The Future In Your Headcanon

[TheMidgetMoose]

I imagine that a few of us have thought before about what the in-universe future for Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and the rest of the crew might look like. We already have this thread to discuss stories which already exist about future Duckburg, though I suppose this thread could be moved to that one if the consensus is that this thread is too redundant and Scroogerello , the creator of the other thread, agrees.

Anyway, for this thread, I would like for us to do less discussing of stories which already exist about future Duckburg and more making up stories of our own about future Duckburg. In other words, I want to read your ideas, headcanons, and theories about the future of Duckburg. Don't just limit yourself to Duckburg, either. Discussion about Mouse characters and their future is more than welcome, too! I'll start this thread off with some of my personal ideas. Feel free to comment on them while also writing of your own ideas and headcanons on the topic of the in-universe future for our favorite Disney ducks and mice.

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I guess first I'll talk about Scrooge McDuck. My headcanon for Scrooge's future and eventual death is largely inspired by a "wild mass guess" on tvtropes (link). The beginning of this wild mass guess which inspired my heacanon says the following:

Partly WMG, partly based on Don Rosa own comments. In his commentary to his story "A Little Something Special", he hinted that he thought Scrooge's final fate would be to return to Goldie someday. In an unrelated commentary, he also thought that Scrooge would be the sort of legendary person that instead of dying amongst his friends and family, would instead "disappear" somewhere. Combining these two mentions sounds like the perfect end to Scrooge's life.

The author goes on to write about their belief that Scrooge will simply leave a note for Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie stating that he is leaving to go on his last adventure, with that adventure being to be with Goldie. I disagree with Scrooge's "end" being exactly like that, but I do love the idea of him "disappearing" and being presumed dead to lead a peaceful live in the Klondike with Goldie. My personal headcanon is that Scrooge's courtship of Goldie does not begin with a note, but begins just minutes after the end of Last Sled to Dawson. Remember that one of the themes of Last Sled to Dawson, which was implied by its author, Don Rosa, to have taken place in 1954, is that Scrooge is tiring of "running on a financial treadmill that never slows down" and that he loves being in the Klondike. It only feels proper that Scrooge does not return to the stress of running his business empire in the aftermath of the story, at least not permanently, but instead opts to start a new life in the Klondike and asks Goldie if she will consider courting/dating him.

Of course, Goldie accepts Scrooge's offer, and he's happy to leave McDuck Industries behind and start a new life with her in the Klondike, perhaps helping her run the Frosbit Arms Hotel. He might return to Duckburg briefly to get his affairs in order and fake his death, but I haven't thought through all the details of that. I think that he wants Huey, Dewey, and Louie to become the new CEOs of McDuck Industries, but I think that he'll also see the value of being a child and not want them to be forced to live an adult life before they are actually adults. I think he'll make Miss Quackfaster the temporary CEO of McDuck Industries until Huey, Dewey, and Louie turn 25, at which point the position is to be offered to them. I think that, despite his stinginess, he'll give bits of his fortune to many of his relatives and friends (Donald, Gladstone, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Grandma, etc.), but I think he'll write a will that orders that only a little of each person's inheritance be given to them each month instead of them receiving it one lump sum. Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Goldie are the only people who know of his plan to fake his death.

After roughly 13 years with Goldie, Scrooge dies in 1967 at the age of 100 years old. I suppose I'd say that it's then when Don Rosa's unofficial "Whatever happened to Uncle Scrooge?" illustration takes place as Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie go to the visit the grave of their recently deceased uncle and Daisy learns for what I guess is the first time that Scrooge didn't actually die in 1954 and has been alive all along.

What happened to Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie? I imagine that Donald and Daisy married not too long after Scrooge's disappearance. I headcanon that, shortly after marrying, they had a son, the son seen in How to Have An Accident At Work. Shortly after the events of How to Have An Accident At Work, they have a daughter. As far as I know, unlike the son character, there's no official evidence for the daughter existing, but I like the idea anyway. I think that Gyro eventually married, too, though I don't have any strong opinions on who he marries. He and his spouse have a daughter. I like to imagine the Gyro's daughter and Donald's son end up falling in love and marry each other sometime in the 1970's or 1980's. They have a son whose personality combines Grandpa Gyro's intelligence with Grandpa Donald's temper, becoming a powerful supervillain/mad scientist in the 2010's.

My headcanons about Donald's daughter are less fleshed out. I kind of like the idea that DuckTales exists in-universe as a 1980's television series based on the "true story" of the 1950's. This would mean that all of the DuckTales characters are actors within my headcanon universe. I came up with the idea that maybe Donald's daughter became an actress and played Loopy McQuack on DuckTales, since Loopy looks so much like Donald and Daisy. I'm not sure if I'll stick to that idea, but, hey, it's an idea. I think Donald's daughter eventually became the mother to a son, Maui Mallard from Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow. I'm not sure if Maui is supposed to actually be Donald or not (this probably deserves a thread of its own), but I kind of like the idea that Maui is Donald's grandson, if the idea works with official evidence. I reckon Maui was born in 1995, when his debut video game was released in the real-world.

I'm not sure how Donald's life ends. I imagine that by his 60th birthday, he has become the local fire chief. This idea is based on the 1994 cassette tape,  "Donald Duck and Carl Barks in a Fireside Chat". I'm not sure what happens to either him or Daisy after that.

I imagine that, as they grew older, Huey, Dewey, and Louie began to become a little more of individuals and began to develop slightly different traits and interests. I think they all attended the same college, and that Dewey fell deeply in love during his college years. I kind of like the idea that Dewey's love interest is Dottie from this. My idea is that Dewey and Dottie, despite being deeply in love with each other, had different ideas about the future; Dewey wanted to live a life of adventure, while Dottie wanted to live a simple life on a farm like the one she had led as a child. Dewey was willing to throw away his dreams of adventure to be with Dottie, but when she learned that he planned to do so just for her, she broke up with him, not wanting him to not reach his full potential just because of her. In an attempt to get away from anything that reminded him of Dottie, Dewey joined the United States Air Force just as things were starting to escalate in Vietnam. He became an ace pilot and a war hero, standing out among his peers for his skill, bravery, and intelligence. Dottie, meanwhile, married an abusive country boy and had three mischievous children with him. She divorced her nasty husband sometime in the 1970's. Eventually, Dewey returned home from Vietnam and reunited with the divorced Dottie. The two fall in love again. Dewey becomes a NASA astronaut, and he, Dottie, and Dottie's kids (whose relationship with Dewey is similar to Huey, Dewey, and Louie's relationship with Donald) move out to Texas, where they purchase a ranch.

My ideas for Huey and Louie are much less developed. I think that Huey will pursue a career in activism and politics, eventually becoming President of the United States sometime in the 1980's, 1990's, or maybe the early 2000's. As for Louie, I like to imagine that he became involved with the filmmaking branch of McDuck Industries and became famed movie and television series producer. In fact, I like to imagine that, in-universe, it was Louie Duck who produced DuckTales. I haven't given a lot of thought to Huey or Louie's love lives or possible children.

That's all that I'll take the time to type right now. I do have a few more headcanons that I'll write about later? What are your headcanons about what happens to these characters in the future? Feel free to share them!

[Hector]

Donald remains what he is (a loser with no real qualifications who can never start a proper career). When he marries Daisy, most likely, he stays at home to look after their children while Daisy works to support the family. Judging from her stories, I bet she has a degree on social sciences or something, so she works as a social worker.

Hewey/Lewey/Dewey work as executives in Scrooge's businesses and start dating April/May/June.

Scrooge goes for a last adventure in 1967 and disappears. Nobody ever finds out what happened with him. Glomgold dies one year earlier. (One time, someone here made a joke about Glomgold living 99 years and Scrooge surpassing him even at that.) The three nephews inherit Scrooge's empire, according to what was mentioned in a Barkses story.

Gladstone, at some point, meets the girl he met in this story, except, in my headcanon, he marries her and turns over a new leaf, using his good luck to help people around him. He starts a shop chain or something, which thrives thanks to his luck, and hires the Beagle Boys, giving them a second chance in life.

Magica targets another tycoon, who is probably cooler with giving her his first dime. The amulet she creates makes her rich to some extent but it is nowhere near what she expected. In the end, she wonders whether Scrooge's first dime would really have worked much better. She feels stupid and soon grows bored of her life. At some point, she starts dating Gyro. (Lol, I just think they'd make a good couple; don't ask why.)

Gus Goose inherits Grandma Duck's farm after her death and, due to his inefficiency, causes it to go bankrupt. The nephews offer him a job in their empire, but Gus would rather be a hobo than actually work, so he leaves to explore the world. Perhaps he somehow ends up in Tralla La.

Brigitta remains single for all her life, because she's too obsessed with Scrooge.

Donald dies when he's 60! ('The Duck that never Was' reference intended!) High cholesterol or something. Daisy gets depressed and starts publishing her diaries stories, which become best sellers.

I might think of more stuff later...

[TheMidgetMoose]

Mar 4, 2020 22:18:40 GMT Hector said:

Donald remains what he is (a loser with no real qualifications who can never start a proper career). When he marries Daisy, most likely, he stays at home to look after their children while Daisy works to support the family. Judging from her stories, I bet she has a degree on social sciences or something, so she works as a social worker.

Hewey/Lewey/Dewey work as executives in Scrooge's businesses and start dating April/May/June.

Scrooge goes for a last adventure in 1967 and disappears. Nobody ever finds out what happened with him. Glomgold dies one year earlier. (One time, someone here made a joke about Glomgold living 99 years and Scrooge surpassing him even at that.) The three nephews inherit Scrooge's empire, according to what was mentioned in a Barkses story.

Gladstone, at some point, meets the girl he met in this story, except, in my headcanon, he marries her and turns over a new leaf, using his good luck to help people around him. He starts a shop chain or something, which thrives thanks to his luck, and hires the Beagle Boys, giving them a second chance in life.

Magica targets another tycoon, who is probably cooler with giving her his first dime. The amulet she creates makes her rich to some extent but it is nowhere near what she expected. In the end, she wonders whether Scrooge's first dime would really have worked much better. She feels stupid and soon grows bored of her life. At some point, she starts dating Gyro. (Lol, I just think they'd make a good couple; don't ask why.)

Gus Goose inherits Grandma Duck's farm after her death and, due to his inefficiency, causes it to go bankrupt. The nephews offer him a job in their empire, but Gus would rather be a hobo than actually work, so he leaves to explore the world. Perhaps he somehow ends up in Tralla La.

Brigitta remains single for all her life, because she's too obsessed with Scrooge.

Donald dies when he's 60! ('The Duck that never Was' reference intended!) High cholesterol or something. Daisy gets depressed and starts publishing her diaries stories, which become best sellers.

I might think of more stuff later...

You may not believe this, but I actually have entertained the thought of Gyro and Magica becoming a couple. The idea is very appealing to me. The only problem for me is that I can't think of any stories where they seem to have any positive interactions or chemistry. The Quest for Kalevala ends with Magica accidentally being sent to Gyro's lab while Gyro is accidentally sent to Magica's hut. Maybe that event causes them to become interested in one another's lives and eventually pursue a relationship. In my headcanon, The Quest for Kalevala is one of Scrooge's last few adventures before he leaves to live with Goldie.

Also, Magica and Gyro becoming a couple would work really well with my "the son of Gyro's daughter and Donald's son becomes a supervillain" headcanon. Imagine a character with the intelligence of Gyro, access to the tech of a 21st century more advanced than ours thanks to Gyro's contributions, the determination and greed of Magica, the temper of Donald, and Daisy's ability to manipulate. If that's not a recipe for a competent supervillain, I don't know what is. That said, I'm not entirely on-board with a Gyro-Magica relationship, and I'm definitely open to other love interests for the two (the idea of a Magica-Gladstone relationship is particularly appealing). Still, I like your idea and am certainly not opposed to it.

[That Duckfan]

I like the idea of the Ducks living in a floating timeline relative to their first appearance. I don't really think of the future as being in one particular time period (in fact, a recent Italian comic shows the evolution of Duckburg centuries into the future), rather, X years after the "present". I'll add in Don Rosa-esque years to give everybody an idea of the timeline, but it's more meant to give an evocation of the era than any direct links. You could put in any year you like, really.

Say, for the sake of argument, that the floating timeline decouples when Barks announces his retirement: in 1966.

1967.

Grandma dies of old age, and the Duck family gets together on the old farm once a year in memory of her.

1968.

Gus hires a new farm hand, a young woman, and soon enough they get romantically involved. However, she turns out to be even more gluttonous and lazy than he is, as well as a little crazy. After a narrow escape, Gus says goodbye to the countryside and becomes a vegetarian chef in downtown Duckburg.

1970.

Daisy's diary details how she and her girl friends (the ladies' group is a Dutch invention, I think?) get more and more involved in feminist activism. Women's liberation! Donald feels increasingly estranged from her, and initially suspects she's finally gone for Gladstone. But Gladstone is feeling quite the same. The men try one last big romantic gesture for her, but get humiliated, and they're called out by the feminists for their antiquated notions of masculinity. They confront Daisy at a rally, but she remains evasive.
But Daisy has waited for too long. When Donald and Gladstone decide to go to Daisy's house in person and find she's not home, the person at the door introduces herself as Daisy's girlfriend. They've been going steady for a while, in fact.

Donald becomes a practicing Buddhist.

Gladstone is not ready for Daisy's girlfriend, and especially not ready with how easily Donald is taking it. Gladstone craves having the last laugh, being able to rub it in. The more he wins, the more he falls into depression. It feels tiring, choking, and nobody can understand. Misunderstood and alone, Gladstone takes his life, only to find that in heaven the gemstones rain from the clouds, every girl falls for him immediately, and his whole life is simply turned up to eleven. Thankfully, this turns out to be a dream.
Gladstone meets up with Fethry, who introduces him to drugs the bohemian lifestyle. Gladstone goes on a trip to India to find himself.

1973.

Scrooge has something of a breakdown over the oil embargo and economic crisis, his life flashing back to that time when he accidentally set off Black Thursday. Worst of all, after finally burying her romantic feelings for him, Brigitta MacBridge has started a business downtown and is steadily outcompeting him. The two finally reconcile, finding a kind of mutual respect and understanding in their professional rivalry. Officially, they never into a relationship, but Brigitta is accepted as an honorary member of the Duck family.

1974-75.

When Huey, Dewey, and Louie finally turn 18, Donald reveals to them their true parentage. Their mother Della married a Central European prince back in the day. But their royal upbringing did the kids no favors, so Della decided to send them to live with their uncle Donald in order to grow up in a normal environment. Also, it being 1937 Europe, it was thought safer if the children were brought up far somewhere far away from all these dictatorships. And soon enough, a dictatorship was indeed installed in the country.

It is now many years later, and the dying dictator wishes for the country to be transferred back to a monarchy. Unfortunately, with Huey, Dewey, and Louie being triplets, it's unclear who would get to wear the crown. They decide to briefly rule as a triumvirate, in order implement the necessary democratic and parliamentary institutions. Finally, they resign from their position to go to college and work as environmental activists.

However, being a triumvirate, they were unable to legally abolish the monarchy, meaning that the crown now goes to the nearest of kin: uncle Donald Duck. Donald transforms the monarchy into a republic, with him as its figurehead president. Donald is reluctant to stay on much longer, but his popularity with the people ensures a long career as elder statesman.

1977.

Scrooge and Brigitta pass away.

Gladstone returns from India to inherit Scrooge's fortune, because, well of course he does. He toys with the idea of taking the company public, but decides instead to appoint a board of directors and use the money for philantropy. Every once in a while, Fethry and Hustler get the opportunity to pitch one of their new ideas. (Invariably, without success.)

They say that if you listen very closely every night, you can the bones of old Scrooge turning in his grave deep underneath Killmotor Hill...

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oh this is great stuff, all you guys. Moose, I will want more details about that OC of yours! And although (as you'll see in a moment) I'm a follower of Magicstone myself, I do see the appeal in a Magica-Gyro pairing in the undefined future, as well.

As most of you probably already know, I hold that by fiat, Time has indeed frozen on Duckburg; stories from the 1950's to now all happened around the time they were released; the Ducks are only mildly aware of this — though they do remember any past story relevant to what they're doing right now. And I see no reason why the Unaging Effect, whatever causes it, would stop working any time soon. There is official (though, many would say, non-canonical) cause to think that Scrooge, for example, will still be alive, and look basically the same, for his 400th birthday. In the very long run, one does hypothesize that the Ducks, and the world around them, will grow progressively more and more aware of the Unaging Effect, and possibly begin investigating it and ways of selectively cancelling it so that HDL can move past middle school already. The world around Calisota isn't stuck to the same extent, which goes some way to imagining how this could work; eventually civilization is going to move to a level where Scrooge's getup isn't "quirky" anachronistic but "looks like he's living in the 17th century" anachronistic (relatively speaking), and Scrooge is going to notice the stares every time he leaves Duckburg; etc.

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Of course, however, that does not prevent me from having ideas about how things could go if the Unaging Effect stopped working with no one the wiser, or if it had never started existing in the first place. In such a scenario (but that's firmly an AU in my mind), Scrooge does finally propose to Goldie; the Money Bin is moved one last time, to an underground cache beneath White Agony Creek, where the happy couple spend their vacations — though Goldie does still run her hotel in Dawson with the help of Scrooge's business advice. 

Back in Duckburg, Blackheart Beagle had been putting the final touches to a masterplan greater than any Beagle scheme yet… only for him to wake up on D-Day to find that the Money Bin is gone. (It was, I think, transported wholesale via some Gyro Gearloose phlebotinum, not emptied of its contents in a mundane fashion.) Unaging Effect or no, Grandpa Beagle is by that point an absurdly old man, kept alive largely by his obsession with Scrooge's fortune in much the same way that El Capitan was preserved by his inhuman thirst for gold; all this being a roundabout way of saying that the sheer shock of the Bin's disappearance on what should have been his day of triumph kills Grandpa Beagle stone dead right there and then. A Blackheart-attack, you might say. For all that he had never been actively leading all of his grandchildren's schemes, Grandpa Beagle had, by then, become such an iconic patriarch figure to the Beagle Boys at large that, combined with the lack of any leads as to where Scrooge's fortune has ended up (Grandpa was the only one who knew Scrooge's life story inside-out and might have guessed about White Agony!), this basically shatters their unity and spirit. They don't turn square or anything like that, but in the following years, the Beagle Boys become a stock of goons-for-hire by other villains, rather than ever attempting anything large-scale on their own.

Flintheart Glomgold's first reaction to hearing that Scrooge has mysteriously disappeared alongside the Bin is, of course, overjoyed, and he bribes all the right people to make sure Scrooge is declared legally dead quite quickly, so that he is, at long last, tHe rIcHesT dUck In ThE wOrlD. But, of course, the title feels quite empty to him without a Scrooge in whose face to rub it: besides which, the circumstances of Scrooge's "death" really were suspicious. Long story short, Glomgold's life and sanity spiral out of control as he becomes obsessed (not incorrectly) with the idea that Scrooge is still out there somewhere. He ironically sinks more and more of his fortune into the pointless manhunt until he has spent so much (and stopped focusing on actual business to such an extent) that he loses the title to John D. Rockerduck. Rockerduck reacts by throwing a party (to which the Duck family is, to its own confusion, invited), and from then on (mostly) foreswears the illegal actions to which his rivalry with Scrooge sometimes drove him. I have a feeling Rockerduck doesn't keep the title for very long either, but unlike Flinty, he takes it quite well once he loses it; he wanted his moment in the sun and he got it, but in his case Scrooge's absence means he can actually move on from the whole thing.

Magica reacts yet a third way by growing increasingly despondent. Not only has she got no idea where the Dime could have gone even if Scrooge is still alive (Scrooge covered his tracks well, and does have connections on the supernatural scene by now, ones who can ward him magically), but with Scrooge gone, "richest in the world" is fast becoming what it is in the real world — a pretty empty bit of trivia, rather than the definition of a unique figure. She spends some time trying out the "witchy fun for witchcraft's sake" approach to life that her centuries-old hedonist friends Madam Mim and Witch Hazel recommend, but it's just not for her, not yet anyway — witchcraft has always been a means to an end to her, and a leopard can't change its spots. Because she's contrary like that, she eventually decides to try to "go normal" and give up on magic altogether, more out of desperation than anything. She thus moves to Duckburg, tries to get a job, and even, for the first time in her life, tries to date people — but she has no practice with doing things the normal way, and even if you put aside her reliance on magic, she's lying to herself if she thinks she can ever be a "normal person". Throughout these events she keeps bumping into Gladstone, and running like hell because she thinks hanging around Scrooge's Supernatural Nephew would kind of cut against the grain of what she's trying to do. But, of course, he's precisely the one person she needs in her life, and basically you've got a screwball comedy ending in a Duck-flavored Bewitched reboot.

Magica and Gladstone's marriage, of course, heralds the end of the endless Donald-Daisy-Gladstone sitcom, and what's more, coincides with HDL going off to some high-end boarding school. Donald and Daisy, consequently, have no more excuses to delay their engagement, eventually realize this, and get married. The wedding itself is a slapstick disaster involving at least three different accidental fires, and most of the wedding cake ends up on Daisy's wedding dress, but they're happy anyway. (Ludwig officiates the marriage, insisting that somewhere in his collection of degrees and diplomas is a license to do so. It may or may not be true, but no legal expert dares try to argue with him, so the wedding is functionally legit even though the "marriage certificate" is actually scribbled on the flipside of Ludwig's shopping list.)

Donald continues to work unrelated odd-jobs, but a combination of no longer having to pay for HDL's expenses (before anyone asks, they obviously get really good scholarships so tuition is a non-issue) and the slow but real takeoff of Daisy's writing career (which is also helped by no longer having to deal with the emotional stress of the whole Gladstone thing) means that the couple enjoy a higher standard of living than they were previously used to from now on. Their life as a couple is strained by one fact: Donald isn't at all sure he wants to have children of his own at this point, as HDL very much occupy that place in his heart and he doesn't know if he can, or wants, to make space for another. Daisy, on the other hand, never had such a strong connection to AM&J, and does want kids. Conveniently, Mrs Beakley dies around this time with Webby still quite young and in need of a foster home; Donald and Daisy are only too eager to adopt her. The other thing is that Donald and Daisy, being the lovable idiots they've always been, keep trying to keep their identities as the Duck Avenger and Super Daisy a secret from one another, though they're feeling increasingly guilty about this. Within two weeks of living with them, Webby figures out that both of her new parents are superheroes, and in accordance with all the old traditions, “truth comes out of the mouth of babes”.

Back in Mouseton, the power-vacuum of the Beagle Boys' near-dissolution means a lot of the overcrowded Mousetonian criminal underworld relocates to Duckburg, where (being married and raising a daughter and all) the Duck Avenger and Super Daisy are nowhere near as busy as they used to be. Peg-Leg Pete, Scuttle & Co.'s departure gives Mickey and Minnie the peace of mind to follow their best friends' example and tie the knot as well, and this time Mickey's wedding is a genuine success. There is a man at the wedding, accompanied by a young daughter, whom neither Mickey nor Minnie recognizes, but both assume it's a distant relative of the other one and they think no more of it. Only upon leaving the after-party does the Phantom Blot take off his rubber mask. The Phantom Brat asks: "was your wedding with mommy that nice?" Beneath his hood, the Blot is tearing up, but no one can tell.

Gyro Gearloose accidentally crashes in the Himalayas while testing a new form of super-fast, fuel-free airborne transportation and is widely believed to be dead, but has in truth ended up in Tralla La, still very politically and ideologically unstable from the wringer the Ducks put it through last time(s). After spending some time just enjoying the Tralla La life and renewing his mental health, Gyro gets to inventin' again, but is careful not to breach the law of separation from the outside world (God knows he can relate with the natives' wish to be left alone). He becomes their de-facto leader after the death by old age of the old llama from Return to Xanadu, becoming a sort of "Great Wizard of Oz" figure. A long time from now, the high-tech utopia of Tralla La will once again make contact with the outside world, but not within Gyro's lifetime, not even close. One is free to imagine that Gyro marries while in Tralla La, perhaps starting a dynasty of some sort, or not. At any rate, back in Duckburg, the Little Helper is (after much legal hullabaloo) recognized as the first non-organic American citizen by Judge Owl, who confesses that the non-verbal ten-inch tall wire-frame man is the most reasonable human being he has ever had cause to talk to during his long career as a Duckburgian justice. As such, being Gyro's "son" as far as the law is concerned, he inherits all of presumed-dead-Gyro's stuff, including the lab. The lab becomes a bit of a shrine, but the Helper is also practical enough to document, test, improve and publicize all the amazing inventions Gyro had left lying around; over a period of several years, of course, but by the end of those years the world at large no longer has to worry about things like renewable energy sources, and robot rights have become mainstream.

Dickie Duck, after graduating with honors from Coot University, is still not sure what to do with herself — when she begins receiving cryptic letters signed G.G., filled with codes and hints and treasure maps. She takes the hint and spends several years travelling the world. She spends some time on the ship of a very distant relation, Moby Duck, to whom she is introduced by her Uncle Papudo; when she parts with Moby, it is over the matter of whether she is prepared to sink herself into that "seafaring adventurer" role completely and give up her life on Earth, as Moby, not getting any younger but refusing to give Captain Hook the satisfaction of dying of old age, elects to sail his ship to Neverland and sail the Neverseas forever (or close enough) rather than become another landbound sea dog in a retirement home. 

Hence, Dickie returns to Duckburg, older, more adventurous, and wiser and… still not entirely sure what to do with her life, honestly, in time for the final G.G. letter giving her the coordinares of White Agony Creek. Only that letter is signed in full — Grandfather, Grandmother. She shows up at the cabin to find that Scrooge has looked upon her with new eyes, upon finally being told by Goldie that yes, you doofus, when a man and a woman love each other very much in a cabin in 1898, there are consequences, and that the consequences lived a happy (if short) life, and that the consequences had, herself, a daughter, whom you have met, you big dolt. Dickie spends some time vacationing with her grandparents in the hidden valley, and receiving their wisdom; when she parts with them, it is with a sealed letter from Scrooge. That letter is a will, supposedly a "lost" one written before his supposed "death", wherein which he acknowledges her as his kin and as his heir; provided she talks it over with HDL first (at her own discretion), Dickie has his blessing to have the "new will" officially recognized — or not. (HDL are still minors and the McDuck Fortune, save for the cash in the Money Bin, has been in trust, in the joint control of Elvira and Matilda.) Dickie's final return to Duckburg in time for HDL's 18th birthday (funny how these things work out) coincides with the actual death of Scrooge McDuck, a few hours after she left the Klondike — à la Fergus in the L&T. Goldie lives out her days, though not very many of them, in White Agony Creek, making increasingly frequent contact with the ghost of Scrooge McDuck, who is waiting for her to join him so that they can go join the coterie of ghosts at the Castle McDuck. Eventually, she dies too, and they do. Cheeryble dies on the same day as his twin brother, alone in the wilderness, yet happy in his own way. Gideon is also dead by now but I have no solid idea as to how or why.

Ludwig von Drake finally wins a Nobel Prize for… something… and dies content a year or two after Scrooge and Goldie. This is, in a dark way, fortunate, as Matilda McDuck had ben hiding some dreadful disease (cancer?) from him; her death is not long after his, and although tragic on its own terms, she is at least happy her wonderfully childlike Ludwig did not have to live as a widower. With her last relative of her generation having now passed on, and her grandchildren now raising families of their own, Grandma Duck feels e'er more distant from the world; her last goal before she dies a quiet and dignified death is to make sure someone responsible takes on the farm (she couldn't bear to see it modernized, let alone torn down — but bless the lad, she does not trust Gus with running the place). She unexpectedly finds the ideal candidate in the form of Fethry Duck, for whom an obsession-of-the-week with farming turns into a genuine affection for the farm animals and for the land; and sure, he insists on repainting the barn a garish color, but she can live with that so long as he treats Bossy well. (If you're wondering: yes, Fethry did indeed paint over the Triple Distelfink. This has no effect on Gladstone, but there will be no more Lucky Ducks born into the family… not until a few generations down the line when Fethry's haphazard coat of purple paint peels away, anyway.) Grandma fades away peacefully. After her burial, attended by the entire extended Duck family and a number of other Duckburgs and Quacktowners, Gus Goose feels no more attachment to the Farm, finding Fethry's way of doing things exhausting just to look at; he runs off with Cissy Swan, whose love turns out to be less superficial than he'd dare imagine, and he lives out his days as her stay-at-home trophy husband. She does insist on his (gasp!) dieting sometimes, but he is still one happy goose all in all.

Back in Mouseton and skipping ahead a good number of years, a graying Mickey eventually winds up as the new police chief after the death of Chief O'Hara, with Goofy as his Casey. Mickey is as embittered as you could imagine Mickey being (which, granted, isn't that mournful and brooding in the grand scheme of things) by the fact that Minnie died ten years into their marriage, sacrificing her life to save him from one of the Phantom Blot's death-traps. The Blot wound up in the Mouseton morgue not too long after that with a bullet through his heart, and most of the Mouseton Police Force is convinced that Mickey did it, but this is not actually true, for all that the angle of the shot seems to rule out suicide. No, the Blot did kill himself all right — by stepping into one of his own death traps after Mickey had cleared the scene. Only trouble is, this puts Mickey at odds with the Phantom Brat (who doesn't call herself that, of course), now a noble-minded Arsène Lupin-esque lady thief, who, though she shies away from violent crimes in general, does carry a pistol — one black as night — inherited from her father, with one bullet in it at all times, meant for her father's murderer. 

Huey, Dewey and Louie are, by now, either in charge of McDuck Enterprises, or (if they let Dickie have it/if Dickie chose to have it) the joint grandmasters of the Junior Woodchucks. Either way, they gear their research towards space travel. Sheer progressivism? A wish to follow in the footsteps of their "late" mother? Or have they got reason to believe that she may be out there, somewhere? They're not telling — but it is thanks to them that humanity finally makes stable, recognized contact with alien life, if only within the Solar System. The envoys of Earth, the civility of whose inhabitants has been talked up by Muchkale following the whole 20th-Carat Moon thing, receive a hero's welcome on Venus, and Donald's past adventures (*cough* Uncle Scrooge's Money Rocket *cough*) also ensure no conflict is had with Jupiter. Saturn, on the other hand, remains what it always was, and it is the Woodchuck Space Fleet which ends up leading the final assault against an aging but still altogether bloodthirsty Rebo, ending with Rebo being flung into the Sun, his genocidal tyranny ended once and for all.

Soon, technology reaches such levels, and alien beings walking around the streets of a Earth becomes such a common sight, that the semi-hidden magical world stops seeing any point in hiding itself, if it even could. Old and gray, Mickey doesn't even bother faking his death (as he once thought he would have to) to retire from his job in the Mouseton Police to succeed the late Yen Sid as the enchanter in his no-longer-hidden Castle; his turn to be a(n unusually squeaky-voiced) mentor. To what young student of magic? Who knows! That's another story. Because here is where I leave you, with an Earth no longer recognizable as any version of our own, and familiar characters either old and changed, or dead altogether. It's still the same world, and the same few immortals are still kicking about (Witch Hazel is having a blast on Mars), and there are still stories to tell — there will always be. But they shan't be Disney comics anymore.

---

Mar 4, 2020 23:13:05 GMT That Duckfan said:

(the ladies' group is a Dutch invention, I think?)

I don't think so? You see it all the time in 1960's and 1970's American stuff. In French it's the club féminin, I'm not sure what the English name was. But it is a thing. Yet another potential thread topic, at that.

[Matilda]

There is much I cannot go along with in your future Duckburg, MacDuck, but I had *great* fun reading it!

I do like your version of what happens with Glomgold and Rockerduck after Scrooge and his bin disappear. I can't accept HDL leaving home until they go away to college, though. Was it in Astrup's "Unlucky in Luck" that the boys express their horror at the prospect of boarding school? And in my Duckworld, Dickie/Paperetta is Goldie's granddaughter but not Scrooge's, and her parents are still alive, living in Italy. (Goldie's daughter, a fine singer herself, met an Italian singer at school/work somewhere and married him and went to live with him in Italy; Paperetta came to Duckburg for college.) Because Not All Parents Die Young.

Hard to imagine anyone keeping Grandma Duck's farm going in the 21st century, unless they run it as an organic farm that supplies the Duckburg farmers market. On the whole, her beloved animals would not survive her, so it's Eggetha's free-range descendants who lay the eggs for the market.

I don't have much of a sense for what happens to all these characters after the 1960's. I do like to think that Huey, Dewey and Louie inherit Scrooge's fortune and use it for good--lots of environmental initiatives, lots of wells in dry places, and of course college tuition for everyone in Shacktown. I don't mind Gyro ending up in Tralla La and helping to create a Wakanda-like high-tech paradise, but I don't think he would at all enjoy running the place. And the saddest thing in your whole scenario (given that I don't really care about the Mice, so Minnie's early death doesn't bother me) is the separation of Gyro and Helper. Neither one could possibly be happy without the other! Wherever they end up, on this planet or another, I am confident that they end up there together.

[Matilda]

When I try to think about what happens to Magica post-Scrooge, I imagine that it's a teenage Minima who comes through for her, helping her reorient her life. Perhaps Minima could get her to revisit her alt-selves from Pandini's "Amelia e le due numero 1" to realize that she has other choices available to her. Mim doesn't have any contact with Magica in my Duckworld, and Hazel doesn't exist, so their advice does not play a role here. And while I hugely enjoy Sarah Jolley's comics, she hasn't convinced me of the Magica/Gladstone pairing. I'd kind of like it if Minima could reframe Magica's long fruitless pursuit of the #1 Dime as a noble quest à la the quest of the Grail (which also was largely a failure)--perhaps in a documentary for the Sorcery & Witchcraft Summit's film festival, which would make Magica an honored figure in that world. After all, the pursuit of the Dime led Magica to discover countless forgotten spells and develop numerous clever attacks; no quest whose goal was achieved could have led to so many magical advances.

[Hector]

Mar 4, 2020 23:13:05 GMT That Duckfan said:

I like the idea of the Ducks living in a floating timeline relative to their first appearance. I don't really think of the future as being in one particular time period (in fact, a recent Italian comic shows the evolution of Duckburg centuries into the future), rather, X years after the "present". I'll add in Don Rosa-esque years to give everybody an idea of the timeline, but it's more meant to give an evocation of the era than any direct links. You could put in any year you like, really.

Say, for the sake of argument, that the floating timeline decouples when Barks announces his retirement: in 1966.

1967.

Grandma dies of old age, and the Duck family gets together on the old farm once a year in memory of her.

1968.

Gus hires a new farm hand, a young woman, and soon enough they get romantically involved. However, she turns out to be even more gluttonous and lazy than he is, as well as a little crazy. After a narrow escape, Gus says goodbye to the countryside and becomes a vegetarian chef in downtown Duckburg.

1970.

Daisy's diary details how she and her girl friends (the ladies' group is a Dutch invention, I think?) get more and more involved in feminist activism. Women's liberation! Donald feels increasingly estranged from her, and initially suspects she's finally gone for Gladstone. But Gladstone is feeling quite the same. The men try one last big romantic gesture for her, but get humiliated, and they're called out by the feminists for their antiquated notions of masculinity. They confront Daisy at a rally, but she remains evasive.
But Daisy has waited for too long. When Donald and Gladstone decide to go to Daisy's house in person and find she's not home, the person at the door introduces herself as Daisy's girlfriend. They've been going steady for a while, in fact.

Donald becomes a practicing Buddhist.

Gladstone is not ready for Daisy's girlfriend, and especially not ready with how easily Donald is taking it. Gladstone craves having the last laugh, being able to rub it in. The more he wins, the more he falls into depression. It feels tiring, choking, and nobody can understand. Misunderstood and alone, Gladstone takes his life, only to find that in heaven the gemstones rain from the clouds, every girl falls for him immediately, and his whole life is simply turned up to eleven. Thankfully, this turns out to be a dream.
Gladstone meets up with Fethry, who introduces him to drugs the bohemian lifestyle. Gladstone goes on a trip to India to find himself.

1973.

Scrooge has something of a breakdown over the oil embargo and economic crisis, his life flashing back to that time when he accidentally set off Black Thursday. Worst of all, after finally burying her romantic feelings for him, Brigitta MacBridge has started a business downtown and is steadily outcompeting him. The two finally reconcile, finding a kind of mutual respect and understanding in their professional rivalry. Officially, they never into a relationship, but Brigitta is accepted as an honorary member of the Duck family.

1974-75.

When Huey, Dewey, and Louie finally turn 18, Donald reveals to them their true parentage. Their mother Della married a Central European prince back in the day. But their royal upbringing did the kids no favors, so Della decided to send them to live with their uncle Donald in order to grow up in a normal environment. Also, it being 1937 Europe, it was thought safer if the children were brought up far somewhere far away from all these dictatorships. And soon enough, a dictatorship was indeed installed in the country.

It is now many years later, and the dying dictator wishes for the country to be transferred back to a monarchy. Unfortunately, with Huey, Dewey, and Louie being triplets, it's unclear who would get to wear the crown. They decide to briefly rule as a triumvirate, in order implement the necessary democratic and parliamentary institutions. Finally, they resign from their position to go to college and work as environmental activists.

However, being a triumvirate, they were unable to legally abolish the monarchy, meaning that the crown now goes to the nearest of kin: uncle Donald Duck. Donald transforms the monarchy into a republic, with him as its figurehead president. Donald is reluctant to stay on much longer, but his popularity with the people ensures a long career as elder statesman.

1977.

Scrooge and Brigitta pass away.

Gladstone returns from India to inherit Scrooge's fortune, because, well of course he does. He toys with the idea of taking the company public, but decides instead to appoint a board of directors and use the money for philantropy. Every once in a while, Fethry and Hustler get the opportunity to pitch one of their new ideas. (Invariably, without success.)

They say that if you listen very closely every night, you can the bones of old Scrooge turning in his grave deep underneath Killmotor Hill...

Wait, if you accept 1937 as the year the nephews were sent to Donald, in 1973, they should be middle aged men.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Mar 5, 2020 4:41:14 GMT Matilda said:

Hard to imagine anyone keeping Grandma Duck's farm going in the 21st century, unless they run it as an organic farm that supplies the Duckburg farmers market.

Hence my idea of tree-hugging eccentric Fethry taking it over, which is the most realistic way I could see it surviving — being that it would just be arbitrarily sad to have it torn down after Elvira's death.

I do see the issue in Huey, Dewey and Louie going to boarding school, but equally, I felt they kind of needed to be gotten "out of the way" for Donald and Daisy's romance to proceed. 

[That Duckfan]

Mar 5, 2020 8:47:10 GMT Hector said:

Wait, if you accept 1937 as the year the nephews were sent to Donald, in 1973, they should be middle aged men.

Floating timelines...

I actually consider the characters in the "prime universe" (Barks/Gottfredson) to be aging very slowly, similar to Scrooge MacDuck's idea but more limited. So HDL are mentally about 4 years old when they make their first appearance, and gruadally age up to being on the cusp of puberty in the very latest comics (just make sense of the varying reactions towards girls they have in the comics). Donald is probably a quickly-tempered teenager in his early appearances, and gradually turns into an adult. Same goes for Mickey: compare Mickey and the gang in the early '30s to the settled surbanites of the 1950s and beyond.

It's interesting to see where people agree and where they don't. Pretty much everyone but me is convinced that the kids get Scrooge's fortune. I'm also seeing a need for people to tie up loose ends with Magica, either by falling in love with Gyro or Gladstone. I haven't decided on Gyro yet because I find it difficult to imagine where his arc would finish. I'm still spinning headcanon.


1978.

Magica DeSpell, at long last, finally gains Scrooge's first dime. Gladstone gave it to her just like that, similar to her first appearance all those years ago. She finally makes the amulet... and it doesn't work. Gladstone's explanation is that lucky charms simply don't exist, but Magica believes otherwise. Now that Scrooge is dead, the dime has lost all of its power. Sure, it still belonged to the world's richest man (Gladstone Gander), but it wasn't his first dime. Furthermore, he inherited it -- he didn't earn it!
Magica is dejected. She ditches the witching gear, and descends from Mount Vesuvius. She takes up a job as a tour guide in the Naples area, and takes acting classes.

It'll be a while -- maybe a few months, maybe a few years -- before Magica hears about Gladstone's Terrible Secret. The one dime he earned, in a moment of weakness. What power it must possess! Irresistable! And so the story begins anew, Magica taking up the witch's mantle once more, and Gladstone defending his one dime from her magical attacks.

[LP]

I really like Whatever's take on this. Most of them feels like an epilogue to the Duck universe. Some happy and some harsh, but real, endings.



I haven't really thought of the Ducks' "future" before, as in where their stories and character arcs end. Rather, I've played around with different ideas for how the Ducks could escape the status quo and sort of move forward and develop a bit. Like, Donald would eventually have enough of Daisy not being able to decide between him and Gladstone, and give her an ultimatum. And it would be nice if Daisy would actually develop a personality rather than just being "the girlfriend character", which could be a story in and of itself.

Like a few others, I too have toyed around with the idea of Magica and Gyro ending up together. Mostly because of the science vs magic-metaphor. I imagine Scrooge hiring Gyro to invent stuff more often to fight off Magica's magic, which would create some sort of rivalry between them. There would be respect developing after a while, which could eventually potentially lead to something more. That could be really interesting stuff if someone wrote it properly, and the status quo was allowed to be changed.

In the second-to-last Barks-story Gladstone was featured in, Duck Out Of Luck, we see an artistic side of Gladstone a he has done an abstract painting. Some expressionist piece, or whatever. However, the Duckburg townspeople doesn't care for it. And in The Not-so-Ancient Mariner, Gladstone has transformed into a guitar-playing beatnik. In both these stories, we see Gladstone embrace a sort of alternate and artistic life style, and in both stories, Gladstone's luck seems to fail a bit. I like the idea that, as soon as Gladstone is passionate about something, he has to really work for it and can't rely on his luck anymore. So I'm thinking that if he chooses to really pursue this, it's going to teach him a lesson, and change his character for the better. He'll grow. Maybe he'll become a semi-successful artist? Maybe he'll melt down that single coin he earned working to sculpt a work-related statue or something?
I know there are a bunch of other love-interests for Gladstone than Daisy. Unfortunately, I've been unable to read any of the relevant stories. However, I am aware that one of these love-interests kind of sucks away Gladstone's luck. And I think that would be a good development for his character too; he has to give up something dear to him in order to get something (or rather someone) he loves.

I'll do Donald next. After "the present", some version of QuackPack happens, but it's the late 50s rather than the 90s. Sooner or later, the cartoon shorts Lucky Number and How to Have an Accident at Work
take place. Seeing that Donald has different jobs in each one of these (cameraman, gas station attendant, some sort of plant worker), I assume Donald will never be able to hold down a steady job. 

I like the idea that HDL take over the McDuck business after Scrooge exits the picture. I believe this is set up in Some Heir Over the Rainbow, but I haven't read that one yet. I think I like the idea that Last Sled to Dawson is chronologically the last we see of Scrooge, but I'll have to re-read it with that in mind.

Finally, it would be nice if the Beagle Boys actually succeeded in stealing Scrooge's money. But after having a taste of the rich life, they would realize that their lives no longer have any purpose. All this time they've tried to steal money. Now what? Just lie on a couch and watch I Love Lucy? No, that's not the Beagle way. Maybe they'll all go to college or something, to find new meaning in their lives.

[LP]

Mar 5, 2020 15:15:39 GMT That Duckfan said:

Magica DeSpell, at long last, finally gains Scrooge's first dime. Gladstone gave it to her just like that, similar to her first appearance all those years ago. She finally makes the amulet... and it doesn't work. Gladstone's explanation is that lucky charms simply don't exist, but Magica believes otherwise. Now that Scrooge is dead, the dime has lost all of its power. Sure, it still belonged to the world's richest man (Gladstone Gander), but it wasn't his first dime. Furthermore, he inherited it -- he didn't earn it!
Magica is dejected. She ditches the witching gear, and descends from Mount Vesuvius. She takes up a job as a tour guide in the Naples area, and takes acting classes.

It'll be a while -- maybe a few months, maybe a few years -- before Magica hears about Gladstone's Terrible Secret. The one dime he earned, in a moment of weakness. What power it must possess! Irresistable! And so the story begins anew, Magica taking up the witch's mantle once more, and Gladstone defending his one dime from her magical attacks.

I like how you use Gladstone's coin here! Your version of Magica is stuck in some tragic cycle. I like it!

However, Magica isn't after Scrooge's first coin because it's his first coin. She's after it because her "tests have shown that coins which have been touched by very rich men possess rewarding powers". And since Scrooge has owned his first coin the longest, she assumes that's the one he has touched the most. Thus, that one would give her the most power.
Gladstone locked his coin away as soon as he earned it. He almost never touched it. 

[Matilda]

Mar 5, 2020 15:34:28 GMT LP said:

Mar 5, 2020 15:15:39 GMT That Duckfan said:

Magica DeSpell, at long last, finally gains Scrooge's first dime. Gladstone gave it to her just like that, similar to her first appearance all those years ago. She finally makes the amulet... and it doesn't work. Gladstone's explanation is that lucky charms simply don't exist, but Magica believes otherwise. Now that Scrooge is dead, the dime has lost all of its power. Sure, it still belonged to the world's richest man (Gladstone Gander), but it wasn't his first dime. Furthermore, he inherited it -- he didn't earn it!
Magica is dejected. She ditches the witching gear, and descends from Mount Vesuvius. She takes up a job as a tour guide in the Naples area, and takes acting classes.

It'll be a while -- maybe a few months, maybe a few years -- before Magica hears about Gladstone's Terrible Secret. The one dime he earned, in a moment of weakness. What power it must possess! Irresistable! And so the story begins anew, Magica taking up the witch's mantle once more, and Gladstone defending his one dime from her magical attacks.

I like how you use Gladstone's coin here! Your version of Magica is stuck in some tragic cycle. I like it!

However, Magica isn't after Scrooge's first coin because it's his first coin. She's after it because her "tests have shown that coins which have been touched by very rich men possess rewarding powers". And since Scrooge has owned his first coin the longest, she assumes that's the one he has touched the most. Thus, that one would give her the most power.
Gladstone locked his coin away as soon as he earned it. He almost never touched it. 

I agree with LP that That Duckfan's use of Gladstone's dime is very clever and satisfying. I'm sure some way could be found to explain why Magica chases after it, in a way that accords with the Barksian mythos...which was itself not always self-consistent in terms of the dime's power for Scrooge and attractiveness to Magica.

LP's story won't work for me personally because Gladstone doesn't inherit Scrooge's money in my headcanon, but I do think it's a wonderful idea.

[That Duckfan]

I guess my headcanon is more focused on telling a story (what I was talking about in the other thread) than extrapolating from the present. I'd much rather see characters end up in ironic/unexpected places, and not too utopian. Gyro's not going to solve world hunger, he's only Gyro. I think he'd much rather take over Ludwig's role as science educator, as seen in Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. A kind of Bill Nye meets Carl Sagan. (I actually have a specific Dutch TV presentor in mind: Chriet Titulaer. Gyro would rock that beard.)
Similarly, I think HDL are simply too young to say how they're going to turn out. I'd hate to send them off to some elite college or give them Scrooge's money. I know they're often the voice of reason in the comics, but that's partly "wisdom from a child" and partly "we read this in the JW guidebook". I don't see them as naturally inclined to academia or sports, or anything. They're a bit of a blank canvas, except when it comes to the Junior Woodchucks (and in this day and age, I think Barks' late pollution-focused JW stories are as good a guide as anything). I know they're favored by many artists to get Scrooge's fortune, but they're only children. Who knows how they'll grow up. Who knows how Donald and Gladstone will grow up.

So yeah, I'm mainly looking to resolve tensions. I'm not pairing up Donald and Daisy, I've seen them be terrible to one another. And it's just not in Donald's nature to "get the prize" in the end. I want to give Daisy some agency, after decades of being treated as an object and a prize for men. Introducing a bisexual relationship for her is not only provocative, it also fits with the endless heeing and humming in her relationships with men. She cared more about the look (bringing Donald to socials and that) than about the actual relationship.

Huey, Dewey and Louie's story is another in-joke. Disney turns everything into princesses, it just does. It explains the secrecy from the parents' point of view, and just generally my love for the Ruritanias of this world. Donald resolving his anger management issues seems nice, I'd like to see him mellow into old age. Getting a job as a diplomat of all things, and a stable one at that, is just icing on the cake. But his fortunes only change after he's come to terms with himself and gets out of that old rut. Maybe he stays the same all throughout his life, but that would be a little sad. And the future shouldn't be sad. Not in Duckburg.

[Matilda]

My future for Gyro is very boring, but that's because I believe he's the kind of person who *likes* boring. All he wants is the freedom to continue inventing. I see him as continuing to invent happily until the day he dies. I do think he learns to take a bit of time off and go fishing with Donald more often, as indicated in Korhonen's Mr. Gearloose Leaves Town. From the events of that story on, he fits in more relaxation and friendship, and is less stressed out by Scrooge's abuse. Once Huey, Dewey and Louie inherit Scrooge's fortune, they will pay him to come up with green inventions, and he'll be happy as a clam. Some of them will work, many of them will produce unexpected complications, but other scientists will build on the parts that work and produce practical advances that help rescue the environment. We know from McGreals/Rota's Little Helper Lost that Far-Future Duckburg has a science museum named after him!