| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %% |
| 6 | [[WMG:[[center: [-''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' '''[[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDog Main Character Index]]'''\ |
| 7 | '''Main Characters''' | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorRecurringCharacters Minor/Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMajorRecurringVillains Major/Recurring Villains]] | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogOneSceneCharactersOneShotMinorCharacters One-Scene Characters/One-Shot Minor Characters]]\ |
| 8 | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorVillains Minor Villains]]: [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorVillainsSeason1 Season 1]] | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorVillainsSeason2 Season 2]] | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorVillainsSeason3 Season 3]] | [[Characters/CourageTheCowardlyDogMinorVillainsSeason4 Season 4]]-]]]]] |
| 9 | ---- |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | [[folder:Courage]] |
| 13 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/courage_the_cowardly_dog_happy.png]] |
| 14 | [[caption-width-right:220:''"The things I do for love..."'']] |
| 15 | [[caption-width-right:220:[[labelnote:Click here to see him when he's scared]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/courage_the_cowardly_dog_screaming.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 16 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Howard Hoffman (pilot), Marty Grabstein (series) |
| 17 | |
| 18 | A [[ShrinkingViolet timid]] pink dog of no known specific breed (although some sources call him a beagle) who tries to overcome his fears and save his owners Muriel and Eustace from all sorts of bizarre threats using only his wits, whether they be supernatural, earthly or from the depths of space. |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | * ActionPet: He has faced numerous horrors that are enough to send a normal human running to the loony bin. But Courage goes through any lengths to save his owners. |
| 21 | * ActionSurvivor: As the protagonist of a horror series, Courage is often not in a position to directly fight his adversaries and usually relies on various other means (typically luck) to survive and turn the tide against the various horrors. |
| 22 | * AllLovingHero: Fearful as he may be, Courage is a sensitive and caring soul who relies on his endless empathy for everyone to solve problems and save the day, and he's mortally terrified of even accidentally hurting anything that's not actively malicious. Furthermore, he has a knack for befriending monsters and helping them when they need it most. |
| 23 | * AloneWithThePsycho: In "Freaky Fred", Eustace "accidentally" locks him in the bathroom with Fred, who shaves off all of his fur, except for his tail. |
| 24 | * AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: A pink-furred dog, though he looks purple in low-light scenes. |
| 25 | * AmusingInjuries: Courage takes a lot of pain in many episodes (most notable perhaps in Mecha-Courage) but he's usually okay and even laughing (albeit as if slapped silly). |
| 26 | * AnimalReactionShot: At almost everything he finds scary, it instantly cuts to him screaming with his mouth open. Different things happen during the screams each time so that each scream doesn't get repetitive. |
| 27 | * AnimalStereotypes: Courage is very loyal to his owners. |
| 28 | * BadassAdorable: A lovable, easily scared but loyal HeroicDog. One of the main tenets of true courage is the ability to confront and conquer your fears. He conquers said fears many times to protect his family. |
| 29 | * BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Courage will go above and beyond to protect Muriel since she's the one who adopted him after [[spoiler: his parents were shot into space by a [[MadDoctor psycho veterinarian]]]]. He also generally tends to be calm and friendly around people who show him kindness and affection whereas otherwise he would be extremely timid and easily frightened. |
| 30 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Selfless as he might be hurting [[ParentalSubstitute Muriel]] or his other loved ones is one shot at getting screwed. The [[GreaterScopeVillain Cruel Veterinarian]] [[TheDogBitesBack learned this the hard way.]] |
| 31 | * BigThinShortTrio: Courage is the Short one of the three protagonists compared to Muriel's Big and Eustace's Thin. |
| 32 | * BodyHorror: Several of his screams result in such to him, such as his teeth flying out, organs popping out of his body, or even him ''turning inside out''. |
| 33 | * BratsWithSlingshots: In the pilot he dug a massive hole simply to dig out a slingshot. |
| 34 | * BreakTheCutie: His childhood was one long breaking cycle for him. Even today, it's clear he's breaking from all the danger, yet opts to keep going. |
| 35 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: Does this everytime he lampshades something wrong is going on followed by an AndImTheQueenOfSheba quote. |
| 36 | * ButtMonkey: Courage gets injured a lot, usually by Eustace or the MonsterOfTheWeek. |
| 37 | * CanineCompanion: However, this dog is the main protagonist here. |
| 38 | * CaptainObvious: In the early episodes he had a tendency to point out the obvious. Though he got better as the first season went on this probably contributed to him becoming a SpeechImpairedAnimal in later seasons. |
| 39 | * CartoonDogBreed: He's a bright pink former stray with brown "noodle ears" and a single brown spots on his back, of no known breed. Some old promotional materials call him a "beagle," but those are dubiously canon. |
| 40 | * CartoonyTail: Depending on how one views it his tail either looks broken off or just really short with spiky fur. |
| 41 | * TheCassandra: Muriel and Eustace never heed his warnings. Although the fact that he yells at them in gibberish doesn't really help. |
| 42 | * CharacterCatchphrase: |
| 43 | ** "[[OverlyLongScream AAAAAAAAHHH!]]" |
| 44 | ** "[[BigNo NOOOOOOOO!]]" |
| 45 | ** "[[BigYes YES!]]" |
| 46 | ** "The things I do for love..." |
| 47 | ** "I know I'm not gonna like this." |
| 48 | ** "Muriel, I'll save you!" |
| 49 | ** "What do I do? What do I do?!" |
| 50 | ** "[[AndImTheQueenOfSheba ...or my name is [strange name], and it's not.]]" |
| 51 | * TheChewToy: Not to the same extent as Eustace but his pain is usually PlayedForLaughs and he never seems to get a break. |
| 52 | * CivilizedAnimal: Courage is the Bagges' pet dog but can otherwise act like a human and occasionally speaks English. |
| 53 | * ClassicalAntiHero: Though just barely. Would be a straight hero and often is if not for his massive cowardice. |
| 54 | * CovertPervert: Courage is a NiceGuy, but there are occasional hints of him having a perverted side. In "Remembrances of Courage Past", he's scrambling around a laboratory and opens a door with a woman showering in it. He closes it, but doesn't leave before getting a second glance, and this is when he was [[DirtyKid just a puppy]]! Also, in "Hard Drive Courage", it's strongly implied that he keeps a [[PornStash suggestive collection]] on his computer. |
| 55 | * CowardlyLion: Courage The Cowardly Dog really lives up to his name! He is easily terrified of nearly everything around him but the lengths he will go to look after people, ''especially Muriel'' shows that this little guy has a ton of...well...courage. Even if he's seized with terror he stops at nothing to protect his owners from the supernatural. Literally in the Italian dub, where his name is changed to Leone, Italian for "lion". |
| 56 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Not an idiot per say; he's more [[CowardlyLion chicken than dog]], but when Muriel is in danger, [[{{Determinator}} he'll always do whatever it takes]] [[HeroicDog to save the day]]. |
| 57 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:His parents were kidnapped by a MadDoctor when he was only a pup.]] [[FreudianExcuse It's no wonder why he's so timid.]] |
| 58 | * DeadpanSnarker: When he can talk, he often speaks to make dry remarks about what's happening to himself and the Bagges. |
| 59 | * {{Determinator}}: No matter how terrified he is or how powerful his opponent may be, Courage will never back down. Best exemplified in the battle with Mecha-Courage. |
| 60 | * DirtyCoward: Usually not, but PlayedStraight on at least one occasion; in "Shirley the Medium", while he at first tries to save Eustace from the monster in Horst's money box, when the monster blocks off their escape route, Courage yells, "Okay, you can have him!", throws Eustace to the beast, and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere bugs out in a hurry]]. Since this is [[{{Jerkass}} Eustace]] we're talking about, you won't feel bad for him. |
| 61 | * DirtyKid: Surprisingly, he is shown to have been one in one of the flashback sequences of when he was a puppy in "Remembrance of Courage Past". While looking for his parents, he stumbles upon a woman showering and happily takes a second look before continuing his search. |
| 62 | * DogsAreDumb: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] all things considered. While Eustace always calls him a "stupid dog", [[SmarterThanTheyLook Courage is anything but stupid]] (heck, he has far more common sense than either of [[TooDumbToLive the two humans]] he lives with). |
| 63 | * TheDogBitesBack: |
| 64 | ** He gives the Cruel Veterinarian, the same man who [[KickTheDog took away his parents]], a taste of his own medicine by sending him back into the rocket where he is sent to the moon and mercilessly mauled to death by the same dogs he sent there (including Courage's parents). |
| 65 | ** There are plenty of instances where Courage will torment Eustace or even allow him to get hurt, such as one time when he's so fed up by [[UngratefulBastard Eustace]] that he throws him into a monster's hands with no hesitation. |
| 66 | --->'''Courage:''' Okay, you can ''have'' him! |
| 67 | * DubNameChange: In the Italian dub, his name is Leone (it means [[ADogNamedCat "Lion"]], which makes him an almost literal example of a CowardlyLion). |
| 68 | * EvilDetectingDog: He's always the first (and only) to detect danger. He is seldom wrong about his detections. |
| 69 | * ExtremeDoormat: He takes crap from Eustace mostly and other baddies more than he should without even considering to bite back. |
| 70 | * {{Expy}}: He is based after Hamilton from John R. Dilworth's short ''Smart Talk with Raisin'', even down to his design. |
| 71 | * {{Flanderization}}: Originally spoke English regularly but as the series progressed his lines became increasingly limited to gibberish and screaming, only using English once in a while or when he really has something to say. |
| 72 | * FlatWhat: Non-verbal. Occasionally Courage will witness something so bizarre he can't even ''scream'' at it, instead responding with weird visual gags that accurately sum up how utterly perplexed he is. |
| 73 | * FreudianExcuse: Courage's constant cowardice was given a reason in "Remembrance of Courage Past" where it's revealed [[spoiler: an [[MadDoctor insane veterinarian]] captured both of his parents and sent them into outer space [[ForScience for the unrealistic experiment of making dogs stronger]], leaving him an orphan until Muriel adopted him both instantly and lovingly as her (and later Eustace's) pet]]. |
| 74 | * FurIsClothing: PlayedForLaughs in "The Quilt Club" and "Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist", in which the lower half of Courage's fur is ripped off and in both instances, he's wearing briefs. Like most examples, this is probably non-canon (as not only has he taken baths in his fur, but in a more serious moment in which Freaky Fred shaves him, he is not wearing underwear). |
| 75 | * GagNose: He has a large nose with a zigzag on it. |
| 76 | * GaleForceSound: In "Ball of Revenge", he defeats the VillainTeamUp by screaming loud enough to send the villains flying. |
| 77 | * GoodIsNotSoft: As kind as Courage can be, a close look at his actions shows that he has no compunction at all about leaving villains to their fate and is actually willing to try fighting them head on if needed. Villains who are misguided or who are well intentioned but otherwise resorting to drastic methods he will be willing to help. Villains who are irredeemable, knife-twisting jerks he will gladly leave to die. |
| 78 | * GuileHero: Being a small and meek dog, he's not usually in a position to out-muscle or beat up the villains and monsters he's up against, leading to him trying out some more hare-brained, deceptive, or diplomatic ways to defeat them. |
| 79 | * HairColorDissonance: His fur is usually pink, but it becomes purple when he gets wet or if the scene takes place in the dark. |
| 80 | * HammerSpace: How, exactly, Courage manages to fit anchors and full-grown whales into pockets that he doesn't even have is inexplicable and simultaneously hilarious. |
| 81 | %%* TheHero: But of course. |
| 82 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 83 | ** In "Remembrance of Courage Past", just seeing a missing dogs ad on the side of a milk carton reminds Courage of his DarkAndTroubledPast, causing him to go motionless aside from blinking for at least twelve hours straight. Only being told he's going to the vet breaks him out of it, because he's fully aware just how evil that very same veterinarian is. |
| 84 | ** He has other moments too, including an occasion where his eyes turn to snow and static is heard. |
| 85 | * HeroicDog: When Courage sees danger, he always [[CowardlyLion cowers in fear]]. Then he always rescues his family, in spite of being scared. |
| 86 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: The whole premise behind "Perfect", is this. He is faced with a SadistTeacher known as The Perfectionist who constantly berates him for not being perfect, and it gets so bad that it gives him horrible nightmares. |
| 87 | * HeyYou: Much like how Eustace almost never calls Courage by name, he also never calls him by name. Heck, he doesn't even address him in any way except for "farmer" when talking to the Shadow. Despite this, Courage ''does'' know what his actual name is, such as singing "Eustace and Muriel" in order to preserve their marriage against the Goose God's advances. |
| 88 | * HumiliationConga: Quite a few episodes have Courage taking ''a lot'' of beatings, such as "Mega Muriel the Magnificent" and "Courage vs. Mecha-Courage". The former has him nearly dying just to get the computer to leave Muriel while the latter has him taking numerous hits, only barely escaping death because Mecha-Courage ran out of juice. |
| 89 | * InformedSpecies: Downplayed; he is called a beagle by some sources, and while he doesn't look like one (aside from his short stature and floppy ears), he certainly acts like one; [[TruthInTelevision real-life beagles are known for being jumpy, fearful, and extremely loud when they howl]] -- just like Courage. |
| 90 | * IronButtMonkey: The injuries he suffers on a regular basis are never permanent and he always seems resilient to bounce back up. This even contributed to his VictoryByEndurance against Mecha-Courage. |
| 91 | * IronicName: Look at the title of the show. He manages to prove himself worthy of both ends of the title, with him being [[LovableCoward utterly terrified of anything big or small]] that troubles him but also [[CowardlyLion never willing to flee without protecting his friends and family first]]. |
| 92 | * ItsPersonal: While villains he encounters have a personal beef with him (even allying themselves with Eustace at one point) Courage has a personal beef with the veterinarian who sent his parents into space. This speaks volumes when Muriel wonders about his fate and Courage ''growls'' at the mere mention of him. |
| 93 | * LargeHam: Prone to [[ComicalOverreacting overreacting]], especially when screaming or trembling. |
| 94 | * LaughingMad: A few episodes end with Courage cackling at the camera. |
| 95 | * LovableCoward: Subverted. Courage is timid and physically feeble ([[JustifiedTrope justified]] considering how horrifying his foes tend to be) but never lets his fear get in the way of saving Muriel. Therefore he's more like a CowardlyLion or TheSoCalledCoward. |
| 96 | * LoyalAnimalCompanion: No matter how scared Courage gets in an episode he lists Muriel's safety over his own. |
| 97 | * MadeOfIron: He never seems to have any permanent bruises from his injuries... & he suffers ''a lot'' of them. Which makes every single injury that he sustains disappear regardless of how severe they are. |
| 98 | * MajorInjuryUnderreaction: His typical response to suffering a brutal injury such as getting SquashedFlat or beaten senseless is to either groan or let out a [[LaughingMad wheezing cackle]]. |
| 99 | ** There are notable exceptions such as enduring a [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown savage beating]] by Mecha-Courage or being ganged up on by Mad Dog's henchmen where he foregoes the laugh, playing the serious and painful injuries he gets [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness deadly seriously]]. |
| 100 | * {{Manchild}}: To a degree. Courage is somewhat childish in his hobbies, such as playing with toys and building sand castles. He occasionally spends his time [[FurryReminder chewing on an old boot or something else]] and talks to his computer. |
| 101 | * MeaningfulName: |
| 102 | ** Despite all his screaming and flailing he doesn't run away when his owners are in trouble because "Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is fighting and overcoming your fears." In fact, Muriel named him Courage ''because'' he showed courage (as seen in "Remembrance of Courage Past"). |
| 103 | ** The Italian dub changes his name to Leone, meaning [[CowardlyLion "lion"]]. |
| 104 | * MommasBoy: In the adoptive sense, but Courage is very loyal towards and devoted to protecting Muriel, who is like a mother to him. |
| 105 | * MonsterMouth: One of his teeth has a hole bored straight through the center as though with a drill for some reason. |
| 106 | * MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:His inability to save his parents as a child deeply affected him and remembering the event was enough for him to have a HeroicBSOD in the finale.]] |
| 107 | * MyGreatestSecondChance: [[spoiler:He gets revenge on the man who took away his parents and saves his new owners, preventing [[HistoryRepeats history from repeating itself]].]] |
| 108 | * NarrativeShapeshifting: He typically does this to explain what terrible situation Muriel and Eustace are in but they never listen. |
| 109 | ** It is unknown if this is just [[VoluntaryShapeshifting an ability Courage is able to do]] as it's mainly used for laughs. But on rare occasions, he uses it to get himself out of a jam. |
| 110 | ** This would later bite him in the ass during a joke in "Evil Weevil", where he calls in some pest exterminators to deal with [[BigCreepyCrawlies Jeeves Weevil]]. When Courage takes on the form of the insect to explain he just gets hit by bug spray for all his trouble. |
| 111 | * NervousWreck: Very, ''very'' often the poor dog is often in shambles and worrying about everything. |
| 112 | * NiceGuy: A selfless character who works to benefit others with usually little to no regard for his own well being. He's even willing to help out monsters who aren't as evil as they appear to be. |
| 113 | * NighInvulnerable: Courage survives a lot of really painful and serious injuries due to the show's cartoony slapstick humor. |
| 114 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: As Courage is aware and pointed out himself in one of his catchphrases he often suffers in his quest to save his home and protect his masters whenever the MonsterOfTheWeek is about to inflict something atrocious upon Muriel, then Courage takes the beating himself because often times that was the only way to shield Muriel. |
| 115 | * OhCrap: If something bad's about to happen, this will always be his reaction, especially if Muriel's life is on the line. |
| 116 | * OnlySaneMan: Of the Bagge family. Usually Eustace and Muriel are TooDumbToLive and Courage is always the only one who realizes they are in danger. He ''does'' warn them many times but neither of them take his barking as a genuine warning that they should scram. |
| 117 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: You know shit gets real when [[spoiler:Eustace's scary mask doesn't frighten Courage in the absolute slightest.]] |
| 118 | ** From the same episode: Courage has always reacted with fear whenever Muriel would make a passing mention to the MonsterOfTheWeek but when she wonders aloud about the fate of the veterinarian, Courage ''growls in anger''. |
| 119 | * OverlyLongScream: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUxXepJ2WVo A trademark]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Z8ZPcuGeU of the]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7kUCXYQxx4 character]]. Almost no episode is complete with at least one of these coming from Courage, be it because of the MonsterOfTheWeek, [[DamselInDistress Muriel being in danger]] and so on. He even deliberately weaponizes it at one point. |
| 120 | * ParentalAbandonment: Revealed in the last episodes of the series when [[spoiler:an evil doctor rocketed his mom and dad in hopes to create a race of super strong space dogs. Luckily Muriel found him as a baby in a nearby alley.]] |
| 121 | * PhraseCatcher: Eustace and countless bad guys have called him a "stupid dog". |
| 122 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: Courage is capable of carrying Muriel and Eustace over his head while running away from whatever that is chasing them. |
| 123 | * PerpetualFrowner: Mainly due to being a NervousWreck, a mellow frown is his default expression which usually goes into terrified teeth gritting or a pissed off scowl from there. He ''can'' smile though, which he usually does when he’s finally at ease and relaxed with Muriel. |
| 124 | * ProperlyParanoid: If Courage is scared there is ''always'' a good reason. Except during a Season 1 episode where he and Eustace go to a diner and [[spoiler:it seems the owner turns the customers' heads into food. It turns out his "victims" are alive and well and he just made head-shaped meat sculptures using his customers as models.]] |
| 125 | * ProtagonistTitle: He is the main character of the show and his name is the show's title. |
| 126 | * RefuseToRescueTheDisliked: He's been reluctant quite a few times to save Eustace, a {{Jerkass}} of the highest order who regularly abuses and bullies Courage and [[UngratefulBastard never treats him any better despite saving his life many times]]. |
| 127 | ** In "Shirley the Medium", Courage grabs Eustace and tries to carry him away from [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a demonic entity that was trying to drag Eustace into a money box]], only to ''throw'' Eustace at the monster. |
| 128 | --->'''Courage''': Okay! You can have him! |
| 129 | ** In "Queen of the Black Puddle", when the titular Black Puddle Queen abducts Eustace to [[LiteralManeater have him over for dinner at her place]] Courage couldn't care less about what's happened and only reluctantly ventures out to save him just to relieve the worries of Eustace's wife Muriel, whom Courage does care about. |
| 130 | ** It should be noted that this usually averted in cases where Eustace wasn't ''too much'' of a {{Jerkass}}. Such as in "Evil Weevil" where Courage is genuinely concerned over his deteriorating health and finds a (rather unorthodox) method of reviving him. Or in "The Snowman Cometh" where he saves Eustace before the sun melts ''all'' of him. |
| 131 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The prime feelings that he espouses in the audience are sympathy, protectiveness and going ''awww'' over his cuteness. |
| 132 | * RubberMan: He is able to stretch change into different forms and in fact, he does that often. He exploits this in "Journey to the Center of Nowhere", when he's tied up by evil eggplants and escapes by taking a deep breath and deflating his body until it's thin enough to slip through the vines. |
| 133 | * SanitySlippage: It's heavily implied that Courage has gone crazy when he plays with the marionettes of Eustace and Muriel at the end of "The Great Fussili". |
| 134 | * SaveTheJerk: He always goes out his way to save Eustace in spite of the latter's massive cruelty towards him. Of course, Eustace [[UngratefulBastard never appreciates it in the slightest]]. As displayed in "Queen of the Black Puddle," Courage does so for Muriel's sake, as despite everything [[NoAccountingForTaste she does love and care about him]]. |
| 135 | * ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: He gives a particularly feminine-sounding scream in "Evil Weevil". This was lampshaded at one point where he runs back to the farmhouse screaming like this and wearing red high-heeled shoes! |
| 136 | * SignatureLaugh: He has two: a wheezing cackle that he makes either after getting injured or at the end of an episode and an embarrassed-sounding laugh. |
| 137 | * SilentSnarker: In his non-speaking moments he non-verbally expresses his disdain and exasperation at things. |
| 138 | * TheSoCalledCoward: He seems to prove his name 'Courage', even more so than the 'Cowardly' part of the title. |
| 139 | * SpeechImpairedAnimal: Subverted in the early days of the show, where he spoke more freely usually. He played it more straight later. Even in the later seasons, it's occasionally subverted. Notably, the episode "Muted Muriel" cheats a bit by having him explain to Muriel, in perfectly coherent English, how the MonsterOfTheWeek needs to be staved off. |
| 140 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: It is revealed in "Remembrance of Courage Past" that his parents look just like him, except that his dad has bushy eyebrows and a mustache and his mom [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics has eyelashes and lipstick]] and wears a hat and shoes. |
| 141 | * SuperNotDrowningSkills: He seems to have an impressive lung capacity, perhaps as a RequiredSecondaryPower to his OverlyLongScream. Examples of this in action include "King Ramses' Curse" when he swims from the attic to the basement to drain the water out of the flooding house, and "Bride of the Swamp Monster" when he watches the reunion between the titular monsters, holding his breath the entire time. |
| 142 | * SupremeChef: Courage appears to pull off superb culinary skills from mac and cheese to fancy French cuisine. |
| 143 | * TalkingAnimal: He talks frequently in the early episodes, but later becomes a SpeechImpairedAnimal over time. This is actually a result of CN forcing Dilworth to give Courage less talking lines as they felt he was funnier as a babbling animal. The latter is somewhat subverted at one point. Realizing that he can't talk to Muriel directly, he runs to a payphone and calls her. |
| 144 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: Courage's second most common expression, behind [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl abject terror]], is to acknowledge that when he’s up for a task, things are going to get very unpleasant. He even often says "I know I'm not going to like this..." before he is about to do a dangerous task. |
| 145 | * UndyingLoyalty: He's always loyal to [[ParentalSubstitute Muriel]]. And by extension Eustace, even though Courage is fully aware that he's a literally dog-kicking jerkass, because Eustace makes Muriel happy. |
| 146 | * TheUnintelligible: As the series went on, the gibberish-to-English ratio tipped towards the former to a major degree, meaning Courage would speak coherent English less and less to a point he would just babble and other characters would ''still'' know what he was saying (except Eustace and Muriel, of course). |
| 147 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: He changes into various shapes and forms when screaming gibberish to anyone who'll hear him, and while this is normally used as a visual gag, this proves really handy at times when the going gets tough for him. |
| 148 | * WeirdnessMagnet: Weird things just happen wherever Courage goes. You could justify it by Nowhere just naturally attracting the supernatural, except for the fact there have been multiple episodes where him and the Bagges are visiting another town (or even another country), yet weird things still happen to them. |
| 149 | * WhaleEgg: In "Muted Muriel", he lays a golden egg so he can pay Shirley for her help. |
| 150 | * WifeBasherBasher: To Mad Dog for Bunny -- let's elaborate. [[spoiler:He jumps through the back of his car and drives it in front of a train, effectively ending his reign of terror. Although Mad Dog survived with cartoonish injuries, he's been [[LaughingMad beaten silly]] in the wreckage of his car and left without his girlfriend to abuse any longer.]] |
| 151 | * WildTake: Frequently, he reacts to the horrors he observes by having his eyes grow large. Heck, some of his wild takes would put ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren Höek]]'' to shame. |
| 152 | * WouldHitAGirl: In "Queen of the Black Puddle" while being attacked by the Queen, Courage grabs a leg from the skeleton of one of the Queen’s victims and bonks her on the head with it four times. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Muriel Bagge]] |
| 156 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/muriel_bagge_courage.png]] |
| 157 | [[caption-width-right:220:''"Oh my!"'']] |
| 158 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Howard Hoffman (pilot), Thea White (series; 1999-2021), Creator/KathSoucie (as a child in "Little Muriel") |
| 159 | |
| 160 | A sweet old Scottish lady who found Courage abandoned by an alley and took him home. She is constantly in danger from the things that come to Nowhere, but she always smiles at some point during the episode. She also loves using vinegar in ''all'' of her cooking, and in an early episode picked up playing the sitar and also has a fondness for tea. |
| 161 | ---- |
| 162 | * ABNegative: It's revealed in the episode, ''Bad Hair Day'' that she has an incredibly rare blood type, ABXYZ, that happens to be sought after by Growth Industries for their hair growth experiments. It's sufficiently rare that her doctor notes she's the only patient he has with that type. |
| 163 | * AccentAdaptation: In the Latin American Spanish dub, she speaks with a thick German accent in replacement from her Scottish one. |
| 164 | * AllLovingHero: She's always kind to people she meets and invites them into her home. And she loves Eustace despite his {{Jerkass}} personality. The only person she seems to dislike is [[ObnoxiousInLaws Eustace's mother]]. |
| 165 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: A RunningGag has her hit Eustace with a rolling pin whenever he abuses Courage. Also, she once successfully defeated ''KATZ'' when he was strangling the poor dog. |
| 166 | * BigBeautifulWoman: There have been multiple plots about the villain of the week falling in love with Muriel, so she might be considered this. |
| 167 | * BigFun: She's not only rather fat, but also just as kind. In strong contrast to [[LeanAndMean Eustace]]. |
| 168 | * BigThinShortTrio: Muriel is the Big one of the three protagonists, compared to Eustace's Thin and Courage's Short. |
| 169 | * BlindWithoutEm: She's shown to have trouble seeing without her glasses in "Muriel Meets Her Match". And she's apparently deaf as well. "You know I can't hear without my glasses, Courage." Although that makes more sense when you remember that Courage has to rely on gestures to communicate. |
| 170 | * BrattyHalfPint: She was quite a handful as a child, as seen in the episode "Little Muriel". |
| 171 | * BraveScot: Despite being a frequent DamselInDistress, she can sometimes fall into this, as well. Just watch the numerous times she wields out her signature rolling pin to hit someone who's significantly inconsiderate (like Eustace). |
| 172 | * CaptainOblivious: Is ''always'' fooled by the bad guys no matter how bizarre or obvious their disguises, even if said villain has menaced them before. |
| 173 | * CatharticChores: It's implied that cooking and cleaning are Muriel's way of coping with Eustace's boorish behavior and other dangerous things that she unwillingly attracts. In "King Ramses Curse", when the final curse is destroying their home, Muriel freaks out and proceeds to go into CopeByCreating mode by frantically cooking and baking dozens of cakes, and only stops when the curse is lifted. |
| 174 | * CharacterCatchphrase: |
| 175 | ** "[[OverlyLongScream AAAAAAAAHHH!]]" |
| 176 | ** "Oh my!" |
| 177 | ** "[Name of a dish]... with a wee bit of vinegar." |
| 178 | * ChekhovsGun: Muriel's cooking is always used to solve whatever problems Courage comes across. |
| 179 | * CoolOldLady: A kindhearted and motherly old woman, who is [[MamaBear very protective of her dog]]. |
| 180 | * CordonBleughChef: She's undeniably a good cook, but tends to add "a wee bit of vinegar" to ''everything'', including candy and dog food. If you cook -- a tiny bit of acid, such as vinegar, can make food taste bright and fresh. |
| 181 | * DamselInDistress: She is commonly the reason Courage goes so far to try to beat the many villains that attack the middle of Nowhere. |
| 182 | * TheDitz: Although she means well, she seems to not be that very smart and never seems to expect all the horrible things that head toward their house. |
| 183 | * DubNameChange: In the Norwegian dub, she is named Matilda. |
| 184 | * ElectiveMute: The plot of "Muted Muriel" has Muriel give up talking altogether when she gets sick of Eustace ignoring her. Of course, [[StatusQuoIsGod she's back to talking by the end of the episode]] thanks to Courage and Shirley. |
| 185 | * EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes: Muriel is a NiceGirl through and through; she's always kind to people she meets and invites them into her home, and she loves Eustace of all people despite his {{Jerkass}} personality. However, she makes it very clear on multiple occasions that she ''hates'' [[ObnoxiousInLaws Ma Bagge]]. Best seen in "Mother's Day", where she refuses to accompany Eustace to visit her ("I'm not going to see that woman!") or the ending of "The Sand Whale Strikes", where she actually seems pleased that the woman's lost. Given how Ma ''is'' one of the main reasons Eustace is curmudgeonly jerk he is today, this is quite {{justified|trope}}. |
| 186 | -->'''Muriel:''' Well, I'm glad that all worked out.\ |
| 187 | '''Eustace:''' But the whale got me Ma!\ |
| 188 | ''[[[{{Beat}} beat]]]''\ |
| 189 | '''Muriel:''' ''[smiles]'' I'm glad that all worked out. |
| 190 | * EveryoneHasStandards: Even she's forced to vocally agree with Eustace when she realizes that MoodSwinger Basil the thief truly is nuts. |
| 191 | * EyesOutOfSight: Her glasses obscure her eyes, and the one time she has them off, her eyes are shut tightly. |
| 192 | * FatIdiot: Downplayed. She is very chubby, but how dumb she is varies from episode to episode. |
| 193 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: Her fatal weakness is unconditional love for all living things, regardless of whether or not they'll reciprocate her kindness. |
| 194 | * GenreBlind: [[TooDumbToLive She is quite oblivious to danger]], interacting with all manner of creepy people without considering that they might mean her harm. |
| 195 | * GoodParents: She adopted Courage and raised him as her own child. He might be a bit of a coward, but he also grew into a good-hearted and chivalrous dog under her care, even with Eustace there. |
| 196 | * GrannyClassic: A kindly old lady who takes in the titular abandoned pup. |
| 197 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Her FatalFlaw. She is always nice to strangers (usually the MonsterOfTheWeek) and fails to see what they are plotting. Oh, and she married Eustace, for some reason. |
| 198 | * {{Housewife}}: A devoted, hard-working one and apparently a good cook. |
| 199 | * TheIngenue: Usually too innocent to realize she's in danger. |
| 200 | * IronButtMonkey: Muriel can take a lot of wear and tear, in sharp contrast to her husband's frail frame. This was lampshaded in "Mega Muriel the Magnificent". |
| 201 | * JerkassBall: She pretty much became a female version of Eustace after having her kindness removed by an alien visitor in "Car Broke, Phone Yes". However, she managed to get it back by the end of the episode. |
| 202 | * KindheartedSimpleton: Downplayed. She's not exactly stupid, she's just really oblivious, but kindhearted nonetheless. |
| 203 | * MajorInjuryUnderreaction: There have been some times some ''extreme'' BodyHorror has happened to her, but she treats it as an inconvenience, though sometimes ''painfully'' inconvenient. |
| 204 | * MamaBear: Whenever Eustace scares Courage, she bashes him over the head with a rolling pin or whatever else may be handy at the time. In a few episodes, she also extends this to the MonsterOfTheWeek. For example, when she comes upon Katz strangling Courage in "Katz Motel", she smashes a tennis racket over his head and saves Courage without a second thought. |
| 205 | * MinnesotaNice: It's hinted at, with the fact she wears large Midwestern boots. |
| 206 | * MoralityPet: Is one of the few things that [[{{Jerkass}} Eustace]] cares about. [[ZigzaggingTrope Sometimes.]] |
| 207 | * MultipleChoicePast: Currently, Muriel has white hair from old age. Whenever a younger version of Muriel appears, her hair color is never the same; it has been shown brown (in a flashback), red (in what was either a painting or photo), blonde (in a dream sequence), and even white (when she was actually turned into a child)! |
| 208 | * MeaningfulName: Her name could be interpreted as "merry old bag", since she's a perpetually optimistic old lady. |
| 209 | * NeverMessWithGranny: She sometimes hits Eustace with a rolling pin whenever he does something to scare Courage. |
| 210 | * NiceGirl: She's very sweet, caring, and trusting, to the point of being way too naive. |
| 211 | * NighInvulnerable: While she doesn't suffer anywhere nearly as much comical physical abuse as her dog or husband do, she's surprisingly resilient. |
| 212 | * OpaqueLenses: Muriel's glasses are not transparent. |
| 213 | * OppositesAttract: It's rather surprising that someone as sweet and kindhearted as her married a misanthropic jerk like Eustace. |
| 214 | * ParentalSubstitute: Muriel adopted Courage when he was an orphaned puppy, and raised him like he was her own child. |
| 215 | * ParentingTheHusband: Eustace is constantly demanding food and attention from Muriel, and feels jealousy over how much she dotes on Courage. It must be a result of Eustace's [[MommyIssues strained relationship with his real mother]]. |
| 216 | * PingPongNaivete: Her intelligence/stupidity. There ''are'' episodes in which she either seems like [[OnlySaneMan the only sane woman]] or have enough common sense, and there are episodes in which she gets ''wwwaaaayyyyy'' TooDumbToLive. |
| 217 | * PreAssKickingOneLiner : If she says "Oh you ''are'' cheeky!" expect to get hurt. She once bashed Eustace hard enough to send his head into his stomach when she said this and slapped a paleontologist hard enough to see stars one time due to a dirty joke he made. |
| 218 | * RollingPinOfDoom: Her weapon is a rolling pin, which she often uses to beat Eustace when reprimanding him for terrorizing Courage. |
| 219 | * SevenHeavenlyVirtues: Muriel herself is typically ''very'' nice and well-mannered, and because of this, she's befitting for all of these virtues. |
| 220 | ** '''Kindness''': This one's pretty much the easiest to be pointed out, knowing how normally warmhearted she really is in front of others. |
| 221 | ** '''Charity''': She is pretty welcoming towards someone else, especially if they are really not that threatening and/or menacing to her. |
| 222 | ** '''Diligence''': Unlike her husband Eustace, Muriel does more of the effort for the Bagge family's current living conditions, both in and out of their home. |
| 223 | ** '''Patience''': Besides her [[BewareTheNiceOnes limiting moments]], she knows how to hold her anger much better than Eustace does. |
| 224 | ** '''Humility''': She doesn't give her own self that much regard, especially considering her selfless attitude. |
| 225 | ** '''Chastity''': She has ''never'' expressed any sexual interest throughout the show, even when she's married to Eustace (either because she's not that kind of person, or that she's simply infertile). |
| 226 | ** '''Temperance''': It seems that she's relatively more capable of controlling her hunger than Eustace does, which is rather ironic since she's physically bigger than he is. |
| 227 | * SupremeChef: Can cook and prepare a wide assortment of different dishes, with or without the involvement of vinegar. In addition she's entered and won first place in at least two types of cooking contests (albeit one was for dog food but Dr. Vindaloo enjoys it despite knowing so and Eustace also had no problem eating it until he [[IAteWhat found out it was dog food]].) and people have tried to steal her recipes on occasions (even comprising the main plot of "Katz Kandy"). |
| 228 | * TooDumbToLive: Most of the time, she does life-threatening actions that she wouldn't have even tried if she had known better. Such as "Muriel Blows Up" for example, [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext when she eats]] an [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot explosive cyborg carrot missile]] ''twice'']]. Though she does have her moments of clarity (ex. "Family Business"). |
| 229 | * TrrrillingRrrs: She sometimes trills her "R"'s. This is more exaggerated in the Latin American Spanish dub, as she speaks with a German accent. |
| 230 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: Inverted. Muriel used to be an insufferable bratty child (when she was 3 years old at least). Now she's very gentle and kind. |
| 231 | * VagueAge: While Muriel (like Eustace) is definitely an older woman, just ''how'' old she is isn't very clear in-universe. While most characters treat her like an elderly woman, she is also young enough that her mother-in-law (who herself is still rather spritely and energetic) is still alive. One episode also implies that Muriel actually dyes her hair white, meaning she may actually be somewhat younger than she appears to be. |
| 232 | * WeirdnessMagnet: Something strange happens all the time despite the show being set in the middle of Nowhere. Muriel is usually the target of the MonsterOfTheWeek or whatever is happening in any episode. |
| 233 | * WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Her marriage with Eustace is difficult to understand, seeing what a spiteful jackass he can be. They have AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther moments in "The [=McPhearson=] Phantom" and "The Mask" though. John R. Dilworth has stated that Eustace may have resorted to nondescript dishonest methods to win her over in the past. |
| 234 | * WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Her dialect is some weird mix between Scottish and MinnesotaNice; one gets the impression that she's originally from Scotland but lived in the Midwestern US for so long that her accent Americanized somewhat. The Latin American Spanish dub, on the other hand, make her speak with a German accent instead. |
| 235 | * WomenAreWiser: While Muriel's naivete varies DependingOnTheWriter (especially since she's a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter), she's always wiser and more reasonable than her {{Jerkass}} husband. |
| 236 | [[/folder]] |
| 237 | |
| 238 | [[folder:Eustace Bagge]] |
| 239 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eustace_bagge_courage.png]] |
| 240 | [[caption-width-right:220:''"Stupid dog!"'']] |
| 241 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Howard Hoffman (pilot), Lionel Wilson (episodes 1-33), Arthur Anderson (episodes 34-52), Creator/JeffBergman (CN 20th Anniversary bumper, ''Straight Outta Nowhere''), Creator/WallaceShawn ("The Fog of Courage") |
| 242 | |
| 243 | A cranky old farmer who hasn't a modicum of kindness in the slightest. He thinks he can fix anything and grow anything, but this is never the case. He also has an insatiable greed for money. Later in the series we learn that he didn't have the best childhood, growing up with an uncaring mother and a selfish older brother, and his abusive home life is implied to be the reason behind his unpleasant attitude. |
| 244 | |
| 245 | Click [[SelfDemonstrating/EustaceBagge here]] for Eustace's self-demonstrating page. |
| 246 | ---- |
| 247 | * AbusiveParents: His mother's treatment of him echoes his own treatment of Courage. And considering how Muriel acts as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]] to Courage, Eustace is kind of like a horribly abusive father figure. |
| 248 | * AccidentalHero: He manages to single-handedly defeat Katz's Mutant Jam by complete accident using his Ooga Booga Mask. |
| 249 | * AesopAmnesia: In "The Curse of Shirley", he learns empathy and compassion... for half a minute. If anything, [[TookALevelInJerkass he's worse than ever afterwards.]] |
| 250 | * AllAbusersAreMale: He often treats Muriel and Courage as servants rather than his actual family members. |
| 251 | * AntiRoleModel: He's greedy, mean, cruel toward his dog, bossy toward his wife ("Where's my dinner?"), and generally unpleasant. In short, a perfect example of a character who children shouldn’t grow up to be or whose actions children should not be imitating. |
| 252 | * AntiVillain: He tends to have a FreudianExcuse for his behavior, and deep down loves his wife, although he rarely demonstrates this. |
| 253 | * ArcVillain: In "Ball of Revenge", [[spoiler:with [[TheDragon Katz]], the Queen of the Black Puddle, [[TheBrute the Clutching Foot]], and [[TeamPet the Weremole]] as his accomplices.]] Also a NonActionBigBad since [[spoiler:while the rest of his villain band is attempting to kill Courage, he just watches from the sidelines. Once all is said and done, this of course earns him some LaserGuidedKarma in the form of Muriel's rolling pin to his head. One could say he might have [[KarmaHoudini gotten off easy]], though it should be noted that he was only [[PassThePopcorn watching from the sidelines]] and not actively trying to harm Courage.]] |
| 254 | * AssholeVictim: Eustace will usually end up having something bad happening to him, often by getting [[ForcedTransformation transformed]], [[AndIMustScream trapped or imprisoned]], [[DeathIsCheap seriously injured or killed]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or just being unlucky enough to have his plans fail]]. He deserves most of it because of how rotten he is to literally everyone. |
| 255 | * BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: He's very abusive towards Courage, and in some cases, he has captured animals to get a big cash reward without caring about them. |
| 256 | * BaldOfEvil: He's very embarrassed about his hair loss. And it isn't because of old age, it seems to have been a problem since childhood. |
| 257 | * BaldnessAngst: To a point where just flat-out saying that he's bald will cause him to go on a rage-inducing breakdown. He's so self-conscious about this that he loses to the exact same comeback three times in a row. |
| 258 | -->'''Eustace''': You know how you spell "ugly"? U....u, u, u, u, u, '''''u!''''' |
| 259 | -->'''Hunchback''': And you sir are extremely...bald. |
| 260 | -->'''Eustace''': ''([[{{Angrish}} Incoherent angrish]])'' Oh, yeah? Well, you look like something the cow spit up! |
| 261 | -->'''Hunchback''': You sir are '''''extremely''''' bald. |
| 262 | -->'''Eustace''': ''([[{{Angrish}} More incoherent angrish]], [[HighPressureEmotion head starts to cook]])'' And the only thing uglier than this ''(Pulls out a mirror)'' ...Is this! ''(Pulls out a second mirror)'' [[EvilLaugh Hehehehehehe!]] |
| 263 | -->'''Hunchback''': Are you bald? ''({{Beat}})'' Yes. |
| 264 | -->'''Eustace''': [[AngryAnimalisticGrowl Grrrrrm!]] |
| 265 | * BerserkButton: |
| 266 | ** Cheating him out of money, and messing with his hat, chair, or truck, are the most effective ways to enrage him. |
| 267 | ** Courage's mere existence seems to be one for him. [[GreenEyedMonster Probably when it comes to getting Muriel's affections.]] He especially doesn't like it whenever Courage is allowed to sit at the table for meals. |
| 268 | ** His mom. |
| 269 | ** Being called bald. |
| 270 | * BigEater: He constantly demands that Muriel cook for him, and his hunger saved Courage and Muriel from Katz once. |
| 271 | * BigThinShortTrio: Eustace is the Thin one of the three protagonists, compared to Muriel's Big and Courage's Short. |
| 272 | * BlahBlahBlah: One of his catchphrases. He says this when something doesn't interest him. |
| 273 | * BlamingTheTools: When the Spirit of The Harvest Moon criticized Eustace, for his inability to grow anything, he gives the excuse of "bad soil," rather than admit he's a lousy farmer. |
| 274 | * BlindWithoutEm: Like Muriel, he can't see well without his glasses. He once got ''dragged halfway across the world'' without even knowing it. It becomes an important plot point in "The Curse of Shirley": Eustace is cursed to be rained on until he shows generosity, and the rain gets so bad that it floods the Bagge house and threatens to destroy it. So later in the episode, when Eustace loses his glasses, he looks at Courage and sees a young child (presumably himself as a young 'un, given the appearance) being rained on; he feels sorry for "the child" and gives him his hat, a selfless act that ends up stopping the rain curse. |
| 275 | * TheBully: He often picks on Courage. |
| 276 | * BullyingADragon: Occasionally, Eustace seems to take glee in taunting monsters and supernatural beings that are proven to be much more powerful than him. A special mention goes to Eustace back-sassing the Spirit of the Harvest Moon in "The House of Discontent". |
| 277 | -->'''Eustace''': 'Least I got arms and legs! You don't even have a ''neck!'' Hahaha!\ |
| 278 | '''Spirit of the Harvest Moon''': Get out of my face.\ |
| 279 | '''Eustace''': Make me! |
| 280 | * ButtMonkey: The main one, besides Courage. He has really bad luck due to being [[LaserGuidedKarma karma]]'s punching bag. |
| 281 | * CaptainOblivious: Just like Muriel, he's ''always'' fooled by the bad guys no matter how bizarre or obvious their disguises, even if said villain has menaced them before. |
| 282 | * CarryABigStick: His usual response to supernatural threats? "That's it; I'm gettin' me mallet!" |
| 283 | * CharacterCatchphrase: ''Lots'' of them. |
| 284 | ** "[[OverlyLongScream AAAAAAAAHHH!]]" |
| 285 | ** "Stupid dog!" |
| 286 | ** "Stupid [object/person/location of Eustace's ire]!" |
| 287 | ** [Pulls out mask to scare Courage] "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" |
| 288 | ** [After Muriel hits him with a rolling pin] "OW! What did I do?!" |
| 289 | ** "Oh, Wicket!" |
| 290 | ** "Big deal!" |
| 291 | ** "What's your offer?" |
| 292 | ** "Who the heck are you?" |
| 293 | ** "We don't want any!" |
| 294 | ** "No solicitors!" |
| 295 | ** "BlahBlahBlah!" |
| 296 | ** "Muriel! Where's my dinner?!" |
| 297 | ** "What's -- ''huh''?!" |
| 298 | ** "That's it, I'm gettin' me mallet!" |
| 299 | ** "I'm a farmer! FARMER FARMER FARMER!" |
| 300 | ** "Not getting out of this chair." |
| 301 | ** [When Courage pesters him] "Get away from me!" |
| 302 | * TheChewToy: Many episodes end with Eustace suffering some horrible fate, such as DemonicPossession or getting EatenAlive. Of course, since StatusQuoIsGod, [[SnapBack he's shown to be alive and perfectly okay by the next episode]]. |
| 303 | * ComedicSociopathy: He might be one of the most unpleasant protagonists to walk in animation, but it doesn’t stop him from having loads of hilarious banter with his family, bystanders and even villains. Inversely, he’s also on the receiving end of some of the harsher slapstick the show has going. |
| 304 | * CoolMask: His impressive-looking Ooga Booga mask that he uses to scare Courage [[spoiler:and a MonsterOfTheWeek in one episode.]] |
| 305 | * DeadpanSnarker: Often makes remarks in an obnoxious (and usually angry) way with all his "Big deal!" and "Blah Blah Blah!" |
| 306 | * DependingOnTheWriter: How much of an {{Jerkass}} Eustace is very much depends in the episode. Sometimes he'll be a relatively harmless GrumpyOldMan or more rarely a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who genuinely cares about Muriel. Other times he'll be an out-right villain exploiting or otherwise harming innocents for his own ends and who will happily leave Muriel and Courage to die to save his own skin. |
| 307 | * DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: He never holds back on his insults, even in the face of powerful monsters. Not surprisingly, this usually [[DoNotTauntCthulhu won't end well]]. For example in "King Ramses' Curse", he repeatedly refuses to return [[NephariousPharaoh Pharaoh]] [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ramses]]' tomb slab. After Ramses casts the three curses, Eustace thinks he's got a chance at keeping the slab. [[spoiler:Ramses pulls one last curse up his sleeve: he turns Eustace into an engraving on his coffin.]] |
| 308 | * DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: ''He'', of all people, scares Katz's Mutant Jam shitless using his Ooga Booga mask, basically taking care of the episode's MonsterOfTheWeek. He also manages to fight Katz to a standstill, despite being a frail old man. |
| 309 | * DirtyCoward: He will sometimes leave Courage and/or Muriel to their fate to save his own skin. In fact, in "The Shadow of Courage", at the end of the episode, the titular Shadow declares Eustace to be an even bigger coward than Courage himself. |
| 310 | * DisproportionateRetribution: He's done everything from scaring Courage for kicks because he didn't want to listen to the dog, to outright attempting to physically strangle him for being ''too'' irritating or attempting to kill him for [[CrazyJealousGuy being liked by Muriel more.]] This reaches its most extreme conclusion in "Ball of Revenge", where [[spoiler:he hires some of Courage's previous villains to kill the dog because ''Muriel gave Courage his favorite bedsheets.'']] |
| 311 | * DistressedDude: He often gets caught in dangerous situations along with his wife. |
| 312 | * TheDitz: Shirley the Medium refers to Eustace exclusively as "the stupid one", and for good reason. He's shortsighted, has a stunning lack of common sense, and overall seems oblivious to the world around him even more so than Muriel. When going on a game show in "Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted", he proves to be so dim that he can't even answer questions that a child would have no trouble with. |
| 313 | -->'''Eustace:''' ''[when shown a globe and asked what it is]'' It's a bowling ball covered with throw-up! |
| 314 | * DoesNotLikeSpam: Despite being a BigEater even he can't stand eggplants and carrots, and to a lesser extent, cold cuts. |
| 315 | * DubNameChange: In the Norwegian dub, he's named Rasmus, while in the Latin American dub, he's Justo (Juste). |
| 316 | * DysfunctionalFamily: He was emotionally abused by his mother and brother. It's unknown what role his father played though, as he's only mentioned and not even seen in flashbacks. Regardless, it's no wonder why Eustace is such a [[FreudianExcuse horrible person]]. |
| 317 | %%* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Despite that love not really being returned. At the end of "Mother's Day", it's implied that they have a love/hate relationship. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; give an example that demonstrates that he loves her) |
| 318 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He's a cruel old man who hates pretty much everyone. However, Muriel and his mother are the closest thing he has to loved ones, as he has genuine PetTheDog moments with them. He also keeps a picture of his late father under his hat (literally), as seen in "The Sand Whale Strikes", implying that he also cared about him. Although, if he cares or not about Muriel varies DependingOnTheWriter. |
| 319 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Almost everyone except Muriel and his mother just calls him "the Farmer" (including Courage himself). In fact, Eustace is the only one of the trio who never has an episode named after him, and the ones that do focus on him refer to him as "Farmer" (ex: "Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted", "Aqua Farmer"), and a few online sources here and there even refer to him as such. |
| 320 | * EveryoneHasStandards: He's a grouchy, grumpy, mean old git, but even he believes that no little boy should be without a hat on a boiling hot summer's day. |
| 321 | * EvilOldFolks: Usually, he's more of a grumpy, crabby {{Jerkass}} than actually evil, but he definitely fits the bill in "Ball of Revenge", orchestrating a VillainTeamUp to kill Courage. |
| 322 | * EyesOutOfSight: Just like his wife, Eustace never has his eyes revealed behind his glasses, even keeping them on while sleeping. One episode has him losing his glasses, and also like Muriel, his eyes are shut tightly. |
| 323 | * FatalFlaw: His arrogance and greed often blind him to the peril he stumbles into, leading him to ignore Courage's warning and inevitably suffer a terrible fate. |
| 324 | * FearlessFool: In many situations, he's completely uncaring of the danger and reacts to all the creepy monsters in front of him as they were normal people, acting annoyed and rude to them, even if they are threatening his life. For example, he wasn't scared at all of King Ramses, the absolutely horrifying mummy who told him "Return the slab or suffer my curse!". His only reaction was "What's your offer?" in an angry tone, as King Ramses was just some guy in front of him. |
| 325 | * {{Flanderization}}: He was just grumpy and selfish in the earlier episodes, but became a PsychopathicManchild as the series progressed. |
| 326 | * FourEyesZeroSoul: He has a low-down and greedy personality, so his glasses do well even as SinisterShades since his eyes are rarely seen. |
| 327 | * FreudianExcuse: His mother is much worse than he is, and his brother was TheAce and rubbed it in Eustace's face his entire life. The end of "The Curse Of Shirley" has his "true self" shown to him by a mirror. What is it? [[TearJerker/CourageTheCowardlyDog A sad little boy.]] He also knows that his baldness is due to his mother being bald. No wonder he's so screwed up. |
| 328 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Despite his awful childhood, no one cuts him any slack for being rude at best and outright sadistic at worst. Just ask Shirley. |
| 329 | * GenreBlind: [[TooDumbToLive Eustace can be very stupidly stubborn in the face of obvious danger.]] |
| 330 | * GetRichQuickScheme: Tries schemes in getting a lot of money many times, never works out for him. |
| 331 | * {{Gonk}}: Compared to his wife Muriel, Eustace himself has displayed ugliness not only internally, but also externally, thanks in part to his visibly large chin. |
| 332 | %%* GoodScarsEvilScars: He seems to have a rather large scar on the right side of his stomach, indicating that he had a major surgery at some point in his life. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; how does the scar mark him as evil?) |
| 333 | * {{Greed}}: Many episodes have him obtaining (only to lose it later), wanting, or basically bathing in money he found. |
| 334 | * GreenAndMean: He normally wears green overalls, and is one of the nastiest citizens living in the town of Nowhere. |
| 335 | * GrumpyOldMan: Should be really obvious at this point that he's a crotchety old man with a bad attitude, considering what he does for most of the series. |
| 336 | * HairTriggerTemper: He gets angry rather easily, especially when he's around Courage. In "Hothead", an experimental hair growth serum gives him the ability to make things ''explode'' whenever he's mad [[spoiler:(and it ends with Eustace himself literally exploding)]]. |
| 337 | * HammerSpace: Where does he pull the gigantic fright mask from when he scares Courage? |
| 338 | * HateSink: Zig-zagged. Eustace is a GrumpyOldMan and a greedy bastard who is nothing but nasty towards Courage and puts his pride and [[{{Greed}} love of money]] above all else. [[AssholeVictim This makes the fate he suffers at the end of many episodes very satisfying to watch.]] However, unlike the usual HateSink, he wasn't written only to be hated by the audience. The creator John Dilworth said that he gave Eustace a FreudianExcuse to make him more human and understandable. |
| 339 | * HeavySleeper: In "Profile In Courage", Courage repeatedly tries to wake him up, even throwing a CartoonBomb at him. Eustace sleeps through all this. |
| 340 | * HeyYou: |
| 341 | ** He almost ''never'' calls Courage by name, instead calling him "stupid dog" or just "dog". He refers to Courage by his real name only a few times, the first in "The Hunchback of Nowhere", the second in "Ball of Revenge", and the third in the Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Party bumper. |
| 342 | ** Hilariously enough, Eustace seems to get this treatment from the show itself, as while all episodes centered around Muriel are titled after her ("Invisible Muriel", "Muriel Blows Up"), the Eustace-centric episodes only address him as "farmer" ("Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted", "Aqua Farmer"). |
| 343 | * {{Hypocrite}}: He calls Courage a "stupid dog" when he himself gets injured, maimed, transformed, and otherwise [[TheyKilledKennyAgain killed]] for being TooDumbToLive. In addition, he criticizes Courage for not doing anything right when Eustace himself can't cook, can't grow anything in his farm, and can't fix anything, not to mention that he's completely [[TheLoad useless]] during whatever ordeal the Bagges come across. In short, Eustace is exactly everything he calls Courage out for being, with the only difference being that he's a much bigger coward than Courage, which at one point was even lampshaded by the Shadow in "The Shadow of Courage". |
| 344 | * IAteWhat: Once accidentally ate dog food Muriel was cooking thinking it was his dinner. He quickly scrubbed his tongue and spat it out when he found out the truth. |
| 345 | * IconicItem: The green mask he uses to scare Courage in the intro, always accompanied with "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" |
| 346 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Aside from a couple of PetTheDog moments, he usually never cares about ''anything'' other than himself. |
| 347 | * IJustWantToBeLoved: Between his ball-busting mother, his damn near perfect BigBrotherBully, and his DisappearedDad, Eustace is starved to death for affection. It really puts his apparent jealousy of Courage in perspective. |
| 348 | * InsufferableImbecile: In addition to being one of the biggest [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]] in the show, Eustace is also pretty stupid as evident via explanation in TheDitz up above, especially whenever he ignores any type of warning to not do anything that would put him in danger by doing it anyway, which even earned him the nickname "The Stupid One" by Shirley. |
| 349 | * IronButtMonkey: He's survived, [[UnexplainedRecovery or healed from]], all manner of ridiculously painful and deadly injuries on a regular basis. Inversely to Muriel and Courage, however, who can take plenty of abuse and get back up to keep going, Eustace is often taken out by one large blow that deals him a bad fate for the episode. |
| 350 | * IronicName: His own name means "fruitful", yet he's ''barely'' shown doing any farm work throughout the show, despite being labelled as a "farmer" (which is best displayed in the episode "The House of Discontent", where it tackles his rather limited farming experience). |
| 351 | * {{Jerkass}}: He hates Courage more than anything, is fairly neglectful to Muriel, and has no patience for anyone or anything whatsoever. The episode "Curtain of Cruelty" even had him labeled "the meanest creep in Nowhere." |
| 352 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 353 | ** Eustace once told Muriel that Dr. Vindalooo doesn't know what he's doing. [[BackAlleyDoctor He's not wrong]]. |
| 354 | ** At the start of "Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist", as he is fixing the roof of the house, Muriel intervenes and orders him to stop the noise, lest he wake up the neighbors. Eustace then reminds her that they don't have ''any'' neighbors since they're in the middle of Nowhere. |
| 355 | ** He considers Fred to be a freak. Given what Fred does to Courage, and what we learn about his past, it's honestly hard to argue he's wrong about that. |
| 356 | ** In ''Family Business'', Eustace wasn't wrong saying Basil deserves to rot in prison. |
| 357 | ** During ''Camp Site of Terror'' while he and Courage were in the middle of tracking down Muriel and their belongings he points out Courage was just wasting his time sniffing for a lead when they could just follow the tire tracks. |
| 358 | ** In one of the [[https://youtu.be/XTUe-mrnBvc?si=qYsNWNo40nx1TsdV bumpers]], Eustace calls the automotive repairmen highway robbers. Given they lie about how long it took to fix the truck, he isn't wrong. |
| 359 | * JerkassToOne: Eustace is an all-around asshole to ''everyone'', but he's especially an asshole to Courage, [[KickTheDog constantly insulting him, scaring him, and even physically abusing him to a degree.]] |
| 360 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While he rarely shows it, Eustace's PetTheDog moments and his AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther moments with Muriel show that there actually is some amount of heart buried beneath that crotchety greedy exterior. Also, in very "rare" circumstances he's also willing to team up with Courage and helping him. Keyword is "rare". |
| 361 | * JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Most of the time. In "Curtain of Cruelty", he was hit by an energy wave that can turn people nice, but he was unaffected by it. |
| 362 | * KarmicButtMonkey: This sicko hates Courage for no reason, to the point where he actually ''takes joy'' in Courage’s misery. So it’s safe to say that any misery he suffers at the hands of the bad guys is cosmic punishment. |
| 363 | * KickTheDog: Literally; he takes whatever opportunity he can to torment Courage or even physically harm him. At least some of it stems from jealousy since Muriel tends to pay more attention to Courage than to him, but he also does so [[ForTheLulz just for laughs]] or to get Courage to leave him alone especially when Courage tries to warn him about impending danger. |
| 364 | * KnowNothingKnowItAll: He thinks he knows everything and can fix anything, but this is never the case, in fact, he knows less than most other people. In "Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted", when he sees a globe of the Earth, he thinks it's [[EpicFail "a bowling ball covered with throw up"]]. |
| 365 | * LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't really have much empathy toward most people, especially Courage. |
| 366 | * LanternJawOfJustice: Inverted; he has a rather impressive jawline, but he's lazy, feeble, and a total JerkAss. |
| 367 | * LaserGuidedKarma: He gets struck by this almost ''every'' episode... Eustace is literally karma's punching bag. Ironically subverted in at least one episode: he suffers a horrible fate where he ''didn't'' deserve it ("The Demon In the Mattress"). |
| 368 | * LaughablyEvil: He has his funny moments, also thanks to his ButtMonkey status. |
| 369 | * LazyBum: He's very much often seen just sitting on his own red chair, barely doing any of the housework for the Bagge family's residence. |
| 370 | * LazyHusband: Does little more than read the newspaper, watch TV, and demand his dinner. |
| 371 | * LeanAndMean: He's skinny and very mean, in contrast to his wife who is an overweight but sweet CoolOldLady. |
| 372 | * {{Leitmotif}}: A jaunty fiddle tune. It gets a DarkReprise in his more antagonistic (as in, more antagonistic than usual) role in "Ball of Revenge". |
| 373 | * TheLoad: On most trips, he doesn't do anything noteworthy other than needing to be rescued. |
| 374 | * LosingYourHead: In "Mega Muriel the Magnificent", Courage's computer invades his body and runs into a wall, causing Eustace to fall apart like a broken doll and forcing the computer to invade Muriel instead. He then spends the rest of the episode as a disembodied head sitting on his chair, unaware of his bodiless state. |
| 375 | * MeaningfulName: Eustace Bagge could be interpreted as "Useless Baggage", which is what he is during most adventures. Could also count as a StealthPun for "Money Bag", given Eustace's meaning. |
| 376 | * MeanCharacterNiceActor: Quite a few Cartoon Network bumpers [[AnimatedActors portrayed him as such]], to the point of him being one of the few people who speaks cordially to Scrappy-Doo. In the Cartoon Network birthday celebration, he even speaks fondly of Courage while showing a photo of his family to Muscle Man (though he still jokes about Courage's cowardice) and gets offended when Muscle Man mistakes Muriel for a monster. |
| 377 | * TheMillstone: He actively hinders and endangers his family's attempts to survive in this dangerous world. Special mention goes to "King Ramses' Curse", [[FearlessFool which happens almost entirely due to Eustace's continual stubbornness against the threats of a powerful monster]]. |
| 378 | * MrFixit: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the episode]]. He claims that he can fix things and we occasionally see him working on things in the background, but whenever his skills as a mechanic is actually brought up proper he's usually portrayed as inept. However "Windmall Vandals" reveals that Eustace can ''actually'' rebuild the windmill at lightning fast speed; which comes in handy when the titular ghostly vandals come to slaughter the Bagges, as the windmill is the only thing that keeps them at bay. It is implied that Eustace ''can'' fix things but he is either too lazy or angry to put it to good use. |
| 379 | * MoneyFetish: He's often convinced to help Courage's RoguesGallery for money, and even bathing in cash. |
| 380 | * NeverGetsFat: A gluttonous LazyBum who always wants Muriel to cook for him, but for some reason his hard-working wife is overweight, while he remains skinny. Subverted when he transforms into a Kangaroo Monster in "The Transplant" and actually gets [[FatBastard very fat]] after eating too much. Likewise in King of Flan, where he gets ''immensely'' fat after eating so much flan after getting hypnotized. |
| 381 | * NeverMyFault: A RunningGag is that Eustace scares or hurts Courage for fun, which results in Muriel promptly bashing him over the head with a rolling pin or whatever else may be handy at the time, after which Eustace angrily demands, "What did I do?!" Also in his mind, [[InsaneTrollLogic everyone and everything is stupid apart from himself]]; even when a (now-cursed) hat turns him into stone, he manages to call it a "stupid hat" after having crumbled into a pile of dust. |
| 382 | * NighInvulnerable: Like Courage, Eustace can get seriously harmed and yet never suffer anything permanent, due to all the cartoony violence. Apart from his ''deaths'' which need to be subjected to NegativeContinuity to be reversed. |
| 383 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Once in a blue moon, Eustace is capable of being more than just the cranky [[TheLoad load]]. |
| 384 | ** In "Mission to the Sun" he ''somehow'' wrangled an asteroid and rode it like bull through space which gave Courage and Muriel a ride to escape [[ItMakesSenseInContext from the surface of the sun]]. |
| 385 | ** "Night of the Were-mole" ends with Eustace dragged underground by a were-mole transformed Dr. Vindaloo. We first hear Eustace screaming in horror, but then whacking sounds followed with Eustace chuckling in satisfaction -- implying that ''Eustace'' of all people may have won the fight against a were-mole. Though whether he got transformed into one later is left up to the viewer's imagination. |
| 386 | * OpaqueLenses: His glasses are not transparent. |
| 387 | * OutOfFocus: If he's not involved in the plot in some way, he usually only appears at the beginning and ending. Special mention goes to Cajun Granny Stew, where he's ''completely'' absent. |
| 388 | * PerpetualFrowner: He normally smiles when [[{{Sadist}} he wants to laugh at Courage's (or someone else's) pain]] or [[{{Greed}} sees an opportunity to gain fortune.]] |
| 389 | * PersonalRaincloud: In "The Curse Of Shirley", Shirley casts a spell that creates a small storm cloud over his head to teach him a lesson in kindness. Of course he doesn't learn for most of the episode and it leads to mushrooms growing on him. The cloud only goes away when he sees a small boy in desperate need of a hat to shade his head from the sun. [[spoiler:Really it was Courage holding up a broken mirror. What Eustace saw was himself as a little boy but couldn't recognize the child.]] |
| 390 | * PetTheDog: Sometimes does something nice to prove he's not a complete bastard, though these moments involving Courage are very rare. As a rule, he generally acts marginally nicer to Muriel than everyone else... [[ZigZaggedTrope sometimes]]. |
| 391 | ** On a more general note, while he can't stand him, Eustace is at least willing to put up with Courage, if only for Muriel's sake. |
| 392 | ** In "The Magic Tree of Nowhere", while he initially complains about Muriel not making his breakfast, he immediately calls the doctor when he realizes her condition is serious. |
| 393 | ** In "The Curse of Shirley", a hallucination caused by the curse has him see Courage as himself as a young boy with no hat. So he gives him the hat in order to protect him from the rain. |
| 394 | ** In "Katz Kandy", he also defends Muriel and even puts up a fight with [[HeroKiller Katz]]. |
| 395 | ** At the end of "1000 Years of Courage", he gives Muriel a bunch of bananas as a prize for winning a game of Bingo. |
| 396 | ** He never once utters "Stupid dog!" to Courage in "House of Discontent", although that's a little more because he didn't really interact with him in the episode. |
| 397 | ** In "Mecha-Courage" he initially insults the titular robot but after the robot [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe starts to give Eustace what he wants]] he says the robot isn't bad and actually starts petting it. |
| 398 | ** In "The Mask", he's very concerned about Kitty after he learns about her past, and reassures Muriel when she worries about her faults (though he [[SubvertedTrope subverts this trope]] in its literal sense when he makes it clear that he doesn't give a damn if Courage is okay or not in the same breath that he reassures Muriel). |
| 399 | ** His moments with Muriel in "The [=McPhearson=] Phantom" due to marriage counseling. |
| 400 | ** In "The Hunchback From Nowhere" he surprisingly calls Courage by his name. |
| 401 | * ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Eustace is supposed to be a farmer, yet he is very rarely seen doing any farm work, [[LazyBum preferring to just sit and watch TV instead.]] Granted, the land on the farm isn't exactly what one would call "fertile." |
| 402 | ** The occasional presence of cows on the farm points seems to imply that it's a cattle farm, but nothing concrete gets stated about it. |
| 403 | ** The farm also has a henhouse, but it's normally empty. The hens only appear when it's plot-relevant, usually when the Chicken From Outer Space is the MonsterOfTheWeek. Hilariously, when the henhouse gets destroyed too many times, it appears that several chickens have decided to ''move out'', like they're tenants. |
| 404 | ** In "The Magic Tree of Nowhere", it's mentioned that he hasn't grown anything in 50 years, not even weeds. |
| 405 | ** This becomes a plot point in "The House of Discontent", where the Spirit of the Harvest Room challenges Eustace to grow a plant, threatening to kill him and Muriel if he fails. |
| 406 | ** Of course, Eustace's inability or unwillingness to grow anything [[DependingOnTheWriter largely depends on what the plot requires]]. "Journey to the Center of Nowhere" explicitly depicts eggplants growing in the Bagge farm. |
| 407 | * PsychologicalProjection: He repeatedly calls Courage stupid and mocks him for his cowardice and not doing anything right. When it comes down to it, Eustace is exactly everything he calls Courage out for being; he gets injured, maimed, transformed, and otherwise [[TheyKilledKennyAgain killed]] for being TooDumbToLive at least OnceAnEpisode, can't cook, can't grow anything in his farm, and can't fix anything, is completely [[TheLoad useless]] during whatever ordeal the Bagges come across, and, as noted by the Shadow in "The Shadow of Courage," is [[DirtyCoward an even]] ''[[DirtyCoward bigger]]'' [[DirtyCoward coward]] than Courage himself. |
| 408 | * PsychopathicManchild: Eustace is a BrattyHalfPint in an old man's body. In fact, Eustace's relationship with Muriel seems less like husband and wife, and more like son and mother; Eustace hardly does any work while constantly demanding food and affection from Muriel, and also getting jealous over Muriel's apparent preference for Courage. |
| 409 | ** In "Mother's Day", when Ma Bagge gave Courage a teddy bear, Eustace threw a temper tantrum and whined, "Why don't you ever get ''me'' anything?" |
| 410 | ** In "Ball of Revenge", [[spoiler:Eustace conspires with some old villains for an evil scheme, because [[DisproportionateRetribution he was fed up with Muriel constantly pampering Courage]]; for Eustace, the last straw was when Muriel gave Eustace's favorite blanket to Courage]]. |
| 411 | * RiddleForTheAges: According to the creators, he managed to win over Muriel in his youth through performing some unknown dark deed. What exactly that is has not been revealed. |
| 412 | * RunningGag: Him pulling out a green mask and yelling "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" to [[KickTheDog scare Courage]] whenever he feels like it. |
| 413 | * {{Sadist}}: Eustace ''really'' gets a kick out of Courage's own suffering. |
| 414 | * ScrewPolitenessImASenior: He's an old man who doesn't give a rat's ass about being respectful. |
| 415 | * SevenDeadlySins: Given his usual personality all throughout the show, it's pretty easy to point out that he's applicable to ''all'' of these sins. |
| 416 | ** '''Greed''': He gets enthusiastic whenever he hears about, or sees something that's materialistically valuable, such as money or gold. |
| 417 | ** '''Sloth''': Even though he's occasionally referred to as a "farmer" by others, Eustace himself is actually ''a lot'' less productive than both his wife Muriel and their pet dog Courage. This is supported by the fact that the former is often seen just sitting on his signature red chair, either watching something on the television or reading the latest newspapers, while the other two were left doing more activities than he does. |
| 418 | ** '''Wrath''': Since he's normally stubborn, that also means he has the shortest temper among the Bagge family. |
| 419 | ** '''Envy''': He gets jealous if someone else gets more of the beneficial treatment from his wife Muriel than he himself does, best displayed in the episodes "The Magic Tree of Nowhere" and "Ball of Revenge". Granted, this can be heavily stemmed from [[FreudianExcuse his less-than-satisfactory life with his own family]], which is what made him the bitter man he is today. |
| 420 | ** '''Gluttony''': If he sees something he perceives as both edible and delectable (especially if he's really hungry), he will try to consume the entirety of it all to himself. |
| 421 | ** '''Pride''': He has a lot less consideration for others, even to his own wife Muriel, than for his own self. |
| 422 | ** '''Lust''': While much subtler than the other sins here, he gets more excitement from other stuff that's enjoyable to him than being with Muriel, [[{{Sadist}} such as Courage's (usually undeserved) suffering]]. At the same time, he downplays "Lust" in the sexual meaning that's usually associated with this sin, since in one episode, he's attracted to [[FemmeFatale the Queen of the Black Puddle]], but that's only because the Queen herself mercilessly hypnotized him. |
| 423 | * SignatureLaugh: He has three recurring laughs: a smugly mocking "huh-huh-huh," a proudly arrogant "Hehe-hehe-hehehe-he," and a boisterous "AH-HAHAHA!". |
| 424 | * SmallNameBigEgo: He has an inflated opinion on his own pathetic skills. |
| 425 | * SourOutsideSadInside: He's always angry and unpleasant, but episodes like "The Curse of Shirley" and "Farmer-Hunter, Farmer-Hunted" show that that he lashes out at everyone due to a miserable childhood and an abusive home life. |
| 426 | * SpoiledBrat: He treats Muriel and Courage more like servants than family and often throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. |
| 427 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: He looks like his parents and his brother. Lampshaded in "The Sand Whale Strikes", when the Sand Whale has confused Eustace for his father, Ickett. Eustace pulls out a picture of his father (who looks exactly like him with a huge beard) and says, "I don't see the resemblance." |
| 428 | * TheyKilledKennyAgain: Due to NegativeContinuity, despite suffering an assortment of horrifying demises (ranging from literally exploding with rage and destroying the entire house to [[TakenForGranite getting turned into a golden statue]] and so on and so on), he is shown alive and well by the next episode. |
| 429 | * ThinChinOfSin: He has a large protruding and pointy chin and is a greedy jerk who has often been the main villain of several episodes. |
| 430 | * ThisIsMyChair: Eustace always sits in his armchair, and in a few episodes would refuse to get off it and would get mad at anyone who tried to sit in it. |
| 431 | -->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lar0fNuBA1U No sir! Not getting out of this chair!]] |
| 432 | * ThrowTheDogABone: |
| 433 | ** He somehow comes out on top at the end of "Bad Hair Day", covered in hair from head to toe and carrying two ''huge'' stacks of money. Of course the fact that it's implied that he earned the money legally (allowing himself to be used in an experiment to grow hair) as well as the fact he didn't do so at the expense of either Muriel or Courage (trying to get money for Muriel being taken initially notwithstanding) likely allowed him to dodge his particular dose of LaserGuidedKarma that episode. |
| 434 | ** In "Heads of Beef", it looks like he's getting set up to be eaten by a cannibal pigman and his wife, but instead turns out they're actually a nice couple who give him a hearty meal of hamburgers. The pigman's wife even makes a sculpture of Eustace out of beef which certainly gives him some that attention he craves so much. |
| 435 | ** A strange instance happens in "Invisible Muriel;" an invisible Eustace sneaks into a government agency's gold vault, not realizing until it's too late that the government agents in charge of the place planned on melting the stuff down to make statues. Eustace gets stuck on the conveyor belt, gets turned into a statue... and joyously basks in the attention and praise of the public at his unveiling. |
| 436 | --->''Ma, if you could see me now...'' |
| 437 | ** "Aqua Farmer" is a rare episode Eustace is ''genuinely'' the protagonist going against Jojo, a smug, {{Jerkass}} dolphin. He challenges the dolphin to race, which he loses, but then wins the rematch thanks to training and Courage's help (mostly the latter). |
| 438 | * TokenEvilTeammate: One would wonder how an asshole like him gets such a kindly wife and a loyal dog. |
| 439 | * TooDumbToLive: Like Muriel, he often blissfully gets in harm's way. Sometimes, Eustace is too ''stubborn'' to get out of harm's way, which often unavoidably [[TheyKilledKennyAgain leads to a gruesome death]]. |
| 440 | * TookALevelInJerkass: In "Ball of Revenge", [[spoiler:he hired several villains to kill Courage; even going as far as holding ''his own wife'' Muriel captive, to use as bait to lure Courage]]. |
| 441 | * TookALevelInKindness: Whenever he and Muriel hosted ''Creator/CartoonCartoonFridays'', he was way more genial than he would ever be in-show; justified because there it's a case of AnimatedActors off the clock. Though averted in the original hosting bumpers when he did the job solo. Then he would just nag and complain about the classic CCF bumpers, the lack of parents in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', and how awful the viewer's tastes are in the viewer's choice cartoon segment. |
| 442 | * TragicVillain: Due to his sad childhood and backstory, he can come off as a bad guy who deserves sympathy sometimes. |
| 443 | * TreatedWorseThanThePet: His mother likes Courage more than him. |
| 444 | * TroubledAbuser: He's a complete bastard and {{Jerkass}} to everyone and everything he comes across, [[JerkassToOne especially Courage]], who he constantly insults, scares, and even physically abuses. Come "Mother's Day," we're introduced to his mother, Ma Bagge, who treats him the exact same way he treats Courage. It's seen that not only does the abusive behavior come from his mother, but also from his father and brother, the former two heavily preferring the latter and constantly compared him to his brother. |
| 445 | * UnexplainedRecovery: No matter ''how'' badly Eustace turned out at the end of the show, StatusQuoIsGod, and the ResetButton will be hit for the next episode with him coming back none the worse for wear. |
| 446 | * UngratefulBastard: No matter how many times Courage saves his life, Eustace will still treat him like crap. Once in "Shirley the Medium", Courage was annoyed by Eustace's ungratefulness and decided to ''throw him away'' during the middle of a rescue attempt, terrified that there was no escape and being unwilling to die for Eustace. An even bigger example is in "Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted" where he tried to shoot the Deer, after the Deer was convinced by Courage to spare Eustace. |
| 447 | * UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: A lot of humor in the show comes from [[ComedicSociopathy just how much of a douchebag Eustace can be]], [[LaserGuidedKarma and the negative consequences he suffers because of it]]. |
| 448 | * TheUnfavorite: He's apparently the unpopular child to his mother. She even likes Courage more than him. |
| 449 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: It is suggested that he used to be a good-natured child [[FreudianExcuse until his]] DysfunctionalFamily made him too rotten. |
| 450 | * VagueAge: Eustace (like Muriel) is definitely an older man, but exactly ''how'' old he is isn't made clear in-universe. He is treated as an elderly man by most other characters, but is young enough that his mother (who herself is still very strong and energetic) is still alive. However, he is a less pronounced example than Muriel, as he does show some physical signs of advanced age (such as his lack of teeth, his enlarged ears, and - of course - his baldness). |
| 451 | * VerbalTic: He tends to mutter to himself (it even sounds like he's saying the word "mutter" over and over again) when frustrated or confused. |
| 452 | * VillainousGlutton: A rare skinny example of a bad guy with an enormous appetite - most likely because most of his dinners get ruined before he can eat it. |
| 453 | * VillainProtagonist: By the end of the series, he's pretty much an evil protagonist. In "Ball of Revenge" he becomes an antagonist for the episode [[spoiler:by hiring some old villains to get back at Courage]]. |
| 454 | * WeirdnessMagnet: He, like his wife and dog, is not immune to the strange things that happen in Nowhere. |
| 455 | * WellDoneSonGuy: He badly wants the validation of his mother, but she couldn't care less about him. |
| 456 | * WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Eustace's accent is American, but exactly where in America it's from is a mystery. He seems to combine elements of various different rural accents spanning the length and breadth of the US with a little British influence, such as saying "me" instead of "my" -- which he may or may not have picked up from Muriel. |
| 457 | * YankTheDogsChain: In many cases he has come across a load of money only to lose it at the end of the episode. |
| 458 | ** In "Record Deal" Eustace makes a lot of money being Velvet Vic's manager, but Shirley steals it claiming it's her "licensing fee". |
| 459 | ** In "Angry Nasty People" Eustace makes a lot of money from being in the titular reality show, and later starts his own talk show, only for Mr. Nasty to reveal his agent screwed him over and takes his money away. |
| 460 | ** In "Last of the Starmakers" the General gives Eustace a bag of money for telling him where the Starmaker was, but at the end of the episode reveals the money was made out of experimental rocket fuel, which proceeds to shoot Eustace into the sky and blow him up into stars. |
| 461 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/StraightOuttaNowhereScoobyDooMeetsCourageTheCowardlyDog'' several people are mind-controlled by the main villains to leave treasures at the Bagge farm. Eustace is ecstatified and even sings a GlamRap about how rich he is. At the end of the movie, the money is returned and Eustace is crying about being robbed. |
| 462 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / CourageTheCowardlyDogMainCharacters
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
