Reading some ScroogeMcDuck comics coincidentally after reading Daisy Miller got me wondering — Could John D. Rockerduck's popularity in Europe somehow be related to the traditional "old money vs. new money" conflict between old European and American values? Glomgold may be a dishonest Corrupt Corporate Executive, but he is a Self-Made Man like Scrooge. Scrooge's conflict with someone who inherited his fortune like Rockerduck might be more significant to Europeans. Or I could just be far too presumptuous.
I think you're reading far to much into that. In fact, I, even though I'm an European, prefer 'self-made men'. Times changed, I do not believe that the Europeans still (if they ever did as a whole group) find someone who inherited his fortune more important. ('Cept maybe the English.)
What's funny is you got thing the wrong way around. Sure, Rockerduck inherited his money while Scrooge is a self-made man, but most modern depictions of their rivalry are rather around the lines of Rockerduck as a modern businessman who gets money from investments, buys yachts and high-tech gadgets, is all about fashion and the picture people are getting from him, in fact acting more like a real-life present-day billionaire, whereas Scrooge is an "old-fashioned" billionaire who keeps his money in the form of cash, sits on it, is stingy, made his money "square" with "his bare hands" and doesn't care about the opinion people have of him as long as it's not an obstacle to him winning money. Rockerduck incarnates modernity with all its wasting, its pointless vanity and its smugness, while Scrooge is the incarnation of "good old times" where public opinion wasn't a big deal and people made their money with their bare hands, and then kept their money without boasting about it. In a nutshell, paradoxically, Rockerduck's more the "new money" and Scrooge the "old money", in another meaning of those two words.
Don Rosa writing a Kalevala-themed adventure for the Ducks was highly appropriate. As the comic says, Elias Lönnrot wrote the The Kalevala by compiling various Finnish myths, legends, and poetry together — exactly what Don Rosa did with The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. It's a fitting reminder of how all the great epics were written, from 700 B.C. to 1992.
In real life, Scrooge would've run out of business quickly. His workers and families will quickly figured that working for ANYONE else will bring much more money and less headaches. Or worse, he will go to jail sooner or later when someone sued him for pay his workers at much more lower than minimum wage. However, since he owns nearly any kind of company (from resorts to oil refineries), he can get away with it since he contributed so much to taxes and people's lives that he's practically invincible to law, and people who are starved for jobs will still work with him anyway. The effect is showed in some of Don Rosa and Carl Barks' comics, where Scrooge's shown as the only man in Duckburg that able to pay things like rocket projects and giant robot production costs.
On the other hand, he pays so little to Donald... because it's time off for him. He doesn't consider it 'real work', he simply covers the time lost by Donald when on treasure hunts, but since Scrooge is an explorer, he also considers the treasure hunt to be a reward in itself... Or at least this is what he'd tell Donald!
Scrooge pays little, but he pays well enough and makes sure his workers won't need much more money thanks to side benefits.
It's pretty much shown time and again that Scrooge owns nearly every business in Duckburg. So there's not really any getting around working for him. Only difference is that some people work directly under him within his Money Bin and others work far away at one of the various businesses he owns.
Why is Rockerduck so obsessed with defeating Scrooge? Two reasons: the first is that he usually comes as the second richest by very little but he also spends more, and given his standard insult to Scrooge is pointing out he's a tightwad the fact he's less rich because he's not as much as a skintflint obviously burns; the other is that Rockerduck's own father taught Scrooge how to be a prospector, and he most likely knows (he had all the elements to guess it. All he needs to do is to check the records for the name of the prospector who staked a claim to the Anaconda Copper Mine...).
At the end of the epic story "Zio Paperone e l'Ultima Avventura", Donald questions Gladstone's supposed contibution to the happy ending, with Gladstone smugly saying he provided good luck and asking what would have happened without that. Thing is, he's right: The Plan hinged on the disguised Jubal Pomp and Scrooge getting Rockerduck to not read a contract before signing it and Fethry getting hired among the demolition workers trying to destroy the money bin and Killmotor Hill to sabotage them by being himself, and both either need Rockerduck and Glomgold grabbing the Idiot Ball... Or enough good luck that the usually savvy Rockerduck would fall for Jubal and Scrooge's scam so completely to not read and nobody who knew Fethry (that is, nobody from Duckburg) spotted him before he did his part.
Dolly Duck, AKA Fantomius' accomplice and fiancee Dolly Paprika, is a cousin of Dabney Duck, AKA Donald's grandfather, and the daughter of a "Samantha Gander". This explains many things in both Paperinik's stories and Fantomius' own series:
Donald taking Fantomius' legacy and becoming Paperinik after finding Fantomius' journal: he not only was a child when Fantomius was active, but likely heard his stories from Fantomius and Dolly themselves. Finding the journal, that reveals Fantomius' identity and starts by hoping someone will take his mantle, was him finding out he was in-laws with his childhood hero and being asked by him to take up his legacy.
In Ultraheroes Paperinik and Paperinika have another of their fights when Paperinika muses that Dolly Paprika was the main reason for Fantomius' success and Paperinik takes offence. He knew that Fantomius' own genius was the main reason for their group's success because Dolly herself had told him when he was a child.
At the end of "Il Ladro e il Miliardario" ("The Thief and the Billionaire") Fantomius, who has made an attempt at Scrooge's money when he was temporarily back in Duckburg in 1922, sent Scrooge a message telling him he wouldn't touch the money as long as he was away and the Money Bin was in Mathilda and Hortense's care, but once he came back he'd steal even the bed he's sleeping on (as Scrooge returned for good after Fantomius' disappearance, Paperinik had to keep the promise). Why this strange limit? He had likely heard of Scrooge's one criminal action in Africa and that his sisters had practically disowned him for it, leading him to consider Scrooge no better than the "thieves disguised as gentlemen" he usually targeted but wouldn't let his sisters, who had tried and failed to stop him, risk being hold responsible for failing to protect the money.
Lord Quackett's (AKA Fantomius) estate was acquired from the state because he had no heirs, leading to his manor becoming the prize of a lottery and ultimately ending in Donald's hands due a mailman's error. Either lord Quackett and Dolly never married, or they married and Gladstone, being the closest relative, inherited the lot but refused it for some reason.
A later story shows that there was no lottery, Fantomius had used a time machine to set up everything for his manor and legacy to fall into Donald's hands.
In Paperinik stories Gyro has created memory-erasing candies by his own initiative, and by his own decision takes one whenever he learns Paperinik's real identity (Donald actually revealed him he was Paperinik in the second Paperinik story, and Gyro immediately revealed the existance of those candies and took one specifically to forget it). Considering that Gyro's great-grandfather was Fantomius' personal Gadgeteer Genius and they had a few misadventures due to his real identity getting out...
When Scrooge came back to Duckburg as the (unknowing) richest duck in the world in 1930 he was furious, and when he found out he was the richest duck in the world he could not believe it. This makes absolutely sense when you remember Scrooge's favouritism for possession of cash and that most of the damage in the Great Depression had been caused by bank panic started in late 1930: he had just given his banks the money they needed to survive the bank runs that were happening right at that very moment, and while that meant his financial empire had survived and would grow in the long run, he probably believed he had just thrown away his lifelong dream of becoming the richest in the world and could not continue his travels to make a final try. Hence his rage (and one final fight with his sisters) and surprise when he discovered that, even after the bank runs had already reduced his net worth, he was still the richest duck in the world.
At the start of the "Amazing Files" series, a sequel of the Italian stories about Donald's childhood, Donald is quick to realize that the coincidences that brought him to own the sci-fi magazine Amazing Papers (that he was an avid reader of as a child) actually mean something and that the strange informations contained in the titular amazing files may be true, but his childhood friends dismiss it as too similar to the stories he came up as a duckling (at least until they get involved and actually meet the strange happenings) and initially tell him to grow up. He did, it's just that Donald has found the Holy Grail (and broke it on the head of a villain), found El Dorado, met the Grim Reaper and laughed in his face to brag that Donald Duck laughs in the face of death, has an alien Love Interest, and so on-to him it's just a typical wednesday.
Brigitta's debut story explains she knew Scrooge since at least 1898 and was already courting him, and in that year she left his life for a while. Given how insistent she is since they met again in Duckburg that could seem out of character... Thing is, she had the best seat to Scrooge becoming a millionaire and then a billionaire and his love story with Goldie: she simply stepped aside when Scrooge was recovering from an apparent heartbreak out of respect for his feelings, and decided to make a new try when he apparently had the time to recover.
Donald supports Scrooge and Goldie because he sees it could (and should) have worked out, had they just talked to each other back in the day, and still have feelings for each other. He also supports Brigitta with anyone else because he wants his uncle with Goldie, and Brigitta deserves a break.
Scrooge supports Donald with Reginella because he compares Donald and Daisy to himself and Goldie and can see their communication problems, problems that are completely absent with Reginella.
The two times they met on-page, Goldie told Brigitta to pursue Scrooge because she already had some happiness from him (one of those meeting was Dickie's debut story, with everything implying that Dickie was also Scrooge's granddaughter), and Brigitta had suffered far more than her from her devotion to Scrooge.
If the theory about their father being Daisy's brother is true, Huey, Dewey and Louie support her with Donald because this way they'd symbolically have their parents back. They likely don't realize this.
Scrooge is so tough on Donald because his immense array of skills proves he's just as good if not better than Scrooge was in his youth, yet Donald won't bother to work it off long enough to become rich, thus, in Scrooge's eyes, wasting his potential.
Alternatively he's ticked off at Donald's tendence to go overboard, the one thing that ruins him the times he does work long enough he comes close to become rich. And to Scrooge, Donald supporting his nephews is no excuse: Scrooge too was supporting a family, one that lived in the ancestral family castle, and struck rich not one but three times.note first when he sold Longhorns to the Sultan of Djokja for an immense amount of cash that the Dutch authorities fined away for the damage he did to Batavia, then when he gained control of the Anaconda Copper mine but had to sell it back to Marcus Daly to save the family castle, and finally in Klondike, when it finally stuck
In his first appearance, he's depicted as essentially the same as Scrooge, which isn't to say he's nice, but he's only the Evil Twin because he's not the viewpoint character, and when he loses, the boys prop him up, much as they occasionally did for Scrooge himself.
By his second appearance, he's resorted to cheating to win the contest of wealth, and bemoans: "I've betrayed my dear old mother's fondest hopes! I've turned myself into a scoundrel — all to win the title of world's richest duck! I'vegot to win!" Of course he loses.
When she originally debuted, Paperinika, Daisy's superhero alter ego, was clearly more competent than Paperinik, but when she returns in the Italian stories after years of hiatus Paperinik is her better. There's actually in-universe reason for this:
The Paperinik stories are in continuity with the PIA stories, where Donald and Daisy are secret agents for Scrooge. As the PIA stories started before Paperinik ("Moldfinger or The Spy Who Ducked-Out On Me", the first PIA story, was published in 1966, three years before "Paperinik the Devilish Avenger") and Daisy had explicitely been a member of the PIA for longer than Donald, she was simply more experienced.
The first Italian story to reuse Paperinika after the long hiatus explicitely states that she had retired for a while (indeed, Daisy had even misplaced the outfit and found it again by accident, only to find out it didn't fit her anymore)-she has grown rusty, while Paperinik, having never retired, has only grown more competent in the meantime.
She has actually switched between characterizations mid-story, more than once: in "Scrooge's Last Adventure" she's at one of her most evil moments, as she can now take her long-awaited revenge on Scrooge, at least until a miscalculation prompts the Witches Council to turn her into a fairy, and when Scrooge convinces the Council to reverse the punishment she becomes immediately extremely nice and gives back the money from the Money Bin she had stolen earlier in the story out gratitude; also, in "Scrooge, Magica and the Mondor's Cup" she starts snappy and angry due being set right before the 2018 edition of The World Cupthat Italy failed to qualify for, gets worse, and positively relishes in humiliating a random guy after failing an assault on the Money Bin, and at the end, after archmage Mondor's stripping her powers got reversed and for once she was getting respect from the other mages she gave Scrooge's family and friends gifts for helping her getting out of trouble and, to Scrooge himself, a chance to restore the Money Bin's defenses after she almost dismantled them at the start of the story.
What If? stories where she finally wins show her as very nice, just as she was as a child... And her Freudian Excuse is centered around the quest for the Midas Touch spell that left her embittered and angry even before arriving to Scrooge's coin. Her real personality is the nice one, she's just so angry most of the time that she's constantly lashing out at the world.
This also explains her poor relationship with her cousin Adelia the fairy: her personality is very close to how Magica used to be, and meeting her is too harsh a reminder of what she was and may or may want to be again.
A fridge tearjerker: Huey, Dewey and Louie are pretty spoiled. Why would they be such brats when they live in near constant poverty? They don't know. Donald may be intentionally hiding the true extend of his financial difficulties, simply because he doesn't want them to worry about money all the time.
When Donald comes across some money, he almost always uses it on luxury. Taking Daisy and the boys out on dinner, buying a nice car, etc. He's trying to do something nice for the children he usually has to be strict to.
In more recent comics, John D. Rockerduck has replaced Glomgold as Scrooge's rival in European comic, and he has the same goal as Glomgold to become the world's richest duck. However, it is established that Glomgold is the second richest, with Rockerduck at a third place, if he places at all. Shouldn't he focus his efforts on beating Glomgold first? Not really, because Glomgold's first appearance established him as Scrooge's equal in every way. The only reason Scrooge won the contest was because Glomgold had collected less thread than him. With that in mind, it doesn't matter wether Rockerduck beats Glomgold or Scrooge, he'll become the world's richest either way... And with Scrooge, It's Personal.
Magica's obsession with the Number One Dime and the little respect she gets from most witches have a very good reason: when becoming an adult every witch has to complete a difficult task as a Rite of Passage, and hers was the Midas Touch... Thus in the eyes of most other witches she's a failure and little more than an overgrown child, with few aside those who have actually tried their hand at Scrooge realizing she's a formidable witch in her own right facing an even tougher opponent, and this won't change until she succeeds. And while enough time has passed that she could petition for another task, she's poured too much effort in this one to do so, with the only time she actually did being when completing the new task would give her the power to waltz through Scrooge's defenses and finally take that Dime for herself.
The Witches Council and other authorities treat Magica as an adult, at times making her mentor younger witches and wizards and assigning her other tasks and being more than willing to replace the Midas Touch task with an easier one for her rite of passage: they know how tough Scrooge is, so Magica has nothing to prove to them anymore.
The whole situation also offers an explanation on her going from having little more than parlor tricks and a hoard of items used by ancient witches to gaining actual magic powers of her own: her powers had been originally sealed as part of the quest, but once the Witches Council decided she had more than proved herself her magic was restored.
The other origin story, where she's self-taught and the Midas' Touch was originally her parents' attempt at achieving wealth, also provides explanations: being self taught she hadn't yet learned how to use her powers until later, so she relied on potions and tools (with the recipe for her trademark "Foof" bombs being from her mother's stash); the obsession with the Midas Touch is because her parents died attempting it; and the other witches have little respect for her because she's the self-taught daughter of two "failures"... Though the Witches Council has seen what she's capable of and has come to respect her for it.
Magica's humility and willingness to learn from her mistakes and try everything are explained by one of her potential origin stories, the one presenting her as a villainous Working-Class Hero: coming from a poor background and being entirely self taught she had to be humble, learn from any and all mistakes, and try everything to succeed... And the fact she's actually fairly wealthy from her business selling potions and charms only reinforce this mindset.
Donald calling out how Scrooge and Magica make their lives miserable through their dedication to avarice in "The Treasury of Croesus" also feeds into how, when Scrooge gives Donald money to test his suitability to inherit in other stories, Donald immediately spends it. Yes, Scrooge sees this as wasteful, but remember: Scrooge's defining characteristic is that he's a miser. That is, somebody who hoards money even when it's impractical — the kind of person who would rather freeze in winter than spend money to buy firewood, even though he literally owns lumberjacking companies. The fact Donald is willing to spend money for comfort when his grand-uncle would rather suffer through misery to hoard money is another little reminder that Donald is, in certain earthy ways, smarter than Scrooge.
In American stories, where Magica normally doesn't have powers in her own rights and relies instead on magical trinkets and Magic from Technology, she's technically a magician, that is someone who performs magic through magic objects that anyone could use as long as they know what they're doing... But nobody would take her seriously. Hence her claiming to be a sorceress, who draws her powers from a stronger supernatural entity.
According to the Italian story "Magica and the 7 Volcanic Witches" she's an Oceanic Witch, that draws power from the sea... Meaning she's indeed a sorceress (if an unusual one), and doesn't want to be compared to more "generic" magic users.
As the Italian language doesn't have a direct equivalent for "sorceror", she claims to be a fattucchiera, that is a female magic user specialized in rituals and creating magic charms... And not only that's what she does for a living, as a fattucchiera normally does her thing when paid to do so it carries an air of professionalism (and she's indeed doing it as a professional).
Early on during Donald's parents' relationship we see that Quackmore had proposed the name "Donald Fauntleroy" for one of their children and Hortense reacting in anger and declaring none of her children would get such a name, yet one of their twins was indeed named Donald Fauntleroy Duck. Considering that Donald is the name of Quackmore's grandfather, a war hero that during the American Civil War earned the Medal of Honor during his first battle, it's likely she changed her mind once he got around telling her of this relative.
In "The Treasury of Croesus", Donald told off Scrooge and Magica for their obsession with wealth that would always keep them from being happy, with the nephews immediately finding a parallel with how Solon told off Croesus for thinking his immense wealth made him the happiest when he doesn't know the plans of the gods, and while Scrooge is silently fuming and breaking his cane in anger Magica instead looks dumbfounded and mildly horrified. Being Italian she's likely more knowledgeable than Scrooge on Ancient Greek history and may have remembered how Croesus' story ended, namely with him defeated by the Persians and almost burned to death (Croesus realizing that Solon was right and laughing at his own stupidity prompted Cyrus the Great to ask him what was so funny, and after finding out about that encounter between Croesus and Solon Cyrus decided to keep him as an advisor so he could be reminded to not be too arrogant)... And may be seriously wondering if her obsession with the Midas' Touch may end up causing her horrific death.
The Tz'oook from "Threat from the Infinite" are the survivors of the Ultraterrestrials that caused the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event... However in the finale is discovered they're from an alternate dimension and accidentally and unknowingly crossed the dimensional boundary. But if they didn't cause the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, then what happened?
A possibility is that it was the same thing that happened in real life, both on Duck!Earth and their own... And that they simply made the one on their homeworld worse.
As pointed out above, in Italian stories and translations Magica's demands to be called a sorceress are translated with her demanding to be called a fattucchiera, a term that designates a professional magic user such as Magica... But a fattucchiera is often hired to curse people, and given she has indeed shown enough proficience into curses to make Scrooge allergic to money and reversing Gladstone's good luck into bad luck, one has to wonder what exactly does she do for a living.
In one Paperinik story after Donald asks Ludwig Von Drake when he will finally pay off all his debts, Von Drake answers "Never". Does this mean that Donald will be tormented by creditors and blackmailed by Scrooge his entire life?
Related to the above, considering how long his debt list is, and combined with his bad luck making it impossible to find a long-lasting job (not mentioning living with jackass neighbour, girlfriend who sometimes cheats on him, Smug Snake cousin, and an uncle that sometimes treats him like a slave) it's incredible that Donald didn't thought about freeing himself from all of his misfortunes.
Similarly, it's a wonder that Donald didn't yet ended up living under bridge homeless, given that as soon as he gets possession of a huge sum, his creditors will fleece him of his money.
The answer to this is Paperinik: the creditors know that if they try anything funny the Devilish Avengerwill destroy them, so they just wait for Donald to get the money and pay them back (the first think Donald does every time he gets a large sum of money).
