This article is about the penguin. You may be looking for the dinosaur.
Gunter is the penguin that most commonly accompanies the Ice King.
The Ice King uses Gunter as his personal servant, whereas the other penguins working for the Ice King are essentially slaves.[1] In truth it is the ancient space being known as Orgalorg, who wishes to conquer the solar system.
In "What is Life?," one of Gunter's known duties is being a stand for the Ice King's video game machine. Gunter also tries to warn the Ice King that Finn and Neptr are in the room.
Gunter is mentioned in "What Have You Done?" when Ice King says, "Gunter, dispose of Finn's carcass."
Gunter appears again in "It Came from the Nightosphere," where his/her soul is almost stolen and is dubbed "by far, the most evil thing I've encountered" by Hunson Abadeer, and thrown at the Ice King. The Ice King's response is "Gunter, who told you you could fly?"
Gunter appears in "The Chamber of Frozen Blades" and is very sick, but it later turns out that he/she "was preggers". A floating pink kitten hatches from the egg.
Gunter re-appears in the episode "Still," trying to mess with the potions Ice King brought to freeze Finn and Jake. Ice King says that Gunter likes to break bottles, which Gunter eventually does. He/She is shown to be a troublemaker in this episode.
Gunter appears multiple times in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part I" and "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II." Notably, during his/her "Penguin Dance Party" video, Ice King calls two different penguins "Gunter" in the same scene. It is unknown whether this was intentional by the show's staff.
In "Five Short Graybles," Ice King makes Gunter float out to sea on an iceberg because he believes that Gunter is making his castle smell bad. It is also shown that Gunter can play the keyboard, though not very well.
In "Princess Monster Wife," it is revealed that the other penguins are named a variant of "Gunter," and only one penguin is addressed as Gunter.
In "Reign of Gunters," Gunter proves s/he is the most (potentially) evil entity in Ooo, excluding the Lich, by using Ice King's demonic wishing eye to conquer Ooo and destroy all of its glass objects. At one point, the army of Gunters ran out of bottles to break, so Princess Bubblegum suggested reconstructing the bottles to perpetually keep Gunter occupied. Gunter got impatient, however, and attempted to shatter one of the Gumball Guardians' heads (seeing as it is essentially a giant bottle), showing that Gunter is so obsessed with shattering glass that s/he does not particularly care whether they are sentient or not. Gunter is only stopped when the Ice King returns from his outing, scolding him/her for taking his wishing eye and telling him/her to go back to the castle.
In "Jake the Dog," Ice King accuses Gunter of taking his crown jewels.
In "Bad Little Boy," an alternate Gunter in Ice King's fiction story is seen being ridden by Fionna and Cake.
In "I Remember You" Gunter is being held and sung to by Ice King, who is wearing a Marceline wig. Ice King sings a cover of "Fry Song," replacing many of the words with "Gunt," and Gunter starts chewing on the wig.
In "Five More Short Graybles," Gunter is among the penguins who want to lick Ice King's salty tears, but Ice King pushes him/her away, telling him/her that s/he's on a "low-salt diet."
In "All the Little People," there is a Little Gunter among the Little People. Strangely, he/she seems to notice Finn's hand when Finn gives Ice King his drum set.
In "Simon & Marcy," Simon refers to Marceline as "Gunter" when he puts on the crown and starts acting crazy. This may be a reason why she has Gunter written on her journal as mentioned above. It seems the name has some deep meaning in either Ice King's insanity or the crown itself because that seems to be the only name he can comprehend when naming something.
In "Princess Potluck," Gunter helps Ice King by baking lasagna to feed the rabbits to ruin Princess Bubblegum's potluck. Afterwards, Ice King dresses Gunter as a princess (using old socks and a bottle cap) and tells him/her to go to the party and throw fruit punch at everybody. However, everyone at the party recognizes Gunter and starts cheering him/her, who starts to party along.
In "The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita," Gunter is sleeping on the ice couch with a game console. Before Ice King leaves, he tells Gunter that he is now the "man of the house," and kisses him on the forehead.
In "Earth & Water," Gunter is given the Ice King's crown to remake the Ice Kingdom. Gunter uses it to make an ice arch and later a race of Strangling Snow Snakes.
In "Play Date," Gunter is mentioned, and it is revealed that he/she regularly only says "Wenk!"
In "Betty," Gunter is allowed to wear the crown again just like in "Earth & Water" and has been given some control in the Ice Kingdom for a short time as Ice King (known at that time as "Simon" due to being transform to human in the episode) is building a generator.
In the episode "Orgalorg", it is revealed that Gunter is not a natural penguin, but instead a powerful space deity named Orgalorg, who was banished by Grob Gob Glob Grod to Earth billions of years ago for trying to intercept a "catalyst comet" and take its power. Being banished, Orgalorg fell to Earth and was crushed by the Earth's gravity, thus creating the appearance of a penguin.
Despite Ice King fixing his/her head Gunter's brain came out even more in "Hot Diggity Doom/The Comet". Gunter can now change into its true form Orgalorg. Orgalorg played as the main antagonist in this two-parter. Oraglorg tried to fight the Catalyst Comet but was brought back to Earth as a penguin and appears to be harmless and has lost all memory of Orgalorg.
In "King's Ransom," Gunter is kidnapped by Betty Grof and Ice King needs the help from Finn and Jake to get him back.
Appearance
As Gunter
Gunter looks like a regular penguin with big black eyes. She/he has a black back, black flipper-like wings, and a white flat belly. She/he also has a pointed yellow beak and yellow feet with three toes.
As Orgalorg
After the accident in the episode "Orgalorg", Gunter's head is cut apart and his/her green "brains" sticks out. In the episodes "Hot Diggity Doom" and "The Comet" his/her brain became a mind of its own with torso and arms, disguising itself as Mr. X. When exiting Earth's atmosphere, Orgalorg expands to about the height of Grob Gob Glob Grod, with a white head with multiple eyes and a beak on top, and a yellow, scaled body that resembles a dress or robe of sorts. As seen in "The Comet," he/she can expand even further, to the point of resembling an umbrella or jellyfish, with a star shaped mouth on its underside and five eyes surrounding the mouth, bearing a close resemblance to the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis).
Episode outfits
Despite normally not wearing any clothes, Gunter wears outfits in some episodes:
Jake the Dog - Gunter wore a wet floor sign-shaped outfit that says "I STEAL JEWELS".
Princess Potluck - Gunter was dresses as a Princess. Gunter had a penny on top of its head and a mass of socks sticked to itself using tape. Gunter carried a taser beneath the socks. Another one was also dressed up, it wore red baking gloves.
There are a number of penguins that Ice King refers to as Gunter, or a variant thereof. He pronounces it differently depending on the penguin's personality.[2] This is shown in "Princess Monster Wife" when multiple penguins are addressed with some variant of Gunter (e.g. Gundy, Gunder, Gunthy, Goonter, Günder...). Because of this, it is difficult to ascertain the sex and gender of Gunter, if there is a single Gunter.
Other characters typically refer to Gunter by masculine pronouns. For example, in "The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita," Ice King tells Gunter he is now the man of the house. However, in "The Chamber of Frozen Blades" Gunter lays an egg, which would likely mean it is female, although male penguins take care of their eggs. Also, in "Hoots," Gunter manifests as a female bird in its dreams.
In "Orgalorg", Gunter is revealed to be a space deity named, Orgalorg this may imply there is truly one Gunter.
Personality and character traits
Gunter is a vandal penguin who doesn't care about what he/she breaks, as shown in "Still." But in Gunter's first appearance "What is Life?," Gunter was helpful and tried to warn Ice King that Finn and Neptr were in his room. At times, Gunter can be neutral. In "Reign of Gunters," Gunter's evil nature is shown with intent to conquer Ooo and, as Orgalorg, the entire solar system. In "The Comet", Gunter/Orgalorg follows an "open door" philosophy in which he would take advantage of whatever opportunity presents itself to him, crushing anyone or anything who stands in his way (whether it be bottles or even planets).
Gunter can also be annoying as seen in "Five Short Graybles" when he/she kept playing the keyboard. But, Gunter can also be fun shown in "Princess Potluck" when he/she joined the potluck and danced. Sometimes, Gunter also acts and sounds like a duck even though Gunter is meant to be a penguin.
Abilities
Ice Penguin Monster attacks Gumball Guardian
Gunter has good reflexes. In "Princess Potluck," Gunter was able to strike Ice King and Finn quickly with his/her taser.
Since Gunter likes to smash bottles, he/she can smash any bottle no matter how hard, as revealed in "Reign of Gunters."
Gunter also has the ability to use magical equipment.
Gunter has an ability to slap people when someone trying to do bad things to him (except Ice King). In "It Came from the Nightosphere," when Hunson Abadeer is trying to suck Gunter's soul, Gunther slaps him before his\her soul has been sucked.
In "The Comet," in his/her Orgalorg form, he/she can expand and change his/her shape when under the influence of little or no gravity.
Weaknesses
Gunter only has a few weaknesses:
Ice King squirts the Squirty-Squirts
Gunter can be easily distracted like the other penguins revealed in "What is Life?" when Gunter kept walking to Finn and Neptr in a circle.
Gunter can easily be defeated with the "Squirty-Squirts" because of it going to his/her eyes revealed in "Reign of Gunters" when Ice King used it on Gunter.
Under the confines of Earth's gravity, his/her abilities are vastly limited.
The Ice King sometimes gets upset at Gunter, such as when he/she accidentally broke his video game or ate his socks, but the Ice King seems to appreciate his/her company. Ice King told Gunter that he loves him/her in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part I." The Ice King often speaks to him/her affectionately like a father. For example, in "What is Life?" Ice King calls Gunter "daddy's little fatty," and he often addresses him/her with terms of endearment such as "honey" or "sweetie."
Kitten
As one of the Gunter's child, Gunter gives a lot of parental affection to Kitten. Throughout "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," Gunter is seen kissing and hugging her/his egg. Gunter also does this in "Reign of Gunters."
People of Its Homeworld
To the people of the world where Orgalorg came from, its belief was only known to those of the older generation and not those of present times. Those of the past feared and understood Orgalorg's true power and worshipped it like a god, while the younger ones claim he was only a myth made up to prevent them from making out.
Trivia
People of Orgalorg's Homeworld's designs are all scrapped ideas for Orgalorg's design.
It is possible that Hunson Abadeer could tell that Gunter was more than just a penguin and that he was in fact a deity, as he says that the penguin is "by far, the most evil thing I've encountered" in "It Came From the Nightosphere".
In the episode "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II," BMO deciphers a complicated code in the Ice King's crying, which reveals an image of Gunter when printed.
Gunter (variations: Günther, Gunthar, Gunder, Gunnar) is a common Germanic name made of the roots "*gunþiz" ("fight," "battle," "war") and "*harjaz" ("crowd," "army," "folk"). The fact that the Ice King calls all his penguins some variant of Gunter, while partially some sort of effect of the crown, also reflects that the penguins are an army of sorts for him.
Unknown Information (gender, individual etc.) about Gunter are debatable.
Almost every character calls it male. But sometimes it is called female. By being a deity is possible that it is genderless.
Marceline's journal has the name Gunter on it in the episode "Marceline's Closet."
Gunter, according to the Ice King, likes to smash bottles and eat socks.
Ice King has a picture of Gunter in his diary in "The Chamber of Frozen Blades."
In the game FusionFall,Gunter is a supporting character in the game along with Finn, Princess Bubblegum, Jake, and the Ice King. S/he also has an evil fusion counterpart called Fusion Gunter.
In "Reign of Gunters," Finn, Jake, and the Ice King continuously refer to Gunter as "Gunther," with an "h."
In "All the Little People," Little Gunter is seen following Finn's hand when he puts down Ice King's drums, even though Little People exist in another dimension and they cannot see Finn's. This implies Little Gunter can see Finn's dimension. However, it could be because it would have seen Ice King's drums floating in their dimension.
In "Simon & Marcy," when wearing the crown, Simon refers to Marceline as "Gunter."
In "Princess Potluck," Gunter is shown to own, or at least temporarily have possession of, a taser which she/he uses against both the Ice King and Finn.
Gunter/Orgalorg might be the oldest character in the series, since he was said to have existed before time itself alongside the other monsters in Lich's speech.
Despite Orgalorg's size being by any means enormous, he is still smaller than the other monsters shown in Gold Stars in the Lich's speech.
Orgalorg/Gunter's penguin form might be a reference to the Albino Penguins from H.P. Lovecraft's story, At the Mountain of Madness. Orgalorg's original appearance might also be a reference to the 'Elder Things' that supposedly bred the penguins.
Jesse Moynihan revealed that Orgalorg was intended to be the villain for the abandoned television movie.[3]
Orgalorg's motion is very similar to a vampire squid (Vampyrotheuthis infernalis).
