Fanfic / Danny Phantom: Staged

Staged is the 16th story in Stranded. Danny and Star get lead roles in a school play.

Tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Jean-Luc becomes this to Solene for his sleazy, womanizing personality. She's relieved when she finds out he won't join the families for a celebratory dinner.
  • Downplayed but Jazz doesn't appreciate Puck hitting on her, especially since he's WAY older than her.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Sam and Johnathan laugh when Puck turns Paulina and Jean-Luc into a toad and skunk, respectively.
• All Men Are Perverts: Tucker actually enjoys the Forceful Kiss Colette gives him.
• Betrayal by Inaction: Star explains to Danny that her cousin holds it against her because she refused to defend him from the A-Listers back when they pulled a nasty prank on him and his school.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Danny’s willing to punch Chris in the nose to protect Star when her cousin falsely accuses her of causing trouble. Star even informs Chris that he’s lucky Danny was holding back.
• Big Sister Instinct: Of a cousin variety but Star isn’t happy about Danny hitting Chris in the nose even if it was in her defense and promises to have a talk with him about it.
• Brutal Honesty: Jack and Solene are very vocal about their hatred of Jean-Luc, as Jack insultingly calls him "Jean-Puke" while Solene openly describes him as sleazy.
• Casanova Wannabe: Jean-Luc's flirting with Solene only makes her realize he's every bit the womanizing slimeball Johnathan warned her about.
• Curse Cut Short: Sam is close to calling Dash a "jackass" but is stopped by Lancer's presence. She claims she meant "jock", but he obviously doesn't believe her and silently warns he'll be watching.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Several students are disappointed by the fact Puck only pulled his pranks for fun.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Subverted with Star as Christopher refuses to forgive her for ditching him to be with the A-Listers despite her clear remorse and having since left them. With some help from Puck though, he comes to realize that there's no point in holding a grudge against Star anymore, especially after he witnesses her save a classmate's life, proving she has indeed become a better person. Chris finally accepts Star's apology and begins reconnecting with her.
  • Downplayed with Danny, as it's not so much as Chris forgives Danny for punching him in the nose as he's willing to form a truce with him, accepting that Danny was trying to defend Star.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Christopher was horrified and insulted when Star chose to not back him up after the A-Listers did their cruel prank.
• Everyone Has Standards: Star doesn’t approve of Danny punching Chris in the nose even if it was to defend her and promises to talk to him about it.
• Expy: As brought up by Flower Princess11, Puck is based heavily on his depiction from Gargoyles based on suggestions by NeoMark.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Lancer refuses to let Colette buy the role of Hermia since he takes his job as stage director super seriously.
  • Danny might hate Colette and want her out of his life, but he doesn't want her dead, as he's willing to save her from what he thinks is a wild animal.
  • Solene is a nice lady but instantly despises Jean-Luc for being a shameless skirt-chaser who flirts with her despite him already being married to Stella and her in a committed relationship.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Averted with Puck. He's old enough to have met and befriended William Shakespeare but has visited the mortal realm often enough to keep up with modern trends.
• First Kiss: Puck sends a depowered Vlad to Alicia's cabin, and the enamored woman proceeds to shower him with unwanted kisses and affection. Vlad even admits it was his first kiss ever.
• Forceful Kiss: Colette gives one to Tucker when Puck tricks her into thinking he's Danny. Much to the exasperation of Team Phantom, he actually liked it.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Puck spends some time using his powers to prank Christopher, and calls him out without revealing himself on how he doesn't have the moral high ground with Star. He overheard Star's talk with Danny on what happened between her and Christopher that soured their relationship. Puck makes it clear to Star that while that might have been valid reason for Christopher to act hostile towards her, she's clearly a changed person who is struggling to redeem herself and his attitude is no longer justified.
• Good Is Not Soft: Danny punches Chris in the nose for accusing Star of pranking him and refusing to listen to reason. Deconstructed since this gets him into trouble with Star and with Chris' mother Claire Morgan.
• Gotta Pass the Class: Danny becomes upset after getting a C on a test because his parents threatened not to let him go to the upcoming space convention if he got lower than a B again. The only reason that he joins the school play is that Mr. Lancer promised to give a 10% extra credit bonus to those who had roles, which would raise Danny's grade to where he needs it to be order to go to the convention.
• Hate at First Sight: Solene loathes Jean-Luc immediately upon meeting him at the school play because of Johnathan's unflattering stories about him and his shameless flirting with her. She doesn't hide her relief that Jean-Luc isn't joining the families for dinner.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Spike Johnson reveals he has been going to theater camp since 6th grade and is an amazing enough actor to get the role of Egeus in Lancer's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
  • Kwan, Colette, and Michelle turn out to be decent enough actors to be cast as Demetrius, Hermia's (Star's) understudy, and Helena respectively.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Dash and Paulina arrogantly believed they would get the lead roles of Lysander and Hermia, respectively, but completely flopped their auditions:
  • Dash can't fully pronounce a single line and doesn't even know what "thou" means. Lancer only gives Dash the role of Nick Bottom in the hopes of making him improve since he'd be forced to actually learn more about the play if he wants extra credit.
  • For her audition, Paulina does a cheerleading routine while reciting a quote from Hamlet, the wrong Shakespeare play. Unlike with Dash, Lancer doesn't bother to give her any role because she was just that bad.
• Hopeless Suitor: Jean-Luc doesn't have a chance with Solene, who hates his guts.
• I Gave My Word: Puck is not allowed to use magic to kill anyone as he gave his word to Titania.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Dash and Paulina are this even more than usual as everyone finds their terrible auditions for Lancer's play to be too torturous to watch. Downplayed in Paulina's case as her audition was so ridiculous and humiliating that everyone found it amusing.
• It Amused Me: Puck's reason to pull his pranks. His respect for Shakespeare is also the reason he didn't disturb the play before Sam's portrayal of Titania insulted him.
• Jerkass Realization: After getting punched by Danny, humiliated by Puck, and seeing Star save an unpopular student, Christopher starts to realize that she's a changed person and he can no longer use his years of resentment to justify his attitude towards her. While they don't fully patch things up, he's at least willing to start over with her.
• Love Potion: Puck reveals that he can make them but doesn't like doing it unless the potions are to punish people who actually deserve it.
• Malicious Misnaming: Jack insults Jean-Luc at the school play by calling him "Jean-Puke" like Star.
• Mama Bear: Claire Morgan is understandably furious at Danny for punching her son Chris in the nose and was prepared to personally deal with him.
• Mistaken for Object of Affection: Puck uses his magic to make Colette think Tucker is Danny, so she gives him a Forceful Kiss on the lips.
• Nice Guy: Spike Johnson turns out to be this. He reveals to Jazz that he does enjoy their therapy sessions as he knows she means well and doesn't mind her venting to him even if she is projecting her own issues onto him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Sam not portrayed Titania in a way that insulted Puck, he wouldn't have done anything during the performance, nor would his antics have escalated to anything worse than what he considers harmless pranks.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: When Jazz asks for help reviewing her old cases, Sam outright says she doesn't want to be a part of Jazz' latest episode. The narrator even recites the trope's name.
• Not Helping Your Case: Chris acknowledges he played a role in Danny striking him in for falsely accusing his girlfriend Star of causing trouble for him.
• Not Me This Time: Colette is blamed for a majority of the pranks that target Star. While she has no problem with Star getting hurt or anything as bad, she admits she was not at fault.
• Pet the Dog: Stella defends Danny when Claire Morgan gets mad at him for punching her son Chris in the nose and convinces her to go easy on him.
• Post-Support Regret:
  • After seeing Dash's and Paulina's atrocious auditions, Mr. Lancer can't help but think that karma has come for allowing them to run rampant with their bullying.
  • Star has come to genuinely hate her actions after joining the A-Listers that destroyed the once close friendship she had with her cousin.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Since Mr. Lancer no longer favors the A-listers (due to Star's threat of a lawsuit), he becomes more strict with them, and it shows during the auditions for the school play. He allows everyone in school the chance to audition, judges each student based on their skills and how well they perform, and assigns roles to those whose talents he believes merit them. He also refuses to favor or be intimidated by Paulina and Colette when they either threaten to sue him or attempt to bribe him to get parts, putting his foot down and threatening to punish them for their actions.
  • Christopher's mother, Claire Morgan, is understandably angry when she finds out Danny gave her son a bruised nose. However, after hearing the full story from him and Star—that Christopher falsely accused Star of causing trouble and Danny lost his temper while defending her due to a misunderstanding—Claire agrees not to press charges and semi-grudgingly accepts their apologies. She also says she will have a word with Christopher, but tells Danny and Star to just come to her the next time they have a problem with her son and warns Danny she'll be keeping an eye on him.
• Regretful Traitor: Star deeply wishes to make up for her actions, but Christopher won't give her the time of day.
• The Reveal: Star reveals what was it that soured things with Christopher. As children, they were best friends and he was like an older brother to her. However, after Star joined the A-listers and adopted their mindset, she chose not to defend him when Dash and the jocks pulled a cruel prank on the Poil Junior High football team and their mascot by dumping meat juice on them before a game (as Christopher attended that school, a friend of his was on the team and his then-girlfriend was the mascot). Christopher tried to call them out for what they did, but the jocks simply brushed him off and messed with him by pouring the rest of the juice on him. Meanwhile, Star acted like she didn't know him due to wanting to fit in with her "friends." Christopher saw this as an act of betrayal and cut all ties with her.
• Save the Jerk: Danny saves Colette from what they think is a wild tiger conjured by Puck that is going to attack her.
• School Play: Danny and Star get lead roles in one of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When Colette offers to bribe Lancer with $500 for the part of Hermia, he instantly refuses because he takes his role as stage director very seriously and refuses to let her buy her way in theater.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Paulina threatens to sic her dad's lawyers on Lancer for not giving her the role of the leading lady Hermia in his play. Subverted as it doesn't work since Lancer points out she has no grounds for suing him.
• Serious Business: Due to Mr. Lancer's love of literature and theater, he takes his job as the director of the school play VERY seriously. He also offers extra credit to students who have roles in the play and chooses them based on their performance. The only exception is Dash, who gave a lousy audition, but Mr. Lancer gave him a part in order to MAKE Dash take the play seriously in the hope that he'll actually learn something about it.
• Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love: Jean-Luc flirts with Solene at the school play because he doesn't think Johnathan deserves such a beautiful woman. The feeling is not mutual as Solene instantly recognizes him for the sleazeball he is and completely hates his guts.
• Shout-Out:
  • To the The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Growing Pains", with Paulina's Hamlet cheerleading audition mirroring Sally Avril's and Dash questioning if his lines are actually English, much like Flash Thompson did.
  • When Star auditions for a role, Colette calls it "ridiculous, utterly ridiculous".
  • Puck says that, while he and his fellow fairies "don't look like the tall fairy girls from Italy", they don't feel insulted by fictional portrayals other than "some green haired idiot obsessing over a nickel".
  • Puck also mentions he watches Star Trek.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The school play is A Midsummer Night's Dream, so this is a given.
• So Bad, It's Good: Unlike with Dash, Paulina's audition was so ridiculously awful that everyone found it at least good for some laughs as comedic relief. It's still SO bad that Lancer won't give her a role.
• Spoiled Brat: Colette and Paulina are this as usual since neither of them take it well that Lancer isn't casting them as Hermia. Paulina even goes as far as protesting the play until Lancer shuts her up by threatening to give her detention.
• Take That!: Cosmo is deemed an insult to real life fairies.
• Underestimating Badassery: Chris isn’t sure why Star insists that Danny is tougher than he looks and that he was lucky her boyfriend was holding back against him.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-Inverted and deconstructed. Danny smacks Chris in the nose in Star’s defense when he falsely accuses his cousin of causing trouble but it gets him into trouble with his girlfriend and Chris’ mom Claire Morgan.
• We Used to Be Friends: Star and Christopher were once as close as siblings, but her choice to fit in with the A-Listers has caused their relationship to sour.
• What Does He See in Her?: Puck wonders what Christopher sees in Sam.
• What Does She See in Him?: When Christopher is still skeptical of Star's reformation, he wonders why she is dating Danny, who's completely unlike her previous traditionally muscular and popular boyfriends.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Both Star and Claire feel that Danny went overboard by punching Chris for Star’s sake.
• Would Rather Suffer: The thought of having to rehearse love scenes with Colette if she becomes his co-star makes Danny miss the ghostly boxing tournament and even hope someone will free the Ghost King again.