I don't think the trouble in the series comes from the fact that she wanted to be with Shaggy at all, I think it comes from rewriting Scooby and to a lesser degree, Shaggy. Honestly I liked the romance between them, I thought it was long overdo. I also didn't mind how they remade her looks or how she actually wanted a boyfriend. I don't think feeling like something is missing from your life if you don't have a boyfriend is necessarily a bad thing, or at least as air headed a thing, as I hear it called often, most of all if you grew up together as the gang did and it's not born out of a need to change yourself or the guy. That's the thing, I think Shaggy, even this version of Shaggy without the Scooby drama of course is perfect for Velma because he always takes her as herself, not what he wants her to be or anything. An in character Velma is the same way with Shaggy, she loves his cheerful hippie-ish ways. She might try to teach him things, but she doesn't get fed up with him if it goes over his head :3. There is nothing wrong, also with finding a hippie-ish guy very doable if you are a smart girl character ether, at least in my book, Shaggy has a certain charm. The thing, the really sad thing, is they could have worked wonderfully, as Shaggy isn't about 'just pretty' girls like he's been written in this series. If he was there would have been a fight between him and Fred over a certain other member yeeeears ago...
That aside, I can't really see Fred's controlling ways as being something so awful children shouldn't watch the show. To me it was played off as a joke and even the new Looney Tunes show makes more serious undertones about real life issues like that so, I dunno. It's not a good thing, but I would not be seriously alarmed by it when soap operas do it so often and children watch those and think nothing about murder plots and the like until they're older, and even then they don't all kill each other *shrug* But then I never watched the show for F/D in the first place, they could jump off a cliff and I'd be 'meh'.
To me Velma's body issues are a more seriuos topic as they are ones that even little kids will have already be dealing with. Still the whole thing could have been solved in one moment even if the plot kept on going, by Shaggy ether standing up for her against the jokes by disagreeing or Fred or someone just being more thoughtful of the way it was effecting her long term by how often she brought her looks up. Here is the thing, even smart people even pretty people can come to think they are ugly. It doesn't take away anything from the mind power that they do. I actually liked that Velma had these issues, but I didn't like how the writers seemed to agree with her in the form of every other character. Where was the Scooby that use to lick her cheek when she was crying? Hm....
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There is nothing wrong, also with finding a hippie-ish guy very doable if you are a smart girl character ether, at least in my book, Shaggy has a certain charm. The thing, the really sad thing, is they could have worked wonderfully, as Shaggy isn't about 'just pretty' girls like he's been written in this series. If he was there would have been a fight between him and Fred over a certain other member yeeeears ago...
That aside, I can't really see Fred's controlling ways as being something so awful children shouldn't watch the show. To me it was played off as a joke and even the new Looney Tunes show makes more serious undertones about real life issues like that so, I dunno. It's not a good thing, but I would not be seriously alarmed by it when soap operas do it so often and children watch those and think nothing about murder plots and the like until they're older, and even then they don't all kill each other *shrug*
But then I never watched the show for F/D in the first place, they could jump off a cliff and I'd be 'meh'.
To me Velma's body issues are a more seriuos topic as they are ones that even little kids will have already be dealing with. Still the whole thing could have been solved in one moment even if the plot kept on going, by Shaggy ether standing up for her against the jokes by disagreeing or Fred or someone just being more thoughtful of the way it was effecting her long term by how often she brought her looks up. Here is the thing, even smart people even pretty people can come to think they are ugly. It doesn't take away anything from the mind power that they do. I actually liked that Velma had these issues, but I didn't like how the writers seemed to agree with her in the form of every other character. Where was the Scooby that use to lick her cheek when she was crying? Hm....