Dimitri Lousteau

"What is this with clocks, bro? Have you no vision? Are you hearing what I beam to you? You think you have juice? Don't show me a little mind when talking about such big things... you think you can swing the bat? Show your bling and let me shine you!"

- Dimitri to Sly Cooper

Dimitri Lousteau is a purple marine iguana that was at one time a professional lounge lizard and international forger. Once a passionate art student, he began a life of crime after incurring harsh feedback from art critics. Eventually joining the Klaww Gang, Dimitri used his nightclub in Paris as a way to feed illegal spice to the population, in addition to a cover for his forgery scheme. During the events of Sly 2: Band of Thieves', he served as the main antagonist of the first episode, The Black Chateau'.

After the fall of the Klaww Gang and his incarceration, Dimitri sought the help of the Cooper Gang in recovering his grandfather's treasured diving gear. In return, he joined them for the Cooper Vault heist.

He was voiced by.

Background


Dimitri grew up listening to stories of his grandfather, Reme Lousteau, recovering treasure from pirate ship wrecks. He learned English by listening to music videos and mimicking their speech.

His life of crime began when he was a passionate young art student. He developed his own style, dubbed "kinetic aesthetic," which consisted of him swinging back and forth from a rope tied around his waist and painting the canvas as he swung by. It was rejected outright by closed-minded critics and Dimitri was cast out of the artistic community. Infuriated, he began forging old masterpieces, which was his idea of punishing those with bad taste. At some point, Dimitri came into ownership of a nightclub located on the west-side of Paris, drawing in "chic, young patrons from far and wide."

Marrying for profit
Dimitri pretended to be in love with an art aficionado, Madame D'Oinkeau, so that she would propose to him, with the engagement gift being the Venus de Whalo, a valuable art statue in her possession. Dimitri planned to sell the statue once it was given to him. The statue was put on display during a party at Dimitri's mansion in Monaco. During the party, Dimitri had some of his men forging paintings in the mansion's attic. To ensure that the Venus de Whalo was safe, D'Oinkeau invited Inspector Carmelita Fox to protect it, much to Dimitri's chagrin.



D'Oinkeau showed Carmelita the Venus de Whalo, with Dimitri in tow. While viewing the statue, three guards informed D'Oinkeau that Sly Cooper, a well known thief, was spotted in the attic. Carmelita rushed to the attic and Dimitri, fearing that he would be found out, tried to stop her. Failing to do so, he told both Carmelita and D'Oinkeau that he would check on the party to make sure that everything was "grooving." Carmelita did not find Sly, but found all of Dimitri's men knocked out along with their forging equipment. While both women were in the attic, Dimitri made his escape from the party, leaving the statue behind. It was then stolen by Sly and his gang.

Klaww Gang
At some point, Dimitri became a member of the criminal group known as the Klaww Gang. When the Klaww Gang stole the Clockwerk parts from Cairo's Museum of Natural History, Dimitri was given the tail feathers for his own use. He modified the tail feathers into printing plates; with their unique metal alloy, Dimitri was able to print an endless supply of counterfeited money. He hid the "printing press room" underneath his nightclub. Meanwhile, he used the nightclub to funnel illegal spice sent from Rajan into the population; in doing so, Dimitri contributed greatly to the Klaww Gang's and Arpeggio's plans.



Dimitri soon learned that Sly Cooper and his team had arrived in Paris looking to steal Clockwerk's tail feathers. After several acts of sabotage by the Cooper Gang, Dimitri ordered his guards to shoot them on sight. Dimitri's efforts to get rid of the Cooper Gang were proven to be unsuccessful when Sly confronted him in his printing press room. Dimitri tried to get Sly to leave him alone by bribing him with large stacks of counterfeit cash, but Sly, befuddled by Dimitri's strange English, refused the bribe and insulted his suit. Enraged, Dimitri challenged Sly to a fight, but was defeated when Sly knocked him into the printing press machine, breaking it. Admitting his defeat, Dimitri told Sly to take the Clockwerk tail feathers and his counterfeiting operation as it was past tense. Sly responded that he was doing Dimitri a favor, as there was no honor in a thief that prints money. Dimitri muttered: "You...cracker box!" before passing out as Sly took Clockwerk's tail feathers. Dimitri was then arrested by Carmelita Fox and Constable Neyla, and had his nightclub shut down.

After the Klaww Gang


After his incarceration, Dimitri became a dance instructor on a cruise ship. However, for reasons unknown, Dimitri ended up in jail again and was kept in the Venetian police headquarters, under the watch of Carmelita Fox. During his time there, he was visited by Sly Cooper, who was looking for Murray (who had left the gang). Dimitri still held a grudge against Sly for ruining him and nearly got the police's attention. Fortunately, Sly kept him quiet by cutting a deal. Sly arranged for Dimitri to escape while he kept Carmelita busy outside. In return, Dimitri alerted Murray to the presence of his friends in Venice, thus facilitating the Cooper Gang's reassembly.

After escaping Venice, Dimitri got a job as an announcer for the annual ACES competition in the Netherlands. He was somewhat frightened of the Black Baron, who was in charge of the competition as well as a participant. The night before the competition began, Dimitri was working as a hotel bartender. Sly, who had entered the competition, found Dimitri and requested that he help the Cooper Gang locate the roster for the competition, so that Team Cooper would have a heads up on who they would be flying against and could enact sabotage. At first, Dimitri resisted, but after being pressured, the marine iguana agreed, but only if the gang promised to owe him a favor later on. Sly agreed to the favor, and Dimitri revealed the location of the flight roster to be a safe behind a painting within the Black Baron's hangar. During the semi-finals of the competition, Dimitri provided commentary and announced Team Cooper's victory over teams Belgium and Iceland.

Weeks after the ACES competition, Dimitri contacted Bentley via ThiefNet and called in the favor that he had been promised. He booked the entire Cooper Gang passage under assumed identities to Blood Bath Bay in the Caribbean. On the way there, he told the group about his grandfather Reme Lousteau, who was a deep sea diver that looted shipwrecks. However, after losing the gear to a pirate known as Black Spot Pete, Reme retired from diving and eventually began a family. Having grown up on the stories, Dimitri vowed to reclaim the gear with the help of the gang.

The Cooper Gang soon learned that the diving gear was buried on Dagger Island, to where Dimitri accompanied them. Once the treasure was found and dug up, Dimitri examined the gear while proudly commenting on his grandfather's craftsmanship. Before the Cooper Gang could take the gold that was buried with the diving gear, a pirate named Captain LeFwee showed up. Taking Penelope, another member of the gang, as a hostage, he ordered them to leave the gold and go back to their ship.

Frogman of the Cooper Gang


Now that Dimitri had recovered his grandfather's diving gear, the Cooper Gang's only objective was to rescue Penelope. Dimitri assisted them in this by using his new suit to venture into the sea and collect several blast amplification collars, which would strengthen their ship's cannons and make it easier to damage LeFwee's ship. After LeFwee was defeated and Penelope rescued, Dimitri decided to join Cooper Gang and aid them in the Cooper Vault heist as their frogman, even though nobody really asked him.

When the Cooper Gang arrived on Kaine Island for the Cooper Vault heist, Dimitri stationed himself in the waters surrounding Dr. M's lab. When Sly arrived at the lab during the initial approach, Dimitri used his spear gun to destroy the security blocking his path. After the heist failed and Sly was injured by Dr. M's mutant, Dimitri attempted to retrieve Sly's cane when it fell into the ocean - which was caused when The Guru detached it from an electromagnetic buoy it had been caught on. Underwater, he pursued the cane as it traveled through a current. At the end of the current, he encountered Dr. M on his mutant angler fish. Dimitri defeated the creature with his spear gun, but failed to get the cane from him.



After the Cooper Gang disbanded due to Sly's "amnesia" post-heist, Dimitri became a professional skin diver and was very popular among women. He sent Bentley a postcard in which he wrote: "I'm here, wish you were fine.... like me"

Keeper of the Thievius Raccoonus


Sometime later, after Sly had returned to the gang, Bentley contacted Dimitri and tasked him with watching the Thievius Raccoonus while the gang used a time machine to travel through time and stop whoever was altering the book. Bentley created a device to contact Dimitri at any point and place in time. Dimitri was crucial along the course of the journey as he updated the gang with any changes to the Thievius Raccoonus and directed them on where to go next. After Cyrille Le Paradox's defeat and Sly's disappearance, Dimitri showed sadness at the fate of his friend. He later began his own television show called "Disco Diver" that chronicled his adventures.

Physical appearance
Dimitri is a purple marine iguana with reddish-brown eyes. His eyelids are blue and baggy, and he often has a crumpled cigarette dangling from his mouth. He has a large blue crest that mimics hair, as well as a blue "goatee," and he wears a green jacket with a large collar over an orange tank-top. To go with his jacket, he wears green pants held up by a large gold belt buckle, as well as orange socks and shoes. He has rings on both hands, and a watch on one of his wrists.

Personality
Dimitri speaks an odd form of English, which contains bits of street slang he learned from watching hip-hop music videos. He gives nicknames to his associates, calling Sly a "cracker box" and a "soft sock", the cops "a bad bunch of bunnies", and Murray "main man Murray".

Dimitri also has an enormous ego, which was only enhanced when he obtained his diving gear. He also believes that he is irresistible to women, shown when he tried hitting on Penelope when they were alone, thinking she was in love with him rather than Bentley. Despite his faults, he keeps his word and after being liberated by Sly, he notified Murray of his friend's arrival in Venice.

In Sly 2, Dimitri clearly never cared about his health, as evidenced by his massive smoking addiction and light alcoholism.

Abilities


Dimitri has some amount of physical prowess. This was displayed during his battle with Sly, when he engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the raccoon. When he needed to retreat, he fled to the other side of the printing press room with blinding speed. He also possessed a ring that could shoot bolts of electricity at a target in quick succession, though it would short out if it was used too often.

Underwater, Dimitri displays expert diving skills. He is shown to be a superior fighter in the water by using swift evasive maneuvers and a spear gun, with which he proved to be an excellent marksman. His diving skills were enough to defeat Dr. M and his mutant angler fish. Dimitri was also stated by Sly to have the best fashion sense of anyone he knew, though this was likely mere flattery instead of a genuine compliment, given Sly's comment on his fashion the first time they met.

Trivia

 * Dimitri displayed a painting in his office, which surprisingly has yet to be forged.
 * Dimitri's signature color is purple.
 * Dimitri seemed to have put on some weight during Sly 3, at least when he was seen wearing his diving gear.
 * Dimitri is one of six characters in the series to smoke. The others were Inspector Barkley, Muggshot, Conner Cooper, Tennessee Kid Cooper, and El Jefe, though they smoked cigars (except for Conner; he smoked pipes), while Dimitri smoked cigarettes.
 * After Dimitri donned the diving gear in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, however, he is no longer seen smoking. Due to his limited appearances, he was never seen smoking in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, excluding the announcement trailer. This makes him one of four smoking characters ever to stop smoking, along with Tennessee, Muggshot, and El Jefe.
 * Dimitri's tongue in Sly 2: Band of Thieves is green, but in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, it is purple.
 * Dimitri is the only villain in Sly 2 to have a splash intro screen, this was done for the Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal demo.
 * If his grandfather had never lost his diving gear, it's possible that Dimitri would not have been born.
 * In Sly 3, although he is not identified in the prologue, Dimitri can be seen in his diving gear.
 * Dimitri is noticeably shorter in Thieves in Time.
 * Although Dimitri's flashlight guards appeared in PlayStation Move Heroes, Dimitri himself had no connection with the story of that game.
 * Dimitri is one of only two Klaww Gang members that take only one episode to beat, with the other being Arpeggio.
 * His voice actor, David Scully, also voiced Rajan, Octavio and LeFwee.
 * Scully did not voice Dimitri in Thieves in Time, as he had no spoken lines. It would be more appropriate to say that Scully provided Dimitri's voice for the teaser trailer for the game.
 * This makes Dimitri one of two characters not to have spoken dialogue in one out of multiple games they appeared in, along with Clockwerk.
 * Dimitri is the only member of the Klaww Gang who appeared in more than one game.
 * Due to his defeat in "The Black Chateau" and subsequent arrest, he was the only Klaww Gang member not to appear at Rajan's ball.
 * Dimitri is also one of three villains to receive a known mugshot, along with Octavio and Tsao.
 * Dimitri's mugshot depicts him as hold a sign that reads, "DIMITRI L". It was not revealed in Sly 2 that his last name is "Lousteau", so this could possibly give a hint to players about the detail (which would later be revealed in Sly 3).
 * Dimitri's mugshot is the only one that depicts the villain as wearing his normal attire, as opposed to black and white prison clothing.
 * While a member of the Klaww Gang, he referred to his guards as his "nightclub samurai."
 * Some of Dimitri's forged paintings can be seen in the Cairo Museum of Natural History.
 * Dimitri appears in every part of the trilogy, with the only exception being Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.
 * His mother is one of five parents in the series not to have a confirmed name. The others are Muggshot's mother, Sly's mother, Cyrille Le Paradox's father, and Jean Bison's father.
 * Dimitri is one of four characters in the series engaged in a boss fight both as a protagonist and an antagonist, along with the Panda King, Penelope, and Murray (but Murray only counts because his boss fight involves him being brainwashed).
 * He is one of six characters in the series to drink alcohol. The others are the Contessa, her husband, Sir Raleigh, Sly and Carmelita.
 * Dimitri is the only addition to the Cooper Gang not to touch his hand to everyone else once recruited. Rather, he gives a thumbs-up instead.

Behind the Scenes
Dimitri was supposed to be the main boss of the Monaco mission in Sly 2. However, Monaco was cut from the game before release.

Dimitri was shown in the debut trailer for Thieves in Time, and there is concept art for him. In the trailer, Dimitri was shown using a silver cane, though it may have just been inserted to give the illusion that he was Sly. He seems to have seemingly mastered many of Sly's skills.

In the Finnish dubs, Dimitri was voiced by the late Pauli Virta.