#and betty made that realization earlier than simon did but she was too afraid to admit it until now

[cacowhistle]

thinking about the fionna and cake finale and. i've been seeing people upset or annoyed that betty & simon's story focused on how simon had to learn to recognize that what they had was unbalanced and not necessarily fair, because they wanted betty to also realize that she placed too much of her self worth in simon, and they wanted her to learn to live for herself.

i think these people forgot about the episode in adventure time that does this. mainly because, at the end of the episode, it seems like she didn't learn anything at all.

In s10e11, "Temple of Mars," Finn, Jermaine, and Betty have to go through a mind maze to find Jake--and many parts of the maze are relevant to Betty's obsession with Simon/Ice King.

The second room of the "maze" has a chalkboard with a long and complicated equation on it. Betty tries to solve it, thinking it will help, while an Ice Thing messes up the equation as she tries to solve it, preventing her from doing so. It's meant to represent how trying to "solve" the crown's curse is leading nowhere, and that Betty is trying for a hopeless cause.

The last room is the most important to Betty's story, though--it's a window into her past, where she realizes that she needed to take more time for herself. She needed to focus on her, instead of dropping everything for Simon. She makes this realization and changes things for the hypothetical, maze room version of Betty--but naturally, this can't change the past. She's made her choices, and she has to live with that.

I think at the end of the episode, when she takes the "wrong" message away from all of this--she dedicates herself to trying even harder to "fix" Simon--it's mostly because she's scared to accept that she... not wasted, but lost so much of her life because she was so focused on what Simon wanted, or what she thought that Simon needed. She's also still under the effect of the Magic Man hat, so she's still affected by the sadness/madness of that, which likely twisted her view of the situation as well.

But then in the AT finale, she makes her choice to leave Simon. She does it through wishing for his safety, sure, but she still makes the choice to leave him. And in Fionna and Cake, what we see of her--or what's left of her, because we don't know how she's changed, really--is something bigger than what she was before. GOLBetty seems to have realized her own part in the unbalancing of the relationship between them. But that's not what Fionna and Cake is about--it's about Simon, and how he has to move on. Betty has already moved on by the time we see her again. She's showing Simon that, and she's showing him that he has to move on, too. But it's her choice. She could have stayed with him, but...

She takes the bus to the airport. And she takes it without him.

#adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #betty grof #adventure time analysis #fionna and cake analysis #idk. thinking thoughts. #they're so important 2 me. they are so in love #they had to MOVE ON and they have to LIVE WITHOUT EACH OTHER and they have to do whats right for themselves and im so normal abt it i swear #and betty made that realization earlier than simon did but she was too afraid to admit it until now #and she was right!!! and simon recognized that!!! and he let her go!!! and she wanted to go!!!! im so. augh. #also hot take but some ppl saying they wanted betty to “realize that she was also at fault” are just taking the whole situation as like #“uwu simon didnt do anything WRONG betty never TOLD HIM how was he supposed to know it was happening so really its HER FAULT” like girl no #they are both at fault. she shouldve done something but he shouldve noticed #augh. im unwell about them. anyways