#dawn!darkwing

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He's done!!!! 💜🩵 THE SILLY MAN!! >:D

[dawn-of-darkwing-au]

No, Darkwing and Mr.Negative aren't the only characters that exist here, I just have some very blantant, obnoxious favoritism towards them. Honestly, I should start charging them rent for the absurd amount of space they occupy in my brain. They reside in my thoughts at all times. It's a problem almost-

[nacho-calamity]

The silly man! 💜🩵

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I just realized I don't think I ever actually posted the glorious Darkwing chair meme redraw, so here! There he is!!!

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Might need some anatomical corrections(?), but he's almost done!!!! WE'RE GETTING THERE!! 🎉😭

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Infuriated by this thing I noticed recently...

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I just realized, I don't think I ever showed their full designs here, did I?

Well, here's what Darkwing and Mr. Negative's full designs look like! (for the uninitiated these are my very canon-divergent, practically self contained, rewritten versions of Darkwing and Negaduck from an AU I’ve had since I was younger lol)

These maybe aren't the "nicest" ref sheets around, but they're functional enough to help me draw the guys on the regular! :']

[nacho-calamity]

Oh wow, what's this???? Actual character info about Dawn!Darkwing????

(Long post sorry-)

Ok, so it just occurred to me that I have pretty much exclusively been posting Dawn!AU lore/story stuff on YouTube, because that's where the majority of the AU's following is atm, but I need to make sure that the fellas here know what's going on too, so I'm gonna start trying to actually post more stuff so that everyone knows what's going on!

The following post is a direct copy of a post from my YouTube community tab that explains some of how Darkwing is characterized in this AU! It's not all exhaustive, as I have a longform video I'm scripting that goes WAY more in-depth, but it's enough to help you grasp the general idea of how he's written here!

(Note: This is all about MY version of the character! While I do believe parts of this could be inferred from the original series, at the end of the day it’s just my personal interpretation! And it may or may not be somewhat influenced by my own experiences, that I must unfortunately admit)

So, Drake Mallard...a surprisingly tragic character in this AU. What's his deal? A lot of things, but the prevailing issue with this man is that he has TERMINALLY low self-esteem. He is plagued with a horrible inferiority complex. This plays a lot into his behavior and choices.

Drake's superhero origin isn't quite as impressive or fantastical as those typically seen, it's a lot more..."mundane" but also sadder in a way??? Essentially in his early adulthood he was thoroughly dissatisfied with himself and his life. To put it bluntly the man felt absolutely worthless, so he sought to become a person that had value. He was sick of feeling expendable, he wanted to do something that mattered with his life, and somehow taking up vigilantism seemed like a good solution to that. That's how he believed he could give his life some kind of meaning. (One could debate all day how noble of an initial motive that is, but I digress-) That's why Drake completely abandoned his civilian identity when he first became Darkwing. That wasn't a life he wanted to return to, he saw no value in it. He committed himself 100% to the vigilantism thing, because now in his mind he had something better, why go back?

The "Darkwing" identity goes a little further than just being his superhero identity, that's who he wants to be, and how he wants to be perceived. As this confident, morally upright, protector of the city. A dependable respected hero. He didn't want to be that lonely, depressed, disheveled man anymore, he wanted to be someone better. (Bro didn't like himself so much he hit the reset button on his life).

To some degree, yes all of the things Darkwing is ARE also who Drake is as a person, so it's not a complete "mask", he does care about helping people, he does strive to be a moral person. What is a mask is his "smugness". Due to an underlying distaste for the vulnerable person he is deep down, he does put up a far more smug "you can't hurt me" attitude as DW. He's "faking it till he makes it" in terms of confidence. "Maybe if I act confident enough, I'll become confident, and convince others I am."

A clear effect his insecurity has on his actions is that he relies way, WAY too much on external validation, or achievements to feel valuable. He doesn't see inherit value in himself as a person, he feels like he has to justify his own existence by DOING things. Subconsciously he feels like he has to earn the right to exist. He thinks if he isn't doing things of value, then he HAS no value...

All this to say, the man is plagued with many an affliction. 😭

Before you worry about him too much tho, the good news is he doesn't remain stuck here. He will see significant improvement and healing, he's gonna be ok I promise!! <3 There's a lot of hills and valleys with his development, but the goal with the plot is to get him to a point where he's satisfied with his life. He's really only at his "worst" for the beginning of the story, after that he's mostly on the uphill from there!! :] I have so much more to say about him, but I'm saving it for later!! Be excited for future videos ig idk. (gonna be real I was terrified to lay this all out, because this is the first time I'm truly revealing plot-relevant info. lmk if this is good writing idk man.)