Buttercup (The Powerpuff Girls Classics)

The classic version of Buttercup is a recurring character and one out of the three protagonists and the main tritagonist of the American animated superhero television series The Powerpuff Girls created by animator Craig McCracken for the Cartoon Network. Buttercup is along with her sisters Blossom and Bubbles. She's the Toughest Fighter; she's the bravest, most headstrong of the superhero trio.

Original series
Referred to in the ending theme as "the toughest fighter," she is the group's tough member and is easily enraged. Sometimes this, and her aggression get the better of her simultaneously, making her a little reckless and stubborn (but she overcame it in "Makes Zen To Me").

She also showed a greedy side in "Moral Decay," to which she knocked out teeth for the sole purpose of obtaining money. She has shown these sides, and a softer side in several episodes. For example, in the episode "Cover Up," she had a soft green blanket that she was obsessed with that she would hug that gave her the confidence to be a better fighter, and she is quite protective over her sisters. In "The Rowdyruff Boys," she has a tremendous disdain for resorting to kissing the boys in order to eliminate them, though willingly kisses a boy ridden with what she feared to be "cooties" in the episode "Cootie Gras".

In the episode "Nuthin Special," her special "ability" is revealed to be the ability to curl her tongue (Blossom and Bubbles cannot do this, nor can anyone else in Townsville). She possesses a violent and mean streak not displayed by her sisters. She is also shown to bully on her fellow classmate (Elmer Sglue, who becomes a mutant paste eater, which make both Blossom and Bubbles force her to apologize to him).

During the birth of the girls in The Powerpuff Girls Movie, she was initially shown to look extremely happy with wide eyes and an open mouthed smile up to the point where, last of the three girls, Professor Utonium said he would name her Buttercup because, like both of her sisters' names, it also begins with a B. Once she heard this, Buttercup immediately crossed her arms and pouted, "Hmph!"; this may explain her tough nature.

It is also revealed in the film that Buttercup inspired the other girls to use their powers to fight crime and the forces of evil after she knocks down Rocko Socko who caused her to lose her temper with one punch; ironically, she initially apologized profusely for her actions, thinking she would get in trouble with everyone.

Her greatest dislike of all time is admitting defeat, because of this, the Powerpuff Girls were able to achieve victory against the Rowdyruff Boys in "The Boys are Back in Town". She also stated in an interview for the Powerpuff Girls Movie that through the rough fights, she never worries about injuries at all.

The Powerpuff Girls Z
Kaoru transforms by saying "Powered Buttercup." She is known at school for being the most athletic girl as she plays tennis, practices martial arts, and numerous other activities, and spends a great deal of time watching sports on TV. She is especially good at soccer due to her strengthened determination after receiving new soccer cleats when she was 3 years old from her brothers. This may be part of the reason why she has so many fangirls, much to her dismay. She hates girls, whom she consider very "girly". This includes Hyper Blossom (Momoko), and Rolling Bubbles (Miyako). This, in addition to the fact that she hates skirts (to the point of terrifying Prof. Utonium and Ken with grumbling about the skirt and how she hated skirts), makes Kaoru the most reluctant of the Powerpuff Girls Z squad, only joining due to the power it has given her. In later episodes, she begins to care about Hyper Blossom (Momoko) and Rolling Bubbles (Miyako) and is no longer reluctant about joining them in whatever they do, but she often tries to act calm and indifferent. She speaks with a hard and masculine edge and never uses honorifics when speaking. Her greatest fear is ghosts. Kaoru lives with her father, who is a professional masked-wrestler, mother and two brothers, one older and one younger. She wants to be a professional wrestler for a living, like her dad. It was implied that she has developed feelings for Butch.

2016 TV series reboot
Like the other girls, not much has changed to her personality. Among the Powerpuff Girls, Buttercup is the most tomboyish and aggressive like her original 1998 series counterpart, usually having an angrier disposition in comparison to Bubbles and Blossom. However, she happens to be somewhat of a troublemaker. In her original counterpart, she appears to enjoy fighting villains and criminals and despise girly things like skirts and scrap-booking. Buttercup would rather hang out with The Derbytantes, a punk culture gang of roller skaters. She really enjoys playing death ball with them and is considered a very good friend with them. In particular, Buttercup hates being called "princess", as she will fly into an annoyed rage at the villains who calls her such, however, she is very happy when she is being called "little dynamite cutie". Her new voice has also been used exagerate her tomboyish nature. Also through new facial expressions, her anger is clearly seen. When she's really angry, a skull and crossbones and/or fire will appear in her eyes. However, she is seen to be more sarcastic in this series.

Original series
Buttercup is a slender fair skinned girl with short black hair in a flip with a small triangular part on her forehead. She has lime green eyes and dresses in a lime green dress that has a black stripe in the middle of it. Buttercup also wears white tights and black Mary Jane shoes. Her special ingredient is spice and her signature color is light green.

2016 TV series reboot
Like her original counterpart, Buttercup has short black hair in a flip with a small triangular part on her forehead; her design slightly differs in that her hair also has a slight cowtail, which adds to her character and personality. She has lime green eyes, and she wears a lime green shirt with a black horizontal stripe in the middle, white socks, and black Mary Janes.

Powers and abilities
While Buttercup doesn't seem to have any special superpower different from her sisters, she is physically the strongest of the three girls. In the episode "Speed Demon" it was also revealed that she can fly the fastest out of all of her sisters. Her special ability are shown to be able to curl her tongue. As a result of the episode "Nuthin Special" canon being questionable, it's unclear if these abilities are unique to Buttercup, despite the fact that she is the only one seen using these abilities outside of that episode.

Powers
Other signature abilities she displays are.

Trivia

 * Even though she is named after a buttercup flower, her signature color is green instead of yellow.
 * In her interview for the movie, she said that her favorite villain she likes to beat up is Rocko Socko. She also claims to be wearing a blonde wig in scenes where Bubbles has a lot of action.
 * Buttercup is the only Powerpuff Girl who has not been shown using fire breath (Blossom used it at the end of Ice Sore, and Bubbles used it in Simian Says).
 * Originally, Buttercup would've been named Bud since she's a tomboy, but the name didn't seem to work so Craig McCracken kept thinking of a better name for the tough Powerpuff Girl until his friend Miles Thompson came up with the name Buttercup.
 * Unlike her sisters, Buttercup is not very good with math, as seen in "Divide and Conquer".
 * Buttercup is also the only Powerpuff who can only speak in one language, which is English. Bubbles can speak Spanish and Japanese and Blossom can speak Chinese.
 * She's the only Powerpuff Girl not to smile in the intro.
 * She is the only person in Townsville who can curl her tongue, as shown in 'Nuthin' Special'.
 * Buttercup's flip hairstyle is similar to Dee Dee's friend Lee Lee's hairstyle on Dexter's Laboratory.