An old adversary targets the Ice Kingdom and Marceline has to save Simon.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if whatever the Empress did to Simon is what prompted Marceline to start hunting vampires or if she did out of remembrance of his kindness towards her.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Subverted. It initially seems as though The Empress' hypnotism works, causing Ice King to act Not So Harmless, but it turns out he was just obeying her out of romantic intention. This means he's able to think for himself to a degree and note when The Empress is taking things too far, such as telling him to kill Marceline.
- The Cavalry: Bubblegum as she and the others step in and use her weapon to immobilize the Empress long enough for Marceline to stake her.
- Continuity Nod: Ice King appeared to be dreaming of Lemongrab, judging from what he was screaming in his sleep. "Unacceptable... unacceptable... Lemons!"
- Disability Immunity: Ice King's mind is so far gone he's immune to mind control. His devotion to The Empress made it seem like it worked though.
- Hypnotic Eyes: The Empress' method of hypnotizing people.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Invoked by Marceline, but Ice King wasn't hypnotized after all....despite how he was acting.
- It Tastes Like Feet: The Empress is unsatisfied with the blood of penguins, saying it tastes like "cheese water".
- More than Mind Control: Ice King's dialogue and a few lines from The Empress imply they had something going on the first time she put him under her control, leading to Simon's blind devotion despite being immune to hypnotism.
- Noodle Incident: The Empress met Simon sometime before he completely turned into the Ice King. She mentions enslaving him, but it's not elaborated much more on than that.
- Not Brainwashed: Ice King was too dense to be hypnotized by the Empress. He was just following her orders because she's a pretty lady he thought was interested in him.
- Not So Harmless: In stark contrast to his Villain Decay, Ice King has some shockingly crafty moments, such as snapping twigs to torment a paranoid Jake, making Marceline and Finn drop their guards by crying before shackling them in ice, and capturing Finn in the first place.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Ice King successfully abducted Finn completely offscreen in order to deliver him to The Empress.
- Rage Breaking Point: The Empress mocking Marceline by acting like it was her fault that Simon is like this, then telling Simon was happier when he was her servant, is what gets Marcy trying to stake her in rage.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Empress has a snake decoration that coils menacingly around her body and lifts up her headdress to show her eyes.
- Shout-Out: The vampires get X-ed out at the end of the episode like the credits of Kill Bill Vol. II.
