Adventure Time airs on Cartoon Network and is currently awaiting its eighth and recently announced final season. The show follows a boy named Finn and his magical dog Jake on their many adventures. The characters explore topics like life, love, friendship, jealousy, pain and loss, just to name a few. Jake The Dog, the assumed deuteragonist, is a major contributing source of knowledge and advice, whether he is aiding in Finn's search for the Enchiridion, an epic hero guidebook, or teaching people to make bacon pancakes.
Jake and Finn are generally inseparable. They're best friends and adopted brothers who go everywhere together, experiencing life and learning. Jake is relatively older than Finn and seems to be full of insight that Finn has yet to develop. He was there to help when Finn was experiencing his first taste of jealousy for Princess Bubblegum in an episode called Ricardio, The Heart Guy. Even though some of Jake's advice can be a bit abstract at times, he is still pretty pragmatic.
These are just a few of Jake's more memorable quotes that really resonate with me and help shape a healthy perspective, especially for the intended audience.
In the episode Puhoy, Finn is expressly called out for sulking instead of enjoying the epic pillow fort that is being built. When he attributes his turmoil to having a girlfriend is hard, Jake was quick to correct him as he said, "Being crazy is hard. You're getting all hung up on imaginary problems. You got to focus on what's real, man." This line, I felt, was really insightful and relevant to many problems we all struggle with at times. Instead coming up with potential reasons why Finn's girlfriend didn't laugh at his joke, he should focus on what's actually happening and be in the present moment. Sometimes we can fall into spirals just thinking about the endless topics of life and we might not realize we've been missing out on whats happening at the current moment.
The episode Blood Under The Skin is a great episode for watching Finn's character development from start to finish. In initiating their search for the Magical Armor of Zeldron, Choose Goose (a magical, rhyming, floppy goose) gives the pair a poem that leads them on their search. Finn, not being able to decipher the poem, gives it to his best friend. Jake gives this bit of advice, "You don't just read poetry to understand it, you got to feel it." Then he proceeds to tell Finn the first task is to cross the swap. Growing up with exposure to my dad's love of poetry and wordsmithery, I really enjoy this quote.
His Hero is an episode which was banned in Australia and the Philippines. Pure circumstance leads Finn and Jake to meet their lifelong hero, Billy. He tells them to approach problems with a nonviolent perspective. He says that violence is an endless cycle and more peaceful solutions are the only way to stop the repetitive nature of struggle and strife. When they realized that they are not very good at this nonviolent hero path, Jake says some of the most insightful words I have heard in my years. "Sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something." This is such an unsullied and humbled perspective to posses. Accepting the realities of personal development is an enlightened viewpoint that I admire.
The episode Box Prince introduces the protagonist for this segment as a cat with a box on its back. The cat actually belongs to a Kingdom of cats and turtles with a noticeable affinity for boxes. Finn is recruited to help this cat, Box Prince, return to his home and eventually help reclaim his kingdom. Unfortunately, because Box Prince is a cat, Jake is less than interested in helping and stays behind with BMO. As the episode continues, Finn initiates a plan to help his new found friend. The story shifts back to Jake and BMO playing video games in the Tree Fort. After deflecting BMO's inquiries as to why he doesn't like cats, Jake gets a piece of tortilla chip stuck in his tooth. BMO suggests that Jake should just magically get bigger and let the chip fall out. Jake proceeds to explain he can't just stretch out of everything because "To live life you need problems. If you get everything you want the minute you want it, then what's the point of living?"
These are just a few examples of how this magical yellow dog thinks outside of the box. Jake the Dog is an ingenious and jovial creature who adds a complimentary sass to this amiable and virtuous cartoon. I highly recommend Adventure Time for the kid in you. It is an intelligent, quirky and morally inspiring cartoon that I, personally, find quite captivating.
