Character analysis: Danny phantom (Feat lousy)

Backstory

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Danny Fenton was your average 14 year old kid who just so happened to have parents who were obsessed with hunting and capturing ghosts. So much so that they tried to make a portal to the ‘Ghost Zone’ a world where spirits dwell. But their theoretical portal didn’t seem to work at first. They left it in their lab among the many other abandoned projects of theirs.

After being egged on by his friend, Sam, Danny decided to take a look inside the Ghost Portal, and accidentally turned the device on while at the epicenter. Being caught between a portal connecting the human world and the Ghost Zone somehow rearranged his molecular structure to make him part-human, part-ghost. It also created a rift between the human and spirit world, causing an assortment of ghosts to begin leaking out and cause havoc.

With his new-found ghost powers, Danny took it upon himself to fight these ghosts, and protect Amity Park. Throughout that time he’s fought the hunter ghost, Skulker, the King of Ghosts, an evil alternate timeline version of himself, a circus performer with a discount Infinity Gauntlet, and the billionaire half-ghost, Vlad Masters. While also struggling with the same day to day nuisances every teen has to deal with.

Important things about the Danny Phantom world…

-The Ghost Zone in Danny Phantom is a world of… Well, ghosts, but it’s established that for Ghosts, things are tangible and physical in the world. Basically, it’s the opposite of the human world. Humans and ‘real world’ objects phase through things in the Ghost Zone while spectral objects collide and have mass. This is actually beneficial for Danny though, as it means we can reliably quantify most of the feats of destruction in the Ghost Zone.

Experience

-Danny fights a pretty wide variety of opponents throughout the show’s run. Several notable ones include...

• The spectral dragon, Dorothea and her brother.
• The technology ghost, Technas.
• The Fright Knight, who had a sword that transports people to their worst nightmares.
• Pariah Dark, the King of all ghosts.
• Vlad Plasmius, another half-ghost with the same powers, but more experience.
• Dani, a genetic clone of his.
• Valerie Gray, a human equipped with an assortment of ghost-hunting tech.

-He was trained by Frostbite, and other members of the Realm of the Far Frozen to master his ice breath.

-While Danny himself has no formal training (unless you count the Frostbite training), he shows a fair degree of skill and quick-thinking in his day-to-day fighting, and has bested opponents who have much more experience, and others that have been around for centuries.

Arsenal

There are a variety of ghost-hunting weapons Danny has used, but most of them tend to be non-standard, or one-time things, with one exception...

Fenton Thermos: A techy-looking thermos that Danny can use to trap and hold ghosts. Generally he captures them in it by firing a large beam from the thermos, which sucks them in. Danny himself is also vulnerable to getting caught in this, but that’s usually not an issue. The device can hold very powerful ghosts, but it appears to have some limit to how powerful that being can be, as Freakshow was able to break out of it after Danny tricked him into becoming a ghost and captured him (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 17, 45:42).

Oddly enough, Danny used the Thermos to trap Cosmo and Wanda in it in a crossover short. However, the thermos appears to generally work only on ghosts, as evident in the fact that Danny needed to trick Freak Show into becoming a ghost in order to trap him in it.

Abilities

Beyond superhuman strength, speed, durability, and physiology, Danny has...

Ghost Ray/Ecto Beam: One of Danny’s primary methods of attack is a green colored energy blast called the Ghost Ray. It utilizes ectoplasmic energy, which can be fired as a beam, expanded to a larger area of effect attack, shot out as an omnidirectional blast, thrown as disks, and be wrapped around the user’s hands to enhance the power of strikes.

Several enemy ghosts have also fired the ray from their eyes. Danny has never done so himself, but there’s no reason to think he couldn’t. In addition, the beam can ricochet off surfaces, and be used to harm creatures vulnerable to high-intensity light.

-Reflecting off surfaces: Season 2, Episode 6, 16:07.

-Expanding the blast: Season 2, Episode 15, 5:00.

-Harming Johnny 13’s Shadow: Season 1, Episode 16, 1:46.

-In Season 2, Episode 1, Danny also shows he can fire the beam from his ass...


Ecto Barrier: Danny can form a barrier out of this energy to block and deflect attacks.

-Danny first using the barrier: Season 1, Episode 7, 19:48.

Cryokinesis: Danny can utilize cryokinesis to freeze opponents and terrain around him. This can take the form of firing ice shards, a ray fired from his hands or eyes, ice breath fired from his mouth, or an omnidirectional blast of cold emanated from his body.

-A montage of Danny training to use his ice powers: Season 3, Episode 6, 15:30.

-Danny firing the ice from his eyes: Season 3, Episode 6, 15:58.

-Danny’s body generating cold: Season 3, Episode 6, 13:37.

Intangibility: Danny is generally intangible in his spectral form, allowing him to pass through walls, and ignore most forms of physical attacks. In addition, he can make other people and objects intangible too, so long as he’s touching the object or person in question. This allows Danny to hit and harm beings who are intangible too. Obviously other spiritual entities, or special weapons and attacks that can harm intangible beings can still harm him, however.

-Danny’s intangibility being first shown off: Season 1, Episode 1, 2:50.

-Danny making others intangible: Season 1, Episode 1, 10:12.

-Danny harming other intangible beings: Season 1, Episode 1, 14:07.

-Danny uses his intangibility to avoid fire: Season 1, Episode 2, 19:57.


Flight: Danny can fly unimpeded by gravity.

-Danny keeping up with a flying space shuttle: Season 2, Episode 17, 25:00.

-Danny flying from his school to his house: Season 1, Episode 6, 21:19.


Invisibility: While intangible, Danny can become invisible to the human eye.


Duplication: Danny can create duplicates of himself, which can fight independently of one another, and be used to overpower opponents.

-A showcase of his duplication: Season 2, Episode 12, 1:00.

-Danny creating up to 4 duplicates: Season 3, Episode 4, 10:20.

Possession: Danny can possess, and control the movements of other living beings, and inanimate objects. He can also go into, and possess pieces of machinery.

-His possession being first shown off: Season 1, Episode 2, 5:51.

-Possessing a set of inanimate objects: Season 1, Episode 13, 4:48.

-Possessing a rat: Season 2, Episode 11, 12:24.

-Danny enters a computer game in Season 1, Episode 12.


Malleability: Danny’s ghost form is semi-malleable, which can be helpful in evading attacks.

-Danny’s ghost form being semi-malleable: Season 1, Episode 1, 14:40.

-Another example of Danny’s malleability: Season 1, Episode 8, 9:15.

-Using his malleability to evade a laser: Season 1, Episode 18, 1:20.


Ghostly Wail: One of Danny’s most powerful abilities. It creates an omnidirectional wave of ecto energy that causes damage to any opponents and objects in the vicinity. The only downside is it takes up a lot of his energy.

-Danny using the Ghostly Wail for the first time: Season 2, Episode 7, 34:35.

-Using it against a large group of enemy ghosts: Season 2, Episode 8, 14:50.

-Using it against Skulker and several enemy ghosts: Season 3, Episode 12, 35:28


Ghost Sense: Danny’s breath emits a cold chill whenever a ghost is nearby.


-Danny’s ghost sense being shown for the first time: Season 1, Episode 1, 0:28

Feats

Strength & Destructive Power


-Created a large crater with his ghost ray (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 15, 5:00)

-Lifted a school bus (Danny Phantom, Season 3, Episode 5, 3:27).

-Knocked down a giant mechanical suit made by Technas (Danny Phantom, Season 1, Episode 12, 5:10).

-Creates a combined blast that eclipses several buildings (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 15, 7:59).



Speed & Agility

-Is stated to be able to move 112 MPH (Danny Phantom, Season 1, Episode 17, 21:03).

-Kept up with a possessed space shuttle (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 17, 25:00).

-Flew into space in less than a minute (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 10, 19:01).

-Can evade and move faster than Ghost Rays (Danny Phantom, Season 3, Episode 10, 10:11).


Durability & Survivability

-Survived an impact that made a large crater (Season 1, Episode 1, 20:18).

-Survives attacks from a giant nutcracker (Season 2, Episode 8, 12:00).

-Logically speaking, Danny’s durability should be equal or comparable to his destructive power.

Scaling

Who does Danny scale to?

Danny should reasonably scale to most of the ghosts, and ghost hunters he has fought. This would include Dorothea, Vlad, Valerie, Skulker, Undergrowth, and pretty much all the enemies he has fought. He has technically never defeated Vlad, but he has held his own in later episodes that he should still reasonably scale.


Vlad Plasmius
-Survived a large castle exploding (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 4, 1:27).


Dorothea

-Dispersed a large amount of clouds (Danny Phantom, Season 2, Episode 12, 21:00).

Weaknesses

Despite his great powers, Danny is not invincible. His stamina still has limits, and being a ghost, he is naturally as vulnerable to the ghost-hunting devices and tech as any other spirit. Beings and attacks who can harm intangible beings should also be able to harm him, even when he’s gone ghost. Danny also has a weird habit of conveniently losing his powers, be it from wish-granting, or some sort of device his parents invented. Though most of these instances are very situational, and wouldn’t be applicable in most fights.


Sources

-Danny Phantom (Via Hulu).