The Beast

Pure Evil

Shadowed
Revealed

Full Name

Unknown

Alias

The Beast

Voice of the Night
Stalker of the Night
He Who Haunts the Woods
Death of Hope
(all by Woodsman)
Beast of Darkness
Obsidian Cricket (by Wirt)

Origin

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

Allies

Adelaide †

Powers / Skills

Ability to turn lost people into Edelwood trees

Virtual immortality (as long as The Dark Lantern is lit as it contains his soul)
Umbrakinesis
Sing
Possession
Intimidation
Manipulation
Charisma
Trickery and Deception

Goals

Reclaim the Dark Lantern.

Force Greg and Wirt to succumb to hopelessness.
Become one with the Edelwood trees to keep his Dark Lantern lit.
(all failed)

Moral Event Horizon

Killing children, turning them into Edelwood trees and tricking the Woodsman into turning them into oil to fuel his soul.

Fatally wounding the Woodsman's wife while she was hunting.
Attempting to turn Greg into an Edelwood tree.

Kill Count

Hundreds to Thousands

Worst Crimes

Mass murder

Kidnapping
Abuse (both child and psychological)
Unlawful imprisonment
Stalking
Psychological torture
Grand theft animarum

Type of Villain

Manipulative Soul Collector

“	Perhaps we better make a deal.	„
	~ The Beast tempting Wirt.

“	There is only me. There is only my way. There is only the forest, and there is only surrender.	„
	~ The Beast to the Woodsman.

The Beast is the main antagonist of the 2014 Cartoon Network animated dark fantasy TV miniseries Over the Garden Wall. It is the monster of the place known as The Unknown. The Beast's goal is to take the souls of the people who come to his woods, in this case, the brothers named Wirt and Greg.

He was voiced by Samuel Ramey and by Arata Hino in the Japanese dub.

What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]

For years, he causes the slow deaths of lost children in the Unknown, after forcing them to succumb to hopelessness, and transforms them into Edelwood trees.
He fatally wounded the Woodsman's wife while she was out hunting one night, leading to her death.
He makes the Woodsman unknowingly grind the children who he turned into Edelwood trees into oil to keep his soul lit.
- He also deceives the Woodsman into believing that his daughter's soul was sealed inside the Dark Lantern, and that she would keep on living as long as the flame was lit. In actuality, she was safe the whole time and found her way home.
He takes sadistic pleasure in what he does.
He possesses Beatrice's dog just to attack and kill the boys.
When Greg wishes to take Wirt's place to save him from the Beast, he nearly makes Greg freeze to death and turn into an Edelwood tree.
When the Woodsman sees him turning Greg into a tree and realizes in horror where Edelwood trees come from, he sadistically tries to break the Woodsman into continuing to serve him, and simply laughs at him when he instead starts attacking him.
He tries to persuade Wirt into becoming the new lantern bearer, falsely promising him that Greg's soul will live on as the burning flame of the lantern.
He desperately tries to order the Woodsman to murder Greg and Wirt with his axe.
He lies to the Woodsman one last time about his daughter's soul being in the lantern and how he'll never see her again if he blows it out, in an attempt to escape his death.

Trivia[]

Patrick McHale's original Over the Garden Wall concept, in which Greg and Wirt would have ended up in The Unknown after jumping out of a train supposedly taking them to "Death" on Halloween night, had the last episode reveal that The Beast wasn't actually evil and had been chasing them to tell them to take the train again so they can go back to "Life" as that's where they belong, because Wirt was all along fighting the will to survive out of concern for his real-world problems. Had the original concept for the miniseries not been scrapped, The Beast wouldn't have been Pure Evil.