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Violine is a French-Belgian comic book series in five volumes, created by writer Didier "Tronchet" Vasseur and cartoonist Fabrice Tamin, with Jean-Marc Krings replacing the latter in the middle of the third album. It was originally published in Spirou magazine.

Violine is a young girl with a special power: a stare from her large violet eyes allows her to read one's thoughts and intentions. She lives in a mansion with her wealthy and domineering mother, Marushka, who is somehow immune to this power. Her mother claims that Violine's father has died when she was three, but after finding evidence to the contrary, Violine embarks to Africa as a stowaway in search for him.

The first album introduces the main character and focuses on her discovery that her dad is not dead but missing. The second album has her travel to Zongo to search for him, freeing the country from a dictator, but finding that her father has already fled. In the third book, the search continues, at the end of which she finally reunites with François, her father. The fourth book is dedicated to Violine's father's backstory involving Marushka and Muller, and how he discovered a fabulous diamond mine that could make Zongo rich. Others are on the hunt for the same diamonds, however. This also starts the search for Violine's disappeared mother... with a twist. In the fifth album, Violine saves President Redder from another attack, and goes in search of her mother in Europe.

The six albums in the series are:

  1. Les Yeux de la tête (literally, "the eyes of the head", which is colloquial expression which means "very expensive")
  2. Le Mauvais Å’il ("The Evil Eye")
  3. Le Bras de fer ("The Trial of Strength")
  4. La Caverne de l'oubli ("The Cave of Oblivion")
  5. La Maison piège ("The Trap House")
  6. Le Sommeil empoisonné ("The Poisoned Sleep", unfinished book)


Examples

  • Abhorrent Admirer:
    • After asking a pig what it is thinking about (after she fell in the mud), it gets heart shaped eyes.
    • Francois turns out to have the same problem with pigs and their rather graphic thoughts about him.
  • Action Dad: Francois.
  • Agony of the Feet: In one nightmare, Violine steps into two beartraps, with rather bloody results.
  • Alcohol Hic: Violine, after drinking a bottle of whiskey to demonstrate that it is not poison.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Both Van Beursen and Muller are hit with this, and have a Heel–Face Turn. The end of the story implies that Marushka will have one as well.
  • An Aesop:
    • The first book has one about animal cruelty.
    • The second book has one about corruption and dictatorships in Zongo, an apparent expy of the Congo and similar nations.
    • The third album shows the effects of racial oppression and corruption, with white people hoarding food and supplies while the black villagers starve of famine outside.
    • The fourth and fifth album continue with this aesop, expanding it to the greed of exploitative Western companies who keep dictatorships in place to further their own goals.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Muller lost both arms.
  • Anxiety Dreams: Violine has several of these, most notably about the identity of her father, when they are not dreams of things to come.
  • Appease the Volcano God: The pygmies have a volcano, complete with temple island.
  • Artistic License – Geography: Played for Laughs, lampshaded, and a Running Gag are that there are no headhunters in Africa, despite their presence in the story, to some people's great confusion.
  • Attack the Tail: Klaas loses part of his tail to the claws of Muller.
  • Back from the Dead: Muller, after his apparent death, several times.
  • Bear Trap: These appear in one of Violine's dream, where she gets one on each leg while running from angry dogs, with bloody results. Luckily, it was All Just a Dream.
  • Black Comedy Burst: When lying in crocodile-infested water, a man offers Kombo money to save him. Just when Kombo accepts, a crocodile bites his hand with the money off, which lands in the boat. Kombo quickly puts the severed hand (with the money still in it) behind his back while the man is devoured by crocodiles. The hand keeps fighting him throughout the night over the money.
  • Bound and Gagged:
    • Violine reads the mind of her rescuer and sees herself like this, clueing her in to his true intentions, and quickly fights him off, to the point of crashing his car. Later actually happens in Muller's dungeon, providing the image for Torture Cellar. Even her mouse gets tied up. Redder also ended up like this in a flashback.
    • A variant is done when Violine is initially kidnapped on Muller's orders. Her abductors start to gag her, only to remember Muller's instructions to make blindfolding her a top priority, so she can't read their minds. They don't gag her until she starts screaming at them.
  • Boarding School of Horrors: The school Violine is sent to is set up like one at the start of the story.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Francois is hypnotized into killing his daughter by Marushka.
  • Brick Joke:
    • The captain and crew of the oil tanker return at the end of the second comic to be locked up for their crimes. To rub it in, Violine pulls the same bait and switch on them as they did to her.
    • Early in the story, a pig falls in love with Violine. Three albums later, the same turns out to have happened to her father.
    • After Kombo is asked to serve as a translator when Violine and her father find a group of allies who don't speak English, he grumpily says that he deserves "Yambamba" for his efforts (Yambamba being a silly ritual in his village where the person receiving it is tossed repeatedly in the air while everyone cheers "Yambamba!") When Violine realizes that there's a bomb on the ship and they're going to hit something, even after disarming it, her father orders an evacuation of the ship and throws Kombo off by the loincloth, with Kombo protesting "This not how you do Yambamba!"
  • Butt-Monkey: Kombo.
  • Came Back Strong: Muller.
  • Cant Hold Her Liquor: Violine, after taking just one swig of whiskey, is very drunk. Justified, since she is only ten.
  • Card-Carrying Villain:
    • Muller boasts about being such a big villain that he cannot be stopped easily.
    • The board members of Van Beursen's company know full well they are doing despicable things in Zongo, but don't mind this at all.
    • The captain and crew of the oil tanker are well aware that their behavior is horrible, but treat showing remorse over it like a joke.
  • Cartoon Cheese / Stock Animal Diet: Violine's pet mouse thinks of this kind of cheese.
  • Cassandra Truth: Kombo, when his predictions are not too little too late, is not believed.
  • Central Theme: The underlying themes are the evils of African dictatorships, the prevalence of death squads and endless revolutions, exploitation of the poor and African natives by powerful (white) European companies, and greed at the cost of third-world nations.
  • Changeling Fantasy: Violine's overbearing mother turns out to have adopted her from her real parents (without their knowledge), and her real parents are missing in Africa, so she needs to find them.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Violine reveals that several of the president's ministers are plotting against him, resulting in a chain reaction of ministers declaring their own revolution, plunging the room into chaos as all ministers call on the same soldiers to support them.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The doctor's pills.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Van Beursen and the board members of his company.
  • Covered in Mud: What happens after Violine accidentally gets ejected from the house into a muddy pig pen.
  • Crashing Dreams: Some of Violine's dreams segue into what is actually happening around her, like an alarm clock going off replacing the beating of a drum.
  • Creepy Child: The reaction of some characters when Violine stares at them.
  • Crocodile Tears: Commander Muller does this when threatening to kill Redder.
  • Cue the Rain: When Muller threatens Violine and her father, a thunderstorm with heavy rain starts.
  • Cut Short: The series was supposed to get a sixth volume and launch a second story arc, but low sales prevented this.
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: It was so he could search for her real mother in Zongo and keep her safe.
  • Damsel in Distress: Violine, regularly.
    • Damsel out of Distress: Whenever possible. An early instance involves her escaping a pedophile by biting his arm and causing him to crash the car they're in, giving her a chance to escape.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: There's also the part where her father tells his side of the story. His happy childhood fell to pieces when his parents left him in the care of a nanny who turned out to be incredibly controlling and abusive. They only found out about this when they came home earlier than she expected and found that she'd locked the poor kid up. And yet not only does she manage to convince them to keep her around, but she poisons them, leaving him in her care for the rest of his life. He has to run away from home when he realizes that she and her brother plan to turn him into an invalid so they can continue to control his money, which leaves him homeless and forced to run to a country he's never been to before. Things get a lot better as he works his way up to a good job, marries the love of his life, and has a daughter, then everything falls apart as his wife is kidnapped during a revolution, he sacrifices his chance to find her to save baby Violine (who was left in her crib in a burning house), and has to abandon his wife just to make sure his child is rescued from an incredibly unstable and unsafe country. His abusive nanny is still at his old house and manages to convince him to do exactly what his own parents did - leave his child in her care while he leaves to find his wife. He is arrested when he returns to Africa and spends nearly a decade either in prison or on the run. And while he and his daughter are later reunited, he learns that the nanny lied about being Violine's real mother and raised her as abusively as he had been. To cap it all off, the last issue reveals that Violine's fake mother is a master hypnotist, which is undoubtedly how she'd kept her position for so long. Not only does it add a new layer of creepiness to her (she's an abusive guardian who can force anyone with the power to get rid of her to let her stay, no matter if she's caught or not), but she uses that power to hypnotize Violine's dad into trying to kill her.
  • Deadly Doctor: The doctor knows how to make pills that make people sick or kill them outright, and attempts to use this against Violine. He also murdered Violine's father's parents.
  • Death Trap: Commander Muller has one filled with crocodiles.
  • Determinator:
    • The teacher at Violine's school is determined to teach, no matter WHAT happens around her.
    • Muller is also one, coming back again and again to hunt down Violine and her father.
    • Despite spending nearly a decade imprisoned and on the run, Violine's father has never given up his goal of finding his wife.
  • Dirty Coward: Kombo, whenever danger looms, tries to save his own skin and is resigned to the apparent fate of whoever he abandons. Other characters always drag him back onto the good side, though, to his disgruntlement. Despite this, he is not treated as a villain, and the heroes insist on dragging him along anyway. After the heroes are saved, he will boast that it was all him, even when he has done nothing at all.
  • Disappeared Dad: Marushka claims he died when Violine was three, but she suspects this to be untrue. The first half of the story revolves about Violine looking for her father. The rest is dedicated to finding her mother.
  • Disney Villain Death: Muller falls to his apparent death in a trapdoor leading to a moat full of crocodiles, but he survives and comes back with a vengeance.
    • Lampshaded in his first reappearance, when he tells Violine that villains such as himself always come back.
  • Doorstop Baby: Violine was left behind with Marushka to protect her.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Violine has dreams that predict aspects of the coming plot.
  • Dream Sequence: Violine has several plot-related ones. Recurring themes are a man wearing a witch doctor mask beating a drum, characters taking off masks to reveal other characters, and monstrous appearances.
  • Eek, a Mouse!!:
    • Downplayed, but after all the mice escape, the teacher and children all stand on the tables while a dozen mice scurry around. Later repeated with frogs.
    • Marushka does the same thing after seeing Klaas' offspring.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Violine suddenly has a telepathic link with her pet mouse, Klaas, at the end of the story.
  • Every Man Has His Price: The Zongo customs official takes bribes to let Violine into the country.
    • Subverted with Redder, to his detriment later. He refuses bribes from European companies hoping to gain control of his country's resources, but he refuses them all. This later leads to Van Beursen backing a coup and Redder being told that he almost certainly can't expect help from other European powers, since they're not happy with him for turning them down.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Kombo does not mind walking around in a snowy European winter with hothing but his loincloth. Given his age and weakling Dirty Coward status, neither fanservice nor badass.
  • Face Framed in Shadow: Francois after being hypnotized.
  • Faint in Shock:
    • Violine faints when hearing that Muller is Marushka's brother, and her "mother" is actually Marushka, her father's former governess.
    • Francoise, after regaining her memory.
    • In the first issue, she faints when she overhears Marushka discussing with the doctor how Violine's father is still alive. The pair hear the thud as she falls over and realize she's on to them.
  • Fake Faint: Violine fakes fainting so she can warn her father about Muller.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: Violine gets injured at times, either by crashes or villains, and is shown bleeding, often from the head. She also bleeds from her legs in one nightmare. Other characters get bloody injuries as well, and some are eaten by crocodiles offscreen. There are also a few taps on the head which show blood, sometimes even implied to be deadly.
  • Flash Back: Of Francois' past.
  • Foreshadowing: In some scenes, Violine and Francois read each other's minds without looking at each other. Later, it turns out Violine has latent telepathic abilities which she uses to call Klaas.
  • Free the Frogs: Violine saves mice from being dissected in biology, and befriends a tiny white mouse she names Klaas (after the Dutch word for cheese, kaas, since that is what he keeps thinking of).
  • Genre Savvy:
    • Commander Muller orders to have Violine blindfolded to negate her mindreading powers.
    • The Consul and his men wear sunglasses to avoid having their minds read.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Muller's plan to use Violine to read minds goes right until all the president's ministers start revolting, causing Muller to get demoted as the room descends into chaos.
  • Gory Discretion Shot:
    • The crocodiles attacking the two death squad members. We do see them afterwards though, with bloody jaws.
    • A lion tries to attack in the third comic, but gets mauled offscreen. We get to see it afterwards covered in blood, though.
  • Gross-Up Close-Up: A mild variety, sometimes showing characters to have red eyes with visible veins.
  • Hallucinations: Muller gets these in a cave filled with poisonous sulphur fumes.
  • Hand Gagging: Redder, after Violine sees him thinking about his (nude) wife, does this to Violine to keep her quiet. Other characters do it too when Violine threatens to reveal their secrets.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • The doctor lets Violine and Kombo go after the pygmies declare him their world champion.
    • Van Beursen and Muller after their memory loss.
    • Marushka is implied to undergo this as well after the end of the story.
  • Hook Hand: After losing his arms to crocodiles, Muller replaces them with mechanical hands with huge hooked blades for fingers.
  • Harmful to Minors: Violine is a 10-year-old girl who spends nearly the entire story being chased, attacked or otherwise left in the company of adults who do not have her best interests in mind. Her mother is cold and abusive, the family doctor is perfectly fine with harming her if it means continuing to be paid large amounts of money, her teachers are unfeeling (and the one who actually is nice to her turns out to be heartlessly selling animals to the school for dissection and cares only about the money). Things get even more distressing when she goes to Africa to find her father. There, she's nearly eaten by crocodiles multiple times, is nearly poisoned several times by the disguised doctor, captured by a dictator, held at gunpoint, abandoned in the open ocean, attacked by a sadistic military leader (multiple times, in fact, and the later attempts have him with robotic arms that could easily crush her throat, something which he's very open about threatening), and forced to abandon a ship filled with explosives. Oh, and from the third volume onward, her father is with her for all of this. While he does his best to protect her, he often is forced to watch as both of them are shoved into deadly situations that he might not be able to save her from.
  • Haunted House: While not deserted or technically haunted, Marushka's house is treated as such later on, with traps all around and Marushka hunting down the heroes through surveillance.
  • Hypnotic Eyes:
    • The eyes of Violine (and presumably her father, Francois) can sometimes have this effect on people.
    • It turns out Marushka has this as her Psychic Power.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Kombo berates someone who betrayed him to the police for doing so, right after contemplating betraying Violine for a reward.
  • I Am Not Your Father: Francois reveals that Marushka, who claimed to be her mother, was actually his governess, and her REAL mother is missing in Zongo.
  • Identity Amnesia: The fumes in the diamond mine cause this in anyone who breathes them, including Muller, Van Beursen, and Violine's mother.
  • Inheritance Murder: What Muller and Marushka do to get the house from Francois. This puts Francois and his daughter Violine as the last persons standing in their way.
  • Imaginary Friend: Violine's best friend before meeting Klaas was a drawing of one, which tells you how many friends she has.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: When arriving in Zongo, Violine hides away in someone's bag to avoid the customs official. After being told the bag contains food, Violine is discovered and the customs official accuses the man of cannibalism. After some bribes, he lets them go, telling him to have a nice dinner. Violine reads his mind and sees he was not joking about the cannibal part.
  • Implacable Man: Muller, thanks to his robotic claws.
  • Indy Hat Roll: A variation where Francois slides under a closing door using some soap.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: The Pygmy women walk around bare-breasted. This is also reflected in their goddess statue.
  • Innocently Insensitive:
    • After crocodiles tear apart two pursuing death squad members, Kombo leads Violine away so she doesn't see it... and then tells her how the crocodiles teared them apart in detail.
    • Kombo does the same thing when Violine is in danger from crocodiles herself, describing how they will take pieces of meat to the bottom of the river to let them rot before eating them.
    • When Violine asks a former prisoner about her father's whereabouts (the prisoner having been his cellmate), he's only able to talk about the terrifying, abnormal eyes her father has. He then worries he offended her, since she has similar eyes. Violine isn't offended, but the prisoner does check himself later in the conversation, when he nearly describes her father's eyes unflatteringly again.
  • Instant Sedation: This is how Violine is put to bed each night.
  • I'm Standing Right Here: One of the tribesmen remarks about Kombo being unmasked as a fraud by Violine... to Kombo himself.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Several characters hang a lampshade on there being Amazonian head hunters in Africa.
  • Little Stowaway: Violine on her travel to Africa hides on a ship.
  • Madman In The Attic: Marushka chains Muller in the basement after he loses his memory. She surrounds him with things from their past to try to give him his memory back.
    • Interestingly, this is when it's revealed that Muller is actually calmer and lost his violent, sadistic personality.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Violine, which refers to her violet eyes.
    • Redder, which means "saviour" in Dutch.
    • Van Beursen roughly means "of wallets" in Dutch.
  • Mighty Whitey:
    • The doctor gets treated like one by the Yakas, making him their champion.
    • Van Beursen, the Corrupt Corporate Executive, attempts to invoke this. Unlike the doctor, it does not take hold.
    • Violine is held in incredibly high esteem by Redder's allies, since she played a big part in overthrowing the previous dictator (see Chronic Backstabbing Disorder above). Her father is surprised when he sees just how overjoyed they are to run into her, when she frees them from prison.
  • Mind-Control Eyes: Francois, after being hypnotized by Marushka.
  • Missing Mom: Violine's mom turns out to be missing and Marushka, the woman who adopted her, turns out to have lied about being her mother.
  • Morality Pet: After his Heel–Face Turn, the Pygmy chief acts like this to the doctor, at his own request, smacking him each time he feels greedy, reminding him of the second chance Violine gave him.
  • My God, You Are Serious!: Marushka hires a game hunter with a pack of dogs to hunt down the mouse, Klaas. After his initial laughter, he realizes she is dead serious about it.
  • Nearly Normal Animal: Klaas, Violine's pet mouse.
  • Neck Lift: Muller's favorite attack, thanks to his metal claws.
  • Never Smile at a Crocodile: Plenty of these appear in Zongo, including in Muller's death trap. They are recurring threats throughout the series.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Kombo likes to regale people with stories of headhunters (even though these only live in the Amazon), and of the hunting and feeding habits of crocodiles at the worst possible moments.
  • Nominal Hero: Kombo is cowardly, greedy, willing to betray his friends for money, and prone to abandon the heroes to their death at the first sign of trouble, but is treated by the main characters as an ally. If no one is around to steer him onto the right path, the plot will conspire to do so anyway, and he will take credit for "saving" everyone.
  • "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: One of Violine's dream involve her being in just her underwear.
  • Only in It for the Money: Violine's house doctor is revealed to practice his profession for the money. Violine's mother is apparently happy to oblige, calling him for even minor medical issues. He also tries to blackmail Violine's mother over the knowledge he has of her disappeared father. After his Heel–Face Turn, he rejects his greed, even asking the chief of his adoptive tribe to slap him when he gets greedy again.
  • Opportunistic Bastard: Kombo endangers the heroes regularly for his greed, at one point even contemplating turning Violine and her father in for a reward. Still not a villain, though.
  • Parental Neglect: Marushka, Violine's adoptive mother, is very strict and controlling, mostly communicates through robots with Violine, and is distant to her. She goes to any length to keep Violine from her father, from having the doctor fake a broken leg and put her in braces, to having her made sick by the doctor, to having her killed if nothing else works.
    • Francois later notes that she had the entire house mechanized simply so she could raise children starting with him with minimal contact with them.
  • Parental Substitute: It turns out Violine's "mother" is really her father's old governess, Marushka, who falsely claimed to be her mother.
  • Psychic Block Defense: Violine can't read Marushka's mind. Neither can her father, Francois. It turns out it is because Marushka has Hypnotic Eyes, which block Violine's and Francois' powers.
  • Psychic Powers / Telepathy: Violine can read minds when staring at people. Kombo is also able to recognize this and mistakes it for an evil eye. Her father has the same powers.
  • Punch-Clock Villains:
    • Marushka's robots. They even apologize for it.
    • The Baron and his hunting party are paid by Marushka to hunt down Klaas, and later Francois and Violine.
  • Real After All: Kombo appears to be a fraud, but he is capable of actual visions if he is not too drunk. Humorously, his visions always come just too late to be useful.
  • Redemption Equals Death: After his heel face turn, Muller sacrifices himself to save Violine and her father. He is saved before he can be killed, however.
  • Reflective Eyes: A variation: when Violine reads someones mind, the content of their thought bubble appears reflected in her eyes. Francois' eyes work the same way.
  • Resentful Guardian: Marushka was one to Francois. She later does the same to Violine, even though she pretends to be her mother.
  • Running Gag:
    • Amazonian head hunters somehow living in Africa, and people pointing this geographical error out every time it is mentioned.
    • The doctor getting slapped by the pygmy chief every time he feels greedy.
    • Kombo being called Monko.
  • Shirtless Scene: Violine, oddly enough. It is played as innocent, though, but it might still be Values Dissonance for some cultures. She spends one comic book in nothing but panties and an open shirt.
  • Shrunken Head: On being asked whether the pygmies will eat them, Kombo answers that they are not savages, and are only going to shrink their heads to pingpong balls and make toothpicks out of their bones. The doctor immediately calls him out on this, though, noting that only the Jivaros make shrunken heads. Humorously, a pygmie immediately comes in with a shrunken head, confirming Kombo's statement, to the doctor's protests.
  • Stealing the Credit: Kombo, all the time.
  • Stock Sound Effects: Averted; winking makes a "click" sound effect.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: Francois.
  • Tap on the Head: Muller to the president, and later the doctor to a guard; unusually for the trope, the tap also shows blood, and one is implied to have killed the man.
  • Taxidermy Is Creepy: Violine's house has a forbidden floor, filled with creepy taxidermy animal heads and statues, which Violine mistakes for monsters.
  • Tears of Joy: Violine when finding her father.
    • Mueller, when hearing Violine say that he's now a good person.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Violine's eyes are violet, and her father's are yellow, both indicating that they have mind reading powers.
  • Telepathy: Violine can read minds when staring at people. Kombo is also able to recognize this and mistakes it for an evil eye. Her father has the same powers. Also, Violine at the end of the story with Klaas.
  • The Alcoholic: Kombo, going as far as to save bottles of whiskey from a fire (granted, he did think a child was still inside). His alcoholism also prevents him from seeing the future in time, or at all.
  • The Cavalry: Klaas comes to the rescue with an army of mice at the last moment.
    • Violine and her father blackmail a ship into providing back-up for President Redder when he's under attack.
  • The Reveal:
    • At the end of the third book, Violine's mother is revealed to not be her real mother.
    • In the fourth book, it is revealed that Marushka is not actually her mother, but Francois' governess, Marushka, and Muller is her twin brother. They also murdered Violine's father's parents when he was a child so they could get the house.
    • At the conclusion of the story, it is revealed that Violine's mother was her school teacher all along.
  • Still Sucks Thumb: Violine when sleeping.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Muller after losing his arms.
  • Torture Cellar: Commander Muller has one in his palace, providing the page image for that trope.
  • Trap Door:
    • Violine's house has one at the front door, leading to a Rube Goldberg Device for cleaning visitors.
    • The president's room has one, leading to a moat filled with crocodiles.
  • Trigger Phrase: The word used to lift Francois' hypnosis is "fatalitas".
  • Trophy Room: Violine's father's room, filled with mementos from his travels.
  • Rube Goldberg Device: The front door trapdoor leads straight into one of these, designed to bathe and clothe anyone who comes in.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After seeing a mouse get bloodily vivisected, Violine vomits outside.
  • Wake Up Fighting: Violine's father wakes up like this, only to discover it was just his daughter.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: As it turns out, Mueller's awesome new metal arms are voice-controlled and can be tricked by the sound of Francois' voice. Upon realizing this, Francois orders them to attack Mueller and throw him overboard. Subverted later, when Mueller gets around the issue by having one of his hands grip Violine by the throat, warning Francois that if he tries to give the arms orders, he runs the risk of harming his daughter.
  • Witch Doctor: Kombo is one, and it works, but due to whiskey and old age, not very well.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • The doctor is prepared to injure or kill Violine to get her home.
    • Commander Muller, the leader of the African death squadron who comes to take Redder away has no hesitation to let his men shoot at a little girl.
    • Van Beursen puts a gun to Violine's head and is ready to shoot her when they are captured by the Yakas.
    • The revolutionaries who kidnapped Violine's mother left her in a burning house when she was a baby. If her father hadn't rescued her, she would have died.
  • You Need a Breath Mint: Not said as much, but Violine does tell the captain of the oil tanker to "clean his tanker" when smelling his breath, after remarking on the smell of the oil tanker itself.
  • You No Take Candle: Kombo talks somewhat like this.

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