lesamis:

tbh montparnasse is at core a character with enormous comic potential and the brick so embraces that

like sure he’s dangerous, and yeah he’s very much posed as That Murderous Kid, but so much of what we see of him is genuinely comical. gavroche, who in a different scene is shown to have no doubt that montparnasse would kill him if provoked, talks to him with casual superiority. trolled by a 13 yr old? the subtleties of that conversation go right over montparnasse’s head. big villain showdown? montparnasse is missing in action. trying to do the big villainous thing by himself? he’s overpowered in two seconds by a senior citizen whose moral high ground is so confusing to montparnasse that he can’t move from the spot for ten minutes bc he’s like, still buffering. he, a Master Thief and Killer™, is stolen from by a child & walks through paris with a literal rose between his teeth like a low-budget 90s bishounen

montparnasse is introduced as mr murderer suave guy, and the murderer part isn’t really contradicted in the rest of the novel, but boy, is the suave guy part not played straight ever