Velma / YMMV - TV Tropes

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A-H

Accidental Aesop:
- 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 Helicopter Parenting and 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.
- 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 Mirror Character to Velma, showing what she could become if she holds onto her extreme bigoted views, Never My Fault mentality, and victim complex.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- There are a lot of ways to interpret Velma's attitude and actions toward her family.
  - 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. 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.
  - 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. 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 Wicked Stepmother 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.
  - Speaking of said house. 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 presence that she refuses to accept any changes (positive or negative) that ever happened (especially anything to do with Sophie)? Episode Nine gives credit to the latter where Velma destroys every essence of Sophie's influence on the house to the point she even dirties it up back to when her mother was still around (when logically you would think Diya would prefer coming back to a clean home).
- 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 Wants to Be Hated, given that she only appears to be attracted to people who have disdain or disinterest in her.
- Similarly does Norvile really have a crush on Velma or does he just have a degree of Stockholm Syndrome as a result of Velma's abusive behavior towards him? The fact that one episode shows that Norville and Velma only became "friends" because Velma forced Norville to be hers after she got jealous of Daphne hanging out with the popular girls suggests the latter.
Angst? What Angst?:
- Fred has no lingering animosity to Velma for accusing him of murder because he's an "entitled rich guy who might kill someone because he has a tiny dong". He even starts trying to seduce her after being taught to look for inner beauty.
- Gigi nearly died due to an allergic reaction to a bee sting. She's perfectly fine in the next episode, and this experience is never mentioned again.
- The three murdered girls were reduced to brains in jars, a pretty horrific state. They don't seem particularly bothered by this and are quick to resume their lives as popular girls.
Anvilicious: The show frequently makes sociopolitical jokes and addresses racism and sexism in the United States with no subtlety or nuance.
Arc Fatigue: The few viewers that were interested in the Mystery Arc involving the Serial Killer and Velma's mom's disappearance were disappointed in how slow the plotline advanced throughout the season. Pretty much all of the episodes would have Velma start investigating either of the mysteries only for something to cause a detour unrelated to the main arc and have the characters focus on that instead, and unlike Mystery Incorporated which still had the Mystery of the Week mixed the Myth Arc, each episode seemed more interested on focusing on the wacky sitcom plotlines and love lives of the characters rather than the mysteries. Made even more frustrating by the murders stopping by episode 2 so there are no new clues to investigate and the resolution involving multiple Ass Pulls.
Ass Pull: One of the most common complaints about the first season's finale is that it relies way too much on information that had never been hinted at or foreshadowed in the previous episodes, turning the entire season's main plot into an unsatisfying Clueless Mystery.
- For starters, the identity of the killer makes no sense because they're someone who the clues and evidence pointed away from. 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 and created a very public and well-funded search effort for the person she is trying to keep hidden, when she could have done kidnapped him in the privacy of her home and excused his absence as him traveling abroad or being transferred to a boarding school. The motive also left much to be desired, as it is revealed that she did this because she wanted to make her Dumbass Teenage Son 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 Diya Dinkley or William Jones but was changed at the last second for being too obvious.
- Similarly, the revelation that Velma's hallucinations were caused by Fred's mother hypnotizing her so she wouldn't be able to investigate her mother's disappearance can come off as this. Not only was there no indication the hallucinations were or could be caused by outside influence, but it's explicitly mentioned that finger snapping can undo the hypnotism. It seems super implausible that Velma went several years without hearing a single finger snap to put it mildly. It also raises the question of if Victoria already had a way to keep Velma from investigating her, why did she frame her by putting Brenda's body in her locker?.
- The fact the killer uses hypnosis at all is this. While it is mentioned hypnosis was a part of the SCOOBI project, the killer's usage of it was never hinted at prior to the finale.
- In the final episode, Norville finally had enough of Velma's attitude and moved away, not wanting to see her again. While he was gone, Velma finally listened to the TONS of voice mail messages he sent her over the years that she never listened to. In that time, she instantly falls in love with him and tries to call him back before going after Victoria, only leaving a voice mail. Somehow, Norville figures out where she is, gets there in time, and saves her just in the nick of time. Not only that, but he also deflects a bullet shot by Victoria, hitting a stalagmite and causing it to kill her.
- In Season 2, the fact that the killer was a dog was foreshadowed as early as the first episode, but the clues pointing to Sophie being Uncle SCOOBI didn't come up until shortly before the unmasking.
Awesome Art: Even detractors of the show view the visuals as one of its highlights, particularly Velma's hallucinations for their fluid animation and use of lighting to create atmospheric horror imagery.
Awesome Music:
- The chilling ending theme is pretty cool and wouldn't sound at all out of place in a live-action crime-drama series.
- The show has a good selection of obscure artists featured, including Foxxi, Magic Tiger and Dai Burger
- "Greatest Love of All" being played when Velma and Aman are reconnecting.
- "I Will Remember You" being played when Velma is finally listening to all of Norville's voicemails.
Base-Breaking Character: Fred and Norville's reception has been pretty mixed. Some people view them as some of the more likable characters of the show, citing Fred actually trying to better himself as the season goes on and Norville just generally being more of a Nice Guy than most of the other cast. But others have pointed out that just because Fred comes off as Unintentionally Sympathetic that doesn't automatically make him likable and Norville began to lose a lot of support after his relationship with Gigi ended up showcasing his worst traits.
Bile Fascination: Due to the hate this show received on the internet both prior to and after its release, a lot of people checked this show out just to see why Scooby-Doo fans were so outraged, with fans themselves also viewing it to verify if the changes the show made to the characters and tone were as bad as they feared. The mixed-to-negative reviews from critics in the days before its premiere only added to this.
Broken Base: Whether or not the absence of Scooby-Doo was for the better. Some people viewed it as a good thing as it meant he was spared from a terrible reinvention like the other characters and he would've felt horribly out of place with the very different tone the show was going for. Others point out that without Scooby around a major part of the gang's dynamic feels missing, plus the fact it feels weird to have an origin for Mystery Incorporated without its most iconic member.
Captain Obvious Reveal: General Harry Meeting having some connection to the Killer is obvious in some areas.
Catharsis Factor: As this version of Velma is considered a massive Jerkass and Designated Hero, many scenes where she receives comeuppance in some fashion are usually seen as cathartic by fans of Scooby Doo.
- In the ninth episode, Norville finally snaps and gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Velma accuses his dad of being the murderer and getting his house partially destroyed by a SWAT team in the process.
- The short-but-sweet scene of Velma being rammed by a police car, causing her to eat pavement and make her face a bloody mess. Especially since she antagonized the driver in the first place.
- Daphne beating the ever-loving shit out of Velma because, like the police officer above, she antagonized her, and in a much worse and more personal way at that by reading Daphne's diary in front of everyone.
- When Velma claims Amanda is her child with Norville, Norville instantly drives away, already getting fed up with her. And later, Velma accused Norville's dad of being the murderer simply because she found a welding mask in his office, causing the authorities to destroy his house. As a result, Norville has finally had enough of her, calls her out on her actions, and effectively cuts ties with her.
- In the season finale, people had a giggle at her expense that Cogburn gave her a backhanded compliment to her about being as smart as a man when she tried to smugly assert she solved the case of her missing mom and the murders and made the police department look like fools (when she didn't and just took all the credit from the others). It also comes after she showed her most despicable behavior: twerking in front of Victoria's corpse in front of a traumatized Fred and locking her father, Sophie, and Amanda (a baby) out of the house so she could live with her mom.
- Scrappy killing Velma in the season 2 finale.
Critic-Proof: The show received mixed-to-negative responses from critics and was outright reviled by Scooby-Doo fans and general animation enthusiasts yet was the most successful debut for any animated program on MAX.
Designated Hero: Since the first episode, Velma became notorious for being completely selfish and abusive towards her family and friends to the point where she treats them like tools rather than people, only really interacting with them whenever they're useful to her but nonetheless expects their love and devotion. While she does have her moments where she realizes how bad a person she is, the lesson rarely sticks and Velma goes right back to being selfish, sometimes only a scene or two later.
Designated Monkey: Fred is supposed to be the butt of the joke as the racist, sexist, misogynistic Manchild but the over-the-top constant mockery of him in-universe feels incredibly undeserved. His behavior overall has him acting more like an immature child who doesn’t know any better thanks to his infantilizing mother and his father’s toxic masculinity, which combined with his desperate need for approval makes it hard to laugh when other characters constantly mock him and feel no guilt for his wrongful conviction purely because he's a stupid, rich white boy. It doesn't help that there's a lot of in-universe fixation on things that are beyond his control and have nothing to do with his less admirable personality traits, particularly his smaller-than-average genitals. This is only heightened as the season goes on and Fred genuinely tries to improve himself, something that can't be said of characters such as Velma who are presented as more sympathetic than Fred. This is only epitomized by the revelation that the killer of the season was his own mother, Victoria, who was going to scoop out his brain and replace it with a pretty woman's because she genuinely thinks he is just that stupidly incompetent for the sake of the family business, meaning even one of the people he should trust the most utterly despises him for petty, selfish reasons after she'd raised him that way.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Given how unbelievably cruel and callous she can be, many viewers have suggested Velma to be diagnosed with sociopathy due to 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 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).
Draco in Leather Pants: While it's understandable for fans to root for Olive over Velma, they forget that Olive can still be nasty to other people. Olive even had a scene in which she bullied Fred by throwing food at him without any provocation on Fred's end.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Gigi has gotten some amount of attention due to being one of the few Only Sane People in the series. With many wishing she had become a Sixth Ranger in the absence of Scooby.
- Olive has some fans because she's called out Velma's behavior more than once. Some joke that she speaks for the viewers.
- Sophie and Amanda are favored by fans who believe they are cruelly treated by the narrative and Velma, who despises their presence due to her father giving them more attention than her and moving on from her mother fast. They also find Sophie nicer than the series tries to portray her as and consider Amanda to be very adorable and love the facial expressions she gives throughout the show, especially reacting to the stuff her sister puts her through. Both also get tons of sympathy when they are cruelly locked out of the house with Aman by Velma so she can live alone with her mother.
Epileptic Trees:
- In the days before and after its premiere, several meta examples emerged in social media discussions of the series. The most common and benign of these theories is that Velma was meant to be an original IP that only had the Scooby-Doo characters attached for brand recognition. Similarly, it is theorized that the new incarnations are based on their voice actors rather than their cartoon counterparts (e.g. Velma is based on Kaling, Fred is based on Howerton, etc.).
- With the Opening Narration by Velma saying that this is her story told her way, there are theories that the events shown that involve her are simply her own mind and ego warping the events to her own liking.
- There are theories and skits circulating that the overall direction taken by the show may even be intentional, with the whole affair being a Batman Gambit that the higher-ups used to obtain infamy clout, in which the public fell for hook, line and sinker with all of their negative review and analysis videos.
Ethnic Scrappy: The Daphne/Velma romance is this to queer fans. While it's touted as a "representation" moment, many people (both queer and heterosexual) disliked it because Velma acts like a vindictive, creepy Crazy Jealous Guy to Daphne, and Daphne kissed Velma when she was in the middle of a panic attack.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Gigi seemed to enjoy being around Norville and for the most part, treated him much better than Velma did and encouraged him to grow a spine. Needless to say, some viewers were disappointed to see them break up because Norville still prioritized Velma over Gigi, despite the former being an abusive friend who'd done nothing to atone for her behavior.
Fandom-Specific Plot:
- A common Alternative Character Interpretation of Velma is that she has a "Race Fetish", because she complains about white men all the time, but is instantly smitten with Fred even when he is awful to her. Archive of Our Own takes this concept and runs with it and several Velma fics on that site are tagged "raceplay". Just as a warning, many of these fics are NSFW and you may need Brain Bleach if you look at them. Some fics also rewrite her as racist to Norville, which is why in canon she treats him badly.
- Because Norville is one of the few characters in the show who doesn't induce Too Bleak, Stopped Caring, many fans write fics where he stands up to Velma's abhorrent behaviour and stops being her friend.
Fanwork-Only Fans: The series's unpopularity has lead to multiple Fix Fics and Fan parodies that take the premise of a Ruder and Cruder Scooby-Doo series involving murderers but making it Truer to the Text (sometimes giving them the Adaptation Personality Change of the Gang but making them nicer and more sympathetic), unsurprisingly some fans refuse to watch the actual show but are interested on fan versions of the setting.
Growing the Beard: Season 2 is not winning any awards, but it's a marked stepped up from the previous season. Velma's character development from last season has stuck, making her much less selfish and malicious. The show also drops almost all of its meta humor jokes and relies a lot less on jokes based around politics and social identity. The jokes are still hit-or-miss, but they're now more subtle and don't require the characters spelling out their references.
Harsher in Hindsight: The infamous "#metoo" joke ("I spit the truth without a filter, like every comedian before #MeToo," a joke Velma makes about the Louis C.K. allegations) became even more uncomfortable to watch after a video resurfaced in early 2023 where Velma's actress Mindy Kaling made an anecdote about having sexually harassed a co-star on The Mindy Project and threatened to fire her producers when they complained.
Hollywood Homely:
- Velma is treated by many people as being hideous and overweight, which turns a lot of others off from being interested in her except Fred, Daphne, and Norville. In reality, she is just a little pudgy and is just average looking compared to the more attractive popular girls of the series.
- Velma insults Amanda as being "fugly" to her mom, but the former is designed as a cute looking, normal baby. Since this is coming from Velma, who has a lot of animosity for her half-sister, it seems more like petty bullying.
Hollywood Pudgy: Velma's weight has been made fun of by a lot of people in the show to the point she broke a mirror while twerking when she's really just slightly chubby.

I-S

Informed Wrongness:
- While the show treats Velma's dad's relationship with Sophie as an affair, and 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 Wicked Stepmother but aside from calling Velma a weirdo in the first episode, Sophie doesn't do anything egregiously wrong throughout the series.
- On the same note, the narrative condemns Aman for not trying to find Diya harder and just moving onto another relationship too quick before knowing for sure what happened to her. While one could say it was too soon to move on from his missing wife to another woman, since the police had no luck tracking her down and it ended in a cold case, what luck could he have in finding her? And in the case of cold cases like Diya, after two days they are often speculated to be dead, and after two years people would find it hopeless to think she's still alive.
- Also the show treats the police not finding Diya as an example of their incompetence and Velma rags on the fact they haven't done anything to try to find her harder. However, realistically even in real life tons of people go missing and more competent police have a hard time deciding where they could have gone. So while the police department lack any skill, they also are justified in why they haven't found Diya at all and Velma is expecting too much because she's someone who highly demands impossible things.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
- The culprit of Season 1 being one of Fred's parents was criticized as it was already done two times in Mystery Incorporated and one time in Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!. If one ignores Guess Who?, this will be the third show in a row that does the same twist.
- Likewise, the culprit of Season 2 being Scrappy-Doo was quickly met with backlash given Scrappy-Doo getting hit with Adaptational Villainy was already a twist in the 2002 live action movie and Scooby Apocalypse.
It Was His Sled: Velma was killed by Scrappy in the Season 2 finale. Many viewers had spoiled the outcome in social media, make it one of the most well-known pieces of the show.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Fred may come off as a misogynistic Spoiled Brat, but he has a lot of sympathetic moments, and is constantly treated horribly by other characters, including his own parents.
- Velma herself, as while she may be selfish and a jerk to others, that largely stems from her mother disappearing when she was young (and her father subsequently knocking up a young waitress certainly didn't help either), causing her to get severe guilt-induced hallucinations whenever she tried to solve a mystery (as her mom disappeared while heading to the store to buy Velma a Christmas gift after she ended up accidentally finding her original Christmas gift early while attempting to solve a mystery).
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Many consider Velma to be the worst character in the show, even compared to the Serial Killer who 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 twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (the said serial killer) right in front of him and locks her father, his girlfriend, and her half-sister (who is only a baby) out of the house.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- Some viewers admitted interest in the Myth Arc involving the serial killer and the disappearance of Velma's mom and watched the show merely to know how it concluded.
- Those watching season two were clearly here for Scrappy Doo's return and Velma's death.
Karmic Overkill: At the end of season one, Aman, Sophie, and Amanda 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 being just crappy as her daughter for approving of her shutting them out.
Memetic Mutation:
- #NotMyShaggy.^Explanation
- Due to this version of Shaggy being black, jokes about how Ultra Instinct Shaggy acquired N-Word Privileges using some percentages of his power have circulated.
- Beta Norville/Sigma Shaggy.^Explanation
- After the show premiered, many fans started joking that they need to apologize to Scrappy-Doo as clearly, he is now not the worst part of the franchise anymore.
  - This only grew after the Season 2 finale when Scrappy Doo killed Velma only to be killed by Velma's ghost, with fans declaring him a hero and seeing it as a metafictional case of Redemption Equals Death
- "This show is great for bringing so many people together!" ^Explanation
- Velma getting hit by a car. ^Explanation
- Jack Horner is more likeable than Velma.^Explanation
- NO HATE WATCHING! ^Explanation
Mis-blamed:
- The show's staff received no end of flak for not including Scooby-Doo in the show due to feeling he is too "kiddy". While showrunner Charlie Grandy certainly did admit that the writing staff thought Scooby-Doo was a generally childish element of the franchise that would have been hard to fit into the show's adult tone, he also revealed that they wouldn't have been able use the character even if they wanted to, as Warner Bros. Animation told them that the Great Dane was off-limits.
- The show was also blamed for causing the cancellation of Final Space due to how that show was taken off of HBO Max and that Velma came in to seemingly replace it while having Velma's and Fred's character designs look very close to that of Quinn Ergon and Gary Goodspeed respectively. However, Final Space was screwed over as a result of complications with the merger between WB and Discovery along with the failure of executives to recognize the popularity of the show and that they wrote it off for taxes.
- Many accuse Mindy Kaling of being the creator of the series; that honor would go to Charlie Grandy. She also is confused as a writer when she isn't credited as one. She is actually the executive producer.
Moral Event Horizon: Victoria crossed it by murdering girls and scooping out their brains so that she could replace her own son's with theirs in order to keep the family business from going under when he took control. In other words, she would try to murder her own child just because she didn't believe him capable of running the company on his own.
Nightmare Fuel:
- As expected from an TV-MA rated show it gets pretty disturbing at times, in the first episode alone we get an image of a dead teen girl with her brains completely removed.
- Velma's hallucinations are legitimately terrifying, sometimes coming out of nowhere.
- One guy's foot gets accidentally chopped off by a paper cutter.
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The series managed to have the biggest premiere day of any HBO Max original animated show to date, which has been attributed to the mixed reviews from professional critics and overwhelming online backlash from fans.
No Yay: Romantic tension exists between Velma and each of the main characters, but many viewers root against those potential relationships thanks to Velma's repulsive treatment of them. Notably, she tried to assault Daphne, she used Norville as a personal servant, and she twerked while Fred was mourning over his mother's dead body.
Opinion Myopia: The series being overwhelmingly panned by fans and the online animation community led some to assume that the show’s massive debut numbers were the result of Bile Fascination or AstroTurf. While that may be true to some extent, the online animation fandom is a much smaller demographic than general adult audiences. The large marketing push and being helmed by a well known comedic actress is more likely the reason for the show’s rating success than any form of Bile Fascination or AstroTurf.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Trope Namer himself literally wound up becoming this when he killed Velma in the Season 2 finale.
Romantic Plot Tumor: One of the major criticisms that's popped up for the show is how the relationship drama between Velma and the other three main characters constantly gets in the way of the murder mystery plot. For example, most of episode three is spent on Daphne and Velma getting into a fight during a self-defense class and then making up again, with the murder mystery plot reduced to a subplot headed by Norville which Velma has no impact on.
Ron the Death Eater: While the characters are terrible in canon, Archive of Our Own ramps it up by rewriting Velma as a rapist. Look it up at your own discretion, but a lot of fics in the "Velma (Cartoon 2023)" tag are tagged "rape". This is likely because as stated in Harsher in Hindsight, Mindy Kaling (who 2023 Velma is based on) admitted to sexually harassing a coworker.
Shallow Parody:
- While it's meant to be a Darker and Edgier affectionate parody/deconstruction of the Scooby-Doo franchise, many have accused it of being this instead. Even putting aside the absence of Scooby himself, the characterization of the gang has been viewed as the writers slapping common Animated Shock Comedy archetypes onto the cast as opposed to being new takes on their usual personalities. For example, Fred is depicted as being a rich, womanizing asshole of a Manchild who doesn't even know how to use a fork and knife; the character has rarely, if ever, been depicted as the wealthy member of the gang (that role usually goes to Daphne), hasn't flirted with many girls outside of Daphne (even taking into account some Distracted by the Sexy moments), is generally regarded by fans as a Nice Guy overall, and his trap-making skills usually cement him as the most intelligent member of the group behind Velma in most incarnations (if a bit of a one-track mind).
- 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.
- The ultimate villain of Season 2 being a monstrous evil Scrappy-Doo as a metatextual nod to his infamous reputation, down to Velma taunting him with the line "This is the last Saturday morning you'll ever ruin!" can be seen as this, as the Scooby-Doo fandom in general no longer hates Scrappy nearly as much as they used to for various reasons, and besides that, this exact same joke was already done in 2002, and even then fans didn't find it particularly funny.
Special Effect Failure:
- The flat shading on the characters meshes poorly with the gradient shading on the backgrounds, often making the cast look like they're standing in a painting instead of a 3D environment. While this is nothing new in animation — especially for this franchise — it's particularly egregious here.
- There are moments where the attempts to provide Depth of Field are handled incompetently, with some elements being inconsistently blurred, or parts that should be blurred remaining unblurred.
Squick:
- Several viewers have commented on the discomfort they feel over the show's numerous occurrences of nudity and sex-based jokes involving underage teens (the main characters are reportedly intended to be around 15 or 16). The scene with Daphne and other girls showering, even making seductive poses, before getting into a naked fist fight (with only a few soap suds covering them) has particularly been highlighted as gratuitous; the fact the scene makes meta commentary about the unnecessary nudity doesn't really offset it for some viewers.
- In the same scene, this is also done In-Universe where Daphne witnesses two cockroaches mating and gets understandably grossed out.
  - Another episode later focuses specifically on a number of those girls, who are considered "hot". There are a few scenes in that episode in which the girls perform sexually suggestive moves, including twerking and twirling as if on a stripper pole. When Velma's attempts to "de-hotify" them causes them to return to how they were before and are being presented to the mayor, said mayor practically drools over them and says "Daddy likey".
- There is a particularly disturbing early on where Sophie's baby looks like it's trying to escape Sophie's womb by try to press her face and hand through Sophie's stomach. It looks like something out of a body horror movie.
- Some of the random comedic violence can be disturbing, in the first episode someone's leg gets partially cut off with a paper-cutter and in episode two the same guy's reattached leg gets cut off again.
- The first kiss between Velma and Daphne has been heavily criticized, as Velma was hallucinating at the time and thus wasn't in the right mind to consent.

T-W

Tainted by the Preview:
- The pre-release teaser for the show was heavily criticized for being overly reliant on Breaking the Fourth Wall-based Take That! humor. The official trailer for the show only aided in these complaints, with one joke aimed directly at the show's demographic in particular about its viewers being stoners who haven't outgrown cartoons drawing ire the moment it was shared over social media. Not helping is the show being released during a period where the show's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, had been gaining notoriety for its dismissive treatment of its animation library, making the joke awkwardly timed for some viewers.
- After the first look at the rest of the Mystery Gang, Shaggy (or rather, Norville) was criticized for not resembling the original Shaggy in anything except shirt color, especially when compared to the different but still recognizable race-lifted Velma and Daphne.
- The announcement that Scooby himself wouldn't make an appearance annoyed many, especially when the reasoning given (alongside WBA executives just being against it) was that Scooby was what made the franchise a kids' property. Fans pointed out that not only have prior Scooby projects managed to nail darker tones with the dog's presence (the Zombie Island DTV movie, the Mystery Incorporated television series, and even the Scooby Apocalypse comics), but several adult animated series are host to Talking Animals as well, including Harley Quinn (which was named as a major influence on this series) and (most famously) Family Guy.
- Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! has Velma explicitly depicted as a lesbian after a few years of different shows and movies such as Mystery Incorporated only implying her sexuality. The preview clip that revealed this caused many people to celebrate; so much so that Google added an option to have lesbian flags rain down when searching the character's name. Less than a week later, this tweet by this show's official account had Velma call Fred her "secret crush", which led to accusations of this show making Velma straight (despite bisexuality being a thing) again. A few months later, the official trailer for the show would reveal that she has strong feelings for Daphne, whom in the final show, she kisses at the end of the second episode.
Take That, Scrappy!:
- The scene where Velma is run over by a car is one of the show's most popular scenes.
- Many viewers rejoiced after Velma was, ironically, killed by the Trope Namer himself.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Many viewers, especially long-time Scooby-Doo fans, were displeased with the changes made to the Mystery Inc Gang—especially as most of them undergo personality shifts that result in a major case of Adaptational Jerkass—to the point that some view the group as being their characters In Name Only.
- Norville's redesign in particular is viewed as looking nothing like Shaggy besides wearing a green T-shirt. Admittedly, the decision to make the slow-witted and goofy Lovable Coward (who many fans interpret as a stoner) black did not make for good optics, but while the writers did tone down any negative traits that would have made Norville a racial stereotype, they failed to replace them with any new defining traits, leaving him to be little more than that other stereotype: the Token Black Friend.
- 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.
- Thorn's appearance in Season 2 caused plenty of vitriol for making her much visibly older and more haggard than any previous incarnation of the character.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Daphne's subplot of looking for her real parents has been heavily criticized for being a repeat of Mystery Incorporated's subplot of Fred looking for his.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Gigi seems like she's going to be a Sixth Ranger of the gang in Scooby Doo's absense and the Only Sane Woman who offers some great Character Development for Norville, but after the two have an argument over Norville still having feelings for Velma, she breaks up with him and goes right back to being nothing more than one of the mean popular girls.
- In Season 2, former Hex Girl Thorn is barely present. Instead, it's her kid Amber who gets focus and uses occult magic to help with the case.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- In Fog Fest, Velma decides to disguise herself as a man so she can warn the town that the serial killer is still active and not a ghost as they believe. Velma enjoys being a man and repeatedly says how she's only respected for being a man, not because she has the correct facts and better ideas. As fans and dissidents of the series have pointed out, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Velma to self-reflect because although everybody hates Velma and her brutal honesty makes her unpopular, they still agree with her ideas and would likely follow her advice if she was a bit more kind, polite, and tactful in her methods instead of using males as a scapegoat for her own wrongdoings.
- We never really get to expand more of Blythe's relationship with her mother and how she felt about her wrongful imprisonment and death. It could have made her connect with Velma due to knowing the loss of one's mother. And it could have opened up to there being strife between Blythe and Victoria due to her father, Harry Meeting, causing her mother's imprisonment. It would have been interesting if we saw more Norville's feelings beyond episodes 5 and 6. This could have also led to the families' relationship healed by Norville and Fred becoming friends. But all she used is mostly for backstory exposition for Diya's whereabouts and the Killer's history and motives. Not to mention the fact that Norville and Fred end up on bad terms due to the former (accidentally) killing the latter's mother.
- In episode 3, we are shown that Gigi's father is in the military which could have tied into the plotline concerning Purdue and her father could have found some leftover files from those days to solve the case. However, her father is just used for a gag and is never brought up again.
- Velma and Fred's rivalry wasn't that well established and appears as a wasted opportunity. In the opening narration for episode 1, Velma narrates that it was her who started the Mystery Gang, not Fred "and his weird sex van". However, Velma's behavior in the series contradicts what she said and it implies that she had very little incentive to form a team of detectives. Velma was only interested in finding her mother and was only interested in stopping the killer because she was first accused of being the murderer and eventually because it happened to coincide with the disappearance of her mom. Velma has solved mysteries on her own but she didn't want to form a group of detectives for hire. Fred easily forgives Velma for accusing him of murder and even becomes infatuated with her. If there was a grievance, it was directed at Norville over his mom's death rather than how Victoria Jones wanted Velma to run the business instead of him. Fred became a ghosthunter because he naively believes in ghosts and calls himself a "Spooky Stuff Hunter". Velma was the one who was given the lion's share of the credit for solving the murders and even had a day named after her (albeit misspelled). The rivalry appears one-sided and bitter from Velma's end because all Fred did was start a ghostbusting/mystery-solving business, something Velma neither wanted nor thought of until Fred did it first.
- The romantic subplots in the show weren't really done too well. The biggest complaint fans have is that Velma is way too unlikable and selfish to have any valid chemistry with any of them. Norville's infatuation with Velma appeared toxic and manipulative as he's repeatedly told by Gigi and his own family that Velma is bad for him and she outright objectifies him by saying he should always drop everything to help her while she does nothing to help him in return, Fred's attraction to Velma is confusing because he immediately forgives her for accusing him of murder and humiliating him in court by saying he has a small penis, and then there's Daphne, who's lied to, manipulated, and betrayed multiple times by Velma but she still has feelings for her. Then the series ends with the Scoobi gang hating and attacking each other, with no romantic resolution as Velma says Norville's name while kissing Daphne. Which makes the romantic subplots a pointless detour from the single main mystery.
- "A Velma in the Woods" has Diya appear out of nowhere to save Velma, the brains, and the rest of the group with little build up and any indication she was in those caves. Since Fred was stuck down there in the caves, it would have been an opportunity to explore the mines and run into a brainwashed Diya who he could have probably recognized from description as Velma's mother and followed her around when she was still brainwashed. He could have also coincidentally snapped his fingers around her and this could have taken her out of her brainwashed state and eventually they could have found the others as she regained her mind and rescued her daughter and the brains.
- Also likewise in the above mentioned episode, even when Daphne encourages Velma to leave the brains behind she decides to rescue them out of the fact that she has to get used to her new friends instead of resenting them like she has in the past. You would think in the next episodes that the brains would be appreciative that Velma saved them and that it could lead to both sides getting to see each other in a better light, but this is not further expanded in the last two episodes and the Brains in fact give more credit to Diya saving them, especially due to the fact they thought she could get them beer for the welcome home party in their honor. Also Velma doesn't care to know them better other than to ask them about who the killer could be.
- Instead of being regulated to an isolated subplot from the main murder mystery and finding Diya, it would have been interesting if Daphne's biological parents Caroll and Darren had something to do with the serial killing and Velma's mom's disappearance. However, after episode 6, they really don't do anything except for Caroll giving Daphne a relic of the serial killer as a clue after a Faking the Dead encounter.
- Despite the emphasis on the race swaps of this series, many felt it wasn't utilized to it's full potential. The cast now having 3 members of color is just used to make racial jokes and social commentary, while not really focusing on the cultural aspects they all now come from. While Velma occasionally brings up aspects of her Indian heritage, it's mainly to make jabs at them.
- Despite the show promising at the start to be the origin of how the gang started by the end of the first season they still haven't come together and even seem to be at odds with each other. Presumably saving the proper formation of the team for Season 2. It's enough to make people feel like most of the build-up in Season 1 was pointless.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A major criticism of the series so far is how crude and unlikeable the characters are; Velma is an overly judgmental cynic, Fred is a misogynistic Manchild, and Daphne is a stereotypical Alpha Bitch. Even those that view Norville as the only character who is even remotely likable believe he's too much of a departure from Shaggy's usual Big Eater, Lovable Coward personality and find his unrequited love for Velma more pitiable than sympathetic and as a result they have a hard time getting invested in the overall story.
Trapped by Mountain Lions: A result of the show's messy handling of its relationships. Many of the romantic subplots have absolutely nothing to do with the supposed main plot of the murder mystery. Gigi and Norville's relationship in particular doesn't tie into it at all and is unceremoniously dropped after episode 8.
Uncertain Audience: The main reason leading to the backlash faced by the show. Scooby-Doo fans are not unfamiliar with Darker and Edgier interpretations of the premise, but the lack of Scooby, the Adaptational Jerkass aspects of the main characters, and the post-modern parodical approach/tone^note turned off many longtime fans. Meanwhile, new viewers that would appreciate the deconstructive elements and the murder mystery aspect had to contend with the show's overall ties to the larger Scooby-Doo franchise, which many felt only ended up holding back the premise as a whole. Even the genre, a mix of shock comedy, teen drama, and mystery, failed to strike a good balance. Those who wanted the comedy found that most of the humor was meta jokes, with the show feeling the need to point the jokes out. Those who wanted the drama found the main character too unlikeable to root for, and any character development and relationships didn't seem to stick. And those interested in the mystery were frustrated that it took a back seat to the other elements, to the point where it ended up as a Clueless Mystery.
Unexpected Character: Let's just say very few viewers expected Season 2 to mark the first appearance of Scrappy Doo himself in a Scooby-Doo series since The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo 39 years ago.
Unintentionally Sympathetic:
- Velma's father Aman and new partner Sophie got some of this from some viewers. While they do have their flaws and don't treat Velma the best, the callous way Velma and the narrative treat them feels incredibly undeserved. Especially since Sophie's worst traits disappear after the first episode, and there is even an episode centered around Velma mending the bridge with her father and bonding. And in the finale, Aman, Sophie, and their baby are kicked out of the house.
- Gigi, Norville's new girlfriend, we're supposed to see her as a Control Freak girlfriend who manipulates him into doing what she wants and doesn't understand that he still has feelings for Velma, so Norville dumps her in favor of Velma is justified. But, although she can be controlling, she does care about Norville compared to Velma, who only uses him and cares when it suits her. Gigi is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at her worst, but she's been understanding of Norville and hasn't let him down despite his various flaws, making her anger when Norville protects Velma instead of her entirely justified because Velma has been nothing but emotionally abusive to him for years while all she has done is love him and try to teach Norville to stand up for himself.
- Olive and the popular girls are supposed to be seen as an unsympathetic group of mean Girl Posse who pick on Velma for not being hot, but many viewers instead see them as unfairly labeled due to her biases and the fact that Velma doesn't act all that different or even worse than them. Many even find them to be better friends than Velma was to Daphne and cheered when Olive called her out for using the de-hotifying process as a way to slut shame them and stated her definition of womanhood is even more restrictive than theirs.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Our title character, Velma, is desperate to find out what happened to her mother, solve a serial killer case, and is fighting both her trauma concerning said woman's disappearance and a town full of weirdos whose concern about the killings is ever wavering. However, any sympathy the audience has towards Velma is undermined by her being a judgmental, openly racist, cynical hypocrite who has an incredibly misanthropic, Never My Fault view of the world and has little to no issues putting others in harm's way for her own sake or even threatening to kill people for the smallest of reasons. While the show does have characters call her out for her behavior and flaws, her learning to better herself and accept her role in things such as ruining her friendship with Daphne rarely happens, and when it does, it comes across as exasperating rather than satisfying character growth due to how much other characters need to drag her kicking and screaming into a Jerkass Realization that may or may not stick come the next episode. It doesn't help that Velma is incredibly manipulative, such as faking a hallucination as to get Daphne to help her look for her mom, or how she only cares about Norville when it's convenient for her, getting upset when he gets a girlfriend of his own, as she's no longer the most important thing on Norville's life.
- Daphne is initially supposed to garner sympathy as someone selling drugs to get money to hire a private investigator so she can find her biological family. This falls incredibly flat as from the very start. She’s an unrepentant Alpha Bitch who tries to force her boyfriend Fred into a physical relationship with no regard for how he feels, she commits disproportionately violent acts such as attempting to drown Krista over a petty argument, and her adopted moms seem to really do care about her. Altogether, this makes her Gene Hunting excuse feel more tacked-on to justify her actions.
- We're meant to sympathize with Norville because his love for Velma is unrequited and he has to put up with her selfishness out of love for her. However when he starts dating Gigi, he is not a very good boyfriend to her and it is shown that he is still pining for Velma while he was dating Gigi. She genuinely loves him and tries to help him defend himself from the constant mistreatment he receives from Velma, but he repeatedly puts her aside to help Velma and prioritizes the latter's safety over his girlfriend's, seeming like he just goes out with Gigi to try to replace her with Velma. When Gigi confronts him about still having a crush on Velma, the next episode he breaks up with her and seems happy to ditch Gigi for Velma.
- In "Velma Makes a List", Velma reinvents the hot girls into over-the-top Hollywood Homely stereotypes, only for Olive and the others to give up the following day and give her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how her definition of femininity is simply the opposite extreme of the sexism she claims to be so critical of. That's all well and good, but the whole point of this little exercise was because the killer has been targeting attractive girls and she was "reinventing" them for their own protection. While Velma is only doing it to make a point, all this does is prove that point; that they would rather bring all the boys to the yard and receive validation from that in the short term than not be murdered by a serial-killer in the long term.
- We are supposed to sympathize with Diya for Aman moving on with Sophie while she was missing and their relationship is treated like an affair. However, many people pointed out that no one knew for sure she was kidnapped and everyone assumed she just straight up left or was dead. It doesn't help that their marriage was on the rocks and she herself admitted she hated being married to him. There is also the fact that episode 9 hints that Diya might have contributed to some dysfunction in the house by being a terrible home keeper whose alcoholism stank up the place. She also loses a lot of sympathy by endorsing Velma locking her father, Sophie, and Amanda (a baby) out of the house so they can live together alone.
Wangst:
- Although it's tragic that Velma's mom disappeared and her father started dating again before Velma had a chance to come to terms with what happened, it doesn't excuse Velma's selfishness and cynicism. Especially since it was shown how terrible Velma treated her mother beforehand and she was nasty even before she disappeared. Norville and Daphne even point out that her mother's disappearance doesn't entitle her to special treatment anymore and it doesn't excuse how toxic she is to them.
- Even though it's natural for Daphne to wonder who her biological parents are, the lengths she goes to find them is incredibly criminal (i.e. selling drugs) and the fact that her moms truly love her despite her flaws make her come off as a Ungrateful Bitch. It doesn't help she tries to weakly justify herself by saying it's morally alright if your life situation is slightly bad, which her home life is definitely not.
Watched It for the Representation: At least some fans watched the show because they found it refreshing to see a more racially diverse take on the franchise as a whole with having only one white main character in Fred and with Daphne having interracial lesbian adoptive parents.

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