Danny Phantom A Glitch in Time- Dan Phantom character analysis
Dan Phantom, also known as Dark Danny, returns as main antagonist in the "A Glitch in Time" graphic novel. He is a lot more powerful than last time Danny faced him, and he is capable of going so far as destroying the time itself to be able to accomplish his goals.
Dan's Origins
Introduced first (and only time) in "The Ultimate Enemy" special, Dan was presented as a evil and destructive future version of Danny. In the same episode it was revealed that he was the product of a experiment gone wrong when Vlad was trying to separate Danny from his ghost half. This resulted in Phantom fusing with ghost Plasmius and getting consumed by "the evil that was insidr Plasmius", turning himself into Dan.
Dan was later defeated and captured inside a fenton thermos by Danny, where he spent all his time trapped in there under Clockwork's watch until the events of "A Glitch In Time".
"The Ultimate Enemy" established Dan a combination of both Phantom and Plasmius, in result his personality and goals come from both ghosts. However, Phantom/Danny is clearly the "dominant" personality, and he is refered as Danny's evil future self within the show and outside of it by the DP crew and fans.
While "The Ultimate Enemy" gave a good idea of what drove Dan into a dark path, a lot of his characterization for years remained pure fan speculation. "A Glitch in Time" explores and develops his character in multiple ways, showing new sides of him that weren't explored in detail in the series, making him a more complex character than he already was.
In the story he gets introduced after he accidentally gets freed from the thermos thanks to a clash of powers between Clockwork and Plasmius. When Vlad confuses Dan for Danny, Dan corrects him by explaning to him that he "isn't Danny" and he is a fusion fron Phantom and Plasmius from another timeline. Another interesting detail is how he mentions that he is ¨all phantom now¨, hinting that he doesn't see himself as human, only a ghost.
Dan doesn't take time in beating up Clockwork and fuses with him, realizing that it could become ¨unstoppable¨ with the time guardian's powers under his hands. He doesn't seem to care that this could put him and the timeline in danger, as long as he can't get defeated.
Some of Dan's lines show him resenting Clockwork for erasing his timeline ( ¨And I'm not part of this timeline. You made sure of that¨) and some fear of being trapped inside the thermos again (¨I can't let you use this (the time staff). Not again¨). Overall, Dan feels certain loss for getting his own timeline erased and doesn't want some similar happen to him again.
Being on Denial
If there is one word to describe Dan's character in ¨A Glitch in Time¨ that would be ¨denial¨. Throughout the story, Dan shows to be in denial both of his own emotions, past/trauma and even his own past self as Danny Phantom. Everytime someone mentions that he is still Danny or that a part of Danny is still inside him, he answers with how he ¨isn't Danny anymore¨ and how he has grew past his own humanity.
Dan sees himself a above human emotions, seeing them as a weakness. He sees himself almost as he was a divine entity that is beyond ghosts and humans. This could explain one of the reasons of why he fused with someone like Clockwork since he is able to control time itself.
A good example of this denial is when Jazz tries to remind him that ¨they are family¨, trying to reach out to ¨Danny's part¨ of Dan. Dan replies to this with how ¨losing them (his own family) in his timeline make him stronger¨, which contradicts how alternate! Danny was shown to be emotionally devastated when he lost his own family and friends after the Nasty Burger explosion. Dan has been hinted to be a product of that Danny's own trauma from the loss of his family and friends and him blaming himself for not being able to save them.
A similar scenario repeats when Danny gives Dan the option to step down, reminding to Dan that Amity Park used to be his home once and that he is still ¨Danny¨. Dan is clearly upset when Danny reminds him of his own past self, showing how he hates being reminded of that. Dan answers Danny with ¨You forget I'm more than that now¨, with this idea of how he is beyond human emotions now.
Dan has a desire to get rid of Danny in the story. It is the reason of why he showed up in Amity Park, to look for Danny and beat him up. While part of it could be seen as him trying to get revenge on the teen, it could be also be read as him trying to get rid of the person that represented his past self, showing how far is able to go erase anything that has to do with is own past.
Self-destruction
Another important aspect of Dan in ¨A Glitch of Time¨ is how self-destructive he is. He doesn't seem to care about how he puts the timeline itself in trouble as long as he is ¨able to win¨.
Dan has an obsession with being the strongest. It doesn't matter if this search for power ends up with him hurting himself as long as he is able to accomplish his goals. In the novel Dan is seen ¨glitching¨ multiple times since he is not able to hold the fusion of him and Clockwork together. These time glitches cause him great pain and leave him very exhausted as result. Later, in the final confrontation, the characters bring up how Dan is spending a lot of energy trying to keep the fusion up and how that's hurting himself.
When asked by Danny why he is doing this and how he could get himself erased by glitching the timeline, Dan expresses how he doesn't care about that as long as he is able to defeat Vlad and Danny. He doesn't seem to care about anything than winning against the other two halfas.
This obsession with power shares some parallels to Vlad's villain arc in the series, except the execution is different. In Vlad's case he ends up getting more desperate to achieve his goals over time, choosing more extreme methods to do so. It resulted in him losing everything he had and pushing everyone that cared about him away. With Dan, it is not caring about how this power ends up destroying everything, himself included. It becomes more about ignoring how he is hurting himself instead of pushing others away like Vlad did.
Facing one's self
In the final battle, Danny tries reminding Dan of his old self, something that he fails in the first attempt. He keeps asking Dan why he is choosing to keep the fusion together when he is putting the timeline and himself in danger.
At one point, when Dan is about to end Danny, Danny asks him ¨Why are you so angry?¨ and brings up how ghosts are driven by human emotions or emotions in general. Dan answers to that with ¨I've long since transended you human weakness¨, which is ironic since he is a full ghost, and just like every other ghost, he is driven by emotion.
Vlad Masters decides to intervine and talks about how Dan is part Plasmius, meaning that one part of him is driven by the emotion of fear. While fighting against Dan, Vlad admits that his own fear of others leaving him and being alone made him become obsessed with being in control and always looking for more power. Meaning that Dan has a similar fear that leads him to always be more powerful and being in control.
During this confrontation Dan is faced with the idea that even himself can't escape from his own emotions and that he is a ¨normal ghost¨ as everyone else in the Ghost Zone. He isn't above others as he thought he was. He is able to feel lost and pain like anyone else.
After getting a extreme beat down from Danny and Vlad and becoming separated from Clockwork, Dan has a mental breakdown from losing again. He talks about how he is ¨always losing¨, how he lost ¨this battle, his own timeline and his family¨, the latest being brought up by Danny himself.
This reveals that Dan was always looking to be stronger than he already was so he never have to lose something again. It came from Danny's own trauma of not being able to save his family from the accident, which drove Dan to get obsessed with looking for more power.
To put this in simple words: Dan is the combination of the worst most toxic aspects of both Danny and Vlad, thus created a powerhungry entity who causes destruction, maybe as a way to distract himself from his own pain.
What it is more, it's heavily implied that leaving Dan trapped in the thermos only made things worse for him, as pointed out by Danny. When asked by his parents to capture Dan inside the thermos, Danny looks how Dan glitches out and for a moment he looks like his young self, making Danny refusing to put Dan inside the thermos.
There some jealousy from Dan too, about how he has lost everything in comparison to his younger counterpart and he doesn't understand why this happened. Danny feels sorry for Dan, sympathizing with how having lost his own family and timeline must have been terrible for him.
When Dan starts to destabilize, the expresses fear of losing his own body and begs Danny to not put him inside the thermos since ¨he doesn't want to be alone again¨. This line could come from both Phantom and Plasmius, but it seems to lean more to Plasmius' half, considering that fear of being alone is what always drove Vlad's selfish actions.
After hearing this, Vlad offers his body as a temporary vessel for Dan to use until they are able to find another one. Vlad apologizes to both Danny and Dan for hurting them and offers Dan a ¨second chance¨, to which Dan accepts and uses Masters' body as a host.
Dan is last seen ¨fusing¨ himself with one of Danny's clones. Clockwork explains to Vlad that now he is in charge of Dan, thus giving Dan a new opportunity to be a teenager again and live the normal life he could have had in his own timeline.
Conclusion
Dan's arc in ¨A Glitch in Time¨ is about him having to face his own emotions and humanity and how he isn't above them as he believes himself to be. The novel shows a more self destructive side of him, not caring about how he puts reality and himself in danger for fusing with Clockwork. While Dan expresses certain regret from his actions and desire to stop destroying everything in his path because he accepts the ¨second chance¨ Vlad offers to him, i would argue that his arc isn't so much of a redemption as it is more about accepting that his own issues and accepting that he needs help, something that Vlad gives to him.
In the end Dan gets his own ¨happy ending¨ since he gets a chance to have a normal life (and maybe a new family) again, represented by how he ends up fusing with one of Danny's clones, which resemble the person he used to be once.
