LEMONGRAB: A Character Study

I love how Princess Bubblegum tell Lemongrab that its creepy to watch people while they are sleeping but catches LemonGrab in the act by using cameras that were aleady installed in everyones rooms.

Adventure Time has such stellar writing. Criminally underrated. More people should watch the series.

30:15
"Yo yo, it's grease" as a final line for Lemongrab truly emphasizes how he accepts himself and is now whole.

I think Lemonhope going to the room made for him symbolizes his growth to be willing to accept kindness.
He probably spent many years doing his best to not "get into debt" emotionally, not helping others on a wide scale and not accepting help on a wide scale.
By coming back to the room given to him by those who cared about him, i think it shows he's matured and grown enough to be willing to accept kindness and possibly give kindness, regardless of the impact on his freedom

Lemongrab's "line" in the finale "Unmake me" must have been the best thing he has ever done

Honestly I think lemongrab and the lemonpeople is an imperfect yet excellent example of BPD. BPD is a disorder only caused by prior trauma, especially in childhood. While lemongrab didn’t have a real childhood, his early life experiences with PB can be considered traumatic, if you consider those formative years. My thinking stems from the name of the episode “you made me”, a lot of people with BPD including myself have had an experience where they tell the person that they believe their traumas and problems stem from “you made me this way”. The lemongrab twins are even seen creating others like them until they start to deteriorate, to me symbolising the ever longing yearn for socialisation people with BPD have yet that never comes to fruition because their disorder causes them to burn bridges and destroy ties.

Genuinely interesting character stuff aside, Lemongrab signing letters with "How dare you," instead of "Sincerely," is so fucking funny

I love the extremely helpful content warning on cannibalism with the timestamp that just fast tracks you into seeing him eaten

14:11 for anyone actually looking to skip it

Candy kid: “Calm down, Lemongrease!”
Lemongrab: “I-I AM NOT GREASE!!”

years later

Lemongrab in the mountain: “I am grease.”

As an autistic person with social anxiety I can heavily relate to wanting to be around others but not being able to understand them as well as having a negligent mother, too bad Lemongrab is so awful and clearly means harm. Lemongrab has always been an interesting character to me so seeing a video on him brings me joy. Ngl the episode where he turned into a cannibal did scar me as a kid, I remember it so vividly.

I'm going to be completely honest with you, Lavaman. You gave me a better understanding of Lemongrab, but not only that, you have helped me understand myself a bit more. Your deconstruction and careful choice of words hits hard. As somebody who is autistic and always struggled with my emotions, on top of other things, I've always kind of closed myself off and lashed out when shit happens. While I've worked to become a better human being, I cannot truly separate myself from the mistakes of my makers. My family always just kind of tossed me aside or looked down upon me, treating me as lesser while never caring to learn about me. Everybody kind of knew I was autistic but denied it through the years. I've struggled to form connections in my life, and I've always kind of felt alone, no matter how many people surrounded me. I felt like if I could create something acceptable, I'd find peace.

Over the nearly 23 years of my life, I've felt this strong resentment toward those who brought me into this world, seeing my faults in my mind as a product if their failings, their choice to bring a life into this world, only to totally neglect me and focus in on my sibling. I've always felt shunned and looked down upon, my hate in my youth drove me to self-destructive tendencies, watching as everything around me crumbles with no form of support. I spent much of my life being loud and hateful, never afraid to push away those who I've only seen do harm. I've watched things die around me while I try to put a band-aid on a bullet wound, thinking that if I put a bridge over the ocean in my life, I'd find peace. I never connected the dots until now.

I never really thought about how others would see me when I was a young teenager, giving up and becoming fat, consuming all that I could in a half-baked effort to feel whole. I watched as my life turned to hate me, everything around me hated me. I was deeply unpleasant back then, and I feel like a large, cancerous portion of who I am now was cut away, and I've learned that not everything I do has to be out of raw disagreement toward others. I no longer lash out and I look for simple solutions to simple problems. I don't let the small things break me down anymore, I just patch them up with what I have on hand. I'm not perfect, but I think I'm doing okay now.

I'd love to consider myself a lemon.

Fun fact the line "Nadie me quiere, todos me odian" is actually a nursery rhyme. So it was more used as an easter egg for laughs rather than lemon grab's true feeling.

I've always found the most disturbing episodes of the show were the ones where Lemongrab is cannibalizing his lemon people and even his twin brother. His kingdom straight up looks like a prison, and there's that one scene where one dude hops the wall only to be spotted, captured and eaten. The way Lemongrab progressively gets larger throughout those episodes unsettles me everytime.

I don't remember adventure time being disturbing, but then again I watched this show when I was pretty young. Watching your video made me realize this show is really well done and wasn't your average kids cartoon

Fun fact: When lemongrab says “Nadie me quiere, todos me odian”, it’s most likely a reference to a little “children’s” song we have that talks about how no one loves me and eating a worm…
Don’t question it

Lemongrab was ALWAYS my favorite character….I couldn’t put my finger on why…..but I could always feel the sadness within him as he hides it behind anger and exaggerated emotions. Such an interesting character! Thanks for this video!

This character is so deep. I did not realize that he represented a being programmed without the ability to change learning how to accept himself and others.




I honestly just thought it was a yellow guy screaming at everything because he’s a lunatic.
Thanks for the analyzation.

For some reason, I never saw the parallels between Lemongrab and Frankenstein's monster before. Parallels that I did notice were between LG and PB.
They both have it in their instinct and primal desires to rule something.
They are both authoritarian, with LG being more obvious, having the catchphrase "unacceptable" and immediately punishing people when things don't go his way. PB also has a strong reaction when someone suggests something that doesn't align with what she wants, immediately denying other possibilities. Because their whole lives they both learned they can only depend on themselves and no one else.
They both have a strong desire to create.
While LG is apathetic, PB isn't without her faults. She treats some of her sentient creations badly and throughout the show she acknoladges that she is sometimes cruel (I remember an episode in the later seasons when she told Marceline "haha sorry, that was mean. I'm trying to be less mean".
And that time LG was spying on PB's citizens? Dawg, she spies on her citizens for no reason all the time! Why does she have all those cameras for, then??
AND YET, THROUGH ALL OF THIS, PB is very much "othering" the lemonpeople and keeps repeating the phrase "I don't understand you". After disregarding LG as a failed experiment, that's all she could see him as. She has so many way in which to relate to him, but instead of acknowledging them, she refuses to look at those "broken" parts of herself and puts herself above him.
And that's fucked up, but I don't think she's necessarily a bad person for doing this. The theme of a creator abandoning and forgetting about their creations is not something new. Think of an artist abandoning a sketch, or a writer believing what they wrote isn't good enough. It's a normal human trait and who's to say if we were in PB's place we would have done any different?
And as PB rules as god among the candy people (if you think I'm reaching, turn to the banana guards episode) so does LG think he has the same right.
At the end of the day, they are two sides of the same coin

Honestly this is all PBs fault.
She raised Lemongrab to be an unlovable sack of crap, she gave into his every wim and tantrum and then she saw Lemonhope and was like "wow thank god I don't actually have to do anything about my mess I'll just send this literal child to deal with my problems"

I can't tell if PB is just a bad character, or if the writers really wanted to make her into a monster.

Lemongrab... He made me sad, caused laughter, even scared me at times. Probably my favorite character, just for how weird and interesting he is.