Deep Cliff #53 (Scooby Do vs Courage)

Scooby-Do vs Courage the Cowardly Dog

Hello and welcome to yet another Deep Cliff, where I listen to your questions and bring you in depth answers. Today’s question comes to us from The question is “Of Scooby Doo and Courage, who is the braver dog?” Now I hardly need to say that both of these dogs are famous cowards, so asking which one is brave is a very hard question to answer…but I think that this might be because people don’t quite understand what bravery is…so perhaps the better title for this entry would be:

What is bravery?

Either way, let’s dive right in and discuss the two characters in detail.

Scooby Dooby Do is a great dane with the incredible ability to communicate with humans…and also eat meals meant for 5 people. When he’s not eating his weight in food, he’s helping his best friends solve mysteries as part of Mysteries Inc. Along with Freddy, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy, Scooby’s stories have been told through tons of different mediums and tales. I’m not kidding when I say that Scooby Do has been remade and redone tons of times! From “Scooby Do, Where Are You,” “A Pup Named Scooby Do,” “What’s New Scooby Do,” “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Do,” and even a few movies such as “Scooby Do and the Ghoul School,” “The Scooby Do movie,” and “Scooby Do and the Curse of the Vampire.” To say that Scooby is now a pop culture icon would be an understatement. He is a staple of childhood and exists in everyones mind and imagination.
Courage is a different story all together. I’m not sure what kind of dog Courage is because his fur is purple, he has twigs for arms and legs, and it’s very unclear as to his overall design. I’m guessing he’s a beagle…but that’s my best guess. His backstory is…very simple. Courage was abandoned as a puppy and found by a kind old woman named Muriel. She and her grouchy husband Eustes live in the middle of no where….and that’s not an exaggeration. They live in a house that is literally in the middle of a vast plane….nothing there…no crops….no animals….just that little house. The place is even CALLED “No Where.” However, every episode some kind of supernatural threat makes its way on to the scene and Courage must protect his new family…despite being a coward himself.

So that’s the two dogs in a nutshell. So now time to compare and contrast. Who is the braver dog? First…let’s talk about what bravery is.

There’s a famous saying that goes “Only a fool lives without fear. A brave man is one who has fear, but faces it anyway.” Never heard that saying? Well that’s because I made it up…but I promise it’ll be famous someday. But there is truth there. Bravery is not living with no fear, because fear is essential for survival. Fear is a natural response to a given stimuli. When we confront a threat to our person, our body responds with fear as a way to cope and a way to handle it. When we feel fear we acknowledge the danger before us and thus our adrenaline kicks in…that’s essentially what fear is: An adrenaline rush so we can run from the danger. Now there are such things as “irrational fears” which is when we fear something that isn’t really a threat….like a fear of water or a fear of dogs, or a fear of snakes. These things probably aren’t all that dangerous, but we fear them. No one knows why…but we just do.
With that in mind, let’s discuss what bravery is. If you have no fear and don’t fear anything…you’re a fool. Having no fear doesn’t mean you’re stronger…it means that you don’t recognize danger, and thus you can throw yourself headlong into death because you don’t know to respond to it. It’s like walking into a bear cave, seeing a bear roaring at you and just shrugging it off. That bear is gonna KILL YOU! GET OUT OF THERE YOU IDIOT! Even if you have a gun, you still feel that adrenaline rush. Someone who is BRAVE though recognizes danger. They feel the adrenaline rush and they note the potential to bodily harm. That doesn’t necessarily mean they shrink from it…they choose to face it instead. They conquer it.
A good example would be Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. Luffy is described as “having no fear.” Well this is kind of true. Luffy doesn’t show fear to anyone and almost never seems intimidated…but that doesn’t make him “fearless.” Luffy recognizes the danger he faces, but the fact is he doesn’t care. He pushes through it because he knows it’s the only option he has. He trusts his strength to pull him through. But he CAN show fear, like when he flees from Captain Smoker, knowing that he can’t beat Smoker. If Luffy didn’t have any fear, he wouldn’t try to dodge attacks thrown at him…because he wouldn’t acknowledge the danger of them. So he doesn’t show fear, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t acknowledge dangers. Plus, keep in mind that Luffy is abnormally powerful, and facing a threat that a normal person would fear for him might not be as frightening.

Okay…after ALL THAT…let’s talk about Scooby vs Courage.

Both animals are cowardly in the face of danger. Both are afraid of dangers and are easily spooked…Courage probably more so than Scooby as he gets scared by the same dumb mask that Eustis pulls out all the time. Now when discussing which is braver, a lot of people would say Courage is braver because the supernatural threats he faces ARE real…while the ones Scooby faces are usually elaborate hoaxes or conspiracies. But that’s not QUITE true. Keep in mind that Scooby is also gullible…he BELIEVES that the hoaxes and costumes he encounters are real. So in his mind, the threats are real. Plus, there are times where the threats are real. In “Scooby Doo on Zombie Island” the zombies and voodoo were all real and dangerous to confront. In “Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders” there WERE real aliens…just not in the way he expected. In “Scooby Doo in Cyber Space” he literally goes up against a hostile video game environment where, if he dies…he gets ‘deleted.’ Talk about real terror there! So in this scenario, we have to assume that all of the threats Scooby faces are real to him, so they are just as threatening as Courage’s threats.
And others might say that Courage is braver still because Scooby at least has his friends to encourage him…while usually Courage has no one. Again…this isn’t QUITE true. While Muriel and Eustis don’t do much to help Courage and he has to save them, they are still his motivation, just like Scooby’s motivation is Shaggy, Freddy, Velma, and Daphne. Scooby might be a coward, but if any of his friends are in danger, he WILL run to their rescue, regardless whether he’s alone or not. So for this we cannot judge them based on motivation or by level of the threat….so what CAN we use to measure these two?

Honestly, the best way we can look at them is the manner in which they face their fears. Scooby is often afraid, but if his friends are in danger, or a plan is under way to catch the foe, he will stand and face it, sometimes even mocking the monster to its face to lure it in. Because Scooby and Shaggy are the fastest of the group, they can usually outrun the monster. Plus, Scooby usually doesn’t have time to think out his plans to save his friends, often he has to do them himself and even improvise his moves and strategies. Courage isn’t the same. Courage’s fear is usually only lasting with the initial encounter with the supernatural. Think about it, Courage does fear the supernatural foe, but usually the screams and over the top responses are reserved for the encounter. After that, he will start trying to fight it. So in that sense, Courage could be the braver dog because of how quickly he gets over the fear and makes a move to solve the problem.
But before we declare a winner…let’s also look at how often they face a foe. Sometimes the foe Courage faces isn’t a monster but merely a very unfortunate or difficult scenario. I recall one episode where all Courage was doing was competing with a robot dog for Muriels love. That wasn’t facing fear but jealousy. There are other episodes like that too where the foe isn’t so much a fear based challenge but another kind of challenge. Scooby ALWAYS faces a supernatural (or at least he thinks it’s a supernatural) threat. So that means he’s always having to confront fear. Confronting fear constantly and CONSTANTLY having to overcome it shows endurance in the face of adversity. Think about it…couldn’t Scooby at any point decide he’s done solving mysteries at the risk of life and limb? Shaggy is a coward too. He and Shaggy could just leave. But instead, even if it’s fearfully and hesitantly, they will still confront their mysteries.

So…who is the braver? Honestly…it’s too close to call. Part of that is because we know that Courage and Scooby will always win the day. They both are clearly motivated in WHY they must be brave and, when push comes to shove, can show their truly brave side. Scooby has lasted far longer than Courage though…in fact there are some who argue that Courage was a rip off of Scooby. I’m not sure if that’s true, but what is true is that there’s something about Scooby-Doo that has lasted the test of time. His formula has been redone, rebooted, and reevaluated to the point that Scooby is now a major pop culture icon. Courage is not. So if the debate were which one I more timeless and memorable, Scooby would clearly win here. But in a question of courage and bravery, the two have no real advantage over the other. Both are very brave animals.

Sorry I couldn’t give a more accurate answer. I hope that you all like what I had to say anyway.

Until Next Time

Clifford