I can’t wait! I know this is gonna be a good one.

This looks great so far! I can’t wait to watch it.

what message boards do you check?

What do you mean by second to last with ACASTA? Are you switching up pairings?

Whoah, is that something that a lot of writers are doing or do they just trust you well enough to do that?

Ah, I didn’t realize she was leaving.

Wow, that was crammed full of story. Not a bad thing, just a lot to process.

I found this episode very funny. It’s also very clear how far you struggled with pacing, because there simply wasnt much time to go into depth on the points you both brought up – this episode suffered for being a oneparter, and if I see the storyboard later, I guess it’ll be good to read it like that so I can process what actually happened.

Was surprised at how casual Betty was at just jumping into a portal into the future, but I look forward to seeing what she gets up to.

What would you have liked to have besides huntress wizard if you got the two parter?

I wonder about that too, considering that Simon mentioned he was a skeptic about magic in HJS, but then I thought, maybe Betty wasn’t. I wonder if there was Mulder/Scully dynamic going on. Simon was the Scully, and Betty was the Mulder.

Yeah, gotta say, would have really preferred this had been a two-parter. It felt rushed, like it was some reviewer’s synopsis, and too much happened too quickly. Marceline’s barely registering Simon’s back, Betty jumps in takes over the last three minutes, and so on.

This Lemonhope story better have needed to be 30 minutes, because this episode suffered for the shrinkage.

Also dude, you can’t tell me “This Lemonhope story better have needed to be 30 minutes”. This Lemonhope story was written nearly a year ago. The guys who made it believed there was enough juice to warrant a double length. Please judge it on its own merits rather than trying to manage the past.

This episode was amazing and while I could have watched another 10+ minutes, I don’t feel it suffered for only being a standard-length episode. It was awesome!

i gotta say i like the rushed pacing because it still leaves this after effect of emotions that you suck in and it was better fast than slow because people like to assume that time works the same way in story telling as real life but I like how with alot of episodes you just do whatever feels right, and i’d rather have that than slower pacing, or if this episode was slowly paced then i’d rather still have you guys do what feels right, also i’m real bummed to hear of Ako’s departure. Truth is every time i saw her name appear, i’d tell myself this is it, this is her last episode, only to explode with joy when her name apears again, but then i tell my self again when episode ends, this is it this is her last one, and again and again. You guys did amazing stuff together. I really especailly love the Braco don’t go song, oh well. Amazing episode. So amazing.

The way your initial post read it sounded like both were being designed at the same time, so it sounded like they just chose to two-parter the Lemonhope story instead. Since that’s what it sounded like, it felt as if they were connected that way and so this episode’s shortcomings were partly connected to the Lemonhope story. If that’s not the case, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.

As for the expectations for emotional beats like Simon and Marcy or I Remember You, maybe they aren’t what you wanted, but the context of the three minutes between the call with Marceline and Betty showing up involves:
-Marceline is seeing her father figure sane for the first time in centuries
-Marceline is watching him die, and can’t do anything (She’s a vampire, why not bite him?)
-Marceline also has to give up Hambo for Simon, the toy we’ve been seeing as a tie to Simon for three seasons, for a portal we don’t really understand until it happens
-Simon’s saying goodbye to Betty because he’s accepting death now
There’s an expectation that it’s not just going to be a few hugs, a couple time remarks and that’s it. It feels less like a reunion, and more of a very sad package delivery service. I’m not so deluded that it would’ve been some sort of somber movie thing, but this episode essentially got to some important points in the story of Simon and Marceline, and just drives past them.

We didn’t need a ukulele swansong for Simon, but it needed some more talking through some of these points. Someone acknowledging that Hambo’s going to be destroyed, someone asking how to help Simon stay alive, Simon explaining his priorities. The need to be one episode scuttles that, and gives the impression that these don’t matter to the characters, or they don’t remember.

I’m not saying it NEEDED to be a two parter, it goes through what it really needed to for plot points, the ending was fine and sets up more options. Still, it felt like an episode way too excited to gets its story finished with the bare essentials that it missed some good chances to catch its breath and take the consequences in.

I felt the pacing was actualy true to life. When change that dramatic hits you in real life you don’t stop and process your emotions while you’re in the surge of it. This episode gives you the shock of change and lets the viewer experience a world falling apart/transforming at the same rate the characters are experiencing it. I think thats what people are feeling when they say this episode was disappointing because it moved to fast or was missing resolution. I watched it a 2nd (and 3rd) time and its a different thing once you get over the rush of the first experience. it holds together, and I am assuming it was meant to be a pivotal episode for the series so i don’t think we can say it was unsuccessful until we see what comes next.

Also, “for Simon, death was preferable to life as Ice King” Fuck yeah. what other show approaches these topics with such sophistication and sensitivity (or at all). i wish i had this show to watch when i was a kid. i think it would be pretty cool to see a funeral in the land of Ooo.

Jesse, so there is some pretty sophisticated metaphysical content in this series. esoteric magic stuff, this seems to be your thing. I wonder how much of it is brought to the table by you or is it just a like minded staff or was it in it from the start?

Before this episode was made, were there any exisitng plans to make an episode about Betty? Or did you get the ball rolling?

I’m thinking it’s not so much the pacing as much as it is the change of pace for this specific subplot. People have only been exposed to Simon in the form of passive, everyday tragedies. And that’s good–Ms. Sugar did really well with slowing down on two otherwise aggressive characters.

That being said, some people get caught up in mistaking Simon and Marcy for entirely different characters in an entirely different universe. The characterizations in Betty don’t make Simon and Marceline come off as particularly brooding, whereas Simon and Marcy was basically Diet The Road by Cormac McKitty. Canonically, we have no reason to believe Simon is slow, and, while I Remember You had Marceline in tears, that situation was emotionally corked. She didn’t break down when she got Hambo back, and that was basically her favorite thing ever (at least at some point). There is a lot more canonical characterization of her being stable than emotional.

So basically,
> Things are happening

> Characters not being broody
> “Muh ideal emotional characterization”
> Genuinely interesting existential crisis ignored.
Waifus: 1, Sartre: 0.

Just saw this episode a few days ago. I think ice kings story arc is one of my favorites and it just keeps getting better the more it develops. Its trgically beautiful the way his sordid memories from his past emerge in bursts and are immediately swallowed by the selfish persona of the ice king. Even still, you can see who he used to be buried under the parasitical nature of the crowns magic. I also like the duality of his existence in that he is given the choice to either die as the person he knows whom is loved by the people he values or to live forever as the person he never thought hed become. True artistic tragedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqh82Dz84Q you must know about this, yes? holy scat. am i right? i wonder if you’ve been preaching jodorowsky’s dune just like the rest of us el topo/holy mountain worshippers.

i just keep hoping this will inspire enough people to make it happen. i can’t wait to see it myself.