Card Wars

"Card Wars" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Somvilay Xayaphone and Bert Youn, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on July 16, 2012.

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 play Card Wars, a tabletop game. But things take a turn for the worse when Jake becomes overly competitive.

It had originally been planned to produce the episode during the first season because McHale and Ward were actively playing immersive, worldbuilding games. The episode received largely positive critical reviews, with Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club applauding how the eponymous game lampooned Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Risk. Due to the episode's success a mobile app and a physical version of the eponymous game have been released.

Plot

Jake explains to Finn that his girlfriend, Lady Rainicorn will not play his favorite card game, ‘’Card Wars’’; Finn, however, agrees to play with Jake, and the duo agree that the winner will be rewarded with soda, whereas the loser will be forced to drink a terrible concoction including soda, coffee grounds, and kimchi, among other things. With the stakes set, the game begins.

Jake explains the complex and arcane rules to Finn, who quickly falls asleep. However, once the game beings, Finn gains the upper hand, largely by “flooping” (or “activating”) his Pig card. Time and time again, Jake tries to kill Finn’s Pig, only for his plans to backfire. Soon, however, Jake becomes angry and aggressive, and Finn is warned by BMO (voiced by Niki Yang) that if Jake loses, he will become bitter and depressed. Finn, therefore, decides to purposely lose the game for Jake’s sake.

Once the game resumes, Finn purposely sacrifices his all-powerful Pig, allowing Jake to defeat him. Finn is forced to drink the disgusting liquid concoction, but manages to trick Jake into trying it. The episode ends with the two brothers happily sharing the nasty drink, seemingly friends again.

Production

"Card Wars" was written and storyboarded by Bert Youn and Somvilay Xayaphone, from a story developed by series creator Pendleton Ward, Patrick McHale, and Kent Osborne. The episode was directed by Larry Leichliter.^[2] During the middle of the episode, both Finn and Jake are depicted with grotesque, off-model faces, a trademark of Youn's storyboarding style. These faces necessitated lead character designer Andy Ristaino to drew several unique, key frames, colloquially known as "Bert Youn Specials".^[3] Ristaino revealed that he drew at least three of these faces for the episode.^[4] Ward later noted, in the DVD commentary for the third season episode "Another Way", that "Card Wars" featured Youn's most extreme and exaggerated faces.^[5]

Storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar noted that the idea behind this episode had been in development for a long time.^[6] Originally, it had been planned to make the episode during the first season because McHale and Ward were actively playing immersive, worldbuilding games.^[7] However, it took until the fourth season for the episode to be made.^[6] Nate Cash served as the episode's creative director. He messaged both Youn—who, at the time, was in South Korea—and Ward via Facebook to inform the two that he enjoyed the episode so much.^[8] Many of the scenes with BMO were inspired by Erik Fountain and Cash's experiences skateboarding. Cash in particular posed out all of the moves to make them faithful to real life.^[7]

Reception

"Card Wars" first aired on Cartoon Network on July 16, 2012. On the night it aired, it ranked as the number one telecast of the day in the Nielsen ratings among boys aged 2–11. It also ranked first in its timeslot among children ages 2–11.^[9] The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2013 Fionna and Cake DVD, which included 16 episodes from the series' first three seasons.^[10] It was later re-released as part of the complete fourth season DVD in October of 2014.^[11]

Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A–" and wrote that, on the surface, the episode "has got to be an instant contender for the most low-key Adventure Time ever", noting that there are no guest stars and that the action is centered entirely in Finn and Jake's Tree Fort.^[12] However, he applauded the episode, arguing that it "absolutely nails the insanity of trying to jump into an overcomplicated, impenetrable game with a much more seasoned competitor".^[12] Wilkins compared the titular Card Wars game to Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Risk, pointing out that Card Wars‍ '​ "byzantine rules and gleefully baffling terminology" emulates and lampoons the aforementioned games.^[12] Ultimately, Wilkins concluded that the episode was successful because of "how real this all feels".^[12]

Tyler Foster of DVD Talk named the episode as one of the "highlights" of the Fionna and Cake DVD, witing, "As the show often feels like a big riff on Dungeons and Dragons, this spoof of tabletop gaming is full of absurd yet deeply familiar moments: the endless rule-reading, the surprise triumphs, and the seething rage."^[13]

The episode was later nominated for and won a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR Animation in Television.^[14]

Merchandise

The popularity of the episode has led Cartoon Network to market several versions of the game. On February 16, 2014, a mobile app version of the game was released.^[15] The app itself has garnered a lukewarm critical response, with review aggregation site Metacritic awarding the game a 73, denoting "mixed or average reviews".^[16] A physical version of the game was released on February 19, 2014 by Cryptozoic Entertainment. This version, made for two players, features 80 different cards, 8 lane tiles, and 20 hit point tokens.^[17] Several variants have been released, including a "Finn vs. Jake" box, a "BMO vs. Lady Rainicorn" release, and a "Lumpy Space Princess vs. Princess Bubblegum" set.^[17][18]

References