how does kim feel about death re: villains? would she ever get to a point with a villain where the only solution would be to kill them?
first I have to thank you for asking this question because it’s honestly something I think about a lot! and to answer your question: kim upholds a pretty strong moral code where she always reprimands her foes using only necessary measures and force, so it’s integral to her that she doesn’t cause any harm. yes, she will fight back and defend herself, and she has roughed up her foes before, but she would never intentionally cause long-term harm and I don’t think she would be able to live with herself if she killed anyone. she’s pretty humble for a world-renowned hero; she doesn’t believe she, of all people, can make that call or that she should be able to make that call. all life has value in her eyes.
in canon she saves her foes from certain doom many times because that’s just who she is. in fact, more often than not she tends to favor nonviolent options, or as nonviolent as one can get when going toe-to-toe with evil. the only time she uses excessive force is in so the drama toward the end against shego, and even then shego still makes it out injured, but okay.
I think a really great example of this is actually in the live action movie at the end, when drakken and shego escape and the power cube for drakken’s elaborate plan is going to explode. kim doesn’t leave right away; she insists on freeing athena first, even though athena was part of drakken’s scheme and had betrayed kim. and after she does successfully free athena, she refuses to leave the lair without her. she cannot stand the thought of leaving anyone behind. it’s important to note that athena is not human; kim knows this, is fully aware athena is a robot, but she doesn’t just see her as a robot. she sees the value to who athena is and all that she can be and sees her as her friend and cannot fathom just leaving her behind to be destroyed in the explosion. the only reason she leaves is because athena repeatedly tells her to, and reminds her that if she doesn’t leave, she’ll die.
at the end of the day, kim is a hero to such a degree that she will put her life on the line to save anyone, regardless of their moral alignment or past; she couldn’t conceptualize harming someone, let alone killing them.
