Listen okay I’ve got a problem. I got very turned on by screenshots of Alfred’s character from Message From The King BEFORE I KNEW THE PLOT AND THAT HIS CHARACTER IS AN AWFUL DISGUSTING PERSON… and I’m still kinda turned on by him (because it’s Alfred of course he’s gonna be physically hot no matter how terrible of a person he is… right? ugh I feel horrible…)
Anyways, my reason for bringing this to you is that I was wondering if you’d be willing to write a fic with his character but do like you did with Gabriel Duvall and make it AU Innocent/Not A Horrible Person? Legit if you feel uncomfortable doing that I totally understand and please feel free to just delete this. I won’t ask again or anything like that, I just… I want all of Alfred’s characters to be good people.
Sincerely,
Anon Who Is Going Insane
Tag list: @purplelupins @eroticaplush @unitedfandomsoftheworld
So. Now I'm Mike Preston's official lawyer, because this character has attracted me so much that I just can't help it. Why the hell did he look so sad?!
I've been thinking about this for months now
I just see a man "killed" by life, who decided to hide behind a bastard mask and a lot of money.
(If you only knew how much I love to look for subtext where there is no trace of it. Bruh. Anton, u're an idiot)
Bagi: [Laughing, sounding incredulous] A chainsaw? Yes!!!
Bad: Yeah, because chainsaws are broken.
Bagi: Yeah, I'll traumatize my brother. I think it's a nice idea. [...] Yeah, yesterday he killed me screaming, "Hey, little sis!" Now I have something to get my revenge.
Fit: I can't believe you two are siblings, though. That's crazy.
Bagi: Yeah, it's a long story, I think we should talk about that when we are back to the island.
Fit: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, for sure.
Bagi: Yeah, a lot happened. But I think he's adopted.
Fit: Oh, you think?
Bagi: Yeah, he's too aggressive to be my brother.
Pac: [Looking down at his legs] ...Yeah, too much aggressive.
It shouldn't be that serious but I haaate people summarizing Simon and his struggles in Fionna and Cake as the symptoms of one mental illness or another. Like, his struggle with being content now that he's Simon again echo depression and he very well may have it. The way I've seen some people examine his character and conflict through a pathological lens, though, just picks out what words and actions they can diagnose as some documented and studied condition. They divorce his character and conflict from his setting, his time as the Ice King, and how he fits in the extended narrative of Adventure Time.
Simon is a pre-mushroom bomb era human in a post-mushroom bomb world. The people he knew, the surroundings he's come to understand, and the life trajectory he had going are all long gone. He's come to in a new society where things function in much more fantastical, irrational, and advanced ways. He's been a part of this society- even shaping it- as the Ice King, and now he must continue playing into the happenings of Ooo as Simon Petrikov. The new civilizations are alien, the new Earth functions by new social and natural laws, and he has the remains of new life that disgusts, horrifies, and humiliates him.
Simon spent almost a thousand years as a man stripped of his former values, dignity, and cognisance. As the Ice King, he lost his ability to control himself, and inflicted what would accumulate to be significant harm unto others. He learned how to get along with others by the end of his time as the Ice King, but those years were a blip in the span of a near millennium, and the degree of self-control he learned was basic decency. Simon spent his life before the mushroom bomb developing to be a composed and academic man, and endured having his antecedent personal growth and his own autonomy regarding his identity nullified by the ice crown.
Adventure time is a fantasy show that explores the consequences of the endless possibilities inherent to a fantastical setting. Powerful magic and magical existences destroy and ruin lives, abundances of mystical organisms amount to exhausting effort to defend oneself from danger, and the lack of predictability of what the world has to offer someone next spells out a compromised sense of security and stability.
Simon/the Ice King's story is one example of the show's exploration of the undesirable side of fantasy, and one story that's been built on for over eight years now. It's a story with circumstances unique to the show, with numerous writers informing its contents, with some parts planned and some spontaneous. It's a charged story, and it's narratively reductive to effectively whittle Simon's character and conflict as the showing of a real world mental illness
welcome to night vale episode 220 “a radio jupiter christmas special” / within the wires season 5 episode 5 / the adventure zone balance episode 69 / stephen king / welcome to night vale episode 13 “a story about you” / the guy who didn’t like musicals / john darnielle
Ice: Have you ever read something so explicit that you feel like you need to go to church and wash your eyes in holy water?
Maverick: Send it to me.
Ice: No, you're in a meeting.
Mav: So are you! And you're the one reading explicit things during Cain's rant, so don't you give me the eyebrows of judgement from across the room. I see you, Ice.