History Fridge / DannyPhantom

* In WesternAnimation/RealityTrip, the trio heads to Goth-A-Palooza only to find that it's been turned into a [[TastesLikeDiabetes teddy bear land]] due to the influence of the [[{{MacGuffin}} Gem of Form]]. Sam rips a teddy's head off out of frustration. Once the gem is removed from the area, the teddy bears turn back into goth people. ''Doesn't that mean that Sam decapitated an innocent person offscreen?''

** Additionally, Poindexter is a HollywoodNerd. Loving fantasy, dragons, and princesses is all part of the stereotype package.

* Vlad's VillainDecay in Season 3 has some pretty dark undertones when you remember what happened in his last appearance in Season Two: ''his son'' (well, the clone of a boy he wants as his son and probably ''considers'' his son) ''[[AdultFear disintegrated right in front of his eyes, and he was helpless to stop it]].'' And it was ''technically Danny's fault.'' He's probably suffering PTSD and wants Danny [[RevengeBeforeReason deader than dead]] as a result.

* Upon watching "Eye for an Eye", I at first thought that Vlad's character had been completely derailed, going from a rather sympathetic character with questionable methods to just plain being a {{Jerkass}}. The one-uppance of the whole episode left a bad taste in my mouth, thinking that Vlad had lost his finesse and hit an all-time low in playing pranks. But, that was before I rewatched most of season 2 and "Kindred Spirits". I realized that Vlad's obsession with having Danny as a son took him to all-new levels in his behavior, and when Danny destroyed his clones and his lab, he [[VillainousBreakdown blew a gasket]]. After that, I could ''easily'' see how Danny became less of a "son he never had" and became more of an enemy he just wanted to ruin and make miserable. - @/CaptainPlanette
** After watching "Kindred Spirits" and season three I'm convinced Vlad was having his villainous breakdown during "Kindred Spirits". He's stopped being friendly to Danny, and trying to win him over. By this point it's becoming increasingly clear he has no chance with Maddie. Every Member of the Fenton Family has defeated him at some point. By the end of "Kindred Spirits" his clone project is destroyed, his most successful clone hates him, and his Maddie program loves the Jack program. Vlad is left realizing he has failed to attain all the things he really wanted (Maddie's love, Danny as a son, Destroying Jack, Buying the Packers...) and is desperately looking for new goals and purpose. He's in the aftermath of his actual Villainous Breakdown, and is a shell of what he was.

* It always bugged me that The Nasty Burger sponsored Sam and Tucker's pirate radio in the episode of the same name, but it just hit me: all the adults were missing! It was probably an indifferent or irresponsible teenage employee who suddenly found himself with control over the whole place and made the decision to sponsor them, perhaps just for kicks. - Mazz
* In his first appearance, Vlad Plasmius basically mops the floor with Danny, displaying not just more raw power then the young hero, but also a wider range of powers as well, justifying it as him having "Years of Experience". However, from Season 2 onward, the battles between Vlad and Danny become much more even, culminating in "Masters of All Time", where Team Phantom chases Vlad throughout history, with Danny fighting the villain on a more even footing. How did Danny close the gap in terms of power and skill so fast? Consider Vlad's personality. He's a SmugSnake who prefers manipulating people to direct confrontation, and who only fights when he's stacked the deck in his favor. It's actually taken him years to gain that much experience using his powers. Danny, on the other hand, is constantly jumping head-first into almost hopeless fights to try and protect innocent people, and thus having to improvise while in combat. He's effectively been LevelGrinding, getting in "years of experience" in a shorter amount of time then Vlad took. - lonewolf23k

*** Not only that but think about the differences in the way they got their powers. Vlad was shot in the face and only in the face by a massive release of ectoplasmic energy and it took 5 years to become a complete hybrid. Danny on the other hand, had his entire body in the ghost portal when it fired up and became a ghost hybrid instantly. By sheer raw power Danny would have the advantage, and that isn't even going into all of the different possible implications and lingering effects of the idea that his soul had been telefraged between the ghost zone and the real world, then reconnected during the incident.

*** As well, we shouldn't forget the difference in the uses of these powers. Vlad has focused on abilities which allow him to acquire wealth and manipulate others, such as his shadow clone, overshadowing, teleportation and powerful duplication. Danny has been focused almost solely on his combat stats. It may have taken Vlad years to acquire this level of powers, but that's because Vlad is essentially playing as a rogue, while Danny is a Barbarian. Entirely different focusses.

* I was just watching TUE again, and I saw a pattern in Dark Danny's chaos. Ember's a singer, so he destroys her vocal cords. Johnny Thirteen is a motorbiker rider, so Dark Danny cripples him. Box ghost? Nothing, or so it seems. But then one remembers he and Lunch Lady had a daughter, and [[TheLostLenore Lunch Lady]] is nowhere to be seen. The kicker is with Vlad, truly alone, truly powerless and [[ItsAllMyFault solely at fault]] for creating this monster, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished all in a genuine effort to help the boy he wanted as a son]]. Dan Phantom was going for extremely cruel {{Irony}}.

** In keeping with his "If I can't be happy no one can" M.O., one notices something interesting about the dramatic scene where Jazz exposes Dan Phantom before their parents. His revealing he ''is'' the Fentons' son isn't just for the [[PlayedForDrama drama]] of his parents finally learning the truth. Like with everyone he meets, he's twisting the knife for his family, by showing them that he's not only the very thing they were trying to hunt (a ghost), but [[KickTheDog spiting]] them with the fact he's become an ''[[UpToEleven evil]]'' ghost. What's more, he's trying to make his parents' last moments be fraught with this troubling thought.

* Why is The Box ghost ten years later so much more powerful? Well he didn't get Pandora's box until after the Nasty burger incident so in this timeline nobody stopped him when he stole it that time.
** Another possibility for why the Box Ghost has bulked up so much. If the above theory about what happened to the Lunch Lady is accurate, Box Ghost would have lost his wife, and probably would have blamed himself for being too weak to stop it. And of course he'd want to be stronger so he could protect his daughter.

** And in the finale, it must've shocked Jack to know his worst fears were right (that Vlad still hated him), but that his friend was ''actively retaliating'' him. But what really hits home is, their final conversation up in space was one in which they finally brought up the issue that had festered beneath the surface for so long. Jack brought up their previous friendship as a show that all his efforts to make amends were to return to the friendship they once knew. And hearing Vlad reciprocate it with spite was the wake-up call he needed to realize "Vladdy" was dead, and Vlad Plasmius was nothing but his ghost.

* It's commented on the Awesome Moments page that, on a meta-level, Danny's Ghostly Wail power is the ''first'' ghost power. A little more thought makes this true in a very real-world, literal sense. How many spirits in mythology have some kind of wail or other vocal power? The Ghostly Wail isn't just a call back to ghosts going "[=OoooOOOOoooh=]", but a call back to the ghosts and spirits of myth.

** Well, who's to say everyone becomes a ghost when they die? All the ghosts seem to be troubled or have had horrid deaths so maybe they're going with the concept that people with baggage become ghosts, until they deal with their issues at least, while everyone else goes to a normal afterlife (or becomes reincarnated). It still means the Men In White are planning to murde people but they're not deleting the afterlife at least.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpnBYCR6-d4 Confirmed: the Ghost Zone is purgatory]]! The DP-verse equivalents of Heaven and Hell are called The Elsewhereness and the Unworld, respectively, and the Unworld is also where souls go who are forgotten. [[WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife Sound familiar, anyone]]?

* This troper realized something that puts a whole new terrifying spin on Spectra that I'm honestly shocked hasn't been brought up yet. Spectra being a psychiatrist going from school to school deliberately picking at teenagers personal issues has a lot of dark places one could go to especially since her plan involving Jazz (which was straight up murder all to crush everyone's spirit) raises some very dark possibilities. What do many teenagers sometimes do when they can't escape their misery? This brings up an even more horrifying question: what if the teenager Spectra is tearing away at has a fear of their family not loving them, or their friends not caring? Picture it: Spectra convincing someone no one loves them. How many suicides did Spectra likely cause and not just cause but revel in? I think we might have another candidate for complete monster in this show.

* It occurs to one, [[FridgeLogic how can Dan Phantom still have a default human form if he literally killed his humanity years ago]]? At first, it seems like a plot hole that only serves to give Dan Phantom an excuse to be able to disguise himself as his past self. Until you remember one of the things about what makes ghosts: they are, well, ghosts of who they were in life. They embody what they looked like when they were alive. Naturally, Dan Phantom is the ghost of young Danny Fenton.

* It's ironic when you consider Danny and Vlad's respective secret identities and alter-egos. Their ghost forms are their ''true selves'', whilst their human forms are the real ghosts of who they used to be (or pretend to be). Danny Fenton is the ghost of a lazy, selfish, immature kid. Vlad Masters is the ghost of a mild-mannered, gentlemanly, [[FromNobodyToNightmare harmless]] millionaire.

* It's commented on the Awesome Moments page that, on a meta-level, Danny's Ghostly Wail power is the ''first'' ghost power. A little more thought makes this true in a very real-world, literal sense. How many spirits in mythology have some kind of wail or other vocal power? The Ghostly Wail isn't just a call back to ghosts going "OoooOOOOoooh", but a call back to the ghosts and spirits of myth.

* Bit of a meta example, but Skulker’s [[TheOtherDarrin voice changing]] after his first 3 appearances[[note]]From Matthew St. Patrick to Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson[[/note]] can actually be explained easily in-universe; Skulker most likely upgraded the voice on his exo-suit into a BadassBaritone to make himself more intimidating.

*** Given that Butch's statement is basically the Western Animation equiv of Ash still being 10, most would just ignore that and that was just Butch's Christianity getting in the way of continuity.

** Given that Butch's statement is basically the Western Animation equiv of Ash still being 10, most would just ignore that and that was just Butch's Christianity getting in the way of continuity.

** [[OverlyLongGag Given that Butch's statement is basically the Western Animation equiv of Ash still being 10, most would just ignore that and that was just Butch's Christianity getting in the way of continuity.]]

* I was just watching TUE again, and I saw a pattern in Dark Danny's chaos. Ember's a singer, so he destroys her vocal cords. Johnny Thirteen is a motorbiker rider, so Dark Danny cripples him. Box ghost? Nothing, or so it seems. But then one remembers he and Lunch Lady had a daughter, and [[TheLostLenore Lunch Lady]] is nowhere to be seen. The kicker is with Vlad, truly alone, truly powerless and [[AllMyFault solely at fault]] for creating this monster, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished all in a genuine effort to help the boy he wanted as a son]]. Dan Phantom was going for extremely cruel {{Irony}}.

* When I was a new fan of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' years back, I had an irritating dislike for the main character of Danny because for every lesson and moral he learned, he almost never seemed to grow up... or so I thought. The more I got used to this show's rather excellent CharacterDevelopment, the more I saw Danny was indeed maturing and developing his personality. Sure, the writing can be lax on this at certain parts, but they've relatively kept it going at a good pace. He's such a different person by the last season than he was at the beginning and I've come to enjoy his presence. --@/NeoYi

* This troper realized something that puts a whole new terrifying spin on Spectra that I'm honestly shocked hasn't been brought up yet. Spectra being a psychiatrist going from school to school deliberately picking at teenagers personal issues has a lot of dark places one could go to especially since her plan involving jazz (which was straight up murder all to crush everyone's spirit) raises some very dark possibilities. What do many teenagers sometimes do when they can't escape their misery? This brings up an even more horrifying question: what if the teenager Spectra is tearing away at has a fear of their family not loving them, or their friends not caring? Picture it: Spectra convincing someone no one loves them. How many suicides did Spectra likely cause and not just cause but revel in? I think we might have another candidate for complete monster in this show.

* I was just watching TUE again, and I saw a pattern in Dark Danny's chaos. Ember's a singer, so he destroys her vocal cords. Johnny Thirteen is a motorbiker rider, so Dark Danny cripples him. Box ghost, nothing without realizing he and Lunch Lady had a daughter, and Lunch Lady is nowhere to be seen. The kicker is with Vlad, truly alone, truly powerless and helped create the monster to help the kid he wants as a son. Dan Phantom was going for extremely cruel {{Irony}}.

*** There's fanfiction of her possible death ([[https://archiveofourown.org/works/749225?view_adult=true Warning: Very Dark]])