Bushroot

Dr. Reginald Bushroot is a recurring antagonist of the Darkwing Duck franchise. Once a renowned leading botanist who worked at St. Canard University, Reginald Bushroot tried to integrate plant chloroplasts into animals in an attempt to give people the ability to feed themselves through photosynthesis. After his research funding was cut, Bushroot used himself as a test subject in an attempt to prove that his theories were correct and thereby regain his funding. The experiment was a success, though he was turned into a half-duck / half-shrub mutant with the power to control plants. Eventually, he ended up as a member of Negaduck's Fearsome Five.
==Background==
===Personality===
In contrast to his fellow villains who mostly are driven by sadism, sociopathy, greed, insanity, erratic mentality, or professional occupation, Bushroot is driven by emotions and loneliness and is not completely evil. By far the most complex and sympathetic antagonist on the show, Reginald wants nothing more than love and companionship and is only doing crimes for what he believes to be good reasons. He is lonely and longs for acceptance, creating a sidekick to keep him company, a wife to love him, and numerous other projects. With the exception of Spike, all his creations have turned on him, resulting in an even stronger desire for companions.
He is a villain bent on doing things due to being misunderstood by society. As a scientist, he was shunned and bullied by his colleagues and as a plant, he does bad things for what he assumes are the right reasons. Unfortunately, he can take things too far, such as when attempting to get revenge on the Dean of St. Canard University, he decided that because Darkwing and Launchpad were getting in his way, they must be out to get him, and thus he attempted to dispose of them. He also kidnapped his colleague Rhoda and tried to turn her into a mutant like him in order for her to become his wife, feeling entitled to have her, despite the fact that Rhoda wasn’t interested at all.
Despite still being a villain, Bushroot has displayed some heroic qualities throughout the series. For example, in the episode "Twin Beaks", Bushroot worked together with Darkwing Duck and the alien cows to protect the entire planet of Earth from evil plant mutants.
In the Dynamite Entertainment Darkwing Duck comic, Bushroot is implied in issue #4 to now be working for F.O.W.L., despite this never being the case in the cartoon or the previous comic series. However, this is never brought up again in subsequent issues and the Dynamite comics are not canon to the cartoon anyway.
====Spike====
Spike is Bushroot's plant sidekick/companion, who behaves much like a dog and resembles an overgrown Venus flytrap. A recurring theme involves Spike to be chemically altered making him either smaller or larger than usual. In "The Incredible Bulk", he secretly helped Darkwing and Launchpad because he was jealous of the attention Bushroot was giving Daisy instead of him. Bushroot later remarked in that episode that he found Spike dependable, much to the plant's pleasure.
===Powers and abilities===
Even before his transformation, Reginald was a brilliant botanist and scientist which he employs in all of his crimes. After blooming into a plant-duck hybrid he gained mental control over flora, the ability to accelerate their growth and metabolism, and to make them do his bidding. With the power to make mighty trees and thorny vines strike at his enemies, this would make him one of the most dangerous beings in Saint Canard. However, his personality, largely being that of a pacifist, renders the potential violence of these powers near non-existent. The only time he has actively harmed anyone was when he took revenge against his former coworkers for their long time torment of him,
Due to his plant physiology, Bushroot is less susceptible to potentially fatal injuries than normal ducks. Several times, he has been chopped to pieces, only to regrow his body from a single root or leaf. He can also shift his body into various forms such as vines or compress himself into a log.
==Appearances==
===Darkwing Duck===
According to the episode "Beauty and the Beet", Bushroot was once a renowned scientist, but his funding for his experiments was about to be cut. To prove his theories were correct, Bushroot performed an experiment on himself and was permanently transformed into a half-duck half-plant creature.
He used his newfound powers to pursue revenge on rival scientists Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson who bullied him. After, Bushroot seemingly killed off Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson (issues #7 and 8 of the Joe Books comic would later reveal that they had actually survived and turned into half-plant hybrids themselves, but their brains had been reduced to mush as a result) and attempted to woo Dr. Rhoda Dendron, who had previously defended Bushroot from bullies. Rhoda was dismayed by Bushroot's lack of scientific ethics and shunned him when he appeared before her. Heartbroken and more than a little insane, Bushroot took her hostage, intending to perform the same experiment on her, but was stopped by Darkwing Duck.
In later episodes, Bushroot mainly commits crimes to fund his experiments, though sometimes he acts in a manner reminiscent of an environmentalist (a la Greenpeace). Bushroot has the ability to control any and all forms of plant, though some seem to obey better than others. He sometimes has to use chemicals or fertilizers to make a plant useful in a fight. In one episode, he attempts to create a mate for himself, but mistakenly used the wrong seeds and creates a giant slobbering mutant potato named Posey. He also has a pet plant named Spike, which resembles a Venus flytrap.
Bushroot has dark green feathers, vines for arms, ivy leaves for hands, and shaggy magenta foliage for hair. He has the ability to regenerate himself when cut and is therefore virtually impossible to kill. He has also been known to fake his own death by leaving dried dummy husks behind and regenerating through various methods. Aside from his many plant cohorts, Bushroot was also allied as a member of the Fearsome Five, acting as one of Negaduck's henchmen. In the Negaverse, Bushroot's counterpart is a member of the Friendly Four. In the episode "A Star is Scorned", Bushroot is portrayed as a less-than-intelligent actor (along with the rest of the Darkwing Duck cast) for "Dizzy" (Disney) studios.
===DuckTales 2017===
Bushroot appears in the Season 3 episode, "Let's Get Dangerous!", being summoned from the Darkwing Duck TV show universe (of the in-show version, not the 1990s one) with the rest of the Fearsome Four. However, he does not speak and appears lifeless; he only makes screeching noises.
Bushroot is one of the four villains summoned by Taurus Bulba in order to take revenge against Gosalyn Mallard and Darkwing Duck where, alongside Liquidator, Quackerjack, and Megavolt to wreak havoc in the city of St. Canard. He later holds Gizmoduck hostage in a plan to protect the city and later enters Bulba Supervillain Solutions where Bushroot is tasked to find Darkwing Duck and bring him to Taurus Bulba in a plan destroy him just as Bushroot is summoned to find Darkwing.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie enter a room full of vegetation, followed by Bradford Buzzard following the trio just as the four notice Bushroot chasing them. Bushroot is later present during the battle fighting against Darkwing, Gosalyn, and Launchpad to which during battle, he throws a few thorns at Darkwing to which Drake thwarts him and removes the thorns from him while Darkwing and Launchpad continue fight against Liquidator. Later as the rift becomes unstable due to Gosalyn overusing it, she manages to fire an arrow to close the rift before it destroys everything, causing Bushroot and the other villains to be sucked back in.
Bushroot's original counterpart cameoed earlier with the rest of the Fearsome Four in "The Duck Knight Returns!" during Drake's flashback of his childhood.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Bushroot is likely based on the Batman villainess, Poison Ivy, since he has the ability to communicate with and control other plants.
*Ironically, despite being one of the more sympathetic Darkwing Duck villains, he is also one of the few who ever seemingly murdered people.
*He is stated by Tad Stones in this interview to have been modeled after Swamp Thing.
*According to a conversation with Tad Stones on Twitter, Bushroot has a higher body count than Negaduck (although Bushroot's victims were actually canonically revived later on).
*Bushroot's name was originally going to be Bib Overall.
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