I Know That The Narrative Itself Always Validated Ron’s Importance, But I Always Felt Bad About How

Thoughts on Brick Flagg

So, I've seen Brick labelled as a "bully jock" character, usually lumped with characters like Flash Thompson (Spider-Man), Dash Baxter (Danny Phantom), and Brad Morton (American Dragon: Jake Long). However, I don't think Brick deserves to be in that group.

Firstly, we never actually see Brick bully anyone. It's never even implied he does that. Whenever someone's picking on Ron, Brick isn't around. The only time Brick gets aggressive is with Hirotaka, but never anyone else. Truly, that exchange with Hirotaka was out of character for Brick, not the norm.

Secondly, Brick actually seems to like Kim and Ron. He willingly sits with them and talks with them in "Royal Pain" and has had pleasant interactions in other episodes. Brick has never insulted either of them, and doesn't seem interested in doing so. Surely, Brick isn't a mean-spirited guy.

(I also want to mention that when Brick sees bulked-up Ron in "Ron the Man", he seems a little concerned until Ron assures him it's nothing to worry about, at which point he's just supportive.)

Lastly, Brick is actually a sensitive guy. In "All The News" he openly talks about his feelings. He mentions that he was devastated when Amelia dumped him and lost a game because of it. Typical "bully jock" characters don't talk about their feelings, they just beat someone else up to deal with them. But Brick doesn't do that. He opens up to people and talks about his feelings, not beat other people up.

Sure, Brick is definitely lacking in intelligence, as Barkin mentions in "Ill-Suited" that it took him seven years to finish high school, but he's not a bully. He'd be more of the "dumb jock" variety than "bully jock".

He could also fall under the "himbo" category, but I don't think the fandom's ready for that talk yet.

Ron was never given any of his own gadgets in the show was he? He was given a communicator in the games and in a stitch in time to keep in contact with kim, but that timeline got delete. And I’m not sure if the games are canon

I never thought about it, it makes episodes like The Fearless Ferret somewhat sad, he really wanted to step out of Kim’s shadow.

Yeah, he was never given his own gadgets. And he always seems impressed by Kim's gadgets.

He was only given a Kimmunicator in "A Sitch in Time", and even then only after Kim had told Wade to make one.

He is sometimes shown using a grappling hook, but Kim's other gadgets are always made for Kim, not Ron.

And it's frustrating that he doesn't get gadgets because even Robin gets gadgets.

Yeah, Ron really wants to step out of Kim's shadow. He wants to be his own hero, or at least considered a partner to Kim, not her inept sidekick.

Would a sequel series that acknowledges Kim’s flaws and works to fix them help you see her in a better light?

Ideally? Yes.

Honestly? I'm not 100% sure, but it would be appreciated.

The most important thing is that it's handled without people acting too out of character.

For example, if Ron tells Kim how much something hurts him and she immediately apologizes and corrects it, though it'd be nice, it's not very in-character.

They'd need to have more back and forth before Kim acknowledges that she's hurting him/that it's bad.

Not saying they have to break up, but it wouldn't be very in-character for Kim to immediately recognize her faults.

Kim's very stubborn. Not being mean, she just is.

It's a requirement for saving the world, but when it negatively impacts her personal life, it's a problem.

Pick One: Magical Girl Show or Rom-com. You cannot be both.

Early in season four we get the episode Gang of Secrets. An episode that ends with Marinette outing her secret identity to Alya. A touching moment that sparked outrage across the fandom because it meant that Marinette had made the choice to reveal her identity to her best friend while keeping her hero partner in the dark.

This choice spat in the face of the exceptions that many fans had for the series. Thousands of pre-season-four fanfics feature moments where Ladybug and Chat Noir promise each other that they'll be the first to know each other's identities. After the Alya reveal, scores of fanfics were written to salt on Marinette's choice to tell the "wrong" person.

Most of these fics feature a betrayed Chat Noir quitting or otherwise punishing Ladybug for breaking their promise to be each other's first, thereby destroying his faith in their partnership. But that promise was never made on screen. It only existed in the realms of fanfic and, when Chat Noir finally found out in canon, his reaction was largely neutral. He never once blamed Ladybug for her choice or pushed for a reveal or even asked for the right to tell one of his friends.

So what happened here? Why did the fans have such wildly unrealistic expectations of canon? Were their expectations even unrealistic or did canon betray them? The answer to that is not as straight forward as you might think because it all comes back to one of Miraculous' many, many, many writing problems: Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh. You can only be one (or you can be a third thing that we'll get to at the end as it's the easiest way to fix this mess, but I want to mostly focus on where the anger is coming from and why the writing is to blame.)

To discuss this mismatch, we're going to do something that breaks my heart and talk about some of Origins flaws. While I love that episode and unironically refer to it as the best writing the show ever gave us, it's not perfect and its flaws are all focused around trying to set up both genres. Do note that I'm going to use a lot of gender binary language here as magical girl shows have a strong focus on gender segregation and rarely if ever acknowledge gender diversity.

Let's Talk Magical Girls

Magical girl shows are shows that center on young women and their friendships. While male love interests are often present in these shows, the boys tend to take a backseat and function primarily as arm candy while the girls save the day and carry the narrative.

A great example of this is the show Winx Club. This show features a large cast of teenage girls who save the magical universe from various threats with their magical powers. Each girl has a love interest, but the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship. I don't even think that we see the guys fight or, if we do, it's a rare thing. They are not there to save the day. They are there to be shipping fodder.

Like most magical girl shows, Winx Club starts with the main character making friends with one of the girls who will eventually become part of her magical girl squad. This brings us back to Miraculous.

Did you ever find it weird that Origins implies that Marinette has no friends? She doesn't even have a backbone until new girl Alya shows up to become Marinette's First Real Friend:

Marinette: I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do. Alya: You mean the way Majestia does it. She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. (pointing at Chloé) Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it.

This is a bizarre opening because Miraculous is not about Marinette making friends or learning to stand up for herself. If you skipped Origins and just watched the rest of the show, then you'd have no clue that Marinette wasn't close with her classmates before this year. You also wouldn't know that Alya was new in town and you definitely wouldn't know that Marinette had never stood up to Chloé before this year. So why is this here? Why waste screen time setting up elements that aren't actually important to canon?

Miraculous did it for the same reason that Winx Club did it: magical girl shows traditionally start with the main character making friends with at least one of her eventual female teammates because Magical Girl shows are all about the girls and their relationships. The boys are just arm candy.

But Miraculous isn't a magical girl show. The writers have explicitly stated that it's a rom-com and romantic comedies aren't about female friendship. They might have female friendships in them, but that's not where the focus is. The focus of a rom-com is on the romance and Origins is very clearly all about the romance.

Origins as a Rom-com

Origins has a lot on its plate. It has to establish the villain's motivation for the first time, show us how the heroes got their miraculous, show us how the heroes first met on both sides of the mask, show us how they met their respective best friends, and show us how the heroes dealt with their first akuma. It would be perfectly understandable if this 40 minute two-parter didn't do anything with the romance. They have a full show to give us that!

In spite of this, Origins has some incredibly touching moments for both Ladynoir and Adrienette because romance is the heart of Miraculous. It is the main focus of the show. The driving motivation for both of our leads and the majority of the show's episodes. To tell the story of how their journey started without at least one of them falling in love would feel wrong. That's why we see both of them fall in love!

First we get Chat Noir giving his heart to his bold and brilliant lady, then we get Marinette's heart being stolen by the shy sweet boy who never once thought to blame her for her snap judgement of his character. We even get a touching moment where Chat Noir inspires his lady to accept her role and be Ladybug, leading her to boldly face their enemy and call him out:

Roger: I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! Ladybug: …He's right, you know. If I'd captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job… Cat Noir: No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. (they look at Chloe) And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay? Ladybug: Okay.

I love this moment, but it does lose a little of its power when you remember that we had an Alya-driven variation of this exact same thing five minutes prior:

Alya: HELP!! (Marinette suddenly gets filled with courage. She gets the case out of Alya's bag and puts on the Miraculous. Then, Tikki appears, happy to see Marinette again.) Tikki:(raising her arms) Mmmm! Marinette: I think I need Ladybug! Tikki: I knew you'd come around! Marinette: Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing.

This scene initially confused me because - if Miraculous is a rom-com - then why would you make Alya the reason that Marinette became Ladybug? Why wouldn't you have Chat Noir be the one in danger so that Marinette chose to fight because of her love interest and then encourage that bond with the later scene of him encouraging her? Why split the focus like this? Why give Alya so much attention?

In case you haven't figured it out, it's because Origins is trying to establish two different genres of show. Two genres that will continue to fight for the rest of the series (or at least the first five seasons).

Magical Girls Vs Rom-com

Why is Alya the one to shake off the nightmare dust and inspire the others during the season five finale? Why is Alya the one that Marinette trusts with all of her plans while Chat Noir is kept in the dark? Why does Alya and Marinette's friendship get so much more focus than Adrien and Nino's? Why was Alya the only temp hero who got upgraded to full time hero?

It's because Alya is Marinette's second in command in a magical girl show and magical girl shows focus on female friendships while the boys are just there to be cute and support the girls.

Why do most of Marinette's talks with Alya focus on Adrien? Why is Chat Noir the only other full time holder of a Miraculous for the first three seasons and then again for the final season? Why do Marinette's friends become more and more obsessed with Adrienentte as the show goes on? Why is the love square's identity reveal given so much more narrative weight than any other identity reveal?

It's because Miraculous is a rom-com and the love square is our end game couple, so of course the story focuses on their relationship above all else!

Are you starting to see the problem?

Circling back to our original question: no, it was not unreasonable for the fans to expect that the Alya reveal would have massive negative consequences for Ladynoir. That is what should happen in a rom-com and Miraculous is mainly written like a rom-com. But the writers are also trying to write a magical girl show and, in a magical girl show, Alya and Marinette's friendship should be the most important relationship in the show, so it makes perfect sense that the show treats the Alya reveal as perfectly fine because the Alya reveal was written from the magical girl show perspective.

When it comes to Miraculous, if you ever feel like a writing choice makes no sense for genre A, re-frame it as a thing from genre B and it suddenly makes perfect sense which is fascinatingly terrible writing! It's no wonder there are people who hate the Alya reveal and people who will defend it with their life. It all depends on which genre elements you've picked up on and clung to. Neither side is right, they've both been set up to have perfectly valid expectations. Whether those expectations are valid for a given episode is entirely up to the mercurial whims of the writers!

How Do We Fix This Mess

At this point, I don't think that we can, the show is too far gone, but if someone gave me the power to change one element of Miraculous, that element would be this: scrap both the magical girl stuff and the rom-com stuff and turn Miraculous into a team show where the friendships transcend gender.

At this point, I've written over a quarter of a million words of fanfic focused on these characters (the brain rot is real) and one thing I've discovered is that it is damn near impossible to keep Adrien and Alya from becoming friends. They're both new to their school while Marinette and Nino have gone to the same school for at least a few years. Alya and Adrien are both obsessed with Ladybug plus Adrien is a natural hype man who loves to support his friends and Alya loves to talk about her blog. Alya is dating Adrien's best friend. On top of that, Alya, Adrien, Nino, and Marinette are all in the same class, meaning that they pretty much have to be spending time together five days a week unless French school don't give kids a chance to socialize or do group projects. If so, then judging them for the first issue, but super jealous of the latter.

Given all of that, why in the world is does it feel like Alya is Marinette's close friend while Adrien is just some guy who goes to Alya's school? Along similar lines, while canon Marinette barely talks to Nino, I've found that Marinette and Nino tend to get along smashingly, especially if you embrace the fact that they have to have known each other for at least a few years.

If you embrace this wider friendship dynamic and scrap the girl squad, replacing it with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, then the fight for narrative importance quickly goes away. It's no longer a question of is this episode trying to be a magical girl show or a rom-com? Instead, the question is: which element of the friend group is getting focused on today? The romance or the friendship?

A lot of hero shows do this and do it well. I think that one of the most well known examples is Teen Titans. That show has five main characters and the focus is usually on their friendships, but there is a very clear running romantic tension between the characters Robin and Starfire with several episodes giving a good deal of focus to their romance. I'd say that this element really starts in the show's the 19th episode - Date with Destiny - and it all culminates in the movie that capstones the series: Trouble in Tokyo. The character Beast Boy also gets a romance arc and, while it's more short lived, it's further evidence that you can have strong romances and strong friendships in the same show and even the same episode. You just have to own the fact that boys and girls can be friends with each other, a very logical thing to embrace when your show has decided to have a diverse cast of heroes instead of imposing arbitrary gender limitations on its magical powers.

I couldn't figure out a way to work this into the main essay, but it's relevant so I wanted to quickly point it out and give you more to think about re Origins. Have you ever found it weird how Origins gives both Adrien AND Marinette the "I've never had friends before" backstory and yet wider canon acts like Marinette has this strong amazing friend group while Adrien doesn't seem to care about making friends and instead focuses all his energy on romance? Why give both the protagonist and the supposed deuteragonist this kind of origin if it's not going to be a major element of the show? It makes so much more sense to only give one of them this backstory and then focus that person's character arc on learning about friendship.

Did... Did Nathalie stealth use That Guy's emotions to make Animaestro or does she just have such perfect control over the Peacock that he didn't need to be anything more than inspiration?

Honestly, does anyone really get how the Peacock works on it's own? I just assume that if Emilie can make An Adrien based off her own or Gabriel's emotions, it's not unthinkable that Nathalie wouldn't even need the director to be involved in creating a Sentimonster from his emotions or just in his likeness.

Unfortunately, all the examples we physically get to see In Canon has Mayura channeling through an akuma or through Hawkmoth himself, making them packaged deals.

You know, now that you mention it...

The girls at my elementary school had crushes, but definitely not on adults. Teenagers were the oldest they had crushes on. The boys were the same.

Adults just seem so old at that age, so Jimmy's mom, Beautiful Gorgeous, and Princess Quin Shi "Peggy" Sue should've just seemed old to them, not hot.

I mean, they are attractive, to adults. And teenagers. Prepubescent children, not so much.

And, while I'm sure 11-year-olds were allowed some freedom, "One of Us" has Cindy returning from a competition out of town, and she exits the bus alone. That's an amount of freedom Cindy wouldn't have been allowed for legal reasons.

Not to mention, "Men at Work" has them getting jobs, despite being 10 at that point. Again, legally, this would not have been allowed.

It's a cartoon, not everything has to be accurate, I know. I'm not asking for accuracy, I'm asking for shows about children to remember that the main characters are children.

The show had some great plots that make sense for 11-year-olds:

Jimmy's upset at being the shortest in class

Jimmy's upset over not being athletic

School science fair

Candy-selling competition

Trying to make the perfect candy

Sheen's afraid of being held back (again!)

Jimmy doesn't want to pick up his clothes

Sheen's action figure goes missing

And more

But as the show went on, the romance aspect got emphasized a lot more. Of course, by that time, most of us were invested in the main ships, but looking back, it seems weird how much romance they put in the show.

I don't hate romance, but it feels weird to make it a central plot element in a show about elementary school-aged children. Especially when some of those romantic feelings are directed at adults.

Not to mention having it be such a flip-flop, back and forth, will they won't they thing.

The show would have been fine if the romance aspect wasn't so heavily emphasized at the end. Even though we liked the main ships, they weren't why we watched the show.

Well, time for another opinion! This one's about an older Nickelodeon show, Jimmy Neutron! It's very simple: the show would've made way more sense if the characters were teenagers instead of 11-year-olds. Things like:

Jimmy being allowed to fly around the world in a homemade rocket

Jimmy being allowed to fly into space

Jimmy being allowed to work in his lab unsupervised

Pretty much anything Jimmy does

The kids routinely go places like amusement parks or Cafés by themselves

The boys developing crushes at the drop of a hat

Cindy & Jimmy flip-flopping back & forth on their feelings for each other

Carl's crush on Jimmy's mom (still creepy, but makes more sense if he's a hormonal teenager)

The boys' brief crushes on Beautiful Gorgeous

These are all things that would make sense if the characters were teenagers. 11-year-olds just don't act like this. Trust me, I was 11 when the show was airing. I was in that age group, no one at my school acted like that. Crushes were only on classmates or teenage celebrities, we weren't allowed to go out by ourselves, and we would've needed supervision just to cook, nevermind the kind of science Jimmy was doing.

This level of drama, romance, and personal freedom, would make more sense for teenagers than children. Shows about kids can be fun, but you need to remember to have them act like kids.

Possible AUs

While I love the idea of Ron deciding to end things with Kim after "Crush", there are definitely other times when Ron could've ended his friendship with Kim, and if you're interested in that trope in fanfiction, I think you might find this list helpful.

After being forced into a haircut in "The New Ron", Ron decides Kim's controlling behavior is too much for him. He ends his friendship with Kim and calls her out for her behavior.

After using mind control on her brothers at the end of "The Twin Factor", Kim is grounded for a long time, leaving Ron to handle missions alone. This would cause Ron to realize his own skills, and put a strain on his relationship with Kim as she can't stand to watch him succeed on missions without her. Kim also finds herself with fewer babysitting jobs once word of her using mind control on her brothers gets around.

Kim finds herself getting fewer missions after word of her negligence and reckless endangerment in "October 31st" gets out. She also finds herself banned from Monique's house since she destroyed the garage door.

Upset over GJ thinking Ron is the secret to her success in "The Ron Factor", Kim tries the solo hero thing, and fails. Unfortunately, her parting had left Ron hurt and upset, and he's not interested in coming back to Kim.

After "Adventures in Rufus-Sitting", Rufus manages to communicate to Ron what happened while he was away, and Ron gets angry that Kim not only neglected and endangered Rufus, but lied to him about it. Ron ends things with Kim as he doesn't know how he can keep being friends with someone who cares so little about Rufus.

Ron comes back from his trip in "Exchange" with new skills, new confidence, and an unwillingness to put up with Kim's controlling behavior. So he takes a break from Kim when she gets to be too much for him.

After constantly being ignored about Gil in "Return to Wannaweep", Ron decides to end things with Kim and look for someone more supportive. Kim finds herself booted from the squad after they learn about how she intentionally sabotaged her own teammate to succeed.

Team Impossible from "Team Impossible" uses legal actions to keep Kim out of the save the world business, at least until she's 18, due to the reasons mentioned in my post about them. They offer to train Kim and Ron in how to be better heroes, but Ron is the only one who accepts.

Feeling abandoned in "So The Drama", Ron decides to confront Drakken alone. He succeeds, and it starts a new chain of events where Ron realizes how little Kim cares for him and decides he deserves better.

There might be episodes in Season 4 that could have Ron end things with Kim, but I feel like at that point it would take a lot, and Kim didn't do anything truly heinous to Ron so he wouldn't.

If anyone can think of any other episode where they think it would make sense for Ron to end things with Kim, please feel free to comment!

Don't you think you are missing the point? Because of how often Ron is overlooked whenever he gets any ounce of attention, it usually goes to his head. I think the chapter focused on this flaw not to make the conflict as one-sided on kim's end. Ron was being a bit patrionizing through the episode. So, Ron acknowladging it was the Kim factor, despite being Ron who defeated the villain showcase his character growth and is a sign of humilty and modesty.

Is one of my favorite moments of his character, I like how supportive and kind he is to Kim. Maybe what was missing was Kim acknowladging Ron more often? how would you've liked to see the episode/ending play out? What would you change?

I wouldn't say I'm missing the point. I'd say I'm saying it's stupid. Huge difference.

Furthermore, as I have rewatched the series recently, I can confidently say that, attention does not, actually, go to Ron's head when he receives it.

(And even if it did, that's not an excuse to constantly beat on the guy's self-esteem when even the anon asking this question admits he's constantly over looked.)

At this point in time, "Ron Millionaire" hasn't happened yet, so Kim's only examples would be "Bueno Nacho", "The New Ron", and "Two to Tutor", and in none of those did Ron get a big head.

(But if you're someone who's threatened by other people being successful and confident, it's the same thing.)

In "Bueno Nacho", Ron invented the Naco and got the job as the boss because of it. Being good at his job and actually enjoying it doesn't mean it went to his head, nor was asking Kim to do the job she originally signed them up for.

In "The New Ron", Ron started caring about fashion and hair-care, but this still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

In "Two to Tutor", Ron was successful, popular, and confident because of his baking skills, and that still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

Know why? Because he was enjoying the positive attention without putting down others or making fun of them.

Was Ron a little rude in this episode? Yes. But to say it's a recurring problem when it provably isn't shows more about Kim than Ron.

Namely that, to Kim, it doesn't matter if Ron actually has an ego problem or is just confident, it's unacceptable for Ron to be anything but her insecure, bumbling sidekick.

(Seriously, Kim is allowed to say she can do anything, but Ron isn't allowed to say he's good at one thing? How is that a fair and equal relationship?)

It's also worth mentioning that, yes, Ron is provably important to Kim's success, because she has failed any mission she tries to do alone.

Ron's already humble and modest, to the point of insecurity and self-deprecation. He really didn't need to be told, again, that he's nothing special.

How would I have liked this to go? Easy:

It starts out pretty much the same, but, at some point, Kim is watching feeds of her missions and sees, from an outside perspective, how important Ron actually is to her success.

*cue dawning look of realization*

At the end, after Gemini is defeated, we get an exchange like this:

Kim: "I was so upset about this whole Ron-factor thing at first, but, after watching some surveillance videos, I realized they're right."

Ron and Rufus: "Huh?!"

Kim: "I'm really good at the action stuff, but your quick-thinking and resourcefulness has been more helpful than I realized. I'm sorry I never acknowledged that before."

Ron: "Thanks, KP. That means a lot. Sorry I was kind of rude earlier. Friends?"

Kim: "The best."

*hug*

Ron: "But, for the record, it's not you or me, it's us. We're a team. It's not about a Kim Factor or a Ron Factor, it's us together that makes it work."

Dr. Director: "Hmm...perhaps we should spend time studying both of you."

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.

What role do Ron character has in team possible? Do you believe he gets the credit he deserves for his contribution to team possible within the narrative of the show?

Well, the role Ron is supposed to have is "bumbling sidekick".

But, as stated in my "Ron Deserved Better" post, he outgrew that role very quickly.

He demonstrated on numerous occasions that he is capable of being more than that.

But he's not treated that way.

The narrative wants Ron to be a sidekick, so no one acknowledges that he's capable of being more.

Kim acknowledges it once, at the end of "Sink or Swim", but then follows up with telling him he's not going to be allowed to lead a mission anyways. She never acknowledges it again after that.

(Despite this, he goes on four missions alone in "Overdue" and is successful in all of them.)

In "Showdown At The Crooked D" Kim's cousin Joss, who knows everything about everyone of Kim's missions, does not recognize Ron as anything other than the guy who's always losing his pants.

In "The Ron Factor" Kim refuses to consider the possibility that Ron might be important to her success, even when Wade, someone who she greatly respects, suggests it might be true.

And people are always talking about how Kim saves the world, but never even mention that Ron's with her every time.

And this is despite the fact that it's canon that she can't save the world without Ron.

In "Bueno Nacho" it takes no time at all for her to get captured when she tries to go on a mission alone.

And in "A Sitch in Time" it highlights just how important Ron is to Kim's success. Once again, she gets captured immediately when trying to go on a mission alone. (And then the timeline gets reset and everyone forgets everything.)

But no one's opinion of Ron really changes until the last episode. To everyone, he's still Kim's sidekick.

Even though they're dating in season four, Kim doesn't actually acknowledge any of Ron's skills or admit that he's more than a sidekick when it comes to saving the world.

Even when Joss acknowledges Ron as a hero, it's because he always faces his fears to be there for Kim, not because of any of his own skills.

Ron doesn't get gadgets, or his own Kimmunicator, and many people who owe Kim favors don't even remember Ron being there. Or, if they do, it's because Ron caused the problem in the first place. (Which, that last part is fair, but still...)

Ron is treated horribly by the narrative. He doesn't even get recognition that other sidekicks get. (Robin, Kid Flash, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, etc.)

So, no, I don't believe Ron gets the credit he deserves. He's not even treated with respect part of the time. (The tracking chip, the haircut, the lack of gadgets or communication device, etc.)

Ron is barely even a sidekick. He's treated more like a lapdog.

And it's disgusting.