Courage the Cowardly Dog is one of the most bizarre cartoons I’ve ever seen in my life.
I seriously wonder how many kids experienced nightmares growing up because of this show’s CGI.
But it wasn’t just the unsettling vibes that made this cartoon unique, it was also the morals. And…
well… this show was certainly not shy about being too real, I’ll say that. Some of these episodes are dark.
The second to last episode for example is a flashback that focuses on how Courage’s
parents got kidnapped and sent to outer space by an evil scientist. There’s a scene where
Courage literally sits at a table for an entire day just contemplating his life,
severely traumatized by his childhood memories. It’s actually pretty deep. Muriel and Eustace
take him to a vet to help cure his depression, but it just so happens that it’s the same vet
that abducted his parents. The beauty of this episode is witnessing Courage
conquering the fears of his past and getting revenge on that evil scientist. The ending to
this episode is satisfying, but it doesn’t even compare to the final episode, Perfect.
This episode starts with Eustace criticizing Courage for not doing things the quote-unquote
“proper way”. He then attempts to help Muriel cook a dish, but things don’t go as planned,
so he starts to believe self-consciously that he can’t do anything right and that’s
when a mysterious school teacher named “The Perfectionist” appears. Strangely, Courage is the
only one who can see this character, which implies that she’s just a figment of his imagination.
Throughout the episode, Courage struggles with emulating The Perfectionist’s standards.
It gets to a point where he suffers from burnout and is on the brink of insanity.
That is until a fish in a bathtub gives Courage some words of advice.
"There's no such thing as perfect."
"Huh?"
"You're beautiful as you are, Courage."
"With all your imperfections, you can do anything."
I have to give credit to this cartoon for tackling deep and
emotional messages like this. It’s something you can’t fully appreciate
until you’re an adult. The truth of how imperfection is an illusion is one of the
most important lessons that I personally have ever learned throughout my lifetime.
It’s the ultimate message that I try to preach in my videos:
To express yourself fully, openly and honestly. That’s why we were all created to begin with.
What’s so fun about living someone else’s life? You are perfect by default. And all
the people who say you’ll never make it because you don’t fall in line with the
boring standards set by society can screw off. That logic is fundamentally flawed.
What even is imperfection? The whole concept of it is completely subjective, and I would argue,
doesn’t even exist. Not everything is going to turn out the way it was originally intended,
and that’s okay. We can still find beauty by making the most of what we do have. Society
shames us all the time for the smallest things that don’t even matter. That’s why
it’s so easy to get caught up in trying to impress everybody, and getting frustrated
when we realize that’s impossible to do. True happiness comes from expression,
and NOT impression. That’s how Courage defeats The Perfectionist at the end of the episode,
with his creativity. And as a result, in the final scene we can see he has finally accepted himself
for who he is. Eustance is enjoying his broken horn and is letting Courage eat at the table,
Muriel is still optimistic and smiling, everything is perfect. This ending is
perfect. This episode is perfect. This show is perfect. And you watching this, you are perfect.