Miriam Merel

Schor de Kraai
Character
Schor in Episode 1
Species	Crow
Birthplace	Breed Rietland
First appearance	Episode 1
Character Model Sheet number	8/1 (sheet 7)
Character Model Sheet name	Schor
Name in different languages
Dutch name	Schor de Kraai
Japanese name	ニコル (Nicol)
German name	Schor
English name	Dolf's father

Schor de Kraai, or Nicol in the Japanese version, is the father of Dolf de Kraai who lived in Breed Rietland together with Miriam Merel, his wife. Deeply afraid of the unnatural, Schor has a need to use aggression and anger to try and chase those elements away. He struggles with alcohol and his mental coherence deteriorates rapidly over the course of his life and after moving to Groot Waterland wanders around Polderstad in a state of confusion.

Appearance

He's a greying crow when Johan Sebastiaan Kwak has his first confrontation with him. His skin isn't dark anymore and is quite light, as is his beak. He seems to be bald apart from bushy eyebrows and a Hungarian style of moustache. He has some liver spots on the sides of his head and bright orange eyes. He usually has a resentful look on his face.

Schor wears a white short sleeved shirt and green lederhosen with red trims and red tassles. He wears a Tyrolean hat with that and brown leather shoes, completing his Bavarian style wardrobe.

He has a slight redesign in De wonderlijke avonturen van de eend Alfred Jodocus Kwak: Goedemorgen where he also wears red and white stripes socks, wears a golden button on his shirt, his shoes have steel toe caps and his braces come together in the front in a green-and-red circular design.

Personality

Schor is a grumpy conformist, with a dash of speciesism, known for a rigid belief that every species should stick to their designated traditional roles. This is reflected in his old-fashioned traditional Bavarian garb.

He lashes out to others for being strange or forming strange relationships, likely trying to project his own insecurities over having a thrush as a partner and a cross-breed son. He takes this frustration out on his family themselves as well. He treats Miriam Merel poorly when she only lays one egg, and doesn't take any responsibility in raising his son Dolf.

He has psychotic tendencies, regularly suffering from memory loss and concentration problems. He's even known to fly from tree to tree, drinking the juice of poisoned berries daily. Together with a drinking problem that even his son could identify at a young age it is possible that Schor might suffer from Korsakoff syndrome, but this is pure conjecture.

Storyline

During his life in the Plaspoelpolder he made sure to make Johan Sebastiaan Kwak's life a miserable hell as he couldn't understand that a duck could be friends with a mole. While Henk de Mol, Johan's mole friend, didn't engage with Schor, it really got under Johan's nerves and he and Schor frequently got into fights.

His thrush wife Miriam Merel keeps her surname, likely due to shame on Schor's part. They make one egg together, which hatches into Dolf de Kraai, a crow with a yellow beak, which is something Schor couldn't accept. After they had a child together, Schor felt compelled to remain with Miriam, as his own beliefs demanded that they stay together, regardless of how unhappy he was with her.

After leaving the Plaspoelpolder, because of the construction of Groot Speelgoedland, and settling in a tree near Polderstad he grew increasingly impatient with Miriam's depression and would regularly call out for her to commit suicide if she wasn't feeling happy, as it would do him a favor as well. This emotionally weakened Miriam even more, on top of her duty of care to their son and providing food, which Schor refused to do. This situation came to a head when Schor invited Miriam for a flight over Polderstad, an unfamiliar airspace to Miriam, then exploited her in her weakened state and directed her to crash into the Stompe Toren, killing her. According to Henk de Mol, Mollie de Ooievaar was the only witness. Afterwards he claimed that Miriam had deliberately flown into the tower, and this account became the prevailing belief in Polderstad.

After the incident Dolf came home from kindergarten to find his home empty. Schor never acknowlegded him ever again, either on purpose or from his prolonged psychological deterioration. Schor would then wander about meaninglessly, flying around and screaming, only to get worse and worse.

Schor and his wife Miriam confronting Johan Sebastiaan Kwak about his eggs, with a claw from Rap de Kiekendief, from the book De wonderlijke avonturen van de eend Alfred Jodocus Kwak: Goedemorgen

Voice actors

Japanese	¦	鈴木 れい子 (Reiko Suzuki)	¦	ニコルの妻 (Nikoru no tsuma) Nicol's wife
Dutch	¦	Doris Baaten	¦	Miriam Merel
German	¦	Eva Maria Miner	¦	Mutter Kra
English	¦	Unknown	¦	Dolf's mother

Appearances

TV Series

• 
  Alfred J. Kwak Episode 1

Books

• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van de eend Alfred Jodocus Kwak: Goedemorgen (1989) (Dutch)
• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: De zeven eieren (1989) (Dutch)
• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: Omnibus 1 (1989) (Dutch)
• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: De zeven eieren (mini) (1990) (Dutch)
• 
  De Droom van Alfred Jodocus Kwak (1991) (Dutch)
• 
  Alfred J. Kwak Filmstripboek Deel 1 (2006) (Dutch)
• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: Het Grote Voorleesboek (2010) (Dutch)

Production background

Schor de Kraai's character design from the Character- and Color-Designs for Alfred J. Kwak book.