The Tower - Part One

I had promised a few weeks ago to talk about Adventure Time. And that day has finally arrived. First, I begin with the episode "The Tower". For those of you who don't watch or haven't seen the episodes leading to this, this episode takes place directly after Finn goes on a search for his father. This adventure takes him to the space prison called "The Citadel". Through this, his father and some other baddies escape and Finn's father abandons him. In the process, Finn loses his arm. He is then left with a stump with a flower at the end of it. As he is dealing with the PTSD of losing his arm and his father, the princesses of the land are trying to help. They are making him prosthetic arms made from various things. However, Finn manages to explode each one. After the explosion of his most recent one, Jake gives him some advice:

This is the first piece of this episode that I think is really important. Jake gives us an important way of solving our problems, He gives the idea of a "Melon Heart", to suggest thinking with your brain, but also with your heart in order to deal with struggles and complex emotions. I point out again that this is a children's show, and the show uses this to its advantage. It presents this complex idea in a way that children can understand it and makes the show meaningful. This is also important to note as a parent, because they are being introduced to this idea, and can be a way to direct you child to help them deal with the struggles that they are and will be facing in the future.

Finn then decides to go and think about what "his melon heart is telling him". He lays in the grass and stares at the sky, thinking about space. He ponders that space is where his dad is, and wonders how he could get up there and find his dad again. He then begins to stack rocks. but not in the way that you think. Finn discovers that he is creating a telekinetic prosthetic arm. He sees this tower that his arm has made, and begins making a tower into space. When Jake returns later, he finds the tower to be much taller and with objects flying up to it, of their own accord. Princess Bubblegum is also there, deciding that she needs a way to get Finn down. 
Also really important. This is where it's important for parents to be watching with their kids. This scene discusses the dynamic between choosing to work through issues rather than just pretending that they don't exist. It is important for parents to recognize that stepping back and letting children work through issues themselves sets them up for a healthier future. But this part of the episode also points out the important piece of when it is okay to step back into the situation because your child isn't handling it in a productive manner.

We then learn that Finn has made his tower so large that it has made it into the clouds. While he's building, he is constantly singing this song:

Baby's building a tower into space
Space is where he's gonna find his dad
Daddy's got an arm 
and baby's gonna harm his arm by tearin' it off his dad

I find this song to be very representative of Finn's overall goal. The fact that he repeats it for the entire time that he is building the tower shows his motivation. He is driven solely be the idea of "eye for an eye" that he cannot see anything else. It also shows how little Finn has thought about his plan. Finn has a basic knowledge of space, enough to know that it's a pretty big place. His sole focus is getting just a little closer to where he thinks his dad will be, that he doesn't think about how to get around in space or that breathing will soon be an issue.

Finn then encounters a cloud person, by accidentally entering her house. She seems very alarmed and hits him with some lightning in order to get him out of her house. She makes some vague comments about how Finn must be a "swimmer", and how she's not water anymore, so Finn cannot get her up his nose any more. The cloud person then returns the next day and hears Finn singing his song. She introduces herself as Carroll and asks if Finn is really going to do those things. She tells him that revenge isn't the best way. "I get it, I get it. But let me tell you something. I used to be water. Like a pond or something real wet. I used to hate people swimming in me, kicking and stuff. So what did I do? I evaporated, I got myself out of there." She says. "Listen, you have to stop obsessing about revenge.  Be like me and run away, you have to run away and never stop hating your old life. You gotta really dwell on it."

Now Carroll presents Finn with some very important advice. She states that revenge isn't the best way. But she also presents and equally unhealthy way of dealing with issues. Carroll took one good step, and that was getting out of the situation. However, she never dealt with the trauma that it caused her and is still suffering as a result. She is even still paranoid about something like that happening again, like we saw in their first encounter. 

The next thing she says is representative of her pushed-down feelings. 

I find this wording to be incredibly clever. Carroll describes what it feels like to think about past hurts. When we don't deal with these hurt feelings, thinking about them can be like touching something hot and wanting to pull away. Sometimes the more we think about them, the more they hurt. But Carroll is an example of how we need to deal with these issues. Because if we don't they'll just fester and leave us afraid of new relationships.

That's it for part one! Stay tuned for the second half in the coming weeks!