John Sewell Member
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#1 · Posted: 23 Dec 2004 11:23
Following on from some of the great discussion in the thread on Endaddine Akass' true identity, I was wondering what people thought of Rastapopoulos as a recurring villain in the books? As pointed out there, he only makes significant appearances in the Cigars / Blue Lotus, Red Sea Sharks and Flight 714 storylines, but I would imagine a lot of people have the impression that he's Tintin's arch-enemy. Certainly, as a kid, when I used to make plasticine models of the characters (hey, there were no action figures in those days so I had to improvise!) I always seemed to have Rastapopoulos as the baddie in the games I played with them!
Again, from my point of view, my first experience of "Old Big Nose" was in the film and book of Lake of Sharks. I did recognise him from Cigars, but at that point I hadn't read any of his other appearances, or twigged that he was the mysterious leader of the drug smugglers. Seems obvious now, but at the age of seven or eight I must have missed it!
Anyhow, in Lake Of Sharks, the way he's set up is very like a James Bond villain, complete with secret underwater base, lots of gadgets and a rather over-complicated plan. Both film and book even play the trick of not revealing his face until finally confronted by Tintin, just like Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. The dialogue too, seemed to suggest to me at the time that the pair had a long past of battles, so I can see why I got the idea that they were arch-enemies!
What makes an arch-enemy, in any case? Bond only came face-to-face with Blofeld three times (plus the cameo in For Your Eyes Only ) in a total of 20 films. Sherlock Holmes only encountered Moriarty once, in The Final Problem, and Doctor Who only met the Daleks in 15 stories out of over 150! One thing which all these characters had, which never came out in Tintin, was the "big" showdown between hero and villain. In Blue Lotus Rastapopoulos is simply arrested, in Red Sea Sharks he has a classic 'supervillain' last-minute escape, but never actually meets Tintin, and in Flight 714 (which Tintin doesn't remember anyway), the villain's ultimate fate is taken out of our heroes' hands, thanks to the aliens.
Bearing that in mind, and with the speculation about the identity of Akass in Alph-Art, if he had turned out to be Rastapopoulos, would such a showdown have been in order? There are hints, most notably the rough sketch of an evilly grinning Rastapopoulos unmasking before a shocked Tintin. Rodier certainly though so, though his final confrontation, IMO, is severely mucked up by (a) having Tintin a helpless prisoner for much of it, (b) the reduction of Rastapopoulos to a vengeful psycho, determined to get payback for his past defeats, and (c) the unsatisfactory way he's killed off - Tintin has no part in it, seeing as he's rather occupied at the time. How much better, if he had to be killed, to see Rastapopoulos hanging from a cliff by his fingertips, and Tintin, compassionate to the last, making a last-ditch attempt to save him? Or, turning the thing on its head, a situation where Rastapopoulos, for whatever reason, ends up saving Tintin, before disappearing in a puff of "did he or didn't he?" ambiguity?
Edit: Doh! I can't even spell his name right in the thread title! Lightweight fake Tintin fan or what! ;)
-- [Moderator note: 'Rastaopoulos'?! Tsk, tsk, you are disgrace, John! ;-) Typo fixed!]
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