Magica De Spell (DuckTales 2017)

Magica De Spell is a major antagonist in Disney's DuckTales franchise, serving as one of the three secondary antagonists (alongside Flintheart Glomgold and Ma Beagle) of the 2017 DuckTales reboot series appearing as the main antagonist of Season 1 and a major antagonist in the second and third seasons.

Biography

DuckTales (2017)

Magica appears as the main antagonist of the reboot's first season, although she was first revealed at the end of "The Beagle Birthday Massacre!" This incarnation of Magica speaks with a British accent instead of a Russian accent, as well as having green-blue feathers (due to the effects of magic), slit slice-like pupils, and a more lanky design in a callback to her first appearance in the Carl Barks comic The Midas Touch. Fifteen years prior to the start of the series, Magica and Scrooge engaged in a bitter battle in which Magica attempted to banish Scrooge to another dimension within his Number One Dime. Scrooge manages to repel the magic, however, trapping Magica instead. Before she is sealed completely, Magica enchants her shadow which takes the form of a young duckling (eventually named Lena) who calls her "Aunt Magica", with the jewel from her staff becoming Lena's talisman. In all of her appearances up until the finale, a shadow Magica appears through the shadow of Lena to contact her from the dime. Motivated by personal scorn towards Scrooge and his family, Magica yearns to steal the Number One Dime, which Magica intends to use during a lunar eclipse to increase her power and have her vengeance.

She forcefully enlists Lena into her scheme through the talisman Lena wears that allows Magica to control her. Although Lena is at odds with her "aunt", she obeys Magica in order to achieve her freedom, and Magica constantly urges her to abandon her growing friendship towards the McDuck children, especially Webby, who forms a strong bond with her. She also had to keep her mission a secret to avoid having anyone finding out about the plan too soon. When the eclipse begins to draw closer, Magica's power grows to the point she is able to possess Lena at the end of "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!". By the time of "The Shadow War!", Magica uses Lena's body to enter McDuck Manor, where she successfully steals the dime just as the lunar eclipse takes place. Magica's form is finally released, allowing her to encase Scrooge within the dime and take over Duckburg. Magica casts a spell on the citizens' shadows and creates an army of followers. She then establishes Scrooge's Money Bin as her domain and takes time to relish in her victory by delivering a long-awaited monologue. Magica's plot is foiled, however, when the McDuck children infiltrate the bin and challenge Magica for the dime. The battle results in Scrooge's freedom and the loss of Magica's magic, turning her into a normal duck and a mere practitioner of witchcraft. Foiled, Magica swears vengeance before making an awkward exit.

Months later in "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", Magica begins hounding the dreams of Lena and her friends in an attempt to regain her magic powers and rebond Lena with her. In Lena's dream, she is imprisoned in the castle of Magica's image. Magica then tries to seduce Lena back to the dark side and makes her in the former's image to fight Webby's party. Taking possession of a mirror, Magica still attempts to rebond Lena with herself until the friendship bracelets wake the kids up. In the waking realm, an insane Magica is shown using a telepathic helmet and a drone to enter Lena's dreams and pressure her back to her side. When Lena magically destroys her equipment, Magica pathetically reaches for Lena but cannot because of the gate and rails.

In "GlomTales!", having lost her magic powers, Magica is stuck with work at Funso's Fun Zone holding lame birthday party shows using conjuring tricks. She was recruited by Glomgold as the Webby of his villainous family in an attempt to take down Scrooge and his family. A running gag in this episode is that she is clearly more respected than Glomgold as Scrooge's most feared enemy and is mistaken for the one pulling the strings behind the villain's plot, which results in a mutual distaste between her and Glomgold (mainly on Glomgold's side). With Louie being the only one at the manor, he convinces the villains he can help Glomgold win the bet against Scrooge by combining all of their fortunes together, which actually makes more money than Scrooge, thus ensuring Glomgold's win. However, since Flintheart Glomgold is a fake identity and not his real name, Louie becomes the owner of Scrooge's, Flintheart's, and the other villains' money. Magica scolds Glomgold about how he lost all of their fortunes to a child and declares she has enough hate in her heart for two Scottish billionaires. After Flintheart escapes, the villains take their leave in the Iron Vulture.

In "The Phantom and the Sorceress!", the Phantom Blot desires to destroy Magica De Spell because she destroyed his village years ago after she grew bored with the villagers trying to placate her. As such, the Phantom Blot had grown to despise magic of all kinds, regardless of whether it is used for good or evil. Meanwhile, Webby and Violet convince Lena to seek out Magica to help her control the amulet after being attacked by him, after which they track her down living by herself in a swamp. Magica initially doesn't want anything to do with them, but once she sees that Lena has the amulet, she agrees (although she makes it more than a little obvious that she really just wants to take the amulet back when she gets the chance, so she can regain her powers). She also agrees because, of course, the Blot is one of her own enemies, albeit as a result of her own actions, and is still powerless, leaving her defenseless. Despite Lena making some progress from their training, the Blot overpowers them and drains the amulet when he tracks them down, causing Lena to fade away. However, Lena uses her own magic, powered by the bonds with her friends, to defeat the Blot and return the stolen magic and luck. In the aftermath, Magica regains her amulet and powers and tries to betray the girls, but is beaten by Lena, who pledges to use her powers to battle dark magical forces.

She later appeared in "The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck!", where the origins of her long hatred for Scrooge and Clan McDuck were revealed. Many years prior, she and her twin brother, Poe De Spell, used their magic to terrorize a village into worshiping them, where Magica used her magic recklessly and relied on Poe to talk sense into her. One day, Scrooge McDuck showed up fighting their shadow army when they tried to steal his Number One Dime and pointed out the reliance on each other, infuriating Magica to the point of turning on her brother and stealing his magic. Magica tried to use the power of both of their amulets to turn Scrooge into a raven, only for Scrooge to reflect the spell back at her. However, Poe sacrificed himself by pushing her out of the way and was hit by the blast instead, thus transforming into a raven. Remorseful over her actions, added to the fact that their last moments together were filled with anger and that she did not know how to turn him back, Magica tried to help her brother, although he had already lost his sentience and mindlessly headed for an open window. Unable to reach him, she begged for Scrooge's help, but Scrooge refused as he was more focused on collecting their stolen treasure, added to the fact that they had attacked him earlier. Poe ended up escaping, and thus began Magica's long hatred for Clan McDuck.

She unsuccessfully tried to find the raven that was her brother. While she doesn't find Poe by the time the series ended, she does end up finding another familiar in "The Last Adventure!". In the finale, she is among those captured by F.O.W.L. She is later brainwashed by Steelbeak along with Glomgold and the Beagles. After recovering from the Intelli-Ray, she and the other villains confront Bradford Buzzard uses her powers on him as payback for capturing her and turns him into a buzzard after remarking that he was definitely not a good villain, having witnessed his failure. She then uses her powers to transport herself and the other villains away from the scene rather than facing Scrooge and his family. It is most likely she returns to her swamp.

Appearance

Unlike her original incarnation, Magica remained as a shadow for a while. When she obtained the dime, her body is slimmer. In addition, her feathers are green, but when rendered powerless, her feathers revert to the white color. Her eyes are yellow while her pupils are shaped as triangles. She wears a black halter dress with a bright purple amulet holding both her dress and her reversible cape and black elbow-length fingerless gloves. Her hair is shorter and carries a small portion of purple. She does not wear heels in comparison to her original incarnation.

Personality

Magica is manipulative, power-hungry, cruel, and selfish, forcing Lena to be Webby's friend to gain her trust and entry into the McDuck Manor to steal Scrooge's Number One Dime in exchange for her freedom. Throughout her time as Lena's shadow, she does nothing but insult her and complain about her lack of commitment to her plans. Magica also doesn't care about Lena's safety as long as she gets the dime, like in "Jaw!$" where she scolds Lena for destroying the money shark, disregarding the fact she would have been eaten if she hadn't. Magica only sees Lena as tool for revenge and is willing to control her against her will to accomplish this in "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!" When she regained her form in "The Shadow War!", she absorbed Lena back into her shadow. After Lena regained her form to save Webby, Magica seemingly kills her, claiming she is nothing, further indicating she never thought of Lena as a person.

Magica is also vain and narcissistic, believing that being a powerful sorceress entitles her to do whatever she wants and cares not for the consequences inflicted on others such as using Lena or endangering the Duck family. She even delights in killing Scrooge's family as it furthers her plans of revenge. She encourages Lena to leave Beakley to be crushed in "Terror of the Terra-firmians!", seeing her as a threat to her plans, and is enthusiastic at the idea of Scrooge's nephews being eaten by the money shark in "Jaw$!".

After the Shadow War, Magica becomes desperate to regain her powers, so she tries to emotionally push Lena into returning to her only for her friends to save her. They find Magica in the real world and discover she has grown desperate and miserable since losing her powers and any threatening traits she had before were gone, showing a massive inferiority complex. She also developed a hatred towards children after she had to get a job as a party magician at Funso's to earn a living.

Despite her villainous nature, Magica is not without standards. In "The Shadow War!", while initially assuming Scrooge was faking his depression after his family deserted him, she realizes it's real and actually pitied him, showing that she respects him as a worthy opponent and wants to destroy him at his best, not at his lowest. Magica also genuinely cared for her twin brother, Poe De Spell, as they both ruled a village together in the past. She was very distraught when she accidentally turned Poe into a raven while fighting Scrooge and was willing to give up her wealth and throne to Scrooge if he could save Poe (most likely a lie). But he didn't, which is the reason for her hatred against Scrooge. Also, at the end of the series, Magica and the other villains were brainwashed by F.O.W.L. to attack the heroes. She and the others, furious by this, puts her feud with the Ducks aside that day to punish Bradford Buzzard by turning him into a non-sapient buzzard and taking him as a pet, then leaves without a fight (only because she is smart enough to see she is outmatched with all the Ducks and their allies throughout the series present at the time).

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