Shego is the secondary antagonist in the Disney series Kim Possible. Perhaps the most complicated character on the show, she alternates between villainess, anti-heroine and heroine over the course of the series.
She is voiced by Nicole Sullivan from MADtv.
History
Shego was the only girl in a family with five children and had a bossy attitude. When a multi-colored comet struck down in their backyard, she and her brothers all got unique powers based on one of the colors emanating from the comet. The twins share a power though.
Together they decided to form team Go, which was so successful in battling villains that (presumably) their home city was renamed Go City. The constant bickering between her brothers and a growing fascination with evil led Shego to abandon the team and eventually team up with Dr. Drakken. By this time she was wanted in eleven countries for various high-profile crimes.
Appearance
Shego has black hair with a green outline, pale green skin, dark green irises and a seemingly petite and frail hourglass figure. She habitually dresses in green and black clothes, though she has donned other outfits as well. Her favored outfit is a green/black chequered combat suit with matching gloves and belt. She usually wears her hair free with long bangs partially covering the eye on which side she wears it. The suit and gloves are apparently made from materials that are impervious to her superpowers.
Personality
Shego is possibly the most complicated character on the show and this shows in her personality. On one hand, she's a calm, professional person with superb work ethics. On the other she's extremely sarcastic, cocksure and liable to go into a berserk state if provoked enough. Add to that her mischievousness, vengefulness, heroic (if ashamedly so) tendencies, soft spots and cute moments and you can see why she's no cookie-cutter character.
A large part of her decision to become a villainess, an presumably one source of her rage, lies in the fact that she continually had to keep her team of brothers together while Mego and Hego bickered over who was best. And do most of the work. And be the butt of all her brothers' pranks.
She can't abide stupidity in others most of the time because of this, but has a notable soft spot for some doofusses (Dr. Drakken in particular). She also loves delicate snacks like strawberries (dipped in chocolate or not), worries about going on dates and handling relationships, enjoys reading and has the occasional doubts about her career of choice.
In times of great danger she's willing to set aside her personal issues/goals/etc. for the greater good. Like stopping a marauding band of aliens.
Skills
Shego has a large number of skills and abilities at her disposal, which she uses to greater and lesser extent.
Superpowers
- Green energy. Due to her exposure to the energies of the rainbow comet she commands green energy which she can fire from her hands (and in an arc from her body). Either as concussive blasts, green fire or a mixture of both. The power behind the blasts can be greatly enhanced by her emotional state.
- Superhuman endurance. Shego's tough beyond the norm, having been knocked off a building or having a stack of crates dropped on her hardly slowed her down. She's also slightly stronger than average and can use her nails/gloves for claw attacks.
- Team Go powers control. When Shego briefly gained all of Team Go's powers she was able to use them immediately in combat to great effect.
Trained skills
- Combat specialist. Shego is a skilled combatant who utilizes a mixture of martial arts, weapon skills, technology and her superpowers to bring big hurt to those in her way.
- Technological know-how. She knows how to operate most of Dr. Drakken's equipment, utilize advanced technology and so forth.
- Piloting/driving skills. Shego has shown herself proficient as a driver/pilot in many vehicles, including jet planes, hover cars, jet packs and even a space shuttle.
- Teaching skills. She obtained a degree in child development and qualified for teaching. She also taught Senõr Senior Junior how to be a reasonably competent villain.
- Jar opening. In this her skill is almost a superpower. Dr. Drakken spent an entire episode trying to open a jar of his favorite pickles, exhausting himself, his henchmen, equipment and even the kitchen sink. Shego just grabs the jar and pops the lid off first go.
- Infiltration expert. Shego can sneak with the best, infiltrating even heavily guarded strongholds with ease.
Innate talents
- Intelligence. Shego is very intelligent, not at genius level, but close enough.
- Sarcasm. Shego has as much a talent for being sarcastic to her employers (and other folks) as do Statler and Waldorf.
- Sex-appeal. Shego knows she looks good and uses this to her advantage.
Role on the show
She's first encountered as Dr. Drakken's henchwoman and initially is respectful towards her employer. However, his incompetence and repeated failures cause her to adopt a more sarcastic role as she knows she's more competent than Drakken. She also hires out to other villains when the mood strikes her or the need arises.
Therefore, her role on the show is of both go-to villainess/enforcer and Kim's rival. In that regard she's most frequently fighting Kim when Drakken's umpteenth scheme threatens to fail. She also tries (often to no avail) to inject a note of reason in her current employer's mad scheme or help Kim and Ron combat a greater threat.
To some extent, if she's on a mission or another, it's more likely to succeed. Unless Kim Possible stops her.
Relationships
- Dr. Drakken . Drew Theodore P. Lipsky is the first villain she's working for when she first appears on the show. Though his bungling often annoys her and he does some pretty weird/nasty things to her on occasion (such as planting a mind-control chip on her) she is loyal to him. Even once, Dr. Drakken tired that she is always mad at him, so he mind controlled her by a small chip, which he later used to mind control Kim Possible. Eventually acting more like the competent nanny in his schemes and delivering sarcastic comments when he does something wrong. Underneath it all though they care for one another, and this eventually blossoms fully into love during Graduation, part 2. This marks the end of their careers as villains.
- Kim Possible. Kimberly Anne Possible is Shego's rival in many ways, both are rather bossy, competitive, competent and share similar interests. If it weren't for the fact that they're on opposite sides most of the time, they'd be best friends. During battle they take off time to good naturedly mock one another. When Shego temporarily becomes the goofy/goodly miss Go their friendship truly blossoms.
- Ron Stoppable. Ronald Stoppable and his animal companion Rufus were initially beneath her notice as Kim's bungling friend was not someone she considered a threat. When Ron temporarily turned evil she was impressed and eventually even cowered by his talents as a villain. She was marginally more respectful afterwards towards him, until he unleashed his Mythic Monkey powers during Graduation, part 2. Then she was once again awed by him to say the least.
- Team Go. Her brothers are a constant headache to her, because the older two tend to bicker over who is best whilst having let her do most of the work. Presumably the twins Wego² weren't doing so, but maybe irritated in other ways. She still cares for them and will help them if they are in a bind (complaining all the way, mind), but won't rejoin their team.
- Senõr Senior Senior . She treated him with respect, though she did not agree with his plan to keep Junior under his thumb.
- Seniõr Senior Junior. She treated him like a spoiled brat at first, but after training him and seeing his improvement this gradually shifted to treating him like a little brother. She respected his efforts and to some degree was saddened when her employer, his father, terminated the contract due to Junior becoming too independent for his liking.
- Motor Ed. Edward Lipsky, Drakken's maternal cousin, is not one of Shego's favorite people. He's smitten with her, but his machismo, sexism and hairbrainedness grate on her like nothing else. She's launched him numerous times with her superpowers, yet he remains in love because he "loves women who can scratch".
- Steve Barkin. During her time as miss Go, Shego fell for the flaky charms of high-school teacher Steven "Stevey" Barkin and even went on a double-date with Ron and Kim, causing all involved (except herself) extreme embarrassment. When she was returned to normal, he approached Drakken's lair and she stopped Drakken from sicking the defenses on Stevey. At least until he started serenading, when she had second thoughts and he spent the credits yelling while being mauled, etc.
Moral event horizon
During the events of A Sitch in Time, Shego crosses the Moral Event Horizon when she takes over the world and turns it into a horrible dystopia. Though this is erased from the timeline with the destruction of the Time Monkey artifact, Shego comes close to the MEH again in other episodes. In Go Team Go she decides to keep all her brothers' powers for herself and in So the Drama drops her hostage to plummet hundreds of feet to the ground. Arguably, she knew Kim would save the hostage, but still...
Redemption
In Graduation (the two-part series finale), she and Dr. Drakken team up with Kim and Ron to save the world from the ruthless alien warlords, Warhok and Warmonga. As part of Drakken's new plan to defeat the aliens, Shego helps him in retrieving a plant mutagen he created, and he uses it to take down all of the alien warships with ease. This has really impressed Shego, who sees that Drakken has actually came up with a plan that has succeeded at a great level, though it was only to save the world. Following the deaths of Warhok and Warmonga, Shego attended the celebration when Drakken is given an award by the world leaders for his efforts. Drakken's newfound powers then act up, creating a vine entrapping the two while creating a flower, causing them to smile nervously, indicating that they may go on a relationship.
Trivia
- Shego is the main antagonist of "Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time".
- Her right glove is usually black, the left green.
- She can be a bit too trusting, such as when Motor Ed brought her along for a scheme and did not extend it (as she had thought) beyond building a super-speeder vehicle.
- She used to pick up muscular, tanned men at spas.
- Though she teases him mercilessly about it, Shego has not revealed Drakken's villainy to his mother.
- Of all the recurring villains, Shego is arguably the most powerful and smartest of them all, as she is the only one to succeed in taking over the world and becoming the supreme one.