YMMV / Danny Phantom S 1 E 5 Splitting Images

• Broken Aesop: The Aesop for this episode is supposedly "Getting revenge on bullies makes you a bully." By that logic, Danny is a bully for messing with Dash. Therefore, Poindexter should be just as much of a "bully" as Danny, as he also uses his powers to punish bullies, and a kid he thinks is a bully. Danny is portrayed as in the wrong for giving the real bullies a taste of their own medicine, but Poindexter is treated as in the right for giving Danny a taste of his own medicine. Danny concludes that what Poindexter put him through "serves me right," even though he and Poindexter did the exact same thing with the exact same motive. If Danny was wrong, Poindexter should have been wrong, too. Conversely, if Poindexter's actions were justified, Danny's should have been, too. The double standard is very stark.
  • And technically speaking, Poindexter's actions in this episode make him far more of a bully than Danny. With his motive being to punish anyone who's a bully, and with this episode's Aesop stating that committing the same actions against a bully makes you a bully, Poindexter does that to the jocks and Paulina, as well as Danny since Poindexter thinks he's a bully. The only person Danny gets back at is Dash. None of his actions against Dash really go too far into warranting the Grand Theft Me that Poindexter pulls on him. This makes Danny's consequences in the episode unfair Disproportionate Retribution and Poindexter's lack of consequences completely hypocritical.
  • Making matters worse is that befriending Dash was portrayed as the right way to handle the bullying situation, even though they only liked him because he was giving away free sodas to people. It did nothing to rectify Dash's already little character. The fact he reverted to his behavior by the end showed he was only being Danny's friend for special favors.
• Fanfic Fuel: There is the potential to take Poindexter's character in a different direction. A possible example is how Poindexter would ally with Danny in revenge against the other bullies. However, after getting their fun, Poindexter could take it too far due to what he experienced in the past. At the same time, Danny begins questioning whether they have become bullies.
• Informed Wrongness: Danny for trying to fight back against the Jerk Jock bullies. Admittedly, it's just in how he handles things, but he's still put in the wrong for doing something about the constant bullying at the school.
• Never Live It Down: Although this is the only time in the entire series the term "halfa" is used, it was adopted by the fandom as the species name for half-human/half-ghost hybrids.
  • For that matter, this episode's Broken Aesop.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Sidney Poindexter. He was a nerd in the 50s who was constantly bullied by, literally, everyone in school. Yet when he finally escapes to the living world, he doesn't take the time to listen to Danny's reasonings as to why he was doing what he was to Dash. He then proceeds to replace Danny's soul with his, hijack his body, and trap Danny in the spirit world version of Casper High from the 50s to spend an eternity getting shat on while he rejoins the living world in Danny's body. He doesn't really get any comeuppance for this act at any time and comes off as not much different from the bullies of his time, so he pretty much deserves to be bullied in his purgatory.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Danny's put in the wrong for doing something about the constant bullying at school, but as we see in previous episodes, what other choice does he have? The school's not doing anything, Dash's reputation means the teachers are going to cover for him, and no one else is going to step in to protect Danny or his friends. If Danny didn't have ghost powers there's nothing stopping the situation from escalating into physical violence.

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