Darkwing is on patrol on the Ratcatcher with Launchpad and Gosalyn when he sees Megavolt and Quackerjack with a larger version of the latter's Time Top. He orders Gosalyn to stay with the bike while he goes after them, saying that if something happened to her, "I don't know what I'd do." Gosalyn decides that he didn't say she couldn't watch, but he takes so long to swoop in that the villains are able to activate the Time Top, and Gosalyn's attempt to tie it off results in her being swept into the future with them, to Darkwing's horror.
The Time Top arrives in the future, but before Megavolt and Quackerjack can start exploring, a terrified man runs up and begs them for help, followed by a tank with Darkwing's face on it. Darkwing's voice booms from within, but he introduces himself as Darkwarrior Duck, and sentences the man to a year in prison for jaywalking. Terrified at the thought of what the new, Knight Templar superhero might do to real criminals, Megavolt and Quackerjack try to escape back to the Time Top, but are arrested for parking it in a no parking zone and thrown in jail. Gosalyn heads to Darkwing's hideout, but finds it deserted except for Launchpad fixing a taxicab. He explains that after Gosalyn disappeared, Darkwing lost all sense of purpose until he saw a thief trying to steal a doll from a girl who looked like Gosalyn and had his crimefighting passion re-ignited... and turned up to full, as he re-invented himself as Darkwarrior Duck and began persecuting people for such crimes as eating junk food or not brushing their teeth after every meal.
Hoping to talk sense into him, Gosalyn successfully baits Darkwarrior Duck into pursuing her by defacing a statue of his; when he arrives, he is overjoyed to see her again, but has Launchpad thrown in prison for manipulating her into her act of vandalism. He decides to make her dream of fighting crime as his sidekick come true, but when he arrests a couple for violating the universal 8:00 curfew, she decides she has to go back in time to prevent Darkwing from becoming Darkwarrior and asks him to take her to the Time Top. However, Darkwarrior, outraged by this suggestion, throws Gosalyn in prison and decides to use the Time Top to go back in time to re-write history to be completely crime-free.
Gosalyn, Launchpad, Megavolt, and Quackerjack break out of prison and hurry back to the Time Top. Darkwarrior sees them approaching and points a missile gun at Gosalyn, saying he should have known she would turn out to be a villain... but she's still his little girl, and he can't bring himself to kill her. Launchpad knocks him out, and Gosalyn and the two supervillains escape back to the present in the Time Top. After they arrive, a familiar voice issues from the shadows, causing Megavolt and Quackerjack to faint in terror and Gosalyn to worry that the Time Top didn't work. But as the voice's owner steps out of the shadows, she sees it's Darkwing, back to normal, and she is so happy to see him that she doesn't even mind being grounded for a month for disobeying him.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Anger Born of Worry: Darkwing tells off Gosalyn for not waiting by the car like he'd asked at the end of the episode - given that she saw just how angry he'd get if she vanished, Gosalyn is quick to hug him.
- Angst Coma: Darkwing lapses into catatonia when Gosalyn disappears.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Gosalyn can barely move in the armor that Darkwarrior has prepared for her.
- Bad Future: The episode shows a future where Darkwing Duck reinvented himself as Darkwarrior Duck and became a Knight Templar whose strict ways turned St. Canard into a dystopia.
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode ends with Gosalyn, Megavolt and Quackerjack coming back to the present and hearing a voice saying "I don't know where you've been, but you'll be sorry you came back!" prompting Megavolt and Quackerjack to faint in terror and Gosalyn asks "Darkwarrior?" but it turns out, it's the regular Darkwing.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In the present, Darkwing doesn't let Gosalyn help on missions because she could get into danger. In the Bad Future, Darkwarrior makes Gosalyn his sidekick after locking up Launchpad and even outfits her with armor. Gosalyn is less than happy about this.
- Brick Joke: When Launchpad meets Gosalyn for the first time after the time trip, he mentions that he knows Darkwing said she wouldn't grow properly eating so much junk food, but he would have thought she'd have grown at least a little. Later, when she's criticizing Darkwarrior's obsessiveness, Gosalyn mentions he didn't even ask her why she wasn't taller — to which Darkwarrior answers that he assumed it was the effects of junk food.
- Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: Gosalyn ends up Gone to the Future due to being accidentally taken there by the villains Megavolt and Quackerjack. In the intervening years, Darkwing ended up becoming a Knight Templar and turned St. Canard into a Police State. So when Gosalyn breaks out the villains in order to return to the past, Darkwing points a missile gun at her, but hesitates to shoot because Gosalyn is still his daughter.
- The Caretaker: When Darkwing goes catatonic after Gosalyn disappears, Launchpad attempts first to help him find her and then to help him adjust. Neither is very helpful, although not for lack of effort.
- Combat Pragmatist: Darkwarrior doesn't beat around the bush when dealing with Megavolt, spraying him with a hose, something he'd never do as Darkwing.
- Critical Hesitation Blunder: Darkwarrior Duck (a Bad Future version of Darkwing who went Knight Templar) encroaches on Gosalyn, ranting about her "delinquent" tendencies, and aims a gun at her. However, he can't bring himself to shoot his beloved daughter, and while he's distracted (but just after he's discovered he can't do it), Launchpad sneaks up on him and knocks him out with a frying pan, thus keeping him from preventing her from returning to the past.
- Despair Event Horizon: Darkwing could never get over thinking Gosalyn ran away, leading to him becoming an iron-fisted dictator.
- Deteriorates Into Gibberish: Launchpad, seeing that Darkwarrior still has positive feelings for Gosalyn, asks if he can join the reunion. Darkwarrior turns around and goes on a Tranquil Fury-fueled tirade about his sympathies toward the criminal element and tells him he's going to give him the chair for defacing his statue (which he actually was only an innocent bystander for). Launchpad starts stuttering uncontrollably until Gosalyn breaks in to say that he didn't do it.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Darkwarrior Duck goes from arresting someone for jaywalking to arresting someone for having a really bad haircut, and for anything that would qualify as a crime by normal standards, it's implied he executes them.
- Enemy Mine: Gosalyn and Launchpad work together with Quackerjack and Megavolt in order to defeat Darkwarrior. Quackerjack and Megavolt also return Gosalyn to their proper time.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved:
- Despite Darkwing having become ruthless as a vigilante (to the point where he's all but directly stated to have a massive body count), Gosalyn still tries to reach and redeem him, believing that on some level he's still her father. His love for her keeps her relatively safe (though he does throw her in prison after she pushes him a bit too hard), but doesn't much affect the way he treats others.
- To a somewhat lesser degree, Darkwarrior's version of Launchpad still cares about him. He's clearly regretful that his former friend threw him out and when Darkwarrior softens upon seeing Gosalyn, he seems hopeful that things can go back to normal. However, he's (understandably) less trusting than Gosalyn that it's possible to reach whatever's left of Darkwing and knocks him out to protect her from him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite having become ferociously overreactive towards anything he considers evil, Darkwarrior still has a soft spot for Gosalyn and can't bring himself to hurt her.
- Fade Around the Eyes: After Darkwarrior refuses to let Gosalyn Set Right What Once Went Wrong, the screen fades until all that can be seen are his eyes.
- Fascists' Bed Time: Gosalyn is sent to the future, where the Gosalyn-less Darkwing has become a vicious dictator called Darkwarrior who ruthlessly enforces a curfew for all St. Canard's citizens.Gosalyn: "Only my dad would set a universal curfew at 8 o'clock."
- Felony Misdemeanor: Any minor crime caught by Darkwarrior, such as jaywalking, staying out past curfew, or parking illegally will land the perpatrator in jail.
- Forgot to Mind Their Head: Gosalyn is looking around a horrific alternate St. Canard when she happens upon Launchpad fixing a taxi. She calls to him, causing him to spring upnote and strike his head on the undercarriage of the taxi.
- Frying Pan of Doom: A rare male example; in a Bad Future where Darkwing has become a Knight Templar, the bad future version of Launchpad knocks him out with a frying pan after he threatens Gosalyn with a missile loaded gun.
- Gone Horribly Right: To get Darkwarrior's attention so she can talk to him, Gosalyn splashes paint on his statue. As Launchpad quickly points out, the plan worked very well, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
- Gone to the Future: Gosalyn accidentally travels into the future, in which her father has become a Knight Templar out of grief over her mysterious disappearance so many years ago. To correct the timeline, she must travel back and simply exist in the present.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Gosalyn tries this on Darkwarrior Duck when she, Megavolt, and Quackerjack are caught trying to use the Time Top, convinced that the Darkwing Duck she knows is still in there somewhere. Darkwarrior responds by drawing a missile gun on her. But Gosalyn's faith is ultimately rewarded, as he can't bring himself to pull the trigger on her - Knight Templar or not, he still loves her.
- In Their Own Image: Dark Warrior Duck, plans to use Quaker Jack's time machine to go back and time to Babylon when laws were first written down and make them all the death penalty, and then imagines meeting the first fish that had the courage to climb on dry land, and bully it into submission.
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Darkwarrior Duck rules St. Canard with an iron fist and levies harsh punishments on even the most minor offenses. Megavolt and Quackerjack are introduced to his harsh brand of justice when he sentences a jaywalker to a year in prison without trial, and later in the episode he locks away a couple who lost track of time and violated his citywide eight o'clock curfew.
- Knight of Cerebus: Darkwarrior Duck, while having a fairly humorous Knight Templar ideal, has a somber backstory and the episode, for the most part, takes itself seriously.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: A time machine accidentally drags Gosalyn into a future in which her disappearance drove Darkwing to become a Well-Intentioned Extremist. She asks him to send her back in the machine and fix things, but he doesn't see it that way:Darkwarrior Duck: Let me get this straight. You want me to release two known criminals, give them an incredibly powerful vehicle, and let them trash history so that I, Darkwarrior Duck, will never even EXIST?!!
- Loud Gulp: Gosalyn does one upon discovering that the gas gun Darkwarrior Duck is going to use on her is actually a missile gun.
- Love Makes You Evil: A platonic variant with Darkwarrior Duck and Gosalyn. However, it's not specifically keeping Gosalyn safe that was his motivation for turning into Darkwarrior Duck; when he thought he'd lost her, he snapped and decided the reason he'd lost his beloved daughter was that he'd been too soft on crime with all that "mercy" and "proper channels of the justice system" nonsense.
- Mattress-Tag Gag: The episode is set in a potential future where Darkwing has gone mad and imprisoned anyone who committed even the most minor crimes, while going on about the criminals that it's important that he watch out for, he ends with, "and people who tear the little tags off of pillows, they always did get me."
- Mood-Swinger: Being Darkwing's future self, Darkwarrior shares his trait of flipping from one mood to another quite rapidly. The problem is that now his mood swings are a lot more hazardous.
- Morality Chain: The episode demonstrates that Darkwing might go Knight Templar if anything happened to Gosalyn.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gosalyn accidentally causes the entire plot by getting yanked forward in time after disregarding her father's instructions to stay with the Ratcatcher.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Gosalyn calls the people Darkwarrior locked up "chicken", as a Inspirational Insult, only for it to backfire, as they're completely happy to admit that they're chicken rather than go out and face Darkwarrior.
- Papa Wolf:
- The only unambiguously heroic act we witness Darkwarrior Duck commit is shoving Gosalyn and Launchpad aside, taking a missile blast intended for them after he recognizes in horror that he just fired a missile at his beloved daughter.
- The only time the fearful alternate Launchpad takes up arms against Darkwarrior is when he corners Gosalyn and almost shoots her with a missile-loaded gun.
- Pocket Rocket Launcher: The Bad Future Knight Templar version of the titular character uses a missile launcher instead of his old Knockout Gas gun. The size is about the same.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: Megavolt and Quackerjack for once don't want to break out of the St. Canard Jail. Given that they're in an alternate future and that future's Darkwing has gone Knight Templar, they have a good reason.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Darkwing becomes overzealous Knight Templar Darkwarrior Duck, his eyes take on a red glow. At the end of the episode, the fact that his eyes are no longer red is Gosalyn's, and the audience's, first clue that the Time Top really has worked as planned.
- Scary Impractical Armor: Gosalyn is transported into a future where Darkwing becomes unquestioned dictator of the city. In order to make her his ultimate successor, he gives her gifts, including a very imposing scary suit of battle armor. The only drawback to it is that she isn't able to move. But she sure looks impressive.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- While witnessing Darkwarrior arresting a pedestrian for jaywalking, Quackerjack and Megavolt worry about what he would do to real criminals and attempt to go back to the Time Top, only to be arrested for parking in a no-parking zone and thrown in jail.
- When Darkwing Duck became Darkwarrior Duck, all the real criminals and super-villains quickly ran out of St. Canard out of fear of his overzealous wrath.
- Spanner in the Works: Gosalyn messes up Megavolt and Quackerjack's plans to go into the future. She also shows them a Bad Future where her adoptive father becomes a Knight Templar.
- Spikes of Villainy: Darkwarrior Duck's uniform includes spikes on the shoulders and chest.
- Taking the Bullet: On seeing that a missile he's sent will hit Gosalyn, Darkwarrior appears and takes the blow, even letting the missile explode with him at the center of impact.
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: An amusing twist on the trope; Quackerjack, who blames Megavolt for their imprisonment (he parked in a no-parking zone), tells Mr. Banana Brain (his puppet) to tell Megavolt that he's not speaking to him.Megavolt: (to Mr. Banana Brain) Oh, yeah? Well, tell him I'm not the one who stopped the Time Top in a NO-PARKING ZONE!
- That Man Is Dead:Darkwarrior Duck: Protecting St. Canard is a tough job. The old Darkwing Duck couldn't hack it. That's when Darkwarrior Duck came to town!
- The Time Traveler's Dilemma: Discussed. On realizing that he came to exist because Gosalyn came through a time machine, Darkwarrior locks her up for suggesting she go back and erase the Bad Future, thus erasing him. Gosalyn doesn't hesitate on getting the opportunity, however.
- Victory Is Boring: Darkwarrior has gotten rid of all the villains. This means he has no real challenge while his Crime Bots do the hard work for him. He's disappointed to hear that the Bots have already arrested Megavolt and Quackerjack, having gotten excited for the chance to fight the kind of villains he wiped out a long time ago.
- Villains Out Shopping: Aside from stealing electricity, there's no indication Megavolt and Quackerjack were up to anything illegal or evil this time; when they gush about going to the future, they don't talk about using Time Travel to commit crimes but about all the cool inventions they can't wait to see.
- We Used to Be Friends: When she finds the bad future version of Launchpad, Gosalyn asks why he isn't with Darkwarrior. Launchpad dejectedly tells her that he's not his sidekick anymore.
- Would Hit a Girl: Male or female, anyone who violates the law by Darkwarrior's definition will get punished. In one scene, he locks up a couple who unintentionally broke his curfew.
- Would Hurt a Child: Darkwarrior Duck has no problem throwing Gosalyn in jail and threatening her with a missile loaded gun, although this is actually subverted as he couldn't bring himself to fire the gun, which led to his defeat during this distraction.
- You Are Grounded!: The present Darkwing tells Gosalyn this for not waiting by the car, as she had promised to do. To his confusion, Gosalyn hugs him, much preferring this kind of justice to Darkwarrior's style.
