Is Ducky's position the way it is to maintain the 'favorite of the bunch' status?
Ducky has usually been called the 'cute' character which is why so many people seem to like her.
With her batting eyes in the second movie, her almost carefree nature in the first, she's definitely labeled as such.
But: Is that the only way she ends up being the lovable character? Or is there more:
Ducky can easily be seen as the underdog, another common theatrical character for people to like, always getting the short end of the stick, always having the troubles, which sometimes in the course of the plot backfire on them anyway...
let's start with the beginning:
1. Small, and separated from her family, everyone else was too, you say, HOWEVER! Who is the one to have to lure The Sharptooth (I say this capitalized because he was unnaturally invincible) into the 'boss fight' if you will, Petrie's just as small, why not him? Simple, he doesn't learn to fly until it's too late; a perfect setup.
2. The batting eyes plays on the cuteness, but it's her (and Spike's I guess) family who has the stolen egg, meaning she, of course will want to put a stop, but before that, she tries to help Cera in the quicksand before a larger, stronger character will, she's the last voice heard before they fall under, playing on the "aww." She falls off the cliff, and is barely saved by a more 'competent' character if you will.
3. Ducky seems to play almost no role in this movie at all, she's kinda like Action9000's opinion of what Grandma has become after the 4th movie. Almost all her lines seem overly scripted
4. This is among the most obvious of examples, who goes back to save one of (what seemed like too few to me for a 70 foot being) the Night Flowers and is then put in danger, dropped into water, unconscious, and ALMOST eaten? Of course saved by (well,) little brother, simply knocked conscious by a word...
5. Who is most effected by being separated from "mommy." Who falls off the cliff and is almost _again_ eaten by something? Only to be saved by dumb luck? Who is one of 2 (more justified of the 2 I must say) that is "too scared" but capable of crossing the ocean to get their parents?
6. The don't be afraid to walk home in the dark line, of course, is a good example of she's too scared to do things on her own... other than that her only real role in the movie is translating the twins, and getting Cera in trouble in the process. Other than we notice she's not scared of rock jumping over a deep pit, even after 2's experience...
7. She's the bait of the whole movie? Rinkus doesn't want to let her go, she almost falls to her demise at the end, there's more than I can count...
8 left promises of Ducky getting her own movie... but let's take a look:
WHERE TO START?... This'll probably be edited time and again: She can't sleep because Spike is too loud, and moves too much (granted, she could _move_ but it's plot setup.) She is, and she indicates this, singled out by Mr. Thicknose when Spike is also a problem, Spike eats her treestars, and she (tell me this isn't 'cute character' setup) has to learn how to be mad(???? She's at least 6.... I was first mad when i was 2 XD) Which is the setup for the rest of her problems in the movie... She starts to isolate herself from Spike... "I am a swimmer he is not" which makes him feel unwanted. He meets Tippy and they become good, nearly non-talking, friends... the snow comes, she throws the first snowball, (I dunno why I indicate this, but w/e) and then Spike is faced with the 'To leave or not to leave, that is the question' scene now: this scene is particularly interesting, as I've talked with a couple people and I've noticed how few people empathize enough to make the scene make sense, everyone else (at least 4 or 5 people) I've talked to thinks her yelling, even for "expressing [her] feelings" seems rash, and unnecessary, now put it in total perspective, If your (I'll set the scene as well as I can, but it'll still be less realistic) friend, a friend you've known forever, you're best friend, made you mad a couple times, and you kind of shunned them for a while, if they were to meet a new friend, and in the span of less than a week, become friends with someone new, that wouldn't bother most people, HOWEVER, when the time comes, not much after that, and the person s/he met has to leave, and they offer for him/her to come with them, and he couldn't decide whether to be with you, who he's been friends with forever, or someone s/he barely knows? and s/he can't decide who to go with... wouldn't that bother you? Put that on top of a day that wasn't great, and you'd snap too wouldn't you? so she more or less dismisses him, now the audience (at least that this forum mainly includes) knows she didn't mean what she said, however Spike takes it as her true opinion and goes off. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and she doesn't understand why he left, then there's a rather touching song, of course, her mom tries to reassure her that it was for the better, and she snaps at her mom, then decides to find Spike, so big sister goes to find little brother and potentially save him, she goes off on her own, well as we've already seen in the series up to now, she isn't casted as a competent character, she's more of a charmer, and she ends up not faring alone too well, it's cold, and she needs help, so let's bring in the rest of the still-Great-Valley kids, oh, and Thicknose, watch the movie, it'll make sense then, to save the person saving the person, back to Ducky, still a fair distance ahead of the others. Calling to Spike, she notices an echo and plays around with that until her feet apparently echo, then she realizes, oh, wonderful, a sharptooth, being too small to do much damage to the beast, she makes the logical decision, RUN!!!! Just in time! the others find her, and begin another 'boss battle' (if you will
) they save her, which is to be expected of the underdog, and now it's back to Littlefoot and the others being the heroes and Ducky almost being written out as a member of the team, aside from calling. They become very cold, hungry and thirsty, and conveniently find a frozen hot spring (I guess it happens... I dunno...) where they sit and rest, until the end of the movie basically, resting and recovering from the ordeal they've dealt with. (oh and they regain their color, this just always caught my attention, when it's cold or something they seem to lose color, and in this case Spike becomes an almost contrasting color (purple???)) and suddenly, regardless of all that's happened, and how much Spike misses Ducky, he smells food (from x yards away, it's not right there of course) and saves his whole temporary herd, but when he reaches the _same spring_ Ducky and the others already stumbled across, he hears and sees his old friends, but goes to eat food first, this, even for Spike seems uncharacteristically gluttonous. After he eats they're off on the side in their little niche, and Tippy knocks Spike into the deep end where there's some thin ice and he falls in, and Ducky's _mom_ saves him.
To recap: Ducky has all the troubles, and is the only person in the movie who is _saved_ and does not _save_ anyone... pretty unusual to me...
So much for her getting her movie...
9. This movie already has a swimmer, she doesn't really deserve a role in this I guess, other than of course cheerleader...
10. Other than being scared by the things Cera says in Adventuring, running from the sharptooth and being bothered by Cera shrugging Pat's help offer in this movie, this movie could've been written without her saying a word... but she is abused... in a sense, she is incapable of waking big...little... brother... and gets rolled over on... (i know that's a double preposition, and a sentence ending in a preposition, but oh well, it's also in passive for the record of you English majors
)
11 and 12 are Cera's problem movies, so she takes a mid-front seat for these movies, and we can only have one lead female... right?...
right?... I don't make the rules...
11. In this one she plays a fairly contradictory, selfish, and foolish character... And... her little blame game with Petrie after having Littlefoot walk off (her little telling off episode is kinda uncharacteristic too...) This movie could've had a great role for her, after all, she could empathize with these small dinos better than any of the others (except Petrie) oh... and that "DON'T EVER CALL MY DAD THAT AGAIN" line means apparently it's her fault Tria calls Mr. Topps that...
12 is even
moreso Petrie's movie...
12. In THIS movie... her 'Closest Friend of Petire' role is taken so she's almost written off again, except her "things might not seem so bad" stuff in Things Change... but Spike bumps her off a cliff, Guido seems to idle on her head in the water, and she, other than that... again doesn't get much of a role... Except getting trampled by Cera after Spike eats all the food off the branch she was eating.
Spike doesn't have a movie that was supposed to be his... but he kind of steals the spotlight from Ducky in 8... and ALL the movies are pretty much Littlefoot's
In the TV series... she seems to play mainly minuscule parts, with the exception of the rising waters episode, where she teaches Tricia to swim... for what it's worth, all it is is her _not_ getting yelled at by Cera...
and of course the "how to be big" scenario in the Cave of Many Voices... She's the 'hero' for what it's worth... all she really plays is temporary distraction, then all the others actually scare the beasts away...
This has been the (evolution... er... wait this is Kansas... they outlawed evolution in Kansas.... hmm... the...) Creation... and dynamics of.... or rather, as you hopefully read to realize...
stasis of the character Ducky... Who... even after all this... effectively is my favorite character...
please read, and discuss, and if you see any glaring absences, please tell me what I've missed
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