So in the DC universe, multiple after lives exist, yes?

What if they are there for different purposes?

Valhalla's there for warriors, various versions of hell to punish you for different sins, etc.

And then there's the Infinite Realms.

More fae than damned most days, because it's the afterlife for people with so much passion that they just have to live on in some way so they can continue to embody that passion. Whether it's singing or hunting or writing stories or making sure children are fed, they must be doing it, because of the passions of the soul.

There's even some stranger ones: Dora and Aragon have passion for ruling in good and bad ways, and they brought their kingdom with them to make that possible.

And then there is this boy. A teenager, with all the trembling, new born passion that comes in that stage of life, who has so much passion. A passion for the stars and the planets, a passion for engineering and inventing, a passion for his friends and family and all of their own passions and how he can support them. A passion for living, through all the good and the bad.

Compared to a simple man with a passion for conquering, there could be no contest in the king of a realm of the dead with passion so strong it resurrects their souls.

Today in the snek rambles about random fandom things, we have: Danny’s age! Specifically, how he ages long-term, seeing as he half-died at fourteen.

Now, a lot of the fics I see that age Danny up in some way have his human body aging, either normally or occasionally at a slower rate, and his ghost form naturally changing to mimic that. Almost as common are the fics where Danny’s human form ages while his ghost form stays at the age he died. And don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of fun to be had with both those options. I’ve seen some great fics playing with both those concepts.

…But yknow what I haven’t seen?

A fic where Danny’s ghost form is the one that ages, while his human form stays the same. Think about it, a ghost’s form is malleable, and doesn’t necessarily reflect what a person originally looked like so much as what they think they should be. This is almost alway the explanation given for Danny’s ghost form aging with him, when a fic writer decides to go that route. Ghost forms are malleable, it makes perfect sense for Danny’s Phantom form to be capable of aging, so long as Danny believes that it should be.

…but you wanna know what isn’t so malleable? A human body. And for all that Danny’s still alive, he’s also dead, and while the show seems to portray Danny and Phantom as two separate halves with little to no bleedover, fanon seems to prefer having the boundaries between death and life in one Danny Phantom be much blurrier. As do I. Danny is a human who is dead, just as Phantom is a ghost who is alive. Both and neither at the same time. And while living humans age, dead ones don’t.

So. When Danny walked into the portal, he died. And regardless of how you want to argue semantics of resurrection and was there a brief period of time when he was only dead and he was also alive when he left the portal, he did die and a part of him stayed dead. Meaning that, by some definitions, his human body can be considered a corpse. And corpses don’t age.

Just, imagine the potential angst there, of Danny realizing, a year or two or three after the accident that no, he’s not just a late bloomer. He’s just. Not. Aging. And never will again, at least as a human. How long did it take him to recognize that fact? …how long did it take for him to realize that he can never seamlessly blend into human society again? His Phantom form is obviously not human, and his human one will never make it past fourteen.

…But then, his ghost form is still aging, it never stopped even after he noticed that the two forms no longer look the same. Even after he accepts that Danny Fenton will never make it past fourteen. There’s a part of him that recognizes that he’s still alive and that he should be aging, so Phantom grows up even though Fenton never will.

Which, if you’re inclined to keep piling on the angst, can also serve to isolate him from ghost society. A being of change trying to fit into a community of people who will forever stay the same. Preserved exactly as they were at their time of death. Except for Danny. Who’s still the odd one out, even in death. A ghost who’s growing up and a human who’ll forever remain a child.

…

Orrrr if you’re not in the mood for soul-crushing angst, you can also use this concept for fun and hijinks. Age Danny up a couple decades, plop him into any world with other superheroes, and watch the identity shenanigans take over. I’m especially fond of this being done with the Justice League, because he’s basically a reverse Captain Marvel. Imagine, the League finds out that their adult coworker is actually a small child masquerading as a grownass man through the power of a magically aged-up superhero form and a lot of bullshit. They see that when Billy Batson is in his civilian/human form he returns to his actual age. And then they see phantom, another coworker who, when not in the form they use for heroics, physically turns into a child. And so they go “we got this, no further clarification needed.” (Spoiler alert: they do not, in fact, got this).

Transformation/Partial Transformation

This is a little thought I had once and I started to roll with a while ago. Remember this from Phantom Planet (I know a lot of us aren't fond of that finale, but just bear with me here):

This shot made me think... Can Danny have a partial transformation? Technically speaking, his rings can start and stop wherever he likes, right? In the theme song, we actually see shots of the rings starting at one hand/arm and then traveling over the rest of his body. So by all accounts, Danny could just transform everything but his head. Which means.. we could actually see stuff like what we see in the picture. And if you headcanon that ghosts can will and/or shapeshift their outfits to change, then Danny could literally have whatever outfit he wanted without having to pay/buy it.

Danny Phantom Random Headcanon

Danny's been ghost fighting for a while and over time gains muscles. Everyone can see Phantom having muscles because he fights crime all the time, but Fenton? Danny tries wearing oversized baggy clothes like David Yost did while playing Billy the Blue Ranger from Power Rangers did to hide his muscles. Knowing it would be a matter of time before people found out Danny tries out for the baseball team since it'll give him an excuse hide his muscles and ghost hunting.

Baseball is an okay sport at Casper High and they needed a new player and were desperate. Danny's actually a good player and secures a spot on the team and earns the white jersey with a '0' on it which doesn't help his cause. Despite being in a sport Danny still isn't considered a jock, but with Dash as leader of the jocks he'll make things difficult for Danny one way or another.

During a game a ghost attacks and Danny' 'Going Ghost' and his uniform changes to black; Danny has no choice but continue to fight while in the jersey. Everyone thinks Phantom is on a baseball team and some ghosts even try to recruit Phantom for their baseball teams.

I can also see Danny joining the swim team, but that's for another headcanon.

P.S. The Danny Phantom baseball jersey has been sold out, I had this post in my drafts and forgot about it.

An extremely old core headcanon chart thing I made when I first joined the phandom since I couldn't find any agreed upon "this is exactly how these work"

long post ahead

Things to keep in mind:

These are just headcanons, do not take these as gospel- but you are free to use/built upon if you wish

The "x core tends to have y personality" isn't set in stone, I meant these to have a 'zodiac'-esq system where some traits may apply

Dont ask me what active/passive means because I have long forgotten.

Character of your choice! Either receiving or giving flowers!

- 💗 anon!

AWW, The Main Trio <3 Thinking of maybe writing a sick reader with character taking care of them Sorry it's kind of short

Daniel 'Danny' Fenton [Giving]

He saw them when doing ghost work and was instantly enchanted by them. They reminded him of you

He's so giddy when getting them and can't wait to give them to you

Though he does get a little nervous when giving them to you

Little did he know they were ghost flowers and would end up possessing you

He blames himself for it and decides that he'll buy you flowers from now on

Tucker Foley [Receiving]

He's fangirling

"Flowers? For me????"

He's smiling and his face is a bright red

He doesn't care what anyone says. He loves the flowers, even if the gender roles were reversed

He puts them in the prettiest vase next to his bed

He's so sad when they start to die

He'll try to save them for as long as possible, but it doesn't really work out all that well

Samantha 'Sam' Manson [Giving]

She waited to long to give them to you and they're dead

They're all sad and bent over, the leaves curled up. She's smiling awkwardly as she gives them to you

"It gives them personality!"

"Personality? Sam, they're dead."

She sheepishly laughs, "Aren't all the best things dead?"

Random DP HCs: The Main Girls' fave doll brands ('cause yes lol)

(*Bonus HC that Paulina's a total horsegirl (MLP & so-on),Jazz has tons of American Girl books that she likes to comfort-read now & then, Dani would get a kick out of the 2000s-era Littlest Pet Shop toys, Sam has every Draculaura doll in existence (playline, collector, budget, etc.) along with the other goth merch she collects, Valerie has maaaany many Squishmallows (hugging them alot when she wants some downtime from ghost-hunting), and Star has every Barbie movie on DVD that she insists to play at most sleepovers/friend hangout sessions (not that Paulina minds~💕)

I've had this thought for a bit but haven't quite known how to put it into words, so you're just getting it in nonsensical stream of conciousness fashion I guess, as is tradition. Now let's talk halfas.

I know there are various degrees of "they're not quite human, even in human form" ideas floating around out there, and that stuff is my JAM. Give me a chill in the air when they walk into the room, give me that uncanny valley feeling when they're looking directly at you, give me the eyes that reflect light like a cat's, give me electronics fritzing in their vicinity, give me silent footsteps. I am here for all of it. But I also really love the idea that there's a level of a) how much they embrace the ghost half that factors in, and b) not just gaining ghostly traits, but losing human ones too. Hear me out. A) Vlad is significantly more ghostly than Danny, particularly in his ghost form, right? Blue skin, red eyes, claws, fangs. Like, he's not winning any prizes for subtley, that's all I'm saying. And there are various rationales for this out there too, but for the sake of argument, let's just say it's because he's less resitant to the idea of being a ghost and fights the ghost side of him less. In that case, I love the idea of Vlad being more ghostly just in general. He's not actively suppressing his ghost half, and this bleeds through into his human form, giving him a much creepier vibe than Danny. You maybe couldn't quite put your finger on it, but he's unsettling in a way this fourteen year old dork who's been rambling for 20 minutes about black holes and spagehttification (yes, it's a thing) just isn't. I also am simply trash for giving Vlad sharper teeth, dark circles, eyes that lack that more human warmth, blah, blah, blah, to drive some of that home. None of it is strictly inhuman, but you're definitely getting the impression there's something...wrong with him, where Danny comes across more like your average, definitely-totally-human kid.

B) I looooove the thought that the more ghostly the halfas let themselves become, the more they start losing some of the things that make them human. They need less sleep, they lose their appetite, they have less body heat, their pulse is slower. Maybe some of that human conscience goes silent and those nefarious ghost tendencies start coming out (like, say, a craving for power???) I love this thought so much because this makes the slope even more slippery between Danny (the hero) and Vlad (the villain), which is a *chef's kiss* dynamic. If Danny starts letting some things slide, letting himself lose his humanity just a little bit, embracing his ghostliness to the exlcusion of his human half, giving up some conscience for some power, maybe these other, dormant ghost tendencies could wake up. I mean, we know that stuff is in there, we see it in Dan, there's the implication that the ghost without the human is dangerous, but the thought that you could let one side start to override the other, even while still being a halfa? AND, maybe that's part of the reason Vlad is so cracked? Makes my single braincell feral.

Idk, just some half-baked thoughts because I am procrastinating what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Sorry or you're welcome accordingly LOL.

DP HC

There's either no mosquitos in Amity Park because the people there are so ecto-contaminated that mosquitos just drop dead if they try to feed off of an Amity Parker

OR the mosquitos are rapidly evolving to handle the ecto-contamination and it's fine for Amity Parkers, but... tourists aren't managing so well. The mosquitos can't leave Amity cause they're dependent on the ectoplasm now, but every summer is a nightmare and the GIW is desperate to keep it covered up

I recently watched Gravity Falls and I have one Danny Phantom crossover idea that hasn’t let me live:

Danny is in Gravity Falls, and gets split into Fun Danny and Hero Danny from Identity Crisis. I don’t know how/why, that’s not important

Their ghost sense is doing some weird things and they’re not sure what to make of it. Fenton says “not my problem” and wanders off. He runs into Wendy and her friends and he’s immediately sucked into their shenanigans.

It takes Phantom all of three hours to show up in Ford’s lab, slam a thermos on a table, and declare “I have contained all the threats to your quaint little town.”

Ford: All… ALL OF THEM? There are hundreds—THOUSANDS of creatures—

Phantom: Yes, I’m aware. They’re all in here. [points at thermos] No need to thank me, citizen, I’ll be on my way

Ford: Well are you aware of what the sudden absence of entire populations will do to the ecosystem? You need to let them all back out NOW!

Cue these two wrestling over the thermos; they empty it in the lab. Absolute chaos under the Mystery Shack.

Around this time, Wendy arrives at the Mystery Shack for a shift with Fenton. When Fenton learned where Wendy worked he thought a museum of fake supernatural stuff sounded like a hilarious change of scenery, so he tagged along. There he’s introduced to Mabel and Dipper. Fenton makes a careless, offhand comment about having a portal to another dimension in his basement, to which Mabel says “No way! Us too!”

Dipper quickly slaps a hand over Mabel’s mouth because hello??? That’s a SECRET?? But the thing about Dipper is he has just as much chill as Mabel (see: zero). The difference is he just thinks he’s being tactful when he takes Fenton aside (Mabel tags along because she’s nosy and thinks Danny is cute) and asks follow-up questions about the Ghost Portal. Except Dipper’s not actually subtle at all, and pretty much confirms that there’s a portal under the Mystery Shack. Not that Fenton has any interest in seeing it, he’s way more interested in Stan’s stupid/punny exhibits.

There’s a series of crashing noises from below, and Ford comes charging up the steps and through the door, slamming it behind him and leaning against it to keep some very angry somethings contained. Dipper’s about to ask what’s going on, but his words die on his tongue when Phantom phases through the door beside Ford.

Phantom’s continuing a rant/lecture at Ford about responsibility and being proactive in protecting one’s home, so it takes him a second to notice that there are others in the room: Fenton, Dipper, and Mabel.

Mabel immediately loses her shit. Not because Ford is obviously freaked about something or that there’s a glowing person in the room. No, she freaks because “Wow!! Another set of twins!! We never meet other twins!!!!!” (Dipper: “we literally live with another set of twins” Mabel: “the Grunkles don’t count cause they’re OLD. duh!”)

That’s all I have so far

Why are ghosts Like That™️?

This started with some general spitballing on the Murderbot server, and goes into some fridge horror towards the end.

Part 1: Ghost Biology

Ectoplasm is the Infinite Realms equivalent of matter, complete with subdivision into elements.

Ambient ectoplasm is light, like hydrogen. It's a natural byproduct of Life, popping into existence in the Realms in places that correspond to life in the living world.

Structural ectoplasm - landscapes and buildings and other solid, nonliving objects - is down towards the heavier end of the periodic table.

Ghosts are stars.

Ghosts form from an accretion of ambient ectoplasm, and their metabolic process consumes these lighter elements to fuse them into heavier and heavier elements. Unlike stars, though, ghosts have more control over their movement - they can collect more 'food' and expel waste before it becomes a problem.

Part 2: Ghost Psychology

So that explains how ghosts form, and their place within the ectoplasmic ecosystem. Where do their minds come from?

Let me introduce you to the concept of the Noosphere. It's a space of ideas, the sum total of all thoughts that living beings can or will ever be able to have.

Ghosts' minds are imprints from the Noosphere onto these blank ectoplasmic bodies.

This handily explains Neverborn, like Clockwork: we've been anthropomorphizing concepts like time for millennia. Technus, likewise, is the result of the belief in a machine spirit, of us anthropomorphizing our technology.

How about postmortals?

People can be ideas, too.

Boxy is the result of his own self-conceptualization as a living person, and the thoughts and memories his coworkers have of him. Maybe he wasn't as obsessed with boxes when he was still alive, but for the people who remember him, that interest in boxes sticks out to them.

Lunch Lady likewise. When she was still alive, she was just that: a school lunch lady, heavily mentally associated with food and eating healthy. In death, that association is outsized compared to everything else she's remembered for.

Postmortals are flattened caricatures of the people they once were.

Part 3: What about Danny and Vlad?

Simple: They're not dead, not true ghosts, they're just heavily contaminated.

They have so much more ectoplasm in their bodies than any living or dead being could naturally acquire because they both got hit by all the ectoplasmic discharge of a portal being ripped between worlds.

Thus, they grow and change just like any other still-living person, just with the abilities that ghosts have due to their contamination. Their ectoplasm doesn't need an imprint to display signs of life, it's just part of them.

Part 4: Where's the fridge horror?

Postmortal ghosts are separate beings from the living person they're based on. Sure, they may have the memories of the person due to that person's idea of themselves, but they're also influenced by everything that other people thought of them. The living person themselves is truly dead and gone, and something, someone, else remains.

You don't need to be dead to have a ghost. If you are well-known, the idea of you is shared by many, many people and amplified for it. When you die... not much of you might wake up, just what other people think of you.

If few people know or remember you, you've got more of a chance of being faithfully represented by your ghost, but a lot less of a chance of said ghost forming.

Maddie and Jack are rather archetypal, don't you think? Some personality traits are so exaggerated...

Credit

This was me, @copper-and-smoke, and several other people in a thread in a Murderbot Diaries discord. If you're already in the server, here's a link, and if you're not and you want to be, let us know and we'll get you invites.

Dannymay25

Gravity

Gravity doesn’t effect ghost. At all. They just acclimate to whatever. Danny could stand on the ceiling and feel no different than normal. This is how they fly.

This also means ghosts can just leave orbit, no speed required, and walk on any planet no problem.

A fun way this could effect things is, the Ghost Zone wouldn’t really bother with gravity, and any human that enters outside of the speeder kind of just floats in place unless there’s something or someone to help them travel.

An incomplete list of sounds in Danny's ghost speak

-excited teenage murmuring, the sounds of goofing off and shoving each other, quiet laughter and egging each other on

-those same teenage voices, frantically talking, speaking over each other, begging, desperate and confused

-screams. two teenagers screaming in horror (danny's own scream is reserved for his Wail)

-quiet sighs, disappointed muttering, it-didnt-work and so-what-now

-electricity crackling

-the sounds of a machine whirring to life

-the sound the portal made as it ripped a hole between dimensions (one of those sounds that can't be described in words)

-a quiet, rattling gasp of air

-cautious words, voice full of doubt and i-dunno-guys, this-feels-dangerous

-the squeak of latex and rubber rubbing against each other

-the quiet slap of a gloved hand slamming against the wall a button

-the thud of a body hitting the floor

-complete silence, with all other sound filtering out, the realization of oh-we-fucked-up

-excited muttering, manic laughter, the dissonance of awful things planned in cheery tones

-the sound of boots hitting the floor as hands shuffle through boxes of inventions enthusiastically

-a quiet scuffle, the sound of a booted foot catching on something and sending someone pitching forward

-hammers clanging, saws buzzing, screws and tools hitting the floor from the tables they're knocked off of

Just noticed Clockwork and Nocturne’s matching scars

The brain cogs are TURNING

Oh YES! I am so glad more people have taken notice of that detail because there used to be a very big headcanon about that, back in the day within DP spaces. I likely wouldn't be able to find the original post now, as the blogger has sadly deleted their account, but some of the other DP Tumblr OGs might remember this one:

Essentially, there had been a popular headcanon that connected these scars with the Observants. After all, if you looked at the Observants' High Council Tribunal Headquarters (I believe you can it in the episode "Torrents of Terror" but I would have to confirm elsewhere), you can see there is a lot of imagery with eyes. Where did they get these eyes?

TW FOR EYE INJURY/TRAUMA

Things spitballed until the phandom realized that perhaps the Observants had been taking the eyes of very powerful ghosts in order to control them. The known characters that have a scar over one eye like this include Clockwork and Nocturn, like you said, but Pariah Dark is another, albeit his scar is on the opposite eye. (Check Read More for these images.)

I don't know if this was popular as well, but you could even make an argument that the Observants themselves had been created from the eyes taken from these ghosts, which might have given them the adequate authority to join the High Council.

I had a headcanon of my own, though, which included the Ancient Danny concept. Basically, I had this story idea where there was a ceremonial blade that was used to declare Ancients. It was one of the few lone weapons to exist that could scar a ghost's form so permanently that it would leave behind a scar over their eye.

First, one would have to be chosen to be (essentially) mutilated, and then later survive the injury. In my head, I had it where Undergrowth had overheard Danny was a candidate, and that's why he attacked Amity Park. Not only because he was jealous but also because he wanted to test Danny's worth (back in the day, phandom lore believed that Undergrowth attacked Amity Park to test Danny's rights for the Kingship). Undergrowth does not have a similar scar, after all.

There was no major ceremony. It was just one of the Ancients (an OC made specifically for the part) who would attack a candidate with no warning to see if they were truly worthy. Once it was confirmed, they would be scarred and if they survived they would be considered an Ancient.

I am almost absolutely certain that the creators of the show had plans with this detail. They can be pretty bad at continuity but there is no way all of it was coincidence. I've heard a myriad of things about the original plans for the series and how they wanted it to actually end, but since I don't have the receipts and sources to back it up, I'll just leave it as personal conjecture.

The phandom is ripe with incredible headcanons and ghostly lore and even if your beautiful brain is churning with different ideas, I have no doubt you could write a fic for it.

Sorry, this got sorta long but I am just buzzing to share the beloved headcanons and fan lore. 🥰 I feel like I need a conspiracy board, teheheheh~

Danny Phantom Allies, Neutrals, & Enemies Headcanons

This is for the characters from Danny Phantom that I forgot to add to the Allies, Neutral, and Enemies list, so here we go!

Warning : Some character explanations will be super long, mentions of death, and other things rated PG-13.

Elliot/Gregor - Neutral/Enemy - After, almost getting killed by the Guys -in- White I'm pretty sure Gregor/Elliot would get the heck out of Amity Park as soon as possible. His family probably sued the Guys in White (along with the Observatory ) for attacking him, making him rich and join the A-listers. He would also stay away from the trio due to ghosts being around them (plus Sam probably growls at him).

Alice - Ally - As much as she dislikes Jack, she loves her nephew and nieces, and is very supportive of her sister Maddie. Once, she finds out about Danny being a Halfa she's gonna be 'peeved' at Jack, because of his ghost foolishness. But once she finds out that Vlad Masters has not only: endangered people's lives, kill Jack, force Maddie into marrying him, and has stalked her family numerous times - oh man, she's gonna be more 'peeved'! She backs up her family from any danger ghost or human.

Flynn - Instead of being the Fenton's lost family member he's Alice's son in my headcanons. At a young age he knew his Auntie Maddie and Uncle Jack were weird, but he did lookout for Jazz and Danny and the two looked up to him. As he grew older, they became distant due to his moody attitude, once he learned Danny's secret, he regains his role as older brother figure and joins Team Phantom.

Harriet - Now a news reporter in Amity Park after losing her job she does everything to prove that ghost attacked her high school ruin and get back her job back. Like many reporters she wants to know who Danny Phantom is, only to find out he's her friends' son. Once, she finds out Danny's secret she does everything in her power to give Danny good publicity and Danny sometimes give her exclusive interviews no other reporter can get.

Everyone:....

Me: haha, wouldn't it be cool if a halfa caused the sinking of Atlantis (for reasons) and the observants tried their best to scrub that event from history, which is now why almost all modern cultures consider Atlantis to be a myth.