#velma critical

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Bad Writing Can Make A Privileged Character Unintentionally Unlikable Or Likable

Although my opinion won't be popular on this site, I don't think being privileged prevents you from being sympathetic or having a hard life (specifically when it comes to abuse). However, I do think it comes down to how the narrative executes and treats said privileged character. This can be shown in Velma's interpretation of Fred and Stolas from Helluva Boss. The former is an example of trying to make this guy a privileged, rich white boy who who are supposed to hate for getting everything in life handed to him just like Velma (blah). While with Stolas, who are supposed to sympathize with him despite being rich he has a bad home life with his wife, father was distant from him, and trapped in an arranged marriage.

However, it's funny enough I have seen more people feel sorry for Fred than Stolas as time goes on. The reason is despite his rich background his parents really are the worst compared to Paimon who was at worst a neglectful parent while his parents are control freaks who belittle him for being babyish and later his mother even planned to kill him to swap brains just because she believed he would ruin everything she built. The show also goes out of it's way to shit on him and make him the butt of many jokes as a way to do lame "white people" suck. Seriously, despite his supposed privilege he takes a lot of damage in the show: being falsely accused of murder, body shamed for having a tiny dong, being sent to prison (and people relishing that a white man was falsely imprisoned), having his own mother try to murder him so she can have someone more competent run the family business, and finally he witnesses said mother being murdered. Again an example of despite the narrative telling us he has it good everything that was shown shows that his so-called privilege doesn't protect him from the tons of shit thrown at him.

And again going back to Stolas he in contrast is constantly shown to have everything in the narrative try to treat him as a sympathetic kicked dog who just wants to find love despite the stigma of being with a lower class demon. However, everything in this seems forced because it's made to ignore how much power he has over Blitzo which has been the main source of problem which is he hovers the book over him in exchange for sexual favors. As a result Blitzo feels trapped in the relationship due to Stolas having the upperhand. However, the narrative refuses to fully embrace it and skirts around it to prevent Stolas from being problematic. Also despite being shown as a cheater the narrative again goes out of it's way to try to make it justified that he did it due to making his wife so one dimensionally abusive. And again it's been brought up his daughter is a prop made to make him seem like a good dad, when in reality he has put his love for Blitzo over his daughter to the point he seems to neglect her more but we are expected to her to just tolerate it because he's supposedly trying. As a result, we don't see him sympathetic despite his privilege we see how privilege he is and wish he'd get over himself.

I do think that makes the biggest difference between the two because of the fact that Fred was allowed to change and realize he was crappy while the narrative enables Stolas to always view himself as a victim and dismiss his actions as not hurting people. Again I do not believe being privilege dismisses you from sympathy because the point of equality is that sympathy can be given to anyone regardless of status. However, I can't be sympathetic to someone who tries to cry about something while abusing their privilege on someone which is what Stolas does often, but the narrative wants to think everything is good. It just winds up making me hate him more and realize what a pathetic pos he is, while someone like Fred is made to be pathetic actually tries to better himself and hopefully does grow even more in the second season. Again bad writing is what it takes to sympathize with or not with how a privileged character is presented.

[fandomwe1rd0]

How not to and how to write an asshole protagionist

Honestly I know asshole protagonists are sadly more common now, but I think Rick and Morty did it best (Wowwww shocker, I think Rick and Morty did something better than other tv shows?! Wow it's not like I'm constantly singing Rick and Morty's praises or anything…)

Now, first what exactly is an asshole protagonist? Now, I feel like the title itself is kinda self-explanatory. An asshole protagonist is a protagonist that…is an asshole. They don't portray the usual likable trait most protagionist have, and are usually prone to being assholes, hence the name. Now I assume most tv shows add asshole protagonist(s) are either so they can be unique, make the character feel more human, or for comedic purposes. Sometimes it can just be one, multiple, or all of them.

Now, first let's look at a tv show that did this poorly…sorry to everyone, I know everyone is probably glad to have forgotten this, but I'm gonna bring up Velma. Now Velma, is an asshole protagonist. She's mean, snarky, sarcastic, and is all around just an asshole and an insensitive jerk to her friends and girlfriend.

Ok now, a character who has these faults, can still be likable in a way. Now if a character gets called out on these faults and try to work on them, complex, or at least if they are actually funny when showing a character being an asshole, Velma is neither of these things, none of the jokes are funny, and everyone treats her like she's some great person when she's just a horrible person, she isn't even complex, just annoying.

Now, let's look at Rick, another example of an asshole protagionist, he's cynical, sarcastic, rude, manipulative, abusive, and just an overall asshole, but here is how Rick and Morty does it right, Rick is more than just a mean old man, he is incredibly complex, struggling with the trauma he had when he watched his wife and child blow up TWICE. And there's actually a reason as to why he's an asshole, he feels like if he cares about people, they will either die or leave him, that's obviously no excuse, but it adds reason to his actions (Meanwhile Velma was just always an asshole…)

He also gets called a lot for being an asshole, and even insults himself when he does something especially shitty, like in season 4 episode 10 after he cloned Space Beth and Beth and watched the mindblower where he shuffled them and didn't look because he didn't want to answer Beth's question on whether he wants Beth to stay and be apart of her life or if he wants her to leave, he says, and I quote

"Holy shit I'm a terrible father."

And he couldn't even go out and see them, and just sits down in the garage alone and thinks about how big of an asshole he's been in general, this is not only a powerful emotional momebut…butttt a good segueway into his redemption arc!

Now Rick in the later seasons in genuinely trying to be better, he goes to therapy, is nicer to Jerry, gentler to Morty and insults Morty a lot less, really just is nicer to Morty in general, treating him a lot more like an equal partner, treats Summer with more respect, and learns to control his anger a lot better. Now it doesn't make up for all the shitty things he does, and the show acknowledges that, but it's definitely a start, and he is not the same murderous maniac he was in say, season 4, where he just couldn't resist traumatizing Morty every 2 seconds. Meanwhile in season 7, he actually treats Morty like…gasp a person! And is actually acting like a grandpa, even spoiling Morty which is adorable.

Also…he's just funny y'all! He has a sense of humor and it's genuinely really funny, I mean ik humor is subjective but c'monnnnn

Rick is a good example of an asshole protagonist because he's funny, complex, and wants to be better, Velma is just…nothing.

[maybelacrimosa]

nothing bad better happen to those pomeranians, I've only seen them for like a second and they are already the best characters in this show.

[scooby-doobert]

saw an amazing thread on twitter about character development throughout the scooby doo franchise focused on how fred lacks character development, in contrast with the other characters

and something that really pisses me off were comments like “bro it’s just a cartoon” “it’s not that deep”

as if people can’t enjoy media through analysis and research, and cartoons are produced without a lot of depth from the creators

if you consume media without critical thinking that’s on you, honestly

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

I love it when people only care about animators when they can criticize Vivzipop, but not when many of them lost their jobs after the cancellation of Velmy (Because it's better to be happy about it, right? So what if these are such fucked up times for animators, let's be happy that they lost their jobs…)

Now that I have your attention:

So close...

[nilfheim-arts]

Last month I did the color wheel challenge and honestly it was so much fun!

[hatsampixie]

Blitzo is Vivziepop/Brandon Rodgers’s Velma, nuff said.

Not surprising, considering both characters and their creators spit BS without a filter.

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Given Lily’s recent grading cards of Owl House and Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, I feel this is accurate to her. 

[rycelyfe]

Every January, we got a new adult animated series

The good

The bad

The god-forsaken ugly (I’m taking custody of sir pentious)

[luckydcooking]

Wow.. I'm beyond shocked by the new H**b*n h**el ep script... it's very-very bad. I used to think that they were fake when someone had leaked them on twitter from 4chan, or at least I was really hoping that they were even though the way it was written did not look like something out of a fanfiction.

It really goes to show you that whatever gets posted on 4chan is REAL and you should take it at face value. And while reading the script, I've notice that it's highly center around the male characters and the characters in general all act so stupid, and one dimensional, which is funny because the creator wants us to take these clowns of her ocs seriously, when they don't even take themselves seriously. Everything is god awful and those fans are in for a huge disappointment soon. Like at this point they really need to call out some bullshit instead of being blind.

I will also admit that the reason why I join the Hz* H*tel fandom was because of the fanfic stories and fanart and how much in depth they had in them. The artist really pours their love into these characters esp, Ang*l and when they see them in action soon, they'll be deeply hurt.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Bad Writing Can Make A Underprivileged Character Unintentionally Unlikable Or Likable

Sequel to my other earlier post.

Like I said in my earlier post, there can be a way to make a privileged character sympathetic or unsympathetic. The same can be said for characters that are underprivileged as well. This can be shown with Velma from 2023's Velma and Striker from Helluva Boss. With Velma she is race and sexuality swapped into a bisexual Indian girl who we are supposed to root for because of her minority status. On the other hand, Striker we are supposed to hate because of supposedly being an imp supremacist who misjudges royals.

Like the thing with Fred and Stolas, we get the opposite reaction because Velma goes out of her way to be a narcissist, sociopathic asshole who uses and hurts other people who gets in her way. Also despite trying to set herself up as this righteous social justice warrior she doesn't practice what she preaches and is as sexist and racist as the people she crusades against. Not to mention she treats her family and friends like total garbage while wanting to have all attention on her. This is in contrast with Striker who although a villain is made out to be a so-called supramcist because he hates the nobles of hell for belittling and taking advantage of the lower classes like imps. And again we are supposed to see him as a extremist, but in a series that is made of all sorts of killers and the fact that many nobles are shown to be crappy people have come to be sympathetic to him. He might try to kill Stolas because it's because of how terribly written he is we side with Striker due to how he has abused his privilege and is an example of that system despite the narrative saying otherwise.

Despite showing herself to get so much wrong, Velma is often still treated as if she is smart and capable while also trying hard to make it work in a bigoted world. However, a lot of stuff contradicts that with Velma always shown to be a lazy moocher who leeches off other people work and claim it as her own. She only claims to say she has to work for everything so she can make herself look like the underdog when in reality she doesn't put effort into anything. She also claims to be smart in reality her ego gets the better of her and prevents her from seeing errors. Meanwhile, the narrative tries to tell us Striker is only doing it out for selfish reasons and wanting to blame all nobles even so-called innocent ones for his tragedies. The problem is Stolas ain't innocent and he has the right to bite the bullet in Striker's bath. Also again we are told by Vivziepop he does have a tragic story but never shown in order to keep Stolas more sympathetic. They try to force him into being seen as toxic by giving him traits like seeming like he's LGBTphobic or has machismo so we shouldn't root for him but all of that comes out as forced instead of natural. Also his distaste for sexual comments comes off as contra dicing when he didn't mind doing that talk with Blitzo and again the penis statue of himself. He also mentions hurting Octavia even though that doesn't make sense since he works for Stella and she should be off the table since Stella wouldn't want her daughter involved but again it's more on trying to make him unlikable rather than logically make sense. Again a case of trying too hard to make unlikable it makes no sense.

And again how the hypocrisy is shown with both characters is that with Velma the writers are so unselfaware how hypocritical and nasty she is they often underestimate how much she doesn't practice what she preaches. As said before, she says she fights against bigotry but shows herself to be a white man basher and is sadistic in enjoying their pain even when they don't deserve it. She even can be shown to be racist against other minorities if she's really being intensively obnoxious. And when it comes to sexism girl just straight up loves slut shaming other girls. Also when it comes to rich people she might say he hates them but when she gets a taste of that privileges she changes her tune and it shows it's more about envy than actual injustice because she really is thinking how about she thinks the world is unfair for her and not anyone else's needs. It's the thing they try to do the same with Striker but you really can side with him because of the hierarchy that is often ignored but sometimes is present in the series. While in theory don't judge all rich people can be a good thing, but with this series it's in hell where bad structures are enforced and that the hell nobles are shown to be shitty towards the lower class. Striker is thus is depicted by a hypocrite by working for Stella but it doesn't work because you get more of an enemy of my enemy situation rather than him actually would act like the nobles if he was offered to be one.

So just like with how one series has a unintentionally sympathetic rich characters and the other has an unintentionally unsympathetic ones, the former has a unintentionally unsympathetic underprivileged character while the other is a unintentionally sympathetic one. It reflects the biases of the creators and also how they think they are viewing the character's blight. Ones like Velma come off as assholes who pretend to be the victim of a cruel world when in reality they want to blame everyone for their own mistakes. Meanwhile, Striker is bashed in series for daring to think that imps have it hard and that nobles shouldn't be unfairly judged when the series in general shows how shitty the higher ups are. Bad writing can make us either think underprivileged characters are sympathetic or unsympathetic.

[showtoonzfan]

I’m so glad I found this tweet and that somebody FINALLY fucking said it, cuz I have some thoughts. So like…..I love Mystery Inc with all my heart. It was a huge part of my childhood and it has got to be one of the best, if not THE best Scooby Doo adaptation I have ever seen. I loved the characters, I loved the mystery surrounding the old gang, I loved the horror elements….I loved it all but………yeah I was NOT a fan of the damn love triangle between Velma, Scooby and Shaggy, in fact I think it was the only main thing that held the show back even if it was a masterpiece in my eyes. Particularly my issue was with Velma as a character. Don’t get me wrong, I love how she’s characterized in this show, she’s hilarious and all, but whenever she was attached to Shaggy, good fucking god, she was absolutely insufferable and honestly unlikable. I legit HATED the way she treated Scooby, the way she got jealous over a damn dog and referred to him as “some dog”, not liking Scooby really at all and the real Velma just would never act like that in my opinion, even if she did have beef with him. The whole point of the gang is that they’re supposed to be like a family, so to see this interpretation of Velma treat Scooby like shit did turn me off a lot.

There’s legit a scene in this show I DESPISED where Scooby was literally about to die, he was on the edge of a cliff and Velma deadass had to THINK about saving him or not because in her eyes he was the source to her and Shaggy’s relationship being messy. It was such a dark and disgusting scene of her blaming him for everything when he’s literally hanging on for his dear life, of course she saves him in the end but the fact that homegirl had to think about it and even CONSIDERED not saving him pissed me off immensely. It made her character look so fucking horrible, like she was really about to let Scooby fucking die just for some Shaggy tail, I legit have no idea what the writers were thinking for that scene, like I get that Velma had beef with him but that was going WAAAY too overboard.

Also there were like….SO and I mean SO many episodes of Scooby being jealous of Velma and then having drama with Shaggy over it and I just hated whenever the show wanted to focus on this romance drama bs, again the whole love triangle between these three drove me nuts. Velma was so forceful towards Shaggy as well and I always ended up just feeling bad for the guy. I can see where the show was coming from especially since the writers admitted they wanted Velma and Shaggy’s relationship to be messed up so she could end up with Hotdog Water, but…….yeah it was not for me, and you know what’s funny? I legit enjoyed Fred and Daphne’s drama more, seeing Fred be so oblivious and loving traps while Daphne was so obliviously pinning for him was hilarious. I will never not praise this show for how it characterized Fred, making him this cinnamon roll trap loving himbo was the best decision they ever made, and whenever the show focused on THEIR relationship, I never got tired of it, which is the opposite I can say for Velma/Shaggy/Scooby. As much as I love this show, it did drag with its romance aspect. I always hated love triangles and stupid drama in teenage shows, and I feel like this show kinda suffered from that. When it comes to Velma/Hot Dog Water, they could have been handled better honestly, in contrast to how she was with Shaggy. Like…the writing could have been so much better with that, but even after everything I just said, I still love this show and think it’s great. It has its up and downs, but at the end of the day it still rocks, I just needed to get this out there since I don’t see much people talk about it. I will say I don’t HATE this version of Velma, but I will admit that it is hard to really like her after the writing made her so attached to Shaggy and so needy and almost aggressive. They did her dirty with that damn cliff scene, but in the end it is happy to know that her and Shaggy realized they weren’t good for one another and that Velma was meant to be with a girl.

[ethiack]

Drinker's Chasers - It's Over, Guys: Velma Officially Cancelled

It was one of the most hated shows in the world when it launched back in 2023, but after inflicting two seasons of Velma on the world, Max has finally had enough and pulled the plug.

[gothic-oracle]

This isn't me, it's what I think is going on with critics.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Im trying to chill but i saw someone on reddit make the most inhumane, nasty takes on Adora and i am seething

[autism-purgatory]

the YouTube critics are complaining about Velma season 2. Gee I wonder who encouraged people to hate-watch it because if was a hot topic and gets them views regardless. I don’t like the show either by any means, but hate-watching it makes them money either way, it’s still attention even if it’s bad.