stakes miniseries. And hell I loved her character journey in Jellybeans have Power where she learns about her Elemental Power. But everything I've talked about here has to be treated and adressed as well. But the show never wants to commit to it, and that's the problem. Princess Bubblegum feels like a character at odds with herself as a character we should like and look up to despite so many horrible actions and traits that we're just supposed to ignore and we can't

do that. This is why i feel Princess Bubblegum is hated so much. If it got addressed mostly it probably would go over better but the show acts like you should like her regardless. It brings up questions it doesn't really bother to awnser to. And that pretty much leaves a bad taste in my and many people's mouth. Its not that its like she's evil, its that its like she's evil with no aknowledgement. And for a show like Adventure Time, which so masterfully handles character lore, development, and ar

cs to make such beautiful plotlines, this sticks out like a sore thumb. Adventure Time is probably gonna continue in some way or form, so it might have a chance to fully resolve this character arc...but with how they handled it I'm not holding my breath. But hey stranger things have happened in the Land of Ooo. Join me next time in my Adventure Time character analysis when I try to explain how Tree Trunks went from this...to this... Hey I haven't done a credits like this in a while, I just want

to say that I know this is a controversial subject and many people debate this. But hey I'm open to being wrong. If you disagree and have your own point tell me down below. Also that Tree Trunks thing is an actual idea, I'm not sure if I want to commit to it but if you think I should also let me know. Thank you for watching and goodbye.