Guys, I’ve realised something.
The show indicates Scrooge pretty much quit adventuring during those 10 years he and Donald didn’t speak to each other (after Della disappeared); SO considering how Flintheart literally said:
“Strange weather patterns, and a mysterious location near treasure, haha! I knew he couldn’t resist!”, (about Scrooge coming to find Atlantis),
this means Flintheart most likely also knew Scrooge before he quit adventuring.
Flintheart canonly sees Scrooge as his biggest rival/enemy, both in comics and in both Ducktales versions. Scrooge is the one person he wants to beat.
My point is, there is no way Flintheart didn’t know who Donald was, even if Donald didn’t recognize/remembered Flintheart.
Despite this Flintheart couldn’t really have known Scrooge and Donald just (only a few hours or a day before) had spoken to each other for the first time in 10 years. With this in mind it doesn’t make any sense to hire Donald just to use him as a hostage later. What if Scrooge and Donald hated each other?
This is, of course, unless Flintheart knew Scrooge would drop everything in a heartbeat to come and rescue Donald if he was in danger, despite the fact they “hadn’t seen each other for 10 years”.
Flinheart knows how much Scrooge truly cares about Donald.
Speaking of Scrooge, he didn’t know Donald was “hired” by Flintheart.
In Flintheart’s eyes/plan Scrooge would think Donald was kidnapped all along. (Not that Scrooge even knew Donald was with Flintheart until much later, but hey, no plan is perfect).
However, what if Flintheart’s plan wasn’t simply just to use Donald as a hostage to get the treasure? What if Flintheart became lonely and/or bored without his biggest rival/enemy, and so tried to force Scrooge back into adventuring again?
The easiest way to achieve this in Flintheart’s mind was to threaten Donald.
You know what, though? The plan worked.
Perhaps not in the way Flintheart originally intended, but he was right.
Scrooge was worried when he first thought Donald was in danger, and the moment Donald was (actually) threatened Scrooge backed away from Flintheart.
So no, the plan might not have went as it was originally intended to do, but in the end Flintheart was right about one thing.
Scrooge would drop everything in a heartbeat to come and rescue Donald if he was in danger - despite the fact they “hadn’t seen each other for 10 years” .
Just a thought. I’ve already shared this on the Discord server, but I’m curious what you guys think about this too. //Jezzica