Chapter 5: The New Laird of Castle McDuck
Dates: 1885
Scrooge arrives back in Dismal Downs just as his family is about to lose their land and castle if they don't pay the back taxes from falling behind in the payments (the clan has struggled to maintain ownership of the castle even if the demon hound has made it too dangerous to live there). Scrooge's bank draft from the sale of his copper mine saves the castle, his destiny to become "the cheapest, stingiest, most miserly, turnip-squeezingest, penny-pinching tightwad on Earth" saves his life (the dead should not interfere in the land of the living), and the ghosts of Scrooge's ancestors save him when he is nearly killed in a duel with the Whiskervilles. No big deal. Now the McDucks can move back into the castle, and Scrooge can move on with making his fortune... this time, in gold.
This chapter provides examples of:
- Armored Coffins: When Scrooge falls into a pond with his armor, it becomes a weight pulling him to the bottom of the water and almost results in Scrooge dying.
- Back from the Dead: Scrooge. The 18-year-old Scrooge drowns in the moat of the ancestral castle, and enters in the afterlife. But his ancestors resurrect him, giving him a chance to escape his watery grave, breath oxygen again, and win the duel.
- Badass Boast: Scrooge utterly dominates his duel with Argus, and brags about how his previous adventures taught him everything there is at asskicking.
- Because Destiny Says So: First time Scrooge is pretty much prophesied to become
The Richest Duck in the World. - Blind Alley: Argus tries to run away from his duel with Scrooge, and while pursued, turns around a corner and poses as an armor to escape Scrooge's wrath.
- Blind Without 'Em: Downplayed; After 4 chapters where Scrooge apparently had perfect vision, Scrooge now has to wear glasses to read. He predicts that his work will force him to wear them at all time.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Scrooge with the ancestral armors of the family for his duel with Argus.
- Broomstick Quarterstaff: Hortense chases off three Whiskervilles out of her castle with a broom.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Hortense McDuck as she is chasing off the Whiskervilles.
- Chekhov's Gun: Averted; Scrooge mentions a cream cheese sandwich early in the story, but it doesn't serve anything. However Scrooge's number 1 dime does save him from drowning.
- Corrupt Cop: The sheriff Fenton Whiskerville tries to steal 10,000 from the McDuck and then to murder Scrooge. But seeing the ghosts of the McDucks frightens him away.
- Death by Gluttony: Sir Roast ate himself to death after raiding William the Lion's pantry.
- Dramatic Thunder: When Scrooge reappears in front of Argus, thunder and lightning accompany his return to make him look badass. Since Argus thought Scrooge dead, seeing him return was already intimidating.
- Duel to the Death: Argus Whiskerville challenges Scrooge to a duel because of the humiliation of having been frightened by a fake ghost, engineered by the latter. Thus both don armor and take up their swords and battle.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When the McDuck ancestors wonder how Scrooge can save himself from drowning in the moat, Scrooge laments at his life "not being worth a dime". This leads Quackley to realize that Scrooge can save himself, and sends him back to the living. While he doesn't remember being in Fluffy Cloud Heaven, Scrooge determines he can use his dime to unscrew his armor off.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: The McDuck clan's dead ancestors seem to all reside in it. They also play golf in here.
- Glove Slap: One of the Whiskervilles challenges young Scrooge to a duel with a metal glove, appropriated from a suit of armor. Poor Scrooge is seeing Circling Stars after that one, but he recovers pretty quickly.
- Harmless Electrocution: Scrooge, in a moment of idiocy, points his sword upward in the middle of a storm, and gets hit by lightning. He comes out rather unharmed.
- Haunted Castle: The McDuck castle.
- Impact Silhouette: When the Whiskerville are frightened away by the many ghosts of the McDuck clan, they crash through a door and leave their silhouette on the door, which is several inches thick of hard wood.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Or rather, to everything but that last one. Fergus and Scrooge are very upset to be called "liars" and "cowards," but they don't mind "tightwads."
- It Runs in the Family: Scrooge confronts some of his ancestors, and avarice seems to be also an ancestral trait.
- Locked into Strangeness: Seeing a ghost whitened the Whiskervilles' hair. Seeing the ghost of all the ancestors renders them bald.
- Near-Death Experience: Scrooge seemingly dies, and is sent to Heaven. Quackly McDuck is appalled that such a promising young lad would die like this and works to send him back.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sir Quackley tries to help Scrooge by handing him his sword, which gets the living McDuck struck by lightning. In fact, the other McDuck ancestors determine that if Quackley hadn't interfered, the lightning would have distracted Whiskerville, allowing Scrooge to win the duel anyway.
- The Nose Knows: Scrooge learned from his meeting with Indians and tracks Argus by his scent.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: When the Whiskervilles plan on down right murdering Scrooge for getting the best of them, the ghosts of Scrooge's ancestors appears on the walls around them to scare them off for good.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The ancestors are very judgemental toward Scrooge, mentioning his every failure, including future ones. Quackly however, retorts back with all the ancestors' own shortcomings. For example, the brave Eider McDuck, who died while fighting alone in battle, is revealed to have actually doomed himself. He underpaid his soldiers and made budget cuts to their equipment, to the point that everyone abandoned him.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Quackly was supposed to not interfere with the living, but restoring the glory of the McDuck Clan was more important to him.
- Shout-Out: Scrooge's ending line "There's always another rainbow!" refers to Barks' oil painting Always Another Rainbow
of Scrooge as a gold digger (which is the prospect Scrooge decides to pursue next). - Stay in the Kitchen: Fergus McDuck tells his brother to take "the women" home for their safety... including Hortense, who was shown to be their best fighter one page ago.
