I'm new to the Phandom, and was wondering who the heck is Wes? Did I miss an episode or something that he was mentioned in?
Basically. Wes Weston is this background character that appears for exactly one scene in the whole goddamn show.
He has no lines, he doesn’t do anything except stand and then run. He’s virtually the most useless character in the entirety of the Danny Phantom series.
The thing is, what the phandom realized, is that he has the exact same character model as Danny Fenton. He’s just a ginger instead.
They deadass took the MAIN CHARACTER’S model sheet, swapped the hair and eye colors, made him a lil taller, added a few freckles, and was like “yeah no one will notice this.”
Oh, but we did notice it.
So we were like “this is fucking hysterical” and all collectively—because, remember, what the hell even is canon in this show—that he was going to be a prominent character in fanon. And now he is.
His name, Wes Weston, comes from the class ring that Jack gives to Danny during the lil arc when he is dating Valerie. Jack engraves the ring with Sam’s name (because he thinks Danny’s dating Sam), and during a scene where Danny has to go chase after a ghost, he gives the ring to Sam to hold onto so he doesn’t lose it.
But then Sam holds the ring upside-down and so “Sam” on the ring becomes “Wes.”
The last name of Weston was just one of those, “Hey how dumb would that be if his name was Wes Weston?” “Lol that’s such a dumb fucking name I hate it.” “Ok it’s fanon now.” “Lmfao.”
So now Wes Weston needed a backstory. And because he looks exactly the same as Danny Fenton, and because we all know that Danny’s absolutely atrocious at keeping his double life a secret, fanon decided that instead of the town discovering that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom, what if everyone just thought Wes was Phantom? Because, ya know, they look so similar? And Wes actually seems to have some athletic skill? (**See Edit for updated backstory)
And because it’s hilarious?
So that took off, where everyone thinks Wes is Phantom, and the A-listers think he’s super weird because he’s part ghost, and Wes is going out of his mind because he’s the only one (outside of the trio and Jazz) that actually knows that Danny is Phantom but no one believes him.
And oh man, does Wes try to prove it. He stakes out Fenton’s house, follows ghost attacks, brings cameras everywhere with him, but no matter how hard he tries, all his plans are foiled. Maybe a stray ectoblast breaks his camera, maybe all the pics he gets are super blurry, maybe Danny steals the memory chip from him—no matter what, Wes never gets proof.
And Danny? The general fanon hc is that he’s having an absolute fucking blast annoying the shit out of Wes with every chance he gets.
Check out some awesome comics and stuff of this: [here] / [here] / [here] / [here]
and this hilarious video animatic thing of wes: [here]
So yeah! Hope that helped! I fucking adore Wes as a phandom creation, and I’m glad his legacy has lasted all these years!
**EDIT: Over the years in phandom, Wes’s role in the series has changed from the people of Amity Park claiming that he is Phantom, to the people of Amity Park just regarding him as a crazy conspiracy theorist. Occasionally, the insinuation that “Wes is Phantom” is made, but it’s mostly seen sarcastically in phanon now. Wes has also been given a brother Kyle Weston who, as a foil of Wes, is a relaxed teen boy who does not believe in ghosts at all.
