Vlad Masters (Obsession series)

Vlad Masters is a billionaire industrialist, the original founder and CEO of VladCo. An old college friend of both Jack and Maddie Fenton, Vlad is secretly a human/ghost hybrid (the first to come into existence), following an accidental college experiment he worked on with Jack and Maddie in which Vlad gained his powers. Having been such for about the last 20 years, he serves as the main antagonist of the series, acting as the archenemy to fellow hybrid Danny Fenton.

## Vladimir Masters

### Relatives

Dani Masters (adoptive daughter), Danny Fenton (legal ward)

## Physical description

### Species

Homo sapien (formerly), Half-human/Half-ghost

## History

### Early Years

Nothing is currently known about Vald's childhood.

### Teen Years

Vlad's teenage years are a mystery (including his high school years). It is possible that he met Jack Fenton during these years.

### Origins of Vlad Plasmius

Somewhere in the early 1980's, Vlad attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison alongside his roomate and best friend Jack Fenton and love interest Maddie. Vlad's friendship with Jack ended when a prototype ghost portal they had built overloaded and blasted Vlad in the face with ectoplasmic energy, resulting in him being hospitalized with ecto-acne and his DNA being infused with ectoplasm, causing him to become a half-ghost.

The exact date of this accident is unknown, however, it's confirmed that in June 1983, Vlad already had his ghost powers and used them to secretly rob a bank. Assuming that it was his very first robbery and knowing that before, he has been hospitalized with ecto-acne for at least two years, the latest possible date of his accident would be June 1981.

Rather than stay in contact with Maddie to continue to win her or use his ghost powers to persuade her, he allowed arrogance, pride and self-pity to ensue which for the moment ruined his social life, and his spirit. He also believed the accident ruined his chances of winning Maddie over but this was never the case as he only temporarily won her hand in deception as seen in "Masters of All Time".

After he recovered, he spent the next bitter 20 years honing and taking advantage of his newfound powers in order to become rich and famous, all in the hopes of eventually getting Maddie back. He possessed wealthy business tycoons to make them hand their companies over to him, took part in invisible insider stock market trading, and committed many invisible burglaries in order to amass his vast fortune.

He founded and currently owns VladCo (which would buy out Axion Labs later on) and has been featured in a number of magazines (*Fortunate Magazine* named him "Man of the Year" in 1997).

### Mysterious occurrence

Despite the fact that Vlad made his first appearance in "Bitter Reunions," he reveals to Danny that he had sent the ectopuses in the first episode to test Jack, as well as other ghosts. Also in "Bitter Reunions," Vlad sends three of his ghost vulture henchmen to kill Jack, only to be thwarted by Danny after discovering their plan, but not their motive.

Despite their failure, Vlad invites the Fentons to a college reunion at his mansion in Wisconsin. However, it was really just part of a plot to humiliate Jack and to get his wife Maddie, the woman of his dreams, to leave him. Danny (as well as his sister Jazz) are dragged along, and the boy immediately has decidedly mixed feelings about the well-off man.

That night, Danny's ghost sense alerts him to the presence of a ghost who introduces himself as "Vlad Plasmius." They end up fighting, but Danny is easily outmatched by the stronger, more powerful ghost. Vlad knocks him unconscious, and he unwillingly transforms back to Danny Fenton in front of him, making Vlad realize that his soon-to-be archenemy/rival is Jack's son. This amused him and he starts planning to take advantage of this.

He remains tight-lipped about the fact until the day of the actual reunion. On the night of the reunion, Vlad casually asks Danny to go down to the lab to get a present for Jack, but when Danny does so, Skulker captures him with the spectral energy neutralizer.

Vlad enters and reveals to Danny who he is, ultimately offering Danny the chance to join up with him and help him further train and hone his powers in exchange for renouncing his father. Danny angrily declines, leaving Vlad to put the next phase of his plan into action.

He possesses Jack, makes him cause chaos during the reunion to ruin his reputation, then captures Maddie Fenton. Danny (eventually freed by the Dairy King) uses the Fenton RV to stop him. Danny ironically blackmails Vlad by threatening to expose the both of them to his parents unless they call a truce, to which Vlad agrees, though he vowed to return.

### Archenemy

Unknown to Danny, Vlad gives Valerie Gray ghost-hunting equipment in order to cause trouble for Danny while getting access to Danny's DNA for a secret project. Vlad appears later as the mysterious provider of Valerie's infamous ghost hunting suit and weapons, although she’s unaware of his true intentions behind it. Vlad made a full return when he staged a plan that involved the inconspicuous "DALV" group ("Vlad" backwards) inviting Maddie and Danny to a mother/son science convention in Florida.

When Maddie takes a reluctant Danny along as an attempt to bond with him, the two are both tricked into parachuting out of their plane, conveniently finding themselves at Vlad's Rocky Mountain retreat. There, Vlad attempts to convince them both to stay with him by confessing his undying love for Maddie. They refuse and storm off into the woods.

Vlad attempts to chase them both back by means of sending his mutated ghost animals after them - the bodies of which can be seen mounted in his hunting-lodge style living room.

While Maddie is sleeping in her tent, Danny is captured and confronted by Vlad, who shorts out Danny's powers for a set period of time with a device he invented, the Plasmius Maximus, and leaves him at the mercy of his ghost animals.

However, Danny is saved by his mother and, with little choice, is forced to return to Vlad's home to find a means to get back to Amity Park. Maddie uses her charm on Vlad to find a phone, which makes Danny sick. She goes off to make the call while Danny, left alone with Vlad, falsely declares him as his "new dad" to let his guard down.

Successfully tricking Vlad by setting back his clock to make him think the Plasmius Maximus had not yet worn off (when in fact, it had), he wraps the Specter Deflector around Vlad, which weakens him considerably for a fairer fight. Danny ultimately defeats Vlad by convincing the ghosts of the animals that Vlad had killed to turn against him, as well as disabling his powers with the Plasmius Maximus.

Vlad's next plan has him traveling into the Ghost Zone in search of the Skeleton Key, an item that enables him to open "any door, travel to any realm, and free any prisoner." When Behemoth, the guardian of the key, appears, Vlad easily overpowers him, but this is only an initial success and Vlad is soon defeated as Behemoth throws him out of the Ghost Zone back through his portal, and back into his manor without the key.

However, he realizes that he had forgotten to change the "Ecto-Filtrator" on his ghost portal, and it explodes, destroying his castle mansion. Due to this, Vlad plans to steal the Fentons' ghost portal. Needing to distract Danny so he can have the time to dismantle it, he offers a million dollar bounty on the ghost boy to distract him. Ghost hunters from all over gather to capture him, which does not bother Danny due to the incompetence of most of them.

However, when Danny spots the ghost vultures making off with Sam and Tucker, he races after them, only to be brutally beaten by Plasmius, who appears and reveals his intention to humiliate Jack as well, before leaving. Danny feels pity for his father and his ineptitude, so he allows himself to be caught to boost his terrible reputation as a ghost hunter. But when Jack leaves to claim his reward, the two are both captured by Vlad who then proceeds to steal their ghost portal. Working together, Jack and Danny escape and head for the Portal, where Vlad brutally insults Jack.

In a moment of rarity, Jack successfully uses the ghost gauntlets to beat Vlad and throws him into the Ghost Zone. A humiliated Vlad soon turns gleeful when he obtains the Key shortly afterwards. The Skeleton Key was put to use later when Vlad winds up releasing the ghost king Pariah Dark when he tries to steal the king's treasures: the "Crown of Fire" and the "Ring of Rage."

To combat the king, Vlad and Danny call a temporary truce and fight off Pariah's forces. Vlad also reveals to Valerie that he was the one who gave her the equipment to fight ghosts. Vlad ultimately locks Pariah Dark back into his sarcophagus prison just as Danny, armed with the Ecto-Skeleton, passes out from the exertion of using it to force Pariah back inside of it. Taking advantage of the situation, Vlad steals the Ecto-Skeleton, and claims to Maddie and Jack that he rescued Danny to worm his way back into their good graces.

In an alternate future, Danny, orphaned upon the death of his family and friends, moves in with Vlad, seeing as he was "the only person left on the planet who could possibly hope to understand his situation." Vlad takes him in with open arms and honors his wishes when a seriously depressed and desperate Danny begs Vlad to remove his ghost half from him, claiming that the memory of it causes him too much pain.

During the process, Danny's ghost half becomes enraged, and turns on Vlad, tearing Vlad's ghost half away from his human half and inadvertently merging him with it as he goes to attack the other ghost. With evil having completely consumed him, Danny/Vlad's ghost then proceeds to kill the human Danny, destroy Vlad's mansion, and begin a 10 year-long rampage of world destruction while the human Vlad just barely escaped.

When the present-day Danny, trapped in the future due to the future evil Dan fusing a Clockwork medallion within him, arrives in what is left of Vlad's mansion, he finds Vlad, now reduced to a miserable old hermit. The only good that came out of this, he says, is that ten years without ghost powers has given him time to realize what a fool he had been.

In a rare moment for both characters, Vlad shows repentance for his misdeeds while Danny, in a way, forgives him. Vlad ultimately played a part in returning present-day Danny back to the past to correct his mistake by removing the time medallion from within him.

## Appearance

As a human, Vlad has white hair that according to Bitter Reunions, turned white as the result of his DNA being infused with ectoplasm. However, in Masters of All Time, it's shown that even without the accident he'd end up having a white hair in the current time. It's possible that while currently his hair color is caused by his half-ghost DNA, he himself may suffer from **Canities Subita** (also known as **Thomas More/Marie Antoinette Syndrome**), which would result in his hair turning white without half-ghost DNA.

His hair is tied into a ponytail and he has a matching goatee. However, he has black eyebrows and a pointed nose. He has midnight blue eyes and his eyes are heavily outlined in black, showing his dark nature and implying that he maybe wears eyeliner. He typically wears a black suit with a red handkerchief in his left breast pocket and a matching red bolo tie. The suit has three rows of white buttons, a total of six. He also wears a white undershirt and black pointed shoes.

In his alter-ego of Vlad Plasmius, he retains little resemblance to his human form, although some features remain the same. Plasmius is more vampiric than Masters, as this was the producer's original intention, although it was rebuked by Nickelodeon, who considered it too "occult." He is more muscular in this form and has sky-blue skin and fangs. His hair is black and styled in a horn-like U-shape, and he has a black goatee. He wears a mostly white outfit consisting of white trousers and a white long-sleeved shirt with black gloves and boots. His shirt is connected via a black belt and stems up to his neck. There is a black collar on his shirt like Danny's, although it does not extend up the neck. Finally, he accessorizes with a high collar cape connected around his neck that has a white exterior and a red interior lining.

## Personality

Vlad's general outer appearance showcases him as a well to-do man: rich, suave, clever, intelligent and mysterious. He’s very methodical in getting what he wants whenever he wants it, showcasing patience as well as cunning. Deceitful and cruel, Vlad is perfectly willing to use any underhanded method to obtain his desires and he possesses no qualms about resorting to such things as kidnapping and attempted murder.

He is not above using others as his pawns in achieving his goals, as was shown when he infected Sam and Tucker with ecto-acne to get Danny to help him with his own case. Never giving up when he is down, to compensate for his losses, Vlad savors small, personal victories, such as in "Bitter Reunions" where he lost the battle, but proudly pointed out Danny's blackmailing being similar to his before leaving.

He usually works alone, but has required help from Skulker several times, as well as the vulture ghosts, ectopuses, and the failed clones. In "Reign Storm," while gloating to Danny, he said he "...used two 14-year-old pawns to turn a knight and topple a king," implying that he may have struck a deal with the Fright Knight. However, the show never showed it come to play.

Vlad is also known to hold a grudge for years. Part of the reason he hates Jack so much is due to all the humiliation and personal injury Jack has caused him over the years, blaming Jack for having caused the accident which saw Vlad become infected with ectoplasm and saw Vlad lose the opportunity to confess to and make Maddie his. (Indeed, Maddie and Jack were most likely prohibited from visiting Vlad as the doctors were unsure as to the exact nature of his condition and couldn't risk anyone seeing him lest it proved to be contagious.) When under stress, he frequently shouts out snack names ("Oh, butter biscuits," "Oh, sugar cookies," etc.) and is known for losing his temper quite easily.

While Vlad is, at heart, cruel, sadistic, malicious, greedy, self-serving, petty, vindictive, obsessive, and power-hungry, he is also a complicated soul. Often a double-edged sword, he uses the wrong methods (killing, stealing, etc.) to gain what he thinks is right, namely in order to fill his painful loneliness.

This includes getting love that he is never allowed himself to have blaming his life-altering incident rather than his own personal faults: Maddie, who he believes should have been his and the fact he wanted no else, and Danny, a potential son who also struggles with ghost powers. Unfortunately, this longing is also used against him when his emotions leave him vulnerable, Danny, Maddie, and Jazz having tricked him with it.

However, the fact that he retains such emotions shows that he is not above redemption. His arrogance has also proven to be a significant disadvantage; on one occasion when he fought Jack as Plasmius—Jack, naturally, being unaware of his identity as Vlad Masters—part of the reason for his defeat was the fact that he underestimated Jack's ability to successfully battle him and launch effective attacks.

Additionally, he can become too overconfident about his plans, only to ruin them because of his own short temper and inability to think some aspects of his plan through. By the time of his downfall at the end of the series, Vlad has come to realize the foolishness of his actions, contemplating his lonely future away from Earth.

## Relationships

### Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom

Quite possibly the one whom he desires the most (perhaps more so than even Maddie), Vlad's first meeting with Danny was nothing special, up until he discovered that the boy was a half-ghost, just like him. With that knowledge, Vlad has since pursued Danny, trying to convince him to renounce his father, and become his adopted son/successor. Later in the series, he becomes so desperate and angry that he attempts to clone Danny, which does not quite work out.

Danny has nothing but disdain/unfriendliness towards Vlad mostly because he recognizes Vlad as a hopelessly deluded, cruel, arrogant, manipulative, and genuine sleaze. However, often he tries to use Danny in order to get another phase of his plan(s) moving and is not above being manipulative towards him.

Yet, the other side of his personality shows an antagonistic paternal bond towards the boy, giving him advice and indicating that the two of them are a lot more alike than Danny cares to admit. By the time of "Eye for an Eye," after losing his possibly only chance to have Danny when Danny's clone is destroyed, Vlad sees Danny as a full-time rival rather out of frustration. Additionally, once in a while at least, Vlad will ally himself with Danny whenever the situation requires it; such as seen in "**Reign Storm**" when Pariah Dark sent his minions to attack Amity Park, Danny and Vlad (along with Valerie) fought against them.

### Dani Phantom

Created as one of Vlad's many failed attempts to clone Danny, Danielle "Dani" Phantom was the only one of his clones blessed with a mind of her own, the ability to think for herself, an individual personality, the closest he came to successfully cloning Danny. Dani genuinely loved Vlad as her father.

However, Vlad still saw her as a failed experiment that he would later dispose of, and his paternal behavior was feigned for the time being until he finished the primary clone. Vlad convinces her that if she captured Danny Phantom, he could use his "mid-morph" DNA to help stabilize her, and she agrees. However, Dani discovers the primary clone and what her "father" intended to do with her afterwards. She was heartbroken, grew to hate Vlad, and sided with Danny against him. They destroy all of Vlad's clones and leave him. Some time later, Vlad discovers Dani had returned and has Valerie capture her.

Vlad intended to resume his cloning experiments by melting Danielle down and study her ectoplasmic remains in order to see how she survived for so long. Valerie and Danny arrived just in time to save her, and Dani promptly beat down Vlad.

Ironically, if Vlad had treated Dani as he would have with Danny or the primary clone, he would have succeeded in creating the loving family he wanted.

### Jazz Fenton

At first, Vlad often overlooks Jazz as he’s aware that she knows nothing about Danny's–and by extension, his own–half-ghost status, and therefore is hardly an immediate threat to his plans. However, as he wishes to take Maddie from Jack and replace him as Danny and Jazz's father, he still treats Jazz with a certain degree of affection.

This changes in "Secret Weapons" when Jazz tricks him by using his emotions against him and revealing that she knows about his secret identity. After that, Jazz becomes another young rival to him.

### Maddie Fenton

The woman whom he desires, Vlad has repeatedly declared that he’s in love with her and will do anything to get her, meaning having to kill Jack, who serves as an obstacle. Obsessed with her, his alternate self owned and controlled her like an object rather than a person.

Vlad also owns a Maddie hologram to compliment him on his work (though one version falls in love with a Jack hologram). Maddie is indifferent to Vlad after his confession about his love for her and continues to harbor mixed feelings towards him, even after he apparently rescued Danny in "Reign Storm."

By the last episode, she considers him deplorable when he reveals his true nature and blackmails the nations of the world. Ultimately by doing this, Vlad loses any ounce of respect Maddie barely still had for him.