Western Animation / The Ultimate Enemy

Danny giving "beating yourself up" a whole new meaning.

"It's Time To Scream!"

Produced 2005, aired in U.S. on 9/16/05

Production order: 27 (2-7)

Danny Phantom's second Made-for-TV Movie. Also had a Licensed Game for the Game Boy Advance with a page here.

With an all-important test coming up that he hasn't had time to study for, Danny finds himself in a pickle until he accidentally obtains the test answers. As he decides to cheat on the test, a mysterious ghost named Clockwork attempts to eliminate him to prevent his decision from having catastrophic effects on the world.

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Tropes found in this episode:

A-B

• Achievement Test of Destiny: Lancer promoting the CAT as this kick-starts the plot.
• Admiring the Abomination: When Danny first sees his evil future self demolishing the human forces using his Ghostly Wail, he at first admires how awesome the attack is before a visual disapproval by Sam and Tucker cause him to immediately retract the admiration.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Most of Danny's Rogues Gallery suffer horrible fates because of Dark Danny's actions. Vlad Masters himself becomes The Atoner after he realizes that he has created a monster.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Clockwork has shown himself to be one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost Zone. It's a good thing he's not proactive most of the time.
• An Arm and a Leg: In the Bad Future, Damon Grey and the Box Ghost are missing an arm, the latter having replaced his with a hook.
• Apocalypse How: Dark Danny single-handedly brought about a Class 1 in the future. If it weren't for Danny, it probably would've been raised to a Class 3a.
• Bad Future: Ten years from now, Danny becomes evil and murders everyone he held dear, and all just because of cheating on one little test.
• Bait-and-Switch: Upon discovering he had inadvertently obtained the answers to the C.A.T, Danny seems shocked and stunned, with Clockwork taking it as a sign that he will make the right choice, and is in the process of telling the Observants that...only for Danny to immediately become ecstatic that he got an easy route to getting a perfect score on the test.
• Beard of Sorrow: Future Vlad gains one.
• Beware the Superman: Dark Danny, big time though this more a case of an obvious outcome as Dark Danny killed his human half, the part of him that feels empathy, kindness, and remorse instead of Danny willingly allowing himself to be corrupted by his own power.
• Big Shadow, Little Creature: At the end of Future Vlad's flashback, when the newly created Dark Danny loomed over Danny's human self, his shadow looked like his current adult appearance, even though he still had the scrawny form of Danny Phantom.
• Big Word Shout: Danny discovers his Ghostly Wail like this when being attacked by the future versions of his enemies.
  Danny: No! Get away! Get away! GET AWAY! (Ghostly Wail blasts everyone away from him)
• Bittersweet Ending: Danny defeats Dark Danny, Clockwork saves the others from the Nasty Sauce explosion, and Danny officially accepts Jazz as a confidant. However, on the lighter side of things, Danny had to come clean to Mr. Lancer about acquiring the answers to the test (although Mr. Lancer is touched by his deciding to be honest and decides to let Danny do the make-up test the following week). And on the darker side of things, Dark Danny is still implied to be a threat despite existing outside of time, as he appears able to damage the Fenton Thermos from within.
• Butterfly of Doom: Danny cheating on a test sets off a long string of events that ultimately end with his family, friends, and teacher dead and his ghost half splitting off from him, becoming evil, and attempting to destroy everything. At the end, Danny knows this ahead of time and thus chooses to not cheat in order to avoid this string.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Dark Danny's first appearance is of his red eyes appearing on Future Valerie's communicator.

C-E

• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Danny cheats on a test, which causes the horrible deaths of his entire family, his best friends, and his teacher.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: In their Final Battle, Dark Danny couldn't waste Danny because it would harm his existence, so he opted to just run out the clock until the Nasty Sauce blew. Fortunately, having to hold back against Danny gave Danny an edge and allowed him to beat the villain. Now that he exists outside of time and no longer depends on Danny to exist, however...
• Card-Carrying Villain: Dark Danny is an unrepentant, sadistic, monster that revels in the evil he causes. Justified in that he’s literally incapable of any positive emotions or characteristics, as he destroyed the human half of himself (i.e., his morality, empathy, and remorse).
• Cheaters Never Prosper: The moral of the special - Danny deciding to cheat on the C.A.T.s instead of turning in the answer sheet is framed as wrong from the beginning by every other character, and inadvertently lead to deaths of all his loved ones and the loss of his humanity in the original timeline.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Nasty Sauce, that Danny remembers could blow up if it gets too hot helps him defeat Box Lunch. However, it then comes back with a negative use when it is what causes the explosion that'll take the lives of Danny's friends and family.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Boo-merang that is keyed into Danny's ecto signature both helps Jazz realize Dark Danny is impersonating Danny and to find Danny in the future.
• Darker and Edgier: With death and destruction being rather rampant throughout most of the episode, all thanks to Dark Danny, who is perhaps the show's most vile villain, The Ultimate Enemy is tied with Kindred Spirits as the darkest episode in the entire series. It's also a fan favorite.
• Deducing the Secret Identity: Inverted. While Jazz, the Secret Secret-Keeper, had discovered Danny was the Ghost Boy by spotting his Transformation Sequence in an earlier episode, Danny figures out Jazz knows the truth since she sent a note to him, tied with her signature headband and using her handwriting, via the Fenton Boooo-merang.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Dark Danny was shown to be a juggernaut that seemed unstoppable, with Future Valerie, Danny's enemies, and even an army of ghost fighters unable to stand against him. He was like this to such a degree that the Observants believed that killing Danny was the only way to keep him from coming into existence. However, through the use of some Fenton weapons and his newly acquired Ghostly Wail, Danny was able to at least weaken his evil self enough to trap him in the Fenton Thermos.
• Desk Sweep of Rage: In his frustration over the C.A.T., Danny shoves his books and papers off the kitchen table. It's around this time that Clockwork temporarily pauses time to bring in Box Lunch, freezing the books in midair.
• Despair Event Horizon: In the Bad Future, it was clear that Danny went over this line following the loss of his family and friends, leading him to the operation that resulted in Dark Danny's creation. In Vlad's recollection of the events, Danny looks utterly broken. "All you wanted was to make the hurt go away."
• Deus ex Machina: Although Clockwork only intervenes in the climax because he concludes Danny earned it, the fact still remains that the Time Master stepped in and saved everyone when there was no way the hero could have done it on his own; Danny didn't reach his friends and family before the explosion killed (or would have killed...?) them. Even the Observants seem to see it this way when they tell him, "You cheated!" Clockwork does agree that it's cheating, but still assures the Observants that Danny doing the right thing was still his own choice.
• Didn't See That Coming: Dark Danny was genuinely surprised when Jazz revealed she knew Danny was half ghost, something he never expected in the past ten years of his existence.
  Dark Danny: You always were smarter than I gave you credit for.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Yes, asking Vlad for help makes perfect sense in context, and it works, but it's clear that Danny never considered what a big risk he was taking putting himself at the mercy of his Arch-Enemy. Of course, this winds up becoming subverted as Vlad decides to spare Danny's life.
    Vlad: (after Danny explains his plan) Or I could just destroy you now and prevent this future. Didn't think of that, did you?
  • Dark Danny should have least been somewhat aware of the probability that, given the time travel shenanigans on display, that his younger self would learn the Ghostly Wail ten years early.
• Domed Hometown: Ten years in the future, Amity Park is protected by a giant ghost shield to keep out Dark Danny and other ghosts, while the rest of the planet has been ravaged. Unfortunately, after an unknown amount of failed attempts to break through, Dark Danny is able to destroy the shield with his newfound Ghostly Wail.
• Downer Beginning: Ten years in the future, the world is devastated, what's left of Amity Park is hiding under a giant ghost shield only for it be destroyed, and Danny is revealed to have become the most evil ghost to ever exist. Definitely one of the darkest ways to begin an episode.
• Drama Bomb: Jawdropping. Not least for its awesomeness, abruptness, as well as its sudden venture into dark humour. Oh yes, and the brutal murders, so many brutal murders.
• Driven to Villainy: The deaths of his family and friends started Danny on the path that caused the creation of a powerful, monstrous shadow of himself with all of his powers and none of his heart.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Danny's determination to never become his evil future self is enough for Clockwork to intervene and save everyone from the explosion of the Nasty Burger.
• Enemy Without: Dark Danny isn't really Danny but rather the ghost half of Danny that was created by the accident that gave Danny his powers. He's more like a duplicate of Danny with all of his memories and powers but none of his heart. After being separated from Danny, he separates Vlad from his ghost self and overshadows him. This causes Danny's and Vlad's ghost selves to merge with the former being dominant. Dark Danny is all of the negative aspects of Danny combined with Vlad's and having the power of both combined.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Vlad Plasmius is horrified by what Dark Danny did to his human half, to the point where he outright refuses to elaborate on just what happened when telling the story to Past/Present Danny.
  • Likewise, the future versions of Danny's enemies express disgust with all the horrible things that Dark Danny did to the human and ghost worlds.
  Present!Danny: Please! I didn't do these things to you! It wasn't me!
  Skulktech!Skulker: Oh, stop! You're responsible for the horrible things that happened to your world and ours!
  Skulktech!Technus: To everyone you've ever come in contact with!
  Future!Ember: Your family, your friends, and most importantly, us!
• Evil Cripple: Future Johnny 13 is confined to a wheelchair thanks to his injuries from Dark Danny.
• Evil Future Me Scares Me: Though in Danny's defense, Dark Danny scares everyone else as well. Even though this version of himself technically isn't him, only his ghost half with all of his memories, Danny is still understandably horrified by Dark Danny's existence.
• Evil Plan: Dark Danny's plan is initially to destroy all of humanity, though this takes a backseat to ensuring that his existence still comes to pass in the future after meeting his past self, Tucker, and Sam.
• Evil Twin: At one point, Dark Danny shapeshifts into a clone of the 14-year-old Danny Fenton.
• Eviler than Thou: Dark Danny is more evil and dangerous than all of Danny’s old villains, with Clockwork calling him the most evil ghost in the world.
• Exorcist Head: When confronted with Jazz from behind, Dark Danny twists his head around in a 180 fashion to look at her, with the rest of his body rotating afterwards.
• Eyepatch After Time Skip: In the future, the Box Ghost is shown sporting one courtesy of the wounds Dark Danny inflicted on him.

F-I

• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Danny's human half in his Bad Future. So much so that Vlad refuses to divulge any of the details. Some things are best left unsaid, indeed.
  • The entire world outside of Amity Park has been destroyed.
• Foreshadowing:
  • At the C.A.T assembly, Irving comments that if Nasty Sauce gets too hot, it could cause a massive explosion.
  • Future Vlad tells Danny that he removed his ghost half in an effort to free him of his painful emotions. This would foreshadow where ghosts like Desiree and Spectra came from.
• Futuristic Superhighway: In the brief shots of Future Amity Park, we're shown Flying Cars going down one of these.
• Handcuffed Briefcase: To show how much the test is Serious Business, Lancer places the C.A.T answer key in a briefcase that he cuffs to his wrist. Unfortunately, it proves useless when Danny accidentally phases through the case and gets the answers stuck to his back.
• Heel Realization: After being without ghost powers for ten years Bad Future Vlad realized what a fool he'd been, shunting his best friend away for marrying the woman he loved and resenting their happiness, leaving him to revel in his loneliness. You know it's genuine when he repaired the photo of him, Maddie, and Jack to include all of them, and outright admits that it's probably the only "good" that came out of the entire ordeal. Though he momentarily considered destroying Danny to change the future, he ultimately helped Danny return to his own time.
• Heroic RRoD: At the absolute worst possible time, after defeating Dark Danny with the Ghostly Wail and trapping him in the Fenton Thermos, Danny rushes over to save the others from the Nasty Sauce... but he's too far away, he can't "Go Ghost", and the Nasty Sauce is seconds away from blowing.
• Heroic Vow: Danny promises his family and friends that he will not turn into Dark Danny. Dark Danny mocks him for it.
  Dark Danny: Oh, you are such a child! You promised?
  Danny: Yes! I. PROMISED! (unleashes Ghostly Wail)
• Hook Hand: The Box Ghost of the Bad Future has one to replace his missing hand.
• Idiot Ball: Dark Danny knocked Jazz out and dragged her away somewhere before she could use the Fenton Peeler to expose him during the C.A.T. While it's understandable that he left her alive for the moment, he neglected to break the Peeler when he had the chance, which ended up causing a major shake up in his plan. Although Danny suggests that Dark Danny had forgotten much about the Fentons' inventions.
• I Hate Past Me: Played for Drama. Dark Danny despises his past self for his "weakness," and seems determined to enforce a Stable Time Loop to ensure the Bad Future in order to spite his past self as much as ensure his own existence. Not to mention that the very first thing he did upon his "birth" was brutally murder his human half.

J-M

• Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Turns out for Danny, cheating on a test has world changing consequences, which involved his friends and family dying and having his ghost half fusing with Vlad’s ghost half and then destroying the world.
• The Juggernaut: Living up to his name, the Ultimate Enemy is almost completely invincible. Even though nobody in the Bad Future can stand him, none of them can stop him as he ravaged the planet. SkulkTech's Power Nullifier is stated to not affect him, and likewise the Specter Deflector doesn't weaken him like it does Danny and Vlad. Even when Danny gains the Ghostly Wail, it's not enough to knock him out. Danny only wins because the enemy being his future self means he can't kill Danny, and even after he's imprisoned in the Fenton Thermos he dents it trying to break out.
• Knight of Cerebus: Dark Danny. So, so much. Unlike any other villain before or after him, even Vlad Plasmius, there is nothing light-hearted about him and even his humorous moments only serve to emphasize how evil he is.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • It's hinted that a side-effect of Dark Danny's creation is that he lost a majority of Danny's memories, such as where Vlad's ghost portal is when it's obviously in Wisconsin, and Danny commenting that he didn't recognize the ghost weapons he was using.
    • Then again, Vlad is implied to have moved his base to a new location after losing his mansion (again) in the incident that created Dark Danny.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Dark Danny starts the movie off by revealing his Ghostly Wail to destroy the shield protecting future Amity Park and proceeding to lay waste to the city with it. In the final battle with present Danny, Dark Danny's ultimately defeated when his past self gains the power earlier then he expected and proceeds to weaken him with it before capturing him in the Fenton Thermos.
• Last Disrespects: While Danny's family and friends get a statue erected in their honor that says "Gone, but Not Forgotten", Mr. Lancer's statue is sinking in the ground and just says "Gone".
• Literal Split Personality: How Dark Danny was created: Danny has Vlad use a device to separate his ghost half from his human half, but without his human half, Danny Phantom goes berserk and becomes malicious without the ability to feel guilt, empathy and kindness. Phantom then attacks Vlad, takes the device and uses it on Vlad to separate his ghost and human halves, and overshadows Vlad Plasmius, causing Plasmius' evil to mix with Phantom's mania resulting in the two of them fusing together into Dark Danny. Then he kills Danny, in a manner so brutal that Vlad refuses to describe it.
  • Though Vlad does mention that Danny was so despondent from losing his family and friends that he asked Vlad to take the pain away, and Vlad implies that he might have taken the opportunity to remove Danny's goodness like he'd been trying to do all series, and/or Danny's desire not to feel had Gone Horribly Right. Either way, Phantom's inability to feel just created a sociopath incapable of any positive emotion, including discretion, mercy, or remorse. Poor Danny got exactly what he wanted.
• Loophole Abuse: The Observants took an oath "To watch and never act," but judging by how annoyed Clockwork is by them "bring[ing] me in to do your dirty work" again, they regularly try to get around this by asking him to act instead.
• Love Is a Weakness: Dark Danny certainly thinks so, and he’s determined to stamp out every ounce of love and kindness in himself and his past self.
• Made of Explodium: Due to being made of a unique blend of forty-two herbs and spices, Nasty Burger's Nasty Sauce has the potential to be a liquid bomb if it gets too hot.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • Summed up by Tucker when he and Sam figure out what causes the Bad Future.
  Tucker: Let me get this straight. Danny gets caught cheating on a test, and we pay for it with our lives? How is that fair?
  • The ghosts in the future take their aggression out on past Danny despite him stating he never did the action his future self would. They don't care since they figure Danny will grow up into Dark Danny anyway and hold him accountable regardless.

N-P

• Name One: When Clockwork tells Danny that he's been assigned to eliminate him so that Dark Danny doesn't come into existence, Danny refutes the idea of him becoming a villain, demanding Clockwork name one evil deed he's committed. Clockwork obliges by showing Jazz discovering that Danny (inadvertently) stole the test answers. Tucker tries to come to Danny's aid by saying Clockwork can't find two. Clockwork then shows the image of Dark Danny's rampage.
  Clockwork: How about 2,000?
• Near-Villain Victory: Though Danny wins the battle against his evil future self, Dark Danny still kept him distracted enough that the Nasty Sauce being heated reached a critical point and exploded as intended. It's only thanks to Clockwork interfering and saving Danny's family and friends that prevents Dark Danny's victory.
• Never My Fault: A small Played for Laughs example. After Dark Danny mocks Danny's parents for failing to realize their son is half ghost, Jack tells Maddie "For the record, I blame you", despite being just as oblivious as she was.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Clockwork sends Box Lunch back in time to eliminate Danny before he turns evil. Danny's fight with Box Lunch sets the events that lead to Danny losing everything that mattered to him leading to the creation of Dark Danny (Danny acquiring the test answers and the explosion that would take the lives of his family and friends).
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dark Danny throwing his past self into the Ghost Zone to let the future ghosts take their aggression out on him ends up backfiring as it allows Danny to develop his Ghostly Wail much earlier then he would in the future. This ends up proving pivotal in the final battle with Dark Danny which leads to his defeat.
  • A smaller one, but Dark Danny revealing to Jazz his affiliation to Vlad. She then manages to transmit the information to Danny which ultimately allows him to find his way back home, fight him, and eventually defeat him. Present Danny probably wouldn’t have made it in time in the present if he didn’t know Vlad’s involvement in Dan’s birth beforehand.
• Noodle Incident: When Dark Danny first sees Clockwork's Time Medallion, he reacts as if he met him before. Though he could be referring to his memories as the younger Danny (as the events of the episode are a Stable Time Loop), it's only because of Clockwork that the loop is broken.
  Dark Danny: Clockwork! Meddling again.
• No OSHA Compliance: Granted, this would probably be more the FDA's department than OSHA's, but there's no way on earth a sauce recipe that's prone to violently exploding at high temperatures would be approved to be served in a fast food restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter). Even if the food isn't served hot enough to reach that flash point, god forbid some gets knocked on the grill or in the fryer.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Future Box Ghost is a lot more powerful and serious than he is in the past. Also, the fact that he's got a hook for a hand and is missing an eye is terrifying. He's also lost the high-pitched voice and now sounds guttural.
  Box Ghost: Beware...
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jazz using the Ghost Peeler to remove Dark Danny's disguise as Danny causes Jack and Maddie to get serious and demand what he's done with their son.
• Oh, Crap!: Dark Danny has a major one when Danny uses the Ghostly Wail against him, in no small part because it means Danny does have a chance to Screw Destiny and keep him from coming to be.
  • Even earlier then that, this is the reaction on his face right before Jazz exposes him to everyone in front of the Nasty Burger.
• Painful Transformation: Dark Danny's creation.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After Danny confesses to peeking at the test answers, Mr. Lancer is happy that Danny was honest about it and allows him to take the make-up test the following week, even reassuring him he'll have plenty of time to study for it.
  • This is also why Clockwork saves Danny's friends and family from the Nasty Burger explosion, figuring that while he's not supposed to interfere with the timeline that Danny had earned it.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Fright Knight shows up in the opening acting as The Dragon to the Ultimate Enemy. Then he vanishes from the plot and is never brought up again.
• Power Nullifier: One of SkulkTech's weapons is a device called the Phantom Palm Pummeler which can can force half-ghosts like Danny to turn into their human form. Since Dark Danny is no longer half-ghost, it doesn't affect him, but it can work on present-day Danny.

R-T

• Race Against the Clock: The final battle between Danny and Dark Danny: Danny returned to the past after Dark Danny strapped everyone to the tanks, and they're getting ready to blow...
  Dark Danny: [to Danny] I don't have to waste you, I just have to run out the clock until your entire life falls apart.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: When the temperature of the Nasty Sauce reaches critical, the temperature gauge actually broke.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dark Danny openly mocks Jack and Maddie for being oblivious parents.
  Dark Danny: What kind of parents are you, anyway? The world's leading ghost experts, and you can't figure out that your own son was half-ghost! ... Hello? Danny Fenton. Danny Phantom. Ever notice the similarity? Jazz did.
• Rule of Symbolism: Future Dark (Ghost) Danny didn't just brutally murder his human half, he symbolically rid himself of his own humanity: his love, kindness, empathy, and remorse.
• San Dimas Time: While Dark Danny is in the past carrying out his plan to solidify his existence, Danny is trapped in the future trying to get back to his own time. He doesn't get back until after Dark Danny has strapped everyone to the explosive tanks of Nasty Sauce.
• Screw Destiny: At a very crucial moment in the Final Battle, Danny manages to spit in the face of 10 years worth of history and use the Ghostly Wail against Dark Danny. In fact, Danny relentlessly promising to himself, his loved ones, and even to his evil future self that he will never become a monster was enough for Clockwork to directly intervene and allow the boy a second chance to atone his mistakes.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Dark Danny was sealed away in a Fenton Thermos and left with Clockwork, though for how long is unknown.
• Secret Test of Character: Clockwork's plan in general. He knows Danny's a good if brash kid and doesn't deserve the dreary future set for him. So he allows Danny into said Bad Future to see if he can change things. It takes Danny promising to never become like his evil future self that convinces Clockwork to intervene and save his loved ones.
• Self-Made Orphan: Dark Danny didn't just kill his parents, he killed his sister, his friends, and his teacher... just to secure his own future.
• Serious Business: The CAT. If you fail this one test in your freshman year of high school you will be forever doomed to spend the rest of your life working a dead end job at the local fast food joint. On the other hand, if you score high on the test, as Jazz did, the most successful future possible is assured.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: This is the reason the Observants want Clockwork to destroy Danny. Fortunately, Clockwork has his own way of resolving this.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  Clockwork: That's the problem with you Observants — all you do is observe.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Or rather blow them up.
• The Social Darwinist: Dark Danny is Type 6, The Weakness Punisher. Dark Danny's evil nature is compounded by his firm belief that Love Is a Weakness and he despises "weakness," and feels entitled as the most powerful being in existence to torment, maim, cripple, and kill off anyone weaker than him.
• The Sociopath: Dark Danny. Dark Danny in spades. He's Danny's future ghost half fused with Vlad's evil ghost half, who has all of Danny's memories but none of his positive human emotions like love, kindness, compassion, mercy, or remorse. He also ticks off many boxes for sociopathy: can fake human emotions to blend in with normal people (disguised as Danny) but completely lacks empathy, only cares about himself, has a dark pathological need for stimulation (in his case: wanton murder, violence, and destruction), and seems to view everyone besides himself as objects that exist for him to play around with and "break" for his own amusement.
• Squick: In-universe. Danny is notably disturbed to know that Box Ghost and Lunch Lady have a daughter in the future due to the implications involved and makes a point of saying "Eww" whenever the line is mentioned.
• Stable Time Loop: Clockwork sends Box Lunch back in time to kill Danny before the Bad Future happens, which is a result of the Nasty Burger exploding and taking pretty much everyone Danny cares about with it. However, Danny and Box Lunch's fight is what leads to the Nasty Burger's later explosion (as well as Danny getting the test answers). Fortunately, this Stable Time Loop is broken thanks to Clockwork's intervention.
  • Invoked and Enforced by Dark Danny, who goes out of his way to ensure the events that led to the Bad Future still happen exactly as he remembers them.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Dark Danny traps Danny in the future while he goes back in time to make sure the events that lead to his existence still happen. Danny can't travel back to the past until he removes the time traveling medallion his future self fused inside him. The only person he can go to for help is the future version of Vlad Masters, who's now become The Atoner, planning to have him use the Ghost Gauntlets to remove the medallion so he can return to the past and stop his future self. Vlad, however, points out that he could also just kill Danny on the spot and prevent the Bad Future from ever happening ("Didn't think of that, did you?"); fortunately, he doesn't go through with it.
• Super-Scream: The most prominent ghost power in this special is the Ghostly Wail, which first appeared when Dark Danny knocked out the towers generating the ghost shield around Amity Park, then Danny himself got it when he was being attacked by future versions of his enemies. It came in quite handy during the climactic battle with Dark Danny, not to mention shocking him as Danny got it ten years earlier than him, proving the future could be changed.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: There are two instances where characters, Danny and SkulkTech, fall from the sky and grab onto a flagpole, commenting how they're surprised that it worked instead of breaking. Sure enough, the flagpole breaks and they resume falling, especially since both the flagpole wasn't designed to carry anything heavier than a flag and the latter is clearly heavier than a teenage boy.
• Tempting Fate: When Dark Danny appears on Future Valerie's communicator, she defiantly declares that no matter how powerful he is, he can't break through Amity Park's ghost shield.
  Dark Danny: Until today. Unleashes his new Ghostly Wail to devastate the ghost shield's tower generators
• This Cannot Be!: Dark Danny is firmly convinced that You Can't Fight Fate and Danny's Bad Future can't be averted. Thus, he's left completely floored when Danny unleashes the Ghostly Wail, a power that took him ten years to develop.
• This Explains So Much: When Mr. Lancer sees Danny in ghost form before Clockwork turned back time, Danny figures it explains all his periodic absences.
• Time Dissonance: Clockwork doesn't view time the linear way humans (and the Observants) do.
  Clockwork: For me, time moves backwards and forwards and... oh, why am I bothering? You're fourteen.
• Time Stands Still: One of Clockwork's powers, as shown when he fights with Danny, is that he can use his staff to freeze time.
  • This is how the conflict is ultimately resolved. Clockwork intervenes in the last possible moment when the Nasty Sauce explodes, saving Danny and the others, and (as a bonus) takes Danny back to before Dark Danny took the C.A.Ts in his place so that he could set things right.
• Time Travel: This movie lives, breathes, and thrives on it, if you couldn't already tell.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Since Clockwork's lair is "outside of time," all points in history are equally past, present, and future.
  Clockwork: I sent him back to his own time. Or should I say, forward to his own time.
• Torso with a View: When Jazz tries to land a blow against Dark Danny, he merely creates a hole in his chest to let the attack go through him unharmed before it reseals without problem.

U-Y

• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Had Mr. Lancer not made it seem like the test was such a big deal, there's good chance the events of the episode wouldn't have happened. Adding to that, it was his decision to have the fateful meeting at the Nasty Burger that resulted in everyone being in the blast range.
  • While Danny's decision to cheat was wrong, he certainly never could have predicted it would lead to so much death and destruction in the original timeline.
• Villain Has a Point: Dark Danny rightly mocks Jack and Maddie for being too stupid to notice their son was half ghost, even pointing out the obvious name similarities.
• Villain Team-Up: In the Bad Future, Skulker, Technus, Ember, Johnny 13, Kitty, and the Box Ghost have all teamed up to destroy Dark Danny.
• Villain World: In the future, Dark Danny defeats all of his foes with ease. His only remaining obstacle is Amity Park's Ghost Shield, which he manages to topple through the use of his Ghostly Wail.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Many of Danny's enemies have many Affably Evil moments and/or comedic qualities while Dark Danny is never Affably Evil and his atrocities are played dead serious.
• Wham Episode: While Dark Danny is ultimately defeated, Danny gets a new power even Vlad doesn't have and discovers Jazz has been his Secret Secret-Keeper all along, changing the status quo going forward.
• Wham Line: When Future Valerie sees Present-Day Tucker and Sam, she’s absolutely stunned that they’re living and breathing.
  Future Valerie: Sam? Tucker? It’s not possible...This is a trick! YOU CAN’T BE ALIVE!
• Wham Shot: At the end of the opening, it's revealed that the mysterious ghost that's been terrifying the future is an evil future version of Danny.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • While the accident that takes the lives of Danny's family and friends is averted, the fact that Nasty Burger is still going to explode is not addressed at the end of the episode.
  • The Fright Knight completely disappears after his only appearance, which is before the theme song.
• What You Are in the Dark: Explicitly implied: Danny is stuck in the future because of Dark Danny phasing the time medallion keeping him tethered there into his body, and seeks out Future Vlad to help him out. As he’s readying the Ghost Gauntlets to help Danny out, Future Vlad lays out the current situation: he can either remove Danny's time medallion, so he can stop Dark Danny from causing the Bad Future to come to fruition, or he can just kill Danny outright and get the same result. We then immediately cut away as Danny screams in pain... and then later on, Danny reappears in the past.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The episode shares the basic premise of the Darkwing Duck episode "Time and Punishment" (a Time Travel plot where losing loved ones drives the hero to become the most powerful, most feared villain of all time in the future, and someone must go back to the present to Set Right What Once Went Wrong).
• You Can't Fight Fate: This is Dark Danny's attitude throughout most of the film, believing that Danny's Bad Future is inevitable. However, Danny's will to Screw Destiny was so strong he gained the Ghostly Wail, Dark Danny's most powerful ability, ten years early, shocking Dark Danny in more ways than one.
  Dark Danny: That power! It's not possible! I don't get that power until ten years from now!
  Danny: I guess the future isn't as set in stone as you think it is.
• You Do Not Want To Know: This is what Future Vlad said to Danny regarding the fate of Danny's human self in the future.
  Vlad: Some things, my boy...are better left unsaid.

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