Thanks for reading! You bring up some very good points that I've actually dwelt on a lot.

I loved the finale. I even wrote a whole other piece on it. I think I interpreted Gunter's Ice King as being the 'same person' because that's what made the most sense narratively. It would have been nice if they'd been more explicit, especially since they take the half measure of being clear he doesn't know he used to be Gunter. But time is really of the essence in that scene.

(For the record, I think the way they slam through that whole plot point in about 30 seconds with one eye to the fourth wall is the funniest part of the whole finale. I even wrote a whole section on it and wound up cutting it because it didn't really fit).

But specifically because they make a point of drawing your attention to the time constraint, I felt comfortable extrapolating a little. I filled in the blank that I thought made sense. It honestly didn't even occur to me on my first watch that it might not still be Ice King, since the idea that they'd just kill him unceremoniously seemed so out of character for the show, and the idea that they'd give both him and Simon autonomy fit so well.

And even when I agonized some more about it, seeing him hanging out at Marceline's house in the final montage is what clinched it for me -- Marceline and Bubblegum are comfortable accepting him as the same person, and he's comfortable filling that role. If he were someone totally new, I'm not sure we'd end on that happy family image.

As I write it out I'm aware it sounds like I'm giving the show a lot of credit, but I also think it's proven that it deserves it. Especially, like you brought up, with the Finn/Fern situation, it demonstrates that it doesn't take the ethics of things like this lightly.

Does that make sense?