#the feeling is foreign to him so accepting danny so easily feels wrong

[monotype-on-phantom]

How would you write season 4? How would you write the series finale?

Well, I should mention that I haven’t exactly finished my ideas for the timeline yet. Plus, a season 4 would have to have mostly new content.

If we’re talking a season 4 that follows my timeline, though, I have some ideas.

With season 3 finishing off with Control Freaks, that’d put everyone into the beginning of summer vacation. It’d probably pack all the summer episodes around that time, and focus initially on the Fentons adjusting to Danny’s secret being out (among just them, though.)

I’d want to keep D-Stabilized pretty much the same, so that’d require moving Vlad near Amity Park for some reason or another. The excuse could be that he was concerned about the events of Reality Trip. I dunno. Regardless, I’d keep D-Stabilized somewhat early on in the season, and focus the majority on developing Danielle and Valerie.

With Danny’s parents in on his secret, his life would get a lot easier. They’d stop trying to hunt him down, they’d be able to help cover for him, they could learn a lot from him and help him figure himself out, and heck, they could help him figure out a school schedule that works with what he does. In a sense, Danny would be reaching the tail end of the development he’s been going through since season 1.

Dani would be an excellent follow up for that, because her struggles mirror Danny’s in a lot of ways while also being totally different. She also has plenty of reason to question her humanity, wonder what she’s worth and what her purpose is, have trouble trusting people, and she’d be trying to adjust to a new life that’s foreign to her.

The differences are, of course, that Danny’s life was changed when he got ghost powers. Dani has never been without hers. What she’s trying to adjust to is a form of normalcy, something she’s never experienced. On top of that, she’s a clone. While Danny would definitely support her (and they do love each other a lot), she’d also struggle with how much of her identity is her own and how much is just a copy of Danny. Danny called the other clones mindless. What made her so special? Was she really that different from the others? Is she just really good at faking being a person?

There are plenty of characters who could relate to aspects of her struggles, but nobody would fully understand. That could lead to a lot of interesting plots. Heck, if we bring in Elmer’s idea of Vlad finally completing a perfect clone, that could add a lot of drama. Vlad would treat his “perfect son” way better than the previous clones. He wouldn’t be expendable. He’d only care about him as an object, really, but when you know nothing different, you can’t exactly know that you’re not really loved.

So we’d have a really messed up character who, ironically, could relate to Dani more than anyone else. She’d absolutely want to help him, even though he’d be pretty warped and do some despicable things.

Along with that, we’d also have Valerie’s character arc to continue. After finding out about Vlad and Dani, it wouldn’t be too long before she pieced together that Danny Phantom was a halfa as well. From there, she’d probably connect him to Danny Fenton eventually. That revelation, combined with everything else, would leave her questioning a lot of things. She’d be struggling between her affection for Fenton and her hatred for Phantom, and who knows which one would win out?

Judging by how she reacted to Dani, I can imagine her morals would prevent her from not at least hearing Danny out. Vlad has proven himself to be vindictive and manipulative, but she’d worked with Phantom a few times, and there were times when he seemed almost trustworthy. She’d have questions, but I don’t think she’d prioritize her desire for revenge over her friendship with Danny.

It’d still be very complicated for her, though. Danny would likely be able to easily accept everything, because he’s known about both sides of her this whole time and liked her anyway. Tucker’s pretty optimistic, so even he’d probably warm up to her if she promised to not attack Danny anymore.

Valerie would have a lot to figure out, though, and one person who would really struggle to trust her is Sam.

Assuming by this point, Sam and Paulina have reached some sort of mutual understanding, Valerie could easily replace Paulina as her rival. The thing about Sam is that her flaws are often very similar to those of the people she dislikes, just sometimes to another extreme. She can be as judgmental as Valerie, and she holds grudges and gets angry in the same way, too.

With Paulina, their shared problem was being unwilling to get to know people who fall into certain groups. Once they come to an understanding, even if they’re never friends, that would help both of them to move past that flaw. That would leave Sam more open to getting to know people, but she’d still have the same level of defensiveness and suspicion that Valerie has.

That’d lead to them butting heads a lot, even if everyone around them is trying to get along and make things work. That would lead to some great and necessary development for both girls. They’d both have to admit they’re wrong in various situations, which is something they both have trouble with, and unlike with Paulina, Sam would have to accept Valerie as somewhat of a part of the group eventually. After all, Paulina’s a popular girl who mostly avoids them. Danny considers Valerie a friend. So does Tucker. And despite her conflicting feelings, Valerie likes them both, too.

There are a lot of possible ideas, but these are a few of the ones I’d probably go with.

As for how to finish the series, I have no idea. I haven’t thought that far, yet. It’s a lot easier to come up with an ending for a show that should’ve finished sooner than one that should’ve kept going. It’d depend on where the story eventually led and, if I was actually working on a real show, how many episodes we were allowed.

This is all a bit more vague than my last post about the timeline, but this stuff hasn’t been given as much thought yet, and I have less material to work with. Hopefully that still answered your question well enough.