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The Ice King (formerly known as Simon) is the main antagonist (often unintentionally) of Adventure Time. His typical crime is to kidnap a princess and force her to marry him, which Finn and Jake foil every time. As his name suggests, Ice King is also his title, announcing himself as King of Ice. He is the ruler of the Ice Kingdom. His magical abilities (with the exception of flight, which is contained within his beard) are contained in his crown, and he is therefore powerless without it. His crown is also the cause of his loss of sanity, his unusual blue skin color, his goblin-like nose, his white eyes, and his beard. Some time before the Mushroom War, he discovered the Enchiridion and bought the crown.
Despite being the show's main antagonist for most of the series, he can turn tragic hero and prove to be a valuable ally, as seen in the episodes "Mortal Recoil" and "Beyond this Earthly Realm."
Info[]
Appearance[]
Ice King is a short, blue, elderly man with unusually pointy fingers, pointy toes, sharp teeth, and a goblin-like nose. He wears a dark blue tunic and has a large white beard that covers most of his body. Typically, the Ice King's weight varies in different episodes. Though the robe gives him the appearance of a larger man, Ice King's body is in fact exceptionally thin, with a very large and defined ribcage. Despite this, Ice King reveals that he is on a diet in "What Have You Done?." However, in "I Remember You", "Bad Little Boy," and "Princess Potluck" he is shown to be fatter than usual. Confusingly, his regular emaciated state is shown again in "Mystery Dungeon," and "A Glitch is a Glitch." Ice King is rarely seen without his crown; without it he is powerless and he is revealed to have a short length of white hair atop his head. The only time he has been seen in shoes was when he was working out before Slime Princess came to talk to him in "Loyalty to the King." Ice king has no visible ears when his beard/hair was removed in "Loyalty to the King" and "Mystery Dungeon."
Personality[]
Though Ice King is normally portrayed as disagreeable and short-tempered, he is merely a nuisance and "isn't usually a serious threat," according to Princess Bubblegum. The Ice King is misunderstood, lonely, and only hopes of marrying a princess. He has been labeled a "sociopath" by the Cosmic Owl, though his personality seems more akin to a person with narcissistic personality disorder, as he still feels humiliation and guilt. Due to his poor social skills, enduring short attention span and arrogant nature, Ice King is unable to attract any of his prisoners and often resorts to a forced marriage instead of the loving relationship he desires. However he can be a loving person as revealed in "Princess Monster Wife". Aside from Gunter, his other penguin guards, and numerous ice creatures, Ice King has few other friends and expresses a continual zeal to spend time with anyone who will tolerate his company, especially his frenemies, Finn and Jake. In "The Eyes," he takes on the disguise of a horse to spy on Finn and Jake in an effort to learn how to be happy, but fails that as well.
Despite Ice King's more antagonistic role, he plays the part of a protagonist in "Mortal Recoil," helping Finn and Jake to defeat Princess Bubblegum by freezing her Lich-possessed body; in the mini-episode, "Let's Work Together," he actually helps Finn and Jake regardless of the fact that Finn said to "sacrifice" himself, but unbeknownst of the fact that it also changed his face.
Ice King is harmless in nature and only kidnaps princesses and steals out of desperation. However, in the episode "Loyalty to the King," when he does have the opportunity to marry many princesses, he secretly plots to make an elite army of wives to take over the world with. His misunderstood intentions may either be in question or may just stem from his lunacy. His crown has made him insane over the years, affecting his social skills, causing him to unintentionally do bad things. Friendship and companionship is all he really wants, though goes about it the wrong way. In "I Remember You," and "Simon and Marcy" it is shown that he was caring as Simon Petrikov. He cared for Marceline when she was a child left alone in the wreckage of the Mushroom War.
Due to the insanity brought by wearing the crown, Ice King seems to have limited memory. This was first seen in "I Remember You", where he doesn't seem to remember his past as Simon Petrikov, even though he saw the history (after he found the crown) in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II". Later on, he doesn't remember who Neptr is, even though he was the one that wanted Neptr to accept as his father in Neptr's debut, "What is Life?", and even confuses him with BMO, as seen in the events of "Mystery Dungeon".
Ice King seems to find his happiness in his own Imagination Zone, and it is clear that he would rather live in his Imagination Zone than in the real world. In "Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake", he is shown reading his gender-swapped fan fiction to Finn and Jake, based on the events and characters in the actual world. He is shown to cherish his fan fiction characters more than the real-life characters, and in "Mystery Dungeon" he tries to bring the characters to life, but he fails. In "Bad Little Boy," it is revealed that he had made ice sculptures of Fionna and Cake along with writing many other fan-fic stories.
In Adventure Time[]
Sometime before the Mushroom War, Ice King was a normal, olive-skinned, dark-haired, glasses-wearing human named Simon Petrikov studying to be an antiquarian (a specialist in the knowledge of ancient artifacts). He had a young fiancée named Betty, whom he referred to as his "princess" and loved dearly, and was Marceline's friend and father figure. In "I Remember You" it is revealed that Simon Petrikov discovered The Enchiridion at some point in his career, with the article pictured mentioning he was a professor of archeology. It can also be inferred that Simon lived in California due to background images in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II" and the wreckage of the area surrounding the U.S. 101 exit in "I Remember You."
At some point in his career, he purchased a strange jeweled crown from an old dock worker in Northern Scandinavia. After bringing the crown home, he put it on his head to make Betty laugh, but the crown caused him to black out and experience odd visions. He shouted at the visions, fought with them until he realized it wasn't real; it was the crown.
Petrikov had no recollection of what he had said or done while wearing the crown, though it was enough to frighten away his fiancée. Simon never heard or saw Betty ever again and began to record himself on VHS tape so people would know his story. As time passed, Petrikov would hear voices and continued having disturbing visions without even putting the crown on. Over time, his skin turned light blue, his nose became pointy and long, his eyes and hair turned white, he grew a full beard, and his body temperature dwindled to an unnatural low of 30°C, or 86°F (normal human body temperature is 37°C or 98.6°F). Despite these unnatural body conditions and being in a land covered by snow, Petrikov managed to survive.
As his mind and body became further twisted by the crown, Simon thought himself "too far gone" to find an escape from its influence, though he hoped that he could one day regain his sanity enough so that Betty, his "princess," would come back and love him again.
During a period of the Mushroom War before Simon was completely lost, he discovered Marceline crying in the wreckage, where he gave her a stuffed toy from a toy shop destroyed in the conflict to comfort her. This toy would be Marceline's precious Hambo, which she would keep and cherish until it was sold to a witch by her ex-boyfriend, Ash. Marceline described Hambo to Ash as her "favorite thing in the world." She was seen alone with a worn-out version of the stuffed toy when Finn and Jake visited her memories, apparently several years after Simon gave it to her.
Sometime when the Ice King was still Simon Petrikov, he found the ancient text of heroes, the Enchiridion. This is shown in a newspaper clipping that Marceline shows him in the episode "I Remember You" The newspaper heading reads, "Simon Petrikov Unearths Ancient Treasure." This newspaper clipping can be seen in an image above.
It could be implied that the crown he wore only sought to protect him. It taught him the secrets of the "ice and snow," so he would survive the Mushroom War, as it did for Farmworld Finn in "Finn the Human." However, in the same episode, Farmworld Finn mentioned the crown's "promise of power", implying the crown's seductive nature and negative influence.
As many years passed, Petrikov became disassociated from his original identity so completely that his only reaction to watching a video of his past was embarrassment at the idea of having once worn glasses. Further proof of his dissociation is shown in "What Have You Done?" when he responds to Jake's accusation of him stealing the crown with, "I didn't steal it. I made that item! Made it with the magic that I stole!" When others refer to him as "Simon" in his hearing, he is generally confused or ignores it (at one point even responding "What-mon?"). If Petrikov is still present at all, he has been totally suppressed by the magic of the crown.
He is no longer human; the power of the crown not only twisted his mind but his body as well. His species/race is now Wizard according to the writers.
In "Mortal Recoil," when Princess Bubblegum was at a risk of dying, Ice King mentioned something about if she dies, he would be lost in his own labyrinth of emotions, similar to what Petrikov says in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II."
Story of Joining the Team[]
When Finn, Jake, and BMO were adventuring around for new foes and friends, they met Sora, Goofy, and Donald Duck, when they fell out of the Gummi ship, as the Ice King met Abbey Bominable. As they met, Finn saw Heartless sneaking up on them and punched the creature, but then it had no affect. Not even his Demon Sword was enough to beat the Nobodies. But when Sora, Goofy, and Donald fought them, they were all defeated and it made Finn, Jake, and BMO want to be stronger than them. When the three asked, Big Yellow managed to cut in and tried to kill them all. When the showdown ended, Sora accepted, but after when find the pathway for the new worlds to connect. When they searched, they met up with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, who met Marceline, Lumpy Space Princess, and Princess Bubblegum. When the Castlevenoms were attacking the Candy Kingdom, the group hurried and fought them off, and went face to face with The Lich, which caused Finn and Jake in confusion, and Sora figured that Maleficent brought him back to life. Sora, Finn, Jake, Donald Duck, BMO, Marceline, Goofy, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot engaged to combat, and had a showdown thaat lasted about 109 sec, with help from Ice King, and Flame Princess. After the showdown, Finn and his friends joined the team finally to stop the Lich and Maleficent.