The family join a zen mermaid society to find a Missing Mystery, but Louie is convinced the seemingly innocent mermaids have a villainous agenda of their own.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion:
- Aletheia's character is heavily tinted pink, much like another famous character Hynden Walch voices.
- Additionally, she's a friendly pink-haired character voiced by Hynden Walch who appears alongside a laidback, green-colored vegan character who's voiced by Greg Cipes... sound familiar?
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike the original DuckTales episode, Scrooge doesn't set off any Disaster Dominoes by taking the harp as loot. The harp being an actual character instead of a magic machine playing a recorded voice is one reason, but it's primarily that this version of Scrooge doesn't covet or steal other people's treasures. Having discovered and documented it (thus completing a quest his idol Isabella Finch couldn't) is enough for him.
- An Aesop:
- No one can deny the truth forever because it always catches up with you.
- Don't be blindly trusting, but don't be unreasonably cynical either.
- There's nothing wrong with being peaceful and spiritual, but you've still got to put in a hard day's work if you want to get anything done.
- Aesop Amnesia: Beakley is insistent on protecting Webby's feelings, despite seeing how dangerous this mentality is when she also kept the truth about Della from the boys.
- Berserk Button: How does Dewey get Donald angry when they need his angry self instead of his new zen state? He says that Donald's chili is "just okay".
- Borrowed Catchphrase:
- Mrs. Beakley returns the harp's constant reply of "correct" when it comments on her being very strong.
- Webby also gives an exasperated "oh boy" after her Heroic BSoD sets in, causing Louie to wonder if that's what he sounds like before saying it himself.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Louie and Mrs. Beakley debate on whether or not to tell Webby the truth about Mervana. Louie being the cynic debates that she should know the truth, while Mrs. Beakley simply wants to protect Webby's feelings. By the end of the episode, both sides are shown to be correct.
- Brutally Honest: The harp lives on this principle, for better or for worse.
- Call-Back:
- Louie collapses when he sees the giant tower of stairs, reminding him of a previous adventure.
- Beakley once again mentions a mission involving hippies.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: The harp is seemingly incapable of not telling the truth, even when withholding it would be in the best interests of the people it's trying to help, as shown when King Honestus asks it where Scrooge and co. are.
- Comically Missing the Point: Louie has been keeping a tally on how many times each of them has been offered as a sacrifice. Dewey far outnumbers the rest of them.Dewey: (triumphantly) Dewey's on top!
- Comical Overreacting: To stir Donald from his blissful harmony, Dewey tells him that the chili the kids all claim to love is "just OK".
- Damned by Faint Praise: Scrooge initially dislikes the Mervanan way of life, avoiding all hardships. He then points to Donald as a counterexample.Scrooge: He's full of character.
- Evolving Credits: This episode reveals the long version of the new opening, where Della has also been edited into the scene involving Pixiu.
- Exposition Already Covered: Zig-Zagged. When Huey is giving everyone the typical "long-winded treasure speech" about Mervana, Dewey points out that Scrooge usually does the speeches, but Scrooge tells them this is Huey's adventure and he should do it. When Huey is about to resume, Scrooges cuts him off to tell the speech, and then Huey cuts him off to tell them. They keep cutting each other off until they excitedly finish in unison.
- Fiendish Fish: King Honestus's monster form looks like a giant carnivorous fish, apart from his clawed arms.
- Foreshadowing: Coming to an understanding with Webby, Beakley promises "no more lies". However, the harp detects this as yet another lie.
- The harp's reaction arguably also covers Beakley's claim to be Webby's grandmother.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If one looks carefully at Louie's sacrifice-offering-tracking tally list, Webby has been offered 16 times, Huey has been offered 10 times, Louie has been offered 23 times and Dewey has been offered a whopping 61 times.
- Funny Background Event: Donald fiddling with and then unhooking his oxygen tank. Scrooge later casually reconnects it.
- Gagging on Your Words: Della is so disgusted by fish she can't say the word without gagging, cheering when she finally manages it more than once after multiple failed attempts.
- Godzilla Threshold: A humorous example when Dewey tells Donald they need his trademark anger to help fight the transformed king. Donald has finally achieved peace in his life until Dewey mentions that his famous chili is "just okay". Cue Donald flying into a rage and taking it out on the nearest thing he can punch, which is the king.
- Harmful to Minors: Louie's keeping score of how often he, his brothers and Webby have nearly been sacrificed (not even 'nearly died' in general, sacrificed). Huey has the lowest count and it's still in double digits.
- Heroic BSoD: After Webby learns that her grandmother had been lying to her the whole time, she loses her enthusiastic attitude and gives up on everything.
- Hidden Depths: Beakley went undercover among hippies in The '60s and found it "groovy."
- Horror Hippies: Subverted. The Mervanans all act and behave like flower-power hippies, but Louie and Beakley think they are plotting something. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that they were all genuine; the monster they thought they were going to feed them to was just as much of a surprise to them as it was to the Duck family.
- I Have No Son!: Played for Laughs when Della considers meeting up with her family only to see Dewey in his mermaid outfit.Della: (gags) I have no family...
- Ink-Suit Actor: The Mervanan voiced by Greg Cipes, Vero, slightly resembles his voice actor if you've seen images of him.
- Insistent Terminology: When chased by the monstrous King Honestus, Louie calls it a trap. Webby first corrects that it's a chase, then points out that they reached a "dead end".
- Living Lie Detector: The harp always announces when someone lies.
- Misery Builds Character: Scrooge seems to believe in this trope, scoffing at the idea that the Mervanans are free of suffering and claiming that the amount of suffering Donald goes through in life makes him "full of character"
- Mythology Gag:
- The eponymous harp looks similar to the one in the original series episode "Raiders of the Lost Harp", except with brown feathers and purple hair instead of white feathers and blonde hair. Her Character Catchphrase when someone tells a lie ("Fibbing, fibbing, fibbing") comes from the same episode.
- This also isn't Donald's first time dealing with a living harp.
- The camera angle on the temple stairs crumbling under Louie is identical to a shot from the opening credits of the original series.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: The Mervanan culture as a whole consists of these. To the point that Beakley approves because she spent time undercover with hippies
- Obligatory Joke: The first thing that is said once we see the mermaid world is a The Little Mermaid (1989) reference.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally chipper and positive Webby becomes disillusioned by her grandmother's lies that she becomes even more cynical than Louie, who becomes concerned for her.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Mervanans are ducks on land and become part fish in the water, formerly dividing their time evenly between both. A twist comes in that the more time they spend underwater, the more monstrous they become until they end up barely recognizable giant fish beasts with clawed arms.
- Portmanteau: "Mervana" is a portmanteau of "mermaid" (or similar sea terms) and "Nirvana".
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Mervanans turn out to be just as nice as and peaceful as they appear despite the suspicions of Louie and Beakley. Their leader did transform into a monster after leaving the city, but the others seem as shocked to learn this fact as the main characters are.
- Shout-Out: When first swimming among the Mervanans, Webby says, "Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?"
- Theme Naming: All the Mervanas have names that mean "Truth".
- This Is Gonna Suck: Louie's attitude of dreading life-risking adventures comes up again, this time he's been keeping tallies of how many times one of them have been offered up as a sacrifice on them.
- Totally Radical: The merpeople speak like this - and so does Scrooge, when he tries to convince them he has found "his truth".
- Waxing Lyrical: Webby says: Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?
- Wham Line: The last lines of the episode.Mrs Beakley: (to Webby) I have no secrets from you from here on out.
Harp: (from outside) She's fibbing, fibbing, fibbing! - Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: This episode reveals that Della absolutely hates fish and anything fish-related, including mermaids. When she sees the Mervanans for the first time, instead of being taken with awe, she arms the sub's torpedoes.
