#also his partner courtship is so dogged and earnest haha that scene where they drive past the federal gold reserve??

[vaguely-concerned]

it's been a couple of days since I watched 'first contact' now, but I am still haunted by the definite vibe through that whole thing that jigen's laser focus on taking down lupin is like... either he's trying to kill lupin because lupin is the first thing that's made him feel anything in a long time (true 'I just felt like destroying something beautiful' undertones lol, also worth noting that the red of lupin's blood on the broken window is the first time any kind of strong colour is introduced to jigen's 'world' in that first scene), he's trying to use lupin as the proverbial sword to fall on in a roundabout way he won't have to acknowledge to himself or the world, or he's going for a gambit where he's betting on both sides of the coin and the outcome doesn't matter, because either he will take down lupin and return to the unbearable grey soulless perfection of being the world's best gunman tm, undefeated, or he won't be around to have to feel it anymore, and either way I think he'd end up about the same level of spiritually dead inside.

and then lupin just keeps doing absolutely WILD yet non-violent shit in response every time they meet after that until he startles awake from that deadened state enough to realize those are not his only options. lupin literally clowned jigen back to life. inspirational