The Christmas Special That Changed Adventure Time Forever

[Music] Adventure Time is well known as one of the best and most influential modern cartoons this is a huge audience and it's an incredible success with hundreds of episodes and multiple continuations and series and that's largely because it grew with its audience it was fun silly and colorful but slowly introduced new compelling themes and ideas darker story lines and arcs heavier writing and developing its own lore and most of all more ser serous characterization Adventure Time takes this lore

surprisingly seriously as it goes along especially what seems to be a wacky show and especially in so was never planned to actually have serious lore at first they developed them as they went along like the amount of times they go back to Recon so many pieces of random dialogue in the early season so they make sense later in the lore it's really impressive didn't steal it I made that item made it with the magic that I stole magical crown whose fantasmal circuitry will bomb to its first Bearer i

t needs a power source the enchanted Ruby eyes of the ancient lava dog [Music] magwood I did it I sorry we are about trying to eat you this is we thought we'd never get another chance we thought humans were extinct but it's not just the vampires or the users or them hungry looking rainbows all History's Greatest monster ERS you are by far the most evil thing I've encountered offer your soul to me dark one galg is an ancient Cosmic entity who ruled the solar system with his cruel and deadly whims

is clear I am more than Gunther like a mighty crysalis pushing out of a damp cocoon I emerge here at this site my great uncle gumbald cut down all these Taffy trees in a single night and finally Uncle [Music] Gumball what what but yeah since the series now says great lore plots and characters you got to ask when did the change really start some might say the season 2 finale with Mortal Folly and Mortal Recoil reintroducing the Lich and world ending Stakes or maybe the season 4 finale that gave

us farmward lore in killing off Billy brutally but I and many other people think it began with a Christmas special of all things yes one of the most marketable and cliched episodes they chose a Christmas special of all things to give one of the most important episodes in the franchise really think about that but I cannot understate how important Holly Jolly Secrets really is not only to the characterizations but the plot of not only the entire series but the entire franchise as well and well eve

ryone who saw this episode knows why this episode changed everything let's take a closer look at both episodes now before I start I want to give the current state of the Ice King in the first season he was a pretty one note villain with the whole kidnapping princess stick and causing out the trouble honestly looking back on the earlier episodes it's pretty shocking they don't want to be here of course they do I would have killed them already if they didn't want to be here Jesus dude but yeah des

pite that the Ice King has drastically become less villainous as the series goes on focusing more on their sadness and loneliness than their crimes season 3 in some episodes where he tries to bef friend F and Drake despite them clearly not wanting to he doesn't even want to kill them anymore even when he has the chance he's more of an annoyance than a threat at this point so the episode starts with Jake digging up an old suitcase full of VHS tapes for remembers he saw Ice King bury them in a dum

p apparently the Ice King calls them evil tapes need to get rid of and hides them when they're a giant pile of boogers gross but it does lead to the funniest joke in the episode for him to leave but he played in those boogers for hours so F hold some evil secrets of the Ice King they need to watch through so Jake get excited for the watch party hilariously puts on a bunch of Flyers telling people not to see the tapes which yeah inevitably gets the attention of the Ice King who's Ables his tapes

and just wants to get invited to the watch party and have fun they start watching the tapes using B mode but they are just Ice King doing things around the house like to his penguins getting really weird and being sad and lonely Fin and J are getting insanely bored and honestly so am I I hate to say it but a lot of this episode is just watching the tapes but most are just uninteresting or just unfunny a lot just go on for so long it just really feels tiring Jake gets bored and then makes some fe

sive looking food it looks freaking delicious but the Ice King goes to the house and want to watch the tast to bring some gifts but the guy's trying to stay quiet and hopes he thinks they're not home but beemo's alarm goes off which Ice King recognizes as beo but like how does he know who they are they haven't interacted once I guess maybe and still but that feels really weird also beo say in house all the time anyway so like that would mean they're not home okay pedantic pedantic they just go b

ack to watching the tapes and nothing really interesting happens you know Noble being ice cream for counting a usual encounter with FJ which is kind of amusing at least you know dear diary I'm starting to worry that all these entries sound exactly the same eventually they think maybe the evil secret is in some secret code and call of Princess Bubblegum she knows how to crack them PB an test he know so much about codes and wait a minute why does she apparently know so much about secret codes what

could you possibly do in your kingdom of idiots that would require such knowledge what do you have Under Wraps man PB is the one these used to be trying to find evil secrets for okay then let's add that to the PB video has suspicious knowledge of secret codes and how to decipher them that should piss more people off but before we can see more proof of Bubblegum's evil nature the Ice King breaks the connection on the phone lines that only exist in this episode and pretends to be the princess but

Finn J cat on quick and call him out saying he can't watch the tapes fin says that he now knows the Ice King doesn't know they're watching his tapes and need to hurry but now something interesting happens as Ice King's patience breaks as he summons an enormous BL blizzard aimed right at the Treehouse as the episode ends with Jake about to scream so part one yeah honestly not that good it's just really boring and unfunny it gives us the setup sure but everything else was a super boring Meanderin

g and just not fun if they wanted me to feel like Jake they 100% succeed because I felt like I was there getting bored out of my mind watching these tapes like the scene just go on for far too long it's not funny even outside of the tape so much this episode feels like padding into pretty much nothing it's a two-part episode but part one just feels so pointless outside from starting the plot this episode was stand alone it'll be the most boring episode of Adventure Time but luckily it's not with

part two now while part one was boring as hell part two is where all the magic happens it's far more enjoyable interesting and every single joke is gold honestly I wonder if they could have just condensed part one to part two but I can imagine it would be difficult for an 11 minute episode but okay it turns out Jake was just singing Alo wait how did that song Last a thousand years in the future after humanity is gone the house gets covered in snow but the only thing the two feel is kind of cold

so they get warm sweers and light a fire which looks so cozy I love how the episode starts out nothing like Christmas but then slowly and slowly becomes more appropriate it's really fun the Ice King peeps in and finds it his secret tapes as he knows to stop them from watching before they go to his Horrible Secret he starts making a Snowman by hand even though he totally could just magic one up but gets super into it but back to the tapes it starts ice cream crying for so long and then wait what

's that popup doing there this is not a recording this is part of the episode I'm just confused why would they add that like what possible reason man that must be annoying at this a another Network internationally but it doesn't matter as bimo thinks he found a code when the Ice King's 13th tier splits correlating that to the letter M making an image every single time he said an m word producing this be the Ice King's evil secret what does it mean oh my God that's so good I love it man this epis

ode makes me hysterical like there's another great moment when the Ice King made an army of Snowman by hand apparently since he use his magic to bring the life after he Dem man to get in and get the tapes snowman attack it's so so good man it's so good but now knowing Ice King's onto them they Rush under the bed to finish watching the tape with a pretty good one with Ice King pretending to interview a terrified wild bra princess who has no idea what's going on but Ice King breaks in changes from

his Rob into a more festive outfit it sends his ice sco to search for Finn and Jake and then we randomly get Daddy Why Did You Eat My Fries I bought them they were mine okay this is amazing I still remember laughing so hard as a kid when it was joining promos ice ski and Marsing at this moment in the show had never interacted at all even when they appeared in the same episode there is no evidence that even no of each other's existence at this point in the show and then to randomly see Ice King

singing her private fry song while wearing a wig of her hair so Random so out of nowhere and so freaking ridiculous it's so hilarious though yeah after I remember you this becomes a lot sadder but man that time it was so funny but the Snowman quickly search and we get another pretty good moment with one Rudolph parody you're so unique I'll name you rednose and make you leader of the well now you look boring but the tour quickly discovered as Ice King and the snowman go on attack as Fin and Jake

fight back bimo says he has one last tape left as he plays it as the Ice King begs him not to and then we get the moment that every vure time fan will never forget hello my name is Simon Petrov I am recording this tape so that people will know my story everyone remembers those words this and the last episode were very light-hearted it's a silly scenario with not that much plot and the second PL is full of jokes you would never expect a turn of reveal like this you're in the same shoes as Finn an

d Jake now suddenly seeing this one note villain was when a real person I think this scene is one of the most masterful pieces of character characterization I've seen the impact the tone the amount of exposition and emotions condensed in a few minutes the music is so amazing it's a masterpiece of a scene Simon Petrov an aquarium of the old world respected researcher with the woman who loved him lost everything when he put on the ancient cursed Crown his fiance left him he gets visions of an apoc

alypse and his body transforms he tries to desperately click through his sanity begging people to forgive him and help him with no avail so much of this reframes everything the Ice King has done in the previous episodes I know my mind is changing but I'm already too far gone to know what to do just watch over me until I can find my way out of this labyrinth in my brain and regain my sanity and then maybe Betty my princess maybe you will love me again I want people to know that if I do things if

I do things that hurt anyone please please forgive me a flat villain is now shown to be an honorable man who lost everything now as an insane empowered husk of his former self and complete tragedy this is where Adventure Time changed this is where Adventure Time wanted to S serious stories this is where Adventure Time wants to make the viewer truly feel for its characters and world this is where Adventure Time said it wants to be more than a goofy kid show and so much of the series is dependent

on this one moment practically every important and meaningful emotional plot Point ties into this one way or another without this we wouldn't have I remember you we wouldn't have Simon and Marcy we wouldn't have Evergreen Betty even the finale itself depended on it even the entire fion and Cake series is based on what this episode introduces and it did so masterfully so emotional so much should I I think it should seriously be studied and appreciated and after that the Ice King cries now they kn

ow his terrible secret you know that I used to wear glasses it should be funny it should be but the fact that Ice King no Simon looked at his own past and can't even comprehend what he's become and what he's lost he's that far gone but Finn does know he's visibly distraught when I first watched I was annoyed he didn't acknowledge what he saw but now it realized how much he's keeping internally as a hero now seeing the villain he loves to punch and defeat as a poor old and went off the deep end a

nd the man he once was and I think for the first time in the series he does give a genuine act of kindness to the ice K and hands back his tapes the ice is Overjoyed at the gift foret that they were even his and his entire motivation a second ago again it should be funny but after everything it's just sad it doesn't get to the level of I remember you where the crown is an allegory for Dementia or Alzheimer's but you can feel it ice SK gratitud gives them gifts he originally arrived with inste th

ey to do this once a year and they do getting together exactly as they did here watching old tapes and sweaters by the fire it's funny how the episode grows to not being Christmas at all to becoming such an unorthodox Christmas again reborn a thousand years later at something new but familiar it's so nice and unique as a Christmas special it's not only just them as they invite their friends PB is invited too though H did she watch the Simon tape interesting if she did then she would know the Ice

King's origin Maybe that's why she's a little nicer to him after no it does make this scene much worse the password oh my pinky password now but hey PB also invited her uncle too for Christmas how thoughtful of her Marceline's here too but outside what why is she not watching inside could it be foreshadowing that she can't stand to watch iceing passes Simon since it's too traumatizing seeing the sent to Madness that her cenal father figure went to that CA her so much emotional turmoil or it's j

ust possibly a reference to her first appearance in evicted either one and Tre trks to Mr piger here too still done for making that tree trunks video guys just tell me and a bunch of other cameos show up to the Christmas get together as Shelby says to commemorate the day that Finn and Jake had a moment of empathy for the biggest weirdo in oo it was a miracle good night what can you say about this episode it's incredible it's incredible as a Christmas episode and incredible as an episode in gener

al and yeah the first episode was pretty lame but the second was just filled to the brain with such great jokes atmosphere and especially the plot TST at the end and I feel it's obvious for what it's done for the franchise sure Mortal Folly and Reco had disturbing tone scenes and Stakes but it didn't feel real this one hits much harder it's not just a monster it's a man that became a monster and one victim they cannot help this episode add so much depth to a character who basically had none befo

re it makes such a tragic figure in a world of such fantasy It Feels So strangely real it's the first time of vet time want to really develop a character past the shallow they appear to be and they never forgot it as I said this has so much impact on the entire Series so many characters have their Arc based on the single twist Marceline is so much of her backstory dependent on this twist and her relationship with Simon is one of the most heartwarming and heartbreaking stories as Avent time as to

ld and Betty has a multi-seasonal Arc to try and save Simon from his curse as the Ice King last the entire series and even Beyond it where it becomes crucial to the fion and Cake series I seriously cannot undy how important this one episode is and believe me everyone in the fan base remembers that impact it has everyone remembers how suddening this goofy silly show didn't seem to be so silly anymore it helped it to become as beloved and respected as it is now it introduced such great characteriz

ation that inspired event to take other developments and risk developing other characters to such a degree as well and all of that from a goofy Christmas special and I think that's the magic of Adventure Time it's very silly wacky and sure a lot of episodes are nothing but that but it's a lot smaller than you think despite what it seems on the surface it wants to tell genuinely compelling stories characters you can care about and makes you feel in a way that only the best media can and in a way

it's the perfect Christmas gift of the series and it's a real change for the series too as afterwards Finn and Jake are notably more sympathetic to the Ice King sure they'll stop if he's doing bad but now they're nicer to him try to help him out and see less as a villain that's just a nice progression to Sea and maybe it's a bit of a lesson in this that maybe the biggest jerk you know has more to them than they first let on after all what is Christmas in the time of giving and especially forgivi

ng so I hope you have a good December and let me just say we're just getting started here and in the spirit of the Season as Finn and J forgave Ice King were nicer to him I asked for all of you who are mad at me after the princess bubble gum video to forgive me as well I'm still completely right though