unironic number one most important and useful writing tip I can give you is to make your women weirder. If your female characters are feeling flat or one dimensional give them a odd lil obsession or hobby. ESPECIALLY the sexy characters add a little “strange and offputting” spice in there and I’ll 1000% guarantee they’ll become better. Listen to me. Listen to ME it’ll work or your money back let the femme fatale give live newts to people as thanks and she’s become a more engaging and realized person.
I actually really like the idea of a Scooby Doo prequel centered around the Mystery Gang before they became friends.
Velma is your typical nerd who’s interested in true crime. She started off solving small mysteries around her neighborhood, like where someone’s missing cat went or who stole someone’s bike. Then, some sort of really big mystery happens that the police completely overlook. Maybe students are ending up dead or missing or something like that.
She goes to the same school as Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy, but never talked to them due to personal assumptions. Fred is a popular jock, and a lot of his teammates bully Velma and force her to do their homework for them, so she doesn’t trust him either. Daphne is a pretty rich girl who hangs out with a group of mean girls who also make fun of girls like Velma. Even though Fred’s group and Daphne’s group overlap, the two of them have never really spoken to one another before. Then, there’s Shaggy who always shows up to school late, never knows the answer to teachers’ questions, and sleeps through half of his classes.
Eventually, one of Daphne’s friends get kidnapped. So, one night, she sneaks into the school to find some clues at the same time as Velma. Fred’s there because he forgot his uniform, and Shaggy just likes hanging out at the school to do his homework in peace and quiet. They all team up for a while until security gets involved, and Fred helps them into a speedy getaway as the only one with his driver’s license.
With Fred driving them home, the group decides to at least have a temporary team-up. Daphne and Velma have a shared goal, Fred likes having friends for the first time in forever, and Shaggy doesn’t want to be the odd man out.
They get closer as they solve the mystery together. Fred isn’t a jerk, and is super sweet and amazing at building all sorts of things, especially traps. Shaggy always brings the gang food he made, and eventually introduces them to his talking dog who may or may not be immortal. Daphne invites everyone to her house for sleepovers, helps Velma explore her style in a way that’s still comfortable to her, and reveals her endless knowledge about every single person in the entire town.
The mystery gets solved, and the four stays friends. The End :)
Look Scooby Doo as a franchise slays in part bc of how fluid it is in terms of premise and structure despite the initial concept being balls-to-the-wall 1960s niche BUT any iteration of Scooby Doo where the gang look down on/ talk down to each other bc of their respective differences just doesn’t Get It and should be expunged from canon imo… like, first of all that’s kind of the point- they all have a role to play in the group they all have their own strengths and blind spots they all bring something different to the table which is what makes them so ruthlessly efficient as a collective entity! And second, they weren’t thrown together by circumstance- they’re all very different people brought together by a shared passion, sure, but they all CHOSE to live out of a van with three other people and a bigass dog driving from town to town cross-examining the locals bc they all like each other!! They’re literally living the dream of every tight-knit teen friend group, where they all get to live together and hang out everyday with their shared weird pet doing their shared weird hobby enjoying the highs of low-stakes drama and unlimited resources. THAT is why the franchise has had such long-term staying power and that is what some of the modern iterations are missing. THAT is why Scooby Doo FUCKS- because of FRIENDSHIP and GHOSTS
How come no one we know in Mondstadt has a crush on Kaeya? kids and old people sure like him but where are his secret admirers?? This is so unrealistic
ppl who oppose gender affirming care for kids are nuts like the extent of medical intervention for trans kids is maybe puberty blockers but they’ll still be like “SO UR SAYING WE SHOULD LET TODDLERS HAVE TOP SURGERY???????” barbara toddlers do not have a top to surgery
Saw someone asking “so do you endorse giving puberty blockers to five year olds?”
Friend, a five year old should not have puberty to block. If they do that’s called precocious puberty and is the original reason puberty blockers were invented. If a five year old is going through puberty I absolutely endorse them being given puberty blockers
