Good evening to you!

Okay, so, as many of you are aware, the long-running series "Adventure Time" will soon be ending it's run (Visual aid- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaRLkczxSQ). After a good Ten seasons of fun and fantasy, following the adventures of Finn, The Human Boy and his adoptive brother Jake, The Dog through all their growth, change, triumphs and tragedies, Cartoon Network is letting them go. For many people this is a heart-wrenching good-bye. The program has been hailed by many as one of the last of a "renaissance period" in animation for CN, among such shows as "The Amazing World of Gumball", "Regular Show" and "Steven Universe".

Watching the show progress from a fairly unremarkable simple fantasy/humour series to a surprisingly deep tale of a post-holocaust world of intrigue and metaphor with writing that is occasionally FAR sharper than it's audience or it's detractors, I'm on board with all that.

Though another point does infuriate me about seeing the show take up it's hat. Many fans of all stripes of entertainment engage in something I've learned is called "Shipping" in which two characters become a couple in the popular mythos of the show in question. Whether they are actually romantically involved or not, some people enjoy the idea of them being so, for whatever reason. They write fan-fiction, draw artwork *head tilts, grins* make some porn and so on. "Sherlock/Watson"(Sherlock), "Keith/Lance"(The New Voltron) ...you get the idea. Some fans early on in the show's run began "shipping" the pair of the bright pink candy-elemental with control issues Princess Bubblegum and the dark, sassy, troubled free-spirit Marceline The Vampire Queen. The funny thing was, they were actually right to do so.

From the beginning the two were created to have a backstory involving romance and a strong bond of affection that has continued for centuries, attracted and driven apart by both The Princess' authority issues and responsibilities and Marceline's wild-horse in a pen demand for freedom.

So why the need for "shipping" them if they're actually a couple, You may be asking?

Well, that would be that despite what many propagandists might try to sell you, LGBTQ people are still a very marginalized group in America -and in other countries, even worse. Though the show's creators have expressed in multiple interviews their desire to make these episodes, Cartoon Network has repeatedly denied them the freedom to do so. Although it's acceptable for Finn, the show's protagonist, to have heterosexual attractions to multiple female characters and for his brother Jake to carry his relationship with Lady Rainicorn (an inter-species coupling, even) through to having puppies, a gay couple is considered inappropriate for "family viewing". Thus, the characters have only been able to hint at a past relationship and any present emotional or physical attraction they have for each other. When confronted on the topic, CN representatives have defended their action, as such people often do, by declaring it a necessary step for 'business' reasons. Due to the religious elements in several other countries(and this one) CN fears that if they were to allow the writers to produce the show as it's supposed to be with the couple openly established that these countries and their broadcasting networks would ban the show. "It's not us doing it. No, it's those guys. Blame them".

SO.... *huffs, smiles* ..to both Cartoon Network and every other person involved in such endeavors at misdirection and maintaining the status quo I say this....

If THEY don't like it, let THEM watch something else.... or to be more concise-

FUCK "them".

Seriously, FUCK 'em.... *shrugs, eyes blazing* Adventure Time has remained a popular draw across the world for Ten Years now and it's been proven that if money's to be made, the unscrupulous greedy will find a work-around. Numerous other shows appear in multiple countries with elements censored out for the same reasons. From networks in Russia putting a beard on one of the female characters in Steven Universe to cover up a gay-coded relationship to our own country writing out the romantic couple of Sailor Moon's Urnaus and Neptune, or even just not showing episodes deemed "inappropriate", it's a well-established practice.

*sneers in disgust* ...and yet, all the while, I keep hearing that old gong of "free speech" in the back of my head... and nobody seems to be banging it in outrage.

It's the last inning of the game, Cartoon Network, time to put up or shut up. *laughs* What the fuck are they gonna do, cancel the show? It's the series finale. Have at it.


And to us all, from the"South Park philosophers" to the genuinely informed- We need to decide what we believe in and stand up for it. Do we really believe in "free speech" or do we just like the idea? *snofts* The proof says the latter. Me, I just want to see people stop treating the free expression of love as if it's something they have a right to condemn on no authority but their own opinion. *blows a kiss* I love you guys. Love each other, eh?