Kim Possible (character)

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For the TV show of the same name, see Kim Possible.

Kim Possible
Publisher Disney Channel First appearance "Crush" Created by Mark McCorkle Bob Schooley
Characteristics Alter ego Kimberly Ann Possible Affiliations Team Possible Notable aliases "KP" (Ron), "Kimmie" (numerous others), "Kimmy Cub" (father) Abilities Proficient in acrobatics and several forms of martial arts Quick Study, Able to acquire new skills on the fly.

Kimberly Ann Possible (usually known as Kim Possible) is the title character from Disney's animated television series Kim Possible

Kim debuted in the series opening episode in June 2002,^[1] and starred in all 65 episodes of Season 1-3. She made her Season 4 debut in an episode broadcast exclusively over the Disney Channel website in February 2007, returned to Disney Channel on the 10th of February.^[2]

Kim is a high school student and freelance hero/secret agent. She is mildly unusual in this field in that she has no secret identity - For the most part, her classmates are aware of her work but do not comment on it unless it affects them directly. At school, she is cast as one of the "popular kids," head of the cheerleading squad and a straight-A student, rather than as a misunderstood outsider/underdog.

Her first and last name is a take on the word "impossible". She is voiced by Christy Carlson Romano.

Contents 1 History 2 Abilities 3 Personality 4 School 5 Alternative Versions 6 Family 6.1 Father 6.2 Mother 6.3 Siblings 7 Relationships/Rivalries 7.1 Ron Stoppable 7.2 Doctor Drakken 7.3 Bonnie Rockwaller 7.4 Shego 8 Love Interests/Crushes 8.1 Fan Reaction 9 Trivia 10 References

[edit] History

Prior to the start of season 1, Kim was an ordinary young girl leading an ordinary life. Wishing to supplement her allowance, she decided to start up a babysitting business and set up a website at "KimPossible.com", under the slogan "I can do anything", to advertise her services.

Soon after her site went live, Kim was contacted by a man named Mr. Paisley, a reclusive billionaire and stuffed animal collector from Upperton, who had become trapped in his own vault after accidentally activating a newly installed security system that had trapped him inside a grid of deadly lasers. Being a natural gymnast, Kim managed to somersault between the lasers to where the remote control was, and then deactivate them. Word of Kim's feat spread from there, leading to other people sending requests for help to her website. Ever since then, Kim has been traveling around the world as a freelance secret agent.^[3][4]

Later (Season 2), it is revealed that Paisley's associate Mr. McHenry contacted Kim by accident, and that her first case was meant to have gone to "Team Impossible" - a group of high priced heroes for hire - but instead came to her due to a typo.^[3] Despite this knowledge, Kim refused to become discouraged, and decided to continue in the hero business. As a result Team Impossible tried to sabotage Kim by offering free vacations to all of the people who transported her to missions, thus depriving her of her primary means of transport around the world. This scheme, however, failed when Kim, Ron, and Wade turned the tables on them.^[4]

[edit] Abilities

Kim is extremely athletic and has excellent reflexes that have been honed through years of cheerleading practice, allowing her to perform death-defying moves, like somersaulting between laser beams, with little apparent effort.^[3] She is also highly skilled in martial arts. Her skills are aptly demonstrated by the fact that she is able to go toe-to-toe against Shego, an older and more experienced villain whose super powers allow her to tear through reinforced concrete with ease.^[5]

Kim is also a fast learner and is able to pick up new skills quickly, and adapt to new situations as they arise. Among the many talents that she has demonstrated during the series are a high level of proficiency in various extreme sports; such as hang-gliding, skiing and rock climbing, and even shuttle piloting.

[edit] Personality

Kim is a confident and assertive teenager whose awareness of her own abilities is reflected well by her motto "I can do anything". Her typical state of mind is to be bright and cheerful, and she has a kind and caring heart that compels her to help others and to put their well being above her own. Her competitive nature and drive for perfection, as well as some of her insecurities, are consistent with a Type A personality. They also lead her to set high standards for herself, and sometimes give her a tendency to be bossy and to set standards for others that are too high - as was evident when she attempted to coach her brothers' soccer team - or to try and do things herself in order to save others from potential failure or harm.^[6][7][8]

Despite being a freelance hero, Kim is still a teenage girl, and is susceptible to most normal teenage insecurities and growing pains. She gets embarrassed by her parents, is pouty when she doesn't get her own way, and has a strong desire to fit in, the latter of which is often one of her biggest weaknesses.

Kim's personality traits were most clearly demonstrated when her school was hit by a fictional personality-guide fad known as animology, under which she is classified as being a blue fox: a born leader who can't resist a challenge, is driven to excel, and who is a perfectionist.^[9] During the career fair at her school, Kim was drawn toward international diplomacy:^[10] a demanding, extrovert field.

Kim has a tendency to be worried about - and frequently fooled by - appearance. As such, she is often overly concerned about her image and the way in which others see her, sometimes even going so far as to extend these anxieties to others (primarily Ron) even though they do not necessarily feel the same way.^[11][12][7] Owing to this element of her personality, Kim has a tendency to succumb to peer pressure, something she never really manages to overcome until the very end of the third season, and she is often unable to see beyond first appearances, or deeper than other people's defense mechanisms.^[13][12][14]

It is this element of her personality which appears to form the foundations of much of Kim's rivalry with Bonnie, who is similarly competitive and similarly concerned about appearances,^[13][14] and it is often through this rivalry that we see the less desirable elements of Kim's competitive nature in play, including incidents when she has engaged in tit-for-tat revenge or sabotage, and when she has competed purely because she doesn't want Bonnie to succeed.^[14][16]

Due to her type A personality, Kim also has a strong tendency to become frustrated, impatient or insecure when faced with a field in which she does not instantly excel. This tendency has been displayed several times throughout the franchise, usually in conjunction with an episode subplot or Mcguffin revolving around her social life, and is often made more notable by the fact that these fields are fields in which either the often inept Ron or the immature Tweebs excel. Examples of such fields include cooking^[17] and video games,^[18] car mechanics, and the duties required of her when she worked at Bueno Nacho during season 1.^[11]

In addition to the recurring problems caused by her competitive personality and her weakness in the face of peer pressure, Kim has also demonstrated many of the weaknesses that have become cliché to teen-high school comedy/drama, most of which have been highlighted in individual episodes, but are not evident across the franchise as a whole. Such clichés include trapping herself in a position in which she tells an escalating series of lies in order to cover up a much smaller lie,^[5] attempting to sabotage an opponent's campaign during a school election,^[15] and allowing herself to be baited into angry or unwise course of action by a rival.^[19]

[edit] School

Kim is a naturally intelligent student who maintains a high GPA despite her adventurous lifestyle by using the time she spends traveling to and from missions to study, and by always making sure that she gets a handle on assignments as early as she can in case she is called away on a mission at the last minute.^[20]

As a result of these diligences, it is only on rare occasions that her grades suffer or that she has problems with assignments.^[21]

Despite her intelligence, Kim is the least scientifically minded member of her family.

[edit] Alternative Versions

Although Kim's character design has not been altered between seasons to represent aging, several different versions of Kim have been introduced at various points in the franchise to represent Kim at different ages prior to her appearance in Season 1.

Two younger versions of Kim were introduced during the first 3 seasons. A Pre-school version and a version representing Kim in her early-teens/late-preteens.

Pre-School Kim was first introduced through flashbacks in the episode October 31st, and was later visited several times through Seasons 2-3. She made her first in person appearance in the feature length production Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time when she was targeted by a cohort of time traveling villains who sought to destroy her confidence during her first day in pre-school, in order to prevent Present Day Kim from thwarting their plans. Ironically, in an altered timeline that has since been erased, this intervention led to Kim stepping in to fight to save another person (Ron) for the first time, and to Kim and Ron's first meeting which led to their becoming friends.

Pre-School Kim is very similar to present day Kim, but with the addition of freckles and pigtails.

The second version of young Kim then appeared for the first time in A Sitch in Time. She was introduced when her present day foes traveled through time in order to prevent her from successfully completing her first mission. Initially they planned to sabotage her efforts in order to prevent her from becoming Present Day Kim. However, after a brief discussion, they decided to kill her instead. She was saved by the intervention of Present Day Kim and Ron. Due to the closing events of "A Sitch in Time", this timeline was also erased, leaving Present Day Kim with no memory of meeting her past self, nor vice-versa. Since this initial appearance, early-teen/late-preteen Kim has appeared in several flashbacks, most notably during "Hidden Talent", which revealed that she was an excellent singer (but unable to hit high notes),^[16] and in "Team Impossible", when the events of her first mission was replayed, minus the intervention from the future (that timeline having since ceased to exist).^[4]

At this point in her life, Kim is shorter and slimmer than her present-day self, and minus a bust line, but with the addition of braces. She is always shown with her hair in a ponytail.

An older version of Kim is shown in an interactive featurette included in the DVD of "A Sitch in Time". Little was revealed about Kim's older self, except that she was still fighting crime in her 40s, was a member of the PTA, and wears a patch over her left eye, ala Nick Fury. Older Kim is shown wearing a Global Justice uniform similar to that worn by Dr. Director (who coincidentally also has an eye patch, though Dr. Director wears hers on her right eye).

Older Kim has, so far, not appeared in the series.

[edit] Family

[edit] Father

Main article: Doctor Possible

Kim has a close, but diverse, relationship with her father. For much of the series he treats her as a mature and responsible young lady, expecting her to babysit her younger brothers, instructing her to get a part time job if she wants expensive new clothes, and accepting her going on dangerous missions without a second thought - believing that she is skilled enough to stay out of harms way. However, because of the closeness of their relationship, he sometimes forgets that she isn't a child anymore and treats her as if she were much younger, failing to see that she doesn't always enjoy doing the same things that she did when she was little, and not being able to see when his behavior might embarrass her.^[22][23]

Similarly, because of their close relationship, Kim often finds it hard to tell her father when he embarrasses her, or to explain how she has grown out of things that she used to enjoy, for fear of hurting his feelings.^[22][23]

His nickname for her is "Kimmy-Cub", which she sees as a sign of affection, except when it is said within earshot of Bonnie.

[edit] Mother

Main article: Mrs. Dr. Possible

Kim's relationship with her mother is given less airtime than her relationship with her father, but it is often scripted when emotional depth or conflict resolution is required, usually in relation to Kim's teenage angsts.

While Kim's father is often either oblivious to, or uncomfortable with, many of the teenage issues that Kim faces throughout the series,^[23] Mrs. Possible is much more in tune with her daughter's feelings and frequently acts as an emotional anchor for Kim -- helping her to put her feelings into perspective, and reminding her that things aren't always as bad as they might seem.

Aside from helping her daughter to battle peer pressure, one of Mrs. Possible's main duties has been to help Kim to get through various issues in her friendship with Ron.

Whether Kim was jealous of Ron's newfound friendship with Felix,^[18] feeling guilty about ditching him in favor of Monique,^[24] or was afraid that his eagerness to be accepted was leading him down the path to embarrassment,^[7] Mrs. Possible was always there to have a mother-daughter moment and to provide her with sage advice.

[edit] Siblings

Main article: Jim and Tim Possible

Kim's relationship with her younger brothers - whom she usually refers to as the Tweebs - is analogous to many other TV brother-sister relationship in which there is a notable age gap that leave one side teen and the other pre-teen.

She often finds Jim and Tim to be juvenile and embarrassing, and she resents the fact that babysitting them impinges upon her social life.^[25] She also frequently becomes angry at them when they invade her privacy, or attempt to embarrass her in front of her friends, by reading her diary or posting sneaked photographs of her on the internet.^[25][12][26]

Despite this, she loves her brothers and goes out of her way to protect them, even if it means putting her own life on the line.

[edit] Relationships/Rivalries

[edit] Ron Stoppable

Main article: Ron Stoppable

Kim has known Ron since their first day at pre-school, and has been close friends with him ever since.

Kim and Ron have a very distinctive relationship of opposites that covers both their personalities and their natural aptitudes. While Kim is Type A teen; a perfectionist who sets high standards for herself, and who is concerned about image, Ron has Type B personality and is laid-back, ambivalent, and somewhat random. Equally, Ron does well in all of the areas in which Kim does not (for example, cooking and resisting peer pressure), and vice versa. Kim and Ron complement each other, and their relationship works well; as they head into season 4 and their senior year of high school, they have advanced from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend.

With his more relaxed attitude toward life, as well as his flexibility and ability to see the good aspects of bad situations, Ron often provides a balance to Kim's ambitious nature and image orientated character. As such, he often encourages her to slow down and keep things in perspective, to be less competitive and not treat everything as a challenge that must be met head on, and to be less image conscious.^[7][8]

[edit] Doctor Drakken

Main article: Doctor Drakken

Kim and Drakken rarely interact, but when they do, Kim tries to hurt Drakken's ego by reminding him, in various ways, how he lost the last time. Drakken has met the entire Possible clan: her mother (in Mother's Day), her father (in Attack of the Killer Bebes and So The Drama), and even her extended family (in Showdown at Crooked D). Strange interactions between them include saving Drakken's life (in Rewriting History) and teaming up with Drakken (in Bad Boy).

[edit] Bonnie Rockwaller

Main article: Bonnie Rockwaller

Bonnie's interaction with Kim can best be described as wicked. From the moment they first met at cheer practice, Bonnie has had nothing but hatred for Kim, and always looks for ways to demoralize her.

[edit] Shego

Main article: Shego

Kim and Shego's many meetings usually result in fisticuffs. However, unlike the rivalry with Bonnie, Kim and Shego are more professional in their interaction with each other, as Kim is more comfortable trading punches with Shego than dealing with Bonnie's barbed comments. Despite being enemies, Shego respects Kim as an adversary, and desires to be the only one to defeat Kim Possible in battle as a result.

[edit] Love Interests/Crushes

Over the years, Kim has had a lot of crushes. She has also been the subject of a few. Here are the many that are mentioned:

• Walter Nelson: Walter has, so far, only been mentioned on the show. What is known is that Kim had a crush on him in middle school. He kissed Kim and their braces locked, leading to an embarrassing trip to the orthodontist. This is suspected to be Kim's first kiss. At least that is what Kim tells her pre-superhero self in A Sitch in Time.

• Señor Senior Junior: In Animal Attraction, Junior begins to nurse a crush on Kim when he finds out that she's his soul mate (according to Animology).

• Brick Flagg: Brick thought he had a crush on Kim in All the News after Ron misquoted Kim saying that she "thought Brick Flagg was totally hot". Kim, on the other hand, only saw him as a friend. Brick "dumped" Kim after he thought Kim was "trying too hard" thinking she had staged his kidnapping by Adrena Lynn. This doesn't really count as a love interest, though.

• Josh Mankey: In seasons 1 and 2, Kim was infatuated with Josh Mankey. Prior to season 3, over the course of which hints of a potential and later actual romance between Kim and Ron arose, Josh received the most adoration from Kim of all her love interests as he was the main object of her "calf love" affections. While Ron was disapproving of this relationship at first, he later grew to accept it. Kim's infatuation with Josh was revealed to have died down "last semester" in the episode Emotion Sickness, which allowed the creators of the show room for the coupling of Kim and Ron. Josh was a mellow and nonchalant young man. Some fans opine Kim and Josh would have been more interesting a pairing than Kim and Ron, due to their social schematics predating season 3; conversely, many fans opine the coupling of Kim and Ron was a better choice.

• Hirotaka: Kim grew interested in Hirotaka (an exchange student from Japan). Hirotaka showed interest in her, at least in her martial arts abilities, but he was more interested in seeing Kim fight with her best friend, Monique, over him. He also appears to have been dating Bonnie Rockwaller all along, and refers to her as his "Number One Girlfriend".

• Bobby Johnson: Kim only mentions him in The Truth Hurts. She admits that she's not sure if she likes him because she likes him, or because he asked out Bonnie first.

• Eric: Eric was a Synthodrone made by Drakken to distract Kim from the plans Drakken had formulated. Eric was tall, well-built, attractive, serious and incredibly convincing as a regular human being.

• Ron Stoppable: Originally Kim's goofy best friend and partner, over time their friendship became something more and they are now a couple. The directors of the show, as stated in an interview, had chosen to couple Kim and Ron so as to impart the moral, "give geeks a chance". Kim and Ron had a very durable friendship before their romantic involvement in So the Drama. This is suspected by some fans to be a type of maxim communicating the idea a strong friendship should first precede romance. According to the series' directors, Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, Kim and Ron will be dating in the upcoming fourth season. It is believed by some fans the addition of the element of romance will be a positive thing, while some others are opposed to it (they believe it may cause the show to jump the shark). Schooley and McCorkle have noted the potential risk, revealing that one of the reasons they had Kim and Ron begin dating was that they had always intended to end the series that way and at the time, they thought So The Drama was going to be the last chapter of the story. However, after fans of the show lashed out at its cancellation, Disney green-lighted a fourth season, and while Kim and Ron's blossoming love has given Schooley and McCorkle a chance to do something new with the characters, they also admit the relationship has to be handled delicately to avoid turning the series stale.^[27]

[edit] Fan Reaction

Although the franchise's primary focus is to be an adventure/comedy, its romance/crush angle has proven to be a surprising hit with fans.^[28] With audiences both reacting well to the relationship issues and themes aired in the show, and adding to them though fan-shipping (fans projecting romantic imagery onto franchise characters) in their own fan-fiction and artwork.^[29]

According to the shows creators, this reaction was clearly demonstrated to them when a Disney Channel poll, held prior to "So the Drama", revealed that "Emotion Sickness", an episode in which Ron is forced to address his feelings about Kim, was, by a wide margin, the most popular episode of the time.^[28] After seeing the results of the poll, Schooley and McCorkle took it "as a sign", using it as part of their decision to progress Kim and Ron's relationship further in the Season 3 finale, culminating in them kissing during the closing montage, a move which proved to be extremely popular with fans and which, in turn, led to Kim and Ron's relationship being maintained when Disney renewed the show for a fourth season.^[28]

Although the primary focus of audiences has been towards a Kim-Ron relationship, fans have also engaged in a certain amount of shipping directed at other pairings that were never fully explored in the franchise, such as Kim-Mankey pairings and pairings with characters other than Kim (for example, Ron pairings). There have also been a number of less conventional fan pairs that that diverge substantially from series cannon. Among the most well known of these is the Kim and Shego Slash pairing (Known as Kigo).^{[28][30] [31]}

[edit] Trivia

• As of season 4, Kim seems to have quit wearing midriff-baring tops, with the exceptions of the cheerleader uniform, the classic mission-outfit, and her pajamas.
• Kim knows 16 types of Kung-Fu,^[16] including Mantis Kung-Fu.^[32]
• Throughout the series there are frequent mentions of Kim also regularly working as a babysitter as her primary, or only, source of income (until season 4), despite her crowded schedule. Except for her brothers sometimes being Kim's charges, little else has been shown or described of such jobs.

[edit] References

Kim Possible
Team Possible:	Kim Possible | Ron Stoppable | Rufus | Wade | Monique
Villains:	Dr. Drakken | Shego | Monkey Fist | Duff Killigan | The Seniors | Dementor | DNAmy | Bebes | Gill | Motor Ed | Camille Leon | Adrena Lynn | Warmonga | Zorpox | Other minor villains
Family:	Mr. Dr. P. | Mrs. Dr. P. | Jim and Tim | Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable | Hana | Joss Possible | Slim Possible | Other family members
Supporting:	Bonnie Rockwaller | Steve Barkin | Bobo | Other minor allies | Other supporting characters
Locations:	Middleton | Bueno Nacho | Club Banana | Smarty Mart | Camp Wannaweep
Other:	Cuddle Buddies
Episodes & films:	List of episodes | A Sitch In Time | So The Drama
	Other Media
Soundtrack	Kim Possible soundtrack
Video games:	Revenge of Monkey Fist | Drakken's Demise | Team Possible | Kimmunicator | What's The Switch | Global Gemini
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