Tropes M to R / Kim Possible

This page covers tropes found in Kim Possible.

Tropes A to F | Tropes G to L | Tropes M To R | Tropes S to Z | YMMV

open/close all folders

Made of Iron: Everyone, the most notable being the time when Shego got kicked from the roof of a building several stories high, into an electrical signal tower, which not only electrocuted her but also collapsed right on top of her. And she walked away with slightly torn clothes and frazzled hair.
Mad Mathematician: The Mathter.
Mad Scientist: Drakken, DNAmy, Prof. Dementor, and even a fair number of the "good guys" qualify.
Magic Meteor: The origin of Team Go. "A glowing, rainbow-colored comet!"
Male Gaze: The series has a fair amount of close up butt shots, and sometimes lingers on Shego.
Maniac Monkeys: Monkey Fist's monkey ninjas.
Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Kim and Ron, as well as Shego and Dr. Drakken. Kim and Ron remember their first Halloween together; take a wild guess which one wore a cowboy outfit and which one wore a tutu.
Mass Hypnosis: Drakken tries this, using shampoo of all things, and a scheme involving teens' MP3 players that didn't work out. The Seniors try it with a love ray.
Master of Disguise: Camille Leon.
May Contain Evil: "Dr Drakken's Brainwashing Shampoo and Cranium Rinse".
Meaningful Name: Almost everyone.
Meaningless Villain Victory: Drakken steals the royalty money Ron gets for inventing the Naco. After Kim fails to get it back, he spends it on a giant laser that doesn't work as expected and destroys itself and his lab.
Memento MacGuffin: Ron's titanium-reinforced belt helped Kim remember that they were dating in "Clean Slate".
Merry Christmas in Gotham: Ron tries to take on Drakken by himself so Kim can have a nice Christmas with her family. Ends up with Ron and Drakken bonding over an old TV show, whose theme they sing together. The episode ends with Drakken, Shego and the Possible family sitting down to Christmas dinner in an escape pod in the Arctic:
Shego: Uh - Dr. D... you serious?
Kim: Actually, this is... this is... I don't know what this is.
Metronomic Man Mashing: The ninja toddler Hana does this to Monkey Fist.
Micro Monarchy: The Kingdom of Rodigan, where Prince Wally is from, is quite possibly this, even though we don't get precise info on the country's size.
Mind-Control Device: The series offers quite a few examples:
- Compliance Chips ("Total mind control!");Mood-controlling "Moodulator";
- "Hypno-Ray" inside a disco ball;
- Love-creating Cupid Ray;
- "Dr. D's Brainwashing Shampoo and Cranium Rinse."
Minion Shipping: Drakken and Shego.
Minion with an F in Evil: Senor Senior, Jr.
Minored in Ass-Kicking: Kim's family, while mostly the Science Heroes to Kim's Action Hero, does not have much difficulty in keeping up with her when they end up accompanying her in the field despite no preparation beforehand.
Mirror Morality Machine: The HenchCo Attitudinator takes both the good and evil out of a person, then only puts the evil part back. When wrecked, it instead releases both parts in the two nearest people, with Ron ending up with all of Drakken's evil and Drakken being stuck with only his good side. It's later reworked by Electronique into a more typical version of the trope, being a ranged weapon that hits targets with beams that turn them good or evil depending on their current alignment.
Missed Him by That Much: Kim nearly bumps into Ron so many times in "Adventures In Rufus-Sitting".
Missed the Call: Kim initially set up her website looking for ordinary teenager jobs like babysitting, but got drawn into adventuring after a rescue call to Team Impossible accidentally reached her instead.
Mission Control: Wade, quintessentially.
Mistaken for Cheating: Averted. In the episode "Homecoming Upset", Bonnie forces a kiss upon Ron just as Kim coincidentally enters the restaurant they're in. However, Kim's anger is directed completely at Bonnie, following up Ron's desperate pleas that he's innocent by saying she didn't doubt him whatsoever. After all, it took him "12 sticking years for [him] to kiss [her]."
Mix-and-Match Critters: DNAmy's creations and Cuddlebuddies.
Modified Clone: One of Drakken's evil plans involves cloning Kim. In order to make sure the clones aren't heroic, he modifies them to have the reflexes of a king cobra, the strength of a rogue elephant, and the killer instinct of Commodore Puddles.
Monster of the Week: The series manages a good deal of character development with nary an arc to be had.
Most Definitely Not a Villain: Malcolm in "Virtu-Ron".
Motive Decay: The Mathter; He went from terrorizing Go City to making Ron his personal archenemy just because he used a variable (saying his tape recorder cost twenty dollars) in less than two minutes after they first meet. That's got to be some sort of record. This, like everything else in the series, is also lampshaded.
Ron: Oh great, now the math guy's back!
Kim: And he's not even our villain!
Mood-Swinger: Doctor Drakken can be ranting with malicious glee about destroying his teenage foe one minute, and then switch to looking for milk in a supermarket. The "Moodulator" chips make Kim and Shego act this way too.
Moon-Landing Hoax: In the episode "Stop Team Go": Shego is temporarily turned good, but Kim has trouble convincing Ron.
Kim: (elbowing Ron) Ron, that's Shego!
Ron: Nah, it's not Shego, it's Miss Go — see, it says so on the board.
Kim: Putting something on the board doesn't make it true!
Ron: Oh, sure, y'know, when I said that in 20th Century History, I got sent to the office!
Kim: The moon landing wasn't faked in the Arizona desert, Ron!
Ron: New Mexico, Kim!
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Drakken is the guiltiest as he dropped out of college and therefore has no degree to speak of.
Morality Dial: The Attitudinator in "Bad Boy" and "Stop Team Go".
Mouth Screen: During "Hidden Talent", Kim is trying to master a high note. When she finally masters it while trying to break a layer of ice, the camera cuts to a closeup of her mouth and slowly zooms in to emphasize her waggling uvula, but never enters her mouth.
The Movie: Two of them. A Sitch in Time and So the Drama, the latter ending up as the Series Fauxnale.
Multiple Demographic Appeal
Mugging the Monster: During "Graduation, Part 2", Ron, unbeknownst to the Lowardians, comes into control of a very great power, making Warhok and Warmonga's mocking him a very poor idea. It crosses into Bullying a Dragon when they continue messing with him even after he's taken out all their tripods and thrown Warhok across the landscape.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Future Drakken versus Ron Stoppable. Enough said.
- Amazingly, it was also inverted in that same episode, since Dr. Drakken wiped the floor with both Kim Possible and a Charles Atlas Superpower Monique. After beating them, Shego gloats, making Ron mad. Big Mistake.
- Usually, Kim: perfectly willing and able to knock down men twice her size. Even discussed when she and Shego faced two huge wrestlers while Trapped in TV Land; "Well, this shouldn't be a problem."
- Ron and Drakken's henchmen wear muscle-enhancing rings in "Ron The Man", but it's still Kim and Shego doing most of the fighting, maybe even more than usual.
- Señor Senior Junior is the most buff-looking of the regular villains, but doesn't get into fights. Maybe he doesn't want to mess up his hair.
Mystery Meat: Frequently served at Middleton High's cafeteria, to the disgust of the students. One episode had Kim and her class forced to watch a video saying what exactly went into Mystery Meat; the class ran out screaming and wanting to vomit.
- In another episode, Mr. Barkin is filling in for yet another absent teacher who "made a mistake many first-year teachers make — she ate the cafeteria meatloaf". The class reacts with horror.
- In another episode, Wade analyzed the gravy that a ghost actually Sensei's astral projection used to write a message to Ron on the cafeteria wall. Wade told Kim and Monique that they do not want to know what's in it until they graduate. From college.
Mythology Gag: In several episodes, including "Graduation", you briefly hear April Winchell voicing a news reporter, and Kevin Michael Richardson is also heard in the "next time"/"Previously on" segments when "Graduation" rerun. Both used those specific voices in Clerks: The Animated Series (the former as another news anchor, the latter as the narrator and Lando); that series was also produced by Disney (via Touchstone Television), Chris Bailey and Steve Loter produced both shows, and Stephen Silver designed the character models for both shows as well.

Nanomachines: The Nano-Tick in "Tick-Tick-Tick" (though it's not really on a nano-scale - according to Drakken, it just sounds cooler that way) and probably the source of Camille Leon's shapeshifting ability.
Nerd Hoard: Villain DNAmy has a collection of every Cuddle Buddy (a Beanie Babies expy with Mix-and-Match Critters) ever made, and is former president of the Cuddle Buddy Collectors Club. While Kim geeks out a bit over the collection, having loved the toys as a kid, it doesn't stop her from stopping DNAmy's attempts to make real Cuddle Buddies via illegal genetic splicing.
Nerdy Nasalness: Ned, the recurring Bueno Nacho employee, speaks with a very nasally voice, signifying him to be even nerdier than the show's main nerd, Ron. It helps a great deal that he's voiced by Eddie Deezen.
Never Mess with Granny: Nana Possible went through the Navy SEALS Underwater Demolitions Training, and owns Kim at kung fu, tough enough for ya?
Never My Fault: Gill blames Ron for his mutation, citing the fact that Ron "let" him take his swim time, while Ron took arts and crafts (even though the flashback made it clear that Gill planned to stay in the lake either way).
Never Say "Die": Zig Zagged. When referring to their attempts to kill Kim, villains usually talk about "destroying" or "eliminating" her, but the direct mention of the concept of death or dying does come up a few times:
- In "Mind Games", Mr. Possible asks if the Neutronalizer is one of those "I'd Tell You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You" deals.
- In "Number One" Killigan says that Kim will have to pry his golf clubs from his "cold, dead hands".
- In "Pain King vs Cleopatra", Kim talks openly to Monique about how the desert prince she was protecting in a previous mission almost died.
- Averted in the tie-in games, which freely talk about the villains' attempts to kill Kim (or in the case of Falsetto Jones' defenses, how they're not at full power and thus not really trying to kill her).

Nice Girl: Kim grows to become this after Season 1, following a few Break the Haughty moments. Yori is this in all her appearances. As is Tara.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The Seniors would have been content to be rich and eccentric, if Ron hadn't accidentally convinced them that Evil Is Cool.
- Monkey Fist wouldn't have realized "the infant" who beat him earlier was "The Han" he was looking for...especially if Kim hadn't tried to insult his intelligence by mentioning Hana "Han" Stoppable was Ron's sister.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In A Sitch in Time, after Overlord Shego won, Drakken talks her into gloating.
Ninja: Good human ninjas hail from the Yamanouchi Ninja School in Japan, and evil monkey ninjas are aligned with Monkey Fist. The evil sumo ninja makes a one-off appearance as a henchman of Drakken in So the Drama.
- And the Embarrassment Ninjas.
- And Global Justice's Ninjabots.

No Guy Wants an Amazon: Kim reasons this as why she doesn't have a date to the prom.
No Indoor Voice:
- Dementor's excitable METHOD OF SPEAKING!
- And there's Dr. Drakken. In the Halloween episode, after yelling on the phone with Duff Killigan, Shego tells him to use his indoor voice.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Shego in A Sitch In Time. She manages to Take Over the World and cause a Bad Future.
No Prison Segregation: Shego is explicitly shown sharing a prison with Drakken and other male prisoners whenever she's locked up, though she could be a special case since she's a supervillain and not a standard criminal.
No Seat Belts: Averted. The show makes sure that they put on helmets or parachutes or buckle up in their flying car.
Nonhuman Sidekick: Rufus the Naked Mole Rat.
Non-Lethal Warfare: With Harmless Villain Drakken around, this is unsurprisingly the norm. Not that he and the other villains don't try to blow Kim away, though.
- Kim also gets a few exceptions, at one point firing a homing missile at Drakken and Shego's fleeing hover car, and kicking Shego of a roof into an electrical tower at the climax of So The Drama.
Noodle Incident: Kim Possible loves this trope.
Barkin: And don't let them tell you they're supposed to have class outside! We put stop to that after the jellyfish incident.
Miss Go: Oh that's so nice! You took the class to the beach!
Barkin: No beach. Just jellyfish. Don't ask.
- Also:
Kim: Like that time you cleaned your room.
Ron: We agreed never to speak of that dark day.
- There was also the "paper machete" incident. Not paper mache, machete.
- Kim and Ron also tend to hitch rides from people whom they have helped in the past, often in some spectacular fashion that is briefly described by the ride-giver and downplayed by Kim. They do this a lot. A few of their rides are Call Backs to previous episodes.
- Occasionally, Mr. Barkin will begin a class with a brief explanation of why he's substituting for another teacher.
Barkin: A fungal experiment went horribly wrong. I didn't press for details.
- Supposedly, he also saved the world once, if his speech to Ron about graduation is any indication;
Barkin: Ah, Senior Year, I remember it well. Best two years of my life; big man on the football team [...] dated the most popular girl in school [...] I even helped save the world a time or two.
Ron: Right on — wait, what?! You?!
- Though, Barkin is probably lying here about saving the world. He's probably only saying that as to get into Ron's head and get himself more credibility from Ron and make Ron freak out about how "it's all downhill from here" and "the center cannot hold" as bullying Ron is basically Mr. Barkin's M.O. Barkin's statement even directly contradicts his actions in the Grand Finale, where he was basically a Dirty Coward while the Lowardians invaded.
- And from the episode where they thought Bird-themed villain Aviarius:
Ron: That is the second-biggest flamingo I've ever seen.
Not Disabled in VR: Felix uses a wheelchair in real life, but has the use of his legs in their virtual reality game world. Also played with, in that badass, athletic Kim is a tiny little helpless pixie who can do little more than float in the same game world, and the Mighty Tunnel Lord is Rufus, the naked mole rat, tiniest of them all in the real world.
Not Me This Time: When Kim finds out that Dr. Drakken has been broken out of prison by a woman with "green energy blasts", she naturally drops in on his sidekick Shego, only to find out later that it was actually an alien who did it.
Shego: I'm. On. Vacation!
Ron: So, it wasn't you that busted out Drakken?
Shego: Who do you think I'm vacationing from?
- Also done in the first part of the two-parter series finale, "Graduation Part 1". When several golf courses were undergoing eruptions, Kim Possible suspects Duff Killigan for the event. When confronted with the issue, Killigan explains that he wasn't involved, and even takes it a step further to reveal that his own golf course was defaced in a similar manner.
- Also done in "Gorilla Fist" where Ron and Yori go looking for Monkey Fist thinking he kidnapped Yori's Sensei, not knowing it was a Batman Gambit by DNAmy. When found, Monkey Fist explains he wouldn't kidnap him because he was of no value to him.
Not So Above It All: A common gag. In general, it's a running theme in the show that Kim is nowhere near as infallible in her regular life as she is in "mission mode".
Not so Dire: A fair number of episode teasers establish an apparent crisis, only to reveal that the real sitch is relatively benign.
Not What It Looks Like: Played with in "Homecoming Upset". Bonnie forces a kiss on Ron just as Kim arrives on the scene. Ron (who is sitcom-savvy) assumes Kim will immediately assume the worst and be furious with him. Kim points out that she knows very well that Ron hasn't been romancing Bonnie:
Kim: No kidding! It took ya twelve stinkin' years to kiss me!
- Played straight in "Ill Suited", where Ron is trying to explain why he stole Kim's battlesuit.
Ron: Wait wait! It's not what you think!
Kim: Oh? So you're not a cheater, a liar and a thief?!
Ron: ... OK, it is what you think.

Oblivious to Love: Ron was completely oblivious of the cheerleader Tara's crush on him until it was too late. He was equally oblivious to Yori's crush on him. In both cases, Kim had to tell him. This led him to tell Kim that girls should just say how they feel.
Obsessed Are the Listmakers: Dr. Drakken dreams up a great plan to Take Over the World, but later forgets it. To avoid this happening again, he starts writing everything he plans to do on note-cards. This bites him when he forgets to write down a crucial step of his next plan and so misses it out, fatally endangering himself, his sidekick Shego, Kim, and Ron. At this point, Shego bails out and leaves him to it.
Offhand Backhand: Shego to Mego: "He always does that move. It never works."
Official Couple: Kim and Ron, from So The Drama onward. Word of God is they were planned from the start, which is unsurprising. Word of God goes on to further state that if there were any doubts, their relationship from "Graduation" onwards will indeed continue and flourish. More specifically that they will be together forever.
- Bonnie and Senor Senior Jr. from "Homecoming Upset" onwards.
- Dr. Drakken and Shego are strongly implied to be this, as per the end of "Graduation".
Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Deconstructed, as it's repeatedly pointed out that Drakken frequently has trouble with his finances and often can't afford to keep his Mooks employed, while Professor Dementor ends up fleeing and turning over a hostage to Team Possible when it emerges the ransom amount couldn't cover the cost of the equipment he'd been using that day. Jack Hench is also a subversion, as his presence explains not only where villains get their mooks and equipment, but also explains the origin of the term "henchman".
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Shego has been known to take other villains' attempts at defeating Kim personally.
Shego: Need some help?
Kim: Are you offering?
Shego: Look, I just don't want to lose to a giant flamingo, OK?
Oh, Crap!: Shego gets a spectacular one in "Bad Boy". When Evil Ron declares that Shego is nothing more than the hired help, Shego decides to blast him...only for Evil Ron to completely No-Sell the blast with a force field. She gets an even bigger Oh, Crap! when Evil Ron makes it clear that he has no problem with offing the hired help...
Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List
Older Than They Look: Granny Crocket after extensive surgery.
Granny Crocket: Granny had a little work done.
One of the Boys: In "Steal Wheels", Kim gets jealous of Ron spending so much time hanging out with Felix, so she tries to be one of these in order to fit in with them. She can't pull it off, and she doesn't even enjoy any of the activities they do.
One-Shot Character: Falsetto Jones the Gentleman Thief only appeared in one half-episode.
One-Steve Limit: Ron Stoppable and Ron Reager. Lampshaded during the latter's first appearance.
- A slight case with Kim's detention mate Junior in "Tick-Tick-Tick" appearing one episode after the introduction of (Señor Senior) Junior. Detention!Junior never appears after that episode though, while SSJ becomes a recurring character.
One-Winged Angel: Gleefully subverted; Drakken is mutated by one of his own chemicals, but it makes him even less threatening. Played straight, again by Drakken, later in the same episode.
Open Minded Parents: The Possibles, natch. Kim can go halfway around the world, battle giant robots, and get lost in time and space (maybe all three at once), yet her parents won't bat an eye.
- Her parents are experts at two of the most notoriously difficult jobs on the planet. One would hope that they are open minded.
Ordinary High-School Student: Kim and Ron certainly go to High School, and most certainly Save the World on a semi-regular basis: 'ordinary'... not so much. (From the theme tune: "I'm your basic average girl, and I'm here to save the world.")
Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Ron Stoppable breaks into his girlfriend's house, then her closet, steals her super battle suit, joins the football team as star quarterback, gets caught with the suit and controlled by a villain, ends up in a physical and emotional fight with Kim, then ends up on the team anyway (and is still a star player just in a different position), all because he thought Kim was going to take Bonnie's advice about "trading up" to a socially acceptable jock boyfriend. Ron then overheard Kim talking with Monique about trading up and agreeing with Bonnie. Turns out they were talking about a new mobile phone.
Out of Focus: The comic stories in Disney Adventures tended to focus more on lame Rufus-centric gags than Kim saving the world.
Out of Order: "Tick-Tick-Tick" is clearly Team Possible's first encounter with Drakken and Shego, and has Drakken's first appearance lit by flickering firelight to set up a later reveal of his blue skin... but the two villains had already appeared (by original broadcast order) in "Crush".

Painting the Medium: Ron at the end of "Grande Size Me".
Pair the Smart Ones: Kim's parents, Dr. Possible the rocket scientist and Dr. Possible the brain surgeon.
Pair the Spares: Ron's Season 2 interest Zita, was dug out of limbo to be set up with Felix, another B-Character in the Grand Finale.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Averted with Camille Leon, except in her second appearance.
Parental Bonus:
- A number of sly references. "Evil Eye For The Bad Guy"?
- "Killigan's Island".
- This show is a nearly non-stop maker of references to older movies and 70s-80s music.
Parental Title Characterization: Kim usually refers to her parents as "Mom" and "Dad" like a typical teen. But when she wants to be taken seriously, she'll call her Mom "Mother" (she never does the gender-equivalent with her Dad, due to her father's tendency to still treat her like a little girl). And when she's in an affectionate mood and plays up her cuteness on the occasions where she accepts and wants her father's smothering, she'll refer to him as "Daddy".
Percussive Maintenance: Rufus uses this in "Sink or Swim" to help Ron start a malfunctioning motorboat.
Perpetual Frowner: Shego.
- Who becomes a Perpetual Smiler in Stop Team Go.
Perplexing Plurals: In "Naked Genius", Drakken captured Ron (thinking he got the brainpower he was after instead of Rufus) and forced him to build a doomsday device or else he'd be sleeping with the "fishes". He then gets confused if that is correct and asks Shego. Shego tells him that both fishes and fish are correct plurals for the word.
Personality Swap: Ron and Drakken swap their "good" and "evil" essences in one episode.
Pet the Dog: Some villains get these moments - Played for Laughs, of course.
- Shego tutoring Junior. Her constant world-weary sarcasm fades a bit as she begins to enjoy teaching her dim (but determined) student rather than enduring Drakken's perpetual stupidities.
- Drakken in Possible Christmas. To hilarious lengths. Not only does he pay for Shego's Christmas vacation and invite the Possibles to Christmas dinner, he remembers Ron's name.
Kim: Well, this is - this is... I don't know what this is.
Physical, Mystical, Technological: The show does this with the three main human members of the primary crimefighting team. Kim is the physical muscle, Wade with his gadgets is technological, and Ron has his mystical monkey powers.
A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Played with in "Cap'n Drakken" where Dr. Drakken gets possessed by a pirate ghost:
Drakken: Aye. Set the mainsail, wench.
Shego: Okay, first of all we don't have any sails. Second of all, call me 'wench' again and we'll be planning a burial at sea.
Drakken: (nervously) Yearr. Arrgh.
Plot Parallel: Often found between the "basic average girl" and "here to save the world" plots of any given episode. For instance, Señor Senior Senior's controlling attitude toward Junior's disco in "Coach Possible" showed Kim the error of her overzealous approach in coaching the soccer team.
Plot Pants: The titular heroine and her sidekick, Ron Stoppable, alternate between hip, casual clothes at school and home, and their mission fatigues when out saving the world.
Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Kim's brothers in Season 4.
- Maybe. They actually skipped an undisclosed number of grades to enter high school early; Kim's four or five years older than them (as established in A Sitch in Time).
Plot Technology: Nearly all of the Mad Scientist supervillains are guilty of this, often with all sorts of advanced tech vanishing after the episode in question.
Plucky Comic Relief: Usually Ron, though Drakken has his own share of moments as well. Drakken is Shego's comic relief (and vice versa) and Ron is Kim's comic relief.
Police Are Useless: When they show up at all, all that's left for them to do is haul off the defeated villains.
Pom-Pom Girl: Kim that is the head cheerleader, but also a nice girl and never bitchy. The other cheerleaders are also really nice and seem to have average intelligence, while Kim's archrival, Bonnie Rockwaller, is truly the only mean-spirited cheerleader on the squad and Tara's the only one implied to be a Brainless Beauty.
Post-Kiss Catatonia: Ron falls into one of these when Kim first kisses him under the influence of the Moodulator in "Emotion Sickness".
Poverty Food: Ron complains about the indeterminate "pudding" served by the school cafeteria, which is contrasted with the fine fare served at the "senior table".
Power Floats: Ron with his monkey power.
Power Glows: Shego and Team Go, Ron's Monkey Power and some of the mad-science machinery, among other things.
The Power Of Potential: Ron Stoppable starts the series as Kim's bumbling sidekick. However, he proves to be a competent villain when brainwashed once, hinting at his true potential. As the series progresses, Ron learns how to fight, becomes Kim's equal, and he's the one who takes out the Final Boss in the series finale.
Powers as Programs: Aviarius extracts Team Go's powers for himself, though Kim gets one at first.
Primp of Contempt: It's commonplace for Dr. Drakken to wax ecstatically about his upcoming scheme while Shego files her nails, obviously nowhere near as invested as her teammate. Interestingly, she's normally using this file while her gloves are on, implying that she's filing the nails of her gloves.
Prisoner Performance: At the end of the episode "Oh Boyz", Senor Senior, Junior is in prison performing a concert for several other imprisoned members of Kim's Rogues Gallery, most of whom do not seem to be enjoying the rather dismal performance.
Prodigal Family:
- Shego's brothers have the ultimate embarrassing secret: She used to be good. However, their quirks (namely Hego's adherence to comic book-style heroics and Mego's complex regarding his powers) along with her own troubles and impatience prompt her to leave. She does still care about them, enough to where it's implied she let Kim strip off the rest of her brothers' powers so they can have them again (though she didn't like that being brought up.)
- Dr. Drakken has his own prodigal family, to a lesser extent: his mother and Motor Ed. (They're cousins. Seriously.)
Product Placement: "Triple S" has Kim go to the X Games, which happen to be owned by fellow Disney unit ESPN.
Pronouncing My Name for You: Kim meets her brothers' guidance counselor, named Guide.
Kim: Miss... Guide?
Miss Guide: "Guh-DAY", dear.
Kim: Uh, g'day to you too.
Prophecy Twist: Two.
- The "Royal Pain" episode features an ancient prophecy that states the monarchy of a small nation will end with Wallace III. His father, Wallace II is naturally concerned and hires Kim to protect him. At the end of the episode, Wallace III decides he's going to abdicate the throne when he comes of age and instate a democracy. Ron Lampshades this. There's also a minor twist wherein the line "in the shadow of the castle" winds up referring to a castle on a mini golf course, not the actual royal palace.
- Monkey Fist's prophecy regarding the Ultimate Monkey Master ends with the line "he shall be unstoppable." It turns out that this is a bad translation (it was literally translated by a monkey), and should actually have been "he shall be Ron Stoppable."
Pro Wrestling Episode: "Pain King vs. Cleopatra", which was also Monique's debut episode.
Prodigal Family:
- Shego's brothers have the ultimate embarrassing secret: She used to be good. However, their quirks (namely Hego's adherence to comic book-style heroics and Mego's complex regarding his powers) along with her own troubles and impatience prompt her to leave. She does still care about them, enough to where it's implied she let Kim strip off the rest of her brothers' powers so they can have them again (though she didn't like that being brought up.)
- Dr. Drakken has his own prodigal family, to a lesser extent: his mother and Motor Ed. (They're cousins. Seriously.)
Protagonist Title
Punny Name: Kim, Jim, Tim and Ron, obviously. In fact, as mentioned above, the majority of the characters have punny or meaningful names.
Punched Across the Room: Happens a few times, though most notable in "So the Drama."
Puppy-Dog Eyes: Kim's (nearly) irresistible "Puppy Dog Pout". Her mom also uses it a few times... even on Kim. And (during a bout of temporary goodness) so did Shego. Even Ron and Rufus used it on Kim in unison in "Car Alarm."
Put on a Bus: Brick Flagg. (Turns out he finally graduated. Only took him seven years)
Psycho Electro: Electronique. Well, as psycho as you can be on the Disney Channel.

Quintessential British Gentleman: Lord Monty Fiske fits this trope to a T, before he became "Monkey Fist".

Rapid-Fire Typing: Wade, as Mission Control and uber-hacker, and anyone depicted using a computer. Except Ron, seen pecking at the keys.
Rapid Hair Growth: Mr. Barkin's beard apparently grows so fast that he has to shave it 15 times a day.
Raygun Gothic: The show's design ethic, most obviously in Drakken's lairs and the Possibles' home.
Reactive Continuous Scream: After suffering a nightmare where he witnesses Kim turn into a Synthodrome in the start of the episode Ill Suited, Ron screams awake in horror, waking up Rufus in the process and causing him to make a squeaking scream as well. They both ensue screaming one at a time only for a moment.
Real Life Writes the Plot: After Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, the clothing trend among teen girls became showing less skin. That led to Kim ditching the crop top look.
Rebus Bubble: Ron + Battlesuit = Victory.
Red Shirt: Parodied in season three, in the Trapped In TV Land episode called "Dimension Twist", when Kim is temporarily sent to a Star Trek-esque TV show and appears in a red uniform:
Wade: This is the part of the show where they pick series regulars to go on a mission. Just make sure you're not the one wearing...
Kim: ... A red shirt?
Pseudo-Kirk: And... (to Kim) you! You're expendable.
- Also, Drakken's hapless rank-and-file henchmen are dressed in red, and (with occasional exceptions) are as close to Red Shirt status as it gets in a Non-Lethal Warfare setting, serving as little more than speed bumps in Kim's path.
Refuge in Audacity: Area 51 only leaks information that is 100% true so that the public at large doesn't think the stuff that goes on there is actually happening.
Renamed the Same: Gil, renaming himself Gill.
Reset Button Ending: Time Travel incurred this once.
- In a lot of ways, So the Drama did this, perhaps most evidently with Bonnie's character development. She returns to being even more of an Alpha Bitch from here on in.
Reunion Revenge
Relationship Upgrade: Kim and Ron from So The Drama onward. Implied for Drakken and Shego in "Graduation".
Resort to Pouting:
- Kim has a patented version of a pout she calls the "Puppy Dog Pout"^note. She's even pulled it against some of her arch-enemies, to great effect. However, she apparently inherited it from her Mother, Anne Possible, who once wielded it against Kim herself, causing Kim to protest, "Not the Puppy Dog Pout! That's mine!", but relenting and allowing her mother to accompany her on a mission for Mother's Day.
- In one episode, Kim mock-pouts after Wade uses a remote control to bypass a security gate to avoid having to "jump over stuff."
  Kim: (pouting voice and face) But I like jumping over stuff.
Rich Boredom: Senior Senior Sr.
Ridiculously Human Robot: Oliver and Eric.
Right-Hand Cat: Played with at least thrice.
Rock Star Parking: Played for Laughs in "The Big Job".
Rogues Gallery
Royal Brat: Prince Wally in the episode Royal Pain.
Rugby Is Slaughter: And Mr Barkin plays it.
Rule 34: Literally search for images of any female character. Now turn off safesearch, and...yeah.
- The male characters aren’t safe either. Fans often edit out Ron’s shirt from the episode Ron the Man, where he gained a Heroic Build. And that’s a safe version. The fanarts of Ron Stoppable-Jake Long ship can get very NSFW.
Running Gag:
- Ron losing his pants, which he started to lampshade.
- In the first season, upon seeing an enormous obstacle/opponent that they would have to face, he would often exclaim:
Ron: That would be so cool if it wasn't gonna hurt us!
- Ron being 'micro chipped' by Wade.
- Kim and Ron frequently hitch rides from people they helped in the past. The problems they helped solve usually sound very outlandish, with Kim trying to downplay the equally outlandish way she resolved it.
- As stated above, the number of almost kisses between Kim and Ron became a gag in season 4.
- Motor Ed's verbal tic. Seriously.
- The dreadful food served in the Middleton High cafeteria.
- After "Rappin' Drakken," that plan's horrific failure becomes a running gag that spans Season 4 - mostly via Shego's snark or someone only remembering him because of the shampoo. This culminates in him being able to easily put together a Mass Hypnosis plan because "there was plenty of the mind control shampoo left over."
- Several episodes, particularly the ones with two shorts that were more humor related instead of one full story, have the running gag of Kim getting stuck with the worst luck or having a much harder time dealing with something while Ron skates through the sitch with good luck and a total lack of interest. This includes Ron being bumped up to first class on a commercial flight - twice - while Kim is stuck in coach (Ron has the decency to try to pretend it wasn't awesome, though he fails), Kim being totally blindsided and humiliated by having the tell the truth all the time while it makes Ron instantly popular, Ron bonding with an overgrown roach monster while Kim is so grossed out she constantly freaks out (after telling Ron not to worry about bugs, no less), both episodes that focus on Felix and the first half of "Sick Day."

Kim Possible / Tropes M to R

Previous

Index

Next

Kim Possible / Tropes M to R

Edit Locked

Previous

Index

Next