The most virtuosic thing about “Friends Forever” is that it re-establishes Ice King as the series’ prime butthole without losing any of his tragic complexity. And all it took was a bunch of newly-alive furniture to tell him he’s all caught up in karmic ego-games, too hung up on himself to appreciate himself and start actually interacting with people, instead of forcing them to interact with him.
Yeah, it’s very sad in that he’s lonely and mean, and the lonelier he gets the meaner he gets, but this episode reveals how that’s a cycle perpetuated substantially by Simon Petrikov himself, and delves deeply into the mechanics of self-sabotage. Adventure Time‘s best episodes are dedicated to the idea that there are no bad people, just unfortunate situations… but “Friends Forever” reminds us that Ice King isn’t just a sob-case that demands your unconditional pity. The main narrative with Ice King has been that we should sympathize with social dysfunctionals because they deserve social fulfillment like the rest of us, but are held back by personality defects beyond their control. On last night’s episode of Adventure Time, “Friends Forever,” Ice King brings his furniture to life so he can hang out with them, but they’re too busy pondering the miracle of consciousness out of nothing.