"Save the world, then rule it..."
Chess Piece is a Danny Phantom Fan Webcomic AU, made by Neo Yi. Taking place during the The Roaring '20s, it stars Prince Daniel Masters, heir to the Water Kingdom of Dalv. After the events of the Great War, his father, the King Vlad has tried to preserve peace and alliance with the other nations.
Unfortunately that's interrupted by the aptly named Chaos Order who are on the search for the Seven Crystals that hold untold powers to those who utilize it. Along for the ride is Phantom, a mysterious denizen who wants Vlad for himself (whom he deems his "papa") by creating a world of Nothingness. Naturally, Danny can't have that. After all, if the world is destroyed, then how can he rule it?
The comic launched on 3/11/06, but was canceled on its fifteenth issue out of a planned thirty or so. It was halfway done. The comic has since been deleted, but the first 5 issues can still be downloaded here.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Both Sam and Valerie. Paulina showed some moves in #14.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Seriously, Danny is a nutcase that a few of the girls like for some reason.
- Ambiguous Gender: Cujo at first (before she was confirmed as a girl) and Nocturne, whose canon self is also this but is called "mommy" by Klemper.
- Anachronism Stew: A laptop in The Roaring '20s? Somewhat justified in that it came out of Weird Science.
- Vlad later banned all advanced technology—it was too much of a headache for him and his people.
- And I Must Scream: Phantom's origin story which may not be true has elements of this and many readers got suitably squicked.
- Clockwork may suffer this.
- An Aesop: Being purely an idealist or a cynic can be really dangerous. The Big Bad could easily be seen as idealism gone horribly wrong.
- Arc Words: "A World of Nothingness. This is the world I seek..."
- Arranged Marriage: Danny and Paulina. Both are happily married ...right? Unfortunately, others are not pleased. Also Walker and Dora, who were not pleased with it.
- Ax-Crazy: Phantom. Oh, Phantom.
- Back Story: #11 for Danny. Also #15 for The Order.
- Beta Couple: Jazz and Technus.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Masters
- Blood Knight: Wrath.
- Bumbling Dad: Used straight and averted as Vlad is a competent parent; he just has a tendency to act like a 24-year-old then his given age of 41.
- Bury Your Gays: Deconstructed like woah. Danny's gay partner dies and becomes a ghost.
- Canine Companion: Danny and his mysterious green puppy, Cujo.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Bertrand literally, who also uses them as weapons, ala Gambit.
- The Chosen One: #8 has Nocturn reveal a certain white haired individual is the chosen one-now which one is it?
- Color-Coded Characters: Dalv is blue, Amity Empire is red, pHANTOM NATION is green, Nippon Empire is Violet, and Canada District is Yellow.
- Also the Order.
- Contemplate Our Navels: XJ-9 does this.
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Contest Winner Cameo: Three times. - Cool Shades: 90% of the characters wears sunglasses and/or goggles. It when they take it off that something serious is about to happen.
- Creepy Child: Danny, Danny, Danny. It's implied he killed his great-grandfather at the age of ten.
- Crossover: With various Nicktoons, though they're relegated to cameos/Glorified Cameos.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Leviathan religion, which may be the closest literal invocation of this trope.
- Though the Dalvians believe in God, too. Dalv culture is mostly a mixture of Christianity and worshiping Leviathan.
- A Day in the Limelight: #9 focused on XJ9/Jenny and Brad while #10 focused on secondary characters Dash and Kwan.
- Deadpan Snarker: Wrath and sometimes Lunchbox.
- Deconstruction: A number of ways.
- Deconstruction Crossover: Boy is it ever.
- Depraved Bisexual: Danny. Who else?
- Disappeared Dad: Jazz doesn't know her father. Her father later finds out who she is from her mother.
- Also, Kwan, whose father died.
- Disposable Woman: The whole purpose of Maddie is this to angst up Danny.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Phantom's only means to turn the entire universe into Nothingness is because of his love for "papa" Vlad... Also because he was 'born'. Seriously.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A few times-the most disturbing one being Phantom's origin.
- The Dragon: Appears to be Ghost Writer, who is currently going the way of The Starscream.
- Dramatic Irony: Phantom: after telling a story of murder: "Now wasn't that a nice story, kiddies?"
- Driven to Suicide: How Diligence died. How exactly is hinted at, but there were a number of reasons according to Word of God.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Amorpho, who appeared in Danny's nightmare and later in Kitty/Lust's history.
- Don't forget Daggett recalling his meeting with him.
- Elemental Powers: Danny and Vlad each has their own sets.
- Emo Teen: Shut up, Danny, and go hug your daddy. Sam to an extent, but she has way better reasons.
- Epileptic Trees: Invoked with the front pieces, which show things that may or may not happen in the story.
- Fallen Angel: Invoked in Kitty/Lust.
- Fan Disservice: Used to torque off Danny/Sam shippers by showing Danny/Paulina scenes. To others, it's just Fanservice.
- Fanservice: I admit that I do this too much with Vlad. Also with Danny, though less so. Some of the yummier bits? this, this and OMG THIS!
- Fantastic Racism: In a country that has a ghost for a general, Jack Fenton doesn't like ghosts. He is, however, slowly coming around. Also Abe, who is a bigot according to Word of God.
- Fidelity Test: Apparently, Johnny failed. Now he's cursed with a Living Shadow.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Most of the secondary cast
- Foregone Conclusion: Although Vlad is loved as a king in the '20s (currently 1927), it won't last another two years due to the Great Depression-making him trying to introduce his father to the era rather ironic.
- Gambit Pileup: There are at least five schemes going on at once. It doesn't get incomprehensable, either, thank god.
- Gentle Giant: Skulker
- Ghost Amnesia: Diligence.
- The Ghost: Composure, who is stated to be a spy.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All
- How We Got Here: #15 for the Order.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Annoyingly compared by fans to Kingdom Hearts - actually inspired by Brave Fencer Musashi, which had the same character designer.
- Kiss of Death: Called out but stopped in the nick of time (or not) by Vlad.
- Knight Templar Parent: Heaven forbid you do something bad to Danny in front of Vlad.
- Love Dodecahedron: Danny has an interest in or is pursued by *takes deep breath* Elliot, Danielle Jazz, Valerie, Paulina, Sam, Ghost Writer, and Vlad.
- Love Epiphany: Danny in #14.
- Love Hurts
- Love Makes You Crazy: Possibly deconstructed in Sidney, apparently.
- Love Triangle: Abe/Sidney/Lunchbox ...until things literally went kaboom, that is.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Danny, who apparently never told Diligence that he loved him. Also the writer, who has positive attitudes about homosexuality and has almost entirely either villainous or anti-hero types within the story.
- Mega Crossover
- Missing Mom: Vlad's mother has been missing and he's been looking for a while.
- Mistaken for Gods: Done on purpose by Phantom.
- Mr. Fanservice: Vlad and to a lesser amount, Danny, Diligence and Phantom in that order.
- Myth Arc
- Mythology Gag: A number of them. Danny's crest (explained away as a Atlantian rune) and getting Danny into a jumpsuit as seen above are just the tip.
- Nightmare Dreams: Where Danny is alone on a rock with his father's corpse and Phantom, who tells Danny to drink his father's blood and then uses waterbending to splash him with blood. Danny, usually calm wakes screaming and promptly throws up.
- No Bisexuals: Averted with Danny and possibly Vlad according to Word of God.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Vlad. Inspired by Iroh, his former Sifu.
- Oedipus Complex: Both Phantom and Danny have serious daddy (and mommy for Danny) issues, the latter according to Word of God.
- Old New Love: Invoked with Danny and Ghost Writer. Hard to say if it'll get anywhere.
- Only Sane Man: Vlad and Wrath.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Well, it IS a Danny Phantom AU.
- Parental Obliviousness: Averted or played straight. Vlad may or may not know his son wants to rule the world.
- The Plan: One is being played by Danny. Also Aragon and Clockwork and Phantom though Aragon's is only suceeding out of sheer luck.
- Recap Episode: #6 and #15 to an extent.
- Recurring Extra: The Dairy Priest
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Phantom in particular and Danny whilst under Nocturne's control.
- Red Shirt Army: The resistance in No Man's Land
- La Résistance: In No Man's Land, to free the slaves from the demons.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: XJ-9.
- Royally Screwed Up: Vlad is a human-turned-demon who constantly bemoans his work, acts twenty years younger then he has any right to be, is optimistically eccentric, temperamental when people touches his hat, and sleeps in the nude (and walks around the palace in the nude out of spite). He's also the Only Sane Man in his family.
- Rule of Cool: How does Danny having a fight with Vlad work? Because it's awesome.
- Sanity Slippage: Hinted at going on with Danny.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Diligence has one that he can control with his mind that act as extra arms/hands.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Human Sidney during the flashback in Issue 15.
- Seven Deadly Sins: And their opposites, just for good measure
- Shout-Out: A great deal of them. Vlad himself was according to Word of God "The Forrest Gump of his time".
- The most apparent example being a Sigur Ros song used for a lullaby and a Beatles song as dialogue.
- Another apparent example are the references to Final Fantasy IX. Dalv Castle is Alexandria and the scene of Vlad standing in front of the castle during the prologue references Garnet standing in front of Alexandria. Also airships.
- The Endless: You get to see Delirium, Destiny, Destruction and Desire... AKA Lust in the main story.... if mostly in extremely minor roles. All of them appear in Kitty/Lust's flashback.
- The powerglove... it sucks!
- Shrug of God: A number of times to the frustration of fans.
- Slasher Smile: Wrath and Phantom.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: The story tends to veer in either direction, the author staying right in the middle. It could be argued that Phantom is idealism gone horribly, horribly wrong.
- This is an important father/son relationship character angle between Vlad who rules with an Idealistic heart while his son disapproves and is far more cynical and down to earth in his goals.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Danny and Ghost Writer. So far, it's the latter who wants to rejuvenate it. Also: Abe and Lunchbox (before she died).
- The Starscream: Ghost Writer.
- The Stoic: Danny, usually. When he cracks...
- Survivor Guilt: THE reason why Vlad became King and gave Danny as much benefit as possible. Danny to an extent.
- Abe may have elements of this after watching the girl he liked go kaboom. He's still a jerk.
- Transparent Closet: Spectra according to Word of Gay and maybe Dora.
- Transplanted Character Fic: Mmmmm... yes. But Chess Piece has a very good original story
- The Unfavorite: Averted. Vlad only thinks he's the unfavorite. Arguably Aragon.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Also contains shoutouts to Chrono Trigger among others.
- Villainous Breakdown: .....and who.
- Villainous Lineage: A rumored "evil gene" that skips a generation in the Masters family. Guess who has it right now?
- Villain Protagonist: Danny can either be this or Nominal Hero
- Writer Revolt: There has been Danny/Paulina sequences written in just so the writer could poke at Danny/Sam shippers.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: A number of times Danny and Vlad appear in nothing but a loose bed robe. Also a Pin Up of Vlad.
- Zeppelins from Another World: Airships and whatnot.
