#and zack and ivys whole dynamic is just so fun and very them

[snakesinsocks2005]

A redraw of some fanart i made for @disfordevineaux 's fic A Simple Mission

[watchathon]

Carmen Sandiego, S4E2: The Big Bad Ivy Caper

Hello, and welcome to the Watchathon, a blog where I watch through a season of TV, with blog posts where I write down my thoughts after each episode.

And now, here’s my thoughts on Season 4, Episode 2 of Carmen Sandiego: The Big Bad Ivy Caper!

It’s always nice to see Ivy and Carmen working together; I like the dynamic they have, and they make for a pretty good team. And this episode provides us with a caper where it’s just the two of them while Zack stays at the base to take care of Shadowsan and Player is busy with his first day of public school.

Granted, Ivy and Carmen spend much of this caper split up, so we don’t get much of them as a duo, but we do get some of that during the climax. And it is certainly very fun to watch Ivy put on an accent and impersonate Madame Goldlove in the meantime.

Apart from that, there’s Player’s parents switching him from homeschooling to public school over concerns about how much time he spends in his room, leading to him being unable to help Carmen as much as he used to. Not to mention, the ultimate twist that Player… has a name.

The idea of Player being unable to assist Carmen on her heists adds an interesting twist to things. Since the beginning, Player has been Carmen’s most consistent ally. But for this episode and the next few, Player isn’t as easily able to serve as Carmen’s tech support, only getting brought in for absolute emergencies. And with Shadowsan having a broken leg, Team Carmen for this and the next few episodes effectively consists of Carmen, Zack and Ivy.

And finally, some following up on Devineaux’s interrogation of Graham. Devineaux doesn’t actually get anything out of Graham, naturally considering the whole “amnesia” thing. Not until ACME busts out a memory restoration device that brings back not just Graham’s memories, but Crackle, the VILE operative who’s willing to get violent.

It’s pretty creepy, seeing Graham suddenly go from an ordinary guy who’s genuinely stumped by a two-year blank spot in his memory, to a criminal even colder than he seemed when he was Crackle. And then the episode ends on him contacting VILE, using the distress code that, as far as they know, he absolutely should not remember.

[mengyan]

I’ve been really enjoying your sge au so far and absolutely love the dynamic you’ve created between Carmen and Julia in it! Im curious to know how their relationship progressed from their first meeting was it in a similar way to cannon or differently? Also how they eventually started dating and how they even managed a relationship between a never and an ever.

thank you so much anon!! honestly these two create the dynamic themselves, they’re such fun characters to write and make it so easy for me!! again, replies are under the cut!

i’d say they were “rivals/enemies” for the first week? julia was just super skeptical at first and thought she was stubborn, hotheaded and had a bad temper (not a poor assumption, considering carmen had her fingerglow lit in her face) and overall only tolerated her because of player. i’d say after carmen opens up about her father and how she just wants to learn more about her past, she starts to warm up a bit? she begins to understand carmen’s motivations and how her upbringing with the faculty made her the way she is.

carmen on the other hand thinks julia is too uptight and serious. she always tries to crack jokes and like, shapeshifts sometimes and singes some poor kid’s hair while hiding in the trees during their surviving fairy tales classes just to get her to laugh, but julia’s mostly unimpressed and tells her to pay attention.

“how you’re evil’s top student amazes me. are you sure it’s not nepotism?”

“how you’re highest ranked at good amazes me,” carmen scoffs back, dropping her shift and stealing some of julia’s berries they were forced to gather (to distinguish what’s edible and what’s not). “all you do is hang out in the library and ruin my plans.”

“i’d hardly call them plans. childish pranks at best, maybe. and so what if i spend most of my time at the library? at least i didn’t get ranked second during yesterday’s surviving fairy tales class because i messed up the wicked witch of the east and west.”

julia grabs a handful of berries from carmen’s basket and puts them back in hers, and continues along the forest path. carmen sputters and chases after her, yelling. “hey! that was a simple mistake!” (she was distracted staring at julia, trying to figure her out and definitely not because she looked pretty in good’s button up shirts, but she couldn’t just say that, could she?) “anyone would have gotten them mixed up!”

“right,” julia deadpans, not even looking at her. “i didn’t.”

anyway. they bicker a lot, and player unfortunately has to witness most of it. (zack and ivy usually spend lunch brewing potions or learning the borderline illegal spells that carmen wrote down for them.)

how they eventually started dating... hmm. i’m a sucker for angst and moments of realization like “oh my god please don’t die on me turns out i don’t hate you and i’m actually in love with you”, so during the trial by tale, i think? one of them stumbles upon the other and finds them unconscious or badly hurt. i love the idea of carmen finding jules lying near the river barely keeping herself awake and immediately shaking her like:

“jules?! jules, what the fuck? who did this to you?! i’ll kill them,” she seethes, pulling her into her arms and her fingerglow absolutely blazing red. (magic follows emotion!!!!!!)

“carmen,” julia wheezes, eyes slipping shut. “my flag’s in my boot, just let me go. i don’t want to slow you down.”

“not until you tell me who did this to you,” carmen says fiercely, gripping her tighter.

“it was dark, i couldn’t see very well-” julia coughs, her ribs aching. carmen turns to look at her glasses- they’re cracked, one of the lenses completely gone and the other punctured. “they had, uh- light bending. manipulation. made it darker. even with my talent i couldn’t see who it was because it was so dark.”

carmen freezes. she recognized that talent. “mime bomb,” she snarls. “that stupid teacher’s pet.”

“at least those other classmates of yours didn’t find me. i think the cat one would’ve torn me to shreds, or the electric one would’ve shocked me with his lightning bolts.”

julia coughs again, shifting in the moonlight. it illuminates just how scratched up she is- blood and dirt stains her breeches and her armor is pierced through. carmen’s fingerglow gets impossibly brighter as she hauls her up to her feet, throwing julia’s arm around her shoulder so she can carry her.

“not going to drop my flag, huh?” julia asks weakly, the two of them limping down the river bank. “that’s not very evil of you.”

“i’m starting to think that being evil is overrated,” she says softly. “and i- look, you’re a pain in my ass sometimes, but i care about you, okay? we’re friends.”

“friends,” julia echoes. “thought evil didn’t have friends, just henchmen.” carmen opens her mouth to retort, but julia continues. “you’re like... a good kind of evil, i think,” she whispers. her words are starting to slur, the pain and exhaustion catching up to her. carmen slips her makeshift sword into the sheath at her side and lifts julia gently, carrying her bridal style.

“a good kind of evil,” carmen repeats. “i like that.” julia closes her eyes, humming. carmen speaks softer, brushing her hair from her face. “i like you, jules. i’ll get us out of this, okay? trust me.”

“always,” julia mumbles, falling asleep.

carmen finds some herbs and stuff, does some illegal spells, heals some of her wounds and all that jazz. there are like 5 students left in the woods at this point, the other 3 being mime bomb, gray, and chase.

chase effectively takes out mime bomb (as a pun, i’d like to think his talent is super speed and agility, so whenever mime bomb tries to hide in the shadows chase can get there in time), but gray takes out chase (because like, even if you’re fast, lightning can take you out).

once julia can walk again, they start searching for gray, and aksfjfkdfkj omg gray shocks carmen or something and julia is furious and screams, channeling enough of her power to override his lightning and disrupt it, reducing it to small, harmless sparks.

carmen wastes no time and grabs his flag, throwing it down. he disappears into the clearing, leaving both carmen and jules as the last two students.

they’re both exhausted and don’t want to fight anymore and julia brings up the earlier “i like you” thing, both of them leaning against each other propped up against a tree and she’s like “for the record, i like you too.”

they kiss just as the sun comes up and the trial ends!!! everyone bursts in and sees them holding each other and are like. Well. What The Hell Are We Going To Do Now.

not me practically writing a whole fic for this response ASKDKFJ BYE i hope this is enough anon! thank you again for asking and fueling this niche au!! <3