Dark Wizard Matter

Picking up where we left off in the first ecocinema post... Adventure Time's rejection of Fukuyamaism is clear from its unique approach to eschatology, in which the apocalypse is figured as something generative and positive instead of something destructive and negative.  However, this is not the only way in which Adventure Time rejects Fukuyama – in the triptych of episodes ending season 4 and beginning season 5 ( The Lich ,  Finn the Human , and  Jake the Dog ) Adventure time explores an alternate timeline in which the apocalypse kickstarted by the Mushroom War never happened. The apparent villain of these episodes, and Adventure Time's most significant recurring villain, is the Lich - a force dedicated to the outright destruction of all life and light in the universe, representing complete and absolute nihilism and born from the wreckage of the human weaponry used in the Mushroom War.  In The Lich , the Lich manages to access a Wish Master named Prismo and wishes for the

In her 2002 essay A Time And Place For Everything , Karen Lury talks about the branding of children's television channels, including Cartoon Network: "In one ident, the channel's morning schedule is presented as if the programmes were paintings, so that each show is represented as a framed picture, and they are seen hanging across the screen, side by side.  Each programme is therefore apparently 'exhibited' at a certain time of day."  Karen Lury's essay precedes Adventure Times debut on Cartoon Network by eight years, but her close observation of this branding is deeply relevant to both Adventure Time and Cartoon Network as a whole.  Prior to Adventure Time, Cartoon Network rarely forayed into serial narrative storytelling.  There were exceptions, but these exceptions were clearly demarcated as experimental and were never Cartoon Network's flagship shows.  For example, the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon ran from 2003 to 2005 and had an overarching nar