Ethan Crosby is an antagonist from the first book in the Goosebumps HorrorLand series, Revenge of the Living Dummy. He is the younger cousin of Britney Crosby and a previous owner of Slappy the Dummy.
History
While Ethan's parents are away, he comes to visit Britney and her family. He also brings along with him a ventriloquist dummy which he names "Mr. Badboy". Ethan tells Britney that Mr. Badboy is alive and is making him do evil things. Britney doesn't believe him, but soon a series of bad things start to happen to her. An autographed poster of her favorite band gets torn up, a painting of her deceased dog gets painted over, she gets pushed down the stairs, and when visiting a retirement home, Mr. Badboy throws paint all over everyone.
Britney eventually sees Mr. Badboy moving and talking on his own and thinks that he's alive. She soon learns that Mr. Badboy is actually an evil dummy named Slappy, and that the card containing magic words in his breast pocket must have been read to bring him to life. Britney finds the card and reads it aloud, hoping to put Slappy back to sleep. But after she does so, she finds a remote inside a pair of Ethan's jeans. The remote controls Slappy's movements and makes him talk on his own. However, since she read the magic words, Slappy is now alive for real and is out to steal the Mind Stealer, a powerful voodoo doll in Mr. Molloy's possession. Britney eventually manages to defeat Slappy, but it is unknown if Ethan was ever punished for his actions.
General information
Physical appearance
Ethan is described as being short and pale, with a pointed chin, blue eyes and very blond hair.
Personality
Ethan is a mean, cruel child that seems to revel in hurting others, particularly his cousin Britney. He assaults Britney either physically, such as shoving her down the stairs, or emotionally, like destroying some of her prized possessions. It is never made clear as to why he's so cruel to her, but given that he never gets in trouble for anything he does, that somewhat explains it. He also appears to be very smart, particularly with robotics, managing to rig Slappy to move and speak on his own via a remote control.
Trivia
- Ethan's behavior is similar to that of Tara Webster from The Cuckoo Clock of Doom. Like Tara, he seems to enjoy doing cruel things to others while never getting in trouble for it.