There's Something Wrong With Us
is a completed Velma fanfic by RovingOtter.
After dealing with Velma’s tirades, Norville asks serious questions about his life and what he wants. He begins an emotional journey that changes the life of himself and the people around him.
There's Something Wrong With Us provides examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence:
- Norville is depicted as possessing far more self-awareness and introspection and is able to give other characters meaningful advice.
- Fred, once he gets bit of Character Development, also starts to show more emotional intelligence.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed but present. This version of Velma is just as selfish, racist, hypocritical, cynical, and unpleasant as her canon counterpart, but this version has some depth and kindness; when Norville asks for a serious conversation, she agrees to a two-minute conversation where she admits that she's the kind of person who turns a love confession into a joke, but does care about Norville as a friend. And by the end of the story, when Norville and Fred are in the hospital and Velma calls him, she generally apologizes to Norville and admits that she is both a toxic person and he is better off without her in his life, implying that she wants to better herself, something her canon counterpart did not do at the end of the first season where she was happy with herself as a person.
- An Aesop: Sometimes, lending an ear to someone in crisis can make a huge difference in their lives.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Deconstructed. Norville realizes his attraction to Velma's abrasive nature isn't a remotely healthy feeling.
- Deconstruction Fic: The fic takes the massive dysfunction of the Velma and plays it for drama, showing the characters as being genuinely messed up; in particular, Fred's father putting high standards on him while his mother endlessly babied him has left him completely unprepared for actual adult life, and he easily crumbles in stressful situations.
- Establishing Series Moment: The fic opens with Velma talking about how certain shows, like Rick and Morty, love to mock their audience with smug self-awareness. This reflects how the fanfic explores the characters' humanity rather than using them to mock the audience, which is what many Scooby Doo fans accuse Velma — both the show and the character — of doing.
- Heroic BSoD: Fred's realization of how broken his life is hits him so hard he is driven to nearly Stress Vomit from a panic attack.
- Ignored Epiphany: Norville resolves to refuse to do any more favors for Velma. He then agrees to let her copy his homework once she sends an unusually vulnerable text.
- Irony: Fred notes the irony that Norville, an unpopular kid he never acknowledged, has shown him more humanity than any of his nominal friends and family.
- Lonely at the Top: Fred is a school variant: he is technically the Big Man on Campus, but he confides in Norville, a kid who is nominally lower on the totem pole then him, because he feels he can't go to anyone else.
- Marriage of Convenience: Fred and Daphne's relationship can be described as "dating for convenience". Outwardly, Fred and Daphne act like the perfect couple to gain popularity. But Daphne doesn't truly care about him, to the point of never bothering to visit him in prison.
- Mythology Gag: Gigi begins calling Norville "Shaggy", what he's usually referred to in the rest of the franchise.
- Odd Friendship: Despite being nominally different social standings, Fred finds Norville to be a better friend than any of his nominal relationships.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Norville knows Velma is desperate when she shows genuine vulnerability while talking to him.
- Powerful and Helpless: Norville observes that for all his strength and athletics, Fred is so infantile and sheltered that he can't even do something as simple as open a cereal box.
- Stepford Smiler: Underneath Fred's Big Man on Campus act is a profoundly lonely and deeply broken teenager.
- Stepford Snarker: Norville observes that Velma uses sarcasm and frustration to deflect from discussing her true feelings.
- What Does She See in Him?: Gigi, while asking Norville out, wonders what he could see in a person like Velma.
- What Is This Feeling?: Fred doesn't understand his feelings of stress and alienation, to the point where Norville has to spell out that Fred is having a panic attack.
