#epverse 2026

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smth i’ve been thinking about while writing danny phantom fic these past few days is that even if the fenton parents accepted danny’s secret identity wholeheartedly (which canonically they do), they still would not be good parents

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every time i get recentered on dp x ppg work i think to myself "i'll have to put a disclaimer on the fic that my idea of dp is quite removed from canon, although i'm taking pains to reduce the impact of my headcanons on the fic itself", and then i remember that this is danny phantom and we don't even like our own show. hell some of us don't even watch our own show. so wtf am i worried about.

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overthinking out loud again but i think one of the things that makes jack & maddie fenton so frustrating, especially when attempting to write a more grounded interpretation of the show, is that there’s not really a real-world precedent for “destroying” ghosts.

there’s certainly precedents for studying/“hunting” ghosts, or warding them off. but being rid of them is usually understood as helping them move on, or otherwise urging them away from yourself, not destroying them completely. targeting incorporeal spirits with specific intent to hurt & kill them makes jack & maddie seem a level of irrational that’s no longer fun to think about.

as annoying as it was for butch to announce a few years ago that the ghosts were better understood as just like, stock monsters-slash-supervillains, it’s hard to say there’s no truth to that. outside of a few instances, the idea of “ghosts” is rarely interrogated for what it is.

i think that’s why so many people gravitate to them simply studying ghosts without the destruction motive attached, because they’re still capable of plenty of harm/their canon recklessness still has a place, even if they’re acting on scientific curiosity alone.

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(sigh) i had had jazz as valerie’s sister instead in my danny phantom rewrite, and as much as i still like that concept, i’m thinking of walking it back.

i really think danny’s feelings of isolation are important, but it’s not exactly a stretch to think he’d feel alone even with jazz, sam and tucker in his corner. the inevitable truth is that jazz just can’t be danny’s make-up parent — it’s a toss-up if she can even really be a good confidant. (not for lack of trying on jazz’s part.)

the tradeoff is that valerie has less of the support system i’d really like for her to have. i might rope damon in in a capacity i haven’t before — the contrast between the grays’ healthier “teen hero family” dynamic and the fentons’ could be useful.