Carmen Sandiego

Carmen Sandiegois a fictional character featured in a long-running edutainment series of the same name. As a criminal mastermind and the elusive nemesis of the ACME Detective Agency, Sandiego is the principal anti-villain of the series and head of ACME's rival organization V.I.L.E. She is an important part of the series, which originally focused on teaching geography and history (although the series later extended to mathematics and English). The character later appeared in a series of books and many other licensed products. Most of her crimes involve spectacular and often impossible cases of theft. Her full name, according to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge, is Carmen Isabella Sandiego.

Character overview
There are numerous discrepancies in the various media depicting Carmen Sandiego and there are no official rules establishing a correct canon. However, the following seems to have remained consistent throughout all Carmen Sandiego media created since around the mid-1990s:


 * In most Carmen Sandiego media, it is stated or implied that the title thief steals only for the challenge of it, although some of her V.I.L.E. minions seem to be more traditionally motivated. She often describes her schemes and the user/protagonists attempts to stop them as being a game, which they ironically are, regularly gloating that she is impossible to capture or that her plans are infallible and acting as though any efforts made against her are extremely trivial. Sometimes, she asserts that it is impossible for anyone to understand her or her motives and seems to revel at how difficult she can make it for anyone trying to figure her out.


 * In the original Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? game from 1985, it is stated that Carmen is a former spy for the Intelligence Service of Monaco and that she is "an agent, double agent, triple agent, and quadruple agent for so many countries that even she has forgotten which one she is working for," but this background seems to have since been abandoned. Carmen now has a different origin story which has been consistently maintained for over a decade. Typically, it is explained that she was an ace detective for the ACME Detective Agency who found catching criminals too easy and decided that outsmarting ACME itself would make for greater challenges.


 * In both the animated TV series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? and in the video game Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge, it is heavily hinted that, despite her thieving ways, she may still have some goodness left in her. The character has, however, never been depicted turning back to the "good" side outright, although she has often been encouraged to do so. Nevertheless, Carmen tries to maintain a reputation as a "thief with a conscience" in the Earth series and ACME agents who used to work closely with her are often shown to have mixed feelings about imprisoning her.