The Ducks meet Donald's best friend... I mean acquaintance.
The ducks end up making a crash landing on the mythical island of Ithaquack, the resort of the Greek gods. While Huey, Louie, and Donald are pulled into Scrooge's rivalry with Zeus, King of the Gods, Dewey and Webby try to find out more about the Spear of Selene.Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Just outside the Garden of Selene, Dewey decides not to enter and blocks Webby from doing so. As soon as she agrees to leave the mystery unsolved to preserve his memory of his mom, he brings her through the rapidly closing portal.
- All There in the Script: Charybdis, the monster guarding the Spear, is named in the credits only. The credits also reveal the siren's name to be Ligeia.
- Always Second Best: Zeus hates Scrooge because the last time he was here, he bested Zeus at nearly everything and made him look bad in front of the other gods.
- Ambiguously Gay: Storkules is very physically-affectionate to his best friend, Donald.
- Apologetic Attacker: The brainwashed Storkules keeps apologizing to Scrooge and the boys for being forced to fight them.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Storkules is surprised that Donald doesn't seek adventure anymore because Donald is scared of someone getting hurt, and asks him, "What would Della say if she could hear you now?" Donald snaps back that his sister can't, only to realize that he's acknowledging her existence.
- As You Know: Webby recaps everything the pair has uncovered about Della to Dewey after landing on Ithaquack, despite Dewey being the one who initiated the search.
- Batman Gambit: The final challenge, stealing Golden Fleece from a little girl was really a ploy to kill the McDucks, because the little girl was a mind-controlling siren whom Zeus used to get Storkules to crush them.
- Best Out of Infinity: When Scrooge and his family keep besting Storkules in various contests, Zeus keeps challenging them to more contests.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: When Donald says his infamous "Aw phooey!" after Zeus forbids the family from leaving Ithaquack, Scrooge also says it perfectly in sync with him, suggesting that Donald may have gotten his catchphrase from his uncle.
- Brick Joke: At the beginning, Launchpad stays behind to figure out what's wrong with the plane. This is forgotten about until the last scene when the group wants to leave and finds that Launchpad has taken the entire plane apart.
- Broken Pedestal: Invoked. Dewey is reluctant to learn more about Della and why she took the Spear of Selene because he fears he might find out that his mother was a bad person. Thankfully, his original sentiment was vindicated.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: A Discussed Trope. Storkules notes that as much as Donald wants to be done with adventures, he isn't able to escape them.
- Captain Crash: Launchpad, as usual - although this time, unknown to him or anyone else, Dewey and Webby have deliberately made him land on Ithaquack by sneakily pushing various buttons.
- Casting Gag:
- Crossing over with
Fridge Brilliance - all three of the Greek gods/demigods portrayed in the episode are voiced by actors of Greek descent. - Storkules, self-proclaimed best friend of Donald Duck, is voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos, who also voices Donald's official best friend, Mickey Mouse, in the 2013 shorts.
- Crossing over with
- Character Catchphrase: Webby repeats her standard greeting when she and Dewey meet Selene - "Hi! I'm Webby!"
- Combat Pragmatist: Dewey exploits Webby's weaknesses - namely, her scatterbrained and childish mindset - to hold his own against her during their brief brawl. He also admits he isn't trying to beat her; he just has to hold her off until the door to the Garden of Selene closes completely.
- Combat Tentacles: Charybdis is a cephalopod monster with plenty of tentacles that he uses to grab Webby and Dewey.
- Creepy Child: Scrooge uses the exact phrase to describe the Siren.Scrooge: No good has ever come from a creepy child singing.
- Cry into Chest: After learning that Della was as good a person as he believed, Dewey cried into Selene's legs (since he's too short to reach higher). Webby is standing nearby awkwardly until Dewey pulls her in.
- Death Glare: The first time Webby suggests the idea that Della might have betrayed the family, Dewey shuts her up with this.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Part of The Reveal is that Della Duck was a great person whom everyone loved. It's unclear whether she's just lost or actually dead, which is a crucial part of the mystery.
- Embarrassing First Name: Louie pleads with Storkules to not call him by his full name, Llywellyn.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The last match is against a small child who is a mind-controlling Siren.
- Foreshadowing: Not just Donald but Scrooge of all ducks is adamant about leaving the mythical island as soon as they arrive, making it clear they know more about the place than they let on or that they have been there before.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: When Dewey breaks down and admits he doesn't want them to enter the Garden of Selene for fear that it will turn out Della was a bad person, Webby clearly weighs the desire to discover something about Della Duck (who, it should be pointed out, she'd been trying to investigate for years without any success) against possibly breaking Dewey's heart. She chooses Dewey, but Dewey himself realizes the sacrifice she's making and pulls her into the Garden.
- Fun with Homophones: When Dewey asks her about what did Della do with her spear, a confused Selene assumes he meant her sphere. This is after he had tried to get the Sword of Selene and the Spear of Poseidon.
- Gentle Giant: Charybdis, once learning that Dewey and Webby aren't after the Spear of Poseidon, becomes very friendly and polite for a gigantic tentacled monster.
- Graceful Loser: Storkules takes losing to the McDuck clan much better then his father does.
- Here We Go Again!: Dewey accidentally drops the memory orb he got from Selene, spoiling Zeus's winning bocce ball match and making the god angry again.
- Heroic Willpower: Storkules manages to fight his father's brainwashing to slow down his assault on the Duck family long enough for Donald to get into position.
- He's Back!: Implied at the end of the episode—Donald is back to adventuring after a long period of retirement, whether he likes it or not.
- Innocently Insensitive: Webby is so blinded by her Hero Worship of Scrooge and the hype of solving the mystery of Della Duck's disappearance that she doesn't realize how afraid of the potentially Awful Truth Dewey is until he physically bars her path.
- Insistent Terminology: Donald insists that he and Storkules are just acquaintances, not friends. In the end, he relents.
- It's Like I Always Say:Launchpad: I always say, better safe than..... whatever the opposite of safe is. [Pause] Yeah, I do say that.
Scrooge: When have you ever said that? - Jerkass Gods: Played straight with Zeus, who's essentially an all-powerful crybaby. Averted with the goddess Selene, who is very nice and cool to be around, and the demigod Storkules, who is affable and polite if overeager.
- Locked Out of the Loop: No one on the island knows that Della has been missing for years. Selene in fact sneaks up on Dewey and Webby because she thought Della had returned.
- Marshmallow Hell: Rare male-male example when Storkules pushes Donald's face between his pecs and holds him there for several seconds. Hilariously, Donald is still stuck in between Storkules's pecs after the god lets go.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: When the plane first lands in Ithaquack, there is a small scorpion with a lion's head (Manticore) at the beach. Later, Webby finds a small statue of a chimera in the model of the island in the antechamber of the Spear of Selene.
- Monster Façade: Charybdis, the cephalopod monster is just doing its job keeping intruders from grabbing the Spear of Poseidon. It quickly drops the façade when Dewey says they're looking for the Spear of Selene, and gives him and Webby directions.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dewey probably wouldn't have started having doubts, culminating in him trying to stop Webby from entering the Garden of Selene, if Webby herself didn't keep bringing up the idea that Della betrayed Scrooge and Donald or otherwise selfishly put them into harm's way.
- No Ending: Ends with Launchpad having disassembled the entire plane, trapping them on the island. And right when they needed a quick getaway.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never see exactly how Dewey and Webby get through the various traps protecting the Sword of Selene.
- Our Sirens Are Different: The child with the Golden Fleece turns out to be a siren whose singing controls minds.
- Oh, Crap!: Scrooge and Donald's reaction when they realize they are on Ithaquack.
- Pals with Jesus: The McDuck family is well acquainted with the Olympian Gods. Scrooge has a rivalry with Zeus, Storkules (the show's version of Hercules) considers Donald his best friend (although the feeling isn't mutual), and Selene and Della were apparently close friends.
- Papa Wolf: Donald takes on the super strong Storkules who has been mind-controlled into attacking his family to save Scrooge and the boys.
- Percussive Maintenance: In the initial flight, Launchpad hits a bunch of random buttons to stabilize their flight. He tries it again later for the blinking red light, but it doesn't work as well.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Charybdis, the guardian monster of the Spear of Poseidon, grabs and attempts to devour anyone who tries to steal it - but is friendly and polite with those who are looking for different artifacts.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- The cephalopod monster guarding the Spear of Poseidon stops strangling Dewey and Webby when they explain they're looking for the Spear of Selene. He gives them directions to the right antechamber and accepts Dewey's apology for insulting him.
- Unlike Zeus, Selene is quite calm when two strange children enter her realm seeking answers, though she tries to prank them because she thinks Della has returned. She gives Dewey the truth — she doesn't have a Spear and Della was a good person who brought joy to everyone — as well as her Sphere to help him find out what happened to Della.
- Red Herring: Webby and Dewey seek out the Greek goddess Selene, since Della Duck apparently took her spear - only to find that the goddess has no such spear, and the "Spear of Selene" refers to something completely different.
- The Resenter: Zeus, who kept getting beaten by Scrooge.
- The Reveal: Selene doesn't have a Spear. She has a Sphere, but Della didn't take it. Also, Della was one of her best friends and always welcome on the island, so she wasn't a thief and she wouldn't have betrayed Scrooge. Webby concludes that the Spear wasn't a mythological artifact, and Selene gives her sphere to Dewey to help with his quest.
- Sacred Hospitality: Storkules invokes this to convince Zeus to let the ducks stay on the island, but Zeus ends up averting it when it becomes clear the ducks are going to win all the challenges again, in frustration opting to try to kill them.
- Sea Monster: Charybdis is one with tentacles, multiple eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth.
- Shout-Out:
- The Greek gods have very similar designs to their counterparts from Disney's Hercules (apart from being birds, of course), with Storkules wearing the same outfit as Hercules did from that film.
- Storkules resembles his Marvel counterpart Hercules in terms of personality and behavior.
- After an establishing shot of the plane and the rest of the characters, Donald comes into frame wearing a parachute and an army helmet. Last time we saw him dressed like that (albeit with way less kit this time) was Commando Duck; a 1944 war cartoon.
- Shown Their Work:
- Zeus is most famous for being the king of gods and the god of lightning; but in the myths he's also the god of Sacred Hospitality, something often not mentioned in pop culture. He also had a fragile ego and a vindictive streak, and would be very arbitrary as we see in the episode.
- The message outside the Garden of Selene is written in Greek, and does roughly translate to what Webby reads out.
- Ligeia and Charybdis are actual names of a siren and a huge-mouthed sea monster, respectively, from Greek mythology.
- Storkules's affection for Donald is extremely homoerotic. The mythological Hercules had male as well as female lovers.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: As Donald and Storkules fight each other, Donald jumps on Storkules's shoulder and then dodges a hit, resulting in the demigod punching himself in the face.
- Throwing The Match:
- Donald puts little to no effort into any of the contests Zeus forces the McDuck family to participate in. But due to his ridiculous bad luck, keeps winning accidentally (except for sculpting, which he is terrible at) and upsets Zeus.
- Scrooge challenges Zeus to a "winner take all" game of bocce, and throws the match just so Zeus will let them leave in peace.
- Took a Level in Badass: Dewey manages to take on Webby in a fight that lasts for several minutes. Even though he eventually loses, it's still a step-up from "Woo-oo!" where he challenged Glomgold to a fight but was all talk and no show.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Dewey goes into one twice, once played for comedy, the other played straight.
- First, after he and Webby get through the traps to get to the Sword of Selene (off-screen) he's gripping onto Webby, blubbering incoherently and rocking back and forth. Played for comedy.
- The second is when Webby finally takes him down during their brief fight and demands to know why he won't let them enter the Garden of Selene and find out the truth about his mother, and Dewey admits he's afraid they'll learn Della was a bad person. Not played for comedy.
- The Un-Reveal: Dewey and Webby fail to find out anything about the "Spear of Selene", other than it has nothing to do with the Greek goddess of the moon. Downplayed in that they do find out that the Spear probably isn't a literal spear, and Dewey is vindicated in his belief that his mother is not an evil person.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Webby and Dewey mess with the controls of Launchpad's plane so that they would land in Ithaquack.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Storkules considers Donald a dear friend, but Donald is reluctant to say the same (until the end of the episode).
- Vocal Dissonance: When the siren child stops singing and speaks normally, she has a very rough, raspy voice similar to an old woman. Doubles as Singing Voice Dissonance.
- We Win Because You Didn't: Invoked by Dewey when he decides to prevent Webby from entering the Garden of Selene. With a door slowly lowering back into position, he bluntly tells Webby he doesn't actually have to stop her; he only needs to hold out until the door is shut.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Briefly discussed by Dewey and Charybdis. After the monster releases Dewey and Webby, Dewey apologizes to him for calling him "hideous", telling him that he's probably very attractive by sea monster standards. Charybdis admits that he isn't, but thanks Dewey for saying so anyway.
