Tintin: Difference between revisions

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Briefly, Tintin was invented by Georges Remi (AKA Hergé, from his initials backwards, R.G., spelt phonetically in French) as a cartoon character for ''Le Petit Vingtième'', the children's supplement to ''Le Vingtième Siècle'' (The Twentieth Century), a conservative, Catholic newspaper in Belgium. The character was developed from Totor, a boy scout character Hergé had previously drawn for ''Le Boy-Scout Belge''. The first adventure was published in 1929 and concerned the young hero, supposedly a reporter for Le Vingtième, accompanied by his dog, Snowy (Milou in French), visiting Soviet Russia and revealing the various iniquities of the Communists, as seen by conservative, Catholic, Belgian eyes.

 

 

As the first two stories were basically clumsy propaganda pieces, they have never been much admired by fans, [[Old Shame|and even the creator admitted their flaws.]] However, from the third adventure, ''Tintin in America'', onwards, the blatancy of the propaganda was reduced and the inventiveness of the adventures increased so that the series has been enjoyed by readers young and old the world over.

The stories continued, with returns to various settings previously visited, and sudden appearances by a large supporting cast, and included a very well-researched mission to the moon, tending toward the 'Hard' end of [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness]]. The last completed adventure was published in 1976. Hergé was working on a twenty-fourth adventure, ''Tintin and Alph-Art'', [[Author Existence Failure|until his death in 1983]].

 

 

'''There were two animated series:'''

* [[The Ace]]: This was Tintin's original character concept.

* [[Actually, That's My Assistant]]: In ''Flight 714'', Haddock mistakes the billionaire's dapper right-hand man for the billionaire himself.

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The Belvision animation adaptations added more plot elements, some of them which could actually be considered an improvement to the original stories, such as the Bird brothers returning to interfere with the Red Rackham treasure hunt.

* [[Addiction-Powered]]: Give a few drops of alcohol to a tired Captain Haddock, and he'll be good as new.

* [[Admiring the Abomination]]: In ''The Shooting Star'', Prof. Decimus Phostle is excited about the upcoming end-of-the-world meteor, saying such absurdities as "It will destroy the world tonight. Tomorrow, everyone will know my name for discovering it!"

* [[Animated Adaptation]]: Two animated series, as noted above, as well as the spin-off film ''The Lake of Sharks''. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's new trilogy is a computer-animated adaptation.

* [[Art Evolution]]: It's ''especially'' obvious with the first two, but you can spot some from ''The Blue Lotus'' onwards, wherein his art became less caricaturish. Originally this was a gradual change, but readers of the color editions are unlikely to notice much of a difference, because Hergé eventually went back and redrew all the volumes except ''Soviets''.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: A doomsday prophet in ''The Shooting Star'' announces that the end of the world is nigh, and that those who survive the cataclysm will suffer from "pestilence, famine and measles." Granted, measles is a much more serious disease than most people think it is, but odds are it isn't going to be the main thing you're concerned about in the face of Armageddon.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Colonel Jorgen. In his first appearance in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' he was a pretty minor character who disappeared halfway through the book and was never mentioned again. But he was the {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]] in ''Destination Moon'' and ''Explorers on the Moon''.}}

* [[Banana Republic]]: San Theodoros, Nuevo Rico and Sao Rico. In ''Tintin and the Picaros'', it is even stated that General Alcazar's titular faction is financed by a...banana company.

* [[Banned in China]]: Surprisingly averted with ''Tintin in Tibet'', likely because it's politically neutral. Played straight in a number of markets when publishing ''[[Old Shame|Tintin in the Congo]]'', however...

* [[Bedouin Rescue Service]]: A couple of times.

* [[Be Quiet Nudge]]: Tintin to Haddock in ''The Calculus Affair''.

** The normally mild-mannered Professor Calculus has at least two; being told he's "acting the goat", and having his hat knocked off by the [[Jerkass]] millionaire Carreidas.

** Haddock being deprived of his whiskey, especially in earlier volumes.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' ends with Tintin telling his fans to read about his next adventure in ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.

* [[Breakout Character]]: Captain Haddock was originally intended to be a one-off, but ended up as Tintin's trusted companion.

** Captain Haddock's difficulties with sticking plaster in ''The Calculus Affair'' are briefly referenced in ''Flight 714.''

** In ''Destination Moon,'' Thompson/Thomson believe there to be a skeleton sneaking around the moon project, due to a misunderstanding involving an x-ray machine. In ''Explorers on the Moon,'' when [[The Mole]] has been revealed and is being interrogated, they break in with a vital question: The skeleton, {{spoiler|Wolff}}. Was that you?"

** King Muskar XII of Syldavia, who is inexplicably absent from later stories involving that country, even when his appearance would be expected (''Destination Moon'' and/or ''Explorers on the Moon'') or useful (''The Calculus Affair''). This is possibly a reflection of [[Real Life]] politics in Eastern Europe before and after WWII: Former monarchies were replaced with communist governments.

** The Maharajah of Gaipajama never shows up nor is referred to again after ''The Blue Lotus''.

* [[Busman's Holiday]]: These guys can't go anywhere without falling into adventure. This was lampshaded in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' when Tintin said "This was supposed to be my vacation."

** Thompson and Thomson. In contrast to the Captain, they generally bring about their own misfortune through their clumsiness.

** Several other main characters get the [[Butt Monkey]] treatment. Even Calculus and Snowy. [http://www.angelfire.com/super2/animorphs/hurt.html This site] even records the countless examples!

* [[Canine Companion]]: Snowy.

** Bianca Castafiore for Captain Haddock.

* [[Catch Phrase]]:

{{quote|'''Captain Haddock''': "Blistering Barnacles!", "Thundering Typhoons!"

'''Thomson:''' To be precise: we know nothing in our job! }}

* [[Caught in a Snare]]: In ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', Tintin steps into a snare intended to catch tigers. He might have been able to free himself if he weren't in a straitjacket at the time.

* [[Celibate Hero]]/[[Chaste Hero]]: He was created as a role model for Catholic Boy Scouts, remember?

* [[Chained to a Railway]]: In ''Tintin in America''.

* [[Character Development]]: For both Tintin and Hergé by ''The Blue Lotus''

** The Thompson and Thomson duo provided a bit of slapstick but weren't comedically incompetent in their first appearance in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', later on they become the main source of slapstick and visual humour in the series.

** Tintin himself was very cruel to animals and condescending to natives in his earliest adventures, in contrast to his more humane attitude in the rest of the series.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In ''The Castafiore Emerald''

* [[Cliff Hanger]]: Lots! Especially during the period when the stories appeared in newspapers. Hergé was a firm proponent of the "suspense en bas de page", stating that each ''page'' should end in a cliffhanger. It was later (lovingly) lampooned by humoristic authors of the French/Belgian school.

* [[Clingy MacGuffin]]: The piece of sticking plaster in ''The Calculus Affair''. When Captain Haddock tosses it off, it sticks to someone else, who in turn shakes it off. And so it goes all over the bus, before coming to the Captain's cap. It then follows him aboard the plane, eventually makes its way to the cockpit (causing the pilots to momentarily lose control), lands on the Captain again by the end of the flight, is thrown away at the police station, only to return '''yet again''' on the captain's clothes in the hotel room!!

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Professor Calculus in ''Red Rackham's Treasure''. In the other books, they toned it down considerably.

* [[Cold War]]

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Nobody ages, even though the technology, fashion and politics of the world around them progress from the 1930s to the 1970s.

** In fairness, Tintin does get a proper pair of pants for "Picaros" and "714" (at long long last).

* [[Commie Nazis]]: The country of Borduria.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Several in the books, a number of which were cut from the animated version.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: These happen constantly. A classic example occurs in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'': as it turns out, the [[The Syndicate|gang]] which Tintin has been tracking down is based in India. At this stage Tintin has not had any inkling of an Indian connection, but when he makes his escape by plane from an Arabian town he fortuitously chooses to fly in that direction, and crash-lands ''right outside the town where they have their headquarters''. [[Artistic License Geography|In India]].

* [[Cowboy Episode]]: ''Tintin in America'' (at least the bits that don't involve gangsters).

* [[A Crack in the Ice]]: In ''Tintin in Tibet'', Tintin falls into a crevasse during a blinding snowstorm. He climbs his way out two hours later, after having found in the ice cave below a stone on which Chang had carved his name.

** America in ''Tintin in America''. Crime runs rampant, and meat producers put dogs, cats and rats in the [[Mystery Meat|meat]].

** The Soviet Union in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''.

** Nowhere more hilarious than ''The Blue Lotus'', where they come wearing '''17th century Manchu era clothes''', complete with pigtails and fans!

{{quote|'''Thompson''': ''[with nearly the entire town parading behind them laughing]'' Don't look now, but something tells me we're being followed.}}

** ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is a intentional [[Random Events Plot]] where Tintin and Haddock stay at Marlinspike Hall for nearly the entirety of the story. It's full of anticlimaxes such as how Haddock's attempt to escape Castafiore by going to Italy is foiled by an accident, the Roma community plight is immediately solved by Haddock’s generosity, Haddock never has the chance to make [[An Aesop]] about tolerance because of little distractions and the emerald’s thief turned to be a harmless magpie.

** ''Flight 714'' has Tintin and Haddock involucred by a [[Contrived Coincidence]] into a plot to blackmail a millionaire, recurring villains Rastapopoulus and Allan suffer intentional [[Villain Decay]] by being depicted ridiculous and stupid, all of them would have died in an eruption but are saved by [[Deus Ex Machina|aliens]], and only Snowy remembers how they were rescued, for everyone else, was a [[Shaggy Dog Story]].

* [[Dem Bones]]: The Thompsons suspect a living skeleton is hanging around in ''Destination Moon'' because they saw each other through an X-ray panel and they end up arresting a real (non-living) skeleton in a doctor's office. [[Brick Joke|Much later]] in ''Explorers on the Moon'', they interrupt {{spoiler|Wolff's}} dramatic interrogation by asking him "vital questions": "The skeleton, {{spoiler|Wolff}}. Was that you?" and "To be precise, were you the {{spoiler|Wolff}}, Skeleton?"

* [[Depth Deception]]: A spider in ''The Shooting Star''.

** The ferocious jagged-toothed gorilla in ''The Black Island''. (Unless the bad guys did this to him.)

** ''Tintin in the Congo'' is made of [[Did Not Do the Research]] meets [[Unfortunate Implications]].

** ''The Black Island'' has British policemen routinely carrying guns. The art was later corrected for the English translation.

** The TV series version of ''Explorers on the Moon'' has the characters mentioning entering the magnetic field of various astronomical objects as if magnetic forces were more relevant than gravity.

* [[Ditch the Bodyguards]]: ''The Calculus Affair''. And the characters would have liked to in ''Tintin and the Picaros'' too.

* [[Doctor Dolittle]]: Only in the earliest stories. In ''Tintin in America'', Tintin and Snowy actually have a conversation or two.

** Many of the comics written in [[The Thirties]] reflected the many political upheavals that the world was going through at the time, giving the general feeling of Gathering Storm leading up to [[The Second World War]]. The political references ended when the Nazis invaded Belgium and the comics were subject to censorship, at which point they became largely escapist adventure stories.

*** ''The Broken Ear'' references the [[wikipedia:Gran Chaco War|Gran Chaco War]].

*** ''King Ottakar's Sceptre'' has a fascist-sounding group called the [[wikipedia:Iron Guard|Iron Guard]] planning on overthrowing the government of an Eastern European monarchy. And their leader is called [[Benito Mussolini|Müss]][[Adolf Hitler|tler]].

** As a later example, [[Banana Republic|San Theodoros]], a South American country whose main political officers (e.g. the Bordurian Colonel Sponsz) are all from a European dictatorship led by a man with a mustache and delusions of grandeur. [[Argentina|Hmmmmm]], [[Nazi Germany|where have I seen that before]]?

* [[The Dragon]]: Allan (his last name was Thompson in the French version) to Omar Ben Salaad (initially) and Rastapopoulos later.

* [[Dreaming of Things to Come]]: In "The Shooting Star" Tintin dreams he is visited by Philippulus the prophet who then shows him a picture of a gigantic spider, claiming it is life size! Later in the story he actually meets Philippulus again and he discovers an island where a spider has grown to gigantic size due to the radiation of a comet.

* [[Dream Sequence]]: Many and surreal! Sometimes scary, other times amusing moments - sometimes both at the same time...

** Calculus turns into a roadhog when he's [[Berserk Button|acting the goat]], notwithstanding the fact that he doesn't know how to drive a car!

* [[Drunken Song]]: Tintin and Haddock sing one of these after inhaling wine-fumes in ''The Crab with the Golden Claws''.

* [[Dub Name Change]]: Virtually every translation of the works gives new names to the characters. This was done a lot to preserve [[Punny Names]] (and create a few new ones). [http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/characters/names.html A full list can be found here.]

** Tintin's name is the same in the original French, but pronounced differently, but is known as Kuifje (lit. 'little quiff') in Dutch and Tim in German.

*** French: Dupond & Dupont in French

*** Afrikaans: Uys & Buys.

** Snowy was originally Milou in French, after an ex-girlfriend of Hergé's, and becomes Struppi in German and Bobbie in Dutch.

*** Tournesol's first name is an alliterating, one that has long gone out of fashion, Tryphon. This pattern tends to be emulated in most translations, thus it's Cuthbert Calculus in English, Balduin Bienlein in German, Teofilus Tuhatkauno in Finnish. In Dutch it is Trifonius Zonnebloem though.

* [[Eagle Land]]: The America portrayed in the books is a combination of this and [[Gangsterland]] and [[Injun Country]].

** General Alcazar's overweight, haircurler-wearing, shrill-voiced shrew of a wife was apparently based on a particularly virulent KKK member.

** The Thompsons are quite competent in their first appearance in ''Cigars of the Pharoah''. Their comedic ineptitude seems to set in as soon as they go over to Tintin's side.

* [[Ear Trumpet]]: Professor Calculus uses one in ''Destination Moon'' (which gets switched out at one point for the Captain's pipe). For the actual trip, he uses an earpiece that allows him to hear perfectly. Needless to say, [[Status Quo Is God|later volumes return him to his hard-of-hearing state]].

* [[The Everyman]]: Tintin himself. His name is quite appropriate, as it is a somewhat outdated colloquialism for "nothing" in French.

* [[Everything's Better with Llamas]]: The [[Running Gag]] with Haddock and the llamas in ''Prisoners of the Sun''.

** The apes in ''Congo'' (which leads to infamous silly scenes).

** Ranko the gorilla in ''Black Island'' (though of course he is not actually a monkey).

** The monkey with the Rastapopoulous-like nose in ''Flight 714''.

** The monkeys in ''Tintin and the Picaros''.

** Tintin has an unfortunate encounter with bears in ''Destination Moon''. At first, he is covered with cuddly bear cubs who want to get their paws on his lunch (sandwiches with honey), but he goes [[Oh Crap]] when he sees the mean-looking parents coming.

** ''The Red Sea Sharks'', despite the English title, actually features just one shark. It swallows a bomb that was meant to be planted on the side of a ship, unintentionally saving the lives of everyone on board and blowing itself up in the process.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Between Rastapopoulos and Carreidas in ''Flight 714'' while they are under the effect of the truth serum.

* [[Evil Twin]]: {{spoiler|in ''King Ottokar's Scepter'', Alembick's twin brother takes his place to steal the sceptre.}}

* [[Explosive Cigar]]: This is Abdullah's favourite prank to pull on others.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Pablo in }}''Tintin and the Picaros''

* [[Father Neptune]]: Captain Haddock

* [[Flowery Insults]]: Captain Haddock specializes in them.

* [[Franco Belgian Comics]]

* [[Full-Body Disguise]]: Done in ''The Broken Ear'', where Tintin successfully disguises himself as a waiter. A ''black'' waiter.

* [[Full-Circle Revolution]]: ''Tintin and the Picaros''

* [[Funetik Aksent]]: Played straight, and also a variation where some languages (especially the native one in ''The Broken Ear''/''Tintin and the Picaros'') are phoneticised versions of strong dialects - Marollien in the original, and Cockney or Yorkshire in the English translation.

* [[Fungus Humongous]]: The giant popping mushrooms on the titular ''Shooting Star''.

* [[The Generalissimo]]: Tintin has encountered several of these, notably General Alcazar (although he becomes relatively more heroic later) and General Tapioca.

* [[Gentle Giant]]: The Yeti.

** General Tapioca barely manages to avert this status. Despite being an apparently brutal dictator and the enemy of General Alcazar, he wasn't actually seen in ''The Broken Ear'' or ''The Red Sea Sharks''. He finally appeared in person in the last completed book, ''Tintin and the Picaros''.

* [[Giant Spider]]: Suggested in ''Shooting Star''. Tintin sees what seems to be a giant spider through a telescope as he looks at the titular shooting star. It is revealed to just be a regular spider walking across the magnifying lens of the telescope. Later on in the book, {{spoiler|Tintin actually ''does'' encounter a giant spider, mutated by [[Green Rocks]].}}

** And Tintin himself never smokes and regularly turns down cigarettes when he is offered one.

* [[Gorgeous Period Dress]]: The Balkan outfits in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre''.

* [[Great White Hunter]]: ''Tintin in the Congo''

* [[Handcar Pursuit]]: Tintin does this in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''. The handcar breaks just as he is about to catch up.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]:

** The Thompsons start out as Tintin's enemies (''Cigars of the Pharaoh''), but eventually form a friendship with him.

{{quote|"P.S. Due to the revolution, I will not be home in time to cook dinner."}}

* [[Heroic Dog]]: Snowy

** [[The Mole]] in ''Explorers on the Moon'', who {{spoiler|throws himself out the airlock in an attempt to ensure that the rest have enough oxygen for the return trip.}} It's a case of [[Sneaky Departure]], too.

** Haddock attempts one in ''Tintin in Tibet''.

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Tintin and Haddock.

*** Richard Pearce (Tintin), is also the voice of the British [[Dennis the Menace UK|Dennis The Menace]]

*** Andrew Sachs (Snowy)

*** Miriam Margolyes (Castafiore in the final episode)

*** Stephen Moore (Calculus)

** In Brazilian Portuguese, the 90s Nelvana and 2011 film Tintins are [[Captain Planet|Ma-Ti]].

** When the Belvision series got dubbed to English they got Paul Frees (Boris Badenov from ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'') to voice Captain Haddock, Thomson, and Thompson

** In the game based on the Spielberg/Jackson film, Tintin is [[Dragon Age|Anders]].

* [[Hollywood Healing]]: You can't keep these guys down! Tintin is more than enough proof. He has survived big falls, several gunshots and [[Hard Head|hits to the head]], chloroform, near-drowning and too many fights to count..

* [[Hollywood Mirage]]: ''Land of Black Gold''.

** ''Tintin in Tibet'' - Every time Captain Haddock tells Tintin he's not going to come with him...he goes.

** In ''The Shooting Star'' Captain Haddock is the President of the Society of ''Sober Sailors''.

** The knife-throwing villain from ''The Broken Ear'' has terrible aim, which becomes a plot point later on.

** General Alcazar's soldiers, also from ''The Broken Ear''. Pablo even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades this]] while he and Tintin are being shot at during their prison break:

* [[Knife-Throwing Act]]: General Alcazar in ''The Seven Crystal Balls''.

* [[Laughably Evil]]: In ''Flight 714'', both Allan and Rastapopoulos are less serious and more funny. The latter also has funny scenes in ''Tintin and the Lake of Sharks''.

* [[Literal Cliff Hanger]]: Many times, not surprising considering the number of regular [[Cliff Hanger|CliffHangers]]. In ''Tintin in America'', for example, Tintin survives by getting caught on a bush and [[Contrived Coincidence|finding a natural tunnel to the top of the cliff through blind luck]].

* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: Most don't know that Hergé intended the Tintin series to be a series of adventures ''chronicled'' by Tintin. Most don't know what he does for a living, or assume he's a [[Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|Reporter Who Never Reports Anything]], not knowing that the books ''are'' his reports!

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: While deputising for the ill General Alcazar in ''The Broken Ear'', Tintin turns down an offer from an American oil company on the grounds that it would require starting a war with a neighboring country. Later, after Alcazar turns on him, Tintin flees to the country in question using a stolen armored car... and ends up ''causing'' the war with that country, after they mistake it for an act of aggression by Alcazar's government.

* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]: Snowy.

* [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]: There is hardly any romance or a hint of sexuality of any sort in the whole series beyond chaste crushes. [[Word of God]] states that he wanted to avoid [[Shipping]] in his stories. The fact that there is only one recurring major female character also plays a role.

* [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]: Revealed to be the case with the moon rocket in ''Destination Moon'', which becomes more than a little problematic when its inventor, Professor Calculus, gets amnesia.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: At the end of ''Red Rackham's Treasure'', Capt. Haddock and Tintin buy Haddock's ancestral home, the luxurious Marlinspike Hall, with Prof. Calculus' help and find Sir Francis' treasure. From this point on Haddock and Calculus live there as wealthy gentleman, with Tintin visiting them so often that Marlinspike starts to operate as home base during adventures.

* [[Number One Dime]]: Haddock and alcohol, also his hat.

* [[Odd Couple]]: Tintin and Haddock. The former is a neat, organized teenaged/young adult, chaste hero and morally upright. The later is a bad-tempered, middle aged sailor, an alcoholic (while not always drunk, he's incapable of drinking water or non-alcoholic drinks), prone to spouting (made up) profanities at the slightest provocation. [[They Fight Crime]]!

* [[Off-Model]]: A big problem with the Belvision series; the animation director apparently took a ''lot'' of liberties with Hergé's character designs, often giving the characters a bizarre and overly cute look. Some of the animators worked against this, however, meaning that occasionally you see sequences that look almost as if they could be taken directly from the books. Fortunately, ''Tintin and the Sun Temple'' and ''Tintin and the Lake of Sharks'' (which both had higher budgets and a better director) don't suffer this problem nearly as badly.

** The helicopter pilots rescuing Tintin and the other people on the raft in ''Flight 714''. Making this even more frustrating, the rescue scene was ''actually drawn'': however, Hergé noticed ''Flight 714'' had two more pages than usual and thus decided to remove the two pages showing the rescue.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: This applies to Herge's character design, because Tintin doesn't even look old enough to drink, yet he's in his early 20's.

* [[Old Shame]]: Hergé considered the first two Tintin stories, ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'', to be this. Given that they're essentially anti-communist/colonialist propaganda, it's easy to see why. ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', is so badly written and drawn that even the most eager anti-communist would have difficulty enjoying it. It's the only one not updated to colour. Many of the printers agree with this, as ''Tintin in the Congo'' is rarely published; and ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' is rather rare. In the UK they're the only Tintin books not sold in the children's section, and ''Tintin in the Congo'' comes with a foreword about the racial stereotypes.

* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Calculus. Almost all the Tintin books he appears in depict him as a physicist, though admittedly he has unrealistically wide array of knowledge in various specialist fields.

** Justified in that making his fortune in Red Rackham's Treasure would have allowed him to move from inventing to larger projects.

** Pretty much every single living Tintin antagonist which had appeared up till that point turns up in either major or minor roles in ''The Red Sea Sharks'', including Dawson (''The Blue Lotus''), Bab El Ehr (''The Land of Black Gold''), General Tapioca (various), Dr. Müller (''The Black Island''), Rastapopoulos (''The Blue Lotus'') and Allan Thompson.

** The unfinished ''Tintin and Alph-Art'' was poised to bring back some one-off characters as well, such as the Bird Brothers and Ivan Sakharine, although Hergé passed away before the plot was developed enough to explain why.

{{quote|'''Thompson''' (with nearly the entire town parading behind them): Don't look now, but something tells me we're being followed...}}

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Tintin. This was subverted a few times (''The Broken Ear'', ''The Blue Lotus'') by when the suspiciously-dressed person ''wasn't'' Tintin.

** Thomson and Thompson are the two standout examples.

** The chief of police in ''Temple of the Sun'', although it's more a case of {{spoiler|his being unable to do anything against the Inca.}}

* [[Post Script Season]]: Hergé apparently considered ''Tintin in Tibet'' to be the true finale of the series, with the following three books mostly being vehicles to experiment with his characters. ''Tintin and Alph-Art'' may have gotten things back on track somewhat, judging by the preliminary work Hergé did.

* [[Power-Up Food]]: Captain Haddock gets re-energized by alcohol. On one occasion, he is instantly brought to full health from critical life support by [[Up to Eleven|just hearing the word "Whiskey"]]!

* [[Punny Name]]: Almost too many to list, but notable examples include:

** Captain Haddock

* [[Ransacked Room]]: In ''The Secret of the Unicorn''.

* [[Real Dreams Are Weirder]]: The dream and nightmare sequences in "Tintin" are notoriously surreal and downright creepy:

** In "The Shooting Star" Tintin dreams he is visited by Philippus the prophet who then shows him a picture of a gigantic spider, claiming it is life size!

** In "The Seven Crystal Balls" Tintin and his companions all have the same nightmare: that they are visited by the Inca mummy Rascar Capac who enters their bedroom by night and then throws a crystal boll on the floor.

** Also in ''The Calculus Affair'', which features Borduria as a Soviet satellite state.

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: [[The Mole]] in ''Explorers on the Moon'' throws himself out the airlock so that the rest of the explorers will have enough oxygen to get back to Earth. Considering that they just ''barely'' make it back alive (and still need supplemental oxygen administered), his sacrifice probably did make the difference.

** Done a few times with the redrawn versions of the color stories. For instance, the Thompsons are inserted into the first panel of ''Tintin in the Congo'', while a previously anonymous smuggler is turned into Allan in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. The original version of ''Land of Black Gold'' didn't occur in a generic-looking fictional Arabic country, but in British Mandate Palestine.

** The Belvision cartoon series did this numerous times, inserting characters into stories where they had not yet appeared in the original albums. To wit, Professor Phostle is deleted from ''The Shooting Star'' and replaced by Professor Calculus, who had not been introduced yet in the book.

* [[Riddle for the Ages]]: How Captain Haddock rescues Tintin in ''Land of Black Gold''.

* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: Several storylines.

* [[Rule of Funny]]: The [[Identical Stranger|identical]] Thompson and Thomson will be played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in [[The Movie|the new movie]], who look nothing alike. But it absolutely doesn't matter, considering the movie is being made with [[Serkis Folk|Performance Capture]].

* [[Running Gag]]: Many throughout the series.

* [[Second-Person Attack]]: The Ellipse-Nelvana version is fond of this.

* [[Seppuku]]: {{spoiler|Mitsuhirato's}} death.

** ''The Castafiore Emerald''. This is deliberate as Hergé created the story as an experiment to see if he could maintain suspense in a story where not much happens.

** ''The Calculus Affair'' is about Syldavians and Bordurians trying to kidnap Calculus to get their hands on the micrographs of his plans for a sonic weapon, while Tintin and Haddock try to rescue him from both groups. In the end, it turns out {{spoiler|Calculus forgot and left the micrographs on his dressing table before leaving Marlinspike Hall, and they were there all along}}.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: A few mistakes aside (one self-admitted mistake was about the Incas not knowing their astronomy), Hergé did do his research in most books from ''The Blue Lotus'' onwards.

* [[Single-Minded Twins]]: Thomson and Thompson, despite apparently not being related.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Bianca Castafiore is the only recurring female.

* [[Sneaky Departure]]: Frank Wolff in "Explorers on the Moon" sneaks out and {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifices himself]] to save oxygen for the rest of the team}}.

* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: sort of, the nautical-minded Captain Haddock threatens to maroon the Thom(p)sons on a desert star while in space.

* [[Space Is Noisy]]: Deliberately refuted in ''Explorers on the Moon''. The animated version by Belvision embraced this trope, however: while the meteor was silent in the original comic, in the cartoon there is a meteor shower that makes a lot of noise!

** If you are a criminal mastermind and, by some stroke of luck, Tintin hasn't come there specifically to foil your plan, he will still manage to unknowingly do the one thing that will either derail your intricate plot or reveal the existence of that plot so that he can start intentionally derailing it. Basically, if you're running a criminal enterprise and you hear that Tintin is within a hundred miles, just shut everything down and leave the country for a few months. It's all you can do.

** The pickpocket in ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' also qualifies.

* [[The Syndicate]]: Two major rivals in ''Tintin and America''. Also in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' & ''The Blue Lotus.''

* [[Tap on the Head]]: Lots of characters get easily knocked out without lasting harm.

* [[The Door Slams You]]: Happens to Nestor in ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', the Thompsons in ''The Broken Ear'' and Tintin himself in ''Flight 714''.

* [[The Theme Park Version]]: In-universe, this is how the Thompsons see the world, dressing up in the most ridiculous folkloric disguises thinking they'll blend in.

* [[Trademark Favorite Food|Trademark Favorite Drink]]: Haddock and Loch Lomond whisky.

* [[Trampoline Tummy]]: Tintin jumps on a fat man's tummy to get over a wall in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''.

* [[Truth Serums]]: ''Flight 714''. Subverted, as the serum proves to work [[Gone Horribly Right|far better than intended]]. It results in Carrideas confessing ''his entire life history'' of how he became a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] and possibly even a [[Big Bad|Bigger Bad]] than Rastapopoulos. It also results in a hilarious [[Engineered Public Confession]] from Rastapopoulos where he planned to [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|exterminate everyone when it was over]] and the two of them arguing over who truly represents the devil.

* [[Ultimate Job Security]]: Thomson and Thompson. Their incompetence varies from "harmless and amusing" to "screwing up big time" (especially in the Moon arc). Nobody but Captain Haddock seems to realize they are the worst detectives in the galaxy, and they are consistently given important cases all over the world.

* [[Velvet Revolution]]: ''Tintin and the Picaros'' (Type 2).

* [[Villain Ball]]: In "Flight 714", the villainous Spalding makes a call while Tintin, in a rare subversion of what he normally does, is tying his shoes. Believing that Tintin was spying on him, he makes up a lie about calling his grandmother, which gets Tintin suspicious. If he hadn't of lied, Tintin would've never suspected anything.

** In ''Red Rackham's Treasure'' Captain Haddock buys the Daily Reporter and is alarmed to see that word has leaked out on his treasure hunt. Just then he bumps into a large pole featuring an ad that reads "Read the Daily Reporter, for news which hits you".

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Captain Haddock and Chester.

* [[The Wild West]]: Apparently co-exists with 1930's Chicago in ''Tintin in America''.

* [[Write Who You Know]]: For ''The Blue Lotus'' Hergé created a young Chinese boy Chang Chong-Chen ([[Why Mao Changed His Name|Zhang Zhongren in modern pinyin]]) inspired by his real-life friend Chang Chong-jen (Zhang Chongren) who he consulted on Chinese language and culture for the story. Chang also appears in ''Tintin in Tibet''.

** Averted later on. ''The Crab with the Golden Claws'' features a non-caricatured Japanese Interpol agent trying to bust an opium ring. ''Tintin in Tibet'' is also free of [[Yellow Peril]].

* [[You Didn't Ask]]: In the Ellipse-Nelvana animated version of ''The Calculus Affair:''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]

[[Category:The Seventies]]

[[Category:The Eighties]]

[[Category:Comic Books]]

[[Category:Print Long Runners]]

[[Category:Nelvana]]