Oh You Better Believe Im Making Fanart Of This Guy.

Oh you better believe I’m making fanart of this guy.

Concept Glomgold art by Tim Moen

Scrooge n’ Flinty

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Heya! So, as mentioned in the tags of my most recent art post, I’ve finally gotten around to watching Ducktales (2017)!

Tonight, I just watched The Golden Spear! (Season 2, Episode 11), and as much as I love Della’s mission to come back home, I’m also HUGELY freaking out over Ducktales finally showing molting!

Google’s Definition:

Molting; (of an animal) shed old feathers, hair, or skin, or an old shell, to make way for a new growth.

I LOVE it when ducks do duck things!! A quick elaboration — I love it when animators and writers take the time to add basic quirks from real life animals and add it to the animated character. In a way, I believe it makes the character more “real” and it’s honestly so satisfying to see.

Just got out of a lake for a swim? Rapidly shake to get rid of the water sitting on your feathers. Are you super excited to see someone/something? The tail is wagging super fast because you can’t contain it!! When given certain feral aspects, I really think that it makes the character more whole. From humans, we can expect regular, or overexaggerated behaviour. However, if you see a character do a small quirk, like Dolores (From Encanto) walking quietly as to avoid too much noise, then it’s a quirk that adds to their persona. It works for animated ducks just as well!

Some quick Google searching can tell you that ducks molt because they’re shedding old feathers to create new ones, just like how a lizard sheds its old skin to create newer, healthier skin. By molting feathers, it helps to replace damaged feathers that could negatively affect the insulation and water resistance they provide. Plus, newer feathers have brighter colours, which aids in finding new mates.

However, this episode focuses on stress molting. I’ve tried looking around for some information, but it appears I’d have to do some deeper research if I’d want to get into specific causes from the body itself. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do that right now. The way I think of stress molting is like when humans lose their hair because of stress — It’s just a natural reaction to a stressful environment. However, I don’t know the different sciences behind each stress molt, so I’m not sure there’s any connection. It’s just seemingly similar circumstances to me.

Anyways, the point I’ve been building up to here is that while I’m sad that Donald is overly stressed in this episode to the point where he molts, I’m ecstatic that they’re finally including features like these! In my free time (and admittedly some of my not-so-free time), I’ve had a lot of ideas about how molting would work for Disney ducks. So now that I get to actually see evidence of it occurring canonically, it’s really exciting!! I have a ton of questions that I wish I could find out the canonical answers to. For example: Do ducks isolate when they molt, or is it so common that the public is unbothered? Maybe they try to cover up exposed skin? When molting, would there be any factors that could affect the mood of the molting duck? Things like that, plus simpler ones like if a duck is molting, would they keep some of their feathers for sentimental value? Even if I don’t get the answers to these, there’s always headcanons.

It doesn’t stop at molting, though. I also have a soft spot for when the characters make reference to their bodily features, like their tail or their bill, like it’s just everyday talk. That’s because it is for them! They’re anthro ducks!

“I’m freezin’ me tail feathers off!” - Glomgold

This is from Raiders of the Doomsday Vault (Season 2, Episode 13), and I’m crazy about it already. I can’t wait to see what else the upcoming episodes hold in store!

Yo