I missed out on Adventure Time when it was originally airing, but the deep and abiding love I now feel for this show cannot be stated enough. The whole show tackles a lot of medievalism, from the set up of Finn the Human’s role as knight and hero in service to the realm, to magical swords, Princesses, wizards, and major quests.
In the final season of the show comes an episode in honor of Finn’s 17th birthday, and it is one of my favorite episode openers. I think it works so well, though, because of how many episodes of Finn’s adventures have established the medieval context of Finn’s role as knight. It is the strength of this set up that allowed for the episode Seventeen to deftly meld the text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight within the erected framework of the show.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Allow me to set the stage: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most recognizable pieces of Middle English writing. In it a young Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew, seeks to answer the challenge of a mysterious Green Knight. As in, a strange man barges into Arthur’s court and offers a game to those in attendance. Holding a large axe, he tells the Round Table that any man can win the axe IF they can land a blow on the green man with it, AND allow the Green Knight to return in exactly one year to return the blow in kind. Gawain, young and untried, offers to take his uncle’s place and attempt the challenge. In a single blow, he lops off the head of the Green Knight (hereafter GK).
At this point, the GK picks up his own head, mounts his green horse, and reminds Gawain that they have a date in a year and a day at the Green Chapel before riding off. As the time approaches, Gawain sets out from Camelot to find the Green Chapel and uphold his bargain. Eventually he comes to a castle with a Lord, his wife, and an old woman. There’s a whole thing about secrets and kisses, lots of homoerotic tension, the Lady is assertively seductive, and the Lord reveals the chapel is nearby, inviting Gawain to stay until his deadline. During this time Gawain acquires a magical talisman in the form of a green girdle (a sort of fabric sash/belt) meant to ward him against death. He goes to the Green Chapel on the appointed day and meets with the GK, wearing the talisman secretly. When the GK makes the first swing, Gawain flinches. The Knight ridiculous Gawain for his fear, swinging a second time. This time, Gawain does not flinch, but the Knight still holds back his swing. Gawain at this point has had enough, and tells the Knight to hurry up. On the third and final swing, the Knight pulls back enough to only cut Gawain’s neck, revealing he knew about the talisman all along because it was part of a convoluted plot to discredit Arthur’s knights.
Adventure Time S10E5 “Seventeen”
Adventure Time follows the weird adventures of Finn the Human and his best friend/adopted brother Jake the Dog in a distant future. In season 1 Finn is 12 years old, and he spends his time adventuring, questing, rescuing princesses from the evil Ice King, and otherwise doing the kinds of things a vassal knight would do for their liege. He is sworn to Princess Bubblegum, the brilliant scientist monarch of the Candy Kingdom, but will help anyone in need.
By season 10 the characters are well established. The sword Finn wields changes a number of times through the seasons, but the Grass Sword is the important one right now. In the middle of the 5th season, Finn once again must find a new weapon. He is tricked into purchasing the Grass Sword, which is, you guessed it, a sword made of grass. Half a season later, Finn loses Grass Sword as well as his arm just above the elbow. Instead of an open wound, the stump is closed, with the bud of a flower now growing out of it.
A couple of episodes later, Finn’s arm grows back. From his palm a thorn spikes out, which is revealed to be the Grass Sword. Finn can summon the sword when in a life-threatening situation. There’s a whole lot of magic going on here, but basically, he eventually gets a new new sword that is somehow a sentient piece of his own being? Paradoxes, y’all. When this sentient sword (called the Finn Sword of course) fuses with The Grass Sword, a new sentient being is born.
That is Grass Finn, later known by the name Fern the Human. He spends some time confused, because with all of Finn the Human’s memories, he didn’t realize he was a new entity. Finn accidentally kills Fern in a confrontation when Fern’s grass body was torn to shreds by Finn’s metal arm, after Fern attempted to usurp Finn’s life for his own.
The Green Knight
All this to bring us to S10E5 “Seventeen.” Finn the Human’s birthday has arrived. Because of an external threat to the Candy Kingdom, Princess Bubblegum has locked down the castle. To make it fun for Finn, she throws a slumber-party complete with carnival style games.
Enter the Green Knight, complete with green horse, and green axe. He, too, wants to play a game. He offers his axe as reward for landing a blow against him. Finn denies the game at first, but decides it must be a prank of his brother Jake’s, so takes a swing at the Knight. Of course, the knight’s head comes right off.
The Green Knight grows his head back and tells Finn it is his turn to receive a blow. Now afraid, Finn suggests they play carnival games instead. They play 3 games, like the literary Green Knight’s 3 blows. On the final game, an arm wrestle, it is revealed that the Green Knight is actually Fern, revived by the antagonist Uncle Gumbald (Princess Bubblegum’s uncle, and the threat to the Candy Kingdom).
Surprisingly Accurate Adaptation
Fern does not give Finn the deadline of a year and a day to come and claim the final piece of their bargain, but that makes analytical sense. This is near the finale of the series, and Finn has aged from a 12 year old child into the cusp of adulthood. Over ten seasons he has quested, fought, won, lost, and proven his worth as a knight and the Land of Ooo’s resident Hero. He has no need for a quest to prove his honor and worth, as Gawain did, the prior ten seasons were the quest.
At the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it is revealed that the Green Knight is really the Lord of the castle found by Gawain, transformed by the magic of Morgan Le Fay, the old woman from the Lord’s castle, to humiliate Arthur’s men. Morgan is Arthur’s sister in this version, making her another of Gawain’s aunts. Fern has likewise been transformed by magic for revenge and humiliation-Princess Bubblegum’s uncle Gumbald used a combination of science and candy magic to revive Fern. The Green Horse, serving as a literal Trojan Horse, opens to reveal Gumbald and co. inside.
The ultimate battle at the end of the season has nothing to do with the Green Knight’s medieval origins, but I do believe the Finn/Fern confrontation feels like the inter-personal version of self care. Finn and Fern began from the same consciousness, after all, and a conversation between them can indicate self-reflection done in an external format. Gawain does not evidence a deep level of self-reflection; in fact, self-reflection as a literary inclusion was not a commonality until after the advent of the novel. What Gawain does have, however, are the established boundaries of genre. There are specified behaviors he is expected to conform to-which is why keeping the magical talisman is such a red flag. As a knight and a worthy man, his fear of death should not have kept him from approaching the Green Knight honorably. Finn and Fern’s fight, understandably, is a bit more dramatic:
Finn: We’re two sides of the same coin!
Fern: You’ll never understand what it’s like to be me. I’m TORMENTED!
Finn: I’m ALSO that sometimes!
Fern: Prove it, or I’ll never stop fighting you.
Their shared fears are revealed to them, manifesting into green flames, a grass demon, visions of their father, and of Princess Bubblegum.
Fern: Dude, I blocked this stuff out for a reason!
Finn: [Speaks painfully] Well, now you know how I feel about knowing how you feel about!
They defeat their fears by confronting them head on. Fern is revealed to have a corporeal form only because of the grass demon bonded to his body. In confronting their fears and hopes, they also confront Fern’s existence, something they hadn’t been willing to examine too closely prior. After defeating the grass demon, Fern’s body does disintegrate away into grass; the Green Knight was never a real person, and Fern was only ever grass and magic melded to a bit of soul and a bit of demon. Fear kept Fern alive, in a way, because had they destroyed the grass demon in the first place, he never would have developed the extreme level of sentience and individual personality. He would have remained a magical side effect, one of many in the Land of Ooo. When Gawain goes to his final confrontation, he does so afraid to die. He knows it is the Green Knight’s right to strike him equally hard, and has no doubts he is heading to his death. It is only after the first 2 blows have been attempted that his fear can turn into something else, allowing for the Green Knight to reveal the game and the magic involved.
Final Thoughts
OK so, what do we have?
- An awe-inspiring/magical/terrifying Green Knight…
- ….with a green horse…
- …who has been changed by magic into the Green Knight…
- …as a convoluted plot to discredit the reigning monarch/knights.
- A challenge to win an axe, blow for blow.
- A supernatural beheading that does not end with that character’s death.
- Three attempts against Gawain/Three attempts for Finn to win a carnival game
- Service to a ruling monarch
- A confrontation of fear and death
- The question-Does your bloodline make you who you are, or is your worth more related to your actions?
Queerly Beloved 
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