Carmen Sandiego made me realize I was bisexual
In the dark, you saw long brown hair and a wide-brimmed red hat. A sultry voice interrupted your communications, taunting the detectives nearby. You wondered how she did it, how she kept eluding you. She committed impossible thefts while looking cool and striking terror. She stole many things, including my heart, when I grew up and realized that I could no longer play her games.
Carmen Sandiego, in hindsight, should have made me realize I was bisexual. She ended up not doing that, because I didn’t even know the term existed until I was a teenager; Alison Bechdel had to provide that awakening with her memoir Fun Home. That and Carmen Sandiego’s not real. She’s a villain from a game franchise.
A brief rundown for those who never chased her: In most of Carmen Sandiego’s CD-ROM games from the ’90s, she was an unapologetic thief. Most canons confirmed she previously had worked for the Agency to Classify and Monitor Evildoers. The ACME chief, played by the late Lynne Thigpen in various shows and games, explained that Carmen rose through the ranks as a detective. Eventually, however, catching crooks became too easy for her; as a challenge, Carmen betrayed ACME. She even called her past there “embarrassing.”
Depending on the game canon, two different ACME agents claimed they had been Carmen’s partner. Chase Devineaux in the Word and Math Detective games maintained a dry cynicism, while Julia Argent in the Treasures of Knowledge game saw the good in Carmen. Both had chemistry with Carmen during their interactions, reminding one of bitter exes.
One canon kept the chemistry but changed the dynamic: Netflix’s 2019 Carmen Sandiego show made Carmen a heroic thief. VILE criminals raised her as their new weapon, but Carmen rebelled
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