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call-me-strega · 3 months

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Dc x DP Prompt #8: Best Friend’s Brother

Preface: this prompt can be used with different characters but I’m writing it as Dead on Main bc that’s my favorite. Also the colleges I mention are real colleges from the DCU

~~~

Danny Fenton was 18 when he moved to Gotham for college.

It was the only place with a half decent engineering program that would take a kid with his record; drop in grades, unexplained absences, missing class, a disciplinary record, etc. Plus there was a decent saturation of both magic and ectoplasm in Gotham’s air. After he got accepted he decided to tell his parents he was Phantom. They reacted surprisingly well all things considered. They were horrified to learn they’d been hunting their son but it quickly turned into acceptance to listen to what he had to tell them. Now they turned their obsession from hunting ghosts to learning more about ghost more humanely. He also managed to get his former rouges to agree to call off any major shenanigans in favor of less destructive outlets. (He got Ember a TikTok and a YouTube channel, he set up a drag racing circuit in the realms for Johnny and Kitty, let Technus enter the internet as long as he stayed within Amity’s grid or help Ember manage her stuff, allowed Desiree grant wishes for Make a Wish Foundation kids so long as she didn’t horribly twist them, etc.)

Now with the town not at constant risk of danger and his parents agreeing to really handle any rouge ghosts, Danny could leave Amity with a clear conscience. His friends were also growing up and heading to their own colleges. Tucker was heading to Ivy University in New England, which rivaled MIT in terms technological prestige, and Sam decided on Vandermeer University in Pittsburg, which had a reputation for being a very liberal, anti-authority campus. Although their trio would be spread out, Danny found comfort in the fact that they’d all moved from the Midwest to the Northeast.

With promises to stay in touch a visit. Danny got set up in GCU’s dorms, ready to move into the next chapter of his life.

Danny Fenton was 20 when Tim Drake (age 19 but nearing 20) officially became one of his best friends.

They had been introduced to each other by their mutual friend Sebastian Ives for a new Warlocks and Warriors campaign. Their friendship extended beyond WnW when they ended up on the same Applied Physics and Mechanics class. It was cemented when they got pair up for a project in class and had to spend lots of time around each other.

Danny didn’t mind that Tim tended to be a bit flaky and Tim didn’t mind that Danny was possibly not 100% human. They didn’t ask each other too many questions about that stuff. They knew the other had something odd about him and that was fine with them. It was nice to have a causal friend they could be normal with, without being questioned about their more peculiar behaviors.

They officially became best friends when the built a Rube Goldberg machine with a working trebuchet within an hour of the three they had to complete it for their Applied Phys-Mech final. Danny introduced Tim to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. Tim introduced him to Steph, Tam, and Cass. They texted and hung out fairly often. They truly did consider each other one their best friends.

Danny Fenton is 22 when he meets Tim’s family.

Tim’s 21st birthday is coming up and he has plans with his family the day of and is going out with his friends, including a couple from out of town, that night. They want to take him out for his first drink and it’s fortunate timing since it’s the weekend so nobody has to worry about classes. Everyone who was going was already informed that Tim would be spending most of the day with his family before Steph and Cass would bring to the club everyone was meeting up at. Which is why it’s purely a coincidence when he runs into them at BatBurger during the lunch rush.

Danny had just picked up the part-time job to earn a little extra cash to pay for his hobbies. Tim new about it but didn’t know the exact location he worked. That’s why they were both presently surprised when they heard each others voices in the drive through. When they pulled up to window Danny saw his friend leaning over a tired looking black-haired man, trying to stick his head out of the drivers window to give Danny a maniacal grin.

He quickly introduced the other passengers of the car as his dad, Bruce, and three of his brothers Dick, Jason, and Duke. He mentioned he had a fourth brother, Damian, who was still at home. Danny couldn’t really see everyone all that well on account of they were inside a car but he happily greeted them as well. They laughed and Danny wished Tim a happy birthday saying he’d see him at his celebration later tonight before handing them their food. He could the rowdy boys ribbing their brother as the car drove away and Danny resumed his work.

That incident seemed to have opened a gate because now Tim felt more comfortable inviting him over when his brothers were still around the house. He occasionally talked about his family more and Danny returned the favor letting snippets of his own family spill a little more. Occasionally, he’d see Tim’s family outside of his interactions with Tim.

He’d run into Damian, and sometimes Bruce or Dick was with him, at the museum or in the park while the younger had been walking his dog and stopped to say hi a couple of times. He chatted with Dick a couple of times when they were both in line to get coffee at a cafe. He saw Duke on a college tour once and waved at him.

The family member he probably saw the most other that Tim (and by extension Cass) was actually Jason. He’d ended up ditching BatBurger to get some more practical experience at an apprenticeship at the auto shop Jason went to to get his motorcycle serviced. The two of them got along pretty well and would often make conversation when Jason was waiting on his bike to be ready or to get his bill.

At first is was small talk about little things like how he and Tim were doing in class or how their days were going but they soon grew to have genuine interests in each other. Jason let Danny talk about space and mechanics and even gave his own thoughts sometimes, once helping Danny realize he was over complicating the circuit board of the device he was building. In return Danny let Jason ramble to him about literature, even taking the initiative to read a book Jason mentioned so he could talk to him about it better. Their conversation tended to be on the briefer side but were always enjoyable to both parties.

Danny actually liked being around Jason a lot but didn’t really bring that fact up a lot around Tim as it didn’t seem necessary. Tim was pretty glad that Danny got along with his family but he preferred to keep them in separate places in his mind. Danny knew and respected that, only really mentioning that he’d seen them recently and that they’d told him to say hi on their behalf (or die in Damian’s case occasionally).

Tim Drake was 22 when he came to a horrific realization.

Well, perhaps horrific was a bit of an exaggeration. Tim wasn’t necessarily horrified by the revelation. In all honesty he didn’t know how to feel. He felt an odd mixture of protectiveness, possessiveness, confusion, and optimism(?).

You see, Tim and Danny had been hanging out in the campus center, studying and goofing off when he got a text from Jason saying he was coming to pick him up for family dinner at the manor since he was closest and Dick was busy picking up Duke and Damian from their after school clubs.

“What’s up?” Danny asked him curiously.

Tim set his phone on the table and started putting his stuff away. “My brother is coming to pick me up for family dinner so I gotta head out soon.”

“Ah well I should probably get going too. Tell Dick I said hi.”

“Actually, it’s Jason. Dick is picking up Duke and Damian,” he said shoving his textbook into his bag.

“Oh? That’s nice of him. Hey do you wanna just head out together?” Danny asked, fidgeting with his hoodie strings.

Tim noticed a slight strain in Danny’s voice at the mention of Jason but didn’t comment. He just nodded his head sure and walked outside with Danny. They got out to the street when Tim realized he’d left his phone in the library. He faced palmed and asked Danny if he could hold his stuff so it wouldn’t slow him down as he ran back to the campus center to get his phone. Danny agreed to and hold his stuff and wait for Jason while Tim went back.

After getting his phone Tim started heading back to where he left Danny when he saw that Jason had arrived that Jason had arrived and was talking to Danny. He was about to call out to them when he noticed several things in quick succession. Danny was fidgeting with his hoodie, something he tended to do when nervous. The tips of Danny’s ears were a light shade of pink (it isn’t cold out yet?). Danny looked deeply absorbed in his conversation with Jason in a way that reminded Tim of how he talked about space. And Jason seemed just as absorbed in the conversation as well.

The gears in Tim’s head went into overdrive and he realized ‘Ah- Danny has a crush on Jason’. His eyes widened as his head whipped around to examine Jason again. He saw a look of genuine fondness in his eyes. Thus Tim was confronted with the aforementioned horrific realization and complicated feelings. Tim didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or both.

‘My dumbass best friend has a crush on my brother. And worse(?), my idiot brother returns those feelings.’

#dc x dp #long post #dead on main #danny fenton #tim drake #jason todd #jason todd x danny fenton #danny and tim are bffs #Danny has a crush on his best friends older brother #he hasn’t realized this quite yet #Tim isn’t sure how to feel about this #Jason probably likes Danny too but also doesn’t realize it #Tim is the only one who is aware and suffering #he has to make a choice:#wingman his idiot friend and idiot brother #or hoard his friend to himself #Strega’s dc x dp prompt

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im-only-here-for-the-fandom · 9 months

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DPxDC : The Phantom ARG

I have been watching a lot of ARG’s and conspiracy theory on youtube lately and decided to combine the two so here we go.

The ghosts in this au will be like Deadman, you can’t see him unless you have magic, a magic artifact, or highly contaminated by ectoplasm. meaning only danny and his friends Sam and Tucker who were near the portal when it activated can see the ghosts in this au, they are invisible to everyone else in Amity Park.

In the beginning, after his accident Danny believed that he was merely hallucinating the small ghost blobs and ghost animals that initially made it through the portal thinking it was only an after effect from getting an extreme shock, and it isn’t until the first ‘incident’ the mystery meat that attacked the shool cafeteria that he realizes that what he is seeing is real.

So like any self respecting teen he tells his best friends Sam and Tucker. They both reveal that they too have been seeing strange things since the accident although not as clearly as Danny, they could still see them like watching youtube in 240p. They gather after the mystery meat incident, which they have named INCIDENT-1 or IN-1 for short as they later name it, in Danny’s room afterwards to discuss what happened. They find out that other than the three of them no one seemed to see the floating lunch lady or even head her when she talked , they only reacted after the meat started gathering and taking the shape of a monster.

Sam says that they should document what they see and what is happening in amity park and the boys agree with her. Danny become the main cameraman and investigator being the only one strong enough to get close without major injury or harm and also being able to see, hear, and feel the ghosts clearest. Sam is the main documenter and researcher she’s the one that writes down their findings and goes over the videos they have to discover new findings to note down. Tucker is the main hacker and editor he hacker the cameras in the streets and school to get footage and other information that might be needed while also making sure that they can’t be tracked. Despite having their main area of expertise they all pitch in to help each other.

While documenting they start figuring out a few key details about documenting ghosts. 1 being that unless you are using an ecto-camera the less technologically adavanced the devices you use are the better results you get. 2 the stronger the ghost is the more visible they are, the stronger they are the more dangerous they are ( danny in ghost form is by far the most visible on camera, and in real life extremely clear to his friends). and finally 3 as time goes on certain objects/ places around town have started to become strange or gain peculiar features.

Jazz ,still not believing in ghosts because they are not visible ,becomes suspicious of what the Trio are doing, so they lie to her and tell her that they are making a sort of anolog horror based on their town to cope with the stress of the recent events happening.

realizing that ‘hey this actually a really nice way to destress from our problems’ and with that one lie that they told jazz the Trio became fully committed to making a full on ARG , with hidden messages, pictures and code. so with Tucker’s coding and editing skills and knowledge of ciphers and wordplay, Sam’s organizing skills and eye for hints and details, and Danny’s obsession with stars and everything space and his way with emotions, along the very much real ghosts and they were all set to make the best ARG.

They named it THE PHANTOM ARG, finishing up the last details they finally post their first video on youtube titled ‘IN-1 : Mystery Meat’. Later on once they get the hang of it they post about ‘how to deal with the ghosts’ ‘evacuation procedures’ ‘cooking with ectoplasm’ and artwork depicting the ghosts and short presentations explaining their characteristics. They even make a fully functional website thats called ‘welcom to Amity Park’ where there are hidden messages, codes and information.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In Gotham

Bernard Dowd is watching youtube when a video thumbnail catches his eye, it looks like a strange meat monster, he was intrigued. having nothing better to do, he decides to watch it. he looks at what the chanel is about and is instantly hooked, theory’s are exploding from his mind.

he can’t wait to tell Tim about this he would absolutely love this type of mystery solving.

random ideas for this au

The GIW are a big thing in this au, they can’t take down what the trio are posting because Tucker is a hacking god.

Danny is only called to as phantom when he is a ghost never as a human ( because of this no one knows that danny is a halfa)

the trio could go by code names, polaris(danny),pharaoh(tucker),gaia(sam). or any other name you think is sutable.

all codes, ciphers, and hints are based on either science and technology(tucker), plants and animals(sam), or space and ghosts(danny).

the ghost portal accident and opening is unkown to the public and is only referd to as the Accident and people are never told what this accident is only ‘since the accident’ or ‘after the accident’.

there is an extremely hidden video that requires you to solve an impossible amount of hints and clues, that is of the portal opening. it’s called IN-0:The Accident.

(the video shows two people a man and a woman jack and maddie in hazmat suits standing in front a large metal tunnel, two kids jazz and danny siting in front of them, the scientists plug the machine but it fails, they disappointedly leave,*fast foward*, three kids, the trio are standing in front of the portal, they talk, danny puts on a hazmat and walks into the tunnel, it whirls on, the doors shut, the video glitchs as the sound of the machine starting up get louder, the screen turns black but the sound of danny screaming are loud and clear, the screaming goes on for a few minutes before suddenly cutting off, the screan clears up but its still a bit glitchy, the portal is open swirling green with sam and tucker standing in front of it, danny is nowhere to be seen)

danny may or may not be ghost king

This is my attempt at drawing the LUNCH LADY.

DANGER: ⭐️⭐️

( rating may change)

please add, use, change as much as you like. i’d love to see what you come up with and how this idea could expand.

just make sure to tag me or tag it as The Phantom ARG.

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flamingpudding · 9 months

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Gaming Pal Prompt

A/N: Random Idea that was stuck in my head after reading about a Pen Pal Prompt

It all started with a simple accidentally created open lobby. Sam, Tucker and Danny were just playing Doom in a four person Lobby that was supposed to be passcode locked and private so that it was only the three of them playing. But one of them must have forgotten to lock it as suddenly a random player joined them as well as the in-game voice chat they were using.

"Sup. Mind if I join the game? My last lobby kicked me."

"Why? Too good or too bad?"

Tucker shot back, not minding the new player. The three would just have to watch what they talk about during game time.

"Don't know. I think they thought I cheated."

"Pff, sore losers. Maybe you can help these losers kick ass."

"Oh shut it Sam, we will wipe the floor with you now!"

"A challenge huh? That sounds interesting. I am Tim by the way."

"Sam."

"Tucker."

"Danny."

The friend request was sent after the game in which Tim did help Tucker and Danny beat Sam. Only for Sam to demand a rematch to regain her victory streak. From then on the random player regularity started joining in on their games whenever he happened to be online at the same time.

Of course the trio filtered their talks over voice chat. Making sure they wouldn't let anything atrocious slip. Though they did have some fun telling a non Amity Parker about the shit that goes down in their town and Tim always appeared interested to hear more about the things going on. Always curious and full of follow up questions, that strangely focus on who the attackers were ( always ghosts really they don't have any other rogues aside from maybe the fruitloop) and other times very much focused on their local ghost hero Phantom. He was also strangely interested in the whole GIW situation and sounded rather confused when they mentioned the Anti-Ecto Acts.

Aside from that Tim practically became a part of their little group. Their online Gamer Pal who knew nearly as much about their rogues and local Hero (thanks to all the questions he asked) like they did. A full fledged Team Phantom member who just didn't know the main secret of Danny actually doing the Ghost fighting as Phantom and being the one getting hunted by his own Parents and the GIW.

So of course the day came where Sam, Tucker and Danny forget to filter their words. It was during one particularly exhausting day when Danny had only had like 4 hours of sleep because he had studied all night for an English Test and then Skulker appeared to hunt Phantom and Danny's parents showed up too, making souping the Hunter Ghost especially difficult.

"Ancients, Skulker just had to decide on hunting you today, didn't he Danny?"

"Don't remind me. He is still souped in the thermos, but dodging Mom was harder with so little sleep."

"Should you like take a nap then man?"

"Nah I am fine for gaming night."

"Hey Danny, you did escape the blasters unscratched right? Your mom is the better shot after all."

"Nearly. Mom landed a couple of hits but it's almost healed already, just some small burn marks left."

"I am sorry, WHAT?! Did you guys just say that Skulker, the one that's hunting Phantom for sports, was hunting Danny. Danny was the one to Soup him not Phantom and Danny's Mom shot and hurt her own son with one of these ecto-blasters?!"

#danny fenton #danny phantom #tim drake #sam manson #tucker foley #dp x dc #dc x dp #crossover #Tim becomes the trios gaming pal #Tim has a lot of questions #Sam Tucker and Danny don't mind him gaming with them #They forget he isn't only a gaming pal at some point #They also forget he is in the voice chat one day #Tim was already worried about Amity before #now he got more to investigate there #should he clue in the bat fam?#dpxdc #dcxdp #prompt idea

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frostbytemyrik · 4 months

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Danny Phantom Required* Watching

*It isn't actually required. I know there are a ton of phans who have never even seen a single episode of the show, but it's a fun watch and I would recommend at least catching some.

Sorting the episodes into colors (with the first letter in parenthesis by the title for those who might be too colorblind to tell). Note that this is all just my objective opinion, and everyone is free to leave their own thoughts on this!

Green (G) - Introduction of an important character or major plot development, such as a new power for Danny or another major shift in the status quo. If you can only watch a few of the episodes, watch these.

Pink (P) - Introduction of a side character or minor plot development.

Red (R) - Introduction of a new character worth mentioning or other general status quo change, but the episode is generally considered to be...not great by most people. (But hey, nothing wrong with liking these episodes!) They'll be summarized at the bottom of each episode description for those who can't be bothered to watch them.

Blue (B) - Nothing important happens to the overall plot, but it's a fun episode that fleshes out the characters.

Season 1

Episode 1: Mystery Meat (R) - Establishes the show and its main characters: Danny, Sam, and Tucker, as well as a lot of other important characters such as the Fenton parents and Jazz, and minor recurring characters like Dash and the Lunch Lady. The writers are still getting their footing so the main trio is unfortunately among the flattest they get here.

Episode 2: Parental Bonding (P) - Introduction of Paulina and Dora, first look at Valerie, and most importantly, Danny's power to overshadow people. Fun episode in general, Tucker makes a weird comment at the start but this is one of Sam's absolute best episodes as a character. (Tucker and Sam actually getting to be fun characters instead of just "butt-monkey comic relief" and "selfish asshole" is rarer than I'd like, so I always like pointing out the episodes where they get some love.)

Episode 3: One of a Kind (G) - Introduction of Skulker, a recurring major antagonist, and his motivations.

Episode 4: Attack of the Killer Garage Sale (P) - Introduction of Technus, Ghost Master of Technology and Destroyer of Worlds, Manipulator of Machines, Lord of all Gadgetry, Wizard of Integrated Circuitry, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping.

Episode 6: What You Want (P) - First appearance of Danny's Ghost Ray and introduction to Desiree and the Ghost Catcher (a Fenton device with an unfortunately rather...culturally insensitive name and design), explores Tucker and his relationship to Danny. I went back and forth between making this green and pink because I'm biased in my love for this episode, but it isn't necessary to comprehend later episodes. (If you can watch it, though, it's a lot of fun as we get to see how close Danny and Tucker are and how Tucker feels about Danny's powers.)

Episode 7: Bitter Reunions (G) - Formal introduction to main series antagonist, Vlad Masters, and his relationship with the Fentons and the ghosts of the Ghost Zone. (Antisemitism tw: Vlad has hired ghost hitmen that are vultures with Yiddish accents, hooked beaks, and fezzes. They thankfully don't show up anywhere else, as far as I can remember.)

Episode 8: Prisoners of Love (P) - Introduction to the Ghost Zone itself and Walker, a side antagonist. Shows Alicia, Danny and Jazz's maternal aunt who never appears again after this episode.

Episode 9: My Brother's Keeper (G) - Gives Jazz a focus and formally makes her a major player in the plot through a certain discovery she makes. Also introduces side antagonist Dr. Penelope Spectra.

Episode 10: Shades of Gray (G) - Valerie Gray, a background character from Episode 2, gets new motivations and becomes an important part of the series going forward.

Episode 11: Fanning the Flames (P) - Ember is introduced, and she hypnotizes the entire town to fall for her with her music. To keep Danny out of her hair, she makes him fall for Sam. Whether this episode is a Pink or a Red depends on whether or not that bothers you. (Racism tw: there's a sequence towards the end of the episode that shows people around the world watching Ember, and they're all very stereotyped appearances of Japanese, Eastern European, Arabian, and Indigenous Australian people. Thanks, Hartman.)

Episode 12: Teacher of the Year (B) - A fun episode with Technus. It does have some of that early 2000s "don't underestimate me because I'm a girl" stuff, but it's still a good episode with a lot of heart.

Episode 13: Fright Night (P) - Introduces Fright Knight. A Halloween special that has its ups and downs (eating underwear?) It's just really funny that an actual ghost, who has been to the maddeningly twisted and alien world of the afterlife, still can't scare anyone to save his life.

Episode 14: 13 (P) - It's a shame this isn't actually the 13th episode. Anyway, it introduces Johnny 13 and Kitty, while Tucker and Sam get to hang out without Danny while trying to solve Tucker's new run of bad luck and the fallout for his reputation.

Episode 15: Public Enemies (G) - Walker's back and he's making a major shift in the status quo: ghosts are confirmed to exist as he stages a major invasion of the town. Things don't go well for Danny, and the repercussions will be felt for well into the series. Also introduces Wulf, a ghost who looks like a werewolf, exclusively speaks Esperanto, and has the ability to tear the fabric of reality to create portals between Earth and the Ghost Zone. He's putting this power to use for Walker, but it's clearly not by choice...

Episode 17: Maternal Instinct (B) - Maddie notices her son is growing distant from her and tries to take him to a science symposium to bond with him, but disaster strikes and leaves them in the woods, with the only shelter available being...a cabin owned and occupied by none other than Vlad. Meanwhile, Jack tries to understand Jazz, who doesn't seem to want anything to do with him or ghost hunting. Lots of great character moments for the Fentons.

Episode 18: Life Lessons (B) - Danny and Valerie, arriving late to class because they both were out ghost hunting, get paired up in home economics class to raise a flour sack baby together. We get more insight into what Valerie's life is like after Shades of Gray, and she learns to get along with both Fenton and, temporarily, Phantom, after an excursion through Skulker's part of the Ghost Zone. As a B-plot, Tucker makes money babysitting other students' flour sacks while ignoring the one he has with Sam, and Sam tries not to get attached to the sack. It's not important to the plot AT ALL but I'd put this as a must-watch if I could. Alas, I made the rules and must follow them.

Episode 19: The Million Dollar Ghost (B) - A million dollars is placed on the head of the ghost boy, Public Ghost Enemy #1: Inviso-Bill, known to us in the audience as Danny Phantom.

Episode 20: Control Freaks (G) - The circus is in town! New villain Freakshow gets introduced, and he becomes important later. Kinda. Depending on how much you like a certain blue episode that comes on down the line. The trio go to this cool new goth circus, but there's a string of ghostly robberies in town and Danny has been acting strangely lately...

Season 2

Episode 1/21: Memory Blank (R) - Danny and Sam have a fight, Sam wishes she'd never met him, Desiree makes the wish come true and now Danny has no powers and neither he nor Tucker remember her at all. Sam gets him fried by the portal again to get his powers back, but this time with a new logo she designed slapped onto his chest. Really all that happens is Danny gets his logo. This can be skipped...if you wish. ;)

Episode 2/22: Doctor's Disorders (B) - There's a bug going around - literally - getting the kids at Casper High sick. Symptoms include sneezing, chills, coughing, congestion, and various ghost powers depending on the student. The only ones immune seem to be Danny (thanks to his ghost powers) and Tucker (wearing his new homemade cologne that smells awful in a different way to everyone). A new hospital opens up to treat them, but something fishy is definitely going on. ...But Tucker is afraid of hospitals. Great Tucker episode.

Episode 3/23: Pirate Radio (P) - Introduction to Youngblood, an occasional antagonist. A new radio program pops up, and every adult in town (and Jazz, who's 16 but sees herself as an adult) is enraptured by it and the one song that it plays on loop. Then one day, every single adult in town leaves behind a note that they're going on a cruise, and it's up to Danny to rally the teens of Amity Park to discover what's so fishy about the cruise and get their parents back.

Episode 4/24-5/25: Reign Storm (G) - The creepy castle in the Ghost Zone Danny accidentally freed Fright Knight from in Fright Night holds yet another secret: the coffin of the Ghost King, known as Pariah Dark, whose goal is to rule over the Ghost Zone and the human world with an iron fist. Vlad frees him hoping to snatch the powerful artifacts on him, but it backfires and now the King is free and follows the fleeing ghosts to Amity Park, which he promptly invades. Danny, Valerie, and various enemies including Vlad need to team up to seal King Pariah back within his sarcophagus and save both Amity Park and the Ghost Zone as a whole. Major status quo shifts happen here.

Episode 6/26: Identity Crisis (B) - Not my favorite episode, but I'm including it here because it was popular with the Phandom a decade ago. Danny gets tired of trying to balance his human and ghost lives, so splits himself in two using the Ghost Catcher that was introduced in Season 1 episode 6: What You Want. That also, unfortunately, divides his personality to two extremes; the human half ("Fun Danny") is lazy while the ghost half ("Super Danny") is an absolute ham of a superhero stereotype, and Tucker and Sam struggle to put their friend back together so he can stop Technus in a way only he can (and also because both halves are honestly really annoying them).

Episode 8/28-9/29: The Ultimate Enemy (G) - This is THE episode of all time. Maybe not the best episode, but it's great in its own right and, more importantly for this list, introduces another major status quo shift. It's also basically required viewing for the comic that came out last year (at time of writing), as that comic is a direct follow-up to this episode. Clockwork, a ghost that is essentially a deity of time, has a mission to eliminate the greatest threat to Earth and the Ghost Zone that has ever been before he comes into that role: a ghost named Danny Phantom. Danny comes face-to-face with a version of himself that caused a doomed future, and needs to fight to ensure that future never comes to pass.

Episode 10/30: The Fright Before Christmas (B) - The boy Danny Fenton, a Grinch to his core, finds the holiday season to be quite a chore. Into the Ghost Zone to blow off some steam, he accidentally causes a scene: the Ghost Writer's finished manuscript in ashes, and with Danny's indifference he clashes. He traps him in a book that warps space and time, and forces all events in his life to rhyme. You're in for a treat if you like all these rhymes, but if they annoy you, then don't waste your time. (This factoid may not matter to you, but this is where we learn of the Christmas Truce!)

Episode 11/31: Secret Weapons (R) - Jazz is overbearing, Danny doesn't like it, so Jazz decides to go to Vlad. The episode's latter half isn't bad, but it's R because Jazz's constant invasions of Danny's privacy and the repetitive thermos jokes grate on me. If you plan to skip, the thing that makes it a red episode is this: Vlad learns that Jazz is in-the-know.

Episode 12/32: Flirting With Disaster (G) - A lot of the more plot-relevant episodes in season 2 (and one in season 1) have been building romantic tension between Danny and Valerie, and here's where it comes to a head: they actually start dating! However, after some jealous stalking thorough investigating, Sam finds that there's someone pulling the strings, and manipulating their real feelings for each other to pull them together and get them out of the way... Valerie especially undergoes a lot of major character moments, and we learn a lot more about her as a person. One of my personal favorite episodes (and I don't just say that because I'm a Danny/Valerie truther) (the "engraved" ring and Sam being a stalker about it aren't great, but honestly I just try to ignore those parts. Yes, I know I'm biased).

Episode 17/37: Kindred Spirits (G) - While Danny's busy being an asshole to his friends leaving Sam and Tucker to take the blame for property damages during his fights, he finds a strange girl named Danielle (or "Dani") who claims to be his cousin and shares an eerie resemblance with him. The similarities go more than skin deep, as she quickly reveals that she's ALSO half ghost. Tucker and Sam warn Danny that there's something suspicious about the whole ordeal (in between being left behind to be blamed for collateral damage more times than I'm bothered to count right now), but when Danny winds up in trouble anyway, they still skip detention (that he got them in) to save him before it's too late. Danny's a dick, but despite that, it's still a good episode and we get introduced to Dani before her next appearance.

Episode 19/39-20/40: Reality Trip (B) - Freakshow gets the Reality Gauntlet: an off-brand Infinity Gauntlet that can warp reality to anything he desires. He gets Danny's secret revealed to the world, causing the government agency the Guys In White (from Million Dollar Ghost in season 1) to relentlessly pursue him. Luckily, thanks to knowledge Sam gained from a book on the gauntlet, the main trio manages to warp the gems to different parts of the United States, severely limiting Freakshow's power. Unluckily, Freakshow retaliates by kidnapping their parents and Jazz, forcing the three to go on a cross-country road trip to get the gems back to Freakshow and save their families while evading the law. No permanent shifts of the status quo, but one of my personal favorite episodes. It's a fun ride!

Season 3

Episode 1/41: Eye for an Eye (R) - A prank war between Danny and Vlad ends in Vlad becoming mayor and passing a lot of horrible laws specifically to spite Danny. The laws are undone by the end of the episode, but Vlad stays mayor.

Episode 2/42: Infinite Realms (R) - In trying to map out the Ghost Zone, the main trio end up meeting Frostbite: leader of a realm in the Zone known as the Far Frozen, filled with spirits that take the form of peaceful, yeti-like monster folk who revere Danny as the chosen one who defeated Pariah Dark. Frostbite is also keeper of the Infi-Map: a map that can take the user anywhere in the Ghost Zone. Now for the bad news: Vlad is here, he wants world domination now for some reason, and he wants the map to help him do it. Vlad steals the map, the trio needs to get it back. It's not the worst episode, but Vlad's villain decay is...tragic. Tl;dr: Frostbite is the leader of a tribe of friendly yeti spirits and keeps the Infi-Map, which can take the user to any point in the ghost zone.

Episode 5/45: Forever Phantom (B) - One of the only actually fun filler episodes in season 3. Introduces us to Amorpho: a ghost with the power to shapeshift into anything and anyone, who uses their power to cause mayhem for attention. They bite off more than they can chew when they impersonate Danny Phantom, however, and a Fenton device gone awry locks both Amorpho and Danny into the form of Danny Phantom. Wacky hijinks abound.

Episode 6/46: Urban Jungle (G) - Haha green. Like plants. Anyway, Danny has been cold lately. No matter what he does or where he is, he's consistently freezing. It gets worse: while Danny's in this weakened state, a giant plant ghost named Undergrowth takes over Amity Park and possesses Sam. Unable to fight the constantly-regenerating Undergrowth or to keep himself from freezing, he flees into the Ghost Zone to seek Frostbite's aid.

Episode 9/49: Frightmare (B) - Danny wakes up one night to learn, to his horror, that Nocturne, the ghost of dreams, has put all of Amity Park into a deep sleep to feed on their energy. He enters the dreams of his friends to wake them and get their help taking Nocturne down. A good episode for people who ship Danny/Sam, and a GREAT episode for people like me who like to pretend that all the episodes I left off the season 3 list were just bad dreams.

Episode 10/50: Claw of the Wild (B) - The students of Casper High are ending summer with a camping trip in a foggy forest. All seems normal until, one by one, campers go missing. Danny, Tucker, and Sam go investigating and find their ally Wulf, who seems to know something about the disappearances...

Episode 11/51: D-Stabilized (G) - Regarded by most as the final good episode of Danny Phantom. Dani had been on her own in the world since we last left her, but over time, her form has been getting unstable, causing her to be slowly melting into a puddle of ectoplasm. She tries returning to Amity Park to get help, but is now being hunted down by Valerie, who Vlad commissioned so he could melt Dani down and study her remains to make a superior clone. (Valerie thinks he's just going to keep her contained for the safety of Amity Park; she isn't informed of the cloning.) Valerie turns Dani in to Vlad, but Danny manages to form a shaky alliance with Valerie to get Dani back, since Valerie knows that Dani is half human.

Episode 12/52-13:53: Phantom Planet (R) - The only reason this is here is because the comic continues from where this episode left off. If it didn't, I'd suggest ignoring it entirely. Rapid-fire summary: an asteroid is about to hit Earth, Vlad reveals himself to the world and demands unquestioning rule over Earth (and one trillion dollars or something) in exchange for turning the asteroid intangible. Vlad can't turn it intangible since it's made of Ectoranium, an anti-ghost substance we never hear of until now. Jack leaves Vlad in outer space. Danny gets every ghost he knows to help him turn Earth intangible, it works somehow, and Danny reveals his secret identity to the world. Statues of Danny are built all over the world, Sam and Danny start dating, and Tucker becomes mayor of Amity Park. A bunch of other stuff happens too but it's all stupid. Valerie gets thrown into a dumpster on live TV and that's her only appearance besides clapping for Danny at the end. I'm still mad. Don't watch Phantom Planet.

The Comics

Book 1: A Glitch in Time (G) - Danny's life is perfect: his secret identity is out, and the world accepts him not just as a part of it, but as its savior. His parents and former bullies fight on his side now, he's in a committed relationship with Sam, and Amity Park seems to be at peace. There's just one problem: his powers are getting weaker by the day. Unbeknownst to him, there's another problem in progress: Dan Phantom, the evil future Danny from The Ultimate Enemy, is released and fuses with Clockwork, causing present Danny and those near him to experience unstable glitches in time. Vlad returns to warn Danny of the threat of Dan, and they all team up to venture into the depths of the Ghost Zone to find a way to stop Dan and get Danny back to full strength. Meanwhile, Jazz and Valerie hold down the fort at Amity Park, holding Dan off for as long as they can while the trio and Vlad search for answers.

Book 2: To be continued in 2025!

Danny Phantom can be watched on Paramount Plus, but if you don't have a subscription, there may be DVDs at your local library! Other people may also have resources on how to watch the show, so feel free to ask around!

Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time can be found anywhere books are sold! Abrams Books Amazon Barnes and Noble Google Play Waterstones

#danny phantom #danny phantom agit #a glitch in time #dpagit

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deuynndoodles · 5 months

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[id: two hannukah themed sketches featuring the main trio from danny phantom.

in the first, the camera is outside a window, looking into a cozy living room with the fireplace roaring. several menorahs lay on the windowsill. closer to the viewer, tucker holds a shamash and waves his hand erratically; sam laughs at him. an arrow declares that he's "on fire". further down the windowsill, danny floats in phantom form, lighting his menorah with ectoplasmic fire.

in the second, sam and danny sit on the floor, playing dreidel. tucker sits in a chair, watching them, eating a sufganiyah. there's a large pile of gelt in the pot, while sam and danny only have a couple pieces. a plate of sufganiyot and latkes sits next to danny. sam grins, ג (gimel) announcing her as the winner. danny looks at her, deadpan. end id]

happy hannukah!

#doodles #dp #danny phantom #sam manson #danny fenton #tucker foley #eight ecto nights #eight ecto nights 2023 #i tried to combine as many prompts as possible bc i knew i wouldnt finish it all!#w 1 theres: fire laughter community and light #w 2 theres fried foods and games #dw sam will put him out once shes done laughing at him #casual warning that im a gentile and if i fucked up anything it was an honest mistake #dates are 12/13/23 and 12/12/23 respectively #feel iffy bout these but i dont wanna drive myself crazy so here u go #note: i did get directions confused and they are lighting the menorahs incorrectly! do not use this as an example

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melodiesofmidnight · 2 months

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Phantom of the Opera Audio Gift:

West End revival, 5 February, 2024, 1930 performance.

Main Trio: Jon Robyns (Phantom), Lily Kerhoas (Christine), Joe Griffiths-Brown (Raoul).

PART 1. PART 2.

#phantom of the opera #poto #phantom london #phantom west end #audio gift #jon robyns #lily kerhoas #joe griffiths brown

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prince-kallisto · 8 months

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Ramshackle Gravestones

Ramshackle Dorm has a fascinating connection to ghosts and the undead: from the haunted mansion look, three ghosts, and two gravestones…wait, gravestones? I just recently discovered the two gravestones at Ramshackle Dorm- I’m the type of person who misses obvious details like that haha. I heard other people say that maybe it was a Halloween decor choice, or something made by the ghosts to scare people off. After all, there’s a shovel right in front of the Ramshackle gates.

But look at Ramshackle dorm when it turns into the “Dazzingly Dapper dorm.” All renovated and shiny- the gate and stairways are all replaced with more elegant designs. However, the two gravestones still remain, are REPLACED with new stones, are given a more formal and respectful placing. The gravestones even have a separate path leading to them. And as we know, Ramshackle was under renovation for quite some time after Book 6 shenanigans, and Vil was definitely part of the designing process.

So why give such a prominent spot to *fake* gravestones? I personally think that these gravestones are the real deal. But not only because of this evidence, but because Ramshackle attracts the undead. Think of the three ghosts and Eliza from the Phantom Bride event- there must be an underlying reason that the dead are attracted to Ramshackle. But that’s where the bigger question lies: Who did these graves belong to?

Of course, that would be nearly impossible to deduct. There’s likely a whole slew of characters we haven’t been introduced to yet, especially now that we’re beginning to learn about Fae backstories. But I want to debate as many possible options to hopefully spark some ideas ^_^ Spoiler alert: none of these options feel convincing enough, but I think there’s a reason for that (more on that later)

-The Ghost trio: The immediate answer would be these guys, but why have only two gravestones instead of three, especially since the gravestones were replaced? I talked A LOT more about the ghost trio in my previous theory post, but all three died in their old age, none of them died as students.

-Eliza: Nope. Haha a little harsh, but she just didn’t meet any of the criteria for this one

-Portraits: In Ramshackle dorm, there are portraits of a woman, but I’m still not convinced that she has any relevancy other than just being a reference.

-Past NRC students: This seems like a possibility AT FIRST, but now we have to confront the main problem with these gravestones.

Look at the shovel, the haphazard placements of the gravestones, the unkempt the yard. Hell, just consider the fact that Ramshackle is ABANDONED. If it were past students, or meant to be a memorial for ANYBODY, why give them such disrespect? If a student ever died due to an Overblot tragedy or any other incident, there’s no way their graves would have become this disregarded- it’s highly unlikely that student bodies (no pun intended) would be buried on school ground in the first place!

Hm. Back to square one- or so I thought. Looking at both gravestones again, they seem to be unmarked. It would’ve been very easy to draw in a few squiggles or lines. If they’re not meant to be read, so be it, but why leave the graves unmarked?

After all, as we can see from the Halloween events, or even just the statues of the Great Seven, the graves are MARKED, despite being event background props

Graves were (and are left) unmarked throughout history for various reasons: Too many victims of disease, too poor to afford a proper memorial, or suggest that the person burying ISN’T worthy or memorial and respect.

Interesting 👀 We may be making some progress with that last point- and it may be the reason why Ramshackle was abandoned. Again, I talked more about it in my previous theory post, but the ghosts were definitely not the reason why Ramshackle was abandoned. If anything, it was a coverup for something big. After all, at least a hundred student have had to have been displaced, and new rituals would have been required.

Thinking more about the shovel and the crooked gravestones is interesting. It’s almost like the placement of these gravestones were rushed. And with Ramshackle being abandoned, no one would have to think about these gravestones. I feel confident that the graves were placed after the abandonment of Ramshackle dorm, because although the dorm has a very haunted look to it, it must have been completely different in its prime. No dorm would have a shovel lying in front of the gates!

Still, it’s bothering me that these gravestones were made on school grounds in the first place- unless the graves were related to someone from the school. Someone who wasn’t worth remembering- or perhaps their identity is kept secret for another reason entirely.

But there’s even more things that are bothering me. Let’s look at the graves once more: They’re different sizes. The one of the left is larger, the one of the right is smaller. And even with these renovations, the different sizes remain the same.

Is it perhaps implying that the one of the left was older, and the one of the right was younger? Like a child and an adult?

(*heaves in Revan/Crowley theories because what if it represents Mallenoa and Malleus because notice how the long is RIGHT NEXT TO THE GRAVESTONES in the Halloween event*)

Anyway, I still can’t think of the two possible victims, and they likely are people we haven’t met yet in the main game or are involved with the fall of Ramshackle. But I have one last desperate suggestion: What if the gravestones represent two people that haven’t died…yet? If the time loop theory is relevant, what if two key characters ended up dying from the monster in the prologue?

Edit: A comment or mentioned what if the gravestones were for MC and Grim 👀 the different sizing of the gravestones would make so much sense

AS USUAL I have no clue 🤩 At the moment, so much is kept in the dark, and literally all I can do is speculate and obsessively analyze everything. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about Ramshackle with these posts, even if we technically aren’t any closer to discovering the truth 🤣 I’d love to hear any suggestions and ideas, because I’m so lost haha

#twst #twst theory #twst ramshackle #twst ghosts #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland theory #twst book 7 spoilers #ramshackle dorm #KallistoPost

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operafantomet · 2 months

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SO TOTALLY NOT A REVIEW

POTO MADRID, Friday 16 February 2024

PHANTOM: Gerónimo Rauch / Manu Pilas (alt.)

CHRISTINE: Talía del Val / Judith Tobella (alt.)

RAOUL: Guido Balzaretti

CARLOTTA: Marta Pineda

FIRMIN: Omar Calicchio

ANDRÉ: Enrique R. del Portal

MADAME GIRY: Silvia Luchetti

MEG GIRY: Laura Martin / Marina Brisa (u/s)

PIANGI: Francisco Ortiz

This production is basically a love-letter to Phantom history. There are many clever moments, small hints of Phantom history, and in general just a very Phantom-y atmosphere and look. It’s just that sometimes it goes a bit overboard with effects, references and/or tempo, to the point where I feel it takes focus away from the leads and the main story. I get the vibe, I get the love, nut just take it down a notch?

Lots of spoilers ahead, stop reading If you don’t want details.

Examples, you ask? It’s really just the total, the sum of it all, rather than singular moments. Take the Phantom and all effects surrounding him. In “Little Lotte” there’s blinking lamps and ambience sound and gruntle, it almost feels like I’m watching the basement furnace in “Home Alone”. In the Il Muto ballet he swings across stage twice, while the third time it happens it’s the body of dead Buquet. But swinging in ropes has a high level of Tarzan and is hard to take seriously. For the chandelier crash the Phantom jumps on the chandelier, cuts its rope (?) with what looks like a butter knife (?) and it crashes with “flames” and smoke and a loud bang with fake screams on tape. In the Mausoleum scene he is equipped with large black wings and flies up into the air, creating a massive thunderstorm. In the end it gets hard for the audience to trust that the actor himself is enough, as all these tricks and effects and mumbo jumbo gets in the way.

The only new trick I feel adds to the role instead of distracting from it is Red Death’s disappearance. He appears in a red hooded cloak, sings his lines, turns his back to the audience and when the others on stage approach to rip off his cloak there is no-one there. THIS. This adds to the mystique. This is the Phantom in charge, without explosions and sounds and light and props.

Anyhow… I enjoyed so many sides of this production. Let me try and mention some of the things I noticed along the way. (Note: Photos is a mix of Trieste, Monte Carlo and Madrid, but if the performers are in focus I have tried to choose Madrid photos)

AUCTION/OVERTURE Before the show there is some 15 minutes of “spooky” ambience sound and dripping water, dungeon style. The show starts with a huge shatter/bang, to tell the audience it’s starting. Message received.

The auction set-up is fairy traditional, with auctioneer to the left, chandelier in the middle, and bidders sitting with their backs to the audience. Raoul is not in a wheelchair, instead he is sitting in the back, to the right (I. E. nearest the audience), with a nurse (?) by his side. The auctioneer is super rushed, while the bidders clap very slowly, original Phantom style. For the monkey musical box, Raoul calls over the porter who is dressed in a red 18th century livre, and who kneels in front of him. Raoul turns to him and thus the audience. First glimpse of Guido Balzaretti in the role. He is good.

Lot 666 etc… All exactly as assumed up until they pull off the drapes and the Overture starts.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is something else indeed. The cast starts to… uhm, how to explain this… re-enact the first act in slow motion, backwards? The Il Muto fop trio “runs” in, backwards, in slow motion, they bend to not get hit by the chandelier, still slow motion, then taking a bow, still slow motion. And so forth. What is shown here is history as it happened but reversed. It continues with other glimpses of the first act, other characters, leading up to Carlotta as Elissa. Cue: Hannibal.

Now… The idea? Cool. Interesting. Well executed. Time is literally rewinded before our eyes. Yet:

I feel you have to know the musical and the first act to get what’s happening. A moment of “this production is a love-letter to POTO”, a bit wink-wink-nudge-nudge.

It doesn’t really make sense. What they show us is the fops almost being hit by the chandelier as It comes crashing downwards. What we see in the actual crash is the Phantom riding the chandelier as it is pulled backwards and flung towards the audience. Plus, there is a knife, there is “flames” and smoke, and no other people in sight. Sorry, but you have to settle for one of the crashes…

However: original? I will certainly give them that.

Also, props for introducing what is usually my pet peeve and hate object number one: The Eiffel Tower. Thing is, this opera appears to have burned down (2004 movie style, more about that later) and through the ruined ceiling the Eiffel Tower can be seen. I don’t oppose this as the auction scene is set long after then main story and the tower would have been built by then. My annoyance with productions automatically adding it to underline that THIS IS PARIS is because the tower would (depending on when they set the main story) not have been built. But in the auction scene? Yes.

(Auction photo from Trieste)

HANNIBAL Whereas Marta Pineda as Carlotta possesses a grand voice, I am no fan of how she portrays Carlotta as a performer. I assume it is in the directing. In the mock operas she goes for massive overacting, mainly one specific hand pose and a hammering voice. In scenes like Prima Donna you can tell she is able to sing gorgeously and act well, hence why I assume it is in the directing. Carlotta as a performer in this production is one where I understand the Phantom’s dislike… Just way too much, too annoying, it really makes you wonder how this specific soprano came to be the wonder of Paris.

(Francisco Ortez and Marta Pineda in Hannibal)

They make a point of not showing Reyer. I will come back to why later. In Hannibal he is in the prompter’s box, with a slightly distorted sound to his voice and which Firmin at one point imitates. Heh.

The ballerinas did a sort of shawl dance in Hannibal which suite the music well, and Christine and Meg were also nicely singled out.

Instead of an elephant there is a portechaise, a litter, a sedan chair, whatever it’s called. Now... the people carrying this on stage wears the same uniform as the porters in the auction scene. If the opera burned down and the auction is many years later, why would they…?

(Hannibal photo from Trieste)

Also, the sedan chair gets a bit too much attention, with them struggling to get it out on stage, Piangi struggling to get on it, and when he finally does for the end pose the bottom breaks. This, combined with a constant rush in pace means there was never any applause after Hannibal. Unusual.

The turning set had me wondering. It looks wonderful within the structure (see photo above), and it's also always how it is photographed. But in use it means a large part of the stage is not used. Admittedly it was more noticeable sitting in the upper balconies than in the stalls, but especially the first 7 or so meters on stage was all bare. This is rarely shown in official photos, so it took me some time to understand what I was looking at. At first I wondered why the set was not placed further out, but I quickly realized that it needs that position to be able to turn. I wonder if a slightly shorter and/or more square set would fill the stage in a smarter manner? Not sure. Here's the view from the balconies:

The falling backdrop in Hannibal was so well done. It almost came a surprise to me, who knows the show by heart. A mixture of well timed sight and sound and a lot of ropes.

And now for Christine Daaé… For the first performance I saw principal Talía del Val, and for the second performance I saw alternate Judith Tobella. Their overall appearance on stage felt fairly similar in terms of height, build, and wig. Voice wise they are both also bell-voiced sopranos with an operatic touch. But I felt Talía maybe added more nuances to her singing, varying volume and intensity whereas Judith was more consistently bell-voiced? This came to view in TOM, where Talía did one of the biggest transitions I have seen, from whispering the notes and just going mute to full-volume operatic diva. Fantastic. Judith showed less of a transformation but possesses a gorgeous and light voice and is just as radiant. Both of them are so good in the role.

(Guido Balzaretti, Omar Calicchio, Enrique R. del Portal and Talía del Val in Think of Me)

Elements of TOM was also a bit rushed. For the quick-change, a bar of the instrumentals was cut, and the cadenza at the end was short and effective. Why the rush? I don’t know. But the Elissa costume was nice, a turquoise and golden confectionary with nice amount of drapes and sparke, and a nice match to Christine’s honey coloured wig. It was also very visible when the set took a full turn during Raoul’s lines in TOM.

ANGEL OF MUSIC / LITTLE LOTTE As a tiny surprise I got two different Megs – principal Laura Martín for the first show, and u/s Marina Brisa for the second. Their portrayal differed slightly. Laura’s Meg was super affectionate towards Christine, hugging, touching, caring, supporting. Martina was maybe more inquisitive and more of a narrator of the show in a way. She told the audience a lot of the action and mood in the Managers scene just with her facial expressions. But both had fantastic voices.

In Angel of Music the turnable set was placed diagonally, with the end towards the right side of the stage and featuring a large mirror and dressing room table. Now… the diagonally placed set leaves little room for the cast. For this specific scene it did however work, and it was moody with a dark stage and chandelier visible in the shadows.

Nothing radically new in Little Lotte, apart from the already described blinking lamps, ambience sound and gruntle when the Phantom reacts to Raoul’s presence. So moving on to…

MIRROR SCENE First sound of the two Phantoms. Principal Gerónimo Rauch went for a slightly twangy sound rather than booming, I am not quite sure why. Alternate Manu Pilas was all boom. I do prefer the latter, just because it sets a standard and mood for the rest of the show. Christine interestingly entered the mirror by stepping on her dressing room chair and then the table. Heh. Also cool from some angles in the auditorium to see the Phantom lean out of the mirror opening, fully cloaked. Moody sight!

(Ramin Karimloo and Amelia Milo in Trieste)

I could not quite make out Christine’s emotions here. It’s like she thought “gotta get out of here before Raoul returns”…, rapidly wrapped up her dressing gown and ran through the mirror.

TITLE SONG Is it allowed to say it felt too similar to the original staging? Because… them crossing the stage, them going down under stage, them appearing higher up, them crossing the misty stage by boat… It’s not that it wasn’t done well, I had just hoped for a totally different take. Biggest surprise was probably the Phantom’s massive (ahem) organ rising from what looked like the pit, with masses of lit candles, and then slowly moving towards the back of the stage – all while the Piranesi “imaginary prisons” like set backdrop came to view. A stunning lair set, and finally a scene where the front stage was used!

(Amelia Milo and Ramin Karimloo in Monte Carlo)

MOTN This too felt very close to the original staging. With one exception. The Phantom put a lit candle in front of Christine, on the floor, sung about the music of the night, and blew out the candle. I mean… I appreciate this more than the Restaged Tour’s blindfolding, but I am not sure I fully understand what Christine was to learn from it SEEING THERE IS A HUGE ORGAN WITH LOTS OF CANDLES only two meters away…?

(Gerónimo Rauch and Talía del Val in the First Lair)

The MOTN pose totally felt like a homage to the original. Biggest difference in blocking was probably that Christine fainted in the Phantom’s arms and was put to bed in a four-poster bed to the right on the stage.

(Gerónimo Rauch and Talía del Val in the First Lair)

Singing wise both Phantoms brought down the house, Rauch especially hammering in those money notes. Dude got a grand voice. In this scene I (interestingly enough) felt Gerónimo Rauch was more experimental, while Manu Pilas felt old-school and classical. I would have thought it opposite, seeing Rauch’s history in West End. But cool! Got Tomas Ambt Kofod vibes from Pilas.

(Gerónimo Rauch and Talía del Val in the First Lair)

(Judith Tobella in the bed in the First Lair)

STYDI Christine waking up did not go unnoticed by the Phantom; he invites her to come over and sit at his piano bench. As she comes over, she caresses his face, they have a fairly tender moment and then she rapidly takes off the mask. Felt like a natural move, out of curiosity and closeness, which created an interesting contrast to the Phantom’s rage and despair.

Here Rauch seemed to go for emotions running deep, doing a quite heartbreaking rendition of the scene. Pilas showed more rage, even tipping over the piano bench along the way. The blocking calls for the Phantom to react on Christine’s touch before handing him the mask – for Rauch it was when Christine touched his hand, and for Pilas it was Christine touching his shoulder. Rauch seemed more terrified, Pilas more surprised. Both returned to their very-much-in-control mood when they put the mask back on. NOTES / PRIMADONNA Now the revolving set was turned the other way, with the short end facing left side of the stage. Instead of a mirror it featured a window with trees and daylight. For this scene it meant the cast had only a tiny little triangle at the very end of the stage to act out the scene. Whereas it worked well with only two or three present in Christine’s dressing room, Primadonna is fairly crowded. We’re talking seven people on stage, and it showed that they didn’t have a whole lot of space to go. I’m still not on board with the distribution of set and cast in this production.

Acting wise little new to add, just very very very solid. Extra plus for Silvia Luchetti as Madame Giry. She was u/s Christine in the original Madrid production, and thus feature a strong soprano. But she is also a strong belter, and good actress. Her Madame Giry seemed to read every situation well, and act accordingly.

(Laura Martín, Silvia Luchetti and Guido Balzaretti in Primadonna)

As for the two Megs, they both had good chemistry with Luchetti. Whereas Martin had an air of “I trust my maman to sort things out”, Brisa felt more inquisitive.

The turning set was used to full effect at the end of Prima Donna. With the set revolving, the cast entering the stage, with a Garnier curtain like backdrop it looked majestic, beautiful and very Phantom-y. It is also one of the instances it worked well to always have a glimpse of the chandelier and boxes in sight, to remind us of them being in the opera all the time.

(Prima Donna photo from Madrid)

IL MUTO The intro with “old scenery… old audience”… was cut, I think? Another instance of the show being rushed. When I keep repeating this it is because the matinée clocked in on 2 hours and 14 minutes, WITH interval. That might be the quickest one I’ve seen, except the intentionally shortened one-act edition in Las Vegas.

I liked this Il Muto a LOT. The set, with two doors where people entered and exited, gave a mild hint of a farce without going overboard. The middle window could be lit to show Don Attilio spying and the fops whisper gossip into his ear. All in all a nice flow and a nice Mozartesque feel.

(Il Muto photo from Madrid)

The interrupted performance and André entering to present the ballet was also amusing, as he comes out with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a glass in the other hand. Not drunk!style like Barry James, but rather a sense of him being in the middle of something completely different. When not managing to exist the stage during the ballet, the male ballet dancer literally grabbed him by the waist and lifted him off stage. Heh. Nice one. Giggle snort.

Then the funky part. Instead of the dancers being interrupted by scary shadows, blinking light or other “minor” incidents, this production features the Phantom crossing the back of the stage in a rope, not once but twice. As mentioned previously I do get how the third time with dead Buquet then comes as an extra surprise. But it is too much of a Tarzan factor. To me, anyway.

(Il Muto ballet screencap from Trieste)

ROOFTOP Possibly the most original scene in this production, and in a good way. It is set towards a slightly abstract backdrop with a hint of – no, not the Eiffel Tower, bless them, but the Notre Dame, and to the left a rooftop sculpture. Main set is a ledge. Christine crawls out on there and does not look like she wants Raoul to follow, but he does, reluctantly, afraid. She will clearly jump, he is doing anything in his power to stop her. He realizes she is terrified and struggles to find the right words, but offers what he can – a hand to hold and a promise of a better future. Slowly, slowly Christine gets closer to him, trusts him.

(Bradley Jaden and Amelia Milo in Trieste)

A very nice take on AIAOY, because it is all done subdued, not in an overly dramatic manner. Only negative I might add is that AIAOY may not be the best song to sing sitting, or even hunched. But that was only something I pondered about at the end of the song, with the high notes. And also, this showed Raoul at his best. More of content like this, please! CURSE / CRASH The Phantom was of course underneath the two lovers all the time, and he comes to view twirling his cloak. Not a huge fan of the red lining of the cloak, a too high vampire factor. But anyway… Here Rauch’s twangy singing style (which he only did here and in the mirror scene) was used to good effect. Now, the actual staging… With the Phantom singing the end of his curse the set turns and the chandelier comes to view, lowered. The Phantom jumps on it, works hard on cutting its cord with a knife, the chandelier is pulled backwards, and it is then “flung” towards the audience, with “fire”, smoke and the sound effects of shattering glass and screams. It is an original and fancy take on the chandelier crash.

(Chandelier crash photo from Monte Carlo)

INTERMISSION Everyone and their mother taking photos by the rose wall. I bought merch (read: socks).

MASQUERADE The opening was like out of a Doctor Who scene, with the managers being flashed up by light, shifting pose and moving closer for each flash – don’t blink! They wear large cloaks, and of course Firmin’s large frilly pink confectionery of a dress gets lot of attention when revealed. Omar Calicchio looked adorable.

(Firmin dressed up, André and Madame Giry in fairly regular clothes, and Meg Giry doubling as the monkey musical box)

Cool main set – the opera stage with its boxes, a lowered chandelier, and a backdrop showing the Garnier auditorium. Reminded me of the Hungarian design. The opening features a giant monkey musical box which soon enough turns out to be Meg in identical costume to the music box figurine. Nice lil’ detail.

The cast floods in, with rows of people dressed in cloaks and masks dancing in a rather stiff style. I could not quite put my finger on why it looked a bit off until I remember each of the pairs featured one cast member and one dummy on wheels. Aha. But the oddness aside, it was cool to see the stage filled with people like that. It looked like a true Venetian carnival.

(The Masquerade scene in Trieste)

Once again Christine missed out on the dress code, wearing a pale Victorian bustle dress. She must start reading the invitation…! Nothing wrong with the dress per se, but I wish they’d dressed her in something more innovative, or at least make her wear a cloak for parts of the scene to later on reveal the bustle dress.

(Talía del Val and Guido Balzaretti in Masquerade)

And now for what always feels like a regional theatre stunt: At the height of the show a lot of the cast came into the auditorium to sing. I feel you need to have a better reason to break the fourth wall than just surprising the audience. Why were they there? It appears mainly to empty the stage for Red Death.

Did I mention the confetti? Oh the confetti. A sea of confetti. Gold and silver, pouring down. So much that the front aisles were filled, and people so covered it stuck on them when they went out after the show. The pavement of the theatre was glittering. I always wonder if it is really worth it, seeing that the confetti will also glitter up stage in the Mausoleum scene and Final Lair. Places were there technically should be no glitter… Well. Fun to watch regardless.

Red Death: They’ve picked up original magic consultant Paul Brown’s idea of the Phantom just disappearing from his costume, making it fall to the floor. Here the Phantom turns his back to the audience, and when the (few) people on stage runs forward to pull off his red cloak he is no longer there. Beautifully executed!

(Red Death from Monte Carlo)

I wish they did not follow up with the next scene, with Christine in the audience and a cloaked figure behind her pulling off his hood – surprise, it’s the Phantom – grabbing her necklace/ring and running off. Felt like a bit of a cheap trick after the quite magical Red Death disappearance. Would be so much cooler if her grabbed that necklace on stage and then disappeared mid-air. Would also give Christine doubly a reason to fear him, if he can just vanish like that instead of having to run out the door.

BACKSTAGE The backstage tale started all dark, but soon featured a hint of a Coney Island like faire to hint of Madame Giry’s first encounter with the Phantom. IF you want to draw some lines to “Love Never Dies” this is a discrete and non-intrusive way of doing it. Kudos for that. The chandelier is also still lowered, and first when its light goes off is Madame Giry startled enough to flee Raoul. Maybe the most effects I’ve seen in this scene and also working very well.

NOTES / TWISTED We are back to the crammed office set-up and too many people. At times Christine’s dress train swept into the bit due to the lack of space. Well… Both here and in the first managers scene each lead is lit up with purplish light when mentioned in the notes, which is a visual for the audience – especially when they are so crammed together as well.

On stage there are a lot of stacked chairs under the darkened looming chandelier. Nice reminder of still being in the opera.

In this scene I felt both Christines lacked a real anger or temper, even if Judith Tobella displayed it more than Talía del Val. But one thing I did like is that she went from person to person during her solo, almost pleading them to understand the dangers of performing the opera, and they all kinda turns away. Two of the footmen enters (as if the scene was not crammed enough already) to remove the furniture and prepare for the sitzprobe on stage, putting out the chairs in line. Meanwhile Christine does not refuse to sing and does not flee stage, as per usual. At first I thought it was another rushed detail to save some time, but no: Raoul sings “Christine, Christine don’t think that I don’t care…” (loooong pause) and then more or less take her by the arm and force her into the sitzprobe. It does solve the problem of why Christine refuse to sing and then appear at the sitzprobe, but doesn’t quite do Raoul any credit…

SITZPROBE Also an in-between scene with an abundance of ideas. Most of which I liked. The setting is very familiar, piano to the right, cast lined out on chairs. But the piano is not facing the audience, it is turned. We can hear Reyer but not see him. Remember Hannibal? Ar’right. When quarrel breaks out the piano starts to rotate at a massive speed while playing by itself, and Reyer is nowhere to be found. Maybe he never was. Was he the Phantom all the time? We will never know…!

Then for the odd moment… As the set itself rotates, a slow-motion quarrel breaks out, people throwing chairs at eachother, fighting, fleeing (didn’t they just behave when singing? I have questions). Christine puts on her mint cloak, she carries a red rose in her hands and she walks off, towards the audience and a presumed grave which we can’t see but she addresses over the orchestra pit.

(Amelia Milo in Monte Carlo)

MAUSOLEUM Both Christines did a heartfelt “Her father promised her”, not being able to finish the line. The red rose is put on the grave and she starts on the main song. The rest of the scene pretty much as usual.

Help me say goodbye… Oh no thought the Phantom. Towards a discrete mausoleum backdrop he appears, with his giant black wings. Raoul enters around the same time, they sing the trio version. Raoul goes in between the Phantom and Christine. The Phantom creates thunder and lightning, and for each time he flies higher up. Christine is quite passive during the whole ordeal. Eventually a massive thunderstorm is created, and the scene ends. And I’m like… mkay.

If you gonna camp it up that much you have to at least feature the black wings better, they were hardly visible towards the dark mausoleum backdrop. From the upper balcony it looked like he was… bungee jumping? From the front rows in the stalls you could see contours of the wings, but nothing more. As a contrast the silhouette of the chandelier was visible, which didn't quite make sense. Aren't they in a graveyard?

("Angel of Death" in the Mausoleum scene in Trieste)

This scene felt like the prime example of a place where the effects works against the story rather than underlining it. It felt like a lot of noise and little emotions, mostly. And Christine’s role in it all was non-existent.

DON JUAN / PONR Once again a cast member appeared in the auditorium. But here with a purpose – the marksman was placed in the upper stalls. Worked well.

The opening of Don Juan was cool, with the cast as black silhouettes towards a red, smoky backdrop, before coming to life. Featuring Meg as a prominent pageboy was a nice touch.

(Don Juan in Monte Carlo)

The costumes did in large resemble the Bjørnson ones, with breeches and doublets and corseted bodices and tabs, in large held in red, black and gold. Exception being Don Juan’s costume, a large tan cloak and an even larger HAT OF DOOM which would eventually help hiding the Phantom’s mask and face. Christine's costume has also gotten more of a Mary Philbin spin.

(Point of No Return photo from Monte Carlo)

The set too reminds me of Bjørnson's design, especially the timber frame with torn drapes behind a centrally placed table.

It is clear from the start Christine recognize the Phantom’s voice. She pleads to Raoul in the box, but decides to go on. She appears to decide to give the Phantom a hard run for his money, turning up the heat and almost challenging him with the blocking. The overall staging is quite close to the original blocking, and also: no table dancing in sight. Bliss.

(Ramin Karimloo, Amelia Milo and ensemble in Trieste)

I wanna say that Talía del Val removed the Phantom’s hat while Judith Tobella waited for him to remove it? But memory is a bit blurry there. Either how, the Phantom put his ring on Christine’s finger himself.

DOWN ONCE MORE Down once more also felt fairly traditional in terms of the Phantom and Christine in the boat. Both Phantom displayed amazing vocals here, they both have grand voices.

A bigger surprise was the managers, despairing over being ruined. André looks around, throws his lantern into the “pit” which is causing a large fire – I assume this is why we see a ruin of an opera in the Auction scene - and they run off. It’s yet another instance of “Yes, I like the creativity, but does it make sense?”. Since the opera and chandelier seems fairly closely based on the Palais Garnier, and that opera NEVER BURNED it feels like different Phantom universes colliding (I.E. a dash of the 2004 movie with its Opera Populaire meets the Prince/Bjørnson version and the Palais Garnier).

FINAL LAIR And now for the grand finale. A nice twist in this version is that yes – Christine wears her Aminta costume during the Final Lair, like many other non-replica versions – but the Phantom do offer her a wedding dress, veil and bouquet. He also puts the veil on her.

Raoul comes crawling in from the right side – I am not sure if it’s meant to indicate swimming or him sneaking up on them. But he is quickly noticed by the Phantom. He takes a chokehold on Christine to keep Raoul away. A slight inheritance from Ramin, I assume, as he was the king of choking in the UK. With Gerónimo Rauch I didn’t care all too much for it (never did with Ramin either). With Manu Pilas he acted as he suddenly got aware of what he was doing and quickly let her go, almost apologizing, looking embarrassed, even devastated. This made more sense to me, that it was not a cautious choice.

(Final Lair photo from Trieste. Note that some changes was done for Madrid. Most noticeable that Raoul is no longer shirtless, but he's barefoot. He's also hanging way above ground)

So to the part I did not overly care for – the magical lasso. In this version the magical lasso is somehow… connected to the Phantom’s bed and Raoul is raised into the air by one of the poles of the bed. I understand how this is a practical solution, as it makes it possible to lift the actor from the floor. Whereas it did look realistic it also felt a bit strange he would hang from the bed. Guido Balzaretti did however act it well, and it looked frightfully real when his naked feet slowly stopped moving.

And dudes and dudettes – I am happy to say Raoul is no longer shirtless in the Final Lair. Thank you, good actor or director or head of costumes. A bare-chested guy being strangled by/with a bed was too much for me, at least when he is technically not the one in focus.

This is the second place I would have liked more temper, more rage from Talía del Val (first being 2nd Managers). She seemed too mild and too accepting on what’s going on. Judith Tobella was more feisty, even if she too could have turned it up a notch. This especially went for when Raoul got strangled up, it didn’t feel like much of a fight at all. Christine steps on to the bed and tries to loosen the noose once, without success, but that’s it. Fight for your man, Christine!

Another aspect which made me wonder is that it almost looks like Raoul has died long before Christine decides to kiss the Phantom. I would have liked to see her enraged, or even more scared, or… something. But the kiss itself – another scene sticking very close to the original – was beautifully done. With the Phantom letting Raoul go he was just lowered to the floor. Props to Balzaretti for A+ acting here, having to been helped into the Phantom’s boat. Christine and Raoul then sails away, the Phantom sings to the monkey musical box, and Christine returns, being viewable behind the bed.

With Rauch he seems to notice it quite late, and looks very happy about her return, almost crying “I love you”. With Pilas he did a detail that totally made me think Tomas Kofod: he straightened his hair, started buttoning his waistcoat, making himself presentable… only to find Christine has left the ring on the table next to the bed and is nowhere to be seen. So sad a sight.

Speaking of which, the Phantom’s deformity looked great in the auditorium, with balding grey hair and a visible deformed side. He looked much older and much more worn down by life than several other non-replica productions I’ve seen, and I’m here for it. This is a man letting go in all possible ways.

And now for the grand grand grand finale… While the opera is presumably burning a whole bunch of people is entering the Phantom’s lair. First one is Madame Giry. She sees the Phantom as he is about to lie down on his bed, and she rapidly signs for him to hide. He hides under the bedsheet, the contours of his body highly visible. It looks like a curled up corpse, quite eerie. Then Meg enters, and the mob with torches. Meg notice the figure on the bed, screams, and as the mob rips of the bedsheet the Phantom is gone – only his mask is left. The Girys holds up the mask together, with an inquisitive look on their faces. Cue: applause.

A SORT OF CONCLUSION This is a playful, intelligent and a bit overpowering version of POTO. I enjoyed it a lot for its clear Phantom look and feel, for its at times super beautiful sets, for a stellar cast, and for many clever and original ideas. It’s a production which is thoroughly original at times, more traditional in other moments. But I think it would benefit from trusting the source material more. Not everything needs to be a trick, an effect, a surprise. Sometimes the leads can carry the scene by mere acting and that is more than enough. The rooftop scene is a nice example of that, while the Mausoleum scene feels like an example of the opposite. But that said: Overall this is a welcome addition to the Phantom universe!

(Curtain call photo showing Martina Brisa as Meg, Judith Tobella as Christine and Manu Pilas as the Phantom)

Highlights: The overall set design, Think of Me (both vocals and visuals), the Meg and Christine love, three equally strong and enjoyable leads, the Phantom’s lair (again both vocals and visuals), the rooftop scene, Red Death’s disappearance, the backstage tale of Mme Giry, the mystery that was Reyer, the cast, the mood.

Meeeeh: The Overture slow-motion sequence, Carlotta as she appears as an opera singer, the rushed feeling throughout, the cramped Manager’s office, the red lining of the Phantom’s cloak, the chandelier crash, sending the cast into the auditorium during Masquerade, the confetti, the Sitzproble slow-motion sequence, Christine’s lack of proper anger.

Hard no: Tarzan-Phantom in Il Muto, winged and flying Phantom in the Mausoleum scene, the Phantom’s sombrero in Don Juan.

#phantom of the opera #fantasma de la opera #poto spain #poto italy #poto monte carlo #geronimo rauch #manu pilas #talia del val #judith tobella #guido balzaretti #marta pineda #omar calicchio #enrique r del portal #silvia luchetti #laura martin #marina brisa #francisco ortiz

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