WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We're really thrilled 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.299 you're joining us today. Yeah, absolutely thrilled 00:00:04.299 --> 00:00:06.700 to be here. So, I want you to picture a very 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:12.759 specific scenario. Have you ever fallen completely 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:15.820 down a Wikipedia rabbit hole researching a fictional 00:00:15.820 --> 00:00:18.859 universe? Oh, definitely. More times than I care 00:00:18.859 --> 00:00:21.260 to admit. Right. And you realize about, say, 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:24.870 three hours in... that this entirely imaginary 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:28.309 world has more historical depth, more complex 00:00:28.309 --> 00:00:32.570 genealogy, and honestly, significantly more intense 00:00:32.570 --> 00:00:36.130 drama than most real -world royal dynasties. 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:39.189 It is a very specific, highly addictive kind 00:00:39.189 --> 00:00:41.469 of internet rabbit hole. You go in trying to 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:44.270 confirm a minor detail from a comic book you 00:00:44.270 --> 00:00:46.570 read 20 years ago, and you come out with a master's 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:48.890 degree in imaginary Scottish history. That is 00:00:48.890 --> 00:00:51.009 precisely the journey we are taking you on today. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:54.259 We are exploring the massive, surprisingly meticulous, 00:00:54.259 --> 00:00:57.560 and downright hilarious Wikipedia page for Clan 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.320 McDuck. It's a fantastic page. We are tracing 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.140 the sprawling fictional lineage of the McDuck 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:05.680 family. A lineage that, according to the official 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:08.200 lore, stretches all the way back to the ancient 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.000 city of Sagbad in the year 2050 BC. Which is 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.459 just a staggering timeline for a comic book. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:16.719 I mean, it is an incredible piece of world building. 00:01:16.819 --> 00:01:19.420 It really is. And our mission today is to extract 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:22.700 the absolute best nuggets of this massive family 00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:26.140 tree. We want to look at how generations of stingy, 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.219 temperamental, and wildly adventurous ancestors 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:31.840 paved the way for the modern ducks we know so 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.569 well. Because beyond just being a fun, quirky 00:01:34.569 --> 00:01:38.109 history, this deep dive provides a genuinely 00:01:38.109 --> 00:01:40.829 profound look into the psychological roots of 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:43.060 the world's richest fictional waterfowl. Okay, 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.219 let's unpack this. To understand how this massive 00:01:45.219 --> 00:01:47.359 family tree even exists in the first place, we 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.239 have to look at the real -world architects behind 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:51.540 it. Now, you already know Karl Barks. The absolute 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:53.939 legend. Exactly. He's the legendary comic book 00:01:53.939 --> 00:01:56.659 author who introduced this entire mythology back 00:01:56.659 --> 00:02:00.219 in a 1948 story. It was called The Old Castle's 00:02:00.219 --> 00:02:03.000 Secret. Barks spent decades creating this universe. 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:07.299 But from what I understand, he wasn't exactly 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:10.020 keeping a meticulous spreadsheet of historical 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:13.229 dates when he was... writing these weekly comics 00:02:13.229 --> 00:02:16.110 no not at all barks was a storyteller first and 00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:18.949 foremost he would drop little hints about ancient 00:02:18.949 --> 00:02:21.729 ancestors or random historical events simply 00:02:21.729 --> 00:02:24.310 because the immediate plot demanded it right 00:02:24.310 --> 00:02:26.710 he needed a ghost or a lost treasure for that 00:02:26.710 --> 00:02:29.150 week's issue exactly he wasn't trying to build 00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:31.689 a perfectly consistent historical timeline i 00:02:31.689 --> 00:02:33.789 mean he did sketch out a rough family tree in 00:02:33.789 --> 00:02:36.389 the 1950s but that was just for his own personal 00:02:36.389 --> 00:02:38.490 reference just to keep the character relationships 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:41.520 somewhat straight yeah But it was incredibly 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:44.180 loose. So that looseness lasted for decades, 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.340 all the way until the 1990s. Then the publishing 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:50.180 house, the Egmont Group, approaches another writer 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:53.060 and artist named Don Rosa. And Don Rosa was a 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:55.159 massive fan of Karl Barks. Right. So they hand 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:57.580 Rosa this incredibly ambitious assignment. They 00:02:57.580 --> 00:02:59.520 basically tell him to end decades of narrative 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.319 contradictions, create a cohesive family tree, 00:03:02.460 --> 00:03:04.800 and write the definitive biography. Which is 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:08.620 a tall order. A huge order. This project ultimately 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.960 became the legendary 12 -part comic saga, The 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:15.259 Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. But the methodology 00:03:15.259 --> 00:03:18.099 Rosa used to write this, that is what completely 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:21.199 blows my mind. Oh, his methodology is what elevates 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:23.379 this from a simple comic book to an absolute 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:26.180 masterclass in world building. Rosa didn't just 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.580 invent a new history out of thin air. No, he 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.020 did the research. He meticulously studied all 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:34.120 of Bark's old stories to find what he coined... 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:37.520 Barksian facts. I love that term. Barksian facts. 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:40.870 It's brilliant. Every single time Barks had offhandedly 00:03:40.870 --> 00:03:43.530 mentioned a date, a historical event, or a long 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.449 -dead ancestor in a comic from, say, the 1950s, 00:03:46.449 --> 00:03:49.389 Rosa logged it. He treated those scattered throwaway 00:03:49.389 --> 00:03:51.689 jokes as historical primary sources. Like an 00:03:51.689 --> 00:03:53.710 archaeologist. He was essentially acting as a 00:03:53.710 --> 00:03:56.229 real -world archaeologist, painstakingly weaving 00:03:56.229 --> 00:03:58.530 these disparate clues together to make a cohesive, 00:03:58.689 --> 00:04:01.370 airtight history. Which brings us to the ancestral 00:04:01.370 --> 00:04:03.509 seat of this whole dynasty, where so many of 00:04:03.509 --> 00:04:05.669 those Barksian facts take place. Yeah. Castle 00:04:05.669 --> 00:04:21.449 McDuck, picture this massive, foreboding... And 00:04:21.449 --> 00:04:24.310 this castle, it has seen a tremendous amount 00:04:24.310 --> 00:04:26.670 of drama over the centuries. For hundreds of 00:04:26.670 --> 00:04:28.730 years, it served as the home of the clan chief. 00:04:29.389 --> 00:04:31.639 But... The McDucks didn't stay there forever. 00:04:31.939 --> 00:04:34.860 Right. Things took a turn. In 1675, they were 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:37.079 actually run out of the castle entirely. They 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:39.759 completely abandoned their ancestral home. And 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:41.860 why did they leave? Because they were terrified 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:44.759 by the depredations of a monstrous devil dog 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:48.259 roaming the dismal downs. A giant glowing hound 00:04:48.259 --> 00:04:50.300 on the moors. But this wasn't actually a supernatural 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:53.180 event, was it? Far from it. It turns out this 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.800 was a highly orchestrated plot by their bitter, 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:59.019 centuries -long rivals. Clan Whiskerville. Exactly. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:02.720 Clan Whiskerville used this fake hound to scare 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:04.939 the McDucks away from the territory. You really 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:08.779 have to appreciate a good, petty, multi -generational 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:11.870 feud. So the McDucks scatter. They move down 00:05:11.870 --> 00:05:13.949 into the village of McDooch and eventually into 00:05:13.949 --> 00:05:16.269 Glasgow, though they technically retained ownership 00:05:16.269 --> 00:05:18.370 of the castle. Yeah, they actually pooled their 00:05:18.370 --> 00:05:21.370 meager funds just to pay the taxes on it. That 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:23.790 is dedication. But I really want to look at the 00:05:23.790 --> 00:05:25.930 ancestors who lived in that castle before they 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:28.449 were chased out. Because the post -classical 00:05:28.449 --> 00:05:31.610 McDucks are fascinating. They are defined by 00:05:31.610 --> 00:05:34.350 an extreme frugality that borders on complete 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:37.639 self -sabotage. What's fascinating here is how 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.079 these historical anecdotes function within the 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.399 larger story. They aren't just one -off jokes. 00:05:42.699 --> 00:05:45.540 They establish a genetic legacy. A bloodline 00:05:45.540 --> 00:05:48.939 treat. Extreme capitalism, stubbornness and frugality 00:05:48.939 --> 00:05:51.360 are quite literally baked into the bloodline. 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:53.879 But Roseanne Barks are constantly showing us 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:56.240 how this obsession with wealth often led directly 00:05:56.240 --> 00:05:58.199 to their downfall. Let's talk about Sir Ider 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.639 McDuck to illustrate that point, because his 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.759 story is hilarious. He was the chief of the Klan 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:05.899 during an Anglo -Saxon invasion in the year 946. 00:06:05.939 --> 00:06:09.160 Right. Which is wild because England and Scotland 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:12.529 had literally signed a peace treaty in 945. So 00:06:12.529 --> 00:06:15.110 the treaty lasted a year, and now Sir Eider's 00:06:15.110 --> 00:06:18.529 castle is under a massive siege. How does he 00:06:18.529 --> 00:06:21.470 handle the defense? He handles it terribly. He 00:06:21.470 --> 00:06:23.449 actually gets killed during the siege because 00:06:23.449 --> 00:06:26.670 his own serfs abandon him. Just walk off the 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:28.850 job. They abandon him for a very specific reason. 00:06:29.189 --> 00:06:32.290 Sir Eider completely refused to buy them arrows 00:06:32.290 --> 00:06:34.350 to defend the castle wall. He thought arrows 00:06:34.350 --> 00:06:36.470 were too expensive. He simply thought they cost 00:06:36.470 --> 00:06:39.470 too much. And on top of that, he was only paying 00:06:39.470 --> 00:06:43.060 his serfs collectively? 30 copper pieces an hour. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:46.860 30 copper pieces for an entire army of serfs. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.920 He valued his copper more than his life, and 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.600 it cost him the castle. It is such a brilliant 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:55.740 distillation of the character archetype. Then 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:57.720 jump forward a bit, you have Sir Murdoch McDuck 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:01.199 in 1066. The lore says he was the businessman 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.980 who actually patented the longbow. A very lucrative 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:07.079 patent in 1066. Exactly. When the Normans invaded 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:09.360 England, he saw a massive business opportunity. 00:07:09.899 --> 00:07:12.259 He had the Normans sign a contract so he could 00:07:12.259 --> 00:07:14.500 supply them with enough longbows to fight off 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:16.579 the invaders. But he couldn't help himself. He 00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:19.680 had to squeeze them. He did. The Normans ultimately 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:21.800 didn't have enough arrows for those longbows 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:25.160 because Sir Murdoch decided to charge extra for 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:28.259 the ammunition. He left his own clients completely 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:31.199 under -equipped just to squeeze a few more coins 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.259 out of them. We should at least give Sir Murdoch 00:07:33.259 --> 00:07:35.360 credit for one major historical contribution, 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:39.189 though. He's the ancestor who decided to modernize 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:42.949 the family name from McDooch to the much punchier 00:07:42.949 --> 00:07:46.290 McDuck. Which stuck forever. Right. But wait, 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:48.250 if they were so obsessed with hoarding wealth, 00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:50.569 how did they ever lose their fortune? Because 00:07:50.569 --> 00:07:52.209 weren't they one of the richest clans in Scotland 00:07:52.209 --> 00:07:55.120 at one point? They were. Absolutely. Until Sir 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:58.160 Roast McDuck came along. Sir Roast. In 1189, 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:01.720 Clan McDuck was incredibly wealthy. But Sir Roast 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:04.639 made a catastrophic financial decision. He offered 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:07.100 a massive portion of the clan's accumulated wealth 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:09.560 to King William the Lion of Scotland to help 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:12.319 pay tribute to Richard I of England. Wow. This 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:15.300 single act of patriotic generosity basically 00:08:15.300 --> 00:08:18.399 bankrupted the clan for generations. Just wiped 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:20.519 them out. And his story doesn't end there, does 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.920 it? No, it gets much darker. Sir Roast was a 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:26.879 massive glutton. After ruining the clan financially, 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.300 he maintained his massive appetite. In 1205, 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:33.460 he raided the king's pantry and literally ate 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:36.419 himself to death. What a way to go. If you visit 00:08:36.419 --> 00:08:39.320 Castle McDuck in the comics, his memorial suit 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:41.740 of armor is permanently holding a knife and fork 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:44.179 in its hands. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.840 Because the source material doesn't just stick 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.600 to military blunders and gluttony. It gets deeply 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.639 weird and highly eccentric. Let's talk about 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:55.120 Sir Donald McDuck, better known as Black Donald. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:57.940 Black Donald is a phenomenal character. He earned 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.080 that nickname because he possessed an incredibly 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:03.080 foul, uncontrollable temper. A temper we definitely 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:05.620 see later in the family line. Exactly. And according 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:08.740 to the lore, in the year 1440, Black Donald invented 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:11.200 the hammer throw, the caber toss, and the game 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:14.080 of golf. He invented golf. which sounds like 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.960 a proud Scottish legacy, except his famous temper 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:19.440 made it a total disaster. Oh, an absolute disaster. 00:09:19.940 --> 00:09:22.299 He was so notoriously angry on the golf course 00:09:22.299 --> 00:09:25.440 that James II of Scotland actually had to outlaw 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:28.320 the sport entirely. His rage literally changed 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.039 national law. And speaking of bizarre legacies, 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.000 we absolutely have to talk about Sir Quackley 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.440 McDuck in 1057. King Macbeth, yes. That Macbeth 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:40.840 offered Sir Quackley a massive treasure chest 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:43.740 in exchange for his clan's support in a war for 00:09:43.740 --> 00:09:45.960 the throne. Quackley agrees to the terms, he 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:49.000 takes the treasure, but he becomes so intensely, 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.679 incredibly paranoid about protecting this new 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:54.440 wealth that he accidentally traps himself inside 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:56.759 the castle walls with it. He builds a wall around 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:59.120 himself. He literally walls himself in and dies 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.919 there. But death doesn't stop him. He becomes 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:04.720 a ghost, and he plays a massive role much later 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.509 in the timeline. Jump forward to 1877 and Sir 00:10:08.509 --> 00:10:10.950 Quackley's ghost actively saves a young member 00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:13.570 of the clan from the rival Whiskervilles. Right, 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:15.669 he intervenes. And without revealing who he actually 00:10:15.669 --> 00:10:18.470 is, this ghost suggests that the young duck traveled 00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:21.110 to America to make his fortune, which acts as 00:10:21.110 --> 00:10:23.690 the direct catalyst for the entire modern era 00:10:23.690 --> 00:10:25.970 of the story. It's the spark that starts the 00:10:25.970 --> 00:10:28.269 whole American journey. Quackley even tries to 00:10:28.269 --> 00:10:31.169 intervene again in 1885, but he bungles it and 00:10:31.169 --> 00:10:33.210 accidentally brings about a temporary death for 00:10:33.210 --> 00:10:35.639 his descendant. I love that sequence. There is 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.919 this beautifully surreal scene where the protagonist 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.320 is temporarily in heaven and Quackley is getting 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:44.879 fiercely reprimanded by all the other deceased 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.820 McDuck relatives for interfering in earthly events. 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.960 The bureaucracy of cartoon duck heaven is a wonderful 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.240 detail. It's so creative. It's so good. But before 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.259 we completely leave the ancient history behind 00:10:56.259 --> 00:10:59.960 and head to America, we have to cover Hugh Seafoam 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:03.019 McDuck. because his story establishes so much 00:11:03.019 --> 00:11:05.059 of the modern psychology of the family. Captain 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:08.960 Seafoam is a very pivotal figure. By 1727, the 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:11.120 clan had long been driven from dismal downs, 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:14.679 so Seafoam settles in Glasgow and turns his attention 00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:17.620 to the sea. He becomes a highly successful merchant 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:20.600 and acquires his own magnificent ship. The Golden 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:23.000 Goose. The Golden Goose. He is incredibly successful 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.240 until 1753. That's when he signs a fateful contract 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:29.200 with a merchant who is literally named Swindle 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.320 McSue. You'd think the name would be a red flag. 00:11:31.659 --> 00:11:34.879 You would think. Seafoam is contracted to deliver 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:38.379 a cargo of horseradish to Jamaica. But Swindle 00:11:38.379 --> 00:11:41.840 McSue actively sabotages the Golden Goose. The 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.649 ship sinks to the bottom of the ocean. When Sifon 00:11:44.649 --> 00:11:47.149 manages to drag himself back to Scotland, he 00:11:47.149 --> 00:11:49.350 discovers the horrifying truth about the contract 00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:51.769 he signed. A fine print. The fine print gets 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:53.990 him. Because the horseradish shipment wasn't 00:11:53.990 --> 00:11:56.850 completed, a clause in the contract dictated 00:11:56.850 --> 00:11:59.350 that Seafoam had to forfeit all of his worldly 00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:02.570 possessions to McSue. Everything. Seafoam lost 00:12:02.570 --> 00:12:05.070 absolutely everything he had built. He escaped 00:12:05.070 --> 00:12:07.269 with only the clothes on his back, a silver pocket 00:12:07.269 --> 00:12:09.190 watch, and the golden dentures in his mouth. 00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:11.450 That is just devastating. It is devastating, 00:12:11.590 --> 00:12:14.250 but think about the thematic weight of that specific 00:12:14.250 --> 00:12:16.570 detail. Think about the struggles we see with 00:12:16.570 --> 00:12:18.950 the modern characters in this universe. You have 00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:21.490 an intense generational paranoia about getting 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:24.720 swindled by fine print. Right. You have the uncontrollable 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.700 anger issues of Black Donald. You have the self 00:12:27.700 --> 00:12:30.600 -sabotaging obsession with treasure of Sir Quackley. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:33.500 The creators are explicitly showing the reader 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.320 that the modern duck's famous rage and greed 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:39.000 aren't just quirky personality traits. They are 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:42.019 deep historical generational curses. Exactly. 00:12:42.019 --> 00:12:44.000 Curses that they have to actively fight against. 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:46.580 Which perfectly transitions us into the 19th 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:49.899 century and the immediate family tree. We start 00:12:49.899 --> 00:12:52.980 with the paternal grandfather, Dirty Dingus McDuck. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.279 Dirty Dingus. Dingus worked his life as a coal 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:58.480 miner and married Molly Mallard. Fun piece of 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:00.820 trivia for you, listener. Her maiden name is 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:02.940 the exact same as the title character of the 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.320 cartoon Darkwing Duck. A nice little Easter egg. 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:09.259 Dingus and Molly have three sons, Jake, Fergus, 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:11.879 and Angus. Let's talk about Angus for a second, 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:14.860 because his life reads like a massive Pulp Fiction 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:16.899 adventure novel. Oh, Angus Pothole McDuck is 00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:18.990 larger than life. He migrates to the United States 00:13:18.990 --> 00:13:22.090 in the late 1840s. By 1850, he's working as a 00:13:22.090 --> 00:13:24.350 cabin boy on a Mississippi riverboat called the 00:13:24.350 --> 00:13:26.809 Drennan White. Which sinks. The boat tragically 00:13:26.809 --> 00:13:29.309 sinks, and Angus is the sole survivor. But that 00:13:29.309 --> 00:13:31.789 doesn't stop him. He keeps working the riverboats 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:34.070 and eventually gets his own vessel, the Cotton 00:13:34.070 --> 00:13:37.169 Queen. Fast forward to the era just after the 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:40.809 Civil War. Angus and a fierce rival named Porker 00:13:40.809 --> 00:13:44.710 Hog co -own a massive bankrupt southern plantation 00:13:44.710 --> 00:13:48.179 called Corn Pone Gables. Porker Hog. They completely 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:50.980 despise each other and cannot settle their differences 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:54.320 on how to run it. So in 1870, they decide to 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:56.759 settle the dispute the only way two stubborn 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:00.000 riverboat captains know how. A massive, high 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.460 -stakes riverboat race. Winner takes the plantation. 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:04.919 And the result of this epic race is that both 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:08.059 men push their boilers so intensely that both 00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:10.700 of their riverboats sink. Both of them. It is 00:14:10.700 --> 00:14:13.940 a complete disaster. A total loss. So Angus pivots. 00:14:14.299 --> 00:14:16.820 He spends the next 10 years working as a professional 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:19.519 card player on the river. He eventually wins 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:22.179 another riverboat, the Dilley Dollar, in a high 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:24.980 -stakes poker game. He even hires a young inventor 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.779 named Ratchet Gearloose as his crew before finally 00:14:27.779 --> 00:14:31.080 retiring to New Orleans in 1882. And his retirement 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:33.279 is just as wild as his career. He becomes a writer. 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:36.179 A very successful one. He pens a series of highly 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:39.259 exaggerated, incredibly popular dime novels about 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:41.879 his life called The Master of Mississippi. He 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:44.500 becomes a minor celebrity and even ends up performing 00:14:44.500 --> 00:14:47.779 in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. The lore actually 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.600 places him riding out with Buffalo Bill, P .T. 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:53.480 Barnum, Annie Oakley, and Geronimo to stop the 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:55.620 Dalton gang from stealing the show's box office 00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:59.000 money. It is pure, unadulterated pulp fiction 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.120 excellence. It really is. But as fun as Angus 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:05.200 is, we really need to shift our focus to his 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.720 brother, Fergus McDuck, and his wife, Downey 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:09.580 O'Drake, because this is where the emotional 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:13.009 core of this entire mythology really lives. Fergus 00:15:13.009 --> 00:15:15.830 was born in 1835. Unlike his globetrotting brother, 00:15:16.049 --> 00:15:18.610 Fergus spent almost his entire life as a remarkably 00:15:18.610 --> 00:15:21.330 hardworking mill worker back in Glasgow. A very 00:15:21.330 --> 00:15:24.190 different life. Very different. Downey, a devoted 00:15:24.190 --> 00:15:27.049 mother of Irish origin born in 1840, worked alongside 00:15:27.049 --> 00:15:29.649 him. They raised their family in relative poverty, 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:33.250 working grueling hours just to survive. So what 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:35.990 does this all mean? We have a cartoon duck universe. 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:38.600 famous for a character who literally swims in 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:41.320 a giant vault of gold coins. But the source material 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:44.440 grounds him with this incredibly poignant, working 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:47.080 -class backstory. If we connect this to the bigger 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:49.279 picture, the psychology of Fergus' parenting 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.700 is astonishingly deep for what is ostensibly 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:53.720 a children's comic book. It really takes you 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:56.960 by surprise. There are two massive reveals in 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:00.100 Donros' lore regarding Fergus that recontextualize 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:03.700 everything. First, consider the famous number 00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:06.899 one dime. The very first dime ever earned by 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:09.399 Shining Shoes. Kept on a velvet pillow representing 00:16:09.399 --> 00:16:11.919 the start of a massive fortune. Everyone knows 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:14.120 the number one dime. It's totally iconic. It 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.659 is. But Rosa reveals that Fergus actually supplied 00:16:17.659 --> 00:16:21.399 that dime. Wait, really? Yes. Fergus secretly 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:24.120 approached a ditch digger named Bert and gave 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:26.879 him an American dime. He specifically instructed 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:29.299 Bert to use it to pay his son for shining his 00:16:29.299 --> 00:16:31.679 shoes. Because an American dime would be useless 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:34.740 in Glasgow. Exactly. Fergus was a poor mill worker. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.320 He couldn't afford to give his son a proper inheritance 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:39.940 or a financial head start, so he orchestrated 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.159 this elaborate moment to give him a much more 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:44.639 valuable gift, the lesson of self -reliance. 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:47.139 Wow. He wanted his son to experience the harsh 00:16:47.139 --> 00:16:49.759 reality of labor and the intrinsic value of hard 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.120 work. It gives me chills to think about the narrative 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:54.580 weight of that. And the second reveal about Fergus 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:57.039 is even more staggering. We talked earlier about 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.139 Sir Quackley and the Macbeth treasure. Well, 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.639 it turns out there was another treasure. Sir 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:04.859 Simon Macduck, back in the 1400s, had been the 00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:07.559 treasurer for the Knights Templar, and he hid 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:10.940 their massive treasure deep beneath Castle Macduck. 00:17:11.589 --> 00:17:13.990 And Fergus knew exactly where this treasure was 00:17:13.990 --> 00:17:16.190 hidden. He had the key to generational wealth 00:17:16.190 --> 00:17:18.349 sitting right beneath his feet. But he actively 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:21.549 chose to hide this fact from his family. He allowed 00:17:21.549 --> 00:17:24.309 his son to leave Scotland, travel to the brutal 00:17:24.309 --> 00:17:26.910 conditions of the Klondike, and painstakingly 00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:29.250 build his fortune from absolute scratch over 00:17:29.250 --> 00:17:32.630 decades. He let him do it the hard way. Why would 00:17:32.630 --> 00:17:34.890 a father who lived in poverty do that? Because 00:17:34.890 --> 00:17:37.630 of a profound understanding of legacy. Years 00:17:37.630 --> 00:17:40.029 later, a letter from Fergus is discovered explaining 00:17:40.029 --> 00:17:43.380 his actions. Fergus knew deep down that his son 00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:45.519 would feel infinitely more fulfilled and become 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:48.039 a much stronger person by building his own fortune 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:54.460 rather than simply inheriting one. Completely 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:59.660 disguised as a story about cartoon ducks hunting 00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:03.210 for gold. It absolutely elevates the entire medium. 00:18:03.490 --> 00:18:05.950 Now, as we move into the 20th century, we absolutely 00:18:05.950 --> 00:18:08.589 cannot talk about Clan McDuck without talking 00:18:08.589 --> 00:18:10.269 about the women who actually kept the empire 00:18:10.269 --> 00:18:12.990 running. They are crucial to the story. While 00:18:12.990 --> 00:18:15.329 the men were off prospecting or fighting over 00:18:15.329 --> 00:18:17.910 riverboats, the women were the logistical backbone. 00:18:18.490 --> 00:18:20.970 We have to talk about the younger sisters, Matilda 00:18:20.970 --> 00:18:24.730 and Hortense. Yes. From 1902 to 1930, while their 00:18:24.730 --> 00:18:27.009 brother was off traveling the globe, expanding 00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:30.309 his financial empire in exotic locations, Matilda 00:18:30.309 --> 00:18:32.069 and Hortense were the ones actually stationed 00:18:32.069 --> 00:18:34.769 back in Calisota. They were managing the day 00:18:34.769 --> 00:18:37.059 -to -day operations of the empire. from Duckburg. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:39.680 They are deeply fascinating characters in their 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.339 own right. Matilda has a very calm, level -headed 00:18:42.339 --> 00:18:45.460 demeanor, which provides a stark, necessary contrast 00:18:45.460 --> 00:18:48.000 to the chaotic energy of the rest of the family. 00:18:48.180 --> 00:18:50.519 We balance them out. But Hortense is a force 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:53.160 of nature. Hortense is an absolute legend. She 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:56.319 is, notably, Donald Duck's mother, and she is 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.920 a complete spitfire. The lore states that her 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:01.799 first spoken words were literally, Bye, Scroogie. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:04.859 Before that, she communicated entirely by just 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:09.119 yelling, Just a ball of rage from day one. And 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:12.119 her fierce reputation started early. By the time 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:14.539 she is six years old, her older brother is working 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:17.880 as a cowboy for a man named Murdo McKenzie. He 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:20.319 is tasked with riding a highly dangerous, violent 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:23.960 mare that had already violently disposed of five 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:26.779 other cowboys. The horse's name was Widowmaker. 00:19:27.349 --> 00:19:30.130 He manages to tame the horse and promptly renames 00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:33.029 it Hortense in honor of his remarkably spirited 00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:35.329 six -year -old sister. A tribute which Hortense 00:19:35.329 --> 00:19:38.029 found deeply unflattering and infuriating. I 00:19:38.029 --> 00:19:40.750 would too. And her temper only escalates from 00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:44.109 there. When she is just nine years old, the rival 00:19:44.109 --> 00:19:46.569 Clan Whiskerville makes another attempt to plunder 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:49.119 Castle McDuck. Little nine -year -old Hortense 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:51.039 steps in and proves significantly more effective 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:52.900 at fighting off these grown, hardened Scottish 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:55.480 Highlanders than her adult relatives, Fergus 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:57.720 and Jake. The Whiskervilles were literally terrified 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.259 of a nine -year -old duck. But her defining moment 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.940 in the lore has to be the incident in 1902. Oh, 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:05.279 absolutely. She is stationed at Kilmotter Hill. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:07.900 The U .S. military is attempting to intervene 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:11.470 in a local dispute. Or Tence, armed with absolutely 00:20:11.470 --> 00:20:14.250 nothing but a standard household broom and her 00:20:14.250 --> 00:20:17.289 notoriously terrifying temper, single -handedly 00:20:17.289 --> 00:20:19.490 chases off the entire United States military 00:20:19.490 --> 00:20:22.750 apparatus. Including the current president, Theodore 00:20:22.750 --> 00:20:25.130 Roosevelt. The visual of Teddy Roosevelt, the 00:20:25.130 --> 00:20:27.390 hero of San Juan Hill, retreating from a duck 00:20:27.390 --> 00:20:30.230 with a broom is incredible. And just to add to 00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:33.450 her mystique, a recent 2024 comic revealed she 00:20:33.450 --> 00:20:35.950 was also an adventurer and scientist who studied 00:20:35.950 --> 00:20:38.650 apes in Africa before mysteriously disappearing. 00:20:39.259 --> 00:20:41.480 However, her story within the family dynamic 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:44.660 takes a very tragic turn. It does. In 1930, after 00:20:44.660 --> 00:20:46.519 she and Matilda had been running the empire for 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:49.000 almost three decades, there is a massive relationship 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.279 -ending fight. A severe conflict regarding family 00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:55.200 loyalty and greed permanently severs the ties 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.759 between the siblings. A real breaking point. 00:20:58.019 --> 00:21:00.279 Hortense and Matilda pack their bags and leave 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:02.579 Duckburg completely estranged from their brother. 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:05.980 It is a genuinely heartbreaking turn for a family 00:21:05.980 --> 00:21:08.920 that had survived so much together. And it brings 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:10.859 up a really interesting technicality for you, 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:14.240 the listener, regarding the family tree. Hortense 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.500 eventually met and married a man named Quackmore 00:21:16.500 --> 00:21:19.099 Duck. Which is the union that connects the Scottish 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.519 McDucks to the American Duck family. Resulting 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:24.740 in the twins, Donald and Della Duck. Because 00:21:24.740 --> 00:21:27.339 Hortense took the surname Duck and Matilda also 00:21:27.339 --> 00:21:29.839 changed her name after her own marriage, the 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:31.480 protagonist we've been following is technically 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:34.240 considered the last McDuck. He is the only male 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.660 left carrying the surname. It adds this tremendous 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:40.019 layer of melancholy to his character. He achieves 00:21:40.019 --> 00:21:42.180 his goal. He gets all the money in the world. 00:21:42.299 --> 00:21:45.940 But in doing so, he alienated the very sisters 00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:48.380 who helped him build the empire. And he stands 00:21:48.380 --> 00:21:51.059 as the isolated endpoint of this massive ancient 00:21:51.059 --> 00:21:54.289 family line stretching back to 2050. DBC. It 00:21:54.289 --> 00:21:56.569 really is a sweeping epic. We have journeyed 00:21:56.569 --> 00:21:59.069 all the way from the ancient city of Sagbad through 00:21:59.069 --> 00:22:01.869 the misty moors of Scotland with knights who 00:22:01.869 --> 00:22:05.089 valued copper over their own lives to the steamboats 00:22:05.089 --> 00:22:07.650 of the Mississippi River all the way to a giant 00:22:07.650 --> 00:22:10.650 money bin in Duckburg. We've uncovered how generations 00:22:10.650 --> 00:22:13.950 of eccentric greedy, and fiercely independent 00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:16.970 ancestors created this incredibly rich mythology. 00:22:17.349 --> 00:22:19.930 It's a testament to the creators. It proves that 00:22:19.930 --> 00:22:22.390 if a creator puts enough care, research, and 00:22:22.390 --> 00:22:25.130 passion into their work, even a cartoon family 00:22:25.130 --> 00:22:28.390 tree can contain genuine moving lessons about 00:22:28.390 --> 00:22:30.890 the necessity of self -reliance, the isolating 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:33.450 dangers of hoarding wealth, and the incredibly 00:22:33.450 --> 00:22:35.859 messy complexities of family. This raises an 00:22:35.859 --> 00:22:37.619 important question, though, something I want 00:22:37.619 --> 00:22:40.740 you, the listener, to really mull over. Okay, 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:43.319 let's hear it. When Don Rosa undertook this massive, 00:22:43.380 --> 00:22:45.900 years -long project to write The Life and Times 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:49.180 of Scrooge McDuck, he put a very specific disclaimer 00:22:49.180 --> 00:22:51.880 right in his introduction. He explicitly stated 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:53.960 that his work was not the official version of 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:55.720 the character's history. He admitted it wasn't 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.880 canon. He said there was no reason why he or 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.660 anyone else should expect future writers to adhere 00:23:01.660 --> 00:23:05.180 to his specific vision. It was never intended 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:07.819 by the publisher to be absolute canon. It was 00:23:07.819 --> 00:23:11.119 simply his own personal, highly researched telling 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:13.880 of the character's life. But the fans didn't 00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:16.849 care about the disclaimer. They universally embraced 00:23:16.849 --> 00:23:20.230 it as the absolute truth. Precisely. Because 00:23:20.230 --> 00:23:23.190 Rosa respected the scattered, messy source material 00:23:23.190 --> 00:23:26.890 so deeply, and because he did the grueling, meticulous 00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:29.109 work of making narrative sense out of decades 00:23:29.109 --> 00:23:32.329 of Barxian contradictions, the fans elevated 00:23:32.329 --> 00:23:35.009 his personal passion project to gospel truth. 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:38.000 It became the canon. So I want to leave you pondering 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:40.259 this. What does it say about the fundamental 00:23:40.259 --> 00:23:42.839 nature of storytelling and our modern obsession 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:45.819 with canon when a creator's entirely unofficial 00:23:45.819 --> 00:23:48.180 personal project becomes the undeniable reality 00:23:48.180 --> 00:23:51.400 for millions of readers worldwide simply because 00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:54.240 it makes the chaos make sense? That is a phenomenal 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:56.339 thought to end on. Thank you so much for joining 00:23:56.339 --> 00:23:58.319 us on this deep dive. Keep falling down those 00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:00.180 Wikipedia rabbit holes. Keep asking questions 00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:02.240 about the stories you love. And we will see you 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:02.599 next time.