The Elephant in the Room: Scrappy COULD defeat bad guys

[CoolCaper]

You need to look no further then the theme song to see him getting a mummy, and in the first episode he was in saw him freaking taking down the villain TWICE on his own-and he is the one who brings down the villain in two more episodes afterwards, and that's not even counting all the functional traps he made, and all the times he was able to knock over full grown men and hold them over his head? And, ya know, being able to punch through walls? Or the ending of south seas scare! For crying out loud, and that was on of the ones with real monsters, where Scrappy, and I kid you not, pulled the gigantic stone monster's feet right from under it, lifted it up, ran up the volcano that it came out of and dumped it back in, all in less then a minute barely breaking sweat. Or what about the time he was the one who captured a crook by making a lasso out of spaghetti noodles? Or pushed a laundry cart and knocked over the creature from the chem lab? Or saved the day in "The Hand of Horror"? Or every awesome thing he did in the Superstars 10 films? And that is just a few examples! Scrappy's battle record was far from perfect, but I don't get why everyone acts like Scrappy was full of hot air when there is blatant evidance to the contrary.

 

[TnAdct1]

I don't think the issue that people have with Scrappy has to do with him being full of hot air. Rather, the issue has more to do with older viewers feeling that his idea of him wanting to confront the monsters head on is annoying (with most people associating Scrappy with that aspect of him and ignoring how he does become better as a character in the later years).

 

[MegasMilo379]

I appreciate your defense on Scrappy. But the thing is people that hate or even dislike him say that the thing that about him annoys them is that he always has too much confidence to fight the bad guys. I found it cute myself and he does succeed at times, but that aspect about him did drop later in his original run in the franchise (something the haters fail to speak on, recognize or even realize).

 

[wonderfly]

Cartoon Network doesn't air Scooby Doo anymore. I've moved this thread to the Saturday Morning Forever forum.

 

[Gold Guy]

I don't dislike Scrappy myself, and I get what you're saying, but I think people didn't like his loud personality regardless on whether or not he could back up his tough talk. Maybe some of his haters were actually Shaggy and Scooby fans who were annoyed that Scrappy made the two look bad - but to be fair, I feel like that cowardly duo didn't need Scrappy's help for that.

 

[Red Arrow]

But why oh why do we need a character who can defeat the bad guys? Is that really what the franchise needed?

 

[Gold Guy]

But why oh why do we need a character who can defeat the bad guys? Is that really what the franchise needed?

I suppose they were trying to do something to change up the formula a bit. But I think that was a better move than suddenly making Shaggy or Scooby super brave, or something.

 

[CoolCaper]

I don't dislike Scrappy myself, and I get what you're saying, but I think people didn't like his loud personality regardless on whether or not he could back up his tough talk. Maybe some of his haters were actually Shaggy and Scooby fans who were annoyed that Scrappy made the two look bad - but to be fair, I feel like that cowardly duo didn't need Scrappy's help for that.

Yeah, I think they balanced eachother pretty well. Scrappy could be a tad naive and trusting, and impulsive, which they could balance out with their saaviness. At the same time their fear could really get in the way of meeting their goals, while Scrappy's can-do attitude could balance that out.

But why oh why do we need a character who can defeat the bad guys? Is that really what the franchise needed?

Well...why not? Writing isn't like cooking or chemistry, there's no strict formula you HAVE to follow-you won't get a stomachache or cause an explosion if you deviate from it. I imagine that they thought it would be interesting. I know I thought it was. Afterall, it is a franchise where capturing and unmasking them was the whole point...

 

[hobbyfan]

Well...why not? Writing isn't like cooking or chemistry, there's no strict formula you HAVE to follow-you won't get a stomachache or cause an explosion if you deviate from it. I imagine that they thought it would be interesting. I know I thought it was. Afterall, it is a franchise where capturing and unmasking them was the whole point...

And while that formula still works 50 years after Scooby's debut, it's just auto-pilot now.