Favorite Character (23/???)
Ghost of Christmas Past (”DuckTales”, 2017)
“Nostalgic for a fight that started a minute ago?! Now THAT’S living in the past! Let’s do it!”
Christmas Time is here, everyone! And I hope it’s a good one for everyone of you! Personally I was pretty drowzy all day long, but aside from that me and my family had fun, but that’s beside the point. There’s another way I want to celebrate Christmas, today: talking about a small buggy spirit that knows a thing or two about them days gone by.
This is the Ghost of Christmas Past (or just Past), and alongside his fellow ghost friends (Present and Future), his work is supposed to make grouchy people understand the true meaning of the festivities, and this works everytime so whoever learned their lesson ends up with a new appreciation for the festivities and spend these special days with their families and loved ones… which means they have no reason to meet up with the ghosts ever again.
Now, Present (who’s always jolly and fun loving) and Future (stoic and relaxed) accept this as part of their job without a problem, but for Past it’s a different story: little guy actually desires to have a lasting bond with someone, but year after year they (he) get ditched by a reedemed meiser and get left alone, and this only left him getting more and more cynical about Christmas being celebrated with families, something he kept all to himself without ever saying a word to his fellow spirits.
Then everything changed when they met up with Scrooge McDuck (while they were looking for a different Scrooge): the richest guy in the world, back then, had no reason to celebrate Christmas with his family, so he instead spent the day with the ghosts, which was so fun they kept coming, year after year, to meet up with him, and this drove Past to feel a special bond with Scrooge: finally! Someone who’s fun and won’t abandon him!
All was well and good, but then Scrooge started reconnecting with his nephews, so much so that he spent one Christmas climbing up a mountain with the kids, and this, as we later learn, made Past feel very agitated: now that the family is getting back together, Scrooge won’t ever come back to see him! What to do, what to do??
So, next Christmas, he made sure that Scrooge actually got to appreciate how good Christmas was back in his days when no family was around, which at first sounded great for the old duck, but then he realized that family does indeed bring energy and warmth to his life… too bad for him, this was not inteded as a lesson from Past: the ghost wanted to keep him trapped so they could spend the eternity in the past together with him. Of course, Scrooge steals his Timebrella and leaves Past in.. the past for a the very least a decade, which made the ghost so desperate that he turned into a Wendigo, of all things, and kept searching for Scrooge.
Luckily, the moment he finds Scrooge he finally sees just how much he cares about his family, and reverts back to his original form, deeply ashamed for what he done; even better, the old duck forgives any past mistake, and now things are serene between the two of them.
As you can see, Past may look cheery and pleasant, but deep inside he let resentment and fear of abandonment fester his heart and made him do bad things; despite that, he’s hard to find him despicable: for one thing he’s genuinely easily enthusiastic (being voiced by Wander himself does that to you), and he did see Scrooge as his only friend and he didn’t want to lose him. Poor guy even got transformed into a Wendigo: fear of abandonment + 10+ years of solitude is not a good combination, emotionally speaking. Finally now everything was fixed, and hopefully his ghost friends will be there for him for the following years.
So, I like Past because, even during his most villainous moments, he’s very much an energetic bug: while his behaviour towards Scrooge wasn’t the best, he still feels sympathetic to me, as he just wants to be among friends who won’t abandon him. He’s also cute looking, so there’s that…
So, with this post, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, in hopes you have fun right now, you get wonderful days to come, and many things to learn from past events, so to get ready for 2020.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
