History Fridge / DonaldDuck

** 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, 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.

* 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.

** 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).

*** 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".

** 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 her. Let's hope Donald will be stick around for far longer than Scrooge.

* Donald can be read has [[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).

** 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.

** Two ''very'' good reasons. The first is actually shown in the strip it introduced Daisy by making clear that, in-universe, [[HelloNurse 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.

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
** 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.

* Donald can be read has 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).

* There are heavy implications that Donald's post-World War II personality change (becoming more short-tempered and prone to violence) are symptoms of his 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).

* 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]].

* 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 stopped speaking {{Angrish}}. He's also been the one character that kept reinventing himself with the times. [[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]].

* There are heavy implications that Donald's post-World War II personality change (becoming more short-tempered and prone to violence) are symptoms of his 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, 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).

* There are heavy implications that Donald's post-World War II personality change (becoming more short-tempered and prone to violence) are symptoms of his 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, 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).