In the spirit of character-building, this episode reveals the
romantic side of Scrooge McDuck and at the same time makes for an insightful
explore of a new location, fast-paced action moments, and background on a
couple worth getting behind at the center. When thoughts turn to Valentines, the kids at
the McDuck mansion discover Scrooge with one he got long ago, prompting him to
tell everyone about how he uncovered a claim of gold long ago at the Klondike
town of White Agony Creek. This is where
Scrooge’s romantic side becomes apparent when he reveals that his discovery of
the claim led him to meeting the duck who would become his love interest,
Glittering Goldie. From what we see in
the flashback, they both appear to have the makings of a charming couple, and
their romantic progression feels natural and believable. They started out rough as poker rivals
resulting in Goldie causing Scrooge to lose the one gold nugget he had at the
time through unfair means. However, over
time they grew closer through working together to dig through the rest of
Scrooge’s claim where they found even more gold, and Scrooge was even astonished
that Goldie could work as hard as he could.
It’s a familiar build-up to romance, but one that works well and gives
the couple a lot of charm. As for why
Scrooge looks down on romance now, it’s all because his story ends with him
being told that Goldie ran off with the gold from his claim, ditching their
plans to move to Duckburg together. It’s
easy to get Scrooge’s feelings with the knowledge he has. After all the bonding between him and Goldie
and the charm from their moments together, it makes sense that he’d feel
betrayed. Still, in the present, he has
enough love within him to want to see Goldie again and also retrieve the gold
from his claim. He and the boys then
head for White Agony Creek where we see a lot of detail in how it’s changed
over the years. The bustling town is now
mostly abandoned, and Scrooge’s home is now inhabited by someone who uses a
bear as a guard leading to a lengthy sequence of everyone trying to get it away
filled with some effective comedic gags.
In an interesting turn of events, it turns out the bear is the companion
guard for Goldie who’s hijacked Scrooge’s claim for all these years to spite
him for never showing up to leave for Duckburg with her, and doesn’t get
Scrooge’s constant claims that she stole his gold. However, their appeal as a couple still
exists with moments of intimacy and working together to find more
gold just as they did before, so they’re still worth getting behind. Plus, during an exciting, fast-paced climax
where a despondent Scrooge takes his gold back to Duckburg without Goldie and has
to outrun his old rival, Dangerous Dan, who’s trying to rob his gold train,
there’s finally closure to the couple’s conflict. Dan reveals that he stole Scrooge’s gold and
blamed Goldie, and gets his just due when Goldie drops in on him. The interesting thing about this is that even
with the conflict resolved, Scrooge and Goldie actually don’t get together and
remain distant lovers, making their romance more true to life in that not all
couples become official. Even if that is
the case, if their final moment together is anything to go by, their love is
still strong. Because of that engaging
factor and little moments to make the adventure stand as something exciting,
this episode is one of the best character-building episodes of the
series. 10/10
The Ranking:
1. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing
2. Back to the Klondike
3. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
4. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
5. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
6. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Webby gets a starring role alongside an aspiring racehorse and together they show off their "Horse Scents."
If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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