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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tintin_0.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: Tintin and Snowy.]]
3%%
4->''"Tintin is neither a surname nor a first name; it is much more than that. Tintin is a totally unique world, a myth or a saga. Tintin is created from Hergé's subconscious desire to be perfect, to be a hero. The hero who everyone between 7 and 77 years old wants to be, or become, while reading ''The Adventures of Tintin''."''
5-->-- [[http://en.tintin.com/personnages/show/id/15/page/0/0/tintin From Tintin's character page on the comic's official website]]
6
7''The Adventures of Tintin'', originally titled ''The Adventures of Tintin and Snowy'', is a seminal Belgian comic series and has had considerable influence on the development of graphic narratives in [[FrancoBelgianComics Europe]] and around the world.
8
9Briefly, Tintin was invented by Georges Remi (AKA Creator/{{Herge}}, from his initials backwards, R.G., spelt phonetically in French) as a cartoon character for ''Le Petit Vingtième'', the children's supplement to ''Le Vingtième Siècle'' (The Twentieth Century), a conservative, Catholic newspaper in Belgium. The character was developed from Totor, a boy scout character Hergé had previously drawn for ''Le Boy-Scout Belge''. When the German occupation ended the publication of ''Le Vingtième Siècle'', the feature moved to the Brussels daily ''Le Soir'', where it became a daily newspaper strip until the Liberation in 1944. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Tintin appeared in the new weekly comic magazine ''Tintin''. The series ran from 1929 to 1976; the incomplete ''Tintin and Alph-Art'' was released in 1986 after Hergé's death.
10
11Most of the adventures concerned the ([[ComicBookTime eternally]]) young hero investigating some event or trying to do someone a good turn and, as a result, falling into adventure. The adventures range from thwarting criminals to treasure hunts, from spy stories to a voyage to the moon.
12
13[[RippedFromTheHeadlines The real world frequently impinges upon the stories]], with many identifiable events from RealLife being presented with only a few slight changes of name, for example the [[UsefulNotes/TheChacoWar Grand Chapo (real life, Gran Chaco)]] war in ''The Broken Ear'', and the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar in ''The Blue Lotus''. UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was hinted at less as Belgium was occupied by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. In this period, Hergé's stories are fanciful high-adventure yarns with no reference to war at all.[[note]]There are infamous antisemitic caricatures in ''[[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar The Shooting Star]]'' however. The newspaper ''Le Soir'' in which Hergé first published the work was headed by Nazi sympathizers during the Occupation of Belgium.[[/note]]
14
15The story for ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' was adapted from a ''Tintin'' script Creator/StevenSpielberg was writing. Spielberg, who had Hergé's blessing shortly before the latter died in 1983, obtained permission to make a Tintin movie which came out in 2011.
16
17[[index]]
18[[AC:There were two animated series:]]
19* A 1960s series produced by Télé-Hachette and Belvision.
20* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Adventures of Tintin|1991}}'', a 1990s French-Canadian-Belgian series coproduced by Ellipse and Creator/{{Nelvana}}[[/index]]
21
22[[AC:...four animated films...:]]
23* ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'' (1947), Belgian film made in StopMotion.
24* ''Tintin and the Sun Temple'' (1969), by Belvision and made from the combined storyline of ''The Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''Prisoners of the Sun''.[[index]]
25* ''WesternAnimation/TintinAndTheLakeOfSharks'' (1972), by Belvision with an original storyline by Creator/{{Greg}}, with Hergé merely supervising.
26* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Adventures of Tintin|2011}}'' (2011), MotionCapture [[AllCGICartoon CGI]] animated movie by Creator/PeterJackson's Creator/{{WETA}} Digital and directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg. It was intended to grow to a film series but the buzz has gone quiet for a while.
27
28[[AC:...two live-action films:]]
29* ''Film/TintinAndTheGoldenFleece'' (1961), with an original storyline. Starred Jean-Pierre Talbot as Tintin and Creator/GeorgesWilson as Captain Haddock.
30* ''Film/TintinAndTheBlueOranges'' (1964), also an original storyline. The plot is based on French poet Paul Eluard's line ''"Earth is blue like an orange"''.
31
32[[AC:Six video games:]]
33* ''Tintin on the Moon'' (1987, Home Computers and MS-DOS)
34* ''Tintin in Tibet'' (1995, SNES/Genesis and Game Boy/Game Gear)
35* ''Prisoners of the Sun'' (1997, SNES/Game Boy and Windows)
36* ''Tintin: Destination Adventure'' (2001, Windows)
37* ''The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn'' (2011, Wii, [=PS3=], Xbox 360, mobile phones and 3DS) -- This one by Creator/UbiSoft rather than Creator/{{Infogrames}}.
38* ''Tintin Reporter - Cigars of the Pharaoh'' (2023, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, [=PlayStation=] 5, [=PlayStation=] 4, Nintendo Switch and PC)
39
40[[AC:...as well as:]]
41...two radio series by the BBC in 1992-93, a Dutch musical adaptation of ''Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun'' in 2001 (later translated into French), a theatre adaptation of ''Tintin in Tibet'' in 2007/2008, and a French documentary series ''Sur les traces de Tintin'' in 2010, which recaps the stories while mixing comic panels with live-action imagery and providing lots of commentary.
42[[/index]]
43----
44!!Some of the many tropes in ''Tintin'' have included:
45* AbsentMindedProfessor: A number of them appear before Professor Calculus (who, on top of being scatterbrained, is also slightly deaf) became a regular character and Trope exemplar. They are Professor Sarcophagus in ''The Cigars Of The Pharaoh'', the nameless one who meets a parrot in ''The Broken Ear'', Professor Alembick in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' and several in ''The Shooting Star''.
46* TheAce: This was Tintin's original character concept.
47* AdaptationDistillation:
48** The Nelvana series has [[AdaptationDistillation/TheAdventuresOfTintin1991 enough to warrant its own page]].
49** The radio dramas also indulged in it:
50*** The chase through the train is cut from ''The Black Island''.
51*** Mr. Sakharine is cut from ''The Secret of the Unicorn'', with some of his lines and scenes given to Barnaby.
52*** The Thompsons are completely excluded from the Moon Saga.
53*** The seven explorers having fits of pain is dropped in ''The Seven Crystal Balls''.
54*** Skut is absent in ''The Red Sea Sharks''.
55* AdaptationExpansion: The Belvision animation adaptations added more plot elements, some of them which could actually be considered an improvement to the original stories, such as the Bird brothers returning to interfere with the Red Rackham treasure hunt.
56* AmusingInjuries:
57** A large portion of the series' humor comes from Captain Haddock tripping or hitting his head. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''Destination Moon''.
58--->'''Prof. Calculus:''' I'd swear you do that on purpose!
59** Thomson and Thompson are also rather prone to these, particularly where stairs are involved.
60* AnimatedAdaptation: Two animated series, as noted above, as well as the spin-off film ''The Lake of Sharks''. Then there's Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's computer-animated adaptation.
61* AnyoneCanDie: ''Tintin'' is notorious for the fact that some characters die, usually ''off screen'', but no distinction is made between villains or good characters.
62* ArabOilSheikh: Bab El Ehr, Emir Ben Kalish Ezab and Abdallah.
63* ArtEvolution: It's ''especially'' obvious with the first two, but you can spot some from ''The Blue Lotus'' onwards, wherein his art became less caricaturish. Originally this was a gradual change, but readers of the color editions are unlikely to notice much of a difference, because Hergé eventually went back and redrew all the volumes except ''Soviets''.
64* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Creator/{{Herge}} was well aware that the space suits in ''Destination Moon'' and ''Explorers On The Moon'' would require helmets much like the astronauts we see today, but then the readers wouldn't be able to tell who was Haddock and who was Tintin. So, for their convenience he made the helmets more fish bowl shaped.
65* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Many of the made-up languages like Bordurian and Arumbaya are actually phonetic renditions of a local Belgian patois, completely indecipherable even to some Belgians. This carries over to the English translations, albeit with more understandable phonetics.
66* AuthorAvatar: Tintin was originally created to embody the qualities Herge most admired, although in later years he came to identify more with Haddock -- in particular Haddock had Herge's dress sense and love of the sea, and his ability to lose his temper and really let rip with his feelings was something the timid Herge wished he could do.
67* AuthorTract: The first two ''Tintin'' albums, ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'' were made under direct commission of Hergé's newspaper boss, who wanted him to draw propaganda stories that showed the youth good Catholic values.
68* BadassLongcoat: Tintin often wears a trench coat.
69* BadHabits: The bad guy in ''Congo'' dresses as a missionary to get Tintin's trust.
70* BaffledByOwnBiology: In "The Secret of the Unicorn", Snowy develops SingleMaltVision after drinking some whisky and thinks there really are two glasses.
71* BananaRepublic: San Theodoros, Nuevo Rico and Sao Rico. In ''Tintin and the Picaros'', it is even stated that General Alcazar's titular faction is financed by a... banana company.
72%%* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: A number of characters adopt this attitude towards Tintin -- most notably Captain Haddock (though he'd never say it outright).
73* BelgianComics: The pioneering comic strip that set of all the other series the country's famous for.
74* BigBallOfViolence: Used whenever Tintin gets in a fisticuff.
75* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In ''The Broken Ear'', the two villains [[spoiler: die and are dragged off to Hell by three cute-yet-scary demons]].
76* BilingualBonus:
77** Brussels' dialect slang (Flemish-based "Marrollien") is often used in the names of Herge's invented places and people and for the Bordurian language.
78%%* BinocularShot
79* BlackBeadEyes: Most characters are drawn with black dots for eyes.
80* BlackComedy: Sometimes characters die in comedic fashion, like [[spoiler:Diaz in ''The Broken Ear'', who is killed off by his own time bomb, because he looked at the wrong clock. Another one is the shark in ''The Red Sea Sharks'', who accidentally swallowed a mine.]]
81* BloodlessCarnage: Dead people may be depicted in full view of the reader, but there is never any trace of blood. This is especially noticeable when we see Haddock's ancestor and his crew fighting pirates and there are several corpses with no blood or wounds.
82* BlowGun: Used by the Arumbaya Indians in ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros'', as well as by the villains in ''Cigars Of The Pharaoh'' and ''The Blue Lotus''.
83* BoundAndGagged: Happens a lot, such as in ''Prisoners of the Sun'', where Haddock is attacked.
84* {{Bowdlerization}}: Despite that the Nelvana series kept many of the same plotlines from the comics, a few minor details were kept around, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools while still keeping true to the original story]]:
85** All instances of blackface were removed from the Nelvana series - the instance in ''The Broken Ear'' wherein Tintin dresses as a black crew member was replaced with Tintin wearing the same wig, glasses and fake mustache getup from ''The Calculus Affair''.
86** Also in ''The Broken Ear'', the villains' [[spoiler:death, followed by a scene of them in a somewhat comical version of Hell]] is replaced with them being [[spoiler:arrested]].
87** In order to fit the time, the newspaper clipping at the end of ''The Red Sea Sharks'' was removed. As a result, this meant that the cargo hold full of African Muslims were visually identical, but their backstory was changed to them being refugees attempting to seek asylum in America. In some ways, this makes it even ''more'' dastardly and it remains plausible.
88** The redrawings also bowdlerized many bits that even Hergé thought were a bit unfortunate.
89** The Belvision adaptation removed Captain Haddock's alcoholic tendencies, and made him a coffee drinker instead.
90* BreakoutCharacter:
91** Captain Haddock was originally intended to be a one-off, but ended up as Tintin's trusted companion.
92** Professor Calculus became a recurring character after his first appearance in ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.
93* BribeBackfire: Attempts to bribe Tintin seem to be a ''very'' efficient way to make him angry, as several villains have found out over the course of his adventures. Most memorably, Mitsuhirato once approached him while he was about to be executed and offered him a way out if he would join the Japanese secret services. Tintin seemed half-amused half-interested at first, but the moment money was added to the deal, he beat the crap out of the Japanese spy and threw him out of the cell.
94--> '''Mook:''' He refused?\
95'''Mitsuhirato:''' How'd you guess?
96* BrickJoke:
97** Captain Haddock's difficulties with sticking plaster[[note]]a band-aid[[/note]] in ''The Calculus Affair'' are briefly referenced in ''Flight 714''.
98** In ''Destination Moon'', Thompson/Thomson believe there to be a skeleton sneaking around the moon project, due to a misunderstanding involving an x-ray machine. In ''Explorers on the Moon'', when TheMole has been revealed and is being interrogated, they break in with a vital question: "The skeleton, [[spoiler:Wolff]]. Was that you?"
99* BrieferThanTheyThink: Although Rastapopoulos is considered to be Tintin's main villain and nemesis, he only properly appears in four comics in the series out of twenty three ("Cigars of the Pharoah", "The Blue Lotus", "The Red Sea Sharks" and "Flight 714 To Sydney"). There is also a huge gap between his second and third appearances. Even if you stretch to include his wordless cameo in "In America", his animated appearance in "The Lake of Sharks" and the fact that he was probably (but not definitely) going to appear in "Alph-Art", that's still just eight out of twenty-five stories.
100* BusmansHoliday: These guys can't go anywhere without falling into adventures. This was lampshaded in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' when Tintin said "This was supposed to be my vacation."
101* ButNotTooForeign: The English translations put Marlinspike in "Marlinshire" and ''strongly'' imply (excepting one example in "The Secret of the Unicorn", without outright stating) that Tintin is based in England. Which leads to a little FridgeLogic when he has to get a ferry to the UK...
102* CallingMeALogarithm: {{Inverted}} with Captain Haddock's FloweryInsults, which use innocuous words as if they were curses. In fact, in "Destination Moon" he actually calls someone ''Espèce de logarithmes!'' ("You sort of logarithms!"), at least in the original language version.
103%%* TheCatCameBack:
104%%** Bianca Castafiore for Captain Haddock.
105%%** The annoying bit of sticking-plaster in ''The Calculus Affair'', also for Captain Haddock.
106* CerebusSyndrome: The first two Recap/{{Tintin}} adventures (''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'') are outright comedies where the action is often completely surreal and played for laughs (for instance, Tintin killing a rhino by drilling into its hide and dropping in a stick of ''dynamite''). The third adventure (''Tintin in America'') was transitional with a lot of off-the-wall comedy still mixing with the plot before the series finally found its familiar mood of realistic action-adventure with ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. There was still comedy but it was far more down-to-earth and character-driven.
107%%* CharacterDevelopment: For both Tintin and Hergé by ''The Blue Lotus''
108* CharacterTitle: The title is "The Adventures of Tinin".
109* ChasedByAngryNatives: This happens in the Belvision animated series, even though natives were not shown in the original ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.
110* {{Cliffhanger}}: Lots! Especially during the period when the stories appeared in newspapers. Hergé was a firm proponent of the "suspense en bas de page", stating that each ''page'' should end in a cliffhanger. It was later (lovingly) lampooned by humoristic authors of the French/Belgian school.
111* ChromosomeCasting: There is a noticeable lack of female characters in Herge's work, due to the strictly enforced standards at the time.
112* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: King Muskar XII of Syldavia, who is inexplicably absent from later stories involving that country, even when his appearance would be expected (''Destination Moon'' and/or ''Explorers on the Moon'') or useful (''The Calculus Affair''). This is possibly a reflection of RealLife politics in the Balkans before and after WWII: Former monarchies were replaced with republican (in practice: communist) governments. (Syldavia does not seem to have a communist government in its later appearances, though).
113%%* CloudCuckooLander:
114%%** Professor Calculus in ''Red Rackham's Treasure''. In the other books, they toned it down considerably.
115%%** Professor Sarcophagus in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' and Philippulus the Prophet in ''The Shooting Star'' really are insane. In ''Cigars of The Pharaoh'' and ''The Blue Lotus'' several people are injected with a poison that makes them insane.
116* ColorCodedCharacters: From the book "Red Rackham's treasure" and onwards:
117** Tintin = light blue (even in "Destination Moon", he is one of the only two characters to wear some blue overalls instead of green).
118** Captain Haddock = dark blue (even in "Destination Moon", he is one of the only two characters to wear some blue overalls instead of green).
119** The Thompsons = black (except for when they wear green overalls in "Destination Moon").
120** Professor Calculus = green.
121%%* ComedicSociopathy: Intentional or not, all the hunting scenes in "Tintin in the Congo".
122* ComicBookTime: Nobody ages, even though the technology, fashion and politics of the world around them progress from the 1930s to the 1970s. The closest is Tintin getting a proper pair of pants for "Picaros" (at long last)[[note]]Before this, he wears "plus fours", a kind of early "sportsman's" trousers, so-called because they extended four inches below the knee. In the early years, they would have been the equivalent of wearing jeans, but were well out of date after the fifties[[/note]].
123* CommieNazis: The country of Borduria is depicted first as a fascist country, after 1945, it is modeled on the Eastern Bloc with some Nazi-style uniforms, complete with its own secret police (ZEP) (led by Colonel Sponsz) and a dictator called Kûrvi-Tasch who promotes a Taschist ideology. A statue of Kûrvi-Tasch in uniform appears in front of a government building, in which he wears a moustache similar to UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's and gives a Nazi-like salute.
124* ConfusedQuestionMark: They pop up frequently.
125* ContinuityNod: Several in the books, a number of which were cut from the animated version. Whenever Tintin recognizes a character, an asterisk will mention where he saw them, or where a certain event is alluded to and an asterisk mentions where it happened.
126%%* CoolOldGuy: Captain Haddock.
127%%* CoolShip: The Moon Rocket, the [[spoiler:UFO that briefly appears]], The Unicorn, Rastapopolous' yacht (the ''Scheherezade'').
128%%* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Rastapopoulos, Carreidas, Gibbons, not to mention every single one in ''Tintin in America''.
129%%* CrapsackWorld: The Soviet Union in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''.
130* CreatorCameo:
131** Hergé gave himself a cameo in some of the albums. He and co-assistant [[ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer Edgar P. Jacobs]] can be seen as reporters at the start of ''Tintin in the Congo'' and as military officers at the royal reception in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre''.
132** In the Nelvana animated cartoons series, the animators put a cartoon version of Hergé in the background of every episode.
133** In 2011 film, Hergé has an animated cameo, a little over four minutes into the movie, as a market artist who painted a portrait for Tintin himself. The cameo is voiced by Nathan Meister.
134* CreatorProvincialism: The first two albums, ''Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'' reference Belgium most directly. Tintin arrives back at the station of Brussels in the first album and in the original version of ''Tintin in the Congo'' he teaches the Congolese children about ''their fatherland Belgium'', which was replaced by a simple mathematic lesson in the reprints. The series avoided any direct references to Belgium in other albums, but it still remains the most ''Belgian'' of all BelgianComics with an international success career. The streets and buildings where Tintin lives are clearly located in Brussels. Foreigners wouldn't notice it, but anyone who ever visited Brussels can recognize it. The police officers are also dressed in Belgian and French uniforms.\
135\
136The royal palace of Syldavia in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' is based on the Belgian palace, and the address on the letter Tintin receives from Chang in ''Tintin in Tibet'' is written in Chinese, but reads ''Brussels'' when translated. Also, the accents of the Arumbaya Indians in ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros'', as well as those of the Syldavians and Bordurians are heavily distorted, but still recognizable versions of the dialect spoken by Flemish people from the Brussels' neighbourhood the Marols. Hergé was a French speaking Brussels' native, but his mother spoke this specific Flemish dialect, so he heard it a lot. Apart from these self-invented languages Hergé also used the dialect for the names of foreign places and characters.
137%%* CreditsRunningSequence: At the end of the opening credits of the Nelvana cartoon series.
138* {{Deconstruction}}:
139** ''The Castafiore Emerald'', ''Flight 714'', and ''Tintin and the Picaros'' are deconstructions of the series in general.
140*** ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is an intentional RandomEventsPlot where Tintin and Haddock stay at Marlinspike Hall for nearly the entirety of the story. It's full of anticlimaxes such as how Haddock's attempt to escape Castafiore by going to Italy is foiled by an accident, the Roma community plight is immediately solved by Haddock’s generosity, Haddock never has the chance to make AnAesop about tolerance because of little distractions and the emerald’s thief turns out to be a harmless magpie.
141*** ''Flight 714'' has Tintin and Haddock involved by a ContrivedCoincidence into a plot to blackmail a millionaire, recurring villains Rastapopoulus and Allan suffer intentional VillainDecay by being depicted as ridiculous and stupid, all of them would have died in an eruption but are saved by [[DeusExMachina aliens]], and only Snowy remembers how they were rescued. For everyone else, it was a ShaggyDogStory.
142*** ''Tintin and the Picaros:'' Tintin, the GentlemanAdventurer, [[RefusalOfTheCall refuses the call]] for several days, believing it to be a trap, while his supporting cast goes to [[BananaRepublic San Theodoros]] ahead of him, Haddock cannot drink alcohol, [[SeriousBusiness and the worst is that Tintin]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking instead of his plus fours pants, now wears jeans!]] The second to last panel shows that San Theodoros has had a FullCircleRevolution and it was all a ShaggyDogStory.
143** ''Tintin and the Alph-Art'' was planned as a {{Reconstruction}} to counter the three examples above, but Herge DiedDuringProduction
144* DemBones: The Thompsons suspect a living skeleton is hanging around in ''Destination Moon'' because they saw each other through an X-ray panel and they end up arresting a real (non-living) skeleton in a doctor's office. [[BrickJoke Much later]] in ''Explorers on the Moon'', they interrupt [[spoiler:Wolff]]'s dramatic interrogation by asking him "vital questions": "The skeleton, [[spoiler:Wolff]]. Was that you?" and "To be precise, were you the [[spoiler:Wolff]], Skeleton?"
145%%* DesertedIsland: ''The Black Island'' (though it turns out to be inhabitated after all), ''The Shooting Star'' (though it's actually a piece of a meteorite) and ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.
146* DeusExMachina: All the time, though much more predominant in the first three books than later on, as they were defined by their episodic format and reliance on {{CliffHanger}}s. This ranges from jumping off of a cliff to find a ledge to having the {{mooks}} mistakenly use knockout gas instead of poison gas. Hergé used to say "I was often thinking all the week about the way I could get Tintin out of the trap I had thrown him into on the previous Wednesday".
147* DirectLineToTheAuthor: Most don't know that Hergé intended the Tintin series to be a series of adventures ''chronicled'' by Tintin. Most don't know what he does for a living, or assume he's a [[PiratesWhoDontDoAnything Reporter Who Never Reports Anything]], not knowing that the books ''are'' his reports!
148* DisneyVillainDeath: The leader of the opium smugglers at the end of Cigars Of the Pharaoh. Of course, he survives as he reappears in ''The Blue Lotus'', and is revealed to be Rastapopulous.
149* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
150** Many of the comics written in TheThirties reflected the many political upheavals that the world was going through at the time, giving the general feeling of Gathering Storm leading up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The political references ended when the Nazis invaded Belgium and the comics were subject to censorship, at which point, they became largely escapist adventure stories.
151*** ''The Broken Ear'' references the [[UsefulNotes/TheChacoWar Gran Chaco War]].
152*** ''The Blue Lotus'' provides a thinly-veiled account of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident Mukden Incident]] and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
153*** ''King Ottakar's Sceptre'' has a fascist-sounding group called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Guard Iron Guard]] planning on overthrowing the government of an Eastern European monarchy. And their leader is called [[UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini Müss]][[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler tler]].
154** As a later example, [[BananaRepublic San Theodoros]], a South American country whose main political officers (e.g. the Bordurian Colonel Sponsz) are all from a European dictatorship led by a man with a mustache and delusions of grandeur. [[UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}} Hmmmmm]], [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany where have]] [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin I seen that before]]?
155%%* DreamSequence: Many and surreal! Sometimes scary, other times amusing moments - sometimes both at the same time...
156* DressedToOppress: A number of examples.
157** In ''[[Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar The Broken Ear]]'', General Alcazar, the military dictator of San Theodoros, is shown wearing a ChestOfMedals, and gold epaulettes.
158** In ''[[Recap/TintinTheCalculusAffair The Calculus Affair]]'', statues and images of Borduria's Marshall Kürvi-Tash show him with a military greatcoat, and in particular, showing off his [[PunnyName curvy 'stache]].
159** When Tintin returns to San Theodoros in ''[[Recap/TintinTintinAndThePicaros Tintin and the Picaros]]'', Alcazar's rival, General Tapioca, and his inner circle wear green military uniforms, with Tapioca wearing ample medals and a short moustache.
160%%* {{Eagleland}}: The America portrayed in the books is a combination of this, {{Gangsterland}} and InjunCountry.
161* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
162** In ''Tintin and the Land of the Soviets'' Tintin has no quiff for the first few pages. His iconic hairstyle only gets into place after a speedy car chase. Also, Snowy has a strange beard. It's also the only album in which Tintin is seen writing journalistic paperwork, though he never seems to post it to his newspaper, because that same night he is attacked in his hotel room and has to flee, without taking all those pages along with him.
163** Snowy can talk and Tintin can understand him in ''Tintin in the Land of Soviets'', ''Tintin in the Congo'' and ''Tintin in America''. In the English-speaking world ''Tintin in America'' was the only one of the three available in print, and Snowy and Tintin talking to each other only happens in a few panels, making it seem all the more out of place.
164** The first three Tintin stories, ''Tintin in The Land Of The Soviets'', ''Tintin in the Congo'', and ''Tintin in America'' all have a RandomEventsPlot and are full of naïve stereotypical ideas about the countries and people Tintin visits. They were all drawn without any documentation or research. ''Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'' are de facto conservative Catholic propaganda pieces, drawn under commission of Hergé's newspaper boss.
165** The Thompsons are quite competent in their first appearance in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. Their comedic ineptitude seems to set in as soon as they go over to Tintin's side. Also, to readers of the albums after ''The Black Island'', it may seem bizarre that the duo actually tries to arrest Tintin in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', ''The Blue Lotus'' and ''The Black Island''.
166* EarTrumpet: Professor Calculus uses one in ''Destination Moon'' (which gets switched out at one point for the Captain's pipe). For the actual trip to the moon, he uses a hearing aid that allows him to hear perfectly. Needless to say, [[StatusQuoIsGod later volumes return him to his hard-of-hearing state]].
167* EasilyForgiven: Tintin never mentions the fact that General Alcazár tried to have him executed in ''The Broken Ear'' in any of their subsequent encounters. Yes, he was set up, but Tintin didn't know that.
168%%* EasyAmnesia: Calculus in ''Destination Moon''.
169%%* {{Egopolis}}: The capitals of San Theodoros and Borduria.
170%%* EmpathyDollShot: ''Tintin in Tibet''.
171* EverybodyIsSingle: Everybody is in the main cast. As for recurring characters, only Jolyon Wagg/Séraphin Lampion and General Alcazar have wives.
172%%* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Happens in several stories, like ''Red Rackham's Treasure'' and ''Explorers on the Moon''.
173%%* TheEveryman: Tintin himself. His name is quite appropriate, as it is a somewhat outdated colloquialism for "nothing" in French.
174%%* EvilColonialist: The villains of several stories, specially the ones set in Africa, Middle East and China.
175* ExplosiveCigar: This is Abdullah's favourite prank to pull on others.
176%%* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Pablo in]] ''Tintin and the Picaros''
177%%* FakeFaint: After a bomb goes off, Tintin fakes being knocked out to be carried outside by paramedics, then evade capture.
178%%* FaintingSeer: Mrs. Yamilah from the ''The Seven Crystal Balls''.
179* FamousNamedForeigner: Pianist Igor Wagner is named after Music/IgorStravinsky and Music/RichardWagner.
180%%* FascistButInefficient: The nation of Borduria.
181%%* FatherNeptune: Captain Haddock.
182* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: The comic ran for five decades and in that time Tintin only met ''one'' female villain who was just aiding her husband.
183* FictionalCountry: Borduria, Syldavia, San Theodoros, and Khemed.
184* FictionalFlag: Of the number of fictional nations Tintin travels to, none of them display their national flag more frequently or proudly as Borduria. It is depicted as a fascist state and Syldavia's warmongering neighbor, with a stark, eye-catching red-and-black flag to match. In post-1945 stories, Borduria is depicted more along the lines of a communist dictatorship with a Stalin-esque cult of personality built up around their leader, Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch; Borduria's flag is likewise changed to a new design, one that features a circumflex symbol that close resembles their leader's prominent mustache.
185%%* FullCircleRevolution: ''Tintin and the Picaros''. Although that's the only time we see it firsthand, earlier stories show that Alcazar and Tapioca were mutually ousting each other for years.
186* FunetikAksent: Played straight, and also a variation where some languages (especially the native one in ''The Broken Ear''/''Tintin and the Picaros'') are phoneticised versions of strong dialects - Marollien in the original, and Cockney or Yorkshire in the English translation.
187* FunnyForeigner: Thompson and Thomson become this when they visit China. They put on [[OverlyStereotypicalDisguise ridiculously garish and outdated Qing-era Manchu costumes]] and end up with practically an entire street following them, pointing and laughing.
188* GanglandDriveBy:
189** Happens to Barnaby in the album ''[[Recap/TintinTheSecretOfTheUnicorn The Secret of the Unicorn]]'' when he tried to betray [[spoiler:the Bird brothers]]. He is shot down on Tintin's doorstep, the latter barely avoiding it.
190** It happens to Tintin himself in ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]'', but he was fortunately saved by a young man [[spoiler:working for the Sons of the Dragon]].
191%%* TheGeneralissimo: Tintin has encountered several of these, notably General Alcazar (although he becomes relatively more heroic later) and General Tapioca.
192* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Many early Tintin albums of the 1930s have been redrawn, updated and too dated references have been removed to appeal to modern audiences. The original unaltered stories are still available, but only in a special album series.
193%%* GenreDeconstruction: Most notably in ''The Castafiore Emerald''. WordOfGod says it was an attempt to write a story where nothing actually happens.
194* GenreRoulette: There are about as many subgenres of pulp fiction explored as there are albums in the series:
195** Political thriller: ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', ''The Blue Lotus'', ''The Broken Ear'', ''King Ottakar's Sceptre'', ''Land of Black Gold'', ''Destination Moon'', ''The Calculus Affair'', ''The Red Sea Sharks'', ''Tintin and the Picaros''.
196** Satire: ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', ''Tintin in America'', ''The Broken Ear'', ''King Ottakar's Sceptre'', ''Tintin and the Picaros'', ''Tintin and Alph-Art''.
197** Cold War thriller: ''Destination Moon'', ''The Calculus Affair''.
198** JungleOpera: ''Tintin in the Congo'', ''Cigars of the Pharoah'', ''The Broken Ear'', ''Prisoners of the Sun'', ''Flight 714'', ''Tintin and the Picaros''.
199** Gangster, Western: ''Tintin in America''.
200** GothicHorror: ''Cigars of the Pharoah'', ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', certain sequences in ''Tintin in America'', ''The Broken Ear'', ''The Black Island'' and ''The Shooting Star''.
201** Hitchcockian thriller: ''The Blue Lotus'', ''The Broken Ear'', ''The Black Island'', ''The Secret of the Unicorn'', ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', ''The Calculus Affair''.
202** Ruritania: ''King Ottakar's Sceptre''.
203** Sci-fi: ''The Shooting Star'', ''Destination Moon'', ''Explorers on the Moon'', ''Flight 714''.
204** Fantasy: ''The Shooting Star'', ''Flight 714''.
205** Swashbuckler: ''The Secret of the Unicorn''.
206** Detective story: ''The Secret of the Unicorn'', ''The Castafiore Emerald''.
207** Farce: ''The Castafiore Emerald''.
208%%* GentleGiant: The Yeti, who sheltered Chang after the plane crash in ''Tintin in Tibet''.
209%%* GiantSpider: ''The Shooting Star''.
210%%* GildedCage: ''Tintin and the Picaros''. Also the Bordurian hotel in ''The Calculus Affair''.
211%%* GivingThemTheStrip: The pickpocket in ''The Secret of the Unicorn''.
212%%* GoingNative: [[spoiler:Ridgewell the explorer]] in ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros''.
213* GoodAngelBadAngel: Afflicts both Snowy and the Captain in the presence of whisky.
214%%* TheGoodCaptain: Haddock.
215* GoodHairEvilHair: Plenty of textbook examples, from Haddock's full beard to Thompson & Thomson's trademark "cop thick mustache", plus a long collection of typical villain-ish hairdos and beards, especially with Borduria where the curvy moustache is very recurrent, to the name of the dictator and the country flag. Averted with Professor Calculus, who is a rare example of good goatee (though a bushy one).
216* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking:
217** Several recurring villains (Dr. Müller, Allen, etc.) have been seen smoking, usually cigarettes. On the other hand, there's Captain Haddock and his ever-present pipe.
218** And Tintin himself never smokes and regularly turns down cigarettes when he is offered one.
219%%* GorgeousPeriodDress: The Balkan outfits in ''King Ottokar's Sceptre''.
220* GoshDarnItToHeck: Averted and at the same time not even played with. The characters almost ''never'' swear, save for a few [[HaveAGayOldTime old slangs]] or stuff that's "Rude" but not necessarily a curse word. There is a "Damn" in the english version of ''The Castafiore Emerald''. However, Captain Haddock's swearing tirades of "Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles" were never a cover-up for swearing...it's just ''funny''.
221* GreaterScopeVillain: Many of the main villains have a superior that serves as a secondary villain:
222** By default, Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch, the dictator of Borduria, is the GreaterScopeVillain of any story in which Tintin had to face Bordurian agents (with the possible exception of ''Sceptre'', in which he doesn't seem to already be in power.
223** All of the villains in ''Soviets'' are working for the Russian government.
224** Tom in ''Congo'' is working for [[spoiler:Al Capone]].
225** Mitsuhirato in ''Lotus'' is working for [[spoiler:Rastopopolous]].
226** Müller in ''Island'' refers to Puschov as "the boss", although they seem to be working together.
227** Musstler in ''Sceptre'' is working for the Bordurians.
228** Chiquito in the Inca books is working for the Inca, although he could be seen as a [[DragonInChief Dragon in Chief]].
229** The same with Allan to Salaad in ''Crab''.
230** [[spoiler:Jorgen]] is working for Miller in ''Moon''.
231** Sponsz is working for the Bordurians in ''Calculus'' and for Tapioca in ''Picaros''.
232%%* GreatWhiteHunter: ''Tintin in the Congo''
233* HandcarPursuit: Tintin does this in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''. The handcar breaks just as he is about to catch up.
234* HaveAGayOldTime: There are a few old slangs that might get a few chuckles today. notably one instance where a character says "Clever dick", in reference to a police officer. While the series doesn't shy away from depicting drug smuggling and use, these days readers are likely to raise an eyebrow when a ship's captain claims to only be carrying "coke." Coke being a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_(fuel) fuel source]], not the drug.
235* HeelFaceTurn:
236** Skut in ''The Red Sea Sharks''.
237** Pablo in ''The Broken Ear''. [[spoiler:He turns evil again by the time of ''Tintin and the Picaros'']].
238** [[spoiler:The Incans in]] ''Prisoners of the Sun'';[[spoiler:notably Huascar, who started making the turn far earlier in the book than the rest of them did]].
239** Ranko the Gorilla in ''The Black Island'' is a nonhuman example.
240* HenpeckedHusband: General Alcazar of all people. Leads to an amusing moment in the Nelvana series when he leaves behind a note for his wife when he starts his revolution.
241--->'''Alcazar:''' P.S. Due to the revolution, I will not be home in time to cook dinner.
242%%* HeroicDog: Snowy
243* HeroStoleMyBike: A favorite trope of Hergé. Whenever Tintin is pursued by some mooks, there will be a car, airplane, or [[ConvenientEscapeBoat motor boat]] waiting for him to board.
244%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Tintin and Haddock.
245* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen:
246** Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch, the dictator of Borduria. Being the ultimate higher-up of such villains as Colonel Sponsz, he could be considered the [[TheManBehindTheMan real]] BigBad of ''The Calculus Affair'', ''Tintin and the Picaros'' and possibly the Moon books,[[note]]The ruler of Borduria at the time of "King Ottokar's Sceptre" is not named, but seems unlikely to be Kûrvi-Tasch, as the Bordurian aircraft Tintin steals has different markings which do not include the moustache that became omnipresent in "The Calculus Affair". Possibly Kûrvi-Tasch ousted his predecessor after the failure of the plot to take over Syldavia in "Sceptre".[[/note]] but never throws in a personal appearance -- all we ever see of him is the occasional statue.
247** General Tapioca barely manages to avert this status. Despite being an apparently brutal dictator and the enemy of General Alcazar, he wasn't actually seen in ''The Broken Ear'' or ''The Red Sea Sharks''. He finally appeared in person in the last completed book, ''Tintin and the Picaros''.
248%%* HisNameIs: ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' and ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' do this.
249* HollywoodHealing: You can't keep these guys down! Tintin is more than enough proof. He has survived big falls, several gunshots and [[HardHead hits to the head]], chloroform, near-drowning and too many fights to count.
250%%* HollywoodMirage: ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'' and ''Land of Black Gold''.
251* HomeBase: Marlinspike Hall becomes Tintin, Haddock and Calculus' homebase from ''Red Rackham's Treasure'' on.
252* HowUnscientific: While most Tintin stories don't feature any sort of supernatural elements, there are a few times this trope pops up. A yeti and floating monks appear in ''Tintin in Tibet'', aliens are present in ''Flight 714'' and an unusual substance found on a meteorite defies physics in ''The Shooting Star''. Both ''Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''Prisoners of the Sun'' also contain elements that are supposedly magic in origin such as a psychic's vision and a curse, as well as a fireball that appears out of nowhere and vanishes along with an Incan mummy.
253* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: Hergé wasn't allowed to have cursing in the books, so he had Captain Haddock do this instead. It repeated itself so many times that it became not only a RunningGag, but a character trait.
254* HypnoticEyes: The Fakir in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' is a hypnotist. In ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', another hypnotist appears, though he uses his gift in a stage act.
255* IAmVeryBritish: In ''The Black Island'':
256--->'''Tintin''':There's a car just ahead... crooks making a getaway... I simply must go after them.
257--->'''Triumph Herald Driver''':Crooks? I say, what a lark! Hop in the caravan.
258* IconicOutfit: Tintin's plusfour pants. The Thompson's bowler hats, black suits and walking sticks. Captain Haddock's sailor hat, black jacket and blue sweater with an anchor on it.
259* IconicSequelCharacter: ''All'' of the series' recurring cast except for Tintin and Snowy themselves qualify -- the series started with a very MinimalistCast and only gradually picked up a cast of recurring characters:
260** Thomson and Thompson first appear in [[Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh the fourth book]].
261** Bianca Castafiore first appears in the [[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre eighth book]], though she doesn't really become a major recurring character until close to the end of the series.
262** Captain Haddock first appears in [[Recap/TintinTheCrabWithTheGoldenClaws the ninth book]].
263** Professor Calculus doesn't appear until [[Recap/TintinRedRackhamsTreasure the twelfth book]].
264%%* IdenticalTwinIDTag: Identical twins appear in [[spoiler:''King Ottokar's Sceptre'']].
265* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy:
266** The knife-throwing villain from ''The Broken Ear'' has terrible aim, which becomes a plot point later on.
267** General Alcazar's soldiers, also from ''The Broken Ear''. Pablo even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] while he and Tintin are being shot at during their prison break:
268--->'''Pablo:''' Take no notice! They shoot like a bunch of drunks!
269* InconsistentDub: One of the 7 victims of the Inca curse is named Marc Charlet in the original French version, in English, he's called Mark Falconer in "The Seven Crystal Balls" but is suddenly called Carling in "Prisoners of the Sun".
270* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Tintin. Professor Calculus too, as he refuses to shake hands with a representative of general Tapioca in ''Tintin of the Picaros'', because of his evil regime.
271%%* InevitableWaterfall: Tintin encounters one in ''Tintin in the Congo''.
272%%* InjunCountry: ''Tintin in America''.
273* InsaneEqualsViolent: Zig-zagged - An important plot point is that the enemies of the drug-smuggling gang from the Cigars of the Pharaoh & Blue Lotus arc are disposed of by poisoning by the Rajijah Juice. Victims of the Rajijah juice aren't typically violent, but rather, total CloudCuckooLander-types - though two of them are violent: Sarcophagus, who is influenced by a hypnotist, and Didi.
274* InsistentTerminology: Remember, Professor Calculus isn't deaf. He's just "a little hard of hearing".
275%%* InspectorJavert: In some books, Thompson and Thomson embody a particularly incompetent example of this trope.
276* IntergenerationalFriendship: All of Tintin's friends are either much older or much younger than he is.
277* IslandOfMystery: He's been to a few:
278** The island of ''Flight 714'' has caves, ancient ruins, ancient ruins in caves, anomalous physical properties and is ultimately a landing site for alien spacecraft.
279** The crashed meteor in ''The Shooting Star'' becomes a Mysterious Island with giant plants and insects.
280** ''The Black Island'' contains ruins and a mysterious, dangerous beast which turns out to be a gorilla. In Scotland.
281* IWantMyJetpack:
282** The space hardware used on the Moon mission is in many ways more advanced than any equipment that has ever been taken to space in RealLife: a nuclear fission-powered rocket engine that provides constant acceleration (and deceleration) at 1 G for the entire trip, hard-shelled spacesuits, and a pressurized three-person tank.
283** The Carreidas 160 seen in ''Flight 714'' is a supersonic private jet with variable-geometry wings, like a Concorde crossed with an F-14.
284* KarmaHoudini:
285** Max Bird and Trickler. In the Belvision animated adaptation, they are captured after they show up again during the treasure hunt.
286** The Fakir, but only in the redrawn version of ''The Blue Lotus''. In the original serial, he is mentioned as having been recaptured right before Tintin heads to Shanghai.
287** Miller, the ominous BigBad of the two Moon books is given no comeuppance. In fact, the characters don't even know he exists at the end of the story.
288* KickTheDog: Several villains try to take shot at Snowy even before he does anything to warrant their attention.
289%%* KidnappedScientist: Professor Calculus in ''The Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''The Calculus Affair''.
290* KitschCollection: The Kleptomaniac in ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' keeps ''a collection of stolen wallets'', alphabetically sorted, along with date of theft, which he proudly boasts of assembling in 3 months!! To show the magnitude of how often they've been pickpocketed, '''every single one''' of the 3 dozen or so wallets under the letter T belongs to the Thompsons! [[spoiler:[[KleptomaniacHero Actually saves the day]] when he pinches Max Bird's wallet with the two parchments in it]]
291* TheKlan:
292** The secret society in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' look suspisciously like the Ku Klux Klan: all dressed in large hoods.
293** Peggy Alcazar was also based on a Klan member, whom Hergé saw on television.
294%%* KnifeThrowingAct: General Alcazar in ''The Seven Crystal Balls''.
295* KnownByThePostalAddress: On various occasions, it is established that Tintin lives in an apartment in Rue de Labrador no.26 in Brussels. Although there is no Labrador street in Brussels, there is a Newfoundland street which houses the same working-class apartment buildings that make up the fictional Labrador street. Eventually when the Hergé museum in Louvain-La-Neuve was built, the city fathers decided to call the access road 'Rue du Labrador' just so the museum could have the official address of no. 26.
296* LamePunReaction: One from the audiobook version of ''Secret of the Unicorn'':
297-->'''Tintin:''' What did you say the name of the pickpocket was again?\
298'''Thompson or Thomson:''' Aristides Silk.\
299'''Tintin:''' Well I think it's time we "arrest-ided" him.\
300''(Various noises of disgust.)''
301* LateArrivalSpoiler: The revelation that [[spoiler:Rastapopoulos]] in ''The Blue Lotus'' is the bad guy is pretty lame if you have read the albums where he later appears.
302* LaughablyEvil: In ''Flight 714'', both Allan and Rastapopoulos are less serious and more funny. The latter also has funny scenes in ''Tintin and the Lake of Sharks''.
303* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Al Capone appears in person (the only person to do so), and Hergé has several {{Creator Cameo}}s (particularly in the AnimatedAdaptation. Numerous other real people appear thinly disguised (such as Jacques Bergier in ''Flight 714'') or in the background. Other well-known thinly disguised real life persons are gun-runner Henry de Monfreid (who saves Tintin in ''The Cigars of the Pharaoh'') and arms dealer Sir Basil Zaharoff (here called Bazaroff), who sells guns to both sides in ''The Broken Ear''.
304* LiteralCliffHanger: Many times, not surprising considering the number of regular {{CliffHanger}}s. In ''Tintin in America'', for example, Tintin survives by getting caught on a bush and [[ContrivedCoincidence finding a natural tunnel to the top of the cliff through blind luck]].
305* LiveActionAdaptation: There's been two of them: ''Tintin and the Golden Fleece'' and ''Tintin and the Blue Oranges''.
306%%* LostAtSea: Happens to Tintin in ''Cigars Of The Pharaoh'' and to him and Haddock in ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'' and ''The Red Sea Sharks''.
307* LostInTranslation: Many of the names and "foreign" words are from Brussels dialect (Flemish) and so don't make sense in English, e.g. Bagarre (brawl), Kalish Ben Ezab (licorice water, Brussels slang for a bad coffee). Bab El Ehr (babbler) still works, as does Wadesdah ("What is there?").
308%%* MasterOfDisguise: Tintin.
309%%* {{Mayincatec}}: Plot point in ''The Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''Prisoners of the Sun''.
310* MeaningfulName: A "picaro" is a picaresque rascal/hero, while Tintin's Dutch name, Kuifje, literally refers to an odd tuft of hair like the one the hero sports.
311%%* MenAreUncultured: While hiding from the police at the opera: "Captain, wake up, it's over!" With a disapproving glare from the neighboring GrandeDame no less.
312%%* MicroMonarchy: The tiny kingdom of Syldavia.
313%%* MindControlDevice : Used in Flight 714 with many MindManipulation capabilities including HypnoticEyes, MindProbe, and FakeMemories.
314* MistakenForDestitute: The story ''Flight 714'' has our protagonists meet a CorruptCorporateExecutive named Lazlo Carreidas, who is slovenly and rather sickly-looking. When he first appears in the story, Captain Haddock confuses him for a homeless man that managed to wander into the airport's lobby and sneaks some money into Carreidas' hat when a gust of wind takes it off his head. When Carreidas appears a couple of scenes later, Haddock confuses Carreidas' assistant for the man himself and thinks (but thankfully doesn't says aloud) that "Carreidas" must be quite the humanitarian if he decided to help that "helpless old man".
315%%* TheMovie: ''Tintin and the Lake of Sharks'', ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' and the Peter Jackson film.
316* MurderBySuicide: A favorite was to have the villains goons try to make Tintin jump off a cliff in order to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.
317* TheNamesake: The titular sharks only show up at the end of ''The Red Sea Sharks'', which may explain why the English title translation is an outlier for an adventure everyone else knows roughly as "Coke on Board". The significance of the title in ''The Broken Ear'' also takes a while to come into focus.
318* NarratingTheObvious: The target group was children, hence it's not surprising that many actions are commented on by characters in order to explain points that may be missed by inexperienced readers.
319* NationalStereotypes: The comic strip has often been accused of this, though it was FairForItsDay and most of the time, foreigners are both good and bad characters. Hergé also subverted these stereotypes, like in ''The Blue Lotus'' where stereotypes about Chinese people are debunked and ''The Castafiore Emerald'' in which prejudices about the Roma people turn out to be false.
320* ANaziByAnyOtherName: While it later became an analogy for CommieLand, pre-war Borduria (''King Ottokar's Sceptre'') is clearly a fascist dictatorship, right down to using German built Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes. Dr. Müller (''The Black Island'' and others) and Dr. Krollspell (''Flight 714'') have also been suggested to be Nazis/ex-Nazis due to their rather unethical ways of conducting experiments. Ironically, when the ''real'' Nazis occupied Belgium, they banned ''The Black Island'' because it was set in Britain, their enemy, while ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' was still allowed, despite having an almost obvious Nazi-analogue.
321* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the earliest books, Tintin is happy minding his own business, until the villains attempts at getting rid of him out of fear that he will bust them eventually get him on their tracks.
322* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Kûrvi-Tasch, the dictator of Borduria, is a thinly veiled {{Expy}} of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, right down to the thick moustache.
323* NoHuggingNoKissing: There is hardly any romance or a hint of sexuality of any sort in the whole series beyond chaste crushes. WordOfGod states that he wanted to avoid {{Shipping}} in his stories. The fact that there is only one recurring major female character also plays a role.
324%%* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Regularly, mostly about Tintin, but some of his foes occasionally do it.
325* NoOneShouldSurviveThat: Almost half of Tintin escapes from death are due to pure dumb luck or a ContrivedCoincidence of sorts.
326* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: At the end of ''Red Rackham's Treasure'', Capt. Haddock and Tintin buy Haddock's ancestral home, the luxurious Marlinspike Hall, with Prof. Calculus' help and find Sir Francis' treasure. From this point on, Haddock and Calculus live there as wealthy gentlemen, with Tintin visiting them so often that Marlinspike starts to operate as home base during adventures.
327* NuclearTorchRocket: "Explorers on the Moon" has Professor Calculus' experimental nuclear rocket move the character's ship (paid for by the Syldavian Space Agency) fast enough to get to the moon inside a day (it takes three with Apollo-era oxygen/kerosene engines), and it moves fast enough to generate a comfortable 1G. HilarityEnsues when it's turned off for the deceleration burn halfway there and everyone floats around helplessly for a bit. The engine is handwaved to be small enough to fit into the rocket by saying it's made of a super-material called "Calculite," which has a melting point in the millions of degrees
328%%* NumberOneDime: Haddock and alcohol, also his hat.
329* OddCouple:
330** Tintin and Haddock. The former is a neat, organized teenaged/young adult, chaste hero and morally upright. The latter is a bad-tempered, middle aged sailor, an alcoholic (while not always drunk, he's incapable of drinking water or non-alcoholic drinks), prone to spouting (made up) profanities at the slightest provocation.
331** General Alcazar and Peggy Alcazar. The former is a South American revolutionary with a long string of victories followed by defeats. The latter is a domineering, all-American virago with haircurlers. They're married.
332* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: The earliest albums went: ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', ''Tintin in the Congo'', ''Tintin in America'' and... ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. From that point on, though, the "Tintin in Geographic Location" formula was discarded for many years until ''Tintin in Tibet''.
333* OlderThanTheyLook: This applies to Herge's character design, because Tintin doesn't even look old enough to drink, yet he's presumably an adult (his age is never stated). According to the WordOfGod, he ages from fourteen-ish to seventeen in the course of the series.
334* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The unfinished ''Tintin and Alph-Art'' was poised to bring back some one-off characters as well, such as the Bird Brothers and Ivan Sakharine, although Hergé passed away before the plot was developed enough to explain why.
335* OneHourWorkWeek: Tintin is supposedly a journalist. This is rarely mentioned, and the only time he is ever seen writing an article or explicitly doing actual journalism is in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''.
336%%* PaperThinDisguise: Tintin. This was subverted a few times (''The Broken Ear'', ''The Blue Lotus'') by when the suspiciously-dressed person ''wasn't'' Tintin.
337%%* PirateBooty: ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.
338%%* PoliceAreUseless:
339%%** Thomson and Thompson are the two standout examples.
340%%** The chief of police in ''Temple of the Sun'', although it's more a case of [[spoiler:his being unable to do anything against the Inca]].
341%%** Dawson in ''The Blue Lotus'' is useless, corrupt and racist.
342* PopCulturalOsmosis: Whenever someone familiar with ''Tintin'' hears the ''Jewel Song'' from the opera ''Faust'' by Gounod, it's difficult not to think of Bianca Castafiore.
343* ThePratfall: At least once per episode. In later volumes this will fall to clumsy characters like Haddock or the Thom(p)son, but [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in early volumes, Tintin himself has to take the pratfalls]].
344** In ''The Castafiore Emerald'', everyone except Castafiore herself has a turn at tripping at over the broken step.
345* ProtagonistTitle: Tintin.
346* PunnyName: Almost too many to list, but notable examples include:
347** Captain Haddock (a species of fish)
348** Jolyon Wagg => Séraphin Lampion (a ''lampion'' is a cheap lamp made of paper and a candle given at fairs)
349** Kûrvi-Tasch (curvy 'stache) => Plekszy-Gladz (plexiglas)
350** Mr. Cutts the Butcher ; his original name is "Sanzot", which is read exactly like the French phrase "sans os" ("boneless")
351** Professor Calculus
352** Mr. Bolt the Builder
353** Lazlo Carreidas the millionaire (four aces in your hand)
354** Many names and places are in fact bastardizations of the Marol dialect, a Flemish dialect spoken in Brussels. Creator/{{Herge}}'s mother spoke it and he remembered many phrases and expressions he used for his fictional foreigners. The Native Amazonians speak it in ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros'', as do the Syldavians and Bordurians. Sheik ''Bab El Ehr'' ' name, for instance is a pun on ''babbeler'' (''talkative person'').
355%%* PuttingOnTheReich: Borduria, not incidentally.
356%%* {{Qurac}}: Khemed, home to Ben Kalish Ezab and Abdullah.
357%%* RandomEventsPlot: The first three ''Tintin'' stories are mostly this.
358%%* RansackedRoom: In ''The Secret of the Unicorn''.
359* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Several events in the albums were directly inspired by major events of the 20th century, including the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s and the Cold War. Other events were references to things that happened in Hergé's private life, such as his friendship with a Chinese foreign exchange student named Chang (Tchang in ''The Blue Lotus'') and a repair man who always promised to come over and fix his broken stair case, but never did (''The Castafiore Emerald'').
360%%* RebusBubble
361* RedOniBlueOni: Tintin is calm and smart (blue) in contrast to the hot-tempered Captain Haddock (red).
362* RedScare:
363%%** ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' (most notable example, however [[OldShame Hergé thought it was so poorly written you could barely tell this]].)
364** This trope re-emerges (albeit very subtly) in ''Tintin in Tibet'', where Tintin's friends from ''The Blue Lotus'' [[strike: inexplicably]] no longer live in Shanghai (which had become part of a communist state between the events of the two books), but in Hong Kong.
365* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Thomson and Thompson really are twin brothers in the Belvision series, with identical moustaches.
366* ReluctantMadScientist: Calculus, notably in ''The Calculus Affair'' where he invents an ultrasonic device and is kidnapped for the purpose of using it as a weapon of mass destruction.
367* RepetitiveName: Both title and character name, with Tintin.
368* {{Retcon}}: Done a few times with the redrawn versions of the color stories. For instance, the Thompsons are inserted into the first panel of ''Tintin in the Congo'', while a previously anonymous smuggler is turned into Allan in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. The original version of ''Land of Black Gold'' didn't occur in [[{{Qurac}} a generic-looking fictional Arabic country]], but in British Mandate Palestine.
369%%* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Several storylines.
370* RoguesGallery: Even though he isn't necessarily known for having a RoguesGallery in the way of e.g. American superheroes, there are a surprising number of antagonists who show up for at least two outings in the series:
371** UsefulNotes/AlCapone (''Tintin in the Congo''; ''Tintin in America'')
372** [[BreakoutVillain Rastapopoulos]] (Retconned cameo into ''Tintin in America''; ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''; ''The Blue Lotus''; ''The Red Sea Sharks''; ''Flight 714''; possibly "Tintin and the Alph-Art")
373** [[TheDragon Allan]] (retconned into ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''; ''The Crab with the Golden Claws''; ''The Red Sea Sharks''; ''Flight 714'')
374** [[ArmsDealer Dawson]] (''The Blue Lotus''; ''The Red Sea Sharks'')
375** [[TheGeneralissimo General Tapioca]] (behind-the-scenes roles in ''The Broken Ear'' and ''The Red Sea Sharks''; then on-panel in ''Tintin and the Picaros'')
376** [[FaceHeelRevolvingDoor Pablo]] (''The Broken Ear''; ''Tintin and the Picaros'')
377** [[ThoseWackyNazis Dr. Müller]] (''The Black Island''; ''Land of Black Gold''; ''The Red Sea Sharks'')
378** [[TheMole Colonel Jorgen]] (''King Ottokar's Sceptre''; ''Explorers on the Moon'')
379** [[TheUsurper Sheik Bab El Ehr]] (''Land of Black Gold''; behind-the-scenes role in ''The Red Sea Sharks'')
380** [[TheChessmaster Colonel Sponsz]] (''The Calculus Affair''; ''Tintin and the Picaros'')
381** Additionally, both [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Gibbons]] (''The Blue Lotus'') and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Trickler]] (''The Broken Ear'') were slated to reappear in the unfinished ''Tintin and Alph-Art'', though there's little to suggest they were to return in anything more than [[TheCameo cameo roles]].
382%%* RousseauWasRight: Antagonists prove to be more complex than typical villains.
383%%* RoyalBrat: Abdallah.
384%%* RuleOfSeven: ''The Seven Crystal Balls''.
385* RunningGag: Many throughout the series.
386** Haddock's drunken shenanigans.
387** Calculus being hard of hearing/his BerserkButton (being called a goat).
388** Thompson/Thomson injuring themselves.
389** People calling Marlinspike Hall trying to reach Mr. Cutts, the butcher.
390** Castafiore's ear-piercingly loud singing of Gounod's ''Jewel Aria''.
391** ''The Calculus Affair'' has this with a piece of sticking plaster that keeps following Haddock around.
392%%** ''The Castafiore Emerald'' itself has quite a lot of these.
393** Snowy getting his tail or a paw trodden on.
394** ''The Temple of the Sun'', in which Captain Haddock gets spat on by annoyed llamas. At the end of the book, he returns the favor by spitting water on one (who ''hadn't'' done anything).
395%%* {{Ruritania}}: Syldavia and Borduria.
396* SceneryPorn: The art work and detail in the backgrounds of ''Tintin'' are a marvel to look at. Much of it was done by Hergé's assistants, though.
397* ScreamingWoman: Though not exactly ''screaming'', Bianca Castafiore's opera singing has the effect of scaring off humans and animals because it is so loud and able to shatter glass.
398** Although Bianca Castafiore's singing voice is remarkably loud, there's very few occasion that actually features actual glass-shattering effect in-universe. When Tintin met her for the first time, he jokingly said to himself that it was lucky that the automobile they were riding had safety glass (so that it didn't break because of her voice).
399** 2011 film showed said actual glass-shattering effect, not only as an inside joke, but also an important plot point.
400%%* SecretCircleOfSecrets: The secret society of Kih-Oskh are all MalevolentMaskedMen.
401* SeriesContinuityError: In the English version of ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', Tintin mentions encountering Bianca Castafiore in the Red Sea, which took place several books later.
402%%* ShaggyDogStory:
403%%** ''The Castafiore Emerald''. This is deliberate as Hergé created the story as an experiment to see if he could maintain suspense in a story where not much happens.
404%%** ''The Calculus Affair'' is about Syldavians and Bordurians trying to kidnap Calculus to get their hands on the micrograph.
405%%* ShotAtDawn: Plot element in ''Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets'', ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros''.
406* ShoutOut:
407** In the English dub of the Nelvana version of ''The Red Sea Sharks'', Bianca Castafiore mispronounces Captain Haddock's name as Anime/CaptainHarlock. Ironic considering the DubNameChange entry in Harlock.
408** USA is described a similar plutocracy as in Upton Sinclair's Literature/TheJungle.
409* ShownTheirWork:
410** After Hergé announced at the end of ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' that Tintin's next adventure was to be set in China, he was introduced to Zhang Chongren, a Chinese art student living in Belgium, who offered to consult on ''The Blue Lotus'' in order to avoid the stereotypes and caricatures typical of depictions of his homeland. Hergé accepted the offer, leading to a lifetime friendship. Zhang was even included in the story and known as Chang Chong-Chen. A humorous sequence has Tintin telling Chang about European stereotypes of China, which leads him to think that the Europeans are crazy.
411** Hergé was particularly meticulous in his research. He kept a huge collection of photographs, newspaper articles, and anything else possibly useful in future stories, and so many places and objects in the comic books are real places. For instance, the house of Prof. Calculus' Italian friend in ''The Calculus Affair'' is a real house that is still standing to this day. Furthermore, much of the scientific information in the books is accurate, or at least was accurate for the knowledge of the time, some apparent errors being a case of ScienceMarchesOn. In a odd case to Science Marching a 180 Degree Turn, one of Hergé's most well known "mistakes" was in depicting ice on the Moon (''Explorers on the Moon''), but since Indian astronomers have indeed found ice there, we probably owe him an apology.
412%%* SickeningSlaughterhouse: The one in ''Tintin in America''
413* SigilSpam:
414** The symbol of Kih-Oskh in ''The Cigars of the Pharaoh'' is used on cigars and the costumes of the members of the secret organisation. And in ''The Blue Lotus'', [[spoiler:Rastapopoulos wears it as a tattoo on his arm]].
415** In ''The Calculus Affair'', the symbol of the Bordurian regime are "the whiskers of Kûrvi-Tasch," a stylized representation of the dictator's moustache. It's absolutely all over the country, from flags and official buildings to military rank insignia, hotel lamps and car radiators. This goes as far as written and spoken Bordurian, which uses a circumflex shaped like a curved moustache.
416%%* SillySimian: The apes in ''Congo'', which leads to infamous silly scenes.
417* SingleServingFriend: In ''The Shooting Star'', Tintin and Haddock are stuck when the local fuel company, which is owned by their adversaries, refuses to supply them. Fortunately, they happen to run into Haddock's old friend Captain Chester, whom he describes as "a shipmate for more than twenty years", but later on he's only ever mentioned in passing, like in ''The Castafiore Emerald'' (when Haddock is falsely announced to be engaged to the diva, he's among the first to send a telegram to congratulate him).
418* SkintoneSclerae: Most of the characters are drawn with black dots for eyes.
419* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Somewhere in the middle but leaning more towards the idealistic end.
420** This is reflected in the characters. Generally speaking, Tintin is the idealist, modern KnightInShiningArmor, while Haddock is less trusting, more cynical, and often expresses his (eternally frustrated) wish to drop the heroics to peacefully enjoy his retirement.
421* SpaceColdWar: Syldavia and Borduria are used as a No Real Countries Were Harmed version of this. And, of course, the real thing was going on in the background.
422%%* SpoiledBrat: Abdallah.
423%%* {{Spoonerism}}: A frequent source of humour, at least in the original French, mostly courtesy of the Thompsons and Haddock when he's upset. Even Tintin gets on it from time to time when he's distracted.
424* SteelEarDrums: Various occasions where explosions, gunfire and other loud events don't seem to matter despite characters being far too close and without hearing protection. Notably:
425** Mr Baxter's proximity to both the rocket takeoff in ''Destination Moon'' and its landing in ''Explorers on the Moon''.
426** The sequence in ''Land of Black Gold'' where Tintin is trapped in a room full of fireworks going off.
427** The volcanic eruption in ''Flight 714''. Volcanic eruptions in RealLife have been known to cause hearing loss and even rupture eardrums of those ''miles away'', let alone those floating just offshore in a little liferaft.
428* SymbolSwearing: Used when the characters '''really''' have to swear, usually with Captain Haddock.
429* TapOnTheHead: Done oh so frequently to Tintin which is a practically a tradition among FrancoBelgianComics, to the point where his tendency to get knocked unconscious by the bad guys has been repeatedly mocked and {{Lampshaded}} by the fanbase.
430* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Jolyon Wagg, the most obnoxious and irritating man Haddock has ever met and who keeps inviting himself to his house.
431%%* ThievingMagpie: There's one in ''The Black Island'' and another one in ''The Castafiore Emerald''.
432%%* ThirstyDesert: ''The Cigars of the Pharaoh'', ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'' and ''Land Of The Black Gold''.
433* ThreateningShark:
434** Both inverted and subverted in ''Red Rackham's Treasure'', Haddock almost gets his hand bitten off by a shark and then we discover the famous shark submarine designed by Calculus. Later Tintin ventures underwater in his seadiving suit and has to face a shark who swallows a valuable chest and then the [[GrievousBottleyHarm rum bottle]] that Tintin had been using as a ImprovisedWeapon.
435** Likewise, the ''Lake of Sharks'' animated movie (although this wasn't written by Hergé) only features one actual shark, which is seen in an aquarium tank at the very beginning of the movie (the lake's "sharks" are the bandits).
436%%* TickertapeParade: Tintin gets one after cleaning Chicago of gangsters in ''Tintin in America''.
437* TourGuideDetective: Half of the stories have Tintin solving mysteries in a variety of exotic locations; some real, some imaginary (Syldavia, Borduria, San Theodoros). While the earlier volumes feature poorly-researched and stereotypical depictions of the USSR, the Congo and the USA, from ''The Blue Lotus'' on these locations are exhaustively researched and stunningly detailed, often depicting genuine locations.
438* TravelingSalesman: The Portugese man Oliveira de Figueira, who is always seen selling stuff in the Sahara Desert and helps Tintin out a few times.
439* {{Tuckerization}}: One of the mummified archaeologists in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' is named "E.P. Jacobini", from Hergé's friend E.P. Jacobs (author of the ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' comic book series).
440* UndyingLoyalty:
441** Tintin to his friends in general, and Snowy and Haddock to Tintin in particular. This dynamic is best exemplified in ''Tintin in Tibet'', where Tintin is ready to go across the world face the Hymalayas just on the one small chance his friend Tchang is still alive. Haddock believes the enterprise futile and irrational, but follows him anyway.
442** Interestingly, ''Tintin and the Picaros'' reverses this, with Haddock jumping at the opportunity to go to San Theodoros to help the Castafiore, while the more ProperlyParanoid Tintin initally refuses to go, but (after a few days) eventually comes along anyway.
443%%* UnmovingPlaid: Tintin's coat is drawn like this in Hergé's much cruder early art style, seen today in ''The Land of the Soviets".
444* WritingForTheTrade: Averted in the early books, where the last panel of almost every page constitute a {{Cliffhanger}}, often resolved in the first panel of the next page as something completely innocuous. Later books weren't quite as heavy on the cliffhangers, though they still happen from time to time.

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