Everyone has played god in some form or another. Whether it’s been through some sort of artistic expression or a video game, people like to play a complicated game of what-ifs. The easy comparison to be drawn with this episode is something like The Sims. People can turn an innocent bit of curiosity into a full-blown “addiction” given the right pieces. Especially if those pieces include dark magic.
Throughout the episode, Finn shoves miniature versions of the Adventure Time cast into situations with characters they might not have otherwise interacted with. This sounds like a simple plot, where most other shows would have cast this into a sort of side-story where it is revealed to have been part of some character’s day-dream or something, Adventure Time instead paints the picture of a dark, eerie, somewhat disturbing reality. Characters are into crying while being spanked, body-building to seek revenge, crying for a full 16 weeks, and an implied threesome.
Finn sits there for weeks on end, the house is a wreck, he has horrifying pit stains, which leads me to believe that the episode isn’t just about a retelling of The Sims or something like that. It’s almost as if Finn is cast, temporarily, into Magic Man’s role. He’s given power over an entire domain, not unlike the writers for the show.
It feels like an entirely meta episode. The writers tell a story about the inherent power that comes with being able to control someone’s destiny completely, which, conveniently enough, Finn does at one point using a pencil. This symbolism should not be lost, as it’s a rather overt chance for the writers to share with the audience the perils of writing in general. At first, when Finn shows Jake that he’s messing with people’s relationships, Jake mentions that “it ain’t wholesome” and that he needs to “leave for a few days to clear his head.” Even someone that was on Finn’s side was put off by the narrative thread that he chose to pursue. Conveniently enough, he leaves for 16 weeks, or about half the time it takes to make an episode of Adventure Time. Of course, this is stretching, but it fits into the narrative I’ve constructed, so I’m keeping it.
Finally, both Magic Man and Finn state that they’re “not coming back.” Which seemed to be a nod that the writers of the show often feel like Finn. They, and all writers in general, put people together, break people up, and sometimes mess things up in a way in which people get all up in arms about. There’s not a whole lot you can do that’ll satisfy even your closest allies, so from the outsiders point of view, you do come off as a “Magic Man.”; all-powerful, but at the same time somewhat bumbling and goofy.
Or it could be that the writers of the show giving a nod to the people who write NSFW fan fiction about the Adventure Time cast and crew, subtly noting that they’re creepy and spend too much time doing so. The buff Princess, people spanking, implied threesomes, constant crying, kissing everything that moves, Finn tonguing himself, and drenched cat-fighting all points to that, but what do I know?
tvdinner&amovie 