#booo's posts

Valerie is amazing. Like - okay sorry, I just have to start off with this. She’s not necessarily nice in this episode - or previous - I mean, she’s a ‘popular kid’ who asks Kwan to beat a kid up, but the ground work is laid. She’s driven (by revenge), intelligent (the equipment helps, but man she picked up that equipment quick), and is rather strong overall. I mean, this isn’t a blind watch through - it’s a rewatch. I know the person she turns into, and her character growth is great, which might be clouding my judgement. But, I’d like to think the seeds of who she turns into are here. Plus I love her dad. And the small glimpse we get into their father/daughter relationship just warms my heart. 

Kwan. Get new friends. You’re actually a decent guy with some morals. BE THE NICE GUY. 

In that line, we see how much environment can influence behaviour and enable it. The popular kids enable their poor behaviour and encourage it - they don’t care about the losers. Point and case with Kwan - he was pretty okay with what happened, accidents happen. Until Valerie told him to beat Danny up. Also, at the table when they shun Valerie it shows how shallow that club is, and how if you aren’t in, you’re very very out. I can’t remember if Valerie ever reconciles with them or not - but I hope not. They suck.

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT GHOST ANIMALS. Why do some talk? What makes them stay? WHO KNOWS. Like, are the ectopusses remnants of actual octopuses, or were the pieced together by something, some sort of sentience? I mean we’ve only seen them briefly, and they just kind of scream. But man, what is their story?

Moving on, we see the vultures! Vlad’s minions! They can talk - but why? They aren’t the only animals to talk (well sort of, and I’m jumping ahead of myself to Wulf, ect) but why are they talking and how are they talking? Is it age/power? Is it dependant on how they die? I am just so so curious as to why some ghost animals - ghostimals?? - can talk while others can’t. I mean, it could just be for convenience, depending on plot. BUT I WANT THEORIES. Cujo is a relatively new ghost. Vultures seem older. Could it also be where they’ve hung out in the Ghost Zone and what they’ve run into in there? I have so many ideas!

Also, how does Cujo escape so easily? Is it a dog thing? He just kind of digs his way out of the door - which other ghosts absolutely can’t. In addition to this, a couple of times he’s shown appearing by digging upwards through the ground. Can he just... appear at will? GHOST ANIMALS MAN, THEY BREAK THE RULES!

Vlad’s technology is pretty amazing, like knowing when Valerie was not on and being able to pick her up. But man, is he a dick. Using a teenager to get at his rival. He’ll do it again. I aggressively love him, but Vlad get your shit together. You know he’s not all that concerned with Valerie’s safety. It’s all about him. Also just how close is he watching AMity? WHich ghosts are spying for him? Vlad you’re a little... obsessive, heh.

And that’s it! Thanks for sticking around and reading my ramblings mostly on Valerie and GHOSTIMALS. :D

I think honestly Spectra is one of the most insidious and destructive ghosts featured in this show. Mostly because she doesn’t outright destroy or attack, she instead preys on already present fears and doubts. It isn’t a physical attack, and it isn’t something that leaves and obvious mark - and it isn’t property destruction. It’s all in your head, which is why it is so terrible. This is one of the reasons I love Spectra as a villain - she embodies something everyone can relate to, and she’s damn sneaky about it. 

When I say that what I mean is that she takes pains to hide her presence, has obviously done this before and hasn’t been caught (not that many people could technically catch her), and what she incites in people can be written off easily as teenage angst/hormones. How many kids has she fed off? How long has she been doing this? For how old she appears in the end, it’s decades if not centuries. We, the viewer, can relate because we’ve likely gone through something like this. Being a teenager can be tough. Life in general can be. When you’re feeling beaten down, everything can seem grey and nothing you do is right.  

Danny certainly is feeling this. Like, how far do his issues run? Spectra called him a spa - and that’s pretty intense. This episode isn’t subtle about how he’s feeling like it has in previous episodes (his freak outs, how he’s unable to reconcile his ghost half and human half, ect). It smashes any idea of Danny being okay. He keeps a lot to himself. I would hope after this episode he talks to Sam and Tucker more about how he’s feeling, but who knows. 

As a human, he’s afraid of being called a loser, of being one. As a ghost, he’s afraid of failing, of not becoming better, and kind of, of himself. Spectra’s words right before Jazz steps in affect him greatly. A ghost pretending to be human (which is kind of a cool idea, tbh), a kid with creepy powers? What are you, is the driving point - and Danny doesn’t know. He doesn’t understand himself, and Spectra’s constant nibbling at him has brought these issues to the forefront. It’s painful, to see him in such conflict with himself. Danny has improved and has acknowledged it in the past - but Spectra’s thrown him so badly that he’s thinking he’s becoming worse. Just, augh my heart. Danny’s so conflicted with himself, and he doesn’t have any clear answer as to who or what he is and it bothers him. So many identity issues. So. Many.

Continuing on this line, he makes several jabs at Jazz being the “smart one”. Danny is likely used to being compared to Jazz, who likes being academic and is academically strong, and he probably doesn’t feel smart because of their differences in academic performance. But Danny is smart, and it sucks that the world is so focus on academic performance. He’s just different than Jazz. Danny figured out that Spectra was a ghost, he’s figured out how to defeat many other ghosts, he’s figured out how to use many of his parent’s inventions. He honestly does not give himself enough credit. I also believe that Danny, if he wasn’t fighting ghosts all the time and was motivated to pay a bit more attention, he’d be as good as Jazz. 

Spectra, man.

I liked this episode, I liked it a lot. It was a good kind of different, and man. It just brought up ALL THE ISSUES and dealt with a lot of them. 

I love the little things they add, and the bits and pieces of comedy to help lighten the mood so it isn’t too heavy. Lancer the cheerleader. Totally forgot about that one. I love how Mr. Lancer is so into Spirit Week. 

I love how Sam and Tucker bought that Jazz bought their explanation. It was a nice try, but man. 

I like Jazz a lot in this episode. She’s definitely an overbearing big sister, but he loves Danny, and they have a great dynamic. She’s stepped over lines in the name of love, but also recognizes where it’s important to step back - especially like letting Danny come to her when he’s ready to talk to her, versus making him talk. Character growth, man.

That last shot of Danny flying around in bliss definitely gives off a sense of Danny at peace with himself. Flying is probably one of if not the best part about being half ghost - it looks so freeing! And, likely that’s what Danny feels. It gives me, as a viewer after this episode, the feeling that while Danny might have many issues with being half ghost, he’s starting to understand himself, and be at peace with who he is and what he’s become. I don’t think we’ve really seen Danny enjoying his powers like this - I mean, we’ve seen him pull pranks and that sort, but that’s not the same thing. In this case he’s flying because he likes it, with really no other goal in mind. And, guys, his expression just makes me happy. 

Oh Walker...

Maddie and Jack’s relationship isn’t perfect, they fight (and sometimes over really trivial things) but they love each other. It’s a nice episode theme - love and marriage. One of my points up there is I’m happy that the show brought up divorce, even if Danny’s parents didn’t go through one, I’m still happy it was brought up. Not much media I consumed brought up divorce as a possibility for parents - at least, not to my memory. So it even being a thing in a show I watched was nice, especially as my parents had divorced only a few years earlier. Plus, the way they celebrated Alicia’s divorce was good in a way, because although divorce is painful, and not exactly a happy event for all parties involved (especially for kids, as noted by Danny and Jazz’s (sorta) response) but for the adults? It can be really the only thing that will make them happy. Relationships... end. And it’s nice to see a cartoon acknowledge it. 

GHOST ZONE ADVENTURES. I LOVE GHOST ZONE ADVENTURES. We have green swirly things, skeletons, DOORS. I love the beginning of Ghost Zone adventures. There’s so much to look at, to see, to explore! Ghostly lairs for one. Could Danny create one? Does he already have one? Or is the lab considered his lair and the portal a door? Each door leads to a different lair/space, each with it’s own qualities. One was a fairly small confined room with a tv, another filled with Real World items and seemingly endless space. I wonder how much the Fentons have lost in the Ghost Zone because I doubt all of that it their stuff.

On that note - I wonder why they use the term ‘real world’ items for things outside of the Ghost Zone. It’s a term that both the Fentons and ghosts use. The Jack or Maddie programmed the Spectre Speeder to recognize items from their side of the portal as such, and Walker uses the term as well.

Could this mean that there has been previous research done on the Ghost Zone that has been published? I mean the Guys in White, although not introduced at this point, have been established on some sort of basis. I would hazard a guess to say that Jack and Maddie are leading researchers, but who else? Who first started probing? Again, later seasons introduce time travel/natural portals/ect but I’m so curious who has done what in the past!

I wonder if 1000 years is lenient for a ghost - what is their life span? Do they age or do they live forever until they are killed in some way or form? Does it depend on power level? I mean Desiree is pretty old. Technus on the other hand? Seems much younger, age of technology mad scientist and all. Or he could have aged/evolved with the times. 

As a side note, I love the Lunch Lady and all her doom lines. Also the fact that she riots with a giant drumstick. You go Lunch Lady, you go. 

The Real World vs Ghost Zone items. Like I get what they’re doing here, but I’m not sure how well reinforced it is/how it works in this episode. Like the ghost dragon clearly nudged the Spectre Speeder over. It made a sound! But Walker couldn’t touch Danny. I’m not too sure how it works, honestly. Do they humans have to be aware to phase through things? Or is it only some things? Again, it isn’t presented clearly. Or, to me it isn’t. I think it’s an interesting concept that has a good theory behind it (ghosts have powers in the human world therefore humans have sorta powers in the Ghost Zone) I’m just not sure about the overall execution of it.

On that note though, I really like the idea that Danny kind of has to relearn how to be a ghost in the Ghost Zone. So many rules of the human world don’t apply there and he is very unfamiliar with the area. He’s at the disadvantage here. He doesn’t know how to... ghost in the Ghost Zone. Given time, he would be able to overcome the disadvantage, but for now he’s the newbie! WHICH MEANS HE SHOULD GO ON MORE GHOST ZONE ADVENTURES.

I like Walker as a villain. He’s petty, corrupt, likes execution, and his rules really only benefit him. I don’t know if the Ghost Zone is structured enough to have a working police/judiciary system. I don’t think it is. He just wants to be judge/jury/executioner, he wants that power, so he makes up arbitrary rules to enforce so he can arrest people. Potentially in the past it was structured enough, but now. Now it isn’t.

Which is me just getting into conjecture about the history of the Ghost Zone (which would be an interesting read!).

Man let’s talk about Vlad’s obsession/objectification of Maddie - played for laughs later, but seriously questionable. Like yeah, it’s fun, but man it’s creepy. And I say this as someone who loves Vlad. I just forgot how... into it he was. I mean, and it’s played pretty straight throughout the series - Vlad has definitely got the obsession part of being a ghost down pat. It seems the more malevolent ghosts have some sort of obsession - for the most part.

Speaking of malevolence, I love the Dairy King, and what he says to Danny - that not all ghosts are evil. Much like how not all humans are good. They’re a mixed bag of complex beings, and Danny shouldn’t default to if you’re a ghost, you’re evil. Many that appear in Amity want to cause mischief - hence the fact that they’re out of the ghost zone in the first place - but it doesn’t hold true for all of them.

On that, I wonder how much influence his parent’s had on this view. Considering up until the point he turned into a half ghost, Danny had probably been told all his life that ghosts were evil and that was that - especially considering that’s how his parents think now. I can definitely see Danny struggling with the thought that since he is part ghost he can never be wholly good. Maybe that’s what spurned him on (even unconsciously) to keep fighting ghosts, to do good. 

One question I have though is why did it take Vlad so long for him to send ghosts after the Fentons? Seriously. I mean, he’s been rich and successful for a descent amount of time. What triggered him sending so many ghosts? Was it the appearance of a second half ghost half human (which is quite well known around the ghost zone)? Was it the creation of the ghost portal? I can’t remember if it’s ever explained beyond “I wanted to test your dad” and that right then seemed to be the perfect time to start sending ghosts. Vlad, get yourself together man.

I wonder if the power crawl between Vlad and Danny would be different. I mean, Vlad has years and experience, but only his face was hit and it affected him through the ecto-acne. Danny’s body on the other hand was fully blasted and we see ectoplasm fuse with his DNA. I bet Danny would improve leaps and bounds ahead of Vlad given just a handful of years. Even in the series itself, Danny seems to out-power Vlad - even with just what we have. I bet it would be different if we had gotten a full season 3, or more seasons for that matter. 

Well, having a best friend with super powers can be kind of aggravating, especially when it seems you always get the short end of the stick when you’re trying to help. I understand where Tucker’s jealousy stems from - and it’s not an unfamiliar theme in these kinds of stories.

I don’t blame him for making that wish (especially considering he didn’t mean for anyone to hear it), but his actions are kind of well… terrible. Tucker tends to enable the prankster/irresponsible behaviour in Danny, whereas Sam enables the opposite - this does not always hold true (I mean, Sam opened the Gorilla cage, they both organized protests, ect) - but Tucker actively encourages Danny to get back at people with his ghost powers. In this episode we see Tucker actively making people unhappy just for fun and for his amusement, and Danny’s right - it’s mean. Especially compared to what happened in the previous episode, the meanness of Tucker’s actions are amplified in a sense. 

Now, I wonder how much of this is Tucker and how much of this is Tucker’s jealousy monster. Danny has Tucker and Sam to help balance him out, but I think at heart, he’s a good person. Tucker can be a good person, and for the most part is, but given the power to do what he wants, he’s not really nice. I mean, before the jealously monster really had time to affect him, he was annoying/messing with people in the theatre. That being said, Desiree’s powers have a pretty immediate affect on the other hand (Dash, Paulina, ect). So. I think what I’m trying to say is, I believe overall, Tucker is a flawed person. He’s good, but in certain circumstances, he’s not… good. Or, at least, not very nice. How much did the jealousy monster remove his inhibitions to do things? Like, what would he normally have stopped himself from doing?

We might never know - I can’t really remember the rest of the series (hence my rewatch) but I know jealousy is a recurring theme. So, we’ll see. 

Desiree herself is an interesting ghost - she’s a very powerful ghost (seriously, she can make any wish come true, even if it isn’t quite what the recipient wants or truly wishes for) but it comes with many restrictions and she becomes own downfall. Also, the play between desire and obsession is so awesome. I love it. They’re like, two sides of the same coin. Her existence is just so ghostly and awesome. She’s probably one of my favourite ghosts. Especially the fact that if Danny hadn’t wished her into the thermos, she could have easily squashed him - he couldn’t phase away, couldn’t escape. That kind of power is pretty amazing. 

Also the desire/obsession thing reminds me of Vlad, but we haven’t met him yet, so I’m not going to go into him quite yet.

I like how Danny is becoming responsible. Previously, he could have joined Tucker. He might have shrugged it off and just been like, cool my bestie has ghost powers now, let’s jam. But he didn’t - he thought about it, knew something was up, and decided to further investigate. 

THE HALFA. THE FIRST USE OF THIS TERM. EXCITING! AHHH. I’m sorry I had totally forgotten this is where halfa is first used. Half a boy, half a ghost - the halfa! Danny hasn’t had his powers for long, but man does news travel fast in the Ghost Zone! I like this term. 

I wonder where the 1950s Casper High is chilling in the Ghost Zone. Like, if you explored enough, you would find it. It’s interesting to look back retroactively on the series, after watching it all, and seeing where world building developed. I say this because for all it implies, although world gets around the Ghost Zone - and to that version of Casper High - it seems like Poindexter never had the ability to leave. Or, at least, not the choice to. Later on in the series, he’s seen several times.

Things that seemed absolute in the early part of the series, especially the first 13 episodes which laid amazing ground work for the series as a whole, changed. Characters, settings, ect - everything was fleshed out rather well, but not perfectly for an ever expanding series and so some things were probably retconned, or altered. 

I wonder if that’s what’s behind Poindexter’s door, this version of Casper High. Maybe he didn’t realize he could leave, or maybe he wasn’t allowed until he met some sort of goal - befriending/becoming cool/or you know, standing up for himself could have been the trigger. Maybe Poindexter is the only ghost there, the rest are memories/projections of a place he couldn’t escape since it had such an effect on his life. You could say he was obsessed. This is why we see him later - he can finally leave! Because honestly, the idea that that many Casper students became ghosts after they died is just so unlikely. Or morbid. Either way, MAYBE JUST IGNORE MY PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH. It’s just not expanded on/left to the viewer rather than, you know, explicitly told. Or it is, and I just don’t remember (I’m writing these as I watch!) 

I also really like the lesson in this episode. It definitely plays on the “with great power comes great responsibility” theme (hi Spider-man!), as well as the whole ‘path to becoming a hero’. Danny, in a position of power, acted like the people he hated - he became something he didn’t want to. Tucker seems to enable his desire, whereas Sam tries to appeal to his sense of responsibility and logic. And she’s in the right. Danny started to do it because it was fun, and she’s like woah full stop. You’re looking like the bully here. 

I love all of the references within the writing. All of it. Save the Frogs. Broadway. MORE. A+ writers.