#daphne and fred are rich kids so there is a chance

[catostrofiqu]

The fact that the mystery gang have met not once but multiple times with batman does infact live rent free in my head

[pxper-cranes]

Meddling Kids Redesigns

It took a while, but I finally finished all four designs of the main gang. There are still some tings I would change if I were to redesign them again, just by seeing all the other ones on tumblr.

I'll do some headcannons here, and maybe draw them again with plot ideas for a fictionalised series I would make with them.

Fist of all, they would start out as high schoolers, then go into univertity after. either way they would all be adults when the film starts

None of these guys are cishet or neurotypical sorry slays but you cant tell me otherwise

Thirdly, these guys are FRIENDS. they CARE about each other. some have been besties for years others were hard and fast ride or dies but they all really care for one another

They would initially start out unmasking people in monster costumes, but there would definitely be an overarching plot that is defiantly supernatural. by midway through season two, the monsters of the week would be real more often than not, and the gang has to turn to more spooky ways of dealing with them

Aight so

FRED

This man HAS to be nice, and reasonably stupid. He was a himbo Blueprint and we must make sure he stays that way

I want to make him into theatre tech and stuff, which he uses to debunk the monsters and point out all the techniques in the 80s horror movies he likes to watch with the gang.

I'd also say he was a prolific camper and scoutgoer as a child, and intends to work as a camp counsellor once he graduates for a little while

because of this hes pretty much a survival expert and gets pretty intense whenever they find themselves in the woods.

while he is strange himself he still is a leader for the group, and plans a lot of their moves on cases.

He and Daphne start the show dating and they are madly in love with each other, and are the bestest of friends. Fred is the more puttogether in the group though, and regularly has to stop daphne from comitting crimes like breaking and entering or simply trying to beat the monster over the head with a bat

DAPHNE

This version of Daphen would just be a pretty unhinged girlboss. she is the part of the gang who is just itching for a fight half the time, so shes been designated team muscle.

Her family is extremely rich, and while they don't really like her pastimes of going out and solving mysteries, but those funds are the thing keeping the gang going, and funding their trips, as well as bail when they get caught investigating some abandoned house or something.

She is really into fashion, specifically 70s style clothes, and spends a lot of time at home making her own clothes and things for others.

alongside that she is really into journalism, so much so that she practically runs the school newsletter when in high school, and runs it through her brilliant people skills. she intends to go to university to do a media and communications degree.

but shes also regularly unhinged and the fisrt one in the gang who would get into a brawl with a monster if given the chance. shes like a black belt in karate at least, and can definitely ride a motorbike.

I think she would encourage Fred's traps in their cases but if she was left alone she would just use a crowbar to solve her problems.

VELMA

This Velma is a todal dork. she is such a nerd its funny, bun in a way ehre the audience laughs with her. let her talk endlessly about her academic interests and cut back to everyone else dumbfounded.

Also my version of Velma isn't mean in any way. While she can be dry, witty or packed with smart comebacks, she is rarely intentionally cruel.

She doesn't believe in the supernatural at the beginning of the series, but she desperately wants to believe in everything. Cryptids, monsters, aliens etc (She was one of the kids that cried when they made Pluto not a planet anymore)

because of her eagerness to investigate she is practically uncarable, and more interested in anything spooky than she is frightful, which could be used for some good gags, especially since she never realises that she is ever out of her element

Velma brings out the nerdier side of all her friends too. she gets Fred talking about traps and survival skills, Daphne on about fashion and law, and Shaggy talking about food and films.

SHAGGY & SCOOB

Scooby doo is Shaggy's assistance dog, and that's how he is allowed to go wherever the gang does.

I've got some lore ideas about how he talks and stuff, which is basically the same as mystery inc plus some inspiration from the Magnus Archives but I'll probably talk about it another time.

I was thinking it might be funny if he talked kinda like puppycat from Bee and Puppycat, but that's just a thought, all I'm going to say is that's not a normal dog.

Shaggy also comes from a wealthier family but nowhere near as rich as Daphne. His parents really tried to shelter him as a kid after something happened in his childhood (IDK what but it was spooky) and ever since he's craved the independence that he gets with the gang

He has been friends with everyone the longest. I assume he went to a summer camp with Fred when they were little, met Velma at some kind of convention and lived close to Daphne.

He has tons of random skills and knowledge about pretty much anything. hes a trivia god and there could e a running gag that he went to a bunch of summer camps too, but for weird and niche things. he's also the kind to binge read wikipedia articles at 3am

I think we would be really into films, specifically horror and pulp films from the 70s - 90s. He probably has an interesting relationship with horror, scaring easily but still doing it for the thrill.

He also implores that in their mysteries, pointing out a bunch of the technical clues with Fred. He probably really likes mystery solving because it gives him that reassurance and control when they finally unmask them. I'm sure he starts to crack a little once they start going up against real monsters.

Hes also a really good cook and makes great playlists.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Since a LOT of people are giving their Scooby-Doo pitches due to the show that makes Scrappy-Doo seem pleasant in comparison, I figured that I’D hop on this bandwagon as well. Because, you see, Scooby-Doo means a LOT to me. It’s a show I grew up with as a kid and a series that I was excited for with every remake, movie, and special that came out when I was a little tater tot. If I ever get the chance to make a Scooby-Doo series, I’ll absolutely take it. And here’s how’d it go if I was in charge:

The series takes place in Coolsville, a town that’s relatively remembered for its relatively peaceful nature and good vibes...That is until 15-20 years ago when all of these ghosts, ghouls and other unsorted creatures started popping up. Now, it’s the number one spot for tourists to come and see this spookiness for themselves. But are these monsters real? Or is there more to these spooks that meet the eye? For that, there is only ONE team of investigators who’ll find that out for themselves.

Fred Jones is a wannabee boy scout. He tried to join but they wouldn’t let him in because he was too nice and too weirdly good at tying knots and making nets. Fred made the other scouts look bad, so they refused to let him join.

He moved to Coolsville with his Mom, Peggy, who always made sure Fred knew to be a good boy. Lessons he takes to heart, facing the world with respect, a smile, and a good firm handshake that his dad taught him.

Fred’s such a good boy that even when during a high-speed chase with monsters chasing him and his friends, he’ll ALWAYS stop at the first red light he sees. Someone usually has to stomp THEIR foot on the gas in order to get it to go.

Daphne Blake is the popular girl in school. She loves everyone and everyone loves her. No, literally. Daphne became popular just by being nice to every person in school, believing they love her too because of it. Truth is, everyone likes her because she’s rich and would hoping it would benefit them by being her friend. Daphne never really sees this, all the “friends” she has truly do like her. Thankfully, it’s not long until she finds people who REALLY care.

The Blake family is HUGE, with Daphne having six sisters who all went out to be successful, and strengthening the Blake family fortune. Daphne’s hoping that, one day, SHE’LL do something to make her family proud.

Her twin sister, Marcie, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. She despises being a Blake and plans to give away the family fortune at the first chance she gets. If she inherits it, that is.

Velma Dinkley is a little gremlin. And I mean that in the best way possible. She is so hyperactive about solving mysteries surrounding town, maybe forgetting a social cue or two when doing it. She’s a person who would use tweezers to yank out a hair sample without hesitation, just to analyze it for future reference.

Velma also has files on every person in town, believing that the best way to live life is to know all you can about it.

Velma lives with her uncles due to losing her parents. They were top-notch mystery solvers, even owning a little detective agency called Mystery Incorporated, but went missing after their latest case. Or LAST case. She tries her best to figure out what happened to them, even if it means solving every mystery in town.

Norville “Shaggy” Rogers is a--Stick with me here--boy who was cut off by a family that was even RICHER than the Blakes. Through them, he has learned a vast majority of skills that might not SEEM like they come in handy...but you never know. Stuff like mini-golf, cooking, music, and even acting are skills Shaggy learned from stuff his parents put him through.

Shaggy’s family made bank through the snacks industry, and the reason why he got cut off is because of him being an utter embarrassment. They told him to take acting classes, and he signed up for nothing but exclusively improv lessons so he can begin a bit at a drop of a hat. They put him in charge of driving deliveries, and he gave their delivery van a DISGUSTINGLY bright paint job. And when they gave him the chance to make a new product to invest money in, his idea were dog food that people could eat. Dog food named after the dumb hound that was a failure of a security dog.

Needless to say, they kicked Shaggy to the curb, leaving him nothing but the van he ruined and the dog he seemed to LOVE, oh so much. And you know what? Shaggy couldn’t be happier. He hated the rich lifestyle, and is happy to be out on his own with his van and his best friend. Speaking of...

Scooby-Doo is a great dane that can talk. How can he talk? No one knows. Every time someone asks Shaggy how it could be physically possible, he just shrugs and says, “Like, he just DOES.” So, it’s better not to question it.

Same goes for a lot of what Scooby does. He can stand on hind legs and dress like a woman? Sure. He can somehow make a sandwich that’s ten-feet high? Why not? He can DRIVE the VAN? Go for it! It doesn’t make sense, but does it really NEED to?

Needless to say...Velma constantly tries to experiment on Scooby with each new skill that he does.

As for the gang’s dynamics, all the usual stuff is still there.

Fred’s the leader, but not one who gives orders. More like steers them in the right direction. Being the one to speak up and inspire the gang to be their best selves.

Daphne is a people person who has a LOT of connections that can get the gang anywhere they need to go. And anything. Just as long as it’s not TOO expensive. Wouldn’t want to disappoint Mother and Father.

Velma’s the one who already LOVES to do research, always ready to crack on in any case.

Shaggy and Scooby...are still cowards who will run away screaming. But when the first friends they’ve ever made are in danger, you’d better believe they’ll be the first to jump in to save them.

And the relationship is still the same, with some changes.

For Fred and Daphne, it was, of course, love at first catch...You see, Daphne fell off a ladder when hanging decorations for a school dance and Fred caught her. And she’s been falling for him ever since...sometimes in the literal sense.

Velma doesn’t have a crush on Daphne this time, unfortunately. But for Daphne’s twin sister MARCY? Well...

Shaggy and Scooby still get along, with Scooby being more than a best friend to Shaggy. He’s the only family Shaggy has. And the only family he cares for at that.

And Daphne looks at Shaggy’s life, worried if THAT’S what she’ll become one day. But after hearing his outlook on things and how grateful he is for the life he has NOW, Daphne begins wondering if his life really is all that bad...

Finally, there’s the mysteries. Throughout the town, there are these spooky legends that kids and even adults need to be wary of. Like Mother Macabre, a ghost nun who haunts kids that break the rules late at night. Or the Lakeface Monster, a sea creature that guards a lake that looks absurdly like a face.

There’s all kinds of truths to be dug up and unmasked with these monsters and, the more that the gang uncovers, the more they realize that a lot of these mysteries are connected. Each culprit tends to lead a bigger one. A mastermind who’s organizing every mystery in town to hide their own shady deals. The question is WHO? Well, it’s up to a few meddling kids and their dog to figure THAT out.

And that’s my pitch. Thoughts?

[thestarlightforge]

I haven’t seen Velma yet, so I’m currently withholding judgment. But I fear the problem is not that it’s a bad show, but that Velma is not Devi Vishwakumar. (Or Dr. L.)

Now, I love Devi (and Never Have I Ever). She’s flawed, she’s loving, she really just needs to love herself—she’s so real. I also watched Mindy Project many moons ago, and I loved Dr. L, too. But Mindy Kaling lends herself towards these combative writing structures where characters’ flaws are often very, very on the surface and you have to dig for the good parts about them. Paxton H-Y was, it appeared, a womanizing a/hole. Trent was a lazy douchebag. Eleanor was a theatre stereotype and that’s it. Fab was a (probably autistic) closeted lesbian stereotype with no social skills. Ben was a rich, Hollywood-connected Jewish person (already a concerning bit of antisemitism) and a proud a/hole, lightly racist, rich smart boy stereotype. And then there’s Devi.

Once you spend some time with each of these characters, what makes them beautiful comes out. Paxton is a great brother, is tired of being constantly objectified, is a caring young dude and wants to be valued as a human being. Trent is one of the most oddly deep, philosophical dudes I’ve ever seen on TV. Eleanor has found some depth over the years. Fab had a fun, sweet coming out storyline, and then another with Aneesa where she learned to trust herself. Ben finally paid for his stress and his hubris, improved his relationship with his dad and friends, and is a much deeper guy now. Their friend group is much stronger for the turmoil it’s survived. Devi still has a long way to go, but she’s been through hell and learned a lot, too.

Kaling’s style works because, for the most part—Devi’s wheelchair moment being a horrible exception, and we breathe a sigh of relief she mostly abandoned that storyline because the research on how to do it elegantly was not there and it did not land—she knows the toys she’s playing with. She knows the tropes. So she knows how to upend them in interesting ways.

On the one hand, maybe people are right—maybe her style of storytelling doesn’t lend itself well to the Scooby Gang. But maybe, Mystery Incorporated fans are resistant to entertaining the possibility that Fred started off a lightly racist, misogynistic douchebag. Maybe the gang didn’t start off super close. Cartoons nowadays lend themselves to conflict, probably more so than when they were 90% marketed to kids, so theoretically, Mindy’s style of conflict-first should work. But people really love Fred, and Daphne, and Shaggy and Scoob. They remember them from the style of cartoon that dropped us into the middle of the story, when their emotional growth had happened already and their bonds were strong.

But maybe Fred got PTSD from Daphne getting kidnapped because they didn’t have a stellar relationship to start, but he realized how much of an ass he was and she came to be one of his favorite people. Maybe he became a golden retriever because he realized the error of his ways. Maybe they had such strong bonds in Incorporated because those bonds were forged with work and time and growth and change—and those are the best kinds of relationships, when they help each other grow into better people. We may be resistant to the Kaling way because it lays bare where our childhood heroes may have come from, and life is messier than the sweetness Incorporated served us. But isn’t it a good message, that even the worst douchebags can become how we remember Fred?

I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t seen it yet. But it’s probably gonna give us lesbian Velma on screen for once, and Kaling is a pretty great writer, so I’m willing to give her a chance for at least a few episodes.

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 PSTD in an episode where Daphane got kidnapped and for majority of the series, Daphane was just BEGGING for him to fuck her but he was oblivious and respected their friendship.

Shut up, Fred is a good boy.

[emiko-matsui]

How would Brennan DM Scooby Doo? Bonus if you can say who would play which character.

you have no idea what you just walked into because jokes on you i have already given this thorough thought. well technically ive given my bad kids scooby doo au thorough thought which i know you didn't ask for but no one has asked me about it so i'll take this chance.

fabian seacaster: daphne blake. this is the most obvious, the slightly out of touch rich kid who always looks clean and is the most competent with a weapon. also the designated looks tm of the team. the face you might say. the pr team.

kristen applebees: fred jones. might be controversial but undoubtedly true. the one with the most clean cut american face/image. assumes the role of the leader but is objectively bad at it. kind of like how fred always band the team together for a trap that will go poorly, or how kristen will get up on a table to deliver an inspiring speech before a big fight that no one perceives as inspiring.

riz gukgak: velma dinkley. firstly, shortest member of the team AND the brains of the operation. you can tell by looking at them that they don't get any sleep. a little insane and autism/adhd solidarity. socially inept teenagers.

adaine abernant: shaggy rogers. tall awkward gangly kids. the only one in the gang with a pet! serious undiagnosed anxiety disorders. no one can really agree who their parents are. often portrayed coming from wealthy origins. this is so funny but they kinda have the same hairstyle. like the same length, both dirty blonde, just adaine's is a little cleaner feminine cut.

gorgug thistlespring: scooby doo. now hear me out. huge. huuge. very much ruh-roh energy. easily freaked. lives in a very loving home <3. adopted. and my final conclusion, cute as hell.

fig faeth: scrappy doo. now a lot of people are gonna be angry at me for this, but im fucking right. strongest connection with scooby out of all the group. violent, cocky, ready to fistfight ghosts and demons. frequently needs to be stopped by the rest of the gang to do stupid stuff.

hi also because you did ask how brennan would dm it, i'll give you that too lol. he would definitely have an overarching villain which would have something to do with the lack/distrust of adults. would toe around the subject if ghosts actually are real or not. the mystery machine would have actual game mechanics and would matter in the final fight. they would sooo be on a roadtrip and all the recurring npcs would be mysterious and/or gay.

[cometcrystal]

daphne blake character moments

because nobody knows what the hell to do with her

sdway thru tsds - chrissy chlapecka vibes. so clumsy she trips on air. very curious and nosy. severely underrated and spunky. also very karen from mean girls. she’s a bimbo ok and she DOES NOT GET KIDNAPPED AS MUCH AS YOU PEOPLE LIKE TO ACT LIKE SHE DOES

scrappy era - complete badass. would fistfight god if provoked. proud mother of one (1) scrappy. jack of all trades but in a chill way. one of the most confident daphnes by far, second only to:

pup - diva. her butler is an accessory. knows exactly how to insult you to make you cry in 7 seconds or less. would kick fred in the shins for 1 corn chip

ZI quartet - #girlboss. ryan bergara. very goal-driven and reminiscent of scrappy era daphne, but more aggressive now. a good choice for favorite daphne, but not my own pick

gunnverse - feminism 101 take on daphne but it’s okay because it’s sarah michelle gellar. martial arts is introduced here. stannable. the go-to for daphne fancams and the first daphne many people think of.

what’s new era - also kinda feminism 101 but more laid back. imo the most bland daphne. “my makeup is my battle armor” kinda daphne but she’s really sweet so its ok and i love her regardless.

get a clue - the only daphne that actually forreal has no personality (and it’s due to having 5 minutes of mostly silent screentime in this show)

sdmi - boy crazy/hopeless romantic. could have been handled much much better (so many missed chances w her family trauma) but she was my first daphne so i still love her.

CN live actions - theater kid/actress which was a weird choice? & return of diva daphne. also underrated and underrloved. tweets “i need to be loved” at least once a week

2010s DTVs - a little bit mean but mostly just tired of everyone’s shit (and rightfully so). has fangirl moments often. very vain but in a chill way

be cool - throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks (literally). has no identity due to growing up in a stifled rich household so is now doing literally everything. very annoying (affectionate). jack of all trades but in a manic way

daphne and velma - very peppy. spoiled but isn’t mean because she doesn’t know any better. grew up using only lisa frank stationery. might have my favorite sense of fashion out of all the daphnes

guess who - kind of reminiscent of her retro self but more bland. she’s still goofy and sweet tho just less so. the gang doesn’t do much in this series overall it’s ok i love them all still

scoob - the empath. which is kinda weird to me? shes been the heart of the group before but never the most empathetic and angelic. thatd be either fred or shaggy, depending. still a wonderful daphne all things considered but the arc feels shoehorned bc shes the "pretty" girl

most modern movies - 60% be cool daphne, 5% every other daphne. ultimate form. these movies are peak daphne. i love her so much she is so powerful and funny and a goofball and sweet and just the best. my fav daphne. YES maybe i’m biased!!!

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Know-It-Alls are Lazy Writing

The Know-It-All is a trope in fiction where the Smart Guy of the team becomes a walking encyclopedia. There’s nothing wrong with a character being intelligent, but this character  is almost too knowledgeable. It’s the intellectual equivalent of a soft magic wizard with no limits to their magic. If there’s nothing they can’t fix, then the story loses tension because they can pull any information needed out of thin air, regardless of whether it makes sense for them to know this information or not. Pidge from Voltron Legendary Defender is probably one of the most egregious versions of this trope by the sheer volume of her fields of study. Among her list of know-it-all topics, she can reprogram alien tech she’s never seen before and yet she has to study how to speak Altean, bypass alien technology without having to study it first, she knows how to code programs, speaks fluent binary, can recognize mechanical messages inside organic spores, knows extremely advanced mathemathics and science on par with college level advanced coursework, and she’s 14. Granted yes, Pidge lives in the future. The Voltron Earth is ahead of us technologically. And yes, prodigies and geniuses exist. Except here’s the difference. Most prodigies and geniuses have an area of expertise. One particular field they excel at. If Pidge was just good at physics and like astronomy, that wouldn’t be such an issue. If she was just a hacker, that wouldn’t be such an issue. The issue is that if it’s an intellectual endeavor, Pidge will pull the information out of her butt. Occasionally, they do manage to circumvent this by having Allura and/or Curan be the exposit faucet, but it’s usually Pidge. Now, Voltron is not abysmal. In the later seasons, when introduced to Lotor’s nanny, it’s not Pidge who immediately seeks information, it’s Hunk. And it’s not Pidge who pulls a solution out of her butt. It’s Hunk. Using the information about Galra culture that he took the initiative to learn. And I think this is where Hunk gets under utilized. Hunk is the engineer. He’s a mechanic. If they’d altered it so that Hunk was the hacker tech guy, Hunk would have a more defined role in the group. As the mechanic who does the physical techy stuff, while pidge does physics, makes calculations, and understands the science behind outer space anomolies. But because Pidge does all the hacking, Hunk is just kind of there. Curan needs to fix the warp drive but does the MECHANIC go to help repair it? No, they send the math nerd. Because Pidge hogs all of the intelligence for herself, no one else can really show their own areas of intelligence. Keith’s an ace pilot, he knows the terminology for flight maneuvers. Yet does he ever instruct his teammates to use these maneuvers, or execute attack formations? Of course not because the only kind of intelligence in Voltron is the hard sciences. Nobody uses any other kind of intelligence. And when they do veer into other topics like Altean Alchemy, the specifics of this intellectual field of study are conspicuously absent to the surprise of absolutely nobody.

Velma from the Scooby-Doo franchise is the other egregious example. Scooby-Doo is a series where three friends and a dog fool around while Velma literally solves the entire mystery by herself. More recently, the franchise has tried to flesh out the gang and give them more defined roles. Sure, Fred’s the leader, Shaggy and Scooby are the heart of the team, and Velma solves the mysteries, but what is Daphne’s role? Some have argued that because she’s rich, she bank rolls the gang’s mystery solving. Sometimes she provides the Mystery Machine, other times it’s Shaggy’s van. Daphne has become more of an athlete since Grey Griffin took over her voice role, knowing martial arts, being a surfer, and playing volleyball. Mystery Incorporated expanded on Daphne’s rich upbringing by having her know some things about high culture, such as fashion, art, and cuisine. But even this knowledge was rather shallow, and nothing really seems to stick. Heck, in Be Cool Scooby-Doo, they reduced Daphne to a cloudcoocoolander comic relief character. They can’t seem to figure out what to do with her. Shaggy and Scooby know a bit about food but that’s about it. And Fred knows about traps. Meanwhile Velma is an expert on History, Math, Science, Biology, Linguistics, Coding, Hacking, Robotics, Chemistry, Forensics, and that’s just what I can remember. I mean, in Mystery Incorporated, she pulls the ability to read Mayan or Aztec or Incan (I can’t remember anymore) out of her butt because she took a course on it and boy isn’t that convenient? Frankly, if given a chance to create a series for the franchise, I’d make it so that each member of the gang had an area of expertise so that they can all work together to solve the mysteries as a collective. Have Fred want to be a detective, so he’s studied forensics and criminal psychology to profile suspects. Have Daphne with her theater kid background know about make-up, costumes, and special effects to figure out how they’re pulling off their disguises. Have Shaggy be a loner weirdo conspiracy theorist with a knack for hacking and coding, thus why he’s a coward when confronted with a physical threat, yet remains on a mystery solving team out of a thirst for the truth. Lastly, leave Velma with her nerdy pursuits. Chemistry, engineering, math. This way, Velma’s not robbed of her role as the “team nerd” but it stops feeling like Velma’s the only one pulling her weight on the team. By giving everyone something to do, you make each member feel important to the job, and that the mysteries can’t be solved without each of them contributing. This is the crux of the know-it-all. If one person knows it all, what does the rest of their team know?

[mxterhyde]

I don’t know if it would be better for Scooby to be service or emotional support since I have neither, but like the concept is RIGHT THERE. Two guys, two girls, BOOM they’re roommates problem solved. In some of the buildings at my university they once literally had the rooms be boy room/girl room/boy room/girl room down the hallways in coed buildings. They can be neighbors!

If not service dog and Scooby is just a pet then HEY, maybe Shaggy and Fred live off-campus in a house they had to get together and commute to. Fred wanted out of his folks’ home but couldn’t afford it (stop making him rich that’s Shaggy’s job), originally planning to very sadly live in the van. Shaggy sees him day one after getting off the bus from the expensive off-campus housing (and hating not having a car), just goes “hey I got a trade for you”. BAM roommates with Scooby ta da it’s not hard. Fred drives them to campus every day and covers car expenses, Shaggy has the rent and makes sure the school doesn’t get mad about him very obviously having more roommates than he said he did.

Daphne and Velma were just vibing in the not-very-good on campus dorms, then met these cool dudes with a wholeass house and went ??? are you kidding me? They can hang as much as they want as long as they’re fine with couch surfing and dog hair. Don’t know about other people but I would gladly exchange tutoring services for the chance to pet their dog, and that’s pretty much their setup for a while before they become closer friends. They just sleep in their dorm and show up in the kitchen sometimes. They hate using the laundry room on their floor so they will show up on Tuesday night with a hamper and collection of shitty horror movies.

I want this dammit just give it to me I WILL WRITE IT FOR FREE

i actually wanted a mature scooby doo reboot, but NOT LIKE THIS. I didn't want edgy and spiteful, I just wanted the classic show but without the limitations of children's shows. I wanted Shaggy to openly smoke pot and the characters have more developed personalities and relationships with each other. (not just romantically, but mostly i wanted more developed friend dynamics.)

Scooby is such a classic and you could do really cool things with its foundation if you actually cared and put effort in.

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

Why do you hate Scooby Doo Mystery Inc so much?

Hate is a pretty big word that I really don’t like to throw around that often because to me it implies zero redeeming qualities and that it never should have existed. I don’t think the Scooby world would be better off if MI never existed because despite it’s flaws there was a pretty huge following for it in the beginning. It did something that wasn’t all that common for CN shows at the time and that was trying to take a more serious and heavy-handed approach to the Scooby gang’s lives. It also brought back the concept of an overarching story line that was pretty well done before it go so convoluted (the last Scooby show to do that was 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and that was back in the 80′s). It showed that the standard Scooby formula actually worked really well with this sort of set up. 

It also is the best looking show and I really do mean that. The art-style is appealing to the eye and the color pallet was shooting for this whole neon noir that worked really well. The directing and camera work is set up like a teen slasher movie and it meshes nicely with the vibe the show is going for. The designs for the monsters are also pretty memorable from the first season and look great. Like I can remember most of the episodes from the first season simply because of the set pieces and monster designs (the episode where they end up in a house underground is one of my favorites aesthetically).

This was also the first series with Matthew Lillard as Shaggy since the 2002 and 2004 live-action films and he does a great job for sure. The performances from the whole cast are good as a whole (not exactly off brand for them).

There’s the episode “Night Terrors” that got like 11 year old me shipping Shaphne in the first place.

So there are definitely some things I respect from MI and I wouldn’t say that I hate the show. I think strongly dislike suits my feelings more.

Despite the fact that it did a lot for Scooby it also messed a lot of it up (this is coming from someone who watched it several times all the way through). The story got too complicated and there were a lot of unresolved plots and character actions that didn’t make sense.

I think the worst crime it commits - and the one that my animosity is directed at - is that it’s characterization was the worst out of all the shows. It tries to sell the gang as the town outcasts who only have each other but most of the time I can’t buy that they’re close friends because of all the times they just stop talking to each other. It really feels like they hang out with each other on accident and would really be with literally anyone else. Most of the first season just feels like Daph is there because Fred is there and she wants Fred to jump her so.

The gang’s relationship is a key element of every Scooby show and if you leave the impression that they aren’t that close than you’ve got five characters acting independently that sometimes solve mysteries together.

Not to mention how badly the gang themselves are written.

I’ll start with Shaggy because he’s my guy and his treatment in MI makes me sad. Overall, I think he’s the most “in character” out of everyone but that still isn’t saying much. A lot of his development is through either Scooby or Velma and the Velma development was handled as poorly as possible. I know this show came out during a period where putting the guy on the receiving end of an abusive relationship was funny but that doesn’t make it okay. It’s played for laughs but even when I was little I didn’t think Shag being in a controlling relationship was amusing. When he breaks up with Velma (for a completely valid reason that doesn’t even mention her abuse of him) he’s painted as the bad guy and it’s brought up for the rest of the show. That effectively ruined his connection with the rest of the gang and now he’s more or less just there. He doesn’t get any emotional heart-to-hearts or scenes showing his relationship with the gang (the most he gets is with Daphne ironically). 

Most of the conflicts he alone faces are connected to Scooby or food and I feel like they could have explored so much more with him. Especially since that was the whole selling point of the show to begin with. The consistent fact that Shag is the glue that holds the gang together isn’t an element in this show either. I figured they might explore his obviously neglectful parents who still don’t seem too attached to the having a kid thing. But that didn’t happen and any outstanding Shaggy moments in the show aren’t as deep as the show promises.

Daphne easily gets it the worst. Her whole character is like completely dependent on Fred’s current attitude of her. Which is a shame because the show has these undertones of implying that Daphne is this eccentric, dorky, rich girl and I have no problem with that but nothing is done with it. Literally all of her characterization comes from Fred and any major development with her also comes from Fred. Season one her is pining for his affections relentlessly to the point that is seems kinda ridiculous. Even when they try and have Daphne “give up” on him she doesn’t even really do that. She’s just more inward about her feelings. I can’t even think of anything else to say about her because everything about her is just “SHE IS INTO FRED” in big red letters all over the story. I will mention that she is kinda sexualized in this show but it isn’t all that extreme. It’s not exactly illegal for a sixteen year old girl to wear bikinis (that she wears to get Fred’s attention of course). She did pull the teenager wearing lingire way before Riverdale did so props I guess (not really I still don’t understand the point).

It’s disappointing because Daphne is such a charming and lovable character in every show she’s in. Yet in MI she’s blown down to Fred’s arm candy and even when they promise to give her a character beyond that they really don’t. She falls back into the same relationship dynamic with him despite the supposed character growth.

MI Velma is given the backwards character arc of being the victim in an emotionally detached relationship. And it always confuses me because it’s obvious she had no interest in who Shaggy is because she wanted nothing to do with his life and kept trying to change him. Ironically she was trying to turn him into her arm candy and somehow convinced herself that he was the bad guy for not wanting to be that. The show wants you to feel bad for her because a boy chose a dog over her - but that isn’t even what happens! He states that he really isn’t ready for the kind of relationship Velma wants with him and that is painted as him choosing his dog. She holds that over him and Scooby’s heads for the rest of the show and I still don’t feel bad for her because she literally tried to force him to get rid of his dialogue quirk through physical harm. And he felt bad about it until the end of the episode????

When she isn’t abusing one of her best friends she’s usually talking down to all three of them because she’s perfectly aware that she’s smarter than them. Yet she’s the one who gets the most interesting story. Working for Mr. E and having an obvious lesbian relationship with Marcie are like actual things that progressed her character. Neither Shag or Daph get this treatment  and they don’t even get any character development to begin with. But every time I finish the show I stay at the same conclusion that I don’t like her all that much. Her redeeming quality could be her brutal sarcasm but that’s a character quirk that doesn’t fix who she is.

Oh Fred, dear little Fred. The one with the actual character arc that remains consistent. His character just got regulated to the dude-bro of your dreams with a trap/ascot obsession??? It’s pretty jarring to watch because Fred from the older shows is like this sweet guy who tries to play the mature one in the group. And then MI took that and threw it away so they could turn him into Captain Oblivious who only notices his feelings for Daphne when she expresses even the smallest bit of disinterest in him (how many relationships have I seen like that irl? Too many). There’s also the unspoken rule that all Fraphne development happens through jealousy (it’s been that way since Zombie Island and is still a regular thing). 

The thing is, there’s so much I could say about Fred yet not really all that much. He gets the most story and arguably the most screen-time. He prioritizes so many things over Daphne’s feelings for him and when they’re dating Daph states that she feels like one of his traps because he’s so controlling. He breaks her heart like it’s no big deal but then we’re supposed to believe he still loves Daph enough to actually stalk her?? The more I think about it the more shocked I get.

Actually, the more I talk about this show the more shocked I get. Mystery Incorporated has always been held to a higher regard as the best Scooby show. But that’s coming from the crowd that didn’t watch everything Scooby-Doo had to offer. 

Aside from the great art and animation, the integration of a greater evil happening behind the scenes, and probably the best score as well, MI’s flaws outweigh all of the good things it brings to the table. I try to give it another chance and I am always disappointed because nothing is accomplished or done with the characters and that’s what I was promised. An overarching plot suggests character development and progression but we don’t get that. Instead we get the butchering of a cast of characters we love and a bogus ending that makes zero sense in the context of anything.

TLDR; MI sucks but I would still watch it everyday for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to watch Scoob! again.

[meddlingdaphne]

get to know DAPHNE BLAKE

The Blake family name comes with a legacy that extends far beyond Coolsville, California. Their wealth extends for generations, and their family tree spreads all across the globe. No matter what Blake you’re referring to, they’re doing something exceptional. An uncle that’s a movie director, an aunt that owns a record company, a sister that’s an astronaut. Everyone’s spectacular and it was just expected that Daphne would fall in line with that. 

Daphne’s the youngest of the Blake girls, and if there was ever a time where her parents were actively present in raising their children then it happened long before Daphne was born. Her father had a mega-corporation to run and her mother kept her phone glued to her ear as she organized galas and benefit dinners for the charity of the month. Daphne’s sisters were all teenagers when she was just a little girl, choosing parties and relationships over playing with their baby sister. With no one to turn to, Daphne grew close with the family butler Jenkins. 

For a while, Jenkins was Daphne’s only friend. He’d sit and dress her dolls with her, they’d have weekly tea parties with her stuffed animals and he’d read her bedtime stories every night. Jenkins always kept an air of professionalism about him, referring to her only as Ms. Blake despite the fact that he was more of a father figure to her than her actual father. The lines of their relationship are a little blurry, and Daphne is unsure if the butler truly does care for her or if he went out of his way for because he was expected to. Either way, she knows no matter what she can depend on Jenkins when she’s in a tight spot (and she often is.) 

When Daphne’s parents were around conversations hardly centered around her interests. Her parents are absolute pretentious snobs, judging everything the people around them did. A person’s worth was based on the quality of their clothes and the job they held. When she was younger she held some of those pretentious values herself, caring way more about people’s appearance more than much else. But becoming friends with Shaggy, Velma and Fred changed all of that for her. Spending time with them was the first time she’d ever felt truly seen. More than just the spoiled little rich girl, more than something to admire for her beauty.

At first, Daphne didn’t share much about her family with the gang. They knew she was rich and that she had a butler who’d move mountains to make sure she was happy, but not very much else about her life was shared. She never liked talking about how neglected she felt at home. She always thought at least she had parents, even if they weren’t around on a daily basis or put a lot of pressure on her. Her problems were trivial in the grand scheme of things, and a lot of their peers made sure she knew that. But never the Mystery Inc. gang, when she finally did open up they listened to her and gave what she had to say the same attention they’d give a mystery. Daphne was so touched she almost cried. She didn’t though because she didn’t want to ruin her mascara, but she almost did and that’s what matters. 

Daphne doesn’t have the best relationship with her older sisters, especially her sister Daisy. Growing up she often felt overshadowed by them. Their mother especially spent a lot of time comparing Daphne to her sisters, wanting Daphne to do something worthy of the Blake name when she grew older. While Delilah, Dorothy and Dawn were too busy to really bother their baby sister, Daisy took a special interest in picking on her sister. She picked apart the younger Blake’s outfits and made fun of her friends. If Daphne so much as got a B- in a class Daisy was there to remind her that she had been a straight A student. Life in sister’s shadow was cold, living under her constant nitpicking was colder. 

It isn’t until her sophomore year in high school that Daphne tells her family about Mystery Inc. By then they’d solved a handful of mysteries and had made a bit of a name for themselves around town for their meddling. The silly neighborhood mysteries the kids solved were no where near her parents radar, and despite a lot of the town knowing about it her parents were utterly clueless. The news didn’t come from Daphne by choice, rather by force. Daisy brings it up at dinner, knowing exactly the reaction the information would earn from her parents. 

It’s safe to say dinner doesn’t go well. Her parents write off Mystery Inc. as a silly game, something unimportant that they didn’t have to pay much attention to. They spent the majority of the dinner making fun of the entire thing and insisting that she and her friends were wasting her time. Most importantly that she was wasting her time hanging out with these kids in the first place.  

Danger Prone Daphne is a nickname she hates. Even though it does hold a lot of merit. In the pursuit of their cases Daphne is always the first to fall through a trap door, get kidnapped, or trip over something. It’s a part of the reason she started looking into self defense classes. She dropped a lot of money on getting the best instruction that she could. Thinking back on it, as much as she hates the name, she’s kind of proud of how far she’s come because of it. 

In high school Daphne was a part of so many clubs. She wasn’t dumb, but she knew her grades weren’t as spectacular as her sisters’ and especially not Velma’s. So she joined a lot of clubs hoping it would beef up her resume, and it was a great way to stay in the know and make friends! If something happened around town that needed investigating it was likely Daphne would hear about it first. One of the clubs she’d joined was the broadcasting club. She can’t lie, what initially drew her to it was the prospect of being in front of the camera. But the more she worked with her fellow club members and their instructor, the more she appreciated the work they did. 

Daphne was nominated for prom queen, because of course she was. The gang had been asked to investigate some suspicious sightings that was scaring away business at their favorite food spot. Her parents were thrilled at the prospect of their little girl being prom queen, and Daphne was excited about it too. Or so she thought. When the gang found out the perpetrator was skulking around the diner again, there was a moment where Daphne wondered if she was really going to leave her senior prom early to go chasing some creep. But the doubt lasted for only a second, and Daphne ran after her friends to go investigate the sighting. It was that moment that she realized solving mysteries was something she loved more than being applauded for her beauty and glamour. 

The diner case was, at the time, the biggest case the gang had solved at the time. It earned them front page in their local newspaper and the headline ‘Meddling Kids Save Local Business’ made its way across the web. Mystery Inc was slowly starting to get the appreciate Daphne always thought they deserved. 

When she told her parents that she wanted to major in journalism in college there were mixed opinions. On one end, they thought that would be a great job for her. Not as important as being a doctor or an astronaut or anything else her sisters were doing, but a good job nonetheless. Maybe she could own her own entertainment empire! That glee died the second they going out she intended to follow her friends and go to the same college. Daphne’s parents never miss an opportunity to tell her just how disappointed they are in her choices. 

She does have plans to own her own entertainment empire. She wants to start with an investigative journalism show, she’s thinking Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake has a nice ring to it.

Despite being ridiculously rich, Daphne thought it’d be in her best interest to learn some financial independence. Her parents still send her money monthly to make sure she’s ok, and of course they’re paying her tuition. But Daphne hardly spends the money they send her, she puts it away in her savings account in case of a rainy day. And even then she doesn’t really think she’s going to use it because of her pride. Daphne got a job at Bibbidi Bobbiddi Beauty, and she’s made a name for herself amongst their regulars for always knowing the best products to try. 

Always looks her best! No matter what. Her work out clothes are always the cutest, her makeup is always on point and her hair always perfectly in place. She’s not as vain and appearance obsessed as she used to be, but she still takes great pride in the way she looks. When she looks her best, she feels her best. 

Daphne is almost always spending her free time at the gym. She’s interested in expanding her knowledge of self defense outside of just karate. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS. 

MYSTERY BUDDIES!! anyone who knows anything about the powers and magic? She wants to talk to you 

SHOPPING BUDDIES!! this one is pretty self explanatory, she wants someone to buy cute clothes with pls 

REGULARS. anyone who comes into the makeup store, whether it’s for themselves or to buy a gift for their partner. chances are Daphne helped them and she’d be ecstatic to help them again 

CRUSH. canonically Daphne keeps a romantic interest, and i’mma be real she is very easily smitten so a crush or two, whether unreciprocated or not, would be nice 

EXES. yeah...yeah. y’all know i say this every time but the angstier the better

[mxliv-oftheendless]

Black Dahlia (Chapter 8)

Greetings life forms, and welcome back to Black Dahlia! So this is a very pivotal chapter for Heather, and I’ve been looking forward to posting it all day. Also featured in the chapter is a certain person who I’ve been wanting to introduce for... a very long time now, heh. So I won’t keep you with my talking any longer. Read on and enjoy!

Home.

It sounded so odd coming out of Heather’s mouth. She hadn’t been home in over thirty years. She’d been forced to make Earth her new home, but that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her true one. Her true home, her true family…

What would happen when they arrived? Of course the Elder would know about what had happened; the Elder knew all. But what would happen?

The strange vibrating sensation came again, and when it faded, Heather immediately knew where they were.

KISSteria. Home.

The gang looked around as they landed, awe clear on their faces. “Whoa…” Daphne breathed. “Where are we?”

“It’s like KISS World, but weirder,” Fred remarked. “If that’s possible.”

Velma was the only one still skeptical. “Seems like more special effects to me,” she stated.

Heather didn’t even have to look at KISS to know they were rolling their eyes at that.

Daphne looked around. “I don’t know, it looks pretty real.” She stepped closer to Fred. “I’m afraid,”

“Come on, Daphne, we’re still in the theme park,” Velma insisted. “We’ve seen stranger things.”

Starchild wisely chose not to comment on that and waved his hand. “Come, Scooby gang. We must seek the Elder.”

As Heather went to catch up with them, she heard Fred say, “No, these guys take the cake of strangeness,”

After a few seconds, the gang caught up with the five. Heather noticed that Shaggy and Scooby were no longer wearing the boots.

She looked around. This was the central part of the city, normally a hub of activity. But it was empty, completely devoid of life. Probably an evacuation measure, most likely. Off in the distance, on one side she saw the royal palace, and some distance away from that, she saw a massive temple that her heart hurt slightly at the sight of.

“Where is everyone?” Daphne asked aloud.

Right on cue, people began to stream out into the area, surrounding them. Heather recognized them as KISSterian soldiers.

In front of their group, the crowd parted and a small knot of people stepped forward. And at the head of the group was the Elder.

She hadn’t changed at all; she still commanded a regal presence. Heather felt the intense urge to bow before her.

“Who’s that?” Scooby whispered aloud.

“That’s the Elder,” Heather whispered back.

“She’s certainly not the Younger,” Velma quipped. Heather nudged her side with her elbow and shook her head disapprovingly at her.

The Elder spoke. “A shadow has fallen across KISSteria, and your arrival here only confirms the worst. The Crimson Witch has the Rock.”

“I’m afraid so,” Starchild replied mournfully. “We lost her in the portal.”

“Then we have little time to act.” The Elder turned to the Scooby gang. “Who are they?”

“Earth kids,” Demon replied.

“Are they worthy?”

Demon shrugged. “Meh,”

Starchild gave a better answer. “Their hearts are pure, their spirits strong.”

“And their stomachs empty!” Shaggy added.

“Reah, rempty!” Scooby agreed.

Heather glared at them. “Boys!” she hissed. “Not now!”

The Elder looked solemnly at them. “You children should prepare yourselves. If the Crimson Witch succeeds in releasing the Destroyer, he will engulf your world in a torrent of darkness and evil.”

Fred suddenly stepped forward. He had somehow gotten white paint on his face, and there was a black mark below his eye that Heather at first thought was an injury, but was really a slanted crescent moon. “I’m ready, your majesty!” he declared.

Heather hid her face in her hand, sighing. Fred…

Daphne looked at his face. “Fred… is that makeup?”

“It’s a moon,” Fred informed her. He turned back to the Elder.

“Whoa!” Catman exclaimed at the sight of him. “Who hit you, buddy?”

Fred frowned in irritation. “No one,”

“Looks like a black eye,” Spaceman commented.

“It’s not!”

“Nice shiner,” Demon said, smirking in amusement.

“It’s a moon!”

Heather shook her head. “Fred, sweetie… no. Please stop.”

The Elder looked at him, and Heather wondered if she was thinking Fred wasn’t taking this as seriously as he should have been. “Please, you seem like a nice boy. Go stand with your friends.”

Daphne yanked him over to her. “Fred,” she hissed. “Are you trying to impress me?”

“No!” Fred insisted. “It’s just that, well, you’ve been hanging all over Starface!”

“Have not!”

“Have so!”

“Have not!”

“Have so!”

“Have not!”

Heather sighed again. This was not how they were supposed to be acting in the face of the potential end of the world.

Velma stepped in. “Guys, guys, you’ve got to stop this. If we’re ever going to finish this cosmic boondoggle and get back to solving the real mystery, we need to act like a team. All of us.” She gestured to KISS. “Even these weirdos.”

Heather smiled at that. The Elder looked rather pleased at Velma’s words. “The sarcastic girl speaks the truth. Only together will you have the power and skills needed to defeat the Destroyer.”

The Elder suddenly turned to Heather. “Heather McMann, step forward,”

Heather froze, looking back at her. Then she nervously stepped away from the gang and before the Elder, bowing her head in respect.

“It’s been many years since you last stood in your home realm,” the Elder said to her.

Heather only nodded, her hair swinging in front of her face. “Yes, it has, my Queen,”

“We all would like to know why you remained on Earth, when you were once given the chance to return…” the Elder stepped to the side. “… but it is not my place to ask.”

Heather looked up, and her eyes moistened at who it was she saw.

It was a woman dressed in red robes, with long black hair spilling down her back. She wore a silver circlet in her hair with a design in the shape of a lotus flower, and in her hand was a wooden staff with a ruby set in the top.

She was Red Lotus, the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of the Natural Order.

Heather fell to her knees and bowed her head. “High Priestess,” she breathed.

Red Lotus looked down at her. “Why do you kneel, child?” she asked, her voice as calm and rich as she remembered.

“I… I am not worthy to stand before you,” Heather replied, sounding meek even to herself. “Not after what I’ve done.”

Red Lotus stepped forward until she was standing above her. “We all know of what the Crimson Witch did to your powers,” she said. “You were given the chance to return home to us… and you gave it up for another. Why?”

Heather was silent for a moment. This was it. She had to tell the truth—she’d been hiding it for so long, even from herself. “I… I didn’t feel worthy of the chance to return,” she admitted. “What happened to me was my own doing. I felt I didn’t deserve a second chance—that I no longer deserved my place in the Order.”

Red Lotus reached down and lifted Heather’s chin with her finger. She was gazing softly at Heather. “Child… you are a Sister of the Natural Order. You will always be a Sister. You will always have a place in the Order, in your family. And what happened was not your own doing. You did not deserve your suffering.”

It wasn’t my fault.

Heather’s heart felt lighter than it had been in years as she processed that. It wasn’t my fault.

“Please forgive me,” she said quietly.

Red Lotus smiled gently at her. “My dear child… there is nothing to forgive,”

Red Lotus stepped back. “Do you swear to uphold the good laws and teachings of the Sisterhood?”

Heather’s heart began to quicken as she realized what was happening, and bowed her head again. “I swear,”

“Do you swear to follow the path of light, and to never allow your hearts to be blackened?”

“I swear,”

“Do you swear to use your gifts for the good of the Sisterhood and KISSteria?”

“I swear,”

Red Lotus raised her staff. “Then, as High Priestess of the Sisterhood of the Natural Order, I return that which has been taken from you.”

Her staff glowed red, and coils of soft red mist surrounded Heather. The black dahlia pendant began to glow, and the glow spread across her entire body. The mist slowly changed from red to a swirling mix of black, red, and purple.

The mist suddenly changed form into a blooming dahlia flower, and as the petals broke off and swirled around her, Heather felt a change come over her. A calming sensation washed over her, and she felt a familiar rush of power. The part of her that had been missing for so long was slowly returning again, until she felt something she hadn’t felt in so long.

She felt whole again.

The sensation passed, and Heather looked up. She glanced down at her hair and realized with a jolt that it had turned from blonde to black.

Red Lotus was smiling at her. “Arise, my child,”

Heather rose to her feet, and looked down at herself. Her clothing was still the same, but her skin looked fairer, smoother, and younger. She felt younger.

A smile, a genuine smile, bloomed across her face.

Behind Heather, the Scooby gang was watching in speechless amazement while each member of KISS had wide grins—or in Demon’s case, a wide smirk.

The Elder was smiling at Heather as well. “Welcome back… Black Dahlia,”

-KISSTERIA-

Heather jumped and flew up into the air. A giddy smile burst across her face, and she twirled around in the air, laughing in pure joy at the old, wonderful feeling of weightlessness.

Their group had gone back to the transport, and were now headed to where the Crimson Witch was without doubt headed: the tomb of the Destroyer. But it would be a while before they got there, so Heather was taking the time to test out her reinvigorated powers. It felt good to be young again.

Down below on the transport, Starchild watched her, smiling fondly. “C’mon, Heather, come down,” he called up to her.

Heather floated down and landed, laughing slightly. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just… it’s been so long.”

Starchild smiled at her. “How does it feel?”

Heather looked down at herself; she just couldn’t stop smiling. “I feel like I’m whole again. And it’s wonderful.”

Starchild smiled at his old friend. She had aged more like a normal human as she spent more years without her magic; now she looked younger, and so much more alive than before. Her hair had returned to black, and along the right side of her face was a scattering of tiny black flowers. It was admittedly rather strange to see her with black hair after so many years of seeing her as a blonde.

Heather noticed him staring at her. “What?”

“Nothing, just… you with black hair looks a little strange.”

Heather blinked, then looked down at her long black hair. She took a lock of it in her hand, and closed her eyes. The same glow surrounded her, and from the scalp down her hair color began to lighten, slowly turning back to blonde. The glow faded, and she opened her eyes. She looked at her now-blonde hair and smiled. “That’s better. I liked being a blonde, anyway.”

Starchild laughed, then looked over at the Scooby gang. They were scattered around the transport, Velma inspecting Demon’s bass, Shaggy and Scooby looking at their surroundings, and Fred and Daphne standing and watching Heather and Starchild talk, whispering to each other. “I think you’d better go talk to them,” he suggested.

Heather nodded, and went over to Daphne and Fred. She smiled at them. “Talking about me?” she asked.

Daphne put a hand on Fred’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you two alone.” She went over to stand next to Shaggy and Scooby.

Fred turned to Heather. “So… let me get this straight… Your real name is Black Dahlia…”

“Yep,”

“You’re a member of the Sisterhood…?”

“The Sisterhood of the Natural Order, yes,”

“You have magic powers…”

“Yep,”

“Because you’re technically a witch…”

“Yep,”

“And you’re from another realm called KISSteria.”

“Yeah,”

Fred paused for a moment, then shouted, “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Heather crossed her arms. “Listen, Freddy, it’s a pretty crazy story when you think about it. Would you have believed me if I told you?”

Fred thought for a moment, then nodded in concession. “That’s fair. But still! I just always thought you were regular old Aunt Heather! Not…” he waved his hand at her. “… this!”

Heather’s look softened. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, sweetie. It’s just… your mother accepted me so unconditionally into her family, and after feeling alone and miserable for so long, I didn’t want to jeopardize any of that. That’s the truth.”

“But you weren’t alone,” Fred said in confusion. He pointed to the band. “You had them, didn’t you?”

Heather looked slightly sadly at him. “I did. But sometimes you can be surrounded by people who care about you, and still feel alone.”

“So… what happened to you?”

Heather smiled. “That’s a long story, Freddy, one I don’t have time to tell you right now. But I promise I’ll tell you someday.”

Fred sighed heavily. “I’ll have to be happy with that for now, won’t I?”

Heather laughed and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Yep.”

Daphne left Shaggy and Scooby and went over to Starchild, who was strumming a few chords to keep the transport on course. “Starchild, do you mind if I ask where you get your superpowers from?” she asked.

“Rock n roll!” Starchild replied proudly. “It powers everything in KISSteria!”

“Music is the essence of all life here,” Heather informed them. “It gives us our powers, but other powers—like the ones of the Sisterhood—are drawn from the natural world, like mine.”

“What powers do you have?” Daphne asked her.

Heather exchanged a conspiratorial grin with Starchild. “Oh, you’ll see,”

Meanwhile, Velma had taken up Demon’s bass and was plucking the strings. “I don’t know,” she said, sounding rather tired and done with the whole spectacle. “Maybe I can find friends with normal interests.”

Demon glared down at her. “Be careful with that bass,”

“Why?” Velma smirked snarkily at him. “Because it’s made from alien technology?”

“Because it costs more than your house.”

Velma got the point, and carefully set the bass down.

Shaggy and Scooby approached Demon. “Excuse me, Mr. Demon,” Shaggy said politely, “is it rock n’ roll that makes you breathe fire?”

“No,” Demon replied shortly.

“Then what does? Tamales?”

“No.”

“Rot peppers?” Scooby asked.

“No.”

“Chimichanga sauce?”

“No!”

Catman piped up from his drum set. “You might as well tell them, Demon,”

“Yeah,” Heather agreed. “Knowing Shaggy and Scooby, they’ll hound you about it all day.” She paused, then let out a laugh. “Heh. ‘Hound’.”

Demon sighed heavily, then spoke. “The secret to breathing fire is to swallow your fears,”

Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other in amazement. “Fears?” Scooby repeated.

“Like, I didn’t know you could eat those,”

“Swallow them up, hold them inside, and force them out as Demonfire,”

“Talk about your acid reflux,” Velma quipped. Heather snickered at that.

Spaceman suddenly turned to Heather. “Hey, Heath—Black Dah—er, what should we call you now?”

Heather thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Heather is fine for now,”

“Okay. Heather, I just thought of something—can you still play?”

Heather scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Can I still play—what kind of question is that?”

Spaceman smiled. “I only ask because you’re still playing with us at the concert.”

“Like, can you make a cool guitar like Spaceman did?” Shaggy asked her eagerly.

Heather thought for a moment, then closed her eyes and held her hands together. The same swirling glow of black, red, and purple surrounded her, and she stretched out her hands. A massive expanse of her colors filled the space between her hands, and took the shape of a guitar. Then it solidified, with a strap winding around her neck, and the glow disappeared, leaving behind a beautiful black Les Paul electric guitar.

Heather opened her eyes, and smiled when she saw the guitar. It was exactly like the one she had back in her house. “Well, I can still conjure up guitars. Now let’s see…”

Small black flames flared up before her, forming into a black guitar pick. She grabbed it, raised it up in the air, and brought it down.

The loud sound of the electric guitar blasted over the speakers, and Heather shredded her impromptu guitar solo, her fingers flying over the neck of the guitar in a jaw-dropping display of fretwork. The kids gawked at her as she played while KISS watched with wide grins.

When she finished, she grinned proudly. “Yep. Still got it.”

Catman banged on his cymbals and raised his drumsticks in the air, whooping ecstatically. “That’s our girl!”

Heather laughed at them.

“Dude, like I said before,” Shaggy said to Fred. “You officially have the coolest aunt ever!”

Fred grinned, for the first time in a while. “Yeah, I know,”

[ayellowbirds]

Keshet Rewatches All of Scooby-Doo, Pt. 21: “Jeepers, It’s The Creeper"

("Scooby-Doo, Where Are You", Season 2 Episode 4. Original Airdate: 10/3/1970)

AKA, "Scooby Gets Chicks, No I Mean Literally He Gets Baby Chickens The Screencap Below Is Misleading"

The villain of this episode is pretty memorable, but it’s not because of a distinctive shrieking laugh or an impressive design, nor even a particularly clever scheme. No, everyone remembers the Creeper because the show never stops telling you his name. 

The episode begins with a nighttime view of a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. A car comes to a stop as its driver and the audience catch sight of a tree that has fallen across the road, and as the driver gets out to try to move it, some creeper watches him from the bushes.

Sorry, the Creeper watches from the bushes. The definite article is important, you know.

Silently except for the musical sting, the Creeper moves from the bushes, menacingly approaching... and the view cuts to the gang driving along on their way to a school dance, reminding us all that they are teenagers and it’s really zoinksed-up that Dean Winchester kept trying to put the moves on Daphne, he’s nearly forty, what the fuck.

Sorry, school dance and hayride. Man, i know Scooby-Doo was meant to be wholesome entertainment to stave off the moral panic machine of activist groups concerned that Jonny Quest was too violent, but is this just them trying to be wholesome and pure, or were things really so boring in the early Seventies that a hayride was exciting for teens?

Shaggy’s priorities are more understandable. He’s jazzed about the buffet table, with chocolate-covered corn on the cob. Boy, that sounds like a mess.

Even Scooby gets  into it, putting on a bow tie he must have stolen from Fred Flintstone (though it does complement his spots nicely), combing his fur, and splashing on some violently pink “cologne”. Exactly why Scooby is dressing up is kind of confusing. Does he expect there to be other dogs present? Is he just fancying up for his own sake, to feel good about himself at a public event?

Whatever the case, the gang’s plans are brought to a literal halt as they hit the brakes, stopped by the sight of the car and tree from the scene before.

The gang identify the victim as a bank guard for no apparent reason, and find that the car has only been wrecked inside, in what Velma figures out is evidence of a search. The guard comes to only long enough to pass Fred a blank sheet of paper, and mumble, “the flame will tell... the Creeper....”

“The Creeper?” Daphne asks.

“Re Reeper?” Scooby repeats.

“Like wow, this is creepy! Who’s the Creeper?” Shaggy wonders, and if you haven’t figured out the name of the episode’s monster, boy, you’re going to have plenty of chances to come.

Scooby finds another paper, this one with the address of the bank president, who fortuitously lives nearby. The gang take the unconscious guard to his boss to see if he can help out.

Mr. Carswell, the bank president, demonstrates a discouraging lack of familiarity with medical emergencies and insists that the guard will be okay with a bit of rest. Fred relates the bad news that the sheriff is out of town for several hours, proving that this is an utter fantasy since a phone call from a rich white man’s home does not summon an immediate police presence to his defense.

Carswell explains to the gang that the Creeper has been robbing the bank in the dead of night, impossibly leaving the building behind with the doors and windows still locked from the inside. “He’s a phantom,” Carswell says, “a phantom that can walk right through walls.” 

Uncharacteristically, Fred brushes this mystery off. 

I guess we know that badly dancing to generic music is a higher priority for Fred than mysteries. The scene transitions to a lot of repeated animation of the gang and some extras twitching like they need to use the bathroom, with the liveliest dancing happening when Scooby cuts in on Velma and Shaggy to lead Shaggy to the buffet table.

Well, that explains one mystery: the chocolate covered corn on the cob was just Shaggy’s plan to abuse the buffet layout and combine things that were not meant to be combined.

As the boys chow down, the Creeper shows up outside the barn, lets out a groaning growl, and flips the power switch to the building. As dozens of extras who were not seen previously start to panic, Fred reassures everyone and suggests they all continue the party at the malt shop. It’s a moment that suggests Fred may have some charm outside of the gang, a notion that is never repeated in later series when it comes to putting Mystery Inc among ohter teens.

Scooby and Shaggy “clean up” by eating all of the remaining (probably untouched by anyone else) food, and taking what’s left out behind the barn to dump it by an “ugly scarecrow”... which turns out to be the Creeper, waiting the dark.

The Creeper gives chase, moaning, “PAPER!” over and over, a bit that may give one flashbacks to a coin-craving mummy. As the gang hide in a hay pile, the episode’s song starts up: Daydreamin’, a song built on the outdated and disproven notion that ostriches their heads in holes in the ground. Amidst this, the gang play keep-away with the blank sheet of paper the gang took off the guard, leading to at least one golden reaction from the Creeper.

That’s a face that says, “i watched you fold that into a paper airplane but i never thought you were going to actually throw it”.

The gang get split up by the chase, and Shaggy and Scooby wind up hiding in a chicken coop. Somehow, this disguise fools the Creeper:

In fact, it works so well that Scooby hatches an egg, causing a chick to imprint on him and follow Scooby and Shaggy around for the rest of the episode, acting as a kind of proto-Scrappy—especially once Scooby’s attempt to correct the misunderstanding winds up teaching the chick to bark.

Meanwhile, having survived a horse-drawn cart crashing off a cliff and upending on top of them, Fred, Velma, and Daphne discover a car hidden among the bushes. Inside is no clue to is owner, but there are scraps of photographic negatives left torn up all over the driver’s side floor.

Listen, just because she’s the smart one, it doesn’t mean speaking is her strong suit.

When Shaggy and Scooby try hiding among some shrubs as the Creeper stalks them, their little chick bursts out to start barking at the green ghoul. Scooby demonstrates a stellar grasp of the threats in the situation, and bursts out to rock the little bird to sleep, cradling it in his arms and humming Rock-a-bye Baby.

Which, naturally, does zoinks-all to deal with the Creeper, so Scooby kicks him in the shin and bolts.

In a sequence that adds nothing to the plot and makes no sense in context except to add some question of who the Creeper is, the gang follow a set of very large footprints out into the middle of nowhere, arriving at a gorge with a rope-and-plank bridge set across it. The planks are drawn back, curled up in a sort of drawbridge situation that probably wouldn’t work in real life.

The gang conclude that the Creeper must’ve gone across, and bribe Scooby into risking his life to cross by climbing over on the ropes, tossing him a Scooby Snack... which the chick catches and eats from its perch on Scooby’s nose. “A deal’s a deal,” Velma says, ignoring that the humans have not actually held up to their side of the deal in any reasonable fashion.

Miraculously, Scooby makes it across, and unrolls the bridge so the others can simply walk, leading Shaggy to reference a meme that was outdated a decade before this episode aired, by asking “is this trip necessary?” 

The gang make it inside, and discover the resident of the cave: the Hermit of the Hills, with voice acting credited to Frank Welker at what must be his highest pitch.

There’s so much extraneous nonsense going on in this episode, it really feels like they sat down, wrote a plot, and then realized they only had ten minutes worth of story. 

The Hermit welcomes the gang and invites them to dinner, and while the others have some doubts, Velma is certain he’s really the Creeper in a “hermit disguise”. While Velma accuses an innocent man, the Hermit offers Shaggy and Scooby a taste of the “specialty of the cave”, a soup so unpleasant that even Shaggy doesn’t want another taste, and that’s before the Hermit reveals that it’s squirrel stew with pickled bat wings and crabgrass root.

The gang flee in fear from a lonely old man who just wants some company for the first time in ages, and head for the Mystery Machine to get the sheriff on the flimsy conviction that the Hermit must be the Creeper.

Naturally, they find the Creeper waiting for them. They run back to the barn, but Velma is cornered by the villain.

“You wouldn’t hit somebody with glasses on, would you?” she dares, and the Creeper responds by snatching the frames right off her face.

So Velma kicks him in the shin.

Seriously, the Creeper takes a lot of shots to the shins. 

A barn-centric chase scene ensues, including a simplistic variation on the Freleng Door Gag, in which the Creeper chases the gang in and out of the barn doors while the scene stays static, alternating antics until Fred runs out and falls flat on his face, accidentally tripping up the Creeper. However, it’s not until the gang and the Creeper—minus Scooby and the chick—fall into a pile of hay atop a baler that things are resolved.

Following the suggestion of the barking chick, Scooby activates the baler, eviscerating the Creeper as it chops and compresses him like so much hay.

I’m kidding, of course, because this is a cartoon animated by people who have no idea how the most elementary farm machines work. The Creeper is captured along with the rest of the humans, and Scooby gets his karmic revenge for being forced over the bridge—as well as the opportunity to unmask the villain, revealing the Creeper as Mr. Carswell.

The scene cuts to Carswell in cuffs, and the Sheriff explains that he’d arrived at the bank president’s house to find the guard tied up in Carswell’s basement. The gang explain his “slick scheme”: waiting until everyone else left the bank for the day, Carswell filled his briefcase with cash, locked the safe and doors, and left. He’d later show up as the Creeper, making it appear that the “phantom” thief was fleeing the bank after walking through the walls, deliberately attracting witnesses.

Carswell evidently never considered that anyone would investigate further.

How exactly this camera was concealed, or what was “infrared” about it is never made clear. In the next shot, it’s clearly visible as Carswell shovels cash into his briefcase. The “paper” is revealed as a heat-sensitive photo of Carswell robbing the safe, providing the solid evidence he’d hoped to eliminate by chasing them... as if everything else didn’t incriminate him.

What does Carswell have to say about all that?

That’s right, it’s our second “meddling kids,” right after the first one!

The episode ends with Scooby returning the chick to its mother, and a “here we go again” type gag with more chicks hatching to imprint on him.

While memorable, it’s ultimately a weak episode. No matter how many times i've watched it over the years, i always seem to forget about the whole bit with the Hermit of the Hills, misremembering it has part of some other episode or another. In fact, there’s more that i always mistook about this episode in my memories of it:

I could have sworn that the Creeper was just saying his name over and over again. It never sounded like “paper” to me when i was a kid, but then, my crummy word recognition skills are the reason i have subtitles on in the first place.

Thing is, i’m not the only one who made this mistake. The memorability of the Creeper eventually led to him reappearing in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, AKA “The Writers Don’t Understand The First Thing About Computers Or Virtual Reality”, as well as a State Farm commercial, and in both of them, he could only growl his own name.

So, is it the Mandela Effect impacting later media? Or just a case of “paper” being a less obvious utterance for the Creeper than “Creeper”, especially when so many of us are accustomed to monsters saying their own names over and over? 

The world may never know.

(like what i’m doing here? It’s not what pays the bills, so i’d really appreciate it if you could send me a bit at my paypal.me or via my ko-fi. Click here to see more entries in this series of posts, or here to go in chronological order)

[danger-archive]

WHAT MAKES DAPHNE A GOOD DETECTIVE?

TENACITY & STUBBORNESS: A good detective doesn’t give up when things get rough. They don’t stop just because silly things like “the police” “arrest them” and threaten to put it on their “criminal record”. They persevere! And that’s exactly what Daphne does. Growing up, it was what her parents always taught her. Her dad never let up during business deals, and her mom was a force to be reckoned with when the occasion came about. Her sisters never gave up on their dreams, and so Daphne was taught to never give up on hers. Roadblocks can be a pain in the ass, but she doesn’t let them stop her.  CURIOSITY: Daphne is endlessly curious. She’s nosy as nosy gets. She’s the kind of person to keep her ears up. The kind of person that can hear her name being said from down the hall, a floor up, a block down from where she is. That same curiosity extends to other things. It’s one of the things she’s exceptional at –– meddling. Hence being a meddling kid. Revolutionary concept, I know. 

SERENDIPITY: The stars aligned, alright? If Daphne hadn’t ever gotten into mystery novels, if she didn’t occasionally watch the news, perched on her dad’s lap, if she hadn’t grown up in Coolsville, or Crystal Cove, maybe she’d have never been inspired to pursue mystery solving. Maybe she’d have gone on to become a beauty queen, or a makeup artist, or a journalist or something –– but no, things just worked out the right way. She met Velma and Fred and Shaggy, and things just fit together. We call that serendipity. The best kind of chance and luck. Some would even call it fate.  GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS: Having good people skills is on the same level of manipulation really. A definite asset is being tactful and clever about how you get information, and that’s definitely up Daphne’s Alley. I can’t help but think about that moment in Legally Blonde when Reese Witherspoon was all like, “Happy people don’t kill themselves.. They just don’t!” Well put, Reese. Daphne’s just good at getting people to do what she wants. Se’s charming, and pretty, and that works in her favor. Sometimes it can feel like a burden, to have that be one of the only things people know you for ( being pretty –– something that isn’t so much a skill, as it is an opinion ) but she deals with it. Beat em at their own game, right? Asides from that, she can connect with people easily, and that really helps in getting information. 

GOOD GRASP ON PSYCHOLOGY: Similar to the point above, she gets people and that helps in understanding how they tick. She understands social cues and human behavior, because she’s arguably one of the most raw-feeling members of Mystery Inc ( in my opinion ). Daphne understands feeling a lot. She’s an emotional person, so she can connect with people and place herself in their positions. Good people skills and understanding psychology, combined with a certain level of empathy gives her a definite advantage, I think. 

FUNDS: I had to mention this. She has an advantage. She can afford to take self-defense lessons, and get equipment, and get bailed out of jail, and anything like that. Daphne has her own trust fund, of course, but she also has her parents to depend on if she’s in trouble before she’s gotten her inheritance. She’s very privileged and lucky like that. 

WHAT MAKES HER A BAD DETECTIVE?

IN OVER HER HEAD: Daphne, in most verses, can be tricked fairly easy. A nice guy/girl can easily get to her. That perfect balance of being charming and attractive and witty, and she’s a goner. Other than that, 

LACK OF PRACTICALITY: Unless she’s got some kind of silent-ass thousand dollar heels, girl wears some noisy ass shoes. She’s gotten used to them, of course, so she can usually stay quiet, but if she’s on an unfamiliar surface ( on top of a plane for whatever reason, or too stressed to concentrate on being quiet ) it can be easy to slip up nd expose herself. It’s simple not practical! But Daphne’s also not willing to compromise that unless she has to and the situation calls for it ( camping, at a space station, etc. etc. ). She also simply doesn’t care about learning certain skills, despite them definitely helping her in the long run ( learning to fix cars, etc. ). 

LEANING ON MYSTERY INC: When she first goes solo, it doesn’t go entirley too well. She’s been part of a team for so long, it’s weird suddenly being on her own. She doesn’t have Velmas smarts or Fred’s ingenuity and trapmaking. All she’s got is an eagerness to prove herself and . Sure, eventually she gets the hang of things. But she will never be as good as she was with Mystery Inc. It’s a crushing truth. She is good on her own –– but not great. Simply put, she works best with someone else. And that is nothing to be ashamed of. 

CONCLUSION. 

Like I mentioned above, Daphne’s lack of conventional book smarts means that when on solo cases, she’ll be playing catch up a lot. It takes longer to rescue herself, she’s slower on the uptake, and piecing things together and gathering clues and information will obviously take longer because she’s only one person working on a single case, as opposed to having four minds ( plus Scooby! ) working together. 

However, despite not being the most well trained investigator, she has what a lot of people don’t have. Drive and motivation and passion. Important things to have. Most people aren’t lucky enough to pursue something that they’re passionate about, whether because of situational issues or financial stability. Daphne though, she’s lucky. While she’ll never be rich working on cases, she has the freedom to go after what she loves and still be able to live comfortably. 

She tries not to take that for granted. 

UPDATED: 04.16.17

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

Why we started shipping Shaphne. Just Random Rambling-

I’m gonna go ahead and say this is not an argument on why Shaphne is better than Fraphne because no ship in better than another, especially in the Scooby-Doo universe.

I’m gonna take a few moments to discuss the worst portrayal that ruined my opinion on Fraphne for a long time. 

And just because Shaphne is always gonna be the OTP of this blog doesn’t mean I don’t get why people ship Fraphne. I’ve seen every incarnation of Fraphne to date and they actually are cute, I get it.

Okay with that, let’s have some fun!

Mystery Incorporated:

Let’s start by addressing the only Scooby show that actually made Fraphne canon, and how they managed to screw it up so poorly it wasn’t even funny.

Now listen, MI was the incarnation I grew up with so I do actually have a lot of sentiment attached to it. But I am not going to argue with the fact that it did a poor job of characterizing all of the gang, Scooby included.

It tried it’s best to try and flesh out the gang to have them feel more, real. Like actual teenagers.

But oh my Lord they just made it worse.

And I think the one who got the worst of it was Daphne.

Her amazing and well rounded character that had existed since forever had been pushed down to the pretty girl that had a crush on Fred. And for most of the first season none of her actions were outside of her crush shenanigans. 

And she absolutely did not deserve that, Daphne was not part of Scooby-Doo solely to be Fred’s love interest. Way back in 1969 they understood that because Daph’s actions did not revolve around Fred 24/7.

When I watched the show when I was younger I never caught onto just how much of her “development” was her managing to get Fred to say something romantic to her. I honestly love the episodes in season 2 where Daphne isn’t in love with anybody because she actually gets the chance to just be herself.

Be quirky awkward Daphne.

And then she comes full circle and returns to having the same kind of relationship she had with Fred in season 1.

When they were together it wasn’t any better.

Rewatching the episodes when they were dating now when I’m older honestly made me uncomfortable. And when they got engaged it was laughable how poorly that was executed. Tbh I’m sure Fred had no idea that he proposed to Daph and just went along with whatever she said.

Then he just goes ahead and dumps her like it’s not painful or any sort of big deal while it actually crushes Daph enough to distance herself from the rest of the gang.

Season 2 Fred made me incredibly freaked out, like I love Fred Jones to bits and pieces but MI season 2 Freddie was the worst version of him and anyone who believes otherwise can explain why they disagree. 

I’m honestly curious if other people weren’t bothered by his disturbing behavior towards Daph for the beginning of that season.

Anyway bottom line, MI was why I had lost interest in Fraphne.

And why I gained a new interest in Shaphne.

I’m sure everyone remembers that episode in season 2 where...um...stuff happened.

Mod Silas is still convinced they slept together and I feel like it’s strongly implied but whatever.

That’s not what made me ship Shaphne since during all of that Daphne though Shag was Fred and Shag also thought he was Fred. Anyone feel like explaining how they managed to experience the same hallucination? So seeing that whole thing as Shaphne does kinda seem pointless.

What made me ship them was the short scene that happened afterward.

Both Shag and Daph quickly figured out what had happened and for like a few seconds they just stare at each other and don’t say anything. Like no panic or weirdness until Fred and Scoob reacted.

Shaggy ogles over being kissed by an angel, like twice I think.

Now both of those things don’t seem like a huge deal until you remember how much of a disaster these two’s relationships in the past were.

Both of them being in very forceful and controlling relationships.

Now it’s very probable that both of those reasons mean absolutely nothing and of course I’m reading into things as always.

But that was enough to catch my attention and pull me down into a void.

Because I’m gonna go ahead and be 100% honest with everyone:

Shaphne is never gonna be canon!

We all know it.

This isn’t a Riverdale/Bughead situation where people had wanted Betty and Jughead to get together long before the idea of Riverdale was created.

People were always for Fred and Daphne. And since the dawn of time it’s been clear that Fred and Daph are always gonna be each other’s respective love interest.

Hence why Shaphne is a void of pain.

But as I became open to the idea of it I made an observation.

Though Shag and Daph have very little interaction in most of the shows it was enough.

Shaggy and Daphne always take care of and understand each other. And it’s also super obvious that Daphne is very protective of Shaggy. Different from how she’s protective of the rest of the gang.

I’m not sure why their dynamic has always been like that, but it’s a dynamic that’s survived all the way into the modern age which means a lot to me.

Another thing that’s clear is Daphne loves Scooby.

Possibly just as much as Shaggy does idk.

The significance of that fact is best explained through a motto that Mod Silas and I have always had since we started shipping it:

“You can’t get Shaggy without getting Scooby.”

This was the biggest amount of drama with Shelma in MI was that Velma always saw Scooby as a dumb dog, as Shaggy’s pet, when it came to their relationship. And never saw him as Shag’s best friend, which is exactly what he is.

So when Shag broke up with her, she chose to blame the dog even though the reason he gave her was he wasn’t ready for a serious relationship.

And for the rest of the show Velma only ever gives Scoob sarcastic and condescending treatment.

 But Daphne has always loved Scooby, that much is clear,

Scooby and Daphne’s bond within MI alone is something to be appreciated.

And over the course of time I just kind of enjoyed the fact that Shaggy and Daphne would have a very healthy relationship, platonic or otherwise, if it had ever been further explored.

That’s a good portion of Shaphne, unexplored potential. 

And it’s definitely gonna stay unexplored.

However MI was just the beginning of my unhealthy Shaphne obsession.

The rest of the Universe:

Now the other Scooby shows had me approaching Shaphne differently because I wasn’t comparing it to Fraphne or Shelma in anyway since I didn’t have anything against the other incarnations of the ships.

For this I was able to just appreciate the dynamic Shag and Daph provided as a whole and not have to have that be my central focus for whatever show I was watching.

Like I can actual enjoy the friendship between the gang.

This version of Shaphne is the most relaxed and the one I wish got more attention, because this is the one where you see that they respect and understand each other. They also seem bonded over their love and protectiveness over Scooby which always gets me grinning like an idiot.

Daphne being protective of Shag is also another nice thing that’s presented.

However, in the old Hanna Barbera cartoons, romance was never supposed to be the main focus, or even really an element in the shows.

And to be fair romance isn’t meant to be the center of Scooby-Doo, it’s the friendship between four kids from very different social classes. 

I will say that shipping Shaphne and keeping up with all of the made for TV films is typically a treat since there are a good handful of them that just provide plenty of scenes showing the perfect dynamic they share.

For people who are looking for recommendations I’d say #1 is Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Phantosaur, which on it’s own is a really good movie just to watch. But the Shaphne on top of it is a nice addition.

For #2 I’d say both of those live-action movies Cartoon Network made. The Mystery Begins and Curse of the Lake Monster.

While I have problems with those movies, *cough cough* Fred with brown hair *cough cough* 

I think those movies do the best job of portraying Shaggy and Daphne’s relationship and it’s really sweet to watch.

13 Ghosts + New Scooby and Scrappy:

I’m gonna go ahead and finish this off with the two key pieces in the Shaphne art museum.

I’m sure everyone is already aware of the existence of the two shows where it’s just Shag and Daph and company.

These are the ones where we actually get to see Shaggy and Daphne work as a team it’s all I ever needed and more. While the main reason these exist is because Shaggy was the most popular character and then they added Daph ‘cause they needed a pretty girl.

“How to make a famous cartoon in the 70′s 101.”

Now both of these shows focus like a lot more on the “comedic relief” and their fun shenanigans than on the duo but that’s to be expected since this show was made for kids.

But for the most part it’s worth sitting through Flim Flam just always talking and never shutting up or Scrappy constantly saying “Puh-pup-puuuppyy Powweerrr!!” Every 8 seconds to see Shag and Daph in the background acting like overwhelmed babysitters that aren’t getting paid enough.

Plus there was all that fun drama where people thought they were living in the same house together.

While I am very certain that these shows don’t exist because everyone at HB was secretly the biggest Shaphne shippers in the world, I am very thankful for them.

In then end I think the reasons I ship Shaphne aren’t because I want the underdog to get the girl in the end. And I don’t want it to be like some sort of ‘guy on the wrong side of the tracks dating a pretty, rich girl.’

I really just want these two to be happy and functional and honest and themselves.

I always just see it as them being there for each other because though they may be really different people it’s never bothered them before. I just see two people who accept and help each other and that’s just something I see even though their dynamic gets no screen time.

At the end of the day Shaphne is always gonna be a fill in the blanks kinda ship. 

And I’m fine with that.

-Mod Ninja