WMG / Alfred J. Kwak

Dolf bullied Alfred out of jealously

Dolf had a cross-species family, but his mother died when he was very young and his childhood was horrible.In contrast, Alfred had a mole for a father but his childhood was a relatively happy one. When Dolf looked at Alfred, he saw something he could have had but didn't, and lashed out at it.

Hannes and Wannes are brothers

They have rhyming names, similar looks, and hang out together through their childhood.

Hannes was a drug addict and died of overdose

He looks the part, dissappears after the Crow's Party arc, and the elephant pills from episode 6 could be addictive or he might have used some other substance.

Hannes died in the riots

Hannes is last seen early on in the Crows' Party arc. Somewhere halfway through towards the end of the arc we see and hear about anti-NCP riots, and the situation is descriped as very bad. I propose that Hannes, as a party member, was sent in to fight the protesters, and, considering that he was never seen or mentioned afterwards, was killed in one of the fights.

The blackbird woman seen in episodes 11 and 27 is Dolf's mother

She didn't actually die, but had a bitter break-up with Dolf's father before Dolf hatched. Dolf's father just told him so out of spite, because she was dead to him.

Dolf's father was the direct reason for his self-hate

He was furious over whatever happened to his wife and became racist against blackbirds too, and abused Dolf for being a living reminder of his "mistake" and visibly not a full-blooded crow.

K. Rokodile's children are adopted

Birds and reptiles can't reproduce together in their world either, and adoption was thus the only option.

• Alternatively, the children are from the other one's (or boths) previous marriage(s).

Dolf ran away from home as a teen

He's presumably teenager in episodes 8 to 13, and lives alone in a run down-looking tower that Alfred calls Dolf's house.

Dolf wasn't the only child

Something happened to all the others. Both crows and blackbirds lay several eggs. Maybe whatever killed Dolf's mother also killed them

Henk is plagued by guilt for the rest of his life because it was his idea to take the Kwaks to his grandfather's house in episode 2 and they died on the way there. He tries to keep himself together for Alfred's sake

Alfred looking almost exactly like Johan doesn't help.

The chess queen episodes were real. Dolf tells Alfred it's a dream in hopes Alfred will believe it and he won't tell the police Dolf's the burglar

Krabnagel told inspector Sherlock he saw The Queen that night, and Dolf, judging by his reaction to Alfred the next day, indeed met him in there.

The chess queen episodes were some kind of a blend between dream and reality

The burglaries clearly happened and the footprints clearly belonged to a bird. Dolf really was the burglar and Krabnagel and Alfred were really there too. In at least the Finnish dub Sherlock's phrasing leaves it unclear whether Krabnagel said he saw The Queen as a chess piece or a living thing so she could've been a hallucination.

• Like above, this doesn't explain how Alfed woke up in his chair each time no matter how far he was from home five seconds ago, though.
  • Unless it was some kind of a minor Time Skip.

Episode 12: Inspector Sherlock knew that the footprints on the crime scene were not those of a cat, and just wanted an excuse to arrest Krabnagel

The footprints are clearly those of a bird, and are very different from Krabnagel's, even having a different number of toes. Sherlock picked up on this but acted like they were cat's pawprints because Krabnagel was a pseudo-cannibalistic Child Eater who needed to be stopped as soon as possible.

Krabnagel was sentenced to death and executed

Krabnagel was never seen or mentioned again after the chess queen episodes. King Radboud seems to enjoy trying to kill people and tried to execute a 1 year old child without trial, so it isn't that farfetched to assume that Waterland had rather draconian laws and freely used death sentence under Radboud's rule. Krabnagel was accused of several counts of burglary, escaped police custody, resisted arrest, and shot at the cops. Most likely he also kept insisting that he wasn't guilty, and was obviously unable to tell the officials where the loot was, so he was sentenced to death.

Krabnagel is somehow related to professor Ramses

There's a strong resemblance in the fur pattern, and they're about the same size.

Not all magpies have compulsions like Pikkie, the characters who say so are just racist/misinformed

No other magpies are ever seen, so this is possible. Whatever is Pikkie's problem may very well be just his problem and the other characters, having never met another magpie, take it at face value and assume all magpies are the same. Otherwise good people can still have prejudices, and nobody is perfect.

Alfred and Dolf died in the well in episodes 4-5 and episode 5's ending and everything that happens later is the other one's Dying Dream

Everything being a dream would explain all the weird stuff, like The Evil Genie Of Darkness, The Chess Queen, Von Paljas' tech, and Dolf being allowed to run for a president in episodes set after the Crow's Party arc.

• Dolf is propably the one dreaming. Child Alfred propably wouldn't have come up with all the things that happen over the course of the show.

The skull-faced thing that lifts Alfred off the elephant's back in the opening credits is The Grim Reaper.

It's taunting him but lets him get away every time (Alfred always survives while several other people die).

Snel has albinism

He has really light yellow-ish fur and red eyes.

Ollie's and his wife's children are adopted

Ollie is canonically a trans man, so he and his wife -if his wife is cisgender- could not possibly have conceived.

• Or maybe the children were from either one's earlier relationship with somebody else.

Alternatively, Ollie's wife is also trans and the children are their biological offspring, via Ollie.

King Radboud died from cancer

In the Chess Queen episodes, Dolf (at least in the finnish dub) tells Hannes and Wannes that Radboud is going to die soon. The word could have gotten out, or at least a rumor, and Radboud's last appearance was in episode 6, he's never mentioned again after episode 13, and he didn't seem old enough to die from age. Having cancer and knowing that he was going to die could also explain the king's mental instability.

When Dolf was abroad just before the Crows' Party Arc, he was in Morena

Morena is the criminal city/country from episodes 50 and 51. It sounds like the kind of place he would have met the man (either a gambler or a conman) whose money he inherited in episode 22, and his gambling debts mentioned in the rainbow episodes could be from the same trip (he is referred to have been on the run from the casino owner for a while).

• Dolf also takes offense at the suggestion that his political campaign is a gamble when he tried to convince Alfred. A previous bad brush with Lady Luck would help put that in perspective.

Johan Kwak was some kind of a hobo

He was shown living in a glog shoe in the middle of a field. He might have been moving around and not settling down anywhere permanently until meeting Anna. It'd be easy as he seemed to own nothing but his clothes and the said shoe. In the beginning he and Henk were trying to find each other, which implied that neither of them had any permanent place at the moment that the other one could've directly gone to. Johan also talked about not wanting to commit and settle down.

Dolf's dreams

• In his previous dream in episode 25 -when he knew everything was going to fall soon- he was holding a speech to a thundering crowd, only for the crowd to disappear, leaving only a clapping Alfred. This could mean that Dolf's subconscious (aside from reiterating that he was doomed) was admitting that Alfred was the only one who ever actually cared about him. That he wanted Alfred to care.

• In contrast, his last dream has Dolf holding the entire world hostage (or having already doomed it, it's unclear) and trying to take it over. The assembly he spoke to seemed to quietly submit, except for Alfred who confronted Dolf and told him that he only wants to destroy the world and anything else he tells himself is a lie. This, combined with the way Dolf's face is drawn in the previous scene and how Dolf literally destroys the world, may signify a Villainous Breakdown; Even though he's not admitting it to himself, Dolf realizes that he has only ever managed to ruin everything and that it indeed his own fault. Unlike the previous dream where Alfred is the only one to stay with him, in this dream Alfred is the one who stands against him. This propably means that Dolf has (rightly) stopped thinking that Alfred would still hold anything but contempt for him. As a whole, the dream means that Dolf realizes he has fucked it up big time/reveals his self-loathing.

Dolf is suffering from Complex post-traumatic stress disorder

His mother died when he was a small child and his father became an abusive alcoholic. He ticks several of the symptom boxes:

• Persistent distrust - It drives him to reject Alfred's help when they're children, and leads to him threatening Wannes in the election episodes where Wannes questions him.

• Problems with impulse control, aggression, explosive anger - He's rather short-tempered and aggressive, escpecially as an grownup. Developing a gambling addiction could also be an impulse problem.

• Shame, guilt and self-blame, a sense of defilement or stigma - A very good description of his relationship to his yellow beak and hybrid status, especially as a young child.

• Disturbed body image, low self-esteem, excessive shame, and negative internal working models of self - Again, the way he treats his beak and hydrid status.

• Aceptance of a perpetrator's belief system or rationalizations - He accepts and internalizes his father's racist beliefs and turns them on people he meets.

• Isolation and withdrawal - Before his political revelation as an adult, he only seemed to associate with Hannes and Wannes.

• Repeated search for a rescuer (may alternate with isolation and withdrawal) - In season 1, he could be argued to have this attitude towards Alfred. See the above WMG for one example.

• Loss of sustaining faith and a sense of hopelessness and despair - As a child, he just accepts his situation and doesn't want anybody to interfere.

Alfred has ADHD

• As a child he zoned out during class and missed things, and the teacher's words to Henk imply that it's something that has happened more than once.
• Alfred still occassionally acts weirdly bouncy as an adult, which could be interpreted as hyperactivity.
• He also sometimes acts impulsively and without much thought.

Alfred has abandonment issues stemming from his family's death

• He often feels threatened and becomes very jealous when Winnie shows interest, real or perceived, to other men and vice versa.
• Had surreal nightmares about abandonment when he had to move out of Henk's house.
• When he nearly drowned he dreamed that he was all alone in the world and couldn't find any other person on the entire planet.
• There's also his intense anger when other men approach Winnie or he thinks that she's interested in another man.

He fears that at any moment people he cares about could abandon him, die, or even vanish.

Dolf has Antisocial personality disorder

One of the risk factors that can cause ASPD is being abused as a young child, and he ticks the at least three boxes from the diagnostic list requires:

It is characterized by at least 3 of the following:

• Callous unconcern for the feelings of others - Seems like that.
• Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations - I don't know. At least not when other people at large could know.
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them - Possibly. As a child and teen he only hung out with Hannes and Wannes who were more like followers than real friends and yelled at them. He also became threatening to Wannes when the latter stopped being just a follower in episodes 43 and 44 and questioned their actions.
• Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence - He's shown having an explosive temper through his life.
• Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment - Possibly. YMMV, but in the child and teen episodes he looks like he's feeling something. Not as an adult, though.
• Marked readiness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society - Propably. I don't remember his all appearances but he seems to have shades of this from the beginning.

Dolf has Body dysmorphic disorder

The symptoms include:

• Being extremely preoccupied with a perceived flaw in appearance that to others can't be seen or appears minor - It's unclear how much he actively thinks about his beak, but he certainly does.
• Strong belief that you have a defect in your appearance that makes you ugly or deformed
• Belief that others take special notice of your appearance in a negative way or mock you
• Engaging in behaviors aimed at fixing or hiding the perceived flaw
• Attempting to hide perceived flaws with styling, makeup or clothes - He does paint his beak.
• Constantly comparing your appearance with others - Unclear.
• Having perfectionist tendencies - Maybe.

Kra, Dolf's name in the German dub, is actually his surname and his first name may still be Dolf

"Kra" makes much more sense as a surname anyway.

"Dolf" is actually short for "Rudolf", "Rodolf" or "Ludolf"

Because subversion is fun.

In the NCP episodes, Dolf was about to invade Reedland

Truckloads of soldiers were moved to the border. He'd propably have attacked eventually since like the nazi Germany's, NCP Waterland's economy depended on constant flux of more money and resources and eventually they would have run out of valuables in Waterland, and would have attacked another country so that they could steal more.

The Mozons virus was supposed to be something like the Spanish Flu

At least in the finnish dub, they say that the very young and the very old aren't affected by the Mozons.

Alfred doesn't have a car because he's too traumatized to drive

He can travel in a car but is unable and unvilling to drive himself, even though there seem to be vehicles that are his "size".

Alfred is an engineer

He doesn't seem to ever have any kind of a job (though season 2 specifically is filled with timeskips). However given the reedmower, the robot in "Die Hex", and acting as Von Paljas' assistant in his work in episode 51, he seems like he's some kind of a mechanic or an engineer.

Von Paljas' main subject is some kind of engineering

Aside from episode 51 and the Mozons virus episodes, his work always seemed to be about building something (the translator, the windmill, the solar power plant). While his subject range is still questionably wide, that still narrows it down.

There's a reason every single one of Bart Beton's employees seems to be a beaver - and it's Fantastic Racism

They're clearly only hiring beavers, and there isn't really any other reason to only hire people of one species.

The black ducks are yellow-billed ducks◊

Their habitat is southern and eastern Africa, and both sexes are brown. The Wanas' and others' beak colors are wrong and nobody has the patterns, but the show is hrdly 100% accurate (see Alfred's color and Henk's species-ambiguous design).

Alfred is a German pekin

Yellowness is age-inaccurate to all duck breeds (ducklings are yellow, but will change color when they grow up. However, German pekin is supposed to be white with "a yellowish tinge", which is propably the closest you can get to a yellow adult duck.

Dolf's beak is weirdly bumpy because it's supposed to be a bird version of a crooked nose

There are background characters who appear to be crows or at least other corvidae who have straight-nonbumpy beaks, so it could be assumed that having a bumpy beak could just be a Dolf thing.

Obviously none of this is how bird beaks work, but Alfred J. Kwak is hardly a nature documentary: In humans crooked noses can be caused by birth "defect" or physical trauma. Schor's beak looks similiar as his son's so it could be hereditary, but given what kind of a parent Schor was, Dolf's beak shape could also have been caused by physical trauma.

Dolf killed Schor

Schor was still around during the time of episode 5, but was never brought up afterwards. Maybe at some point when he was older, Dolf fought back and accidentally killed him. Or did it intentionally, like shoving him down the stairs^note  plausibly on an impulse or choking him^note  less likely to be on impulse.

Waterland only has one or two television channels

It would explain why it's always the same orangutan reading the news.

• Would be literal Truth in Television as the Netherlands, which Waterland is based on, only had two channels until a year before the VARA would broadcast the first run of the cartoon series on Nederland 3. These public channels, although dominated by a number of broadcasters, all shared the same news programs from NOS. Commercial television only became available that same year.

Episode 33 was a precognitive dream about the events of episodes 43-44

The dream's setting is wild west and includes several weird events. However the main gist was about Dolf showing up to take over Tombstone again, and the citizens were either too afraid to do anything or wanted him back because they either hadn't personally suffered during his rule, or appeared to somehow have forgotten all the bad things. Sounds familiar?

Humans are a Formerly Sapient Species

Something happened and the animals evolved, either making use of structures and technology humans left behind, or developing on their own all the way from nothing in s very similiar way to how humans did.

Alfred is Jesus

See season 2 episode 21 where he heals the sick, and the Background Halo he gets in the previous episode.

Tom and Winnie had a brother who died in Atrique

In episode 33 Tom says he wants to become a great gunman so he can avenge his brother's death, but Winnie tells him that if there weren't guns in the world their brother would still be alive.

This all happened in Alfred's dream, but the dream was unusually grounded and borderline precognitive, so who knows. Winnie and Tom also have an unclear but noticeably signifigant age gap between them, where a brother could fit into. Said brother being killed could also have been the catalyst to the Wanas fleeing Atrique.

Ollie is an orphan

Ollie has lived in the house on the church's roof since he was about two years old (i'd assume Alfred's birthday guests in episode 2 are in the same age range as him). No adults are seen when Pikkie goes to get Ollie in episode 3 and the house is tiny, nor is anybody else seen in the djinn episode where Ollie is about a teenager. Ollie is also still living in that house ln the church's roof with his wife and children when he's an adult. Seemingly implying he's lived alone in there since he was a little child.

The church could be related to this, maybe Ollie was left somewhere nearby and somebody working in the church looked out for Ollie when he was a child.