#I can see Danny growing in a kindly but quiet kind of eerily mature young man

[redrobin-detective]

Danny Fenton may have walked out of his parents ghost portal with half his life but he still experienced a death. And death changes people. Oh part of it was the circumstances, the ghost attacks, the secret keeping. But having your life violently ripped away and then forced back into a physical body would of course have an effect. One the people in his life noticed immediately.

While was generally very lighthearted, always smiling and cracking bad jokes, his eyes were often shadowed. As if he wasn’t completely feeling the mirthful attitude he portrayed, like he was still trying to fulfill a role he’d grown out of. He almost became more reckless, more energetic in those early days to hold onto the lingering whispers of the old Danny Fenton. But by the time Junior year rolled around, he’d given up the ruse. Danny Fenton was no longer skittering or jokey. He walked with his shoulders back, his gaze sharp and his smiles were smaller. No less warm or genuine, but more restrained than most teenagers usually were.

His emotions were more variable too, more potent too. He was quick to anger, his good cheer turning bitterly cold in an instant with the most vile insults on his tongue. The moment would pass and he’d be all frowns and apologies. But he never used to fly off the handle like that before his accident. His joys too seemed almost uncontainable, and his grief would shake the world. All his emotions seemed so much larger, like it knew they weren’t supposed to be confined to such a small body. 

Friends and family and other people would look at Danny, be it working at school or laughing in the park with his friends or cleaning the dishes after dinner and just feel that something had changed. That something in Danny had been lost, when no one was looking, leaving this boy in his place. He was a good child, kind, honorable, distracted at times and carrying an exhaustion that had little to do with sleep. Soon, it wouldn’t be long before this Danny was just Danny. But sometimes they’ll pause in what they’re doing and remember how he used to be, before the portal. Danny Fenton may have temporarily dodged death but that doesn’t mean he escaped completely. 

#dont mind me I'm in a mood tonight #danny phantom #I think this cams out darker than intended #its not *totally* a bad thing Danny's changes #but he DID change #the danny we know throughout the series and beyond is NOT the same boy who walked into the portal #its not just the events that followed #its just you dont go through something like that and come out unscathed #I can see Danny growing in a kindly but quiet kind of eerily mature young man #oh he has his moments of dumbassry he never grows out of #is more prone to smiles than frowns #but he has a long that can stop a grown man cold #and carries himself in a way that says he's seen and done things you cant even comprehend #and to the people not in the know #they have to wonder what the heck happened #and to the people that do #they must ask themselves who danny would have been had he not walked into the portal to his death #Im obsessed with Danny experiencing a death #he's alive yes but he DID die #he couldnt have a 'ghost' without a death #and just the impacts that has on him #i know i know me and the rest of the phandom #right #Im going to run now bc obviously I need to work some issues out