Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Dewey Duck (DuckTales)

*Dewey-related spoilers.*

Watching the earliest episodes of DuckTales, I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d come away with Dewey as my favorite triplet, but it’s true. I just love him. While I could certainly entertain an argument that Dewey, like most of his family, is autistic, I very definitely see ADHD from him.

I view pretty much the whole Duck family as being various combos of ADHD and autistic. They’re something of a continuum unto themselves, with Huey and Dewey at opposite ends. While I’d say Huey is the one who’s most likely to be purely autistic, Dewey is the one who’s most likely to be purely ADHD. This sometimes puts him at odds with the others, because his traits can clash with theirs.

There are the classic hallmarks, of course. He’s constantly full of energy and incredibly prone to jumping into situations without thinking—his catchphrase is, “Just Dewey it!”, and no, he will not be taking questions. He’s louder and more talkative than the rest of his family, and his excitement can be overbearing for somebody who isn’t in the mood for it. During adventures, he’s liable to tune out during the “okay, whatever you do, don’t…” warnings, but he’s also apt to blaze through a wildly dangerous scenario on sheer adrenaline and instinct.

Dewey is a huge stimmer. Again, he’s full of energy and spends plenty of time running and leaping around on their adventures, and when he doesn’t have that kind of outlet, he often dances. He has a lot of vocal stims too—he likes to make up songs, and he loves to shout his name or incorporate it into some kind of pun.

All the kids can be seen as annoying in their own way, and they all get on each other’s nerves at times. While Huey gets overly fixated on rules and structure and Webby is like an explosion of affection and enthusiasm, Dewey can annoy in that “disruptive to the class” kind of way. He’s always making noise, he rarely follows instructions, and he frequently needs to be the center of attention.

But Dewey is also very imaginative. He’s less of a researcher and not as into puzzles as some people in his family, but he’s still a creative problem-solver who brings a unique perspective to things. He’s a natural showman who isn’t afraid of anything, and while those qualities can get on other people’s nerves at times, it means he tries things and takes risks. It means he entertains himself in amusing ways, like with his pretend talk show Dewey Dew-Night. He has big dreams for himself, even if the specific nature of those dreams changes frequently, and he goes after what he wants.

He's also very sensitive, which a lot of people don’t realize can be an ADHD trait. In season one, the triplets are curious about what happened to their mom and what Scrooge knows about it, but Dewey is the one who goes on what’s essentially a quest to find out. The investigation is deeply personal for him, and he only enlists Webby for help because he doesn’t want his brothers to be hurt if they search and can’t find any answers—he only wants them to know if it’s not a dead end. I love seeing how affected Dewey is by not understanding what happened to Della, especially when his digging starts to suggest she may have done something bad, and I love seeing him try to protect his brothers, even if his secret-keeping is misguided.

To that end, Dewey’s need for attention is partly rooted in his fear of rejection. In season three, the kids find out that Scrooge travels to Valhalla every decade to wrestle a snake god to keep the world from getting destroyed. Dewey and Webby wind up having to take Scrooge’s place in the fight, but Dewey is completely thrown when he realizes that in Valhalla, Scrooge is the heel, not the hero. He becomes so focused on winning the crowd’s approval that he neglects the importance of, you know, winning the match so the world doesn’t get destroyed. That’s RSD right there!