Darkwing Duck (1987)

Negaduck Was never seen or heard from again.

Daddy loves his little Duckling.

I just wanted to do something random.

I am an unappolegetically huge fan of Darkwing Duck. the OG show, and i LOVE his reboot characterization.

Like the reboot Drake Mallard, DW's helped me quite a bit. he's something i can geek out about with my dad and mom, who grew up on the OG. though i talk more about it with my dad.

Point is, with the 30th anniversary of The Terror that Flaps in the night rapidly approaching, i want to do something special.

I propose a tribute video, maybe a MAP.

To honor Darkwing Duck needs to honor both past, and present. this is honoring a devoted and caring parent, an egotistical yet purehearted hero, somebody who always gets back up, no matter what's thrown at him.

Am i possibly insane for wanting to do a tribute for an animated Duck? probably. am i giving up? no.

Let's get Dangerous! who's with me!?!?

My last few posts have been theories relating to Darkwing duck, and my interpretation of easter eggs and hidden metaphores.

In particular, i did a lot of analysis about an easteregg from Let's Get Dangerous: The Tronsplitter. and while i think it's intended to be symbolic of Jim and Drake seperating the best and worse aspects of the character of Darkwing, last night a new thought hit me.

As fellow DW fans know, Jim Starling's Darkwing Duck series ended on a cliffhanger. that cliffhanger showed Darakwing Duck coming face to face with a mysterious new villain who's revealed to be another Darkwing.

That mystery may not have been resolved in universe, but i won't stand for ambiguity! therefore, i turn your attention to the Tronsplitter.

As i explained perviously, the tronsplitter from the original show was created by Megavolt, and accidentally split Darkwing into two halves: good and evil. the evil half was actually named Nega-Duck, but was later changed to Nega-Tron when the Red and Yellow clad chainsaw fanatic we all know and love came around.

Now, the tronsplitter can be seen amongst the items in the Tower, which led to my previous analysis. but what are the story implications for Jim Starling's series?

In LGD, Drake and Launchpad call out episode names and numbers, which corrospond to actual episodes of the original series. keeping that in mind, the best bet seems to be treat the original series as though it's jim's. and i also speculated before that some of Drake's gear might be props from Jim's series, as well as whatever he scavenged from the cancelled movie. so if you look at the tronsplitter as a prop from jim starling's series, the peices start to fall into place.

That other Darkwing could have been created by the Tronsplitter, and the story would've involved trying to stop this evil dopplganger, maing darkwing duck whole once again. but his show was cancelled before the story could be resolved, leaving with the cliffhanger of two darkwings.

Does this theory have holes? big time. if i misse anythingthing or you have you own suggestions, let me know! i'm not claiming it to be fact, this is purley my own speculation.

The Hour long Special Let's get Dangerous! was an incredible watch, and truly a worthy successsor to the MASTERPEICE that is The Duck Knight Returns. but one of the many easter eggs hidden in LGD may have a deeper meaning than initally thought.

Now, the special held MANY eastereggs, but one in particular caught my eye. that being The Tronspiltter, which can be seen among the items in the Tower. for those of you unaware, the Tronspilitter was an item from the original Darkwing Duck series. it was an invention by Megavolt, and acidentally Split Darkwing into his Good and Evil halves. that was actually the first time Nega-Duck appeared. kinda. see, there were actually 2 characters to use that mantel. the red and yellow clad chainsaw fanatic we all know and love was actually the second to hold that tittle. the first one was later rebranded as "Negatron" to avoid confusion.

But the reason i'm talking about this is because i recently had a thought.

I redirect your attention to TDKR, and it's central themes. this has already been talked about plently, but one of the central focuses of the episode was the relationship between fans and reboots. another underlying theme, however, was how Drake and Jim each represent the best and worst aspects of the character respectivly. Drake being the Young, purehearted hero who wishes to inspire others, while Jim is the egotistical Glory Hound, who only cares about fame and attention.

Now i ask you to compare this seperation to the Tronsplitter. it brings up plently of the same points, reflecting this seperation of aspects accossiated with the chacter. but there's one big difference.

The point of the Tronspliter and that orginal episode was why the two aspects need each other to exist, while the point of TDKR s why they need to be seperated for the chacter to flourish.

more than likely, i'm reading WAY too much into this. but those paralells do exist, and i need to talk about it. Those traits are what originally defined the character, and while they still exist in drake, it's so much smaller than before. those traits/flaws of the character manfested in a new way: The tragic tale of a broken man who was afraid of being forgotten, that he lost himself to the character he spent the golden years of his life defining. this is a fate that the original DW could have easily had, if it werent for Gosalyn, Launchpad, Morgana, all the people who kept him grounded. Jim Starling never had that, and i see it as one of the reasons he untimatly fell from grace.

So what do you think? am i reading too much into this? let me know! thanks for reading.