Headscratchers / Danny Phantom

Please add new entries on the bottom.

The show's premise

How can someone be half-ghost? To be a ghost, you have to be dead. So the accident that gave him his powers scared him half to death? What?

• The accident caused his DNA to mix with ectoplasm which gave him the ability to transform into a ghost alter-ego with super powers, it all makes sense.
• There is a type of ghostly phenomenon called a "ghost of the living," also known as a doppelganger. A doppelganger is, according to Wikipedia (and we all know how accurate Wikipedia can be), a paranormal duplicate of a living person. I have heard that in one case, a doppelganger was spotted with hair and eye color that was the inverse of the real person. Perhaps, in Danny's case, he became a doppelganger instead of one being created? It would mean that technically he's still alive and a ghost at the same time.
  • So basically, he's Schrodinger's Ghost.
• The Freak Lab Accident apparently "completely destabilized [his] molecular structure," causing him to take on similar characteristics to ghosts without dying. Despite that he's "still alive," "ghost" is still the most accurate term to use since he "for all practical purposes" is just like a ghost. (At least, that's how Dr. Spengler describes the condition.)

Ghost Portal

Why would the Fentons build a portal with the on/off switch inside it? And then they forgot about it! It's part of the theme song video, but it seems stupid even for Jack.

• Considering what we've seen of Jack throughout this series, such a serious design flaw is actually pretty plausible.
  • If the portal starts destabilizing when someone is inside, or a sudden power surge activates it while maintenance is being done, it may act as a failsafe to keep them from being trapped between worlds. The only flaw is that it turns the machine on as well as off.

Why is/can there be a Rags To Riches episode that gives Danny a case of Acquired Situational Narcissism when Danny's family isn't even remotely close to poor?

Not only do they have a massive collection of advanced, expensive technology that puts the entire country of Japan to shame, but Maddie mentioned they were far from broke in the third episode.

• Possibility 1: Richness is relative.
• Possibility 2: Butch Hartman Mark Drop isn't a very good writer, according to The Internet Movie Database entry for said Danny Phantom Episode "Livin' Large"
• Possibility 3: They have the money, but different priorities. The Fentons may prefer to use the money left after paying the factures, filling the freezer, and giving small allowances to their kids into building all of their awesome weaponry, instead of "building status" as, for example, the Mansons. Note that both parents, while loving their children, are often too absorbed by their ghost investigation to care about ordinary matters.
  • "Prisoners of Love":
  Jack: "You'll get a raise in your allowance for this!"
  Danny: "I get an allowance?"
  • Question: So Providing a roof, sufficient spending money, food, and love is being too absorbed to care for ordinary matters, while the families of all the jerks, who have raised these jerks, are more balanced? Wow. That's out there, even for a Hartman fan.
    • Perhaps 'ordinary' is a poor word for this situation. They care about their children's well-being but can't relate to teenage issues, like wanting to have the latest fashions. So they're relatively balanced but quirky.
  • Possibility 3 is illogical: The Fentons make money from their inventing, and taxes/food/allowances/school are ordinary matters. As an example, they've shown concern for Danny and his grades before.
    • I think it seems obvious that Danny just isn't spoiled (by teenager standards anyway) as much as any kid wants to be. Funny how that while rich kids are usually very unsympathetic in The Fairly OddParents!, Sam is a likeable character despite being (secretly) ridiculously rich.
    • She's the main character, she has to be likable. Plus the series relies more on Character Development then FOP (I assume, I don't watch that show, so I judged based on what I know of the show, so correct me if I'm wrong).
• Who says the Fentons make money from their inventions (barring, of course, the singular Guys in White incident)? They seem to build them for their own use, and we haven't seen them selling any ghost weapons or otherwise profiting from paranormal science—though one assumes they make a living somehow... Perhaps the city pays them to keep ghosts at bay?
  • When Maddie is interviewed in one episode, she hints that they invent things other than paranormal gadgets, it's just that the paranormal is their main focus.
• This one is simple: It wasn't the change in how much money they had (though they did seem to have a lot more after the lab's sale than before). It was the change in where the money went; the Fentons went from living like a regular middle class family with a very unusual profession to living like multimillionaires.
• It's mainly an issue of how that money is used. The Fentons as a family may be rich, but very little of that money actually filters down to Danny. Compare him to his rich classmates, who are heinously spoiled and swimming in disposable cash. Also, the Fentons don't share the same social circle as the other rich families. It's simply a matter of perception from the teenagers. Since Danny doesn't look or act like he's rich, then he's probably not rich.
  • "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale" seems to support this. When asked to borrow some money for new clothes to wear to a party, Danny's parents say that they have plenty of money, but they "understand that you should understand the value of money". So, yes, they're rich enough, but Danny doesn't get much access to that wealth even when he wants it.

Am I the only one bothered by Valerie's martial arts status?

So sue me, I'm aware it's a cartoon and suspension of disbelief is a big must, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot, for the life of me accept the very notion that Valerie Gray—a 14-year-old is a ninth degree martial artist. That's just impossible. In similar cases, Maddie Fenton's is just as unrealistic, but at least a tad more believable given her age—or at least I can accept that one.

• So, she has the Charles Atlas Superpower. Or maybe she lied to impress Danny, and she's only really good.
• Two possibilities come to mind: Vlad has arranged the suit to give her subconscious lessons, or Tucker just said that, hyperbolically, because he was impressed of her abilities/jealous that it wasn't okay for him to date the girl who hates Danny Phantom, but it was okay for Danny to date her himself. For a genius, Tucker is really pretty clueless; he didn't even realize she was using him. Occam's razor makes it simple that he was sour-graping, given his next line was "He better not forget their anniversary."
  • Actually, Tucker is a genius with technology; but the series never implied he was intelligent in any other fields ("Fanning the Flames" and "Flirting with Disasters" shows he's not exactly a fan of schoolwork either). Also, Tucker didn't make note about her martial arts status first, that was Danny who relayed the information to him.
    • Well, in that case, maybe martial arts ranking works differently in the DP world.
• I always thought it was a case of someone exaggerating, as all humans do. Valerie might have been trying to impress Danny during their all-night chat, and just grossly exaggerated her skills (maybe she figured the son of an Action Mom would find it cool?). Or, maybe Valerie only slightly exaggerated but Danny thought it was so cool that he instead exaggerated, putting her words together with what he knows from fighting her. I count this as a case of Unreliable Narrator, whoever the narrator in this case may be.
• Every single one of you is wrong. TECHNUS said all that. He initiated the entire IM convo, so maybe they weren't even talking to each other... but to him! and then he relayed the message rewritten to invoke as much romance as possible. Dude hacked a satellite, I think he can crack the Paulina Fenton password for Danny and Phantom Must Die for Valerie... or whatever hers is.
  • Actually, he didn't initiate anything. He was watching over the conversation to make sure his plans were going smoothly. Case and point, Danny tells her over the IM that he has a high bowling average (Call-Back from Lucky in Love) and that he wants to be an astronaut (Call-Back from Mystery Meat, which was the first episode and a while before Technus had become a character anyways). Now, if Technus has ever had a legitimate conversation with Danny and asked about his college plans, I'll gladly let you smack me with a club, but back to the point: Maybe Valerie was exaggerating some, but we can at least tell from one side of the conversation that the IM was solely between Danny and Valerie, just with Technus eavesdropping.

Why couldn't Vlad just possess the Packers?

• This doesn't really bug me as much, but Vlad noted he couldn't buy the Packers because Green Bay refused to sell them to him. Considering this man has absolutely no problem possessing businessmen to hand over their companies to him, why he can't just simply overshadow the owners of the football team to hand them over? Bearing in mind the possible legal issues outside of the series, that is. Maybe Vlad just has that much respect for the team?
  • Actually, this is Truth in Television — the Green Bay Packers are collectively owned by over 112,000 shareholders (note: the Green Bay greater metropolitan area has a total population of only 200,000 people) and no single owner holds (or can ever hold, given the team's by-laws) more than 5 percent of the voting stock. The purpose of this set-up is specifically to ensure that the Packers can never possibly leave Green Bay. When Vlad said that 'Green Bay refused to sell them', he meant the entire town refused.
    • Indeed, it's doubly impossible to sell the team — the team charter states that the only way the Packers can change their existing ownership setup is to formally dissolve the team. At which point, the shareholders receive back only the original purchase price of their shares. Calculate the odds of any shareholder ever voting to dump the Packers franchise if they can't even make a dime off doing so.
    • Yeah, it's not like Vlad can overshadow an entire town at once... wait...
  • Couldn't he just have moved to Green Bay. He could be a partial owner then.
    • Vlad is a perfectionist who will strive to get what he wants. It's all or nothing and Vlad wants the "all".
• Interesting. Thanks, been very curious to know since it's been nagging me for a while. Naturally, I don't know a darn thing about football.
  • Even knowing about football wouldn't have helped much, given that the Packers' ownership setup is unique in the NFL. So de nada.
    • And is only still allowed to exist as such due to Grandfather Clausing. Some sportswriter suggested the Green Bay setup as a way to keep the Bills from leaving Buffalo only to find out that the current league laws prohibit this.
    • Man, this is one heck of a Shown Their Work moment.
    • Main story write Steve Marmel is a HUGE Packers nut.
  • I always theorized that as scheming and amoral as Vlad is, willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, he has a bit of a soft spot for the Packers, and feels it wouldn't be fair to use his wealth, power, and abilities to get a hold of them. He wants to own the team legitimately. But the above explanation is far better.

How does Casper High only have 259 girls?

• Danny mentions this in Shades Of Gray. Unless he was talking about only Freshmen, which would be more realistic.
  • It could just be a small High School. Some can hold as small as 400 while others can reach nearly a thousand. I come from a relatively small high school that had as much as the former, so the amount of female students stated in the series never bothered me.
    • This is entirely possible. Various episodes have shown that Amity Park probably isn't a big town. They seem to be within biking distance of the Nasty Burger, the movie theater, and city hall.
    • Makes me wonder, though. This is coming from someone who's gone to a high school with about 5,000 people (No lie, 4-5,000), it seems a bit off that there are that few girls in the school.
    • There are sixty-five students in my high school. That's less people then there are girls at Danny's high school. Admittedly, my school is private and our public school holds much more, but I still doubt there are even 259 students in public school. Not all schools are flippin' huge.
    • 259 girls. Not 259 students.
  • My school only has 400 students, and that's with the junior high.
  • One of my high schools only had 100 kids, and it was the school for multiple towns
  • This is how.
  • My high school only has roughly 49 students OVERALL in the sophomore class. So yeah, it's possible.

Am I the ONLY one who has ever noticed that Vlad has an English/British accent-SERIOUSLY??? Nobody talks about this, why?

• Because he sounds hot.
• For serious, I don't think it sounds very British. Maybe British-like (possibly to enhance his elegant mannerisms), but I don't really hear it, so to speak.
• I have heard that accent from people from certain parts of America as well. Usually from the extremely well educated, particularly those classically trained in drama.
• That accent is extremely American. It has an English-like touch to it, I guess, so maybe it sounds English to some Americans, but to me (I've never been to England or America) there's a lot more American in it.
• Vlad's accent is not at all British.
• Vlad's accent is very much American; I have never met anyone in England with his accent.
• He possibly could have a trans-Atlantic accent.
• He's actually more uppercrust than British. Think of American actors from the 40s and 50s, maybe even into the 60s. The person that springs to my mind is the actor who played Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, as he was trained to act with a similar uppercrust inflection. Martin Mull did a similar thing with Vlad's inflections.

The lack of examining the moral implications of destroying the "perfect clone" Danny

Come on, Dani is accepted as "human" by other characters on the show, including Danny. The clone was apparently capable of fear and motion, and even if it hadn't "woken up" yet, it clearly had at least the potential to be every bit a "person." So why isn't anyone bothered by his death? Especially our resident "hero," who killed him? I know it's a kid's show, but the clone melting is just disturbing and kids are capable of putting two and two together.

• shrugs* They ran out of time to input proper emotions? Honestly, I think a lot more emotional reactions (not that the episode lacked any) would have made this awesome episode even better if they had just got rid of the useless Tucker/Sam subplot.
  • They also would have saved some time if they had gotten rid of the Sailor Moon style transformation sequence with Danny and Dani. Seriously, did we really need two minutes for that?
    • Yes. Yes we did.
  • Though it was a very cool transformation sequence, I do agree it really was an unnecessary element that could have done wonders filling it with the necessary emotions; at least the part where Vlad turns angry on Danielle. That, I felt, was too quick of a mood swing change that I felt lacked proper pacing.
• They couldn't draw too much attention to that scene, or it wouldn't get past the radar.
• As far as "moral implications" go, neither Danny nor Danielle tried to "kill" the final clone — it happened by accident after Vlad got blasted across the room and smashed the chamber, after which, there was nothing neither Danny nor Danielle could do about it. As far as their attitudes about its "death" go, given how easily it was destroyed and how it melted, even if it was sentient, it most likely only had as good a chance as the previous clones at survival under any circumstances. Vlad notes (in surprise) in "D-Stabilized" that Dani is more structurally sound than all the other clones, presumably including the last one (why, we don't know — Vlad wants to find out but doesn't get the chance to). So Danny and Danielle probably felt no different about that clone being destroyed than they did about the others; Vlad does keep saying that he needs Danny's mid-morph DNA to "complete" the last clone, giving the impression that it hadn't been brought to life yet (which is why its last seconds never made any sense to me — was Vlad really keeping a living, sentient being locked in that chamber 24/7 for no reason? What was left to "complete"?). I always saw Vlad's reaction more as "You've ruined my experiment and all my work when I was so close to completion!" rather than "You killed my son!", partly because of the time and attention (or lack thereof) the episode gives it. So, yes, the final clone's fate is tragic, but it's not Danny's or Danielle's fault, and its fate would have been tragic no matter what, just as all the Powerpuff Girls' clones would have been doomed to a short, painful existence even if they hadn't all perished in that fire. Notice how neither show "examines" the endings of these episodes in detail because there's no need to — the tragedy speaks for itself. That said, yes, the episode would have been much improved if the ridiculous, unnecessary Danny-needs-to-learn-to-appreciate-his-friends plot had been cut and those minutes used to focus on something else, but making that "something else" an examination of the fate of the last clone would only have reduced the Emotional Torque of the scene.

Jazz's ghost envy

It gets a nice lead in Reality Trip, offers an interesting layer to her character and a likewise interesting new way to look at her actions, and even gives her a moment of similarity with the villain. So, naturally, it is never mentioned or hinted at again. What the hell?

• Maybe she's just really good at hiding it and nobody else ever noticed?

Why does everyone hate ghosts so much?

Yeah, I get it. They think they're Always Chaotic Evil blah, blah, blah. But Danny saved their lives on multiple occasions, and I think they did notice. So, why are they hating ghosts so much and refusing to accept not all of them are evil? (This question can be ignored for a while, I might have to watch a few episodes to be sure, but I still remember me complaining about it)

• They accept Danny as their hero because of the good he does. They don't accept other ghosts because all the ones they've seen are antagonistic towards them. None of these humans have seen, gone inside, or are fully aware of the Ghost Zone. They have not seen any good ghosts as a result, and the decent ones who have arrived on Earth were kept mostly out of public's eyes. Valerie herself may have seen Danny Phantom's do-gooding status, but it's purely because she has a vendetta with him. And the Fentons? They just hate ghosts, period - good or evil.
  • Long answer Trope: Fantastic Racism.

Lack of closure for Danielle

I know I'm biased (re: her biggest fan), but hear me out. Before PP, there was nothing Danny could do. Secret Identity and such. That's fine. BUT. In Phantom Planet, while they were phasing the earth, she's right there. And Danny is about to reveal his identity. And he LETS HER FLY OFF? It's not even a length thing, she could have been given nice implied closure just by drawing her in with the Fentons at the statue ceremony.

• The same rule applies to Valerie. True, she did help out, but not only was she in a thankless cameo (she didn't get any lines!), but her reaction to Danny's secret was the same as everyone else's—she accepted it with no complications or clause. Considering she once had romantic feelings for Danny and hates his ghost counterpart, the drama that would have ensured would have logically taken place then simply praising/accepting him as a super powered ghost. Like the Danielle example above, it's a case of sudden cancellation and it being the Grand Finale. It can be justified that the writers had very little time due to said cancellation. Though frankly, I never really did liked Hartman's closer involvement with Season Three. He's...not that great a writer to me. *shrugs*
  • The episode just before Phantom Planet, D-Stabilized, has a resolution of Valerie discovering Vlad's secret identity, and that Danny Phantom had been telling her the truth the entire time. She then decides to stop hunting Phantom and get back at Vlad instead. It's implied that she forgave Danny for her false accusations. She undoubtedly needed more closure, but hey, it fits.
  Valerie: Vlad Masters is Vlad Plasmius? Phantom was right all along... And all this time I've been doing his [Vlad's] dirty work! Well, not anymore. Better watch out, Vlad, because the ghost I'm hunting now is you!
  • See, I'm more bugged by Danielle because they can't even say it was a running time issue. They could have just pasted her human form in with the Fentons in the statue unveiling scene at the end, that'd do it, because there's a presumed time-lapse there anyways. But they leave her out, which in my mind makes Danny seem like either an idiot or a Jerkass who left a 12 year old girl on the streets.
    • Well, you do have to realize the animators are drawing a heck of a lot of people in the series finale in under such a short time. Getting within the show itself, keep in mind Danielle in "D-Stabilized" willingly left Danny out of her own free will; as she herself stated, "This phantom has places to be". Meaning she wants to explore the world within the boundaries of her own freedom and experience and not under Danny. Danny simply respected that. Danielle wanted independence, so I see nothing Jerkass about Danny's decision when it came to her, she made her choice and she certainly does not need to be under Danny's shadow—she can be her own person now and she can certainly take care of herself. If she had any problems, she can simply just return to Danny who is more then willing to help her when the situation requires it (much like "D-Stabilized"). Perhaps it can be Hand Wave in that she felt the same during the ending. She did her part, then she left.
    • Considering the rumor, yes rumor but I'm still counting it, that her story arc was to end with her being adopted by Danny's family, no matter how much Danny respected her, I doubt he'd be happy with her living on the streets. The idea of her becoming a part of Danny's real family just seems like a better resolution.

The bad future could have easily been averted, and it's all Clockwork's fault for causing it.

OK, this may take a while, and I'm terrible at explaining things but bear with me. It was because of the fight between Danny and Box Lunch that the Nasty Burger exploded, right? Danny blowing up that pack of sauce caused that boiler of highly explosive sauce to leak, which lead to its explosion, which lead to hilarity ensuing. And, the explosion caused Danny to obtain those test answers, which caused Lancer to suspect him of cheating, which caused him, Danny's family, Tucker and Sam to be at the Nasty Burger when it blew up. But, Box Lunch was only fighting Danny because Clockwork sent her to the present to eliminate him! If Clockwork didn't send her back, that fight wouldn't have happened, Danny wouldn't have gotten that answer sheet and the Nasty Burger wouldn't have exploded. Clockwork could've easily averted the bad future by not sending anybody back to kill Danny.

• Clockwork's aim didn't seem to be to prevent the particular string of incidents that led to that particular future, but rather to prevent any incidents which could lead to a similar future. He did this by deliberately setting up that future (which was probably one of the worst of a multitude of possibilities) and then shoving Danny's nose in it so that he would be more aware that he needed to make good choices. Showing someone the results of their choices/mistakes has a much more powerful and lasting effect than telling them or, worse, not telling them and just trying to prevent those choices/mistakes from happening. Think of it as replacing a leaky old pipe with a new stretch of shiny pvc pipe rather than patching a leak and hoping a new one doesn't spring up.
• "You knew all of this was going to happen. All of it — even this part!" "Everything's the way it's supposed to be." The bad future was averted, and whatever secret agenda Clockwork also had taken care of as well.
• To be more clear: We didn't get to see the original sequence of events that led to the bad future. Presumably, Danny fought a different ghost at the Nasty Burger, and either Danny phased through the briefcase during that encounter too, or there was another reason everybody was at the Nasty Burger that night when the condiment container exploded. (We may assume that, in the absence of Dark Danny's reveal to her, Jazz tagged along because it was a family affair.) When Clockwork sent Box Lunch through, it superseded the original fight and created a second timeline that happened to have the same upshot: Danny turning into Dark Danny.
• Also, to note here. The reasoning Danny's future self has for Danny still turning into him is based on faulty logic. Now, Danny's not the brightest bulb in the shed, and understanding human logic is probably beyond his future self, since he's given up all traces of his humanity and doesn't have many emotions besides hate and contempt for all other beings, living and not, but there's absolutely no logic to Danny still turning into him if he causes the incident that killed everybody originally. Danny would, instead, most likely try to find Clockwork and demand a do-over or something. The original timeline still can't happen. Clockwork, I guess, wanted to teach Danny a lesson and did, but the measures he went to are kinda messed up when you think about them.

Why did Lancer immediately suspect Danny in "The Ultimate Enemy?"

There were dozens of people present, Lancer didn't even have the slightest clue about Danny's powers, and how did he think someone broke into his locked-and-handcuffed briefcase, anyway?

• Lancer doesn't like Danny. He just let that dislike affect his judgment and cause him to harp on Danny despite the lack of evidence.
• Adding in, if I remember (I have to rewatch the episode), Danny and his pals were talking about the stolen test subjects, walking past Lancer's office. He sticks his head out, indicating he may have overheard at least some portion of their conversations, leading to his suspicion.
  • I think that part comes later. If I remember correctly, his first reaction to finding the test was stolen was just to talk to Danny's sister.
    • I'm pretty sure that Lancer overhears the conversation, then goes to check to make sure the CAT is still safe and sound—which, of course, it isn't.
• The answer is simple: he knew about Danny's powers! It's implied in Phantom Planet he had figured out the secret before the others. That's why he say they instead to Tucker.
  • ...When was that ever implied? I'm not criticizing or anything, I just never noticed. Can you give a specific scene?
  • I just watched the episode on Netflix and Lancer does overhear the conversation before talking to Jazz, but also whilst talking to Jazz makes a comment that could be taken as implication of the above. However it could alternatively be an Accidental Truth on Lancers part (which is probably the intent, given the surprise in his eyes later in the episode when he does find out but then time in rewound to make him forget... but as he was gagged at the time who knows?):
  Jazz: But how could Danny even get the test answers?
  Mr. Lancer: I don't know, unless he's somehow developed the power to turn invisible and reach through solid objects
  Jazz: <gulp>

The so-called ghosts from season 3

Granted, this is due to Seasonal Rot and wanting to make the series more like a superhero show, but really? Around season 3, the enemies became more inhuman—strange considering they're supposed to be ghosts. I can buy the idea that some spectral aura surrounding myths turned around and manifested as actual ghosts of Pandora and Pegasus etc, but where the heck do the others come in? Nocturne? Undergrowth? Vortex? At least the others had an implied background and post-humanity...

• My Watsonian explanation of choice regarding this one is a theory that a fan came up with. Said theory is that you've got three different kinds of beings that are native to the Ghost Zone, which are, from weakest to strongest:
  • Type 1: 'Blob' ghosts. These ghosts are basically the Ghost Zone's equivalent to life rising from the primordial muck. Except replace cytoplasm with ectoplasm and all. Various degrees of sentience, and some might take on representation of certain things if their creation has an affinity. Examples would be all the blobs and form lacking ghosts we've seen whirling around, or things like the Ectopuses. The Far Frozen's inhabitants are a special case. More analogous to humans, but hailing from the Ghost Zone (hence having a lot of knowledge/treasure of it and caring so much about Danny pawning Pariah Dark)
  • Type 2: Dead People. Basically, people who died and ended up in the GZ. However, the majority of them do not get involved due to various reasons, such as wanting the release or staying to a certain region. However, some gain abilities or attributes held in life (so, Lunch Lady got her food control over her being a, well, lunch lady. Box Ghost probably worked at a warehouse, Technus as an inventor, etc.). They're sentient as any of us. Note that this is also a power level that's varied; since theoretically a Type 2 could become powerful enough to challenge Type 3s, seen below.
  • Type 3: Deity-type. Despite the term, it more means that these ghosts are a personification of something. Clockwork and Time, the Fright Knight and Halloween, Undergrowth and Flora, so on and so forth. These ghosts are made with the same stuff as the others, yes, but far stronger. They never lived as humans or other life knows it, but rather were part of the universe and trapped in the Ghost Zone for the most part unless pulled from it (IE, a spell similar to what punted the FK into the GZ also could release him). Note that when he showed up, the Fright Knight was the strongest foe Danny ever faced. However, all of these ghosts have some sort of weakness tied to their natural element. IE, Undergrowth and his roots or the Fright Knight and spells. No easy one for Clockwork, but the idea is the same.
• The entire premise of DP is a superhero show, no matter what season they were in. That said, I never had a specific problem with how powerful Nocturn, Undergrowth, and Vortex were because the idea of them being God-like entities gave the excuse that Danny had developed to the point that he can take even these guys on. The problem I had with them (and most Season 3 cast) was that they lacked a personality, so maybe that's why they felt "less like ghosts." No motivation or obsession on what they wanna do. We get the idea they want to rule the world, but never the why.
  • Undergrowth was just sick and tired of humans destroying their ecosystems. Vortex considered his climate changes to be a form of art, as noted by his comparison to the Mona Lisa.
    • That's what I meant by the whole "we get the idea of why they wanna rule the world." I guess I should have been a bit more clear (sorry); what I meant was despite their motivation, there isn't much of a personality to push and justify it. Vortex claims his weather is his art, but he doesn't do anything to convince me it is. All the animation shows is him creating wanton amounts of generic destruction—heck, he only states that once and never does so again. Undergrowth is angry at humans for what they did to his greens, but there's barely a personality behind said anger. I think it's just tiresome for me when you have three new villains whose goals and personality are usually the same with very little to interchange as oppose to the other ghouls who each have a different character and goals—often more personal (which I find much more engaging). Not that there is anything wrong with baddies who wanna rule the world.
    • Oh. Well, in that case, it's probably just that they each only ever had one episode in the last season of the show with no prior establishment or foreshadowing and were all written after Steve Marmel got axed.
• See Sorting Algorithm of Evil.
• Supposedly, Butch Hartman couldn't find a way to reconcile his Christian beliefs with the idea of really for-real ghosts. That's the rumor, anyway.
• For the record, the show is heavily inspired by The Real Ghostbusters, where the "ghosts" consisted of both the spirits of once-living people who had died and creatures who originally came from another dimension. Whether this makes sense or not, Danny Phantom isn't the only show to use the word "ghost" to mean more than just "spirits of dead people" — Our Ghosts Are Different.
• According to a Q&A from Butch Hartman, all ghosts in the show are supernatural creatures from another dimension and any that imply to have been human once, such as the Box Ghost or Desiree or Technus, are simply making up their own backstories in order to imitate humans, which for this Troper...honestly sounds like a bad retcon as the ghosts in the beginning of the show were all clearly human-based, whereas they became more inhuman in later episodes. An inherent issue with the premise of the show is that if the ghosts were humans, then the Ghost Zone is some kind of afterlife and if any the cast die, why can’t they become ghosts too? Seems like a lot of Unfortunate Implications and Fridge Horror. Perhaps a better theory would be that for any ghost who may have been human, they were transformed into a ghost due to some contact with the Ghost Zone. E.g, we saw a portal to the Ghost Zone in Poindexter’s locker, so perhaps he got sucked in there? Or when Desiree became trapped in a lamp, maybe the lamp was from the Ghost Zone and transformed her into what she was? Not so much as killing these characters but transforming them in the same way Danny and Vlad were transformed, but just making full ghost instead of a half-ghosts.

Dark Danny's paradox

So you, a ghost of pure evil who's turned Earth and the Ghost Zone into a Crapsack World because you can, meet your younger, good self. Do you A: Use your ghost powers to knock your younger self and his friends unconscious and erase their memories of the future, then send them back to the past and be on your merry way? Or B: Send said friends back to their time with knowledge of your time period, then force your younger self to be trapped in the Ghost Zone so you can go back in time, then fake being the you of that time, and instigate your Start of Darkness? If you picked A, well done. If you picked B, HOW THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN WORK?! You aren't avoiding a temporal paradox, you're creating one!

• Long answer short-Dan's batshit insane.
• It actually makes sense if you think about it. If it hadn't been for Jazz, then Dark Danny could have simply caused the Nasty Burger accident and then forced Danny back into his original timeline. Danny, not knowing what events cause him to turn evil, asks Vlad to help him destroy his ghost half. When this goes wrong, you get the chain of events leading to Dark Danny. It was only because of Jazz's interference (and Clockwork's) that Danny was able to avoid the Bad Future.
• When does Dark Danny show any ability to wipe memories? Besides, he knew that Clockwork was meddling with his past; he probably feared that he'd continue to do so if he just sent them back sans memories. Going back himself would allow him to have more control.
• Dark Danny going back in time to ensure his own future is an example of the Bootstrap Paradox, where two events from the past and future end up causing one another to exist. Technically, Danny's grief that led to the creation of his darker self was caused by his darker self. It would explain why Tucker, Sam and Jazz also perished if it was supposedly just Lancer having a meeting with Danny and his parents, and why Danny himself didn't also die in the explosion. Dark Danny really did want to make sure his bad future happened.

So is Valerie stupid or what?

She gets a suit upgrade from straight the heck out of nowhere, never questions it, despite having fought a technology-themed ghost. What? What?! WHAT?!

• No just single minded
  • You'd think her dad would say something about it, though. He didn't exactly stay quiet about her first suit.
• Considering how willing she was to take the first suit, which only had a stalker-y message with a first name attached to it, I'm not that shocked.

How can a ghost have a breathing problem?

Really, Vortex. You just sound stupid.

• It might be a side-effect of being more used to manipulating the air around him for his weather-control than the air inside his throat to speak properly. He's suffering for his art.
• Or he just died with asthma and must now suffer with it FOREVER!...ever...ever.
• For some odd reason, ghosts can function just as living humans do, including basic bodily functions. They can get hurt, reproduce, and even grow old (and possibly...pass on? Again? I don't know). So...asthmatic ghost? Yes?

"Secret Weapons" situation

Vlad finds Jazz in his lab and says he has no reason to believe she would betray him. Then Skulker walks in and Vlad says "And now I do". Ummm... why would Skulker's presence make Jazz turn on Vlad, if he believed she was sincere about her running away from home.

• Skulker brought Danny. Vlad, knowing who Danny is, commented before any explanation could be made — he probably assumed that Danny and Jasmine were working together, and Skulker had found and defeated Danny while he was spying or something.
• To me it seemed like a "She knows too much" situation—Vlad is clearly surprised that Danny and Jazz seem to know each other (or maybe I'm misremembering?). The point is that Jazz (raised by ghost hunting fanatics) has suddenly seen Vlad associating with a bounty hunter ghost. And Danny might say something to her that would raise red flags, if they weren't already up. Basically, he had nothing specific, but he did have a reason to think she might turn on him, even though it might not have been her fault.

Eyes

Why does no one have "typical" eye colors like brown? They either have the rare or the unnatural. Seriously, every non-White character has blue or green eyes.

• And to be honest, I've never seen someone with brown eyes in that whole show. Probably because it looks prettier if it's bright colors like blue or green or something.
  • This troper finds brown eyes to be just as lovely and pretty.
• If you look at hair colors, the only people with brown hair here or on The Fairly OddParents! are Maddie (which you could argue is a reddish-brown), Timmy, and his Mom. Timmy was supposed to have red hair originally, but it was changed so he wouldn't look like Vicky, and his mom was given brown hair to match. I saw somewhere that Butch Hartman doesn't like using the color brown, which kind of explains it, but it seriously annoys the hell out of a troper who's going into a career where character design is very important. You can't get rid of the most common eye color and the second most common hair color because you don't like it.
• What I personally don't get is why every single ghost has either red or green eyes. Did this mean they had only green or red eyes when they were living? The only ones that didn't have either color were the ghosts that were placed under Freakshow's spell (they had blue). I actually did not notice the significance in the eye colors until someone pointed out, and I've been making characters with all sorts of eye colors for years.
  • Red is sort of the go-to eye color for ooglie-booglies and given that the green eyes are specifically ectoplasm-green for ghosts (green eyed humans have a slightly duller shade), I sort of figured that it was a sort of a "windows to the soul" situation.
• Made even more ridiculous/sadder when you consider that he himself has brown eyes.

Dude, where's my respect?

In Pirate Radio, Danny had single-handedly rallied the teenagers, geared them for battle and went to attack Youngblood's pirate ship, WHILE IN HUMAN FORM. Later after he goes ghost to win, he is being belittled because he 'bailed out' or whatever and his leadership for the last few hours is never mentioned again. Him 'bailing out' was being forced to walk the plank. DUDE. Status Quo is God and all but seriously? I liked the episode until that part, it showed Danny doesn't rely on his powers all the time and that he's competent without them.

• Perhaps because Phantom came back when the shield disappeared and claimed to have saved Fenton. The other teens probably assumed he'd "bailed" because Fenton never came back to help fight while Phantom was there, little suspecting that they are one and the same, of course. The other option is that Dash is just a huge jerk (which he is).

Danny's skin tone

Is there a reason Danny's ghost form has a considerably darker skin tone color than his human form? Seriously, if you compare the two there's a major difference. It doesn't make sense because ghosts are usually pale and he's referred to as a pale ghost kid a few times. What, did the ghost portal give him a tan?

• The accident in the Ghost Portal probably involved some electricity passing through air. This causes a large amount of ultraviolet light to be produced. This could account for the darker skin. Why people refer to his a "pale ghost kid" could be explained because people tend to think of all ghosts as pale.
• It could be because most of the times that Danny appears as a ghost, mood lighting is in effect and makes everything darker. This makes it appear that his skin is darker, but it's really just the lighting. For all we know, he actually could have pale skin as a ghost, you just wouldn't be able to tell due to atmosphere lighting.
  • No, it's not. We've seen other members of the cast in this "mood lighting", but they look the same as they look with normal lighting. If this was true, Sam's skin would've also turned darker anytime Danny goes ghost.
• It's in the superhero rulebook. When in human form, all superheroes must take on the appearance of a skinny white nerd. Only when they don their jumpsuits and colored undies can they become tan and sexy.
• Actually, it doesn't change all that much — they just do a quick swap of the shadows/highlights of his skin. I always felt like it was kinda a neat trick, since it gives a very slight emphasis to the fact that he's actually glowing in ghost form. But that might just be me making stuff up.
• It may be (as mentioned in a post I made above) that, just as his hair and eyes changed color from (what I call) the "doppelganger effect", his skin tone was also changed. Obviously not as severely as the other two traits, but with the doppelganger I heard about, both duplicate and original were Caucasian women in their mid-twenties. (I can't remember if the blonde was the original or the duplicate though.)

The Fentons' security systems

Frightmare shows that the Fentons have security cameras installed around their house that Danny uses to check and see if the family was forced to fall asleep. This brings up an important question...How is it that the Fenton family didn't figure out Danny's secret until Phantom Planet? Danny's changed forms in the house a number of times so we can assume he's been caught on tape at least once. Did the Fentons never check the footage? If this is the case than why bother?

• Considering he knew exactly where the security camera screens were in the Op Center and how to work them, he probably deletes any footage of himself from the camera's memory after a fight.
• Would you check the footage from your security cameras for no good reason? When you don't expect to see anything but blankness and blah-blah-blah? Also, Jack Fenton.

What the heck's up with this show's timeline?

When the series starts out, we can probably make an assumption Danny's been at high school for a few months-ish. "Prisoners Of Love" takes place in May, and then we follow up with a Halloween episode shortly after that. Then around 15 episodes later, we're at Christmas! It gets even worse when 7 episodes later it's once again summer, but heavily implied to be Danny simply going from 9th to 10th grade. And around 13 episodes later it's summer again! I know a lot of shows do this, but DP's always been pretty good about keeping things in the continuity, and this flies in the face of that.

• I imagine it's a bit of a mix-and-match situation regarding the episodes. They wanted the show to have the right continuity, but had to make episodes in order to match up with holidays and junk in real life. Then again, if you were to put everything in order by date, you'd end up messing with the storyline continuity...I'm with you. It's pretty confusing.
• Comic-Book Time.

The accident that gave him his powers...

If I'm remembering incorrectly, I apologize. But I recall either Danny's parents or sister mentioning his "accident," which means they know it happened/saw it happen, right? But the opening shows that at the moment of said accident, he transformed and looked like he does in his "ghost" form. Surely seeing your child/little brother turned into something like would be an image that stuck in your mind. So if someone in his family saw that, and then saw him doing ghost stuff and looking exactly the same as he did then, why did no one make the connection?

• Jazz mentioned the accident in My Brother's Keeper. It's fairly vague what she's referring to, though, and it's implied Danny was home alone when it happened. He could have turned back human by the time anybody was home and simply told them that the portal accidentally flicked on while he was in it, and neglected to tell them it gave him powers. I mean, it's not like Jack's experiment in college gave Vlad ghost powers, right?
  • Well, "Memory Blank" shows us that he wasn't home alone when it happened. Sam and Tucker were there too, Sam being the one to convince him to check out the portal in the first place. But yeah, Danny's family had to have found out about it somehow. Probably something along the lines of them rushing in when they heard the explosion and finding Danny out cold.
    • I meant he was home alone in terms of his family being gone. They were out doing something, Sam and Tucker watch Danny go into the portal, Danny comes out a ghost, and by the time his parents roll into the drive way he somehow forces himself back into his human form.
    • ...Like the previous troper said, I think most of the answers are in Memory Blank, where he turns back into his human self just before his dad walks into the lab. Maybe his disbelief of being dead is what caused him to turn back to normal, or something. Even without the concept of Memory Blank, when his parents walked in, they would've noticed how shaken up he and his friends were, and that the Portal was suddenly working. They had to tell Jack and Maddie about the accident, as there was no other explanation. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that they had to mention the whole "Oh my god, what the hell happened to Danny" thing. They had no idea what had just happened, much less how to put it into words. I can easily see the conversation as something like "Oh, we were curious about the portal, Danny went inside and started screwing around, it exploded, sorry", especially coming from a few 14-year-olds. Oops, didn't mean for this entry to get so long. But yeah.
    • I don't think we know whether his parents were home. His dad walking into the lab and seeing Danny and Sam happened in the alternate reality that Desiree created due to Sam's wish; that portal accident happened months later than in the original reality. In the flashback shown at the beginning of the episode, the only reference to his parents is when Danny says, "My parents could be back here any minute." That's pretty vague, as they could have run upstairs momentarily or left the house for a while and were expected back soon.

How come they never made this wish: "Desiree, I wish you weren't evil?"

• I mean, she grants every wish she hears. In fact, after she's done being upset over being forced into the side of good, this is really a win-win scenario for everyone.
  • The same reason Timmy Turner doesn't wish that Mr. Crocker was a pink unicorn.
• Technically, she's not evil. She's been around for centuries and did nothing except grant people's wishes. The only reason why she's considered a villain is because Danny always tries to stop her from what fate is basically forcing her to do. Who wouldn't be angry and a bit vengeful for that?
  • Nah, she's pretty evil. She may have to grant wishes, but she clearly enjoys causing misery and hurting people.
• Although it's clear in her first appearance that she's magically compelled to grant every wish she hears (even if she can't think of a loophole to use it to make the wisher suffer), that weakness seems to be gone in her second appearance, where Sam has to be quick and get her to grant her Reset Button wish on reflex before realizing what she's done. This inconsistency aside (or maybe it's a result of her growing "more powerful," as she explains to Danny), any evil genie magically compelled to grant such a wish would find a loophole to avoid the intended results (ex. "Well, you may consider what I'm doing "evil," but I don't, so from my point of view, I'm not evil, so your wish is granted"). Undoing the damage caused by an evil ghost genie is never as easy as wishing it all away — Janine Melnitz learned that the hard way.

Is Danny's ghost half...bipolar?

• I have to be missing something here. Danny's ghost self is shy, and a bit freaked out when unexpectedly separated from his human part in "What You Want." Makes sense. In "Identity Crisis," his human half is the exact opposite of his ghost one, which now has a dedicated and Large Ham -y superhero personality. Character Development, alrighty then. In "The Ultimate Enemy", when (once again) separated from his human half, Danny's ghost half suddenly goes rogue and rips the ghost persona out of Vlad in a fit of rage. Oka-wait, what? I'm confused. Angst, maybe? Even if that were so, Vlad specifically said that ghosts don't have emotions. So...what happened?
  • I think the explanation is that it split Danny's emotions as well (Fun!Danny was not like the original either). Also, The second time Danny's emotions were again forcefully split apart, and he was not is a good stat of mind. All the good went into the human half, the bad into the ghost half. Most ghosts in the show are show extreme negative emotion (Anger, sadness (when Dora first appeared) and obsession).
    • I also want to add that Danny probably isn't held to the same laws of the ghost universe, since he's a halfa. It may not have been a case of "good side, bad side", but more like Danny's human heart tempers his ghost half. His extremely POWERFUL ghost half. As stated above, he also wasn't in the best state when it happened. With nothing to keep his ghost side in check, it may have been more easily corrupted. Danny Phantom's grin when he ripped Plasmius out of Vlad makes me think that it wasn't intended as Danny trying to be heroic, but more corrupted!Phantom trying to gain more power.
  • My belief is that like you mentioned, ghosts don't have emotions. The reason Danny's ghost half does is because it's a split version of HIM. The time in Identity Crisis he wanted to split his responsibility away from himself, which is why he split into Super Danny. The time in TUE he wanted to forget the love and regret, making him an evil maniac.

Why was Tucker made Mayor at the end?

• Seriously, why was he chosen to be mayor? Why not Jazz? She's probably the most intelligent and reasonable in town. It'd make more sense if she got the job, in my opinion.
  • If I remember correctly, Tucker was the head of operations to make sure the whole plan (turning the Earth intangible) went smoothly. Jazz was busy distracting her parents and therefore wasn't much help in the way of saving the world. Danny did the most work, of course, but Tucker was back on Earth telling him exactly what to do and when to do it. Danny was honored for his duties by putting up massive statues of him everywhere (it was his idea), and Tucker was rewarded with mayorship.
  • Maybe Danny was asked but declined, then Tucker got appointed instead.
  • I have my own theory that makes a bit more sense- he's Danny's best friend. Nothing more. Consider how Tucker is easily corrupted by power, I have to agree he's not the ideal choice.

How exactly does the Fenton Ghost Catcher work and/or what exactly is the nature of Danny's powers?

I love how the series is just loaded with gadgets we slowly become familiar with but in some cases, such as this one it gets confusing when multiple effects are presented. In What You Want, we see Danny flying through it in his ghost form, he gets split from his "ghost half" very briefly. Cool. But when we see it used in Identity Crisis, not only is he not "perfectly" split into ghost half and human half like last time, but each half has a different personality, different desires (in What You Want, though it was brief it seemed like both halfs wanted to come together again immediately), different everything and too boot, in order to come together again they had to use the Ghost Catcher in a specific way, where as in What You Want they merely came back together without usage of the Ghost Catcher.

I mean at the end of the day I suppose we could just chock this up to "improvements" made to the device, but its appearance in What You Want leaves questions. Firstly if Danny is genetically bonded with these powers how could he have two halves, the Ghost Catcher can expel ghost "essence" on the molecular level? Second in it's "improved form" in Identity Crisis, why/how would it only expel ghost presence in a non-uniform manner (rather than expelling the whole ghost (like all of Danny Phantom) it divided him in half "duplicating" his presence (albeit each half had different powers) that is like the worst thing possible, if it were used on an enemy in this episode (the last time it was used it got rid of Tucker's "ghost presence" but according to the rules in this episode it would have duplicated it)

• I think the 'going through in reverse' thing was more related to time apart then anything else, while the separate personalities is more plot specific and the lack of duplication to tucker is likely due to how they were each fuzed; Danny by a tear in the fabric of space-time with the possible side of 'ectoplasmic imprinting' where the 'ghost' bits of Danny became so connected to him over the years and heavy usage that they started emulating him no matter what, and Tucker by a genie.

Phasing and overshadowing

Ok so how exactly does this work. Danny has been able to phase through matter, and grab something at the same time (i.e.:fishing for a book from his bag/locker without opening it) but that makes no sense, you can't grab something if you're intangible, like in what way could this be explained off?

Second while fighting ghosts Danny has used intangibility to evade attacks. Cool, why doesn't he do this more frequently? But most importantly, why would this even work, are ghosts even made of matter? Couldn't his opponents just go intangible to hit him anyway or whatever? The only thing I can infer is that Danny didn't do this frequently because most ghosts can hit him anyway.

Finally, when fighting Nocturne he overshadowed him. How is it possible to possess a ghost? Or is entering a mind different from overshadowing? Would that technically be considered a new power?

• 1.) Easy: Danny can spread intangibility to other objects. When he phased his arm in, he made the books intangible as well and phased them through the locker door. 2.) No, ghosts are not made of matter (not earth matter, anyway). They're ectoplasmic beings, thus made entirely of ectoplasm, a substance different from the usual solid/liquid/gas. Danny doesn't evade attacks with intangibility often because he isn't a quick thinker and usually doesn't get the chance to turn intangible before he can be hit. 3.) You said it: he's entering the mind, not the body. I think this had something to do with the fact that Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Nocturne were all asleep when he entered their dreams. Maybe it's some sort of advanced ghostly telepathy? It's possible he's had this power all along, but never realized he could utilize it until Nocturne attacked.

Alternate timeline richness?

In the episode that introduces Danielle, Vlad said that he got rich by using his powers for invisible burglaries ad overshadowing rich men to give him checks. Then in the episode where Danny changes the past... he's as rich as his other counterpart. Without ghost powers. Anyone care to explain?

• A feasible explanation could be that he helped Maddie create more practical inventions than ghost-related ones; he then marketed these inventions (a talent that wouldn't be completely out of character, even without his ghostly half) for a massive profit.
• Didn't it have something to do with him being the new Dairy King or whatever?
• He's living in the Dairy King's castle, but there's no indication he's running a vast business empire or is a billionaire member of the Fiction 500 in the alternate timeline.

Does Jack wear a toupee?

I always wondered why his hair was black on top and grey on the sides.

• His hair is beginning to turn grey. He's as old as Vlad.
  • It's worth mentioning that Vlad's white hair was caused by the shock from the prototype portal. We have no way of knowing whether or not his hair would be completely white if he'd remained human.
    • Yes, we do. In one episode Danny stopped Vlad from getting his ghost powers and it altered the future. Vlad's hair was still white.

How come no one makes the connection between Fenton and Phantom?

• How come no one, even though Danny Phantom's face gets plastered on the news, none of his classmates or his parents make the connection?
  • Dark Danny kind of hangs a lampshade on the idea in TUE, when he's mocking Jack and Maddie for not making the connection.
  Dark Danny: "Hell-O! Danny FENTON? Danny PHANTOM? ...Ever notice a similarity?"
  • It's revealed in "Doctor's Disorders" that the idea of humans having ghost powers is considered impossible. It never occurs to anybody that Danny Phantom could be Danny Fenton because it never occurs to them that Danny Phantom could have a human alter ego at all — as far as the world's concerned, Danny Phantom is a ghost, not a human with ghost powers and a Secret Identity.

Why does Valerie have the ghost glow VFX with her original gear?

• It makes sense for her Technus gear given it's ghost made, but why did the original gear give her a glow like Danny has in ghost form given that it was literally just a jumpsuit?
  • Ask half-ghost Vlad — he made it (either he or his sometimes-partner Skulker). The GiW's weapons and Fentons' weapons also usually have the ghost glow and even run on "ecto-energy" according to "Reality Trip."

How could Valerie think Danny Phantom was trying to kill her in "Flirting With Disaster"?

She was right in front of him when he joined the fight, knocking the suit away before it could vaporize her. It should have been obvious from her point of view that Danny Phantom clearly saw she wasn't wearing the suit.

• I don't think Valerie picked up on the fact that Danny Phantom was trying to save her, cause it happened rather fast, and wasn't sure if he knew or realized she wasn't in the suit.

Valerie's appearance in her ghost suit

How is it that Valerie's body is slimmer and slightly more elongated in her ghost suit than in her regular clothes? Did she make it out of Spanx?

• The suit was made by Vlad, and considering she has a ghostly glow when wearing it, it probably has some supernatural elements that enhance her strength, agility, speed etc. Making her appear slimmer and taller could be one of those effects.

Which half has powers again?

This is a minor thing, but why can Danny use his powers when not in ghost mode? He always could, so it isn't anything out of left field, but it does make me wonder why he even needs to transform.

• I always figured it was because when he transformed it made his powers stronger.
  • Because the "real" world and the "ghost" world operate on different rules. Ghosts can defy real world physics (as far as we understand) like intangibility or telekinesis. Humans who enter the Ghost Zone are virtually immune to any ghost powers, because in the Ghost Zone, humans ARE the "ghosts", as it were. Danny is only considered "half-ghost" because it's a simple and easy way to describe his unique physiology, not because he's suddenly "less" than human or "sort-of" died in the portal; which leads to the thought that his transformation happened IN THE PORTAL. A portal is essentially a door, a means to enter from one are to another. Since Danny was literally standing at the halfway point between worlds when the accident happened, it makes sense that he has the powers, not just one "half".

You can also see the ectoplasm fusing itself onto his DNA, further reinforcing that Danny has powers, not just one half. Danny CAN use ghost powers while human, (his "Ghost Sense" happens regardless of whether he's gone ghost or not), and as he gains more control and power, he's able to use more of his "ghost" abilities in the real world.Long story short, real world and ghost world use two different sets of rules. As Danny grows, he's able to "merge the rulebooks" to be better able to use his powers regardless of which realm he's in.

"Micro Management"

Why does Danny need a fitness trainer for gym class? He should easily be able to tap into his superpowers just enough to pass everything without a hassle. He could probably run faster than any high schooler in existence and he's definitely strong and agile enough that rope climbing and such would be child's play.

• Danny has the exact same idea...right before he gets thrown into a situation where he slowly loses his power bit by bit, and all he has to rely on are his human abilities, which he realizes he'd better hone fast.

Sam's ponytail

Is it even possible for Sam's hairstyle to include a ponytail?

• Sure, it is—she just has a short half-up, half-down ponytail that looks a little weird due to the simple art style (look at the title character from Anastasia for another example from animation). The top layer of hair gets pulled back into a ponytail, while the bottom layer is left alone to frame the neck.

Why doesn't Danny ever just tell his parents the truth?

Yeah, yeah, Status Quo Is God, yadda yadda yadda. But every time we've seen the secret slip to Danny's parents that he's actually Phantom, they've instantly been totally cool and accepting of it. And yet each time (minus Phantom Planet), he wipes their memory of it. Why? All he's doing is creating another secret he has to keep from them, as well as having to deal with them shooting at him when he's in his ghost form.

• In the beginning, it's because A) he doesn't think they'll understand and B) he's frightened by their eagerness to vaporize any ghost they see (see the scene where he almost confesses to Jazz in "My Brother's Keeper"). Later, such as after "Reality Trip," it makes sense he'd still want to keep it a secret to protect them. (Does Jack really seem like the type who could keep a secret better than Rubeus Hagrid?)

Dark Danny and the Cheesehead

Why did Dark Danny not destroy Vlad Masters? Why does he have trouble finding Vlad's portal when he can very easily go right back to Vlad's place and destroy it? If Dark Danny believed he did kill Vlad and destroy the portal, how would he know the portal still existed?

• Dark Danny tells Jazz he'll destroy his Arch-Enemy and his portal as soon as he finds them. Somehow, Vlad managed to hide from him (presumably not in the mansion where the fatal "operation" took place).

  • Considering how easy Vlad made it to find him and his dull surprise, Vlad could have easily been a death seeker waiting for Dark Danny to kill him. For all we know, Vlad had hidden himself quite well up until a certain point where he may have thought it pointless to keep living.

• It's been a while since I saw the special so I could be misremembering something, but my assumption was that it was a form of Cruel Mercy; he left Vlad alive to suffer by watching the disaster he helped create.

Why don't the Fentons invite everyone to obtain powers the same way Danny did?

Seriously, there's so much potential for improving the human condition if everyone could have the same powers Danny does. Why keep it to yourself? Unless you're evil and want to use it against other people, but that's clearly not what's responsible here.

• ...Maybe because handing out powers of flight, possession, and invisibility to every human being in the world isn't automatically as grand an idea as you're implying it to be? Not to mention, when Danny got his powers, it was an accident, and probably very painful, and causes him a lot of trouble on a daily basis. And I thought the Fentons didn't find out he had powers until the grand finale.
  • "What You Want" shows that just giving anyone ghost powers is a bad idea, as shown by Tucker becoming a jerk and letting power go to his head.
• Also it did give Danny powers that eventually resulted in his near death due to internal frostbite, gave Vlad a debilitating illness that acted more like cancer then superpowers after it came out of remission, and from what we can see ectoplasm is akin to toxic waste under most circumstances.
• This may sound stupid, but why couldn't it be? If every human had half-ghost powers they would have the ability to become intangible and therefore could avoid harm couldn't they? The pros of having of half-ghost powers outweighs the cons.
• Butch Hartman himself states in this video (fact 73) that not everyone can just step into the portal and obtain ghost powers and that if Sam or Tucker tried it, they would end up dead.
• And why is that? There has be a good reason Vlad and Danny could obtain them.
  • One possible interpretation? Danny, Vlad (and Jack in the alternate timeline) had extensive exposure to ectoplasm and ghost technology throughout their lifetimes. Perhaps their bodies built up a "natural immunity" of sorts that would let them survive after being exposed to the Ghost Portal. Butch Hartman doesn't mention Jazz or Maddie, which could imply they are potential half-ghosts as well.
  • Or Vlad's accident was different to Danny's. Danny had a full body blast from a perfected portal with pure ectoplasm and comes out a white haired green eyed tanned version of himself, Vlad was shot in the face by a faulty prototype with cola tainted ectoplasm and comes out a blue skinned vampire like creature, and suffering from ecto acne. Danny's accident was more intense so the survival probability is less likely.

Sam and Tucker can't see Youngblood

In "The Fenton Menace," Youngblood himself establishes that he's invisible to adults or teens who think they are adults like Jazz. So how come Sam and Tucker couldn't see him when he's messing with Danny as the Fentons are preparing to leave for their weekend retreat (especially when those two had previously seen him in "Pirate Radio")?

• Sam and Tucker grew up mentally by the time he showed up again, or in short, like Jazz, they start to think they were teens who they are adults by time of "The Fenton Menace."
• Plot convenience.
• It's possible that in The Fenton Menace it wasn't the case that Danny was immature (being the protector of his town would probably force him to be more mature not less) instead Youngblood's 'only the young may see him' thing is only applicable to humans and Danny could see him because of his ghost half.

What actually happens when Danny, Vlad and Dani transform?

When they turn into ghosts, does that technically mean they die, and then resurrect when switching back to humans?

• I think you're reading too much into it. The actual origins of ghosts in this show are largely unknown; some are spirits of dead people, like Ember and Youngblood, but some are just supernatural gods like Nocturne and Undergrowth. Which category Danny, Vlad and Dani fall into is really anyone's guess.

Danny's intangibility

How does Danny's intangibility work? If he gets stuck halfway through a wall, where does that part of the wall go??

• You seem to believe in an incorrect definition of intangibility. Danny phases through objects. He doesn't destroy the things he goes through.

• I don't think it's possible for Danny to get stuck halfway through a wall when phasing; once he starts, he can't become solid again till his whole body is through.

Dash's savvy-ness

If Dash is so self-aware that jerk jocks like him become future losers, then why can't he just better himself to avoid that fate? I mean, Kwan was one of the nicer popular kids and supposedly becomes a scientist in the future as shown in "The Ultimate Enemy", even despite being a bit of a Dumb Jock. Is Dash really that much of a sadistic sociopath that he's willing to accept an entire adulthood with a horrible job struggling to make ends meet just to spend literally four years of his life making nerds miserable?

• If you mean the episode where Spectra showed up, that could have been the general depression she was instilling talking instead of something he actually believed (or even considered) later. Once that was over and he went back to normal, he may not have given it any real thought.
  • Dash has shown self-awareness in other episodes, too. In the very first episode, he says that he's living the best years of his life in high school and after that it'll all be downhill for him.

• Dash honestly doesn't believe be can change so he's trying to live it up while he can. Presumably he doesn't have the greatest home life and may be taking after a father or other parental figure he feels "doomed" to follow in the footsteps of.

Passing for alive

How did so many ghosts in the series get away with pretending to be alive? Johnny 13 only really interacted with Jazz, so that one's more justified, but Ember had a whole marketing campaign around her, and Dr. Spectra is, according to Lancer, a renowned motivational coach outside of Amity Park. Unless Spectra faked her credentials (which is possible but never stated), how could so many people not realize these ghosts were ghosts?

• Ember has hypnotic powers and people could just assume her look was done with make-up. Spectra looks human. Also, overshadowing could be used on humans that would try to look into their history.

Wishing All the Ghosts Free

• In the episode where Danny ends up locked in Walker's ghost prison, Desiree is clearly shown as being one of the ghosts in there with them, and her powers are so strong that she can effectively rewrite history should a person wish it. So why does Danny never just try using her to wish them all free of Walker's jail?

Danny's inconsistent immunity to Ember's music

In Ember's first appearance, Danny is notably one of the few people who hears Ember's music and is not affected by it. Sam speculates that him being half-ghost has something to do with it, which might be an acceptable explanation. However, later that same episode, Danny succumbs to Ember mind controlling him to be obsessively in love with Sam. Why would his ghost powers give him immunity to one but not the other? And if it's not his ghost powers that gave him immunity, what did and why didn't it work on Ember's "love song"?

• Ember explains this: "The more kids chanting, the stronger I get! ... Now that, they're chanting my name, my music CAN affect you!" Her Popularity Power gave her a big enough power boost to affect Danny.

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