History Recap / TintinTheBlueLotus

* OpiumDen: The titular Blue Lotus.

* OutdatedOutfit: In the first and arguably the funniest instance of the Thom(p)sons doing this, they show up wearing 17th-century Qing-dynasty era robes, confident that they will blend right into a Chinese town. They then fail to notice an entire town parading behind them and laughing.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Gibbons.

* VillainHasAPoint: When Dawson turns Tintin over to the Japanese, Tintin protests that he is on neutral ground. Dawson then makes the perfectly legitimate point that since Tintin does not have papers allowing him to be in the settlement, Dawson has every right to throw him out - evil, yes, but he ''is'' correct.

** The comings and goings of Japanese armored cars don't appear either.

** The fakir, racist American businessman W. R. Gibbons and Police Chief of the Shanghai International Settlement Dawson do not appear.
** The comings and goings of Japanese armored cars.

** The fakir, racist American businessman W. R. Gibbons and Dawson do not appear.

** The part when Tintin is held in custody by British authorities, delivered to the Japanese and condemned to death has left cut as well.

* AdaptedOut:
** The fakir bit at the beginning of the album did not make it to the Ellipse-Nelvana animated series.
** Neither did racist American businessman W. R. Gibbons.

** Neother did racist American businessman W. R. Gibbons.

* AdaptedOut: The fakir bit at the beginning of the album did not make it to the Ellipse-Nelvana animated series.

[[/index]]

''The Blue Lotus'' picks up right where ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' left off, with Franchise/{{Tintin}} still staying as a guest of the Maharajah of Gaipajama. The story begins when Tintin is visited by an unknown Chinese man wanting to discuss matters of great importance with him. However, the man is hit by a dart containing the madness serum from the previous album and before losing his grip on reality [[HisNameIs only manages to tell Tintin that]] he must go to UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} and seek a man named Mitsuhirato.

* KidnappedByAnAlly: Wang Chen-Yee has his men kidnap Tintin while the latter is enroute to India because he needs Tintin's assisstance.

* InsaneEqualsViolent: After being averted in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', it's [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] here. Poison darts drive people insane, and the resultant madmen are childlike, silly and harmless... except for [[AxCrazy that one guy who develops a fixation with decapitation]].

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The books depicts Mitsuhirato as staging a thinly-disguised version of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident Mukden Incident]], thereby paving the way for Japan's occupation of Shanghai. And at the end it shows the fallout at the League of Nations, and Japan's delegates walking out.

* BiggerBad: Mitsuhirato's Japanese superior, seen conversing with him on the phone several times.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar and PublicSecretMessage: Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren, told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had military occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a BilingualBonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: ''Boycott Japanese products'', ''Abolish unfair treaties'' and ''Down with Imperialism''. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny and would make Hergé "world-famous".

* CloudCuckooLander: A Chinese businessman is hit by a dart dipped in Rajaijah, the ''poison of madness''. Later in the story Didi has also turned insane after being poisoned with Rajaijah. Tintin is injected with the stuff too by Mitsuhirato, but his butler changed it with water.

* DeusExMachina: This book is not nearly as bad about this as some of the earlier ones, but an agent of the Sons of the Dragon having replaced the insanity serum and tinkered with Mitsuhirato's gun and knife ''just'' when Tintin is captured is pretty darn convenient.

* InsaneEqualsViolent: After being averted in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', it's [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] here.. Poison darts drive people insane, and the resultant madmen are childlike, silly and harmless...except for [[AxCrazy that one guy who develops a fixation with decapitation]].

** Dawson isn't shown to receive any comeuppance at all for his actions in collaborating with Mitsuhirato, while the worst Gibbons gets is a night in the cells for supposedly giving misinformation to the Japanese.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The books depicts Mitsuhirato as staging a thinly-disguised version of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident Mukden Incident]], thereby paving the way for Japan's occupation of Shanghai.
** And at the end it shows the fallout at the League of Nations, and Japan's delegates walking out.

* TagalongKid: Chang.

* KarmaHoudini: The Fakir from the previous album becomes this in the redrawn version, escaping offpage, firing a dart filled with the insanity serum at Tintin's Chinese visitor and then never being mentioned again. In the original serial version, he is offhandedly mentioned as having been recaptured soon after.

** In the ComicStrip/{{Urbanus}} story ''De Tenor van Tollembeek'' Urbanus performs in China. One of the background characters is Tintin in his ''Blue Lotus'' outfit travelling by riskha.

* BlackBlood: When Tintin gets shot in the shoulder.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar and PublicSecretMessage: Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren, told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had military occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a BilingualBonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: ''Boycot Japanese products'', ''Abolish unfair treaties'' and ''Down with Imperialism''. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny and would make Hergé "world-famous".

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Three big and muscular cops are planning to beat Tintin up while he's safely in jail. We only see the aftermath; three cops in a hospital, covered in bruises and bandages.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The books depicts Mitsuhirato as staging the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident Mukden Incident]], thereby paving the way for Japan's occupation of Shanghai.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Dawson sends in two {{Giant Mook}}s to beat up Tintin. Cue ambulance being called...for the two men.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Dawson sends in two GiantMooks to beat up Tintin. Cue ambulance being called...for the two men.

* OffWithHisHead: Mr. Wang's crazy son is obsessed with doing this.

* MysteriousProtector: Mr. Wang's son briefly acts as this to Tintin, but [[FreakOut then he's poisoned with the insanity serum]]...

** Hergé was so grateful for Zhang Chongren's help that he named the character Chang Chong-chen after him ([[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName it's a different transliteration scheme]]).

* ShownTheirWork: Noted for this. It also takes the opportunity to debunk some inaccurate western stereotypes of China.

* ShoutOut: Hergé was so grateful for Zhang Chongren's help that he named the character Chang Chong-chen after him ([[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName it's a different transliteration scheme]]).