Ember McLain

Ember
File:Ember4.jpg Ember McLain
Publication information
Publisher	Nickelodeon
First appearance	"Fanning The Flames"
Created by	Butch Hartman
In-story information
Alter ego	Ember McLain
Species	Ghost.
Team affiliations	Herself, Youngblood's Skeleton Crew, Skulker (boyfriend), Spectra and Kitty (once-allies) Danny Phantom (Enemy/Ally)
Notable aliases	Pop Princess, Ember McLame, No-Hit Wonder
Abilities	Flight, invisibility, intangibility, overshadowing, can use her guitar for various sound-based and emotion-altering attacks, can utilize her flaming hair as a weapon as well as teleporting by enveloping herself in it.

Ember McLain is a character and villain from the Nickelodeon animated television series Danny Phantom, voiced by Tara Strong. Her singing voice is provided by Robin Kimissel.

Fictional Character History

Ember McLain is a hard-rocking ghost girl who feeds off the idol worship in teenagers. She could also be the ghostly embodiment of teenage rebellion and disobedience to authority figures, as she disobeys Mr. Lancer's command to leave the Casper High campus immediately.

Making her debut in Fanning the Flames, Ember used her abilities and popstar status to dominate the world, keeping Danny distracted by placing a love spell on him that makes him fall in love with Sam which keeps him busy while Ember busies herself with her plans. However, the spell is later broken when Sam, in a desperate move, kisses Dash right in front of Danny. Heartbroken and finally out of the spell, he fights Ember, and ultimately gets Tucker Foley to sing (who is notorious for being a bad singer), causing the hypnotized crowd to stop cheering for Ember, whose powers then fizzle out to nothing as a result, and was banished to the Ghost Zone by Danny Phantom.

She later attempted to exit the Ghost Zone a few days later in the episode "13", where she was shown in a line heading directly to the Human World and just as it was her turn to exit the Ghost Zone Johnny 13, Kitty and Shadow cut in front of her.

She made her second appearance in the episode "Pirate Radio" where Ember creates a song that adults get hypnotized by (actually a mellow, ballad version of Remember) so that they go to a fake cruise, called M. Bersback, which is merely the poorly hidden message "Ember's back". With this, she teams up with Captain Youngblood. However, she just leaves/escapes the ship, after she accidentally burns the ship's sail, vowing to return. Despite her involvement in the plot, she is not the primary villain of the episode.

She came back in Reign Storm with numerous ghosts who fled the Ghost Zone when Pariah Dark was woken up. Later in the same episode she along Danny's other enemies teamed up to help Danny fight off the ghost king's army.

In "Identity Crisis" Danny, Sam and Tucker check out Ember's file on Danny's computer hinting he might have fought with Ember before the beginning of the episode since Danny mentioned sending her back to the Ghost Zone.

In an alternate future (seen in The Ultimate Enemy), Ember is overweight and can no longer sing due to her vocal cords being damaged by Dark Danny. She attacks regular Danny along with some of his enemies, wanting revenge for the terrible fate his future self gave them.

She makes a cameo in "The Fright Before Christmas" as one of the many ghosts helping Danny save Christmas.

In "Beauty Marked" Sam used make up very similar to Ember´s on Paulina.

In "Girl's Night Out", Ember teams up with Kitty and Spectra in a joint attempt to eliminate all men. It's also revealed that Ember is Skulker's girlfriend, and that she has often picked on him for his lack of skill in hunting. She says he can't find the TV remote as an example.

Ember's final appearance is in the series finale, Phantom Planet. While only appearing in a few frames, she is one of the many ghosts who helps Danny and Skulker turn the entire planet intangible, so that an asteroid can pass through it.

Ember's, appearance, song, and character in general has made her one of the most popular ghosts in the series, she has made various appearances in the show, she has had cameo in every TV movie except for "Reality Trip" and has helped Danny save the world a few times.

Personality and Weaknesses

Ember as she has been previously noted is a hard rocking ghost teen with disrespect towards any kind of authority figure, she obviously has a great amount of pride of her singing abilities, as she wanted revenge on Dark Danny in "The Ultimate Enemy" for destroying her vocal cords. She also has somewhat of a childish personality (whilst frequently shouting 1970's phrase such as "dipstick") due to her hatred she shares with Youngblood when it comes to adults, and distressed when things don't go the way she wants ("Fanning The Flames").

She is not above revenge since in all the episodes she was featured as a villain she has either tried to hurt Danny or anyone who defeated her or annoys her in any sort of way. Ember also could get really low in her schemes when it comes to world conquest as she has used her music to control people, whether it's only for mind control or by changing one's emotions. Despite being a dangerous enemy she is not insane or murderous like other ghosts in the series (in fact, she could be considered nothing more than a teenager with her own little desires).

If she has any weakness it is that if people don't chant her name her fiery ponytail goes off, rendering her powerless; it is also apparent that once her music spells are broken they are unable to work again.

Powers

She has the ability of making her ponytail (made of flames, hence her name) get longer with each chant of her name made by her "fans" (which are actually people that are under Ember's spell). She also is an expert electric guitar player. The guitar was used as a weapon when she used it to play a "love song" (actually a blast of red, heart-shaped light) to place Danny under a love spell, making him fall in love with Samantha Manson, his "platonic" girlfriend. Whenever people cheer for her, the effect seemingly causes her hair to flare wildly and her eyes to glow, thus rapidly increasing her power.

In one of the close-ups of Ember's guitar, a knob can be seen that points to icons representing the special abilities Ember uses. There is a music note (probably the guitar's normal mode, for just playing music), a heart symbol (to use the love spell), a skull (most likely the skull beam), a fist (for the punch beam), a spiral (for the hypnotising spell), and a wave (likely for the generic energy beam). She appears to have pyrokinesis, using her flaming hair at least once--adding to her given name.

Relationships

Danny Phantom

She sees him as her main enemy no doubt due to the many defeats he's handed her; therefore she'll do whatever she can to stop him from ruining her schemes again. Ironically, she actually helped Danny and Sam realize their feelings for each other.

Captain Youngblood

They get along due to their hatred towards adults, seemingly getting along because of their childish personalities they both have; when they allied themselves they apparently had a deal which was broken when Ember accidentally destroyed part of Youngblood's ship, she ultimately abandoning him.

Skulker

The two are dating as of "Girls' Night Out". It seems only Skulker returns any feelings due to Ember's current disdain towards Skulker's lack of cohorent ghost hunting skills. It's actually a mystery what she sees in him since he is nothing more than a tiny green blob in a battle suit, but it may be that Ember is ignorant of Skulker's true form.

Dark Danny

Ember finds him the most deplorable ghost in existence and has a personal vendetta on him for ruinning her voice and making her fat in the alternative timeline of "The Ultimate Enemy".

Penelope Spectra and Kitty

Ember allied with the two in an attempt to get revenge on men. She and Spectra at first seem to get along but when one thing goes wrong they start to blame each other. Ember bonds better with Kitty as they seem to have an understanding of one another because of the troubles they both have with their respective boyfriends.

Klemper

The weak ghost tried to be friends with Ember by chanting her name at the end of "Fanning The Flames", something that ended up being a horrible thing from Ember´s Point of View since she told him to stop chanting, it is clear the two did NOT became friends and that Ember finds him annoying.

Trivia

• Her hair in the style of a flame is possibly a reference to Karla, a one-off supervillainess of Aquaman, who also had her hair as a flame. Also, in the episode "Pirate Radio" she uses her flaming hair as a weapon to shoot fire whenever she got angry (only seen once there). Because of this, some fans mishear her last name as "mcflame" while her outfit, specifically the top with a sleeve on it resembles a bit like the Star Wars character Aayla Secura, because Butch Hartman is a fan of the movies, it is possible he made an allusion to it.
• Those who pay close attention to the lyrics for RemEmber seem to believe that Ember may have had a human life before her ghost life. However, although this is a popular topic in fan fiction, the possible meaning (if any) behind her choice of lyrics has not truly been explained. Popular speculation is that she was in a relationship and was used then forgotten. This may have cause of her obsession of people remembering her name (besides the fact it powers her up). In the credits for "Fanning the Flames", the song RemEmber also was originally titled You Will Remember.

External links

• A website with Ember's Remember (under audio, track 24)