Anonymous asked:

Your Amethyst Ocean suggestions are definitely valid, but I think that we all forget that they're fourteen in the show - I personally think that Sam and Danny would both mature over time, and WHOEVER they ended up in a relationship with, Sam would have learned to appreciate other opinions, and Danny would have learned that often altercations can be solved with simple discussion. This progression is already evident throughout the series. (Your idea's still awesome, and it'd make a fantastic fic)

That’s assuming I meant for it to take place in the future…

Otherwise, maturing isn’t the problem. It’s how they learn to resolve conflict and escape stress that would lead to this situation. Sam already demonstrated she has the potential when in Phantom Planet (much as I prefer to ignore that episode) she became passively hostile towards Danny when he gave up his powers and convinced him he was in the wrong via showing her disapproval/biting last word. “But I can’t live life just sitting on the sidelines. I’m surprised you think you can.” She walks away, and Danny’s excited happy mood is destroyed, replaced by…well…

Miserable Danny is miserable.

It doesn’t matter if she was in the right. What matters is how she went about it. Namely 1) Passively showing her discontent until Danny noticed; 2) telling Danny how he should feel; 3) I can’t remember it exactly and can’t find a good enough source, but after Danny started taking charge again, I believe she said something like “That’s the Danny I know.” If not, she still praised him on his change of heart by smiling and supporting him with no misgivings. Making Danny feel like he don good and aww yiss he got thee girl he should listen to her more often if this is the reaction he gets.

This, my friend, is manipulation, no matter how good her intentions.

If you say she is only 14 and excuse her on her actions then you are no better than the people who say “boys will be boys” when seven-year-old boys pick on girls. The problem is that she was successful. That (in the Series Finale) she was not called to task on her actions. Where there is success and no accounting for one’s actions there is possibility for it to happen again. More refined, more hurtful, more damaging.

She does this throughout the show (and she does not progress out of it), but I use Phantom Planet because it’s the last piece of canonical evidence we have on their relationship. Everything else beyond it is mere headcanon. She may break this habit, but in this angst scenario she doesn’t.

And this is where her methods would clash with Danny. Who, yes, learned the value of talking things out, but when presented with an emotionally abusive/manipulative opponent (Spectra for instance), when backed into a corner and when frustrated to the end of his rope, he lashes out. He’s aggressive—has learned that aggression. He gets frustrated, and he blows off steam. (Misplaced aggression on the Box Ghost anyone?) The possibility of this fighter resorting to violence when confronted with Sam refusing to bend, repeatedly taking shots at him, and getting frostier as he continues to do what she feels is wrong…well, punching things usually solves things, right?

After all, he shot at Amorpho in Forever Phantom when he didn’t know who he was or the context of his presence (he could have been a clone.) Violence first, questions later. He tried to force the ghosts into turning the Earth intangible in Phantom Planet, and he did sort of learn that wasn’t the way, but he also got his way and regained his powers. When Vlad was unable to fight back in Eye for an Eye, Danny completely laid into him. I could draw on more, but you get the idea, I hope. He has potential for abuse if paired with someone who abuses him.

Danny is not a noble soul, his character development only went down in the third season, and when paired with Sam (if she continues the way she is) the situation could very possibly get worse. Just imagine how a fight would go between them if they both felt they were in the right, or if Danny didn’t understand why Sam’s angry. And it wouldn’t be instant—it would just get steadily worse. The first punch during a heated argument would be a rush of adrenaline and a relief from frustration for Danny as he watches his opponent (as Sam would be at this point) go down before him.

Of course he’d feel bad, and Sam would be even more angry at him (or accepting his apology and them discussing the problem more civilly—which would serve as a reward itself) but the rush of satisfaction he would have felt would have been paramount to a person getting high on a drug for the first time. He would always be searching for that rush again. And in that way a pattern forms.

You can’t excuse someone based on age, and if these two did develop past these points, I didn’t notice. But I’m open for discussion if you feel I mischaracterized them.