List of Danny Phantom characters
The animated television series Danny Phantom centers on young Danny Fenton and his coming-of-age story as a half-ghost superhero in the town of Amity Park. Over the course of the series, he betters both himself and his powers as he deals with ghosts, balancing his normal and heroic life in a community that does not initially trust him. His companions are his best friends: Sam Manson, a goth girl who is entranced by the "weird and supernatural" and Tucker Foley, a self-proclaimed "techno-geek". Danny often has to put up with the eccentricity of his ghost-hunting parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, and his smothering but compassionate older sister, Jazz Fenton. His primary nemesis is Vlad Masters, a billionaire celebrity who is also a half-ghost.
Main
Danny Phantom
Daniel "Danny" Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, is the titular main protagonist of the series. He is initially shown as an average, self-conscious, introverted, kindhearted, and sensitive 14-year-old boy who is desperate to fit in with his peers and be accepted, despite his parents' eccentricities. Danny thinks highly of his older sister Jazz, despite finding it annoying when she gets involved in his social life, and is in many ways as over-protective of her as she is of him. After an accident in his parents' ghost lab, Danny becomes a human/ghost hybrid, also called a half-ghost or halfa, and obtains a variety of ghostly abilities. A battle with the Lunch Lady Ghost places the unsure Danny on the path to becoming a superhero. Despite his flaws, he is good-hearted and loyal to his friends and family. He eventually grows, gaining great confidence in himself and maturity, and begins concentrating more on his heroic duties.Danny possesses the powers of flight, intangibility, invisibility, sensing other spirits, and possession, as well as ghost rays. The ghost rays consist of laser-like "ectoplasm" which are emitted from his body; primarily his hands and fingertips. Over the course of the show, he gains various other powers such as duplication, forcefield creation, telekinesis, power absorption, and cryokinesis. In the two-part special "The Ultimate Enemy", Danny gains a power known as the "Ghostly Wail", which emits destructive waves of ecto-energy from his mouth. However, Danny obtained the Ghostly Wail 10 years too early, resulting in him being unprepared for its power. The Wail drains him of all his strength and reverts him to human form.
Samantha Manson
Samantha "Sam" Manson is one of Danny's best friends who later becomes his love interest and girlfriend. She is a goth girl whose parents, Jeremy and Pam, are social conservatives who inherited their money from Sam's grandfather, the inventor of "the machine that twirls the cellophane around the toothpicks", upon his death, though she briefly kept this a secret from her friends and peers, especially her female peers, to avoid "fake friendships". In the Christmas special, it was revealed that she and her family are Jewish.Tucker Foley
Tucker Foley is a black boy who is Danny's other best friend "since forever". Gifted with technological knowledge and a self-proclaimed "techno-geek", Tucker often helps by using his PDA to hack into computers and machinery.Jazz Fenton
Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton is Danny's intelligent and sociable 16-year-old sister. Viewing herself as the most rational and normal member of the family, Jazz often plays a surrogate parental role to Danny, thinking he's a naive child in need of guidance, unaware that she is often smothering him. At Casper High, Jazz is an overachiever, whose accomplishments unknowingly make Danny feel insignificant, under-appreciated, and stupid in comparison. Looking after her brother all her life has initially caused Jazz to think more like an adult then a teenager, unaware that Danny actually needs a big sister more than he needs a parent now that he is old enough to look after himself.Due to her cherished goal of becoming a psychologist, Jazz has a bad habit of getting into people's personal space, which greatly annoys Danny, despite his knowing that she does it because she loves him and wants nothing more than to help him. When she secretly discovers her brother's secret identity, Jazz has made excuses for him while he went out to fight ghosts, and slowly starts to realize that her brother is growing up fine on his own. Along the way, she learns to appreciate her family's ghost hunting and actively takes part at times.
Jack and Maddie Fenton
Jack and Madeline "Maddie" Fenton are Danny and Jazz's parents. They are professional yet bumbling jumpsuit-wearing ghost hunters who make it their hobby and goal to study and eradicate "all things ectoplasmic." While they serve as much embarrassment to their children, they are just as well respected and loved by them. Despite their obsession with ghost hunting, Jack and Maddie are loving parents who dote on their kids constantly.Jack is the most obsessed with ghost-hunting. He jumps into action before thinking and can make a bad situation even worse. While he can often act clumsy and incompetent, he holds a great deal of courage and is an adequate fighter, at one point clashing toe-and-toe against Vlad Plasmius and defeating him In Pt. 2 of the "Danny Phantom Ten Years Later" video on YouTube, series creator Butch Hartman stated that he partially based Jack off Fred Flintstone.
Maddie Fenton is an accomplished ninth-degree martial artist and Jack's partner. Similar to Jazz, Maddie is very serious and more level-headed than Jack is, often supporting or trying to keep her husband from causing trouble with his gung-ho attitude, yet she can be aggressive and snappy at times. Jazz also seems to have inherited her intellect from Maddie as well, as Maddie herself is a genius scientist who has her fair share of anti-ghost inventions she herself creates alongside Jack; she also has degrees in chemistry, engineering, and quantum physics from the University of Wisconsin.
Villains
Ghost villains
Amorpho
Amorpho is a ghost able to change his appearance into that of any human or animal at will. More mischievous than malevolent, he desires attention and pursues it by morphing into someone else's appearance, to play pranks that leave the corresponding person to take the consequences, for what he actually had done.Bertrand
Bertrand is a small, amorphous blob-like ghost who can transform into various monstrous creatures. It serves Spectra and helps her enact her plans.Box Ghost
The Box Ghost is a ghoul who constantly fights with cardboard and anything square. He is incompetent in his attempts to scare people and is barely taken seriously by either the heroes or the other ghosts. In an alternate future depicted in "The Ultimate Enemy", he is married to the Lunch Lady Ghost and has a daughter with her.Bullet
Bullet is Walker's second-in-command. He is only seen in minor roles in two episodes.Dark Danny/Dan Phantom
Dark Danny Phantom is a villain created by the fusion of the ghost-halves of Danny and Vlad in an alternative timeline. He was created with the intent that Danny's worst enemy would be an evil version of himself. Dark Danny is a cruel, malicious ghost who cares little for anything other than himself, causing as much destruction as he sees fit.Dark Danny came to be after an explosion of the Nasty Burger restaurant killed Danny Fenton's family, friends, and teacher. Overcome with grief and guilt, Danny moved in with Vlad Masters, feeling that only he could understand his pain. Danny asked Vlad to remove his emotions. Honoring his wishes, Vlad separated Danny's human half from his ghost self; later, Danny retaliated, doing the same to Vlad. The ghost-half of Danny then attempted to possess Vlad, eventually fusing their bodies together. Plasmius's ghost-half overwhelmed Danny's, creating an even more evil and more powerful version of the two halves. He spent the next ten years destroying the world. Through time travel, the present-day Danny defeats Dark Danny and imprisons him in a Fenton Thermos which he gives to Clockwork.
Desiree
Desiree is a genie-like female ghost who travels the world granting anyone's deepest desires. While compelled to grant any wish she hears, she is free to interpret and twist it any way she sees fit. In life, she was a harem girl who won the affections of a sultan. He showered her with whatever gifts she wanted but was banished by the Sultan's jealous wife. She died of a broken heart, and returned as a genie/wishing ghost. Desiree initially granted wishes with benevolence, but remembering her own happiness that was taken away, she became bitter, resentful, and jealous, thus leading to her current behavior.Ember McLain
Ember McLain is a ghost of a power-hungry musician who hates authority. She thirsts for attention and has a cutting, sarcastic personality. She gains power when people say her name, as is shown in her first appearance when she attempted to gain power by performing her song "Remember" live and broadcasting worldwide in the hope that everyone would chant her name at the same time and empower her. She is somewhat similar to a Siren, as she can also hypnotize her victims, using her guitar as her main mode of hypnotism as well as a weapon.According to Butch Hartman, Ember was once an unpopular girl who dreamed of becoming a rock star. When a boy asked her out to the movies, she accepted, but the boy stood her up as she waited for him all night. Once morning came, she returned home and fell asleep from exhaustion. As she slept, Ember was killed after her house mysteriously caught on fire.