Adventure Time: Gunter and the Balance of Good and Evil

[vc_row fullwidth="yes" bg_type="bg_image" fw_columns="yes" top_margin="0" bottom_margin="0" image_url="79402" css=".vc_custom_1444700089115{margin-top: -80px !important;}"][vc_column][vc_empty_space height="40px"][title color="#ffffff"]Gunter and the Balance of Good and Evil[/title][title type="h2" color="#ffffff"]Adventure Time juxtaposes the Adorable with the Destructive[/title][title type="h3" color="#ffffff"]Reid Kurkerewicz[/title][vc_empty_space height="400px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row top_margin="0" bottom_margin="0"][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id="hb-default-sidebar"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][title type="subtitle-h6"]© Copyright 2015, Cartoon Network. All rights reserved.[/title][vc_column_text]In the episode “It Came From the Nightosphere,” Marceline's father is the first character to establish that Gunter is “ by far, the most evil thing I have encountered.” That tantalizing tidbit was all the way back in season 2. The rather lovable menace has also summoned snow-a-constrictors (definitely a reference to Satan; I’m an english major so I know), brought the candy kingdom to its knees, and broken every bottle in the land of Ooo. Now in season 6, the episode “Orgalorg” explains Gunter’s evil nature in full detail.  Gunter’s cuteness seems to be in direct conflict with his now apparent evil nature, and this dichotomy of destructive adorableness lies at the heart of Adventure Time’s multiverse. According to a myth told in the “Orgalorg” episode, Orgalorg is a powerful alien who looks like Cthulhu in a dress, who was so evil that he wanted to absorb a comet.. This angered Abraham Lincoln, then the king of Mars, to order Orgalorg's destruction. Orgalorg was banished to Earth, where gravity squished him into Gunter, the cute mischievous penguin viewers love in Adventure Time’s present. As Gunter, the once evil deity often shows compassion, and actually snuggles The Ice King all the time. This draws into question his completely evil nature that is established in the myth. Perhaps even cosmic Satans can change.While Orgalorg is known as “the destroyer of Worlds” he seems to have a complex relationship with Adventure Time's Earth. He may have wanted to intercept the comet to grow his own power, but in the episode “The Comet” this action actually saves The Candy Kingdom from total destruction. If Orgalorg was not as evil as he is, then great harm would have been done to our favorite characters. For further evidence of his maybe-not-so-evilness, The end of “Orgalorg” is a montage that tells of Gunter's journey on Earth. Orgalorg as Gunter is pictured participating in several cultural and scientific events, riding in the first airplane, engaging with modern fashion, and various religious events. Has the cute version of an intergalactic deity been the impetus of human culture on Earth in the Adventure Time world? Seems like it. Though Gunter has no memories of his reign as Orgalorg, it seems their is some inclination for goodness locked up somewhere inside this monster. Orgalorg's storyline is a major part of the balance between good and evil that is a prevalent theme throughout Adventure Time. Orgalorg’s evil quest for power is exactly what saves all of our favorite characters, and Finn’s destruction of Orgalorg in “The Comet” maintains the neutrality of the “meat world” that Finn chooses to stay in. As long as we have heroes to combat the villains, comets won't strike the Earth and kill everyone. Consequently, we also need evil to exist for these heroics acts to take place in the first place. Without Good and Evil, the world would only be subject to meaningless natural cataclysmic events, and that would just be kind of boring.So it seems that Gunter and his deity form is a major symbol for Adventure Time's philosophy. He is simultaneously cute and terrifying, sometimes powerful, and mostly harmless, much like most of the Adventure Time world we've come to love. I do prefer my Gunter cute and mischievous, but it'll be interesting to see where this special penguin goes after almost taking over the solar system.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/4"][/vc_column][/vc_row]