Tintin Forums

Why is it that Tintin is either: Hit on the head, clorophormed or tied up?
I don't really understand why it's always the same.

Because if the baddies shot him, the series would have ended long ago.

Je suis Tintin

Why is it that Tintin is either: Hit on the head, clorophormed or tied up?

Don't forget transported unconscious inside a packing case or other wooden box, which happens a few times.

I don't really understand why it's always the same.

A lot of things are always the same (or at least similar) in Tintin.
The many seaplanes (floatplanes and flying boats) throughout the books are all yellow, as are many of the other aircraft.
High walls surrounding big gardens are often pink (Muller's home, Tarragon's home, the Indian asylum).
People going down to investigate the wreckage of the vehicle they were chasing often get their own vehicle pinched (though in the case of the chase at the end of Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin doesn't actually fall for the trick).

I guess certain visual things and plot patterns just appealed to Hergé and became recurring motifs in his work. Maybe this interest in patterns and pure visual appeal (over mere plot necessity and realism) links to Hergé's interest in abstract art. I think it's certainly part of what makes the Tintin books so powerful and iconic, if that's the right word.

The villains are so stupid that they don't realize that Tintin doesn't stay knocked out very long, and that Snowy can chew through ropes.

And they are so stupid that they don't gag Tintin despite several occasions where it will be wise to do so, and anway it usually is standard procedure to gag someone when you tie them up. The one and only time Tintin is ever gagged occurs in King Ottakar's Sceptre. In fact, the question of Tintin not being gagged has its own thread on this forum.