#this is exactly why I’m shipping Gandra with someone else in my DT 17 OC centric Rewrite AU

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Here are my collected thoughts on why I ship Fenro and not Fendra

@shychick-52 @rommaru

First, if the DT crew wanted to make Fendra canon, they should’ve actually had more episodes building up their relationship, instead of shoehorning all that development in just Beaks in the Shell. Just like georgiarose answered in their respective post.

It wouldn’t have been hard to have Gandra genuinely apologize to Fenton for being in cahoots with Mark Beaks and lying to him in the process, but the show never does that due to the Duck family’s main character syndrome and the show’s cast bloat. Then there are the episodes in Season 3 where Gandra doesn’t interact with Fenton until the final episodes of Season 3, and her redemption arc doesn’t get developed throughout the same season, only in Beaks in the Shell. Heck throughout their “date” in Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee, Gandra did criticize two of Fenton’s experiments for not being risky “What if you don’t like glazed doughnuts?” -Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee” and for conforming with Mcduck’s corporate checklist “So, Rich boss McDuck gets to gobble up all of the Earth’s precious gems for himself? What’s next, some kind of Gold magnet?” - Same episode, although I do agree with her anticapitalist belief, which is the one trait I’m tolerable of. During that whole lab session she also demonstrated her own tech, her Eyebuds and Nanites, WITHOUT Fenton’s permission, to show how good her free lance tech is (which honestly felt like a red flag to me)

Exhibit A, Gandra testing her nanites on Fenton, without his permission

In the whole series, Fenton is a lawful good duck and Gandra’s obviously morally grey, and as you watch Gandra’s cover get blown during the climax of Dangerous chemistry of Gandra Dee you begin to become disappointed with her when she doesn’t apologize to Fenton for double crossing him, that very episode made me completely disappointed in the character herself.

Dialogue is also from The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee:

Fenton: So I’m the suit? You’re the one working for Beaks!

Gandra: I work for myself. I just …used him for funding and resources.

Fenton: For what? Was any of this real? What are you?

Gandra: A scientist, free of responsibility, and look …for what it’s worth, you’re a good scientist.

Fenton: And you’re a crook.

If you focus on Gandra’s lines, there is an underlying hypocrisy to her character, she is also responsible for creating the nanites to cause Mark Beaks to go berserk. The dialogue reaffirms that Gandra did not formally apologize to Fenton and took accountability for her actions at the end of her debut episode.

Reminder, I rage quit watching the Ducktales reboot after seeing spoilers for Beaks in the Shell. There was not a lot of compatibility and build up to Fenton and Gandra falling in love together near the end of the series. The reason they started their relationship is because of Huey and Webby forcing them to get together on a date, while completely disregarding Fenton’s boundaries in the process, and this is something you should never do IRL. Due to Gandra being a hypocrite claiming she’s a rebel scientist only to reveal she was forced to work for F.O.W.L. Through her sob inducing backstory (Playing the guilt card are we?) does sum up how her redemption arc or lack thereof, didn’t make it feel compelling to us at all. Since Gandra and Fenton only interacted in 3 episodes total, through Beaks in the Shell we learn that they’re in a secret relationship and run science experiments together in a virtual reality which also had so many plotholes. Beaks in the Shell made Fenton and Gandra’s relationship feel rushed and forced with no substance to it at all, they just made them canon to constantly enforce heteronormativity like Disney and pander to the Shippers.

And then you have Fenton’s relationship with Gyro who surprisingly interacted more with him than with Gandra in the entire series. Fenton may be lawfully good and friendly while Gyro is antisocial and focused on his inventions they actually have a solid dynamic and were able to play off of each other. Throughout season 1 and Astroboyd they had a gradual build up of care and respect and especially in Astroboyd Gyro ends up promoting Fenton to a doctor to show the respect he now has for him.

Dialogue is from near the end of AstroB.OY.D.

Yes, intern. I was once like you. Of course, I was a naive idiot back then. But if I had someone to actually listen to me, I might not have been so hopeless. So... you're hired full-time, Dr. Crackshell-Cabrera.

Fenro: That's not technically how doctorates work,and I don't care!

Gyro: Okay, everybody, the hugging is a "just for today" thing.

Exhibit B, Fenton happily embracing Gyro after being promoted to a full time job as a Doctor. Also this hug was before Gyro protected Fenton before Boyd could attack him and managed to apologize and embrace Boyd for the mistake he made in the past. Guess which scientist is more committed to their responsibilities in the whole reboot? Also Gyro reconciling with Boyd and promoting Fenton was the best way to have his character arc go off on a high note and helped improve his relationship with Dr. Crackshell-Cabrera.

Fenton and Gyro helped fight off the main antagonists in all 3 season finales of the Ducktales reboot, they had great chemistry together whenever they’re on screen, they’re opposites attract, they’re both brilliant scientists, heck, that’s why I enjoyed watching scenes of them together, and why I ended up shipping them even thought they didn’t end up together. Fenton and Gyro were awesome characters that had the best designs in the reboot. You’ll also know it’s a problem in the episodes featuring Gandra, the writers had to completely change Fenton and Gyro’s dynamic in order to have Gandra and Fenton be more “compatible”. Due to realizing that they ended up realizing they gave Fenton and Gyro way more chemistry than they did with Gandra. Look these two whole posts aren’t hot takes these are just my opinions I’m sharing with you. Also I wasn’t trying to antagonize the Fendra shippers at all in this critical post. Tl;dr, Fenton and Gyro’s relationship got no homo’d out of existence near the end of the series, and Fendra ended up feeling very forced and obviously rushed with Gandra’s character feeling poorly handled by the DT17’s writers. Fun fact, Beaks in the Shell was one of the least watched episodes out of the series.