#rankor

We’ve come to the end of my Halloween countdown of my thirteen favorite Scooby-Doo Monster/Ghost/Ghouls. Taking the thirteen spot is not one, not two but the thirteen foulest specters and ghouls on Earth. That’s right. The Thirteen Ghost of the Chest of Demon.

The Thirteen Ghosts appeared in “The Thirteen Ghost of Scooby-Doo!”

According to legend, the Thirteen Ghost were the most terrifying ghosts whoever existed on the face of the Earth. They were eventually captured and sealed away in the Chest of Demons until the ghosts Bogel and Weerd were able to trick Scooby and Shaggy into opening the chest, unleashing the ghost. Scooby and Shaggy were informed by sorcerer Vincent Van Ghoul that as they had been the ones to release the demons, only they could return the demons to the Chest of Demons. Along with Dalphe, Scrappy and new friend Flimflam, Scooby and the team set out to capture the Thirteen Ghost aided by Vincent and his magic.

The Thirteen Ghost varied in appearance. Some like Queen Morbidia, Nekara and Professor Phantazmo looked human. Zomba, Demondo, Rankor and Zimbulu and Asmodeus looked like demons. Captain Ferguson and the Refelctor Spector were ghosts. Maldor, Marcella and Time Slime looked ghoulish.

Each were capable of using and casting dark magic and some like Captain Ferguson, Phantazmo and Nekara were able to conceal their true form from humans. All thirteen were able to speak and despite being locked away for hundreds of years had no issue interacting within the modern world after their release.

All of the Thirteen Ghost were dangerous and were not willing to let Scooby and the gang stand in their way. Each employed their dark powers and other monsters and ghouls to try to stop Scooby and crew and retrieve the Chest of Demons. Zombra employed several monsters in her takeover of the local TV station. Phantazmo had a circus of ghouls under his control. Captain Ferguson had a whole cruise boat of ghosts and ghouls. Marcella employed the Bromski Sisters, three witch sisters to do her biding. Throughout the series Bogel and Weerd aide several of the ghosts in their schemes. The actions of the Thirteen Ghosts were so bad that it did real harm to Scooby’s psyche to the point where he even left the team for a time.

“The Thirteen Ghost of Scooby-Doo!” while a nice break from the traditional Scooby-Doo formula of bad guys in masks, it wasn’t able to escape the traditional of stories filles with plot holes. The biggest one is that the series only ran for thirteen episodes but only twelve of the Thirteen Ghosts were shown. The series was canceled in order to make room for the new series ‘’A Pup Named Scooby-Doo’’ so we never got to see the final ghost. This lose thread wouldn’t be addresses until the movie, “The Thirteenth Ghost of Scooby-Doo’’ which sadly did more harm than good to the legacy of “The Thirteen Ghost of Scooby-Doo!” It was also never clearly stated which ghost in "Ship of Ghouls" was meant to one of the Thirteen Ghost. I go along with Captain Ferguson being the Chest of Demons ghost and not the Cyclone Demon.

Another plot hole is that while they’re called the Thirteen Ghost, the majority of them don’t look like ghosts. They’re described as being both ghosts and demos by different characters throughout the series. We also never learn how Bogel and Weerd came to be associated with the Chest of Demons and the ghosts. No true origins are given to the Thirteen Ghost, and we never learn how they had originally been captured or what truly made them the thirteen foulest specters and ghouls on Earth the thirteen foulest specters and ghouls on Earth. I think it would have been better had the series lasted longer so we could have seen the ghosts interact with Scooby and the gang more before they were captured. They could have had their backstories explained and that would have helped flesh them out a little bit more.