#even funnier when you remember in a later book he's like 'Mr. Narrator Man. u got to stop portraying me like this. wtf.'

[leblancsvoleur]

It's really funny how in the first story, Arsène Lupin is presented to the audience like some force of nature, a creature of the night. His name was first revealed in midst of a violent storm at sea, then the message was cut off by a literal lightning strike like some horror movie. (There's also a bit of Poseidon imagery that connects to 813 here, if you squint.)

The information that the ship was infiltrated was meant to be kept secret among the crew, but oh oops, it somehow slipped and now the entire ship knows. How mysterious. Most importantly, the passengers of this steamship were full of the wealthy middle and upper class. Lupin was said to be amongst them, in the first class cabins, and they were terrified at the thought of him.

Oh, Lupin was seen nowhere near the scene of the crime? Well, obviously "a man like Arsène Lupin could commit a crime without being actually present." He can straight up walk through walls and be in two places at once, apparently!

Then there's this line where it describes how he picked the most valuable stones from the jewellery, "like flowers from which the beautiful colored petals had been ruthlessly plucked." Like, holy shit, Arsène Lupin the Evil Flower Plucker.

He's the rich people's boogeyman. They're convinced that he can do anything, like a supernatural presence that stalks them, the monster that hides under their beds.