About The Site
Index
• What is “Delpad”? • Where did the idea of Delpad come from? •
• Why was this website created? • Why is this blog named “Written In The Stars”? •
What is “Delpad”?
"Delpad" is the couple name for the romantic pairing of Della Duck and Launchpad McQuack from the 2017 reboot of Disney's Ducktales. It is a combination of each character’s first names. This pairing can also be referred to as "Dellpad", "Launchdel", or simply "Launchpad x Della" or "Della x Launchpad". In shipping culture, the “x” in between acts as an ampersand. (“&”)
Della Duck is the mother of Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck and twin sister to Donald Duck. She debuted in 1937 in the comic strip series, Silly Symphony, as Donald’s cousin. When the animated version of this story was released in 1938 as the short Donald’s Nephews, she became known as Donald’s sister, “Dumbella”. In the 50’s, she was re-named “Thelma” in the Carl Barks Duck Family Tree. Then much later, in the 90’s, she was re-established as “Della” and became Donald’s twin in Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.
In 2014, a comic titled “Family Ties” was released depicting Della as a stubborn and daring pilot who agreed to go out on a mission to test an experimental fuel for rocket ships. While in Space, a time dilation occurs and serves as an explanation as to why she isn’t around in the present. The showrunners of the DuckTales reboot later drew inspiration from this story when it came to developing their own iteration of the character.
Launchpad McQuack is a pilot character who first debuted in the original DuckTales series, back in 1987. In the show, he is presented as a loyal, heroic, yet bumbling employee of Scrooge McDuck. Launchpad has a strong tendency to crash every vehicle he operates and while he and his passengers are rattled by this afterwards, they always emerge unscathed. After the show ended in the early 90’s, he was added to the cast of Disney’s Darkwing Duck as a sidekick to the titular character. The show takes place in an alternate universe where Launchpad no longer works for Scrooge.
Most see the Delpad relationship as Launchpad being the potential step-father of Huey, Dewey and Louie, while a smaller percentage see him as the biological father of the triplets. This website will be focused on the latter being possible in the reboot.
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It is currently uncertain who first coined the main name for this ship or who was the very first to make content, but with the way these two characters were previously set up in their stories, it was inevitable:
- They're both pilots
- Very little is known about triplets’ father, (he has always been a bigger mystery that Della was) but based on what we've been shown so far, he is sometimes depicted with red hair and was in an accident involving a firecracker
- Launchpad is actively portrayed as a lady's man and gets in dangerous accidents all the time
- Based on glimpses of his outfit and haircut, the father possibly worked in the army. Launchpad's comic character description teased about him possibly being a test pilot for the army.
- The name “Dumbella” implies a dim-witted part of Della’s character and Launchpad is often described as such
With the exception of some comics centered around her childhood, Della hardly appeared in any stories; preventing her from having a chance to interact with Launchpad. The two characters had never appeared in an official Disney product until 2013, when Tokyo DisneySea opened their duck-themed Villa Donaldo Home Shop. Behind the registers, is a painting full of Donald's family and friends, featuring Launchpad and Della sitting next to each other with the triplets in front of them. For some reason, Launchpad’s earlier white-haired design was used here instead of his usual red hair. (A similar thing was done to Gyro as well.) This draws even more similarity to the mysterious Mr. Duck, as he too seems to be depicted with white hair at times. Going with this design makes LP look less recognizable and could have definitely caused some to mistake him for HDL’s father. It is currently unknown as to what motivated the artist(s) to place Launchpad, Della and the boys like this. Perhaps they were simply amused by the idea of grouping them together. Or maybe there was some genuine confusion about their familial status.
However it truly got started, it gained significant popularity when the first season of the DuckTales reboot was airing. Speculation started to brew when fans began to take note of the similarities between Launchpad and Della’s outfits. Of course, there’s a certain look to expect with adventuring pilots, but these two were never depicted in these exact outfits before…
When we first see Della in the pirate ship painting, she’s wearing a reddish-brown jacket, beige shorts and a scarf color that ranges somewhere between orange and gold. The scarf and goggles elements from Launchpad’s original design were given to her while he wears a green shirt and teal hat instead. When Della is shown again in “The Great Dime Chase!”, her jacket and shorts are darker, duller shades of brown with a scarf color that ranges from green to teal. (It was revealed much later that Della also wears a green shirt.)
Promotional material for Season 1 heavily implied that Launchpad was originally meant to wear his chauffeur outfit consistently no matter what task he was doing. Somewhere later in production, it was decided he should alternate between wearing a reddish-brown hat, a mustard-colored shirt and orange tie, to something more earthy. Both characters went from wearing warmer palettes to cooler palettes. And in both instances, their outfits match up well with each other. It feels a lot like they were always intended to be complementary so that we would see them as a set.
What really set things off was in November of 2017 when a Tumblr user named HeyThatsDeep made a comic of the pair interacting. She expressed her interest in wanting to see the pilots become a thing and encouraged others to add on in the post’s notes. And they did!
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Why was this website created?
The short answer:
I thought it would be a fun project to pursue.
The longer answer:
🌠 Coming Soon... 🌠
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I chose this name because of how well it fits the theme of my theory. In a literal sense, it has a lot to do with Space. In a more figurative sense, the idiom is used to describe something that is already predetermined based on the signs given before it happens. If this theory was meant to be canon at all, there should have been signs leading up to it. So, with this blog, I mainly intend to look at previously released material to find potential evidence and discuss my findings.
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Then came up with “delpad-theory”! It's simple yet memorable. It's very duck-specific and to the point. And definitely something that no one else would pick for their site! As good and unique as it was, “Written in the Stars” was TOO good, so, in the URL it stays!
I did a check before typing the notes for this and yeah, the other URL names got taken. Even if I wanted to change my mind, I already put the “delpad-theory” link as a watermark on a lot of my images. There was no going back.
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