These match-ups have been brutal, even some of them in Round 1, but this! This was the hardest vote for me so far, by a mile.
I adore Della Duck in DT17. I never expected to see the triplets' mother come up in animated media beyond Dumbella sending her brother a note and a trio of troublemakers in 1938. The way this show handled the character and the circumstances around her was amazing and I couldn't have asked for more. These episodes are functionally her two part introduction, and it's Whatever Happened To Della Duck where we first properly meet and get the idea of who Della Duck is in the show's present-day. It is also a fantastic episode aside from that, with fantastic humor and heart, and the entirely unfair upgrade of The Moon Theme from a clasic video game level theme that was already a banger to even more on top of that.
I realize the above isn't the most compelling argument AGAINST voting for that episode, and what can I say? At the end of the day, there's no unfit winner here in my book.
But this is my push for a Last Christmas win, because I do feel if any episode of the DuckTales reboot feels to me like the "objective" best (not that you can really have objective bests in that way in media) it's Last Christmas. From the late, great Russi Taylor's performance as young Donald, to the first introduction tk Della Duck's infectious energy, to some lovely, vulnerable scenes with a more quiet side of Dewey, this episode delivers. The antagonist of this episode does bring in certain issues that I don't think in general are fair to ignore, but this episode still shines because every other aspect of it, including the monster in all but name, feels so heartfelt. It's not all feels, but even the humor has this wonderful earnestness.
For some rapid fire highlights:
-The end credits are beautiful and a total delight
-Beakley and The Ghost of Christmases Yet to Come is one of the most hilarious things in the series, tbh
-Scrooge being so annoyed with time travel humor, while voiced by David Tennant, is perfect
-Louie, Huey, and Webby are mostly absent but their brief appearances are such great showcases of each character
-Emo guitarist teen Donald Duck
The very end of the episode has the family singing 12 Days of Christmas with the most amusingly incorrect lyrics before Della, still on the moon, wishing her boys a merry Christmas and promising she'll see them soon. It is a perfect ending for what comes next.
But before that, we get the sweetest and funniest moment when Dewey, back from the past and meeting Donald and Della at his age, returns to his family.