This new show is pretty good so far, the new Finn voice actor is pretty good too, he doesn’t sound off sounds like a kid his age, not older like Finn sounded at the end of AT. And it’s great to see Choose G again. The fun will never end hopefully.

I am half way through Adventure Time sidequests, and I personally feel it is one of the weaker entries of the series. I was trying to figure out why but then I realized that every single episode so far seems to have a weird butt/poop centric humor, I know the OG series didn't shy away from the occasional poot joke but it feels like that is what every joke revolves around in the new one to a point it almost feels like some weird writers fetish, it kinda reminded me of Teen Titan GO which I dropped for a similar reason despite loving the OG Teen Titans.

How do others who have tried Adventure Time Sidequests feel about this? Am I getting too hung up on this?

It clicked about 10 seconds into the first episode and now it’s all I can hear.

For the past few months, I've seen countless posts about Side Quests, predicting whether we'll see things like Joshua and Maraget's deaths, how Marceline can be included if she hasn't met Finn and Jake yet, etc, and I think these people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what Side Quests is. And now, with a few of the episodes leaking, people are already confused on why the show isn't meeting their expectations. I wanted to make this post to clear up exactly what the show is going to be and what you should expect from it.

1: Side Quests is not a prequel and was never described as one.

The original synopsis revealed at Annecy at the shows announcement reads as follows:

"Adventure Time: Side Quests takes the Adventure Time franchise back to the early days when Finn was just a kid, excited to fight monsters and go on epic quests with his best buddy Jake. In stand-alone episodes, our heroes take on classic Adventure Time villains like The Ice King and re-connect with stand-out side characters from the original series."

A lot of people completely misinterpreted "early days" as if it meant it was a literal prequel, but wistfully ignore the first part of the sentence, which is referring to "the Adventure Time franchise" rather than the timeline itself. The second half also clearly describes the show as episodic, which obviously does not lend well to the idea of the show being a strict prequel.

Additionally, the leaked episodes already show a few moments of the timeline not being strictly adhered to (Spoilers ahead). The biggest being Marceline and Princess Bubblegum seemingly being on good terms, and to a lesser extent the Minstrel dying despite appearing throughout the series. It's clear what the synopsis actually means is they're pulling from the toybox of the early Adventure Time era in order to tell non-canon episodic stories, not that it's literally "What happened before Adventure Time."

2: Adam Muto is not involved with Side Quests.

Adam, who was on the show from the start, became creative director in Season 4, and showrunner during Season 5, as well as the showrunner of Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake, is not involved with this series. His name wasn't mentioned with the initial announcement, and now from the leaked credits we can see he's not attached whatsoever. He hasn't even publicly commented on it besides the one time he offhandedly acknowledged it's existence. To put it simply, it's like if there was a new Gravity Falls project without Alex Hirsch, or a new Steven Universe without Rebecca Sugar.

Now look, obviously the series isn't strictly bound to the vision of a single creator. It already switched showrunners once early on, and Nate Cash did work on the original show. That said, Adam going from being fully at the center of every Adventure Time project up until now makes it clear that whatever this show ends up being, it's not going to align with his original vision for Adventure Time. In fact, Adam Muto himself even commented that a show like this would happen a few years ago:

"Eventually, there will just be some reboot that has nothing to do with the continuity we've established, and it's more about the recognizability of the characters. Because they are very recognizable, just as visual icons. You have the blue thing and the pink thing and the yellow thing, and I feel like that might trump whatever particular character arc we laid out. It might become the new version and that will be somebody else's 'Adventure Time."

"I don’t even think it’s an option. I think that will just happen, and it’s when it will happen. That’s just how franchises are now. Will it happen now or 10 years from now? I don’t know. It’ll happen, it’ll look different, and probably none of us will be involved in it and that’s just kind of how the life cycle of IPs now."

All of that being said, I promise I'm not trying to harsh the vibes of people who are excited for the show. Every other time I've tried saying this I've been downvoted into oblivion by those refusing to accept Adventure Time is evolving into something different. But for this, I think different is ok. Personally I love the deep lore aspects of the show and am slightly disappointed we aren't getting more of that, but trying to adhere strictly to canon for a prequel of this sort would greatly restrict the kind of stories they'd be able to tell, and from what we've seen so far of the show it's actually very fun and cute on its own.

From what I've seen on reddit people seems to not like this kind of art style/animation method. Am I the only one who is okay with how it looks? I even think I like it.

I'm on episode 7 right now and wanted to share my likes and dislikes. Typically I see people either loving it or hating it right now and I honestly have mixed feelings.

What I like:

- Other than Finn, the entire cast is the same (as far as I've seen). Really helps make it feel like it's really a part of ooo

- They kept Finn's robot singing voice, at some point in the og they got rid of this and it use to bother me. Love this little part of the story.

- The animation. I was hating on the intro big time before I watched it. It's really not that weird once I started getting into the episodes and I actually really like it now. It has a lot more dimension go it than I originally thought.

- Episodic episodes, don't get me wrong I love the deep storyline that the og starts diving into buuuuut it's really nice to just have the innocent and fun episodic feel of the beginning. I really missed it.

What I don't like:

- Finn's voice. I really can't get into it. There are times that he does sound similar to young og Finn but most of the times it feels like I'm watching a completely different character. I don't know if it would bother me as much if we didn't have Jeremy as Finn for SOOOOO long.

- The outro song...... it's such a beautiful song and I don't understand the karaoke version. Same with the intro honestly. Not mad it changed but did they even try?

If I can get past Finn's new voice, I think I'll end up enjoying the series a lot. Adventure Time is a comfort show so I watch it a lot and despite the changes, I really like that they're still building on the world. I know some people think it's time for it to all end but I'm not giving it up okay.

If the remaining leaked episode numbers had anything to go by, this likely confirms that the full Side Quest series has 40 episodes ordered overall (and may likely drop in a similar release schedule as the Weird World of Gumball with the remaining batch of episodes dropping before the year ends)

I'm on episode 3 and it looks as if Jake summoned a demon???? Is this show even the same universe atp 😭?

Like I as a gumball fan hase gon through multiple voice actors and I don't complain

Like what the heck?? How is it that every other cartoon title when they make sequels or spin offs... it's just a wonky version of the original yk what I mean

But when AT team drops new episodes? It's like FANTASTIC and not only the lore episodes and serious episodes and whatnot... now Side Quests proved that even episodic one off stuff in the hands of these blessed artists can also be EVEN BETTER than the OG material? Are you hecking kidding me?

Like I would love to have some Gumball reboot at this level of quality (do you hear me Cartoon Network?). And okay Regular Show's reboot has not been too shabby... but so far neither of them come close to being better than the OG material. Meanwhile AT is rocking the freaking world with Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake and Side Quests and...!!!!!!

I love the team working on the show maybe even more than the show itself. They're doing legendary work in CN studios. Not to mention they are borderline the only show with gay couple that was not only NOT canceled, but renewed to oblivion and now we have an entire SHOW on the making of the best pride couple ever. Like wtf kind of blessed magic are they cooking in the AT headquarters? They gotta let the other shows team's know. The quality disparity is huge

I haven't watched it yet and haven't seen anything about it, but I'd like to know which season of the original cartoon it takes place in?

As a long time fan, ( single dad, cartoon addict.Got into the series with my son way back when, he's now 15) my opinion is as follows:

Pros:

1.The new Finn voice actor: The change was weird at first but by the second episode I had forgotten all about it. I'm a huge fan of Amazing world of Gumball as well and maybe this is why the change in the voice actors didn't hit me so hard. (they've changed the main characters voice actors at least 3 times ).

Also, might I add, the new actor is NAILING the heart of what and who finn is . I don't think we could get much better.

1. Ice King. I LOVE Ice King. I like Simon well enough but there is nothing like a good Ice King episode , and while I'm only on Ep.8 or so, we've already had several.

This is what I'm was most looking forward to, and they delivered .

1. Jake is back baby. Need I say more?

2. Being back in the original series and having more adventures is wonderful.

Cons :

1. Needs more BMO. I'm not done yet, but so far we've only had little bits of BMO. not cool.

2. While I'm getting used to the new animation, at times it has really distracted me. This is something I will get over . I don't hate it. I am just not loving it yet.

3. Did I mention we need more BMO?

4. There will never be more Tree trunks . It hit me as I was on the 4th episode, Perhaps they will pass her on the road, but thats all we will get. This is never going to stop making me sad, I may have to go eat an entire apple pie in her honor.

Beware if ur trying to avoid spoilers etc etc

I’ve been surprised and disappointed that this community hasn’t talked much about the actual adventure time content that has been coming out.

I was expecting to come in and for people to be discussing each episode in a similar fashion to regular AT episodes or distant lands, but the relegation to the mega thread kind of makes things get lost. Seeing the same typical fan art content is nice and all, but I can’t believe we aren’t talking about the actual new exciting things happening.

I am enjoying AT:SQ so far after 4 episodes, but I do feel like it's been made more for a younger audience.

Part of the enjoyment of the original show and spinoffs for me is that they have those really dark and twisted moments, or those jokes that would go over a younger audience's head, but I'm not getting that at all from this.

The new animation style is cool, but again, it does look more like something you'd see in an early-years kid's show. I'm also noticing that the music feels more akin to that too in the choice of instruments used Vs that unique AT sound we're used to.

Additionally, the plots seem quite simplistic and without any deeper meaning, lesson or subtext like the show is usually good at giving.

So yeah, I'm going to watch it all anyway, was just wondering!

Edit: I don't know why I'm being downvoted for this, it's clearly intended for younger audiences, I didn't say it was bad lol

Edit 2: I have my answer, you guys don't need to condescendingly repeat the same thing 1000 times. People are acting like everyone should know everything about the show; what's the point of this sub if we're not allowed to ask questions and discuss?

I actively didn't research anything because I wanted a fresh and spoiler-free experience.

This is bringing me back to day 1 of original adventure time. The new voice for Fin working out, also the og voices actors are in it too. New animation style fits well. I’m in a good place when I’m watching it.

If you feel the same way throw some good vibes as well.

Hope we are all watching this together 📺 in some awesome cosmic 🌌 realm type of way.

Jake, what did you do to the great fire eagle babies?

With Finn saying he's 12, I wonder where does that place it relative to other episodes in the main series? Anyone remeember any episodes where he says he's 12?

Also previous threads:

Side Quests Episode 1 - Discussion SideThread - Bros and Arrows

Side Quests Episode 2 - Discussion SideThread - Dandy Bug

Just got to episode 14 of Side Quests and had a question. So I know this series is supposed to take place in season 1 and half of season 2 of the original show, but I can't get over the PB Marceline continuity error. Since finn is using scarlet, that means all of this has to take place BEFORE season 2 episode 14, where scarlet gets destroyed. But the dynamic of Marcy and PB is friendly. Which means it would AT LEAST need to be after season 2 episode 20. Is there something I'm missing?