Adventure Time and the Nature of Endings | Lessons Animation Taught Us

The feeling I had for the finale is like getting off a friend's car and waving goodbye as they drive to the sunset. There isn't some cool car chase or anything just the emotion of seeing them drive away, happy yet sad.

"I will always be here tomorrow to high-five you yesterday" THat sent chills down my spine. Great work

Yes. I needed this. I was honestly getting tired of people constantly giving adventure time shit about being 'inconclusive' and the plot 'not going anywhere'. The idea of a show having purpose only when the story follows through to a conclusive or explanatory end baffles me. Adventure time is not about conclusiveness or endings, it has never been.

Wow. That C.S Lewis quote really got me.

A recurring sentiment throughout everyone’s reaction to the finale is something along the lines of “I can’t comprehend how I feel - I’m sad it’s over.” This show meant so much to so many people - complete strangers scattered around the world. Different cultures, ages, stages of their lives. The mark of excellent complex writing is the ability to connect with different intellects and resonate with unique life experiences. In truth, a kid’s show that can be analysed and appreciated in such depth is remarkable - but, it can possess the same significance to someone who doesn’t care for its philosophical musings. That is undeniably special. I felt like it grew with me, paralleled a lot of my problems - it added value to my life. I have struggled to internalise and articulate exactly what it meant to me - and your hard work and thought into this video has really helped me grasp that feeling. Thank you, Grace. I’m not sure I’ll ever feel this way about a show again - but that’s the deal.

I think I've just realized that if it's not nonsense, the Tart Toter is talking about a memory. The memory of someone high fiving you yesterday will always be there, including tomorrow, so it'll always be like they're there to high five you. High fiving being a metaphor for anything really.

What a fantastic piece. It's always saddened me that so little of the discussion surrounding such an important and visionary work as Adventure Time has centered around what the show as a whole was getting at. Most of what people say about it boils down to "It may look silly and crazy, but if you pay attention, it's actually pretty emotional sometimes", and there's so much more to it than that, such endless layers of complexity and thematic depth to explore and puzzle over and be moved and changed by. I couldn't have asked for a better channel than this one to contribute to that higher level of analysis, and even moreso for this than for the rest of your excellent content, you have my sincere gratitude.

"the pain I feel now is the happiness I had before" hit me in the right in the feels. The pain of an ending was the memories of all the good times you had and realizing that it would all just be memories from that point. This reminded me that endings are just new beginnings, no matter how hard it seems you can move on from it and grow into a position where things don't seem hopeless and done. Thank for helping me realize that again.

"Because someday soon my friend, this ride will come to an end, and we can't just get in line again...."

ah, right... when adventure time ends, I do feel like having lost a friend...

I definitely mourn the show when it ended. To me, this show is more about subconscious battles than the physical one.

I know this video is 2 years old, and you've probably seen many comments like this, but you just pinpointed the exact reason why I have a hard time moving on when I finish a show. It's the end of progress. I'm always making progress, watching episodes, sometimes at different rates, and sometimes forcing myself to watch it just so I can become closer to the end. And then once the end is there, I miss the progress. I somewhat regret it, for pushing myself to watch things too quickly just to see the result. I just finished the finale of Adventure Time today, and I'm desperately trying to find more content that explains this feeling that I get from the show, the philosophy and depth of it. I almost didn't want to watch the finale, I wanted to try and postpone it to avoid the ending and the end of progress, because I'll never be able to recreate the original sense of excitement, freshness, and progress that you get when watching a series for the first time. If I come up with any other observations on this thought I'll add it, but I just wanted to try and make sense of the feelings I have after endings and what others may have as well.

I have such an intense feeling of peace whenever I watch this video...

Going on 8 months after it's ended and it still feels like a recent development, I don't think there's a single day that I haven't thought about it, the show has the ability to bring me back thinking about it due to all of it's complex themes and ideas, and I get the feeling I and many others will be coming back to this for years to come. And maybe in the future, the fun will continue, and the television animation landscape will be transformed yet again, but for now: "Everything stays, but it still changes. Ever so slightly daily and nightly. In little ways, when everything stays."

I have found it hard to comprehend the wild mix of emotions I have been feeling since this show ended, but in this video, you have pinpointed exactly what those feelings are. Thank you.

I only ever watched one episode of Adventure Time when it originally aired, but now that it has ended, and after watching this video, I have the sudden urge to go back and watch the series (maybe a video about its ending wasn’t the best place to start, or maybe starting because of its end is exactly what the show would want)

Woah. I'm studying a major in literature and you are kind of inspiring me to make beautiful video essays like yours. My favorite episode of the series is Puhoy (the one about the pillow world) and I was thinking a lot about endings, beginnings and cycles as a whole because of it. Thanks for the knowledge <3 (Cried a little at the end of this one)

In other words, the reoccurring theme throughout the show reveals the meaning of it's ending. It's the end of the show, but the adventure lives on. I remember when I watched the first season when I was eight-years-old. Ahhh, nostalgia...

The ending really makes the show feel like we were just watching one chapter in the long and complex lives of the characters.

Having lost a friend is exactly what I felt when I finished the series. That quote really resonated with me.