Dewey Duck is Trying His Best, You Guys
Okay, I’ve seen a lot of “OMG DEWEY’S SO RECKLESS AND INCONSIDERATE AND SELFISH AND HE NEVER TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING”
And I’m not saying Dewey isn’t reckless. I’m also not saying he doesn’t suffer from a mild case of Middle Child Syndrome and craves attention. He definitely is all of those things. Reckless, confident, and constantly trying to prove himself is a basically a good sum up of his character.
But people seem to be glossing over a few things in order to hate on Dewey. And by glossing over, I mean ‘completely overlooking his entire character development throughout the series’.
So here’s a comprehensive list of things that y’all are skipping over-
“GUYS LIKE HIM… GUYS LIKE ME, WE HAVE TO PUT ON A SHOW AND FAKE IT BECAUSE SMART GUYS LIKE YOU ARE SO GOOD AT MAKING IT.”
AKA: The episode Dewey reveals that he feels inferior to Huey.
So Dewey kind of overtook Huey’s dream here and worked under Mark Beaks. Understandably, Huey is furious, and Dewey knows it. Given the circumstances, it would have been much easier to place the blame on the money-hungry jerk bird and Project Ta-Da, however Dewey knew that Huey’s real issue wasn’t with M.B., but with him. So rather than continue the statement and make the problem about Mark Beaks, Dewey changes the ‘him’ in the sentence to ‘me’, meaning he knows that he was the problem and admits it, i.e. taking responsibility for his actions.
“I’M SORRY. I JUST KNEW I COULD, SO I-”
AKA: The episode tries to prove himself worthy to Scrooge.
Upon seeing how angry Scrooge is, Dewey does actually try to apologize before he is interrupted. This whole episode, Dewey had done nothing but support Scrooge and try to participate in his interests. He steps out of line once and Scrooge explodes, even Webby looks disappointed in the old duck. However, Dewey knows he took the club just to prove he could take the shot and realizes that he shouldn’t have because it upset Scrooge, and therefore says he is sorry, i.e. apologizing for a mistake that he made.
“UH… SO LISTEN, THINGS GOT A LITTLE OUT OF HAND. SURE, I WANTED ATTENTION, BUT I DON’T KNOW…”
“NO, I’M SORRY. WITH SO MANY PEOPLE, IT’S EASY TO… GET LOST IN THE SHUFFLE.
AKA: The episode where Dewey literally just wanted to tell everyone a story.
Despite the fact that he had been ignored all day, Dewey still acknowledged that he acted recklessly out of anger, dangerously so. Not only does he admit that things got way too out of hand, he also apologizes for ever getting so caught up in needing attention from them. Keep in mind that he is a ten year old child, it’s natural for them to need attention sometimes. Even when Huey scolds him for not communicating his needs, Dewey stands silently and listens. Then respectfully apologizes for inconveniencing his family, i.e. realizing that sometimes people are too busy to give him the attention he wants at the time.
“I SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU GUYS FROM THE BEGINNING. GOOD OR BAD, WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.”
AKA: The episode Dewey realized keeping secrets wasn’t the best option.
This one bugs me a lot. Never in the series did we see Dewey operating with motive other than keeping his brothers from feeling upset. Not even when he was alone did we get any sign that ‘feeling special’ was his intent, especially since he looked so miserable throughout most of it. So I was really surprised that, when Huey suggested that Dewey operated with secrecy in order to ‘feel special’, everyone seemed to jump on that bandwagon. I guess we’re forgetting the times he was nearly crying, confused, upset, and having an existential crisis about whether or not his mother was a good person. And yet, despite Huey’s unsupported argument about his motives, Dewey still admits that he should have told them what he knew immediately, i.e. learning that keeping things to yourself can still be considered selfish even if you had good intentions.
“I GET WHY YOU NEVER TOLD US ABOUT OUR MOM. AND I GUESS I SHOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT WHEN WE LOST HER, YOU LOST HER TOO.”
AKA: The episode Dewey makes amends with Uncle Scrooge.
Fueled by the wise words of Uncle Donald about family, Dewey tells his Great-Uncle Scrooge that he is no longer angry, and understands that Scrooge must of been going through a lot of stress because of Della’s disappearance. He had been working the Della Duck Mystery long before his brothers, but Scrooge had been looking for her for years. Making sure Scrooge knew that he was no longer upset was important enough to Dewey that he told him in the middle of a battle. Though Dewey is still clearly torn up about his mother, he still takes the time to assure Scrooge that he isn’t mad, i.e. taking his Uncle’s feelings into consideration.
“I HAVE A LOT OF APOLOGIZING TO DO WHEN I GET HOME.”
AKA: The episode Dewey understands that holidays are meant for family.
While grilling Donald about not spending time with Della on Christmas, he realizes that he had been doing pretty much the exact same thing. His reasons for isolation, however, were vastly different than Donald’s. Donald was attempting an edgy punk personality, whereas Dewey genuinely just felt bad. Most likely, he kept himself holed up to not bring down everyone else’s mood, but he still came to realize that ditching his family without explanation on the holidays, no matter how bad he felt, wasn’t okay and he needed to apologize for it when he got home, i.e. admitting that he did something wrong and need to make amends.
Inconsiderate? Selfish? Never takes responsibility? Are you for serious? Again, I know he’s reckless, and I know he’s definitely a little overconfident sometimes. But please stop overgeneralizing his character as “selfish inconsiderate child”, because he has really done so much to grow as a character and it sucks that people aren’t seeing it.