Desiree: Deus Ex Machina
VOICE ACTOR: Peri Gilpin
AGE: Unknown, Hundreds to Thousands of years old, I guess
EYES: Red, formerly green
HAIR: Black
STATUS: Vengeful Genie Ghost, Former harem girl
LIKES: Her secret lover the Sultan, A revenge dish best served cold
DISLIKES: Her wishes backfiring on her, men touching her unless she wishes it
PERSONALITY: Vengeful, seductive, charming
POWER: Able to grant any wish anyone desires, standard ghost powers
STRENGTH: Her wishes have negative repercussions to the wishers which she uses to her advantage, unless...
WEAKNESS: ...Her own wishes can be used against her, is forced to make wishes whether it benefits her or not
FIRST APPEARANCE: "What You Want"
GOAL: Make everyone’s life as miserable as possible to make up for her own miserable afterlife.
HISTORY: The beauty didn’t always start off with as the inner beast that she is now. Desiree was simple a harem girl who pleasured the Sultan she entertained. She must’ve done enough of the horizontal Tango—the Sultan feel madly in love with her and showered Desiree with gifts. His jealous wife eventually found out and cast her out. Dying of a broken heart (and old age), Desiree gained the powers of a Genie, fulfilling people’s wishes and wildest dreams with the slight misfortune of backstabbing the victims with repugnant consequences to their wishes.
She traveled around the world for years until somebody or something somehow trapped Desiree in a Genie bottle. Unless she happened to crawl into one herself. Faster then you could clap your arms together and nod your head, Desiree is (unintentionally) freed by an overzealous, hyperactive kid’s balloon. Her request for cotton candy is granted, causing the entire machine to overload and surround the area. That was enough incentive for Danny to go and kick Candy Pant’s ass. He did...briefly. The rest of the episode is spent delivering more pain and inflictions (including granting a jealous Tucker ghost powers) until C student Danny finally works the cogs on his brain to wish her into the Fenton Thermos. Fro one bottle to another.
She made her last main appearance because the writers can only go so far with a literal flying dues ex machine around. Anticipating the approaching meteor showers (which means hundreds of people wishing), Desiree was fortunate to fulfill Sam's unassuming wish that he and Danny never met one another. Because Sam triggered Danny’s life as a hero, the new alternate world features a Danny Phantomless existence, letting Desiree get away with murder. Sam, remembering all the events that transpired, fixes it and gets Danny to stop Desiree before more damage could occur. He did. La Di Da.
She has cameos in "Prisoners of Love", "Reign Storm", "The Fright Before Christmas", and "Phantom Planet", all of which where she helped Danny save whatever was in peril at the time. Not that she had much of a choice, mind you.
PERSONALITY: If you ever look up "Vindictive" in the dictionary, Desiree’s face would be plastered next to it. An example of a woman scorned, Desiree’s crappy love life extended to her death where her powers terrible setbacks created repercussions to her victims (the wishers). And she has no problems with it. Her goal is simple: she’s had her greatest wish and dreams broken, so everyone else must suffer the same fate. Don’t be fooled by her charming, gorgeous looks, and seductive appeal, she’s a beast underneath that beauty.
OPINION: Interesting concept of a character, but her use was limited at best. With her powers to grant any wish regardless of who it is has rendered her useless if you’re smart enough. Fortunately the writers were keen to put her in only two major appearances. After all, how far can you get with a wishing genie when all you can simply do is wish her back into a Fenton Thermos or the Ghost Zone or just plain out of existence? But then again, her wishes also provide back draws for people. Perhaps then simply wishing her away wouldn’t do because the effects could be temporarily; rendering her to wreck havoc once more. In our eyes, that's the bad thing.
But she’s a good example of the kind of characterizations the series takes advantage of. Ghost powers are proven to merely be a standard of which Ecto-denizens can possess, but unique, individual powers make up the bulk of their personalities. Technus is nothing with his hi-tech machines, Box Ghost adorns all things square and cube, and so forth. But Desiree is one of the true cases where her motivation is justified. While others does it simply because it’s within their traits or mannerisms to do so, Desiree is driven by a broken heart. One which granted her these dangerous powers upon her death. It’s not specific if this is something ghosts automatically get, retains over time, or something they have to achieve, but its bad luck charm fittingly suits her diabolical revenge.
I particularly like her comment, "No man may lay a hand on me unless I wish it". Desiree's loyalties lies on that one guy she still harbors for: the Sultan who had shown her kindness beyond the other girls he humped. Sure, it was shown only once, but speaks about the kind of character she is and purpose in her (after)life.
Desiree also sports a beautiful design. She looks a bit like Shego, though apparently Ben Balistreri designed her instead of Stephen Silver (main designer of Kim Possible). She’s also a bit under dressed which adds to that sexy appeal I like in her. Interestingly, she’s one of the few ghosts in the series to have a permanent "ghost tail"; she’s never seen with legs.
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