| "I have experience, my child, and the money and power attained through using those powers for personal gain, you see. I could train you, teach you everything I know, and all you'd have to do is renounce your idiot father!" |
| ā Vlad Plasmius to Danny Fenton[1] |
Vlad Masters, also known as Vlad Plasmius, is a villain from the TV series Danny Phantom. He serves as the main antagonist throughout the series, mostly as the archenemy to Danny.
History
Origin
Vlad just moments before he would receive his ghost powers
Vlad attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison alongside his best friend Jack Fenton and love interest Maddie. Vlad's friendship with Jack ended when a prototype ghost portal they had built overloaded and blasted Vlad in the face with ectoplasmic energy. Vlad was hospitalized with ecto-acne for years, which ruined his social life, his spirit, and his chances of winning Maddie. However, this accident also infused his DNA with ectoplasm, causing him to become a half-ghost and giving him ghostly powers.
After he recovered, he spent the next bitter 20 years honing and taking advantage of his newfound powers, and using them for his own personal gain in order to become rich and famous, all with the hope of eventually getting Maddie back.[1][4] He possessed wealthy business tycoons to make them hand their companies over to him, took part in invisible insider stock market trading, and committed many invisible burglaries in order to amass his vast fortune. He founded and currently owns Vladco (which would buy out Axion Labs later on)[5] and has been featured in a number of magazines (Fortunate Magazine named him "Man of the Year" in 1997).[6]
Mysterious Occurrence
Vlad Masters as he currently appears
Despite the fact that Vlad made his first appearance in "Bitter Reunions," he reveals to Danny that he had sent the ectopuses in the first episode to test Jack. Also in "Bitter Reunions," Vlad sends three of his ghost vulture henchmen to kill Jack, only to be thwarted by Danny after discovering their plan, but not their motive.
Despite their failure, Vlad invites the Fentons to a college reunion at his mansion in Wisconsin. However, it was really just part of a plot to humiliate Jack and to get his wife Maddie, the woman of his dreams, to leave him. Danny (as well as his sister Jazz) are dragged along, and the boy immediately has decidedly mixed feelings about the well-off man. That night, Danny's ghost sense alerts him to the presence of a ghost who introduces himself as "Vlad Plasmius." They end up fighting, but Danny is easily outmatched by the stronger, more powerful ghost. Vlad knocks him unconscious, and he unwillingly transforms back to Danny Fenton in front of him, making Vlad realize that his soon-to-be arch rival is Jack's son. He remains tight-lipped about the fact until the day of the actual reunion.
Vlad as a ghost in "Bitter Reunions"
On the night of the reunion, Vlad casually asks Danny to go down to the lab to get a present for Jack, but when Danny does so, Skulker captures him with the spectral energy neutralizer. Vlad enters and reveals to Danny who he is, ultimately offering Danny the chance to join up with him and help him further train and hone his powers in exchange for renouncing his father. Danny angrily declines, leaving Vlad to put the next phase of his plan into action. He possesses Jack, makes him cause chaos during the reunion to ruin his reputation, then captures Maddie Fenton. Danny (eventually freed by the Dairy King) uses the Fenton RV to stop him. Danny ironically blackmails Vlad by threatening to expose the both of them to his parents unless they call a truce, to which Vlad agrees, though he vowed to return.[1]
Archenemy
Unknown to Danny, Vlad gives Valerie Gray ghost-hunting equipment in order to cause trouble for Danny while getting access to Danny's DNA for a secret project.
Vlad appears later as the mysterious provider of Valerie's infamous ghost hunting suit and weapons, although she is unaware of his true intentions behind it.[7] Vlad made a full return when he staged a plan that involved the inconspicuous "DALV" group ("Vlad" backwards) inviting Maddie and Danny to a mother/son science convention in Florida. When Maddie takes a reluctant Danny along as an attempt to bond with him, the two are both tricked into parachuting out of their plane, conveniently finding themselves at Vlad's Rocky Mountain retreat. There, Vlad attempts to convince them both to stay with him by confessing his undying love for Maddie. They refuse and storm off into the woods.
Vlad short-circuits Danny's powers with the Plasmius Maximus.
Vlad attempts to chase them both back by means of sending his mutated ghost animals after them - the bodies of which can be seen mounted in his hunting-lodge style living room. While Maddie is sleeping in her tent, Danny is captured and confronted by Vlad, who shorts out Danny's powers for a set period of time with a device he invented, the Plasmius Maximus, and leaves him at the mercy of his ghost animals. However, Danny is saved by his mother and, with little choice, is forced to return to Vlad's home to find a means to get back to Amity Park. Maddie uses her charm on Vlad to find a phone, which makes Danny sick. She goes off to make the call while Danny, left alone with Vlad, falsely declares him as his "new dad" to let his guard down. Successfully tricking Vlad by setting back his clock to make him think the Plasmius Maximus hadn't yet worn off (when in fact, it had), he wraps the Specter Deflector around Vlad, which weakens him considerably for a fairer fight. Danny ultimately defeats Vlad by convincing the ghosts of the animals that Vlad had killed to turn against him, as well as disabling his powers with the Plasmius Maximus.[8]
Vlad's next plan has him traveling into the Ghost Zone in search of the Skeleton Key, an item that enables him to open "any door, travel to any realm, and free any prisoner." When Behemoth, the guardian of the key, appears, Vlad easily overpowers him, but this is only an initial success and Vlad is soon defeated as Behemoth throws him out of the Ghost Zone back through his portal, and back into his manor without the key. However, he realizes that he had forgotten to change the "Ecto-Filtrator" on his ghost portal, and it explodes, destroying his castle mansion. Due to this, Vlad plans to steal the Fentons' ghost portal. Needing to distract Danny so he can have the time to dismantle it, he offers a million dollar bounty on the ghost boy to distract him. Ghost hunters from all over gather to capture him, which doesn't bother Danny due to the incompetence of most of them. However, when Danny spots the ghost vultures making off with Sam and Tucker, he races after them, only to be brutally beaten by Plasmius, who appears and reveals his intention to humiliate Jack as well, before leaving.
Danny feels pity for his father and his ineptitude, so he allows himself to be caught to boost his terrible reputation as a ghost hunter. But when Jack leaves to claim his reward, the two are both captured by Vlad who then proceeds to steal their ghost portal. Working together, Jack and Danny escape and head for the Portal, where Vlad brutally insults Jack. In a moment of rarity, Jack successfully uses the ghost gauntlets to beat Vlad and throws him into the Ghost Zone. A humiliated Vlad soon turns gleeful when he obtains the Key shortly afterwards.[2]
The Skeleton Key was put to use later when Vlad winds up releasing the ghost king Pariah Dark when he tries to steal the king's treasures: the "Crown of Fire" and the "Ring of Rage." To combat the king, Vlad and Danny call a temporary truce and fight off Pariah's forces. Vlad also reveals to Valerie that he was the one who gave her the equipment to fight ghosts. Vlad ultimately locks Pariah Dark back into his sarcophagus prison just as Danny, armed with the Ecto-Skeleton, passes out from the exertion of using it to force Pariah back inside of it. Taking advantage of the situation, Vlad steals the Ecto-Skeleton, and claims to Maddie and Jack that he rescued Danny to worm his way back into their good graces.[9]
Danny meets the now-repentant Vlad of the future.
In an alternate future, Danny, orphaned upon the death of his family and friends, moves in with Vlad, seeing as he was "the only person left on the planet who could possibly hope to understand his situation." Vlad takes him in with open arms and honors his wishes when a seriously depressed and desperate Danny begs Vlad to remove his ghost half from him, claiming that the memory of it causes him too much pain. During the process, Danny's ghost half becomes enraged, and turns on Vlad, tearing Vlad's ghost half away from his human half and inadvertently merging him with it as he goes to attack the other ghost. With evil having completely consumed him, Danny/Vlad's ghost then proceeds to kill the human Danny, destroy Vlad's mansion, and begin a 10 year-long rampage of world destruction while the human Vlad just barely escaped.
When the present-day Danny, trapped in the future due to the future evil Dan fusing a Clockwork medallion within him, arrives in what's left of Vlad's mansion, he finds Vlad, now reduced to a miserable old hermit. The only good that came out of this, he says, is that ten years without ghost powers has given him time to realize what a fool he'd been. In a rare moment for both characters, Vlad shows repentance for his misdeeds while Danny, in a way, forgives him. Vlad ultimately played a part in returning present-day Danny back to the past to correct his mistake by removing the time medallion from within him.[10]
Vlad's next big plan has him hiring Skulker to steal various materials to improve the stolen Ecto-Skeleton's power. When Danny's sister, Jazz, arrives with the intent to move in with him, because her father's "an idiot," Vlad wastes no time in convincing Jack and Maddie to let her stay a while. However, he doesn't realize that Jazz's true motive is to investigate him and his possible connection to Skulker's thefts in secret. Vlad starts getting suspicious when Jazz is found sneaking around in his lab, and orders Jazz to prove her loyalty by putting her in the ecto-skeleton and ordering her to destroy her brother, unless she wanted to get destroyed herself. Danny and Jazz, however, get the last laugh by outsmarting Vlad by means of staging a mock battle, escaping while he's confused, and setting the Ecto-Skeleton to self-destruct.
At one point, Vlad comes down with another outbreak of lethal ecto-acne. Infecting Sam and Tucker with the same disease, he blackmails Danny into helping him. Taking a different route, Danny convinced Clockwork to send him to the past to save Vlad from getting hit by the Porto-Portal blast, this change of events ensuring a future without Vlad Plasmius. However, due to Danny's interference with the past, Jack accidentally got caught in the blast and Jack becomes infected with the ecto-acne and ultimately becomes an angry, bitter "Jack Plasmius." In this "alternate present," Vlad is married to Maddie, has become the new Wisconsin Dairy King, and supposedly lives as a simple dairy farmer. Just like in the original present, though, he is still a very controlling individual, as he forbids his wife Maddie from continuing her ghost research. He also lies to her by telling her that Jack had blamed her for the accident and never wants to see her again. Danny tells her the truth in that it wasn't true and that Jack still loves her, making her enraged that Vlad had lied to her.
When Vlad eventually discovers Maddie's secret basement lab, he's shocked to see Jack still alive and thoroughly in love with Maddie. He blasts at him out of jealousy, possibly killing him. Angry, Maddie quickly throws him into the Ghost Zone. Danny returns to Clockwork's lair afterwards where he changes the past back to the way it originally was. Gaining knowledge of a cure from the past, Danny tells his parents, who are able to cure Vlad, Tucker, and Sam afterwards.[4]
Desperation
Vlad eventually takes drastic and desperate measures when he tries to create a clone of Danny (getting various samples of Danny's DNA secretly from their battles, in addition to his battles with Valerie). He managed to spawn a few imperfect versions (due to the lack of a mid-morph sample from Danny), including Dani Phantom, a slightly younger, female version of Danny. He eventually uses her in helping to capture Danny himself. However, Danielle betrays Vlad after seeing who her "father" truly was, a man who didn't care at all about her and saw her as nothing more than a tool. Siding with her "cousin" Danny, the two attack Vlad, causing him to actually collide with the main, "primary" clone, destroying him. Gravely upset over the loss of his most stable creation, Vlad was seconds away from killing Danielle if not for Danny's ghostly wail, Sam and Tucker's timely rescue, and Danielle's own insertion.[11]
Politics and New Grounds
After a series of pranks between Vlad and Danny, the former runs for mayor of Amity Park, winning by overshadowing the voters and making them choose him. He then makes life miserable for Danny by banning technology and Danny Phantom, installing school uniforms, and tearing down the Nasty Burger to make way for a new restaurant, "McMasters," from which teenagers are banned. Danny eventually apologizes for his pranks, but Vlad refuses to stop ruining his life, leading Danny to try and announce to the public that Masters and Plasmius are the same. This fails when a Plasmius double appears in front of Danny, the public, and a human Vlad Masters. While the duplicate and Danny fight, Vlad, trying to make himself look good in public, attempts to kill his Plasmius double until Danny overshadows it and flies him to Vlad's limo just as the mayor opens fire. Pulled from the wreckage is an injured Danny Fenton, and an angry public blames Vlad for hurting an innocent child. As a result, he goes into damage-control mode and turns everything back to normal, his battle with Danny far from over.[12]
"Whenever there's a draw, there's bound to be a rematch..."
Vlad later steals the famed "Infi-Map" from Danny and his friends, who had gotten the map earlier from Frostbite. This powerful ghostly map takes the user to any part of the Ghost Zone that they want to go to instantly, and Vlad feels that he can use it to take over the realm. Danny and his friends get involved in a wild goose chase through various portals opening all over the world and throughout various time periods to bring the map back. They eventually succeed when the map leads Vlad to the realm of the "Far Frozen," where Frostbite, along with his people, freeze him.
It is also revealed in this episode that Vlad owns a cat fittingly named Maddie, a suggestion Danny made in an earlier episode to spite his loneliness.[13]
To further his appeal as mayor, Vlad disguises a barometer that controls the weather ghost Vortex as his "rain machine" to bring rain upon Amity Park's recent drought. The plan later backfires when Vortex rebels and the barometer breaks, causing him to go on a rampage on Earth and accidentally transfers his own set of weather powers to Danny, which are triggered by his emotions. Vlad tries to keep Danny calm and pleased at all times so that it remains sunny, while Sam and Tucker scope Vortex out and bring him back to Amity Park, where he is defeated by Danny. Vlad blames the whole mess on Danny Phantom in public.[14] Vlad made a cameo when the Fentons moved next door to him when they briefly became extremely wealthy,[15] and as one of the ghostly villain Nocturn's sleeping victims.[16]
Final Fall
Upon Danielle's return, Vlad hires Valerie to capture her for him. With her under his possession once again, he planned to dissolve her entire body to study her remains in order to create a better, more functional clone. Danny, managing to gain help from a hesitant Valerie, stops him in time, saves Dani's life and warns Vlad to leave her be.[17]
Vlad Plasmius reveals himself.
Planning to destroy Danny Phantom once and for all, Vlad hires a new team of ghost hunters, the "Masters' Blasters," to replace and humiliate Danny, in what he hopes will cause the boy to stop his ghost hunting once and for all. When an asteroid gets knocked towards Earth by Vlad's satellite from an accidental explosion, he reveals his dual identity to the world and promises to stop the asteroid from destroying Earth by making the asteroid intangible, in exchange for over 500-billion dollars and complete control over the entire world. However, he later finds out that the asteroid was composed of an anti-ghost element called Ecto-ranium, making it so all ghosts, including him, couldn't touch it, and therefore could not make it intangible. Unable to save the planet and return home, due to the fact that he would be forever hunted now that he had revealed his secret and threatened the whole planet, realizing that now more than ever he needed Jack's help, Vlad begged him to let him aboard the Fenton Rocket, but now knowing of Vlad's true nature and realizing that the Vlad Masters he knew is gone, Jack shunned his former friend by abandoning Vlad in space, dooming him to eternally roam the universe alone. After the Earth is saved by Danny, Vlad is shown sitting alone on a small asteroid, finally coming to terms with his eternal solitude as a "free-roaming space nomad" before being struck by the Disasteroid, after which his fate remains unknown.
Appearance
As a human, Vlad has white hair tied into a ponytail, as the result of being infused with ecto-acne, and a matching goatee. However, he has black eyebrows and a pointed nose. He has midnight blue eyes and his eyes are heavily outlined in black, showing his evil nature and implying that he maybe wears eyeliner. He typically wears a black suit with a red handkerchief in his left breast pocket and a matching red bolo tie. The suit has three rows of white buttons, a total of six. He also wears a white undershirt and black pointed shoes.
In his alter-ego of Vlad Plasmius, he retains little resemblance to his human form, although some feature remain the same. Plasmius is more vampiric than Masters, as this was the producer's original intention, although it was rebuked by Nickelodeon, who considered it too "occult." He is more muscular in this form, has sky blue skin, and pointed fangs. His hair is black and pointed in a U-shape and he has a black goatee. He wears a mostly white outfit consisting of white trousers and a white long-sleeved shirt covered in black gloves. His shirt is connected via a black belt and stems up to his neck. There is a black collar on his shirt like Danny's, although it does not extend up the neck. He wears black boots. Finally, he accessorizes with a high collar cape connected around his neck that has a white exterior and a red interior lining.
Personality
Vlad petting his cat Maddie
Vlad's general outer appearance showcases him as a well to-do man: rich, debonair, suave, prideful, arrogant, clever, manipulative, intelligent, and mysterious. He's very methodical in getting what he wants whenever he wants it, showcasing patience as well as a slick side. Deceitful and cruel, Vlad is perfectly willing to use any dirty trick to obtain his desires. He isn't above using others as his pawns in his well-played game of chess to reach further into his goals, like infecting Sam and Tucker with ecto-acne to get Danny to help him with his own case. Never giving up when he is down, to compensate for his losses, Vlad savors the small personal victories, such as in "Bitter Reunions" where he lost the battle, but proudly pointed out Danny's blackmailing being similar to his before leaving.
He usually works alone, but has required help from Skulker several times, as well as the vulture ghosts, ectopuses, and the failed clones. It is also probable that he struck a deal with the Fright Knight, but the show never showed it come to play.[18]
Vlad enraged
Vlad is also known to hold a grudge for years. Part of the reason he hates Jack so much is due to all the humiliation and personal injury Jack has caused him over the years. When under stress, he frequently shouts out snack names ("Oh, butter biscuits," "Oh, sugar cookies," etc.) and is known for losing his temper quite easily.
While Vlad is, at heart, cruel, greedy, self-serving, sneaky, underhanded, petty and power-hungry, he's also a complicated soul. Often a double-edged sword, he uses the wrong methods (killing, stealing, etc.) to gain what he thinks is right, namely in order to fill his painful loneliness. This includes getting love that he's never had from his life-altering incident: Maddie, who he believes should've been his, and Danny, a potential son who also struggles with ghost powers.[19] Unfortunately, this longing is also used against him when his emotions leave him vulnerable, Danny, Maddie, and Jazz having tricked him with it. However, the fact that he retains such emotions shows that he is not above redemption.
His arrogance has also proven to be a significant disadvantage; on one occasion when he fought Jack as PlasmiusāJack, naturally, being unaware of his identity as Vlad Mastersāpart of the reason for his defeat was the fact that he underestimated Jack's ability to successfully battle him and launch effective attacks. Additionally, he can become too overconfident about his plans, only to ruin them because his temper and inability to think some aspects of his plan through.
By the time of his downfall at the end of the series, Vlad has come to realize the foolishness of his actions, contemplating his lonely future away from Earth.
Relationships
Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom
Quite possibly the one whom he desires the most, Vlad's first meeting with Danny was nothing special, up until he discovered that the boy was a half-ghost, just like him. With that knowledge, Vlad has since pursued Danny, trying to convince him to renounce his father, and become his adopted son/successor.
Later in the series, he becomes so desperate and angry that he attempts to clone Danny, which doesn't quite work out. Danny has nothing but disdain for Vlad mostly because he recognizes Vlad as a hopelessly deluded, cruel, and genuine sleaze.
However, often he tries to use Danny in order to get another phase of his plan(s) moving and isn't above being manipulative towards him. Yet, the other side of his personality shows an antagonistic paternal bond towards the boy, giving him advice and indicating that the two of them are a lot more alike than Danny cares to admit. By the time of "Eye for an Eye," after losing his possibly only chance to have Danny when Danny's clone is destroyed, Vlad sees Danny as a full-time rival rather out of frustration.
Dani Phantom
Created as one of Vlad's many failed attempts to clone Danny, Danielle "Dani" Phantom was the only one of his clones blessed with a mind of her own, the ability to think for herself, an individual personality, the closest he came to successfully cloning Danny. Dani genuinely loved Vlad as her father. However, Vlad still saw her as a failed experiment that he would later dispose of, and his paternal behavior was feigned for the time of being until he finished the primary clone. Dani's ghost-half was unstable, however, and she would to melt into ectoplasmic goo if she exerted herself too much. Vlad convinces her that if she captured Danny Phantom, he could use his "mid-morph" DNA to help stabilize her, and she agrees. However, Dani discovers the primary clone and what her "father" intended to do with her afterwards. She was heartbroken, grew to hate Vlad, and sided with Danny against him. They destroy all of Vlad's clones and leave him.
Some time later, Vlad discovers Dani had returned and has Valerie capture her. Vlad intended to resume his cloning experiments by melting Danielle down and study her ectoplasmic remains in order to see how she survived for so long. Valerie and Danny arrived just in time to save her, and Dani promptly beat down Vlad.
Ironically, if Vlad had treated Dani as he would have with Danny or the primary clone, he would have succeeded in creating the loving family he wanted.
Jazz Fenton
At first, Vlad often overlooks Jazz as he is aware that she knows nothing about Danny'sāand by extension, his ownāhalf-ghost status, and therefore is hardly an immediate threat to his plans. However, as he wishes to take Maddie from Jack and replace him as Danny and Jazz's father, he still treats Jazz with a certain degree of affection. This changes in "Secret Weapons" when Jazz tricks him by using his emotions against him and revealing that she knows about his secret identity. After that, Jazz becomes another young rival to him.
Maddie Fenton
The woman whom he desires, Vlad has repeatedly declared that he is in love with her and will do anything to get her, meaning having to kill Jack, who serves as an obstacle. Obsessed with her, his alternate self owned and controlled her like an object rather than a person.[4] Vlad also owns a Maddie hologram to compliment him on his work (though one version falls in love with a Jack hologram). Maddie is indifferent to Vlad after his confession about his love for her and continues to harbor mixed feelings towards him, even after he apparently rescued Danny in "Reign Storm." By the last episode, she considers him deplorable when he reveals his true nature and blackmails the nations of the world. Ultimately by doing this, Vlad loses any ounce of respect Maddie barely still had for him.
Jack Fenton
Vlad and Jack in a yearbook flashback
Jack was once Vlad's best friend in college, but his accidental ghost portal mistake and marriage to Maddie has left Vlad bitter. His hate for Jack is ironic, as Jack's accident was the catalyst for Vlad's success and wealth, but it is likely the great humiliation and personal injury Jack caused that makes Vlad continuously hold enmity to him. While Jack is oblivious to Vlad's hatred, Vlad has taken it upon himself to try to humiliate and kill Jack whenever the opportunity arises, only to typically be thwarted by Danny.
Eventually, Vlad reveals himself as a half-ghost to the world and blackmails all the nations for money and power in return for saving the earth from an approaching asteroidāshocking and overwhelming Jack. Despite Jack's constant apologizing and trying to understand Vlad's contempt, Vlad denied his pleas even stating he'll make Maddie his queen, as he coldly flies off while in space. However, when Vlad realizes that he would be unable to stop the asteroid from colliding with Earth, Vlad begs Jack to let him aboard the spaceship he is in, to which he is coldly denied and left stranded in space.
Afterwards, Vlad realized that his actions had destroyed his last friendship and connection to Earth, which showed he finally realized he took Jack's friendship for granted.[20]
Valerie Gray
She was given her ghost-hunting gear by Vlad and has since used it to her fullest ability until "Flirting With Disaster," in which the suit was destroyed and replaced by Technus. Unbeknownst to her, Valerie's suit served to spy on Danny and his ghost powers, which Vlad would then use to create the perfect clone. It seems Valerie is impressed and respectful towards Vlad, obviously not knowing of his true intentions. She eventually finds out he is half-ghost; angry by his deception she vows to hunt him down.[17] He referred to Valerie's ghost hunter persona as a "crack-pot" on a news broadcast in the last episode, hinting that Valerie may have already made moves against him.
Ghost Allies
One of the ghosts he primarily employs to do various odds and ends for him (stealing, kidnapping, etc.) is Skulker, which he does willingly in exchange for better equipment. The vulture ghosts also frequent as Vlad's hench-ghosts, weak, but usually reliable. It may be possible that there are other ghosts that work for Vlad. Vlad has apparently hired the Fright Knight to serve him and at one point, obtained the services of a weather-controlling ghost named Vortex briefly.
Dark Danny
Vlad accidentally helped in the birth of Danny's alternate evil incarnation, which ultimately led to him living as a recluse hermit, powerless when Dark Danny stripped him of his ghost powers and assimilated them. Dark Danny ultimately seeks Vlad's ghost portal in order to destroy it and presumably him as well. In the game Dark Danny comes to Vlad in the present to assure that the accident happens when he is defeated.
Powers and Abilities
Ghost Powers
Vlad has all the same powers that Danny has, but his powers are far more developed. He is able to perform many techniques that Danny has yet to learn, such as duplication, which Danny did not master until "Torrent of Terror."
- Going Ghost/Transformation: When Vlad transforms, black rings (as opposed to Danny's, which are blue-white) extend from his waist and pass over his body. Unlike Danny, Vlad does not have a battle cry.
- Intangibility: Standard ghost power.
- Invisibility: Standard ghost power.
- Flight: Standard ghost power.
- Superhuman Strength: He was much stronger than Danny during their first several encounters. In "The Million Dollar Ghost," he punched away the Behemoth with ease.
- Superhuman Durability: He is highly resistant to all forms of external physical damage. He is able to withstand higher amounts of damage than Danny. In his ghost form, Vlad's body is incredibly resistant to damage, and he also has demonstrated a high threshold for pain.
- Superhuman Stamina: He can exert himself at peak capacity for hours before fatigue begins to impair him.
- Superhuman Agility: In his ghost form, Vlad's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond those of a normal human being.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Vlad has dramatically enhanced reflexes, being able to dodge attacks with ease.
- Overshadowing: Vlad can overshadow other people to control their actions. He has used this ability to increase his wealth by possessing rich tycoons to make them give their companies to him.
- Ecto-Energy Powers
- Ghost Ray: His blast consists of pink ectoplasm; however, he is seen using green, turquoise, violet, and blue blasts as well.
- Energy Strike: Vlad can channel ecto-energy through his fists to enhance the strength of his physical attacks. With this power Vlad can punch through solid concrete.[11]
- Ghost Shield: His shield consists of pink or green ectoplasm. His shields can block or even reflect enemy attacks.
- Ecto-Energy Constructions: Vlad can create solid objects with ectoplasmic energy, such as a racket and a cage[2] or a sword.[13] He can also trap others in ectoplasmic bubbles.
- Energy Absorption: Vlad can absorb an opponent's ghost rays and redirect them back at the opponent.
- Power Augmentation: He can temporarily increase his physical strength. He once used this to become strong enough to break out of the Fenton Ghost Fisher.[2]
- Ghost Stinger: Vlad sends out ecto-energy in the form of electricity. Vlad used this attack against Danny to drain his energy to the point where he almost changed back to human form.
- Ghost Tornado: Vlad spins like a tornado, deflecting any ectoplasmic energy and causing huge wind gusts.
- Teleportation: Vlad vanishes into a cloud of green or pink mist and reappears elsewhere.
- Spectral Body Manipulation: Vlad is able to contort his ghost body into any position he desires.
- Duplication: Vlad can split his body into duplicates that all share Vlad's ghost powers. This is one of his most often-used and most advantageous techniques.
- āVacuum Resistance: Vlad was able to survive in space and was unaffected by the vacuum; all he needed was a helmet.[21]
Abilities
- Wealth: One of Vlad's greatest gifts is his wealth. He is one of the richest men on the planet.
- Genius-level Intellect: Vlad is one of the most intelligent characters in the series. He has created hundreds of high-tech ghost-related devices and equipment, created a secret lab better than the Fentons' lab, and improved the Ecto-Skeleton so the suit wouldn't drain or kill the wearer.
- Master Strategist: Vlad has a cunning mind and, over the series, has developed complicated plans in order to get what he wants such as power or vengeance. However, most of them have been spoiled by Danny's interference.
- Experienced Combatant: Vlad is considerably skilled in hand-to-hand combat, as his powers enable him to execute punches and kicks with superhuman force against his opponents.
- Swordsmanship: Vlad demonstrates some ability with the sword when fighting Danny in "Infinite Realms."
Equipment
- Main article: Vladco
Sightings
Season 1
- 107. "Bitter Reunions"
- 110. "Shades of Gray" (no lines)
- 117. "Maternal Instinct"
- 119. "The Million Dollar Ghost"
Season 2
- 201. "Memory Blank" (flashback, no lines)
- 204. "Reign Storm"
- 208. "The Ultimate Enemy"
- 211. "Secret Weapons"
- 212. "Flirting With Disaster" (pictured)
- 216. "Masters of All Time"
- 217. "Kindred Spirits"
Season 3
- 301. "Eye for an Eye"
- 302. "Infinite Realms"
- 303. "Girls' Night Out" (pictured)
- 304. "Torrent of Terror"
- 307. "Livin' Large"
- 309. "Frightmare" (no lines)
- 311. "D-Stabilized"
- 312. "Phantom Planet"
Quotes
- Main article: Vlad Plasmius/Quotes
Trivia
- Vlad was created to be the "Lex Luthor" of the Danny Phantom series.[22] He serves as a contrast to Danny where he has the same powers but is older, more experienced, and richer, purposely meant to give Danny a formidable opponent. A running gag planned during development was that Vlad would lose his manor due to unfortunate luck every other episode.[22]
- Creator Butch Hartman originally conceived of Vlad as a vampire. Vlad's appearance, including his outfit, hairstyle, and fangs, greatly resembles popular depictions of Dracula. His ghost surname, "Plasmius" is doubly a reference to blood plasma and ectoplasm - underlining both the former vampire element and the current ghost connection.[23] However, writer Steve Marmel said that the name "Vlad Plasmius" was from a brick he bought in Lambeau Field.[22] Hartman got rid of the vampire idea because he and Nickelodeon thought it was "too occult."[23]
- Vlad's love for the Green Bay Packers was added due to series writer Steve Marmel's fondness for them. Their team color in the show is a reverse gold-and-green to avoid copyright infringement with the actual team.
- Vlad was Fortunate Magazine's 1997 Man of the Year.
- Vlad was a member of the Skunk Punks alongside Jack in college.
- Vlad lived in Madison, Wisconsin for the first two seasons. After he was "elected" mayor at the beginning of the third season, he moved to Amity Park.
- In "Maternal Instinct," he has books on knitting, ghosts, and paranormal science on his bookshelf.
- Danny once insulted Vlad by saying that if he was so lonely, he should get a cat. Vlad furiously rejected this advice at the time, but in "Infinite Realms," he is shown to now own a cat named Maddie.
- Vlad, Pariah Dark, and Amorpho are the only ghost villains not to have been captured in the Fenton Thermos.
- In a comic, Danny and Vlad swap bodies after Vlad steals an amulet from a dark knight.
Vlad Plasmius 10 years later
- In a video of future concepts for characters, Hartman depicts Plasmius as possibly having been found and enslaved by aliens after the events of "Phantom Planet." He speculates that after ten years of being prisoner, Vlad escaped, yet still wears a broken chain on his wrist and is more driven than ever to get Danny.[24]
Gallery
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References
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