"I'd rather not talk about it."

–Jim's catchphrase whenever he wants to avoid talking about his past life.

Jim Morales is the strict but lovable Physical Education teacher at Kadic Academy, as well as the campus supervisor, disciplinarian, health teacher, and martial arts instructor. 

Appearance

Jim is an adult male, in his mid-thirties, and characterized by his red sweatshirt and sweatpants. He is somewhat overweight with a paunchy belly but still physically fit, evident by his hairy muscular arms. He has some light stubble, a bandage on his left cheek and almost always wears a headband, which holds up his brown hair in a somewhat spiky hairstyle. He also wears a white T-shirt and dark sneakers.

Personality

Jim's tough-guy exterior accurately shows off his strictness and no-nonsense attitude when it comes to the students of Kadic. He is constantly seen trying to enforce the rules of the school, even going out of his way to catch troublemakers in the act. He is also very tough on the students in his gym class and demands they always give it their all. His drill sergeant or coach-like way of teaching shows just how passionate he is for sports, health and physical aptitude.

Unfortunately for Jim, however, he is also considered to be somewhat of a joke by most of the students at Kadic, with his drill sergeant-like attitude really being a cover for absolutely useless he truly is. His occasional clumsiness, odd mannerisms, and overly-dramatic way of talking can quickly shatter any semblance of intimidation from most of the students, and it is also seen in Nobody in Particular that most of the student body is not very afraid of him.

This does not mean they do not respect and care for him, however. Jim cares about his students greatly, showing a gentle, paternal side, and is willing to risk his life in order to help them if necessary. He tried to tell stories to comfort the children in Cold War, and single-handedly fought against swarms of Kankrelats brought on Earth in False Start. Over the years he has generated a sort of personal friendship with many of his students, including the Lyoko Warriors, and is also admired by the students for his surprisingly vast array of talents. The most notable of these is his experience from his short-lived disco career, which (as seen in William Returns) quickly turned him into a school celebrity. However, unfortunately these actions have not convinced the Lyoko Warriors to make him a fellow Warrior, as his memories are erased by a Return to the Past each time he does help them. Why they do this is not known, although it is shown that Jeremie shows a lot of hate for Jim each time he does return trips.

In everyday life Jim is known for his occasional boasting. He has a strong moral code as well. In Code: Earth he accidentally made Jeremie hurt while trying to discover Jeremie's secret, and admitted to Jeremie that he deserved to be fired because of it. He prefers if his friends (including the Lyoko Warriors at one point) call him "Jimbo", which is what he claims his friends call him. Jim's favorite color is pink, and his cell phone is covered in gemstones and sparkles.

Biography

In X.A.N.A. Awakens, Part 1, he tells Ulrich and Yumi an embarrassing story about himself. He thinks he was brave and clever but Ulrich and Yumi laughed. Ulrich then says "Honestly, I think you would've been better not talking about it." This supposedly started the famous, "I'd Rather Not Talk About It" saying.

In Teddygozilla, he yells at Milly and Tamiya for being in the tool shed, which has rusty and sharp tools. He tells them the dangers of the tools for a couple of "little girls" like them. He then grounded the two girls from attending the school dance when Milly snaps at him and throws a fit, despite Milly being the only one acting inappropriately, and soon he's attacked by Milly's teddy bear controlled by X.A.N.A. due to him yelling at the girls, which scares him.

Twice in the series, Jim has been possessed by X.A.N.A.. The first time was in Final Mix and the second time was in Lyoko Minus One. While being possessed, Jim has shown to have super strength, super durability, super speed and leaping power, shooting lightning out of his fingertips (blue in his first possession, purple in his second possession), and the unique ability to split himself into two forms.

In Final Mix, he is possessed while trying to put the students' final exams away to Mrs. Hertz locker, and ties up Jeremie in his room and electrocutes Aelita while she was on the DJ board, and pretended to take her to the infirmary, but instead took her to the Factory where he virtualized her to the Desert Sector so the Scyphozoa could steal her memory. Jeremie, however, was able to get Kiwi to get Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich to follow him back to Jeremie's room, and the group went to the Factory, where Odd and Ulrich stayed back to fight Jim, who then split himself into two to make things worse for them. He was eventually knocked out, but later got down to the lab, took brief control over the Supercomputer to manually devirtualize Odd, defeated Yumi, and attempted to attack Jeremie, but before he could do any damage, Aelita deactivates the tower, freeing Jim of X.A.N.A.'s control, and in a rare moment, doesn't pass out after being xanafied, but loses his memory of the incident when Jeremie launches a return to the past.

In Lyoko Minus One, he along with Mrs. Hertz and every student from Yumi's class got possessed by X.A.N.A. during a field trip, and fought with Yumi, chasing her through the woods, and eventually caught up to her where Ulrich and William came to her rescue. Though they were able to beat up the possessed students, they were unable to defeat Jim and Hertz, who knocked out William and proceeded to try and kill Ulrich and Yumi, but then passed out and got released from the possession after the Forest Sector (where the activated tower lay) got deleted by a X.A.N.A.-possessed Aelita.

He also suffered related attacks, such as getting bitten by a X.A.N.A.-fied Kiwi and turning into a zombie in Attack of the Zombies, and going crazy by X.A.N.A. taking over the phone network and partially possessing him with a spectre in Bad Connection, though he doesn't gain any powers from this possession and maintains most of his personality other than a desire to kill Odd and Sissi. 

In Nobody in Particular, Jim also got possessed by Ulrich in spectre form after he accidentally got separated from his body. Here, he managed to use Jim as a way of convincing Mr. Delmas, Mrs. Hertz, and the other teachers into letting Ulrich stay in class with Odd, Jeremie and Aelita instead in remedial class.

In Echoes, after the Lyoko Warriors shut down the supercomputer, they bump into Jim who asks what they were doing, and after Odd answers him, Jim reveals he also gave up his teenage dreams to become an adult, and when Odd asks him if he's really an adult, Jim as usual says he'd rather not talk about it.

Job at Kadic

Jim is shown to be much more than just the school's Physical Education teacher, this is a list of jobs Jim has had at the school.

• He is shown to be the school's handyman, often having to use his strength to move large items and fix doors and windows.
• Jim is the campus supervisor and is in charge of student discipline, and is very strict (most of the time) to students who break the rules.
• Jim is shown to be the health teacher in at least one episode.
• He was also the school's librarian in at least three episodes.
• Jim is also the school's swim coach as a part of PE classes.
• He was the coach of the school's soccer team for one time in Zero Gravity Zone. 

List of Jobs / Skills and Abilities

Starting in the second season, as a running gag, Jim has claimed to have held many jobs over the course of his life. Most of these jobs he would rather not talk about.

Jobs

• United States Navy Seal trainer: He has said this on many different occasions. He has been shown to be a capable fighter and has held his own against a spectre.
  • It should be noted there is no such thing as a "United States Navy Seals Trainer" and that means he was mostly a Drill Sergeant for the Navy Sea, Air and Land teams (Seals). An interesting point, however, is the fact that like many Special Forces regiments, the United States Navy Seals are trained by active duty seals, meaning Jim was a Navy Seal. 
  • When he saluted to the police officer in A Bad Turn, he gave his name, rank, and serial number. For those who are unfamiliar with the military, the Geneva Convention says that a captured soldier is supposed to give name, rank, and serial number when captured.
• In Exploration, Jim briefly mentions a job he had working in the sewers.
• In a deleted scene for Final Mix, Jim mentions that he was a mover.^[1]
• Jim speaks of his time as a volunteer test subject for space exploration in Cold War; he talks about it in the form of a story to the children.
• A swimming lesson in Déjà Vu reminds Jim of the time he used to be a salvage diver.
• In Tip-Top Shape, Jim is reminded of the time he worked in a psychiatric hospital.
• In Straight to Heart, it is mentioned that Jim's desire to form a school basketball team may be due to his past as a ball-player.
  • In the same episode, Odd discovers Jim's work as the star of a 1970s-style disco film, entitled Paco, The King of Disco.
• In a deleted scene for Lyoko Minus One, Jim brings up his time as a pilot in the French Air Force.^[2]
• In False Lead, Jim mentions his experience as both a secret service agent and a TV cameraman.
• In The Pretender, Jim recalls his time as an investigator of paranormal phenomena for a highly special secret-service section. He also mentions his time there was a highly classified defense secret.
• In Temporary Insanity, Jim mentions the time he wrote a one-act/one-scene play.
• In Nobody in Particular, it is said Jim once claimed to have been a professional ballroom dancer in Buenos Aires.
• In Double Trouble, Jim describes his time as a war photographer. In the same episode he also claims to have been a safecracker, before quickly changing his mind and instead saying 'locksmith.'
• In Final Round, Jim reveals he was a roller derby champion in the 70s and when Ulrich asks if he'd "rather not talk about it" Jim says he would love to but he couldn't because he was hosting the skateboard tournament.
• In Opening Act, Jim mentions both his time as a Special Forces trooper, and the time he fought against 'hurricane windstorm back in '94.'
• In Wreck Room, Jim says he was an interstate Ping-Pong (Table Tennis) champion, and that he earned the nickname 'the killer racket.' Jim also mentioned he would have been happy to talk about it for once.
• In Skidbladnir, Jim discusses his time as a math teacher in the Tropics. He also mentions multiple survival scenarios, including a time when he was forced to bail out during a storm in the North Atlantic and a time when he was stranded alone in the jungle with nothing but a cigarette lighter.
• In Maiden Voyage, Jim discusses the time he used to fight forest fires.
• The episode I'd Rather Not Talk About It focuses more on Jim's past than any other. Many careers are mentioned or alluded to, including scuba diver, Marines/Special Forces, N.A.S.A. space suit test dummy, and a secret service agent. He also mentions the time he received a medal from the president, the time he hunted Quebec forest arsonists, the time he went to Buenos Aires 'with his cameras', and the time he orbited the Earth (which he referred to as a 'surprise'). Jim also reveals that before any of this, his initial focus was on completing his training to become a P.E. teacher.
  • Jim tells this as a story to the children, and it is implied all of these jobs are connected somehow but the episode's structure makes it difficult to ascertain. The story is told through still-images, both from how Jim imagines them in a realistic style and how the gang imagines them in a "fun manga style" according to the script.^[3] It's left ambiguous on which one is more accurate.
• In a deleted scene for Dog Day Afternoon, he mentions he was a track sprinter and claims to have broken a world record in his brother-in-law's garden.^[4]
• In Suspicions, Jim claims to have toured with a band called The Rocking Stones in Europe.
• In The Warrior Awakens, Jim mentions encounters with numerous wild animals, including a particularly dangerous fight involving fifteen tigers in Burma.
  • However, it is also shown in this episode that Jim enjoys watching nature documentaries, and that he makes a point of hiding this from the students. This may imply Jim is 'borrowing' details of his stories from TV.
• In a deleted scene for Obstinacy Jim talks about how he was a junior champion in sumo wrestling in his youth. He was forced to choose between it or ping-pong, and ultimately decided on ping-pong since he already had a racket. He also mentions that he was a pole vaulter.^[5]

According to head writer Sophie Decroisette on whether Jim actually had all these jobs:

"We don’t know. This is a mystery. For some, this is probably the case. Others are certainly exaggerations (or fantasies). We wanted this to remain unclear. At the beginning, it was just a running gag. [...] After a while, we had so many jobs to handle that we found it interesting to write an episode on this matter. But the jobs themselves, he probably practiced them, but he probably never was a secret agent, because there is an episode where he messes up [...] False Lead [...] Clearly, he isn’t very good at being a secret agent… Or even a cameraman. [...] But we really don’t know. The idea was to remain very mysterious about this."^[6]

Skills

• Jim is a decent fighter for the most part in the main series and was able to hold his own for a while against a polymorphic clone. He teaches Pencak Silat classes at the school, so he is thus a master of that martial art.
• Jim is shown to be an excellent shot, as evidenced by the fact he was pretty adept at killing Kankrelats in False Start, with a nail gun. 
• Jim has beaten Ulrich in a one on one fight, saying to him that he still has much to learn.
• Jim has trained the team for at least a week in Navy Seal boot camp (minus the swimming), although it looked closer to basic boot camp. 
• Jim is shown to be excellent at hiking, swimming, survival, and any outdoor activity.
• Jim is shown to have a basic idea of how the school's electrical system works, in X.A.N.A. 2.0.
• Jim can also play trombone, as demonstrated when he tried to join the Pop Rock Progressives.
• In spite of his penchant for injury coupled with his age and physique, Jim has a surprising amount of resilience and stamina, as shown when he was not even winded from training with the Lyoko Warriors.

Relationship with the Characters

Lyoko Warriors

• Jeremie Belpois: In the first season, he was very suspicious of Jeremie and his friends because they kept disappearing during classes. By the end of Season 1, Jim made it his mission to find out his secret, which lead to him being fired when he accidentally injured Jeremie. Jim is shown to be nicer to Jeremie in later seasons, but not by much. In the episode I'd Rather Not Talk About It, he and Jeremie bond while hiding from X.A.N.A.'s boar and Jim inspires Jeremie to try to become stronger. He was impressed with how Jeremie was able to tend wounds and said to him that he has guts and he would never left his men under fire.
• Ulrich Stern: He is Jim's favorite of the group; this is most likely because Ulrich is a great athlete and is a great soccer player. 
• Aelita Schaeffer: When Aelita first came into the world and the supercomputer was shut off, she fainted and Jim used his training to make sure she was safe. When Sissi told him she found crying Aelita he took her back to her room. However he has given Aelita detentions for cutting class and being up past curfew when she should be asleep in her bed though.
• Odd Della Robbia: He tends to have a love/hate relationship with Odd. He finds Odd's jokes hilarious when they aren't aimed at him, but hates the fact that he is a jokester and pranks him. Jim was upset when Odd tried to blackmail him into putting him back with his friends but later tells Jim he won't do it, which touches Jim's heart and causes him to convince Mr. Delmas into doing it. He is shown to have a collection of Odd's tests because Odd turns them into origami. This relationship was briefly complicated with the minor arc with Jim's short film Paco, The King of Disco.
• William Dunbar: Jim is shown to be impressed with William's athletic stature, but hates the fact that he is a "bad boy" and is always breaking school rules. 
• Yumi Ishiyama: Jim is shown to be very fond of Yumi in most episodes, but will still be hard on her if she breaks the rules.

Faculty and Staff

• Mrs. Hertz and Jim have an on and off relationship. In most episodes, Jim is flirting with her, or she is flirting with him. She has threatened him on numerous occasions for what would be harassment. However, they both share an appreciation for the outdoors. 
• Jim once had a crush on to the school nurse Yolanda in X.A.N.A.'s Kiss, especially because a polymorphic clone with her appearance kissed him on the cheek to his delight, which led to him going to the infirmary to give her a flower, which she, although flattered, declined because she was already engaged. When Jim asked her why she kissed him, Yolanda started thinking he was ill and asked to check out his temperature, much to Jim's disappointment. Aside from a small hint in Tidal Wave, Jim has not shown much interest in her since.
• Mr. Delmas and Jim generally get along well. Mr. Delmas is shown to have a good amount of faith in Jim and usually trusts his judgment, despite how he is somewhat forgetful. Mr. Delmas does fire Jim after he became sick and tired of Jim being convinced that Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were up to something, and accidentally injuring Jeremie. However, this is erased due to a Return to the Past. In A Space Oddity, during a surprise room inspection, when the two are checking out Sissi's room, Jim notices some old photos of Principal Delmas partying, much to Jim's amusement and Delmas' annoyance.

Students

• In general
  • Most students either like or hate Jim. This is due to him being very tough on trouble makers. A large amount of the girls in the school love the fact he used to be a disco dancer. Most of the younger students look to Jim for guidance when they are in danger. Jim also cares deeply about the students, and almost dies fighting the Kankrelats with a Nail-Gun in False Start. Some girl students fawn over Jim due to his previous movie role as Paco in Paco, The King of Disco.
• Sissi Delmas
  • Jim is usually very hard on her, due to her being the Headmaster's daughter and will not tolerate any insubordination from her. However, he has shown to care for her on at least a few occasions.

Etymology

Jim is a diminutive of the English given name James, itself deriving from the dialectal variant of the Hebrew name Ya'aqov (יעקב), which is also the origin of the name Jacob. Morales (spelled Moralès in the French version of the series) is a surname of Spanish origin, derived from the Spanish words mora, moral, or morera, all meaning mulberry. The name originally referred to people who lived near mulberry bushes.

In English, "Jim" is a homophone to Gym, which is the class he teaches.

Appearances

Season 1

• X.A.N.A. Awakens
• Teddygozilla
• Seeing Is Believing
• Holiday in the Fog
• Log Book
• Big Bug
• Cruel Dilemma
• Image Problem
• Satellite
• The Girl of the Dreams
• Plagued
• Swarming Attack
• Just in Time
• The Trap (voice only)
• Claustrophobia
• Amnesia
• Frontier
• The Robots
• Zero Gravity Zone
• Routine
• Rock Bottom?
• Ghost Channel
• Code: Earth
• False Start

Season 2

• New Order
• Uncharted Territory
• Exploration
• Mister Pück
• Saint Valentine's Day
• Final Mix
• The Chips Are Down
• Marabounta
• A Bad Turn
• Attack of the Zombies
• Ultimatum
• X.A.N.A.'s Kiss
• Vertigo
• Cold War
• Déjà Vu
• Tip-Top Shape
• Is Anybody Out There?
• Contact
• The Key

Season 3

• Every episode

Season 4

• William Returns
• Double Take
• Opening Act
• Wreck Room
• Skidbladnir
• Maiden Voyage
• Replika
• I'd Rather Not Talk About It
• Hot Shower
• The Lake
• Lab Rat
• Bragging Rights
• Dog Day Afternoon
• A Lack of Goodwill
• Hard Luck
• Guided Missile
• Canine Conundrum
• A Space Oddity
• Cousins Once Removed
• Wrong Exposure
• Bad Connection
• Down to Earth
• Fight to the Finish
• Echoes

Evolution

• X.A.N.A. 2.0
• Cortex
• Spectromania
• Rivalry
• Suspicions
• Countdown
• How to Fool X.A.N.A.
• The Warrior Awakens
• Rendezvous
• Chaos at Kadic
• Friday the 13th
• The Codeless
• An Assured Professional Future
• Obstinacy
• The Trap
• Espionage
• False Pretenses
• Mutiny
• Temporal Paradox
• Ultimate Mission

Appearances in other Media

Video Games

• Get Ready to Virtualize
• Fall of X.A.N.A.
• Quest for Infinity

Trivia

• In the script for Rock Bottom?, Jim's last name was originally Spinalunga.^[7]
• Jim's catchphrase was originally "I don't want to talk about it" in the scripts for season 2.^[8]
• In the French version, characters very rarely refer to Jim by his first name unlike the dub, usually calling him either "Mr. Morales", "Mr. Jim" or just "sir".^[9] When Jim asks the group to call him by the nickname "Jimbo" in False Start, in the French version he actually asks them to call him by his first name.
• Jim has a second recurring gag in the French version only where he accidentally turns the phrase "play who's smarter" into something like "play who's stupider" and says he never loses, essentially saying he's the stupider one.^[10]
  • More examples of Jim's uselessness and stupidity are in episodes like Cold War.
• In the show's graphic bible used during Season 1, Jim was originally envisioned as being in his thirties.^[11] This was seemingly abandoned by Season 3, as Jim is shown as an adult in Paco, The King of Disco and he mentions being a roller derby champ in the 70s (60s in the French version).^[12]
  • The bible also expands on the idea of Jim being suspicious of the group, which is mainly only touched on in Frontier and the Season 1 finale:
    "Jim's mission is to prove that the kids are sneaking out of the dormitory. To do this, he's constantly devising new traps or increasing the number of night-time monitoring posts. The result of all this energy is invariably nothing.
    Outdone by the kids' intelligence, Jim always arrives too late. The school's management sees his claims as just rambling, and he even doubts the usefulness of his mission."
• Jim collects the origami Odd makes out of his tests, as shown in Final Mix.
• In Straight to Heart, Jim reveals he had blond curly hair when he was young. This could be either a spur-of-the-moment remark or just Jim's usual incoherent rambling.
• In Contact, Romain Le Goff played the role of Jim in Odd's movie, Natural Grandeur. Jim himself was very pleased with Romain's portrayal.
• There are two official explanations for Jim's ever-present bandage:
  • In a deleted scene for Uncharted Territory, it's shown to be from Jim cutting himself while shaving.^[13]
  • The Code Lyoko Evolution short film Why Does Jim Morales Have a Bandage on His Cheek? has another explanation: every morning, Jim knocks on the wall to cause his alarm clock to stop ringing, until a large book falls from a shelf above him, crashing onto his cheekbone.

• In the French version of Code Lyoko, he is voiced by Frederic Meaux. In European Portuguese, he was played by Quimbé.
• In the Polish version of both the original series and Evolution, he was voiced by Robert Tondera.
• In the Serbian version, he is voiced by Srđan Jovanović.
• In both Greek versions, he's voiced by Φώτης Πετρίδης.

Galleries

>> More images of Jim in Season 1

>> More images of Jim in Season 2

>> More images of Jim in Season 3

>> More images of Jim in Season 4

>> More images of Jim in Evolution

References

v · d · e List of characters
Lyoko Warriors	Jeremie Belpois William Dunbar Yumi Ishiyama Odd Della Robbia Aelita Schaeffer Ulrich Stern
Secondary characters	Johnny Cleary Sissi Delmas Tamiya Diop Hiroki Ishiyama Takeho and Akiko Ishiyama Herb Pichon Nicolas Poliakoff Milly Solovieff Kiwi
Kadic Faculty	Principal Delmas Suzanne Hertz Franz Hopper Jim Morales Yolanda Perraudin Rosa Petitjean
Villains	Monsters X.A.N.A. X.A.N.A. William
Minor Characters	Patrick Belpois Mathias Burrel Emily LeDuc Theo Gauthier Claire Girard Romain Le Goff Heidi Klinger Samantha Knight Jean-Baptiste Pujol Brynja Heringsdötir Subdigitals Taelia Magali de Vasseur
Evolution characters	Laura Gauthier Anthea Schaeffer Samantha Suares Professor Tyron Ninjas
Chronicles characters	Eva Skinner
Other Characters	X.A.N.A. Aelita X.A.N.A. Franz Hopper X.A.N.A. Odd X.A.N.A. Ulrich X.A.N.A. Anthea Schaeffer X.A.N.A. Yumi Aelita Clone Jeremie Clone William Clone