#i tend to fluctuate between lack of appetite and binge eating when my mental health is poor

[finedinereception]

other posts have discussed this in better detail than i probably could but

pen ward confirmed that ice kings weight fluctuates with his mood. hes shown to be emaciated through a good chunk of the series, but begins gaining weight as characters become more patient with and kind to him, suggesting that he doesnt eat when hes depressed.

already thats a red flag, but could be waved off as crown madness- that ice king was insane and didnt realize he was starving due to his own negative mental state. however, in one of the simon and marcy comics, i noticed a scene that bothered me.

for context: hunson abadeer, jealous of simons bond with marcy, has him cursed so that the ice king persona is slowly taking over his mind. during this time, pb runs some tests, and this includes weighing him… causing simon to become sheepish and begin making excuses about his weight. he is literally turning into ice king and feels the need to make excuses about being too fat. when he spent 900 years as a walking skeleton.

EDIT: misrembered the timeline here. he was losing his memories as a result of becoming simon again, the IK thing comes a little later. still, the fact that he was once again forgetting things should be traumatic for him, and hes still pressed about his weight. thats still incredibly abnormal.

in fionna and cake, he doesnt really eat much either, and we see that he drinks a lot of alcohol, which causes a lack of appetite.

im fairly certain that they didnt intend to imply simon has body image issues or any form of disordered eating, and that ice kings weight was more a metaphorical thing about kindness helping and changing people for the better. the simon and marcy comic moment was likely intended as a joke. so this post was not meant as an actual criticism, since this isnt an intentional character element to be addressed. it was more like, hey i wish theyd mentioned how messed up simon got as ice king beyond just his personality. dude was so starved the crown was probably the only thing keeping him from keeling over from hunger.

all that being said, simon having an eating disorder of some kind is definitely a valid reading

society if fionna and cake addressed simons relationship with eating