Is Surprising How Much Of The Humor Was Based At Ron’s Expense, Specially When Some Of His Behaviors

I know it's an old show, but my sister proposed one of the craziest possible AUs for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Background info: We're both convinced that the Ty sisters are descended from air nomads. They're all good at acrobatics, and their faces look just like Aang.

So, for the AU:

Firstly, Kuzon never claims to be from the colonies, just that his family does things a bit differently

When Kuzon gets into trouble, the school doesn't ask to meet his parents, they say they've already contacted his parents.

See, a free-spirited kid who disrespects the teachers, dances, gets into fights, and "does things differently" has got to be from the Ty family.

They assume no one ever mentioned Kuzon because, compared to his sisters, he is quiet and respectful, so he must get overlooked quite often.

Mr. and Mrs. Ty did show up. They were planning to just clear up the misunderstanding, but then they see a young boy who looks just like their daughters, and is on the verge of a panic attack, and just roll with it.

"You know why we know that the history book is wrong. We're not going to punish him for being right."

"He didn't start that fight, so we're not going to punish him for defending himself."

"Kuzon, sweetie, you can't dance while playing the tsungi horn, you'll hit the other students."

The Ty family might not show it often, but they are nobility, so it's not exactly the best idea to get them upset.

Mrs. Ty has air nomad heritage, and she and her husband disagree with most of the current Fire Nation policies. They've hoped to make good changes, but it's not easy.

Aang tells them he's the avatar after he finds out about their heritage.

The promise not to sell him out, and ask for air bending lessons.

Not much else planned here, but Ozai does get defeated quicker.

Thoughts on Justine Flanner

She doesn't appear in a lot of fanfiction, but she's usually cold, blunt, and aloof until something happens to make her warm up.

I don't think she's like that.

Her first (chronological) appearance was in "Grudge Match" when she was shown at the Robot Rumble. She seemed to be friends with the other fans - she was shown to sit with some of them, laugh, and gossip, so she has no problems socializing with people who share her interests.

In "Partners" she's shown to not want Kim's help on the project, but lets her help after Kim admits to going over her work and looking up about half the words to understand it.

(She also had no problems autographing a picture for Professor Allenford when he asked.)

So, it appears that she was more impressed that Kim tried than if Kim had understood immediately.

And, since she appreciates people trying, it's probably not an issue of thinking herself above those less intelligent than her, it's an issue of not typically having a partner who even tries to understand what she's doing.

She had no problems with Kim after Kim put in the effort to understand her project.

That probably doesn't happen a lot, which is why she was dismissive at first.

But she is shown to have friends, or at least people she likes spending time with. And she is shown to be kind to people when they actually try. She doesn't require people to have the same natural intelligence as her, just to be willing to put in the effort.

I'm sure everyone, at some point, has understood having to carry a group project on their own. And understood the hatred of group projects that comes with it.

So, if she's a bit cold and distant at first, I can't really blame her.

Could you?

Kim Possible: Episode Reviews

I don’t intend to comment on every episode, just the ones I haven’t talked about yet or the ones I feel need to be given more in-depth discussion. Let’s begin:

“Tick-Tick-Tick” - First episode, not much to complain about here, but I do have one thing that irks me; the detention gang are never seen or mentioned again, with the exception of maybe Mike, as a guy who looks just like him is seen on the football team in a later episode. He is not addressed by name, however, so I’m not going to assume it’s Mike. The point of the episode was that Kim learns the detention gang are not all that bad, but then they’re never seen or mentioned again. They’re not even in the background. It kind of defeats the purpose of the lesson.

I also feel like this episode would have been a good chance to play into Kim’s “driven to excel” traits and have her hate the idea of detention because she’s afraid of how it will affect her future, and she learns one detention won’t ruin her future. You know, a reason for thinking detention is for losers, instead of just her being a cheerleader.

“Bueno Nacho” - I did mention in a previous post that I hate that Kim forged an application for Ron before ever talking to him about it. Honestly, they could’ve just had Kim entice Ron to take the job by mentioning some kind of benefits i.e. employee discount, one free meal while on shift. There was no reason for Kim to unilaterally make the decision, and she seems majorly controlling for doing so. Your protagonist’s mistakes should come from a lack of knowledge, not a lack of consideration. You can teach people to communicate, you can’t teach them to care.

“Attack of the Killer Bebes” - I wish the creators had delved more into Kim’s feelings. She thinks Ron being a cheerleader would be mortifying, and she hates the idea of him as the mascot. But we never learn why. There’s a line at the beginning that would indicate Kim just wanted something for herself, but the creators don’t expand on that. Instead, we get Kim just insulting Ron for the rest of the episode. It would have been more interesting if it was about Kim struggling to keep something for herself without Ron, and learning that even with Ron as the mascot, cheerleading will still always be her thing. Your protagonist should have deep thoughts and feelings that get explored, not just hinted at.

“The New Ron” - One of my most hated episodes for the way Kim treated Ron, but my rewrite would probably fix it. Ron agrees to a new haircut to appease Kim, and tries to like it but he’s miserable and he stays miserable. Kim learns she can be too pushy sometimes and needs to lay off, and Ron learns his best friend cares more about his feelings than his appearance, so it’s okay to say no to her. Your hero shouldn’t be causing harm to others just because she wants to; that’s not a hero, that’s a villain.

“Number One” - A few options for rewrites; Kim actually tries to prove she’s the better captain instead of just expecting Bonnie to fail on her own, or Bonnie stays captain and we get to explore how Kim handles not being in charge. Your character isn’t skilled and talented if she has everything handed to her instead of working for it.

Also, it would be nice if Will was actually competent, instead of taking credit for the mission. Give Kim an actual rival. Seriously, a highly-trained government agent isn’t on par with an amateur? It’s ridiculous. Your female protagonist isn’t good if you have to dumb down the world to make her shine.

“Sink or Swim” - Minor change; with how big Barkin is, and his military experience, he should’ve made more noise while being abducted. We could’ve had a shadow drag him off while he tells Kim to warn the others. That would’ve played into the horror movie parody quite nicely.

“Crush” - I feel like instead of Kim ignoring a call from Wade that was definitely important because Wade doesn’t make social calls, she should’ve just not gotten a call. I mean, how would Wade even know Ron was trapped in the closet anyways? Ron doesn’t have a Kimmunicator. It wouldn’t change much to be honest, and it also wouldn’t have Kim ignoring an urgent attempt at communication.

“October 31st” - Kim should take more precautions with the bracelet. Maybe it gets stuck to her wrist because the tweebs grab it and it gets stuck to her wrist in the ensuing fight. There’s also the issue of lying, but we could just have her nervous about spending time with Josh and having that be enough to set off the armor. That way, it’s basically the same plot, but without Kim being thoughtless, reckless, and deliberately misleading everyone she cares about.

“The Twin Factor” - Honestly, I would take out the whole “gag” about Kim using mind control on her brothers. The whole point of the episode is that mind control is wrong and bad, but the point gets muted when our hero is doing it to children. I’m not sure what gag I would replace it with, but nothing that jokes about mind control. I like that Kim’s parents were upset, but they should’ve been more upset. Outraged, even. And Kim should’ve faced actual consequences.

“Job Unfair” - I’m not sure this episode had a lesson. If it was meant to be “all jobs are important” then the lesson is pointless by having the “janitor” revealed to actually be a Canadian spy. Instead, we could have Kim decide to focus on her work-study anyways, and learn how to disable the weather machine by sheer coincidence, because the janitor is an actual janitor and not secretly a spy. As for Ron’s mentor, it could be revealed that the spy had been trying to get to Kim, but she was already taken by the janitor so he went to Ron instead.

“Grudge Match” - This episode had a scene where Ron mentions people might think he and Kim were on a date. Instead of using this as a moment to hint at Kim and Ron ending up together, Kim mocks and insults Ron for that statement. We could have Kim and Ron nervously discussing whether people think of them as a couple, before Kim (or Wade) brings them back to focus, but Kim mocking and insulting Ron for insinuating people might think they date is not a good way to hint at the endgame ship.

Also, I feel like instead of Kim “fudging” by telling Ron he might stand a chance with Zita, we should have her actually believe it could happen. This is a guy she supposedly develops romantic feelings for later, but instead of hinting at that, she apparently thinks he’s so much of a loser that even a girl none of them know anything about could do better.

“The Ron Factor” - I understand they had to change the ending of the episode because it was too sexist, but this episode chronologically takes place after “A Sitch in Time”, where we learn Ron is essential to Kim’s success (though no one remembers that timeline so I’ll cut them some slack there) and Ron defeated the villain this time. Not Kim, Ron. If they didn’t want it to seem like Ron was the secret to Kim’s success, they shouldn’t have made that a plot point of the movie, nor should they have Ron defeating the villain. Kim did almost nothing in this episode aside from telling Ron he was getting a big head (which he was) and complaining about GJ thinking Ron was the secret to her success (again, he was).

“Adventures in Rufus-Sitting” - I’ve talked about this episode before, so my rewrite is simple; have Kim take actual precautions with the microchip. We could still have Rufus accidentally eat it; maybe while looking for a snack he finds it and eats it. But Kim took no precautions with the top-secret microchip she was meant to guard, and that is seriously disappointing. If your female protagonist won’t take basic precautions with things she’s supposed to guard, she’s not a good guardian.

“Exchange” - When Kim decides she likes Hirotaka, she has Wade track his movements to arrange an “accidental” run-in with him to ask him out. She’s known him for less than a week and is already stalking him. It’s creepy and obsessive and this needs to not happen. Honestly, that whole scene could go like this; Kim returns from a mission, notices Hirotaka, panics, plays cool, decides to ask him out, continues as canon. If your female character is stalking her crush, it’s not funny, it’s creepy.

Interesting to note: Hirotaka looks a lot like Will Du’s original concept Ken Du.

“Queen Bebe” - Honestly, I do have complaints about this episode, and I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but I’m not actually sure how I’d go about rewriting it. Kim’s inability to fulfill her obligations (that she volunteered for) is not only disappointing but also letting down her school. I can kind of understand her refusal to ask for help, especially from Bonnie, but at the very least, clubs and committees should be hesitant to let her join in the future because of this.

“Hidden Talent” - Not cool of Ron to sign Kim up for the talent show without talking to her about it first, but it definitely wasn’t cool of Kim to threaten Ron with physical violence over it. He might not have seemed afraid, but that doesn’t make it okay.

Honestly, it would be very in character for Kim to sign herself up because of anger and pride, so there was no need for Ron to do it.

“Return to Wannaweep” - Kim sabotages Bonnie, her own teammate, just because she wants a plastic stick painted gold. A stick she admits to only wanting so Bonnie can’t have it. Sure, Kim’s competitive. But this kind of competitiveness, sabotaging her own teammate to make herself stand out more, would get her kicked off the squad. Obviously, if they want Kim and Bonnie sabotaging each other, they should have Bonnie start it. Your heroine doesn’t get to be called a role model when she’s starting conflicts for her own personal interests.

Also, despite Gil having tried something evil before, Kim refuses to take any of Ron’s concerns about him seriously because she’s too preoccupied with her rivalry with Bonnie. A heroine ignoring potential danger because she doesn’t care is not a good heroine.

“Blush” - I can understand Kim wanting to go on a date with Josh, but he would’ve understood Kim needing to stay home for her own safety. She was at risk of literally disappearing.

“Oh Boyz” - Sure, everyone stopped liking the Oh Boyz, but the timing implies Kim stopped liking them specifically because Ron started liking them. I just feel like there’s too much of that in this show; Ron’s interests being “uncool” or “embarrassing”.

“Rewriting History” - This episode introduced interesting new layers to the characters and their relationships, except it didn’t because it was all a dream. I hate that. Honestly, I feel like the episode should have just ended with Kim saving Drakken and Shego and clearing her great-aunt’s name. No “it was all a dream” shenanigans.

“Showdown at the Crooked D” - Kim tricked Ron into going. He told her he wanted to laze about for the summer, she invited him to a place called The Lazy C, and then deliberately didn’t tell him until after they arrived and he had no way to back out that it was a working ranch. A lie by omission is still a lie. Your female hero shouldn’t be doing this to her friends.

"Emotion Sickness” - Another episode that could’ve hinted at Kim and Ron getting together, but instead Ron seemed uncomfortable with the whole idea. Nervous. Terrified. It didn’t seem like he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Having one character be uncomfortable with the idea of dating another is not a good way to hint at a ship.

"Bonding” - Mostly I hate that both Bonnie and Barkin were given character development, and then it’s gone for the rest of the series.

“Bad Boy” - Another episode to hint at a ship, and it didn’t do a good job. Having both characters be uncomfortable with the idea of dating each other doesn’t imply a ship either.

“Team Impossible” - As I mentioned, most of my frustration with this episode comes from the reason they gave for wanting Kim out of the business; profit. There are so many valid reasons, and Team Impossible could’ve been mentors. If you need to make the professionals incompetent for your character to stand out, your character isn’t good enough.

“And the Mole Rat Will Be CGI” - Honestly, my big issue here is that Kim, once again, is ignoring Ron’s feelings on something that will affect him.

“So The Drama” - I made a whole post about this, so I’ll be brief. Getting Kim and Ron together by introducing a “perfect” guy for Kim and then removing him as an option completely is lazy writing. I understand it was supposed to be the end of the series, but while we see a lot of Ron pining over Kim, we don’t see any of Kim possibly having feelings for Ron. The implication is that, if Eric were still an option, Kim and Ron wouldn’t be together. That’s not true love, that’s Ron being Kim’s rebound guy.

“The Big Job” - Kim complains about Ron using coupons to fund their dates, to high end expensive restaurants, but she never offers to pay. She is asking for more from Ron than he is able to give. And she, once again, has things literally handed to her. In this case, Monique literally gives her a job just so she could inspire Ron to get one.

“Fashion Victim” - I find it hard to believe Kim didn’t know she was risking Monique’s and Wade’s futures by trying to get them help her break the NDA Monique signed. She has worked on top-secret projects before; she’s definitely signed a few of those. Your heroine shouldn’t be risking others for her own gain.

“Grande Size Me” - The movie this episode was based off of has been proven to have been faked. This whole episode would need to be rewritten.

TW: This episode contains scenes that would be triggering for people with body image issues, eating disorders, or fears of Kaiju.

I did have more thoughts, but they felt too nitpicky. I tried to stick to the ones I had major problems with, and bolded the advice I would give on how to avoid some of those problems.

I found the episode "Showdown at the Crooked D" kinda insulting towards Ron(excluding the final scene) it literally would be impossible for Kims cousin to know every detail about Kims missions, including the times Rufus was vital, but know nothing about Ron. I know it's supposed to be for "comedic purposes" but that gag was so overdone by then(late s3) as you said in some of your posts, Ron has stepped up so much since the first episode, she should've been treated with more respect. It also kinda made Kim look bad, not defending him or recounting atleast one of the missions where he came through.

First, "Showdown at The Crooked D" was late season 2, not late season 3.

Second, I agree with all of it.

There's no reason for Joss to know all about Kim, Rufus, and Wade, but know nothing about Ron.

(She even knows about the Centurion Project, which was a top-secret project she reasonably shouldn't have known about.)

Except, of course, that the narrative likes to make jokes at Ron's expense.

And when I say Kim doesn't appreciate or respect Ron on the team, it's not just because of how she treats him in their everyday life, it's also because of situations like this.

Kim won't acknowledge Ron's contributions to the team.

When someone praises Kim as a hero, she never even tries to give Ron credit for his part in their success.

(And when Joss praised Ron as a hero, it was because he faces his fears to be there for Kim, not because she recognized his skills. Not a bad reason to admire someone, but still...)

Kim acknowledged his importance once in "Sink or Swim", which Officer Hobble didn't believe at first. She never does it again.

(Also, she follows this up by telling Ron he's not going to be allowed to lead a mission anyways.)

Kim's the one getting praise, getting people to owe her favors, getting recognition, and Ron's not.

And, though Kim will probably say she's not doing it for the fame and recognition, it hardly seems fair to not allow Ron to have any.

(Also, it's easy to say you're not doing it for fame and recognition when you're the one getting it.)

The point is, even ignoring her mistreatment of him as a best friend, she fails to acknowledge or recognize his contributions to the team as a hero, and he deserves better.

Would you be open to a sequel series to Kim Possible?

Kind of? That really depends on what direction the series is going to go in.

Are they going to acknowledge Kim's faults or just remove them and act like they never existed?

Is Ron going to keep being the bumbling sidekick or get better character development?

Those are the biggest questions.

I've written my own sequel series, but I'm open to other series that go in different directions.

I mostly just want Kim's faults acknowledged, especially to a point that Kim herself has to acknowledge them and work on them.

So, yeah, I'm open to it, but I'm not interested in a sequel series that ignores those problems entirely, even if it does also remove them.

They felt so odd and even out of character for Kim at that point, everything about the movie felt very season one-isn, Kim’s character felt off and even a little disrespectful:

Kim: “Ron is not boyfriend material, he is Ron ”

Bonnie: “you could end up with the president of the Chess club or worse” (as Ron enters the scene)

There are so many scenes where Ron is able to ponder about his feelings about Kim, there are many scenes where he does something that shows he loves her and in general seems to prioritize her happiness.

( little scenes like when he buys her a jacket, every time he is supportive and tells her she can do anything, that she is beautiful, when she gives her the credit for saving the day in the Ron factor episode, we have whole scenes where Ron’s character evaluated the way he feels about her and how important she is to him.)

I think is amazing how the cartoon portrays Ron as an introspective, open and emotionally available person (very rare in a boy character during that time, is amazing and part of the whole subversion of tropes the show had going on).

This is part of the reason what made me love Ron’s character and Kim and Ron’s relationship

But we almost didn’t get any of that with Kim, we barely ever saw how she felt about anything, she was never allowed to be as open and vulnerable about her feelings as Ron was. 3_5

Truthfully, even today, it can be hard to find a teenage guy character who is so open about his feelings.

So I do love that about Ron.

And I hate that Kim was never allowed that same vulnerability. She was only shown to have fears or insecurities a few times; fighting the Lorwardians in "Graduation", a newly discovered fear of giant bugs in "Roachie", and anything involving Josh Mankey.

And, even though she could experience fear and insecurities, it never made her sympathetic towards any of Ron's.

There where shows back then where the teen male protagonist was allowed to be emotional and vulnerable, so why isn't a teen female protagonist allowed the same?

What are your thoughts on the Tweebs?

Well, the original pitch bible had them as sociopathic geniuses...

Which is kind of a horrible way to describe ten-year-olds. End of.

Jim and Tim are energetic, hyperactive, rambunctious geniuses with a tendency towards taking apart household appliances to build things.

They don't respect Kim's boundaries and work hard to embarrass her.

James and Ann don't seem to be big on disciplining their kids or regulating their behaviors.

And Kim is constantly commenting on how she wanted a sister, thinks of them as freaks, and doesn't think they're human.

Frankly, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to be nice to her after dealing with that for a lifetime.

Especially after they went through the trouble of helping her on a mission and she used mind-control chips on them afterwards.

The same ones they had freed her from.

The same ones she said were unethical to just make.

I know that when my older sibling spent my entire life telling me how much she never wanted me, I wasn't exactly inclined to be nice to her either.

(We're doing better now, but it took an acknowledgement and an apology on her part before I was even willing to try. I think it'd be nice if Kim did this, too.)

But even though they had nearly helped embarrass Kim out of existence in "Blush", it's clear that they hadn't known what was going to happen, and thus hadn't intended to cause that much harm to Kim.

So it doesn't seem like Jim and Tim are as "sociopathic" as the creators had originally intended for them to be.

TLDR: They aren't really different from how any other ten-year-old boys would be if they were geniuses, had access to advanced technology, had parents who don't discipline or regulate them, and had an older sister constantly talking about how much she hates them.

So I can't really blame them for how they turned out.

Would you?

Also, even Ghoulia's texts were in "zombie", which isn't actually a great representation of non-verbal people.

The non-verbal people I knew, keeping in mind they were nowhere near as intelligent as Ghoulia, were still able to type and write.

G1 Ghoulia didn't have that. It sucks that there's no non-verbal representation, but g1 Ghoulia wasn't a great representation.

And the creators acknowledge that. So they changed it. Because they want to do a non-verbal character authentically.

One of the show runners even stated that this was the reason.

And, I still believe Ghoulia does represent some kind of disability.

In "Growing Ghoulia" she talks about how difficult it is for zombies to earn points at monster high because they're not as fast as other monsters.

That sounds familiar...

In "Flaunt Your Skeleton" we learn that Ghoulia has anxiety tics and, in "Dawn of the Dread" her anxiety manifests as a monster.

So, Ghoulia might not be non-verbal anymore, but she's still a good representation of disability.

People can be upset that she's no longer non-verbal, but she's still a great character.

And here's hoping that, when they include a non-verbal character, we love them as much as we love g1 Ghoulia.

Alright, time to share some thoughts. This is going to be about Monster High g3, specifically Ghoulia.

Now, I understand why people are upset that she can talk in this generation as there's now no representation for nonverbal characters, but I do love that they veered away stereotypical zombies that are super slow and can only communicate with grunts & other noises that aren't recognizable as words. But, more importantly, she wasn't intended to be representative of nonverbal people.

Now, I'm not saying that nonverbal shouldn't relate to her, that's not something anyone has control over. What I'm saying is this: the writers for the new generation likely decided to give her the ability to speak so that they could explore her character more, and so that when they eventually do add a nonverbal character, they can be sure to do it right & consult with nonverbal people about their lived experiences.

For example: when the live-action movie came out, I related to Frankie's struggles with social situations, but the creators said they're not autistic. (And my twin explained that Frankie's only 2 weeks old & it's hard to diagnose autism before 3 years). I was a little heartbroken, as they were the only character I sort of related to. Note: were.

And then g3 Twyla made her debut, and then had an episode about growing up, and it was like someone put my lived experience on the screen. I felt so seen & understood, as did many autistic fans of the show.

So, while I understand that the current lack of nonverbal representation is frustrating, I'm sure(ly hoping) that they will make a nonverbal character, and that they're just making sure they can make them accurate and not written as a harmful stereotype.

I know that the narrative itself always validated Ron’s importance, but I always felt bad about how little credit he got from the other characters, specially from the villains it felt unfair sometimes.

I know is mostly because he is the comic relief character and that’s his role, but many of the jabs done against him, felt incredible unfair like closing his restaurant, other characters never recognized how important his contribution to Team possible were.

Perhaps this is where the sentiment of Ron being underserving of Kim comes from? people see him being treated as unimportant or as a fool by other characters and assume that’s what he is, but there are plenty of episodes demonstrating this isn’t the case.

Yeah, there are a lot of episodes that show Ron is more than a fool. I have a whole post about it.

And, yeah, watching the other characters treat him like a loser probably influences the viewers' opinions of him.

Luckily, a lot of people know better.

I cannot imagine how Ron is undeserving of Kim.

He's supportive, kind, and forgiving.

(Maybe a little too forgiving, in my opinion.)

He's also got impressive skills when he chooses to use them.

And might be a genius, if his evil self in "Bad Boy" was anything to go off.

(The general consensus is: yes, it is.)

So, anyone who says Ron doesn't deserve Kim hasn't watched the show.