CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM
Finn and the Flame Princess are an item, happily hanging out. Out of nowhere, the Ice King flies by hurling insults. Irate, Flame Princess gets hot and burns the Ice King’s britches . . . humiliating him. The princess kicks the defeated wizard back to his castle, leaving a hot flame heart blazing in the sky. Finn blushes. . . . That night Finn dreams about getting flamed by the Flame Princess. It should hurt, but it doesn’t. . . . In fact, it’s awesome!
Finn tries to dream the hot dream again; he needs to know what it means. So he lies to get another fight going between Flame Princess and the Ice King. But everything ends in shambles—broken hearts, bruised bodies, and the Ice Kingdom is left in cinders. Finn, having learned a great deal about himself, is left alone, without the princess.
There’s a lot more to the episode “Frost and Fire” than that, but here’s what I think. . . . The convoluted plot of this story represents the intricate nature of our minds. Think about it, we spend a third of our time in sleep and a good part of that time dreaming weird stuff that can’t happen when we’re awake. Why weird stuff? Good question!
Scientists have discovered that dreaming somehow assists in our learning. “So, is weird also good? And, probably since we first began to think, we’ve wondered about the “cosmic” significance of our dreams and the future they foretell. So, is Finn’s first dream really just a hot dream or is it a revelation of things to come? Adventure Time makes us ask the question, “How real can dreams become for us and, more importantly, how they can impact our lives . . . if we let them!?” I need to explain what this all might mean, but first, let me get some shut-eye. It’s so late . . . Yawn
Zzzzzzzzz
The Storyboard Place
Okay, this is weird, I’m on the set of Adventure Time. Well I think I am. . . . No, I’m sure I am! But it’s where the storyboarding is done, just a simple room . . . no palaces or treehouses. It’s a really white room with white whiteboards, white tables, white floor and white ceiling, white chairs and no windows. Am I dreaming?
Five people sit around the white table. All are dressed in white. Only their heads and faces have color. I listen to their chit-chat for a few minutes and pick up on their names. On the left, Suri has long straight charcoal hair and deep brown eyes. Benjamin seems taller and his blonde hair is spikey, not punk; but wild like, and his face is almost orange as if he had once been a redhead. To the right, Evelyn’s cheeks are a bit sallow but her lips are ruby and her gray hair is pulled back-severely into a scrunchie. Saul’s curly mop is a smallish but mushrooming afro and his cheeks are fat and the color of warm cocoa with darker black freckles. A charcoal colored electronic cigarette dangles from the lips of the angled ever so white face of Tatyana who sits at the end of the table staring over crisp brunette bangs from black rimmed glasses into a pile of erratically arranged white papers. The room is filled with white noise that I can’t make sense out of . . .
QUIET ON THE SET. Shhhh. AND ACTION!
The Big Setup
TATYANA: Settle down, now. She glowers. A white paper airplane floats across the table spearing her paper pile. I can’t see where it came from; my camera angle is all wrong. I could be watching this like a movie, but I smell coffee. Lots of tall white paper cups with white lids. The producer in the back of the room seems to look down his horn-rimmed glasses at me.
TATYANA: Real Mature, Benjamin. . . . The question for this episode is, ‘What is a dream?’ Groans from the group.
TATYANA: All right, all right. Here’s what we were thinking. Finn is awake and something happens to him that makes it into his dreams, maybe something a bit erotic. He wants to dream the dream again so he does something while he is awake to make the dream come back. . . . That’s about it so far.
SURI: As always, well thought through by corporate. So, who else besides Finn’s in this?
BENJAMIN: Princess Bubblegum . . .
SAUL: She’s getting really old. What about a new character. We could call him Freudo!
SURI: In your dreams. Moans fill the room followed by a rude gesture from Saul.
TATYANA: Hey, maybe Saul has something. Remember Freud thought all dreams were wish fulfillments. What if Finn has a secret wish he wants fulfilled?
SURI: Why secret?
SAUL: Secret’s more fun. Especially when Jake finds out he’s been left out of the secret.
TATYANA: Is Jake in this?
AUL: What if Finn just explains the dream to Jake the next morning?
SURI: Boring. There has to be something in the dream that gets Jake worked up so that he messes with Finn. You know how he does that.
TATYANA: But what’s this dream about?
SAUL: So, what if it’s hard to know whether this is a dream or real? Isn’t that what this whole story is about? If we know right away that Finn’s dreaming then where’s the weird?
BENJAMIN: WHAT IS REALITY?
SAUL: Dum dum dum dum . . . Pounding Beethoven on an air keyboard.
Benjamin is grinning.
BENJAMIN: I smell burning.
SURI: Tatyana’s cigarette.
BENJAMIN: No, not that, figuratively . . . burning like in Flame Princess or Flame King.
SAUL: Hot dream! But who’s Finn hot for?
BENJAMIN: Hmmm. How about Flame Princess and his hots for her? How else do you get involved with someone who’s so hot you can’t touch her? But in a dream Finn can get close without getting burnt!
SAUL: Sure it’s possible. I get burned all the time by hot dates, and I’m not dreaming.
BENJAMIN: Saul, you don’t know what hot is . . . So, okay, hot is hot and Flame Princess is Finn’s hottie. Why not go back to Freud again? ‘Oh, Flame Princess would you, could you be mine?’ The canned laughter “wah, wah, wah,” comes from somewhere and punctuates Benjamin’s plea. It’s getting very hot in the room. I loosen my shirt buttons. I hear knocking and realize it isn’t a door but Saul pounding a drum riff on the table with his forefingers.
Arte Speaks
Nobody is speaking, the only sound is Saul drumming. Then Tatyana looks up.
TATYANA: What about Artemidorus?1
SAUL: Oh, hell Tat, not another one of your obscure philosophers.
TATYANA: Hear me out. Old obscure Arte was where Michel Foucault got his inspiration for beginning to understand the sexual dream in Care of the Self.
SAUL: [muttering] And I suppose you’re going to tell us how.
TATYANA: [screws down her face and looks over her glasses at Saul like a schoolmarm] I believe I will, Saul. But it isn’t just about Artemidorus. After writing his first two volumes about the History of Sexuality, Foucault realized he had to go back to the ancients to better understand what sexuality meant to people then so that he could compare it to what sexuality has become today.2 For the historical aspects he turned to Artemidorus.
BENJAMIN: [in a hillbilly drawl] Sex was different then?
SAUL: [continuing the accent] Sho ’nuff, it was brandy new and excitin’ in them days.
SURI: You know, Foucault said today we pervert sexual pleasure, make it bad. Catch my drift? Why don’t you just let Tat talk . . .?” A raspberry from Benjamin.
TATYANA: Thank you, Suri. Artemidorus said that the dream tells us two things. First, the dream tells us what’s real then it explains the consequences whether they’re good or bad. What Artemidorus tried to do was develop a way to analyze dreams to see what practical consequences they would reveal for us when we’re awake.
SURI: Fortune telling?
TATYANA: No he was more interested in where you were—your station in life. So it didn’t matter the sex of your partner in the dream but if you were a slave-owner underneath a slave in a dream would mean ominous troubles for you; being over the slave, well that could be a good thing or just something neutral. But, and here is where it gets strange. . . . Because of the interpretations of the dreams, the things different people and relationships represent, if you’re a man and have sex with your mother it is generally a good thing to Artemidorus!
SAUL: Say what?
TATYANA: I know it’s weird. While Artemidorus was against incest he interpreted the mother of the dream into man’s trade and naturally a man must be involved with his trade, intimately. But on the other hand if you were physically sick and have this dream this does not bode well for you because this is messing with Mother Earth, where you are bound to go when you die. It gets complicated.
Sense from Nonsense
Tatyana takes a puff from her electronic cigarette and stares down at her papers. Benjamin stands and stretches then looks at the group and raises his hands palm up.
BENJAMIN: So, what does this all have to do with Finn and the Flame Princess?
SURI: I think I’m getting it. See, there is a moral thing going on at the same time there is a practical thing going on in the dream. While Finn can be dreaming about having a relationship with the Flame Princess, the circumstances surrounding that relationship are more important than whether the relationship is creepy. So, if Finn is honest and forthright in his dream about her, well it’s a good dream which bodes well for Finn. If, there is some subterfuge or something, or it’s backwards, like if she is a slave and he is under her . . .
SAUL: Quoth the Raven, ‘nevermore’.
TATYANA: Exactly. The dream is how Finn thinks and this translates into what he will do when he’s awake. So, how do we bring in the morality thing to this dream so that Finn recognizes its significance?
BENJAMIN: What about Beemo? Beemo’s like the ultimate voice of reality.
SURI: Beemo’s a box that does stuff on command. How is Beemo the voice of moral reality?
Strange Interlude
Wait, it’s me. Sorry, but I have to stop this here. I’m waving at the producer in the back of the room, but he isn’t looking; he’s texting on his phone. I walk onto the set anyway. I’m trying to shout, “No, it’s all wrong, it’s all wrong! It has to be the Cosmic Owl!” My mouth is open but nothing comes out. So I’m standing now and walking to a whiteboard to get their attention, but it’s no use. My feet are like blocks of granite and I move as in slow motion and they keep talking and then there are windows in the room and the sun is going down. How long have we been here? The producer is glowering at me now. I slink back off the set.
It’s a Hoot
Tatyana takes another puff from her electronic cigarette and exhales with a grunt.
TATYANA: The Cosmic Owl it is. But what does it say?
SURI: Beware . . .
SAUL: Naw. Too obvious. Remember that Freud said that dreams are a product of our subconscious wishes and traumas. Why not have the Owl be Finn’s subconscious that bubbles up slowly through his dream and whispers something to him that he doesn’t see in his dream?
BENJAMIN: Yeah, like you screwed up.
SAUL: Sure, something like that.
SURI: You know I read somewhere that scientists think there’s more to dreams than what Freud and Artemidorus talked about. Some researchers think that dreams help us learn, especially the dreams we have around the time we go to sleep and wake up and this is connected to our deeper sleep dreams too. Dreaming somehow sorts things out that we learn during the day and helps us make stronger memories.3
On the other hand, when we get into deep sleep dreaming turns off things like our muscles and other parts of our brain. This is when weird happens because it is like we have two different conscious states, one while we are dreaming and one while we are awake because something in our brain turns off certain chemicals when we sleep and turns them back on when we wake up again. So I guess this is why our dreams when in deep sleep are certifiably strange. And, get this, in these deep sleep dreams our episodic memory function is turned off!4 Maybe that’s where Artemidorus and Freud come in—with the really strange stuff that just pops out.
TATYANA: Okay, but how do we work learning and this other stuff into this story?
BENJAMIN: Well, this Flame Princess is the ultimate hottie. So, what if you learned a few things about how to get a hottie to want you and how to embrace such a fiery thing without getting burned. Wouldn’t that add an additional dimension to the dream?
SAUL: Like, what would he learn?
BENJAMIN: Well, what do flame Princesses do to keep hot? Do they eat or are they just pyrotechnic?
SURI: I don’t know. Maybe it’s a dumb idea. But what if we made it, like Benjamin said, that Finn dreams about what it takes for the Flame Princess to always stay hot? What if he learns this from his dream but he never had this experience when he was awake?
TATYANA: “Sort of, he deduced it from what he observed?
SURI: Sure, people get all sorts of inspiration from their dreams and sometimes it’s right and sometimes it’s wrong and sometimes you have to dig deep to find out the association, like rubbing your face with dirt which really means you have dirty thoughts or you just dug a hole for yourself. Well, or . . . you get the idea.
BENJAMIN: It has to feel right in this case because Finn has to believe what the dream says, otherwise he’ll think it was all just a kooky fantasy if it doesn’t work out when he’s awake.
SAUL: This has surely gone beyond me. So how does she stay hot?
Tatyana looks up at the clock and Benjamin swipes his cell phone front and frowns.
TATYANA: It’s getting late and so far all we have is a jumble. Good ideas, but still a mish-mash. Can we tie this up into something that the artists can sink their teeth into?
SURI: Well, we’ve got this so far. First we need to blur the lines of what’s real and what’s a dream. And we can do that simply by changing scenes. You know how suddenly the dream is here and then it’s there? It’s like the dream forgot where it was so there it is now and that’s just fine because what was isn’t there anymore!
BENJAMIN: So, what we could do is have Finn and the Flame Princess together in some common setting like a picnic or in the park and then the next moment they’re in some kind of passionate embrace where Finn is covered by flames but this feels so good to him. And then he wakes up. So what was the dream? What if he is so involved in being awake and being in his dream that the two seem the same to him?
SAUL: I like that. Make the really strange stuff bubble up next to what seems to make sense. I am so involved in the dream I don’t notice how bizarre it has become. Thus the dream is real in a real sense and then it’s real in an unreal sense and who’s to say whether our sleeping mind cares? Or does the waking mind care? Ow, my head hurts. I think that is why we’ve been given the gift to forget most of our dreams.
TATYANA: Yes, but Finn needs to remember this dream and take something from what seems real and the weird stuff like being smothered in fire without getting burned.
SAUL: But how do we keep out interference. So, what if the Earl of Lemongrab or Lumpy Space Princess just come walking on into his dream and send it off in a new direction? Dreams do that you know.
TATYANA: How does it serve this story?
SAUL: “Dunno, but that happens all the time and in our dreams we don’t seem to be able to know what’s coming next. Like someone is shoving you into random YouTube videos or something.”
BENJAMIN: So, we turn on Beemo’s EKG function and zap Jake when his rhythm goes random.
SAUL: Be serious. . . . By the way, does Beemo dream?
BENJAMIN: Okay, maybe we push it a little—Finn sets himself up to have this dream and only this dream. He, like, drinks warm milk and puts on soft music and says over and over again, ‘There’s no place like home . . . there’s no place like home . . .’
SURI: Guys, I think we need to back out of that hole and move on. So, does this flaming interlude portend good or ill for Finn? Remember Artemidorus. What has Finn done to enflame the Princess? Or is this just his flaming passion for the Princess? Does even Finn know?
BENJAMIN: Oh, good point, Suri. He knows subconsciously he blew it with her, but his flaming passion is telling him one thing while the situation is saying something else entirely. Twisteroo!
SAUL: I’m getting dizzy. So what did Finn do?
TATYANA: He lied to her, maybe?
SURI: No, what if this hot dream was just that and at first it didn’t mean anything specific but he wanted to have the dream again, so then he set up things during the day so that he could learn from his experiences so that he could have the same dream again and finish it. Finish it, because deep down he wants to understand the consequences—like Artemidorus said. Maybe even like Freud to see what he was really wishing for—to break into his subconscious for answers!
TATYANA: So, the first dream is a hot one, but it doesn’t yet have the context that Artemidorus needed to finish the morality play.
SAUL: But there is a hint of the consequence in the first dream when the Cosmic Owl whispers, ‘you screwed up’ or something.
SURI: Yes. So Finn dreams this passion with the Flame Princess but it’s incomplete. He wants two things. He wants desperately to have another hot time with the Princess but he also wants to know what the consequences of the dream are for him.
SAUL: And does he find out in the end?
TATYANA: I think his subconscious has known it all along.
SURI: But it needs to come out in the real as well as the dream.
SAUL: I got a problem. So, does anyone here have the same dream again and again? I mean, we all get anxiety dreams like for a test or something but for me they’re all different—different people, different settings, different problems. Finn may think he’s going to have this same dream again but I bet he gets Ice King snowballs thrown at him instead of passionate flame. That’s what I think.
Sorry, Spoke Too Soon . . . Here’s the Wrap
Tatyana glances up at the clock again and Suri taps her watch.
TATYANA: We are getting close. But what goes on in the world, in reality, while Finn is awake that makes this happen?
BENJAMIN: We know the Flame Princess is a hot head. No pun intended . . . Well! And what better foil to her than the Ice King. What if Finn in his dream stirs her passion by getting the two to argue, even fight?
SAUL: So, Finn gets turned on by the Princess and the King fighting?
SURI: Why not? Finn’s hot for the Princess and this is just something that’s part of his weird kinky dream. It’s kind of a role reversal, where instead of the damsel in distress, the Finn is in distress and the Princess comes to his rescue . . . like Finn’s under his slave . . .
SAUL: So many twists.
BENJAMIN: It’s his dream. It can go wherever he wants it to go. It’s without inhibition.
SURI: But it’s this rampant spontaneity and his willingness to do things just to continue his own pleasure and it’s his need to find the ending and earn his ultimate reward for the dream. . . . All that just gets him into trouble.
SAUL: So, are we saying that dreams are just an extension of reality and that somehow dreams and reality bleed into each other and somehow alter the reality of both the dream and what is real? Kind of like the fantasy affects the real which affects the fantasy and produces a new real?
SURI: Hmmm, I suppose . . . Yes, right, that’s what it might be . . . But how do we know and will our audience know what’s what?
TATYANA: Does it matter?
BENJAMIN: No, I don’t think it does. See, the whole point of this is to consider the twists and turns of our lives—our sleeping lives and waking lives. They have to intersect, overlap and otherwise affect each other. They have consequences as ole Arte said and we need to be mindful of what we wish for and what our dreams are made of because they can affect what we know and what we learn and even what we forget. So Finn has deep passion but poor judgment and he ends up getting burned in the end.
TATYANA: There’s a moral message in this?
SURI: And it goes back to your Artemidorus: there are consequences for all of our actions, even our dreams. We not only need to observe and keep track of our thoughts and thinking but beware where our passions are too hot and so hot they cloud our thinking.
SAUL: Sometimes we push too hard.
SURI: Yes, but we don’t always know when that is.
BENJAMIN: Maybe a dumb question but does this need to be black and white? I mean, do we dream in color or black and white?
SAUL: Oh, and what about someone who has been blind since birth. What do they see in their dreams?
BENJAMIN: Nothing, nada. How could they?
SURI: But is that right? Think about the Doppler Effect when a car goes past you and the sound goes from higher to lower pitch. Blind people can sense distance from hearing sounds. Isn’t that like seeing? So wouldn’t they like see sounds when they dream?
SAUL: So I ask again, does Beemo dream?
TATYANA: Alright, alright this is all very interesting, but . . . Okay, so the sun is just coming up or is it going down? Hard to tell . . . Can we come back together with the artists tomorrow and lay out the whole thing? Saul, be the Ice King in your dreams. Suri, dream about the Flame Princess. Benjamin dream of Jake and find out more about the color thing and I, well, I will try to be Finn.
EVELYN: Anyone up for coffee?
I feel a nudge. My wife, holding a cup out to me. I smell coffee. I push down the white sheets from my chin. It’s me, not yet me me, but just-awake me. My eyes are open. It’s early, the sun is barely peeking through the shades of my bedroom.
“Did you sleep?” she asks.
“I guess,” I say, “You?”
“Yeah, but I had these weird dreams,” she says.
“Like?” I ask.
“Like I was in a cartoon and there was this boy with noodle arms who had, like, a white television for a head with his face inside and he had pointy ears and this fat dog was with him. And it was hot but there was lots of snow around,” she says.
“Pointy, like rabbit ears?” I ask.
“Nah, like dog ears, but he wasn’t a dog. Weird. How about you, did you dream?” she says.
“I don’t think so. I guess I slept pretty hard,” I say.
1 Old-time Greek philosopher from Ephesus.
2 The Care of the Self.
3 The article by Stickgold and others, listed in the References.
4 Hobson, Dreaming.