Voiced by Courtland Mead

• Adorkable: He is endearing in a nerdy way.
• Butt Monkey: Poor guy can not catch a break.
• Catch Phrase: "Eat my yo-yo!"
• Face Your Fears: What he finally manages to do by the end of the video game.
• Friend to All Living Things: Seems to have a soft spot for animals.
• Gender Bender: The episode "Girl Trouble" revolves around this, after Ned goes into the girl's bathroom at school by mistake (because of a prank by Conrad and Vernon) He dreams about being a girl, whom Both Conrad and Vernon fall for in the episode.
• Kid Hero: [1] of the franchise and he's only ten years old.
• Killer Yoyo: Ned's primary weapon, and all purpose tool in the game.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: He's freaking out over losing his tooth, despite the fact he himself lost every single one of his baby teeth.
• Nerd: He looks and acts like a stereotypical one.
• Nervous Wreck: He is VERY high-strung which is the whole reason that he goes through those dreams.
• Out-of-Character Moment: One episode had a camp counselor telling scary stories, scaring his charges... Except Ned, who nonchalantly explains why they're all garbage. Though it wasn't this out of character considering how subjective scary things are and that Ned has showed a logical side before.
• "Risky Business" Dance: In the video game intro, when Ned learns his parents won't be home for a while.
• The So-Called Coward: He does have a few noteworthy moments where he is both calm and in control.

Ed Needlemeyer

Voiced by Brad Garrett in the TV series

• Determinator: As his dream-world counterpart—Captain Dad—in ""Willie Trout.""
  • Losing Your Head: His dream-world counterpart's reason for hunting Willie Trout.
• Drama Queen: He exaggerates a lot and because of that he can be seen misunderstanding situations. See below.
• Hidden Depths: Who knew that he's a rather skilled inventor?
• It's Quiet... Too Quiet: In the final episode, Ned's dad says this when he comes home from work. This is immediately subverted in that nothing sinister is going on at all.
• Man Child: He is very excitable and immature much more than his son.
• Skewed Priorities: From "Along for the Ride"
  Ed Needlemeyer: "I want my free mint!"
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In the opening to the very last episode, Ned's dad seems to think he's in some kind of mystery or suspense show. This is quickly dropped when the focus shifts to Ned.

Mrs. Needlemeyer

Voiced by Victoria Jackson in the TV series
Voiced by Lani Minella in the video game

• Hartman Hips
• The Other Darrin: Ned's mom in the show versus his Mom in the video game. This is very noticeable because, in the show, she was voiced by the very distinct-sounding Victoria Jackson.
• Women Are Wiser: Compared to her husband she certainly is more mature and more capable of reaching Ned.

Amy Needlemeyer

Conrad and Vernon

Voiced by Kevin West (Conrad), Dan Castellaneta (Vernon)

• The Bullies

  Conrad: "Aww, cruelty: thy breakfast of champions."

• Cruella to Animals: They once threatened a cat with a electronic hair clipper.
• Fat and Skinny: Conrad's the fat and Vernon's the skinny.
• Fat Bully: Conrad's quite portly, for a bully.
• Lean and Mean: Vernon's increasingly lanky and a very bad guy.
• The Load: When trying to get Ned out of prison in "Bad Report Card."
• Orderlies Are Creeps: In "Lucky Abe."
• Those Two Bad Guys: Two bullies who weren't even named for a long time and existed solely to cause some of Ned's fears to take shape.
• You All Look Familiar: In The 1997 Disney Adventures comic "All Spork and No Play." as CONDIMENT PACKETS, nonetheless.

• Eldritch Abominations: The "Shadow creatures" that serve as bosses in the video game take their forms from Ned's fears, but the good ending indicates that they exist outside of and apart from him, and upon defeat are removed from his head rather than outright destroyed. Interestingly, it seems they don't need his fear specifically to survive, so it's unclear what their reasons are for tormenting him.
• Fan Nickname: "Reaper," "Doctor," "Flush," "Gemini" and "Bully" for the Graveyard, Medical, Bathroom, Attic/Basement and School Shadows respectively.
• Five-Bad Band
• Heel–Face Turn: Each of the Shadows by the end of the game.
  • Even more so when, if the game ends well: The Shadows' true forms help Ned defeat his final fear and the true Big Bad: a giant, morbid version of himself.
  • Possibly subverted however by the fact in both endings they are heard from Ned's closet, still as their Shadow selves and not their "true forms," implying they do and still exist outside of Ned's mind as actual monsters.
• Living Shadows
• The Rival: Between the School Shadow and the Bathroom Shadow.

Graveyard Shadow/Ted Needlemeyer

• Big Bad: Being the oldest and with an appearance reminiscent of Death itself, The Graveyard Shadow is widely considered as the main villain of the game.
• Foreshadowing: At the start of the game, the Graveyard Shadow tells Ned "I'm just dying for you to visit!" When the Shadow's true identity is revealed, he is shown to be Ned's grandfather, Ted, who tells him that he's been wanting to spend some time with him.
• The Grim Reaper: His appearance befits this trope very well.
• Implied Death Threat: The Graveyard Shadow's opening line.
• Nice Hat
• The Idealist: As Ted Needlemeyer.

Medical Shadow/Dr. Klutzchnik

"Don't worry... [brandishes her needle fingers at Ned] ◊ this won't hurt a bit!"

Voiced by Alexandra Wentworth

• Ax-Crazy
• The Dragon: The Medical Shadow is often known for fighting over the lead with the Graveyard shadow.
• Mad Doctor / Depraved Dentist
• Too Kinky to Torture: The Good Ending where she suggests she and the other Shadows "perform hideous, painful medical procedures on each other" might imply this.

School Shadow/Billy Blatfield

• The Bully: Subverted when it turns out he only wanted to be Ned's friend, but was too ashamed of telling him.
• Trash Talk: "Hey, everyone! It's 'Make Fun of Ned Day', also known as 'Melonhead Day'! HAHAHAHAHA!"
  • In addition, almost everything said from the School Shadow to Ned is either a taunt or a threat.
    • It should also be noted that the true identity of the Shadow takes a large effect on the reason for its excessive taunting.
• Jerkass
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As Billy.

Bathroom Shadow/Bathroom toilet

• The Fool: The Bathroom Shadow plays the sort of idiot of the group of Shadows.
  • Subverted at the end where he turns out to be a sort of intellectual.
• Laughably Evil: The Bathroom Shadow... He is essentially a talking toilet. (I mean, talk about Toilet Humor!)
  • In addition, he surprisingly imparts an intellectual speech to Ned about his future, and also tells him to quit flushing banana peels.

Attic, Basement, and Beyond Shadow/Sally

• The Confidant: Sandy Patty-Cake
• Maddened Into Misanthropy: Also Loners Are Freaks, The Hermit, and possibly even the spirit of the Madwoman in the Attic. Throughout the game, she shows little interest in interacting with the other Shadows and would much rather spend her time trying to creep Ned out.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Subverted at the end, when it turns out that the Shadow was actually a sweet, albeit eccentric, little girl that just enjoyed some occasional solitude her strange fantasy realm, which she calls her "secret treasure chest".
• Psychopathic Manchild
• Speak in Unison
  • It should also be noted that the Shadow is two headed, yet often acts and speaks as one, also referring to itself as "we".
• Shout-Out: On its second transition, the main body of the Shadow holds the other head in a way reminiscent to Hamlet.

• Black Comedian
  • Subverted by the fact he probably wasn't even trying to be funny.
• The Cynic
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He continues to intently dig the same grave with no effect whatsoever.
• Workaholic

• Anthropomorphic Food
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Those pumpkins will puke all over Ned's head!

• Fan Nickname
• Our Demons Are Different: Grenny (Four Legged Clog), Cyco (Toilet-Paper Cyclops), and Truddy. Definitely not your average bathroom toilet clogs.
• Terrible Trio

Voiced by Edie McClurg

• Our Dragons Are Different
• Talking Beast
• The Storyteller
  • Shout-Out: Two of the dragon's stories are from Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and its sequel.

• Fan Nickname
• Fortune Teller
  • Subverted by the fact most of her hints are either terrible or just lame puns.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: After getting frustrated with Ned and telling him she's "got a break coming up!"

• Civilized Animal
• Half-Human Hybrid
• The Voiceless
• Your Favorite: The giant morbid ladybug.

• Art Shift: Highly constitutes as Nightmare Fuel.
• Body Horror
• Frankensteins Monsters: A possibility.
• Gonk
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Look like they're composed of parts of different animals.
• Terrible Trio

• Rule of Three
• The Reveal: First appear to be incredibly long snakes, but later turn out to be three, orange and black, hungry, Mexican-style dogs.

• Depraved Dentist: He'll try and give Ned a shot of Novocaine if the mouth closes on him, but Ned can use toxic breath on him after meeting with Gingivitis, the fairy godmother.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When he tries to jump over the pile of syringe needles, he ends up landing on them.

• Clucking Funny: The Killer Rooster.
• Dracula: The Vampire Milk Carton.
• Dumb Muscle: The Clayman.
• Noodlepeople: The Pipe-cleaner Skeleton.
• Stop Motion: The art projects and their dioramas appear to be animated in this particular style. This is proven to be the case in the credits.

• Dysfunctional Family
  • It is hinted that Petey and Repetey may possible relatives to Mrs. Salt and Glution due to the fact they have portraits around each other in the main hall.
    • Something else very interesting to note is that Ned's mother has a portrait next to theirs, as well, hinting furthermore that she may have been Sally the little girl. Although the portrait is there mostly for the "Don't step on a crack" moment in the same area.

• Catch Phrase: "Key, key, who's got the key?" is repeated by Petey and Repetey, among their other bitter ramblings.
• Conjoined Twins: Continuously bickering, seemingly a pair of performers, whom at the time, are seen juggling bombs and possibly a key.
• Creepy Twins
• Multiple Head Case: Very much so.
• Punny Name: Repetey.
• Street Performers

• Laughing Mad
• Meaningful Name
• Split Personality/ Mood-Swinger: At first, she is seen as jittery, anxious, and nervous, but next moment, after she gets her salt, she turns wild; grunting and hollering, gleefully tossing the salt around, and coveting it with a madman's grin.

• Fat Slob
• Unmoving Plaid