Adventure Time is helping me get through life
I'm about 90% through my first rewatch since the series ended back nearly 10 years ago, and wow has it made a huge impact on my life. I'm wondering if a rewatch has done similar things for yall.
I've been using funny catchphrases like "Bad Jubies" or "my melon" to help me not take my life so seriously, relistening to my favorite songs to help me wind down, etc. All these effects but I think the most important impact is how it's fostered a peaceful outlook on the cycle of life and death. AT was already a jewel with its character development, but the lore relating it to prior human existence was what made this show an all-timer.
I think the current state of the world, through whatever angle you see it, evokes a deep existential fear. "Am I safe?" "Will my loved ones safe?" "Will I achieve my goals?" "Will I ever find love?" "Will I build the life I want to?" I personally have had my mini-crises over the past few years, and all of them are based on this fear of losing what I have came to love. That is, until I reached the middle of AT.
As viewers, we slowly learn that Ooo is a world that emerged thousands of years after humanity's downfall, through the Mushroom War. Although it is fictional, I think it is quite parallel to the idea that we will cause our own extinction. There are many reasons that suggest it, especially the growing divide between us and the continuous pursuit of hedonism.
Although AT provided the parallel of a self-induced downfall, it also conveyed a powerful, comforting message. Even if life as we know it comes to an end, life will return. I think it's an idea perfectly delivered by Marceline's song, "Everything Stays." Change is constant, but everything stays the same. Thousands of years after we are gone, love will return in a different form, friendship will return in a different form, nature will return in a different form, happiness will return in a different form, grief will return in a different form, struggle will return in a different form. Everything that made life valuable will come back, through fighting monsters, making breakfast for your friend in a treehouse, doing sick duets with a vampire queen, going through an existential crisis in a pillow fort, throwing parties in the belly of a monster, deep conversations with your magic dog, etc. We have another life ahead of us, so let's make the most out of it before we start anew in Ooo.
I think that experiencing life through this lens, though quite whimsy, provides me with a deep sense of peace and comfort that allows me to just go on with my day instead of being paralyzed by existential fear.