Sep 5, 2025
Sofia ↓↓
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Sofia ↓↓
"oh my godddd Belkacem is such a bitch" my brother in christ Guédira is the one constantly fucking with her investigation and doing shit that could easily get him suspended and/or fired due to his insane mancrush on Assane, can we give Belkacem a break for once
well well WELL
I guess that's the "Belkacem is a lesbian" dream dead, anyway. (And the Guédira/Fleur ship is probably also dead. Sigh...)
So aside from the fact that this is like the least aggro I've ever seen Belkacem act, it's interesting that they're a) at a train station, and b) Guédira looks like he's headed off somewhere. Or is Belkacem going somewhere? She's not wearing her usual police uniform.
Related: If I'm not mistaken Omar Sy isn't even in France right now, he's promoting his movie in NYC.
Also Shirine Boutella must be ridiculously busy since she has the lead role in a show in a Max show that's been shooting for the last month and a half. IDK how this will affect Belkacem's screen time.
gambit pile-up
What a mess, lol. I decided to make this after wondering how chaotic it would look if I charted who had been deceived, tricked, manipulated, etc by whom.
Random headcanons
Assane has blown approximately 10,000 euros on sneakers alone and spends at least three hours of every day in front of a mirror
Claire has cried during every Pixar film AND every Studio Ghibli film
Ben collects international translations of Asterix books
Guédira is active on Reddit and likes to say "it's Wednesday my dudes" even when it's not a Wednesday
Belkacem loves playing video games but will never admit it
name etymologies
because I geek out over this stuff
Assane: West African variant of Arabic "Hasan," meaning "good" or "handsome," although it was likely chosen due to its similarity to the French pronunciation of "Arsène."
Claire: French, derived from Latin "clarus" meaning "bright" or "clear." For the show it was probably derived from the name of Clarice d'Etigues, one of Arsène Lupin's love interests.
Benjamin: Hebrew, meaning "son of the right hand."
Youssef: A variant of "Yusuf," meaning "God increases" in Arabic. Has many cognate forms in other languages including "Joseph," "José," "Giuseppe," etc. "Guédira" is obviously meant to sound like "Ganimard."
Sofia: Derived from the Greek "sophia," meaning "wisdom" (and yet she very unwisely doesn't listen to anyone).
Raoul: Derived from the Germanic name "Radwulf" which has also descended into other languages as "Ralph" and "Rudolph." "Raoul" was Arsène Lupin's middle name, which was why Assane was so insistent on choosing it as the name of his and Claire's son.
Hubert: Germanic, meaning "bright-minded."
Juliette: French diminutive of "Julie," ultimately derived from Latin "Julius," famously the nomen of Roman statesman Gaius Julius Caesar. Possibly chosen for its (rough) similarity to "Josephine," the first name of one of the main villains in the Lupin stories.
Babakar: West African variant of Arabic "Abu Bakr," the name of one of the first historical converts to Islam.
the duality
me: "Belkacem is obtuse as fuck and can't solve any cases on her own; demote her expeditiously"
also me: probably wouldn't do a better job if I was in her position