Let’s say that for some reason or another you’re interested in watching Adventure Time. Maybe you heard of the upcoming Stakes miniseries, maybe you’re a Steven Universe (and/or an OtGW/Clarence) fan and wanted to see it’s roots, maybe you’re interested in some choice animation, maybe you wanna liveblog it, maybe you wanna show it to a friend, or maybe you’re just really, really bored. Let’s also say that you want to watch the whole series instead of some hand picked “greatest hits”.

Lastly, let’s say that it bugs you how tv shows (especially cartoons) often how episode order mixed up and you looked at wikipedia, saw how much of a mess the season 1 production code order is, remembered how production codes aren’t always indicative of the actual order (especially if you know how the codes of some unproduced episodes in season 1 got recycled).

Don’t worry friend/pal/buddy of mine, I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve compiled a recommended order for watching, separated by season, with the rationale for each change explained under the (editable without outdating reblogs) readmore.

Season 1

Season 2*

Season 3*

Season 4*

Season 5.1*

Season 5.2*

Season 6*

the airing order for season 7 is perfectly fine*

There’s literally no way for there to be an alternate order for season 8

* these indicates that there’s an alternate version under the readmore that primarily follows the episode numbers as seen with http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=, which for the first 6 seasons of AT have what appear to be the original airing order (the end result being closer the production order than the actual airing order is but closer to the actual airing order than production order is) (season 7 of AT and most CN shows just show the production codes when viewed this way) (the default list makes minimal to no changes)

Season 1:

Season 1 is kind of Frankensteined from the order the finalized production art was posted in, animatic order, trends in the animation companies in the episode credits, and episode pairings (according to http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=300253)

Season 2:

The Wand was a short (boarded by Tom Herpich if anyone’s interested) that was apparently shown at movie theaters in mid 2011. It’s on the season 1 dvd

Heat Signature was originally scheduled to air before the season finale but was moved for some unknown reason. (also the date originally scheduled, as seen with http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=300246, still puts it after video makers despite it making more sense before it)

Alternate Season 2

Season 3:

There’s no changes between airing order and this list’s order for the default, though there are many changes between airing order and the alternate list order.

I stray from http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=300244 in the alternate with Incedium because it goes directly into the Season 4 premier

Alternate Season 3

Season 4:

Season 4 has nothing going for it default list change wise BUT Hulu has it completely mixed up (unlike the rest of the show which is in airing order) Just so you know.

I stray from http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=300242 in the alternate with Hot to the Touch for pretty much the same reason as Incedium

Alternate Season 4

Season 5:

I split Season 5.1 differently than most people: while most people slip season 5 in half (ending season 5.1 with Wizards Only, Fools, and starting season 5.2 with Jake Suit): my default lists reflect this. The way I do it involves the fact there’s 4 production codes (1014-125, 1014-126, 1014-127, 1014-128) that are skipped because of 4-parter TV movie that never got produced. Simply, My 5.1 is what would be 26 epsiodes counting the the movie(Finn the Human to The Suitor), while 5.2 is everything afterwards (Party is Over to Billy’s Bucket List)

I stray from http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=300249 in the alternate with the Lemonhope 2 parter (because finn has his grass sword in it) and Billy’s Bucket List (same reason as Incedium)

Alternate Season 5.1

Alternate Season 5.2

Season 6:

Now there’s a stretch of episodes in the middle that are aired out of order-y: The order my list follows is derived from how the episode’s credits (which are shared between episodes within a pair.) list things (for example, Jake the brick and Gold Stars share the same credits). Also while I could have made less changes I’m to lazy to re-do the default season 6 list in January like the rest

Meanwhile for the shorts they’re in the order that the storyboard has them (it was also mentioned before the storyboard was posted that some of the shorts were out of order)

I stray from http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=342092 in the alternate with Food Chain (while the guest directed episodes aren’t canon [at least not to my knowledge], they probably held food chain off until after breezy because of finn’s arm anyways) Pajama War and The Diary (because the Diary has a gag that directly follows up on Pajama War)

Alternate Season 6

Season 7:

The alternate is almost entirely taken wholesale from this image from staff writer Jack Pendarvis’ Blog

Alternate Season 7