Velma: How NOT to write a mystery.

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Velma is a Scooby Doo spinoff with little concern for the source material or mystery solving. Even though the main mystery has stakes and potential they mess it up by pulling a twist villain so random I can't help but feel like logically it couldn't have been her. Let's talk about it.
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[@genebaker511]

It would make more sense if Velma's mom was the culprit. The way how awful and vile Velma is, her mom couldn't stand having her as a daughter. Decides to go to the lab with all the equipment, spend 2 years putting the lab together and figuring out how to work with it, kidnapping and removing brains from not just pretty girls but who are also nicer. Why 3 of them, trial and error. Why 2 of them found at Velma's locker and trash bin, out of spite. Her plan is to put one of them's brain into Velma's body in hopes of having a good mother and daughter relationship that she has always wanted.

[@assiaelmabrouki5552]

That would have been much more interesting and impactful lol. But no, they went for Fred's mom, with a dozen of plot holes, and a weird ass motivation... The writers really didn't care for that part

[@bonefetcherbrimley7740]

That would've been cool, and having Velma see all this and figure it out would lead her to realize how much of an awful human being she is. Thus, she's like "Jinkies...I am a monster. No, I must be better!" then we see some episodes where she pulls a "My Name is Earl" and makes a list of everyone she's ever wronged, and set out to make it right, to make amends.

[@Slitheringpeanut]

...That's DARK. Better than what we got, but holy cow, that's DARK!

[@NoHandle44]

I would say that making the protagonist's parent the villain is a bad idea. But since fred's mom was the villain, then it would've been fine if they made the killer velma's mom.

[@tails_the_god]

They just wanted to make a white person a villain also noticed that only the white girls got killed? except daphne's mom

[@tangroro]

I actually liked the idea her mom is the killer because she wants to put a popular girl's brain into her daughter, it would be the show finally acknowledging that Velma is so unlikable, even her own mother doesn't want her, and tries to fix her by literally putting another person's brain into her

[@puddah8208]

Yeah I agree to bad for that plot twist to be made it would take some awareness on Mindy Kaling's part.

[@jbcatz5]

@@puddah8208 It’d also take pride swallowing on her part to let through and perform material that acknowledges her self-insert personality is that bad. The way the show goes, that was never going to happen.

[@seancarroll136]

Who has the skills for a finale rewrite with an unexpected but earned twist? I know I do!

[@babbit09]

Personally, you wanna know who I think made more sense as a villain? Norville's mom Blythe. Honestly she makes more sense than Fred's mom, even down to the clues and oh my god she was totally the original villain wasn't she As principle of the school she'd not only have access to the entire school, she'd also have the addresses of every student there, explaining how she got a body in both Velma's locker and recycling bin (additionally as a female nobody would think it odd seeing her going into the girls showers). As the daughter of Edna Perdue, she has the highest motivation to finish her mothers work, and it could even have been worked that Edna swapped her brain with her daughter's and confined her old body with Blythe's brain to the asylum in a bid to achieve pseudo immortality. Lamont is so much of a "beta" (not my words just what the show says) that even if he did catch on he'd be too scared to fight against her and would be the perfect lackey, having nigh-hypnotic powers himself and being able to learn everything about the girls at school. "But what clues would point to her as the villain" for starters, the gold necklace that is totally a necklace and not a stupid pocket watch. Blythe is, as far as I'm aware, the only character to wear any kind of golden necklaces, and even if hers are much thicker, it's still more of a clue than the necklace suddenly transmuting into a pocket watch. Secondly, why would Blythe have continued to visit the Asylum even after her mom passed away? Simply put, she has no real reason, the show was lazy... unless you think about how obsessed her mother was with brain swapping. Maybe, in a big moment of cartoon logic, Edna Perdue removed her own brain in the asylum, and was really "alive" this whole time? Blythe would be looking for the perfect girl to put her mom's brain back into while visiting her on occasion, each one not suiting her mom's wants so Blythe "disposed" of them. Eventually though, a spark of genius overtook one of them and convinced the other to go with it: plant Edna's brain into that of Fred Jones, heir to JGA. They'd be loaded and also get their old home back. "But why try and pin it on Velma" why NOT try and pin it on Velma? She's a friendless, narcissistic, egomaniacal, downright rude person who is known for her bursts of outrage. She made herself the literal perfect target to have murders pinned on, and the principle of the school would know this.

[@praatzelwurm8578]

>but why try and pin it on Velma? She could just hate her for being a horrible person to Norville and thinks that is the only way how she can stop Norville from interacting with Velma. That would be a good explanation why she made those murders public and didn't try to hide them. (srsly why did Fred's mom frame Velma anyway? She could've left the corpses in the basement and no one in the show would've figured it out)

[@babbit09]

@@praatzelwurm8578 That's even better, plus why couldn't she pin the 3rd murder on Velma? "She was in a hurry to free Fred so she couldn't pin it on me" not that much of a hurry if it took her two weeks to commit murder #3

[@nont18411]

Well, she’s black, you know. So she will never be a bad guy according to this show.

[@yepsilon2898]

There's also a line from where he says "I just found out my line never liked kids." So there's that to add.

[@DuneStone6816]

There is that episode where she gives Velma a weird look and it's never explained.

[@giorgiapetrei5421]

Things that Victoria could have done instead of setting up that stupid plan: 1 Raise her son better so that Fred can become a good business man. 2 Just hypnotize Fred. 3 Don't give to Fred the company. She could just keep being the CEO and then give her place to someone more qualified (Even if Fred IS qualified but she doesn't realize that). 4 Let Fred merry a clever woman that one day could help her son run the family business. 5 If the the show really needed the brain situation to happen, they could have made Victoria kidnap only one girl (maybe Daphne) to switch her brain with her own and live forever, so that she never has to give up her place in the company (I know that would generate a lot of controversities, but it makes much sense than Victoria stealing the brains of random girls to put them in her son's body)

[@Shiirow]

The only reason Fred's mom is the surprise villain is because they realized too late that they were writing Velmas mother as the villain. We cant have a poor PoC seem like the bad guy, so they make the white woman the villain out of left field.

[@mediaknight]

Her kidnapping Diya to swap her brain with someone younger or her own son would have done a much better job explaining why she hypnotized Diya and would give her a much more understandable motivation of just wanting to live forever. The failed and forced social commentary of how hard women have it (which rings incredibly hollow when a millionaire businesswoman is saying it) was the show putting the message first.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

The version I made is Victoria wants to be immortal and discovered that if she puts her brain into a younger body she can take over the body and essentially prolonging her life.

[@billmcdermott9647]

@@annieandelsieofarendelle3294 it is silly because why not bung her brain into Fred and then when he gets old do it again and live forever

[@KnucklesxReala911]

@@Shiirow honestly is even worse than that, they really tried to make it more seen as men are the ones at fault of everything and are the real reason why women would do anything bad like this, like Victoria was all about "wanted a girl like me to take over", she literally took over her husband's family company, she just needed to marry Fred with any girl she wanted, at least it would make sense that at least it was show that the husband had been brain washed since before their wedding and that's why she assumed marrying Fred with a smart girl alone wouldn't work

[@insertclevernamehere1186]

Oddly enough, they show that Fred is extremely impressionable with the whole "reading one piece of feminist literature made him completely incapable of not being able to appreciate a woman's inner beauty" subplot, meaning that if Fred's Mom put in even the bare minimum of effort in raising him to be business-savy, he probably would have soaked it up like a sponge. In other words, she'd rather go through this whole complicated plot to effectively kill her own son and replace him with someone else than put in a smidge of time to raise him...

[@leotamer5]

What I think makes it any worse is that she is rich. She doesn't even to put in that much effort, just hire some tutors.

[@Acidfrog475]

@@leotamer5 Enroll him in a couple (advanced) business courses at school or at a university. _Girl, it isn’t that complicated._

[@CheshireCad]

Maybe that's exactly the reason why he's so hopeless. No matter how much time and effort she puts into training him to be a good businessman, it'll all come crumbling down the moment he reads a reddit post about cryptocurrency and immediately decides to invest the entire company's assets into PeePeePooPooCoin.

[@jindo5]

It's kinda like when people say they're too lazy to do one thing, so they end up doing something much harder just to avoid doing that one thing.

[@Noblesse_Sapphire]

@@jindo5 most procrastination stories I've heard (and sometimes, experienced it myself) the intention isn't to find and do a "detour" to reach the goal, it's simply just trying to avoid it, but also in a state of anxiety knowing that our work is not even an inch close from finished (y'know like you do homework, but instead play video games, etc) :"D but Fres's mother basically just makes overly complicated (and inefficient) plans to achieve her goals, technically not a procrastination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@baronbonblaze5819]

9:00 About the whole snapping fingers bit, in the middle of episode 2 while they were selling drugs Daphne snaps her fingers RIGHT IN FRONT of Velma but it didn't break the hypnosis. And like stated in the video, if Fred's mom improved the hypnosis to not get broken by a snapping finger, why not just use it on her son?

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Because he'd still be a man on the inside and out which wasn't good enough. Switching his brain would mean he'd finally 'think like a woman', even if on the outside he'd still be Fred but remember; White, male privilege amirite?

[@RaspK]

It's pretty clear that the writing of Velma is abysmal. They just threw stuff at the wall and kept even the things that didn't stick.

[@haku8135]

The correct way to write off hypnotism as not being viable for their infiltration plan, is just to make the hypnotism imperfect. If you try to change someone's personality with it, it won't work as well as you need it to to actually fool anyone for very long, if at all. Like seriously, when they see Fred's dad they say "Look at his eyes, he's been hypnotized" JUST MAKE THAT THE REASON! IT MAKES THEIR EYES GO FUCKY AND SO IT DOESN'T WORK! You could have Velma's eyes do that every time she hallucinates and we see her reacting to the things from an outside perspective! At first we don't know about the quirk of the hypnotism, so we don't pay attention to it. But then they find out how it works and when it happens another character realizes VELMA'S eyes do that when she hallucinates, so she must have been hypnotized too! That could lead into investigating people that may have been hypnotized, since they now know what to look for and can finally follow a tangible trail, making connections between who may be hypnotized and how that would benefit this serial killer. The actual reason for the brain thing is fucking stupid still, if you take out Fred's brain and replace it with a hot girl's brain, THAT'LL JUST BE THE HOT GIRL IN HIS BODY! She'll go to the cops and expose her, then your plan is ruined! What COULD potentially work is she's using their brains and this technology to keep them alive operating on the brains to change their personalities without killing them, trying to figure out how to make the changes she wants. It's still kinda dumb, but at least it makes a semblance of sense this time. Her actual plan is to experiment on these hot girls, you can make another reason why she only targets hot girls, I don't care, figure out how to alter Fred's brain to make him, I don't know smarter or more capable of focusing? Then she'll have the son she wanted. Like it's still a bit dumb, but at least it's Scooby Doo dumb, not just straight up retarded.

[@josephnewsome2935]

So no one tried the Addams family theme song

[@CheshireCad]

It would have been clever if the hypnotism only "destabilizes" a bit when someone snaps their fingers. Then, whenever someone has an "Ah ha!" moment and snaps their fingers, Velma trips out a bit. But Velma, and the audience, misattributes this to the act of a mystery being solved. That could lead to a moment when someone dumb(probably Fred) has an "Ah ha!" moment and snaps their fingers, then says something idiotic. Velma hallucinates a little, but realizes that their assumption was so absurdly stupid, that her hallucination couldn't possibly be from them "solving" anything. I think I just accidentally wrote a scene with more comedy and mystery in it than an entire episode of this show.

[@miguelperez9906]

The way it sounded when they spoke about the creation of the show Mindy had an idea for a show and they told her to pick an ip to use as a fleshy skinsuit.

[@cjthetallpoet]

For real 😂

[@hokton8555]

yeah if you think about there are only two real similarities between Melma & Scooby Doo: 4 Main characters with one blond white guy solving mysteries (probably just intended to be a parody of some netflix shows)

[@Bleakertube]

That’s what’s happening to basically all pop culture. Turning stuff we love into skin suits for garbage ideas.

[@guilherme5094]

@@Bleakertube You're goddamn right!

[@HappyGoof4]

It's invasion of the body snatchers, for popular IP's.

[@TF2Fan101]

To quote Kronk from Emperor’s New Groove… ‘By all accounts, it doesn’t make sense.’

[@gundamguy833]

I find it kind of funny that they constantly talk about Fred's "white male privilege" and try to make him out to be pathetic and all talk compared to everyone else; then they make him suffer so much and make him grow from it that he becomes the best written and sympathetic character in the whole series (which isn't saying a lot).

[@patrickleighpresents749]

Agatha Christie didn't plan the endings of her mysteries in advance, but she did make sure she thought of explanations for all the clues/red herrings that she included in the story as she was writing it so that everything would add up in the end. And, of course, she edited the story in later drafts. This show feels like it was written in a similar fashion, say for one key thing: It wasn't improved in later drafts. Clues/red herrings were included but without much thought into how they would add up in the end and they were not removed once the ending was written when those clues/red herrings ended up contradicting the conclusion. If they didn't have time to edit the script, then they should have planned out the ending beforehand so they were able to get everything right. Mystery writing is difficult, but if you're going to write one, you have to commit to doing it properly.

[@bliczb8772]

Bold of you to think this story went past the first draft. I'm not even joking here, legit, I'd believe if they said it was the first draft, especially with the time these things take.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

The funny thing is, even with just watching clips of the show, I sort of realized why Victoria was the bad guy despite her not being pushed in our face as much as the other characters and it all came back to that picture. When they showed that she and her husband were arranged to be married I realized it all boiled down to Victoria 'not having a choice' in anything in her life and feeling slighted 'because woman'. The whole idea of switching Fred's brain out sealed it because it all became an issue of Victoria wanting to run the company but not being able to (because woman) so she'd sneak one in using Fred. Not saying that the show was clever for doing this. It's not and the whole twist is bad but it becomes obvious when you remember the tone of the show is constantly talking about rich White men and how they're able to do everything and get away with everything. The whole show is one drawn out message about how Victoria was a victim of the patriarchy because she was forced into things she didn't want to (by men), denied power (by men) and how the brain switch is some sort of 'lesson' in how women can never be in top positions unless they do something desperate (because men). Seriously, fuck this show.

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

Also the villian was very clearly changed.

[@CheshireCad]

The necklace/pocketwatch is the smoking gun to the poor writing of this show. An inconsistency that glaring had countless chances to be caught, including any consideration of the evidence available.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

Personally, I made Diya a co-conspirator to Victoria who performed the murders themselves in exchange for framing her daughter and ruining her husband’s career since she actually hated them for in her mind destroying her life. As for Victoria, she didn’t care about the business or anything, she wanted to be immortal by taking over her own son’s body and then her grandchildren’s body. As for Fred and being bad mother, she deliberately raised him to be as stupid and obnoxious as possible so no one would care about the real Fred. As for William, he actually knew about his wife’s schemes and was trying to gather proof to stop her before she essentially killed Fred. He’s not a good person at all, but he doesn’t want his only child to have his brain replaced.

[@MKDumas1981]

More thought in one KZbin comment than in ten episodes of this...show.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

@@MKDumas1981 Thank you.

[@inurokuwarz]

Wouldn't the most straightforward "Evil Genius" plan be for Victoria to put *her own brain* into Fred? It'd have the added Benefit of making her the legal heir of the company and able to get the respect she felt she wasn't as a woman.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

@@inurokuwarz That is her plan. She’s going to put her own brain in Fred, have kids as Fred, and then repeat the process.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

@bluespirit5112 Maybe instead of Velma nearly falling to her death and Diya saving her they find her down there and in order to save her own skin she pretends to have amnesia.

[@UncensoredScion]

There's a lot of people who see this kind of thing as being deliberate and I can't really blame them, there's no reason to be spiteful here except to try and tarnish the IP, they've done it over and over and will keep doing it.

[@animezilla4486]

Let's not forget the executives at Warner Brothers are the ones that gave the go-ahead for the show to exist

[@MKDumas1981]

"Here's a list of the IPs we own. Pick something out of there." That's the reason we get Captain Caveman/Slag Brothers references, and Inch High Private Eye cameo, and Captain Cutler's ghost. However, at the same time, they weren't allowed to use the character of Scooby-Doo, the name "Shaggy", or the Mystery Machine. It also had to be set in Crystal Cove, rather than Coolsville.

[@UncensoredScion]

@@MKDumas1981 I knew all the others - I particularly took issue with the Captain Caveman bit, I was BIG fan of that show - but the Inch High Private Eye cameo I completely missed. Good god the levels of hate for Hanna-Barbera in this show is off the chart!

[@DrakeSilver]

give this to literally every single other scooby-doo incarnation ever. When they say something is a clue, it actually is a clue. When they portray people doing sneaky things they tell us WHY they were acting that way, even if it's a dumb reason they still give us SOMETHING!

[@liljenborg2517]

The Villain should have ended up being Velma. They should have had this kinda post-credit scene where Fred finds this one last clue that reveals that Velma discovered her mother's research lab years ago and we get this "The Cask of Amontillado" or "The Murder of Rodger Ackroid" montage that leaves it open to the idea that Velma was the one stealing the brains all along and planting all the clues that keep pointing at everyone else because she wanted to transplant herself into a hot girl's body the whole time - and even hypnotized Fred's mom into thinking she's the real culprit.

[@lookingforlove839]

@Saints Row The Badass Bro it's the same set up for the donkey kong game

[@jeremycrouch4356]

​@Saints Row The Badass Bro the game you're talking about is called Heavy Rain.

[@phabiorules]

That would be a good twist. Her motive could be that she couldn’t solve mysteries ever since her mom died, so she decided to create one instead.

[@teo2157]

Velma is the villain anyway lmfao

[@CheshireCad]

@@jeremycrouch4356 - I would chide you for the spoilers, if you were spoiling a story that had any merit to begin with.

[@daneyal7162]

More like "Velma: how not to write PERIOD".

[@OwO377]

Totally accurate cuz when someone had it often see the world as bad thing and became overate.

[@angelsartandgaming]

I said this in a Rick and Morty video long ago (this was before everything came out and around the time I think season 5 just ended), "the problem is that [Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland] are so allergic to being predictable that they ironically make things more predictable or nonsensical by trying to be unpredictable." That's how I feel about the Fred's Mom twist. It's like they wanted it to be Diya or William, but either in a case of Mindy feeling both of those are too predictable or making Velma's mom just as perfect as Velma Sue, they went for the least obvious twist without doing anything to literally foreshadow it. I also said this in the Rick and Morty video and I'll say it here; predictably is not a bad thing and the audience will have a more enjoyable time figuring out the mystery as much as the characters. For example, many people got right that Grunkle Stan on Gravity Falls has a twin brother who is the author of the journals, but we got just as much enjoyment finding out his name was actually Stanford and the Stan we've been following was Stanley all along. Then when you go back to the previous episodes, it suddenly makes a bunch of sense with sprinkled clues

[@RaspK]

Yeah, that's a big thing you learn over time in all sorts of planning/writing: if your audience figures out your twist, you should lean on it with all the weight of the abyss and cherish that they got your hints! Changing the ending to get a twist the story never had to begin with is just being petty for no valid reason.

[@christopherbennett5858]

@@RaspK Couldn’t agree more. Just imagine if games like Danganronpa behaved like these types of stories. We would be beyond annoyed. And this knowledge can really change it up. Like a character you got so emotionally invested in that you don’t want them to be the killer, a character who made all the evidence point to them because they want the culprit’s real identity to be left unknown or even something like wanting the mystery to be figured out to make sure that the person everyone thinks is a culprit is either not framed or doesn’t give up. There’s so many ways it can be done.

[@CheshireCad]

@@christopherbennett5858 - It's still baffling that a series could cram itself to bursting with such a non-stop bombardment of absurd plot twists, and still make it all cohesive and easy to understand. But Danganronpa pulled it off across 3 games and some spinoffs. Meanwhile, this show can't remember half its plot twists by the next episode.

[@OcioCamaraMx]

Another thing someone pointed out is how Velma rarely gatters clues, most of the clues are giving to her either by Daphne, Fred or Norville, she acusses a suspect twice and both times she is wrong. I also recomend the Velma meets orginal Velma clip. In a few minutes the clip adds mistery, horror and such a deep and interesting lore this series couldn't do with 10 episodes and a millionaire budget.

[@christopherbennett5858]

I really dislike the passive detective. Velma reminds me of Steven Universe in this sense; wait until the plot/clues smack you in the face. And, look at that, they’re both affected by hallucination. Seriously, if you’re going to write a mystery, understand that your main character needs to actively be part of the investigation, whether they’re interviewing, investigating for evidence or, in the case of Knives out, trying to get rid of evidence. They need to do something.

[@OcioCamaraMx]

@@christopherbennett5858 yeah, at that point it's not a detective, just somone in the right place at the right time EVERY time

[@christopherbennett5858]

@@OcioCamaraMx Yeah. Honestly, considering how popularised the mystery box has become, it doesn’t surprise me that mystery writing has declined a little.

[@inediblegrobb7524]

Mid-production rewrites. That is the only thing that could explain how inconsistent this show was, and especially why the final reveal comes so out of nowhere.

[@joseroa5243]

probably ude the second half that is coming in seasaon 2. chances are the mother was part of that satanic cult.

[@littletee3649]

I agree, but I also think the writing was most likely flawed to begin with. (Don't get me wrong, rewrites can wreck good stories or media all by themselves-take the first Super Mario Brothers movie as a prime example.) I am at the point where I'm seriously doubting if they even had (or do have) a writing team run by a head writer, not to mention a script bible for the season or series as a whole.

[@dodojesus4529]

​@@littletee3649 it very much feels like it was written in one evening with a lot of alcohol involved.

[@jasonhenry8067]

@@dodojesus4529 and with a couple of the writers trying to get with the others

[@dodojesus4529]

@@jasonhenry8067 meanwhile the lead writer is on a drunken rant about how the ir highschool classmates were inferior idiots who wanted to sleep withthem

[@jjjmadness8306]

This is why the mystery is in this show so terrible. Not only is Victoria's plan completely asinine, finding a popular girl's brain to replace her idiot son's brain because she couldn't be bothered to teach her son to be smart, but most of her actions are convoluted. She kidnaps people when she doesn't have to and could have simply hired Velma's mom since they both share a common interest. She brainwashes Velma to hide her crime but then tries to frame Velma, which ultimately causes more people to be about the missing girl case. Victoria is a prime example of what happens when an idiot writer creates a mystery but is too stupid to plan it properly. I wouldn't be surprised if Rian Jhonson wrote this mystery.

[@scottchaison1001]

Even Rian Johnson would make a better mystery.

[@Slitheringpeanut]

You can't teach someone to be 'smart'. It's genetic. Either he gets it from his parents, or his parents are stupid too.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

It would've been interesting if Velma was the killer but hypnotized into doing it.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

The whole point was they were trying to show Fred is incapable of being smart because he's a man and regardless if he was, Victoria wants a WOMAN I charge of the company. She'd never get that as Fred is her oy child so the next best thing was to but the brain of a woman in the body of a man to trojan horse a woman into a leadership position. Like I said, the mystery doesn't matter. The 'message' does and it's been from episode one 'White men lol amirite?'

[@Raximus3000]

So knives out is like this? Keep information from the audience and then throw them all at the 11th hour not matter how senseless it is?

[@thegrandxbunny2073]

It genuinely feels like they just pulled Victoria's name from a hat.

[@seancarroll136]

Or, metaphorically, they broke into her house and kidnapped her, hypnosis her with the REAL serial killer’s pocket watch, stuffed her inside the suit FNAF style, and got away with the perfect crime.

[@Excaliwolf2]

They somehow made Fred this really tragic and sympathetic character. That everyone universally feels bad for while at the same time making Velma the most hated character in the show. Funny.

[@indigokozy9251]

Beneath the show's general contempt, the writing is on par with High Guardian Spice. With the writers tying together plot points with tropes; as though tropes are the building blocks of a coherent narrative. Using TV tropes and a dartboard wouldn't have made the show any less coherent.

[@kevinskinner4986]

Comparing this to High Guardian Spice is an insult to High Guardian Spice.

[@dalle4962]

As much as I dislike HGH, at least they made an honest attempt. It was just severely bogged down by inexperience, lack of talent(?) and very poor management/planning. Velma just seemed outright spiteful and out of touch.

[@Shiirow]

@@dalle4962 I wouldnt call that an honest attempt, they literally conned anime fans out of money by lying where it was going to fun someones Jr High School political fanfic. Ive seen terrible writing that made honest attempts, HGS didnt make any such attempt. It meandered for half its season run time.

[@dalle4962]

​@@Shiirow Fair point. Although the conning fans out of money seems to be Crunchyroll's decision, not the HGH team's. They were technically complicit in it, but work is work, I guess

[@animezilla4486]

​@@Shiirow at least high guardian spice was original concept and while it was not good I wouldn't exactly called the worst thing ever

[@Burns_RED]

Summarizing that... Mess... That must've been fun. You deserve a medal

[@OwO377]

That the definition of nonsense plan.

[@cathygrandstaff1957]

I thought Dr Edna Perdue should have been the villain, with her actually perfecting the brain swapping operation and then using it to swap her brain into a new body and then getting the person she swapped with put away in the hut house. Even if her victim said she wasn’t Dr Perdue nobody would believe them because they were certified insane. My thought during the series was she swapped with Norville’s dad, you can see during the flashback where she is watching her teenage daughter with him that she doesn’t actually approve of the boy. Then again it would make more sense to have a twofer with General Meeting and Dr Perdue both swapping their brains into Norville’s parents, since that way they could take turns operating on each other. Noville’s dad is a master hypnotists like General Meeting after all. In that case the plot could have been them looking for fresh teenage bodies to swap into, with General Meeting getting Fred as his next body, and Dr Perdue’s murder spree being based on trying to find the right teenage girl to swap into.

[@RaspK]

One thing I find unintentionally hilarious and ironic is that a lot of such fiction (see also "Cruella") end up making the female characters... well, notably cruel, malicious and not really someone you'd root for. The problem a lot of these writers have is that apparently they don't even grasp the trickster or rogue character archetype either, among so many other things: these characters are still charming and kind at heart; what these writers produce, instead, are vile and vengeful that are somehow magically charming without effort or real magnetism. They just suddenly do something and things just happen to work their way out of the blue.

[@viktoria_pikovsky]

There is one other clever twist I came up with that could have perfectly work with how the show was written- Victoria hypnotizing Fred to be the killer! Considering the show is build up around the idea that "white rich man are bad", and Fred being accused as guilty because of that, the show could have actually went down a lot more heavily with this idea by showing him being the "real" bad guy. The way I see it is Victoria being so obsessed with her plans yet so afraid of being discovered, that she hypnotized her own son to kidnap the girls and cut their brains out for her. Fred being hypnotized would not know what he is even doing, let alone remember his own actions. So in his normal, not- hypnotized state Fred could be the clueless himbo he is in the OG show, but once the hypnosis kicks in, he would change to a cold blooded killer, almost Hannibal Lector style. Of course it would be all just Victoria manipulating her own son to do all the dirty work for her, before she would move to the main part of it, aka the brain swap operation. This way Victoria, through Fred's action, would be able to frame Velma for the murders either because she is Diya's daughter or because she is just the easiest target or something. It would also give more weight to Fred being accused for the murders and be found guilty for it, as he did do them under the hypnosis. I find this to be a lot more interesting way to tie Fred's family into the murder mystery, and actually work with the idea of Fred being the culprit beyond Velma's rather sexist and racist accusations.

[@L0V3000]

If they wanted a clever twist, it should've been the principal. Motive 1: Make the Meeting/Jones family suffer for driving her mother insane. Motive 2: Make Velma pay for leeching Norville. She'd want to replicate her mother's work in hopes of replicating SCOOBI. Some vital documents would be missing preventing a successful SCOOBI replication. Perdue would accidentally drop some in the caverns after wrecking the lab. Diya would find them looking for Perdue's lab but some formula's have been smeared. Blyth would hypnotise Diya to collect bodies and have her tirelessly work on solving the formulas while she was in school and being a wife mom. Mr. Jones can still be a red herring but have it lead up to him being in an affair with Blyth. This is also how she gets a pocket watch and to coax him into revealing some family secrets (The lab's location, if he saw lab papers, underground passages into the mansion, etc). She'd also have Diya plant clues to frame Velma and place her own brain in Fred's body to destroy the Jones/Meeting empire from within once he's old enough. She'd also as Fred expose his grandfather's operation to the presses and that his parents built JGA upon Meeting's riches from the expirements. This revenge plot would stem from Perdue neglecting her for research no matter her own accomplishments. It also stems from seeing her son go above and beyond to please someone who barely cares like she did for Perdue, but Velma makes it unbearable since she's Velma.

[@Somehowstillkicking]

God I was hoping this would be like a double sike where fred's mom is discovered to also be hypnotized somehow and revealed that velma's mom was never under her influence, she is a legit villain playing the victim and used fred's family as scapegoats/wallets to fund her brain snatching scheme But I was expecting more than anything the writers would want to do

[@Redpoppy80]

So when writing a mystery there are several things that have to be thought out 1. Who your villain is? 2. What that person/group wants? 3. Why they want that? 4. What is stopping or preventing them from just getting what they want without a scheme? 5. What they actually do in their attempt to get what they want? 6. What are the failings that eventually lead to their downfall (or rarely, their success)? This "mystery" fails at step 2! which is the earilest stage that you can fail to write a mystery! There is something in critical thinking called Occam's Razor which is the method of using the simplest methods to arrive at a conclusion with as few assumptions as possible. This matters because mysteries are the antithesis to Occam's Razor because the villain can't just get what they want the strait forward way due to external reasons which force the villain to make up highly convoluted schemes to achieve their ends. A twist ending only works if the evidence that is used to solve a case can be reasonably misleading but still makes sense by either recontextualizing the evidence meaning or conclusions with new undiscovered information or is actually false evidence planted to mislead the investigation. This is clearly not a mystery and is rather a self-insert story of the writer's supposed greatness which only proves how narcissistic and sociopathic they really are.

[@ShadyDoorags]

Finally, someone breaks down how nothing in the mystery works. It's been plaguing my mind for weeks. Another thing is that Velma snaps her fingers while standing next to Diya, literally stating out loud that snapping is the cure to hypnosis, and yet neither of them are cured when this happens.

[@mjtannertwins]

Thanks, and yeah, I forgot about that. Daphne also snapped her fingers in front of Velma in episode 2 and it didn't break her hypnosis. There's no consistency in this show. I might make a short about the snapping.

[@luluzin5022]

The biggest flaw in Victoria's plan is the fact that she needed someone who would take over Fred's body willingly. The brains retain their memories from before being killed, so if she swaps his brain for an unwilling person, that person could just go to the media and reveal what Victoria did to them. Maybe nobody would believe it if "Fred" said that his mom swapped his brain, but he would certainly be called crazy, and there's no way he could run the family business after that scandal. That's why she needed a candidate who would accept to take over Fred's life and do what she says. Instead of searching for a person like that, she killed high school girls who can't even run a business anyway. Victoria's victims served no purpose in her goal, aside from being able to frame Diya in case she got questioned by the police. And "I wanted girls who remind me of me" is too dumb of an excuse.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

The whole show lavishes in how 'rich white men' are able to do things despite being crazy so even if the brain inside tried to confess, the town would probably claim he's essentric and laugh it off.

[@RaspK]

THANK YOU! I've been saying this for a while, why would anyone just roll with that insane plot!?

[@christopherbennett5858]

@@RaspK Frankly, the only way would be if Victoria had an accomplice who would be her muscle, or emphasise two things. 1) the brains are kept in stasis in life support systems she can turn off at any time. On top of that, if she can trade brains once, whose to say it couldn’t be done again? Having more than one brain would highlight that there’s options for her. 2) The mental stress of being a brain in a jar. Keep someone like that for long and they would at least pretend to cooperate so that they can have a body again and not be left as a brain in a jar in a basement until the battery runs out.

[@luluzin5022]

@@christopherbennett5858 Your explanations are actually plausible. Too bad the show eliminated those possibilities because the brains were more concerned about their social life than not having a body when Fred found them. 😅 Even when Velma has a way out to explain its own bad writing, it does not take it.

[@christopherbennett5858]

@@luluzin5022 Reminds me of shows like Steven Universe in that way; the ideas are there but they have a habit of picking the worst options in order to commit to a half baked bit. With Velma, there is this idea of a character becoming at least tolerable by being less online and actually interacting with people. The problem was that the show was trying to go with all these stupid plot threads, trying to have Velma as both the Rick and Morty of the show, poorly handled characters and a bad mystery. But now the outrage has sold and the hate watchers have fueled the beast.

[@arc8216]

I know a lot of these media companies have wierd quotas they put out for what % staff have to be a certain ethnicity and other stuff like that which is how stuff like this continuously gets made. I think Mindy Kaling was just handed the Scooby Doo IP because it meets a quota and no one would watch it if it didn't have the Scooby name attached to it.

[@Shiirow]

those quotas are literally racist. affirmative action is a racist policy, its basing your ability to be hired solely on your skin color and ethnicity, rather than your ability to do the job. Rather than not hiring you because your black, they are forced to hire you because your black.

[@skullexplosion9000]

You make this sound way more interesting then it actually is

[@CheshireCad]

Every 30 seconds, pause this video and watch ten minutes of a random disney sitcom made for tweens. Don't forget to yell out a few random expletives every now and then.

[@HighHeelKnight]

01:21 = "...which isn't how that works. But whatever." 🤷 That is pretty much is how 90% of VELMA can be summarized.

[@thebatmanofneo-gotham5667]

mjtanner: "So you might have noticed I'm not a huge fan of Velma." Me: "Trust me. Neither is everyone else."

[@Slitheringpeanut]

They were writing a Mystery??? I thought this was a practically pornographic display of Mindy Kaling's insecurities, bigotries and secret desires, all laid out for the world to point and laugh at, and she flubbed even that!

[@OwO377]

Your absolutely right.

[@TaoScribble]

Velma reminds me of She-Hulk: The writers there said that they didn't know how to write a law show, and it REALLY shows. It feels like they didn't even try to _learn_ how to write one before they started, and they get even get basic legal matters wrong. The team behind Velma's writing is likely the same: They don't know how to write mystery, and didn't care to learn what makes one satisfying. Either that, or there were crazy re-writes mid-production. Or they just stapled the 'mystery' to the show as a literal afterthought.

[@kieranstark7213]

Velma: Haters are wrong! Jake Gyllenhaal deserved to be left while amputated because he’s too much of a rich white man whom only his kind likes who is so ungrateful that he even has girlfriends (Taylor Swift and She-Hulk m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpTHgHWrm5t2Z8k) which justifies why he lost so many of them like the Jonas Brothers!!!!!!!! WAAH!!!!!!!!!! Mindy shouldn’t even have been in power to begin with.

[@vibevizier6512]

​@drmanhattan5970...THAT'S why you hate Velma??? I. How. She-hulk is kinda just mid, it had an idea of where it was going but because this is marvel it didn't actually go all the way and instead made this sorta half baked idea that COULD have been decently cool. Velma is. Literally just racist rage bait. Not even a joke, it is the most blatantly hateful show I've seen in a WHILE.

[@scoobydoo23320]

Did any else notice Velma didn't actually solve the mystery she spends most of her time accusing people she doesn't like, such as Fred and tries to prove it is them without evidence then moves on the the next person. And none of the big reveals are actually solved by her. She straight has to get told, like when Fred's mom's explains her plan or Daphne giving her the case file. Or she finds it by pure luck like when she realizes her glasses are made by Jones inc. or tons of proof just left in the basement lab in order to advance the mystery.

[@soulechelon2643]

Excellent recap and analysis. While there are many, many missteps this show took in nearly every category (art direction was the only good one as was mentioned in an earlier video), the fact that the mystery itself was so full of holes is the most disappointing.

[@matityaloran9157]

0:14, at this point Disney’s villain problem is more their reluctance to have a full-blown villain

[@saltbaker8683]

At least Scoob and that live action movie about the other Velma and Daphne slightly did It better, but still not saying too much! Also the villain himself Isn't that even creative anything and with a little redesign I can see him be like Big Daddy from Bioshock or literally something out of American MGee's Alice! Or If you gonna go the extra mile; why not make him part machine like some sort of Cyborg Hybrid who works In mysterious way or even like a try hit-man at one point.

[@cjthetallpoet]

If Velma was written better then maybe the show would have been great but sadly no 😞

[@lookingforlove839]

Not really rocket science

[@animezilla4486]

I agree

[@bliczb8772]

The show would require something far more than just a good writing on the main character side. A single sparrow doesn't make it a spring.

[@alldayagain]

The biggest plot hole with that of this twist was that she would choose a popular teenage girl to take Fred's body, and not just put her own brain into his body

[@katiefiorella6371]

Off the top of my head, maybe make it so Fred is competent for his age, but has no interest in taking over the business, and knowing he might sell it the moment he takes over, the parents do this crazy scheme together. Like maybe have them kidnap him to stop him and the gang from investigating and make it seem like the ghost of Edna Perdue is making people who try to stop her disappear. It could be chilling, a scene of Fred sleeping only to wake up to glass breaking and be snatched. Honestly bringing in people think a ghost did it thing sooner would've made it more Scooby Doo.

[@christopherbennett5858]

Honestly, Victoria’s story would’ve been okay if they either gave her an accomplice and/or tried to frame someone she thought of as a threat despite the fact that Velma was already no longer a threat for two years. However, there wasn’t much effort actually put in. But I get why. In this day and age, a mystery in a tv show is often just a bad mystery box of “ooh, what’s the secret?” As just a part of the piece rather than an active story thread. Mostly because fans will theory craft and do a lot of the work. Then, at the end, reveal that the culprit is someone who subverts expectations not out of a genuine care for story writing, but because they think that being subversive for subversive’s sake is better than letting fans who figured it out have a moment of accomplishment. I’d have gone with Norville’s mother as the villain.

[@jlwiseman98]

Tbh it feels like they wanted Fred's dad or Dia to be the culprit instead but needed a more "shocking " twist regardless if it made sense.

[@ayajade6683]

Diya and Victoria both being behind it would make more sense. Or Victoria and the principal who's name I forgot

[@peacedos1]

This show plot is so good, that even authors couldn't solve it until end of season!

[@redstreak9430]

A bit redundant to compare but Mystery Incorporated did this better with Fred’s dad being a bad guy. Not only did it make sense in context of the episode but it also played into the overarching mystery of the series while this doesn’t work for the reasons you mentioned here.

[@Hyeeba]

Literally the entire series I kept screaming, actually screaming at the screen "IT'S VELMA'S MOM!!!", all the clues seemed to point to her so clearly. And it really did feel like just another way to make Velma seem innocent and flawless...in a series about how Velma is innocent and flawless

[@aithanleeom5152]

Without Scooby mystery has no punchline

[@segevstormlord3713]

If Fred's mom has the motives given for being the villain, why not be partnered with either a villainous Velma's mom, or a villain who knows how to do Velma's thing, and then have Fred's mom be a "victim" by removing her brain...and putting it in Fred's body. There, now she has the perfect person to run the family business (as far as she's concerned), and also bought herself another 50+ years of life.

[@cutiewintersnowtorres2561]

Other shows: Pull off a better story even if it’s not 100% perfect. Yet got cancelled. Velma: A horrible messed plot that still got a second season.

[@joseroa5243]

one word, the whole plot constrivance of the fog fest is... that if fred doesn't become the fog king... they will kick him out the house, so... wouldn't that render the whole thing vain? If Fred is kicked out the house that means his mother could've picked a better heir. she already brainwashed her husband so making him agree wouldn't be that hard- what i mean to say the whole brain removal + hynosis is an awful combination.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Their dad would have rejected the notion if the heir wasn't a Jones by blood. Don't use logic when trying to cover up the plot holes. Use the mind of someone who believes the entire world is out to get them.

[@joseroa5243]

@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid he was hypnitized, she coulde've Made him sign the papers.

[@insectostrich4407]

It’s really sad because I think a reimagining of Scooby Doo with actual serial killers could’ve really worked. Oh well.😔

[@bbgunz1705]

This is a really great analysis about why this mystery fails. Good job. Also, congratulations on making it to 35k subs! Thanks for all the great content, and for suffering through this crap so we don't have to. Prayers for you and M.

[@swisspissman8455]

They could have done it were she tried to hypnotize her son but after doing it repeatedly because of how easy it is to get off the effect Fred starts loosing parts of his memory. Making him as dumb as he is and preventing her from hypnotizing him further.

[@KitsuneFyora]

It would have been a lot of fun in it's mystery if they made it someone who fit most of the clues they gave. Not sure who that could be in this season, but regardless. Also, it might have added a feeling of interest to watch the second season if they added the _real_ villain as a cliffhanger of the last episode of season 1 so we want to watch season 2. With Velma, I'm not sure if that would have worked though, because it's already a struggle to watch. Least it could have made more sense then switching out a kid's brain for another kid's brain because family business.

[@krcode7971]

The "funny" thing about this "mystery" is that all of it would've been the mystery and plot of 1 espisode of any other scooby do season. So they have to drag out the run time with with horrible characters, toxic relationships, references that no one could understand while beeing meanspirited to everything and anyone just for existing. Velma needs 12 episodes to tell 1 "mystery", that would be "funny" if it wasn't so pathetic.

[@SidusuC]

Thank you for all of your videos on Velma.

[@peacedos1]

Ok, I just understood one thing. They will add Scooby as a dog with human brain. If not than honestly I wouldn't be surprised because this show is really good in missing potential

[@HeadHunter-mv2ht]

Wanna bet that they originally planned it to be Fred’s dad but realized that they couldn’t think of a motive for him at all and instead of reworking thinks they just changed it to be his mom.

[@YourAverageNormalHumanBeing]

Let's bet

[@KoongYe]

Wait.. it's almost like Mindy has no writing skill at all! How preposterous!

[@Arthas30000]

Why didn't Fred's mom get someone else in on this and just put herself in Fred's body?

[@TankswillRule]

They managed ruin one of my favorite childhood shows. Thank you hollywood…

[@BrandonRaske]

i figured it was freds dad or not shaggy's parents but it being freds mom doesnt make a solid lick of sense ever since the reveal of who done it i've been thinking how it makes sense and i've come to the conclusion that the writers just screwed up

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

It does when you remember the shows doesn't do anything but bitch about rich white men.

[@MaverickhunterXZero]

With modern writers these says, the core of the show seems to always be an afterthought; She-hulk wasn't a law drama. Velma wasn't about a mystery. Animaniacs wasn't a comedy. In all honesty, Velman(or Mindy Kaling dressed as her) should have been the villain. She's cruel, bossy, manipulative, will do anything to get her own way, chase people away, cares for no one but herself and many of the bodies were found around her - and what an interesting twist that she was trying to solve a case when she was the culprit.

[@JustinB6699]

The mystery/story generally feels like they were writing it as it went along, especially with the end. Its kind of like the reposts of recent Marvel stuff like Multiverse of Madness. Among the many complaints stated in the video and in other comments... Fred's mom not only plants 2 bodies that would bring Velma around the mystery, something she doesn't want, but she hypnotizes Velma to get hallucinations/panic attacks that could kill her when she dives into the mystery... Most of the time... that is broken by her dad truly believing her mom went missing, which would only drive Velma into the mystery more. Logic... Then again, this is the story saying that these panic attacks are worn off by acts of love and, for some reason, Velma having the knowledge of being such a shitty kid to drive her mother away makes her less guilty about her disappearance than solving a mystery that led to her mother's kidnapping. A mindset that almost had her change herself to be less closed off or whatever that scene was supposed to be. Also, how would the whole "breaking of the glass ceiling" part of her reasoning work if the whole thing is that she is putting the brain of a hot woman into a white man's body? Kinda defeats the purpose unless they make it public... which, you know, would be bad. Why not just train a popular girl, like Daphne who was dating Fred for a year anyway? And the little, barely important fact that Victoria is already the CEO of the business so... what glass ceiling needs to be broken?

[@yanturgeon1384]

I would have make every parents the vilain so that the gang have a reason to group and start mystery inc.

[@Crystre]

I thought the killer would be the mom because she was missing for so long, the show kinda setting that up if anything. It would have been great if during the big reveal she began going off on Velma calling her out for being a horrible person and was trying to frame Velma or something.

[@SunnysFilms]

I actually had this "mystery" figured out pretty easily and I knew it was Fred's mom - not by following the "clues", but by following the writers' obvious line of logic. Honestly, none of the characters would have worked as the villain because no one really had a motive that made sense (including what's supposed to pass for Victoria's). Nothing about this "mystery" ever added up and it was clear the writers were just hoping no one would notice and just go with it. So, yeah. Even though I knew it was her, I have no doubt it was an afterthought. No one working on this wanted a satisfying mystery. That is very clear.

[@skywise001]

Excellent break down. Its so awful I have trouble putting it into words. Also you have a very cute avatar :D

[@georgemitchell7273]

The show was trying so hard to make men look bad and just ended up making women look bad. From Fred's mom to Daphne's parents, who sucked at their jobs, and Velma and her mom.

[@SilverDungeoneer]

A scooby doo spinoff not having scooby is where the problems started

[@nikaelkeanretiza1074]

How to speed run a original ip into the ground

[@humbleheathen69]

Just watching the animation with no sound it's actually kinda enjoyable. Just from the first few seconds I actually cracked a smile at Velma being hit with a car and sitting up missing teeth. Not because it's Velma but because that's some cartoony shit you'd see in ed edd n Eddy or chowder or flapjack

[@TheAngryYumm]

Kay so I think if Velma had just been a good character (as in who she was) and friends with Daphne they could have saved a good portion of the plot. Velma is smart, her mom genuinely goes missing, trauma keeps her from getting to close to the case but she tries with Daphne. Being a good kid and the murders taking place in her school maybe an off hand comment about helping from Daphs parents would have been better. Fred not being an idiot but perhaps a bit to full of himself at times would fit for the age and who he was. Maybe even the ego being a mask because of the demands of his mother who in turn sees the ego as a threat. Maybe Diya is kidnapped because Fred isn't as easy to control as his mother hoped, so she wants to swap out his brain, then decides Velma is the better option because with Diya in her clutches Velma will do anything asked of her. With Velma knowing Fred and being forced to comply her plan could work. I mean obviously plot wholes but I imagine the hypnotizing would come into play as well as the narcissism of Fred's mother and the myssandry she clearly has. Even with all of the other flaws and white bashing, would have been far more tolerable. Still holes but not that many.

[@TheGameianDark]

This is exactly the reason why I get so angry when people say "It's just comedy".. Just because it's "comedy" doesn't mean things should happen out of the blue.. Even a kid's comedy show like Tom's Jerry followed it's own logic! Why can't an adult "comedy" have a logic to follow!

[@ZanyCartoons]

Victoria being the bad guy would've worked if they put the effort into her motives and action.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

I got her 'motives' the moment they revealed her and I remembered the picture of her marrying Fred's dad. She's a miserable rich White woman with only a son who was forced into a marriage and can never be in charge of the company because she's a woman. It doesn't make sense in the context of them trying lead up to it properly but if you look back at just the basic tone of the show, not the mystery, this was a predictable conclusion this type of show would make but it's more concerned about making a STATEMENT instead of a MYSTERY.

[@ZanyCartoons]

@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid I know that's what they were trying to do but here's the thing she was in charge of the entire family business yeah her husband was the face but it was her business. The only reason she married Fred's dad was for the business not love while it's the opposite for him, I don't believe anyone forced her to marry him, and the only reason why she was worry that Fred would ruin the business was because it was all HER work that would be going down the drain.

[@krishnanandpremanand3581]

Wait a second there are huge fans of Velma

[@OwO377]

The "Fans" is out of stretch cuz not everyone like it. the only fair answer is some iluminati cult cuz it be strange way happen in reality.

[@tails_the_god]

The mystery this show gave though is how was Velma allowed to even exist 🤨 that's something not even the worlds finest detectives won't even be able to solve xD

[@irritated888]

Maybe Fred's mom watched the lock picking lawyer and knew how to find combinations quickly.

[@josesosa3337]

More western writers need to watch anime. The least vulnerable tournament and norvilles sword fighting tournament could've been combined into the same event and say something about sexism in sports and entertainment, like the show touched on but these events and others have no relation and nothing feels like it connects to the main plot. WHAT DOES FOG KING HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING???

[@samuelademeso9041]

Nah there too proud to do that

[@theblackswordsman5039]

Alternate Title: How NOT to write a show.

[@Xanegoh]

I also love how the show says it was two years ago Velma's mom disappeared, but in every flashback Velma looks like she was eight. So, what happened?

[@shooterdownunder]

If anything Velma should’ve been the bad guy because she was already the villain in the series

[@thomasraines1396]

My friend and me both thought Velma’s mom just up and left considering how much of a little hellion Velma was as a kid (and how awful she becomes as she gets older).

[@michaelp3609]

I wish her heart did give out.

[@inurokuwarz]

See, I'm a big fan of mystery shows. And you know what my wife always tells me? You never wanna have the mystery go on past the end of the episode. When ya drag it on episode after episodes the people watching (and the writers), they forget all of those important details that are the lynchpin of a good mystery. Take that Columbo fellow. Now there's a mystery solver! He tracks down every little detail and hounds the baddie until they crack. He doesn't give up on the case or ignore obvious clues because he's having personal drama, no siree.

[@NC-dw1ir]

The reason I knew it would be Fred's mom is that it would be impossible for the audience to guess. hack writers always want to pull the rug out from under you to make themselves seem smart. so I thought, which character makes the least sense narratively to be the killer? I already knew it wouldn't be Fred and whoever the mc's guest after would be a red herring. Fred's mom makes the least sense and even goes against clues given earlier like her trying to kill Fred at fog fest.

[@MarkERoth]

I'm with you on everything except hypnotizing Fred to be the perfect son. As you stated with the oddity that no one has snapped their fingers around Velma for 2 years hypnotizing Fred would be a bust unless she could somehow guarantee that no one would ever snap their fingers around Fred ever. granted the writing staff isn't the best but I'd be willing to bet that they would use that excuse without hesitation despite their own gaping plot holes. To be honest there wasn't a single character on that show who would have made a decent mastermind behind the mystery given the end goal. Had the point of the brain removal been something silly like an adult wanting to be a teenager again to "get it right that time" any one of the horrible adults would have made for a better villain, or even a tired stepford wife story and make the mastermind the Mayor and Sheriff would have been better than what they gave us.

[@chadsaturday3300]

It honestly baffles me how Young Justice got canned while this show got greenlit AND FOR A SECOND FUCKING SEASON TOO!

[@N3rv3d4m4g3]

I thought it would be Fred's mom , but I thought her goal would be to put her own brain in a younger body, and have eternal youth or whatever

[@MinMin4theWinWin]

It's sad that the hex girls planned series was canceled for velma

[@lilacorkindheart8325]

Out of all this situation, there is One good thing that came of Velma. Someone out there thought that this show, with it's meanspirited, mizantropic bile, would entice people. That everyone or most people would love it. Yet you - all of you wonderfull people, showed that the human Spirit and Heart is stronger than anyone could imagine. People around the world universally despise this show. It's message, tone, hate - all of it hurt you and you showed them that you will not stand by it. We as humans need Love, and Warmth. Something humane, not this abomination. I Thank You. All of you, J & M, everyone from the bottom of my Heart. Everyone showed that The Human Heart and Spirit is still strong and unbreakable.

[@Nonjola]

Who is actually, unironically, a fan of Velma?

[@MegaMagicdog]

Pretty much no one - except for Mindy Kaling.

[@sergiitk]

My best guess they chose Fred's mom to be the villain because in their narrative only a woman could pull off such a "sophisticated" plan.

[@BassiKun99]

When you look at it that way, is actually very easy to guess that Fred's mother is the killer. All the clues point to Fred's father, but since he is a man (and not just any man, but a rich white man) he is automatically considered too bumbling and incompetent to be a good villain by Mindy Kaling and the other writers' standards.

[@sergiitk]

@@BassiKun99 exactly.

[@asshat.3726]

Those poor animator's. Hope they got a good amount of money

[@bernardotorres5274]

First rule of modern entertainment: Any female character can not and should be held accountable for their actions. But like everything on this show, the mystery was supposed to have a stupid reveal, as it was a poor man’s parody.

[@TheLowBrassDude]

This feels like the writers took the wrong lessons from Scream and Get Out

[@cttommy73]

One of the worse scene in this entire show with "Fred's" mom's reveal is that she talked about how incompetent her father is and Fred and whatnot and how great she is and how is made "Fred's" father's company so successful and yada yada, is that she is just as incompetent and actually far worse then anyone else, simply because the only way she made any money was by using and manipulating "Fred's" father by tricking him and making him think she was marrying him for love, like he was with her. She never once worked in her entire life and any and every privileged she ever had was provided to her by a man. First by her father, then by her husband. She did absolutely Jack but then, turns around and blames an entire gender for all of her suffering and whatnot, when she actually proves the opposite of that. Nothing like teaching and preaching to an entire generation of people how oppressed and suffering and empowered you are like telling everyone you literally manipulated and tricked an honest man who loves and adores you and gave you everything in the world just because you are a narcissist who did nothing for the world.

[@psychomammoth9640]

0:03 immediately made me want to vomit just seeing that, Jesus…