| “ | Stupid dog! You make me look bad! | „ |
| ~ Eustace to Courage in the intro of Courage the Cowardly Dog. |
Eustace Bagge is the tritagonist and the central antagonist in Courage the Cowardly Dog. He is Muriel's cranky husband and one of Courage's two owners. He is also the latter's most hated enemy.
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. Even to the point of getting Courage killed much to his jealousy of attention gathered by Muriel over himself.
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 Howard Hoffman, the late Lionel G. Wilson, the late Arthur Anderson, and Wallace Shawn.
Biography
Eustace was born on an 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 and father who are implied to be bigger and much more muscular than Eustace. 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 got at the hands of his family, he become bitter and hateful.
Eustace married Muriel sometime in 1953.
Role in Courage the Cowardly Dog
Muriel found Courage as a puppy outside the veterinarian 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 string wearing glasses.
At times, he helped Courage save Muriel from various things (despite that he at times gets hurt or does not return and besides, who else was going to fix his meals?).
Personality
Eustace is a malicious, ill-tempered, cruel, heartless, egotistical and nasty old 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 and ghouls that 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). 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 got disgusted of his nephew by marriage, Freaky Fred as he called him a "freak". He knowledge of Fred as a barber, "A freaky barber, with his own freaky barber shop, where freaky things happen, freaky barber things".
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 a candy creation of Katz's and Courage is defeated by him in a staring contest and turned into candy for his loss, it is Eustace who surprisingly saves the day by defeating Katz and throwing him into his own candy-making machine (after Katz tries to do the same to him first). Neverthless, these alliances are usually temporary. More often than not, Eustace is a very stubborn and even devious individual. However, it's implied 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 has limits.
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 hestiation 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 its 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 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. However, on a positive side, this possibly means that deep inside his heart, Eustace really loves Muriel and during their youth was willing to do whatever he needed to win her affection. Neverthless, his doesn't prevents Eustace from risking Muriel's life sometimes albeit unknowingly, like when he reunited most of Courage's enemies and didn't do anything when they tried to cook Muriel alive (yet Eustace could have possibly thought they weren't going to kill her or he had asked them offscreen to not kill his wife).
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 squinty little eyes. His arms are spindly, but his hands are large. He has an enormous underbite and false teeth. He wears green overall-like trousers and a short-sleeved yellow shirt along with jam-jar glasses, a brown hat and brown shoes. His usual facial expression is extremely grouchy.
Gallery
Add a photo to this galleryTrivia
- It has been hinted that Eustace is very cruel and mean and cannot comprehend good. In the episode "Curtain of Cruelty", when Eustace was hit by the object of the same name, he remained mean and nasty and was even named mayor for his behavior. However, once the object was turned into the Curtain of Kindness, Eustace was hit by it but still remained his mean self.
- A second example of this is seen in the episode "The Tower of Dr. Zalost", in which he is hit by one of Dr. Zalost's depression-inducing cannonballs, only for it to have no affect on him. This causes Zalost to exclaim that Eustace "must be immune to emotions".
- In a commercial for Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary, Eustace talks to Muscle Man and tells him about his wife and dog. Shockingly, he uses Courage's name rather than calling him "Stupid Dog" as usual.
- Eustace Bagge could be considered a tragic villain for a few reasons:
- It was seen in a flashback that he was kind as a child; sad, but nice.
- Eustace might have looked up to his parents during childhood, but they never paid attention to him.
- Eustace was nicknamed "Useless" by his brother Horst. Also, his mother nicknamed him "Stupid Boy", this likely being a major part of why he always refers to Courage as "Stupid Dog".
- After years of being rejected, particularly by his mother, Eustace may have been traumatized emotionally, and it is very possible that this was what ultimately led to his cold and bitter personality.
- According to an unknown source, Brian Doyle-Murray (who also voiced the Flying Dutchman and supposedly La Sombra) was contracted by Cartoon Network to voice Eustace in a potential CGI revival or reboot of Courage the Cowardly Dog. However, it remains unknown if a fifth season or a reboot of Courage will be made or not.
- In the episode "Ball of Revenge", Eustace makes his worst antagonistic act and officially defines himself as the main antagonist of the episode. He reunites Katz, Le Quack, the Weremole, The Queen of the Black Puddle, Cajun Fox and Big Toe to get their revenge against Courage. Also, he didn't seem to mind that villains tried to cook Muriel alive with boiling water, ignoring the fact that she is his wife.
- Despite Katz, and also many others villains in the show, being more evil than Eustace, Eustace is the main antagonist because he has more screen time than Katz and has more plans than anyone else in the show. Futhermore, since he is one of Courage's owners, he has a bigger impact on his life than the other villains.
- Due to his abusive and mean-spirited nature, many fans consider him as the worst and most hated character in the show.
 Villains
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Eustace Bagge | Katz | Le Quack | The Chicken from Outer Space | Weremole | Cajun Fox | Rat & Weasel | Mattress Demon | King Ramses | Goose God | The Queen of the Black Puddle | Benton Tarantella | Errol van Volkheim | Snowman | Fusilli | Basil | Dr. Gerbil | Mustafa al Bacterius | Alien Brain Visitor | Alien Brain Boss | Spirit of the Harvest Moon | Dr. Zalost | Mecha Courage | Velvet Vic | King Buffo | Tulip | Fishtionary | Stitch Sisters | Windmill Vandals | Big Bayou | Kitty | Mad Dog | Evil Empress | Cruel Veterinarian | Perfectionist | Jean Bon | Di Lung | ||
