Right On Schedule: Was There a Purpose Behind These Picks?
When Della-related choices first started to show up for May, I began to wonder...
If Launchpad is the father of the triplets, would they use Father's Day to express this?
For every year that the show was running, I made sure to pay attention to the episodes airing around these parental holidays and...it really does look like some strategic planning was involved here:
Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 13th)
Disney Channel
“Woo-oo!” (May 13th) {Rerun}
“Escape to / From Atlantis!” (May 14th) {Rerun}
“The Spear of Selene!” (May 4th) {Premiere}, (May 12th) {Rerun}, Premiered out of order
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 17th)
Disney Channel
“Jaw$!” (June 16th) {Premiere}, Aired out of order
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Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 12th)
Disney Channel
“The Golden Spear!” (May 10th) {Premiere}
“Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” (May 13th) {Premiere}
After “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!” premiering by itself in March, May had a steady stream of premieres starting on May 7, excluding weekends and for the most part, stayed in order-of-production. While it’s uncertain what previous episode could have aired directly on Mother’s Day, “Golden Spear” premiered a couple of days before it and “Nothing Can” came right after. It’s more than likely that the episodes were set up in a way that Della’s return would be shown very close to the holiday. They could have also wanted some suspense after “Golden Spear”. Either way, this decision makes a lot of sense.
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 16th)
Disney Channel
“The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!”
“Beware the B.U.D.D.Y System!”
Walt Disney Tv Press
DisneyXD
“The House of The Lucky Gander!”
“The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!”
“The Depths of Cousin Fethry!”
“The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”
He played a large role in “Toth-Ra” where he inspired the mummies to start an uprising. He was also injured in the process of a rescue while other characters presented themes of getting lost, being trapped, a hidden society, golden treasure, a monstrous leader and a celestial body.
“B.U.D.D.Y.” was more of his episode than anyone else’s. It starts off with him introducing Darkwing Duck to Dewey, who would be his son if the theory is true. After the intro, the two are seen in the car as it flies down the street in slow motion; sorta invoking the feeling of being suspended in zero-gravity. The car is later used in a dramatic chase scene where Launchpad tries to save Dewey and the rest from the self-driving car. The way Launchpad is expecting Scrooge to throw a party for him could fall in line
"Gander” had more of a Donald focus, the character who is often seen as a father-figure, but it’s still a pretty notable episode for Launchpad. This was the first time we saw him go off on one of his secret adventures. And with the small amount of information we received from it, we got strong suggestions about Launchpad having a previous connection to Della. Ziyi having issues with the local crime family sounds a lot like the situation between Della’s family and F.O.W.L. He went to check in on her and possibly save her if he needed to, but when he returned to the plane, it sounded like he wasn’t able to find her…like Della, she may have gone missing too. Launchpad came back in a suit of armor, looking differently from when he left. Searching for Ziyi left him injured with an eyepatch across his face and his body covered in what are essentially tiny red arrows. He also carried a young panda on his back that may be Ziyi’s son. Taking care of him in her absence could mirror how LP is unknowingly watching over his own sons while Della is away.
“Secret(s)” dealt with the relationship Scrooge had with his father, but it does feature Launchpad dressed up and pretending to be Donald, the father-figure character. Scrooge pulled him out of the mist, looking different than he usually does. As he tried to keep up the act, he got his story mixed up with Donald’s and even made it sound like it was he and the triplets who came to live with Scrooge rather than something that happened separately. The biggest plot of the episode was Dewey and his brothers solving Della’s riddle and finding out about The Spear of Selene. When they reconcile over Dewey keeping information to himself, they realize that the riddle was intended for Donald to follow. This and the fact that The Spear’s blueprints were discovered to be imprinted on the other side of the paper, really strengthens the belief that Della created The Spear to solve a mystery about HDL’s Father.
“Depths” shared a lot of story beats with The Spear situation AND provided us with another mysterious Launchpad adventure. Huey and Dewey tricked LP into stealing Scrooge's vehicle under the guise of "testing the equipment” so that they could secretly meet up with a Duck Family member. They were called to come to a misty, aquatic environment with even more cloudy formations under the water. After finally seeing what their cousin was making a commotion about, the kids are convinced that they wasted their time with the trip until they discover a long-lost member of Fethry's krill team. The team member had become unrecognizable due to a mutation brought on by the clouds of chemicals in their environment. The color palette this long-lost member was given, coincides a little too perfectly with a certain Masked Mallard. Fethry brought up a memory he had with his team member that almost sounded like a date, and two rescues occurred during the adventure. Having Mitzi get hit with a ray of light could support the idea of HDL’s Father getting struck by lightning during his time in Space.
Meanwhile, Launchpad got distracted by his ex-girlfriend while at their destination. Even though she didn’t have the same hair color as Della, she still had elements that resembled her, like a green top, a brown tail and orange fins. Her tail could even represent how Della has one leg now. The previous lovers reunited in a cloudy area, surrounded by an environment that has been compared to outer-space multiple times in the series. When Launchpad came back from seeing her, he was dressed differently than he was when he split from the group. He wasn't able to properly say goodbye to her, possibly implying that some kind of event abruptly separated the two. Three sea creatures were attached to him and not only shared a main color with each triplet, but they were all animals known to come from eggs. In his hand, Launchpad held a trident, a three-pronged gold spear. And then later on in the series, we get an episode about Della coming back home with gold repairs to her Spear…Sure, it could be argued that Launchpad was just used to foreshadow Della’s return because she's a pilot, but why would a romantic element be tied with this? And why would they want to suggest that Della, Launchpad, HDL and Space all have something to do with one another?
“Town” hardly featured Launchpad at all, it was a very Donald episode. But a really big thing about this is how it presents the father-figure character and Dewey, Launchpad’s best friend, with the subject matter of memory loss. José and Panchito recalled a time where Donald got a concussion and Dewey was so traumatized by getting attacked, he deleted all traces of the trip from his phone. (And, well…the possibility of him being in the egg Donald dropped. oof) Other things worth noting is how there were characters who lied about their success to impress each other and how it focused on a band with big plans to be famous. Donald stated that he wanted to be “A star”.
I haven't talked about this on my blog yet, but these elements could definitely be a part of Dad's story too. Launchpad clearly isn't a licensed pilot, but still claims that he is one. When he’s explaining his methods to Della in “Coot”, it sorta gives off the impression that he's trying to impress her in a romantic way. Similarly to Donald, he was eventually given a band of his own in “Quack Pack” and I'm pretty convinced there's a double meaning to “star” here…a glow-in-the-dark star was even shown on one of the town’s signs…
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This year was…the most questionable of them all. Like…there is NO excuse for these episodes being picked unless the ones who scheduled them are purposely hinting at Launchpad and Della being HDL’s parents. Please look at this:
Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10th)
DisneyXD
“The Rumble at Ragnarok!”
“Double-O-Duck in: You Only Crash Twice!”
Instead of rerunning Della-centric episodes, DXD decided to air two that didn't feature her at all. The episodes chosen had a lot more to do with Launchpad, Dewey and Huey.
“Ragnorok” had Launchpad and Huey in their “Moorshire” commentary roles again with Launchpad having an even higher amount of awareness. Also like that episode, it took place in a realm where death was involved. Huey’s lack of wrestling knowledge made him question if he was “The Launchpad” in the situation and Louie later told him to embrace being like the pilot. Dewey developed a hero persona and after an increase in strength, he headed back to the ring to take on his monstrous snake opponent. The rematch was described as “[biting] the snake that bit him”, which reminds me of Launchpad’s immunity to snake venom. In between this, Scrooge was injured after saving Dewey from a chair and Launchpad sustained a head injury after getting thrown out of the ring. Right before this, he revealed that he was someone else this whole time…
“Crash Twice” had a major Launchpad focus. This episode dealt with his insecurities over not being good enough and his willingness to impress others. After saving Dewey from getting hit with the Inteli-Ray, LP developed a smarter, more favorable persona. In this state, he was the first to find out about F.O.W.L.’s plans. He tried to warn the family about this, but his message wasn't received. He then had to sacrifice most of his memories of the plan in order to save the town from another powerful blast of light. After doing so, he slowly fell from the cloudy sky and into the direction of a dark body of water.
Neither of these episodes showcased a mother nor the relationship she has with her children. The only way these choices would make any sense is when you consider them as expressing HDL’s Father's side of Della’s story. He may have not felt good enough for Della and went through a change or something to help him out with this. And maybe he had another change brought on by a ray of light that made himself amnesic and unrecognizable. Maybe the father found out about important information, perhaps pertaining to Della's family, that he wasn't able to alert her about. And maybe there was something about his insecurities that eventually led into him being in Space and resulted in a dangerous encounter.
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 21st)
DisneyXD
“The Last Crash of The Sunchaser!”
“Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!”
“The Golden Spear!”
“Nothing Came Stop Della Duck!”
“The Treasure of The Found Lamp!”
(1)
For a day all about fathers…DXD decided to rerun most of Della’s space arc with the addition of “Lamp” at the end. A constant flow of Della episodes…and then one that doesn't feature her at all.
Within this group, there’s a brief mention of Lunaris' father, a part of Dijin’s journey stemmed from a significant father in his family, and a B-Plot Scrooge shared with Webby. But do these smaller things make the episodes worth airing? There were so many better picks for this date. They could have easily aired episodes like “Happened to Donald”, when he's outwardly referred to as a parent. The one episode Donald does show up in has him trying to get away from his family, not bond with the boys he raised.
This seemingly misplaced batch makes the most sense when you consider HDL’s Father being the reason why Della created and took The Spear:
“Last Crash” had two mentions of a father; one on the E.X.C.E.S.S flyer and the other quickly hidden on Webby’s board. Dewey chased after a missing piece of a photograph and there were scenes that connected it to Launchpad. This story element suggested that Della was also chasing after a missing piece from an important photo. And when everyone is blaming Scrooge for what happened to her, Launchpad kept interrupting as the plane continued to tip to his side…
In “Whatever Happened”, Della had her family photo placed in front of the rocket’s “LAUNCH” light on her dashboard, in front of her as she kept riding into the Cosmic Storm. This heavily suggested that she wasn't taking The Spear out for testing or was flying it for adventure’s sake. She was always family-focused.
While celebrating HDL’s birthday, Della anticipated coming home as a present but the fight with the Moon Mite prevented her from being seen by the rescue rocket. This could be telling us how Della may have wanted to bring HDL's father back from Space in time for their hatching. And how she couldn't find him due to a monster attack, the density of the clouds or dimensional portals. Similarly to how the characters didn't initially notice wormholes in “Neverrest”. In the scene where Della was complaining about how tough adventuring can be, she said something about a cursed artifact turning into an evil entity before referring to her crash landing on the Moon. The order in which these things are said, could shed some light on what kind of dangerous encounter HDL’s Dad could’ve gone through in the storm.
In “Golden Spear”, the news report from the end of “Shadow War” repeated on Della's communication screen, stating everyone there, including Launchpad, was a part of Scrooge’s family. I noticed early on that Della unknowingly placed her hand over LP and how Donald was missing from the scene. These felt like strange choices to make if Della never met Launchpad before and if Donald is the only one “allowed” to be seen as HDL’s father… Penumbra was convinced that Della was a malicious Earth spy and Launchpad later pretended to be someone working for F.O.W.L. What if this element could have been saying that Dad was or suspected to be a spy of some sort? Or at least, had an association to a group intending to cause harm?
Donald got caught up with the living dead, which matches with the “dead guy” trend going on in the show and a curse, which could draw a connection to Launchpad's story in “Trickening”. Dewey gets caught in a fight with Zeus after winning The Sandals of Hermes and accompanied with this scene was a blue, cloudy, lightning-bolt-filled environment. Storkules launched Donald from a hammock to save the triplet and once that was over, he got sucked into a dimension full of treasure with Scrooge and Louie. Della agreed to take the Moonlanders to Earth but after Penumbra initiated the Emergency Launch, Della had no choice but to leave them behind. If she didn't, she would have missed out on returning to her family. This created a strong parallel between her trips to and from Earth. At the mansion, the characters realized how stressed-out Donald was and sent him on a vacation, but he ended up in Space instead due to accidentally reactivating The Spear. Having the twins switch locations may have been playing off of HDL’s father being in Space.Launchpad was shown first meeting Della as she was surveying Donald's family wall; a place where there were plenty of images of the boys, and Donald taking care of them. A photo of Launchpad was also included in spite of him not seeming to have much of a bond with Donald and taken during an uncomfortable memory. The sailor was shown running away with his shirt on fire after a crash while LP signals to the camera that he’s ok. There were even more strange things going on with this photo before this moment: When it first appeared in “Storkules”, Launchpad was made to look
Della got irritated with him, thinking that Scrooge willingly replaced her as his pilot. She pulled him close underneath Donald's copy of the family photo, where she had placed her own into the frame. The back of it was exposed, showing the drawings she made when she was imagining what her children would look like. I noted before that the top two drawings vaguely resemble Fethry and Gladstone, and that something about the bottom one resembled Launchpad. This one was kept visible throughout the entire shot as Della confronted him. She then angrily went up the stairs while Launchpad was left pinned against the wall of photos. This could certainly support the idea of Della wanting the father “in the picture”.
Once the Gilded Man was defeated, Della took a second dig at her brother for missing out on quality time with his family. This could reflect how Della was under the impression that HDL’s Father left for selfish reasons when it could have been something else outside of his control.
There was a lingering romantic element in the background of “Lamp”. Duckworth, the dead character who reappeared in an unrecognizable way, was given a role in the episode’s story. The treasure being sought after was of sentimental value as opposed to having a materialistic worth. Dijin’s story was about a female character freeing a male character from something he was confined to. If entering The Cosmic Storm allowed HDL’s Father to escape from a dangerous situation, then the same can be said for Della's story. LP was technically in this episode, but similarly to “Town”, we only have a little reminder that he's there. It felt as if they were hesitant to show him...
Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 9th)
DisneyXD
“Quack Pack!”
“Challenge of The Junior Senior Woodchucks!”
“Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!”
“The Golden Spear!”
“Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”
“Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!”
"Raiders of The Doomsday Vault!"
"Timephoon!"
“GlomTales!”
“The Richest Duck in The World!”
“Moonvasion!”
“The Lost Harp of Mervana!”
“Let’s Get Dangerous!"
Source:
The Solego Circuit, the key to these dimensional doorways, had trianglestriangles pointing in opposite directions. One entering, the other leaving. This could be greatly implying that Della wasn't alone in the storm. It also provided a connection to electricity. Launchpad blamed himself for the frightening events that unfolded in St. Canard. This was the second time he did this in Season 3 and supports the idea that he's partially at fault for Della’s disappearance.
Airing “Dangerous” on this date highlights how F.O.W.L. was responsible for multiple missing characters and how this prompted others to rescue those people. F.O.W.L. played a sizable part of the original DWD series but it originated from the DT87 episode, "Double-O-Duck". Either way, this special leads back to Launchpad.
This also marks the SECOND TIME a Launchpad episode was scheduled for Mother’s Day.
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 20th)
DisneyXD
"The Shadow War!"
"The Most Dangerous Game...Night!"
"The Depths of Cousin Fethry!"
Source:
When the schedule for Father's Day dropped, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I forget when I guessed these, but I thought of “Crash Twice", "Golden Spear", "B.U.D.D.Y", "Casefiles", and "Dangerous” potentially showing up again.
Most of the officially chosen episodes were definitely picked for Scrooge reasons and also possibly for Donald reasons. But while both of them appeared in the last one, it wasn't focused on them. This aspect makes the schedule similar to the Mother's Day one from this year: most of the featured episodes make sense but there's something very peculiar about the last choice. They could have easily slipped "Casefiles" into this timeslot, but an episode with interesting Della-related parallels was selected instead…
In “Shadow War”, LP checked in on Scrooge three days after “Last Crash” happened. I previously pointed out how weird this was…everyone left the mansion at the end of that episode. Even Duckworth left! But we didn't know where Launchpad was or if he had even heard any of Scrooge’s explanation. While recapping what happened, Launchpad said that the boys blamed Scrooge for Della's disappearance instead of taking their word for it. Using the word “launched” emphasized his name and when it was revealed that Donald and the boys were leaving, he was the one panicking the most. Launchpad also remained tense during Beakley's interrogation scene. This drew a suspecting expression from her, like she did when he hesitated around the time of Scrooge’s reference to Della in “Last Crash”.
Scrooge was invited to a farewell party but didn't show up. He got trapped in another dimension by an evil entity and the army of shadows she created was referred to as a storm. Once the family changed their minds about leaving, they realized Scrooge was in danger and devised a plan to save him. Donald took charge with his vehicle and swallowed a device that gave him electrical issues. Launchpad interacted with the swirling vortex of shadows and fell from the sky once they disbursed. He crash-lands into a pool of coins and not too long after, Della appears at the end, alive.
In “Game Night”, Donald and Scrooge worked together while Launchpad ended up in a situation he described as “nightmare horrors”. He lost his connection to the family and was thought of to be dead, but miraculously survived. Louie had thrown out a comment earlier where he’s convinced that LP is immortal due to of all the plane crashes he’s lived through. The pilot's inability to be killed in dangerous situations, and his “freakishly high tolerance for pain”, could be superpowers he gained from being in the Cosmic Storm.
Launchpad hit his head on the hood of the car, adding onto the chances that he sustained an injury from a Space event that left him amnesic. Dewey and Webby began to question their ability to work as a team, which could represent how Della and Dad ran into a similar problem in their relationship.
Lastly…THIS IS THE SECOND TIME “DEPTHS” HAS BEEN AIRED ON FATHER'S DAY!! With all the intended parallels to The Spear of Selene and considering what happened on Launchpad’s end, it's VERY hard for me to believe these weren't the reasons why.
Fethry doesn't see Mitzi as a daughter, but as a team member. I guess one could argue that Scrooge reunited with a part of himself when Webby was brought into the mansion…but with everything else going on here?! I don't think so.
Like…Disney even had a chance to rerun “Last Adventure” on Father’s Day during the year it aired. This was supposed to be the big thing that the show was leading up to. It should have
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Since 2021 was the year the series ended, I'm pretty sure the hinting game is over at this point. I did manage to find out what came afterwards, but I don't think they were purposely chosen for the dates:
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Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 8th)
"Daytrip of Doom!"
"The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!"
"The Great Dime Chase!"
{Aired in production order}
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 19th)
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Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 14, 2023)
๋࣭ ⭑ ☁.๋࣭ ⭑ ☾ ⭑.๋࣭ ☁⭑ ๋࣭
Father’s Day (Sunday, June 18, 2023)
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Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 12th)
"The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!"
"The 87 Cent Solution!"
"The Golden Spear!"
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Father’s Day (Sunday, June 16th
"Woo-oo!"
"Daytrip of Doom!"
"The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverest!"
Using the channel schedules to repeatedly hint at a tightly kept secret would be a pretty bold move. There weren't any candid moments to discuss HDL's Father in the show, so, this would require a deeper level of background knowledge. It really makes you wonder who proposed this in the first place.
We may never truly know...but it's possible that the schedulers were let in on extra details about the show, and it's not impossible for people who were working on the show to request episodes for certain days.
It could very well be a mix of both, but I personally feel like the crew had more of an influence here. I don't know the exact process in how TV scheduling works, but I would assume that there's a tagging or grouping system of some sort, that provides them with a designated list of episodes to play on special days. How do you get LP eps for Mother's Day and Della episodes for Father's Day? Did other shows airing on these dates get a similar treatment? Webby called Scrooge her dad at the end of the series. That should be enough to make them want to air the moment where this becomes established. Why does it feel like it isn't included as an option for Father's Day? What makes "Depths" a stronger contender? Who would instantly think of that episode as father-related?
Now, could it be there was someone or two who personally believed Launchpad is HDL's Father and decided to implement their opinion through the work they were doing? Yeah, there's a chance, but I think it's very low. Why would they be focused on what they personally want if it isn't actually going on in the series? This is an opportunity to boost ideas that are happening but aren't being closely acknowledged. Using this moment for your own, non-canon idea is too strong of a thing to be making up; why not focus on what's true? That's a lot more helpful and fitting.
Whatever this was, it was an amusing point in DuckTales history that I will continue to think about on occasion.
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Thanks for reading! More lengthy, odd-decision analysis posts are on the way!
Including a couple that may be a little harder to deny the intentions of.
See ya then!
*•. ̧♥ Originally Drafted ♥ ̧.•*'
˜”*°• August 15th, 2024 •°*”~
˜”*°• •°*”~
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