#astro b.o.y.d.!

[thechaseofspades]

DT17 Anniversary Posting

So I've heard around the cafeteria that there's a theme for today centered around people's favorite episodes. Well, I don't have [a] favorite episode. But I can narrow it down to 1 per season, so let's go with that.

(P.S. if you were tagged in this post it's because I gave you cool people a shoutout at the end.)

S1: The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!

When I first watched this show, this episode was the one where I realized things were serious. This wasn't just a funny duck show. It's definitely still funny and a duck show, but it's so much more than that.

On Disney+, this episode comes right after Lena is possessed by Magica, so my mind was 100% on that heading in. Instead, we got the resolution to Dewey's arc and the mystery of Della Duck... or so we thought!

Sure, we found out Della's fate, but that was almost secondary to the family drama, especially between Dewey and Scrooge. It's very intense, and even when we get the answers we're looking for, the questions all change.

I don't need to explain why this episode is good. It just is. The fact that I picked this episode, and not a Lena-centric one, shows how good it is.

S2: A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!

Alright fine. One Lena episode.

After Lena was brought back in "Friendship Hates Magic!", the question was, where do we go from here? I think they handled it very well, integrating her back into the kids' friend group while still letting the effects of Magica's abuse linger on.

I really enjoy the idea of characters' dreams showing their deepest fears and desires. The kind of stuff they would otherwise stash away when they're awake. This episode took that concept and sprinted with it.

I still think we ought to have had more sleepover episodes with all of the kiddos. When everybody is fighting for screen time in Season 3, this episode shows how you can balance several characters at once, even if Lena was the one getting the majority of the attention. The "Swanstantine" episode is another good example of this.

I mean, come on. We got Webby dressing herself up as Scrooge McDuck as soon as she realized she could do whatever she wanted. It was foreshadowed from the beginning!

S3: Astro B.O.Y.D.!

I've talked about this one before. It's one of my favorite pieces of autism rep. Boyd's journey in this episode really resonated, as well as his relationship with Huey.

In my opinion, the best part about it is how Huey relates to Boyd. Specifically not because he's a robot, but how Huey sees him as just a kid, just like him. The robot part is more of a neat quirk than anything. He's wired differently, literally, but they deserve a chance to be themselves.

And I appreciate how "Astro-B.O.Y.D!" gives Boyd a purpose as a character. I thought the bit in the Doofus episode where the villains try to pull the same con as Louie was fun, but Boyd didn't feel like much of a character, or at least no more of one than Sharkbomb was.

So "Astro-B.O.Y.D!" takes a character that very well could have had a one-off bit role, and made him something special. Made him somebody that a viewer can relate to, just as Huey did in the episode. Even just for 22 minutes, Boyd felt special. I felt special. I felt seen.

So yeah, that's my three. The fact that I can sit here and ramble about a half-decade old show that ended before I found it, is really cool. I'm so glad to have the chance to hang out with everybody here, whether we're discussing the best show in the history of time or doing literally anything else.

Shoutout to the people rallying the troops for today's anniversary... @secret-tester @justaboot @alexcanine @boingodigitalart @yeyeducks @cookieruby @the-richest-duck ... and to everyone else who's participated not just today but any day. We wouldn't be a community without the fine folks in it.

[violetganache42]

Hi, @shychick-52! I'm your Secret Santa for @duckblrsecretsanta2023! Here is a fancam/video edit I made of Gyro letting go of his past regrets and moving on to what the future has in store with BOYD. I hope you enjoyed the holidays and have a happy New Year!

[best-ducktales-episode]

ROUND #1

[minatist]

autism kids having an autism hug and being autism boyfriends

[shychick-52]

As we know, DuckTales 2017 is FULL of clever, subtle parallels and callbacks to other episodes (not just to the 80s series, but within the reboot itself). Here's one I've never seen anyone talk about:

Compare this scene in season 2's 'Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake' where Doofus hacked poor Boyd and reprogrammed him to tie Louie up like a pinata and attack him-

-to this scene in the final episode of the series 'The Last Adventure':

The scene in 'The Last Adventure' was the second time Boyd attended a birthday party and the second time he was involved in a pinata game. But it was the first time doing so while completely free of anyone else's reprogramming/hacking (enslavement, essentially). He was actually enjoying his life as a free person, just having fun like the real kid he wanted to be, alongside his true dad who loves him and wants the world for him.

Ever since Gyro finally gave him the validation Boyd desperately needed to hear from his creator's own mouth in the episode 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' ("You are not evil! You are good! You're more than your programming! You are a definitely real boy!"), allowing him to snap out of Akita's evil programming, he became truly free for the first time in his life with the ability to make his own choices, his systems completely free of all the other reprogramming others forced on him for their own selfish, ignorant purposes. He truly embraced what it was to be a real person- his own person- choosing his own identity (the 'real boy' programming Gyro himself created him with long ago, but Boyd still chose it for himself at the end of 'Astro B.O.Y.D.').

And that's why the parallel between these two scenes is so powerful.

[soupy-cosmos]

[ID: Two drawings of Gyro and Boyd from DuckTales 2017.

The first image is a black and white comic with screen tone coloring.

Panel 1: Boyd is flying, tugging Gyro by the hand to the right and saying “Come on Dr. Gearloose!” to which Gyro replies “I’m coming, I’m coming.” with a tired smile. Panel 2: Gyro leans back and smiles in exasperation at the ceiling, thinking to himself “Stupid closet.” (Boyd is pulling him into the closet in the lab but it’s just drawn as a darker half of the panel) Panel 3: A small reaction panel of Gyro looking surprised, with shining eyes. Panel 4: The bigger panel that panel 3 is attached to. Boyd’s face is in the lower left corner smiling. “Ta-dah!” Is written across the top in all caps, the exclamation coming from Boyd. Behind him a spotlight hits a phone on a tripod and a stool. Panel 5: Gyro continues to look surprised as Boyd throws up his arms happily, saying “Lil Bulb brought this old picture of us from Tokyolk!” Lil Bulb appears on Gyro’s shoulder, holding a photo. Panel 6: A close-up of Gyro holding the picture, Lil Bulb’s hand is still holding it as well. The picture is the cracked photo that Gyro finds in the original Astro Boyd episode of him and Boyd back before the incident. Boyd says “But it’s cracked” offscreen. Panel 7: This panel is immediately next to panel 6 instead of under it. Gyro’s back is to the viewer, so his expression isn’t visible as he looks at the photo. Lil Bulb hangs onto the top of the picture frame, kicking its legs. Boyd is flying around Gyro, only the top of his head and eyes visible as he looks down at him, saying “I thought that…” Panel 8: Boyd is the only character visible, arms behind his back as he presumably looks up at Gyro. He has one eyebrow raised as he says “Maybe we could take a new one?”

The second image is a fully colored and rendered drawing of the current Boyd and Gyro in the poses they had in the original photo. They are both smiling happily. The image has a picture frame drawn around it. End ID.]

2 days late let’s gooo 😭😭 

Happy late anniversary to Astro B.O.Y.D!

[sherbetlemonss]

Happy (belated) Astro Boyd day!!!! Idk if this makes sense but ya lolz 👍👍

[secret-tester]

How about "Rotting Wounds" for an emotional Gyro with Boyd?

Your ask is my command...

To be honest, This was hard for me to show this... in a drawing... Also... Sorry if I got something wrong... First time drawing Gyro... All though, I like how it turned out!

I should try drawing more Gyro and Boyd artworks!!!

Thanks for the ask @shychick-52

[writebackatya]

Della: To know where Gyro went, I’ll need to think like Gyro.

Della: [speaking internally] “I’m a big four-eyed lame-o! And I wear the same stupid hat everyday an-”

Della: TOKYOLK!!

[giddlygoat]

i just realized that boyd and gosalyn of the ‘17 show would be a great dynamic not unlike honker and gosalyn of the classic show. i hate to think they’d straight up leave honker out of the new show but i’m guessing they have bc there’s really not a good way to weave him in all things considered. but yeah gos and boyd have GOT to get together at some point

[rommaru]

I often think about this picture Gyro kept on his desk when he was an intern. He was so small... How old was he? What graduation photo was that?

It is a widely accepted headcanon that he was an advanced student since young age. If he carried this picture with him all the way from home to Tokyolk is because it is important for him.

Could this be his graduation photo from highschool? If so, why is it so important? Is it because the lady in the picture was important for him?

To me, at least, it makes more sense if it were his graduation photo from college. It would be indeed an important moment in his life, but a part inside me doesn't want to believe he graduated so young. We know Gyro’s timeline is unclear, but when Fenton mentioned the Tokyolk's lab was "where Dr. Gyro Gearloose was born", did he mean it in a "this was the most important moment in Gyro's career" way or in a "this is where Gyro got his PhD" way?

Do you do internships when you are after a PhD? I'm pretty much unfamiliar with how the American education system works (if it even does at all).

With this on mind, the most solid idea to me is that it was Gyro's graduation photo from college, even when he looks so young. He got hit by puberty when he was on his last year of the Masters and it continued while he was studying for the PhD, so there's a good amount of time for him to grow up to the look we see in Astro B.O.Y.D. However I'm still picky about this.

Anyway, what do you think about this? I'd love to hear someone's take on this with a better understanding of the American education system or their take with any other system.

[artificialkids-2k23-official]

Edit provided by @astro-b-o-y-d and used with permission

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

Redoing this drawing from 2020 and already obsessed with the improvement.

[best-ducktales-episode]

alright!! propaganda for THE best ducktales episode!! let's go!

ASTROBOYD

astroboyd is the best ducktales episode literally ever. boyd gets a featured role, gyro gets a backstory, huey gets to be the main character For Once, its amazing. my roommate and i watch it over and over and over again, i think we've watched it a dozen times by now?? (keep in mind, we watched ducktales in january). it is one of the few ducktales episodes with a special title card, and it has very very good autism representation which is always a plus. also!! huey gets to stim!! it introduces some of the best one-off characters, like dr. akita and inspector tezuka, who both seem like very developed characters despite maybe getting a collective seven minutes of screen time. AND!! the animation!! during the battle scene at the end, they stylize the animation to reflect anime fight scenes, and i genuinely cannot think of another moment in ducktales where they do that. it's its own little self-contained story inside of ducktales and i absolutely adore it. i'll leave you with one more piece of propaganda (that i honestly should've started with, it's enough to convince you on its own):

fenton gets a magical girl transformation.

that is all. good night.

@woo-oo (ducktales sideblog) @hueysanxiety (roommate): care to chime in?

a dozen times since January ily <3

[askfentoncrackshellcabrera]

Hey Fenton I feel bad how dr. Gearloose treats you

Yeah, I understand what your saying... there always was something cooky about the guy... you make one mistake, and he gets all bossy around you... but I always felt like the lab was sort of a second home to me... I even went so far as to decorate the whole lab just for a date with Gandra... those were the good old days... but Gyro always had a bone to pick with me... I always felt so hurt, and I never took the time to understand where all that anger and hostility comes from. But then I finally realized why...

Me, Gyro, Huey, and B.O.Y.D all took a trip to Tokyolk to fix B.O.Y.D's violent malfunctioning... it was at Gyro's abandoned lab that I learned that he was betrayed by this scientist named Dr. Akita, and thus, his creation was turned into an evil machine... I guess he took all his anger out on me because of the hostilities of the past with working with other scientists...

Don't worry though, Gyro is definitely much more calmer now, especially with B.O.Y.D! He isn't as harsh on me as he was before, and even when he is, I now understand where he's coming from! Heck, he's the one who appointed me as a new fully fledged scientist!! I have great respect for the guy, and I'm so grateful for everything he has done for me!!

[shychick-52]

Gyro the family man

See this victory group shot at the end of the finale 'The Last Adventure'? I feel like THIS was the moment Gyro truly felt like- or finally realized- that he was also part of Scrooge's family all along, reaching a major milestone in his healing/character development since the end of the episode 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' After obtaining their greatest victory yet from the greatest threat they'd all ever faced together (Gyro is standing with the rest of Team Science on the left, including Gandra and Von Drake; click to enlarge):

Scrooge: *to Bradford* "You didn't lose to me! You lost to my family! All of them!"

I like to think that Boyd is the most important one in Gyro's life... and that after emotionally reconciling with him at the end of 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' (which I think was the first time he'd opened his heart since before the Tokyolk incident and began healing from the demons of his past), he'd found his own family- his son- and somebody of his own to live for. And I also like to think his relationship with Boyd was strengthened even further after the danger they all faced in the series finale. They came so close to losing each other, since Bradford planned to erase everyone from existence (and even though Gyro didn't really show any signs of worrying about or missing Boyd the whole time they were separated in 'The Last Adventure', I hc he absolutely was)!

I LOVE THIS SHOT FROM THE FINALE SO MUCH. This was just when Gyro finished reattaching Boyd's head when they were returning home on the plane. The genuine, loving smile they're sharing! The way Gyro's tenderly cradling Boyd's head as he lies in his lap! Gyro just seems so loving and protective of Boyd there, happy he's reunited with his son again and that he's safe.

AND THIS. This was during the end-credits (or the curtain call, as I refer to it). Boyd catches his free-falling dad, and just as they blast out-of-frame together, Gyro gives the biggest, happiest smile for the first time (it actually happens quite fast, and is a little easy to miss). Look how he's just BEAMING. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. It's this part here that really gets me crying, because it's the last we'll ever see of both Gyro himself and the two of them together. And it's this shot that really tells me Gyro's going to be ok. Ever since 'Astro B.O.Y.D.', I wanted him to go forth into a future of healing, hope, and even happiness with his son by his side... and this shot PERFECTLY sums that up.

I like to think that's Gyro's truly learned he's part of three families- he's the father of Boyd (and Lil Bulb). He's the patriarch of Team Science. And he's part of Scrooge's family.