Fionna and Cake: Depression Gallore
Added 2023-10-08 13:50:12 +0000 UTC<figure>
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(spoilers, suicide)
So Adventure Time has wrapped up for a second time, leaving another masterpiece. If the first show reinvigorated Cartoon Network and televized animation in general, then I hope this one serves as a trailblazer for animation for teens and young adults.
The show tackles a theme particularly dear to me: depression. Fionna is depressed, living in a mundane world. Simon is depressed, lacking purpose and missing Betty. Even the Lich is depressed, since ending all life didn't bring the satisfaction he hoped for. In Simon's case, the depression is so severe that he essentially threatens to commit ego death: becoming the Ice King again.
This is explicitly framed as a suicide attempt, especially as GOLBetty does everything in her power to stop it, and Fionna comes to realise that everyone should die as themselves. Simon later has therapy with Minerva, where he explicitly says his life has meaning now. If that's not an allegory for ending it all, I don't know what is.
Those who know me know that I'm in a very dark place. I won't say that Fionna and Cake saved my life, but they were a underful experience that ressonated deeply with me.
I can only hope to get Simon's epiphany, but until then I wouldn't mind if this was the greatest work of animation I got to see before ending it all.
