#carmen sandiego analysis

[cs-oc-blank-random-posts]

i was making a CS Analysis about Carmen and Narcissistic traits and it's too good for me to keep to myself. SO I'M GONNA DUMP IT ALL HERE ft. my private cs-blank-au discord server nickname

[redcracklestan]

Redcrackle ship analysis pt.2

I just wanted to talk about the clear soft spot they have for each other

He wouldn’t have done those things for anyone else

The way both of them had a soft spot for each other, I every single one of their versions (black sheep, carmen Sandiego, evil carmen and Gray, Graham and crackle) it’s insane to me.

Black sheep was a rebellious spirit. She wouldn’t listen to anyone, and yet she still listened to Gray, she trusted him.

Carmen Sandiego was a grown woman, who was not afraid of beating some VILE operatives and yet she always had hope on Gray, she always knew he was good deep down, she always protected him, cared for him and she was always on his side as long as possible.

Evil carmen wouldn’t even listen to the faculty, but yet, she listened to Gray when he said to let Tigress go, and I assume many other times since we saw only a little part of the 6 months she was brainwashed.

Gray had some friends, yeah, but no one was like carmen, their bond was special and he never cared of who he had to go against to protect carmen, either it was Tigress, the faculty or whatever.

Graham (brainwashed gray) barely knew carmen and even since their first interaction he was so clearly in love with her, he asked her out on a date and even though she didn’t show up he was willing to go all way to New Zealand just to have a coffee with her. He was willing to help her with “criminal” things even though he was good now.

Crackle worked very good with evil carm and when he realised that she was not the real carmen and that she wanted to kill shadowsan, he got himself arrested so that she could “come back”, and he made himself shock and pass out just so that she could make her own decisions, not the one that were forced to her.

And the way they always put each other well-being and happiness before their own, letting each other go even though they didn’t wanted to do it.

[okkos-ferrum]

gray's return in the show and how it defines gray as a truly morally gray character

i just gotta ramble more abt this scene, with it being one of my favorite scenes in the show. but really i just wanna talk abt how this scene encapsulates gray's ... grayness... of the moral variety

especially since it is done so effectively since, like i mentioned in other posts, our screen time with actual gray and not graham or whatever is limited.

this scene sees the return of gray in the plot, picking up directly where we leave off from all the way back in episode 2

Bye-bye, Black Sheep...

I assume you prefer I continue to call you "Carmen"?

as i stated previously on other posts, because of the silly brainwashing plot, much of graham scenes can be thrown out. in a sense, it's the writers' way to put a big old pause on his character

and these are only one of the two conversations carmen and gray have in current day as themselves -- with no mind wiping or brainwashing (not including flashback cuz the actual issues of the relationship that need to be addressed havent been established yet)

so resuming directly right where we left off with gray trying to kill carmen, we return back to gray trying to kill carmen :D

but this time he did recongize carmen's name, alluding to his change ... even tho he is waving his electric stick around -- mirroring their last encounter in paris

side tangent: something i, additionally, love about this scene is just how it is blunt and honest. much of carmen sandiego's drama/conflict is built of misunderstanding and misdirection and mistrust of the characters. Which while, yes, i am eating up, but unfortuntely can cause many characters relationships to be burdened with a lot of things that can be easily cleared up with a talk. gray for once just bluntly takes a stance.

something that i do like is that in their only two scenes with each other as themselves, carmen (the pilot flashbacks) and gray (this scene) open up so fast with one another. there's never any miscommunication between them during these scenes .... well until vile barges into the conversation....

ANYWAY here we get revealed gray's full perception of himself and his goals very explicitly, especially since his memories and alliances was the biggest question over the viewers' head for most of the show

here gray explains that he believes that he is not a good person, someone incapable of change.

from his perspective, the only way he was able to be a "good" person was when he was brainwashed. and he had just had however long with his chats with maelstrom emphasizing that he has always been a bad person by nature. with the knowledge vile will forever have full control over him -- either as a vile operative or as a mindwiped civillian -- gray essentially accepts his fate as a bad person, because at the very least he is himself.

carmen may have gotten away from vile, but he is told by maelstrom it is due to her being a naturally good person. because his own perception of himself is as somebody who is incapable of good, he will never be able to leave vile now

and carmen is right there in front of him. it was his hesistance that landed him into this debacle, and with maelstrom and bellum both just past the door and carmen alone, gray has every chance to right his wrong.

but he doesnt. because he realizes that the very least he can make the choice of is never hurting carmen. as i stated in other posts, gray's main motive is to be free from any standard that could get in between him and his success. but his want for this freedom ironically got him trapped within following vile's orders. he had been so caught up in following vile that he had lost sight of himself and what he cares about.

so now he explains to carmen his absolute refusal to hurt her again, begging her to give up in stopping vile

selfish and selfless

But I'm begging you, give up trying to stop us, because I don't ever want to be put in a position to hurt you again.

gray's plea to carmen here is so perfectly two-sided

he is acting out selflessly in not allowing his alliances against carmen blind him. i mean that is what he fucked up last time in the train, where it was clear gray wanted to spare carmen - with giving her time to share her side of the story and providing the offer - put unwilling to stand against his mission. like an actual human being, gray acknowledges his mistake and is trying to amend it by stating clearly that he cares abt carmen.

he, in essence, is apologizing for trying to harm carmen by expressing his major regret. moreover, he acknowledges their chat in the pilot, accepting carmen will not return to vile. it stems likely from the ink blot scene earlier, where maelstrom speaks about nature, making a distinction between vile, and by extension, gray's, and carmen's morals. he is finally reconciling that he and carmen will not be on the same side, no matter how much he wants it to be otherwise.

it can also be viewed as a sense of wanting to protect carmen. because he feels so small compared to vile, he barely can ponder how anyone can actually succeed in going against them. i mean they brainwashed him and easily gave and took away his civilian life. in his eyes, carmen staying far from vile is the only way she could be safe

however, viewing it from another perspective shows gray's selfishness in his plea. when he speaks about never wanting to be put in a position to hurt carmen again, he kinda places such a responsibility on carmen, not recongizing he himself is capable of changing that.

Essentially saying "hey quit while you're ahead so you don't gotta make me feel guilty when doing crime" while ignoring that he is making the choice join vile

It kinda stems from his lack of faith in carmen or his own cowardice against vile or a combination of both. What may just be the only way he can protect to protect carmen comes off in his own lack of faith in her ability. as i mentioned earlier, this practically is his own resignation to his fate that vile cannot be fought against. he took his own defeat as the only way to be safe, refusing to believe carmen can successfully fight them.

while he was able to get past the hurdle of accepting carmen changing and no longer standing alongside him, he cant seem to understand his own responsibilty in this.

he's being selfish by demanding a change in carmen's behavior while he continue along with his own desires. While yes, i did just detail the various factors that led to him to such a conclusion, the window was LITERALLY OPEN for him to leave

following carmen blowing up the facility and rejecting gray's demand -- SHE IS SO REAL FOR THAT I LOVE HER SM IN THIS EP -- the wall LITERALLY IS OPEN FOR TO LEAVE CARMEN WITH

Goodbye, Gray

Idk how intentional this is, but the framing shows carmen literally, by her own will, forcing an opening for herself out of vile (both figuratively in the past and literally right now lol) while gray watches on idly, too scared to leave the grasp of vile but just watching on.

and his cowardice is followed through in the finale, with after months of idly watching carmen slip deeper into evil by the brainwashing, he actually takes actions against vile by actively choosing to work with acme, abandoning tigress, and being the one to land the memory recovery thing on her.

it is what makes gray such a stand out character in this show, admist his frustrating back-and-forth and selfishness and sometimes wasted writing. he keeps making a mistake but proceeds to fix it right after. his growth into a better person requires him to make these mistakes, because unlike carmen and most people in the show on the side of good, gray doesn't work on any moral compass. he is not actively evil and wishing to inflict harm and conflict like paper star or vile facilty, nor is he driven by morals such as team red and julia. he is driven by whatever he selfishly cares abt. and from what we see of him both in the pilot and this ep, he makes as many mistakes as he does have slivers of good actions

basically gray is an interesting character cuz he literally fucks up his personal goals, but he makes an earnest attempt to make it better lol

[themattress]

The length had me worried, but turns out it's this person's only video and clearly a passion project so it's not a grifting "outrage merchant" type of video. And honestly, most of their points are spot on, like how Carmen's character arc was botched, how abysmal Zack and Ivy are in every way, the iffyness of Shadow-san that was never properly addressed, the waste of Player's potential by keeping him so ridiculously flat, the fact that separating Chase and Julia for so long did both characters no favor, Gray being one of the better characters despite being misused and ultimately rendered kind of pointless, and the second half of the series and its finale being a letdown that mostly failed in delivering on what the first half had set up.

Wait, it feels like I've heard this story before...

[lara635kookie]

Ship Analysis pt.8:

I think this image summarizes my thoughts to why Red Crackle and Carmivy are better than Carulia(for me):

Gray and Carmen are light and darkness, yin and yang, perfect balance, soulmates, opposites attract, different but same and I just have it in me as a headcanon the impression that Chief is a Red Crackle shipper. For me, she's the president of the Red Crackle fan club. She says Gray is a smitten sap for Carmen(In the Portuguese and Spanish dub she legit says he's a fool/idiot in love) and when talking about Carmen and Gray having coffee together she says Carmen and Calloway are, makes a pause, like she's thinking on what to say next, and says "friendly", in a different voice tone than before. I think she knows.

Carmivy while is not my favorite ship, it's almost as great as Red Crackle for me. They are just so good! Ivy is such a simp going "I will beat you up if you say anything to upset Carmen" to Zack or "We're here for Carmen" to Shadowsan. Or asking herself multiple times what would Carmen do. She's Carmen's biggest fan. In some things, Carmivy was even superior to Red Crackle. But doing the overall average, for me, Red Crackle just end up winning, but Carmivy got close. I think this shows what I'm talking about:

They are such simps for her. They both knew her so well. Ivy always knew what Carmen would do and tried to do it and Gray in the train scene he says:"You've proven yourself, that's all you ever wanted, wasn't it?" it shows how well he understands her. While it wasn't ALL she ever wanted, it was definitely something she wanted a lot and Gray realized even before Carmen herself did. At the Lucky Cat Caper(I don't remember if that's really the name but okay) when Carmen has a nightmare about the coat exam she says to Player:"I guess I still feel like I have something to prove." Another thing it gets me is how Carmen and Gray prioritizes each other's safety and well being. Like, sure, Carmen prioritizes these two things of a lot of people, but the way it's with Gray, they prioritize those things from each other on top of pretty much almost EVERYTHING. In the episode Carmen goes to rescue Gray from the jail in Reykjavik, she had a choice:Go get the stolen crown or get to Gray. She chooses Gray first. Of course she also gets the crown but she still chose Gray first. She set an alarm for him if he ever got in trouble because she wants to get him out of trouble and have a good fresh start. Also, we know Maelstrom likes to melt gold. I just can picture perfectly Maelstrom convincing Countess Cleo to have only the crown's precious gemstones to do other jewelry and then Maelstrom would get the crown gold to melt and do whatever he wants with it. And then Carmen would have lost the crown forever and would have totally failed for the first time. Carmen isn't dumb. She knew the faculty members, she lived with them almost her whole entire life. Even with that risk, she STILL chose Gray without even hesitating or thinking more carefully about it. That's how much Gray matters to her. She stole for V.I.L.E. to save Zack and Ivy and she never did something like that, against her morals, for Julia. She threatened to throw that V.I.L.E. artifact in that hole but the artifact was something that would help V.I.L.E. to find more things and steal them and she knew if she threw it, one day someone would find it or it would be hidden forever. So she had absolutely nothing to lose throwing it. She actually had something to win. It wasn't a sacrifice she was willing to do for Julia, like it was the case for Gray, Zack and Ivy.

And this was the final part of my ship analysis. The next thing related to ship will be a ship ranking, where I get all the Carmen Sandiego romantic ships and judge them from first to last place. Bye and see you soon!

[jackie-shitposts]

UGH GOD DAMN SHIT FUCK IM SO INSANE OVER THEM

[image description: A series of 5 screenshots taken from the Netflix reboot of Carmen Sandiego. It’s of Julia and Carmen first meeting on a train to India. Carmen sits across from Julia, the two talk a bit at the dinner table, they definitely flirt I swear it to you, and Julia looks shocked at the end after Carmen leaves. /End description]

THIS SCENE. THEIR WHOLE FIRST INTERACTION. ITS SO MUGHFDBGFHL TO ME

I may just have wishful thinking but. the background is lesbian colors. no wait come back-

Its obvious that Julia is gay. just look at the way she is looking at carmen. homo behavior. but lets remember that carmen is ALSO gay as she’s like “oh she has a partner?” and then julia’s like “nono hes a travel partner please stay im gay for you” and Carmens like “SWEET I shall nickname you jules because i am a thief now. we are future wives did you know that”

apologies i have no analysis im too busy being gay

I love how Carmen leaves the magna cartas with Julia after one conversation. I love how important that is for Julia’s case that Carmen is stealing for good. I love how they instinctually trust each other. ughhhhh theyre so

also bonus julia distressed

[image description: A screenshot taken from the Netflix reboot of Carmen Sandiego. Julia is on the phone. She has a distressed look on her face, her brows creased and her mouth open a little. She looks silly i love her so much. no i will not stop simping in these image IDs. /End description]

[uniasus]

Netflix released, well, not a ton but some data about viewership recently and I couldn't help but look up the performance of my fandoms. They released the top 18,214 titles based on hours watched from Jan to June 2023.

Ordered in terms of rank.

ATLA: Avatar the Last Airbender (Not available globally - what countries are missing? IDK)

Woot woot! Avatar in the house. 45.5M hours for book 1, giving it a rank of 342.

Book 3 has more views than book 2. I'm gonna credit that to Zuko.

Teen Wolf (Not available globally - what countries are missing? IDK)

The top season is season 3, oddly enough, with a rank of 361! It got 43.9M hours streamed. What are you all rewatching?

Season 1 is the third most watched.

Jurassic World (Not available globally - what countries are missing? IDK)

A healthy rank of 536 with 34M views.

Yu-Gi-Oh (Not available in the US)

Season one is ranked 1,843, with 11.4M hours watched in the first half of the year. Wow! That's impressive for such an old show.

Only 54% of people moved on to the second season. Sad😢

Season 5 had more views than Season 4 or 3. Stop torturing yourselves with rewatching the ceremonial duel, y'all. It's not healthy.

Carmen SanDiego

Season one saw 5.9M hours watched, giving it a rank of 3,133! Not bad for a show from 2019. (How does YGO out rank this? And how is this show more popular than She-Ra? She-Ra is better imo)

I'm impressed the Steal or Not to Steal interactive story did as well as it did. (1.3M hours). But I also know there were some good JuliaxCarmen scenes that 100% inspired fics.

She-Ra (available globally)

Season 1 is ranked 3,213 with 5.7M hours viewed.

People then went on to watch Seasons 5 and 4. We're all rewatching the angst bits, aren't we? Or maybe it's the redemption arc.

Least watched season? 3.

Voltron

Season one is ranked 4,140 with 3.9M hours watched.

Why is season 2 the only one not available globally? Odd. 62% of people go on to watch it after season 1 anyway.

Season 8 is not the least watched season, season 5 is. However, season 5 is totally the one I rewatched twice when it first came out.

Fullmetal Alchemist (movies are global, anime are not)

It is an absolute crime nothing here is ranked high. The highest is the movie, The Revenge of Scar, with a rank of 5,666. 2.2M hours watched.

Only season 1 for both the 03 anime and Brotherhood is available, but the 03 anime is winning. It had an extra 200K hours viewed.

All of the movies had a higher hour watch count than any of the anime seasons.

BBC Merlin | Doctor Who (no data)

Want Data? Variety Article with download links.

[phoenixlionme]

If player chooses to trust Julia - The small smile from Carmen and Julia's frowning but still accepting choice. The power of trust.

If player makes some choices - The story ends with Carmen returning all the stolen artifacts to Julia and gifting her with a bouquet of red roses; Julia has a notable blush while thanking Carmen. And remember, red roses symbolize romance.

An interesting one. If the player chooses to dance with the duke(?), Carmen daydreams not only about doing a more extravagant dance but also she specifically daydreams about Julia's reaction. Cant tell me she didn't want to impress her.

[fedorah-the-explorah]

I saw a take that said the family dynamics between team red (especially shadowsan + carm) are somewhat exaggerated by fandom and there's not actually a lot in canon that supports a lot of popular head canons or attributed roles. And it's like, first of all, please keep your hurtful truths to yourself. Second of all, I'm probably going to need a read more.

Despite myself, I really cannot disagree with the points made by this particular poster. It's a sound argument. Carmen Sandiego (2019) is an adventure series. It's fast paced, action packed, and focused a decent amount on edutainment. This is understandable, this is after all, the point of the franchise as a whole. The characters have enough sustenance that they are likeable, though they are most noticeably flat.

I'd argue that Shadowsan and Devineaux are the most dynamic characters, but even then the handling of their respective character arcs leaves something to be desired. Much like the rest of the series, their storylines feel rushed and added in as a second thought. I get the impression that the show was envisioned simply as an adventure of the week type of thing. They had a premise and a gimmick and they wanted to run with it. This is fine. But then came the overarching story lines and... Well. There were no master pieces.

We'll take season one as an example. The first two episodes were pretty solid. They had a coherent and well executed story line supported by characters with personality and potential for growth and depth. The pilot episode of a series serves to set up character arcs and overarching themes without having to go too into depth because of the fact that it's simply the beginning. The first two episodes of this series fulfilled their purpose, and they were executed well. I will even be generous to the rest of the season's story line and say that there did seem to be at least the minimal amount of foreshadowing and groundwork laid for the twist at the end of the season.

The problem then comes into play with the remaining episodes. From episodes three to eight, the story line is episodic and self-contained. There's a formula and it works well without there necessarily being a greater need for depth. I was perfectly invested simply with the caper by caper formula. It was never thought-provoking for me nor did it need to be. It was just a bit of fun. And then came the final episode and it was... interesting! I was pleasantly surprised by the sudden inclusion of an overarching story line, if not scratching my head a little.

Shadowsan's reveal made a decent amount of sense in hindsight, but didn't come across as particularly expertly crafted. It was a sudden shift to the status quo with little build up, and it felt vaguely out of place. It's an episode that could have been executed better if the narrative had started to shift earlier in the season or if there were more episodes between "The Chasing Paper Caper" and "The French Connection Caper." Instead it's everything all at once and I found myself thinking, "Oh! Okay! So we're doing this now."

Upon rewatching, there is some build up that can be noticed and recontextualizes, but it's not much. Even knowing how the season concludes, episodes 3-8 still feel episodic and disconnected from any greater story line. You've got some angst about Carmen's origin, and Shadowsan's insistence about sending Tigress for a second time reframes itself as a calculated decision rather than misjudgment but that's about it. They have the bare essentials of story telling, but they're not skillfully crafted. And that's... fine! This is children's TV. I don't actually hold it to the same standard as adult television, and I do think it's a pretty decent show for what it is.

My point then that I want to address is this idea of bare essential story telling. Carmen Sandiego doesn't lack the elements needed to tell a good story. They're there, just not expertly executed. The post that inspired this spiel mentioned that Team Red reads more as friendly coworkers. I don't fully agree with this, but I see their point. I will also say that I don't think this was what the writers had in mind. I do believe they were meant to be read as Found Family, in fact, it is more or less explicitly stated in "The African Ice Caper." It's just that, like every other aspect of the show, it's handled in a way that gives hints of further depth while not fully conceptualizing the theme.

This is not a smear campaign against the series. No, this is very much a product of passion. It's an entertaining show with beautiful animation and captivating fight sequences. I was hooked from the first episode and I continued to be so through the end of the series. I'd say one of the greatest draws of this show lies in its weakness. We're only given impressions of characters' further depth and personality. With the obvious exception of Carmen, we're only given glimpses of characters'back stories. In regards to over arching story lines, we're only given bare bone elements. This isn't great from a critical standpoint, but it does open the door to a large array of fan interpretation and transformative fanworks.

Because of the flaws in canon, fans are not bound by strict limitations. They are free to come up with their own unique interpretations of characters, they can flesh out back stories however they see fit, and otherwise flimsy storylines lend themselves to deeper fan-driven exploration.

Frequently on Tumblr, you'll see posts that disparage fanon for the way that it tends to flanderize and flatten characters. And yeah! This is bad! Unsurprisingly, flattening complex stories into easily recognizable tropes and clichés is actually the devil! A lot of times in fandom, you see this sort of corporate brain rot that simplifies stories into familiar and easily consumable pieces of "media" ("Consuming media," my beloathed)

Fanon gets a bad rep. Is it deserved? Mm. A good majority of the time, maybe. But where is the discussion for fanon in the other direction? What about when fanon expands a work of fiction? When it assigns more complexity than canonically given? There's something innately human about connecting with a piece of fiction and wanting to do more. We don't so easily let go of things, you know? When you love a piece of art that's otherwise disappointing, you have this desire to see it do better. To meet its potential. I think that's where fanon in the opposite direction stems from.

I think the fandom surrounding Carmen Sandiego (2019) is a decent example of this. The characterization is admittedly lacking, but that's done nothing to stop fanartists from coming up with their own rich interpretations of characters and their relations to others.

Carmen and Julia are two characters that share a decent amount of screen time, but their relationship otherwise suffers from the amount of time stretching between interactions. This has done nothing to deter fans. It seems I can't throw a stone in this fandom without hitting beautiful pieces of fanart depicting the two, or multi-chapter fics exploring the two's dynamics, or impassioned ramblings about them.

The same thing can be said about Graham and Carmen. They share a decent amount of screen time and their interactions are compelling, but they're too far and in between. What's there is not fully developed. Again, bringing it back to the idea of bare essential story telling. They have what they need to hint at the intrigue of both these dynamics, but they're not satisfactorily executed and both relationships suffer as a result. Their relationships, and indeed, the show as a whole, kind of feels like a completed puzzle with various missing pieces.

I chose Julethief and Redcrackle to use as examples, but similar things can be said of every other relationship in this show. Player and Carmen have moments that hint at a dynamic friendship built on unwavering trust and care, but it's only in a few select scenes, (though, the scenes that do do this are phenomenal and make me want to cry-- and I'm so sorry shippers-- but Player and Carmen have a monopoly on the hard hitting emotionally impactful moments in this show. I don't make the rules, I'm sorry.) and the majority of their interactions are reserved for getting down to business.

However, because of the glimpses we do see, you see countless fics detailing their friendship and building on to what we see in canon by going behind the scenes. I myself have extensive head canons about these two and honestly, what I've written and published is only the tip of the iceberg. Player is a bit of a tricky character to get a grasp on because of his limited role in canon, but what we do see opens up all sort of interpretation. I have such a fun time writing him because I can use what I see in canon to shape my own ideas about how he would act in various scenarios. My version of Player is far more dynamic than what we see in canon, but it's only like that because I love the canon character so much. I want him to do more, I want him to be more. My creativity is piqued with this character.

Moving on, let's focus on Shdowsan and Carmen, my other beloved dynamic. I have so many ideas about these two's relationship, and I especially enjoy delving into the dynamic between him and Black Sheep. They suffer the same problems as prior discussed. The scenes building on their relationship are sparse, but they are there. Take for several examples:

Shadowsan interacting with little Black Sheep in the "Daisho Caper," Shadowsan's stated remorse at not being able to tell Carmen about her own family, Shadowsan nursing her back to health after "The Stockholm Syndrome Caper," his stated motive for hiding the truth of her lineage from her, Shadowsan telling her he'd be with her till the end of the line, Shadowsan reminiscing about little Black Sheep when he visits the destroyed VILE Island, Shadowsan's dedication to finding Carmen's mother for her, Shadowsan telling her she can finally rest, and, and, and, and.

There is certainly a reason that fans have interpreted he and Carmen as being father and daughter, and I am in no way surprised by the beautiful and extensive explorations that certain fans have taken into these two's shared history (@frozenwolftemplar my beloved)

After all, you really do have to wonder about the hardened assassin who couldn't bring himself to harm a child or her father. Could there have been more done on the show writers part to really cement their relationship as adoptive father and daughter? Yes, absolutely. Does the development of their relationship leave something to be desired? Yes, absolutely. Do the existing interactions inspire me to delve further and call up melancholy memories of me and my own father, thus making me want to extensively detail their shared history before expanding on their present relationship so that I can process my own feelings about my own father? Yes, absolutely. Is this type of connection a deeply valuable faucet of story telling and kind of the whole point of creating art to begin with? I think so!

Carmen Sandiego doesn't necessarily set things up just to drop them so much as it strives to create compelling story lines and interesting characters before ultimately failing to delve deep enough or dedicate enough time for these things to fully come into their own. They're there and they exist, but it's like... Drinking water with oranges in it. I can taste the oranges, but damnit, now I want orange juice.

It utilizes story telling techniques, but not enough so that the show fully benefits from them. There's an impression of character dynamics, back stories, and personality but they're not fully recognized.

However, it is because of these flaws that fans can take the source material and go absolutely bonkers with it. By engaging with the story and characters, you really get the chance to flex your creative muscle. It's like a sandbox. The sand is there, the box is there, and the tools are there, but what you make is up to you. I've seen some deeply moving pieces of writing come out of this fandom, and it's insane to me how some authors can do so much with so little. In engaging with fanworks for this show, I've drawn connections to my own life and my own relationships. There are lines of writing that have been engraved into my brain. I've met wonderfully creative people and I'm glad to be an active member of the community.

No, the show itself is no amazing piece of story telling. It's fun and it's entertaining, but it doesn't fully realize everything that it set out to do. It does, however, open the door to community as well as inspiring creativity and transformity, and that means the world to me.

[tiredguyswag]

I love how our first shot of Carmen (in the show, at least) is of her walking onto a roof and the final shot is of her walking off the roof (I assume) as her theme plays in the background. Something something feeling like a drawing of the curtains and her entering and her entering and leaving just as we knew her, as the Crimson Shadow.

[le-regrems]

Ok guys hear me out

They're basically the same character if you think about it. It was on my mind for a while now and look.

Both read haired orphans (sort of), best spy in the world wanted by everyone, amazing skillset, probably neither legally exists, cool ass gadgets.

Both loners that want to atone for actions that weren't their fault, want to destroy what created them.

Both raised (groomed) by evil organization with history of brainwashing, that has obsessed over them.

They amnesiac (boy) friends from the evil organization look the same plus/minus an arm

Blackhill and carjulia aka federal agent on high position and best spy in the world that sometimes cooperates

Manipulative mother figure who grooms them into assassins, that later on has to be faced

And there's more of that!

This can't be a coincidence right? Or Am I batshit crazy and need to touch the grass? Probably should touch it regardless tbh considering my tumblr posts

[inoghmia]

Grey is such a dark character??? holy shit???

OK, so I am re-watching the show because I wanted to know how it would feel like watching it with the perspective of knowing how it would end, and it is just occurring to me that Grey is an actual assassin.

Like, I have no clue how it never really hit me before, but the entire reason why Carmen has such an issue with Grey and basically cuts him off is because of his twisted morals (“especially when you’re going to steal lives”)

People like to say that he is a morally grey character, but despite the fact that I love a bloodthirsty murderer as much as the next guy, I don’t think calling a VILE executive who’s job is shutting off lights, but also “leaving no witnesses behind”, in one of the most brutal ways I can imagine (best case people get electrocuted to death, worst they have a big-ass hole in their body), “morally grey” is right.

In the very first episodes, we have Carmen infiltrating their heist, and in the end it ends in a fight between her and Grey, which to be honest was kind of heartbreaking to watch in retrospect. She’s so confused and betrayed by him, she just keeps yelling “WHAT ARE YOU DOING GREY?!” without even waiting for an answer because she knows there isn’t one. He looks just as shocked and dare I say guilty. I think this was the moment it really hit him how innocent Carmen is and I think he just assumed she was used to this kind of stuff.

When it cuts to him in the train, he has this facial expression of hurt (I can’t find the picture>:( but it’s the face he makes RIGHT as we cut from Carmen‘s flashback of being knocked out to the present), and it’s hard for me to distinguish if it’s guilt, anger, betrayal, whatever it is, something is eating him up. But then he just kind of smirks, and explains what the VILE actually stands for.

As I said, I am just as guilty of thirsting over morally questionable characters, but this one really threw me off.

In the fight he has with Carmen in the train, he’s basically planning on killing her, but he doesn’t really put up a fight. Later on in the series, despite losing his memories he has some fighting instincts that he can pull up very easily, so even despite Carmen being obv the “best of the best”, I think that realistically he could’ve easily overpowered her and killed her in one blow. But he didn’t.

Looking back at the first episodes, I think that they were best friends (I’ve been thinking a lot about their supposed sibling dynamic as Carmen likes to call it and I think for me personally the “black sheep” is what throws me off, personally I would be much more willing to believe they were like siblings if he called her Carmen, but that didn’t happen for obvious reasons, just a side thought), and at the time Grey was still unaware that she grew up in this delusional world VILE crafted for her, so it’s understandable he assumed she’d know about the brutality of the world.

As I said, people like to call Crackle “morally grey” because of the way he acts after the memory wipe and how in the end he helps ACME, but I think that if we were to truly analyze his character from the very beginning, we’d notice what a dark character is.

[redcracklestan]

Redcrackle ship analysis pt.1

As you can guess, i ship Redcrackle, and often, many people told me that I shouldn’t ship them for some reason.

Here I’m going to explain why it is totally ok to ship them (and why it is my favourite copule in the show).

What people told me about them is that they see each other as siblings, their age gap is too much, and that they never actually flirted with each other.

Like i did for carulia I’m gonna show y’all what i think of each of those topics.

They see each other as siblings

I think that it was oblivious that they SAW each other as siblings when they were still both at VILE, not anymore. You can clearly see this simply by the way they look at each other

I have a brother, and we don’t look at each other like that, yk?

While they were still at VILE, they looked at each other very differently

That is a brotherly look, while they were younger, but then you can clearly see that their dynamic changed, because they grew up, they changed and their feelings for each other changed too, it’s normal that way, and it’s always been that way. Their trope is really complicated, but their feelings for each other went like from best friends to lovers, and it’s not “problematic” as someone says, instead they have chemistry, they bonded as friends and they proceeded seeing each other as the sibling figure they never had since they were both orphans, and they ended up developing some romantics feeling once they both matured and aged.

Plus I realised reading some fics and just scrolling on the internet, that prolly Carmen only saw Gray as a big brother figure because she only had the “family” kind of love in her life since that moment. Maybe she had stronger feelings for him that she couldn’t classify because the only love she ever felt was for the faculty, which was more like a family to her, no romantic feelings involved. Then Graham came and she saw him as a big brother, as her found family, because it was the only love she was surrounded with for her whole life, and that then, she realised that she had some romantics feelings for him, once she grew up and experienced more in her life.

Their age gap is too much

Ok, in this fandom, there are people from all over the world, so everybody has a different opinion on this (for example, where i live, there are such bigger age gaps)

But you have to consider that they are only 2 years apart (Carmen is 20 and Gray is 22), and they’re both adults and consenting, so I can’t really see any problems with that.

They never actually flirted with each other

Apart from the fact that they, in fact, have flirted but people say that they didn’t because one of them was brainwashed during it, as we saw they showed their love for each other multiple times, in multiple scenes, in many different way (flirting is not the only way to show love).

Bro risked his life to SAVE HER (I can’t put every time he did it because of the image limit)

Bro was willing to be locked up in JAIL just to make sure that his gf got his memories back

Bro was willing to never see her again just to give her the opportunity to start a new life.

Not mentioning the fact that when he was brainwashed, he went all way to New Zealand to help someone he barely knew, just to have a cup of coffee with her.

And I strongly believe that he hesitated on purpose on that train to Paris, he didn’t wanted to kill her, he knew damn well how to defend himself from someone holding a weapon on him (as we see in the scene with Devineaux when he got his memories back and he beats his ass) + he also knew very well that she couldn’t use the weapon because of the fingerprints activation, he had no reasons to hesitate like that, except one, the boy was so in love.

Also all the things that carmen did for him, every time she said goodbye to him for his own well-being (at the coffee, on the Himalayas), every time she saved him (at Dr.Bellum’s place, on the Himalayas).

Plus, they are literally red and blue lovers.

LOOK! She is the literal definition of red. He is the literal definition of blue. If that is not a sign, guys, idk what it is.

Other than that, think about when they opened to each other about their pasts, when he told her that he didn’t wanted to hurt her even though they were enemies and basically any interaction they have, and like I said before, their eyes can talk 100%, it’s so clear. They are so cute. I love them. No one can change my mind.

They just have so much chemistry, parallels, and everything.

Concluding I wanna drop a bomb.

I honestly believe that if Gray was a girl, everyone would love him and the ship. They as a copule would be seen better from everybody on this fandom.

Ok, in the end, I only did 1 part, but maybe I’m gonna do some more? Idk, really. Anyway, sorry if i did any grammatical errors, but English isn’t my first language so…

I hope you enjoyed this “analysis” If we can call it that way, see you soon!

[themattress]

Favorite Morally Gray Villains

Carmen Sandiego - Initially presented as just a straightforward villain, Carmen Sandiego quickly developed nuance when it was established that she used to be ACME's top agent, and that she became a criminal mastermind not out of a profit-based motive but for the thrill of the challenge and a desire to produce worthy opponents whom might possibly join her in her life of crime if accepting the offer. She also has a strict moral code prohibiting excessive violence and murder, feeling such cruel acts to beneath the dignity of a professional thief. Because of this, she has endured as an iconic villain in educational media, with the latest incarnation even being a straight-up anti-hero battling both detectives and other criminals.

Long John Silver - Treasure Island provided us with the quintessential fictional pirate, whose portrayal by Robert Newton in the 1950 film adaptation gave rise to what is now known as the "pirate voice" (arrr, matey!), Long John Silver is ruthless, greedy, treacherous and amoral. However, he is also highly charming, with a silver tongue that makes him able to talk his way out of trouble and into opportunities quite often. He is constantly switching sides based on what will benefit him the most, but also makes sure to pull his weight and genuinely benefit the others on his current side as well, showcasing a sense of honor that is otherwise absent from his character. On top of that, his fondness for young Jim Hawkins is genuine, and he tries to the best of his abilities to protect him during the harrowing situation that he's largely responsible for. He's just impossible not to like a little, for all his many faults. Beyond the aforementioned Robert Newton, Long John Silver has been excellently portrayed by actors such as Wallace Beery, Charlton Heston, Tim Curry, and Jack Palance, and voice actors such as Richard Dawson, Jim Cummings, Mackenzie Gray, Brian Murray Bell, and Richard Epcar.

[lara635kookie]

Ship Analysis pt. 5:

Red Crackle, Carmivy and Carulia.

When Gray says he is that guy, he's always been that guy, Carmen says to him he's not and it's never too late to change, but I think Gray, just like Shadowsan at the start of the series, thought of himself as irredeemable. Because that's how V.I.L.E. works. They don't give a damn shit about you and repeatedly show that but because of their alluring skills they manipulate you into thinking they care about you and staying there it's what's best for you. For example Sonia was almost manipulated into V.I.L.E. by the thought of financial stability. We know for the application video Maelstrom shows that it wasn't the case for Gray as he had a pretty good job, just wanted some something even "more lucrative" so what was in it for Gray? We'll never know for sure, but considering his orphan background it probably was the illusion of the feeling of familiar union and security V.I.L.E. passes. The only character that may be an exception to this rule is Paper Star. I do believe she has a darker background just like everyone else at V.I.L.E. must have but the difference is that just like Maelstrom, she is criminally insane. They are the only persons at V.I.L.E. I would call truly evil. And honestly we need more of that. Villains that are evil just because they are and it has nothing to do with being misunderstood or something. Don't get me wrong, I like villains with that kind of depth but you can show a villain who really is evil and still has depth without a sad and tragic backstory. I feel like we have too much of those and I'm not saying it should stop, but have a balance between the two types of villain, so it won't get boring. Carmen Sandiego made it pretty well since we have villains like Gray and Paper Star. Also, while Gray was a villain, he was also more of an antagonist. He thinks differently and opposes to Carmen, the protagonist. And because of that, I think the stake is being held too high for Gray. As far as we know, Gray never killed anyone. Chief killed Carmen's FATHER and Shadowsan was a part of the YAKUZA. And if you know at least a little bit about Yakuza and how brutal they are, it's delusional to think Shadowsan has never killed anyone for them. His main weapon was a literal samurai sword! If he's never killed anyone, he had at the very least cut someone's legs or arms, or something that made them not die immediately in the moment, but after. The chances that Shadowsan never killed anyone are low. Almost non-existent. I think overall he probably did more harm to people than Gray ever did, even if he regretted before. Do not get it wrong, I like Shadowsan's character, because of how complex he is(it's kinda the same thing with Gray) but I think these aspects about his past actions are things to consider when mentioning his character. Even with these things I said, most people like Shadowsan and Chief(sometimes, it depends on what she's doing). Most people also like PAPER STAR, the truly evil person here, and yet Gray is the character that divides opinions. He's that 8 or 80 character:or you love him or you hate him. There seems to be no middle term between the fandom. Why is that? For me, it's because, out of all the character of the show, he's the one that leaves more room for speculations. Like Chief said:"You're a walking enigma, Calloway." So a lot of his actions can be interpreted in ways we'll never truly know the answer for. This person has a seemingly negative outcome on Gray, forgetting his good side and I'm trying to show both sides here. This person believes those things and can keep believing it because we'll never have confirmation so me, as an optimistic positive person, I choose to see Gray in that light.

[doylldonmagar]

Introduction to my blog:

I will blog and reblog whatever, but I do have a couple fandoms and a couple topics I come back to.

Recently it's been 90% six of crows.

Fandoms: Ninjago, The Hunger Games, The Queen's Thief (this'll randomly popup consistently, it's my #1 go to recommendation for everyone), Percy Jackson, Carmen Sandiego, Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows, Maxton Hall.

(I was updating my notes about fandom frequency and basically I'm not huge on fandom posting much anymore)

Topics: I love analyzing, including books, movies, media, fandoms. Sociology and psychology.

My posts are getting increasingly deranged.

I use the tag "no tags" for when I want to be able to find it later (maybe to delete)

Writing blog @olivevermore