Eustace Bagge (Courage the Cowardly Dog)

Eustace Bagge (Courage the Cowardly Dog) "STUPID DOG! You make me look bad! Gender: Male Type: Greedy Abusive Owner Species: Human Portrayed by: Lionel Wilson (first 33 episodes), Arthur Anderson (rest of show), Jeff Bergman (Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog) Status: Alive Media of origin: Courage the Cowardly Dog

Eustace Bagge is one of the three main characters in the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog and serves as one of the major (on-off) antagonists of the show, specifically to Courage. He is Muriel's husband and an elderly, skinny, jaded, disgruntled, cynical, greedy, hard-working American man who is interested in money and obsessed with his truck. Eustace is also the current owner of the farmhouse, which was previously owned by his now-deceased brother Horst. Eustace wears glasses identical in appearance to Muriel's, and his brown hat shields his bald head.

Eustace often refers to Courage simply as "Dog" and rarely addresses him by name. Eustace is commonly the subject of an unpleasant ending, whether it being a backfire of his get-rich-quick scheme or the villain of the episode going after him, or better yet, getting his comeuppance at the end, often in quite brutal or fatal ways.

Lionel Wilson originally voiced the character, but left midway through the third season (and eventually died five months after the show ended) and was replaced by Arthur Anderson. In the 2014 short titled The Fog of Courage, Wallace Shawn replaced Anderson as the voice of Eustace, while in the 2021 Scooby-Doo/Courage the Cowardly Dog crossover film Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog, Jeff Bergman took over as the voice of Eustace.

Intentionally Bad Qualities

1. He is malicious, nasty, and ill-tempered throughout the show. It even seems as though he cannot comprehend good.
2. He loves to torture Courage by mistreating him and scaring him, frequently calling him a stupid dog and rarely calling him by his actual name.
3. He regularly demeans Muriel as well.
   • In Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist, Muriel develops amnesia and Eustace takes advantage of this by simply convincing her that she is a "slave woman", making her do all the chores and cooking around the house.
4. He is completely oblivious as to what he does wrong, as such when he constantly asks what he did when he is punished by Muriel.
5. He is jealous of Courage just because he receives more attention from Muriel.
   • Speaking of jealousy, he re-united all his enemies and tried to kill Courage in the Season 4 episode Ball of Revenge, the same episode where Eustace himself is fully flanderized into his absolute worst.
6. That stupid mask, though sometimes it’s funny if used correctly.
7. His greed not only makes HIM look bad but often leads to his own downfall.
8. He is just plain stubborn.
9. He was so horrible in the episode "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Lovable Duckling" that he rewards the duckling for tattling to him on Courage which made Eustace kick him out of house for nothing he did and after the latter assaulted Courage by grabbing him and threw him in the bathtub loaded with wet cement Eustace laughs at him.

Good Qualities

1. He can be quite funny and has very memorable quotes, such as "Stupid dog", "Ooga Booga Booga!", "What did I do?", "Big Deal.", "What's huh?", "Get away from me!", "Muriel, where’s my dinner?!", and "No sir! Not getting out of this chair!"
2. Despite how harsh he is towards Courage, he has helped Courage out on several occasions.
3. His cruel personality and skinny character design makes a good contrast to his much kinder and chubby wife.
4. Also his personality is only because of how his mother Ma and brother Horst treated him, respectively calling him "Stupid Boy", "The ugliest boy I ever did see" and "Useless". In addition, Eustace was once nice back when he was a child.
   • Despite how flawed he is, he has his fair share of moments where he was good-hearted, polite and caring.
5. Eustace generally gets his comeuppance at the end of each episode when he's an antagonist, so at least he's not a Karma Houdini.
6. He does sometimes show that he cares about Muriel, as evidenced by his concern for her well-being in a few episodes.
   • In Katz Kandy, he scares away Katz's jam monster with his mask and helps Muriel when she is in danger of being made into candy.
   • In The Mask, he consoles Muriel when he finds out about her chocolate obsession by telling her "That's okay Muriel. Nobody's perfect."
7. He was likely supposed to be hated due to his constant tormenting of Courage.
   • Similar to Angelica Pickles in the The Rugrats Movies, and the GO version of the Teen Titans in Teen Titans GO! To the Movies, he finally got his redemption in the movie Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Trivia

• Eustace is one of three characters (the others being Courage and Muriel) to appear in nearly every episode. Cajun Granny Stew is the only episode Eustace does not appear in.
• During Anderson's time in the role, many of Eustace's catchphrases that were originally voiced by Wilson were reused as stock audio. Such phrases include "Stupid Dog!", "What's, huh?", and his laughs.

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