Smiling Friends' creepiest character scared a literal witch, but there is a problem

Smiling Friends is an adult swim series that premiered on January 10, 2022. It follows the Smiling Friends charity run by Cynical Charlie, Pim Pimling, Allan Red, Glep, and The Boss. The Smiling Friends charity focuses on spreading smiles throughout the world.

One character in Smiling Friends who gained a lot of notoriety for his unsettling nature was Mip, a Hobbit-like knight on a quest to save his princess. Or at least, that's how he presented himself, when in reality he was the obsessive stalker that the princess needed saving from.

The reveal of his true character has led fans to see many scenes with Mip in a completely new light. In one scene, he terrified a witch by waving a wooden cross at her, but given how far from a hero Mip turned out to be, fans have been wondering if the witch was afraid of the power of his cross, or was she simply afraid of him?

Mip's defeat of the witch is being viewed in a new light. (Image via Reddit)

Fans wasted no time in theorizing that just like he stalked the princess, he must have stalked the witch as well:

"Mip was her stalker as well. She flew off to go and get a restraining order against him."

"No wonder why she was afraid of him." Another fan agreed

Some fans quipped about Mip's unique animation style, which was a homage to the 1977 Rankin/Bass adaptation of Tolkien's The Hobbit:

"She screamed, because he was smoothly animated"

Another fan chimed in agreement, while also poking fun at Mip's unhinged plan to deliver a bomb to the princess he'd been stalking:

"He's got those delicately animated hands for a reason. Crafting that damned thing on his back. And bombs."

Another fan did, however, speculate that the witch truly was terrified of Mip's cross rather than Mip himself:

"Because of Christ, obviously. There's nothing to indicate that she knows who Mip is because none of the other fantasy creatures knew who he was, but Christianity is objectively real in the setting."

But this was countered by others who speculated that Mip might have been a demon:

"As someone else in this thread pointed out, if Christian symbols really hold that power, then why is Mip (who probably is a demon) not hurt by his own cross?"

There was, however, another fan who believed that Mip wasn't necessarily a demon after all:

"i don't think he is a demon, just a foul person and creature in general. After all - crosses don't hurt sinners, they get the divine punishment after the death."

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Who is Mip from Smiling Friends?

Mip ended up dying during a fight between Charlie and Pim. (Image via Adult Swim)

Mip from Smiling Friends is a homage to the notorious 1977 Rankin/Bass adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, as he's drawn and animated in a similar style to the character of the animated film.

Mip presents himself as a chivalrous figure who's searching for a princess so he can save her. He dupes Charlie and Pim into helping him deliver a "gift" for the princess when he finds her.

However, his "gift" is eventually revealed to be an Improvised Explosive Device, and his truly unhinged nature comes to the fore with the reveal that his entire story about needing to save the princess was a lie, as she was the one trying to get away from him.

Mip's true agenda is to blow himself up along with her in a murder-suicide because he'd decided that if he couldn't have her, nobody could.

His plan falls apart due to him accidentally getting killed during a fight between Pim and Charlie, though he still tries to dupe Pim into delivering the bomb anyway as a dying act of spite.

When Pim tries delivering this gift and lets slip who it came from, the princess reveals what kind of man Mip really was, and narrowly saves them all from getting blown up.

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Smiling Friends premiered its second season on April 1, 2024, and the show can be streamed on HBO Max for residents of the United States.