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Effects on Development and Trauma

Childhood is the main time of development in your life. It shapes how you react to situations and how you face challenges that come your way. Sudden trauma can inhibit that development and cause children to have trauma responses to challenges which can be difficult to deal with down the road. Growing up all alonecan be extremely traumatic and difficult to cope with. Parents are there to guide and protect us, without them we can feel lost; ILM UK has this to say on the matter, “As a child, your parents are your sanctuary, so losing them can make you feel scared, alone, and vulnerable” (Farhana). In order for the audience to truly understand why these characters were put into these unfortunate situations, the writers of Adventure Time used the on-screen tactic of flashback scenes so we could better understand Marceline’s story. Flashbacks invoke the use of logos to show the logic and reasoning behind why Marceline was abandoned. By giving us the backstory, the writers use logic to draw conclusions about why Marceline acts the way she does and how she reacts to challenges she faces. Marceline had to deal with abandonment twice throughout her story. Her biological father, Hudson Abedeer, is ruler of Ooo’s version of the underworld, the Nightosphere. He abandoned Marcy and her mother when she was just a young girl and she didn’t hear from him until thousands of years later (when she was only a “teen”, she is a vampire after all). This caused Marceline to be all on her own during The Great Mushroom War, a nuclear war that killed her mother and many others as well as mutating many citizens into zombies.

. That is, until she found Simon, who was supposedly the only other survivor of the war. Simon cared for Marcy like he was her biological father. He would do anything to protect her. In order to save Marcy from zombies and other dangers, Simon would put on a magical crown that gave him ice powers. But unfortunately, this crown would cause Simon to slowly lose his sanity and forget who he is. Simon knew these risks yet refused to get rid of the crown at fear for Marceline’s safety. Eventually, the crown caused him to go completely insane and turn into the main villain of Adventure Time, Ice King. Before he completely lost his mind, he abandoned Marcy and left her with only a teddy bear that he gave her, despite his wish that he could keep her safe forever. This trauma was detrimental to young Marceline. She felt, “scared, alone, and vulnerable” (Farhana).  She has now had two fathers abandon her and still has to cope with the loss of her mother. The lasting effects of this will show later in her story through trauma response, coping mechanisms, and encounters with these father figures.

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Coping with Trauma and Forgiveness

Flash-forward about 1000 years and Marceline is a teenager now, she has essentially raised herself. Throughout all this time, she never forgot about Hudson and Simon. She sees Simon occasionally, but he is Ice King now and has no recollection of their father-daughter connection. He even occasionally hits on her. She hasn’t seen her dad in quite some time and even writes songs about him and their difficult relationship before he left her. Songwriting is one way that Marceline copes with her trauma. Baton Rouge Behavioral Health speaks on the importance of coping mechanisms in an article from December 2022: “Coping skills help you tolerate, minimize, and deal with stressful situations in life. Managing your stress well can help you feel better physically and psychologically, and it can impact your ability to perform your best” (Martins). Marceline writes many songs about Hudson and Simon throughout the show. She learned that she needed to use this coping mechanism to process and learn from her trauma. I believe she also expected to never encounter these two ever again, so the songs were like closure for her. But she did end up seeing both Hudson and Simon again. These interactions involve the use of ethos as they are extremely emotionally heightened. Marceline has had to deal with many challenges brought on by her abandonment and watching her have to face the people who caused these issues is extremely emotional. It allows the audience to create a connection with Marcy as a character and imagine what emotions she may be feeling in these moments.

. Hudson came back into her life through a surprise visit where he pulled her into the Nightosphere and attempted to convince her to become ruler instead of him. This interaction did not go well. She was expecting an apology for abandoning her and causing her so much hurt throughout her life, but he didn’t seem interested in catching up. He ended up tricking her into putting on an amulet that turned her into her demon state and caused her to become the ruler of the Nightosphere. Once she was finally saved from this fate by her friends Finn and Jake, she had some choice words for her dad. Through their bickering, Finn played a recording of Marceline singing a song about Hudson titled, “Fries”. In this song, Marcy sings about a time when she was a child that all she wanted was fries and her dad ate her fries in front of her. In the song she also asks, “Do you even love me?” and “Why did you leave me?”. Finally, her dad understands what he has put Marceline through. He apologizes and sends her back to the land of Ooo. From this point on they have a pleasant, if long-distance relationship.

A similar experience occurs with Simon where he, as Ice King, passes by her home while she is singing along to the song, “Remember You”, a song Marceline wrote about a letter Simon addressed to her before the crown drove him completely insane. He apologizes for forgetting her and urges her that she will always he his little girl. Marceline and Ice King sing this song together while he slowly starts to remember her and his past life as Simon. He and Marceline share a tender moment and from this moment on, she calls him Simon.

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Success Through Finding Peace

Now that she has successfully dealt with the hurdle of reconnecting with both Hudson and Simon, Marceline is able to finally find the peace she has been searching for. Marcy had so much pent-up aggression and anger throughout the early episodes of Adventure Time. But after successfully reconnecting with her father figures, she has finally found peace. This is her version of success. Finding success displays ethos because Marcy has the credibility to give advice and talk about the issues she has gone through. By becoming successful and regaining agency over her life, we see that Marceline is a strong character who is credible and trustworthy. She ends up giving advice and helping her friends find success and peace later in the show. Having peace is so important and it was difficult for Marceline to believe she would ever be able to achieve it. But with her strategies of coping with trauma and learning to forgive Hudson and Simon, her character becomes much less aggressive throughout the show. The World Peace Initiative says that finding inner peace builds self-confidence, resolves phobias and fears, improves relationships, purifies your character, increases emotional stability, and much more. All of these traits are present in Marcy’s character after reconnecting with her father figures.

Even if she doesn’t see Hudson often, she no longer has to worry about him pressuring her into ruling the Nightosphere, so she feels comfortable visiting him occasionally and just hanging out. With Simon, she makes efforts to see him often and is very protective of him. Even if he is still Ice King and not mentally well, she still feels a responsibility for him and cares for him more than anyone in Ooo. She sees him frequently and encourages her friends to give him a second chance, she knows all he wants is to be loved. By fixing these formerly negative relationships, Marceline proves that she still has agency over her life, regardless of the hardships she has faced. Having agency is crucial and it is easy to think that your past experiences and current situations are what defines you. But what defines you is how you choose to live your life and set yourself up for success. By empowering herself through agency, Marceline has found inner peace, which is her form of success.

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Analyzing the Effects of Having Absent Parents in Adventure Time

Most kid’s shows would be afraid to tackle a serious topic such as parental abandonment, but not Pendelton Ward’s Adventure Time; the writers of the show chose to use the main character to show the effects of growing up without a proper parental figure and how it shapes you as a person. Dealing with absent parents can be very hard for a child, especially when it forces you to raise yourself and shape who you will become. Almost every main character in the show Adventure Time deals with absent parents and the negative effects of developing without parental influence. Adventure Time addresses this challenge by showing the audience the full character arch of the character Marceline and examples of how she grew because of her challenges, and we can all learn something from her experiences. The purpose of this blog post is to give background to what happened to Marcy and why she grew up without a parental figure, and to show that she used her situations to take agency over her life and lead herself down a path to success even though she was set up for failure. Research regarding child abandonment done at the University of Massachusetts states that, “long term separation, from parents or parent, has the following adverse effects: depression, loneliness, anxiety, anger, behavioral problems at school, low academic achievement motivation, lack of self-esteem, misbehavior, truancy, and stealing” (He). These traits are present in Marceline’s character before she learned to take agency over her life. Being young and dealing with being left behind can be difficult, which may be a reason why the writers of Adventure Time chose to use their children’s show to talk about this rarely addressed topic, to encourage children to take agency over their own lives. Adventure Time demonstrates how growing up without parents affects your early development, your response to trauma, and your success later in life; and why having agency over your life is crucial. This blog post will also dive into how ethos, pathos, and logos are present in these effects and how the writers used on-screen tactics to invoke these rhetorical appeals.  Analyzing the developmental effects of growing up with absent parents is important because it shows children going through similar situations that they still have agency over their lives, regardless of the struggles they have and will face. 

 

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Let's Set a Standard

Adventure Time dared to do what many cartoons would never do, they tackled a serious topic which, in this case, was the effects of being abandoned by your parents. The show focuses on how having absent parents can be incredibly difficult, but you still have agency over your life. Marceline’s story is an incredible example for anyone going through similar situations to her. Whether they were also abandoned by their parents or are going through other traumas, Marcy showed us that all you need is to take ahold of your life and have agency over yourself. Although Adventure Time is a children’s cartoon, it addresses real-life issues and situations that many members of their audience have dealt with in their own lives. The writers also used an effective combination of rhetorical appeals through on-screen tactics to display their message. It is so important to address these situations, because going through this and feeling alone can only make things worse. Young people need to feel seen in order to seek help and guidance in finding their own agency. I hope that other shows made for kids follow in Adventure Time’s footsteps and address more serious topics, because the first step to getting help is knowing that you aren’t alone.

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Works Cited

Adventure Time. Created by Pendelton Ward, Cartoon Network, 2010-2018.

He, Yiming. “The Effects of Parents’ Absence on the Lives of the Left -behind Children in Middle and Northern Rural China.” ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3325277/#:~:text=Previous%20research%20has%20suggested%20that,misbehavior%2C%20truancy%2C%20and%20stealing. Accessed 23 Oct. 2023.

Initiative, World Peace. “Peace in Peace Out.” Peace In Peace Out, peacerevolution.net/docs/ru/inner-peace-benefits#/.

“How Mental Health Coping Skills Can Help You Today.” Baton Rouge Behavioral Hospital, 21 Mar. 2023, batonrougebehavioral.com/mental-health-coping-skills/#:~:text=Coping%20skills%20help%20you%20tolerate,ability%20to%20perform%20your%20best.

“What Does It Feel like to Live without Parents?” International Learning Movement, www.ilmuk.org/news/what-does-it-feel-like-to-live-without-parents/.