#shadow dp

Kind of obsessed with the colourblind exercise… I did do a bit of overpainting this time, but included the unedited version alongside the greyscale in the second row! This exercise is just how I’m going to get my gotcha fix from now on LOL

Find all Danny's: Hard version

It's 11,000px x 7,000px which my tablet won't support.

Bad Future Squad redesigns!

(This is not a height chart mainly because Johnny's wheelchair was hell to draw so I had to choose between "accurate heights" and "Johnny 13")

Design notes below cut.

So what’re some of the phandom’s thoughts on Johnny 13 and Shadow, anyway? I know he’s not one of the more popular members of Danny’s rogues gallery, but I sure am thinking about him right now.

I know a fairly popular theory (or at least, one I see frequently) is that Kitty and Johnny died together, likely in a car/motorcycle accident, but that leaves me wondering what Shadow is and how it ended up being attached to Johnny.

We know from the show that Shadow is either the source of or apart of Johnny’s powers, but even without Shadow nearby let alone attached to him he can still do normal ghostly things like going invisible/intangible and flying (though he still prefers his bike over regular flight anyway). They still seem to be individuals, Shadow has its own personality and doesn’t seem affected by the damage that made Johnny age in the TUE universe. Similarly, Johnny doesn’t seem too affected by Shadow getting wiped out and needing to recover unless it’s been completely dispersed like at the end of 13. And, of course, Johnny and Shadow can merge to work together as one unit, instead of two separate entities.

For some reason, Johnny doesn’t have a lot of abilities. Maybe it’s because his reason for even becoming a ghost was how harsh and sudden it was, his love for Kitty, and a desire to keep living all wrapped up into one messy reason to reform. He‘s more human than a lot of other ghosts we see, from his color palette to his ability to blend in pretty easily with human society until he chooses to reveal himself. I find his color palette the most notable, since the most inhuman elements of his design is how desaturated his skin tone is and the bright green eyes. But in comparison to other ghosts, he’s very human. His skintone that’s desaturated next to the living is still much closer than anything blue, green, or white like we frequently see in other humanoid ghosts. Kitty’s design is far more ghostly, with her green hair and skin with red eyes.

If they hadn’t died together at the same time (and became quite literal soulmates) it makes me wonder if Johnny wouldn’t have had the ability to become a ghost on his own. Or if he did, he might’ve struggled to survive. Kitty has a pretty strong ability with her banishing kiss. I am very curious about her ability to attach herself to her clothes even when in a weakened state, and if that’s a unique ability or not. Kitty acts more like a malicious entity in the series as well, she uses her kiss ability without restraint, and she’s only acted nicely to Danny when she overshadowed Paulina (which quickly stopped once she was found out) and the winter truce. Johnny, however, has a more casual personality. He acts more friendly to Danny after Lucky in Love, and doesn’t really have big aspirations for Earth or intent to cause destruction like other ghosts in the series do. Even Kitty takes over Amity briefly, with Spectra and Ember.

Johnny mostly seems to relish in his time to work on and ride his bike, admire pretty girls, and be with Kitty (when they’re not fighting). His laissez-faire attitude is very uncommon from other ghosts in the series, and I wonder about its long-term sustainability for a ghost, especially as phandom has largely categorized them. If he fell into a form of depression, it could make him fade fairly easily, as he seems to hold onto his relationship with Kitty and his ability to act freely. If his obsession is related to freedom or, (even more vaguely) experiencing life, but he’s also surviving by his attachment to Kitty, he could have a shakier existence. I also think he might be a weaker ghost, comparatively, because he’s the only ghost that really shows age in TUE. He’s noticeably older, balding pretty severely, like he’s closer to being in his late 30s-40s in appearance. Ember and Kitty still seem pretty young, maybe late 20s or early 30s, and I wonder if he’s aging more quickly because of an actual age gap they had in life or the severity of Dan’s attack making the damage to his stability much worse. This also connects back to Shadow and Johnny being separate entities, as Shadow seems largely unaffected.

Now the thoughts I had that made me intrigued about Shadow’s existence were some theories about how blob ghosts work, like they’re child ghosts or very simple ghosts without a lot of strength or identity yet. As well as some ghosts (or maybe other entities) like Cujo that get attached to things or people.

Those things made me think up two ideas about what Shadow is and why it’s attached to Johnny.

One being, after Johnny and Kitty’s arrival in the ghost zone, a simplistic blob archetype ghost takes an interest in them. Johnny’s penchant for bad luck is at least a source of entertainment for the blob, if not a form of food for it/it’s obsession/what have you. It could have either been a typical blob that acquires its obsession through this, or maybe a partially-formed or different... species(?) of blob that already knew it had an affinity for “bad luck” or sabotage/destruction. It functionally acts like something between a duckling and mutualistic or commensalistic symbiosis, where it’s sort of imprinted on Johnny and lends him its power in exchange for more opportunities to feed its own obsession, but in order to do so it has to have some form of attachment directly to him--like taking over his shadow, or maybe feeding off of Johnny’s energy or natural bad luck when it isn’t creating its own.