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| Nietzche's Superman |
If this concept still escapes some of you, I’ll have to go back all the way to the start. The start comes from Nicola Tesla. I don’t imagine I have to go too far into the history of Tesla in a world where The Oatmeal and Cracked take turns lovingly tonguing the man’s balls every week, but of course, simplifying for those of you who think that “serial killer” was an X-Men action figure you got in a box of Froot Loops is why I started this piece in the first place. Tesla was a great scientist whose inventions and discoveries helped shape the world around us. He helped develop alternating current, the light bulb, radar systems, and a plethora of supervillain gadgetry. But despite his fascination with death-rays, and Earthquake machines, and taking over the entire tri-state area, Tesla was the not the villain of this story. No, that distinction belongs to mister Thomas Edison.
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| As shown here |
While the smear campaign ran against Tesla is the stuff of legends, it is here that our own universe differentiates from the universe of Scooby Doo. For in the Scoobyverse, Tesla was a beloved public figure and even more influential than he is today. The United States used Tesla’s brain to supercharge the economy and he was honored as a national hero. The United States as well as other countries were now determined to breed a whole new generation of Teslas, with the thinking being “If one Tesla changed the world so much, what might 100 Teslas do?”.
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| 99 out of 100 Teslas would do this |
However, this plan was short-sighted to say the least. Tesla would help the US develop a positive eugenics school program, where the best and brightest of America’s youth were separated from society and trained in the disciplines of science, language and engineering in a strict environment. Tesla also believed that through proper education, some animals may even begin to become contributing members of our society, so the Tesla Schools had departments for the breeding and education of super-intelligent animals. While these individuals were seperated from society and focused on improving the world of tomorrow, the Great Depression was looming on the horrizon and many working-class citizens were worried about their job security. This worry was enhanced when the combined works of Marconi, Ford, and of course Tesla, began work on such startling inventions as advanced robots and cars that could travel from state to state on a single tank of gas. When the depression hit, many employers were already shifting towards these newer inventions to fulfil the work of their employees. While the segregated societies of the “New Teslas” were largely unaffected by this change, and indeed tried to solve the problem by autonomizing more of the work-force, the proletarians were furious. Politicians tried to incorporate the two societies together and for the short term, this worked.
When WWII struck there was an outrage against the New Teslas for their use of eugenics, and the wartime stress and hyperbole nearly lead to a civil war. Had it not been for FDR’s use of Tesla’s Death Ray as a measure of mutual destruction, the war would have lasted another 2 years and civil war would surely have developed within the united states. At the tail end of the 40s, just as the economy had begun to recover, Harry Trueman issued for the disruption of the Tesla schools and societies and that they be integrated into the coloquial American culture. At this point though, the United States had changed drastically. There were no longer towns or hamlets spread throughout the states. These small towns have become ghost towns in the passing time. There were simply big cities like Detroit, spread throughout where people had gathered to attach themselves to a stable society.
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| Though any universe that considers Detroit stable is just moments away from Armageddon |
But some members of the socirties refused to integrate, believing that they could further help society from the outside. A few of these pocket societies could be found within driving distance of one of the mega-cities spread throughout the U.S. and they continued Tesla’s dream.
Fast forward 16 years from now to the year of 1964. A group of 5 friends from one such society have been born, raised, educated, and now sit before a television, watching a documentary in class about the American Ghost Towns. Curious about the culture of their country’s history, the gang prepares for an adventure through these Ghost towns to both learn about them and help any people that may still live there.
This group includes Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby Doo. The founding members of Mystery Incorporated. Having been a member of these schools, each of them is a natural sceptic, inquirer, and deeply interested in the truth. They all have a set of skills which they have refined through their studies. Aside from the specific traits that follow, all of them are fluent in Morse Code. Velma is an advanced speed-reader with a phenomenal memory and exceptional deduction skills. Fred is a gifted engineer, capable of constructing the most complex of traps from household items strewn about. He also has an innate gift for spacial awareness that helps him construct his traps, keep track of where everyone is once they separate, and tell where someone might be from far away without seeing them with great precision. Daphne is the most socially competent of the group and her interest in people has helped them find the motives of those they investigate. Her social skills are a vital part of navigating the ghost towns that are for the most part hostile to the job-stealing Teslas. Shaggy is a trained ventriloquist whose skills, coupled with Fred’s spacial reasoning have helped them lead many baddies into traps. His showmanship skills and his throat control help him blend in and disguise himself and the others, valuable assets for escape. Scooby is a dog who speaks. Need I say more?
The philosophies of their upbringing and the history of their culture are well reflected within the Scooby Doo TV show. The problem is always caused by a person, most frequently a person out of work looking to get rich. Whether they be an ostracized Tesla or a proletarian outraged at the former, these formidable people are driven to a life of crime by the circumstances that surround them. There is never a side of the paranormal to the mystery, incorporating Tesla’s belief that all nature is a reasonable machine and that anything we perceive as paranormal can be explained by the analysis of our mechanical universe given the tools we have. The science of the world is very advanced, with many robots, fuel efficient vans that never seem to run out of fuel, and many advanced electronics and radio inventions. None of the main cast seem to be able to lead a normal conversation. Daphne comes the closest, but for the most part their conversations with those outside their circle consist of fear and exposition. Could this be a reflection of their own difficulty with human emotions?
And incase your mouth-breathing ways fogged up your computer screen as you were reading the earlier paragraphs, let me sum it up for you here once again. Mystery Incorporated is comprised of 5 friends who were raised in a eugenic society and educated to be the brightest of minds, however they lacked many social interactions growing up. They travel the fly-over states searching for ghost towns to help out. They bring reason to the superstitious and leave a prosperous wake in their path as they do so. Champions of reason, courage, and integrity, the Scooby gang are the moral cream of the crop after decades of breeding and education deemed to produce such. So who might you say is the greatest hero of television? Scooby Dooby DOOOOOOOOO!
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| We also accept Ultraman as an answer |
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