The Winter King (character)

"Shoot. Did I just copy Finn and Jake?"
This character is from another universe. They are living or lived in a different timeline somewhere in the multiverse.

The Winter King is the secret main antagonist of the Fionna & Cake episode "The Winter King"

He was an alternate version of Simon Petrikov from another timeline. He was the king of the Winter Kingdom, a kingdom he made 100 years prior upon having overcome the effects of the crown, albeit by reflecting its curse into Princess Bubblegum's mind instead.

He attempted to help Simon create a duplicate crown for him to restore his ice powers. This plan later failed, however, when his crown lost its magic, and he died and turned to dust.

History[]

The Winter King apparently went through a similar history as Simon, having been turned into the Ice King after putting on the crown. In his dimension, however, the Ice King cast a spell on Princess Bubblegum, transferring the madness of the crown to her consciousness. This transformed her into the Candy Queen, losing her sanity and making her ruin her own Candy Kingdom. In turn, the Ice King regained his sanity becoming the Winter King. He started to beautify his Ice Kingdom into the more glorious Winter Kingdom.

In "The Winter King", when Fionna, Cake, and Simon arrive in his dimension, he kindly greets them after freezing the Scarab. Simon immediately realizes that the Winter King is an alternate version of him. Cake tries to steal the Winter King's crown but is caught. After explaining that Simon needs the crown to turn back into the Ice King and restore magic to Fionna and Cake's reality, the Winter King decides to help. He says they cannot have his crown but he will make a duplicate crown for Simon to help him turn back into the Ice King.

The Winter King gifts Fionna a new sword to help her fight better and charges her cell phone for Cake along with giving them signal. Eventually, they are ambushed by the Candy Queen, who kidnaps the Winter King and Simon, who realizes that the Candy Queen is Princess Bubblegum. As the Candy Queen plans to push both of them into a giant blender, Fionna and Cake go to rescue both of them and take down the Candy Queen as Simon tells them that Princess Bubblegum is still in there somewhere but the Winter King tells them not to listen to Simon and just rescue them. After they are rescued, the Winter King and Fionna kiss but suddenly the crown glitches and loses its magic, causing the Winter King to turn back into Simon who pleads for Fionna to help him as he immediately ages and dies. The Candy Queen then turns back into Princess Bubblegum and is relieved that the curse was finally broken. Simon realizes that the Winter King projected the madness of the crown onto her for a hundred years.

Appearance[]

As the Winter King, he looks like cross between Simon Petrikov and the Ice King. Like Ice King, he has blue skin, white hair and a pointy nose. However, his nose is far shorter and his hair is more reminiscent of Simon's hairdo. He also lacks Ice King's beard. Like Simon he wears a suit but it is blue much like Ice King's muumuu. He also wears glasses but they differ from Simon's they are oval rather than round and are clear rather tinted blue. He is far taller than Simon in the main timeline as well.

Without the magic of the crown he looks like Simon from the standard timeline and previously looked like Ice King before projecting the crown's madness onto Princess Bubblegum.

Personality[]

The Winter King appeared to possess aspects of both Simon and the Ice King. He had Simon's intellect along with some of the Ice King's goofier traits. His personality was shown to be extravagant and flamboyant, with him having occasionally expressed himself through song and dance.

Initially, the Winter King presented himself as a friendly individual, showing kindness and being open toward helping others in need which may have been in some capacity genuine. However, this hid the darker aspects of his character. In secret, the Winter King appeared to be motivated by selfishness and/or cowardice, lacking a large part of Simon's morals. He was willing to run away from and/or dump his own problems onto others at their expense. He appeared to have no qualms with transferring his madness onto Princess Bubblegum despite the fact that this had turned her into a maniacal lunatic. It also seemed that he did not wish to remember neither Betty or Marceline, though he still kept the guitar of the latter around with an ice version of her to play it.

The Winter King appeared to be narcissistic as well, focused on maintaining his good image while hiding his more negative traits and the misdeeds he committed. He grew nervous when others became suspicious and would attempt to cover it up.

Relationships[]

The Candy Queen[]

Since Winter King revealed having a similar history with Ice King, he most likely had an obsession with Princess Bubblegum before her transformation into the Candy Queen.

He cast a spell on Princess Bubblegum to transfer the madness of the crown onto her, turning her into the Candy Queen and becoming enemies. He tries to hide this doing when Simon constantly attempts to help the Candy Queen.

Betty[]

The Winter King knew his universe's Betty in his past, but he doesn't remember their relationship very well, resulting in him calling her "The Dead One" and humorously saying that he hasn't thought of her in a long time before Simon asked if he had a Betty in his universe.

He says that Simon can make an "Ice Betty" with his new crown, but then says that he was kidding and said that it would be unethical, indicating that he may have some level of respect for his and Simon's versions of Betty.

Scarab[]

Upon seeing the Scarab try to attack Fionna, Cake, and Simon, he froze him in his "inescapable magic ice."

Simon Petrikov[]

He rescued him, Fionna, and Cake from the Scarab. He immediately recognized him as another version of himself and he understood Simon's goal to get his powers back and he was willing to help him by making a duplicate of his crown for him to gain his powers back. He even light-heartedly shared his story on overcoming the crown's madness, albeit missing a "detail", and he empathized with Simon on his past.

Fionna[]

He met Fionna when he saved her, Cake, and Simon from the Scarab. When Fionna talks about how she may have dreamed about him, he said that he wouldn't be surprised, since he's "radical." After Fionna saved him and Simon, he and Fionna kissed until the crown lost its magic and he was losing his magic and he begged for Fionna to help him before he turned to dust.

Cake[]

He met Cake when he saved her, Fionna, and Simon from the Scarab. Cake tried to steal his crown until she was captured and brought back. He showed no malice or anger towards Cake's attempt to steal his crown and he found her name, "Cake", humorous.

Trivia[]

Unlike the original timeline's Ice King who was voiced by Tom Kenny, the Winter King was voiced by Brian David Gilbert. However, when the Winter King turned back into Simon before dying, his voice transitioned back to Kenny's voice.
The Winter King resembles the Princess Bubblegum from the original universe. Both are intellectual, have a science lab and a prosperous kingdom. They also have a common enemy who is the perfect opposite of each other between the timelines. This universe's PB is the equivalent of the Ice King kidnapping instead of PB, the Winter King.
One concept art from Steve Wolfhard has a note saying the Winter Kingdom's Ice Scouts have pikes and hair bits "to connect them to the Banana Guards".^[2]
Another concept from Steve Wolfhard reveals that while the Winter King projected the crown's madness effect onto Princess Bubblegum, his mind still had some minor effects from it, so he just attenuated them.^[2]
Unlike the main-timeline's Simon who was dying in the episode "Betty" after the crown lost its magic, the Winter King turns back into Simon but rapidly ages and dies after his crown loses its magic
It is shown that he has considered kissing Simon Petrikov before, as he responded "Don't think it hasn't occurred to me!" when Cake yelled "Kiss each other!"