Despite having a slightly different structure, What Is Life has a very similar tone and pace to the tother two episodes by this storyboarding team. McLaurin and Mirzaian have at this point developed a good rapport and, even if they're not the most distinctive of Adventure Time storyboarders, manage to put forth a good story here.
This story is primarily focused on being a parody of the kind of "robot achieves sentience" story, often playing it very straitlaced - for example, Finn's patronizing "no, NEPTR, we call that snow." This is followed up in all the ways you'd expect - NEPTR at first thinks that, due to his failure to be perfect, Finn must enjoy watching him suffer, which is an idea the show will return to in its third and fourth seasons.
NEPTR also has an interesting narrative backstory. He comes out of Finn's incredibly half-assed attempt to build a robot and a mysterious stroke of lighting. This is a multi-tiered joke, relying on the audience to understand both the situational comment it's making (the ludicrous nature of doing an episode of Adventure Time about a robot) and on the character level as well - Finn fails to be surprised that his invention has worked and takes the whole thing completely seriously. It's also a strong use of narrative compression that saves a significant amount of time and legwork.
NEPTR's design is pleasantly haphazard, certainly making him appear mismatched and all over the place. This is an apt decision, considering this is the crux of his character both physically and spiritually.
Also notable is Jake's lack of significance. He only appears very briefly twice in the episode, leaving Finn to do all the heavy lifting. This makes sense, as Jake's laid-back personality wouldn't have much of a role in this intensely operatic conflict between Finn and the Ice King.
The Ice King is also used very interestingly in this story. A lot of time is spent emphasizing the complete loneliness and pathetic nature of his character, such as his impersonation of a potential girlfriend and his continual address of Gunter, which becomes prominent here for the first time. However, he's not particularly villainous here, and we're left with a huge amount of sympathy for him at the end of the episode.
The episode's big twist is that the Ice King's lightning infuses NEPTR with the Ice King's desire to kidnap princesses. However, this idea is basically not explored at all beyond how it makes Finn and the Ice King feel; NEPTR remains a cypher. Ultimately, this is resolved completely arbitrarily by NEPTR choosing Finn and throwing pie at the Ice King and then at Jake, leaving the Ice King to dream about connecting with his son.
Next Time: Ocean of Fear
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