I never liked PB but I imagine running a kingdom for hundreds of years messes you up psychologically and burns you out

In summary she's a person and people are messy

"the road to hell is paved with good intentions".  She is morally gray,  She indeed does protect her citizens but in expense for their freedom and the lives of others (like flame princess,etc.)

Hynden Walch is a master of having sweetness in her words even when she says the most disturbing and heartless things.

The real issue I have with Bubblegum is when she does bad things for dumb reasons or is seemingly oblivious to danger while still supposed to be the smartest person. IE the whole thing with James, the guy she cloned, was because she sabotaged every atempt by Finn to save them and then knocked him out and sent James to his death, claiming all the attempts would have failed, instead of just explaining anything. She destroyed the rattleballs for being too violent, because they had a fight club where they only hurt each other and replaced them with the bannana guards which are definitively the dumbest beings in Ooo, to the point taht her survalience state is pointless 99% of the time because the people in charge of watching the cameras and solving crimes don't realize anything is suspicious even when it is directly explained to them (ie she fakes her murder to test them and a random candy citizen solves it, the bannanas only show up because he lied about a completely harmless offense happening to get them to show up because they didn't believe his report of her murder).

I don't mind that she is nuanced and does bad things to try to protect her candy subjects or Ooo at large, I mind when her actions are dumb and they don't get called out as dumb and how she seems to always forget how dumb her subjects are and rely on them NOT being stupid, which is especially baffling because she based them on her family that turned themselves into the first candy people with dumb dumb juice. It would all be find if ANY Of it was actually acknowledged in universe too other than small moments like her taking down her cameras. They had the chance too, when she was deposed by popular vote (why was that happening anyway did she set it up?) she has scenes rethinking her life all she had to do was mention some of these moments or choices, but they stay vague.

PB is the perfect example of "Does the ends justify the means"

I personally believe pb was always a good person but didn’t know how to show it until she made those mistakes, she also has trauma from the betrayal of her first family. She definitely has issues that make her morally grey but she ultimately has a good heart with a sometimes overly logical and cold mind.

Iffy morality is, unfortunately, something that just comes with the territory of leadership. As much as we all wish for that ideal benevolent leader, who makes the morally correct choice all the time and only ever does things which are a benefit to the people, the reality of the throne is a lot messier. Oftentimes the choice has to be made to do what is better for the whole rather than the individuals within it, and we can all agree that, regardless of what choice a leader makes, chances are there will always be those who will condemn those choices. Bubblegum is no different in this regard :(

06:15 her morality when concerning the candy kingdom is that of a deity because she literally created it from nothing, including the beings so they are her Sims if you will, however this authority shouldn’t be allowed to extend outside of her creation.

She is literaly makima

I wish we saw her become a villain for some time or some version of her it would be a very different take on the classic princess dynamic

she is the only character that i love and hate at the same time

PB is such a great character, my least favorite part of her is in the early seasons when she let's Finn crush on her and isn't honest about her age. It's early AT gag stuff tho so eh

Finally someone is actually asking the real questions I’ve been wondering this for years

Some months ago i rewatched the entire OG series before watching Fiona and Cake. I firmly belive that at the start of the show she knows how Finn feels and she decided to keep Finn emotionally attached because she needed him to protect the kingdom. I really dont think this is a misunderstanding on Finn part. Its very clear on the first Ricardio episode, where she knows Finn is jelous, and a romantic jelosy not a "friend" one. Because at the end of the episode she says to Finn "now that Ricardio was gone you do not need to be jelous anymore", then uses Jake to make a joke about Finn kissing her. Thats very intentional, there is no doubt she is actually using Finn affection here.
I think she only realised on the first Lich episode of what she had done where she puts Finn in on a very real danger. And only decided to stop after she was grow up again, after realising she could not do that to him anymore. But the damage was done at that point and still did not tell him no.

Personally I think PB has gone too far to really be considered good, or even deserving of her happy ending in AT.

The constant refusal to truly address her actions in the show really dragged it down overall. Not completely of course but it did its damage.

PB is the Emperor of Mankind of Warhammer 40k, two ancient persons who wish peace for your race but his arrogance in the end destroy the plans for a better future.

she the threat

0:50 pb actually made lemongrab, realised he wasnt as sweet as she wanted him to, and then got him his own kingdom just so she wouldnt need to deal with his issues 😭

"We need more complex female characters" Y'ALL CAN'T EVEN HANDLE PRINCESS BUBBLEGUM!