#fentonbendersau

[pokelolmc]

So, I’m still thinking about that Fentonbenders AU and was wondering if you had ideas on his Reign Storm would pan out. I personally think that this AU has always had a lot of potential, it’s just that it’s just not seen enough for people to see the possibilities that this has.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had too many ideas for Reign Storm yet. I have a few, and the concept of Amity Park getting sucked into the Ghost Zone in the episode has given me some inspiration, but the other ideas I have for it are related to the plots of characters that will have plot lines in episodes before or after Reign Storm that affect/are affected by the latter. For example, Valerie’s crush on Danny in Flirting With Disaster starts in this episode, so interactions in Reign Storm will need to be moulded to fit what I’ve already got planned out later for how they interact in FWD. Vlad discovered Danny and Maddie’s bending when they fought him before in Maternal Instincts – so he’s going to investigate that and create a different sequence of events in Million Dollar Ghost – which will all impact how Vlad acts in the events of Reign Storm.

(Additionally, the thought has just hit me that Vlad will likely use the Fenton’s bending powers as blackmail over their heads to stop them from interfering in his plans later in the show, which will permanently change their character dynamic and definitely cause potential trouble when the Fenton’s become the “Elemental Four” and Vlad can already tell who they are by the powers they used, but I digress. The changed way that Vlad, Jack and Maddie interact will have roots going all the way back to Reign Storm.)

The things I will say for certain are that, since Danny can’t use bending on ectoplasmic matter, and he’s not going to be using bending to fight in the open when Valerie’s our and about as the huntress, the actual use of bending on ghost fights won’t be impacted here. Instead, the changes are going to be more so in character dynamics and interactions.

-Danny’s parents are more directly involved this time around and more reasonably competent, helping Danny figure out about the Ring being in Valerie’s possession, going out to fight the Ghost King’s army, etc. Danny still has to steal the exosuit/exoskeleton behind their back because, like Valerie’s dad, there’s no way they’ll let him leave in it; Danny can expect more scolding after this episode for that (in fact, Danny’s parents and Valerie’s dad could expect to bond over their frustration at their kids attempting reckless or dangerous things behind their backs; Jack and Maddie may have learnt a lesson about Danny’s competence in Public Enemies, but this is an exosuit that could kill him – they’re going to be worried sick.)

-Danny’s parents are also both far more cautious around Vlad in their house, since Maddie remembers how she and Danny used bending in front of Vlad in Maternal Instincts and how Vlad’s probably going to be investigating that.

-Valerie’s dad is going to have some bonding with the Fenton parents that will set up him consulting them in a later episode – about letting your child have a double-life and fight ghosts – after Valerie finds out about Danny’s bending in FWD and spills it to her dad in a heated argument about Val’s ghost-fighting as the Red Huntress.

-Danny’s parents and friends are let in on the story-time session the ghosts have where they disclose the background of the Ghost King, leading to direct interactions between Danny’s family and enemies, and the latter’s knowledge that the Ghost Boy’s parents have known his secret for a while now

I can’t come up with anything more right now, unfortunately. I’ll post a proper concrete set of events for Reign Storm when I’ve figured out how it will impact/be impacted by episodes I’ve already covered, though. It’ll probably be its own post since it’s a long episode.

[pokelolmc]

Really, your first ask? Then get ready for more! I think it makes sense that the Grays (Val and her dad) would both be in the loop eventually and can’t wait for more, so I’ll ask about what’s on my mind. How does Dani work out? I mean, as Danny’s clone, will she and the other clones have bending?

Well, although I want to keep the ghost half/secret identity reveal for later, Valerie and her dad will definitely be in on the secret of the family’s bending. They’ll recognise the identities of the Elemental Four the moment they see them use their bending on TV, because they only know one family of four with said powers.

In the case of Dani, it makes sense that she’d have bending too since we know that bending is passed down through some genetic aspect. However, the nature of her as a clone and how she was created (as well as ectoplasmic energy vs ATLA spiritual energy) come into play. So brace yourself for some long background context.

The clones – even Dani, who has a confirmed human form – all melt into ectoplasm when they destabilise/melt, but even in his ghost form, Danny is still half-human and has some form of organic/carbon-based aspect. We even see that in his ghost form he sill has bones, which are composed of minerals like calcium phosphate (minerals found in many organic bodies) and contain complex organic mechanisms like bone marrow which produce human body cells. Perhaps there’s the chance that ectoplasm can mimic solid physical structures to some degree, but since Danny’s half-human and has a human half that is always present to some degree – regardless of which half/form is dominant at the time – Occam’s Razor says it’s more sensible to assume that his bones in ghost form are his human bones, there because his human form has some remnant presence in his ghost form. If we assume that Danny still has organic structures in his ghost form, with at least some partial traces of human bodily material mixed with the ectoplasm (the organic matter can clearly still be affected by intangibility and invisibility like the rest of the ghost’s body, since ghost powers can be used to make other people or inanimate objects – usually humans in Danny’s case – intangible or invisible as well; so, having remnants of human tissue or organic material in his ghost form wouldn’t impede on his ghost powers, especially since he can use them on his own body in his human form), then, well...human bodies can’t exactly melt into green goo, can they?

It depends upon how much of that human tissue remains in the body, but we can assume that the Dani as a clone, having Danny’s genetic material and therefore also having human and ghost bodies, would have at least some of the characteristics that Danny does (like bones in his ghost form) – so why can they (including Dani) dissolve into green ectoplasm with no traces of human remains left behind, like bone fragments?

My guess is a headcanon on how Vlad made them; Danny was born normally, and grew a human body in-utero like we always do, but the clones had to be fabricated without a pregnancy process to sustain and grow the human body (or another process to grow the cells and allow them to replicate/multiply into a multicellular organism that resembles a teenage Danny straight out of the manufacturing, rather than cloning into a baby Danny that has to grow up), which is rather difficult. My idea is that Vlad focussed on growing the clones by the ghost half as a form of sustenance (something about ectoplasm making it easier to replicate/clone/develop life forms, wth ghosts starting out as simply structured and only getting more complicated as they further develop), and hoped the human half would develop properly alongside the ghost half – that is, grew them initially in ghost form, replicating and forming them as ghosts with the human DNA there to hopefully develop a human form while the ghost half was the anchor for clone growth – and this, in part, led to them being less cohesive in their two halves and slightly less biologically human than the original Danny. We know that they were unstable and their ectoplasm couldn’t last because they lacked mid-morph DNA (DNA taken during the change between human and ghost forms, which I assume – in mid-change state from prominently organic to prominently ectoplasmic – has some sort of new genetic information, or property that allows for biological cohesion between the two contrasting halves) – which I’m assuming, in this headcanon, is the other reason for that lacking cohesion between the clones’ two halves. Without that, the clones’ halves couldn’t meld together properly and their ectoplasm remained unstable (perhaps their ghost halves didn’t grow properly stable as a side effect of the improper growth/cloning of the human half, since the two are still somewhat linked in development, and so it is unstable on its own – and if it was biologically linked to the human half properly, the organic stability of the human half would provide extra support for the support of the ghost half’s ectoplasm? I don’t know, it’s just a headcanon).

Assuming this, which applies to Dani, how biologically human is she (versus how ectoplasmic)? We know that she has the genetic component from Danny that would’ve given her bending, but there’s also a spiritual/supernatural component to bending. The spiritual power that gives bending – ATLA spiritual energy – is kind of related to ghosts in this AU (ghosts and spirits, and their respective worlds, have some basis in ectoplasm), but ghosts and Ghost Zone matter cannot be affected by bending or possess bending the way spirit world matter can (as long as the human enters it while in their living body via a portal); in this AU, this is because the Spirit World and its energy are a fusion of ectoplasm and a type of spiritual/supernatural energy possessed by both the spirit world and of living creatures in the human world (kind of a human life energy) – creating a new fusion type of spiritual/ectoplasmic energy that is different to either of its initial components – where the Ghost Zone and ghosts are purely ectoplasmic. According to Legend of Korra, the Spirit World (or at least spirits) bled into the Avatar human world (creating the Spirit Wilds) in Avatar Wan’s time (and Korra later fused them together again). I am going to assume that, back when this first occurred (before Wan’s time), this led to a mixture or bleeding in of human-world energy, life force or matter in spirits or the Spirit World where the Ghost Zone stayed perpetually isolated from the DP human world. Think of the Spirit World and Ghost Zone (and their respective matter, energy, inhabitants, etc.) as like two species who have a common evolutionary ancestor but are now too genetically different from each other to reproduce with one another.

So, as a half-human clone, Dani would possess the potential for bending – as it is a human power – but how cohesively can she tap into her human form and abilities if there’s a lack of proper fusion/cohesion biologically between her human and ghost halves? In D-Stabilised she’s fine in her human form but destabilises in her ghost form or when using ghost powers, so I am assuming that the ghost side was still the side that acted as the growth anchor during the cloning process, but when using her ghost powers it requires more use and energy to run, so Dani remains in her human form as a means to minimise the expenditure of her ectoplasm or ecto-energy (as remaining in a ghost-dominant form would cost). Bearing that in mind, I am going to assume that she’s still 50% human, but with the ghost form as the main core of her power and sustenance (with her human form acting as a secondary one), she is more predisposed to ghost powers than bending – and with a lack of cohesive support/stability and melding between her two forms, it is extremely hard and finicky to tap into her bending. I’d say she probably needs a sample of mid-morph DNA from Danny to establish the proper balanced framework of how her human and ghost forms/halves connect to each other, stabilising her ghostly ectoplasm and properly connecting the biology of her two halves together, to allow her to disconnect from the reliance on her ghost half and its ectoplasm and tap into her human half’s bending instead. Sure, the bending doesn’t cost ecto-energy from her ghost form because ghosts can’t bend, but since her ecto-energy is the primary source of sustenance keeping her whole body going/animated/alive, if the ectoplasm destabilises then she dies altogether – and she certainly can’t waterbend like that.

Danny would probably have to give his parents his mid-morph DNA and hope they can crack open Vlad’s methodology to successfully alter the cloning process and fix Dani, before she could learn to bend. Before she’s stabilised, she’s certainly not going to be accidentally bending something like Katara in the first episode of ATLA – trying to bend would require too much effort and concentration.

On other hand, Vlad – now knowing more about bending and getting bitter/envious about it – would probably be partially motivated to clone Danny for research into bending as well as for a half-ghost son of his own. He’d get frustrated when none of the clones show any signs of bending powers, so he can’t even use the failed clones as bending research material – which is pretty dark.

Long story short: Dani, as a clone, was ghost-half-dominant in her creation (because cloning a ghost is easier than cloning a human; the human half was just dragged along during development) and lacks a stable connection between her human and ghost halves because she lacks Danny’s mid-morph DNA. So, her body relies primarily on her ghost half’s ectoplasmic energy for long-term sustenance (she still has to feed her human form food, but the ghost half is the main driver of sustenance because if even just it destabilises then she dies altogether) and her ghost half is too unstable to ease off of this ectoplasmic dependence. So, until she can permanently stabilise her ghost half to cut this dependence on ectoplasm and get the proper stable connection to her human half (and it’s power) via mid-morph DNA, she had the potential to bend but it is extremely difficult for her to do so, almost impossible.

She goes off to travel the world after Kindred Spirits, but she’s going to come back later to be permanently stabilised and then stay with the Fenton’s to learn waterbending from Danny.

[pokelolmc]

A Danny Phantom/Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover AU

where the ATLA spirit world is a cousin to the Ghost Zone, and after the Ghost Zone protoportal fails and zaps Vlad, Jack and Maddie end up accidentally creating a portal to the ATLA spirit world instead:

The FentonBendersAU

They meet some of the last Lion Turtles (who now also exist in the spirit world) after getting lost in the spirit world (as seen in LoK, you can gain or use bending in the spirit world if you enter it through an existing spirit portal, rather than through meditation and leaving your physical body behind in the real world); the Lion Turtles see the difficulty in the danger of ghost attacks that will be drawn to Earth, even through natural ghost portals, and grant Maddie and Jack bending to protect the world from ghosts in their line of work, as well as (unknown to them at the time) the spiritual power to pass the other remaining bending arts down a bloodline to cover all four elements (though, the energy is condensed to not cause a spiritual strain and Maddie is only a carrier of it, meaning that she is still only a bender of one element)

Jack gets Earthbending, being less mindful but certainly capable of straightforward force; he eventually becomes more skilled/tuned-in/focused and sensitive of detail enough to bend metal, but only later into character development after he is taught how to be more thoughtful and aware by Jazz

Maddie gets Firebending, being capable in more offence-based martial arts and aggressive in combat, but also possessing a burning passion for protection and is giver of life with her dreams of starting a family; through her keen analysis of other fighting styles in order to figure out bending, she learns the nature of Waterbending, and applies it to herself to figure out lightning-bending, from Danny

Because of the spiritual power bestowed upon Maddie in particular, Danny and Jazz surprise them by being born as benders of the remaining two elements, making the Fenton Family a balanced force of all four elements

Jazz gets Airbending, being the calmer, more collected one of the family who chooses to think from many different angles, and the one most open to introspection and spirituality due to her interest in the human condition

Danny gets Waterbending, as a cause for the ice ghost core he will later get as a halfa (but his ice powers become a completely separate power to bending with different advantages and disadvantages, as he can only use bending in his human form; as in canon, ghosts are affected by aspects of the human world, including its elements and physical matter, unless they go intangible – therefore, they can be hit with bending, but the possession of bending is not compatible with ghosts) being only able to bend in human form makes his human form slightly less helpless, while avoiding making his ghost form a little too powerful (when his bending is added to his existing list of ghost powers from canon); in fact, it adds an aspect of struggle and complications to the canonically easy gain of most of his ghost powers, as he struggles to master some of his ectoplasmic-based abilities and Ghost Ice Powers because they are so different in style to the waterbending he’d been used to since childhood, and he must learn to differentiate the two; through bending, he learns to be more intuitive and use counteroffensive tactics in fighting (not just the less thoughtful, straightforward “superhero-like” offence combat in canon)

The Fentons grow up in an abnormal/unusual family life because of their bending powers, which they hide from everyone in town, including extended family and friends. Danny tells his parents of his ghost powers after the portal accident, because the shared “supernatural” secret of their bending makes the family more open about accepting strange supernatural powers and occurrences, even if they hunt ghosts. It is Sam and Tucker’s keeping of his ghostly secret that Danny uses to convince his parents he can trust his friends with the secret of the family’s bending.

Even though Jazz is used to strange spiritual things because of her Airbending, (so she doesn’t start out a ghost sceptic in this AU), she still starts out annoyed with her parents’ obsession with ghosts - like in canon. Except instead of thinking her parents are crazy for beliving in ghosts, because she believes their fixation has reached an irrational extremity, become a psychological obsession and gets in the way of proper parenting (Danny learns to use his bending for cooking because his parents still turn their dinners into ectoplasmic monstrosities). However, her opinion starts to waver (and she hops aboard Team Phantom) after My Brother’s Keeper because Danny is already aware she knows his secret, and she finds out that he actually puts himself in danger fighting ghosts, and wants to help him. Danny doesn’t tell his parents that he’s using his ghost form to hunt ghosts (since he feels they would consider it too dangerous for him, or that it would impact his school performance, and stop him from doing it), so they don’t find out until Danny is confronted by Walker in the AU equivalent of Public Enemies.

Basically, life goes on in Amity Park as the Fentons learn to master their bending and hide it from others, Danny Phantom rises to fight the ghosts with Sam and Tucker by his side (and his family on the occasional mission) and the whole family gets involved in fighting ghosts after the ghost attacks get too intense in season 2-3, working as a four-person-team equivalent of the Avatar with their own secret identities.

Kind of like it follows the general plot events/outline of canon DP, but with divergences in character plots and the events of episodes, depending on how the Fentons having bending would change how they play out.

Other ideas:

As a kid, Jazz always liked flying a homemade glider at the park in disguise, and Danny would always ask her to take him flying but she wouldn’t, making Danny jealous that he couldn’t fly too; after getting his ghost form as a teenager, the first thing he does is excitedly tell his family that he can fly now and tease Jazz about it – who complains, miffed, that SHE is the Airbender of the family and flying is HER thing

Dash tries to bully Danny at school, before Sam and Tucker find out about Danny’s bending, and Danny gets back by causing a water fountain to squirt Dash in the face; Sam and Tucker are too busy laughing to realise that Danny did it

Bitter Reunions: Vlad takes on Danny as his arch nemesis for the rest of the series, while completely unaware of the Fenton family’s bending powers – or that Danny has already ignored Vlad’s threat to expose him to his parents, and told Jack and Maddie about Vlad’s halfa identity because Jack and Maddie already know of Danny’s ghost half. As far as Vlad knows, the Little Badger is just an annoying halfa boy with ghost hunter parents who don’t know their own son is a ghost – or that their best friend from college is one, either. Boy, will he get a nasty surprise later.

Shades of Gray: Valerie still comes to hate Danny Phantom, but still ends up befriending Danny Fenton after Flirting with Disaster. After the latter, she accidentally finds out about Danny’s bending and agrees to keep it a secret. She gets closer to him than in canon, and Danny gets even more royally screwed.

Maternal Instinct: The night spent in Vlad’s house is a full moon; Maddie and Danny both fight their way through the woods with their bending before they bump into Vlad, helping them learn from each other’s elements; instead of confronting Vlad after the Plasmius Maximus wears off, both Maddie and Danny are forced to engage him while the latter’s ghost powers are still inactive and their only weapon is Maddie’s fire; there’s no Spector Deflector anywhere near him to use because Maddie doesn’t want it to hurt him because of his ghost half; as a last resort, Danny is forced to use bloodbending on Vlad to defeat him, much to his own and Maddie’s horror; a confused Vlad is left behind wondering how on earth the Fentons have such strange powers and investigate further

Torrent of Terror: The stupid OOC nonsense of Danny’s emotions being tied to the weather either doesn’t happen or wears off extremely quickly (before the second battle against Vortex); upon losing against Vortex the first time and discussing it with his family, Danny realises that although the weather is being manipulated by ghost power, it still consists of physical water, meaning it can be influenced by his bending; he decides that he must not fight Vortex as a ghost, but as a bender; after Jazz reminds him that the weather is also wind and decides to fight too, the whole family puts on disguises and fights Vortex together with their bending, attack Vortex with his own wind, rain and lightning. The fight is caught on the local news channel’s Ghost Watch; the news anchor wonders aloud on live television about the absence of Danny Phantom in the fight, and the mysterious group of four with apparent superhuman power over the elements; after the conflict is solved, the enigmatic “Elemental Four” become the talk of Amity Park

Vlad can’t get any of his bugs or cameras into the Fenton household later on in the plot because Jack keeps sensing their metal bodies and crushing them, mistaking them for household pests