We were convinced that strong female characters in the first positions in mass media appeared only recently. To my surprise they existed even in the time of the first computer games, back in 1985!
“Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” was a detective text-based game made by David Siefkin for the Broderbund team. In the original script for the game, she was just an ordinary villain but was moved to the title role because of her name, which provides mystery, exoticism, and a bit of humor.
Her first appearance was as a villain, leading the criminal organization, V.I.L.E (Villains International League of Evil), which was after various items to steal, and players were up to catch her, chaise her for all over the globe.
The game was a big hit in his time, and he did a lot of other projects about Carmen, like “Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego?” or “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?”. Surprisingly, the main auditory was teachers, who found the game educational.
Carmen Sandiego was always a super-thief who stole various items and was too slippery to be caught. She was traveling across the world, clothed in the iconic red brim hat and trenchcoat, full of different gadgets, which was worthy for every super-spy arsenal.
In the “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?”, Carmen appeared as a very masculine, cold, but sometimes gentle villain and founder of the V.I.L.E. organization.
As a former agent, she was part of the A.C.M.E (Agency to Classify and Monitor Evildoers) but left them to seek a greater challenge. She was intentionally left some clues for A.C.M.E to catch her, because without her help they had no chance.
Despite her actions, Carmen wasn’t a straight-up villain and showed even anti-heroic sides of her personality in the late series: she teamed up with Zack and Ivy from A.C.M.E. to catch Professor Maelstrom who was fired from V.I.L.E because he was evil even by Carmen standards.
In 2019, there was a character rebrand in “Carmen Sandiego” which was made by Netflix.
In the new plot, Carmen wasn’t an antagonist but a protagonist – a heroine (compared to white hackers) who was found and raised by V.I.L.E. to become a super thief but who was raised against them.
Carmen took her name (before that she goed by the name – Black Sheep) and the famous red coat from Cookie Bookier (V.I.L.E account and bookkeeper), when she escaped the island of V.I.L.E. academy with the help of her friend “Player”.
She dedicated her life to stealing the objects that V.I.L.E intended to steal, not for her gain, but to secure them and return them to the government, where they belong. To do that, she teamed up with amateur criminals Zack and Ivy, her friend Player and ex-mentor “Shadowsan”.
In the end, she inspires Zack and Ivy to join A.C.M.E. and fight against evil while she stays in the shadows and catches criminals who are up to no good. That’s quite a change from her original.
In real life Carmen (from both shows) can inspire a lot of people – she always was a brave, cunning, morally strong and “bossy” woman character, who always went to her goal and had a resilient codex of what she can steal and what she can’t. (Real car-woman, who can roll you over with her personality, eh?)
1994 Carmen looks like professional sportsmen that do their job as a competition to overcome their former self more and more but stays cold and knows what levers to pull in the people in your command.
In real life, people with the 2019 Carmen personality would look like vigilantes who believe in what they are doing. She may be staying from the frames of law, but she tries to make only morally right decisions. Some characters in the show say, “She cares too much,” and that’s true.
I count both of her sides as more positive than negative. People with strong moral compass, smartness and bravery can change the world even without fancy gadgets, but in the other hand, they could do that for the bad, if their compass will point in the wrong direction from “abstract good”.
In my opinion her image cannot damage someone. She inspires you to work on yourself and overcome your former self over and over again in order to become better. Her 2019 version also could help dedicate viewers to serving good no matter their position, sex, or strengths.
Netflix changed Carmen from villain to hero, mostly because she became the brightest hero character of the show. Other villains could drag the viewer’s sympathy on their side if there were no Carmen. Maybe it also was made in order to make more bright moral symbols from animations of the 90s – they sure had a lot of “evil queens”, and since 2015, there has been a rising popularity of female protagonists, but who would know that…
Bibliography:
Shuler, Carly. “What in the world happened to carmen sandiego?.” In The edutainment era: Debunking myths and sharing lessons learned. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. 2012.
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=6cb99a8896bfd4566184fa661e9b2051104e4608
Fiadotau, Mikhail, Martin Sillaots, and Indrek Ibrus. “Education on screens: Histories of co-innovation and convergence between audiovisual media and education sectors.” In Emergence of Cross-innovation Systems, pp. 61-69. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-78769-977-920191010
Coomes, Michael D. “Understanding the historical and cultural influences that shape generations.” New directions for student services 2004, no. 106 (2004): 17-31.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=f2YO6Xhd8vcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA17&dq=carmen+sandiego+tv+show+influence+&ots=UnDPT3j-wy&sig=-eL8liA49rTqqyr6LgQmpmbiPsw
Diebler, Matthew David. “THE MODELS OF EMPOWERED FEMININITY WE OFFER YOUNG BOYS: AMERICAN ANIMATED ACTION TEAMS AND THE TOKEN FEMALE.” PhD diss., Bowling Green State University, 2007.
https://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1174684882
And the only really helpful source:
Wiki-community, Carmen Sandiego Fandom Wiki, 2019, Wiki
https://carmensandiego.fandom.com/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego_Wiki
Provide Feedback