Origin
Bonnibel Bubblegum, also known as Princess Bubblegum, is the reigning monarch of Candy Kingdom. A kind and popular Princess she is adored and celebrated by the citizens of her kingdom. The residents of Candy Kingdom are all sentient candy people, essentially living sweets. Princess Bubblegum being the sole strictly humanoid candy person. Princess Bubblegum has a very keen sense of justice and fairness, and has been shown on multiple occasions to be willing to defend and care for her subjects. She is intelligent, sophisticated, noble and refined. She is the object of affection for many of the residents of Ooo, including Finn and the Ice King. Princess Bubblegum is especially curious, and has for many years worked on and created experiments in her science lab, however often these experiments results can cause many problems for Princess and her kingdom. On occasion zombie outbreaks have occurred, as well as the potentially disastrous creation of Goliad. Princess Bubblegum has an interesting friendship with the Vampire Queen Marceline, but the two often seem to have an up and down relationship, most likely due to their very different contrasting personalities. Princess Bubblegum has a pet she is usually accompanied by, a Rainbow Unicorn by the name of Lady Rainicorn. Much about Princess Bubblegum origin and past remain a mystery, it is known however that at some point in the past she had created the sentient creature Lemongrab and is aware and aided in the imprisonment of the Lich and is also aware of the danger Flame Princess possesses. Often Princess Bubblegum will be the authority and organizer of the regular Princesses of Ooo meetings and tribunals, attended by various princesses such as Slime Princess, Lumpy Space Princess, Raggedy Princess, Flame Princess, Breakfast Princess and Toast Princess among others.
Creation
Princess Bubblegum first appeared as a cartoon character on the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time with Finn and Jake. She was created by Pendleton Ward, show creator, and voiced by Hynden Walch. Her first appearance in comics was under the comics publisher Boom! Studios, in the comic book Adventure Time. Princess Bubblegum’s appearance here penned by Ryan North with art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb.
Character Evolution
Drawing from traditional fairy tale archetypes in which every hero requires a beautiful princess to rescue, Princess Bubblegum is inspired by but also dramatically plays with such traditions. Although she is the Princess of Adventure Time to the main protagonists of Finn and Jake, Princess Bubblegum is much older and capable than the two heroes and serves as more of an unrequited love interest to Finn than mutual romantic interest. Save for when the character was de-aged in a particular plot of the Adventure Time animated cartoon show. A popular main member of the Cartoon Network show, Princess Bubblegum inevitably showed up when a comic series inspired by the show was produced, published by Boom Studios. Princess Bubblegum retains many of her fan favorite endearing traits from the show, including her appreciation of all things scientific as well as delving deeper into Bubblegum and Marcelines friendship. With time various aspects of Bubblegum have been developed and occasionally exaggerated. Her scientific curiosity reaching a point where she would come off as almost unethically inconsiderate to her test subjects and experiments. A romantic subplot with Finn having a crush on Princess Bubblegum addressed when Bubblegum would be de-aged. Bubblegum also demonstrating her victories and fallings as a princess and ruler. Princess Bubblegum’s friendship would be explored in greater detail in the Adventure Time: Marceline and the Scream Queens mini-series by Meredith Gran.
Major Story Arcs
Training BMO
Princess Bubblegum would be spending the day with BMO, and trying to console the little game machine after he realizes he wants to be perfect. Perfect at fighting! Princess Bubblegum would try and dissuade BMO, until she realized he only wanted to start fights with bad guys. She would advise that BMO therefore needed to train. BMO would make sure that he would never punch Bubblegum and Bubblegum would make sure BMO knew she would never punch him. Princess Bubblegum would naturally be the one to train BMO, and would also hold a class of training with Jake and Finn as well. Jake and Finn would be allowed to give a demonstration, but end up having fun by Jake using his shapeshifting powers. BMO would observe that much of Jakes attacks and defenses owe directly to his powers. Bubblegum would second this observation asking Jake if he could fight without his powers. This would prompt Jake to retry the demonstration sans powers resulting in him getting punched quite painfully in his nose. Jake would vent at how dumb fighting without powers is, prompting Finn and Princess Bubblegum to square off, in a hand to hand demonstration, neither having powers. Bubblegum would prove more skilled than Finn, evading his attack and throwing a very subsequently impressed Finn. BMO would attempt to replicate Princess Bubblegums success but fail. BMO would however succeed with Battle Burns, the term he gives for verbal insulting an opponent. Now finding himself in the role of the teacher, BMO would try and impart his impressive Battle Burn abilities and skills to Princess Bubblegum, Finn and Jake, with Bubblegum ending up with the most impressive display causing Finn and Jake to posit whether she was bad at anything.
The Lich
The Lich King is free and using The Super Dangerous Bag of Holding, he has drawn in The Candy Kingdom and Princess Bubblegum into a vortex within his dangerous bag. Bubblegum would wander the new landscape, eventually finding Marceline. The two are stranded on a small deserted island. Marceline swears revenge on the Lich King promising his butt will be kicked. Marceline and Bubblegum make small jokes at each others expense, before eventually working together and creating a makeshift sailboat with Marceline’s winged bat form providing the sail. They eventually find Lumpy Space Princess, Finn, Jake, Desert Princess and Ice King. The groups combined powers are enough to overthrow the Lich King and his Super Dangerous Bag of Holding.
Scream Queens
Princess Bubblegum has invited Marceline and the Scream Queens to the Candy Kingdom to hold a concert for its inhabitants. Despite harboring a negative sentiment towards Marceline’s band, she is considering the people of her kingdom and their enjoyment. She isn’t above making constant negative remarks about the bands musical inclinations however, referring to rock only being about image, having no substance. Marceline overhears her and the two begin to argue, Princess Bubblegum accusing Marceline’s band of being egomaniacal. Marceline heads off seemingly flippantly after such a verbal altercation to get ready for the performance as Finn and Jake try to convince Princess Bubblegum to attend the concert. Bubblegum reluctantly gives in. Jake turning himself into a raised platform allows Finn and Princess Bubblegum to seat on him ready to watch Marceline and the Scream Queens perform. Marceline, Keila, Bongo and Guy start their set, as Princess Bubblegum seems to get lost in the moment, enjoying herself at the demonstration of musical ability. Princess Bubblegum enjoyed the concert so much she sought out Marceline after the performance to admit the group had musical merit. Marceline also concedes that their band is disorganized prompting Princess Bubblegum to offer her services as manager of Marceline and the Scream Queens, on their upcoming music tour.
The Very Mysterious Keyboardist Guy
Whilst on tour with the Scream Queens Princess Bubblegum would wake up in her caravan after a nightmare. In the morning she would find some music gossip magazines but also try to prevent Marceline from reading the reviews, but could not stop her. Marceline would have a rather strong reaction to the harsh criticism presented in the review, even transforming herself rapidly and violently mirroring her mood. Later on at their next concert Marceline would use the opportunity to vent back at the music magazine review dismissing that she didn’t care. However it would seem more like a front, with an angry Marceline asserting she wouldn’t need anyones approval. Princess Bubblegum would notice this inner conflict Marceline would be experiencing. In the meantime Princess Bubblegum would start to become the object of the really mysterious keyboard player Guy’s affections. The two interacting more and more with small talk eventually leading up to some deeper conversations. Guy would confide to Princess Bubblegum that he really trusted her. Later on in the day PB would look for Guy to tell him the Scream Queens were due to be on stage soon, and she would walk in on him in his transformed state as a werewolf.
Princess Bubblegum and Marceline
Marceline and the Scream Queens would next play a gig at the Sound City, a underwater location, as requested by the Ocean Princess. Around this time Marceline starts to notice that Guy and Princess Bubblegum appeared to be getting romantic. After venting her frustration out on a telecommunications tower, she would have a small argument with Princess Bubblegum, in which Bubblegum would realize that Marceline has still been reading negative reviews about herself. he two would argue some more revealing insight into each of their personalities and baring a bit of each others feelings. Their moment ended by the sudden end of the calm, something that happens when Sound City is cleared of water. Princess Bubblegum would catch up to Marceline and attempt to comfort her friend and alleviate her worries. Marceline had almost fallen off a cliff and Bubblegum would tell Marceline she was worried. Marceline would snap back with anger telling Bubblegum that she should tell Guy about her theories. Marceline would sulk into a rant about how the whole tour had been a disaster and how the entire world hates her. She had intended for the tour to change peoples lives, make people happy and content, alas. Bubblegum would take Marcelines words dismissively, asserting that the tour had changed her life, but pointing out apparently to Marceline it didn’t matter. She would turn around and leave. Marceline would attempt to stop her but then withdrawal and shout at her angrily. Upset Bubblegum would prepare to leave to head back to Candy Kingdom. She would have a heart to heart talk with Guy telling him to be who he is.
Time Machine
After many months of toil, Princess Bubblegum would create an alarm clock. She would also create a time machine. The invention of such a device would naturally create much excitement for Jake and Finn who loved the potential of such a cool and rare gadget. Princess Bubblegum’s greater appreciation and understanding of the science behind and involved in a time machine and the act of traveling time would be slightly cautious about letting Jake and Finn use the time machine explaining that time machine will only take a person to the moment that Princess Bubblegum created it and not further than that moment, and that the first time it would be used would require preparation, scientific controls, and coordinated team effort. Jake would however just press the big shiny red button with all three of them touching the machine and the three would travel back in time 90 seconds. Jake would get a bit too enthusiastic and press the button repeatedly annoying PB, before he would finally stop and offer a half hearted apology. Peebles would explain that only the people touching the device would travel back in time, but also that she had to leave, ensuring to make both Jake and Finn promise to never use the time machine except for emergencies. She would leave to attend to her official Princess duties. Jake would have pretended to promise, but the temptation to have fun with a time machine would be too great and as soon as Bubblegum would leave he would start to make liberal use of it for the most mundane and opposite to emergency reasons. At one point Jake realized he didn’t even know why he was pressing the button. Eventually he would stop though and leave the time machine to be checked up on by Bubblegum when she returned later in the evening, however Bubblegum would be horrified upon checking her secret button press counter to see that the time machine had been used eighty eight thousand one hundred and twenty one times by Jake. Pondering whether a 14 year old boy and his dog could handle the nature of time machine Bubblegum would destroy it to prevent further misuse.
Future Imperfect – Queen Bubblegum
Unbeknownst to Princess Bubblegum Jake had actually created a situation where he would need a time machine, so he would sneak back into the Candy Castle to steal the now smashed version. Jake would attempt to fix the machine but fail to, and enlist Finn to help him. Finn would agree and they would consider the best way to fix the time machine would be to get another machine to fix it, leading them to ask NEPTR to help them. NEPTR would modify and fix the time machine much to the appreciation of Finn and Jake. As soon as given the opportunity to, Jake and Finn would use the new time machine, and then suddenly find themselves in the future. Confused by their grown, aged and modified bodies, Jake and Finn would head to Candy Kingdom to seek the counsel of Princess Bubblegum. They would find Princess Bubblegum only to be corrected by her remind the two men that she is Queen Bubblegum now, both groups starting to release the time travel paradoxes and confusion occurring. Queen Bubblegum would explain the problems the duo face. It had been 15 years since Jake and Finn had used the modified time machine, they had travelled into their future conscious and the land of Ooo had dramatically changed in those 15 years. BMO had created two robots, a creepy Finn robot and a creepy Jake robot, and though it seemed pretty cool at first for Finn and Jake, unfortunately a major design flaw meant that when the creepy robots got wet by rain they would turn evil. Rebranding themselves as Term N8R and Kill-O-Tron they would start trying to eliminate and terminate all the organic creatures, and Princess Bubblegum, Finn, Jake, BMO and Neptr would fend off the evil robots, they would retreat and build more evil robots. More robots and bigger robots, the robots would seem unstoppable and inexhaustible.
Powers and Abilities
Extremely intelligent, Princess Bubblegum also has a sharp and keen scientific mind, and has a range of formulas and concoctions that can be used to various effect. Princess Bubble Gum is fluent in multiple languages including German and Korean. Ambidextrous, Princess Bubblegum also has a pet Rainbow Unicorn called Lady Rainicorn. She has created such sentient beings as Lemongrab and Goliad. Princess Bubblegum is rather skilled at using BMO as a musical instrument and appears to have knowledge in classical music as well as being able to read music. Examples of Princess Bubblegum’s creations include a time machine, a machine that allows people to see other beings auras, and earrings that are protection against psychic powers. Bubblegum has also known to having created the most perfect sandwich ever created.
Princess Bubblegum is an advocate of science and also possesses a degree of hand to hand fighting ability. Princess Bubblegum also has access to an array of technological and mystical items and artifacts.
Other Media
Adventure Time (2010)
What Was Missing
A powerful Door Lord, with the ability to teleport via the act of opening random doors to other locations steals items from Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum. The group are joined by Marceline and BMO. Eventually finding the Door Lord they realize they are barred entry by a magical door that can only be unlocked though music. After an emotional argument with Marceline during which Marceline spits at Princess Bubblegum, the mood sours and all the group fall quiet. Eventually things warm back up and the group unlock the door. It is revealed that Princess Bubblegum’s stolen item was actually a T-Shirt that Marceline had given her, one that holds a great deal of sentimental value for Bonnibel.
Too Young
Princess Bubblegum is de-aged and her new found youth allows her and Finn to grow closer, seemingly to both character’s delight. Bubblegum revels in her ability to act a bit more immature and seems more receptive towards Finn. Trouble ensures however when the Earl of Lemongrab returns to Candy Kingdom and asserts his right to rule based on age superiority, now that Princess Bubblegum has been reduced to a teen. Despite the attempts of Finn and Princess Bubblegum getting her back into a position of power, the only way they are left with, is to have her return to her actual grown up age, and so she reverts to be an 18 year old. She can now reclaim her kingdom, but the connection her younger self shared with Finn is gone.
Go With Me
Finn wishes to ask Princess Bubblegum out to Couples Only Movie Night, but Princess Bubblegum is weary about it, since it sounds romantic and she is isn’t really interested in Finn that way. Still, Finn attempts to ask her, but Princess Bubblegum explains she will be practicing Whistling Choir Death Match Championship. Jake offers his advice to Finn, telling him that he needs to make Princess Bubblegum realize she wants to go with Finn, by making her jealous. He advises using Vampire Queen Marceline as a way to make Bubblegum jealous. Finn asks Marceline for her help and she decides to help thinking it might be funny. Marceline starts to give Finn her own ideas on how to impress Bubblegum but neither her or Jake’s advice seem to work. Finn frustrated ends up going to the movie night with Marceline as friends.