Scratch (The Ghost and Molly McGee)

Evil-doer
Full Name	Todd Mortenson
Alias	Scratch Scratch McGee Scratchy Cousin Carl Duke from West Covina (both fake names) The Chairman
Origin	The Ghost and Molly McGee
Occupation	Ghost of Brighton Molly McGee's guardian and "best friend" Honorary member of the McGee family Ruler of the Ghost Realm Servant of The Ghost Council (all formerly). World traveller
Powers / Skills	Intangibility Levitation Invisibility Possession Dimensional travel Placing curses Shapeshifting (all via to wraith form; formerly)
Hobby	Bringing misery to the people of Brighton Lounging around (both formerly) Eating food Scratching his arm when he gets nervous Spending time with Molly and her family Travelling the world
Goals	Keep Brighton miserable Make Molly and the McGees leave Brighton (both abandoned) Help Molly in her goals (occasionally; mostly succeeded) Break the curse that binds him to Molly (indirectly succeeded) Remember his life Return to his body, lead a fulfilling life, and reunite with Adia (both The End, succeeded)
Crimes	Gaslighting Malefic Incrimination Theft Robbery Sabotage Cheating Possession
Type of Villain	Insecure Ghost

“	Afterlife is so unfair!	„
	~ Scratch's most famous quote.

“	I CURSE YOU, MOLLY MCGEE!! WHEREVER YOU GO, WHATEVER YOU DO, FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAYS, I’L BE THERE, HAUNTING YOU, TORMENTING YOU, TURNING YOUR EVERY WAKING MOMENT INTO AN UNENDING NIGHTMARE!!!	„
	~ Scratch cursing Moly McGee, which backfires on him.

Todd Mortenson nicknamed Scratch is the titular deuteragonist in the Disney Channel series The Ghost and Molly McGee.

He is a greedy, narcissistic ghost who haunts the town of Brighton, generating misery under the orders of the Ghost Council. He later inadvertently curses himself to accompany the human girl Molly McGee for all eternity, and initially attempts to evade her and break the curse. However, as the series progresses, he gradually warms up to Molly and joins her in her attempts to bring joy to Brighton, eventually turning against the Ghost Council's will.

He is voiced by Dana Snyder, who also voiced Master Shake in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Thester Carbomb IV, Dusty Marlow, Stanley Hopson and Clovis in Paradise P.D and Graballa the Hutt in LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures.

Appearance

Scratch looks like a blue ghost with green teeth, a big light blue nose and a curly-shaped head. He has wrinkles on his forehead, inner cheeks and under his eyes.

Like all the ghosts seen in the series, he is made of ectoplasm and can change size and manifest bugs onto his body for scare factor.

After becoming the new Chairman, he looks identical to the previous one, but he is smaller and he can show his face under the cloak, he can return to his normal appearance by removing his robe.

Personality

Scratch is described to be a grumpy, rude, lazy and hungry ghost. He could be considered the antithesis to Molly McGee in personality, but despite their differences, they eventually bond together. Scratch is not above doing some devilish things like cheating or lying just to get in a better position. He is also described as a ghost who has joy when he brings misery to other people.

While first not caring about anyone but himself, Scratch has shown a soft side after spending some time with the McGee family, eventually making him a better "person", or ghost. It is shown that Scratch was a loner before meeting the McGees, admitting that he has no friends and that he is disliked by almost any other ghosts.

Scratch isn't the smartest ghost, as he inadvertently cursed himself on Molly while trying to scare her when they first met, and he had no way to fix this, though this curse ended up being a blessing for Scratch, as stated above, he began to grow fond of Molly, considering her at first just a nuisance but currently as his best friend.

About him being always hungry, Scratch has shown to be a glutton that likes to always have his stomach full, not caring if he needs to steal food from someone or somewhere else.

Scratch has shown to be a little insecure about what others people think about him, even if not really showing it, he often lies about himself, like when he said to Molly that he knew Abraham Lincoln or when he said that he was "very popular among other ghosts" just because he didn't want Molly to know that he is actually very unpopular and practically a "loser in the Ghost World".

Powers and Abilities

Scratch sets the standard for what powers a normal ghost can have in the show, with these being: Levitation, intangibility, invisibility, teleportation, shapeshifting, dimensional travel, possession and curse-bidding.

Scratch also, because he is already dead, can do some things that would harm and even kill a normal human, such as eating poisonous berries and bees, being repeatedly hit and crushed by various falling objects, falling into a slicing machine and withstanding high levels of electricity.

Biography

Past

Not much is known about Scratch prior to him dying and becoming a ghost, and he can't remember either, the only thing know is that that he was once a normal human that had a friend named "Adia", and that at one point in his afterlife he was assigned by The Ghost Council to haunt and make miserable the city of Brighton.

Scratch was greatly disliked in the Ghost World due to his crude nature, having no friends and practically being a social outcast, except for a "dumb" ghost known as Geoff who Scratch only considers as an "annoying co-worker". Nevertheless, Scratch does have a good track record of spreading misery throughout Brighton.

Meeting Molly McGee and her family

Scratch resided in the Human World on an abandoned, old house (Which seems to be the same where his old friend Adia lived), until the McGee family moved into it. Angered, Scratch attempts to scare Molly away, but this instead makes Molly even more excited. He then decides to curse Molly by saying that where ever she went, he would be there to haunt her. Unfortunately, this instead tethers Scratch to Molly due to her positivity and incapability of being scared.

When he returned from his world to inquire the Ghost Council about what he should do if he accidentally cursed himself, he decides to attempt to terrify Molly's family and it nearly succeeds. But Molly convinces her family to not be scared of Scratch, thus that attempt fails as well. Overhearing Molly's grandmother saying that it was customary to provide food and offering to ghosts, Scratch decides to allow Molly and the McGees to stay in his home on the account of it being a "trial."

First Day Frights

Scratch later attempts to ruin Molly's first day at school by trying to gaslight Molly into believing her first day would be horrible and actively sabotages her by making her slip on his ectoplasm. Although this fails, he becomes amused when Molly accidentally made the school's most popular girl Andrea Davenport furious by accidentally mispronouncing her name, which causes her to become an outcast in the school. After terrifying the popular girl of the school, enough for her to fall unconscious, he pulls the curtain up in the school's auditorium to make the students believe that Molly assaulted her. However, once Molly was called the "worst of the worse," this reminded him of his status in the ghost world and he possesses Andrea to turn the tides around for Molly. He also removes Libby's mark as an outcast on a whim.

Gallery

Scratch being threatened by The Barrister Ghosts.

The Barrister Ghosts and Scratch cowering in fear while seeing Lord Doom.

Scratch being seen punished by The Ghost Council in one of the earlier conceptual arts of the show, his design here is mostly the same but instead of having his blue color, he is a transparent ghost.

Scratch and Molly seen in the poster of Season 2.

Trivia

• After wraiths were revealed to be a thing in the series, a popular theory within the fandom is that Scratch himself is a wraith of a character known as Todd, a human who looks physically similar to Scratch and is voiced by the same voice actor (Dana Snyder), other points in favor of this theory are the fact that Scratch describes him as "soulless" and that Todd seems to be the most miserable resident in all of Brighton, always acting pessimistic, bored and negative while being gray-colored, just like other humans when their souls leave their bodies to become wraiths.
  • Another point for this theory is that Scratch has seemingly never talked about how he was or what he did do when he was alive, something considered strange as other ghosts like Ezekiel Tugbottom, Abraham Lincoln or Sonia Davis seem to perfectly remember their living times.
    • This theory was confirmed in the series finale "The End", where Scratch gets a resurgence of memories after possessing Todd, revealing that the man was his soulless body, whom he eventually decides to go back to so he can really live his life, even though he knew he would likely forget Molly upon doing so (which was ultimately what happened, though he seemed to have glimpses of remembering her before leaving Brighton).
      • That said, in "A Soda To Remember", we see a glimpse of what was Scratch's old life before becoming a ghost. Furthermore, the soda he remembers drinking dates back to 1909, meaning Todd would have died from old age before the series' events if this were the case. However, Scratch is confirmed to have had a muddled memory of his life until briefly possessing his old body, after which he still misremembers things. It's clear this memory was either false, or the soda itself could have been dated to 1909 (or more likely he was also misremembering this and it was actually a date when he was actually alive such as 1989, 1999, etc.)
• Scratch was originally going to be named "The Count"; he was going to be a vampire rather than a ghost.
• He is named after one of the names for the Devil, "Old Scratch".
  • In-universe, he got his nickname due to constantly scratching his arms when he gets nervous.
• His personality is very similar to Jim Carrey's version of the Grinch from the live-action adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

External Links

• Scratch on the Heroes Wiki.
• Scratch on the The Ghost and Molly McGee Wiki.
• Scratch on the Disney Wiki.