Tropes:
- 13 Is Unlucky: One of the Eggheads refuses to go to Sector 13 because he believes it unlucky.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Unlike his original Darkwing Duck counterpart, Steelbeak here is basically an evil version of Launchpad in regards to intellect, though he does seem to be at least a peg higher when it comes to overall competence and skill (and along with it, has enough pride to be easily insulted). According to Frank Angones
, Steelbeak in this series is younger and only just recently joined F.O.W.L. - Alternate Identity Amnesia: Once Launchpad's intelligence is brought back to normal, he no longer remembers his actions while he was smarter, most significantly that F.O.W.L. was after Scrooge.
- And I Must Scream: Launchpad's enhanced intelligence practically manifests as a Split Personality, and when Launchpad is made dumb again, the smart personality is trapped in a body that's too stupid to warn Scrooge of F.O.W.L.'s return. He comes to accept it, as he gives up and decides to take a bath to relieve his stress.
- And You Thought It Was a Game: Dewey and Launchpad spend the entire episode thinking that they're playing an AR (Augmented Reality) game at Funso's, not realizing they faced real F.O.W.L. agents and saved the city. Subverted when Launchpad was in his smart mode and discovered the truth.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Red Feather, the Femme Fatale video game character, has the feather coloration of a male Northern Cardinal (females are dull grey with a few red patches instead of bright red overall).
- Arson Murder And Jay Walking: When Smart Launchpad is debating taking the stupid beam to save Duckburg, he mentions that he could "stop the evil conspiracy out to get us, solve world hunger, land a plane."
- Artistic License – Biology: It's impossible to be too dumb to breathe because breathing is an unconscious action. You can't "forget how to breathe" or else you would suffocate in your sleep.note
- Augmented Reality: The "Double-O-Duck" game is played by wearing special glasses that turn Funso's into a spy setting. Steelbeak intercepting Dewey and Launchpad makes them think he's part of the game.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Launchpad when he puts on Steelbeak's additional evening wear.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The Rescue Rangers save Launchpad from Steelbeak as thanks for him helping get the Ranger Plane to fly.
- Berserk Button: Steelbeak lashes out at anyone who calls him stupid, to the point that it motivates him turning everyone in the city stupid.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Rescue Rangers manage to save Launchpad from Steelbeak during the fight at the lighthouse.
- Big "NO!": A humorous variation is used when Dewey shouts "No, man" when Launchpad got shot with the Intelli-Ray.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ultimately, Launchpad and Dewey stop Steelbeak and Black Heron's plot, but Launchpad has lost his intelligence and is thus unable to warn Scrooge that F.O.W.L. is plotting against him.
- Blatant Lies: Webby tells Scrooge that the skee-ball tickets expire at the end of the day. The counter guy was about to correct her before she wordlessly threatens him not to.
- Brick Joke: After having their intelligence drained, one of the Eggheads starts chewing on the Rubik's Cube he'd been fiddling with earlier. Bradford Buzzard solves said cube at the end of the episode, then wonders how it got wet.
- The Bus Came Back: We get to see the full Rescue Rangers team (Gadget, Chip, Dale, Monty and Zipper) in animation for the first time in 30 years.
- Call-Back: The Third Eye Diamond, which Huey mentions in "The Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks" as one of Isabella Finch's lost treasures, makes an appearance as the core of the Intelli-Ray.
- The Cameo: Darkwing Duck appears as one of the prizes at Funso’s.
- Character Check: Once again, Scrooge's sheer greed is put to the forefront, being unwilling to part with his tickets.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Black Heron asks Steelbeak if he has any questions about her plan to use the Intelli-ray to make Scrooge "dumber than the dummies", Steelbeak is more curious to know whether Gadget managed to create her jumpsuit using a regular-sized sewing machine or one closer to her own size, much to Black Heron's irritation.
- Continuity Nod: Webby mentions "Uke or Puke" as one of the games available at Funso's.
- Create Your Own Hero: Black Heron is directly responsible for the creation of the Rescue Rangers by making them Uplifted Animals who proceed to break out and help Launchpad beat Steelbeak in the climax.
- Creative Closing Credits: The spy song heard throughout the episode plays over the closing credits.
- Death Glare: Webby silences the Funso's ticket vendor with one before he can correct her lie to Scrooge that his tickets will expire at the end of the day.
- Despair Event Horizon: Played for Laughs after Scrooge reveals his three million tickets only got him a mustache comb, at which point Dewey asks how much Scrooge spent to get those tickets. Realization kicks in, and Scrooge sinks to his knees sobbing.
- Distressed Dude: Dewey first gets imprisoned in a separate cell than Launchpad, then spends the rest of the episode tied up as Steelbeak's hostage.
- The Dog Bites Back: After she insults his intellect, Steelbeak takes Black Heron's intelligence ray and zaps her with the lower intelligence setting.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Launchpad ends up stealing a uniform from an unconscious Egghead guard to move through the F.O.W.L. base unnoticed and rescue Dewey.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Even an Egghead that Black Heron has zapped with a ray that makes him stupid enough to try and eat a Rubik's cube can tell that Steelbeak bringing Dewey and Launchpad to their base, which could lead to Scrooge finding their base while looking for them, is a dumb idea.
- Steelbeak's observation about how that one mouse made her jumpsuit is, in hindsight, extremely relevant. Gadget is capable of building functional things at mouse scale (with or without a tiny sewing machine that she may or may not have also built!) and this eventually leads to Launchpad getting past Steelbeak later on.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Dewey thinks that the entire adventure is All Part of the Show, assuming that everything is them getting progressively further through the game. This is a perfectly reasonable assumption to make given all of the spy fiction tropes at work and Launchpad only gets one chance to try and explain things to Dewey before he loses his intelligence, which gets cut off by the noise the boats are making.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: When in his smart persona, Launchpad slicks his hair back.
- Expy:
- One of the enemies in the spy game is Odd-duck, whose name and demeanor is similar to Oddjob. The original "Double-O-Duck" episode featured the same Shout-Out.
- A major NPC in the spy game, Red Feather, is a similar Femme Fatale character to Feathers Galore of from "Double-O-Duck", except a Cardinal instead of a duck.
- Failed a Spot Check: When trying to figure out how to get out of a cell, Launchpad stalks around looking for inspiration, and begins to list all of the things he can see... all the while completely failing to notice the Rescue Rangers begin to build a plane out of various items of garbage littering the cell.
- The plot would have succeeded if Black Heron had given more thought to the practical effects the ray had on her rodent test subjects.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: At the end, Bradford emphasizes F.O.W.L.'s end-goal to to Steelbeak and Heron by quickly solving a nearby Rubix Cube while monologuing. Unfortunately for him, it's the same cube which the dumbed down Egghead was gnawing on before, and it's still covered in saliva, which he only discovers as he slams the completed cube down on the table.Bradford: Ew. Why was this wet?
- "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Launchpad gets zapped with the Intelli-ray while it's in "smart" mode, making him more intelligent. It doesn't last, as Launchpad is forced to sacrifice his newfound intellect to stop Steelbeak's plan to make all of Duckburg into imbeciles.
- Foil: Steelbeak acts as one to Launchpad in this episode: While both are Dumb Muscles and feel insecure about it, Launchpad is defined by his loyality towards Scrooge and his friendship with Dewey, Steelbeak is mocked by his superiors and for that is a vengeful villain who wants to Take Over the World with F.O.W.L.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- On the video where Heron zaps the mouse to be Gadget, for a few seconds, you can clearly see also Chip, Dale and Monterey as non-Uplifted Animals. Curiously, Zipper is nowhere to be seen.
- When Steelbeak is tasered by the Rescue Rangers, during his X-Ray Sparks, there appears to be a crack in his skull.
- The F.O.W.L. base has a counter saying that it went 322 days without an accident on a wall.
- The mad scientist's lab run by a world-threatening espionage organization has standard-issue workplace motivational posters, visible while Steelbeak and Black Heron are arguing.
- When Launchpad punches an egghead into Steelbeak after breaking out of prison, the arrow on the Intelliray moves to the "Smart" mode when it hits the ground.
- Friend to All Living Things: When Launchpad notices the Rescue Rangers having trouble with their plane, he lifts it in the air just because they need help.
- Friendship Moment: Launchpad resists losing his newfound intelligence for several reasons, but he particularly says he wants to be good enough for Dewey. Dewey says he's always been good enough and that they're best friends. Heartened, Launchpad lowers himself into the path of the ray and says he's doing this for him.
- Genius Bruiser: While usually more Dumb Muscle, this episode sees Launchpad being exposed to Black Heron's intelligence ray. His Double'O'Duck-persona for this is not only as physically capable as usually, he also can use his new-found intelligence to oppose Steelbeak.
- Genius Serum: The Third Eye Diamond is a mystical artifact in F.O.W.L.'s possession that is capable of increasing intelligence. Black Heron puts the diamond in a ray gun to test it on some lab animals, inadvertently creating the Rescue Rangers. Launchpad is also struck by the gun's rays, making him smarter. However, Black Heron's true goals is to reverse the effects of the diamond, making anyone shot by the ray stupider instead of smarter, and using it to make Scrooge "dumber than the dummies". So when Steelbeak takes the gun for himself in order to decrease the intelligence of all of Duckburg, Launchpad takes the blast himself, sacrificing his new intelligence and the ability to warn Scrooge of F.O.W.L's return.
- Gold Fever: Scrooge's prospector instincts are so rampant, a skee-ball game just having a gold-panning theme gets him addicted.
- Good Is Not Dumb: After being blasted with the intelli-ray, Launchpad remains just as much of a Nice Guy, and also becomes an intelligent, refined James Bond-esque badass.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Dewey and Launchpad thwart a F.O.W.L. plot without ever realizing it was more than a video game.
- Gretzky Has the Ball: Neither Steelbeak nor Launchpad seems to know how to play baccarat, randomly shouting things like "Go fish" and "Checkmate" as they lay down their cards.
- Hero of Another Story: We never see how any of the Rescue Rangers beside Gadget reach Uplifted Animal status nor do we see them escape from their pens and get the parts needed to build their plane.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Launchpad sacrifices his newfound intelligence to keep the intelligence ray from inflicting lethal stupidity on the residents of Duckburg.
- I Meant to Do That:
- Launchpad points out that if Steelbeak uses the dish to fire the ray on the entire city with the strength it's set on, everyone will become so stupid they'll forget how to breathe. Steelbeak claims that was his plan all along so he can claim credit for a dastardly plan; in reality, Steelbeak's initial plan was just to make everyone dumber than him.
- Dewey thinks Launchpad solved a game puzzle of escaping the cells by building the Ranger Plane and teaching the Rangers to fly it. In reality, he just noticed them having trouble with their plane's altitude and helped it get off the ground and just pretends them getting out was his intention to look good to Dewey.
- Improbably Low I.Q.: Apparently Launchpad's default state of being. When Launchpad is gifted with intelligence he is astonishingly competent. However he claims that being hit by the stupid ray (at it's at the time greatly enhanced setting) would make people so dumb they would forget to breath, then voluntarily subjects himself to the same ray to save Dewey and Duckburg (reasoning that he alone can survive being so stupid). Does this mean that every moment Launchpad is alive is a minor miracle?
- Other victims, on the regular setting, seem to stumble around or just lay around insensate.
- It could just mean that Launchpad's own IQ was raised so high by the original blast that what would have been a lethal loss of IQ points for anyone else just brought Launchpad down to normal (maybe a bit lower, but nothing he hasn't been shown to cope with).
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Steelbeak questions where exactly Gadget got her clothing from.
- Dewey and Launchpad wake up at Funso's, thinking everything was just their game. In the final scene, though, Bradford Buzzard rattles off the number of time-consuming things he had to do in order to clean up this mess. He also chastises the notion of creating various rays, saying they have to be smarter than the kind of villainy on display during this story.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: While the lab animals are unmistakably the Rescue Rangers, the characters are never explicitly referred to as such beyond Launchpad emphasizing the word "rescue" when they save him, which was to avoid Disney executives cracking down on the development team sneaking them in (although the executives decided to ultimately leave it be).
- Last-Second Word Swap: Dewey is about to say "This is a stupid plan" to an angry-looking Steelbeak before "correcting" himself to say "Stupendous plan".
- Layman's Terms: Steelbeak doesn't understand Black Heron's initial attempt at explaining what her ray did to Gadget. Nor does he understand her second attempt. Only when she imitates his own phrasing ("I made the dumb rat smart") does he get it.
- Leitmotif: Whenever the Rescue Rangers appear in the Episode, an Instrumental version of the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers theme can be heard.
- Malicious Misnaming: Steelbeak calls Launchpad "Lurchpond", because he fell down into the waters. He also goes with "Dummy-O Duck" during the climactic fight.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Steelbeak tries to make his Stupidity-Inducing Attack affect all of Duckburg to feel smarter by comparison. When Launchpad points out he'll accidentally kill everyone, Steelbeak is too arrogant to back off, and even claims that was his plan from the beginning.
- Mooks: F.O.W.L.'s Eggheads.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs when Scrooge breaks down crying over the realization that he spent his money on 3 million tickets, which was spent on a mustache comb.
- Mythology Gag:
- The title of the episode, and Launchpad being a super-spy fighting against F.O.W.L., is a reference to the episode "Double-O-Duck" from the original series. Disney has other James Bond parodies in the comics, 0.0. Duck, created by Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard, in 1966 and Double Duck, an Italian comic book series started in 2008 and starring Donald Duck. The video game antagonist "Odd-duck" comes from the same episode, where he was the henchman of Dr. Nogood.
- The code phrase in the spy game, "Pastrami on rye, hold the mustard" was one of the passwords used in the original episode.
- Launchpad pauses before saying "rescue" when thanking the rodents who saved him.
- Steelbeak uses his, well, steel beak to sever Launchpad's grapple hook line during the speedboat chase. He often did the same to Darkwing Duck's gadgets, like in "Tiff of the Titans".
- The title of the episode, and Launchpad being a super-spy fighting against F.O.W.L., is a reference to the episode "Double-O-Duck" from the original series. Disney has other James Bond parodies in the comics, 0.0. Duck
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ultimately, had Black Heron not tested her device on the mouse who would ultimately become Gadget, Dewey and Launchpad would have been unable to free themselves and Steelbeak would have been able to make Duckburg's population Too Dumb to Live.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently Black Heron recruited Steelbeak to F.O.W.L., having found him when he was in prison in St. Canard.
- Not So Above It All: Scrooge isn't impressed by the amusements at Funso's Fun Zone, until he gets hooked on a prospector-themed skee-ball game.
- Out of Focus: The scenes with the Rescue Rangers have Gadget at the forefront with Chip, Dale, and the others relegated to the background.
- Papa Wolf: Launchpad does his best to protect Dewey from any harm, even before he realizes they aren't playing the game. Once he gets his intelligence boosted, he does everything he can to rescue Dewey from Steelbeak.
- Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: The Third Eye Diamond is a mystical artifact capable of increasing intelligence. Black Heron's ray is able to reverse the effects in order to lower intelligence instead.
- Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: Launchpad tries to warn Dewey that he's in danger, but he is drowned out by the sound of his motorboat.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Bradford seems to be invoking this when he makes it clear to his underlings that F.O.W.L. is not out to destroy or conquer the world or any other such over-the-top destructive plan. They want to steal the world, and to do so as discreetly as possible.
- Reimagining the Artifact: How could the Rescue Rangers exist in a world of human-sized Funny Animals without causing Furry Confusion? They were test subjects for an intelligence boosting ray.
- Revealing Cover Up: As Black Heron points out, Steelbeak abducting and imprisoning Dewey and Launchpad just made it more likely that Scrooge will uncover their lair.
- Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol: The two Eggheads are playing with Rubik's Cube before being blasted with the stupid ray, after which one starts chewing on it. Bradford Buzzard also solves a cube at the end of the episode.
- Sanity Slippage: Scrooge slips into his miserly habits after racking up a ton of tickets at the arcade, even going so far as to consider getting a "ticket bin".
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
- Black Heron falls into this, saying her ray "centuplednote the intelligence" of her lab rat. Steelbeak doesn't understand it until she explains it in very basic Layman's Terms.
- Launchpad's bluff to send the Eggheads away is so complex, the goons don't understand what he's saying. He smoothly recovers by telling them to bluff lest people think they don't know what they're doing.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode milks the James Bond references for all they're worth, from the title (a reference to You Only Live Twice) to Dewey saying the iconic The Name Is Bond, James Bond line to having a song that parodies the various melancholy themes the franchise has had over the years. It also premiered on the weekend No Time to Die was to be released before it was moved due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- The VR glasses Launchpad and Dewey wear in the Double-O-Duck game make them resemble the Kingsmen.
- After Launchpad fails the game at the beginning of the episode, "YOU DIED" appears in red letters, much like Dark Souls.
- Status Quo Is God: Scrooge and family remain oblivious to F.O.W.L thanks to a set of Contrived Coincidences while Launchpad is back to his dumb self.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Launchpad and Steelbeak are perfectly able to understand the random ramblings of each other.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Black Heron's ray can increase or lower someone's intelligence, and her Evil Plan is to use it to make Scrooge dumber than the dummies. Steelbeak hooks it up to a dish to affect all of Duckburg, but accidentally supercharges it to the point it would make a normal person too stupid to breathe.
- Supervillain Lair: F.O.W.L. has set up one under Funso’s, as it's a place so childish and mundane that Scrooge would never even set foot inside. Steelbeak prefers an older base called "the Satte-Lighthouse", fondly citing it as a classic example of the trope.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Launchpad tries to warn Dewey during a high speed boat chase that this is not a game. Unfortunately, Dewey can't hear over the sound of two motorboats despite being within a few feet.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Black Heron asks why her fellow agents must be so stupid, ignoring how she had literally turned several of them into idiots to test her weapon.
- Taking the Bullet: A ray-gun version. First Launchpad puts himself in front of Dewey to save him from the smart ray. Then, at the climax, he takes the brunt of a ray meant to hit the entire city.
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond: One of the many James Bond Shout Outs that are required in any spy-themed episode. It's played straight by Dewey and subsequently parodied by Launchpad:Red Feather: I am Red Feather.
Dewey: Duck. Dewey Duck.
Launchpad: Pad. Launchpad. McQuack. My name is Launchpad McQuack. - The Triple: Before sacrificing his intelligence, Launchpad lists off the things he could do with his smarts: stop the evil conspiracy, solve world hunger, or land a plane!
- The Unintelligible: We never hear the Rescue Rangers make any sound other than indecipherable squeaking, perhaps due to their Uplifted Animal status in this universe (they're perhaps speaking too quietly to be heard, or their language is too foreign to be understood by the main characters).
- Too Dumb to Live: Literally; if Steelbeak had used the intelligence ray on the city at the settings it was on, it apparently would have made them too stupid to remember to breathe.
- Uplifted Animal: In this universe, the Rescue Rangers were made when Black Heron used her intelligence-increasing ray on ordinary lab rodents, starting with Gadget.
- Wham Shot: Black Heron shows Steelbeak a video of a common laboratory mouse. The next clip shows her using the intelli-ray on said mouse, which is then followed by the reveal of who the mouse has become: the new incarnation of Gadget Hackwrench.
- X-Ray Sparks: Steelbeak shows one after getting electrocuted on the lighthouse hideout.
- You Have Failed Me: Downplayed, but with the indication that this treatment will be played straighter in the future. Bradford Buzzard is obviously not happy with how Steelbeak and Black Heron have embarrassed and jeopardized F.O.W.L.'s cover one too many times with their lapse of judgment, not only with the former's shortsighted attempt to make all of Duckburg literally Too Dumb to Live but also with the latter's violation of a mandate against ray-based weapons which has caused five laboratory test subjects to gain sapience, flee their headquarters, assault an agent, and escape into Duckburg. It cost the organization so greatly in terms of damage control that Bradford makes it clear this is their final warning, and any act of theirs that breaches their M.O. of subterfuge (let alone another incident of this proportion) will not be tolerated.
