According to the creator of Darkwing Duck, Tad Stones, the show exists within an alternate universe from Duck Tales.
He goes on to state that though Launchpad first appeared in DuckTales, the Darkwing version was different. For starters, Launchpad always seemed to crash his plane in DuckTales but was a competent pilot in Darkwing Duck
"Because Launchpad appeared in DuckTales and we used Roboduck as the Superman character, the hero who gets all the glory as opposed to Darkwing, fans try to connect the two realities. They are two different universes in my book. We work in the alternate Duckiverse," says Stones.
But that allowed Darkwing to do things a show today might be too afraid to — ignore its own past for the benefit of a specific episode. That happened with its most popular villain, Negaduck, who was introduced as an evil mirror to Darkwing. There was also a goody-goody mirror to Darkwing that the writers didn't like and didn't want to bring back. Stones told the writers just to bring back Negaduck and forget about the other version, and later they even ignored the original Negaduck origin, saying he comes from an alternate, evil universe.
Story of 'Darkwing Duck': The Cartoon with Heart That Brought "People Near Tears"
