Gushing About Della Duck

[Winter]

I'm dealing with a lot of $#!t right now and need a palate cleanser so let's talk about Della Duck on the grounds that I like her character and find it interesting how Disney had to make a character from the ground up.

Now, Della is NOT a DuckTales 2017 Original character, she excited in the comics before hand but she only appeared once and her scene can be basically summed up as "Hey, I'm the Triplets mom and Donald Duck's sister... Bye". On top of that she was, design wise, just Donald with a Blond Wig so there was nothing about her that stood out. So, when the DuckTales reboot came around the show runners had to basically MAKE a character from the ground up.

So, Della in the 2017 series is a In Name Only but that's only because there was nothing there before hand. So, Della is a blank slate for the writers to do with as they see fit so what did they do?

Well, first up they gave her a unique design. In a nice touch Della's outfit is an Aviator look, she's got pilot goggles, an aviator jacket and hat which is a nice contrast to Donald's iconic sailor outfit which helps her to stand out from her brother and it's a good looking design that simple in its look but instantly recognizable. Her facial design is also different from Donald's unlike before where, again, she was just Donald with a blond wig.

However, a good design can only get you so far, Della Duck had to have a personality that was unique in it's own right and yet was also one that complemented her family. So, how did they accomplish this? Well first they gave her Donald's temper. Like her brother Della isn't the calmest person around and a LOT of her problems are a result of her own anger getting the better of her. This is a nice way of showing that Della and Donald are equals, both are are shown to be competent but both also have a bad habit of getting angry when approaching a situation calmly would serve them better.

But if that was it Della would be a rather bland retread of her brother so what did they do to make her more unique? Odd as it may sound they got around this by having Della share traits with her sons. She has Dewey's love for adventure, Huey's resourcefulness and Louie's cunning. Add on a solid level of snark and you got a fully fleshed out personality that is as endearing as any classic Disney character.

And Della really highlights the overall strength of the 2017 DuckTales reboot writing. If done wrong Della would have come off as a Frankenstein character with her having traits of other characters but having no identity of her own. But what helps her is her character arc. Della's first proper episode is basically a one woman show with us just focusing on her so we get to see how she handles being in the worst case scenario trying to find a way to get back to her family as a decade goes by. It's a very well done episode and my personal favorite in the series as we get to see Della at her best and worst.

And once she returns she gets to have one episode with each of her kids and we see how she has to handle each other them differently. Dewey wants to prove to her that he can be as brave and as daring as her so Della makes it clear that all she needs him to be is her son. Huey she gets to play her favorite game with and helps him come out of his shell (well, force field (long story)) and quickly realizes she took him a little to far out of said comfort zone and has to pull him back to reality (literally). And Louie she has to learn that she has to be hard on her kids sometimes AND to know that what works for some kids doesn't work with others.

We get to see Della be vulnerable, scared and makes mistakes ALONG with her strengths which is really HOW character should be written. The show runners for DuckTales took a big risk with Della as they had to take a nothing character and GIVE her character and did so by drawing on other characters within their own show WITHOUT making her seem like a creators pet or they would risk alienating the audience.

And since then Della has gone on to become something of a fan favorite who is talked about in and out of the DuckTales fandom. She's gotten her own toy's which have sold very well and I've seen Costumes of her being sold right next to the Disney Trio (Micky, Goofy and Donald) which were SOLD OUT!!! And this wasn't back when the show was cancelled I mean I saw this at Halloween Stores just a few days ago.

I personally love Della Duck and I can't wait to see more of her in the future whenever that may be.

(sigh) Like I said I'm dealing with some rather messed up $#!t right now so this was just to talk about something positive. Like a wise man once said-

"If you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, it is all you will ever see."

So, I figured I'd just talk about a character I love and while shows like She-Ra, The Owl House and Amphibia are great for that I haven't talked much about DuckTales so I decided to just try something new.

[Deledrius]

I think they did really well with her character. She played a great role in the show's mythology, and filled an important niche as a character in the overall balance of the show. I really appreciated that they managed to "invent" (as you note, it's mostly but not technically true) someone new that neither overshadowed the rest of the cast nor was she superfluous. That's not an easy mark to hit, as evidenced by... well, just wave your arms for a few seconds and you'll probably smack a good example of this done poorly in another work.

[Thebestoftherest]

I like her, hope in future duck stuff she returns

[Winter]

I think they did really well with her character. She played a great role in the show's mythology, and filled an important niche as a character in the overall balance of the show. I really appreciated that they managed to "invent" (as you note, it's mostly but not technically true) someone new that neither overshadowed the rest of the cast nor was she superfluous. That's not an easy mark to hit, as evidenced by... well, just wave your arms for a few seconds and you'll probably smack a good example of this done poorly in another work.

One thing that I really liked about Della coming into the series proper was how the writers wisely had Donald leave so they could flesh-out her dynamic with the rest of the family WITHOUT making Donald look like a bad parent in comparison. I also like how they wrote Donald out, by his family giving him a much needed vacation (not their fault he ended up on the moon) AND Della is clearly okay with that and thanks him for watching her kids.

She has more of an issue with Launchpad flying her plane then she does with Donald watching her kids. It would have been so easy to write Della as the "Better Parent" but instead they show that she is just as good as Donald.

I also love how Della NEVER blames Scrooge for what happened to her and in fact doesn't blame anyone but herself. This is especially note worthy given how everyone else blamed Scrooge for what happened but Della never does even though it would be understandable if she did.

In fact the only time she ever got angry for anyone bringing it up was was with Louie... when he tried to use it against her in an argument... after he had caused her to (briefly) go through the same thing again... I know a lot of fans were on Louie's side but I think that Della reaction was understandable and if anything, restrained.

Also, I didn't mention how I liked her robot leg. Just the idea that a DISNEY character had to cut off her own leg to survive is rather intense for something aimed at kids that also raised awareness for people who have lost their limbs and did so in such a way that fits into her character journey. Della is willing to do anything to survive and get back to her family, even if that includes hurting herself which is not something we see very often. So, props to Disney that took guts.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think that Della was right, but abandoning your child with a dangerous machine while going on vacation yourself was a mistake.

[Sir Will]

Man I loved that show. Gone too soon. And Della was fantastic. Paget Brewster imbues her with such life. Love it.

[Thebestoftherest]

I hope we get more of it with comics or the disney youtube podcast.