#cartoon rewatch

He latched onto her leg while she was holding onto a rope which meant she couldn't use her legs or feet to help her climb.

Ivy was holding her body weight and her brothers entirely on her arms. And she was managing to climb the rope with minimal difficulty.

She was climbing up the rope using just her arms and upper body strength. While the rope was attached to Carmen's aircraft. So Ivy who is fricken seventeen let me remind you. Was climbing up a rope. Against wind resistance and gravity. Using just her upper body strength and while her brother was dead weight on her leg.

She was essentially using her arms to lift at least twice her weight if you count in all the factors...and she was making good damn progress up that rope until Lee cut it.

Now I know we've seen Ivy toss grown henchmen around or seen her kick them but that was usually her using her martial arts. Her grabbing Dee Tritus in episode 16 also showed incredible body strength.

Dee Tritus is a geological expert...and she is roughly a head taller than Ivy and twice as wide at the least. And yet when Ivy dove into the C-5 and grabbed her by her ankle Ivy was able to pull Dee Tritus out with minimal difficulty despite the woman struggling. And that woman is definitely more than Ivy's body weight.

And then in episode 32 The Trial of Carmen Sandiego, Ivy and Zack were stabbed to solid metal chairs, thick ones too, with thick straps that were leather at the very least. And Ivy managed to stand up with the chair strapped to her until her brother kicked her. That meant she literally stood up with solid metal strapped to her and with very little apparent difficulty and that metal likely weighed more than her. And that had probably been mostly her core or lower body strength from what I saw.

What all this means is that Ivy is fucking jacked. She is seventeen and this girl should probably have muscles like a CrossFit star or a body builder.

The fact that she isn't actually bulky as fuck can mean different things. One the studio behind the show didn't want to push their luck (it was the 90s after all but this is kind of thrown off by the fact that Dara Riska was designed). Two Ivy's muscles are densely packed like you wouldn't believe which makes it so she is still rather thin and svelte looking even if she should have more muscles than Al Loy or Dara Riska.

Or Three that ACME did something to make Ivy unnaturally strong for her age and frame and it doesn't show on her body.

That's because she noticed that the water way was too far away now. If Ivy had jumped she'd have hit trees and solid ground and would have died. Ivy hadn't realized that when she kicked the henchman away while on the railing. She only realized it after knocking away the closest person (to be fair he was armed so can't really blame her for focusing on that). When she slipped and began to fall Carmen was the first one to react and reach out asking Ivy to take her hand.

Carmen had been on the upper level of the turret not the lower one like Ivy. Which means Carmen forwent her own safety to slide or jump down to a lower level to try and save Ivy. And when Ivy slipped further Carmen leaned over to try and save her despite how dangerous it was. And she grabbed Ivy's hand. Ivy was the one who slipped. And when Ivy slipped Carmen was horrified and called out to her.

And both when yelling for her henchmen to stop Ivy and when Ivy fell you could hear the worry and horror in her voice but when talking to Ivy she was still worried but she also was much calmer. As if she was trying to stay calm to reassure Ivy.

I have no doubts that if she hadn't seen Zack and Tatyana in the plane coming to catch Ivy Carmen would have jumped out after Ivy and used one of the mini-gliders or parachutes that she usually has to save her and make sure Ivy was okay.

I also have no doubts that Carmen probably needed a few minutes to breath deeply and collect herself to calm down after that. And that when Ivy was there in perfect condition for the chess match Carmen was so relieved and glad she was okay but tried to hide it.

And that isn't the first case either where Carmen tried her best to save the ACME detectives. In the Higher Calling episode when Zack and Ivy are in the water with a shark closing in she fired a life raft at them. Which means that as she was escaping with her prize she noticed them in the water and the shark chasing them and had a life raft ready and fired it to save them.

Then later when Ivy stops Zack from falling off a high up bridge Carmen mentions she already saved them once that day and then slides away as if to leave them to their fate. But she slides down in a way that she can likely see the detectives. She was checking to make sure they were going to be okay even as she brought Ivy's attention to the wires and cables so that she could swing Zack to them so he can get to safety.

She cares about those two and note these instances are just within the first 6 episodes. She's probably saved them more than once.

Those two probably give that poor woman a heart attack with their reckless stunts and I fully believe that the reason we never see any actual adults chasing Carmen is because the adults realize that Carmen won't let the junior detectives get hurt. She won't hurt or let the teens get hurt.

And it's an easy way to get the kids more experience with police work and crimes without the risk of them truly getting hurt by the master criminal.

Those adults trust Carmen with the safety of those kids and teens. And Carmen steps up to that plate gladly and with gutso.