Olive skin, dark hair, a love for archaeology, and a tender heart – Simon Petrikov had quite an inviting personality.
However, soon after, he almost turned into the complete opposite of the aforementioned description. Pale blue skin, white hair, a beard, and the sick wish to kidnap a princess – Ice King would not even respond if you used the name Simon to address him.
How did this happen?
In the show Adventure Time, Simon was a regular human before the near annihilation of the human species during the Mushroom War. He was kind-hearted and loving to everyone around him including his fiancee, Betty, and to his young friend, Marceline the vampire queen. He was studying to become an antiquarian (a specialist in the knowledge of ancient artifacts) and was passionate about archaeology. Due to this, he purchased an ancient jeweled crown which caused him to blackout and experience odd visions. This frightened Betty away from his life. The crown erased his memory and influenced and twisted his mind and body to a point where he quite literally lost his humanity and started being considered a twisted wizard called Ice King.
The Memory View
The Memory View or the Psychological Continuity view suggests that the self is made up of an individual’s collection of memories. In A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality by John Perry, Miller quotes Locke’s view of memory that suggests that the relationship between two people or stretches of consciousness is shared memory. In class discussions, many people brought up questions of how memory loss comes into play in this whole situation and whether people with memory loss lose their “selves” with their memory and I couldn’t help but think of Ice King’s story.
So, did Ice King lose his self?
As disappointing as it is, I think there isn’t an absolutely concrete answer to this. However, it can be speculated that Ice King did largely lose himself when his memories were wiped out. This was even further depicted when his body and species changed due to his change in memory. This obviously would not happen to a person with memory loss, but it really goes to show that his memory loss was the root cause of him losing everything that made him Simon Petrikov. In the episode “I Remember You”, it is even hinted that Simon was aware that he would lose himself because, in a message written to Marceline, he mentions losing himself and being afraid that Marceline would lose him as well. He also mentions that he feels himself slip away. When he sings these messages later as Ice King, he has no understanding of them.
However, there was the residue of his life as Simon that traveled into his life as Ice King, such as how his heartbreak about Betty made him want to marry a Princess (for which he wanted to kidnap Princess Bubblegum, which was extremely messed up)
An important difference between Simon and Ice King is degrees of self-awareness. While Simon is aware of himself while he is losing himself, Ice King does not know what is happening.
There is an irony in Ice King’s loss of self because the readings about the self talk a lot about immortality and permanence. Ice King’s crown has made him immortal, yet his self has changed drastically compared to that of mortals. This raises larger questions about personhood and permanence. Perhaps the real personhood and humanity lie in the limited mortality and impermanence of human life.
Fans of the show have commented on online forums about how the representation of Ice King and his dynamic with Marceline resonated with them because they had relatives with memory loss. While Marceline values Ice King, she is easily frustrated by his memory loss and lack of self-awareness. If anything, the show teaches an important lesson about empathizing with someone with memory loss, even if you believe they have completely lost their original identity.
*For context about the above gif, her name is Marceline and he mistakenly calls her Gunter (which is the name of his penguin)
Ice king. Adventure Time Wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/Ice_King.
Perry, J. (1978). A dialogue on personal identity and immortality. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co.
I never really agreed with the memory view, on the basis that a person’s self could not be restraints to something so ever-changing. Although, you have changed the way I viewed this notion of memory as a self. I think it’s really interesting to make such a juxtaposition between Ice King and Simon. Although I wanted to question you, since the Ice King is no longer aware of his memories of Simon, does that stop him from being Simon because Marceline still remembers him as Simon. Although, the lack of having memories did make Ice king lose his moral compass and self-control when it came to making rational decisions. That in itself is the basis of why memory is significant in shaping one’s self.