... See also The Ghost Zone, Credit

Danny's Ultimate Danny Phantom Worldbuilding Compendium

Welcome to Danny's Ultimate Danny Phantom Worldbuilding Compendium. On this page, I will not only talk about how I think the world of the popular early aughts cartoon Danny Phantom is structured, but also how I think the narrative of the popular early aughts cartoon Danny Phantom should be structured if the showrunner wasn't such a piece of shit bad writer.

Danny Phantom has been a special interest of mine since I was a small child watching whatever flashy thing on TV I could get my glasses-clad eyes on. It has lived in my brain so long that its mortgage is fully paid off. I've spent an obscene amount of brain power thinking through the logistics of how Butch Hartman and Co's cobbled together universe could function (way more brain power than I assume Butch Hartman and Co put into it). This compendium (and the many in-depth conversations and power point parties with friends) make it all worth it. Thank you for reading. Even if we don't talk, if you find me on the internet and message me about this page, I promise you an infodump-filled conversation for the ages. I appreciate you.

Let's get started!

The Ghost Zone

The Ghost Zone is a dimension that runs parallel to our own. It's primarily composed of a tangible type of energy called ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is volatile and constantly shifting in its natural state, creating an environment largely dependent on the stability of its inhabitants. Certain beings known as ghosts have the ability to channel ectoplasm and control its flow, shape, and power, both consciously and unconsciously. They're even able to manipulate the Ghost Zone itself, but that takes tremendous amounts of power. There are beings other than ghosts capable of controlling ectoplasm, such as halfas, but there is little research done on these beings.

Ghost Portals

Because the Ghost Zone is comprised almost entirely of energy, it is incredibly malleable. The Ghost Zone's georgraphy and positioning in relation to our dimension is constantly changing. This causes crossover wherein portions of the Ghost Zone "touch" our world and create an opening.

These openings are known as ghost portals. Portals are inherently unstable and do not follow our dimensions' laws of nature. This means they can appear at any point in time and space in our dimension, and often cause changes to the environment in which they appear. Portals have been known to "leak" ectoplasm into our dimension, changing the physiology of local flora and fauna.

Ghost Lairs

The Ghost Zone is almost impossible to map, unless one uses an ectoplasm-based device to search and tag the ectoplasmic signiatures of specific points in the Ghost Zone, thus allowing for the "map" to lead the holder to those points as long as they still existed (which is never a guarantee). Certain areas of the Ghost Zone are significantly more stable than other areas.

A ghost's lair, an area in the Zone where the climate, georgraphy, and ectoplasmic signiature are determined by a specific ghost's biology, is a fixed point in the Zone as long as that ghost remains stable. Some lairs belong to a group of multiple ghosts with identical or nearly identical energy signiatures and so its stability grows stronger the more ghosts of the same "species" make their home in it.

The Ghosts

Ghosts are beings made purely of ectoplasm, however due to the under-studied nature of ectoscience, there is currently no recorded reason for why their physiology is able to stabilize and control their ectoplasmic nature. This control allows ghosts to morph their physical appearance into almost any kind of thing.

Although this malleability is limited by the confines of a ghost's core obsession or purpose. For example, a ghost who's obsession is plants would only be able to shift their appearance into something resembling or related to a plant. Certain types of ghosts have more flexibility in how to meet this requirement of their anatomy.

Dead People

The specifics of ghost creation is still largely debated, but the leading theory regarding a ghost's birth into existence was posed by researches Madeline and Jack Fenton and is known as the Dead Entity Exposure theory. It posits that when a human or animal (sometimes inanimate objects or plants) is exposed to a Ghost Portal in a state of decay or near-death, the collapsing organic material (or even the very molecules that form the entity) will merge with the ectoplasmic energy of the Portal in a process that has never been successfully recreated in a lab. This merging creates an often-times fully formed stable ghost that is transfered to the Ghost Zone immediately upon its birth.

Mythical Beings of Epic Proportions

Some ghosts have been shown to have origins outside of recorded history of possibility, such as the ghost known as Clockwork who has demonstrated an almost-magical mastery of Time. These ghosts are thought to have originated in the dimension known as the Ghost Zone, which is theorized to have existed for millions of years before living beings were ever thought to inhabit our world, as opposed to originating in our world and transformed via ectoplasm to become a resident of the Ghost Zone.

Currently, there is no evidence-based method to identify which ghosts originate from the Ghost Zone versus which ghosts originate from our dimension, but ectoscientists are hard at work in their efforts to identify one. Until then, our understanding of a ghost's origin is based off of observation and their knowledge of the logic of our dimension.

The Main Guy Himself

Perhaps one of the most famous ghosts is the one known as Danny Phantom (formerly Inviso-Bill). For years, Phantom's biology and quirks confused and astounded ectoscientists as he appeared to be the exception that proved the rule of much of our understanding of ghosts' psychology and physical forms. However, recent strides made by the Fentons, as well as research conducted by Phantom himself, has revealed that he is indeed not a "normal" ghost as he is not a ghost at all. Phantom is a seperate type of entity known as a halfa.

Long though to be a myth, a halfa is a human who was imbued with ectoplasm during a near-death experience (usually involving large amounts of electricity) but did not fully die, thus becoming a hybrid of sorts and capable of existing in both our dimension and the Ghost Zone with all the abilities associated with ghosts and the knowledge, skills, and ability to withstand obsession of a human. Halfas do possess obsessions (Phantom's for example, is the conept of protection or savior) but they are not ruled or bound by them in the same way that ghosts are.

Some other key differences include: the ability to mimic both human and ghost physiology almost completely accurately, a much slower heartbeat than the average human, the ability to withstand extreme temperatures that a human cannot, the semblance of blood and organs while in ectoplasmic ghost form, and a slower (though not absent) aging process.

What's up with Valerie Gray

Although halfas are thought to be quite rare, there is one other type of human-ectoplasm interaction that can result in something other than a ghost that is thought to be even rarer. When a human is purposefully fused with ectolasm outside of the threat of death and treated for subsequent ectoplasmic acne that usually comes from ectoplasmic exposure, the ectoplasm may "stick" to the human instead of disseminate.

There is no clear scientific reason why this happens to some and not others. To date, there is only one known case of this happening, a young woman named Valerie Gray. Gray has exhibited an affinity for ectoplasm and ectoplasm-infused objects (such as ghost hunting weaponry or items created by ghosts as a part of their obsessions) and has an innate sense of where ectoplasmic energy build ups occure in our world (such as natural Ghost Portals). It is unclear what other effects Gray's unique situation will have on her life, but it's been theorized that she will age similarly to a halfa and/or immediately become a ghost at the time of her death regardless of if there is any ectoplasm in the environment.

The Plot

The television program chronicling the lives of Danny Phantom and Valerie Gray has been argued by critics to be innacurate, somewhat bigoted, and, "a mediocre cartoon lacking coherent writing and failing to deliver on some really interesting ideas." On this page, we endeavor to present factual and clear depictions of ectoscience and so, in our efforts, have restructured the plot to address these criticisms. The main concern is that Valerie Gray is "the greatest character to ever have been made" and "so so so cool and good" and does not get nearly enough well-written screen time. Our proposition is rewriting the show to make Valerie a secondary protagonist and clear narrative foil to Danny.

Season One

We begin by following Danny Fenton as he starts his freshman year of high school as the all-but-invisble "loser" class typical for stories of this era. After a few scenes to familiarize ourself with his life and learn about his two best friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, his sister Jazz, and his ectoscientist parents Jack and Maddie Fenton, we watched a scene of dramatically ironic tragedy wherein Sam convices Danny to attempt to turn the newly-built in-home Ghost Portal on from the inside.

Danny is transformed into a halfa. Over the course of the rest of the season, we see Danny fail (and eventually succeed) to master the abilities that come with becoming a halfa, as well as his attempts to hide his identity from his family. Most of the conflicts of the original show, as well as its monster-of-the-week format remain, but now amplified by clearer low points for Danny, his powers, and his connection to humanity. All of this waxes and wanes until the eventual season finale where a new ghost hunter reveals herself to him and she already considers herself his worst enemy: the Red Huntress

Season Two

Now we follow Valerie Gray through her life as one of the kids at the top of the social food chain at Casper High. Slowly but surely, ghost-related incidents from previous episodes take away the various luxuries and privileges of her life and the common denominator is always Danny Phantom. Vlad Masters, a creepy rich guy, seeks to manipulate her and we watch him take advantage of her vulnerable position and desire for some control over her life. Valerie's identity as a Black girl and Vlad's as a rich old white man is clearly explored, as well as how Valerie being Black amplifies the problems she faces because of Phantom's fuckups.

Vlad offers her a job as a ghost hunter and fits her with equipment infused with ectoplasm. unbeknownst to Valerie, this equiptment changes her very DNA. Valerie begins her journey as the Red Huntress and we follow her and Danny through alternating episodes as she tries to ride the world of Danny Phantom and he tries to rid Amity Park of ghostly nuisances. Some episodes pass without thenm encountering each other at all while some are focused on their one-sided rivalry OR their human relationship where Valerie is unaware of Danny's ghostly identity and forming a close bond with Fenton. All of this culminates into a season finale where Phantom's true identity is finally revealed to Valerie and she doesn't know how to react.

Season Three

Finally, Danny and Valerie are on the same team! Now that Valerie knows Danny's identity and we get an episode or two where she interrogates what that means for herself and discusses that with him in clear terms, they become a ghost hunting duo. Danny helps Valerie understand the unexpected changes that ectoplasm is having on her body, and once Valerie finds out that Vlad caused those changes on purpose, we get a multiple-episode arc of her going against him and freeing herself from under his thumb.

Danny's secret gets out to his parents at one point and they react poorly at first and we get another multiple-episode arc of them coming to misunderstandings, being talked down from horrible things, and trying to come to a better understanding that leaves things safe but awkward. Danny and Valerie navigate their relationship together now that everything is out in the open but their rocky history still exists. The series ends with Valerie and Danny graduating high school and trying to decide what they're going to do with their lives afterwards and how much ghosts will have a part in that. Ideally, there is no clear answer by the time credits roll. That's for the audience to figure out for themselves.