Vlad is a fairly prominent character in Catalyst. Do you like how I've portrayed him so far? Is there something I'm leaving out, has his character strayed? Or is he spot on?

And on that note, what do people like/dislike about him? If you had to describe him in a sentence or two, what would you say? :D

I do like how you've portrayed him. He's darker than he is in the show, but that darkness is consistent with a more adult analysis of and perspective on his character. A number of fanauthors have him fairly dark, often to good effect. Your version isn't as dark as some others I've seen—there's definitely a soft, paternal side to him—and I think it may actually be one of my favourite portrayals. I like the scenes where you delve into his logic and mind. He's definitely twisted, and you manage to portray that twist to us in a way that has us agreeing with it (just like he'd want us to). A more comic Vlad, like the surface Vlad of the episodes, with sight gags and the propensity to panic, would not suit Catalyst. The Vlad-Dan-Danny loop is also well executed. You can see the similarities all three men share with each other, and the differences, and the blendings that have happened.

Vlad is arrogant, manipulative, vain, calculating, intelligent, and firmly holds the beliefs that the ends justify the means and that his particular concept of reality is correct. He has a strong need for acceptance as well as power, and seeks to get that acceptance through any possible means—in the political spectrum (king, emperor, mayor), in the social spectrum (money buys friends), and in the familial level (the clones, ingratiating himself to the Fentons, trying to father Danny through tough love).

I like that his character is not cut-and-dried evil, and that he has redeeming qualities. I also like how the DP writers seemed to have planned his arc out, bringing up things that hadn't shown up in a while or giving us different perspectives on previous episodes—or maybe that's just the fans reading too much into things.

Haha...but fans are supposed to read into things! That's half the fun! :D

Thank you for the compliments, and especially thank you for putting your description! That was the most fun to read. It's interesting, and it may be that the entire third season seemed rushed to me, but, I felt that Vlad evolved so quickly in that season that he nearly became a different character. And I didn't like that. As such, I openly admit that I've taken certain aspects of his character with a grain of salt, while focusing more on other aspects.

I figure everyone does that to some extent, right? I want to keep him accurate, but I want to keep him believable too. Arg, there's so much I'd love to say about him! I don't know if you've checked my profile, but I mention there that he features prominently (cough...main character) in the sequel to Catalyst. I've given him a back story, and...generally have a lot of fun with his character, I hope.

In my mind, anyway. :P But yeah, he's so arrogant, and smart, so manipulative....I love all the adjectives you chose!

Back to the third season, though. The acceptance/power thing. I felt they tried to move into a new area, his growing need/interest in power too quickly. Previously he had been focused on getting power in the Ghost Zone, perhaps, and he has obviously worked hard to get where he his monetarily. But ultimately I think the emotional ties, or lack thereof, is a much stronger driving force for him.

It's never blatantly stated in Catalyst, but Vlad's a tad...bitter when is comes to Danny. The "boy" leaves a sour taste in his mouth. So there was clearly some point in time when Vlad realized this was it, there wasn't going to be any surrogate half ghost son in his life, Danny wasn't interested, and Maddie was also off limits, as she was protected by a rather powerful adversary. Still wistful, still clinging, but ultimately he's bitter about that, and trying to pretend he's not.

At least, that's how I've run with it. Obviously, the whole "getting stuck in outer space" thing didn't really factor in for me, mostly because the third season hadn't even begun when I started writing on this story. And that's just too much explaining to have to deal with...somehow he's back on Earth, secret identity safe...lol, not to mention Danny's secret identity...

Yeah, much of season three has been blown off. Ah well.

Yes, I know, but it's hard for me sometimes to separate fanon and fan meta from canon, so I added the caveat.

Oh, I felt Vlad was completely OOC throughout Season Three. Most people did, and you've articulated the reasons nicely. Unfortunately, the third season does need to be taken into consideration for any characterization of Vlad. However, a lot of fans, probably even the majority, tend to pretend Season Three doesn't exist for the purposes of fanfic, so that aspect of his character can be ignored. It's not as fun or interesting to write with the Season Three canon in place, and it's hard to find a way (really, really hard) to bring Vlad, the major villain, back to Earth realistically and without a deus ex machina, let alone employ a Danny-reset, which would probably be OOC for him at that point.

And yes, Season Three was very rushed and badly written. I am not impressed. If they'd had a fourth season and could spread out the Vlad and Danny arcs more, it would've been better. More time for Vlad to shift focus, and more time for Danny to learn those ice powers and realize his feelings for Sam. "Frightmare" just seemed like it hit Danny over the head, like he wouldn't have acknowledged his feelings for Sam without those dreams.

Woot! I mean...darn. I was a little afraid of saying "the 3rd season was poorly done", thanks for saying it for me. I was a little worried that I had gotten so far into the Danny Phantom universe that I was expecting too much, and thinking things were much better than they ever had been...

But no, this is the truth. The third season just wasn't as good, was it? Ah sadness. Nickelodeon...I don't know who calls the shots, but they made a poor decision with Danny. :( But there's still a whooole lot to work with, and there's no reason not to. :D

You know, I never watched the very last episode of season three, because that would officially be the end. I pretty much know what happens, and have seen a few clips. But actually watching it? Maybe some day...when I'm finished writing fanfiction for it! :)

Oh no, no, pretty much everyone seems to agree that season three was lower quality than the one and two. They have varying reason as to why, I think, but it's a consensus. We were all expecting good writing, good characters, and the continuation of the plot arcs, and instead we got lazy writing, over-the-top and OOC characters, and veering plots. *sigh*

I don't know who calls the shots either, but I definitely agree that they erred in cancelling DP. I think, though I'm not sure, that there are just as many fans for DP as there are for Avatar, which, among other things, is getting a feature-length movie. There's certainly a solid fanbase, and Nick didn't market to it at all (There's very little merchandise; they haven't released DVDs). I think part of the problem is that they're aiming for a 7 to 12 demographic while the entire fanbase appears to be 12 to, oh, 40+, and Nick either doesn't want us "old folks" watching, or doesn't know that we do. I find both hard to believe, since there've been a lot of fan protests regarding cancellation, including rallies and letter campaigns. Just based on the fans, let alone the 'verse and plot, it wasn't a wise decision to cancel. Or, for that matter, to can Steve Marmel for season three, because that was I think the biggest blow the season. He co-wrote the first two.

Heheh. Yeah… It's actually a better ending that you'd think, knowing the rest of the season, but it's not wonderful and does kind of kill the mood. You get a feeling when it's over that … it's over, it's done, there's no more. Most writers are ignoring it. You see authors' notes to the effect of "Continuous with Season Three, but no Phantom Planet!" a lot.

Then I'll just keep putting that last episode off...

Yeah, I agree about the 7-12 aim! Dur! Stupids! *beats head on desk...well, thinks briefly about beating head on desk anyway*

Good point about Avatar!! Actually, my secret hope is that Avatar will be a success, some Hollywood exec will turn to Nickelodeon and say "gee, if that was so popular, let's pick up another cartoon that was popular, with a similar thing going on...I know, Spongebob!" (This is where I die.)

Yeah...but they just might. You never know. I'm biting my thumbs in trepidation here. I mean, you'd hope they could tell the difference in potential audience appeal, etc, between Spongebob and Danny Phantom, but...you never knooowww.

Hollywood. Sometimes they're so right. Sometimes they're so very wrong.

Hey, speaking of audience range. I mentioned that my mom beta reads my stuff, right? Well, guess what? She read fanfiction (a heck of a lot more than I do, actually), and she located my story on here while reading Danny Phantom. It's true she may have increased her search a little after I mentioned I was posting a story (she caught on around chapter....ten, maybe? Can't remember now.) But she was a fan way before that!

She was a fan of the show, and of its fanfiction before I was, actually. Wow. And she's way past her forties. I've got an older brother who's 36, after all. (There's quite an age range between all of us siblings.)

Anyway, yeah. lalala. This is bad, but I'm actually getting hungry and it's like...getting close to midnight. Midnight snack? Do I, don't I...

Sounds good to me. Like I said, pretty much everyone ignores it anyway.

*contemplates headdesking as well* I seriously can't believe the Powers That Cancel sometimes, I really can't.

Hey, you know, that's got potential. M. Night Shyamalan directing a DP live-action movie would be win. ^^ I don't think Spongebob's going to get picked up again. It's already had one reasonably bad movie, after all, and I don't think they're going to go the way of Garfield and make a sequel to a movie that tanked. However, if they do pick Spongebob over DP, I just might join you in harikari.

Yeah. I know of fans about that age as well. Don't think I personally know any, but I know they're existant and out there. Bluemoonalto, for instance, and maybe ChaosDragon. I always think it's cool when older adults get into fannishness and kids shows with the rest of us.

Yeah, I don't know about Mr. Shyamalan actually directing it- I don't really care for what he's done very much, to tell you the truth. But yeah, a live action film done right would be amazing.

My mom doesn't have an online name, lol. Okay, she does have a name she'll sign when leaving anonymous reviews, but that's it. She doesn't have an account for leaving officially signed reviews, an any case. She has written some fanfiction she's never shared however, but that was for Gundam Wing...and maybe she did a story/some scenes for a story she never completely wrote out for Dragonball Z too, come to think of it.

But generally she's more of an observer, less of a participator, like ChaosDragon. Maybe I'll look up Bluemoonalto, can't say I've run across them before...

Point. I liked Unbreakable and The Village for the concepts, but nothing else, really. But a different really good director… Raimi, maybe, or Singer, or whoever did Iron Man, I forget his name, since they've all had experience with superhero films already? As long as the director was good, and they cast good actors, the film would be amazing! (And yes, I know, that goes for every other film idea out there too.)

Heh, I didn't think I'd insinuated that she had an online name. I just said how great I thought it was that she was in the fandom in some way, shape, or form. ^^; And there's absolutely nothing wrong with observation-only. That's pretty much what I'm doing these days too.

Bluemoonalto's a fantastic writer, but of shorter stories, mostly oneshots. I definitely recommend her.

Hmm. I think I brought Avatar just now in another post. Soon I shall see the remainder of the series. Now, no criticism to Avatar here, there's a lot that's very good about it, and honestly superior to Danny Phantom. But it just doesn't get my like Danny Phantom does. The characters, the setting- I'm not sure what it is. But Danny Phantom is so much more interesting to me.

I think it has (mumble..a lot..mumble) to do with Vlad. And Danny's powers, and his strange situation with his ghost hunting parents, and how there's this guy who used to be his dad's best friend who got zapped with the same powers. And then there's just...a lot of cool ghosts.

And it's set in an almost-our-world universe. One in which the characters have a general kids in America type background, and you can run with that. (Which is a gripe I have with Avatar- the cultural setting is erratic, and once or twice it harkens to modern day American culture so strongly it draws you straight out of the obviously foreign setting.)

Sam Raimi!! I'm actually conflicted here, because he apparently signed on to do a live action movie of "Wee Free Men" which I would really love to see. But he certainly has practice with superhero movies, though, I admit, a different twist on Danny Phantom might be nice. Not such a blatant "this is a superhero movie" approach. More of a setting that's truly curious and odd, and genuinely creepy at times. Imagine Vlad's ghost form realized by an actor- with all the make-up and CGI bells and whistles.

Kind of...not your typical hero look. Not that he's the hero- but Danny would be freaky looking too.

lol...I need to sit down and think about this. But maybe not too much. I'll get my hopes up, and then someday they really will do a live action adaption, which will completely different from the plot, emphasis, etc I dreamed up....and thus I'll be very disappointed.

Who am I kidding? I'm so hard to please, it's very unlikely I'd be completely overjoyed with it in any case.

lol...yes, with all the things you mentioned, plus amazing special effects and a stellar script...lol. I know what you mean. We can hope right? I know, maybe we should team up and write a script for them. Show 'em how it should be done. :D

Actually, I'm currently hoping Fox will do a passable job with the live action Dragonball movie. Noooo, don't screw up Dragonball. :( But it could be very cool too. :)

I'll have to check out Bluemoonalto...some time. I'm extremely bad about reading DP fanfiction- ever since I started writing it. Have I mentioned this already? I guess I don't want to steal someone's idea by accident, so I steer clear.

Hahaha...I've been reading some Kung Fu Panda stories recently, actually. Yes, laugh if you want. :P Some of them are actually rather good, though. Here's hoping they keep going on them.

Ah, the bane of the fan's existence: an abandoned story you don't realize has BEEN abandoned until you get to the "last" chapter.

Hmm. This post is still a little spazzy. Apologies!

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