| “ | Plankton: 1% evil, 99% hot gas. | „ |
| ~ Karen's scan of Plankton in "Plankton!" |
Karen Plankton is the secondary antagonist of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants franchise.
She is a waterproof computer who lives at the Chum Bucket. She's also the wife of Plankton. Throughout the series, Karen and Plankton are constantly scheming to steal the Krabby Patty formula from the latter's business rival/arch-nemesis, Mr. Krabs. Karen is typically the brains of the operation, coming up with complex plans to run Krabs out of business. However, Plankton has a tendency to take all of the credit for her ideas.
Karen and Plankton first appeared in the Season 1 episode, "Plankton!". In the Season 3 premiere, "The Algae's Always Greener", it was revealed that Karen is Plankton's wife. Since then, many episodes focusing on Plankton and Karen have involved their marriage.
She is voiced by Jill Talley. In the Broadway musical adaptation, she was portrayed by Stephanie Hsu.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
In General/Background[]
- While she can be loyal to Plankton and assist him in stealing the Krabby Patty's secret formula, she is often abusive towards him.
- Despite being an artificial intelligence, she clearly understands right from wrong in her actions and is overall less incompetent than Plankton. Additionally, she was made by Plankton before he turned evil so it wasn't like she was made to be evil.
- As elaborated in Plankton: The Movie, Karen has developed a solid moral agency to the point of outgrowing four brain chips which originally devised to shape her personality at some point, even aware of consequences of either or all of them being broken or removed. In fact, in her disagreement with her husband which started the whole fiasco, she deliberately removed her empathy chip so she wouldn't be held back by her ability to feel anything for anyone to a limited success. Despite this, Plankton managed to reason with her before placing said chip back to her system.
- While she has multiple comedic moments, such as her repeatedly calling Plankton "Sheldon", causing the latter's cousins to laugh at him in "Plankton's Army", and flirting with the cash register at the Krusty Krab in "Karen's Virus", her more logical and rational personality cause her to be taken more seriously than other villains in the series.
- She is at her most serious in Plankton: The Movie, where her goals to destroy all humans and become ruler of the universe are taken seriously by everyone in-universe.
- While SpongeBob SquarePants has high heinous standards, she stands out for attempting genocide on the human race and plotting to take over the entire universe.
SpongeBob SquarePants (including movies)[]
- In "F.U.N", she gives Plankton the idea to deceivingly befriend SpongeBob so he can take a Krabby Patty, and when Plankton accidentally befriends him for real, she forces Plankton to remember the formula without caring about their bond at all.
- In "Plankton's Army", upon finding out Plankton's first name is Sheldon, Karen constantly mentions Plankton's first name despite him not wanting her to use it.
- In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, she gives Plankton the idea to use Plan Z, implying she made all the Plans herself, making her responsible for Plankton stealing Neptune’s crown and framing Mr. Krabs as well as controlling and enslaving Bikini Bottom.
- While she is shown giddily crowd surfing as everybody cheers on SpongeBob, nothing stated she ever changed her ways, and she never receives karma for her act either.
- In "Enemy In-Law", she admits that she believes Plankton's a twerp and remorselessly mocks him when he told her what W.I.F.E stood for.
- In the same episode, she also threatened to zap Plankton just because he turned her off, then zapped him anyway when he told her he said nothing.
- In "Krabs à la Mode", she convinces Plankton to exploit the temperature situation in the Krusty Krab and steal a Krabby Patty while they are vulnerable.
- In "Bucket Sweet Bucket", she sarcastically called Plankton a genius for "fixing" the place after he clumsily launched himself where the Chum Bucket was.
- In "Krabby Road", she throws Plankton out of the Chum Bucket for being a jailbird.
- In "Truth or Square", she encouraged Plankton to steal the formula.
- In "One Coarse Meal", she mocks Plankton for his fear for whales without remorse, well knowing Plankton's ancestors were eaten by whales, showing she doesn't care for any of his ancestors.
- In "Shellback Shenanigans", she spies on SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs by using a telescope.
- In "Plankton's Good Eye", she encouraged Plankton to remain evil.
- In "Karen 2.0", she attempts to zap Plankton after finding out she was replaced, later calling Plankton a "miserable little bug" and putting the Plankton icon on her screen in the recycling.
- After getting a job as a cashier at the Krusty Krab, she irrationally explodes at Ivy for asking if he/she could have a Krabby Patty and a side of coral bits.
- In "Plankton Gets the Boot", she kicks Plankton out of the Chum Bucket, and later harshly punishes Plankton again just for calling her screensaver fat.
- In "Karen's Virus", she becomes delusional after getting a virus and shakes all of the money out of the Krusty Krab's cash register.
- In "Girls' Night Out", she plots with Sandy and Ms. Puff to trick Plankton into going into the Krusty Krab, without caring what harm Mr. Krabs would do to him.
- In "Lockdown for Love", she overreacts to Plankton's romance with him being interrupted and puts the entire Chum Bucket under lockdown.
- In "PL-1413", she refuses to help Plankton when the time capsule he fell into descends.
- In Plankton: The Movie, she takes over Bikini Bottom by becoming Hydra Karen after removing her empathy chip due to Plankton's abuse towards her for many years. She also intends to take over the world and even the universe by becoming Mega Karen, with it also being implied she will destroy every human on Earth.
Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years[]
- In "Midnight Snack Attack", she causes SpongeBob and Patrick to become monsters by helping them get snacks out of the vending machine.
- She causes it again in "Calling Some Monsters" by giving them cupcakes that transform them into monsters.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- She is On & Off as she sometimes commits heroic deeds, such as teaching all of the citizens Bikini Bottom (along with Sandy) after Plankton turned them all stupid.
- She genuinely loves her husband Plankton and her son Chip, and she has a genuine friendship with Sandy, Mrs. Puff and Pearl.
- Her actions in Kamp Koral of turning SpongeBob and Patrick into monsters were unintentional.
- While she did murder Karen 2.0 in a fight, it was justifiable to a degree, considering that Karen 2.0 showed a lack of concern for Plankton after running over and crushing him. However, Karen 2.0 only initially ran over Plankton on accident, so this is a minor prevention.
- She is sympathetic in Plankton: The Movie, as she did her best to impress her husband over the years, feeling heartbroken and betrayed by Plankton ignoring it, eventually leading to Karen's rampage that lasted until he genuinely apologized to her.
Trivia[]
- She used to be a Villainous Benchmark, as she initially failed the heinous standards to Plankton. However, after Plankton: The Movie released and allowed her to stand out enough thanks to her new crime of trying to take over the entire universe, she was approved as Inconsistently Heinous.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was originally going to end the show before Nickelodeon requested more SpongeBob SquarePants episodes due to the success of the first 3 seasons, alongside the one the film turned out to be. Had the show ended after the film as originally planned, she would have been fully redeemed and a bog-standard villain, meaning she would've been standard evil.
External Links[]
- Karen Plankton on the Villains Wiki
- Karen Plankton on the Heroes Wiki
- Karen Plankton on the Heroic Benchmark Wiki
- Karen Plankton on the Nickelodeon Wiki
- Karen Plankton on the Encyclopedia SpongeBobia Wiki
- Karen Plankton on the Wikipedia
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Canon Fanon Disambiguation Pages See Also | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
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TV Shows The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius The Penguins of Madagascar El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera T.U.F.F. Puppy Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids The Loud House Mysticons Others Movies Fanon See Also | |
 Inconsistently Heinous
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Animated TV Shows Fanon See Also | ||
