Vlad Masters, also known as Vlad Plasmius, is a billionaire industrialist and the founder and CEO of VladCo. He is an old college friend of Jack and Maddie Fenton. Vlad is secretly a human-ghost hybrid, the first of his kind, a result of an accidental college experiment he conducted with Jack and Maddie that granted him his powers. Having been a hybrid for about 20 years, he serves as the main antagonist of the series and is the archenemy of fellow hybrid Danny Fenton.

== Appearance == Vlad is a human character with distinctive white hair. According to "Bitter Reunions," his hair turned white due to his DNA being infused with ectoplasm. However, "Masters of All Time" indicates that even without this incident, his hair would eventually turn white in the present day. It’s possible that his current hair color is a result of his half-ghost DNA, but he may also experience Canities Subita, also known as Thomas More or Marie Antoinette Syndrome, which can cause hair to turn white independently of his half-ghost status.

Vlad's hair is styled in a ponytail, and he has a matching goatee. He possesses black eyebrows and a pointed nose, along with striking midnight blue eyes that are heavily outlined in black, suggesting a darker persona. He often wears a black suit adorned with a red handkerchief in his left breast pocket and a matching red bolo tie. The suit features three rows of six white buttons. Underneath, he typically wears a white undershirt and completes his look with black pointed shoes.

In his alter-ego, Vlad Plasmius, he resembles his human form only slightly, as he transforms significantly. Plasmius has a more vampiric appearance, originally intended by the producers, although Nickelodeon rejected this vision due to its occult implications. In this form, he is more muscular, with sky-blue skin and fanged teeth. His hair turns black and is styled in a horn-like U-shape, complemented by a black goatee. He dons a mostly white outfit consisting of white trousers and a long-sleeved white shirt, accessorized with black gloves and boots. His shirt is secured with a black belt and fits snugly around his neck, leading up to a black collar that resembles Danny’s but does not extend upward. Plasmius also wears a high-collared cape with a white exterior and a red interior lining. Additionally, his voice takes on a slightly resonant quality in this form.

== Personality == Vlad's outer appearance portrays him as a wealthy, sophisticated, clever, intelligent, and mysterious man. He is methodical in achieving his desires, demonstrating both patience and cunning. Deceitful and cruel, Vlad is willing to employ underhanded methods, including kidnapping and attempted murder, to get what he wants.

He often uses others as pawns to advance his goals, as seen when he infected Sam and Tucker with ecto-acne to manipulate Danny into helping him with his own case. Even in defeat, Vlad remains resilient and takes pride in small personal victories. For example, in "Bitter Reunions," despite losing a battle, he noted that Danny's blackmailing mirrored his own tactics before leaving.

While he typically operates alone, Vlad has sought assistance from Skulker, the vulture ghosts, ectopuses, and his failed clones on several occasions. In "Reign Storm," he boasted to Danny about using two fourteen-year-old pawns to turn a knight and topple a king, hinting at a potential deal with the Fright Knight. Although this alliance was never officially depicted in the show, it could possibly extend to Dark Danny.

Vlad is known for holding long-standing grudges. His deep-seated hatred for Jack stems from years of humiliation and pain inflicted by Jack, whom he blames for the accident that led to his ectoplasmic infection and the loss of his chance to confess his feelings for Maddie. As a result, Maddie and Jack were likely prohibited from visiting Vlad during his recovery due to health concerns.

Under stress, Vlad often exclaims snack names such as "Oh, butter biscuits" or "Oh, sugar cookies" and is known for having a short temper. At his core, Vlad is cruel, sadistic, malicious, greedy, self-serving, petty, vindictive, obsessive, and power-hungry, yet he is also a complex character. He resorts to immoral actions—like killing and stealing—in an attempt to alleviate his profound loneliness.

This loneliness drives his desire for love, which he has long denied himself. He yearns for Maddie, whom he believes should have been his, and for Danny, a potential son who also struggles with ghost powers. Unfortunately, his emotional vulnerability allows Danny, Maddie, and Jazz to manipulate him.

Vlad's capacity for emotion suggests he is capable of redemption. However, his arrogance has proven to be a significant flaw. During one encounter with Jack, Vlad underestimated Jack's ability to confront him as Plasmius, contributing to his defeat.

Vlad's overconfidence in his plans occasionally leads to their failure, often due to his short temper and lack of thorough consideration. By the end of the series, Vlad reflects on the folly of his actions, contemplating a lonely future away from Earth.

== Trivia ==

• Vlad was created to be the "Lex Luthor" of the Danny Phantom series. He serves as a contrast to Danny, possessing the same powers but being older, more experienced, and wealthier, which is meant to provide Danny with a formidable opponent. A running gag developed during the show was that Vlad would lose his manor due to unfortunate luck every other episode.
• Creator Butch Hartman originally conceived of Vlad as a vampire. His appearance, including his outfit, hairstyle, and fangs, closely resembles popular depictions of Count Dracula. His first name is a reference to "Vlad the Impaler," while his ghost surname, "Plasmius," serves as a double reference to blood plasma and ectoplasm, highlighting both the vampire element and his current ghostly nature. Hartman abandoned the vampire concept because he and Nickelodeon felt it was "too occult."
• Vlad's love for the Green Bay Packers was added due to series writer Steve Marmel being a fan of the team. In the show, their team color is depicted as a reversed gold-and-green to avoid copyright infringement with the actual team.
• Vlad is the main antagonist of the series, which explains why he has the most significant number of appearances (around 14-15). The only exception is Skulker, who managed to tie in with Vlad for most episodes.
• One of Vlad's obsessions outside of Maddie was to acquire the Green Bay Packers. Despite using his ghost powers to trick the world's wealthiest individuals into signing over their assets to him, Vlad never thought to attempt this with the franchise's rightful owner. It could be that Vlad views acquiring the team through honest means as a personal challenge that remains unfulfilled.
• Vlad was named Fortunate Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997.
• Vlad was a member of the Skunk Punks alongside Jack in college.
• Vlad lived in Madison, Wisconsin, for the first two seasons. He moved to Amity Park during the third season after he abused his ghost powers to cheat in a plebiscite to be "elected" mayor.
• Vlad's use of food names as exclamations is very similar to Mr. Lancer's habit of using book titles as exclamations.
• The library in his Colorado chalet has books on knitting, ghosts, and paranormal science.
• Danny once insulted Vlad by suggesting that if he was so lonely, he should get a cat. Vlad angrily rejected this advice at the time, but in "Infinite Realms," he is shown to own a cat named Maddie. In the same episode, he tells his cat, "If anyone asks, you're my sister's cat," implying he has a sister, but it's unclear whether she is real or if he fabricated the story to avoid admitting that Maddie is his cat.
• Vlad, along with Walker, Pariah Dark, Fright Knight, Hotep RA, Aragon, Undergrowth, and Amorpho, is one of the only known ghost villains who have not been captured in the Fenton Thermos. While Vlad was never captured in the TV series, he was imprisoned in a video game. At the end of the video game "Nicktoons Unite" for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, Danny reveals that he imprisoned Vlad inside a Fenton Thermos, although this occurred off-screen.
• In a comic, Danny and Vlad swap bodies after Vlad steals an amulet from a dark knight.
• In a video featuring future concepts for characters, Hartman depicts Plasmius as potentially having been found and enslaved by aliens after the events of "Phantom Planet." He speculates that after ten years of being a prisoner, Vlad escaped but still wears a broken chain on his wrist and is more determined than ever to confront Danny.
• He appears in the mobile game Nickelodeon Pixel Town (available only in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines). You can obtain him by merging Tommy from Rugrats and Eliza from The Wild Thornberrys in the memory center.

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