Carmen Sandiego: Essential Characteristic

 


 Ah, Carmen Sandiego.  Sometimes her hair is auburn, sometimes black.  Sometimes her hatband and scarf are gold, sometimes her hatband and shirt are black.  Her hat is different shapes and sizes, her coat different lengths and styles, her shoes can be red pumps, black pumps, or black boots.  She usually has bright red lipstick and black gloves, but not always . . . and yet she is always recognizably the same character.

The first Doctor Who I ever saw was the second half of the Eight Doctor Movie.  Years later, I recognized the Doctor from a Reader’s Digest list of best sci-fi films . . . except it was the Fourth Doctor.  How in the world did I recognize them as the same person?  Recognize a picture of a guy in a magazine from a different guy in a film I watched years previously?

Rose City Comic Con, 2016.  Black hat
band and collar, auburn hair, black pants,
boots.

Denver Comic Con, 2018.
Gold hat band and scarf, black skirt
and pumps, black hair.  Same lipstick, same
hat with a different band, similar gloves.
(Also: This photo explains so much
about how Carmen gets around in
time and space  . . .)

I’m not a huge cosplayer, but I do like to dress up for Comic Con.  In 2016, I dressed as Carmen Sandiego.  Then this year, my planned costume (the titular character from Alice: Madness Returns) fell through, so I decided to redo Carmen.  Redo . . . but not repeat.

The interesting thing is that I was equally recognized as Carmen in both outfits.  I had dozens of people call after me and quite a few ask for my photo.

The question is: why would this be the case?  Just because different people were familiar with different versions?  I think it's more than that.

(Tip: It’s important to be aware not just of your character’s canon lore, but also the fanon surrounding it.  While I was at it, I memorized some of Carmen’s lines from the various games.  When people called after me, I responded, “Good detecting, detective!” or “You’ll never catch me, gumshoe!” etc.  It was fun, and people seemed to love it.)

In fanon, Carmen has a thing with Where's Waldo.  So I found a few . . . When taking
this photo, quite a few passersby also snapped shots. 
(This is also a demonstration of why you should learn to pose better—
which I did in in most photos but clearly not here!  I'm not posed,
and so I look much less like her than I do otherwise.  Fascinating, no?
But see below.)

 What I learned from this experience is that it’s the essentials of the character that matter.  Carmen likes to tilt her hat in photos—

I only met one other Carmen this year, although my friend said she saw three.

She wears a brimmed red hat and a red trench coat.  That’s literally all you need.  The red lipstick, dyed hair, gloves, color choice, shoe style—all inessential ingredients.

But how you put them together can make the difference between an okay costume and a good costume.  Ask yourself: would Carmen wear this?  She wears and oversized trench coat, so should I?  Well, what would Carmen do?  She is a very stylish lady.  Do you look stylish in that trench coat?  Are you standing stylishly?  Walking with confidence and good posture?

(Tip: if you want people to take pictures of you at Comic Con, look approachable.  I have a bit of RBF, but as long as I kept a slight smile on my face, people stopped me, sang at me, called out to me . . . and generally smiled back.)

This is where we come down to characters.  If you took away the trappings of yours, the nonessentials . . . would you be able to recognize your character?  Can you tell which character is speaking without a dialogue tag?  (J.K. Rowling is the master of unique-sounding characters.  That something I need to work on.)  If I had my eyes closed in a room full of Marvel movie characters whose voices went through distorters, I could tell you which one was Deadpool’s by the way he talked.  Maybe also Iron Man’s.  In the first movie, I could tell you Thor—but he’s now altered beyond recognition.  I couldn’t tell you who the vast majority of others were.  And that’s not even getting to the side characters and the TV shows.

This isn’t an answer, just something to muse on.

What’s essential to a character?  What’s unique?  What can you take away but still have the same person?

And why did one person mistake me for Agent Carter?  The hat?  I think it was the hat.

(In 2016, I went with an Agent Carter, and she got called Carmen more than Carter. . . .)