What if Olrik had actually seen these people?
long headcanon texts warning
Olrik and Rastapoupolos are clearly only in it for the mutual benefit.
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In The Black Island, someone pointed out that the mustached man with the cigarette holder and crisp mannerisms was Olrik. I agree with that XD. SO he could have known Dr. Müller. But back then, Olrik was still in a "testing the waters" mindset when he joined that outfit, so he'd view the exposure of the counterfeiting scheme as a stain on his record—something that didn't look good on his résumé.
Later, Olrik probably escaped from prison. He didn't plan to keep running Nazi spy missions, so he parted ways with Müller. The two of them might not have crossed paths again until Land of Black Gold. Müller is definitely older than Olrik, and when he saw the former colonel again, he might have recognized him and thought, "Well, well—look who's all grown up." Olrik would have remembered who Müller was too, but he wouldn't have wanted to say hello—after all, that was an embarrassing chapter of his past he'd rather forget.
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I have a bold headcanon about Olrik, Jorgen, and Sponsz.
It started with an interview I read, where Mr. Aubin suggested that:
"Olrik looks like a Syldavian officer, with his center-parted hair and his mustache, shiny as his boots. He might have been Jorgen's comrade, and the two of them took part in the coup against King Muskar XII" (paraphrased).
So it makes sense that Olrik and Jorgen would have a good relationship. Jorgen served as the king's adjutant and kept the king in the dark. In my view, Olrik probably worked at a lower level, feeding Jorgen intelligence and handling basic covert work.
I've always thought that during The Secret of the Swordfish (1946–1947), Olrik was pushing forty—The Mystery of the Great Pyramid describes him as "a man in his thirties". Working backwards from that, in 1937, Olrik would have been under thirty, younger than Jorgen, so his rank probably wouldn't have been equal to Jorgen's. Through that connection, though, Olrik could have secured a less conspicuous position, making it easier to slip away after the coup failed. That also conveniently explains why he never shows up in the main Tintin storyline—he'd have packed his bags and run the moment he heard Tintin had entered the palace.
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I once read a really excellent fanfic about Jorgen and Sponsz, but I feel so sorry 'cause I honestly can't find the link anymore.
In my version of things, Sponsz was still a small-time spy from Borduria, younger than both Jorgen and Olrik. Jorgen reached out to him, so he called Olrik and Sponsz to a safe house for a meeting.
They had some drinks and smoked (Sponsz hadn't learned to smoke yet, so he was stuck breathing secondhand smoke from both of them), exchanging information. But then Jorgen suddenly remembered that Castafiore's performance was about to air, so he turned on the radio.
Jorgen listened to opera because, as the king's adjutant, he had to adopt the aesthetic sensibilities of high court society—opera was a mark of status, and he genuinely enjoyed cultivating that upper-class taste.
Olrik, as we all know, can be seen as a piece of Jacobs himself, so there's a natural pull toward opera for him. Jacobs was a baritone and an opera enthusiast. But Olrik didn't appreciate opera aria at first—he preferred the storytelling in operas over individual arias—but since Jorgen was playing the program, Olrik couldn't really refuse to listen. So he just sort of went along with it.
Sponsz saw a senior colonel appreciating opera, and a charismatic high official also seeming to quietly enjoy it, so he felt he needed to fit in. But the thing is, Sponsz actually fell for Castafiore's voice at first listen—he's one of the rare few in the Tintin universe who isn't terrified by her singing.
It's likely that Sponsz had never received any proper education in the arts before leaving military academy-until Jorgen played that piece. Castafiore might well have become his gateway soprano, the one who first awakened that sensibility in him.
So in that odd atmosphere, he absorbed that impression, and it later became a nostalgic reason why, after he became chief of the secret police, he went out of his way to court Castafiore's favor.
What's most interesting is that this neatly explains why Sponsz wears his monocle on the same side as Olrik, why he uses filtered cigarettes just like Olrik, and why his vengeful, sardonic, sometimes theatrical tendencies (like throwing glasses) feel so much like someone else's. He used to have a bit of a baby face, but he wanted to become that ideal of "imposing, elegant, and aggressive" officer he admired, so Jorgen and Olrik became his direct templates for imitation. This meeting actually makes a lot of sense.
