DuckTales 2017: The Perfect Reboot With A Finale I Hate

A love letter to one of my favorite series, accompanied by an angry rant about it's finale, and a dissection of my own complicated (and sometimes ugly) feelings on all of it. Please go watch the show. I beg of you. I'm on my knees. It's so good.

Intro - 0:00
You Back? - 7:49
Season 1 - 12:48
Season 2 - 21:50
Season 3 - 31:45
The Finale - 39:04

[ParachutingKitten]

A lot of people seem to be zeroing in on the (very small) shipping section of the video, so I'll clarify for all those who need it spelled out for them. That section is there largely to document a thing that happened. It was part of my experience with the show, and so to make a video about the show without talking about it felt incomplete. A lot of fans got told, in the last ten minutes of the show, that one of their main connections to the show was now completely invalid. Those people were obviously going to feel disconnected from the show after that. I feel that's worth mentioning as a thing that happened. The reason I bring up fan works is not as some sort of evidence of why the writers should have back tracked, but as evidence of why those fans would feel the way they did.

Never in the video do I say that this experience was universal, that most people were shipping webby with the boys, or that there was any canon romance between them. I will repeat: I did not expect the writers to put any romance between the kids in the actual show. I say this in the video. I don't begrudge them for that, it is what I would prefer. That was never the tone the show was going for. These were fun little fandom shipping communities, and that's all they ever needed to be. Yes it was 100% fandom projecting. That's what a lot of shipping is in every fandom.

I do NOT expect the writers to change the ending of their show to avoid personally disappointing me. But I do think it's fair to expect writers who were actively answering fan questions and interacting with fandom on the regular, to be passively conscious of that fandom while making the show. I don't think it should have been a deciding factor or even anywhere close to one, but perhaps a small weight on the scale leaning towards maybe don't do the twist. And with so many other things ALREADY leading the webby twist to be a bad idea, this is just another little one to add to the top of the pile. The cherry on top of the bad idea sundae, if you will.

My MAIN point was that the webby twist, first and foremost, is a bad storytelling choice. I think they should have cut it for all the story reasons laid out in depth during the video- and as a bonus side benefit, they also wouldn't alienate a decent section of the fandom with the finale to their show. On a personal level, that loss of a ship is a lot harder to take when you go back to watch the finale with fresh eyes, and it's still a disappointing rushed mess with no build up and no follow through. Again, I felt it was worth mentioning, because it did happen, but it should not at all be seen as a central point in my argument.

[strelitziamystery]

Honestly my first reaction to Webby being a clone/daughter of Scrooge was "Oh Louie is going to be pissed. His inheritance!"

[nickthedreamer]

The unfortunate truth was that DuckTales was supposed to have a fourth Season. Season 3 was supposed to just focus on Huey and Season 4 would be the Webby season. BUT, unfortunately, Disney decided during Covid times that DuckTales would end with Season 3 (in the same meeting, apparently, where they initially decided that Owl House would end with Season 2) so the DuckTales people had to find ways to merge their already started Season 3 and 4 plans into one season, cutting out the endings of multiple side-plots (like Darkwing Duck vs Negaduck) so they could just focus on the more over-arching story.

[dangerdanjerz]

The biggest shame about Huey's "Duke of Making a Mess" plotline not getting a resolution is that it sets up such a fascinating potential for exploration because it implies that of the triplets, Huey is the most like Donald, which would have been such a cool angle to lean into. We got a lot of exploration into Dewey's similarities to Della and Louie's similarities to Scrooge, so it's such a natural next step.

[pinkiepielunagirls]

webby being a clone of scrooge makes me so annoyed like a big basis of her character was learning that she's part of the family even if she's not blood related and making her a clone kinda ruins that message

also love the love for last crash of the sunchaser, that episode is truly something special. being there in the fandom when it aired was an experience unlike any other show i've watched or fandom i've been in

[mcnshh]

DUCKTALES ANALYSIS IN 2024?? WE'RE SO BACK😭😭

[Trixabella]

I really loved this show, and had my own theories about Huey's supposed 'arc.' Throughout the third season, they lean heavily into him being the 'oldest' triplet and his feelings of inadequacy when his intelligence isn't enough to carry him in certain situations. This is made apparent in previous seasons too, like the 'Duke of making a mess' in season one or his moment in 'Nightmare on Killmotor Hill' where his dream is the weakest out of all of the siblings and he gets frustrated, yelling: "I'm not good at imagination stuff, okay?!"
Not to mention, the Sword of Swanstantine episode was mainly about him facing the messy, impulsive side he's trained to tamp down in order to maintain his image as the calm, controlled eldest triplet.
TL;DR, I think Huey's arc was supposed to be about him facing his perfectionist tendencies and his self-induced eldest child syndrome. I think they just needed more time to let it play out.

[ChibitaliaLoverEiri]

I am SO upset that they weren't allowed to continue the Darkwing/Negaduck storyline 😭

[t.funkthecoolmunk]

From what I’ve been able to gather, the twist of Webby being Scrooge’s daughter was planned from the very beginning. This was because the showrunner felt Webby was the least important character in the original show and wanted to do a cool twist with her.


Even if they properly built up to the reveal I still think it would be a bad twist because like you said it doesn’t add anything. Doesn’t ruin the 2017 reboot for me of course (and I never shipped Webby with the triplets) but goes to show that even twists that make logical sense can be bad.

[luluzin]

Webby was always Scrooge's fourth niece, just as important as the triplets, even though she's not related to him. But with the reaveal that she is Scrooge's daughter, she rises above Huey, Dewey and Louie, ruining that dynamic. Bradford believed only Webby could retrieve the Papyrus of Binding. He didn't even TRY to convince Huey to do it, which means that the triplets do not qualify as Scrooge's heirs.

[cloudkitsune]

To be fair about the Webby finale, I felt that same issue with Della coming back. Because while she wanted to be a mother to her kids, she wasn't *there* to raise them, but the majority of the characters all welcomed her back to take that spot and basically forgot Donald, who RAISED THEM, and even have him giving up his parenting rights of them at the finale-finale. "Found family" always felt kinda off-centered with this series. And one of my favorite things about it was Donald *being there* to take up the role of father-figure to the boys. =/

[andersonluttrell]

That’s always been my wish. I was so mad that Huey, my favorite duck, never got his own ending. He got regarded as such a small ending. It was trying to fit a webby season into one two part episode. Other seasons are great and the build up to the finale are also great.

[itscutterkirby]

i feel so vindicated by your mention of each triplet having a focus season but huey NOT having his own arc. i thought i was just imagining/reading too much into that fumbled pattern so i'm glad you discussed that!

[DuneStone]

38:12 It’s a small thing, but I appreciate what this implies about Gyro. I would have assumed that he refers to the nephews by color because he can’t tell them apart. But this reaction shows that he does in fact know each one’s personality. He just can’t be bothered to sort out their names.

[anominon]

"We had an ending in mind but weren't given time to build to it" is something that several animated shows of late have suffered with, leading to a final season that felt rushed. Steven Universe rushed its homeworld arc, Dreamworks' She-Ra rushed its space arc, Netflixs' Carmen Sandiego rushed the whole Carmen corruption arc, all found out they were getting canned early and had to rush to their finales, meaning that certain character redemption arcs were rushed or that several seasons' worth of story got crammed into one shorter-than-planned season. I think it's still better than ending on a cliffhanger like a lot of shows in the past have, such as the 1990s classic "ReBoot" (which ironically has never gotten rebooted) and various others, or shows that run so long that they lose track of their story and run themselves into the ground, but it is unfortunate to see. DuckTales isn't the only Disney show to suffer this fate either, such as with The Ghost and Molly McGee not getting its planned third season and having to wind up its story early, or The Owl House getting cut short not due to ratings but "controversy" (openly gay characters). Unfortunately this is the way it's been going for a while now and creative teams do their best with the restrictions they have.

[lauraholmes]

I believe young Donald is voiced by an original Triplets voice actress, who I think voiced them in Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas

[radiowaves]

the shipping tangent is so funny to me because my experiencr with the ducktales fandom was exclusively around weblena fans. i had no idea people shipped webby with anyone but lena.

[ms_katielynn]

Yeah I think the “duke of making a mess” part of Huey’s arc was meant to imply that he inherited the infamous McDuck/Duck anger issues and was just really good at repressing them with logic and planning and list-making. I think it was meant to speak to how he copes with these anger/anxiety issues. It’s a fascinating concept, but it was not well executed at all! I’d give anything for a solid Huey and Donald B-plot where they bond over coping strategies and talk about how anger, if directed properly, isn’t necessarily bad.

Also fantastic video! Thank you so much for summing up exactly why this show’s finale left me with such a bad aftertaste, which is tragic considering how damn good the rest of it is. Welp, if Danny Phantom has taught us anything it’s that fandoms will bend over backwards to ignore finales for the sake of their sanities.

[nolanmcbride]

As a triplet myself, I loved this show. It’s the closest I’ve ever seen to my siblings and i’s relationship being depicted in a piece of media. I was sad that the show ended when it did, and not fond of the final twist

[DanielSteinmetz-vfsq]

As A Huey Fan we were a little robbed with season three... I choose to blame Disney.