#the first part of TFBC is like looking in a mirror tho Ive gotten better at my outward attitude

[redrobin-detective]

So ‘tis the season and I’m going to talk about one of the most personally offensive things I saw in Danny Phantom which was the handling of Danny’s hatred of Christmas as catalogued in the The Fright Before Christmas. The story opens with Danny being bitter and closed off and overall miserable with the upcoming holiday. The people around him call him Scrooge for his attitude and try and force the cheer onto him despite him clearly being upset by it. 

The narrative reinforces the idea that Danny is in the wrong, almost saying that Ghost Writer was justified about ‘teaching Danny a lesson’ in holiday spirit. Even just typing it out infuriates me because I am like Danny. I remember watching the episode as a young adult and feeling such a kinship with Danny’s struggles during the episode. I too hate the holidays and get surly and sullen and anxious around this time of year. My hatred stems from family issues, from days spent screaming and just wanting January to come and move past all this horrible tension. My friends and family (yes even the family who argues most of the time) have called me names and told me to get into the spirit and not be such a downer.

I consider myself to be a good person, maybe not a literal superhero, but someone who cares about people and does kind things all year round. Neither Danny and I are sulky all the time and have understandable, very specific reasons why the holidays are a bad time. And yet Danny’s central problem is never really addressed, everyone around it makes it HIS problem that he’s miserable. Why didn’t Ghostwriter go after Jack and Maddie and make them see what they were doing to their kids? Why didn’t Sam and Tuck, usually 110% in Danny’s corner, help spirit him away to make new happier holiday traditions? Maybe Danny could have decided to run away for the holidays and bonded with the ghosts in the Zone during the truce. No, we heap all this blame on a child who has trauma and try to fix it by reinforcing the commercialized, capitalistic package of Christmas™ without ever really addressing why someone would feel so upset this time of year.

Butch Hartmen certainly isn’t beloved in the Phandom for his nuance or sensitivity but this particular moment really hits home for me. I worked a very rough few shifts over Thanksgiving and one nurse was loudly playing Christmas music most of the time. I moved seats, I asked her to turn it down, I broke down and cried at one point from stress and just asked Please can we not do this. “Don’t be such a grinch,” I heard from multiple people, “you’re just going to have to deal with it.” And as I have many years prior, I thought back to Danny, my comrade in traumatic Christmas memories and thought we both deserved better.

#danny phantom #its december 1st and Im feeling my christmas depression on me #Ive literally told everyone I try to work thanksgiving and xmas so I *don't have to be home* #and yet get sighs and eyerolls when I ask them to just tone it down just a bit #I never want to interfere with other people's holiday spirit #but dont force it on me #the first part of TFBC is like looking in a mirror tho Ive gotten better at my outward attitude #birthday and christmas are always my most depressed anxious times of the year from some very bad memories #Im trying to work on overcoming that but can we?? not act like people are assholes for hating christmas music? #for being annoyed by commercial messages of unity and kindness #for being miserable in the cold and not wanting to be around the stress of family #this is not my season #anyway didnt mean to amke this therapy hour but yeah danny deserved better than taht