Tintin Forums

Furienna
And who isn't evil? Is Emir Ben Kalish Ezab a saint? Is the inept Syldavian king perfect? Is Alcazar an angel? Is Carreidas an honourable man?

You like Tintin, and thus say his side is good, and his adversaries are evil. But even Mr. Perfect Tintin sides with villains, dictators, useless people. I say Tintin has escaped death, prison, disaster, far too many times. Now it's time the Bordurians, Müller, Rastapopoulos, win. At least give'em a small, moral victory. Is it too much to ask?

I don't know about Wile E. Coyote eating the Road Runner, but I have always found "Tom & Jerry" a bit weird. This was a series in which the little mouse triumphed over the big bad cat and other series like "Mighty Mouse" espoused the same theme.

Yet, in real life, the general view is that mice are a nuisance, eat our food which makes it unhygienic and can damage cloth by chewing it; while cats are lovely, charming pets that keep the foul little critters away. What a paradox!

mct16
Well, Tintin is a mouse when compared to the infamous criminal organizations, or totalirarian regimes, he combats. Yet he ALWAYS wins. They shoot at him, and bullets don't kill him. They don't even disable him. He never had a broken nail. Nothing.
In real life, if a journalist alone tried to invetsigate and fight crime/dictatorship as Tintin does, he would have been killed a million times. I understand he needs to survive so they print and sell the next adventure. But his good luck makes one sometimes too very conscious that it's a children 's story.
That's why I like the story where there's no real danger, because I find it more reasonable, more believable. I'm talking about Castafiore's Emerald.

Actually, in Destination Moon, the villains, for once, shoot Tintin in the skull, so he is disabled for quite a while. He still has a bandage around his head when the prototype rocket is launched.

It similarly happens in Black Island, but for a shorter time.

Some reporters have been known to live through such ordeals. My father was a journalist and he had colleagues who survived such horrors: one of them was imprisoned and beaten by Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa but was released and returned home; while another was held for six years as a hostage by terrorists during the Lebanese Civil War of the 1980s.

Journalists have been know to investigate criminals and dictators, often taking greats risks but surviving anyway. Sometimes their investigations have turned up evidence which has been crucial in exposing corruption and criminality.

On the other hand, they do tend to write and publish stories based on these experiences and let the authorities handle the actual arrests of such gangs, rather than go after them themselves.

In respect of capturing criminals and overthrowing dictators, "Tintin" is more of a fantasy and generally speaking he is more of a detective or perhaps a secret agent rather than a real reporter.