What is your headcanon made of?

[Deleted]

I'm curious about what the members of this forum consider as canon. Many may consider as canonical only Barks and Rosa stories, others may also consider Taliaferro's strips, or only Barks, or even more authors. A couple of years ago i met a nice Disney fan who only considered the cartoons as canonical.

So, what is your personal Duckverse made of?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Literally everything.

[LP]

Generally the Floyd Gottfredson strips, the Bob Karp/Al Taliaferro strips, and Carl Barks' and Don Rosa's stories. And most of the classic cartoons. And "the idea" of Goof Troop and Quack Pack, by which I mean, they do not take place in the 1990s, but otherwise they happened. Same thing with the Goofy Movies. 

Out of all of that, there are still some aspects, some strips, and some whole stories which do not fit into my vision of the Duck universe, and these are therefore excluded from my head-canon. For example, I hate the idea that Donald, Mickey and Goofy are just actors. No! Non-canon!

On the other hand, there are stories and concepts from other creators which have made their way into my head-canon. Such as the existence of Fethry and Moby Duck and... well, stuff like that, basically. 

It's basically all a big chaotic mess, but I have some vague guidelines to keep myself sane.

[Deleted]

Oct 19, 2019 14:29:12 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Literally everything.

By "everything", do you mean "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck"+Stories where Scrooge and Grandma are siblings?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 19, 2019 14:59:01 GMT @titusmcduck said:

Oct 19, 2019 14:29:12 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Literally everything.

By "everything", do you mean "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck"+Stories where Scrooge and Grandma are siblings?

Yes. A Gyro Gearloose time-travel experiment went awry once while he was testing it out in Grandma's barn. 

[Deleted]

Oct 19, 2019 15:01:34 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oct 19, 2019 14:59:01 GMT @titusmcduck said:

By "everything", do you mean "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck"+Stories where Scrooge and Grandma are siblings?

Yes. A Gyro Gearloose time-travel experiment went awry once while he was testing it out in Grandma's barn. 

Interesting. Tell me more about this theory

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 19, 2019 15:03:41 GMT @titusmcduck said:

Interesting. Tell me more about this theory

Oh, it's not a particularly fleshed-out theory or anything. It's just that for any such contradictions, my thinking is "in a universe where Gyro builds faulty time machines every sunday and Witch Hazel can casually plop Scrooge back in time several hundreds of years for fun, anything's possible". 

[TheMidgetMoose]

My headcanon consists of multiple realities. I don't believe every story is in the same reality. There are too many contradictions and issues with dates for me to swallow that. Plus, on a personal level, I just don't like it. It feels wrong to have everything in the same universe. It just feels off to me to force Quack Pack and Rosa's stories into the same universe.

That said, I believe that every story exists within its own universe. No story is just "non-canonical". It may not be within continuity with another story, but it does have its own, personal canon. Thus, all stories have occurred and are important, but not all stories necessarily share the same universe.

Of course, I haven't read every story, so there's only a handful of "universes" that really matter to me. Note that these are all simply inventions of my own mind, inspired by the stories themselves and headcanons of other fans. I'm not trying to insinuate that anything I'm about to state was intended at all by any of the creators involved. I'm simply stating things the way I imagine them, not the way they necessarily are or were intended to be. These headcanon universes of mine are the following:

• Classic Universe - This is really my "main headcanon" if you will. Whenever I read a story, I usually try to see if I can fit it into this continuity. If I feel I cannot do so, I'll try to fit the story elsewhere. The major pillars of this universe are the works of Taliaferro, Gottfredson, Barks, and Rosa. Nearly all Donald Duck/Mickey Mouse-related animation made in or prior to the 1960's, with perhaps a few exceptions, are also a major part of this universe. Stories by Strobl, Lockman, Kinney, and many others also go in here, but I try to make dates given in those stories conform to a more Rosan view of most stories (at least the ones featuring Donald, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie) taking place in the 1950's.

• Disney Afternooniverse - Unlike the name might imply, this isn't the universe where all of the shows from the Disney Afternoon universe occur, but a large portion of them are canonical to this headcanon universe. I believe that DuckTales 1987, Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, Quack Pack, The Legend of the Three Caballeros, Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie, Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, and An Extremely Goofy Movie all take place in this universe. Whereas the Classic Universe is centered around the 1930's to 1950's, I see most stories in this universe occurring from the 1980's to the 2000's. Any comic, video game, or book which bears the same name as one of the TV shows a part of this universe is automatically included. Also, I think I like putting the Duckies series with April, May, and June here. I also like the idea of the Donald's First series being a part of this universe.

• Tooniverse - As the name implies, this is the universe where everyone is just a toon. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, House of Mouse, Bonkers, Toontown Online, and maybe a few other bits like Family Ties and Mickey's Polo Team take place here.

• 2017 Continuum - The name comes from the Scrooge McDuck Wiki. This is where DuckTales 2017, all DuckTales 2017 comics, and Wander Over Yonder take place.

I've toyed around with ideas for other headcanons before, but the only headcanon universes that are really "fleshed out" in my imagination are the ones written of above. For me, it isn't a really question of "what's canonical", as everything exists in one continuity or another. The question for me is "what fits together", and that's how I create my headcanons.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 19, 2019 18:32:07 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

• Tooniverse - As the name implies, this is the universe where everyone is just a toon. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, House of Mouse, Bonkers, Toontown Online, and maybe a few other bits like Family Ties and Mickey's Polo Team take place here.

I don't think Family Ties works with the idea of Donald & Co. being toons. Something strange is happening to them due to their metafictional nature, clearly enough, but they are surprised and put-out by this phenomenon (until someone figures out a way to make money off of it, which dissolves their objections). Placing Mickey's Polo Team in Roger Rabbit's continuity, though — too speculative for the Wiki, but personally speaking, I like it a lot! 

[TheMidgetMoose]

Oct 19, 2019 18:38:29 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oct 19, 2019 18:32:07 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

• Tooniverse - As the name implies, this is the universe where everyone is just a toon. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, House of Mouse, Bonkers, Toontown Online, and maybe a few other bits like Family Ties and Mickey's Polo Team take place here.

I don't think Family Ties works with the idea of Donald & Co. being toons. Something strange is happening to them due to their metafictional nature, clearly enough, but they are surprised and put-out by this phenomenon (until someone figures out a way to make money off of it, which dissolves their objections). Placing Mickey's Polo Team in Roger Rabbit's continuity, though — too speculative for the Wiki, but personally speaking, I like it a lot! 

Good point on Family Ties. It has been a while since I read the story, but I know it doesn't really fit with my other headcanon universes. Glad you like my Mickey's Polo Team idea! It's not something I strongly believe in, as I hate to split the classic cartoons across different continuities, but I think it makes sense to a certain extent.

[deb]

I don’t worry about canon. I just read and enjoy. Not every story is going to fit with every other story, and that’s okay.

[Matilda]

Didn't we have a thread on this? But for the life of me I can't find it. Can anyone?

My personal headcanon of "stories that really happened in my mental Duckworld": most of Barks, almost all of Rosa, a couple hundred stories by other writers which appeal to me and entirely or mostly accord with this particular Barks-as-interpreted-by-Rosa world. The "present" is the mid-20th century. I accept some stories with later tech, as long as that tech is not essential to the plot and I can mentally "blip" over it. I basically follow Rosa's family tree (though Abner/Whitewater is a more distant cousin)--no Gideon, no Rumpus. Elvira and Scrooge are not siblings. Daisy is no relation to Donald. Fethry exists, and lived in Duckburg when Donald was living alone as a young man with Tabby, but he moved far away (to Italy, to be a reporter for Topolino, in my mind) around the time the boys came to live with Donald. I accept Belle Duck, since I feel Scrooge could have had a girlfriend in his riverboat days; I don't accept Brigitta. Paperetta/Dickie is Goldie's granddaughter but not Scrooge's. There are a bunch of secondary characters created by authors other than Barks or Rosa whom I do accept: Garvey Gull, Mercedes Pujol, Minima De Spell, Ludwig Von Drake, Madam Mim, Zantaf, Elvira's cousin Amanda, Greta Goose, Big Barnsmell ("Barnsie"), Brenda, Stella Curfew, etc. And the Caballeros, of course. A few episodes of DuckTales '87 have entered my headcanon; none of DuckTales '17. Chip and Dale exist in my mental Duckworld, but their speech is not understandable by the Ducks and other humans.

I enjoy many stories which will never become "real" in my mental Duckworld for one reason or another. I also enjoy some Mouse stories, but I have no headcanon whatsoever for Mouse stories, as those characters have never become "real" to me. The headcanon decision is based on whether a story fits in my personal version of the Duck family narrative, and it does not imply a negative aesthetic judgment about stories that don't make it.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Oct 20, 2019 4:05:31 GMT Matilda said:

Didn't we have a thread on this? But for the life of me I can't find it. Can anyone?

We've discussed personal headcanons on multiple threads, which in some cases happens when a discussion veers off topic (such that browsing thread titles gives no indication of it) and every now and then, someone starts a brand new thread (like this one) rather than continuing the discussion on a previous thread, leading to redundancy.  Anyway, here are a few other threads that we've discussed personal headcanons in:

Newer characters you accept into Barks/Rosa canon

Stories you consider canon in Barks/Rosa universe

Keno Korner - A Review Series

[Baar Baar Jinx]

FWIW, the one aspect of DuckTales '87 that I like is the unambiguous declaration that Donald spent some time in the Navy, something never clearly articulated anywhere else (although, of course, I disagree with the timeline ... in my headcanon, it happened when he was very young, before HD&L came to live with him). Donald's Navy veteran status is hinted at in DuckTales '17 (he refers to "his uniform" and states that he is "a sailor") but it is not made explicit.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 20, 2019 14:42:30 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

FWIW, the one aspect of DuckTales '87 that I like is the unambiguous declaration that Donald spent some time in the Navy, something never clearly articulated anywhere else (although, of course, I disagree with the timeline ... in my headcanon, it happened when he was very young, before HD&L came to live with him). Donald's Navy veteran status is hinted at in DuckTales '17 (he refers to "his uniform" and states that he is "a sailor") but it is not made explicit.

You may be interested in the 1997 Egmont story The Odyssey, which establishes that Donald, as a young adult, spent some time traveling around the Pacific, often working as a sailor on various civilian boats to pay for his trips, but never actually joining the navy.