Tintin/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

=== Books ===

 

* So how did Rastapopoulos survive his fall near the end of ''Cigars of the Pharoh''?

*** That's not the kind of answer we are expecting in this section, do we?

**** The same way [[Sherlock Holmes]] survived the fall in "The Final Problem".

** They either ''never get around to putting it away'' since they're all so busy (And Haddock is stuck in a wheelchair) or they don't want to lose it. Besides...the [[Rule of Funny]] states that since the repairman is taking his time getting his arse over there, they ''have'' to keep slipping on it for the running gag. (It's implied nearly everyone in Marlinspike has fallen down the stairs at one point)

*** They don't want to lose it? Does it take so much time and effort to just pick it up and put it on a table that is near? [[Rule of Funny]] has its limits, and this one, (though [[Your Mileage May Vary]], I am forced to say) strains too much on my [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]].

*** This was deliberate: Hérge wanted to see if he could maintain suspense throughout sixty-two pages in which not much happens.

** It was a ''draft'', after all.

** According to the notes, Herge didn't really know what would happen next either.

** Optimist answer: If past experience is any guide, Tintin is saved by some unlikely turn of events, possibly involving Snowy. Or by an ally he made earlier in the story. Or (less likely) he pulls off some badass feat of getting the drop on someone who's holding him at gunpoint; this has been known to happen.

*** Pessimist answer: If past experience ''isn't'' a guide, then there's a ''reason'' this is the very last panel of Tintin ever drawn. Tintin's luck has finally run out after decades of [[Born Lucky|improbable good fortune]], and this is how he dies.

*** Possibly, he might have been bought by an agent of one of the Warehouse's at the time. seeing as how Tintin has never died, has been just about everywhere and seems utterly morally upright, don't you think the Regents just might wanted to have him "on ice" who knows? Ceasar might have been a Warehouse agent.

** In the "finished" version by Quebecker artist Yves Rodier, Rastapopoulos says that he just remembers ending on an island with no memories. Apparently, the aliens thought they were above sentencing human criminals and just brainwashed them after returning them to Earth. It is definitely not canon, but several fans consider Rodier's Alpha Art finished version the best.

** Late in the book, Allan mentions that the Sondonesian nationalists fled at the first sign of volcanic activity, well before the actual eruption happened. If the explosives that Rastapopoulos put in their boats were supposed to be remotely triggered, then they probably survived; otherwise, they were likely blown to shreds off-panel.

** Franco-Belgian comics' heroes with just a nickname weren't uncommon, by this time. And the Thompsons are in the same case.

*** Tintin may be his last name. One of the characters in 1912 book ''La Guerre des Boutons'' ([[The Film of the Book|adapted]] to the screen in France in the 1960s and [[War Of The Buttons|in Ireland]] in the 1990s) is called Tintin, and his sister is Marie Tintin.

** The name is deliberately bland; it means "nothing" in dialectal French. It goes together with his lack of family, profession and relatives: he is a blank character that anyone can relate to.

* This troper just realised, literally while at my fridge looking for food, that the Incans in Temple of the Sun speak French. ...WTH? They've hung around a mountaintop inaccessible to visitors for thousands of years, and yet they're somehow able to communicate perfectly with a pair of random strangers that waltz into their main hall of worship out of nowhere? I mean, sure if all the other foreigners (Tchang, the Emir, Oliviera) are able to speak easily as they could've learned French or English etc, but the Incas? Just bugs me.

*** It's a more sophisticated [[Translation Convention]]. We see very few Incas speaking. They speak Quechua between one other; two characters can speak with Tintin in proper Spanish: the Inca himself who has to be the better educated and wise person of his people, and the sacrifice priest; and there are a soldier and a servant who talk to Tintin in a pidgin, probably a mix of their own language and two or three Spanish words, plus Huascar who infiltrated himself in the Peruvian society.

* So if General Alcazar was down and out in ''Seven Crystal Balls'' how does he have enough money to buy aircraft in ''The Red Sea Sharks''?

** Another possiblilty. In an early draft of ''Tintin and the Picaros'' Alcazar explains that he met Peggy in New York when he was doing his knife throwing act and that she is the daughter of arms dealer Basil Bazarov as well as being very wealthy. So if we accept that about the two then we could assume that the General is either married or engaged in ''Red Sea Sharks'' and Peggy is bankrolling his coup (she wants that palace after all)

** Also remember that Tintin found a lottery ticket from San Theodoros in Alcazar's wallet. This might be a clever way on Herge's part of telling us that he won the lottery and that's where he got the money

** Yes, Sakharine's glasses were not actual glass (darker and irregularly shaped compared to all the other glass in the scene), which is what tipped Tin Tin off to Sakharine's plan.

* From that same scene in the film -- Is it even possible for Castafiore's singing to break the bullet proof glass that was protecting the model?

** Not exactly. Mythbuster's results were the results of testing with your basic run-of-the-mill wine glass, which is built in one piece and is thus [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17tqXgvCN0E easy to deform], versus bulletproof glass, which is built in a webbed structure and thus would be much stronger. So it's possible in theory, but the film over-simplifies it.

* Also from the film: In the comic, Tintin and Haddock discover Rackham's treasure in the basement of Marlinspike hall after Haddock and Calculus have bought the place. But in the film, they ''haven't'' bought it, and Haddock even tells Nestor he can't afford it. So doesn't the treasure legally belong to Sakharine, then?

 

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[[Category:Headscratchers]]