As noted on the Danny Phantom page, one of the advantages of allusions being a two-way street is that once you understand what’s happening on one end of the road, you can retroactively re-evaluate what you understood was happening on the other side of the road. The conversation this creates moves the allusion from the realm of “why is this being included” to “how would this reflect and change our understanding of what’s being referenced?” There are all kinds of logical “what-ifs” and other hypotheticals you can get into by this shift in perspective.

1. Analysis: How useful do you think allusions are as an analytical tool? Specifically, how useful are they for reflecting on older texts or charting the change in reception of a text? Or, if you want to think of it another way, if you were given a list of literary devices to use to analyze a text, would you choose (and why) allusions over others like imagery?

2. Composition: You’re a children’s TV show writer, and you and your writing team are discussing recurring villains you can have on your show. You think about the kinds of villains you can draw inspiration from - from crime syndicates to one-off baddies - based on your own childhood favorites; you’ve decided, instead, that you want to flip that dynamic on its head. Your pitch for a recurring villain (or set of villains) comes from the heros of one of your favorite shows. Who would you pick, how would you adjust them to fit the role of villain, and what kind of hero would you see them pitted against?

   • Challenge: Do this without completely swapping the roles of the characters from the text where you’ve chosen your heroes-turned-villains (for example, if you’re turning the Ninja Turtles into the bad guys, don’t just make them four specialized Shredders, with his design, goals, motivations, and fighting style. What about Leonardo, Mikey, Donatello, and Raphael could be flipped to make them bad guys, without completely rewriting their characters? If it helps, think of it like this: in what situation could their personalities and motivations drive them to be the bad guy, and how would they justify that to themselves and others?)