Donald Duck murders Goofy

[cyberghostface]

From Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #1.



There is no additional context, this is the full story.

Comments

[richardak]

They say that anger issues are a common symptom of PTSD.

[leoboiko]

War. War changes people.

[locuatico]

I like Cracked... but that is not a "fan theory", it's actually canon...

[leoboiko]

That Donald has PTSD is canon (as far as the concept of "canon" applies to toon-type publications), and a cool little shout-out from Disney to the actual wartime propaganda shorts against the Japanese.

The fan theory is the part where the PTSD is singled out as the cause of Donald Duck's character drift into a hothead type. Cracked is correct in that this is a coincidence; in real life, what actually happened is that comic strip / toon characters, which originally were fairly alike and interchangeable as "funny animals", started getting distinct personalities. Compare old and new Daffy Duck, or Goofy, or Woody Woodpecker, for example. Due to this, Donald ended up as Disney's comically angry unlucky guy; not because some writer deliberately evolved his personality in a character arc tied to his PTSD, but out of natural development of the medium and because it was funny.

The fact that the change in personality fits so well with the timing of the War and the canon PTSD makes it into my favorite fan theory ever.