The only problem with this is The Beast seems to have lied about the Woodsman's daughter's soul. That's supposed to be one of the few things the Fae CAN'T do.
@@PyroGothNerd Darker Fae can lie all they want what they can't do is break their word basically if a fae gives you their word about something after a mutual accord has been reached fae cannot break it but a contract has to have been made in some shape or form. They can twist it usually making it so the human breaks it first so they can get what they want but they cannot be the first to break it
However arguably he could have found a different way around it, and seems to enjoy the lost children's despair a little to much which is the real thing that makes him malevolent.
I like that he's very specifically *not* darkness, he's the fear of what's *in* the darkness. So the way to beat him is to just snuff out the light and face the fear of whatever's there, because a lot of the times it's nothing
its crazy because in the comics, its proven that the woodsman is just scared of everything weird in the forest, so when his daughter goes missing and he takes the lantern from the beast after they bump into eachother, the beast in desperation tells him "your daughter is in the flame, let me keep it burning so she doesnt die" this backfires on the beast, and he ends becoming both a hostage, and a tormentor for the woodsman, who believes his daughter was lost to the weird monsters in the woods, when in reality if he just went back to his house, he would find her, waiting for him
@@TestSubject-vv1kn no, nothing happened to his daughter, she just went to the forest and got lost for a day, but the woodsman bumped into the beast and they both fucked up and ended up in this weird deal with the woodsman going around making oil, his daughter was home the whole time
@@user-cb3lg4jp7qIt’s better than that. The Beast’s usual trick is to make a person despair until they waste away and become one of his edelwood trees. He knows that won’t work with Greg because Greg is naturally cheerful and too young to understand the concept of despair, so the Beast changes his strategy to just tiring Greg out until he freezes or starves to death.
He's such a good villain. His singing is so chilling, and knowing his job is to lure souls and use them for fuel is insane. Him representing the devil or death knowing this show is set in limbo is intense.
@@m0rp5eus27 Except Charon or personification of death wasn't in Dantes divine comedy. He was shown in other adaptations but was not in the original story. The "beast" takes on a number a mythological traits. The name could be implied the he's the devil. His antlers are that of Herne Cernunnos or even Aylith, also other stories like Stingy Jack or will o wisps also come to mind.
@@nikushim6665 I'm getting vibes of Erlkonig (old German poem series about the elf king who spirits the souls of children away, but the reasons for doing so vary from darkly benevolent to maliciously evil depending on which version you're looking at) as well as "Old Scratch" (a character from Tom Walker, which is believed to be heavily inspired by several old German tales of faustian bargains)
His psychological projection skills were unparalleled. He was so good at sewing webs of lies and paranoia among his prey that they often couldn’t see what was right in front of them, it was like a fog of deception or a barrier they had to overcome in the end. I initially wondered if that was why it was called “over the garden wall,” but then the final episodes revealed that he physically *went over the garden wall* which was the driving cause of the rest of the series taking place
This reminds me of a nightmare/illusion Batman falls under and sees Jason alive but it’s not real. He accepts that the manor will not have Jason there anymore. Except for Alfred the house would be empty 🥲
Samuel Ramey, one of the great operatic baritones, made a lifetime career of playing “mephistopheles” type roles; he’s a perfect cast. (He’s mostly retired I think?)
The saddest thing about the finale is what happens to the woodsman, he blew out that lantern knowing that he killed and at the same time was the monster walking through the forest in the darkness, with no lantern light to guide his way home just the memory of melted edelwood and blood on his hands.
@@marlom7882 can you really say redemption, he didn’t know how the trees were made, and the moment he found out that the trees were made out of kids he freaked out and then tried to save the kid
@@anthonyramirez9925 well yea the snowy land where his house was and his daughter waiting for him was essentially his heaven he never actually meant to hurt anyone
I've heard people think he's the devil or Death himself, but I think what the Beast is is actually a Lich. The Beast soul is in the Lantern and as long as it stays lit, the Beast can never die. Like how a Lich keeps their soul in an object to keep themselves from dying.
i always viewed him as more of a Wendigo spirit, forcing the "lantern bearer" to commit a taboo, which only feeds the Wendigo and makes it stronger, notice it A-has a deer head and antlers, B-is tall, and gaunt, C-dwells exclusively in a winter locked forest, and D-can actually become violent if threatened, though it controls itself if violence would threaten the lantern flame, it's clearly VERY old, and powerful, and craved nothing more than to reclaim the means to feed itself(the lantern), however it also knew it could play the long con, eventually the woodsman would slip up, let it to close, and then the lantern is back in it's clutches, fed far more liberally than what the Woodsman was doing, but take it by violence? where it being dropped could mean the flame going out? never, mortals will crack, fracture, and break under constant unceasing pressure, give into their darkest taboos and desires if it means survival, be willing to make "The Deal" or to just, not care enough anymore and let the Wendigo/Beast have what it desires,
Another theory, is he’s the Woodsman’s shadow, notice how he is nearly always behind the woodsman, or the woodsman is between the beast and the nearest light source, and the way he was defeated was by extinguishing the light source. If that doesn’t just SCREAM Shadow monster, I don’t know what does.
Could very well be an amalgamation of all of the above, considering its patchwork nature. Once upon a time, it was one of those things, and then it added to itself, and then it was two, and then it repeated the cycle. Presuming it preceded the woodsman, it’s been at this schtick for a while, and was a decent ways down the road of adding the woodsman unto itself further. A symbiote, of sorts, that was fully on-board with hopping to the next available host when it seemed that the woodsman himself could no further serve its purpose.
I’ve had another thought about the Beast, and this one disturbs me… Okay, so he’s getting the Woodsman to cut down a specific tree, to make oil to burn in the lantern, right… okay, here’s the kickers Woodsman = Humanity The special trees (sry I don’t remember the name) = fossil fuels The Lantern = Modern Technology The Beast = Greed
It's oddly poetic that The Beast isn't killed by a weapon or some kind of magic but by simply blowing out a lantern. He's made to be this dangerous unimaginable creature that can't be beat and then it turns out his life is as ever fading as a burning candle.
Like the tavern keeper’s song says, the Beast is a liar. If you just refuse to believe him, he has no power over you. Once Wirt figures that out, the story’s over.
I think that the way a character is spread out throughout the story and how much it makes an impact makes it feel like they’ve been there far longer than they actually were.
@@wikipediaintellectual7088 I'm gonna assume you're asking in good faith. There's a crop of operas on Faust. Some in German, some in Italian, some in French. Gounod's is probably the one Ramey is most famous for his performance in, but that's just my impression.
it just occurred to me that the sounds that we see whenever we look into the lantern isn't actually the sounds of the woodsman's daughter (because she's alive and not in the lantern) but it's the sound of the lost souls trapped in the edelwood trees screaming in agony as they burn up
The beast is really the personification of temptation and promise. He offers the woodsman a way to save his daughter, despite her fate not actually being in his control. He offers Greg the fantasy dreamland he always wanted while “helping” his brother, which really meant just taking Greg off Wirt’s hands. Even the tavern keeper told the boys, “don’t believe his lies”. He is such an iconic villain not for what he does, but the lost hope he inspires in others that ultimately drives them to perish in the woods and become his fuel. Yes, you can say he is the devil. But I think he serves more as the cautionary embodiment of the woods and it’s promise. The promise that you will walk in and find what you seek, what you need, and that the answers to all your problems lies just a little further… beyond the next clearing… just keep walking and you’ll find it… I promise…
Lich. Devils are contract bound. We haven't heard or seen an agreement written and notarized. Lichs on the other hand, are a tad freer. If their phalyctory is destroyed, their tie to the mortal realm is gone.
@@maddielee1109 I agree, the beast is atleast written to symbolize hopelessness, being lost in your own dark thoughts, but naturally younger people will be watching this too, and draw more direct parallells (I certainly didn't understand the subtext of the series the first time I saw it), and the beauty of stories like these is that it can represent whatever is relevant to you at the time, which can help you deal with it, so im not trying to say there is a correct answer, just what I think they were going for with the writing and symbolism.
What makes The Beast so memorable, to me, is that he’s not an almighty powerhouse villain. He’s not invincible, he’s got no massive backstory, and he’s not exactly a physical threat either. He’s manipulative, and smart. He’ll bend the will through breaking one’s spirit. He’s got no grand scheme other than tricking others into keeping him alive like a parasite. No generic domination, no vengeance, just survival. It’s primal, and compelling. Plus that voice, and even the character design, is incredible!
“Help me?…you don’t wanna help me, you just-have some weird obsession with keeping this lantern lit.” “….” “I-it’s almost like- *_your soul_** is in this lantern.”*
0:24 idk why but when The Beast sings “Chop the wood to light the fire!” It’s funny to me for some reason, it just sounds like he’s trolling the woodsman
An interesting thing to note is that those last few scenes of the Beast his eyes are ringed in different colors just like Beatrice’s dog when it ate one of the black turtles which would imply that whoever the Beast was before ate a black turtle or fueled his lantern with elder wood oil which is where the black turtles come from. Another thing is the behavior of the dog and the Beast, when we’re introduced to the dog he seems to be rather hungry desperately trying to eat Greg’s candy and the boys, later on when the dog is uncorrupted you can see his ribs in contrast to his appearance in the first episodes intro he’s a more healthy weight. While we don’t see the Beast’s uncorrupted form it’s easy to see that he’s obsessed with keeping his lantern lit but why is that? If we apply the Balck Dog’s behavior to the Beast’s one can come to the conclusion that those that imbibe the black turtles or elder wood oil are corrupted and become obsessed with the last thing they were focused on before imbibing the turtles and oil. Very interesting to think that the Beast just a victim of something much more sinister in the Woods of the Unknown.
There is a theory that the beast was inspired by the legend of the Wendigo, a Native American monster that is created from hunger, and desperation (aka cannibalism). Though it should be noted I'm not saying the beast is one, just that the writers took inspiration from that legend.
@@cuygor7132 it’s a theory that has been bouncing around my head for awhile now. I don’t know if the creators ever talked about it or not. Keep in now that it’s only based on two subjects.
I had to pause to see wtf The Beast was and DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN they showed THAT in a kids show!? He is literally an amalgamation of faces put together, dear god it makes my skin crawl and sends shivers down my spine...I'm totally gonna watch the hell out of this show
He's the creepiest villian on my list, his voice and his song send a chill down my spine. But too bad for the final scene when he let Wirt got him, but he still my favorite ❤ Your video remind me about how i admire him and his characteristic inspires lots of ideas for my OC ❤
@@yamantisshrimp2808 That one is good as well but I still think this one is better as a villain, it has more of a dark fairytale feel for me. The nowhere king is more of a selfish man that ended up having too much power. I'm not hating tho, I absolutely love the creature's design.
He’s a villain of subtlety. He’s always there in the background but never over used. Seen but never shown entirely until the end and only for a split second. Mentioned by many characters but not overly built up. A puppet master secretly pulling the strings behind the curtain.
The beast is very scary for a kid show. I mean, when the woodsman put the light on him, he's a pile of flesh with fear looking faces on his body. He's a mass of dead people.
@@herr-doktor yeah I don’t know why. His pure form would look like a more humanoid version of a Cleric Beast from Bloodborne than anything, which still would be hideous to look at.
This was such a well written villain and a beautifully written and animated show. Very nostalgic, like a story book, especially with some of the animations and musical numbers being inspired by old-timey cartoons. I'll always recommend it. Plus, if you haven't watched it but you've seen the show, Trey the Explainer has a beautiful video essay comparing the show to Dante's Inferno :-)
Samuel Ramey one of the greatest operatic basses in the world. Glad to hear him doing non-musical acting, as his acting in opera has always been top notch. Basses often get the funnest roles, it seems.
Really, part of what makes Over the Garden Wall so good is that the characters all, to a certain extent, serve primarily to heighten the asthetic - not just in design, but also in character. The Beast is such a great villain BECAUSE he highlights the asthetic. The mass of shadow that is his body serves to draw the viewer's attention to how truly dark the rest of the stage is, with its foggy mist and moonless shade, and consequently how utterly isolated and lost the characters are. His big, billowing cloak does two things. Firstly, its amorphous shape allows the Beast to take up the entirety of the background whenever he wants, giving the viewer a feeling of suffocating darkness. Secondly, it can give the viewer a sense of the unearthly wind that ends the peaceful, idyllic autumn and brings harsh, freezing winter, and the sound design works in tandem with this but giving a sense of the whipping of a cold, biting wind. The viewer likely already has an inkling of the symbollic meaning of winter overtaking fall in OTGW - now they see what's causing it, or perhaps what embodies it. The character of the Beast not only works with the asthetic,, he is PART of the asthetic - it is a cold forest, and he is the coldest part of that forest. It is a dark forest, and he is the very darkest part of it.
This show was Halloween incarnate. That chilly, uneasy, “foggy” feeling as fall dies away into the winter season, you’re left alone with the thoughts and memories of everything that happened that year, those you lost along the way, and things you never quite caught a full glimpse of _just outside_ your vision.
I find it quite endearing that when wirt was falling asleep in the snowy forest he started to turn into the wood (aka as fucking dying) but when he realised his brother walked away from him into danger he immediately got up from his death to go after him.
What i love about The Beast is other than probably enhanced strength and maybe the turtles, he probably has literally no other powers besides persuading people to get themselves killed or damned to an eternity of collecting souls for him.
Okay everybody knows about the faces on the beast's body practically making up its entire body but I just had a crazy thought what if those faces all talked at once when he spoke they would smile when he smile when he would have malicious intent in store for the children that would have a grim expression on their face like anger if he got frustrated just different expressions all at once you cannot tell me that is not terrifying to think about
“Are you really ready to go back to that empty house” he’d been going to an empty house for years. The beast thought he could manipulate the woods man again only to seal his fate.
This is still ones of the best mini series I’ve ever seen on Cartoon Network in a long time. Infinity train is a close second (before it was decided that it would’ve gotten more seasons later on)
Imagine if in the beginning, the Beast put his soul in the lantern to ward off the darkness in the forest, after having his soul taken out for so long, he became twisted. And when the light finally went out, the true darkness approached, and the real horror began. When there's no light, there's no shadow, and now we will truly know darkness.
"anyone who holds the Dark Lantern must be the Beast!" i just realized how apparently everyone knows about the Lantern, but not much about the Beast. maybe that's why he leaves the Lantern with someone else in the first place
For the longest time I legit thought Beast's VA was James Earl Jones before finding out it was Samuel Ramey The similarity between their voices is uncanny
Reverse psychology done right. He was so grabby with the lantern in both words and actions in order to manipulate the Woodsman into clinging to it with greater desperation.
Barely has 5 minutes, but impacted me so much when I watched this as a kid and then now. He is so eerie yet familiar, because the mixture of mystery and danger from his appearance to his calm human voice.
He may not have forgiven himself, but he set that first step toward freeing his spirit of guilt by letting go. Guilt is such a cruel vortex of shame and darkness, proliferating it hazards ensnaring others.
I love how deep yet beautiful his singing voice is, really sells the idea that he might be some kind of demon and of the DC comics style fallen angel variety or something.
I don't think its meant to be limbo, nor the beast to be the devil. At least not directly tied to the sense of the afterlife. Because the threat of death is a lingering theme. The Garden Wall is more akin to some fay folk realm representing a lack of moving on. This theme is tied to the woodsman, who can't accept his daughter is dead; the very idea of tales long forgotten yet refusing to 'end' in a manner of speaking, alot of the characters in general seem to go on with the idea of acceptance. In the garden wall, the beast represents a refusal of death; he is a being that feeds off of the life force of others so that he can continue to live. I think the reason why the beast looks so deformed with all those faces is the manifestation of all those souls he's absorbed. And by cutting off his fuel, the beast finally dies.
He is the fear of what lurks in the dark and the only way to beat him is to snuff out the only thing lighting your path and giving you hope... its terrifyingly genuis.
3:22 This shot is so good. It’s framed so perfectly. The distance between Wirt and the Beast, the Beast’s simple yet elegantly terrifying silhouette… I just love looking at it.
This is almost like reading the old Grims tales. I actually liked this series. A child could watch it and be spooked. And an adult could see it for the terror of it's basis.
Never thought I'd see genuine art in modern entertainment anymore, but here we are. Incredible. Dark, humorous, and intriguing despite being a kids shows.
Don’t worry, there’s more dark, humorous, and intriguing shows coming. Some are being worked on in the shadows. Although, I wouldn’t consider it a kids show.
Oh shut up you pretentious moron. "Modern day entertainment just isnt as good as the past" is such pretentious bs it hurts to read. Also, this isnt new, it came out years ago. Funny, almost like you are just trying to seem like some high cultured, "not like those modern day people" sort of ass.
Makes me wonder where Hidetaka Miyazaki got his inspiration for Cleric Beast/Vicar Amelia from Bloodborne… All jokes aside, this thing was one of the most unnerving, disturbing, and fear inducing antagonists from any TV show or movie I’ve seen, let alone something made for Cartoon Network. He’s only really matched by Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad and Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men
I think watching the scene where the lantern shines on the Beast for a split second in slow motion was probably the worst decision I made as a kid for my sleep
I love how when the Beast summons the shadows to threaten Wirt, it completely backfires. Because now Wirt can only see his eyes, *the same eyes of the poisoned dog* , and so he understands. He understands that this is nothing more than a scared animal, trying to intimidate the things around it that could hurt it. And once Wirt knows this, all the power the Beast held over him is gone.
Samuel Ramey sang Mephistopheles and several other variations on the character in many opera performances and had an AMAZING international opera career. I had no idea he was on this show, and I am full of joy finding his mellow tones here in this wonderful show. SO DAMN HAPPY
I think the beast is the best cartoon villain of all time. He isn't physically violent, yet still incredibly intimidating. My take on The Beast is that he finds people who are isolated, and don't have much contact with other people to manipulate. If they ARE in contact with people, then he finds a way to isolate them. That's why I think he chose the woodsman. If at any point, even before he was lantern bearer he went into the tavern and heard about the beast and his lantern he would have known.
