Evergreen

Synopsis
The story of Evergreen, and his young assistant Gunther, during the Cretaceous period, long before the Mushroom War, where they try to keep a major catastrophe from destroying Earth.

Plot
The episode takes place in the distant past long before Mushroom War. In this time, a young dinosaur named Gunther is playing with his pet dinosaur Nina. He is the badly treated apprentice to a wizard named Evergreen, who Gunther idolizes. Throughout the episode, Gunther's idolization and wish to be like Evergreen is made very clear, which foreshadows the climax of the episode.

After their game he notices the elementals are gathering atop the tower of his master, Urgence Evergreen, and hurries to see the meeting. There, Evergreen meets with a group of elementals. The four elementals are Ice (Evergreen), Candy (Chatsberry), Fire (Balthus) and Slime (Slimy D). They meet to talk about an incoming green meteor set to hit Ooo filled with evil magic. The other elementals do not worry about it, but Evergreen insists that they must act by creating a magical crown that will grant the wearers innermost wish. Evergreen states that he must wear the crown, because his deepest wish is to destroy the comet. The other elementals are against this, as they believe that the crown will corrupt Evergreen. Evergreen then fights the other elementals and ends up freezing them. After the battle, Evergreen summons Gunther, telling them that they will go on a mission to recover the missing piece to his crown.

Evergreen and Gunther then go on a quest where Evergreen rides an ice palanquin and Gunther walks alongside pitifully, being rebuked in his request to ride with Evergreen, an example of the constant abuse Gunther suffers at the hands of Evergreen. Their goal is to get the enchanted ruby eyes of the ancient lava dog, Magwood, which will be the source of the magical crown's power. After finding Magwood's lair and successfully fighting to take its eyes to power the crown, our heroes are back at Evergreen's lair. The crown is complete and ready to use. The comet's collision is imminent and Evergreen is about to try to use it to save the world, when Magwood arrives attacking his castle.

The fight renders Evergreen unable to wear the crown and he instructs Gunther to wear the crown while thinking of his deepest wish... to save the world and stop the comet. However, as we have seen throughout the episode, it is clear that Gunther's only wish is to be like his master Evergreen. When he wears the crown, the magic morphs him into a version of Evergreen with similar features like white hair and a long nose (features that are shared with the Ice King). Gunther's transformation shows the horrible way he is treated by Evergreen, where he shoots ice magic and screams 'Gunther, no!' interminably.

Just as the comet is about to crash, Ice King wakes up and we realize this was a recurring dream that the Ice King has. He wakes up screaming 'Gunther, no!' as Gunther had after his transformation then mimics a large explosion. Ice King then wakes up and sees the penguin Gunthers cowering in fear in the corner where he asks if they have the same recurring dream.

The episode closes with a look into the sky and a far away blue comet hurtling towards Ooo, similar to the green comet that was shown in Ice King's dream.

Major characters

 * Evergreen
 * Gunther

Minor characters

 * Ice Imp
 * Slimy D
 * Chatsberry
 * Balthus
 * Ice King
 * Gunther
 * Penguins
 * Snail
 * Nina
 * Magwood

Songs

 * Slimy D's Rap

Trivia

 * This is the first episode that is set pre-Mushroom War.
 * This is the second Adventure Time episode (not counting gender-swapped episodes) to not feature Finn and Jake, the first being "Princess Day."
 * Evergreen and Balthus are voiced by the same actors as their modern day equivalents. Tom Kenny regularly voices Ice King and Keith David is the voice of Flame King. It's likely that Chatsberry and Slimy D do not follow this theme due to their modern day equivalents being female.
 * The comet's green flames and horns resemble The Lich.
 * Both Gunther and Ice King sleep using similar leopard blankets.

Production notes

 * This episode first aired in Latin America.
 * This episode had a scene which was censored in Latin America during its early release and in the leaked versions.

Episode connections

 * In "What Have You Done?" Ice King mentions that he did not steal the crown, although he did make it with stolen magic. This may be the result of the crown's flashback from Evergreen/Gunther's memories when they steal the magical gems for the crown.

Storyline analysis

 * It would seem that the comet seen to be heading towards the planet which would destroy Ooo is the equivalent to the real life meteor/comet impact which caused the K-Pg extinction event. In the world of Ooo, the comet is allowed to strike (probably killing all the dinosaurs and the four elementals, Gunther etcetera) due to Gunther not using the wish to stop it from impacting. This would then allow the crown to be found in the future by Simon, who would eventually become the Ice King.


 * Also, the fact that Evergreen froze the other elementals in ice blocks could mean that they could survive to present day Ooo, as seen with the businessmen in a past episode.
 * There are parallels between the characters of Gunther and Finn. In the Farmworld timeline, Farmworld Finn wore the crown which gave him the powers of ice. Finn has a dog - Jake - whilst Gunther has a cat-like dinosaur which is similar in color and design as Jake - Nina.
 * Whilst Gunther (potentially the prehistoric version of Finn) idolised Evergreen (prehistoric Ice King), and wanted to be like him, Finn hates the Ice King.
 * The green colour of the comet that hits Ooo could come from it containing radioactive materials. Evergreen says that it contains evil/wants to destroy all of us. These facts could suggest that the comet introduced the evil of the Lich in the form of material that could be used to produce the nuclear bomb which exploded during the mushroom wall to cause the near extinction of humans, the creation of the Lich and the mutation of Ooo's inhabitants.