Marceline

Marceline Abadeer is a character from the Adventure Time series.

Marceline is a fun-loving 1,000-year-old vampire queen. Unlike a traditional vampire, Marceline does not need to drink blood to survive; rather, she eats the color red. Marceline is also an avid musician who plays an electric bass that she made from her family's heirloom battle-axe.

Appearance
Marceline has light blue-gray skin, crooked fangs, and long, midnight black hair that reaches to her feet. She also sports two marks on her neck, which are the marks of the bite that turned her into a vampire. She also has a tongue that is forked but sometimes her tongue looks normal and it might be part of her powers since she has shape shifting powers to make her tongue look forked or normal.

In the episode "Go With Me", her hair is shaved into an undercut, which reveals that she has pointy ears. She is very thin and sometimes appears to be thinner than Princess Bubblegum; however, her shape can vary slightly depending on who is drawing her. She is usually floating in the air but when she stands next to the other main characters she is taller than them; however in "I Remember You", she was just at Ice King's size (or slightly shorter). In most of her transformations, she is shown to have green eyes.

Marceline's general appearance, particularly her blue-gray skin, fangs, and pointy ears, is an apparent result of her demonic heritage, and she shares all of these characteristics with her father. From Marceline's maternal side, the episode "Everything Stays" revealed that she possesses genes from a dark-skinned race, although evidently, the phenotype associated with these genes are recessive.

Her main outfit features a dark gray tank top, dark blue pants, and red boots.

Marceline wears different outfits in most of her episode appearances. Her style seems to be punk rock or grunge with colors normally red, black, gray, and other dull colors. For example, in "Henchman," she wears a dark violet strapless dress with a dull pink sash, lilac-purple stockings with dark purple stripes and pink heels.

Personality
Having spent centuries traversing the Land of Ooo, she has evolved into a "fearless daredevil", and her fondness for mischief has turned her into something of a trickster. Consequently, in her first role, Marceline functions as the antagonist of the story, forcing Finn and Jake from their home. However, she eventually becomes their close friend once Finn recognizes that she is "a radical dame who likes to play games".

It is implied that some of her more malevolent traits are solely based on her vampire instincts. In "Red Starved", Marceline slowly becomes vicious and sinister after having been deprived of food, trying to tempt Jake so that she could eat him. In "Vamps About", Marceline was fine with Peppermint Butler creating weapons meant to kill her as a contingency, stating that she could have snapped and killed everyone at any given time.

She can also be sentimental. She was very emotionally attached to her teddy bear Hambo, which was given to her by Simon Petrikov; after Ash sold it to Maja, she was furious and broke up with him. Later, Princess Bubblegum got Hambo back in the episode "Sky Witch".

Marceline seems to be very emotional. For example, in "What Was Missing", she seemed to be more aggressive towards Princess Bubblegum than she usually is. She is also very independent, and in early episodes would often act without concern for Finn or his friends. It is easier for Marceline to express her feelings through music, as seen in the "Fry Song" and "I'm Just Your Problem," but has trouble expressing them otherwise. She keeps a diary that she uses for inspiration for songs as seen in "Marceline's Closet." When Marceline read the lyrics to "Remember You", the song that Simon Petrikov wrote for her, she began to cry.

Near the end of "The Dark Cloud", her personality changed slightly. Marceline had learned how to be more mature which is proved by her saying that she will be able to hang out with Princess Bubblegum "forever". She also said the learned how to be more empathetic to others too. Yet, it is still unknown if she got over her emptiness in the end.

Abilities

 * From her demonic father, Marceline inherited the power to absorb people's souls. It was also implied by her Farmworld counterpart that her half-demon nature extended her natural lifespan, as Farmworld Marceline was able to survive for at least 1000 years, albeit old and withered.


 * After absorbing the essence of several powerful vampires, Marceline gained several supernatural powers. From The Fool she gained the power to fly; from The Empress the ability to turn invisibility; from The Hierophant she gained the power to shape-shift (e.g. taking the form of a bat, a wolf, a reptilian creature, a large tentacled monster and she can even copy the form of other creatures if she has time to study them); and from The Moon the ability to rapidly heal.
 * Marceline is immortal and unaging as a vampire.


 * She lit up all the candles in Finn and Jake's house with a wave of her fingers.


 * She can move things using her mind. She probably obtained this power from Vampire King, but this hasn't been confirmed.


 * Marceline can raise the undead to serve her.
 * As a result of absorbing the Vampire King's dark cloud half, she can now communicate with a miniature mental projection of him. During the turmoil of the Gum War, Marceline was able to releases the vampiric essence she absorbed from the Vampire King, transforming into a similar black, cloud-like form. In this state she was powerful enough to defeat one of the creatures created by GOLB.
 * According to Ward, she is ambidextrous, which explains her ability to play bass with both hands.
 * Marceline is a very talented musician and songwriter, and is proficient at singing and playing her basses.
 * The Nightosphere Amulet: When worn the wearer gains the ability to shoot green lasers which either vaporize or transform whatever they hit. They can also create or transform into a large cloud of blood mist.

Trivia

 * Marceline does not appear in the Pilot episode with most of the other main characters, although she is still considered one. This is because she did not exist until the year 2010.
 * In "Evicted!," Marceline appears in the realm of fire without burning herself, probably due to being undead.
 * Despite being a skilled bass player, she does not know what a quaver is.
 * Marceline plays the bass guitar with both hands, often switching hand positions while floating depending where she is in the air. She most often plays with her right hand.
 * Her bass is strung and strapped for a right-handed individual. When Marceline plays left-handed, she's playing the bass upside-down. However, the animators are inconsistent with which handedness the bass is made for.
 * Marceline is ambidextrous like Finn.
 * She has a zombie poodle named Schwabl.
 * Marceline's name is based on Pendleton Ward's friend, Marie, whose middle name is Marceline. Pen described Marie as someone who likes the horror movie Psycho and dark clothing.
 * Marceline has a genderbent counterpart named Marshall Lee.
 * She is the most difficult character to work with for Jesse Moynihan.
 * She also plays basketball as seen in "Simon & Marcy."
 * In "The Duke," Marceline is seated along with the other royals at the Grand Meeting of Ooo Royalty, showing that her status as vampire queen is recognized by the kingdoms of Land of Ooo.
 * Marceline's last name may constitute as an homage to the real-life city Aberdeen, Washington which is known for being a "tough" town and the hometown of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain.
 * Marceline is the boss of Red Rock Pass in Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!.
 * According to the note she left on her door in "Marceline's Closet", she gets lucid dreams when she eats tomatoes.
 * In "Princess Day," it is shown that sunblock can protect Marceline from the sun. In "Marceline the Vampire Queen (episode)" it is shown that she uses "Spf 10,000,000."
 * In the Art of Ooo book, it is confirmed that Marceline is older than Princess Bubblegum (who is 827 years old, according to Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DONT KNOW!).
 * In the episode "Skyhooks," Marceline has a candy form called Marshmaline the Campfire Queen
 * Marceline has retrieved most of her powers from consuming the souls of previously slain vampires.
 * In the miniseries "Stakes," Marceline has several flashbacks that show her encounters with the Ultra Vampires she continues to slay. Both The Hierophant and the Vampire King remind her of a price she must pay for her powers, or there would be grand consequences. The price is obviously renouncing the ability to live in the sun, but the consequence for not paying the said price is heavily implied to be the side effect of Magic: Madness, and Sadness, a concept researched by Betty Grof.
 * Magic, Madness, and Sadness is the concept of an emotional complexity concept (possibly disorder) inside nearly every Wizard/Magical Being. It is seen as the "consequence" of having magical power in the present day of Ooo.
 * Despite Marceline taking The Moon's powers, which allowed her to survive in sunlight, Marceline can still be burned by the sun. This is similar to her taking the power of invisibility from The Empress, but not her hypnosis, as well as her receiving no notable powers from the Vampire King.
 * In Be Sweet, it is revealed that insects hide in Marceline's belly button.
 * Marceline is bisexual, as Princess Bubblegum is her girlfriend and she dated Ash before.