Earl of Lemongrab

The Earl of Lemongrab first appears in the episode "Too Young." He is the high-strung, stubborn ruler of the land of Lemongrab, and the heir to the Candy Kingdom. The son of his not-so-proud mother, Princess Bubblegum, he was the first of Princess Bubblegum's experiments gone wrong. This relation technically allowed him to usurp the throne to the Candy Kingdom after Bubblegum's de-aging, until her original age of 18 was restored. Once Princess Bubblegum was 18 again he was fired, and returned to Lemongrab.

Appearance
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 ovals for eyes with black circles as pupils. Like many of the Adventure Time characters, he has thin, noodly limbs and a lean torso- however, his belly and behind are noticeably chubbier than the rest of him, as his body shape greatly resembles a jelly bean. This is most prominent in the storyboards and in the flashback. He doesn't have toes or a belly-button. The Earl wears a dark-gray bodysuit, black boots, and a green belt with a lime-shaped buckle. He carries a sword in a brown scabbard. He also wears one piece light gray pajamas with snaps on the butt to sleep and uses a pair of large, thick half-moon spectacles to read. He is a bit shorter than Princess Bubblegum.



Biography
The Earl was "born" in Princess Bubblegum's laboratory. Seeing as Princess Bubblegum was about eighteen years old when she created him, he is very young (judging by the amount of years). However, he has the apparent voice of an older teenager or young man still going through puberty; his voice cracks constantly. Upon being created the Earl of Lemongrab screamed hysterically and violently, manically flapped his arms at Princess Bubblegum, causing the Princess to realize that something had gone wrong in her creation. He was created for the purpose of ruling the Candy Kingdom if the Princess ever became unable to do so. However, since he was "one of her first experiments gone wrong," it can be presumed that she referred to the Earl's sour personality as the "wrong" attribute.

His whereabouts and activities during the time between his creation and "Too Young" are hazy at best; he gained the ability to speak, somehow became the Earl of an earldom, and acquired Lemon Horse, but how exactly this all happened is up to speculation. However, Jesse Moynihan stated on his Formspring that after he was born, Princess Bubblegum "stuck him in Castle Lemongrab," and has lived an extremely sheltered, isolated, and presumably wealthy life ever since. According to Jesse Moynihan, he was raised by servants, and became somewhat spoiled and ignorant from 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 the Candy Castle. This could indicate that he has lived a very isolated, unsocial life- as the candy people didn't even know of the existence of Princess Bubblegum's son.

Upon being informed that Princess Bubblegum was "too young" to rule the kingdom, the Earl traveled to her castle on his Lemon Horse, immediately declared her castle to be in "UNACCEPTABLE CONDITION," and threatened to send its residents to the dungeon. Intent on performing the task he was created to do, he ruled the kingdom in the manner that made sense to him- screaming at the candy people and sending them to the dungeon for long periods of time for their presumed crimes. During his brief time as ruler of the kingdom, the Earl was pranked by Finn and the young Princess- although reacting with outrage and hysterics, he promised not to leave. After the pain and embarrassment of the spice prank, he sentenced all of the Candy Kingdom residents to "one million years dungeon." After Princess Bubblegum returned to correct ruling age, the Earl of Lemongrab was unceremoniously fired, and insulted. He rode off into the sunset on his trusty lemon horse, obviously upset and muttering to himself. He returned to Lemongrab.

Personality and traits
According to his creator, 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. 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 cane 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. 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.

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 Pepbut 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, charismatic, 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.

Abilities
Although not particularly tolerant of pain (screaming when slapped on the hand by Finn, weeping after being punched in the stomach and pushed down, screaming for several minutes after eating spicy food, and moaning after falling from the apple tree), the Earl of Lemongrab apparently has a high tolerance to physical injury. This is shown by the fact that he fell head-first out of the window of the tall castle's tower, and out of a tree, and was completely uninjured. This is because his body is made of extremely heavy, hard lemon candy- after falling from a great height, he leaves a deep indentation in the ground.

It is a common medical condition amongst candy people to explode when they are frightened. However, Patrick Seery claims that the Earl is immune to this condition, because he is so "hard-shelled." It appears that his hard exterior makes him impervious to many injuries.

He always carries a sword, but his proficiency in sword fighting is of yet unknown, as he hasn't been shown using it yet.

Finn


Finn reacted angrily after Lemongrab raised his voice at the young Princess Bubblegum. The Earl presumably dislikes Finn after being touched by him and pranked by him. After Finn slapped him, he screamed angrily, glared at him, gasped in mortification, and proceeded to rub his hand and explain his reason for being in the castle, pretending the incident never occurred. Being a neat-freak, Lemongrab likely has an aversion towards Finn because Finn claims to never bathe. In an unused storyboard, he refers to Finn and PB as "little ghost pranksters," apparently hating pranks and trying to make them jealous of his rice cake. Finn seems to think of the earl as more of an infuriating nuisance than a real enemy- although Finn jokingly threatened to set Lemongrab's butt on fire, he doesn't seem like he would do more harm than a few mean pranks. They don't seem to hate each other or harbor any real malice towards each other- they seem to be more of rivals with conflicting intentions and interests than enemies. However, Finn dislikes Lemongrab enough to prank him multiple times (and sometimes purposefully painfully) and punch him in the stomach, and Lemongrab later sent Finn to the dungeon for doing so. Lemongrab doesn't seem to dislike Finn more than he dislikes anybody else (because he dislikes everyone by default,) and Finn's disliking of the earl seems to come from a need to protect the Candy People, and Princess Bubblegum. In an unused storyboard, it was shown that Finn and PB were shocked and horrified when the earl sent a candy person to the dungeon for speaking up against him.

Princess Bubblegum


These two have an exceedingly complicated relationship. According to Jesse Moynihan, Princess Bubblegum is Lemongrab's mother. Despite the fact that Lemongrab is Princess Bubblegum's son, they don't seem to regard each other with any warmth or affection typical to most parent-child relationships. Princess Bubblegum isn't above insulting Lemongrab or hurting him physically if protecting her people is her first priority, and Lemongrab doesn't have a problem with sending the princess to the dungeon, if he feels that her behavior or actions conflict with his agenda. Because Finn didn't know about Lemongrab until the events of Too Young, it is possible that Princess Bubblegum was so embarrassed and annoyed by her son that she didn't bother mentioning his existence to her friends. After Lemongrab was born, she stuck him in Castle Lemongrab presumably to live a life of isolation. Before telling Finn that she created Lemongrab, she sighed heavily and closed her eyes. Although they do not hate each other, they have a mutual dislike of each other (Bubblegum wanting Lemongrab to leave, and Lemongrab wanting Princess Bubblegum imprisoned in the dungeon,) but acknowledge the others' royal titles. The Princess temporarily allowed Lemongrab to rule the kingdom after being de-ageified, and after she returned to the age of 18, he left- although unhappy about the disrespectful manner of his dismissal. In an unused storyboard, he refers to Princess Bubblegum and Finn as "little ghost pranksters," apparently hating pranks and trying to make them jealous of his rice cake. Princess Bubblegum, when she is of age, has greater authority over the earl- he addresses her as "Princess Bubblegum," while she simply calls him "Lemongrab," or just "Earl." In addition to this, Lemongrab (Earldom) is located inside of the Candy Kingdom- therefore, Lemongrab (the person) has to submit to Princess Bubblegum's authority. Cole Sanchez has stated that it's possible that Lemongrab and Princess Bubblegum may learn to get along in the future. Jesse Moynihan claims that we'll be learning more about the relationship between Lemongrab and his mom in Season 4.

Lemon Horse
His trusty steed. Lemon Horse has yet to talk. It is unknown whether Lemon Horse was another lemon candy creation of Princess Bubblegum, or a creation of Lemongrab himself, or a natural animal. It is also unknown how exactly Lemongrab and Lemon Horse met each other, or why Lemon Horse seems to tolerate the companionship of his less-than-pleasant master at all. Despite looking very much alike, their personalities seem to be opposites. Lemon Horse calmly tolerates the earl's outright rage and anger towards everybody, calmly watching as he screams at people with little provocation. However, like everyone else, Lemon Horse is startled by sudden outbursts of his master- Lemon Horse's eyes widen, and it flinches, when Lemongrab abruptly screams at people.

Peppermint Butler


Strangely, Lemongrab has a bit of respect for Peppermint Butler - releasing him early from the dungeon, then claiming "I decide what is early, and what is late, Mr. Peppermint." He is the only one to call Peppermint Butler "Mr. Peppermint," indicating a certain kind of respect (as everyone else simply calls him Peppermint Butler). Also, he made a small bowing gesture and respectfully closed his eyes for a moment as he said this to Peppermint Butler. However, as Peppermint Butler tried explaining the origins of food, Lemongrab cut him off, scolding him by saying "That is why I am royal, and YOU are servile!" Andy Ristaino stated that his politeness was probably more about Lemongrab needing someone to feed him than anything else.

Candy People


He doesn't like them. He repeatedly sends them to the dungeon for petty crimes. He considers the Candy People's ways as "unacceptable," and is extremely irked and taken aback by their rowdy, unorganized behavior and the messy condition in which they left the castle. Although Lemongrab is technically a candy person, he is mentally and socially isolated from the rest of the candy people, due to his, literally and figuratively, bitter and hard-shelled disposition. Because of their naturally timid and mild-mannered dispositions, the candy people are afraid of and annoyed by this sour person, because he's exceedingly strident, overly zealous, and disproportionately punishes them for extremely small mistakes. Reactions to him from his "fellow" candy people seem to range from outright terror to annoyance or resentment.

Quotes
See Earl of Lemongrab/Quotes

Name

 * The character's original name was "Lemonsnatch," but the network censors wouldn't allow it. "Lemonsnatch" was likely a pun based on the phrase "sourpuss," an apt description of Lemongrab's personality. Also the "grab" could have been chosen for it is an antonym of "drop" such as in the candy "lemon drop."
 * "Lemongrab" can refer both to the Earl's name, as well as the land of which he is the Earl. His own creator refers to him as Lemongrab, and Andy Ristaino referred to the Earl's location as Lemongrab, a place in the Land of Ooo.
 * His name is slightly different, and an additional pun, in the German dub. ß is used in German, where it stands in for an "ss," so Lemongraß would be Lemongrass, but as Princess Bubblegum said, he came out wrong.
 * His name in the Italian dub of the show is "Limoncello." Limoncello is a type of Italian liquor, made from Sorrento lemons, that is the second-most popular alcoholic beverage in that country. Most likely, this name was chosen as a comical connection between alcohol and Lemongrab's erratic behavior.
 * His name in the Spanish dub is "El Conde de Limonagrio," which literally translates to "The Count of Lemonsour." The title "count" is very similar to that of "earl."

Storyline analysis

 * He was noted as one of the first "experiments gone wrong" by Princess Bubblegum; another experiment by Princess Bubblegum that had gone wrong were the Candy Zombies from "Slumber Party Panic."
 * Princess Bubblegum appeared to be eighteen when she created Lemongrab. That would make his physical age only one or two years old. Though he appears to be an adult, he is "completely unadjusted to living," like somebody much younger. His ACTUAL age has yet to be stated in the show. At the moment, even Jesse Moynihan isn't quite sure what age the earl is supposed to be.
 * Lemongrab sent various candy people to the dungeon for various amounts of time- ranging from three hours to one million years. However, he could, legally, only imprison them for five years at the most. He claimed that he would be in charge until Princess Bubblegum turned eighteen again. That means he would only be in power for, at the most, another five years. He was probably too angry, or too bad at math, to realize that his actions were illegal and illogical.
 * When he dismounts Lemon Horse, 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.
 * According to Jeremy Shada, Lemongrab will return in the near future.

Production notes

 * Jesse Moynihan said that Lemongrab will appear in Season 4. According to him, we're going to learn more about his back story, his past, and his pastimes/hobbies.
 * An official synopsis released to TV Guide and other websites stated that "Too Young" was about PB's "uncle" trying to claim the throne. Andy Ristaino joked that "uncle" is a term describing a failed science experiment. The confusion was likely caused by the fact that these episode descriptions are often written before the episodes are completed, and they sometimes change during production. In the original storyboard, PB claims, "I wanted to create an uncle for myself," but he didn't turn out as planned. In the final version of Too Young, Lemongrab is not PB's uncle- he is her son.
 * During early production of Too Young, Lemongrab's character was much different. According to Jesse Moynihan, 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.
 * His voice is similar to that of Oscar from Fish Hooks, because he is voiced by the same actor. He and Oscar are also neurotic, socially awkward neat-freaks. Oscar's neat-freakiness is well emphasized in the episode "Dances with Wolf Fish."

Appearances in other media

 * He is mentioned briefly in the first issue of the Adventure Time comic, on the first page, 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. In his brief appearance, he's standing in the middle of a lake, wearing grey swimming trunks and sunglasses, with sunscreen on his nose, looking grumpy as usual. In the panel, he's clenching his fists, and he's trembling with anger, because Finn (who is smiling muscheviously) is hitting him in the head with a hockey puck.
 * Though he is an exceedingly minor character, he appeared in the Gaia Online Adventure Tine CI, along with the main characters.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * Apparently, The Earl of Lemongrab is extremely far-sighted; needing a pair of very large reading glasses to read "the thing," and it took several long moments for him to do so, though the text itself was ludicrously big.
 * His obsession with cleanliness could be a reference to the acidic properties of the lemon, which is often used in kitchen cleansers.
 * According to Patrick Seery, LG is terrible at math, thus explaining the seemingly random number of years he sentences people to the dungeon.
 * He is made of lemon candy, rather than lemons.
 * He sets his alarm clock for eight o'clock in the morning.
 * When PB reminisces of her creating Lemongrab, there is a flask with a green liquid in it on the nightstand. But, when she pours the liquid on Lemongrab it's red.
 * According to storyboard artist Adam Muto, LG has a, or is in, "delicate condition."
 * Some of the Adventure Time staff affectionately refer to Lemongrab as "LG", and sometimes "LemonG," on their Formsprings.
 * According to Jesse Moynihan, Princess Bubblegum may have put some of her own candy matter into Lemongrab when she was making him.
 * His all grey wardrobe is, according to Jesse Moynihan, a visual pun on "earl grey," which is a kind of tea named for the 2nd Earl Grey, who was a British Prime Minister in the 1830s.
 * Lemongrab is shorter than Princess Bubblegum.
 * His musical motif in Too Young consists of a soft, slightly out-of-tune harpsichord and piano played with an irregular rhythm. It often intensifies when he yells.
 * A recent piece of artwork produced by lead character designer Andy Ristaino depicts Lemongrab as having light brown highlights in his eyes. In the storyboards, Lemongrab occasionally has white highlights in his eyes if he's feeling particularly emotional. This extra detail in Ristaino's piece could indicate that Lemongrab's eyes are very dark brown, rather than black.
 * A T-shirt design and the above mentioned piece of artwork both depict Lemongrab among the main characters, although he has only appeared in one episode so far. This appearance could either be a response to the one-shot character's popularity among the AT crew and fans, or it could foreshadow his return later in season 4, when he becomes a more prominent character.