My three-year-old daughter loves the TV show Dora. I find it mostly annoying but I do appreciate Swiper the Fox. In an effort to better understand the complex character’s motivations, I consulted the Wikipedia. Tellingly, the section on Swiper totals 1,300 words compared to just 130 for Backpack or even the 300 words that Dora herself commands. From Wikipedia:
Swiper’s motive for theft is patently childish; he never seems actually to want the object he takes, since he almost immediately throws it away to hide it from Dora, which prompts her to ask the audience to help her find it. Until recently, it was unclear if he swipes merely for the joy of swiping, or from a desire to annoy and frustrate Dora. Compounding the confusion is the fact that, given the right reason, for example, that the item in question is a present for Dora’s puppy, he will return items he has taken, no matter how much effort he went through to get them. It is also shown that he rarely knows the full importance of what he has taken; for example, he had no idea the aforementioned gift was for Dora’s puppy. In the episode Dora Saves the Mermaids, he revealed that he “liked swiping.” He has some kind of New York accent, and lives in a burrow on top of Blueberry Hill.