#ducktales the duck knight returns jim starling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tempest-loupnoir · 5 years

Text

Since I love reaction posts and I enjoyed writing one for the Ducktales season one finale, I thought I would torture myself by taking the time to write one again for what might possibly be my favorite episode of the series. This way I can go back and relive the magic while waiting for the hiatus to end and the next chapter to begin.

First thought when I opened the app: love the preview image on the app banner with the security guard spraying DW.

Pile of bombs! Must equal Nega- Nope. Who’s that dude? Reminds me of the security guard in the Tuskernini episode when Tuskernini had a beard. Flim Flam?

Love that iconic bat cocoon pose. Keep it up, DW.

DW stepping on each bomb is so ridiculous yet so him. I wonder if the show props hurt?

OMG! I did not expect Darkwing’s face under that mask!! My reaction matched DW’s

OMG! Who’s the new dude?! Is that Drake? With a new voice actor? WHAT?! Or is he a creepy dude who had his face and body shaped to look like Jim’s?

Jim’s glasses are cool

LOL! Splat. Poor LP. Such a dork. Thanks for having his back, Dewey. I wonder what Jim thinks about this fan who’s never made it to his autograph table? If he even noticed... Poor Lp.

Nice recoloring of the title card. Was that just my eyes or was that someone on the letter in a Darkwing costume. Disney Now app, please let me rewind some day. But not today. On with the show!

This new guy has such a sweet expression. I hope he’s not going to be a villain like Buddy in “The Incredibles.”

Okay Jim has noticed LP before. And he was cute with Dewey but rude to poor LP and new dude. (I really want to call him Drake.)

Jim made LP drive him? Lol Why am I not surprised. And eww, sweat stains.

Dewey’s butt bouncing in the his seat was cute.

Eww. Really, Jim? “Sniff sniff. Musky.” Is that a throwback to “The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck” when the monk pulled the baby out of the space ship and said “and we shall call him... (sniff sniff)...stinky.”

Good questions, Dewey. The plot thickens.

“A psychological examination of man’s inhumanity to man”, hmm? Are you going to be our next new villain, Alistair? (Note, I have never heard of the person he is based on and know nothing about his movies so I am a total newbie. Looking forward to learning more!)

Scrooge built the company to make cheap office safety videos? Wouldn’t a light projector and slides be cheaper, Scrooge?

Never say “dare” to Scrooge McDuck, regardless of context.

Lol Scrooge likes mustachioed villains. Cute little quirk.

Dewey flipping out about the studio and calming down after Scrooge’s response shows some growth in his character and Scrooge proved that he’s getting to know all of the kids in the “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck” episode. Nice little character touches.

DW crawling in on his stomach. Lol

Hidden Mickey! Mickey award on the shelf!

WHAT. Alistair’s film is the birth of Negaduck?! And that dog guy: was that Hooter or was that Commissioner Gordon from Batman?

LP’s reaction is pretty much on cue with mine, but I’m intrigued. I’d watch it.

Surprised Jim liked the film.

Dewey wants a role in the film. Lol. Not surprised.

Nice, Scrooge. Calling Dewey the most childish child you know.

I was not expecting him to put Dewey in charge though.

Hey new dude. So you’re future Negaduck? Or are you future Darkwing? So many questions...

Jim reacted as I expected. Lol Fwoosh. Ouch. Snap crackle pop. Poor Jim.

Love the music before Jim jumped on the car

LP came up with seven questions much faster than I expected.

Darkwing’s kitty hop after the bush was taken away. Lol

Hi Tad Stones. :D Lol

A little heavy handed with the fire retardant, weren’t you?

The water cooler sign reminds me of Liquidator, naturally.

LP’s stealth actions were actually pretty good, even though they were a bit loud and clumsy at times.

Love all the posters and toys in the trailer.

New dude’s switch from friendliness to outright attack mode is interesting.

Oops. Splash. XD Nice toilet paper shot.

Omg the battle scenes. They’re too cute, avoiding smashing the nostalgia! And battle hat action figure. Lol. Nice nod to the original action figure with its hat popping action.

Annnd of course LP blinded himself.

But who is that punk-looking action figure? My first thought was Powerline but could that be a new, dogified Morgana? Or a new villain? Curiouser and curiouser!

Megavolt has a mustache in this version, Dewey? Or were you planning on making him wear one? Lol I can just picture the original Megavolt’s reaction to that.

Uhh why are you threatening your rare action figure with an iron, New Dude? Are you and LP playing with the figures together? Also that answers my unspoken question about why an iron was on the vanity. I assumed it was for pressing capes but I guess the new guy would not need to iron his own capes.

Still haven’t answered my question on who the new action figure is but apparently it has something to do with...90’s neon fashion?

The lunchbox has a face imprint on it.

New Dude has a similar back story to Drake. Interesting. Does this mean Jim is going to be Negaduck or Darkwarrior?

Baby Darkwing!! Awwwww!! So cute! I love the style those comics were drawn in!! Who drew them? Silvani? I must know!

Also the bully looks a lot like baby Herb Muddlefoot in “You Sweat Your Life.” Coincidence or new plot device? Maybe that’s the new Hamm?

Drake wanting to inspire another kid like him... Awww. Wait, I don’t know for sure that his name is Drake yet. I need a name for you soon!

“You are a true fan. We can save this movie!” Nice, LP. :) I do think it’s the fan input that made the comics and now this show as good as they are. The comics that did not have input from show creators or fans were glaringly obvious, buuut that’s a dead horse I’m not going to linger over.

LOL! “I don’t know. He kind of wants to make me not alive any more.” What a cute way of describing a horrifying moment in your life, Buddy. You’re so likable and adaptable. I will be surprised if you’re not the one who is going to end up with Gosalyn and become the new modern real life Darkwing? But I will be sad if Jim Starling/Jim Cummings/original Darkwing does not get a redeeming moment... He’s spent so much time feeling like a hasbeen and he’s just been replaced in the franchise he’s centered his life on. He’s having a really bad day. Give him a break, please, Ducktales? Don’t break my heart, please...?

Aww. Jim still has the moves, and cape awareness. I’m rooting for both Darkwings. I hope they can compromise and work it out so they can both be in the movie together. Like Indiana Jones and his son in “The Crystal Skull” movie. Indy was still Indy and the kid was shaping up to be like Indy. Old Darkwing could reform his protégé in the new movie and they can both work together as heroes. That’d be a cool finale.

“Idiot in the purple cape”? Harsh.

Dewey’s dance crew. What is up with your obsession with dance numbers, Dewey? They’re kind of annoying for someone like me with Audio Processing Delay. And man those are high boots... My first thought was that they were the Darkwing Squad, like the SHUSH agents training to be like Darkwing in the Darkwing Squad episode. (Forgot the name of it.)

And there’s proof that Jim might have actually done some crimefighting in real life. He took out those security guards so quickly and easily! An actor trained to pull his punches might not know where or how hard to strike.

Huh. Their beaks are different colors.

“Your heart is in my lunchbox.” What? Lol

Oops. Sorry, security guard. Darkwing Duck just broke your wrist in the door. Ouch.

Oooh Jim’s voice got so creepy there. “Yes, I will.” Jim’s still one of my favorite voice actors ever. I can see what Jim S. is thinking there. Evil plot commencing. Annnd there’s an ouchie for Drake. Also love the music.

“Stupid. Movie star. Face. Get in!” That made me laugh. Both of them were doing classic Darkwing scenes from episodes (with different dialog of course).

OMG THE LAUGH

THE LAUGH IS BACK. EEE I have chills!

New Megavolt is bulked up. And has black hair and a mustache. Interesting. He reminds me of the Italian pig pilot character in the Ducktales episode where we met Launchpad’s family. (Forgot the name.) I wonder if this Megs would have an Italian accent.

The music and dance moves are already annoying me, Dewey... And what is with that giant Darkwing face? Ew. Looks like one of those clown faces you throw bean bags into the mouth of in carnivals.

The chainsaw juggler looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. Lol

“Why are you saying things all mean?” I guess LP is foreshadowing what we probably already know. This ending is going to hurt, isn’t it... ;_; Ducktales team, you guys are awesome and brutal.

Ugh. What stupid lines. “You can’t defeat me. I awesome.” Nice voice though.

Robot face, Dewey? What?

Eep! Great job, Jim. Setting the whole stage on fire. Let me guess. Either LP or new DW is going to have to save you now.

“I’ll film this finale even if it kills me. And everyone in this room!” Oh Jim... ;_;

New guy’s voice just doesn’t have the same “I am the terror” ring to it. He’s going to take some getting used to.

Great plan, DW! And omg I love the moment when DW and LP said “Let’s get dangerous” and then immediately geeked out about how cool this is! Also good on you for recognizing the plan, Scrooge. I am curious to see how Scrooge responds to these guys at the end. Is he going to contract a new tv series with DW?

Oh man, seeing DW hurt and the other characters reacting like they think he’s dead is really hurting my empathy. My chest is hurting in real life. ;_;

Jim, no... Don’t become Negaduck. ;_; I can already guess what he’s going to say. “Why won’t you stay dead”

Nice face off. Reminds me of the showdown in Just Us Justice Ducks part two.

Launchpad’s enjoying the show.

Okay. Scrooge helped lighten the mood with “which is the bad guy? If only one had a blasted mustache!” The difference is pretty obvious to me, though. Only one is wearing a black belt.

“Dead meat duck” is an actual Negaduck quote, for those of you who haven’t seen the Darkwing Duck tv series. I can just imagine how much fellow fans like me are geeking out over this. :D

Thank you, LP for saying what I’ve been wanting to say. Please let this work... I really want to go back to liking Jim... ;_; “Please stop. You’re not a villain. You’re a hero. OUR hero. No matter how hopeless things got, Darkwing Duck got back up and did what was right.” And of course the music is just right for the moment. :,)

Nice halo effect on LP with the background prop.

“Darkwing Duck is bigger than one man. He is the hope that flaps in the night.” YES. Preach it, LP!

The Darkwings’ reactions to LP in danger are both still characterstic for Darkwing, but this is like seeing Darkwing Duck and Drake Mallard in separate bodies, side by side. Like the “Negaduck” (also called Birth Of Negaduck”) episode with the tronsplit Darkwings. Cool.

“You really can’t stop him once he gets started.” “Well yeah... He’s your biggest fan.” The emotion in new guy’s voice and Jim’s face... And the music. Awww... :,)

Love the reflection in the chainsaw. Love love love it.

Now’s not the time to hot dog the spotlight, Jim!

AHH! The music is sad! Noo! Please be okay! I’m legit in tears while writing this now!

Where is he?! I don’t care about Dewey’s dance number. I do appreciate LP’s advice to DW and pep talk but I want to know where Jim is. :( The humor and the sweetness are clashing badly with my anxiety over the fate of my...’hero’? :(

Also casual observation before I end the agony by finishing this episode. New DW’s cape attaching to his buttons just looks weird. I hope they go back to original Darkwing’s label double breasted coat with the cape under the lapel. This one looks like fisherman overalls.

Okay. It’s official. New guy is Drake Mallard. I saw that coming but I wasn’t sure if the Ducktales team was going to keep that name as a separate identity or not. I had no clue this twist was coming.

Wait, WHAT. Jim, no! No no no no! Don’t twist Launchpad’s actions into evil. And why the heck is your costume changing color? Did you get an acid bath from whatever was in that rod? I think you bumped your head too many times, Buddy.

This beautifully tied together the finale of the Darkwing Duck tv show in the Ducktales universe, with Jim seeing a duplicate of himself as the villain in the show, and Jim becoming the villain in real life. Drake Mallard was a total surprise. I’ve seen fan theories that made him Jim’s nephew or son, but a random fan who grew up watching DWD the same way we did and became Darkwing the same way the original did in the real life tv series was a big, poignant surprise. I am happy I got to go on this emotional journey with him and see him bloom into the hero he adored. He’s mild mannered enough to be a good father to Gosalyn whenever she is introduced, and fanatical enough to still be a good Darkwing.

I have no idea how the age difference thing is going to work with Drake and Jim as hero and villain, but clearly Jim kept in shape, and old ducks can still put up a terrific fight, as Scrooge has proven.

This was a very interesting episode and definitely one I’ll be watching again soon. My heart is still fluttering though. Dang, Ducktales team. You know how to torture me. ;_; I’d have never ever written a story like this and I’m not sure I would have bought a book with a story like this, but I applaud you for pulling it off wonderfully here. You kept me guessing and I am full of questions, excitement, residual anxiety, etc. This took me two and a half hours to write, minute by painful paused video minute and I’m glad I have a record of my reactions to look back on. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

#darkwing duck #scrooge mcduck #ducktales 2017 #ducktales the duck knight returns jim starling #Ducktales spoilers #Drake Mallard 2 #Megavolt 3 #lupineleigh’s thoughts #reaction post #written as I watched

27 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

The Not-So Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck Finale: The Duck Knight Returns!: Keep, Getting, Up.

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the finale of “The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck”, my look at the many origins of Darkwing Duck for his 30th birthday. And fittingly I saved the best for last.. and also the last for last but that isn’t quite as catchy. Yes it’s time to finally tackle the Ducktales origin story for our hero, the finest one and frankly one of the finest superhero origins in superhero history “The Duck Knight Returns”.

To get here though, the creators, specifically Frank Angones, had to take a massive gamble. Frank had a plan we all know now, a brilliant one that would give the hero a proper origin for season 2.. but require both waiting that long and waiting out fan outrage at what the plan was on the surface: To take this legendary hero many people loved and wanted to see as a full part of this unvierse.. and make him into a tv show that happened in universe. It’d lead to this brilliant origin story.. but he coudln’t tell them that, the most he could tell them was “Wait for it, I got something” and give a hint with him in a tiny costume. Tell them “This was just leading to the main event”, but couldn’t tell them what, leaving a lot of fans pissed for a good two years. And pissing off a large portion of your nostalgic, and modern, fanbase for that long, and KNOWING you will takes guts, and Frank had em.. and frank’s instincts were right.

See once the episode aired the clouds parted, the outrage stopped, and fans stood up and cheered. Frank had played them, he played them good and they liked it.

So what’ dhe do? Why is this origin story the best of the best? and why.. is this episode a bit lacking despite that? Well the answers are inside.. except the last one it’s very obviously the whole subplot with Scrooge, Boorswan and Dewey, but i’ll get into WHY exactly ti’s a problem under the cut. So lets, get, DANGEROUS shall we?

We open with the final episode of Darkwing Duck. It was previously set up this very season in the previously reviewed “Friendship Hates Magic!” that Darkwing Duck ended on a cliffhanger after an abrupt cancelation. Which.. honestly is something that kinda stings to think about given not two days ago Final Space was canceled, hopes of a finale movie or fourth season are dim, and this is close to a year after Adult Swim also canceled the venture brothers (Though at least since then we’ve got a movie announnced). Point is I get why Launchpad maybe needed to write and film a fanscript with a middle aged housekeeper.

Said episode is in line with the original real world series in tone, with darkwing fighting a masked figure trying to blow up an orphanage, getting blown up slaspstick and unmasks his foe only to find .. himself!

We then cut to where the episodes being screned Ceaser’s Parking lot.. well more like a furniture store parking lot where Jim Starling, the actor who played Darkwing Duck is doing a ribbon cutting... and a nice sight gag later shows this was SUPPOSED to be Johnny as part of the ongoing ottoman empire drama... seriously this comedy subplot about two characters who are functionally identical having a falling out.. which somehow still sticks the landing better than the actual major Louie story arc... AS A RESULT OF SAID STORY ARC.

Yeah i’m going to let that one marinate as we move on to the actual focus: two fans and one boy sidekick in line for autographs: Launchpad, Dewey, who apparently takes launchpad to a lot of these because Launchpad only has one adult friend and as this season already established Fenton dosen’t have a lot of free time, and Drake, who the episode dosen’t identify till the end but i’m going ahead with because it’d be awkard to dance around something all of you already know for dramtatic effect.

Turns out Launchpads been to a LOT of signings with jim, offering Drake with advice, and already having chemistry with the guy before passing out at seeing his hero. Let’s be fair here i’d do the same if I saw Al Ewing at a signing.

Turns out though Jim.. is a pretty massive bag of dicks atop a cascading mountain of dicks. He moans to his agent about not getting any parts despite having an actually earned reputation of being a difficult asshole on set, is openly ungreatful of his fans , brushing drake off, taking an itnresting in dewey only because he’s young and thus a new fanbase and being audiably disapointed when it turns out the autograph is for launchpad. He’s completely and totally up his own ass so far you can see his head when he talks.

So naturally the only thing that gets the egotistical old bastard to perk up is finding out Darkwing Duck is trending, their making a new movie and enlisting Launchpad to take him there. I”ll get more into Jim’s character as a whole in a bit, for now our heroes make their way to McDuck Studios!

It’s here though the episode also gas guns itself in the foot with a bowling ball. There’s a lot to unpack with this scene so i’m going to contain my rage for a second and give it to you straight up: Scrooge, who hasn’t seen a movie since 1920, is concerned with the films budget, having only agreed to this film because Boreswan assured him it’d be a crowdpleasingwithin budget blockbuster, while Boreswan is “but the ARTTTTT”. Our heroes come in, Scrooge rightly points out he never told Dewey he owned a stuido for this reason, and Boreswan shows them the trailer, with Launchpad not liking it because it’s “not darkwing duck”, jim hating it because h’es not in it and Dewey hating it because i’ts not for kid. Said trailer is a parody of grim and gritty reboots in the veign of the dark knight trilogy and zack snyder. Scrooge gives creative control to Dewey because he’s the youth, Drake arrives as the new darkwing, Jim tries to kill him, he and launchpad get thrown out, we’ll get back to the good part in a moment. So your all refreshed on what happened? Good.. then....

You being the plot, you readers terrific. Okay

1) Scrooge... just... just Scrooge. There’s so much wrong with this scenario. For starter shi mnot having seen any movies since 1930, nor having invested in the movie buisness outside of his own low budget saftey films for alllll tha ttime. I call the bullest of all bullshit on this one. For starters there is no feasable way that Scrooge would sit on making money off one of the most lucrative industries in existance. Educational films are a decent market as are saftey films: he could easily make them for other companies extra cheap using donald as he clearly already tended to since he works cheap. But beyond that the film industry is a global juggernaught of money with TONS of ways to profit off it from making film: Making cheap equipment, renting equipment to filmakers, leasing mcduck properties for shoting, setting up stuidos for shooting they could both rent out AND use for their own productions, selling old props, video stores back when that was a thing, stremaing now.. there’s SO many ways Scrooge could make a decent profit off this over the decades he’s been at this ther’es no way he woudln’t have a deaprtment. I could buy him not getting how to make a blockbuster and thus meddling where he dosen’t get it, but the way it’s framed is tha the knows nothing about film and never tried despite being someone all about risk, reward and profit. And ther’es so much in film and so many peopl ehe coudl trust to basically run it for him, that it’s damn near impossible he sat on it and even more so he didn’t step in till they asked for more money. If the film was going overbudget he woudl’ve sent one of the buzzards over to penny pinch ages ago and they would’ve gladly done so as they need to embezzel theat money for more fowl jetskis.

2) For an episode about accepting reboots, about both chershing an original work and letting others enjoy a new version of it.. they decided to also poke fun at gritty divisive reboots of popular stuff. The message of the ep isn’t bad, lettting someone enjoy their versoin of something even if you don’t and letting it inspire a new generation.. but it kinda sidesteps the fact that Allistor’s reboot is genuinely bad, he cares nothing about the property, and he learns nothing. You can’t have a reboot that’s genuinely terrible and NEEDS to be stopped at the cente rof your disertation on why reboots aren’t a bad thing> They arne’t, this show, she ra and jellystone are proof, but then don’t use something BLATNATLY evolcative of the zack snyder films, films that also used heroes more as symbols, were annoyingly pretinous and sucked gas while misunderstanding what they were remaking, is not how you do it. It’d of worked better if Boreswan’s reboot genuinely wasn’t bad, just very diffrent from the original,and he had genuine respect for the original. Instead he just comes off as, much like Snyder, a pretenious ass who dosen’t get the character. They also weirdly dip some Christopher nolan in there.. when he only made ONE bad batman film and one that’s bad nhot for how nolan’s usual batman tropes, but beacuse it was long, overly padded and not very satisfying as a conclusion to this epic trilogy.

3) Why in the 39 flavors is Scrooge basing his opinion SOLEY on Dewey. See I get that their trying to spoof network execs foistering changes on movies in order to be more profitable at the sake of merit which again, I get it. He works for Disney aka 50 first gay characters, I GET IT. It just dosen’t work here because of the characters at play. Scrooge isn’t THIS stupid on a good day, and has three other kids at home he can call on for a focus group. As is it’s Scrooge letting his dumbest nephew actively ruin his big budget film because he dosen’t understand how films work. Which granted probably is why half of studio disasters happened and why we need an Ayer Cut, but dosen’t work for SCROOGE. He’s not this dumb and no one calls him out on it. It again would’ve worked better with Scrooge bringing in the others and letting them run wild, having it play out character wise, and have Huey be the ignored voice of reason. And i’ts not because he’s my tiny red son, he’s the logical choice: Della or Beakley would also butt in in their own ways as a reckles doofus and darkwing fangirl respectively. With Donald in space Huey is the only one who’d see the mess they were making. Louie would try and sequeeze stuff in for box office and Webby like Dewey would just go kind of insane. I will grant that Dewey’s changes are objectively hilaroius, but plot wise i’ts just UTTERLY agrivating.

So yeah this part of the plot sucks and it sucks energy out of the episode when we have to go back to it. The only bright side to it is Dewey’s insane changes, including a mascot of himself, the darkwing dance crew, and megavolt as bane.

So back at the plot people care about, Jim formally adopts Launchpad as his sidekick, hatching a scheme to get himself back in the roll: Jim will sneak on set and take the part while Launchpad will do the same, beating up and kidnapping Drake so Jim can do said part-taking. Even with a brain that’s just a bear riding a motorcycle in a circle with a darkwing duck hat, Launchpad can tell something’s wrong here and only goes along with it because his hero tells him to. Which again let’s be fair if Al Ewing asked me to rob a bank i’d probably at least consider it.

Jim tries faking being a package guy and runs into Tad, played by DW creator Tad Stones, who has never heard of the show which sets Jim off into a homicidal rage again.. but at least it creates a distractoin for Launchpad.

This being Launchpad the plan lasts all of two minutes before he gets trapped in the trailer he just broke into. Drake shows his heroic instincts by rescuing launchpad only to quickly find out “Oh shit this guy’s broken into my trailer and wants to kidnap me”> A fight ensues which shows off two things: Drake is an expert martial artist in this continuity. While he COULD fight in the original and does have an old martial arts teacher, he mostly used his wits and his gas gun, usually both together, to best his foes, like spiderman but with more gas. This Drake’s no less scrappy or clever mind, he’s just better at hand to hand and it’s how he prefers to deal with things.

The other is that Launchapd dosen’t want to do this, purely playing defensive. It’s clear he KNOWS this has to be wrong deep down but his brain simply can’t reconcile jim’s actions being as bad and selfish as they are with jim also being his hero and inspiration.

Hilariously though Drake can’t help but call out to Launchpad not to destroy various merch duing their fight, something launchpad respects... and gets him to notice Drake’s trailer, a mini-musuem to darkwing duck with all kinds of merch even Launchpad, me sized nerd that he is, dosen’t have including a banned action figure.. which naturally he asks to play with and just as naturally, Drake obliges

So after more deep hurting, we cut back to these two who are having the time of their life, playing with action figures and holding them over Drake’s iron... which he has in his trailer that has no room for an ironing board ...

So the two get talking because the only way to start, is heart to heart and we get Drake’s backstory: He was a bullied, shy little kid who wasn’t very happy.. until he caught this tv show with a guy that no matter how much he got beaten, or mocked or blown up or crashed (that one was launchapd’s addition).. he got back up. This inspired drake to not only start cosplaying as the daring duck of mystery, but also get a cool lunchbox.. neither of which impressed his bullies to Launchpad’s suprise.. but which simply lead to Drake now fighting back, getting up and taking them out. He wants to star in the film because while he knows it’s not good and not relaly true to the source material he wants to inspire some other kid with a lunch box, touching Launchpad into deciding to try to talk jim into letting Drake do the part.

There’s a lot to unpack with this new version. The first is that it takes almost entirely from Paraducks: Drake was bullied and shy, got inspiration from darkwing duck (a tv show instead of his future self this time), and then fought back and became his best self.

The other part is just how utterly brillliant, heartfelt, well crafted and personal this feel. It’s VERY obvious how much Darkwing Duck means to frank, and in crafting a version of darkwing that had the same inspiration he does, i.e. the tv show, he gets to lovingly show it. To show how a cartoon can really impact someone and make their life better and be an important part of their life, to show kids i’ts okay to let that happen and to let the adults watching this show, those who watched the original and realitive newcomers like me, that you are seen.

It also cleverly defines this version of Drake: the orignal was your classic Jerk with a Heart of Gold: doing the superheroing mostly for his own ego, being short and assholish with his best friend and daughter, not wanting to share his spotlight. But underneath it as a true hero who genuinely loved those people and lets them make him better.

This drake still has flecks of the old darkwing ego, especailly in Moonvasion which again i’ve already covered, but he’s mostly just an earnest guy who wants to be someone for kids to look up to. He wants fame, respect and to live out his dreams being a superhero, sure, but he wants to do so at it’s core to help the helpless and inspire kids like him. He wants to be a hero for all the best reasons that define a superhero: to make lives better using whatever skills he has, to be hope for the hopeless. It’s a key part of what makes this origin work so well: the heart of it. Part of this reboot’s strength is adding depth to things, to give character motivation for why they do stuff.. and they gave drake a perfect one.

They also cleverly found a use for who darkwing used to be.. by showing what he could’ve been. See Jim , whose been sneaking around, is another key peice of this.... and when he finds Drake, who despite Jim’s earlier assault is geninely kind and tells him how much he means.. Jim beats him up, locks him away and plans to take the roll, his eyes going a familiar shade of crazy as they do.

Jim is a dark mirror of what Drake Classic COULD have been: Without a higher goal of helping people (If not as high as his reboot counterpart but darkwing still cares abou this job), or two people who truly love him and get him to see past himslef. What’s left is an egocentric, selfish, hot dogging, grandstanding, violet, petty, shell of a man with no great goal in life other than making himself look good and being validated by the world. He’s darkwing’s egocentric need to be noticed and adored turned psycotic. He’ll do ANYTHING to get HIS spotlight back no matter how much he dosen’t desrve it, how much he lost it due to his own behavior and how much someone else badly needs it more for better reasons. He dosen’t need anyone else except to serve or praise him.

Unsuprsingly Jim Cummings plays this perfectly, and I applaud him: he was asked not only to NOT play darkwing, but to instead play an evil mirror of the character that shares Jim’s own name.. and being Jim Fucking Cummings said “of course” and gave one hell of a perforamnce. The episode is already good just iwth drake.. but giving him Jim to contrast with puts it over the top.

This thus leads to our climax and one of the show’s finest scenes and probably my faviorite: Jim takes up the roll, refusing to give up to Megavolt as boreswan wants because symbolisim!, and ends up taking the villians gun which is an actual HIGH POWERED LIGHTNING GUN .... and I really don’t know why i’m shocked. Dewey probably just stole it from Gyro. He has to make them all pay SOMEHOW. That or scrooge just keeps a storage bin on the set of all of Gyro’s invetnions he took away from the guy before he made the mall pay. Either way I buy it.

As a fire breaks out, Jim REFUSES to let anyone leave, not caring who dies as long as he gets his moment. Finally seeing his hero for what he is, Launchpad shields boreswan.. when we hear a familiar catchphrase...

I am the terror that flaps in the night, I am the overstuffed burrito that spills in the lap of crime! I am DARKWING DUCK!

With those word, a legend is reborn. Props to Chris for absolutely nailing his first terror that flaps in the night speech and for the writers for absolutely nailing what made them work.

So a battle natrually ensues, as Drake shows off just how “scrappy and resilient” he is, having shrugged off the door earlier and walking off explosions and getting a piano knocked on him.. all to keep getting up. it dosen’t matter if the person who taught him that is the person knocking him down...he won’t stop getting up.

This leads to a BEAUTIFUL fight sequence as both darkwings fight hand to hand. Scrooge dosen’t interfere.. because he can’t tell them apart. Despite wearing diffrent costumes and him being you know mr.see all the angles.

Oh and he also brings up “If only one of them had a moustache”, as there’s been a whole runner about him thinking film villians need Dick Dastardly mustaches

Back to the fight it’s utterly spectacular, with Launchpad running to turn the sprinklers on... after giving out a let’s get dangerous with his future boyfriend and both geeking out over it. This might be the most relatable episdoe of the entire show.

Eventually just as Jim is about to decaptiate Drake with a chainsaw, Launchpad begs him to stop giving a heartfelt speech, which actually gets Jim to drop it. We also get the iconic line of “He knows a lot about this one thing”. Just thought i’d mention it.

Sadly Jim’s story does not end happily as he once again lets his own ego get int he way, shoving Drake out of the way to save Launchpad when the last pylon overloads, seemingly dying doing something GOOD for once.

The film is shut down.. not because of the tragic death of a douchebag.. but because they didn’t get any of that and Scrooge is VERY stupid and dosen’t get he’s not getting ANY money back not continuing production or just you know HIRING A BETTER DIRECTOR.

Whatever, back to our boys. Drake is not in a great place: his hero is dead after trying to kill him, his film is gone, his career is gone.. but Launchpad has a suggestion: be Darkwing for real. He has the talent, he looks good in a cape, and gizmoduck does it. (”And I am better than gizmoduck” proving some things never really change). With that Drake decides to take his soulmate’s advice to heart, signs the poster and reveals his name, becoming who he was born to be... a hero.

And as a hero rises.. so does a villian as we catch up with Jim whose still alive.. but his mind is now throughly gone.. and his costume now a VERY familiar shade of yellow.

It was all a setup! That hack put my fan in danger to steal the glory and humiliate me!

They want “grim and gritty”, huh?

Happy to play the part...

And with that.... Negaduck.. is also reborn. He WAS supposed to show up in let’s get dangeorus, but the crew felt it’d be a bit too crowded so they save dhim for season four

So yeah unless Frank rightfully gets to reboot the show, which given he gave them TWO backdoor pilots for it, they better, this will never be resolved and I can’t blame the crew. They had SO MUCH ELSE to unpack in season 3 before the finale in case they didn’t get renewed, that some things just wren’t going to.Still a damn fine villian origin

Final Thoughts:

This episode is pretty good: amazing acting with Chris Dimatopouls perfectly stepping into the role and Jim perfectly stepping back into an old roll of his.. if not the one people expected, a jaw dropping finale, great chemistry with drake and launchpad. It took a VERY risky narrative idea and paid it off brilliantly.

As i’ve said it’s only real weakness is the scrooge part of things where he’s made to look like this...

For the entire episode. Boorswan likewise isn’t likeable, coming off as a pretenious twit who dosen’t care about the franchise he’s actively ruining. Dewey is the only bright spart of that whole messy part of the episode and it drags would WOULD be one of the series best episodes down as a result. Still ther’es WAY too much good here for this to be a bad one, just not one of the best like it coul’dve been. Still worth checking out.

If you enjoyed this review, consider joining my patreon to help keep this blog afloat HERE which also helps me hit various stretch goals to do even more reviews. See you real soon!

#ducktales #darkwing duck #the duck knight returns #drake mallard #jim starling #negaduck #launchpad mcquack #drakepad #allistar boreswan #dewey duck #scrooge mcduck #disney+

37 notes · View notes