 When did Marceline realize that Simon wasn't coming back anymore? That the Simon she knew didn't exist anymore? Marceline and Simon were together when she was seven years old. Before Simon, she was with her mother. We know that her mother loved her dearly, but the girl believed her mother was scared of her daughter's demon abilities, maybe scared that her daughter would become like her father. And so, when the moment presented itself, she found a motorcycle and left her demon daughter behind. So when Marceline found Simon, how did that make her feel? That she found a father figure who loved her. Despite her pale demon-like skin and fangs, she found someone who cared about her well-being. Someone who made her laugh and played with her. Someone who only wanted to make her laugh. He called her darling, dear, Marcy, just like her mother did. When he found her, he wiped her tears and gifted her a lifelong present. He calls her a little girl, not a demon. That must be confusing for a little girl, right? To finally find love, but have it slowly taken away. Simon Petricov was one of this series' truly pure-hearted individuals, a man who carried so much love. In the pursuit of his love, Betty, he found love in a new form. Simon, suffering the effects of the crown, found a lonely, strange girl in a post-apocalyptic world that couldn't protect her. And so he took it upon himself to do so. He adopted and ended up sacrificing his own sanity, his own pursuit, his own desires for a little girl he barely knew to save her life. A part of what makes Simon's descent into the Ice King so heartbreaking is the time that it took for him to truly become the Ice King. The slow decay of Simon Petricov was juxtaposed with his desperation to try and claw his way back into his own body and mind. Everything stays, flashes back to the moment Simon finally left, and Marceline is quite a bit older, maybe a teenager now. He met her at seven, that's maybe three, four, five years of the slow, but imminent rise of the Ice King. I remember you really paints Simon's desperation, and it again highlights his love for Marceline. That even as he was losing himself, he was still so worried about the little girl. The tug of war between the absolute need to wear the crown in order to protect Marceline, but wanting to remove the crown in order to save himself so that he may take care of her is so emotional. And behind all that, we have the crown advising Simon, telling him about the secrets of the frost, of the crown's abilities, promising that the crown can protect him. He's fighting all of these different factors. Simon's story is sacrifice, but it's not just a matter of choice. It's also the crown's clutches pulling him back. In Everything Stays, Simon makes that decision to leave her, to ensure that he doesn't hurt her anymore. The letters that he wrote to her, on newspaper clippings, on receipts, on menus, in the moments that Simon had true clarity, he was thinking about Marceline. And of course, on the one picture that Simon took of Marceline, he writes those first heart-wrenching lines to I Remember You, a letter apologizing to her. That despite slipping away, Simon wants to be absolutely sure that the girl who's felt unloved by her biological father, abandoned by her mother, this girl who does not know love, Simon does everything in his power to make sure that she knows that someone in that world loved her. Simon's memories are fleeting and he's suffering. He's desperately trying to keep it together, but his will is strong. Other characters got corrupted by the crown instantly, but Simon fights off the crown's ability for so long, until he couldn't anymore. When he met the little demon girl, he was able to wipe her tears. He was able to protect her, and in their final moment together, he tries to wipe her tears, but he can't. He hurts her instead. And we saw his reaction to that. The only thing he wants to do is to take care of her. But he physically cannot, and even as the crown is burying his mind, he's still able to send Hunson back to see his daughter. Simon understands the person he's becoming, but he can't control it, so leaving her is better than hurting her. When did Marceline realize that Simon wasn't coming back? What did that sadness feel like? How hard was it for her to recount these stories of her and Simon to Finn and Jake, knowing that this man in these stories, this great man, the one whom she grieves for every single time she sees him, is never coming back? Ice King with Simon, completely trapped in the crown, is subconsciously drawn towards Marceline. When she sings and I remember you, leaning on the fridge, she states that, every time she moves and ooh, eventually Ice King finds her and starts hanging around her, even though he doesn't remember her. But seeing this version of her old friend gets her down, understandably, and yet Marceline reveals that she does have an unexplained, subconscious feeling of joy when she sees him. And that joy turns into desperation in this episode, when she hugs her old friend, and later tries to get him to remember their time together. Marceline looks into his eyes, searching for a sliver of Simon, begging him to remember, searching for the man who saved her, the same way she begged him to take off that crown, but he never will. And afterwards, she grabs her guitar, she sings the lyrics to his song, eyes closed in tears, singing out a song that means so much to her. And it almost looked like this was the moment that she had finally accepted Ice King, that she accepted that Simon wasn't coming back. But she also accepted that though he wasn't coming back, she was grateful for it all, and by Simon and Marcy, she accepted that she was going to protect and take care of Ice King, for the man that he once was, and for this new version of him. Ice King constantly mentions that he knows something's wrong with him, and he cries out for help, he's so lonely. Adam Muto noted that the original title for this episode was titled Help, and that's what Marceline aims to be going forward. Help. Betty's love for Simon is completely different than Marceline's, both in the nature of their relationship and in the way they view Ice King. We learn that Betty gave up quite a bit in order to help Simon on his quest and research of ancient artifacts. Betty over the course of this series really only has a singular motivation, that is reuniting with Simon. In their final moments, he was chasing after her, frantically demanding for his princess. In the episode Betty, as he was dying, she asks him, where would I go without you? Betty and Simon seem to be attached at the hip, perfect for one another, until he put on the crown and drove her away. It was Ice King who drove Betty away, and not Simon. And in a flashback, we see Simon hoping that once he is cured, that Betty might forgive him and love him again. Until his final moments as Simon, he believed that Betty stopped loving him, because of what he had done. Simon's incessant pursuit of princesses, of the genius princess, it stems from Simon losing his own and scouring the earth for her. Betty seemed to be so enthralled with the man that Simon was, with his intellect, his humor, his kindness, his love, that she did everything she could to bring Simon Petricov back. Betty fought death itself, she fought Belanoche, she studied all types of magic and science, even becoming Magic Man, a wizard to try and save Simon. She tried to make alterations to Ice King's crown, and nearly lost her sanity trying to save her fiance. Betty tried to even go back in time, and when all of her attempts failed, Betty even tried to help Ice King remember their first date. And he just couldn't. This Simon, this Ice King, was not the man she fell in love with, she simply could not accept him, not for what he was and what he had become. All of these efforts were Betty's way of grieving, love with nowhere to go, what his grief if not love persevering, as WandaVision describes it. A grief turned unhealthy. And during all of this, we are left with Ice King, in his current form. Through so many episodes, we come to accept Ice King, a once honorable, sane man. But also we come to accept him as the individual, as his own separate identity. It's important to recognize Ice King both for his flaws and his strengths, that yes, Ice King has done bad things, he's kidnapped and harassed princesses. He tried to assemble and create his own princess once, by using parts of other princesses. He was a bad person, but we also have to recognize that he has changed. And because he's changed, maybe he does deserve the companionship that he's so desperately after. Maybe he does deserve to have friends, despite what he's done. And it's hard to accept that. He says it himself, he is not Simon. He is Ice King and he is worthy of respect. I began to appreciate Ice King because he was once Simon. But when even Betty can't love the individual Ice King, when she becomes hell bent on destroying this individual, you begin to feel for him. When he's sobbing, drowning in his own tears, begging for love, begging to be healed, to be fixed, how can you not? Because does Ice King not deserve good things as well? Not for his association with Simon, but because he is his own entity. And after all that, Betty then summons Golb and saves her fiancé, finally. And in their final moments, she makes sure that Simon knows that she loves him. But she goes one step further and saves Simon forever at the cost of her own life. She sacrifices her own life for Simon, the very man who sacrificed his life for a little girl's. Love sacrifices for love. Love is sacrifice. I think this ending, this conclusion to Ice King's story, embodies so much of this show and its ideas. Everything around Simon has always been tragic. And this finale is no different. Simon's return was supposed to be a somewhat joyous occasion, right? Simon's back. Since the reveal of Simon Petrkov in season 3, we've been waiting. Seven seasons for Simon's return. Somehow. And here it is. He's sobbing in Marceline's arms, begging for his princess back, just like he was so many years prior. This isn't a happy ending. He's not happy. Because so much of Adventure Time lives within the grey area, so much of this series is about representing the multifaceted nature of people. Ice King's conclusion to me was very much an amalgamation of that. Betty was selfish. She couldn't accept Ice King for who he was. That was wrong and Ice King deserves respect. And yet, at the same time, did Simon Petrkov not deserve to exist and to live as well? To live a life free of the crown's clutches? Simon back in Betty says that he would rather join death than be Ice King again. Simon was suffering, trapped in his own mind. Does Marceline not deserve to have her real father back? In order to have Ice King, the Ice King that we knew, for him to exist, Simon has to inform some part of him. So, at least with this ending, they can both coexist to some degree. This ending also shows us what Ice King has brought Gunter. Whenever Green was his mentor, he was berated constantly. His value was never appreciated. He was never cared for. But when Ice King takes care of them, he worries for Gunter, cries for Gunter. He loves Gunter. So much so that Gunter wanted to be just like their mentor. One more time. This ending showed us that love is complicated. Betty was selfish, but she did sacrifice herself out of love. Like Marceline, love is also patient and resilient. And like Simon, it is sacrifice. But like Betty and Simon's fate, it can also be senseless and tragic. So, so tragic. Simon has returned. He's back, but he's missing a piece of himself. He's now faded to search the universe for Betty. He has to find a way to bring her back. But Simon has returned, right? Love is complicated.