I’ve gotten WAY too invested in last month’s Treasure Planet AU, so here it is again! This time feat. Tintin undercutting Calculus’ expertise, Sakharine and Haddock about to go at it, and the Thom(p)son twins being “helpful”. :V
Haddock bursting out into tears after Tintin has almost gotten himself killed >>>> any other Haddotin trope
You’re bloody right.
I mean, it’s such a shame that Tintin never breaks, he’s just so zen and calm through the entire series. He’s got lots of heavy experiences on his shoulders, he’s got to break sooner or later
EXACTLY
And the moment he flies to the moon and is shocked to realize he’s afraid?! Yeah that’s the best! We need more of this
He has put so much pressure on himself without realizing it and he needs to break and let himself lose his control.
Like, he’s so young and I think that his attraction towards danger and adventures is a way to escape something else.
Psychologically speaking
Absolutely
And I think the fact he’s alone without family plays a big role in his recklessness and also his super calm and tough attitude, there’s no one else to rely on despite himself.
That’s why I believe his willingness to stay and return home in the last book is a big proof of his character development and his growth, he finally feels good to just stay somewhere instead of run away.
Yes, I think his independence and level of attraction towards danger is a result of a trauma that his family caused.
(I have an Headcanon in which his family disowned him or something)
And in the end he sort of trusts Haddock as a new family (or something close to it)
Please, explain it
Ok warning it’s long.
First of all let’s take Haddock’s design as not just side character but main character, the one who takes the lead in the narrative if the protagonist is missing. His main colors are blue and black, while Tintin has a warmer pallet with oranges and reds and browns and yellows and whites. Already it passes the message that they complete each other in colors and all the meanings the colors can take (color theory my beloved). Yeah, these are basic things when you design a main duo for your stories but that doesn’t mean they lose their importance and still underline the fact that they’re here to be together in every story otherwise it won’t be complete.
But now look again. The main symbol of Haddock is an anchor, you find it on his classic turtleneck sweater and even his hat. Of course it is because yeah he’s a captain but I’d like to take it one step further. Anchor is used for when a ship needs to stop we all know that. That’s exactly what Haddock does. He’s there to stop Tintin, a guy who never stops. Is that for the story’s best interest? No, usually it isn’t but that was never Haddock’s role in the first place. It is for his own and Tintin’s best interest. He’s there to remind him (and us) that they’re human and they have their doubts and fears. Tintin may never express them except in extreme situations but Haddock is there to do that and therefore to stop him when HE needs to, regardless if he listens to him or not.
And the anchor isn’t there just to stop the ship, is there to help it stop at a port, a stable point. This is the main thing Haddock does offer to a protagonist that never stops because there’s nowhere to stop. He shows him a port, a place they can stop and stay and this is Marlinespike and the life is offered there. Tintin may never asked for it but it is what he needs and follows him. But the port was never a prison. At any moment he can leave and start a new journey but the anchor goes with him to remind him he can stop and with his help stay again at the port.
So the symbol of anchor on Haddock isn’t for restraining Tintin (aka the ship in this symbolism) and his free spirit but to help him and accompany him to his journeys until it is time to finally stop, to remind him he has a place where he can call his port and he will be there to keep him there as long as he needs.
As if Haddock is there to stop Tintin before he harms himself (physically and spiritually).
It’s like if he sees the dark side of Tintin’s addiction to adventure and reminds him that he can stop because he has a place in which he can rest.
YES! Anchor and ship go always together as Haddock and Tintin always do, you can’t seperate them because they lose their use, anchor will rot somewhere and a ship will be lost. As Haddock is there to help Tintin not to get lost Tintin is there to help Haddock not rot.
Haddock bursting out into tears after Tintin has almost gotten himself killed >>>> any other Haddotin trope
You’re bloody right.
I mean, it’s such a shame that Tintin never breaks, he’s just so zen and calm through the entire series. He’s got lots of heavy experiences on his shoulders, he’s got to break sooner or later
EXACTLY
And the moment he flies to the moon and is shocked to realize he’s afraid?! Yeah that’s the best! We need more of this
He has put so much pressure on himself without realizing it and he needs to break and let himself lose his control.
Like, he’s so young and I think that his attraction towards danger and adventures is a way to escape something else.
Psychologically speaking
Absolutely
And I think the fact he’s alone without family plays a big role in his recklessness and also his super calm and tough attitude, there’s no one else to rely on despite himself.
That’s why I believe his willingness to stay and return home in the last book is a big proof of his character development and his growth, he finally feels good to just stay somewhere instead of run away.
Yes, I think his independence and level of attraction towards danger is a result of a trauma that his family caused.
(I have an Headcanon in which his family disowned him or something)
And in the end he sort of trusts Haddock as a new family (or something close to it)
Please, explain it
Ok warning it’s long.
First of all let’s take Haddock’s design as not just side character but main character, the one who takes the lead in the narrative if the protagonist is missing. His main colors are blue and black, while Tintin has a warmer pallet with oranges and reds and browns and yellows and whites. Already it passes the message that they complete each other in colors and all the meanings the colors can take (color theory my beloved). Yeah, these are basic things when you design a main duo for your stories but that doesn’t mean they lose their importance and still underline the fact that they’re here to be together in every story otherwise it won’t be complete.
But now look again. The main symbol of Haddock is an anchor, you find it on his classic turtleneck sweater and even his hat. Of course it is because yeah he’s a captain but I’d like to take it one step further. Anchor is used for when a ship needs to stop we all know that. That’s exactly what Haddock does. He’s there to stop Tintin, a guy who never stops. Is that for the story’s best interest? No, usually it isn’t but that was never Haddock’s role in the first place. It is for his own and Tintin’s best interest. He’s there to remind him (and us) that they’re human and they have their doubts and fears. Tintin may never express them except in extreme situations but Haddock is there to do that and therefore to stop him when HE needs to, regardless if he listens to him or not.
And the anchor isn’t there just to stop the ship, is there to help it stop at a port, a stable point. This is the main thing Haddock does offer to a protagonist that never stops because there’s nowhere to stop. He shows him a port, a place they can stop and stay and this is Marlinespike and the life is offered there. Tintin may never asked for it but it is what he needs and follows him. But the port was never a prison. At any moment he can leave and start a new journey but the anchor goes with him to remind him he can stop and with his help stay again at the port.
So the symbol of anchor on Haddock isn’t for restraining Tintin (aka the ship in this symbolism) and his free spirit but to help him and accompany him to his journeys until it is time to finally stop, to remind him he has a place where he can call his port and he will be there to keep him there as long as he needs.
Haddock bursting out into tears after Tintin has almost gotten himself killed >>>> any other Haddotin trope
You’re bloody right.
I mean, it’s such a shame that Tintin never breaks, he’s just so zen and calm through the entire series. He’s got lots of heavy experiences on his shoulders, he’s got to break sooner or later
EXACTLY
And the moment he flies to the moon and is shocked to realize he’s afraid?! Yeah that’s the best! We need more of this
He has put so much pressure on himself without realizing it and he needs to break and let himself lose his control.
Hmm does anyone have any cute or nice headcanons? My mood is just yeah…
They equally like to be held as they sleep. Tintin, in particular, during storms (Headcanon that connects to him being afraid of thunders after the war), and Haddock after they have sex;
They adopt a baby who is a redhead just like Tintin;
(trans Tintin implied) Tintin actually doesn’t hate wearing dresses and skirts, but simply dislikes how feminine he looks in them; so he shows Haddock the dress he used to love when he was twenty (I have an actual picture of the dress I have in mind);
Haddock absolutely melts when Tintin wears said dress;
Tintin has lots of hidden scars (because reckless bastard and after top surgery) and Haddock makes sure to kiss any of them when he has the occasion;
Haddock has tattoos that usually get hidden by his clothes, but Tintin absolutely gets hypnotised once he sees them (his favourite is the one composed by blue wavy lines on Haddock’s left shoulder and shoulderblade);
Tintin definitely tried to draw Haddock’s tattoos;
Their baby is called Solange Isobel Haddock;
Said baby basically speaks five languages (learned by her parents);
When they’re having an argument and Tintin is done with arguing, he starts talking in Flemish because he knows that Haddock would break into a smile and eventually will stop being mad;
On the other hand, Haddock only needs to be soft and gentle around Tintin to get the reporter to stop being mad (he has a soft spot for any kind of sincere affection).
OH GOD THESE ARE SO SWEET AND WHOLESOME!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH THESE BROUGHT A SMILE TO MY FACE
Following the South America trip, Tintin moves - whether gradually or immediately isn’t clear - to live in Marlinspike Hall, attaining roots, companionship and domestic peace that he’s never had before (and sometimes doesn’t seem all that keen on).
At the start of ‘Destination Moon’ he and Haddock have returned to Marlinspike from a ‘trip’ somewhere of at least 3 weeks duration, apparently purely for relaxation. It is good that they are now so comfortable in each other’s company, because the Moon trip throws them together in a situation of claustrophobic intimacy anyone would find hard to cope with.
Their attachment to each other, however, seems stronger than ever. When Tintin is severely injured by a blow to the head, Haddock is gripped with such retributive rage that he tears a chair apart, and insists on waiting at Tintin’s side through what appears to be long weeks of recovery. When Tintin does emerge (against doctor’s orders), Haddock keeps a careful hold on him. Tintin shows a reciprocal concern when Haddock’s spacesuit test goes awry.
Tintin’s concern for Haddock is such, in fact, that when they reach space and Haddock attempts, whilst drunk, to leave the rocket, Tintin goes out into the void to rescue him, at severe risk to himself. The emotional intensity causes him to shout angrily at Haddock, a rare show of unbridled feeling. But it is Tintin’s sheer panic at the end of ‘Explorers’, when Haddock remains unconscious after the landing, that most strongly demonstrates how far they’ve come - his detachment about Haddock’s fate back in ‘Crab with the Golden Claws’ seems from other people in another world.
Not surprisingly after all this, Haddock expresses a sincere wish in ‘Calculus Affair’ to retire from adventures and remain in the countryside, and here we see the first real glimpses of their new domestic set-up at Marlinspike, the two of them sharing breakfast and going on country walks together. Then international intrigue arrives, as ever, and Tintin determines to set off to Geneva - ‘And I suppose you think I’ll let you go alone?’ Haddock demands, which brings a smile to Tintin’s face. Tintin’s days of undertaking the bulk of his adventures solo are most definitely at an end.
Haddock is no more keen to follow Tintin to Khemed in ‘Red Sea Sharks’, but follow he does, after another sight of their ‘off-duty’ life where they visit the local cinema and spend the evening in town. In this adventure Haddock is, for the first time since ‘Rackham’, able to display his own particular expertise at the helm of a ship.
It is the events of ‘Tintin in Tibet’ which put the friendship under its greatest-ever strain. Thus far, Haddock has joined Tintin at least nominally in order to help mutual acquaintances - Calculus, the Emir, Calculus again (and again!) - but now Tintin’s quest is devoted to a person Haddock has never met, a person indeed who represents Tintin’s single other most important human friendship.
And yet Haddock meets Tintin’s determination with his own; his need to stay at Tintin’s side and protect him at all costs, even to sacrificing his life to save Tintin’s, as he tries to do when they run into difficulties climbing a mountain roped together. Repeatedly, Haddock shouts that he will not follow Tintin another step, and yet repeatedly he appears again, shortly after, following all the same.
‘Either we’re both saved or we die together!’ Tintin declares during the life-line incident; he will risk his own life and Haddock’s life for Chang, but in the end he - once the ultimate loner - cannot seem able to contemplate life without Haddock any more.
When, after collapsing on the mountainside and being taken to a monastery, they are reunited, Haddock rushes to draw Tintin into a hug. He’s still not sure about following Tintin further, and yet he does - ‘Rumbling Thunder,’ the Grand Abbot tells him, ‘you have the faith that moves mountains’. This we see again when Haddock decides to trust Tintin’s telepathic ‘voices’ in ‘Flight 714’.
Tintin and Haddock are now well-established as a unit. In ‘Castafiore Emerald’ Castafiore, inviting herself to stay with Tintin, seems to assume Tintin has as much say over what goes on at Marlinspike as Haddock does, and General Tapioca in ‘Picaros’ does not hesitate to locate Tintin with Haddock in ‘their mansion’. Fascinatingly, in this, their last published adventure, it is Tintin who wishes to stay at Marlinspike rather than depart to confront danger on all sides. This is symbolised, perhaps, by the sight of him on the first pages petting the Marlinspike siamese cat, Snowy’s one-time antagonist and symbol of the settled, domestic existence Haddock has brought to Tintin’s life.
Indeed, like Snowy and the siamese, whose early fights resolve into a united front against disturbers of the peace, Tintin and Haddock have developed from individuals who seem only to mutually antagonise, to one unit. They have changed and grown together, and seem destined to remain companions for life, in lives they owe, in many ways, to each other.
Above we see the very first time that Tintin ever sees Captain Archibald Haddock
This first meeting does not bode well; Tintin hits Haddock (accidentally) with some planks of wood and then his feet, and Haddock falls into drunken melancholy and starts crying. The rest of ‘Crab with the Golden Claws’ unfolds with Haddock alternately attacking Tintin whilst under the influence, or ruining his stratagems to foil the villains. Little wonder, then, that when the Foreign Legion rescue them from the desert, Tintin asks quite calmly of the commander, with every appearance of detachment, ‘Oh! Did they find my friend too?’
That Haddock will assume a position of emotional centrality in Tintin’s life is not something he, or the reader, would yet credit.
At the end of ‘Crab’, Tintin and Haddock go apparently separate ways, the latter moving to chair the Society of Sober Sailors (!) and Tintin not apparently looking to contact him when he discovers the impending end of the world in ‘Shooting Star’. But when Tintin spearheads the mission to find the fallen meteorite, Haddock is selected (by him?) to captain the vessel that will take them there.
It is here, in ‘Shooting Star’ that another side of Haddock emerges; the competent, confident sailor and commander of men. Tintin lurches around the deck during a ‘gale’ on the voyage only to find Haddock merrily at the wheel, enjoying what he calls ‘a nice little breeze’, short before his quick reactions save the S.S. Aurora from a collision. For the first time, Tintin is impressed by his acquaintance, and actually in his debt rather than the other way round.
Also, for the first time, Haddock gets to look after Tintin, carefully shepherding him down from the ship’s bridge when Tintin faints from exhaustion.
Still, however, Tintin undertakes the bulk of the adventuring - most of the final 1/3rd of the book - alone. This pattern will continue into ‘Secret of the Unicorn’, even though by this point theirs is a friendship worthy of the name.
By the time of ‘Unicorn’, Haddock is living near Tintin in the city, and they seem to drop in on each other frequently, to the point where Tintin knows Haddock’s landlady. Tintin buys Haddock the gift of a model galleon for no particular reason beyond that he wants to - a certain affection not in evidence before.
Again, Tintin is alone as the final showdown begins (not by choice - he was kidnapped), but unlike in the two previous books, Haddock actively turns up to help him rather than being a spectator. In fact, Haddock saves Tintin’s life when one of the Bird brothers try to shoot Tintin from behind.
They are, understandably, side by side throughout their quest in ‘Red Rackham’s Treasure’, though when at the end of the adventure Haddock moves into Marlinspike Hall, it would seem they are not yet at a point where it seems natural or inevitable for Tintin to live there too.
He’s seen visiting Haddock (and Calculus) in Marlinspike at the start of ‘Seven Crystal Balls’, an event which by their reactions is not uncommon but not that frequent either. Haddock has started affecting to be a country squire, and treats Tintin to a night at the music-hall, with the most expensive seats in the house; wealth and property have given him social status. Haddock is side by side with Tintin as they fall into a shoot-out with Calculus’ kidnappers; he is starting to have some of his own legitimacy as an action hero.
Although they’ve taken each other’s arms from the first, to draw attention or pull away from danger, the first interaction between Tintin and Haddock that can really be characterised as a ‘hug’ takes place at the start of ‘Prisoners of the Sun’, when Haddock reassures Tintin that Calculus will be found, and puts an arm round him. When they are separated for ‘many hours’ after coming ashore near Callao, the reunion is joyful, and Haddock grabs hold of Tintin in his delight. Their importance to each other has undoubtedly increased, and leads to one of the most overtly emotional moments in the whole series, when - believing Tintin has died falling into a waterfall - Haddock and their guide Zorrino weep together.
In the Temple of the Sun it appears - for far from the last time - that Tintin and Haddock will die as they have increasingly begun to live: side by side. When Tintin realises this may not be so, he takes the Captain’s hands and dances with him.
Indeed, their relationship has much further to go yet - in the literal and perhaps also the metaphorical sense, to the moon and back…
my friends jokingly suggested a modern reboot of tintin and we realised it would only a) highlight how messed up tintin’s situation is and b) show how little the world has really changed in the last century
have a peek into my sketchbook. click pictures for captions
