anyway one important aspect to remember about Princess Bubblegum and Marcelineās contrasts in character is that they care about things in different ways.
PB cares intensely, ferociously. It defines her character and a lot of her actions, for better or for worse.
Hereās the thing about that though: PB is cold. She is calculating. She is ruthless and methodical, and tends to look at people in the abstract, as numbers and resources. She often makes cruel decisions for the greater good, and while she doesnāt do it lightly, she does it without ever changing expression or seeming to feel anything one way or another.
PB cares about structure and organizations: she wants to build a kingdom that lasts, to prevent further destruction across the world. And she is willing to do extremely morally ambiguous things to make that happen. Individuals? ā¦She is not good when it comes to caring for people, or even seeing them as individuals; just numbers to be dealt with, one way or another. Some people, she cares about them, but she is willing to toss them aside without a momentās hesitation if the need seems pressing.
Marceline, conversely, does not care about the structure. Marceline cannot care. And why would she?
She saw humanity burn itself down. The Lich didnāt exist then, and it didnāt need to: humanity was capable enough of seeing to its own doom that way. And sheās seen every other society since then die too; nothing lasts forever, and nothing remains.
So Marceline doesnāt really give a damn about the world as a whole; she refuses to get involved in world ending situations or apocalyptic events because she hasnāt cared enough in a very long time. From her perspective, why bother? Everything ends anyway. Trying to save a kingdom from a monster when itāll collapse on its own is a waste of her energy.
But people? Thatās another matter.
Marceline puts all that energy into loving other people; sincerely, genuinely, and its pretty likely that when they die inevitably, its the reason she leaves the land only to eventually come back, again and again. Their loss wounds her, but she does it, over and over again.
PB and Marceline care a lot, in their own way. But PB pushes people aside, and even her most genuine love is very clinical and detached. Marceline cares so much that she keeps removing herself, because she hates being hurt so much, but she will do so anyway, over and over.
