Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy was INSANE.

Ok, so I've been rewatching Danny Phantom (as one does), because I finished it 4 years ago and it's worth watching a million times over. Anyways, I finally got to The Ultimate Enemy (arguably one of the best episodes), and honestly I almost forgot how absolutely INSANE it was. I mean, a 14 year old kid has his friends and family KILLED, and it turns out that an evil future version of himself was the one to kill them. 

Now don't take this as complaining; it's far from it. I think cartoons need more episodes like those, ones where real disaster happens. I think the scariest part is the fact that all of it did happen, and if Clockwork hadn't turned back time and given Danny a second chance, the future would've played out more or less exactly how it was shown. 

One of my favourite things in the episode is the insanity of Dark Dan. There isn't an ounce of sympathy left in him. Hell, he was just about ready to kill Sam and Tucker, his (not really his but you get what I mean) best friends. With no hesitation as well, and he would've if Valerie (or Danny,  I don't recall), hadn't stopped him. He destroyed all of Amity Park, and probably the rest of the world, just because. And the fact that Danny (again, a 14 year old boy), was told he was DESTINED to become this absolute monster of a ghost. Not even that, but later he finds out that he didn't just ruin the lives of himself and everyone, he also ruined most of the ghost's lives in the Ghost Zone. Not to mention Vlad's life as well, but I don't think anyone really cares about him.

Speaking of Vlad, when Danny goes to see him to find out what happened, he finds out HE FUCKING DIED. I mean technically only his human half died and blah blah blah, but I'm pretty sure that was most of him. And he just was killed by his ghost half, the thing that's inside of him right then. Well okay, I suppose, that was his ghost half mixed with Vlad's. Speaking of which, we all think that the idea to remove Danny's human half from his ghost half was Vlad's idea, right? I can't see Danny coming up with something like that, even if he was torn apart by emotion. He said himself that it sounded gross. 

Anyways, that entire backstory of "the creation of Dark Dan" keeps me up at night. That's scary as hell, and very unhinged for a kids show (again, not complaining. I need more). On another note, what ever happened after Danny asked Vlad to get the medallion out? I mean, I'm sure because he came back that he obviously didn't kill him, but seriously, what happened? All we know is Danny suggested Vlad use the ghost gauntlets to remove his human half from his ghost half (gross) and take the medallion out. Then Vlad said that he might as well just kill him right there so that future didn't happen. Did Danny convince him otherwise? Or maybe he was just joking. And is that really how he got the medallion out? I think that's quite funny, honestly. But scary, trusting Vlad. Anyways, I wish they wrote that scene, or at least kept it in, because I think it would be nice to see. 

Another scene that's really stuck with me is the end, where Dan goes on this whole spiel about how stupid Danny's parents had to be to not have noticed that their own son was half ghost. The line delivery of "I am your boy," after Maddie asks Dan, "What have you done with our boy?" is PERFECTION. I've watched it so many times over it's incredible. On another note, I don't think Danny would've become Dark Dan in that timeline. I mean, originally? Sure. He had no clue he would become an evil future version of himself (and of course, the cause of death was automatic and coincidental, not from interference from Dan). Now that he does, though, I think the pure determination of not wanting to turn out like him would stray him away from that path. He wouldn't separate his two halves, and he sure as hell wouldn't let Vlad convince him to. Of course you could always argue the fact that Dark Dan is still there, which means he turns into him, but I don't believe this is entirely true. See, Dan came from the timeline where he was naturally created (the Nasty Burger explosion) without any outside interference from Clockwork or himself. Clockwork sending Box Lunch to meddle with Danny ultimately created a new timeline, the one where Danny is aware of what he may turn into in the future and the one Dark Dan travels back in time to ensure his becoming. I've included a diagram bellow for easier understanding, if you're still confused. 

All of this means Danny, in his timeline (the one where Clockwork interfered) is NOT destined to turn into Dark Dan, despite him still existing. The fact that he still exists is completely invalid in this situation: it's now ultimately up to Danny on whether he turns evil or not. In his words, "Looks like the future isn't as set in stone as you think it is". 

Anyways, that's my blurb on one of my favourite episodes. I do believe it is my favourite double length, especially with the addition of the Gameboy game (which I happily play in my free time). I think the most theories I come up with are from this episode alone, which makes sense because it gets pretty deep. It's good to see Vlad having some good in him, even if it had taken ten years of his enemies (and love) being dead and lacking ghost powers. It's safe to say, though, that we probably won't be seeing much of "learned his lesson" Vlad in the future.