Fanfic / Mortified

Mortified (FFN Link) is a Danny Phantom Fan Fic by Marsalias in which Danny's parents, Maddie and Jack, invent a weapon which forces a ghost to relive their death. This causes Danny to accidentally teleport them, Jazz, and his class to his lair for the sake of finding a safe place to recover in. So begins an ever-expanding tale exploring the ever-changing culture of the Infinite Realms and the very nature of being a ghost.

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Tropes found in this work:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Twisted Tower to an extent, although it's mostly subverted by the party-goers. There's even a a laboratory floor where visitors become mad scientists.
• Abandon Ship: After Danny destroys the tiller on Penelope Spectra's ship, sending it hurtling toward an island.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Paulina towards Phantom. Danny's Shadow Mirage attempts to discourage her from pursuing a relationship with Phantom during a game of "statements and truth", to no avail. She does eventually abandon it. By the end, Paulina is dating one of Danny's revived clone brothers, David.
• Above the Gods: Ereshkigal, the consciousness of the Core of the Ghost Zone, is far more powerful than any ghost, even the Ancients.
• Abstract Eater: Danny eating and absorbing powerful ancient artifacts, to the point it becomes a running gag.
• Accidental Kidnapping: Danny accidentally teleports his entire class, including his parents and Mr. Lancer, to his lair after being shot with the Mortifier.
• Adaptation Name Change: Danielle, instead of going by her canonical name of Dani "with an 'i'", instead goes by Ellie to help further differentiate herself from Danny.
• All Myths Are True: It's all but stated that all of the Earth's myths are related to ghosts and the Infinite Realms, via the natural portals between the real world and the Ghost Zone. For example, Ereshkigal, the core of the Ghost Zone, has also been called Hades and Hell, the Ancients were once known as the Anunnaki during the time of Ancient Sumeria, and they were once attacked by a sorceress named Inanna who tried to conquer the Ghost Zone, referencing the famous myth of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna's descent into the underworld.
• Alternate Universe: The Digressed Tower, located in Missing Theory, is a tower where each floor warps reality around the visitor so they match their counterpart in the nearest universe where a change matching the theme of the floor is made. This can be as simple as changing the outcome of every coin flip a visitor has ever made to outright altering their history so they exist in an entirely different time period, with the obvious limitation that the change cannot prevent them from having reached the tower at all. It was originally used for research purposes by the scientific ghosts that created it, but after Theory (the original name of the area) fell apart during the science wars of the fifties and eighties and all the scientists migrated to Method, the place became the ghostly equivalent of a theme park (complete with a casino on one of the upper floors).
• Applied Phlebotinum: Ectoplasm, which is used for anything from an energy drink to a blood substitute to the material the Infinite Realms is made of.
• Anchored Ship: Danny and Sam, who have feelings for each other but aren't together because of their respective increasing number of responsibilities. General agreement is that they'll probably date at some point, either when things finally settle down, or when Sam dies and becomes a ghost.
• Arch-Enemy: All Phantoms are this to Vlad. This includes all of Danny's clones/siblings, who resent Vlad for treating them as expendable, and Dan, who is half-Vlad. When they learn he has to pay child support for all of them, they all relish in it, with Dan even considering going to college just to spite Vlad.
• Arc Villain: Due to Vlad's scheming taking a backseat in favor of being kinda-sorta on the same side of the heroes, there is no central Big Bad, but rather a series of these which each take center stage through different arcs. This includes:
  • The GIW, who take advantage of the disappearance of Danny's class and use it as an opportunity to destroy the Ghost Zone.
  • Issitoq the Watcher, the leader of the Observants who is doing anything and everything to destroy Danny and ensure he doesn't become the Ghost King.
  • Inanna, during Danny's brief foray into the past.
  • Freakshow, who takes over as the main arc villain after Issitoq is killed and the GIW is branded a terrorist organization.
• Atlantis: The Drowned Quarter.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The ghost whale that attacks the Glaciinsulo.
• Automated Automobiles: The self-driving chariots and ships.
• Badass Biker: Johnny 13.
• Badass Bookworm: Fractal, and by extension, Danny.
• Badass Teacher: Mr. Lancer, although subverted by his lack of experience protecting his students from the dangers that arise throughout the work.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The ghost army, headed by Skulker and featuring other notable villains like Johnny 13 and Kitty, Desiree, Walker and his goons, and former Circus Gothica performers, attacking the GIW headquarters.
• Barred from the Afterlife: Despite having the correct mindset and temperament for it, Inanna is left unable to become a ghost and a citizen of the Infinite Realms due to her attempt to conquer the Ghost Zone and claim Ereshkigal, which paved the path for her to be remembered as a mythical goddess instead of an actual person.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: A number of historical figures are revealed to have become ghosts. Danny has two autographed plays from Shakespeare (one of whom he gave to Jazz for her birthday, another that the others think he'll give to Lancer now that his teacher knows the truth) and it's mentioned that Josef Mengele is one of the ghosts who formed in Theory during the science wars and helped send the place to hell.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • Most ghosts have different senses of morality due to their differences from humanity in longevity, durability, and overall behavior. What might be considered a severe punishment for a human will be a slap on the wrist, if not outright inapplicable, to a ghost, and vice versa. There is overlap, of course, due to many ghosts being spirits of the deceased, but still more than enough differences to be a clear division between them.
  • It shows starkly with Vlad. From a human perspective, Vlad would be considered an irredeemable monster. From a ghostly perspective, he's terrible, but still has a chance to turn things around.
• The Chains of Commanding: Principal Ishiyama (who effectively and later officially becomes mayor of Amity Park thanks to Vlad's constant absences) wants to go into the Ghost Zone to reunite with her son Kwan after weeks of separation, but refrains from doing so because Amity Park has looked to her for leadership.
• Character Exaggeration: In-Universe, one side-effect of a human becoming Liminal is that they tend to start develop Obsessions like ghosts.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • When Vlad is speaking to his Advocate Foxglove, he notes that Foxglove wasn't his first choice — he originally intended to contract the services of Hemlock, the best Advocate in all the Infinite Realms, but was rebuffed due to Hemlock already having a client. Hemlock later shows up as Danny's Advocate, and his partner Wolfsbane becomes one of Maddie and Jack's.
  • The GIW team sent to destroy the Core is named Inanna, after the mythical Mesopotamian goddess. Inanna is later revealed to have been a real person, a human sorceress who attempted to conquer the Ghost Zone in ancient times, only to be stopped by the Ancients and a ghost named Neti. She later appears in the flesh after Danny is sent back in time via a natural portal to take up the role of Neti.
  • Neti, the mysterious ghost who aided the Core and the Ancients in defeating Inanna, turns out to be a time-traveling Danny. In fact, helping defeat Inanna is what first drew the Core's attention to him, to the point that Ereshkigal wanted him to stay in the past to become the new Ghost King, and why she ultimately demands he become the Ghost King in the present when they meet again.
• A Child Shall Lead Them:
  • Danny is only sixteen when he's crowned the High King of All Ghosts. It gets worse when you remember that he's basically a toddler as far as ghosts are concerned.
  • Tucker is put in charge of Duulaman's Kemet at the same age as Danny after his liminality increases enough to make him eligible for the throne.
• The Chooser of the One: A candidate for Ghost King or Queen can fulfill all the requirements on the list, but if they do not have the approval of the Core (a.k.a. Ereshkigal), then they do not have "the right to rule". Usually, this is done by completing at least one great deed in service to the Ghost Zone, one that impresses the will of the Core to give their approval. It also works the other way around — the Core can take away the right to rule from a Ghost King or Queen for whatever reason they wish, necessitating a replacement for the throne. Because of this, whenever a new monarch needs to be decided, the Core is usually the one to offer candidates while the Ancients debate over the actual suitability.
• The Chosen One: Ereshkigal, the core of the Ghost Zone itself, chooses Danny to be the new King after he stops the Guys in White from attacking it, and says that any other choice would lead to serious consequences.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Danny, to the point he almost dies (again) multiple times because he can't not help someone due to his Ghostly Obsession for helping people. Goes hand in hand with Samaritan Syndrome.
• Clones Are People, Too: This is the fic for anyone who wanted better for *all* of Danny's clones. Each of his brothers have an individual identity and are all adopted by an Ancient, much like Danny's relationship with Clockwork
• Courtroom Episode: One of the overarching arcs of the story is Jack and Maddie's trial for Taboo-breaking, which is being conducted at Libra, one of the three groups in charge of judging trials for crimes committed outside a realm. The story uses the arc to explore the intricacies of the justice system of the Ghost Zone and its political entanglements.
• Crusading Lawyer: Advocates are an interesting case, in that most of them are this not due to any innate sense of justice but rather because their Obsessions are related to arguing and winning cases. As such, most firms don't really charge anything for their services, instead offering them for free for the sake of more exposure and thus chances for more cases.
• Cult: Thanks to Amity Park's connection to the Ghost Zone and the frequent ghost attacks, there are several cults spread throughout the city. And, much to Wes Weston's exasperation, more than a fair few are dedicated to Danny specifically. One of them is even after Danny's human form instead of his ghost form, for some unspecified reason.
  Due to Amity Park's... unique relationship with the afterlife, just about every other religious organization that met within city limits was a cult. The personalities and flavors of these cults ran the gamut from 'otherwise normal religion but with an explanation for ghosts' to 'probably satanic' to 'definitely satanic' to 'completely insane' to 'started out as a scam, but then ghosts happened.'
• Death Is Cheap: This being a story about ghosts, it's inevitable. Most people in ectoplasmic-rich environments tend to become ghosts, mostly because such environments tend to give them the liminality which pushes them towards the obsessive behavior and mindsets needed to become a ghost in the first place. Unsurprisingly, all of the Amity Park residents that die in their conflict with the Guys in White end up becoming ghosts, with the living residents mostly taking it in stride.
• Defector from Decadence: Agents O and K, who turn on the GIW due to a combination of morality and survival ^note Their repeated visits to Amity Park made them liminal, though to a far lesser degree than the average citizen.
• Doorstopper: Finally complete at a bit over 700k words.
• Elective Monarchy: In order to become eligible for the position of Ghost King (or Queen), one must have committed at least one great deed in service of the Infinite Realms and have defeated and/or gained the approval of all of the incumbent Ancients, in addition to being given "the right to rule" by Ereshkigal. Whenever a new monarch is needed, the incumbent Ancients vote for candidates based on the shortlist of those who fit most if not all of that criteria with Ereshkigal's input. By the time of the story, Danny is the only eligible candidate. He's defeated and/or impressed all of the Ancients^note at the start of the story, Clockwork, Pandora, Nocturne, Nephthys, Undergrowth and Vortex; after Danny is crowned, he ousts the latter two in favor of Sojourn and Frostbite and has committed several great deeds, including saving the Core of the Ghost Zone twice, once as Neti (which chronologically happened first), and once from the GIW as himself. After the second time, Ereshkigal refuses to let anyone else but him become the next Ghost King.
• Emotion Eater: All ghosts have the ability to absorb excess emotional energy as sustenance.
• Empathic Weapon: Calesvol, AKA Excalibur. It's fully intelligent and capable of some communication with its wielder.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Vlad hates the GIW like everyone else, which partly stems from his time as a patient under their care after he was first infected with Ecto-Acne. He also refuses to abandon Amity Park during their time of need and does as much as he can to restrict the GIW's influence over the city. Vlad also does what he can to keep them out of the Ghost Zone, knowing giving them access to the realm would be an absolute disaster.
  • In addition, Vlad is genuinely horrified when he learns that Jack and Maddie created a device to force a ghost to relive their death and then used it on Danny. It doesn't stop him from taking advantage of the situation for his own agenda, though.
• Everyone Can See It: Even the Core of the Ghost Zone can see how Danny and Sam feel about each other, at one point flat-out stating that Danny loves Sam.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While ghosts have different and arguably looser morality than humans, there are lines even they won't cross. For particularly unforgivable sins, they have the Three Great Taboos, categories of crimes of increasing severity that are universal across the realms. Forcing a ghost to relive their death is one such crime, and directly manipulating the metaphysical attachments of ghosts is another. The latter in particular is so severe a crime that execution or a Fate Worse than Death is considered a suitable and fitting punishment. As far as ghosts are concerned, not even humans are exempt from these laws (regardless of ignorance), and they will try humans for breaking them.
  • Another one of the Taboos is trying to conquer, claim or otherwise harm the Core of the Ghost Zone. It's categorized as one of the worst Acts of Sacrilege anyone could ever commit, and one that no ghost would ever attempt. Inanna is still maligned and hated for her own attempt thousands of years later, and the GIW team named after her suffer Fates Worse Than Death for trying themselves.
  • Jack and Maddie may have Fantastic Racism against ghosts, but even they draw the line at destroying the Ghost Zone. Mostly because doing so would destroy all of reality.
  • Both humans and ghosts are openly disgusted when Danny reveals during his custody hearing that Vlad cloned him several times (which is described as creating "children-by-theft") and threatened and coerced Jazz into fighting Danny to the death. So much so that the Advocates of the other candidates give up arguing their cases in favor of destroying Vlad's, while the Jury uses Loophole Abuse to ensure that not only does Vlad not get custody, but that he's forced to pay child support for Danny, Jazz, Dan, and all five of Danny's clones.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Danny wonders what happens to the lair of a ghost that fades away Jack speculates that the lair would destabilize and fall apart... and then remembers that they're in Phantom's lair and their newest gadget may well have put him out of commission for good.
• Extreme Omnivore:
  • Danny swallowing Aragon's amulet and absorbing the powerful magic contained within it.
  • When Danny phases Inanna's powerful weapons, jewelry, and even clothing, into his body. It is later revealed that his body broke them down and absorbed their power. See Abstract Eater.
• Failed a Spot Check: Several characters, including her owner Wes Weston, completely fail to realize that Inky the Cat is both dead and a ghost. When Danny realizes this, he finds it absolutely hilarious.
• Famed In-Story: Danny is not just famous in Amity Park, but also in the Ghost Zone for his many feats of heroism. When one ghost sees a list of the number of things he's done over the past three years, they note that it's no wonder he's on the shortlist to become the next Ghost King.
• Fantastic Racism: A running theme in the story is that racism is only going to screw you over and that it's better to be open-minded.
  • Jack and Maddie's racism against ghosts drives a wedge between them and their children, and leads to them getting put on trial for their (unintentional) crimes against their son, a half-ghost, culminating in them being punished by being unable to perceive Danny in any fashion for at least a decade.
  • The GIW's own racism nearly causes them to destroy the universe and eventually sees them disavowed by the government and branded as terrorists.
  • Issitoq the Watcher, the leader of the Observants, hates liminals to the point of irrationality for no discernible reason beyond viewing them as abominations. It's later revealed that Dan would never have existed had it not been for Issitoq, whose Irrational Hatred caused him to send the ghosts that helped kill Danny's friends and family in the timeline that created Dan. Eventually, this leads to him being ousted from his position after he leads the Observants into overstepping their bounds and enraging the rest of the Ghost Zone just to make sure Danny doesn't become the Ghost King. When he tries to outright assassinate Danny during Jack and Maddie's trial, he's captured and Themis takes the prerogative to End him for his crimes.
• Fatal Flaw: Valerie's blind trust in humans (and anything resembling humans) causes her to trust the GIW, who nearly kill her, and Penelope Spectra, leading to her and several of her classmates getting kidnapped from Elysium and Danny nearly being killed. Then, when their ship breaks down, they're forced to travel to the Digressed Tower and climb it for several days until Pandora's people find and rescue them. Understandably, Valerie makes an effort to be a lot more tolerant and open-minded of ghosts after that.
• Fisher King: The Trope Namer is dropped at one point regarding the role of the King or Queen of all ghosts, who helps stabilize the Infinite Realms as a whole.
• Floral Theme Naming: Almost all Advocates are named after plants, particularly poisonous ones.
• Freudian Excuse: Jack and Maddie's Fantastic Racism ties into Jack's side of the family, which is filled with a long line of monster hunters who have passed on their own biases in regards to ghosts to them.
• Fridge Horror: Experienced In-Universe by multiple characters throughout the work, as they realize just how much Danny (and Danny as Phantom) has been through.
• Friendly Enemy: With a few notable exceptions, almost all of Danny's relationships with his Rogues Gallery has fallen into this. Technus is the one to report Jack and Maddie's actions to Libra out of genuine concern for him, the Box Ghost is briefly entrusted with protecting the cores of Danny's siblings-by-theft, Danny has temporary freak out when he realizes he forgot to send a card to both Box Ghost and Lunch Lady for the birth of their child, and Skulker is made the First of his Generals because he's the only person on the short list that Danny really trusts.
• From a Single Cell: As long as a ghost's core is intact, they can eventually regenerate their body in its entirety. Danny and Ellie take advantage of this to revive Vlad's other clones as their own individual ghosts/siblings.
• Genius Loci:
  • A ghost's lair reflects their subconscious, though some can develop personalities of their own, or even develop into a full-blown example of this.
  • The Ghost Zone as a whole has a core and consciousness that can, rarely, interact with others.
• The Ghost King: The ruler of the Ghost Zone is considered to be the Ghost King (or Queen). Their job is to act as both a stabilizing agent for the Ghost Zone itself, and as an actual administrator for the Ghost Zone's inhabitants. Prior to the story, Pariah Dark was the last Ghost King, only for Ereshkigal to revoke his right to rule after he fell to madness and was locked away in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. She promptly chooses Danny to succeed him, and a significant portion of the story is dedicated to preparing Danny for the role.
• Ghostly Goals: Obsessions are a key element of this story, though they're more complex than just this. For example, most sapient ghosts have more than one (as a rule, the more intelligent a ghost is, the more Obsessions they have), though there's usually a "main" Obsession, as well as a tendency for ghosts to be obsessive in their behavior in general. That said, ghosts have full control of how they fulfill their Obsessions, so a seemingly malevolent Obsession can be turned to good ends, and vice versa.
• Give Geeks a Chance:
  • Princess Dorathea and Sydney Poindexter have a strong friendship that later blossoms into a romance.
  • Star is revealed to have a crush on Mikey. They also develop a friendship, with a vague implication that they might be dating.
• Got Volunteered:
  • Despite not even running for the position, Sam is voted in as one of Amity Park's representatives for their meeting with the President due to her strong leadership skills after she returns to Amity Park and helps with the reconstruction. Part of this is her own fault, as Sam is the one who got the minimum voting age lowered to fourteen, in addition to being one of the leaders for the teenagers of Casper High.
  • Skulker is made the First of Generals because A) he's the most qualified available candidate and B) he's the only one on the shortlist Danny knows and has any trust for. Considering that it cuts into Skulker's hunting time and the fact that the last ghost with the position got Ended by Pariah Dark, he's understandably not happy with the position.
• Happily Adopted: Since child ghosts are rare and ghost pregnancies even rarer, this is common among ghosts. Danny and all his siblings/clones (including Dan) are more-or-less adopted by the members of his Ancients Council after the latter start reforming from their cores.
  • Danny and Clockwork, and to an extent, Ellie and Danny. Danny affectionately calls Clockwork "Grandfather" throughout the story, and the two are very close.
  • Ellie and Pandora, who bond during the time together guarding Danny while he's in Mattingly and while searching for him after he's sent back in time.
  • Dan and Nephthys, due to the latter helping him in his efforts to change.
  • Damien and Fright Night.
  • Dmitri and Sojourn.
  • Dustin and Frostbite.
  • David and Nocturne.
• Hated by All:
  • The Guys in White are reviled throughout the Infinite Realms and Amity Park for being virulent racists who don't care about collateral damage. This hatred only increases when they attempt to destroy Ereshkigal, to the point that all it takes is Vlad spreading the location of their headquarters for an impromptu army of ghosts to form, invade the human world, and try to take them out for good.
  • Even thousands of years after her death, Inanna is still cursed throughout the Ghost Zone for her attempt to conquer the Core and claim the throne, and the bloody swathe she carved throughout the Infinite Realms in order to do so. Naturally, the GIW naming the team sent after the Core after her does not improve anyone's opinion of them.
  • Freakshow. With the exception of his minion Lydia, everyone and their mother hates his guts. Even the President, who was unaware of his crimes when he first took Freakshow on as an advisor, does not like him at all and only keeps him around because of his knowledge of ghosts.
• Heel–Face Turn: Dan, thanks to Nephthys's influence. Not that anyone really trusts him thanks to his past history.
• Hidden Depths: Paulina's interest in fashion surprisingly is not skin-deep. She's able to make a diagram of her grandmother's loom, and chides Dash, Kwan, and Dale for not recognizing that textiles are just as important as food for Amity Park's survival.
• Hidden Elf Village: Harmony, a small community of humans and ghosts that sought safety from the rest of the Ghost Zone and found themselves in Danny's lair, Refuge. The humans are people that accidentally went through the natural portals that occasionally appear in the human world and couldn't find their way back. While for the most part polite and welcoming, most of them have no desire to traverse the Ghost Zone, even for the sake of getting home, and are reluctant to leave.
• His Own Worst Enemy: It's revealed that all the fellow students in Sydney Poindexter's lair are actually his Shadows. Poindexter's self-hatred is apparently so strong that it caused his Shadows to bully him for over fifty years. It's only recently, after his first encounter with Danny, that he's finally managed to resolve the problem.
• I Gave My Word: As a result of his "Stygian frailty", Danny has to keep his promises. This is remarked on to be a rather common frailty, and far from the worst one.
• Impossible Task: The Penances Jack and Maddie have to take in order to complete their punishment are technically not this, as part of the requirements is that they have to be achievable for them within the duration of their punishment. However, it can become this depending on how much help the ghosts are willing to give them.
• Insistent Terminology: Danny is not a king. He is a prince, or a king-in-waiting.
  Moneta: The words have the same meaning.
  Danny: Not to me. Not emotionally.
• Intrepid Reporter: Many of the reporters of Amity Park (including newcomer Harriet Chin), with the exception of Lance Thunder, who keeps on insisting he's just a weatherman.
• It's All My Fault: There is a running thread of Danny blaming himself for things going wrong throughout the work.
• Land of One City: Discussed, but ultimately subverted. While Sam considers the possibility of Amity Park becoming a city-state due to distrust towards big government to be ideal, she openly acknowledges that it wouldn't be a realistic and viable solution long-term thanks to sustainability of resources. In the end, while Amity Park does choose to secede from the United States, it's because they've chosen to let themselves be annexed by Danny and the Infinite Realms.
• Legend Fades to Myth: This is revealed to have been the punishment for Inanna after her ill-fated attempt to conquer the Ghost Zone and become the Queen of All Ghosts without actually having become a ghost first. She is barred from ever becoming a ghost, and all her exploits will either be credited to others or dismissed as fantasy and myth by her people after her death.
  Lord Heh/Clockwork: You will be struck down, and held up as an example of high foolishness. Your country will forget you, until you are remembered only as a myth, your deeds given to your peers, and slaves, and enemies. Here, you will be remembered and reviled, your name a curse. In both countries, your monuments will be desecrated. You shall be struck down. You shall be eaten, your powers consumed from your flesh. Should you go out, it will be as a shadow among the living, a shadow against your past, after the mourning has been done, and your husband has forgotten your embrace. You will die, a mortal, and be dead forever, never to rise as the Dead of this country. This is what you have won for yourself by your actions
• Long Game: Clockwork (then known as Lord Heh) hatches one after meeting Danny that involves several of his fellow Ancients, his memory getting wiped, a lot of time manipulation, and a duration of anywhere of five to ten thousand years, all for the expressed purpose of ensuring Danny's existence and freeing Clockwork from his contract with the Observants.
• Loophole Abuse: During Danny's custody hearing, Ryu, one of the jurors, mentions that the hearing isn't for determining the custody of Danny, but for determining the custody, welfare, and provisioning of Danny. The jurors quickly take advantage of this to force Vlad to pay child support for Danny, Jazz, and all the Phantoms (including Dan), despite the fact he didn't get custody for any of them.
• Medieval Stasis: The Time-Locked Lands, a group of realms that are forever stuck in one time period, and never allowed to evolve beyond it. Mattingly was one such realm until Dora ousted Aragon and took over, and Sydney Poindexter's lair is another.
• Merger of Souls: Clockwork was formed from three ghosts with time-related powers merging together.
• Metal Muncher: Danny accidentally swallowing Aragon's amulet, as well as Danny breaking down and absorbing Inanna's crown and breastplate after phasing it into his torso.
• Odd Friendship: During the assault on GIW HQ, Sydney Poindexter befriends the Unstoppable Mailman.
• Offered the Crown: This is a running theme throughout the work, much to Danny's annoyance.
  • The Core choosing Danny as the next King of All Ghosts. She does this twice, once in a past with a time-traveling Danny/Neti, and again when she meets Danny after he helps save her from the GIW.
  • Subverted when Neti/Danny takes Inanna's crown (along with her other belongings) during their journey through the Tantric Gates.
    • And subsequently when Nephthys presents Danny with that same crown later on, now fully imbued with his essence.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The GIW director and the GIW in general.
• Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Averted, as far as trials in the Ghost Zone go, everyone has a right to their own Advocate. Even the witnesses. In fact, it's almost legally obligated for everyone to have their own Advocate, because everyone who has a stake in the trial (including the witnesses) needs to tell their Advocate what their ideal outcome for the trial is, so their Advocate can help them prepare their testimony to help achieve that end.
• Open Secret:
  • Danny really being Danny Phantom gradually becomes this to his classmates despite his and his friends' repeated attempts to talk around it. By the time he outright admits it during their visit to the Digressed Tower, it's met with little fanfare. Even the residents of Amity Park aren't all that surprised when they find out.
  • Likewise, Vlad Masters being Vlad Plasmius/the Wisconsin Ghost isn't much of a secret after Danny confirms to the class that Vlad is liminal like him. The information later spreads to the rest of Amity Park thanks to Vlad taking part in Jack and Maddie's trial, but everyone refrains from confronting him over it because they still need his money to survive their current situation.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: There are three overarching types of ghosts: the Dead, the Deathless, and the Neverborn. The Dead are the usual types of ghosts as spirits of the deceased, the Deathless are ghosts who are born from other ghosts, and the Neverborn are born out of the raw ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone in combination with some kind of metaphysical concept/energy. There are also numerous smaller categorizations under those three broad types which ghosts can fall under. In addition, ghosts weren't always ghosts — they're simply called as such because the Infinite Realms has leaned towards a more spiritual or "ghostly" aesthetic for the past several millennia, one floor of Twisted Tower shows what you might look if it had taken more of a "Fae" or "Demonic" aesthetic instead.
• Parental Substitute: Clockwork to Danny, as his ghost guardian (much to Vlad's annoyance).
• Parents as People: As much as Jack and Maddie truly love Danny, their obsessive bigotry against ghosts has caused them to (unintentionally) be terrible parents to their son, and to Jazz as well. Which means that many ghosts are disinclined to help them with their Penances and let them see Danny again, as they feel he's better off without them.
• Pass the Popcorn: After Dan and Nephthys start brawling in Danny's room at Libra, absolutely no one shows any interest in stopping them and instead just watches while munching on popcorn.
• Past-Life Memories: After his liminality is increased, Tucker starts getting dreams of his past life as Pharaoh Duulaman.
• Perception Filter: As part of their punishment, the elder Fentons are rendered literally incapable of seeing or perceiving Danny, and vice-versa until their sentence is up.
• Police State: The GIW gradually turns Amity Park into one of these after their initial attempt to destroy the Ghost Zone fails. It only succeeds because the federal government remains unaware — once it gets out, the GIW is eventually disavowed and branded terrorists.
• Power Parasite: The Observants can use their contract with Clockwork to use his powers to enhance their own ability to see through time.
• Promotion to Parent: Downplayed. While Jazz didn't completely take over as Danny's surrogate mom, more than one person notes she was way more involved in his rearing than she should have been thanks to their parents' unintentional Parental Neglect.
• Reincarnation: During the class's visit to Elysium, they meet with a bunch of Egyptian ghosts who reveal that Tucker isn't just a lookalike descendant of Pharaoh Duulaman — he's actually Duulaman's reincarnation, his previous incarnation having been cursed to "live twice" before he could properly become a ghost. After Tucker's liminality is increased when he's blessed by the Core, he's considered enough of a ghost to outright become the ruler of Duulaman's Kemet (or "Ghost Egypt", as the others call it).
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Kwan is the son of Principal Ishiyama, and his full name is Kwan Ishiyama.
  • Star's full name is Star Thunder, implying she is related to local reporter Lance Thunder.
  • Mikey's full name is Mikey Snow, and it's more-or-less stated he's the son of local anchorwoman Tiffany Snow.
  • It turns out Vlad's mansion in Wisconsin wasn't bought — it was inherited by the his ancestor, the Dairy King. The Dairy King, for his part, is not too fond of Vlad for chasing him out of his haunt and sending him back to the Ghost Zone.
• Samaritan Syndrome: Overlapping with Chronic Hero Syndrome, Danny just cannot stop helping people, even as he's injured and near-collapsed from exhaustion.
• Secret Test of Character: It's revealed that Nocturne's plot to enthrall Amity Park as living batteries was actually just a game to test Danny. The two are shown to have no bad feelings for each other, with Nocturne even giving Danny a happy dream while he's in the hospital.
• Seen It All:
  • Team Phantom, especially Danny, are barely phased or surprised by anything after years of ghost hunting and several trips to the Ghost Zone.
  • To a lesser extent, all of Amity Park is this thanks to enduring daily ghost attacks for the past several years. Their idea of normal is very skewed compared to the average person's, and it really shows later on in the story.
• Seers: A number of ghosts have powers relating to clairvoyance, though it's still a rare ability. Along with Clockwork, the Observants and Danny, it's revealed that this is one of Sam's abilities, through her Obsession with photography. She can take a picture, and the image is of something or someone whose future she's trying to see.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Pamela Manson, who is supposedly your typical high society wife and yet has enough political skills to outsmart the President of the United States. It becomes all too clear by that point where Sam gets her cleverness from.
• Spot the Thread: The President notices that Danny & David have switched when he realizes that The Ghost King suddenly has a different accent. Because while a shapeshifter & clone of Danny, David inexplicably has Vlad's accent?
• Stable Time Loop: Danny is sent back in time and ends up in the right position to stop Inanna, taking the role of Neti that we heard of earlier, and setting Clockwork on the path to what he is today.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Danny shows some sympathy for Vlad after his custody hear degenerates into everyone taking potshots at him. He notes that while a lot of Vlad's past actions are screwed up, they were also likely driven by his Obsession instead of by any genuine malice.
• Talking Animal: Thanks to the rampant ectoplasm all around Amity Park, all the animals are sapient and are able to communicate with not just each other, but with humans as well.
• These Hands Have Killed: Danny is forced to use lethal force against several GIW agents to save his friends and family and stop them from destroying the Ghost Zone, which haunts him after he has time to process it.
• Time Abyss: Several of the Ancients have been around since at least Ancient Sumeria, if not longer. Nephthys & Clockwork are particularly egregious here.
  • The former being the first thing (what she can no longer recall) to ever die (though not per se, the first to live?).
  • The later is implied to be as old as time itself. ...Unless you count his life as starting when he became self-aware, which is known to have happened later, but when even he is unsure of?
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: It's not clear how many titles Danny exactly has, as not all of them have been listed yet. But it's still a lot. Even his full legal name (sans titles) ends up the stuff to rival Dumbledore!
  ...the current King-in-Waiting, Prince Daniel Janus James Fenton-Phantom, Time's Apprentice, Protector of Amity, Great One of the Far Frozen, Opener of Doors, Dark's Bane, Gatekeeper, Savior of the Infinite Reams, etc.
• Unexplained Accent: While David does have a theory, its not entirely clear why exactly he ended up with Vlad's accent when Ellie & all his brother did not.
• Unfortunate Names: Themis forces Dan to adopt a new name to help further differentiate him from Danny. Nephthys steals the paperwork and promptly renames him "Daniil Phlebotinum" much to his horror and everyone else's amusement. To top it off, he's stuck with the name due to losing the subsequent fight with Nephthys.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Danny and Sam. To the point that even they are tangentially aware of it. It's generally agreed upon that the only reason they aren't outright dating already is due to their new responsibilities.
• Unstoppable Mailman: There is a ghost who has this for his actual name, and it's no boast. He can even resist an effect that makes those exposed believe they have a different occupation.
• Vast Bureaucracy: Played with. While typically most ghosts tend to avoid this trope due to the nature of their powers and culture allowing them to sense things that typically need to be documented (such as adoptions), there are cases where elements of this trope come into play. For example, Jack and Maddie's trial is delayed due to the high-profile nature of the case requiring it to be extensively planned out. This includes having a committee determine what kind of trial it will be, what the rules of the trial will be, what punishments can be issued contingent on the verdict, finding Advocates for everyone with a stake in the trial, gathering the Advocates to ensure that the wishes of their clients are heard, etc.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: After Sydney Poindexter is briefly mind-controlled by Freakshow, it takes Danny everything he has to convince Poindexter's potential girlfriend Dora from taking her armies to Earth and ravaging the place until she can find and rescue him. To no one's surprise, the two start dating not long after Poindexter is rescued.
• We Used to Be Friends: It turns out that before high school, Paulina used to be friends with Team Phantom and was a "loser" like them. Then she went to a beauty summer camp and the rest is history.
• Worldbuilding: A significant portion of the story is devoted to this, specifically involving the culture of the Ghost Zone (or the Infinite Realms, as ghosts call it). This becomes more and more prevalent as the class moves out of Danny's lair and begins to interact with other ghosts on a regular basis.
• Younger Than They Look: Danny admits he hasn't aged past fourteen ever since he got his ghost powers. It's even worse for his ghost half, which is considered a child ghost and may remain that way for the rest of his (after)life. When his core is temporarily separated from him and becomes its own being, it's in the form of a child that can't be older than three or four years old.

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