Episode 742 - ex-special forces!
Jun 2, 2025
It seems like every single “badass” in TV, Movies, books and comics is “ex-special forces” or something like it these days. It's become a meaningless cliche. Writers use it as a shortcut to show a person is super tough and competent, able to handle ANY situation and also have a dark past. We chat about how silly it is to overdo the cliche and why “being ex-special-forces” doesn't really make a person better at being a “bad-ass” than anyone else.
Topics and Show Notes
More likely it means they're probably a more burnt out, have far more injuries, PTSD, and more personal demons than the average person. Special forces soldiers tend to get deployed more than others and they train more and harder. Many are killed in training or acquire bad injuries from it and PTSD, let alone from active service. Aside from that rather than being taciturn with a thousand yard stare and a grumpy personality and a gravely voice, all special forces people I've met have been entirely normal people, indistinguishable from anyone else.
Rambo from the first movie is one of my fave examples, he's an unstoppable killing machine but at least the story tries to explore his PTSD and the terrible way his country abandoned him when it had no more use for him. What are your fave ex-special forces people in fiction?
This week it's another best-off Gunwallace and so we're replaying a track from Quackcast 209: Joe Pop! This was a great little theme that Gunwallace wrote funny lines for in the style of the characters from the comic strip, Joe Pop. Banes and I act them out! I'm on bass.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Everything Will Be Fine at Dawn - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/may/27/featured-comic-everything-will-be-fine-at-dawn/
Featured music:
Joe Pop - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Joe_Pop/ - by Dave63, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Episode 713 - Gunwallace, Master Composer
Nov 11, 2024
Today we have onboard with us our resident theme maker, our classic composer and musical genius! He does all the DD comic inspired themes that regularly appear on the Quackcast and has done so for the last 10 years! In that time he's done almost 600 musical themes. At the moment Gunwallace is the games-master of a Star Trek roleplay thing that Tantz, Banes, and I all do after the cast. He's based an illustrated story on it called “On the Edge” with art by Banes and Genejoke, and some by Tantz and me, Ozoneocean.
Episode 260 - D.U.C.K. Radio1
Feb 29, 2016
Welcome to D.U.C.K. Radio! Get ready for your DJs: Smooth Ramone, Hard rock Jimmy Storm (BRINING THE THUNDER!!!), Weatherman Rhet Blanket, Conspiracy theorist Smiley Fraudson, and hilarious* Maple and The Syrup (*they're not funny). This is the first part of Radio DUCK, we're bringing you ALL of the fantastic themes Gunwallace has composed for many great webcomics. You got a small, tiny, insignificant taste little taste of it in Quackcast 258, now be prepared to take the FULL blast! 29 of Gunwallace's classic themes in this cast and two more casts to go to get the rest so stay tuned. Gunwallace radio - All great music all the time!
Episode 258 - Gunwallace music special
Feb 15, 2016
We have a special treat this time! Gunwallace is our guest and he's brought with him 15 of his fave tracks that he created as themes for DD webcomics. For two years Gunwallace has been creating fantastic musical themes for webcomics, the total is now over 90! He, Banes and I chat about the background behind the tracks, there are some interesting stories, and the music is awesome! Gunwallace is the author of many great comics and a contributor to even more as a writer, such as the Drunk Duck Plays. We hope you enjoy his 15 tracks as well as the 5 bonus ones picked out by me, Ozoneocean, including the theme to Valentine's Dei in honour of the day we recorded on. If you want your own theme by Gunwallace, help up by contributing to our Indiegogo campaign and pick it up as a perk!
Episode 209 - lurv triangles
Mar 9, 2015
Around about Valentine's day, HippieVan's mind turned to thoughts of love... and she conceived of a great newspost idea that was very popular with people! Love triangles are very good for generating drama in your writing without having to worry too much about forcing that through external events. And because they're primarily driven by you characters as well as affecting them it's a great way to build on your characterisation through the drama. In HippieVan's words we outline a few notable love triangles in fiction, both classic, and contemporary, then we include the contributions the DDers who were good enough to add their two cents to the subject.
