Jim Moralés

Jim Moralés
Jim at Kadic.
First appearance	"Teddygozilla"
Portrayed by	David Gasman (English)
In-universe information
Occupation	Junior high school physical education teacher, handyman, campus/dormitory supervisor

Jim "Jimbo" Moralés is a character from the French animated television series Code Lyoko. In the English version of Code Lyoko, Jim is voiced by David Gasman.

Description

Jim is the P.E. teacher, campus supervisor and handyman/technician of Kadic Junior High School; he was hired at the school two decades before the show's timeline, according to a statement made by Jim himself in Holiday in the Fog. He is also the dormitory supervisor as well—a position normally held by the upperclassmen of an United States college. His distinguishing characteristics include a seemingly-perpetual five o'clock shadow and stubble, tucked-in knee socks, a red and black jacket, a headband, black sweatpants with red bordering, and a Band-Aid affixed to his face below his left eye. The Band-Aid switches sides, occasionally. At night, he typically wears a white undershirt (which sometimes reveals his lower belly), greyish-black lounge pants, and bear slippers over his large feet (starting with the second season). His hair and eyebrows are brown and bushy, and his arms are muscular; however, his belly pokes out in a potbelly manner, which creates a contrast with his career. He prefers that his friends call him Jimbo, which he reveals to the group in the episode "False Start" after accepting them as his friends. Unfortunately, this was not to last, and currently the children consider him to be a cruel, overweight, lazy, child-hating monster. Additionally, none of the other students like him anyway because of his normal inhumane, nasty attitude; that said, the children often humiliate him and pull pranks on him. For example, in "Nobody in Particular", Nicholas purposely set a bar of soap by Jim's bedroom door, so that when he stepped on it he would fall and hurt his back.

Rough around the edges and quite strict on the outside, Jim is often an obstacle for the group when they need to go to the factory to stop Xana, usually because he wants to know what exactly what they're doing. It also appears that Jim may have bias against the students, which could also explain his strict attitude. Milly also said in Teddygozilla, that to him, everything is off-limits to the children. This was during a scene in which he called Milly a "little girl" in a rather hateful tone when he was yelling at the girls for being in the garden shed; he also grounded both her and Tamiya when she tried to defend herself. Fortunately for the girls, this bad incident was prevented by a return trip.

Jim can be quite kind and helpful in some instances, however, as shown in various episodes of both the first and second seasons when Jim comforts frightened students and other children during Xana attacks and other emergencies. In "Cold War," for example, he carried some kids into the school when the snow got really bad and later told the children a story and kept them safe and warm in a boiler room of the school. This good side hasn't been shown in similar ways in the third season, though it's still there. The creators of Code Lyoko have stated that this helpfulness and kindness is Jim "actually liking his charges", though him showing his true heart is a rarity in itself. He implies this fact himself in "Code: Earth" as he is walking away from the Infirmary after saying that he deserved to get fired after what he did, and that he was very sorry for doing so (before being stopped by Jeremie, the boy he had injured).

Jim is also a huge fan of sumo wrestling, as seen in varying instances where he is reading a sumo magazine. He even got a miniature radio-thermometer as a free gift from one of his subscriptions.

Character history

General information

Jim is usually an obstacle and a hateful bully in the first season, often keeping the heroes from reaching Lyoko and being rather strict to the children even when it's not necessary. His only main role unfortunately comes in the two-part finale of the first season ("Code: Earth" and "False Start"), in which his suspicion of the group leads him to discover their secret. After several failed attempts to interrogate the group in the first half, he ends up injuring Jeremie during a chase though the halls. Jeremie had returned to retrieve his materialization program, effectively stranding his friends upon being injured. After the principal fires Jim, Jeremie uses the group's secret as leverage to get him to help. In the second part, he helps defend against a materialized an army of Kankrelats. A return trip was used to erase the effects of the attack, erasing Jim's memory in the process. When Jim showed up to interrogate them again and was again scolded by the principal, Jeremie remembers his earlier promise, and makes up a lie about planning to play a joke on Herve and Nicolas, which the others quickly played along with. The principal believed the lie, which in turn made Jim's suspicions seem valid so the principal would never fire him. After the principal left, Jim thanked them for the lie, and they thanked him for being "a fantastic P.E. teacher" since he no longer remembered what he had done.

Jim saw the factory and/or things relating to Lyoko on three other occasions after that. The first was in the episode "Exploration", when events conspired to bring Jim, the principal, Sissi, and Yumi's parents to the factory. The group found them outside of the elevator, unaware that they were there. The group (minus Jeremie) took off in different directions as a distraction. Jeremie took the elevator back down to the lab, but Jim managed to get in before the door could close. Upon reaching the lab, Jeremie went to interface while Jim looked around in awe. Jeremie mentioned that Jim had been there before, before activating the return trip. Later, in "Final Mix", Jim was possessed and ended up at the factory once more. After the tower was deactivated, Jim was still conscious and once again in awe of his surroundings. Jeremie just told him that he wouldn't remember any of it and activated a return trip. Jim also fought one of Xana's materialized Krabes in "A Bad Turn", though he was knocked out fairly quickly in comparison with his first fight. This, too, was undone by a return trip.

Romance

Jim has expressed, and is currently expressing even today, a strong romantic interest in Suzanne Hertz, the science teacher at Kadic. In the episode "Saint Valentine's Day", he tried to discuss a matter involving Suzanne with Jeremie, who was vocally masquerading as the principal at the time. In the next episode, "Final Mix", he was trying to think of a way to talk to Suzanne before Xana possessed him. In "Lyoko Minus One", Jim complimented Suzanne on her perfume, and later she wanted to have him teach her ballroom dancing (or is it something else?). He, in one episode, also showed an interest in Yolande as well; but, this was only because a polymorphing spectre kissed him while disguised as her. We later find out that she in engaged to be married near the end of the episode.

Involvement with XANA's attacks

Jim has, for some reason, ended up on the receiving end of Xana's attacks on more than one occasion, be it by coincidence or otherwise. During the first season, he is attacked by Milly's teddy bear in "Teddygozilla" (it had been taking action against all those who had hurt Milly's feelings), attacked by a possessed suit of samurai armor (the attack isn't seen onscreen, but he isn't badly hurt), and ends up in the path of Xana's attacks on the school on numerous other occasions. The same rings true in the second season, and he is even possessed in one episode. Unlike everyone else who is possessed (excluding Sissi), he remains conscious after the possession is lifted. Jim was possessed a second time in "Lyoko Minus One", but this time fell unconscious afterwards. In "Nobody in Particular," Jim is possessed by Ulrich, whose mind had been separated from his body. During this time, Ulrich gains an appreciation for Jim's point of view, since the students ignore him most of the time for the aforementioned reasons. However, instead of falling unconscious, he falls asleep with a big smile on his face, apparently enjoying his dreams.

Jim's various jobs

Jim often has strange tales to tell people and has had more than a few other jobs over the years. In one of the show's running gags, Jim will mention a past job of his that relates to the current situation. When asked about it, though, he'll refuse to discuss it any further, always using his line of "I'd rather not talk about it." This running gag initially started in the second season, and has been continuously used ever since.

In order, he has mentioned being:

• A sewer worker
• A soldier (this is comically portrayed in several instances in the episode "A Bad Turn")
• A "Space Exploration Program Volunteer Test Subject" (though he has talked about this one in the form of a story)
• A salvage diver
• A disco dancer (Odd used a video of him dancing to blackmail him in "Straight to Heart". Jim later got back at Odd for it in "William Returns", though Jim became something of a celebrity for it in the process.)
• A worker at a psychiatric hospital (he mentions this after hearing Sissi's story; David Gasman himself received a psychiatry degree)
• A forest ranger in Quebec
  • A martial arts master, which he followed with another ridiculous story of using his skills to fight off a beaver
• A former basketball player, playing pro-ball (mentioned by Ulrich in "Straight to Heart"; this is followed by his friends saying in unison "But he'd rather not talk about it!" and laughing)
• A former government agent (he won't talk about it because it's classified info)
• A professional ballroom dancing instructor
• A war photographer
• A safecracker and/or locksmith (he said the first one but corrected himself)
• A cameraman
• A skateboarder (though he, this time, mentions that he doesn't have the time to talk about it)
• A paranormal investigator (Like the government agent he says its classified info.)

This is all in addition to serving 21 years at Kadic. The fact that he's had so many jobs suggests that he only worked at each of them for a short time. It may also be argued that he is simply lying about having these past jobs (or at least the more ridiculous ones) to sound as though he knew something about the subject matter at hand. Most of these aforementioned jobs probably are made up simply to "impress others", but a few actually have been true, such as his Disco Dancer incident, which Odd blackmails him using a video he found. He also refuses to elaborate on his past life as a teenager as well. Fans of the series have used this gag their fan fiction stories, too.

Jim's running gag of "not wanting to talk about" all of his previous occupations may have resulted from an incident in "Xana Awakens." During a lesson in martial arts to Ulrich and Yumi, he recants a story about using martial arts to fend off a beaver. They laugh, and Ulrich says he'd be better off not talking about it.