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darkspellmaster · 6 years ago

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The Role of the Gentleman or Lady Thief and their Detective/Cop/Agent Part 1

With Carmen Sandiego 2019 starting to heat up I figured that it would be a good time to explain why characters like Chase, Julia, and formerly Ivy and Zack were important to the over all story and why these dynamics are key in telling the story of the idea of Cops and Robbers.

To start with we have to go all the way back to the days of the Highway men and the likes of Robin Hood.

So let’s start with that. The myths around Robin Hood have grown over the years, most of which had the elements in there of him being a free spirited outlaw that was in Nottingham and being the enemy of the Sheriff came from earlier poems such as the Robin Hood and the Monk show that while he’s got some good in him, he’s not friends with the King, and that his robbing maybe more selfish, and the actions of the Merry Men are more in line with that of a thriller than the more epic adventure that we see later.

Robin’s stories changed over time from darker stories with thriller like plots, to comedic at times, and over time grew to show Robin changing from a character that simply robbed because of the fun of it, to someone who was robbing for the people, and that he could be outwitted by others and then they are invited to join with him.

Robin representing the lawful outlaw, the thief that while forceful to those that don’t fit into his moral code, can be gallant and kind to those that he finds right and just. He’s a Chaotic good type character in this case, leading into the Sheriff who falls under the idea of the dull witted idiot at times who get’s tricked and had by the clever robber. Over time Robin became a noble over a commoner, where as the Sheriff was always seen as part of the rich nobles that caused issue for the lower classes.

Thus a lot of the idea of the noble thief and the arrogant detective came into being. Though this dynamic wouldn’t stick around for long with these two as the Sheriff became more and more of a villain and Robin more of a heroic person who was only robbing to return the wealth to those that needed it.

Stories about Robin and his ways of stealing, namely their ballads, over time, influenced later writers who wrote about the exploits of real Highwaymen:

Later robber heroes included the Cavalier highwayman James Hind, the French-born gentleman highwayman Claude Du Vall, John Nevison, Dick Turpin, Sixteen String Jack, William Plunkett and his partner the "Gentleman Highwayman" James MacLaine, the Slovak Juraj Jánošík, and Indians including Kayamkulam Kochunni, Veerappan and Phoolan Devi.

These robbers were seen as heroic due to their bold actions robbing people face to face. A lot of the actions of later Gentle thieves can be attributed to the legends of these Highwaymens’ characters.

James Hind -Was a royalist who apparently helped other Royalist escape from troubles, gave money to poor royalists and also refused to rob cavaliers. A lot of his exploits were embellished, painting him as a Royalist Robin Hood.

Claude Du Vall - According to popular legend, he abhorred violence, showing courtesy to his victims and chivalry to their womenfolk, thus spawning the myth of the romantic highwayman. -from Wikipedia. Du Vall is most known for inspiring a lot of the legends around the “Romantic Highwayman” legends.

John Nevison - with the nickname Swift Nick, due to a dash of 200 miles from Kent to York to create an alibi after a robbery, Nevison was known for never using violence against his victims, always polite, and only robbing the rich.

Dick Turpin - was nothing like his legend, and was over time turned into an almost robin hood like figure. The reason that his name is used so much and linked with the other gentlemen Highwaymen is due to the book Rookwood, where he’s used as part of the plot and comes off as far more lively than the mains.

Sixteen String Jack - was known for his colorful costumes, wit and charm and typically robbed so he could afford said expensive clothing.

William Plunkett -wore a venetian mask and tended to be polite to women and only stole because he “was obliged to do so” not out of wontoness. He actually escaped with his life.

John MacLaine -a former son of clergy who became a grocer and, after his wife died three years after their marriage, went bankrupt and became the partner of William Plunkett. He, like Will, was seen a courteous and restrained when they were holding people up.

Juraj Jánošík -the Slovakian Robin Hood, who’s stories became more legend and was later used as a symbol against oppression. After helping another robber escape from jail, the two started a band, which Juraj became leader of at the age of 23, when the former leader left to settle down outside of the kingdom of Hungary. “ Most of their victims were rich merchants. Under Jánošík's leadership, the group was exceptionally chivalrous: They did not kill any of the robbed victims and even helped an accidentally injured priest.[5] They are also said to share their loot with the poor and this part of the legend may be based on the facts too.[5] -Wikipedia”

Kayamkulam Kochunni -is India’s Robin Hood. Like Juraj, Kayamkulam has become a legend and a bit of a deity as well. He was said to have robbed from the rich to give to the poor, focusing mostly on merchants that were wealthy. What’s interesting is that he’s one of the first to be well known and have a detective that is following him around, by the name of “ Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker” who was a known warrior and defender of the oppressed, and who supposedly captured Kayamkulam, leading to him being placed in jail for a year where he died.

Veerappan -a more modern day version of Robin Hood in India, who was active in the late 1960s and into the early 2000s. Unlike the other members of this, he was not known for giving back to the poor, rather his status comes from the fact that he was elusive.

Phoolan Devi -a lady bandit who’s last name was used as a title for her. Her history in India was well known, and she later was released from jail after she and her gang were arrested for the massacre of a rival gang that had captured and raped her. However publically she was somewhat praised for her actions. She later was elected to the Indian parliament but was assassinated in 2001 by a former member of the gang that she had killed.

Other Highwaymen tended to do so for revolution or rebellion based actions, such as those in Ireland during the 17th to the 19th Century.

In 17th- through early-19th-century Ireland, acts of robbery were often part of a tradition of popular resistance to British colonial rule and settlement and Protestant domination. From the mid-17th century, bandits who harassed the British were known as tories (from Irish tóraiḋe, raider; tóraí in modern spelling). Later in the century, they became known as rapparees. Famous highwaymen included James Freney, Count Redmond O'Hanlon, Willy Brennan, and Jeremiah Grant.[10][11]

James Freney - originally lost his family lands in 1650, after being a well off family that was considered a noble. As a young man he wound up working as a servant to another well off family, married, and had a family. He joined with a gang after the towns fees caused him to close up his pub. Like a number of other Highwaymen he was known for being polite for the most part, and saw his actions as a way to get back at the English.

Count Redmond O’Hanlon - his family at one time was a favor of Queen Elizabeth the first, however due to them siding with the Catholics during the events of the Irish Rebellion, his family got their lands seized during the Act for Settlement, where in they lost all their status and lands to England and it was given away to other land holders. Redmond was known for being an excellent actor, mimic and persuasive speaker who used these skills. Again he’s seen as a bit of a Robin Hood figure.

Using this as a base we can see how these men and women of reality became a sort of base for fictional characters, who later became part of the genre of the Gentlemen thief. Furthering the evolution of these characters was the idea of the opposition of the thief in the form of the rival police officer, typically either a detective/cop/Agent of Interpol who has been sent out to stop the likes of the Heroic thief.

Subsequently, a change happened between the time of the Sheriff from Robin Hood to the time of someone like Zenigata, from Lupin the third. The first changes could be seen in the idea of making the opposite of the thief be someone that has a more personal reason to want to capture the thief, or have a more sympathic reason behind their being the rival to the thief.

Another aspect added to this was that, in some cases the detective had it wrong about the thief and their heroic actions were being read wrong by the law. Best example of this early on was is the character of Javert from Victor Hugo’s Les Mis. written back in the 1860s.

Javert’s story focuses a lot on how he wants to capture Jean because Jean ran from his parole, and Javert feels like he must catch him, even after years of the man reforming his life. One of the aspects about this that draws into the modern day Phantom Thief idea, is that of the character that at all costs, MUST, capture the thief. Javert devotes his life to it, dealing with the fact that he grew up inside a prison and can’t for the life of him deal with the idea that a criminal can change. This leads to his death, and the obsession of capturing Valjean.

The idea of the obsessive detective focusing their life on the chase digs into later day characters that are like Javert, but less suicidal.

The famous Scarlet Pimpernel deals with one such character. While the Pimpernel is no thief in the normal sense, he seeks to “steal�� the lives of innocent nobles from the gallows during the french revolution.

Created by Baroness Emma Orczy, Sir. Percy Blake is our lead (and shares with Carmen the love of Red) who through out the story plays up his foppish image to cover for the fact that he is the head of a ring of men and women who are covertly, under the black sky of the night, going to France to break out and save various people from death during the French Revolution. Blake is in a lot of ways the first user of the secret identity. But he also has a lot of the qualifications of being a Gentlemen Thief, including not harming people unless they attack first, and being ever so delightful to those he’s “robbing.” He’s a skilled fencer, an excellent actor, a master of disguise, an intuitive improvising and imaginative planner, and a quick on his feet escape artist.

Counter to him runs Citizen Armand Chauvelin, a cunning and ruthless man that is for the most part fearless and doesn’t care for his own safety -save where he figures that death is the only outcome of a situation. He’s highly intelligent and, in the past, was a close friend of Percy’s wife. During the stories we see him become the rival or counter to Sir. Percy, figuring out that the man is the Pimpernel but never having a chance to catch him, as Percy always eludes him, causing their conflict to keep dancing around all through the series.

Being the opposite of Percy, Armand plays up the darker aspects of the Agent. He’s shown wearing dark clothing, that he tends to brood more, and certainly while having some sense of mercy and sympathy, he feels that Percy should be stopped as he’s breaking the law in France. Much like Javert, Armand becomes slightly obsessed with capturing and outwitting Percy, but he never gets the chance to win.

This brings us to the idea of the inversion of the detective for the thief in the form of A.J. Raffles. Raffles was created by Sir. Arthur Conan-Doyle’s brother-in-law, E.W. Hornung, a poet and author. Raffles was created as a opposite to Holmes. Like Holmes there is a sharpness to his character’s look, though unlike Holmes, Raffles is far more of a social man and lives competing lives as a gentleman and a thief. It’s interesting to note that Doyle did not particularly like Raffles as he felt it was a slight to his character. Although of the two, Holmes has been used more frequently. Raffles also seems to share the whole “playing a role” to set up for his crime, but also feels that while he steals for himself, he tries to pick on people who can spare the theft.

This becomes important as later day thieves tended to play the part of hero and villain all in the same story in some cases.

The biggest and most well known though of all these Thieves and the most heavily inspired for western writers, is Arsene Lupin.

Pulling from Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail, Rocambole (an adventure hero that starts off as a thief like character and later became a heroic person), Arsene acts as a thief, stealing things that he deems worthy and always leaving some form of calling card to where he’s going to strike next. However he’s usually not the bad guy and the true villain of the story is far worse than he is. Lupin traditionally didn’t have a counter until his creator Maurice Leblanc decided to pit him against Sherlock Holmes (changed to Herlock Sholmes due to Doyle requesting it). This placed the two master minds against one another for several stories. Pairing them up in some cases to solve a crime or having Holmes go against Lupin to catch him and the other villain.

This pairing later lead to the creation of other characters that have bad guy like reputations but are really heroes, such as the Shadow, and Judex -from France (who probably inspired the Shadow).

One of the Key elements to come from these thieves is that there is always a code of honor, which seems to stem all the way back from the days of the Highwaymen. This code seems to be:

Be charming, well mannered, and courteous to your target and others.

Avoid the idea of physical or emotional force or violence to steal

No intimidation when stealing

Only fight to defend yourself

Some thieves are already wealthy, others will take for material gain, but a good majority of them will steal not for wealth of money but for knowledge or appreciation of the object. A good number of modern thieves tend to steal things already stolen and return them to their rightful home, or correcting a moral wrong. In most cases it’s only from a wealthy or corrupt person, and only stealing one rare thing or as a challenge, typically leaving some sort of message saying they were going to take it. And once in a while they will give it back, because it was a “for fun” thing.

With the rise of other Gentlemen thieves in the west such as: The Saint, Thomas Crown, Jimmy Dale, Filibus, Danny Ocean, and various characters from comics (Gentleman Ghost, Catwoman, Penguin, Gambit, Black Cat) and many others, it doesn’t surprise me that Arsene Lupin became influential to Japanese writers.

Kaito Kid, Dark Mousy, Lupin the Third, and Saint Tail, all have their own opposing rival detectives, and each seem to steal in some way for good (save for those that also take for themselves).

Looking at Arsene Lupin III you have a similarity to the original character. someone who is mostly stealing for fun, but also he’s “ Acknowledged across the globe as the world's number one thief, Lupin is a master of disguise and deduction, marksman, and inventor of numerous handy gadgets. His fun-loving, foolhardy incongruity covers a brilliant mind always extemporizing and re-evaluating. As such, he has been responsible for heists no right-minded individual would believe possible. While occasionally arrested and jailed, typically by his ICPO nemesis Inspector Koichi Zenigata, he always succeeds in escaping unharmed.”

Lupin’s personality over the years has changed as the various versions of the anime has over time cooled his harder edges and made him more of a chivalrous goofball, who can get away with things. In some cases he’s doing it for the thrill, but in several situations from the anime and movies he tends to do it because he wants to do the right thing, and maybe earn some side cash. In any event in the anime he’s not without his side kicks, and of course there’s Zenigata.

Monkey Punch, the creator of Lupin the Third said that Koichi Zenigata and Lupin have a Tom and Jerry aspect to them, and the only way the series will end is when they are equals. Either they both lose, they both win, or they both retire. Zenigata is more in line with the idea of the detective following a life long passion. He is, much like Armand and Javert, obsessed with capturing Lupin and has shown over various shows that he cares for the younger thief.

The origin of Zenigata's and Lupin's mutual regard was based early in the series when Lupin had the chance to shoot the Inspector, but instead wished him well and escaped. Since then, an unwritten understanding exists between the pair where neither will attempt to cause the death of the other. Further, the two are best referred as unacknowledged friends; several occasions have occurred where Lupin and gang aided Zenigata out of a life-threatening situation. When a woman the Inspector loved was killed by a criminal gang, Lupin participated in avenging her murder. And when an old enemy of Lupin's shot Zenigata point blank while he helplessly watched, a wild motorcycle chase began to apprehend the killer, partly for Lupin to conclude affairs with the adversary, partly to avenge the (supposed) death of the Inspector.

On the other end for the pairing you have the Kaito Kid and Detective Conan.

Now unlike Lupin who steals because it’s his way of life, Kaito Kid (aka Kaito Kuroba -yes that is his real name) does so to follow up on his family legacy and try to find the men that killed his father. The reason he steals isn’t for money or for fixing issues, no this is more of a personal thing. After taking the gemstones Kaito tests to see if they, under the moonlight, to see if the Pandora gem (a stone that has the ability to grant immortality) is inside for the express purpose of destroying it and keeping it from the hands of the organization that killed his dad. When he takes the stones, or any treasure he typically leaves a calling card, so the bad guys know what he’s going after so he can confront them, and later returns the items to their places.

Kaito doesn’t have an exact opposition, but normally if he is a bit of an antagonist in a story, that role goes to Detective Conan (aka Jimmy Kudo). Sometimes Conan is out to stop him from stealing something, but a number of times the two have teamed up as the organization that killed Kaito’s father was also connected to Jimmy becoming a small boy from a teenager. Kaito has played Jimmy from time to time, confusing friends and enemies for the young detective and also helping out when Lupin III showed up for his own heist in a movie. Jimmy though knows who Kaito is, yet he can’t pin any crimes on him.

The interesting thing about their conflict is that while Jimmy wants to stop him, he also knows that there’s more to Kaito’s actions than just being a thief, so unlike where Zenigata legitimately wants Lupin to reform, Jimmy knows that once Kaito finishes what he needs to do he’s likely going to stop being a thief, thus, while the chase is fun, unlike with Richard (the detective that Jimmy tends to knock out in order to explain the case) who sees Kaito as a thief, Jimmy knows that it will end and that in the end no one’s going to be hurt save the bad guys that killed Kaito’s father.

On the other side of things where in you have this idea of a pairing that has magic, you have Dark Mousey/ Daisuke Niwa and Krad/Satoshi Hiwatari.

Where as with Kaito who uses tricks to preform magic, Dark/Daisuke actually uses real magic to pretty much create a situation that has a lot of real magic in their thefts. See in the case of D.N.Angel, the story actually revolves around a curse. Dark is a being that may, or may not, have been a real person at some point in time. He is part of Daisuke, a middle-schooler who’s family has this curse placed upon them, where the first born son will inherent Dark and become a thief. The goal, to steal items that have a magical curse that was created by the Hikari family. Long story short if Dark and Daisuke fall for the same girl then Dark goes away from Daisuke and he waits till the next person or the curse is lifted (I can’t remember because last I read they were liking two different twin sisters, and keep switching who likes who.)

Opposing Daisuke is Satoshi Hiwatari, who is actually the adopted son of the Police Chief and the heir to Krad, Dark’s opposite. He has little control on Krad and is the descendant of the man who made the cursed items. Satoshi cares a lot for Daisuke seeing him as a friend and wanting him to stop using Dark, but the fact is that it’s not a possibility until the curse is broken for both. Both boy’s have their “specials” (I don’t know what they’re called) come out when they react to emotions. Daisuke is to feelings of love from a special girl that he likes, and Satoshi has it when Dark comes out and there’s a sense of challenge coming from Krad.

The thing that’s interesting with this cat and mouse game is that Daisuke and Sataoshi general want to be friends, with Satoshi being the cold character to Daisuke’s more warm and genuine personality. While Satoshi wants to stop Dark from stealing thing, Daisuke wants to find a way to release Dark and Satoshi from the curse that’s upon them because he knows Krad is hurting his friend. The point of the thefts though comes down not to robbing the rich, nor returning something for justice but for the sake of canceling out something dangerous in human hands. The idea that the art piece is cursed by an emotion and that the feelings of that piece need to be fixed, usually something to do with love and sadness and that sort of thing.

Similarly in the actual magical thief department we have the character of Meimi Haneoka aka Kaitō Saint Tail or just Saint Tail in English. Like another magical girl thief Phantom Thief Jeanne, there are aspects of the magic girl series here. However unlike PTJ, Saint Tail deals more with the actions of actually stealing art rather than cleansing it and making it vanish. The difference here is that unlike Jeanne, Meimi is just using stage magic, much like Kaito Kid, so her actions are done with her own wit and guile. What’s interesting is that unlike the other thieves mentioned, Saint Tail is a thief that takes back what has been stolen.

Meimi’s goal is helping those who have had things taken from them or ease their troubled hearts, as her friend who is a nun in training gets to hear these issues and goes to ask Saint Tail for help in taking back what was stolen. Meimi, like the others above, has a rival detective in the form of Daiki Asuka who is also a classmate of her’s whom she classes with as he’s obsessed with catching Saint Tail.

What’s interesting about this set up here is that unlike all the others, where it’s male vs. male, this is male vs. female and, because it is a shojo series, there’s a romantic undertone to this story. Daiki, for his part, does seem to have a bit of a crush on Saint Tail but ultimately wants to bring her to justice, and in Saint Tail form Meimi does flirt with him. However the conflict comes down to the idea of her and Daiki not seeing eye to eye in their civilian lives, as Meimi has a bit of a tsudare sort of mask so that others don’t know she’s Saint Tail. Thus the two butt heads a lot, as both are stubborn, and Meimi is constantly grappling with her own jealousy for her alter ego having Daiki’s heart.

It’s not that often that you see this set up with the Detective and the thief eventually ending up as a couple (Yes this is a spoiler) since in most cases the thief usually has a side love interest that has nothing to do with his or her crime career (either the person is doing an alter ego thing, or the love interest doesn’t pay mind to their crimes) or they are working with them on their criminal sprees.

This means that Daiki and Meimi are a bit of a rare pairing, the only other one that springs to mind is Batman and Catwoman (though that has it’s own issues) and Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox from the Sly Cooper games. However their cat and mouse game mirrors a lot of other Detectives and thieves. For Daiki the idea of catching Saint Tail means that he can prove himself to his dad who could never catch the “Fallen Angel” thief, who happened to be Meimi’s mom, and he feels that if he can catch her than it makes up for his dad not getting Fallen Angel. It’s interesting too that, as with Kaito Kid, Dark Mousey and Lupin III, Saint Tail leaves calling cards but with different reasons. Where as with Kaito it’s to lure out the villains who killed his dad, and Dark as a PR thing for Satoshi, or Lupin just to annoy Zenigata, Tail’s game is so that Daiki and the cops can arrest the person that stole the object in the first place and get them proof so that they will go to jail for their crime.

It makes their relationship far more complex than your traditional thief and detective.

The thing is that the role these two play opposing one another is a game of cat and mouse that is designed to thrill the audience. Viewers watch, or readers read, as the characters have to outwit one another. The thief must always be one step ahead of the detective. But never too far ahead, and the detective must always be one step behind but know the truth even if they can’t prove it.

This leads to some interesting dynamics in regard to the idea of the thieves that don’t steal for their own goal. While it does, at times, make the detective question if they are doing right by chasing them, the thief needs to always reaffirm to the detective that they should try to catch them. The thrill is in the chase for the thief too, and in some cases it is not just the fun that is being had, but also the goal in allowing the detective to become a friend and in some ways a companion to the thief.

Without the detective doing the chasing the challenge isn’t there, and, on top of that in the case of a robin hood like thief where they want the police to capture a worse criminal, then they feel like they are actually doing some law abiding things as well. In other cases, they only agree to give up to that detective or rival, and will only become lawful again once their mission is completed, or they feel like the two are then equals.

Part of the game for the gentleman or Lady Thief is that they will show a great deal of compassion for those that they are taking from in some cases, and also feel the same for the detective. In a few cases, as with Lupin and Sherlock/Conan, there’s a sense of admiration and appreciation for each other’s skills and intelligence. Or in other cases as with Sly and Carmelita or Tail and Daiki, there is genuine love and affection there that leads to romance.

It’s the sense of almost flirting and a chance to change the other persons view of the world. In a lot of cases the detectives can see the good in a person, as with Zenigata regarding Lupin, but also they know that what they are doing in in the wrong according to the law, and they want that person who could be an amazing good guy and ally to them to join them on the lawful side of things, rather than the chaotic good side.

So how does this all fit into Carmen and the others? Well this has gone on too long I think, so I’m gonna do that as a part 2.

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