Since people have asked about the Ducktales Bushroot idea Iāve been cooking up, I figured Iād gush the entire thing here. And look! It comes with pictures! Blame the lateness of this on my two jobs, they run me ragged I tell you what
So seeing as how Darkwing Duck is technically a tv show in the Ducktales universe, thatād mean the villains would end up with vastly different backstories too (as did Drake Mallard and Jim Starling in āThe Duck Knight Returnsā).
So for Bushroot, or in this case Tino Moss, why not make him the only child to the part time actor/script writer Pete Moss - who played the Bushroot character on the TV show.
Ever since he could remember, Tino would tag along with his dad to the studio (since Peter was a single father and had no one else to look after his son while he worked). Itās here he got to meet the cast and crew to the show, all of which, save for one, were super nice to a shy little boy always hiding behind his fathers legs. Because of this, Tino grew to love watching the finished episodes and even began to idolize the main character a little, saying how heād one day grow up to be a super hero too! But upon meeting Jim, and being rudely brushed aside, he soon realized itās best not to meet your idols (I imagine Jim was just as self absorbed like in the Duck Knight Returns and wouldnāt pay a small fan any mind during the height of his popularity).
After being coldly rebuffed, it was then Tino turned his sights on being a super hero in a completely different way, deciding to become a doctor instead. Pete would often joke he should become a botonist like the Bushroot character (that heād low-key based on his sons personality), but Tino shrugged it off with a laugh and aimed to be a traditional one instead, preferring to become a family physician.
Years passed and in his final stages of his clinicalās, itās then he received the devastating news that his father had fallen terminally ill. It was a heavy blow to see the once exuberant duck he loved so much slowly fade into a shell of his former self. At this point Tino took time off from his career to tend to his father, despite the loans and bills quickly piling up, the two spent a majority of their time watching old episodes of Darkwing Duck and reminiscing about a time when things were happier.
Eventually the inevitable day came when his father passed, destroying Tino emotionally. Heād been the only remaining family he had left, and after his death he was left with no one. The time spent tending to his father had become his whole life, and any other relationships outside of that heād sadly neglected to the point his friends had moved on or away.
It took him a while to get back into the medical field, having to retake his clinicalās all over again and even though the work was fulfilling in a way (distracting him enough not to think about the loss) he still wasnāt entirely happy with his life, struggling with the mounting bills and loneliness thatād started to creep in. Itās then Jim Starling practically materialized out of the clear blue, having had tracked down his address and wondered if he would like to meet and catch up.
Tino is hesitant at first, remembering the blowhard from his childhood and didnāt know if he wanted to revisit that chapter of his life again, but when Jim makes mention of his dad, of all the good times they had on and off camera, the former star eventually brings the other duck around enough the two sit down for a good, long chat.
They reminisce about the show, the actors, where everyone is at the moment. Jim mentions on several occasions how heād been trying to reboot the Darkwing Duck series and asks if heād be interested in reprising his fathers role as the mutated plant monster.
Tino laughs it off, admitting he isnāt much of an actor, or a writer for that matter, but if he ever wanted some pointers for the episodes he still had his dads old scripts archived in the attic.
After that Jim comes and goes infrequently, usually to ask scientific mumbo jumbo about the whole āmutating a Duck into a plantā thing, which Tino does some research between work and sleep just to appease what he considers a friend at this point (going so far as to getting ahold of a scientist in the Saint Canard Universityās agricultural department for some additional insight). He passes the information off to Jim and thinks nothing else of it until the former star makes a surprise visit one day.
He tells him he has it all set up for the big shoot, inviting Tino down to see the studio for himself. Curiosity gets the better of him, and despite needing to get some rest for work tomorrow, he joins the other duck on the long car ride, a bit unnerved to see itās in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city.
Any questions he poses regarding safety - or why anyone in their right mind would want to set up a shoot here - is quickly brushed aside, Jim telling him he was aiming for a darker, grittier Darkwing Duck, hence the change in scenery. They head inside to find what appears to be a fully functioning lab, Tino excitedly looking over all the instruments, commenting about how realistic it was. As he stands beside the operating table, itās then he is suddenly whacked upside the head, knocked out cold for who knows how long.
By the time he comes to, heās strapped down, wires running over and through him. He pleads to know whatās going on, gasping to see Jim in an off color version of the Darkwing costume leering over him. The former actor explains that after he saw the news of what went down in Saint Canard, the ram rod incident and the other dimensions villains running amuck on the streets, he realized he needed his own Fearsome Five by his side if he ever planned to rule the city.
Seeing as how Pete had passed away and the other actors were far to old or out of reach to reprise their ārolesā, heād set out to replace them with newer, younger versions, starting with Tino.
Panicking, and realizing what exactly he planned to do to him as the liquids start to pump into his body, Tino breaks free before Negaduck can fully flip the conversion switch.
He manages to run a good distance from the factory, picking his way through the unfamiliar streets of Saint Canard as his body begins to grow more and more sluggish the further he walks. It almost feels like heās going through every stage of sickness all at once. Chills, hot flashes, nausea, dehydration. He asks for help several times to passerbyās only to have people take one look at his green complexion and lurch away in fright. Some even out right flee, especially when near by trees or other plants spring to life around them. They, along with Tino, run in fear, he finally stopping long enough to catch his breath and get a good, hard look at his reflection through a shop window. Horror spreads across his face. A face that is his own but not in so many ways. It almost resembles the make-up his father used to wear during shoots but oh so different, oh so wrong! Deep in the pit of his stomach he knows this isnāt fake, this isn't a dream, itās real. The mutation is real, and with people gasping, crying and running, this will be his new reality if he canāt find a way to reverse it!
Through several more mishaps and misunderstandings, dodging both panicking citizens and Darkwing Duck, he eventually finds himself cornered in a building by the Saint Canard police force (who mistakenly believe heās just as dangerous as the other dimensions Bushroot).
Itās here Tino is once again confronted by Negaduck, and though he yells at the one behind all this, for forcibly mutating him into a monster and how he wonāt get away with it, his words are cut short when Negaduck laughs, pointing out he shouldnāt be angry at the only person willing to embrace him now. He offers one last time for Tino to join the Fearsome Five, sneering that if he refused, heād never be a normal duck again.
When Tino asks what he means, Negaduck explains that heād kept all the notes, all the formulas, everything he did to turn him into a mutant plant duck was written in a journal, stashed away for safe keeping. If he ever planned on reverse engineering a formula to turn himself back, heād need that journal. But if he refused to cooperate, than heād have no problem destroying it and leaving Tino as he was.
With no other choice, Tino finally agrees, reluctantly starting down the path of villainy.
And thatās how I figured you could have a sympathetic Bushroot character that stayed in line with the āheās not technically a villain per say,ā category while having him justified as to WHY heās a villain at all.
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