History YMMV / Velma

%% The Scrappy is blacklisted from being added as those who hates the characters hates the show to begin with

** The concept of an adult version of Scooby Doo was underutilized in the series. The only adult themes in the show were sexual content and violence, which felt gratuitous and looked like an obligation to make sure the series was targeted at adults. Nothing was really done with the adult themes aside from blue humor and crass commentary; the sexual content caused some complaints from the audience because it involved teenagers, the violence is only at its most graphic in one episode, and the deaths only appear in a few episodes [[note]] even then it's not as violent or graphic as many would think compared to other adult-rated stories because the deaths mainly took place off-screen. The nerd losing his leg can be easily missed and isn't that gory or brought to attention and the main villain's death in the finale is the goriest scene in the show by comparison[[/note]]. Velma's hallucinations are scary, but they aren't frightening enough to warrant an adults-only rating and wouldn't be out of place in a younger age rating. Aside from the nerd losing his leg, the violence is quite tame in the series for an adults-only rating, and the sexual comments appeared compulsory so the show wouldn't be mistaken as a product for kids.
** Some people felt the show's meta-humor wasn't used as well as it could've been. While the show was meant to be a satire of mature reboots like Series/{{Riverdale}}, the satire was vague enough that it didn't come across as one to many viewers and felt more like an example of the exact type of show it was supposed to be a satire of in the first place.

TheScrappy: Ironically the title character is the most hated version of Velma out there with her massive AdaptationalJerkass and UnintentionallyUnsympathetic behavior.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Many consider Velma to be the worst character in the show, even compared to the SerialKiller that is targeting teenage girls and ''removing their brains'', because Velma comes off as an unlikable main protagonist who constantly insults, uses, and manipulates everyone around her. It all culminates in the Season 1 finale, when Velma [[spoiler:twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (the said serial killer) right in front of him and locks her father, his girlfriend, and half-sister (who is only a baby) out of the house]].

** The reveal of Victoria Jones as the serial killer and her reasoning for trying to to swap brains to replace her son's (due to feeling he lacks any competence and that a woman deserves his place in the world better while never acknowledging her own contributions to making him who and what he is or that none of the women in question are really good fits either) makes her an unintentional MirrorCharacter to Velma, showing what she could become if she holds onto her extreme bigoted views, NeverMyFault mentality, and victim complex.

* NeverLiveItDown: There are a lot of things Velma is probably never gonna live down from viewers. Chief among them being:
** Being convinced Fred is the murderer purely on the basis he's rich and white.
** [[spoiler: Reading Daphine's diary and exposing her mental health issues in front of the whole school in order to win a wrestling contest]].
** Faking a hallucination in order to manipulate Daphne.
** [[spoiler: Twerking in victory on top of the dead body of Fred's mother in front of Fred himself and not showing any concern for Norvile who's currently dealing with the fact he killed someone]].
** [[spoiler: Locking her father, his girlfriend, and baby sister out of the house so she can be alone with her mother]].

** For starters, the identity of the killer makes no sense because they're someone who the clues and evidence pointed ''away'' from. [[spoiler:It's Victoria Jones, a minor character who only appeared in a handful of scenes. While she is the daughter of the general who headed the SCOOBI project, the show never even hinted at this connection before making the reveal. Also, she kidnapped Fred at the Fog Festival when she could have done it in the privacy of her home, yet still created a very public and well-funded search effort for ''the person she is trying to keep hidden''.]] The motive also left much to be desired, as it is revealed that [[spoiler:she did this because she wanted to make her DumbassTeenageSon into a proper heir for the company by replacing his brain with that of a popular teenage girl, under the belief that they'd understand the struggle of trying to break through the glass ceiling. Something she herself admits was a poor decision considering that the girls predictably had no interest in even running a business, much less cared about the gender politics surrounding women in power. In addition, she's also established as being a skilled hypnotist capable of making people do whatever she wants, yet somehow never thinks of just hypnotizing Fred into being a more competent heir.]] The reveal was so out-of-left-field that a somewhat popular fan theory arose that the killer was originally supposed to be [[spoiler:Diya Dinkley]] or [[spoiler:William Jones]] but was changed at the last second for being too obvious.

* AssPull: One of the most common complaints about the first season's finale, and by extension the entire mystery of the season is that it relies way too much on information that had never been hinted at or foreshadowed in the previous episodes.

** Several fans were unhappy when they learned Scooby-Doo wouldn't be appearing, seeing as he's the titular character of the franchise; while some installments don't feature all the gang, it's rare for Scooby himself not to appear. It was later revealed the executives barred Scooby from appearing because they felt he didn't fit the tone of the show and might lead to people [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids mistakenly thinking it was appropriate for kids]].

** Several fans were unhappy when they learned Scooby-Doo wouldn't be appearing, seeing as he's the titular character of the franchise; while some installments don't feature all the gang, it's rare for Scooby himself not to appear. It was later revealed the executives barred Scooby from appearing because they felt he didn't fit the tone of the show and might lead to people mistakenly thinking it was appropriate for kids.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Many consider Velma to be the worst character in the show, even compared to the serial killer that is targeting teenage girls and ''removing their brains'', because Velma comes off as an unlikable main protagonist who constantly insults, uses, and manipulates everyone around her. It all culminates in the Season 1 finale, when Velma [[spoiler:twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (the said serial killer) right in front of him and locks her father, his girlfriend, and half-sister (who is only a baby) out of the house]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Many consider Velma to be the worst character in the show, even compared to the serial killer that is targeting teenage girls and ''removing their brains'', because Velma comes off as an unlikable main protagonist who constantly insults everyone around her. It all culminates in the Season 1 finale, when Velma [[spoiler:twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (the said serial killer) right in front of him and locks her father, his girlfriend, and half-sister (who is only a baby) out of the house]].

* KarmicOverkill: [[spoiler:At the end of season one, Aman, Sophie, and Amanda [[ForcedFromTheirHome are locked out of the house by]] Velma so that she and her mom could live alone together. This is supposed to be seen as karmically funny for Aman and Sophie for neglecting Velma at times and the former for letting the latter move in when Diya went missing. However, many viewers saw this as a dickish move by Velma due to the fact that in the episodes before finding Diya, she and her father seemed to be mending their rocky relationship and that Sophie's worst flaws started to lessen after episode one; she was even more concerned than her boyfriend over Velma's wellbeing. There is also the fact that the two went out of their way to accommodate and hide their relationship from Diya so she wouldn't lose her memory due to learning that her estranged husband moved on, which proved to be pointless in the end, but they still tried to help her since it was the right thing to do. Not to mention the fact that Amanda is just a baby, which is even more heinous to do just because she is the product of Aman's relationship with Sophie; she is essentially being punished for being born. Overall, it also had many fans see Diya as crappier than she appears for approving of her daughter's treatment of them.]]

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Many consider Velma to be the worst character in the show, even among the serial killer that is targeting teenage girls and ''removing their brains'', because Velma comes off as an unlikable main protagonist that constantly insults everyone around her. [[spoiler:It all culminates in the season finale when she twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (who is the said serial killer) right in front of him, and locks her father, his girlfriend, and half-sister, who is only a baby, out of the house]].
* JustHereForGodzilla: Some viewers admited interest in the MythArc involving the serial killer and the disappearance of Velma's mom and watched the show merely to know how it concluded.
* KarmicOverkill: [[spoiler: At the end of season one, Aman, Sophie, and Amanda [[ForcedFromTheirHome are locked out of the house by]] Velma so that she and her mom could live alone together. This is supposed to be seen as karmically funny for Aman and Sophie for neglecting Velma at times and the former for letting the latter move in when Diya went missing. However, many viewers saw this as a dickish move by Velma due to the fact that in the episodes before finding Diya, she and her father seemed to be mending their rocky relationship and that Sophie's worst flaws started to lessen after episode one and even was more concerned than her boyfriend over Velma's wellbeing. There is also the fact that the two went out of their way to accommodate and hide their relationship from Diya so she wouldn't lose her memory due to learning that her estranged husband moved on, which proved to be pointless in the end, but they still tried to help her since it was the right thing to do. Not to mention the fact that Amanda is just a baby which is even more heinous to do just because she is the product of Aman's relationship with Sophie, she is essentially being punished for being born. Overall, it also had many fans see Diya as crappier than she appears for approving of her daughter's treatment of them.]]

** Does Velma really love her mother unselfishly or does she really just want a parent who is a pushover for her antics and behavior? This is due throughout her childhood while Diya was overwhelmed by Velma's antics, she also never really disciplined her and sometimes even spoiled her like when she gave her more gifts when she found her presents while solving a mystery. [[spoiler: This can also be seen in the present day when at the end of the season finale Diya doesn't mind that Velma locked her father, Sophie, and even Amanda (a baby) out of the house, so that they can live alone together.]]
** Velma has a huge crush on Fred, only to completely lose interest once he develops feelings for her. She only seems to express her love for Daphne when the latter is ignoring her or being rude. When the two start becoming friends again and when they do start going out, Velma suddenly starts ignoring her and putting her off. Finally, Velma had treated Norville like a tool throughout the entire series, yet after hearing his voice messages she immediately falls in love with him (To the point she blurts out his name rather than Daphne's during a declaration of love scene.) despite the fact by this point he's made it clear he's done with her. It seems like Velma WantsToBeHated, given that she only appears to be attracted to people who have disdain or disinterest in her.

** Is Diya really the awesome person that Velma painted her as or does she have a rose tinted view that colors our perception of her and she's just as horrible as the rest of the people in town? A big example of how Diya can have JerkAss moments is admitting she thought that Daphne would be the one to get pregnant or admitting she accidentally dropped her daughter off the bed as baby nonchalantly. [[spoiler: Again, she doesn't mind that Aman, Sophie, and Amanda (an infant) are locked out of the house, so she can live alone with her daughter which can imply she too is just as selfish, nasty, and even a bit vengeful as Velma.]]
** On the other foot, is Sophie really the homewrecking WickedStepmother type that the show and Velma treats her as or does she have a more positive presence for the household than Diya ever did? For example, Velma mentions in episode 9 that Sophie turned a previously rundown, booze smelling dump into a dream home that is spotless and clean.
** Is Velma's obsession with bring her mother back really about wanting her family being restored or is it because she's strongly attached to the rose tinted nostalgia of her old life that she refuses to accept any changes (positive or negative) that ever happened (especially anything to do with Sophie)? The episode gives credit to the latter where Velma destroys every essence of Sophie's influence on the house to even dirtying and boozing it up back to when her mother was still around (when logically you would think Diya would prefer coming back to a clean home).

** As noted above in AccidentalAesop Victoria is unintentionally a MirrorCharacter of Velma herself. This could have led to Velma going through some self reflection and possibly some much needed CharacterDevelopment but nothing is done with it.

** The reveal of Victoria Jones as the serial killer and her reasoning for trying to to swap brains to replace her son's (due to feeling he lacks any competence and that a woman deserves his place in the world better while never acknowledging her own contributions to making him who and what he is or that none of the women in question are really good fits either) makes her an unintentional MirrorCharacter to Velma, showing what she could become if she holds onto her extreme black and white views and victim complex.

** The reveal of Victoria Jones as the serial killer and her reasoning for trying to to swap brains to replace her son's (due to feeling he lacks any competence and feels a woman deserves it better) makes her an unintentional MirrorCharacter to Velma showing what would happen if she holds onto her extreme views and victim complex.

* InformedWrongness: While the show treats Velma's dad's relationship with Sophie as an affair, and the show ''does'' reveal that he did flirt with Sophie while his wife Diya was still around, everyone in-universe outside Velma herself reasonably assumed that Diya was dead at worst or simply abandoned the family in disgust at best. It makes sense for him to move on, especially since neither of them appeared particularly happy in their marriage and she would have probably divorced him if she had stayed. Meanwhile, both the narrative and Velma treat Sophie as if she's a WickedStepmother but aside from calling Velma a weirdo in the first episode, Sophie doesn't do anything egregiously wrong throughout the series.

** After the show premiered, many fans started joking that they need to apologize to Scrappy-Doo as clearly, he is now no longer the worst part of the franchise.

* AccidentalAesop: The show unwittingly dunks on the opposite extremes of parenting and their consequences.
** Fred being incredibly childish and incompetent because of how he was raised unintentionally shows the dangers HelicopterParenting and [[AlwaysAChildToParent infantilization]] can cause to their children if not stopped in time.
** Velma, on the other hand, shows that she became that way was due to the fact that her role model she based herself off, Diya, set a very bad example while also being an enabler that let Velma get away with anything while Aman is too apathetic to care.
** Daphne also being danger-prone and criminally violent ever since she was a child shows that her adoptive mothers did little to discourage them and even let her off with stabbing a student, drug dealing, and abetting her birth parents.

** Many viewers also feel the much-maligned "Meta Humor" of the show falls into this as well. With many of the jokes just being the characters commenting on cliches before going through with them anyway (such as the infamous opening scene where Daphne and the popular girls discuss nudity in television pilots while being nude and showering themselves), referencing a hyper-specific piece of media and acting it defines the entire genre, or worse making up tropes and cliches.
* SpecialEffectFailure:

* NeverLiveItDown: There are a lot of things Velma is probably never gonna live down from viewers. Chief among them being-

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: [[spoiler: The culprit being one of Fred's parents was criticized as it was already done two times in ''[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated Mystery Incorporated]]'' and one time in ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo''. If one ignores [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndGuessWho Guess Who?]] this will be the third show in a row that does the same twist.]]

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Given how unbelievably cruel and callous she can be many viewers have suggested Velma to be diagnosed with [[TheSociopath sociopathy]] due to [[ConsummateLiar her willingness to lie to and manipulate others without hesitation or guilt]] (such as pretending to have a hallucination to guilt Daphne into helping her or using Norville as nothing more than labor only to get upset when he stands up for himself) as well as [[ItsAllAboutMe her desire to have everyone focus on her and view her as a genius]] (she gets mad at her father for focusing more on his newborn child than her and only hangs out with him to stop her hallucinations rather than an earnest desire to mend their strained relationship).