Vlad Plasmius

Context

Vlad Plasmius is a major character and antagonist in the Danny Phantom cartoon series. If you’re not familiar with it, you should first read our Danny Phantom character profile.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Vlad has all the same powers that Danny Phantom has, but his powers are far more developed.

He is able to perform techniques that Danny has yet to learn (like duplication). For all the feats that Danny can perform, Vlad can perform them better, due to the 20 years experience in which he has had more time to develop new abilities, improve his existing ones, and patch up any weaknesses he might have. However, it seems Danny is slowly catching up to him.

Vlad does not necessarily seem to be more powerful than Danny, but seems to normally be about three steps ahead of Danny. In combat, he rarely seems threatened by any maneuvers Danny pulls.

In DC Heroes terms this is mainly represented by Vlad’s higher Initiative score. He will usually know ahead of time what Danny’s actions will be before declaring his own.

Furthermore, it’s been shown that Vlad lacks Danny’s Ghostly Wail ability. He also doesn’t seem to have a ghost sense, and, by extension, hasn’t developed ice powers like Danny recently did.

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Going ghost

His powers include (but possibly not limited to) the following :

• Transformation- Vlad’s rings are black, as opposed to Danny’s, which are white. (Insta-Change).
• Vampiric Ghost Form- Strangely, Vlad’s ghost form is similar to a vampire, unlike Danny who just has a “negative image” of himself. It is unknown why Vlad looks like this.
• Intangibility and Invisibility – Able to phase through solid objects and become unseen. He has used this often to steal money before meeting Danny (in DC Heroes RPG terms, that’s Dispersal and Invisibility).
• Flying, Floating, and Hovering- Ppresumably with the same speed as Danny’s (112 mph) (Flight).
• Paranormal Speed, Strength, Agility, and Durability- Standard ghost powers (Attributes).
• Overshadowing/Possession- Able to overshadow and possess any human. He has used this ability to get rich tycoons to give their company to him (Personality Transfer).
• Ectoplasmic Energy Blast (“Ghost Ray”)- His blast consists of red-pink ectoplasm. In “Maternal Instincts” he could fire two beams, one from each of his eyes (without transformation). In the same episode one blast was light blue (Energy Blast).
• Ectoplasmic Energy Shield (“Ghost Shield”)- His shield consists of red-pink ectoplasm. It forms a wall and can form a Mirror Shield to attack as well (Force Shield, Reflection/Deflection).
• Duplication- He can split into 4 duplicates (Split).
• Ectoplasmic Shaping- Vlad can shape ectoplasm into solid objects (Force Manipulation).
• Teleportation- Vlad can disappear from one location and reappear elsewhere by wrapping his cape around him and vanishing in a cloud of mist (Teleportation, shockingly).
• Ghost Stinger- Vlad uses this electricity attack (Lightning).

Though he is powerful, Vlad is not invincible. Like other ghosts (and half ghosts), he is vulnerable to the various Fenton ghost gadgets such as the as the Ghost Gauntlets and the Specter Deflector.

Ectoplasmic Goo was used against him twice in both “Bitter Reunions” and “The Million Dollar Ghost”. Apparently, he cannot phase through the sticky substance. Danny’s Ghostly Wail and Cryokinesis are also clear advantages, seeing as these are powers that Vlad seems to lack.

History

A former colleague of Danny Fenton’s parents, Vlad Masters became a half-ghost entity when Jack Fenton’s botched attempt at a ghost portal exploded. Ever since he has harbored a grudge against Fenton. Vlad desires to supplant Jack in Maddie’s life and reclaim what he feels he lost. He is Danny’s primary nemesis, and would-be mentor.

His past life up until his days in college is unrevealed. What is known is that he attended the University of Wisconsin alongside his best friend Jack Fenton and love interest Maddie. Vlad’s friendship with Jack however ended during an experiment with a portable ghost portal.

Vlad was blasted in the face after Jack accidentally poured diet soda in the main engine, (an accident he was apparently too proud to admit to. After this, Masters he was forced to stay in the hospital, ruining his social life after his face was covered in “Ecto-Acne”.

Half-ghost

Masters developed ghost-like powers as a result of the accident. He spent the next 20 years honing and taking advantage of them (stealing money, possessing millionaires…) to become rich. Vlad is currently obsessed with wanting to ruin Jack Fenton, for both the accident and for “stealing” Maddie.

He also desires to win over their young son Danny and mold him into his son and possible successor.

Vlad Masters’ first appearance was in “Bitter Reunions” where he sent three ghost vultures to test Jack Fenton as part of his opening gambit. he was thwarted by Danny upon first encounter.

Reunion

Despite their failure, he invited 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 Jack’s wife Maddie, the woman of his dreams.

Danny (as well as his sister Jazz) was dragged along. He immediately had decidedly mixed feelings about the wealthy and personable Masters. Later that night, Danny confronted the ghost named Vlad Plasmius when his ghost sense alerted him to his presence. Though Danny fought valiantly, he was easily outmatched by Plasmius.

After their fight (which left Danny unconscious), Vlad discovered that Danny Phantom is Jack Fenton’s son, but remained tight-lipped until the reunion.

At the reunion, Vlad Masters asked Danny to go to the lab to get a present for Jack. Skulker (hired by Plasmius) then captured Danny with the ghost-neutralizer. Vlad entered and revealed to Danny that he was the ghost Danny encountered the night before, and that the Ectopusses and Skulker had all been sent by him to test Jacks’ ghost hunting abilities.

After giving Danny a chance to join his side and help him further train and hone his powers (which Danny declined), he left Danny trapped and put the next phase of his plan into action.

Daaark Veeengeeaance !

He possessed Jack, and made him cause chaos at the reunion to ruin his reputation, as well as capture Maddie. However, Danny was freed by a friendly ghost (the previous owner of Vlad’s mansion, the Dairy King) and used the Fenton RV to stop him.

Danny managed to exploit his biggest weakness; his affection for Maddie. They settle on a truce when Danny threatened to expose both of them for who they really are. However, Vlad vowed to return.

Vlad made a short cameo in “Shades of Gray”. He provided Valerie Gray with her infamous ghost hunting suit and weapons, much to Valerie’s joy and Danny’s annoyance. (Valerie likes Danny, but hunts Danny Phantom).

How not to woo

Vlad’s second appearance was in “Maternal Instinct”. Vlad, through the inconspicuous “DALV” group (“Vlad” spelled backwards) invites Maddie and Danny to a mother/son convention. Maddie took a reluctant Danny along as an attempt to bond with him.

The two were tricked into parachuting out of their plane, conveniently finding themselves at Vlad’s Rocky Mountain retreat. There Vlad attempted to convince them to stay with him by confessing his undying love for Maddie. When they refused, Vlad attempted to chase them both back to him by means of his mutated ghost animals.

While Maddie attempted to find a way out of the wilderness, Danny confronted Vlad. Plasmius shorted out the lad’s powers with his “Plasmius Maximus” device and left him at the mercy of his ghost animals. Danny was saved by his mother.

Having little choice, Maddie was forced to return to Vlad’s to find a means to get out. She used her charm to find a phone to call Jack for help.

Danny, left alone with Vlad, pretended to want to live with him. Tricking Vlad by setting back his clock (which showed how much time was left until Danny’s powers returned), he wrapped the Specter Deflector around Vlad, which weakened him considerably. Danny defeated Vlad by tricking the ghosts of animals that Vlad killed, and disabled his powers with the Plasmius Maximus.

Two million dollars ghost

In “The Million Dollar Ghost”, Vlad traveled into the Ghost Zone in search of the Skeleton Key. The Key would give him access to powerful artifacts. When the guardian appeared, Plasmius easily outmatched him with the help of his duplicates, but his arrogance cost him.

Thus, the guardian was able to whack Vlad out of the Ghost Zone and back into Earth without the Key. Furthermore, Vlad accidentally blew up his castle mansion by forgetting to change the “Ecto-Filtrator” on his ghost portal.

Masters then planned to steal the ghost portal from the Fentons, but needed to distract Danny so he could have the time to dismantle it. He offered a million dollar bounty on Danny to distract him, as Ghost Hunters from all over came to capture him.

When Danny spotted the ghost vultures making off with Sam and Tucker, he pursued them. Danny was caught and brutally beaten by Plasmius, who revealed his intention to humiliate Jack. This left Danny feeling sorry for Jack and his inept ghost-hunting abilities.

Danny allowed himself to be caught to boost his father’s terrible reputation, but both were captured by Vlad. Masters then proceeded to steal their Ghost Portal. Working together, they escaped their cage and went to the Portal, where Vlad taunted Jack.

However, Jack used the Ghost Gauntlets to beat Vlad and throw him into the Ghost Zone. Vlad, humiliated terribly, was glad to see that he had landed right next to the Skeleton Key.

The Skeleton Key

The Skeleton Key would be put to use in his next appearance in “Reign Storm”. Vlad wound up releasing the ghost king Pariah Dark when he tried to steal his treasures: the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. To combat the king, Vlad and Danny called a temporary truce and fight off Pariah’s forces.

Masters also helped Jack with creating the “Fenton Ecto-Skeleton”, which he intended to steal for himself.

Vlad ultimately saved the day by locking Pariah Dark back into his sarcophagus prison just as an Ecto-Skeleton-armed Danny passed out while fighting him. Taking advantage of the situation, Vlad stole the Ecto-Skeleton. He then told Maddie and Jack that he had rescued Danny to worm his way back into Maddie’s good graces.

Interlude – a possible future

In an alternate future, as seen in the episode “The Ultimate Enemy”, Danny, orphaned upon the death of his family and friends, moved in with Vlad. As Danny saw it, he was “the only person left on the planet who could possibly hope to understand his situation”.

Masters took Danny in with open arms. He also honored his wishes when a desperate Danny begged Vlad to remove his ghost half from him. During the process, Danny’s ghost form turned on Vlad, tore Vlad’s ghost half away and merged himself with it.

With evil having completely consumed him, Danny’s ghost half then proceeded to kill his human half, destroy Vlad’s mansion, and begin a 10-year long rampage of world destruction.

Then the present-day Danny, trapped in the future due to Dark Danny fusing a Clockwork medallion to him, arrived. He was what was left of Vlad’s mansion and found Vlad, now reduced to a miserable old hermit. The only advantage of this, Vlad said, is that it had given him time to realize what a fool he’d been.

In a rare moment for both characters, Vlad showed repentance for his misdeeds while Danny, in a way, forgave him. Afterwards, Vlad played a part in restoring present-day Danny back to the past to correct this mistake by removing the time medallion.

Back to the present

Vlad launched his next big plan, as seen in “Secret Weapons&rdquo:. He hired Skulker to steal various materials to improve the stolen Ecto-Skeleton’s power.

When Danny’s sister, Jazz, arrived with the intent to move in with him, Vlad wasted no time in convincing Jack and Maddie to let her stay. However, he didn’t realize that Jazz’s true motive was to investigate Vlad (whom Jazz knew had a ghost form) and his possible connection to Skulker’s thefts.

Vlad became suspicious when Jazz recognized a captured Danny Phantom. He ordered Jazz to prove her loyalty by putting on the Ecto-Skeleton and destroying her brother, lest she be destroyed herself. Danny and Jazz, however, get the last laugh by outsmarting Vlad’s trap by means of a mock battle. They escaped in the confusion and set the Ecto-Skeleton to self-destruct.

Shake the disease

In “Masters Of All Time”, Vlad received another outbreak of Ecto-Acne, this time a lethal one. He infected Sam and Tucker with to blackmail Danny into helping him. In order to stop this from happening, Danny went to the past thanks to Clockwork, and saved Vlad from getting hit by the blast from Jack’s portable ghost portal.

However, this created a paradox then a timeline where Masters didn’t become a half-ghost. In this “alternate present”, Vlad was married to Maddie, had become the new Wisconsin Dairy King, and supposedly lived as a simple dairy farmer/cheese maker.

However, he was still a very controlling individual. For instance he forbade his wife Maddie from continuing her ghost research (although she still continued it in secret).

When Vlad discovered Maddie’s lab, he was shocked to see Jack (as “Jack Plasmius”) still alive and with Maddie. Vlad blasted Jack out of jealousy, apparently killing him. This angered Maddie who fought back by throwing him into the Ghost Zone.

Danny returned to the real present, with knowledge of the cure, revealing the acne is caused not by ecto-energy, but by Jack’s diet soda. After this Vlad is still weak from the acne, and asks Danny to let bygones be bygones. The next scene shows Danny him kicking his butt royally.

Kindred spirits

Vlad eventually took drastic and desperate measures in “Kindred Spirits”. He tried to create a clone of Danny. For this he obtained various sources on Danny’s ghost powers, using hidden cameras in Valerie Gray’s old ghost hunting suit given to her in “Shades of Gray”.

Masters managed to spawn a few imperfect (due to the lack of a mid-morph sample from Danny) copies. These included Dani Phantom, a younger, female version of Danny. He eventually used her in helping capture Danny himself. However, Dani betrayed Vlad after seeing what her “father” was really like.

Dani helped her “cousin” Danny destroy the entire clone lab, including the perfect clone. Gravely upset over the loss of his creation, Vlad almost killed Dani. He was stopped by Danny’s ghostly wail then knocked out by the Specter Speeder when it crash landed on him.

He was left with a Specter Deflector on him, cancelling out his powers, giving Dani the chance to get payback for her and Danny by knocking him out and turning her back on him forever.

Mayor

As seen in the beginning of the episode “Urban Jungle”, a billboard was shown announcing “Mayor Vlad’s” proposal for urban improvement. Since this episode was shown out of order, many fans were confused that Vlad was now Mayor of Amity Park.

According to the summary for “Eye for an Eye”, Vlad got himself elected by overshadowing the voters into choosing him to be Mayor.

Description

Vlad may take his name from Vlad Tsepesh, the man that inspired Count Dracula. His ghost form resembles that of a Dracula-esque vampire, in both skin tone and costume. According to Butch Hartman (creator of the Danny Phantom series), Vlad was originally going to be a vampire.

Vlad Plasmius has pale skin, glowing red eyes, dark hair and a beard. His costume is mostly white tights and a tunic with black boots, belt and gloves, a white cloak lined in red with a high collar. His hair is styled much like Wolverine’s, with a white stripe up the center.

As Vlad Masters, he dresses in impeccable (presumably expensive) dark colored suits, his hair is white and his eyes are blue. His hair is pulled back in a trendy ponytail.

Vlad Plasmius/Vlad Masters is voiced by Martin Mull.

Personality

Vlad is manipulative and cruel in his methods. Yet he is clever, suave and debonair with a slick streak seeing as his plans are often foreshadowed and not revealed until a later episode. He’s determined in his goals in which he’ll use any methods to gain what he wants. As such, he never gives up, even in the face of defeat.

To compensate for his losses, Vlad savors the small personal victories (such as in “Bitter Reunions” where he lost the battle, but gloatingly pointed out Danny’s attempt at blackmail before leaving). He lusts after Maddie and works desperately to bring in Danny as his son and protégé.

He usually works alone, but has hired help from Skulker several times, as well as the vulture ghosts, ectopusses, and the failed clones. Based on dialogue in the first TV movie, it is also probable that he has struck a deal with the Fright Knight.

He’s a complicated soul however. He’s often a double edged sword as he uses the wrong methods (killing, stealing, etc.) to gain the right, namely his painful loneliness and wanting acceptance of Maddie and especially Danny.

Unfortunately this is also used to his disadvantage when his emotions were often used to trick him into losing a battle. However, the fact that he retains such emotions shows that he is not above redemption.

Arch-enemies

Vlad’s first meeting with Danny was nothing special up until he discovered the boy was half-ghost like him. With that knowledge, Vlad has since pursued Danny, trying to convince him to be his son and successor, even going as desperate to create a clone Danny in “Kindred Spirits”.

Half the time he often uses Danny to get another phase of his plans moving. He isn’t above being manipulative towards him, yet the other half often shows off an antagonistic paternal bond towards him, giving him advice and gestures to indicate the two are a lot more alike then Danny cares to admit. To this day, their relationship is still strained.

He is also a devoted Green Bay Packers  fan, going as far as having a football stadium outside his home and trying to buy the team itself (only to be rejected).

Quotes

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave… molecule by molecule ! ”

Vlad: “My vultures were supposed to bring the idiot to me, but you’ll do. Danny Phantom, right ?”

Danny: “You… you know me ?”
Vlad: “Of course I know you. You’re that ghost boy who uses his powers for good. How quaint. Aren’t you going to try and suck me into your ridiculous thermos ?”
Danny: “I…I don’t wanna fight you !”
Vlad: “No, no you don’t.”

Vlad: “Too young to drive and not in college yet. I sent those ghosts and others to test your father’s skills. Imagine my surprise when I found you : the second ghost hybrid his foolishness created.”
Danny: “Second ?” (Vlad transforms into a ghost) “You ! I’m going ghost !” (Danny doesn’t turn ghost) “Going ghost !” (Danny still hasn’t yet turned ghost) “Why can’t I go ghost ?”
Vlad: “You have a battle cry. Hilarious. I on the other hand, have this… A Spectral Energy Neutralizer, designed by Skulker and paid for by me. And as long as you’re contained within that box, you’re as human as your idiot father.”
Danny: (struggling) “Let me outta here !”
Vlad: “Why ? So that you can stumble through your adolescence desperately trying to get control of your powers ? Powers, by the way, that I’ve had for 20 years. I have experience, my child. And the money and power I obtain by using those powers for personal gain, you see. I can train you, teach you everything I know, and all you have to do is to renounce your idiot father.”
Danny: “Dude, you are one seriously crazed up fruit loop !”

Vlad: “Stealth attack. Very good, Daniel. You’re becoming like me in every battle.”
Danny: “I am *nothing* like you.”
Vlad: “Oh, you *are*. Using your powers to get back at the people you don’t like, throwing the first punch… You’re becoming more like me than you know.”

DC Universe History

Suggestions welcome.

By Pufnstuff.

Helper(s): wikipedia.org.

Source of Character: Danny Phantom TV series.