one thing i love about OTGW is that despite being a story about The Unknown and all the terrible dangers that lurk in it, the story’s main message is “things are rarely as scary as they seem.” the Woodsman scared the boys repeatedly, but he was really a good man trying to help them and in fact saved their lives multiple times. the inhabitants of Pottsville seemed ominous and ill-intentioned, but stopping to speak to them showed that they were benign folks who just came off a little creepy. the “fearsome gorilla” was just a man in a suit and the “ghost” was just an unexpected roommate. even Auntie Whispers, a terrifying witch-woman who seemed to be abusing her ward, turned out to love Lorna and was only trying to protect her from evil forces—and it was Wirt facing the evil spirit head on that finally exorcised it for good.
even the main characters’ arcs reflect this: Wirt is scared of rejection and humiliation from Sara and Jason Funderberker, but after returning to the real world, Sara is more than receptive toward him and Jason Funderberker isn’t even an issue. Beatrice is too ashamed to face her family after turning them all into bluebirds, but at the end of the story it’s such a non-issue for them that they only use the incident to affectionately tease her and everybody is perfectly happy.
and it all cumulates in the final episode when Wirt and Greg finally face the Beast. for the entire series the Beast has been a looming figure of evil, something dark and strange and unimaginably powerful that you never, ever want to meet. but when Wirt actually dares to face the monster head on, not running or hiding or falling for its tricks, he destroys the Beast in less than a minute! the monster that’s been terrorizing the woods for who knows how long, preying on fearful travelers and eating the souls of its victims, is extinguished by simply blowing out a lantern.
OTGW hammers it home that as much as it scares you, you have to face the Unknown in order to move forward. maybe its scary. maybe it will suck. but when you do confront your problems directly, it’s almost as never as bad as it seems.
