They badly mishandled Finn's breakup with FP though. Finn did act like a tool, but he had a lot working against him. As the last human he was going through puberty pretty much without guidance. Biological parents MIA, adoptive parents dead, and the closest thing he had to an authority figure was Jake. Jake, despite being an idiot, was in a stable long term relationship and fancied himself a ladies man. All made even worse by the Cosmic Owl showing up in one of his dreams (for those in the back, the Cosmic Owl is a portent of prophetic dreams in Adventure Time, and is objectively real in that universe). Finn got bad advice from the best source available, and it backfired massively. Was Finn in the right? Hell no. But I always felt like a permanent breakup with FP was a wildly disproportionate consequence for what he actually did.
Fair, I think later seasons do a decent job cleaning it up, but the initial breakup was poorly handled. The sad part is, they already showed signs of disfunction that would likely end up clashing between FP’s burn everything mentality and Finn’s more adventurous, have fun mentality. Then there is the obvious issues with her physically burning Finn and the decent chance of her being evil. Plus, the initial meetup was in the worst circumstances - Finn was crushed by PB and was definitely using FP as a substitute, meanwhile FP was barely a character from being stuck in a lantern. Both had major insecurities and deficiencies going in. The aftermath then somewhat plays around with FP maturing a bit faster than Finn, furthering the disconnect between them.
I was definitely disappointed in how the Finn/FP relationship went when watching back in the day, but experiencing the full series, I think they came out all right. FP, whether initially planned or not, turned into a good stepping stone for Finn and I think Huntress Wizard ultimately ended up being his best match.
But I always felt like a permanent breakup with FP was a wildly disproportionate consequence for what he actually did.
I think it was needed and not really unfair as both parties end up on good terms. Even if Finn was mislead, it would be extremely hard to come back from that. It played deeply into FP’s insecurity as well, which is a flaw on her character that would force the relationship’s end.
FP went on her own character journey leading to her ruling the Flame Kingdom. She wasn’t in a place for Finn anymore unlike before. They both changed from this event. I like that she held no ill will towards him both after, and especially during their reconciliation later in the series - hell she even kisses him in F&C. Shitty initial conflict, maybe, but I think the writers pulled off working around that to correctly build both characters.
Finn messed up, even if he wasn’t fully aware. This mistake along with the miscommunication had large consequences that he couldn’t just hero his way out of. It sucks, but ended up being a big character shift moment for both parties.
There’s magic that allows him to
He can touch her, but if she gets too emotional or intimate she explodes.
She was always designed to have their relationship be a ticking-time bomb (literally). It is why upon re-examining, I don’t think the breakup was randomly spurred on, but had red flags intentionally there from the beginning. This relationship, figuratively and literally, would burn Finn.