I'd say Jazz might be my favorite character because her being a Secret Secret-Keeper for half of the show made for a pretty interesting dynamic, and I enjoyed when episodes would focus on her sibling relationship with Danny. She's a very caring, if overbearing, older sister who just wants to support her brother however she can, and that's really sweet. It's also why My Brother's Keeper is one of my favorite episodes in the show.
Imo Jazz is by far the best character on the show, and her dynamic with Danny is the only one (min nearly always builds both characters up well and rarely ever makes both characters feel like unlikeable assholes.
She's, like, everything that's good about Sam but very little of what was bad about the character. Imo, the show more or less ditched Jazz except for the occasional focus episode, and it shouldn't have. The stuff they could've done with the whole "Jazz has ghost envy" thing alone...
Danny Phantom's character writing is... not it's strongest suit, imo. It's the first time, growing up, I came to the realization of "I like this show, but I often don't like any of the characters in it."
Edited by KnownUnknown on May 17th 2024 at 8:05:54 AM
I don't think they outright made Jazz go Out of Focus.
After Danny finds out Jazz knew his secret, she is in a major role in Secret Weapons and Girls Night Out, supporting roles in The Fright Before Christmas, Micro Management, Masters of All Time, Reality Trip, Eye for an Eye, Forever Phantom, Livin Large, Frightmare, and the series finale. Not totally out of focus, about as much focus as Jack and Maddie get.
"Apart from Maddie and Jazz (gee I wonder why...), most of the human characters are pretty controversial."
I think it's because most of the human characters cling really tight to their stereotypes. Jazz is an exception because she has great character development and is one of the best if not the best written characters in the show and Maddie is inoffensive because she's half classic mom tropes and half literally Jack but toned down. The only other uncontroversial humans I'd list are Valerie, Danny and Vlad.
I do like Dash and Kwan since they're a lot funnier than the typical Jerk Jock formula, especially Kwan.
The legend has returned.I think Jazz's presence kinda makes the weakness of most of the other character writing way more obvious. Because you have this one (relatively) really well written character with a genuine arc in a show full of stereotypes. Jazz also never had any of the obvious bending to get her to fit into a specific role. She was allowed to sort of naturally fit into her role.
Valerie also had better than average writing, but she and Sam got caught in the same problem, which was that in the last season, all the Danny/Valerie stuff was thrown out and they dialed up the Danny/Sam stuff in a way that didn't fit with what had happened before.
And Tucker, quite frankly, just sucks and even his focus episodes make him look terrible.
Edited by Zendervai on May 18th 2024 at 2:36:00 PM
Yeah, the stereotypes thing was definitely a problem with the show. Heck, you can kind of even notice it with Jazz when you watch the episodes pre-My Brother's Keeper and see the difference between how she's written before her arc starts and how she's written during and after it. But with her, at least it doesn't last too long.
"Let’s see who’s stronger: someone that has something to protect, or someone that has nothing to lose."...Okay, fuck it, that one's PAINFUL, ow...!
Self-professed Wild Card who thinks cynicism isn't so bad.Man, that is tragic. If the show gets an animated revival, I feel Vlad will inevitably have to be recast if he appears in it, maybe with Travis Willingham voicing him now, or Trevor Devall.
Edited by IvanovTroping97 on Jun 28th 2024 at 7:14:12 PM

Jack is a Base-Breaking Character on the YMMV page, but yeah Valerie is beloved and most fans expand on her.