overexplaining inconsequential things about ducktales part 2: what’s up with the gizmmoduck suit? how’s all that work?
so this is something ive been thinking about for a while- how exactly the gizmoduck suit is run. like, if you were to blathering blatherskite yourself on into the armor, how would you be able to control it? move the hands, the arms, wheel yourself back and forth, activate gizmos - how’s that all work??? we never get to see the inside of the suit and whatever mechanisms drive it, so that’s what im here to explore. also im gonna focus a lot on the arms
the first, perhaps most obvious solution would be like it just being like .. a regular ass suit of armor in some respects, like, that’s just his hand in there, in the hand part of the suit. his arm goes the full length of the suit’s arm, like iron man, or a regular like, medieval suit of armor. this is most clearly seen in his suiting-up sequence in the dangerous chemistry of gandra dee, right here:
you look a little closer, though, and it doesn’t really work…like, it’s an awesome visual in the scene for sure (this is SUCH a cool fucking scene), but if this is how the suit worked, fenton’s arms would look like…
(i don’t actually know if this image [the unedited version, of course. i pasted ghost fenton up there for explanation purposes] is official and shows the actual size of fenton in vs outside of the armor, but comparing the beak sizes, its close enough for our purposes here)
…..nahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
furthermore, in who is gizmoduck, during mark beaks’ sailor moon suit-up sequence:
mark’s arms (which are as long as if not longer than fenton’s), when fully outstretched, barely make it beyond the chest of the suit, and only go partway through the bicep area of the arm.
sidebar before we move on, obviously this couldn’t be the situation for the legs either, given the gizmoduck armor doesn’t have legs (and most of the midriff area is seen unfolding after fenton is in the suit in beware the b.u.d.d.y. system) but look at this screenshot from the dangerous chemistry of gandra dee
whered his legs go
ANYWAYS MOVING ON TO VERSION 2: MECHANICAL CONTROLS!
this is more plausible. that is, when you open up the chest area of the gizmosuit, there’s a bunch of buttons, levers, and knobs or whatever, some sort of controls for the various limbs, wheel, and gizmos of the suit (in addition to the voice controls). and fenton would be in the gizmosuit kinda like this:
there’s not much more to this, it’s pretty straightforward. the combination of weird voice commands and complicated controls within the suit make it very hard to pilot competently. i think this is how the gizmosuit works prior to and during who is gizmoduck, that is, until near the end of the same episode, which brings us to
PART 3: ITS ALL IN THE MIND (”it’s all me..i’m in control!”)
i posit that when huey replaces the bulbtech processor with fenton’s own brain as the core processor of the suit, the suit becomes less of a vehicle that fenton pilots, and more of an extension of his own self. that is to say, the mechanical controls of the gizmosuit become obsolete, as his mind controls the suit, as simple as your mind controls your own arm. i feel like this (combined with part 2) is the best explanation for how the gizmoduck armor works in canon, and also it’s super cool.
thanks for coming to my ted talk!
