Marceline Abadeer, better known as Marceline the Vampire Queen, is a fictional character in the American animated Cartoon Network television series Adventure Time and resulting franchise, created by Pendleton Ward. She is voiced by Olivia Olson in most appearances, by Ava Acres as a child, and by Cloris Leachman as an older woman. Marceline is a fun-loving 1,000-year-old vampire queen, as well as a musician who plays an electric bass that she made from her family's heirloom battle-ax. Ward created the artistic design for Marceline, with small changes and additions added by Phil Rynda, the former lead character and prop designer for Adventure Time.
Marceline makes her debut in the first-season episode "Evicted!" in which she forces Finn and Jake from their home. However, as the series progresses, Marceline becomes a close friend to the two. Several backstory episodes have established that she was born to a human mother named Elise (voiced by Rebecca Sugar and Erica Luttrell) and the demon Hunson Abadeer (voiced by Olivia's real-life father, Martin Olson). Furthermore, when she was a child, the cataclysmic Mushroom War occurred, and soon after, she developed a father-daughter-like bond with Simon Petrikov (voiced by Tom Kenny), who would one day turn into the Ice King.
Marceline has been critically acclaimed and is popular with the Adventure Time fandom. The character was also the focus of the seventh season miniseries Stakes (2015). Early in the show's history, Ward himself stated that Marceline was his favorite character because he did not know everything about her history and backstory, which he felt added a mysterious element to her character. Marceline's relationship with Princess Bubblegum created controversy when the episodes "What Was Missing" and "Sky Witch" implied that they had been in a relationship—a relationship that was confirmed in the series finale "Come Along with Me." The relationship was also the subject of the second episode of Adventure Time: Distant Lands, "Obsidian," which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming.
Creation and design
Marceline is one of the major characters in Adventure Time. Although she did not appear in the series pilot, the groundwork for her design and character was present in the series pitch book, penned by series creator Pendleton Ward. Also available here Ward purposely set out to make Marceline's character complex, as he explained that "with the female characters it's easy to either write them as clichés or write them as the extreme opposite of those clichés ... I just try to make them have faults and strengths just like Finn and Jake have." Initially, in the series bible, Marceline is described as being "friendly rivals" with Bubblegum. Marceline's name is based on the name of a childhood friend of Ward's, Marie, whose middle name is Marceline. Ward described Marie as someone who likes the horror movie Psycho and wears dark clothing.Thomas (2023), pp. 37-38. When Rebecca Sugar joined the production crew and began working on Marceline episodes, the show's creative team encouraged her to put her "own life experiences into the character".
The design for Marceline was created by Ward, with small changes and additions added by Phil Rynda, former lead character and prop designer for Adventure Time. Visually, Marceline has long, black hair. She rarely walks on the ground, generally preferring to float when she travels, moves, and sleeps. Marceline, unlike many of the other characters, wears varying outfits in most of her appearances. Ward said her clothing changes from episode to episode because "girls own more than one outfit". Olivia Olson, the voice actress who plays Marceline, was impressed by her character's fashion design stating, "she has really cool style ... I love what they come up with [in] every episode." Olson explained that when she goes in to record the voices for each episode, she is "totally surprised" by the costuming for Marceline. While she says her lines, she is able to view the animatics for the episode and sometimes has to stop to admire the unique designs. Marceline's physical size and shape slightly changes depending on who is drawing her. Rynda later called this "one of the coolest parts" about the character's animation due to the fact that "every artist leaves a little bit of their own taste and sensibilities in what they draw."
Marceline is voiced by Olivia Olson. When production on Adventure Time began, Ward contacted his friend Martin Olson, who was a writer on the animated Disney series Phineas and Ferb, and asked if he knew who played the character Vanessa Doofenshmirtz on Phineas and Ferb, as he wanted "her as a voice" on his show; reportedly, Ward was unaware that the actress was actually Martin Olson's daughter. During the casting audition, Olivia Olson first read for Princess Bubblegum, but was later asked to read for the role of Marceline. Upon seeing character designs, Olson was "definitely impressed by the character". Because Ward knew that he wanted Olivia on his show, Martin Olson later joked that her audition was simply a "sham" to please network executives. In order to get into character, Olson often dresses in a manner similar to Marceline when she records her lines; she explained, "I always find ... that on the days that I go in to record Marceline, I'll dress like her, in a weird way ... I'll throw on some rock n' roll boots, maybe some red lipstick, and just go in there." In flashback sequences, younger Marceline is voiced by Ava Acres. In the fifth season episodes "Finn the Human" / "Jake the Dog", an older, alternate universe version of the character is voiced by Cloris Leachman. Martin Olson also provides the voice for Marceline's demonic father Hunson Abadeer. Olivia Olson later noted that the opportunity to voice act with her father was "pretty cool".
Olson also is the character's singing voice. Composers Casey James Basichis and Tim Kiefer produce the bass music that the character performs in the series. The songs themselves were written by storyboard artists, or other people affiliated with production, and the demos for many of these songs were later uploaded onto the internet by those affiliated with the show.
Appearances In Adventure Time (20102018) Roughly a thousand years prior to the events of the series, Marceline was born to a demon lord, Hunson Abadeer (voiced by Martin Olson), and a human woman (voiced by Rebecca Sugar). Abadeer is the ruler of the Nightosphere—a Hellish dimension sustained by "chaotic evil"—and subsists on the souls of sentient beings. Following the Mushroom War (a mysterious war that ravaged the earth one thousand years prior to events of the series) and the death of her mother, Marceline was left abandoned on Earth and was found by Simon Petrikov—the name of the Ice King before he was overcome by the evil power of his crown. The two developed a caring relationship, although the crown took a toll on Simon's mental health, forcing him to leave Marceline alone. During this period in her life, she was reunited with her father, only to be disgusted by his cold and heartless ways. Although she attempted to tolerate his evil and selfish antics, she eventually severed all ties with Abadeer after she discovered him eating fries that she had made for herself. In the following years, Marceline roamed the land of Ooo and began killing vampires, who had taken over much of the land. Marceline soon discovered that, upon killing a vampire, she was able to acquire their unique abilities thanks to her demonic power to absorb souls. However, when she tried to fight the Vampire King, she was bitten and turned into a vampire herself. At some point, she began a romantic relationship with a magician named Ash. The two would move into the Tree Fort, but their relationship would come to an end when Ash sold Hambo to a witch. Presumably, around this time, Marceline befriended Princess Bubblegum, the leader of the Candy Kingdom; the two would often avoid official royal meetings and explore the Candy Kingdom's rock candy mining complex. Eventually, due largely to the mounting stress of running her kingdom, Bubblegum pushed Marceline away, leading to a rift between the two that lasted for a while.
In the series' present, Marceline eventually comes into contact with Finn and Jake in the first season episode "Evicted!", when she forces them from their home. In the episode "Henchman", Marceline tricks Finn into becoming her accomplice. In the episode, Finn discovers that Marceline is fond of mischief and pranks. Soon thereafter, the two develop a friendship. In the second season premiere "It Came From the Nightosphere", Abadeer is accidentally summoned to Ooo by Finn. While Abadeer ravages the land, Finn discovers that there is animosity between Marceline and her father. Finn manages to distract Abadeer by playing a recording of Marceline's "Fry Song", which leads to a brief moment of reconciliation between the two before Finn sends him back to the Nightosphere. In the third season episode "Memory of a Memory", Ash attempts to rekindle his former relationship with Marceline via trickery. Disguised as Marceline's "spirit animal", he tricks Finn and Jake into believing that Marceline has fallen asleep due to a sleep spell that has been self-inflicted. Following Ash's advice, the two enter into Marceline's mind to retrieve the "memory core" in an attempt to wake her up. Along the way, they encounter various memories of her as a child following the Mushroom War. However, the duo soon learn that it was an elaborate trick by Ash; Finn and Jake actually removed Marceline's memory of their break-up. In the end, Finn is able to convince Marceline, and she promptly attacks her chauvinistic ex-boyfriend. In "What Was Missing", past animosity between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum is explored when Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, BMO, and Marceline form a band to defeat the Door Lord and recover what was stolen from them.
In the fourth season episodes, "Return to the Nightosphere" / "Daddy's Little Monster", Marceline's dad returns and gives her an amulet that causes her to become the demonic overlord of the Nightosphere. After an ordeal, Finn saves Marceline from the amulet. Marceline admits that all she wants is for her father to understand her. When Finn wishes for an alternate reality in which the Lich never existed during the events of the fifth-season premiere "Finn the Human", a universe is created in which the Mushroom War was prevented and Marceline never became a vampire. She appears in the episode as a frail and aged half-demon, who was killed when a "mutagenic bomb" that was frozen in ice by Simon Petrikov detonates. Jake manages to undo this reality with his wish and sets everything back to the way it was. In "Sky Witch", Marceline enlists the help of Princess Bubblegum, and the two are able to track down Maja, the titular Sky Witch. It is revealed that Ash sold Hambo to Maja. Only when Bubblegum trades her beloved rock shirt is Hambo able to be reunited with Marceline. After the events of "Sky Witch", Bubblegum and Marceline are on much friendlier ground, and their friendship is reaffirmed in the episodes "Varmints" and "Broke His Crown", from the seventh and eighth seasons, respectively. In "Betty", Marceline sacrifices Hambo so that Ice King—who lost his powers and became Simon Petrikov again—can open a portal into time so that Simon can reconcile with his estranged fiancée Betty. Although the two are reunited in "Betty", due to the rush of events, Marceline and Simon are unable to fully catch up before Simon reverts to the Ice King. With that being said, in the eighth-season episode "Broke His Crown", the two manage to more fully reunite, and as such, manage to affirm how much they care for one another.