Guardians of Sunshine (episode)

"Guardians of Sunshine" is the sixteenth episode of season two of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn and Jake trick BMO into letting them into the video game Guardians of Sunshine, where they attempt to defeat an unbeatable video game in a 3-D digital environment.

Plot
The episode begins with Finn playing a game called Guardians of Sunshine. They complain that the game's enemies and lava pit jumps are too easy. Jake says Finn is on fire and asks if he thinks he can beat an especially difficult enemy called Sleepy Sam. Finn tries to use a combo move to beat him but does not finish the move in time, so the character gets swallowed and spat out and loses the game. Finn and Jake groan and throw the controller across the room telling BMO the game is weak. Finn says that if he were in in the game he could easily crush Sleepy Sam with his "mitts." But then BMO tells them the game is much more dangerous than they anticipate. It tells them that if it presses a button in a panel located on its control pad they will be transported into its "Main-Brain-Game-Frame." Finn and Jake beg BMO to let them into the game but it refuses, telling them that it's too dangerous of an adventure. Finn says that it's time for bed and Jake agrees. Later, they get back up while BMO is sleeping and tickle him until he pushes the button. The boys are then transported into the game and see all the things in the actual game.

As they walk through the cave, Jake smells something and they suddenly realize that it's a pit. Seeing its true size, Finn says it looks a mite bigger in the game. However, Jake says they can do it backwards with their eyes closed. As Jake does this he fails and falls into the lava, losing a life in the process. Finn screams Jake's name and he answers from behind. He says that they have extra lives. Finn tells Jake he has two left and Jake jumps into the lava again, losing another life again. As Jake rematerializes, Finn suggests that losing all the lives in the game means dying in the real world - or worse. This makes Jake feel bad, but Finn says they are going to get over the pit with real world grit. They then use Jake's stretchy powers to cross it. After they get across, they hear sound from behind them and realize it's Bouncy Bee, a boss in the game. They get ready to beat him, then strike the Adventure Time pose, after which it shows Finn getting drilled in the stomach by Bouncy Bee. After taking too much damage, he dies. Jake runs away and mopes over Finn's death before he comes back and reminds him about extra lives. They go through the cave some more to encounter Hunny Bunny, another boss in the game. He is big and gooey and can shoot blasts from his ears. Finn tries to get the Bomba to destroy him but they can not get it without the controller. Jake suggests that they flee from the battle, but Finn says they never run away from Hunny Bunny. However, after he fires more lasers at the adventurers, Finn is convinced to run away. Finn says that if these bosses are hard, Sleepy Sam must be impossible. Jake tells Finn Sleepy Sam is ahead of them and Finn attempts to sneak up on him, but he is seen and Sleepy Sam releases a sonic wave. Jake helps him by pushing him against the sonic waves, but Finn ends up getting eaten. With only one life remaining for each, Finn and Jake try to run away but Hunny Bunny fires blasts at the duo. They avoid him and make it over the pit, while Hunny Bunny and Sleepy Sam jump over the pit and land on Bouncy Bee. The adventurers run through the cave and hit the end of the screen and realize they are trapped. However Jake sees the Bomba and Finn remembers they can't get it. Jake tries to pull the Bomba out of the game interface at the top of the screen and a big "ERROR!" sign comes out. Jake manages to rip it out but opens a hole in the game that sucks Finn and him out. It turns out that removing the Bomba opened up a hole in BMO. Finn and Jake escape just before the monsters come out of a hole in BMO's side.

Sam and his cohorts break a hole through the wall and are about to kill Finn and Jake, but then they notice the sunshine outside. They stop attacking Finn, telling them that all they wanted was to get the sunshine... and to kill BMO for imprisoning them in the game. Finn tells BMO to push its button but it cannot because it is trapped by Hunny Bunny. The monsters realize Finn and Jake are friends of BMO and start to attack them. As Jake is being eaten by Sleepy Sam, BMO tells Finn to use the combo move. Finn successfully performs the combo move and destroys the monsters. BMO then scolds Finn and Jake for going in the game and blames them for most of the damage of the house. However, Finn tells it that now he knows what is in store and wants to play the game. Angered, BMO starts to perform the combo move and Finn tells it that he was only joking. The episode ends with a screen that says, "GAME OVER."

Major Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * BMO
 * Sleepy Sam
 * Bouncy Bee
 * Hunny Bunny

Minor Characters

 * Snail

Music

 * Computer Song

Trivia

 * This episode uses a monochromatic, pixelated look for not only the title card but also the credits at the start of the episode. This is the first time these credits have been given an episode-specific art style.
 * This is the first time the title card doesn't include the words "Adventure Time Presents:."
 * This is the first episode to have a title card that is not ripped or bent.
 * This episode is the first time the show was animated in CGI, which was used for when Finn and Jake are in the game.
 * The frog character is actually named Sleepy Sam, but for some reason he gets referred to repeatedly as "Silly Sam."
 * When Finn is looking at his leg because it's "made of math", there is a string of binary on it that, if decoded, says "Finn's leg."
 * When Finn is singing his computer song, his eyes start moving up and down and bounce his mouth back and forth. This is a reference to the game Pong.
 * This episode has many sound effects from the first Mega Man game, like when Mega Man explodes, when metools shoot at the player, and when an appearing block appears.
 * On the screen of the video game when displaying the level, it says "Level -1." It may be a reference to "The Minus World," a glitch in Super Mario Bros.
 * When within the game world, Jake's stretching powers are viewed similar to the movements in the variants of the game Snake, where a snake stretches on a 2D plane and can only turn in one of the four basic cardinal directions.
 * The game looks similar to "Pitfall" as both deal with avoiding obstacles, enemies, and the characters look alike.
 * Jake mispronounces "computer glitch."