If I had a nickel everytime a cartoon series ending includes a gay couple opening a food stand/food truck ...

... i'd have 3 nickels, which isn't much but it's weird sweet that it happened three times

Benson & Troy, (Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts)

le chevre x el topo (Carmen Sandiego)

Gary and Marshall (Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake)

bless their gay little hearts🏳️‍🌈

Fionna and Cake has been quite the awesome experience for the ADVENTURE TIME fan inside of me! I don’t want it to end…but it was still cool to get another story from that universe, even if it might be the last one for a long while.

Everything Announced at the Annecy Cartoon Network, Max, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe Panel

Cartoon Network Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe had a panel at the Annecy Festival today. These panels aren't available to the public, but according to people who were there, we can see what was announced. There's a lot of news to cover here.

Wild pink female characters 🩷

Interesting to note that Fionnaworld losing it's magic is not the only thing that changed about it when Ice King was turned back into Simon Petrikov. The 'side-effects' of it being in Simon's head seem to have... inverted.

Because the whole thing about Fionnaworld being in Ice King's head is that this is how he 'got the idea' for his 'Fionna and Cake' stories. Even though Ice King was supposed to just be 'a big nutty hard-drive', it seems like IK's subconsciousness had some sort of a connection to Fionnaworld and absorbed information from it - that Ice King's conscious self then put into his stories.

This... doesn't seem to be the case with Simon. You know, it's not like he goes 'oh, I get ideas for Fionna and Cake stories sometimes I just don't want to write them because I associate them too much with the Trauma of being Ice King' or even "I can't relate to Fionna and Cake anymore! But I do have some ideas for a pre-war era story about the quarter-life crisis of a blonde girl also coincidentally named Fionna!".

There's no indication that he gets any sort of 'ideas' from the Fionnaworld in his head anymore, a fact that he attribute to, just, a lack of interest in the characters.

Maybe one could speculate that Ice King's magic-infused mind gave it more of an ability to connect to the AU God Shoved in His Head. But.... Simon Petrikov's subconscious is still connected to it on some level. As we can see by the fact Simon's thoughts and immediate surrounding keep effecting the events going on in Fionnaworld.

Did this ever happen with Ice King? It's really hard to say, since we've seen so little of the 'real' Magical Fionnaworld. It was almost always filtered via the lens of Ice King's 'fanfiction'. Like, most obvious examples of 'Fionna and Cake' stuff being influenced by IK's psyche are probably just supposed to be him rewriting the stories in an inaccurate way.

But still, since Prismo was also actively 'writing stories' for Fionnaworld, and he considered it his own personal creative outlet, and since he found Ice King to be a satisfactory 'hard drive' for it all... Like, I'm going to assume that if IK's subconscious had a noticeble effect of the events of the Magical Fionnawrold - Prism wouldn't have been happy with it.

What I think is going on is related less to the matter of the magical-ness of Simon's brain and more to the other factor that Prismo mentioned in regards for picking Ice King's brain

It's emptiness.

Under the effect of the Magic Crown's Curse, Simon has lost most of his long-term (and sometimes even short-term) memories and, like, a lot of knowledge and intellectual skills he used to have. And that meant... a lot of space to store a whole-ass universe in his head, with probably also room to spare.

And maybe even the emptiness of IK's 'cursed dome' acted a bit like a vacuum - causing some information from Fionnaworld to leak into his mind.

But once Simon became himself again, all of this information and knowledge was restored inside his head. And maybe most of the experience of being Ice King is just 'dream-like impressions' like he said back in 'Betty' - but he still seems to retain some memories of these 1000 years as well. Back in 'Betty' he seems to have immediately remembered Finn and Jake, and after being permanently cured, well... he does seem to at least remember the events of "I Remember You' vividly enough to try and recreate them.

So now Fionnaworld is in a head full to the brim with stuff and... well, now it's, like, smooshed up with all of these elements of Simon's mind and psyche. Metaphorically, I'm visualizing it as, like, a bunch of items shoved inside an overstuffed cupboard and Fionnaworld is getting squashed and bent according to the shape of Simon's thoughts and memories that are shoved up close beside it. Less 'breathing room' for the world, and so Simon's thoughts can subconsciously affect the world more. But Fionnaworld information isn't leaking out anymore cause, like, there's enough out-there already.

That might also explain why Fionnaworld seems to be so damn small. Not even a full city as much as a few blocks.

It should be about as large as the actual Land of Ooo, but it might've shrank to be 'compact' enough to still fit into Simon's no-longer-empty mind.

(But now that they're free from his head and also canonized that's no longer a concern. It's alright now.)

Simon loved Betty dearly, but he was always kinda passively ignorantly selfish in their relationship. Allowing Betty to be needlessly self-sacrificial while not really giving her anything like that in return because… he was just not really noticing the pattern or how unhealthy obsessed Betty was with him.

Simon’s tunnel vision and incredible level of ignorance about Betty’s obsession and infatuation is so clear when you compare Simon’s original narrative of Betty leaving him with what actually happened.

Simon was so sure Betty left him because he just said or did something so horrible that no reasonable person could still love him like that. She probably just left him and spent the rest of her pre-War days peacefully alone or with someone else. But Betty instinctively knew she would never do that, the only person she would leave Simon for, is Simon 

But ever since the double-whammy of being Cursed and Betty ‘leaving’ him made his self-image tank - Simon taught himself to love others in the same unhealthy self-sacrificial and codependent way that Betty loved him. 

First there was Marcy. Simon himself nearly directly say, in his very first scene in ‘Fionna and Cake’, that he would be a wreck without Marceline being around - as something to give him a purpose. 

And that purpose was pretty heavily tied in with a sense of self-sacrifice.

It… was a difficult situation, to survive and take care of a little child in the middle of a Magical Nuclear War with a cursed artifact that would have consumed his mind sooner or later. But all evidence suggests that Simon was maybe a bit too eager to use the Crown to protect Marcy. 

Maybe partly a magically-induced compulsion to use the Crown more and more, but also I think… he found his purpose in the idea that he’s going to sacrifice himself for Marcy’s sake. Even as it pained Marcy to see him like - even as she, a little girl, was trying to stop him.

And eventually… it got to the point where the only way to actually keep her safe was to leave her. 

A heartbreaking traumatic experience with a vital role within the rich tapestry of traumatic experiences that is Marceline’s life. 

And… it’s hard to say what he should’ve done in the situation, there’s probably not a scenario where everything works out perfectly. We literally saw what happened if he hadn’t put the Crown at all and it was not a pretty sight. 

Simon was doomed from the moment he found that Crown. But at the very least, keeping himself together through nuclear Armageddon by focusing all of his energy into saving Marcy is what burned that streak of self-sacrificial selflessness into his psyche.

We see it most within the Fionna and Cake storyline, of course, and how eager he became to doom himself again for the sake of someone else who needed him, but…Even with Betty herself, despite not even being around, with how obsessed he became with his ‘Princess’. By the end, winning back Betty’s love was the only motivation he could find to regaining his own mind. 

And then when he finally regained his sanity briefly, for the price of a very, very limited time left to his life

he decided to dedicate it all to apologize to Betty. There’s clear, like, parallels done with the Bus Stop scene, I think

But Simon wasn’t trying to convince Betty to come with him, or stay with Past Simon or even find out more about what happened to her - it wasn't about what he wanted, for once. He was just trying to give her some peace of mind and closure. He was sacrificing all of his remaining time on earth for that.

But at this point, all that ended up doing was reinforce their original unequal relationship dynamic. 

And actually lay the ground for the problems within it to grow worse.

"oooooh, I know the comics aren't canon, but I wonder if Simon did an 'Ice King Apology Tour' in the main show continuity as well?"

Guys, let's not kid ourselves.

Simon's first instinct is to apologize for the actions of his Alternative Universe Counterparts.

OF COURSE HE DID A FUCKING ICE KING APOLOGY TOUR!

HE ABSOLUTELY DID THIS

No, still gonna be mad.

Cause still like why couldn’t Simon have been like “I’m excited for you to go on this trip let’s go out when you get back!” And Betty could have like kissed him goodby and been like “It’s a date😉” then they send each-other letters for six months with updates on how it’s going until Betty does come back one day and Simon is there to pick her up from the airport and they have dinner somewhere. They live a Normal life getting married happy ever after until the mushroom bomb where they both survive as immortals somehow find Marcy and raise her as a daughter forever 😭😭

The writers weren't that smart I guess

That could have been an au throughout the multiverse.

I wanna go a bit full-circle with a post I did right after the first two episodes of ‘Fionna and Cake’ dropped - about the nature of Simon Petrikov’s sense of identity. And more specifically, with how his titular episode centered around the ways his deteriorating mental state and the new context of his life has really torn away at everything Simon used to define himself as. 

Because Simon Petrikov used to be a lot of things. He was an antiquarian and an archaeologist, a man deeply fascinated by the concept of Magic and the supernatural in a mundane world that ridiculed him for it at every turn, an adventurous outdoorsman, and a deeply caring and fatherly man.

But when we meet him at the start of “Simon Petrikov”, he has lost all the passion for his job - especially as he now has to perform it basically as a living museum exhibit. He is now stuck in a word filled with Magic and feels like the only mundane thing in it. He is unable to handle the sort of dangers you would find in an Oooian camping trip. And he made a little girl cry.

And there’s one more thing Simon used to define his identity as, and that is the one he ended up clinging to more than anything in that one episode, even though it was just as decimated as every other facet of his old identity, and the one that ends up jump-starting the plot. And that is being Betty Grof’s other half.

So now, looking back at this second episode at the end of the series, it really feels appropriate that throughout his adventures Simon managed to rediscover these old elements of his personality, that all these aspects of his identity managed to get reinforced and validated…

For most of the series he was basically doing his old job again - travelling around, trying to discover and uncover an ancient artifact.

And you can really see how he regains his excitement for research. 

And by the end of the show, he ends up really rediscovering a passion for his work (and also realized that this Living Museum Exhibit set-up is not conducive for his mental health, which is also a step in the right direction).

And he gets to show-off his understanding of Magic

And by the end of the show, Simon doesn’t feel like such an outsider in Ooo anymore. Probably helped by the fact his cellphone connection with Fionna gives him that little connection to 'normalcy' he was missing.

And he got to go on an adventure again, and handle it better than his Camping Trip Funtimes with Finn. Probably because he was around Adventure Novices Fionna and Cake, who were a bit closer to his ‘level’ than a crazy-seasoned adventurer like Finn

And by the end of the show, you can see him seeking thrills on his own terms.

And his ability be kind and fatherly and comforting was validated both by his constant interactions with Fionna - who isn’t a child, but is still a younger person who often needed his emotional support

And also by a very grim reminder of how truly important he was for Marcy.

And by the end of the show, he has managed to make a connection with Astrid, despite them starting out on such a sour note.

But 'Simon Petrikov, Betty Grof's beloved'? That aspect of himself did get some validation, via him getting to share their love story with Fionna

But it was not entirely validated, was it? That was the one aspect of himself that was actually challenged - the one part of himself was clinging to like a lifeline when he felt like he was falling apart, that was the one part of himself that he had to both recontextualize in his head and eventually realized he had to finally let go off…

Simon thought he was in another world as Shermy, but that was actually future Ooo, and that book had been written by Astrid!

She grew up inspired by his stories, which is why the crown was in the book and why the story of Casper and Nova resonated with him so much!

GOLBetty sent him there so he could see his own story through someone else's eyes, and then because of that he was able to heal and share his story, which led Astrid to write Casper and Nova, which...

I'm pretty sure my very first post about 'Fionna and Cake' was about pointing out this line in "Fionna Campbell"

Is a reference to "I Remember You", where Marceline said that very same line to Ice King

At the time I just took it as another little bit of Foreshadowing for the connection between Fionnaworld and Simon.

But now that we've established a bit more about Cake's plights, and I started thinking more about this... I wonder if this line is meant to highlight the ways in which Simon's struggles under the Curse of the Magic Crown and Cake's struggles after having her Magic taken away from her kinda mirror each other.

You know, turning into Ice King took away Simon's mind and ability to reason (by pumping his brain full of Madness and Sadness) and his ability to communicate (by tanking his already-kinda-awkward communication skills) and even kinda took away his body.

And becoming an ordinary cat did all of these things for Cake as well - took away her mind and ability to reason (by giving her an intelligence closer to a regular housecat) and her ability to communicate (by making her unable to speak or even comprehend human speech)

And taking away her voice and the Stretchy body that is clearly the one she feels most comfortable with.

And ... so what happened in that scene back in IRY is Ice King, in the middle of writing a love song about Princess Bubblegum, suddenly has a moment of Clarity about how lonely and miserable he is. Enough Clarity to know that he's unfathomably sad and that there's something Wrong with him that's sabotaging all of his relationship - but not enough clarity to know what it is. So he just... has a total breakdown

Lashing out and throwing ice magic anywhere. Then Marceline, uncomfortable and worried about Ice King's behavior, tackles him and says the Line.

Meanwhile, in the first episode of 'Fionna and Cake'...

Both Fionna and Cake feel like there's something off about their lives, But Fionna can at least articulate it better as like, general ennui or a quarter-life crisis, rather than Cake's little housecat mind not really comprehending or capable of fully expressing what she's feeling at all.

Leading to concerning behavior such as her apparently not eating for the last three days.

And suddenly, she has her moment of Clarity. She sees these Portal Sparkles and she seems to know on some level that they'll do something good for her. Especially as she tries to shove her head in the ice

And later is shown obsessed with ice in general - even without the sparkles directly being around.

On some level, Cake understands the mechanics of the Portal Sparkles better than Fionna does - but on all other levels she's still a housecat and probably has no idea what is going on with her own mind as well.

And from Fionna's perspective she's just acting weird and spreading ice all over the house and lashing out at her in her confusion over her own feelings.

I think, perhaps whatever part of Simon's subconscious has subtle control over Fionnaworld noticed the similarities between Cake's situation and his own memories of being the Ice King - and thus, Marceline's old words coming out of Fionna's mouth.

The similarities don't end there, either. Cake and Simon both have to go through a lot grief with people still treating them as their old selves. General folks in Ooo treating Simon like Ice King

And Fionna's tendency to be overprotective of Cake even though Cake is now an incredibly OP shapeshifter and Fionna's still just an athletic human

And to speak for her even though she can speak for herself now

And sometimes kinda condescending to her about her own judgement

All make Cake feel, and not unjustifiably so, that Fionna still sees her as her old self, as a Housecat. She literally says so in the same episode where Fionna and Cake's friendship is tested the most.

And Cake's anxious desire to bring Magic into her world even after it was confirmed that she can at least stay as herself in Fionnaworld, I think that's also a mirror of Simon's anxieties. Simon felt like he, an ordinary non-magical man, could never truly fit in within the wacky and magical world of Ooo

And Cake might've been afraid of the same being true in reverse about being a Magical Cat in the least Magical world in the whole multiverse. At the very least she must've been worried about being forced to pretend to be a non-magical cat again like Simon tried to make her do back in Farmworld.

(Remember how her failure to pull this off almost got her eaten?)

And in the end, the resolution to both of these mirror dilemma was... kind of the same? Well, sort of. Fionnaworld now has a bit more of the Magic and Weirdness in it but it's not like Simon made Mainworld Ooo less wacky. But even with that extra bit of Multiverse Wackiness going on in Fionnaworld now... if the Normal Guy can get along among the strange and magical creatures

The Magical Cat can get along with all the normal and mundane people.

Thank you to all the amazing people who made this show a top notch! I incredibly love this show and Adventure Time will forever be my favorite show of all time 💗🥰

I just hope we get more and more of this 💕