Conspiracy Theories (mainly movies and cartoons, but...)

Inspector Gadget

According to this popular fan theory,  the reason we never see Dr. Claw's face is that he is actually the real, or at least the original, Inspector Gadget! That is, according to this theory, which states that the Inspector Gadget we know and love is a robotic recreation of the man Dr. Claw once was, a normal human detective who suffered a terrible accident.

That's where his conveniently smart niece comes in: Penny, in her grief, recreated her uncle as a crime-fighting robot ... ignoring that the real man wasn't dead, only disfigured and insane. This would also explain why nothing ever happens to Penny, even though Claw's cronies seem to catch her every episode: She always finds a way to ruin Claw's plans because she's the only thing he still cares for. And hey, remember the part at the end of the opening theme where Gadget turns Claw's chair around and there's a bomb in it? A bomb that then explodes in Gadget's face? Perhaps this was meant to be symbolic. Perhaps there's no Claw, just Gadget.