Memory of a Memory is such a good episode. Not even just because of the ending (where everyone joins in beating Marceline’s
awful ex Ash up) although that’s a reeeeally satisfying scene.But my FAVOURITE THING about Memory of a Memory
is the really important lesson contained therein. Marceline doesn’t
decide to beat Ash up straight away, you see. She spends a fair amount
of time with him, because he seemed so nice (to the audience as well) at
first. And there’s a scene of him being the perfect boyfriend to her,
magic-ing up some flowers that say “I love you!” and so on.But then there’s lines like the above, where you can see how Marceline –
an incredibly powerful vampire chick who can shapeshift into a monster
whenever she feels like it – is completely under the thumb of this guy.
Who is actually an abusive misogynistic arsehole who sells Marcy’s most
treasured possession and then wipes her memory of the resulting breakup.
Marceline, daughter of the Nightosphere, survivor of the Mushroom War,
ageless and mischievous vampire queen, acts totally out of character around Ash--and I think that’s a really good decision on the part of the writers? Because this episode showed that anyone
can fall into an abusive relationship. It’s not a thing
that ‘tough/strong/badass’ women are immune to, nor is it a character
flaw. And it’s not a character flaw if you don’t instantly twig onto
what’s happening, either. Finn and Jake clearly don’t think so at any point
during the episode and neither should the audience, neither should
anyone. It’s such a good lesson for kids to learn and it was executed so
well.