Danny Fenton is a prime example of an unreliable narrator/protagonist. Like for real, it’s crazy how much he sells himself short. He’ll say phrases such as “if I wasn’t a C student, I would’ve figured this out sooner,” “So much for the Fentons being a family of geniuses,” and make jabs at himself for not doing enough as a hero. Which is wild to hear when his every action contradicts those statements.
Like I’m serious, actually paying attention to his fights and methods of overcoming adversity, it becomes pretty clear that he’s actually incredibly intelligent. He’s a quick thinker, resourceful, and honestly? Although he’s the good guy in the show, he really is quite good at manipulation and finding other’s weaknesses.
Examples:
He’s won plenty of fights where he didn’t even have access to his powers for extended periods (Maternal Instincts, Life Lessons, Pirate Radio, Micro Management, etc.)
Clever af plans (Maternal Instincts, One of a Kind, What You Want, Lucky in Love, Pirate Radio, etc)
He’s tricked foes into a friendly fire (Memory Blank, Million Dollar Ghost, Life Lessons, etc)
He’s been shown to still have fighting ability and weapons training as Fenton, also just catches on quick (Pirate Radio, Flirting With Distaster, My Brother’s Keeper, etc.)
There’s times where he seems to know his parents’ inventions even better than they do
Whole reason I’m pointing this out is ‘cause a pretty good portion of fights aren’t won just because he’s powerful. Plenty of ghosts overpower him, especially in S01 and with mega ghosts like Pariah Dark. He wins consistently because of clever strategy, and quick thinking.
Danny is super smart and I feel like it’s very important to his character to state that. Says a lot about him and his upbringing if he perceives himself as anything less than that.
Might be a stretch, but I have a theory that perhaps he thinks this way because he’s been taught to equate performance in school with intelligence. Jack and Maddie both come from heavily educational backgrounds, and they do sometimes place a lot of pressure on their children to live up to the expectations of being a Fenton. I.E. the whole speech his parents gave him about Fentons only getting A’s (B-’s if you’re Jack).
So when Danny’s grades plummet, even when there’s a perfectly valid reason for that happening, he immediately assumes he’s not intelligent anymore. I wonder if prior to becoming Phantom, he may even have been an A or B student considering even a C leaves him completely mortified. Lancer also reported that he hasn’t had any records of bad behavior before that.
It’s just a very problematic way to view intelligence, to simply equate it to one’s grades, because that’s certainly not the case. (Literally when he passes Lancer’s test, the first thing he says is, “I’m not an idiot!”) And I think his parents may have done him a huge disservice in that regard. There’s plenty of factors that would make someone struggle in school. Home life, accessibility to resources, stress, financial burdens, mental illness. Like, there’s A LOT.
I even wonder if perhaps, along with struggling with his double life, Danny may have an undiagnosed mental disorder. There’s plenty about him that feels relatable in that regard, but that would be a post all on its own and some really great ones already exist here and here. We’ve already seen how horribly his parents react to signs of MI, it wouldn’t surprise me if they overlooked that. I just think he’s really going through it, and could honestly use more responsible adult figures in his life. Someone who can help correct the way he thinks of himself, and who can give him the proper means of getting help and feeling comfortable to ask for it. We have Jazz, but she’s a kid way in over her head too who I feel may also benefit from talking to someone.
Imagine being Nine.
Your spend your whole life being bullied and beaten just for being different. Years pass and no one comes to you rescue, you're on your own. You realize the only person you can count on is yourself.
Then out of nowhere this stranger shows up. He compliments the things others berated you for and speaks of adventures that never happened. But you listen to him anyway because you wish they did.
Against your better judgement you decide to help the stranger. He shows concern for your wellbeing, showers you with constant praise for no apparent reason. You don't know how to respond, deep down you knew he's confusing you for someone else, but you soon start to like it. You start to like him.
You find a way to finally leave that horrible place behind and start over, but for the first time in forever you don't want to be alone. You offer to share that paradise with the one person you trust, your only friend.
But he rejects you. He breaks your heart. You try going back to isolation but it's no paradise without him. Against your better judgement, you go back to help your friend, hopeful that he will change his mind. In the end, that costs you your freedom.
Time passes. He comes back to save you, just like you knew he would. Together you fix the prism, your head is so filled with hopes of a new future together than you fail to realize he has something else in mind.
So you once again offer him the chance to create a new world, just the two of you. A world where those adventures can be real and neither of you has to be alone anymore. Once again he rejects you. No matter what you do, all he wants is his old world, his old Tails.
He never once thought about what you wanted. never considered what was going to happen to you, because you were never real to him. You finally realize all those words of praise that had meant so much to you were meant for someone else. You were just too caught up on the euphoria of being loved to see it.
The one person you opened your heart to, never cared about the real you. You will never be enough for him because you're not his real brother, you're just Nine. Nothing will ever change that.
You realize the only person you can count on is yourself
and it's one of my older posts and I only drew it once , but I like the short comic I made about the AU where Kid Buu ends Vegeta before the Spirit bomb is ready, put a lot of effort into that
Aang takes the place of markus as leader of the divergent, zuko takes the character of connor, iroh is Hank and azula and ozai are rk900 and Amanda respectively.
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"Lieutenant Anderson, my name is Zuko. I am the android sent by cyberlife. I looked for you at the station but nobody knew where you were. They said you were probably having some tea. I was lucky to find you in the fourth tea shop."
Rk800 took a moment to inspect the store and the few customers who were in it.
No one had a criminal record.
"What do you desire?"
The person the lieutenant had been talking to ignored them in favor of cleaning the table in front of him, Iroh gave him a small look of recognition.
"You were assigned a case earlier tonight. A homicide, involving a cyberlife android." The lieutenant did not respond but made a grin that Zuko could not identify. "according to the procedure, the company has assigned a specialized model to help investigators."
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If anyone is interested in making a fanfic with this idea, I'd love to read it.
Sometimes a family can be a robot, a goth girl, a platypus secret agent and an evil scientist (Doof & Perry are the parents and Vanessa & Norm are the children)
lambo and i-pin just wanted to play with their big bro tsuna ☹️❤️
poor boy he was just 14
You know the Grimm version of Snow White makes more sense than most versions if only because in that version Snow White was like 7 years old.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” Recap Cartoon → Book One
I had a person come up to the counter today, look at my badge and go, "You're not [insert stereotypical male name here].
Which, yeah, right, true, technically, I'm not, I had the wrong badge. I forgot mine at home, and I used my coworker's one. It was the only one available and it had "[male name], he/him".
(Side note, I so so so love that our badges have pronouns on them, it's so nice! Another side note, I go by they/them most of the time, but I don't mind he/she/ze or any other pronouns)
And, usually, gender is a concept I don't have the time or brain capacity to consider. It doesn't really matter for me personally, I know I appear feminine, and I don't have a problem with customers referring to me by she/her. I mean, sure, it's nice if they look at my badge, see "Cork, they/them" and refer to me by it, but honestly, the amount of fucks I give about random people using wrong pronouns is zero.
But this person at the counter just, I dunno. Looked like they wanted a fight. And the shop was empty, and I was bored, so I was like
You know what? Sure, let's do this. It's probably the only entertainment I'm gonna have today, might as well make it as confusing as possible. Because I love to watch the world burn, sue me.
So I go, "I actually am."
"But you don't look like [male name]!"
Been there, done that, "What do I look like, then?"
Stutter. "I don't know, but you're not [male name]!"
Okay, we're just repeating ourselves now, sure, "Then who am I?"
"NOT [male name]!!! Why are you wearing a badge that has a wrong name?!"
And it was at this moment that a brilliant thought crossed my mind. So I smile, cute and nice and pretty, and I go, "Because I stole it."
"You what?"
"I stole this name from the one who had it, and now he has no name and I get to have it. Now, can I have your name for this order?" And I extend a hand to them, like asking to put something in there, because I'm now committing to the bit. All while looking them in the eyes and keeping the smile.
They ended up leaving without ordering anything, but they also didn't speak to me after that, so that's a win, overall. And the manager laughed at that, so I'm not even in trouble.
The moral of the story? When in doubt, play by the fae rules.
I didn't even lie, technically speaking.
Have not stopped thinking about this picture I took of Tansy this morning