Velma Dinkley (Velma) (2024)

✓

Velma Dinkley is the titular main protagonist of the HBO Max animated series of the same name.

Unlike her original counterpart, her behavior and actions throughout the series, ranging from pettiness to outright criminality, show that she has very little regard or care for others.

She is voiced by Mindy Kaling, who is one of the show's two developers.

Biography[]

Backstory[]

Velma Dinkley was born in Crystal Cove, a fictional town in an unspecified state in America, at an unspecified date, to Aman and Diya Dinkley. She was raised in a middle class suburban household and was good friends with Daphne Blake.

One day, as a child, Velma smelled cigarette smoke and went down to the backyard to find her mother, Diya Dinkley, smoking. Discovering her mother's smoking habit was considered one of the first "mysteries" that Velma ever solved. Diya was a novelist, who was working on a mystery novel called "The Stabbening" and she encouraged her daughter to continue "solving mysteries".

One night, around Christmas, Velma solved a mystery she wasn't necessarily supposed to, when she snuck into the attic and found the presents that her mom had bought for her. Velma was so upset with herself for ruining Christmas and told her mom about it. Diya didn't think this was so bad and decided that she'd make a quick last-minute trip to the store to buy another gift for Velma that would come as a surprise to her.

Diya never came back from her trip that night and her family eventually worried that she went missing. They called the police and they found nothing but her empty car in the middle of the woods, which had nothing in it but her glasses and the gift-wrapped present she bought for Velma. Velma decided to wear her glasses and never open the present until she found her and went off to solve the mystery, herself, after the police proved incompetent in doing so, themselves. Unfortunately for her, the guilt of supposedly being responsible for her mother's disappearance caused Velma to suffer from trauma-induced hallucinations.

Present Day[]

Two years after the disappearance of her mom, Velma is now an 15-year-old student at Crystal Cove High School, who is now enemies with her ex-best friend, Daphne Blake, hating her for becoming hot and popular, while she was left behind as being friendless and unattractive. She still has a strong friendship with Norville Rogers, even though she regularly takes him for granted. She also has a huge crush on Fred Jones, even though he's going out with Daphne and always overlooks her. Velma lives with her now single-father, Aman and Aman's new girlfriend, Sophie. Despite everything that's happened, Velma is still dead set on finding her mom again, refusing to believe that she's gone forever although she still very commonly gets hallucinations, whenever she gets too emotionally worked up over the situation.

In "Velma", Velma got into a fight with Daphne in the girls' locker room, beating her naked body across the room with a tire iron and attempting to murder her, over an argument they got into, regarding TV tropes in teen shows. Shortly after their little debacle, the mutilated corpse of Brenda was found in Velma's locker, with her brain removed. This made Velma the prime suspect in Brenda's murder and got her sent to the Crystal Cove Police Station, where she was interrogated by none other than Daphne's moms Donna Bla and Linda Ke, who told her that the only way she'd be able to clear her name is if she found out who the real killer was in the next 48 hours. Velma was let out on parole and got down to business.

Velma later went to work her unsatisfying job as a trainee waitress as Spooner's Malt Shop. She quit after her first day and left the building to get in the car with her friend, Norville. Norville drove her around town and gave her more information on the murder case. Norville explained that Brenda was working for the Crystal Cove High School school newspaper and used a very expensive camera to take pictures of something weird in the bathroom as Spooner's Malt Shop. Shortly after this, she was murdered and the camera was stolen. This led Norville to believe that Brenda was killed to keep whatever she took pictures of from getting out to the public. Velma suspected that the killer was her dad's new girlfriend, Sophie, since she had a fancy new camera that she was too poor to afford. However, after looking through it, all Velma found was photos of babies wearing vegetable costumes.

Velma later heard from Daphne that Fred always kicks everyone else out of the bathroom at Spooner's Malt Shop, whenever he wants to use it, which led her to believe that he was the killer, which she found more believable than not, considering how Fred was a rich white man. Velma forced Norville to take her down to Fred's house, so that she could break in and steal his camera. On it, she looked through his photos and found pictures of him peeing in the toilet. Fred walked in on her and told her that he had to steal Brenda's camera because she took photos of his hairless, prepubescent legs, which he felt very embarrassed about and now that Velma discovered the truth, he was going to do to her what he did to Brenda ... make her sign a non-disclosure agreement. Just then, Donna and Linda busted into the house and shot his kneecaps out, assuming he was the murderer and arrested him. Fred explained that he wasn't the killer but Velma didn't believe a word of what he said and he just got sent to jail.

Later that night, back at the house, Velma discovered the corpse of Christa in her trashcan, which also had her brain removed, proving that Fred wasn't the killer after all. Velma refused to consider this valid evidence and went on to allow Fred to still go to jail.

Insert details here

Appearance[]

Velma is an Indian American teenage girl with dark red hair, and black eyes. She has red skirt and long orange socks of matching along with an orange sweater. She also has red shoes and black, square-rimmed glasses. She is described as ugly by others, who have an understandable disliking toward her.

Personality[]

Unlike the original version, this Velma is shown to be an obsessive, arrogant, and above all narcissistic sociopath, given with how she frequently engages in criminal behavior, and her complete lack of empathy for anyone else, even her loved ones. She deliberately pays no attention to others, but became hostile that they didn't regularly pay attention to her, making her a hypocrite.

Due to her narcissism, she thinks her "intelligence" makes her superior towards and constantly displays a holier-than-thou mentality towards others. Velma is also very petty and vindictive to anyone who wrongs her, as she will stoop to any low to get back at them, as shown when she reads Daphne's journal in front of the whole school in an attempt to humiliate and destroy her reputation out of spite for hurting her. Even her father remarks on this, and she is voted for "most revenge-y" by her classmates. She also doesn’t take responsibility or show remorse for her actions, going so far as to say that nothing is ever her fault.

She is also unpleasant and flat out abusive towards her friends, as she treats Norville with zero respect and enjoys insulting and manipulating him, showed no interest in Fred getting framed for the murders and didn't do much to help him (nor did she care when dancing over Victoria's body in front of him), and is abusive and toxic towards Daphne despite the two having feelings for each other.

To top if all off, Velma is shown to be incredibly racist, sexist, and just overall bigotted. She often blames her problems on Caucasian men, and even goes so far as to take delight in their sufferings. Her hypocrisy shines through when she confronts those attributing negative stereotypes to minorities, then immediately goes on using them herself. Her actions have reached a point where the entire town despises her.

She is incredibly superficial. Despite noting Fred's personality flaws, she is sexually attracted to him; and despite their bitter estrangement from their original friendship, Velma grows to find Daphne sexually attractive - even though all of their present day interactions are hateful and lack chemistry, Velma's superficiality drives her to desire Daphne. Her same-sex attraction is also ironic considering that Velma makes occasional hom*ophobic remarks, displaying a narrow and judgemental view on LGBTQIA+ people.

However, Velma is not without her good side. Despite treating her badly in her childhood, she genuinely cares for her mother Diya, who Velma prioritized finding for her entire childhood. She also cares about her friends at times and did a heroic deed of stopping Fred's mom and her killing spree, although she took all the credit even though her friends helped her.

Relationships[]

Daphne Blake[]

Velma and Daphne have been friends ever since they met on their first day of kindergarten. As children, Velma was always incredibly annoying and disrespectful to Daphne, bossing her around and ignoring her feelings at all times. Eventually, when they went on to high school, Daphne got hot and ditched Velma to hang out with the more popular girls, pissing Velma off and making her resent her. After that, Velma and Daphne became bloodthirsty enemies. In "The Candy Woman", Daphne and Velma put their differences aside for a quid pro quo, where Velma would help Daphne sell drugs in exchange for stolen police documents on Diya. During this ordeal, the two of them found love for each other and kissed at the end of the night. In "Velma Kai", Daphne learned that Velma was still in love with Fred and unleashed her repressed rage onto her in battle, kicking the sh*t out of her. Velma got back at her by reading her diary out loud to the entire school but this only made her look like a bitch and ended with her getting beaten up again. At the end of the day, Daphne and Velma thought that they should just try being friends again before they take their relationship to girlfriend status. Throughout the season, Daphne and Velma would waver from being friend to enemies until the finale episode, "The Brains of the Operation", where they decided they should finally be girlfriends and started making out. Just after they did this, Velma realized she was actually in love with Norville and dumped Daphne in favor of him, causing her to go right back to hating him again.

Norville Rogers[]

Velma became friends with Norville, shortly after Daphne got hot and ditched her and since then, Norville has gone on to be her new best friend, with a bit of a secret crush on her. Just like with Daphne, the same problems arise with Velma's friendship with Norville, with her bossing him around, ignoring him whenever he's in need, and seeing him as more of a pawn for getting what she wants instead of an actual living breathing human being with emotions. In "Marching Band Sleepover", their relationship got to the point where Norville's girlfriend, Gigi, told him to stop being so dependent on her and start thinking for himself. However, Norville had trouble doing this and ultimately chose Velma over Gigi. In "Family Woman", Norville officially ended their friendship, when Velma destroyed his entire house in a nonsensically overfunded police raid, after falsely accusing Lamont of being the serial killer. In "The Brains of the Operation", Velma called Norville on the phone and apologized for how she treated him and found herself saying "I love you." at the end, which made her realize she was in love with Norville. Norville immediately forgave Velma and came back to be with her again and Velma dumped Daphne on the spot to start dating Norville right in front of her.

Fred Jones[]

Velma has a crush on Fred, despite him being everything she hates, a rich white man with a tiny dong. Despite being in love with him, Velma regularly insults and disrespects Fred and had no problem with having him arrested and thrown in jail in "Velma". Ultimately, it seems Velma's racism outweighs her feelings for Fred, seeing as how in "Velma Kai", she admitted to taking joy in watching an innocent white guy being incarcerated. Velma would eventually have Fred bailed out of prison in "Velma Makes a List", solely for the purpose of having Fred help her with identifying the 5 hottest girls in school. Despite Fred doing exactly what she asked him to do, Velma found Fred's misogyny disgusting and gave him a book called The Feminine Mystique to help turn him into a woker man. Fred eventually did take the book's advice and began loving women for their inner-beauty, which he found the most gorgeously prominent on Velma, herself, prompting him to ask her out. Ironically, when Fred became the pro-feminist guy Velma wanted him to be, Velma decided that she hated him and rejected his feelings. Fred would continue to simp over Velma in such episodes as "Marching Band Sleepover", ordering a bunch of pizzas for her party but nothing pleased the likes of Velma. Velma eventually shattered Fred's infatuation and got him to hate her again in "The Brains of the Operation", when she killed his mom and twerked on her corpse.

Gigi[]

Velma hates Gigi for being yet another one of those stereotypical "hot girls", who's more pretty and popular than her and stole Daphne from her. In "Velma Makes a List", Velma tried to de-hotify Gigi, along with 3 of the other hottest girls in school to no avail. As Olive later pointed out, Velma was just trying to mold Gigi into a version of herself, since she was a selfish anti-feminist, who didn't respect Gigi's decision to be who she wanted to be as it went against he believes. Velma started to hate her even more in "Marching Band Sleepover", when she started dating Norville, believing Gigi was stealing him away from her. Fortunately for Velma, Gigi dumped Norville in "A Velma in the Woods", when she realized Norville respected a disgusting bully of a fake friend like Velma more than herself, his actual girlfriend.

Diya Dinkley[]

Diya is the mother of Velma and one of the few people in the series she has even an ounce of respect for. Velma's driving ambition for all of Season 1 was to get her missing mom back, since she truly loved her that much and she didn't care about how many other people she had to screw over and ruin the lives of just to make that happen. When Velma finally did get Diya back from the underground laboratory she was trapped in in "A Velma in the Woods", she was overjoyed to be reunited with her mom. In "Family Woman", Velma worked toward helping restore Diya's memory of who the killer was, only for Diya to find out the killer was herself. In "The Brains of the Operation", Velma worked on breaking Diya out of prison and clearing her name to prove the real killer was actually Victoria Jones, who just had Diya hypnotized into thinking it was herself. After finally closing the case, Velma and Diya went back home to watch Boo-Boo and locked the rest of the family out of the house.

Victoria Jones[]

Velma knew Victoria as nothing more than Fred's mom and the woman who, along with William Jones, hired her father, Aman to take Fred's case in court. Victoria thought little of Velma, seeing her as just an annoying little poor girl who her son was too good for. Victoria was also racist against Velma too, mistaking her for Navajo in "Fog Fest" and telling her that "her people" were good at tracking. However, when Velma started getting into the case of her missing mom, Victoria needed to take precautions to keep her out of it. In "Velma", she tried to have Velma framed for murder by having the corpses of Brenda and Christa hidden in her locker and trashcan, respectively. When this didn't work, Victoria helped to instigate a lockdown, keeping Velma trapped inside her house in "Velma Makes a List". Velma would have brief physical meetings with Victoria, while she was in disguise as the killer in "Fog Fest", and she tried chasing her down but ended up just getting her phone. In "The Brains of the Operation", Velma finally discovered who the killer was and after invading her laboratory, battling with her, and trapping her in a chair, revealed to everyone that Victoria was the murderer and explained her entire evil plan. However, Victoria wasn't going down just yet and she burned down the laboratory and tried to have Velma killed, only for Norville to save Velma by shooting down a stalactite to crush Victoria to death. Velma was so happy about killing Victoria that she twerked all over her corpse. Velma was the celebrated and haled as a national hero for putting an end to the terror of the brain-removing serial killer.

Villainous Acts[]

• "Velma"
  • Velma came into the girls' locker room, while everyone was showering and violently slammed Daphne across the room with an iron pipe, nearly killing her. Velma admitted that she was, in fact, intending to murder Daphne and believed she should have tried harder to take her out.
  • While in police custody, Velma loudly threatened to kill Daphne and all of her friends, right in front of two police officers, Linda Ke and Carroll Blay, who happened to be Daphne's moms.
  • Velma plotted to get revenge on the yearbook editors for voting her as the "most revengey" in last year's yearbook.
  • Velma claimed that if she were a rich white guy, she'd kill everyone just to get away with it.
  • Velma broke and entered into The Jones House to steal Fred's camera, hoping to find evidence on the camera that would prove Fred was the serial killer. In the process of doing so, Velma tricked the silent alarm, getting Carroll and Linda to come in and open fire on Fred, blowing his kneecaps out. Fred would ultimately be found innocent, making his injury all for naught.
• "The Candy (Wo)man"
  • Velma claimed that Fred was guilty of murder, based on the fact that he was white.
  • It was revealed that Velma had vandalized school property to spraypaint "Daphne is a huge bitch who ditches people to be cool!!! - Velma" on the walls. She initially lied and said that she didn't do it and then later tried to minimize her crime, by saying that her slanderous statement against Daphne was merely sarcastic.
  • When visiting The Rogers House, Velma contemplated stealing a vase from them and pawning it off for money.
  • Velma agreed to become complicit with Daphne and her become a drug dealer, selling "Zoinks", "Jeepers", and "Mystery Machine" to minors, in exchange for her giving her confidential police files on her mom. Velma initially tried to get out of this by threatening to snitch on Daphne for being a drug dealer, herself but after being threatened by Daphne, she ultimately agreed to become a drug dealer. Velma eventually got fired from her job as a drug dealer, after insulting all of her clients with racist comments and heartbreaking revelations.
  • Velma and Daphne got caught by the police and ran from the cops. In the process, they broke a hole through the school wall, further vandalizing the place and also nearly killed a baby.
  • Velma stole all of Daphne's Zoinks and kept them for herself, supposedly to consume them.
• "Velma Kai"
  • Velma had discovered that Fred was innocent and did little to nothing to clear his name and get him out of jail, despite herself being the one responsible for getting him falsely accused in the first place. She admitted later in the episode that she got enjoyment from putting an innocent white person behind bars.
  • During Women's Self-Defense Training, Velma beat the Brazilian butt-lift out of Olive.
  • For "The Least Vulnerable" ultimate women's self-defense battle, Velma stole Daphne's diary and read all of her most personal secrets to everyone in the school. Velma announced that Daphne was so "messed up" that she needed to book sessions with the school guidance councilor, Lamont Rogers, which made Daphne feel bad about herself. She expected everyone to laugh at Daphne and for this to take her down a peg, popularity wise but when she didn't get the reaction she wanted, she tried to urge the audience to treat this as a win for her but nobody supported her bullying and instead booed at her. Velma was then kicked across the room by Daphne and bodyslammed against a brick wall. Velma's only real punishment for bullying Daphne was Lamont forcing her to apologize, or else she'd get suspended, which she eventually negotiated with him over, to the point when apologizing to Daphne was completely up to her.
• "Velma Makes a List"
  • In a flashback to earlier in high school, Velma was seen resurrecting the corpse of a pig in science class and then catching the animal on fire, killing it again.
  • Velma corrupted a police investigation by demanding to put a stop to it and requesting to take it over, herself. The cops were trying to rank all of the hottest girls in Crystal Cove so that they could protect specifically them from the serial killer, since they knew that the killer was targeting hot girls. Velma believed it was inappropriate for a bunch of middle-aged white dudes to determined which of the girls were the "hottest", despite them all being the exact people needed to make such a judgement. Since she took the list over, herself, she would be making a personally biased list, protecting the wrong people, and ultimately getting more innocent hot girls killed.
  • Velma punched and kicked out a bunch of random people in the schoolyard so that she could clear the pathway for an in-labor Sophie to go down to the hospital and give birth to Amanda.
• "Marching Band Sleepover"
  • Velma threatened to punch a random nerd in the face.
• "The Sins of the Fathers and Some of the Mothers"
  • During a montage, Velma and Aman kidnap Amanda from her crib and hide with her, causing Sophie to freak out and lose her mind. Velma and Aman, now completely guilty of child abduction, laugh at Sophie's misfortune, seeing this all as just a simple prank.
  • At the end of their father-daughter day together, Velma gets completely drunk off of tons of alcohol, even though she's underage.
• "Fog Fest"
  • Velma, (in disguise as Manny), punches Sheriff Cogburn in the testicl*s.
• "A Velma in the Woods"
  • Out of selfishness, Velma fakes a panic attack in order to manipulate Daphne into abandoning her photo shoot so that she can go out into the woods with her and help her find her mom.
  • Velma laughs at Daphne after she trips and falls on her face.
• "Family (Wo)man"
  • Velma takes a sledgehammer to Amanda's brand new crib and destroys it right in front of her and Sophie.
  • Velma forces Norville to compromise his principles and forge a report card for her.
  • It's revealed that Velma is legally not allowed around children anymore, after she ate her egg baby in health class.
  • Velma falsely accused Lamont Rogers of being the serial killer, after discovering a welding mask in his office. She called a full-on police raid of The Rogers House to bust him. Tons of police officers broke through the doors, windows, walls, and ceilings of the house just to break in, only for them to find out that Velma's accusation was a false alarm. Just then, a police tank broke down the walls of the house, completely turning the entire house into a wreckage for nothing. Velma didn't seem to care so much about the destruction of Norville's house and instead just kept pestering him to finish writing a report for her. This was the final straw for Norville and led to him unfriending her, officially.
  • Shortly after being unfriended, Velma noticed that Amanda had fallen out of her stroller and started rolling down the streets, while she was pretending to be her mom and look out for her. This makes her guilty of parental neglect and child endangerment. To a degree, she's also guilty of child abduction, since Amanda was rightfully the child of Aman and Sophie.
  • While chasing Amanda down the streets to get her back, Velma announced that she kept trying to sell the baby on the black market.
• "The Brains of the Operation"
  • Fred's mom, Victoria Jones was crushed to death under a stalactite and Velma loudly celebrated her death right in front of Fred. She also twerked on the bloody corpse of Victoria Jones, while Fred cried over his mom's death, Norville vomited profusely, and Daphne just stood and watched the entire event go down in complete and utter shock.
  • Velma and Diya locked Aman, Sophie, and Amanda out of the house and changed the locks, letting them all soak in the rain, while they sat inside and watched TV together.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Although, in writing, Velma was likely intended to be the hero, she comes across as more of a villain, due to her hateful attitude, criminal record, and tendency to betray and harm others. Ironically, she's committed more heinous acts than such characters as Fred, Aman, and Olive, who were supposedly intended to be antagonists by the writers.
• She was likely meant to be modeled after her actress and Velma's head writer, Mindy Kaling, a fact pointed out by the posters, and which has found controversy online as many consider this Velma's personality to be more akin to Mindy's own in real life than the actual character of Velma.
  • Allegedly, the writers were writing an original adult animated show, but Warner Bros. thrust the Scooby Doo IP upon them, hence explaining why the characters don't resemble their originals at all and why the few references to the real canon are contempt-filled insults. However, WB saw no problem, believing that it would draw numbers, and evidently it did well enough to greenlight a season two.

External Links[]

• Velma Dinkley (Velma) - Scooby-Doo Wiki

Navigation[]