Graveyard Shadow

The Graveyard Shadow is one of five antagonists from the game Nightmare Ned.

Role in the Story
It is implied that tthe Graveyard Shadow is with the other shadows as they stalk Ned to his room and possess his quilt. During Ned's first trip to the Quilt, the Graveyard Shadow leads the other shadows against him, messing with his head a bit before the nightmares could begin. Ned had eight hours to rid his dreams of the shadows, or they would continue haunting him forever.

Eventually, after conquering enough of his fears of death, Ned manages to defeat the Graveyard Shadow and change him into what he embodies: Ted Needlemeyer, Ned Needlemeyer's grandfather. As it turns out, The Graveyard Shadow was born from Ned's fear of Ted dying, along with his own fear of death.

Appearance
In cutscenes, the Graveyard Shadow appears as a black, transparent shadow. However, in the main game, he is colored purple. He has a thin body and a black scythe in his right hand along with green eyes and devil wings. He also lacks legs, thin arms, white teeth and devil horns.

Personality
Like with the other villains in the Nightmare Ned game, the Graveyard Shadow's personality can best be analyzed through the use of several implications found throughout his level, the Graveyard Nightmare, which he created himself. The Graveyard Shadow is extremely cruel, having a young girl trapped in a giant tomb alone in the dark and having Ned battle his own parents as zombies. He is highly sadistic, messing with Ned as he is beginning his nightmares along with his cohorts. It is implied that he is the leader of the shadows, as his normally serious demeanor is a bit more prominent than the other shadows. The Graveyard Shadow is arguably the most personal of the shadows, as he made sure his entire nightmare world was suitable for psychologically scarring Ned, of not outright torturing him. When things get tough, however, the Graveyard Shadow is rather spineless, although, like with most primary antagonists, this is due to his defeat being imminent.

Powers and Abilities
The Graveyard Shadow has similar powers to the other shadows, such as dream manipulation and nightmare creation, only that they manifest themselves as being more death-related than the rest of the shadows' powers.

Trivia

 * Ironically, his level is often the first shadow that most players defeat, despite being the implied leader of the shadows. This is due to both his level's easy difficulty and its placement on the Quilt.
 * Due to what he represents--death, the death of a loved one, and the fear of dying-- and what goes on in his nightmare, the Graveyard Shadow is viewed by fans as the main villain of Nightmare Ned. This is supported by the fact that most people in the world fear death while the other fears that the other nightmares represent are much more specific to certain people or are just simply irrational fears.