Flame Princess is the princess and ruler of the Fire Kingdom, as well as Finn's former love interest. When Jake asks Flambo if he knows any princesses that are Finn's age so he can fix his broken heart, he introduces Jake to Flame Princess. Flame Princess was locked away in a lantern in the main chamber of the Fire Kingdom when Jake first encounters her. It is later revealed that her father, the Flame King, put her there on Princess Bubblegum's advice when she was an infant, and she did not come out for 14 years. She has a short temper, trust issues, and a heat core that can destroy the world if overblown with emotions. She is also now close friends with Cinnamon Bun.
Biography
As an infant, Flame Princess was chaotic and free spirited—she was even said and proven to be more powerful than her father, Flame King. After hearing this, the King ordered a messenger to send his daughter away from the Fire Kingdom to "wander into the outside world to perish." She was left in a nearby forest with a Crystal Lumberjack, but wandered away laughing and burning her surroundings. When Flame Princess wandered near the Candy Kingdom, Princess Bubblegum noticed this and, while wearing a fire suit, returned her to the Fire Kingdom. Once there, Bubblegum told Flame King to keep his baby under control or that she would do so herself. Flame King initially denies having a daughter, but admits his parentage when Bubblegum insists that he take her back. They come to an agreement and decide to trap the royal baby in a giant lantern for the rest of her life to ensure that she could never usurp her father's position in the Fire Kingdom. Despite this, she seems to have made friends and grown up talking to Flambo through her lantern.
As an infant, Flame Princess was chaotic and free spirited—she was even said and proven to be more powerful than her father, Flame King. After hearing this, the King ordered a messenger to send his daughter away from the Fire Kingdom to "wander into the outside world to perish." She was left in a nearby forest with a Crystal Lumberjack, but wandered away laughing and burning her surroundings. When Flame Princess wandered near the Candy Kingdom, Princess Bubblegum noticed this and, while wearing a fire suit, returned her to the Fire Kingdom. Once there, Bubblegum told Flame King to keep his baby under control or that she would do so herself. Flame King initially denies having a daughter, but admits his parentage when Bubblegum insists that he take her back. They come to an agreement and decide to trap the royal baby in a giant lantern for the rest of her life to ensure that she could never usurp her father's position in the Fire Kingdom. Despite this, she seems to have made friends and grown up talking to Flambo through her lantern.
It was not until fourteen years later in "Incendium" when she was allowed to be released by her father after Flambo finds her a boyfriend. It is believed that Flame Princess was a handful as a kid despite growing up in a lantern as Flame King described her as "totally evil and destructive." Even so, she was only released because he believed that "Prince Finn" was a cold-blooded killer who would suit his daughter perfectly. After leaving the Fire Kingdom to be with Finn, she resided in the grasslands inside a fire hut—no longer wanting to be influenced by the evil of her kingdom.
Flame Princess discovers that her emotions are unstable and can destroy the world from the core in "Burning Low" when Princess Bubblegum tries to stop her from kissing Finn due to the burst of intense romance. Finn and Flame Princess, on the other hand, want to become more physical in their relationship. Despite the danger they impose on the world, Finn ignores it and risks kissing Flame Princess—almost destroying Earth's core. This near total-fatal event strengthened the bond between the couple and also made Flame Princess more aware and cautious of her emotions and elemental powers, despite still not fully understanding how to control them.
Meanwhile, Flame King believed his daughter was pure evil and had intentions to drag her down again. Once he found Flame Princess's new home and began haunting her with evil whispers, she was frightened and feared that she was truly evil and could not fight her blood. She kept this to herself for awhile until she finally came clean to Finn, so he took her on a quest of heroes to prove to her she is not evil and shift her alignment to good. This made her happy and no longer scared of her past or her family, as she was good at heart. She begins having dinners with "the less evil side" of her family and occasionally her father, as well as regular adventures with Finn and Jake.
As her relationship with Finn played out, they began going on dates and picnics. One of these picnics were interrupted when a fight between Flame Princess and a passing-by Ice King breaks out, causing Finn to have a strange dream. Realizing the fight is what caused the dream, Finn caused another fight by writing both Flame Princess and Ice King a rude letter from the other. Although he had the dream again, Cosmic Owl appeared and told him that "You (He) blew it." This confirms that Flame Princess is indeed important and has an unknown special link to Ice King and the Cosmic Owl. Waking up from the dream and discovering that Flame Princess has destroyed the Ice Kingdom and nearly killed Ice King, Finn stops the fight and confesses he was the one who wrote the letters because he needed to see the dream again and learn what it meant. Flame Princess was hurt and ignored her boyfriend's explanation, ranting on that her letter included personal things that he used against her. She then breaks up with Finn and runs off into the sunset in confusion.
After her break up with Finn, Flame Princess had trouble controlling her emotions again, claiming she does not want to feel that way and Princess Bubblegum observes her. Not remembering that Bubblegum was the one who locked her away as a child, Flame Princess befriends the fellow princess and allows her to run test on her so she can understand herself better. While talking to Cinnamon Bun when Princess Bubblegum leaves Flame Princess unattended, he tells her that Bubblegum is evil. The fire princess is shocked and questions him, so he reminds her that when she locked her in the lantern as a child was pretty evil. Flame Princess then has a flashback and remembers what Bubblegum and Flame King did to her, recalling why she grew up in a lantern in the first place. She then has an outburst after discovering the betrayal of another friend, screaming "Is everyone hiding something?!" The princess then sets off, back to her kingdom for the first time since she left it behind her.
After returning home, Flame Princess realizes she is more powerful than her father and overthrows him—putting him into the lantern where he trapped her during her past life and becoming the new ruler of the Fire Kingdom. She brings her only true friend Cinnamon Bun with her as he leaves his Candy Kingdom days behind to become the princess's new servant. Flame Princess claims she will not be sucked back into the evil, and she makes the new rule of the Fire Kingdom "honesty." When Bubblegum learns that Flame Princess and Cinnamon Bun left she was outraged and went with Finn to track them down to the kingdom. Flame Princess tells them that she overthrew her father, to enact a new regime of honesty within the Fire Kingdom. Stating that her place is in ruling the weak and vicious fire people, Flame Princess tells Finn they are no longer "going out"; however, Flame Princess adds that she and Finn can still be friends. It is unknown where her standing on Princess Bubblegum is, or how she intends to proceed with her relationship with her father, but Flame Princess seems to be calm and at peace with herself while figuring out who she really is in her heart.
In Red Throne, Flame Princess is shown on her throne giving advice to the people of the Fire Kingdom. Her father, trapped above her, is yelling at her. Her assistant then comes over and gives Flame Princess some tea. Then, Don John enters and helps her father escape. She tries to overpower them but finds her powers have been weakened because her tea was poisoned. Cinnamon Bun then comes in and her and Flame Princess escape on a fire wolf. They go to Finn to ask him to help them to overpower her father. Finn agrees, but only to spend time with Flame Princess. She makes it perfectly clear that she does not have feelings for him anymore. They go back to the Fire Kingdom after retrieving Finn's flame-proof suit, and although CB creates a plan of attack, Finn just runs in to the palace in an attempt to impress the princess. She won't let him hurt her people though, so they are captured. CB comes in to save them, but is unsuccessful, punching out 2 guards and retrieving the key to the dungeon jail cells. After Don John and Flame King, who are watching over Finn and FP, get distracted and start fighting each other, Cinnamon Bun comes in and unlocks the cell. As they escape, CB is shot by one of the fire people, causing him to become fully baked, and Flame Princess knocks out Don John, who had cast a spell on the fire people, causing the spell to break. They all stop attacking and CB makes a speech, stating that he loves Flame Princess, and they then hold hands and go to the throne.
Personality and traits
Flame Princess has a short temper and volatile personality; she usually has a calm demeanor, though with rather frequent tendencies to sudden and violent mood swings. She is described as "passionate" by Finn, "evil" by the Flame King, and "intense" by Pendleton Ward.[1] Flame Princess is bold, sensitive, and quick to judge. She is also very aggressive, as shown when she throws fireballs at her subjects just for whispering. However, although being ill-tempered, Flame Princess was shown to be able to control her anger well. Even though Jake, who is controlling Finn, embarrassed him in front of her less-evil family by making him dance his Baby Finn song, she didn't shout or rage at him when she figures out the bet, instead she thinks it's pretty hardcore of Jake to do that and then wishes Finn good luck.
Since she was locked up when she was only an infant, Flame Princess is not educated properly and does not know much about the outside world of the Fire Kingdom. This is shown in "Hot to the Touch", where she was viewed to be examining flowers and was a bit surprised when she accidentally sets them on fire. She also does not know the definition of sneaking and eating, though she had served her family dinner in "Jake Suit". However, by now, she seems to have improved on her knowledge and had shown some intelligent traits.
After Flame King started harassing her by calling her evil, Flame Princess started to fear that she is evil and wants to be good. Since she does not want to be influenced by evil people, she started spending time with her less-evil family members and was also upset when Cinnamon Bun told her that Bubblegum was evil in "Earth & Water." She had also been helping her citizens with their problems and making them happy once she becomes the ruler of the Fire Kingdom, showing the helpful and caring side that lies beneath her tough exterior.
Flame Princess shows her passion for burning things in "Vault of Bones," where she revealed that she thinks destroying stuff is fun. She seems to be very enthusiastic about burning things. She prefers to burn through places and creatures rather than using other methods to explore the dungeon. If she gets overexcited in burning things, she will shoot fire at random places and destroy whatever she likes. However, she eventually becomes aware of her powers and states that she'll only destroy evil things, which was proven to be true when she denies Finn in hurting her people due to them being entranced in "The Red Throne."
After the events of "Frost & Fire," Flame Princess becomes more aware of trusting people and getting into relationships. She seems to have become more serious and dislikes how people "hide" facts from her. She wonders if "everybody is hiding something" and wants people to be completely honest so that she can get to know them better and as well not getting herself tricked. Wanting everybody to be trustworthy, Flame Princess enacted a rule in the Fire Kingdom to be completely honest after she overthrows her father and became the new ruler, no longer wanting to be fooled again.
Abilities
Being a fire elemental, Flame Princess is able to conjure up flames at will, transform other citizens of the Fire Kingdom into Flambits, transform into a larger, more dangerous form composed purely of fire, hurl fireballs that can vary in size, and separate her body into distinctly separate groups of flames. She appears to be able to consciously extinguish fire she has created; she does this when she notices Finn crying. She has the ability to float and move very quickly, both of which leave a trail of flames.
Her weakness is water, shown after unintentionally setting off some of Princess Bubblegum's liquid pyrotechnics and when she puts her hand into a pond. The liquid pyrotechnics caused her to become unconscious, and touching the water in the pool caused her pain. The fires that Flame Princess makes are a part of her, and stomping on or dousing the fire hurts her. However, after her second appearance, she was shown to be able to handle a part of her flames being doused, as shown in "Burning Low" and "Vault of Bones," where Finn puts out her fire in both episodes and she did not react or show any signs of pain. She also has a partial weakness in ice, shown when Ice King throws his groceries (which were frozen) at her and when one of the Snow Monsters hugs her, both of which hurt or douse her.
When she is exposed to extreme romance, her elemental matrix will become unstable, and she would burn through the Earth's crust and set off a series of reactions, causing a meltdown that would burn up the planet from the inside. This reaction was started when Finn kissed her in "Burning Low," but the crisis was averted.
She can unleash small blasts of fire by using her fingers and throw disks of fire as seen in "Ignition Point."
She can emit a continuous flamethrower from her hands, but the length of time she can sustain it is debatable. She has a Scatter Fire ability, in which she emits four manipulable bolts of fire. She can also make a Flame Sword, in which she concentrates an isolated flame, extending from her arm, that is intense enough to glow blue. Immediately following that, she used a Dash ability that sent massive pieces of shrapnel from a steel door (which she had just cleaved into four pieces) in all directions, as seen in "Vault of Bones." Also in the episode, she reveals that she can sense that a tree is not made of wood by using her Heat Sense. She does not leave a fire trail when she walks now, and she says she is a "42" (out of 100) at sending very weak, controlled bolts of fire. This indicates that she has gained considerable control over her abilities since "Burning Low," as seen in "Vault of Bones."
She has full manipulation of her body, morphing it into asymmetrical flames at will. Her father also has this ability, and it may be the norm among fire elementals this is shown when she first steps into her new house. She can shoot beams of fire from the center of the gem on her forehead, as shown in "Frost & Fire." She is also able melt the icicles that the Ice King creates without touching it when they fly towards her. She shows the ability to heal when healing Cinnamon Bun, as seen in "Earth & Water." Although, she could just be melting the area around the wound back into place or cooking his skin to make it brown again, as she is made of fire and Cinnamon Bun is made of a dough substance.
In "The Red Throne," Flame Princess loses some of her abilities when she is poisoned by her handmaiden, who is acting on behalf of Flame King. This causes her flame-hair to fall down, and Finn notes she is relatively cool to the touch. Flame King notes at the end of the episode that she is even weaker than before due to the poisoning, but it is unclear if its effects are temporary or long-term. In the episode, Flame Princess does not seem to have most of her usual flame-blasting or shifting abilities. This also proves that besides water, Flame Princess can also be weakened with poisons.
Trivia
Pendleton Ward and the show's cast first introduced Flame Princess at Comic-Con 2011.
Natasha Allegri has drawn Flame Prince, a gender-swapped version of Flame Princess, in her artwork, but he has yet to appear on the show. He has, however appeared in the mini comic that started in early January of 2013.
Flame Princess is the only known princess to have invaded another kingdom by herself.
In the original storyboard for "Hot to the Touch," Flame Princess was supposed to kiss Finn; however, the idea was dropped and reused for "Burning Low."
When Flame Princess transforms into her larger form, her face resembles that of her father, the Flame King.
She is different than the other flame people curiously, being that she can be completely wet and yet only be rendered unconscious at the most, instead of killed. This is possibly due to the fact that, as royalty, she likely has abilities beyond typical flame people.
She is one of the few flame people with a humanoid shaped body.
Although it appears as if Flame Princess' hair is made of fire, it does not disappear when she is extinguished or wet; instead it falls down to her back and behaves like normal hair.
When in a doused state, her gems appear to turn a maroon color.
She refers to Finn as her boyfriend in "Vault of Bones" and Finn refers to Flame Princess as his girlfriend in "Puhoy."
In "Puhoy," Finn is briefly concerned that their relationship is over after Flame Princess did not get a joke he made, and ventures into a Pillow World where he lives through a lifetime with a pillow wife and pillow children. When he dies of old age in this world and "returns" to Ooo, he immediately gets a phone call from Flame Princess telling him she now gets the joke, and promptly forgets about his "dream" of the Pillow World.
She is one of the two princesses who have ran away from home and lived out in the grasslands because they hated their parents and how they treated them. The other one is Lumpy Space Princess. She is also one of the two princesses to have another emblem aside from a crown to represent her royalty as a princess. The other one is also Lumpy Space Princess.
However out of the two, only Lumpy Space Princess has reconciled with her parents.
It may also noted that she is the third member of royalty that hated their father, along with Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess; however, Lumpy Space Princess's hate stretches to both her parents.
Although she overthrew her father and became the new ruler (making her obtain a crown) and started living in the Fire Kingdom again, she was still considered one of the two princesses as she does not have a crown when she was only a princess and she ran away from home and lived out in the grasslands at the same time.
In the episode "Hot to the Touch" It is proven that whenever Flame Princess's fires are put out, she gets hurt. However, in the episode "Vault of Bones" Finn threw a torch in the water that was lit with Flame Princess's fire and she did not show any pain. Also in the episode "Burning Low" Finn jumped in the water putting out fire that was on his foot that was caused by Flame Princess and she did not seem hurt at all.
In "Earth & Water" she overthrows her father and becomes the new Flame King.
In the episode "The Pit," Finn mentions that he still loves her, even though she rejected him in "Earth & Water."
References in other media
There is a Pet Society costume of Flame Princess.
Flame Princess stars in an Adventure Time original graphic novel, where she embarks on her first adventures with Finn and Jake.[2]
In the mobile game 'Card Wars', Flame Princess is one of the opponents.