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Just because we're friendly, doesn't mean you can push us around!
Casper is the main character in the Casper's Scare School film and series, as well as the titular protagonist of the Casper the Friendly Ghost franchise in general.
He is a friendly ghost whose main interests are helping others and doing good deeds, and he despises scaring humans, which is why he ended up being sent to the Scare School on Kibosh's orders to adapt to the creatures' ways. He is sent to the Scare School during the events of the film to help preserve the balance between creatures and humans, in exchange for not being banished to The Valley of the Shadows. He makes a trio with his best friends at school, Ra and Mantha, and is the rival and main enemy of Thatch, the school bully.
Biography
Overview
Casper lives with his three uncles, Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso in an old abandoned manor in Deedstown and befriends a lonely human boy named Jimmy Bradley, who is the son of the biggest creature catcher in Deedstown. Because of Casper's problem with scaring, Kibosh, the powerful king of the Underworld, orders him to be sent to study at Scare School to help preserve the balance between creatures and humans and not be banished to the Valley of the Shadows. At Scare School, Casper meets several students and makes great friends with two other equally friendly students named Mantha, a zombie, and Ra, a rich Egyptian mummy. There he also meets Thatch, a bully vampire who is always trying to get him into trouble, and also the evil and sadistic principals of the school, Alder and Dash, who totally despise kindness and plan to get rid of Kibosh and take over the world.
Personality
Casper is friendly and the most peaceful student at Scare School and possibly the kindest in the entire Underworld. He totally rejects any kind of cruelty or meanness and is always subject to helping others around him and doing good deeds, which goes totally against the habits of the creatures and rules of the Underworld, which makes him often get into trouble with the school principals, the teachers and even Kibosh, the leader of the Underworld, who ordered him sent to the Scare School so that he could adapt to the mean nature of the creatures and learn to scare so as not to be sent to the Valley of the Shadows, and preserve the balance between creatures and humans.
In addition to being kind, Casper has also shown himself to be quite brave and fearless, and is always willing to help anyone, regardless of who or what the situation is, being completely willing to take any kind of risk to do good and Justice; This fearless behavior of Casper has been present in previous incarnations of the character, but ended up being much more in-depth in the film and in the series. One of the greatest examples of Casper's great courage is in "Vote for Casper", where he refuses Kibosh's order to run for class president at school so as not to disappoint Mantha and run against her, this attitude of Casper is even praised by Kibosh himself, who claims that no one has ever had the courage to stand up to him before. This feature is also present in the pilot film, after Casper fulfills his obligation to scare his own human friend, he decides to go to the Valley of the Shadows on his own and faces an evil shadowy illusion of himself before entering the portal, and later gathers all the banished from the Valley of the Shadows to stop Alder and Dash from going through with their evil plan.
A prominent characteristic of Casper that was given in his incarnation in the series, is his great intelligence and willingness to do justice, which kind of replaces more the innocence that he had in his original character, in addition to a more "mature" way of thinking. This behavior is shown several times throughout the series, but with the most notable example being the episode "Bully for you", where he forms a secret group to stop bullying at school and for all students to start respecting each other.
Now, Casper's biggest difference from the series with his original self is present in the second season, where he gives an impression that he ended up really adapting a little to the nature of the creatures, being often seen committing some rebellious actions, but the most notable characteristic in this behavior is his great ease in scaring others, even his own classmates, so much so that in several episodes of this season he is shown as an Exemplary Student in Scare School, going from one of the most despised students to one of the most praised students, and he was even revealed to have won every "best student of the year" trophies during his entire time at Scare School; Despite this, he still maintains his sympathetic nature from the first season and even states that he still does not like to scare, which contradicts some of his actions shown throughout the season. While his gentle demeanor has been maintained, his innocence has been all but lost this season.
Unlike the original Casper, he is also willing to scare when he feels it is really necessary, such as to help Jimmy against Norman and other bullies, and even manages to scare Thatch, the meanest student in the school, which he usually does to hinder him in his evil plans and prevent him from carrying them out; Despite Casper's changing attitude in the second season, he has still shown himself to be in favor of kindness, as shown in "Love Potion", where he supports the school continuing in its kind state after the incident with everyone being tainted by the love potion, though he later changes his mind so as not to disappoint Mantha, who is in favor of Scare School's rules.
Appearance
Casper has the same look as the original character; a little floating ghost with blue eyes. However, his concept still has some noticeable differences, such as the ability to switch between a ghostly tail and a pair of regular legs, which is quite reminiscent of his classic Harvey Comics design, which had legs instead of a tail as in later adaptations.
The differences in his look from the movie to the series, while few, are quite noticeable, such as his color, which had a darker, half-gray tone that resembles some designs from earlier adaptations. This was also the only time in the entire franchise where Casper has different eye colors (if not counting his Harvey Comics designs, which had black eyes), being light purple instead of blue.
In the TV series, his design, along with that of many other characters, was slightly changed to look more polished, now with a lighter, brighter white color, which makes his facial expressions a little less visible, and bringing back his blue eyes from the previous adaptations. His face looks almost the same as in the movie, however, his eyes are a bit more "straight" and less diagonally shaped. Although this was probably Casper's current appearance, he still alternated between this and the design from the movie in games and promotional images of the franchise.
In the TV series, Casper also gets a recurring costume (or alter ego) for the first time, consisting of a blue hooded jacket and dark blue pants, which is used as a disguise to avoid being noticed by humans.
Powers and Abilities
Casper possesses the common powers and abilities of a ghost, which consist of:
- Flight: As a ghost, Casper has the ability to fly and float whenever and wherever he wants. In doing so, he transforms his legs into a ghost tail.
- Invisibility: Casper can also make himself invisible, which is useful for hiding or misdirecting.
- Intangibility: Typical of any ghost. Casper can pass through any solid matter such as walls, people, objects, etc.
- Shape-shiffting: Casper can also possess the body of any creature or person, being able to fully control their movements, while still leaving them conscious.
Relationships
Mantha
Mantha is one of Casper's best friends, along with Ra. She and Casper get along very well, and always help and support each other in difficult times, as Mantha constantly helps Casper in the troubles he has to face due to his innocent nature not well accepted at school, as well as he helps her in her goal of raising the zombies' name and proving that they should not be despised.
The two generally show respect for each other's interests and opinions; Mantha accepts and likes Casper for who he is, and understands and accepts his more innocent nature and not liking to scare, which is, in her case, a good thing, which Casper also respects, and even helps her in her scares to humans, although only in really necessary situations.
Although both respect each other's positions, sometimes they can have disagreements and even fights because of their differences, which in most cases, is due to Casper's behavior, like the times he makes negative comments about the rules of the Scare School, which is enough for him and Mantha to start an argument. Even though they have their disagreements from time to time, they always make up and redeem themselves in the end.
In season 2, Mantha seems to have become much closer to Casper, showing herself to be a more loyal friend, and their moments of fighting have also diminished; This is probably due to the more mischievous and rebellious behavior that Casper acquired in season 2, becoming more like her, and sometimes they can even be seen hanging out together, without Ra's presence, who used to be Mantha's closer friend in season 1. speaking of Ra, Casper and Mantha are also often seen together laughing or making fun of him because of his antics or because he is more easily scared, although of course they don't get to be aggressive.
Ra
Ra, like Mantha, is a very close friend of Casper's, even forming a trio with him and Mantha. Casper's friendship with Ra has proven to be much more positive than it was with Mantha; the two rarely get into any arguments or fights, although their friendship can go from good to neutral from time to time, notably when Casper and Mantha argue, he always takes Mantha's side.
In season 1, Casper is shown to have a great friendship and concern for Ra, and never gives up on helping him when he is going through trouble; a great example of this is in "The Ra-minator", where Casper supports Ra when he is feeling sad about the teasing he receives, and helps him impress the other students, even if it is to deceive, which shows how much he cares about him; In "Weekend at Bunny's", Ra, along with Mantha, helps Casper hide the invading rabbit from the school, even though he knows the danger he is in and the trouble that can happen.
Ra is always willing to help and support Casper in his difficult situations, and has proven to be as loyal a friend as Mantha is to him, and despite his clumsy ways, Casper always knows he can count on him. In "Rich Kid Ra", Casper realizes that Ra is being tricked by Thatch, who was pretending to be his friend to get his riches, and together with Mantha, tries to do everything possible to convince him of this, and forgives him after he apologizes for not believing them after finding out the truth.
In season 2, their friendship, although still positive in general, is somewhat average, because, due to Casper's mischievous behavior, he often has fun mocking Ra for his clumsiness and for the scares he easily gets, usually together with Mantha, who in a way had a more strained friendship with him than Ra in season 1; Ra, on the other hand, showed great respect for Casper in this season and even seems to admire him more, as when he lies saying that Casper knows a famous historical figure just to protect him from Thatch, although this obviously did not end well; Casper still forgave Ra.
Jimmy Bradley
Jimmy is Casper's human friend and also apparently his only friend before he was sent to Scare School.
Casper and Jimmy have probably the most positive relationship in the series, being great friends and loyal and helpful to each other. The only time there was a disagreement between the two was in the movie, where Jimmy was first disappointed that Casper had to go to Scare School and couldn't watch his football game, and later on was scared off by him; however, in the series, Jimmy has shown himself to be much more understanding of the situations that his ghost friend has to go through, although this doesn't stop him from finding a way out of school to spend time having fun with Jimmy, who also often visits Casper's haunted manor when his uncles are away, where he has fun playing with Casper.
Jimmy is always grateful when he receives help from Casper for any situation and knows that he can always count on him, and, just like Ra and Mantha, he is always available to help him too, so much so that he even has to interrupt his father's creature hunter job to help Casper in certain situations, like when some of his classmates are caught by his father, he will do everything to try to make him stop, but keeping his friendship with Casper and the other creatures a secret.
Their friendship is kept secret so as not to cause problems for those known to both of them, such as Jimmy's father, who hates creatures, and the principals of Casper's school, who hate "fleshies". The few people who have known about their friendship have also been trusted to keep it a secret.
Thatch
Casper's relationship with the school bully is not positive; the two are enemies and rivals of each other, and both despise each other, but especially Thatch towards Casper, who even manages to keep calm and put up with him all the time thanks to his more peaceful nature, which is the main reason why Thatch hates him.
Besides disliking Casper for being nice and not scary, he has also shown to be jealous of him in some occasions, most notably in the second season, where he seems to hate Casper more for being a more competent scary student than him (considering Casper's change of behavior this season).
In fact, Thatch acts more like a true enemy to Casper than a rival, constantly making plans, schemes and tricks to see Casper punished, like the many times he tries to denounce him to the principals and teachers for being nice or helpful, although it almost always ends up backfiring on him. He also makes up lies to get Casper into trouble, and hardly gives up on his attempts to mess with him.
Casper, despite being the most despised by Thatch, is not the biggest victim of his bullying, because Thatch clearly is aware that he cannot do much physical aggression with a ghost, so he usually uses only verbal taunts and jokes against him; At times, Casper even seems interested in making some friendship with him, especially in the movie and the first season, although this never really happens due to Thatch's rude behavior.
Kibosh
Casper and Kibosh's relationship is somewhat average. Despite Kibosh's rejection of kindness, innocence, friendship or anything nice in general, he doesn't seem to despise Casper, at least not like Thatch and Alder and Dash, as he already gave him several chances to adapt to the creatures' nature and in the last one he even gave him the alternative to go to the Scare School to learn how to scare instead of banishing him straight to the Valley of the Shadows as he did with others before.
Casper, despite not agreeing with the rules made by Kibosh and hating the scares, still showed a great respect for him, due to both his gentle nature and his awareness that he is the one in charge of the Underworld, although he can also be seen raising his voice at him on occasions, as when he corrects him about referring to humans as "fleshies", and sometimes even disobeying his orders when he feels he really needs to, which is an attitude that Kibosh has already revealed he admires in the episode "Vote for Casper", where he exclaims that no other creature has ever had the courage to face him.
At the end of the movie, Kibosh tells Casper that he understands his situation and how hard it is to grow up and learn how to scare, so much so that he was once like him when he was his age; a friendly ghost, but he said he knows that one day he will understand this. He also allowed the creatures to unite with humans for the first time, as a gratitude to Casper for saving him.
Alder and Dash
Mosshead
Mosshead is the only member of Thatch's gang (that is if Harpy isn't included) who seems to get along with Casper. At first, Mosshead seems to have the same take on Casper as Thatch does, as he is almost always seen helping him in his pranks and plans to get Casper into trouble, however, there are many situations where both respect each other, talk to each other, and even help each other.
The friendship between them started in "Messy Business at the Manor", where Casper asks Mosshead to spend the vacation with him at his uncles' manor, but Mosshead, although glad and happy to be invited, behaved in a rude and ungrateful way, which annoyed Casper and resulted in Casper giving him a scolding. Mosshead regretted what he had done and then cleaned up the mess he had made in the manor together with Casper, and in the end, both became good friends.
The friendship between them is even more apparent in "The Day The Professor Croaked", where Casper, after finding out that Mosshead brought his pet to school, promises to keep it a secret, along with Mantha and Ra. Mosshead also showed trust in Casper, letting him use his frog for his plan to help Mr. Burns, and even encourages and supports him when he is about to give up.
Graham Bradley
Jimmy's father is generally unaware of Casper's friendship with Jimmy, even after "Power Outage", where he finds out about it. The interactions between the two is expected to be not good, as Graham hates any kind of creature, including ghosts, and also works as a creature catcher in Deedstown, and always tries to capture Casper when he sees him. He also never seems to recognize Casper each time he sees him, acting as if he has never seen him before.
Casper, with his good-natured personality, shows respect for Graham and seems to like him, especially since he is the father of his best friend, although it is clear that he does not like his job, and he will not hesitate to stop him from succeeding in capturing creatures, especially when they are his friends.
Wolfie
Quasi
Quasi and Casper have proven to be good friends several times throughout the series. Casper showed confidence in him to keep his help group a secret, but Quasi, however, despite having the good intentions, showed himself to be unreliable by simply letting it slip to all the students about Casper's group, despite having a positive result, since they all supported the idea, although they later ended up getting annoyed with Casper's demands, and Quasi was included among them, as he was the first one to point it out.
Casper has often been seen helping him when he is in trouble, notably in "Ring My Bell", where he finds it unfair the way Quasi is treated in his work, and encourages him to go on strike until the principals treat him with more respect, and even replaces him as Chore Boy (albeit out of obligation from the principals). Quasi feels bad for getting Casper into this whole situation, and almost gives up on going on strike so that Casper will stop suffering for him, but Casper encourages him even more, and ends up helping him get what he deserves; more time for homework, less hard work, and respect from the principals.
Despite their friendship, Quasi has been seen making fun of Casper at times with other students, although this is standard for a Scare School student and is no different with other students who are close to the ghost.
Blodge
Blodge and Casper seem to be very close friends, as they are constantly seen helping each other in different situations, especially in season 2.
Casper seems to really like Blodge, mainly because of his fun and friendly nature. In "Radio Blodge", he helps him break into Alder and Dash's office to give his own morning announcements. Later, he accidentally gives him the idea of being a real DJ, and then stops him from continuing to be one since he was causing trouble for the creatures by revealing their secrets and weaknesses. In spite of all this, he still remained loyal to Blodge and remained his friend, especially after being saved by him from getting caught by Graham.
Blodge also likes Casper a lot and is often a great help to him in dealing with certain situations, and is always willing to help him. He also pays Casper several praises on his radio station, mentioning him as being full of good ideas, although he was not aware that this was getting him into trouble with the principals at that point.
Triclops
Casper usually helps Triclops when she is being bullied. The two get along well, even though they have few interactions compared to most of the other students. In "Substitute Gargoyle", Triclops was seen among the students angry with Casper, but then ends up saving him from being hated and possibly attacked by the other students after seeing that he was telling the truth about having given everyone positive grades. In "Ship in a Bottle", she praises Casper's model of Cappy's ship and helps him get it back after Thatch stole it.
In "Triclops Mistress of Darkness", Casper comforts Triclops along with Ra and Mantha after she has been bullied by Thatch, Mickey & Monaco, and later helps her recover the ring she found that Thatch stole to perform the ritual, and then helps her recover her balaclava to calm her down.