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| “ | Charge the lines, create the vortex, break the barrier. | „ |
| ~ Rowan's motto and signature catchphrase. |
Rowan North, also known as Rowan the Destroyer, is the main antagonist of the 2016 supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters, the reboot of the 1984 film of the same name.
He is an occultist and former employee of the Mercado Hotel who is obsessed with the supernatural, in addition to showing great hatred towards humanity due to the abuse he suffered throughout his life, and seeks revenge on everyone by causing a series of catastrophic paranormal activities on a scale. called the "Fourth Cataclysm" through a hidden machine that would break down the barrier between the world of the living and the dead.
He was mainly portrayed and voiced by Neil Casey.
Other Portrayals
- When possessing Abby, he was portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, who also played DNAmy in Kim Possible, Diana in Identity Thief, Sean Spicer in Saturday Night Live and Ursula in the live-action The Little Mermaid remake.
- When possessing Kevin, he was portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, who also played Billy Lee in Bad Times at the El Royale, Steve Abnesti in Spiderhead, King Thor in What If...? and Warlord Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
- In his giant ghost form, his vocal effects were provided by Frank Welker.
Biography
Rowan tricked Patty for seeing the ghost he summoned.
Rowan North was first seen in the subway line, releasing a ghost there via an occult device he planted there and hid himself, in which the ghost frightened MTA worker Patty Tolan away, who later joined the Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters unsuccessfully capture the ghost in the subway line when a train traveled through the subway line.
Rowan with restless souls of the dead that demanded to be freed.
Later, the Ghostbusters are informed that another ghost was released at a live music avenue, unbeknownst to them, which is released by Rowan North, the janitor who worked at Mercado Hotel, via an occult device he planted there. The Ghostbusters captured the ghost successfully in front of hundreds of people, and indirectly, foiled Rowan's plan. Rowan congratulated the Ghostbusters vengefully and planned to release another ghost for the Ghostbusters. He recalled back during his early life, he was bullied by a lot of people and he wanted to get his respect as well as revenge against people who treated him like a dog by planning an apocalypse, with his own occult devices and mirrors full of mad spirits including those who are like Rowan North as he described, miserable souls who have been cast aside and mistreated by human society in life, and they see the world as if it were nothing but garbage.
Rowan confronting Ghostbusters with his machinery.
The Ghostbusters found out Rowan has planted several devices along the leylines which intersects at Mercado Hotel and at Times Square, which is a site with a history of paranormal event. The Ghostbusters go to Mercado Hotel to seek for Rowan, who are informed by the receptionist of the hotel he is in the basement. They go to the hotel basement and find Rowan there, along with occult machines and haunted mirrors which are full of ghosts. Rowan admitted to the Ghostbusters he was the one who is responsible for releasing the ghosts in the subway line and the live music avenue, and also he wanted to get revenge against people who treated him like dirt. Against Abby's pleads, he proceeded to deliberately commit suicide by electrocuting himself to death rather than being caught after he finished his words, before Holtzmann turned off his main contraption. Soon the police arrived, carried away Rowan's lifeless corpse and sealed the hotel basement with police cordons.
"Hello, Abby."
At home, Erin unwittingly discovered Rowan North's true intention when she studied her own published occult book with Abby and a few pages in her book containing eerie drawings of Rowan and his dangerous plan. It was a part of the plan for Rowan to get himself electrocuted, in order to come back as a powerful ghost and lead the ghosts to launch the apocalypse. Erin was concerned and attempted to contact Abby, but to no avail. Erin rushed to their places to warn Abby about Rowan's whole plan. Meanwhile, Abby was possessed by Rowan and she attempted to throw Holtzmann out of the window to her death, but is swiftly stopped by Patty, forcing Rowan emerging from Abby's body, and possessed Kevin.
Rowan unleashed the ghosts.
With Kevin's body, Rowan goes back to his basement by motorcycle, knocks the two on-duty police unconscious, reactivates his devices and releases hundreds of ghosts. Soon the police and DHS arrive to the hotel and are subdued when trying to stop Rowan. With the city full of ghosts, the Ghostbusters fight through their way to get to Rowan. After a brief conversation between the Ghostbusters and Rowan, he set Kevin free by unpossessing him, making Kevin almost fall to his death, but Kevin is saved by the Ghostbusters.
Patty demands Rowan to go into something cute, and Rowan takes the form of their logo, grows enormous, starts to destroy the city and attempts to kill the Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters realize the only way to defeat Rowan is to cause a total protonic reversal, which sends back the ghosts to their own dimension. But to do this, they have to use the Ecto-1's nuclear reactor device, which is on their car. They stop the car with their photon containment laser, in which they create obstacles to the ghosts which are driving their car around and send the car into the portal, in which the plan works, absorbing multiple ghosts back into the portal, as well as Rowan himself, but Rowan holds himself back to prevent getting absorbed into the portal. In order to let Rowan lose his grips, they attack Rowan with their photon laser gun and send him into the ghost dimension, before Abby pushes Erin away and gets taken by Rowan into the portal.
Erin jumps into the portal and saves Abby from Rowan by shooting Rowan's hand, sending Rowan to the ghost dimension in the process and getting themselves back to the mortal world.
Appearance
In his human form, Rowan North is a tall, little bit chubby and brown haired person.
In his spirit form, Rowan at first looks like a spectral version of his mortal self engulfed with a blue aura like typical ghosts, but is later revealed to possess the ability to shapeshift. His spirit form of choice is a chubby pale ghost with glowing eye sockets, fangs, and a red bow tie on his neck.
Powers and Abilities
As a Ghost
Due to his machines that combines occult and science to empowered ghosts, Rowan, whom returned as ghost, eventually gained untold amount of supernatural abilities:
- Shapeshifting: Rowan now able to shapeshifting to any creature he wanted. The prowess of his ability is unclear, but is clear that it not only alter his appearance alone, but also his physical strength, durability, size, and speed.
- Gigantification: Rowan has the ability to grow to gigantic sizes, an example of this is when he grew into a kaiju-sized mock-up of Ghostbusters' logo with tie.
- Unlimited Mind Control: Rowan can easily control other people's minds on a whim, as he can easily have the authorities and military forces in downtown Manhattan to dance against their will and even make them freeze in place.
- Ectoplasm Manipulation and Generation: Rowan can generate and manipulate ectoplasm that his spectral body composed of. First seen when he had Abby emit huge amount ectoplasm from her orifices to torture her and even have spilled ectoplasm dissipated without trace after possessing her,
- Flight: Possessing someone or not, Rowan can fly at will.
- Possession: Rowan can possesses any living being. The symptom of the possession was a bluish aura that surrounded by green ectoplasm aura that he can emit or not (which latter done to fool his foes).
- Unlimited Spirit Control: Though at first he can manipulate ghosts through charisma, Rowan, as a ghost can command ghosts and demons to his side.
As a Human
- Occult Expertise: Like Abby, Rowan himself possesses vast knowledge about occultism and even utilizes technology similar with Ghostbusters. However, those devices were meant to control and empowered ghost on nuclear, paramolecular level instead of banished them back to land of the dead. This not only empowered the ghost to the point they become supernaturally strong, but also turned them partially corporeal to some degree by giving them bodies composed of ectoplasm whist retaining their natural abilities.
Quotes
| “ | Enjoy your fun, Ghostbusters. For soon, you shall bow down before me. | „ |
| ~ Rowan in a cafe watching a new report on the Ghostbusters, and his most famous quote. |
| “ | Then you must've been afforded the basic dignity and respect of a human being, which I have been denied | „ |
| ~ Rowan to the Ghostbusters when they meet |
| “ | I'm a genius. I see things no one else does. And for it, I am awarded with nothing but scorn and mockery. | „ |
| ~ Rowan voices his reasons behind kick-starting Armageddon to the Ghostbusters. |
| “ | Clark Kent? Oh, because of the glasses and handsomeness. | „ |
| ~ Rowan taunts a basement cop while possessing Kevin. |
| “ | You shoot like girls! | „ |
| ~ Rowan mocks the Ghostbusters. |
| “ | Oh, Is this what you want? Something more familiar? | „ |
| ~ As Rowan transforms into a cartoon-like ghost from the Ghostbusters logo. |
| “ | If this is what you want, it works for me. | „ |
| ~ Rowan's last words as he becomes a giant, and before his demise. |
Gallery
.png "Rowan north (human).png (135 KB)")
Trivia
- Rowan's giant ghost-like monster form is similar to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the original Ghostbusters movie, as they are both massive monsters wearing red accessories around their neck (Stay Puft wears a red neckerchief while Rowan wears a red bow tie).
- He also has a similar appearance to Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, except Rowan is a ghost and Oogie Boogie is a possessed sack full of snakes and bugs.
- Rowan North can be considered the 2016 counterpart to Ivo Shandor, as they are both human males who despised the world around them and sought to end it through the study of the occult, and upon their deaths became powerful entities that commanded armies of ghosts.
- The ghost that Rowan eventually becomes is a gigantic and demonic version of the cartoon ghost from the Ghostbusters' logo.
- His name means "Ash North", Rowan meaning Ash, and North speaking for itself. Thus, as Ash (named after the powdery residue left after the burning of a substance or cremation of a living being) is often linked with death and destruction, his full name means "Death from the North." This fits with Celtic mythology, as the evil spirits were often said to come directly from the North.
- He arguably acts as an evil counterpart for Dr. Abby Yates and her friends: three of which are genius inventors, one of whom is knowledgeable of natural and social history. Yet all are skilled ghost hunters that suffer from ridicule and jeering from others due to their studies on ghosts and how to handle them.
- However, whereas Abby and her fellow Ghostbusters eventually gained respect from others in spite of city officials still performing the mayoral smear campaign to prevent mass hysteria from malevolent ghosts' attacks that the Ghostbusters tried to keep at bay, Rowan stubbornly decided to avenge his past mistreatment, having been pushed too far into corruption to change his ways. This makes Rowan an example of what Abby and her friends would have become if they let their troubled past along with their interests in ghosts consume them.
- Rowan as Abby rotating his head is likely a reference to The Exorcist.
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