thespace-dragon
do you ever think about how super fucked up danny phantom is
a 14-year-old boy fucking dies in a tragic lab accident, but the accident happens halfway into an alternate dimension, so he is both killed (in one dimension) and not killed (in the other). danny is literally schrodinger’s boy — both dead and alive. he’s a living corpse possessed by his own ghost.
DUDE WHAT
YES and its AWESOME.
This is really why I am still into Danny Phantom - years after it stopped airing. Years after I left the ‘intended audience age’ (More under the cut)
At first glance, It’s pretty superhero-y, thick with a kids show ‘learn a lesson this week’.. after the third season, the character development regressed painfully
(I refuse to acknowledge Phantom Planet as an actual ending… it was an AU or something. A mutual dream.)
But the concept of it… the characters…
Extradimensional beings trying to claw their way into this world to terrorize humans, and a half-dead freshman high-schooler keeping his ‘powers’ a secret.
At first I was worried about premature white hair, but then I remembered my parents will want to dissect me at an atomic level.
…Who is trying to stop this invasion, while also maintaining a ‘normal’ highschool life (and failing). Meanwhile, the creepy creatures still manage to get past him, overpower him, hell, outclass him entirely on a fairly frequent basis. It’s basically a futile, unending struggle of brief victories and exhaustion. (Presented as a victory, for the lesson-of-the-day)
At the center of this huge ‘superpower awakening’ story are loads of interesting concepts, which beg all sorts of interesting questions be asked, extrapolated, and examined.
It is a veritable GOLD MINE of fanfiction and meta-reading starting points.
Ghosts. — > Spirituality, morality, psychology, weird science, mythology, what ‘enemies’ entails
Family —-> ‘Coming out’ story, trust/distrust vying with familial love, what constitutes abuse, lies and half-truths, consequences of inattention, enthusiasm ‘going too far’, and harming the ones you love
Friends —> Social statuses, growing up, holding onto dreams, jealousy, uncomfortable romance….
Life –> Power&responsibility, work-life balance, public reputation, ‘Who am I?’, Vengeance, Arrogance,
Vlad gets his own subcategory. Holy cow. I don’t even know where to start. STILL one of the most complex and interesting villains I’ve ever seen.
There’s a lot more…
Basically, it’s complex and varied in the themes it employs, and the ghosts are never strictly defined, so they could be anything.
I Really REALLY wish DP had gotten a Gravity Falls treatment, with everything having a solid and meaningful plot driving it, and solid character development, instead of whimsically episodal with a little bit of overarching plot, frequent (and frequently insubstantial) callbacks to previous episodes, and stuttering character development.
I wish we had more info on side characters.
Basically, more fanfiction fuel.
The show itself is good, it is made of good material, but it is limited by the ‘kids cartoon’ moniker.
It needs the chance to shine in all its creepy glory - like Over the Garden Wall, and Gravity Falls. It only rarely managed to portray actually creepy things, and those were usually ruined by campy tropes and cheesy dialogue. (Exceptions: Intro to Pariah Dark and everything about Dan)
It needed a chance to show that - yes, people were getting possessed by eldrich monsters and yes, people’s lives were being ruined, the town was running scared. People were losing memory, others were losing homes or jobs.
It was mentioned, but glossed over and very rarely driven home in the narrative.
It NEEDED that driving factor.. Valerie Grey and Vlad Masters could kick you in the feels because you could SEE that this ghost thing had had a hard impact on their lives. It felt like ‘Yes, I could see a person reacting like this.‘
The story felt real, when we were following their POV.
It felt like MORE than a bunch of witty one-liners and a danger-of-the-day.
And this is why I love the Phandom (phantom fandom) - for seeing those elements, pulling them out and continuing or altering the story.
I see a lot of sappy romances, sure….but I also see SO MANY tales of emotional rejection, struggling with truths, horror and terror and a twisting of the human psyche in the face of the unknowable.
(Headcanon? Why no, actually. He actually was strung up and tortured on a couple different occasions, but we’re going to gloss over that - think of the children!)
It’s not just ‘Hey lets make this kids show GrimDark for the sake of 'gritty realism’.- This stuff was already in the story. It was already staring at us from behind a cloak of bright colors, censored handwaving and facepalm-worthy zingers.
We just lifted the cloak.
And oh what a world we found
bittenred
ciphersiren
salamandraimoral
ruinedchildhood
