#king-penguins

[gun-leg]

Happy one year to the trading cards I got to make for the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo's penguin walk.

[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.

[zhelin-thames]

So after "test mission" [Villain's pov]

[Lex Luthor's Secret Lair]

Lex Luthor: [watching security footage of Danny on monitors] Who is this glowing child?! Mercy Graves: He appears to be half-ghost. Lex Luthor: [scoffs] Impossible. Ghosts don’t exist. Danny: [on the monitor, phasing through a wall while holding Lex’s prototype] Guess again, Baldy! Lex Luthor: [glaring] I want him analyzed.

[Gotham’s Rogues Gallery Meeting]

Joker: So… Bats is working with a ghost now? Harley Quinn: He’s kinda cute, in a spooky teenager way. Penguin: He floats through walls! It’s unsporting! Scarecrow: He must have no fear if he’s working with Batman. Two-Face: Let’s flip a coin to see who takes him down. Danny: [phasing through the ceiling] Hi, yeah, I can hear you. Joker: [cackling] Oh, I like him!

Darkseid: Who is this boy who defies me? Danny: [dodging Omega Beams while eating a sandwich] Just your friendly neighborhood ghost kid. Darkseid: [furious] I will obliterate you! Danny: [goes intangible] Yeah, good luck with that, stone face.

Black Manta: The boy interfered with my plans for Atlantis. Danny: [floating upside down] You’re just mad I scared away your haunted Kraken. Black Manta: [furious] It wasn’t haunted!

[prokopetz]

I've just been reminded that it's Creator Day over at itch.io, which is basically the opposite of a sale in that rather than you paying less, authors get paid more. If you'd like to support the development of any of my ongoing projects (and I don't mean "support" in the abstract – I do pay my collaborators, so this stuff costs real money to make!), my creator page is over here:

[bekkomi]

I should start hyper linking these comics tomorrow

[vurd-ed]

Birdposting.

[jelly-fish-wishes]

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3 - 1 <<< 24 / ⚡️ / ???

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!

At first I meant to take a tiny break to play Brothership. But then I had to start my save all over again due to it accidentally getting overwritten, and then I got a whole lotta comms at once, and then the holidays hit, and now I’m out of a job and

🤯

I just wanna draw 🥺

Besides the troubles-

Hehehehehe KP and Luigi finally see each other again. Huehuehuehue….

Tick tock, my friends. Tick tock….

Also, I DID have music in mind for this moment, but the track I like is not really available, so take the scene that has the soundtrack I wanted to link (funnily enough this scene also inspired this part of the comic)

[ohpuckno]

Hockeyblr is hilarious because every now and then, you’ll catch your mutuals cheering for teams you despise on your dash. It’s like discovering your dad has a secret second family. My brother in Christ, we were fighting on the frontlines together in the same lb no more than 24 hours ago, what happened

[antiqueanimals]

George Marston (1882-1940). Polar Wildlife.Iink, watercolour and body colour on artist's board, captioned in ink.

Bonhams

[bayboyzone]

penguins of madagascar log

[ehghtyseven]

kris & the christmas videos, a series [x]

2017: a christmas story 2018: holiday training 2019: the santa clause 2021: the grinch 2024: back in the bunny suit

[deepseamuse]

my favorite thing about subspace emissary is that it has the best and most accurate characterization of Dedede that isn't a mainline Kirby game. Sakurai knows his characters so well

[yourdailymariogif]

Your (third) daily Mario gif.

[plush-birds]

King Penguin 🐧 Felissimo

[prokopetz]

FYI, a couple of games that I've worked on are on sale over on itch.io from now through January 3rd.

Zach Welhouse's Cerebos: The Crystal City is a GM-optional collaborative storytelling game about a group of travellers riding a train to their titular destination. Along the way, you'll stop at various surreal locales – drawn from a pair of 78-card decks with contributions by numerous guest writers – and discover more about the travellers' pasts, eventually uncovering the purpose of their journey and the true nature of the Crystal City. I served as editor and crowdfunding organiser.

Costume Fairy Adventures, meanwhile, is an older title whose system you may recognise as a very early prototype of the one found in my own forthcoming Eat God. Its premise is similar, in that you're a bunch of goofy little critters with cartoon super powers going around causing problems on purpose, though a typical session's rating skews a little more G-rated. I served as lead developer and head rules-monkey on this one, alongside several other writers you might have bumped into here on Tumblr, including @astrakiseki and @dizzyhslightlyvoided.

Both are 50% off until January 3rd. The sale on Costume Fairy Adventures also includes several supplementary playsets, if you already have it from one of the various charity bundles it's appeared in and want to round out your collection.