Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Is a Gift for Current and Former Moody Queer Teens

: , the limited animated series currently streaming on Max, is significantly different from its predecessor.

Serving as a direct sequel to the original Cartoon Network series, the tone of this spin-off is notably darker. The episodes, which have been dropping weekly on the streamer in pairs since August 31, follow titular gender-swapped versions of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog from Adventure Time. This “gender swap” concept was introduced early in the original series when the Ice King, Finn and Jake’s kooky nemesis, wrote “alternate universe” fanfiction about the two heroes and their friends. Adventure Time went on to produce a handful of episodes set in the gender-swapped universe during its 10-season run, with alternate versions of other beloved characters like Marceline (who becomes Marshall Lee), Princess Bubblegum (Prince Gumball), Lumpy Space Princess (Lumpy Space Prince), and other

The scene was especially meaningful to me, given how important Adventure Time was when I was a queer teen. I identified strongly with the moody, extremely bi-coded Marceline, who often seemed as though she could only express her emotions through music. The show introduced the gender-swapped universe right around the same time that I started to understand that I had some weird gender feelings of my own. In fact, in an Instagram caption of mine from 2013, Marshall Lee and Fionna’s taunting back and forth of “good little girl, bad little boy” became decontextualized as a metaphor for my budding genderfluidity.

As lawmakers attack LGBTQ\+ youth, creators remain committed to telling stories for all ages.

Since binge-watching Fionna and Cake, I’ve been revisiting the original Adventure Time for the first time in years. While it’s still a joy to re-experience, I’ve also been struck by how contrivedly heterosexual the series was at times, sometimes in suspect ways. In the first few seasons, Finn (who is 13) is obsessed with Princess Bubblegum (who is 18). The first gender-swapped episode in the original series has Prince Gumball, who is literally played by Neil Patrick Harris, serenading Fionna with a love song. Even “Good Little Girl” was a semi-romantic duet between Fionna and Marshall Lee. Maybe it was intended as a light jab at fan culture, but upon rewatch, all of this felt more like an obligatory balancing act to me, reassuring viewers of the characters’ supposed straightness even as Bubblegum admitted that her most prized possession was an old band T-shirt Marceline gave her.

The original series was fun and definitely did a lot for me in the gender department at the time. (There may or may not be a ukulele cover of “Oh Fionna” uploaded to my old SoundCloud.) But rewatching it also made me reflect on how far we’ve come in a relatively short amount of time, both in terms of the bountiful queer representation available in children’s media today, and in terms of my own relationship to gender and sexuality.

As heavily coded as it was, Bubbline meant so much to me, one of the only queer femmes at my high school who was openly in a relationship with a girl. Watching the unabashedly gay relationship between Marshall Lee and Gary Prince now similarly feels like a parallel evolution, as a queer transmits adult — and it’s one that feels just as meaningful as that original watch, if not more so.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them weekly newsletter here.