Mortal Folly

"Mortal Folly"
Adventure Time episode
The episode introduces the series' primary villain, the Lich. The design for the character was finalized by Patrick McHale; he purposely gave the Lich a desiccated and dried-up look, and was instrumental in crafting the Lich's rotting appearance.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 24
Directed by	Larry Leichliter
Written by	Adam Muto Rebecca Sugar
Story by	Mark Banker Kent Osborne Patrick McHale Pendleton Ward
Production code	1002-049[1]
Original air date	May 2, 2011
Running time	11 minutes
Guest actors
Ron Perlman as the Lich
Episode chronology
← Previous "Video Makers" Next → "Mortal Recoil"
Adventure Time (season 2) List of Adventure Time episodes

"Mortal Folly" is the twenty-fourth episode of the second season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Adam Muto and Rebecca Sugar, from a story by Mark Banker, Kent Osborne, Patrick McHale, and series creator Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on May 2, 2011. The episode guest stars Ron Perlman as the Lich. Perlman's character would become the series' chief antagonist, and would reappear in several fourth and fifth season episodes.

The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake must go on a quest to find the Lich (voiced by Perlman), while the Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny) pesters them for their blessing to marry Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch). After seemingly defeating the Lich, however, the Ice King accidentally drops Bubblegum into the Lich's well of power.

"Mortal Folly" was the first part of a two-part episode; this marked the first time an Adventure Time episode carried into another episode. The plot was concluded with "Mortal Recoil" which aired on the same day. The episode introduced the Lich, who had first been proposed in the series' pitch bible. Sugar and Muto decided to make the Lich a scary and dangerous character, and purposely played up the darker elements of the episode. The episode was watched by 1.92 million people and received largely positive critical attention; many critics enjoyed the way the episode began to set up the series' mythology.

Plot

While meditating with Finn and Jake, Princess Bubblegum has a premonition involving the Lich, an evil undead sorcerer who was long ago trapped in a block of amber by the legendary hero Billy. Bubblegum tells Finn and Jake about the dream, and the three of them journey to the tree at the top of Bubblegum's palace where the block of amber is hidden; Bubblegum also places magical jewels on Finn and Jake's heads that will prevent the Lich from exerting mind-control on them. While examining the amber, a snail is placed under the Lich's spell and helps break him out while Finn and Jake are not paying attention. The Lich then blasts out of the kingdom, leaving a wave of destruction in his path.

Finn and Jake, after acquiring the legendary gauntlet of Billy as well as a special pink sweater made by Bubblegum, give chase, but they are consistently interrupted by the Ice King, who keeps trying to get Finn and Jake's blessings to marry Bubblegum. Fed up with their dismissive attitude, the Ice King kidnaps Bubblegum and follows Finn and Jake as the two heroes pursue the Lich. The Lich eventually reaches his lair, an abandoned subway station, and creates a pool of green liquid which he plans to use to regain his strength and destroy the world.

Finn, Jake, the Ice King, and Bubblegum follow the Lich into his lair. In the entanglement that follows, Billy's gauntlet is destroyed by the Lich and Finn breaks his jewel. The Lich attempts to exert mind-control on Finn, but Finn is able to resist. It is then revealed that the sweater Bubblegum gave to Finn has the power to repel the Lich due to it being imbued with "liking someone a lot". Finn then takes the sweater and pushes it into the Lich's eye sockets and rips his face apart, seemingly killing him. However, the Ice King accidentally drops Bubblegum into the Lich's evil vat, to the horror of Finn and Jake.

Production

"Mortal Folly" introduced The Lich—the series' primary antagonist—who is voiced by Ron Perlman.

"Mortal Folly" was directed by Larry Leichliter, and was written and storyboarded by Rebecca Sugar and Adam Muto, from a story by Mark Banker, Kent Osborne, Patrick McHale, and series creator Pendleton Ward.^[2] The original outline for the episode gave the Lich several lines that played him off as a stereotypical villain. Sugar and Muto decided to make him into a more "scary and dangerous" character, and purposely played up the darker elements of the episode.^[3] In addition, Princess Bubblegum's sweater was supposed to be "magic" and "shoot lasers".^[3] However, Sugar felt that it would be more emotionally poignant if the sweater was just a regular sweater imbued with positive emotions. The scene featuring Finn stuffing the sweater into the Lich's eye sockets and then ripping his skull apart was inspired by an artistic design idea Sugar had had when she was in high school; she had wanted to draw a comic featuring a small person getting into a fight and being pushed up to the ceiling. She later worked the sequence into Finn and the Lich's fight in "Mortal Folly".^[3]

The episode features the first substantial appearance of the Lich, the series' primary antagonist. The Lich had appeared in concept drawings in the series' pitch bible, which Ward himself had created in 2007.^[4][5] Ward's original drawing was re-designed by former creative director McHale; he purposely gave the Lich a desiccated and dried-up look, and was instrumental in crafting the Lich's rotting appearance.^[3][5] In both this episode and other episodes where the character appears, the Lich was voiced by Ron Perlman.^[6] The snail, an easter egg that appears in every episode, appears in the episode and plays a prominent part. Originally, the snail was inspired by the in-jokes in episodes of The Simpsons, and was Ward's attempt to "make a game out of every episode of Adventure Time, where you could freeze-frame and find things in the background", such as the snail.^[7] However, in "Mortal Folly", the snail serves as the catalyst for the Lich's escape. The snail would also play an important part in other mythology-heavy episodes like "Mortal Recoil", "In Your Footsteps", and "The Lich". Osborne later noted that the snail's appearance was pleasing to fans who knew that the snail had been appearing in all the episodes and had actively searched for it before.

In the original storyboard, the Lich's lair was not specifically designed to be a subway. This was added later by the background designers.^[3] The undead skeletons that attack Finn and Jake were originally supposed to be "specific undead from [Dungeons & Dragons]".^[8] However, Ward changed his mind and tasked Andy Ristaino, a character designer for the series, with designing the corpses. Ristaino sough to make them look as if they were "east coast commuters [all] bundled up for winter."^[8] He strove to make them look "specific" so that they would appear as "people you would see" on a subway", such as a "bike messenger, [a] couple, [a] guy with the goofy hat, [and a man with a] suit."^[8] Originally, when the Lich set off his bomb, a simple mushroom cloud was to be inserted into the episode. Ian Jones-Quartey, one of the series' storyboard revisionists, however, added a face to the blast. Ristaino then added the skulls to the blast.^[9] The series staff liked this version so much that they later included it on the title card.^[9][10]

Reception

"Mortal Folly" first aired on Cartoon Network on May 2, 2011, on the same day as "Mortal Recoil". Both episodes were viewed by 1.92 million viewers and scored a Nielsen rating of 1.3/2 percent. This means it was seen by 1.3 percent of all households and 2 percent of all households watching television at the time of the episode's airing.^[11] The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2012 Adventure Time: Jake vs. Me-Mow DVD, which included 16 episodes from the series' first three seasons.^[12] It was later re-released as part of the complete second season DVD in June 2013.^[13] The season was originally supposed to end with "Mortal Folly"/"Mortal Recoil", but due to a scheduling conflict, "Heat Signature" was the last episode of the second season aired.^[14] Despite this, Ward still considers the two-parter to be the real season finale,^[15] and the two entries are the last episodes featured on the second season DVD release.^[13][16]

Tyler Foster of DVD Talk praised both "Mortal Folly" and its follow-up episode "Mortal Recoil", noting that, despite the fact that the episodes represented only "the beginning of the show's journey into direct serialization", the story-arc was nonetheless "a tantalizing taste of what's to come."^[17] Wired magazine noted it as one of the stand-outs from the Jake vs. Me-Mow DVD, calling it a "three-part suite", which concluded with the third season episode "Too Young".^[18] The review enjoyed the way the episode set the stage for the apparent death, resurrection, and de-aging for Princess Bubblegum, which became a major plot point in the next season.^[18] Matt Fowler of IGN praised both "Mortal Folly" and "Mortal Recoil", specifically giving applause to the introduction of the Lich, noting that he is "a real, grotesque villain inserted into the merely semi-dark world of Adventure Time".^[16] Fowler ended up being very happy with the two episode, writing that they end the season "strong".^[16]

References