In celebration of the new Vee “Vee: Version 2” lore, here is my humble offering.
me and my friend @honeydewmushrooms were talking about a thing they read and I was struck with An Idea. So I decided to write this little snippet!! (Warning: it is angst. Bc ofc it is.)
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Vee stumbled back, her screen glitching. Delilah stood at the door, her shadow casting over the toon. Vee grunted, standing upright and attempting to look tall against the handler.
“Why are you doing this? What was wrong with me that you felt the need to replace me?!” Vee’s voice box cut with static, her rage threatening to override her system.
Delilah stepped forward, her face cold and unmoving. Vee’s posture faltered.
“You were never Version 1, Vee.” Delilah stepped closer, Vee flinched back. “You were just a beta. A tester.”
Delilah suddenly gripped Vee’s arm, tugging her forward. Vee’s system flashed warning signs.
“You were never meant to be permanent.”
Vee felt Delilah pry open a panel on the back of her head. She thrashed, clawing at the handlers arm.
“What are you—?!”
Something stabbed into Vee’s panel, her screen suddenly flashing and glitching. She felt her joints become harder to move and god, she could feel herself shutting down.
“It’s time for bigger and better Vee.” Delilah smiled.
“Don’t worry, the others won’t know the difference.”
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mmmm angst yum yum yum
(if ur interested in any of my other works, I have an Ao3!! ZestyHuh is my user. I don’t currently have any Dandy’s World fics ((but I’m working on it!!!)) but I do have a few from both the Lego Monkie Kid and Transformers fandoms, respectively.)
okay so I thought of this theory on the spot while rambling about flowervision so let’s go deeper into it
so I’m kinda doing this as I type it, and I’m looking for stuff both for and against it.
theory is REALLY LONG so yeah under the cut
This will either be called Time Flies theory or Mischaracterized theory
so, dandy’s world began before gardenview opened as a show, we know this because of what dandy says in his tape recording
The show started before this, but when?
The earliest episode poster we have is the Christmas special with bobette. 1990. 3 years after dandy and pebble were created
There was a loan dated 1984. This might’ve been for the animation studio. So we can assume it was after 1984.
so let’s say dandy’s world the show started airing around 1985-1986 one of those two is when the show began.
the last episode that was supposed to be released was for 2002
How long has the show been airing for? We can estimate around 16-17 years.
So you know how many people talk about shows running for too long and how characters get watered down or changed?
take for example shows like SpongeBob, Fairly Oddparents (pre-reboot), The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.
the main characters have changed, they’ve been almost simplified or mischaracterized.
Just an example I found online.
(I’ll link sources and such when I can but I’m sure there’s plenty of video essays talking about this online)
Now consider this, who’s a character who’s depth is easily mischaracterized by the fandom and most likely could’ve been mischaracterized by her own creator?
Vee.
Vee is a complicated character. She’s arrogant, yes, she comes off as harsh, yes, but she’s always had good intentions. She doesn’t want to come off as harsh or rude.
Yet, in the end, she has trouble seeing how harsh her words can be, even when it’s pointed out.
I’ve gathered a handful of interactions showing her bluntness, and what is often misinterpreted as rudeness. I’ve seen many people characterize Vee to be rude and petty without going into her character.
so what does this have to do with anything?
well, if her character is deep yet so easy to mess up, how easy would it have been for Arthur, the person who writes the episodes himself, to mischaracterize her over the years of the show taking place?
reminder, it’s estimated that the show took place over 16-17 years. Over a decade is enough time to water down a character.
I’m not saying that over time Vee gained this rudeness and was originally kind and cheery. I’m saying that maybe what was originally being blunt and having difficulty expressing emotions morphed into harsh rudeness and arrogance
I noticed small little things with her two gameshow episodes that back it up.
In the first one (which for the sake of this theory we shall assume is in the first season and therefore before the mischaracterization) she seems more happy. Excited to put on a show, and still has the ammount of sass we love from her. Cool robot show host!
(I know it’s alot) but in the second one we see it start that way and have glimpses throughout but she seems more agitated. A lot more agitated.
you can argue that this is because scrape is the contestant and she always wins but scraps isn’t the only toon she has trouble with. She also is shown to have trouble with dandy
She’s actively seeking to argue with him. And who’s in the first animation? Who answers the buzzer?
It’s dandy! Vee could’ve easily taunted him for being an idiot, or laughed in his face, but she didn’t. She smiled with that smile that says “sorry! That’s wrong!” To her own rival. A toon she hates just as much if not more than scraps.
She also actively tries to make scraps loose in the later animation. I know that this could just be because she hates that scraps is lucky but come on, if you were rivals with someone wouldn’t you ask questions that were hard for him on purpose too? Sure we didn’t see the questions in the first one but still.
another thing is that we can assume the second animation is from “winning big” which aired in 1997, 5 years before 2002 and 9-10 years after the show began.
so what does this mean for Vee?
Vee doesn’t like to change or be changed, which is why she hates Vee version 2
She might not have noticed how she changed, how Arthur might’ve written for differently, but if she did it might break her.
Imagine looking back at past videos or pictures of yourself from 10 years ago and seeing how you were so much nicer to be around, how you weren’t as harsh as you are now. Yet you didn’t make that change to yourself. Nothing you experienced could’ve sparked that change but time. Time and someone else watering down your character. Becoming an antagonist.
and you couldn’t do anything about it because you weren’t the one writing the episodes.
(this isn’t to paint Arthur as evil, although we know he can be a little harsh on expectations for toons.)
