redrobin-detective:

Danny phantom headcanon that as Danny gets older and stronger, he develops a ghost following. Ghosts, while inherently independent, also operate on instinct and follow a power hierarchy. I bet as Phantom develops his powers, becomes someone to be admired and feared in the Zone, some ghosts notice. It’d be smaller ghosts at first, ones who give loyalty and help for protection but as time passes, more powerful ghosts begin to swear to him. He finds it weird at first but his big bleeding heart sees a lot of these ghosts come to him for help and he can’t refuse a cry for help.

Danny marks them as being under his protection which means a good many other ghosts will leave them alone to avoid dealing with Phantom. He also gives them help when they’re weak from fights and genuinely cares for them. In return, they help him fight ghosts. The ghosts primarily stay in the Ghost Zone, but they live near the Fenton Portal and guard it, preventing malicious ghosts from entering the human world. The stronger ghosts will go into the human world and capture other ghosts and return them to the Zone. His following ranges from small blobby ghosts who bring Danny shiny trinkets in homage to larger, more powerful ghosts who respect Danny’s resolve and help protect Amity. It really helps lighten Danny’s load and he’s able to devote himself more to school, sleep and other things. He doesn’t quite understand why all these ghosts are attracted to him but he appreciates them and does his best to help them in return. He gives them names and there’s usually one or two trailing invisibly behind him. It drives his ghost sense nuts but he weirdly enough feels better with them around.

monotype-on-phantom:

“So, even with everybody thinking you’re a bad ghost, you’re still gonna try to be the hero?”

“Well, somebody’s gotta. If not me, who’s gonna protect this town? Besides, it’s not like I can ignore a scream for help.”

I am so gonna talk about this boy I’ve been waiting for a good chance to talk about what a good, pure child he is and I am taking it now. Bless his heart I love him so much.

Let’s talk about Daniel James Fenton and why he deserves love and protection forever and always.

And yeah, I know that middle name isn’t canon, but it fits really well and I’m keeping it.

Danny goes through the biggest changes over the course of the series out of basically anyone (with maybe Valerie coming close), so let’s try to start at the beginning.

We don’t know a whole lot about what Danny was like before he got his powers. We know that he was closer to his mom and sister, and that he’s always been considered a shy, clumsy nerd. Dash seems to make fun of him for being small and weak more than anything (aside from coming from the freaky Fenton family), and that seems to be how most of the school that knows he exists sees him. He’s small, awkward, dorky, and a wimp.

Aside from that, the best idea we get of what he was like is in Memory Blank.

Ghosts are scary transforming is scary i have no idea what I’m doing somebody hjelp.

Danny has been taught all his life that ghosts are pure evil, and that they’ll attack and destroy without hesitation. As such, he’s understandably terrified of them, even more than Jazz, from what we see. This is likely what most people tell themselves whenever Danny runs off when a ghost shows up. He’s scared and wants to hide. So really, his reputation of being wimpy isn’t exactly unwarranted.

In spite of that, though, what a lot of people don’t know about him is how unbelievably brave and selfless he is.

Danny stepped into that portal, and the first time, he didn’t have Sam explaining what was going on. None of them knew what was going on. For all they knew at first, he’d died, and even when he realized he could change back, that didn’t seem to help much. One of the first conversations he has with his friends is about how he just wants to be normal again, and how if he’s discovered he’ll be viewed as a freak. Spectra’s able to play to this rather easily in My Brother’s Keeper. Danny has no idea what he even is, and he’s terrified of people finding out and not being able to accept him.

Spectra might be evil, but she’s good at what she does, and she notices pretty easily how much being accepted means to him. To quote her, he “cares too much what other people think.” It matters more to him than it does to even Sam or Tucker. It’s why episodes like Attack of the Killer Garage Sale happen. But who would accept some freaky nerd who’s not even really human anymore? Who’s at least half what his parents have taught him are evil, soulless monsters?

Of course he’s depressed. Of course he’s confused. Of course he doesn’t want to tell anybody aside from Sam and Tucker, the two people who he trusts to actually accept him no matter what.

In spite of all of that, though, even while he’s hating himself for being what he is, the only thing he can think to do with those powers is try to protect people from the ghosts coming through the portal.

Stealing? No. Pranks? No. Doing stuff like Tucker did with his powers and changing his grades? No. Freak or not, somebody has to fight off all these ghosts, and Danny’s powers allow him to do that. So superhero it is.

Though he’s not especially good at it at first, he still flings himself into danger and especially tries to protect his friends with what little he can do.

What does he get in return? Fighting ghosts keeps him from being able to study. It keeps him up late at night so he falls asleep in classes. In 13, he’s fighting ghosts for 24 hours straight, and then when they all get released, he stays up all night again capturing them all. He’s still beat up and made fun of at school by the very people he’s often protecting. Even his own parents take shots at him every chance they get. Skulker wants to kill and skin him. Valerie wants him destroyed for something that’s not really his fault. Hundreds of evil ghosts have grudges against him and would crush him the first chance they got.

Yet, even when he’s framed and labelled as public ghost enemy number one, he still wants to keep fighting to protect these people. It doesn’t matter if they hate him or if he ever gets anything in return, he’s decided this is his responsibility, and he’s going to do what he can.

And when he’s not able to save everyone? He blames himself, and goes to risk his life even further because if others are getting hurt, he’s not trying hard enough.

In Reign Storm, he literally would’ve died if Vlad had shown up a second later.

And the real kicker for me is that he never wanted any of this. He doesn’t want to be a superhero. Multiple times, he tries to go back to normal or to find some way to keep people safe while still being able to live his life as a normal teenager. Or, at the very least, he tries to find ways to make his own life easier (such as fighting back against bullies.) Every time that happens, though, it ends badly for everyone, and Danny just accepts that he’s supposed to be the good guy and keep people safe.

Even with all the lives he’s saved, though, he still views himself as a freak that nobody could accept. Early on in the show, he believes his parents would accept him, but by episode 9, hearing stuff like this all the time starts to get to him.

And if hearing that from your parents isn’t horrifying enough, Danny actually starts believing that they’d dissect him if they found out what he was. In Reality Trip, Danny’s secret is revealed to the whole world, he’s hunted down by the government, and he’s forced to travel all over the country or the lives of his family and the families of his friends are at stake. Of course, he doesn’t hesitate to do everything he can to keep his friends safe and save their families, but even while he’s doing that, he still says this.

Like, that is all kinds of levels of messed up? Danny’s doing everything he can to protect the people he cares about (and even the people he doesn’t), yet he still believes his own parents would slice him open at the first opportunity, even knowing he’s their son. That’s no reason to stop fighting and putting his life on the line, though.

The closest thing we ever get to seeing him actually accept himself and see himself as actually worth something is in the second to last episode, and even then it’s about someone else.

He’s strung up and tortured, and still the only thing on his mind is saving Danielle. Yeah, she’s a halfa, too. Heck, she’s a clone of him, but all he ever sees her as is a little girl and his family. Nobody aside from him would miss her if she died, and he hasn’t even known her for long, but without hesitation, he’s willing to trade his life for hers. She’s more than worth giving himself up to Valerie in order to keep her safe. This warms my heart for a lot of reasons, including the fact that this is likely the moment when he starts considering that maybe he’s worth something, too, even if he’s what he’d consider a freak. But even that takes an entirely new person, an innocent little girl, for him to even consider it.

And yes, he accepts his own clone without any hesitation. He loves her and wants to keep her safe no matter what.

Not even just his halfa clone, but Danny’s able to befriend other ghosts. The very things that his parents have told him for years are inhuman monsters, and that he became a superhero to fight off because he believed that. And those friends are worth risking his life for, ghosts or not.

He is a good, pure child and I will protect him.

Does he have flaws? Well, of course. He’d hardly be as interesting if he didn’t. He can be a bit shallow because of his desire to be accepted, he can be petty and hold grudges, he has moments of “selfishness” when he gets too tired to keep fighting and just doesn’t care anymore. As far as I’m concerned, though, he’s never done anything wrong in his life and I will defend him with mine.

And I shall fight anyone who tries to wake him up again. Let my boy sleep. He’s earned it.