The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

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"The quality of your lives depends on what you make of them! The only limits to adventure are the limits of your imagination!" —Scrooge McDuck, The Richest Duck in the World

Keno Don Rosa's Magnum Opus, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck was the ultimate Arc Welding project by the Carl Barks Promoted Fanboy already famous for his Continuity Porn. Defying Comic Book Time, Rosa's 12-part epic takes every (reasonably possible) Noodle Incident, adventure, and reference from Scrooge McDuck's life in Barks' comics and organizes them into a coherent, plausible timeline.

The saga begins when Scrooge is ten years old in 1877 and ends with meeting his nephew Donald Duck at the time of his premiere story in Christmas 1947. In-between, the series tells the story of how a poor lad from Scotland traveled the globe building up a fortune and financial empire by being smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies to become the richest man in the world, having every possible adventure a Badass Self-Made Man could find. The series gives us our best look at Scrooge's family -- his parents, uncles, and sisters -- and shows how he met enemies like Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys, friends like Theodore Roosevelt, and Mentors like Howard Rockerduck that helped mold him into the Anti-Hero Jerk with a Heart of Gold we've known him as. The epic is packed with Character Development, adventure, Continuity Nods, Leaning on the Fourth Wall, a miraculous amount of violence and innuendo that got past the radar, and of course Rosa's trademark Scenery Porn and insane amount of historical, geographical, and cultural research.

The 12 original chapters were released in issues of Uncle Scrooge from April 1994 through February 1996. They were published together in an anthology in June 2005. In the spirit of Disney's love of midquels, in September 2006, Gemstone released The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion, which turned 7 of Don Rosa's previously published Uncle Scrooge stories (and 1 brand new story) into Midquels since they were Flash Backs about more adventures from Scrooge's glory days... essentially Arc Welding within Arc Welding. Most of the midquels use a Framing Device of Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie unearthing Scrooge's trunk of memorabilia in his money bin and asking questions about the stories behind its contents, prompting said flashbacks.

Most of the stories (including the midquels) were released in Europe before appearing in the American Uncle Scrooge series; for example, the original twelve chapters appeared in countries including Denmark, Germany, and Norway in 1992. The release dates given below give the first publication and then its American equivalent.

This work earned Don Rosa the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 1995 for "Best Serialized Story".

All together, in chronological order in-universe, the series consists of:

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Chapter 0: Of Ducks, Dimes, and Destinies

Released: Denmark -June 1995, United States - April 1996
Dates: 1877

The last story Rosa completed before the 12-part series proper, later included as a sort of Time Travel Prequel. Inspired by hearing Scrooge relate the story of earning his Number One Dime to his grand-nephews while she's spying on him, Magica de Spell uses a Time Travel candle to go back in time to the day Scrooge earned the dime so she can get it before he ever owns it. After some hijinks with Scrooge's father and Howard Rockerduck, she succeeds, and it's while waiting for the return trip to start that she realizes the implications -- by preventing Scrooge from ever owning the dime, it's no longer the first coin owned by the richest duck in the world, therefore it's worthless to her, and she's forced to give it back to him and return to the future empty-handed, causing a net difference of zero. Tough luck, but You Can't Fight Fate.

This chapter provides examples of:

• No More for Me: In the background, a man with a bottle of beer in hand sees Magica disguising herself with magic, and as she leaves the alley, his arm can be seen pouring his beer on the floor.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: According to the Word of God aversion of Stable Time Loop. Magica does change the original timeline by buying the dime from the ditch digger, but then she undoes the effects by giving Scrooge the dime anyway, therefore undoing all the changes she already made, therefore undoing her Time Travel altogether. Confused? All right -- A Witch Did It!
• Temporal Paradox (erased when the original timeline is reset): The Last of the Clan McDuck shows that Fergus, Matilda, and Hortense were watching Scrooge get his first dime from afar, which meant they probably also saw Burt the ditchdigger walking away to buy a keg of ginger ale instead of paying Scrooge, and Magica -- the same woman that assaulted them earlier -- dashing over to give Scrooge his dime before being sucked up by a time vortex. How would they react to seeing all of that (especially since they haven't even seen Magica buy the dime from Burt)?
  • They were nearby, but all versions of the event have them watching as Scrooge realizes he was paid a dime, so it's possible they weren't paying attention until he yelled his resolution(After all, he cleaned the boots for half an hour)
• Time Travel Tense Trouble:

Magica: This is like all the times in the past that Scrooge himself has chased me in the future. I mean... what am I talking about?

• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Magica briefly mistakes Scrooge's father Fergus as Scroogey himself.

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Chapter 1: The Last of the Clan McDuck

Released: Denmark- August 1992, United States-April 1994
Dates: 1877-1880

Chapter One, of course, tells how a 10-year-old Scrooge first went into business with a shoeshining kit his father made him for his birthday and earned his Number One Dime -- an American dime that was worthless to him in Scotland and made him vow to be "sharper than the sharpies and tougher than the toughies" so that he would never be cheated again. After three years of shining shoes, selling firewood and peat, and protecting the McDuck ancestral castle from the McDucks' rival clan the Whiskervilles, 13-year-old Scrooge leaves home to seek his fortune in America.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Call Forward: The Whiskervilles were about to uncover Sir Swamphole McDuck's alternate entrance to the castle's dungeons, which would chronologically later be discovered by Huey, Dewey, and Louie in "The Old Castle's Secret".
• Scarecrow Solution: Scrooge scares the Whiskervilles away by making a fake ghost.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Pay attention at the feet of young Scrooge's castle guide. You'll notice said guide is missing his shadow, which hints on his true nature of a ghost.
• Title Drop:

Sir Quackly: After all, you are the Last of the Clan McDuck! Scrooge: Last, but not least! Not from now on!

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Chapter 2: The Master of the Mississippi

Released: Denmark- August 1992, United States- June 1994
Dates: 1880-1882

Scrooge's first American venture is with his Uncle Angus "Pothole" McDuck on his riverboat in New Orleans. The two of them go on Scrooge's first treasure hunt for a sunken ship in the Mississippi, the Drennan Whyte, with some help from Gyro Gearloose's grandfather, Ratchet Gearloose. In the process, Scrooge meets (and names) his first generation of Beagle Boys. Their next meeting two years later ends with the destruction of the riverboat Scrooge bought from his uncle. Out of options in the riverboat business and still no profit to show for it, 15-year-old Scrooge moves West. (Meanwhile, his Uncle Pothole goes into the dime store novel business.)

This chapter provides examples of:

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking

Those pirates are guilty of stealing gold, demolishing a riverboat without a permit and dressing up in women's clothing.

• Chekhov's Gun: The Sawyer.
• Creator Provincialism: Why does Scrooge go to Louisville? Because that's where Don Rosa's from, so why not?
• Face Framed in Shadow: The Beagle Boys, before they get their masks.

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Chapter 3: The Buckaroo of the Badlands

Released: Denmark- November 1992, United States-August 1994
Dates: 1882

After a short encounter with Jesse James, Scrooge finds himself a cowboy in Montana protecting a prize steer from cattle rustlers, the McVipers. He hopes to gain his fortune as the manager of a ranch in the future, but for now, he gains the nickname Buck McDuck, a friend whom he recommends go back into politics, and a tough but ornery horse he names after his similar-tempered sister, Hortense, who will be around for a few chapters.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Fingore: Scrooge tricks Jesse James into thinking there's a trasure hidden in his dentures. When Jesse tries to reveal it... *TUMP*
• Naked People Are Funny: While riding Hortense, Scrooge loses all of his clothes as she jumps. Three times. Luckily, he doesn't fall off because his belt gets stuck on the saddle.

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Chapter 3B: The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark

Released: Sweden - December 1998, United States - February 1999
Dates: 1883

During his stint as a Montana cowboy, Scrooge takes a trip on the famous Cutty Sark clipper to deliver two longhorn bulls to the sultan of Djokja in Java for an annual bullteam race. When Scrooge's bulls are stolen, his efforts to get them back results in "a Scottish cowboy steam[ing] into port on a run-aground ship"... and subsequently losing all the money from his sale in paying fees, fines, and bills for the damages caused on this adventure. (Apparently, this was in the days before Hero Insurance.)

This chapter provides examples of:

• Off-Model: One panel is colored so that Scrooge is wearing his trademark red coat, even though he doesn't get it until The Billionaire Of Dismal Downs.
• Shaggy Dog Story: For Captain Moore -- throughout the story, he asks his crew for his camera, and when they finally get it out for a photo opportunity, it gets busted right before he could take a picture.
  • Also for Scrooge himself - he honestly working his tailfeathers off to retrieve his stolen merchandise and make the sale, the local authorities notice how much money he made in the process, and seeing the potential in Ratchet Gearloose's invention(the first automobile), invent the first traffic violations just so they can reduce him to poverty again. The lesson he takes from all this: Don't expect the government to like it when you get rich.
• The Stoic: Captain Moore, until the last panel he appears in. Even his assistant is caught by surprise by the sudden change of expression.
• Unsound Effect: Literally. Complete with an Editors Note explaining exactly why.

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Chapter 4: The Raider of the Copper Hill

Released: Denmark- January 1993, United States- October 1994
Dates: 1884-1885

The end of the cattle boom in The Wild West means yet another career change for Scrooge: prospecting. He likes his chances with copper mining since he strikes his claim just when some new-fangled invention called electricity causes a demand for copper. While working his homestead near the Anaconda Hill Copper Works ("the richest hill on Earth"), he meets millionaire Self-Made Man Howard Rockerduck, who, to the disdain of his wife and Spoiled Brat son (one John D. Rockerduck) who have forgotten his humble beginnings, teaches him the art of prospecting. But Wait! There's More!

Rockerduck: This man has a homestead on land where the Anaconda copper vein is only five feet deep! The Law of Apex of 1849 says that whoever owns the land where an ore vein is closest to the surface owns the entire vein! Scrooge McDuck owns the Anaconda Copper Mine!

After a wild fight with claim jumpers (the first of many in his life), Scrooge believes he's finally found the key to his fortune, until he gets a telegram from home urgently asking him to bring money to help with a crisis. Unable to wait to turn a limitless profit from the copper mine, he sells it back to the original owners and returns to his family with the money, taking away one important lesson from his experience:

"Get lost, Mr. Big-Shot-Copper-King!" Scrooge: They were my friends! What did I do? Rockerduck: You got rich, son. Best get used to it like sigh I did. You'll have their respect, but no longer their love.

This chapter provides examples of:

• One Duck Army
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being shocked by a live wire Scrooge was swinging on, faithful steed Hortense has this thought before marching off in a huff.

Hortense: (Thinking) I quit! Effective immediately!

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Chapter 5: The New Laird of Castle McDuck

Released: Denmark- March 1993, United States- December 1994
Dates: 1885

Scrooge arrives back in Dismal Downs just as his family is about to lose their land and castle if they don't pay the back taxes from falling behind in the payments (the clan has struggled to maintain ownership of the castle even if the demon hound has made it too dangerous to live there). Scrooge's bank draft from the sale of his copper mine saves the castle, his destiny to become "the cheapest, stingiest, most miserly, turnip-squeezingest, penny-pinching tightwad on Earth" saves his life (the dead should not interfere in the land of the living), and the ghosts of Scrooge's ancestors save him when he's nearly killed in a duel with the Whiskervilles. No Big Deal. Now the McDucks can move back into the castle, and Scrooge can move on with making his fortune... this time, in gold.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Back from the Dead: Scrooge
• Because Destiny Says So: First time Scrooge is pretty much prophesied to become The Richest Duck in the World.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Hortense McDuck as she's chasing off the Whiskervilles
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven
• Haunted Castle
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Or rather, to everything but that last one. Fergus and Scrooge are very upset to be called "liars" and "cowards," but they don't mind "tightwads."
• Stay in the Kitchen: Fergus McDuck tells his brother to take "the women" home for their safety... including Hortense, who was shown to be their best fighter one page ago.
  • He says "Jake, you take th' women back to town! There'll be trouble here, no doubt!". Here and all the other chapter, Hortense is only a "good" fighter because her opponents are male who Wouldn't Hit a Girl. In other fights, where the villains wouldn't have such claims, she is incapacitated somehow. And the line of Poppa implies that the rival clan could overcome this, hurt Hortense indirectly, or that Hortense's temper could be a liability to them if the fight got serious enough.

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Chapter 6: The Terror of the Transvaal

Released: Denmark- May 1993, United States- February 1995
Dates: 1887-1889

Scrooge's first attempt at gold prospecting takes him to South Africa, where he meets a Boer also on his way to the Johannesburg goldfields who offers to be his guide. Scrooge awakens the next morning to find his new "friend" has vanished, stolen his supplies, and left him to perish out on the rand. Furious at being double-crossed, he makes his way to civilization in his typical Badass fashion, finds the scoundrel, vents his anger in a Humiliation Conga, and throws him in jail. He doesn't strike it rich in the low-grade Transvaal soil and eventually packs up and leaves with the vow never to trust anybody again, thanks to a lesson from his least noble enemy yet, whatever-his-name-was .

This chapter provides examples of:

• But for Me It Was Tuesday
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Scrooge fires exactly twelve shots from his two six shooters, and is clearly seen reloading afterwards.
• Continuity Nod: The Kaffir de Gaffir gold mine opened during the episode. That was the gold mine Scrooge and Glomgold tried to outbid each other for in Carl Barks story "So Far and no Safari".
• Et Tu, Brute?
• Freudian Excuse: Glomgold is the reason Scrooge decided not to trust anybody. Until then, Scrooge never had an enemy who pretended to be a friend.
• Humiliation Conga
  • Bullet Dancing
  • Tar and Feathers
• I'm Your Worst Nightmare: Scrooge says this to Glomgold before he calls him out, guns ablazing.
• Save the Villain: When Glomgold runs into the lion Scrooge rode into town, Scrooge laments, "Drat the luck! Now I gotta save his hide rather than tan it!"
• Unknown Rival: Glomgold is determined in the end to get revenge on Scrooge for humiliating him, but Scrooge just casually leaves him in jail without even bothering to learn his name.
• We Will Meet Again

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Chapter 6B: The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff

Released: Sweden- December 1996, United States- October 1997
Dates: 1890

A Prequel to the Carl Barks comic Return to Pizen Bluff. Scrooge reunites with his Uncle Pothole, who has become famous thanks to his novels about his adventures saving his nephew Scrooge... but anyway, the two McDucks join forces with P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and Geronimo to track down the Dalton Gang when they rob Barnum's wild west show. Before the posse bids good-bye, lamenting the impending death of The Wild West, Scrooge has them all autograph one of the show's handbills, which Matilda McDuck later pasted into her scrapbook... and which the triplets determine contains a map to the Lost Dutchman's Mine on the back. Oh Crap! He finally gets the map off however giving us the adventure. Chapter 6C: The Dutchman's Secret

This chapter provides examples of:

• Exactly What I Aimed At (page picture)
• Gory Discretion Shot: Uncle Pothole says while watching Scrooge's brawl, "That would never get past the censors." Of course, he was getting inspiration for his dime novels from the whole fight...
• Imagine Spot: When Uncle Pothole and Buffalo Bill enter an abandoned building with the Daltons hiding behind a doorway for an ambush, Dalton clones suddenly spring out from elsewhere and Pothole and Bill fight them off, with Bill's hair noticably turning darker. Cut to the Daltons still standing near the doorway with dumbfounded expressions, and back in the chaos, Uncle Pothole has suddenly become ridiculously muscular, while Buffalo Bill is decorated with honors and his hair is completely black. Everything suddenly returns to normal, where it is revealed that Pothole was just writing a dime novel draft on the fly.
  • Especially noteworthy, since it depicts Pothole writing Marty Stu versions of himself and Bill in-story.
• It Will Never Catch On: Uncle Pothole's idea for a new kind of magazine with "adventures told in a series of drawings, and the dialogue written into some kinda bubbles!"
• Super Window Jump
• Twilight of the Old West
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?:

Scrooge: No one would be interested in reading the adventures of a rough and tumble prospector like me.

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Chapter 7: The Dreamtime Duck of the Never-Never

Released: Denmark- June 1993, United States- April 1995
Dates: 1893-1896

From Darkest Africa to Pizen Bluff to Kalgoorlie, Australia, Scrooge continues his quest for gold. But first, he saves an Aborigine wiseman from a bandit, and hears the legend of the Dreamtime. The wiseman also shows him the cave with the Dreamtime story painted and carved into its walls, along with a sacred opal the size of a melon. Scrooge then has to stop the bandit from stealing the relic, losing his Number One Dime in the process, and eventually gets a chance to steal the opal himself as the cave collapses so that no one would even discover the theft for a hundred years. After making his choice, he's rewarded by the miraculous return of his dime and inspiration from the last segment of the legend with pictures that look like the aurora borealis in the Yukon...

This chapter provides examples of:

• Because Destiny Says So: Continued from Chapter 5.
• Call Forward: After Scrooge leaves for the Yukon, attention was drawn to the Dreamtale's depictions of the Goose Egg Nugget, the money bin, and Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Jabiru Kapirigi: The great platypus finds a yellow egg? He builds a mighty nest? And what are these other figures? How confusing! What have they to do with an out-of-luck fossicker like poor Jonflip?

• Kangaroo Pouch Ride: Scrooge uses a Kangaroo for transportation in order to get fast enough to the gold fields to grab a good claim. He is nevertheless too late though.
• Land Down Under
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Scrooge says a throwaway line, "Great! Now I'm John Philip Sousa!", causing his Aborigine companion to call him "Jonflip Zooza" for the rest of the story (Scrooge never corrects him).
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules
• What You Are in the Dark: Nobody would know for a hundred years if you returned the opal or stole it. Scrooge returns it.

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Chapter 8: The King of the Klondike

Released: Denmark- July 1993, United States- June 1995
Dates: 1896-1897

The beginning of Scrooge's glory days as a sourdough in the Klondike Gold Rush. "His exploits before this time were the dues he paid to make it this far," as Rosa puts it. "His past adventures each taught him lessons about work and endurance (and people) and were all preparations for this moment, when he would finally get rich from nothing but his own hard work, perseverance and know-how." But before Scrooge strikes it rich with his unearthing of the Goose Egg Nugget (another monetary memento he'll never spend) on his claim at White Agony Creek, he faces a minor setback when he's kidnapped by Soapy Slick and a bunch of thugs who push him towards his scariest Crowning Moment of Awesome faster than you can say "What a bunch of idiots!" One destroyed river barge and one thrown grand piano later, Scrooge is a legend in the Yukon...

... and this is only "The Beginning".

This chapter provides examples of:

• Berserk Button: Soapy Slick and his mooks taunt the chained Scrooge by reading letters from his parents (which he hadn't read himself yet) out loud, laughing at their misfortune. When Slick reveals that Scrooge's mother died, hell breaks loose.
• The Cameo: Goldie, showing up as early as page 7 ^{[dead link]}.
• Death Glare: CREAK!
• Disaster Dominoes: "Six hours and many miles back down the trail later, in Skagway --"
• The End of the Beginning
• Fate Worse Than Death: "I need more cash, but I can't waste any more time earning it! I must resort to desperate and shameful means! I need to (*shudder*) get a loan!"
• Flash Forward: Dawson City is introduced this way, contrasting the large city it would become later in the story from the two-building area it was at the dawn of the gold rush.
• Gory Discretion Shot
• Kick the Dog
• Oh Crap: Scrooge's kidnappers as they notice the...
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge
• Shrouded in Myth: The narration makes it clear that no one in Dawson fully knows what happened to Soapy's riverboat during Scrooge's epic rampage. "the whole incident was probably exaggerated in the many retellings that followed. Possibly, it didn't actually happen at all!"
• Unstoppable Rage

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Chapter 8B: The Prisoner of White Agony Creek

Released: Finland- May 2006, United States- September 2006
Dates: 1897

In his last comic ever, only found (in English) in the Companion anthology, Don Rosa answers the question Carl Barks didn't even want to ask: What exactly happened between Scrooge McDuck and Glittering Goldie during the month they lived together on White Agony Creek? Oh, just some innuendo, constant fighting and insults, UST, denial, a visit from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an incident with an Inevitable Waterfall, and getting rid of an Unwanted Rescue attempt, culminating in a night of wild, violent, destructive hatesex that makes Scrooge fearfully realize how vulnerable he is to his feelings for Goldie. The next morning, he sends her back to Dawson, sure that the woman with the coldest heart in the Yukon could never care about him anyway, both of them too proud to admit the truth.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Scrooge and Goldie
• Destructo-Nookie
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Apparently, guns pointed at people are off limits, but heavily-implied hatesex is a-okay!
  • An interesting detail is also how Goldie's original design by Carl Barks featured her flatchested like most female Disney ducks, but when drawn by Don Rosa, she's got a clear visible pair of breasts. Even as an old lady in later stories, her cleavage is still very much present.
• Hanging Judge: Judge Roy Bean
• Important Haircut: Goldie loses a lock of her hair when Scrooge saves her from a bear.
• Innocent Innuendo: "Between the legs." Yeah, about as innocent as a Freudian Slip...
• I Surrender, Suckers: Rosa tries to soften Scrooge's kidnapping of Goldie by showing she could have easily escaped (not to mention killed him) but let him take her so she could find his hidden gold claim and get a better opportunity to rob him blind.
  • Another interpertation is she used Xanatos Speed Chess to her turn kidnapping into a Xanatos Gambit. Either escape or not she has little to lose and a lot to gain.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Judge Roy Bean wisely decides they do not want to interrupt "what's going on in that cabin."
• The Masochism Tango
• A Match Made in Stockholm
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Goldie kisses Scrooge, and his schocked state gives the opportunity to Bat Masterson to knock him out.
• "Previously On...": This page ^{[dead link]} and this page ^{[dead link]}.
• Save the Villain: Subverted (in the correct use of the term) after Scrooge saves Goldie from going over the Inevitable Waterfall. She tells him he has to go back to save "them," too... not the villains but the villains' sled dogs.
• Sexy Discretion Shot
• Shout-Out: To Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Sundance: "Butch! We're goin' over the edge! I can't swim!!" Butch: "Hahaha! What're ya, crazy? The fall will prob'ly kill ya'!"

• • Lampshaded in the very next panel: "Whoah! Deja vu!"
• Shrug of God

"I still never show exactly what happened that long night in the cabin on White Agony Creek... that's for each of us duck fans to imagine in our own minds. I have my own idea, but after all, this is a Disney comic!" ~Don Rosa, The Making of Hearts of the Yukon

• Sleeping Single: This is established rather unnecessarily clearly early on -- and apparently lasts until the last page.
• Stalking Is Love: Goldie finds the fact that Scrooge has been spending every night for the last few weeks swooning over a lock of her hair that he keeps in a strongbox enough incentive to return when she had the perfect chance to escape with his gold and the deed to his claim.
• Stockholm Syndrome/Lima Syndrome: The Unfortunate Implications of Scrooge's and Goldie's relationship. Does the fact that it's mutual (she drugs and rolls him, he kidnaps her) make it better or worse?

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Chapter 8C: Hearts of the Yukon

Released: United States- September 1995. No previous publication.
Dates: 1898

Desperately wanting to see Scrooge again but not wanting to admit she cares about him, Goldie decides there's only one logical thing to do: take advantage of the town's hatred for Scrooge and press charges against him for kidnapping her with the newly arrived Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (Anyone could press charges against him but she was the only one who wasn't afraid of hitting Scrooge's Berserk Button) Scrooge makes the dangerous journey back to town in a storm as a wildfire burns out of control and almost meets up with Goldie in the burning Blackjack Saloon before a fire hose knocks him unconscious. Thanks to some help from his friend Casey Coot, and Goldie tricking the RCMP into thinking he saved her from the fire instead of the other way around, Scrooge clears his name, gets his gold claim reinstated, and heads back to White Agony Creek. On the way, a mountie delivers a letter to him from Goldie... which he refuses to open, preferring "to pretend that there's one person in this sorry world that I might... that I can..." Love Hurts, and Pride conquers all.

This chapter provides examples of:

• The Ace: Samuel Steele.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:

Colonel Sam Steele: "Halt, McDuck! It won't do to add jaywalking to your already prodigious list of civil violations!"

• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Trying to make his way back to Dawson City, Scrooge nearly collapses in a blizzard and hallucinates about Goldie. When hearing sleigh bells, his vision of Goldie unintentionally turns into a reindeer to which "Goldie" comments on how she's "starred better roles in dreams than his" and "look me up when you're ready for an adult dream".
• Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate:

Colonel Sam Steele: "A superintendent of the North-Western Mounted Police does not get... 'Muddy'."

• Cannot Spit It Out: Essentially the driving force of the plot
• Large Ham: Steele. Goes with the territory of being The Ace.
• The Masochism Tango
• Poor Communication Kills: Scrooge, why couldn't you just read the letter, you idiot?!

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Last Sled to Dawson

Released: United States-June 1988. No previous publication.
Dates: 1898

An excerpt from Rosa's first story to feature Glittering Goldie. After depositing one million dollars from his gold claim into the bank in Whitehorse, Alaska, Scrooge buys some land from Casey Coot, packs up a sled of supplies, and bids good-bye to White Agony Creek forever, planning to... do something (or meet someone) in Dawson and then settle down for good. Losing his sled and supplies (and almost his life) in a blizzard on Mooseneck Glacier, however, convinces him he's on the wrong track. Giving up his plan to settle down, Scrooge buys the Whitehorse Bank and begins his life as a businessman, from now on giving his heart to nothing except money.

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Chapter 9: The Billionaire of Dismal Downs

Released: Sweden- November 1993, United States- August 1995
Dates: 1898-1902

After his various businesses in Whitehorse turn him from a millionaire into a billionaire, Scrooge finally returns home to his father and sisters (now living in Castle McDuck) to make his ancestral Scotland the home base for his planned worldwide financial empire. Two days among the locals, their customs, and their games, however, make Scrooge feel so out of place that he doesn't think he could ever prosper here. He tells his family about the land he bought in some settlement called Duckburg and asks them to move with him to America. His sisters are only too eager to go, but his father claims he's too old to move again. He agrees Scrooge has outgrown the life they knew in Dismal Downs but tells his children to go start a new life in America without him. The next morning, the McDuck siblings unknowingly wave good-bye to the spirits of their parents before they go to eternal rest in an ending Rosa was surprised got past the radar.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Face Fault: a truly epic example ^{[dead link]} that involves a triple backflip.
• Shout-Out: Right after a Scottish man has insulted Scrooge, he responds with "grumble Peasant!"

Scottish Man: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear him repressin' me? You heard it, didn't you?!

• Stranger in a Familiar Land
• You Can't Go Home Again

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Chapter 10: The Invader of Fort Duckburg

Released: Iceland- March 1994, United States- October 1995
Dates: 1902

Waiting for Scrooge in Duckburg, Calisota is an unwelcome reunion with the Beagle Boys and a little scuffle with Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders before convincing them he's not a foreign invader. Eventually, he secures his land on Killmotor Hill (formerly Killmule Hill) and begins construction of his money bin. Meanwhile, Hortense hits it off with the only person in the world who can match her temper, Quackmore Duck.

Rosa thought this chapter turned out the best because it only had to cover a timespan of a few days and thus had the best pacing in the series.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Hortense and Quackmore.
• Cool vs. Awesome: Theodore Roosevelt and his army vs. Scrooge McDuck and his moldy wooden fort.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Scrooge repeatedly gets the Junior Woodchucks' name wrong in The Invader Of Fort Duckburg.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Initially Hortense and Quackmire spit fire at each other for two minutes straight. Then spent another five looking longingly at each other's eyes. In the last panel, Hortense is throwing a fit over baby names, while Quackmore watches her serenely.

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Chapter 10B: The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut

Released: France- February 2001, United States- August 2004
Dates: 1906

Scrooge tells Donald and the triplets about the "worst bargain I ever made!" He happens to try excavating for gold in Panama at the same time the Panama Canal is under construction. Unfortunately for world progress, Scrooge owns the mountain right in the Canal's path and refuses to sell, even to his old friend President Roosevelt, for anything short of the U.S. Treasury. One avoided international incident and several series of steam-shoveling hijinks later, Scrooge ends up unconscious while he and Teddy are supposed to be making the deal for his mountain, so his sisters make it for him: they trade Scrooge's gold claim for a teddy bear.

Donald is thrilled to hear how his mother got the best of Scrooge. His ecstasy quickly ends when the boys realize Scrooge doesn't own just any old teddy bear but the first teddy bear ever made... the "world's most valuable toy." Even when Scrooge McDuck loses, he wins.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Mayincatec: Litterally -- an Aztec-designed jaguar statue, built by Incas, and the writing is Mayan ^{[dead link]}.
• My Greatest Failure: Scrooge thinks his deal with Roosevelt was this, but it turned out it wasn't... making this is a Subverted Trope in the correct use of the term.
• Show Some Leg: Matilda and Hortense try this, until Hortense blows their cover with a Groin Attack when the guard mentions a certain "holy terror" he once met in Duckburg.
• Spice Up the Subtitles: See here.

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Chapter 11: The Empire Builder From Calisota

Released: Iceland- April 1994, United States- December 1995
Dates: 1909-1930

This is the chapter where Rosa had to address a Noodle Incident most Scrooge fans try to ignore: the story from Voodoo Hoodoo ^{[dead link]} about how Scrooge hired a band of thugs to chase an African tribe off their land so he could use it for a rubber plantation -- a blatantly criminal, despicable, completely unjustifiable act not at all in sync with making money "square." Rosa considered ignoring this story altogether, dismissing it on the grounds of Characterization Marches On. Instead, he decided to make it the turning point in Scrooge's life -- the trigger that set him down the road of Greed and cynicism toward becoming the hardened, villainous character he was when Barks first introduced him to the world. After crossing the line he swore never to cross since he earned his Number One Dime, Scrooge avoids Duckburg and his sisters for 23 years. When he returns, he has achieved his dream of becoming the richest man in the world. He just loses his family in the process, after meeting his nephew for the first and last time for 17 years.

Rosa was double burdened by having to cover the longest timespan of any chapter along with portraying his hero as an unscrupulous robber baron. You can read what the experience was like for him here.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Bittersweet Ending: Although Scrooge finally becomes the richest duck in the world, he also loses his family.
• Covers Always Lie: This chapter's cover shows Scrooge escaping from the sinking Titanic by carefully stepping on floating pieces of iceberg. What happened in the story is much less awesome - he escaped in one of the lifeboats.
• Darkest Hour
• Floating Advice Reminders
• Ignored Epiphany: If only the "Roster of the Rich" hadn't caught his eye...
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
• Literal Ass-Kicking: Child-aged Donald to Scrooge upon their first meeting. (Scrooge gets the chance to return the favor in the next chapter, though.)
• Lonely at the Top: The ending
• My God, What Have I Done?
• My Greatest Failure
• No Endor Holocaust: The sinking of the RMS Titanic is presented mainly as the background to one of the zombie's chases after Scrooge, not looking like tragic disaster which killed 1503 people at all. Even the casual way Scrooge found himself a place in a lifeboat, even though he was neither a woman nor a child, makes the whole thing less tragic.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Albeit an important one and an in-story justification for Characterization Marches On.
• Retcon: The only major one in the series; in Voodoo Hoodoo Scrooge claimed he was in Africa 1879 ("70 years ago") to make his second billion. Rosa just ignored the date.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money
• Took a Level in Jerkass
• Villain Protagonist
• What the Hell, Hero?: Hortense's and Matilda's letter after they leave Scrooge

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Chapter 12: The Richest Duck in the World

Released: Iceland- May 1994, United States- February 1996
Dates: Christmas 1947

The conclusion of TLaToSM picks up right before the end of Barks' Christmas on Bear Mountain, ^{[dead link]} when Donald Duck and his nephews meet their Uncle Scrooge for the first time. At first, they don't believe the legends about his worldwide adventures or a bin full of three cubic acres of money, so Scrooge opens the bin up for the first time in five years and shows them his fortune, along with his famous Lucky--er, Number One Dime. (" 'Lucky dime!' How @#*% insulting!") The tour is interrupted by a new generation of Beagle Boys, giving Scrooge the perfect chance to show Donald and the boys what he's really made of.

Even after the Beagle Boys are caught and arrested, Scrooge (very rightly) doesn't believe for a minute that he's seen the last of them this time. He looks forward to many future adventures with his new family. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are as excited at the thought as Scrooge, but Donald doesn't see anything interesting about going "on a trek to some dusty warehouse to look for a long-lost ledger." Good thing you won't be doing any of that, then...

This chapter provides examples of:

• Adrenaline Makeover: Scrooge

Donald: You see what you've done? You li'l squirts have this poor old man all agitated! Scrooge: I do seem to recall a li'l squirt who agitated part of me some years ago... Donald: WAK! Scrooge: Thank you, nephew! I almost feel like....like me again! Donald: Don't mention it.

• Homage: The beginning is a homage to Citizen Kane.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Addressing the Number One Dime's Flanderization into a lucky charm
• Parental Abandonment: Lampshaded
• Recursive Canon: See Self-Deprecation.
• Retired Badass: Scrooge at the beginning
• Self-Deprecation:

Donald: Let's just humor him! All this hokey junk proves he's...well...eccentric! (points to a portrait of Scrooge from 1897) See? One of those gag photos they make for tourists! Wotta phony scene! Dewey: Hm. Looks real to me! (Donald turns to a display holding the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck) Donald: Ha! Then how do you explain this?! Obviously all fakes!

• Take That:

Scrooge: "Lucky" dime?! What thimble-headed gherkin invented that supreme bit of absolute balderdash?! Donald: Oh, everybody says it, Unk! Scrooge: Well, everybody is a nincompoop!

• Uncanny Atmosphere: On the way to the money bin, the ducks notice and comment on the oddity of the presence of sidewalk Santas, even though there aren't many shoppers on Christmas Day. They turn out to be the Beagle Boys in disguise, who were following them on suspection of the truth about the bin having three cubic acres of cash.

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The Dream of a Lifetime

Released: Norway- December 2002, United States- May 2004
Dates: Present

A Mental Time Travel epilogue. The Beagle Boys use an invention of Gyro's to infiltrate Scrooge's mind while he's dreaming to find the combination to his money bin. Donald has to go into Scrooge's dreams to try to stop them and ends up on a fast-paced ride through Scrooge's favorite memories of his life. To the Beagles' frustration, there's no money in them! Even in his sleep, Scrooge McDuck is an unquenchable adrenaline junkie.

This chapter provides examples of:

• Crashing Dreams: They try to take advantage of this in order to help Donald and Scrooge fight the Beagle boys, with several funny results.
• Fighting Down Memory Lane
• In Spite of a Nail: Scrooge has the same dream many times, right as he's about to confront Goldie in a burning building only to be knocked out, thus never letting them get together. Each time, he does something different, trying to save her without getting knocked out, but it always ends the same way until Donald changes it, and Scrooge gets to talk to Goldie for the first time. As Donald leaves the dream, a tear rolls down the smiling Scrooge's cheek.
• Running Gag: "Nephew?! What the @*%# are you doing here?!"
  • Also: "Nightmare?"
• This Is Gonna Suck: Donald's reaction when he finds out that one of Scrooge's dreams is taking place on the Titanic.

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The series also provides examples of:

• Arc Welding
• Badass: Definitely Scrooge McDuck.
• Beta Couple: Fergus McDuck/Downy O'Drake and ESPECIALLY Quackmore Duck/Hortense McDuck for Alpha Couple Scrooge McDuck/Glittering Goldie.
• Blue Blood: The Clan McDuck
• Bonnie Scotland: Chapters 1, 5, and 9
• Book Ends: The series starts and ends with Scrooge going through his money and memories. Don lampshades this trope, saying, "It's just the sort of corny thing we writers and artists do."
• Continuity Porn
• Cool Horse: Hortense, Scrooge's mare.

Scrooge: I'll get Hortense later, cap'n! She's stretching her legs! Sailor on the mast: Blimey! There's a bloomin' 'orse on the tops'l yardarm!

• Defrosting Ice Queen: Goldie -- not that she'd ever let Scrooge know that...
• Did Not Get the Girl: Which as adamant and vocal a Scrooge/Goldie shipper as Rosa deserves major credit for maintaining.
• Doing It for the Art
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In page 7 of Spiritual Successor A Letter From Home. ^{[dead link]}
• Fiery Redhead: Hortense McDuck
• Genre Busting: It's a Funny Animals comic book that follows all the conventions of the classic Epic -- a truly modern epic.
• Gold Fever: Kicks in for Scrooge at the end of The New Laird of Castle McDuck
• The Gump: Scrooge, naturally

Louie: I bet Wild Bill Hickok was Uncle Scrooge's teacher! Scrooge: Pupil.

• Hero's Journey
• Historical In Jokes in spades, of course
• Idea Bulb: Parodied in both The Vigilante Of Pizen Bluff and Hearts of the Yukon, where an oil lamp being turned on by hand appears as a substitute, even though Scrooge already had an encounter with an actual lightbulb in Raider Of The Copper Hill.
• Identical Grandson: Gyro Gearloose looks like his grandfather Ratchet.
• In the Blood: Greed is in the McDuck blood.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Scrooge's sister Matilda made a scrapbook of letters, artifacts, and newspaper clippings from all his adventures, which appears on the first page of the original chapters and which the boys are looking at in the midquels.
• Jerkass Facade: Both Scrooge and Goldie, which is why they never get together.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: Notably during the end of The Empire Builder From Calisota, where young Donald Duck delivers a kick to Scrooge's ass. At the conclusion of The Richest Duck in the World, Scrooge recalls this and kicks Donald's ass in return, solidifying his Adrenaline Makeover.
• Love Hurts: Scrooge and Goldie, no matter how much they both try to deny it.
• Media Watchdogs: Several illustrations with guns were altered because Disney only permitted guns to be shown if they weren't pointed at people.
• Noodle Incident: Taking every Carl Barks Noodle Incident ever and... un-noodling them.
• Oh Crap: Once an Episode right before every Crowning Moment of Awesome where Scrooge kicks ass and takes names.
• Rags to Riches
• Scenery Porn
• Shipper on Deck : Donald Duck to Scrooge and Goldie
• Short Run in Peru
• Shown Their Work
• Slap Slap Kiss: Scrooge and Goldie; plus, Hortense and Quackmore Duck.
• Spiritual Successor: Rosa and fans consider A Letter From Home, where Scrooge returns to Castle McDuck, reconciles with Matilda, and finds a message his father left for him before he died as a Sequel/conclusion to the series. (It's also a much better Templar treasure hunt than The Da Vinci Code. And it's only 34 pages long!)
  • It is also a sequel to Crown Of The Crusader Kings, which is itself a sequel to The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone.
• Symbol Swearing: Even printed on a newspaper at the end of "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" and a sign during "The Richest Duck in the World". Not present in "Of Ducks, Dimes, and Destinies" or "The Last of the Clan McDuck".
• Takahashi Couple: Scrooge and Goldie. Hortense and Quackmore as well.
• Telegraph Gag STOP: Chapter 4 has:

"Son - Terrible crisis for the clan McDuck stop need cash stop come home at once stop don't stop stop"

• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Hortense and Matilda McDuck
• Trigger Happy: Annie Oakley in The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff, Goldie, and Scrooge to an extent
• Violent Glaswegian: Don't make Scrooge angry... Or Hortense, while we're at it (Donald got his temper from both sides of the family!)
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Scrooge's horse Hortense
• The Wild West: Chapters 3, 4, and 6B