#epiccrasher

For one thing, Valerie’s character already gets the short end of the stick. Shades of Grey and Life Lessons are the only episodes in season 1 that dedicate any time to her at all. I’m not talking about solely episodes that focused on her. These are the only episodes that feature her at all aside from the time she spent as a background character before Shades of Grey. Valerie needs more attention prior to Kindred Spirits because a) that increases the emotional impact of the revelation that Valerie was being used to monitor Danny and b) she is extremely relevant in literally Danielle’s only other episode.

I will begrudgingly admit, Valerie’s kind of a minor point here, but I’m starting with her because she’s one of the characters who would suffer the least for this change.

You could make the argument that moving Kindred Spirits would do something for the plot, but it would destroy Danny as a character. Kindred Spirits taking place that early would see us missing such important development episodes for Danny as: Pirate Radio, Reign Storm, The Ultimate Enemy, Secret Weapons, Flirting With Disaster, and Masters of All Time. Season 1 Danny is still public enemy #1. He hasn’t worked out a lot of his self-loathing or character flaws. He’s still not that great at controlling his powers (and he doesn’t have the ghostly wail, which makes a significant appearance in Kindred Spirits). He hasn’t had the opportunity to mend his familial relationships. He’s met only two ghosts that weren’t enemies (one of which was a very minor character and the other started as an enemy).

While I love Danny, his development in season 1 wouldn’t have left him with much reason to give a single solitary shit about Danielle. He still sees basically all ghosts as evil. He hasn’t had his values challenged much. He’s still more of a fight first talk later kind of kid. Valerie was willing to let Danielle die at first because she was part ghost, and it took Danny some pushing to get her to realize she’d be helping to kill a human girl as well. For Danny, who grew up having it drilled into his head that all ghosts are evil, it’s easy to see why he’d have a similar mentality. He doesn’t even value himself all that much.

Kindred Spirits is originally toward the end of season 2. By then, Danny’s seen how complex ghosts can be. He’s seen that morality isn’t black and white. He’s seen himself go off the deep end. He’s seen Vlad could be redeemed. He’s managed to make friends out of enemies. He’s even fought alongside some of this greatest enemies. He’s grown a lot, and his ability to see Danielle as a person and even accept her as family is a great way to showcase that.

Now let’s talk about Vlad. If we go with your idea of moving Kindred Spirits to the end of season 1 and The Million Dollar Ghost into season 2, that gives us exactly two episodes before Kindred Spirits where Vlad is the main antagonist. People often cite Kindred Spirits as Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon, which I completely agree with. He plans to kill Danny, experiments on and clones him, treats Danielle as a pawn even though she truly loved him as her father, and falls so far into his delusions that he’s essentially replacing Maddie with a hologram and Danny with a clone.

That wouldn’t have any impact if the only episodes we’d spent with him before that were two where his obsession with Maddie is the entire focus of his character. The Million Dollar Ghost needs to be before Kindred Spirits because in this instance, he’s still trying to turn Danny against Jack. He hasn’t given up on making him his son yet. Reign Storm is important because it shows just how manipulative Vlad can be and hints at his greater plans, and it even shows Vlad helping Danny and saving his life. While I have my issues with The Ultimate Enemy, that episode is crucial because it shows that Vlad isn’t completely irredeemable. In a sense, having Kindred Spirits take place after The Ultimate Enemy is a good way of showing contrast. The only way Vlad can be good is if Danny isn’t, and vice versa. It’s also significant to have Vlad’s Moral Event Horizon take place after we’ve seen a world where Vlad was able to realize his mistakes.

I’m also going to throw Secret Weapons in here as an important episode, because that could easily be the last straw for him. Jazz isn’t as important to Vlad as Danny and Maddie, but she’s still Maddie’s child. He was overjoyed at the idea that Jazz abandoned Jack for him, and was willing to adopt her on the spot. Once even Jazz has rejected him and called him a fruit loop to his face, going to such drastic lengths as cloning Danny seems logical for Vlad, especially since we’ve spent so much time getting to know him.

Throwing Danielle in there so early would’ve also been a mistake, unless you planned to rewrite the entire rest of the show so that it included her.

Personally, I would’ve made Reign Storm the season 1 finale. To begin with, it’s the first two part episode, so it’s got the right feel for a season finale. It has the greatest stakes out of any episode up until that point. It’s got almost all the characters from past episodes returning to play at least a small part in the story. It gives significant development to multiple important characters.

Most importantly, it follows up on so much more than just Vlad’s obsession with Danny and experiments. It continues Valerie’s story arc. It gives Vlad more development and shows that there’s more going on with him than just being a creep. It addresses the development Danny, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker have gone through up to that point. The inclusion of Jazz is especially significant.

It’s also the episode where Danny is publicly acknowledged as a hero. His status as public enemy #1 was far more significant in the first season than Vlad was, especially if you only included two episodes in that season where Vlad was the main antagonist. Even when it’s not the main focus, Danny’s bad reputation is addressed in several episodes. I could easily argue that nearly half the episodes of season 1 are at least partially about that.

For my part, I’d much rather have Kindred Spirits show up late in the timeline, when other things have been resolved and the characters have been given enough time for it to pack a punch.

Besides, after episodes like Lucky in Love, Teacher of the Year, and friggin’ Attack of the Killer Garage Sale, Kindred Spirits would’ve felt like a really weird sudden shift in tone. It could be worse, of course. The Ultimate Enemy would’ve made a much more garbage season finale in this respect, but Reign Storm has a good enough balance of fun and intense while not having too much there that can genuinely disturb someone. The image of the melty clone’s eye falling out and dissolving on the floor might be too intense for this early in the show.

You’re more than welcome to disagree, but I can’t see any real benefit to making Kindred Spirits the season 1 finale.

This is a bit of an AU of my own Fanon (that is itself an AU.)

Showcasing an alternate beginning to my story: “Son of Edalyn” where Eda already had Olivier when she first found King as a baby.

This is a scene (in which Eda took a photograph of) where "Little Ollie" fell asleep next to Baby King on the night Eda first brought him home