Muriel Bagge (Courage the Cowardly Dog)

Dedicated to Thea White (1940-2021)

Muriel Bagge (or simply Muriel) is one of the three main characters in the Cartoon Network series, mh:besttvshows:Courage the Cowardly Dog. A Scottish elderly woman, Muriel is the kind and sweet owner of Courage, as well as the industrious wife of Eustace Bagge. Though she is the show's damsel-in-distress, Muriel is also an excellent cook and would not tolerate any nonsense or misbehavior from her husband whenever he scares, teases, abuses, or otherwise mistreats Courage.

Why She Rocks

 * 1) She is a devoted housewife with a truly gentle, sweet, caring, trusting, and kind demeanor. She also enjoys cooking, knitting, and quilting.
 * 2) Despite her obliviousness making her seem rather dim, she often shows a far greater level of common sense and practicality than Eustace when it comes to solving a problem or fixing something.
 * 3) In contrast to her husband's cruel and abusive behavior, Muriel's most notable trait would be her affection for Courage, whom she obviously yet truly loves and cares for as the child she never had.
 * 4) She will not put up with any mistreatment or abuse of Courage himself. She would not hesitate to enforce her unique methods of discipline on Eustace or any tormentor (ex. Katz) - usually hitting him with her rolling pin - whenever he crosses the line.
 * 5) She is an excellent cook. In fact, she has been the recipient of numerous culinary awards, such as: best dog food, best eggplants, and best toffee apples. Her cooking, specifically her happy plums, have been shown to aid in the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
 * 6) She is actually a multi-talented artist: she knows how to play the sitar and the piano, and plays both remarkably well - while she plays the former (sitar) mostly to relax, she performs live in New York after winning a sitar-playing contest, giving a world-class performance.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) She's not exactly stupid, she's just really oblivious, but she's kind from the heart nonetheless.
 * 2) Her levels of intelligence and stupidity constantly bounce back and forth with each other, so it's debatable to classify if she's a dimwit with genius/intelligent moments or a talented person with a common-sense handicap.
 * 3) * There are episodes in which she either seems like the only sane woman or has enough common sense to prove that she's always wiser and more reasonable than her Jerkass husband, then there are episodes in which she is too dumb to realize what kind of danger she's in.
 * 4) ** She is quite oblivious to danger, usually it's because she's too innocent to realize she's in danger. And because of her obliviousness and naive nature, she is an easy (and often attractive) target for villains.
 * 5) ** It does not help that she is also always too nice to strangers, even inviting them into her home, failing to see what their plots are and what their true intentions are until they reveal them. Oh, and she married Eustace, for some reason.
 * 6) Her marriage with Eustace is difficult to understand, seeing what a spiteful and evil jackass Eustace can be. Although their romantic moments in "The McPhearson Phantom" and "The Mask" though. John R. Dilworth has stated that Eustace may have resorted to nondescript dishonest methods to win her over in the past.
 * 7) In the episode "Little Muriel", she turns into a hyperactive and selfish brat and ruthlessly mistreats Courage to no end, although it can be considered a funny change in character.

Trivia

 * Muriel is associated with several running gags in the series, such as her tendency to use too much vinegar in her recipes.