Let me get this straight (heh). Studio Oak did Ballboy Tactics, Thundercloud Rainstorm, and The Prosecutor’s Proposal…holy shit they are batting 1000!
Like, all of these were amazing shows, and all of them were quite different. Casting, production, music…it really feels like they are taking this very seriously (if that makes sense). I’m stoked to see what they come up with next, be it another season of The Prosecutor’s Proposal or something totally new. I’m starting to trust them like I used to trust Strongberry.
I’m not sure if it’s because of the pandemic-related global supply shortages, but I’ve been unable to get more of this size packaging I was using for my sticker packs. I’ve also been unable to find the exact size that I used in these sets so I’ve had to find a new supplier of packaging in a different size...meaning that I have to redo the entire packaging and rephotograph everything in its new form. BUT I don’t want to do that until I sell out of the former packaging...so if you would like to buy a sticker pack as pictured above, they’re in my online shop now until I sell out :-) link is here.
While there is a lot of good stuff in this episode, there have always been three things that bothered me:
1. Nobody would cheat on a career aptitude test.
2. Clockwork doesn’t have totally clear reasoning for pulling Danny in to do this. We’ve fanon-ed things in, but the episode sort of pulls a catch-22 on this. I realize they use the plot hammer of the observants thinking Danny will become evil, but let’s put some actual thought into the reasoning here.
3. Danny has little actual responsibility for the creation of Dan. This cuts down on the angst - and also how the episode hits in a moral sense.
So I wanted to ‘fix it’ while keeping the large brush-strokes the same. Read on for my thoughts.
(Assume proper foreshadowing of these, were I rewriting the entire series.)
Story opens with Danny struggling with frustration and anger that has been building. Not to a personality-change level, but more to a ‘there’s realistic consequences for his actions and he’s frustrated with it’ level. He’s frustrated about his grades and detentions. He’s angry with Val for continuing to hunt him. He’s tired and getting angry with his parents for not listening to him.
An actual high-stakes test is coming up - let’s make it a placement test for whatever the IB/College in the Schools this universe has. In order to even have a chance at being accepted into the astronomy program Danny’s been eyeing, he has to get into the honors-level science and math classes in high school. Which means he has to pass this test.
He comes up with a plan to study. Sam and Tucker and Jazz try to help. Whenever he gets a chance to focus and study, it’s clear he has the knowledge to pass. He’s acing the questions, quick answers, etc. But the ghosts are on a rampage, and Danny’s study times always get cut short.
Morning of the test arrives and Danny is a mess. He’s exhausted from dealing with a ghost all night, his brain feels like mush, and there’s zero chance of him passing this must-pass test. Frustrated at the ghosts and angry about the situation (because he would have passed easily without the ghosts!), he makes a choice. He sneaks into the school using his ghost powers and deliberately steals a copy of the test. Not the answers, because that’s stupid. None of the testing companies would give a school a copy of the answers even with a gun pointed at their heads.
So he brings the test home and looks up the answers before school starts. He waves it off by saying if his ghost powers were going to cause him to fail, he should be allowed to use his ghost powers to pass.
Deliberate choice to cheat.
Enter Box Lunch attacking the school before the test starts (which delays the test to the next day) so Danny ends up with the time medallion, and Skulk-Tech shows up which clues Danny-and-crew into what the time medallion does. Head over to Clockwork as per the actual episode, and Danny sees his future. Sees Dan and the destruction that was caused. The fact that Danny is choosing to cheat and using his frustration to manipulate things makes his comment about Dan looking cool more ominous.
Again, Danny-and-crew end up in the future and run into Valerie. Sam and Tucker head home and Danny gets tossed into the ghost zone. There, he confronts the ghostly results of his anger. They attack him and he can’t fend them off. But he’s listening, and he hears how he destroyed their lives, and he feels bad. He wants to go back and fix things - but he needs them to leave him alone to do that. So he finds his Ghostly Wail.
Yada, yada, he ends up at future-Vlad’s place. Vlad does the recap - only it’s a bit different. Instead of some freak accident, Danny ended up continuing to allow his frustration and anger to make bad choices. Danny slowly twisted into a person that freaks even Vlad out. Angry all the time and willing to use his ghost powers to subdue whatever caused that anger.
Vlad chose to remove Danny’s ghost when Danny is in his early twenties, in a bid to prevent Danny from getting worse, and with the assumption that Phantom would disintegrate without a body holding it in place. Phantom didn’t, and freed from whatever humanity Danny’s mind had left, attacked Vlad. So we, again, get a human-Vlad and creepy-Danny/Vlad ghost combo known as Dan. Begin epic destruction of both worlds for the next several years.
Vlad removes the time medallion, Danny ends up back in their normal time. Dan has been behind the scene orchestrating some destruction, setting in motion a bid to utterly destroy Danny in the present time and continue to wreak his anger-filled havok on this new world. While he was gone, Maddie, Jack, Lancer, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker ended up learning that Danny cheated on the test.
They corner Danny (not at the Nasty Burger - it never made any sense for them to meet at the Nasty Burger in the first place) and Danny starts to react with frustration and anger. It’s not his fault he’s not getting any sleep, and didn’t get time to study, and it’s not fair that all his future dreams rest on this one test.
Dan attacks. The humans are kidnapped and locked up at the Nasty Burger. Danny follows, trying to fight Dan. Angry at Dan, Danny isn’t able to access his new power. It’s not until he lets go of that anger (Star Wars reference, right?), and is attacking to save his family from destruction, that he can finally use it to subdue Dan and lock him away in a Thermos.
Of course, Danny is too slow, as per the show, and Clockwork has to step in to prevent the death and destruction and ends up resetting the time stream.
It’s the morning of the test, Danny is still exhausted and a mess, and he gets to make a new choice. No cheating. Instead he goes and talks to Lancer about how he’s not been sleeping and didn’t have the time to study like he needed, and Lancer lets him take the make-up test the following week.
Lesson learned - talk through your problems, get help when you need, and don’t wallow in anger and frustration.
Oh, and Dan comes up again in some later episode. Because why create such a wonderful example of angst and never use it again.
Anywho, that’s my thoughts on how I’d rewrite this one. :)
owl you are the coolest being ever!!! I love how you wrote Indefinite, and now that I’m re-reading it I’m noticing so much more about it! There is no one in the world who could have pulled off such an insane fic !! And you also draw!?! How do you hold this much power!!! .. owl senpai :)
That smile holds far too much mirth in it, Kik <_<
Also I assure you plenty of other people could’ve pulled off Indefinite lmao
