“Princess Monster Wife” Review

Original Airdate: May 28, 2012

Written & Storyboarded by: Bert Youn & Somvilay Xayaphone

Princess Monster Wife is Ice King’s return to centerstage after a long absence from major appearances since Holly Jolly Secrets. It’s also a pretty classic Ice King story, as he returns to his roots of kidnapping princesses, with a twist. At first, I was pretty opposed to this one. I didn’t like the idea of Ice King continuing to pull his typical shenanigans after the big, heavy reveal of his backstory, but I think they really took a unique root with it that we haven’t seen much of: Ice King actually being a good husband.

A large majority of this one is just simply the connection between the IK and PMW, and it’s actually quite heartwrenching and poignant. Again, upon first watching this episode, I thought it was a tad slow. A lot of it is dragging with depression, but that’s another aspect I’ve grown to enjoy more. The character of Princess Monster Wife is quite difficult to watch, generally because she views herself as a monster and the entire rest of the world, besides her husband, supports it. One of my all-time favorite movies is The Elephant Man, and this is a story quite similar to it that I think is pulled off very well. Princess Monster Wife has just enough to her that I think she’s a relatively well-defined character; she’s thoughtful and friendly, but isn’t able to give love to anyone because she doesn’t even love herself and can’t find any reasons to do so. It’s a very tragic look at self-loathing that really tears me up inside every time I see this character and the reactions she receives from everyone around her. The scene where she looks at herself in the sink is arguably the hardest to watch.

Ice King is the best character to combat that personality, however, and we see him in one of his most likable depictions of all time. Despite the world deeming his wife as a monster, Ice King is still entirely supportive and loving towards her, no matter what society thinks. It’s really charming and endearing to see him behave like such a gentleman and genuine person, especially in scenes where he describes washing dishes with her and the entire scheme of putting her through a penguin fashion show. The fact that he’d go through all of that alone is a really amazing thing for him to do, and I just enjoy seeing the IK legitimately handle a relationship with such grace. It proves that, while Ice King is completely immature emotionally, he is able to function like a normal, well-kept human being when he has the right person beside him, and perhaps PMW’s mental fragility was what helped him gain control of his own. I love their relationship, and his desire to be “normal” like the families on TV.

The ending proves, however, that no matter how well Ice King is able to handle a real life relationship, he’s still very much insane and self-centered. Despite his loving behavior towards PMW, he still considers her “his stuff” and will have completely forgotten her existence five minutes later. It doesn’t feel mean-spirited at all to me, and just feels like fitting behavior for Ice King. Even though he was able to have a caring relationship with Princess Monster Wife, he still stole from others to create her, and most likely would have moved on to something different within a week. It was just nice to see that he was able to at least behave like a genuine person at all when faced with a loving relationship.

The song in this one is great and hilarious. Written by Pat McHale, Something Special is somewhat of a homage to A Whole New World, and one that both feels very silly and quite captivating. The landscape while Ice King and PMW are flying is really beautiful, taking us throughout the ice castle, as well as showing off some familiar faces (the ice toads, ice bulls, and Gunter’s baby kitten). And of course, you have Ice King singing in a high-pitched female voice, which is just great.

The humor is this one is a bit scarce, though, like I said, it wasn’t really going for jokes a lot of the time. It was going more for real genuine sequences between our two main leads (in fact, it almost feels like a stage play a majority of the time) and how they work off of each other. That said, it does have its moments. The premise itself is so bizarre and absurd that I can’t help but laugh at it. It makes sense that IK would be able to take parts from PB or Hot Dog Princess, but how the fuck did he rip off Turtle Princess and LSP’s faces? Do bodies just work like that in Ooo? The penguin fashion show was pretty amusing as well, as we final get an actual consensus that there isn’t just one Gunther. Ice King just makes up penguin names as he goes along and such.

If there’s one thing I really didn’t like when I first saw the episode that I still feel pretty iffy on, it’s Finn and Jake’s behavior. I really don’t know how I feel about it; on one hand, I can’t really blame them for passing out because it’s pretty much against their will, but their general behavior towards PMW is quite unlikable to me. I mean, I understand their job is to rescue princess parts because what Ice King did is fucked up, but directly calling her ugly and insulting her face is pretty harsh to me. Perhaps they didn’t realize how sentient PMW was, but it just really doesn’t work for me. It just comes off as dick-ish.

Besides that, I really like this one. Like I mentioned, it’s just a very gutwrenching tale that brings out the best in Ice King and a unique one-off character that proves to be quite beautiful by the end of the story. Princess Monster Wife is the one who legitimately saves the day, and will always hold the Ice King’s love for her near and dear. It’s a very tragic kind of love story that’s actually the best type of love story we’ve seen this season so far.

As a side note, I wanted to share with y’all my Adventure Time collection I’ve been working on for a while! Years of collecting shizz like the nerdy fanboy I am is just something I take great pleasure in, while also spending a reasonable amount of time and money, so I hope you guys are able to enjoy as well!

Favorite line: “You’re all gonna clap and cheer or I’m gonna smack your buns.”