#Discussing religion even in a fictional context can get heated so if anyone gets weird on this post I’m blocking you

[inkshine]

According to the Over the Garden Wall art book, one of the original iterations of The Beast was a devil-like creature called Old Scratch, but it was changed to the Beast. But it’s crazy how much of the old Satan-inspired influence the Beast still has. Most depictions of a devil or devil-like character in a children’s tv show depict evil taken to a cartoonish extreme, where they have no personality but wickedness and have horns and a pitchfork. But the Beast? The Beast is what Christianity wants you to think the devil actually is. He is the fear of the unknown. He preys on and pushes those who are either genuinely malicious (Adelaide*) or lost and alone (The Woodsman, and to a lesser extent, Greg). He cares of nothing but his own survival and can and will hurt anyone to ensure it.

(*footnote: we don’t know if Adelaide was always the heartless, conniving woman we were shown in the series. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that she was once a better person, but something happened to turn her selfish and cruel. Whether this event simply allowed the Beast into her life and let him corrupt her, or changed her for the worse even without his influence, is unclear.)