Connections With Other Books
Tintin telephones Professor Paul Cantonneau to warn him about the danger of falling victim to one of the crystal balls. He and Tintin had known each other in the expedition of The Shooting Star: Cantonneau had been on the receiving end of Tintin's suitcase, thrown down from the crow's nest by Philippulus the Prophet.
The nightmare of a South American native stalking a Westerner in his bedroom had been used before by Hergé in the original black-and-white publication of The Broken Ear (though it is not included in the present edition most commonly available today).
General Alcazar of The Broken Ear and Bianca Castafiore of King Ottokar's Sceptre also appear in the music-hall scenes. For Castafiore, this seems sharply at odds with all her other appearances in the Tintin series, where she is depicted as one of the world's leading operatic divas; not a music hall variety act. In a significant continuity error by the translators (which does not occur in the original version), Tintin observes that Castafiore "turns up" in unlikely locations, including "Syldavia, Borduria, and the Red Sea". At this point in the chronology of the series, Tintin has only met Castafiore once before, in Syldavia during the adventure King Ottokar's Sceptre. The adventures featuring Castafiore in Borduria (The Calculus Affair) and the Red Sea (The Red Sea Sharks) are in Tintin's future. Plus, Haddock appears to know Castafiore, yet he has never encountered her previously in the published series (however, he might have seen her at a previous evening at the Music Hall). Alcazar and Castafiore were to guest-star in other adventures, including Tintin and the Picaros.
The two boys, one blonde, the other dark-haired, who hide a brick in a hat as a prank on Captain Haddock, were quite likely inspired by Hergé's own Quick & Flupke, another pair of young troublemakers.
Read more about this topic: The Seven Crystal Balls
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