Not to assign cartoon characters mental illnesses like some sort of Youtube Clickbaiter, but the way Simon is treated in Fionna and Cake feels specifically reminiscent of how our society is hypocritical about bipolar/manic depressive people.
I don't think this is controversial to say, but in the original Adventure Time Simon-as-Ice-King just felt like a general mental illness allegory. Not to say it was executed perfectly, since again it was a generalized allegory and often focused on the people around Simon VS him, but it did manage to cover a fair amount of nuances: acknowledging when Ice King's behavior was a reflection of the mental illness Crown and not Simon; the conflicting dynamic of growing up with a mentally ill Magically Cursed parental figure; Treat People Who Are Mentally Ill Cursed As People.
But in Fionna and Cake where Simon isn't Ice King anymore? And everyone is going on about how cooler and more fun and more creative Ice King was compared to Simon? It just seems like the fantasy equivalent to people fetishizing manic depression in creatives and saying stuff like "The pills will kill your creativity" and "What if Van Gogh wasn't depressed, wouldn't his art be so much worse?"
And in the show we see Simon internalize all these comments! Over and over again people are saying he's pathetic as Simon and can't do anything special as Simon, unlike Ice King. So between all of that and his own warped nostalgia of the past, he uses the slimmest opportunity to volunteer to be Ice King again, even if it hurts him!
The worst part is we know that rn Simon is damned either way. Depressed as Simon, the people of Ooo avoid him and don't try to connect with him, and he is too afraid of being a burden and reaching out to Marcy for help. And if he relapses turns fully back into Ice King? They'll treat him like a party toy for a while before discarding him when he gets "too crazy" and the novelty wears off, and he'll probably lose his only support network.
That being said at this point (Episode 4) it's hard to tell which direction all of this will go. Tom Kenny has mentioned how this show features the most emotional VA work he's ever done, so it's fair to say that whatever happens next in the series with Simon will be intense and even heavier than it already has been.
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i did not want to be That Guy but literally if i keep seeing that the only tags ppl leave on that peterick bunk cuddling art is about petes ass i swear i WILL start biting people like i know it’s meant for fun and trust me it was funny to me to begin with too but having smth like that said over and over. without any sort of like further. compliment or excitement at least after is just disheartening at this point
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OKAY ONE LAST POST ABT THE FINALE. aka: how we almost got petrigrof homura/madoka level timeline fuckery
i had a huge revelation while coping. the final bus stop scene is REALLY important, i have a feeling it was a little more than a visual parallel. golbetty was basically communicating with simon the best she could by hijacking his mind and putting him in situations- the whole bit with casper and nova was her heavyhanded way of explaining to him what shes been thinking about regarding their past . not in a breakup way, not in a "were not good for each other" way, she doesnt regret it. its never been about blaming simon, he was only ever a bystander. shes just telling him how she feels, what would need to change. he realizes this and understands! she takes him to the bus stop and we all know how this goes. he passes the "test" and meets her on equal footing, shes so so happy. and she is SO ready to drag him onto the bus before he stops her. the bus stop is an ultimatum. if he follows her, they potentially both die in the mushroom war. he isnt there to take care of marcy and ooo gets overrun by vampires. every other horrific alternate universe without a simon in ooo could come to fruition if they never pursue the enchiridion. but they could start all over here, with a healthier beginning. they could both be so so happy. betty offers him the chance to go back and fix their mistakes, to study petroglyphs together. but there are no do-overs. not unless youre a god of chaos merged with a woman with a penchant for disrupting time to be with your fiance, that is! i believe this was more than a metaphor, she was 100% ready to pull some timeline bullshit to get a new begining. but this time she lets simon decide if he wants this- a chance he didnt get when she jumped through that time portal so long ago. simon makes his choice: this isnt how it happened. he has people that care for him back in ooo, hes okay with where his life has lead him. he has marcy and finn and everyone else- he doesnt want a do-over. now that hes finally seen betty again hes ready to go back and finally live the life she gave him. shes okay with this. its bittesweet but her wish contract is fulfilled, simons safe now, and she can move on. he chooses to continue his life as it is, and so she chooses to continue hers, wherever her reincarnation leads her, without him for once.
TLDR; the bus stop and the petroglyphs were an offer from betty to pull some timeline bullshit and give them a happy beginning. one last crazy chance to fix EVERYTHING. but its time to end the cycle. its been doomed since the start, and they wouldnt have it any other way.
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My ideal Petrigrof endgame would be kind of like the Bubbline route taken in Obsidian: together again, just working through their shit together with to to grow
yeah tbh i did wish they were given room to work things out in their relationship in a relatively normal, non-catastrophic way. i mean, they obviously had their issues, mainly due to miscommunication, but i still stand by the fact that what truly ruined their lives were situations that were outside their control (simon getting cursed and the apocalypse happening). for all that they were/are obsessed with each other or whatever, we can't really ignore the fact that 'letting go' of one another means, on their case, moving on with their lives while knowing that their partner is suffering under a magical curse, like, right now, at this exact moment. i'd say it's a bit hard to just shrug that off, so it's no wonder that they were never able to 'get over' each other
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thinking aloud here on the off chance that simon died and ascended to the dead world he would get to choose what version of himself to present as. would he choose ice king? at this point in f&c I'm thinking probably, but he's after ice king's mental state, not so much his appearance. and based on what we saw in distant lands especially, you aren't going to mentally regress to that time in your life. so imagine simon dying, learning that he can be the ice king again, then facing that the change is only external
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anyways, besides gege akutami poorly killing off every other character in unfulfilling ways (and imo this being a fine time to subvert expectations on who we think is covered in death flags thru a flashback), it does feel kind of lame that our guy whose whole arc was abt being against punishing others and empathizing with others despite the system he operated in heavily discouraging those things essentially carrying his suicidal mentality in the panel through, but framed positively bc he became a tool to help further yuji's goal against sukuna doesnt feel good.
i understand what gege akutami was trying to do, but i dont like it and i think it sucks. i dont think its good for his character arc, and frankly with gege akutami's record of having main characters seemingly deal an important blow, only to be casually swept aside or fall flat in the literal next chapter, regardless of the characters, this doesnt feel very hopeful? (not to mention i don't think he should've repeated nanami's death lol) akutami also has a habit of just not really mentioning killed characters again in a meaningful way and this could absolutely happen after the chapter. it just feels bad to me, i dont think most of the character deaths are done well, even if you want to insist jjk is a tragedy or whatever, i dont think things get across well.
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very rough fionna and cake doodles because i love this show sm
i was definitely supposed to watch adventure time first (i have never watched it dont kill me) but i was able to understand what was going on after the 2nd episode
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