Dadgum this show!

What is it with Adventure Time and pulling things completely out of left field?

This isn't a complaint this time; this is actually me praising the show for once. In general season 7 has been pretty good so far (aside from the fact that the show still can't leave dead characters alone); we've had two cracking PB episodes and the show's gone back to what it does best. Character snapshots, not character arcs. As I said in my Outlaw Star review, if you're going for the worldbuilding aspect that's your best bet when doing a show. Lots of small scale stories rather than one massive one.

Which is why, so far, this new Stakes miniseries has been the best thing about the series in a loooooong while.

It's only halfway done so I'll reserve final judgement until the end, but this has been awesome. For a start it's basically Blade for kids, which is awesome. Also it give more insight into Marceline (including clearing up exactly what happened to her), and gave some extra little insight into what happened way back when, while also keeping it open for future stories (as opposed to just having backstory for the sake of backstory). The opening episode was a tad predictable, but from the the miniseries has gone from strength to strength, giving little character moments to Finn, Jake, PB and Ice King. But the story is between Marceline and her past, and that's where it should be. It helps that the new villains are visually interesting, badass and properly threatening (for the most part), with special mention to Billy Brown as the Vampire King, who plays a reserved, almost amiable, yet deeply unsettling character. I think he may even surpass the Lich in terms of creepiness.

I still have my reservations about this series, but if this is the quality they can put out when they actually put effort in, I'm nowhere near read to give up on it yet.