One of the best things about Over the Garden Wall is that you can watch it in less than a hour and a half and spend the life of your life thinking about it. Many questions are left unanswered and several mysteries unsolved by the end of the ten short episodes, but I actually enjoy not having all of the answers. In its own beautiful way, Over the Garden Wall is like poetry; a lot of it is up for your own interpretation. Unless more information about the Unknown and its inhabitants comes forth, I believe that there are no right or wrong theories as long as you have evidence to back yourself up.

I just finished up my yearly rewatch of OTGW (because autumn isn't just Halloween and Pumpkin Spice season, it's also OTGW season), and I still come away with a lot of questions, especially concerning the character who has given me nightmares on multiple occasions: the Beast.

He's the Big Bad of the Unknown and of the show, and yet we know very little of him. He's a creature of mysterious origin who needs a lantern, which runs on the oil of Edelwood trees/lost souls, to stay alive and powerful. But where did he come from? What exactly are his powers? Does his powers include turning lost souls into Edelwood trees, or do lost souls in the Unknown naturally do that on their own? What is his deal with the lantern? There are several theories surrounding the Beast, and I'll do my best to cover some of the most popular and probable ones, including my own personal theory.

The Beast is Death

A major theory considering the Unknown itself is that it is some sort of afterlife or purgatory. This is a pretty solid theory with loads of evidence to back it up, the most famous one being a tombstone with Quincy Endicott's name on it being in the graveyard where Wirt and Greg spy on Sara, Jason, and the others in Episode Nine. Since death is a major theme throughout the series, it has been theorized that the Beast is death itself.

In a way, it can make sense. Wirt and Greg enter the Unknown when they're at near death, and the consequence of not ever returning home would be their death in their "real life". The Beast taking lost, hopeless souls and turning them into edelwood trees for his lantern would result in death, fueling his power with every fallen soul. With the Beast and his power of death defeated at the end of the series, Wirt and Greg are able to return home, and the Woodsman is reunited with his daughter, who has been freed from the Beast's clutches.

If this theory is true, then how would the Woodsman's daughter come to fall victim to the Beast? Since this theory is so closely associated with the Unknown-afterlife theory, you can't separate the two. If the Unknown is an afterlife, then everyone living there, like the Woodsman and his daughter, are already dead. Death isn't a threat to dead people. They're already dead. So how would the Beast, the personification of death, be a threat to the Woodsman's daughter, a dead girl?

The Beast is a non-tangible illusion of the lantern

This theory suggests that the lantern is the true threat of the Unknown, not the monstrous being who we see speaking to the characters. Throughout the entire series, we never see the Beast in proper lighting. He's constantly hidden in the shadows, behind trees, and off in the distance. In almost all of his scenes, the Beast appears whenever the lantern is also in the scene with him. This theory presents the idea that the lantern is creating the illusion of the Beast with its light to convince and bully people into keeping it lit. This can be supported that the Beast never touches anything or anyone, not even the Woodsman what is seen of their fight.

However, there is one exception; the Beast holds the teacup in the last episode that he tells Greg to place the sun in it. He does drop the cup instead of physically handing it to Greg, but he does hold it, since it probably doesn't snow teacups. Also, if this theory is true, then how does the Beast appear to Greg at the end of "Babes in the Woods" and "The Unknown"? The lantern was not present in either of those scenes, and the Beast is still visible to not only Greg, but also Beatrice when she was flying by. So how would the lantern be able to cast its Beast illusion while being miles and miles away with the Woodsman?

The Beast was a human cursed by another supernatural being

Aka the concept presented in this stunning storybook-styled comic:

This is a really cool concept with beautiful artwork to accompany, although there's no real in-show evidence to help truly back it up. It is a really cool story, though.

And now, for my own theory that I lean more towards than any of the others...

First, let's look at two different aspects of the Beast's appearance.

The fur-like thing hanging off the Beast's shoulders resemble the silhouette of a shawl. Also, while the Beast's eyes remain their eerie white for most of the series, we see them change in the final confrontation.

Does anyone remember seeing these "beautiful eyes" in the first episode?

The monster dog Wirt and Greg face in "The Old Grist Mill" is revealed by the end of the episode to be just a dog (Beatrice's dog, to be exact) who was transformed into that monstrous form after eating a black turtle. We know of one another character who eats black turtles, that person being Auntie Whispers, but seeing how she's a grown woman in a background and experience with magic, it's safe to say that she was able to find a way to remain mostly unaffected by the effects of the turtles.

So it seems as if the Beast could have been a normal person before falling under the influence of the black turtles' dark magic. Perhaps he eat one of those turtles, maybe he tried to use a turtle as fuel for his lantern, maybe both! And maybe the Beast isn't a he at all, but a she, because maybe...

The Beast is the Woodsman's Daughter

Let's go back to the Beast's shawl.

It's a small detail, but still one worth noting. Both of these characters have these dark shawls. Furthermore, they're both characters associated with trees, the woods, and fire. Anna, which is her name as revealed in the OTGW comics, is the daughter of the Woodsman, who chops down trees in the woods, so duh. In addition to her father, she is seen staring off into the woods during the intro, which is played out as if it was significant. In the last episode, Anna is reunited with her father while holding a burning candle. Anna and the Beast are never seen at the same time; one doesn't seem to exist when the other does.

So is it possible that Anna, lost in the woods with only a dying lantern to guide her, somehow fell victim to one or more black turtle and became the Beast? I believe it is. We don't know how long the Beast has been roaming the forest or how long the Woodsman had been fueling the lantern for the Beast. It could have been months or even years, if the Unknown even has time. It is a pretty timeless place. Maybe the Beast's soul wasn't in the lantern, but the dark magic that had transformed Anna into the monster. So if the lantern went out, then the Beast would disappear and Anna would return, which is something that the Beast worked hard to prevent from happening.

I personally believe that the Beast was a person under the dark influence of a dark turtle, and that said person is most likely the Woodsman's daughter. If anyone has any more theories concerning the Beast, please share them! I would love to hear about other possibilities about the Beast! :)