Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Donald Duck (DuckTales)

*Minor Donald-related spoilers.*

Back when I started watching this show for Other Doctor Lives, I never would’ve imagined that it would lead to me writing a post about Donald Duck. I went into it for David Tennant, of course. Then other cast members appealed to me, then the kids and Scrooge as character, and then the entire show. Of the major characters, Donald is more recurring than regular, but he’s still a critical part of the series.

In the earliest episodes of DuckTales, I could see how the show updated Scrooge, the triplets, and Webby for the new series. Donald, on the other hand, felt to me like a bit of a relic. Entertaining, to be sure, but I pretty much expected little beyond amusing slapstick from him. And it’s been too long since I watched any vintage Donald Duck to know whether he really has been updated for DuckTales, but the classic hallmarks are definitely there: his iconic voice, his comic mishaps, flying into his trademark fits.

As the series went on, though, I really came to enjoy Donald, and I was happy whenever he showed up in an episode. When it comes to neurodivergent coding, he feels autistic to me, much like the rest of his family, but in largely different ways. While characters like Scrooge, Della, and Huey channel their intense interests and hyperfocus to become incredibly good at the things they’re good at, thriving in an environment that’s suited to their talents, Donald has a harder time with things. He has really low proprioception—in any episode he’s in usually involves a bit of utter chaos caused by his clumsiness. He’s like a walking, talking wrecking ball, and the harder he tries to get something right, the more disastrous it typically goes.

As for those trademark Donald fits, full of windmilling fists and non-lexical vocalizing? Once I was looking for it, it was easy to see them as meltdowns. Donald has a lot of big emotions that he doesn’t always know how to handle, and when it comes to anger, frustration, and general stressors, those feelings build up in him from multiple sources. He gets upset when his clumsiness keeps him from accomplishing a seemingly simple task. His speech impediment isn’t necessarily connected with autism, but I’m sure the aggravation he feels when people can’t understand him would be familiar to autistic folks with speaking or communication difficulties. He's also intensely protective of his family, and while he doesn’t go in for the bold adventuring that most of the Ducks relish, he goes full berserker when they’re threatened.

Donald has a tough time with relationships too. He’s an earnest guy who cares very deeply for his family, and later for Daisy, but he can fumble his interactions a lot. It’s easy for situations to go off the rails for him—to say the wrong thing or mess things up with an uncoordinated calamity. Not to mention, he also tends to get steamrolled by more forceful personalities. When someone like Della or Storkules is bugging Donald, it’s hard for him to speak up for himself and get them to stop.

All the Ducks can struggle at times with their autistic- or ADHD-coded traits, but for most of the characters, I think the show leans more to the “superpower” side of neurodivergence. We see how their skills for adventuring and defeating bad guys are heavily informed by the way their minds work. More often than not, their neurodivergence is something to celebrate, and it’s why they always win in the end. With Donald, I like that we see his traits falling more on the “kryptonite” side. A lot of things that the rest of the family can do easily are tricky for him—being autistic can be hard, and frustrating, and demoralizing. But that makes him no less worthy of love and care than the rest of them. Go Donald Duck!