Malina is Kuzco's love interest in The Emperor's New School. She is the only major character from the franchise who was not introduced in the movies.
Personality
She is Kuzco's friend and love interest. However, he has a not-so-secret crush on her (he often calls her "a hottie hot hottie" or "the hottiest hot hottie in all of hottie-dom").
Malina is a cheerleader and the school council president who is very smart and prints the Academy's news scroll. She is also a straight-A student, which is apparently a requirement for the cheerleading squad (which is a twist to most stereotypical "airheaded" cheerleaders). She is driven to excel almost to the point of having a nervous breakdown if she doesn't do everything perfectly perfect (a prime example of a Type A personality), and has a very high moral mindset which the show uses as a foil against Kuzco's wild intentions.
Role in the series
Malina also has an incredibly strong sense of winning every contest she enters by any means, which first appeared in the episode "The Emperor's New Tuber" in which Malina was determined to fill all the spots on the Whack-A-Weasel arcade game on the high score board with her name (the last person on the list was Yzma). Also, both her devil and angel sides encouraged her to cheat in the potato growing contest despite her angel side was supposed to "tell her not to do it", in which she responded that she wasn't about to lose her perfect record. In one episode, it is shown that the Devil Malina is usually tied up by the Angel Malina which explains why she always does good.
In the 2nd season, Malina shows that she isn't as perfect as most people think. For example, Malina is sometimes bossy, and shows greed, mentioned by Kuzco in the episode "Gold Fool's". Malina is also very serious and has a serious face referred to as the 'The Stare' by Kuzco and Kronk.
In "Oops, All Doodles", it is revealed that Malina's doodles are drawn in a super deformed anime-style.
Malina is also set with a challenge before her: Get Kuzco to do the right thing. She tries to reason with him about cheating, going over-egoistic, hurting someone's feelings, superstitions that make no sense, the works. Malina spies on Kuzco because she wants to help him graduate and learn how to become a good emperor. Malina goes camping with her mom and her sister.
Malina is the smart side of her group of friends. She always has to show Kuzco the correct decision to take (though he rarely listens). Somehow, Malina seems to know what Kuzco is thinking and easily finds out what he does. (Example: She knows that Kuzco was calling her a "hottie-hot-hottie" in his mind).
As shown in the episode "The Mystery of Michu Pachu", she has a pink rabbit stuffed animal, named Floopy, similar to Kuzco's Wompy (Malina: I always take her on trips. She makes me feel safe. Kuzco: (to Kavo) Malina gone loco.). At the end of the episode, it shows a picture of Kuzco, Malina, Wompy, and Floopy.
Also in the episode "The Emperor's New Musical", at the end Kuzco and Malina kiss. She gave the comment, "Wow.", although she claims it was just acting.
She often also uses Kuzco's crush to get him to do the right thing. It has been proved that Malina likes Kuzco, for example in one episode she seems to look forward to a date with Kuzco that she had originally accepted reluctantly; in the episode "The Emperor's New Musical," she admitted that she was beginning to kinda like him. In "Everybody Loves Kuzco", after Kuzco was infected with a cutie potion, the two went on an actual date; afterward, she flirts with him and got ditched by Kuzco. In "Come Fly With Me," while Kuzco was spying on Malina, she does admit that she has feelings for him, but his ego annoys her at times and is why she helps him to change. Later in "Auction Action," Kuzco uses Yatta to make Malina, successfully, jealous. She in turn uses Kronk. Later in episode, during an argument between the two, she admits again that she does like Kuzco, much to her own annoyance as she then lowers her head stating, "Oh no, I can't believe I just told him that." In "Kuzcockazooza", it is stated that she does like Kuzco but annoyed that he doesn't think about others. Also in this episode, she gets jealous when she thinks he has a girlfriend. Eventually in the series finale "Graduation Groove", Kuzco and Malina officially become a couple and are seen going on a date, where they are shown to be embracing each other.
Gallery
Trivia
- The name "Malina" is of Hawaiian, Hebrew, or Slavic origin. The Hebrew meaning is "from the tower", the Hawaiian is "sooting" or "peace", and the Slavic is "raspberry".
- Malina is possibly inspired by Mata, Kuzco's planned love interest from the original film.
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