The return of the DuckTales reboot for a second season has already contained some unexpected twists and turns.
The Most Dangerous Game… Night was a screwball comedy in which Huey underwent an existential crisis – one which soon rubs off on his siblings. The Depths of Cousin Fethry once again highlighted that Launchpad is experiencing other off-screen adventures – hinting even further at his Darkwing Duck appearances. But the latest episode, The Ballad of Duke Baloney!, went even further by returning a villain back to his original South African roots.
The DuckTales episode featured comedic villain Flintheart Glomgold suffering from amnesia, no longer Scrooge’s Scottish rival but now a humble South African fisherman. Louie and Webby investigate if it’s a ruse, but it isn’t; however, the now-content Glomgold experiences surreal dreams relating to his past and suffers bouts of irrational rage towards Scrooge. Ultimately, he snaps, his original personality returning with a vengeance – sadly ruining his chance at true happiness. Yet the truth is revealed that his Scottish persona is indeed a façade and that his true origins lie in South Africa.
South Africa? Yes, he’s originally a South African Boer duck.
This reveal may come as a surprise to fans of the original series, where he was presented as little more than a blustering, bungling Scottish duck. Yet Glomgold, created in 1956, hailed from South Africa and was a genuine threat. A dark reflection of Scrooge, he was every bit his equal but lacked decency, friends and family… and was willing to kill, a far cry from the harmless villain seen on screen up to now. Over the years, more of his backstory was revealed including the tragic motivations for his solitary life and his motivation to exact revenge on Scrooge.
However, despite being a complex villain with a fascinating background, he was featured less regularly than other recurring villains and was seen as less of a threat by some. The original DuckTales television series compounded that by presenting him as being generally ineffectual as a villain and played him mostly for comedy, while avoiding any mention of his South African heritage and playing up his Scottish background.
This latest reveal from the rebooted DuckTales returns Glomgold both to his personal heritage and to being the genuine threat he was intended to be. By the end of the latest episode, his comedic goofiness is replaced with almost murderous intent – something which will presumably play out more as the season unfolds. His latest competitive challenge to Scrooge to compare their personal wealth stems all the way back to his 1956 debut, and the race is on to be the richest duck in the world – a title both have competed for even in Forbes’s list of richest fictional characters.
This could spell trouble for Scrooge and his family, but it’s a welcome return to one of DuckTales’ most infamous villains.
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