Tintin Forums

Hi. I'm curious about something that Rastapopoulos says in The Red Sea Sharks.

On page 35 (I'm not sure if he say it on page 35, but I think that it’s most likly on that page), while Rastapopoulos (who, right now in the book, is in disguise as someon else – I don't really remember what his disguised name was) is looking at Tintin and Co., who are on the raft after being attacked by the Arabic Navy, and he mentions Captain Haddock by name.

My question is: how does Rastapopoulos know who Captain Haddock is?

Does it have somthing to do with the original order of the seires? I doubt it, because the only other time that Haddock really got intertwined with Rastapopoulos was inFlight 714 to Sydney, and they never really meet again, because he was capturd by ET (unless Endaddine Akass from Tintin and Alph-art was Rastapopolus?).

Or did he hear about him from Calculus’s moon mission? Surely the story from Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon would get some attention from the media?

Of course, these are just assumptions. Does anybody know any other reasons that Rastapopoulos might know Captain Haddock?

I think Rastapopoulos is dressed as Lucifer, the way the devil would have been portrayed in an old stage play for instance.

I imagine that after getting out of jail after "Blue Lotus", Rastapopoulos made enquiries about Tintin and found out about him living and having adventures with Haddock. Not just the Moon adventure, but also the media attention that would have followed the bust-up of the drug smuggling operation in "Crab", the meteorite expedition in "Shooting Star" and the treasure hunt in "Red Rackham" (Tintin and Haddock get a lot of unwanted publicity in that episode).

Rastapopoulos strikes me as the sort of villain who keeps himself well-informed, especially regarding his enemies. Making enquiries about Tintin would have led him to learning a lot about his friends as well.

I would assume that Rastapopoulos knew of the Captain - like mct16 said, he would want to keep well-informed.

Also, Allan is his right-hand man; it's easy to picture that Allan would've told him about the events of Crab With the Golden Claws; if the redrawn version of Cigars of the Pharaoh is any indication, we know that they were in cahoots from the start, so Rastapopoulos would've probably heard everything about the Karaboudjan and what transpired there/in Bagghar.

Even if you don't take the redrawn Pharaoh as canon, you can still easily see Allan telling Rastapopoulos all about it--if for no other reason than to warn him of the potential trouble the Captain can cause once allied with Tintin!

I think the question of Rastapopoulos's "name" and his "disguise" are two spearate matters.

He is known in the book as the Marquis di Gorgonzola: there is nothing (as far as I can remember) to say that this isn't a title which is actually his to use; he may have been honoured, or inherited a title, or even bought it. So we can't say that he is actually pretending to be the Marquis – he might be a marquis.

As for his fancy-dress, he is presumably dressed as Mephistopheles, the demon from Faust (although the character is often identified as a personification of the Devil, he is in fact a servant of the Devil who collects damned souls); this chimes with the presence of La Castafiore, as in the opera Faust it is Mephistopheles who delivers the mirror and jewels about which Marguerite (Castafiore's signature rôle) sings the Jewel Song.

Mephistopheles is also a singing part, and as such it is intriguing to speculate that Rastapopoulos might have been prepared to favour the assembled company with a rendition of a number, perhaps The Golden Calf, his character's drinking song from Act II of Gounod's opera.

If you read the full passage of where Rastapopoulos first sights Tintin and co, he thinks to himself "By Lucifer!... Tintin and the bearded sailor" - he doesn't call Haddock by name - "But what about the message Mull Pasha just sent me?" This proves Rastapopoulos had been aware of their presence.

Alcazar gives their names to Dawson after his wallet is returned, after which they were tracked by the villains of the book, so I think Rastapopoulos had been alerted quite early on that Tintin and a bearded sailor were on the case. It doesn't necessarily mean he'd heard of Haddock from other adventures, it could have been from circumstances within the book itself.

You have very good points there, but, Oh well, I wouldn't really know....For, I haven't really read any of the books except for the Red Sea Sharks (And also the old cartoon of Flight 714)...But, very good points!

I agree with Harrock n roll. As head of the whole smuggling group, Rastapopoulos would have heard that Tintin was causing trouble (another reason why Tintin can't get into Wadesdah?). Since Rastapopoulos hears of Tintin, we can infer that Rastapopoulos finds out about Haddock, who was with Tintin. Additionally, Mull Pasha, or Dr. Mueller, knows who Captain Haddock is,so he could have passed on the information to Rastapopoulos.

Another good point: Rastapopoulos gets a message that "Parasites 1 and 2 are in the bag." When Rastapopoulos decodes the message, he says, "I know who they are!" It is clear that Parasites 1 and 2 are Tintin and Haddock. Therefore, Rastapopoulos knows who Haddock is!

Well, that makes sense. Rastapopoulos would probably keep an eye on Tintin, especially after there previouse run-ins.