Master McDucato, Chapter VI: "Lorenzo the Magnificent"

Golly gee!  After that big ol' cliffhanger, I wonder how this chapter is going to deal with that whole "Palio" business?

…with this "it's just a dream!" gambit, which, let's face it, makes zero sense: if Donald refuses to be a part of this under ordinary circumstances, why is the fact that this is retroactively declared not to actually be happening going to be any sort of "solution?"  I suppose it does raise potentially interesting philosophical questions: given that this is a made-up story anyway, even within the world of the comic, does the fact that, as a "dream," the race takes place a layer deeper really make a difference?  We're talkin' some Inception-style shit here.

I went a bit overboard here, you say?  Mmm…not gonna argue with you there.  But what's done is done!

For all you Rockerduck fans(?), at any rate…here's Rockerduck (I gave him an Italian-y name; he was not identified in the German).  Is he normally an antagonist to Donald?  Not so much.  But now, he is.  So deal with it.  At any rate, the layout of this page is kind of interesting and well-done.

…and the "name famous people" bit is more visually dynamic than usual, due to actually showing these guys.  Seriously, if you're going to have something like this, you'd better go for broke with the art, because it's never going to be exciting just for the writing.

I stick a whole bunch of quotes from popular (or not-so-popular) songs in these stories, you know.  Does anyone recognize this one without looking it up?  If so, you are pretty cool.  Given a city called "Siena," it was kind of irresistible.

I must admit, Scroogio calling Naldo "mangy" makes me laugh.  In the German, predictably, it was just something like "'mangia' means food! Naldo likes to eat lol pwned," which when you come right down to it barely even qualifies as a joke, given that it is indeed the word "eat" in the name of the tower.

Also funny: Scroogio's utter self-absorption here that causes him to just assume Naldo's depression must be due to him obsessing about Florence.

NOTE ACTUAL LORENZO DE MEDICI POETRY WHAT I FOUND ON THE INTERNETS.  Actually, in the German, he's just quoting the same poem about youth that comes up later, but I thought it would be better to have some variety.

Pretty sure I'm the first person to ever incorporate ebay feedback into a duck story!  I like to think of myself as a pioneer.  Others might prefer "vandal."  Opinions vary.

See?  1472. Meaning that when they were blown forward in time, it must've been 1322, which it couldn't possibly have been.  Well, okay, I guess it could've been, if we assume that some substantial time passed between then and when they reached Siena, even though Chapter V seems to clearly contradict this…oh, never mind.

I also find the level of indignation at Scroogio's Mad-Magazine-level parody pretty darned amusing.  What a time to live!

But, ultimately, it's home sweet home.  Now, in the German, Scroogio's not offering to pay Naldo a whole florin, which is clearly far more than he would get for a thing like this; he's just generically saying that if he wants to get paid, he'd better work.  But I decided that this would be a good idea, for a couple of reasons: first, it allows us to infer that Scroogio on some level wants to really pay his nephew back for tagging along with him and helping him all this time, and he just yells a lot to avoid looking soft; and second, it makes for some nice circularity: as you may recall, in the first chapter, Naldo was complaining that he had never even seen a florin, and now he gets to own one.  That works pretty well.  'Course, in an ideal world, he would be entitled to some of the money given to Scroogio by the Medicis, but given that it's pretty much always an unspoken rule in duck stories that windfalls of cash go to Scrooge, it was pretty inevitable that that wasn't gonna happen.

…and seriously, wouldn't this be a nice way to end the story?  I wouldn't complain.  A regular Odyssey.

See?  Donald agrees with me.  But alas...

Well, whether "alas" is the right word is open to debate, but jeez, is this ever strong stuff for this milieu.  Finally, a story that isn't afraid to answer the question: are you allowed to depict brutal political assassinations in Disney comics?

And the answer, it turns out, is: pretty much!  You may not be able to display the climactic act of violence itself, but the stuff immediately leading up to it and directly after?  A-Okay!  Donald's reactions mirrors my own, not that I'm objecting.  I actually, strangely enough, feel kinda bad for poor Giuliano; not that he was ever a well-developed character or anything, but I dunno.  Just something about his look of shock there, I guess.

Apparently, in the real world, Lorenzo was actually saved by our old friend Poliziano.  But I guess if you wanted to show this lust-for-vengeance stuff, he would've seemed a bit out-of-character in the role.  Apparently, it's quite true that he spoke out strongly against vigilante measures, though to little avail, and he did save innocent people caught in the Pazzi purges.  I find this legitimately surprising and admirable.  

Welp, just one chapter to go.  I have good news if you like this stuff and bad news if you hate it: the last chapter is easily the longest, at forty-two pages.  Download it now, and check back tomorrow for the grand finale.

<-Chapter V Chapter VII->