You forgot that Fin is also colorblind. It doesn’t have much to do with anything most of the time, but there was one episode centered around him needing to find something red for Marceline to feed off of and thinking he found a ruby, just for everyone to tell him it was an emerald. He ignored them over and over again, insisting that he was right until near the end of the episode when Jake pointed out that it was, in fact, an emerald and that it was Fin’s color blindness that had him seeing it as a ruby. It showed how early Fin was particularly determined to handle things on his own or with minimal help and his refusal to accept or acknowledge any of his limitations.

Fun fact: the writers always intended to have Finn lose his arm and have a be replaced with a prosthetic arm. They all agreed that this would happen while they were first designing the show. By their own admission in one of the feature commentaries Finn losing his arm was inevitable and no amount of magic tomfoolery would ever be able to bring Finn's arm back permanently.

In regards to your analysis of Finn's "truest self", that's actually always been one of my favourite character traits of Finn. I love how universally, by destiny or fate or whatever, Finn's disability has always been a core and inevitable part of him. Every alternate timeline, Farmworld Finn, his past life Shoko, Pillowworld Finn, old Finn from Dungeon Train, even when he fantasised about himself in an earlier episode I don't remember the name of, they all came with the missing arm. All these little bits really reinforced in my young mind that this is how he's supposed to be, it's normal.

as a disabled person, a prosthetic is a necessary accommodation that should be a right for disabled people and not a privilege. we fight very hard to destigmatize prosthetics and medical equipment. there's nothing shameful about wanting accommodations. that being said, i don't take offense to finn keeping his prosthetic arm on while sleeping because he's a little kid and it probably helps him embrace his predicament. i see my wheelchair as part of part of me and a life saver, not as this inconvenient part of me. i don't feel "less" disabled with my wheelchair.

i really like that his arm didn't grow back in Golb, it really shows that hes internalized his disability and accepted it as himself

Look, totally fair and true to say “people don’t sleep with their prosthetics” but I guess I always just headcanoned that Finn never took it off for reasons within the show’s own logic. Like, he’s a teenage boy with an advanced robot arm. Why take it off, it’s cool, and taking it off reveals a stump that only tends to be revealed in moments of crisis bc it’s so representative of his trauma, both diagetically and symbolically within the narrative. Finn’s stump reminds him of his loss and vulnerability. His robot arm reminds him of his friends (mainly PB) who came to his aid and care for him. I don’t know if PB directly told him he could take it off to sleep, some people lack basic common sense about stuff like that (I could name names lol from my own life, including me). He might just authentically find it more comfortable to wear this high tech arm all the time too. To me it was a marker of him being a teenager with a cool robot arm, but also a marker that he has trouble fully embracing exposing his trauma completely by being too involved with maintenance of his arm stump. That’s why seeing it exposed in Obsidian made me go 🥺 bc it means he’s maturing enough to take better care of himself

I can picture so so so clearly a cold open in an episode where Jake is working on smtg and he asks Finn “Hey, bro, can ya gimme a hand here?” And Finn goes “Yeah, Jake, I gotchu!” And his prosthetic falls into frame and Jake looks over, recognizes and goes “Dude! Seriously!” And Finn, giggling, sits down next to him to look at the thing Jake is doing and puts his arm back on, asking “What are you doing anyway?” And they get into what the thing they’re going to be doing for the day! It literally would have been so so very easy!!!

Another thing to mention is that, even if it isn’t entirely relevant, Finn’s past live Shoko was also an amputee as well as the farm world version of Finn.

The mention of his truest self made me think of how he's like this in multiple timelines, in his past life, in the pillow world, even just in a fantasy one time. Even before the finn we follow lost his, lots of versions of Finn lost their arms. It's inevitable and part of him, not just something in this timeline.

I think LSP is supposed to represent the phenomenon of genuinely shitty people occasionally doing something that is legitimately good without becoming a better person in any meaningful way.

Also totally hate that LSP is a weird sexual predator. She was best as a light gimmick. Her annoying voice is kinda in the same boat as Hooty-just people involved on the show voicing characters as a joke. LSP cracked me up bc I knew it was Pendleton being a doofus behind the microphone. Never liked episodes that focused on her. Also Idk if you’re aware but Hooty is voiced by Alex Hirsch doing a shorty Mickey Mouse impression. I immediately loved the character and the vitriol Hooty receives makes me love this silliness even more. A+

I feel like the issue with the LSP make-out scene is that the show doesn't acknowledge the trauma that may come out of that, especially from Finn’s perspective.

in weak defense of breezy i do remember when i was younger, i read an interview or tumblr post where a member mentioned that the arm being brought back was a studio mandate for merchandising reasons, so they had to write it back in and tried to use breezy to force it back. takw this with a grain of salt as i read it years ago and the point just stuck in my brain, so i could be misremembering, but it does line up with finn losing his arm again after the show became less popular and had more creative freedom. i still...to put it mildly REALLY dont like the breezy episode and agree with all your points but i cant help but feel more pity for the crew. absolutely great video!

I feel like Finn not taking his prosthetic off for so long is honestly kinda representation in itself. He's a kid, he went through something traumatic and he's had an arm his whole life up until that point. You can imagine how terrifying that could be, and how taking off his prosthetic to care for it could stir bad emotions I went through a time period of having to use a cane cause my joint disease got to a point where I needed one, I had surgery and no longer need one anymore but it was still a whole different experience. There were moments where I was ashamed of it and just looking at it bothered me, getting harassed at school for it made me hate it even when I could acknowledge that I needed it. Even though I know there's always a chance I'll need it again in the future because well my joint disease isn't going anywhere, I get scared of it sometimes because of what happened when I needed it. I get being afraid of appearing "different" and refusing to handle something appropriately or even neglecting it because of that fear. Like taking off a prosthetic to let your skin breath, clean it etc. Especially as a kid or teen. I loved seeing him accept it and them showing him taking it off more often as he got older though and just being himself, disability and all, in front of everyone without negative emotions. So yeah, I like that his acceptance of his disability was gradual, especially subtly. It feels very real and how someone his age would handle going from not disabled to suddenly disabled with such a traumatic experience That assault seen, even if it was a damn fade to black, was effing horrifying tho! 😭 The way he was so quiet and the silent lifting of his blanket. This show is amazing with how it shows things and how real emotions are but damn man Q-Q

I'm so disappointed that you didn't mention the metal arm malfunctioning and obliterating fern. I can't even count the number of times that technology that was supposed to help with my ADHD or dyslexia malfunctioned and ended up F-ing me. I'm pretty sure it's like that with all accessibility technology. Anyways I feel like it was a big moment and deserved to be mentioned in an analysis of the ark. actually so was the candy arm malfunctioning, because that was what kicked off the- "baby is building a tower into space" episode

"Not even the most basic, 'Need a hand?' joke." Reminds me of a short comic I saw a long time ago in a meme group (don't ask me which group or even what category, because I'm in basically all of them). A few military buds are sitting and complaining about how their vet insurance doesn't meet their needs. One person comments that they wish they could transition, but it's not covered at all, and would cost an arm and a leg. The other two look at each other, and then in the next panel the trans person is holding two prosthetics making a -_- face while the other two laugh sans their respective limbs. ...Gods, I need to find that one again and re-share it everywhere.

Finn losing his arm really connected to me. I was born without one of my hands, and I struggled with finding representation in media. After all, there weren't any magical girls missing body parts. But seeing Finn with his prosthetic just... floored me. Because this was the first time I'd ever seen a disabled adventurer who wasn't slowed by it. Yes, he struggled with it. Yes, he was pissed about it. But he gave me something I'd always wanted. 10/10 adventure time

In the part about Finn taking the arm off, I just kinda assumed it worked like automail in FMA, directly attached to the nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems and therefore it can’t be taken off at least not easily. I could be wrong though I haven’t seen all of adventure time. With the maintenance part, it’s princess bubblegum, that arm is probably the most over engineered thing to exist. It could probably perform maintenance checks on Finn. I’m not convinced that that arm is no longer functional after 1000 years

Another thing about LSP, in the scene where Fin lays there in shock a flower petal falls. Idk about you but I take that Fin was “deflowered”. The fact that they added that is questionable.

12:22 i mean, considering PB isnt really a prosthetics expert but closer to a robotics/biologist/mad-scientist she likely just hooked up the metal arm to finn's nerve bundles hence he probably cant just remove it to go to sleep. but that's just an excuse most likely the show runners just didnt even think about it

LSP may be around the same age as Finn, (yes, LSP is canonically around 15 to 16 yo) but age doesn’t really matter in this context. Assault is still assault.

Plus the “fade to black followed by the subject covering or cleaning themself” has been how authors communicate rape while keeping things pg for literally centuries. It’s the only thing I remember from being forced to read Tess of the D’Ubervilles in school, is a terrible book and no one should ever read it. Bad writing, bad story, bland characters that a bunch of bad stuff happens to, written like someone rambling while half-asleep.

I agree that Breezy is by far the worst, that episode was awful! Also yo, you should've talked about the allegory with Finn's literal Phantom Limb! Oh also, I think it might kinda makes sense for Finn to sleep with his prosthetic considering that he can feel it, right? Maybe not sanitary, but Finn is also not known for being sanitary, y'know? I'm pretty sure he doesn't brush his teeth.

every version of finn seems to be an amputee at one point. his past life shoko, his pillow world self, and his farm world self all have prosthetics on the same arm. being an amputee is just fundamentally a part of finn.

NO ONE EVER MENTIONS WHAT LSP DID IN BREEZY OTHER THAN JOKING ABOUT IT THANK YOU OMG

I think one of the reasons we don't see Finn messing with his prosthetic arm is because the one time we see that he does, he kills Fern. In that same episode he is shown PB's introduction and instructions for the arm so it's very much implied he hasn't messed with it in the past. It's likely that's why he didn't fuss with it any time later. It had already damaged him enough.

there’s no part of the breezy episode that i like it’s just. one of the weakest episodes and i felt really disappointed watching it even when i was younger and didn’t know how explain why. also maybe finn always wearing his metal arm after the second time losing it was him still adjusting and not being 100% okay about it yet? like after GLOB he got comfortable enough to be without it more often? (could be wrong though) still would’ve preferred the basics of it being off/next to him when he sleeps or even just him chilling having it to the side or him cleaning it in the background?? like anything! would’ve been nice!!! and really easy to include. like the show has lots of small character details it would’ve been a good chance to do that for finn’s arm. overall really liked your video and agreed on all your points!!! adventure time has been my favorite show since i was kid and i enjoyed seeing finn have an obvious disability though i wished the representation was more? i guess would be the word? anyways have a good day

"you don't see people just chilling with their prosthetics off" The only other example I can think of is in berserk after guts kills the sea god and is just sitting in the window of the ship looking out onto the night sky in just pants and bandages

I have the feeling if the prosthetic is attached to the nerves which seems to be what its like because of the level of control. Though I am probably very wrong because I'm not an amputee

Their are a few importent things I thing you missed out on talking about For one, Finn is like, a teenager, as you put it, with no other humans to interact with or genuinely relate to in the sense, and he also has no parents, just Jake, whos probably the closest to a parent that he’d have, PB was his love intrest, so at the vary least, she’s a mature friend, whos still not human, and Marcelin a wild vampire, he’s constantly surrounded by theses people and things that have wild abilites and skills, and he’s just always been himself Once in a daydream. He pictures himself as an adult, muscular with a big sword, and a robotic arm And later on still, wile fighting “the barn” with Jake, he’s introduced to a hero that bricks both his legs, explains that he’s gunna be fine because he’s friend makes robotic legs, to which Finn mentions how cool he actualy things itd me to have bionic parts, which concerns Jake, when finn seems adamant, Jake tells fin that thail discuss it later When fin gets his grass sword he adapts to it fairly quickly, in a sense, getting his wish to have some cool magical ability like his friends, and after confirming that it’s not evil, he really gose all in on its abilites, and starts to connect with it as an exstention of himself He’s not thrilled to loose his real arm OR his grass arm, but in the moment he dose, it’s clear that his arm is the least of his concerns, an afterthought that cements something awful that’d just happens to him, somthing he thought would have gone a lot smoother As you state in the video he Dosent take this well for a wile, being given so manny diffrent prosthetics to choose from Yes he can be a hero without one, but for everything he dose across ooo, and the fact of how much easier it is to find a suitable prosthetic then our own world, theirs a lot more benefits to gaining a prosthetic, and again, Finn as expressed earlier on, his desire to aquire one at some point So latter on, when PB grants him his inspector gadget arm, he’s atleast thankful, if not alittle overwhelmed with its capabilities, going from a grass hand, to a metal robotic one Finns also never really been the best with figuring out technology, and after his arm accidentally murders another Finn clone, he not only exspirences like, the 3ed time he’s accidentally killed himself, but he’s also likly made a mentle note to not utilize any of the arms tool functions, especially considering he could do all the things it could do on his own anyways, he’s vary naturally gifted (which of course, is something he also understands about himself, arm or not) He likly sleeps with his robot arm because he’s still attached to his fantasies of having one, even with everything that happend, like a kid sleeping with a new toy of theirs instead of putting it away And in the face of wondering how comfortable it would be to sleep with a metal arm, it likely isent, fins probly just use to doing a lot of uncomfortable things at this point in his life, and likly finds adjusting to them somewhat comforting, pluse it’s not like he had other people to go off of for this kind of situation, he also probably figured that living with his arm is just what his life was now, and he was pretty cool with that My last 2 things here is that in Finn’s privious life as “Shoco” she also lost her arm, and had it replaced with something that Princess bubblegum made for her as a gift Of course by the end of the episode she grows back what I assume to be her orginal arm, but she herself states that that would have been pretty cool if she wasent about to die, adding in the fact that the rest of her body was rediculessly deformed And finaly, in the episode where Finn makes his wish for the litch to never have existed, his “normal” human self also has a robotic arm, the diffrence being that it’s attachments are tools that Finn himself can change and use (giving it the adaptable traits that Finn would benefit from, wile also making them simple enugh for him to not make an uncontrollable or frustrating mistakes) (It’s also worth noting that Finn’s normal human self was at some point seen in a much earlier episode, robotic arm and all, so if anything, it seems like Finn was always going to loose his arm) Through this whole story, Finn constantly gose on a journey of self acceptance, and in some way shape or form, he’s always proved that he’s already accepted himsel He might not always understand himself, or why he’s doing what he dose, but he’s atleast ready to ride out the waves of chaos and figure out what he can, he lives in a strange world, that Dosent give you a lot of time to cope with or question the various changes that you might go through, and as a human boy, I can’t blame Finn for seemingly being averted for this kind of stuff to happen to him, only to later have to deal with the actual effects of theses things happening, or rather, the things that happend that led to something else happening to him

Y’know I wonder if the whole undoing of his amputation before Fern was meant to be representative of him being in denial of his trauma, and then him losing his arm again and coping with it much better the second time around shows how he’s come to accept his trauma.

I'd like to remind you that PB made the arm so it's probably something too advanced for Finn to repair maybe even doesn't need repairing

I've never watched adventure time but when Finn pulled the blanket further up after what the purple thing did hit really close to home

This breaking down of Finn's acceptance really did do it for me. I'm HoH and that makes life pretty difficult, but I've literally never known a life outside of it. I was deaf after a surgery for a while as a kid, and the doctors went into the surgery not knowing if my hearing would ever recover at ALL, and here I am, able to hear your words. At max volume with earbuds in, but hear nonetheless. Makes me feel a little less awful about the way my ears function ❤ glad I found your channel

I must admit, until I discovered I'm autistic last year as an adult, I never really thought about disability or disability representation. I started thinking about it then because the question "Am I disabled? And what should that mean?" popped up in my head. I am grateful for these videos because they make the topics accessible to me. It's really important that I understand the people around me better, so thank you!

I honestly didn’t even notice Finn not using his prosthetic arm after he exited Golb till now and it’s such a nice detail. I just accepted it as part of who Finn was, stump and all.

My thing about LSP is that she seemingly doesn't want to change. All the other characters do. And while lsp is probably everybody's least favorite reoccurring character, there are plenty of people who never grow. Never want to change and do better. I don't think they actively ignored her. But I think most people know someone who is awful and for various reasons have to keep in some kind of contact with them. It just makes it feel a little bit more real to me. I would like there to be a point in the series where her behavior was addressed, but idk her living in the woods and most people trying to ignore her is close enough I guess.

When you brought up how little we see amputee characters without their prosthetics it did click that was true, or when the prosthetic isn’t on them it’s used to be depressing almost. My brain also thinks how robotic prosthetics are a rather popular depiction, though usually my brain just thinks the robotic ones are surgically connected to the person so not easily removable for sleep or showers. I think my brain mostly gets this from Fullmetal Alchemist/FMAB, as Edward Elric has robotic arm and leg as they show that it is physically painful when reattaching the robotic limbs as it attaches to the nerves directly. We do get to see maintenance every now and then from Ed, but he more is berated by his childhood friend and mechanic for being so reckless with it, not taking care of it, and a couple of times breaking it. (Though I wouldn’t go to this show for the best representation *SPOILERS* as he gets his original arm and leg back in the end and his brother his whole body back)

I briefly worked with a man and his wife at their hotdog cart, was an interesting gig, moreso from the conversations I had with them. The man had essentially most of his left arm de-gloved from the elbow down in a combine harvester in his youth, being rural Canada in like the 60's or 70's. But what I found most interesting, was that in the 50 years since the accident, he never once bothered with a prosthetic. Now he was not the first person I've seen with an amputation, far from it, but he was the first person I had met that had forgone a prosthetic entirely. He said it was because by the time he had enough money to afford one, he had already learned how to do everything with just his stump. In his own words; "Not once did I feel disabled once I learned to adapt. Was it hard? Yes. Is it possible for everyone to do what I did? No, probably not, I'm just one old fart, I can't speak for everyone, not every amputee, but hell, we're humans, ain't we? We adapt, we survive, and then we thrive. I'm just differently-able, not disabled. Don't you let anyone treat you like your less just cuz you're different, doesn't matter if you're not the fastest runner, or the quickest thinker, or even if you're an old coot like me and only have one arm to do it with, you can still do whatever you want in life. I wanted to cook good hotdogs at a baseball game, and that's exactly where I got myself. Don't let what others think about you to hold you back, kiddo." And that's what this video reminded me of in the, with Jake just chilling with his friends. Damn. Now I want a hotdog.

3:26 "Permanently, for now" is basically Adventuretime's whole thing

As I saw it, Finn keeps the prosthetic on for adventuring and leaves it off when he's relaxed. The thing is, between getting his prosthetic and the end of the series, Finn was *never* relaxed. He had gotten past the loss of his arm, but he had all these other things weighing down on him, making him feel like he needed to be prepared to swing into action at a moment's notice. He was incredibly high strung throughout the final seasons. Which, I figured, is why we stopped seeing him with it on until the beginning of Together Again. Because he could finally relax and just *be*. No more battles to fight at any moment. He'd only need to put it back on when he and Jake (and later Bronwyn) actively went on a adventures. But we never actually see him on one until Together Again.

He LITERALLY joke about his metal arm when Bonnie was teasing it by saying he felt the hit after receiving it. Also his farmworld version was called "one arm" as an insult by one guy. So I don't really understand the "disability pun" part.

Something else that could’ve been touched on, is that in Finn’s past lives, alternate timelines and alternate dimensions he’s almost always seen missing his right arm, things like this have been foreshadowed as early as season 2! I think it further emphasizes that Finn’s “truest self“ is one without his right arm! As if he was always destined to lose it because it’s an essential part of him, yet not a defining part. I always thought it was funny how throughout the series he loses his arm not once, not twice, but three times lol.

Both me and my sister are trying to set up stories where characters lose limbs, but while they do get weaker on the immediate combat side, they choose to adapt around it instead, and change up their fighting styles, we both believe its incredibly disingenuous to take a limb off a character and then just.... Regrow it, or get a perfect prosthetic that may as well be as good or better than the old arm. For us, that's like killing off a character, saying they're gone, and then bringing them back. What's the point of death/losing a limb if you're just going to ignore the consequences OF that?

This is a wonderful video. Good critique on season 6 and 7. I was one of many who was enormously disappointed by "Breezy" for the reasons you mentioned. I knew as soon as a flower sprouted from Finn's arm, and he didn't get a robo prosthetic, that it would be an impermanent change, but with how good "Escape from the Citadel" and "The Tower" were, it was devastating that it just... grew back to normal. However they did a good job with later season Finn losing his arm and keeping his growth from those episodes. Honestly that's how he should have been after Breezy - either his grass arm grows back funny or it's just a robot arm. Or a robot arm that his grass curse integrates with. Imagine! But like you, I found the scene of armless Finn in Obsidian dancing topless with a Jake tattoo just... beautiful. A new level of self acceptance. What do you think of "The Vault"? The ep where Finn in his past life was a one-armed bandit who met PB. Shoko was chill with having one arm, and beat up some bandits with it, while also being very grateful (and sad) about a prosthetic being gifted to her.

Okay I know this video is nearly a year old now, but I still really like how chill finn was at the end. I think the one of the only other times i've seen an amputee in animation like that (in mainstream cartoons for kids) is I *think* Wilt from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends? it is pointed out in the first episode, and I think one other episode later on that deals with his backstory, but other than that I don't think it 's touched on much- he's still able to play basketball, he's still overly kind, he's just a cool dude!

YES! Never seen someone really acknowledge Fern, he's my favorite character!

I'm really glad that this popped up on my home page. Disability is something that's integral to a story that I'm brainstorming, and seeing you tear apart what examples of disability in media do right and wrong is a really helpful example. I fell off of adventure time a long time before any of this happened, I think it was just because it was moved to a different time slot on cartoon network and I just didn't realize they were still making more episodes until people got hyped about the finale online, and a bunch happened that I wasn't there for. It's on my long list of cartoons to finish watching/rewatching.

That song about him trying to rip his dads arm off is hysterical 😂

I still remember the episode that got me, was the one where we find out about how the ice king lost his memory.. Broke my heart as I was dealing with my father with dementia...

your outro itches a scratch in my brain that has needed it.

I myself am a writer. I have disabled characters in all of my stories, simply because I feel they belong there. I try not to portray them as ''oh woe is me'', most of them are pretty chill about it. There are some instances where they're like ''of all the times to be disabled'', but it is ALWAYS because they aren't getting their necessary accommodations. For example, the main character of my first story is a wheelchair user. He always has been, always will be, because he should be. I try to include appropriate jokes where appropriate (for example, Yesenia, a veteran amputee who has a prosthetic for her leg but didn't bother with her arm (she does HAVE one, but at some point she stopped wearing it.) often makes jokes about the hand. But I always see on writing sites that in order to represent a certain group, you need to (respectfully) talk to people of that group. I never get to see anyone like you, barely even people like me. All I seem to see are white, cis, abled people. So what do I need to do to write disabled characters CORRECTLY. I would hate to become one of the series you go over and say ''really? you could have done better."

I honestly noticed WAY earlier than he actually lost his arm that in "future" representations of himself (both in one of the comics, and in Puhoy) he also had a fake arm! It was a weird trend i had noticed until he actually lost the arm in said later episode. It was really cool foreshadowing that he was always going to loose an arm in my opinion o:

season 6 - 7 explained where my arm at!?

I would love to hear your thoughts about Simon/Ice King returning to his "true form" and how that affects Marceline.

I do love it though that PB, being as over prepared for anything as she is, turns his arm into a voice activated multi tool that causes mayhem the second Finn learns how to use it. Of course this overprotective tower of gum would implement a “fatality” mode on a child’s arm that immediately sets to work in traumatizing Finn again by accidentally killing Fern with it, it just wouldn’t be PB if her overly-helpful good intentions went south. I also love how the psychological trauma was handled in this show. By far one of the best and most detailed animated shows in that regard, and I say this as a cptsd patient

“some mildly morally questionable intervention by bubble gum” its bubble gum- what else is new🤣

This is an amazing point of view I have never heard before! In my personal experience, I grew up with a mother who lost her left leg at the age of fiftteen. She has had to wear a prothesis in order to walk properly and function in society. I have heard heart crouching stories about the long and hardful work and commitment my grandmother had to do in order to provide for my mother when she got diagnosed with cancer and all the challenges she had to do just to make sure my mother get to have a correct and proper medical attention. I tell you, the fact that she (my grandma) had to travel by hitchhiking EVERYTIME she need to see her (my mother) because there wasn't the medical means in her city, so my mother had to be attended in the capital, and the fact that the poverty that everyone had in that time lead to my grandma to do so much things, just to save her own daughter from dying. After all the suffering and time my mother was hospitalized, it was a miracle that not only she was able to get cured phisically, but mentally as well! I heard that at first, she wasn't even able to eat because of the trauma, but later after time passed, she began to see things clearly and started eating until she was able to partaque action in herself. She later even taught a cousin of mine how to dance! Ain't that amazing? My mother served as a role model for everyone in my family after that and so much more, and to this day we still love her and have her in high regard. Another thing I wanted to talk about is that I'm writing a story, and one plot is that the protagonist at some point losses her hand. In the video, you pointed out things such as the maintance of the prothesis, the fact that you shouldn't sleep with it, the fact that you shouldn't have to wear it all the time, the fact that, at times, the person wearing the prosthesis must be aware that they are wearing it and indicate this by commenting or joking about it. All of this and much more help us understand the obvious fact that those with prothesis are humans as well and they should have opinions about their condition and stuff. Again, I never saw this point of view so thank you very much I am now much aware about this stuff than ever before :D

Other than LSP, it seems to me you have a lot of complaints over minor things, especially finn sleeping with his prosthetic. Yes, realistically, amputees do not do this irl. But this show is not irl. It's a cartoon kids show that's bound to make some mistakes. Plus, finn is still a kid in a world that doesn't deal with the same problems we do, the real world people, so there's going to be differences in the way they do things.

hey, thank you so much for this video! i'm an aspiring writer trying to write an amputee character and this really helped put some things into perspective, it's really handy to see what tropes about disability are frowned upon by actual disabled people. your videos just showed up in my recommended, but your sona also looks really cool too!

I have a character whose a cyborg with a lot, and I mean a LOT of prosthetics, even having part of her brain being replaced by robotic parts. It never really clicked that this character was disabled until I started watching your videos, and now that it has I've noticed the blind spot in representation. Thanks for being you and talking about this.

Me: **sees Finn get assaulted by LSP** 👁️👄👁️ Oh god, I'm so glad I stopped watching this show- That would have triggered some bad shiz for me- He didn't know what making out actually was! 😭 Oh god, that explains why... AAAAA!

Breezy still haunts me. That episode was too relatable in the worst way

As someone who hasn’t seen Adventure Time, your recap of the plot had my brain stop functioning on several occasions… ^^’

I think that the reason they didn't have Finn do any disability jokes is because they didn't want to be rude to the amputee community and decided to err on the side of caution rather than throwing that out the window and just going Ham with potentially ill mannered or insensitive jokes.

Finn be like: oh welp there goes my arm, again, for like *the third time.*

honestly even as a kid, when finn regrew his arm with the bee episode thing, i felt it so *forced*, i was a sucker for drama back then and i was so upset that they didn't keep building up his trauma and crippling depression into a 2-parts season finisher where he confronted his deep trauma head on and healed just a bit, the episode ending with a note about how he can't just get it back, this is his life now and that his friends will be there for him every step of the way to help him accept his new life

The... The LSP scene.... I legitimately started digging my nails into my palms and started feeling cold. Fuck LSP, oh.... Oh my god..... Oh my god that was so fucking... Horrifying and terrifying aren't good enough words...

I'm so glad this channel got recommended to me! Your commentary is really thoughtful and engaging!!

i want to re-watch adventure time since i used to watch it a lot but i refuse to watch breezy, what finn experiences with lsp is very close to what i had experienced with one of my "exes." i don't want to watch an episode that is too close to my trauma.

This video reminded me of an excellent point in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, where Edward gets new, lighter metal limbs, because the original ones he made were screwing up his whole body for being too heavy. It's details like this that really put you in the character's shoes. Finn just keeps it all at the emotional level, as if a prostetic could trully replace a limb...

Is it bad that I also skip breezy. It just makes me uncomfortable so when I binge I always skip it

Just discovered your channel and I have to say, this is really good (and important) work. Looking forward to seeing more from you!

i dont think finns arm is meant to be removed on a whim, but that doesnt devalue your criticism

19:16 this Finn dance is absolute mood

This man is the main character. I don’t know why, but his avatar is just ✨radiating✨ main character energy™️

A little late, but I think Finn sleeps with his prosthetic on is because he likes to be battle-ready, and is right-handed, but I could be wrong

Love this, been looking for a video like this very happy to have found this

This was so interesting ! 💜 thanks for sharing your perspective

Idk why but "good good best boi finn the human" is now the only way I shall refer to Finn

I mean on the Finn sleeping with his prosthetic thing, Finn isn’t the smartest tool in the shed

"permanently - for now -" is such a perfect way to describe the stakes of fantasy shows with tons of seasons like this

There were two times they did make point of his prosthetic. One when he was trying to use all the gadgets in the arm and accidentally kills Fern. And another on his 17th birthday party where he brags about his robot arm right before arm wrestling. I don't know how that goes for representation but it'd there.

What the hell is that LSP omg that is unacceptable

this was super interesting, great video!

Wishing you best of luck in your quest to vibe as easily as Finn at the glass people party!!

Hey I just found your channel via this video and was like damn I sure hope there’s another video under a disability lens and there’s so many!! This is so cool. I’m disabled and so rarely find great content like this! By other disabled people!!

Ty for the disability tips. I have a character with a steampunk arm and the notes made here helped me know what to do with it through the story

I love your voice its super enjoyable

I agree with your feelings about not accurately displaying finn's life with a prosthetic. But I think he might wear a prosthetic to bed. Hes a big hero boy, and he probably has some big hero feelings about what would happen if he was woken up in the middle of the night and didnt save a princess in time because he took however long it takes to attach an arm. Im also basing this partially off of a memory that may not be real where finn leaps out of bed already holding his sword. He seems like he wants to be ready to be a hero at all times. And hes 14, so like. Think of you and your teenage hormones and insecurities, but also you're the top soldier to the princess/dictator of your homeland and it's your sworn duty to protect it. And then you do some dumb stuff that makes it so you're less good at your lifes ambition, your duty, and your job, where you are less likely to be able to save someone's life, unless you're wearing this robot arm. I mean maybe sleeping with a prosthetic is real real bad, I know I would not if I had one, but finn sleeps on rocks and doesnt give a toot. It would have been cool to have one scene where he wrangles it on in the middle of the night, showing a second of frustration, and then it never happens again, though. You make a really good point about him at least performing maintenance in the background, because this show is really a lot involved with the background. Things like that make adventure time. It really would have been incredibly easy to craft this background narrative of finn taking care of his arm, or making an offhand remark about seeing PB to upgrade his robo-arm before we have a side character episode or something, and it would have been a lot of fun to see.

I like adventure time which is why I clicked this. Had a big self-realisation moment thing. So nothing said after this point is relevant to the video. I ended up asking myself the question "What if I was a cartoon character hero who gets their dsaibility fixed magically?" and apparantly Jake is in this fictional cartoon in my head too, cause man, that got real. And imaginary Jake became the embodiment of all the wisdom I didn't know I had, and gave me some really good advice. Cause the weird thing is how I didn't see myself changing much at all. That doesnt line up with the idea I've had of my healthier self all these years. I've always imagined changing drastically, and doing so much. But how? I wouldn't suddenly gain extra time, so I'd have to give up part of my current life. And I don't think I realistically would do that. It feels like I should feel bad for that, but brain Jake asked me if I'd be disappointed in him if he grew another pair of arms and then chose not to become a professional fighter or bongo player. Or if I'd be okay with him just doing what he already does but finding it a little easier. Of course I wouldn't expect him to have to use his new arms to their full potential. So that really cleared things up. Realising that I'd be the same person, and that it'd be okay, coming back to reality, I think I'm happier now. Knowing that my fantasy of this amazing person I would become was all this time just that, a silly fantasy. I'm not waiting to get to be myself after I can be magically healed. I already am myself. I didn't think this video would knock that kinda sense into me. And I didn't know until now that I needed sense being knocked into me.

Finn gets attacked by Ice King and other random weirdos all the time in the show while he's sleeping. I think it makes sense he'd sleep with his prosthetic on just so he's ready to go at a moment's notice if someone busts into their treehouse for the one-thousandth time. When we see Finn in Distant Lands he has a towel on and it looks like Simon grabbed him while he was in the middle of a shower, so it's probably the case he does take it off for things like showers and stuff, but sleeps with it on just because he doesn't want to be caught off guard.

A good example of good disability representation, at least in my opinion, is Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Both his arm and leg are replaced with prosthetics and they show a lot of the trauma he deals with and eventually comes to terms with, regarding his disabilities. I don't have an automail arm, but I do have bolts and rods in my right arm and a lot of regular pain that comes with it. FMA was a source of comfort for getting through that. Great video, by the way. Glad I found your channel.

7:35 yeah when I first saw that scene I was weirded out by it sense I didn't know what sexual assault was due to being a child but I always knew it was fuckin weird and it made me want to curl up into a ball

LSP was a fun gimmick for a couple of moments in middle school but as the show progressed she became much more irritating as the other characters grew and moved forward eventually just becoming an irritating sexual predator. I thought the robot arm was connected to his muscles and nerves, and he can’t actually take it off. But since he’s seen without it on later then it probably wasn’t the case. It would make sense for him to maintenance on it like Edward in full metal alchemist where his prosthetics are a significant part of the story.

The show has a lot of meta-commentary on "destiny" and things repeating. And disability and relationships are often centered in it. Marceline sings about it, saying "Everything stays, right where you left it, everything stays, but slightly changes", after the Stakes miniseries. She also directly talks about it with the vampire king, who asks her what she noticed over her thousand years, and she says that everything repeats itself and no one lives long enough to see the pattern. And this is brought up because in this moment, the vampire king tries to break the cycle, which he ultimately fails. No matter what, Marceline can't escape her destiny of being a vampire, if she wants to stop vampires from taking over. And vampirism is definitely seen as a disability by Marceline, she is unable to grow out of her teen years, and she is also to forced to drink red (despite it not being as "tasteful" as blood as implied by the other vampires) and not being able to taste food. If she can't drink red, she will lose control of herself. The crown is another such example, it has a destiny of always being used to create the Ice King, no matter what its original purpose was, and it's therefore a kind of mental illness that cannot be cured or removed from existence. One non-disability example is the relationship between Simon and Betty, no matter what they do they just can't ever be together happily. And Finn, last but not least, is one of my favorite examples. Even in his past lives, even in alternative timelines, his fate is always the same. His soul itself is an amputee, and so he will always lose his arm. I love this way of representing disability, because it's not a tragedy to overcome, but an integral part of your identity, something to find pride and acceptance in. It's just some normal part of life that doesn't make life worse.

great video!!

The truest self scene is incredible and means so much to me

Also I like your channel and I respect your opinions. The closest thing I am to being disabled is just having intense nerve pain, fibromyalgia that is honestly deeply debilitating on my worst days. I remember watching a video yesterday and cringing hard at the given misinformation and straight bullshit about fibro. It was about butch Hartman's weird bible beating wife if I remember correctly. So you definitely have the right to your opinions and disabled people definitely deserve to be seen in a correct light in media. I feel like LSP is meant to be bothersome and is a parody of herself. I guess in the end I just hope this stuff doesn't ruin your enjoyment of this series bc it's one of the best cartoons ever made. You are a very interesting and intelligent person and I'm your newest subscriber.

16:54 He's been disabled since his last life! Something about his soul keeps getting his arm cut off.