Finn

Finn (full title: Finn the Human, known as Finn Mertens in the Farmworld timeline and formerly as Pen in the original short) is the main protagonist of the series Adventure Time.

Background


As shown in "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain," Finn appears to have been abandoned in the woods during infancy. He reveals that he made "boom boom" (Finn's word for defecation) on a large leaf, fell on it, and lay there crying until Joshua and Margaret (Jake's parents) rescued him from the wilderness to raise him alongside Jake, who becomes like a brother to him (as such, Jermaine is also Finn's adoptive brother). In "Memory of a Memory," a baby Finn is seen singing a song in the bathroom of what appears to be Joshua and Margaret's house. In "Henchman," when Finn is asked about his parents, he says Jake told him that he came from a cabbage, in jest. In "Susan Strong," Finn states that he knows nothing of his human parents or any other humans.

Status as the last human
Finn is the only confirmed human in the Land of Ooo. In the episode "Her Parents," Lady Rainicorn's dad says he thought humans were extinct. This lends new significance to his title "Finn the Human," as his humanity may be unique in Ooo.

Up until "Susan Strong," Finn believes he has never met another human. Finn becomes morose and "soul-searchy" when he thinks about it. In the same episode, Finn encounters Susan Strong. Even though the other members of Susan's tribe of Hyoomans were revealed to be mutants, Susan's identity as a human or mutant is left ambiguous. In "Beautopia," it may be true that Susan is also a human, but it was not confirmed. The businessmen are also likely humans, but their minds have been damaged by being frozen for so long, and they talk like zombies. They also have boils all over their face, which may also be a result of being frozen.

Other "human" characters (such as Penny, Phil or the Old Man Henchman) have been confirmed by the show's creator, Pendleton Ward, to be mutants or humanoids. According to Pendelton Ward's FAQ page, even Finn is mutated in some way.

Fionna is also a human, although she is just a character in Ice King's fan fiction. Ice King was formerly a human, as shown in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II."

Appearance and equipment


Finn is a 14-year-old human. He has several missing teeth because he bites trees and rocks among other things.

Although his eyes typically lack detail and appear as small black dots due to a minor mutation, they are shown to have color in the episode "The Enchiridion!," when Finn is tried by the Dark Magician. His left eye is green while his right eye is blue, characteristic of the genetic condition heterochromia. (However, as stated by lead character designer Andy Ristaino on Formspring, "That was a special occasion. The heterochromatic effect was a byproduct of him being hypnotized by that guardian dude." Andy confirmed that Finn's eyes are blue.

Hair
Finn has blonde hair which is first seen in "To Cut a Woman's Hair," where Finn removed his hat, and long, golden locks of hair flowed out. His hair had a glowing sheen and extended his body length, until he cut it off and gave it to the Tree Witch. His hair subsequently began to regrow, as shown in "Mortal Folly," "Heat Signature," "Apple Thief," "Beautopia," "No One Can Hear You," "Another Way," "Beyond this Earthly Realm," "Gotcha," "You Made Me," "Who Would Win" "The Hard Easy" "The Lich" "Jake the Dog" and "All the Little People." In "Another Way," Finn's hair nearly touched his shoulders, and later in "Beyond this Earthly Realm ," Finn's hair was shown to have grown past his shoulders. In "Gotcha!," Lumpy Space Princess saw an illusion of Finn with hair reaching his waist. Finn's hair is also seen in "You Made Me " when he blocks the blast from Lemongrab which caused his hat to rip off. A few strands of his hair also came out in "Who Would Win" after Finn got repeatedly beaten by Jake and they were evident throughout the majority of the episode. It makes an appearance in "The Hard Easy," having roughly the same length as in "Beyond this Earthly Realm." In "The Lich," Finn pulled off his hat showing it seemed a bit longer than in its appearance in "The Hard Easy." In the episode "Davey," Finn has shaved off almost all of his hair for the second time so he could disguise as 'Davey'. In "Little Dude," it started to grow again. In "The Great Bird Man," Finn's hair seems to be growing longer again. In "A Glitch Is a Glitch," his hair is the same length from when it was first shown. In "Puhoy," Finn, as an adult, grew facial hair.

Clothing
Finn wears a white hat with two "ears" sticking out on top. The hat is inspired by a character called Bueno, a bear that appears in comics made by Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. Consequently, Finn's hat is bear themed; coincidentally the Hyoomans wear animal themed hats as well. This might be a hint that humans in the Land of Ooo wear animal hats to fit in the society. Finn's hat covers his entire head except for his face. He also wears a light-blue T-shirt, denim shorts, a green circular backpack, rolled-down white socks, and a pair of black shoes. In "Ocean of Fear," his footwear appears to be black booties with white cuffs. In "It Came from the Nightosphere," Finn had a small pocket sewn onto his shirt that he carried Jake in. It appeared again in "Davey" for Finn to steal the keys from the guards and where he can hide Jake in when he broke out of Jail. When he's in the Ice Kingdom, he occasionally wears a yellow sweater, but has also recently worn his pink sweater made by Princess Bubblegum. In "In Your Footsteps," the Bear wears Finn's clothes, which may mean that Finn has multiple sets of the same outfit, along with multiple hats. However, in "Little Dude," when Finn's hat comes to life and is set free, Jake tells Finn, "come on dude, let's go kill a bear," which may imply that Finn only has one hat, or only had one hat left.

He wears white briefs that made an appearance in "City of Thieves" when Penny stole his trousers at the end of the episode. In "Who Would Win," he was shown to wear a different pair with red elastic.

Finn sleeps in red footie pajamas that have appeared in many episodes, but in the animated short, he sleeps in a red sleeping bag in his regular clothes. In the series, the sleeping bag is beige.

Weapons
Although Finn has wielded a number of weapons, he originally favored a gold sword. As of the episode "Mystery Train," Finn is shown using a new sword with a pink/silver blade and a red, twisted "root" handle. (Finn's original sword was destroyed by a black hole in "The Real You.") Along with his new root sword, his green backpack has a new side strap that can hold the sword while Finn is walking. In the episode "Dad's Dungeon," Finn and Jake ventured into Joshua's Dungeon, which was built by Joshua to toughen Finn up. In the dungeon, Finn retrieves Jake's family sword, which has replaced the root sword as his primary weapon. Overall, Finn is known to have three main swords: a golden sword, a root sword, and the demon blood sword presently used. They are a number of other swords seen being used by Finn, but it seems that he had not kept them.

In "Conquest of Cuteness," Finn was shown to have a crossbow. He used a different one in "The New Frontier."

Personality and character traits
Though at times violent and aggressive, Finn is a brave and righteous hero. He has a very strong sense of responsibility and gets upset when he is unable to help others. He seems to be somewhat overprotective of his friends; such as when Tree Trunks almost got killed in the episode "Tree Trunks" and Jake in "The New Frontier." He is almost physically incapable of doing anything evil or unjust, and will struggle greatly against doing such things, as seen in several episodes such as "City of Thieves," "Mortal Recoil," "The Eyes," and "The Enchiridion!" Even though he acts like a normal boy, Finn acts like a gentleman when it comes to ladies. As revealed in "Davey," despite his heroic nature, he also takes a liking to a "normal life" without any recognition or praise for being a hero.

Finn is shown to be a fearless thrill-seeker and enjoys putting himself in the midst of danger simply because he enjoys a challenge. However, as illustrated in "Ocean of Fear," Finn has an unexplained phobia of the ocean, or thalassophobia, despite the fact that he can effortlessly come into contact with any other body of water. While he portrays himself as a rough and tough hero, Finn has a tender side capable of love and compassion, as shown by his boyhood crush on Princess Bubblegum and his brotherly relationship with Jake. However, Finn seems to hate romance movies and kissing because in "Go With Me," he actually vomits during a kissing scene in a movie. However, at the end of "Dream of Love," Finn was not grossed out by Tree Trunks and the Pig kissing. Finn's growth in accepting romance and physical love is also demonstrated when he willingly kisses Princess Bubblegum in "Too Young" and his current girlfriend, Flame Princess, in "Burning Low."

Finn’s aspirations to be a great hero makes him somewhat of a moral sheriff in the Land of Ooo, as he is willing to help and protect any innocent person or creature. Finn appears to be somewhat simple-minded, seeing that he gets a lot of conflicting emotions when it's unclear whether something is good or evil (exemplified by his dealings with Marceline in the episode "Henchman").

Many aspects of Finn's personality are shrouded in mystery. In the episode "Rainy Day Daydream," it was shown that Finn believes "imagination is for turbonerds who can't handle how kick butt reality is," showing Finn not only accuses imagination users as "turbonerds" and believes life is fantastic. Finn then refused to use his imagination until he had to reactivate Jake's "bombastic personality" in his imagination land, (which was just a basic gray and white empty plane hinting that Finn isn't very imaginative, but that was contradicted in "Power Animal" when the gnomes harnessed the energy from Finn's imagination) which was inhabited with a few dainty creatures such as Bellamy Bug. Finn's imagination was than powerful enough to effect the real world (like Jake's but to a lower degree) and turn on Jake's imagination.

Finn can also be very stubborn; such as in "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain," "Wizard," "Dungeon" "Rainy Day Daydream," and especially in "Another Way." Finn can also be easily tricked, as in "The Eyes" when Jake convinced him that the giant hawks would take the horse to a land of sunshine and love stuff and take care of him. He can get overly angry and yell as in "Trouble in Lumpy Space" and "Tree Trunks," but he immediately feels guilt and remorse and apologizes when he can. Finn prefers to do work and not take the easy way out ("Business Time") and ("The Real You").

While Finn is shown to be a courageous warrior, he is also shown to have several fears. In "Another Way" and "King Worm, he is shown to have a fear of clowns. Also in "King Worm" he is shown to have a fear of Bubblegum calling him too young, and he also fears the return of the Lich, or possibly just the Lich himself. He is also shown to fear the Ghost Lady ("King Worm," and "The Creeps") and the ocean ("King Worm," and "Ocean of Fear").

Physical


Finn is proficient in several forms of combat, including hand-to-hand combat, magic, and swordsmanship. He can jump very high and is exceptionally strong and agile for a boy of his age. Despite his age and appearance, Finn seems to be quite strong and athletic; he can be seen wrestling full-grown Marauders, the large grass ogre Donny, and a general variety of monsters and creatures several times his size. Finn is also capable of lifting up Princess Bubblegum, as shown in "Mortal Recoil" when he picks her up and puts her in her bed, and capable of lifting up Marceline as seen in "Daddy's Little Monster." In addition, he was able to lift a tree and hit the giant spider Barb with it in "Web Weirdos." In "Another Way," Finn was able to run around carrying a giant cyclops' eye. Lastly, in "Dad's Dungeon," when he stabbed the Evil Monster in the eye, he was able to lift him up slightly off the ground and flip him into the pit. Being the size it is, the giant Evil Monster should have weighed at least a couple of tons, thus showing how strong Finn is. He also can make his arms and legs bend in inhuman ways, as during the Science Dance and when he uses "spaghetti limbs" (waving his arms and legs, which Jake can also do). In "The New Frontier," it's shown that Finn can make fire only with his hands. Finn is very tolerant to pain as shown in "No One Can Hear You" when the stag broke his legs; he just says, "Whatever." Also, in "The Lich," he was able to break the Enchiridion on his knee. Finn seems to have impeccable balance, as he was able to balance himself on two wheels in his wheelchair in the episode "No One Can Hear You" however he refers to it as "skills."

Mental
Finn has the ability to mentally fight psychic abilities. The first time was against the Lich. The second time was against Goliad, as he was constantly able to manipulate his thoughts in order to avoid revealing the plan to defeat Goliad, allowing Princess Bubblegum to create Stormo. Finn can focus for a very long time as shown in "Still" when he spends hours telepathically summoning an Astral Beast. As demonstrated in "The Creeps," Finn can lock unwanted memories in "the vault," which is later seen in "King Worm." However, this is a normal human ability which is activated if the scene the person had witnessed is too traumatizing for them. Finn has the ability to read and write, and he can also do simple math.

Creative
Besides combat, Finn has displayed many other impressive abilities in handicraft. He has some origami skills, as shown in "Ricardio the Heart Guy," in which he makes Princess Bubblegum a paper crane, as well as in "Marceline's Closet," in which he makes a paper airplane. In addition to that, Finn is shown to be able to construct a sculpture (of the Candy Kingdom) from his saliva, which was also made for Princess Bubblegum in "The Real You." Finn is also somewhat gifted at constructing simple machines, such as the catapult in "The Witch's Garden." Finn writes and draws with his left hand and occasionally with both hands at the same time. He additionally handles his sword with his right hand, suggesting he may be ambidextrous, able to use both hands with equal skill.

Musical
Finn enjoys singing; after swallowing a tiny computer, he gained the ability to Auto-tune his voice on command, although he can sing without Auto-tune as well. Apparently, Finn can also play the flute, demonstrated in "Prisoners of Love," in which he played a short lick before javelin-throwing it at Ice King. Unfortunately, the flute fell apart before it could hit him, so Finn is not seen playing the flute again except as Farmworld Finn at the end of "The Lich." He is also very good at beat boxing as seen in "It Came from the Nightosphere" and "What Was Missing." In "Gut Grinder," Finn tries to play Jake's viola, but Jake says he stinks. Jake even imitates his foot prints and said "I'm Finn the Human and I stink at viola." However, during "Death in Bloom," Finn panicked over what instrument to pick, supposedly because he could not play any of them, and settles for sleigh bells. In the episode "Go With Me," Finn is seen playing the lute. In "Daddy's Little Monster," he is seen playing the tambourine.

Miscellaneous
Finn is very good at playing a video game called Adventure Master, which he and Jake play on BMO from time to time. He can also spit very long distances, as demonstrated in "Evicted!," when he spits on Marceline, in "My Two Favorite People," when he spits on Tiffany's face, and in "Web Weirdos," when he spits at birds flying overhead, while suspended upside down on a giant spider web. In "Dungeon," one of the trials that Jake says Finn would have breezed through is a spitting competition against a goblin-like creature. In "Burning Low," Finn is shown to be able to spit water incredibly high into the air.

Temporary
Finn and Jake gained magical abilities in the episode "Wizard," but they have never used those abilities in any other episode. Pendleton Ward later revealed on his Formspring that all of the magic Finn and Jake gained in that episode was contained in their robes, which were destroyed.

Likewise, in "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," Finn and Jake gain ice-ninja skills, but it's unlikely they will use them again because, according to Adam Muto, "They didn't have enough time to commit the incantations and hand positions to memory."

Age
Finn was 12 years old at the start of the series and is progressively growing older realistically. As of "Mystery Train," he turned 13 years old. Finn is shown going through puberty throughout the series. This is seen whenever when he's screaming - his voice cracks. Finn's voice is noticeably deeper at 13 than it was at age 12, as a result of his voice actor aging. Episodes with early production codes have Finn with a very childlike voice such as "The Enchiridion," "Prisoners of Love," "Evicted," and "Ricardio the Heart Guy."

In an interview in early 2012 (at the end of season three), Pen Ward stated that Finn is 14.

Older/Pillow world
In the episode "Puhoy," Finn travels to a realm full of pillows where he starts a new life, becoming an adult and elder.

Lute suit
In the episode "Go With Me," Finn is shown wearing a lute suit provided by his friend Jake in his attempt to convince Princess Bubblegum to go to the movies with him. It is also shown later in the same episode when he tries to get Marceline to go to the movies with him.

Magic Fist
Magic Fist is the alter-ego of Finn and Jake that first appeared in "Wizard Battle." He's not a real wizard; he only entered Wizard Battle to save Princess Bubblegum from having to kiss Ice King for the prize was a kiss from her on the lips. He wore a blue eye mask, an electric-green hood, and a large red robe. Finn was the head, while Jake was the body. See the gallery section for more images.



Cat Finn
Finn was turned into a cat by the Grand Master Wizard when Finn had forfeited the Wizard Battle; however, Finn was able to break out of it, enraged by Abracadaniel deciding to take the kiss from Princess Bubblegum.

Prince Hotbod
In the episode "The Creeps," Finn wears a black tuxedo ending in a split tail with blue trimming on the collar, a matching blue bow tie, a gray vest, a brown and tan fox mask over his characteristic hat, and brown "fancy gloves."

Giant Foot Finn
In the episode "Freak City," Finn is turned into a foot by Magic Man posing as a beggar. As a foot he has great difficulty moving at first, and only musters the effort to make himself fall over. Finn becomes depressed at his physical handicap while Jake tries to make him realize that being a foot is a blessing. Finn is unconvinced, and later in the episode he becomes motivated to return to his original body after discovering that Magic Man has turned many people into body parts as well. After creating Super Freak and seemingly defeating Magic Man, Magic Man restores Finn and the rest of the freaks to their original bodies.

Zombie Finn


Zombie Finn looks like Finn, and apparently appeared in "Slumber Party Panic." Zombie Finn appears when the zombies break the barricades, in the bottom left corner of the first window to be broken open. Zombie Finn also appears in the Adventure Time game, Rhythm Heroes. In the game, Finn appears as a zombie just like in "Slumber Party Panic." He seems to be controlled by Marceline in the game, and he is next to two other zombies, a cupcake and a candy heart.



Lumpy Finn
In the episode "Trouble in Lumpy Space," Finn turns into a Lumpy Space person to give the antidote to Jake so that he can return back to his normal body, but by doing this, he turns into a Lumpy Space person as well. Lumpy Finn hates Lumpy Jake.



Demonic Finn
In "Daddy's Little Monster," Finn puts on the Nightosphere amulet to rescue Jake and Marceline from the Nightosphere. This causes him to transform into a huge, monstrous, demonic form similar to Hunson Abadeer. Afterwards, he tried to pull Jake and Marceline back in. He is reverted to his original form by Hunson himself.

Paper plate demon Finn
To sneak into the Nightosphere in the episode "Daddy's Little Monster," Finn disguises himself by putting on his red pajamas, cutting a paper plate and putting it on his face, and taping forks to his hat.

Hug Wolf Finn
In the episode "Hug Wolf," Finn is hugged by the Alpha Hug Wolf on a full moon, causing him to transform every night into a Hug Wolf himself. When he is in this form, he must go on a hugging spree to fulfill his hug lust. When he awakens each morning after being in this form, he has no memory of the night. When a Hug Wolf, Finn's hands and feet are heart-shaped, he has shaggy gray fur, and he wears torn clothing. He is cured when he hugs the Alpha Hug Wolf, curing her as well.

Jake's shadow
In the episode "Princess Cookie," Finn dresses in a black bodysuit and pretends to be Jake's shadow in order to get into the grocery store and take out the Chocolate Chips.

Alternate Universe Finn (Finn Mertens)
In the episodes "Finn the Human" and "Jake the Dog" Finn is shown with a pointed nose, wide eyes, a robotic arm, and a blue sweater instead of a blue shirt. He became like this because of the wish that Prismo granted him. He is reverted when Jake makes his own wish.

Davey
In the episode of the same name, Finn disguised himself as "Davey" in an attempt to hide from his followers. This eventually evolves into his own character, possibly hinting Finn temporarily developed a multiple personality disorder.

Quotes
See Finn/Quotes﻿

Trivia

 * In the Cartoon Network Live Action Promo "What Time Is It?" Finn is portrayed by Christopher Kramme.
 * Finn has Thalassophobia (meaning fear of oceans or seas, revealed in "Ocean of Fear") and Coulrophobia (meaning fear of clowns, revealed in "Another Way" and "King Worm").
 * Also, Finn is afraid of spiders, as shown in "Marceline's Closet" and "King Worm."
 * Finn technically is still the King of the Goblins; the goblins believe his scapegoat, Whisper Dan, to be him
 * Finn has a fictional female counterpart: Fionna.
 * One of Finn's catch-phrases is being "all about" something. In "Freak City," Finn says he is "frickin' all about sugar." Yet, he also explains that he is even more "all about feeding hobos." In "The Real You," Finn shouts "I'm all about stupid!"
 * In "Dad's Dungeon," it's revealed that Finn cries rarely; only in such devastating situations, such as death or heartbreak, does he cry.
 * Finn and Jake frequently use math terms as catch-phrases and at times censors for curse words. However, they are shown to be terrible at math as confirmed in the episode "Slumber Party Panic." (Examples of these words include: mathematical, rhombus, algebraic and math). This has seemingly been abandoned as the show progresses.
 * Finn's favorite color is baby blue "boy style," as revealed in "The Silent King."
 * When Finn is wearing his doctor suit in "His Hero," he has three Scientific Parasites in his pockets.
 * Finn's favorite food is meatloaf, as stated in "Still."
 * In "Jake vs. Me-Mow," Finn carries his adoptive mother's music box in his pack and knows her lullaby by heart.
 * Finn seems to speak Latin (as evidenced in "Morituri Te Salutamus,") although this may be caused by the magical powers of Fight King's arena.
 * In "Daddy's Little Monster," for the first time, he becomes an antagonist by wearing the Nightosphere amulet, although it is only temporary.
 * Stormo is a creation partially made from Finn's DNA from the episode "Goliad."
 * Flame Princess is Finn's first, and current girlfriend. Jake referred to Princess Bubblegum as Finn's ex-girlfriend in "In Your Footsteps," but Finn replied that they "never went steady.."
 * It appears that Finn is the only character so far who ages consistently.
 * Finn's favorite song sounds like an alternative version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
 * There is a secret GPS implanted on Finn's ear by Princess Bubblegum, as stated in "Lady & Peebles."
 * Finn refers to Flame Princess as his girlfriend for the first time in "Puhoy"
 * Each alternate form of Finn has a prosthetic limb, a mechanical right arm. Finn can be seen with one in Finn The Human and Puhoy.
 * Besides Tree Trunks, Finn also likes Wildberry Princess' meat pies.

Cultural references

 * Finn McCool was an adventurer and hero of Irish mythology. "Finn" is actually a nickname meaning "blonde."

Production notes

 * In the Animated Short, Finn was named "Pen."
 * In Issue 9, it is revealed that Finn had been called "Pen" in the Animated Short because of his love for pens. A future Finn then takes his red sleeping bag when him and Jake leave to help Lady Rainicorn, also leaving a note of advice telling Finn to use his real name. This, however, is most likely non-canon.
 * In the pilot, Finn is voiced by Zack Shada. However, in the series, he is voiced by Zack's younger brother, Jeremy Shada.
 * Jeremy Shada can make Finn's voice crack when asked during episode recording to better represent his youth and growth.
 * In the original storyboard of "The Lich," it is revealed that Finn's father was "unlawfully" brought to a crystal-like dimensional prison a few years ago. It keeps the most dangerous criminals from other dimensions and Finn's father still fights them. However, since this was not shown in the final project, it may not be canon.

Appearances in other media

 * Finn and Jake appeared four times on the series MAD. See References in other media for a detailed description.
 * Finn appears as a playable character on Cartoon Network's TKO where his special moves are Look Out Below (when Jake falls on your opponent) and Sidekick Swing (when Finn grabs Jake's paw and Jake swings him at the opponent) and his super move is when Jake falls onto the opponent with an axe.
 * Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn, Ice King, Stanley the watermelon, and the Reaper are characters in the game FusionFall, in which the player helps Finn save two princesses, get shirts from Stanley, and train with Finn in the petting zoo (Generator Rex).
 * Like most of the main characters, Finn is an Exosuit in the game Project Exonaut. His suit is in the "Banzai Squadron" (red) faction.
 * In Legends of Ooo, it is seen that Finn has a telescope which he uses to spy on Princess Bubblegum.
 * There is a licensed Halloween costume of Finn.
 * In the popular Facebook game called "Pet Society," there is a Finn Costume labeled, "Odessey Boy Costume."
 * Finn is a playable character in the game FusionFall Heroes.