YMMV / Carmen Sandiego

For the franchise:

• Crossover Ship:
  • Carmen and Waldo, two characters associated with childhood nostalgia and being hard to find.
  • Less often Carmen and a younger Ms. Valerie Frizzle.
  • Carmen and Lara Croft also works nicely if you're into Dating Catwoman.
  • Likewise with the Lupin III fandom.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Carmen and Chase in Word Detective. At least one Let's Player has suggested that they had a relationship while partners.
  • Fan material pairing Carmen and Ivy together is not uncommon.
• It Was His Sled: Carmen Sandiego was once an ACME detective.
• Memetic Badass: Carmen Sandiego can steal anything, and is the Trope Codifier for Impossible Theft, Monumental Theft, and even Intangible Theft.
• Nightmare Fuel: Word Detective has its own page.
• Surprise Difficulty: Among the few that have actually given Where in North Dakota a try, one of the first things they will note is how unexpectedly difficult it is. The game relies on historical trivia associated with a state that already has a very small population and few noteworthy landmarks, some of which is obscure enough that even an Internet search won't always save you. It's sometimes even considered the hardest game in the series for this reason.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The older games were made before the fall of Communism, making them pretty inaccurate now. There are also some non-Communism-related examples of Geography Marching On. It'd almost be impossible to count how many Carmen games show the World Trade Center towers in New York, but it's a lot (they're even in the opening credits of the Where on Earth cartoon). When the name of a currency is given as a clue, it will be inaccurate for any country which has since adopted the Euro. And so on. A geography game just can't stay accurate forever, you know.
• Values Resonance: When Carmen Sandiego first appeared, many Hispanic characters were negatively stereotyped and the Hispanic females were also only seen as eye candy. So, Carmen Sandeigo was a big deal in number of ways — First, she was intelligent, attractive but not sexualized, won every encounter she had, and was successful at what she did; second, while she was the antagonist, she was a complex Anti-Villain with her own set of morals that made her likable.

For the 2019 animated show:

A-H

• Adorkable:
  • While not so much as an adult, Carmen did show this as a child with how excited she was to be in the outside world, making her really cute with her determination.
  • Julia Argent can be like a lovestruck dork when she tries interacting with Carmen and saying one liners to impress her. "The Fashionista Caper" has her practicing what she'd say to Carmen when they meet again, all done in a cute way.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • In the first season finale, when Coach Brunt tries to kill Carmen via a bear hug, was she really trying to kill her for her betrayal or because she thought that giving her a quick death would be far better than whatever V.I.L.E. planned to do with her?
• And You Thought It Would Fail: When the first trailer premiered, it was praised for its appealing art style but otherwise expected to be no more special than any other reboot that was capitalizing on both millennial nostalgia and "wokeness" by turning a 90's Villain Protagonist into a hero. Thanks to positive word of mouth about its gripping plot and excellent characterization once it premiered, it quickly became one of Netflix's most popular animated shows and is largely seen as one of the best reboots of The New '10s.
• Awesome Art: DHX Media does a great job updating the character designs into a hugely appealing outline-free art style and the animation itself it gorgeous, especially the fight choreography. The backgrounds also do the numerous geographical locations justice.
• Awesome Music:
  • It wouldn't be Carmen Sandiego without an awesome theme song.
  • Zack and Ivy's karaoke duet of "More Than a Feeling" by (who else?) Boston in "The Daisho Caper".
  • Both of them also get to do a freestyle version of Rockapella's iconic theme to Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego in the "To Steal or Not to Steal" special. The unlockable bonus scene takes it up to eleven by turning it into a Crowd Song, with every single recurring character, both villain and hero, joining in.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "To Steal or Not to Steal", Carmen has an Imagine Spot doing a sexy dance while reluctantly waltzing with a man.
• Broken Base:
  • Zack and Ivy's Hollywood New England schtick. The show never stops reminding the audience that they're Bostonian. Some find it charming or even so stereotypical it Crosses the Line Twice and becomes hilarious. Others find it annoying or even distracting.
  • Carmen’s Adaptational Heroism is also debated by fans. Some find it an interesting new take on a classic character and like that she's more morally grey than outright heroic, while others feel that she would have been better as a full-on Villain Protagonist. This gets rectified during the end of Season 4, where the Brainwashed!Carmen is pictured to be closer to her original counterpart, albeit more ruthless than before.
• Cant Unhear It: Fans who have watched Avatar: The Last Airbender won't be able to unhear Spinkick's voice actor, Dante Basco, whose most famous role is Zuko.
  • To a lesser extent, Fans who have watched Voltron: Legendary Defender: won't be able to unhear Neal the Eel's voice actor, Rhys Darby, who voices Coran.
• Catharsis Factor: Considering the vicious acts V.I.L.E. faculty committed throughout the series, especially to Carmen, it's hard to feel bad for them when they all got arrested by A.C.M.E. with the help of Carmen in the final episode.
• Character Rerailment:
  • Julia's role in the first season is mostly to be the Only Sane Man of the duo of her and Chase compared to her Treasure of Knowledge counterpart, where she was an active agent with a personal history with Carmen. Near the end of the season, she finally stands up for herself against Chase shortly before V.I.L.E. captures him. In the season two premiere, the A.C.M.E. Chief promotes Julia to an agent without Devineaux as a partner, giving her a chance to shine.
  • Chase's characterization in the first season essentially boiled down to "act first, think later", a far cry from the competent detective his games counterpart was. Season 2 re-rails his original role as being Carmen's equal by showing that when he actually applies some brain power, he becomes very competent, to the point that he was able to locate V.I.L.E headquarters with just a few hints (although by the time he goes to apprehend them, they're long gone). He keeps his increasing competence up in the third season, and even comes around to accepting that perhaps Carmen isn't the primary threat he should be working to defeat. He carries it all the way forward to the final season in which he reunites with Julia and proceeds to be more deferential and appreciative of her talents.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The scene where Carmen mentions that Dr. Bellum's imitation rice tastes gross. She says that when she was a toddler, they fed some to her. It wouldn't be funny given the scheme to ruin Indonesia's rice crops so that the locals have to buy the imitation rice, except that toddler Carmen tries one spoonful, takes a Beat, and starts crying. So at least we know it's safe for consumption.
  • As mentioned above, for many, the show's near-constant jokes about Zack and Ivy being from Hollywood New England starts off kind of funny, then gets annoying fast, then just keeps getting more and more stereotypical until it's hilarious.
• Crossover Ship: A few people have taken to pairing this incarnation of Carmen with Joker both platonically and romantically, as they're both thieves with noble intentions and an association with the color red.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite having a comparatively smaller role to other characters, Paper Star received a lot of love for her unique design, interesting gimmick as a Paper Master and Ax-Crazy personality. Many fans were not happy that her sole appearance in the final season was just a cameo with no lines.
  • Mime Bomb, despite having much fewer appearances than the other V.I.L.E. graduates has quite a few fans and a surprisingly large Estrogen Brigade.
• Epileptic Trees: Pretty much the minute "The Deep Dive Caper" revealed that Carmen's mother is still alive, fans started guessing that her true identity is that of Cookie Booker, given how similar she looks to the woman seen in flashbacks. As a bonus, Cookie is voiced by Rita Moreno, so making her Carmen's mother would be a nice Mythology Gag. In the end, though, all these Trees were Jossed.
• Evil Is Cool: Many of the V.I.L.E characters, with Professor Maelstrom in particular standing out as being deliciously diabolical.
• Fan Nickname: Thanks to Role Association regarding their respective actors, some fans have dubbed Spinkick and Flytrap "Evil Zuko" and "Evil Luz", respectively.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • Plots about Gray getting his memories back are gaining steam in the fandom, especially among people who ship him with Carmen. This eventually became a canon plotline in Season 4.
  • Plots about V.I.L.E kidnapping a member of Team Carmen are also popular. Bonus points if they nab Player, thanks to the sheer worries such a situation would create. "To Steal or Not to Steal" ended up using this plot, with Zack and Ivy being the victims.
• Fanfic Fuel: A good topic to write about would be what existing members of V.I.L.E. from other iterations of the series would look and act like in this continuity.
  • In the series finale, the silhouetted Carmen seen at the end is not confirmed to be the one we know, and since Shadow-San says that she had inspired people to the point where "Carmen Sandiego" can now be deemed a Legacy Character, it's very easy to write about an all-new Carmen with her own new background, personality and motivations.
• Fanon: A lot of fans like to think of Le Chevre and El Topo as actually dating, due to the Ho Yay between them (see below). Somewhat confirmed in the series finale as they're still together and leave the criminal world behind.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Plenty of fans, especially Red Crackle shippers, have ignored Gray's decision to stay out of Carmen's life in the series finale. Fan works set between that and the epilogue tend to have the two of them interacting in some form — if not for shipping purposes, then at least so the two can get some closure with each other (given how distraught Carmen was when she thought she'd killed him).
• Foe Yay Shipping: Carmen and Tigress, particularly in "To Steal or Not to Steal" where Carmen refers to Tigress as her "best frenemy", Tigress almost seems to be hitting on Carmen in their banter, and if Carmen makes the correct choice to help Tigress out of a pit she falls into then a grateful Tigress actually goes against V.I.L.E and helps Carmen rescue Zack and Ivy later on.
  • It gets more blatant when they end up working together in VILE again in Season 4, with Carmen at one point wrapping her arm around Tigress and keeping it there for quite some time, with Tigress acting grumpy about it and yet doing nothing to pull away.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • There are plenty of fans of this show who are also fans of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Kim Possible, thanks to the similarities between them.
  • The art style has reminded plenty of fans of Wild Kratts, causing an overlap between the two fandoms. Bonus points since both of these shows are modern adaptations of PBS edutainment shows from the 90s.
  • Speaking of 90s PBS shows, it's also popular among fans of the original The Magic School Bus, many of whom (as mentioned below) consider this show to be closer in spirit to the 90s MSB series than The Magic School Bus Rides Again was.
  • Naturally, given their respective leads' popularity as a Crossover Ship, there's an overlap between fans of this and fans of Where's Waldo? (2019). Additionally, both are reboots of popular franchises that make use of a globetrotting, treasure-hunting plot.
• Genius Bonus: A brainwashed Carmen meets Zack on a Ferris wheel and refers to the people on the ground as "dots", referencing a scene in The Third Man where the hero is forced to realize how evil his old friend is.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Shadow-san deterring Carmen from a life in crime makes it hard to look at in "The Daisho Caper", when it's revealed that this way of thinking caused him to lose his connections with his older brother; he doesn't want Carmen to repeat the same mistakes he did.
  • In the Who is Carmen Sandiego? novelization, when young Carmen questions Shadow-san's sword, he states that it's a museum piece. As revealed in "The Daisho Caper", it was a museum piece that Shadow-san stole, from the same museum his older brother worked in and ruined his relationship with him for good.
  • In To Steal or Not to Steal, the main plot is VILE attempting to brainwash Carmen into becoming an agent for them, which happens if you choose the wrong options and get a game over. Come season 4 of the show, and this actually happens in canon.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Shadow-san is the only V.I.L.E. teacher that still refers to as Carmen by her childhood moniker, "Black Sheep", even when saving her life in the first season finale. It's because he wanted her to escape the V.I.L.E. lifestyle before she was forced to commit murder or Trapped in Villainy. Shadow-san is essentially saying that no matter how much Carmen grows, she is still his child.
  • Shadow-san disapproving of Carmen wanting to become a thief becomes this when Coach Brunt reveals in "The African Ice Caper" and "The Deep Dive Caper" that Carmen's father tried to defect from V.I.L.E., and Shadow-san as a young trainee was sent to kill him. Shadow-san was honoring her father's memory by trying to steer her from a life of crime.
• Ho Yay:
  • Those Two Guys El Topo and Le Chevre are rather close to each other; they never go on missions without each other, their areas of expertise complement each other (the former prefers going underground, the latter prefers going up high), they give each other pet names (including "mon ami", which typically only shows up in fiction in a romantic sense), and if one is in danger, the other will most likely prioritize rescuing him over whatever mission they have at the time. Dr. Bellum even refers to El Topo as Le Chèvre's "dear boy". In the series finale, the two go legit after the collapse of V.I.L.E., opening a food truck together.
  • There might be some with Julia and Carmen in "The Chasing Paper Caper" due to how Carmen compliments this poor Beleaguered Assistant on the train and how Julia reacts. Their initial encounter plays out like a flirtation, especially considering Julia's point of view: a stranger approaches and asks to join her. Julia mentions the seat is taken, but quickly qualifies that her "partner" is not a romantic interest, and invites the stranger to sit. They talk briefly about Julia's passion and discover a common interest in history. The stranger gives Julia an Affectionate Nickname before leaving, and Julia calls after asking for the stranger's name. It isn't until a few seconds later that Julia realizes that the stranger is the thief she's pursuing. It gets more blatant when Carmen specifically asks her to help steal the Medici gowns in "The Fashionista Caper", with Julia acting very flustered the whole way through like a schoolgirl with a crush. It does help that in Treasure of Knowledge, Julia and Carmen did have history together as partners and Julia spent the majority of the game begging Carmen to go back to Acme. Taken even further in the "To Steal or Not to Steal" interactive special. It is entirely possible to complete your objective without ever interacting with Julia, but the special's Golden Ending requires Carmen to put her trust in Julia for her rescue operation, which at one point involves Julia dressing up as Carmen. Once that's successfully completed, Carmen returns everything she stole for V.I.L.E. to Julia's apartment door, along with a bouquet of red roses. And Julia blushes in response.
  • In Season 4, there's a parallel to scenes of Julia meeting up with Chase and Carmen. With Chase, she is annoyed by him lamely trying to hide his presence at her lecture and doesn't bother to open herself up to him. With Carmen? She's flustered at seeing her in the class and is willing to help her out with her investigations.
  • Suprisingly, Countess Cleo and Dr. Bellum are given moments of this, such as in the fake flashback V.I.L.E. puts in Carmen's mind, where Bellum is holding an umbrella for Cleo, and an earlier episode having Bellum keeping a crown Cleo had taken care of for her.

I-W

• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Carmen/Gray is called Red Crackle. Carmen/Julia is sometimes called Jewel Thief or Jule Thief.
• Inferred Holocaust: When the Chief talks to Chase, she mentions that V.I.L.E. is probably behind most of the economic and social disasters that occur all over the world, though due to their secrecy it's hard to be certain.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: The most recurring criticism regarding season 3 is its short length, clocking in at half the usual amount of episodes (5 episodes instead of 10). The reason for this shortened length is unknown, though theories have ranged from some Executive Meddling on Netflix's part (as they've split seasons of shows in half before) to the show becoming yet another entertainment industry victim to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
• Jerkass Woobie: Shadow-san. What was initially a gruff teacher who stopped Carmen from becoming a thief, it is revealed that he was trying to steer her away from a life of crime and wished to join her when she left the island at the end of Season 1. Season 2 gives him a focus episode, showing how his desire for wealth and power caused a rift between him and his brother and he wants to return the sword that he had stolen as an act of forgiveness. The end of the episode has Shadow-san on his hands and knees, stating he doesn't deserve forgiveness and only asks to make amends. His older brother says nothing and just walks away in silence. By the time they reunite in "The Masks of Venice Caper", Hideo is willing to understand that Shadow-san is atoning for his crimes by stating that Shadow-san cannot go home until his mission is complete.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Carmen herself quickly became this. Her most popular ships are with Julia, Ivy, Paper Star, Chase and Gray.
• LGBT Fanbase: A lot of lesbian/bi women really like this incarnation of Carmen, especially her Les Yay with Julia. In counterpart, gay/bi men like this incarnation of Chase, due to his rough good looks.
• Magnificent Bastard: Player, Carmen's best friend and a white-hat hacker, is a Teen Genius who has provided invaluable technical assists Carmen in her capers against V.I.L.E. Described as the Red Team's secret weapon, he is a talented hacker who uses his skills to help Carmen, from deciphering the locations where V.I.L.E. will commit his robberies, to breaking security systems of countries around the world, Player has demonstrated he has a high proficiency in encryption breaking, hacking and data collection. Operating out of his "dark little cave", he is the only member of Team Red who never has to physically confront V.I.L.E. making his identity and affiliation with Carmen unknown to the criminal organization.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Why is Carmen Sandiego? ^note The tagline of "Where is Carmen Sandiego?" and "Who is Carmen Sandiego?" immediately had people ask this particular question. Alternatively, "How is Carmen Sandiego?"^note A similar take off on the tagline, implying that nobody cares enough about Carmen to just ask her about her feelings.
  • "Shadow San is a Hanzo Main"^note Shadow San's voice actor, Paul Nakaguchi, is the same as Hanzo from Overwatch. Shadow San is always the one who voices his opposition to what V.I.L.E. plans - much like how Hanzo players have a horrendous stereotype of being horrible team players
  • Dumb Bitch Juice ^note  A general way to refer to Chase's Adaptational Dumbass personality in this series, since he is notably incompetent at his job by being very obsessed at chasing Carmen and he falls for her traps and tricks easily.
  • The V.I.L.E. Furry Squad^note Fans quickly picked up on the fact that four of the six V.I.L.E. trainees from the flashbacks (Sheena, Antonio, Jean-Paul, and Carmen herself) had or came up with animal-themed alternate identities, which led to this joke. Bonus points if Gray is the exasperated Only Sane Man.
• Moe: We get to see Carmen as a child at various points in the series, and she is absolutely adorable.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • From "Becoming Carmen", Crackle preparing to kill that kindly old man who opened Carmen's eyes was considered this to Carmen as the point where V.I.L.E. as a whole crossed a moral line for her.
  • To reinforce that what happened in the pilot was not just a one-time thing, the first scheme Carmen foils onscreen is Dr. Bellum releasing spores that would eat up all of Indonesia's rice crops, and force the locals to buy Dr. Bellum's nasty-tasting imitation rice. V.I.L.E. would starve innocents to make a profit.
  • And in the final episode of the first season, Coach Brunt clamped a mind probe to Chase’s head and stated that if the probe was on his head for too long, there would be permanent brain damage!
  • In the final episodes, Maelstrom preparing to leave Coach Brunt for dead while making off with the treasure they were after, as well as crossing it again along with the rest of the V.I.L.E. faculty as a whole with their Mind Rape of Carmen to turn her into a sociopathic agent for their purposes.
• Older Than They Think: Carmen has always been averse to V.I.L.E. villains using violence, especially in the 1994 Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? series, where she got absolutely livid when her henchmen Lee Jordan tried to kill the protagonists. She was also perfectly willing to deal with criminals who were far worse than she was.
• One-Scene Wonder: The kind man who leads the archaeological dig in the second episode, since it is through him that Carmen becomes the thief she is today.
• Pandering to the Base: Fans of the classic theme song to Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego who were disappointed by its absence from this show were more than assuaged by its appearance in "To Steal or Not to Steal".
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Carmen/Chase is called CarChase.
  • Carmen/Julia is called Carulia or Julmen.
  • Carmen/Ivy is called Carmivy.
  • Le Chevre/El Topo is called Jeantonio.
  • Chase/Mime Bomb is called ChaseBomb.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: A small but dedicated part of the fandom ship Mime Bomb/Chase, despite the fact that the characters have spent very little time together, and the likelihood that Chase would never go for a villain, which Mime Bomb is.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Considered by many to be a better reboot of The Magic School Bus than the actual Magic School Bus reboot Netflix also did, as it uses the same kind of strong narrative and character arcs for edutainment that the original MSB was beloved for and which many older fans felt was sorely absent in Rides Again. Bonus points for both of them being Scholastic properties.
  • It's also the best Kim Possible reboot we never got.
• Squick: In "The Day of the Dead Caper", Zack (having eaten too many tacos and isn't feeling good) finds Contreras' client list in a vase, which he then pukes into. A bit later Contreras reaches in to get it...and then realizes she has to keep digging around just to make sure the list isn't still there.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • A sizeable number of fans were upset at the show making Carmen more heroic (though she is technically still a thief herself), due to it being both an origin story and a Continuity Reboot of the source games.
  • Similarly, there are complaints about how different Ivy and Zack are when compared to their original Where on Earth? incarnations.
  • And there are fans that don’t like how different Chase Devineaux is when compared to his original incarnation in the computer games either. He starts becoming more competent in Season 2 and onward, however.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Player can still be considered one in the final episodes. Despite his vital role in the series and the end of "The Himalayan Rescue Caper" emphasizing his importance as Carmen's oldest friend, he was put aside after Carmen is kidnapped and brainwashed. He appeared for only a few minutes at the beginning of the final episode and didn't contribute to the final conflict, only reappearing near the final minutes of the episode when Carmen went to meet her mother. That said, he was a teenager and probably was still too young to travel on his own, especially since nobody in Canada knew that he was part of a heroic band of thieves.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • "The Luchadora Tango Caper" has a scene where Coach Brunt, impersonating a masked luchadora, accidentally video calls the rest of the faculty just in time for Carmen's ally to begin unmasking her. The faculty sees Coach Brunt almost unmasked in public, and she ends the call before they can see that the unmasking was stopped and her identity is still secret. Since Prof. Maelstrom had cautioned her about going into the field and the consequences of her identity being revealed, it seems to be setting up a major shakeup in the faculty (if not Brunt's immediate dismissal/Laser-Guided Amnesia, then at least a source of tension between members). But then Brunt just tells them no one saw her face, and they shrug it off.
  • The fourth season introduces a number of interesting storylines to explore and then literally drops them in favor of wrapping up the series in eight episodes. Said storylines include Bellum's army of Robot-Robbers, the history of V.I.L.E. reaching back to medieval times, and most especially Carmen's mother, who gets neither an appearance nor a speaking role. The only saving grace is the Sequel Hook in the final episode that indicates V.I.L.E. is gone but their numerous members are not, meaning they could explore them if Netflix ever a approves a sequel series.
• The Woobie:
  • Though Carmen would probably beat up anyone who pities her, she needs a hug after she finds out that Shadow-san failed her on his pick-pocketing final, and infers that he did it on purpose because the other teachers favour her. He was trying to keep her out of the thieving business, but she didn’t know that. Then it goes From Bad to Worse when she learns that working for V.I.L.E. would mean killing recklessly, and she makes the decision to defect and run away, turning her back on terrible people who love her. The only clue she has about her past is Russian nesting dolls, but she's questioning if the story V.I.L.E. told her about being an abandoned baby in Argentina was true. It also doesn't help that compared to most of the students, she's a Child Prodigy, which makes her seem more alone when she defects.
  • Poor Julia Argent; no matter what she does to convince Chase that Carmen has good intentions, she is brushed off every single time. Despite this, she remains calm and level about doing her job and catching Carmen, or at least finding the objects she stole, and Carmen gives her a moment of Villain Respect in "The Magna Carta Caper". She finally gets some respect when the Chief praises her for her knowledge on Vermeer's paintings, but Chase in the pilot belittles her for knowing "dry" facts. In Chase's defense, he does realize he's been rude to her in the first season finale.
  • Chase gets his own turn in Season 2, banished to Interpol's file room as the Chief seemingly just washes her hands of him after his repeated failures. And even after managing to locate VILE's base all on his own, they've already cleared out by the time he gets there and he ends up stranded on the island for a week, and is flippantly fired from Interpol upon being rescued. It's no wonder he jumps at the chance to go after Carmen harder than ever when ACME comes back to him.

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