#timephoon

The Section for Ducktales will discuss an aspect of queer relationship I haven't seen discussed much in animated spaces--the intersection of queer relationships and characters and adoptees.

Other works like The Owl House, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Rise of the TMNT, and Ducktales to name a few have a great deal of overlap with several of their queer or queer coded characters as well as adoptees under their care and responsibility.

Additionally many of them feature characters who face some form of abuse or neglect from their birth parents who are then influenced by, adopted by, or implied to be adopted by some other characters.

Queer representation, especially in children's media already faces a great deal of stigma and censorship, which is why so many showrunners and production staff face difficulty and get creative with how they present queer characters within the narratives.

Ducktales throughout its entire run also discusses a great deal of adoption despite its own episodes, artbooks or interviews often even recognizing that that's what they're discussing in the first place.

In particular, the triplets are in a form of adoption known as Kinship adoption (or possibly kinship caregiving--the series unsurprisingly isn't interested in the legal details of their affairs, which is fine.)

One of the biggest sources of discourse in the series originates from the episode Timephoon which also in part deals with dynamics from adoptee spaces which is a major theme of the second season.

The most noteworthy discussion point by far though is the series finale, which from the time of its airing until now has been talked about as to whether or not it properly executed a "found family" narrative, which in many ways I feel demonstrates the limitations of the term with respect to adoptee representation.

Ducktales presents a case where adoptees are made both hypervisible and invisible at the same time.

This isn't to say "found family" is without value, especially given the value it carries in the context of queer spaces utilizing it to describe the experiences from abuse within our families.

But the series finale makes much more sense if instead of trying to fit it into the mold of a "found family" story we instead look at it as an adoptee story and use that language to describe the events that unfold.

The section will look at how queer and adoptee communities, two historically stigmatized, censored and oppressed communities overlap with one another and how more media can portray respectful interactions that uplift each other while properly recognizing the more complex feelings adoptees can hold.

A lot of the more complex feelings often get obscured by the limited understanding and ways non-adoptees often approach adoption, which translates into media portrayals too.

This will also look at Disney's role in utilizing orphans and adoptees and how it perpetuates a very limited idea of what adoption looks like and what feelings adoptees may express.

Third, it'll focus on kinship adoption dynamics as the triplets are rarely discussed as if they are adoptees, with particular focus to Louie's reactions and tension in season 2.

I still wanna know what the heck Launchpad saw in the future that made him react to Louie’s remark like that. There was only one person we know of who did something this similar to taking the Time Tub. 

So, why would Launchpad seem to have...someone other than Della in mind...?

I think that scene was a lot less likely about him suddenly forgetting the story of Della taking the Spear. While I do suspect him of having memory issues, I think he actually overheard it as it was explained in “Last Crash” as opposed to HDL simply telling him about it afterwards. In "Shadow War", he emphasized that it was the boys who blamed Scrooge rather than accepting it as fact.

When the show was running, I was seriously hoping we would see Future!LP again...After "Timephoon!" aired, I thought he was foreshadowing the Moonvasion. When he didn't show in that finale, I then thought, "Oh, ok, he's going to show up in the one for Season 3!". There was all this "end of the world" stuff coming up over and over again, and Launchpad even had a surprising trend in the first half of the season...but that wasn't it either? And where was the eclipse? It appeared every other season...

I've been coming across comments here and there saying that the cancellation of the series caused the third season to stray away from what the showrunners originally intended. (Possibly mentioned in both the deluxe artbook and the Gallery Nucleus panel. I haven't read that version of the book...yet? I plan to watch the latter eventually.) I'm pretty sure it effected the things I'm wondering about, because based on other amusing instances in this show...I don't think it was just some random gag, or a cool element they didn't think much of; it's very notable that they did this with Launchpad of all characters. And the eclipse was too consistent to not happen a third time...especially with the Moon's focus increasing after Della's return...like...huh?? What was that about?!