#lsp analysis

[t4t-lumpygrab]

I think the episode Bad Timing is a good microcosm of the way LSP as a character is handled. In the episode she has a character arc where her jealousy and impulsiveness and unprocessed issues (I’d also add that there’s an element of homelessness related trauma affected her actions, she moves in with her new partner immediately so her paranoia could partly be due to her being dependent on him for housing. ofc. this would require the writers to actually like.. engage with her character anyway) cause serious devastating harm to someone she cares about. 

And instead of letting her sit with this and grow from it, and exploring how serious guilt would affect her as a character, the episode ends with her memories being erased, making her into the person she was at the start of the episode. So the episode ends with all her development and any chance for her to ever develop from this experience being removed. 

And that’s pretty much how ever single more serious LSP episode or moment is treated. I’m not saying there’s no growth, but each time they reset her character development and never allow her to progress in the way the other characters do. I mean, LSP was introduced in the second episode of the show but barely grows as a person over 10 seasons, because they keep resetting her back to square one as they value the comedy she brings as a selfish and self absorbed annoying character over the character writing she could have as a fully fledging character. 

Male side characters such as Lemongrab and the Ice King who are also introduced as complete silly joke characters never get this treatment by the way. So I do think there’s a bit of a bias going on here that the writers are convinced the audience will never be as invested in understanding LSP as a character and appreciating her on a deeper level so even when they do give her more serious episodes they do it in a way that doesn’t threaten to change the character and the status quo of her personality. Which is why in a show like Adventure Time who’s draw is that even side characters get to have their own stories LSP feels so hollow and shallow. 

Also in the episode LSP does a truly terrible thing to someone and faces no consequences. This is a recurring theme with her character. Most of the comedy with LSP revolves around her hurting or insulting or harassing people and not facing any consequences. There’s episodes like “The Monster” which are all about her selfishness hurting people, with her seemingly realising that at the end. And then there’s “Gotcha” and “Bad Timing” where she has to learn that lesson all over again (until she unlearns it) and dozens of other episodes where she keeps learning the same lesson over and over with no change. 

I’m not saying this sort of repetitive character who is defined by their worst traits can’t be done, but LSP is marketed as likeable and charming when she’s so unpleasant! It shows that the writers don’t take any of her actions seriously. The idea that she should idk, take responsibility and mature over the series doesn’t occur to them. Because like I said, she’s viewed as little more than a prop for comedy. Sadly the comedy... is trash. 

Like the romantic harassment of Finn that keeps. fucking going. Is awful. She was establish to be 3 years older than Finn in “The Eyes” in the first season, when she has her 15th birthday when he’s 12, making a lot of this later seasons “comedy” very creepy as she was an 18/19 year old hitting on a 15 year old. But I guess the writers forgot that women also age and decided she’s a permanent teenager. But in that case what the fuck did they think her relationship with Lemongrab, who was established to be over 18 in the first episode he appears in, was? I genuinely think they just forgot to age her and let her grow as a character until they magically made her an adult to ship her with a male character and further his development. Like it’s a whole mess of a situation. As it is it’s sexist anyway as “Man gets harassed but bc he’s a boy it’s funny and okay!”. I mean, AT gets so much praise for the scene where Pb beats up Ricardio but then “Breezy” (my personal least favourite episode in the entire show) gets a pass from most of the fandom? Weird!  

And also Breezy is just so annoying to me as like. God. Imagine if instead of whatever the hell that was Finn and LSP talked as friends and she helped him with his issues and for the rest of the series they interacted as friends with mutual respect for each other? And in Elements she could emotionally support Finn when he loses Jake and play a more active and less annoying role and just AAAA Imagine if she was like.... actually taken seriously as a character and didn’t have her development either completely erased or never allowed wouldn’t that be something?