Ice King's relationships



This page describes Ice King's relationships with other characters in the Adventure Time series.

Betty


Betty was a human woman revealed to have once been the fiancée of a man named Simon Petrikov, who would much later become Ice King. She and Petrikov had a very committed relationship until Petrikov obtained an enchanted crown, which gradually began to alter his mind and body. When Petrikov put on the crown for the first time, something he did terrified and angered Betty and caused her to leave, as evidenced by Simon saying that "she looked at [him] with such contempt." Simon never saw her again, and he records on video his desperate wish to regain his sanity so that she might one day return to him. It is not known if she was killed during the Mushroom War, though most likely due to Simon's note in "I Remember You" saying that he and Marceline may be alone in the world after the apocalypse of the Mushroom Bomb.

Ricardio
Ricardio was revealed to be the Ice King's own sentient heart in "Ricardio the Heart Guy." It literally left his body to pursue its own agenda. It seems to share the same passions as the Ice King, including the fixation on marrying Princess Bubblegum. Naturally, the Ice King is desperate for Ricardio to return to the inside of his body but Ricardio has no empathy for the Ice King, even beating him up and throwing him into a dumpster to die. Without his heart the Ice King is virtually, but not completely, helpless, and will likely die without it after a time. In "Lady &amp; Peebles" Ricardio escapes once again taking Ice King's internal sinews to fashion a body without regard for Ice King's well-being. Ricardio also calls the Ice King "Simon" in the episode "Lady & Peebles."

NEPTR
Ice King first interacted with NEPTR in "What is Life?" when Finn used the Ice King's powers so NEPTR could fully function. After this, Ice King explained to Finn that after he zapped NEPTR with his ice power, he was infused with the Ice King's private particles, which also became his "son" and he then wanted NEPTR to choose between him and Finn. They interacted with each other again in "Mystery Dungeon," where they worked together, along with Tree Trunks, Shelby, and Earl of Lemongrab. In the episode, it is shown he no longer knows who NEPTR is and confuses him with BMO.

Gunter and the other penguins
The Ice King's moodiness in life is expressed toward them. He will portray paternal feelings towards them, often referring to himself as "daddy" in the third person, and can even be understanding to their childlike antics, such as when Gunter was breaking bottles in "Still." However he also treats them as slaves, often seen yelling, abusing, and in "Five Short Graybles" he threw several of them in the garbage and marooned Gunter on a drifting iceberg for his own selfish reasons. Though annoyed, Gunter came back, so the penguins seem to be quite loyal. In "Princess Monster Wife" they are also shown to act in fear of Ice King. He even said "clap harder or I'll smack your buns." In "Reign of Gunters," he is the only one who could stop Gunter from causing terror in the Candy Kingdom.

Marceline


In "I Remember You," Ice King is revealed to have known Marceline in the past during the aftermath of the Mushroom War. He is also the one who gave Marceline her old toy, Hambo. Although as much as Marceline remembers Ice King as Simon, he doesn't seem to remember her as much as she explains to him. It is implied through Marceline's dialogue that Ice King has repeatedly sought her out at her different residences over the years, but does not remember their past friendship or his life as Simon, something that angers Marceline and sometimes even drives her to tears.

In "Simon and Marcy," depicts this period of their lives, where Simon worked hard to keep young Marceline safe and happy in the devastated post-Mushroom War world. In the flashback, Simon is shown to look for food for Marceline, entertain her with jokes, plays and songs (possibly inspiring her own interest in music) and risking his life to find her some chicken soup when she is sick. However, it is also shown that Simon occasionally needed to put the ice crown on his head to access its powers to protect Marceline, and each time he did so accelerated his transformation into the Ice King, with longer hair and a longer nose, and a crazed, nonsensical personality. Marceline was aware of the crown's effect on him and made him promise not to put it on, but Simon was forced to in order to save them from some mutants, and was only barely able to get the crown off. Afterwards, he refers to her as "Gunther," indicating his transformation had continued.

A letter he wrote for her in the past indicates that Simon stayed away from Marceline because he was aware the crown's powers were sapping his sanity (and keeping him alive) as he turned into the Ice King, and that he was afraid of saying or doing something harmful to her based on recent events. He remains a fan of her music even as the Ice King, and irritates her by showing up at her doorstep to write a song to help him get princesses. However, despite her frustration with Ice King's behavior, Marceline maintains some affection for him, turning away Finn and Jake when they offer to wallop him for her, and eventually performing the duet "Remember You" with Ice King based on their past relationship. She also admits in her song "Nuts" that while she is deeply annoyed with Ice King, she is always glad to see him when he shows up. In addition the Ice King seems to still hold some concern for Marceline, immediately apologizing for shoving her and then hides on top of the refrigerator, showing more guilt than he does when doing much worse things against Finn or the other people of Ooo.

And in the episode, "Finn the Human," Farmworld Marceline is seen as an older woman, saying to Farmworld Finn that her beloved friend Simon Petrikov stopped a missile using the magic from his crown, then pointing to his skeleton under a frozen missile also stating that he could not save himself. Events surrounding the full nature of their past relationship have yet to be seen in the series.

Since the events of "I Remember You," Marceline has visited Ice King in his castle at least once, as shown in "Bad Little Boy." She also appears to be more tolerant of Ice King in this episode, showing that she forgives him for not remembering her. In "Simon and Marcy," a more 'in depth' relationship between them is explored. For example, Marceline invites him to play basketball. He is shown to have been like a father to her, being very protective of her, keeping his promises to her, and showing visible concern when she was ill. In the present, Marceline tells Finn and Jake that the Ice King "means a lot" to her, and that she loves him.

Island Lady
In "The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita," Ice King washes up on the shore of an island, later revealed to be the Island Lady. Having chosen to move on from Bubblegum, Ice King stays on the Island Lady and builds himself a house from the materials on the Island Lady. Due to the time Ice King spent with the Island Lady, the two have bonded as friends.

With the two having similar problems (the problems being their love interest not spending time with them, even though Bubblegum isn't Ice King's girfriend), Ice King and the Island Lady are seen talking about this matter. Due to both's interactions, they inspire each other to break up with their love interest. According to Ice King, the Island Lady was as much as an inspiration to him as he was to her.

Princess Bubblegum
Princess Bubblegum is Ice King's main love interest, but it's unrequited love. Since Finn had a crush on Princess Bubblegum (before meeting Flame Princess), this made it even harder for Ice King to maintain any relationship that will last with her. Finn and Ice King would usually be seen fighting for the affections of Princess Bubblegum in earlier episodes. It seems that he also captures her more than any other princess and enjoys being near her.

In "Mortal Folly," he even tries to get her attention and marry her, and even tells her that he loves her. However, after she temporarily turns thirteen, he is not interested in her. As of "What Have You Done?," Princess Bubblegum is completely willing to hurt the Ice King if forced to. In "Holly Jolly Secrets part II," however, it has been shown that Princess Bubblegum and the Ice King are capable of being civil, even hanging out, presumably when Finn is around to prevent anything bad from happening. The three were shown wearing Christmas sweaters, drinking cocoa, and watching tapes in a content way.

In "What Have You Done?," he tries to be kind to Princess Bubblegum by making it "snow" (scratching his beard so his beard flakes fall) but instead succeeds to make everyone sick with the freezer burn flu. When Princess Bubblegum goes to him for help he denies it and thinks she's hitting on him, making her upset. However, she just regards him as "an old fool."

At the end of "Lady & Peebles," Princess Bubblegum creates a new heart for Ice King after rescuing him from the dungeon where Ricardio was. Although Princess Bubblegum dislikes Ice King, she does not wish for him to die.

Flame Princess
During his song, Oh Bubblegum, Ice King has shown he knows who Flame Princess is, though it is not clear if they have met before.

Other princesses
Aside from Princess Bubblegum, Ice King has shown an obsession with all the other princesses. His most common is Wildberry Princess, for unknown reasons. In "Hitman," Ice King states that Lumpy Space Princess and Ghost Princess are his least favorite princesses. This is due to the fact that he cannot hold Ghost Princess with his "love mitts." He also dislikes Lumpy Space Princess as he prefers smooth princesses, as stated in "Loyalty to the King." Although later in the episode, even when she punches in her lumps, he still rejected her so it seems he finds her personality annoying.

Fionna
Fionna is a reverse gendered Finn created by Ice King for a series of fan fiction novels he's written involving adventures of her and her cat Cake. While generally fan-fictions, Ice King has generally turned the tales into self-insertion tales where Fionna is madly in love with him and the duo go on adventures together while confessing their love for each other.

While his creation, Ice King has obsessed in believing that Fionna is real and is willing to do anything to bring her to life; even attempting to bring a book of his to the Ancient Sleeping Magi of Life Giving, who in turn brings the book itself to life instead of creating a living, breathing Fionna. Regardless of the set-back, Ice King continues to believe that Fionna will be brought to life someday, all the while being called "delusional" by everyone. He also has a secret room with ice statues of her and Cake along with hundreds of fan fictions deep in his castle.

Party God
Ice King mentioned to Party God they both met once at one of Peppermint Butler's parties, but Party God had forgotten. Having chosen a different path, the Ice King spent quite a time with the Party God's girlfriend, the Island Lady. Ice King was led to believe that the Island Lady should break up with the Party God because he doesn't pay attention to her at all and continues partying. But with the Island Lady too afraid break up with him, Ice King tried to break up with him for her. However, there's a misundertanding, and the Party God is led to believe Ice King is flirting with his girlfriend. Thus, a fight begins between them. Ice King won the battle and sent the Party God into space.



Finn and Jake
Ice King has a mixed view on Finn and Jake. In earlier episodes, he would often be annoyed by them and occasionally get into fights with them, usually ending with a humiliating defeat on the Ice King's part. He would also remain neutral to them and even try to avoid conflict with them, as shown in "The Eyes." He seems to agree on the fact that Jake is also an enemy to him at times. Ice King has difficulty keeping princesses in his castle without Finn attacking him and saving them. This is one of the main reasons Ice King usually has negative feelings towards Finn and Jake. However, as of "Mortal Recoil," Ice King has a more positive reaction to them. From then on, he frequently tries to be friends with them (in his own misguided way) and has willingly made alliances with them. In the episode "Still," the Ice King freezes Finn and Jake so they can have "bonding time."

Finn and Jake often misinterpret Ice King's actions as being part of some evil plan, such as his throwing out his "evil" collection of tapes in "Holly Jolly Secrets, Part I" and going to see Marceline about writing a song in "I Remember You." In "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," they sneak into his house and wind up breaking most of his stuff in their effort to find out about Ice King's plan to kidnap a princess (in actuality, he's taken a pregnant Gunter to the hospital, though he does wind up kidnapping Doctor Princess while there). Though Ice King's actions rarely have malicious intent, Finn and Jake must often step in to stop him from kidnapping princesses, or when he forces them to spend time with him ("Still," "Fionna and Cake," "Beyond this Earthly Realm").

In "Hitman," the Ice King makes it clear that he doesn't want to kill Finn or Jake—the most he would do is "punch [them] in the gut and make [them] spit up [their] lunch." At worst, they are battling rivals, as Finn openly disapproves of the Ice King's habit of stealing princesses and causing mischief. At best, they are playful rivals, even friends. Also, in the episode "All the Little People," Finn does not put Ice King in the "C-list"er category, that characters such as Xergiok and Donny are in. Finn also mentions that Donny is "alright," which implies that Ice King is more than "alright" to Finn. In "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II," the Ice King is shown to have a locket with the pictures of Finn and Jake. Near the end of the episode, the three are shown snuggled up side-by-side by a roaring fire, wearing really big Christmas sweaters.

In When Wedding Bells Thaw when Finn and Jake sabotage Ice King's wedding ceremony, through certain complications he ends up accidentally temporarily marrying Jake.

In Princess Potluck  Ice King seems to think that Finn and Jake are his "BF's" implying that they are on better terms then before.

BMO
There is no direct relationship between The Ice King and BMO, although in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part I" he recognizes BMO's alarm. In "All the Little People," tiny BMO and tiny Ice King appear to have a relationship. Though, due to the random jokes often found in the series, this may not prove anything. The Ice King knows BMO's abilities as a computer, and confuses BMO with Neptr in "Mystery Dungeon."

Tree Trunks
Ice King and Tree Trunks never interacted with each other until "Mystery Dungeon" where they will be working together, along with NEPTR, Earl of Lemongrab, and Shelby.

Shelby
Ice King and Shelby never interacted with each other until "Mystery Dungeon" where they work together, along with NEPTR, Earl of Lemongrab, and Tree Trunks.

Earl of Lemongrab
Ice King and Lemongrab never interacted with each other until "Mystery Dungeon" where they work together, along with NEPTR, Shelby, and Tree Trunks. Lemongrab attempts to eat the Ice King twice over the duration of the episode, and attempts to kill him once for "having no purpose."