#otgw meta

[frohana]

had to add on the prev tags from @lucky-clover-gazette because. yeah

i dont think enough otgw fans talk about the exploration of complex family dynamics that the show manages to weave through pretty much every episode. like the relationship between wirt and greg seems so innocuous in the beginning, just normal aloofness due to the age gap, but as the episodes go on it becomes clear that wirt full on resents greg and actively dismisses him as “his stepdad’s kid,” while greg openly admires/loves wirt and doesnt understand why he wont spend time with him. theres so many little moments that make the lack of reciprocity in their relationship obvious, and it literally takes almost DYING for wirt to understand that he needs to treat his brother better. like holy fuck man ill be shocked if the person who wrote their backstory doesnt have a step/half-sibling cause WOW they got it right

[anistarrose]

so the Tavern Keeper's song "The Beast is Out There" actually spells out the Beast's modus operandi in thorough detail, right? it explicitly spells out that his promises are lies, that the Edelwood trees are grown from his victims, and even that the lantern is "his."

this is all delivered, folktale-as-a-warning-style, to Wirt and Greg when they appear in the tavern as lost travelers — it may even play a part on Wirt seeing through the Beast's trick in the finale. this is a warning conveyed to residents of the Unknown through song — these people aren't oblivious to the Beast; in fact, they're "all" well aware that he's out there and he can't be trusted.

so, with this in mind, why is it so strongly implied that the Woodsman hasn't heard this song?

the Woodsman claims, probably honestly, that he had no idea where the Edelwood trees come from. and he never had an inkling that the Beast's soul was in the lantern all along — maybe a very faint one, but not enough to counteract his denial and desperation. nothing like Wirt's immediate intuition.

so, was the Woodsman's denial just too deep, or had he really never heard the song? had he really never been warned? he's been seen very near to the Dark Lantern tavern, but it seems he never entered, and this has... heartbreaking implications to me.

because clearly, he was feared and ostracized due to carrying the lantern! the Tavern Keeper was superstitious enough about bluebirds, for crying out loud, so of course she'd object to the Woodsman stepping foot in her tavern when "he who carries the lantern must be the Beast!"

but even before the Woodsman became the lantern-bearer — was he never given a proper warning then, either? were he and his family outcasts then, too? if so, was it by choice, or were they just ostracized by superstitious townsfolk before the Beast ever had them in his clutches?

I mean, think about the naming conventions in the Dark Lantern episode — the Tavernkeeper. the Butcher. the Tailor. the Highwayman. and then the Woodsman. the names seem almost designed to call attention to how these characters should be connected — but they aren't. why aren't they?

and, hell — why did the Woodsman's daughter have no one to turn to who'd help her look, when her father went missing? why was there no support for either of them? did they just... never have anyone in their lives besides each other?

anyways, if you can't tell, the Woodsman is one of my favorite tragic heroes.

[kacievvbbbb]

What if I watched a YouTube video that mentioned that every episode in Over the garden Wall there was a pool of water and something drowning in it as foreshadowing for what was actually happening in real life and my life was never the same again. What then?

[homunculusalphonse]

greg otgw is just a fascinating character to me. he's this little kid filled with energy and hope, he says the most random things, and his priorities seem little in the big scale of things. but greg is also someone who truly helps others everywhere he goes.

yet sadly, it seems that greg is often ignored since everyone else is more concerned about the big things. obviously, for example, wirt and beatrice have their own baggage (plus they're the same age i believe?) and so they rely more on each other, but greg is notably left out sometimes.

greg is a character that never gives up, sure, but he does internalize the demeaning things wirt says to him. greg has already internalized that he makes things worse or ruins others' lives, and thus it culminates in him switching places with wirt to save him.

i feel like greg is still not appreciated enough for all of this.

[ceruleanwhore]

I was just listening to the OtGW soundtrack in the car and I realized that there’s stuff in the music that actually backs up my kinda crack theory that the Queen of the Clouds is actually the Beast, or at least is tied to the Beast somehow (if we’re going with the idea that the show is Dante’s Inferno, the Woodsman and Adelaide could represent two of the three beasts from the Dark Wood of Error while the cloud lady could be the third.) First, I just want to take a moment to introduce my theory since I haven’t posted about it before. Basically, a while ago, as I was thinking about the ending of the series and trying to figure out what Greg wished for and how he ended up going from the Queen of the Clouds to being in that daze under the Beast’s control, it occurred to me that maybe they were one and the same. Part of this comes from how information about the Beast is provided to the boys and, by extent, the audience. We start off with generic fear about a nameless, nondescript ‘beast’ but, in “Songs of the Dark Lantern”, we are told for the first time that the Beast tells lies and also that the main thing he does is turn children into trees that he harvests for oil to fuel his lamp. To me, this says that he can’t just sneak up behind a child and turn them into a tree but, rather, that he tells lies because he has to lure them in somehow and trick them into becoming the trees. Also, the Beast is known for his lies and we see the Cloud Queen showing Wirt to Greg and lying to him about how Wirt has already been claimed and is too far gone and there is no way for him to go home with Greg. The other main piece of evidence for my little theory here is what Greg is doing with the Beast at the end, how he’s acting, and what exactly he’s saying. He’s doing stuff like putting a teacup on a rock so the sun sets behind it, because he had been told to catch the sun in a cup, and the Beast praises him for this, using a soft tone of voice like a normal person would use with a child that really isn’t befitting of a ‘beast’ at all. And yet, after being shown to do a task that the Beast asked him to do and praised him for completing, Greg is still saying to Wirt that he “did it,” that he “beat the Beast.” Well, if he was even the tiniest bit grounded in reality, there would be no way in Hell he’d be saying that as he’s been going around serving the Beast himself while his physical condition gets significantly worse and he even starts coughing up leaves. This clearly indicates that Greg is out to lunch, mentally, and I think it strongly supports the idea that Greg does not know at all that it’s the Beast who’s having him do stuff like catch the sun in a cup or that it’s the Beast who’s praising him. What I think it is is that, in his head, this is all stuff he’s running around doing for the Cloud Queen in order to set up for or earn whatever his wish was and she’s the one he sees and hears and thinks he’s talking to. Now, as for how the soundtrack further supports this, I’d like to start with singing in the series. Most characters don’t sing at all and few have their own songs, but something that just became clear to me is that, like what Lin Manuel Miranda did in Hamilton, each character who really does sing their own songs gets their own signature style of music. For example, Jason Funderburker (the frog) gets that kind of bluesy sound like in the opening theme and the song “Over the Garden Wall”  while Greg has that really upbeat kids’ music, like with “Potatoes and Molasses” and “Adelaide Parade.” More importantly, though, the only two characters in the whole thing who ever sing opera are the Beast and the Queen of the Clouds. Other bits include the part where Greg is ‘Greg’ to literally everyone except the Cloud Queen and the Beast, who both call him ‘Gregory.’ Additionally, there’s the scene at the start of the last episode when the Beast is talking to Greg and he says “Anything is possible if you set your mind to it, right?” which sticks out because we’ve never seen Greg say that to the Beast or even just around him, but he did just say it to the Cloud Queen not that long ago. This one’s a bit of a stretch but there’s also how the light reflects in Greg’s eyes both as he enters the dream and when he’s talking to the Queen of the Clouds which reminded me of the “you have beautiful eyes” part of the first episode when those wild, glowing eyes of the corrupted dog reflect in Greg’s own eyes. Moreover, the lyrics of “Everything is Nice and Fine All the Time” and “Forward Oneiroi” have some bits that sound kind of sinister, which doesn’t make sense if the Cloud Kingdom and their queen are actually just good and nice. Specifically, “Everything is Nice and Fine” has a couple mentions of lies, which is something that throughout the series really only comes up in the Unknown when it comes to the Beast or fear of him, and there’s one line that really sticks out to me of “Our songs are filled with love, the sweetest lie/And we can send them down to you with a little shove.” The cherubs in this Cloud Kingdom are literally coming out and saying that love, or maybe just their love, is a lie so their songs, including the one they’re singing about how everything is nice and fine all the time, are “filled with” a lie. Not to mention the line of “Lasso a cloud and make the flowers grow,” which is eerily reminiscent of the task Greg is given later on of “lowering the sun out of the sky and into this china cup” in how it’s such a whimsical yet surreal and impossible action. I’m also just going to put the lyrics to “Forward Oneiroi” here real quick so you can see them:      Forward, cherubs, hear the song      A child's wishes call us on      Descend! Descend!      'Ere he 'scapes, for dreams      Our winged wind hath made      For only beneath the veil of sleep      Can we Oneiroi act on men. The first thing I want to talk about here is the actual Oneiroi. From what I found, Oneiroi were lesser deities of dreams in some forms and areas of Hellenic paganism who were led by Morpheus, who tended to take a human shape in the dreams he visited. If the welcome wagon is all the Oneiroi who are addressed in the Cloud Queen’s song, then that means that she, as their leader, is the Morpheus figure, as in a powerful being who isn’t actually human but takes a human shape in dreams. Also, that second part of “Descend! Descend!/'Ere he 'scapes” sounds genuinely threatening. If the dream is so good and “everything is nice and fine all the time,” why would Greg ‘escape’? And now I’ll  put in the lyrics to Beast’s part of Come Wayward Souls too because I want to compare these two songs:      Come, wayward souls      And wander through the darkness      There is a light for the lost and the meek      Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten      When you submit to the soil of the earth Okay so where I’m going with this is that these songs feel very similar to me, both in tone and musicality as well as lyrical content. If you took “Forward Oneiroi” and swapped out the words “cherubs” and “Oneiroi” for “children” or “souls” and then just put it in a darker sounding minor key, I think it would feel about the same as “Come Wayward Souls” and I definitely could see that song being one of the Beast’s. I would also point out how the lyrics of both the Beast’s songs have this weirdly encouraging, light, hopeful tone, which makes sense given that he waits for kids to get lost and give up and then he comes in and scoops them up. In “Wayward Souls,” he says “There is a light for the lost and the meek/Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten/When you submit to the soil of the earth,” which yes, sounds kinda ominous with the part about submitting to the earth but, really, is putting light and hope out there. It’s saying that, if you just go with him and submit to the earth, there is a light for you, some beacon of hope, and you can forget the sorrow and fear you’re currently feeling. He does the same in “The Jolly Woodsman,” too: “When the fog of life surrounds you/When you think you've lost your way/Come with me and join the forest/Come with me and join the play.” Lastly, I want to compare the kids’ choir part of “Wayward Souls” and “Potatus et Molassus” to “Everything is Nice and Fine.” For reference, the full choir part is “Grow, tiny seed/You are called to the trees/Rise 'til your leaves fill the sky/Until your sighs fill the air in the night/Lift your mighty limbs/And give praise to the fire.” The first thing that sticks out is how much this choir of children who we know to be the souls in the edelwood trees are talking about reaching up to the sky with the branches of their trees, which reminds me of lines like “So hitch a ride into the sky,” “The softest clouds and rainbow skies ain’t gonna lie,” and “Everyone is sittin' pretty on top of the weather,” from “Everything is Nice and Fine.” I thought I’d already said it but I just looked back and apparently I didn’t say that, with the idea that the Cloud Queen is the Beast, there is also the idea that everyone we see in Cloud City is just the not-yet-sacrificed souls of the children in the edelwoods, and stuff like this kinda goes with that. Another thing I noticed that makes sense to me, though idk if it’ll make sense to everyone, is that “Potatoes and Molasses” is to “Potatus et Molassus” as “Everything is Nice and Fine” is to the children’s choir part in the Beast’s song. I would even go so far as to claim that the whole point of the “Potatus et Molassus” reprise is to draw attention to “Everything is Nice and Fine” and then call into question everything from the Cloud City stuff. I say this because, as I said previously, each character who sings their own designated songs has their own designated style and Everything is Nice and Fine is in a similar style to Greg’s own style (it’s a bit different though, so it’s not like they just used Greg’s style because it’s his dream or something) while “Potatus et Molassus” is in the same exact style as the “grow tiny seed” stuff, to the extent that the children’s choir is even used in that song. So, when I look at Greg in episodes 8 and 10, I think that what’s going on is that the Beast doesn’t just come up and talk to you as this ominous, scary shadow guy with antlers and weird eyes but, rather, he can be subtle and manipulative and do shit like get inside of your head and manipulate you. After all, Satan’s a liar and a conjurer too and, with the Inferno view of OtGW, the Beast is Satan. My bet is that, at the start of episode 10, Greg is aware enough to know that he’s no longer in his dream but he sees the Queen of the Clouds rather than the Beast and imagines that she’s there to guide him through whatever tasks he needs to do to get Wirt back and go home or whatever. Once there’s the tree starting to grow around him, I believe that, in his head, he succeeded and then was back home or maybe some other nice, cute, safe space like Cloud City with all the other souls. When he sings “Potatus et Molassus,” in whatever is going on in his head, he’s just having a good time wherever he is, singing “Potatoes and Molasses,” like how he and all those other children heard a lilting soprano instead of an ominous bass when the Beast sings. (Sorry this was so long btw)

[russenoire]

@ygodmyy20 and @sodasexual, thank you again for sharing this masterpiece with me.

Wirt’s Inferno-- A Comprehensive Guide to Over the Garden Wall as Dante’s Inferno

It is commonly known that Patrick McHale’s Over The Garden Wall is a modern retelling of Dante’s Inferno. Two young brother’s, stuck in purgatory, wander through an Unknown in between as they nearly drown in a lake. The journey they go on mirrors that of Dante’s classic journey deeper and deeper into hell, with each episode representing a different layer. 

So, what is Dante’s Inferno, and how did we get here?

Well, as a VERY Italian individual who also happened to grow up in New England, having Italian stories passed down to me from my Nonna and Nonno, as well as an English major who loves analysis and good old fashioned literary parallels, I can’t help but feel like I was somewhat meant to share this. So here we go. 

Buckle in for a ride, because we are going to hell and back. Literally. 

The Inferno is the first part of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, a 14th century epic poem written by Dante Alighieri. That’s right, Dante is not just the name of the main character. Dante, the author, wrote himself traveling through hell with famous, and even to Dante ancient, Roman poet and philosopher Virgil.

The version of hell we see in the poem is distinct to Dante, just as the Unknown is distinct to Wirt. Is is their vision of what the afterlife, or purgatory, would be. 

So we have our parallel protagonist. Wirt is our Dante figure. Both are nerdy, insecure, artistic, write poetry, wear red hats, and are in love with a girl. 

(Dante is in love with a girl named Beatrice, where our bluebird Beatrice gets her name, and Wirt is technically supposed to be in love with Sarah as the equivalent but as a self proclaimed Wirtrice blog FIGHT ME they both love a Beatrice).

Both, also, have a companion. 

The comparisons between Greg and Virgil are less exact than Dante to Wirt. Retellings, are, after all, just that, it’s not exactly the same or there would be no new story. Greg as a younger brother occupies a different relationship role than Virgil, who is a friend and if anything for knowledgeable then Dante in the Inferno. Like Virgil, however, he is musically/ artistically talented. Greg, we can see, gladly breaks out into improvised songs and gives us chart topping #1 hits like Potatoes and Molasses. Now I’m not sure if Virgil was spinning any beats on their way through hell, but both certainly occupy a similar artistic space.

Next, of course, we have Beatrice– who guides our pair further and further into purgatory. Both are redheads, both are adorable and both make me proud to be a pale Italian ginger. (And as previously stated our main protagonist is in love with them). 

And last but certainly not least, we have the Beast, Over the Garden Wall’s version of Lucifer.

This is more difficult to trace back to the Inferno specifically, Depictions of the devil and Lucifer across various cultures are as old and numerous as my college debt. However, the description of Lucifer in Dante’s epic poem are shockingly spot on to what we see in the Beast’s design

- multi faced

-horned

Some pretty clear imagery was pulled here, with tree branches standing in for horn imagery. Both are tricksters, deceivers, and travel through all layers of hell. The Beast does this through, as Greg calls them, turts). 

The Beast can most definitely be seen as a general symbol for Lucifer, as many villains are, but there is undeniable inspiration from the Inferno’s specific depiction of the Devil. 

Alright, we have our cast of characters. Each character has their counterpart in this retelling, with enough enough clear paralleled characterization and imagery to be a clear reference, while being different enough to be new.

Now, what about the journey? The plot?

The most fundamental commonality between Dante’s Inferno and Over the Garden Wall is that both of our characters take a spiritual, emotional, and life changing journey through some kind of hell, or purgatory. Both of these are tailored to their own unique visions, fears, insecurities, and seen through their lens. 

There are ten layers of hell in the Inferno, and it is no coincidence there are ten episodes of Over the Garden Wall. So let’s go through one by one.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi che continuano leggere questo inviare.

I. The Entrance/ The Old Grist Mill

Dante’s Inferno begins with Dante finding himself in a strange, mysterious forest, unsure of how we got there– precisely how Wirt and Greg’s journey begins. There is a slight difference, though,  in that Wirt and Greg begin their journey already inside the Unknown, whereas Dante is in the forest right outside the gate to hell. A gate which reads “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate”– “abandon all hope, ye who enter here”– marks the entrance. The woodsman gives Wirt and Greg the same warning, giving us a sense at the end of the episode that we are finally entering into the true danger of the Unknown. 

This is not an official layer of hell, but the entrance, and at this place both characters are attacked by wolf like animals. Dante is attacked by three different creatures, one of them being a she wolf. At the end of the episode, Greg saves the day. Dante, too, is saved by companion– Virgil. The plot of this first leg of the journey is, affectively, the same. 

(why the image from the literal family show so much more terrifying than the one from the gothic Italian epic through hell I can’t) 

II. Limbo/ Hard Times At the Huskin’ Bee

Limbo is the first actual level of hell, where people who where neither good nor evil are sent to wait. Often this includes pagans who did not believe in God during their lives. They wait for heaven, for salvation and something more. The subtle torture? Is waiting for something that will never come.

In Over the Garden Wall, we go to the town of Pottsfield, a dreary, boring town where we see a distinctly pagan group of pumpkinhead skeletons waiting for the harvest. It should be noted that EVERYONE in the Unknown is supposed to be dead, as seen with Quincy Endicott’s grave being seen in the real world. Yet these are the only skeletons we come across in the entire series. 

What are skeletons a symbol of? Death, but also passed time. It’s a mark of time and erosion. The citizens of Pottsfield have spent so long waiting for the harvest– the newfound salvation that will never come– that they have eroded away into skeletons. They have waited, and waited, and waited.

This video here– made by TREY the Explaner on YouTube, also notes that salvation by Christ is also compared to a harvest often, and that Enoch represents the figure of Minos. 

This is a video I watched in my research which mostly reaffirmed my findings and observations, but also noted some things I missed. I’m not going to pretend like I made this observation myself, and credit goes to TREY for this next bit. 

In the Inferno, travelers encounter King Minos, the Judge of the Damned, when exiting Limbo. He is described a giant, immortal creature who judges those who enter into hell and determines the extremity of their sins. Often depicted with a serpent tail, he wraps his tail around each soul, the number of times dictating which layer they will be sent to. 

Enoch, like Minos, is the leader and judge in this layer. He is larger than all the other townsfolk, who overtly states to With, Greg and Beatrice that he has to “punish them for their transgressions” . He sentences them as they exit, just like Minos. Enoch’s design is also large, and serpenty. Enoch has streamers and hisses, as TREY points out in their video. 

The similarities are actually uncanny when you really look at it. 

Once again, the Enoch observation is brilliant but NOT mine. This is from TREY the Explorer’s video, which was posted over five years ago, and you should go and support it through this link right now. 

III. Lust/ Schooltown Follies

The first level where people are punished, the level of lust punishes those who commit just that, lust. And the concept is all over the place in this episode, with Ms. Langtree– who LITERALLY sings a song called “Ms. Langtree’s Lament” and spends the entire episode yearning. 

Oh, Ms. Langtree, you lustful sinner you.

Truth be told, lust is my least favorite sin/ level in the Inferno. I’m ace as, well, hell, and I often can’t relate. I thought this would be my least favorite episode and parallel due to this, and yet it’s not. 

In the Inferno, souls are blown back and forth by a giant storm. This is meant to symbolize how lust blows people back and froth aimlessly in life. We see this with Ms. Langtree throughout the entire episode. She’s spiraled into a depression, thrown around emotionally to the point she can hardly stand. 

She is, emotionally, blown back and forth. In fact, whenever we enter the school in the episode we hear wind sound effects. The school is the level of lust, and Ms. Langtree it’s main soul.

IV. Gluttony/ Songs of the Dark Lantern

This is probably one of my favorite episodes in regards to following the Inferno, truth be told. Here, gluttons are punished for being gluttonous– overindulgent, wasteful, and over consume.  One of the most common depictions of gluttons is wasting away in a tavern eating and drinking, so it makes sense that this episode’s prime location would be an inn. 

And what do we see? Overindulgent inn customers, who from the moment Wirt and Greg arrive boast about their lives.  We also see Greg indulge in large piles of food, leaving behind stacks of plates. He is constantly eating throughout this episode.

There is more food in this episode than any other one, though it should be noted the people at the tavern are never seen eating it. This is a reference to the punishment of gluttony in the Inferno– though they ate excessively in life, they cannot eat in hell.

Yet that is hardly where the gluttony parallels stop.

For one, the most notable characteristic of Gluttony is that it is constantly raining, and outside of our quaint little inn it is pouring. We see this emphasized when the action is taken outside. 

This circle is also guarded by Ceberus, a three- headed dog from Greek Mythology, and we see a dog guarding the inn by blocking the door. 

It is also important to note that this is the episode where Wirt is labeled as “the pilgrim”. This is a direct reference to him being Dante, as Dante’s journey through hell was said to be a “great pilgrimage”. 

V. Greed/ Mad Love

The circle of Greed corresponds to the episode about rich people whose mansion’s are so big they can’t even tell that they’re connected– what a surprise!

The greed and harboring of wealth is fairly overt in this one, needless to say. In the Inferno, those guilty of greed are forced to push bags of riches for eternity, unalloyed to keep any of it. Endicott is a perfect example of greed. He continues to harbor wealth, believing it will make him happy. 

Yet his giant mansion does not make him happy, and directly leads to the very thing torturing him (the “ghost”). The punishment here is not as direct as in the the other episodes, bur rather more metaphorical. He is emotionally empty and tortured by his cold, money driven exploits. 

Another important plot point in this episode is the need to acquire two cents in order to ride the ferry to Adelaide’s. This is one of the more blatant references to the Inferno, where, like in Greek Mythology, Dante and Virgil must pay two coins to the ferryman Charon to ride across the river Styx and reach the next level of hell. 

VI. Anger/ Lullaby in Frogland

At first glance, this seems like one of the more abstract episodes to compare to the Inferno. It’s where those who were aggressive, violent, and full of rage are punished. We are on a ferry with bassoon playing frogs. 

However, the episode manages to draw some fantastic parallels. The circle of Anger in Dante’s tale is represented by a muddy, swampy wetland. Dante and Virgil do not have to pay to cross the river like most, and take a boat across. Wirt, Greg and Beatrice also do not pay the two coins, since Greg threw them out, and catch a ride on a ferry through the muddy swampland. 

I guess Endicott was right, Greg does have some sense. And we end all rolling in the mud, just like the souls in Anger. 

Speaking of which, you know what else there is a lot of in this episode? Anger.

Anger when there is no bassoon player. Anger and a chase with the frog police. Wirt’s anger when he finds out Beatrice lied to them.

The episode is the central turning point of the series, and it works beautifully with this layer of hell. The exit of Anger in the Inferno is the City of Dis, whose walls separate  the passive sins, from the  active ones. This is the point we have reached in our narrative with the reveal of Beatrice’s betrayal as well. 

I would also like to include another addition from TREY’s video at the end of this section, which I did not observe or come up with myself, which is that in the City of Dis, Dante is confronted by three furies. Like the fates, they are old hags. 

And who do we get in this episode? Adelaide. An old hag, whose scissors channel imagery of the fates in Greek Mythology, who use scissor to cut the string of people’s lives.

VII. Heresy/ The Ringing of the Bell

Heresy, one of the worst sins one could commit in Dante’s time, is the punishment of practicing any faith outside of, in this case, Catholicism (though broadly speaking it is the practice of any religion outside of the accepted one in society, which depends on the context). They are punished by being constantly burned or set on fire.

 In this episode, there is not only an array of candles around the house, but an emphasis on the fire by Auntie Whispers. The entire episode has a pagan, witchy feel– these same candles are arranged in what looks like ritualistic way, perhaps to try and get the demon out of Lorna. 

Which brings me to the most obvious point and reference, in my eyes.

The plot of the entire episode is literally that of an exorcism, casting a demon out of a young girl. 

If that is not a theme of heresy, I don’t know what is. The aesthetic of this episode is entirely what Dante’s hell considers heresy, and the plot of driving out a demon an all too familiar Catholic narrative. 

Magic, sorcery, and witch imagery are more prevalent in this episode than ever, and though more abstract than other episodes I believe the parallel could not be clearer. 

VIII. Violence/ Babes in the Wood

Violence, though fairly self explanatory, is is a bit complicated in the Inferno. It’s broken up into parts, or rings– violence against others, violence against oneself, and worst of all, violence against God. 

The punishments in the circle of Violence are gruesome ones– those in the first ring are left to drown in the boiling blood of the River Phlegethon, since they reveled in blood in life. In the Inferno, Dante and Virgil cross the river to enter the Wood of Suicides, where those who took their own lives are left to transform into trees. 

Oh gee, where have we seen this before? 

The tree imagery is arguably the most blatant reference to the Inferno in the entire series. After floating down a river, the boys wander through the woods. Wirt, having given up in despair, lies down and begins to turn into a tree. They have floated down the River Phlegethon, and entered the Wood of Suicides. 

There is a lot more detail and nuance to the rings of circle of Violence in the Inferno, but the episode follows the basis of Dante’s journey through it quite well. Wirt’s attitude and sadness, his laying down and almost turning into a tree, can even be read as an allegory for suicide.

IX. Fraud/ Into the Unknown

Like episode 5, our flashback episode is one of the more difficult ones to parallel to it’s counterpart in Dante’s Inferno. In the Inferno, the circle of Fraud is complex and made up of various ditches, or bolgias. What’s interesting, however, is that the episode of Fraud is the one what takes place in the real world. 

Fraud is deception, lying, and manipulation, and not only does the episode take place on Halloween– a night full of fraud where everyone pretends to be someone or something they are not– Wirt himself is a fraud. He never shows his true self, due to his insecurity, and in an attempt to win over Sarah.

The episode follows a bunch of teenagers. And what bigger frauds, or pretenders putting on an act, are there than teenagers trying to survive in a public high school?

Thieves are amongst those punished in this circle, and this is the episode where Greg reveals he stole his rock fact rock. 

Both Wirt and Greg have committed sins applicable to this circle. The punishment for this circle is falling down a pit or trench into darkness. And that is precisely how this episode ends– Wirt and Greg falling down into a pit of darkness. 

TREYs video also points out that Sarah’s costume could be symbolic to the winged creature Geryon, whom Dante and Virgil encounter at the end of this circle. Like a bee, Geryon is winged with a stringer, though he was a humanoid upper body. Geryon leads Dante and Virgil deeper in hell, while Sarah arguably leads Wirt and Greg to the Unknown. She is the reason they end up there in the first place. 

Lastly, there is the “eat your dirt” comment from Beatrice, which when researching and rereading the Înferno to look for similarities I immediately thought was a nod to one of the worst punishments in Fraud– deceivers who told lies being forced to eat human waste, as it represents what came out of their mouths during life. This, to my surprise, was also noticed by TREY in their video, and discussed. It is a subtle nod, yet this imagery being in the episode which corresponds with this circle, and never being brought up again, cannot be a coincidence. 

X. Treachery/ The Unknown

The worst layer of hell, where Lucifer himself is found due to betraying the highest power of all, God himself, Treachery is depicted in the Inferno as a cold an barren wasteland. This is a stark contrast to the pit of fire hell is commonly described as. This is because Lucifer’s giant wings beating freeze everything to ice and cause frigid wind gusts. Like in episode three, the weather in the final episode of Over the Garden Wall parallels it’s equivalent in the Inferno. 

It is snowy, cold, barren, and we open with Beatrice being blown around in a giant windstorm. And in this episode, like in this circle, we find the Beast. 

People in the circle of Treachery are punished being frozen, looking upward at the world but unable to move or ge tout of the eternal cold. This is precisely what the Beast does to Greg to fuel his lantern. 

In the end, both Dante and Wirt contort the Beast, or the Devil, in this frozen tundra, and eventually escape and return home. Their journey’s have changed them however– spiritually, emotionally, and in maturity. They have literally been to hell and back.

And so, our retelling of Dante’s Inferno comes to an end. 

Patrick McHale’s masterpiece is more than a retelling of Dante’s epic poem– it is stooped in American colonial folktales, German fairytales, and more. However, the Inferno is most definitely it’s bones, it’s outline, and a core part of what makes this stunning piece of art work. 

[overthegardenwallzine]

A zine to celebrate ten years since Over the Garden Wall first aired on Cartoon Network back on November 3, 2014. The main theme of the zine will be a celebration of the series and a showcase of how much people love it !

SHOP NOW OPEN !

Shop Link: returntotheunknown.bigcartel.com Twitter/ X: https://twitter.com/OTGWAnniZine Carrd: https://overthegardenwallzine.carrd.co/# Retrospring: https://retrospring.net/@otgwzine

Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with the series, or with cartoon network. This is also a non-profit zine, meaning that all funds will go towards the zine itself and all remaining funds will be donated to a charity of our choice.

[wordswithkittywitch]

Sing, lover, sing!

Very surface level and "it's not that deep", but I just rewatched Over the Garden Wall as I do every November, and on this watch-through something new occurred to me.

Wirt does eventually fill the roles the townspeople tried to force him into.

Of course, the whole scene in the tavern with all the townspeople happily accepting their one-note personalities and trying to convince Wirt to do the same was just part of the Unknown being a conglomeration of folktales, and of course Wirt didn't fit a folktale archetype because he isn't actually a folktale character. This isn't about that.

All I was thinking about was, although he more or less accepts the second role offered to him, The Pilgrim, on a wandering quest to find his way home, they weren't too far off in trying to cast him as The Young Lover. They just had the details wrong.

While Wirt's "quest" at that point was just getting him and Greg home, it is later revealed that the whole quest started with him bungling an attempt to confess his feelings for a girl. Wirt's original "quest", the one he prepared for with a costume and a mixtape, was just to confess his feelings for Sarah. Travelling through an unknown fairytale land was not on the agenda until he had already messed that up. So, the "quest" he chose in the first place was "the Young Lover". In his mind, that quest was over once he entered the Unknown, however it did immediately resume upon getting himself and Greg home, so one could argue the Pilgrimage home was part of resuming his first quest.

And as for, "Lover, sing us your love song!" he also eventually does that, just not with Sarah. Because I can think of nothing else to call his duet with Lorna. Of course, this might not have been diegetic as it's played over a montage, but there is no arguing that the Wirt and Lorna duet is not "Wirt's love song", whether or not he sang it aloud or just in his head.

Maybe it's the Unknown slowly reducing the people trapped into it into storybook characters, and if Wirt had stayed there too long he would have fully become one of the roles forced on him, (that is, if he escaped the Beast) or maybe I'm thinking about this too much.

[cookinguptales]

I can't tell y'all about the most recent thing I wrote yet, but I can bring back another one of my old fics for the OTGW anniversary!

OTGW is one of those canons that I have felt very little need to write for. It just feels kind of perfect as-is, y'know? I'm more of a meta person than a fic person for that one, really.

That said!

Several years ago, I did write a short OTGW fic for the trick-or-treat exchange, and I wrote it about one of the characters who we didn't get to hear a lot from during the show itself: Sara.

Sara is an interesting character because, like The Beast, we hear a lot about her before we finally meet her. And then... she's so normal, y'know? She's a nice kid. She's good for Wirt. But her existence, like everything else, was heightened in Wirt's Unknown.

So I did think it was fun to bring a little bit of The Unknown to Sara, and to let her come to know it in a way that only she could.

Puddle Jumper Over The Garden Wall | mild Sara/Wirt | PG | 2k words After Sara agrees to watch Jason Funderberker (the frog) while Wirt (the human) goes on vacation, her dreams turn... strange.

[jkl-fff]

Ooo, that's clever!

i loooooove how over the garden wall being a children's show is absolutely baked into its core. it's a lot like coraline in that the spookiness comes from how little the characters and, by extension, you, truly know or understand about the world the story is set in.

wirt and especially greg are always trying to act in the approximate way they think adults act, but get it wrong (which is never NOT charming), meanwhile the adult characters are so eccentric and melodramatic that neither the main characters nor the audience pay much attention to what they're saying. none of the adults are as all-knowing as we'd like them to be and none of the main characters are as all-knowing as they pretend to be. even in cases where the adult character's dialogue is laying out the real rules of the forest and what the boys truly need to focus on (see: the woodsman in episode 1 telling them not to succumb to hopelessness and telling wirt he needs to take responsibility for greg), the characters are too preoccupied with their own fear and discomfort to focus on anything but getting away.

like it's even reflected in the voice acting. so many of the adult characters have plummy accents or gravelly voices that make it hard for young children to understand what they're saying, and signals to older viewers "this is a silly character" so they write off their importance, even without really realising it. it's all constructed to reinforce just how little the audience can take for granted at any given time, to see the story through a child's eyes, through greg and wirt's eyes, regardless of age. it's brilliant.

[raayllum]

I’m not sure if you’ve seen anyone comment about how “similar” tdp is to ATLA or even people going far as to claim that tdp is a “ripoff” esp with the Soren, Claudia, Viren arcs in comparison to Zuko, Azula, Ozai. I personally find Soren more similar in characterization (though not entirely the same) to Steve Palchuck from the Trollhunters/Tales of Arcadia series (not sure if you watched or not) and if any character comes to mind about being similar to Zuko, it’s definitely Hunter from the Owl House in terms of characterization and arcs. Idk if you’ve done a meta about this before but I love reading your thoughts (if you’re interested ofc).

So I have done a couple of metas on ATLA x TDP, mostly noting the thematic similarities between them (bloodbending and dark magic, pre-S4's puppeteering too lol!) and between Rayllum and Kataang as developing relationships. Meta comparing "Thunderfall" and "The Southern Raiders" here, meta talking about Kataang and Rayllum (s1-s2 as it was written pre-s3) here.

Also a more opinion based piece on why I could get behind Rayllum but have never really been a romantic Zutara fan (I see them far more as narrative siblings, which is still one of my favourite metas I have ever done)

I am a big Trollhunters fan (reblog more about it on main @thethiefandtheairbender and various other cartoons like SU, HTTYD, OTGW, Infinity Train, etc) and I adore Steve, but I don't think I'd really compare Soren to him, simply because while I love Steve and his development, Soren's development is undeniably deeper and more pyschological, I think.

That said the ATLA character that reminds me the most of Soren is Sokka. Goofy, prone to joking regardless of if the situation calls for it ( "Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerk bending?") just to get a rise out of people, lmao, sometimes overly confident or reliant on their battle prowess, and desperate to prove themselves to their fathers. Sokka's attitude particularly in early book 1 reminds me of Soren's in s1, as well as their more skeptic attitude and relationships with their more magically inclined younger sisters

For Callum, he reminds me the most of Katara and Mai (again, true before S4, but interesting to see how much he shut down the way Mai largely did due to her family relationship, so again, kinda fun that worked out). Caring sibling, fast and harsh temper, strong in magic but untrained, artistic and precise (hi Mai), ride or die for their loved ones above all else, even above morals. For Rayla, she's basically running parallel arcs to Zuko and Aang in a lot of ways: grumpy, banished, immediately protects the sibling duo she encounters, facial markings, guilt complex galore (hi Aang). Rayllum is a good blend of all their personalities tbh

For Claudia, she reminds the most of Azula, and Katara, and Zuko, due to her loyalty to her father, willingness to do anything for her family, and being marked by the same sort of dual visual storytelling that Zuko's scar had.

And Hunter from the Owl House was definitely one of my faves! I think he falls into a category a lot of more modern day redemptions do, though, in terms of not letting their character actually be messy enough for long enough that it feels like maybe redemption isn't in the cards (hi Claudia my beloved, you excellent subversion sweetie). Or they go too far and don't give enough reason for a character to effectively redeem themselves (eyes SPOP with a long sigh). And just to clarify, I do think Claudia will have a redemption arc, but I appreciate how we're going about it thus far.

It's funny bc in some ways while Zuko has never been my favourite archetype (particularly for male characters), my protagonist in my og work is a bit like him: lost, angry, easily resentful, and she's my baby.

I think I'm just kinda over arcs of "Oh my father figure is Bad / imperialism is bad"? Because 1) Zuko did it so well and 2) I wanna see stories that go beyond those things or do new things with those concepts (please no more "rich white lesbian girl with a mean family" arcs I am. so tired). I think that's why I like TDP so much, because dark magic thematically and its explorations of self destructive behaviour add a lot of layers and interesting aspects to all the dynamics that I don't see most other media for this age demographic kinda taking advantage of, tbh

[genderenvyelimination]

Second Round Masterlist:

4/3/2023:

Baron | The Cat Returns vs. Sylvie | Epithet Erased

Hunter | Rain World vs. Pure Vessel | Hollow Knight

Otachi | Pacific Rim vs. Zagreus | Hades (Supergiant Games)

Rika | Pokemon vs. Transformed Howl | Howl's Moving Castle

Ganon's Corpse | Breath of the Wild 2 vs. Kaworu Nagisa |Neon Genesis Evangelion

Milo Thatch | Atlantis vs. Ryo Asuka | Devilman 1972

Gomez Addams | Addams Family vs. Thanatos | Hades

Blahaj | IKEA vs. Marcy Wu | Amphibia

Calcifer | Howl's Moving Castle vs. Nausicaa | Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Toy Soldier | The Mechanisms vs. Dio Brando | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Mollymauk Tealeaf | Critical Role vs. Crona | Soul Eater

Herbert West | Reanimator vs. Magnus Chase | Magnus Chase Series

4/4/3023:

Desire | Sandman vs. Candace Flynn | Phineas and Ferb

Goblin King | Labyrinth vs. Kimiko Ross | Dresden Codak

Link | Breath of the Wind vs. Cecil | Welcome to Night Vale

Lucienne | Sandman vs. Testament | Guilty Gear

Ekko | Arcane vs. Stevonnie | Steven Universe

Newt Geisler | Pacific Rim vs. Gabrielle De Lioncourt | Vampire Chronicles

Rohan Kishibe | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure vs. Yamato | One Piece

Koki Kariya | The World Ends With You vs. Super Star Rockin' Jay | Ninjago

Legolas | Lord of the Rings vs. N | Pokemon

Goro Akechi | Persona 5 Royale vs. Garry | Ib

Bold & Brash | Spongebob Squarepants vs. Simon Petrikov | Adventure Time

Byleth | Fire Emblem 3 Houses vs. Spectile | Pokemon

4/5/2023:

Hawks | BNHA vs. Meta Knight | Kirby

Professor Venomous | OKKO vs. Double Trouble | She-ra

Johnny C. | Johnny The Homicidal Maniac vs. Lyfrassir Edda | The Mechanisms

Dr. Robotnik | Sonic Movie vs. Zuko | Avatar the Last Airbender

Blue Spirit | Avatar the Last Airbender vs. Kaname Date | Ai: Somnium Files

Will Graham | Hannibal vs. Kusuriuri | Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales

Lewis Pepper | Mystery Skulls vs. Eda Clawthorne | The Owl House

E-boy Wojak | Meme Culture vs. Spectra | Bakugan

Cure Chocolat | Kira Kira Precure a la Mode vs. Maleficient | Maleficient

Dean Winchester | Supernatural vs. Onceler | Lorax

Joker | Persona 5 Royale vs. Dr. Franken Stein | Soul Eater

Nagito Komaeda | Danganronpa vs. Donatello Hamato | ROTTMNT

4/6/2023:

Greg House | House MD vs. Carla | Dumbing of Age

Klavier Gavin | Ace Attorney vs. Marty McFly | Back to the Future

Elias | Ancient Magnus Bride vs. 4th Phase Ghouls | Ghost

John Mitchell | Being Human UK vs. Zasp | Bug Fables

Kuvira | ATLA vs. Ed Elric | FMA

Mr. Fox | Fantastic Mr. Fox vs. Fujimoto | Ponyo

Jean Descole | Professor Layton vs. Ryan Akagi | Infinity Train

Blackbeard | OFMD vs. Aragorn | LOTR

Alex Fierro | Magnus Chase vs. Juno Steel | Penumbra Podcast

Red Lizard | Rain World vs. Mae | Night in the Woods

Jinx | Arcane vs. Grusha | Pokemon

Jack Sparrow | POTC vs. Medic | TF2

4/7/2023:

Korra | Legend of Korra vs. Tim Curry Characters | Clue, Rocky Horror

Gunpowder Tim | The Mechanisms vs. Wizard | wizardisananimal

Sonic | Sonic vs. Team Rocket | Pokemon

Ilima | Pokemon vs. Grell Sutcliff | Black Butler

Espresso Cookie | Cookie Run vs. Ralsei | Deltarune

Ellie Sattler | Jurassic Park vs. Ryuko | Kill La Kill

Columbo | Columbo vs. Beast Wirt | OTGW

Jennifer Check - Jennifer's Body vs. JD - Heathers

Gerry Keay | TMA vs. Kris Dreemurr | Deltarune

Ranma Saotome | Ranma 1/2 vs. Alucard/Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes | Castlevania

ENA | ENA vs. Raine Whispers | TOH

Danny Fenton | Danny Phantom vs. Papa Emeritus III | Ghost bc

Rouxls Kaard | Deltarune vs. Arven | Pokemon

Denji | Chainsaw Man vs. Haruka Tenou | Sailor Moon

[homunculusalphonse]

honestly though i like that the teenagers in wirt and greg's hometown aren't mean. they're pretty cool with wirt (and greg), jason funderberker isn't the stereotypical jock bully, he's literally just some guy lol.

[angstandhappiness]

Well, if you can't show dead bodies, actual red blood spraying, or people dying, you have to get creative with other kinds of horrors, then. Which they did very well

kids cartoons are like RATED TV-Y7 FOR SOME MILD VIOLENCE AND FEAR!!1!1 and then it’s the most gut-wrenching, horrific and mind numbing academy award worthy manifestation of depression and terror you’ve ever experienced in your mortal life

[brilliantsnafu]

@chai-coffee-cat I was going to put this in the replies to my post, but then it turned into it’s own little essay. 😆 I’m far too passionate about this show lol

Your reply to my post was that you thought the Woodsman’s daughter had been a lost soul turned to edelwood. Here’s my own reasoning of why that was never the case.

Remember at the very end of the show when we see the Woodsman sitting on the porch of his old home? And then his daughter walks out the front door and finds him there? She wouldn’t have been there to do that had she actually been an edelwood tree. The souls who were turned into trees to feed the Lantern didn’t return to flesh and blood just because the Beast’s life-force was snuffed out, so she wouldn’t have been there had she ever been an edelwood tree.

The Beast tricked the Woodsman into thinking he put his daughter’s spirit in the Lantern, similarly to how we saw the Beast try to trick Wirt. But there is a key difference. I don’t think the Woodsman’s daughter ever came close to becoming an edelwood tree like Greg. I don’t think she ever came close to being dead. I think that there was some kind of accident--possibly even orchestrated by the Beast--that made it seem like the Woodsman’s daughter died. Something where the body could not be recovered, like drowning in a swift river or falling through the ice on a pond or losing her footing at the edge of a ravine. Basically, the Beast’s ruse culminated in that trope where a person is nowhere to be found but there’s a piece of their clothing lying near a dangerous place, and the other character just assumes the worst.

So.

The Beast took advantage of the Woodsman’s desperation to have his daughter back by lying about putting her spirit in the Lantern. And then the Beast just kept feeding the Woodsman’s guilt and grief to keep him away from the home where the Beast knew his daughter actually was, safe and well (having no idea where her father was or if HE was alive, I might add). The evidence for this is in one of the Beast’s final ploys to get the Woodsman back under his control. He says, “Are you really ready to go back to that empty house?!” And we see how deeply that affects the poor Woodsman! It’s the only time we see him cry!

The Beast had manipulated the man and fed his despair to such an extent that the Woodsman couldn’t even bring himself to go back to the home he had shared with his daughter. He instead chose to roam the forests of the Unknown alone, supposedly keeping his daughter’s spirit alive (even though “her flame” never reacted with any sort of sentience). He preferred to have this one-sided relationship with an inanimate object--and this horrible arrangement with the Beast--over going back home and accepting his daughter’s death. 

The ultimate tragedy in all this being that, if the Woodsman had been able to bring himself to go home before the events of ep. 10, he would have immediately found his daughter alive and well. The ultimate tragedy in all this being that he unwittingly spent years keeping the Beast alive, resulting in more lost souls turned into trees, burned into nothing.

The ultimate tragedy in all this being that “he who carries the Dark Lantern must be the Beast.”

[just-my-thoughts-about-stuff]

Why the HECK did it take me this long to realize that the entire reason the Beast is a shadow is because he follows the lantern and his body is the shadow cast by the light of his soul?

I was just caught up in the fact that he looked epic as hell