#like. everything about shaggy and velma's dynamic in and related to the first half of S1 is *gutwrenching*

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[cws: non-detailed discussion of both fictional and irl SA/CSA/abuse dynamics, apologia for the previous, homophobia, fetishization of wlw, and anti rhetoric.]

-

having a lot of thoughts about the wider fandom's treatment of the various abuse dynamics present in sdmi--supposedly in the name of being anti-abuse--and how instead it's propagated deeply anti-survivor/abuse apologist sentiment and behavior through where they choose to apply that rhetoric, and where they choose to look the other way.

(first off, if you're someone who does not and has not done this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. second, this is not at all exhaustive of my feelings on the subject and there will probably be more posts about these dynamics and people's behavior toward them in future. as you can imagine by the length of this post that is saying something lmao)

one of the reasons i feel as strongly as i do about the way both canon and fandom have historically been about pericles, pericky, and shitting on anyone who likes them because it Normalizes Abuse(tm), is that their fans are pretty open and emphatic about the fact that it's Fucked Up. it's why we find it compelling. it is vanishingly rare that we don't.

meanwhile, velma is the UwU Cute Sassy Lesbian Icon whose relationship with shaggy was Cringy and Immature (and mutually so 🙃) at worst, when it directly mirrored such visceral aspects of my experience with CSA that i almost threw up rewatching the second episode.

and that's not even getting into how normalized it is for women to abuse men in a relationship, in broad fucking daylight in front of other people, and how men are supposed to Always Want It and it's an insult if they don't, and how the vast majority of CSA--which it overtly is in shaggy's case, he is implied not to be an adult yet--is perpetrated by other kids.

and it's also not getting into the fact that the ~cute lesbian relationship~ is almost certainly going to end up with the other queer girl in the show also being abused, because abusers are not Magically Cured by True Queer Love's Kiss. how it is incredibly difficult for survivors of abuse in a wlw relationship to be acknowledged or get support because then they'd be a Traitor, or people would rather maintain the feel-good fuzzy feelings wlw exist to give them, or they're closeted and it's not safe to let people know they're in a relationship with a woman. how queer relationships, especially between women, are fetishized as cute pure healthy fairytale romances and not dynamics involving real people who might harm each other or be harmed and need help.

and that's not even getting into the fact that mlm are seen as inherently predatory to an extent that the majority of other queer identities are not. how older queer men grooming boys is a classic homophobic stereotype used to justify violence toward them, up to and including lynchings, and how that is the abuse dynamic everyone in the show and fandom latched onto to revile as the Disgusting Evil Predatory One while giving everything else a pass. how mlm have a long history of forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, and the Predatory Gay Man is subjected to decades of--you guessed it!--forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, which is framed as what he deserved and where he belonged. how he's supposed to be unattractive (and the majority of the people who do this shit lean hard on that), while people are way more likely to give Charming Attractive Aesthetically Pleasing abusers a pass.

this is just..... normal, to the fandom. it's treated as completely normal. and i think that's a whole lot more fucking harmful than finding emotional catharsis in exploring an abusive dynamic that would not fly in broad daylight irl in a million years.

[cometcrystal]

copy/pasting my saturday morning massacre review from my letterboxd (spoilers ig)

i was so close to fully enjoying this movie. i was so close to that point

things i liked

the dialogue all felt weirdly realistic? like it felt like irl conversations. people interrupting each other and speaking over each other and stuttering a bit sometimes. it sounds like it'd be annoying to watch but it felt natural

acab but the cop character was fucking funny. he was so blasé and deadpan about everything

genuinely funny bit when theyre running from the villains and trying to get out of the house but the side door is locked. and the cop is about to shoot it open. and the velma (sorry i forgot all their names so im calling them by their scooby counterparts) is like NO WAIT and just unlocks the deadbolt because theyre inside

for the first bit of the movie, the velma and fred felt pretty true to the characters they're parodying. velma's plucky dedication to solving the mystery is something a lot of people overlook in favor of making her a know-it-all. and it captured how fred is kind of a loser (affectionate) and not the popular jock. though this only lasts for the first thirty minutes lmfao

the villains were pretty neat. some The Hills Have Eyes type shit. sufficiently creepy performance by the actors and i liked the way they treated their victims like dolls because that's how they viewed them

A+ ACTING. the best part of this movie was 100% the acting. everyone in this movie put their whole pussies into these roles. the dynamics felt real for the most part, the emotions felt real, the panic and fear felt real and natural. all very well-executed

i love how the ending was like YOU ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE IMPLIED INCEST CHILD DIDN'T YOU. HE'S BACK BITCH

gay cheek kiss

things i didn't like

this movie kinda. devolves? fred calls daphne a whore after sleeping with her and then we find out she cheated on him and then not 10 minutes later she says that he makes her feel like a whole person. LIKEEEE CAN WE NOT DO THIS TODAY

related to the above point, daphne was the weakest character by far and i don't know if they were trying to make some sort of statement about og daphne but i'm fucking sick of it. as the biggest daphne blake stan in the world i'm tired of the idea that she's useless, that she and fred split up just to have sex, that she exists as a prop, that she isn't a full character without the rest of the gang. everyone else has something to do in this movie but her. i don't know. i've written essays on this before and i'm very tired of it. her final scene in this movie was fairly good and her interactions with velma were the best but idk. for $1 name a woman

shaggy was kind of an asshole??? why would you make him an asshole

the Scooby Parody aspect kinda doesn't last that long, is referenced once later briefly, and then again when daphne said she's solved the mystery, when the narrative hadn't referred to anything as a "mystery" beforehand. felt more like a selling point for the movie than an actual parody

don't kill scooby :( why would you do that

i feel like if this was a standalone horror movie and wasn't trying to be a scooby parody, it would have come across much better. but that's what it's billing itself as, so i can't NOT view it as that. one and a half stars deducted for not understanding the assignment but this isn't a bad movie at all. it would just be much better if it were its own thing.

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

So really early on we had made comparisons between Shaggy and Daphne with Stiles and Lydia from Teen Wolf. Obviously they’re not carbon copies of one another, Daph is an amazingly well rounded babe but she’s no Field’s Medal winner. (She is a straight A student though)  And while Shaggy is a very blessed individual he’s not exactly a born and bred detective like Stiles. But we’re not looking at the individual similarities between characters. We’re looking at the dynamics that are shared. Shaphne and Stydia’s similarities fall under their relationships. Lydia is an incredibly beautiful and popular girl but that’s not her whole character, like Daphne, behind that pretty face is a powerful and dangerous girl. And Stiles was the one taken for granted because he was just human, same could be said about Shaggy. Shaphne and Stydia are built on a mutual respect and reverence for one another. While Shaphne’s respect is not built on enough because of the Fraphne obsessed society we live in the respect is definitely there. Shaphne and Stydia were stuck in a world where people kept seeing them as how they wanted to see them.

In lieu of that Mod Silas has been redrawing some famous Stydia moments with Shaphne in place. And as a special present Mod Ninja will add on short fics to go with each picture. We hope you like this!

Part One

“It’s not just someone to hold you under, it has to be someone who can pull you back.”

Her hair had been perfect, it had taken hours for her to make it look windblown but in a sexy kind of way. She had redone her make-up four times to achieve the perfect mix of “I look like a million bucks!” and, “That hot chick you’d see at a Costco.” Resulting in a perfectly neutral yet captivating look. $200 had fallen out of her wallet so she could buy the regal, backless, deep purple dress.This dress was perfect, the closest thing to her dream coming true. Another $100 for the silver four inchers that matched her earrings.

She had stared at herself in the mirror for maybe five minutes.  

“This time Daph.” She said softly, “This time I’m gonna get this prom thing right.”

It was safe to say her first prom was a disaster. She had to tackle Fred to the ground and beg him to go with her, and after pouring her feelings out somehow they settled on going as “Buds ™.” But at least she got her dance with him.

Well, half a dance. It was interrupted by someone that Fred could grasp being attracted to. And she was also dressed like a great aunt from Hell.

Just like that, Fred’s eyes were off Daphne for the rest of the night. Whether she was kidnapping guys and throwing them in her rape dungeon or not, she had Fred’s complete and uninterrupted attention.  

But that was not going to happen this year.

Daphne was going to have her moment, she would get her dance with Fred and make her move. It was finally going to be the start of their perfect love story.

The mayor had sent two police squad cars to watch out for anything suspicious and protect the dance from it. Not wanting a repeat of the junior prom/Alice May debacle of last year.

While this was met with joy from Shaggy and Daphne, Velma had snorted and said, “Thank goodness our greatest allies are gonna be there to do nothing and get mad at us when we do all the work.” Daphne glared at her and Shaggy said, “Don’t you dare joke like that Velms! This is going to be a night of dancing, dates, and delicious snack tables. And absolutely no ghouls, zombies, werewolves, robotic werewolves, and vampires that look more like demons from hell than anything from Daph’s weird books!!”

Daphne had prayed to every god she could think of to help prevent any experts in special effects, puppetry, illusions, and advanced robotics didn’t get pissed off within the 72 hours before the dance. And she was almost considering being religious because here they were, walking into the gym that was decorated in and a 1940′s theme. No monsters in sight.

She was finally getting her moment with Fred, his arms were wrapped around her waist and his hands felt just perfect there.

And then a giant fucking bunny rabbit that spit acid just had to fall from the disco ball and send everyone into a panic. Daphne didn’t even need to look up at him to know that his eyes were sparkling and he was formulating a plan in his big, dumb, gorgeous, trap obsessed head. Once Shaggy let out a nervous chuckle she knew that her night of ineffable romance was over.

Precisely two hours and 15 minutes later they had caught The Buck Toothed Terror, which was a damn freshman who was mad that a senior hadn’t asked her out. Somehow Daph could relate.

Blah blah blah, robotics club member, blah blah blah, giant exoskeleton. “And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling upperclassmen!!”

Daphne had heard it all before.

Regardless of that total waste of time it was still only 9:15 and the dance ended at midnight. She still had her chance to revive the dying dream.

She scanned the gym looking for her target, the dance floor was now filling up with re-relaxed students. She spotted him on the other side of the floor adjusting his ascot, which didn’t match his tux at all but she didn’t care because he had to be the one.

She lit up as she spotted him and prepped herself to make her way over to him. She smoothed her dress which had become wrinkled from the several times they had been chased a giant, robotic bunny. It wasn’t back to it’s perfect crisp appearance, but she doubted Fred would even notice, as usual. Then she remembered that she had sent a roundhouse kick, with perfect form if she did say so herself, at the bunny and had broken the heel off her shoe as a result.

$100 down the drain.

Whatever, you could barely see the shoes at the bottom of the dress, if she walked on her toes it would look the same.

Ignoring the fact that her hair was popping up in every direction, and being jealous of Velma’s bounce back bob, she began to make her way over to him.

But was then stopped in her tracks when she saw the whole picture. Fred was surrounded by peers, most notably hot seniors. Now technically Daphne was in the category of hot senior, but she was also an outcast amongst the popular crowd.

She always had the chance to join the popular crowd. Everyone in the school knew she would be a hit. But at the start of every year Daph found herself only giving the popular kids friendly nods and then she’d dash over to the table where Fred, Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma were sitting. And just like that she would be pushed into the rag-tag group of weirdos, same as every year. But she didn’t mind, these were her best friends and unlike everything else in her life they made her happy.

The popular kids seemed to understand this and left her be, left the whole group alone really. The most they ever did was try and convince Fred to ask her out once, which failed of course. But it showed Daph how genuinely nice these girls were. 

And currently two of them were putting their hands on his huge shoulders and drooling at every word he said.

He must have been telling the brave tale of how he saved their senior prom, of course adding in that it was a team effort. Because he wasn’t full of himself like other guys she’d met. He cared about equal credit and everyone’s happiness, unlike other guys she’d met. 

She felt herself tearing up.

“No Daph this is a dumb reason. It’s not like he had to spend prom with me.”

She had stared at him for another two minutes or so, hoping he’d look over at her and remember they were dancing earlier.

But he didn’t look over at her, instead the football players had dragged him off to their man huddle, and that was that.

She had no idea why she didn’t just walk over to him and ask him to pick up where they left off. Maybe she was too shy or nervous or scared, who cares it was too late.

She waddled over to the nearest empty tables and sat down, since Fred had been her ride she wasn’t able to just leave. So she chose to wallow and pout.

She felt her jaw drop when Fred escorted one of the hot seniors onto the dance floor. It took her like five minutes to get him to ask while it took Daph two months of planning to ensure she’d be the first girl he’d ask.

Her eyes began to tear up again, seeing how happy and natural he looked while he danced with someone they barely knew, and she didn’t care enough to hide her tears.

Until out of nowhere Shaggy had pulled out the chair next to her and sat down with a plop.

She quickly wiped her eyes and leaned forward so he couldn’t see her face. And while attempting to sound okay said, “How’s it going Shags?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, “Like, not great. Since Freddie had to commandeer all the precious food for the trap I’ve got nothing to do.” He leaned back in the chair and sighed. Daph looked around and smiled while saying, “Well where’s Scooby, I’m sure you and him could get into some sort of trouble.” She smirked and clasped her hands in her lap.

“Daph, do you really think Velma would let him stay at prom after what happened last year. Like man, she didn’t waste any time turning on the demon eyes.” He motioned towards the other side of the room where Velma was surrounded by guys from all walks of life. Somehow, this year Velms had become one of the hottest chicks in our class, getting date requests every other day.

Daphne wasn’t really jealous of her since she had her eye on only one guy, and it was way too funny watching Velma’s reactions to all the attention. 

“But you and Velma aren’t even together anymore are you?” She gave him a suspicious look but he quickly shook his head, “God no. I-uh, I guess she just doesn’t want Scoob ruining her last prom.” She smiled and sighed, “Honestly I would prefer if Scooby were here, then maybe it’d be a little fun.”

He stared at her for a second, maybe trying to unpack the meaning of what she said, and then he nodded.

He looked from Velma back to Daph, and they kinda just sat in silence for a little bit, just looking at each other.

That was one of the nice things about Shaggy, they didn’t need to say much of anything. Sometimes they could go on and on about how nice V-necks were, and other times they could just be quiet and accept each other’s company. At certain times Daph could use that comforting quiet that only Shaggy could handle.

It had taken a few minutes but Daphne looked down and realized that his hands were shaking, subtly but still noticeable.

She remembered that once again they had appointed Shaggy and Scooby as the bait in the formula. Daphne believed that it was because they were the fastest, but she couldn’t speak for Fred and Velma.

After everything was all wrapped up Shags was pretty good at looking like he was over his life being put in jeopardy. But Daphne eventually noticed that his hands didn’t stop shaking until the next day. That was when she considered that maybe he deserved a break. Her beliefs were confirmed when a doctor basically diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress. 

Of course that didn’t last long and he was back to being shoved into danger at every turn.

The main thing that had changed was that Daph now worried about him every time he became bait.

So of course he was still shaken up only half an hour after being chased to the death by an acid spitting rabbit that was 5x it’s original size. 

She could tell he was trying to calm down since he took deep breaths every few minutes, it didn’t stop his hands from shaking and she hated it. She took a deep breath as she grabbed his hands. He jumped at the sudden contact and Daph giggled, “Hey,” she said softly, he looked back at her, “Are you sure you’re okay.”

He stared at her with his eyebrows raised and said, “No Daph I am not okay, I almost got my tux melted off by a fucking bunny. And now I don’t even have any food or alcohol to drown my sorrows in!!”

She giggled again, “I have cappuccino flavored gum, it’s from my mom’s therapist.” 

“Which one?” Daph stared at him for a second, “Her-um-speech-no- it’s her anger management dude. Jackery??”

Shag chuckled, “Like, is Jackery even a real name?” She smirked, “Is Shaggy?Or Norville for that matter?” He winced, “Daph don’t even start that.”

She found them both chuckling, he seemed a lot calmer now that she had asked. Then she remembered that she was still holding onto his hands and he was gently holding back.

She quickly let go and put them back in her lap, looking around and hoping nobody saw them. More specifically, that Fred hadn’t seen. She peeked over Shag’s shoulder and felt her heart drop, several songs had passed and he was still out on the dance floor with the hot senior. He was still laughing and holding onto her tightly, something she had to beg to do with him.

Shag wondered what she had been staring at and looked over his shoulder. He then let out a sigh as he realized why party animal Daphne was bored at a school dance.

He looked back and saw her discouraged eyes filling with tears.

The hair on the back of his neck raised, he could handle his dog being over dramatic and Velma’s demonic tantrums and Fred throwing him into danger every other week. But he had no idea what to do when Daphne cried.

Whenever she cried she did it like a Disney princess, usually sprawled out on a bed with her hair all spread out and her face buried in the covers. When Daph cried everyone was going to know about it, and everyone just let a combo of Fred complimenting her and Scooby offering her his favorite toys. Eventually that would calm her down and she would explain while Velma rolled her eyes and Shaggy gave her apologetic looks.

 But this crying wasn’t the typical, charming Daphne crying.

This was purposely silenced crying, the kind where you wanted nobody to notice. 

He sighed and she realized that he was looking at her, she turned away and wiped her eyes. “What a day to not wear my waterproof mascara.” She forced a chuckle. Shag only needed to look at her helplessly trying to fix her eyes for a couple seconds before he gulped and took a deep breath.

“Like, Daph?” He sounded a lot more croaked than intended, which didn’t help his confidence. 

She looked away from the napkin she had used to clean the lines of her eyeliner and back to him. The second her purple eyes met his brown ones he became like 10 million times more nervous and his heartbeat probably spiked. Daph could say the same thing since she had no clue what he was gonna ask her.

“Yes Norville?” She sent him a smirk.

“Don’t even Daph I mean it.” She giggled as she let out a few sniffles.

He took a deep breath and looked out at the dance floor, “Do you-uh like, do you wanna dance?” It took him a lot longer to get that out, so he sounded like a sloth. Daphne stared at him for a second, her eyes wide while she processed what he said. She only ever danced with Fred.

At every dance she’d been to, homecoming, winter ball, spring formal, hoedowns, and of course the junior prom.

It’s was just a natural position she assumed.

She knew that just friends could dance, that’s more likely than dancing with a date. But somehow dancing with Shaggy felt like something in between. She had never danced with anyone else.

She must’ve been silent a long time because Shag added, “We’re stuck here for, like, another four hours so we might as well do what society expects us to.” She smiled and sent a glance over toward Fred, another song had passed and he was still on the floor smiling with the hot senior. 

“The dance floor is super crowded. Like, I doubt Fred would see you, i-if you’re worried about that.” 

She stared at him for another second and came to a conclusion. Tonight, she did not care what Fred saw or didn’t see. She had made this whole night about him and that was the same thing that ruined last year. For once this night was just about Daph, and Daph could do what she wanted.

So she ripped her gaze away from Fred, who could do whatever (and whoever) he wanted tonight, and gave Shaggy a smile.

She nodded quickly and they both stood up.

That was when she remembered that one of her shoes was broken. 

She lifted her skirt, her foot was being forced into a contorted position, “Damn it.” Shag whistled and said, “Like, now that is a terrible shoe design. Don’t no heel high heels conflict each other?” Daph rolled her eyes, “I didn’t spend $100 on a pair of gravity defying heels, I-I…I broke one of them when I kicked that stupid bunny.”

“Sounds like something you’d do.” She was about to point out that it had saved Velma’s hide but when she looked up she saw Shaggy kicking off his shoes.

“W-What are you doing Shag?” She crossed her arms and hoped no one noticed. He rubbed the back of his neck and said sheepishly, “You need to take your shoes off now that I don’t have any on.” Daph raised an eyebrow at him, she absolutely hated getting her feet dirty and he knew that, it just wasn’t right at all.

One time they were chasing after a swamp creature while surrounded with mud pits and Daph had been in a catatonic state for about an hour, even after her feet had been cleaned.

She would rather fight through the pain of these useless shoes then get some sort of bacteria through her feet.

But then she saw his hands, still shaking, and the random deep breaths every few seconds. It only took her a second before she groaned and kicked her shoes off, effectively shrinking her and reminding her that Shaggy was roughly 6′0. She ignored how gross her feet felt and grabbed one of his shaking hands. 

She started to drag him toward the middle of the dance floor, where it was the most crowded. Still hoping nobody would notice.

Although that might be asking too much since they were both shoeless and she was Daphne Blake.

Once they reached the center they both stood in front of one another, being quiet while a wall of other people swayed to the music around them. “Like, I uh…..”

Daph nodded and said, “I don’t know how to do this either.” His eyes darted around the room before they landed on her again.

She really liked the way he looked at her, no strings attached, no expectations, and no stupid clueless gaze. It just felt like he was looking at just her, Daphne.

She took a step forward so there were only a few inches between them and she placed her hands on his shoulders, “We’ll figure it out.” She smiled and he returned it as he rested his hands on either side of her. His fingers brushed the skin of her back for a couple seconds sending chills up her whole body. They slowly swayed to the music, not saying anything. Their comfortable silence returning. She just smiled and stared at him and he returned the favor.

Even dancing with him felt relaxed, and right.

She felt perfect, finally she believed this is what she deserved to have at prom.

And then her eyes drifted over to Fred, who was only a few feet away from them, and his eyes were on her. And instantly she was filled with regret and guilt, she was ruining everything! The more Fred stared at her the more the gentle swaying felt like the rocking of a ship in a storm. 

She had felt perfect and happy with herself a few seconds ago but she just had to think about her weakness, and then meet eyes with said weakness.

With that she looked away, and to keep herself from looking at him again she slid her hand down Shag’s arm and pulled herself into a hug. Hiding her face, and blocking her gaze, in his chest.

She could hear his breathing stifle, but he didn’t move.

Instead he leaned down and rested his head on her shoulder, the random deeps breaths seemed to diminish.

And it was replaced by a warm feeling in Daph’s chest, which she prayed meant anything but the first thing that came to her mind.

[asagimeta]

Be Mature Scooby Doo! Or: Why Age Of Apocolypse Works And Mystery Incporated Doesn’t

Note: This will contain spoilers for Scooby Doo: Age Of Apocolypse and some heavy dislike of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated

I just found the first issue of Scooby Doo: Age Of Apocolypse, wich I'll hopefully be buying and reading however many volumes there are for Christmas, and let me just say: This is mature Scooby Doo done right

This is what Mystery Incorporated COULD have been if Cartoon Network had actually decided to go for the older audience they were pitching for and not tried to maintain the younger, grade-school audience that probably didn't care for the franchise anyway

We know via shows like Young Justice and Teen Titans that CN //CAN// do that, and I think they WANTED to do that for Mystery Inc, but they ultimately decided to try to keep the younger audience too and that was their big mistake (as you can tell, I'm not at all a Mystery Incorporated fan, I think the only thing worse to come out of Scooby Doo TV wise is ... *ugh* Be Cool Scooby Doo.... stop the bleeding...)

Mystery Incorporated COULD have been the best Scooby Doo franchise since Zombie Island, if they had //treated// it like Zombie Island, IE: a level of maturity tackling real monsters and darker themes but maintaining some of the classic notions of Scooby Doo such as the chase sequences, catch phrases, and puns, wich are all things Mystery Incorporated DID do.... but the "maturity" was very flat and obviously trying too hard, and you can see that most clearly in comparison to Age Of Apocolypse and Zombie Island, where you can reasonably argue that MI REALLY wanted to shoot for the older audiences and be even darker and more mature than Zombie Island, you're met with the brand new roadblock-argument that is Age Of Apocolypse, the crown jewl of what a mature Scooby Doo could be

AOA is basically Scooby Doo meets The Walking Dead in tone, but it's alot more sci-fi than TWD and focuses considerably less on actual zombies and more on flat-out monsters, now wile I CERTAINLY don't suggest that MI should have included guns and brutally murdering monsters, what I *DO* suggest is keeping the *tone* somewhere in between Zombie Island and AOA, not leaning so much on ... what, A Pup Named Scooby Doo and AOA...? Therein lies the REAL problem

Mystery Incorporated had alot going for it- nice animation, a really good plot, a unique setting, and something that no other part of the Scooby franchise has ever really kept: A linear storyline, but the one big, major, glaring flaw is also the one thing that keeps people loving Scooby Doo all these decades later: The charectors

The charectors in MI were atrocious, often either watered down to their most pun-related and easy-to-reference qualities like Fred (who was reduced to being nothing short of a COMPLETE moron who only had any interest in building traps) or were crafted into something utterly indistinguishable from their usual charector, like Velma, who was ... very oddly rooted in romance? Velma has always been a little sharp, but Velma in MI is downright *mean* most of the time and has such a weird push for romancing Shaggy that it just feels... wrong... in some fundamental way, Velma has always been really great as a female charector because she's rooted in her *own* motivations and not tied around a romantic storyline, but at the same time, she IS allowed to /have/ romantic storylines on the side (Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island are both great examples of this, never is Velma rooted to a love interest but in both cases she makes it clear that she has butterflies for Beau/Ben, yet she never lets that come between her and her motivations as a charector)

Now you may be wondering why I titled this about AOA when I've barely talked about it, well.... I'm about to talk about it

Age Of Apocolypse solves the glaring charector issues that MI has WITHOUT damaging what MI was trying to do- show four people (and a dog) thrown together by circumstance who don't really exactly *like* eachother yet and have to grow to become a solid team, with a heavy dose of maturity and conflict involved in the relationships, this is something that, admittedly, the other versions of Scooby I mentioned never talked about, because the gang was already very well established when things like Zombie Island take place, and though there's mild charector conflict (rooted in individualism, not caring for eachother as a team) it's an almost blink-and-you-miss-it conflict that mostly is just the first ten minutes of the movie, IF that long, AOA however easily has as much conflict as MI without damaging the charectors individually

No idiot trap loving Fred

No overly self-centered, overly romanced Daphne

No brutally harsh, romance seeking Velma

No idiotic and weirdly self-absorbed Shaggy

No .... whatever the HELL they did to poor Scooby Doo

AOA does age up the charectors by probably about a decade, wich counts towards the maturity heavily, but I don't see why they couldn't keep a level of that in MI instead of trying to cater to the older audiences with the plot and the very young audiences with the lack of charectorization and what I very loosely call "humor" (there were a few good jokes, but not many, and they were greatly over shadowed by the relentlessly run-on gags like Fred and the stupid traps)

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR AOA*

What AOA gives us is Scooby and Shaggy who are as tightly bonded as ever (not Scooby literally getting jealous over Velma what the hell was this show...?) with Shaggy still keeping his generally chill attitude and actually keeping something of a peace-keeper vibe to him, but also with a mature calmness and a sense of smarts (as evidenced by the fact that he trained the most well developed "smart dog" in a highly elite program) Velma is definitely still sharp and a bit harsh but she isn't what I would call mean and her motives and backstory actually give a very clear understanding for why she may be quicker to bite than usual, it isn't rooted in another person's storyline like it is in MI, but in the fact that she screwed up and is one of the people directly responsible for possibly ending humanity, that kind of weight would be heavy on ANYONE'S shoulders and considering it Velma actually carries it pretty well, Daphne is harsher than most of her incarnations, but also has moments of showing sympathy and sensitivity, as evidenced by feeling guilty that she was so harsh on Velma for her hand in possibly ending the world when Velma didn't know what she was doing, and by the fact that she's very easily upset over having killed a guy and has to remind herself with each monster she kills that "These aren't people", it may seem small, given that most of the first issue handles her very brashly, but the shows a level of empathy that none of the others gave at all, Shaggy tries to excuse her actions, Velma is at times cold, and even Scooby- "the most docile of the smart dogs"- doesn't seem to show alot of hesitation in possibly killing people, even if they  ARE monsters, but Daphne- in keeping with the gentle spirit she's always had- immediately has a problem with it, Fred is sort of just..... there.... and there honestly isn't alot of his charector that's shown outside of being Daphne's camera guy, but that's true of most incarnations, I can't think of one where Fred really had a legitimate, developed personality outside of The Leader and possibly falling for whatever girl-of-the-day was around such as Thorn and Lena from Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island respectively, Fred might develop later or he might not, but anything is better than that God awfull trap guy from MI

The only people in AOA that legitimately get along the entire time are Scooby and Shaggy, wich is typical, that's always how it's been when the gang has broken apart or disagreed over something (except in MI) and they're the only ones with a clearly defined relationship at the start of the book as trainer-and-companion (Fred and Daphne, though they are clearly partners in work, could be anything in their personal lives, freinds, lovers, divorced, it's unclear)

MI could have been really successfull in showing the building dynamic and charector drama if they had fleshed out the charectors like AOA has already done in a single issue, kept Scooby and Shaggy unwaveringly close, not turned everything into a pun, and not made the majority of the drama centered on romance and family, with a town like Crystal Cove there was alot they could have done, and with the storylines I saw (note: I didn't see every episode, but I did read the longer synopsises of the last six or seven online and I saw probably a full season and a half worth) it could have gone much deeper and darker with the roles the parents played in all of the town drama than it did

MI could have been really great, and AOA shows that there IS a way to make a very mature, adult, Scooby Doo if that's what you're aiming for, but trying to grab an audience of late-teens/young-adults AND keep the audience of six to ten year-olds really isn't going to work, and MI proved that