A huge part of what made Adventure Time such an incredibly engaging show was the veritable litany of unique and interesting characters. This went far beyond the series' main protagonists, Finn and Jake. There were some absolutely brilliant characters, both good and evil, as well as a few who straddled the line between the two.

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Possibly the most engaging character was the Ice King. He started as an off the wall villain determined to kidnap a princess. Over time, he evolved into a complicated individual who became the essential tragic villain. But he wasn't always the perfect archetype of that role.

NOT PERFECT: Betty Made The Final Move When He Should Have

Adventure Time

In the final episode of Adventure Time, Ooo's heroes had to defeat GOLB, an incredibly powerful being. Trapped inside of GOLB without his powers, Ice King reverted back to being Simon Petrikov. His fiancée from centuries earlier, Betty Groff, was also there.

Ultimately, she sent Simon to freedom and used the crown to defeat GOLB, sacrificing herself in the process. If Ice King was the tragic villain he was made out to be, he would have been the one to make the sacrifice play.

PERFECT: Moved On

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That being said, life wasn't easy for Simon after that day. He was plagued by memories of being the Ice King and had to find ways to move on after losing Betty, again. It was a long and difficult process, to say the least.

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While he was no longer a bad guy, watching him try to rebuild his life as Simon in a very different world was heartbreaking at times. That was made even more difficult by the remnants of the Ice King lurking around his psyche.

NOT PERFECT: Kidnapping Princesses

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Ice King's main obsession was kidnapping princesses. Fortunately, there was no shortage of them around Ooo as there were more than he could shake a stick at. Frankly, there was probably a Stick Princess somewhere.

As it turned out, this was due to a subconscious memory from his time as Simon centuries earlier. He called Betty "princess" and was perpetually looking to fill that void. As sad as the truth was, kidnapping and imprisoning multiple princesses was more dastardly than tragic.

PERFECT: Did Not Go Back To Being Ice King

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After the new combination of GOLB and Betty vanished, the crown was left behind. This was the object that turned Simon into Ice King centuries earlier. Some people have argued that it was trying to protect him while others have said its dark power changes its wearer.

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But that dark power was definitely seductive, and Simon showed a lot of inner strength by not reclaiming it. Doing so would have allowed him to avoid the pain of losing Betty instead of facing it straight on.

NOT PERFECT: Permanently Simon

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Since the defeat of GOLB, Ice King no longer exists, though there is an Ice Thing. One of Ice King's former penguin henchmen took the crown and bonded with it to become the Ice Thing, though Gunter seems to have a better relationship with it.

There is an argument to be made that remaining Simon was an attempt to absolve himself of Ice King's various crimes over the years. Since Simon was controlled by the crown, he could avoid taking responsibility for those actions.

PERFECT: Finding Redemption

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Even prior to permanently reverting to being Simon, the Ice King was already trying to find a path to redemption. Though knowing the Ice King, he was probably doing that without knowing he was doing it.

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As Marceline slowly filled in Finn, Jake, and others about Ice King's past, they became much more understanding of him. Once they started cutting Ice King some slack, he started toning down his evil villain shenanigans.

NOT PERFECT: Could Have Avoided His Fate

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Being stuck in a tragic situation means not being in control of the circumstances surrounding it. While Ice King was certainly subjected to an incredible amount of tragedy in his life, how he chose to respond to it was not beyond his control.

Simon knew the potential consequences of wearing the crown, yet he chose to do so anyway. Much of the tragedy that came out of that was by his own creation and could have potentially been avoided.

PERFECT: Sacrificed His Own Sanity

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In the aftermath of the Mushroom War, presumably, a nuclear holocaust that destroyed a portion of the world, survival was almost impossible. Simon was left with few options to stay alive.

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While he might have been able to find another path to survival, wearing the crown was the best option in front of him. This was especially true when protecting a very young Marceline was added into the equation.

NOT PERFECT: Abandoned Marceline

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There was a time that Simon, prior to becoming the Ice King, took responsibility for protecting Marceline when she was a young, vulnerable vampire. But becoming the Ice King changed that dynamic.

Ice King essentially abandoned Marceline under the guise of protecting Marceline from his own instability. That was a huge assumption on his part, and Marceline probably still could have used his protection for a while longer.

PERFECT: He Saved Marceline

Adventure Time

Regardless of how their relationship ended in the early days after the Mushroom War, that doesn't change the fact that Simon saved Marceline. He cared for her when she had no one else to rely on.

Simon's final decision to use the power of the crown and subsequently become the Ice King was made to save her. Marceline never forgot his sacrifice or the horrible price he paid to save her.

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