"The Dream of a Lifetime"
Released: Norway- December 2002, United States- May 2004Dates: Present
A Mental Time Travel epilogue. The Beagle Boys use an invention of Gyro's to infiltrate Scrooge's mind while he's dreaming to find the combination to his money bin. Donald has to go into Scrooge's dreams to try to stop them and ends up on a fast-paced ride through Scrooge's favorite memories of his life. To the Beagles' frustration, there's no money in them! Even in his sleep, Scrooge McDuck is an unquenchable adrenaline junkie.
This chapter provides examples of:
- As You Know: Justified because the Beagle Boys are dumb enough to forget the plan in the middle of putting it into action.
- Bedtime Brainwashing: Huey, Dewey and Louie try to influence Scrooge's dreams to give him and Donald an advantage (like using coffee mugs to mimic the sound of hooves so horses appear). Each attempt backfires (like making it rain coffee mugs instead)... Until the smell of the Goose Egg Nugget gets him to dream about his time in Klondike.
- Bullying a Dragon: When the last remaining Beagle Boy still inside Scrooge's mind gets sick of trying to trick Scrooge into revealing the codes to his vault, and tries to use brute force instead. Unfortunately, at that point they're in Scrooge's dream about the events of Hearts of the Yukon, and as Donald points out, THIS Scrooge isn't an 80 year old business man; he's the King of the Klondike, the man who tamed White Agony Creek, and took out a riverboat full of claim jumpers by himself. Cue Oh, Crap! moment from the Beagle Boy just as Scrooge is turning red from fury.
- Call-Back: The story is full of call-backs to Scrooge's youthful adventures in the previous chapters.
- When Donald runs into Dream!Bombie, he has an absolute freak-out. Understandable, considering the trouble that went down in Voodoo Hoodoo.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Scrooge can't not answer the Beagle Boys when they ask for his code. The explanation for this is that asking someone a question in their dream makes them think of the answer, and since the dream is what they're thinking...
- Crashing Dreams: They try to take advantage of this in order to help Donald and Scrooge fight the Beagle boys, with several funny results.
- Dream Emergency Exit: Donald must pry the Beagle Boys out of Scrooge's dream by getting them to fall off the "edge" of the dream.
- Fighting Down Memory Lane: A mental battle while Scrooge dreams about his past.
- For Want Of A Nail: Scrooge has had the same dream many times, right as he's about to confront Goldie in the burning Dawson Saloon, only to be knocked out, thus never letting them get together (which is what happened in real life); it always ends the same way, realistically, until the Beagle Boys accidentally changes it, and Scrooge gets to talk to Goldie for the first time. After leaving that dream, Donald realizes the importance of the moment and convinces the nephews not to interrupt it by waking up the old man. As Donald, Gyro and the nephews leave the room, several tears roll down the smiling Scrooge's cheeks.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone:
- Hilariously, Scrooge and Dream Goldie invoke this themselves when they finally reunite in Scrooge's Klondike dream only to both realize Donald's still around; Donald insist of watching them with great interest. Dream!Goldie points out a lever to Scrooge to which he pulls while giving his nephew a stare that either says "Leave us the @%*# alone!" or "Get the @%*# out of my dream too!", kicking Donald out of his dream.
- When Donald does wake up, he tells Gyro and the boys to let Scrooge sleep, telling them that the old man has finally reached a happy ending to his dream and they shouldn't interrupt it.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: What happens to the last Beagle Boy after he pisses off Scrooge in the Klondike dream. Cue him crying afterwards about how he can't pick on someone TOUGHER than him, and that it's unfair to bullies.
- Oh, Crap!: The last Beagle Boy does this when Donald points out he’s trying to pick a fight with Scrooge in his prime... and the King of the Klondike growls at him.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Get—Out—Of—My—Dream!"
- Running Gag:
- "Nephew?! What the @*%# are you doing here?!"
- The Beagle Boys find themselves in the midst of Scrooge's dangerous adventure and bemoans why Scrooge is having so many nightmares, blaming the situation to the various possible bad foods that Scrooge might have eaten before bed. Scrooge's response to all their complaints is a bemused, "Nightmare?"
- Tears of Joy: Scrooge cries these when he finally dreams about his and Goldie's reunion.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Donald's reaction when he finds out that one of Scrooge's dreams is taking place on the Titanic.
- Trivial Tragedy: Donald accidentally gets his finger inside Jesse James's gun barrel when Scrooge dream-hops to the Wild West from Titanic. Jesse screams about how he could have blown himself up if he'd pulled the trigger while Donald's finger is still inside and proceeds to have a breakdown as if that has already happened even though he's perfectly fine.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: According to Gyro, you appear in the dream as "your mental image of yourself." So when Scrooge is dreaming about something that happened when he was 10-years-old, he has the strength and skills of a 10-year-old boy (despite retaining all his memories). Hence why, to enable Scrooge to beat the Beagle Boys, the kids had to get him to dream about a time when he was the unbeatable King of the Klondike — physical rules shouldn't apply, but Scrooge can't be at his toughest unless he dreams of himself while he was at his toughest in reality.
