Whatever's reviews: The first dime's tantrums

[Hector]

inducks.org/story.php?c=S+AT++228-B

I never liked stories where Scrooge's first dime is a lucky dime, but this one really overdoes it with that concept.

On another note, a really strange character appears in this story: a middle aged, blonde, duck formed woman that both Scrooge and Rockerduck call aunt! (Maybe the two business rivals are like distant cousins in this universe!)

For some reason, Scrooge feels obliged to do anything that woman tells him to do, so he does not react when she drags him to an expensive boutique and forces him to spend a fortune on ludicrous outfits.

Scrooge forgets his lucky dime back in his old coat's pocket, and so his businesses immediately start being ruined, one after another. Meanwhile, horrible accidents happen to him, to the point of admitting to himself that, without his lucky dime, even his life is in danger (which makes you wonder how he managed to remain alive before earning that coin).

After a series of enjoyable gags, Scrooge ends up in jail, with no one believing he's the well known tycoon. The aforementioned, eccentric woman shows up, saves him and gives him back his old clothes and his lucky dime.

If you can get over how pathetic the plot makes Scrooge, my childhood role model, seem (he's manipulated by a middle aged woman and he depends on his lucky dime), you will enjoy a hilarious story.

Rating: 8/10

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 6, 2019 19:51:27 GMT Hector said:

On another note, a really strange character appears in this story: a middle aged, blonde, duck formed woman that both Scrooge and Rockerduck call aunt! (Maybe the two business rivals are like distant cousins in this universe!)

Aye, that's a recurring character, Aunt Eider in English. She's on the Wiki and everything. 

[juicymcduck]

I never liked Aunt Eider, not because she's related to both Scrooge and Rockerduck, but because she must be freakishly old. Note that even Barks did something like that, in "Christmas for Shacktown," when Scrooge doesn't bat an eyelid at the idea that his Uncle Jake is still around. (Note that I have the same problem with Grandma Duck, which I love as a character. Because I'm a Rosaist, I have accepted that she is Hortense McDuck's mother-in-law, but that makes her a *very* sprightly centenarian.)

[Hector]

Aug 7, 2019 7:38:30 GMT juicymcduck said:

I never liked Aunt Eider, not because she's related to both Scrooge and Rockerduck, but because she must be freakishly old. Note that even Barks did something like that, in "Christmas for Shacktown," when Scrooge doesn't bat an eyelid at the idea that his Uncle Jake is still around. (Note that I have the same problem with Grandma Duck, which I love as a character. Because I'm a Rosaist, I have accepted that she is Hortense McDuck's mother-in-law, but that makes her a *very* sprightly centenarian.)

She doesn't look that old. Maybe 'aunt' is just a salutation that shows affection.

[Mesterius]

Aug 7, 2019 20:20:52 GMT Hector said:

Aug 7, 2019 7:38:30 GMT juicymcduck said:

I never liked Aunt Eider, not because she's related to both Scrooge and Rockerduck, but because she must be freakishly old. Note that even Barks did something like that, in "Christmas for Shacktown," when Scrooge doesn't bat an eyelid at the idea that his Uncle Jake is still around. (Note that I have the same problem with Grandma Duck, which I love as a character. Because I'm a Rosaist, I have accepted that she is Hortense McDuck's mother-in-law, but that makes her a *very* sprightly centenarian.)

She doesn't look that old. Maybe 'aunt' is just a salutation that shows affection.

You do realize that people can be aunts or uncles from the day they're born, right? Maybe she's YOUNGER than Scrooge.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 7, 2019 20:20:52 GMT Hector said:

Aug 7, 2019 7:38:30 GMT juicymcduck said:

I never liked Aunt Eider, not because she's related to both Scrooge and Rockerduck, but because she must be freakishly old. Note that even Barks did something like that, in "Christmas for Shacktown," when Scrooge doesn't bat an eyelid at the idea that his Uncle Jake is still around. (Note that I have the same problem with Grandma Duck, which I love as a character. Because I'm a Rosaist, I have accepted that she is Hortense McDuck's mother-in-law, but that makes her a *very* sprightly centenarian.)

She doesn't look that old. Maybe 'aunt' is just a salutation that shows affection.

Doesn't work; the whole point of the way the character behaves to Scrooge and Rockerduck is that, heedless of their age, she treats them like bratty nephews.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 7, 2019 7:38:30 GMT juicymcduck said:

I never liked Aunt Eider, not because she's related to both Scrooge and Rockerduck, but because she must be freakishly old. Note that even Barks did something like that, in "Christmas for Shacktown," when Scrooge doesn't bat an eyelid at the idea that his Uncle Jake is still around. (Note that I have the same problem with Grandma Duck, which I love as a character. Because I'm a Rosaist, I have accepted that she is Hortense McDuck's mother-in-law, but that makes her a *very* sprightly centenarian.)

There's been some debate about whether Uncle Jake is really still alive during the events of "A Christmas for Shacktown", or whether he had passed, and Scrooge therefore knew all along that it was Donald in disguise (even the "fact" that Uncle Jake owed Scrooge money could have simply been an invention on Scrooge's part to continue to pull Donald's leg; note that Rosa chose not to include it in Life of Scrooge). However, that theory makes Donald look like something of an idiot.  

As for Grandma, I've always thought that she married and had kids quite young, and that Quackmore is her youngest, and since there's ten years separating Scrooge and Hortense (should have been a bigger age gap I feel, but Rosa had his reasons, mainly that he wanted Hortense to at least have been born before Scrooge left Scotland) Grandma may not be an entire generation older than Scrooge.

But yes, writers giving Scrooge much older living relatives always struck me as annoying, almost as if they didn't realize how old Scrooge was supposed to be himself.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 8, 2019 14:22:05 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

But yes, writers giving Scrooge much older living relatives always struck me as annoying, almost as if they didn't realize how old Scrooge was supposed to be himself.

"Supposed" is a relative term. The Barksian Scrooge was conceived of by his creator as being in his mid-70's, and that's how many perceived him — it makes the timeline tidier for him to be 80 already in 1947, but for the not-too-continuity-minded, a Scrooge who is an unusually (but not absurdly) sprightly 70-something in the present-day is far more plausible considering what we see him get up to on a daily basis. And with a Scrooge who's 75, it's completely plausible that he could have a still-living aunt in her early 90's. 

Alternatively, it could stem from writers absolutely noticing how old Scrooge is supposed to be. When they've already got a centenarian who acts like he's in his mid-50's, it's not absurd to decide to embrace the idea that McDucks are indeed comically long-lived, and Scrooge isn't alone in this. 

[Hector]

Technically, an uncle can be younger than his nephews. Think of it! So Eider can be Scrooge's aunt and younger than him at the same time!

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 8, 2019 20:17:02 GMT Hector said:

Technically, an uncle can be younger than his nephews. Think of it! So Eider can be Scrooge's aunt and younger than him at the same time!

That's true, but, again, clearly not the authorial intent in this particular case: Eider treats Scrooge and Rockerduck like she's older than them and still sees them as the kids they once were.