I’ve been playing video games since I was four: a little wide eye wanderer glued herself to a tiny black and white screen trying desperately to get a little dinosaur (which I’m fully convinced now was a Godzilla game) pass a variety of speedy enemies in order to burninate a giant boulder that houses the exit. Alas, that Game Boy only supported me for three years before it broke and died on me due to my tiny clumsy hands. Still, the memories stayed and only grew from there as I’ve played nearly every major console since the mid-80’s. In layman’s term, I am what Discovery channels call: a girl gamer: a subspecies of homo sapiens of the X chromosome variety who adapts in electronic games. So why do I have such a blatant problem with this episode?
Sam is clearly an example of girl gamer, one who succeeds in “Doomed” with flying colors, surpassing the boys without barely lifting a pinky; she has that whole role model for girls thing going on here. Unfortunately this was discovered after Danny and Tucker berated her and all girlkind that video games is strictly a man’s world. And then Neo Yi’s gloves came off. While we females of video gaming has only made a mere, but growing 39% of gamers over the US (last I checked), the fact that men still need to make it a giant issue that games are their territory is one, hulking bullshit. I’m not trying to sound feminine since I’m anything but; it’s just that I view this as a dead issue. When I walk into my local Gamestop, I see female employees, when I play the Xbox 360 at the local mall, I never get any weird stares and strange gestures. Not even when I talk to my non-gaming gal pals do they give me the brush off on what I love to do. While this is much a cliché subject even today and the majority of gamers and game designers are male, being a girl gamer, it’s--though this issue doesn't turn me into some giant rage-induced one-woman army--irritating. Ironically, by stating all this, I probably made it a big issue--geesh, I can't win.
I’m even more surprised Danny and Tucker--despite their simplicities--didn’t suspect Sam considering her tomboy-like habits. Between this and "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale", it makes me question how far Sam trusts the boys or if her friendship with them is a lot recent then I thought. In retrospective, I, too didn’t know she was a topnotch gamer because Chaos looked absolutely nothing like her outside of the trademark ponytail and massive amounts of black and purple. I’m not sure if it’s because I was a new Danny Phantom fan at the time when I first viewed this (the cast were still new to me) or just very clever hiding (Sam for the first half showed little interest in the game), so I personally raised eyebrows when her face showed on the computer screen for the first time (in a good way).
The episode’s main structure isn’t engaging in the least either. There are several instances during the majority of the first season’s plots that centers on Danny learning a valuable lesson to carry home. Usually this is the intention to better his personality or enhance his status as a hero, the main problem with today’s moral of the day is that Danny’s struggle to do better in school to better his life is so heavy handed and Saturday Morning Cartoon, even little tykes want to gag themselves from it’s sugary confection. It feels so out of place with the show as oppose to Danny’s other lessons which in some form connect with the greater elements of the series; it’s as if Nickelodeon asked Hartman to create a mandatory “school is cool” index so kids will learn when they stop trying to blow up their couch with their “ghost rays”. The only connection it has is to “TUE” in terms of proper studying, but at least that had a story to back it up.
Technus doesn’t fare any better. His explanation for today's Big Bad-scheme-of-the-day is illogical or at the very least misunderstanding. Apparently getting all seven keys in an online game unlocks the whole of the internet which makes about as much sense as the episode’s mish-mash of colors and weirdo Tron-like game structure (I want me some space goblins) when the game itself works because it’s online. I’m under assumption it’s part of the game’s story, but who could tell when that wasn’t explained? His role is appropriate, but wasted and is truly his only downside to his numerous (and far superior) villain spotlights.
Ironically, it’s the teacher himself who supports the only good thing about this episode. Prior to and after, Lancer is treated mostly as an incompetent lecturer who unsuccessfully tries to relate to his young charges when he’s not dueling out punishment. He concerns over his pay raise and gives bullying football players a shining ovation without hearing the underdog’s side of the story. It’s clear the audience was made to hate him, but much like Sam’s parents in “Control Freaks”, we’re looking at Lancer from Danny’s perspective. How about we gaze behind Lancer’s point of view, one where we do find out he is fair and supportive. He seeks and eventually finds Danny's potential, pressuring tough love on the boy in order for him to study better with great success. Lancer is, despite the strictness, caring enough to crossdress to motivate his students, and like all, he is human: he enjoys his share of online gaming. He is not the most ideal of all teachers, but an inspirational one when he gets to be. While he’s role is diminished to that of an unhip teacher, his hints of a deeper personality carries on a bit more throughout the series to prove he doesn’t have to be just a one-dimensional yawn fest. Kudos.
5/10
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Article written revised in: Somewhere in May, 2008
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