Franchise as a whole
Carmen Sandiego is an immortal looking for fun.
That's why she is such a Friendly Enemy, she's just in it to have fun because she's got nothing else to do. She'll even help her enemies as long as she has someone to compete with. It explains her worldly knowledge, and stealing impossible things just because she knows she won't die doing it.- Building upon this. She's an eldritch deity with multiple forms which are her henchmen... well the ones in charge of doing things like stealing the ozone layer that is. She's just a really bored deity that is having fun messing around with humans.
The "Player" is the true head of ACME and a child genius.
The "Player" is shown at the beginning of each episode communicating with Carmen and responding to her challenges via computer before dispatching Zack and Ivy. Assuming that everything takes place in the same universe, the "Player" is the one who is truly controlling ACME's actions, with the Chief as an AI messenger and assistant. The "Player" is in truth a boy/girl genius in the mold of L who, because of his/her young age, had limited mobility and time. Therefore, the only way he/she could solve mysteries was by providing advice online to other detectives, using them as gophers. The Chief was created to serve as a front, but also helped to monitor crime activity through the internet. No one in ACME knows of the player's identity, so it's shown that "Player" does a good job covering it up. Ivan Idea is a Time Lord.
His cap is his TARDIS. If Carmen and Waldo had children...
The children would be either:- Completely invisible, or
- The world's greatest spies
- In Magical Girl Ranko vs Z Fighter Ryouga
(yes, it's a crack fic, and the sequel of the infamous Ryouga vs the Road Runner), Ryoga accidentally told Ukyo that his mother is an international criminal, but then said he was joking and that his mother definitely isn't the head of an international organization named V.I.L.E.. Wisely, Ukyo decided she didn't actually want to know. - Phineas and Ferb could find the children, It's just they would have their memories wiped/stolen.
- If the franchise doesn't go extinct, there seems to be enough popularity of the pairing to lead to this becoming canon in future installments, provided someone can secure the rights to both characters.
Carmen stole Alucard's clothes once.
She keeps wearing them since it amuses to no end to have managed to humiliate the greatest of vampires like that. Patty Larceny's father is named Grant.
Grant Larceny Carmen Sandiego is actually a man.
His real name is Carlos Sandiego and he is a post-op transexual who is disgusted with his new body, so he didn't pay for it and now the police are looking for him.- But this is THE Carmen Sandiego we're talking about! If she were conceived as a man and wanted to be a woman it would be easier, with her immense skill, to go back in time and steal her Y chromosome and replace it with another X chromosome.
Carmen Sandiego wants the player to catch her
Carmen got sick of people not respecting their cultural heritage. Like they say, you don't know what you've got until it's gone, so she steals stuff and challenges people to catch her in order to get it back, and hopefully learn a thing or two along the way. ACME knows this, but of course stealing is not just the sort of thing you can ignore, so they all just roll their eyes and say, "Here We Go Again!..."- Treasures of Knowledge almost makes this canon.
In the Facebook's Carmen Sandiego's final special mission: you will be traveling in time to find Carmen Sandiego.
- Outta of Time is the name for the final arc. Carmen kidnapped Dr. Tyhme (a pun on time) and Ivan Idea (AMCE's smart genius machinist of a kid). The reason they didn't know that Carmen put them in a trace to ask them questions about time (Dr. Thyme) and to built the machine itself (Ivan Machine.). This will be turn out a Chronoskimmer, a time machine. Though you are able to recover it — the Chief explains even if it's a prototype, it's going to real easy for anyone to copy it and that means Carmen and her cohorts in crime have a new hobby — time crime. This unlocks door number #2 and it's going to where the time machines crime folders are located.
Chase Devineaux (from Word Detective, Math Detective, and ThinkQuick Challenge) is Zack and Ivy's father.
And Carmen is their mother. Carmen is Dora the Explorer all grown up.
- Carmen Sandiego sounds a little like a code name (maybe even a Line-of-Sight Name if you happen to like Bizet and live in Southern California.) Both of them travel for the thrill of the adventure (it merely scaled up and Dora got older.) Constantly trying to prevent Swiper from stealing things finally caused her to snap and she finally joined the dark side.
If Carmen ever went to the Harry Potter universe...
She'd steal every last bit of dark magic, including everyone's ability to perform it, and find a way to eliminate it permanently. Carmen does NOT like people who kill and torture. V.I.L.E.'s existence is a net good.
Carmen may have standards, but that doesn't necessarily mean her minions do. Some of them may have been violent thugs if left to their own devices. By directing their activities toward Monumental Theft (which ACME regularly sets right), she's keeping them away from more dangerous crimes. Kneemoi started as a mad anthropologist.
However, she's lost sight of the end in her chosen means. Carmen's closest friend in her childhood was Valerie Frizzle.
Maybe when they were little, Valerie was that weird kid in class who got picked on a lot for her eccentricity before Carmen the mysterious Aloof Dark-Haired Girl came along, who couldn't stand seeing her like that (and their Apathetic Teacher wasn't helping). Early on they find that they share a love of learning about the world and all the wonderful things in it - again, with an Apathetic Teacher they may have been intellectually frustrated. Carmen tends to be more interested in anthropologic stuff in exotic places (e.g., cultural sites) while Valerie prefers to find out about nature and how something works, but there's plenty of overlap between the two (e.g., how could the Moai statues on Easter Island get to where they are now? Will you look at how majestic the Great Barrier Reef is!).Their first adventures were of Carmen sneaking away and dragging Valerie along with her - this might expose Valerie to how interesting other people can be via cultural artifacts (if she's been picked on, she might have been adverse to social contact), while Valerie may act as a conscious for Carmen, who tends to disregard rules and might have turned out to be a straightforward villainess instead of the Gentlewoman Thief we know her as now. Through their worldwide travels (all hidden from the regular Powers That Be thanks to Carmen's legendary stealth abilities) they also form contacts with a wide variety of people who help them later in life - this is more obviously helpful for Valerie's backstory as the Magic School Bus episodes show her social network to be quite widely cast, but Carmen would also benefit from such a network as well in order to keep her activites on the down-low.
Their childhood experiences can help to inform their present career choices. For Valerie, she became a teacher to nurture nascent inquisitive minds - she knows how aggravating being bored at school can be thanks to her Apathetic Teacher. Going out with the bus to do really hands-on and up-close approaches to learning is about the most effective way to get kids to learn. For Carmen, perhaps at Valerie's encouragement that she can make the world a better place, she goes to work for ACME and uses her skills to become the best detective they've ever had, but the combination of bureaucratic rigidity (to which she's never been fond of rules anyway) and lack of challenge because she's so good drives her away from ACME and into founding V.I.L.E.
Whether they keep in contact today can go either way. If yes, then Carmen's status as the world's most wanted thief is going to keep their opportunities to stay in touch limited (though with a magic bus at her disposal, Valerie will still be able to, say, meet up for coffee in Paris on the weekend). If no, then it's possible Carmen's turn to crime was the breaking point where they fell out (and lots of drama ensued).
Carmen is a sociopath.
She started out as an ACME agent who was absolutely brilliant, but who switched sides because she decided that catching crooks was way too easy. One of the traits of sociopathy is being easily bored and requiring stimulation, often in greater amounts to alleviate the boredom. And while Carmen steals and doesn't kill, it's obvious that she really doesn't care what effects her thefts have/might have.- While you reasoning is solid, I have an argument of my own: Sociopathy is largely defined by lack of ability to care about or relate to others. Let's take a look at the series where Carmen gets the most characterization: Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? While she still does steal things in the series, because that's a staple trait of her character, and she does it for the thrill of it, she seems to go to great pains to ensure that her actions do not physically hurt other people. For example, she does not use explosives. Whether or not she only cares about preserving the landmarks is debatable, but there's my reasoning on the matter. Another point is her relationship with Zack and Ivy in that series. On the surface, it appears to be an average younger hero/ older villain relationship. But then we watch the episode, "The Rules of the Game". At one point in the episode, Ivy is about to fall off a ledge. How does Carmen react to this? By reaching out to Ivy and insisting she (Ivy) take her(Carmen) hand, and there are many other instances where Carmen attempts to save or help Zack and Ivy. This shows that while Carmen regularly acts in ways that blatantly break many laws for the heck of it, she is capable of relating to and caring about other people. If Carmen does have some form of mental illness, in this troper's mind, she's more likely to have borderline personality disorder, or something similar.
Carmen has a summer home in the Islamic Republic of Eastern Samothrace
Agent 13 of Word Detective and Agent 9 of Math Detective are the same character.
You got a promotion for thwarting Carmen in Word Detective. VILE is a front created by Carmen to keep ACME agents busy
VILE and ACME are the same organization. Carmen is working both ends of a con, playing both Da Chief (...the Chief) for ACME and the Gentleman Thief (herself) for VILE. Carmen sends ACME detectives into wild goose chases in an attempt to accidentally kill them, each one corresponding to a bizarre Monumental Theft. At the end of the mission, Carmen "escapes", but in reality she's going back to HQ to plan her next set of evil shenanigans. Carmen is a Touhou Project character
- Signature Headgear? Check.
- Weird ability based on intangible concepts (Impossible Thief)? Check.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality? Check.
Therefore, if someone makes Carmen a Touhou boss it would be a perfect fit. She can even cause an incident by stealing Cirno’s strength!
2019 Netflix Series
Carmen's Gang
At some point Carmen eventually takes over and reforms VILE.
Carmen looks and sounds much younger than previous appearances - possibly in her mid-20s - on top of working (mostly) on her own. Perhaps in a later season Carmen decides to steal VILE itself and reform it under her control.- Jossed
Alternatively, this series is Carmen's Start of Darkness
Carmen may have standards, but she still chose to "white hat" for the purpose of hurting VILE. So after she finally takes over the organization, she can't go straight afterwards, and thus turns it into the global Impossible Theft organization for the fun of it.- Hopefully not. And hopefully it won't be from learning the circumstances of her father's death.
- Also jossed
We'll have an episode where Ivy and Zach have to do something for ACME down the line
Maybe they need to team up to rescue Carmen from something down the line. This would also give them space to develop their characters on why they chose to move with an international criminal, and maybe even force a Friend-or-Idol Decision depending on how they feel about working with ACME vs working with Carmen.- Confirmed, but only at the very end where they wind up working as ACME agents.
Carmen will subvert expectations of her becoming a straight villain similar to her other incarnations.
Carmen will subvert expectations, fears and concerns that she'll ultimately become evil and take over V.I.L.E. as it's new leader, instead remaining as her benevolent anti-heroic self even at the end of the series.- Confirmed
Player is related to Chief.
Think about it: Aside from Carmen herself, Player is the most mysterious of the protagonists. It would make sense - and be dramatic - if he proved to have a connection with A.C.M.E. similar to how Carmen has a connection to V.I.L.E.- Not brought up during the series.
Carmen will eventually recruit Gray to her team
Gray mentioned that he became a thief because he felt like he could be so much more than an electrician, VILE may have wiped his memories but that feeling could reemerge. Carmen will attempt to put that motivation to a positive use, possibly by pointing out how VILE just left him high and dry. She tried to convince him to join her on the train, she likely would try again if keeping him out of the world of thieves was no longer an option.- Jossed. Learning that VILE brainwashed Carmen is what gets Gray to defect from VILE, and even then he is on ACME's team, not quite Carmen's.
Carmen will start trying to get as many V.I.L.E. thieves decommissioned as possible
Once she figures out that having the organization wiped from your mind and sent back to your old life is the price to pay for getting captured, she'll attempt to turn over as many of her former friends and classmates to the police as possible (under the pretense of them being a witness or victim), helping to limit VILE's workforce and give them all a fresh start with honest lives.- Confirmed in the ending. She may be going easy on the ones who decommission themselves.
Zack and Ivy will each Take a Level in Badass.
In order to address complaints complaints about their Adaptational Dumbass/Adaptational Wimp status.- They appear to stepped up their game in season 2.
- Confirmed.
Carmen and Julia's bond will grow further in season 3
In Treasure of Knowledge, both Julie and Carmen were partners during the former's allegiance to A.C.M.E. and they both describe each other as the "best partner" the other ever had. In this adaptation, Julia is the only one willing to give Carmen a chance and Carmen decides to trust Julia enough to have the latter help in the fashion caper episode. And there's some possible, subtle foreshadowing: 1). When Carmen is rescued from freezing to death, the Chief tells her that she can call if she needs help (or something like that) and the pen Carmen is holding coincides with Julia's body. And the two share a look; 2). The whole fashion caper episode has Carmen pull Julia in for help while having the latter wear a hat similar to Carmen's iconic one, they are placed in the center of the frame while Ivy and Zack are in the outer frames (which often signifies importance), and Carmen then makes Julia in charge of the gang; 3). Both Chase and the Chief have referred to Carmen as Julia's "partner" numerous times; 4). They had more time together in season 2 than 1, so they'll most likely have more quality time in season 3; 4). They'll have to resolve some trust issues between them (i.e., Carmen thinking Julia set her up in the episode she almost freezes to death and Carmen hacking into A.C.M.E. databases).- A scenario could be both of them stranded together with neither teams involved for some reason and the duo have to solve the titular caper. They both bluntly states their mild distrust of the other but decide to try it out. And it goes splendidly. Like their TOK counterparts, it always seems like they can mind read each other and they both have an appreciation for the arts and culture, something their colleagues often don't have. At the end, they both blissfully admit to their respective teams that working with other woman was a truly amazing experience.
- Jossed. Unfortunately, Julia is barely even in season 3.
- Actually, their relation grows stronger but only in the final season.
Carmen's "death"
In the original animated TV series, there was an episode that had Carmen appeared to have died. This reboot could tread on that idea, but make it a two parter or more, making it a mystery in itself. As such, everyone has their own reaction to it. Most tellingly, the Council would be surprised by the news and (sans Rounadabout) wouldn't be happy about it but wouldn't outright say it but not deny it either. However, when Roundabout makes an Innocently Insensitive comment about they're "lucky" that Carmen is dead, all of them become enraged at his words, shocking him. Also, they would each have their own special memory with their Black Sheep and come to have a shocking realization that they still love their adopted daughter and now think it's too late.- Jossed. While Carmen does come close to death at one point due to ACME's actions, VILE never learns of this.
We will eventually learn the real names of all of Carmen's gang
Zack and Ivy never used codenames to begin with, we eventually learn Shadowsan's real name is Suhara they're actively trying to find Carmen's mother possibly leading to a name reveal, and we'll eventually get one for Player, who will be named Finn after his voice actor.- Semi-Jossed, we don’t hear his first name, but we do get his surname.
VILE
A former VILE student will appear.
The student failed to graduate despite good enough grades because of not having sociopathic level of evil (not wearing to kill people who see him) he believes is a anger problem he has and believes Carmen is working for VILE and tries to beat her. In the end, the former student is told just how bad VILE actually is, and decides to official cut ties. Please add to the idea.- The student is now the apprentice of a lupin the 3rd kind of criminal when he see Carmen and one of the Head Councils are all going for the same thing for different reasons. The lupin like mentor knows about VILE real evil but did not say because the failed student probably won't believe him. At the end the failed student chooses a codename from on of Carmen VILE man.
- Series ended without this coming up.
- However, Carmen got one thief who was about to become a VILE student to change her ways and not enroll after learning how bad VILE was.
VILE villains from past incarnations will make guest appearances in future seasons.
Villains from the two PBS game shows might appear such as Vic the Slick, Double Trouble, Robocrook, Dr. Belljar, Baron Wasteland, etc. Or at the very least, similar characters if there are legalities involved.- Confirmed: some of the villains can be seen this way, such as Robo Robber being an expy of Robocrook.
Gray is a sleeper agent
VILE has a no witnesses policy so having failed thieves lose their memories and get sent home feels like a slap on the wrist in comparison. Further more, having Gray return his old job, which just so happens to be where their latest scheme took place (with involved mind control, no less!), right when Carmen came to investigate was way too coincidental to not be planned. VILE knew that Carmen was close to Gray and tried to use him to lure her out. However, she unintentionally foiled that plot by keeping distance to protect him. The pieces are already in place, so VILE can continue to be active in Australia to force Carmen to run into Gray again, letting them rebuild a relationship before pulling a Bait-and-Switch when they have to fight.- To add to this, it would have been much easier and safer to just kill Gray. Chase and Julia couldn't find any records of him so even if his body was discovered there would be no way of identifying him. Gray made it pretty clear that before VILE, he was a normal person so he's bound to have a birth certificate and ID. If someone thorough like Julia were to feel the need to look into him again, there's a chance she would now find information on him and he could be questioned. VILE has shown themselves to be too smart to leave loose ends like that hanging around so there has to be a reason for keeping Gray alive.
- Jossed. Gray returns to VILE only after getting his memories back due to ACME. Had he been left alone, VILE's amnesia would have held.
Coach Brunt will become suspicious of Shadowsan.
- Somewhat confirmed: Coach Brunt is outright informed of Shadowsan's treachery. She does not take it well.
The Bookkeeper was the original founder of VILE.
Cookie Booker's voiced by Rita Moreno, who was Carmen's voice actor in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. Cookie pulled off the many Monumental Thefts and amazing crimes the series has generally been known for when she was young and had the stamina and energy to do so, with the five VILE instructors as her gang.As she got older, Cookie decided to switch career tracks by creating VILE and letting Brunt, Shadowsan, Cleo, Maelstrom, and Bellum take over while she herself switched over to maintain VILE's financial bookkeeping and accounts. She may be old, but she clearly still enjoys being a criminal, and she herself mentioned to Carmen/Black Sheep that "white-collar crime is where the real money is."- Jossed, the original founders of VILE were apparently medieval, one of which is name-dropped as a Viking, so unless Cookie is immortal, this is pretty much impossible.
Alternately, Cookie Booker is the original Carmen Sandiego and deliberately gave "Black Sheep" the name and coat on purpose.
Over time, the original Carmen Sandiego perhaps became unable to do the crime she used to do due to her increasing age and took up White Collar crime instead. But she may have wanted the name and image to continue on, so she orchestrated Black Sheep taking up the mantle.- Considering Carmen's mother in the flashback looked like the original, the show may be going in this direction meaning it would end up as a sequel rather than a reboot. If this is the case, it could also mean the current Ivy & Zack are related to the originals(likely the children of one of them). Though it would beg the question of where the computer-generated "Chief" went.
- Jossed. Carmen Sandiego came up with the name on her own, and stole the coat.
VILE will learn the true circumstances of the death of Carmen's father.
So to really hurt Carmen, they will go after her mother.- Jossed.
Wolfe knew Shadowsan was there that night
Moreover he knew WHY Shadowsan was there. The nanny had clearly left, he knew that there was a likely chance that would be the last time he saw his daughter, and no responsible parent would leave their child without knowing there would be someone who would take them in and take care of them.- Jossed. He had no other options, and he knew that ACME was present.
The Road Runner is a VILE operative.
We've always seen Wile E. Coyote famously use ACME Products against the Road Runner in Wile E Coyote And The Roadrunner cartoons, and we know that the ACME cards offer discounts in company stores...though it's easy to assume the Coyote is trying to capture the Road Runner for a meal, what if he is, in fact, an operative for VILE?- Jossed: this is a completely different ACME.
Carmen and Gray's former classmates will eventually join Carmen's team and/or ACME.
Their continuous failures to defeat Carmen and the members of her team will eventually cause VILE to turn on them, and then Tigress, El Topo, La Chevre, and maybe but less likely Mime Bomb, will be forced to join forces with the heroes. Note that despite the emphasis on VILE's willingness to kill and use other underhanded tactics, none of them have generally been shown doing anything as irredeemable as the Faculty, and the flashbacks in "The Boston Tea Party Caper" show that Topo and Chevre, like Crackle, were initially reluctant to engage her.- Jossed. Those who are not arrested, or do not remain VILE operatives after VILE's faculty is captured, get civilian jobs.
Gray/Crackle will turn out not to be an original character
When he gets his memory back, and it is very likely that he will, he is going to remember from his perspective that he was betrayed by both Carmen and VILE. Consumed with anger, he abandons both identities as he sets himself on a path to destroy Carmen, VILE and even ACME (given what the Season 3 cliffhanger hints) for ruining him, breaking Carmen's heart in the process. The next time we see him after that, backed up with a crew and a thieving reputation of his own, he will have taken on a new name (and to longtime fans of the franchise, a familiar one): Lee Jordan.- Jossed.
ACME
ACME will take a more shadier tone.
Since Carmen is the hero this time around perhaps ACME will be portrayed as shadier and possibly even Ambiguously Evil this time around. Some preview images which have been released do show Carmen hiding for a pair of Men In Black looking people, so perhaps those are ACME detectives and ACME as a whole will be taking on a shadier Men In Black theme this time around.- ACME does like its secrets this time around, calling itself "even more secret than VILE", though much like Control vs KAOS, they seem to be especially interested in taking on their secretive counterpart, so there could be a He Who Fights Monsters down the line.
- Confirmed, at least on the part of the Chief who killed Carmen's father. Certainly, Carmen does not think well of ACME over this.
ACME has its own school for training investigators.
It would be somewhat fitting if ACME, the Good Counterpart to VILE, had an equivalent of their own to VILE Academy.- ACME appears to recruit from other organizations instead.
Julia Argent is related to Marinette Dupain-Cheng
According to the novelization, Julia is British-Chinese; Marinette is French-Chinese. They both have dark blue hair. Perhaps one of the reasons Julia is (presumably) fluent in French and stationed in France by Interpol was because she has relatives in France? Given how close Britain and France are geographically, it would be fairly easy for one of Sabine Cheng's relatives to emigrate to Britain via France. Julia being British-Chinese might refer simply to her being born and raised in Britain, rather than having one Chinese and one British-born parent(though given her freckles, presumably she has Caucasian ancestry somewhere).- Freckles are not specific to Caucasian ancestry. It is really far reaching to assume that two mixed Asian characters are related because they live in neighbouring countries.
- Series ended without giving any more evidence.
The Chief will find out that Carmen Sandiego is the daughter of the man she shot.
- Confirmed
A.C.M.E.'s use of knockout gas stun weapons stems from the Chief's distaste for having to shoot Carmen's father when she was with Interpol
- Series ended without comment on this.
Other
Carmen's of San Diego will try to cash in on Carmen Sandiego's mystique
While being totally ignorant of the fact that there is a connection between them. And at some point in the advertising campaign, Carmen, her hat ruined by Tigress or Paper Star while doing some totally unrelated job in San Diego, will go to Carmen's to buy a replacement.- Jossed, Carmen's the business ends up going bankrupt, and Carmen buys one of their buildings for use as a base.
A future heist will lead both sides to Ontario
This will lead to Player's backstory getting more developed as well as allow him to finally meet Carmen and the others in person, if not have to get rescued by them without his help.- Jossed: only Carmen's side meets Player in person, and they do not meet his family.
"The French Connection Caper" will become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
The VILE faculty went after Devineaux because they thought he and Carmen were partners. They aren't, but the fallout will cause a chain of events where Devineaux will become Carmen's Friend on the Force in ACME.- Jossed. While Devineaux and Carmen eventually work on the same side, they are never partners.
Carmen's mother is the original Carmen Sandiego.
She pulled a Heel–Face Turn by the time she met Carmen's father. If she was a member of VILE, then she faked her death so they wouldn't be looking for her.- Jossed. Carmen Sandiego is the original and only Carmen Sandiego.
Where in the World Is Vera Cruz?
Seriously, does anyone have a guess as to where?- Yeah, where on Earth can she be?
- Running an orphanage. Carmen meets her in the final episode.
Cookie Booker is Vera Cruz
.Or at least related to her, and is aware of who Black Sheep/Carmen actually is.- Jossed.
Vera Cruz is the original Carmen Sandiego
.Based on a snippet of her appearance, Carmen herself will be a Legacy Character to old Carmen Sandiego ala The Phantom.- Jossed. Carmen Sandiego is the original and only Carmen Sandiego.
An acappela group will figure in the plot of a future episode
Either that or Carmen, Zach, Ivy and Shadow-San will form one on the spot as a distraction tactic or to hide in a crowd, as an homage to Rockapella. At one point someone will say the line "Do it, accapela!" and the singers will break into either the PBS game show theme(like Zach and Ivy did in "To Steal or Not to Steal") or 'Zombie Jamboree'.- Jossed.
