As with most Rare titles, the various people and monsters in Grabbed by the Ghoulies ooze amusing characteristics and personalities.
This is a list of them for all the boys and ghouls to see.
Heroes and Inhabitants
Cooper
Cooper - The Hero
- "Ooooh YEAH!"
A young man in a lime green sweater and jeans who journeys throughout Ghoulhaven Hall in order to rescue Amber, his girlfriend and traveling companion, from the clutches of Baron Von Ghoul and his creatures after enraging him with an offhanded remark. Cooper is obviously and understandably a high strung fellow, but pushes through it to help people who need him and fend off Ghoulies.
- All-Loving Hero: A downplayed example, but as long as something isn't being hostile to him or his friends, he's willing to help and befriend ghoulies without much suspicion towards them. This is potentially played with in that Ghoulies that fight alongside him can still turn right back to fighting him and when he remains unsuspicious of Crivens when he finds the previously passive and cowardly butler suddenly attacking what appears to be his boss with enthusiasm.
- Almost Kiss: Multiple times with Amber, who is confirmed to be his girlfriend in-universe and out, almost to the point of parody. Each time they reunite they lean in slowly....only to give each other affectionate hugs and pats on the back. Other characters still consider them to be kissing in dialog, puzzlingly.
- Badass Normal: Part of what makes brawling as Cooper so satisfying is that most of his normal punches and kick take out the supernatural monstrosities he confronts if he's skilled enough
- Cowardly Lion: Cooper is constantly on edge during his trek through the Manor's grounds, there are entire gameplay elements that stem from it, such as being briefly stunned by ghoulies jumping out of breakable scenery, avoiding the effects of ghosts and petrifying sounds, and most obviously, the Super Scary Shocks. In spite of this he is still able to wallop enemies and complete harrowing tasks, possibly because what is at stake is making him focus.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Fights like a mean drunk and MMA fighter when confronting Ghoulies, punching, kicking and using many an Improvised Weapon while using a modest amount of flair.
- Unfazed Everyman: Played With, he constantly jumps and reacts to threatening stuff like any person would given what's happening, but he adapts to the Ghoulies and their rules fairly well anyway.
Amber
Amber - The Damsel
Cooper's much more brave and brash girlfriend, who is also his traveling companion, after Cooper invokes Baron Von Ghouls fury, he kidnaps Amber and lures in Cooper, leading to a few more scenarios where she has to be saved in some capacity. She eventually becomes playable in the additional challenges if the player collects enough Rare Books.
- Bound and Gagged: For Chapter 1: The Rescue.
- Damsel in Distress: Played straight, then subverted later. Her being kidnapped is what drives the plot in the first act, the second act is about turning her back from becoming a Ghoulie, but the rest of the chapters have her more or less be a non-factor, with the end goal being saving the prisoners you have been seeing around the Mansion.
- Even the Girls Want Her: The same female enemies who lust after Cooper also lust after her.
- Foreshadowing: Some artwork you get from getting platinum medals are a set of models of Amber during development. One of them is holding a chair, hinting that she is playable at some point.
- Glass Cannon: As a playable character, she's just as strong as Cooper is, but has a max of only 10 health.
- Irony: As a superficially Ugly Cute Ghoulie, Amber is far more outwardly affectionate and sweet than when she's a pretty, but unromantic and rather assholish human teen. At least until she gets further corrupted.
- Secret Character: She can be played in certain challenges by collecting enough Rare books. Getting a gold or platinum medal on every challenge unlocks Challenge 21, which lets her be played in the main story.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's loudmouthed, arrogant, and hot-blooded, but still enjoys typically girly stuff like bubble baths.
- Ungrateful Bitch: She openly insults Crivens, who untied her from her chair, and goes out of her way to avoid him later. Later on she does it again, this time to all of the residents of Ghoulhaven, (including Ma Soupswill, who just saved her boyfriend), who are currently cheering them and wishing them well as they leave.
Crivens
Crivens - The Butler
An old and kind butler who helps teach Combat and the rules of Ghoulhaven to Cooper when he enters the Manor. He's also a bit of a coward, but ultimately very helpful.
- Butt-Monkey: And how. In order:
- He's occasionally attacked by Ghoulies, but is picked on particularly by Imps and their stronger variants.
- The servants bathroom and his quarters are heavily run-down compared to the rest of Ghoulhaven Hall, stuff is breaking down, his sheets are filthy looking and everything has a dark green look to it.
- You can attack him if you want, with no repercussions.
- Amber openly insults him after he frees her, then avoids him outright later.
- The Dog Bites Back: Helps Cooper in spite of what his master wants, which of course leads to Von Ghoul stating that he'll be punished, he still helps Cooper anyway and royally screws his boss over in the long run.
- Evil All Along: Maybe? Near the end, Baron Von Ghoul is revealed to have disguised himself as Crivens in order to get a cheap shot at Cooper, but the game never really answers if The Crivens you have been helped by was The Baron in the first place or if it was just a disguise for that one moment, the fact that Crivens has his own room and helps Cooper completely before this hints that it may be the latter.
- What Could Have Been: The unproduced sequel would reveal that while The Baron was disguised as Crivens the whole time, Crivens is a real person who fled the mansion and went to Ghoulsville-In-The-Gloom, the place where Cooper and Amber go in the ending.
Ma Soupswill
Ma Soupswill - The Cook
A large lady in charge of preparing food for everyone in Ghoulhaven, including the Ghoulies. She helps Cooper in chapter 2 by sending him out for ingredients for an antidote for Amber's Ghoulification. Later on she saves Copper and Mr. Ribs from a pack of Imps just as they are leaving the Mansion. She usually gives Cooper a fire extinguisher to combat the Fire Imps that seem to gather in her kitchen.
- Badass Normal: Watch her beat the tar out of a small horde of ghoulies at the end with a giant wood spoon.
- Big Damn Heroes: Fights off a horde of Imps with a giant spoon when they get the jump on Cooper and take apart Mr. Ribs.
- Meaningful Name: Soupswill, a cook who makes a bunch of power-ups in the form of soup cans that Cooper audibly drinks.
- Sassy Black Woman: Averted, she's a Jive Turkey, but she never really gets an attitude with, or insults anyone.
- Supreme Chef / Lethal Chef: flip-flops between the two. She makes tons of power ups for passerby to use and makes the food seen in the food related rooms, but also makes mistakes, such as making Power-downs and using the wrong kind of pepper in the antidote for Amber, turning her into a more violent monster.
Fiddlesworth
Fiddlesworth Dunfiddlin - The Groundskeeper
The Scottish groundskeeper of the Mansion who has a rather....interesting way of saying most everything. He holds some of the unique weapons that Cooper temporarily receives, namely A garlic shooting revolver named Edna, and a water gun filled with holy water.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: His euphemisms can come across as dirty. in fact, many that the developers made were cut because this trope was averted.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: The Fiddlerisms. Typically it's some variation of "well, ___ my ___ !"
- The Pig-Pen: Subverted somewhat, his hygiene is rather poor judging from his bed, which is beyond dilapidated and seems to be leaking green gas, but aside from that one particular part of his cottage, he seems no more messy than anyone else. This still irritates Babs who cites him as a mess maker.
- Ship Tease: With Babs, He allows her to take care of his gun, Edna, which he is very attached to; shes also the first person that comes to mind when he's being kicked out of his cottage; and she states that she'll take care of him and his messes in the ending when The Baron has been kicked out.
- Stalker with a Crush: Briefly shown to be admiring a Vampire from behind a support beam at one point, wondering aloud if she might like hairy backs.
Babs
Barbara Buffbrass - The Maid
A put-upon maid (nicknamed Babs) who cleans up the various messes left behind from both unruly ghoulies and the normal staff with a load of complaints in mind. She gives Cooper the Soda Revolver in the hopes that he'll get rid of it, but also takes it away on a whim to avoid messes.
- Failure Is the Only Option: If you beat the Ninja Imps without firing off the gun in the room where you first return the soda gun, she'll complain that you haven't thrown it away and take the gun. If you do fire it, she'll also complain about the mess you made in the room, and take it.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: in a Fridge Brilliance way. she appears only occasionally but always complains about the messes she cleans up; because she's cleaning up all the things Cooper breaks, which is why the rooms are back to being clean if he comes back and she's constantly saying he's a mess maker.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Incredibly crabby to others, but only because she never really gets a break due to the Ghoulies in general being slobs, but she's more than willing to give Cooper directions when she realizes he hasn't made any mess.
- Neat Freak: Not because she has a compulsion to clean, but because its her job, and because everyone in Ghoulhaven constantly makes a mess, she has to clean constantly.
- Ship Tease: with Fiddlesworth.
- Stealth Pun: the weapon she gives you is a literal "pop gun" that fires cans of soda.
Mr. Ribs
A friendly skeleton who serves as Ma's assistant.
- Affectionate Nickname: He refers to Ma as "Cookie".
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: He doesn’t attack Cooper at all when Cooper corners him in the kitchen and instead just runs about. Justified- he was only trying to help him and didn’t want to fight.
- Third-Person Person: He refers to himself by name when speaking instead of using pronouns.
- Token Heroic Orc: The only Ghoulie who isn’t a bad guy and actually cares for others. In a possible deconstruction, him looking like all the other skeletons causes Cooper to attack him and nearly kill him, but thankfully Ma intervenes before any lasting damage is done.
- You No Take Candle: Speaks in broken English.
Ghoulies and Villains
The Ghoulies in general
The varitable Monster Mash of creatures that live on the Ghoulhaven estate. All of them are controlled by Baron Von Ghoul, but while most are fought, they seem to generally mill about, with Cooper just happening to be passing by at the time. Some are even friendly.
- Alien Blood: if a Ghoulie bleeds, it's almost a guarantee that it'll be a neon green goo Implied to be an indicator that they're by-and-large artificially produced.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Nearly all of them are silly goons who do nothing but loiter about Ghoulhaven, but most of them will attack regular people on sight, and it's not hard to believe that just the threat of them leaving the estate is enough to have the locals leave the place alone, as is implied.
- Enemy Mine: All Ghoulies are liable to turn on each other, indicated by a creepy smiley face hovering over their heads. In gameplay this usually happens when they take enough damage from another Ghoulie during a fight, but sometimes they are this by default and are on your side. Unfortunately once the other Ghoulies are dealt with, these ghoulies will re focus on you, with some exceptions.
- Friendly Enemy: No all Ghoulies are your foes. Aside from Mr. Ribs, you Occasionally can unleash Ghoulies that'll fight by your side from objects they've been stuffed inside. These ghoulies tend to remain idle even with no other Ghoulies to attack and mill about on their own.
- Jump Scare: a favorite tactic of theirs is to hide and subsequently break out of containers to catch Cooper off guard. Zigzagged, as at best it'll give Cooper an in game moment to yelp in surprise. At worst, it's a weaponized Quick Time Event called a Super Scary Shock that will scare Cooper so hard that it’ll shave off his health.
- A variation appears frequently where a random sound or sight will cause an area of effect to occur, signified as a monstrous red sphere, this stuns Cooper hard enough to limit movement and also temporarily cuts his health. While idle rooms make this a nuisance, it can also happen during fights with enemies, which can be a death sentence in later challenges.
- Monster Mash: It is certainly missing some staples, but the lineup of Ghoulies screams this. There are various wacky skeletons, vampires, Imps, spiders and so on that live on the grounds, most of whom would look out of place in a kid-friendlier haunted house or Halloween special.
- No Body Left Behind: When a ghoulie dies, it'll melt/burn away into nothingness as a green sludge/fire.
- The Pig-Pen: Somewhat subverted, They're often leaving a mess, breaking objects, farming and generally acting like dirty children, and it gets more apparent the further into the Mansion you go. It's implied to be the reason why there are so many Improvised Weapons lying about, and why Babs is such a grouch when you meet her. However most of the environments are well kept when ones paying attention (it seems the Baron has a skeleton workforce to help Babs clean, complete with French maid outfits) it's only when Cooper gets into a fight that a real mess is left behind.
- To Serve Man: at least two of the prisoners you can find are in the food related areas of the Mansion. However its implied the ghoulies don't actually eat people and it's mostly a way to torture and restrain them. The Zombie Pirates, for example, seem more interested in the actual food being served at their banquet than the teen literally being served on a silver platter with an apple in his mouth.
Imps
Small devilish purple creatures that circle around their targets in groups. The most basic of Ghoulies, but they can get some small hits in while they're running by.
- The Goomba: easily the most easy of the Ghoulies to actually fight, one big hit/combo is enough to finish them off and they're small enough that bigger attacks and Cooper's finishers can send multiple flying at once.
- Leitmotif: An impish high pitched string theme that emphasizes their nature of ganging up on a target.
- Man Bites Man: They gain a new attack starting at the Lighthouse, signified by when they enlarge their heads with a purple aura. If, allowed, they jump on Coopers shoulders and will give him a bite. It's easily telegraphed by their distinctive noise ("eeh-eeh-eeh!") And also easily shaken off before they can bite, but it can distract you from other, more dangerous Ghoulies.
- Purple Is Powerful: Thoroughly averted, they are as weak as they come, their biggest threat is being mixed in with other Ghoulies and the fact that they can run by for a small attack; even in groups they're mostly just an endurance match, and a challenge involving them has to limit you directly in order to make them a viable threat. Even their head-latching attack that they gain only serves to have a player target them before they can activate it, and they can be shaken off fairly quickly
- Karmic Death: They're implied to bully the non-ghoulie staff on a regular basis, and since their boss owns the house and the likes of Fiddlesworth and Ma' Soupswill don't like to fight in the first place, they've gotten away with smacking people around for a long time. Then Cooper arrives, and the Imps begin dropping like flies.
- Zerg Rush: their main tactic in a fight which they use when they get the drop on Cooper and Mr.Ribs, unfortunately for them this motivates Ma Soupswill to start fighting back, and she hands them their 100 collective asses.
Rodger the Cabin Boy
An Imp dressed as a sailor and cabin boy to the Zombie Pirates. He is also apparently Fiddlesworth's primary bully. When Cooper offs the little jerk, he earns even more ire from the crew of Zombie Pirates.
- Berserk Button: He serves as one, as killing him is an inciting incident of the Zombie Pirates getting pissed off at Cooper.
- Retirony: A Zombie Pirate shouts in despair that Rodger was about to retire when Cooper kills him. Presumably, he was giving Fiddlesworth one last hard time before that happened.
- Tempting Fate: He really should have known better not to attack Fiddlesworth right before he was set to retire, while someone he's befriended -who's been killing Ghoulies left and right- is still wandering around. Even when Cooper is right there, he doesn't flee, and you have to kill him to progress.
- Thin-Skinned Bully: Like with all the other Imps, Rodger is just a little asshat picking on the human staff because their master owns their home. In this case, it's implied he has a particular habit of harassing Fiddlesworth the Groundskeeper, on the grounds that he's the closest to his Crew in location. He's even weaker than a normal Imp by virtue of ignoring Cooper completely until he's swatted away in Fiddlesworth's defense.
- Unique Enemy: He's an imp with a little sailor hat, scarf and red-striped shirt, and the only antagonist that directly attacks an NPC during gameplay while ignoring you.
Ninja Imps
Black Imps wearing orange Ninja uniforms and masks. These small monsters tend to meditate outdoors until they're disturbed by Cooper's intrusion, at which point they put their karate to good use in a fight.
- Bullet Time: A parody of it in that Ninja Imps have to stun You with consecutive hits before jumping in the air, pausing for a moment, and then zooming forward with an afterimage effect for their kick - effectively changing their trajectory mid-jump.
- Catchphrase: they often do the karate "KEE/HEE-YAH!" in unison before they go on the attack.
- Friendly Enemy: sets of 3 you can free appear and help you fight the first Jessie 'N' Clyde you encounter in the game, and later on against a horde of armed skeletons circling around the laser operating table near the lab. Considering their moderate power and small size, they are extremely helpful allies.
- Regional Riff: Their theme, unsurprisingly, includes a quick xylophone version of the Oriental Riff.
- Sizeshifter: later on they gain the ability to meditate and grow larger in order to gain more health and damage. In terms of actual size though, they only grow to waist height, as opposed to knee height Imps typically are.
Flying Imps
Green Imps with longer tails that fly with bat wings. They are particularly tenacious enemies who can be slightly harder to hit given their airborne nature, which becomes a problem with some challenges Cooper faces.
- Airborne Mook: One of the few small enemies that consistently hovers in the air. It gives them the benefit of being harder to hit with some attacks.
- Butt-Monkey: Once the group tormenting Crivens into hiding in his dresser closet are dealt with, one that is slumped up against it gets hit in the back of the head when Crivens opens the door to exit.
- Fragile Speedster: Quick on the draw, their basic attack is a slap with their wings, which can be trouble if a group converge on you, as it'll stun Cooper eventually for more damage. To compensate they individually only have about 15 health.
- Mini-Boss: their first encounter in Crivens Quarters is set up as one (in Wolf Pack Boss flavor), they are surprisingly relentless in a confined space, and the rooms rules make actually attacking them tricky there. They are also one of the few normal Ghoulie enemies to appear in cutscenes before and after their introduction fight.
Fire Imps
A flying Imp variant that's constantly on fire and tend to gather in the kitchen to harass Ma Soupswill. Attacking them directly will only knock them back at best, to put them down for good, you need something to put out their flames.
- Airborne Mook: like the regular Flying Imps, thankfully they're a lot slower and tend to appear much less frequently.
- Kill It with Fire: their M.O. either by spitting little fireballs, or by getting in close and breathing a stream of flame for a couple of seconds.
- Leitmotif: A particularly harpsichord heavy piece, accompanied by strings to emphasize their airborne nature, shared with the normal Flying Imps.
- Wreathed in Flames: they are constantly on fire, which prevents Cooper from hitting them with his bare hands. In fact, they can't be hurt at all unless you have a weapon to put out their fire (namely the flamethrower or the squirt gun).
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: for some reason, because of their fire, smacking them around with a weapon does nothing but stun them, which is actually sometimes helpful, in that it allows you to give yourself some breathing room if you need it during their fights. To put them down, weapons that can extiguish them are a must.
Skeletons
Skeletons with big green eyes, very often seen hanging about idly when not focused on fighting intruders or working to clean the Mansion.
- Bring It: a common taunt of theirs is to do the two-handed wide-stanced variation of this
- Creepy Crossdresser: Downplayed since there's no way to tell their gender. But they have somewhat masculine voices, and a special variation of them are dressed as French Maids, usually dusting the Entrance Hall's books.
- Enemy Mine / Friendly Enemy: They'll sometimes be in the unwilling service of Zombie Pirates. Smacking them will often give the skeletons the boost they need to start fighting their captors as well and give you back up.
- Evil Counterpart: To Cooper, being fist fighters who have a knack for using many an Improvised Weapon
- Giggling Villain: often times heard making their trademark "Eh-heheh!"
- Good Old Fisticuffs: How they fight when unarmed, complete with the old-timey fist-circling.getting stunned by their smaller quick punches can leave you open to a massive uppercut.
- Foreshadowing: In the Cinema you can watch a short clip of two skeletons getting into a fight. It reveals that they can grab weapons like you can, well before they start doing so during the game proper.
- Groin Attack: one Poor Skeleton used as set dressing is latched down to a table in Krackpots lab, eyes bulged in terror as a laser has almost reached its crotch. Thankfully the laser shuts off after leaving the first person POV of entering the room.
- Idea Bulb: Be weary of skeletons in later areas that gain this during a fight. Once the bulb turns on, they'll go after grabbable weapons and become significantly more dangerous. Inversely, when they're on your side they're very helpful, and swinging two handed weapons is likely to hit other Ghoulies if you can manage to avoid them.
- Leitmotif: A fast-paced xylophone theme. A faster variant is used with Mr. Ribs for his boss fight.
Ancient Mummies
Mummies, unlike ghoulies, are initially non-hostile to the player until struck first.
- Burn the Undead: Their weakness is fire, which is executed either by whacking them with a large candle or by launching them into a furnace.
- Dumb Muscle: They appear slow and dim-witted, but can pack quite a punch.
- Friendly Enemy: It's not uncommon to encounter friendly mummies trapped inside something that will assist you when you release them. Due to their partial invincibility and damage output, they can serve as great allies.
- Hammerspace: Will pull out an over-sized scepter out from their bandages to finish their combo.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Can only be killed with fire; however, because fire is not always available, they are often invincible.
- Leitmotif: An Egyptian-themed piece, appropriately.
- Mummy Wrap: Can throw their bandages at the player to ensnare them.
Baron Von Ghoul
Baron Von Ghoul - Master of the Mansion
The eccentric Lord of the estate and a plane enthusiast, Baron Von Ghoul is the Big Bad of the story who kidnaps Amber and leads Cooper inside his lair. When Amber is fully saved, Cooper decides to help the other trapped teenagers, which requires him to defeat the Baron in a climax fight.
- Bad Boss: Working for this man is an absolute test of patience, even without the ghoulies being a constant threat to be weary of. He seems to only let people work for him if living at the estate is considered fair enough payment. In Fiddlesworths case, its implied his Cottage was already on the land when the Baron moved in and he has nowhere else to go. The Servants living quarters are all falling apart and dirty. It's also Played With in that he seems to get along well enough with Krackpot and the Ghoulies themselves, the latter of which seem to also act as staff for the Mansion.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's an absolute loon, there's no mistake, but has gotten away with numerous kidnappings with little to no pushback, likely to the army of Ghoulies that live in his home. It's even implied that the local town is also under his control as well. Meanwhile he secludes himself in his room, play acting as a fighter pilot. He's also no slouch when it comes time to actually fight him.
- Evil Is Petty: Originally, he was being passive and letting Cooper and Amber come to him and take shelter. Then Cooper indirectly offends him, and he decides to punish him, commanding his Gargoyles to snatch Amber and lead Cooper into the Manor.
- For the Evulz: Somewhat of a Deconstruction of this trope to a degree. For example, An older gentleman kidnapping teenagers who wander or are forcibly taken into his home on its face raises red flags, but he only seems to keep them around as trophies, or to simply torture them by putting them in uncomfortable situations. There's no point for him to be so cartoonishly cruel, and while while this does make him entertaining to listen to/watch, it also underlines how far gone his frame of mind is and makes him unsettling to think about.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: His whole deal at first is that he has Amber caught and in his Mansion somewhere. As you quickly find out, she's not the only one unfortunate enough to be a victim of this...
- Hidden Depths: If his Greenhouse and courtyard are an indication, he seems to have a knack for gardening. He also seems to have a talent for magics and especially for engineering, seeing as he made a working plane worn like a costume
- The Man Behind the Monsters: Downplayed, He's not especially handsome, but he is the relatively human(?) guy behind all the dealings and Ghoulies that are in Ghoulhaven
- Psychopathic Manchild: where do you begin? He's always dressed in his pajamas and Aviator get up, his room is likewise childishly decorated with plane paraphernalia, he runs around with his arms out making gun noises, and he treats everything like a game to be won. He's also a malicious kidnapper who commands an army of monsters.
