The Lich (character)

The Lich (also known as the Lich King) is a villain in Adventure Time. His first appearance was in "His Hero" during a flashback about the adventures of the great hero Billy. He plays the main villain in "Mortal Folly" and "Mortal Recoil" where he nearly kills Princess Bubblegum. The episode "His Hero" showed that Billy cast him down, and "Mortal Folly" shows that he was ultimately imprisoned in a large glob of amber in the ancient tree that serves as the castle of the Candy Kingdom. The Lich has the power to possess anyone who does not have a magic gem on.

Appearance
His first design had a more flattened, simplified look with larger eyes, downward-pointing horns and a different crown and robe. The design used in the series has a helm with curled horns, horrific lights peering out of his eyesockets, and pale undead skin pulled tight against his noseless skull. His skin is frayed away from his lips revealing a wicked and perpetual grin. His arms are bare bones with various decayed tissues, and his skeletal hands burn with an eldritch fire when he casts fire spells.

While The Lich's helm has two full horns as seen in Billy's flashback in "His Hero", one of the horns has broken off by the time he appears in modern times, possibly by Billy himself.

He is actually very large, to the point that Finn has to run up a spiral staircase to jump on his skull.

Abilities
It is shown that The Lich can control the minds of others, seemingly through both telepathy and by spoken commands. He can also possess the bodies of others via entering them in a ghost-like state. The only protection from The Lich's mind control is by wearing a special gem on one's head. He has powers such as flight, mind-control, producing and throwing balls of unholy green fire, and his mere touch kills and destroys. It is unknown what other capabilities he would have had he drawn more from his well of power. When weak, he or his possessed victims use apothecary skills to make poisonous concoctions that can be drunk for energy. The one Princess Bubblegum made when possessed was comprised of many toxic ingredients such as: bleach, ammonia, lighter fluid, gasoline and even highly radioactive plutonium. Jake refers to the liquid in the Well of Power in The Lich's Lair as "toxic waste," suggesting that the Lich is powered by the industrial pollutants left behind from the Great Mushroom War.

Although only certain artifacts (The Gauntlet of the Hero Billy and the pink sweater knit for Finn by Princess Bubblegum, an object imbued with the power of "liking someone a lot") are able to harm or smite The Lich, his flashback appearance in His Hero shows Billy kicking the Lich rather than using the Gauntlet. This seems to imply that conventional means can deal some damage to him or perhaps Billy was just having fun.

It seems that anything the Lich comes into contact with is corrupted and dies, tree branches wither and rot, flowers wilt and dry, and water he passes through turns black and all fish in his wake float to the surface, dead. The Ice King even remarks on the foul smell of the water that the Lich King had been in moments before. The path he took from Candy Kingdom back to his lair left the soil compacted and scorched. When Finn tried to smite him with Billy's Gauntlet (at the time his only known weakness), The Lich utterly destroyed it; shattering and corroding it to dust in an instant.

Personality
The Lich is rather taciturn and speaks only in brief statements. Unlike the majority of villains throughout Adventure Time and in all media, he is a man of very few words. Due to his great reticence, his few words carry greater gravity. In spite of his intractablility, he is visibly shocked when Finn survives his fire attack, and he laughs heartily when Finn attacks him with his sweater. He has only raised his voice once, saying,"I'm BUSY." when Finn asked the posessed Princess Bubblegum if everything was all right.

Episode appearances

 * "His Hero"
 * "Mortal Folly"
 * "Mortal Recoil"

Quotes
See The Lich/Quotes﻿

Biography
The Lich once came close to destroying all life in the Land of Ooo, however, the legendary hero Billy cast him down with his gauntlet and entrapped him in amber. After his defeat, the The Lich was stripped of his greater powers, and for many years, he remained dormant. Princess Bubblegum, believing Finn and Jake ready to know about The Lich's whereabouts, took them to where he was imprisoned. Snail had stowed-away in Finn's backpack and was immediately caught under The Lich's mind control, breaking the amber and freeing The Lich. Released, The Lich travels to his Well of Power in his lair followed by Finn, Jake, a clueless Ice King and a captive Princess Bubblegum. Later, The Lich puts his hands into the Well of Power, drawing in its energies to restore his powers, so Finn and Jake rush to confront him. Finn and Jake catch up, and in a reckless attack, Finn charges at The Lich. The Lich catches him by the arm, shushes him, and shatters the gauntlet; his only known weakness. The Lich strikes Jake with a blast of enchanted fire, and Finn`s protecting crystal shatters against the floor. Finn, no longer protected by the gem, is made vulnerable to The Lich, who suggests he walk into the Well of Power. The sweater made by Princess Bubblegum prevents Finn from being lost to the Lich's mind control, and he is able to step away from the edge of the pool. Finn then attacks The Lich with the sweater, shoving it into one eye socket and out the other, and pulling with all his might breaks The Lich's skull, causing him to turn to dust. Afterwards, Princess Bubblegum is released by the Ice King who promptly drops her into the Well of Power by accident. The Lich uses this moment to his advantage by possessing her while she is weak. The Ice King is able to see this with his "Wizard Eyes", but he is quickly shut down by Finn when he attempts to tell them of the impending danger.

Princess Bubblegum (now possessed by The Lich) is cared for by Doctor Princess, Nurse Poundcake and Dr. Ice Cream, and she is then taken to her room, where Finn and Jake follow in an attempt to cheer her up. This fails, and Finn leaves the room momentarily while Jake sings to Princess Bubblegum. Now irritated, The Lich demonstrates his power by causing the flowers that had been brought into the room to spontaneously die with a single touch, and he then proceeds to set the entire room on fire, scaring Jake out of the room in the process. Finn is soon sent on an errand to gather the ingredients that will create a mixture of poisonous and radioactive sludge that will mutate Princess Bubblegum. After doing so, The Lich breaks out of the room and proceeds to raze the Candy Kingdom, easily swatting away Finn's meager attacks. It takes the combined efforts of both Finn, Jake, and the Ice King to freeze him and then accidentally shatter him and Princess Bubblegum, after which point he is seemingly defeated. Princess Bubblegum is then pieced back together, now younger due to the fact that her complete body could not be recovered. After the news spreads of Bubblegum turning back to 13 years old, the citizens of the Candy Kingdom cheer joyously, while the waving snail, now possessed by The Lich, can be seen on the window sill with evil in its eyes.

Original pitch document
He was first alluded to in the early series pitch, and was the only other character described in those documents in addition to the main six (Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn, Ice King and Marceline). The pitch document states in all caps, "THE LICH KING IS NOT FUNNY" and states that The Lich had been imprisoned within his castle (although this was later contradicted in "Mortal Folly"). According to the pitch document, he doesn't go straight into battle like the Ice King, but instead uses a legion of undead skeletal knights to fight his battles.

Trivia

 * He is voiced by Ron Perlman, who is famous for his deep voice and roles as monsters and in various media, including as the Beast in the live action "Beauty and the Beast" television series and as Hellboy in the movie series based on the comic books. Perlman also provided the voice of the villain Slade in four seasons of Teen Titans, where Princess Bubblegum's VA Hynden Walch was the voice of heroine Starfire. He is also noted as the narrator of the Fallout series of video games.
 * As revealed by Adam Muto, The Lich is not powerful enough to control Death, but he can personally cheat Death.
 * His name likely was changed from "Lich King" to just "The Lich" in order to avoid confusion with and copyright infringement upon the World of Warcraft character of the same name.
 * The Lich is still referred to by his old name, Lich King, in various official episode summaries and clip descriptions on Cartoon Network's site, indicating the name change may have been done very late in production.
 * According to ancient mythos The Lich must have been originally Human to become a lich, though whether that mythos is followed is unknown. He is after all very tall to have once been a human.