#character: beatrice

[fromthefirstmomentitouchedyou]

[knoxs2nd]

yasu names the greatest source of her suffering and her own personal failure as the inability to change and thus being forever stuck in her circumstances

but! this inability to change an outcome is the source of beatrice's endless magic and what makes her such a powerful witch

shannon and kanon's struggles against beatrice, their struggles against their roles as "furniture" preventing them from achieving human happiness, are about achieving change and how this relates to one's own humanity

shannon and kanon's goals are both related to change, but as per usual for our furniture foils, they strive for different types of change to make them "human"

shannon strives for external change: marrying george, leaving the island, having a family, etc. her own version of happiness is changing her circumstances. meanwhile, she still retains her internal beliefs that she's furniture using magic (see: proposal in ep 1, date in ep2)

kanon, however, strives for internal change: seeing himself as human rather than furniture with a future. his own version of happiness is believing himself to be human with all the possibilities it entails. meanwhile, kanon's envisioned future for himself in ep6 involves staying on rokkenjima as the family's furniture

the 1000-year old beatrice, whose endless magic can always only result in one outcome, doesn't want for change. in fact, her age and training as the endless witch earns her respect and she should be revered. meanwhile, shannon and kanon are upstart furniture/children

so, beatrice resists change. she carries out the epitaph because the sequence of events have already been pre-determined by fate. she's... in a bird cage, or in a dead-end of fate - whichever metaphor you want to use from the series for her situation.

beatrice is the witch who will be acknowledged as such, while shannon and kanon are furniture who want to become human. but even though beatrice is framed against shannon/kanon as inhuman, her version of happiness is having her heart understood, a human's greatest wish.

beatrice wants to be loved and understood while being antithetical to the change inherent to shannon/kanon's characters

all of these - wanting to be loved, having to change both internally and externally - are all parts of being human

so then, why is beatrice so powerful compared to shannon and kanon? why is foregone that of course beatrice wins, and shannon/kanon are fighting a hopeless battle?

beatrice is someone born from yasu's first childhood love for battler and as the culprit/witch that she first began playing at as a child

beatrice triumphing over shannon and kanon, to me, reads as yasu valuing and believing in the possibility of being understood, accepted, and loved as she was in the past, rather than who she could be in the future.

(of course, yasu believed that she can't achieve this change in the first place. the series keeps framing shannon and kanon as fighting against their fate! but beyond the series itself, fixating on the past and feeling unable to change is a trauma response

...and well, yasu is suicidal. she's suicidal because nothing can change. because nothing can change, she should die. but in her heart of hearts, at least, she can still wish for a miracle to come true, and to be understood)

going back to change and humanity - in the context of the catbox, shannon, kanon, and beatrice all accomplish their goals and achieve their happy endings. shannon and kanon fight for change and become human, while battler grants beatrice's human wish by understanding her heart

but outside of the catbox, for beatrice on the boat, and for ange, the question becomes: how does one live meaningfully as a human?

when battler asked beatrice to change, assuring her of his love and support, she told him she couldn't. she couldn't change her circumstances and leave rokkenjima physically, and she couldn't change herself, as she would always be the sinful witch.

battler knows that beatrice doesn't feel like she can change, but he also believes that what she really needs, and what he will give her, is love and time

beatrice accomplishes her human goal of being loved and understood until the end, but while inside of the endless catbox it's a fairytale ending, outside of the catbox it's a tragedy, because she doesn't do the most important thing, what battler wanted her to do, and live.

now, ange, when she has her family in her heart supporting her, fights for and accomplishes the miracle of both internal and external change: she becomes kotobuki yukari. and, most importantly, she does this by looking to the future and resolving to live

to be human means to want to love, to want to be loved in return, and to change. and...to be human means to live and have a future

[myovin]

Beatrice from Over the Garden Wall 🕊️✨

[radicallymaxton]

Fred the Horse (he likes to steal)

[laurenillustrated]

Beatrice as a regency era inspired portrait!

Idc if it’s too early I’m going into otgw brainrot now

[oligib-art]

A bit belated but I wanted to make some art to commemorate Over the Garden Wall’s 10th anniversary 🍂

Time flies quickly—and that’s a rock fact

[01rand]

i made some more umineko charms and a sticker sheet they are open for preorder now !!! shop link

[monyokami]

Beatrice and Clora (My Mc/ Oc with @choccy-milky 's Mc)🐉

I hope you like the drawing, it's the first time I draw someone else's character. Thank you very much for your permission

[llamahearted]

they were playing & milly had been planning to lean in and catch her priest man off guard with some joke, but. well. now she's forgotten whatever-it-was she was gonna say

[shadowaj]

so i started watching rezero

[lichenbug]

put that woman in an outfit stat !!!

[daydreamycrustacean]

I was genuinely surprised at the fact that I hadn´t seen anyone draw them like that one J. C. Leyendecker painting yet, and I needed that particular image to exist so...here.

[knoxs2nd]

natsuhi, eva, and rosa had ideals of who their children should be, so they wouldn't suffer from the same childhood trauma as their mothers. yasu's "children" were created in the same way.

the cousins became their own people beyond these expectations, even if it was in defiance of their own mothers' original wishes. so it's the same for shannon, kanon, and beatrice, who all grew past than their purpose, their reason for living as yasu originally created them.

shannon's original role was to be yasu's friend. however, shannon wasn't made just to be yasu's unique and best friend...shannon was supposed to be perfect, and loved by everyone.

but shannon becomes her own person, accepting her own imperfections as "furniture" without condemning herself for it. and instead of striving to be loved by everyone...she chose to love and be loved by one person.

even if it meant destroying all of her other precious relationships. she was made for everyone, but ended up living for one person.

kanon was originally made to be the other half of shannon's universe. an emotional support little brother, and not just in a wholly positive way. he was also created to cope with many of yasu's negative feelings about her life, including her perception of her own womanhood.

kanon could voice his displeasure at others, and at the world. he could be a lone wolf and not care about others and how they perceived him. as long as he supported shannon, he didn't need anything else of his own. not exactly someone who designed with his own interiority...

kanon was not supposed to want anything for himself - to actually want to try living in the world, as a human. but then, inspired by jessica and encouraged by her to try to value himself...in the end, he's the one who wants the most to become his own person

even if kanon doesn't know what exactly he wants to become, he wants the chance to try, and establish his own sense of self and individuality. he was made for one person, but ended up living for himself.

beatrice was born as a receptacle for yasu's unrequited love for battler. however, yasu was only "allowing" beatrice to know what love was, with the understanding that beatrice was just "holding onto" her feelings. the love could be given back to yasu, whenever she felt like it

beatrice was born as someone to love battler...but not someone who was meant to be loved in return. she wasn't someone who was ever meant to be part of a universe of two, and thus, someone who could not be acknowledged or understood.

for the rokkenjima massacre, yasu ends up not choosing between shannon or kanon. by that time, both of her creations had grown into people with their own wants rather than just her ideal of a way to live. they had dreams of futures they wanted for themselves

in the end, the gamble fell to beatrice, the only one who was "incomplete" and not "real", who was not her own person because she didn't have the other half of her universe of two, who inspired her to grow past her original purpose. the only one without a future...

beatrice was made as someone to experience the pain of love, and not to be loved in return. but then, battler loves her and understands her. everyone believes in her, and made her golden land real, for eternity. in the end, with love, beatrice "exists"

[vacz]

I present to you my idea of a alternative bad ending for Wirt...

THE HUNTER

Instead of Beast!Wirt is Woodsman!wirt

After accepting the deal with the Beast, Wirt became the new lantern barer in hopes to keep Greg alive. He took the job to cut down the ellewoods and make them oil to feed the lantern so Greg's soul would never turn off, exactly what the woodsman used to do with his daughter. But as different from the woodsman, Wirt does know where the ellewoods truly came from, so the Beast has decided to take advantage of it and included him a little bit more into his chase for new victims. Now having Wirt helping the Beast to guide lost souls to the wrong path, it has become so much easier for the Beast to trap new souls

Wirt's role was this for a time: Becoming the new woodsman and finding lost kids to give them wrong directions or ideas. Despise how much he refused in the beginning, soon the Beast made him understand that this was the price for his mistakes, unless he wanted to Greg pay the price instead...

Until one night, Wirt had to confront a travel soul. A boy like him, wanting to save his little brother from the cruel breaches of the tree growing on his helpless body, and finally leave the woods with him, like Wirt himself once did. However, the Beast pressured and demanded him to take action himself, but unlike the old woodsman, Wirt did cut the boy down.

And since that incident, Wirt now has a new task to commit every time a new soul enters into the unknown.

He could barely sleep at night before, now he can't sleep at all. Wirt has stopped taking care of himself, at least he washes his hair and clothes once in a time but time itself seems so uselessly long for him until the point that things don't seem to matter anymore, nothing matters for Wirt, not even himself and his feelings... except keeping the lantern lit

The Beast knows better than anyone that Wirt's mind has become so weak until the point that he can't even survive by himself. He had succeeded in destroying this boy whole identity, only leaving a white paper to work on, so now he tries mold Wirt according his own twisted needs. Ironically, thanks to the Beast's influence, Wirt remembers the reason why he has to keep going with this but also he slowly starts to see people in a similar way that the beast's twisted perception does; trees to feed the lantern, not ready to burn yet but they must be prepared.

It's not surprising how much he has given up to the Beast. But unlike him, Wirt doesn't like to "play" or manipulate their victims, because he doesn't want to know them at all. Wirt already knows how these people will end, and he doesn't want to feel worse than he feels now, so he mostly tries to make his interactions shorter or cut them down directly, the quicker the easier it is for him to adopt this 'human dissociation' mentally

Of course, when he chooses violence, people tend to run rather than do what he plead, so he has to chase after them. Running after someone is exhausting for Wirt because he isn't that athletic in that aspect, and it's frustrating when he can't reach them. There are times when they manage to escape and some others that they don't

Wirt hates running after them, because it makes the situation more torturous and he gets exhausted. But if they don't start running, he is the one who tells them to do so. He doesn't understand very well why he does this but he likes to think that is a way to give them a chance to escape so he doesn't have to be the one to end with them, after all Wirt wants to believe that he is not evil

And yet, at the same time Wirt finds some kind of satisfaction on it... He is scared of what he is becoming.

Of course, he has this little duality inside his brain. The Beast has done a good job to keep Wirt in his role but still that doesn't make Wirt's guilt disappear at all

At least, his guilt has been manifested into a voice, represented by the rock fact. Even if the rock fact was meant for Greg to make silly but un-true facts, Wirt's interpretation of his own rock facts are the cruelest truths he refuses to believe. The rock fact represents that honest and logical part of him that is still there, under the tone of the self hate Wirt has grown on himself.

Of course, when he is around people for a longer period than he feels he should, Wirt stops trying to act normal and let himself to act a little... dramatic, in hopes to scare them or "prepare" himself mentally to go and chase them down with the axe

For this, he likes to use the rock fact. He always keeps it in his hair and uses it to try to re-create a rock fact like the ones Greg used to make, but instead of charming or adorable he looks insane, and he already knows that. Of course, he tries to re-create them seriously when he is alone but still fails miserably

Wirt does this in a poor intent to feel in touch with Greg, even tho they usually talk a lot with each other

Jason Funderberker has been gone for a long time by now, so the Beast is the only company Wirt has left, but most of the time he is alone.

He doesn't devout that his brother is there anymore, after all, Now Wirt can hear Greg's voice coming out of the lantern so what would be a better proof than that?. Greg is the only person left who seems to not hate him or is scared of him, the little ray of sunshine in his poor cruel life. If you tell him otherwise, Wirt won't want to believe you, even if deep down somehow, someway no matter how delusional he may be... He knows is true

Of course, I wouldn't recommend saying this because after having a nervous breakdown he will absolutely go after you with all pure rage.

Now here are some questions and its explanations:

Where does this idea come from?

Where does the name "The Hunter' come from?

What's Wirt and The Beast's relationship?

Wirt, The Woodsman, The Hunter and The Beast

Where does this idea come from?

It's no surprise that it comes from the idea of a bad ending for Wirt, one that is more fitting with the logic of the series. Because let's be real;

If he accepted the deal he wouldn't turn into the new beast because The Beast's motivation was to survive, he doesn't seem to want a replacement or transpass the role to anyone. In that case he would have already done it with The Woodsman.

The unknown was completely fine with the Beast gone so is not that he is THAT important for the forest to need a replacement.

Also, remember this little scene? it's from chapter 1: The Old Grist Mill. When Wirt and Greg just entered the unknown and suddenly heard the Woodsman cutting wood, before talking to him, Wirt said:

"Do you think it's some kind of deranged lunatic with an axe waiting out there in the darkness for innocent victims?"

So I thought; What if in the bad ending... He became that deranged lunatic?

Where does the name "The Hunter" come from"?

In the concept:

Since there are times when Wirt's victims escape, those who survived spread the word of a maniac who is wandering around the woods, looking for new victims, and once he finds them he will chase them until he can cut them down to the bone with his axe

They named him "The Hunter"

Wirt knows about his new reputation, since the travelers call him that once he reveals his real intentions, but he isn't really aware of all the rumors and stories people of the unknown had made about him, he knows that he will not like them but at the same time he is very curious about it. Some of them are true and others are just exaggerating. But at this point, Wirt Hunter had accepted that now he is one of the particular characters of the unknown.

In technical explanation:

In Over The Garden Wall we saw that most of the characters are named by "the what" for example: The Beast and The woodsman, they had no name by their own outside of their archetype. So I thought that in Wirt's case he would have a name like that, losing his own as a representation of how he has lost his own original identity. Wirt is no longer "the worthy one" anymore because he is more lost than the woodsman ever was, and there is no chance to bring him back, so he became "The Hunter" for the unique faction that makes himself distinguish from The Woodsman: The killing

The woodsman is just a man who lives in the woods and cuts trees, it just happens that the Beast used one to keep the lantern on. However.... The Hunter is someone that hunts, the whole point of a hunter is that he chases living beings and strap them, mostly for need. That is something The Beast himself does in his own way, which makes Wirt and The Beast more similar and unionite than the previous dynamic with The Woodsman, or even I dare say they are just alike; The Creature and The Man who hunts for surviving

Also, more into Bad End Friend's territory; Every evil alternate version has their own unique name, for example the icon trio, Bipper and Ice Finn (Also officially named "The Snowman") but then we have just "Beast Wirt" and until now NOBODY has come up with an actual name that fits him. I remember that someone already suggested the name "The Hunter" for Beast Wirt but it didn't make much sense (At least to me). However, in a woodsman context I think it could work better.

What's Wirt and Beast's relationship?

In Wirt's perspective

Basically a case of Stockholm Syndrome: At first he felt more like a prisoner, The Beast was a figure who he should follow if he wants to keep Greg alive, he is more than Wirt and his power overcomes his young self. However as the time passed, Wirt realized that the Beast can also be very merciful and at the same time rightfully ruthless as his monstrous nature allows him, as he has 'shown' him acts of trust. For Wirt, The Beast is a dark but fair being, not as evil as everyone told. The Beast acts similarly like a father would do towards Wirt, but without that human openly caring love. He is strict and cold, but is for Wirt and Greg's own good

In Beast's perspective:

Wirt is nothing but an interesting experiment. The Beast has been manipulating every little detail of Wirt's surroundings, so he decides to obey him by own choice, which worked out way better than expected. He has seen Wirt changing to fit into his needs, becoming more useful and useful than last time. Anytime the Beast has thought he reached the limit, Wirt proves him wrong and finds a way to pass it and go on anyway. His determination is so fascinating to the Beast that he continues to see how far he could go

Their dynamic:

Naive teen being manipulated by his father figure to be useful for his plans or desires (but even more mess up)

Examples of this kind of dynamic are Rapunzel and Mother Gothel from Tangled (2010) or Hunter and Belos from The Owl House (2020)

Wirt has been alone for so long to the point that he holds tightly to anything that could give him a minimum sign of love, and The Beast knows that more than anyone

He has taken advantage of this, so by convincing Wirt to isolate himself and showing barely love, Hunter would listen and obey him without any doubt. It doesn't matter if The Beast is the main responsible for his situation, things have been twisted so much to that point that Wirt fully believes that this is all his fault. He must do the right thing at any cost, after all, he would do anything for the ones he loves right Gregory?

Wirt, The Woodsman, The Hunter and The Beast

These are the four identities Wirt adopts in the time on the unknown, like states of his sanity slowly decaying

Wirt

The anxious teen we all know and love, the guy he has been during his journey until the point where he faced the Beast face to face

The Woodsman

Wirt post-deal

At first:

He doubts that Greg may be in the lantern, and now he regrets his decision. However he doesn't know what to do now because the guilt for Greg will not leave him in peace, and so Wirt feels like he doesn't deserve to go home, he can't go back, no without Greg. So he still lives in the forest, feeding the lantern and hearing the Beast's words, however The Beast insists that Greg is indeed in the lantern, but Wirt isn't sure whether to believe him or not

Even if Wirt knows he needs the ellewood, like the woodsman, he tries to help and warns about the Beast to those who came into the unknown

The Beast warned him about helping people, but he didn't listen to him until one night. There was an incident where he almost lost Greg's light forever for the lack of ellewood. Since then, Wirt finally cooperates with the Beast

At last:

Wirt knows what he must do. He misguides those who pass through the way in forms to get enough ellewood for Greg, always making sure to keep himself distance and not get too close with them. However there are times where he can't NOT sympathize with the travelers and so he offers his genuine help

The Beast wasn't comfortable knowing that Wirt still kept helping people.

The Hunter

Wirt post-murder

At first:

After his first kill, Wirt felt so guilty that he stopped taking care of his health (He stopped eating, bathing, and stuff) and encaged himself inside the house with all the bottles of oil, fearing that he would hurt someone again

At this time Wirt started to hear the voices of Greg, the rock and the crying of the lost souls, and talk to them until he ran out of oil

When he finally went outside, his body was too weak to even walk and he fell on the grass unconsciously. At that moment the Beast thought Wirt died and so he was about to take off the lantern, but the boy's hands wouldn't stop grabbing it with all the fury. The Beast kept trying until suddenly Wirt woke up and said to him that as long as his brother needs him he would be still here. For his stupid unbreakable determination, the beast didn't see any other option but to take care of the kid

As he recovered, The Beast started to convince him of the idea of taking people as nothing but ellewoods he needs. Wirt didn't like it at first, but the Beast's kind act and the poor health state he put himself into finally made him accept the new task.

At last (actual state):

Most of the time he is alone, searching around the forest for more ellewood to feed Greg with, day and night. He doesn't fully sleep, he takes naps in the afternoon so he can be wake up all night as he wants. To eat he hunts animals, fish, rabbits and some other birds or frogs, whatever living being he finds. To entertain himself he recites poetry and sings songs that the Beast has taught him, all loud like someone would listen to him. At home he writes his poems and composes his own music, mostly for clarinet.

At times the voices are louder and other times they are quiet. If it's Greg then it would be a nice time, if it's the rock fact it's a guarantee he would be at least pissed off, and if it is the distant crying of the lost souls then paranoid it is.

When someone crosses his way, it depends on how things are going to see how things will end. When he just indicates the direction you'll better leave as soon as you can, because the longer you stay and talk to him Wirt will act weirder in hopes for you to leave him alone, otherwise, if you cross the line with your words, he probably will run out of patience and starts to prepare the axe

But it also depends on how likeable he finds you. He could not care and warned you before he attacks you as usual, he could hate you so much to the point that he attacks you with no warning, he could like you and give you five seconds of advantage, and if he likes you a little bit more he would become obsessed with you and will maintain you inside his house so the Beast will not know about your existence as long you don't go outside

The Beast

The Beast (According to the Woodsman's words) is the death of all hope. How low would you have to go so you lost your whole humanity to become the living embodiment of one of the darkness concepts in human kind?

If Wirt ever became the Beast, he should have been falling in grace until the lowest point a person could go. So in my idea of The Hunter, I like to imagine that the differences between The Beast and Wirt would slowly fade away until they are one in the same

Inside The Hunter, Wirt has not only become lost in life but he has also lost his identity, his spirit, his desires and his home. The one thing left to lose is his humanity... His soul

The only thing that separates him from The Beast, is him holding on to the last piece of humanity he has left; Greg

Day after day his sanity is drifting away, but it's because of Greg's existence that he is connected with his humanity, because his actions are meant for Greg's surviving, not his

If Wirt descends to absolute madness and forgets completely about Greg but also openly enjoys his cruelest actions, to the Unknown's eyes, he would no longer be worthy of humanity, and as a punishment he would be cursed to be the successor of the Beast

And becoming worse.

Like I have been having this idea in my mind for a while now and I wanted to share it. I hope you liked my idea and the drawings I made because it really took me a lot of time trying to finish this post because you know... Christmas and happy new year (ah yes, what a happy post to show in these lovely times, yeah!)

SO WHAT YOU THINK?

[sinlizards]

[ID: Digital illustration of Phoenix Wright, Akane Kurashiki, and Kaname Date from the shoulders up on a white background. End ID]

minmaxing my breaks inbetween commission work by drawing all 3 of my favorite freaks in one powerful blast

[laurenillustrated]

Wirt, Greg, Beatrice and Wirt Jr