Last time I covered Paw Patrol I convinced you that this kid, Ryder, child genius inventor,
was recruiting homeless dogs to use as members of his crew of rescue animals, the Paw Patrol.
Why?
Well, because the missions are dangerous, dogs are cheaper and more expendable than
humans, and stray dogs are the most expendable of all.
Now obviously, what Ryder’s doing there is REAL bad.
But the crimes of Ryder don’t just stop there my friends.
Not only is he putting his dogs into the direct line of danger with little regard to their
well-being, he’s the one CREATING those dangerous situations in the first place!
Get ready, all you good pups, because today we’re exposing Ryder for the money-hungry
criminal mastermind that he really is.
Hello Internet.
Welcome to Film Theory, where they’re all DEAD pups and they’ll be replaced.
Cus it’s just another day around Adventure Bay.
D-d-d-d-d Dead Patrol.
So, it’s been a couple months since I last covered Paw Patrol, and due to the blessings
of owning a four-year old discovering media for the first time, I am still watching a
TON of the show.
Now, if you’ve somehow missed this gargantuan hit of a Nickelodeon series, the Paw Patrol
are a team of six puppies led by a boy named Ryder.
Each pup has a specialized set of skills, vehicles, and tech that Ryder designs based
on typical emergency services.
We have Chase the Police Dog, Marshall the Firefighter, Skye the Aviation Pup, Rubble
the Construction Dog, Zuma for water rescue and Rocky for Garbage collection.
Episodes of the show are pretty classic action adventure fare - there’s a problem that
needs solving somewhere in Adventure Bay; the Paw Patrol suit up and say:
And then they use their technology, teamwork, and winches…lots and lots of winches…to
make sure everyone winds up safe and happy.
Have the farm pigs have run away?
Call the Paw Patrol!
Is a plane about to crash land?
Call the Paw Patrol!
Has the villainous mayor of a nearby town discovered an ancient relic in the jungle
that turns them into a monkey?
Call the Paw Patrol!
Yeah…as you might be able to tell, now that I’m into the late seasons, the rescues get
REAL weird.
DON’T EVEN get me started on the MER-Pups, and the quest to save Pup-lantis.
So that’s the premise of the show.
Cute, simple, cut-and-dry.
BUT, if you look even just a little bit past the surface level, you realize that not everything
is peachy keen in Adventure Bay.
In our last Theory, we concluded that there have been pups in the Paw Patrol before the
main six in the series.
Pups who died in the line of duty before being callously replaced.
Ryder himself was the mastermind of the whole operation, finding stray and abandoned dogs
to recruit for dangerous rescue missions, knowing full well that if they die, well,
they can just be easily replaced.
And on top of all of that, Ryder doesn’t even pay the pups with anything but treats,
he keeps the considerable amount of money generated from their merch sales, government
contracts, and literal stolen gold coins all to himself.
So, okay, the kid’s a bit unethical in the way he treats his pups, not great, but overall,
Ryder and the Paw Patrol are doing far more good than bad, right?
They’re solving problems, they’re saving lives.
It’s just what has to be done in the line of duty.
It might make Ryder a bit of a jerk, but it doesn’t make him evil, right?
Weeeeell, Loyal Theorists, as I’ve continued to watch more and more of the show, my suspicions
around Ryder have only increased.
You see, in later seasons, a lot of the problems plaguing Adventure Bay are caused by the various
villains of the show – Mayor Humdinger, Sweetie, the Kitten Catastrophe Crew – but,
the technology that they use sure looks a LOT like the stuff that Ryder builds for the
Paw Patrol.
And that’s because Ryder is doing much worse than just taking advantage of disasters and
putting these innocent pups in danger to make a quick buck.
As the series goes on, it seems like Ryder is the one CREATING the dangerous scenarios
that are putting everyone at risk.
He’s selling many of the villains his technology, he’s hoping that they’re going to create
more trouble for the Paw Patrol to solve.
In short, Ryder is a war profiteer, he’s an arms dealer who’s playing all the sides,
and in the process, he’s putting both his dogs and his town at risk.
All while he literally sits atop his Ivory Tower, the Lookout.
Now, obviously those are big claims, so let’s step back and look at the proof that Ryder
is actually giving his tech to the villains, shall we?
In Season 1, we meet Mayor Humdinger, the very competitive elected leader from the nearby
town of Foggy Bottom.
We’re told that he always wins the competitions he enters.
Well, that is until the Paw Patrol rolls into town and suddenly helps Mayor Goodway win
ALL the contests, from Hot Air Ballooning and Cake Making to Cleaning up and Basketball.
After that, Humdinger is no longer the Top Dog, and no matter how hard he tries, he just
can’t seem to win.
Goodway is always getting help from the Paw Patrol, which means that he’s always playing
catchup.
So far, so good.
Just a little healthy competition, right?
Well, in Season 2, sick of always losing, Humdinger pulls out a new strategy, A new
set of minions:
The Kitten Catastrophe Crew, who are now tasked with getting Humdinger whatever he wants.
They sabotage water towers, they make messes, they steal giant gold chicken statues.
I’m a Chicken *Bawkaaaa* But here’s the weird thing about the Catastrophe
Crew, each kitten directly maps onto a Paw Patrol member.
Their pup-packs…ha, I guess, cat-packs?
have the EXACT same equipment as their Paw Patrol counterparts.
Cat Chase uses a zip-line and launcher, just like real Chase.
Skye has wings, just like the original Skye.
Cat Rocky has a claw arm, just like the dog Rocky.
You get the idea.
Now at this point, you might be wondering, well…
Isn’t Humdinger just super tech-savvy?
Couldn’t he have just replicated Ryder’s technology rather than it being given to him?
And that’s what I thought at first too!
Except for one thing…Humdinger ain’t exactly what you’d call a tech whiz.
In Season 5 Episode 17: Pups Save The Movie Monster, Humdinger tries to steal a Robot
Monster but just doesn’t understand its control.
And, in the Paw Patrol movie, his complete ignorance of technology is what causes the
cloud catcher to malfunction and destroy Adventure City.
Now, those are just two instances, but across the series there are plenty of examples where
he's just not that great with tech.
That said, Mayor Humdinger DOES try to create several inventions throughout his appearances
in the series, and they’re just AWFUL in comparison to the stuff that we see Ryder
make.
For example, in Season 3 Episode 3: Pups Save The Soccer Game, Humdinger creates a remote
controlled ball in an attempt to cheat and win a soccer game.
And yet, his remote short circuits and breaks, causing the ball to lose control.
It gets so bad that the Paw Patrol has to step in and save the day.
Now, I don’t know about you, but a remote controlled soccer ball seems just a little
bit less complicated than a voice-controlled Cat-Pack with a freely-rotating, fully-operational
robot arm, and yet…
it malfunctions with barely any prompting.
And this isn’t just a one time thing either.
In Season 4 Episode 2: Pups Save the Cat Show, Humdinger creates a robot cat to win yet another
competition, but when it trips and falls onto the floor, it goes haywire, requiring the
Paw Patrol’s intervention.
Later, in Season 4.
This time Episode 16: Sea Patrol: Pups Save a Shark, he creates a robotic shark that’s
powered by a wooden contraption that resembles a Hamster Wheel.
Not exactly top-of-the-line tech, but more importantly, the stability of that shark is
ATROCIOUS.
Its internal welding gives way and the shark begins to flood after it gets hit.
This is absolutely not on par with the quality of engineering that we see with both the Paw
Patrol packs and Catastrophe Crew packs, which get thrown around a LOT during the rescue
missions and dastardly plots.
It only makes sense if Ryder was the one who created all of the tech.
Now, it would be one thing if the Kitten Catastrophe Crew were the only bad guys to have identical
Pup-Pack tech…
At that point, maybe you can write it off as a coincidence.
But the Catastrophe Crew are far from the only rogues in the Paw Patrol gallery to use
tech eerily similar to Ryder’s inventions.
The Rescue Knight series introduces us to Claw, an ex-knight and the villain terrorizing
the Kingdom of Barkingburg.
By the time the Paw Patrol faces off with this guy, he already has his own personal
pup-pack with a claw that can grab things, functionally and aesthetically identical to
the packs used by the Paw Patrol.
Then in the Mission Paw series, we meet Sweetie, the pet of the Princess of Barkingburg.
Unlike what her name would suggest, Sweetie is anything but!
She’s the biggest cause of trouble in the Mission Paw series, with crimes ranging from
theft to kidnapping!
Now, all of this is possible only because of her vehicle and her Pup-Pack, complete
with a pincer, vacuum, and even a selfie stick.
I guess you’ve gotta keep your followers up to date on that #VillainLife!
And, once again… all of it is strikingly similar to the designs that Ryder has for
the Paw Patrol.
In fact, when Sweetie suits up, her attire matches the aesthetics of the Mission Paw
outfits that the Paw Patrol is wearing!
Mostly black with colored accents.
This actually has to be one of the biggest pieces of evidence towards Sweetie’s gear
being a Ryder original creation…
See, this isn’t a case of Sweetie seeing the Paw Patrol’s look and liking it enough
to copy it, or Ryder seeing Sweetie and digging her outfit to make it into a Paw Patrol uniform.
No, Sweetie puts this outfit on BEFORE any of the Paw Patrol pups put theirs on, AND
the Paw Patrol suit-up before Ryder sees Sweetie in the gear.
This CANNOT be a coincidence.
They HAVE to have been made by the same person!
But okay, maybe this sort of technology is just super common in the Paw Patrol universe.
Maybe Pup-Packs are something you can just order from your local Best Buy… but again,
that’s not the case.
As we called out in our last Theory, the Paw Patrol are relative unknowns in this world,
they're only becoming more well known as the series progresses BECAUSE of their daring
rescues.
Rescue dogs and technology for cats is not something that exists normally in this universe.
It is specifically being built by one guy: Ryder.
“Alright, Matpat,” I hear you saying.
“Sure, the tech used by the Sweetie, Claw and the Kitten Catastrophe Crew ARE similar
to the Paw Patrol’s.
But maybe that’s just how technology looks in this universe.”
That would be a fantastic explanation for what we’re seeing here; a lot of times,
the art direction of a show (especially an animated show) can end up with character and
technology designs that look same-y.
And while the Paw Patrol series definitely has an art style that it sticks to, it also
goes out of its way to show that different technology made by different people look different
compared to the Paw Patrol’s pup-packs.
We already pointed out how different and almost primitive Humdinger’s tech looks compared
to Ryder’s, but there are other examples throughout the series.
For example, the Ruff-Ruff Pack are a group of villainous biker dogs featured in the Moto
Pup series, and its three members all have pup-packs as well.
But their packs are WAY different from the ones that we know that Ryder makes.
Every pack that we’ve seen up until this point looks very similar - they’re made
with clean, cylindrical or cuboid pieces and their joints are easy to move.
Plus, they’re all colored and feature iconography that matches the pup or kitten that they were
made for.
The Ruff-Ruff Pack’s gear, however, looks like it was made with limited time and resources.
These pacs are older, rusty, they’re made using scrap metal, the joints are barely held
together with screws and bolts.
This suggests that they were made by Gasket, who we know is an amateur inventor.
So, clearly the show’s art style cares enough to indicate when technology is made by other
inventors…the Ruff-Ruff’s packs scrapyard inventions, Humdinger’s early primitive
tech.
But the Catastrophe Crew?
Sweetie?
There’s no other way to explain it.
It HAD to have come from Ryder!
So, Ryder is clearly designing the tech that villains like Humdinger and Sweetie wind up
using throughout the series, but why?
Doesn’t necessarily seem like a great business model to just be giving this tech away.
But, just look at what happens once these villains get a hold of it.
In Season 1, the pup’s rescues can honestly seem pretty trivial.
They help the farmers out during the fall festival, they gather up some lost bunnies.
They help Mayor Goodway win a few competitions and, in rare cases, they fight the occasional
fire.
It’s not exactly the high-stakes rescues that Ryder was hoping for when he started
the Paw Patrol to make cash off of disasters.
But then, look at the escalation.
By season seven, they’re being hired out by royalty to protect the crown jewels as
private bodyguards.
They’re being asked by Mayor Goodway to save stolen ferris wheels.
Crimes that are only possible thanks to HIS technology getting in the hands of the show’s
villains.
Ryder is clearly a smart kid, and a shrewd businessman, and he takes his opportunities
where he sees them.
Take Humdinger for instance - clearly the competition between the towns was important
to him.
And as time goes on, he gets more and more discouraged as he loses because of the Paw
Patrol, to the point where he’s suddenly willing to cheat in a way that he never did
before.
Think about it: In Season 1, we never see Humdinger do anything shady or illegal - he’s
just a REALLY competitive guy from a nearby city.
And yet, in Season 2, we immediately see Humdinger playing dirty, as well as ignoring both laws
and the safety of others as he destroys and vandalizes property.
What’s changed?
One thing… he now has his own minions in the Kitten Catastrophe Crew, minions outfitted
with Ryder’s tech.
Ryder saw the competitiveness in Humdinger and exploited it.
He CREATED a villain in Humdinger and the Catastrophe Crew to escalate the problems
that the Paw Patrol could respond to.
Suddenly, they’re not tracking down misidentified cows in the snow - they’re stopping bonafide
bad buys.
Ryder can suddenly charge more for it, he can get more publicity for it.
He’s now building an empire for both his exploited rescue pups and the technology that
allows this stuff to happen.
But it doesn’t stop there, friends.
Ryder expands his little racket beyond Adventure Bay and even Adventure City.
He seeks out new locations like Barkingburg, where he can give other misguided pups some
of his tech.
He creates new villains, and therefore, new disasters on a scale that even he couldn’t
have dreamed of before.
Instead of a vehicle, Claw uses his Pup Pack to find a magical dragon tooth that lets him
control a REAL ACTUAL dragon which he then directs onto the people and city of Barkingburg.
When the Paw Patrol avert that disaster, Ryder couldn’t ask for better publicity - “Brave
Pups led by Genius Boy Save City from Dragon”.
With achievements like that under his belt, just like that, Ryder has suddenly made himself
a valuable new client for life in the Princess of Barkingburg.
But worst of all, the kid doesn’t even bother to make sure the bad guys see proper justice!
He isn’t taking the steps required to prevent these from happening in the future Sure, Sweetie
is often put in the proverbial doghouse when she’s caught, but she’s out again by the
very next episode.
And Humdinger and the Kitten Catastrophe Crew?
Ryder doesn’t even bother to arrest them when they’re caught red-handed!
Instead, they’re just slapped with the catchphrase “That Troublesome Mayor!”
before getting off scot-free, ready to wreak more havoc in the very next episode.
Ryder is the city’s law-enforcement here, arresting criminals would fall under HIS jurisdiction.
But he DOESN'T, because that would be bad for business.
One thing is clear…
Ryder is no hero.
Not only does he put the lives of his pups in constant danger with little regard for
whether or not they die in the disasters they face, but he’s responsible for creating
those disasters in the first place.
In his greed, Ryder encourages these misguided souls to cheat and commit crimes in order
to drive up business for himself, strengthening his empire as it spreads from city to city.
Ryder offers them advanced tech to escalate their crimes to new heights, and then doesn’t
apprehend them to prevent future crimes.
Ryder is the Paw Patrol’s worst enemy, the true villain of this franchise, sitting pretty
atop a Scrooge McDuckian pile of cash, while he puts the lives of both his pups and innocent
people on the line.
Sure, they all may be good pups, but Ryder?
He’s bad to the bone.
But hey, that’s just a theory!
A Film Theory!
Aaaaand cut