I hated the dynamic that The Emir had with his spoiled-rotten son, but loved when it sometimes backfired on him:
Straight out of the right wing ideological playbook, i.e. if it’s happening to other people, that’s fine, but when it happens to me, the sky is falling (to quote a different series).
So… when I was like 8 years old and first read Tintin I thought the bratty kid was hilarious. I was a lil ruffian myself but was kept in check by slaps and yellings. Seeing this kid who got away with everything was fascinating.
Now ofc I realize that such a kid would grow up to be one of those entitled but clueless nepo bros who still gets away with everything but is just making the world shittier.
Interesting…
When I was just a little younger, I didn’t react well to my family moving cross-country, and had an ‘acting out’ stage myself. My parents didn’t appreciate it to say the least, and I was quickly put back in line, becoming a lot more subdued in character. Frankly I became resentful of people like Abdullah, maybe because they could get away with it while I couldn’t. Or something like that.
I think maybe this stuff also hints at the genius of Hergé, who created easy-to-read, funny, satisfying adventures on one hand, but they were full of characters directly-inspired by many real-life people… riddled with flaws as they were. Few of even the greatest BD series really came close to that, from my readings.
yeah flawed characters are often more interesting than perfect ones. Haddock is more relateable than Tintin, Abdullah is more relateable than Chang, etc.
By Toutatis!
