Today marks the five year anniversary of Moonvasion. It's my favorite episode of the show and one of my favorite season finales ever.
But if you know me, or seen me on this wiki, you probably know my deep admiration for General Lunaris. In fact, I am proud to say that he is my favorite villain OF ALL TIME.
Actually, here is a character I think that Lunaris is EQUAL to:
And you know I don’t say that lightly. And I’ll talk about what I like about him. Now.
But before we start, I give my condolences to Lance Reddick. I never knew him before I saw Lunaris, but his delivery MADE him the character he was and gave him a screen presence he would not have otherwise. His passing in early 2023 was a huge tragedy. Really put a damper on my Saturday when I learned it from.
Lance Reddick, from Lunaris’ speech to his final Aw phooey, thank you for what you gave to the character and I hope you rest in peace.
When I first saw Lunaris in “What ever happened to Della Duck!?”, I wasn’t really that interested in him. He just seemed like a typical alien guy and not much to it. But in the end, my interest peaked when he said that Della could be useful to them.
In “The Golden Spear”, Penumbra is very jealous of Della, and decides to activate the emergency launch and trick her into leaving. However, Lunaris appears out of nowhere and uses compassion to take her rocket instructions to conquer the earth. And this only happened because he was able to draw Penumbra’s attention to the emergency launch button when he saw the ship.
Also, the way he uses Della’s friendship with the moonlanders and makes it into a weapon is just chefs kiss. And well…yeah he IS a twisted villain, but he's only like that for two episodes, and there's lots of foreshadowing to his true nature, like how he tells Penumbra that Della could be useful to them.
YEP! She sure WILL! 😅
Or when he tells Penumbra that he will not live in fear of the Earth like his father and his people will see it in time.
YEP! They sure will! 😅
But there's also this one that will blow your mind. To open the door to tranquility, Lunaris raised his hand in the air, and it looked a little like a Nazi symbol, foreshadowing his obsession to destroy the other race and make HIS superior!
Whoa. (Also I stole this from @Offie98 sry)
But I think one of the most underrated parts of him are his parallels with Louie.
Think about it: Two green individuals who are surrounded by gold who are sharp thinkers, seeing the angles and parts that can serve their plans. Louie wanted riches, while Lunaris wanted to prove himself as superior. But they also have another factor to them: Their pride. Louie was able to learn humility and admit that he can’t see every angle, while Lunaris was so stuck up, so confident that he had the superior advantage, that he was taken completely by surprise by Glomgold’s plan. And when his plan failed, he didn't realize his mistakes and decided to take everyone down in his humiliation.
Also to take into consideration their relationship with their parents. In “Timephoon!” Della grounds Louie for ruining time, which is a subtle parallel to when Meridien hid Tranquility from the Earth due to his fear of it, which made Lunaris mad.
But Della and Meridian just wanted to protect their family! THAT'S ALL THEY WANTED TO DO!
But when Louie outsmarted Glomgold and became the world’s richest duck, he arrogantly thought he had everything under control. But when the Bombie attacked, he realized that he needed to learn humility and accept help.
But when Lunaris’ plan to make the Earth orbit the moon fails, he refuses to see his faults and tries destroying the earth out of spite.
It's a shame they never interacted. I’m glad they did in Season 3 OH WAIT
And his ending is so ironic and funny, he refuses to accept defeat only for Selene to appear and tell him that his ship is stuck in Earth’s orbit, and he is now their newest moon.
After an entire SEASON where he gets mad when someone says it isn't a planet. XD
Lunaris has just a great screen presence. And his design is great, and he’s a great fighter. And he raises the stakes super high! His ship, his weapons, his voice OMG HE”S AWESOME I know I’m just yapping here, but I can’t find any other ways I could talk about how much I love him. He’s just Mighty. Just like the Moon.
BUT HES NOT IN SEASON 3.
This is without a doubt my most talked about and worst part of Season 3. Lunaris not appearing. Literally my absolute most hyped part of Season 3 was getting more of Lunaris. While the Season was great, I was ecstatic waiting for Lunaris to return. But every time I checked the Disney wiki page of a new Ducktales episode, Lunaris’ name was nowhere to be found. I held out hope that he would come back near the finale but he was nowhere to be found. It was heartbreaking. And the Lunaris related stuff we got? In “They Put A Moonlander On The Earth”, he gets mentioned twice. Twice! And I’m not kidding! That is without a doubt the ONLY time Lunaris is mentioned! This guy nearly destroyed earth and killed you all! WHY AREN'T YOU TALKING ABOUT HIM MORE?!?!?
This is the final mention of Lunaris in the ENTIRE Series. NO.
Just a recap, Magica appeared in 2 episodes after the Season where she was the villain, and “Friendship hates Magic” is because of her, not to mention how she is mentioned in two episodes (one mention per episode). “They Put a Moonlander on the Earth” only MENTIONED Lunaris (and only twice 😓) and that's it. Aside from some cameos, the episode is the only Moonlander related one of the season. Could it have been really that bad if we at least one episode where he got to see him come back for revenge? And it also doesn’t make sense in-universe. Considering Lunaris thought of every possibility, shouldn't he have installed escape pods on his ship? Or called for help from Moonlanders who were still loyal to him?
Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for Lunaris to serve a big role or even become the main antagonist of the season (Bradford fills that role), but I don’t get why the Season pretends that he doesn't exist. Maybe have him cameo as a prisoner in the F.O.W.L prison, or having him in his ship, literally ANYTHING Lunaris related that pretends that he doesn't exist?
BUT…To the season’s credit, Lunaris’ entire motivation is to prove himself superior to the earth and make them live in fear of them. But to have the earth after his defeat be everyone being happy and safe and barely acknowledging him feels like a thematically good ending for him. Huh.
So that's basically I like about Lunaris. He's easily my favorite character in the series and my favorite villain ever. I miss him so much and I hope others can learn to love as well. I might be his ONE fan, but I think he is one of my favorite villains of all time.
Glory to the Moon.
