| “ | I wish I could be a superhero. The powers. The secrets. The costume. That would be awesome, right? | ” |
—Kim, "Syren" | ||
Lê Chiến Kim[2][3] or Kim Lê Chiến (in Western order), is a student in Miss Bustier's class at Collège Françoise Dupont.
In "Dark Cupid", after being rejected and humiliated by his former crush Chloé, he is akumatized by Hawk Moth and becomes Dark Cupid, a hate-spreading supervillain.
In "Party Crasher", in order to defeat the titular villain who had been able to capture Ladybug and her team, Kim receives the Monkey Miraculous from Master Fu. When the Miraculous is inhabited by Xuppu, he becomes King Monkey, a monkey-themed superhero with the power of Derision.
Contents
Appearance
Physical appearance
Kim is a Vietnamese-French boy who is muscular and taller than the average student at school; he has olive skin and gray eyes. He styles his hair, which is black with the ends dyed gold, into a sharp quiff.
Civilian attire
He wears a red, short-sleeved hoodie jacket with big front pocket and hoodie and some white outlines at certain places. On the front of the jacket, there is a white logo, which is a downward-pointing pentagon outline outside of a smaller, filled-in pentagon with a red corner and a star. He pairs his top with navy blue track sweatpants, and red, white, and black sports shoes.
As Dark Cupid
Dark Cupid wears a black and red cupid-themed jumpsuit, along with large black wings attached to his back, each feather-like end tipped with two red stripes. On the sides of his neck, there are black lightning bolts. He wears a black head cover, the areas covering the top of his hair and around his eyes being red, but his eyes remained gray. The top of his suit is red, with a large white broken heart on his chest. From the waist down to the knee, the suit is black. From the elbow down to the hand is black, and from the knee down, it is red with a few strands of cloth sticking out above the back of each ankle. On his back is a black, red, and white striped quiver, which carries red arrows. On the quiver strap across his chest, the brooch, which is now red and black, is attached to it. His archery bow is based off of a breaking heart. The handle is white with red heart halves at the ends, and on each side of the bow, there are two large gray and white spikes.
As King Monkey
As King Monkey, Kim wears a gold and dark brown mask that covers up most of his head, with the exception of his eyes, mouth and nose, ears, and hair. The Monkey Miraculous gains five black squares on the back once inhabited by Xuppu and is the division between Kim's hair and his mask. His hair becomes one spike on the top of his head, resembling a fire as his hair becomes toned red and orange, brown at the roots. Kim also wears a light bown superhero jumpsuit that is resembles that of a track suit, being separated in two. His top piece is light brown and at the center covering his stomach and pectorals, is a light tannish color. A golden zipper rests at the base of the top, just underneath the collar of his suit. He has black shoulder pads that extend down to his upper arm with golden borders. He wears gloves that extend off of his suit. They are golden at his fingers, dark brown at his wrist, light brown at the rest and have tan cuffs. A golden belt with a dark brown buckle and brown spots on either side of his hips rests at his waist, separating the top from the bottom. At the back of his belt is a rope attached to a hook with a golden tip that resembles the tail of a monkey. His pants are all light brown like the top, however, at his calves, there is a dark brown section with gold borders. His boots are similar to his gloves, extending away from the body. Like Carapace, there is a division between his big toe and the rest of his foot. His soles reach up to the top of his foot and are golden, with brown highlights and the cuffs of his boots are golden. He carries a Ruyi Jingu Bang with gold on either end.
- For more of Kim's outfits and designs, see Lê Chiến Kim/Designs.
Personality
Kim bragging about being faster than a panther.
Kim is the "king of competitions."[4] He enjoys making dares, much to the frustration of his classmates, and he is also very confident in himself and his athletic abilities, thus most of his dares involve using the person's body. Over-confident and proud, Kim sometimes boasts about his abilities and doesn't always take facts into consideration, believing he can beat a panther in a race in "Animan." He isn't afraid to tease others, either, as he gives Ivan a note telling him that he isn't brave enough to act on his romantic feelings. Behind his bravado are a few insecurities, like his fear of being humiliated and rejected. While hot-headed and rude sometimes, Kim is generally kind, appreciating Marinette's encouragement to confess his love to his crush in "Dark Cupid" — although Marinette isn't aware that his crush is Chloé. In "Syren", Kim admires Ladybug and Cat Noir so much that he wants to be a hero himself and is curious about how to become one.
As Dark Cupid, he is greatly bitter at love and seeks to avenge his broken heart by destroying all the love in Paris with his arrows. He is still very prideful but has no issues teaming up with one of his victims, like Cat Noir, to succeed.
As King Monkey, most of Kim's personality traits remain the same. However, as seen in "Party Crasher", Kim is a little goofier and sillier while he goes one-on-one with the titular villain, albeit everyone else had been defeated. He is also heroic, and it can be assumed he is loyal as after Party Crasher is defeated, he is seen without the Miraculous which means he must have returned it to Ladybug or back to the place he found it for Master Fu to take it back.
Abilities
As a civilian
Kim is a very fast runner, being able to almost keep up with Alix, who was wearing roller skates, when they raced in "Timebreaker". In "Animan", Kim states that he came in first place in the County Athletics Tournament. As seen in "Syren", he is also a good swimmer. In the same episode it's also shown that Kim can use his own feet to hold things, as if they were hands.
As King Monkey
King Monkey has super enhanced skills, such as speed, agility, and strength, and he is almost invulnerable to physical damage.
His special power, Uproar, allows him to summon an item that, upon contact with someone, makes that persons abilities malfunction.
As Dark Cupid
Dark Cupid can fly with his wings. Using his bow and rose-shaped black arrows, he shoots people, turning their feelings of love and friendship into hate.
The effect of the arrows varies from person to person; for example, Alya becomes mean-spirited to Marinette, while Cat Noir gets filled by the desire to destroy Ladybug. The lips of people affected by his arrows will gain black lipstick.
Similarly to fairy tales with enchanted spells, the effect of the arrows can be reverted by true love's kiss.
Relationships
Max Kanté
Max helping Kim to ask Chloé out.
Kim and Max are best friends. Kim seems to trust Max a lot, as seen when he followed his friend's advice to ask Chloé out in "Dark Cupid". He thinks Max is unbeatable at video games and cheers him on in "Gamer" and feels bad when Max loses to Marinette. He also knows about and supports Max's inventions and intelligence, impressed with the arm that Max added to Markov since the previous time he saw the robot. The two often hang out together, such as going to the zoo in "Animan". He shows great concern for Max when he gets to turn into a minion in "Zombizou".
He and Max meet as their alter egos in "Party Crasher" and work well together.
Chloé Bourgeois
Kim asking Chloé to be his Valentine.
Kim often hangs around Chloé and sometimes does her bidding. He has a crush on Chloé, but she rebukes his attempt to tell her his feelings with a gift, humiliating him in the process. During his time as Dark Cupid, he goes for revenge against her, but he decides not to, believing that she is already heartless and, therefore, not worth an arrow. Despite his unknown feelings, he is aware of how awful she is, like when he prefers not to run for class president in "Darkblade" because she threatens to tell everyone about his fear of spiders. In "Despair Bear", he asks her to dance with him, not detecting her growing jealousy at Marinette dancing with Adrien while they're together. He is amused when he sees Chloé's teddy bear, Mr. Cuddly, being used by Butler Jean to keep her on her best behavior, but later, he tries to protect her from a possessed Sabrina like a "knight in shining armor."
Kim asks Chloé to dance.
In "Zombizou", Kim along with the other students knows that Chloé is responsible for a handful of the akumas in the city. However, understanding that she is a part of Ladybug's plan, he sacrifices himself so she can escape. In “Syren”, he tells Ondine that he has invited Chloé to the movies with him; however, he later finds that she doesn’t show up. Like everyone else he is aware of her actions as Queen Bee. In "Malediktator", Kim is overjoyed when Chloé leaves for New York.
Alix Kubdel
Alix and Kim compete.
Kim often competes with Alix as he challenges her to several of his dares. His most recent dare involved a race around the school to see if he is faster than her roller skates. When facing off, both, in fun, like to insult each other and brag about their own abilities. On other occasions, they seem to be friendly around each other, such as taking a selfie with Mr. Damocles in "The Dark Owl."
Rose Lavillant
Kim cares about Rose and gets along well with her. In "Guiltrip", he does a lot for Rose after learning about her illness. He holds her bag for her, lets her cut him in line for lunch, gives her an apple to eat during lunch, and tells her that he was gonna dive in the bathroom to save her when Rose and Juleka had a private conversation. In "Party Crasher", he texts her an excuse on why he can't come plant trees with Rose and her friends. Rose was confused on why he texted her that though.
Ivan Bruel
Kim annoyed Ivan
Kim usually seems to get along okay with Ivan, but he isn't afraid to get on Ivan's bad side. In "Ladybug & Cat Noir", Kim, aware of Ivan's crush on Mylène, gives him a note saying that he isn't brave enough to ask her out. Ivan attempts to punch him, which doesn't faze him as he looks on in amusement. However, he is terrified when Ivan as Stoneheart attacks him, and the next day in "Stoneheart", he comments that Ivan was seriously out to harm him. Their relationship improves after this experience and Kim's character development into a nicer guy, and they are seen getting along together on several occasions, such as "Party Crasher".
Ondine
Kim plays a game of secrets with Ondine.
Kim and Ondine are seen to be good friends, having made up their own game called "Secrets." They get along well, and are comfortable around each other. Kim is oblivious to her crush on him, but after learning her feelings, he invites her to the movies with him, implying that he may return those feelings. He continues to spend time with her in "Gamer 2.0" and "Miracle Queen".
Master Fu
Kim and Master Fu meet at the boys-only party at Adrien's house. When Master Fu nearly fell off the cooler he was standing on, Kim quickly caught him, impressing the guardian and making him decide to give Kim the Monkey Miraculous.
Xuppu
Shortly after Kim meets Xuppu, he takes offense to the kwami calling him "nitwit" and sticking his tongue out at him before Kim "fights back" with his own silly face, which leads to the two "bonding" through the silly faces they made and mimic from each other, before the monkey kwami helps Kim to become King Monkey.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug
He sees Marinette as a great friend and is amazed by her gaming skills and cheered for her during the tournament in "Gamer". He was happy to hear that she was running for class representative and followed her lead in barricading City Hall as well as winning the election in "Darkblade". Kim appreciated Marinette's support in pursuing his secret crush in "Dark Cupid". During her birthday in "Befana", Kim and the others do their best to protect her from the titular villain.
As for Ladybug, like everyone in Paris, Kim admires Ladybug's hard-work and dedication in keeping Paris safe. As Dark Cupid, he becomes angry with the heroine when she gets in the way of his pursuit for Chloe. He has unlimited faith and trust that she will save the day, as mentioned in "Zombizou". As his alter ego, King Monkey, and like the rest of his teammates, he follows Ladybug's lead without question.
History
 |
Sightings
Episodes
| Season 1 | ||||||||||||
| Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Theme Song: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "Stormy Weather": | Absent | 14. "Darkblade": | Appears | |||||||||
| 2. "The Evillustrator": | Appears | 15. "The Pharaoh": | Absent | |||||||||
| 3. "Lady Wifi": | Appears | 16. "Timebreaker": | Appears | |||||||||
| 4. "Princess Fragrance": | Background | 17. "Horrificator": | Appears | |||||||||
| 5. "Dark Cupid": | Appears | 18. "The Puppeteer": | Absent | |||||||||
| 6. "Mr. Pigeon": | Background | 19. "The Mime": | Absent | |||||||||
| 7. "Pixelator": | Background | 20. "Guitar Villain": | Absent | |||||||||
| 8. "Copycat": | Background | 21. "Reflekta": | Appears | |||||||||
| 9. "The Bubbler": | Background | 22. "Ladybug & Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1)": | Appears | |||||||||
| 10. "Simon Says": | Absent | 23. "Stoneheart (Origins - Part 2)": | Appears | |||||||||
| 11. "Rogercop": | Background | 24. "Antibug": | Background | |||||||||
| 12. "Gamer": | Appears | 25. "Kung Food": | Absent | |||||||||
| 13. "Animan": | Appears | 26. "Volpina": | Appears | |||||||||
| Season 2 | ||||||||||||
| Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Theme Song: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "The Collector": | Appears | 14. "Syren": | Appears | |||||||||
| 2. "Prime Queen": | Absent | 15. "Zombizou": | Appears | |||||||||
| 3. "Glaciator": | Pictured | 16. "Captain Hardrock": | Pictured | |||||||||
| 4. "Despair Bear": | Appears | 17. "Frozer": | Absent | |||||||||
| 5. "Troublemaker": | Pictured | 18. "Style Queen": | Background | |||||||||
| 6. "Gigantitan": | Absent | 19. "Queen Wasp": | Background | |||||||||
| 7. "Riposte": | Absent | 20. "Reverser": | Absent | |||||||||
| 8. "Befana": | Appears | 21. "Anansi": | Absent | |||||||||
| 9. "Frightningale": | Background | 22. "Malediktator": | Background | |||||||||
| 10. "Gorizilla": | Absent | 23. "Sandboy": | Absent | |||||||||
| 11. "Robostus": | Appears | 24. "Catalyst": | Appears | |||||||||
| 12. "Sapotis": | Absent | 25. "Mayura": | Appears | |||||||||
| 13. "The Dark Owl": | Appears | 26. "Santa Claws": | Appears | |||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||||||
| Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Theme Song: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "Chameleon": | Appears | 14. "Kwamibuster": | Appears | |||||||||
| 2. "Animaestro": | Absent | 15. "Feast": | Absent | |||||||||
| 3. "Bakerix": | Absent | 16. "Gamer 2.0": | Appears | |||||||||
| 4. "Backwarder": | Absent | 17. "Stormy Weather 2": | Flashback | |||||||||
| 5. "Reflekdoll": | Absent | 18. "Ikari Gozen": | Absent | |||||||||
| 6. "Weredad": | Absent | 19. "Timetagger": | Absent | |||||||||
| 7. "Silencer": | Absent | 20. "Party Crasher": | Appears | |||||||||
| 8. "Oni-Chan": | Absent | 21. "The Puppeteer 2": | Statue Version | |||||||||
| 9. "Miraculer": | Absent | 22. "Cat Blanc": | Absent | |||||||||
| 10. "Oblivio": | Background | 23. "Félix": | Appears | |||||||||
| 11. "Desperada": | Absent | 24. "Ladybug": | Appears | |||||||||
| 12. "Christmaster": | Absent | 25. "Heart Hunter": | Absent | |||||||||
| 13. "Startrain": | Appears | 26. "Miracle Queen": | Appears | |||||||||
| Season 4 | ||||||||||||
| Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Theme Song: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "Truth": | Pictured | 14. "Sentibubbler": | Pictured | |||||||||
| 2. "Lies": | Absent | 15. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 3. "Gang of Secrets": | Pictured | 16. "Hack-San": | Appears | |||||||||
| 4. "Mr. Pigeon 72": | Absent | 17. "Rocketear": | Pictured | |||||||||
| 5. "Psychomedian": | Unknown | 18. "Wishmaker": | Background | |||||||||
| 6. "Furious Fu": | Pictured | 19. "Simpleman": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 7. "Sole Crusher": | Absent | 20. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 8. "Queen Banana": | Appears | 21. "Dearest Family": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 9. "Gabriel Agreste": | Unknown | 22. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 10. "Mega Leech": | Appears | 23. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 11. "Guiltrip": | Appears | 24. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 12. "Crocoduel": | Absent | 25. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| 13. "Optigami": | Appears | 26. "TBA": | Unknown | |||||||||
| Specials | ||||||||||||
| "Miraculous New York": | Appears | "Miraculous Shanghai": | Appears | |||||||||
| "Miraculous Rio": | Unknown | "Miraculous Africa": | Unknown | |||||||||
| "Miraculous London": | Unknown | "Miraculous Japan": | Unknown | |||||||||
| "Miraculous Football Special": | Unknown | "Ladybug in Halloween": | Unknown | |||||||||
| Miraculous Secrets | ||||||||||||
| 1. "Marinette in Paris": | Background | 19. "Alix": | Appears | |||||||||
| 2. "Marinette and Fashion": | Background | 20. "Sabrina": | Appears | |||||||||
| 3. "Ladybug as seen by Adrien": | Background | 21. "Ivan": | Background | |||||||||
| 4. "Ladyblog": | Background | 22. "Gabriel": | Absent | |||||||||
| 5. "Adrien's Double Life": | Background | 23. "Nathaniel & Marc": | Absent | |||||||||
| 6. "Marinette and Alya": | Background | 24. "Marinette as seen by Chloé": | Background | |||||||||
| 7. "Marinette's Double Life": | Background | 25. "Lila": | Appears | |||||||||
| 8. "Cat Noir as seen by Marinette": | Absent | 26. "Hawk Moth and the Akumatized Villains": | Absent | |||||||||
| 9. "My Birthday Party": | Appears | 27. "Family": | Absent | |||||||||
| 10. "Marinette and Adrien": | Background | 28. "Kagami as seen by Marinette": | Absent | |||||||||
| 11. "Master Fu": | Absent | 29. "Kagami as seen by Adrien": | Absent | |||||||||
| 12. "Tikki": | Absent | 30. "Luka as seen by Marinette": | Asent | |||||||||
| 13. "Plagg": | Absent | 31. "New Powers": | Absent | |||||||||
| 14. "Friends": | Appears | 32. "New Heroes": | Appears | |||||||||
| 15. "Nino": | Background | 33. "Mayura and the Sentimonsters": | Absent | |||||||||
| 16. "Max": | Appears | 34. "Chloé as seen by Marinette": | Appears | |||||||||
| 17. "Mylène": | Appears | 35. "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel": | Absent | |||||||||
| 18. "Rose": | Absent | 36. "Feelings": | Absent | |||||||||
| Tales from Paris | ||||||||||||
| Opening: | Appears | |||||||||||
| 1. "The Notebook": | Absent | 4. "Busy Day": | Absent | |||||||||
| 2. "Inspiration": | Absent | 5. "Homework Essay": | Absent | |||||||||
| 3. "Repetition": | Absent | |||||||||||
| Other Media | ||||||||||||
| "Happy Birthday to You!": | Background | Miraculous Ladybug OVA: | Unknown | |||||||||
| Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening: | Unknown | |||||||||||
Comics and books
| Miraculous Adventures | ||||||||||||
| "Issue 1": | Background | "Issue 5": | Unknown | |||||||||
| "Issue 2": | Background | "Issue 6": | Unknown | |||||||||
| "Issue 3": | Absent | "Issue 7": | Unknown | |||||||||
| "Issue 4": | Absent | "Issue 8": | Unknown | |||||||||
Other
| Games | ||||||||||||
| Super Lady Luck: | Absent | Miraculous Mission Ladybug: | Absent | |||||||||
| Throwdown!: | Absent | Ladybug Contra os Vilões: | Absent | |||||||||
| Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir: | Playable | Miraculous Crush: | Appears | |||||||||
| Miraculous: Color by Numbers | Pictured | Miraculous RP: Quests of Ladybug & Cat Noir: | Playable | |||||||||
| ZAG World | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Non-Canon Media | ||||||||||||
| The Mini Menace Ladybug: | Absent | Ladybug PV: | Absent | |||||||||
| First CGI promotional videos: | Absent | Korean musical: | Absent | |||||||||
| Brazilian musical: | Appears | |||||||||||
Trivia
- Kim is of Vietnamese heritage. As such, his name follows Vietnamese naming conventions.[5]
- "Lê" is his family name; "Chiến" is his middle name; and "Kim" is his first name.
- According to Thomas Astruc, for a reason he himself doesn't know, his surname was changed to Ature in the French dub, and N'guyen in the English and some of the other dubs. He doesn't have an issue with the change to N'guyen, but he doesn't like the change to Ature, as unlike N'guyen, it's not a Vietnamese surname.[6]
- This is seen in "Optigami", as he's referred to using his changed surname by Nathalie. Interestingly, his name is correctly listed in the credits of the short film the class made in "Miraculous New York".
- The official Miraculous Ladybug website also refers to him as Kim Ature.[7]
- In the French dubbed version, Kim's villain name is "Dislocoeur".
- Dislocoeur is intended to be a pun in French, "-cœur" meaning "heart" and "dis-" alluding to "disloquer", meaning "break".
- His supervillain name is based off of Cupid, a mythical character in Roman mythology, who is believed to have the power to bring people together with his love arrows.
- However, his powers operate opposite to Cupid's, as he breaks people apart.
- In the French dubbed version, Kim's superhero name is "Roi Singe" that means literally "Monkey King" or "King Monkey".
- While it is unknown what sports Kim plays specifically, Kim has made references to playing soccer in the French version, which is called football outside of the US.[8] In "Darkblade", he is holding a basketball.
- Kim also makes a baseball metaphor in the English version of "Dark Cupid".
- Kim revealed he won the County Athletics Tournament in "Animan".
- In the first issue of Miraculous Adventures, Kim is on a lacrosse team with Adrien, Ivan, and Alix.
- Dark Cupid reappears in the two-part special event "Heroes' Day".
- Dark Cupid appears another time in "Gamer 2.0" for Gamer's powers.
- A statue of Dark Cupid appears in the Musée Grévin in "The Puppeteer 2".
- Kim is the third person to be chosen to receive a Miraculous directly from Master Fu.
- Much like how it happened with Marinette and Adrien, Kim showed that he was worthy by helping Master Fu when he was in a tight situation.
- Unlike how it happened with Marinette and Adrien, Master Fu actually was in a tight situation when he was helped by Kim, instead of faking it like he did with the other two.
- Much like how it happened with Marinette and Adrien, Kim showed that he was worthy by helping Master Fu when he was in a tight situation.
- Following Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois, Nathalie Sancoeur, Luka Couffaine, Max Kanté, Kagami Tsurugi, and Alix Kubdel, is the ninth person to become a Miraculous holder and akumatized villain, excluding Gabriel Agreste, who akumatized himself.
- Kim is the second known person of Vietnamese origin to wield a Miraculous succeeding his Miraculous predecessor Bọ rùa, who wielded the Ladybug Miraculous.
- Kim's superhero form seems to be based off of Sun Wukong (孙悟空), a legendary Chinese mythical monkey who is known for being mischievous and rebellious.
- Monkey King has long spikey hair, just like Sun Wukong.
- When Monkey King posed at the end of his transformation, it is a pose Sun Wukong is often seen doing.
Gallery
 Click here to view the gallery. |
References
- ↑ https://twitter.com/komaDwataru/status/1008694208540991489
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190213214129/https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/755033027823046656
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1416792868069519362
- ↑ http://miraculeusecoccinelle.tumblr.com/post/129733355946/miraculous-les-aventures-de-ladybug-et-chat-noir
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/755038140436455424
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1416792868069519362
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20200930131224/https://www.miraculousladybug.com/#characters
- ↑ At the beginning of the French version of "Dark Cupid".
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