dreamdust Member
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#17 · Posted: 1 Apr 2009 00:07
I tend to think that Tintin's personality changes throughout the series, rather than undergoing a sudden switch in Picaros. In the earlier books he is more excitable, headstrong, bouyant and sarcastic. From perhaps Land of Black Gold he is more polite, cheerful, and calculating than before. And it is in Flight 714 where his personality begins to change again, but it is perhaps only in Picaros when this change fully manifests itself, being more cynical, cool-headed and suspicious. (In the Ellipse-Nelvana episode, however, this personality change does not seem to occur).
Also, Tintin barely interacts with Snowy in Picaros! This is very odd, considering that he often patted/comforted/praised Snowy in previous volumes. In fact, I could find only two instances in which Tintin acknowledges his dog - when he chastises Snowy for drinking whisky, and when he makes him eat the Picaros' lunch to assure them it is not poisonous! Not to mention the fact that he doesn't seem to bat an eye when Snowy is zapped by an electric eel! He only pats one animal in the entire book, and that's the Marlinspike cat on the first page! (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point).
I understand that Herge was undergoing a very difficult time in his life while writing Picaros, but rereading this volume makes me feel painfully nostalgic of the old Tintin.
Perhaps, in the underlying subtext of the novel, Tintin was going through a difficult period himself...?
Needless to say, he is still very much himself in all the important aspects - in his shrewdness, courage, self-sacrifice, request for a peaceful revolution, and concern for friends...perhaps I shouldn't even be complaining, he's clearly ten-fold the person I for one will ever be! :P
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