#part of me wants haddock as zorro because haddock with a sword is excellent

[tintinology]

ok so hear me out: Haddotin Zorro AU

I know this is like lowkey super niche, especially because I’m thinking of the 1919 book, not the movies, but I think this can really work!! Though tbh I can’t decide who I want more as Zorro, because I feel like both Tintin and Haddock could pull it off, since they’ve both got a strong sense of justice and wanting to do what’s right.

But consider this:

You’ve got double identities, Zorro pretending to be something completely different from his true personality during the day, then going out at night to stop bad guys and defend people who are being taken advantage of

You’ve got the love interest that feels absolutely nothing towards Zorro’s fake persona but who absolutely falls in love with dashing, flirty Zorro without making the connection between the two

And you’ve got a villain who’s obviously a criminal but who’s also interested in the love interest and absolutely despises Zorro and wants him dead. Whether or not he has further designs on the love interest (getting his hands on a buried treasure inside a particular estate for example) kinda depends on who the love interest is, I guess

And then the reveal at the end with the love interest confessing his love for Zorro and Zorro confesses to being the useless guy he initially despised, and now of course the love interest respects him because he sees what he’s truly like!!!!

Oh, and of course, there’s a useless policeman (or two in this case), whose whole mission is to capture Zorro and who are absolutely terrible at doing that, and coincidentally are also good friends with Zorro’s fake persona (which Zorro uses to get info that can help him catch criminals or evade the police)

As for who would be Zorro, like I said, both could work, though they’d obviously go about hiding their identity in different ways:

On one hand, Tintin as Zorro would probably have a super naive fake persona who acts that way to convince everyone he’s younger and less of a threat than he really is, and probably writes for a gossip or a fashion column, something that is seen as pretty inconsequential. But then at night he takes down bad guys and also exposes them publicly through a newspaper column that he writes anonymously. I could see him using his full name for his fake persona, and then going as ‘Tintin’ when wearing the mask (I don’t see the point of keeping the Zorro name really, cuz it wouldn’t make sense in this concept but whatever)

On the other hand, Haddock as Zorro would probably lean on everyone’s assumptions that he’s a useless drunk (in reality he drinks a lot less than he lets on) and his general fussiness about his appearance and inability to ride a horse convince everyone he’s kind of useless. Meanwhile Haddock is out every night hunting down criminals that take advantage of vulnerable people, maybe using Sir Francis’ outfits or his name at least to hide his identity