Gosalyn Mallard

Gosalyn Mallard is a fictional character created for the Disney animated series Darkwing Duck. She is the adopted daughter of Drake "Darkwing Duck" Mallard. She first appeared in the pilot episode Darkly Dawns the Duck. Gosalyn is voiced by Christine Cavanaugh.

Background
Born Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, Gosalyn was an orphan who lost of all of her biological relatives after her grandfather, Professor Waddlemeyer, died. She met Darkwing after Taurus Bulba almost kidnapped her. During their time together, Darkwing and Gosalyn got to know each other and they forged a close bond. After Darkwing defeated Taurus, Gosalyn was eventually adopted by Darkwing's normal alter ego Drake Mallard and the two of them, along with Launchpad McQuack, moved in together. Gosalyn is best friends with Honker Muddlefoot, the boy next door.

Most of the show is based on Drake and Gosalyn's father-daughter relationship. Gosalyn sometimes gets on her dad's nerves, but he loves her anyway, like any father loves his daughter.

The episode Time and Punishment shows how important Gosalyn is in Darkwing's life. She is accidentally transported into the future, and results in Darkwing Duck becoming DarkWarrior Duck, a merciless vigilante and alternate future version of Darkwing himself. In the episode, it is revealed that Darkwing went mad after a time of depression, believing that Gosalyn had run away because he would not allow her to help him in his work.

Quiverwing Quack
Knowing her adopted father's secret identity, she too has occasionally donned a crime fighting alter ego known as Quiverwing Quack. Quiverwing's weapon of choice is a set of arrows that Launchpad took her out to get. Gosalyn discovered a hidden talent with them and was even able to take out Negaduck in combat (season one episode The Quiverwing Quack). Even though Darkwing was bothered by Gosalyn's Quiverwing Quack identity, he eventually recognizes she had potential to fight crime. While Quiverwing seemed to have retired at the end of the episode, Gosalyn's alter ego retuned in the season three episode Paint Misbehavin. In contrast to her father's unpopularity in St. Canard, Quiverwing enjoys a large fan following despite her rare appearances. Quiverwing Quack's costume and archer fighting style may be a parody of the DC Comics superhero, Green Arrow.

Crimson Quackette
She also briefly adopted a costume similar in design to Darkwing's that she called the Crimson Quackette (season one episode Dances with Bigfoot), and may have been the prototype for the Quiverwing Quack identity.

Gosalyn also had a short stint as a crime-fighting slime creature after being mutated by Dr. Bushroot's GI-CU2 plant formula and rechristening herself "Yucky Duck." (episode Slime Okay, You're Okay) However, her slime-body was unstable and forced her to eat constantly, which resulted in her growing larger and less intelligent. She was eventually returned to normal.

Trivia

 * Although it is made quite clear that Gosalyn is Darkwing's adoptive daughter, most recent Disney trivia resources incorrectly claim her to be his biological niece.


 * According to an interview with the show's creator, Tad Stones, Gosalyn was partly based on what he believed his then two-year-old daughter would be like when she grew older.


 * In the series pilot Darkly Dawns the Duck, the stolen Ram Rod cannon's arm/disarm code is revealed in the lyrics of Little Girl Blue, the lullaby that Gossalyn's grandfather sang to her. The sequence is: yellow, blue, red, blue, purple, purple, blue, purple, green, yellow.


 * Gosalyn's name is ostensibly derivative of the word gosling which refers to a young goose. Given that ducklings and goslings share many of the same physical characteristics and given that Gosalyn is adopted, one could arrive at the conclusion that Gosalyn is, in fact, a goose.


 * Her name could also be a pun on the girl's name Jocelyn.

Gosalyn Mallard