Recap / Danny Phantom S 1 E 6 What You Want

"In Sensational Dream-O-Rama!"

Produced 2003, aired in U.S. on 4/30/04

Production order: 6 (1-6)

A little girl at a carnival accidentally releases the ghost genie Desiree from her bottle, who goes around town causing chaos with the wishes she grants, including Tucker's wish to have ghost powers like his friend. As an added bonus, as his powers grow, so does the jealousy that prompted the wish, and if Danny can't change his friend back soon, it'll be too late.

---

Tropes included:

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Invoked.
  Tucker: ... To that, I'd like to add a big fat, "Duh!"
• Both Sides Have a Point: After Danny banishes the jealousy ghost that infused Tucker with his ghost powers, the two apologize to each other. Tucker admits that he should never have allowed his jealousy to cloud his judgement, while Danny points out he's also at fault for neglecting their friendship.
• Briar Patching: Danny lures Tucker to his house before the latter finally catches him. Danny still has to get him to the Ghost Catcher, which is in his basement near the ghost portal.
  Danny: NO! Don't throw me into the Ghost Zone! Please!
  Tucker: I wasn't going to, but that is a great idea!
• Cereal-Induced Superpowers: Referenced by one of the football announcers after Desiree turns Dash into a monster.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Fenton Ghost Catcher, which Danny uses to free Tucker from Desiree's spell.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: One of the pranks Tucker pulls with his ghost powers is to pull down Mr. Lancer's pants in front of the school.
• Comical Overreacting: Even without them being on-screen, Sam's parents get an Establishing Character Moment when Sam is shown having a team of doctors treating her.
  Sam: Guys, it's just a cold.
  (A paramedic comes in with a defibrillator)
  Paramedic: Clear!
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Casper High's football team is utterly trounced by the opposition, with a Running Gag of Dash being tackled by the entire team.
• A Day in the Limelight: This is one of the few episodes that focuses on Tucker.
• De-power: Introduces the Fenton Ghost Catcher, a device shaped like a Native American dream catcher that purges ghost energy from anything (or anyone) that passes through it and stops ghost energy from reaching anyone on the other side.
• Easily Forgiven: Danny holds no grudge against Tucker for what happened as he was under a genie's spell most of the time, even though Tucker admits the whole thing only happened because he was jealous.
• Feud Episode: For Danny and Tucker.
• Fighting Your Friend: Danny is forced to fight Tucker in the second half of this episode.
• Flashback Episode: The entire episode is narrated by Tucker into his PDA. Considering he was in his right mind while doing so, it was a hint that Danny was going to get him back to normal.
• Flying Car: When a surfer is stuck in traffic, he halfheartedly wishes that his car could fly over the traffic. Desiree grants the wish, but unfortunately, the car flies out of control.
• Gone Horribly Right: As Danny notes, the Fenton Ghost Catcher is one of the few Fenton inventions to actually work... with this one being too well.
  Danny: I'm filling this under "must avoid".
• Green-Eyed Monster: Tucker's jealousy over Danny's powers causes him to slowly turn evil when he gets his own.
• Hates Being Touched: Desiree becomes violent when Danny grabs her, demanding she change Tucker back.
  Desiree: You dare lay a hand on me?! No man may lay a hand on me unless I wish it!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Danny finally defeats Desiree by wishing for her to disappear inside the thermos. Desiree is forced to obey the wish, even though she doesn't want to.
• Idiot Ball: The entire conflict only happens because it takes Danny a while to think of telling Desiree, "I wish you would disappear inside this thermos!"
  Danny: If I weren't a C student, I would've thought of that five days ago.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Danny tries getting Tucker to remember they're friends, but it does no good.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Creators Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel appear in animated form during the football game as the football announcers.
• Instant Expert: Thanks to Desiree's spell, Tucker's ghost power grow at a fast rate, which is a bad thing as not only does it lead to him becoming a rage-filled ghost boy, but it causes him to give Danny a difficult fight, especially since he's holding back.
• Jackass Genie: Downplayed. Desiree grants whoever makes a wish what they want, but each wish comes "at a personal cost" to them, namely due to using ghost energy to grant it. For example, Tucker is given ghost powers of his own and at a much faster growth rate than Danny, but his jealously and resentment causes him to go mad with power and nearly become a monster.
• Kids Driving Cars: When the surfer's car flies out of control, Tucker attempts a heroic exploit by grabbing the wheel. Danny points out the problem with Tucker's plan:
  Danny: Tucker, we're too young to drive!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Dash getting utterly beaten in a football game can be seen as this for him.
• Loser Team Mascot: During a football game, Tucker convinced Danny to fill in for the team mascot. Unfortunately, Danny ends up getting trampled by the team as they come charging onto the field.
  Danny: [mocking Tucker] "Fill in for the mascot. It'll be fun! You'll meet cheerleaders!".
• Mundane Utility: Danny uses his ghost powers at the movie theater to casually phase through a trashcan while walking to avoid needing to turn to avoid it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Tucker's horrified once he's back to his old self and realizes what he did as a ghost.
• New Super Power: Danny discovers his ability to shoot ghost rays in this episode. It even becomes his signature offensive power onward.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A variation where the "villain" is a ghostified Tucker. During an argument, Tucker tells Danny how Desiree gave him his powers and he'll use them how he wants. This gives Danny a clue as to how to cure his friend of his ghost powers. Tucker even lampshades that it was his "fault" for even tipping off Danny the genie belonged to Baba Zita.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Desiree for the most part isn't actively malicious with her wish granting, she's just granting the wishes of everyone she hears by infusing them with ghost powers, the issues stem more from them going mad with power, or the powers themselves causing things to go out of control. She's even polite to Danny when he first confronts her, asking him what his wish is. It isn't until Danny actively fights her and hits her Berserk Button that she becomes a flat-out enemy, which carries over to her subsequent appearances.
• Only Sane Man: When Danny's parents try to use the Fenton Ghost Catcher to expel viral ghosts from their systems, Danny mentions they could just have a regular cold and that it didn't have to involve ghosts. They think he's crazy.
  Jack: I remember when I was that naive.
• Power at a Price: The more powerful Tucker gets, the more enraged and ghost-like he becomes.
• Race Against the Clock: Danny has until noon 2 days after Tucker got his powers to free his friend, or he'll be a vengeful, rage-filled ghost forever.
• Rival Turned Evil: Tucker eventually goes too far with his ghost powers, so Danny is forced to fight him.
• School Grade Hacking: Danny catches Tucker hacking into the school's computer network to change his grades when confronting him about his newly-acquired ghost powers. This is used as an example of how Tucker was abusing his powers, and how his constant use of them was corrupting his morality.
  Danny: Tucker, you're changing your grades?! That's cheating!
  Tucker: I'd like to think of it as "academic enrichment".
• Shout-Out:
  • This episode reveals what Danny does with the ghosts he captures in the Fenton Thermos. He takes the thermos to his basement, to a large device built into the wall, loads the trap in a slot, and flushes the ghost... back into the Ghost Zone (something the Ghostbusters often worked on but were never able to perfect).
  • The kid sitting next to the man whose toupee Tucker steals resembles a young Ron Stoppable.
• Sick Episode: Sam is sick for almost the entirety of the episode, so she stays out of action. This is done to give Tucker the focus. By the end of the episode, while Sam gets better, Danny and Tucker both get sick and she takes care of them.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The events of the episode wouldn't happen if the little girl who wanted cotton candy so badly from the beginning didn't accidentally free Desiree from her bottle.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The little girl who wanted cotton candy frees Desiree.
• Villainous Plan Inertia: Danny succeeds in capturing Desiree before the climax of the episode, but that unfortunately doesn't cure Tucker, and as such, Danny is forced to deal with it before his transformation is complete.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Danny removes the ghost energy from Tucker, as well as both Dash and Paulina, they appear to become separate ghosts in their own right. However, Tucker, Dash, and Paulina's ghosts never appear again, despite being sent into the Ghost Zone.
• What Have I Become?: Tucker's reaction when he sees his monstrous ghost self after Danny separates the two.
  Tucker: Is... is that me?
  Danny: [sucking it into the thermos] No — it's not you, Tuck. Not anymore.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Desiree grants a wish that empowers someone, that same empowerment slowly drives them berserk. While Danny believes it to be a result of them being under "Desiree's spell", Desiree herself outlines its their new powers combined with their emotions that end up driving them mad. Dash ends up becoming a raging beast out of frustration at possibly losing the football game. Paulina lets the adoration she's getting go to her head and wants to make the whole world adore her. Tucker's jealousy and resentment of Danny causes him to get Drunk with Power and slowly become more monstrous the more he gets angry.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: When Tucker is using his ghost powers to pull pranks in school, Danny tries to tell him this, but Tucker says he can "keep that superhero jazz to [himself]" while he was only in it for the personal pleasure.

---