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Flight 714: Is Spalding truly a villain?

cigars of the beeper
Member
#1 · Posted: 8 Jun 2009 14:18
I find Spalding to be a rather interesting character. It seems to me that Carreidas did not just hire him to be a secretary, but also to just be a "yes man." Spalding always responds "Yes, Mr. Carreidas" whenever Carreidas tells him anything.
Now here's an interesting question: Is Spalding truly a villain, and is he actually bad? Carreidas was so rotten that he kind of demanded defiance (maybe Spalding wanted to quit, but Carreidas wouldn't let him?) and perhaps when Rastapopoulos came and offered him a large sum to hand Carreidas over, it was really impossible to refuse. I suppose, though, that Rastapopoulos made it impossible to refuse by threatening him with death or disgrace. Like he had planned to do with Dr. Krollspell, he had probably decided to eliminate Spalding when the job was done as well. What happened to Spalding? Did he (apparently) end up in exile on another planet like Allan and Rastapopoulos, or was he just dropped off somewhere where he belonged, like how Dr. Krollspell was sent back to Cairo (or India, as I believe it is stated in the French edition)?
mct16
Member
#2 · Posted: 9 Jun 2009 02:09
cigars of the beeper:
Is Spalding truly a villain, and is he actually bad?

In an interview with the Sunday Times in 1968, Herge is quoted as saying that Spalding was "an English public school man, obviously the black sheep of his family" which would imply a villain with no redeeming qualities.

My own view is that Spalding came from a good family and background - he may have been to Eton, Harrow, Oxford or Cambridge - which would explain his formal manner, stiff-upper lip and nice fashionable clothes. Can you blame Haddock for mistaking him for Carreidas when they first meet?

However, Spalding may have misspent his youth in some way and been cast out of his family, hence the term "black sheep". In need of money he would have had no choice but to work for Carreidas and put up with his insults and bossing around - which, as we see, did not improved his loyalty.

Thus, Rastapopoulos' offer of money, the opportunity for revenge on Carreidas and getting back at his family would have been very tempting.

cigars of the beeper:
I suppose, though, that Rastapopoulos made it impossible to refuse by threatening him with death or disgrace

cigars of the beeper:
Like he had planned to do with Dr. Krollspell, he had probably decided to eliminate Spalding when the job was done as well

When injected with the truth serum, Rastapopoulos states that he intended from the start to dispose of Spalding and all the other men who had participated in the kidnapping of Carreidas instead of paying them the large sums he had offered them. He makes no references to threats made towards his associates, simply empty promises.

cigars of the beeper:
What happened to Spalding?

I believe that the aliens dropped all the villains off in different parts of the world, but that Krollspell was the only one who had been found up to the point when the reporter mentions him while interviewing Tintin and co.

In the rough outlines he drew for his uncompleted "Tintin and Alph-Art", Herge indicates that Rastapopoulos is still on Earth, masquerading as a cult leader. If that is the case then Spalding may also have been found at some stage, also suffering from amnesia, and probably returned to his family. They, being upper-class toffs who were keen to avoid scandal, would have dumped him into some expensive mental clinic, where he would have been well taken care of for the rest of his life, no questions asked and good riddance.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#3 · Posted: 11 Jun 2009 01:06
Perhaps Spalding's family might have found the amnesia to be an improvement!
cigars of the beeper
Member
#4 · Posted: 15 Jun 2009 16:37
Could the reporter who shows up at Marlinspike Hall at the beginning of Picaros possibly be Spalding? He looks just like him, aside from the fact that he has no moustache, and he wears the same outfit. Perhaps Spalding just had a career change after being dropped off by the aliens.
John Welles
Member
#5 · Posted: 15 Jun 2009 20:23
An interesting theory. I always viewed Spalding as someone who had had enougth of being bossed around by Carreidas and decided to get his own back by helping him get kiddnapped by Rastapopoulos.
NikkiRoux
Member
#6 · Posted: 17 Jun 2009 11:49
cigars of the beeper:
Could the reporter who shows up at Marlinspike Hall at the beginning of Picaros possibly be Spalding?

Maybe. His chin and nose are slightly different and his hair's not very orange, but then, there were some changes to the appearances of many other characters in Picaros, including Tintin.
mct16
Member
#7 · Posted: 19 Jun 2009 17:13
NikkiRoux:
His chin and nose are slightly different and his hair's not very orange

Plastic surgery? It's just occurred to me that when he picked up Rastapopoulos and his associates, Mik Kanrokitoff faced a bit of a dilemma: he couldn't take them all the way to another planet and neither could he just hand them over to the local police.

After all, when Tintin and his friends are rescued and interviewed on TV they all assume that Spalding and Skut's co-pilots died in the "accidental crash" of the Carreidas plane. To have them turn up on the other side of the world, alive and well, but without any recollection of what happened would have led to too much speculation and investigation.

So it follows that Kanrokitoff would have whipped their memories and even altered their appearances. Spalding would have no recollection of his past and may have turned to journalism: when he goes to Marlinspike in "Picaros" he does not realise that he has already met Tintin, Haddock and Calculus, and they would not recognise him due to the surgery.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#8 · Posted: 21 Jun 2009 15:26
Perhaps Mik Kanrokitoff hypnotized Spalding into being a journalist.
mct16
Member
#9 · Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:00
Strange though that according to "Tintin and Alph-Art" Kanrokitoff failed to hypnotize Rastapopoulos into taking up a decent profession as well: in fact it indicates that he became a cult leader with a sideline in stolen paintings.
jock123
Moderator
#10 · Posted: 22 Jun 2009 19:57
mct16:
in fact it indicates that he became a cult leader with a sideline in stolen paintings.

It surely isn't anything like a done deal that Rastapopoulos is the baddie in Alph-Art, is it?
I know that it's a possibility, but I'd personally have been disappointed if it had been quite as obvious as that. Rastapopoulos remains missing, fate unknown - to me at least.

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