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This article is about the original Lemongrab. You may be looking for the current Lemongrab, the deceased clone, the castle or the earldom.

ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!

—- Lemongrab, Too Young

Earl of Lemongrab (or Fat Lemongrab in "Lemonhope Part 2") is a major antagonist in Adventure Time. He first appears in the episode "Too Young." He is the high-strung, overly-zealous, obnoxious, paranoid, stubborn ruler of the Earldom of Lemongrab, and the heir to the Candy Kingdom. It is possible that he is no longer heir to the throne because as of "Hot Diggity Doom," the Candy Kingdom is now a democracy. He is the creation of Princess Bubblegum and the first of her experiments to go 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, she fired him, and he returned to Lemongrab.

In "You Made Me," Lemongrab upsets Princess Bubblegum by spying on candy people as they sleep. Princess Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake attempt to stop him by giving him three criminal candy people to govern, the Pup Gang. Lemongrab attempts to adapt to "candy styles" but is unsuccessful, so Finn and Jake are forced to invade Castle Lemongrab. When they fail to rescue the candy people, Princess Bubblegum creates another Lemongrab to live in Castle Lemongrab with the original Lemongrab to keep him company, and upon meeting, the two Lemongrabs decide to release the prisoners. As of "All Your Fault," they had created numerous Lemon Children.

In "Too Old," it is revealed that the original Earl of Lemongrab has become a bloated tyrant who has put shock collars on all his subjects to force them to do his bidding; moreover, he had eaten over half of his counterpart, Lemongrab 2, and eventually consumes him completely when Lemongrab 2 fights against his oppressive regime.

In "Lemonhope Part 2," the Earl, calling himself "Fat Lemongrab," completely converted Castle Lemongrab into a totalitarian city-state, and regularly consumes Lemon People who attempt to flee or oppose them (though they remain alive in his belly, along with Lemongrab 2). Lemonhope defeats "Fat Lemongrab" with his harp playing, which makes "Fat Lemongrab" explode, along with the Lemons in his belly. Princess Bubblegum sews the pieces back into a new Lemongrab, whose parts and personality she says will eventually come together into a single angry, lonely Earl once again.

Appearance[]

Lemongrab born

A newborn Lemongrab, screaming and flapping his arms at Princess Bubblegum.

The Earl 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 bulbous, lemon-shaped head, and a long nose similar to that of the Ice King, Fire Count, and Farmworld Finn. In addition to this, he has a long, snake-like green tongue, and oval eyes with black circles as irises. His teeth, in some situations, appear to be razor-sharp. Like many of the Adventure Time characters, he has thin, noodle-like limbs and a lean torso; however, his behind sticks out noticeably, making his body profile resemble a jelly bean. It consists of one large, round butt cheek.[1] Despite being far more humanoid than the average candy person, 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 he carries a sound sword in a brown scabbard. For bed, he wears a light gray one-piece with snaps on the butt.[2] He sometimes uses a pair of half-moon spectacles to read. His preferred choice of underpants is a pair of light-grey briefs with three buttons on the front. In "Too Old," he has become obese and wears a full black bodysuit with a frilly collar (known as a ruff) and wristbands.

Biography[]

"Too Young" established that the Earl was created in Princess Bubblegum's laboratory; it is yet unknown how long ago. Upon being created, Lemongrab screamed hysterically and violently flapped his arms, causing the Princess to realize that the experiment had gone wrong.

After his creation, he 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,"[3] because, as Princess Bubblegum put it, "he doesn't get along with others," and he is frightening and sometimes violent to other candy people. He lived an extremely sheltered, and presumably wealthy life ever since. It is unconfirmed, but believed, that 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. This could be due to not being taught any better from an early age, as he oddly stated: "I don't know where food comes from." It was shown that he had been put in the castle at an extremely early age.[4] 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 in the Candy Kingdom.

After being informed that Princess Bubblegum was under eighteen, the Earl travels to the Candy Castle and asserts himself as the temporary ruler of the Candy Kingdom. The Princess reluctantly relinquishes her position because, as she admits, he is currently older than her. As the ruler, he behaves in a manner that makes sense to him; screaming at the candy people and sending them to the dungeon without trial. This was also shown to be behavior executed by Princess Bubblegum when she did not get her way, and the people called her a tyrant. It could be that he was taught to behave in this manner, simply taking it to an extreme. Finn and the young Princess Bubblegum try to force the Earl to leave by playing pranks on him, but their attempts are in vain and cruel. Their final prank results in the Earl sentencing Finn, Princess Bubblegum and Peppermint Butler to one million years in the dungeon. When Princess Bubblegum returns to correct ruling age, the Earl of Lemongrab is unceremoniously fired and he leaves, upset and muttering to himself.

In "You Made Me," Lemongrab returns to the Candy Kingdom and is caught spying on its residents while they sleep by Princess Bubblegum. She gets the Earl to admit that he does this out of loneliness and a desire to rule over others. He proceeds to have an emotional meltdown where he wails, "You made me! You're my Glob!" and tears off his clothes. She tries to help the Earl by sending the Pup Gang to be his subjects. However, their obnoxious and rude behavior prompts him to render them unconscious with his Sound Sword and lock them in his "Reconditioning Chamber." When the Earl returns to the Candy Kingdom resume his spying, Princess Bubblegum tries to teach Lemongrab how to be more empathetic towards the Candy People by showing him how to cuddle Crunchy. However, Lemongrab is disturbed by this act of affection and ends up poking and slapping Crunchy defiantly while screaming. He tells Princess Bubblegum that his "lemon heart" is responsible for his nature and it must be right if she had made him this way. He then proceeds to scream, flap his arms, and ride back to his castle. Princess Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake follow the Earl to Castle Lemongrab but are caught and locked in his Reconditioning Chamber. Princess Bubblegum attempts to coax Lemongrab into letting the prisoners go, but he snaps angrily, and screams "No more helping! You're the one who made me this way! You poison!" He attempts to attack his creator with his Sound Sword, but Finn breaks out of the chamber and takes the blast instead. Lemongrab is puzzled by this act of heroism, and at that moment, Lemongrab 2 wanders into the room. Confused, Lemongrab begins to poke his clone repetitively. Lemongrab 2 begins to do so and they both quickly become friends, resulting in the Earl switching moods and eventually deciding to let the prisoners go. At the end of the episode, they happily bid Princess Bubblegum and the others goodbye and ask them to visit, showing that there are no hard feelings.

"Mystery Dungeon" reveals that the Ice King knows Lemongrab and his whereabouts. The Ice King kidnaps Lemongrab and takes him to the Mystery Dungeon, and in this adventure, the Earl meets Tree Trunks, Neptr, and Shelby. Lemongrab is enraged and anxious from being separated from Lemongrab 2 and being in an unfamiliar place. He nearly dies until Tree Trunks saves him. Lemongrab nearly kills the Ice King on a few occasions and also knocks out a giant rat with his fist. He escapes and departs saying, "bye don't follow me." He returns to Castle Lemongrab to be with Lemongrab 2.

In "All Your Fault," it is revealed that the Lemongrabs found Princess Bubblegum's secret formula for creating candy life, which she accidentally left behind after creating Lemongrab 2. Believing that she wanted them to "keep making more family," they used all of their candy (a lifetime's supply) to make new lemon people to coexist with in the castle. In the process, the Lemongrabs seem to have discovered a capacity to love and care for their "family." However, they also develop an addictive desire to keep creating new creatures. This is evident when Lemongrab immediately uses the candy seeds given to him to replenish the candy supply of his starving earldom to instead create another lemon person. Without enough candy to feed the lemon people the Lemongrabs depart for the Candy Kingdom to pillage all of its candy for food and to create new lemon people, hinting that any compassion they might have developed extends only to other lemon people and not to other creatures overall. However, when Lemonjon has his heart kick-started by Finn and Jake, he becomes unable to carry out the invasion and dissolves himself into lemon candy for the lemon people. Princess Bubblegum then erases the secret formula from the two Lemongrab's memories.

In "Another Five More Short Graybles," the Lemongrabs' relationship begins to decline as Lemongrab shouts at Lemongrab 2 over their doll, Lemon-Sweets, and shoves the latter into his mouth after they accidentally break it. This is a controversial subject amongst the fandom, as they were both fine before this. The only indication something went wrong is the game Explore The Dungeon Because I Don't Know, in which you find Lemongrab on floor 70, in the Secret Secret Lab. He had been experimented on, injected with various things, shocked, prodded, and left to bleed, all presumably by Princess Bubblegum, as it's her own lab, and they refer to "her" luring them down there. The game is confirmed to be completely canon to the events in the show, and the state Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2 are in is before Another Five More Short Graybles. These tests are what could have caused him to go over the edge and behave as we saw it AFMSG.

In "Too Old," Lemongrab invites Princess Bubblegum and Finn to a dinner party at his castle. He has become obese after eating parts of Lemongrab 2. Throughout the dinner, he is abusive towards his clone and uses shock collars to control his subjects. Later, when hearing Lemonhope play his harp, he promptly destroys the instrument. He continues this with Lemonhope and sends him to the dungeon when Princess Bubblegum declares that she will take him to the Candy Kingdom. When Finn and Bubblegum prank him in an attempt to rescue Lemonhope, he sends them to the dungeon as well. Later, when Lemonhope poorly plays Finn's flute, both Lemongrabs are attracted to the sound and Lemongrab 2 releases them. This enrages Lemongrab and he swallows Lemongrab 2 whole. As Bubblegum and company make their escape, Lemongrab forces all of his subjects to capture them. However, Lemongrab 2 is able to momentarily escape and help aid the escapees leave the earldom before being swallowed again.

In Lemonhope Part 1, he is shown in a video as now a full-fledged dictator, saying "Hello! And keep away from Castle Lemongrab!"

Propagandalemongrab

Lemongrab as a full-fledged dictator.

It is shown no one is allowed to leave or enter the earldom, and he shows that he has punished everyone since they helped Lemonhope. He shows his hatred of Lemonhope throughout the video, through a depiction of them getting rid of Lemonhope, although Lemonhope left on his own accord. It is shown that one of their fun activities is now harp smashing. He is also heard eating a lemon person for trying to escape, and after a series of slurping sounds screams, "I DID IT!"

In Lemonhope Part 2, Lemonhope returns to stop the earl, and confronts him on the rooftop of the castle with Lemongrab saying: "Looking for something? Well, you've found me, fat Lemongrab!" He states that the harp won't work since he has "things" (earplugs) in his ears. Lemongrab 2 reaches out from the inside of Lemongrab and pulls out his earplugs, and the enslaved lemon people hold down Lemongrab's arms as Lemonhope plays the harp. After a bit of playing, Lemongrab can't take it anymore and explodes. At the end of the episode, Princess Bubblegum is shown poorly reknitting together pieces of Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2, creating Lemongrab 3, stating "Oh, don't worry, once his brains and body reknit, he will be back to his lonely old self, as it seems to be his only stable emotional state." It zooms in on Lemongrab's face and he screams "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Lemongrab 3[]

The new Earl was seen ruling the Earldom of Lemongrab in "The Mountain," when he was commencing a dinner with other Lemon People. The dinner was concluded after one bite, and the Earl went to his window to stare out at his earldom before yelling "Lights out!" Lemongrab 3 thereafter went to bed. While lying awake, he was staring at his bedroom ceiling puzzled. A piece of the ceiling falls out, creating a hole, and Lemongrab becomes irritated by this and grabs his things and leaves for the Mountain of Matthew.

While in the mountain, the Earl goes on an introspective journey, seeing his greatest desire (to be accepted by his "mother" Princess Bubblegum), his worst fear (Lemonhope taking over his earldom and solving the ills that he, Lemongrab, once wrought), and his past selves (Lemongrab 1 and 2, arguing over Lemon-Sweets). Lemongrab chooses Lemon-Sweets, though he grows smaller and smaller while he jumps into Lemon-Sweets's open mouth. Lemongrab slides down until he finds himself surrounded by darkness, but laying on top of a greasy yellow surface he finds unpleasant. The surface tips suddenly and Lemongrab falls, grabs the edge just in time, and is left dangling above the void. Lemongrab shakes his fist as he curses the circumstances. After he does, a disembodied voice tells him to taste the grease, then to look up. He looks up to see himself, staring back at himself. He then incredulously asks "I am grease?"

Lemongrab then comes to Matthew himself, and decides rather than merging with Matthew like so many before him, he pulls out lemon candies, which he calls 'Lemonjons', and throws them into Matthews' mouth causing him to fall and explode into many small humanoid figures. With the help of Finn, Lemongrab fights the humanoids, escapes the mountain, and goes back to his castle where he, before going to bed, takes a lemon candy, chews it up and spits it into the ceiling hole.

Much later, an apparently heroic Lemongrab sides with his mother in the Gum War against Gumbaldia. After the peace treaty between Princess Bubblegum and Lolly he fearfully witnesses GOLB coming to destroy the Land of Ooo.

He takes part in the song every citizen of Ooo sings with BMO to defeat GOLB, albeit he and Lumpy Space Princess, unable to sing properly, supply only the vocalise. After GOLB's defeat, he deems Acceptable a kiss from Lumpy Space Princess, and they do so.

Sometime later, Lemongrab finally gets the hole in the ceiling of his room fixed and stares in awe at Jermaine painting over the repairs a colorful fresco with birds, bunnies, flowers, and lemons, at peace with himself.

A millennium later, Castle Lemongrab, in episode " Lemonhope Part 2 " is shown as empty. It's still unknown if Lemongrab lived his natural life.

Personality and traits[]

According to Jesse Moynihan, the Earl is "off-putting, weird, angry, and alienated with an inability to read social cues."[5] Because of this, and the fact that his sour disposition is naturally repellent, he does not get along with others, if at all. According to Jesse Moynihan, Lemongrab does not have any friends.[6] The Earl is overly-sensitive, touchy, high-strung, and easily offended. Whenever upset or angry, he often raises his voice and screams. Andy Ristaino claimed 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. Overall, 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.

Lemongrab is not inherently harmful to anybody but himself because of his bizarre behavior and is merely "dysfunctional" mentally and as a person rather than destructive.[7] Although the Earl was an antagonist in his first appearance, he is not evil, "just completely unadjusted to living," as claimed by Adam Muto.[8] However, Cole Sanchez merely calls him an "off" person who unjustifiably and arbitrarily treats others badly. This has been proven to be wrong according to the signs of genuine love he showed his family in "All Your Fault."[9]

His actions appear to be driven by unspecific anger and not direct malice towards anything or anyone in particular. It is likely that he does not realize how he affects others himself because he does not understand the feelings of those around him. He was shown to not be adjusted to social situations at all, so this could be a side effect of poor social learning, and could be executed without knowing what exactly these actions are causing others to feel.

According to Patrick Seery, Lemongrab is under the delusion that he is always right.[10] He also stated that the Earl likes order and can only function properly in a society where everyone obeys and agrees with him.[11]

Because of this, he hates being corrected or reprimanded for his mistakes and is quick to irresponsibly blame his life problems on others.

He is often mean, rude, and obnoxious to everyone who even remotely disagrees with him. The actions Lemongrab takes against others are entirely reasonable in his perspective—he only punishes those who do not adhere to his strict standards of behavior and tolerates those who do. 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 even terrorizing the youngster to the point of making the child cry. Despite this, Lemongrab tries to rule to the best of his ability in a way that makes perfect sense to him.

The Earl has a short temper, making him overreact to small problems in the manner of an angry child. Because of this, the Earl often threatens to send Candy People to unreasonably long periods in the dungeon without a trial. He became so enraged after being pranked by Finn and Princess Bubblegum, that he sentenced all the candy people around him 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. Although the Earl has little to no sense of humor, this suggests he seems to work on having one, albeit unsuccessfully. After being punched in the gut by the "little ghost pranksters" and pushed to the ground, he continues to try to laugh it off, claiming that he was not going anywhere. Although, after the humiliation and pain from eating the spicy solution that Princess Bubblegum put on his food, the Earl becomes as angry as ever and puts her, Finn, and the other candy people into the dungeon. The reconditioning chamber, however, was made as a way to straighten out disobedient citizens, and was shown to be used against the Pup Gang only after they had called him names, and disobeyed his commands. This is similar to real law and was said to be used on Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2 in Explore The Dungeon Because I Don't Know, delivered by Princess Bubblegum. The Earl appears to have haphephobia—a dislike 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. This is also proven to be false, however, as he is only selective on who touches him. He had no complaints when he first met his brother Lemongrab 2 and nuzzled him happily.

Lemongrab rarely smiles as he is generally unhappy. When he does show signs of pleasure it is often when eating food. In Too Young, he smiles after being pranked by "the thing," and once after being beaten up by Princess Bubblegum and Finn—though this was in an unused storyboard,[12] 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.[13] 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 Camel's saddle are green.

The Earl seems very aware of his higher status as a noble, having referred to others as "slave" or "servile". After he claims to not know where food comes from, Peppermint Butler attempts to explain it, but is silenced and waved off by Lemongrab who clearly thinks the knowledge of where food comes from to be beneath him because he is "royal". More evidence of his imperious ignorance would be his sentencing everybody in the Candy Kingdom to one million years in the dungeon. It most likely did not occur to him at the time that he would only be in power for five years; only until the princess turned eighteen. In addition to this, he imprisoned all of the castle staff for seven years (twelve for Peppermint Butler, but immediately released Peppermint Butler once Lemongrab realized that he was hungry and could not make food for himself. Despite his bossy, nasty disposition, he often hints to having a kind of helplessness resembling that of a child's. Despite having many negative attributes, the Earl is shown to be fairly stubborn and resilient, 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 ruthlessly punishes The Pup Gang for disobeying him, and Finn and Jake for trespassing and disobeying him by trying to take The Pup Gang away. However, when Princess Bubblegum introduces him to his clone, he calms down and becomes overjoyed at his new friend. He and his double both act cheerful and affable after they meet, and Lemongrab becomes more calm and well-adjusted. According to Jesse Moynihan, on his website, "I don't know what exactly is going on with him. The two times I've written for his character I've tried to play him as weirdly sympathetic. He does a lot of things wrong, but you can see that he's trying to do what makes sense to him... I wanted the viewer to feel sympathy for him, or at least conflicted about his motivations." [14] "Mystery Dungeon" reveals that without the company and affection of Lemongrab 2, the Earl of Lemongrab is angry, rude, and anxious, much as he was in "Too Young." However, Lemongrab sincerely apologized to Tree Trunks for his rudeness, even though he was unknowingly rude to her for the rest of the episode by referring to her as "servile" and "slave."

In the episode "All Your Fault," he and Lemongrab 2 have epiphanies in which they realize that they want to have a family, and in this process, they learn that they are capable of showing genuine love and affection to their own children, who love them back. When Jake refers to them as "selfish," Princess Bubblegum claims that "their hearts are fine. They're just like this," and the Lemongrabs respond with smiles. In "All Your Fault," Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2 both seem a bit more affable and willing to talk to other people.

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.

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 disobedient citizens. Lemongrab also appears to have a certain knowledge of technology, as he designed, built, and operates the reconditioning chamber in his castle.[15] He also designed the Sound Sword himself, as it is powered by the unique frequency of his own screams.

ATGif 71

Lemongrab possesses an unusual kind of flexibility. After he was caught by Princess Bubblegum, he arched his back through a narrowly open window and managed to sit up high enough to face Princess Bubblegum, even as most of his body hung from the window. This indicates he is much more "fluid" than the average human would be. Lemongrab also possesses the ability to contort his neck and rotate his head to nearly a full 360 degrees in a manner similar to that of an owl.

Fat lemongrab and lemongrab 2

The earl is quite strong because of his hard skin, as seen in "Mystery Dungeon," when he props up the closing ceiling of the dungeon with his own back, with little effort. In the episode, he is also shown to have a photographic memory, remembering the map of the dungeon in a matter of seconds. He can also dislocate his jaw in the manner of a snake to open his mouth to a frighteningly large size, and he can profusely gush lemon juice from the nodule on top of his head. He and Lemongrab 2 seem intelligent enough to understand Bubblegum's notes on how to create Candy life when the princess leaves them the formula for doing so. He is also strong enough to knock out a giant rat with one punch, and his fists can cause stone structures to crack. 

Relationships[]

Princess Bubblegum[]

On a bench

Princess Bubblegum is Lemongrab's creator. Although they are possibly not related by blood, because she physically made him and gave him the personality that he has, Lemongrab refers to her as "his Glob" and "Mother Princess."

During the events of "Too Young," the Earl takes the throne as the Princess is not of ruling age. Although she acknowledges this as he is older than her, the Princess does not like Lemongrab or the way that he treats the Candy People, and is the first one to suggest that she and Finn make him leave. After several pranks, Lemongrab sentences her to one million years in the dungeon; however, while she's in the dungeon, Princess Bubblegum devises a way to return to her true age. Once she's over eighteen again she fires Lemongrab and insults him, causing him to leave the Candy Kingdom angrily.

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. Lemongrab is upset and furious that Princess Bubblegum made him as such a flawed, lonesome individual, and reacts in a very hostile manner towards during their conversations. She later makes Lemongrab a friend who is exactly like him, so he wouldn't be alone. The episode ends with Princess Bubblegum and the Lemongrabs on very good terms, and they happily say their goodbyes. She adds, "Take care, boys!" to the two Lemongrabs, and Lemongrab happily encourages Princess Bubblegum to call them and visit them soon.

Overall, Princess Bubblegum sees the Earl as an annoyance as is often frustrated by his behavior. Despite this, the Princess has no hatred towards the Earl. She accepts responsibility for making him who he is and is willing to help him during times of need.

In Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I Don't Know, the canon game, she has been heavily implied to have been the one to chain Lemongrab to the floor of the Secret Secret Lab. She was also charged with testing on both Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2, both brothers talking about "Needles sharper than the sun" "Pain from the prodding" "Prodding and zapping" etc. When you first see Lemongrab, he is chained to the floor, and has a large bubblegum growth on his arm, which he expresses extreme pain and displeasure in. Lemongrab 2 apologizes to Lemongrab, as he is unable to cut off the arm himself. After some dialog about how you may be whom they've waited for, Lemongrab begs you to cut the arm off. After which brings you to a cut scene with both brothers discussing how Princess Bubblegum "Lured them" there. This could be what caused him to mentally break in Another Five More Short Graybles. Princess Bubblegum's "kindness" she showed him in You Made Me, has apparently worn off.

In Too Old, he is shown to desperately try to get her attention, even stating at the end, "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!!! AFTER ALL I'VE DONE FOR YOU, YOU TRY TO STEAL MY LEMONHOPE AWAY?" He grew enraged at her for trying to take Lemonhope, and at one point, threw her in the dungeon, only to be freed by Lemongrab 2. She is shown to take little to no interest in Lemongrab, and makes no effort to stop him from hurting Lemongrab 2. She's unfazed by his treatment of the other lemon people, including the shocking. The only time she shows concern is when they first arrive and she is shocked to see Lemongrab 2 partially eaten and Lemongrab fat now.

In Lemonhope Part 1, she never interacts with him, but shows a dissatisfaction in his rule and tries to send Lemonhope to stop him.

In Lemonhope Part 2, the first time she interacts with him since Too Old, is when she is sewing him back together, making no effort to reconstruct him properly, as the other candy citizens get when they need to be repaired from severe injury/near death. She also makes no effort in saving Lemongrab 2, simply mending the two together with a dark pink thread and then presumably leaving him alone again in his castle. She is aware that he will get lonely again and that he was not himself before (due to the testing), and instead of taking him in and trying to teach him from the start, she leaves him alone again.

Lemongrab 2[]

Nuzzle smile

Lemongrab 2 is perhaps the first person the Earl has ever tolerated or even liked, because he was the only one who could completely understand him and his "lemon styles." He was introduced in "You Made Me" after Princess Bubblegum created him in Lemongrab's pantry. Lemongrab is surprised by Lemongrab 2's presence at first, skeptically asking "Who's this rigamarole?" However, after exchanging several pokes in the face, they smile and nuzzle each other. Lemongrab 2 is the only person that Lemongrab would willingly interact with physically. Although Lemongrab is normally confused by displays of affection and disgusted by physicality, he and his companion have no qualms about nuzzling each other. Lemongrab 2 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. According to storyboard supervisor Ian Jones-Quartey, "they're a lot like twin brothers."[16] In Rock Bandits, Lemongrab 2 states that he and Lemongrab would be "way lonely without each other."

By the end of the episode "All Your Fault," the two Lemongrabs have populated their castle with a wide variety of Lemon Children, whom they created from their candy food supply given to them by Princess Bubblegum, whom they referred to as "Mother Princess."

In "Another Five More Short Graybles" it is shown that Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2 can argue with each other when they have a disagreement over their doll Lemon-Sweets, or "son." An enraged Lemongrab ultimately loses control and attempts to eat Lemongrab 2.

In "Too Old," it is revealed that Lemongrab has become a tyrant and has eaten half of Lemongrab 2, leaving him in a crippled state. He now keeps both his counterpart and the rest of the Lemon Children in subservience through the use of electric shocks and other methods of repression. Lemongrab 2 disapproves of this, seemingly being more moral than the original Lemongrab. When Princess Bubblegum, Finn, and Lemonhope escape their castle, Lemongrab 2 goes against his brother's wishes by preventing the Earl from using the Lemon People to recapture the group. The Earl is outraged by this and quickly swallows Lemongrab 2 whole while the latter pleas for Lemonhope to return one day and free the rest of the Lemon People from their bloated Earl and his oppressive rule.

In "Lemonhope Part 2," Lemongrab 2 is revealed to still be alive inside "Fat Lemongrab," who explodes after experiencing Lemonhope's beautiful harp playing. Later, Princess Bubblegum has sewed back together pieces of the Lemongrabs with the other Lemons "Fat Lemongrab" consumed, noting that eventually their minds and body parts will congeal into Lemongrab's old angry, lonely personality, which seems to be "his only stable relationship model."

Lemon Children[]

Baby hoarders

The Lemongrabs creating a Lemon Person

Lemongrab and his twin have created many Lemon Children after acquiring Princess Bubblegum's secret formula. The Earl demonstrate a degree of care and affection towards their creations and think of themselves as their fathers. They made a point to welcome each new offspring into the world with a smile and a name. Their care was also shown when they notified their people of their departure to speak to Princess Bubblegum so "they wouldn't worry while they were away." The Lemon Children seem to return this affection to their fathers.

Badlemonnohope

Lemonhope playing a harp in a bathroom

Despite the affection, the Lemongrabs show to their people, their method of ruling makes them poor caretakers. This was shown when they depleted the earldom's entire supply of candy food in order to create children. Even when given a chance to replenish their stock, they chose to create more children, despite the fact that the existing Lemon people were starving. Later, the Lemongrabs use the Lemon people as an army to conquer the Candy Kingdom and steal their candy supply. In "Too Old," the Earl rules over the Lemon people as a tyrant and controls them using shock collars. He seems to have developed pleasure in being cruel to his people. He also locks up Lemonhope, a unique Lemon boy, in a bathroom in the castle.

Finn and Jake[]

Waving goodbye

Finn and Jake waving good-bye to the happy Lemongrab couple

In "Too Young," Lemongrab first encounters Finn when the latter slaps the Earl's hand for yelling at Princess Bubblegum. Later, Finn and the Princess attempt to get the Earl to leave the Candy Castle by playing pranks on him. Although Lemongrab tries taking the pranks in stride, he sentences Finn and the Princess to one million years in the dungeon after eating food with the Princess's instant bath serum. After Finn helps the Princess return to her real age to get rid of the Earl, they watch the unhappy Lemongrab depart from the castle.

In "You Made Me," when Lemongrab runs away after admitting to Princess Bubblegum that he is miserable and lonely, Finn somberly looks on and realizes that the Earl is a disturbed, depressed individual rather than an intentional criminal. He turns to the mournful-looking Princess, and asks, "What are we gonna do?" Finn assists her in helping Lemongrab throughout the episode, and is at her side for much of this time. However, when Lemongrab assaults Crunchy and runs off screaming and wiggling his arms, Finn refers to him as a "D-List." When Finn and Jake try to rescue the Pup Gang, Lemongrab electrocutes them for "trespassing." Here, he finds Lemongrab to be obnoxious as usual, and protects Princess Bubblegum from the Earl's 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.

When Jake first meets the Earl in "You Made Me," he is initially frightened and confused by Lemongrab's behavior. Although he still views Lemongrab in disdain, he does not seem to see him as a threat. Jake is willing to intimidate Lemongrab to defend Crunchy when the Earl assaults him. He is also ready to fight Lemongrab as he quickly takes on a spiky, menacing form when told to rescue the Pup Gang, but assumes a gentle, floral form when told to only help the Earl. In the end, Jake harbors no hard feelings towards Lemongrab, despite being imprisoned by him, and waves happily as he and Finn leave Castle Lemongrab.

In "All Your Fault," Finn and Jake are sent to help the Lemongrabs by delivering candy seeds to replenish Castle Lemongrab's food supply. They are sad to hear that the Lemongrabs had used their candy supply to create lemon people and continue to help them even when they immediately used the new seeds to create Seed-Wad. In the end of the episode, after Princess Bubblegum erases the life formula from the Lemongrabs' memories, she tells Finn and Jake to keep an eye on the two.

Peppermint Butler[]

640px-Lemongrab pepbut

Peppermint Butler serving Lemongrab.

While acting as the temporary ruler of the Candy Kingdom, Lemongrab relies on Peppermint Butler to serve him.[17] He is willing to release Peppermint Butler from the dungeon so he can be served a meal. Lemongrab refers to Peppermint Butler as "Mr. Peppermint," although 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. He even screams for the Princess to add the serum to the dirt that Lemongrab is eating to ease the pain of the spice.

Candy People[]

Lemongrab candy people

"Thirty days in the dungeon!"

Oh my gosh he fell guys

The Candy People watch a fallen Lemongrab

1000px-S4 E20 The new citizens of Castle Lemongrab

The Pup Gang meeting Lemongrab

The residents of the Candy Kingdom generally dislike Lemongrab, and he does not like them much in return. According to Princess Bubblegum, the Earl "doesn't get along with others" and is purposefully isolated from the rest of Candy Kingdom society to avoid any conflict between them.

Despite strongly resenting the Earl, the Candy People do not hate him. In "Too Young," when Lemongrab fell screaming from a window and lands, head-first, into the ground below, the surrounding Candy People looked noticeably concerned. However, when he survives the fall without injury, the Candy People lose interest and merely stare at him nonchalantly as he runs through the castle ground screaming in pain.

When Lemongrab takes control of the kingdom in the episode, he often sends them to the dungeon for ridiculous lengths of time for small offenses, even terrorizing a candy child to the point of driving it to tears in a deleted scene. Reactions to Lemongrab range from fear to resentment to complete confusion.

In "You Made Me," Lemongrab would spy on them in their sleep, greatly disturbing them. Starchie angrily referred to Lemongrab as a "freak" as the Earl expressed his desire for Princess Bubblegum to "donate" citizens to be his subjects. When the Princess requests that three healthy Candy People live with Lemongrab, the entire kingdom protests despite her explanation of the Earl's tragic, lonely plight. Mr. Cupcake, in particular, loathed the idea of living with Lemongrab so much that he purposefully broke his own arm.

In the episode, Lemongrab is shown to be quick to violence when dealing with the Candy People. When he is being taught to act affectionate by cuddling Crunchy, he becomes so uncomfortable to the point that he screams and assaults the baby before throwing him on the ground in terror. He refers to demonstrations of affection such as cuddling and stroking as "gross." Lemongrab also imprisons and electrocutes the Pup Gang after they insult him and disobey his orders. He refers to the Pup Gang as "punkest boys." However, after meeting his clone, the Earl happily pardons the gang. In a deleted storyboard, the Pup Gang were shown jubilantly shouting "Yes!" after the Lemongrabs' agreement to let the prisoners go. At the end of the episode, the Pup Gang were not shown waving good-bye to Lemongrab along with everyone else, but the Lemongrabs bid them a fond farewell anyway.

Lemon Camel[]

Lemongrab what are you doing

Lemongrab jumping on Lemon Camel

The lemon camel is also featured in "The Mountain," and appears to have high pain tolerance, as shown after falling through the roof of Castle Lemongrab.

Lemon Camel is the Earl's trusty steed who lives with him in Castle Lemongrab. It has a place on the left-hand side of Lemongrab's throne. In "Too Young," Lemongrab rides into the Candy Kingdom on Lemon Camel. Lemon Camel is loyal to Lemongrab, but shows no signs of affection towards his rider. It is just as startled by Lemongrab's sudden outbursts as most others as shown when Lemongrab yells at Starchie.

However, in "You Made Me," Lemon Camel ignores Lemongrab as he becomes agitated and upset over the Pup Gangs' misbehavior as subjects in Castle Lemongrab. Later, after Lemongrab attempts to kindly interact with Crunchy, the Earl panics and runs over to the sleeping Lemon Camel and pounces on its back. This startles the camel, which lets out a frightened "Moo!" and jumps into the air, hopping off obediently to Castle Lemongrab.

Ice King[]

Lemongrab and Ice King never interacted with each other until "Mystery Dungeon," in which the Ice King kidnaps Lemongrab, knocks him unconscious and places him in the Mystery Dungeon. The earl tries to eat the Ice King two times, and finds him to be obnoxious and useless. On one occasion, Lemongrab attempts to kill the Ice King for "having no function."

Shelby[]

At one point during the episode "Mystery Dungeon," Shelby rode around on Lemongrab's head.

Tree Trunks[]

Tree Trunks reprimanded Lemongrab for his rudeness in "Mystery Dungeon." Although he apologized, he still constantly referred to the elephant as "slave" and "servile" for the remainder of the episode. He likes her pies very much. Tree Trunks constantly mispronounces the earl's name as "Lemoncarb," which irritates him.

Quotes[]

See Earl of Lemongrab/Quotes

Episode appearances[]

Major appearances[]

Minor appearances[]

Mentioned or pictured[]

Trivia[]

  • The Earl of Lemongrab seems to be extremely farsighted, needing a pair of very large reading glasses to read a note with exceedingly large text left by his bed. He is also is seen using his glasses to read a note in pudding very close to him, in the comics he is also seen reading a newspaper with glasses.
  • Although when he blew up he didn't dissolve into lemon candy, like Lemonjon did, the Earl is made of lemon candy, rather than lemons.[18]
  • Princess Bubblegum may have put some of her own candy matter into Lemongrab when she was making him.[19]
  • Lemongrab is taller than most characters (as confirmed by screenshots and the comics).[20]
  • 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 isn't considered a main character, 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 Latin American version he says "Nadie me quiere. Todos me odian." which translates to "No one wants/loves me. Everyone hates me."
  • In "You Made Me," it is revealed that Castle Lemongrab has several rooms occupied only by catcher's mitts on pedestals. This could mean Lemongrab is a fan of baseball, if baseball exists in Ooo. It was later revealed that they are there to represent how lonely he is and how much he desires acceptance and motherly love from Princess Bubblegum, in "The Mountain."
  • Lemongrab is left-handed. He wields his sword in his left hand. However, all of the catcher's mitts in his castle are made to fit left hands, which means they are designed for right-handed catchers. This indicates that either Lemongrab is ambidextrous or the catcher's mitts are not meant for his use.
  • Lemongrab's head is filled with a squishy, viscous fluid which swishes around his cranium when jostled about, as seen in "Too Young" when he laughs. This is also seen in "Mystery Dungeon" where it is shown that his juices will gush out of a nodule on his head if sufficiently squeezed. When losing too much "vital" juice, he deflates and becomes weak.
  • Finn refers to Lemongrab as a "D-list" in "You Made Me." Justin Roiland, Lemongrab's voice actor, refers to himself as "a D-list celebrity" on his podcast. In-universe, Lemongrab seems to have been upgraded to "C-list," as Finn calls the Little People C-listers, and Jesse Moynihan described "Mystery Dungeon" as "a C-list extravaganza."
  • 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."
  • On September 30, 2012, at the store "Hub Comics" in Somerville, Massachusetts, Fruit Salad Days author Liz Prince hosted a release party for the Lemongrab-centric comic. The party was also in celebration of Lemongrab himself, as the comic artist is admittedly a big fan of the character. Lemon snacks were served in the Earl's honor, and fans were specifically invited (though not required) to come dressed as Lemongrab.
  • Apparently he is either allergic to asparagus or intolerant to it. A screenshot of Lemongrab's brain in "All Your Fault" reads, "Mommy, don't make me any more asparagus. It will be the end of me, if you know what I mean."
  • In Fionna and Cake issue #4, there is a short comic entitled "Sour Candy." This comic features a female Lemongrab (named Lady Lemongrab) and Lemongrab 2.
  • Excluding "Mystery Dungeon" and "Another Five More Short Graybles," Lemongrab has shouted all the titles of the episodes he has played a major role in.
  • His catchphrase, "UNACCEPTABLE!!!" was made into a ringtone which can be purchased on iTunes.

Name[]

  • The character's original name was "Lemonsnatch," but the network censors wouldn't allow it.[21]
  • Lemongrab's name sounds similar and possibly originates from the city of Leningrad - which is modern-day St. Petersburg.
  • "Lemongrab" refers both to the Earls' names as well as the land of which they are the Earls.[22]
  • According to Jesse Moynihan, Lemongrab's title of Earl and his all-grey wardrobe are a reference to Earl Grey tea.
  • Lemongrab and his doppleganger both refer to themselves as "Lemongrab." When they are spoken to, they are called "Lemongrabs" and when they are spoken about, they are referred to as "the Earls of Lemongrab," "The Lemongrabs," and "Lemongrabs."
  • The two Lemongrabs are referred to as "Lemonblack" and "Lemonwhite" in the credits for "Too Old."
  • In the Turkish version his names are "Limon Tutam" (first name, Too Young), "Lemongrab" (second name, You Made Me), "Limonotu" (current name), "Limonotu Kontu" (always name), which translates to "Lemonwisp" (first name), "Lemongrab" (current name), "Earl of Lemongrab" (always name). 
  • In the German version his name is "Zitronenbaum" which means "Lemon tree"
  • In the Italian version his name is "Limoncello," which is a type of Italian liquor made from Sorrento lemons.
  • In the Castillian Spanish version his name is "Conde Limoncio", "Limoncio" being derived from "limón" (lemon). The title Count is very similar to that of Earl. Both Count and Earl are "Conde" in Spanish.
  • In the Latin American version his name is "El Conde de Limonagrio," which directly translates to "The Count of Lemonsour."
  • In the Dutch version his name is "Graaf Citroenrasp"; "graaf" refers to earl and "citroenrasp" means lemon zest.
  • In the Brazilian version his name is "Conde de Limãograb," which translates to "Count of Lemongrab" or "Earl of Lemongrab."
  • In the Polish version, Lemongrab's title and name is "Hrabia Cytryndor," which means "Count Lemon" The ending "-dor" in the word "cytryna" ("lemon") signifies and alludes to his nobility and his status as a royal. Both Count and Earl are "Hrabia" in Polish.
  • In the French version, his title is "Le Comte de la Citronelle," which means "The Earl of Lemongrass." His name seems to be "Citronnel" (which Peppermint Butler calls him) which means "Lemonish."
  • The Portuguese version of his name is "Conde de Limadrão," which translates to "Count of Limegrab" or "Earl of Limegrab."

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.
  • 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.

Cultural references[]

  • The Earl of Lemongrab's tragic tale alludes to the story of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
  • Lemongrab's eidetic memory was inspired by Stephen Wiltshire, a famous autistic savant who has eidetic memory and the ability to draw an extremely detailed landscape of a city after a short helicopter ride above the area.[23]
  • Lemongrab possesses many of the same traits as the Demiurge as conceived in some sects of Christian Gnosticism. He is an imperfect creation, who builds his own flawed world and people modeled after the works of the higher being from whom he has received his power. He is jealous, petty, and cruel to his creations, in much the same way the Christian Gnostics believed the "God" (Demiurge) of the Old Testament was. He is later supplanted through the intervention of an initially reluctant son, who more perfectly embodies the virtues of the higher being, bringing his creation into a more enlightened age.

Production notes[]

  • 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.[24] 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 the 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 Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from Rick and Morty. Coincidentally, both Lemongrab and Morty are loud, socially awkward, neurotic neat-freaks who scream a lot.

Appearances in other media[]

Finn Being A Jerk To Lemongrab
Party 3
    • 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.
    • He and Lemon Camel appear, hung-over, in Issue 7 at "Jake's Crazy Party Where You Can Do Anything, I Will Reset The Timeline, I Promise" party.
    • He appears in the back up story "Lemograb's Makeover" in Issue 31, deciding to get a new face.
  • He appeared in the Gaia Online Time Chance Item.
  • Lemongrab makes an appearance in the "Adventure Time Dude-It Yourself Journal" [25] 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.
  • The Earl appeared in the "Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Promo," with a slightly different design. He appeared with darker eyebrows and a short-sleeved shirt, in the crowd cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling.
NOT A BABY
  • Lemongrab is a minor, non-playable character and a harmless (but eventually somewhat helpful) nuisance in the Adventure Time video game, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!! In the game, he imprisons Wildberry Princess and Chet because he believes that they stole Princess Bubblegum's pantyhose. The Earl considers this an extremely serious offense, and declares that Chet and Wildberry Princess shall be imprisoned for "500 years." The two are released after Finn and Jake prove their innocence. Lemongrab then gives Finn and Jake a baby, which at some point wandered into his dungeon, and says, "You can have him. Free baby." This turns out to be the missing son of the Duke of Nuts who is later happily reunited with his family. 
  • Lemongrab (along with Lemongrab 2) is a boss (and eventually a playable character) in Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW!
  • Lemongrab is a playable character in Adventure Time Battle Party.
  • Lemongrab is an NPC in LEGO Dimensions.

Gallery[]

Modelsheet Earl of Lemongrab - Close Up Modelsheet Earl of Lemongrab Modelsheet Earl of Lemongrab with Red Head
The full image gallery for Earl of Lemongrab may be viewed at Earl of Lemongrab/Gallery.

References[]

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