Tropes:
- #1 Dime: Attempted, but subverted. Scrooge intends on recreating his own origin story with a young Duke Baloney by giving him an American dime instead of his actual payment for a shoeshine. Instead of being inspired to start his own entrepreneurial empire through hard work by it like he was, Baloney sees it as a scam and angrily tells Scrooge off for it. He takes a much darker, more material spin on the trope when Scrooge leaves, having stolen a money clip worth millions; with it, Duke Baloney would start up his own business empire... all centered around besting Scrooge.
- Adaptation Deviation: In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge was prospecting for diamonds in South Africa where he hired an Afrikaner to be his guide. His guide betrayed him and stole his supplies, and left him for dead... only for Scrooge to find him, beat the hell out of him, and then report him to the nearest sheriff; the experience made Scrooge cynical of trusting people, while the Afrikaner, furious at his humiliation, decided that one day Scrooge would pay and learn to fear his name - Flintheart Glomgold. Here Glomgold is a kid when Scrooge is already rich and tries to set the young boy on the same path he took, except for him to learn the wrong lesson and dedicate his life to ruining Scrooge.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Duke Baloney the fisherman may be as prone to Amusing Injuries and ludicrously complex ideas as Glomgold, but he's still much nicer.
- Amnesia Episode: Flintheart Glomgold loses his memories during the events of the Shadow War and starts a new life as a fisherman.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: If Roxanne Featherly's report is anything to go by, people are actually happy that Glomgold is missing and a much more competent CEO (who isn’t a complete lunatic and has never sworn revenge on anyone) is at the helm of the company.
- Artistic License – Geology: Duke Baloney's hypothetical plan to stomp coal until it turns into diamonds would've been mostly impossible, diamond comes from putting pressure on carbon, not coal. That said, the entire plan was... wonky from the start, and given he was a child at the time he may have not known the specifics.
- Artistic License – Geography: The flashback in South Africa looks decidedly more like North Africa, i.e. it looks desert-like and brown rather than green and mountainous.
- Being Evil Sucks: Scrooge is well aware that for all his bombastic laughing, Flintheart Glomgold is a thoroughly miserable person and would be better off not being a villain.
- The Bet: Flintheart and Scrooge make a bet at the end of the episode, with the one having more money at the end of the year getting the loser's properties.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Glomgold started off in the gray as a child, and has descended to black in the current day. Scrooge, while more altruistic, fits in the gray area thanks to his actions in this episode, along with Create Your Own Villain (seemingly refusing to pay young Glomgold the minimum wage, and half-heartedly trying to cut down charity donations for children).
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Scrooge doesn’t remember the day he met a boy named Duke Baloney, whom Glomgold used to be. It takes Glomgold producing the gold money clip he stole from him all those years ago for Scrooge to remember.
- Call-Back:
- Glomgold's gray beard being a fake is once again brought up since the last time it was revealed as such.
- Zan Owlson's introduction has many references to those Glomgold had at the start of the series. She taps a cutout of Glomgold to reveal herself and says that "Community is our greatest treasure", a play on an expression said twice in the episode.
- Call-Forward: Duke Baloney, then a kid, mocks Scrooge for being "so rich and so Scottish", something he would later chronologically say in the pilot of the series.
- Cerebus Callback: Glomgold's cameo in the first season finale where Magica steals his shadow was Played for Laughs. This episode reveals that when he fell into the bay, he suffered a head injury that gave him amnesia and no one knew where he was for four months.
- Cerebus Retcon: Glomgold's over-the-top Laughably Evil behavior suddenly becomes much more tragic in the light of this episode, knowing that he actually suffers from his burning hatred towards Scrooge and forgetting about said hatred makes him a much happier and much more pleasant person.
- Complexity Addiction: It's revealed that Glomgold a.k.a. Duke Baloney has had this ever since he was a kid. While shining Scrooge's spats, young Duke tells him about his plan to save up all his shoe-shining earnings, then buy a coal mine, turn all the coal into diamonds, create a diamond point for a large drill, and finally drill through the ground for gold to sell for a fortune. Scrooge asks why he wouldn't just sell the diamonds, to which a confused Duke asks what he's supposed to use for the drill if he does.
- Duke's scheme to best the McDuck fishing trawler involves bomb-carrying sharks, robot fish, community college engineering degrees, making fun of the boat, turning into merpeople (according to his illustration), and the proviso that there's a giant plug and drain at the bottom of the bay. Fisher points out that drying up the entire bay and collecting all the fish would mean that nobody could ever fish there again, including themselves; Duke doesn't seem to understand the implication.
- Condescending Compassion: Young Duke wasn't impressed with Scrooge, self-proclaimed "the richest duck in the world," deciding to teach him self-reliance by shortchanging him, when paying full-price (which he could obviously do) would have been much more helpful.
- Continuity Nod:
- "The Shadow War" occurred four months ago.
- Glomgold's line "I am Flintheart Glomgold, and I always will be!" hearkens back to this exchange from McMystery at McDuck McManor:Glomgold: How did you know it was me?
Louie: It's always you.
Glomgold: AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE!
- Create Your Own Villain: Inadvertently. An already established Scrooge was in South Africa when he came across an ambitious, but not terribly bright young shoeshine called Duke Baloney. Seeing himself in the young man, Scrooge gave him an American dime hoping to inspire him on the same path he took; instead Duke was insulted by the gesture (since his fee was a dollar, before tipping), pickpocketed Scrooge for his money clip and created the persona of Flintheart Glomgold to spend the rest of his life beating Scrooge.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Glomgold.
- Disproportionate Retribution: For feeling shortchanged by Scrooge, Duke created an entire fake persona, for the sole purpose of beating Scrooge at his own game.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Glomgold's dream definitely counts as one.
- Double Subversion: Flintheart Glomgold gets amnesia and thinks of himself as Duke Baloney, an identity that Louie and Webby think is fake and made-up. It turns out that Duke Baloney is his real name and that the amnesiac Glomgold is closer to the nice, boisterous young man he was, and that Flintheart Glomgold is the fake made-up person he made himself to be to get back at Scrooge.
- Evil Is Petty: Once he regains his memory, Glomgold pulls Webby out of her boat into stormy waters. He wasn't specifically planning to kill her, he just wanted to steal her boat to beat the McDuck ship at fishing.
- Foreshadowing: It's obvious that The Bet made at the episode's end will be a Story Arc through the season.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Played deadly straight with Webby and Glomgold. In fact, Webby could've likely drowned at Glomgold's hands if not for Louie.
- Furry Confusion:
- Non-anthropomorphic seagulls appear alongside seagull-people like Fisher.
- During Duke Baloney's dream, we are treated to the sight of a non-anthropomorphic duck.
- He's Back!: Given that Glomgold is one of the main antagonists, it's kind of inevitable.
- Hope Spot: During the final minutes of the episode, during a really strong storm, when Louie and Webby are in danger on the sea stranded on a boat. Glomgold heroically dives in the sea and heads towards the boat with all the fishermen cheering for him at the bay, saying that "Duke's going to save those kids". He swims towards the boat and screams dramatically for Webby to grab his hand. You think he is going to be a hero for once and rescue her. And then when their hands connect, he totally reverts back to type by throwing her off the boat and into the sea.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Webby believes that Glomgold is capable of a Heel–Face Turn. She is horribly mistaken.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Zan Owlson, Glomgold's replacement as CEO of Glomgold Industries, seems to be much more efficient and capable than him in handling both his fortune and the company's public image. She even launches a joint-venture with Scrooge to bury the hatchet and holds her own in blocking Scrooge's haggling to reduce the charity from Dimes to Pennies, even when Scrooge was willing to cut to Nickles.
- Identity Amnesia: Glomgold keeps only two things from his memories.
- His name — his real name, from before he made up his "Flintheart Glomgold" persona, which he starts using again.
- His obsession with outdoing and being better than anything related to one Scrooge McDuck.
- Idiot Ball: For being famous for how closely he guards his money,
Word of God is that the money clip that Duke easily pilfered from Scrooge contained two million dollars. - Innocuously Important Episode: Louie learning the truth about Glomgold's real name is what will allow him to pull off an impressive gambit towards the end of the season.
- It's Personal: Up until now, Scrooge originally saw his rivalry with Glomgold as nothing but an amusing diversion; it isn't until Glomgold reveals he stole his money clip (which according to Word of God had $2 million) as a boy in South Africa that Scrooge begins to hate his rival as much as he hates him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Little Duke was a brat about it, but Scrooge did shortchange him. And even though Scrooge was sincere about it, claiming this was doing Duke a favor is rather absurd.
- Lampshade Hanging: During his return to his Flintheart Glomgold persona, Duke mentions that the McDuck fishing boat was a metaphor for Scrooge and his returning hatred of the man.
- Literal Metaphor: In Duke Balony's dream, he finds a heart made of flint, and then had gold glomming onto him.
- Major Injury Underreaction: It's established that Duke/Flintheart has a incredibly high tolerance for pain (implied by the many injuries he suffers in other episodes that barely phase him), namely snapping his dislocated fingers back into place with hardly a flinch.
- Mysterious Past: As Webby and Louie find out, absolutely nothing was known of Glomgold's past until he arrived in Duckburg in the '80s. Even Scrooge didn't know anything about him, and is shocked when he learns the origins of Glomgold at the end.
- Mythology Gag:
- The lamp that Glomgold grabs when he says that he intends to "Always one-up Scrooge" is the very same one that he and Scrooge fight over in an episode of the 1987 series. They even climb the same column!
- Scrooge and Glomgold's betting is a recurring theme in both the comics and DuckTales (1987).
- It's also the driving plot device in the "Ducktales-Quest for Gold" computer game.
- Glomgold's real name, "Duke Baloney", is an allusion to the "Duke of Baloni
", a one-off character established as the second richest duck in the world who was never mentioned again once Glomgold was introduced. - Webby can’t find anything on Glomgold from before he arrived in Duckburg in the eighties. The original DuckTales is a series from that decade.
- Glomgold being a South African by birth and later adopting a Scottish Fake Nationality is a reference to him originally being a Boer in the comics before Adaptational Nationality in the original cartoon.
- Noodle Incident:
- Fisher mentions that Duke is the fourth weirdest thing they caught in their fishing net during the day.
- Convinced Glomgold is faking amnesia as part of a con, Louie mentions that he himself has done it before.
- Louie also mentions that Webby has assumed Glomgold had amnesia during previous schemes when he posed as a "humble delivery man" and an "unassuming pastry chef".
- Not Helping Your Case: Scrooge only gave Duke a dime for a one dollar shoe shine, which he explains was meant as a symbolic gesture meant to encourage self-reliance, like the kind that made him the richest duck in the world. Duke simply became more outraged that he's fabulously rich, but still won't pay full price.
- Not What It Looks Like: Scrooge was about to pay Duke at least a full dollar, since he reached for a bill in a large wad of cash in a gold money clip, only to visibly change his mind and toss him a dime instead. While we the audience know Scrooge was reminded of his younger self and wanted to inspire Duke to take the same path he took with the same symbolic gesture, from Duke's perspective it looked like an obviously rich duck changed his mind about paying him a fair price and shortchanged him instead.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: The comics version of Scrooge and Glomgold and the 1987 version were roughly the same age. But thanks to Scrooge becoming Older Than They Look as a result of his adventures, this version is much older than Glomgold who may be a generation older than Donald at best. Duke Baloney grows a natural black beard which he loses and then replaces it with the fake gray beard he had to make himself look older than he actually is.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Scrooge, who had long considered Glomgold a joke that isn't worth his time, angrily takes him up on his bet after he learns Glomgold stole from him, decades ago, and got away with it, showing just how badly Glomgold wounded Scrooge's pride.
- Origins Episode: For Flintheart Glomgold. We learn his backstory, his motivations, and his reasons for hating Scrooge, and some real insight into his characterization.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Zan Owlson is a competent businesswoman and an anthropomorphic owl.
- Pet the Dog: Scrooge decides to leave Glomgold in his amnesiac state simply because he's never seen his nemesis happier.
- The Reveal: Glomgold is actually a Boer from South Africa like he is in the comics, and his birth name is Duke Baloney. He created the persona of Flintheart Glomgold as part of his obsession to one-up Scrooge.
- The Scrooge: Scrooge tries to haggle with Zan Owlson to reduce the amount of money they spend on charity for children. Admittedly he’s rather halfhearted in said haggling, and readily starts signing the paperwork after Owlson refuses to budge.
- Seadog Beard: Duke Baloney grows a real beard in his period of amnesia. It's completely black proving how young Glomgold really is.
- Sequel Episode: To "The Shadow War-Part 2", albeit from Glomgold's point of view.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Webby learns the hard way that villains may not necessarily want to reform their ways even when given the chance.
- Something Only They Would Say: When Louie and Webby first see Duke Baloney, Louie is positive it's Flintheart while Webby is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Duke lets out his Mad Libs Catch Phrase, "Curse you, rope!" and they both agree it's him.
- Stating the Simple Solution: When young Duke reveals his plan to buy a coal mine, stomp the coal into diamonds, then use the diamonds to drill for gold, Scrooge asks why he wouldn't just sell the diamonds.
- Status Quo Is God: Subverted. On one hand, since Glomgold is one of the main antagonists, it's inevitable that he’s going to eventually return to his former villainous ways. On the other hand, he now has a much more competent CEO handling his company's fortunes, Scrooge has a legitimate reason to hate him, and there’s a bet between him and Scrooge that’s going to be one of the main arcs this season.
- Story Arc: The end of this episode introduces one of the arcs for Season 2. A competition between Scrooge and Glomgold on who makes more money by the end of the year. The wager: winner gets the loser's stuff — money, income, holdings, property — lock, stock, and barrel.
- That Man Is Dead: Glomgold was once Duke Baloney, but he discarded that name a long time ago.
- Tuckerization: Zan Owlson, the new acting CEO of Glomgold Industries, is named for show producer Suzanna Olson.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Duke Baloney was a nice, decent, and cute kid who, while ambitious and prone to impractical schemes, wasn't a criminal. Yet his encounter with Scrooge which he took the wrong way turned him immediately into the stealing and scheming Glomgold to get back at Scrooge.
- Wallet of Holding: How could Duke start a multi billion dollar empire with just a few notes in a money clip? That money clip was holding two million dollars.
- Wham Episode: Minor: by the end of the episode, Scrooge agrees to a wager Glomgold puts forth. Specifically, whoever has the most money within a year's time gets the other's company, and is declared the richest duck.
- Wham Line: "I've had [the money clip] since I pilfered it from you as a wee child!"
- Whole-Plot Reference: The story is a variation on the original series episode "Blue Collar Scrooge", asking, "What If? the amnesia victim whose accent changes and finds true happiness they've never experienced before was Glomgold instead of Scrooge?"
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Flintheart Glomgold is apparently a name made up by someone who wants to emphasize his wealth and stinginess.
- Women Are Wiser: Zan Owlson is arguably more reasonable and level-headed than any of the male C.E.O.s in the series, including Scrooge, Glomgold and Beaks.
- Would Hurt a Child: The first thing Glomgold does upon regaining his memories is trick Webby into grabbing his hand so he can throw her into the storming ocean. It's implied she would have been left for dead if Louie wasn't there to pull her back in the boat. When asked why he did it, Glomgold's only reply is "because I'm Flintheart Glomgold, and I always will be!"
- Younger Than They Look: Glomgold apparently deliberately played up his age as part of his plan against Scrooge, as his natural beard color is black. He also adopted poor posture to make him look more like a hunched over old man.
