Doos and Nots

A spot to rant and ramble about Scooby-Doo, Ed, Edd n Eddy, and other stuff that I'm interested in. Autistic, fanfic author and fan artist. Thought the title would be a funny pun.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Oh no, this Halloween fluff one-shot to warm up my brain sure is starting to get a little angsty.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Waking up to the news of Sam Neill was one of those celebrity deaths that put a shock through my system. As a small child, Jurassic Park and Scooby-Doo were my world, and Dr. Alan Grant was my hero who I watched with the assuredness that he was the levelheaded, brave, smart one. That could only have been portrayed so well through Sam Neill, whose demeanor came through with his body language and his inflection. He made me believe that being lost in a dinosaur infested jungle with him would turn out alright, and that feeling he gave off never stopped as the years went by and I grew to know that I was looking at a performance. Being exposed to his other roles, as much as they didn't effect me as deeply as the magic of being a child would've let it be, my appreciation for his range only grew.

Rest in peace, Sam Neill. Thanks for the memories and the roles you've left for us to enjoy.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Writing fanfics can be so weird. One day I'm completely stuck, then the next few days thousands of words are pouring out. Then, bucket's empty, come back next month or whenever.

C'mon, I just want to write Scooby-Doo getting chased by pirates.

[scoobydoosandnots]

I die laughing every time I see those posts and videos about the Scooby Gang solving the Kira case. Especially with all the little joke scenes that people pepper throughout the comments, like you could piece together a whole movie with that material.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Every day I wonder what people would read out of the themes and the clues that I put into my Scooby-Doo fanfics. Analysis is such an interesting part of the mystery and reading experience.

I'm dead serious here when I say I'm curious what themes might've been put in there unintentionally.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Something that's sticking with me this morning is that despite all the head canons, there really isn't any confirmation that all of the Kanker Sisters' dads are absent. In "Nagged to Ed" we see that they're all half-sisters, sure, but in the same episode the Eds fall over a bucket and iirc it's May who tells them they better not break "Daddy's bucket." That kind of implies he's around to get mad, and so does his bathrobe. Not only that but we see a drawing of a guy who most closely resembles May and is labeled "Daddi" in one episode.

You'd think the robes would mean all three are absent or rotating but they could've just been left there, or maybe two of the dads visit which would account for the Christmas card in "Jingle Jingle Jangle" (if that wasn't a simple gift given by somebody close, which does happen.)

And this also makes me think of the way they tried to trap the Eds with the dolls and when they forced the Eds to "marry" them they said "we trapped us some men." With how May is probably the youngest going by her being the most naive and bullied, I'm spitballing here that their mom tried to get guys to stay using babies until she managed to snag May's dad, who stuck around. This might even be why May is "nicer" than the others if her dad is more nurturing toward her than the other girls and she has a slightly better upbringing.

I know some people might say that they mainly talk about their mom and their mom says judgmental things about men, but it's really not uncommon for people to be bitter about the other sex while still romancing them. Heck, she might even resent May's dad because she thinks he only sticks around because of May. May's dad clearly would be working if he's still around and even then it doesn't take much time to make statements like the ones the Kankers mention, so plenty of time for their mom to be filling their heads.

[scoobydoosandnots]

I see so much writing advice about "trimming the fat" when it comes to describing stuff like the environment. And I'm like, actually, the fat is part of the flavor. My chapters are incomplete without some spooky rain or something like it to crawl down a reader's arms just like it's doing the characters'. That rain outside my window in the backseat one day in 2008 and the downpour as I pulled through fog up to Walmart are why I write today.

[scoobydoosandnots]

TW: talk of sexual assault.

People really love to downplay what the Kankers do and tell you that you're taking it "too seriously" when you point out that it's sexual assault. Like, wdym, that's literally what happens? It's no different than pointing out how Eddy can be a jerk and be unlikeable, it's talking about what's put there on the screen. And, duh, people who're on a forum about it are going to analyze the show deeper than shutting their brains off and laughing at every joke.

Tone policing is absurd. People are allowed to say what's in front of them. They're allowed to feel uncomfortable even when it's a goofy comedy. Actually, something like this being in such a goofy comedy and played for laughs... sheesh, I wonder why it's something they'd be uncomfortable with?

[scoobydoosandnots]

Already feel like adding to this, this is a top upvoted comment in a "downplay the Kankers" thread on Reddit and they seem to have locked the comment instead of removed it for its obvious insulting attitude toward people who react in ways they don't like. "Made up bullshit" like... what's on screen?

They just don't want you to say what's right in front of you and are fully willing to throw insults and cover their butts. They say "don't take it too seriously" but insult you for disagreeing with them and for commenting on what the show presents.

This is obvious hypocrisy. If it wasn't so serious, why throw out insults?

[scoobydoosandnots]

TW: talk of sexual assault.

People really love to downplay what the Kankers do and tell you that you're taking it "too seriously" when you point out that it's sexual assault. Like, wdym, that's literally what happens? It's no different than pointing out how Eddy can be a jerk and be unlikeable, it's talking about what's put there on the screen. And, duh, people who're on a forum about it are going to analyze the show deeper than shutting their brains off and laughing at every joke.

Tone policing is absurd. People are allowed to say what's in front of them. They're allowed to feel uncomfortable even when it's a goofy comedy. Actually, something like this being in such a goofy comedy and played for laughs... sheesh, I wonder why it's something they'd be uncomfortable with?

[scoobydoosandnots]

The personification of characters on the Internet has got to be one of the most bizarre things that I've ever seen. Like, I've gotten pushback for saying that characters don't have a life outside what is portrayed in a story. I've had people fight tooth and nail against me for saying you can't by default apply real person rules to a character. I've had someone on Reddit infer that I'm "mentally ill" because I said a character was made for entertainment. Like, what do you think a movie/book/fictional novel falls under? Oh, let's see... entertainment.

Sure, that's a simplification because there are many ways a fictional story is meant to affect you than pure amusement—wait, why am I even trying to bother with a disclaimer?

Like, I think Shaggy seems like a cool dude who'd be great to hang out with, there's definitely some genuine affection there however it exists, and seeing him makes me smile, but my jaw isn't exactly going to drop if you told me that he's not really a "dude." And I'm definitely not going to throw an ableist insult your way for saying it.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Feels like there's something ironic about not being into the more unhinged parts of the Scooby-Doo franchise and then turning around to edit my Scooby-Doo fanfic, which is heavily referential to I Know What You Did Last Summer but the killer on the loose is pretending to be a local urban legend. Oh, and it's still a goofy comedy. So there's a murderer dropping bodies in a Halloween costume meanwhile Shaggy is doing a fart joke.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Being autistic and trying to do media analysis is scary. It's like, what if all the rules that I've learned with time are all wrong or I'm somehow following them in the wrong way?

Doesn't help when people on the net are very quick to jump at your isolated opinions and try to paint that as your whole review of the work. And assume that if you have a different takeaway from subtext than they did, you either didn't notice said subtext just because you didn't bring it up in a small comment or that you didn't read the subtext correctly. Where they think that a difference in opinions is somehow proof that you just didn't discover the same things while reading or watching that they did.

[scoobydoosandnots]

Wow, trying to find new books on Reddit can be absolute bootycheeks. I've gotten great recommendations and then just suddenly none at all, depending on what I'm looking for.

And I doubt that mysteries with immersive rainy and/or suburban settings are that uncommon. Timing's got something to do with it.

(While I'm here, I'll also mention some horror books I've read that had rainy settings...

Murder Road by Simone St. James

Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Yeah, they really liked that author. I didn't, so got the short end of the stick how I chose to spend my money, but I think there's appeal to these.)

[scoobydoosandnots]

Going to ramble some more about teenagers in storytelling a little bit. Well, more about how people react to them, because my head is still buzzing from some things I was seeing on the cesspool of a certain Reddit, where people simultaneously laser focus on media made for teens and infantalize teenagers. Also, generally flinging feces at each other.

Now, not saying teens aren't kids. There's just this bizarre framework that I started seeing where characters whose actions are seen as bad should just, broadly, be ascribed to them being teenagers and that teenagers can "mature" in the future. I witnessed a bizarre double standard where the idea was to treat the characters as teens to excuse their actions but not treat the characters as teens to judge their actions, despite some users trying to claim that wasn't what they were doing.

Which uh, unless the story emphasizes that they will mature in some way, how is that relevant? Their potential growth later on, assumed because they're teens even though they're fictional teens and by default they'll change more like fictional people than real people, has what to do with the way that the characters act and how they play in the story? These people exist only as when they are observed and a key part of developing them is fleshing out the way that they exist outside of the plot itself but that still doesn't necessarily mean that this part of their outside life is necessary.

And, this also seems to dumb teenagers down to quite a degree. I saw people ascribing actions that would absolutely be considered problematic in real teens as just a "teen thing." Teenagers are not some complete stew of immaturity, irrational behaviors, unoriginal thoughts, and moral blank slates where you can just shrug off what they do in real life, much less in fiction where these characters' actions are being asked to be engaged with. If you want to factor in that they are younger, excusing all behaviors as the result of immaturity feels to me fallacious.

Teens are people, people who will be colored by their age just as anybody will be, but people nonetheless. People are able to think. People are able to differ. People have morality and critical thinking. There are actions taken by characters that, when you factor in these characters' ages are still an action that they should know better about. Teenagers are not blank slates, they're not small children. And of course this will vary based on how the character is actually depicted in the media—if they're depicted as smart, good, bad, and their actions either contradict this or reinforce it then you can't just say that they're "just a kid" and brush it off. The story isn't saying for you to do that.

My opinion is you can't blanketly use characters been teens as a get out of jail free card or broadly ignore that they're teens. That flattens them.

These are people soon on their way to adulthood. Not seven year olds.

[midnightskywrites]

writers really will spend twenty minutes pacing around the kitchen thinking “this scene is genius” and then sit down to type and suddenly remember approximately three words and one emotional vibe

[scoobydoosandnots]

I've been called out. Just the other day I was being kept up at night thinking about a scene. I try to put fingers to keyboard and the energy goes out like a fart in the wind.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[scoobydoosandnots]

(Tries to pretend I'm not currently writing myself in circles because I just can't scratch the brain itch.)

[scoobydoosandnots]

No, Patrick, a character being a teenager in a story is not inherently them establishing that the character can change.