Jim Moralés
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, soccer coach and referee (in one episode only; no other episode or season has had any official soccer games), and handyman/technician of Kadic Junior High School; he was hired at the school 2 decades before the show's timeline. His distinguishing characteristics include a seemingly-perpetual five o'clock shadow, 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 tank top (which sometimes reveals his lower belly), black pants, and bear slippers over his large feet. 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. Their normal student/teacher relationship is, unfortunately, restored by a return trip at the end of the episode, though growing traces of friendship do exist between Jim and the group (despite his meanness in later episodes). Also, Jim has been referred to as a "dipstick" and an idiot by Sissi, but this was only in the episode "Log Book".
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 (and, surprisingly, knew how to read it and can keep track of the outside and inside temperature.
Discussion
Rough around the edges, a stick-in-the-mud, and quite strict on the outside (typically referred to as the tough guy), 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. Jim can be quite helpful and kindhearted, 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. This has been confirmed by the creators of the show as "actually liking his charges", though it hasn't been directly stated by Jim himself or by other characters, and evidence of this is going up and down like a roller coaster. The episode "Cold War" is an excellent example of this parent-like affection (and one of the many examples of Jim having a heart), since Jim helped some young students who were too cold to move by speaking gently to them and carrying them into the boiler room (he carried a boy into the boiler room, and several other kids seemed to follow him). Once in the boiler room, he got the furnace at its warmest level and later told everyone a story to pass the time, before falling unconscious from hypothermia. Another example is the episode "Holiday in the Fog", when he comforted Sissi and showed concern for an unconscious Ulrich. It can be assumed from these events that Jim is actually a kind-hearted man, even though he sometimes doesn't act that way. For example, he called Milly "little" in "Teddygozilla", which hurt her feelings. He was scolding both her and Tamiya for going into the tool shed, which is an off-limits area to all students. He lost control of his emotions and angrily grounded both of them after Milly talked back, which was later prevented by a return trip. Many of the episodes have Jim being the opposite of his employer, Mr. Delmas. For example, in Rock Bottom, he ordered Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremie to go back to their rooms in an angry, almost devilish tone and gave the boys a glare with an angry grunt. Despite this outward cruelty, Jim also acts as a father figure to many of the students, treating them as if they were his own children. For example, in "Teddygozilla", he scolds Ulrich for being messy, but then pats him on the shoulder and tells him to relax and have fun at the dance. Other occasions, like the incidents in "Cold War", also show Jim's fatherly sweetness.
Jim found out about the group's secret in the two-part finale of the first season ("Code: Earth" and "False Start") as a result of his paranoid obsession with finding out the secret being hidden by the group since the beginning of the school year (he says so directly himself). He attempted to interrogate them several times during the first part of the finale, each time proving unsuccessful. The principal scolded him for the obsession each time (first by calling his accounts of the factory and Lyoko "absurd stories about secret plots and passages"), causing Jim's anger and frustration to build up. Finally, when Jeremie was forced to sneak into the dorms to retrieve his materialization program for Aelita, Jim chased him down and ended up injuring Jeremie's ankle (in fact, breaking it), after which he was fired by the principal for allowing his paranoia and rage to cause harm to a student. Unable to get to the factory by himself, Jeremie promised Jim to tell the principal everything under the condition that Jim would help him. Jim agreed, and helped Jeremie get to the factory. Jim's attitude and personality changed considerably at this point.
In the second part, after Aelita was materialized and the subsequent discovery of her link to the supercomputer, Xana materialized an army of Kankrelats and set them on the school. Jim helped to defend against the attack (first using a metal pipe, then a nail gun) until the tower was deactivated and a return trip took place, at which point time was reset to a point before Jim had started interrogating them. Jim showed up to interrogate them again and was again scolded by the principal. Remembering his earlier promise, Jeremie made 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. Another example of an encounter with a possessed victim in "Saint Valentine's Day" is interesting because there was no Return to the Past used in the episode, the standard procedure for making people forget such encounters.
Recently and currently, Jim has expressed a rather strong 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. He also expressed an interest in Yolande in the episode "Xana's Kiss", but this is only because Xana's polymorphic clone kissed him while disguised as her. Since she is engaged to be married, she shrugs off the interest. Neither relationship has been followed up on since then, or at least not followed up on directly. It can be assumed from these events that Jim's unmarried. Fans of the series often pair Jim up with Suzanne more than Yolande because there's more evidence to favor one over the other. She has been seen brown-nosing Jim hoping for dance lessons from him (or is it something more?). In the third season, it seems Suzanne is reciprocating these feelings more often. Also, he'll flirt with Yolande as well, which will create a love triangle between him, Suzanne, and Yolande in the upcoming fourth season.
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 is not 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 unconsious afterwards. Him being conscious may be due to the fact that he was in the woods at the time that the ghost left his body. He was also possessed in "Nobody in Particular"; not by Xana, but by Ulrich. Ulrich left Jim's body in the scanner room of the Factory, leaving him unconscious on the floor.
Jim's Many 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
- A worker at a psychiatric hospital (he mentions this after hearing Sissi's story)
- A forest ranger in Quebec
- A martial arts master, presumably in Pencak Silat (which he followed with another, though somewhat ridiculous, story of him using his skills in Silat to fight off a beaver; he has also said he had a black belt in the episode Teddygodzilla, presumably in Silat).
- 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 (most likely as an independent photographer after leaving military service)
- 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 somthing about the subject matter at hand. He also refuses to elaborate on his past life as a teenager as well.
Although never stated because he "doesn't want to talk about it", it's not inconceivable that he may have started out in the Marine Nationale, perhaps working with submarines.
Jim's running gag of "not wanting to talk about" all of his previous occupations may have resulted from an incident in the "Xana Awakens" series. During the first few minutes of "Xana Awakens Part 1", in which he is teaching Ulrich and Yumi in martial arts class, 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.
