Line #10 Fridge/DonaldDuck


1	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
2	* Why has Donald always endured in popularity while other classic Disney characters tend to wax and wane? First of all, he has plenty of human faults - a rotten temper, kinda lazy, being a bit of a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold jerk (albeit with a good heart)]], and very outgoing and friendly once he stops speaking {{Angrish}}. He's also been the one character that kept reinventing himself with the times, willing to try anything he thinks looks like fun. [[TheSeventies Disco dancing duck?]] Yup. [[TheEighties Showing up with a video camera and an Aloha shirt a decade later?]] He's game. Two decades and change later, and [[Franchise/KingdomHearts he's still reinventing himself]]. In short Donald's continued popularity is ''because'' of his foibles and changes. Donald is the most human Disney character and the most like ourselves, a true everyman.
3	* Donald's feats of strength during his temper tantrums are not unusual, rather, they are ''inherited'' from the [=McDuck=] Clan he is descended from, just like his Uncle Scrooge, who has once gotten angry enough to rip apart heavy steel chains when some crooked people made fun of his family and made light of the fact that one of his relatives had just passed away, after which he proceeded to start giving those folks a thorough thrashing, the resulting violence ripping apart the ship he was being held prisoner on. He has also gotten angry enough to fight off entire mobs of rival gold prospectors, and completely shrugged off their attempts to murder him with dynamite.
4	** Not just the [=McDuck=] Clan, but a single duck of all the clan: Hortense [=McDuck=], the youngest sister of Scrooge [=McDuck=]and the only [=McDuck=] able to go toe to toe with his unbridled rage. In the few stories Donald mentions his mother, he does that with the utmost respect and love and, as Hortense did before him, he's the only blood relative able to talk good sense in Scrooge when he needs that (with the other being Granma Duck, even if as an in-law and more subdued ways).
5	* Donald is often depicted as lazy, spending most of his time in bed or in his hammock, leaving the triplets to do most of the work around the house. This begins to make sense when you look at his income. He generally works as a factory worker or doing odd jobs for Scrooge, meaning that he, at best, earns minimum salary, and at worst, far less (some comics joke that Scrooge only pays him in cents). Since he lives in a fairly nice house, and has to feed four mouths, he'd have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. No wonder he's always so tired.
6	** The low pay would also explain why he's so bad with money. Whenever he gets his hands on money, it's generally used for some extravagant reasons, like buying a car, or taking Daisy or the boys out to dinner. If he's that low on income most of the time, of course, he'll take any chance he gets to have a nice time.
7	** Depends on the story: in some stories is told that Donald's house is a rental from Scrooge, who is more than willing to cut it him some slack on the rent to covertly help raising the triples. The earliest stories didn't depict him as the unlucky poor duck later ones describe, but as an everyman earning "just enough" to make meets end, raise the triplets and date Daisy. He just chooses to bide his time.
8	** Also, from Paperinik (the "Duck Avenger") onwards Donald is stating having several "extracurricular" activities that cut drastically his hours of sleep. He's Donald Duck the good natured duck with a bad temper, but also the Duck Avenger, the anti-hero patrolling Duckburg to fight crime and force white collars to care for the everyman, ComicBook/DoubleDuck the international secret agent and the head of Scrooge's unofficial security and secret force. It's a wonder he is even able to sleep at all.
9	* About the famous scene where [[https://a-little-ray-of-fantasy.tumblr.com/post/163065605086/donald-duck-laughs-in-the-face-of-death-didnt Donald literally laughs in the face of Death]]... After everything Donald has gone through, including UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the many adventures with Scrooge, insane witches, [[ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures alien invasions]] and other potentially world-ending events, death just isn't scary anymore as long as his loved ones are safe. So when the Grim Reaper had the gall of making a subtle threat to him, Donald laughed in his face to make clear that death is not something that can scare him.
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11	[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
12	* Why exactly does Donald stay with Daisy? She leaves Donald for Gladstone whenever she damn well feels like it, and it's not like Donald doesn't have better options. (Those "better options" including [[PhysicalGoddess Xadhoom]] and [[ComicBook/DoubleDuck Kay K]]. The former of whom he's flirted far more with than Daisy....)
13	** It's a fool that looks for logic [[Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou in the chambers of a duck's heart.]]
14	** Two ''very'' good reasons. The first is actually shown in the strip it introduced Daisy by making clear that, InUniverse, [[HeadTurningBeauty Daisy is just that beautiful]] (Donald was furious at the new neighbour accidentally ''graze'' his prized rose hedge with the moving truck. Then saw Daisy driving it and spontaneously cut down the whole hedge). The second, given you bring in the Italian stories featuring or implying ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'', is HiddenDepths: Daisy has ''her own'' superhero alter ego, Paperinika, with whom Paperinik has a [[BelligerentSexualTension relationship of obvious rivalry and loathe and barely disguised attraction and admiration]], and Donald may be unconsciously after ''this'' side of hers.
15	*** Paperinika and Paperinik (the Duck Avenger) also show the traits Donald and Daisy were looking for each other. The Duck Avenger is attracted by Paperinika's beauty, smarts and temper, Paperinika finds the Duck Avenger handsome and a worthy match for her own wits and temper. They both love each other physically and for their own personalities.
16	** There's also the fact that Daisy is actually ''the second choice'': the first choice would be Reginella... But every time, something forces our alien queen to separate herself from Donald.
17	*** Not anymore: the latest Reginella cycle has Donald stating to the alien queen herself that, as much as he loves her, he can't stop himself from thinking at Daisy. Also during the first meeting with Reginella Donald was made amnesiac by a machine from Planet Pacificus.
18	** Justification of the Doylist. The status quo is God — that's the main reason. Since Daisy Duck is Donald's canonical and long—term love interest, Disney will not allow him to be set up with anyone else. Besides, Daisy is much more famous than Reginella and the other girls combined.
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20	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
21	* If you think too much about Creator/DonRosa's ArcWelding work, you have to conclude that everyone's parents are dead.
22	** Not much fridge: ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' showed Scrooge's father's ''corpse''... On the other hand, Matilda [=McDuck=] is still alive and well, so Hortense and Della could still be around.
23	** Furthermore, Don Rosa usually implies that his "PresentDay" stories are actually set during the heydays of Creator/CarlBarks' classic stories (thus mostly during TheFifties), which means that as of ''right now'', most characters should be either really old (e.g. Donald and even HD&L) or most probably already dead (e.g. Grandma Duck and Scrooge himself)!
24	*** According to Don Rosa's unofficial timeline, Scrooge died in 1967, at the age of 100. If that should make Scrooge fans upset, it might help to consider that Don Rosa's earlier stories showed Scrooge's ancestors, as well as his father, living content on as ghosts, meaning Scrooge would likely do so as well.
25	*** Jossed in the italian school timeline: while Don Rosa and Carl Barks are held in high regard, the stories are clearly set in modern times, and during a time traveling adventure Scrooge [=McDuck=] claims he remembers the 40s and asked by Gyro about his age, he evasively answers "If time were money, I, Scrooge [=McDuck=], would be the Richest Duck in the World...again".
26	* What's going to happen with all of Scrooge's money and businesses around the world after he passes away? Apparently it all goes to Huey, Dewey and Louie as they are smart and sensible enough to take care of it, but assuming they're in their teens, or at most, are young adults when the time comes, it can't turn out a very healthy life for the three having such massive wealth and responsibilities on their backs the rest of their lives.
27	** In one of the stories toying with the idea, it's stated that the triplets are the only ones in the family with the smarts needed to care for Scrooge's Empire, but Scrooge gambles on Donald giving them emotional support and a fatherly guidance for as much as they'll need. In an earlier Don Rosa story Scrooge brings himself to say that Donald is a better family man than he ever was, beloved by the triplets and willing to do everything for them. Let's hope Donald will be stick around for far longer than Scrooge.
28	* Donald can be read as [[ShellShockedVeteran having PTSD]] as a result of his service in the Pacific Front in the Disney {{Wartime Cartoon}}s. In a pre-war comic, Donald tries to catch a thief stealing his food with a camera trap, and it turned out to be himself sleepwalking. When the same thing happened years later after the war, [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/439086-ruined-childhood his nephews tried to wake him from sleepwalking with a firecracker prank]]. Donald promptly has a flashback to his duty in the Pacific Front, freaks out at the "Japanese-laid minefield and ambush", and throws some things at his nephews (Which in his rather frantic state he perceives to be grenades that he's flinging at Japanese soldiers).
29	* In "Donald Duck and the Gorilla", one of the radio reports says that he "can master any wild animal by looking straight in the eye". It doesn't work when Donald attempts it on Ajax, with Ajax showing a WingDingEyes of a grave saying "Here lies a dead duck." As any primatologist might be able to tell viewers, doing this to a male gorilla, especially a silverback, is a trigger for the him to charge and fight in self-defense. In a way, Donald already made his bad situation go FromBadToWorse, as now Ajax has what he can percieve as a rival to his stake as silverback.
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Context Fridge / DonaldDuck