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a-sterling-rose · 2 years ago

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Danny Phantom Writing Prompt: The Lack of a Hero Complex

Once Danny publicly shames Vlad into returning the status quo of Amity Park, Danny also stops ghost fighting.

The Human Trio and Vlad confront Danny about his lack of action. The Human Trio finally gets a taste of the sleep deprivation Danny experienced when he didn't want to burden them from their schedules while the property damage continued to tarnish Vlad's public reputation. Danny just laughs.

Sam, completely livid at the lack of reaction: Who’s going to protect the town, Danny?

Danny gets up from the couch and looks directly into Vlad's eyes: Yeah, Vlad, how do you plan on protecting your town?

Danny lightly chuckles while he goes down to the lab where the Fenton Parents were working. He was just gonna play on the family computer while his Dad would boast about their latest idea.

The human trio:

Vlad:

When the ghosts who come to directly harass Danny, he decides he just needs to be completely honest with each of them.

Danny: Listen, I'll admit I kinda had fun with the bantering, but I want to focus on better things now. I was never really interested in any of you.

The Ghosts:

The results?

Vlad has to set up legit ghost detectors all over the city and properly hire the Fentons for protection. Vlad hoped that the hiring would gain him favor from Maddie, but he finally got to see how she really was compared to his idealized version. Their constant public damages made Vlad's reputation even more tarnished, and their lack of change despite him personally talking to them about it makes him grow equal resentment towards both of them. It gets to the point where Vlad just sets up the same ecto repellent he uses to keep ghosts from escaping his portal back in Winsconsin. The extra paperwork he has to do now governing is not worth the mess he caused. Political power wasn't as worth it as he thought it would be.

The Human Trio gave Danny the cold shoulder for a while, but that just gave him some well needed alone time to raise his grades. He even finally got to join the astronomy club like he planned before the portal accident. They were a very chill group and welcomed him to sit with them at lunch, so he was never alone. Dash tried to start their usual routine, but that was immediately hauled by the club leader.

Dash wasn't clever enough to figure out how to respond to being called 'Pussy Lips' by a girl, so he just kinda sulked away.

Dash will say the occasional snarky comment, but he never bring himself to get too close to Danny after a club member told Danny to tell Dash and the other football players they could take turns sucking him off after their club meeting. Dash just wasn't clever enough to get things back to normal.

Though the club members weren't A-listers, they weren't at the bottom, so Danny social life became better.

The Human Trio tried to continue on like before, but they were soon caught ghost hunting by the Fentons. There was no punishment, just overactive excitement, seeing they were finally interested in Ghost Hunting. Now, having to join the Fentons whenever there was a ghost detected, the fun of it is zapped away for them, making the tiredness not worth it anymore. The three eventually apologized to Danny, which he accepts, and the group finally accepts the new changes.

There are many things that can upset a ghost, but the universal act that can anger any core is being ignored. Even with the ecto repellent, the stronger ghosts manage to get through and try to get Danny's attention. The boy always just texts Vlad about how he sucks at his job and to take care of the disruption. The ghost eventually pick up that their violent outburst aren't working, so it gets to the point that they try to get his attention another way.

They tried to coax him with things they believed he liked. It is comparable to how Hyper Cat-lovers try to get a shy cat to love them.

Lunch Lady offers him a freshly made meal when he's low on money one day. He thanks her but says he had a big breakfast.

Ember tries to act like their best friends in front of the A-listers, so Danny will become more popular at school. He greets her but continues on his stroll like she was a typical citizen.

Technus offers to give Danny the answer key to all the tests for his classes, but he denies this offer instantly. He'll never cheat on a test ever again.

It got to the point that Skulker said he would drop the promise of getting Danny's pelt if he just let him see his ghostly form. Creeped out, Danny just backed away. He was thankful Valerie was close by.

Box Ghost actually got somewhere when he offered a three-dimensional solar system model. It was in a box he had, so Box Ghost offered it to Danny. He accepted it as the one in the club was showing its age.

This seemed to make these random ghost visits even more frequent. Danny guessed Box Ghost bragged about his 'accomplishment'.

Basically, the ghosts' obsession to defeat Danny changes to them wanting his attention. Vlad’s obsession becomes solely focused on Danny as he just finds Maddie and Jack so annoying now. Like, Vlad just wants to get custody of Danny and get the hell out of Amity Park. He doesn't even want to kill the Fentons now out of fear that they will become ghosts.

After the Ember incident, the A-listers kept trying to buddy up to him. However, Danny learned how they really were, so he just treated them the way he treated ghosts. Now, it seemed they were just as desperate.

Danny will turn into Phantom only when it's necessary, that or he's in the mood to fly. The downside to this change is that whenever he does transform, he always has an entourage of attention-starved ghosts following behind him. He can't even imagine how things would be if he went to the Ghost Zone.

Additions:

For those who want to know the members of the astronomy club-

For those who want to see the club room-

#danny phantom #danny phantom prompt #ghost obsessions #Vlad just wants to go back to Winsconsin #danny is a status symbol #unintentional ghost allies #casper high astronomy club #indifference #danny phantom fanfiction #box ghost #lunch lady #dp technus #technus #ember mclain #dp dash #dash baxter

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theomnicode · 12 days ago

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How does Saitama show he cares? How to write a relatable hero character

Warning: Very, very long post incoming

As early as Chapter 2, Crab and job hunting, we're treated to a Saitama where he heroically saves a kid from Crablante, at the cost of his own wellbeing and he dreams of becoming a superhero.

After he became strong, this same caring side is greatly juxtaposed with indifference, with him watching television of Vaccineman wrecking havoc instead of immediately getting into gear. It is with same indifference that he handles Beefcake, but we've already seen this self-sacrifical side of Saitama early on.

During Saitama's dream in Chapter 4, Dark undergrounders, Saitama once again states what he desires the most is to protect the surface and protect others, which are the key element in his desire to become strong and again, juxtaposed greatly with his earlier feats of indifference.

Before Saitama got super strong, we're again shown that he cares a great deal of the people surrounding him, not just when he personally knows them and helping them gives him that sense of accomplishment that he lacks in his current life, such as saving Granny's shop, saving a little kid and his dog and beating up the monster harrassing his neighbourhood in a productive day. (Chapter 15.5, Brushing up)

We're also shown that Saitama has a lot of heart for other people's misfortunes, even towards his bullies, which gives him strenght to carry on even on the toughest times. (Chapter 8.5: 200 yen)

Which is again, greatly juxtaposed with his adult mindset of thinking how HE in particular should care and if it relates to him in any way, such as the incident of House of evolution. Which I suppose is the view of a naive, younger person versus the grown and more cynical adult. (Chapter 9: House of evolution)

So why doesn't he do things like he's always done and care for others like he's done before when he wasn't that strong? Good question. Saitama's neighbourhood emptied when monsters started to roam around more and it became a ghost town around where he lived, but that's not the only reason.

In Chapter 5, Itch explosion, we find some alarming evidence that Saitama has grown emotionally numb to things and his emphatic capacity has greatly dwindled and he experiences apathy as a result.

Apathy, also referred to as indifference, is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion.

Saitama does prove himself wrong though that he can still feel emotions, which led to the angry chase of one mosquito and subsequently saving that of his newfound disciple. Genos comes to his house a few days later and if nothing else, Saitama has tea to offer as hospitality.

Saitama is always fairly hospitable and shows care for his guests in offering them tea, such as the A-class trio who came to his house in Chapter 174: Beauty and even Flashy flash whom he does not particularly like in Chapter 193: Worlds I know nothing about, after shutting a door on his face.

Saitama cares little for people who are as full of themselves and bossy as Flashy Flash and Fubuki. Saitama even did a jerk move and made the latter pay for his dine and dashing when he lost his wallet.

Nevertheless, food is the foremost way Saitama shows that he cares about other people, either cooking it himself or having Genos cook for them and despite being short on money, he does not force people away from his house when he gets the chance to enjoy glorious hotpot despite his numerous complaints, even if he does grow weary of the foreign company at the end. (Chapter 89: Hotpot)

He also buys bananas to bring to Satoru aka Mumem rider when he's hospitalized by Garou later in Chapter 51: Headgear and even pays a visit to Charanko in the same hospital.

He's also told people in hospital like Forte that they should stay in bed to not aggravate their injuries, so despite being so strong, he still understands and empathizes with people who've gotten injured, probably remembering how he himself used to get injured in the past and after the bout with Tatsumaki, reminisces about the time before he started muscle training how he could not even beat wolf-level monsters. (Chapter 182: Unascertained)

-*-

In a weird way, Saitama also cares about the villains of this story that he wants to hear what they want to say to their defence and that's how Saitama would determine how the beatdown should occur. Saitama just wants to deal with them face to face in a show of mercy and he was quite aghast at Genos' way of attempting to remove the villains of the House of evolution that attacked them in a single blow. (Chapter 9: House of evolution)

Saitama looks like he plays around with the villains he faces, but he first wants to judge them and possibly talk to them in order to understand where they are coming from, such as letting Orochi monologue, having a bout with Boros, letting Tatsumaki run out of steam and he even stops to listen to Garou in Chapter 161: Sinking feeling.

Especially Boros whom he left alive despite Serious punching him, he empathizes with the feeling of loneliness and hollowness that follows him around for being stupidly strong. (Chapter 36: The power of Boros, S1E12)

The consequences of this oddly merciful tactic varies depending of the levels of collateral damage that the environment and the people caught up on it suffer as a result. One could say he especially toyed around with Garou, pretending to be the mature adult in their fight while slowly whittling him down, but he also understood Garou deeply as Tareo's sentiment of Garou being misunderstood and treated badly and hated by the society touches something in Saitama. (Chapter 162: Greatest Hero)

Saitama has in the past sympathized with criminals like Hammerhead because he too, has been let down by society and he understands that if he also had taken the same path and the same wrong steps, he'd have ended up just like him. (Chapter 14: Don't know you)

Which puts even greater importance on him having a good reputation to hold onto so the mass public does not immediately vilify of him as people tend to view him in negative light, which is why good rep is something he consciously acknowledges and places great value on.

-*-

The first instance of Saitama showing care to his new disciple Genos is when Carnage Kabuto hits him into a wall and Saitama gets annoyed at Kabuto because Genos is seemingly hurt and out of the game. (Chapter 10: Modern art)

The second time Saitama cares about his apprentice is when Genos rejoins the fight and pushes himself too hard.

Ironically, this scene juxtaposes well with Genos being overprotective of the master that does not need protecting and getting beat up and the underprotectiveness of the teacher who could have ended the bout if he so desired in a single attack before Genos could've gotten hurt, which is some of that ONE's storytelling brilliance.

It is quite hard for Saitama to break through that apathy so early in the series, but he tries. He even tries to figure a safe training method for Genos, but can't think of anything on that part either. He even showcases a bit of his real power to Genos on a spar to make sure the cyborg knows exactly what he's jumping into, only for the said cyborg to not back down.

Getting Saitama to vent about his difficulties is a major milestone in having enough rapport with Saitama, because even we as readers know very, very little about Saitama in general, as he's a very private person.

Saitama has only told Genos his difficulties about getting recognition in Chapter 15: Hobby and work and in quid pro quo, tells Genos that if he registers with him, he would make him a disciple for real.

The other time Saitama has opened up about his problems to is King when King genuinely asks and is interested in hearing what Saitama is thinking during the aftermath of the Super Fight tournament in Chapter 77: Bored as usual. King does not quite understand the heart of the issues Saitama is facing, but bless him, he's still listening and trying to help.

King gives him very valuable insight in what it means to be a hero, but Saitama's not in the good mood after what he deems a failure of a tournament and guilt in not doing anything to the rampaging monsters meanwhile that he doesn't register it as much as more boredom.

But it is a testament to the fact that Genos and King are Saitama's closest confidants and friends that Saitama bothers to confide to them in the first place. Saitama also trusts King's judgement on how to deal with Garou's issue in Chapter 169: Daybreak when he was going to cut the heroes off from beating on Garou and executing him senselessly, but lets King do it instead of him.

In a flashback, it is also revealed about King that Saitama originally helped him when he got scars around his eyes and Saitama kindly helps him calm down and open his eyes, showing a lot of care to a random civilian. (Chapter 39: That person)

-*-

Out of all the people in the series, it is Genos who is especially close to Saitama. After Genos moved in with him, they started hanging out in different outings like swimming, festivals, noodle eating contests, sparring, fishing, going to the bathouse, going to sales and the likes. Sharing is caring, they say.

They destroy a meteorite together, Saitama barely comes to the rescue in Sea king fiasco and arrives in the nick of time to save Genos and the old guys Bang and Bomb from Elder centipede, all those situations where Genos was able to see the other day...each day Genos becomes more and more important player in Saitama's life.

In Chapter 155: Results, Saitama acknowledges his disciple has grown and that his core and his heart, the things that make Genos the Genos he is, has toughened out enough to not self-destruct even though things looked bleak at best...Saitama sees first-hand how much his disciple has grown.

From that acknowledgement, to the worst mistake in Saitama's life, that one time when his roundabout way of being merciful, playing around and stalling tactic around enemies backfires on him so brutally when Cosmic fear Garou kills literally everyone in the vicinity, is a very harsh wakeup call to Saitama.

That him being late and toying around with the villain has cost him all the people he knew and all the dearest people in his life.

(I love this panel so, so much. It's so full of shellshocked emotion)

Ironically, it would not have happened either if Saitama had his way and could just speak with Garou and have a bit of a therapical discussion with him, because he still empathized with Garou and his blight and how Garou was looking for a hero who could also end him if the prospects of his evildoing deeds did not go as well as he planned. Saitama if anything, is understanding to those who want to end themselves in the series. (Rewritten chapter 164: The abominable fist that turned against god)

It is not to be however and Garou and Saitama get into a large scale, brutal fight about everything that makes them, them. The good, the evil, matters not when moons and planets are being exploded and it only matters to Saitama that he holds onto that last vestige of his humanity, Genos' core, in his hand when he battles against Cosmic Garou.

To fight against someone who can not only hold his own but to also ascertain why did he have to kill Genos to do it, to which they ultimately have no other answer besides something controlled Garou to act, to bring Saitama to the peak of his performance.

Because Saitama inwardly cares so much, he was able to grow in leaps far ahead of Garou who was merely copying him and leave him in the dust. (Chapter 168: Awakening of the gods)

At the end when Garou notices he was the reason for Tareo's death and comes to his senses, realizing that being like Saitama cannot keep their right mind without someone like Genos anchoring them, he teaches Saitama to turn back time to where this ominous future has yet to happen and Saitama smacks OPM God out of Garou, literally and thus, ending the threat.

-*-

In more recent chapters, after trying to contain Tatsumaki the best he can, he also makes sure that she is fine after using so much energy in their bout and Saitama compliments Tatsumaki on her power and gives her advice on how to let loose but take care in not destroying other people's property. (Chapter 182: Unascertained)

Saitama has recently shown more care in the form of trying to limit collateral damage, like he tells to Tatsumaki that he tried to limit her rampaging to areas without people, but to Saitama, people and their well-being always come first. As long as he doesn't have to pay for the property damages, of course, everything is all fine and dandy.

There is still more to Saitama and how he cares about people in his own way, even if he still does not recall his time travel fiasco, like how he meekly looks at the demonsterization progress from behind Blast and Flashy flash, almost visibly upset and empathizing with how harsh the electrocuting, demonsterization process is. (Chapter 196: Threat)

Currently Saitama is waiting for Blast and Empty Void's battle to end at home and eating curry udon with Manako, but he's likely to turn around if Blast shows an indication of not being able to finish the fight like he claimed. (Chapter 197: What only I can do)

Just the classic Saitama indifference.

Tl;dr: Saitama's care is often juxtaposed with his indifference, but Saitama cares about people, especially those he's close with, a lot. He even wants villains to explain themselves before he judges them.

#opm #one punch man #saitama #opm meta #long post #character study #genos #opm king #tatsumaki #garou #emotion #indifference #opm manga panels #opm anime screencaps #flashy flash #opm blast

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