Karen with her husband.
Karen Plankton is the former secondary antagonist and anti-heroine of SpongeBob SquarePants. She is voiced by Jill Talley. She was named after Karen Hillenburg, the show's late creator's wife. She also serves as the main antagonist of Plankton: The Movie.
Karen is a sentient waterproof computer who is the co-owner of the Chum Bucket, and is the wife of Plankton. She lives in the Chum Bucket laboratory. She and Plankton are constantly scheming to steal Mr. Krabs' secret formula for Krabby Patties. Karen is typically the brains of the operation, coming up with complex plans to run Krabs out of business, although Plankton tends to take all the credit for them.
In the show's earliest seasons, Karen always appeared on an immobile computer screen that was stationed in the Chum Bucket. From the first movie onward, Karen has a mobile form that allows her to leave the Chum Bucket and interact with other characters. Along with Plankton, she was officially promoted to the main cast in the credits of the first movie.
Appearance
Toys of Karen and Plankton
Karen is seen in two main forms: a big supercomputer on one wall of the Chum Bucket laboratory, and a portable computer with wheels, first seen in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Her mobile form is currently the most common one. In both forms, she is mainly a blue-bordered black screen with a neon green line that moves whenever she talks. Her mobile form has detachable robotic arms, which are almost always present from the tenth season onward.
In the first and third film, as well as on various promotional images, Karen is silver instead of blue.
Biography
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
In the film, Karen reminds Plankton of "Plan Z," the final evil plan in the Chum Bucket filing cabinet. It involves stealing King Neptune's crown to frame Mr. Krabs as a thief. Plankton enacts the plan, and Mr. Krabs is frozen in ice by King Neptune. With Mr. Krabs frozen, Plankton successfully steals the Krabby Patty secret formula. The Chum Bucket starts selling Krabby Patties, and Karen works in the kitchen, monitoring the production of Krabby Patties on a conveyor belt.
However, Karen tells Plankton that Plan Z has a hole: if SpongeBob and Patrick find the crown, Neptune will discover that Plankton is the true thief. However, Plankton tells her that he hired a killer named Dennis to get rid of them.
Eventually, the Chum Bucket sells bucket-shaped helmets to all of its customers. Plankton presses a button on Karen to activate mind control in the Bikini Bottomites' helmets, which allows him to capture and enslave the city. While the city is under Plankton's control, Karen is seen being treated like a queen.
At the end of the film, SpongeBob frees everyone with rock and roll and saves Mr. Krabs. During SpongeBob's song, Karen is shown to have fun as well, much to Plankton's dismay. She crowd-surfs and laughs along with the freed citizens of Bikini Bottom.
Personality
Karen is Plankton's own creation, which he built from a calculator. He designed her to be smart, snarky, compassionate, and evil like him. She was Plankton's first invention when he was in grade school. He was an outcast who always felt alone, so he created Karen to be his friend. At first, their relationship was very positive, and Karen always stood up for Plankton. When Plankton got older, he and Karen became romantically involved, and they married.
When Plankton decided to become a villain, Karen did as well. She often comes up with plans for Plankton to steal the Krabby Patty formula. In the show's middle seasons, Plankton and Karen tended to bicker and argue when their plans failed. However, modern episodes have shown a much more positive side to their relationship. They have regular dates (such as in "Lockdown for Love") and Plankton even celebrates Karen's birthday by taking her out to dance (in "Tango Tangle"). Karen's system is built into most of Plankton's machines, including the Chum Bucket itself, so that she and Plankton can always be in touch. As said in the episode "Single Cell Anniversary," Karen is a Mark II Surplus UNIVAC with 256 gigabytes of random-access memory.
Karen has many jobs at the Chum Bucket, including busser, chef and cashier. She also tends to stay more focused than Plankton on their mission of stealing Krabs' formula. Despite being built by Plankton (as well as constantly assisting him), Karen has shown to have a very kindhearted side to her. She does occasionally blow up on Plankton, but he usually is in the wrong. Karen often reminds him to stay on task and encourages him to keep going when he loses confidence. She is a friend of Sandy Cheeks, who is also intelligent and interested in science. In earlier episodes, Karen had a habit of addressing SpongeBob as "the SpongeBob."
Trivia
- In the first three seasons and the first film, Karen had noticeably less personality and more limited sentience.
- Her voice actress, Jill Talley, is married to SpongeBob's voice actor, Tom Kenny.
- Karen's name is sometimes misspelled as an acronym ("K.A.R.E.N.") on merchandise. However it is just her name, and does not stand for anything.
Gallery
External links
- ↑ SpongeBob SquarePants Annual by Egmont Books UK