While rewatching a childhood classic, Adventure Time, I began to draw similarities between our course content and many characters, themes, and moments from the show. The theme of satan, demons, demonic practices, and spirit realms is present all throughout the show. Adventure time exists within a mystical universe of monsters and magic, and there is a clear association of good and evil with each.
The character that has the strongest presence as an evil demon, closely compared to modern ideas of Satan as an evil devil, is the Lich. The Lich is the main antagonist of the series and is an evil being dedicated to the extinction of all life. The Lich is slain in the show and trapped away, until he later escapes and wreaks havoc upon the world and the main characters in it. After a streak of terror and destruction, he is caught and turned into a harmless baby. This baby grows up to be a rather innocent character in the show, nicknamed Sweet P. But this character does have one fatal flaw. When the character is threatened, both physically and emotionally, the Lich’s evil power that still lurks inside is able to come out.
I thought that this character was very interesting, and I made several connections to the class. The first and foremost connection is that between the Lich and the idea of Satan. I thought it was interesting how they chose to depict him as everything that people think Satan is (an evil monster, destructive, the enemy), and I was curious if the character would have had the same impact if he was depicted in a more figurative way, like Ha Satan. I also made the connection between this plot and Cohen’s thesis of “the monster always escapes.” We see several times that the Lich escapes, even when he is trapped inside a harmless baby's body; his evil still lies within. It is never truly destroyed. It is only trapped, changes forms, or is maintained by the forces of good.
I grew up watching Adventure Time, and it is one of my comfort shows, so being able to watch it through the lens of our class was really interesting.
I would watch this show constantly on Cartoon Network as a kid, the amount of lore and backstory within the universe they created is quite impeccable. Your point that evil never fully goes away, it just changes form, is really interesting and fits well with what we’ve learned about Cohen's Thesis's. It’s cool how a childhood show can have deeper meaning when you look at it this way.
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