#The venture bros and the curse of the haunted problem

[soranatus]

PETE WHITE in The Venture Bros: “The Morphic Trilogy” (2018)

[rust-4-life]

[ladyofdecember]

And this scene with Wide Whale and Hank where he's telling him to kill this man and join the family? Well Hank is hesitant because The Monarch is pretty much his Uncle and his family already. He doesn't know that he actually is his Uncle but we the audience do! And yet even if he wasn't his blood family, The Monarch definitely is his family. Hence he'll never pull the trigger and Monarch knows that too. 😭🙂

[supersecretventureblog]

The Venture Bros and the curse of the haunted problem + Arrears in Science - White Screenshots.

[cloneslugs]

genuinely premiere of all time The Venture Bros & the Curse of the Haunted PROBLEM

[theygotlost]

the rest of my favorite episodes now that ive finished the show

S5E6 OSI Love You

S5E7 Momma's Boys

S6E2 Hostile Makeover

S6E7 It Happening One Night

S6E7 A Party for Tarzan

S7E1 The Venture Bros. and the Curse of the Haunted Problem

S7E3 Arrears in Science

S7E10 The Saphrax Protocol

favorite vbros episodes SO FAR (sphinx rising is the last one i watched)

S1E12 Past Tense

S2E6 Victor Echo November

S2E10 I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills

S3E3 The Invisible Hand of Fate

S3E5 The Buddy System

S3E12-13 The Family That Slays Together Stays Together

S4E3 Perchance to Dean

S4E7 The Better Man

S4E14 Assisted Suicide

S4E16 Operation PROM

S5E1 (? 1.5?!) Very Venture Halloween

S5E4 SPHINX Rising

[stillsmybeatingheart]

[gothdean]

[whats-9plus10]

UPDATE #1

Added S4e15 The Silent Partners - The context for when JJ is building Gargantua II was needed.

Added S5e7 Bot Seeks Bot in both possibilities - The show provides a specific time frame of 4 months between S5e7 Bot Seeks Bot and S7e3 Arrears in Science.

Added S7e1 The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem in both possibilities - The show provides a specific time frame of 2 years between JJ discovering the Gargantua crash and S7e1 The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem. Note: We know the crash happened in Venture Bros Year 2, s2e9 Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner? I am specifically noting when JJ discovered the PROBLEM.

Added a clear marker of when Venture Bros Year 5 began in Possibility 2.

Added the date Don became Venturion in NOTES AND THOUGHTS.

Venture Bros Time Frame

Based on the Venture Brothers Wiki Timeline and what I could find in the show during my final rewatch before the movie. Like when I calculated Gary’s age, this is not an opinion piece. I pull straight from the source material. 

I am not starting from a specific year because we know Venture Bros references current pop culture based on the year each season was released. Various dates documented in the show fail to provide a cohesive timeline. Hence, my focus is on the time frame. I'll be keeping track by noting "Venture Bros Year _" when the series moves into the next year and by referencing years as "000(number of year)" while using dates. I suggest following along with your calendar open like I had to do while organizing this lol.

S1e11 Past Tense - Orpheus predicts that The Action Man will have a stroke in "2 years, 17 days." 

We will start pretty late into the first year, Venture Bros Year 1

S1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean - Takes place in late September 0001. 

The episode features Monarch's birthday, which is around late September 0001 when, according to him, "the leaves would be orange enough..." to build his Monarch wings. 

The Monarch butterfly migration and the leaves turning can begin around late September in New Jersey. 

A Very Venture Christmas Special occurs on Christmas, December 25th, 0001, between season 1 and season 2. 

While the entire episode was a dream, it was still revealed to be Christmas time. Sally is shown to be pregnant with Rocket. This is important because it solidifies that this episode specifically took place sometime between s1e7 Ice Station Impossible and s2e5 20 Years to Midnight. 

Venture Bros Year 2 

S2e2 Hate Floats - The boys celebrate their 16th birthday.

S2e5 20 Years to Midnight - This episode takes place May 4th, 0002, "...in Rusty's 44th year." In s1e8 Mid-life Chrysalis, he states his age is 43. Rusty must have turned 44 last month on April 30th, 0002. This means a little over 7 months have passed since s1e13. Rocket was born to Sally Impossible during that time. 

This means the boys' birthday is between December 26th - May 3rd. I'm casting a wide net because, for all we know, the episodes in between could have happened just days apart from each other. They live chaotic lives. 

S2e11 ¡Viva los Muertos! - Rusty promises the boys will receive something better than their clones as Christmas gifts. 

S2e12&13 Showdown at Cremation Creek (Parts 1 and 2) - This episode spans a month between the Monarch's proposal and the wedding. 

S3e4 Home Is Where the Hate Is - The boys state that they are still 16 years old "going on 17". That phrase usually indicates a birthday is approaching, but we can't assume anything definitive. What this does tell us is that a full year has not gone by since s2e2 Hate Floats, assuming the boys didn't die again off-screen.

S3e5 The Buddy System - Billy says he is 35. Based on s2e12&13 Showdown at Cremation Creek (Parts 1 and 2), we know that he is 35 at least a month after May 4th, 0002. 

Here's where it gets tricky

S3e8 Tears of a Sea Cow - Dean's newspaper is dated May 23rd. I will explore two possibilities. 

Possibility 1

Even though I don't feel like the date on Dean's paper is strong evidence as it could be a secondhand thought made up by the animators or a reference to how each season seems to occur in the year it airs, the month of May would line up as the boys had previously told Hatred they were about to turn 17 years old four episodes prior, indicating a birthday was near. If we say we are already in Venture Bros Year 3 and believe the date in the newspaper to be May 23rd, 0003, the boys would already be 17 during this episode because we know their birthday is before May 4th. However...

S3e13 The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together Part 2 - Hank says "...open my Christmas gifts early...." referring to the clones they discovered in s2e11 ¡Viva los Muertos!. Indicating that December 25th, 0002 has not occurred yet. 

Possibility 2

What this could mean, other than an oversight, is that it was May 23rd, 0002. This would make the boys still 16 years old. And everything between s2e5 20 Years to Midnight and s3e8 Tears of a Sea Cow takes place all in one month... but that also doesn't work because s2e12&13 Showdown at Cremation Creek (Parts 1 and 2) spans about a month by itself and we see the Monarchs multiple times in various stages of their relationship throughout season 2. 

Because acknowledging the date in the newspaper would not work either way, I feel that it's safe to disregard it completely based on the current information we have. I feel more confident in trusting the writing that came directly from Doc and Jackson rather than the animation. 

S4e1 Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel - The Nazis give Rusty "8 months" to clone Hitler. During this time Hank grew out his hair, Brock got out of shape and back in shape, and Gary got dieseled. Somewhere during those 8 months, we moved on to…

Venture Bros Year 3 

S4e2 Handsome Ransom - Billy says he is 37. If Billy wasn't lying or rounding up, this means at least a year and a day have passed since s3e5 The Buddy System. The boys must be 17 at this point. 

S4e5 The Revenge Society - Documenting where this episode takes place for a later reference. 

S4e10 Pomp and Circuitry - Brock tells Hank "...you also have to be 18" to dissuade him from joining SPHINX. Confirming that two whole years have not passed since s2e2 Hate Floats.

S4e12 Everybody Comes to Hank's - Hank asks Dean "How was your summer?" hinting that they are approaching the middle to end of summer. 

S4e15 The Silent Partners -JJ is in space building Gargantua II. This is information for later reference.

S4e16 Operation: P.R.O.M. - In the commentary, Doc and Jackson use prom to symbolize the boy's unofficial 18th birthday, more specifically their ascent into adulthood. I did not take this to mean it was literally their 18th birthday. The latest their birthday can be is May 3rd and at this point, they are nearing the fall. 

S5e1 What Color Is Your Cleansuit? - Takes place the day after P.R.O.M. and spans 3 months. A Very Venture Halloween special takes place in the middle of it on October 31st, 0003. We see Gary raking leaves - Fall. Then the compound is covered in snow - Winter. The weather here is intentional to show the passage of time. It is unclear at this point if we have moved on to the next year. There is no mention of Christmas or New Year's. By the end of the episode, it could be as early as November 0003. 

At this point, we are over 2 years and at least 1 month into the series. We started in September 0001 in s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean and are now sometime past October 31st, 0003. I am keeping in mind Orpheus' prediction of "2 years and 17 days". In the commentary Doc and Jackson state that the Action Man could have considered his health since the prediction which resulted in delaying his stroke. 

S5e3 SPHINX Rising - Gary says "Hank is an adult." I took this to mean he had turned 18 at some point. While their birthday may be at the end of December because we had cast a wide net for them earlier, I will assume we’ve moved on to…

Venture Bros Year 4

Here’s where it gets tricky part 2

S5e4 Spanakopita! - This episode should take place in October. Team Venture attended the wedding of Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy which took place on October 20th, 1968. Another historical event mentioned was the Apollo 7 mission, which took place Oct 11, 1968 – Oct 22, 1968. In the flashback we see Spanakopita aligning with the Splashdown date, October 22, 1968. This is evidence that the dates are intentional. 

In this episode we see Hank in his strength suit, confirming that Spanakopita takes place after s5e1 What Color Is Your Cleansuit? and A Very Venture Halloween special. I feel it's unlikely that they intended for a full year to have passed between s5e1 What Color Is Your Cleansuit? and s5e4 Spanakopita!. I want to make this as accurate as possible so I'm going to entertain two possibilities.

Possibility 1

If we say that s5e4 Spanakopita! was not intended to take place in October specifically and it was an oversight, then I feel safe to assume the warm weather we see after s5e1 What Color Is Your Cleansuit? indicates that we've moved onto spring or summer, still in Venture Bros Year 4. 

S5e5 O.S.I. Love You - Hank’s limbs atrophied from wearing the strength suit he found in S5e3 SPHINX Rising for “weeks”. 

S5e6 Momma's Boys - Hank tells Dermott “Last year…” and references the events of s4e5 The Revenge Society which took place in Venture Bros Year 3.

S5e7 Bot Seeks Bot - This episode takes place in July 0004. We see a flashback in S7e3 Arrears in Science which took place the night before Thanksgiving, November 0004.

S5e8 The Devil's Grip - Dean says a third of his age is 6 - indicating he is probably 18. 

Season 6 starts in Venture Bros Year 4, near or during September 0004 because we know Dean enrolled in the Fall Semester. The boys would be 18 years old—3 years since s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean. 

S7e1 The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem - This episode takes place the in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, November 0004. We flashback 2 years ago to JJ discovering the Gargantua crash. This implies JJ made this discovery sometime in Venture Bros Year 2.

Next, we have a clear time span thanks to s7e3 Arrears in Science. It's Thanksgiving, November 0004. 3 years and 2 months since s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean. 

Time jump to the start of the Spring Semester in s7e4 The High Cost of Loathing, which starts in Venture Bros Year 5, January 0005. We are still in Winter Venture Bros Year 5 as of the final episode. In total making the time span from s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean to s7e10 The Saphrax Protocol 3 years and at least 4 months.

Possibility 2 

If we do say it has been another year and s5e4 Spanakopita! takes place in Venture Bros Year 4, October 0004, which means almost everything is pushed back a year. The boys would be 18 years old. 

S5e5 O.S.I. Love You - Hank’s limbs atrophied from wearing the strength suit he found in S5e3 for “weeks”.

S5e6 Momma's Boys - Hank tells Dermott “Last year…” and references the events of s4e5 The Revenge Society which took place in Venture Bros Year 3. That would mean this episode would need to take place between October 23rd, 0004 and December 31st, 0004.

Venture Bros Year 5

S5e7 Bot Seeks Bot - This episode takes place in July 0005. We see a flashback in S7e3 Arrears in Science which took place the night before Thanksgiving, November 0005.

S5e8 The Devil's Grip - Dean says a third of his age is 6 - Dean must be 19 at this point and have rounded 6 years and 3 months down to just 6. 

Season 6 starts near or during September 0005, because we know Dean enrolled in the Fall Semester - 4 years since s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean. Overshooting the 2 years and 17 days prediction by a lot.

S7e1 The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem - This episode takes place the in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, November 0005. We flashback 2 years ago to JJ discovering the Gargantua crash. This implies JJ made the discovery sometime in Venture Bros Year 3 before S4e15 The Silent Partners.

Again, we have a clear time span thanks to s7e3 Arrears in Science. It's Thanksgiving, November 0005. 4 years and 2 months since s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean. 

Finally, we have the time jump to the start of the Spring Semester in s7e4 The High Cost of Loathing, which would start in Venture Bros Year 6, January 0006. We are still in Winter 0006 as of the final episode. Making the time span in this possibility, from s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean to s7e10 The Saphrax Protocol, 4 years and at least 4 months. 

NOTES AND THOUGHTS

S1e1 Dia de los Dangerous - Presumably this episode takes place on Dia los Muertos, November 1st. Monarch states that he's in Mexico to find his foster parents. Butterflies arrive in Mexico around early November. Because this happened before Orpheus' prediction, it could be plausible that there is almost a year between the first episode and s1e13 Are You There God, It's Me, Dean. It is probably just as likely that Doc and Jackson were not considering keeping to a set time frame until much later in the series.

JJ did not appear in the season 1 Christmas Special. The boys are alive. Rusty was not on his journey running away from the boys' deaths. I wonder if this means s1e13 Return to Spider-Skull Island took place after Christmas. I am also not considering the weather as a determining factor here because I remember hearing about issues with animating different backgrounds in the earlier seasons. 

If it helps, I placed the boy’s birthday on the Ides of March (March 15th) to help me keep track of things. It’s both a significant historical date and a 70’s rock band. Plus I wanted them to be Pisces :)

I also stuck the Monarch's birthday on September 30th because that's when Don became Venturion. I think it's poetic.

Doc and Jackson are phenomenal writers and I’m sure if they were to address this in the show they would find a way for it to make sense that we would all enjoy. I had a lot of fun doing this. I love digging deep into my favorite show and piecing together what I find 💛 Go Team Venture!

[dynamoe]

My friend gave me this two months ago so I could hear the commentaries but I only just am listening to them now

The Rosey Grier Needlepoint for Men insert is the best visual reference in the season and why I finally busted out this DVD (to take a screencap for a friend who brought it up in conversation)

even the interior pages in the reverse angle? too much!

What can I learn from these commentaries and how can I use this canonical information? Let's semi-live blog...

Season 7 redesigned Billy is so ugly. I hate it... but he looks OK in some shots because the animators can't keep him consistent looking.

I'm glad the commentary calls out the very Robert Ludlum-y title construction theme they had most of the season.

--

Billy calls himself a neurogeneticist in Curse of the Haunted Problem (S07E01) which he hasn't since Are You There God? (S01E09). Where's this neurogeneticisizing happening, huh? Off camera? When do you have the time? Billy, admit you're a part-time surgeon AT BEST.

In (S07E03) Arrears in Science, Jonashead also calls Billy a neurogeneticist while requesting Billy perform surgery. Which a surgeon does, not a geneticist.

Commentary: "White, perpetual victim" "He hides during violent scenes. He's always hiding behind things." There was a scene cut that would have explained his decline into a sweaty wifebeater axe-wielding state. Jackson calls Pete's outfit a "Milli Vanilli jacket." Pete doesn't do much of anything else for the rest of the season.

Despite being the focus of The Bellicose Proxy (S07E06), neither Billy nor White have very many lines in it.

The rooftop tennis court where St. Cloud rehearses with Monarch/21— I remember seeing it from NY classroom windows but according to Doc H's commentary, it's been demolished since the episode came out

That red paintball paint would permanently stain White's jacket. Missed opportunity that it wasn't stained through the rest of the episode but it sounds this episode was a nightmare to animate as is.

Billy is way too small inside the Delta Boy/Diet Pepsi space suit. He loses like a foot of height. Was it intentional? (His height & head size is all over the place in these episodes.)

Commentary: Somewhere, there's audio a very long riff of the two ad-libbing as White/Billy describing their imagined beat down of St. Cloud. And 30 minutes of Billy riffing inside the cloud of laughing gas which Doc argued would be a great episode, even with no animation on screen. (I agree, but I'm an outlier.)

Commentary: I hadn't picked up that Killer Drone was supposed to look like a '60s Japanese sentai hero/villain, according to Doc H. (Like that would fight Ultraman or Kamen Rider, I guess.) but I see it.

Commentary: Neither of them knew the name of the Grumman Moon Suit but "The one from Life Magazine," is a pretty accurate epithet.

They didn't know the name of the Avrocar either. (The real Moon Suit prototype was 8 feet tall! A big-ass Diet Pepsi!)

---

The Forecast Manufacturer (S07E09) has too much shitting information in it. (I don't need this kind of canon, guys.)

Coffee gives Billy diarrhea. Already used that "fun fact" in this chapter.

Billy went to summer camp (where he couldn't shit) at some point.

Billy needs to read to have a shit (don't want to know this.)

What does he have to do? Bleed for you? His rectum is probably bleeding right now. (ugh)

Rusty: "Do you shave your chest?" line strikes me as coming out of nowhere. Even though Billy has stripped off in loads of episodes, this is the first time he's kickin' it underpants-only-style in front of Rusty. (Nice soft-edged blush on Billy's face here. He's less ugly in-episode than on his model sheet for this episode.)

Commentary: Jackson mentions Billy painting the rest of his arm to look like a full robot. Doc describes Billy having a latex hand cover he doesn't wear because it makes his hand look too big and bloated (I wrote Billy testing a synthetic hand cover in future chapter, now have to rewrite it so it doesn't seem like a ripoff)

The Inamorata Consequence (S07E05)

"White, perpetual victim" "He hides during violent scenes. He's always hiding behind things."

Helper kicked Billy into the pool and Hank filmed it with his watch.

None of these other episodes have Billy or White so I've lost interest.

[mrchrisgeorge]

“The Venture Bros. & the Curse of the Haunted Problem“ designs (part 1)

Well it’s been a long time in the making (actually not that long by Venture standards), but the latest season of The Venture Bros. is finally up and running! Aaaaaaand I’m way behind on my season 7 design posts, so I’m going to be playing catch up this week- starting tonight and continuing throughout the week I will post all of my designs from the first three episodes of this new season.

I'm splitting this first episode up into two separate posts- so keep an eye out for “part 2″ tomorrow night... The other two design posts will follow in the days after!

[spockvarietyhour]

Jesus Hank

[ladyofdecember]

Oh my god! I've seen this season so many times now! It's my favorite and this episode in particular is PERFECT! But I only just noticed something. Rusty sets his alarm to noon to wake up every day! 😅 J.J. would set his for 7am and of course that's why the video message says that and we know the building is malfunctioning but the clock says 12pm because that's what time he normally gets up 😅 That's so funny

[fogspecs]

If your still taking Venture Bros request, is cool if I can request a What if Dr Orpheus trained Triana to do magic? I hope I worded that right. Thank you and I hope you have a good day.

Thank you so much for the ask, anon! <3 To answer this, I started by thinking about why Orpheus didn't teach Triana magic in the first place.

First, magic is dangerous (and sometimes grisly) business. Triana felt sick at thought of the Venture boys being resurrected. Orpheus is very protective of his daughter and probably doesn't want to see her exposed to that type of darkness (or less-than-savory figures like The Master). He was so concerned about it that he erased her memory of meeting The Master at least a couple of times.

Second, Orpheus struggles with his work-life balance. His wife Tatyana left him because he devoted too much time to necromancy; he ended up sacrificing his relationship with her to pursue perfection in his magic. And oftentimes, parents want to dissuade their children from taking on the same career they did -- because they have seen all the drawbacks of that path. Orpheus encourages Triana to do something else, with the hope it will lead her to a better and more fulfilling life, as shown in this conversation Triana has with The Master in “The Better Man”:

"My dad kind of wanted me to go to art school..."

"Forget your dad. He's trying to save you from his life, not yours."

After thinking about what the Master told her, Triana decided to go live with Tatyana and her step-father (The Outrider) and begin learning magic. So that prompts the question: why didn't she just ask Orpheus to train her? (Especially because Orpheus is the one who initially taught The Outrider.) In the end, though, it's pretty clear from his past actions (i.e. the memory-wiping) that he wouldn't be comfortable teaching Triana. Given how anxious Orpheus is about her safety and the type of relationship they had, he wouldn't be able to train her to her full potential as a sorceress. Triana naturally felt the urge to “leave the nest” and seek mentorship from someone else in this area.

As of “Operation P.R.O.M.”, Triana is living with Tatyana and The Outrider, and seems to be really enjoying her training (which she is doing in some kind of group alongside her boyfriend Raven and other magical trainees called “neophytes.”) It’s a shame we don’t get to see more of her once she starts learning magic, honestly. As of a deleted scene in “The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem”, she’s apparently still with Raven.

So my final answer to your question is that if Orpheus tried to teach his "pumpkin” magic, he’d probably be too anxious about her safety to give her good instruction. If his character were a bit different and he actually did want to teach her magic, it’s likely that she would have stayed on the compound with him; it’s even possible that she could have ended up in an actual relationship with Dean if she hadn’t left (assuming she was able to somehow look past his immaturity). She also would have been able to help out in the adventures that the Venture family went on in the same way that Orpheus did, meaning that she and the Ventures probably would have spent more time together in general. Her use of magic would probably be less theatrical / more deadpan and practical than her dad… I imagine she would show off her new spells to Hank and Dean, and probably play some pranks on Dermott and/or Doc too.

[wrongydkjquotes]

Cookie: Boy, hacker movies always make this stuff way more exciting.

Nate: (shrugs) Yeah, with the dramatic closeups and booming techno scores, real hacking is just... typing.

Schmitty: Throw me a bone dude, just turn to me dramatically and say "we're in".

Nate: …We're in!

(Source: The Venture Bros., "The Curse of the Haunted Problem")

[astro2ndbase]

what would you say is your favorite venture bros episode(s)?

oof I'm bad at remembering titles of episodes and I'm probably forgetting a few but I'd say: the Halloween special,orb,operation p.r.o.m, curse of the haunted problem