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General Specific is either a dumb supervillain, or out for revenge on Sheep.
Why that specific sheep?
  • It was said in the pilot that they need that specific sheep, but they didn't elaborate why.
    • Genetics are the new radioactivity, perhaps?
    • The commercials when it was on air suggested it was because it was because it was the only sheep that would fit in the "sheep shaped hole".
      • In the pilot, somebody asked General Specific why couldn't he just pick some random sheep and adjust the hole to make the captured sheep fit it but he reacted on a way that made everyone afraid to bring this up ever again.
    • Word of God says that they raygun was supposed to have a purpose (they were trying to take over Wisconson), but eventually realized that General Specific and Private Public "aren't very bright," and just left it ambiguous to make them look dumber.

Possible scenarios:

The world is full of sheep, but that specific sheep did something to the General.
Hence the pursuit of that sheep when another would do just fine.

Sheep is the last of his kind.

General Specific just had a sheep-powered ray gun made to commit two evils at once.

  • Wait, what? This... this is not even wild! He has a sheep-powered gun with a "Sheep shaped hole", that's why! * The guess was probably that he made the ray gun sheep-powered to commit two evils at once (genocide and whatever the ray gun did) rather than using a less cruel power source.
  • Jossed by the fact that the pilot and various other episodes clearly show that Sheep's not the only sheep around. There's also his friend the X Agent and his old barnyard friends Sammy, Clammy, and Rammy from "My, How Ewe Have Changed".

General Specific is Obfuscating Stupidity and knows full-well how stupid his actions are.
He's just doing it and pretending to be incompetent to get the Angry Scientist and Private Public to do his dirty work while he siphons government funding. If he acted as smart as he is, then he wouldn't get much face time in the show.
  • Or else, if he didn't pretend to be stupid, then he'd get fired and wouldn't have a chance getting another show. (Final episode proves that Specific does indeed want more screentime.)

General Specific is cursed by his name to go after the specific sheep.
That's all. Doesn't he act similarly in other plot points?
  • They said so in the pilot: Sheep is the only one who'd actually fit into the raygun.

The Angry Scientist prefers to be called by that because his father was a mad scientist got stuck in a cuckoo's nest

Following "Agony of De-Bleat", the antagonists intentionally fail to capture Sheep.
The episode ends with everyone being fired, if not for the interference of the Angry Scientist, Plot Device, and Private Public. Following this episode, it's very possible that any plan that would succeed again is quietly sabotaged. "Daddy Shearest" has this happen blatantly.

The story is a metaphor for the downsides of the adult life and how growing up can be difficult for other people as well as yourself.
Farmer John's longing for Sheep to go back to the farm seems reminiscent of a parent having difficulty accepting that their child has grown up and wants to live on their own now. Sheep's run-ins with Lady Richington whenever he tries to court Swanky the Poodle represents how finding love can be difficult even when you think you've found the right person. General Specific and his men trying to capture Sheep are meant to represent how adults have to follow rules and laws they don't understand or like and how people have to push through even when their government isn't exactly ideal.

Lady Richington hates Sheep because she had a lover who left her for a shepherdess.
She's clearly single and it would make perfect sense for her to hate sheep for a reason as petty as losing someone she loved to a person whose job revolved around them.


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