The Shego Myth: Reflections on A Year of Research
Lightning crashes into the ground, rain is pouring down. Kim Possible and her sidekick Ron Stoppable are making a last ditch attempt to stop Dr. Drakken’s plans at world domination, only a few hours away from being complete, from coming to fruition. Of course, as usual, Kim has one primary obstacle in her way, the former heroine turned villainess, Shego. This time, however, is different. The stakes are higher and Kim has a new battle suit that makes her almost indestructible while also giving her superhuman strength and reaction time. This is the setup for the last few scenes of the second Kim Possible movie, So The Drama.
What happens next, and the rumors surrounding the original plans for it, have guided my research in this area for a year. Kim, Ron, and Rufus stop Dr. Drakken’s plans, of course, but afterwards, as Shego is making her escape, Kim kicks her off a building and into a large radio tower. The tower electrocutes her and then collapses on top of her. A few scenes later, Shego is seen relatively unharmed, with Dr. Drakken, walking and conscious. She’s fine, even though she just went through being kicked by what was effectively a super human into a radio tower. Shego goes on to appear in the episode “Rappin Drakken” released a few months later (although it should be noted that chronologically “Rappin Drakken” occurs before So the Drama) and is featured heavily in Season 4 of the show, which takes place, chronologically, entirely after So the Drama. Clearly, in the canon of the show, Shego not only survived the end of So the Drama, but she was almost completely fine.
But was this supposed to be the way it ended? Was Shego originally meant to survive the end of the movie, or was she originally planned to be killed off by the creators of the show? Some fans have strong opinions on the issue. In various blogs and YouTube comments over the internet you can occasionally read the words of those in this faction of the fandom. This faction claims that the original ending to So the Drama, the one the writers originally made to be shown to test audiences, had Shego kicked off the side of the building into the Radio Tower never to be seen again. They claim that Shego was not only supposed to never be seen again in So the Drama, but also that she was supposed to be dead.
This claim, that Shego was supposed to die in So the Drama, is based primarily on the violence that Shego endures in the movie as described above. For most characters and people in real life, such an experience would likely result in death or at least serious injury, yet Shego is seen to be just fine without even a broken bone just moments after the event. How does this make any sense? This seems like a clear incongruence. This faction’s claim is that this strange juxtaposition is solved by the fact that Shego was supposed to die in the movie, but that this decision was changed at the last second, leading to the addition of a hasty scene that showed her to be fine.
Others in the fandom point out that Shego surviving events that would be dangerous for others is common in the series. Shego survives many events before So the Drama such as being directly struck by lightning, falling off a very high building, being sat on by a dog larger than an eighteen wheeler, being in a blimp crash, being stuck in a mountain of cheese, having buildings collapse directly on top of her, and being in numerous large explosions. The fact that Shego always escaped these events with minimal or no injury in the many episodes before So the Drama suggests to this faction of the fandom that Shego taking big hits and getting back up is a part of the show.
Those who claim that Shego was supposed to die in the movie respond that while Shego may have been in tough situations before and came out just fine, this time was different. They claim this because they say that the creators themselves state in an interview that Shego was originally supposed to die. This would of course be the proof this faction would need to show, with little doubt, that this was the original intention. Further, they claim that the creators said that the only reason Shego didn’t die in the movie was because when that version of the movie was shown to test audiences, someone objected, demanding that Shego not be killed off. The someone here is vague because the versions of this story change from person to person and do not seem to have a standardized telling. Some versions say it was the test audience themselves who revolted, others say it was Disney, or the director. Whichever version of the story you choose, the main sitch is the same, Shego was supposed to die, but it was changed last minute to avoid the wrath of the fans/Disney/director, take your choice.
This is a compelling argument, and certainly plausible, but it has one small problem. This supposed interview with the creators is never directly cited, if its even mentioned at all, which is somewhat rare. Never in my year of searching have I ever found a link to this interview and never have I seen the creators of the show or the director, all of whom gave regular interviews with fans, ever state that this was the case. The whole argument seems to be weighing on something that cannot, in the modern day, be found. This of course does not prove this theory false, but it does mean that it cannot be proven either. Still, despite the lack of evidence, this argument is seen fairly commonly on blogs, YouTube videos, and in some fan made wikis about Shego.
The other faction, which denies that this theory is true, has its own version of the story. They claim that Shego was never intended to be killed off but they do agree that there was a last minute scene or two added to make it clear that Shego survived. They claim, however, that this scene was not added due to a revolt from below or an order from above, but instead that it was added to avoid confusion. This faction claims that while Shego was never intended to be killed off, some test audiences did interpret Shego being kicked off the building and never being seen in the movie again as her being killed. The writers, not intending this to be the case, then added scenes of Shego being fine to show the general audience what they had intended all along.
Of course, just like the rival faction, this side claims that their argument is proven by an interview with the writers from the show. They claim that their argument is stated by the writers in plain black and white for all to read and that is the end of the argument. Except, well, they never actually cite this interview either and after a year of searching and messaging I haven’t been able to find it either. Websites that tell this version of the story, like TV Tropes and IMDB, cite no sources and provide no links just like the commenters and fan made wikis of the other faction. I even messaged one of the editors for the TV Tropes page relevant to our interests and asked if he had any sources, only to be told that he had a source at one time, but that he had long ago forgotten where or what it was. One interesting thing to note about both of these stories is that they both rely on an interview with the writers and that they both seem to agree that scenes were added to the end of the movie. This similarity in the arguments suggests to me that both stories might be pulling their reasoning, however foggy it might be, from some real source.
Because of this hint of truth, and because I have become deeply invested in the character of Shego, along with the fact that I am mentally ill, I have spent the last year, on and off, trying desperately to prove one side or the other of this story to be true or false. I will admit that I have a bias here; as a Shego fan I would much prefer it if Shego was never intended to be killed because the idea troubles me greatly. Defeat is one thing, death is another. However, I have attempted to find the truth no matter what that truth may be. I have poured over wikis and transcripts of interviews with the creators. I have messaged those who make claims one way or the other searching for a source from them, I have done advanced google searches of articles only from 2005 (when So the Drama was released) up until 2010 in attempts to find some old information that might shed light on the subject. All of this has led me to believe that the evidence points in one direction, but I cannot confirm anything. I would like to share what little evidence I have with you.
First of all, although I could never find an interview with the creators of Kim Possible that directly and unambiguously gave an answer to our question, I did find some interviews that gave answers related to it. For example the writers of Kim Possible and the director of So the Drama have said in various interviews with fans that:
1: Nobody is going to die on the show. They’re not making that kind of show.
2. When asked how Shego survived in So the Drama, Steve Loter, the director responded by saying that Shego had survived similar things before like in the previous movie, A Sitch in Time, and said, in response to being asked if she did survive “Yeah, she’s tough. She could survive that…”. Loter also said: “The reason why it was staged like that is I needed that maybe kind of Die Hard moment that Yippee-ky-yay you know kindof moment. Where it was the final strike it was a strike bigger than anything you’ve seen before…”
3. Right after Steve says this, Mark McCorkle, one of the creators of the show and a writer says “We went into the paddy wagon scene just to show that [she’s not dead]”
In addition to these quotes, when you do a google search for So the Drama and Shego and only include articles published from 2005 to 2010 you find no mention whatsoever of this idea that Shego was originally supposed to die. It’s not in interviews, articles, blogs, nowhere. This idea only starts to pop up in the early 2010s, as far as I can tell. Further, it is worth mentioning that the official wikipedia page for So the Drama and Shego make no mention of the idea that she was supposed to die and that the only wikis that do appear to be two small fan made wikis with low standards of proof and lax regulation. The websites that do state opposing views, like TV Tropes and IMDB, while they may not have any sources to back up what they say, do tend to be, in my opinion, more credible than two random wikis and a few rogue fans. Finally, and this is just for fun rather than any real evidence, I asked the Kim Possible subreddit if they had any evidence either way on this and while no one did it was generally agreed that it was unlikely that Shego was supposed to die, given that she had been a major character for 3 seasons, was a fan favorite, and that Kim Possible had never had anyone die on the show or be seriously injured up to that point.
Overall, I believe that the evidence points in the direction of Shego always having been intended to survive the movie. While I can’t prove anything with certainty, the weight of the evidence, and perhaps my own blind love, make it hard to come to any other conclusion.
The only way to know for sure would be to ask the writers of the show themselves. Lucky for us, the writers, Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle are both on twitter. Their DMs are closed, but they can be @’d and sometimes they will occasionally respond to others. Perhaps to solve this mystery once and for all, these writers could be asked on twitter or maybe a simple letter could be sent to them, if a PO Box could be found and if it would be ok with them. I know one thing, it would certainly beat spending a year on google and the Wayback Machine looking for answers that are hard to come by
