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" Ignition Point" is the twenty-second episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Somvilay Xayaphone and Bert Youn, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on September 17, 2012. The episode guest stars Keith David as Flame King and Paul F. Tompkins as Furnius.
The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake sneak into the Fire Kingdom on a quest for the Flame Princess (voiced by Jessica DiCicco). Once there, they discover a plot to assassinate the Flame King, and try to thwart it.
The idea for "Ignition Point" had been developed at a writers meeting, wherein Tom Herpich wanted to focus on political intrigue in the Fire Kingdom. The episode was seen by 2.256 million viewers, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club appreciated how the episode ran the gauntlet from toilet humour to Shakespearean references.
Finn and Jake traverse the Flame Kingdom palace, trying to identify the culprits. Eventually, Jake gets the idea to dress up as actors and perform a play wherein they pretend to be the conspirators; this will cause the real assassins to act suspicious. Their plan goes awry, and Flame King believes them to be the actual assassins. However, by a lucky turn of events, Finn and Jake are able to unveil the actual culprits, who are the children of Flame King's brother, whom he Fratricide to acquire the throne. Finn is concerned that, because her father is truly evil, Flame Princess might be evil as well, but Flame King notes that someone with a good spirit could change her.
Many of the character designs used in this episode had been designed by Andy Ristaino for the third season finale "Incendium". According to him, "the Flame Kingdom was one of the first kingdoms that I really got to go nuts with and do my own thing." In this episode, Keith David reprises his role as Flame King. In addition, Paul F. Tompkins plays the role of Furnius; he would later play an unrelated character in the fifth season episode "Be More".
Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A−", rhetorically asking, "What show other than Adventure Time could begin with farts and end with Shakespeare?" He argued that "Ignition Point" represented an Adventure Time episode "with everything: toilet humor, romance, drama, non-sequiters , and even some moral philosophy." Sava also felt that the episode, with its overt references to Hamlet, furthered the show's tendency to be "daddy-crazy", and illustrate that "the female characters in tend to have horrible father figures".
Reception
"Ignition Point" first aired on Cartoon Network on September 17, 2012. The episode was seen by 2.256 million viewers, and received a 0.5 rating in the 18–49 demographic. This means it was seen by 0.5 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the episode's airing. The episode first saw physical release as part of the complete fourth season DVD in October 2014.
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