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Ricardio is a minor character on Adventure Time who debuts in "Ricardio the Heart Guy". Finn and Jake first encounter him as he is giving a Best Friend Massage to Lumpy Space Princess. He is the Ice King's heart come to life.

Biography[]

Finn shows a rivalry with him due to the fact that Princess Bubblegum seems somewhat attracted to him, and Finn, at the time, had a crush on her. This is shown when Finn says to Jake, "He's talking about science, man! I can't compete with that!" This obviously made him jealous, but Finn is incapable of desribing it as actual jealously. However, instead of mere jealousy, Finn has reason to believe that Ricardio is not who he appears to be in the negetive sense. Throughout the course of his debut episode, Finn spies on him, trying to find evidence incriminating Ricardio to be a villain while Jake insists that his instincts are nothing but blind paranoia created by Finn's jealousy towards Princess Bubblegum combined with the superficiality of Ricardio's dramatic complexion. Finn's investigation does promote some probable cause when he sees Ricardio in secret smashing glass bottles and using them as serrated weapons. The real clencher is when he sees him in a violent confrontation with the Ice King in an alley ending with him throwing the Ice King into a dumpster and leaving him for dead as he runs away with his rope and broken glass bottles.

Finn and Jake finally confront him on the streets and start by asking him straight forward questions as to whether or not he's evil and Finn directly orders him to stay away from Princess Bubblegum with all that makeshift equipment. Ricardio all but confirms he is evil by maliciously taunting Finn and goads him into slugging him to the ground in front of Princess Bubblegum. Ricardio feigns empathy with Finn, admitting that he looked a little threatening with all that stuff (which Princess Bubblegum says were for their Balbaflonic Laser), to make Finn look bad in front of the Princess. When she walks away to tend to him, a dejected Finn has no choice but to conclude Jake was right about him only looking evil by superficiality. However, that's when the Ice King lurches out of the alley, weak and helpless, explaining how and why Ricardio is indeed evil.

Ice King reveals to Finn and Jake that it all started with a spell he concocted that would grant him control of Princess Bubblegum's heart, but it went horribly wrong and Ice King instead lost control of his. Specifically, Ice King's own heart came to life, gained sentience, and walked out of his body altogether. Ricardio's true motives are also revealed, as well as the attraction to Princess Bubblegum he shares with the Ice King; he wants to get close enough to her so that he can rip out her own heart and make it his bride, mirroring Ice King's constant arranged marriage attempts with other Princesses. The Ice King was left critically weakened with the absence of his most vital organ, but just barely managed to lumber all the way to the Candy Kingdom to find him. That's when Finn spotted both of them in the alley. He was trying to convince Ricardio to return to his body and leave Princess Bubblegum alone. But instead, Ricardio dumped Ice King into a dumpster and left him for dead. The Ice King pleads to Finn and Jake to stop him before it's too late and the boys race off to the castle.

The boys burst into Princess Bubblegum's throne room and finally catch Ricardio red-handed (not ironically). Princess Bubblegum is tied up with the rope and Ricardio was just about to carve out her heart with the broken bottles. They chase him all over the throne room until he holds Bubblegum at glasspoint. That's when she apologizes to Finn for doubting his suspicions and playing into Ricardio's beguilement, while also noting that his knowledge on plantoids is surprisingly limited. Jake knocks him away with a jowel punch and Finn finishes him with a landing kick and continues battering him into the floor until the Ice King crawls back into the throne room. With only seconds to live at this point, the boys allow the Ice King to take his heart back and he stuffs it into the gaping hole in his chest where it used to be. Finally returned to the Ice King's body Ricardio promises a return by quietly and slowly stating "See you guys later" as the hole closes and Ice King is returned to full strength now that his heart is back where it belongs.

He returns in season four episode, "Lady & Peebles", Having decided he wants to marry Princess Bubblegum instead of just her heart, he escapes the Ice King's body again and made himself arms and legs from Ice King's body. He hid in the black ice cave in the Ice Kingdom and kidnapped Finn and Jake in order to lure Princess Bubblegum to him. When she finally came, Bubblegum agreed to marry him if he could defeat her in hand-to-hand combat. Since Ricardio was a heart (the weakest point of any living body) Princess Bubblegum was easily able to defeat him and he crawled off in defeat. Ricardio revealed that he knew who Ice King was before he wore the crown by mentioning his old name (Simon) when he walked on him as a sign of disrespect, since he was a body part in Ice King and possibly "sharing" his memories.

Ricardio passed away sometime before "Together Again" and was stuffed in "Dead World 1Ā°" (equivalent to Hell). It can be said that he died for the second time as part of the wall of damned souls.

Appearance[]

Ricardio was the heart of the Ice King. However, instead of looking like the actual life-pumping organ, Ricardio's body is physically shaped as the iconic heart symbol that represents "love." However, just like the organ, Ricardio is fairly small, smaller than that of the small Candy People. He also has a very detailed face (unlike most of the characters seen in the show), described as "boldy and dramatic". He has bold eyebrows, eyes that are depicted as actual human eyes instead of dots, bold nose, wide lips, and cheekbones. However, like most characters on the show, Ricardio does possess noodle-like arms and legs.

Ricardio changed drastically in "Lady & Peebles", creating bigger and more muscular limbs that made him at least 4 times his original height (though his heart-shaped body remained constant, mind you). He used sinews to connect himself to bulging arms and legs, though when Princess Bubblegum fought him, she ripped off one leg and one arm. He also has a smiley face mask taped on top of his head. In this episode, his eyes appear larger, only his upper lip is shaded, and his face is slightly less detailed and defined.

In "Gumbaldia," Ricardio appears as he did in his debut and joined Gumbald's army to attack and conquer the Candy Kingdom. 

Personality[]

Ricardio is the heart of the Ice King, so he possesses some major traits from him. However, unlike the Ice King, Ricardio is much more smoothe-going and confident around not just princesses, but women in general. He is a casanova with expert skills in charming women with his beguiling voice and charismatic relatability, such as Princess Bubblegum's love of science. The Candy People and the princesses take a liking to Ricardio while they despise the Ice King.

However, his charming personality is a front for his true nature. He is a malicious, manipulative ghoul arguably twice as ruthless, violent, and cunning as the Ice King, who usually only causes trouble unintentionally. In his debut episode, he beat up the Ice King (his host) and threw him into a dumpster, and in "Lady & Peebles" he used Ice King's own organs to make a body for himself, and he later showed it off by twisting an unconscious Lady Rainicorn into an overhand knot and throwing her against a wall. This also proves that Ricardio has no desire to keep Ice King alive by being his heart: he wants a life of his own.

Ricardio has an obsession for princesses similar to that of the Ice King, but Ricardio takes his to a bizarre (yet somewhat appropriate) level. He literally wants the hearts of princesses, especially Princess Bubblegum's (as seen in "Ricardio the Heart Guy"). However, his ghoulish nature changes in "Lady & Peebles," in which he claims that he didn't just want Princess Bubblegum's heart, he wanted "the full package."

Quotes[]

See: Ricardio/Quotes

Episodes featured[]

Major appearances[]

Minor appearances[]

Pictured[]

Trivia[]

  • Unlike the Ice King, Ricardio is charismatic enough to become popular and well-liked among the Candy People and princesses.
  • His name is a pun: "Ricardo" is "Richard" in Spanish and Portuguese, and "cardio" comes from "cardiac", which means "of or related to the heart."
  • Even though Ricardio is an actual heart, he doesn't look like the organ. Instead, he resembles the valentine symbol of a heart. However, his early designs show him resembling an actual heart.
  • He is one of the few characters to have a detailed face, as other characters, including the main ones, have simpler faces.
  • Because he's the heart of Ice King, he should be at least as old as him. This was pointed out in the Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People DVD special feature "Little Did You Know". His "species" is shown to be a human heart, meaning the Ice King could still genetically be a Human.
  • Ricardio seems to be too big to be the Ice King's heart, but later in "Ricardio the Heart Guy," he seems to shrink to the correct size.
  • Ricardio appeared later on in the series during a commercial on Flicks where Finn and Jake (along with various other characters from The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, and Regular Show) are in a movie theater, and Jake is annoyed by a beating noise. Later, it is revealed that the beating came from Ricardio, who was sitting next to Jake, watching the movie with a surprised look on his face and Jake told him to stop it with the beating, claiming it to be creeping him out.
  • On Ice King's papercraft robe, Ricardio's face peeks out a little bit.
  • In the storyboard for "Lady & Peebles," the smiling piece on his head was the head of Homer Simpson from "The Simpsons." This was removed as it was a storyboard joke.
  • He calls the Ice King "Simon," revealing that he naturally knows exactly who the Ice King was a previous life since the two of them were, after all, one and the same entity.
  • Ricardio appears in "All the Little People" as one of the Little People.
  • In the episode "Gotcha!" a picture of Ricardio appears on Lumpy Space Princess' diary.
  • He resembles Majora's Wrath, the final boss from the game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
  • He along with The Earl of Lemongrab, Lumpy Space Princess, Tiffany, Magic Man, Donny, and Squirrel were pictured in the credits of "Water Park Prank" as one of those who can't return to Wet Pipes Water Park.

Gallery[]

Official art[]

Screenshots[]

References[]

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