#while Vlad and Danny are easily the most important things in the world to it

[coockie8]

does danny ever top vlad?

Biannually.

The first time, it was just something Danny wanted to try, but realised he actually enjoys it quite a bit. Vlad's just happy making Danny happy. The problem lies in that, while Vlad doesn't really care either way, Plasmius very much does.

As I've explained, due to past trauma, Plasmius interprets all bottoming as rape, whether or not Vlad consented to being the bottom. It does put any sex he has as the bottom in a bit of a grey area, consensually, since only half of him is consenting. The Ghost half most definitely is not.

So Danny gets to top twice a year; on his birthday, and on Christmas.

But Plasmius gets stand-offish with him for a week every time regardless of why. Danny has a few scars from the early stages of their relationship because of this.

[pbeltarts]

How would you rewrite the ultimate Enemy episode ?

This is a fairly large question because if I'm honest, I don't know that I would even keep it in my rewrite.

If I were to be a showrunner and reboot it as a show, ofc I would, but in the context of the re-telling I want to do online, it makes more sense to me to have it be a bit more contained narratively. In my retelling, the biggest threat is Vlad and he will always be the final enemy of the storyline because of how important his existence is in response to Danny's.

Danny is treated like an anomaly by nearly everyone he meets. A lot of the ghosts are impressed or surprised by him, he's "one of a kind" but he's really not. Vlad has long been a halfa before Danny, Danny isn't as unique as everyone else acts like he is.

We can assume people act this way because Vlad hides his status as being a halfa from ghosts and humans alike, but that doesn't make sense to me either because Most of the ghosts Danny encounters seem to know this upon meeting him. Like there's something Danny gives off that tells him he has life in him still.

That's all to say that Dan is often treated like the big final opponent in fandom spaces, because he is Danny himself gone evil. I get why he is seen this way, but narratively I think it's a little boring. I don't like Danny having to LITERALLY face himself. The idea that Danny instead has to recognize the similarities between him and Vlad and face that is just more interesting to me.

That isn't to say I think that Clockwork isn't important or interesting for a larger narrative. While I don't think Danny should be over-recognized as some amazing thing by ghosts because there's already a halfa in existence, I DO enjoy the idea that Clockwork takes notice of Danny because of the diverging paths he can take. He can be the hero everyone will need in the future, or become the villain.

Given I like the idea of exploring Danny's emotional states and how he copes with his life and trauma throughout the story, the idea that Clockwork is almost monitoring him to see how that coping affects his future is interesting to me. Danny can so easily become bitter and hateful because the world has spit on him so many times. But Danny is a good person, at his core, and he knows right from wrong in the end. THAT is something I find interesting.

So would I keep Dan in my retelling? Probably not, he's not really a focus to me. If I ever did like. Idk a special sequel to my own retelling after the storyline I have then maybe that would be the plotline. Dan just feels like a one off moment, not important in my telling.

[thesoulspulse]

Danny Phantom Randomness (Vlad Masters If He Was More Like David Xanatos ~ Part 1)

I think I mentioned this when I first got back into the phandom but personally I have a sneaking suspicion Vlad may have also been at least somewhat inspired by one of my favorite Disney villains/antagonists -apart from Maleficent- and that’s David Xanatos from the old animated TV series Gargoyles. Lets face it, anyone else who has seen this amazing show probably thought the same thing when Danny Phantom originally released and we met Vlad Masters for the first time.

Mind you, this is just my personal opinion though so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt and I’m well aware that I’m probably not the first to think of this. The point of this post is to share how terrifying Vlad would have been if he was less of a comical villain and more ruthless and cunning like David Xanatos. Before we get to that though, lets start with the basics...

David Xanatos/Vlad Masters Comparison:

Gargoyles came out in 1994 and ended in 1997.

Danny Phantom came out in 2004 and ended in 2007, meaning both shows are exactly 10 years apart from each other.

Do they both have a personal nemesis? Yes!

Xanatos has many enemies but the main one is Goliath, one of the main characters in the show, because Xanatos is constantly manipulating the Gargoyle clan’s leader and his companions in some way.

As for Vlad, the obvious answer is Danny and his old college buddy Jack Fenton, but with the latter he doesn’t exactly fight Jack that often and just calls him names behind his back.

Both of these guys are the richest people in the world in their respective versions of it, AND live in their very own castle too! How could I not see the similarities?! Not to mention they’re both fascinated with mystical/supernatural artifacts.

Speaking of which, the biggest similarity between these two is probably their design, I mean just look at these handsome devils:

They’re both totally giving off the same charismatic vibes. Although the art styles are completely different, they both have: long hair in a ponytail, similar circle beard & goatee, nicely sculpted jawline (don’t give me that look you know it’s true!) and most obviously they both dress in finely tailored suits.

There’s even a TV trope NAMED after Xanatos known as the Xanatos Gambit and strangely enough...Vlad actually DOES use this sort of tactic with a few of his plans which connects to several important events together (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit).

 Sorry in advance it’s kinda crappy looking but hopefully it gives you the idea of how literally EVERYTHING Vlad did involving Valerie benefited him somehow from the very start of her ghost hunting days.

Next up, these two billionaires are incredibly smart. However, sadly Vlad was created to be more of a comedic villain for the most part since that’s what Nickelodeon is best known for which is totally fine. He’s the kind of cookie-cutter bad guy who is still easily defeated by the hero in most cases so we’ll get to how incredibly dangerous Vlad would be if he was more like Xanatos...

Speaking of, David Xanatos does a lot of the same sort o things Vlad did in a way; he cloned Goliath the same way Vlad cloned Danny; they have both manipulated their respective nemesis into doing their dirty work; both of them have a robotic exo-skeleton though to be fair Vlad never wore the one he stole from Fenton Works himself; and they’ve used their nemesis’s loved ones as bargaining chips/hostages.

As for their wealth, both Xanatos and Vlad rigged theirs in one way or another as follows:

Xanatos had a valuable 10th century coin sent to him from the past into the future via his connections to the Illuminati while time traveling for his honeymoon using a mystical relic known as the Phoenix Gate. Trust me, it’s a lot cooler than it sounds. And after selling it for about 20k he invested that money into many successful ventures, thus becoming the richest man in the world.

Vlad on the other hand went the more classic villain route and admits in “Kindred Spirits” that he committed a string of invisible burglaries to make his billions and I assume he also invested a lot of that money just like Xanatos did. Although he had the additional option to overshadow people and trick them into signing over the rights to many influential companies to him.

A bit unrelated but there’s also a clan of Gargoyle hunters in Gargoyles too so imagine if Valerie’s family had a much longer history of hating ghosts than we realized? As in on her mom’s side they were descendants of ghost hunters all alone just like the Fenton’s.

I could probably go into more detail but I’m putting a lot of this together through memory since I haven’t re-watched Gargoyles again recently or anything like that. We’ll get to the fun part in another post with some examples of how Danny probably would have been no match for a Vlad who has his act together and planned EVERYTHING well in advance.

[kotalefanzu]

Pitch Pearl  ATUS AU- Part 1

so this rather than just like a general world and stuff is actually an outlining thingie *insert happy face here* this is vey much on the angstier side because i made this in frightmares and thats like, a most be ansgty or perish

so we start of in the quaint little town of Amity years in after the Fentons have created a sucessful ghost portal. danny does not die and become a halfa at this point in time, still an innocent little human freshman going about his life. the ghosts treat the town like a playground and the humans like their playthings, nothing more than entertaining little mice scurrying around and begging for their short mousy lives to be spared as the town crumbles to borderline ruins under the destruction of the ghosts. 

phantom is currently king of the ghosts. he sits by idlely and lets his subjects act as they see fit with the humans, montitoring the situation to see if anything catches his interest. and what does you ask? the outspoken fenton family attempting to fight back as well as they can. mainly the youngest fenton, whose age is quite similar to his time becoming sentient. the fenton family has already betrayed the town once. how would people react if it happened a second time?

phantom orders the ghosts to kidnap danny and he places him at his right hand. danny quickly learns obedience is better than fighting in this situation. he is shown off like a throphy pet and doted on like, forced to pretend to enjoy this if he wants to keep his family safe and unaware of what is going down. how would they react watching their own child mingle around with their tormentors? danny tries to protect them as much as possible and while the reluctant obedience was entertaining for a while, phantom wants more than that. if danny’s loyalties lie with his town, then destroying the town will remove any obstacles. its would never be a bother to retrain his pet anyways, not if it means that there will be no room for rejection.

danny learns of this plan and immediately tries to stop him. any pleading has the opposite effect. the only way to save the town is to cut off any and all means of crossing over. 

danny was given a circlet when he was first kidnapped and presented to phantom. it was a binding and also a way to help him survive more easily in the ghost zone. when wearing it, phantom was able to sense him as if he was part of the realm itself. the important this to note that it gave him basic ghost powers that though not strong enough to combat his captors, after a lot of secret practice allowed him good control over his powers. 

he pretends to sulk and refuse to leave his room for days on end, lowering phantom’s guard that he is actually going to do anything. phantom doesn’t pay too much attention to his behavior, discussing world domination with his generals and what extent do they plan to wreck havoc on the human realm. while phantom is at a meeting, danny takes his chance to escape and flees to the portal as quickly as he can. right as he jumps through he hears shouting and the enraged yell of phantom before he uses his power to shut down the portal.

he’s free. finally home. they can’t come through anymore. (tust me when i say they actually cannot. natural portals aren’t a thing quite yet.)

everything slowly goes back to normal over the next few years. danny is now a senior and nobody really knows the truth behind his kidnapping. he has friends, sam and tucker, and while focusing on school work is hard for him and he may have missed a few months readjusting, he isn’t failing. he thinks it’s over now. he is safe, right? that was the only portal. there are no more rifts.

except there is now. 

vlad is still a half ghost and he is looking to find a new source of energy after the old portal shut down. he isn’t foolish enough to create a giant portal like the fentons. a small open, barely big enough for a young child to squeeze through should be fine. and it not like he can’t handle any pest that slips through anyways. this should be fine.

danny sometimes feels like he is being watched when he is alone, but he chalks it down to paranoia.

danny starts getting nightmares about phantom again, but tries to tell himself thats nothing to worry about. nightmares are normal, even if the last nightmare he got was in early junior year.

danny starts getting random chills, ignores it and puts on a warmer jacket or hoodie.

then one day as he is getting out of the shower, notices a DP drawn into the steamed mirror.

[ecto-american]

I was doing some research for a fanfiction, and remembered this line from Reality Trip, which got my criminal justice self all excited because of the implications. So have some analysis from a rambling autistic with a criminal justice degree.

“Daniel Fenton, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A, you're under arrest.”

Y'all, this is kinda wack? It means, on some level, there has been a federal judgment within the world of Danny Phantom that not only acknowledges that ghosts exist, but has an entire fucking act describing specifically the course of action in a sense. Lots of acts will kind of be this vague overarching thing with various random acts thrown into it, but the name along with the article one, section one subsection a dealio implies that this entire act focuses on ghosts. I say act and not law btw, because those terms are not necessarily synonyms.

Not only does this confirm that there are acts (at least one anyway) in Danny Phantom that specifically talk about ghosts, but kind of really and truly cements that the Guys in White are actually a federal government agency, rather than them simply acting as one but really being a private company of sorts or being some local state government program.

And with laws about ghosts, it means that legally, the government had to define what exactly a ghost is as well as their rights and lack of rights, and that they legally acknowledge, as a nation, that ghosts exists. While, of course, we don’t really ever get to see this act, and as far as I know, it’s literally Never talked about again, this scene means that this act applies to Danny. For a quick refresher, this happens after Danny is exposed, and so this act still applies to Danny despite him being outted as a half ghost. A scary sidenote is before this scene and line of dialogue, the agents told Danny that he was coming in for questioning and experiments.

So what might it possibly say? If there are any acts that we can potentially base what this act possibly would say, I would probably guess it’d be similar to the acts used for minorities within the United States. And I say these kinds of acts because they’re specifically acts that discriminate towards a group, and that have used various reasons to justify how they are not human, citizens or have any legal rights. If the agents’ lines were correct, these acts probably gave them justification for doing inhumanly cruel things to Danny.

Of course, Danny could be arrest for something totally different and not for some anti-ghost reasons. At this point in time, he’s still kind of half-loved, half-hated publicly as people are shown to still believe that he stole during the events of Control Freaks and the mayor incident of Public Enemies, but if he was under arrest for any of those crimes, the agents would have said that. And I refuse to believe this is an oversight of the writers, because they would have found any nitpicky thing and made it a funny situation where the agents went on and on and on about this endless list of crimes that the ghost boy has committed until Danny roundhouse kicked somebody. And no, it’s likely not because the Guys in White are only interested in Ghost Crimes. As federal officials, which they are confirmed to be, they would have arrested him for everything and have to basically fistfight the other government agencies investigating his Non Ghost Crimes.

So what exactly is he under arrest for? No clue obviously, and it’s hard to really even guess. Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A for most acts are basically describing what the act’s going to be before it moves on to detail that. I think this is an oversight of the DP writers, lord knows we get enough of them, but it could also potentially highlight the Dumb factor of the Guys in White that we would see them sometimes exhibit, where instead of properly referencing the piece of legislation he’s under arrest for, they just blurt out the first section of that law.

And who wrote this act? It could be anybody, of course. Anybody within politics. It also begs the question as to exactly when this act was written and when it was put into effect. I’d wager it heavily depends on when the Guys in White came into effect, as they are clearly acting under these laws. Which begs the question: how many pieces of anti-ghost legislation are there? Who’s writing them? There’s potential that there are literally lawyers who are literally experts in ghost law. Keep in mind that in the beginning of the series, there was a lot of skepticism that ghosts even exist.

This honestly leads me to propose a new headcanon: The Guys in White are a very new government organization that spawned after the events of Public Enemies. To preface this and clarify, in order, the Guys in White appear in only five episodes: Million Dollar Ghost, Double Cross My Heart, Reality Trip, Eye for an Eye, and Livin’ Large.

Evidence to support this theory:

They only show up four episodes later in their first appearance in Million Dollar Ghost. Public Enemies seems to also be the first episode in the series that shows a massive onslaught of ghost attacks. I would guess that this is the ghostly event that probably spawned the act in question, which may have called for the organization of the Guys in White. Prior to this, ghosts were basically shown that they’re unconfirmed to exist on a public level. Even Jack, our lovable and excitable ghost hunter who’s been doing this since his college years admits in Mystery Meat that he’s never seen a ghost until that point. Jazz mentions that Harriet Chin in Bitter Reunions lost her job for writing an article about ghosts because she was laughed for writing about something that was more for “the national enquirer”, a conspiracy theory newspaper that nobody really takes seriously.

Why are they there during the events of Million Dollar Ghost anyway? If they’re a new organization, they may need that money or are cashing in on the publicity of the event to spread their name, or they’re just starting out and have no real clue where else to go. Only two of them even showed up anyway. The only other groups there are very small ghost hunting groups: literally two young adults on scooters, another set of young adults with a tiger fueled by anxiety and a van, and FentonWorks. And while they, out of all of them, clearly have the most advanced technology, they’re about on the same skill level as the other ghost hunters (getting captured and tricked and such just as easily). Danny even was just as “haha” about them as he was the other hunters who had showed up.

Their technology in Million Dollar ghost is nothing in comparison to the literal jetpacks and planes and four wheelers and armor they get several episodes later. Their funding increased when they proved ghosts exist and more ghostly events happened, and they likely proved their competence in some way. Especially when we see that they have been catching other ghosts (like Skulker in Double Cross My Heart and Lydia in Reality Trip) and gathering important information on ghostly artifacts (Reality Trip).

It would explain why they don’t really show up that often in the series, especially during major ghost events where they really should be there, such as the ghost king invasion of Reign Storm. They may have not secured the funding or manpower to really do anything just yet. Note that Reign Storm happened in between Million Dollar Ghost and Double Cross My Heart, which is almost a 20 episode gap. Their skills, knowledge, ability, technology and apparent funding jumped massively between these episodes, and it kind of stays about the same consistency for the rest of the show.

They really only seem to have one department, and they have really low employee numbers for a government agency. There’s no talk or implications or having multiple departments or anything, such as research or technology. Even during the SWAT invasion during Reality Trip, there’s only like twenty or so agents there. In Livin’ Large, there’s only about seven there, and two are the Agent K and O that we know. They play a lot of roles, from researching, questioning, gathering information, tracking down criminals, getting information from the Fenton’s lab, technology things in FentonWorks, etc. Of course, this is a staple for many law enforcement jobs where you have many tasks, but they seem to be playing the role of detective, computer analysis, and police officer at minimum given the wide variety of things we see them do. As somebody who’s worked in three situations where the company/program was very new, it’s incredibly common for a new company that’s still finding it’s groundings to have a very blurred job line. Or they’re heavily underfunded, but look at the goddamn jetpacks they get, look me in the eye and tell me they’re underfunded.

The lack of basic ghost information. In Livin’ Large, they want to destroy the Ghost Zone. It’s apparently very obvious that you Can’t Do That, but the Guys in White seem oblivious. While you can argue that they’re just fucking dumb, it may be more reasonable to assume that they simply just don’t know.

There’s no dialogue (that I can find) prior to Million Dollar Ghost to suggest they exist. There’s also no dialogue from Vlad, who would have known and been wary of such an organization had it been around for years, to suggest that they’ve been around a while. Jack, who also is open about how much he admires them, would have likely said something to. But I am willing to chalk this entire part up to simply poor writing.

“But Danny knew who the Guys in White were when they showed up in Million Dollar Ghost!” Yeah. He also knew who the other people were, and I heavily doubt that they’d be as big of a deal or name as the Official government branch. It’s very likely that they all introduced themselves when they showed up.

[ghostsray]

Ch9: Glow

(first - prev - next) (AO3)

Niel was seeing red. Literally.

Colors often looked different in ghost form, but this time, everything was red. Maybe that was from the red glow coming from his eyes. They had begun to radiate at some point on the way home and hadn't stopped. Skulker was casting frequent glances at him, and if Niel didn't know any better, he would have thought the hunter looked nervous.

On any other occasion, that detail would have sent Niel over the moon. However, Niel was feeling too angry to care. He was angry that Vlad would ignore him for two days before finally sending a lackey to check on him instead of coming himself. He was angry that Vlad had done all this after he almost killed Niel's sister and that he was still expecting Niel to come back. Most of all, he was angry with himself for having trusted him all those months.

The glow from his eyes intensified with these thoughts.

The duo made it through the portal and landed in Vlad's lab. The millionaire himself was pacing around the room when he saw them. He approached them with a look of--relief?--before pausing and squinting his eyes at the glow.

"Still angry with me, I see," he noted.

Niel glared, his eyes casting red light across Vlad's obnoxious face. Skulker released his cuffs from Niel's wrist. "I'll leave you two be," he said and flew back into the portal, leaving the father and son alone.

"You were going to kill Ellie," Niel spoke.

"You mean Danielle? I've told you, she's--"

"A failure?" Niel seethed. "She's also a conscious being, and you know that. It still would've counted as murder."

Vlad's face twitched, then he sighed defeatedly. "No, you're right. I'm sorry."

Niel blinked in surprise. He wasn't expecting Vlad to apologize so easily. The glow from his eyes dimmed ever so slightly, but it returned to its brightness as Niel bit back, "You think apologizing changes anything?"

Vlad looked...surprised, like he wasn't expecting Niel to argue back. Niel's scowl deepened.

"Look, just give me a chance to make it up to you," Vlad said.

"By leaving Ellie alone?" Niel retorted.

"Surely you understand, I was only doing it to protect us--"

"But how do I know you care about me when you don't care about any of the other clones?"

"I already told you, I wouldn't have gone public with you if i didn't plan on keeping you around."

"So...you only care about me for publicity?"

Vlad froze, and his eyes widened. He put on a friendly smile. "No! of course not!" He grabbed Niel's hands and said, "You're my son, Niel."

Even though he had started calling him by his name, Vlad still seemed to hesitate whenever he said it, like he was forcing himself not to call him Daniel. Maybe that was what caused Niel to pull his hands away and growl. "If I'm your son, then why do you never care?"

"I do!"

"Oh yeah? What's my favorite science subject?"

Vlad was beginning to frown, growing impatient with Niel. "It's astronomy, of course."

Niel's eyes flashed again as he said, "Wrong. That's Danny's favorite subject. Mine is biology."

Vlad faltered for a second before he spread his arms with a forced smile and said, "Well then, I'm learning new things about you! Isn't that great?"

Niel didn't think that was great. His red vision was starting to get encroached by green, and he realized he was tearing up. "You know, I used to read stories with families in them and think they were unrealistic because of how close the parents were to their kids...but hey, it was fiction, so obviously that was fake, right?"

Vlad's expression grew sober as Niel continued. "I thought you loved me, even if the only times you spent with me were in front of guests and reporters. I mean, you buy me all this cool stuff, so that must mean you care, right?" Droplets fell down the clone's cheeks. He thought back to Jack and Maddie, how they wrapped their arms around Danny and Jazz in a hug, and how happy the family looked together. Even the ghosts in the Far Frozen were tender as the adult yeti looked after their young. "I don't think you really love me," Niel said, "and I don't think I love you, either."

Niel looked at Vlad, waiting for his reaction. Vlad was staring at a spot on Niel's cheek, and as he watched, his expression grew more and more troubled. At first, Niel thought that was because of what he had said, but then he began to wonder if Vlad had even been listening. Vlad raised a finger...then suddenly poked Niel in the cheek.

Niel flinched. "Hey, what are you--"

But Vlad was muttering, "No, no, no. You were supposed to be perfect."

Those words made Niel's stomach sink. Something was wrong. His vision was swimming with green, but he was beginning to suspect that wasn't from his tears. He looked down at Vlad's finger and saw it glowing with ectoplasm.

Niel's face felt like it was being burned by acid. Why did his face feel like burning? He brought a shaky hand up to where Vlad touched him. Something was mushy and it felt wrong and--when he pulled his hand away, it was coated in the same glowing substance as on Vlad's finger.

"Butter biscuits," Vlad muttered. "I shouldn't have let you stay in the Ghost Zone for so long. That much prolonged exposure to ectoplasm, and your body is still relatively young..."

Niel wasn't listening. He staggered and felt the world tilt beneath him. Everything was glowing, but it wasn't from his anger anymore. "I'm destabilizing," he said numbly.

Vlad fixed an intent gaze on him. "It's all right, I can fix you."

"I'm destabilizing," Niel repeated.

Vlad placed a hand on his shoulder. "Niel--"

For a second, the world turned red again, and Niel shouted "Stay away from me!" and stumbled back from Vlad's grip. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, except it barely did anything to assuage his nerves considering oxygen wasn't important to his ghost form. He brought his hands to his hairs and gripped at them. The ectoplasm on his hands was spread across his hair, but that didn't matter because he was melting.

"Calm down," Vlad ordered. "Being emotional only makes it worse."

Niel turned frightful eyes to Vlad. "How can I trust you? Ellie didn't let you fix her."

"Danielle is a fool! Come on, are you really going to let a small conflict between us stop you from accepting my help?" Vlad tried to grab him again, but Niel stepped away, causing his father to scowl. "Your form is falling apart. Who else can help you?"

Niel knew he should probably let Vlad fix him, but he couldn't think. Maybe his brain was melting, too. His chest continued to rise and fall futilely while more tears pricked his eyes. "The Fentons," he blurted. "The Fentons can help me."

"Are you an idiot? You'll be revealing all our secret identities if you go to those two for help!" Vlad's voice was steadily rising, but he forced himself to take a breath and calm himself. "Be logical, Niel. You know I love you, right?"

And that was how Niel became certain that Vlad hadn't been listening to a thing he said earlier. Suddenly, his potentially impending doom no longer mattered, and his fear was replaced once more by anger. Vlad's calm demeanor faltered when he saw Niel's eyes flash red again.

"Fuck you," Niel growled.

Vlad was so stunned that all he could say was, "Language."

Niel's fists shook, his teeth gritted, and then--a sob racked through him, breaking him down both figuratively and literally. The destabilization was spreading from his face to his chest and his arms and his legs and everywhere was glowing with his own ectoplasm. He cried, his tears mixing with the green substance and dripping to the floor.

He felt Vlad's fingers wrap around his wrist, but Niel phased his hand through. A thick sheet of goo was left behind on Vlad's hand, like when that slimer ghost from Ghostbuster phased through walls (it's amazing how your mind can still think of silly movie references even when your world is falling apart). "I'm not a perfect clone," Niel said.

"Don't say that. Of course you're--"

"I'm not," Niel said, "and I wish you didn't treat me that way."

He turned away from Vlad and lifted himself into the air. "Where are you going, Niel?" Vlad demanded. Niel ignored him. He shot upward and phased through the lab's ceiling. The last thing he heard was Vlad angrily yelling, "Daniel!"

Niel bit back his sobs and flew out the mansion. He was oozing, bits of his own body falling beneath him and leaving a glowing trail.

Danny, Niel thought. Ellie was able to stay alive because Danny helped her. All he had to do was find the other boy and get him to stop...all of this.

And he had to get to him quickly, before the corruption could reach his head and leave him unable to think.

[lightlyscathing]

SOMETHING IS UP WITH BUTCH HARTMAN...

...And it might not be what you think it is.

(VERY long post/sort of essay, a lot more beneath the cut.)

TLDR: Butch is not the devil, he is flawed, and there’s almost certainly someone else behind a lot of what’s happening right now.

I’d like to start this off with saying that even though this blog is Pretty Empty and doesn’t have any other content from Butch Hartman’s shows (Danny Phantom, Fairly Odd Parents, etc.) on it, I watched his work as a kid and loved it. I’ve been a fan of Danny Phantom for years, and I’ve seen a lot of Butch hate.

Today I’d like to offer you another perspective on what might be happening with Butch, and why we should, I don’t know. Maybe lay off on the hate just a little...? He is by no means a perfect person, and has made mistakes, but the same can be said of any person.

After a friend of mine (@sarasanddollar) mentioned having mixed feelings about recent events (specifically, the OAXIS controversy), we had a conversation about it. She was coming from the perspective of someone who has defended Butch in the past, and I asked her about that as someone who has disliked Butch for a long time. I was curious to see what she had to say.

She made several good points, which I will summarize. You can also view the most important snippets of that conversation HERE.

One of the reasons many Danny Phantom fans (or Phans) dislike Butch so intensely is because of the terrible writing and overall execution of Season 3 of the show, especially the finale (Phantom Planet). 

Many Phans attribute this directly to Butch himself. And it’s true that he had a much heavier hand in Season 3 than the first two seasons! But he’s not the only one at fault here. As far as either of us could see, Nickelodeon basically axed his show (as they have with many shows), leaving Butch without most of his skilled team while creating the third season.

Butch is by no means the BEST creator or writer out there. His greatest skill seems to be in coming up with creative pitches for shows, and the execution of these ideas is best left to a team who knows what they’re doing. But that’s the thing: Butch had a team. Can you imagine suddenly losing the team you’re working with and trying to handle an entire animated show almost entirely on your own? No wonder it was a mess, that sounds terrifying.

Many people believe that Butch is anti-LGBT, and most of those people frame it as an intentional thing. That honestly seems unlikely, though.

Butch’s work has many scenes or even entire episodes that have sexist undertones or demonstrate a lot of toxic masculinity. Often, this is even the joke in and of itself. 

This seems to be more the product of the way he himself was raised than anything else, though. As far as either of us are aware, he’s never outright said anything for or against the LGBT community. Honestly, he’s not LGBT, so why should he?

Butch also seems pretty ignorant or uncomfortable when it comes to things he hasn’t directly experienced for himself, leading to comments like the one he made about introversion.

Beyond that, he allegedly kicked any people posting/liking LGBT content off of his Danny Phantom forums. The thing is, back then, almost ALL slash ship content was Pompous Pep (Danny Fenton/Vlad Masters). Making no comment on my personal feelings about the ship, it should be noted that this depicts an explicit sexual relationship between a 14-year-old boy and a man in his 40s. It’s understandable that Butch wouldn’t want explicit content of a pedophilic slash ship being associated with his show.

His way of dealing with it may have been excessive, but almost all of the LGBT content he was seeing was also pedophilia.

It’s also worth noting that almost all details about the Forum Days of the Danny Phantom fandom are now being passed around via word of mouth. Even in text form, people’s biases do change the tone of a situation.

Given recent events, many people are spreading around anything connecting Butch to religion. This deserves a closer look too, though.

Here’s something I didn’t know until Sara told me: Butch Hartman was not always a Christian. He wasn’t raised into it, “brainwashed” as a child and blindly following those values as an adult. He allegedly converted a year or two into the production of Fairly Odd Parents, well into his adult life. Before that, he was apparently an atheist. 

This man has one show about magic and another about scientists and ghosts. His shows have sexual jokes, witchcraft, violence, and all sorts of things you’d expect a super-conservative Christian to avoid. So why do we all act like he’s always BEEN that super-conservative Christian?

It may have something to do with how people tend to associate Christianity with the corrupt or incompetent white men who run a significant portion of the planet. The exact reasons are probably different from person to person.

This, of course, DOES NOT give Butch any reason to act like Christians are oppressed. He is not the “living embodiment of ‘one of these things is not like the other’” as he put it. 

That being said, it seems as if his shows are largely detached from religion (until now). They have morals, sure, but all Nickelodeon shows have lessons for kids, many of which also happen to be mentioned in some form somewhere in the Bible.

So it seems kind of fishy that Religious Values are suddenly such a huge deal for him... which leads me to the point of this entire thing.

When it comes to the OAXIS scam, we might not be the only ones who are being played.

It seems very likely that Butch Hartman himself is also being played.

Hear me out.

With the context of Giving The Children Jesus, some of the more confusing parts of the way OAXIS was pitched make more sense. But at the same time, I find it very difficult to understand how this man created so much content for children (and RAISED a child) with such a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to how families and society work.

After thinking about it, I realized that this feels very familiar.

Someone I was once very close with had a similar experience about a year ago. For both of them, it seems to have gone something like this:

The person in question starts off not knowing/caring about a cause. At some point, they are introduced to this cause and join, but it does very little to change their work or public life. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they have a radical change in lifestyle and behavior, while screaming an extreme or radical version of that cause’s message from the metaphorical rooftops.

For the person I used to be close with, this “cause” was Isogenix. (For more information on operations like this one, consider watching this video.) For Butch, it seems like that cause is... saving young people with religious lessons and “pure” media.

With the person I knew, this whole process started when a group of people who were already working with Isogenix befriended her and gained her trust, then told her repeatedly how good Isogenix would be for her. When she started considering it, they told her it was about self-empowerment and pursuing her true self. This kept going until they’d pushed her into dismantling her circle of friends (anyone who wasn’t working with Isogenix), and the last I’ve heard about it is that she left her husband and children to dedicate herself to “self-exploration” and being a Good Example of Isogenix’s successes.

With Butch, it seems likely that something similar is in the process of happening, though with different results. I wouldn’t be surprised if he met and befriended someone (or several people) who believe that modern mass media is corrupting the youth, and that limiting their media intake to Christian-approved content will fix a lot of the issues in modern society.

I mentioned earlier that Butch seems to have a pretty limited understanding of things outside his own little sphere (based mostly on his unintentional sexism in shows, lack of understanding of healthy male friendships/physical contact, and complete misunderstanding of the 16-50% of the world that is made up of introverts). Considering this, it seems like he’d probably buy into this mentality pretty easily, especially if these people “spoke his language”.

While I personally have a lot of resentment for the people who fall for this sort of tactic, it’s not really the victim’s fault when they become the Face or Voice of the cause. The recruiters often know exactly what they’re doing. Most of them seek out people who are lost, desperate, low on self esteem, or somewhat narcissistic. People who want to make a future for themselves, and sometimes others, usually as “their own boss.” Sound familiar?

Some people are more than one of those things. Butch, given that he recently left Nickelodeon after working there for literal decades, could understandable be a bit lost on what his next step should be. And honestly, he’s shown narcissistic tendencies in the past (have you SEEN his self-insert from Fairly Odd Parents?).

So, as easy as it is to stay mad at Butch Hartman, there’s almost certainly someone else involved... which would also explain some things about his Kickstarter.

The way these things are pitched is designed to make the “victim” believe that it’s all their own idea. THEY took control of their life to make these changes, THEY are the brave example of the Future of the industry, THEY are a self-made person. And most of all, showing other people how they can succeed by joining the organization/school of thought is THE BEST THING EVER.

Which... to me, that seems like it’s a logical reason for Butch’s Kickstarter not actually mentioning anyone else, when he insists other people are involved. Someone likely took his already self-absorbed and narcissistic tendencies and intentionally built them up to make him into the Face and Voice of this project. 

Bonus points to them: they also picked the perfect person to use.

Butch is a well-off, reasonably well-known person. He has a pretty large following that is almost exclusively made up of young adults, teenagers, and even children (a detail many people cited as the reason his Kickstarter shouldn’t have worked at all). Many of those young people grew up watching his shows and seeing his content on social media, assuming that the loyal followers we’re talking about are the several hundred thousand people following him on social media platforms. Many of them would take his word as something more important than some random person they’ve never heard of, or so the theory goes.

With this context, his line makes perfect sense:

“You trusted me with your childhood, won’t you trust me with your future?”

He probably does honestly care about what happens, and he’s not trying to maliciously brainwash children with Jesus. It’s far more likely that someone else convinced him that he’s the person perfect for saving “lost” young people, given that many of them trusted him as children. He’s obviously the best person to show them Pure and Good content, away from the “poisonous” aspects of mainstream media.

Butch Hartman isn’t a demon. He’s not evil. He’s not... Trump, or anything like that. He’s a naive man with very little actual understanding of how the world works, who believes that he’s helping. 

Which is not to say he’s perfect at all. He’s made lots of mistakes, and he’ll continue to make them. 

I just seriously doubt he’s actually the “mastermind” behind this whole operation. He’s little more than a figurehead, probably. And from how he’s acted in the past, he seems to crave the attention and trust of young people. He needs to be someone important to them.

And the worst part of all this might be that he’s not going to get out of this without a disaster. I pity the guy, as much of a mess as all of this already is.

You don’t get out of this kind of position unless it falls out from under you. And when you fully believe and trust in what you’re doing, you’re not prepared for the fall. 

You hit the ground hard.

~Ren

[monotype-on-phantom]

Do you think Kindred Spirits should've been the season 1 finale? Bitter Reunions, Shades of Gray and Maternal Instict are all set up to Kindred Spirits. Having the episode just be part of season 2 makes no sense. Especially since in season 2 Vlad doesn't really seem to care about having Danny as a son anymore. (That being said The Million Dollar Ghost should've been an Season 2 episode)

I absolutely do not think that, no. Sorry, but there are a number of reasons I think that would’ve been a terrible season 1 finale. Do those episodes contain some setup for Kindred Spirits? Yes, but moving the payoff for that to as early as the season 1 finale would’ve been hella rushed.

For one thing, Valerie’s character already gets the short end of the stick. Shades of Grey and Life Lessons are the only episodes in season 1 that dedicate any time to her at all. I’m not talking about solely episodes that focused on her. These are the only episodes that feature her at all aside from the time she spent as a background character before Shades of Grey. Valerie needs more attention prior to Kindred Spirits because a) that increases the emotional impact of the revelation that Valerie was being used to monitor Danny and b) she is extremely relevant in literally Danielle’s only other episode.

I will begrudgingly admit, Valerie’s kind of a minor point here, but I’m starting with her because she’s one of the characters who would suffer the least for this change.

You could make the argument that moving Kindred Spirits would do something for the plot, but it would destroy Danny as a character. Kindred Spirits taking place that early would see us missing such important development episodes for Danny as: Pirate Radio, Reign Storm, The Ultimate Enemy, Secret Weapons, Flirting With Disaster, and Masters of All Time. Season 1 Danny is still public enemy #1. He hasn’t worked out a lot of his self-loathing or character flaws. He’s still not that great at controlling his powers (and he doesn’t have the ghostly wail, which makes a significant appearance in Kindred Spirits). He hasn’t had the opportunity to mend his familial relationships. He’s met only two ghosts that weren’t enemies (one of which was a very minor character and the other started as an enemy).

While I love Danny, his development in season 1 wouldn’t have left him with much reason to give a single solitary shit about Danielle. He still sees basically all ghosts as evil. He hasn’t had his values challenged much. He’s still more of a fight first talk later kind of kid. Valerie was willing to let Danielle die at first because she was part ghost, and it took Danny some pushing to get her to realize she’d be helping to kill a human girl as well. For Danny, who grew up having it drilled into his head that all ghosts are evil, it’s easy to see why he’d have a similar mentality. He doesn’t even value himself all that much.

Kindred Spirits is originally toward the end of season 2. By then, Danny’s seen how complex ghosts can be. He’s seen that morality isn’t black and white. He’s seen himself go off the deep end. He’s seen Vlad could be redeemed. He’s managed to make friends out of enemies. He’s even fought alongside some of this greatest enemies. He’s grown a lot, and his ability to see Danielle as a person and even accept her as family is a great way to showcase that.

Now let’s talk about Vlad. If we go with your idea of moving Kindred Spirits to the end of season 1 and The Million Dollar Ghost into season 2, that gives us exactly two episodes before Kindred Spirits where Vlad is the main antagonist. People often cite Kindred Spirits as Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon, which I completely agree with. He plans to kill Danny, experiments on and clones him, treats Danielle as a pawn even though she truly loved him as her father, and falls so far into his delusions that he’s essentially replacing Maddie with a hologram and Danny with a clone.

That wouldn’t have any impact if the only episodes we’d spent with him before that were two where his obsession with Maddie is the entire focus of his character. The Million Dollar Ghost needs to be before Kindred Spirits because in this instance, he’s still trying to turn Danny against Jack. He hasn’t given up on making him his son yet. Reign Storm is important because it shows just how manipulative Vlad can be and hints at his greater plans, and it even shows Vlad helping Danny and saving his life. While I have my issues with The Ultimate Enemy, that episode is crucial because it shows that Vlad isn’t completely irredeemable. In a sense, having Kindred Spirits take place after The Ultimate Enemy is a good way of showing contrast. The only way Vlad can be good is if Danny isn’t, and vice versa. It’s also significant to have Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon take place after we’ve seen a world where Vlad was able to realize his mistakes.

I’m also going to throw Secret Weapons in here as an important episode, because that could easily be the last straw for him. Jazz isn’t as important to Vlad as Danny and Maddie, but she’s still Maddie’s child. He was overjoyed at the idea that Jazz abandoned Jack for him, and was willing to adopt her on the spot. Once even Jazz has rejected him and called him a fruit loop to his face, going to such drastic lengths as cloning Danny seems logical for Vlad, especially since we’ve spent so much time getting to know him.

Throwing Danielle in there so early would’ve also been a mistake, unless you planned to rewrite the entire rest of the show so that it included her.

Personally, I would’ve made Reign Storm the season 1 finale. To begin with, it’s the first two part episode, so it’s got the right feel for a season finale. It has the greatest stakes out of any episode up until that point. It’s got almost all the characters from past episodes returning to play at least a small part in the story. It gives significant development to multiple important characters.

Most importantly, it follows up on so much more than just Vlad’s obsession with Danny and experiments. It continues Valerie’s story arc. It gives Vlad more development and shows that there’s more going on with him than just being a creep. It addresses the development Danny, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker have gone through up to that point. The inclusion of Jazz is especially significant.

It’s also the episode where Danny is publicly acknowledged as a hero. His status as public enemy #1 was far more significant in the first season than Vlad was, especially if you only included two episodes in that season where Vlad was the main antagonist. Even when it’s not the main focus, Danny’s bad reputation is addressed in several episodes. I could easily argue that nearly half the episodes of season 1 are at least partially about that.

For my part, I’d much rather have Kindred Spirits show up late in the timeline, when other things have been resolved and the characters have been given enough time for it to pack a punch.

Besides, after episodes like Lucky in Love, Teacher of the Year, and friggin’ Attack of the Killer Garage Sale, Kindred Spirits would’ve felt like a really weird sudden shift in tone. It could be worse, of course. The Ultimate Enemy would’ve made a much more garbage season finale in this respect, but Reign Storm has a good enough balance of fun and intense while not having too much there that can genuinely disturb someone. The image of the melty clone’s eye falling out and dissolving on the floor might be too intense for this early in the show.

You’re more than welcome to disagree, but I can’t see any real benefit to making Kindred Spirits the season 1 finale.

Also, I apologize for the lack of images in this post. I didn’t really have the energy to go get a bunch from all over the course of two seasons.

[thesoulspulse]

Good Vlad AU (Befriending A Fruitloop)

This post is dedicated to @whittacre​ because their tags were just so enthusiastic I had to address them! Besides I’m going to get into talking about this stuff soon anyway since I plan to go over all the episodes that relate to Vlad in some way to see which events I can still fit into my Good Vlad AU and which ones I can’t. But for now I can give a basic overview of some of the headcanons some friends from the other Danny Phantom artist server I’m in helped me come up with!

So first of all, there’s something about my Good Vlad you should know. He may not be a straight up villain like the canon version, but he’s still Vlad where it counts. For example, he’s still a cunning businessman no one wants to mess with in the business world. And he still has the regal charm to him I admired when we first saw him in Bitter Reunions but also a bit of a childish side, the only thing that’s different is that Vlad’s teasing doesn’t have that cruel edge to it when it comes to Jack and Danny. You’d better believe he’ll troll his enemies like there’s no tomorrow though! And sometimes Vlad still does things just because he can since he didn’t have anyone there to tell him it’s wrong or he does it purely out of habit like using his powers freely behind closed doors for the most mundane things. As a result, it’s actually Danny that has to help reign him in before he goes a bit too far...

But that doesn’t stop Vlad from being overprotective of his little badger. Translation, Vlad’s not above smiling in a sickeningly sweet way while making calm threats to anyone who insults Danny in front of him with the silent promise of making their lives/afterlives a living hell. And if they seriously injure Danny, Vlad will show no mercy. This stems from his fear of losing the few important people he has left in his life, Danny being the most important to him now since he’s basically adopted him as his own and no one can tell him otherwise.

To put it simply, Good Vlad is like this:

Now then, onto the next tag! Basically, if you’ve read my headcanon so far for this au in my other posts “Regarding My Good Vlad AU” part 1 & 2 then you already know this version of Vlad made Valerie a ghost hunter to help Danny instead of spy on him (though it’s entirely possible he probably still does like to keep tabs on him just in case something comes along he can’t handle alone.) And Vlad’s the one who freed Danny from Freakshow’s mind control since Sam and Tucker didn’t make it onto the train in time and he had to rescue them from the fall first.

So on that note, let’s start with how Danny’s friends react to Good Vlad shall we...?

Obviously Sam and Tucker would be weirded out by this guy they barely know that seems a bit possessive and overprotective Danny even though they’ve only met once regardless of the fact he did rush to their rescue all the way from Wisconsin. And they’d probably be annoyed with Danny for trusting him so easily since they think there's something sketchy about Vlad at first, but eventually they warm up to him. Especially after Vlad shares more about himself like how he’s an avid supporter of animal rescue and things like that. Not to mention he’s prepared to supply them with top of the line ghost hunting technology should they ever need it as a show of support.

Unlike canon Vlad, this version for the most part is a pretty friendly person and isn’t against winning Danny’s friends over with expensive gifts or extra charitable acts to show them he’s a good guy. To tell you the truth, I’m surprised he never tried to do that in the show. As in giving Danny tons of NASA stuff and not making it so obvious he’s behind certain schemes to gradually manipulate him into getting to a point where he HAS to ask for help with his ghost problems. I know that’s a bit off topic but at least Good Vlad does this kind of thing because he wants Danny’s friends and family to like him too or at least have no reason to turn Danny against him.

It takes a while, but eventually Sam and Tucker get over their initial reaction and finally admit to themselves that Danny really does need Vlad’s support because there’s only so much they can do to help him since they’re human and just teenagers too. And as much as Danny loves his parents, they’re not exactly the most supportive people in his life thanks to how busy they are with their inventions and ghost research. In fact, while Danny’s out of ear shot maybe Tucker gathers the courage to ask Vlad if maybe he could do something about that too, about Danny’s parents so they’ll stop putting as much pressure on him and ease up on making so many nasty weapons that could really hurt Danny. Vlad agrees since he’s planning to move to Amity Park anyway, but that will take time so the most he can do for Danny now is offer emotional support or in an emergency he can offer Danny backup by teleporting here like he did when Freakshow almost successfully abducted and brainwashed Danny with a ghost controlling relic.

Alright, next up we’re going to talk about Jazz because whittacre has a point since technically Jazz didn’t learn Danny’s secret until AFTER the reunion so that gives me a lot to think about. My guess is that maybe Jazz gets fed up with their parents making Danny’s sudden depression worst once Spectra gets her claws in him and calls “Uncle Vlad” to ask him for some advice about it since he’s probably the only person that can related to Danny since they both had an accident with a ghost portal. Strangely enough, it occurs to Vlad that out of all the people in Danny’s life his sister seems like the most trustworthy as well so he gives her the advice she asks for and then begins to seriously consider telling her Danny’s half-ghost with his permission because at least with her around Danny would have someone to support him at home since Vlad can’t be with him 24/7.

However, sadly Vlad doesn’t find out until after the fact that Spectra was the supernatural cause of Danny’s sudden depression so he only ends up helping him through his sister which results in her finding out his secret just like in My Brother’s Keeper after being a bit too pushy about Danny opening up about his feelings. She’s still oblivious about Vlad's secret at this point, but they start talking pretty regularly as part of a team effort to help Danny thrive and gain more confidence. They’ll probably tell her about Vlad’s secret too before long but until then it’s kind of a running gag that they still have to hide his ghost powers from her too whenever he drops by to visit Danny or their parents and forgets to use the door like a normal person.

Onto our next point, there’s Valerie which I’ll keep short and sweet for now. Vlad discovered her potential as a hunter while checking in on Danny and steps in to make sure she doesn’t misplace the blame on him for all of the things that Cujo did. In fact, he does some digging and provides her with proof that Cujo was once a security dog at Axion Labs where her dad works that was put down which puts things in perspective for her early on. Valerie still thinks ghosts are dangerous, but when she starts hunting them it’s not all about her personal vendetta, it’s about making sure ghosts won’t be able to ruin anyone else’s lives like Cujo did since her dad still had to get a new job and move despite Vlad’s intervention. Again, Vlad cares more about what she can do for him and Danny than about fixing her personal problems which is a bit cold but like I said as good as this Vlad is he’s no saint...

Lastly, there’s the cloning tags. Oh boy that’s a tough one! Honestly I don’t think this version of Vlad would ever feel the need to resort to cloning since he already has Danny on his side so to speak which removes those feelings of desperation he had when the original Vlad did it. Even if this Vlad still wants a family of his own and is sad whenever he realizes Danny can never completely be his, he would never risk alienating Danny by breaking his trust like to steal his DNA to make an entirely new halfa. I suppose Vlad could try cloning himself instead, but that would also be way too over the top for my Good Vlad AU. And so, sadly, I can’t think of a believable way to bring Danielle into this au.

Truthfully it would be more realistic for this version of Vlad to consider adopting someone into the Master’s family instead (either a ghost or human since he’s not about to recreate the accident just to have a son or daughter with powers.) Or OOO, what if my Good Vlad has a special ‘episode’ where Danny has to go save HIM this time from a ghost who cast a spell on Vlad to make him believe they’re his only child in order to gain access to his vast wealth, power, and/or his collection of rare magical/ghostly artifacts? And since they have some control over Vlad, this ghost child convinces him attack Danny which results in a very emotionally-loaded fight where he really has to use every trick Vlad’s taught him since they started training together against him to snap that fruitloop out of it. Just a thought to close things off!

Hope that gives you an idea about some of the changes in this au! Some of these ideas might change later if I come up with better ones though, just warning you in advance since this au is still a work in progress!

[monotype-on-phantom]

Prisoners of Love Discussion Part 1: The Dysfunctional Fenton Family

Oh boy. This episode ended up being bigger than I realized. It was the first time Danny went into the ghost portal as well as the first time the trio explored the ghost zone, it saw the return of every antagonist from the previous episodes except Poindexter and Vlad, and it introduced a lot of things that would or could come into play later. I’ll admit I have some mixed feelings about it, but that just gives me even more to say about it.

So, I’ll just be breaking my thoughts into parts, and since I just finished my first lengthy post about Jazz, I think I should talk about the Fentons.

Plus bonus Aunt Alicia, I guess.

First, I’d like to say that I’m not one of those people who think of Jack and Maddie as abusive. At all. They’re extremely flawed, yes, but they truly love their kids and do try to do their best for them. In fact, it seems like the Fentons weren’t always quite such a mess.

In My Brother’s Keeper, Jazz mentions that she and Danny were actually pretty close when they were younger. Maddie also mentions how Danny used to be her little mama’s boy, and while Jack doesn’t reminisce in the same way, episodes like Million Dollar Ghost show that his family does come first in his heart.

However, this episode in particular really addresses how far apart they’ve managed to drift.

For starters, we have the obvious one. Jack. While he’s ultimately a kind and cheerful man, his obsession with ghost hunting causes a ton of problems for his family. He easily gets distracted and forgets about important things. He can get so excited that he talks over or flat out ignores his family when they’re talking to him, and he’s carelessly tossed Danny about a few times. He clearly means no harm, and in the episodes where he gets to bond with his kids, he does show how much he really does care for them. His obsession makes him incredibly absentminded and even a touch neglectful, though.

Maddie has this problem as well, though she’s better about managing it for the most part. However, there’s another problem that she has. Despite being a mostly logical woman, Maddie’s emotions and biases can get in the way. Here, she’s so busy being mad at Jack that she doesn’t even notice that she accidentally launched her baby boy into the ghost zone. He was luckily able to get out quickly, but he could’ve easily been hurt, and Maddie never even noticed it happened. This is also evident in Girls Night Out (a flawed episode with some good moments), when her first instinct upon hearing about a ghost attack is to attack them and splatter them everywhere, despite the fact that doing so would definitely not bring the men of the town back. A lot of the time, Maddie is able to stay more calm and be concerned about her children, but when something catches her attention and brings out her emotional side, she can act rashly (like when she vaulted over Danny in My Brother’s Keeper when moments before she’d been concerned about him.)

Jazz, for all that I love her, definitely has some issues, too. She’s a busybody and a bit of a know-it-all. In this episode, Danny actually does turn to her because he’s afraid that their parents are going to split up, but she doesn’t even notice because she’s so focused on the fact that she was wrong about their dad. It’s definitely more unusual for her, but she becomes so focused on this fact that she actually forgets about Danny, who is usually her top priority. Her belief that she knows best does cause problems elsewhere, too, such as in The Fenton Menace, where she refuses to listen to Danny and takes it upon herself to keep him safe from what she believes are his own delusions. She basically has the opposite problem as Maddie, where her logical side can get in the way of her emotions.

And then there’s Danny, who is, quite often, a complete nervous wreck who puts way too much pressure on himself and blows things out of proportion so that he feels like the world is crashing down on him. It’s understandable that he feels this way, given everything he goes through, but sometimes his stress really is caused primarily by himself. In this episode, he hears his parents fighting and manages to convince himself that his parents are going to get divorced and it’s all his fault. As a result, he starts obsessively cleaning the house and he goes into the ghost zone to get the present his dad got for his mom back. He rarely pushes his problems onto his family, but he does pile responsibility onto himself until he cracks, and he has trouble asking people for help aside from Sam and Tucker.

This might sound like I’m trash talking the Fenton family, but I’m actually not. I think this is one of the things the show did really well. The Fenton family is a mess. They all love each other, but they are a mess, and things often get messier before they get better.

But they do get better.

Maternal Instinct has Danny bonding with his mother (and Jazz with her ghost-obsessed father) and slowly learning to trust her again after the events of previous episodes. Million Dollar Ghost shows Danny just how much the family means to Jack, to the point where he doesn’t even want to hunt ghosts anymore after feeling like he’s lost Danny’s respect, as well as when he’s willing to let Danny Phantom go in order to save his family. And, of course, Jazz and Danny have multiple episodes where they grow closer and learn to trust each other until she becomes a reserve part of the team.

All of this builds up to a wonderful resolution in Reality Trip, where the Fentons all talk to each other and it’s established that, no matter what, Jack and Maddie love their kids, and they realize they messed up. Sure, this is undone, but ignoring that, this really is a great buildup and resolution. Really, while season three still has Jack and Maddie talking about destroying ghosts, there really isn’t as much tension between them. Danny’s totally happy to go on a fishing trip with his dad, and they actually have a good time despite the ghosts, and Jazz is able to turn to Maddie for help in fighting ghosts. I’d do things differently if I could (basically, I would not have Danny erase his parents’ memories), but as things are, I think this aspect of the show was handled fairly well.

The Fentons are a very dysfunctional family, yes, but they’re also a very loving one.