Pop Ghost

Ember McLain. The first fictional character to appear on Pop Ghost Blog. It’s quite the honor, really, but I guarantee you won’t anticipate how this profile ends. Ember McLain is one of the many ghouls to shake it up on the animated series Danny Phantom. The cartoon, which aired on Nickelodeon between April 2004 and August 2007, was created by Butch Hartman and follows 14-year-old Danny Phantom. Thanks to his ghost hunting parents, Danny accidently infuses his DNA with ectoplasm and unwillingly becomes half specter. He decides to use his newfound powers for good and, along with his two best friends, sets out on a number of adventures to capture spirits who seek to unleash havoc on Earth. Ember is introduced in the episode ‘Fanning the Flames’ and became an overnight fan favorite.

During the series’ original run, Ember McLain appeared in eight episodes – although she was mentioned and pictured in two more. Years after her small screen debut, Danny Phantom’s creator gave a more intimate look into her backstory. As it goes, Ember was a teenager – either in the ’70s or ’80s due to her use of slang terms and mannerisms – who was extremely unpopular in high school and spent most of her time dreaming of becoming a rock star. One day, she was asked out on a date by the biggest football player in school, who would ultimately stand her up at the local movie theater. Refusing to believe she was nothing more than a prank, Ember spent the entire night waiting outside for her date. She finds herself so tired that she literally passes out in bed… and sleeps through the housefire that starts and ultimately claims her life. In that moment, a grudge was formed, and the rest is history.

In the episode ‘Fanning the Flames,’ Ember uses her singing voice and catchy tunes to hypnotize the masses. The key to her power lies in chanting, as the more people who scream her name, the more gruesome she becomes. And with a song as sticky as ‘Remember,’ I can see why she was able to hypnotize an entire town and launch a televised stadium concert in hopes of enslaving the whole world. Along with typical ghost abilities, i.e. floating, phasing through objects, invisibility, etc, Ember has a guitar she uses as a melee and ranged weapon. Her guitar can also amplify people’s emotions to use at her disposal. And let me not forget to mention her flaming blue hair because… cool, honestly. All of these attributes make her a formidable enemy, but Danny Phantom & Co end up beating her and sealing her back into the ghost realm. Total bummer!

Ember is briefly seen in the episode ’13’ in a non-combative role, standing in line with other spirits in the ghost realm. However, she returns as a villain once again in the episode ‘Pirate Radio,’ now teaming up with another specter to hypnotize adults into boarding a haunted cruise ship. This becomes a back-and-forth process in her character development, as it appears that she has romantic feelings for Danny Phantom but also enjoys causing others misery. In the episode ‘Reign Storm,’ she’s seen fleeing the ghost realm from the season’s main evil Pariah Dark. Later in the episode, though, she returns to help Danny & Co beat the enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Next, in ‘Identity Crisis,’ it’s revealed that Ms. McLain escaped the ghost realm once again but was submitted by Mr. Phantom off-screen. Is this how teens flirt with each other now adays? Because, oh my god, it just seems like too much effort for me.

In a futuristic episode titled ‘The Ultimate Enemy,’ Ember is shown to be overweight and unable to sing anymore due to an attack from Dark Danny, a doppelganger of sorts who shows what Danny could have become if he chose the dark side. Her neutral stance continues in ‘The Fright Before Christmas’ as she once again joins forces with the good guys to destroy an ultimate evil. But, speaking of evil, she returns as a villain once again in ‘Girls’ Night Out.’ She also returns with a new song titled ‘Girl’s Night Out,’ but it’s not nearly as catchy as ‘Remember,’ which definitely hurts my heart. In the female power centered episode, the rock star wannabe joins two other girl ghouls in a mission to destroy all men. Finally, in the series finale, she helps Danny turn the entire world population into spirits so they can avoid an asteroid that’s about to collide with Earth. Is that a redemption, or what? Like, thanks girl!

Brought to life by Tara Strong (talking) and Robbyn Kirmsse (singing), there’s a lot to love about this fictional cartoon character. She has goth punk attire and the attitude to match. She has fire, which again, is pretty cool and a guitar that she can whack people with. She’s a glimpse into the past without being overwhelmingly awkward and she’s clearly the Avril Lavigne of the Danny Phantom universe. She’s charismatic, opportunistic and absolutely out of her fucking mind. She was the perfect counterpart to the series hero and a great missed opportunity for a deeper love connection. And, I just know she was able to make it on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Remember’ because it’s twenty years later and I still have that song stuck in my head!

Now, here’s where the story takes a dramatic and dark turn. Content creator Randy Stair, then aged 24, became obsessed with this character. In a John Lennon series of events, Stair claims that Ember talked to him and encouraged him to go on a killing spree, and in death, she would turn him into a ghost. One day in June 2017, he entered a late-night grocery store and killed three employees before turning the gun on himself. My condolences to anyone who was affected by this tragedy and might be upset by my article. Let me be clear that I didn’t know of these events prior to writing this piece and that I’m in no way emulating the grotesque infatuation of the killer.