HEADCANON

[the_pilgrim]

Just a few notes on my view of things that are left up to the viewer in the show!

The Unknown: Wirt and Greg fall down a steep hill into a river, and are unconscious under water. Suddenly they are lost in the Unknown forest. It's my belief that the Unknown is actually Limbo or some part of the after life. Everyone who lives there- the characters that the boys meet- are all ready dead, and this is backed up in episode 9 where Greg hides behind the tombstone of Endicott, the man with the mansion they pretended to be nephews of to steal money from earlier on. It's my belief that when people die, if they're not ready to move on, they live in this forest until their spirits can be at rest. It also makes sense that things like magic and talking animals are common occurrences there, as, the afterlife doesn't have to follow the rules of the living world. Since Wirt, Greg, and their frog are in the process of drowning until episode ten- they can't find their way home and must wander until they either die, or not...

The Beast: The Beast represents death. When people like Wirt and Greg fall into the Unknown he stalks them, either waiting for them to succumb to hopelessness and become Edelwood trees or to dispatch of them himself. He promises Greg a way home if he can complete a set of tasks, tasks that, are clearly designed to break a person's spirit and subsequently turn them into a tree. We never see what he appears like to the woodsman, but because he cloaks himself in shadow, he can appear as anything. There's a reason his eyes shine exactly like the train lights that nearly hit the boys. He needs the oil from the Edlewood trees to keep the lantern with his soul in it going- and until Wirt, has been able to trick people into doing this task for him, causing them to be wandering souls or ghosts, unable to be at peace, ever. The form we see when Wirt shines the lantern on him is horrifying- he's made of hundreds of wailing faces, much like the Edelwood trees. This is probably the fate of the previous lantern bearers. When Wirt refuses and defeats the Beast's tricks, he wakes up under water and is able to just barely pull himself and his brother out. While one can't ever truly defeat death, it can be pushed back by the will to live.