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| “ | Stupid dog! You make me look bad! | „ |
| ~ Eustace to Courage in the intro of the series and his most famous quote. |
Eustace Bagge is the anti-heroic tritagonist of Cartoon Network's animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog. He is Courage's abusive owner and the husband of Muriel Bagge.
Eustace has several antagonistic roles throughout the series, one of the most notable is in the episode, "Ball of Revenge", where he gathers and meets up with the villains that Courage had previously encountered and either outwitted or defeated to get rid of him by challenging him to a game of dodgeball.
That episode arguably cemented Eustace as a villain and the direct threat and most dangerous enemy to Courage. However, sometimes he teams up with Courage if need be, as seen in a few episodes such as Bad Hair Day.
He was voiced by the late Lionel Wilson in seasons 1-2, by the late Arthur Anderson in seasons 3-4, by Wallace Shawn in The Fog of Courage, and currently by Jeff Bergman.
Biography[]
Eustace was born on a formerly unknown date in a trailer park. He was not well-liked by his mother and he was shown to be a friendlier person than in his later years. He had a brother, Horst, who was bigger and much more muscular than Eustace, with Eustace's father, Ickett, having arrowhead-like eyebrows, a big bushy beard and even larger feet. It is implied that his family all wear glasses for unknown reasons (possibly a poor vision trait) and that he was bald since he was a child. Because of the abuse he received from his family, he became bitter and hateful.
Eustace married Muriel sometime in 1953.
Muriel found Courage as a puppy outside the veterinarian's office where his parents were launched into space by the vet for his secret experiment on sending dogs to space (which in the "Remembrance of Courage Past" episode, later failed as they were revealed to be alive, mauling him in the end). Later on, Eustace began to hate Courage as he received more attention from Muriel than Eustace himself.
At certain times, Eustace was subject to many weird and crazy injuries, such as being mummified or exploding and surviving (often saying "OW!" as the explosion happens or afterwards) leaving him as black as soot wearing glasses.
At times, he helped Courage save Muriel from various things (despite the fact that he at times gets hurt a lot and/or does not return and besides, who else was going to fix his meals?).
Heroic Acts[]
- Sometimes, Eustace teams up with Courage even though its short-lived.
- After being turned into a wrecking ball and Muriel into laundry washer, Eustace goes into a fit of rage at Katz, who is responsible for this, for taking his chair away from him.
- With the help of Courage, Eustace not only breaks free of the curse by having him look inside himself for who he is, revealing a moment of compassion.
- Despite his mistreatment of her, Eustace does show love for Muriel and is usually the most affable towards her.
- Despite seeing Muriel as mouse rather than her turning into a weremole after she got bit by one, Eustace unknowingly gave Courage enough time cure his wife by having her swallow a hair from an actual weremole.
- When Muriel was possessed by a demonic mattress, he and Courage tried their best to save her.
- He protected Muriel from Katz who intended on turning his wife into taffy.
- Eustace tried getting the door unlocked so Muriel can use the bathroom and after that, they consoled each other.
- He swindled Shirley by giving her the deed to an oil well which turned out to be an oil bill but only to give Muriel the amulet. Despite being under the Swindling Spell Shirley placed on them in retaliation, he allowed the tick that's been festering on Muriel's toe to fester his, breaking free from the curse.
- He helped Courage get in the house when a Scarecrow took his attempts of toughen himself up and protecting Muriel too far.
- He aided Courage in infiltrating Dr. Zalost's Tower to stop his reign of tyranny over the city of Nowhere.
- Eustace has been considered neutral in most episodes.
- He, Muriel and Courage tried stopping the Windmill Vandals from killing them by fixing the windmill itself.
- He has standards, as he refused to put up with Growth Industries kidnapped his wife when she said no on to their proposal and was truly disgusted at the thought of sending dozens of dogs into space by the Cruel Veterinarian despite his hatred of Courage.
- He got his rematch against the Dolphin, Jojo, and won. Therefore saving Muriel from spending the rest of her life as his partner.
- In Straight Outta Nowhere, Eustace has been entirely neutral throughout the movie.
Personality[]
Eustace is a malicious, ill-tempered, waspish, egotistical, nasty and cruel old jerk farmer who is married to the kindhearted and gentle Muriel despite being her polar opposite.
Throughout the series, Eustace is very ornery, combative and antagonistic to Courage the Cowardly Dog, having a grudge against Courage, and is basically a cantankerous and argumentative bully who constantly calls Courage a stupid dog, mistreats him, and loves to scare him. Often, his cruelty earns him a bop on the head by Muriel, often followed by him asking "What did I do?". Eustace is also regularly maimed or tortured by the many ghosts, ghouls and other beings that used to haunt Courage.
Eustace's behavior towards Courage seems to stem from jealousy over the attention Courage receives from Muriel and his own mother (who dislikes him intensely, yet seems to be very fond of Courage, except when she's a threat). One of Eustace's favorite tricks is to wait until Courage is in relative peace before he utters his catchphrase of "Stupid dog!" and proceeding to pull out a hideous Voodoo-like mask and yelling, "Ooga booga booga!" to frighten Courage half to death.
Eustace is disgusted of his nephew by marriage, Freaky Fred, as he called him a "freak".
Although almost always an antagonist, Eustace has occasionally worked with Courage to try and overcome some particularly nasty villains. For example, in "Katz Kandy," when Muriel is kidnapped by Katz's Jam Monster and Courage is defeated by him in a staring contest and turned into candy for his loss, because of Eustace showing up, Eustace surprisingly protects Muriel, and also saves the day by holding off Katz and battling him while Courage pulled the lever, sending him into his own candy making machine (after Katz tries to do the same to him first).
Nevertheless, these alliances are usually temporary. More often than not, Eustace is a very stubborn and even devious individual. However, it's revealed that even Eustace knows there are certain boundaries that he shouldn't cross. When the Cruel Veterinarian made clear his intentions to send Courage to space in a rocket, Eustace fiercely disagrees with him, which means that Eustace may be cruel, but he has his kind moments.
As well as his bullying, Eustace has long been established as a very acquisitive and greedy individual who has brought disaster upon himself and others in his stubborn pursuit of riches, showing no sympathy and hesitation to those around him (that he often doesn't deserve). One of the more famous examples of this was Eustace's refusal to give up King Ramses's slab after Eustace finds out it is potentially worth a fortune; despite that Ramses continually demands they return the slab between unleashing horrible plagues in warning.
A disturbing fact about Eustace's early life, according to John R. Dilworth, is that back when Eustace and Muriel were young, Muriel was interested in another man, but through some formerly unknown dark deed, Eustace managed to win her love, but what exactly Eustace did to his love rival to get rid of him is beyond anyone's guess (making the farmer a psychopath). However, it is confirmed that Eustace murdered his love rival, which is the dark deed.
However, on a positive side, this means that deep inside his heart, Eustace really loves Muriel and, even during their youth, was willing to do whatever he needed to win her affection. Nevertheless, this doesn't prevent Eustace from risking Muriel's life sometimes, albeit formerly unknowingly, like when he reunited all six of Courage's worst enemies and didn't do anything when they tried to cook Muriel alive, making him even more of a sadistic sociopath who is willing to hurt, harm, attack, abuse and kill even his loved ones. As in Ball of Revenge, he willing kidnaps Muriel and lets his allies torture her in a giant cauldron of cooking green liquid and bleaching her laundry. However, Eustace cannot be a Karma Houdini forever, as Eustace and his crooks are beaten by Courage once again.
Appearance[]
Eustace is a tall and thin elderly man with enormous feet (though these pale in comparison to his father's) who walks in a crouch, compared to Muriel, who is short and overweight. He's bald and has squinted little eyes. His arms are spindly, but his hands are large. He has an enormous chin and false teeth, yet, they are actually his gums and Eustace can eat just fine even without teeth. He wears green overalls and a short-sleeved yellow shirt along with jam-jar glasses, a brown hat and black shoes. His usual facial expression is extremely grouchy.
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