#ice thing

[inbarfink]

When talking about the distinction between Simon Petrikov and the Ice King,  it’s important to remember that originally, the Crown wasn’t trying to turn Simon into Ice King -

It was trying to turn him into this guy.

At the time, the Ice Crown - or rather the Wishing Crown - was programmed with Gunther’s wish to become Evergreen. So everything related to making the current wearer like Evergreen is a very direct result of the Crown’s Magic. The physical changes -

And the obsession with the name ‘Gunther’ -

And maybe some of the irritability and anger issues -

That is something the Crown is very directly forcing unto its current wielder. 

But everything else?

Ice King, personality-wise, was not much like Evergreen at all, or even like Gunther's view of him. And Ice Finn of the Farmworld Universe was also pretty different from the both of them.

At the time, I remember people assumed Ice Finn’s behavior is more indicative of what the Crown is actually trying to do with its wielders. That Ice King is so different because of Simon’s subconscious resistance against the Crown - while Finn’s much younger and dumber brain is a lot susceptible to the Curse’s influence to become some sort of mad world-conquering emperor of ice and snow. 

But, with the context of the Crown’s actual backstory. That doesn’t seem very likely anymore. I think what’s actually happening there is that the Crown is just trying to make its wielder an Ice Wizard on par with Evergreen (who was the Actual Goddam Ice Elemental) and that means pumping the wielder’s brain so full of Magic, Madness and Sadness to a level that is bound to overwhelm anyone.

And Simon’s and Farmworld Finn’s very different behaviors after putting on the crown is indicative, more than anything, of how their psyche reacts to Madness and Sadness in general. You know, Finn has a very proactive and kinda aggressive personality - and you add Crown-induced-Madness-and-Sadness and a compulsion to use Ice Magic as much as possible and you get all of…. this 

Meanwhile, for Simon, the compulsions of the Crown originally filtered exclusively via the language of protection 

As his madness always manifested as romantic obsession 

And using goofy humor to try and deny the pain he’s going through 

Because that’s how Simon’s mind specifically reacts to being flooded with so much Madness and Sadness.

That’s why there’s so many parallels between Ice King and the sort of mistakes and screwed-up stuff Simon does right now! He’s even kidnapping people again!

Because the Madness and Sadness of Ice King might’ve been induced by the Crown, but now Simon has plenty of personal home-grown Madness and Sadness inside him - and it’s no surprise that Curse-Induced or not, his mind reacts to it in a sorta-similar way. (Although obviously not as intensely, again, there was a LOT of MMS in the Ice Crown).

Now as for Ice Thing, and the fact that he seems to be actually rather well-adjusted under effects of his version of the Wishing Crown. I mean... not by the time of the 1000+ Era, but that’s literally eons in the future and also maybe more Gibbon’s fault. Even if the Crown will eventually take some sort of toll on him, for now he seems to be doing pretty well considering his wish. I mean, there's still some sort of Loss of Identity stuff going on

But everything we've seen of Ice Thing (in the present day, at least) shows him as a friendly and cheerful individual that gets along well with others. A far cry from how maladjusted every single wielder of the Ice Crown acted.

At the very least, if there's any notable amount of Sadness in him, we really haven't seen it yet.

There might be several factors here:

First things first, I should acknowledge the possibility that it’s just that Orgalorg’s eldritch brain is better at intaking all that MMS juice. That could play a part, but I think it’s probably more important, at least thematically, to look at the distinction between ‘I wish to be Evergreen’ and ‘I wish to be Ice King’. 

First in the sense that while Ice King was occasionally mean to Gunter at times - he was generally much kinder than Evergreen ever was for ‘his’ Gunther. So, like, pretty much the one Personality Flaw of Ice King that you can directly link to the Ice Crown’s attempt to mimic Evergreen is the occasional anger issues.

And how they relate to Gunther’s view of Evergreen, so grumpy and controlling and constantly saying ‘NO!’

(Both Finn and Simon’s demonstrable not-crown-induced trauma responses can make them pretty short-tempered as well. So I’m not going to say this is purely the effects of the Crown. It still probably plays some sort of factor at why the wielder of the Ice Crown is Like That).

And that is not a factor in how Gunter views Ice King. For him, Ice King was a doting and loving father figure - so if the Crown was ever trying to implement any sort of specific negative personality traits, this is absolutely no longer a factor. Because the original Ice Crown was a reflection of Evergreen’s abuse, and now Ice Thing is a reflection of Ice King’s fatherly love.

Which is, itself, probably an echo or remnant of Simon’s own strong parental instincts. 

Secondly, while the Crown was trying to make the Ice King just as powerful as Evergreen…. Ice King was obviously not as powerful as Evergreen. Because he was already a second-rate copy of the Ice Elemental’s power, and because Ice King was often just too doofy to use his powers correctly and probably because some remnant of Simon’s original sensible self is subconsciously holding his powers back.

Either way, being ‘like Ice King’ as Gunter sees him requires less Magic than being ‘like Evergreen’ as Gunther saw him - and therefore less Madness and Sadness. Leading to the wearer or, um, the eater being a lot more well-adjusted from the get-go.

And I think that the implication that Ice Thing has fused with the Crown, so there's never going to be another poor sap who puts on the Crown and gets Ice King'd. But if there is one somehow... at least the process is going to be less mentally detrimental that time around?

Maybe one day Simon could look back and appreciate how much he (or Ice King, or both of them, or however you want to look at the situation) is responsible for basically neutralizing the Crown that ruined his life in the first place.

[aria-greenhoodie]

ICE USER STICKER DESIGNS!!!! >:3333333 Click for Quality!

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST (even with credit!)

[lvl100hummuswarrior]

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i have a very specific vision for what simons childhood was like

[emositecc]

Oop.

[at-weeb96]

Requested this rad commission from RenaX_kyo over on twitter. They're also working on a F&C fan comic atm. Please check them out, their art is so pretty ❤

[dullahandaydream]

Parts of the madness

[mushtoons]

how does the ice thing factor in that au?

they're best friends!!! they call each other gunther 💕

[run-with-the-wolvez]

Crafting an au called sinister snowflakes (literally just the ice elementals from every version so far, ice princes included) where all the ice freaks are all one big awful family :>

Og images underneath!

[boxheadpaint]

Well truly

[emilnikos]

ice guys for real this time

[sketchbutts]

How is Simon so unlucky that he's the ONLY crown user to have a receding hairline 😭😭😭

[inbarfink]

I wonder if we’re going to see more from Ice Thing in this show. I guess I doubt it because we literally just started the Multiverse Hopping part of the adventure and it seems like it’s going to be a while before we make it back to Ooo - but he really is something that could play an interesting part in Simon’s character arc.

Because he really is the idealized version of Ice King. Not in the way that the Ice Prince of Fionna’s dream was - a basically unrelated sexyman with an icy coat of paint.

Ice Thing really is just... Ice King without the Bad Parts. Just a happy-go-lucky Ice Wizard who is kinda silly and wacky. 

Without all the parts where Ice King was legitimately miserable most of the time and often caused real harm to those around him.

And he’s happily married to a Princess who loves him! Literally the one thing Ice King always wanted.

Ice Thing is basically… like what Finn and Jake and Marceline were working towards with Ice King before Betty just turned him back into Simon. Still Ice King, but simply a happier and healthier Ice King. 

I wonder if the reason why so many people in Ooo seem to have a kinda rose-tinted view of what Ice King was like is because they keep comparing Simon to Ice Thing instead on some subconscious level. Because it’s important to remember that while Ice King got closer to being content and happy and harmless as the show went on, he never quite managed to reach the state of where Ice Thing seems to be in.

Ice Thing is both a reminder of the life Simon lost when he regained his old identity, but also a reminder of just how far away he always was from that level of happiness. 

[cakeontheloose]

There he is!

My beautiful child that I love

[ravenlynclemens]

lumpy space princess and others

[ninebaalart]

Ice Crown [+Mamfrost]

mamfrost is based off the ice thing and magwood, which is where the ice crown originally from. I wanted to make it the ice crown specifically because there's a bit more history to play with

[anonymouscreampuff]

more doodles :3