Conspiracy Theories of Adventure Time

## Introduction

Literature is most commonly thought of as novels, poems, biographies, and much more. The twenty-first century takes this preconception of what literature can be and flips in on its back. No more does literature have to be within the pages of a book, but it can be explored through vivid language and images on the Wired Web! The internet expands the possiblities of what literature is while allowing it to reach out to a larger audience. Authors are taking advantage of this to boost their sells, and communicate with their readers. Though, there are many positive aspects with including new technologies as a legitimate form of literature there are still people that believe it puts reading in danger.

One of those negative views comes from the argument by the National Endowment for the Arts (NAE), which states that there is a significant decline in readers. From their report titled Reading at Risk Report they use graphs, percentages, and studies to show how this decline has increased over the years. Their official statement proclaims that, "literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young", but the fault in their studies is that they fail to account for the new forms of reading. In their graphs the only examples of literature they give is books, poetry, plays, novels, or creative writing. While these are legitimate ways of reading, it does not keep to date, or research, any of the new ways youth and young adults are participating in literature today. These new forms include, but are not limited to, ebooks, online articles, dicussion blogs, forums, video games, documentaries, and much more. Though these ways of reading steer away from traditional means they should be looked with a fresh perspective in order to see them as what they really are: a new way to get readers involved. In fact, the use of the internet with literature gets readers even more involved. The ways it does this is now readers can communicate with the author through the internet and engage in asking them questions or making suggestions over the author's book, etc. If they can't contact the author readers can use the internet to form a community where they can discuss the literature. Some even share their art they made after being inspired form the reading. Basically, there are many outlets for readers to get together to discuss, ask questions, and share their own remediation of the work. What can be gathered about this is that the Wide Web actually expands the definition of literature, and can get the readers more involved than quitely reading a book at home.

Many arguements, like the Reading at Risk Report, claim that Americans are reading less, therefor thinking less, all because of the big bad internet. In addition, they claim that the internet is putting the book business in danger by threatening their sells. Douglas Rushkoff in A Computer Ate My Book opposes this statement by pointing out that the, "internet serves to disseminate our ideas. . .Our words have more impact, because we let them spread over the internet, for free." What Rushkoff is saying is as an author himself he claims the internet has boosted his sells because he can reach more readers and converse with them, which helps him figure out what provokes them the most. When you know what a reader is interested in, or if they are investing in your books, then you can figure out what will improve your writing and ultimately boost your sells. To target the arguement that people are reading less, Rushkoff states that computers make us read more. He emphasizes that even though the internet is heavily visual, it is still word-based. The readers online interact more than offline readers because they have a larger group to communicate with. In addition to this, the online interaction improves the readers writing because not only are the reading about a piece of literature, but they are physically writing down there opinions, questions, and ideas about the reading, along with having fellow online peers review and respond to it.

As dicussed in Rushkoff's article, the internet is basically a wealth of people getting together, "contributing to the development of a piece of literature". It's time to start accepting these new forms of reading because they offer so many opprotunities to the public. Imagine this, you're sitting in front of the TV watching your favorite show, then later you go to the theatre, pick a sit, and watch your favorite play. Dissociate your previous opinions of the two and look at them as what they are: a production written for the viewing of the public. Both involve a script to be formed, a cast, and both depend on an audience for their viewing. What makes these two so different then? They can both be created for pure entertainment, or for more for an educational means, or a combination of the two.

This brings me to the topic of this page: Adventure Time. Most people when first viewing this show would think it is a ridiculous, nonsensical show created to be another cartoon that is turning its viewers into couch potatoes. This isn't so. In fact, Adventure Time has many layers that when unpeeled you will find they are dealing with heavy subject matter. For this, I will discuss the ways Adventure Time talks about heavy subject matter, gets their audience involved with their literature, and the communities formed around the show.

## Knowledge Communitites

Knowledge Communities are formed from specialized knowledge of readers in order to form a collection of information that is pooled into one larger understanding of the text. Since Adventure Time gives their readers lots of tiny, but important, details along with leaving the meaning ambigious, the fans will get together with their information or ideas to help form a larger understanding of subjects. One of the best and largest examples of this is from the Adventure Time Wikia page. This is an online community where over 2,500 articles have been produced since May, 2009. The page includes news, polls, and sections that give information on episodes, characters, and the crew/cast of Adventure Time.

One example of collective knowledge on this wikia is the timeline that is set after the Mushroom Wars. The Mushroom War took place roughly around 1,000 years before the time the show is set in. The show is set in the Land of Ooo, which was formed after the Mushroom War destroyed human life and birthed the magic and technology we see in the show today. Contents of this page created by the fans include: Origins, Aftermath, Evidence or clues of former civilization, Timeline, etc. This page is open for the fans to edit in order to keep the information up to date and correct. On this page there is also a section titled, Talk where fans have posted almost 200 comments pertaining to improving the information on the page. The rules are that it has to be comments that bring information to improve the page; it is not for discussion, debates, or theories-that is for the forum. This differs from Interpretative Disputes because it is about collecting information, not trying to understand it.

This collection of knowledge shows just how involved the fans are, because of this it can be argued that Adventure Time should be considered literature. Not only does Adventure Time have a whole cast to write the script, develop the art, and further the plot, but it has a whole fan base that takes the show even further.

Another timeline formed from collected information is on tvtropes. The timeline starts before the beginning of time to a few years after Grayble Society rises. It is put together in a very organized and concise way, such putting together would take gathering information from other sources and minds to create

a working timeline. What is nice about the way literature can be experienced is that fans can get together to form a higher intelligence of the work. This in turn it making them think about what they read and to be inspired by it to further find answers not given by the author. With Adventure Time, fans are very involved in figuring out what the significance is of the tiny details the creators give, but don't explain. An example of this would include a comment from one fan on the Mushroom War page that states that they noticed debris and what looked like a spaceship as Lemonhope walked through the area in Lemonhope's song from the "Too Old" episode. The fan assumes the setting takes place in the future, making the ruins from previous life before the Mushroom War. With this fan's knowledge it helps improve the timeline in figuring out the sequence of events and what time the episode took place.

## Interpretative Disputes

Interpretative disputes can usually be found in forums, comment sections, and dicussion blogs where readers can bring up their opinions and ideas of the text. This allows rooms for disagreements, in turn creating arguments between opposing views. They don't have to be big arguments; they can simply be dicussions, but these disputes help readers to gather further understanding of the text since this is where they can propose theories and ideas.

### Princess Bubblegum and Marceline

Adventure Time fans, like many other fans, bring along their own opinions and views of the text. One of the main disputes would be the debate on whether the producers show Princess Bubblegum (PB) and Marceline the vampire as just friends, or past lovers. What is hard to depict is that their relationship could be considered just a fallen friendship or a failed love. Two examples of their relationship include: PB sleeping in the shirt from Marceline who responds by blushing, "You...keep the shirt I gave you?", and when Marceline sings "I'm Just Your Problem" to PB. Both of these examples show that they had a falling out of some sort; what isn't clear is if it was a romantic one or just frienship.

When approaching the cast they are known to give vague answers or false information to through their viewers off. For example, at the signing of The Adventure Time encyclodaedia Olivia Olson, who voices

Marceline, said that PB and Marceline did once date, but later she posted, then deleted, a tweet saying, "I like to make things up a panels. Y'all take my stories way too seriously..." This is just one of the many times the cast and creators of Adventure Time have given false information to fans. Really, it is up to the fans to decide how they will interpret it.

On tvtropes.org, the author of the page takes a look at both sides of the argument. They bring up a new way of looking at the relationship of the two:

* "The map shows only one bridge that leads to the Candy Kingdom and Marceline resided at the one structure that guarded that bridge. So perhaps Marceline had a relationship with the former Candy Kingdom rulers much like her current relationship with the Duke Nut. She befriended a young princess then fled when young Bonnibel got too interested in necromancy. So the relationship was broken off to keep Bonnibel from causing exactly the sort of zombie plague she finally did several years later." *Uknown Author*

This quote shows a totally new way of looking at the relationship. Maybe it wasn't romantic or a friendship. Maybe only one of them was interested in a romance, while the other new it was not smart. From this site there is another statement that points towards the idea of something more than friendship: when PB traded her prized t-shirt from Marceline in order to get Hambo, Marceline's childhood toy, back to her from the Sky Witch. The arguement being made is that how could someone give up their most prized possesion for someone who used to be just a friend. Yet, at the same time this could be looked at as a kind act that any generous person would do for someone they use to love, as a friend or not. The fans opinions brought up help other fans further understand and form their own opinions. It's much like talking in person: when you get together in a group and discuss ideas it bursts into new ideas from new minds. That's why communities in readers are so important, and the internet is the perfect place for this.

#### Ice King (Simon Petrikov)

After Watching Adventure Time it is easy to pick up on the distinct personalities of the characters. Often times it seems that some of them represent characteristics of mental disorders, which is again another way Adventure Time playfully brings up hard topics. One character commonly discussed over is the Ice King. His characteristics in earlier episodes include disagreeable, short-tempered, while in later episodes he is looked at as easy going and some what humorous. Overall he is an arrogant, yet harmless in nature, lonely antagonist, sometimes bordering protagonist, with poor social skills. Before he turned into the Ice King from the magically powers of the Crown he was a very intelligent, responsible, and self-sacrificing man who protected Marceline during the Mushroom Wars.

One theory is that the Ice King represents dementia. On tvtropes they state the side affects of dementia:

* Memory loss
* Disorganized behavior
* Depression
* Sociopathic symptoms (loss of empathy, bursts of basic emotions like anger, lack of social cues)

* Paranoia and seeing things

All of these signs can be found in the Ice King's personality. Even his transformation from Simon to the Ice King somes the slow decay of the mind over time. The crown symbolizes this. Still this is up for debate.

On reddit there is a discussion board with the question "What does the Ice King mean to you?" The author of the question thinks he represents a metaphor for people who seek power will sometimes forget who they originally were, or that he represents the struggle families have when they have an older family member with dementia and alzheimers. User Ziggidyzoom believes he presents the sacrifices made for loved ones, while user Chrisswagg13 thinks the Ice King is a metaphor for the corruption of absolute power. Over all, this subject has many debating on the deeper meaning into the character, which users might not know, but they are participating in user analysis. This is again another reason why the internet and new technologies are a good place for literature-it's making reading fun for new readers.

## Remediation

Remediation is basically defined as something taken out of it's original viewing and altered or reused in a different way. Among fansites you can usually find much remediation, which can be anywhere from fan art, comics, fan fiction, music, and many more. For Adventure Time it is very easy to stumble along new mediations of the show. A few of these I will discuss is the remediation of Bubbleline,

### Bubbleline

As discussed in Interpretive Disputes, there is a vague understanding of the history of PB and Marceline. Fans will make their own art based on their viewing of that relationship, thus the term Bubbleline appears. This one in particular, found on tumblr user fuckyapikacha page, is a strip from a comic that shows the

two as friends. From this, we get to explore another outlet of Adventure Time through the eyes of a fan. This comic inparticular shows the home life of Marceline and her dad, which isn't the main focus of her character. We get to see her going through typical emotions that a daughter might feel such as embarrassment of a parent. Then we also see PB relaxing and hanging out with friends instead of ruling the Candy Kingdom, or working in the lab on her scientific experiments. This little comic offers a new way of viewing the two, and giving a peek into what their personally life could be like outside of the show.

Commonly, Bubbleline is represented as a romantic couple. Which can be seen in this fan art by FauxBoy on Deviantart. The subject matter that this work brings up is the controversy that Cartoon Network cannot show a gay couple on their shows due to the broadcasting in countries where it is illegal to show. It's a quiet commentary to the banned love of gay couples, whom are not allowed to publize their relationship. Again, it's commenting on the taboo subject of gay relationships still not being allowed to showcase on television, whille representing it in a softer way, much like the way Adventure Time brings up deeper subject matter.

#### Gaming

    Though fan art is the most common remediation of Adventure Time there are games produced after the show. On the Cartoon Network Site under the section of Adventure Time Gamess there are many selections of games to choose from. One game I chose to play was titled Rhythm Heroes which takes place in the belly of a monster with the Party Bears from episode Belly of the Beast. The goal of the game is to compete in a karoke contest with the party bears. This is just other examples of the games. Another one is Legends of Ooo where you are role playing as Finn and Jake and have to defeat monsters, save princesses, and much more. You do this by collecting items, solving puzzles, interacting with characters, etc.

What is nice about these games is that it allows fans to actively participate in the show. It takes using the mind to solve problems in the game, in order to aid in winning or completing it. It also lets fans have a place to experience the game in a different way than just watching the show. Now, not only do they have communities to get together and discuss the shows, but they can participate in being a part of the show by role playing as the characters.

## Other Cool Sites to Visit

Adventure Time Conspiracy Theories - Tumblr

Fan Theories

Inspiring and Motivational Quotes

Over Thinking It

## References

1. ↑ Course Readings: Reading at Risk Report
2. ↑ Course Readings: Reading at Risk Report
3. ↑ Course Readings: A Computer Ate My Book by Douglas Rushkoff
4. ↑ Adventure Time Wiki: http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Mushroom\_War#Timeline
5. ↑ tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/AdventureTime
6. ↑ tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/AdventureTime
7. ↑ Adventure Time Wikia: http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Marceline%27s\_relationships
8. ↑ tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/AdventureTime
9. ↑ Adventure Time Wikia: http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Ice\_King#Personality
10. ↑ tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/AdventureTime
11. ↑ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/adventuretime/comments/1c485j/what\_does\_the\_ice\_king\_represent\_to\_you/
12. ↑ Tumblr: http://fuckyeahpikacha.tumblr.com/post/35435537885/to-end-my-search-at-the-beginning-for-what-i
13. ↑ Deviantart: http://harumi-chan.deviantart.com/art/MarxPb-tumblr-doodle-260352968
14. ↑ Cartoon Network: http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/adventuretime/rhythm-heroes/index.html