Karbie

Karbie is the het ship between Ken Carson and Barbie Roberts from the Barbie and Toy Story fandoms.

Canon
Ken was first introduced on March 11, 1961 as Barbie's boyfriend. Since Barbie was introduced on March 9, 1959, that means Barbie spend exactly two years and two days without a man. Ken was not designed to appeal to male audiences, rather he was supposed to be an "ideal husband" to young girls and was used as a fashion doll. In the doll-line, Barbie and Ken's relationship was fairly harmonious, until Mattel had the idea to break them up in 2004 as a publicity stunt, introducing Barbie's new boyfriend Blaine. Blaine dolls didn't sell nearly as well, so the break-up didn't last. Tie-in media generally had Barbie playing a different character with a different love interest each time and rarely focused on her relationship with Ken, that is until 2012, where they released two movies that focus on their relationship extensively back-to-back.

Direct-to-DVD movies
In "Barbie in a Fashion Fairytale", just as Barbie was fired from her adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea", she gets a call from "Ken". Though she's initially happy, until she hears that he wants to break up with her and told her that over the phone. After losing her job and her reputation and her boyfriend all in the same day, Barbie realizes that there's nothing holding her in the United States and decides to visit her aunt Millicent in France to take a break. When Barbie's friends see Ken with Raquelle on the next day, they confront him about breaking up with Barbie over the phone. Ken is utterly confused, only when he hears the words he supposedly used does he realize that Raquelle took the audio recording from the "script" she asked him to read for her and used that to sabotage his relationship with Barbie. Upon finding out that Barbie is in France, Ken wastes no time and tries to make his way there all on his own. After a lot of misfortune, including ripping his pants, Ken finally makes his way to Millicent's and approaches Barbie on the catwalk. Barbie is happy to see him and he tells her the truth about what happened, she apologizes about how rash her decision was. Ken forgives her and joins her, her aunt and her new friend Alice on their way to a gala.

In "Barbie: A Fairy Secret", just as Barbie and Ken enjoy the success of Barbie's new movie, Ken gets kidnapped by the love-crazed fairy princess Graciella. Barbie's stylist friends then reveal that they are also fairies and offer to take Barbie and Raquelle to Gloss Angeles. Meanwhile, Ken has to prove himself to be Graciella's husband while competing with her lover Zane, simultaneously having to avoid getting killed or seriously hurt by Zane and having to try and avoid Graciella's advances towards him. Upon learning that when a human marries a fairy, the human will not be able to leave Gloss Angeles, Barbie and Raquelle gain more motivation to crash Graciella's wedding and save Ken. But when they finally reach him, Graciella freezes all of them, including Ken, in place and imprisons Barbie and her friends, while trying to go on with the wedding by putting Ken in chains. When Barbie and Raquelle escape their imprisonment after assuring their friendship with one another, they finally reach Ken and find out that Graciella never loved Ken in the first place, she was under a love potion. Coming back to her senses, Graciella allows Barbie, Ken and Raquelle to return to the human world, but also has their memories erased. Regardless, Raquelle and Barbie are still friends and she finally respects Ken being Barbie's boyfriend, refusing to persue him anymore.

Toy Story 3
Barbie was one of Molly Davis' toys, she donated her to Sunnyside after growing bored with her. There, she met Ken and was instantly attracted to him, with Ken claiming that toys who are love interests in supplementary material have natural attraction to one another. Barbie was initially happy with Ken and enjoyed seeing his wardrobe, but then found out about the shadier side of him after hearing about Buzz Lightyear being turned against his friends and decided to interrogate Ken to find out what Lotso and his gang did to Buzz. "Torturing" Ken via destroying his wardrobe, she gets a clue out of him. So she uses his space suit, one of the only outfits she didn't destroy, to disguise herself as him and then uses her newfound information to help Woody and the rest of Andy's toys to try and turn Buzz back to normal. Before confronting the evil Lotso, Ken was humbled by Barbie's actions and actually saves her from falling into a dumpster along with Andy's toys. In the credits, Barbie and Ken work alongside the other toys at Sunnyside to try and improve the situation there after Lotso's defeat.

Fanon
Karbie is an iconic couple, no doubt about it. However, Ken had the reputation of being somewhat bland, not that any of the Barbie characters were masterpieces of character writing, mind you. The Direct-to-DVD movies helped getting a lovable, dorkier side out of the character, and many often refer to Barbie and Ken as a "girlboss" and "malewife" respectively. Many point out that, while Barbie had many, many different professions over the years, Ken's usual role in the commercials was mainly to stand there and look hot, leading to many thinking that Ken is just Barbie's trophy husband. Additionally, the new continuity initially making Barbie and Ken merely friends (with feelings on Ken's side) had many actually rooting for the relationship. While Barbie fans will always prefer the femslash ships, most laymen will think of Karbie first when it comes to the "most beloved couple in the franchise".

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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