Hey, folks. Quick pre-blog plug: check out my review of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 for PC here!

As bizarrely involved I've become with the fictional relationships of recent television programs, I've always come to the conclusion that the things that occur in them happen for a reason. Every individual part of brilliant epics like Scott Pilgrim have a sense of placement, a careful hand sets them in motion to make the rust on the gears dissipate and the whole machine moving smoothly. Extraneous elements are distracting and the understanding of a relationship is not based in sudden spikes in interest, but a careful slope that eventually leads to a slightly dangerous, but very exciting end result.

The last couple weeks introduced the unsettling realization that careful placement doesn't necessarily mean successful placement. Two television programs I've watched in the past couple weeks have featured relationships that ultimately crashed, leaving a gaping hole of uncertainty in their future. One performed it terribly, while another performed it marvelously.

The first was last week's episode of Adventure Time, "Frost and Fire." After seeing his girlfriend Flame Princess get into a fight with Ice King, leading man Finn has a dream where his is lit on fire. Instead of burning, however, Finn feels enthused and excited by it. In his awakening, he is convinced that he needs to see the dream again and organizes Flame Princess and Ice King to fight once more. Once again, they do and Finn continues to have disturbingly sexual fantasies while sleeping. Ultimately, he takes it a big step further, leading to a confrontation between Flame Princess and Ice King that proves more dangerous and destructive than before. After trying to stop it, Finn reveals to Flame Princess of his manipulation, causing her to leave Finn.

Now, Adventure Time has never been a show with an emphasis on realism. It's clearly fantasy, but in this episode, it tries to have that sense of realistic relationship dynamics seen in something like Scott Pilgrim. However, while Scott Pilgrim showed a positive sense of promise and two characters who are clearly willing to move forward together (flaws and all), Adventure Time made no such effort. It wasn't realistic; it was just depressing. The problem lies in how the writers approached this relationship. Finn and Flame Princess clearly had problems, mostly from Flame Princess's fire form and the recurring theme of withstanding pain (physical or otherwise) in order to find happiness. After episodes and episodes of buildup leading to a canon confirmation of their coupling, one act of petty, perfectly explainable deception led to an implosion on the relationship dynamic. These characters instantly become weak and unable to support themselves under their own stupid egos.

This is especially important regarding Finn himself, who has moved from goofy protagonist to someone who is easily the least likeable character in the series right now. Everything he's done in the season has shown a sense of egocentrism, selfishness and mistakenly impulsive thinking. He played God in "All The Little People", manipulating the mini folk to his own interests. He tried to erase the Lich's history in "Finn the Human/Jake the Dog" leading to a horrific alternate reality solved by Jake and Prismo. In "Too Old," he ignores his past mistakes and instantly starts hitting on Princess Bubblegum again. Every trace of maturity he earned throughout the series is destroyed here and he makes recent Adventure Time episodes suffer because of that.

But I'm not going to sugarcoat this and say that it should've been resolved happily ever after; nothing great has come from comfort like that. Obstacles appear, but the satisfaction comes from the ability to overcome those problems. "Frost and Fire" didn't show maturity. It didn't show personal strength. It showed how terribly fragile these characters are and how one misstep can ruin everything they've built up. It was abrupt and rather petty; I couldn't sympathize with these characters when one misunderstanding can demolish months of hard work toward building something up like that. Its resolution is uncertain, but right now I expect Finn to mess up again, and instantly forget about it, move on, only to screw up again.

This week's Regular Show was equally depressing, but it was here that you could see maturity in its characters. In "Steak Me Amadeus", Mordecai and Margaret, now fully involved in each other's romantic company, go to a local steak restaurant to celebrate. Mordecai wants to officially ask Margaret to be his girlfriend, and with some help from his fellow employees, gets enough coupons to pay for an expensive dinner with Margaret. Upon arrival to the dinner, Mordecai and his friends are imprisoned, accused to be using counterfeit coupons. In an effort to continue his dinner with Margaret, Mordecai searches for the criminal mind who manufactured the counterfeits, only to discover it to be those crazy mechanical animals from that "Fuzzy Dice" episode. In a barrage of gunfire, Mordecai takes cover with Margaret and asks her to be his girlfriend. Margaret replies in happiness, but shows him an acceptance letter to her dream college. Despite their loving feelings for each other, Margaret's one chance at a great future is the only thing preventing her and Mordecai from being together. Margaret runs off in tears and Mordecai is crushed. The final scene has Mordecai mournfully staring out at the park, joined by Rigby.

This was a really sad episode, because it once again had incredible progress and buildup in past episodes. But in contrast to Adventure Time's terribly pitiful characters, Regular Show made this entire situation feel real and believable. Up till now, it took a lot of guts for both Mordecai and Margaret to admit their feelings for each other, but it made the series dynamic and the payoff all the more enjoyable. Here, it was sad, but none of the characters treated it like some game. Mordecai's shocked expression, Margaret running out of the restaurant crying, and the employees watching as it all happened showed that this was something very meaningful to all of them. It never felt disposable.

Mordecai and Margaret knew full well of the obstacles that could've wrecked their relationship; they've been through a lot together over the last four seasons. Embarassing voicemails, love triangles, bears wearing Kaiser helmets, time paradoxes and the Friendzone have all gotten in between them...but they didn't give up. When this bombshell hit, it was heartwrenching, but at the end of the day, what mattered to us is that this mattered to them. You can make the most perfect relationship, but when it means nothing to the characters, there's no point in making it. That's why Regular Show's depressing ending was valid, while Adventure Time's wasn't. It was sad hearing of Margaret's departure, but even without the recurring idea that she could return, this episode was meaningful. It was complete. It gave this sadness a reason to exist.

So what do these episodes mean to us as viewers? They show the wrong way and the right way to approach a heartbreaking relationship severence. What we see here is Adventure Time's terrible motif of mystery and meaningless character relations and Regular Show's mastery of making something truly saddening into something purposeful and justified. I could care less about what happens to Finn right now, but for Mordecai and Margaret, they've shown a real relationship, one that you should really care about even when it's supposedly over.

Take care, everyone!