“When Wedding Bells Thaw” Review

Original Airdate: June 28, 2010

Written & Storyboarded by: Kent Osborne & Niki Yang

The Ice King’s depiction in season one varies greatly. Just two episodes ago, the more sympathetic side of his character was brought out, and he was hinted at being genuinely caring and fatherly deep down inside. Prior to that, the IK was depicted more as a Saturday Morning cartoon villain that barely posed a threat to our heroes. Other times, he’s depicted as completely insane and sociopathic. This episode features more of the latter, though the entire episode ends up seeming almost as scattershot as Ice King’s brain.

Ice King’s getting married! He informs Finn and Jake after trying to kill both of them. One thing this episode harps on quite a bit is the Ice King’s always growing one-sided friendship between he, Finn and Jake. Before this episode, the three of them were painted as rivals in almost every scenario, but this is the one that changes it up quite a bit for the remainder of the series. I wish there could’ve been a small segue to hint at this unexpected attachment Ice King obtains for Finn and Jake, but hey, it’s already established that Ice King is nuts. I’m ready to accept that he randomly awoke one day and decided that he wanted F&J as his best friends.

The one issue that this episode poses is that it’s pretty predictable. We know from the second Ice King mentions that he’s getting married that it ain’t gonna happen. We all know there’s no way in hell Ice King’s just gonna have a wife from now on, so it hurts the episode a bit that the twist ending isn’t really a twist ending. Also, I sorta feel like this episode would’ve been slightly more interesting if Ice King had brainwashed Princess Bubblegum instead of the newly introduced Old Lady Princess. Sure, that would’ve been an even more predictable plot, but I feel as though there would’ve been more comedic possibilities if they had used a recurring character over a character the audience isn’t familiar with.

The episode isn’t devoid of entertainment, though. The Manlorette Party is a very enjoyable sequence, including what is arguably the greatest background score in AT history. There’s also a nice cameo of the bears who later appear in “Belly of the Beast.” Okay, here’s where things sorta lose touch with the rest of the episode. There’s a solid 2-3 minutes of Ice King debating on whether he should actually marry his wife because if he does, she may try to steal his demonic wishing eye. He also begins to realize he won’t be able to steal princesses anymore, so F&J end up trying to convince him to marry Old Lady Princess, to which he agrees to. Of course, later on, Finn and Jake find out that Old Lady Princess was hypnotized the entire time and realize that Ice King’s conflict with marriage was pointless, to which the IK responds that he’s “complicated.” Sure, the show is self aware of the previous scene being pointless, and it’s admittedly pretty funny that Ice King is convoluted enough to conspire with his own scheme, but it just sorta seems like those entire exchanges with Finn and Jake seemed pointless, since I couldn’t call them particularly funny. Thus, it results in a somewhat rushed (albeit entertaining) climax. But hey, Jake and the Ice King are officially married as of this episode!

So even though it’s purposely disjointed, this episode still seems a bit messy nonetheless. Besides the brief development between Ice King’s growing affection for Finn and Jake, it’s just sort of a lackluster episode with nothing particularly funny or groundbreaking to discuss. However, this episode would spiral into a series of future episodes that would further delve into F, J, & IK’s complicated relationship.