Tintin Forums

He was in a huge hurry when unexpectedly meeting Tintin and Haddock at the start of the adventure. He practically did not want to speak with them at all. Why did he say a different hotel to them?
Was he trying to deliberately mislead them as he was there doing shady deals with Dawson and hence did not want any extra attention?
Was he in a hurry and simply said the wrong hotel?

He seems to be very hot and cold with Tintin and has a real unpredictable nature in the adventures they share, sometimes he has great respect for him other times he simply wants to kill him!!
As an acquaintance in real life you would really not know how to handle him at all!

Well, in my opinion Tintin has a lot of strange companions. His closest human friends look much older than him and have violent tempers. Captain Haddock drinks all the time even though he promised Tintin that he wouldn't in Crab with the Golden Claws. Calculus can be very sneaky (like in Picaros) and violent (like in Flight 714). Tintin is also friends with the Emir, who has conflicts with Sheikh Bab El Ehr and knows about the slave trade going on in Red Sea Sharks but doesn't do anything about it.

That is as good an explanation as any. When dealing with a reporter like Tintin who happens to have a high sense of ideals, you don't go around telling the likes of him that you are involved in the purchase of weaponry.

In "Black Gold" I seem to recall Muller attempting suicide because he could not face the Emir's torture chambers and the Emir himself seems to consider the process of putting him through a fair trial as complicated, tedious and a waste of time - just like Alcazar in "Broken Ear"!

Tintin sometimes makes me think of some real-life people who because they get to know a certain person socially and see their charm and good side, turn a blind eye to the sometimes odious crimes that they have committed: for example, I've heard of this woman who is in regular touch with a guy and says how pleasant and charming he is. She has expressed the wish of actually being with him when he is released from prison - where he is serving time for the murder of his girlfriend!

Alcazar probably did not want to attract any actual attention, since he was buying weapons and did not want anyone to know he was plotting another revolution.

Face it, Tintin is only friends with Alcazar due to their very up and down relationship in The Broken Ear. It's spelt out that he's no better (and certainly no worse) than Tapioca. Tintin only supports him because he knew him first and (in Pixaros) wants to save his friends; if he'd met Tapioca first the whole scenario would be different. And yes- if you wish to clinch an arms deal, the last thing you want is some nosy reporter. Alcazar was absolutely right to be cautious!

I agree with that. He was bying them from that Dawson feller, and he must have known that he was an illegal arms dealer (at least I think that he was an Illegal arms dealer), so of corse he woudn't want to attract any attention.

Legal or illegal, it's usually just good sense to keep your arms smuggling activities low key, since this can attract the attention of people who want to shut you down: activists or the enemies of those you're supplying the weapons to.

Frederick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War" includes a great account of the arms trade, its dangers and dealings with characters similar to Dawson.

If Alcazar were trustful and reliable for Tintin, perhaps another reason he is telling the wrong hotel is because he simply doesn't want to involve Tintin into a greater fuss. But that's if he's truthful, though.

Generally I agree to all comments that mentioned Alcazar simply wants to avoid Tintin sneaking into his shady business. Besides previously-mentioned thoughts, in either trustful or mistrustful to Tintin view, Alcazar wants to ward Tintin away from this for possibly many reason.