Princess Bubblegum

Princess Bubblegum
Adventure Time character
First appearance Adventure Time (rough-cut)
"Slumber Party Panic" (official)
Last appearance "Come Along with Me"
Created by Pendleton Ward
Voiced by Hynden Walch
Paige Moss (pilot)
Isabella Acres (young in Mortal Recoil, Too Young, and Elements Part 7: Hero Heart)
Livvy Stubenrauch (young in Bonnibel Bubblegum)
Information
Full name Bonnibel Bubblegum
Nickname(s) "PB" , "Peebles" , "P-Bubs", "Bonnie"
Species Gum Golem (Candy Elemental)
Gender Female
Occupation Monarch of the Candy Kingdom
Life scientist
Title Princess of the Candy Kingdom
Family Mother Gum (parent)
Neddy (brother)
Gumbald (adoptive uncle/creation)
Lolly (adoptive aunt/creation)
Chicle (adoptive cousin/creation)
Goliad (creation)
Earls of Lemongrab (creations)
Chatsberry (previous incarnation)
Significant other(s) Marceline the Vampire Queen[1][2][3]
Nationality The Land of Ooo
Monarch of the Candy Kingdom

Princess Bonnibel "Bonnie" Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom (colloquial: PB; Peebles; P-Bubs; Bonnie)[4], is a fictional character in the American animated Cartoon Network television series Adventure Time, created by Pendleton Ward.

Princess Bubblegum is the current incarnation of the Candy Elemental, comparable to the inhabitants of the Candy Kingdom, who are all composed of types of desserts and candies. She rules over the Candy Kingdom, but in the Season 6 episode "Hot Diggity Doom" (the first part of the season's finale), an election was held and she lost to the King of Ooo by a landslide. As a result, she no longer ruled the Candy Kingdom and the King of Ooo replaced her as the new ruler, until a rebellion against King of Ooo allowed her to reclaim the throne in "The Dark Cloud".

Characteristics

On the Cartoon Network official website in 2010, Jake referred to Princess Bubblegum as "a horrible mutant mix of bubblegum and human DNA." The validity of this hasn't been confirmed, but in the video game Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! Princess Bubblegum explains that she was part of a sentient pink goo that was formed about one thousand years ago, and achieved sentience upon being spat out, with her current form being 827 years old. It is unclear how much of this story is canon to the cartoon show, but seeing as how in the episode "Bonnie and Neddy" it is revealed that she came from a pink, gum-like substance known as the "Mother Gum," the basis of this information seems to coincide with the shows mythos.

In the season 7 episode "Elemental," Princess Bubblegum was revealed to be the current Candy Elemental (in the Adventure Time universe, the Elementals are the embodiments of the four main elements that make up the world: ice, fire, candy and slime. They have existed since the beginning of life, living, dying and reincarnating for eons and millennia).[5]

Personality

While Princess Bubblegum is typically kind, good-hearted and well-mannered, she can be very temperamental—her temper can be a powerful force when provoked. She is also a rational thinker with skepticism towards magic. Her proficiency in science and fluency in Korean and German are a testament to her high intelligence. In the season 4 episode "Goliad", after the events in "Mortal Recoil" she begins to feel very vulnerable, and makes a clone-Sphinx of herself named Goliad.[6] She also begins exhibiting strong authoritarian behavior, as she starts spying on all her subjects, and begins taking more assertive actions from then onwards.

Physical appearance

Princess Bubblegum has light pink skin, long magenta-pink "bubblegum" hair and usually dresses in a puffy-sleeved flowing dark pink gown with pink trim at the sleeve, purple trim at the scoop-neck collar. When ever she does any science experiments, she wears a lab coat, with her hair often tied, either up in a bun or a ponytail, otherwise let out like in her formal outfit. Usually, she wears something different than her original gown from episode-to-episode and her hair is commonly seen in different styles

Powers and abilities

  • Although Princess Bubblegum looks 18, the events shown in "The Vault" reveals that she may in fact be much older than she looks. In the 2013 video game Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!, Princess Bubblegum states that she is 827 years old. As seen in the episodes "Mortal Recoil" and "Too Young", her biological age can be fluctuated by adding or removing candy biomass.[7]
  • In "Have You Seen the Muffin Mess," it is shown that after her forearm was turned into muffins by her nanobots, she is able to stretch it out to how it was; this is most likely how she increases and decreases the length of her hair.
  • In "Bonnie and Neddy," when Princess Bubblegum dropped from the Mother Gum, she waves and speaks to it in clicking noises indicating that they have some sort of unique method of communication.
  • When soothing her brother Neddy with clicking noises, Princess Bubblegum sometimes glows.
  • As the current incarnation of the Candy Elemental, Princess Bubblegum has the ability to project in various forms quantities of candy (e.g. jellybeans, scotch mints and soda pop) through her hands. While her powers seem to be magically in nature, Bubblegum has been able to function her elemental abilities based on her own rudimentary knowledge of scientific principles.
  • Princess Bubblegum can communicate with previous incarnations of the Candy Elemental (e.g. Chatsberry) via lucid dreams.
  • After being consumed by her elemental powers, Princess Bubblegum became connected to all candy across the galaxy. She could also transform other people and objects into candy. Those affected were uncharacteristically joyful and ignorant of their life prior to their transformation.

Relationships

She is the former love interest of the protagonist, Finn, and while the two are friends she never showed any real attraction to him, due to the age difference. During the time she is 13 in the episode "Too Young", she is presented as having a crush on him. After Finn got a new girlfriend, Flame Princess, his feelings for her seem to have faded, and Finn becomes angry with Princess Bubblegum when she informs Finn the two have to break up (Finn thinks she is doing it out of jealousy; when actually it is because, for Flame Princess, the act of falling in love can destroy the Earth). In some episodes, however, it is suggested Finn may still have feelings for Princess Bubblegum (as in the episode "King Worm" he dreams that they are married).

In an interview, Olivia Olsen (who voices Marceline) stated that Marceline and Bubblegum are ex-girlfriends.[8][9][10] This would explain the hostility between them in earlier episodes. Olsen claimed to be informed of this by Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time, although Ward never confirmed this. Throughout the series, the two have grown closer; in "Take Her Back", the sixth episode of the Stakes miniseries, Princess Bubblegum even refers to Marceline as her "best friend". In the series finale "Come Along with Me", Marceline and Bubblegum share their first onscreen kiss, confirming mutual romantic feelings between them.

Genderswapped version

Princess Bubblegum has a genderswapped version of herself in the 61st episode, Fionna and Cake, who was Prince "Bubba" Gumball. In that episode it is revealed that the characters only exist in fanfiction written by the Ice King. Like Princess Bubblegum, Prince Gumball also has his own loyal companion, Lord Monochromicorn. Just as Princess Bubblegum can understand Lady's Korean, Prince Gumball can understand Lord Monochromicorn's Morse code. Prince Gumball has shown romantic feelings for Fionna, but that was actually the Ice Queen in disguise. However, the real Prince Gumball also shows feelings for Fionna and had actually asked her out on a date.

Controversy

The third season episode "What Was Missing" became controversial because of an allegedly implied past relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum.[11][12] The controversy largely began after an accompanying "Mathematical" recap—a behind the scenes video series produced by Frederator Studios that implied that there were lesbian relations between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline and that the writing staff actively seeks input from fans.[12][13][14] This incident was addressed by Fred Seibert, the show's executive producer, who said that "in trying to get the show's audience involved we got wrapped up by both fan conjecture and spicy fanart and went a little too far."[11][12] Soon after, the video recap and the entire channel was pulled off of YouTube, although "What Was Missing" still airs during reruns.[12] Seibert's decision to remove the video also proved controversial; Bitch magazine later wrote an article about how the episode "handled female desire—female queer desire at that—in a subtle but complex way", but that the removal of the recap and the studio's perceived treatment of the controversy was detrimental towards the acceptance of queer romance in children's television.[11] Ward later addressed the issue and gave a more neutral view; he said that, because there were "so many extreme positions taken on it all over the Internet", he did not "really want to comment on it [because] it was a big hullaballoo."[15]

In August 2014, Olivia Olson, the voice of Marceline, told a crowd of fans gathered at a Barnes & Noble book signing from The Adventure Time Encyclopedia, that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum had dated in the past, but that because the series airs in some areas where homosexual relationships are illegal, the show has not been able to officially make clear the relationship in the series itself.[9] Olsen seemed to redact the statement in a Tweet that same day by stating "I like to make things up at panels. Ya'll take my stories way too seriously".[16] However that tweet has since been deleted so it is now unclear whether or not her statement was true.

During the final episode "Come Along with Me" Bubblebum and Marceline's relationship was finally confirmed with them being seen kissing before defeating GOLB.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Swift, Andy (September 3, 2018). "Adventure Time EP Talks Bubblegum and Marceline's Series Finale Moment: 'There's Enough to Draw a Conclusion'". TVLine. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  2. ↑ Valdez, Nick (September 3, 2018). "Adventure Time Fans React to Princess Bubblegum and Marceline's Big Finale Moment". Comicbook.com. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  3. ↑ Sava, Oliver (September 3, 2018). "Adventure Time Concludes with a Celebration of What Makes It So Special". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ Orange, B. Alan. "SDCC 2011 Exclusive: Adventure Time Cast Interviews". Movie Web. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Voice Compare: Adventure Time – Princess Bubblegum". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
  6. ↑ Larry Leichliter (director); Tom Herpich & Jesse Moynihan (writers) (August 8, 2011). "Too Young". Adventure Time. Season 3. Episode 5. Cartoon Network.
  7. ↑ Larry Leichliter (director); Cole Sanchez & Jesse Moynihan (writers) (May 2, 2011). "Mortal Recoil". Adventure Time. Season 2. Episode 26. Cartoon Network.
  8. ↑ Potts, Andrew (21 August 2014). "Adventure Time's Marceline and Princess Bubblegum once dated, show's creator said". Gay Star News. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  9. 1 2 Wu, Connie (August 15, 2014). "Adventure Time Fans Rejoice! Olivia Olson Confirms Marceline and Princess Bubblegum Dated". SheWired. Here Media. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  10. ↑ Bradley, Bill (August 15, 2014). "'Adventure Time' Actress Confirms That Big Rumor We All Suspected". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Johnson, Kjerstin (October 4, 2011). "Adventure Time Gay Subtext: "Spicy" or Adorbz?". Bitch. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Seibert, Fred (2012). "Well I Completely Screwed Up". Frederator Studios. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  13. ↑ Polo, Susana (September 28, 2011). "Did Adventure Time Just Admit To Lesbian Characters". TheMarySue.com. The Mary Sue, LLC. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  14. ↑ Muto, Adam (September 29, 2011). "Could you explain what this whole Mathematical video thing did that was bad?". Formspring. Archived from the original on March 20, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  15. ↑ Smith, Zack (February 13, 2012). "Adventure Time Creator Pen Ward Talks Before Season Finale". Newsarama.com. TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Bubbline Shippers Rejoice: Adventure Time's Marceline & Princess Bubblegum Confirmed To Have Dated". www.themarysue.com. Retrieved 2016-07-10.
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