OK, since I have some time now, I'll opine some.
To answer the general gist of the questions in one fell swoop, I'll just say that Ron was not pining for Kim from the first episode onward. Just watch "Emotion Sickness." Yes, Ron says he's thought about dating Kim before - "I mean, who hasn't," but this means that the thought has crossed his mind before, nothing more. Why do I say this? Because of the conversation with himself/soliloquy he gives in Mr. Barkin's house. Look at it. The words Ron says are not the words of a boy who's been pining for a girl for a long time. Rather, they are the words of a boy who, for the first time, is realizing that his lifelong friend is, in fact, a beautiful, compassionate and intelligent woman. For the first time, Ron is seeing Kim not simply as Kim, but also as ... a girl.
Yes, I know Ron says "something's been there a long time," but right before he said "lately something's changed." It seems to me that it could signify the friendship Kim and Ron have had since pre-K becoming more, which would account for the "lately something's changed" as well as the "something's been there a long time" without having Stoppable engage in doublethink.
Or something like that.
MrDrP could probably explain it better.
As for the various stuff the cloudmonet and his groupies
have given, I must say, as a K/R shipper myself, that most, if not all, of it is eisegesis. Why do I say this, well, let's just look at this montage from "Ill-Suited," when Kim and Monique are glad over Ron's winning a football game:
Look! A giant hug! And they're holding hands! Sure, they're excited about Ron, Kim's dating Ron, and in fact Kim gives Ron a gloriously shippy hug later on in the episode, but with cloudmonet's methodology I could easily "re-evaluate" Ill-Suited to become a Kim/Monique shipper's paradise.
The fact is, girls are more physical in expressing their emotions, and not just their romantic ones. (The emotions, not the girls.) I've seen girls - straight girls, by the way - give each other big hugs when meeting each other after a long absence, congratulating them on some big event, and so forth. (Much like Kim hugged Ron at the end of Exchange.) I also remember vividly from high school girls signing things with "Love [usually signified by a heart] So-and-so," even if they weren't addressing their boyfriends. Now, as a guy, I wouldn't to that unless the person to whom I was addressing was family or my girlfriend (or my wife, but that would count as family, wouldn't it?) Therefore, a lot of physical contact that many here have interpreted as shippy is in fact Kim expressing her friendship with Ron, the same way she does Monique, Tara (I guess), etc.)
Also, the Cult of Cloud (as it were
) claims that Kim and Ron are jealous of their respective Significant Others before "Emotion Sickness." This, too, is eisegesis. Kim in Ron, before the moodulator events, in fact
helped each other get their desired romantic partners - Ron tried to help hook up Kim with Josh in both "Crush" and "The Full Monkey," and, in "Grudge Match," Kim give a pro-Ron/Zita "best friend fudge" when said Stoppable asked about his chances with said Flores. True, Ron wasn't all in favor of Kim/Josh in "Blush," but that was, in part, because Josh's last name was but one letter way from "monkey."
Also, Ron's dislike of Mankey precedes his knowledge of Kim's crush on the artist, as he says Josh's name in an unfriendly tone, and
then tells Kim "it looks like you might be crushing on Josh." The true source of Ron's anti-Josh attitude, besides his surname's similarity to simians (alliteration!
), is that Josh gets all the girls, while Ron gets none, irrespective of Kim. Notice the way Kim feels during that brief scene in "So the Drama" where's she's in the hall before Ron arrives to inform her of his petition. She's not sighing in sadness because she wants to date Jason Morgan and Brick Flagg - she's sighing because all the other girls have dates, while she doesn't. A similar thing, it seems, informs us of why Ron feels the way he does about Josh.
So Ron doesn't jeal over Kim's boyfriends (at least until
So the Drama.) But does Kim jeal over Ron's girlfriends (before "Gorilla Fist," that is?) You can probably guess my answer by now, and it's not "yes."
Often in the pre-S3 show, (and a little in S3), Ron will try to be a "ladies' man," and Kim will get miffed about it. This is commonly interpeted, or rather misinterpreted, as Kim being jealous over girls liking Ron. It's not. Rather, it should be noticed that when Ron tries to be a ladies' man, he gets big-heady, and when he gets big-heady, Kim gets miffed. Just look at "The Ron Factor" and how Kim gets when Ron get his ego stroked by the "Ron Factor" - it's the same thing, except a non-romantic situation. Unless you think Dr. Director is secretly crushing on Ron, and the "Ron Factor" project is an elaborate fabrication to get Ron into her arms.
Yes, there is the Schooley quote regarding "Crush," but I do not believe it verifies cloudmonet's position. I can see a variety of reason why Schooley would think it obvious that Kim and Ron would get together - the chemistry between the two characters, the fact that they have to bring up how to reconcile dating other people with their friendship, the fact that Ron has to dispel the rumor that he and Kim are dating, the subtle hints that Kim isn't the right girl for Josh (watch the end scene in Crush (the dance scene) - Kim does something that clearly indicates that this isn't the right relationship for her to be in), and so forth - none of which indicate that Ron is crushing on Kim, or vice versa. (If the latter had happened, the episode, not to mention the rest of the show (pre-S4, that is), would be completely different!)
Anyway, I was gone on vacation recently, and was meaning to write this, but didn't have the time or the access. So, that's all (for now.)