#this episode and part one as a whole was peak lupin in my opinion with each character having emotional depth yet flaws to overcome

[goemon-fan]

This was easily one of the best Lupin episodes

#there will be a rant in the tags that you can ignore #but it is so upsetting how modern/current lupin took away the depths of these characters and flimsily tries to restore their earlier depth #i'm one of those people who craves depth in what i watch and it's so difficult to like this franchise because it will be so close to doing #something interesting only to abandon it #this episode and part one as a whole was peak lupin in my opinion with each character having emotional depth yet flaws to overcome #yet modern lupin would have you believe that these characters don't desire to improve in any capacity #if we were to just focus on Goemon for example right here he shows depth with revealing hidden emotional maturity and empathy for Lupin by #comforting him and admitting he himself is afraid (which is a big deal for a character like him who is supposed to be unflinching) #but in modern lupin goemon will literally say that he's not afraid of anything and this is written without any hint of irony or depth #i'm okay with mindless entertainment and i understand that this is a series simply about stealing but the character assassination is so #disappointing #and when this series does try to be “deep” they pick the most triggering subject matter possible to depict to the point where it's #practically unwatchable (this is in reference to Part 4 and its constant SA plots as well as the rampant gratuitous child abuse plots #throughout the entire series) #i want so badly to love lupin the 3rd but it's a huge problem when fanfiction understands the characters better than the source material #lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin the 3rd #goemon ishikawa xiii #goemon #arsene lupin iii #jigen daisuke #daisuke jigen #fujiko mine #part 1

[vaguely-concerned]

my controversial lupin iii opinion is that the end of part 5 rules actually (even tho the very last episode is kind of a mess and obscures some the cool shit going on beneath the surface in its haste to wrap everything up)

okay. so hear me out but I think it’s a mistake to read the end of part 5 as a traditional narrative that actually takes place at some point in the (already convoluted lol) lupin iii continuity. in my estimation it’s not, it’s more like... metanarrative of the whole show/franchise. a series of metaphors. a story about the story of lupin iii. no, lupin hasn’t actually been wearing a mask the whole time we’ve seen him in canon and he’s just some random dude we don’t know under there -- except on a metaphorical, emotional level. that is kind of the point of him as a character; the tension between how much we get to glimpse of his honest internal life and how much is withheld from us (making us want to share in it all the more) is part of the enduring appeal.

and letting fujiko finally see behind that mask in one stroke resolves the doubts and struggles in their relationship that’s been running through the whole season, doubts that the ‘traditional’ forms of affirming/validating love and intimacy in a heteropatriarchy -- marriage, cohabitation, all the things they’re grieving didn’t work out for them the whole season, ‘what’s wrong with us’ -- never could resolve. y’know it’s like that quote from the seven husbands of evelyn hugo:

People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.  

that’s the metaphor there. if you interpret it literally then yes, that whole scene is very very blind shock value stupid lol, but for those last few episodes of part 5 the fourth wall is so thin you can read the braille writing on the wall through it. (fujiko is sitting in a cage wearing a wedding dress. I don’t think the symbolism is particularly subtle lmao.) lupin finally letting himself be seen by her fully, and her understanding and accepting it, is more important than anything society has told them proves the ‘realness’ of a relationship, and it’s what helps them get through the grief of what they thought they ‘should’ be to each other to the realization of what they already are to each other and that they are enough, they have nothing they need to prove to anyone -- to themselves, or to the world. they do love each other. that’s what matters. and so it goes, that’s the sort of storytelling they’re doing in that last arc. which admittedly is confusing because it’s not what they’ve been doing in the rest of the season at all so if you haven’t been picking up on the nebulous narrative ~*vibes*~ signposting it, you’d understandably be extremely confused. 

(btw one of my favourite scenes of all of lupin iii canon is in the penultimate part 5 episode, where lupin and jigen are sharing smokes (in the aftermath of jigen’s perhaps sexiest scene ever), and lupin essentially lets jigen in on the secret that they’re fictional characters. and after thinking for a few moments jigen is like ‘I get to be a story with you? AND I get my own cool theme tune? heh. yeah, I can live with that’. it’s just soooooooooooooooooooooo... it makes my writing brain go crazy. what a strange yet beautiful way for fictional characters to show love -- to help someone else see the truth of their own self/nature on a metatextual level. peak sometimes-benevolent trickster god lupin AND partners being partners content. jigen is considering his own potential obsolescence in a changing world and lupin tells him that stories live as long as they’re needed, as long as they resonate -- a good story is never obsolete, it will always have been even as it ends. also the vague vibe from how jigen reacts to lupin going to fujiko in that last ep that he has already seen beneath that mask, he already knows… brainworms for days and years and decades folks)

I really like the idea that castle of cagliostro still is the endpoint of the lupin iii canon timeline as we have it today -- miyazaki hit on something compelling and melancholy there and I think deserves to be conserved -- but I don’t believe that’s incompatible with the end of part 5 at all, even though it ‘calls back’ to it like it’s something that’s already happened. because the end of part 5 is not uh, for lack of a better word, real. it’s in sort of a dreamlike space of commentary and -- I say this with love -- fond retrospective franchise navelgazing. and it’s been 50 years, some navelgazing is well earned frankly.

(of course people are perfectly free to hate part 5 and especially the ending for any reason they so wish!  the ending is atrociously paced and the way they wrap up ami’s arc especially is uh, how do you say, unconscionable and slapdash, and the season has plenty of other problems. but to me there are so many interesting meaningful things going on at the end there and I wanted to ramble about it some) 

#of the things I thought I would do immediately upon waking up today writing a goddamn essay about lupin iii P5 was not one of them lol #I guess I take a long time to process sometimes hahaha #lupin iii #lupin iii meta #lupin iii part 5 #again tho there are so many legitimate reasons to dislike part 5 this is just my angle on it! #starting this vaguely felt like being possessed something within me awoke to say 'and another thing! --' #and my poor fingers just had to try to keep up as they were dragged forcefully over the laptop keys #my beloathed lupin season is part 4 btw if you want to assess my biases haha I barely got through that one