Would You Be Open To A Sequel Series To Kim Possible?

I’m always wondering if it was better or worse for BBT and Young Sheldon creators to say that Sheldon is NOT on the spectrum. But then I see how they treat neurodivergence on shows like Miraculous, and go probably better they keep away from stuff they don’t understand.

I suspect what happened with Sheldon’s character is that they probably modeled him after people they either didn’t know or didn’t care were on the spectrum and by the time everyone was like “hey this guy is obviously autistic” they’d made fun of him too many times to suddenly claim being pioneers of sitcom neurodivergent representation without also having to accept responsibility for their past attitudes towards him

I do, however, think the red itchy sweater episode was fantastic in delivering a message regarding some forms of neurosis

As for ML, it is, at its core, a tell don’t show series. These characters are in love, are close friends, are good at X and Y, are passionate about this and that, hate Z, so on and so forth. We rarely learn about characters and happenstances through actions, to the point where very clear irrefutable events are verbally retconned by random characters and we’re supposed to accept what they say as canon over what we saw. It doesn’t matter if characters are noticeably queer, neurodivergent, good/bad at something, biased about certain people/subjects, struggling with XYZ, etc. If someone doesn’t outright state it, it isn’t canon. This is where the crew loves to claim brownie points for representation but doesn’t actually do anything that might upset the Suits and their bigotry. They have an ethnically diverse character lineup but they’re all perfectly assimilated to white french culture and rarely acknowledge their own supposed heritage. They criticize police abuse but have the victims apologize to their assailants. They have queer characters but their relationships are mostly implied off-screen so they have plausible deniability. They have kids whose parents are clearly mistreating them to the point of leaving lifelong scars and affecting their ability to become functional members of society but it’s obviously not abuse.

I swear there’s some kind of disconnect between the dialogue and the action lines on the script, like no one member of the crew knows what the other is doing and everything is just taped together at the end with no revisions

So, it's not as though a fashion show isn't cool or anything, it's just that...

I feel like assigning each group to do a fashion show for their end of semester project is...limiting.

For example:

Ruby is a Mixed Media and Graphic Design focus. I literally cannot tell what her contribution to their final runway was.

(Someone tell me if they know what it is.)

Sunny's animations were good, but they weren't all that she could do. She could do more if she wasn't limited to doing a fashion show. A short film or animated music video would be cool.

And that's not even getting into some of the other people who's shows we didn't see.

What would Daria Roselyn, a Music Focus, and Georgia Bloom, a Performing Arts focus, do for a fashion show? Model?

What about Emi Vanda? Did she paint a set? Make props?

We don't even know who was in Colin's group, or what he did for his runway.

The point is, making everyone do a runway for their end of semester project can be limiting.

It also requires every group to have at least one Fashion focus, which seems a bit...unlikely.

A better system would be...well, it's complicated, but I'll do my best to explain it.

Everyone gets assigned a group. (I don't like this, but I'll leave it for now.)

The group has to agree on a project and submit their idea to a group supervisor for approval. (Our main girls would probably still do a fashion show.)

Their project proposal must say what each group member is going to contribute.

If it's approved, they get to start on it. If it's not approved, they have to make the changes their supervisor asks of them.

There's a deadline to get their proposals approved. If they're not approved by then, they'll be assigned a project. (I'm sure Miss Wright would have a few ideas.)

Regular check-ins would proceed as normal, with everyone showing the progress they made on their part of the project.

By the end of the semester, they have to have their project finished.

This could lead to some interesting ideas for projects, such as:

A museum exhibition

A clothing display

A mini concert

A short play

More ideas

This could be interesting. It could be fun to hear about groups doing something other than a fashion show.

And, like I said, giving the students a chance to pick their projects for themselves would give them better opportunities to show what they can do.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like Kim Possible is an actual character in her own show. And, on the surface, that makes no sense.

She has multiple personality traits, both good and bad; confidence, a desire to help others, concern over what others think of her, gets frustrated when she doesn't instantly excel at something, competitive, judgmental, kind of controlling, etc.

These are traits that should lead to well-developed character who people can relate to.

But she feels more like an icon than a character, and I think I know why.

Ron also has multiple traits, but he feels more real, and that's because they spend more time exploring Ron's thoughts and feelings. They don't just give Ron character traits, they explain them.

That doesn't happen for Kim.

A lot of Kim's traits exist in a vacuum; there's no reasoning for them. It's never explored why Kim is, say, competitive or controlling, just that she is.

Kim is confident in her abilities. This might have come from her parents constantly believing in her, but it's not really explored.

Kim gets easily frustrated if she doesn't instantly excel at something. Though it's relatable, it'd be better if the reason for this was explored more.

Kim is competitive. To the point of sabotage. To the point of considering sneaking into a game for a team she was coaching because she couldn't stand the thought of losing. There's no explanation for this, as her parents would definitely encourage sportsmanship and fun over winning.

Kim is judgmental of interests she doesn't share. But "Monkey Fist Strikes" shows that she definitely didn't pick this up from her family. And it's definitely not one they'd have encouraged.

Kim is controlling to the point that she expects Ron to always be willing to drop whatever he's doing to join her on a mission. To the point that she doesn't let other people handle tasks for her, even when she clearly can't do them on her own. Again, there doesn't seem to be a reason for this trait. It's never explored why Kim is like this.

Kim refuses to acknowledge that Ron is important to her success. Again, it's never explored why Kim refuses to recognize Ron's contributions to her success.

These are traits that could lead to an interesting character who grows and develops as a person.

But, because the show never wants to explore Kim's reasons for being this way, she doesn't get to really grow as a person.

And that's why she doesn't feel like a character in the series. She doesn't grow or change, and her underlying thoughts and feelings and reasons for being the way she is aren't explored.

And it's kind of detrimental to character development.

If part of your house randomly burst into flames at times, solving the problem wouldn't just involve acknowledging the flames and putting them out. You'd also have to figure out why it bursts into flames, even if it's uncomfortable.

In order for Kim to truly grow and develop as a character, it's not enough to just acknowledge that Kim has flaws, it's also important to explore why she's like that.

But, since that doesn't happen, Kim doesn't feel as relatable as Ron.

And this leads to Kim seeming like less of a character in her own show.

Where do you think the belief that Ron isn’t good enough for Kim comes from? Do you agree with that claim?

I definitely disagree with that claim. As for where it came from...

I'm not sure.

I'm sure the fact that the narrative itself treats Ron like a loser has played a huge part in this.

Kim is treated like an all-star crimefighter who can do anything, and Ron is treated like her inept, bumbling sidekick.

So, obviously, Kim deserves a cooler boyfriend, right?

(That's sarcasm, for people who have trouble telling tone over text.)

Except, it's been shown that Ron is actually very capable when necessary, even if the narrative and the characters won't acknowledge it.

Not to mention, healthy relationships are built on more than just similar skill levels.

Healthy relationships are built on things like support, communication, and friendship. Those are all things Ron offers Kim constantly.

(I have made several posts about how Kim doesn't offer those things to Ron, so I'm not going to get into it here.)

Ultimately, Ron is too good for Kim, and he deserves someone who at least appreciates the effort he puts into the relationship, even if they can't quite match it.

So, I definitely disagree with that claim, even if I'm not sure where it came from.

(I have a fanfic series on AO3 that addresses a lot of my issues with Kim, but Kim and Ron break up in the first installment. If that's not your thing, I'm going to advise against it.)

I thought he we would see more of this on So the Drama, but again the movie focused more on Ron than on Kim

Now, I’m a huge KimRon shipper, I’ve made whole analysis, gifsets and even the occasional fanart. I love that paring.

But I hate how Kim and Ron got together in the movie, the Kim from so the drama seemed like the one from Season one, when the Kim from season 2 and 3 was very clearly in love with him the one of the movie….. how do I say this!

Alright there are still little scenes like the one where Kim complains about not wanting to go with a friend-friend to the Prom, how a “stinky boyfriend” would be nice for a change while she keeps looking at Ron.

There’s the scenes where Kim looks lovingly to couples passing by, when Ron approaches her and tells him he knows the reason she is looks down lately, Kim whole mood changed and she looks up, hopefully? Expectantly? The way I see it Kim very clearly was expecting him to ask her to the dance right there, but we all know that’s not what happened. Not yet.

But then we also get scenes where Kim seemed completely against the idea or even embarrassed about the possibility of going up with him to the Prom. 2_5

Yeah, the movie doesn't really hold up when you look at it again 20 years later. But few things do, so it's not *entirely* their fault.

But we get a lot of Ron pining over Kim and only the barest hint that Kim might also be pining over Ron.

And honestly, even before the movie, Kim had moments of being embarrassed by Ron.

I have many posts that highlight the ways Kim's treated Ron unfairly throughout the show, but I'm going to assume you've read them already.

And it's especially a problem in situations where Marinette isn't actually wrong, so they need to warp the universe to make her wrong.

Marinette's not wrong for saying Chloe had no heart in "Zombizou" because Chloe was certainly acting like it.

Marinette's not wrong for disbelieving Chloe in "Antibug", Chloe had previously lied to them in that episode about the akuma.

Marinette's not wrong for being confused over her feelings for Luka and Adrien, she's a teenage girl.

Marinette's not wrong for wanting to call out Lila for lying and manipulating, she's a liar and manipulative.

Marinette's not wrong for not taking Chat Noir's flirtations seriously, he flirts with a lot of people and doesn't take his job seriously.

Marinette's not wrong for not showing up for Chat Noir's date, she had already told him she wouldn't be there.

She's certainly not wrong for not wanting ice cream when she's too upset to eat it.

It's not just that they wrote over 100 ways for Marinette to do something wrong, it's that they wrote 100 episodes that portray Marinette as wrong, even when she isn't.

I can understand the "lesson of the day" formula, but the writers of Miraculous drastically misunderstood the assignment.

In Defense of Marinette

I like Marinette. While there are many valid criticisms of her writing, the same can be said for literally every other character and she's actually doing pretty well given that she's the main character. After all, in a show where consistent characterization is an ongoing issue, the one with the most screen time will probably be the one who's the biggest victim of the issue.

This is heavily exacerbated by the rule that supposedly governs Miraculous. Namely that, in each story, Marinette must make a mistake. Or, at least, so says the head writer:

I really do not care what this guy says on Twitter or anywhere else. I only care about what's in the show because, if you have to go outside the text to understand the text, then you have no idea how to tell a good story.

However, unlike many of the tweets that I've seen, this one isn't some BS bit of lore. It's a writing rule and it has substantial backing in the text. It's extremely rare to have an episode where Marinette comes out smelling like roses and that's a problem because Miraculous has over 100 episodes. In other words, to follow this rule, the writers have to come up with over 100 ways for Marinette to be wrong so of course she's going to come across poorly. Why would you do this to your main character?

It's extremely common for kids shows to have a "lesson of the day" element to them. Someone always needs to learn something, but I've never seen a show misunderstand the assignment so badly. Learning a lesson is not the same as doing something wrong.

It's been a while since I watched the 2010 version of My Little Pony, but it really leaned into that whole "lesson of the day" thing and it actually knew what it was doing, so I'm going to talk about it briefly to discuss things that Miraculous should have done.

The first thing to note is that MLP had an unambiguous main character - Twilight Sparkle - but Twilight was not the one who learned all of the lessons. She had a pet dragon and a crew of five friends who would, occasionally, be the ones to learn the lesson because there were lots of lessons that simply didn't fit Twilight's character. Instead of warping Twilight to make the idea work (cough cough Ikari Gozen cough), the writers just let someone else have the spotlight for a bit.

This is an excellent way to build out your cast and Miraculous had plenty of opportunities to do it. For example, Lila should not have been Marinette's issue. The fact that Lila hates Marinette could have certainly stuck around, but the one who takes her down and learns to investigate her sources? That should have been Alya. A liar is the perfect enemy for an investigative journalist, but a poor enemy for someone who shines as a battlefield commander and overthinks when she's given too much time.

Another way that MLP would teach lessons was to have someone other than Twilight or the main crew cause the issue that they then had to deal with. This leads to one of the best moments in children's television:

And, frankly? Marinette deserves a moment like this. That poor girl has been through hell and is never allowed to make the right call when it really matters. The show will even completely rewrite its lore to make her fail (see: Strike Back). That is such an awful thing to do to your lead! Shows about female empowerment should include women feeling powerful and, no, Lila and Chloe don't count!

Also, the show is literally about Gabriel taking advantage of people who are upset. You don't need to have Marinette make a mistake to shoehorn in a life lesson. Akumas are life lesson fodder and season 1 actually seemed to get this. I'm not sure why they switched gears to "Marinette is the star and, therefore, must always be wrong."

The final way that MLP taught lessons was to have Twilight do something wrong because having your main character do something wrong is a totally valid way to teach lessons. It just shouldn't be your only way because you know who is always wrong in children's media?

Villains.

They wrote Marinette like a villain.

And a large part of the fandom hates her for it because of course they do.

You're not supposed to like villains.

Some additional thoughts:

I wish we were able to get tender moments between Kim and Ron in S4

In fact we already have a few of them, only for them to get cut short usually in comedic effect by another character or the show tries to undermine the moment by making a quick jab usually at the expense of Ron’s character.

I feel that paradoxically in S4 Ron had the most amount of character development and plenty of heartwarming moments, but the show still makes him the butt of the joke on those scenes, so despite having the most development his character is portrayed very dumb during some scenes.

Like in the scene in the episode Clothed minded where Ron tells Kim that her clothes is not what makes her Kim possible, she is the one who is amazing, Kim looking so happy and reassured about what he said and then the scene tries to make it “funny” by having Ron panic and go back on what he said, completely ruining and undermining the scene.

I’m not saying Ron isn’t allowed to be silly, is just that Ron being the comic relief and the butt of the joke no longer seems fitting for his character at that point, because he has developed well beyond that character archetype.

That doesn’t happen when Ron tells Kim “she is beautiful” and this is one of the most memorable KimRon scenes in the series.

I understand why this was done, they were afraid of putting too much romance, they didn’t want to scare the kids away, they had to make it funny and appealing to the little Kids somehow.

But I wish the show allowed for more personal, emotional and tender moments between the two. Sometimes I feel like S3 handled this aspect better than S4.

I’m sorry about all of the ask, I know you are not even a KimRon shipper, but you are one of the few people who has openly talked about the flaws of the show and about the way Kim was handled and this is one of the only ways I think I can safely address all of this issues and feeling I’ve had about the show for a long time.

Hope I didn’t overwhelmed you with all of the sudden influx of asks. Thanks for listening.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of my points?

Yeah, Ron outgrew the "goofy sidekick" archetype way before season 4. Maybe partway through season 2.

I have a post on how Ron deserved to be treated better by the narrative where I list the times Ron's done something truly amazing and it actually begins pretty early in the series. It's just so rarely acknowledged.

But, despite showing pretty early on what he's capable of, he was still the butt of many jokes, and the narrative never acknowledged that he grew out of that. It never really allowed him to grow out of it.

Simultaneously, the narrative never acknowledged that Kim might be flawed so she was never allowed to grow.

I understand how you feel; there are certain places on the internet where, if you try to criticize Kim Possible - the show or the character - you get a bunch of hate.

I don't know if it's because the nostalgia is too strong or what, but it can make someone afraid to criticize the show. But trust me, we're not the only ones who have issues with it.

I still have people disagreeing with me here, but at least I'm not getting hated on. People here are much more open to discussion about the flaws of the show.

(Or maybe I just got lucky this time. Who knows?)

I agree with all of your points, actually. I may not ship KimRon, but that's because their relationship was handled poorly, even before they started dating.

After they started dating, there should've been more tender and emotional moments between them. It sucks that we didn't see that very often. Or that, when it did happen, it was interrupted by something "funny" happening, usually at Ron's expense.

It felt like they weren't in a serious relationship because the relationship wasn't allowed to be serious.

I don't mind all the asks. I actually appreciate them. You're totally allowed to send me your thoughts about Kim Possible. I like having discussions with people about it. And I will do my best to reply to all of them.

As a follow up to you post about mentors, just to make things fair, what are examples of Tikki being a bad mentor to Marinette?

Post in question for context.

Tikki often acts as the voice of the author. She's there to explain why Marinette is in the wrong. Since Miraculous has some wacky morals, that means we get a mix of good advice and wacky nonsense advice.

Two examples of bad advice that come to mind are Gamer and Strikeback. Gamer is the episode where Marinette stumbles upon an Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament, realizes that Adrien is taking part, and decides to compete so they can be on a team together. Marinette wins a spot through her own hard won skills and then this happens:

Tikki: All you wanted to do is spend time with Adrien, there are other ways to do that! Marinette: What are you getting at? Tikki: You know how much Max wanted to be in that tournament. Kim said he'd been training for it all year. Marinette: You're right. All I could think about was Adrien. 

This is how tournaments work, right? They're not tests of skill, but tests of who put in the most work or who wants to compete the most! That's why we had that scene with Marinette writing out her training schedule and motivations for evaluation, but she lied and that was wrong and...

Okay, I was the one lying here. There was no written evaluation because that's not how tournaments work. All anyone cares about is your skills. They don't care if you're doing this for personal glory or to get closer to a boy or whatever Adrien's motivation was because - notably - his motivation didn't matter in this episode about needing pure motives to be allowed to do things.

What if he didn't care about the competition and only did it to get closer to his classmates? That's not even a random guess. It's a valid read because Adrien ultimately gives his spot to Max while claiming that Max is the better player even though Adrien very clearly beat Max at the start of the episode. Ignoring that weird nonsense dialogue, why was it fine for Adrien to compete when he didn't care but wrong for Marinette to do the same? And Max wanting to compete to show off his skills is also a totally selfish motivation, so why does it matter that he wanted it more? Everything about this episode was nonsense and uncomfortably sexist. If Max wants to compete, then he needs to get better at the game. That's how competitions work.

Strikeback is the second part of the season four final and it starts with Marinette mourning the fact that "Adrien" has left Paris, leading to this:

Marinette: (crestfallen) It's all over, Tikki. Tikki: He'll be back, Marinette. He's just going on a voyage!

Which would be lovely advice if Adrien was a normal boy, but he's Chat Noir and Tikki knows that. She should be freaking out and trying to find a way to get him back to Paris, but then Tikki would have to support Marinette's actions and we can't have that, so instead Tikki gives this nonsense advice because she has to be against whatever "wrong" thing Marinette is doing today.

I could come up with a few more examples, but I think those two paint a pretty good picture of issue one re Tikki. However, when it comes to Tikki, my main issue with her is less a wealth of bad advice - unlike Plagg*, I think she's right more often than not - and more a lack of support. It feels like she's just here to judge Marinette and point out when she's doing something wrong, but a good mentor should be so much more than that.

Kuro Neko is a great example of this. When Chat Noir quits, Tikki just sits back and does nothing while her young charge is freaking out. She doesn't even try to defend Marinette when Plagg is going off about Chat Noir's "ill treatment". For all Plagg's faults in that episode, at least he's doing something about the situation. Meanwhile Tikki literally has two lines in the entire episode! A similar thing happens in Kwami's Choice where Plagg is the one driving them to act while Tikki just wrings her hands in despair.

Tikki: (sighs heavily) What can we do? Plagg: We must free them of that impossible choice. We must… free them of us.

These are not the actions of a mentor. Mentors aren't supposed to just offer judgement about things that their mentee has already done or is considering doing. They're supposed to be a source of support and guidance in hard times, but we never really see Tikki stepping in to give Marinette that kind of advice. If memory serves, she never offers solutions or acts as a sounding board. That role is mainly filled by Alya and I love Alya! It's good for Marinette to have support from a friend, but Alya is also a teenager while Tikki is an ancient being who has seen many Ladybugs go through the kind of struggles that Marinette is going through. I expect her to use that knowledge to help her charge, but she never does. This exchange from Passion perfectly highlights this problem:

Tikki: Don't worry, Plagg... my holder has decided to run away from her real feelings to pursue an impossible love with Cat Noir instead. Plagg: Uh, just to be sure, sugarcube, you do know that Cat Noir and my holder are one and the same person, right? Tikki: I do, but my holder doesn't. Plagg: If she declares her love to Cat Noir, something tells me she'll find out soon enough. Tikki: You have nothing to fear. When my holder is in love, she never gets anywhere. She'll just knit hats and make very complicated plans that will never come to fruition. Plagg: Hmm... ah, then everything's fine.

Tikki, I love you, but by the gods! With a mentor like you, Marinette doesn't need enemies to be miserable! Do you care about her at all??? What kind of mentor delights at their mentee's suffering? Not a good one, that's for sure.

*Quick note: I think that Plagg and Tikki are probably neck and neck for who has given the most bad advice, Plagg just feels like the bigger problem because we don't see him as much as we see Tikki. Since she's tied to the main character, Tikki gives advice in almost every episode and most episodes have decent morals.

Adrien's need for good advice can also feel more glaring because he's so isolated and passive. That makes Plagg's lack of good advice feel more harmful, but Marinette is just as isolated from real advice. Her mentor figures - Su Han, Fu, and Tikki - mostly give orders and judgement instead of support and guidance. It's just harder to spot that fact because Marinette is actively trying to do the right thing, meaning that she's more likely to make mistakes, and it's easy to see why she comes across as a lot less pathetic and a lot easier to judge.

I'm not the first to mention this, but one bit that I thought was really clever in Steven Universe is the ways in which the show subtly justifies the cartoonism of the principle cast always wearing the same outfit for ease-of-animation purposes. The gems are a gimme in that they're all hardlight-projections, and even before that's solidified as a plot point they're otherworldly and superheroic enough that you don't really think to question it. But Steven canonically just owns hundreds and hundreds of those star shirts, which are leftover merchandise from his father's fizzled-out career as a rock star. Into which you can read a whole bunch of other stuff if you really want to, right? And I do want to. It's reflective of Greg's misplaced optimism that he got hundreds of those made in the first place, and it's a benign but visible example of how Steven's life is shaped by the knock-on effects of decisions his parents made before he was even alive. He's got his mother's superpowers and he's wearing his father's shirts.

I believe that Ron Stoppable is neurodivergent. Many of his traits line up with being neurodivergent.

Disregard for Gender Norms

In "Mind Games" Ron mentions liking the skirt on Kim's cheer uniform.

In "Attack of the Killer Bebes" he got a movie makeup kit as a birthday present.

In "Two to Tutor" he is revealed to love baking and is mentioned as being interested in interpretive dance.

He becomes a fan of the Oh Boyz in "Oh Boyz".

He becomes a fan of "Kim Style" in "Kimitation Nation".

He is implied to be interested in Britina dolls in "Queen Bebe".

These are all things typically regarded as feminine interests, but when Ron has his crisis about being a man in "Ron the Man", none of that stuff is what he's concerned about. He's not afraid any of that stuff makes him less of a man, and he feels no shame about them (most of the time).

Lack of Concern for Popularity

There are several times where Ron is shown to not care about popularity, though there are also several times where Ron is shown to care a great deal about how others perceive him.

Obsessive Tendencies

In "October 31st" Ron is shown to still be interested in going trick-or-treating, despite the fact that most people would have outgrown this hobby by this point.

In "Grande Size Me" Ron becomes obsessed with proving Barkin wrong about the food pyramid, and begins behaving in a defensive manner over it.

(Of course, Ron invented the Naco, which was the specific item Barkin was criticizing, so it's a bit understandable.)

In "Dimension Twist" Ron spends three days straight watching cable television.

Ron has a tendency to become obsessed with his interests, and defensive if someone doesn't like them.

Hobbies and Interests

In "Monkey Fist Strikes" Ron is revealed to be interested in video games, and this is mentioned again in "Steal Wheels".

In "Larry's Birthday" it's revealed that Ron has regular meetups with Larry and Larry's friends.

In "Queen Bebe" Ron is implied to have an interest in Britina dolls.

Ron is a fan of the Oh Boyz in "Oh Boyz", even when they're so unpopular no one goes to their concerts. In addition to this, he doesn't even realize they're no longer popular.

Ron may not having been looking for a naked mole rat specifically, but he does consider them to be cool pets.

In "Two to Tutor" there is a brief mention of Ron having an interest in interpretive dancing.

He's still interested in trick-or-treating in "October 31st".

Many of Ron's interests are things typically regarded as "uncool" or "childish", things his peers are usually not interested in.

Social Life and Anxiety

Ron is frequently shown to lack social skills - bad at picking up intonation, doesn't have many friends, has a hard time dating, and is generally believed to be unpopular.

There's also Ron's tendency to panic, and his occasional bouts of paranoia.

(Though his belief that Barkin is targeting him specifically was apparently correct.)

In fact, Ron's anxiety reached a breaking point when, in "Odds Man In", he experienced such bad anxiety, he locked himself in some kind of panic room.

(Also, where was this? When did he have it built?)

Ron is also concerned about being replaced as Kim's best friend or sidekick, as shown in "Pain King vs Cleopatra", or boyfriend, as shown in "Ill-Suited".

So Ron displays many traits associated with neurodivergent teenagers.

And these also happen to be the traits that the show used to write him as a "loser".

And that's one of the reasons I dislike so much of the show's humor being at Ron's expense - because it often relies on poking fun at Ron not behaving in a neurotypical way.

And as someone who is not neurotypical, seeing the character that's the most like me being the "buffoon" character, the "inept sidekick" character, the one who is incompetent and incapable, well...it kind of hurts.

Because it kind of feels like they're saying what I and many other neurodivergent people have heard our whole lives - that you can't do anything, and you look foolish for trying.

Look, I realize this wasn't intentional. But, even unintentionally, Ron is very heavily neurodivergent-coded, and that happens too often in media - humor that relies on someone having neurodivergent traits and making fun of them for it.

And we've all grown past that.