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"City of Thieves" is the thirteenth episode in the first season of Adventure Time. It's the thirteenth episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Finn and Jake, in hopes of helping a little girl named Penny get back her stolen basket, enter into a city where everyone is a thief, and become slowly corrupted by their surroundings.

Plot[]

Finn is trying to walk on four legs like Jake when they come across a city covered by a dome of cracked desert ground. A Hag appears and tells them that this is the City of Thieves, a place that turns anyone who goes there into a thief. Finn and Jake hear the cries of a young girl named Penny outside the city. She tells Finn that thieves have stolen her flower basket, but he is unable to get the basket back because the thieves in the city are endlessly stealing and re-stealing it from each other.

Penny then tells Finn and Jake about a king thief who steals from little girls and takes their belongings to his tower, which is protected by a magical barrier to keep other thieves out. Finn volunteers to enter the tower and get the king's treasure chest, which Penny says might contain her basket. Meanwhile, Jake cannot cross the barrier because he could not resist stealing a pair of shiny red boots. Finn enters the tower and takes the chest, which he finds in the chest of the king thief's skeleton. When he emerges, Penny grabs the chest, revealing that she has tricked Finn into stealing the treasure for her. The Hag reappears to gloat about Finn now also becoming a thief. Traumatized over becoming impure, Finn decides to embrace his dark side and get revenge on Penny for stealing his purity.

Finn and Jake become avengers and run around the city stealing things, including a crossbow, a pair of swords, and bar of soap from a bathing horse. They confront Penny in her tent and wash off the dirt that marks her as a thief, becoming clean in the process as well. Thinking they have become pure again, Finn and Jake celebrate with Penny, who claims to have reformed—then immediately strips him of his clothes down to his briefs. Furious, Finn screams Penny's name and the episode ends.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Locations[]

Music[]

Trivia[]

  • The Snail makes its first non-physical appearance as an imprint on Jake's belly.
  • This is one of two episodes shown during Cartoon Network's commercial breaks with abridged versions, and goes on until Finn cries, "How are we going to find the basket if it keeps getting stolen?" The other episode shown in breaks is "The Eyes."
  • This is the final episode of the show to air before the network changed their logo on May 29, 2010.
  • At some point, Penny's basket is stolen by a wizard. As a cyclops is about to steal the basket from the wizard, the wizard chants "Pancake" until he turns into a cat and escapes. This may be a reference to Natasha Allegri's cat, Pancake. Also, in the "Mystery Train" episode there is a definition for "Pancake" in the dictionary discovered by Finn. It says "when repeated three times this wizard incantation can change one into a cat."
  • The Stock Woods is seen in the loading screen of Adventure Time Battle Party.
  • Paul Linsley claims: "If you look at this episode's title card in the mirror and squint, you can see the face of a ghost".

Episode connections[]

Cultural references[]

Screen shot 2012-11-30 at 02.09

The BatFinn shadow

  • One of the treasures that the King of Thieves has is a portable video game player, which looks similar to a Game Boy.
  • The concept that everyone in the city steals from each other may be a reference to the short fable The Black Sheep by Italo Calvino.
  • After Finn is corrupted by the city, he accepts his now impure condition and seeks revenge in a very Batman-esque style.
  • In one corner of the inside of the tent, one can see both a shotgun and a sub-machine gun.
  • This is the first episode with Looney Tunes' sound effects when Jake was flinging boots at Penny.
  • After they are purified, Finn says they are 'Virgin Islands' which is the name of an archipelago in the Caribbean administered by the United Kingdom and the United States, the Virgin Islands.

Deleted scenes[]

  • Finn saying "We are Virgin Islands" was deleted in Middle East.
  • Penny trying to stab Finn was also deleted in Middle East.
  • The scene where penny stole Finn's clothes was deleted in Middle East.
    • this scene was shown in Middle East but was later deleted.

Errors[]

  • In one scene just before Finn is about to clean Penny with soap, Jake appears to be "pure."
  • Immediately after Finn and Jake clean Penny, Finn's new weapons disappear from his waist. They return in the next shot.
  • When Finn grabs Penny telling her to "never say that," his arm is the same color as Penny's skin.
  • In one scene (Before Finn becomes a thief), his shirt is a darker shade of blue, most likely because of the lighting, but his pants do not change color.
  • While Finn says, "It's time to step inside the purification chamber, son!", Penny's eyes disappear for exactly 43 frames.
  • Finn puts bells on Jake's fingers so he can detect him "stealing", but when they and Penny climb the tower of thieves, they disappear. However, he could've taken them off off-screen.

Video[]

Gallery[]

Official art[]

Background art[]

Screenshots[]

Storyboard panels[]

See Full Storyboard


External links[]

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