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patheticprogrammingperson · 10 months

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Welcome, to maybe the oddest Tintin, that is, if you look a little below the surface.

That's right, King Ottokar's Sceptre, featuring some thinly-disguised nazis.

Plot-line

As in The Broken Ear, we have a heist plot, but this time, it is mixed with war.

We open on Tintin, finding a briefcase on a bench, and taking it back to the address on the label, meets Professor Alembick, a sigillographer, who Tintin promptly agrees to accompany him to the small European country of Syldavia, and a few assassination attempts later, off they go.

However, Tintin is dropped out of the plane and lands in a trailer of gay, with Snowy coming down safely by parachute.

One friendly debate with police later, and dodging yet another assassination attempt, Tintin meets the Milanese Nightingale, promptly runs away, and finally gets captured, and escapes via another failed assassination attempt.

Finally getting to Klow, capital of Syldavia, Snowy steals a dinosaur bone, and Tintin attempts to arrange a meeting with the king, but another assassination attempt attempts, and Tintin enters by force, and gets carried off by police again.

I think I should explain what on earth Tintin wants to speak to the king for, on the flight, Tintin read a magazine, and learnt that the titular sceptre gives the bearer control of the country, and Tintin thinks that the professor has been replaced by an imposter, as part of a scheme to steal the sceptre, and in turn, the country.

Anyway, Tintin is captured, locked up, transferred, but the transfer van crashes, Tintin fakes a concussion, and heads back to the palace, and almost gets run over by the King, finally getting to speak to him.

Tintin promptly convinces the king, and off to the castle where the Sceptre's kept, where, in the treasure chamber, they discover the guards, the professor, the photographer, all knocked out, the display case open, and the scepter gone.

Now, we have the events of the plot laid out, but I'll wait to explain it till the end.

There is some back-and-forth, Tintin works it out, and finds the crooks, in the woods, with the sceptre, and they run, of course, Tintin pursues, and some back-and-fourth later, Tintin has the sceptre, and is overlooking a hidden airfield, stocked with fighter aircraft. Tintin steals one, and makes their way back to Klow, the sceptre is saved, Tintin gets a medal, and the plot wraps up with the Thom(p)sons nearly downing.

So, that's the plot, but what about the plot?

The core element of the scheme was the professor, who had the rare chance to be in the same room as the sceptre, and so they kidnapped him, and his twin brother took his place.

Once they were in the room, the plan was simple, the camera's flash-bulb contained a sedative gas, released when it went off, the photographer, part of the plot, somehow prevented himself from being knocked out.

The key element is getting the sceptre out of the room, which was achieved through the camera itself, modified to be able to launch the sceptre through the window's bars

For once, the plot makes perfect sense, by Tintin standards, there are no real jumps of logic.

Characters

Right, character, this is a bit of a weak point, in my opinion.

Other than the professor, who does have some personality, the rest are rather bland, take the king for one, what can you infer about his character from his depiction?

I'm not saying that they're all pointless nothings, but they do somewhat take a backseat to the plot itself.

Things I like

Well, obviously, the plot, it finally feels properly cohesive, with the true extent of it being gradually revealed, and almost no random chance (other than Tintin not dying when they fall of out a plane)

The setting is excellent as well, a subtle fantasy air to the world, while staying somewhat grounded

Now, because there's not really anywhere else to put it, let's talk about the second world war.

Syldavia and Borduria are, in fact, a simile for Belgium and Germany, placed at in the days before the war, dressed in a southeastern European coat as they may be.

Now, how do I know this? Well, it's not exactly hard to deduce the Messerschmitt Bf-109s, the red flag with white circle and black symbol (though that was altered in late versions), even the name of the leader of the "Iron Guard", the group that orchestrated the whole thing, is named Müstler, a not-so-subtle portmanteau of Hitler and Mussolini./

That aside, I really like the use of a magazine as exposition, it feels like a natural way to convey the information.

Things I don't

This bit's kind of hard to write, as there's not really anything I obviously dislike, and so, guess what? that's right, it's nitpick time!

The professor blindly trusts Tintin

Tintin just happens to hear the professor being kidnapped over the phone.

Tintin doesn't die falling into a pile of hay, and also falls into the hay

Troublesome bits

As far as I can see, this book is entirely non-racist, However, I must remind you, I am not an expert in racism, and may have missed something.

Silly bits

Tintin visits a restaurant which would later move to London, and become a meeting-place for Soviet spies during the Cold War

The Thom(p)sons

Tintin's beard theft

Snowy just happens to fall on a parachute

Snowy steals from a museum

The Thom(p)sons destroy a chandler

Conclusion

This is it

Finally

Tintin feels like Tintin, and it only took 8 books

Highly recommended, go read

Sources

King Ottokar's Sceptre

Sigillography

The Voronov Plot

#include <stdio.h>#book review #tintin

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