The Role of Teenagers in Codename: Kids Next Door

by Tako


One thing that's been bothering me recently is the role that teenagers play in C:KND. Or rather, which side they work for. Most of them, like Chad and Cree, for some reason, immediately began working under an adult to oppose kids. To me, this doesn't make any sense. I always thought that teenagers would form a third faction, and that all three factions (Kids, Teenagers, and Adults) would all oppose each other.

If you think about it, teenagers are probably LESS likely to work with adults. They're older, taller, and more independent than kids, but they are still required to listen to adults. I think that would make them more resentful of adults than kids are. In fact, the common teenager stereotype is that they're rebellious and have to be grounded a lot. Even if that stereotype is not true, I still see it as more logical that teenagers, after they have gotten a hint of power, would like more, and they're not going to get any from kids (although they might feel better by pushing kids around).

I think the system would work best if the only thing kids hated more than adults were teenagers, and the only thing teenagers hated more than kids were adults, and the only thing adults hated more than teenagers were kids. Or something like that. I mean, teenagers think that kids are little brats, but teenagers also don't get along with adults. Rather than forming an alliance with adults (or kids), I think it would be better if teenagers just worked independently.

This would also solve another thing that's been bugging me. Once kids become thirteen, they side with the adults. What's the purpose of the Kids Next Door Organization then? To train kids to have martial arts skills so that they'll side with the adults and use those skills against them? That's really, um... unproductive. And kids really can't trust anybody. Who knows when a kid will turn on them? Maybe you can't afford to decommission everyone as late as thirteen, because they might turn on the organization before their thirteenth birthday (like with Numbuh 12) and help the adults. An organization that can't trust its more experienced, senior members doesn't seem like a very stable one, and an organization that trains people for their enemy doesn't seem like a very productive one. So, that makes the Kids Next Door Organization basically a big joke.

So, what would solve that problem? Well, if the Kids Next Door Organization didn't produce enemies. Instead, if they instill in all of their operatives a feeling of rebelliousness, which they would retain even when they became teenagers, then they wouldn't be training enemies. The teenagers would continue the fight against adults, but they'd quit the Kids Next Door and pick on kids as well. That seems to me to be a better way to handle the teenagers and give the organization some purpose.


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