Okay, you can’t use Fred as the one to represent “awful, misogynistic, privileged white men” when that man was always a golden retriever of a human being.
In Mystery Incorporated, he cried because of how emotional he himself always is, he got instant PTSD in an episode where Daphne got kidnapped and for majority of the series, Daphne was just BEGGING for him to fuck her but he was oblivious and respected their friendship.
Tumblr, a place where the cheesiest of media (specially horror) is revered including scooby doo and are probably the biggest scholars of the franchise, hates the new show with a passion
The creator of the show turned out to be a TERF
Mystery Incorporated aka the kids show is more mature than the "adult" show
Major media outlets and youtubers keep slamming it
Ppl finally learned about the concept of "hey if i know i wont like this maybe i shouldnt support it" and more ppl are embracing piracy
And yet the show is #1 most watched on HBO Max rn and probably will be marked as a success and get more seasons, all while good shows get ignored or cancelled beacuse bastardizations of beloved IPs make more money
VELMA 2023, FAKE: the scooby gang are all jerks to each other and are all each terrible obnoxious teenagers in their own right
CANON, FACT CHECKED: when the scooby gang goes to bed they all wear matching pajamas w the long caps and get into a giant comically long bed and take turns saying goodnight to each other and then fred blows out the candle
Removing Scooby doo from Velma show because “talking dog can only be in kids cartoons” is the same as “Salem is not gonna talk in chilling adventures of Sabrina cause this show is more dark and serious”. Like no, that’s not right. You just removing the beloved character for no fucking reason and the show still is not mature or dark whatsoever 🙆🏼♀️
Because HBO's Velma is atrocious, may I recommend Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids? It's a love letter to Scooby-Doo with a believable lesbian romance, Hanna-Barbera shenanigans, and all the fun stuff you would expect in a book with the premise of "Scooby-Doo but for adults". And no bullshit shoehorned in to make you angry.
im quite possibly the only person excited for velma seasom 2....but i am excited nontheless! i hope they do a toxic yaoi between norville and his (im assuming) guilt-induced hallucination of fred covered in his mothers blood
if you're an hbo max subscriber and you're trying your best not to hatewatch velma, please just watch scooby doo: mystery incorporated instead. it's on the same platform and it's a much better use of your time.
Imagine thinking you're hot shit for thinking of gritty Scooby-Doo when Zombie Island is right there. I'm not even trying to be pithy, it just actually had the gang split up and working jobs and struggling. It balanced the original medium with its creep into horror. Imagine getting rid of Infinity Train but keeping this. Dear god.
I actually really like the idea of a Scooby Doo prequel centered around the Mystery Gang before they became friends.
Velma is your typical nerd who's interested in true crime. She started off solving small mysteries around her neighborhood, like where someone's missing cat went or who stole someone's bike. Then, some sort of really big mystery happens that the police completely overlook. Maybe students are ending up dead or missing or something like that.
She goes to the same school as Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy, but never talked to them due to personal assumptions. Fred is a popular jock, and a lot of his teammates bully Velma and force her to do their homework for them, so she doesn't trust him either. Daphne is a pretty rich girl who hangs out with a group of mean girls who also make fun of girls like Velma. Even though Fred's group and Daphne's group overlap, the two of them have never really spoken to one another before. Then, there's Shaggy who always shows up to school late, never knows the answer to teachers' questions, and sleeps through half of his classes.
Eventually, one of Daphne's friends get kidnapped. So, one night, she sneaks into the school to find some clues at the same time as Velma. Fred's there because he forgot his uniform, and Shaggy just likes hanging out at the school to do his homework in peace and quiet. They all team up for a while until security gets involved, and Fred helps them into a speedy getaway as the only one with his driver's license.
With Fred driving them home, the group decides to at least have a temporary team-up. Daphne and Velma have a shared goal, Fred likes having friends for the first time in forever, and Shaggy doesn't want to be the odd man out.
They get closer as they solve the mystery together. Fred isn't a jerk, and is super sweet and amazing at building all sorts of things, especially traps. Shaggy always brings the gang food he made, and eventually introduces them to his talking dog who may or may not be immortal. Daphne invites everyone to her house for sleepovers, helps Velma explore her style in a way that's still comfortable to her, and reveals her endless knowledge about every single person in the entire town.
The mystery gets solved, and the four stays friends. The End :)
while we’re all brainstorming ideas for how ‘velma’ could have been a good ‘edgier and more mature modern take on scooby-doo’, i have an idea!
the mystery gang are given more 21st century redesigns. no more bell bottoms, some of them start wearing sneakers, shaggy wears a baggy hoodie, stuff like that.
they still have their usual color palettes and individual styles (shaggy’s clothes are baggy and comfortable, daphne is stylish and fashionable, etc), but they dress more like present-day highschool students. but, obviously, no designs are too detailed that they’re hard to animate and their designs shouldn’t date the show by being too specific to the trends of the 2020’s.
but, in one episode, crystal cove high has a “60’s themed” school dance, and the mystery gang attends in their original outfits!! maybe some extra 1960’s flair could be added just for fun, too. and the episode could have other references to the og series as well. the episode could have other 60’s references and easter eggs scattered throughout the episode.
later in the episode the gang has a classic benny hill theme chase with the villian, and, when it stops, scooby says “reja ru!” (deja vu). then fred, being a himbo, leans over to daphne and says “since when does scooby speak italian?”. daphne naturally gives him a “???” look, but before anyone can react to what fred or scooby said, the trap goes off and the bad guy is caught. episode continues from there.
there’s so much potential with the mystery gang. it sucks that velma (2023) hates its source material so much.
Also, I feel like the specific race swaps they did with the characters also feel like they're falling into stereotypes on the surface???
When we forget how they butchered the character personalities, when you think of Velma typically, you think of someone super smart and overachieving. Making her Southeast Asian makes her the "smart Southeast Asian character". When you think of Shaggy, you think of a stoner who's high all the time and loves to eat. Making him black makes him a "lazy POC character". When we think of Daphne, we think of the hot damsel in distress character who needs to be saved by Fred (which is not her whole character, none of these are, but if you're shorthanding it, then yeah). Making her east asian makes her a "lotus blossom character". Leaving Fred white, makes the last one worse.
Like, if we're gonna race swap, why not make the characters races that don't perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Keep Shaggy white, make Velma black, make Daphne Southeast Asian, make Fred East Asian. Boom, you're automatically making the race swaps more interesting and not perpetuating stereotypes commonly seen on TV and you don't have to change the character's personalities at all! Wow.
And don't get me started on how ugly the current designs for the characters for this show are. They don't Look Good or coherent