Scooby Doo General

I shipped Fred and Daphne before I even knew what shipping was and I'm glad they've gotten more colorful personality lately. I saw pup before I saw the original Scooby Doo and thought they were a little bland in the oldest cartoon version. Pup is still my favorite though. It even got a callback in what's new that was very fun.

While going through The New Scooby-Doo Movies I'm not surprised Fred, Velma, and Daphne broke it off with Shaggy and Scooby for a while, their complaining and cowardice got out of control after a while, to the point I wonder if they had some sort of mental problem.

A mental problem with being chased my crazy people dressed as monsters and always being used as bait?

Don't see how Shaggy and Scooby sound that unreasonable. They get chased by monsters so often and forced into being bait all the time, it's no wonder they'd be so scared.

They got freaked out by a church bell and their own shadows.

I mean it's not like the other three are that mentally stable either by that logic considering Fred's obsession with traps and the Mystery Machine.

Fred's obsession with traps was a Mystery Inc. introduction, though they were noticeably more elaborate in What's New. Fred's control of the Mystery Machine also saw its beginnings in What's New Scooby-Doo. The New Scooby Doo Movies were in the 70s, so over 30 years prior until he got that particular quirk, while Shaggy and Scooby have been scaredy cats and bait since the beginning.

Edited by HeyMikey on Apr 4th 2023 at 10:27:57 AM

Fred is the biggest blank slate in the main cast, you can have him be however and nobody will really complain much becouse he had no identity originally beyond white shirt, ironically velma decided to keep him as the only white guy despite being the mystery gang member that you can get away the most with major changes.

Don't sell Fred short. He's not just the white shirt. He's also the ascot. Arguably more the ascot.

Freddy at this point seems like the goofy gearhead of the group, and generally seen as the leader. How to make both parts work is an interesting question.

Well, there was Be Cool, Scooby-Doo, where Fred is the vain glorious sane man amongst a group of weirdos. His mechanical aptitude also goes up and down, depending. You have Be Cool, where he was able to turn the Mystery Machine into a sub and a plane. Then you have classic where half the reason why they get into a mystery is because the van breaks down in the middle of nowhere. And then there was Pup, where cartoons were big on giving The Smart Guy in the Five-Man Band all the technical know-how, so Velma was the mechanical genius of that group.

Until Velma, the franchise has wisely avoided basing Fred's personality and proficiencies (or lack thereof) on his appearance. I rather like the DTV Movies' interpretation of him as the trapper of the group, which is of course held over from Mysteries Inc but toned down to less Cloud Cuckoolander levels. These days his leadership seems mostly to involve directing everyone's efforts (and apparently encouraging them, as mentioned in Curse of the 13th Ghost).

DTV Fred is amazing.

He's got this fun characterization of being, like a Manchild Ditzy Genius (but not a Genius Ditz) who is prone to being totally exuberant about everything.

I've also gushed about it before, but I like that both Fred and Daphne's current characterizations tend to pivot around them both being kind of crazy, and being a good team because they're both kind of crazy.

I like the gag of Fred trying to learn different languages and butchering them horribly. But he's so dang earnest and confident about it. He's doing his best!

he did alright with spanish, his studies in spanish help them uncover the mystery in the chupacabra movie.

Man that was clever of him

Explaining the difference between manaña and manana proved integral to the case

In general it seen writer have figure out more or less the group like this:scooby and shaggy-velma-daphne-fred.

Not surprising since the first three have traits easier to slot(the cowardly lion who are always hungry and the smart guy) while daphne often suffer from being the chick and fred in theory is the leader but not the heart.

I think Fred as a whole works best when he's earnest about something. What that something is can vary, but it's endearing to see.

Velma in general just slaps the lowest hanging fruit characterization on everyone. Daphne is the pretty one, so she must be an Alpha Bitch! Norville's black, he's now the Token Black Friend simp because we have just enough foresight to realize making him a cowardly stoner is Unfortunate Implications! Fred's the one we didn't make a minority, so he must be the epitome of entitled and sexist (plus completely stupid)! Velma's the "ugly" nerdy one, she's gonna make wisecracks 24/7 and break mirrors with her ugliness!

Edited by PhiSat on Apr 19th 2023 at 10:08:26 AM

So, were stuff like Mystery Incorporated and What's New good at bringing all five of the gang's personalities out in engaging ways?

From what I remember of What's New, the only kind of generic person was Daphne. Fred was a lovable goof who loved tricking out the Mystery Machine, Shaggy and Scooby were their usual selves (with the distinction that Shaggy was vegetarian and the show went out of its way to emphasize that), Velma was of course the smart, less-nonsense one.

From what I remember of What's New, Daphne had a minor characterization as a sporty daredevil as a sort of explanation for her danger prone nickname, but it's not as prominent and fairly easily forgettable. In the first episode, after Fred gets injured and Velma gets sick, Daphne went out hunting for the monster while Fred was acting as mission control via walkie-talkie and told her to be careful. It's immediately followed by her speeding and getting good air on a snowmobile.

The DTV Aloha-Ha, Scooby Doo!, which was during the What's New era (and had the art design and characterization of that era), had Daphne playing bait, because plan required a good surfer.

There was also an interesting gag where the danger prone thing during this era was a family nickname, as her cousin, Shannon from Scotland, in Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster said they earned it because they were constantly getting caught in traps and devices of their own design. Interesting Mythology Gag, with a bit of a Fidge Logic, since in this incarnation, Fred was still the prominent trap maker, not Daphne. At best, she was secondary bait after Scooby and Shaggy.

I feel like both What's New and maybe the 2002 live-action film sowed the seeds for the Danger-Prone Daphne = Danger-Seeking Daphne characterization that the DTVs and a few of the subsequent shows have taken and ran with.

I watched all The New Scooby-Doo Movies available on Amazon and I'm debating whether or not to hunt down the rest of the episodes or just move on to The Scooby-Doo Show, because my god the movies were boring.

Man, imagine how Nibiru Entity would react to the Velmaverse.

"Well, fuck this, who am I supposed to corrupt? They're all awful, even for me!"

More like "Oh sweet. This one is much easier to take over than the other ones I've been stuck with."