Which is more of a “warpath”
Blowing up a building with a canon while someone tries to actively stop you
Shooting a guy off a horse from great distance where he falls and breaks his arm
It's very much implied that Luke shoots the guy in the shoulder and the not fall breaking the arm. Luke is so pissed that he foregoes his usual gun practice. To me it's why it's so striking.
When I read the album I 100% interpreted it as the fall breaking the arm. Tbh even rereading the scene now, it doesn’t seem like a gunshot dressing on Tuco & the aim comment I took just to be about him stopping the guy. It’s not really Lucky Luke’s style to actually injure someone via shooting (as you mention) so it never really occurred to me that maybe he did this time. I am reading it in English though so I could be missing context if there was an original “arm for an arm” type of thing set up somewhere (even then I’d expect it to be a leg wound).
I admit it never occured me that it could have been interpreted that Tuco could have just injured himself fallin. Maybe Achdé and Jul framed it like that to keep if vague for the censors. I met Achdé a few years back and he did say that he intended to make it look like Luke had killed the guy for a sec.
That being said it is true that Bluch taking such a direct action on the headquarters is crazy warpath.
Hello, I'm here to remind you that Luke shot Phil Defer so accurately that he killed him crippled him for life by injuring his arm.
Achdé can be really dramatic and it's nice that he brings it sometimes in the Lucky Luke comics. Honestly the end of "Lone Riders" could have been totally different, if Ma wasn't there in time to rescue her boys.
