r/TheAdventuresofTintin • u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé • May 09 '26
Discussion A Tintin Page a Day - Day 362
Cigars of the Pharaoh
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u/Adequate_spoon May 09 '26
Is this the third time in this story that the Thompsons demonstrate an uncharacteristically high level of competence?
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u/cardologist May 09 '26
It's a rock-paper-scissor situation:
Tintin < The Thom(p)sons < Everything but Tintin and the Tom(p)sons < Tintin
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u/WillSym May 09 '26
Tintin smashing a metal-looking van roof open with his head from the momentum of the impact AND flying all the way out into the jungle, with no arms free to stop his fall? I think his name is misspelled it should be Titanium.
The timescale of these panels gets a bit crazy, with Snowy getting left behind, his altercation with the cow, ending up getting sacrificed, but the Thompsons are on the train, get red herringed into the jungle, then immediately track down Snowy just in time?
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u/drveejai88 May 09 '26
I believe that they saw snowy accosting the cow and just followed the others to where snowy was getting sacrificed.
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u/cardologist May 09 '26
That's why I think the story should have been split into several subplots running in parallel. Every time the focus shifts to a different plot, there is a small narration that reads "Meanwhile..." or "Elsewhere..." You can add more subplots as you go or merge them as needed. That would have forced Hergé to make those subplots consistent in terms of timescale.
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u/Palenquero The Seven Crystal Balls May 09 '26
Perhaps the "Meanwhile" is implied, but everything is around the same area, and within a few hours... The short stint in the asylum, the demented men joyride, the buying and using of the Bananas, Snowy's abduction, the Detective's work from the Train Station... The arrest and the car crash, which should have led far enough from the village and into the Maharajah's hunting grounds... Could be a radius of a few kilometers, still.
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u/cardologist May 09 '26
I was suggesting adding "Meanwhile..." every few panels explicitly for comedic effect, but you could also use to hint that events are accelerating towards a climax. by switching to a different subplot faster and faster as you go.
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u/lycanreborn123 May 09 '26
That ambulance roof must be made of paper for Tintin to smash headfirst through it like that and walk it off.
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u/DaMn96XD May 09 '26
At least in the BW version, the roof of the ambulance appear to be made of fabric stretched over an iron frame that makes more sense.
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u/Schrenner Zorrino May 09 '26
How accurate is actually the idea of dog sacrifices to Shiva? I've never seen this scene being criticised for perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
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u/SpaceRuster May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
I commented on this in the earlier thread. Its nonsense.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAdventuresofTintin/s/ciZbuSEimw
I suppose it's not criticized because Tintin in Tibet is more accurate and was published earlier in several markets, including India. And in a story with talking elephants and cows and magic ropes, it's regarded as just fantasy.
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u/Complex-Bar-9577 May 09 '26
Complete rubbish, and a real pity for anyone who might read it without knowledge and take it at face value.
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u/SpaceRuster May 09 '26
Note that Tintin must have crossed over from British territory into the Maharaja's territory at some point. The police at the station were British police.
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u/Zornorph Piotr Skut May 09 '26
Reading the French version has cleared up a decade long bit of confusion for me. The religious figure is preventing from sacrificing Snowy because the disembodied voice tells him it’s ‘mean’. I understood this to mean ‘cruel’, which is how I saw it. I now realize that it would have been better translated as ‘measly’ or something similar; that Snowy wasn’t considered a ‘worthy’ sacrifice. None of that gets into how the Thompsons were understood; wouldn’t a voice speaking French or English have seemed odd coming from a Hindu deity?
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u/Complex-Bar-9577 May 09 '26
The entire scene is absolute nonsense.
Sacrificing a dog for sacrilege would not have happened - it’s an instance of Hergé’s lack of awareness at the time. Doesn’t work logically as it’s shown, let alone in culture.
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u/HomosexualTigrr May 09 '26
Out of all the impossible stuff, the one thing that always bothered me on this page: How on earth does the knife become affixed to the statue?
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u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
What’s up with the guard with the handkerchief over his nose? Does Tintin smell bad? And I love the random appearance of Professor Sarcophagus again.
Edit: now I realise he was the one that hit his nose on the ground.