When you think about cartoons during the 2000s, the first one to come to your mind would likely be Danny Phantom. This cartoons series gained quite the cult following when it came out. And now, over a decade later, people still talk about t𝐆his show. There are even rumors of a new series starting up that follows Danny’s adventures ten years later (we can only hope).

I can see why this cartoon would be popular. It had a unique premise, some pretty awesome characters, fun animation and coloring, and fairly strange themes. This was a cartoon that could be silly, but it could✱ also be serious when it wanted to be.

But if you think about it, Danny Phantom is kind of a strange cartoon. Not so much in tone, but in premise and concept. After all, the show is centered around a boy who is half-human half-ghost, so the subject of passing comes up a lot mor✨e in this series than in your average cartoon. But there are a lot more elements to this show that are surprisingly strange.

And for many of us, these things didn’t really occur to us as kids. The show was actually pretty good at glossing over some of the heavier stuff, but that doesn’t change the fact that Danny Phantom wasn’t afraid to go creepy.

So here are 20 secrets about Danny Phantom that you probably didn’t realize. Think we missed some good ones? Make sure to let us𒀰 know in the comments section below!

20 🙈 His Origins 🉐

You know, Nickelodeon kind of glossed over the whole accident that changed Danny Fenton into Danny Phantom. Yeah, the whole story gets told in the theme 🥀song and it talks about how his DNA got fused with ghost ectoplasm, but they kind of ignore the fact that this lab accident was extremely hard. And yet, you can hear Danny’s scream to know he was not having a good time.

What you may not know is that Danny actually perished during that accident. But thanks to the ghost ectoplasm and the machine, he became part ghost. He may have gotten cool powers out of it, but they came at a prett🌜y high price. It’s a much weirder element to the TV series that they don’t really talk about in great detail.

19 Gives 🦄A New Meaning To "At War With Yo༒urself"

For the most par♑t, Danny’s human half and ghost half are on the same page because they are the same person. He’s usually able to transform from ghost to🦄 human pretty easily, and there’s not much distinction between the two. Until he tries to separate the two, and then things go very bad.

Imagine having half of you trying to eliminate the other half.

In an alternate future, after l🌄osing his family and friends, Danny tries to have Vlad remove his human half from his ghost half in order to stop feeling the pain. But things go wrong. Very wrong. His ghost half then removes the ghost༺ half of Vlad, absorbs that, and then destroys Danny’s human half. Imagine having half of you trying to eliminate the other half. This dark future did not end well for poor Danny.

18 🅷Something's Up With This Guy

Vlad is probably the only other person like Danny, where he’s part human par🍸t ghost. And oddly enough, he also got his powers through a lab accident caused by Danny’s father. (Maybe his parents shouldn’t be around dangerous technology... ) But Vlad, also known as Plasmius, isn’t as heroic as Danny. Quite the opposite,💟 actually.

What’s weird about Vlad is not so much that he’s a villain, but his motivations behind becoming a villain. Vlad has two big goals: he wants to eliminate Danny’s father in revenge, and he wants to marry Danny’s mother. Seriously, this guy is a big creep who can’t seem to let go of the past. He has gone through a couple of decades in his lifeဣ feeling like he’s been cheated out of happiness that was ✱rightfully his, and now he’s going to take it by force. Yeesh, just let it go, man.

17 𝔍 A Tough Sister

You could argue that Jasmine Fenton, or Jazz, is probably the most normal person in this strange family. She’s incredibly smart, a little over-protective of Dannඣy, and she’s not afraid to speak her mind on things that matter to her. And while she doesn’t like that her parents are ghost hunters, she will go in and take down ghosts if it means protecting her family.

If you think about it, Jazz is peeling layers off of a ghost’s skin.

And that’s what she does when Spectra goes after Danny. But the method of how Jazz does it is kind of strange. Jazz dons a suit called the Fenton Peeler and proceeds to peel away layers of Spectra’s beauty, leaving her true appearance: an ugly old hag. 💮But if you think about it, Jazz is peeling layers off of a ghost’s skin. She is way more hardcore than we give her 🐭credit for.

16 My Mi🅘nd Is Not My Own ♎

Mind control is always a creepy thing in any show. The idea that someone is making you do things beyond your control can be all kinds of weird. And it happens a few times in Danny Phantom. The most notable and creepy one is when the ghost Freakshow decides to have fun with our f༒avorite teen ghost hero.

In his firs🦄t appearance, Freakshow puts Danny under his control and make𒉰s him do his bidding, like steal stuff, commit crimes, etc. But what’s creepy is when Sam confronts the two, Freakshow makes Danny almost destroy Sam. She manages to snap Danny out of it, but there’s a moment where you’re wondering if Sam’s going to bite the dust. Plus, seeing Danny, who’s normally this dorky and noble hero, turn into something a bit more demented is seriously weird.

15 W☂ho Even Came Up With These Flowers?

This show definitely went to some places. It did pretty much everything except show blood. For examp𓃲l🔜e, did you know that Vlad mistreated Danny in one episode? Well, more like he knowingly caused Danny intense pain in order to gain something out of it.

Vlad shoves Danny into a circle of Blood Blossoms, which traps him and harms him.

There are things call🥃ed Blood Blossoms, a type of flower that is apparently excruciatingly painful to ghosts should they touch them. At one point, Vlad shoves Danny into a circle of Blood Blossoms, which traps him and harms him. Granted, he does this to basically g꧙et rid of Danny so he can take the Infi-map, an object he wanted for his own designs. But he basically shoved Danny into a situation, knowing it would cause him excruciating pain, and then left him to suffer. That’s just cold, Vlad.

14 𓂃 Sam's Actions

Despite her appearance and indifferent demeanor, Sam does care a lot about quite a few things. She’s a big activist for animal rights, she’s always fighting against injustice, and she’s not afraid to speak out if she thinks something is wrong. But we never reallඣy💮 see her as particularly violent.

But at on♑e moment, Sam rips off the head of a teddy bear at the Gothapalooza. And it turns out that all of the teddy bears were actually goth kids who had been transformed (ghost shenanigans, this probably isn’t even the weirdest thing to happen). S🍎o, Sam basically ripped someone’s head off. I wonder if that poor goth kid still lost their head, or if when everything went back to normal, their head was intact? We may never know.

13 🃏 The Ghost Child

Considering we usually only saw ghosts whenever they were attacking Amity Park, we don’t really know much about what they do during their downtime. And we don’t know a ton about how they interact with each other. But they do, and some are friends, and some are more than th🎉at.

Apparently, ghosts can get it on and they can have kids.

In the episode “Ultimate Enemy,” we find oꩲut a bit of slightly str♏ange information. Apparently, ghosts can get it on and they can have kids. The proof is the ghost Lunchbox, a ghost who is the child of the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost. While I’m not going to judge a ghost’s personal business, it’s kind of a creepy concept that ghosts can reproduce. How does that even work? Never mind, I don’t think I want to know.

12 ജ This Guy’s Got The Power (No, Re♍ally)

At first glance, Ghost Writer may seem like a throwaway character. He does show up only in a couple of episodes, and one of them was a holiday special. Compared to other ghosts that Danny fights, Ghost Writer doe🦄sn’t seem all that intimidating. But he’s a lot more powerful than you may think.

Ghost Writer has control over reality itself, and he can manipulate it however he wants through his stories. If ꦇyou think about it, that makes him incredibly powerful. Now, he only uses the power to write his stories and antagonize D🧔anny a bit, so I guess he’s still not that dangerous. But if he wanted to, Ghost Writer could totally take over the world and no one could do much about it. Maybe Danny should stay on his good side for a bit.

11 His Own Worst Enemy 🥀 ꩵ

Danny🌃 has quite a few enemies and they range from being annoying to downrigh🔯t terrifying. And we’ve had quite the variety of ghosts, from the child ghost that just wanted to play, to an otherworldly horror bent on taking over the ghost zone. But the most terrifying enemy that Danny has likely faced is himself.

Danny’s darker self is seriously scary.

The concept of going up against a dark version of yourself is nothing new. A lot of people are fascinated by the idea of the hero going dark. But Danny’s darker self is seriously scary. Dark Danny, also known as Dan Phantom, is the ghost half of Danny that merged with Plasmius and then destroyed Danny’s human half. This guy is a full-blown psychopath and raged t🔯error on both humans and ghosts for years. You don’t want to go up against him.