What Role Do Ron Character Has In Team Possible? Do You Believe He Gets The Credit He Deserves For His

OMG. Somebody said it out loud.

Disney is absolutely not the only studio doing this though.

It seems to have become standard practice across movies and series everywhere.

Anything that doesn't do it is like a breath of sunlight and fresh air inside a dank musty cave.

It's part of the 'fix it in post-production' epidemic sweeping through the studios. Fix it in post is often used as a time/money-saving measure - and is absolutely part of the same mess that the WGA is fighting against currently.

Rather than fixing things on-set - audio, lighting, something in-frame that shouldn't be, etc. (which is all handled by unionized crew) - they leave it for the CG folks (not unionized) to edit later.

(on ridiculously tight schedules that leave them scrambling, cutting corners, and working inhumane hours)

See also: that part where scripts aren't finished, because the studio won't fully staff the writers room, and won't pay to have writers on-set for day-of-filming script questions and fixes (which could resolve issues such as 'what kind of lighting do we need here?')

Anyway, all this shit we, as audiences, keep complaining about - bad lighting, bad sound, wonky visual effects, over-usage of not-great CGI, stilted acting on green-screen sets, scripts that seem not-quite-finished, costumes that look like they're cheap and flimsy, terrible hair and makeup, films and series that aren't as polished as they could be...

Plus the complaints we have about streaming services and their shenanigans...

All of that is enmeshed in the extreme capitalism that has taken over everything, including entertainment, to the point that studios are abusing their workforce and churning out material that - at best just doesn't live up to its potential - at worst, is just unwatchable shit.

It's so frustrating because we have characters like Marc and Nathaniel and Rose with powers that fit their personalities and interests and they don't get to use them very much.

Instead, we get a season where the villains get to use the powers, and they get to be much more creative with them.

It's frustrating. The villains were using the powers better than their chosen holders.

Nathaniel used Genesis to make a wand, but Nathalie used it to make a box of supplies.

Marc used Sublimation to give himself the power to always score a goal, but Tomoe used it to give herself an enhanced sense of smell, and Gabriel used it to give himself invisibility and flight.

Rose used it to make Juleka and Gigantitan calm down, but Mr. Damocles used it to distract multiple people and Miss Bustier used it to start a revolution.

The villains were using the powers more creatively than the heroes were.

(Note, it's not just a problem with these three, but they were the ones that best explained the problem.)

This makes it seem like the chosen holders aren't cut out to be heroes, despite what Ladybug says.

If Marinette and the villains are using the powers better than them, what's the point of them?

They could have been more, but the creators didn't want to work for that.

They want us to believe that these people are perfect for their Miraculouses because they said so, even when the show itself contradicts it.

And, honestly, that's terrible writing and unfair to the characters.

Ladybug Vs Avatar's use of the supporting cast and the problem thereof.

I'm not sure if this has been covered before, but there's a serious problem with Marinette being the be-all end-all of everything in Miaculous.

And it's not just because "she's stressed" or "it's all on her". Her being the most important, talented and plot-relevant character in every situation is.

Let's make a comparison to the Gold Standard:

In Avatar the Last Airbender, Aang is the axis of the story. He holds incredible powers beyond anyone else, can bend every element and could conceivably end the entire conflict that plagues his world with relative ease- which he eventually does.

However, for 99% of the story he cannot do so. Because Aang is untrained, he cannot access that divine win-button of the Avatar State at will, and using it carried enormous risks to himself and those around him- making it functionally unusable for common conflicts. Furthermore while he does technically have the capacity to use all four elements, he had only mastered one and needed to learn the remaining three.

Indeed, Aang has outright difficulty with learning Earthbending despite his innate talents and while he's a quick study for the other two, he doesn't demonstrate the same effectiveness with water and fire as Katara and Zuko.

This means that Aang cannot do certain things as well as the others in his team. This means that for the majority of the story, even though his first and preferred element provides him with useful abilities" Aang has weaknesses that he needs others to cover and provide for.

Enter Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko.

Katara is a waterbender who teaches Aang and later advances her powers to include the all-important power of healing and the disturbingly effective (though situational) Bloodbending.

Toph is an earthbender who is also one of Aang's teachers, and whose tremor sense later allows her to both detect liars and invent Metalbending.

Sokka is seemingly just the comic relief normie. However his technical mindset allows him to serve as the general of the group, and even plan and lead in that role for entire armies later in the show.

Even Zuko who joins later and becomes less a teacher but a fellow student alongside Aaang in firebending is a skilled infiltrator and melee weapon expert. (This is less of a case than the others since it's not used as much, but it's more of a concrete example than his insights into the fire nation and his potential utility as a replacement Fire Lord).

They each provide far more than those short summaries, but it's important to note that in each case, even when Aang does learn the elements and starts growing into his role as the Avatar: he never gains the full range of abilities that his team offers. He never assumes the fully strategic mindset of Sokka, and even though it's downright implausible that no Avatar before him never learnt healing, he never demonstrates that ability or any Metalbending prowess even in the Avatar state.

There's also the enemy trio of Azula, Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is a powerful firebending genius, but Mai's prowess with her throwing weapons are a close match- and Ty Lee's chi-blocking can outright cripple enemy benders for any given fight when combined with her insane agility: something that not even Azula can do with her firebending. They are an incredibly dangerous combination and when Azula loses them, she becomes far less effective for their absence.

In both teams despite the leader being a powerful, talented bender who is objectively the strongst person on their respective side: there's no doubt about each member of the team contributing something that said leader cannot.

-

Now let's look at Miraculous:

Marinette is the "Greatest Ladybug" of all time despite being fourteen, only having had the earrings for less than a year, and having a list of predecessors that go back literally thousands of years and include Joan of Arc.

She is also the Guardian of the Miracle Box. Specifically she is the Guardian of The Mother Box that is the most important of all the boxes, despite there being at least a full Temple's worth of actually trained candidates somewhere in Tibet who should be far and above more capable than her or her mentor Fu. However, her supposed superior Su-Han seems entirely convinced that she's already surpassed any teachings his order has by how often she breaks said teachings in his face only for him to roll over like a dog. There's not been a single time when Marinette has been confronted by some shortcoming in her responsibilities as a Guardian where she has had to learn anything from the multi-millennia old Order of Gurdians.

Marinette has also worn almost every single Miraculous in her Box at the same time, a feat that supposedly risked serious harm to her but merely made her woozy for an afternoon (if that). As of the season five Finale, she has also unified her earrings with her partner's ring: a scenario that in earlier seasons seemed to imply great risk: yet she was able to use the powers flawlessly.

As Ladybug, she is also the lone hero who has unlocked any new advanced powers with her Miraculous (unless you also include the arbitrary "adulthood" that she and Chat Noir achieved that allows them multiple uses of their Miraculous before detransforming), and on the occasions when she's used anyone else's powers has shown no sign of being any less capable than they are with them.

Ladybug does everything as well if not better than everyone else.

Marinette can not only unify with any Miraculous she needs for a given mission, she can use the powers as effectively as their "dedicated holder" can and without any restrictions. Unlike the majority of the cast who are still under the child-power limit. She can even unify with multiple miraculous at the same time without any drawbacks.

And without those drawbacks, without anyone on the cast being able to use the power of their Miraculous more effectively than Marinette: everyone else on the team is more or less superfluous.

Sure, Marinette has tossed out the Miraculous to her team like candy now. But when you get down to it: the real lesson that she should have learnt from Strikeback to just put some damn security on her Yo-yo/The Box. Because this just means that she has to wait for the hero in question to show up when she could have just pulled off whatever plan she has in mind herself.

And that superfluous label includes Chat Noir.

As frustrating as it is to come to the this conclusion: as of right now, there's no real reason for Adrien Agreste to be anything but a temporary holder. Certainly you can point to his experience with Plagg's power, and a few examples that seem to imply he can do more with it (in his second outing he was able to reconstruct part of the Eiffel Tower into a makeshift extension to catch someone from). Things that imply that if he perhaps received any actual training in the show like Marinette did from Fu, any guidance whatsoever from the Order or their Grimoire he might be able to achieve more.

But there's no solid evidence to expect that Marinette wouldn't be as effective, and the narrative precedent does not lend itself to the idea that anyone could overshadow Ladybug as a holder even of their own Miraculous. If anything, the sheer ability Marinette showed as Bug Noire implies that her having a partner instead of just keeping the ring herself is a detriment to any given situation.

If you can justify exposing the ring to potential capture in the first place considering that there seems to be no requirement to do. By all rights the practical thing to do is just keeping Plagg in the box instead of risking reality.

Of course we wanted to be generous, Adrien could still be of some use. He's the resident meatshield and narrative jobber. So long as he has a Miraculous he could continue faithfully serving in those roles, eating up mind-control beams and taking hits for Bug Noire so she can save the day as usual.

But everyone else on the Miraculous team might as well turn in their furry super-suits and go home.

-

You couldn't get a more black white depiction of the value of others outside of the protagonist. in Avatar, Aang is literally a semi-divine being who still needs to be humble and learn while the others around him still have useful special talents and prowess that he can't simply attain at will.

While in Miraculous, there's only one person of actual true competence. From Paris to Shanghai, Marinette alone is the capable one- barring the odd episode in the limelight (Alya and Felix stand up and take a bow. Adrien can stay seated).

There is a word for a character that is impossibly more capable than any other in spite of all reason and logic. And Marinette is increasingly fitting that mold as the show goes on. There's also a term for characters that ultimately contribute nothing good or bad to a story; wasted space. You can't have an entire ensemble of characters as part of the cast and have them provide nothing if they're supposed to have even a smidge of narrative value without making them something the story would be better off without.

Just as you can't just have one person at the centre of everything, make them capable of everything and not eventually have the story they're in turn into (at best) a power fantasy.

And it's a shame. Because Miraculous seemed like it could have been a lot more.

Bonnie Deserved to Walk at Graduation

Okay, I'm going to say it: as horrible as Bonnie was throughout the series, she didn't deserve that kind of humiliation at graduation.

First of all, Barkin should know how to contact Bonnie, or her mother, to let them know before the ceremony that Bonnie wouldn't be graduating.

Second of all, the one test that Bonnie missed should not be weighted enough to cause Bonnie to not graduate. Especially when she was apparently a Salutatorian. (Second highest GPA in the class, she tied with Kim for the title.) At worst, she loses the Salutatorian title, but not flunk completely.

Third of all, the reason nothing happens in the last week of school is because the grade books are closed, and no assignment given after that point is actually counted towards their grade. So even though Bonnie missed that pop quiz, it shouldn't have mattered anyways.

Unless Barkin was breaking the rules, which wouldn't surprise me.

So, it seems the only reason Bonnie was told at the ceremony that she wouldn't be graduating is because Barkin decided he wanted to publicly humiliate Bonnie.

And a 40+ year old adult wanting to humiliate a barely legal former student of his seems wrong.

(Note: I don't think there was anything sexual behind his motivation for humiliating Bonnie, but it still seems wrong.)

Especially when the humiliation seems disproportionate to any slight she might have done to "deserve" it.

For all Bonnie's done to embarrass and antagonize Kim and Ron, she never goes public with it.

The closest we get is in "Hidden Talent" when she shows a video of Kim failing to hit the high notes while singing to hurt Kim's confidence, but Kim and Ron are the only ones around at the time to see the video. It doesn't count as "public humiliation".

So it doesn't seem right to humiliate her in such a way when she never stooped to that level herself.

First thought:

This one of the hardest parts of writing an AU.

For Chloe to face consequences, Andre would have to be less willing to break rules and laws for her.

But that leads to the problem of how did her reign of terror even last so long in the first place?

If the teachers don't need to worry about losing their jobs for disciplining Chloe, then how could she have gotten away with so much?

I have ideas, but putting it all together in a way that works is difficult.

Second thought:

This is a super annoying thing about canon: Andre and Gabriel are redeemable, but Chloe and Lila aren't.

Two grown adults are redeemable, but teenage girls aren't.

Neither Andre or Gabriel is shown doing anything worthy of redemption, but, sure, they get a pass.

Chloe is a literal child who is shown, on occasion, to feel bad for hurting others, but she's somehow irredeemable.

Lila's debut episode just had her lying about knowing celebrities which, though bad, doesn't make her the villain they turned her into.

(I have changes for her in my AU too.)

The men writing this show think grown adult men who hurt children are redeemable, but not literal children.

Gee, I wonder why that is? /s

What are your thoughts on what happened to Chloe at the end of Season 5? Do you plan on watching Season 6?

Like as IF that's the last we'll see of her.

I was gonna wait to give my review of Season 5 - I wanted a release date for Season 6 and then drop them like a count down leading up to the new season - which is why I haven't delved in much and talked about my opinions.

But Chloe's ending was bullshit, and we all know it. Not because she leaves Paris, not because she loses the few friends and connections she has, and not even because she's a massive brat who finally gets some form of comeuppance.

But because of the form that comeuppance comes in.

Why on God's Green Earth is ANDRE the one? ANDRE is the one to drag her ass out of Paris and condemn her publicly and gets to act like the big hero, doing the right thing and putting Chloe in her place? ANDRE. The one who GAVE her her place and covered it in gold leaf and never once until this whack-job of a season considered that a bad thing?!

Appropriate, appropriate face Caline.

The absolute absurdity of them to write THIS MAN in any sort of correct light, the one who from Day 1, Season 1 has been a solid and complete background for why Chloe is...Chloe. Who spoiled and abused his power to make sure she never felt an ounce of consequences or remorse or backlash. How dare they try and pull this move on us when they could remove Audrey from the story entirely and no one would second guess Chloe's entire personality or upbringing?

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Andre is not only without any guilt in the outcome of this situation, but that he's redeemable! Redeemable through the act of shipping off his daughter, whom he's been nothing but devoted to, and sending her off to a boarding school with her (AS HE ADMITS) just as awful mother as her chaperone, while he abducts casually replaces her with his new better daughter, Zoé.

I'm sure that won't have an adverse effect on your child who is used to absolute and unconditional love for her whole life, you are definitely a good person who's finally figured out how to do the right thing.

/s

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Chloe is absolutely hopeless and evil and has reached the point of no return, but ANDRE. Andre's fine.

And Gabriel too, apparently. Hm, seems to be a theme with these worthless male parents and getting off scott free....

Thoughts on "Motor Ed"

The episode, not the character.

Well, I do like that it dealt with disability. And Kim's behavior is actually reminiscent of how many people in the real world treat someone with an obvious disability.

I love that Ron treated Felix like a normal person from the beginning.

And I like that Felix's mom was patient with Kim being uncomfortable with Felix's chair.

(Because Kim's not discriminatory, she has just never been near someone with a physical disability before and has no idea what's considered acceptable behavior.)

However, I do have one complaint:

For all the times Ron acts like Felix is a normal person and even tells Kim to treat him like a normal person, Felix doesn't.

At no point is Felix anything other than...polite.

Sure, Kim's not trying to be mean, but micro aggressions are typically done by people who don't have harmful intentions.

(Though Felix isn't aware of most of them, so I will give some leeway here.)

We have Ron advocating for Kim to treat Felix like a normal person, but we never have Felix advocating for that himself.

(He's also not really advocating, he's just treating Felix like a normal person and telling Kim she's too hung up on the chair.)

Felix is never his own advocate when it comes to how he's treated.

And having a disabled person in a show is great, but it's even better when they advocate for themselves.

Again, I know that Kim's not trying to be mean, but she is treating Felix differently because of his disability. And Felix should be the one calling her out on it, not Ron.

(Though he's new, so it's possible he thinks she treats everyone that way, though it's really unlikely.)

I know it's not intended to be offensive, and I wouldn't say I'm offended, but I do think disabled characters should be allowed to advocate for themselves.

Still, I do like this episode, and I wish we had gotten to see more of Felix in the series.

Bonus: A lot of people in wheelchairs are able to stand or walk without it for a bit. Does anyone think Felix is able to do that?

About the Show

I fee like, with all my criticisms, it's about time I talk about what I do like about the show.

Firstly, I love Ron. He's very relatable - not instantly good at everything, but tries. He's always got Kim's back. He's not afraid to be himself, most of the time. And the way he treats Rufus like his best friend is sweet. His willingness to help his enemies is also very sweet.

Fun Fact: Rufus was put in the show because the execs requested an animal sidekick. So, they chose one that you couldn't just go out and buy, and it let them make people say "naked" a lot.

Secondly, I love the villains. Most shows of the time had villains where all their motivation is the same - money, power, etc. It can be kind of boring.

But that didn't happen in Kim Possible. Their villains were interesting, and a nice break from the usual mold.

Drakken? Recognition and revenge.

Shego? No one really knows. Hatred of her brothers is a good guess, though.

Senor Senior, Senior? Bored during retirement.

Senor Senior, Junior? Wants to be a pop star.

Duff Killigan? Revenge for being banned from every golf course in the world.

Motor Ed? Just wants to build the raddest vehicles ever.

Adrena Lynn? Revenge for being exposed as a fraud.

The Fashionistas? Fashion's too expensive.

DNAmy? Just wants real cuddle buddies.

Even the ones who did want money and/or power had interesting methods of going about it.

Monkey Fist? I am going to master Monkey Kung Fu.

Frugal Lucre? I am going to hold the internet hostage unless everyone in the world pays me $1. (This would work on me. I'd be giving him a dollar.)

Mathter? Turn someone into a guy who destroys everything he touches. (Actually, I'm not 100% sure what his goal was. Power, probably, but then what?)

The villains were genuinely entertaining. There's no other show where you're going to be fighting an angry Scotsman who's launching exploding golf balls at you, or a British master of Monkey Kung Fu.

Lastly, I like that, when Kim and Ron made new friends, they didn't immediately become new teammates. They might help out on a mission that's in their area of expertise, but they're not all joining the team right away, if ever. It's nice that Kim and Ron were able to have friends to just do normal stuff with.

Honestly, there is a lot to like about the show. There is a lot that I like about the show. But those are the three big ones I felt like mentioning.

If I listed everything I love about the show, this post would be too long to read.

Alright, addressing several points:

First, the examples @kim-and-ron gave of Ron keeping things to himself are all things that happened after the first episode. They're fairly recent problems, so I don't blame Ron for trying to solve those by himself.

And he didn't keep his self image issues a secret in "Ron the Man", nor did he keep his fears about their future a secret either in "Graduation". So those don't count as examples to your point.

Now, to my point: those were recent problems, but in the past Ron has told Kim about every other problem he's had; Wannaweep, gnomes, robotic horses, etc. Before the first episode, he had never kept his issues a secret from Kim.

@gothicthundra I do agree that it's totally reasonable to still be learning things about each other, and I will concede my point about Shaun as his reign of terror probably began fairly recently.

But if you can agree that the frequency of game nights meant Ron should have known about them, then surely you can agree that the bullying, which was more frequent, is something Kim should have known about?

And, these aren't just people who are mean to Ron, these are people who were attacking him, threatening him, and stealing his money. Since kindergarten.

Are we supposed to believe that at five years old, Ron decided to handle people beating him up and stealing his money on his own?

Are we really going to believe that, in the entire time it's going on, he never had an injury from them, or Kim never wondered were Ron's money has gone?

Or are we supposed to believe that Ron lied about those things, when he's canonically a terrible liar and had no reason to lie in the first place?

He's been getting robbed and attacked since kindergarten, and we're really supposed to believe it never came up before?

As for how I'd fix that scene in "Monkey Fist Strikes", here:

Ron: "I know you and Larry don't have a lot in common, but is game night with him and your Aunt June really so bad?"

Kim: "It's not the game, it's that I'm forced to listen to him talk about his conventions or his "LARPs", and that I've been forced once a month since I was three years old. Last month I learned more than I ever wanted to about that Fortress game."

And there, we have an exposition that explains things to the audience without Ron being ignorant of something that should've come up by now.

And, even though no one's asking, I have a proposal for fixing the issue of Kim not knowing Ron was getting bullied in "Mind Games".

Firstly, we'd have to have the bullying start recently, like Middle School.

Secondly:

Kim: "When you told me you were getting bullied, I thought you were just getting made fun of. I didn't realize it was this bad, and my advice definitely wouldn't have helped. I'm sorry I didn't help earlier."

Ron: "Yeah, I didn't know how to say it, and I figured just avoiding them would work fine. But, thanks."

Kim: "That's what friends are for. You can always come to me if you need help. And I'll try to listen better in the future."

Ron: "Thanks, KP. And hey, it's the same for me, you know?"

Kim: "I know, you'll always be there for me."

Rufus: *chirps*

Ron: "And Rufus!"

Kim: "And Rufus."

And, one final point:

I can kind of see the point about Ron keeping some of his problems to himself, but it seems strange that he never told Kim about his interest in baking. That's not a problem that needs solving, it's a new interest that he was eager to try and share, so why wouldn't he share it with Kim?

Honestly, I am grateful to everyone who's commented on this. I do enjoy hearing everyone's points, even if I don't agree with them.

Kim and Ron's dynamic seems...off. They don't seem like they've been best friends for ten years, it'd make more sense if they had only recently become friends, like in middle school.

And I'm not just saying that because Kim can be mean and judgmental at times, especially towards Ron. I'm saying that because, despite being best friends for 10+ years and living next door to each other, they don't seem to know things about each other that actual long-term best friends would.

"Monkey Fist Strikes" - Ron is aware that Kim dislikes her cousin Larry, but never knew about the monthly family game nights that have been going on since she was three.

"Mind Games" - Kim had no idea that Ron's been getting bullied since kindergarten. This especially makes no sense as this is something Ron would've asked Kim for help with. It definitely should have come up at some point.

"Two to Tutor" - Kim is genuinely surprised that Ron is good at baking, even though he's been doing it since he was eight.

"Hidden Talent" - Ron is unaware that Kim can sing, or that she has trouble hitting the high notes. Bonnie was able to obtain a video of this event, but somehow Ron was still unaware of it before now.

"Showdown at The Crooked D" - Ron is unaware that Kim has an uncle and a cousin, even though Kim actually seemed excited to see Joss.

"Bad Boy" - Kim is completely unaware of the existence of Ron's evil cousin Shaun, despite this being another thing that would make sense for Ron to ask Kim's help with.

I understand that they need a way to explain stuff to the audience, but can you imagine being someone's best friend for ten years, living next door to them, and not knowing about their family and interests?

Would they really be your best friend if you two knew so little about each other?

Kim Possible: Great Hero, Not So Great Person (Redux)

I've rewatched the show more recently and noticed some new details, so I've decided to redo my first post on this blog.

Kim is known for saving the world and helping people with things like park cleanups and cats stuck in trees.

But she is also known to put her own desires before her friends, even if it causes them harm.

And that is not something a good person does.

These are not "mistakes" because Kim is doing them intentionally.

And it's not a one-time thing:

"Bueno Nacho"

Kim forges an application in Ron’s name before she even brings up the idea of working there to him.

When he's upset with her for doing that, she uses the puppy dog pout, which he explicitly states she knows he can't resist, to get him to take the job.

She refuses to be supportive of him or happy for him when he turns out to be good at it, to the point of refusing to do the job at all.

I will give Kim credit for apologizing for her jealousy, but she never apologizes for manipulating him to take the job in the first place.

"The New Ron"

She forces Ron into a haircut, despite the fact that even her own mother had reservations about it.

When Ron tells her he hates it and why, she feigns sympathy, steals his hat, and runs through the halls yelling that he got a new haircut.

When Ron starts to embrace the new haircut and becomes popular, she hates it. But despite his popularity, he's not a jerk.

He didn't abandon Rufus, Rufus wandered off and Ron gently chastised him for it.

She was only upset because Ron was starting to change into someone who cared about hair care and appearances.

(Which, if that wasn't her goal with the new haircut, then what was her goal?)

She apologizes for saying Ron needed a new haircut, but not for the lengths she went to to force him into one, nor for her contempt for him after he started to embrace the haircut.

At the end, she tries to tell him that it's what's on the inside that counts, but it's very hypocritical since she was the one who wanted him to change in the first place.

"Crush"

Kim locks Ron in the janitor closet, though semi-unintentionally; she wasn't intending to lock him in there, but she did shove him back in when he was trying to leave.

She ignores Wade’s attempts at reaching her, even though Wade never contacts her unless it’s important.

(I will give Kim some leeway here, as a teenage girl deserves one night to herself.)

She also expressed no concern at Ron being missing, nor does she seem to even notice he's missing.

We also have no idea how long Ron spent in that closet, but even just an hour is too long.

(Also, that is a really big janitor's closet. The ones at my high school were closet sized, not room sized.)

"October 31st"

When Kim's told the bracelet is armor that grows when she lies, she keeps lying, even though it was probably unnecessary. Her parents and Ron would have been understanding about her wanting to go to a party with her crush.

Her actions led to her destroying Monique's garage door, which probably landed Monique in trouble.

And though Kim does get grounded for lying, she doesn't get in trouble for putting others in danger.

(Probably because Wade's the only one who could confirm that she knew she was putting others in danger.)

"The Twin Factor"

She uses the Neural-Compliance Chips on her brothers, after saying that just making them would be unethical.

After an entire episode about how bad they are.

After being a victim of them herself.

It’s meant to be a joke.

This is not the kind of thing anyone should joke about.

"Grudge Match"

Kim thinks telling Ron that he might stand a chance with a girl is "fudging".

At this point, they know so little about Zita that they think her name is Annie.

There's no reason to believe Ron wouldn't stand a chance except for having a low opinion of Ron in general.

They also had their conversation about it while sitting across the table from Ron at Bueno Nacho, so there's a good chance he heard them.

And despite this belief that he doesn't stand a chance, she spends the rest of the episode angrily telling him that there are no rules to try to encourage him to ask her out.

"Adventures in Rufus-Sitting"

Ron's steps of taking care of Rufus aren't just long because he's an exotic animal, those are also things Ron learned about taking care of Rufus from experience.

He also refers to Rufus as his son in "Mind Games", so Kim's disregard for how to take care of Rufus is extra mean given that Rufus clearly means a lot to Ron.

Not only does Rufus accidentally eat the chip due to Kim's negligence, she doesn't even notice it's missing until Wade tells her it's broadcasting a signal from inside Rufus.

And she lies to Ron about all of it on multiple occasions. I can understand some of them, since she was dealing with an emergency, but this is the kind of thing pet owners like to know about.

"Exchange"

Kim and Monique were both arranging “accidental” run-ins with Hirotaka to ask him out, but Kim’s the only one who had Wade track Hirotaka’s movements to do it.

I know Monique couldn’t do that, but the point is, Kim took it to creepy stalker levels for a guy she’s known for less than a week.

(I'm also interested in the fact that Monique was confident she could take Kim in a fight.)

"Return to Wannaweep"

Though Kim and Bonnie both sabotage each other, Kim started it.

She unplugged Bonnie’s alarm clock, supposedly to charge the Kimmunicator, but there was another available outlet that she could’ve used.

She also uses all the hot water in the showers so Bonnie can’t have any, which wouldn’t harm just Bonnie but anyone else who may need to use the showers after Bonnie.

And she refuses to take any of Ron's feelings seriously.

Even if Gil hadn't actually been up to something, Ron was still stuck sharing a cabin with a guy who used to bully him and had attacked him and the squad at some point. He has every right to be uncomfortable with it, but Kim keeps dismissing his feelings because she's too focused on sabotaging Bonnie so she could win a plastic stick that's been painted gold.

Dr. Lurkin apologizes to Ron for not taking him seriously, but Kim doesn't.

"Go Team Go"

Despite getting on Ron's case for cheating in "Naked Genius", which is completely fair, Kim had no problems using her newfound super strength for gym class or cheerleading, which is unfair and hypocritical of her.

"The Big Job"

Though I agree the "doofy" and "stupido" thing was embarrassing, coupons shouldn't be embarrassing, especially since Kim isn't offering to pay for it herself.

I can understand how the kids' menu thing was embarrassing, especially since Kim wouldn't want to order a kids' meal. However, she should just let Ron order of the kids' menu if he wants to.

The whole plot around getting jobs would have been better if Kim was getting one to pay for dates herself, not to "encourage" Ron to get one to pay for dates.

And then Ron decides Kim deserves better and starts looking for a job himself anyways.

"Fashion Victim"

I could understand being upset about not getting to see the designs, but Monique signed an NDA and would be risking not just her job but her future career in the fashion industry if she told Kim. And having Wade check the contract for loopholes is obsessive and could’ve landed them all in legal trouble.

Hassling Monique to break an NDA and trying to get Wade to find a loophole so Monique can tell her is the kind of thing Kim would've gotten fired for.

(Also, there is no way Wade was just given a copy of that NDA, so he's definitely in trouble if Monique ever decides to snitch on him.)

"Big Bother"

We learn in "A Sitch in Time" that Kim always wanted a little sister, so it's no surprise that she took to Hana immediately.

But Ron's life was changed against his will without warning while he was at school, so a little sympathy would be expected from his girlfriend. Especially since the attic isn't as nice or comfortable as his old bedroom.

When Yori needs Ron's help on a mission, Kim refuses to let him go because she doesn't trust Ron alone with Yori, even though he's never given her any reason to think he'd be disloyal and Yori had requested help from him specifically.

"Clothes Minded"

I know they’re criminals who are behind bars, but that doesn’t make it right for Kim to use The Fashionistas’ design without their permission.

Monique didn't know it was The Fashionistas' design, and Rufus is a six-year-old rodent, so he wouldn't know any better.

But Kim did know it was their design.

I know they wanted her to bust them out, and I'm not saying she should, but it doesn't seem right for her to use their design without their permission.

(It's also kind of a disappointment that Kim is wearing a design made by The Fashionistas instead of Monique, her fashionable best friend who helped her put them behind bars in the first place. That would've been so much cooler.)

"The Cupid Effect"

At no point should Kim and Ron have been trying to get Monique to date Wade.

(A more realistic way of handling that would be to have them tease her about it for a bit, not seriously asking her to consider it.)

Also, Kim didn't actually need to hit Monique with the Cupid Ray just because she "didn't have time" to deal with Monique being upset. She was in a car, she could've driven away.

Because she did, Monique refused to leave Wade's side and ended up on a mission that she would have never gone on if she had been herself at the time.

Conclusion:

If this show handled relationships a bit more realistically, people would at least be mad at Kim for her actions, and stay mad. Kim being a hero doesn’t excuse such behavior, nor does her being a teenager.

As an action hero, Kim is great; cool, calm, collected, and always victorious.

But as a person, Kim is controlling, competitive, manipulative, insensitive, and more focused on her own wants than others around her.

And those aren't qualities someone who's meant to be a role model should have.

Bonnie only dated Ron at those times so she could benefit from his wealth and dumped him as soon as he was robbed. Also Bonnie was on the rebound and only flirted with Ron so that she could get back at Kim.

I never said her reasons for dating him had to do with liking him, I just said she was supportive.

Ron's upset that someone got him adult lettuce instead of baby lettuce? Clearly, they need to do their job better.

(Also, there is a difference; baby lettuce has more nutrients. So if someone had an exotic rodent to feed, the difference would be important.)

Ron wants to buy impractically large jewelry? No problem, it's his money, after all.

Calls himself "The Ron"? Okay, takes an adjustment, but no problem.

Ron wants to go to the re-opening of J. P. Bearymore's? No big deal, it makes him happy.

Though her reasons for dating him weren't actually finding him attractive, she chose not to criticize and judge him the times they were dating.

Also, her flirting with Ron, shockingly, had nothing to do with getting back at Kim. It was entirely because she was on the rebound and Ron happened to win Homecoming King. Honestly, she probably would've done that no matter who won, but it wouldn't have been dramatic if it had been anyone other than Ron.

Thoughts on "Emotion Sickness"

This is one of the most frequently-cited episodes for evidence that Kim's always been in love with Ron, even if she just didn't realize it. And, honestly, if that's how you choose to interpret it, fine.

But looking at it through adult eyes, and comparing it to the rest of the series, it doesn't quite fit.

But, before we begin, a thought:

It would have been better if they gave the little black dress scene to the fully grown woman instead of the teenage girl.

(Or not include it at all.)

Seriously. Gross.

Now, on to my analysis.

First, the outfit:

This is not the style of outfit Kim picks for dates. The dress is too short and too tight and there are too many accessories.

This is Kim's style for date outfits. Knee-length dress that doesn't hug her curves and minimal accessories.

Even her Junior Prom dress isn't quite like the one from "Emotion Sickness".

The dress Kim wore in "Emotion Sickness" isn't like one Kim would wear on a date.

At all.

Secondly, Kim's behavior:

Now, we've seen Kim on a few dates. She's usually nervous and afraid of messing up.

I'm not saying these are good traits to have, but they do coincide with another thing:

She's not usually the one initiating physical affection.

But under the effects of the Moodulator, she kisses Ron without even making sure it's something he'd want.

Conclusion:

Kim might have had some underlying feeling enhanced, but it doesn't appear to be romantic attraction, just physical attraction.

(Which, again, gross.)

Kim was attracted to Ron, but not in love with him.