{"id":3452,"date":"2016-03-12T20:35:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T02:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=3452"},"modified":"2016-03-12T21:08:05","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T03:08:05","slug":"adv-time-flute-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=3452","title":{"rendered":"Adv Time – Flute Spell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HW_Finn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“You’re an exceptional beast and have great hair… but exceptional beasts like us cannot fall in love. That is the secret of ordinary people.”<\/p>\n

When entering Season 7 of Adventure Time, I had no ideas for stories I wanted to do. I decided I would just board whatever outlines the writers gave me, and not try to come up with anything. I was pretty set on the idea that this would be my last season and that I would do my best with whatever material came at me. Then this weird thing happened in my personal life. <\/p>\n

I was feeling extremely void of passion, like a wall painted gray. I was developing this default fatalistic point of view about my life as a workaholic artist living in Lost Angeles. Then one night while moping around a Giant Robot art show, I saw this dark eyebrowed, starkly featured woman socializing with friends of mine. My cynical, flirty aspect perked up and decided to try making a connection, thinking something like, “Who cares? This girl is attractive. Relationships are pointless and I can’t feel shit, but I can fake optimism for a moment just to pass the time.” <\/p>\n

I joined the group of friends and she immediately zeroed in on me in a super intense sort of way that was shocking. We made plans to go to figure drawing classes together (I don’t feel like explaining how we got to that point). The encounter sort of jolted me out of my long standing melancholy dream or whatever it was. That night I asked around about her and our mutual friends assured me she had a live-in boyfriend. Oh. Okay. Well that was the end of pursuing romance. I didn’t mind, since I was feeling resigned to keeping all my time and resources focused on the act of creation anyway. So we’d just be figure drawing friends. That’s what I told myself anyway.<\/p>\n

And that’s what happened for the next several months. Once a week we’d go draw naked people together and then hang out and have intense conversations about our life journey. Then we’d awkwardly part ways until the next session. Once she texted me to meet her on the street to give me a drawing of an explosion. I convinced her to write me letters but she wouldn’t give me her address for fear of her boyfriend getting the wrong idea. The whole time I told myself we were just cool buddies, but the morality of the situation felt increasingly sketchy. <\/p>\n

The amount of emotion we were withholding from each other started to make my life feel allegorical. I knew if I were to act on my feelings, I would be a terrible person. I was already feeling like a terrible person and I hadn’t done anything. It was starting to really mess with my self perception. So I decided to write an Adventure Time story about two people who develop feelings for each other and the sacrifice of not pursuing your base instincts, in service of your higher calling. <\/p>\n

Eventually this person and I decided not to hang out with each other anymore. The decision felt triumphant and tragic at the same time. It reinforced the confusion I feel about timing, personal connections, fate, self determination, and ambition. I tried to put that in the story. I also put Jake’s counter argument in there as reminder that there’s always another way to see things. <\/p>\n

After many months we got back in contact and now everything is cool and we’re able to have chill conversations at parties. She worked it out with her boyfriend and they’re happy together I think. I’m pretty sure he still wants to punch me in the face. <\/p>\n

OH YEAH and Finn playing flute in the river was inspired by this Hermeto Pascoal video.<\/p>\n

\n