#scattered thoughts

[scatteredthoughts2]

SILENT IS THE NIGHT.

Silent is the night,

when everyone's asleep,

No one hears my pain,

no one hears me weep.

Everyone's in dreamland,

and no one will ever see,

How lonely is my night,

how I ache to dream with thee.

@Ambrose Harte

@Scattered Thoughts

#ambrose harte #writerscreed #poetry on tumblr #poets on tumblr #poetselixir #smittenbypoetry #poetryportal #poetrysavedfromobscurity #scattered thoughts #so many tears

[iamumbra195]

I've been thinking for a while... are the numbers split by specializations?

In chapter 96, Ijin says that 005 is specialized specifically in assassinations and then he mentioned kidnapping and blackmail. So I've been thinking that certain numbers, because of their abilities, attitudes, or even their preferences specialize in certain things.

Let's take 004 and 006 for example. 004, while I believe he's fully capable of these things, doesn't specialize in info gathering or blackmail of any sort. I don't think he'd enjoy it and he's very temperamental. He even says at one point that he likes risking it instead of playing it safe and efficient the way Ijin did. He kinda seems like a loose canon. So like 005, who while incredibly intelligent is still reckless and gets angry very easily, I'm going to lump him in the area of assassination, specifically using closer combat like hand-to-hand, knives, and pistols. 006 on the other hand, is very well-suited for info-gathering and maybe even infiltration given all that we've seen from him in canon.

I'd like to say that Ijin and 002 are relatively on similar grounds and are very well-rounded in nearly everything which is why they're given the numbers they have and are regarded as the overall leaders.

So basically I think the numbers are split based on what they specialize in, whether that be intelligence, assassination, kidnapping, infiltration, maybe even robbery lol? What do you think?

#teenage mercenary #mercenary enrollment #the numbers #005 #maya #004 #006 #liam #yu ijin #001 #002 #scattered thoughts

[theghostinyourwalls]

WHY DOES IT TAKE ME FOREVER TO FINISH A FIC BUT AT THE SAME TIME GET SO MANY IDEAS FOR NEW ONES

#fanfic #i need him #i can’t #why am i like this #whyyyyy #why does it take so long #I can’t with my brain #i need a new brain #scattered thoughts #william afton x reader #ghostface x reader #those ones taking me forever #auuugh #I can’t stop #there’s too many #fanfic writer #fanfic writing #fanfiction #i need to finish it #it’s never ending #writing #writers on tumblr #ao3 writer #writer things #i’m gonna lose it #i’m almost done #i promise #i’m going insane #there’s so many ideas in my head #i want him

[destinygoldenstar]

I got to Episode 6 so far

I’ll make a post on full thoughts when I finish

It’s wild to me cause I’ve never seen Ninjago be trending this much since Sons of Garmadon in 2018. So I had to question “What in the name of FSM caused THIS much riot”?!

It’s good so far. Obviously it is.

The fear sequence REALLY took me for a loop in craziness.

And Bonzle… I didn’t think she was gonna play a major role at all, but the casual way she revealed her identity… Me and my GF literally paused and went “I’m sorry, WHAT?!”

I also find a lot of relatability with Arin so much, especially nowadays. And right now, I think this arc is being handled very well. I think Arin is one of those characters that speaks to adults more than kids. Ironic. Him not understanding social cues, his insecurity about being inferior to everyone around him even when they encourage you it’s just mistakes and it doesn’t help your case at all especially when everyone seems to have their thing figured out when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing and why you’re even here-

IM IN THIS AND I DONT LIKE IT

Gosh I hate that dragon teacher. He reminds me a lot of the worst teachers I’ve had growing up. But I think I’m supposed to hate him.

Also, they are HEAVILY building up to Sora and Riyu learning Spinjitsu. They’re gonna learn it at the end, aren’t they? ARINS GONNA BE SO CRUSHED.

So yeah, it’s good. And we know now why it’s called Dragons Rising.

Is it better than season one?

SO FAR, eh…?

I do have some problems right now. I think Dragons Rising’s weakest aspect is it’s villains, compared to one’s in the main show that interact with the main characters quite a bit, these ones kinda just have a handful of confrontations and then do their own scheming thing and let the armies do the work. It’s kinda less threatening for them as a result.

And even then, those armies went after the lost family once, the ninja once when they went to cloud kingdom, and that’s it.

Except for Cinder shattering Wyldfyre’s bones, that’s insane. I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often in this show.

It’s kinda off to me that we haven’t seen what went down in Cole’s little journey before he’s suddenly back. And I’m not a fan with putting the mech disks in this with no explanation on how they got them unless you’ve seen the shorts.

I also am hoping Lloyd’s little PTSD, or… foresight traumatic stress disorder, FTSD I guess, isn’t resolved yet.

Also WHAT DID KAI AND WYLDFYRE SEE IN THEIR FEAR VISIONS?!?! THAT IS GONNA DRIVE ME INSANE UNTIL I GET AN ANSWER

I need to get my full thoughts once the whole season is done. I always kinda have to do that.

But RIGHT NOW, I still question the hype a bit. Yeah it’s good, but… wow, WHAT happens in these last four episodes that could’ve POSSIBLY caused this much insanity across the community?

#Ninjago #scattered thoughts #ninjago dragons rising #dragons rising #dragons rising spoilers

[starzie]

Watching some movies tonight. Specifically Princess Mononoke (1997)

Not sure what you call it- (motif? sound bit?) But whenever San is caught off guard, with her humanity, there's a sharp chime/ringing in the air

It's been my headcanon it has to do with her backstory.

(To recap:) Her human parents were frightened by Moro, the wolf god; And in a panic threw their baby at her feet. (Then Moro raised her as a wolf, etc.)

I imagine in the scramble to escape from the danger, a pin or something metal dropped against a stone surface; And made that sound

Now San associates it with being abandoned by her human parents

#scattered thoughts #ghibli #princess mononoke #meta #I love ghibli movies there's so much to talk about #like how Lady Eboshi wears man pants #but that's a post for another day

[sunnydazeofyore]

I said to myself "job well done on the Firefly fic, now you can take a break and mull over what you're gonna write next" only to end up writing up 3600 words of Kafka x Stelle smut that I can't publish yet. Oops.

#scattered thoughts #fic writing #kafstel #yuri #ao3 please let me in

[titleknown]

It's weird, I kinda have mixed feelings on those "Presidents Play" things I keep seeing on Youtube.

On one hand, it seems slightly warped to humanize these old war criminals and garbage commentators as more or less funny cartoon characters in a way that would make Baudrilard piss himself in rage.

On the other hand, using political figures; even monstrous ones (See also: Venture Bros' Dr Killinger, Futurama's Nixon head) as funny cartoons has a history, so this is just the next logical step in that, and the distancing from the real via the medium at least might help in audience differentiation. Also I often find the people who like Baudrillard insufferable, so piss harder.

On the third hand, it's funny how using politicians' voices in these sorts of things is probably the most ethical use of the tech, given it's not depriving professional voice actors of work and, as a friend mentioned, most political figures are already caricatures of themselves.

On the fourth hand, god this tech will probably be a nightmare wrt deepfakes and political disinformation.

And on the fifth hand, Hee hee, Biden has a squirrel deck!

#presidents play #youtube #ai art #sorta #scattered thoughts #ai voice

[khaivin]

#literally me #i did a vergil fanart cisswap/genderbend last month #and it looks exactly like male vergil #bc i tried to take into account his personality and canon design and stuff #but while i was drawing i thought #maybe i should give her longer hair just to hint more about her being a woman? #but female vergil having short hair would be that off 'canon' i believe #we always fall into what is perceived as a specific gender #and regarding vergil #he was not raised into the human world #we do not know #if he has an understanding of gender as humans do #an understanding of what statunitians have of gender (bc redgrave is in the usa) #does he have short hair bc thats how his father used #would he have longer hair bc thats how his mother would use in a cisswap universe? #would female sparda even have long hair? #scattered thoughts #sorry #vergil #vergil sparda #dmc #devil may cry #genderbend #cisswap

[soleilst]

▪︎The Mystery of Life

Growing and learning,

the orchestra continuesly playing.

A waltz of stories untold and memories forgotten,

making the aura all the more nostalgic,

leaving the audience stunned to their core.

.

A portrait of a man,

standing proudly against the cold hues of blue.

A moment captured for infinity and forever more,

time moving on its own accord.

.

However someone may prove you right,

something behind their assumptions leaves them blank and full of fright.

They say knowledge is gift,

but the fact that knowledge always provides happiness is a myth.

.

It is the mystery of life,

the one no one can convey.

Neither in facts nor in arts,

for it hides deep within our hearts.

#original poem #poetry #writing #original work #original writing #poets on tumblr #young poets #soleilst #dark academia #poem #spilled poetry #spilled thoughts #spilled ink #spilled words #spilled writing #scattered thoughts #artists on tumblr #art

[scatteredthoughts2]

Distances So Wide.

I died the day you went away,

I broke up all inside,

I felt my world just slip away,

Like the ebbing of the tide.

I prayed that you'd come back someday,

But the distance was too wide,

My life, my love, had gone away,

And I hung my head and cried.

I begged and pleaded with you to stay,

To be my blushing bride,

But you just smiled and turned away,

And my pleading you denied.

And now there's nothing left to say,

I'm all broken up inside,

My life, my love, has flown away,

And the distance is so wide.

@Ambrose Harte

@Scattered Thoughts

#ambrose harte #writerscreed #poetry on tumblr #poets on tumblr #poetselixir #smittenbypoetry #poetryportal #poetrysavedfromobscurity #scattered thoughts #so many tears

[iamumbra195]

random rant about this scene because I'm sick and tired of this society and I was rewatching the movie.

(this is my own interpretation of what he meant so I might be wrong)

Y'know at first I didn't really clock what he meant because it was a joke and I didn't understand half of his jokes but honestly? Honestly?

Capitalism sucks the life out of you. I'm not even twenty and I'm already so tired, scared of how I'm going to survive on my own when Canada is in a housing crisis, everything is getting smaller and more expensive before my eyes and working any sort of modern day job just seems like a nightmare so I don't really have any dreams.

even looking back to the beginning of capitalism, it was a disaster. I'm sort of studying it in my institutionalization/disabilities course and it was fucked up from the start, set on exploiting the masses until there was nothing else they could give and disregarding those who couldn't contribute in the same way (the disabled, the poor, the elderly, etc)

Back to my point, that thing is like a black hole in the middle of Mumbattern, slowly destroying and sucking the life out a beautiful place.

Capitilism sucks away your creativity and the many things that make you special as an individual.

So yeah. Hobie's throw away line was actually pretty fucking acurate to the reality we live in these days.

On the topic of Canada, Capitalism, and Hobie I feel like it is also prudent to mention that Canadian news and the fact that you have to scour the internet for any shred of news about what's happening in your own damn country reminds me of that one line where Hobie goes "I ain't got a Scooby doo, mate. But that's what they want."

Cause yeah. I don't have a fucking clue what's going on my own country, stop hiding behind america and it's faults while acting like you're perfect, Canada

#spider man: across the spider verse #atsv #hobie brown #capitalism #canada #rant #scattered thoughts #but you get my point #capitalism is a disease #late stage capitalism #i fucking hate it here

[theknittingshadow]

A Shadow’s Scattered Thoughts on “Journey to the West”

Alright, people. Blame @semisolidmind for getting me into Lego Monkie Kid. Finally decided to check out the original “Journey to the West. Strap yourselves in because there will be NO organization or cohesion to this whatsoever!

I’m at Chapter 20 right now and so far…

-Wukong’s a little pretentious and entitled but, considering none of the monkeys of Huaguoshan questioned the existence of a fully-furnished palace in Water Curtain Cave, I’m not surprised.

-Shifu Subhodi definitely WAS harsh striking Wukong on the head, as I had heard about before. However, IT WAS ALL A SECRET CODE FOR SECRET IMMORTALITY LESSONS! Hallelujah, he’s not as big a jerk as I feared. Still, there are better ways to get your point across, sir.

-At first, it seemed like the book went on long tangents of unrelated stories. I began to think this was less a book with one overarching storyline and more a collection of stories. Then, I finally got to when Tang is chosen to go on the journey. I realized it was all BACKSTORY.

-The Celestial Realm is simultaneously more and less merciful than I thought. On one hand, they kept giving Wukong chance after chance when he’d get upset and beat someone up or something. On the other hand, they beat and banished Wujing over BREAKING A CUP.

-I was super confused on Lego Monkie Kid’s characterization of Ao Lie when the book first implied he set his father’s palace on fire on purpose. Continuing, it seems more like he lit the place on ACCIDENT. WHICH MAKES HIS WHOLE “AVOIDING CARELESS ACTIONS” and “MY POWES HAVE ONLY EVER GOTTEN ME IN TROUBLE” SPIEL MAKE TOTAL SENSE!!!!!!

-There is so much poetry in here, guys. So So So Much.

-Speaking of poetry, it reminded me of both the Odyssey and several Shakespeare plays where they pause to sing a song or something.

-Why does the author keep making the characters reiterate what just happened? They Do The Thing. Then they gotta explain to someone else The Thing. There’s rarely an instance of “and they recounted the events just described” and leave it at that.

-Why does the Jade Emperor need to take a carriage to go literally anywhere? Even just to the other side of the courtyard? Is it a really big yard?

-Tripitaka DID seem like an overreacting crybaby but then I thought “this is PTSD at work” and IT ALL MAKES SENSE. He gets kidnapped by ogres who kill and eat his personally chosen companions (who came from his monastery and whom he most likely grew up with as friends) before his very eyes. Of course he’s going to freeze up and/or freak out every time a monster appears and Wukong needs to leave his side for whatever reason.

-Related, crying now that you have to walk to the West seems ridiculous until you think it might be more crying about how he was nearly eaten by the dragon that ate his horse!

-Seriously, I could go on about Tang’s unusually frequent crying and how it relates to potential PTSD and delayed reaction to said trauma.

-People keep calling the disciples ugly right to their faces and I Do Not Appreciate It. On another note, Wukong is surprisingly chill about this.

-Bodhisattva Guanyin used a fillet on a bear yaogaui in one chapter. I was not expecting that. Maybe ancient ideas of mercy are different compared to today?

-I’ve read and seen SO many stories of how Zhu Bajie kidnapped the human woman he married but that’s…not what happened. Sort of. They married with both her and her family’s consent. It was only after his true appearance, huge appetite, and poor manners were revealed that her family tries to get rid of him. He keeps his wife away from them as a result. Normally, I’d say good for him for trying to cut off toxic people but his wife was described as pale and unkept when Tang and Wukong arrive. So…she’s not doing good and should really be returned to her family.

-Wukong laughs at people and calls himself “Old Monkey” a lot.

More scattered thoughts to come!

#Journey to the West #jttw #sun wukong #wukong #tang #tripitaka #zhu bajie #sha wujing #lmk #lego monkie kid #ao lie #guanyin #scattered thoughts #Tw murder #tw death #tw kidnapping #Tw ptsd

[haleskii]

We connected in a way like no other, however that didn't matter cause we never got close

#scattered thoughts

[iriswords]

Scattered thoughts - Nasir Ghameq

 Or why Nasir Ghameq is such a good character instead of a cliché brooding bad boy

spoilers for the Sands of Arawyia saga below the cut

At first glance, Nasir Ghameq very much looks like the typical brooding bad boy who will end up with the good girl (here, Zafira, who doesn’t fit the cliché of the good girl either, for that matter). He is slightly arrogant, unpleasant, doesn’t talk unless it’s to be mean, glowers a lot, and so forth Yes, this is all true, and it is also true that deep down he isn’t all that bad and that he’s just very sad, like the typical brooding bad boy. But the difference between the cliché bad boys and Nasir is the abuse storyline. Cliché bad boys may be assholes because they are angry at the world, because their family died, or maybe even because their family abuses them. But in those stories, the reason is always an excuse for their behavior, whereas for Nasir it is merely an explanation. Nasir does use his arrogant and unapproachable facade as a way to ward off people and not get hurt again, like all cliché bad boys. And while it is part coping mechanism (and though not healthy, an efficient and well-spread one, I would know), it is also part conditioning. We know Nasir has been physically and emotionally abused for years. His own father (at the hands of the Lion, but it doesn’t change it still looked like him) burned him 48 times with a poker as a tally for killing. His own father humiliated him each time he deemed Nasir not tough enough. He used his emotions and love against him. He insulted Nasir, dehumanized him by comparing him to a dog, ripped off the tongue of the girl he loved. This is not something one comes out unscathed of. Nasir not only has the physical scars to prove it but also the emotional ones, and it is very well-handed in the book. We see him hesitate before speaking because he was belittled every time he tried to give his opinion. He has learned that his thoughts don’t matter, that he is nothing more than a lapdog for the Sultan, that love will be punished and thus brings pain. All that he does, he does so he won’t get hurt and in the hopes of gaining his father’s love. It doesn’t excuse it, but it explains it. Nasir is not a brooding bad boy who’s an asshole because he can and uses the excuse that he’s sad to wash himself of all accountability. Nasir is an abused boy who craves the love and approval of his only surviving parent, who does what he does so he won’t get hurt even more, and who hates himself for it all the while. He is such a good character because his morality and mentality are well-explained, and he tries to atone for what he did, but we as readers also understand why he acted like he did, and understand him. He is a complex character, with complex motives and, to be honest, is not that much of an asshole anyway. Unlike brooding bad boys, he atones for what he did, doesn’t treat the girl like she belongs to him or like she owes him to be with him (on the contrary, he doubts himself even when Zafira’s desire is clear), and comes out of his shell with everyone, not just with the girl in an attempt to win her. We get to witness a true and interesting evolution instead of a fake, badly constructed and unbelievable one, and this is part of why I love the Sands of Arawyia so much.

#sands of arawiya #nasir ghameq #hafsah faizal #scattered thoughts #spoilers #we hunt the flame #we free the stars

[weepingfoxfury]

The days of holiday slides are long since gone ...

#windows #decay #random #scattered thoughts #life #dead leaves #peeling paint #dead ivy #cobwebs #photographers on tumblr #original photography on tumblr

[threewaysdivided]

I just read that ask about Vlad that you did and was wondering if you had any thoughts about Jack and Maddie. They have clear love for there kids and when they know they are in danger they will drop everything for them, but they also don't notice when there is somthing wrong going on. Valerie would be another good one, though I think that she mostly framed around how whe is manipulated by others (like Vlad).

(the Vlad ask)

So, I have quite a few thoughts on Maddie and Jack, and they’re probably some of the most complex.

I’ve talked about this before but one of the quirks/ bugs/ features of Danny Phantom’s tumultuous production and at-times-contradictory canon is that there can be multiple disparate readings that are all somewhat supported.  And no more is this true than for the (nominally) good Doctors Fenton.

Let’s talk about the meta-side first because it’s kind of fascinating.

Issa Nicktoon

Sounds kind of dismissive to say it that way but I think it’s important to remember that Danny Phantom is an early 2000s TV7+ (i.e. “for kids”) Nicktoon and some artefacts of canon are clearly concessions to the medium.

As a formulaic episodic kids show, the Status Quo is God - characters rarely experience substantial change or ongoing arcs/ consequences and even episodic A-Plots tend to reset major developments by the end.  (I’ve talked about some of the problems it causes for Sam specifically here.)

Things like hyperbolic cartoonery and Aesops are also in play; characterisation and situations getting hyper-charged or hijacked by the Idiot Ball/ Jerk Ball/ Conflict Ball etc. in service of jokes or whatever “moral lesson” a given episode might decide to be about.  (It’s really not in-keeping for Danny to act like he did in Livin’ Large but the show wanted a “don’t be materialistic/ wealth isn’t everything” lesson so he got Jerk-Balled.)

There’s also stuff that mostly exists for narrative convenience, and that the producers either didn’t consider or actively try to avoid the implications of.  Maddie and Jack being as clueless as they are about their kids is at least partially a convenience to keep them out of the way.  The show doesn’t want to engage with the implications of ghosts being dead people, the implications of ghosts being sentient, or the fridge-logic/ fridge-horror ramifications of a bunch of its one-liners and contrivances.  It wants to be a fun hero comedy cartoon with a spooky twist and it absolutely doesn’t want you thinking about any of it too hard.

Because of that, you kind of have to be selective about when to read things ‘to the letter’ and when to read things ‘in spirit’.  Do you choose to take everything as having literally happened as depicted (even when those things could have terrible or story-breaking implications) or do you take the general impression from the whole and exclude specific outliers on the grounds that they only exist as a concession to the nature of the show?

Maddie and Jack’s Weird Fictional Niche

I also want to briefly touch on the unusual narrative space the Fentons occupy in the realm of hero-story-parents.

(For simplicity I’m going to take inspiration from OSP’s video and refer to the ‘secret’ side of the double-life that teen superhero/ urban fantasy protagonists interact with as the ‘fantastical world’.)

When it comes to stories with child/ teen heroes who have living parents, I feel like you can map most of them against 3 axes:

How aware are they of the fantastical world in general?

How aware are they of their kids’ activities in the fantastical world?

If they are involved in the fantastical world themselves, is it in a way that is supportive or antagonistic to their kids activities?

It’s a pretty stock trope for these parents to be both ignorant of the fantastical world (or at least, no more aware than the average person) and unaware of their kids activities.  This is often done by putting these parents somewhere on the scale between too preoccupied/ overworked to notice what’s going on and actively uncaring/ neglectful/ abusive.  Again, it’s mostly a narrative convenience to explain how the kids can get up to so many unsupervised shenanigans while also having a stable homebase.

Rarer is seeing parents who are directly involved in the fantastical world without being aware of or interacting with their kid’s activities.  I think the most common version here is typically when the parents are studying some tangential aspect of the fantastical world while their kids fight villains/ have adventures somewhere else.

What’s weird about Maddie and Jack is that not only are they fully aware of the fantastical world (being the ones to open the portal), they’re also completely unaware of their kids’ presence in that world even though they’re active in the same areas, AND - most unusually - they are personally antagonistic to most of that world and Danny’s alter-ego in specific. 

That’s pretty unique.  Typically you would expect that to be a villain archetype; a classic setup where the parents act as the main Bad Guys (or are working for the Big Bad) while their kids assume secret alter egos and enter the fantastical world in order to stop them. 

But that’s not what’s going on.  Despite qualifying as secondary antagonists, Maddie and Jack are never presented or treated as villains; they have no ‘evil scheme’ or agenda, they are not sadistic or exploitative.  The show frames them as likeable and relatable (if annoying).

And despite everything, both they and their kids sincerely love and want happiness/ success for each other.

The Fentons as Parents

To me, Maddie and Jack as parents embody the concept of and:  

Someone can love you and hurt you.

Someone can want the best for you and not understand who you are at all.

Someone can sincerely care about you and completely fail to recognise your needs.

Someone can want to support you and never be there when you need them most.

Someone can try their best and it can still not be anywhere near enough.

You can love someone and they can have hurt you in ways that might be unforgivable.

You can want to be with someone and they can be unhealthy for you to be around.

I think this is one of the places where Danny Phantom’s production being kind of a mess has allowed it to accidentally resonate with a rarely-depicted but very real emotional experience.

So, are they abusive and/or neglectful?

I want to be clear that abuse and/or neglect is in the impact, not the intent.  That isn’t to say intent is irrelevant (especially in fiction) but the most important thing is the effect.

And from that perspective…

Yeah, even with the most generous ‘in spirit’ reading Maddie and Jack are at the very least emotionally neglectful to their kids.  They are rarely present for their kids (definitely not consistently) and even when physically present they’re often mentally focussed elsewhere.  They rarely listen to Danny and Jazz; often talking over them, derailing conversations to be about ghosts and dismissing Danny and Jazz’s opinions on the topic when they try to participate by offering counterpoints.  While they don’t restrict their kid’s hobbies we rarely see them actively participate or encourage them on screen, and they often ignore Danny and Jazz’s attempts to express that they don’t want ghosts/ the supernatural being brought into all the family time they spend together.  It’s very easy to read Jazz’s interest in psychology as her at least partially trying to find the emotional guidance and framework that their parents are failing to provide, and to pass that on to Danny second-hand.

The Fenton household seems like it could be a very emotionally lonely and invalidating environment for a child to grow up in.  The thing with love is that it’s not just about feelings: it’s about actions, and (while Maddie and Jack no doubt feel and think that they love their kids unconditionally) what they have routinely shown Danny and Jazz is that - outside of emergencies - they will choose ghosts ahead of their children 90% of the time.

It’s also hard to ignore that - even in a generous reading - the Fenton parents probably do count as physically criminally negligent.  They have a laboratory in their basement where they deal with potentially biohazardous substances but there is no containment separating it from the rest of the house (it’s unclear if there’s even a door).  Danny’s chores include cleaning and equipment maintenance in the lab (some of which can be explosively dangerous) which he does without PPE or supervision.  The unsecured portal releases ghosts directly onto the premises, sending them up through the house on their way to terrorise the town.  Even outside the lab, the kids are at risk of being exposed to barely-tested stuff like Fenton-Foamer.  Maddie and Jack bring unsealed ectoplasmic samples and power sources to the breakfast table, sometimes storing them alongside or even using them to prepare the food their kids eat.  Danny only became Phantom (an event that either partly killed him or mutated him into some kind of hybrid) because a group of teenagers were allowed unsupervised access to a lab containing an un-signposted piece of malfunctioning equipment that was left connected to power.  (And sure, maybe the trio shouldn’t have snuck down there in the first place but “rely on a teenager to never do stupid things” should not be the sole safety precaution.)  None of that is good.

Taking a more strict ‘to the letter’ reading makes them seem much worse; at times crossing the line into ‘wilfully harmful’.  There’s a joke about how Jack has made most of the lab work Danny’s job because he’s too lazy to do it himself.  There’s the iron maiden thing, sometimes they lecture or scold Danny in a way that feels very not good, and then there was the whole bit about putting him in a spinner ‘to get the crazy out’ in The Fenton Menace.  It’s not invalid for people to argue that, based on a strict reading, the Fenton parents could be some form of abusive.

The Problem with Their Parenting

I think the core problem with the Fenton’s parenting can be summed up in this diagram:

The surface level problem is obvious: Maddie and Jack prioritise their work over their kids way too much.  That isn’t to say that parents’ lives should be 100% about their kids but they should be swinging for a better balance.  At the very least they should be able to have more than a handful of conversations with their kids that don’t end in them making it all about ghosts.  It’s like they can’t compartmentalise.

However, it’s that top one that’s the real problem.  Maddie and Jack’s paranoid hatred/ fear/ distrust of all things ghostly is a consuming fixation.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s partially driving their obsession with their work.

That ectophobia also creates a very emotional unhealthy (and at times physically unsafe) environment for Jazz and especially Danny.  Like I said in the DP’s asexual fanbase post every part of their lives from their language to their behaviour is steeped in casual prejudice.  Not only is it psychologically harmful for Danny and Jazz to be internalising these beliefs, it’s yet another thing that makes their love feel less certain/ more conditional.

It’s also a super weird mindset for a pair of supposed scientists to have.

Ectophobia and Bad Science

Maddie and Jack are pretty textbook examples of the Fantastic Racism Trope; they have an irrational hatred for specific paranormal entities and some of the things they do could definitely be categorised as Van Helsing Hate Crimes.

However, while it makes sense for the routinely-terrorised townsfolk of Amity Park to be generally anti-ghost based on their experiences, it’s very strange for Maddie and Jack to also have this mindset (considering that they were the ones who chose to actively seek them out for ‘study’), and even weirder that they are the ones who most strongly spread that rhetoric to the community.

The Doctors Fenton are very unscientific in a lot of ways; they don’t use any form of the scientific method (hypothesise → test → repeat) when it comes to ghosts, and they seemingly went into the field with series of pre-set beliefs that they had formed before gathering any firsthand data.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” -Sherlock Holmes

Not only that, but they’re very incurious about most ghostly things.  They seemingly aren’t interested in studying the behaviour of ghosts, their habits and interactions (ecto-ecology), or questioning why they might act a certain way.  Their approach seems to be more about hunting/capturing ghosts, taking them apart to see how they physically work and then using the remains to build new, more effective anti-ghost technology.

From that perspective, it’s almost worth questioning whether their anti-ghost prejudice is actually serving a self-protective function: if it’s less about the belief and more about what it enables.  If ghosts are inherently evil, dangerous, non-sentient/ impulse-driven, incapable of feeling pain or emotions and only imitating these things as a manipulative defence/ predation strategy then it’s not morally wrong for Maddie and Jack to hunt them and subject them to inhumane experimentation.  That might explain why their rhetoric has internal inconsistencies (“non-sentient manipulator” is an oxymoron) and why they continue to cling to it and double-down even when faced with contradictory evidence.  So long as they believe it, they never have to feel guilt or question themselves.

Obviously the actual answer is that it’s a Nicktoon and Maddie and Jack ever significantly changing their beliefs/ behaviour is Forbidden by the Formula™ but we’re analysing from a Watsonian perspective right now so hush. 

It would be interesting to know how they might have come about this belief in the first place, since it doesn’t seem to be from firsthand data.  Maybe they’re working from bad anecdotes or folklore, biasing towards the idea of ghosts as evil.  Maybe they’re carrying a personal bias from an early firsthand encounter (perhaps in their college days) that left a terrible first impression.

Whatever the case, the fact that they keep holding onto this hypothesis and dismissing alternatives, rather than actually testing it against the mounting pile of obviously contradictory evidence, kind of shows how unwilling - or maybe unable - they are to consider that they could be wrong.

“one of the greatest human failings is to prefer to be right than to be effective” -Stephen Fry

Narcissism vs Egocentrism

Something that strikes me is that Maddie, Jack and Vlad are in some ways extremely similar.  In the Vlad post, I said that one of the things that makes Vlad so dangerous is that he shows signs of malignant narcissism.  Similarly, I think the main thing that makes Maddie and Jack so unintentionally harmful is that they are supremely egocentric.

Egocentrism refers to someone's inability to understand that another person's view or opinion may be different than their own. …an egocentric person does not necessarily obsess over things like success, beauty, or status. They simply don't consider other people in their decision-making. -Verywell Mind

It’s more obvious in Jack because of his general social cluelessness; his opening line in the whole show is asking if insisting the kids want to hunt ghosts and then completely ignoring that all three say ‘no’; he brings up the ‘Hairy Chin’ nickname because he doesn’t see how that ‘funny memory’ might be embarrassing or hurtful.  Maddie is more socially savvy but there is also a benign condescension/ dismissiveness in her reaction towards views other than her own.  They are both more capable of compassion than Vlad but, like him, they show very little natural empathy. 

They both also tend to assume their perspective is universal/ correct, and/or not consider how their actions might affect other people.  It doesn’t seem to occur to them that maybe other people don’t want to talk about ghosts all the time.  They don’t consider how barging into the school and making a ruckus might impact their kids socially or hurt their relationship with the faculty.  They never develop perspective that maybe they should put aside their exhausting yearly Santa argument for the sake of a positive holiday experience with their kids, even though that argument never goes anywhere.  They don’t seem to include their kids in making family plans and just take it as read that Danny and Jazz will be totally on-board and satisfied with whatever they decide.

At times it’s like they borderline forget their kids but then believe they should/ act like they have a really close relationship with them when they do pay attention.  (They actually do this with Vlad as well - Jack treating him with the same overly-close college-roommate familiarity despite years of silence).  It’s almost a failure of object permanence; they disappear off into their own minds and come back expecting the other person to be exactly the same as when they left - like a reverse-weeping-angel who freezes whenever they’re not being looked at.  And when they do notice something is amiss (or someone gets upset with them) they often default to wondering what is wrong with the other person rather than considering whether they might have done something. 

None of this is to say that Maddie and Jack are malicious, or to suggest that they don’t like or care about their kids.  It’s more like they’re trapped in their own little bubble of being The Heroic Doctors Maddie and Jack Fenton, Genius Ghost-Hunters Extraordinaire and it completely walls them off from the reality of other people’s needs and feelings.  They simply don't consider other people in their decision-making and unfortunately their kids are part of the other people.  They do love Danny and Jazz.  They love them so much… when they remember that they exist.

And it’s worth noting that the behaviours and feelings we see from Danny and Jazz align pretty well to how dealing with egocentricity can affect people:

Low self-worth: feeling irrelevant, as if your opinions don't matter Self-doubt: questioning your own judgment or perception Confusion: wondering if the person recognizes their egocentric ways Sadness: feeling sorry for the person or sad for yourself after interacting with them Anger: frustration and anger over not feeling seen or heard Resentment: becoming bitter toward them for the ways they behave and how you feel after interactions Detachment: a desire to move away from the person as much as you can in order to protect your sense of self. -Verywell Mind

What to do?

I want to reprise the same idea I expressed in the Vlad post:  Maddie and Jack are not Danny and Jazz’s responsibility.  Functional relationships require participation from both parties.  And when it comes to relationships between children and adult parents/ mentors it is not the job of the child to assume primary responsibility for managing the relationship, their parents’ feelings or their parents’ lives.

As it stands, this relationship is not functional or healthy.  Something’s got to give.

Which is painful and complicated because they all do love each other. 

It’s that idea of and again:

You can love someone, you can want their affection, their approval, a positive relationship AND you can be in a position where continuing to stay and try for that will end up doing more harm than good.

I see things going one of two ways:

1. The relationship gives

The kids end up leaving - either cutting contact or at least pulling away. 

There are a bunch of things that could lead to this.  Maybe their parents don’t accept Danny when the truth comes out, and they have to flee.  Maybe Jazz moves out and offers for Danny to come and stay with her.  Maybe they just grow up, move away to have their own lives and rarely come home.

The best outcome here would be Danny and Jazz being able to reach a place where they feel safe (emotionally and physically), unconditionally loved and can start healing into a sense of confidence/comfortableness with themselves: whether that’s just with each other or as part of some kind of larger community/ found family group.

2. Maddie and Jack's behaviour gives

Here something would need to happen to shake Maddie and Jack out of their egocentrism, make them realise how much their ectophobic obsession has been hurting their kids and their relationship with them, and that they need to make a committed effort to change their behaviour if they want a hope of salvaging things.  The thing with love is that it’s not just about feelings: it’s about actions.

Considering how resistant and generally obtuse Maddie and Jack can be towards accepting things they don’t want to realise, this could require a quite drastic inciting incident (Danny being hurt, the kids deciding to leave), although it could also be a slow build of subtle things that eventually breaks the dam.

And I do want to stress that ‘change in behaviour’ bit. This kind of quasi-redemption-arc really needs to be about recognising why the behaviour was harmful and realising they want to be better.  If it’s primarily about absolving themselves of feeling bad or undoing undesirable consequences then it’s still egocentric; in which case there’s no guarantee that they wouldn’t backslide down the line, or slide into a near-identical behaviour that’s just superficially different enough to avoid the same criticism.  The main goal and reward of a redemption path is the character(s) on the path growing into better people.

As for actually reconciling, it would be up to Danny and Jazz to decide when and if they want to accept any prospective olive branches.  Forgiveness is admirable, but not owed.

Like I said, it’s messy and complicated.

Someone can love you and hurt you.

Someone can try their best and it can still not be anywhere near enough.

You can love someone and they can have hurt you in ways that might not be forgivable.

And, as parents, Maddie and Jack Fenton are - quite by accident - some of the most emotionally complex, realistically flawed and believably human characters in Danny Phantom’s canon.

#Danny Phantom #DP meta #Maddie Fenton #Jack Fenton #Maddie and Jack Fenton #The Fenton Parents #Scattered thoughts #thecatlounge #3WD Answers #Definitely some of the most divisive characters in DPs fandom #I think it’s the ‘And’-ness of them #That they are simultaneous capable of love and hurt #They are loving and caring but ‘loving and caring parents’ is not synonymous with ‘good parents’ #the world is not divided into 'good people' and 'pure monsters' #I think there’s definitely some merit to fan-theories that Maddie and Jack might have some form of neurodivergence (perhaps ADHD or Autism) #That make them more prone to hyperfixating/ less attentive to others’ emotions/ less aware of social relationship decay #I think they had kids because they sincerely wanted children and to be a family #But maybe didn’t consider that their kids were inevitably going to become ‘other people’ #I understand why some people might feel defensive about this take or reluctant to label them poorly #From person experience: I have an egocentric close relative #And it took me into my early 20s to realise #that just because someone loves you and tries for you #doesn’t mean their behaviour can’t still regularly cross a line into hurtful/ neglectful/ toxic #I am now in a low-contact relationship with them #And in some ways it CAN feel like giving up when you make that call #But sometimes you HAVE to make that call because there is no way to make them acknowledge or change their contribution to the problem #You cannot do the work of two people by yourself #Intent only goes so far #(I mean. We might distinguish Murder from Manslaughter. But at the end of the day. Someone is still dead either way.)