Evergreen

This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the character.

Evergreen
Production code:	1025-178
Airdate:	January 15, 2015
Credits
Director:	Andres Salaff (supervising) Nick Jennings (art)
Story:	Tom Herpich
Written & storyboarded by:	Tom Herpich Steve Wolfhard
Episodes
Previous "The Pajama War"
Next "Astral Plane"

"Evergreen" is the twenty-fourth episode in the sixth season of Adventure Time. It's the one hundred and eightieth episode overall.

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, whom 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, carrying a large pack. His request to ride with Evergreen is completely ignored, 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. When they arrive, Evergreen orders Gunther to stay outside Magwood's cave while he retrieves the gems, but Gunther worries for his master and enters the cave anyway in time to see Evergreen trapped by lava and about to lose. Panicking, Gunther slips and shatters his pack, which provides the necessary distraction for Evergreen to recover and defeat Magwood. Nevertheless, Evergreen harshly rebukes Gunther.

Later, 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 and attacks his castle. The fight renders Evergreen trapped under ice away from the crown, so 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, as he shoots ice magic and screams 'Gunther, no!' interminably. Evergreen tries to tell Gunther to use a spell to focus on the comet instead only to realize too late that he never taught the dinosaur any spells.

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.

Characters

Major characters

• Urgence Evergreen
• Gunther
• Nina

Minor characters

• Ice Imp
• Slimy D
• Chatsberry
• Balthus
• Magwood
• Ice King
• Gunter
• Penguins
• Snail

Songs

• Slimy D's Rap

Trivia

• The title card of this episode mirrors the last part of Adventure Time's introduction, with Gunther taking the place of Finn and Nina taking the place of Jake.
  
• This is the first episode that is set pre-Mushroom War.
• This is the second Adventure Time episode (not counting gender-swapped episodes) in which neither Finn nor Jake appear, let alone are even mentioned, the first being "Princess Day."
• Both Gunther and Ice King sleep using similar leopard blankets.

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 memory of Evergreen and Gunther stealing the magical gems for the crown.
• In "Elemental," when Patience explains Elemental history, a shot of Evergreen trapped under ice at the end of this episode is shown.

Storyline analysis

• It would seem that the comet seen heading towards Earth is the equivalent to the real life meteor/comet impact which caused the K-Pg extinction event. In the Adventure Time universe, 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. The crown (which was described as "ancient" in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II") would then go on to be purchased, from an "old dockworker" in Northern Scandinavia, much later by Simon, who would eventually transform into the Ice King.
• There are parallels between the characters of Gunther and Finn. Finn has a dog - Jake - while Gunther has a cat-like dinosaur which is similar in color and design as Jake - Nina.
• The green color of the comet that hits Ooo could come from it containing radioactive materials. Evergreen says that it "aches for extinction". Plus, the comet has green horn-like flames like The Lich. These facts could suggest that the comet introduced the evil spirit of the Lich in the form of material that could be used to produce the nuclear bomb which exploded during the mushroom war to cause the near extinction of humans, the creation of the Lich, and the mutation of Ooo's inhabitants.
• It is very possible that an Ice Age was caused by the crown after Gunther was killed by the comet. In "Finn the Human," Farmworld Marceline's recount of the last 1000 years mentions the crown reacting to losing its bearer by freezing the planet for 400 years.

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.

Errors

• When Gunther first releases the Ice Imp out of the bottle, his hat is red, but when Gunther tries to put him back and goes to a closer shot to Ice Imp, the hat is a brownish orange color. However, when Evergreen gives Gunther the bottle, it is red again.

Videos

Adventure Time - Evergreen (Sneak Peek)

Sneak peek

Adventure Time Evergreen Cartoon Network

Gallery

See Full Storyboard

Official art

Evergreen promo art

Ice Wizard designed by Alex Campos

Concept title card

Background art

Screenshots

Gunther wishing to be like his master

The comet will crash...