Launchpad’s Association With Della Duck: B’ridges & Boarway
Part 1 | Part 2 || Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 || Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 || Part 10
Much like “Gander”, “The Depths of Cousin Fethry!” is another episode I’ve already discussed a great deal about in previous blog posts, but here’s some newer points to add along with it:
- When Launchpad brings the submarine to the lighthouse, the area is cover in mist
- Before LP can follow the kids, he gets distracted by his ex-girlfriend, Oceanika, who becomes visible in the distance as the mist clears
- Once Huey and Dewey make it to the top, they’re not met with their Cousin Fethry, but a decoy based on himself, named “Arturo”
- Part of me wonders if this was meant to express how Fethry was not someone who he was expected to be or how he ends up being a “fake” to Huey after believing he was a scientist
- As the trio continue to descend down the aquavator’s cord, the chemicals from the hydrothermal vents makes it difficult to see
- Fethry’s decision to get his team makes me wonder if the father’s distress call may have been over a similar reason if he was yet to be attacked
- When Huey’s helmet later fogs up and sends him into a panic, it reminds me a little of Launchpad in “Neverrest”
- Fethry has to save Huey shortly after
- The aquavator’s cord eventually gets cut and prompts Fethry to lead the kids outside and swim out through the vents to reach his discovery
- Could this be mirroring how Della may have had to go through the cosmic storm to achieve something?
- Fethry’s desire to show Huey and Dewey the rainbow krill, matches well with Scrooge’s claim of Della wanting to “give [the] boys the stars” during a dangerous trip
- The krill illuminate the water like stars in Space
- The vents not only make cloudy formations, but shoot out jets of toxic chemicals that feel a bit reminiscent of lightning strikes
- I’m also wondering if looking at the krill paralleled a surprise Della had planned
- Huey and Dewey are frustrated with the trivial reveal and see it as a big waste of time
- They believe the risky adventure wasn’t worth it
- Scared of the monster they find soon after, the trio swim back to the aquavator but the windows get cracked and the murky water starts pouring in
- The monster turns out to be a mutated member of Fethry’s krill team named “Mitzi”
- She was lurking around in the space-like environment
- Having yellow structures in this area makes it feel similar to Tranquility
- Having a creature considered as a monster in this area makes Mitzi similar to the moon mites
- She wasn’t trying to harm them, she wanted to save them
- Mitzi was blocking the toxic jets from hitting the aquavator
- She was also trying to protect them from coming down any further when she cut the cord
- Before they find this out, Huey accuses Fethry of luring them down there to get devoured by a monster
- Dewey accuses Fethry of unleashing a monster
- There was a whirlpool upon Mitzi’s arrival to the surface
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I don’t have much more to add to “The Ballad of Duke Baloney”, but I will say this:
- Louie claims that “Once a bad guy, always a bad guy.”
- After getting frustrated on the pier, Duke apologizes to the kids for yelling and isn’t sure why he responded like that
- Mann describes Duke as a “strapping”, “noble”, “legend of the docks” and is in total disbelief over the suggestion that he’s actually Glomgold
- Duke isn’t satisfied with his fishing crew settling on being second to Scrooge’s; they have to be the best
- Duke has a dream based on who he used to be and what caused him to become amnesiac
- Webby states earlier in the episode that he’s suffering from repressed memories
- When Glomgold returns to his fake persona, he returns to his office and throws a fit in front of Scrooge over being forgotten
- This reminds me a little about Dewey’s frustrations in “Sky Pirates”
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In “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”, Scrooge and his family are vacationing in Brazil. The town they’re staying at is currently celebrating a festival called “The Feast of The Flower” to honor the bloom of a legendary plant growing in their fountain. Webby is eager to learn about the cultural tradition while Donald is eager to see his old friends, JosΓ© and Panchito. The vacation was put in place for them to reunite and catch up on each other’s lives. Louie and Huey start to question their uncle about his friends and this soon prompts him to reveal a dark family secret: He and his friends were part of a band named “The Three Caballeros”.
Not long after Donald reminisces about how awesome he was, his friends arrive! JosΓ© parachutes from the sky and Panchito unveils himself in front of a doorway, strumming on his guitar. The two then present themselves in front of the family with fireworks! The group stare at them in amazement. Scrooge remarks how impressive they’ve become in comparison to Donald and causes his nephew to become worried…
The college buddies greet each other with a secret handshake and recall a moment from their last meeting where Donald insisted he could juggle HDL’s eggs…and how he dropped one. Huey and Louie quietly agree on that egg being Dewey’s. The friends then turn their conversation to what careers they’ve been busy with. JosΓ© is a travel consultant and global tastemaker while Panchito is an international pop sensation. They’ve always viewed Donald as the cool one of their group due to his globetrotting with Scrooge and now they’re expecting him to have a career that’s even more impressive and successful than theirs.
Donald gets overwhelmed and has to be pulled aside into an alley with Scrooge and Huey. The sailor hyperventilates and labels himself as a failure, but Huey reminds his uncle that this isn’t true.
The adults immediately disagree on this. Donald begs Huey to help him, in which the triplet makes the suggestion to play the part of someone who is successful…which is basically for Donald to lie to his friends.
When Donald returns to JosΓ© and Panchito, he claims to be in charge of McDuck Enterprises now. This irritates Scrooge immensely and makes it hard for him to play along. When the group goes to a restaurant, the band hesitates to deal with the bill in spite of their careers supplying more than enough money to pay for it. It’s then decided for Donald to pay for them all, so he reaches out for Scrooge’s wallet. McDuck downright refuses to let him talk his money and constantly slaps Donald’s hand away; causing Huey to silently intervene.
The band later takes a stroll through the town and think about an old gig they had in Acapulco. JosΓ© and Panchito state that things got so violent, Donald was hit on the head. Twice! Donald’s in disbelief over these crazy events. And also wonders why he has no recollection of any of this happening…just when the trio starts to lament over being too busy to relive those days again, they overhear a song from someone’s radio and begin to play their instruments.
Meanwhile, Webby has been struggling to get Dewey and Louie to relish the moment. They’re too preoccupied with taking pictures on their phones and tending to their online profiles instead of learning about the legend of the festival and eating special pastels. Their visual documenting causes the three of them to miss out on a burro tour. Webby is upset but the brothers aren’t fazed, they have a picture to make it look like they went on the tour and believe that’s enough. Webby gets fed up and goes off to learn more about the town on her own.
She goes up to a vendor to ask her some questions about the town’s legendary plant but she quickly notices that something is wrong: the female vendor has very limited responses and can’t answer the questions properly. She suddenly becomes stuck in a constant loop of these phrases. This causes Webby to slowly back away from her and trip over a giant root…leading behind the vendor’s cart?!
Webby rushes in to disrupt Louie and Dewey’s picture taking to point out that the townsfolk weren’t actual people, they were lures created by the flower! They were all going to be eaten! Once Dewey blinds the carnivorous plant with his cellphone flash, they sneak away to warn the others. Back at the restaurant, the Caballeros are preparing themselves for a new performance. They’ve been enjoying their reunion so much, that they want to start touring again and Donald is willing to pay for the expenses. Huey notices that Donald is becoming too absorbed in this false billionaire persona and tries to snap him out of it so he can tell the truth, but his uncle refuses.
The rest of the kids later burst through the door to tell them about the carnivorous plant. The legend written on the fountain was a warning! They were going to be the The Feast of the Flower! In spite of this, Donald is more concerned about his band and wonders if they could still carry on with their show. Huey can’t believe this selfishness.
Donald reluctantly sides with his family and attempts to tell his band mates to call it off but they’re just as stubborn about this as he was. The pressure from them finally gets Donald to admit that he’s not actually a billionaire; he lied to impress them. It turns out that JosΓ© had lied for a similar reason. He’s not a jet-setter, he’s actually a flight attendant. Panchito is upset that his friends would betray him like this…but he then reveals that he lied too! He was never a superstar, his phone’s been ringing non-stop because he had bailed on the birthday party he was supposed to be playing at. Even though the Caballeros weren’t as successful as they had hoped to be, they still manage to take down the flower and save the day by being themselves.
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So, there’s a good deal of dishonesty going on here: Donald posing as a billionaire, JosΓ© claiming to be a wealthy traveler, Panchito establishing himself as a famous musician, even the carnivorous plant disguising its appendages as multiple people. This makes me wonder if the father had been dishonest in some way. Maybe he created a false persona of a very successful person in order to impress Della. Or maybe he went as far as stealing the identity of a successful person that Della was already acquainted with to capture her attention.
“Town” is the second episode this season with a recurring memory loss element, and it comes right after “Duke Baloney” in order of production. Donald’s friends talk about how one of the nephews were dropped as an egg and how Donald got a concussion during one of their concerts. Webby was able to save Dewey’s phone after the flower attacked them, but the experience was so traumatic, Dewey deletes every single picture from the vacation and acts as if it never happened. The latter two instances could definitely coincide with what happened during the father’s journey as different types of head trauma can lead to memory loss and there’s a significant event involving a monster. The monster in this episode could also contribute to the concept of the father being faced with shape-shifting deception.
Another notable component in this episode is how Donald considers his association with The Three Caballeros a dark family secret. Della’s disappearance remained a secret for years until Dewey brought it to light. Della never mentioned what she was doing with the Spear in her letter, just that she was sorry for taking it without permission. Donald never told the kids about his friends and there’s a chance that Della may have never told her family (or at least Scrooge) about the father. The father could have been keeping secrets as well.
As Donald gets comfortable with his billionaire persona, he starts to care about his image more than anything else. He talks about how he needs the new musical gig and how he’s going out on stage whether his family likes it or not. Panchito states that he needs the tour to “relaunch” his career when he’s supposed to be at a child’s birthday party. This could add to the suggestion that the father went into Space to prove himself and could also be a part of maintaining his lie. Or maybe he realized tricking Della was wrong and now he wanted to make a real accomplishment.
“The Duck Knight Returns!” focuses on similar themes of identity too:
- If not a billionaire, maybe the father was posing as a heroic adventurer; basically what Launchpad is now
- Jim Starling was so caught up in maintaining his hero image, he made things worse by being defiant and destroying the movie set
- Drake Mallard was seen as a phony actor who gets locked in his trailer as part of a plan that was intended to be heroic
- Before Drake arrives, Launchpad starts to believe that the plan is falling apart and that he’s “trapped in a prison of guilt”
- Launchpad has to fight Drake in an enclosed space full of purple items
- His heroism is questioned during their fight
- Towards the end of the episode, Launchpad encourages Drake to become a real superhero instead of pretending to be one
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“Storkules in Duckburg!” begins with Louie attempting to sell a pitch to Scrooge about his company, Louie Incorporated. He wants to be a businessman like his uncle and is hoping that his pitch will persuade him to become an investor. However, it’s not enough to win Scrooge over. He tells Louie that being a businessman is more than simply making money, it’s about finding a problem and offering a solution to it. He uses Donald’s solution to Duckburg’s housing shortage as an example.
On his houseboat, Donald is busy preparing HDL’s old room for rent when the vehicle suddenly begins to shake! It doesn’t take long for him to find out that his mighty friend, Storkules, had entered his home. Donald tries to shoo the demigod out, fearing that he would scare off his new tenant, but it turns out Storkules is the new tenant. Stork explains that his father, Zeus, had cast him out of their land for his childish lute playing. His father sees him as irresponsible and now he’s hoping that living with Donald will help him learn about responsibility.
The next day, Louie holds a corporate retreat at Funso’s Funzone with Huey and Webby as his employees. Louie is still struggling to come up with a purpose for his company and is hoping that the environment will inspire them. At that moment, Storkules bursts through a window, as he has an intense battle with a dangerous, flying creature known as a harpy. The mythical beasts are said to take away the thing you love most, and they had followed him from Greece after Zeus sent them to steal Storkules’ lute. Huey and Webby jump into helping him while Louie observes the situation…there it was! The harpies were a problem! And Storkules was the solution! After the creatures fly off, Louie hires him on the spot; which in turn, became the solution to Storkules’ problem of needing to find a job to pay his rent.
Louie Incorporated’s Harp-B-Gone is a success! Dewey invites them to his late-night talk-show where Louie debuts a new line of merchandise to further aid their business. This is also where Storkules announces that all the harpies have been captured. Louie immediately calls for a meeting. The entire business was relying on there being harpies to catch! All of their money was spent on merchandise, leaving his employees unpaid and Storkules close to missing his rent payment. What were they going to do now? Louie promises to figure something out.
While dropping off a box of merch on Donald’s houseboat, Louie discovers that Storkules has been hiding the harpies away in Donald’s closet. Freeing them would put his company back in business! A solution! He sneaks into the room to do so until Storkules notices him. Louie lies at first, telling the gentle giant that he was only checking on them to make sure they were locked in safely, but guilt causes him to tell the truth. Louie then explains his reasoning.
Storkules is put in between a tough decision…releasing the harpies could put people’s lives at risk…but if they keep them locked away, he won’t earn any money and Donald will kick him out. His friend wakes up due to all the commotion in his closet and demands to know what’s going on. They try to distract him with lies but Donald isn’t buying any of them. He evicts Storkules for violating his “no pets” rule and opens the door.
The harpies burst through the windows and angrily circle the houseboat, causing Donald, Louie and Storkules to disembark. Donald throws a fit over the situation as Storkules begs for forgiveness; he was only trying to follow the house rules. Donald doesn’t care, he demands the demigod to go away and heads over to his boat. Storkules warns him:
This catches the attention of the harpies and causes them to whisk the vehicle away with Donald on board! Louie doesn’t understand any of this. Why did the solution become an even bigger problem? Wait…was he the problem? Now they need a solution…Storkules offers a team-up and launches them both into the sky to save Donald.
When they make it, the harpies tilt the boat and cause Donald to hang from the rutter. As Storkules searches through Louie’s merchandise for a life preserve, he tosses a mask. Louie notices that one of the harpies led the others to steer in the direction that the item was thrown, to destroy it. He encourages his uncle and his friend to use this method and safely send them back to the mansion.
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This episode combined with “Town”, makes me want to believe that the father was a big fan of Della’s and wanted to be as adventurous and successful as she was. But by bypassing the process to earn this, he was faced with a tough decision of his own: If he told the truth, Della would get mad and break up
Seeing one of the harpies fly off with Glomgold in a similar fashion to his shadow convinces me that the creatures are similar to the ones the father could have faced in the cosmic storm. They’re destined to take away the things you love most. The harpies abduct Donald and his houseboat as soon as Storkules admits how much he treasures his friendship with him. Della is said to love family more than anything in the whole world and the storm took that away from her. Launchpad was even stolen by harpies in the original series episode “The Golden Fleecing” so he could be sacrificed to a dragon.
In another post, I theorized how the concept for Dewey Dew-Night might be loosely paralleling Della’s transmissions. The return of his show in this episode could be contributing to a Space connection. During the interview, Storkules tackles Huey in a harpy mask due to believing he was an actual harpy. This feels reminiscent of Launchpad’s fear of Dewey being a mole monster in “Terror”. So, if the harpies represent those monsters, could releasing them from the closet hint that the father did something to set them free? That he could have unleashed the storm as a whole? Louie attempts to head to a dangerous, Greek-related place in secret, inside of a vehicle.
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During my change of pace, I noted how “Last Christmas!“ could be suggesting that Della’s space trip wasn’t fueled by selfishness. Here are some additional points that could revolve around that:
- Scrooge yells at Donald for decorating the lawn and mentions that Launchpad doesn’t know the difference between Christmas lights and landing lights
- In Donald’s rush to get his ornaments out of the Sunchaser’s way, he gets electrocuted by the string lights
- Scrooge uses Christmas as a time to take a break from his responsibilities
- He spends this special break by traveling through time
- The Ghost of Christmas Past’s usage of the Timebrella is often accompanied with cloudy formations
- When Scrooge and the spirits travel back in time to a Christmas party at the mansion, a crowd of people prevent him from getting to meet with Goldie
- Dewey tags along on the trip to the 60’s but ends up falling into the 90’s where Donald and Della are around his age
- He pretends to be someone else to avoid suspicion
- Both plots of this episode deal with feelings of neglect
- Past was feeling left out after Scrooge’s family came into his life
- Before his family moved in, Scrooge always came back to visit his spirit friends and now Past is convinced that it’s only a matter of time before he gets left behind again
- Scrooge fights against Past as the spirit keeps him trapped in the wrong time period
- Scrooge manages to outwit the immortal being and gets away from him with the Timebrella
- Della wanted to use her search for Santa to hang out with her brother, but he preferred to stay to himself
- Della is deeply hurt by her brother ditching her during such a special occasion
- Donald doesn’t understand what he did wrong at first, but Dewey explains the clues they came across
- Della had brought the family-sized tent and the extra food for them to share with each other
- She left her scarf behind for Donald to follow her
- Della’s Mystery Theme plays in the background as Dewey helps his uncle realize this
- These plots remind me a lot of “Beagle Birthday”’s focus on abandonment
- After being deserted by Scrooge, years of obsession and desperation transforms the Ghost of Christmas Past into a wendigo
- Past is completely unrecognizable due to his monstrous appearance, but once his exterior breaks apart, everyone realizes he’s someone they’ve previously met
- This is very similar to what happened with Mitzi in “Depths”
- Scrooge realizes that his old friend stayed lost in the woods waiting for him to return
- He then promises to include him with his family’s celebration
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In “Friendship Hates Magic!”, Webby is on a quest that may be reflecting one that Della could have been on.
- Ever since “The Shadow War!”, Webby has been secretly trying to find a way to bring Lena back from the depths of the Shadow Realm
- She’s extremely determined to do so and won’t allow the doubtfulness of others to deter her from her research
- While at the library, Webby meets another girl named Violet Sabrewing, who is also learning about shadow magic
- She recognizes Webby from hearing about Scrooge’s adventures
- Intrigued by Webby’s experiences with the supernatural, Violet offers for them to research together in the form of a sleepover
- When Webby tells Mrs. Beakley about the news, her grandmother’s response makes her realize that every sleepover she’s had has always ended in a supernatural disaster that often involved a plot for vengeance
- They all ultimately led to losing Lena to the Shadow Realm
- Not wanting to put another friend in mystical peril, Webby wants to make her sleepover with Violet “the most normal sleepover ever!”
- She rushes around the house to hide a bunch of adventure-related things; especially items that are mystical or cursed
- Mrs. Beakley puts her granddaughter’s anxieties at ease and reminds her to just be herself
- Right after the housekeeper says that she’s never been anyone but herself, she suddenly recalls an occasion where she was undercover in Parrotguay
- Her body language and tone imply that there could be a romantic element attached to her trip
- Stuck watching from the Shadow Realm, Lena is very wary of Violet and doesn’t want Webby to become friends with her
- She’s convinced that Violet is a bad person working for Magica
- The discovery of Lena’s amulet in her backpack only fuels this
- She uses Webby and Violet’s attempts to make spiritual contact as an opportunity to warn her best friend
- When Violet puts Lena’s amulet to use, Webby demands her to tell her how she got it
- Violet explains that she found it on the beach
- She says to Webby “All my life, I’ve been rational…never giving things like magic a second thought. But when the Shadow War happened, it jolted something in me. Opened my eyes! There was a world beyond textbooks and rational truths…one that I’m compelled to know more about.”
- Violet is the second “rip-off” character revealed to be deeply affected by the Shadow War
- Lena later calls Violet a “second-rate knock-off” of herself and Scrooge previously called Glomgold “the poor man’s version” of himself in “Woo-oo!”
- The word “jolt” gives off an electrical visual
- Could this tie-in with the father getting struck by lightning during the storm? Did he die and the bolt brought him back to life?
- The scene where the shadows disintegrate and drop the Sunchaser is shown
- Lena’s amulet is cracked because of the ordeal
- Violet believes they could bring Lena back by harnessing the powers of the amulet
- Lena warns about how dangerous this attempt will be but Webby doesn’t care; she’s willing to crack open the Shadow Realm to release her friend
- Meanwhile, Mrs. Beakley attempts to bond with Launchpad after Webby makes her realize that she has a very limited amount of friends
- Launchpad doesn’t understand her motive and thinks she’s planning to fire him
- He tries his best to act normal so he can keep his job
- Once Mrs. B informs him that this isn’t the case, she tries to figure out a topic for them to discuss
- Acknowledging his aviation background, she asks for his opinion on ramjet propulsion engines vs turboprops
- The order in which she mentions these terms seem to be subtly referencing Jet and Turbo
- As Bentina begins to give up on finding something they share in common, Launchpad notices the Scarlet Pimperbill character on her book
- This masked hero shares a strong resemblance to Darkwing Duck
- The idea of two lookalikes along with LP’s DWD movie fan script, is foreshadowing the events of “Duck Knight” where a double identity is in focus
- Launchpad convinces Mrs. B to watch some Darkwing Duck episodes with her
- In one of them, Paddywack possesses Mr. Banana Brain and gets him to attack DW
- Lena warns Webby again as she activates the amulet with Violet
- She claims that Violet is using her and that this was nothing but a trap
- As she tries to pull her friend away, she ends up bringing both of the girls into the Shadow Realm with her
- The realm is full of dark, muted colors with instances of teal and purple
- Aside from calling Violet a knock-off, she also calls her a spy and a thief
- A group of mysterious spirits gather around Webby and take her away
- While Webby’s friends chase after them, Lena puts all the blame on Violet
- She says that if it wasn’t for her messing with magic, Webby would be safe
- Violet explains that these spirits are Tulpas and they’re created by emotions of great desire
- Lena thinks they came about through Violet’s desire for magical power but Violet points out that they really came from the teen’s desire not to be forgotten by Webby
- Violet also states that they’re manifestations of her jealousy
- Similarly to Mrs. Beakley and LP, Violet believes that she and Lena have nothing in common, but they both care a lot about Webby
- Violet states that if the Tulpas leave the mansion, they may lose Webby forever
- To prevent this, they join forces in a chant that powers the amulet and causes them to exit the Shadow Realm
- The chant is an alternate version of the one used to defeat the money shark in “Jaw$!”
- The chant is about bringing bitter jealousy to an end
- As traces of the Shadow Realm begin to melt away, Lena is about to disappear along with it, but the magic in Webby’s bracelet intervenes
- Lena’s return from the Shadow Realm is accompanied by a blue vortex and magical clouds
- Launchpad appears soon after the clouds begin to clear
- His hat is suddenly missing for some reason
- He refers to the magical occurrence as a smoke bomb and Beakley sets one off as she pretends to be Darkwing Duck
- LP isn’t fazed at all by Lena suddenly appearing after a long absence
- As the girls play around with makeup in the bathroom, Lena lets Webby know that even though she was in another realm, she was never truly gone
- She was with Webby the whole time, but no one was able to see her
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Last April, I realized that there were some significant-looking numbers in the Spear’s manual. Since “207” seemed to be in reference to the production code of the episode the book was featured in, I figured that there could be codes for other episodes as well. I originally wondered if the number “800” could be in reference to “Friendship Hates Magic!” since Walt Disney Televison’s press site had listed it as the eighth episode of Season 2 in order of production, but then later, it led me into thinking about “Treasure of The Found Lamp!”. WDTV has it listed as the ninth episode of Season 2 in order of production, but it was the eighth episode of the second season to air. When the season was added to Disney+, it had “Lamp” as Episode 8 and “Friendship” as Episode 14.
Regardless of its placement, “Lamp” is still a pretty interesting episode to consider in finding theory hints:
- McDuck Manor is visited by a warrior name D’jinn who is very determined to retrieve the The Lamp of the First Genie
- The Lamp of the First Genie is a precious family heirloom, just like The Maltese McGuffin from “Last Crash”
- In both cases, something pertaining to family was lost and the journey to go after it was setback by an inconvenience
- Scrooge found the lamp years ago and claimed that it had no value but there was a valuable story to tell about it
- D’jinn isn’t after the lamp for materialistic reasons, it marks a very important moment in his family’s history
- It involves a female relative freeing her lover from being trapped in an eternity of servitude
- This episode takes place during another celebratory event as it is D’jinn’s birthday
- While explaining to Mrs. Beakley about keeping the lamp a secret rather than sharing his discovery, he says that it wasn’t worth the adventure to get and that it was a big waste of time
- Louie and Scrooge lie to D’jinn by saying the lamp was stolen by a powerful figure.
- Webby accused Zeus of possibly stealing the lamp, as well as Hades and Apollo
- Scrooge and Webby team up with Selene to create a phony quest full of trials to stall D'jinn while HDL look for the lamp.
- If Della wasn’t baited, what if it was the father who fell into someone’s trap after being sent on a phony space mission?
- When Dewey begins to narrate their adventure, he says “And so, the boys were left to their own devices on an impossible quest: To right a careless wrong! Would it bring them closer? Or tear them apart?"
- This reminds me a bit of how Huey and Louie were upset with him for hiding information about their mother
- Once all the kids worked on Della’s mystery together, the answer they received ends up separating the family again
- This could also fall in line a little with the father trying to fix his situation while Della was saving him
- Instead of reuniting, they were torn away from each other
- Ma Beagle is accused of stealing the lamp when she had nothing to do with it
- Could this case of a false claim tie-in with Della’s intentions for taking the Spear into, as well as out of, Space?
- During Ma’s scene, I noticed something peculiar about the TV show she was watching…
- The male lead looks an awful lot like Gladstone and the female lead had Fethry’s colors
- Because the female lead is dressed in red, it reminds me of the woman Gladstone met at the end of “Gander”
- They’re both in the same order as the drawings I speculated about on the back of Della’s family photo
- Like “Last Christmas!”, there isn’t an indication of a third portion either
- Something else about the female lead is that her design was recycled from the Patos de la PasiΓ³n show M'ma was watching in “Who Is Gizmoduck?”
- The scene featured was about a long-lost sibling returning and showing disapproval of his brother’s romance
- The brothers have a beak design similar to Launchpad and the female lead has only one of her legs showing
- Scrooge apologies for fooling D'jinn with the whole quest; he didn’t know what was at stake
- But at the same time, D’jinn never tells him about the lamp’s significance until much later
- Could this be representing how Scrooge wasn’t aware of Della’s true intentions with the Spear and how she was being secretive?
- At the end of the episode, Scrooge opens a museum and opens up about the meaning of the items in his possession instead of continuing to be secretive about them
- This may hint that Della will eventually open up about her reasoning for taking the Spear
- Again, while Launchpad is present in this episode, we never get to see or hear him
- This could be representing his disappearance as well as indirectly bringing attention to him
- Ferryman’s Flame is first referenced in this episode
- This lantern lights the way to the land of the dead
- Because Louie unearths it as they’re looking for the lamp, I’m tempted to believe this could be hinting towards the notion that the father is believed to be dead
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After the premiere of “Happened to Della”, it’s hard not to think of her whenever a character’s leg gets injured. When we were presented with a similar case in “The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!”, I was tempted to see if there were any other elements that could relate to Della’s episode or situation as a whole:
- In the beginning of the episode, we discover that Johnny and Randy had a falling out, leaving Johnny to carry the show on his own
- This is similar to the argument Donald and Della had, which later resulted in Donald having to take care of the boys
- Both pairs of siblings are twins.
- Randy left because he claimed that Johnny was preventing him from being a star
- During one of Scrooge’s prospecting days, he ends up in a mining accident where his leg gets trapped and broken
- Scrooge describes this as an act of his own recklessness just like Della is viewed as reckless for taking the Spear
- Scrooge attaches a tool onto his body to use for his advantage, similarly to Della and her robot leg
- The town of Gumption was created on a land with gold underneath it
- Scrooge and Goldie race against each other to find this treasure
- They’re doing it for personal gain, but Della’s search was for selfless reasons
- Gyro time travels to this time period and leaves with his own piece of gold
- Earlier in the episode, he struggles to find a way to get home and gets zapped by his time clock as he tries to fix it
- Goldie is more of a swindler while Scrooge is more of a hard worker
- John D. Rockerduck, the new owner of Gumption, steals the giant golden nugget Scrooge and Goldie found as well as conning the town’s deed from the sheriff
- He then leaves the town behind on a train
- Scrooge’s retelling gets interrupted as Louie tunes back into Ottoman Empire
- Here, we see Johnny trying but failing to save a customer from sinking deep inside one of the ottomans
- Since the falling out from the beginning of the episode seems to be paralleling the Duck Twins, this could definitely be hinting that Della was on a mission to save someone
- Scrooge forms a posse with Goldie, Gyro and the sheriff to steal the golden nugget and bring it back to Gumption
- As part of the plan, Scrooge and Goldie pretend to be wealthy people to gain access to Rockerduck’s train car
- Scrooge poses as a rich person but eventually becomes one once he earns it
- Gyro creates rocket horses to catch up with the train
- Once the couple board it, Scrooge describes Goldie as "an annoying diversion"
- After one of the passengers in Rockerduck’s car questions him about swindling the deed, the person gets thrown off the train
- The posse loses the treasure as it gets destroyed in an explosion and reduced to fragments
- Scrooge describes the unfortunate event as a "heck of a missed opportunity.”
- They soon discover that the gulch the fragments had fallen into, flows right back into town
- So, the treasure returns in a different form
- The sheriff then deems Scrooge and Goldie as heroes for this
- Towards the end of the episode, Goldie admits that she traveled such a long distance from Dawson because she missed Scrooge and wanted to see him again
- After Scrooge finishes his retelling, Louie decides that he wants to run his business as a shifty operator like Goldie and calls her to offer a team up
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I briefly mentioned “The 87 Cent Solution!” in the past as I was trying to interpret Launchpad’s statement about how crashing into Dewey was “every nightmare he’s ever had” and how some of the answers to the show’s mysteries are hidden in plain sight. Now, I feel that there are some other parts of the story worth noting:
- After Scrooge notices he’s been robbed, he goes to consult Gyro about the Money Bin’s security system
- Gyro states that if anyone had broken into the bin, they would have been caught and placed in cold storage waiting for genetic mutation
- Cameras 5 & 7 were used for the demonstration; 5 shows Donald getting zapped in a doorway and 7 shows Donald falling down a trap down to be frozen for the genetic mutation process
- Episode 5 of Season 2 was “Storkules in Duckburg!” and Episode 7 in Season 2 was “Happened to Della”
- The kids notice that Scrooge is starting to display odd behavioral traits
- He has a cold and his refusal to acknowledge this, causes his well-being to worsen
- Scrooge obsesses over the small group of lost coins when he still has so much money and treasure left
- He’s concerned that being unable to figure out what happened to his coins will threaten his title as “smarter than the smarties”
- Scrooge instructs the kids to count every single coin in the bin to prove he’s been robbed
- Scrooge later releases a video announcement about the coins and how much he misses them
- He talks as if his own children went missing
- This is a little reminiscent of Della’s transmissions to Earth but with a bit of a role reversal where the sender isn’t the one who’s lost
- Scrooge is willing to pay two million dollars for the person who captures the thief
- He also puts the bin on total lockdown
- The kids start to believe that Scrooge has Gold Fever once Huey finds a page about it in his Guidebook
- Gold Fever is said to be a serious condition caused by prolonged exposure to gold
- A couple of the symptoms include “Going to outlandish extremes” and it “May be fatal”
- Scrooge insists that he doesn’t have Gold Fever, he claims that he’s actually being tortured by an inter-dimensional imp named “Chester”
- Scrooge refers to him as “the unknown” and “the question.”
- He also refers to him as a “swindling swine”
- Scrooge is the only one who can see him
- Scrooge’s sanity is brought into question over a conspiracy that no one else believes in
- Scrooge’s sickness, obsession and desperation causes problems
- His eagerness to stop Chester causes him to act hastily and almost gets someone killed
- His actions cause him to lose money as investors bail on him in favor of Glomgold Industries
- As Huey stages an intervention for Scrooge, Launchpad reads off of a birthday card
- Perhaps in an attempt to be positive or by means of miscommunication, LP thinks a celebratory event is happening
- The opposite of birth is death, and the family is worried that Scrooge may die of Gold Fever
- Seeing that the birthday theme is carried on, this could possibly derive from Della leaving during HDL’s hatching week and coming close to dying
- Scrooge gets angry at his family for not wanting to help him capture Chester and calls them a bunch of traitors
- He walks off onto the diving board to count the money himself and prove his 87 cents were stolen
- Scrooge was very determined about his decision and didn’t want to listen to his family’s warnings
- Roxanne Featherly reports that Scrooge has died of Gold Fever
- Huey highlights the importance of listening to your family during Scrooge’s funeral
- He then tricks Glomgold into revealing that Gold Fever was a fake sickness he created as part of a scheme
- Glomgold took advantage of the Time Teaser he found from the pile of waste from Gyro’s lab
- When the device is activated to stop time, everything has a bluish indigo tint
- Glomgold had a twelve-month staring contest with a baby, but since time was standing still, the duration is irrelevant
- He was moving at a much faster pace than everyone else
- Because of this, he was able to rob Scrooge, insert the Gold Fever page in Huey’s guidebook and other things before anyone could notice
- He used the Time Teaser to make it seem like he was warping in and out of reality as he took on the persona of Chester
- It’s really interesting that after finding out about Della getting lost in Space last season, we see a sudden increase in the concepts of time travel to go alongside it in the next…
- Scrooge had a point about “Chester” the entire time, but he needed to rest and think things through like his family had suggested
- Depending, Della may have had a point with going into Space, but she should have considered just how much the consequences would have an impact on the rest of her family
- If Della had been clear about her intentions with the Spear, they could have developed a more effective plan before the emergency that caused her to leave
- After Glomgold admits to his plan, it’s revealed that Manny is the one in the casket, disguised as Scrooge
- Scrooge is actually alive and disguised as a random attendee in the pews
- This presents us with an example of someone who’s assumed to be dead, but ends being alive with an unfamiliar appearance as well as being hidden in plain sight
- There were two Scrooges: one who was “dead” and fake while the other was alive and real
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I previously mentioned “The Golden Spear!” as I compared Della’s departure from the Moon with her arrival to Space. After my latest viewing, I started to wonder about other parallels that may have been intended:
- As Della comes close to rebuilding her ship, Penumbra is paranoid about the duck’s true intentions
- She’s convinced that Della is a lying, Earth spy posing as a hero
- She thinks Della is just pretending to be friendly to distract the Moonlanders from a devious attack
- She views the Spear as part of some sort of mysterious, sinister project
- That Della could possibly be preparing a trap with it
- Lunaris apologizes on behalf of Penumbra’s behavior
- She can’t fulfill her purpose as a warrior now that the moon mites are gone
- This is similar to Louie’s Harp-B-Gone business when they ran out of harpies
- As the other Moonlanders help Della rebuild, she tells them exciting stories about life on Earth; causing them to want to come along with her
- Della would love to bring them, but the Spear is way too small for all of them to fit
- This sounds very similar to the situation in “Beagle Birthday” where HDL’s boat was too small for them to include Webby on their trip
- Penny worsens the situation by making it seem like Della was creating an excuse for not wanting to bring them
- She also makes Della feel insecure about her new hero status
- The Moonlanders take the rejection hard and start to believe they’re unwanted
- That she didn’t want to take them because they did something wrong or she’s embarrassed by their primitive ways
- Della then changes her mind and decides to figure out a way to take them all to Earth
- Penumbra is infuriated about how her plan to get her people to turn away from Della backfired and devises a new one to get her to leave
- She’s afraid that Della will get her people killed like Donald was afraid that the space trip would endanger HDL
- Penumbra initiates the Emergency Launch in the Spear
- When Della asks her what’s going on, she lies and suggests that the vehicle malfunctioned
- Since the action is irreversible, Penumbra urges Della to go home to her family
- Della expresses concern about breaking her promise, but Lunaris appears and states that they’ll build their own Spears with the manual and catch up with her
- As soon as the rocket is far away, Lunaris zaps himself with his gun
- When the Moonlanders discover that the Spear is gone, Lunaris uses Penny’s suspicions to carry out his plans for invasion
- Lunaris claims that Della pulled off an elaborate deception to trick them into rebuilding her ship
- He claims that she attacked him and that she was part of an even bigger attack against their people
- Lunaris convinces the Moonlanders that they needed to invade Earth before they can attack them
- He used betrayal to give his people a reason to take action
- Back on Earth, Donald has been trying to avoid stressful adventures, but he keeps getting caught up in them
- One of these adventures involve Dewey taking the Sandals of Hermes from Storkules and becoming a messenger for the gods
- Zeus displays his displeasure over this development by declaring war on Dewey; sending lightning bolts everywhere
- After seeing how stressed out his uncle is, the nephew urges Donald to rest while he and Storkules deal with the situation
- Dewey gets partially struck by lightning in the process while Donald gets struck directly and falls into the pool
- Later on, Zeus scolds his son for inviting mortals into the pantheon while Storkules pleads for his father to calm down and stop hurting his friends
- Donald tries to leave after this, but Dewey suddenly decides to challenge Zeus by calling him names
- Donald freaks out and allows Storkules to launch him from the hammock so he can save his nephew
- The other adventures involve raising the dead and accepting an invitation to a realm full of treasure
- If Della’s departure from the Moon is reflecting how she previously departed from Earth and if Zeus’ fight with Dewey could be similar to an encounter the father may have had, there could be something Spear-related about these other adventures
- The zombies could represent how the father is assumed to be dead but might still be living amongst the rest of the family
- Later on, as the kids talk over each other, Dewey mentions getting an offer to host Dewey Dew-Night in the dimension of Demogorgana, Webby wants to go to a sword horse faerie realm and Huey needs a caravan of camels to help him search for the desert ship of Galleon
- The increasing concept of entering portals to mystical realms seems to support that something about the cosmic storm falls in that category
- Huey described “Moorshire”s secret golf course as a “mystical faerie realm”
- The ship portion could represent the Spear as it is a vessel that gets lost in the Moon’s desert or could represent Della wanting to figure out where the father and the spacecraft went
- Everyone begins to realize how all the stress is taking a toll on Donald’s body and decide to organize a cruise for him to go on
- Similarly to the Emergency Launch, the cruise is non-refundable, so he has no option but to go on it
- As he waits for the bus to take him to the cruise port, he sees the Spear flying by and runs after it
- The Spear is empty when he catches up with it, but Donald inspects it anyway to find his sister; which causes him to accidentally press the Emergency Launch
- Penumbra’s plan, the cruise and Donald’s activation of the Spear all have a sense of urgency or force to take a trip to another place
- No one knows about Donald’s true whereabouts and just expected him to return in a month
- Since Della and Donald switched places between Earth and Space, and since there could be parallels going on, could this imply that Della’s trip to Space unknowingly brought the father back to Earth?
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I’ve already discussed a lot about what makes “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” such a turning point in this theory but here’s some other neat things about it:
- The Cartographer's Quill is a mystical artifact that leads you to the world’s greatest treasures
- After it creates a path on Scrooge’s map, he turns it to face the kids; which causes the X to be in the direction of the doorway
- Della appears in front of them once the door is opened
- This seems to heavily imply the notion of family being the greatest treasure of all
- As Della is gifting the triplets with desserts, she presents them with a blue and purple firework cake
- The sparklers and Fizzy Rocks give the cake a starry look
- It became a rare dessert because the government deemed them as unsafe to eat
- Webby tries to warn Dewey of this, but he takes it as a challenge
- As he eats it, he makes a pun about shifting into Turbo
- His mouth quickly fills up with foam and leaves him sick for the rest of the episode
- Della and Launchpad meeting on Donald’s houseboat is another thing that reminds me of the kayaking trip from “Beagle Birthday”
- HDL get lost on a trip for the second time, Webby gets left behind and that leads to accidental abandonment
- Donald’s situation in “Golden Spear” also reminds me of this as the boat trip he was supposed to make, did not go as planned
- While she isn’t necessarily concerned about feeling abandoned, Della is irritated that her brother is absent upon her triumphant return
- This is a bit similar to what happened in “Christmas”
- If these cases of “a trip gone wrong” were meant to reflect each other, the showrunners could definitely be hinting something that went on with both parents during the Spear incident
- Most of Della’s time on the houseboat is focused on parenting and being in a family
- After overhearing the family criticize her in private, Della goes in the garage to sulk
- She makes a statement about fighting monsters and wonders who she has to fight to be a part of the family
- This reminds me of my speculation about the father possibly wanting to do or be something special in order to be considered a worthy member of Della’s family
- Her frustration accidentally causes The Gilded Man to awaken
- Because of their encounter in the past, he’s willing to get revenge on her and her family
- Could this contribute to the father possibly angering Zeus or some other powerful being?
- The Gilded Man runs on some sort of electrical power
- Della quickly uses the upcoming fight as an opportunity to prove she’s a good mother
- Because of this, she’s determined to defeat the monster herself without the help of her family
- She asks Scrooge to bring the kids out so they can witness her heroism
- Later on, as the family causes The Gilded Man to fall apart, Della has to loosen her robotic leg from her body in order to save Louie from getting crushed
- This not only could represent the result of Della’s attempt to save the father but also could represent how she had to lose her leg in order to make it back home alive
- The monster kicks up clouds of dust as it begins to shutdown
- Della struggles throughout the episode to realize that being a good mom, just like being good at anything, is something that comes with time and experience
- Being absent for over a decade makes her come off as neglectful and she’s very desperate to make up for it rather than letting herself grow into the role naturally
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“Raiders of The Doomsday Vault!” begins with Della barrel rolling with the plane; which she’s been calling “The Cloudslayer”. Dewey is joining her and Scrooge on a business venture in Boarway to convince Ludwig Von Drake’s children to let McDuck Bin Securities manage the repairs for their father’s seed depository. Like the real-life structure it’s based on, it was created ahead of time to help humanity survive in an apocalyptic scenario. But melting permafrost was slowly causing it to deteriorate. As Scrooge makes his proposal to the Von Drakes, he mentions the fabled money tree of Aurum Oros, being one of the plants held for safekeeping. He states that this tree is "the most venerated of vegetation” and “to gaze upon even its seed, is to know the true meaning of wonder." Intrigued by this description, Della and Dewey quietly sneak out to the Cloudslayer to take a look at these special seeds before Scrooge is given the chance to lock them away.
Back in the plane, Della expresses how impressed she is with Dewey’s adventurous spirit. She had always longed to teach her children how to adventure but he was already such a natural! Della is confident enough in Dewey’s capabilities that she allows him to fly the plane for a bit under her guidance. This soon causes them to dive, crashing into a cave, but Della isn’t fazed at all; she congratulates her son on his first try. The two are then given the option of safely exiting out of a smooth tunnel but avoid it in favor of sliding down a more treacherous-looking one with icicles and jagged rocks.
They make it out alive and find themselves directly in the path of the Doomsday Vault. As they look out at the wide crevice that separates them from the building, they take a moment to realize the severity of what they were getting themselves into. However, this acknowledgement doesn’t stop them from moving forward. Della does get a bit startled when she suddenly notices Dewey taking a further look at the broken bridge that stretched across the gap but instead of taking her son to turn around, she prepares for the both of them to leap across together. The metal creeks with fragility as they land.
The second they walk into the vault, Della accidentally activates the laser security system and causes the entry to slam shut behind them. They are then presented with a recorded video of Ludwig Von Drake giving them instructions on how the vault operates. The first order of business is to insert a pattern on the color pad to unlock the next door. Della attempts to do so, but the buttons are frozen in place. As Della pouts in frustration, Dewey brings attention to an open vent. Della gives him a boost to crawl through to get the door open. He sings on his way there.
"Gonna crawl through this vent, gonna make my Mom pro-o-oud!
Gonna earn the love I want so Dew-sparately~!”
He pauses as he hears Della take notice and tries to play this off as nothing. The vent then begins to shake and gives way underneath him. He falls out but quickly lands on his feet.
“Perfect recovery, no one hear-rd tha-a-t!”
Della begins to question if Dewey is handling this well. She starts to help him out by mentioning the possibility of an electrical panel in the room, but in Dewey’s haste to please his mother, he doesn’t realize that he’s being warned not to touch it. Dewey dismantles the panel from its place and causes the ceiling to slowly close in on Della. He was now tasked with overriding the security system before it was too late. Della encourages Dewey as he struggles to find the right wire to pull. Ultimately, the sweat brought on by his panic drips off his face and fries the wires for him. Della excitedly emerges from the room once the door lifts open. She’s convinced that her son had everything under control and was only stalling to build tension. Della urges them to keep going while Dewey is rattled by the fact that he almost got his mom killed.
Before this part of the story develops, Scrooge walks out of the office building and immediately notices that Dewey and Della had taken his plane. He conversates with Mrs. B on his cellphone about his predicament.
Scrooge suddenly finds himself handcuffed to his rival, Flintheart Glomgold. Zan Owlson had joined him to convince the Von Drakes about handling the vault’s damages too but he soon turned it into a scheme to steal the money tree. This allowed Scrooge to succeed and for Glomgold to get kicked out the building. Owlson had taken his plane, so he handcuffed Scrooge to kidnap him in hopes to be taken to the vault in the Cloudslayer. But Scrooge shows him that the plane is gone. Scrooge wants to prepare for their walk to the vault instead of blindly marching out to it, but Glomgold stubbornly states he knows how to get there. Their resistance against each other only leads them to fall into a frozen lake.
They eventually make it to the vault where Scrooge begins to question why his kids are there in the first place. He stumbles upon the fiery mess Dewey had made with the wires and grumbles about how much the damages are going to cost him. Glomgold makes matters worse as he douses gasoline on the fire to help him dry off. This causes the room to burst into flames. Ludwig’s system detects the fire and closes off the room. Glomgold tries to run out before this can happen but the handcuffs restrain him and cause his leg to get pinned underneath the heavy metal door. While he screams in agony, Scrooge tries to come up with a plan.
“Ok, calm down. Just need to open the door using the–panel! Which the children broke. So, we simply climb out that vent–that has also been compromised by Della and Dewey’s senseless actions–or for good reasons, don’t want to jump to any conclusions. The most pressing matter is the fire! So, we just need to activate the sprink–”
The sprinklers were activated, but they were completely frozen. Scrooge finally loses it and goes on a rant.
His anger gives him the strength to release Glomgold from the door with ease. He figures out how to melt the sprinklers and forces Glomgold to follow his lead.
Further ahead, Della and Dewey board the elevator to the storage room for the seeds. Ludwig’s recordings explain that each seed is treated with a growth formula to speed the harvesting process. Because the formula is so powerful, he warns them not to plant them within a mile of each other. Once the elevator stops, they head up to a device with a giant robotic arm. Della is able to search for the location of the seeds through its directory but once it’s time to pull the box out, the arm malfunctions. Della punches the machine out of frustration and hurts herself.
“Ow! Sorry, kid, looks like we came all this way for nothing.
So much for our first great adventure together…”
Della realizes that Dewey is no longer by her side. She turns around to see him walking across the robotic arm. He leaps onto the wall and climbs up to the money tree seed box. Della begins to nervously cheer her son on when the arm suddenly malfunctions again and swings into a glass tube full of supergrow formula! The green liquid pours into the pit below them…
Della starts giving Dewey instructions on how to come back to the platform but gets distracted as she takes another look over the railing into the deep, dark pit…
Was this…crazy? Her concern kicks in.
Dewey isn’t concerned at all. He’s very confident from the constant encouragement Della has been giving him.
“Mom, relax! I’m your son! I can Dewey-it! I can do anything!
Just like you told me!”
Della expresses regret as she goes back into cheering on her little hero. When Dewey looks ahead, his vision gets blurry. He loses his footing but quickly grabs back onto the wall and reaches his goal. Just when things were going better than expected, the box leans out of its slot and leaves Dewey dangling on the edge of it! The golden seeds fall straight down to the bottom of the pit.
An enormous rumble shakes the building as golden tree trunks rise and swirl from the abyss. In spite of the chaos, Dewey still claims to have everything under control and urges his mother not to worry. Scrooge and Glomgold finally catch up with the duo and take a look at what’s going on. Scrooge now realizes that the kids weren’t simply going off on a random trip, it was the money tree they were after. This convinces Glomgold that Scrooge had planned a counter-scheme to get a hold of the tree this whole time, but Scrooge exclaims that couldn’t be further than the truth.
“I don’t care about the stupid tree; my family is in danger!”
As Glomgold drags Scrooge away, Della climbs up the robotic arm and motivates Dewey to swing onto a branch to get down but he’s too overwhelmed with fear. He loses his grip the moment he gives up and screams out for his mom! Della snatches him up just in time and reels him in close.
The money tree causes giant chunks of debris to rain down on them. One of which breaks the arm and sends them flying over to Scrooge and Glomgold. They land right on the handcuff link with the device and set the rivals free. Scrooge’s relief from this soon turns to rage as he sets his focus on Dewey and Della. The pilot tries to calm him down, but it doesn’t do much.
“Uncle Scrooge! I can explain…”
“Explain what?! That you stole my plane? Put us all in danger–
Oh! And destroyed humanity’s only hope for surviving the end of the world?!
Did you ever think of how you were gonna get out of this? Hmm?!”
Della takes a look at her surroundings and suggests for them to jump. Scrooge has had enough of her jumping head first into things but she begs them to trust her; they can get through this together. On her call, the three of them slide down the golden tree trunk hand-in-hand while Glomgold falls by himself. Dewey looks on at his mother in amazement, but soon starts to feel bad about how miserably he failed her. Once they reach the bottom, Della motions towards the exit. Scrooge is very surprised by how Della knew exactly where her plan would lead them. She had paid attention to his presentation! This causes him to regret underestimating her.
The money tree roots kick them out the door as they burst through. Della notices Dewey covering his face on the ground and rushes over to him to make sure he’s ok. He lifts his head up with tears in his eyes.
I’m sorry, Mom. I let you down! I’m not the adventurer you’d hope I’d be!”
“No, honey…I will always believe you can do anything,
but you never have to prove anything to me.”
Scrooge groans as he looks back at the mess the kids had created with the tree. How was he going to fix this? Glomgold taunts him by stating that the Von Drakes would fire him for sure but Della pushes the villain aside and announces that she has a solution. She uses her experience with wielding gold on the Moon to make the vault stronger than ever. Everything turns out well in the end as Scrooge is able to fulfill his promise and brand-new seeds were harvested to replace the old ones.
__
There is a VERY strong parallel being made to the Spear incident in this episode:
- A vehicle is taken on a trip without Scrooge’s permission
- Scrooge isn’t fully aware of the situation and takes it as Della just being reckless
- The pit below the platform was abysmal and endangered someone’s well-being
- Someone’s leg gets caught under a heavy metal object
- The use of a robotic appendage is accompanied with Della hurting herself
- There’s a point where the trip didn’t seem like it was worth it
- The destruction brought on from the trip threatened Scrooge’s business
- Scrooge gets the blame for someone else’s actions
Even with Launchpad being absent and having zero mention about the father, there are still multiple indications that he could have been involved in the Space situation. “Raiders” is a father-focused episode as this is about Ludwig Von Drake’s Doomsday Vault and persuading his children to let Scrooge take care of it. In his recording about the color pad, Ludwig mentions how he believed the apocalypse would be brought on by werewolves or zombies. This draws a connection to the statements Webby and Launchpad have made about wereducks and reverse werewolves as well as possibly representing the father’s expected death. There are also a few instances of electricity that could connect with the father’s possible exposure to lightning. The song Dewey and Della sing is by the artist, Powerline. Dewey causes an electrical fire with the security panel, the mechanical arm starts sparking and Glomgold gets shocked by his drone at the end of the episode when it falls into the freezing water with him.
Dewey’s behavior here and just his fanboying in general continues to make me believe that the father admired Della greatly. Dewey is continuously trying to be the adventurer she believes he is to win her love and attention. Della continuously encourages him and gives him credit even when he’s not sure what he’s doing. Saving her from getting crushed was nothing but a fluke. What if Della assumed the father was a heroic adventurer based on him saving her by accident? What if he wanted to tell her the truth about it but he got so caught up in enjoying her approval, that he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint her?
Dewey’s desperation and confidence causes him to act recklessly in a similar vein to his mother. His incompetence almost gets her killed, he almost gets himself killed and he is a contributing factor to the money tree causing so much damage. The seeds were treated with a powerful growth formula and grew out of the pit like a swirling vortex. Could the money tree represent the cosmic storm? Could the formula represent how the father grew due to being mutated by the storm? The way Della points out to Dewey about how dangerous the mission is, feels reminiscent of Scrooge’s warning to her. And because Launchpad is such a fan of Darkwing Duck, it’s hard not to make an association with him whenever the word “dangerous” is mentioned on this show.
While the main plot of the story could be representative of Della and the father, Scrooge’s could be showing us how a lack of communication caused him to misinterpret his niece’s actions. Like Glomgold, he still sees Della as someone who tends to jump into things without thinking anything through. He tries to have a little faith in her, but he’s so used to her doing this. It’s hard for him not to get frustrated. When Scrooge and Glomgold make it to the platform, he has a better idea of why his kids came to the vault. The fact that Della was willing to explain the purpose of the situation and how she actually thought about the exit, seems to add to the chance of Scrooge being wrong with his test run claim.
There’s a bit of a race going on in this episode with two goals in mind…Dewey and Della want to see the money tree seeds before it’s too late and Scrooge is going after his family. When Glomgold takes ownership of the money tree, Scrooge is more concerned about the safety of his family than the treasure. What if this illustrates how the father was going after a special treasure to prove himself while Della was going after him? Having these extraordinary seeds hidden until a certain occasion, makes them a rare sight. Could this add onto the idea that the cosmic storm was an occasional phenomenon? That the father could have caused it? Did it lead to the treasure?
Since Dewey is raiding the vault with his mother, what if Della and the father were supposed to go on a space adventure together? Like the kayak and the Spear, what if the spacecraft wasn’t big enough for anyone else to fit but the father? What if he came up with an excuse for him to go on the trip by himself? What if he claimed to be going on a test run and promised to come back to sort their trip out but he got lost, trapped or abducted afterwards and that caused Della to think he abandoned her? What if, like Della, he had to leave earlier than expected? What if he was forced to leave earlier by his employer? Someone else?
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