| “ | Tch. Look at these pretty little lovebirds. I could puke. I'll just keep jabbing away at them until they slip up. | „ |
| ~ Swan as Anya reads his mind during the interview |
Murdoch Swan is a minor antagonist in the manga and anime series Spy × Family, serving as the main antagonist of the "Admissions Interview" Arc. He is an Economics Teacher at Eden University, as well as the Housemaster of Dormitory 2, Cline Hall.
He is voiced in Japanese by Jin Urayama and by Christopher Wehkamp in the English dub.
What Makes him a Hate Sink?[]
- Murdoch is one of the primary reasons why most children who apply to Eden University cannot get enrolled, often trying to deliberately find weakpoints in the students, and making fun of them, which causes them to break down.
- Murdoch also presents himself to be a selfish, greedy, and arrogant man that constantly flaunts his position around, and uses this to try to keep Henderson at bay, threatening him with it.
- When Loid and Yor have Anya attend the application interview, Murdoch insists on insulting the Forger family all throughout.
- Murdoch most infamously questions Anya about very personal mental scars of hers, asking her if she prefers her previous mother (who is dead) over Yor. His reminding her of this makes her cry, and even still, Murdoch took great pleasure in her misery. Along with this, he tries to use her crying over the loss of her mother as an indication that she doesn't love Yor at all, and thus a reason why she shouldn't enroll in the school.
- As Loid and Yor are evidently angry at Murdoch for how he's cruelly treating Anya, Murdoch only eggs them on.
- In addition, the other Housemasters, Henderson and Evans, comment on how uncouth and unneeded his comments towards the Forgers are, meaning that his actions during the interview are portrayed negatively.
- Him causing Anya to cry causes Loid, who is usually stoic and calm, to lose his cool and attempting to punch him in the face instead punching the room's table. Henderson ultimately excuses this, as Loid inadvertently kills a mosquito, and he proceeds to punch Swan instead, meaning that Loid's attempt to assault him was portrayed positively.
- Murdoch also deems Yor to be a terrible wife, just because he is told that she doesn't cook for the family, which in part led to a major insecurity within her that she is a terrible wife.
- He indirectly almost caused Henderson to lose his job after the latter punched him in the face.
- It is implied that Murdoch had recently had a divorce with his wife around the time that he interviewed the Forgers, and lost his own daughter afterwards. This however doesn't justify any of his actions, as he seems to project his own misery onto the other children, and is implied to be jealous of the Forgers due to how stable they are as a family.
- Loid also points out how inept Swan really is at his job as an interviewer, and only has the position due to connections he has with the staff, being the only son of the university's former headmaster.
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 Hate Sinks
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Donna Schlag | Keith Kepler | Murdoch Swan | The Arsonist | ||