Interesting characters who have been terribly misused

[Orora]

I, for one, would say, Abner "Whitewater" Duck.

In his first story (in 1962), Log Jockey, he barely interacts with Donald. Whitewater immediately gets him to replace him in a competition. And... not much else apart from the competition.


In his second appearance (2004! More than 40 years later!), Smarter than the Toughies, he gets a bit better, but in antagonistic role that kinda comes out of the blue, where he competes against Donald and Scrooge at the side of cousin Douglas. He might as well have been a different character.


His third appearance (2012), Too Many Donalds, has him married engaged with dating Donna Duck. That's kinda weird, but it's nice to see the two of them together! Plus, it seems we'll see more of them! But he doesn't appear much in the story... although he kinda feels antagonistic to Donald (mostly because Donald shows attraction to Donna).


AND Don Rosa's family tree shows Whitewater is Fethry's brother. There doesn't seem to be any reference to this relation anywhere else.


He has been used a bit more than your regular obscure character, but it hasn't produced much... after all, don't we all wish here that Duck family ties were more explored and developed?

EDIT: Nope, not married! LOL

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Dec 3, 2017 15:56:06 GMT Orora said:

His third appearance (2012), Too Many Donalds, has him married with Donna Duck. That's kinda weird, but it's nice to see the two of them together! Plus, it seems we'll see more of them! But he doesn't appear much in the story... although he kinda feels antagonistic to Donald (mostly because Donald shows attraction to Donna).


AND Don Rosa's family tree shows Whitewater is Fethry's brother. There doesn't seem to be any reference to this relation anywhere else.

Donna and Whitewater, married? Uh, I don't think so. From what I read of Too Many Donalds, it seems like they were just dating ala Donald and Daisy…

As for the Fethry/Whitewater siblinghood, for what it's worth, the Tumblr Side of the Fandom has adopted the idea and likes to put out fanart and such of Whitewater as the tough big brother who'd stand up for bullied oddball Fehtry when they were kids. 

[Orora]

Dec 3, 2017 16:03:52 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Dec 3, 2017 15:56:06 GMT Orora said:

His third appearance (2012), Too Many Donalds, has him married with Donna Duck. That's kinda weird, but it's nice to see the two of them together! Plus, it seems we'll see more of them! But he doesn't appear much in the story... although he kinda feels antagonistic to Donald (mostly because Donald shows attraction to Donna).


AND Don Rosa's family tree shows Whitewater is Fethry's brother. There doesn't seem to be any reference to this relation anywhere else.

Donna and Whitewater, married? Uh, I don't think so. From what I read of Too Many Donalds, it seems like they were just dating ala Donald and Daisy…

As for the Fethry/Whitewater siblinghood, for what it's worth, the Tumblr Side of the Fandom has adopted the idea and likes to put out fanart and such of Whitewater as the tough big brother who'd stand up for bullied oddball Fehtry when they were kids. 

Oh, they weren't married? I am guessing "engaged", then? My mistake.
Then again, they like to use the word "fiancé/fiancée" even for a simple "dating" relationship...

Well, once again, it seems it's up to the fandom to actually remember and develop human/family relationships between cartoon/comic characters.

Considering it took more than half a century to get real development between Donald and Della's relation...

And according to some people who work at Disney, not mentioning Della and her relations with Donald or HDL is more of a self-imposed restriction rather than a veto by the company.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Dec 3, 2017 16:13:26 GMT Orora said:

Dec 3, 2017 16:03:52 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Donna and Whitewater, married? Uh, I don't think so. From what I read of Too Many Donalds, it seems like they were just dating ala Donald and Daisy…

As for the Fethry/Whitewater siblinghood, for what it's worth, the Tumblr Side of the Fandom has adopted the idea and likes to put out fanart and such of Whitewater as the tough big brother who'd stand up for bullied oddball Fehtry when they were kids. 

Oh, they weren't married? I am guessing "engaged", then? My mistake.
Then again, they like to use the word "fiancé/fiancée" even for a simple "dating" relationship...

Yeah, the French version does say "fiancée", but I took it in the same loose sense as how Mickey and Minnie or Donald and Daisy are "fiancés" — it's just dating with no promises made. Donna doesn't strike me as the type to tie the knot, anyway. 

[Baar Baar Jinx]

I've never liked the idea of Whitewater and Fethry being brothers, mainly because Barks described Whitewater as Donald's "distant cousin", and Rosa's family tree has Whitewater and Fethry be his first cousins. Of course, Rosa doesn't truly believe Fethry even exists, so I suppose we have his blessings to ignore the relationship altogether, although in my headcanon, I'd leave Fethry where he is (son of Uncle Eider and Donald's first cousin) and branch Whitewater out somewhere as maybe a son of one of Humperdink's brothers' sons or some such (both Fethry and Whitewater are "real" in my headcanon, just not brothers). I accept nearly everything Rosa depicted on his family tree as canon, except for the placement of Whitewater and his unofficial pairing of Ludwig and Matilda (for reasons we've discussed at length on other threads). Neither the Fethry-Whitewater nor the Matilda-Ludwig relationships have been officially confirmed in any stories, of course (although I suspect it's just a matter of the since it seems that anything Rosa says is automatically accepted as canon by most publishers).

[Orora]

Dec 3, 2017 16:39:15 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Dec 3, 2017 16:13:26 GMT Orora said:

Oh, they weren't married? I am guessing "engaged", then? My mistake.
Then again, they like to use the word "fiancé/fiancée" even for a simple "dating" relationship...

Yeah, the French version does say "fiancée", but I took it in the same loose sense as how Mickey and Minnie or Donald and Daisy are "fiancés" — it's just dating with no promises made. Donna doesn't strike me as the type to tie the knot, anyway. 

I was surprised Donald actually mentioned Manuel Gonzales, who was shown as Donna's new boyfriend (fiancé?) in her last comic strip appearance.


And Donna saying "you know, lovers come and go...".
The kind of continuity references that big fans can do!