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The Blue Lotus: Was it thought suitable for children?

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snafu
Member
#11 · Posted: 13 Oct 2005 05:19
Actually, the picture of the hand holding that gun shows part of the sleeve. If I remember correctly, only Chang had green sleeves in that scene, which was the piece of clothing in the relevant picture. Still, it is hard to believe that Chang would have mastered the use of a gun so quickly!
theone
Member
#12 · Posted: 15 Oct 2005 19:58
Actually, I think I was right. I looked in the book today, all it shows is a bare hand firing the gun. However, it is a silver gun.

In the next scene, Chang is out of the barrel, but he is holding a black color gun, and the man to his left with glasses is staring at the sword that was just shot, and his gun has a smoke trail coming off of it, and he has a general surprised expression, and he is the only one with a silver coloured gun, while everyone else (including Chang) is staring at Tintin and the badguys.

It almost seems like Hergé made a point of saying Chang didn't fire the gun....
snafu
Member
#13 · Posted: 15 Oct 2005 22:34
A little off-topic, but Chang's hands were bare besides the gun. Were his green sleeves there? He could have also swapped guns by tossing them, leaving that guy with the "why-did-I-get-this-empty-gun feeling.

Getting back to the spirit of the discussion, though, I'm not sure if a Chang-type kid with a gun would incite kids to do violent things (and make Tintin inappropriate for children). It would had to have an element of swaggering (possibly what drove the Columbine killers to do their rampage in 1999), and Chang acted in defense. Herge/Tintin often justifies defense but never condones aggressive actions (sort of like the spirit of martial arts).
theone
Member
#14 · Posted: 16 Oct 2005 02:13
Nope, no sleeves, only the hand. I guess Chang and him could have swapped guns, but there isn't really a point to that as to the reader it really, really looks like the other guy fired the gun. (Not to mention there isn't exactly enough time for a gun swap [for no apparent purpose - as Chang is a minor and giving an unexperienced boy your weapon, doesn't really make sense]) Also, I think the man's surprised expression is due to the odd reaction that the madman (I forgot his name) does when his sword is shot.

I don't think it is because it is a bad influece really, but more that it is just present. People will get upset if something is simply present, even if it isn't being promoted. I remember reading that Stan Lee published an anti-drug Spider-man series, but the Comic Code was upset simply because drugs were present, even though they in a very, very negative way.
Aryan Tiwari
Member
#15 · Posted: 5 Mar 2020 15:33
I guess it is more of an 'era' thing, World War 1 had just occurred a few decades back world was 2 was on the rise, people were probably more resilient to harsh conditions, situations and children probably experienced hardships much more that what they experience now. Nowadays children are living a more comfortable life (right?) compared to the early 1900s and thus 'violence and adult content' in comics was probably not the first thing that came to people's mind during the wars...
Just how I view it.

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