History YMMV / CarmenSandiego

** 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 [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: comes around to accepting that perhaps Carmen isn't the primary threat he should be working to defeat.]]

** Plots about Gray [[spoiler:getting his memories back]] are gaining steam in the fandom, especially among people who ship him with Carmen.

** "Shadow San is a Hanzo Main"[[note]]Shadow San's voice actor, Paul Nakaguchi, is the same as Hanzo from ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''. Shadow San is always the one who voices his opposition to what VILE plans - much like how Hanzo players have a horrendous stereotype of being horrible team players[[/note]]

* ShipSinking: The series finale sinks [[spoiler:Red Crackle, with Grey choosing to stay out of Carmen’s life forever.]]

** And there are fans that don’t like how different [[AdaptationalDumbass 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

** Gray/Crackle. We get to see his and Carmen's relationship in "Becoming Carmen", but after he gets arrested, he has his memories of his criminal life erased and returns to Sydney to be an electrician. Carmen gets to interact with him briefly with his memory wiped but decides [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies to spare him from her quest to undo V.I.L.E.]] since it might be dangerous for one or both of them. It would have been interesting to see more of his development. However, "The Crackle Goes Kiwi Caper" [[spoiler:has him return as a major (if initially unwitting) player in the episode's heist, and ends with A.C.M.E. scouting him out under the impression he's one of Carmen's allies and has a bigger presence in Season 4.]]
** Player can still be considered one in the final episodes. [[spoiler: Despite his vital role in the series, was put aside after Carmen is kidnapped and brainwashed. He appeared for only a few minutes at the beginning of the final episode and was never seen in a flashback or contributing to the final conflict and only reappeared near the final minutes of the episode when Carmen went to meet her mother.]]

*** '''You'd expect:''' [[spoiler:For the Chief to check what's on the hard drive before uploading it.]]

*** '''The result:''' [[spoiler:The hard drive contains a virus, which Player uses to hack into A.C.M.E. databases. The Chief is lucky that Team Carmen was just looking to confirm Shadow-san's story instead of anything worse.]]
*** '''For bonus stupidity points:''' [[spoiler:The password the Chief uses for her ultra top-secret organization's computers is ''the name of her cat'', and not anything more secure.]] Which she casually shared with an asset of (from her perspective) questionable trustworthiness.

* EpilepticTrees: Pretty much the minute "The Deep Dive Caper" revealed that [[spoiler: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 Creator/RitaMoreno, so making her Carmen's mother would be a nice MythologyGag.]]

* ShipSinking: The series finale sinks [[spoiler:pretty much all of Carmen's ships. She decides to visit her mother alone, leaving a note for Zack and Ivy to keep fighting the fight, then shows up as a solo act a couple years later.]]

* CrossesTheLineTwice

* ShipSinking: The series finale sinks [[spoiler:pretty much all of Carmen's ships. She hurts Julia and Gray, and is isolated from Zack and Ivy.]]

** ThoseTwoGuys 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 Season 4, there's a parallel to scenes of Julia meeting up with Chase and Carmen. With Chase, she doesn't notice his presence in 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.

* FoeYay: 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 [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe a grateful Tigress]] [[PetTheDog actually goes agaisnt V.I.L.E and helps Carmen resuce Zack and Ivy later on.]]

* HoYay: ThoseTwoGuys 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".

* LesYay: There might be some with Julia and Carmen in "The Chasing Paper Caper" due to how Carmen compliments this poor BeleagueredAssistant 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 AffectionateNickname 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 GoldenEnding [[spoiler: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 doesn't notice his presence in 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.

* {{Fanon}}: A lot of fans like to think of Le Chevre and El Topo as actually dating, due to the HoYay between them (see below).

** Also not surprisingly, it's been favorably compared to ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', that other lighthearted animated show about a young woman who's a secret agent.

* SpiritualAdaptation

** Gray/Crackle. We get to see his and Carmen's relationship in "Becoming Carmen", but after he gets arrested, he has his memories of his criminal life erased and returns to Sydney to be an electrician. Carmen gets to interact with him briefly with his memory wiped but decides [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies to spare him from her quest to undo V.I.L.E.]] since it might be dangerous for one or both of them. It would have been interesting to see more of his development. However, "The Crackle Goes Kiwi Caper" [[spoiler:has him return as a major (if initially unwitting) player in the episode's heist, and ends with A.C.M.E. scouting him out under the impression he's one of Carmen's allies.]]

** Player can still be considered one in the final episodes. [[spoiler: Despite his vital role in the series, was put aside after V.I.L.E. Carmen is kidnapped and brainwashed.kidnap Carmen and brainwash her. He appeared for only a few minutes at the beginning of the final episode and was never seen in a flashback or contributing to the final conflict and only reappeared near the final minutes of the episode when Carmen went to meet her mother.]]

** And there are fans that don’t like how different [[AdaptationalDumbass 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.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Gray/Crackle. We get to see his and Carmen's relationship in "Becoming Carmen", but after he gets arrested, he has his memories of his criminal life erased and returns to Sydney to be an electrician. Carmen gets to interact with him briefly with his memory wiped but decides [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies to spare him from her quest to undo V.I.L.E.]] since it might be dangerous for one or both of them. It would have been interesting to see more of his development. However, "The Crackle Goes Kiwi Caper" [[spoiler:has him return as a major (if initially unwitting) player in the episode's heist, and ends with A.C.M.E. scouting him out under the impression he's one of Carmen's allies.]]

** Considered by many to be a better reboot of ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' than [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain the]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain actual Magic School Bus]]'' [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain reboot Netflix also did]], using the same kind of strong narrative and character arcs for {{edutainment}} that made the original ''MSB'' so beloved and which many older fans felt was sorely absent in ''Rides Again''. Bonus points for both of them being Scholastic properties.

** Considered by many to be a better reboot of ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' than [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain the]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain actual Magic School Bus]]'' [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain reboot Netflix also did]], having the king of strong narrative and character arcs for the sake of {{edutainment}} that made the original ''MSB'' so beloved and which many older fans felt was sorely absent in ''Rides Again''. Bonus points for both of them being Scholastic properties.

** [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Why is Carmen Sandiego?]] [[note]]The tagline of "Where is Carmen Sandiego?" and "Who is Carmen Sandiego?" immediately had people ask this particular question.[[/note]] Alternatively, "''How'' is Carmen Sandiego?"[[note]]A similar take off on the tagline, implying that [[YouBastard nobody just cares enough about Carmen's feelings to just ask her how she's doing]].[[/note]]

* SpiritualAdaptation: Considered by many to be a better reboot of ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' than [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain the]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain actual Magic School Bus]]'' [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain reboot Netflix also did]]. Like the original ''MSB'', ''Carmen Sandiego'' uses a strong narrative and character arcs for the sake of {{edutainment}} rather than trying to shoehorn an ExcusePlot into an educational lesson (if anything, it's the opposite), which was a major complaint of ''The Magic School Bus Rides Again.'' Bonus points for both of them being Scholastic properties.

** Both of them also get to do a free-style version for the iconic Rockapella "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" theme song in the "To Steal or Not to Steal" special. [[spoiler:It's taken UpToEleven when almost ''every one'' in the cast, including the main villains, sing the full song together in the unlockable bonus scene.]]

* WhatAnIdiot: At the end of season 2, [[spoiler:Carmen gifts the Chief with a V.I.L.E. hard drive, but doesn't explicitly take her up on her offer to join A.C.M.E.]]
** '''You'd expect:''' [[spoiler:For the Chief to check what's on the hard drive before uploading it.]]
** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler:She immediately uploads it to her organization's computers.]]
** '''The result:''' [[spoiler:The hard drive contains a virus, which Player uses to hack into A.C.M.E. databases. The Chief is lucky that Team Carmen was just looking to confirm Shadow-san's story instead of anything worse.]]
** '''For bonus stupidity points:''' [[spoiler:The password the Chief uses for her ultra top-secret organization's computers is ''the name of her cat'', and not anything more secure.]] Which she casually shared with an asset of (from her perspective) questionable trustworthiness.
** In "The Day of the Dead Caper", Contressa has a clients' list that she uses for all the stolen art Sonia nabs her and she's knocked Carmen out cold.
** '''You'd Expect:''' She takes the book on her person and keeps it in her car after she dropped Carmen off to the plane back to V.I.L.E
** '''Instead:''' She slips it into a vase so that she can pick it up after dropping Carmen off.
** '''The Result:''' While she's away, Zack and Ivy infiltrate her apartment, take the book and when she arrives she finds out too late that it's gone.

** And there are fans that don’t like how different [[AdaptationalDumbass Chase Devineaux]] is when compared to his original incarnation in the computer games either. Season 2 makes him much more competent however.

** Many fans have praised the series, saying that this is a proper reboot.

** 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 [[spoiler: 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)]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In "To Steal or Not To Steal", Carmen has an ImagineSpot doing a sexy dance while reluctantly waltzing with a man

* ItsShortSoItSucks: Seson 3 is criticized to be extremely short with only 5 episodes but keep in mind that production hasn't run well ever since the pandemic occurred.

* LesYay: There might be some with Julia and Carmen in "The Chasing Paper Caper" due to how Carmen compliments this poor BeleagueredAssistant on the train and how Julia reacts. 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 GoldenEnding [[spoiler: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.]]