Ice King

"Hello. My name is Simon Petrikov. I am recording this tape so that people will know my story. I was studying to be an antiquarian of ancient artifacts. Now, I never believed in the supernatural stuff myself—just had a fascination with superstitions... but everything changed when I came into contact with this item.... After purchasing this crown from an old dock worker in northern Scandinavia, I brought it home and excitedly showed my fiancée Betty, and jokingly put it on my head just for a laugh or something... and that's when it started... The visions... I fought with them... Shouted at them until I realized it wasn't real—it was the crown!! [Taking crown off] I quickly took it off... and saw my fiancée in front of me... [Whispering] looking at me with such contempt. What had I said? What had I done when I wore this crown? All I know is I never saw Betty again. Since then, I see the visions always whether or not I wear the crown. They tell me the secrets... the secrets of the ice and snow... that the power of the crown will save me with its frost. I don't yet know what this means. As you can see, my skin is beginning to turn blue. My body temperature has been lowering at a supernatural rate, to what is now about 30°C. I don't know when it will end... I'm really scared... I know my mind is changing... but I'm already too far gone to know what to do. I want people to know that... if I do things... if I do things that hurt anyone, please... please forgive me. Just watch over me until I can find a way out of this labyrinth in my brain and regain my sanity!! And then maybe Betty, my princess... maybe you will love me again. [Sobbing] Please love me again, Betty!"

- The Ice Kings tragic past.

The Ice King was the main antagonist of Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, though often unintentionally. Though formerly the main antagonist, his role has shifted to a tragic anti-hero or villain.

He is voiced by Tom Kenny, who also played Heffer from Rocko's Modern Life and SpongeBob from SpongeBob SquarePants. He also voiced Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman from Camp Lazlo.

Facts
The Ice King is the lonely, sociopathic ruler of the Ice Kingdom. He constantly kidnaps princesses (including Princess Bubblegum) in hopes that one of them would marry him, even if he has to threaten them with death. He is a lowly villain and was easily defeated by his own heart, Ricardio. He has a crown with three red jewels that help him to bring monsters of snow to life or fly using his beard. He is hated by Finn, Jake, the princesses, and even by Ricardio. He has allies with the penguins of the Ice Kingdom, though. He has a long beard and blue skin (most likely from frostbite) and a blue robe that makes his body look big, though he is really skinny. He first appeared in "Prisoners of Love". The Ice King seems to have a bad habit of threatening others to do his bidding.

A Christmas-themed episode ("Holly Jolly Secrets Pt. II") revealed the tragic backstory about the Ice King by a video. Sometime before The Great Mushroom War, the Ice King was formerly known as Simon Petrikov, a young glasses-wearing human who was working to be an antiquarian. One day, he bought a crown and went to show it to his fiancee Betty, whom he dubbed "Princess." He put the crown on his head for a laugh, which made him do something so terrible (of which he had no memory) that Betty left him. He then begins to slowly lose his sanity and look more and more like the "Ice King". It is revealed that he kidnaps princesses to fill the gap made when Betty left him. Finn later develops deep respect for his nemesis, because he knew that he was once human.

Sometime during the Great Mushroom War before Simon became Ice King completely, he met a young Marceline crying in the middle of the wreckage. He then comforted her by giving her a teddy bear from a destroyed toy shop. He also tried to find her soup after finding out that she was sick, though he had to protect her from unknown creatures.

In "Betty," after a demon negated powers from wizards, including the Ice King, his crown became useless and he turned back to Simon. However, since he had his ice powers (which made him immortal) for 1000 years, Simon started dying and he and Marceline tried to track down Betty. His Ice Kingdom was also melting. He used a time portal to communicate with her. Afterwards, Betty jumped into the present and decided to help her husband regain his powers before it was too late. When Betty defeated the monster back in Wizard City, Ice King and everyone else got their powers back. Afterwards, the Ice King was seen in his castle explaining the story to Muscle Princess (whom he had her feet frozen in ice). It's unknown what became of Betty as she was seen riding a carpet.

Goals and Ambitions
The Ice King wants to find a woman who would want to marry him, and help to rule his kingdom. In later episodes, Ice King started to respect Finn and Jake and becoming their new best friend by any means necessary has become one of his new goals.

Really Evil?
The Ice King may be a misunderstood man who just wants attention and a companion. In the episode, "What is Life?," he wanted NEPTR (Never Ending Pie Throwing Robot) to be his son, but he failed. In "Prisoners of Love", he was thrilled when he thought Finn and the captured princesses wanted him to dance with him, and when he was in his imagination, he pondered why people didn't like him and he wanted advice from Finn and Jake about marriage in "When Wedding Bells Thaw".

In the later episodes, he often tried to be best friends with Finn and Jake and he was portrayed easy going with a sense of humor.

Possibly, Ice King's final main antagonistic role was in the episode "A Glitch is a Glitch" because of deleting everything in the world except him and Princess Bubblegum.

Trivia

 * Ice King shares many similarities with Gollum. Ice King refers to Betty as "princess" while Gollum refers to the One Ring as "precious". The crown he purchased drove him to insanity similar to how the One Ring corrupted Gollum. Also, Ice King's past as Simon Petrikov is similar to Gollum's past as Smeagol.