Earl of Lemongrab

The Earl of Lemongrab first appears in the episode "Too Young." He is the high-strung, overly-zealous, stubborn ruler of the land of Lemongrab, and the heir to the Candy Kingdom. He is the creation of Princess Bubblegum and the first of her experiments gone wrong. He was able to usurp the throne of the Candy Kingdom on the technicality of Bubblegum's de-aging. Once Princess Bubblegum was 18 again, he was fired, and returned to Lemongrab. In "You Made Me!," Princess Bubblegum creates another Lemongrab to live in Castle Lemongrab.

Appearance
He is one of the few overtly humanoid candy people. He has yellow, lemon textured (as revealed in a close-up of his face) skin, a lemon-shaped head, a long nose similar to that of the Ice King and the Fire Count, round teeth, a green tongue, and oval eyes with black circles as irises. Like many of the Adventure Time characters he has thin, noodly limbs and a lean torso; However, his behind sticks out noticeably and the profile of his body resembles a Jelly Bean. He does not have toes, nipples or a belly-button. He often has lines around his eyes when stressed, and visible frown lines when particularly upset. The Earl wears a dark-gray bodysuit, black boots, a green belt with a lemon-shaped buckle and carries a sword in a brown scabbard. The sword is later revealed to be a "sound sword". For bed he wears a light gray one-piece with snaps on the butt. . He sometimes uses a pair of half-moon spectacles to read.

Biography
The Earl was created in Princess Bubblegum's laboratory; it is yet unknown how long ago, but he is much younger than he appears, in terms of years. Upon being created the Lemongrab screamed hysterically and violently flapped his arms, causing the Princess to realize that the experiment had gone wrong.

Little is known about his location and life between his creation and the events of "Too Young." He somehow became the Earl of an Earldom (known as Lemongrab) and acquired Lemon Camel. Jesse Moynihan has stated that after he was born, Princess Bubblegum "stuck him in Castle Lemongrab," and he has lived an extremely sheltered, and presumably wealthy life ever since. He was raised by servants and became spoiled and ignorant due to having everything he wanted handed to him without a connection to its source. In the storyboards, it was shown that the Candy People said things like "Who's that again?" when he came to Princess Bubblegum's castle, indicating that he had been isolated from the rest of the people of Candy Kingdom.

After being informed that Princess Bubblegum was under eighteen, the Earl traveled to the Candy Castle on his Lemon Camel and immediately began giving orders and threatening the Candy People with time in the dungeon. Princess Bubblegum conceded his right to the throne because, as she claimed, he was currently older than her. As acting ruler he behaved in the manner that made sense to him: screaming at the candy people and sending them to the dungeon without trial. Finn and the young Princess Bubblegum attempted to force the Earl to leave by playing pranks on him, but he refused to go anywhere. After the pain and embarrassment of the spice prank, he sentenced Finn, Princess Bubblegum and Peppermint Butler to one million years in the dungeon. After Princess Bubblegum returned to correct, ruling age, the Earl of Lemongrab was unceremoniously fired and insulted. He rode off on his Lemon Camel, upset and muttering to himself.

In "You Made Me!", Lemongrab returns to the Candy Kingdom for two weeks to spy on its residents while they sleep. Princess Bubblegum gets Lemongrab to admit that he does this out of loneliness and a desire to rule over people. Lemongrab then proceeds to have an emotional meltdown in which he wails "You made me! You're my glob!" and rips off his clothes. She sends the Pup Gang to be his subjects, but they act obnoxiously and insultingly, and Lemongrab becomes increasingly erratic in his behavior. He responds to the insolence of the children by screaming at them and attacking them with his Sound Sword, which renders them unconscious. Lemongrab puts the Pup Gang in his "Reconditioning Room," which electrocutes them. After three days, he comes back to the Candy Kingdom to continue spying on its sleeping residents. When Princess Bubblegum questions him about his new subjects, he responds monotonously, "They didn't understand my lemon styles. I like this way better." Princess Bubblegum tries to coax Lemongrab into being more empathetic towards the Candy People by showing him how to coddle an infant. Lemongrab is incredibly uncomfortable and disturbed by this act of affection for a candy person, and ends up poking and slapping Crunchy while screaming "Put you in my oven! That's gross!" He tells Princess Bubblegum that his "lemon heart" tells him to do the things that he does, and that since this is the way she made him, then it must be right. He then proceeds to scream and flap his arms, then ride away back to his castle. Princess Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake follow Lemongrab back to Castle Lemongrab, where they are locked in his Reconditioning Chamber. Princess Bubblegum attempts to coax Lemongrab into letting the prisoners go, but he snaps, and screams "No more helping! You're the one who made me this way! You're poison!" He attempts to attack his creator with his Sound Sword, but Finn breaks out of the chamber and takes the blast instead, rendering the boy unconscious. Lemongrab is puzzled by this act of heroism, and at that moment, the Lemongrab Clone wanders into the room. Lemongrab and the Lemongrab Clone make friends very quickly, cheer up, calm down, and decide to let the prisoners go. At the end of the episode, they happily bid Princess Bubblegum and the others good-bye, and ask them to visit and call them, showing that there are no hard feelings.

Personality and traits
According to Jesse Moynihan, he is "off-putting, weird, angry, and alienated with an inability to read social cues." Because of this, and because of the fact that his sour disposition is naturally repellant, he doesn't get along with other people very well, if at all. He is not inherently harmful to anybody but himself because of his unnamed disorder, and is merely "dysfunctional" mentally and as a person rather than destructive. Though he was an antagonist in his first episode appearance, he is not evil, "just completely unadjusted to living," as claimed by Adam Muto on his Formspring. However, Cole Sanchez merely calls him an "off" person who unjustifiably and arbitrarily treats others badly. According to Patrick Seery, he likes order, and he can only properly function in a society in which everybody obeys him and agrees with him. The actions he takes against people are not entirely unreasonable in his perspective -- he only punishes those who don't adhere to his strict standards of behavior. He at least tolerates those who do. Although he is exceedingly sensitive to his own emotions, Lemongrab is extremely insensitive to other people's feelings up to the point of being unintentionally cruel and harmful. Although this is due to his extreme social awkwardness, he has a knack for making other people miserable, and even afraid. In an unused scene, it was shown that Lemongrab had no qualms about sending a small candy child to the dungeon for an extremely petty reason, and terrorizing the youngster up to the point of making the child cry. Most likely, he doesn't realize how toxic he is to other people. Even though he's an exceedingly troubled, pitiful person, he brings a great deal of misery upon himself, by being mean, rude, and obnoxious to everyone around him who even remotely disagrees with him. Although the circumstances of how he came into existence and became a sourpuss are regrettable and depressing at best, a great deal of his unhappiness is self-inflicted due to his steadfast willingness to stay unhappy and impose that unhappiness on others when the opportunity arises.

He seems to suffer from many mental and emotional issues, and overreacts to small problems in the manner of an angry child. He appears to be a bit of a neat-freak, as he is noticeably agitated when he sees that Princess Bubblegum's Castle is "unacceptable" by his standards. He also appears to have aphephobia - a fear of being touched. He screamed and acted alarmed when Finn slapped him on the hand, and he sentenced Peppermint Butler to five extra years dungeon for pulling on the leg of his pants. He is very strict, threatening to send Candy People to the dungeon without a trial. He became so angry after being pranked by Finn and PB, that he sentenced candy people to the dungeon without knowing who did it. However, once Peppermint Butler assures him that it was in fact a prank "for laughs," The Earl calms down and begins to laugh. After being punched in the gut by the "little ghost pranksters" and pushed to the ground, the Earl still tried to laugh it off, claiming that he wasn't going anywhere. Although, after eating the spicy solution that PB put on his food (causing him much humiliation and pain), the Earl becomes as angry as ever and puts her in the dungeon along with Finn and the other candy people. Furthermore, when unsupervised, he not only imprisons, but also tortures candy people in a shock chamber in Castle Lemongrab. He also tends to raise his voice and scream a lot- all but a couple of his lines are screamed. He only smiles twice in the episode; once after being pranked by "the thing," and once after being beaten up by Princess Bubblegum and Finn- though this was in an unused storyboard, he is seen holding a rice cake and grinning to himself, saying, "Jealous of my rice cake, little ghost pranksters?" According to Andy Ristaino, Jesse Moynihan said this storyboard was a reference to Lemongrab liking really bland foods. This can presumably be the reason he was excited about the mashed carrots. He also seems to be fond of the colors green and grey- all of his clothes are grey, and his belt and Lemon Horse's saddle are green.

The Earl of Lemongrab has little to no sense of humor, but he seems to try having one, albeit unsuccessfully. He also tries to rule the kingdom to the best of his ability in a way that makes perfect sense to him. The Earl is not evil- just perpetually confused and unintentionally harmful to his subjects. He is overly-sensitive, touchy, and high-strung, and easily offended, but tries his best and is under the delusion that he is doing the right thing. Andy Ristaino claimed on his Formspring that the Earl's sour temper and perpetually unhappy disposition are due to a combination of his willingness to stay bitter, and circumstances that caused him to be this way. The Earl does not get along with others, and according to Jesse Moynihan, he doesn't have any friends.

The Earl doesn't appear to think logically; he claims to not know where food comes from. More evidence of his lack of thought would be his sentencing everybody in the Candy Kingdom to one million years in the dungeon. It most likely didn't occur to him at the time that he would only be in power for five years; only until the princess turned eighteen, as he said. In addition to this, he imprisoned all of the castle staff for seven years (twelve for Peppermint Butler,) but immediately released Peppermint Butler once LG realized that he was hungry and couldn't make food for himself. Despite his bossy, nasty disposition, he often hints to having a kind of helplessness resembling that of a child's. His actions appear to be driven by unspecific anger and not direct malice towards anything or anyone in particular. Despite his negative attributes seemingly outweighing any positive ones he may have, the Earl is shown to be a fairly stubborn, and resilient person, which occasionally seems to work in his favor in times of adversity. Despite being despised by everybody else, he stuck to his job until he was required by law to leave- rather than quit and neglect his responsibilities.

In You Made Me!, Lemongrab expresses complete misery over his loneliness and isolation. This leads to him having several psychotic breaks in which he harms many people. However, when Princess Bubblegum presents him with a clone of himself, he calms down, and becomes overjoyed at his new friend. He and his clone both act cheerful and affable after they meet, and Lemongrab finally becomes calm and well-adjusted.

Abilities
The Earl of Lemongrab apparently has a high tolerance to physical injury. This is shown when he landed head-first after falling out of one of the Castle's windows, and later out of a tree, seemingly uninjured.

It is a common medical condition amongst candy people to explode when they are frightened. However, the Earl may be incapable of exploding due to his hard, candy shell.

He always carries a sword that has the ability to emit powerful sound waves which can knock people unconscious. He uses the sword in "You Made Me!" to discipline disobeying citizens. Lemongrab also appears to have a certain knowlege of technology- he built the Reconditioning Chamber, which is a small room that has an electrical floor controlled by a lever that increases the flow of electricity.

Finn and Jake
Lemongrab's first interaction with Finn is when Finn slaps his hand for yelling at Princess Bubblegum. Lemongrab lets this pass, though Finn still does not like him and attempts to prank him (along with Princess Bubblegum) until he leaves the Candy Castle. Lemongrab tries to take the pranks in stride, but the spice prank pushes him over the line and he sentences Finn to one million years in the dungeon. While in the dungeon, Finn helps Princess Bubblegum return to her real age in order to get rid of Lemongrab once and for all. He and Princess Bubblegum then watch the unhappy Lemongrab leave. In "You Made Me!", when Lemongrab admits that he is desperately lonesome and unhappy, the earl breaks down and runs away wailing. Finn looks on in a somber manner, realizing that Lemongrab is a disturbed, depressed individual rather than an intentional criminal. He turns to the mournful-looking Princess Bubblegum, and asks softly, 'What are we gonna do?" Finn assists Princess Bubblegum in helping Lemongrab throughout the episode, and it as her side for much of this time. However, when Lemongrab assaults Crunchy and runs off screaming and wiggling his arms, Finn refers to Lemongrab as a "D-List." When Finn and Jake try to rescue the Pup Gang, Lemongrab electrocutes him and Jake for "trespassing." He finds Lemongrab to be obnoxious as usual, and protects Princess Bubblegum from his Sound Sword. At the end of the episode, he seems content with the idea of Lemongrab being happy, as they wave good-bye to each other.



Jake didn't meet Lemongrab until "You Made Me!". Initially, he is frightened of and confused by Lemongrab and his unsettling actions. He views Lemongrab in a disdainful manner, but doesn't see him as being a true threat. After Lemongrab assaults Crunchy, Jake grows much larger and more muscular, glaring angrily at the earl. When Lemongrab panics and runs away screaming, Jake looks less angry, and more confused. When Princess Bubblegum realizes that the Pup Gang are in danger, Jake enthusiastically takes on a spiky, menacing form, preparing to fight Lemongrab. However, when Princess Bubblegum tells Jake that they need to help Lemongrab rather than fight him, Jake assumes a flowery, gentle form. By the end of the episode, after Lemongrab pardoned the prisoners and started being a kinder person, Jake harbored no hard feelings towards Lemongrab- happily waving to him as he left Castle Lemongrab. At the end of the episode, he and Jake both say, "Good-bye, Lemongrab!" and "Good-bye, Lemongrabs!"

Princess Bubblegum
Princess Bubblegum is Lemongrab's creator. Because she physically made him and gave him the personality that he has, Lemongrab refers to the Princess as being "his Glob." Lemongrab is technically older than her during the events of "Too Young." Due to this, and the fact that she cannot rule until she is eighteen, Lemongrab is able to usurp the throne. Princess Bubblegum does not like Lemongrab or the way that he treats the Candy People, and she is the first one to suggest that she and Finn do something to make him leave. After several pranks, Lemongrab sentences her to one million years in the dungeon; however, while she's in the dungeon, Bubblegum Princess devises a way to return to her true age. Once she's over eighteen again she fires Lemongrab, and insults him. In "You Made Me!", however, Princess Bubblegum is much kinder and more patient towards Lemongrab- enough to speak calmly to him, attempt to teach him, and try to console him, even as he is threatening her and her subjects and friends. She later makes Lemongrab a clone of himself, so he wouldn't be alone. The episode ends with Princess Bubblegum and the Lemongrabs on very good terms, and they happily say their good-byes. She adds, "Take care, boys!" to the two Lemongrabs, and Lemongrab happily encourages Princess Bubblegum to call them and visit them soon.

Peppermint Butler
Lemongrab relies on Peppermint Butler to serve him. When Lemongrab needed someone to feed him he released Peppermint Butler from the dungeon so that he could make a meal. Lemongrab refers to Peppermint Butler as "Mr. Peppermint," though he still looks down on him and calls him "servile." Peppermint Butler does not like Lemongrab and aids Finn and Princess Bubblegum during the spice prank. The extent of Peppermint Butler's dislike shows when he screams for Princess Bubblegum to spice the dirt that Lemongrab is eating.

Candy People
The Candy People don't like Lemongrab and Lemongrab doesn't seem to like them much in return. When Lemongrab took control of the kingdom in "Too Young," he would send them to the dungeon for ridiculous lengths of times for the smallest things he considered an offense. Reactions to Lemongrab ranged from fear to resentment to complete confusion. Later, in "You Made Me!", he would spy on them in their sleep, disturbing them greatly. Also, when Princess Bubblegum requested three Candy People live with Lemongrab, the entire kingdom went into protest. In "You Made Me!", Lemongrab becomes so uncomfortable with the act of coddling Crunchy, a candy baby, that he pokes the baby in the face, slaps him, punches him in the head, and yells at him, before throwing him onto the ground in terror. He refers to demonstrations of affection such as cuddling and stroking as "gross," and Crunchy cries. Lemongrab also imprisons and electrocutes the Pup Gang after they insult him and disobey his orders. However, by the end of the episode, he happily pardons the prisoners, and they harbor no hard feelings towards each other. The Pup Gang wave good-bye to Lemongrab, and he politely bids the youngsters a fond farewell.

Lemongrab clone
Lemongrab clone is perhaps the first person Lemongrab has ever liked or tolerated, because he is the only person who can entirely understand him and his "lemon styles." He was introduced in "You Made Me!" when Princess Bubblegum creates him in Lemongrab's pantry. Lemongrab is surprised by the clone's presence at first, skeptically asking "Who's this rigamaroll?" as the clone steps into the room, but after exchanging several pokes in the face, they smile and nuzzle each other. The Lemongrab clone is the only person that Lemongrab would willingly interact with physically. Although Lemongrab is normally confused by displays of affection, he and the clone have no qualms about nuzzling each other. The clone presents the idea of pardoning all of the prisoners and Lemongrab agrees. At the end of the episode, they rule Castle Lemongrab together with the only citizens being themselves, looking very happy.

Lemon Camel
Lemon Camel is the Earl of Lemongrab's trusty steed who lives with him in Castle Lemongrab. Lemongrab rides into the Candy Kingdom on Lemon Camel in "Too Young". Their relationship is peculiar. Although Lemon Camel is loyal to Lemongrab and quite passive, it does not appear to like him at all. When Lemongrab yells at Starchie, Lemon Camel is just as startled as everyone else in the room. The camel's eyes widen, and it recoils in surprise. Lemongrab views Lemon Camel as something of a pet. In "You Made Me!", Lemon Camel has a place beside Lemongrab's throne in the castle. As Lemongrab becomes noticably agitated and upset, Lemon Horse stares off into space, completely ignoring Lemongrab's screaming anxiety. Later in the episode, after his abysmal attempt at social interaction with Crunchy, Lemongrab has a panic attack, and begins screaming and flailing his arms. He runs over to a sleeping Lemon Camel and glomps the hapless creature, startling the camel. Lemon Camel lets out a frightened "Moo!", and jumps into the air, hopping off obediently back to Castle Lemongrab.

Quotes
See Earl of Lemongrab/Quotes

Major appearances

 * "Too Young"
 * "You Made Me!"

Trivia

 * The Earl of Lemongrab seems to be extremely far-sighted, needing a pair of very large reading glasses to read a note left by his bed.
 * He is made of lemon candy, rather than lemons.
 * Princess Bubblegum may have put some of her own candy matter into Lemongrab when she was making him.
 * Lemongrab is shorter than Princess Bubblegum (at her normal age).
 * A recent piece of artwork produced by lead character designer Andy Ristaino depicts Lemongrab as having light brown highlights in his eyes. This extra detail in Ristaino's piece could indicate that Lemongrab's eyes are very dark brown, rather than black.
 * Although Lemongrab has only appeared in two episodes so far, he has been depicted on two t-shirt designs among a group of the show's more prominent characters.
 * At the end of "Too Young," Lemongrab is muttering to himself incomprehensibly, upset about being fired. In the Spanish version he says, "Nadie me quiere. Todo el mundo me odia," which translates to "No one wants/loves me. Everyone hates me."
 * In one scene of King Worm, Finn's face looks uncannily similar to Lemongrab's.
 * In "You Made Me!," it is revealed that Castle Lemongrab has several rooms occupied only by catcher's mitts on pedestals. The reason for this is never explained.
 * Lemongrab is left-handed. He wields his sword in his left hand.
 * The sword may be designed to look like a tuning fork since it has has 2 prongs for a tip.
 * During the flash-back of Princess Bubblegum creating Lemongrab in "Too Young" there is a flask with a green liquid in it on the nightstand, but it's red when she pours the liquid onto Lemongrab. However, it is possible that she may have poured the wrong liquid onto him, which would explain how he "went wrong."

Name

 * The character's original name was "Lemonsnatch," but the network censors wouldn't allow it.
 * "Lemongrab" can refer both to the Earl's name as well as the land of which he is the Earl, but the location of Lemongrab has not been decided yet.
 * In the German version his name is "Lemongraß," which contains an additional pun. ß is pronounced as "ss" in German, so his name directly translates to "Lemongrass."
 * In the Italian version his name is "Limoncello," which is a type of Italian liquor made from Sorrento lemons.
 * In the Spanish version his name is "El Conde de Limonagrio," which directly translates to "The Count of Lemonsour." The title Count is very similar to that of Earl.
 * According to Jesse Moynihan, Lemongrab's title of Earl and his all-grey wardrobe are a reference to Earl Grey tea.

Storyline analysis

 * Lemongrab's actual age has yet to be stated in the show, though Princess Bubblegum considers him to be older than her while she was thirteen. At the moment, even Jesse Moynihan isn't quite sure what age the Earl is supposed to be.
 * Lemongrab sent several Candy People to the dungeon for varying amounts of time, ranging from three hours to one million years. However, he only had claim to the throne until Princess Bubblegum turned eighteen again, so any Candy People sent to the dungeon could be released by her after five years.
 * When he dismounts Lemon Camel, the candy people murmur to themselves in puzzlement. In the storyboards, it was shown that they were saying "Who's that again?" This could indicate that Princess Bubblegum stuck him in Castle Lemongrab before he could interact with the candy people.
 * Princess Bubblegum created Goliad to replace her when she died, but Goliad is currently locked in an eternal psychic battle with Stormo, so Lemongrab is still the rightful heir.

Production notes

 * Jesse Moynihan said that Lemongrab will appear in Season 4 and we will learn more about his pastimes/hobbies in future episodes.
 * An official synopsis released to TV Guide and other websites stated that "Too Young" was about Princess Bubblegum's uncle trying to claim the throne. Andy Ristaino joked that "uncle" is a term describing a failed science experiment. In the original storyboard for "Too Young" Princess Bubblegum says, "I wanted to create an uncle for myself," but in the final version he is (according to Jesse Moynihan) her son.
 * During early production of "Too Young," Lemongrab's character was much different; He was a one-dimensional jerk like Xergiok. However, Moynihan wanted Lemongrab's personality to have more depth, so he gave him social problems and a very quirky personality.
 * Lemongrab is voiced by the same actor as Oscar from Fish Hooks. Coincidentally, both characters are loud, socially awkward, neurotic neat-freaks who scream a lot.

Appearances in other media

 * He is mentioned briefly in Issue 1 of the Adventure Time comic, in the sentence: "Not pictured is the Earl of Lemongrab, who is currently sitting in a chair in an empty room, screaming."
 * He makes his first appearance in the comic in Issue 4, at Princess Bubblegum's beach party.
 * An "Adventure Tim" universe counterpart of Lemongrab appeared on Adventure Tim's chart in Issue 5 of the comic. His name is "The Duke of Limesnatch," in homage to Lemongrab's original name. Limesnatch was described as being "lawful neutral."
 * He appeared in the Gaia Online Adventure Time Chance Item.
 * Lemongrab makes an appearance in the "Adventure Time Dude-It Yourself Journal" standing among a group of Candy People.
 * He also appears in the Live Action Promo, brandishing his sword as one of the villains and screaming maniacally.