Danny Phantom premiered on Nickelodeon in 2004. The animated series followed the life of fourteen-year-old Danny Fenton, who after an accident in his parents' ghost portal, acquires ghost powers and becomes superhero Danny Phantom. Now living life as a half-human, half-ghost, Danny relies on his best friends Sam and Tucker for help in learning to control his powers and capturing the ghosts that terrorize their hometown of Amity Park. Many of the ghosts Danny fought were seen more than once, and we definitely have our favorites out of the bunch. That said, here are 10 of the best villains from Danny Phantom, ranked.
Valerie Gray
Once popular, Valerie's life is turned upside-down when her father loses his job and they become poor. Angry and blaming ghosts for her current circumstances, she becomes a ghost hunter, with the help of Vlad, who anonymously sends her ghost hunting equipment. She has quite a temper, which usually puts her at a disadvantage, and for a bit Vlad manipulates her until she figures out who he really is. It's ironic that she later develops feelings for Danny, despite detesting his ghost half (as she doesn't know his secret). She thinks she's doing the right thing hunting ghosts, but it's in her own self-interest, making her a perfect example of the antiheroine.
The Box Ghost
The ghost with gloves, a beanie and a fondness for all things square is more of a running gag than a real villain, but we had to include him based on his lovable factor alone. He's not really much of a threat, except for the time he used Pandora's Box. Neither Danny nor the other ghosts take The Box Ghost seriously, which often frustrates him. He has a Canadian accent and he usually shouts something like "Beware! I am The Box Ghost!" The Box Ghost brings a new air of comedy about him, and showed that not all ghosts were necessarily lethal.
Pariah Dark
Pariah Dark makes the list based on how difficult he was to defeat alone. The King of All Ghosts was a force to be reckoned with, and obviously no one liked him, or else he would've never been imprisoned by rebellious ghosts in The Sarcophogus of Forever Sleep. Thanks to Vlad, Pariah makes his escape, leaving Danny to ultimately deal with him. Considering Pariah holds the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire, it made him that much more powerful and dangerous, forcing Danny to use a power-enhancing suit invented by his parents to use his powers beyond their limits, nearly killing him in the process.
Desiree
One of the unique aspects about Desiree is that we hear her story about her life as a human, which is what led her to become a genie-like ghost. As a human, she won the affections of a Sultan and he gave her anything she desired, but was banished by his jealous wife and died of a broken heart combined with old age.
Desiree must grant every wish she hears, but she usually twists it in an unfavorable way, causing grief and destruction instead of happiness and peace. "So you have wished it, so shall it be" is her catchphrase. She even granted Sam's wish (without Sam knowing) that she had never met Danny, leading to Sam having to get Danny to remember her and reenact the accident that gave him his powers. With each wish granted, the more powerful she becomes, which usually poses a problem for the young ghost hunting trio.
Dark Danny
Dark Danny, aka Dan Phantom, is Danny's ultimate worst enemy. In an alternate timeline, Dan Phantom comes to be after an explosion at the Nasty Burger kills his family and friends. He then moved in with Vlad, who separated his human half from his ghost half to rid Dan of his emotions. Dan later tried to overshadow Vlad with his ghost half, which only caused his ghost half and Vlad's to fuse together. Dan then turned completely evil, the complete opposite of what we know Danny to be. Dark Danny was a clever inclusion, and definitely one of the most significant villains as his very existence taught Danny an important lesson and caused him to make better choices to avoid ever becoming Dark Danny.
Walker
Walker is the warden of the Ghost Zone prison, and a crooked one at that. He abides strictly by the rules. Break any one of them, and you can ensure that Walker will see to it that you pay. He especially has it out for Danny, who winds up in his prison at one point.
Danny teams up with some of the other ghosts, including Skulker and Desiree, to stage a break-out, and Danny in his human form is untouchable by Walker, who is driven crazy by this fact. Walker isn't afraid to rewrite the rules without notice or to resort to dirty tricks, the dirtiest of which was turning the whole of Amity Park against Danny Phantom, making them believe he was a public enemy.
Technus
He calls himself the "Ghost Master of Science and Electrical Technology." While he may be good with gadgets, he's not really the best at villainy. Some of the funniest aspects of Technus' character includes his penchant for rattling off his evil plans, his outdated lingo like his use of "far out", and his long speeches. He gets a more serious look after becoming "Technus 2.0", with a black trench coat and earning more powerful abilities. Given Technus' abilities to manipulate electricity and technology, he was very dangerous, but the fact that he usually made himself a laughingstock because of his flaws at his own expense made audiences love him and take him less seriously.
Ember McLain
The music-loving ghost that hates authority and loves it when people chant her name is one of the most memorable villains in the show. Her song "Remember" remains a hit among fans. Her guitar contains most of her abilities, which in "Fanning the Flames" she uses to put Danny under a love spell to get him to stop going after her. Sam has to break Danny's heart to break the spell, and Danny makes sure to take out his anger on the singer. Still, we can't help but love the rebellious blue-haired ghost girl.
Skulker
The self-proclaimed "Ghost Zone's greatest hunter," Skulker was more dangerous than most. He hunted Danny because, as a collector of rare things, he categorizes Danny to fit that description given his half-human, half-ghost status. The first episode in which we see Skulker finds him hunting Danny mercilessly, until he acquires new tech thanks to Tucker. That tech only backfires and sends him elsewhere to research the purple-backed gorilla, according to the schedule Tucker had programmed into the PDA for Danny. Skulker is a good hunter with impressive tech, so it was ironic to find that he's really a tiny green ghost inside a big robotic suit.
Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius
Vlad tops the list, because out of all the villains, Vlad was truly Danny's archenemy. The guy was truly a "fruit loop," as Danny refers to him. He holds a grudge against Danny's father for causing the accident that gave Vlad his powers, as well as stealing away Danny's mother, whom Vlad has feelings for. He initially tries to get Maddie and Danny to be his family, but after numerous rejections he simply comes up with ways to torture Danny wherever and whenever he could. His manipulation and craziness does catch up with him, as at the end of the series, he winds up as a nomad in space, an ending perfectly suited for a fruit loop.