While he is thought to play a significant role in the final instalment, the posthumously published
Tintin and the Alph-Art (disguised as Endaddine Akass), Hergé’s narrative remains unfinished, leaving Rastapopoulos’ true fate undetermined. Tintin’s foe is left on a perennial cliffhanger – perhaps the ultimate form of punishment for a villain as vengeful as he.
The Hergé hoodwink
Tintin’s adventures across the world are fraught with danger. In many of Hergé’s tales, Tintin dupes his nemeses, but perhaps the greatest hoodwink of all comes from the author himself, and his attempts to misdirect readers along the way.
In much the same way as Tintin is misled, to the reader, villains appear at first to be trusting. Rastapopoulos is a prime example, convincing Tintin he is an ally before revealing his true intentions at the end of
The Blue Lotus. This is the first of many cases of mistaken identity.
Rather than simply repeating the same formula with other villains, he reintroduces Rastapopoulos throughout the series, disguising him from the reader until the last moment – often as peculiar characters, like the decadently garbed Marquis di Gorgonzola in
The Red Sea Sharks.
Rastapopoulos enlists the help of fellow villains like Mitsuhirato, in
The Blue Lotus, who pulls the wool yet again over Tintin’s eyes, feeding him false information and pointing him in the wrong direction.
Hergé also misleads his audience with the help of fumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson. Readers follow the pair on a continual hunt for the wrong man, making the life of crime-solving ever-more difficult as they send themselves, and Tintin, on a series of wild goose chases.
Faced with villain after villain in the continued face of danger, Tintin’s overtly optimistic outlook diverts readers’ attention from the serious environments and issues he faces – this, in and of itself, is arguably Hergé’s ultimate hoodwink.
The HOCA Foundation, in collaboration with The Hergé Museum, presents THE WORLD OF TINTIN
Wednesday – Sunday, 17 November – 10 December at the new ArtisTree. Due to popular demand, the exhibition will be open daily from 11 – 26 December.
See the Tintin
programme page for more details.
Follow @artistreehk on Instagram for all the #tintin_Artistree action
ARTISTREE