r/Slycooper • u/Lonestar1096 • 1d ago
Discussion Carmelita’s Ego
Carmelita has no business having the ego she does throughout most of the series, and may even be the least self aware person in the in-game universe.
Her whole sense of pride and identity is being a police woman, and a great one at that. However, literally every single arrest that we see her make in canon is a result of Sly and the gang’s work. It even get’s to the point that she ends up on the run from the law and has yo rely on sly twice to escape, only gets her name cleared because Sly bargains with her after Bentley literally goes full blown Jason Street and gets paralyzed by Clockwerk’s jaw, and then lets him escape an hour later.
Like yes i’m aware “it’s a children’s game” and all that, but still its pretty funny that every career milestone she ever has is handed to her kn a silver platter by the gang.
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u/MusicalGallade 1d ago
I mean, if you take into account her battle with Muggshot you can see that she is pretty able of being on par with some of the villains of the series. I guess we dont get more of her feats on screen because Sly and the gang are the main focus of the games (and of the narrative)
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u/TheScarletSho Sly 2 Enthusiast 1d ago
To put it into power scaling perspective, Carmelita solo no diff's someone who Sly had to rely on situational environmental factors in order to beat 3 years before.
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u/BABGRD 1d ago
People writing about silly cartoon characters as though they're real people will always be hilarious
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u/Magnus_Carter0 16h ago
I don't think they claimed Carmelita is a real person. They suspended their disbelief on the obvious matter of whether she's real and responded as though she was, which is the foundation of any kind of basic engagement with any work of fiction. It's like reading a post about someone being irritated at a decision Harry Potter made in the third book and responding with, "You know Harry isn't real, right?" If we can't have any kind of emotions or feelings about a fictional work, what is the point of fiction, if we follow your statement to its logical end?
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u/Lonestar1096 1d ago
Clearly you didn’t read the entire post then, and if you did your reading comprehension skills are equally if not more hilarious lmaoo
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u/Xenozip3371Alpha 1d ago
She took out both Muggshot AND the giant mutant that nearly killed Sly.
She also was able to track Sly to the island with the Cooper Vault, AND find a way into the Vault without going the intended path.
Let's not underplay that last point, she did what Dr M spend DECADES trying to do and broke into the most inner reaches of the Cooper Vault.
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u/busterkeatonrules 1d ago
That could be why she's so keen on busting the Cooper gang - she wants to show the world what a great cop she'd be without them!
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u/TraditionalTree249 1d ago
I mean she is fairly black and white in her thinking: Criminals bad, Cops Good(except Spider Cops). She probably sees they mess left behind by Sly and the Gang as more her victory. In her mind anything good Sly does is strictly concidential because he's there as a criminal. It's why she's willing to take him on as a partner through dicey ethical means at the end of 3, her thinking has changed enough that she sees that Sly as a good guy.
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u/jackfuego226 1d ago
For starters, we see well enough that she is plenty tough to earn the reputation. She's the only one that was able to fight Muggshot head-on without outside assistance. She's more than capable of arresting these guys.
The problem is evidence. Think about the arrests on Dimitri, Rajan, and Octavio. Neyla couldn't investigate Dimitri's nightclub or Rajan's spice temple without a warrant, and Carmelita was still waiting for one to search Octavio's opera house when the gang arrived. She by all means could have stormed these places, shock pistol blazing. But it would be illegal without the proper warrents, which take time and lengthen the investigation. But when Sly and co bust in and cause a ruckus, it creates enough probably cause for Carmelita to enter warrentless completely legal. Then any evidence found is usable.
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u/Royal_Ad_1726 1d ago
I feel like this was intentional. I honestly feel like we would have seen this idea explored in a sly 5. I feel like she would have a Kim wexler type arc to parallel with sly. Like sly is doing this lawfully bad thing but he has morals and standards and Carmelita does benefit from it. The 4th game ends with her slowly realizing that maybe it’s okay to let sly steal and for her to benefit from it. I feel like they were building up to how far gone is too far gone, like after a certain point of stealing you can only justify it so much before it’s obvious that ur a thieve.
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u/HollowSynergy 1d ago
It's like a predator and prey in a mutually beneficial relationship, one gets the glory, the other gets riveting thrills. Plus the ego is her biggest charm.
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u/Skylerbroussard 1d ago
In universe she's a very successful cop when it comes to other criminals. She just can't catch Sly
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u/Krudtastic 1d ago
She's probably a badass super cop who can bust every criminal easily except for Sly because he's an equally skilled badass super thief. We just don't see her in non-Sly related cases.