Little Brother
is a DuckTales (1987) fanfiction by samasim.
Synopsis: They were growing up. Even his cousin Gladstone was growing up. Donald realized with every passing day - feeling quite some shame - how immature and childish they both had been.
This fic provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: Della Duck, faithful to one comic's interpretation of her.
- Age-Appropriate Angst: The different reactions of Donald and Gladstone to the egg’s unresponsiveness.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Huey, Dewey and Louie’s father. Even when he’s in Duckburg, he doesn’t drop by to say hello or see his sons.
- This may crossover into big ego, hidden depths according to some readers’ interpretation.
- Competence Zone: Raising three spirited duckling makes Donald no pushover in the kids department.
-
Death of the Author - Demoted to Extra: Scrooge McDuck. Only mentioned in the conversations.
- Doting Parent: Gladstone is eager for his little brother to hatch, and displays great affection for him. This being Gladstone, however, means that treading into neglectful parent and usless parent bystander ground is going to happen often. And Donald knows it.
- How Unscientific!: Donald uses a lamp to try to see his unhatched cousin’s form inside the egg. This is something that you can usually do with birds in real life, but an egg big enough and thick enough to hold a roughly human-baby-sized chick would likely be too thick or too big relative to the lamp to see through.
- Invisible Parents: Staple of the DuckVerse. Gladstone has a late little brother, and although their mother is alive, is absent from the picture.
- Kissing Cousins: Averted. There is no romantic relationship between Gladstone and Donald’s sister Della, but he adores her above everyone.
- Manchild: Gladstone. Complementary to Age-Appropriate Angst mentioned above. As the luckiest goose in the world who never had to worry about anything, it is both humorous yet a bit sad to watch his reactions to things most adults have already learned how to handle.
- Manly Tears: Averted. When Gladstone believes he accidentally killed his baby brother out of neglect, he loses it.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: What Gladstone hums at the beginning of the story.
- Responsible Adult: Complementary to Age-Appropriate Angst mentioned above. Donald handles the situation with more speed and expertise than Gladstone.
- Trauma Conga Line: Gladstone gets to dance his own. It is mostly left to the reader’s interpretation how he willingly sacrifices his luck (unelaborated upon) for love, then does not even attain that. This results is a suicidal goose and a nerve-shot Donald. Gladstone does get his luck back, eventually.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: It is heavily implied that some a past traumatic event has toned down Gladstone’s Jerkass tendencies somewhat.
