#the planespheric disk

[alphashley14]

The beginning of the end… 💔

Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated Season 1, Episode 25, ‘Pawn of Shadows’

[shrimpwritings]

The Mystery Incorporated Gang in a Nutshell

The Scooby gang at the beginning of Season 1: Trying to solve mysteries while either pining for one of the members (Daphne and Fred) or currently dating one of the members (Velma and Shaggy) The Scooby gang at the end of Season 1: Split up and sad because everything they've known is either a lie (Fred), they're being shipped off to boot camp (Shaggy), rehomed (Scooby), or blaming the other for something they had no control over (Daphne blaming everything that happened on Velma because she didn't reveal Angel Dynamite/Cassidy Williams's real identity to them) The Scooby gang at the beginning of Season 2: Struggling to pick up where they left off a year or so later while dealing with trust issues and the stress of finding the Planespheric Disk before Pericles, Mister E, and Fred's real parents do The Scooby gang at the end of Season 2: Fucking traumatized

[broke-on-books]

☕️

The SDMI portrayals of the gang

Ummm well so basically I liked sdmi as a kid, it was coming out right as I was kinda in the latter part of my scooby phase (not that I ever left that but) so it wasn't like a "childhood favorite" to me but like a scooby show that I'd seen the majority of, if slightly out of order, because cable tv and like being 10. And I liked it! I liked it then and I liked it when it got put up on Netflix and I finally watched the whole thing in order.

And so like I guess I havent always been an sdmi hater. Like I've seen it like 2/2.5 times the whole way through. I just.... watching sdmi doesn't really give me joy anymore I guess? Like there are moments that are funny or entertaining or whatever but it's just not some where watching it makes me happy or relaxed which are the emotions I like to get from scooby. Like scooby is my comfort show and sdmi just doesn't give me that feeling because I just start feeling sad at how mean the gang are to each other or annoyed at all the dumb relationship drama. Like I just want to beat every writer on that show with a frying pan and tell them "they're best friends, damn it! Have them act like it!".

I don't know, I just really hate how they have the gang members treat each other. They don't feel like friends to me there and that's always been a core of me enjoying the series and so without that... idk it just feels hollow like it isn't it to me. And it makes me angry or annoyed or sad while watching and that's now something I want to feel when watching scooby.

Also I dont like the art style. OR their characterizations really (excepting fred mostly my boy autistic af there and we love that for him). And I especially hate how some people will talk about sdmi like it's the pinnacle of all animation (which like I know you asked specifically about the gang portrayals so I won't go into that) BUT like 1) it's very much not and 2) "it's the first scooby with an overarching plot" it literally isn't but okay

Anyways I didn't really go into my specific opinions on the gang to much here other than "they're mean to each other and I don't like that" but thats really what it mostly boils down to. I'm just not a fan and I've decided to not waste my time being unhappy about it and not watch sdmi anymore (or talk about it too much really)

Like I feel like I very much have an sdmi timer. Like idk its draining to think about it as opposed to the rest of scooby where talking about it normally GIVES me energy. So while I have sdmi opinions I guess you generally won't see me get too far into them at a time.

I was gonna say something else what was it

Oh yeah like you can still see posts about sdmi if you go back in time on this blog (the planespheric disk is cool as fuck and I stand by any old doodles people may dig up) and like I have some great sdmi posts out there that I genuinely do love thinking about (fred machine my beloved <33333333) but the show itself just isn't my jam. Like I liked it but much of that like has kinda been beaten out of me by the stupid sdmi takes ive seen and just the inability to talk about other things by some (not you anon youre chill I promise)

So yeah. It's complicated.

[myguyjoe]

Prologue:

Ben 10: universe: Ben, Gwen and max are enjoying a picnic when a portal with a hand reaches through a portal, but anotherother portals open up which sucks Ben and Gwen into it, max quickly jumps in after then after grabbing a plumber blaster

Scooby dimension- the gang gets sucked into the mysterious portal after assembling the planespheric disk. Scooby retreats into the crystal cove with the disk

Some other dimension- other heroe

Weather wizard in 9-1-1 universe

Episode 1

[queer-cosette]

I think there's also another way that Brad and Judy were affected by the curse, and it's suggested by how in the Sitting Room, the figures representing their good sides are posed back to back and facing away from each other. This is interesting because so far they have been constantly shown as an almost... unit. The only time we've seen them actually apart was in the previous episode, when they assist in Pericles' scheme to gain the planespheric disk by convincing Fred that hiding it caused the apocalypse. And after that scene, now that their appearances have been permanently altered (having had plastic surgery because the gang would spot a mask too easily) they are no longer at that same level of in-sync-ness. They are constantly bickering and insulting each other. The only other two times we see them so in sync with each other as they have been is when they do the unthinkable - when they assist in the murder of unarmed seventeen-year-old Marcie Fleach, and when they willingly offer themselves to the Entity as human sacrifices to fuel his power.

It suggests that the curse also affected their ability to be anything other than the Brad-and-Judy duo they were for the twenty years after Fred Jones Sr. forced the original Mystery Incorporated to leave town. They've become so totally codependent that any change to their dynamic causes them to unravel even more, and in the course of a few months they go from a married couple who bring out the best in each other to a pair of mercenaries who do nothing but bring out the very worst in each other.

They have their son back in their life? They unravel. They reconnect with Ricky and Pericles? They unravel. They clash with Cassidy? They unravel. Their old friends order them to steal from their own son? They unravel. Their son walks out on them? They unravel. Pericles orders them to steal the planespheric disk from their son at any cost, even if it means they have to kill him and his friends? They unravel. They irreversibly alter their physical appearances at Pericles' behest? They unravel. Bit by bit, they lose more and more of all they ever were until they are completely unrecognisable, and all that's left is a codependency that relies on a dynamic that no longer exists.

(Fred Jones forcing the original Mystery Incorporated to flee Crystal Cove actually had a lot of effect on how their 'better' selves are portrayed.

Ricky Owens is portrayed in the sitting room as the skinny teenager he used to be, while in life he is overweight (kept his teenage eating habits without burning it off chasing monsters), still wears the same clothes with only the addition of a ratty overcoat, hasn't shaved or had a haircut in years, and is constantly spying on the new Mystery Incorporated even before Pericles is back in the picture, because he has been consumed by his desperate desire to return to the time before Pericles first betrayed him, when it was just him and his friends solving mysteries together, not knowing anything about the planespheric disk.

Cassidy Williams, however, is shown as an adult, with her hair cut short and wearing her red suit and black turtleneck - because her better self was the Cassidy who lived honestly as Cassidy, rather than living as the Angel Dynamite persona and pretending everything was fine and that she didn't know about the planespheric disk or the truth about the curse.

Pericles, who indeed teamed up with Fred Jones Sr. to force his friends to skip town, isn't even shown in the Sitting Room - he has no better self. He never left Crystal Cove like the others did - he was locked in the Asylum for twenty years, with nothing to do but listen to the call of the Entity and plot his revenge. Does this mean he's fallen so far there truly is no good left in him? Or was there never any good in him at all, ever?)

i think the planispheric disk probably makes you the worst version of yourself. which means it makes you do things you’d be capable of doing if pushed to the very limit – worst case scenario, but still possible for the un-cursed version of you.

brad and judy can’t be THAT great of people if the show’s canon is what the disk’s influence did to them. it affected mayor jones and ricky just as intensely, but even they still had a shred of their humanity left at the end of it all. brad and judy were hollow to begin with. how else do you explain their actions in comparison to everyone else touched by the entity’s influence? i don’t even trust reset universe brad and judy

[dogdogdog]

fun fact about me! I misremembered an alternate ending to mystery incorporated.

I first watched Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated when it first aired on tv (i was about 10 or 11) and i rewatched it about 2 months ago for the first time since. and right up until i actually finished the show the second time I could have sworn that I had the ending of it ingrained into my memory. However, when I actually watched it, i was surprised to find that the scenes i vividly remember did not exist. The elements needed to set them up were there. But they never happened. 

the divergence happens at season 2 episode 2, so the last canon thing i remember was Marcie (Hot Dog Water) joining the gang.

The Evil Entity didn’t exist 

the planespheric disk still led to a cursed treasure, but it wasn’t an evil entity.

“Old Crystal Cove” was an important part of the plot. The town like, set up a dam to drain the town and there was a thing about the planespheric disk needing to be placed in a very specific part in the town on a very specific time to reveal a clue. 

there was a lot to do with the clock tower? 

and then someone blew up the dam? and they had to escape? or else like, drown. 

so they had to escape. 

There was no universal reset, and no world ending monster.

Nibiru was the alignment of starts needed for the aligning of the planespheric disk mentioned above. 

that episode was so clear in my head. 

Marcie stayed joined with the gang. 

pereclies still recruits Brad and Judy to work for him, the two gangs fight back and forth with the disk pieces. (i actually remembered the man in the mirror (s2e21), so this still happened in my version) 

Scooby’s dog girlfriend Nova just died, she was in a coma for like, the end of the episode but im pretty sure she didn’t stay in one, she just died. 

I remembered most of a night on haunted mountain(s2e8) but the ending had some changes mainly centered around the lore and the Marcie stuff

i remember it ended with them leaving Crystal Cove but it wasn’t because of the universal reset, it was because they realized how shitty their town is. (and of course like, university stuff).

anyways. this probably obscures my opinion on the actual show but hey, i like mine better. I don’t know what amalgamation of shows these memories come from, all I know is that i was horrendously shocked when I was rewatching the show and I realized that it was way different than I remembered. 

[queer-cosette]

OK SO

fun thing I noticed about Mystery Inc.

I mentioned in a post about an hour ago that the entity requires four people ruled by Air, Fire, Water and Earth to find it. It’s common fan theory that Fred is Air, Daphne is Fire, Shaggy is Water and Velma is Earth. Once you know this, it’s pretty easy to work out the positions within the previous mystery solving groups.

So the only mystery the gang never solved was that of Crybaby Clown the first time they took a crack at it. This is because Daphne refused to join them, so they were missing Fire. They attempted to replace Daphne with Marcie, but it’s interesting to note that they didn’t get very far in any of their mysteries they solved with Marcie until Daphne unwittingly provided clues.

The House Of The Nightmare Witch - Daphne reluctantly identifies a fragment of a faberge egg, which gives them the information they need to trace it back to Curator Vronsky.

The Night The Clown Cried II: Tears Of Doom - Crybaby Clown wasn’t trapped. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby used a plane to beat the crap out of him. They had nothing on who he might be literally until they unmasked him. Even Velma had no idea it was Baylor Hotner. The reason they found the plane? They earlier captured Daphne by mistake because she had a tracking chip in her ankle they mistook for the Clown’s Doom Buggy. They continued following the chip, leading them to the airport, and Fred, Shaggy and Scooby managed to stow away on the plane. Without Daphne, Crybaby Clown would have escaped.

The thing is, Marcie is more aligned with Earth than Fire. She’s grounded and logical rather than fiery and passionate. So she’s not a good fit for a replacement Daphne. If Velma had been the one refusing to come back, there’s a chance she could have replaced Velma.

Also? Whenever the gang works together, the pieces of the Planespheric Disk sort of fall into their hands. If an incomplete group tries to look for them, they end up having to use brute force.

Piece 1 - Danny Darrow willingly hands the piece to Mystery Inc. He had it because he had found it while part of a mystery solving group himself.

Piece 2 - Pericles steals it from Mayor Jones, who had it himself because he’d stolen it from the Old Mystery Inc, who found it outright by solving the mystery.

Piece 3 - Mr E has to buy the hiding place of the third piece and ship it to Crystal Cove. Velma is forced to actually dig around the house before she finds it. If the gang had been complete at the time, I bet it would have fallen right into their hands without them bothering to look for it.

Piece 4 - Hidden in a cheese wheel that comes to Crystal Cove seemingly by chance, but really because the piece is drawn to Mystery Inc. Gene Shepherd states it “told him” to go to Crystal Cove. And the cheese is damaged trapping the bad guy of the episode - chance? Or something more? Anyhow the gang are told to keep it, and it shortly falls open to reveal the fourth piece.

Piece 5 - Marcie could have dug into the Mountain Boat and found it herself, but knew Fred could do it a lot easier than she could. Fred and the gang get past the traps in no time, not knowing there’s a piece to be found.

Piece 6 - Pericles uses brute force to excavate the 6th piece. His own group has splintered by this point, and he uses robots to dig it out of underwater wreckage. Which makes me wonder...

Is it a coincidence that he didn’t find it until the current, unsplintered Mystery Inc entered his base? Or is it possible that the Disk sensed that a group had arrived with full ability to use it properly, and allowed itself to be found?

[queer-cosette]

SDMI Analysis: why Mr E is the way he is

Let’s start off by listing some interesting things about Ricky Owens.

he’s the Shaggy equivalent of the old Mystery Incorporated, and thus can be assumed (both from this and from the few appearances he made in season 1) to have had a similar personality as a teenager

he likes eating

he was probably often used as bait/a runner in Brad’s traps

he always wears the same clothes even though they’re getting old and ratty

he has scruffy hair and a goatee

he and Professor Pericles were inseparable for years since Ricky was very young

he was a kid walking around town with a weird German parrot on his shoulder. he probably didn’t have many friends outwith his gang

Now, Mr E.

he is no longer burning anything off running from monsters and has thus put on a massive amount of weight, suggesting he still has his teenage appetite

he is wearing the same clothes as he wore as a teenager, but with the addition of a ratty brown overcoat

he has long hair and a beard and has clearly not shaved in years

he has old pictures of Pericles and himself hidden in a private folder on his computer system, and another folder with pictures of Cassidy

he’s almost completely isolated, even more than he was as a teenager. the only people he sees regularly are Ed Machine - his employee - and Cassidy Williams, his ex-girlfriend who now goes by an alias and no longer trusts him.

All this suggests he hasn’t been able to move on from his teenage years, and this may well be a big part of his motives pre-The Gathering Gloom.

What are some things he does that support this theory?

he gets involved with the new Mystery Incorporated, pulling the strings and giving them clues.

he persuades first Cassidy and then Marcie to spy on Mystery Incorporated.

with the discovery that Cassidy has been spying on Mystery Inc on Ricky’s behalf, and the knowledge that Ricky only contacted them at the start of the series but they’ve hung around with Cassidy for much longer, it becomes obvious that he wanted to see if they were worthy of finding anything to do with the real mystery on their own before he contacted them. Mr E only contacts them after Daphne finds the locket and can’t connect it to any part of the Slime Mutant mystery.

Spiralling off that, I’ve mentioned in other analysis posts that the Planespheric Disk only easily reveals itself to those truly able to use it. Raffalo could have easily found the locket while digging around in the caves - in fact, anyone could have found it. What if the Entity was manipulating that too? It knew that whoever was going to release it had to be curious and capable of solving clues. I bet only a member of an active mystery solving group could have found the locket. If Mr E has worked out that only four humans and an animal can work out the clues (and he might well have, seeing as he’s a) within driving distance of the Burlington library and b) not had much to do in his free time for the last 20 years) then this hints at why he only contacted them after they found the locket.

Together, these all suggest he misses being part of a Mystery Solving gang, so he’ll get involved by any means necessary. Here are some things that happen The Gathering Gloom-onwards that further support this.

he is the first to accept Pericles’ proposal of restarting the hunt for the treasure

he is the first to have doubts about Pericles’ plan. Cassidy is already dead by the time Mr E realises Pericles has gone too far, but E doesn’t yet know that Cassidy was murdered by Pericles.

he is the only one who actually turns against Pericles - when it becomes apparent that the parrot is not beyond murdering a bunch of kids to get what he wants.

his likeness in the dream world is of his teenage self - his best part. He was at his happiest as a teenager, and he hadn’t been corrupted by the entity. The part he lost was his innocence. No wonder he’s fixated on the past.

as he, Brad, Judy and Pericles enter the caves, he declares, “You’re all mad! None of us are going to survive, none of us! And I’m glad!” By this point, he’s actually looking forward to dying, because he’ll finally be free of what he’s become, what they’ve all become. Ironically, he’s the last of the original Mystery Incorporated to die.

In the new world, he is thin, wears neat and professional clothes, and lives a happy life with an alive Cassidy and an uncorrupted Pericles. He’s been able to move on from his teenage years in this world - probably made a hell of a lot easier by this world’s Fred Jones Sr never ripping away his innocence.

All Ricky Owens has ever wanted, from the first episode of Mystery Incorporated, is to live like he’s still young and solving mysteries with his friends, because it is the only thing that has ever made him happy.

[oblivious-aro]

Hit the nail right on the head with it feeling like it was written by insecure Scooby-Doo fans.

I remember liking it when I watched it over my little sister's shoulder as a teen, but thinking back the show consist of a lot of boring bland writing choices, and the good are far between and often not as good as I remember.

There are some banger jokes and fun plot points, but you have to slog through long stretches of generic Scooby-Doo plots that take themselves way to seriously. And also the gang kind of tend to be grumpy jerks. Who banned fun?

I remember Fred and Daphne being enjoyable, but it turns out it's really just Fred. His obsession with traps and obliviously upbeat attitude are charming, and they are a decent couple, but watching Daphne consistently try to be coi with Fred when he clearly isn't picking up on her hints is annoying. "If only someone would ask me out, sigh, hint hint Fred." JUST ASK HIM OR YOURSELF THIS IS TERRIBLE.

I don't think I need to go too in-depth about Velma and Shaggy.

As for the central mystery with the old ganf planespheric disk...well...let's just say my sister stopped watching the show (I think someing scared her), and I never felt compelled to go back and finish it, despite being very close to the end and having positive feelings about the show.

If you like Scooby-Doo and this is your favourite Scooby-Doo media, there's a good chance you either don't actually like Scooby-Doo, or you've gotta learn to be less secure about your interests.

Noticing that you've actually been really nice recently in your asks and your hot takes haven't made anyone angry for a fair few months, so here's an ask to permiss you to go fucking wild. Make a flame baity comment that'll lose you at least one follower. I love to see it, darling :)

Yeah okay sure!

Here's one-Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated is fucking garbage and I'm tired of pretending it's not

Grow up, get some taste, and just watch The Walking Dead or Supernatural if you wanna slob the knob of some boring lingering threads set on an ugly washed out slime green backdrop with tacky, shallow characters who snark enough to make you think you're watching kino if you shut your terminally online brain off.

[queer-cosette]

Just had a genuinely horrifying thought.

Anyone remember that bit in SDMI where Brad and Judy get plastic surgery for a convoluted plot to steal the Planespheric Disk?

Gabriel gets surgery to look like Adrien so he can hang out with Adrien’s friends and find out what they know about Ladybug. Nathalie gets surgery to look like an Old Marinette so she can distract Adrien by convincing him he’s stuck in a post-apocalyptic future of which she is the only survivor. Horrifying, yet intriguing concept.