OTGW Theory
Since my first time watching over the garden wall I’ve proceeded to watch it over and over and to show it to as many people as possible. After watching it for the who-knows-how-manyeth time I noticed something interesting.
The black turtle in the first episode that is eaten by the dog turning it into an evil candy obsessed beast is present in other episodes.
In “The Ringing of The Bell” Wirt and Greg find baskets full of similar black turtles in Lorna and Auntie Whisper’s house. We all know that Lorna’s life is tinged with a dark wickedness that is never clearly defined. The one thing that I can’t really connect is Auntie Whispers eating the turtles because she turns out to be good.
Another thing I noticed was that the dog in “The Old Grist Mill” had colored eyes and so does the beast in the final episode. When Wirt threatens to blow out his light the beast sucks him into a world of darkness lit only by his colored eyes.
What I can guess from this is that the turtles are a metaphor for corruption or evil. Another possibility is that the turtles could be a manifestation of the beast within the unknown.
