By Avery Kaplan and Ollie Kaplan
While this article avoids spoilers, ten (out of twenty total) episodes of Adventure Time: Side Questions Season 2 were screened for review.
In Adventure Time: Side Quests, viewers get to return not just to the Land of Ooo, but also to the earliest adventuring days of Finn the Human (Sasha Knight, taking over for the aged-out originator of the role Jeremy Shada) and Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio). With an updated (and adorable) art style and an emphasis on nostalgia and comedy, Side Quests Season 2 follows in the footsteps of its preceding (and surprisingly recently released) first season.
While Side Quests is not as challenging or as daring as the other franchise shows that have launched in the wake of the original Adventure Time’s conclusion in 2018, it is nevertheless a wholly entertaining addition to the canon, and is worthy of the attention of fans.
Looking back at Adventure Time
Created by Pendleton Ward, Adventure Time debuted on Cartoon Network in 2010 and swiftly became widely embraced. With a deceptively simple animation style, charismatic (and incredibly well-performed) characters, and a setting that took its sweet time in revealing its secrets, Adventure Time was especially lauded for the width and depth of its world building and its willingness to push its characters to evolve and grow.
While many of Adventure Time’s episodes were sweet and wholesome, the show was never averse to revealing the darkness beneath the candy-colored façade. Episodes were just as likely to leave you a shambling emotional mess as they were to leave you laughing so hard you had to excuse yourself to run to the toilet.
At the show’s conclusion in 2018, the cast of characters were worlds removed from where they began in Adventure Time’s first season. This is especially true for our heroes, Finn and Jake: the former had lost his arm, learned a lot about himself and and accepted that not every romance would be requited, while the latter had discovered the origins of his remarkable abilities and become a father.
Both characters had matured immeasurably over the course of the show. But they had also become less narratively centered. As the show continued, many episodes of Adventure Time were centered on characters besides Finn and Jake, and sometimes, the brothers appeared in an episode only in a cameo role – or not at all. Nevertheless, the heroes continued to be incredibly popular, as did supporting characters like Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum (Hynden Walch) and Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson).
Distant Lands and Fionna & Cake
In the years since Adventure Time concluded, it has been followed by several sequel series. The first, 2020’s Adventure Time: Distant Lands, took the form of four extra-long specials that focused on familiar characters before and after the original run of Adventure Time. Three of these were centered on supporting characters, but the fourth, “Together Again,” focuses on the relationship between the protagonists.
Set entirely in the afterlife, “Together Again” revealed that all-too-soon after the events of Adventure Time‘s finale, Jake died, leaving Finn emotionally devastated. While Finn continues to live for an indeterminate interval of time after Jake’s death – presumably until he is elderly, based on his appearance and voice in “Together Again” – Finn never ever gets over Jake’s death. It’s sad, it’s tragic… and it’s honest. Not everyone recovers from their losses. You can, in fact, be broken in a way that will never be fixed. Sorry if we’re the ones to break this to you.
While 2023’s Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake focused primarily on the titular characters – and in the first season, on Simon Petrikov (Tom Kenny) as well – the adult Finn (Shada) nevertheless played an important supporting role in the series. However, throughout his appearances on Fionna and Cake, the loss of Jake loomed over Finn’s heart, literally and figuratively.
Set between Adventure Time‘s finale and “Together Again,” throughout his appearances on Fionna and Cake Finn’s chest bears a memorial tattoo depicting Jake. While DiMaggio does not appear as Jake in Fionna and Cake, the tattoo is an omnipresent reminder that Finn’s brother and best friend may be gone, but he’s never forgotten. Plus, it reminds us that the loss of Jake is forever after standing between Finn’s heart and the rest of the world.
Side Quests
But c’mon: do you really think fans are happy about not being able to see their beloved Finn and Jake together again onscreen? Why can’t we see our heroes reunited, and preferably in the early, carefree days of their adventures together, before things got all serious and “bogged down” in continuity and growing up? Well, good news! Thanks to Side Quests, you can have precisely that.
Side Quests delivers more classic Finn and Jake adventures set during the first few seasons of Adventure Time, when the characters were young and comparatively very innocent. And sure, there are plenty of returning supporting characters as well, including Ice King (Kenny), Bubblegum, and Marceline, plus plenty of other Candy Kingdom denizens and Princesses of Ooo besides.
However, make no mistake: Side Quests is about Finn and Jake (and to a lesser but welcome degree, BMO (Niki Yang)). Finn and Jake feature prominently in every episode, which generally recount comparatively low-stakes stories.
Clearly, this is an attempt to recreate the vibe of a very specific kind of early-season Adventure Time episode. And in this, Side Quests is successful. Adventure Time always made it clear that there were additional adventures happening in-between the stories we did see, and Side Quests is using those spaces to tell stories that feel like they’d fit right in.
But here’s the thing: we like the maturity that the sequel shows have otherwise dug into. Is it tragic to see Finn broken by the loss of Jake? Of course it is. But eventually (should we live so long) we all have to deal with devastating loss: with losing our best friends, with losing our beloved pets, with losing our soul mates.
Finn having to carry on after Jake has died is brutal… but it rings true.
Season 2 is streaming on Hulu & Disney+ soon
To be clear, Side Quests is an incredibly enjoyable watch. We laughed heavily throughout the first half of the season, and sometimes, the punchline of an episode left us cackling until well after the credits had concluded.
But while Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake both felt like significant and thoughtful further explorations of the franchise’s canon, Side Quests lacks that weight. It’s fun, and we will be watching every episode they end up making, and we recommend them to you as well. But what made the Adventure Time franchise so unforgettable wasn’t just the comedy, it was also the drama, and that is a component that Side Quests regrettably lacks.
All twenty episodes of Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 will be available for streaming on Hulu and Disney+ beginning on October 2nd, 2026. All twenty episodes of Side Quests Season 1 are available for streaming now.
