As usual, Paperinik is heroically defending Duckburg from a new threat, the reptilian warrior Morgoth. However, his daily routine is disturbed by... something. He feels uneasy, the surrounding world looks odd, and he even question his current struggle against the mysterious Morgoth. What's really happening? Who's the mysterious black duck offering him advise? And why buying two packet of crisps is suddenly so important?
This Issue contains examples of:
- All Just a Dream: As it turns out, in this episode PK has been prisoner of a CPU virtual simulation.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: By the end of the episode, when PK and Morgoth join forces together to take down the insect drones come to destroy them.
- Call-Back: When PK reminds his past battles against enemy threats, we see a cameo of Trauma.
- Cliché Storm: In-Universe Lampshaded when Paperinik makes fun of pretty much everything Morgoth says.Morgoth: "Yeah, that's right! Flee from Morgoth's might!"Paperinik: (narration) "Yup, your standard bad guy boast. I guess he learnt it back to maternity school... If he even attended, maybe I'm overestimating his cultural level..."
- Contrived Coincidence: Whenever Donald tries to get more than one bag of Waldo Chips, something conspires to keep him from having them. It turns out, the CPU was trying to keep him from finding out the truth.
- Enemy Mine: After persuading Morgoth, he and PK join forces to fight back the insectoid drones which proceed to attack them.
- Evil Counterpart: The Arc Villain CPU is one to Uno: both are incredibly powerful and advanced super computers with something of a conscience and appearing as holographic heads. He can also monitor the entire city through cameras, but he's nowhere as advanced as Uno.
- Giant Space Flea From No Where: Morgoth is a massive... presumably alien lizard warrior who's come to Duckburg and is fighting PK... because he's the villain, of course. Arguably an Invoked Trope.
- Hidden Depths: Morgoth seems the standard Blood Knight conqueror... but he's shown to be reasonable enough to listen to PK, join forces with him against a third opponent and consider him a worthy opponent.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Morgoth tries to shish-kebob PK in his robot-suit with an harpoon. Luckily enough, PK manages to get out of the suit in time.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Morgoth can slice an incoming missile in half with a strike of his sword.
- In Medias Res: The issue opens with Paperinik engaged in a deadly fight with Morgoth.
- Inverse Law of Sharpness and Accuracy: Morgoth's weapon is seemingly less dangerous when turned into a bladed weapon, as the only time he lands a hit on Paperinik, the weapon is a hammer.
- Just a Machine: The whole reason behind the plot: the CPU witnessed PK's many, many victories over his opponents, but took offense on how he always used lethal force on machines or robots. So he wanted to teach him a lesson by making him live an eternal simulation where he follows a strict program like a machine. Pure irony follows if you remember PK's stance towards artificial intelligences such as Lyla or Geena.
- Lizard Folk: Morgoth is a massive humanoid reptile in a fantasy garb, vaguely resembling a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
- Magical Negro: The virus who helps PK takes the form of a cryptic but helpful black person (well, duck).
- Morph Weapon: Morgoth's weapon of choice is made of a special metal which can transform into many different weapons or even a couple of wings.
- Multi-Melee Master: Thanks to his shapeshifting weapon, Morgoth can use swords, hammers, spears, dual-bladed tomahawks and even more.
- No-Sell: A plot point: to break the status quo, PK first let Morgoth hit him... only to get back up unharmed and shoot Morgoth with the strongest setting of his Extransformer, but the lizard man is unscathed. This convinces him that there's something wrong.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Donald is surprisingly introspective in this issue, for example openly questioning why he and Morgoth are fighting for, and is perplexed by Lyo's answer.
- Powered Armor: For the second match with Morgoth, Paperinik dons a massive mini-mecha. Ultimately he uses it to bear-hug Morgoth after the latter impales the mecha and activates the jetpack, sending his enemy flying.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Morgoth is a reptilian warlord and the villain du jour. Subverted when he actually helps PK.
- The Reveal: PK has been captured by a CPU who hooked him to several cables and forced him to live a virtual reality, always locked in a struggle against evil like a machine. The black duck who helped him was a virus.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Ultimately, PK doesn't even need to fight the CPU, who's definetively dismantled by the virus affecting it.
- Shout-Out:
- Some of the rules of the virtual reality and the hints which PK tries to spot are a nod to The Truman Show.
- The villain is a massive dinosaur-like man named Morgoth, which could also be a nod to the fact that Sauron is also the name of a pterodactyl villain from X-Men.
- Spotting the Thread: On his own, Donald notices that there's something odd when he recognize a random person and realize that he has seen him before, multiple times. One he manages to get two packs of crisps, he realizes the truth.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Having learnt the truth, PK decides to talk to Morgoth about their situation. After exchanging blows to prove the point, this works.
- Trash Talk: Morgoth's repertoire is rather... limited, as PK points out.Morgoth: "This is the end, Paperinik!"Paperinik: "Oh look, already out of taunts?"
- Wham Shot: When Donald finally manages to get two packs of Waldo Chips, check them out... and realizes both have the very same chips inside. As reveald by the black man, it's because the CPU made only one model and then copy-pasted it, revealing that the world is a huge computer simulation.
- Worthy Opponent: Before vanishing (as he was part of the simulation himself), Morgoth express pride with PK.Morgoth: "Farewell... in a different world we could have been friends."
