Some month late brief thoughts on The Duck Knight Returns:
1. Somehow this episode managed to go exactly where it looked like it was going and still leave me shocked. All the hints are there—the chainsaws, the way Jim’s voice keeps dipping into the Negaduck range, the unnamed-til-the-end actor who’s a little too familiar—but when Launchpad convinces Drake to become Darkwing for real, and THEN we drop down into the sewers to see Jim go full Negaduck, my thirty-something year old butt is just:
2. I love new Drake! I get the criticism that he’s much nicer than the original Drake Mallard and therefore feels like a different character, but there’s plenty of the old Drake’s characteristics on display. He’s still a gigantic dork, he’s still theatrical (Launchpad just puts himself between that apparently completely functional death ray and the director, while Drake takes the time to get in costume and do a dramatic entrance), he does the whole “shout gibberish and just launch yourself at the bad guy” thing, he’s still a gamer, and he’s got traces of the old Drake’s ego. He has a framed picture of himself in his Darkwing costume on the wall of his trailer, for goodness sake. It’s just that his ego isn’t as dominant as the old Drake’s was, at least, not in this particular episode. The whole third act had Posiduck versus Negaduck vibes, so it’s possible that while we were seeing Jim sliding towards his worst, we were also seeing Drake at close to his best. Besides, this is Drake Mallard who’s a good decade younger than the original Drake, who hasn’t spent who knows how many years living in his hideout, who still talks to people who aren’t supervillains or SHUSH, who has a civilian life, and who still actually goes by the name Drake Mallard. I actually kind of like to think that the original Drake was a little more like this (his try-hardy high school days in Clash Reunion notwithstanding) before he started being Darkwing full time in the years leading up to meeting Gosalyn. Mostly I’m just excited to see where they end up taking this version of the character.
3. The effects animation was just...really nice. Smoke is hard to animate. Explosions are hard to animate. That explosion at the end looked so good. Oh my gosh.
4. Scrooge hasn’t seen a movie since the 1930’s because of course he hasn’t.
5. Launchpad’s and Dewey’s interactions were pure gold.
6. I don’t know if it was intended to be this funny, but the trailer for Darkwing: First Darkness had me on the floor.
7. Launchpad’s and Drake’s interactions were also pure gold.
8. Maybe it was Drake’s cartoonishly high pain tolerance, maybe it was Negaduck talking directly into the camera at the end, maybe it was the overall atmosphere, but this felt less like an episode of Ducktales 2017 and more like an episode of the original Darkwing Duck, and I am okay with this.
9. I love that they’ve made Jim/Negaduck a tragic villain and I hope he gets a redemption arc.
10. Seriously, you don’t allow a character a moment of regret, let him sacrifice himself to save two people he doesn’t even really like, and then let us see him turn around and look at the explosion that’s about to kill him with THAT expression if you’re not going to give him a redemption arc.
11. Also, regarding Jim, I think the in-universe Darkwing Duck may have started as a show, and definitely ended as a show, but I have a pet theory that at some point in the middle it maybe wasn’t just a show and that Jim wasn’t just an actor. Maybe. More on that in another post.
12. Drake exists so Gosalyn probably also exists and I am hyped for her to show up.
13. If you told me Frank became the co-producer and head of story on Ducktales 2017 just so he could write this episode, I’d believe you.
14. I used to hope there would be a Darkwing Duck reboot just because I wanted it. Now I hope there’s a Darkwing Duck Reboot in the works because I have no idea how they’re going to deal with what they’ve set up in this episode without taking away from the rest of the show.
15. So...as far as anyone knows, a guy dies in a fiery explosion on set and Drake and Launchpad are the only ones who seem to care? And why did they even have a fully functional death-ray on set? Why did the chainsaws have real chains? For a studio that only exists to make office safety videos, it’s got some pretty bad office safety practices.
16. Launchpad might be a doofus, but he’s also the most emotionally mature character on this whole show.
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