‘Obsidian’ Special Sees Marcilene and PB deal with Past Baggage

Adventure Time: Distant Lands-Obsidian Review

When people ship fictional characters and then see them get together, they act like everything will be perfect from then on. That’s even if said ship becomes canon in a story’s grand finale. However, in the real world, finding your soulmate’s half the battle. The other half involves the effort that goes into growing and maintaining a healthy relationship whilst working through problems. Despite getting together in the series finale, Princess Bubblegum and Marcilene still have a lot of baggage that they need to work through. And Obsidian sees them do just that while also answering some lingering questions about their history.

Obsidian: Sharp But Fragile

Firstly, I want to say that I loved the title for this special. Obsidian is a rock that’s well-known for being sharp and capable of delivering vicious cuts. At the same time, it’s also fragile and can break easily. In the context of the special, it symbolizes Marcilene’s character. She’s capable of delivering some sharp and cutting lines with her songs. However, at the same time, she’s also vulnerable and insecure about herself and how she acted in the past. And when a little glassboy comes knocking on her door, begging her to help defeat a dragon she sealed away centuries ago, she gets a good look at who she was then and who she is now.

Fans of Adventure Time know that that Marcy and PB were in a relationship once before, but the exact circumstances of their breakup remained a mystery after the show’s end. Obsidian finally reveals the truth: when they sealed the dragon away last time, Marcilene used a song that basically called out and belittled PB over all her faults. It’s a very harsh way for Marcy to dump PB, yet you can’t help but enjoy it for its catchy tune.

Fortunately, PB knows that Marcilene’s grown since then and has forgiven her, but Marcilene hasn’t forgiven herself. This, in turn, leads to an identity crisis that makes her question her whole ‘tough girl’ persona and confront some things about her past.

No spoilers, but it involves her mom’s fate and its a tearjerker.

Healing Process

Again, I will not spoil anything, but I will say that by the time the credits roll around, PB and Marcy come out better for it. Marcilene learns that she doesn’t need to guard her emotions so much and she should be honest with herself. And while PB didn’t get as much focus, she also learned to not be so insecure about herself.

While I enjoyed BMO, I think that Obsidian is leaps and bounds over it. It carries the actual weight of the show behind it, and that gives it far more power in the process. If you have HBO Max, you need to watch Obsidian.

I Give Distant Lands- ObsidianA Solid 4.8/5

Stray Observations

• Grown-up Finn!

• It seems that despite no longer being the Ice King, Simon’s still got a few of his quirks left in him.

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