Anonymous asked: I feel like you're the only person I actually trust with characters these days- so how do you think the new DuckTales show should handle Gladstone?
Woah that’s a big compliment, also a big question! I’m sure I’ll be happy with what happens (I mean shucks I’m just glad it is happening), and besides I am just me I’m no writing expert. Having said that there are some hit/miss things I feel could easily happen with Gladstone, so I guess here’s my perspective;
Best case scenario: Accepting and embracing Gladstone as morally grey and using the benefits of a ‘wild card’ character. Now, it’s to be noted that I’m not expecting any character development or exploration for him, at least not in the first season. This show is probably going to be introducing him as a brand new character, as a lot of people (in the USA at least) have never heard of him, so most likely he’ll be introduced and set up simply as a rival to Donald. So far so good and fair enough, but what I’d love to see is the show taking advantage of this rare gift of an unusual character who is a power of self-interest. Gladstone can swing to either side of the good/bad spectrum depending on circumstances, but ultimately wouldn’t do anything to seriously jeopardise his family, or anyone else for that matter. There’s also the joy that ‘fairness’ plays into what happens to him and Donald; when Donald cheats, Gladstone wins outright. When Donald is honest and works hard, even if Gladstone wins the race or wins the prize, there is something that happens to makes it clear Donald actually came out a lot better than Gladstone did. Ideally, for me, the show would gradually lead to indications that Gladstone is a deeply isolated character; not simply because it makes sense psychologically, but because narratively it’s a very compelling source of story material, and gives his personality a great deal of intrigue. Whether they play it that Gladstone is aware of this loneliness or not doesn’t matter, but removing that aspect of melancholy from him reduces him to a very two-dimensional character, and not in the cartoon sense.
Worst case scenario: Pushing Gladstone into the vapid, annoying, just-plain-unlikeable antagonist corner. Similarly, making him too much like Glomgold- Glomgold fits well into the ‘evil twin’ stereotype and doesn’t much care if Scrooge and his nephews suffer (or even die, in some stories). Glomgold will do anything to win, whereas Gladstone certainly likes to win, but wouldn’t go out of his way to hurt Donald to do so (he’s too lazy, for one). They are opposites; Donald is unlucky, wildly passionate, and will work very hard if he has to, whereas Gladstone is lucky, aloof, and avoids work where-ever possible. He’s not a bad guy, he’s simply not a particularly good guy either; the ultimate chaotic neutral. My fear is that this subtlety could be run over in favour of just making him into an evil ‘anti-Donald’, which would feel lazy and destroy his appeal even as an antagonist. All the ‘bad guys’ in the Duckverse have some redeeming quality, some extra angle that makes you love them- you kind of want the Beagle Boys to get into the Money Bin, because they try so hard, and they’re adorable! You want to see Magica De Spell get hold of that dime, because she’s exciting, outrageous, and the stakes are so high! All I wish for is that Gladstone not simply be ‘the person that you hate because he’s an ass’- because then people won’t even love to hate him, it’ll just be a knee-jerk reaction of ‘oh god not this guy again’ whenever he shows up, which isn’t enjoyable on any level. We need to want to see Gladstone’s hilariously absurd luck- we need to want to see him fail because he hasn’t earned the right to win- and most of all we need to want to see him do the right thing, because as unusual as it is we know it’s possible- and that makes it infinitely rewarding when it happens.
(Tiny personal fear which is petty as hell: An annoying voice. Please, god, he’s supposed to be attractive and is canonically good at singing don’t give him an annoying voice. Make him brassy and brash sure but please...)
