Courage

**Courage** is the titular character and the main protagonist of *Courage the Cowardly Dog* and *Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog*. He is a pink beagle who was found by Muriel Bagge after he escaped from the Pets of Tomorrow vet clinic in the town of Nowhere, Kansas.

## Physical Appearance

Courage is a small pink dog of undetermined breed (possibly a mix breed) with thin and long black ears. He has a black triangular and tiny limbs in proportion to his body. His middle toe always seems to point straight ahead regardless of stance, making it appear as though Courage is always tip-toeing. He has numerous large human-like teeth, with one having a circular hole in it. He has three black spots on his back.

## Personality

Courage, as the show's title suggests, is an extremely cowardly and anxious dog that is easily frightened by almost anything. Despite this, when his owners or friends are in the face of danger, he will stop at nothing to save them, which easily makes him the bravest and most morally-aligned character throughout the series, living up to his name.

Though he is willing to risk his own life to protect Muriel at all costs, his irrationality sometimes causes others to doubt his intuition. Courage has been presented as an almost entirely selfless character, working to benefit others with usually little to no regard for his own well-being, risking his own life dozens of times simply to assure his owner's safety.

Although his secondary owner, Eustace, is cruel to him, he is not offended by his harsh words and cruel tricks, especially compared to Muriel. This is most likely because he has learned to deal with the jealous man's cruel jokes and short temper over time. Despite this, Courage has been shown to care about Eustace's safety as well (although not as much as Muriel's) and will go great lengths to protect him from danger, even though he is not always as successful in protecting him as he is with Muriel. On some occasions, Courage would team up with Eustace in an attempt to save Muriel or themselves from danger.

Courage is somewhat childish in his spare time, as he has expressed interest in and enjoys playing with toys and building sandcastles, as well as other childish or dog-like activities (such as burying or digging things up).

## History

Courage was a pink puppy born to Henry and his kind wife in a large, gated property. Since his parents had an aristocratic fascination with canine objects, Courage's well being was always of the utmost concern. One day when Courage successfully caught a ball, he accidentally got his head stuck in between the bars of the fence which resulted in him being taken to the Pets of Tomorrow veterinarian office. At the office, Courage was freed by a seemingly kind doctor who gave him a lollipop and ushered him out of the room so he could "speak" to his parents alone. His tongue got stuck to the surface of the sucker which then tore off, so young Courage was rushed back to be nurtured by his parents.

When Courage returned, the doctor and his parents were gone, and he could hear their pleading screams from the hallway to find the veterinarian carrying his parents away in a net. His parents begged the doctor to not separate them from their son as Courage rushed after them. Courage came upon 3 doors that reveal a lady showering, a bizarre giraffe, and a giant Ostrich on the other sides. He continues this and runs into room of caged dogs before he finally sees his parents being forced into a rocket ship and fails to rescue them. Eventually, Courage's terror drove him to flee into a garbage chute leading into a back alley, from where he watched his parents being sent into space never to be seen again. Courage tearfully waves goodbye to them, and while he was crying alone he was found by Muriel Bagge.

Muriel took pity on him and took him home with her, and named him Courage since that day.

In the finale episode "Remembrance of Courage Past", the Cruel Veterinarian tries to do the same to Courage after recognizing him from the past. When Muriel and Eustace attempt to rescue Courage, he decides that he can't allow his operation to be discovered and decides to send Muriel and Eustace into space as well. However, Courage rescues his owners and locks the evil vet inside the rocket, which after T-0, the rocket engines underneath then ignites and the rocket launches, foiling the evil vet's plans and beliefs in the process. Muriel thanks him for sending the evil vet to space, and Eustace says that he's "still ain't sitting at the table". Both Courage and Muriel sit on the porch in the present day, with the dog being happy to have her as Eustace grumbles while eating his food and Muriel wondering of the evil vet's fate, Courage growling at the mention of him.

## Powers and Skills

Courage is shown doing many unrealistic and impossible feats of a typical cartoon character. This is a concept known as *Toonforce*, allowing him to perform vast feats that don't follow the laws of physics. However, these seem to be done for comedic effect rather than abilities Courage can actually control.

### Powerful Lungs

Perhaps Courage's greatest signature is his scream. Courage can scream so loudly that he can break a hole open in a wooden floor large enough to swallow a rogues' gallery of his previous foes ("Ball of Revenge"). In some instances Courage has been shown able to survive underwater and in outer space for prolonged periods of time. Courage's 'super screams' have even proven powerful enough to destroy planetary bodies and stars in "The Magic Tree of Nowhere".

### Shapeshifting

Courage has been shown morphing his physical body structure many times throughout the show's run, including shifting into animals, monsters, people, and even his physical composition. However, these occurrences seem to be a form of expression particularly when Courage is warning others of danger, rather than actual shapeshifting abilities.

### Superhuman Qualities

Courage has displayed an inhuman amount of resistance to physical pain in many episodes. Courage was able to withstand an assault from Mecha Courage in "Courage vs. Mecha-Courage: and take loads of damage, as it seems he is invincible to being killed. He is also superhumanly strong and fast, evident from when he hopped the entire way to Paris as a Kangaroo Monster in "The Transplant" and when he picked up the God Bone that was multiple times his size and to smash three Dog Skeletons after they assaulted him in "Stormy Weather".

### Regeneration

Courage has been known to heal from injuries of even colossal (and realistically fatal) proportions in no time. In one episode, his tongue regrew after he had it ripped off, and with the injuries he receives they simply disappear without reasonable explanation.

### Materialization

Courage has been shown pulling large and impossible objects from seemingly thin air.

### Other Skills

Courage has many other skills such as cooking, fixing things, survival skills, tracking skills, Fourth wall breaking, laying eggs and golden eggs, ect...

## Quotes

* *"I have a bad feeling about this."*
* *"I know I'm not gonna like this."*
* *"I just* know *something bad is going to happen."*
* *"...or my name is* (*random name*)*... and it's not!"*
* *"Something smells fishy, or my name is 'Stinky Lou Lou'... and thank goodness it's not!"*
* *"The things I do for love."*
* *"What have you done with Muriel?"*
* *"It's Muriel! She's in trouble!*
* *"Muriel! I'll save you!"*
* *"What do I do?! What do I do?!"*
* *"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"*
* *"Oh no...!"*
* *"Thank you! Thank you! Very good show!"*
* *"Do I have a choice?"*
* *"Courage! That's me!"*
* *"Courage-Dooby-Doo!"*
* *"Well, goodnight, folks! Bye!"*

## Trivia

* Courage is one of seven characters (the others being Muriel, Eustace, Shirley, Dr. Vindaloo, the Computer, and Katz) to appear in every season.
	+ He and Muriel are the only characters to be seen in every episode (as Eustace was not seen or heard in "Cajun Granny Stew").
* Courage spoke coherent English quite often in the first season, but from the second season onwards his dialogue became increasingly limited to gibberish, mumbling, and screams, only coherently speaking occasionally. According to his voice actor Marty Grabstein, this was a deliberate decision.
* Courage's breed is often the subject of debate. Most sources say that he is a beagle (just like Snoopy from *Peanuts*), but others claim that he is a mutt or some sort of terrier.
* Courage is the only character (besides Katz and Le Quack) who ever speaks directly to the audience. The frequency with which he does so (nearly every episode) makes it one of his trademark characteristics.
	+ Courage has many sounds that he's known for, such as his strange laugh at the end of some episodes, or whenever he is in serious pain after a life-threatening injury.
* During Courage's first flashback in Remembrance of Courage Past, his mother reveals his father's name when she calls him as he was playing with Courage.
* Courage's favorite food is chicken dumplings ("Remembrance of Courage Past"). In episodes such as Scuba Scuba Doo and Food of the Dragon, he is shown to like shellfish, particularly lobster claws in the former, and oysters in the latter, but has difficulty opening its shell and gets himself injured in the process.
* Courage is good at making shadow puppets as shown in "The Hunchback of Nowhere".
* Courage can lay 14-Karat golden eggs as shown in Muted Muriel.
* Courage made a cameo in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes crossover episode Crossover Nexus, as one of the heroes defeated by Strike.
* According to Grabstein himself, there was difficulty casting the character.
	+ Associate producer Risa Neuwirth said 350 actors auditioned for the role before Grabstein was cast.