The kids pair off to find the missing pieces of a mystical sword hidden throughout a marketplace unless F.O.W.L. gets to them first.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- Have confidence in yourself. Dewey teaches Webby that she must take a chance even if they're blinded by the flash grenade that Gandra threw at them. As a result, they managed to retrieve the sword handle.
- Your real self is better than any lie. Violet teaches Louie to tell the truth about his accomplishments rather than relying on a made-up persona and spreading rumors. Sure enough when they face Rockerduck, who reveals who Louie really is, Violet amazes everyone with Louie's feats during his travels with Scrooge, Louie doing the same with Violet's feats immediately afterwards. This spares them from being tortured by the spice bar patrons and allows them to retrieve the sword guard.
- It's okay to get angry sometimes, as long as you can control your anger. Lena teaches Huey that he shouldn't suppress his anger and learn to accept it. This alone helps him to defeat Steelbeak and retrieve the blade.
- Tap into your inner-strength, as its proof that your accomplishments are genuine. Scrooge states that the reason why the Sword of Swanstantine rejects F.O.W.L. is because they cheated and forced the kids to give them the sword. It only chooses those who rely on their inner strengths, which in this case means the three aesops above plus Scrooge's own inner strength of his family.
- All According to Plan: After the villains are defeated and Scrooge and company claim the sword and drive F.O.W.L. away, Heron calls her boss to tell him that everything had worked out perfectly and that she got what she came for, which was a tail feathernote . What F.O.W.L. wants with this feather is not revealed until the end of the season.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Rockerduck is nearly unaffected by spices due to having his taste buds frozen off. Spiciness isn't sensed with your taste buds at all, but the same thermoreceptors that react to increased temperature—it's why spicy food makes your whole mouth, not just your tongue, feel like it's burning and can cause the same sensation in other sensitive areas.
- Anyone with a habit of trying extremely hot spices, as Violet implies she does in the Spice of the Month Club, knows drinking water has very little effect because capsaicin is water insoluble. Real cures are alcohol, milk, or oil/butter.
- Artistic License – Explosives: In real life, throwing a flashbang at children will incur injuries far worse than just temporarily blinding them.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Mostly played straight. Turns out F.O.W.L. was never after the Sword of Swanstantine (it’s useless to them anyways), and the whole thing was just a distraction for their real objective: obtaining a feather. That said, they are still visibly disappointed at not being able to get the sword and now its great powers belong to Scrooge.
- Bad Liar: Huey, trying to hide a blade bigger than himself behind his back. "What sword?"
- Badass on Paper: When Rockerduck reveals Louie's true identity to everyone at the bar, they're actually more impressed than when they believed him to be "the Silver Tongued Serpent" because they heard about all of his exploits while adventuring with Scrooge.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: A variant. The spices used for the contest are so intense that a fingertip sample is enough to turn a random guy into a Fire-Breathing Diner.
- Blind Mistake: While blinded, Dewey mistakes a snake for a cat.
- Blinded by the Light: Gandra uses a flash bomb to temporarily blind Webby and Dewey so she can go after the sword piece unimpeded. She tries to do it again, only for Webby (under Dewey's instructions) to kick it right back at her, frying her eye circuits and causing her to fall off the building into a trash pile.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: Each of the pairings of the kids have to learn how to tap into their counterpart's skill sets in order to obtain their part of the sword. Webby learns to trust her instincts and make bold leaps, while Dewey learns how to be a protector and look out for Webby as she moves on impulse. Huey learns that some problems just require brute force solutions, while Lena helps him methodically analyze every potential outcome to arrive at the best answer. And Louie and Violet best the Spice Den ruffians by being laboriously informed about every relevant fact on hand, and blatantly conniving and outwitting their way to victory, respectively.
- The Cameo: Various minor criminals from the past seasons appear in the spice tavern, such as Hack Smashnikov, Don Karnage's sky pirates, and the biker couple from Tokyolk.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- At the beginning of the episode, Dewey tries to get a kebab, only for Scrooge to tell him that's for after they find the sword. Sure enough, at the end of the episode, Scrooge buys the kids kebabs.
- Violet reveals she is in a "Spice of the Month" club. During the ending kebab scene, she can be seen pouring hot sauce on her skewer.
- Continuity Nod:
- Violet brings up the times that Louie bested the Bombie, defeated the Pharaoh Toth-Ra, and cheated Glomgold out of his fortune. Louie also mentions how Violet conquered the Shadow Realm and fought against Magica De Spell.
- Immediately after the above reveals, Rockerduck mentions that his bodyguard is a baby now.
- Huey's suppressed violent & emotional side, previously hinted at in "The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks!" and in "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!", is referred to by him as "The Duke of Making a Mess."
- Crazy-Prepared: Violet brought coins in anticipation of having to pay the ferryman of the Underworld. She's also brought an axe.
- Delayed Reaction: Violet easily swallows three bowls of incredibly hot spices without breaking a sweat, aids Louie in verbally intimidating Rockerduck to win the sword fragment, walks to the entrance and explains how she was able to handle the spices, then calmly informs Louie that her mouth is on fire before dunking her head in the water trough and screaming in pain.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Despite reaching the top before Dewey and Webby, and Webby still being blinded, Gandra throws another flashbang at the kids to slow them down. Instead, Webby kicks it back at her so that she gets blinded and steps off the edge of the building.
- Disability Immunity: Rockerduck is able to handle intense spices because he lost his sense of taste from being cryogenically preserved.
- Dismantled Macguffin: The Sword of Swanstantine, as the title suggests. Swanstantine ordered the sword to be dismantled into three parts hidden within the city itself.
- Emotion Suppression: Huey is revealed to have suppressed borderline feral emotional passion because he feels like they're chaos that interfere with his rational thinking.
- Exact Words:
- Why did Lena and Violet come along? They were having a sleepover with Webby when Scrooge told everyone to come. They obliged.
- In the spice bar, Crispin announces that the first person to start sweating loses. He never said it had to be from the spice, as seen when Rockerduck starts sweating from nerves when his attempt to expose Louie's lies backfires.
- Failed a Spot Check: Scrooge doesn't realize that Violet and Lena came with the family on the plane until after he briefs the family about the Sword in the Istanbull bazaar.
- Fantastic Racism: The Spice Baron hates cheetahs, believing them all to be cheaters.
- Forgot About His Powers: Despite how simply levitating Steelbeak would have probably nullified him as a threat, Lena makes no use of her magic beyond freezing time so that Huey can figure out a way to fight him. We are given no explanation for why she takes no action herself. Even when ganged up on near the end she simply tries to get Huey to unleash his frenzied side again.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The posters leading into the underground spice tavern features a warning of Glomgold using bad checks and an Underworld Bowling League.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: This is noticeably the first time where Lena interacts with any of the triplets without Webby being with them (this case being Huey) and the first time Violet interacts with Louie.
- Gratuitous Latin: Huey says that to find the sword pieces, they would need verum fortitudinum. Scrooge and Dewey blindly agree before he explains it means "true strength." Doubles as a Meaningful Echo when Huey embraces his wild side.
- Grenade Hot Potato: Gandra Dee attempts to throw another flash grenade, but Webby kicks it back.
- Hidden Depths:
- Violet practices Tibetan focus techniques and is a member of the "Spice of the Month" club.
- The crazy prepared Huey has a deeply suppressed emotional side. Lena's encouragement gets him to embrace this part of himself and channel his logical thinking through his instinctive impulses, which makes him a highly effective fighter.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Two of the pieces of the sword were placed out in public. The handle was being held by a statue up on a roof, and the blade was embedded in a large compass in the square. Even the cross-guard was being used as a wall ornament.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Rockerduck exposes Louie's bluff about being a criminal in the spice bar in hopes of getting them to turn on him and get the sword piece. Instead, Louie and Violet work this to their advantage, boasting about all the awesome things they've done in the past. This causes the crowd to turn on him.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Lena's eyes tear up at the sight of Huey letting loose "The Duke of Making a Mess" on Steelbeak.
- Instant Armor: At the very least, the assembled Sword of Swanstantine is shown to conjure armor for its wielder and their allies.
- It Runs in the Family: Once again, Huey is shown to have inherited his family's passionate temper, though he's worked very hard to suppress that side of himself. He even uses several of Donald's fighting moves when he finally lets loose against Steelbeak.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: While Scrooge fights Black Heron, the kids split up into pairs to retrieve a piece of the sword. Dewey and Webby race Gandra Dee for the handle, Louie and Violet face off against Rockerduck to win the cross-guard, and Huey and Lena fight Steelbeak to get the blade.
- Literal-Minded: Since she and Louie are looking for the part of the sword that is in "the underworld", Violet brings the coins necessary to pay the ferryman, also she found an axe. Thankfully, Louie correctly guesses that the "underworld" they are looking for is actually an underground spice bar run by the criminal underworld.
- Mundane Utility: After they defeat F.O.W.L. in getting the sword, Scrooge and family celebrates by using it to help make shish kebabs.
- National Animal Stereotypes: The Spice Baron is a German Shepherd talking with a German accent.
- Noodle Incident: Scrooge has confronted, and bested, Black Heron on four different occasions.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The pieces of the Sword of Swanstantine can only be retrieved by those who are in tune with their own inner strength. When Black Heron forces the heroes to give the sword pieces to her, the reassembled blade rejects her wielding it because she only uses her surface level strengths.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Lena and Violet wear their pajamas the whole episode because they were sleeping over and got dragged along on the adventure. Violet even wonders if she should change before Louie tells her there's no time and drags her away.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Huey's alter ego, the Duke of Making a Mess, is noted in part by his red irises, as well as pink scelera that give the impression of his eyes being bloodshot.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Scrooge spies a woman with metal on her arm and thinks that it's Black Heron. It's just an ordinary woman with many metal bangles, but Heron was hiding in the shop she was perusing.
- Robo Cam: We're shown Gandra's perspective and she has upgraded her eye modifications to include facial recognition and threat assessment.
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: While Huey usually falls right into "Enlightenment" — preferring to live his life according to logic, reason and compromise — here it is revealed that he has a lot of repressed emotional baggage that takes the form of The Duke of Making a Mess. It is Lena who tells him that reconciling these two halves of himself is the only way to get past Steelbeak, a point that is right on the money.Lena: Take it from someone who used to be Magica's shadow: you can't ignore the parts of yourself you don't like. Even the parts you're afraid of. You got to own them.
Huey: But he's pure, chaotic rage.
Lena: And you are pure, frustrating order! Think of what you two could do together. If anyone could handle that thing, it's you. - Shout-Out:
- The Sword of Swanstantine is a reference to Constantine's Sword.
- After the F.O.W.L agents corner the Duck family, Steelbeak mentions how their "bazaar adventure" is over. Bonus points for him having spent a good part of the episode frozen in time in a position similar to Joseph when he was frozen in time in front of Jotaro.
- Not only that, but the heroes also encounter the villain after coming across a kebab stand. Did we just describe Scrooge and company's run-in with Black Heron or Jotaro and company's run-in with Steely Dan?note
- Split-Personality Merge: After Lena convinces Huey he needs to tap into the inner strength of his inner emotional side, Huey decides to face "The Duke of Making a Mess". While the Duke initially overpowers Huey's rational thinking, Huey finally shakes hands with the Duke, giving him the perfect balance of strength and logic to take down a thug three times his size without giving in to rage.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- When faced with the challenge of downing several bowls of intense spices at the spice tavern, Louie tries the Look Behind You trick on everybody, then tosses one of the spice bowls aside (into the face of an unlucky patron). Unfortunately, the Spice Baron doesn't overlook the amount of spice on the patron's lips and starts to question the "Silver-Tongue Serpent's" credibility.
- Even when Huey releases his anger side on Steelbeak, despite initially taking him by surprise, he still loses. The fight is essentially between a tiny preteen boy and a muscular mercenary and Huey is just blindly attacking him with no strategy at all. It takes Huey integrating his passion and reason together to defeat Steelbeak.
- Temporary Blindness: Happens to Dewey and Webby after being hit by Gandra's flash grenade. Later happens to Gandra herself after having her own flash grenade redirected at her.
- Time Stands Still: Lena uses her magic to stop time and places herself and Huey in Huey's mind in order to come up with a plan to keep the blade from Steelbeak.
- Token Good Teammate: This episode shows that Gandra is the only known F.O.W.L. agent with any kind of moral compass, given her unwillingness to hurt Dewey and Webby.
- Unaffected by Spice: Played straight with Rockerduck, whose time spent frozen killed all of his taste buds. Subverted with Violet, who is able to fake it with Tibetan focus techniques but it eventually catches up with her all at once.
- Underestimating Badassery: When Gandra assesses Dewey and Webby using her eye modifications, the latter is considered a significant threat but the former's threat level is listed as "meh". Dewey proceeds to scale most of the building while blind and grab the piece of the sword before Gandra.
- Unskilled, but Strong: "The Duke of Making a Mess" is more than willing to fight Steelbeak, but fails to defeat him due to having exactly zero finesse in fighting. Huey balancing his violent side with his rational side fixes that problem.
- Violence Really Is the Answer: Huey tries to find a way to get the sword blade away from Steelbeak without fighting, only for every scenario Lena plays out for him ending in failure. Lena convinces him that the only way to keep the sword in their possession is to fight him.
- Visual Pun: When the Spice Baron mentions what happens to cheaters in his market, we see an anthropomorphic cheetah getting locked up.Louie: Wait, did you mean cheaters or cheetahs?
Crispin: BOTH. - Wedgie: Huey gives an atomic wedgie to Steelbeak.
- Wham Shot: After Scrooge is finished briefing the kids, the camera pans out to reveal that Lena and Violet are also present, changing the dynamic of what was seemingly going to be a McDuck family episode.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Quite literally; Lena aims to use a hammer to free the Sword from the compass in the ground. Huey opts for an approach with more finesse, gently prying it up with a small rock. Also figuratively—Steelbeak is essentially one big, dumb "hammer", as seen from Darkwing's face last episode, clearly hired by F.O.W.L more for strongarm tactics than any brains.
- Would Hurt a Child: In both reality and in Huey's mindscape, Steelbeak has no issues with hurting him in order to obtain the blade.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Gandra Dee is hesitant to use force against Webby and Dewey; fortunately for her, she can nonlethally incapacitate them with a flash grenade. (Though this would realistically be pretty dangerous.)
- Wrestler in All of Us: A woman Scrooge mistakes for Black Heron performs a suplex on the duck before walking off.
