Modern Cartoon Recap: The Story So Far & Every Ending Explained (2026)

Updated October 21, 2026 · 18 titles · spoilers for everything below

A set of animated series from 2010 to 2025 that share no story with each other, made for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Netflix, HBO Max and the web. What ties them together is that most tell one long story with a real ending, so each entry here covers how its own run plays out and how it finishes. The only links are inside families: Adventure Time with Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake, and Steven Universe with Steven Universe Future.

Recapped: 18
Watch time saved: 285 hours
Latest: 2023

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No. 01 · 2010 · Series

Adventure Time recap

Finn, a human boy, and Jake, his shape-shifting dog brother, are adventurers in the Land of Ooo, a candy-coloured world full of princesses and monsters. Their friends include Princess Bubblegum, the scientist ruler of the Candy Kingdom; Marceline, a thousand-year-old vampire; BMO, their living game console; and the Ice King, a lonely wizard who keeps kidnapping princesses. Early seasons are mostly one-off quests, but the show slowly reveals that Ooo is Earth a thousand years after the Great Mushroom War, a nuclear catastrophe. The Ice King turns out to be Simon Petrikov, an antiques dealer driven mad by a magic crown, who once looked after a young Marceline after the war. Later seasons follow Finn growing up: first loves with Bubblegum and Flame Princess, losing an arm, meeting his human father Martin, and finding other humans on a distant island. The Lich, an undead force of extinction, is the recurring great villain. The last season, Elements, Islands and Stakes miniseries lead into a war between Bubblegum and her uncle Gumbald.

How Adventure Time ends

The finale, "Come Along with Me", has Finn and Bubblegum's side fight Gumbald's army until GOLB, a god of chaos, rises and threatens to swallow Ooo. Finn ends the war with a song, Simon's old partner Betty merges with GOLB to cure Simon of the crown, and Bubblegum and Marceline share a kiss. The story is framed a thousand years later by BMO telling it to two new characters. Distant Lands (2020 to 2021) and Fionna and Cake (2023 to 2025) continue it.

No. 02 · 2012 · Series

The Legend of Korra recap

Seventy years after Avatar: The Last Airbender, the new Avatar is Korra, a hot-headed girl from the Southern Water Tribe. She moves to Republic City, a 1920s-style metropolis founded by Aang and Zuko, to learn airbending from Aang's son Tenzin. She joins the pro-bending brothers Mako and Bolin and befriends Asami Sato, an heiress and engineer. Each of the four seasons is called a book and has its own villain. Amon leads the Equalists, who want to strip benders of their power. Korra's uncle Unalaq frees the dark spirit Vaatu, and Korra learns about Wan, the first Avatar, and loses her link to past Avatars. Zaheer and the anarchist Red Lotus poison Korra, leaving her badly hurt. In the last book, three years later, Kuvira, a metalbender, unites the shattered Earth Kingdom by force and builds a giant mech powered by spirit vines.

How The Legend of Korra ends

The finale, "The Last Stand", has Korra stop Kuvira's mech and shield her from the blast of her own spirit cannon, which opens a new spirit portal in the middle of Republic City. Kuvira surrenders. At Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding, Korra and Asami decide to take a holiday in the Spirit World together and walk through the portal hand in hand. The story continued in the Dark Horse comics, starting with Turf Wars.

No. 03 · 2012 · Series

Gravity Falls recap

Twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, twelve years old, spend the summer with their great-uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon, where he runs a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. Dipper finds a journal marked "3" that catalogues the town's secrets: gnomes, ghosts, shapeshifters and a dream demon named Bill Cipher. Mabel chases summer romances and friendship with Candy and Grenda, while the Shack's handyman Soos and teenage cashier Wendy join their adventures. The second season digs into the larger mystery. Stan has been secretly rebuilding a portal under the Shack, and when it opens, his long-lost twin brother Ford, the journals' author, comes through after thirty years in other dimensions. Ford reveals that Bill tricked him into building the portal so Bill could enter the real world. Mabel, upset at the summer ending and Dipper's chance to stay as Ford's apprentice, is tricked into giving Bill the rift he needs.

How Gravity Falls ends

The finale, "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls", sees the town's residents fight Bill, who has turned the town into a nightmare. Stan and Ford swap places, Bill enters Stan's mind, and Ford erases it, destroying Bill and Stan's memories with him. Mabel helps Stan get his memories back through her scrapbook. The twins go home for their thirteenth birthday, while Stan and Ford sail off together. Later material includes The Book of Bill (2024).

No. 04 · 2012 · Series

Bravest Warriors recap

In the year 3085, four teenagers run a heroes-for-hire business that saves aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. Chris Kirkman is the leader, in love with his best friend Beth Tezuka. Danny Vasquez is the inventor, and Wallow is the laid-back one whose glove holds an AI called Pixel. Plum, an alien with plant-like hair, becomes an unofficial fifth member, and the tiny, cute Catbug follows them everywhere. Created by Pendleton Ward, it began as a pilot in 2009 and became a YouTube series on Cartoon Hangover in 2012. The first two seasons are short episodes, with the Emotion Lord, Chris's future self, and a hamster who becomes the hero of his own subplot. At the end of season 2, Beth takes over as leader. Season 3 moved to the VRV streaming service in 2017, and a longer fourth season of 52 episodes, made with Nelvana, ran from 2017 to 2018 and also brought in rival heroes.

How Bravest Warriors ends

The last episodes, the two-part "No Matter What the Future Brings" in December 2018, have the team go back to business once their rivals, the Courageous Battlers, are trapped in the See-Thru Zone, then discover their parents' happiness may not be their own choice. The story stops there. No fifth season was made, and a Catbug spin-off announced in 2019 has not appeared.

No. 05 · 2013 · Series

Steven Universe recap

Steven Universe is a boy in Beach City who lives with the Crystal Gems, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, alien warriors who protect Earth. His late mother, Rose Quartz, was their leader and gave up her physical form to create him, so Steven carries her gem in his navel and slowly learns her powers. His best friend Connie trains as a swordfighter, and his human father Greg is a former rock musician. The early comedy reveals a bigger story: the Gems rebelled against their homeworld's rulers, the Diamonds, thousands of years ago to save Earth from being drained. Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, once enemies, join the family. Steven learns that Garnet is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire and that the Gems carry deep wounds from the war. The biggest twist is that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, who faked her own shattering to free Earth. Steven is taken to Homeworld and confronts the Diamonds as her son.

How Steven Universe ends

In the finale, "Change Your Mind", the Diamonds capture the Gems, Steven separates from his gem, and he and Connie convince Blue and Yellow Diamond to stand with them before facing White Diamond. Steven proves he is his own person, and the Diamonds agree to stop harming Gems and to heal the corrupted ones on Earth. Steven Universe: The Movie (2019) adds a villain, Spinel, and Steven Universe Future continues the story.

No. 06 · 2014 · Series

Over the Garden Wall recap

Two half-brothers, the anxious teenager Wirt and his cheerful little brother Greg, are lost in the Unknown, a dark autumn forest. Greg carries a frog he keeps renaming. They meet Beatrice, a bluebird who wants a witch called Adelaide to lift a curse on her family, and she agrees to guide them to Adelaide, who supposedly can send them home. Along the way they pass through a village of pumpkin people, a tavern, a school for animals, a rich man's sprawling mansion, and a girl named Lorna possessed by an evil spirit. A Woodsman tends a lantern that he says holds his daughter's soul, and the Beast, a dark creature that roams the woods, turns lost travellers into Edelwood trees. Beatrice confesses she planned to trade the brothers to Adelaide. Wirt, in despair, gives up, and the Beast begins to claim both boys. The ninth episode reveals how they got there: on Halloween night they fell into a lake.

How Over the Garden Wall ends

In the last episode, "The Unknown", Wirt finds Greg turning into an Edelwood tree. The Beast offers to keep Greg alive if Wirt carries his lantern, but Wirt realises the lantern holds the Beast's own soul and hands it to the Woodsman, who blows it out. Wirt wakes in the lake and the brothers are rescued. Greg's frog glows, showing it swallowed a magic bell. Comics and a 2024 tenth-anniversary stop-motion short followed.

No. 07 · 2015 · Series

Star vs. the Forces of Evil recap

Star Butterfly, a teenage princess from the magical kingdom of Mewni, is sent to Earth as an exchange student after causing chaos with her royal wand. She lives with the Diaz family in Echo Creek and befriends their son Marco, a karate kid who becomes her partner in fights against Ludo, a small bird-like monster who wants the wand. The cast includes Star's best friend Pony Head, her ex-boyfriend Tom, a demon prince, and the dimension-hopping scissors that let them travel. Over four seasons the story grows from monster-of-the-week to a larger plot about Mewni itself. The lizard-like Toffee turns out to be the real enemy behind Ludo, and the fight with him badly damages the wand. Star returns to rule Mewni with her mother Queen Moon, and learns that the Butterfly line has a dark secret: Queen Eclipsa, Star's ancestor, was imprisoned for marrying a monster. Star and Marco fall for each other, and the show deals with how Mewmans have long oppressed the monsters they share the land with.

How Star vs. the Forces of Evil ends

In the finale, "Cleaved", Mina Loveberry's army attacks the monsters while Star decides magic itself causes the conflict. She goes to the realm of magic with Moon and Eclipsa and destroys it, which fuses Earth and Mewni into one world. Star and Marco find each other again in the merged world, where humans, Mewmans and monsters now live side by side. The series ended in 2019 with no continuation.

No. 08 · 2018 · Series

Hilda recap

Hilda is a blue-haired girl who lives with her mother Johanna and her deerfox Twig in a cabin in the wilderness, surrounded by trolls, elves and giants. When their home is flattened, they move to the walled city of Trolberg. Hilda befriends Frida, a rule-loving girl who becomes a witch's apprentice, and David, a nervous boy who gets braver, and they join the Sparrow Scouts. An invisible elf named Alfur becomes her friend and writes about her, and a nisse called Tontu lives in their flat. Hilda keeps getting into the city's strange corners: a nightmare spirit, a lost clan of elves, a ghost, a Kraken, the Yule Lads. The second season shows Erik Ahlberg of the Safety Patrol preparing the city for war with the trolls, and it ends with Hilda swapped for a troll child. The film Hilda and the Mountain King (2021) sees her trapped as a troll and finding her way home. The third and last season moves to Tofoten and the fairies, and Hilda's father Anders appears.

How Hilda ends

The final episode has Hilda go into Fairy Country to rescue her father. Johanna follows and learns she was a sick human child traded to the fairies, freed when her own parents took her place, with her memory wiped by Astrid. The deerfoxes clear a path, and everyone escapes. Anders settles in Trolberg, and the family watches the Bird Parade together. The show ended in 2023 after three seasons.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power poster

No. 09 · 2018 · Series

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power recap

Adora is a teenage soldier in the Horde, an army ruling part of the planet Etheria under the warlord Hordak. When she finds a sword that turns her into She-Ra, a legendary warrior princess, she defects to the Rebellion and joins Glimmer, princess of Bright Moon, and the archer Bow. Her best friend Catra, left behind in the Horde, becomes her bitterest enemy and climbs to Hordak's second-in-command. Adora helps reunite the princesses of Etheria into an alliance. Hordak builds a portal to contact his creator, Horde Prime, and when Catra opens it, Glimmer's mother Queen Angella sacrifices herself to close it. Adora learns that She-Ra was made by an ancient civilisation as the key to a weapon called the Heart of Etheria. In season 4 she breaks the sword to stop it being used, and Etheria is pulled back into the universe, where Horde Prime's fleet arrives. Catra, finally broken, rescues Glimmer and is taken in by the Rebellion.

How She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ends

The finale, "Heart", has Horde Prime take over much of Etheria with mind control and try to fire the Heart of Etheria. Adora, dying, is saved when Catra confesses she loves her, and they kiss. Adora becomes She-Ra again, destroys Horde Prime and the weapon, and restores magic to the whole universe. The friends plan to travel the stars bringing magic back. There has been no continuation.

No. 10 · 2019 · Series

Amphibia recap

On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Boonchuy of Los Angeles opens a music box with her friends Sasha and Marcy and is pulled into Amphibia, a world of frogs, toads and newts. She lands in Wartwood and is taken in by the Plantar family: Sprig, a frog boy who becomes her best friend, his grandfather Hop Pop and his little sister Polly. Anne learns to be a hero while looking for her friends. Sasha has joined Captain Grime and the toads, who want to rule Frog Valley. In season 2 the Plantars and Anne travel to Newtopia, where Marcy has become a royal adviser to King Andrias, who promises to recharge the box. The three girls hold the box's gems, and Andrias turns out to be a conqueror who wants to use the box to invade other worlds. Marcy secretly brought her friends there on purpose so they would never be separated. Season 3 sends Anne and the Plantars to Los Angeles for a while before they return to fight Andrias and the Core, an AI that has taken over Marcy's body.

How Amphibia ends

The finale, "All In" and "The Hardest Thing", has the girls free Marcy and defeat Andrias, who makes amends, but the Core sends Amphibia's moon crashing toward the planet. Anne gives her life to stop it, then is returned by a cosmic guardian and gets the girls home as the box crumbles. Ten years later, Sasha and Marcy surprise Anne, now a herpetologist, on her birthday.

No. 11 · 2019 · Series

Infinity Train recap

An anthology about people who board a seemingly endless train, where each car holds its own world. A glowing number on each passenger's hand counts down as they work through their problems, and reaching zero lets them leave. Book 1 follows Tulip Olsen, upset over her parents' divorce, with One-One, a robot with two personalities, and Atticus, a corgi king. She learns the train's Conductor role was taken over by Amelia, a grieving passenger. Book 2 follows Tulip's reflection, freed from the mirror world and calling herself MT, on the run with a teenage boy, Jesse, and a silent deer called Alan Dracula. Book 3 follows Grace and Simon, leaders of a cult of passengers called the Apex who raise their numbers by attacking the train's residents, and a young girl called Hazel. Book 4 goes back in time to Ryan and Min-Gi, childhood friends who want to be musicians, and a talking bell named Kez. Books 1 and 2 aired on Cartoon Network; Books 3 and 4 moved to HBO Max.

How Infinity Train ends

Book 4 ends with Ryan and Min-Gi accepting they need each other and leaving the train, and Kez apologising to the residents she hurt. It was billed as the final season, but creator Owen Dennis had planned eight books, including an Amelia-focused film, and production stopped after Book 4. The series was cancelled without a proper conclusion and removed from HBO Max in 2022.

No. 12 · 2019 · Series

Steven Universe Future recap

A 20-episode epilogue set two years after Steven Universe and its film. With the Diamonds reformed, Steven runs Little Homeschool, a school in Beach City that teaches Gems from Homeworld how to live freely on Earth. Most of the old enemies are now friends, and life is calm, but Steven, now sixteen, starts to fall apart. He has always been the one who fixes everyone else's problems, and without a crisis he has no idea who he is. Old trauma surfaces as panic attacks, his powers act up, and he begins to glow pink and lash out. He hurts others and himself, including shattering Jasper in a fight and later reviving her. He learns that his mother's past still affects people and that he has never dealt with what happened to him as a child. His father Greg and his friends notice too late. Steven pushes Connie away and starts to break down.

How Steven Universe Future ends

In the finale, "The Future", Steven is calm again a few months after a breakdown in "I Am My Monster", in which he turned into a giant monster and his friends, family and the Diamonds held him and talked him back. He decides to leave Beach City and drives off to start his own life, after the Gems admit they were hiding their sadness. It ended the Steven Universe story in 2020.

No. 13 · 2020 · Series

The Owl House recap

Luz Noceda, a misfit Dominican-American teenager, stumbles through a portal into the Boiling Isles, a demon realm built on the bones of a dead titan. She becomes apprentice to Eda Clawthorne, a rule-breaking witch living with King, a small demon who claims to be royalty, and Hooty, a tube-shaped house demon. Humans cannot do magic, but Luz learns to cast spells by drawing glyphs. She attends Hexside, makes friends with Willow and Gus, and falls for Amity Blight, her former rival. Emperor Belos rules the isles and forces witches into covens. Eda has a curse that slowly turns her into an owl beast, cast by her sister Lilith. In season 2, Luz looks for a way home and King searches for the truth about his past. Belos turns out to be Philip Wittebane, a human witch hunter from centuries ago who plans the "Day of Unity" to wipe out the witches. His soldier Hunter is one of many clones of Philip's brother Caleb. Disney cut season 3 down to three specials.

How The Owl House ends

In the finale, "Watching and Dreaming", the Collector, an ancient being, plays with the isles while Belos tries to destroy them through the Titan's heart. Luz is killed, meets King's Titan father, and returns with her power restored. Belos fakes surrender and Eda, Raine and King destroy him. Four years later Luz goes to college in the isles and celebrates her quinceañera with everyone. A graphic novel set two years later is due September 29, 2026.

No. 14 · 2020 · Series

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts recap

Centuries after animals mutated into talking, intelligent "mutes", humans live in underground burrows. Kipo Oak, thirteen, is swept to the surface of a ruined Los Angeles, now called Las Vistas, when a giant mutant monkey attacks her burrow. She sets out to find her father Lio with Wolf, a tough girl raised by wolves; Benson, a cheerful surface survivor; Dave, a talking insect who keeps moulting into new life stages; and Mandu, a six-legged pig. The main villain is Scarlemagne, a mandrill who can control other mutes with his pheromones. Kipo learns that her parents gave her jaguar DNA and that she can transform into a giant Mega Jaguar. In season 2 she discovers that the giant monkey is her mother Song, mutated and controlled, and that Scarlemagne was once Hugo, a lab animal raised by her parents. In season 3 Kipo tries to unite humans and mutes, but Dr. Emilia, a scientist who hates mutes, plans to wipe them out.

How Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts ends

In the finale, Emilia turns herself into a mega mute and nearly kills Kipo. Scarlemagne gives his life to save her, asking to be called Hugo as he dies. Kipo cures Emilia, who attacks again and is trapped underground. Five years later, Kipo, now eighteen, visits Hugo's grave and spends the day with her friends in a rebuilt Las Vistas where humans and mutes live together. The series ended in 2020.

No. 15 · 2020 · Series

The Midnight Gospel recap

An adult series from Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell built on real interviews from Trussell's podcast. Clancy Gilroy lives alone in a trailer on a planet called the Chromatic Ribbon and runs an unlicensed universe simulator. He uses it to visit simulated worlds, almost always in the middle of an apocalypse, and interview the people there for his "spacecast". The conversations are real audio from guests including Drew Pinsky, Anne Lamott, Damien Echols, Caitlin Doughty and Ram Dass, about meditation, drugs, grief, magic and death, while the animation shows Clancy and his guest wandering through zombie outbreaks, slaughterhouses and cosmic events. Small threads link the episodes: the simulator's growing frustration with Clancy, the trouble he keeps getting into for misusing it, and Clancy's refusal to face his own life. The eight episodes build toward the most personal interview of all.

How The Midnight Gospel ends

In the eighth and last episode, "Mouse of Silver", Clancy interviews his own mother, voiced by Trussell's real mother Deneen Fendig, recorded while she was dying of cancer. They talk about birth and death, she dies, and Clancy finally accepts it and lets her go. Netflix did not renew the show; Trussell confirmed in 2022 that there would be no second season.

No. 16 · 2020 · Series

Adventure Time: Distant Lands recap

Four hour-long specials released on HBO Max in 2020 and 2021, each set after the Adventure Time finale and focused on different characters. "BMO" sends BMO into deep space, where it helps a young girl, Y5, and a droid save a dying space station called the Drift. "Obsidian" follows Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, now a couple, to the Glass Kingdom, where a lava dragon Marceline once fought is waking up and Marceline must face the past and her mistakes from that fight. "Together Again" opens with Finn dying as an old man and searching the afterlife for Jake, who died years before. They find that New Death, who has seized power over the dead, has stopped reincarnation, and that the Lich is controlling him. "Wizard City" has Peppermint Butler, turned back into a child, enrol at a school for wizards to relearn magic, where his dark past makes him a suspect when trouble starts on campus.

How Adventure Time: Distant Lands ends

The emotional end of Distant Lands is "Together Again": Finn and Jake beat New Death and the Lich, and Finn chooses to be reborn, with Jake following him so they can live their next life together. The last released special, "Wizard City" (2021), returns to Peppermint Butler at wizard school and closes the set. Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, a separate series, followed in 2023.

No. 17 · 2022 · Series

Bee and PuppyCat recap

Bee is a broke young woman who lives in a small island town. A cat-dog creature called PuppyCat falls from the sky, and she takes him in. To pay her rent, they take temp jobs from TempBot, a giant screen that sends them through space to strange little worlds where the work is never quite what it seems. Bee's neighbours include Deckard, who cooks and has a crush on her, his sister Cas, and Cardamon, her very serious child landlord, who cares for his mother Violet, in a coma. PuppyCat was once a fearsome space outlaw before being cursed into his current form, and a group of Warlocks hunt him. Bee herself turns out to be a robot, built by a father she does not remember. The story began as a web series in 2013, funded on Kickstarter, and was rebooted on Netflix in 2022 as Lazy in Space, which retells the original and then carries the story further.

How Bee and PuppyCat ends

The Netflix season ends with "I Won't Leave You Alone": the island is attacked by giant magical hands while PuppyCat tries to restart his ship, and the Warlocks close in. The story is left open, with many mysteries about Bee, her missing father and PuppyCat's past still unexplained. No further season has been announced since the Netflix release in 2022, so this is effectively where the series stops.

No. 18 · 2023 · Series

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake recap

An adult spin-off on HBO Max. Fionna Campbell and her cat Cake are gender-swapped versions of Finn and Jake, first invented as fan fiction by the Ice King. In their own world there is no magic, and Fionna works dead-end jobs. When magic suddenly appears and then goes wrong, Cake vanishes and Fionna goes looking for her. Their search leads them to Simon Petrikov, the man who used to be the Ice King, now cured but depressed and still missing Betty. Together they travel through the multiverse, visiting versions of Ooo that took different turns. They learn that their world was made without permission by Prismo, the wish master, and that Scarab, a cosmic auditor, is coming to delete it. Season 1 aired in 2023; season 2 followed from October to December 2025 and brought in Huntress Wizard, who travels between worlds to save an ailing Finn while Fionna fights to save a café from eviction.

How Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake ends

Season 1 ends with "Cheers": Simon accepts Betty's sacrifice and Fionna uses a magic dandelion to make her world official, undoing Scarab's damage. Season 2 ends with "The Bear and the Rose" (December 2025): Huntress heals Finn with seeds from across the multiverse and Fionna makes peace with her friends. A scene after the credits shows Hunson Abadeer approaching Marshall Lee.

Common questions

What is the Modern Cartoon story so far?

Where did Modern Cartoon leave off?

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (2023) is the latest. Season 1 ends with "Cheers": Simon accepts Betty's sacrifice and Fionna uses a magic dandelion to make her world official, undoing Scarab's damage. Season 2 ends with "The Bear and the Rose" (December 2025): Huntress heals Finn with seeds from across the multiverse and Fionna makes peace with her friends. A scene after the credits shows Hunson Abadeer approaching Marshall Lee.

Modern Cartoon recap: the story so far