#Thinking about it now all of the Tad Stones cartoons I’ve watched have very distinct characters

[bat-anon]

I think Darkwing Duck spoiled me with its fun villains because now when I watch a 90s cartoon I’m almost always like “‘I think they should be a little weirder”. 

Like- lemme compare to another superhero cartoon I really like, SWAT Kats. While I do genuinely love the show, most of its villains are kind of fall back on that generic superhero villain personality. Which is disappointing considering that I find its non-villainous characters to be very distinct from one another. Like to me the only thing that changes an interaction between the SWAT Kats and the Pastmaster or Dark Kat or Hard Drive is their powers. They, alongside some of the other villains, don’t have unique quirks or strong mannerisms that set them apart from the other characters. Now compare to the villains of DWD, who are each so wildly different from each other it’s near impossible to mix them up. Each villain leans hard into their individual gimmicks and methods of mayhem with a different dynamic when interacting with Darkwing. 

In the middle of writing this I’ve realized that the biggest difference is that all of the Darkwing Duck villains are informed both by the kind of villain they are and who they were before they became supervillains. Bushroot was a botanist working at a university, so he’s a total nerd about the plants he experiments with and is also very fond of them. Quackerjack made children’s toys for a living before he turned to crime, so naturally he’s prone to childishness and all of his weapons and tools are modified toys; he also has a jester theme, which fits because he’s very snarky and most of his ploys involve creativity and using psychological warfare. Megavolt believes that lightbulbs are sentient, which leads him to being very gentle and affectionate with them and other electronics. He gained his powers through a dangerous prank pulled on him by his high school bullies, which also resulted in him developing amnesia. Liquidator is talkative and commands attention because he used to be a salesman. In SWAT Kats, we know about the pasts of Dr. Viper, MadKat, and Mac & Molly, who are more distinct compared to the other villains because their pasts inform a lot about their personalities and the type of crimes they commit. By comparison, we don’t really know any of the other villains backstories (as far as I’ve watched anyway), so there isn’t a lot to pull from. The biggest exception to this is Turmoil, who has a unique dynamic with the SWAT Kats and how she interacts with the pilots under her. 

I think that part of it is also that DWD really leans into the pastiche so it can go as ham as it wants with its characters.