With an 8.7/10 IMDB rating, Adventure Time is one of the top Cartoon Network series to date. The story follows Finn and Jake as they fight monsters, save princesses, or stop the Ice King.
We watched the franchise twice to bring you the best Adventure Time episodes below!
Top 30 Adventure Time Episodes To Watch
1. Come Along with Me (Season 10, Episodes 13, 14, 15, 16)
The series finale remains one of the best tear-jerker episodes of the show. The episode shows a thousand years in the future where Shermy and Beth consult the king of Ooo (revealed to be BMO) after finding Finn’s metal arm. BMO then proceeded to tell the tale of the Candy Kingdom war between Princess Bubblegum and Gumbald. And the epic of a great hero and his friends saving the Land of Ooo.
The final arc also featured the return of some beloved characters like the Flame Princess and Lemongrab.
2. Min & Marty (Season 8, Episode 25)
Finn revealed in the “Susan Strong” episode that he knew nothing of his biological parents. As a young boy, Finn was raised by Jake’s parents after finding him in the forest in Ooo. The Min and Marty episode features the story about Finn’s biological father and mother, Martin and Minerva, and answers the long-standing questions about his origins. But how old is Finn in Adventure Time?
3. I Remember You (Season 4, Episode 25)
Adventure Time has tackled sensitive topics of the past. Still, this episode was something else as it portrayed an interpretation of how Alzheimer’s disease works in the life of the Ice King and his relationship with Marceline. In the aftermath of the Great Mushroom War, when Ice king was still Simon Petrikov, he raised her as his own and pleaded for her forgiveness for whatever he does when he ever forgets Marceline.
The vocal performances of Olivia Olson and Tom Kenny are especially moving!
4. The Light Cloud (Season 8, Episode 27)
The Light Cloud is a good Adventure Time episode that ends in a heart-breaking but satisfying farewell. Finn and Jake, along with Susan and BMO, are trapped in Founder’s Island by Finn’s mom. In fear of her son’s future in the Land of Ooo, she tries to protect them by uploading their consciousness to her computer. Seeing the myriad of good deeds made by Adventure Time’s prime protagonist, he relents and sets them free with a heart-breaking closure.
5. Simon & Marcy (Season 5, Episode 14)
Although previous episodes portrayed him as a cookie-cutter antagonist, there’s more depth to the Ice King. While hanging out in Marceline’s house, Finn and Jake asks why Marceline hangs out with the cold-hearted king.
Ice King’s original identity, Simon, had to wear the crown and lose his sanity to prevent bad guys from harming young Marceline. The episode makes watchers feel happy and sad at the Ice King’s demise, but he did what he had to do for one purpose — to save Marcy.
6. The Hall of Egress (Season 7, Episode 24)
Stumbling upon a cave, Finn realizes it was the same cave Princess Bubblegum told him in the past — the Hall of Egress. This is Finn’s own adventure as he figures out how to leave the cave through concentration and the mind. Unfortunately, when Finn lost his focus and opens his eyes, he finds himself back where he came from.
7. Together Again (Distant Lands, Episode 3)
Decades after the “Obsidian,” it is revealed that Jake died, and Finn undergoes a series of hallucinations reimagining the duo’s past adventures together. He reimagined being with Jake, saving the Lumpy Space Princess and Turtle Princess from Ice King and all sorts of adventure even dead.
By fighting off New Death and receiving the Kiss of Life, Finn and Jake find themselves back to life once again. So, how old is Jake in Adventure Time?
8. Wake Up (Season 6, Episode 1)
Finn wishes to know more about his past, but the price he has to pay maybe a little too high. In this episode, Finn, the Human, learns that his father is imprisoned in the Citadel (housing criminals guilty of cosmic crimes).
Prismo asks Finn and Jake to recover a sleeping man from a hut, which was revealed as the corporeal form of Prismo, who wanted to see himself before dying. A cosmic crime will be incurred on Finn’s behalf sending him to the Citadel.
9. Checkmate (Season 7, Episode 12)
This is the penultimate episode of the “Stakes” miniseries where the Vampire King realizes the futility of his battles with Marceline. They were near to changing their fates with him taking the vampire cure from Princess Bubblegum.
10. Helpers (Season 8, Episode 26)
Finn and Jake, along with Susan and BMO, set on a quest to find Minerva in Founder’s Island. Here, they found multiple robot clones of Minerva helping people when Dr. Gross decimated the population.
The beloved character from Cartoon Network, Finn, has never known his family. However, this gives context to her helper nature, who, despite being only human, programmed herself into a computer to protect other humans. Trauma made her an overprotective mother, and later episodes bring that character to light.
11. Jake the Dog (Season 5, Episode 2)
In this episode, Finn is in an alternate world without Lich due to his Prismo wish. When the hot tub-chilling Jake the Dog learns that Finn is in real trouble, he makes it so that things go back to normal in the land of Ooo, where Finn, Jake, and Lich existed altogether. This is definitely one of our favorite episodes!
12. Everything Stays (Season 7, Episode 7)
We see a glimpse of Marceline’s life and the depths of her character. A protector of humans, she absorbs the vampire essence of the vampires she slays. This is where Marcy’s mother, Elise, makes her first appearance, which adds emotional depth to the story. Voiced by Rebecca Sugar, her “Everything Stays” lullaby to Marcy remains a fan favorite song.
Shop The Adventure Time Collection Now13. Escape from the Citadel (Season 6, Episode 2)
The Lich facilitates the escape of all prisoners from the Citadel, including Martin, Finn’s deadbeat dad. However, the cowardly father couldn’t even explain his reasons for abandoning Finn despite the latter saving him.
Finn fends himself from the Lich, which turned the skeleton into a baby, but Finn loses his arm in the process.
14. Obsidian (Distant Lands, Episode 2)
Obsidian is Adventure Time at its most romantic state. In this Distant Lands HBO Max special, we look at BubbLine — the romance between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline.
They are summoned to help the Glass Kingdom fight against a familiar foe, but flashbacks from the kingdom portrayed events leading to their disastrous breakup. Can this kingdom bring them back together?
15. Is That You? (Season 6, Episode 19)
After Prismo’s death, Jake gets entrapped in a mind-boggling timeless reality. In an attempt to save his best friend, Finn tracks Jake and saves him. After a series of convoluted events, Prismo was resurrected, and it was a relief for all Adventure Time fans as the pink shadow is a fan-fiction favorite.
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16. May I Come In? (Season 7, Episode 10)
In a heated battle against a shape-shifting vampire called Hierophant, Finn, Marcy, Bubblegum, and Jake follow an age-old vampiric rule to defeat the vampire. As we know, traditional vampires can’t enter a house they’re not invited in, so Jake transforms into a house. Quite ingenious, wouldn’t you say?
17. Crossover (Season 7, Episode 23)
The Cartoon Network show tackles the multiverse in this episode features Finn coming face to face with his alternate ice-wizard-infused self in the Farm World. With the help of a portal opening book called Enchiridion, he and Jake, along with the trusty Finn sword, set out to save not only the multiverse but free evil Finn from the alternate Lich version.
18. Hide and Seek (Season 8, Episode 24)
Susan Strong remembers her past as a seeker programmed to keep humans from going adrift off-shore. She recalls her best bud Frieda who dreamed of leaving the human utopia to explore the vast world. Unfortunately, Susan’s program activated to stop Frieda from leaving. The dystopian science fiction genre of the episode shows that the desire for freedom is not just your problem, but even these characters’.
19. Three Buckets (Season 9, Episode 14)
Fern was created in the early days as Finn’s sword merged with the grass sword, resulting in a grass-like copy of Finn. However, Fern’s frustration peaks when he can’t be the real Finn despite his appearance and memories, so he sets to kill Finn.
20. The Lich (Season 4, Episode 26)
Blindly following Billy’s command, Finn tries to steal the gems from Ooo’s princesses, including the Flame Princess and Bubblegum, only to find out Lich was in control of Billy’s dead body. Finn learned the perils of hero worship the hard way, so he and his trusty yellow dog brother set out to battle Lich in one of the best episodes throughout Adventure Time!
21. Vamps About (Season 7, Episode 8)
For Marceline fans out there, Vamps About features more of her origin story and her transformation from a vampire-slayer to a full-fledged vampire herself. In a heated conflict between Marceline and the Vampire King (centuries back), the adoptive daughter of Simon, though staked the king of vampires, was revealed to have been bitten in the neck during the final blow.
22. The First Investigation (Season 10, Episode 8)
In this timeslips-oriented poltergeistic episode, the show attempts to connect all loose ends in the story, including Jake’s encounter with his other blue alien parent Warren Ampersand (also voiced by John Dimaggio).
23. The Dark Cloud (Season 7, Episode 13)
A dark cloud appears from the release of the vampiric essence. Thanks to a pep talk from the Ice King, Marceline regains her confidence from all the guilt and uses her powers to absorb the cloud within her. She becomes the Vampire Queen once again, but now with full control. It’s truly one of those good episodes.
24. Take Her Back (Season 7, Episode 11)
Marcy is knocked cold after being injured by the Hierophant, and she needs the essence of the vampire Moon to survive. After mishearing Bonnibel’s command to “take her back” as “stake her back,” the duo spent hours fighting the moon. Thankfully, the confusion is recognized, and Moon is brought back to the lab where Peppermint Butler clutches and shoves the Moon with a stake letting Marcy absorb her essence and fully heal.
25. Bonnibel Bubblegum (Season 10, Episode 4)
Bonnibel Bubblegum creates her own family using gum while the Land of Ooo is still a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Although like Frankenstein, her creations turned against her, with uncle Gumbald offering a way out but will dumb down the princess.
26. The Comet (Season 6, Episode 43)
The episode focused more on the metaphysical setting of stopping Orgalorg from consuming a catalyst comet and becoming all-powerful. It also featured the final meeting between Finn and Martin. Though the ending was far from a satisfying closure, they finally came to an understanding.
27. Puhoy (Season 5, Episode 16)
Puhoy is one of those “imagine if “episodes where Finn was sent into the Pillow World. Here, he lives an entire lifetime as a glorified warrior and marries the beautiful Roselinen. The ending was bittersweet and ambiguous but fun to imagine and wonder, “huh, what if?”.
28. Finn the Human (Season 5, Episode 1)
Finn, the Human, opens up doors for philosophical debates as he wishes for Lich to have never existed. Finn was sent to a reality where he was a regular boy, Jake was only a dog, Simon Petrikov died, and Marceline was an old woman. Not as pretty as the world Pendleton Ward created, huh?
29. Betty (Season 5, Episode 48)
We dig deeper into the story of Betty Grof (voiced by Lena Dunham) as she embarks on a quest to free Simon off the crown’s evil curses. Although he managed to return to his original form, he was bound to die and bid farewell to her. Betty being resourceful, managed to defeat Bella Noche, save Simon but reprise his role as the Ice King, this time, free of the curse.
30. Marceline the Vampire Queen (Season 7, Episode 6)
Marceline wanted to cure her vampirism in this episode to face her final adventure — death. But with the recent attacks on the livestock, can Bonnibel’s cure work on her before the villagers stake her?
FAQs
What is the scariest episode of Adventure Time?
Blank-Eyed Girl could be the scariest episode of Adventure Time. Although there are some minor rethink-ers like the inherent fear of Snow Golem over Finn suggesting trauma, there are other more ruthless episodes like All Your Fault, and Mortal Folly, introducing Lich the first time. [1]
What is the saddest episode of Adventure Time?
The saddest episode (or arc) is Simon and Marcy, where we get a glimpse of who Ice King really is. [2] There are many sad episodes in Adventure Time, like the one about Root Beer Guy and his wife or when Marceline’s mom sings a lullaby to her before the Mushroom War.
What episode should I skip in Adventure Time?
None. There are filler episodes you can skip, but we recommend against it. These mini-episodes add depth or introduce new characters relevant to the main storyline. Some great episodes worth noting are Princess Cookie or the Holly Jolly Secrets.
Wrapping Up!
Adventure Time is one of the most renowned cartoon series of all time, and above are the best of the best episodes there are. However, that shouldn’t stop you from seeing other episodes that carry some weight too, like Holly Jolly Secrets, Thank You, and What was Missing (featuring the Door Lord).
If you’ve seen the series, the above list is an awesome binge to relive and relish the wonders of the amazing show! Looking for Adventure Time collectibles? Check out Toynk!
Shop The Adventure Time Collection NowReferences:
- https://screenrant.com/adventure-time-times-it-was-scary/
- https://cafemom.com/entertainment/adventure-time-saddest-moments/5036-4184-the-episode-where-the-ice-king-reunite-with-his-lost-love
