Adventure Time showrunner explains what that wild Fionna and Cake death means for the lore

The newest episode of Fionna and Cake, “The Chook within the Clock,” was a fast-paced journey by means of dreamscapes, culminating in a surprising loss of life with a probably big influence on the general universe. So once I interviewed Adam Muto, the long-time Journey Time showrunner who now helms Fionna and Cake, I needed to ask concerning the broader implications transferring ahead. We mentioned how the concept for this main plot twist first took place, what it means for the present’s lore, and the way this episode compares to some equally dream-like entries within the unique collection.

[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Fionna and Cake season 2 episode 6.]

The destiny of the Cosmic Owl was sealed as quickly as he encountered Huntress Wizard inside her nightmare, the place he introduced he was on his technique to give Finn a croak dream. HW has spent all the season making an attempt to avoid wasting a poisoned Finn, so she gave chase and finally succeeded, killing the celestial chicken with a stake in Finn’s dream.

Croak desires are a giant a part of Cosmic Owl’s area, as any dream through which the chicken seems is destined to occur, together with loss of life. The episode “Hoots” of the original series confirmed that Cosmic Owl is duty-bound to make some desires come true, although any dream through which he seems turns into prophetic. This job makes him a vital character within the present’s universe. In a manner, the destiny of each character rests in his arms, and it’s unclear simply how a lot the world will change in his absence.

“So, you want, killed a god,” Fionna says after the chaos has subsided. “Is that going to be a giant deal?” It’s query, and one many followers undoubtedly have on their thoughts as nicely. Although Muto received’t say a lot concerning the overarching results of Cosmic Owl’s loss of life, he does verify its significance, nearly seeming to reply Fionna’s query.

“It was a giant deal. We’ll see the way it goes over,” Muto tells Polygon. “It felt proper, and hopefully it is not too miserable when someone watches it.”

This episode additionally marked one other necessary milestone: Finn and Fionna lastly met, albeit in a dream house. This long-awaited interplay was really, in a manner, the impetus for Cosmic Owl’s loss of life. Muto says the deadly occasion initially got here from a want to lastly deliver the 2 heroes of the franchise collectively in Fionna and Cake with out resorting to one thing hackneyed.

“How might they work together exterior of simply opening a portal and having them wave to one another?” Muto asks. “It was all the time like, ‘Let’s keep away from that in any respect prices if we are able to.’ As a result of that simply feels so tropey, and possibly not even attention-grabbing to only have them hang around collectively, however we additionally did need them to hang around collectively, so it form of was reverse engineered from that.”

Picture: Cartoon Community

There was additionally a real-life motive for the character’s demise, as the unique voice actor M. Emmet Walsh handed away in 2024.

“We do not have the unique voice actor, which is one thing that occurs increasingly as a present retains going, which is an excellent bummer,” Muto says. “We decide character actors that we’re taken with who are typically older, however so many many years have handed now — that is actual time having an impact on the present.”

“It’s simply type of the entropic forces of Journey Time, the place characters are dying over time, actors are dying over time,” he continues. “It’s extremely unhappy, but it surely’s additionally type of the character of the world that loss of life is one thing that occurs.”

The start of the episode opens with a brief story a few pair of mischievous brothers, who have been separated after a prank went too far. The sibling deemed to be the instigator was forged down beneath, by no means to be heard from once more, whereas the opposite was chastised for betraying his brother and sentenced to change into destiny’s messenger. The latter is revealed to be the Cosmic Owl, however the identification of the previous remains to be a thriller.

The sibling of a now-deceased character looks like a really purposeful reveal, and Muto confirmed the Cosmic Owl’s brother will “come up in a later episode.” When requested if he’s a personality followers have already met, Muto says, “No. I imply, their presence is made clear in an early episode, but it surely’s not a personality from the unique collection.”

Picture: WBD

Talking of the original series, seeing a storyline that befell largely inside dreamscapes instantly felt harking back to “King Worm,” a psychedelic Journey Time episode that adopted Finn as he struggled to flee the clutches of the titular creature that’d trapped him in his desires. Each that episode and “The Chook within the Clock” reap the benefits of a extra fantastical setting to experiment with the surreal and symbolic. For Muto a majority of these episodes pose a singular problem..

“I believe it is all the time a case of, ‘Is that this bizarre sufficient, or are we including issues simply to be bizarre?’” he says. “These have been all the time the enjoyable episodes to do, as a result of it’s totally laborious to really seize what it feels prefer to be in a dream. However it’s additionally inside a story, so it’s totally straightforward to get too misplaced in very symbolic acts and conduct that does not fairly make sense.”

“The Chook within the Clock” undoubtedly has some heavy symbology — like Marshall Lee’s ice cream-laden nightmare that touched on trauma together with his mom and Simone — however all the pieces was structured in a way more particular manner round in comparison with “King Worm,” which Muto agrees was the weirder episode of the 2.

“The best way that the desires have been structured on this, we had very particular guidelines about the way it labored,” Muto says. “That dictated much more of how the dream logic was going to play out, versus that episode, which was shifting type of each couple scenes with out essentially having a motive — it was all type of intuitive.”