#this took a few months cause i didnt have much free time to rewatch while keeping notes :

[dekalko-mania]

The Ghosts in Danny Phantom Were 100% Intended To Be Dead AF and Here’s Why

Or a super mega compilation of all my ghostly evidence 

I'm sure the Phandom remembers the famous cursed BH quote from 2017, but to recap, he claimed on his YouTube channel that ghosts were simply monsters from another dimension, later elaborating in 2018 that:

"We had a rule when we were writing the show that none of the ghosts would be dead people. We never wanted the ghost of a dead person. We wanted it to be creatures from another dimension that could take the shape of a human...but they would never be the spirit of a deceased person.” 

Don’t think everyone got the memo cause...that doesn't make sense. 

Off the top of our heads, most of us can name the most blatant pieces of evidence contradicting that. He’s tried to go around these instances using very convoluted explanations, BUT in the spirit (ha!) of pettiness, I've gathered every single quote and scene that disproves BH's wack ass claim. Pretty hard to dispute everything when there’s so much.

Click the read more if you're down to follow me on my own Wes Weston journey. Do with this what you will. Read for entertainment, store it, refer to it for content creation, whatever you please. 

Some of these are actually pretty dark or hilarious, so brace yourselves.

S01E02: Parental Bonding

The whole Cursed Amulet of Aragon backstory (w/images of Princess Dorathea alive)

Danny: “That’s it! Medieval ghostly legend held that the Cursed Amulet of Aragon could transform any wearer into dragon form under states of extreme emotional duress or anger.”

 S01E05: Splitting Images

The cursed locker 724 legend was around even before the portal, though it working was the catalyst to it functioning. Poindexter states, “finally, the doorway’s been opened.”

Danny tries to convince his worried parents not to stake out the locker and in response, Jack screams out, “Why? Is it haunted?!”

The whole legend of Sydney Poindexter, Casper High student from 1954-1958 as told by Tucker: “Locker 724 was originally owned by a Poindexter back in the 50′s. Poindexter was the victim of more pranks than anyone in the history of Casper High School. Apparently, picking on him was a graduation requirement. He got stuffed into his locker so many times, it’s believed his spirit still inhabits it to this very day.”

Danny to his friends: “Poindexter took over my body and sent me to this bizzare-o spirit world.” 

How Sydney describes Danny: “You’re a halfa! Half a human, half a ghost. You have all our powers on the human plane...”

Also just this whole overshadowing scene. Looks pretty ghostly to me.

S01E06: What You Want

Tucker coming in clutch again with the backstory. Again showing Desiree once lived: “That was my mistake, reminding Danny where the ghost came from. Apparently, Desiree was a harem girl who had been promised her heart’s desire, her own kingdom, only to be banished by the sultan’s jealous wife. She died of a broken heart, and old age. After that, her spirit roamed, granting people’s deepest desires, but at a great personal cost.”

Something else to note, as Tucker stated, Danny investigated her story via local ghost lore, right from the source where she came.

S01E07: Bitter Reunions

Vlad about his mansion: “In my castle, previously home to the legendary Dairy King...”

There’s a portrait of the DK when he was alive, and Vlad even convinces Jack to sleep over by saying, “You know Jack, the Dairy King’s ghost could haunt these very halls.” (which is true)

Fun fact to note: DK is the first very friendly ghost Danny encounters, stating, “Not all ghosts are evil, right? Some of us just want to be left alone, don’t ya know?”

S01E08: Prisoners of Love

Jack about the Specter Speeder: “This little baby has state of the art spirit plane exploration technology.” Again, he literally refers to the Ghost Zone as the “spirit plane.” 

Fun Fact to Note: This is the first time ghost lairs are mentioned, with Danny saying, “oh my god, every one of these doors opens to a ghost’s lair.” Also the first time he goes in.

Literal graves line the bottom of the Ghost Zone

Walker to Danny: “Just because you’re a ghost, it doesn’t mean I can’t crush you within an inch of your afterlife.” In the wise words of @lexosaurus​, man’s is basically saying, “Danny’s fucking dead.” Line starts at 19:03 of the episode, highlighting it cause I love it that much.

Walker’s quote is important because it clarifies that to be a ghost, is to be considered living in some form of afterlife. Refer to Birchman’s quote and tell me that’s not a contradiction to his claim.

SE01E09: My Brother’s Keeper 

Fun Fact to Note: This is the first time Jazz actually sees a ghost, as well as the first time someone outside the trio acknowledges what happened to Danny and how it’s affected him. “Ever since the accident...”

The famous scene where Danny’s mortality is put to question: 

“Look at you, what are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?” “Both! Uh, neither-I don’t know!” “You’re a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?”

S01E10: Shades of Gray

Fun Fact to Note: Human weapons can’t hurt a ghost? Danny when Valerie hits him and he realizes it’s a ghost weapon: “Ow, that hurt! Wait a minute...that hurt?”

Extremely sad, but it’s heavily implied that Cujo is the ghost of one of the guard dogs that was put down by Axion Labs to make room for newer security tech, and is now on a search for his chew toy. 

Cujo has an Axion logo on his dog tag (they made it a point to zoom in on it)

How Danny reacts after trying to train Cujo: “That’s weird. This dog’s already trained.” 

A quote from the Axion Lab’s boss: “I knew we shouldn’t have gotten rid of those guard dogs.” 

The whole episode opened with Valerie’s dad ‘upgrading the security’  

They literally show the abandoned dog kennel. Danny connected the dots and pieced together the backstory right away: “A kennel? This must be where they kept all the guard dogs.” 

Fun Fact to Note: That Danny face makes an appearance lmao

S01E11: Fanning the Flames

Literally Ember’s entire song. Check out the full version here with lyrics here, and tell me Remember doesn’t sound like her whole story of life and death. Not definitive evidence, but song worth checking out. Issa bop. 

S01E13: Fright Knight

The Fright Knight description as reads in Sam’s book: “The Fright Knight, riding upon his ghoulish steed, the Nightmare, is notorious as the Spirit of Halloween. With his ghostly broadsword, he appears...”

Danny: “So he’s a ghost and he’s the Spirit of Halloween?” 

His lair is located in the Ghost Zone, which to reiterate, was referred to as the spirit plane by Jack

S01E14: “13″

Just an interesting observation on how ghosts can use ghostly objects to possess another person. Classic horror story trope.

S01E15: Public Enemies

Another bit of dialogue I absolutely love, and it happens right in the opening scene. As a prisoner tries to escape Walker’s prison, he yells back, “you’ll never take me alive, coppers!” To which, completely deadpan (ha!), Walker’s goon responds with, “You’re a ghost.” My dude sticks to his guns and snaps, “Well, you’ll still never take me!” 

^This is literally classic phandom death humor. Hinting, not subtly at all, that these people are dead. Deceased. Expired.

Principal Ishiyama talking about ghost safety protocol: “One, students are to have no contact with these spirits...”

Fun Fact to Note: Paulina has her first real interaction with Phantom here and acknowledges that he’s saved them. While the rest of Amity falls for Walker’s plan to frame him, the Casper High students recognize him as a hero.

Maddie at Danny: “Get your hands off our mayor, you odd manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness!” 

S01E17: Maternal Instincts

It was confirmed that the animals chasing after Danny and his mom are ghosts animals that Vlad had experimented on while they were alive. 

Vlad introduces them to him with: “These are my latest experiments, what do you think?...I’ll give you five minutes before I send my minions to destroy you.” 

Danny stops the animals from attacking the second time by saying, “Finish me? But why are you mad at me? I’m not the one that made your pelts into wall art.” And then proceeds to point at said taxidermy. 

Vlad at the animals: “Don’t even think about it, you spectral freaks-I’m still more powerful than you!”

S01E19: Million Dollar Ghost

Tucker at the ghost hunters while giving a tour of Amity: “And if you look to your right, you’ll see Casper High, whose halls have been haunted.”

One of Vlad’s ghostly vultures: “We’re 2,008 years old. Be grateful we can move.” 

S02E01: Memory Blank

This is a conversation between Sam and Danny after she tells him about his ghost powers and he wants to get them back: Sam says, “Are you sure about this?” and Danny responds, “No, but you saw those things. Those monsters--ghosts! Ghosts were attacking our school.” 

^ A little observation, but Danny corrected himself to ghosts when he first said monsters. Like they’re not the same thing. 

When explaining everything initially too, this is the interaction: After hearing the explanation, Danny says, “I got super powers?” And Sam corrects him with, “Actually, ghost powers.” 

^ Like again, there’s something fundamentally different between just regular powers and ghost powers. The way you get them, the way they work, and how they’re tied to someone. It’s not the same. 

S02E02: Doctor’s Disorders

Tucker at the guards after spraying them with his cologne and they begin to cough: “Oh please, you’re ghosts. Do you have any idea what you smell like?” 

^ Which, uh, is he saying that they smell like death itself? Corpses? Like what’s my bro Tuck implying here? 

S02E04/05: Reign Storm

Pariah Dark’s army looks to be designed after the ghosts of fallen soldiers from past wars. It’s clearly very intentional. A Roman soldier, one possibly from WWI or WWII, and a viking are here below. Also just a whole skeleton army. 

Fun Fact to Note: It’s the first time that Danny publicly announces and is finally referred to by Amity as Danny Phantom. It’s been months since the accident at this point and they’ve been calling him Invisobill this entire time. This is also the first time his positive ratings actually surpass the negative ones. (at a 64/36 ratio) He’s been protecting them for this long while still being hated. That alone says a lot about his character. 

Skulker at Danny about PD: “Now go! Defeat him! So I can be free to haunt you another day!” 

S02E08/09: The Ultimate Enemy

Same concept here as with Pariah Dark’s army: The ghosts Clockwork plans to send to attack Danny are literally designed after deceased soldiers or warriors of the past

S02E14: Beauty Marked

To further elaborate on Princess Dorathea’s backstory, we know she’s from around the dark ages, but she confirms it herself as well. Dora at her brother: “1600 years of doing your bidding! 1600 years of suffering your insults! 

They’ve been stuck in the GZ since their death, trapped in time because of Aragon. They aren’t just imitations of humans, they were human. (Well, when they weren’t using their amulet to turn into dragons lol)

S02E15: King Tuck

The Legend of the Pharaoh Dul-Aman and his servant Hotep-Ra: Lancer says, “Behold King Dul Man. (Waves to another artifact) The King’s scarab scepter. The secrets to its dark magic are lost to the ages. (Points near coffin) The mummified remain’s of the Pharaoh’s minion, Hotep Ra. Ancient legend holds that he will return when the king’s image reflects anew in his sacred mirror.” 

^ He appears when Tucker looks in the mirror. After her solidifies, he states “I am risen.” His spirit literally made a return.

S02E17: Kindred Spirits

Yet another usage of the word “haunt”

^Tucker when the ghost Vlad sent after Danny appears: “What kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course?” and Sam’s response, “Well there is a box ghost. Obviously all the good haunts have been taken.” 

S02E18: Double Cross My Heart

GIW agents after Danny asks them to leave him alone: “An unauthorized entity of scale 7 ectoplasmic power?” “A pre-pubescent specter operating freely? Unacceptable.”

Again, going back to Mirriam-Webster’s definition from before, a specter is: a visible disembodied spirit

S02E19/20: Reality Trip

LITERALLY THE MOST BLATANT PIECE OF CONFIRMATION: Lance Thunder is reporting the news about Danny getting the shit knocked out of him and he says the following: “It’s ghost-based chaos at the Casper High school’s out concert, where notorious ghost kid Danny Phantom is fighting for his afterlife!”

^ AFTER LIFE AS IN AFTER LIFE, AS IN POST MORTEM

Could be a stretch here but I found it funny lol: Sam says, “Can you hurry it up, Tucker? We’re on a deadline, emphasis on dead.”

Fun Fact to Note: We have another instance of someone not exactly sure what entity Danny is anymore: Maddie states, “we love you, sweetie, you” and Jack adds, “whether you’re ghost, boy, or something in between.” 

Miscellaneous Additions: 

Honestly, I don’t really believe Birch’s reasoning behind the choice in language of DP. There’s very specific words and parallels that indicate the word “ghost” refers to the traditional meaning. But according to him, the only reason they use this vocabulary is because, “we call them ghosts because it’s easier to say, and it’s more appealing than saying ‘monsters from another dimension.” Like yes it would be wordy to say that whole thing, but why would you settle on “ghosts” when the word refers to something completely different than what you supposedly intended and there’s thousands of other word choices you could have used that would fit much better. It’s just a really big stretch. Even the icons referencing them are shown as classic ghost silhouettes. 

There’s so many references to traditional ghosts. The school is called Casper High (Casper the friendly ghost), the town is called Amity Park (Amityville Horror), the Fenton invention names (like the Specter Speeder, Boo-merang, Specter Deflector, Wraith Wrangler ((wraith, according to google, meaning “a ghost or ghostlike image of someone, especially one seen shortly before or after their death”)), etc

David Kaufman himself (The VA of Danny) views the ghosts as expired lmao 

BH made this tweet as well like I don’t even know where’s he’s going with this claim anymore

BH literally has concept art with his official signature seal showing Danny leaning on his own tombstone!!! (The case should just rest there, how much more blatant can this be lmao. Also this photo is just super cool, I really have to give him props for this cause how bad ass. Don’t get how someone can back out of an idea as cool and unique as this years after it’s already been set in stone.) Like this pic was literally drawn on a storyboard template. 

This is all the proof I’ve gleaned from the first two seasons. I may have missed other things, or someone may call to my attention more evidence, so this post is open to future editing if need be. Season 3, which is mostly in BH’s hands w/o Marmel, then makes a very valiant effort at disproving everything already established up to that point, but I would honestly take that with a grain of salt. 

More than 2/3 of the show already establishes that the ghosts are in fact actually spirits of the deceased. That’s 40 episodes against 13 from S03. 

Also S03 doesn’t even do a good job at negating the ghosts are dead. Sure, the new ones are much less human-looking, but that just expands on the variety of afterlife that actually inhabits the ghost zone. Not just people, but concepts and ideas of a culture long gone or ideas held by humanity. 

Perhaps this change in heart was made on Nick’s part too, but since BH has been the most vocal about it...well, his statement is the one I’m making this in response to.

All I’m saying is that they’re very clearly traditional ghosts. And if BH’s values no longer align with the initial route of the show, then he should perhaps step back and let someone else take the reigns if there was to be a future for it. A head that would allow DP to reach its full potential without constantly backtracking and being inconsistent.

(Again, this is open to editing later.)