Dark Danny

**Dark Danny**, also known as **Dan Phantom**, is the evil future version of Danny Phantom from an alternate timeline, created by the fusion of the ghost-halves of the show's protagonist, Danny Phantom, and his arch-enemy, Vlad Plasmius. Dark Danny's first and only appearance is in *The Ultimate Enemy* which was both a TV movie and the first *Danny Phantom* video game for the Game Boy Advance. He is by far Danny's most powerful and dangerous foes. Dark Danny is also the only ghost that is very vile and pure evil.

## History

### Tragic Origins

In the original timeline, before Clockwork's intervention, Danny used his powers to steal the answers to the Career Aptitude Test. Suspicious of Danny, Mr. Lancer called the Fentons to the Nasty Burger for a meeting. Unfortunately, the Nasty Burger's vat of Nasty Sauce exploded just at that time, killing Danny's family, his friends Sam and Tucker, and Mr. Lancer. As a result, the grief-stricken boy was forced to move in with his arch-enemy Vlad Masters, as he was the only person left who Danny felt could possibly understand his situation.

Despite the history of animosity between the two, Vlad treated Danny with a great deal of sympathy. Completely taken over by grief, Danny asked Vlad to separate his human-half from his ghost-half so he wouldn't have to deal with his human emotions anymore. Vlad obliged him, using the Ghost Gauntlets to separate Danny's ghost half from his human half. The separated Danny Phantom, now free of the conscience of his human half, overcame Vlad and took the Ghost Gauntlets. He removed Vlad's ghost half and merged with it, but was overwhelmed by the evil in Vlad Plasmius. This resulted in the birth of Dark Danny, the most powerful and evil ghost to ever exist. His first act of malice was to murder his human half and destroy Vlad's entire mansion, though he left Vlad alive to tell the tale of his beginning.

### Decade of Destruction

For the next ten years, Dark Danny committed numerous atrocities against both Earth and the Ghost Zone, culminating in the near-complete desolation of Amity Park and the destruction of many ghosts. The Observants ordered Clockwork to kill Danny in the past to prevent Dan's rise. Dispatching various ghosts from the future, Clockwork set in motion a series of events that led young Danny to eventually come to the future, where he encountered his dark older self. They fought, but Dan easily won, trapping Danny in the future while Dan went to the past to murder the Fentons, Sam, Tucker, and Lancer, in an an effort to preserve his existence.

### Back to the Past

Dan then disguised himself as fourteen-year-old Danny Fenton and traveled to the past via one of Sam's and Tucker's time medallions to ensure his future by cheating on the C.A.T. Jazz found him with the C.A.T. answers and alerted Mr. Lancer, who called his parents over to the Nasty Burger for a discussion. Sam and Tucker came as well to warn them of the impending explosion, and Jazz, using the Fenton Ghost Peeler, exposed Dan to all of them.

Dark Danny mocked his parents for failing to notice that their son was half-ghost and noted Jazz was the only one to notice. He then tied them all to the Nasty Sauce vat with ectoplasmic goo just as it was about to blow.

Just then, Danny returned from the future and saw what his future self was up to, and they battled. Even with the aid of the Specter Deflector and the Ghost Gauntlets, Dan still proved too much for Danny but did not kill him as his own existence was at stake. Dan mocked Danny for being powerless against him and promising to protect his friends and family.

Refusing to let down his friends and family, Danny unleashed his new Ghostly Wail. Dan was shocked, as he himself didn't develop that power for another ten years. Danny took advantage of Dan's surprise to unleash another Ghostly Wail, weakening Dan enough for Danny to trap him in the Fenton Thermos.

### Existing Outside of Time

Clockwork took the thermos containing Dark Danny and sealed it within his lair. Now that the events leading to Dan had been averted, Dark Danny now exists outside of time and as such is Clockwork's responsibility as stated by the Observants.

At the end, Dark Danny is seen attacking the thermos from the inside, attempting to break free.

## Appearance

Young Dark Danny has snow-white hair that blazes into a fire, glowing red eyes with dark lines around them and light turquoise skin. He has pointed ears and fangs. His outfit is the same as Danny's: a black jumpsuit with white boots, collar, belt and gloves, with his logo, a white "D" with a black "P" inside it, on his chest.

Older Dark Danny is taller and much more muscular than his younger self. He has snow-white flaming hair with a ponytail, light turquoise skin and red eyes with dark lines around them. He has pointed ears, fangs and a goatee. He wears a black jumpsuit with a gray trim, a white belt, black gloves, white boots and his logo on his chest, which is unchanged. He wears a cape which is white on the outside and black on the inside.

## Personality

Unlike most of Danny Phantom's enemies who have, to some degree, a moral conscience, Dan possesses no such trait. He is outright wrathful, cruel, remorseless, and more than willing to kill even the people he once cared about just so he can continue his existence.

Due to possessing no humanity whatsoever, Dan can accurately be described as a psychopath. He enjoys manipulating his friends and family in the past, toying with his younger self by fusing a time medallion to him to anchor him to the future, and reveling in the emotional shock he causes his entire family by revealing his past self's secret identity to his parents. Dan even goes so far as to pridefully point out how he purged his humanity long ago. Combined with his destructive tendencies, implied enormous body count, and his willingness to murder his own family in the past to ensure his continued existence in his present, Dan is an absolute monster, showing that he is willing to go to any lengths to preserve himself as he is. To make things worse, he is also shown to have a psychotic and unnerving sense of humor, joking and taunting whenever he so feels like.

He is also notably arrogant, as he condescendingly remarks upon his younger self's charge before taking down him down in the future with a sense of dissatisfaction on the lack of effort on his part. Despite that, he was aware that he could not destroy Danny because that would erase him so he instead battered him to a point where he couldn't intervene. Though this was before time was averted and he can exist without Danny changing into him.

Despite his lack of humanity, he is somewhat shown to have some lingering memories of his past that he shows some fondness towards, such as Tucker's sense of humor.

However, he is capable of showing fear as he was horrified at seeing his younger self using Ghostly Wail, a power that took Dan a decade to master.

## Relationships

### Danny Phantom (Daniel Fenton)

Dark Danny encountered his younger self through a time mislapse when the latter entered his future. Disgusted towards the person he once was, he views his younger self as pathetically weak, keeping him alive only to ensure his future. Dark Danny gravely underestimated his young self when Danny countered with the Ghostly Wail in the oncoming final battle, ultimately defeating and entrapping him in the Fenton Thermos where he remains in Clockwork's custody.

### Vlad Masters

It was through his methods that Dark Danny came into existence, though not intentionally. Doing so caused the former prideful billionaire to live in recluse, guilty over his past misdeeds. Vlad later played a crucial role ten years later when he helped the younger Danny return to his present by removing the unreachable time medallion Dark Danny had placed on him earlier. How Vlad survived the explosion caused by Dark Danny is unclear.

### Jack and Maddie Fenton

Dark Danny's parents, he attempted to kill them along with the others he once loved (and Mr. Lancer) so his future would come to pass. After being exposed by Jazz, Jack and Maddie rounded and threatened him, demanding to know where their son was. He ridicules them for their lack of observation on the connections between Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom before restraining and silencing them, planning to have them killed in the Nasty Burger explosion.

### Jazz Fenton

Like his parents and friends, Dark Danny shares no love for his past sister. He reunites with her when he returns to his past (disguised as his younger self) where she confesses of her secret knowledge of his hero identity. Revealing his evil ghost form to her and stating his plan, he knocks her out and leaves to finalize his future. With the information that was given to her, Jazz writes a note to the younger Danny, attaching it to the Fenton Boomerang where it sought Danny after ten long years of traveling. Jazz later tries to confront Dark Danny on two separate occasions with the Fenton Peeler, the latter ending his masquerade and revealing his true self. He then restrains her to the Nasty Sauce vat.

### Valerie Gray

Valerie is a prominent defender of Amity Park against Dark Danny and other ghosts, keeping a vigilant watch over the city. When the towers that emit Amity Park's ghost shield are destroyed, she reunites with Dark Danny, who counters with his powerful Ghostly Wail. She returns later when younger Danny enters the future with Sam and Tucker. Assuming him to be Phantom at first, the real Dark Danny arrives and sends her away, saved by young Danny. Dark Danny finds her deplorable, but has some past respect for her.

### Sam Manson and Tucker Foley

His two best friends no longer matter to him and he instead has tried to kill them via Nasty Burger explosion to continue his future despite their best efforts to thwart their ill-gotten future (Although at one point Dark Danny admitted to missing Tucker's sense of humor when he traveled back to Danny's time).

### Fright Knight

The Fright Knight claims Dark Danny as his new master, obeying his every command.

### Clockwork

Dan mentions Clockwork "meddling again" when he sees Sam's and Tucker's time medallions, implying they may have previously encountered each other before the events of "The Ultimate Enemy."

At the end of the episode, Dan is left in the Fenton Thermos in Clockwork's lair and the Observants place him under his watch since he now exists outside of time.

### Future ghosts

Dan did not halt his trail of destruction on the real world but the Ghost Zone as well as many ghosts bared a grudge against him for ruining them. Dan's actions were taking Box Ghost's eye and arm, severely injuring Johnny 13 to the point he needed a wheel chair, and ruining Ember's vocal cords. The future ghosts were planning an attack on him but settled on destroying his past self to erase him but their efforts were foiled.

## Powers and Abilities

As Dan Phantom is a fusion of Danny's and Vlad's ghost halves, he has all of Danny's and Vlad's powers as well as completely new abilities that neither Danny nor Vlad had, and on a level much higher than either of them on their own.

* **Ghost Sense**: Dark Danny can sense nearby ghosts and half-ghosts. When his ghost sense is activated, red wisps of mist come out through his nose.
* **Intangibility**: Standard ghost power.
	+ **Intangibility Fusion**: Dark Danny can fuse an object inside someone in order to make it unreachable and untouchable, such as when he fused one of Clockwork's medallions into Danny.
* **Invisibility**: Standard ghost power.
* **Flight**: Standard ghost power.
* **Pyrokinesis**: He can create powerful torrents of green ghost fire that can break through the ground.
* **Supernatural strength**: Dark Danny is far stronger than Danny or Vlad. He is capable of easily lifting and throwing army tanks, which typically weigh around 20 tons.
* **Supernatural durability**: Dark Danny is incredibly resistant to damage and injury. He can withstand great impact forces, explosions, and even Danny's ghostly wails, although these severely weakened him.
* **Healing factor**: All the same with his younger counterpart, he can heal from almost life-threatening wounds, and is able to survive and withstand any injury that befalls him.
* **Overshadowing**: Standard ghost power.
* **Ecto-Energy Powers**
	+ **Ghost Ray**: His blasts are composed of green and white ectoplasm. Even without using his full power, Dan can blow apart a good portion of a multi-story building.
	+ **Ecto-Energy Strike**: He can channel his ghost energy into his fist for a powerful blow.
	+ **Telekinesis**: Visible in the form of green energy emanating from his hands and surrounding the subject of the telekinesis. He can use his telekinesis to render his enemies immobile.
	+ **Ghostly Wail**: Dark Danny can generate an extremely powerful sonic scream. This power is so strong that Dan destroyed the ghost shield protecting the future Amity Park, which had withstood all his other powerful attacks until then, with just one use of his Ghostly Wail. This power took ten years for Dark Danny to develop.
	+ **Ecto-Energy Constructions**: Dark Danny has formed objects such as binds and ropes out of ecto-energy.
* **Ghost Stinger**: Dan used this electric attack to instantly drain Danny of his power, forcing him to turn back to his human form.
* **Duplication**: Dan can create several duplicates of himself. Like Vlad, he often uses his proficiency in duplication as a powerful advantage against an enemy.
* **Ghost Portal Creation**: He can create portals between Earth and the Ghost Zone by merely waving his hand.
* **Spectral Body Manipulation**: Dark Danny has stretched his body, created holes in his body, turned his body into vapor, and turned his head around 180 degrees. He can also assume the appearance of his former human self as a disguise.
	+ **Voice Manipulation**: Dark Danny can alter his voice to sound like Danny.

## Trivia

* During development of "The Ultimate Enemy," Butch Hartman had come up with the idea for what became "The Ultimate Enemy" as a movie involving time travel and ghost battles. He realized the best enemy for Danny to fight would be the worst enemy for any teenager - their own future self. Thus, Dan Phantom was created.
* Dark Danny was not revealed in any of the Nickelodeon advertisements for "The Ultimate Enemy," possibly due to the shock factor of Danny's own future self being his worst enemy.
* It is known that if Steve Marmel had stayed with the show for season 3, Dark Danny would have returned.
* According to Clockwork, Dark Danny has committed at least two thousand evil acts.
* Wanting to mix in time traveling while Danny battled a pure evil ghost, Butch Hartman realized the worst enemy for Danny Phantom to fight would be an evil version of himself. He was not originally revealed to be a villain in the advertisements for *The Ultimate Enemy* on Nickelodeon, due to the shock factor of Danny's future as his own worst enemy.
* Dark Danny" appears as an unlockable costume for Danny in *Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots*. This costume gives Danny Dan's blue skin, fangs, wispy hair, and costume design.
* Dark Danny is one of the very few ghosts who does not make a cameo in "Phantom Planet" turning Earth intangible.