Carmen Sandiego and Color
So let’s appreciate the absolutely Legendary™ use of Color Symbolism in Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego:
V.I.L.E’s Iconic Color is green– all the villains wear green, the lair is green, the uniforms are green, etc.
When Carmen rebels against them, she obviously starts wearing her iconic red– which is green’s complement, its “opposite” on the color wheel. This shows that Carmen has become the “opposite” of V.I.L.E.
Scenes where V.I.L.E has a lot of power/influence are often tinted green, scenes where Carmen has power/influence will often be tinted red.
VILE in San Francisco:
Carmen in San Francisco:
Julia Argent, the ACME agent who believes Carmen is a good person, wears a bright red shirt that the other agents do not wear.
This ties into the series’ theme of “don’t be fooled by initial appearances.” Green is the color we usually associate with goodness, while red is the color we usually associate with danger/villains. But in this show, the colors’ meanings are flipped.
Green means danger, and red means safety.
And again, this isn’t just in the costumes!!
Contrast these scenes where Carmen is nervous on V.I.L.E island:
And can’t relax Because V.I.L.E:
With this scene where Carmen feels confident and free:
The dialogue in the “Carmen finally relaxes” scene is cute too:
Player: Red? Carmen: Yes, it is. I may finally be unwinding.
Because scenes where Carmen is at peace, or confident and in power, tend to be tinted red (or pink/reddish-violet.)
Scenes where Carmen and co. are frightened, losing, trapped, or in terrible danger will be tinted green.
HOW TO SPOIL THE SHOW FOR YOURSELF:
If a fight scene in this show is red, things will probably go well for Carmen. But if the fight scene is green, things will probably go badly.
The battle Carmen loses against Paperstar:
The one that she wins:
The Indonesia episode is very green, because the Stakes Are High and Carmen seems to be losing:
but after Carmen wins RED FIREWORKS GO OFF, lighting everything red:
Also: Tigress was an idiot for choosing to battle Carmen on the Golden Gate Bridge, bc it’s the reddest place in San Francisco, meaning that it’s where Carmen’s POWER IS GREATEST
Tigress shoulda gone to New York and battled her on the Statue of Liberty instead, that’s a guaranteed victory right there
And in Carmen’s worst failure in the season, her red coat is even torn off, so that the shot is completely green:
But then she escapes and look who’s back?? RED
ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS:
Before Carmen steals the VILE data thing, everything is green:
But the moment she successfully steals it, RED ALARMS START GOING OFF:
Like “heck yeah La Femme Rouge is finally here!!!!”
And (major spoilers ahead!) what I find most interesting is this Red™ scene:
The scene where Carmen fails her pickpocketing test, ruining her chances of becoming a V.I.L.E operative.
When you watch it for the first time you see it as a failure. The blood-red sky is there to show us that Carmen is in serious danger, and her life is about to be ruined.
But when you rEWATCH THE SHOW WHILE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE COLOR SYMBOLISM (as ya do) you realize it’s the opposite. This is the moment that saves Carmen– that sets her on the path to becoming “The Red Rogue.”
And I might do another post on this but like– it’s so cool how red is used in Shadowsan’s scenes in general!!! Most V.I.L.E people’s scenes are all green, but Shadowsan’s scenes are often red, to hint that he’s secretly sympathetic to Carmen.
See you initially think he’s grabbing the sword to kill Carmen, but when you rewatch it, you realize he’s going to sabotage the VILE’s helicopter and rescue her! He was on her side all along, and the Color Symbolism knew it!
TL; DR:
As Carmen says in “The Sticky Rice Caper:”
“Green bad……red good.”
