So the answer for the riddle from last chapter was ‘Rematch’, and the chapter title “Moral Kombat”. Not mortal, moral.
Well at least he puts on the veneer of being fair in his reporting even if Dibble is still obviously working his mudslinging angle on Kim.
One of the downsides of using ruses - even if it’s the most well intentioned, it does draw down on your credibility in the future. Of course as that old lady noted, as long as Kim doesn’t make a habit of it it’s not going to be a big problem.
I’m not sure I’d say Ron pointing out Bonnie lies is much comparing her to Kim as much as pointing out the hypocrisy. I don’t really see the comparison there.
Still, at least we do see that yes Kim’s reputation is good given that the only person who was shown objecting was Bonnie, and we know she hates Kim anyways. Heck she very well might’ve been the only source Dibble could get for ‘a bad look at Kim’. Would probably not do his mudslinging antics any good to not be able to find people who dislike what Kim did.
Though considering that MIDX fell for this hook line and sinker, and on top of that Dibble was the one who fell for it in particular, you’d think that would taint any mudslinging story they throw at Kim afterwards. She used them and now they publish a story ripping on her? You’d think that’d gather some suspicions or at least undermine the argument...
… Oh come on! The Centurion Project mess was years ago, and on top of that it’s not like Kim hasn’t done something like this since then. Case in point,
Motor Ed where she has Wade spread a rumor on the internet. I don’t see the difference here. Kim isn’t averse to lying, she’s not a bloody Paladin for crying out loud!
And really the whole mess with the Centurion Project was an undermined aesop, even neglecting the anvils being dropped with it. Kim was grounded for a month, more nominally because she had endangered lives by lying about where she had gone as it had resulted in Duff Killigan going after Ron and could’ve gotten the trick-or-treaters he was with hurt, or the ensuing battle at the Middleton Hospital’s haunted house between Kim and Shego.
Yet… had Kim told the truth, lives still would have been in danger - now Duff Killigan, Drakken, and Shego would all converge on Monique’s house and the costume party being held there. And I don’t think cybertronic battle armor, exploding golf balls, and plasma blasts are going to cause any less damage there than outside a hospital where Shego
dropped a roof on top of Kim - luckily the Centurion Project provides very good shock absorption...
I mean I get it - Kim should’ve told the truth from the start that she wasn’t going to go with her family to help with that haunted house or go with Ron as they usually did - but of all the things for Kim to be angsting about this seems to be one of the most out of date things to pick, especially since she doesn’t have any problems with this kind of thing as seen before. I could see her understanding why some might question her integrity about the truth, but I can’t see her thinking she deserves the hate she’s getting.
Actually this really feels like how Bioware dropped the ball with the Virmire Survivor. They held off the VS and Shepard reconciliation over Shepard going missing for two years, presumed dead, and then reappearing working for craping Cerberus without even the courtesy of a note. Now the VS gets too much flak since they were some of the only ones who asked the reasonable questions for someone who isn’t playing the game and knows a bunch of the answers already, but Bioware dropped the ball by not dealing with it until it was far too late since by then people had hardened into hating them for having a realistic reaction. It just feels… weird, having this pulled up all of a sudden.
In fairness I actually asked Slyrr about this and he admitted that he had missed the bit with Kim lying to catch Motor Ed, and that he is reaching a bit to pick on bad things that Kim had done. Main thing is well, he needed to draw on the canon here and finding examples where Kim has been pretty obviously in the wrong were few and far between. So… I can understand why he brought it up. I might disagree, but I understand what he was going for and can respect that; with what he’s doing backing it up with the canon is good.
It still feels odd, but I can see a sort of logic to it, and one that Slyrr hoped would serve the story he wanted to tell.
Uh,
yes? Let’s look at why you lied: to stop Lynn’s crime spree. Let’s look at why Grimm mind raped Ron, endangered the whole world, and sat idly by as even his friends and family were warped by the Transducer: disproportionate revenge for a not-that-bad defeat.
If Kim was putting innocent lives in danger to do this, maybe there’d be a point, but she even outright set up the fake to
avoid putting actual artifacts at the museum in danger.
When the normal stuff doesn’t work, Kim breaks out other tactics. She’s not going to be trying to punch a Muton into submission (though I’d actually give her good odds at being able to deliver a strike hard enough to disorient it), she’d probably start slapping mines onto it or maybe use the battle suit’s redirection gauntlet/cesta/whatever it’s called to fling some of its plasma right back at it.
But yeah, Kim’s taking this deadly seriously. And given what happened last time, well, it makes sense. Grimm got away cleanly for some very horrible stuff, he needs to be brought to justice. The only problem is that whereas most villains can be traced down, Grimm can’t.
‘Course, the last time Kim had supposedly sharpened up her combat Grimm simply let Kim get the win, or if he wasn’t it read that way. And she has no knowledge of Rhonda’s MBP…
So, next scene:
Ah, the Mathter, third of the Team Go regular villains introduced (
Here’s an image of him, he’s the guy in the middle). The guy’s a mathematician who was, according to Hego, denied funding for unethical mathematical experiments (so, anything past calculus for non-mathematics major students?). And a giant ham to boot with math puns up the wazoo. Drives me up the y-axis, I tell you…
Though I will say that Slyrr actually is getting them right - indefinite integrals and unpredictable parabolas would certainly be a befitting metaphor for a delay causing disruptions of carefully calculated (heh) plans. Indefinites you can only get another equation in a variable (+C, a constant), and if you can’t predict a parabola by plugging in X to get Y it’s really useless...
And Grimm’s business talk at work. Makes sense he’d learn to sweet talk the villains to make sure they appreciate the job and give the full goods. I actually like this aspect of the character - psychology is a big thing about his SOP, and we see it at work where he turns it on his clients to deflate their complaints about his apparently outrageous prices and keep them on the hook for more jobs.
Though if Grimm’s prices are so high, I want to know how they’re laundering all that cash, and how much they’ve paid in taxes. I mean even if they’re mostly paid in cash, they need to store it somewhere, either a vault of cash and hope no one tries to trace it or a bank account. Off the top of my head I do remember Grimm at one point saying that they’d go to the bank in the morning, though as of right now I’m blanking on exactly when...
And to go with the puns; critical point varies. Mathematically it’s defined as where all partial derivatives of the domain (input) is zero. In thermodynamics it’s the end point of a temperature-pressure curve. And absolute maximum - well, yeah, the highest price the Mathter would pay for the service.
That’s… actually a pretty good math pun. Question is, who is the (constant) coefficient and who is the variable? Which one stays constant, and which one multiplies the effect of the constant? Food for thought…
Of course, Grimm’s always one step ahead knowing that this time he’s got Kim’s anger full force… actually getting a bit old at this point.
Though it’s funny that now Grimm is complaining about too much work, when the last story he was whining about being bored from not enough of it because of his own actions. Be careful of what you wish for!
And of course, mysterious client. Probably should ring some alarm bells given that the SOP for most KP villains is to be loud and proud about their evil, and they listened to the ringing.
Not much else to say on that last bit though. On to the next scene!
Lot of active bad guys and name dropping. I like bits like this - it indicates that there’s more than one plot going on at any one given time, but not all of them call for Kim’s immediate attention. IE, Camille Leon is not really much of a fighter and as long as the police can identify her despite her shapeshifting they can probably deal with her.
Actually makes sense that Kim might have gotten a gut instinct. The show has a lot of self awareness, to the point where sometimes it seems like it follows certain conventions with resignation as ‘that’s just how it’s done’ (which has been used for comedy fodder many times, such as Bonnie thinking it’s a
great idea to ask Professor Dementor why he’s going for an elaborate death trap instead of just getting it over with). But given the supposed capabilities, yeah that’s probably something that stands out compared to everything else.
And honestly I would not be surprised if Wade actually had honest-to-the-Force probe droids somewhere. He’s got hover tech, energy weapons, AI… and killer robots aren’t uncommon, so really probe droids wouldn’t really be far fetched.
So, putting him in the open and disproving his lying mouth?
Not much to go on, but next scene back to Team Probable:
… not ominous at all.
Though at least Grimm is paranoid about it; makes sense given that the secrecy should be raising flags, but he still goes for it.
But at least Kim guessed it right, so showdown inevitable now as we move on to the next scene.
Though I have to say, it's a bit hard to see Grimm as a student typing up a report given how so far school has only been mentioned off-hand. I don't want to say it's
tacked on, but even if schoolwork wasn't a huge thing for Kim in the series we still at least saw her going to class regularly. Plus just the contrast with what we know Grimm does; but then again people aren't one note "evil all the time!"
Which actually is something to consider; Team Probable seems to mostly win because they’re able to throw curveballs to distract them and cause self-doubt. Hell that’s probably why Grimm focuses so much on Monkey Kung Fu; it’s a defensive style that keeps him safe as he mouths off. If they just don’t let that get into their skin or shove it to the side, Grimm might get more than he can bargain for since he seems to rely on that.
I mean, every time he’s gotten into a direct fight he mouths off. The fight at the Germans weapon facility in ATP when they first met he’s throwing everything he can from criticizing her versatility to quoting Drakken. The fight in the sewers he pretends to destroy part of Ron’s very self to throw Kim off balance. He argues philosophy with Sensei as the two go at it.
Yet when he doesn’t get a chance to do that, he goes down fast. When
he was off his game because he thinks Team Possible did something horrible to Rhonda he was fighting sloppily and got swarmed by Kim and Ron. And of course, Maze simply poisoned him beforehand and let that deal with him. Which really could be a way to balance it - Grimm’s keystone and specialization is getting into someone’s head, but if he can’t do that he’s boned. He’s still good at hand-to-hand, but he’s complacent in using a single style - a good one, yes, but one that seems to not have much in the way of fallback short of getting out of dodge using his excessive defense.
Not much to say otherwise; Kim takes the initiative and waits for the criminal to walk into the spotlight.
Next scene, the rematch we’ve been waiting for.
Which begs the question why they weren’t able to after RoZ. Even if they didn’t have footage, you’d think their names would’ve been known if nothing else, and they
were detained by police at the end of the first story.
I mean, the bad guys are surprisingly open, but even then it seems to be more that their lairs aren’t very assailable by the police than it being secret (or they just keep rotating lairs…), but needing this specifically to get the officials after Team Probable still feels odd… at least with what has been revealed so far.
When I first read it I thought Grimm had just spotted them, but the beep confirms that nope, it was Jade doing overwatch of the situation that warned them.
Though I’m not sure that they’ve been having constant run-ins given that apparently they were quiet for a while training Rhonda and this is their first encounter. Unless he means it’s the news? Though that might simply be “he never gave a crap until he met her”, sort of like it’s only after my parents got cable and in the mornings (if it was still set to Disney Channel) we’d see stuff like
The Wiggles that I noticed the assorted merchandise in stores (IE those little random items in aisles on grocery stores). And of course, “never heard of Kim Possible”. Given she’s on global news regularly that sounds like someone sleeps under a rock since he’s worked with many of Kim’s foes such as the Seniors.
Then again he’s probably just being dramatic to let Kim know that he knew they were there.
Ah, Occam’s Razor. With its main tenet as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.", or don’t go for some big thing for what should be simple. Which really sums up the episode Kim is recalling, and yeah it wasn’t “almost” ridiculous, it
was ridiculous. Still, even if it was meant to be just dodging a repeat of that, it does bring back how easily Grimm side stepped the problem in BTK and now he’s being smug about it.
I find the friendly greetings between Ron and Rhonda a bit odd though, given that in the past they haven’t really stopped to talk at all and well, she was involved with unleashing Zorpox.
Oh come on, Kim specifically warned about
not letting Grimm pull this crap and now she’s falling for it hook line and sinker…
a-craping-gain…
I mean it’s only been three stories, but it’s happened once an episode and it’s really getting tiring… especially since each time in between it’s expressly noted that Kim has either being honing her combat skills or is going in expecting this.
On one hand as I said Ron remained ‘sidekick’ even into S4 by his own admission to The Mathter. On the other, in how the team actually acted you wouldn’t really tell who was definitively in charge and really I think it was more a leftover from the start of their adventures when Ron really was the lesser of the two in a pretty clear way (even if he had his moments). I mean, in
Ill Suited Ron isn’t introduced as the sidekick, he introduces himself as being Kim’s boyfriend (much to Dementor’s disbelief).
But again, Kim’s just letting all those taunts go right to her. It’s… really getting stupid at this point. And Grimm’s ego, which has really gotten tiresome even if it’s no longer empty boasting that it was at first.
You know at this point you’d think Team Probable watched the series… and quite frankly they probably
did. Specifically, all the research that Jade did before
The Return of Zorpox. Jade mentioned that it was ‘easy to get’, and the details they knew (Kim's first kiss with the never-seen Walter Nelson which had locked braces, the aforementioned bubble-butt and cuddle buddy)… yeah they pretty much effectively watched the series, and now they’re constantly throwing it at Team Possible.
But yeah, if the show did one thing right it did show that no, Kim was not some hardass iron witch just because she was a fighter; she could still love traditionally girly stuff. And Rhonda’s throwing the full volley of insults - the name Kim’s mother referred to her as a child (noted in ‘
Mother’s Day’), and her favorite of the cuddle buddies, Pandaroo.
Cat fight, boys watching with popcorn, and said boys making comments about their girlfriends being better? Honestly, this feels
right out of the series. Sure, normally Kim and Shego’s fighting is much more focused, but as said before it got plenty of crap past the radar. Kids would look at a scene like this and just think it’s a rather brutal fight. Older adults would catch the connotations.
Though I have to say, Ron’s rather chill about sharing popcorn with the guy who mind raped him. Eh, then again Ron’s generally pretty laid back about things.
‘Course, Ron’s assessment is missing Rhonda’s little upgrade… ho boy.
Sidenote: the name for the image file for the above actually
is catfight.
Actually, Judo was involved in one of Kim’s abilities in the second GBA game and she gets close and personal with quite a few villains on a fairly regular basis. But as mentioned before the games are dubiously canon, but… Kim usually doesn’t grapple with goons like Rhonda seems to style it as.
Now Kim has ‘fought’ Rhonda before, but it was in a dogpiling and Rhonda only did one thing, Kim probably doesn’t even remember; heck she might only recall that Grimm describing Rhonda as a klutz who came through in a pinch
I will say that one nice difference here is that whereas Grimm had come out of the original fight more or less unharmed, this time Kim’s actually getting some very good hits back. Something sorely missing from the last time…
‘Course, the one problem is that well, Kim just taunted the Avatar State - unknowingly, at least, which puts her above everyone’s favorite metalbending dictator.
And cue the MBP. Though this is now begging a question - what does the Great Bear Spirit think of its power being used for this purpose? Grimm seems to be aware the GBS might intervene at some point given he realized that being showy with the powers was a bad thing, but still...
When I asked Slyrr about Hego’s seeming chauvinism with regards to Rhonda, he said that he meant it to be Hego not wanting to use his super strength against a slip of a girl who didn’t seem she would be able to withstand a hit - it’s not heroic to punch all of someone’s blood out.
Rhonda? She seems to have no problems simply trying to outright turn Kim into a smear on the ground given she seems to be using it to try and crush her with various things she’s ripping from the lab’s structure. Starting to feel like she bounces back and forth between being openly evil (RoZ, here) and ‘not really that evil’ (BTK); some of it is probably circumstance, and compared to Grimm she seems to be much more satisfied with simply brute forcing her way through Kim.
“Yeah, about that. The last time I did ‘business’ with you, I wound up as Ronster the Monster. Why would I trust anything you have to say?”
For thinking that Ron would be willing to dump Kim over the chip, Grimm seems to think Ron would be okay with the entire Zorpox mess. Then again, Grimm said Ron was a doormat for the above…
But at least Kim dodged the Spirit Strike, which IIRC was at least to some degree homing. Well, bad guys try to shoot her with tons of ranged weapons from shock staffs to grenades to laser turrets to flamethrowers to plasma cannons, and she dodges all of it. And she’s hitting back, which is actually quite refreshing from the usual “Grimm blocks everything”.
And we get more ‘Grimm treats Rhonda with respect while Kim keeps Ron down’. Not much more to say that hasn’t been already said.
And there’s a scene cut here, to the hackers.
And not mentioned, but then Jade ghosted his systems for at least a few days without Wade being any the wiser. You know, I’m wondering if maybe the dynamic should’ve aimed for Jade being better at ‘support’ hacking (read: digging out info and keeping others from finding it), but Wade was the guy able to go in and plow through an opponent when going head to head to shut down systems/keep them operational and Jade’s best was to make it a mutual kill. Seems to fit the overall Probable style of stealth over combat, or what it reads like it should be…
But yeah, the cameras. Get rid of those and delete the data, foils Kim’s attempt to set a trap with enough evidence to finally get the police looking for Grimm...
Well Wade’s winning, but… Jade’s going to pull some BS out of her butt, isn’t she?
….
How?
No seriously, freaking how did Jade manage to know about, locate, and get into the presumably shut down WadeBot 2.0 without anything popping up to alert Wade to an unauthorized access? Okay knowing about it could’ve been her prior research, but still…
I mean on one hand it is kinda clever of Jade - don’t try to take Wade head to head, try to knock him out entirely via the side door - but again… all of Kim’s preparations just don’t work for whatever reason, Team Probable’s work just fine? Really getting fishy here. I mean I get that there was a connection through the Yoyodyne facility, but does that mean the WadeBot was actively hooked up at the time?
I guess Wade utterly forgetting it does make sense - by now Wade has gone on field missions himself enough that he really doesn’t need it. But on the other, it does kinda feel like “Really? Again?” And it’s not even much of a mutual kill - as Jade said it was her
tertiary system. And that isn’t going to slow her down at all, but now she could if she wanted to permanently get rid of Wade for a very cheap cost.
In a way, it’s Grimm having Kim at his mercy the first time and the reveal he had a second knife handy. It’s an utterly decisive victory that the heroes couldn’t have really returned. But at the same time it does kinda make sense - Jade created a distraction to buy herself time, just like Kim’s little seduction act distracted Jade enough for Wade to slip in.
*shrugs* I guess I’m just of two minds. On one hand it makes sense… on the other, it feels like it’s utter Probable domination.
Again. As a side note, Wade’s mousepad is one of the promotional images of the series. Rather amusing implication to consider.
And how would you be able to reset the passwords without knowing the originals? There’s a reason why most systems require that the old one be put in before you’re allowed to change it…
That said, Mrs. Load
is that oblivious. Senor Senior, Senior managed to keep her distracted so Junior could run into Wade’s room and steal the Cupid Ray by making up a card from Wade’s father (who by appearances seems to have left the family for whatever reason; that and the fact that Wade uses his father’s socks for stink formula are pretty much the only references to him), but still even this makes me go “Wow” at how oblivious she was.
… I guess she just assumed it was internet and rule 34 or some BS like that.
Well, scene back to the field teams. Looks like the only way to get Grimm while Jade’s destroying all the video evidence is to bring him in chains.
Actually… Shego
has managed to beat Kim in the past. But then again Ron’s probably just putting on a bold face. Though I think it makes sense that Grimm has the upper hand here - Ron has skill, but he hasn’t put in nearly as much time as Grimm has and if Ron is using Monkey Kung Fu without MMP to back it he’s really just up against someone flat out better than him in this art.
And well, all things considered Kim seems to be doing pretty well against Rhonda given that Kim had no idea about those powers but she hasn’t been turned into a smear yet and has actually managed to hit back. Far better showing than the fight with Ron’s MMP, likely aided by Rhonda having no Lotus Blade and being someone that Kim would have no reason to pull the punches on. Kim might’ve held back against Ron initially since he really was a victim, but Rhonda is definitely one of the bad guys and of her own free will.
On one hand, Grimm is accurate in that Kim never trained Ron… but again,
how would she be able to train him in anything besides the conventional style? She’s as in the dark as he is about the extent of the magic. Plus, Kim herself does not really do a ton of training either - her being in a dojo was
unusual way back in ATP because the show usually glossed over her practicing combat. I mean I’m absolutely sure Kim trains, but not as extensively and intensely as Grimm seems to.
And of course, he continues to assume the worst. Now in this case it makes sense, he’s trying to drive a wedge into Team Possible… but why would Ron trust him? Again, this is the guy who unleashed Zorpox the Conqueror for petty revenge. Now maybe I’m mixing a bit of my view as a reader to what Ron would know, but he does know that Grimm and Rhonda got away fairly easily from the events of ATP, and it’s not like they had killed a member of Team Probable or some similarly massive action that would demand such a response. And even by the villainous standard of disproportionate retribution, Grimm let it escalate
far.
Plus some of Grimm’s points are hollow even discounting who he is - one of Kim’s problems earlier in the series was trying to force change on Ron, and by the time she knew that Ron’s MMP was actually functional again rather than just some remnant after the idols were destroyed, she had moved past trying to make him change. If anything her not pushing Ron to do it would be a sign of her maturity in not making Ron do something he didn’t want to do, and if Ron never asked she might’ve simply made the conclusion that Ron got what he needed from Yamanouchi, particularly since by this point she’s met Sensei a couple times and Ron’s never asked for more training from the old master.
Now Grimm would not necessarily know this, but still, Ron should know Kim much better than this. And when Grimm predicted Kim would try to excuse the chip, no Kim owned up to it. He really has no reason to believe what Grimm is saying.
As for the post-mission photos… honestly the series never really delved into that; all we hear is maybe Kim’s dad reading a newspaper or seeing a news report mention Kim’s heroics. There’s no indication that Kim was forcing Ron out of the spotlight, or that Ron objected at the time if the media was (as usual) ignoring him.
Welp, that means Probable won. All that’s left to do is extract, and they seem to have no problems with that…
Scene change…
So, Rhonda’s got fab abs? Well, it’s not as wrong as Drakken’s…
Still as I said given the situation Kim is doing
extremely well - much better than I remembered. At this point Rhonda’s more or less flailing around with her powers while Kim is using skill to deliver precise blows and avoiding the worst of Rhonda’s counterattacks. At this point I think the only reason Rhonda’s still standing is because MBP is giving her a heck of a durability boost, which probably stacks with a toughness she’d already have if she really is Ron’s opposite. Kim’s landed several hard blows on her at this point, but she’s just rolling with them.
I think this is now actually exposing a big problem with Zorpox unleashing MMP…
how did Ron suddenly become able to use it? I mean Ron always had some element of it (as said before, some have deemed some of his feats to be MMP based), but unleashing them all as Zorpox but now Ron doesn’t have them again… it unleashes a few implications that I think Slyrr is now addressing since he unleashed them in this whereas it didn’t exist in canon. In canon, Ron didn’t go full MMP until
Graduation; here Ron’s unleashed full MMP already yet seemed to lose it. Plus as Ron said in
‘Oh No! Yono!’, which would occur after RoZ, ”Where are my monkey powers when I need them?!”
One possibility may be simply that the factory-standard Attitudinator does more than just flip alignments, whether Jack Hench knew of that fact or not. Another may be that MMP reacts to strong emotions (most times Ron seems to delve into it is when he’s
really upset), and as Zorpox Ron had all that negative emotion front and center as a fuel source.
But it definitely isn’t a case of ‘Kim isn’t important enough’ - Ron’s unleashing of it in MMP was due to Kim being in mortal danger. Of course in fairness to Rhonda, she wouldn’t know that and I suspect she’s doing Grimm’s “look at things in the worst way possible when arguing with Kim”, whether she actually believes that or not.
Oh now Kim remembers the plan to not let it get to her? And Rhonda’s vicious barbed tongue is back; even if psychology is Grimm’s speciality, Rhonda’s surprisingly adept at it. Unless she’s just parroting Grimm again? I mean she’s making the same arguments that he is - ‘Kim didn’t help Ron, Grimm helped Rhonda, boy don’t you wish Kim had helped Ron more’ - but she has her own barbs too.
That said at this point I’m starting to think Rhonda is more effective against Kim
not using her powers - those spirit strikes have yet to connect (and since they’re explicitly non-lethal there’s no reason for Kim to be unable to take one of those) and most of the damage Kim has taken from Rhonda is due to her getting in close with Judo. Heck, using MBP for full power seems to be more just causing collateral damage than actually getting anything strong done, or at best is a setup such as the above attack Kim knew was coming.
Hmmm, what was that Grimm said about overconfidence last chapter?
Nice job Ron, you ran
right into CQB range of someone who is actually rather good at CQB. On one hand he was trying to help, but on the other he probably should’ve taken a step back or not ran in so close since he would’ve seen Rhonda’s ability to go toe-to-toe with Kim in such close quarters.
I do think that the above paragraph probably could’ve used a paragraph break; probably when she starts going for haymakers on the wall, but that's a grammar thing.
“Okay maybe a llama can out
bite a car,
but that’s cheating!” Ron, you
scrub.
Though it really was a good idea - this time they’re close enough to deflate the tires and stop the quick getaway, and if Team Probable doesn’t stick around for an all out battle then Wade might be able to analyze the salvage left behind.
Unfortunately, it’s not a standard motorcycle...
So, that’s that… why am I getting a feeling of Deja Vu to the first time they lost to Team Probable? Only thing that’s missing is taking a picture.
So, with that the end of the chapter, what to say?
On one hand, Kim has been a craping bicycle in these fanfics. Everyone gets a chance to beat up on her - Grimm, Ron, and now Rhonda. What’s next, Maze is going to poke her to near-death like an Ewok eradicating Stormtroopers?
On the other… Kim actually
gave it back pretty damn well. Even though Rhonda felt like she was winning, it really was a much closer fight than the mercenary thought, and actually a lot more even than I remembered. For all of the power of the Great Bear Spirit coursing through it’s priestess, Rhonda’s best against Kim was still mundane Judo, and Kim delivered several heavy blows right back. The only problem is that Rhonda’s either got some serious resistance to pain, or the GBS also gave her some damage resistance properties to go with it.
But again… Probable wins, Possible loses. At this point it’s becoming a bit too much of a pattern. The one time Team Possible has definitively won against Probable was the first story. Sure, the plot here is young, but you don’t always have to have the heroes lose early on for the later plot. Take
So the Drama - despite stopping Shego from kidnapping Nakasumi, Drakken still got what he really needed, a toy design. Heck more than a few episodes have had Kim and Ron beat Drakken and Shego at the start, then he comes up with a new scheme that doesn’t make contact with them until later or just keeps him at bay (
Blush as an example of the latter), or he fails in his first attempt at the scheme and comes back for round two (such as
Mother’s Day).
It really still feels that like no matter what Team Possible does, Team Probable is always one step or more ahead. Using Lynn as a catspaw was one thing; that’s their MO to screen things so they don’t have to deal with heroes. But even when Team Possible manages to get them in a direct fight, Probable still seems to be able to uphold an upper hand.
However, much of this seems to always be something new Team Probable whips out. RoZ? Having Zorpox on their side, Grimm’s new battle suit and him casually (seeming) to destroy a big part of Ron, and Ron’s MMP which Kim never really had a chance to take on or learn about (whether it’s her fault or not). Here? Rhonda’s bear powers and a greater confidence in her ability to use judo from the circumstances that gave them to her. And of course, Team Probable for the most part sets up the fights so they don’t need to outright win (which they have done), just delay things long enough to extract.
In isolation, I actually probably wouldn’t have had many problems with this. Team Probable brought in some OCP, played it clever, and managed to last long enough to pull out. It’s just, well… at this point they’ve been defeating Team Possible on an irritatingly regular basis, yet never having much of a true defeat of their own. The one big loss of theirs has been ATP, which… saw no jail time given they got out of that paddy wagon fast, their names apparently never ended up on any police bands despite this, and also let them become boyfriend and girlfriend. And Grimm’s poisoning in BTK? Again, Grimm broke his arm, but in the end Rhonda gained her powers and the only reason they didn’t get the payout was giving the money to Sakituya. And Jade’s win over Wade here? A tertiary system, and one that probably won’t slow her down in the slightest.
So the problem for me is that Team Probable has not really felt any comeuppance. The loss of business wasn’t even that bad since they weren’t desperate for cash or anything nearly like that, it was just Grimm being bored! Now sure, Team Possible didn’t come out with a lasting defeat in RoZ either since Ron let the chip be water under the bridge, but so far all the small defeats have been given to Team Possible, while all of Grimm’s jobs just go smoothly. There’s, well, a sense of “these guys are better than Team Possible in every angle”.
I mean again, Kim gave Rhonda a far better fight than I remembered and really Rhonda “won” more by not being defeated before it was time to extract than actually having Team Possible down for the count - and heck she might’ve only had that chance to bolt because Ron went LEEROY against her, which also let Grimm nick the device. But I dunno, it’s just feeling… lopsided.
Now I suppose I should be fair; this isn’t too far off from the series; status quo must be maintained as the KP series wasn’t one to really go for an in-depth metaplot like
The Legend of Korra or
Star Wars: Rebels has - I mean even the filler episodes came back to show they weren’t just that. But I think the problem is that here, Slyrr is going for a much more connected series of events. Each story links directly to the ones prior and after it. From ATP we have their first encounter and why Grimm is so gung-ho for his retribution. BTK was in part due to a lull caused by RoZ. Both RoZ and BtK factor into leading to this story. I think that the tighter continuity is making it harder to get away with things the original canon could, yet at the same time it also lets him do more connected stories.
As for the ‘Moral Kombat’ of Grimm’s points… honestly even if he does raise a legitimate point about Ron still being technically the sidekick or Kim not showing a lot of happiness for Ron, it’s hard to take anything he says about that as worth trusting considering his angle. Hard to muster up “how dare she” when the guy saying it is the one who didn’t show a care for his friends and family suffering for petty revenge and is deliberately doing it as a distraction.
So, what do you think? Is this a fair analysis, or do I have my own biases showing here?
Regardless, the riddle for this chapter.