In the first plot of “What Ever Happened to Donald Duck?!”, we see Lunaris taking advantage of Donald’s accidental launch to the Moon by integrating it into his plans for invasion. He uses this as proof that Della’s kind was plotting to attack them all along and claims that Donald is advocating for the death of their people. They seize the sailor and send him on his way to a prison cell. As the Moonlanders cheer, Lunaris takes the time to give Penumbra credit. He awards her so-called act of heroism by promoting her rank to captain. Penny immediately expresses how uncomfortable she is with receiving this promotion through lying but Lunaris sets her worries at ease.
“You’re a hero again. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Once thrown into his cell, Donald goes right into finding a way out. One of his attempts to escape results in hitting his head against a wall. Donald notices that this had caused a crack to form and constantly hits his head to widen it. He’s forced to stop himself when Lunaris and Penumbra suddenly arrive. The general is thrilled about how hard everyone is working to help his plans come into fruition, but Penumbra is deeply concerned about the safety of her people. She doesn’t believe they’re ready for war; they may not even be properly prepared for what Earth has in store for them but Lunaris ignores this and shows confidence that they will succeed.
After Lunaris leaves, Penumbra breaks Donald out and gets him to help her find the Spear’s blueprints so she can find a way to stop the invasion. She tells him to meet with her in Lunaris’ hanger by crawling through the vents. While on his way, he overhears an announcement about a suspected Earth spy perimeter breach turning out to be nothing more than…a beast in the ventilation system! Donald quickly finds himself struggling to keep quiet as he’s being chased by a glowing, green scorpion-like creature with piercing red eyes. He gets stuck in an opening as the creature closes in on him…
Instead of harming Donald, it crawls inside of his shirt and causes him to fall through the ceiling of a dorm room full of sleeping soldiers! He does his best to keep them asleep by rocking them and swatting the scorpion away, but this doesn’t last for long. Before the soldiers can attack him, the scorpion creature crawls back up his shirt and causes him to knock them all out without even trying. Completely missing out on this, Penumbra shows up to see what all the commotion is about. She’s astonished by Donald’s fighting abilities.
When Penumbra and Donald reach the hangar, she sternly warns the duck not to touch anything. A bit annoyed by this, Donald goes to lean against a wall but fazes entirely through it. He had accidentally stumbled upon Lunaris’ secret war room! They soon discover that he has a ton of info on Earth dwellers and locations in his digital archives: The Doomsday Vault, Scrooge’s family, Scrooge’s allies, his enemies, The Money Bin, practically all of Duckburg and even HE knows Fenton is Gizmoduck!
They also find out that he’s been planning the invasion before Della got there! Through video recordings, they see how he had been previously developing a launching device to send him to Earth, but it was proven to be too dangerous. The Spear allowed for a much safer travel and a quicker takeover. Time is running out! Penumbra finds a communication device and instructs Donald to send a transmission to Earth to warn his family, but she is cut off as a strong electrical shock suddenly pulses through her body and causes her to collapse.
The new captain attachment Penumbra was given in the beginning of the episode was actually a shocking device for if she rebelled. Lunaris appears and throws Donald at the launching device. The general then jumps over and gets in the way of Donald reaching the highest point of it. During this struggle, the Moonlanader explains that while others would usually target Scrooge himself, he’s aiming to threaten the kids first to break his spirit. The thought of his nephews being harmed puts Donald in a raging fit! He attacks Lunaris and manages to bypass him. Donald gets a strong enough signal to complete his goal, but Lunaris soon breaks the communicator afterwards. Donald then slides into the dangerous launcher to escape back to Earth.
On Earth, Dewey bursts into Scrooge’s home office and claims that he’s uncovered a conspiracy about someone missing from the family. He believes that there is an unknown fourth nephew named Phooey Duck. This is a reference to how some Disney Duck comic book artists tend to draw an additional brother by accident. Scrooge dully informs Dewey that the extra egg is actually just a mustard stain. Webby then comes in and shares that there are geographical points on the McDuck family tree, leading to the silver sporran of Clan McDuck. She describes this discovery as “the greatest family secret of all time”, but Scrooge already found the lost item years ago. The businessman criticizes the kids when they continue to make something big out of the stain on the photo. He says adventure has to call to you; they can’t just go around making up mysteries. But they can’t help it! Now that Della is back home, they’re eager to solve another family mystery that’s on-par with the Spear of Selene.
The Papian Prophecy stone is in view as Scrooge tells the kids to settle down.
Webby and Dewey soon overhear Huey stating that Donald’s postcard was never received. Dewey invites his brother to a detective themed version of his Dewey Dew-Night set-up to learn more about the situation. They insist that Donald could have gone missing but Huey downplays this idea. It’s hard to get mail delivered to a boat, there’s no case to be solved. Dewey and Webby ignore him and start their investigation. They begin with climbing into a box to ship themselves to the destination of the rejected postcard, but fall out the bottom as soon as the mail carrier lifts it up.
The mail carrier’s visit reveals that Donald’s never changed his mailing address after moving the houseboat into Scrooge’s pool. All of his mail has been piling up at the pier. As Dewey and Webby look through the heap they were given, they notice that Donald’s letters are all coming from the same mysterious source. One of which, was written in a threatening manner from a guy who goes by the name of “Jones”. The kids begin to wonder if Donald is possibly being blackmailed or if he’s running away from this person. They run off to the address to save him
Outside of the apartment, Dewey freaks out over a cockroach when it flies onto his face. This feels similar to Donald's fear of the scorpion creature. and both feel a little like Della's encounter with the mite.
As they devise a plan to get into the office, Webby comes up with a backstory involving a greedy developer and a quest for the missing half of a broken heart locket. As Webby distracts Jones, Dewey breaks in as a spy. Webby slips away to catch up with him and they inspect a secret folder together. Similarly to Lunaris, Jones has documented every misfortune Donald’s been through. Could this man be behind it all? When Dewey refers to Donald as his uncle, Jones immediately takes the kids and locks them in the closet. As Dewey tries to break them out, Webby speculates.
“Who is Jones working for? The Beagle Boys? F.O.W.L.? *Gasp* Oh, I bet it’s those greedy land developers trying to ruin everyone’s summer!”
Eventually, the door begins to turn from the other side. The kids brace themselves for an attack but it’s just Scrooge. Was he in on all of this too? Scrooge provides some clarity as he explains that Jones is Donald’s anger management counselor. He had been coming to Jones’ office to cope with his hardships. After adopting the boys, Jones helped Donald to channel his anger into helping him be a good parent. The threatening letter wasn’t about wanting to harm Donald, Jones just wanted him to pay his bills.
As Scrooge and the kids leave the office, Webby admits that Scrooge was right. They shouldn’t have been jumping to conclusions for the sake of wanting a mystery to happen. But Dewey looks on the bright side of their failed adventure. He’s glad that they got to learn something new about Donald and now have a better understanding of his behavior. In spite of this discovery, Webby still wonders what could have caused Huey’s postcard to be returned. At this very moment, Scrooge receives Donald’s transmission on his cellphone, but the message is full of static. Scrooge completely misses the part about the invasion and just passes on the news that he’ll be home in another month as Donald passes by in the sky.
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This episode contains another example of an achievement being gained through lying. We’re also given another example of a character experiencing head trauma. Both of these elements create a connection to what was presented in “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!” and could add on to the belief that the father went through these things. The parallel suggested by “Golden Spear” about Della’s departure from the Moon, seems to be proven even further with the shot of the rockets being prepared. Lunaris claims that she betrayed them on purpose, but we know what really happened. The Emergency Launch was activated, and the Spear was her only way of getting back home. There was something else going on that the Moonlanders were unaware of. She never meant to come off as neglectful towards them or her family. If there truly is a pattern going on, this increases the possibility of Scrooge’s test run claim being false as well.
Both of these fleets were intended to follow after Della. This could also be reflective of how Della used the original Spear to follow after the father.
Having Dewey and Webby side of the story focused on how eager they are to solve another mystery on a missing family member, makes it really hard to believe the show isn’t going to discuss the father’s whereabouts next. The whole plot started off with a conspiracy about someone who has to do with HDL’s eggs. The kids keep hyping up their search and hope that whatever they discover is on-par with the Spear of Selene. The father is one of the greatest mysteries in the Disney Duck lore so figuring out what happened to him would be a pretty big deal.
The mustard stain on the photo reminds me of Launchpad’s quote in “B.U.D.D.Y”, where he asks Dewey about which stained shirt he should choose. As a color, mustard is often considered a darker shade of yellow and the two chauffeuring shirts he holds in this scene fall into that range. Mustard is often associated with hotdogs and hotdogs are one of Launchpad’s favorite foods. In a short, he mentions getting sick after eating too many of them and a majority of the time when we see him with one, it’s topped with mustard. While the hotdogs used in “Beagle Birthday” didn’t have any toppings on them, they were tied to yellow life vests. A flock of seagulls flew away with them and later tried to do this with Louie.
As Dewey struggles to find something important about the mustard stain and the family tree, it goes into talking about ghost peppers. Like previous mentions of zombies, this could be in reference to how the father is suspected to be dead. This also reminds me of the scene in “Castle” where Della’s riddle leads the boys to Donald’s tomb. Because of this, they briefly wonder if their uncle may be a ghost during the same episode where Launchpad is dressed as Donald. Dewey claims that Beakley hasn’t bought ghost peppers in years and it’s more than likely that the father hasn’t been seen in years either.
Dewey and Webby’s short-lived detective agency could be representing how Della was secretly conducting an investigation of her own. The kids first present themselves as detectives with a starry night background and a full moon. Their first plan to solve the mystery is to send themselves to the destination on Donald’s postcard and figure out what went wrong. Webby’s false persona could be based on the father being disingenuous about himself and the broken heart locket could represent how Della was looking for someone she had feelings for. The portion about the greedy developers may be hinting at interference from a third party and the destruction of Scrooge’s bottle-sized Money Bin might be signifying how Della’s desire to conclude her investigation ultimately took a toll on his company.
I'm not counting on it being intentional, but the "Not Dewey" song reminds me a little of the "Not Launchpad" scene from "B.U.D.D.Y." that may have been hinting about LP being more than one person
Jones has a lot of information about Donald on file in a similar manner to Lunaris having information on so many people. One of the file’s contents is a colored photo of Donald with the Spear in the background.
From an in-universe standpoint, this doesn’t make any sense. How would this picture have been taken if Donald didn’t know the Spear was being built? Could this be another thing Scrooge wasn’t aware of? Was this in reference to Donald actually being gone because of the Spear? Or was this really meant to be another placeholding thing since he’s the closest known character we have to HDL’s father? If Donald had previously known about the Spear, he wouldn’t be willing to take a picture with it. And why wouldn’t the kids want to question the photo after making comparisons to Della’s disappearance?
The dates in the file reminds me of the Spear’s manual and may be referring to production codes:
“11/11/21” “11/11/22” “11/12” “11/13”
Season 2, Episode 11: “The 87 Cent Solution!”
Season 2, Episode 12: “The Golden Spear!”
Season 2, Episode 13: “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”
Season 2, Episode 21: “Timephoon!”
Season 2, Episode 22: “GlomTales!”
“010”, Season 2, Episode 10: “The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!”
“270”, 207?, Season 2, Episode 7?: “What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!”
If this is true, it seems to suggest that not only will these episodes have to do with “Happened to Donald”, but the ones paired together, may relate to one another in some way.
Jones’ role may be loosely based on the intervening third party that may have been getting in the way of Della’s relationship with the father. The kids initially see the counselor as threatening and think he’s the one causing Donald’s misfortunes. Since he shares a similarity with Lunaris through his suspected behavior and extensive knowledge, perhaps this third party was also very knowledgeable and had secret intentions to harm Scrooge’s family. If the father was tricked into working for this group, he could have realized this later on and had his own confrontation with one of its members. Could he have been blackmailed into following through? Did he hop in the spacecraft early to escape? Or was he shoved in there against his will after the launch was initiated?
The scorpion creature chasing Donald in the vents makes me want to believe that this is based on an encounter the father had in the cosmic storm. And because of how it causes him to fight off the soldiers, out of his control, this makes me wonder if the father was using an invention or mystical item that improved his skills.
This episode continues an interesting pattern with calls where they’re either met with reluctance or have difficulty getting through. Donald’s failed warning reminds me of how Della was met with a lot of static during her mayday in the Spear. The way she responded seemed to imply that she could have been having a hard time receiving messages ever since she boarded the rocket. Donald’s mail getting returned and held up at his old address feels reminiscent of how Della sent tons of transmissions to Earth, but they were never seen by her family. This pattern could contribute to the idea of the father trying to contact Della and how the message could have been affected by a poor connection. Maybe he was letting her know that he was on his way home or that he needed help in the storm. Maybe he was trying to warn Della about the third party upon his arrival.
Webby's disappointment could represent how Della may have felt after she failed to solve the father's mystery.
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In the beginning of “Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!”, Scrooge has a strong feeling that something is wrong in the mansion. He opens up a door to see Webby defending her friends, Lena and Violet, from a wild bear. That’s not it. He opens another door to find Dewey and Mrs. Beakley dealing with a dangerous windstorm in a teapot. That’s not it. The third door reveals Huey and Della cosplaying and quoting dialogue from a video game about a prophesied hero. That wasn’t it either. It isn’t until Scrooge returns to his office to see a familiar face messing with the treasures on his desk.
Louie had invited Goldie O’Gilt to the mansion to help him run his business. He explains that her method of easy money-making was a lot more convenient than going through the hurdles that came with making it square like Scrooge. Having dealt with Goldie’s antics on multiple occasions, Scrooge warns his nephew to not let her get too close, but Louie is confident that he can handle anything she throws at him. It isn’t long before the triplet finds himself locked in a trunk. As Goldie casually robs the boys of their belongings, Louie begs her to teach him her ways. Seeing the potential, Goldie agrees to follow through, but only on one condition: he has to accompany her to Doofus Drake’s birthday party.
At Doof Manor, Louie pretends to be Goldie’s nephew in order to be accepted into the event. They’re intending to find a way to run off with the gift bags full of precious heirlooms, but it turns out that everyone else is pulling off the same con! Doofus senses this and starts to eliminate his party guests. To prevent themselves from getting caught, Louie suggests gaining Doofus’ trust by exposing the last two groups. Without the competition, it’ll be easier to obtain the extra bags.
The scheming duo take out Glomgold and his puppet son with ease but when it comes to Mark and his son, Boyd, they’re faced with difficulty. The Beaks are so convincing, how were they going to find any dirt on them? As Louie scrolls through Mark’s social media account, he begins to wonder why there aren’t any photos of Boyd as a baby. He then gets a notification about joining the Beaks Optimistic Youth Droid Network…
Boyd is a robot! They go over to challenge him with questions about his past. The child begins to find them harder to answer after he’s asked about things that happened two days ago. Boyd wasn’t programmed to be Mark’s son prior to this point, so he can’t remember that far back. He begins to have an identity crisis meltdown! He malfunctions and later falls to the bottom of the treehouse pool.
Goldie congratulates Louie on his quick thinking and starts to consider teaming up with him more often. But all of this is immediately cast aside after Doofus wants to know the person responsible for ruining his party. She puts all the blame on Louie without hesitation. The triplet tries to get back at her by calling her out as a fraud, but she quickly silences him and orders him to go home so she can take the party bags for herself. Before Louie can leave, Doofus grabs Mark’s phone and programs Boyd to tie Louie up to be a piΓ±ata. Goldie was not anticipating this at all. Should she save him? Or leave with what she came here for?
Boyd is still in denial over being a robot as he rises from the pool with piercing red eyes and sparks flying from his circuits.
As Boyd gets ready to hit him, Goldie suddenly chooses to protect Louie instead of carrying out her plan. Doofus commands the robot to stop before the bat can touch her face. He’s pleased with Goldie willing to sacrifice herself for Louie. He then reveals that the party was set-up to find someone to fill the void his grandmother left. Doofus launches Louie out of his clubhouse with the heirlooms and has Goldie placed in a glass display box. While Louie wants to head home, he’s extremely conflicted. He’s angry that Goldie betrayed him, but he’s also confused about why she saved him. Was that part of a con too? Should he just leave her there to suffer? Can she be trusted?
He eventually decides to save her back. He discovers Mark’s phone in one of the party bags and commands Boyd to break Goldie free. He then erases the robot’s memory of being Mark’s son and reprograms him to be a member of Doofus’ family. Doofus gets jealous when his parents give Boyd attention and threatens to cut them off from the fortune, but Boyd accesses the family’s bank account and transfers half of the money to his side. This decrease in power breaks the control Doofus has over his parents and allows them to finally ground him.
Back at the mansion, Huey and his mom are playing “Legends of LegendQuest: Dereznaroth”, an RPG full of references to real games and anime. Della wants to do something exciting, like raid the Cybertroll Citadel and crash a wedding but Huey wants to play it safe by tending to his crops. He creates a giant force field to further protect his land from harm. Outside of the literal comfort zone, Launchpad suddenly appears riding a flying creature called a “defragon”. Its design shares a lot of similar colors to the Spear but shares more in common with The Sunchaser.
Launchpad gleefully exclaims how surprised he is about being able to control the defragon. Once Della sees him, she uses this as an opportunity to have some real fun. She tries to urge Huey for them to go out and help LP fight the monster. She even mentions how he could level up at the checkpoint and yet Huey refuses to budge. He says it’s too risky but tells her she can go ahead if she wants. She quickly runs off into the distance to blast the creature into experience points. Once Della and Launchpad deposit what they’ve earned at the checkpoint, they get a jetpack upgrade. Launchpad flies off first and Della goes after him.
Huey later gains the confidence to get out of the comfort zone as he starts to grow tired of waiting for his turnips to be harvested. As soon as he makes his first step, another flying monster comes in and destroys his crops. Huey is horrified and regrets ever bothering to try something new. Della shoots at the monster but ends up getting caught! She calls for Huey’s help! Huey hesitates with fear because he’s not strong enough…but then, he then remembers all the experience points he saved up! He runs to the checkpoint and receives a Super Sayain-esque upgrade! In this form, he’s able to defeat the monster and save his mother, but he starts to go overboard and has to be taken away from the game.
Louie angrily enters the foyer empty-handed. Despite showing carelessness to Goldie, she still ran off with the heirlooms. He is devastated by this and laments to Scrooge about it. He thought he had found someone who actually understood him; someone he had a connection with. His uncle completely understands this feeling. He explains to Louie how it’s hard to see what’s important when you’re constantly looking for an angle. Goldie really does care about Scrooge and his family, but her desire to cheat in order to get what she wants, often gets in the way.
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“Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!” is the fourth birthday episode in the series so far and continues the trend of someone or something of great importance missing during a celebratory event:
In “Neverrrest”, Scrooge went climbing on a holiday that also happened to be the 75th anniversary of Mallardy’s disappearance
In “Beagle Birthday”, The boys get lost at sea while Webby and Lena go to a party
In “McManor”, multiple characters leave the mansion during Scrooge’s birthday and Scrooge later goes missing
In “Shadow War”, Scrooge is missing from the farewell party
In “Christmas”, Donald and Dewey had to look for Della on a holiday
It also marks the anniversary of The Ghost of Christmas Past being left alone in the woods by Scrooge
In “Lamp”, The boys have to search for a missing item during D’jin’s birthday
In “87 Cents”, some of Scrooge’s money is stolen and LP thinks it’s Scrooge’s birthday for some reason
In “Doofus Birthday”, he constantly expresses how much he misses his grandmother
All of these cases are possibly leading back to how Della left and went missing on the week of her children’s birth.
Doofus’ treehouse has a heavy Space-theme: he has planets and stars hanging from the ceiling as well as a rocketship and a sleeping pod that resembles a crescent moon from the side view. He also has string lights wrapped around one of the tree branches.
Doofus is the fourth character to have a room theme that invokes feelings of outer space.
Doofus has a row of cabinet games that includes “Craig Craters”, “Money, Money, Money”, and “Legends of Legend Quest”, the game that Huey and Della are playing in the second plot of the episode. These are accompanied by the pinball game, “Doofus Destruction” at the end. Because of the Space theme being continued and the inclusion of an important story element, these games could be drawing a connection to each other. The first game sounds like it’s about a space adventurer, so maybe it could represent the father’s journey. The second may have something to do with Scrooge due to how space travel affected his company. The pinball game might represent the upcoming invasion or something else about Space we have yet to see.
Another heavy theme that could tie into the Space connection is the color gold: The invites to the party, the archways leading up to Doof Mansion, streamers, the bounce house, the cake, the list goes on. There are also some golden balloons in the shapes of stars and hearts
There are many things about the “Legends of LegendQuest” portion of the episode that could be relating to the Spear situation. Della having the desire to go to a dangerous, stormy place sounds a lot like how she went into Space and faced the cosmic storm. Huey’s desire to stay safe and care for his turnips sounds a lot like Donald wanting to stay home and take care of the boys. It also reminds me of Launchpad’s out-of-character safety quote in “Selene” where he wanted to find the source of the Sunchaser’s flashing red light. Huey’s surge in power reminds me of Donald’s angry outbursts but it also reminds me of how it was implied that Launchpad caused the lightning tower in “Duck Knight” to become unstable.
When Huey levels up, he gains a red lightning bolt highlight in his hair. Boyd has a black lightning bolt over his eye in one of Mark's photos and Launchpad's Legends avatar seems to have a teal bolt over his
Because the defragon shared similarities to a flying vehicle and because Della interfered with what Launchpad was doing, this might represent how Della was intending to save the father when she traveled through the storm. If there was something special about the lightning bolt that hit the rocket, she may have unknowingly helped the father against some sort of monster. Even though I was wrong about Launchpad wearing a jetpack in the Season 2 artwork with the plane facing the Moon, it’s interesting how both pilots became associated with the flying device. If the father really was in the cosmic storm, this sequence could have reflected how Della went into Space after he did. What makes this even more interesting is that right after this scene, the focus goes back to Doofus’ birthday party. Louie tells Sharkbomb, Flinheart’s pretend son, a secret about his “aunt” having “the hots” for his dad.
With all the potential Spear hinting going on in "Legends", the prophesied hero element could be supporting the notion of the storm being tied to a prophecy and possibly being a pathway to a mythical destination. This also sounds a bit like Dewey's Pato Pisco story in "Sky Pirates".
There’s a big focus on familial status and being a fraud as everyone at the party is pretending to be someone else’s family member. They’re all aiming to obtain heirlooms, treasured family items. The remaining groups use family photos as proof of authenticity. This reminds me a bit of the “pics or it didn’t happen” thing from “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”. It also reminds me of how Launchpad has his driver’s license but doesn’t have his pilot’s license.
Louie describes Boyd as friendly, freakishly strong and remarks how weird it is for Doofus to get along so well with him. I can’t help but draw a comparison between Boyd and Launchpad after this; he fits that description to a T. He’s said to be “everybody’s friend” and now that he’s interacting more with Della, their relationship may reach a point where they get along so well, it becomes questionable. If Launchpad is the father, he could definitely be in serious denial like Boyd was about being a robot. And because Boyd is a robot, he has an electricity connection like Launchpad might have. Accessing Boyd’s settings reminds me of my theory about mind control and reprogramming him reminds me of his suspected amnesia.
After Louie makes his suggestion to Goldie about exposing the other party guests, she describes it as "ambitious" and "dangerously overconfident". This describes Launchpad's personality in the original series pretty well. The way Della describes the groom in the wedding she wants to crash, might indicate that she has an interest in charming men who may not have the best morals.
When the description for “Birthday Doofus” was released, I wondered if we would get hints about something relating to Donald and Lunaris in Louie’s plot. In “Day of the Only Child!”, Doofus keeps Louie as a prisoner with a gold bracelet. Lunaris keeps Donald prisoner with golden restraints as well. In fact, both situations sound reminiscent of Gladstone’s imprisonment in “Gander”. All three of the characters are being held captive by someone who is supposed to be seen as friendly. Louie even continues to wear the same business suit he wore in “Gander”, in both of the Doofus episodes. This imprisonment concept coincides well with what Issue 18 was suggesting.
Louie’s partnership with Goldie makes me wonder about the third party the father could have been working for. They probably came off as friendly and helpful but were just taking advantage of him the whole time. They could have influenced him to keep being disingenuous to Della so they could end up betraying him later on. If it’s their fault that the father went missing, they might have set things up to shift all of the blame on him even though they were working together. There are multiple instances in the show where a character who betrayed someone else later helps to save them, so if the father did make a bad choice that jeopardized Della and her family, maybe this trend indicates that he tried to turn things around. Or maybe that Launchpad will be a major help in the future.
- Goldie saves Scrooge after betraying him in "Golden Lagoon"- Lena tries to rat Magica out after betraying Webby in "The Other Bin" and fought against Magica in "Shadow War"- Gandra helps Fenton after betraying him in "Dangerous Chemistry"
Scrooge’s warning to Louie about getting too close makes me think of how the father could have come to realize the severity of the situation he was getting himself into. It feels like they had such a wonderful connection; that things were going so well…but their relationship was getting too deep. How long would it take for Della to find out that he wasn’t exactly the guy she thought he was? He was so focused on finding an angle, that he pushed aside what really mattered. Similarly, Della may have been so focused on finding a way to bring the father back that it caused her to also be separated from the family she already had.
Goldie initially choosing to save Louie over grabbing the party bags could contribute to the idea of family being more important than treasure.
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In “Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!”, Lena is having a hard time figuring out whether she’s truly a good person or not.
In the beginning of the episode, the boys are using Webby’s conspiracy board as a rubber dart target
Some of the content featured is still left over from Webby’s investigation on Lena’s whereabouts when she disappeared after “Shadow War”
She has the Shadow Dimension noted, which is where Lena was
The note “Where’s Lena??” is covering up “Worst Nightmare”
The “Alternate timeline???” portion of her Scotty McDuck note is shown in the shot
Scotty McDuck is the alternative name for Scrooge’s father
When Dewey accidentally shoots Lena’s photograph, Louie states that he’s lost five points due to Lena is a good guy now
Webby exaggerates on this by saying Lena’s “the best guy now”
The sleepover they’re having is a celebratory event as it marks the anniversary of when Lena met Webby in “Beagle Birthday”
Because she’s been in the Shadow realm for so long, Lena’s not exactly sure about whether it’s been a full year or even if it’s the correct day
She says that time loses meaning in that realm and describes the place as an “infinite night”
In Lena’s Friend-aversary song, she says “If it wasn’t for you, it’d be worse for me”
As Lena grows agitated, her powers are heightened
She causes the candle on her Friend-aversary cake to reignite after Webby blew it out
She caused a balloon to pop when she snapped back at Violet
This is similar to what could have happened with Launchpad in front of the lightning tower in “Duck Knight”
To avoid raising any alarm, Lena tries her best to hide her concerns from the rest of her friends
When she washes her face in front of the bathroom mirror, she suddenly has Magica’s yellow eyes and a lock of black hair
The mirror cracks with a flash of magical, purple light; kind of like lightning
She claims that everything’s fine when Webby comes to check on her and how she’s just being normal
This is a little reminiscent to how Launchpad often downplays his secret adventures
Even after later agreeing to Webby’s request about not hiding secrets anymore, Lena still continues to hide her pesky lock of black hair whenever it emerges
There's an increasing focus on aerospace-related objects in this episode
Webby now has a calendar of a plane on her bookshelf
When Beakley is sleeping with her eyes open, there are more glow-in-the-dark stars than usual on Webby’s ceiling
Before Lena falls asleep, she looks up to a pair of plane decorations surrounded by stars
With the lights being off, they’re suspended in a blue-tinted atmosphere
There’s a similar thing going on with Dewey’s high-school dream as the environment is very blue with visuals of stars and lightning bolts everywhere
The Spear of Selene itself even appears later
When Lena connects everyone to a shared dream, the island they end up on, heavily resembles a crescent moon
There is also a mountain range pass the trees
Combined with Webby’s comment of certain death, this reminds me a bit of “Neverrest”
Webby assumes that they’ve all been kidnapped and need to figure out who did it
She also mentions needing to make contact with the outside world
Louie doesn’t feel like dealing with this and tries to call Scrooge, but he can’t remember his uncle’s phone number…
The numerals are replaced with emojis
Row 1: A happy face, a crying face, an evil face
Row 2: A teal chauffeur hat, a top hat, and a sailor hat representing Launchpad, Scrooge, and Donald
Row 3: A stack of money or the Money Bin, a joyful crying face, and a mallard
Row 4: A mind blown face, a barfing dead face, and a sleeping face
This is not only another case of memory loss, but this is the second time a phone has been accompanied with it
The mind blown emoji could be representing this as a head injury
The disoriented music that plays during this scene sounds a bit like Launchpad’s standard theme
A sword horse appears to tell Webby that she is the chosen one and invites her to his extreme obstacle course
This sounds similar to what went on in "Gander", “Moorshire” and sounds a bit like Dewey’s Pato Pisco story in “Sky Pirates”
Being the chosen one could tie-in with the concept of a prophecy
Webby states that this was like all of her wildest dreams smushed together
The island might be a combination of what Della and the father experienced
Not wanting her friends to get suspicious, Lena suggests that this might be a test of survival or that the plane has crashed near by
The subject of having bad dreams is highlighted as Lena reveals that she’s been having nightmares all week
This reminds me of Launchpad’s nightmare in “87 Cents” and well as Glomgold’s in “Duke Baloney”
There’s some pretty notable moments of symbolism going on in this shared dream
Dewey states that all of his dreams have a scene where he’s being cradled by a crescent moon made of his own tears
This, of course, has something to do with Della
Lena turns into a wolf when she enters Louie’s dream
Violet believes this could represent outsider syndrome or a violent feral instinct
Webby interprets it as Lena being like a pack animal and the rest of them are the pack
This reminds me a lot of the werewolves-wereducks thing
Phooey Duck appears during the montage
His clothing is yellow like the mustard stain on the photo Dewey found in “Happened to Donald“
He strikes a pose with lightning flashing in the background
This is more than likely to draw a connection to the cosmic storm, but in dreams, one of the things lightning can symbolize is a sudden change or unexpected turn of events
Visuals of an eagle and a tiger appear behind him as well
Tigers can represent power, difficulties and fears
When Phooey turns around to greet Lena, his face turns into Magica’s
This might add to the idea that LP had or will have an inner struggle of his own with whether he's a good person or bad person
Launchpad appearing as a whale could contribute to this as these creatures can represent overwhelming fear in a situation or a hidden darkness someone may not want others to see
Della mentions the humpback whale in "Golden Spear" while talking about her family and the many wonders of the world.
Lena starts to bear even more of a resemblance to Magica. As she tries to cover up her transformation, she ends up falling through a tunnel created by outstretching her sweater
Webby immediately declares that she’s going in after her friend
The light fixture above the kids looks like the moon
The environments inside and outside of the tunnel are within the blue and purple color range
One of the things present as the kids are falling through the tunnel is a clock quickly passing by them
The kids are dropped in front of Magica’s lair with thunder, lightning and thick clouds around the castle
Inside the castle, Magica aims on persuading Lena to come back to her by playing with her insecurities
“Did you think you’d turn out different than me?”
“I’m trying to save you! You came from me!”
“Don’t you ever feel like something’s ‘off’ about you?”
While the kids are on their way, Magica insists that they aren’t here to save Lena, they’re here to stop her because she’s a monster
To further prove her point, she fully transforms Lena into another version of herself
The kids aren’t able to recognize Lena as her appearance becomes even more monstrous
Dewey ends up getting knocked out by his own basketball in his attempt to hit someone deemed as a monster
Even though they attack her, Lena still manages to save Webby from a falling chandelier
This action combined with noticing her friendship bracelet, helped Webby to realize they weren’t actually fighting against Magica but their own friend
This is similar to how Mitzi was identified in “Depths”
Webby helps Lena to resist Magica’s grasp and asks her about her problems
Lena feels like no matter what she does, she will always be her aunt; a bad guy, a monster
Webby disagrees, she’s already acknowledged that Lena has changed; she doesn’t need to put pressure on herself to further prove this
Lightning visuals and magic are presented as Magica and the kids fight over Lena
Magica is trying to pull Lena into the mirror portal while Webby and Co. are holding hands to form a chain
This feels a little reminiscent of Johnny trying to save that customer from the ottoman and other times where characters had to grab the other person’s hand to save them
When the kids wake up, they find out that Magica’s been using a telepathic device to infiltrate Lena’s mind
Magica hoped the kids would keep Lena asleep so she could gain her powers back but Lena’s waking up got in the way
Lena uses her electricity-like magic to destroy the device
_______________
In “The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot!”, Emily Quackfaster is telling the kids the story of how Duckburg came to be. It started many years ago when the Duck Family’s ancestor, Cornelius Coot, bravely protected his fort from the Beagle Militia. Coot is compared to a ghost as his musket fire somehow came from all directions. It was like he was everywhere, but nowhere at once! This mysterious method confused the beagles and scared them away. Quackfaster states that Coot’s impact on their history is incredibly unmatched but Webby is planning to challenge this.
The boys try to enjoy the activities Fort Duckburg has to offer, but quickly grow bored of them. Huey suggests for them to see if they could fly with Della, who was tasked with a skywritting event, but Webby stops them by suddenly revealing their mother’s old journal! When Della was their age, she was looking for a top-secret family treasure from the non-McDuck side of her family: Coot’s Golden Armory! According to the end of the journal, Della wasn’t able to find it but Webby is certain that they can. She believes that this great discovery will make them legends!
Not too far away, Ma and two of her Beagle Boys are in disguise. They were also planning on finding the armory; just like their ancestors intended to when they came after the fort. Ma doesn’t think Coot is deserving of his heroic title and wants to avenge her family. Before they can get started on their search, Big Time rushes over to them. He thinks that they accidentally left him behind at the Junkyard but Ma lets him know this action was done on purpose. She sees him as a failure in every way possible and doesn’t want him to jeopardize their success anymore. Big Time was no longer allowed to be part of their gang.
The kids get to work by first trying to figure out what the written statement, “Find the truth beneath the legend” in Della’s journal means. A mishap with a shovel causes Louie to spill his cup of buttermilk all over the plaque for Coot’s statue. Webby urges the boys to listen carefully as an unusual echo is accompanied by the dripping noise…there was something special about the base of the statue! The four work together to remove the plague. As Big Time sulks at the buttermilk stand, he catches the children discovering a secret passageway and figures they’re after Coot’s treasure! Instead of letting his family know, he uses this opportunity to make a name for himself.
The kids find themselves walking through a dark tunnel until they’re halted by a strange mossy barrier. When they manage to break through it, they make a horrifying realization: they had just gone through a thick spider web with many spiders waiting for them on the other side of it. The group screams in terror! After they escape the spiders, the boys grow unsure about continuing to follow Webby.
“Is it me, or does she seem a little more…Webby than usual?”
“Yeah, this is starting to feel less like a 'fun adventure’ thing and more like a–”
“'Dangerous obsession that could kill us all’ thing?”
The boys officially declare this adventure as a bust but Webby’s not ready to give up. Up ahead, she finds a pair of mining carts and convinces Dewey to jump in one of them. Big Time suddenly runs by, screaming with spiders and webs all over him! His panic causes him to trip into the second mining cart and roll away. Webby immediately understands that he’s here to steal the treasure. History was repeating itself! The rest of the kids jump in with Dewey to go after the villain…but both parties come to a stop as the carts lose the momentum to make it past the next hill.
The opposing groups struggle as they push the carts up the incline. Webby and the boys make it to the top alright but on the way, Big Time gets caught in a spider-infested cave-in. Webby assures the boys that they’re almost there and reminds them of the success that awaited them, but the boys are more than ready to go home. They try to warn her as she runs over to a labeled archway in front of them. They had made it to the Cornelius Coot Arms! Huey lights a candle for them to get a better look…at a room full of corn?!
This was extremely puzzling. Was…the treasure beneath the corn? Was the gold hidden inside the corn? Huey does some further observation and discovers a blueprint in a logbook. They were never being led to an actual armory; this was just an elaborate system Coot came up with to store his crops. The markers and carts they came across were just farming tools. Coot wasn’t the adventurous legend he was built up to be, he was just a boring old farmer. Louie declares this as the worst treasure hunt ever as the boys begin to walk out. Webby refuses to accept this truth.
“No, no, no, no! I know there’s more to this! It’s–it’s Coot’s final test!
If it’s not real, then how did he save the fort? How did he stop the Beagles?”
“And how are you going to get out of this alive?”
Webby turns around to find out that Big Time wasn’t the only Beagle who followed them down here.
While the kids had traveled to the fort, Della had stayed behind at the mansion. She was ready to fly over to perform her skywriting stunt…but where was her plane? The hanger was empty. She soon finds out that its pieces were disconnected in the yard. Launchpad was in the middle of repairing the plane after yet another crash. As the two pilots work together to help speed up the process, Della finds herself growing irritated by Launchpad’s actions. Attaching the pieces together with gum? He was using super glue? A…hamster wheel?! This man clearly did not know what he was doing. The moment he steps out, Della takes matters into her own hands.
Launchpad comes back to see the Sunchaser with a new coat of paint and a toothy grin. He reaches out to touch the machine, but Della pushes him away. She doesn’t want him anywhere near her plane.
“Sorry, it’s not personal, it’s just that…you know you’re a bad pilot, right?"
LP is very disheartened to hear her say this. Noticing his reaction, Della tries to soften her words by saying he’s only bad with his landings. Perhaps he could get better if he took some lessons. This gives Launchpad an idea.
"That’s it! I could be your co-pilot!"
He should learn from the best, so who better to teach him? This was not what Della was getting at, at all. She didn’t have time for this; she needed to get to the fort…but Launchpad had already grabbed his own flight cap and buckled himself in…might as well teach him on the way there. She starts off by defining some of the features on the dashboard. He thinks the airspeed indicator is some sort of record keeping system. Why was her chair so loose? Launchpad set it that way to make it easier to comfort his passengers during an oncoming crash. Della tries to ignore his antics and focus on the task at hand…until Launchpad startles her and breaks her concentration.
"YOU SEEM TENSE! Shhh…just relax, turn your mind off.
Just gaze at the clouds, nothing matters…”
Della can’t believe how nonchalant he’s being about all of this and immediately fires back at him:
“Everything matters! It’s six tons of metal in the air, that I just had to completely reassemble!
Just–sit over there and don’t distract me!”
Launchpad keeps to himself and sadly stares out the window. Finally without interruption, Della is able to practice her maneuvers for the event. When it comes to testing out the plane’s skywriting feature, the interior suddenly fills up with smoke! What was going on? Launchpad figures it must have something to do with the smoke pump. He had discovered gum helps the device to ventilate better but Della had removed his repair. The smoke was obscuring Della’s vision. They were going to crash! Launchpad happily takes it from here.
Back underground, Ma grumbles about the members of the Duck Family as Bouncer carries Webby and the triplets with them. The older beagle denounces these considered heroes as a bunch of frauds and cheats. The Beagles were the ones deserving of the treasure. Louie and his brothers encourage them to just take the corn since they don’t see anything significant about it but Webby’s still holding on to her belief that there really is a hoard of gold somewhere in the arms. As they’re arguing, the Sunchaser soon bursts through the tunnel! Della scolds Launchpad as both of them exit the plane.
“You madman! We almost DIED! …But we didn’t! …Weird.”
They then notice the Beagles were closing in on the kids! Della lassos the villains together in no time. Webby woefully walks off to the storage room as the boys disregard her adventure and commend their mother for her heroism. After explaining what they were doing away from the fort, the ducks realize Webby’s absence. As Della heads off after her, an unknown creature descends from the top of the ceiling…It was Big Time! He survived the cave in, but now, he has a new spider-based identity: Bug Time.
Della arrives to the room to find Webby frantically looking around for an additional clue; there’s no way Coot’s treasure was just corn. Della picks her up by the backpack to calm her down, but this only causes her to panic even further.
“No! Stop! I can do it myself!”
This causes Della’s journal to fall out of the bag. Now Webby has to explain herself.
"I’ve gone on some adventures, but look at all the things you did before you were my age! I could never try to stack up to the legend of…you. But maybe if I could solve the one mystery you couldn’t, the Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot. Except that it’s just corn. Corn! I dragged the boys all the way down here to find…corn. I…I accomplished…corn.”
Because of this, Webby believes she’s an impostor like Coot. Neither of them were true heroes like Della. The pilot heavily disagrees on this.
“But you did accomplish something! You made it farther than anyone else has!
You don’t have to be me; you just have to be Webby.
And you have your own way of doing things that’s unique and special.”
Della assures Webby that she doesn’t have to prove herself to anyone but as soon as she says this, she realizes she hasn’t been holding Launchpad to the same standard. When she considers apologizing, both she and Webby make another realization: the corn was starting to pop! The candle Webby had used earlier to help her with her search, set off a chain reaction. It burned a cord which started a spark. That spark traveled down the cord’s path and lit other candles along the way. Those candles were placed under the cribs and caused the corn to heat up and spew like geysers. Webby takes a moment to observe the situation…
“This was Coot’s Armory! He turned his corn into popcorn and convinced the Beagles
that he was an entire army! "He beat them using his wits!”
Della is intrigued by her ancestor’s unconventional process. He was a hero after all! Just in a different way than expected. Their amazement turns into concern as the popped corn begins to fill up the room. They had to get out! Now! Further down the tunnel, Bug Time had seized both groups in spider web cocoons. He was tired of constantly being treated poorly every time he tried to impress his mother. Now that he has his own team, he’s aiming to steal the treasure for himself! Before he can head down there, Webby and Della come running with sounds of explosions and rumbling trailing behind them. The two cut their family free and rush to the plane to escape.
Della gets the plane’s engine going but she’s unable to back out of the tunnel. The only way for them to get out…was to crash. Della lets Launchpad take over. He signals for a boost from the hamster on the wheel from earlier and smashes their way to the outside. Bug Time had seen the situation he created for his family. His desire to prove himself eventually put his family in harm’s way. He decided to make things right by using extra spider silk to protect them from the incoming popcorn wave. And it worked! As a sign of gratitude, Ma reluctantly allows her son to be part of their gang again.
The ducks arrive at the fort and use their discovery to provide accuracy to Coot’s legend. The musket and saber his statue was holding were now replaced with two ears of corn. The farm tools he had used for arrows were put out on display. And now the buttermilk had popcorn to go with it! The event still turned out well without the skywriting and an old mystery was solved.
__
“Coot” takes things a step further with its potential Spear hinting. The greatest mystery Della never found is discovered in a journal with a rocket and other space-related objects on its cover. Louie’s “tomb” remark indicated that they were possibly headed somewhere dangerous that could put their lives at risk. Webby wants to keep pushing forward with their adventure like Della did but the boys warn her and tell her they should turn back. The mine cart could represent the Spear as it too was intended to advance the adventure, but a setback prevents it from getting far. The storage room is similar to the Moon because the journey ultimately leads the kids to an area full of something gold. Neither trip brought them to whether they wanted to be and was considered a big waste of time.
The pyramid on Della's journal could be drawing a connection to "The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!" as it involves a hidden society, treasure and a theme based on a celestial body. The indigo circles overlapping each other in the background, gives the pattern a cloudy formation and even creates crescents that resemble the Moon.
Finding Coot’s armory was supposed to be something monumental. Webby refused to believe she had brought the boys on a meaningless search and was determined to find out what was really going on. Her persistence could add on to there being additional information to the Spear incident that we have yet to be told. Della wanted the rocket built before HDL were hatched instead of waiting for them to be old enough to take them with her. When she found out about the rocket, she didn’t wait for a better time to use it. And when the storm came about, she didn’t avoid it when she was given the chance. Whatever she was doing had to be done as soon as possible. Webby’s quote about history repeating itself sounds a little like Donald’s statement about the Atlantis trip being “the Spear of Selene all over again”, so let’s look at other elements in this episode to see how they could support the base of my father theory.
Coot is described as a ghost because his method to scare off the Beagles made it seem like he was both nowhere and everywhere. This could coincide with how the father is supposed to be dead. If he’s Launchpad, he’s been around but no one can see that it’s him. There is criticism surrounding Coot’s legend as Huey believes the story was full of myths and Ma thinks Coot was a fraud who cheated his way to success. Ma later says she has the same sentiment for other families related to the Coots; seemingly supporting the notion of the father possibly being disingenuous in some way. Webby states that Della was looking for a treasure on the non-McDuck side of HDL’s family. In context, we know she was referring to the Coot side, but the father’s family also qualifies for the same category. If this episode is meant to parallel Della’s journey, then whatever treasure there could have been in the Spear situation, had something to do with him.
When Webby insists that solving Coot's mystery was a big enough deal to make them legends themselves, it reminded me of how she and Dewey were hyping up their case about a missing family member in "Happened to Donald". While Della's investigation could have been focused on solving where the father was and what happened to him, perhaps "Coot" is signifying that his case will be brought up again and more focused on figuring out who this legendary man really was.
Another character who could be giving us information about the father is Big Time. Throughout the course of the series, we’ve seen him wanting to impress his mother with his plans, but she never appreciates his effort. When she expresses how much of a failure she thinks Big Time is, it reminds me of how Donald saw himself in “Town” and how Launchpad saw himself as a failure to his family in the original series. When he finds out the kids are going after Coot’s treasure just like his family, he doesn’t let them know. He wants to get to it himself to prove his worth in a similar manner to Webby wanting to be as great as Coot and Della are. This reminds me of my speculations on the father feeling like he needed to be on-par with Della and her family in order to be associated with her or to get her attention.
In a similar way to "Moorshire", "Outlaw" and "Raiders", there's a race where two opposing sides are after a golden treasure. If the father was after a special treasure to prove himself, was he trying to get to the destination before someone else did? Who else could have been after this treasure? If the father knew that Della had an interest in exploring Space, did he want to accomplish this task before she could? Or did he find out that someone was planning on using it for sinister intentions?
Coot’s mineshaft is like the cosmic storm as both are shown to be daunting passageways into the unknown. Because the shaft was full of spiders, this could contribute to the idea of there being some sort of frightening alien-creature within the storm. This can be further supported as the show has given us multiple instances of scary creatures accompanied with tunnel-like formations: Donald was being chased through a ventilation system by a fluorescent scorpion in “Happened to Donald”, Della faced a burrowing moon mite in “Happened to Della”, Mitzi lived amongst the hydrothermal vents in “Depths” and the mole men as well as the Terra-firmians were in focus during the events of “Terror”. In fact, Webby acts a little like she did in that episode and a bit like Scrooge in “Neverrest” as she wants to prove she’s right about the importance of Coot’s mystery and wants to make it further than anyone else has ever gone. When the spiders cause Big Time to fall into a minecart, it eventually results in him getting stuck with even more spiders in a cave-in; similarly to how the Terra-firmians caused the characters to get trapped in a subway tunnel.
If Big Time is meant to represent the father in some way, then the kids riding in the cart after he did could definitely be mirroring what Della intended to do with the Spear.
When Big Time re-emerges later on in the story, we see that he’s embraced his encounter with the spiders and literally makes a name for himself based on it. This reminds me greatly of my speculation on Launchpad’s unusual name and identity deriving from an astronaut background. Big Time was so caught up in succeeding that he didn’t realize the consequences of his actions until the last minute. This sounds a lot like Della, but could go for the father too. It reminds me of Dewey when he criticized Kid Donald for ditching his family on Christmas only to come to the realization that he was doing that himself. And that reminds me of Della’s realization of how she was treating Launchpad. Perhaps these instances help to indicate that the father later wanted to turn things around or that Launchpad will try to make up for the damages he’s caused.
Having the spiders crawl on Launchpad at the end of the episode could be drawing a connection between himself and what Big Time was going through. Having Launchpad present during a declaration of solving an old mystery could be hinting that he will be an important clue if the Spear of Selene case is revisited.
When the description for this episode was released, I wondered if Webby’s secret was going to mirror something in the second plot. Now that I think about it, I believe the pilot side of the story is based on how Della was determined to complete her rescue mission and how things didn’t go as she had planned. She was supposed to be celebrating her family at the fort, but she gets derailed when her vehicle has to be put back together. The running gag where Launchpad interrupts Della’s train of thought might be intended to capture our attention and to tease Della a bit. It first started off in “Nothing Can” when Launchpad’s picture in the houseboat is much easier to recognize. And like their first meeting, their interactions could be building on top of irony: There was no way the guy she was trying to save could have ever survived, yet here he was, right in front of her and she’s been constantly disregarding him as an incompetent stranger who stole her job.
Something else I had wondered before the episode premiered was if we'd see the pilots in a cloudy formation of some sort and when "Coot" aired, a mishap with the skywriter provided that. It not only invokes feelings of the storm but reminds me of the mishap in "87 Cents" where Scrooge caused the plane to get hit with a torpedo and Launchpad compared the situation to every nightmare he's ever had. The popcorn gushing out of the top of the cribs also provides a cloudy visual as they look a lot like the hydrothermal vents.
This episode highlighted how much of a sharpie Launchpad is. Like Louie in “Storkules”, he’s faced with a major problem: He doesn’t have the professional training to be a pilot. But he creates solutions through improvisation to help him get by. Coot’s corn, Big Time’s plans, Launchpad’s use of gum and just Launchpad in general, all seem trivial or more of a nuisance than anything else, but they all end up being very helpful.
Since Coot's corn is the treasure in this Spear-like situation, it could be representing how the treasure Della was seeking wasn't materialistic like one would expect or how the father wasn't who Della thought he was. It could also represent how Launchpad doesn't seem like much when he could turn out to be extremely important. like the corn, something would need to be set in motion to reveal this.
When Launchpad crashed into the mineshaft, it helped Della to discover the kids were in danger. He too became an accidental hero in his own way. This makes me wonder if this could add onto the idea of Della saving the father in a way she didn’t intend to. It also makes me think about a possibly implied parallel to Dewey in “Raiders” as both flying lessons resulted in a tunnel-related crash. Dewey’s amazement with himself being able to pilot the Sunchaser feels a lot like Launchpad’s reaction to flying the defragon in “Birthday Doofus”.
Something else about this episode that draws a connection between Launchpad and Dewey is the mention of the word "turbo". As Dewey embellishes the re-telling of his adventure, he uses Turbo as part of his nickname and Coot as his last name. The hamster wheel that Launchpad added to the plane is part of a turbo boost. The device's box is close to the shade of yellow Launchpad wears when he's chauffeuring, and a lightning bolt is featured. The hamster used to run it suddenly gains a muscular physique when ordered to help out. This could coincide with the father's Disappearance.
Towards the end of my previous update, I was hoping Launchpad and Della would become a co-pilot team as opposed to LP losing his job. Scrooge already stated he had no intention of replacing LP...and I mean, the plane has two seats with two yokes to go with them. Why should Della’s return prevent them from ever working together? Or suddenly stop him from being considered as family? Based on “Raiders”, a number of us thought that Della’s rough flight would be the thing to complement Launchpad’s way of piloting, but once “Coot” aired, we were shown that it was due to her excitement more than anything else. Although it may not be in the way we had figured, this episode still showed us how they balance each other out: one is a professional, doing things the traditional way and the other is an amateur with non-traditional, yet effective, methods. This reaffirms Launchpad’s role as a main character and gives him another reason to stay.
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“Timephoon!” begins with the citizens of Duckburg bracing themselves for the worst El Pato storm in decades. While everyone in the mansion is making preparations, Louie sneaks by as carefully as he can. He’s visibly irritated when noticed and uses Huey as a distraction so he can head back to his room. But before he can ascend the staircase, he overhears Scrooge talking about protecting valuable heirlooms from the storm. His uncle explains that he was referring to the famous canes of Clan McDuck. These items had a sentimental value; not something more materialistic like Louie was hoping for. The triplet becomes immediately uninterested and fails to ward of any suspicions as he continues to his room. Scrooge begins to wonder what Louie could be up to, but his thoughts are quickly interrupted by the sounds of Launchpad’s poor attempt to board up the windows. To prevent the pilot from making any more damages, he instructs him to follow Louie.
After Louie closes his bedroom door shut, Launchpad opens it to find no one there. As he looks around, an eerie cyan glow and a zapping sound suddenly comes from behind Dewey’s Dew-Night backdrop. Launchpad peers over it to find nothing at first, but then, Louie reappears in a burst of light; sitting in Gyro’s Time Tub, with crown jewels in his possession. Now being busted, Louie decides to let Launchpad in on the latest scheme for his business: He was “borrowing” Gyro’s invention to help him collect lost treasures before they became lost. He demonstrates by sending both of them to the Stone Age to collect a small statue with red jewels for eyes. While they’re there, a caveduck named Bubba is also after the statue. He makes his way to the top of the temple but gets held back by the booby traps awaiting him. Already being at the top, Louie easily snatches the treasure for himself. He claims taking these items won’t affect the timestream since they’re recorded as being lost anyway.
The storm advances upon their return to the mansion. Back downstairs, Huey is working on completing his report on caveducks and hopes to have it included in the new edition of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. During the middle of his sentence, a strange zapping noise is heard outside on the doorstep. Dewey looks out the window and states that he sees something…he rushes out the door to check it out with Huey and Webby trailing behind him. Mrs. Beakley urges them to come back in to stay safe from the storm, but Della assures her that there’s nothing to worry about.
“Eh, what are they gonna find out there? A little rain? Some debris?”
Dewey then shouts out their discovery.
“Hey cool! A dead guy!”
The kids come back with the still body of a red-haired caveduck wearing a furry, brown animal hide. What was he doing here? As the mysterious duck awakens to explore his new surroundings, Dewey and Webby begin to speculate.
“Oo! Maybe he was frozen in an iceberg–”“And the iceberg melted, and he was washed ashore with the storm!”
Scrooge scoffs at the idea but Webby reminds him he was previously involved in a similar situation twice. Huey can barely contain his excitement! Having an actual caveduck to study will help guarantee approval from the council! Mrs. Beakley expresses her concern about the caveduck possibly having a negative effect on the timeline, but Della doesn’t think much of it. The housekeeper tries to explain the importance of preventing smaller problems from becoming bigger problems, but her lesson is completely ignored. Della gets the kids to take the caveduck with them to the TV room to learn more about him.
After taking the statue, Launchpad had become Louie’s time traveling associate. As the pilot carries a pirate chest down the stairs, he tries to get a better understanding of what they were doing.
“So, we’re not doing anything wrong because we’re finding lost treasures. But before they were lost. So, we’re finding found treasures? Is that… stealing?”
Louie heavily disagrees with this notion. Launchpad then begins to wonder…if they weren’t stealing these lost items…were they saving them? Louie uses this to justify their actions. He claims to have planned for every possibility that could occur during their new method of treasure hunting and nothing implied that there would be any side effects. The two start to walk away from their hiding spot only to be halted when they see a familiar caveduck skateboarding down the stairs.
Dewey gleefully comes over to Louie to talk about their new adoptive brother, Bubba. After the caveduck wipeouts on the skateboard, he immediately recognizes Louie and Launchpad. Bubba then starts to refer to the Time Tub in his language, which makes the rest of the family curious. Louie downplays it as a bunch of nonsense and subtly encourages Bubba to stop before he exposes their whole operation. Launchpad pulls the triplet aside to the hiding place and begins to panic.
“If the caveduck is here, are we in the past?!”“Don’t think about it too hard, okay? It’s just one little caveduck. This will have no effect on the timeline…probably.”
At this moment, things go very awry. The clocks in the house spin out of control! Pirates and other historical people appear in the present with a flash of lightning! It turns out that Gyro’s machine had caused the storm to combine itself with a time vortex! Since the strange weather phenomenon was taking place above Killmotor Hill, Scrooge calls for a meeting to figure out if someone in the house was at fault.
“We need to find the source of this Timephoon! Did anyone touch a cursed artifact? Or make some kind of improperly worded wish?”
Louie does his best to divert their attention. As he wipes away a whiteboard drawing Bubba had made about the Time Tub, he suggests that the storm could have been the result of some other recent time-related shenanigan they’ve dealt with. Why should they assign blame? Scrooge moves his nephew aside and illustrates an equation on the board. He’s discovered that the storm is getting worse with every new arrival. In order to get the situation under control, they would need to stop these smaller problems before they turned into bigger ones; like Mrs. Beakley has been trying to express. Scrooge believes that Gyro’s Time Tech could help them out, but Louie reminds them that the storm would make it difficult for him to come over. A bolt of lightning suddenly worms its way through the boarded window and drops Dr. Gearloose right in front of them.
“SOMEONE STOLE MY TIME TUB AND DESTROYED TIME AND SPACE!”
While Gyro was building up a clone army in his lab, he realized that someone had taken off with his Time Tub when he wasn’t looking. After the machine was activated, he was struck with an electrical force known as an “after-blast” that sent him to the mansion. Gyro concludes that people from the past were appearing on Killmotor because the thief was bringing items from different time periods to the mansion. As the other adults in the room begin to consider Gyro as the thief, Louie slips away to get Launchpad to help him put all the items back in their places.
As Della wonders aloud about who could have broken into both the lab and the mansion, Scrooge and Beakley accuse the kids without hesitation. Before Della can question them about this, the storm sends in a ninja through the window. While Scrooge comes up with a way to get the warrior out of the rafters, Della teams up with Mrs. Beakley. The pilot voices her opinion on the accusation.
“The kids couldn’t have done this!”
“I’m sure they didn’t mean to.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t yell at them for every little thing, but they’re good kids!”
“Even good kids do dumb things, and we have to make sure those dumb things
don’t turn into bad things, like destroying all of existence.”
Meanwhile, Huey was having a hard time processing what he was being faced with. Something was very wrong with Bubba…he had a firm understanding of their language…he had mastered the wheel…and he preferred chili cheese dogs over tree bark! Bubba isn’t like the caveducks Huey had read about at all, he’s way too advanced! For the sake of finishing his report, the triplet holds back his frustration as he tries to adjust to his subject’s unexpected behavior.
A loud banging sound from outside disrupts Huey’s study and shakes the mansion. With a puff of smoke, and flying pieces of wood, a triceratops appears in the doorway and rampages through the foyer! When the adults come back from dealing with freedom fighters on the roof, Della can no longer deny that these smaller problems were getting out of hand. She turns to Mrs. Beakley for help. But before the housekeeper can finish her reply, a bolt of lightning flies from out of the window and makes her disappear! She then later shows up in the painting above of the fireplace when Scrooge and Webby glance at it.
“Beakley?” “She’s been lost in the past!”“The storm’s not just blasting things here, it’s blasting us back!”
The storm continues to wreak havoc as multiple lightning strikes bring more people into the mansion. Scrooge orders Gyro to find the Time Tub but the storm takes him away before he’s able to do so. Della looks around at the chaos, realizes that Louie is missing and asks Huey where he is. Back in the bedroom, her son was desperately zapping the tub between past and present to return the lost treasures to the rightful time periods. As Louie gets overwhelmed with figuring out where a giant red jewel goes, Launchpad shares his musings from their time travelling.
"I got to thinking that time isn’t a straight line at all; perhaps it’s like a propeller. Always in motion. It’s blades in all places at once.”
Louie ignores Launchpad and pulls the lever on the tub. They come back home to see Della standing in the doorway of the bedroom. At first, she’s very shocked and confused, but once she understands that Louie was the one behind everything that was going on, she starts to seethe with anger. She gets Launchpad to help her carry the Time Tub down the stairs. As they pause at the landing, Louie tries to calm her down by telling her he had put the treasures back. Louie believes all the problems are resolved now, but Della motions to the foyer to show him otherwise.
“This is a HUGE deal! Beakley’s lost to time! And if I had listened to her about this and put my foot down earlier, none of this would have happened.”
Launchpad attempts to add his input to this, but he quickly loses his thought. A bolt of lightning snatches him away and causes the Time Tub to fall out of Della’s grip. Louie reaches out to his mom as she chases him to the floor. Scrooge becomes the storm’s next victim during the fight against the home invaders. Bubba and the other kids gather around the time machine as Louie prepares to fix the problem once and for all. He fumbles about as the storm quickly claims the rest of his family. He then pulls the lever and directs the shower head towards the crowd. It was working! The people of the past began to disappear.
Once Bubba is gone, Louie is left waiting in suspense in an empty, broken mansion…until a bolt of lightning flies in and drops a more homeless-looking Launchpad beside the Time Tub. Soon, everyone else was returning from multiple points in time! He did it! And he was extremely sorry. When he asks for his apology to be accepted, the family is willing to forgive and forget.
But Della isn’t going to let this slide. Louie is confused by this.
“What? But I really am sorry! We hugged and everything!”“I watched your brothers blink out of existencebecause you wanted a shortcut to riches!”“I said I was sorry!”“You took off in that contraption without thinking of the consequences! Or the people you would hurt!”
Louie bitterly looks off the side.
“I wonder who I got thatfrom…”
The family gasps. Della falls silent and breaks her gaze. Before Beakley can reprimand him, Della puts her hand up to signal that she was going to handle Louie. Della lets her youngest know the severity of his reckless scheme by pointing out the impact that it could have had on their future. She then grounds him and tells him that his business is done for. Louie turns to the rest of the family members, hoping they'll vouch for him, but no one speaks up. Della reinforces her authority by sending him to his room. As he grumbles up the stairs, Della sighs and falls to her knees. Having to be tough on any of her kids was a hard thing to do but Mrs. Beakley promises her that when it’s out of love, it will make them better people later. When they walk off, Dewey comes up to Launchpad, who was now staring off into the distance. Once Dewey asks if he’s okay, LP reveals that instead of going to the past like everyone else, he had gone to the future and saw how the world was going to end…He then makes an ominous comment about how cool it was and that he’ll see the kids there soon.
Sometime after the storm passes, the family does some cleaning and reorganizing in the garage. Huey excitedly runs over to Dewey and Webby about the mail he received from the Junior Woodchucks council. Before the storm sent Huey back in time, he had come to embrace Bubba’s surprising habits and integrated them into his report. Unfortunately, the council perceived his findings as “wildly outlandish” and sent Huey the letter to inform him about his report being rejected. Dewey attempts to comfort him.
“Some people just aren’t ready for the truth.”
As Scrooge sorts through the famous canes, he notices that the rock club of the First of Clan McDuck is missing. Webby figures that Bubba had taken it before he left…this leads the kids into a very interesting thought….Bubba was pretty tough…his advanced intelligence made him pretty smart…and pretty sharp…was he the first of Clan McDuck? The trio brush it off as a crazy idea but don’t realize how right they really were. __
“Timephoon!” goes further with comparing itself to the Spear incident: A device that Gyro built is being used without permission during a storm. The record-breaking El Pato storm transforms into an unusual weather pattern with thunder and lightning but no rain. When the lightning strikes the main cast, it causes them to go missing and when Della criticizes Louie’s actions, he points out that she did something similar in the past. The analogy Launchpad makes about time being like a propeller seems to be suggesting a never-ending cycle. His statement about how everything they’ve done has already happened might be suggesting the same and both sound like Webby’s quote in “Coot” where she takes notice of history repeating itself. If there’s some serious repetition going on, then there could be other Spear-related elements present that we are unaware of.
Louie’s scheme could be a combination of what Della and the father were aiming to do. Being secretive about his plans could be reflective of how Della didn’t provide additional details about her space trip but it could also be reflecting how the father was concealing information about himself. The goal of Louie’s scheme was to collect long-lost treasures of the past before they went missing. According to what “Coot” could be suggesting, Della was looking for a treasure during her trip too but there’s a high chance that it was more of a sentimental treasure that had something to do with her family. “Timephoon!” gives us another case of two different types of values as well as another example of heirlooms through The Famous Canes of Clan McDuck. Scrooge wants to save them from the storm like Della may have wanted to save the father. Louie claims that he and Launchpad were saving treasure too.
Louie was manipulating time as an easier way to become successful. Della describes his actions as taking a “shortcut to riches” and yells at him for not thinking about the consequences before taking off with such a powerful machine. The use of the word “shortcut” reminds me of the wormholes in “Neverrest” and how Scrooge tried to use them to make it to the top of the mountain. Huey brings up wormholes again in “Terror” as an option for an unexplained disappearance. During a later viewing of that episode, I thought this was hinting towards Della’s and there was also a fan theory going around with the cosmic storm being a wormhole that sent her through time. But in her official debut, we don’t see that happen at all…
Huey’s mention seems way too significant to be a random throwaway statement. So…could the father have been through this situation instead? Since Louie’s use of the Time Tub had an effect on the El Pato storm, could this support the idea of the father provoking the cosmic storm to some degree? With stolen technology or a mystical artifact? Did he steal or cheat to get a treasure and this was the curse or punishment that came with it? The concept of time travel is being closely associated with outer space in this episode. Not only because of the comparison to Della taking the Spear but because Louie is first found using the Time Tub behind a starry night sky backdrop with a prominent full moon. He also starts a treasure pile behind a curtain backdrop decorated with glow-in-the-dark moons and stars.
In "Beagle Birthday" Webby receives a bottled message alleging to be from a lost sailor in a deadly whirlpool. This occurrence partially resembles a diagram of a wormhole as it's like two whirlpools connected at their ends. Being a formation with two openings and a shared path, makes it a lot like the tunnels we've seen in "Terror", "Raiders", and "Coot". By itself, a whirlpool is a vortex like the shadows in "Shadow War", the Money Tree in "Raiders" and the El Pato storm.
Having Launchpad work for Louie could be hinting how his past relates to the main plot of the story. When Launchpad interrupts Scrooge’s suspicions, it draws attention to himself in a similar fashion to his running gag with Della. If LP is the father, having him in the Time Tub and directly dealing with these valuables, follows the notion of him being a lost person that Della could have treasured. He hyperventilates at the thought of being stuck in the wrong point in time and considers the possibility of there being two different versions of himself in the current timeline. When Della catches both Louie and Launchpad using the Time Tub, she seems to look at Launchpad first and may have wondered if he was to blame before Louie spoke up. But it is Launchpad’s fault that the lightning got into the house as he broke the windows while failing to board them up properly.
When LP is about to share his thoughts on time with Della, he suddenly forgets what he was going to say. The scene is then followed by the storm's lightning taking him away and causing the Time Tub to fall down the stairs. This is similar to how a bolt from the cosmic storm caused Della to crash-land on the Moon. Could this be hinting that the bolt affected the father too? That it gave him amnesia? Could it have brought him back from somewhere? Like another dimension where time works differently?
Most importantly, when the lightning hit the characters and sent them to various points in time, he was the only one to go to the future. When Louie wonders where he got the idea of doing something reckless without thinking of the consequences, we’re all led to believe it’s just about Della. But after this is said, Launchpad looks over to her, says “Oh.” and then looks away as if he had someone else in his mind. Launchpad overheard what happened in “Last Crash” and recapped it in the next episode, so it’s not very likely that he would suddenly forget something like this. If Della was the only person who took off with a machine-like Louie did, he shouldn’t get mixed up with someone else. If it’s not Della, then there’s only one other person Louie could have possibly “inherited” this action from. Because LP went to the future, he could have obtained information about what the father did and how it prompted Della to leave.
Launchpad's future look seems very reminiscent of Della's look when she was stranded on the Moon. Della returns from her time traveling adventure dressed as a knight; someone known for setting off into battle to save and protect others.
Della’s reaction to Louie’s remark seemed more than just becoming sad and then getting angry.
If the father did take off in a spacecraft or seem to deliberately do this, without letting Della know beforehand, the confrontation scene might be hinting that she’s mad at the father for leaving so abruptly. She probably thought she was doing better by leaving notes behind for Scrooge and Donald. The fact that she even bothered shows that she had given some thought to what she was doing and had an idea of the risks she would be taking. If she was planning on saving the father, it justified her urgency, but in the end, leaving her family came off as doing the same thing he did to her. When Della looks away from Louie, I think she realizes how history is repeating itself for a third time. When she looks back at him with a stern expression, I think she’s preparing herself to put an end to the cycle before things get worse.
The confrontation feels very similar to Lena's criticism towards Webby's rescue plan in "Beagle Birthday" as well as Scrooge's rant about Della in "Raiders".
Throughout the episode, Mrs. Beakley has been trying to get Della to acknowledge how smaller problems can escalate if left unchecked. Louie thinks it’s okay for him to interfere with the lost items because they were already recorded as missing anyway. When Della took the Spear, she thought that she could handle the situation by herself and manage to come back home safely. When Bubba is accidentally brought back to the present, neither Louie nor Della think much of it because it seemed like something minuscule. Both Louie and Della were so confident about succeeding that they didn’t realize the mistakes they were making until their plans fell apart. If the father had been honest from the get-go, he wouldn’t have caused so much trouble for himself and his family.
When Louie assures his family that he knows how to fix the problem, in spite of being unsure of himself, it reminds me of my speculation about the father wanting to fix a dilemma he created and also how he may have lied to maintain his image. Webby's question about fitting all the people from the past into the Time Tub reminds me of the Moonlanders wanting to fit in the Spear and how the boys wanted Webby to fit with them on their kayak. Could this add on to the idea of the father's spacecraft not being big enough to fit other people?
In a similar vein to Louie and his use of the Time Tub, I think Bubba’s role was representing something about the father too. Before he was tied with time travel and a crazy storm, another caveduck’s skeleton that heavily bared his resemblance was often used as a prop for Dewey Dew-Night. Both characters have red hair like Launchpad and Don Rosa’s interpretation of the father. Bubba and the caveduck prop are presently dead like Della may believe about the father. The three all have musical connections as Bubba plays Dewey’s keytar, the skeleton is posed with a video game guitar and Launchpad plays the piano. Dewey considers Bubba as a member of the family before the reveal at the end of the episode and even before “Timephoon!” premiered, viewers were vaguely warned about Bubba’s inclusion causing a stir…
The caveman prop has a crack in its skull; indicating head trauma. When Bubba falls into the spiked pit, there is an impaled skull at the bottom.
Huey’s struggle with his report could represent a discrepancy between what Della knows about the father and the truth. Similarly to Cornelius Coot, Bubba’s behavior isn’t adding up according to what was previously said. This version of Bubba isn’t completely aligned with his character’s history either as the showrunners are rewriting history with him. When Scrooge and Beakley are quick to accuse the kids of stealing the Time Tub, Della doesn’t want to jump to conclusions. She wants to hold on to the thought of them being well-behaved. Because Della seems very trusting of others, she probably doesn’t want to believe that the father was anything other than what he presented himself to be and might reject any suggestion that says otherwise or anything that implies sinister intentions. At first, Huey is mad about Bubba being more advanced than he anticipated but he later embraces the truth about him. This could be reflective of Della becoming appreciative of Launchpad being more of his authentic self instead of a false identity.
Huey's comment about Bubba being a "freak of history" could tie-in with the father's suspected mishap with the cosmic storm and anything else that could have followed. Dewey and Webby's speculations about Bubba being frozen in an iceberg reminds me of Launchpad's fear of ice fever in "Neverrest". Since their theory was wrong and Scrooge was frozen twice, could that open up the possibility that someone else went through something similar? Could the father have been frozen at some point during his journey?
Something else that can indicate the father’s involvement is that the suspected McQuack ancestor from “Outlaw” returns as one of the people of the past. The basis of his design is intact, but this time around, his color palette falls more in line with Launchpad’s chauffeur outfit. This could play into the idea of there being two different versions of Launchpad. Dee Bradley Baker voices him along with Bubba and Benjamin Frankloon; who’s real-life counterpart conducted a notable experiment with lightning. Since Lin-Manuel Miranda played Fenton’s ancestor as well as Fenton, could we possibly expect Dee to play the father in flashbacks?
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In “GlomTales”, Louie tries to scheme his way out of being grounded while Glomgold develops a scheme of his own to win his bet with Scrooge.
Della had already sensed ways that Louie might try to weasel out of being grounded by planning his punishment accordingly
While Della often comes off as completely reckless, this gives us another example of how she gives more thought to her plans than others realize
She wasn’t anticipating the cosmic storm at all, so there wasn’t much she could do to plan around it while still accomplishing her goal
Because of the way she plans things out, it’s very likely that Della was preparing for a solo mission in advance before she left
The first three times we see Della's handwriting, it's in cursive, but later on in the season, she writes in print. Della takes her time to write in cursive when she's adding onto her guidebook but writes hastily on her apron in print. This could imply that Della wasn't in a rush at the time she wrote her letter to Scrooge and supposedly to Donald.
The DT-87 Security bot Gyro programmed to watch Louie plays a video of Della talking about ethics
In the video, she tells Louie that his schemes have a negative impact on his family and that he needs to stop if he wants to continue to be a part of the family
This could coincide with the idea of the father’s plans or schemes led him into a bad decision and caused him to go missing
When Louie complains about scheming being the only thing he’s good at, it feels a bit reminiscent of how Launchpad feels about his crashing
Della blocks Louie’s phone signal to replace it with the ethics lecture and Mark Beaks later prevents Louie from making any calls from the house phone
This falls a little in line with the recurring pattern of failed or disregarded messages
The DT-87 uses zaps of electricity as a weapon. It zaps away Louie's bindle and also zaps Louie as he tries to escape from the window. When it later zaps Bouncer to protect the house from being invaded, the Beagle is completely immune
The rest of the family is taking a trip to Big Rock Candy Mountain to go after the Hobo King’s Ruby Bindle
It’s described as the laziest, scheme-iest, quest of all time
This is Louie’s dream vacation but because he almost destroyed time, space and his family for the sake of treasure, he’s not allowed to join them
Della states that he hasn’t earned it
Louie plans on scheming his way to this destination before his family can get there
Launchpad was dressed like a hobo in the previous episode
Glomgold organizes a crime family to take out Scrooge’s family and win the bet
He trespasses into the Junkyard to get help from Ma and the Beagle Boys
He uses a slingshot to launch himself over the fence
Ma tells Glomgold that he dug his own grave by making the bet in the first place
In Glomgold’s new family, Big Time, Burger and Bouncer are the counterparts of the triplets and he’s their new father
This compares HDL’s father to a character who experienced amnesia
After the mansion is broken into, Glomgold comes out of a cloud of dust and says “Daddy’s home.”
Glomgold states that family is “the greatest scheme of all”
This carries on the “family is the greatest ___ of all” pattern that Launchpad started in the pilot episode
Another interesting connection between Glomgold and Launchpad is that so far, they are the only characters to have their own version of the DT Theme Song. Launchpad's has gotten more attention as there is a video comparing it to the standard version and a 60-minute version with surprise Easter eggs. The attention is likely due to them both being comedic characters but it's still interesting, nonetheless.
When Glomgold and Ma influence Mark into joining the family, he starts talking about how technology has the power to wipe out your past, your future and your entire existence
This reminds me of my earlier speculations of Launchpad having his mind-wiped based on how Scrooge was covering up Della’s disappearance
I’m also reminded of my speculations of Launchpad’s records being limited based on how Webby wasn’t able to find anything on Duke Baloney and couldn’t find anything on Glomgold prior to the 1980’s
This is not only another mention of memory loss but memory loss by technological means
Dewey deleted the pictures from his trip in “Town” because he wanted to forget what happened
Launchpad’s crime family counterpart is Don Karnage
This not only compares him to another pilot, but a braggart who is described as “frustratingly charming"
They also share an interest in music
Both characters are heavily focused on Dewey as Don Karnage wants to destroy him and Launchpad sees him as his best friend
Magica De Spell, a character associated with the Moon, creates cloudy formations with her smoke bombs
During her first usage of the fireworks, she mentions her wand having the ability to fracture the cosmos and during one of her later uses, she declares how her hatred for Scrooge is “unbound by time and space”
During their visit to Funzo's, Glomgold's family put on disguises as they pretend to be relatives. Back at the mansion, Louie disguises himself as Huey in an attempt to fool the DT-87 security bot. As his brother, he gets ready to claim that Louie tricked him into the closet and took his place.
Everyone believes Scrooge and Magica are better than Glomgold
Glomgold is terrified of losing the bet because he knows he can’t best Scrooge on his own
Ma states that Glomgold is a moron with terrible plans while Scrooge is smarter, stronger and craftier
The other villains in the crime family are very impressed with Magica and makes Glomgold reluctant to ask for her help
When it’s time to determine the winner of the bet, Glomgold’s seat says “Reserved for loser”
Scrooge sees the arrival of the villains as part of Magica’s goal for revenge in spite of Glomgold taking the lead
The bet makes me not only want to consider that there was a race against time with Della and Dad, but a competitive element in their relationship as well. In "B.U.D.D.Y.", Launchpad challenges a robot to a race. He knows he doesn't have a good chance of winning, so he goes to Gyro's Lab for help. LP refers to his competitor as an uncrashable robo-version of himself. The father may have never seen her crash before, so, this could be reflective of how he perceived her as someone who was much better than he was.
When it comes time to fight Clan McDuck, all of the villains’ egos and ambitions get in the way of working together as a functional family
After he makes a deal with them about winning the bet, Louie becomes part of the crime family as Glomgold’s business partner
Scrooge and the rest are saddened and confused to see him working for the opposing side
This gives us another case of someone from the McDuck Family working with bad guys
When Scrooge questions Louie about helping his enemies, Launchpad is left in the shot. As Scrooge processes this and his loss, Launchpad is the only other character visibly upset.
Once Glomgold wins, he betrays his new family by taking all the resources for himself
Soon after, Louie betrays his business partner by pointing out that Flintheart Glomgold is a fake identity
This transfers all the winnings and the company back into the McDuck Family
Because Louie was plotting to turn against the crime family he was integrated into, this could support how the father wanted to expose the supposed third party after working for them
When Louie brings up that Flintheart Glomgold isn't Duke's real name, Huey and Webby aren't in front of Launchpad anymore. This seems to make him stand out a bit during the subject of a false identity.
The villains attack Glomgold for turning on them and losing their resources to a child
Glomgold falls into the bay similarly to how he became Duke Baloney again
_______________
After saving McDuck Enterprises, Louie assumes Scrooge’s position as the Richest Duck in the World and one of the biggest challenges that comes with it.
Louie schemed his way into becoming a billionaire like Donald lied about taking over Scrooge’s company in “Town”
Neither of them put in the hard work to earn this naturally
Louie is overly confident of his new billionaire title and uses it to justify his ability to handle anything
The way he motivates himself by constantly stating his position is not only like Scrooge but like Della as well
He thinks that his wealth literally makes him invincible
When Launchpad helps out later on in the story, Louie takes credit for it simply for being his boss
This is similar to how he took Lil’ Bulb’s credit for picking a lock in “Dime Chase” and how Della gave Dewey credit for accidentally frying the security system in “Raiders”
If the father was using a device of some sort to improve his skills, could it have been a sentient one that did all the work for him?
Louie makes it one of his top priorities to create a reunion between Johnny and Randy from Ottoman Empire after their split was announced in “Outlaw”
He describes the event as “the greatest television reunion in history”
While Louie informs Zan Owlson about why the twins stopped working with each other, he mentions that Johnny never got over his brother’s betrayal
After Louie convinces the brothers to work together again so they can build him a custom-made ottoman, Scrooge’s board of vultures schedule a meeting
Louie remarks about how expensive it was to resolve the incident
Bradford questions the triplet about how having the ottoman built benefits the company
After Bradford complains about how the money spent has to come from somewhere, Louie allows them to cut the funding going towards magical defense for a dark, mysterious island in the Heron Sea
It turns out that Scrooge was using this magical defense to protect himself from a curse known as The Bombie
The Bombie is an unstoppable zombie who is destined to follow the richest person in the world until they have earned the one thing they have not
Bradford had previously criticized Scrooge about the amount of money he was spending for magical defense in “Dime Chase”
Scrooge became cursed after he made a deal in Africa back in the 1960's. His research team had discovered a rare element called "Haveyouseenium" in the mines of Instubstatia. It's woven into a sparkly, blue blanket in Scrooge's demonstration and causes its wearers to disappear when it's thrown over them.
Louie and his team have to fly over to the island after the cut in funding causes an emergency
Falcon Island is shrouded in mist similarly to the sauna in “Neverrest”, the links in “Moorshire”, the McDuck’s ancestral castle and the lighthouse in “Depths”
Owlson points out that the island is so secret, that Scrooge had it removed from maps and satellite images
This makes it a bit similar to Ithaquack in “Selene”
Louie had the Sunchaser painted green, which is the opposing color range the plane is in normally as well as the Spear
This draws a bit of a comparison between the Glomgold Industries owned vehicles in “Terror” and “Raiders”
As the team explores the island, Launchpad staggers behind to take observations
He notices how the pillar he climbed over crumbled and fell
He later notices Scrooge’s security devices
LP is the first to realize Bombie after he breaks free from his confinement
This might be hinting that the island is similar to the destination the father went to in outer-space
Louie thinks he can use his powerful position to get Bombie under control, but it does nothing to help
Louie calls Bradford to cut the funding for the McDuck Satellite System as an attempt to wipe Bombie out
The way the satellites are being used to kill a monster, sorta makes me wonder if some part of the cosmic storm’s creation stemmed from a weapon or substance in the spacecraft that created an explosion
Bombie avoids the attack and hitches a ride as the Sunchaser flies off
The monster rips the plane open and comes after Louie
Launchpad is shown in the corner of the shot as this is happening
Owlson becomes frustrated with Louie’s attitude and takes charge of the situation herself
She opens the hatch and commands Launchpad to pull up, causing Bombie to fall out and the custom-made ottoman to crash into Louie
When Owlson notices that Louie is about to fall out the plane too, she desperately tries to grab his hand, but he still plummets into the body of water below
When she exclaims “No, no, no, no, nooo!”, it’s similar to how Della reacted when she noticed she had crashed
This could be reflective of how Della was extremely close to reuniting with the father
This could also be hinting that the father fell out of the spacecraft he was in
This scene is a bit similar to how Launchpad almost fell out in “Last Crash”
Louie eventually makes it back to Duckburg once the ottoman gets washed ashore with him on top of it
This feels very reminiscent of the thing Dewey and Webby theorized about Bubba get washed ashore in an iceberg
Bombie survives the fall and continues to follow Louie wherever he goes
Could the mutation Launchpad possibly went through count as a curse? Since it’s now a part of who he is, it follows him everywhere he goes too
Because Scrooge had allowed Louie to take his place, he decides to start from the ground up. He establishes a shoe shining service like he did as a child in Glasgow, but it doesn't go over well because most of the people walking by are barefoot. He eventually finds a customer in Gavin, the bigfoot who was scamming Louie's brothers in "Other" Bin. He had stolen someone else's clothes to meet the dress code for his new job and runs away when he doesn't have the money to pay Scrooge.
Louie runs into town and hides with Scrooge behind a hotdog stand as his uncle explains the struggles he’s gone through with the curse
This seems to draw a connection between this episode and “Timephoon!” as Dewey and Webby had a hotdog stand to prepare food for the storm
Once Louie admits that he’s not ready to be a businessman, Bombie finally backs off
After the triplet acknowledges that his position wasn’t naturally earned, he humbles himself and offers to shine Bombie’s shoes
Scrooge joins him in this and together they both break the curse
At McDuck Manor, Della tries contacting Penumbra and the Moonlanders again to see if they’ll be coming over soon
She’s been sending her transmissions to them in a similar way to when she was trying to contact her family from the Moon
When Della reveals this, Huey states that they never got any of her messages
This further strengthens the connection between Della’s departure from Earth and her departure from the Moon
Della’s difficulty with her messages to the Moonlanders adds on to the trend of a failed or disregarded messages
Launchpad’s photo continues to stay on the family wall and is constantly in view during the transmissions
With Della’s copy of the family photo now removed, this continues to beg the question of Launchpad’s inclusion
Why is a highly relevant picture about blood-relatives missing, while his picture isn’t?
Donald was not previously depicted in LP’s photo until it became clearer to read
If history is repeating itself, this might be an indication that Della contacted the father multiple times without receiving a response or until much later
Did the father expect Della to follow after him? Was he told she would by someone who claimed they would but ended up keeping that info from her to make it seem like he betrayed her?
After accidentally breaking Della’s camera, Dewey uses his Dewey Dew-Night set-up to help her contact the Moon
Dewey uses photos of himself dressed as an astronaut for his intro
The way the set falls apart makes it look like the rocket is aimed at him like a missile
This reminds me of the torpedoes Scrooge caused Gizmoduck to fire at the Sunchaser in “87 Cent”
This also reminds me of the firecracker incident that left the father in hospitalization according to prior Disney Duck lore
Firecrackers were present during the artificial storm in "Duck Knight". The backdrop featured consist of a starry night with a giant hole ripped out where the Moon is.
When Dewey asks Della about what it was like on the Moon, she recalls the time she had a three-week staring contest with herself out of desperation for human contact
She states that it’s easy to lose track of time in the cruel void of Space
This is very similar to the way Lena described the infinite night of the Shadow Realm in “Nightmare”
While Della talks to Dewey about ending the war with the moon mites, she realizes that this made Penumbra feel like she didn’t have a purpose anymore
Did Della end up excelling in something the father though he had a hold of? Did he feel threatened? No longer felt like the best or good enough? Did he have to find something else to be good at?
Similarly to what happened in “Coot”, what if the father wanted to accomplish something on his own without Della stepping in to take over?
Della’s mystery theme plays during this scene
Later on, Dewey apologizes for causing Della to doubt her friendship with Penumbra and suggests that she wasn’t responding because she was busy
Della tells him not to worry about it and insists that she’s satisfied with her family; she doesn’t need moon-friends
This reminds me of how she could have changed her focus from saving the father to figuring out a way to make it back home
Just when she’s about to pull the plug on the transmitter, she finally gets a message from Penumbra
She warns Della about Lunaris’ invasion and how he’s coming straight for her family
This could be reflective of how the father may have sent out a mayday or how he attempted to warn Della about the third party
When Louie told the board to cut the funding on the satellite system, it guaranteed an easier way to invade Earth
_______________
Once the aliens arrive in “Mooonvasion!”, they quickly head into capturing everyone. Now, Della and her family have to come up with a way to fight back.
Mrs. Beakley zooms by a crowd of Moonlanders as she drives the family to the Money Bin
As the aliens strike the jeep with their ray guns, Dewey sees the invasion as an opportunity to be a hero and opens the back window to take them on, but Webby closes the window before he can hurt himself
He thinks saving Earth is his destiny and refers to himself as “the chosen one”
This is reminiscent of his Pato Pisco story
When they enter the bin, Gyro informs Scrooge that the Moonlanders have already destroyed every initial weapon they have and comments on how well-planned the invasion is
Lunaris hacks Gyro’s slideshow to give an introductory transmission about his plans and mentions how family is “the greatest strength of all"
The family head down to the lab where Gyro instructs a group of Lil’ Bulbs to recruit people across the city to help combat the invasion
The Leader of the group has a crack at the top of his bulb
When he motions for the robots to get going, he notices that one of them is in need of reassuring
This loosely mirrors the previous scene where Della reassures Louie’s importance on the team
Louie may not have Webby’s skills, Dewey’s gusto, or Huey’s no-how, but he can help Della see the angles she can’t
Similarly to how Launchpad makes up for his lack of training with creative solutions
The Lil' Bulbs were being used as communication devices for the McDuck Family and their allies. When Gibbous grabs a hold of the group's leader, the robot detaches his bulb from his body to prevent the secret plan from being revealed. This seems to add onto the trend of failed messages. It also feels a bit like how Della's connection from Scrooge was lost when the Spear was struck, as well as Launchpad losing his connection when the Tower of Infinity fell in "Game Night". If the father was trying to warn Della about the third party while he was in Space, could someone from the group have been eavesdropping and cut his connection somehow?
Elsewhere in Silverbeak, Launchpad is struggling to get the limo’s engine started
He states that he needs to leave because Scrooge needs him
The vehicle is damaged due to it partially being on fire
Just as a Moonlander jumps on the car and gets ready to blast the pilot with his electrical device, a purple smoke bomb goes off and blindsides the alien
Drake Mallard appears atop the limo dressed in the heroic identity of Darkwing Duck
He recites his introduction, referring to himself as “the terror that flaps in the night” and “the scream you can hear in Space”
When the smoke clears, the string lights attached to the banister can be seen behind him
The aliens don’t take Drake seriously as a threat and run off without bothering to fight him
Launchpad gets out of the car and cheerfully exclaims that Darkwing had saved him
While the Bulbs are recruiting people from across Duckburg, Della and the kids are in search of recruits from other parts of the world
As they enter Egypt, Louie suggests for them to pick up D’jinn and The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra but the Moonlanders have already reached the pyramid
Louie is ready to make adjustments around this and requests for Della to descend, but she pulls up instead; causing them to pass their destination
Della claims that there’s nowhere to land, but Dewey points out that the terrain is flat enough to do so
Once Della states that she wants to find reinforcements in a safer place, Louie starts to become confused about the goal of her plan
The group travel to Ithaquack next in hopes to get Selene in on their plans but Zeus has her and Storkules on punishment
Storkules begs his father but Zeus refuses to help Scrooge McDuck in any way. He uses the old bridge jumping rebuttal to help his son better understand his point, but it backfires because Storkules’ immortality would prevent him from dying
Zeus then zaps him with lightning
As Della pleads with the deities, Louie finds it difficult to work around what she’s saying
She tells them that they need to hide and how they can never go back to Duckburg
When Louie questions her on this, she insists that it’s all a part of the plan and that he doesn’t need to know every part of it to believe her
The Moonlanders arrive shortly after and cause the group to leave
During the trip, the Lil' Bulbs that joined them become rowdy and give Huey a hard time. This may just be a funny gag, but in another scene where this is happening, Dewey and Webby are play-fighting in front of the Temple of Heroes. The last time they were there, they fought over the decision to enter Selene's Garden. Huey's statement about how humans have superiority over machinery seems a lot like a reference to the way Gyro acted towards the Pep vending machine in "Dime Chase". This also makes me want to think about Launchpad's struggles with B.U.D.D.Y...If not aliens, could the father have experienced a struggle against sentient technology?
Della considers the Dawson Mines or the caves of Mt. Neverrest as their next stop
Both of these locations are places with tunnels
Huey points out that these places are abandoned and won’t help them find recruits against the invasion
Not wanting to give up on his mother’s plan, Louie guesses that she’s looking for a second base to attack from
The Sunchaser is suddenly being chased by one of the Moonlander Spears
It shoots at them like the lightning strikes in the cosmic storm
The Sunchaser takes a hit and Della almost falls
All the kids hang onto something, but Huey loses his grip
When Dewey reaches out to save him, it’s a little bit like how Launchpad almost falls out of the plane in “Last Crash” where Scrooge saves him
It’s also similar to how Louie loses his grip in “Richest”
Dewey continues to see himself as the chosen one by referring to himself as “the hero of Earth” and acknowledges how Webby saved him in the process of saving his brother
The kids begin to seriously question Della’s plan
She had bailed on the chance to pick up their friends in Egypt and was more concerned about entering the Greek temple rather than convincing the deities to help them
Louie then realizes that getting help was never part of the plan, it was all about running away!
Della admits her scheme and didn’t think the kids would have agreed with her if she had been upfront about it
Dewey doesn’t understand why they aren’t trying to fight back and why they’re just leaving their friends and family behind like this
Della responds by saying “You’re my family! I can’t lose you again!”
At this moment, the plane is struck for the final time, and they spiral down towards the sea
Once all the town’s recruits meet with Scrooge at the Money Bin, they all share their ideas for fighting the invasion
Drake makes a pitch about scaring the Moonlanders involving his smoke bombs and lightning
His plan is about making himself look cool more than anything else
He immediately becomes dejected when Violet doesn’t know who he is
Drake shows disdain towards Gizmoduck; someone who others deem as better than him
Scrooge reminds them about the importance of teamwork and how they need to function as a unit in order to take Lunaris down
This reminds me about how the success of Glomgold’s crime family was hindered for not adhering to this principle
It’s decided that the army of recruits will attack the Moonlanders head-on as a distraction while Scrooge sneaks into Lunaris’ ship
As they stand in front of a group of Moonlanders blocking the road to the mansion, Scrooge commands for them to wait for his word but Launchpad accidentally goes ahead of them with the jeep
Scrooge then leads the charge on the fight with a few of the aliens getting taken away by the harpies in the process
While the armies battle each other, Scrooge tosses Drake from the passenger seat of the jeep and orders for Launchpad to get to the mansion
Drake catches up and climbs to the top of the roof to recite his introduction, now with mentions of a black hole and a supernova
Scrooge gets irritated with him and refers to him as an “ignominious egomaniac”
Drake was still set on his idea from the meeting, but Scrooge informs him that the Moonlanders aren’t scared of the guy; they barely even notice him
Realizing this gives Scrooge an idea
Once Launchpad gets closer to the manor, a Moonlander strikes the jeep’s tire with an electrical blast and sends the trio crashing into the fountain statue
Drake comes out of the vehicle dressed up as Scrooge while Scrooge sneaks into the mansion, pretending to be Darkwing
Both Drake and LP are disoriented from the crash
The aliens quickly attack Drake but he manages to fight back in his groggy state
After Launchpad tackles the last of them, he checks on his friend to make sure he’s ok
Drake is thrilled that he finally got the attention he wanted and how the confrontation was proof of his heroism
He briefly forgets who he is due to the to the crash and the fight that followed
When Scrooge reaches the roof of the mansion and tries to board Lunaris’ ship, he discovers that this was only a hologram of the vessel
The projection then takes the shape of Lunaris as he explains how his father taught him about the power of fear
He had used the emotion to motivate his people to invade Earth
It caused Scrooge’s recruits to put their faith in his plan that ultimately failed and caused them to get captured
Fear had drove Della away instead of coming back to help
Lunaris was using fear to distract Scrooge as he landed a planetary engine that would make the Earth revolved around the Moon
After getting hit by the Moonlander Spear, the Cloudslayer crash-lands on an island
Once the coast is clear, Della and the kids exit the plane to find Donald emerging from the bushes
He now sports a long beard with messy hair
His right sleeve is missing with a bandage on his arm as well as his left leg
He has a trio of conjoined melons shaped like Mickey Mouse that he’s been using to help him cope with his isolation
Della’s mystery theme plays as the Duck Twins walk over to greet each other
Their astonishment soon turns into rage as they demand to know where the other has been
Della is still irritated by her brother’s absence when she returned to Earth in “Nothing Can” and informs him that they’re being invaded by the Moonlanders
Donald tells her that he warned his family about that ahead of time, but Della is certain that they didn’t receive his message
Dewey breaks up their arguing to yell at Donald for not naming him “Turbo” like his mother requested
The anger between the siblings subsides as they realize just how much they’ve missed each other
Having Della and Donald reunite an episode later after Johnny and Randy, seems to support the idea that their arcs relate to one another. This could indicate that Ottoman Empire may continue to give us hints about the Duck Twins' past as well as foreshadowing things to come
Donald explains through his Mickey-shaped melon friend that he too had crashed onto the island after jumping into Lunaris’ launcher
Melon Mikey figures that Donald’s family was looking for him for months
The family feels guilty about not knowing Donald wasn’t on the cruise and lie to comfort him
Huey starts off the lie even though he was the first one to downplay anything being wrong when Dewey and Webby wanted to investigate in “Happened to Donald”
Melon Mikey uses this to prove to Donald that his family would never forget about him
Donald and the kids are ready to go home and take on Lunaris but Della is still bent on keeping her family safe
Donald refers to the Moonlander general as a monster, which may be continuing the “M” alteration pattern that is often tied to calling someone a monster
Della insists that Scrooge will handle the situation while they live on the island for the time being
She tries her best to make them feel at home, but the rest of the group want to devise a plan to leave
Dewey wants to surf them back home in spite of not knowing how to
His attempt to demonstrate ends with him getting washed back to shore
Huey and the kids try to get Della to see the importance of going back home but she’s convinced that it’s too dangerous and they don’t know what’s waiting for them back there
Dewey tells Della that they might as well be living on the Moon
Della is in denial about this, but once she pulls out a stick of Oxi-chew, she realizes that her son had a point
The course of Della's trip went from a desert pyramid themed around the Sun, an island to find a deity in charge of the Moon, and then ended on another island where the Moon and Sun are overlapping each other. There was an eclipse during "The Shadow War!", the previous season's finale, as well.
Having one of the characters directly acknowledge the similarities in their situations confirms that there are a lot of intended parallels going on in the story
This also creates the possibility of there being other Spear-related elements we currently don’t recognize, which makes everything surrounding Della’s plan even more questionable
There’s a focus on not wanting to lose family again during something that is reflective of the cosmic storm
We all know that the storm caused her to lose contact with her family on Earth but if the father was in the storm or in the direction of it, she also lost her chance of saving him when she fell
Her supposed change of focus during the wreckage could add on to why she desperately wants to protect her family; she failed to be there for him but now she wants to do everything she can to be here for their kids
After the plane falls to the island, the scene changes to Launchpad driving up to the manor
Both pilots have an electrical related crash
Della is in a red vehicle that shares the same color scheme with the Spear while Launchpad is in a green-ish teal jeep with a color that fits somewhere in between the abandoned subway train and Glomgold’s plane in “Raiders”
Della lands somewhere reminiscent of the Moon while Launchpad is at a prominent location on Earth
Della wasn’t running away when she took the Spear, so could this be paralleling how the father stole a spacecraft in a plan for escape? Did it only look like he was running away from Della’s perspective?
This would line up with what Donald did to get away from Lunaris
Could the father have been escaping some kind of punishment from someone or avoiding the consequences of his actions?
The Bombie was a problem from the past that both Scrooge and Louie were running away from instead of dealing with it accordingly
The Ghost of Christmas Past became a problem in the form of a wendigo after Scrooge deserted him in the woods
In “Timephoon”, Mrs. Beakley was trying to help Della see the importance of dealing with smaller problems before they escalate
If he wasn’t running away when he left Earth, could he have been running away due to something he experienced in Space?
This could coincide with the idea of him encountering a monster or unleashing something dangerous
After The Lil’ Bulb leader comforts his nervous brother, he runs into the city with Della beginning to initiate her secret plans for safety overhead
The scene then switches to Launchpad’s smoke bomb scene in the garage
In "Selene", Dewey and Webby trick Launchpad into crashing the Sunchaser on Ithaquack so they can find out more about Della. While lightning isn't what caused the crash, it's still present and did strike the vehicle during a storm. Before this, he says his quote about how a little lightning never killed anyone and sometime after, makes his out-of-character quote about safety. In "nightmare", Lena suggests that they landed on a Moon-shaped island as a result of a plane crash and when Louie tries to call Scrooge, he can't remember his phone number.
In the Cloudslayer, Della reveals that she brought her copy of the family photo along with her after removing it from the houseboat’s wall
While humming the Moon Theme, she sets it in a dent, exposing the side that has her doodles of the boys drawn on it
Next to the photo is a window showing her reflection
Having these visuals side-by-side could further indicate that the drawing side doubles as something that represents the father
The mystery theme starts playing when Louie shows up
Della laments to him about how she wasn’t prepared for any of this, she just wanted to come back to Earth and be a mom
Louie talks to her about how much he hates surprises and how they interfere with his ability to plan around the angles
He wants to take control of the situations but it’s impossible to plan for everything so he has to deal with those surprises
He adds that sometimes dealing with the bad surprises can lead into a good one; he wasn’t expecting his mom to come back after she went missing
Could this leave open the possibility of the father still being alive after the storm? That she could have saved him after all?
When Della starts to worry about the future, Louie shares an old song with her that he keeps in mind whenever he gets scared
The song ends up being the lullaby she sang to the boys before they hatched
After Della went missing, Donald sang it to the boys during their younger years
Della states that she wrote the song before she got lost and previously referred to it as an old song in her first transmission from the Moon
Could this support my theory about the basis of the song predating HDL’s existence? That it was originally something she sang to the father but reworked it for their children?
Once Della is willing to go back to Duckburg to face the unknown with her family, Gladstone and Fethry suddenly ride up to the island on top of Mitzi’s head
Gladstone explains that his blimp was blown clear of the invasion and out to sea
That led into Fethry and Mitzi finding him and that caused them to discover the Mickey-shaped melon Della kicked into the ocean, which led them to the island
It was one surprise after another
I’ve observed this family reunion in the past and realized that there are many interesting parallels going on between the major situations each cousin faced
All four cousins were stuck in distant places that were difficult to escape
Gladstone and Donald were being held as prisoners by characters who were originally perceived as friendly
Fethry’s shared an isolation element with Della’s in a Space-like environment
Fethry and Della also sent messages that were being ignored and have a special song that is later repeated by one of the triplets
Gladstone and Fethry’s debut episodes share the same formula in an Earthly setting while the titles for Donald and Della’s Space-oriented episodes are almost identical
Donald’s situation had shared elements from all three characters
He was a prisoner who sent out a message that went ignored, became a long-haired castaway after a crash, lived on a desert island by himself and used something to help him get through his loneliness
Gladstone, Fethry and Della’s situations took place in locations that were very island-like and then they all end up meeting with Donald on an actual island
Combined, their stories also contain a stolen vehicle, someone who is lost, a call for help, a monster and a love interest if the family photo and heart locket are anything to go by
All of this unity continues as the kids make the same poses as the adults on the ride back home
Louie to Gladstone, Huey to Fethry, Webby to Della, leaving Dewey to Donald
Huey, Louie and Webby have expressed great admiration toward the adults they’re being compared to and most of them are assigned by color, but Dewey is surprised and disappointed to be considered as the Donald of the group
Dewey and Donald do have things in common: Donald used to wear blue, they both have a desire to be cool, they’ve express wanting their independence from being a multiple, they’ve both been described as having a devil-may-care attitude, and while Dewey doesn’t normally admire Donald, he was the first to show appreciation towards him in “The Shadow War!“
But the fact that Dewey is questioning their comparison makes it feel open-ended, like he could be a lot like someone else
Having the Earth revolve around the Moon causes the temperature of the Western hemisphere to plunge, putting Duckburg in a deep freeze
At the harbor, Launchpad creeps along the side of the Chums building wearing a hooded cape that obscures his eyes
Scrooge is holding an emergency meeting there for the remaining members of his army
The businessman wants to come up with a new plan to retaliate against the invasion, but it was hard to develop one that wouldn’t be easily foiled
Lunaris’ carefully thought-out plan always made him one step ahead
When Scrooge states that there’s no sane way of stopping the general, Glomgold suddenly makes himself known
He insists that they don’t need a plan to beat the Moonlanders, they need a cockamamie scheme
Scrooge decides to go along with him as a last resort
As Glomgold goes through a slideshow introducing his scheme, Mrs. Beakley expresses concern over trusting this “maniacal knockoff”, but Scrooge reminds her that the only other alternative they have is to surrender and freeze to death
Similarly to Drake, Glomgold is more focused on himself than the situation at hand
As they prepare themselves to carry out the scheme, Glomgold releases his sharks into the icy bay to eat through the planetary engine’s support beams
In order to gain access to the control room, he has Beakley dressed like a child and Launchpad dressed as a rock to fool Lunaris into thinking the slingshot being used is normal sized
The way Launchpad complains about the costume being too hot, feels very reminiscent of his time at the spa center in “Neverrest” where he thought he had caught ice fever
When Scrooge asks about his role in the scheme, Glomgold tells him that he’ll distract Lunaris by pretending to be “the one person no one would ever suspect of deceiving them”
He also describes the person as “a man everyone let’s into their home without question”
In the control room, Lunaris remarks about how he can’t believe his father was ever afraid of the Earth as he sees its inhabitants as pathetic and easy to conquer
The security cameras soon pick up on the sharks and disguises, prompting Lunaris to step outside to see what was going on
He comes to face Scrooge, who is reluctantly dressed up as Santa Claus
Scrooge has a mysterious grudge against Santa and based on how Glomgold described him, Scrooge was deceived by him in some way
This sounds similar to his past with George Mallardy
In “Christmas”, Scrooge refers to Santa as a “yuletide-ic traitor” who shouldn’t be trusted
As Scrooge continues to play along with the scheme, he finds out that part of it was developed to give Glomgold his company back
While Lunaris is confused, Glomgold signals Beakley and she launches Launchpad from the giant slingshot, straight into the controls for one of the engine’s thrusters
When LP is tucked into his costume, it heavily resembles a space rock.
The group keep Lunaris away from heading back into the engine for as long as they can
Before Lunaris can harm Scrooge any further, the Duck Cousins and the kids appear with Mitzi
Lunaris rushes inside the ship as Mitzi works on pulling apart another support beam
Gladstone drops his last watermelon slice and a seagull flies by to take it
The seagull fights with another seagull over it and it falls on Launchpad
This causes the seagulls to attack him and make him push a lever to loosen the beam once and for all
As the engine begins to lean, the seagulls cause Launchpad to step over the edge and fall onto the ice
If the father was in Space, could this be telling us that he was attacked in the cosmic storm, became separated from his spacecraft and fell back to Earth as what seemed to be a meteorite when it was “a guy this whole time”? Did he fall into the sea?
The seagulls were previously depicted in “Beagle Birthday” as creatures who gang up on things they want and try to fly away with them
In “GlomTales” Flintheart was attacked by his crime family after betraying them and then fell off a cliff into the bay
This is similar to how his shadow caused him to fall into the bay and lose his memory in “Shadow War” and “Duke Baloney”
The gathering of everyone’s shadows was referred to as a storm
Launchpad fought against the shadow vortex when it prevented him from crashing into the bin
In “Golden Spear”, Donald fell into the pool after getting struck by Zeus’ lightning bolt
Boyd fell into the treehouse pool in “Birthday Doofus” after he wasn’t able to remember far enough into his past
When Doofus programmed him to attack Louie, he rose from the pool with sparks flying from his body and was in denial about his true identity
In “Friendship”, Launchpad sat in front of a seaside painting, passed out due to a lack of oxygen and face-planted into his soup, which he later breathed inside of
If this is true, there could have been even more to the Cousin Reunion scene. When Gladstone and Fethry arrive, the cousins are split into two groups: One side is in the sea, while the other is on land. While the Duck Twin side has a predominately red vehicle crashed on an isolated patch of land, the other side has a partially green vehicle attached to a mutant from Fethry's past. Additionally, Gladstone and Fethry's debuts are the only episodes we see Launchpad go on a secret adventure to meet up with his exes.
After Lunaris and his engine are directed back into Space, Scrooge fusses at Donald for taking an extended vacation while everyone else was combating the invasion
Donald gets irritated by this and once Della and the kids grimace, Scrooge then figures that he wasn’t actually on the cruise this whole time
Based on other parts of Donald’s journey, could the father have been expected to be somewhere when he was actually somewhere else instead? Is Della under the impression that he went somewhere for selfish reasons when he was really trying to come back home?
Launchpad’s face is shown in the corner of the shot before it pans over to Della and the kids
Now wanting the people of Earth to die in fear of the Moon, Lunaris turns the engine around to blow up the planet
The Moonlanders that were left behind overhear his plans through their communicators and realize that they’ve been working for the bad guy
Della thinks quickly and motivates her family to enter an empty Spear nearby
To get closer to the last thruster, she steers the rocket across Lunaris’ ship so the kids can shoot at the laser turrets
Having this happen in Space draws an even closer comparison to the cosmic storm
The Moon Theme plays as they work together
While Donald and Della are fighting over the controls, Della says “This is a Rocketship, genius! I’m a pilot!”
This could just be a statement about the obvious and nothing more, but it reminds me of Launchpad’s constant mentions of being a pilot in “Woo-oo”, seeming to subtly connect him to the situation
As the family closes in, Lunaris activates more lasers behind him and increases his fuel
The McDuck Family ship takes a serious beating and starts to melt and peel like the bullet Donald went into
Della’s Mystery Theme plays as they struggle
Just as Della admits that she can’t find an angle out of this, Penumbra suddenly comes flying by in the original Spear and ejects herself before the rocket destroys the last engine
Lunaris and his vehicle are stuck orbiting the earth as the planet’s newest moon
If the father’s spacecraft isn’t destroyed, could it still be lingering around in deep space? Could it eventually crash back down to Earth?
When the family returns to Duckburg, Glomgold hypes up a crowd over the success of his world-saving scheme. He gloats about how he defeated Scrooge but his rival reminds him that they were working on the same team. Behind them, Glomgold is a green duck who looks very similar to the McQuack-looking ancestor from "Outlaw" and "Timephoon!". In a later shot of the scene, the Ottoman customer from that strange scene in "Outlaw" seems to have survived the ordeal and stands next to a female Dewey looking-alike who previously appeared in "B.U.D.D.Y."
When the family and their closest friends gather behind Scrooge’s dollar sign statue, there’s a good amount of intended placement on the right side of the shot
There’s a parallel going on with Della and Donald with Dewey and Huey
There’s seems to be a line going from Dewey to Della to Launchpad with Launchpad standing behind Della
They all share similar qualities about themselves, and Dewey is often compared to Della
Another line seems to form from Huey to Donald to somewhere between Penumbra and Fethry
Huey shares a similar temperament with Donald as well as his anger
Lunaris has previously noted that Penny reminded Della of her brother and Fethry was compared to Huey twice
There’s a line from Louie to Gladstone that seems to extend to Glomgold and Goldie
Gladstone was compared to Louie twice and Glomgold had a significant amount of spotlight this season with Louie
As Bradford and the rest of his board look at this gathering from a screen, he announces that the McDuck Family has gone too far
Provoking the invasion put the world in jeopardy and without the world…they would have no one to larceny against
Now that the pieces were finally in place, Bradford declares that it’s time for the members of his devious organization to come out of the shadows, take control and bring an end to Clan McDuck
During Bradford’s speech, Gandra Dee, The Phantom Blot, Jeeves and Rockerduck reveal themselves as members of F.O.W.L.
Gandra’s debut episode had story elements such as using electricity as a weapon, genetic mutation, mentions of LP’s dating history, and a betrayal as someone is working for a villain
Fenton refers to Gandra as “Miss Dee” like Launchpad begins to call Della in “Coot”
Gandra is placed close to Launchpad in the SDCC 2019 poster
Jeeves is now a zombie and Rockerduck is frozen in a iceberg
The zombie trend could be leading into the belief that the father is dead when he’s actually alive
Rockerduck’s fate makes me think of Dewey and Webby’s Bubba theory as well as Louie’s return to Duckburg after he fell out of the plane
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When it comes to the possibility of a third-party interfering with Della and Dad’s relationship, it’s hard not to think of F.O.W.L. being the first option. They’re the most sinister party there is and now that we know the vulture trio are at the helm of it, they’ve been keeping a close eye on the McDuck Family for many years. After the trailer for the latter portion on Season 2 dropped, I considered Lunaris being the one who prevented Della’s transmissions going through due to his advanced technology and information access, but Lunaris’ invasion could have been paralleling F.O.W.L’s desire to take over the world. When the description for “Happened to Donald” was released, I was starting to side with the belief that Scrooge’s Board of Directors could be part of the conspiracy Dewey and Webby find out about. While they had nothing to do with Donald’s disappearance, Webby still mentions F.O.W.L. as someone Jones could be working for. Some fans have suspected that the board could have sabotaged the plans surrounding the Spear for a while and now it’s looking very likely.
The vultures are constantly critical of the way Scrooge handles his business. They challenged him in "Dime Chase" by threatening to get rid of his employees and the Money Bin altogether. In "Richest Duck", Bradford was more than ready to cut funding. It was also hinted towards the end of Issue 8 of IDW's DT comic that Braford was secretly planning to get rid of Scrooge.
One of my earliest speculations about the reboot version of Launchpad was that he could be a spy because of his “Double-O-Duck” episode in the original series. In my July update, I changed my mind and stated that he would make a terrible spy but with all this upcoming spy stuff and the fact that Season 3 has an LP-centric episode heavily inspired by the “Double-O” concept, it’s hard not to reconsider. Penumbra kept labeling Della as an Earth spy during the rebuilding of the Spear and Lunaris used this for his plans. If there truly is some sort of parallel or hinting going on with the invasion, could there have been a spy who had something to do with the Spear’s creation on Earth?
For the longest time, I’ve been trying to figure out if the crime family Launchpad mentioned in “Gander” was representing another devious group and completely forgot I guessed F.O.W.L in the process. (And I accidentally called them a war crime family for some reason. Not sure where that came from.) Since it sounded a lot like his old girlfriend, Ziyi went missing because of them, I figured whoever was being represented could be behind Della’s disappearance. If Launchpad knew about the group threatening his missing ex, couldn’t this support the idea of the father knowing about F.O.W.L. plotting against Della and her family? What if posing as a secret agent was the thing that got Della’s attention? If he had found out about F.O.W.L.’s plot prior to going into Space, what if he wasn’t quick to tell Della about it because he wanted to use this as an opportunity to be a hero? To foil the organization all by himself? To make himself feel special like Huey claimed Dewey was doing in “Castle” when he kept his findings on Della a secret?
If not entirely due to her overconfidence, perhaps Della was being secretive about her intentions because there was an espionage portion tied to it. Maybe during her investigation, she discovered Dad had some sort of connection to F.O.W.L., but didn't want to believe he was actually working for them. Part of meeting up with the father could have been Della wanting to know the truth about this.
Hey, everyone! Future / Present Editing K-Tee here! This is supposed to be the part where I wrap everything up and say "Don't sleep on Launchpad, he's important!" (which is still true)... but I never finished past the above!
Yeah, I was originally going to put a speculation timeline together and I think I did get as far as "Raiders", but the premiere of the third season was approaching and it felt like I couldn't get it all done in time. So, I gave up on releasing the essay entirely (I wonder how things would have looked like if I did manage to finish...)
Now that I have this blog where I'm giving my Bio Launchdad theory another chance, I decided to create a separate pageto add to over time. This way, the installment wouldn't be dependent on another part being done in order for release.
Now that I've covered Season 2, I do plan to proceed to Season 3 someday. But there are many other things to be done first before I get those thoughts organized...
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