That’s right, folks. Velma Dinkley, the brainiac from everyone’s favorite kids cartoon, Scooby Doo, was portrayed as canonically into women in the newest Scooby Doo movie, “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!” Undoubtedly, unambiguously, 100% into women.

A 13-second clip from the movie went viral on social media depicting the Mystery Inc. member as a blushing and googly-eyed mess, classic cartoon swooning minus the floating hearts, when encountering costume designer Coco Diablo.

I hadn’t watched a Scooby-Doo movie in years, but I decided it was worth it to experience this one, just for fun. And I can confidently say that this detail changes absolutely nothing within the context of the show.

The movie is nothing special, very classic Scooby Doo shenanigans with added references to the past and corny jokes that don’t land as well with you as an adult. Velma’s crush on Coco is a very minor detail, overall, one that is treated as natural and nothing out of the ordinary besides the fact that Velma is crushing hard.

Daphne helps her out with girl talk, the whole gang knows about the crush and Velma fumbles over her words and messes up. It has equal weight with Shaggy and Scooby’s need to go trick or treating and Fred’s desperation for an exciting mystery. Plus, the situation would not be any different had Coco been a male character and that’s great!

There have been countless other entries where the gang has had love interests outside of the group and Fred and Daphne have been depicted as each other’s love interests for as long as the cartoon has existed. This is just the same.

With a franchise as retconned and rewritten as Scooby-Doo, it really doesn’t matter who they date because odds are you’ll never see them in another movie again.

But, of course, there are naysayers who complain that this is “ruining their childhood” or they are “getting wokeness shoved down their throat.” And to those people, I would like to say: grow up. The show features a talking dog and a basic formula that has worked for over fifty years. A character liking a same-gender character is not out of the realm of possibility and not at all unexpected by fans of the franchise.

While the clearcut depiction is new, the idea itself has been rumored and speculated on by fans for years and hinted at by other Scooby properties. James Gunn, who wrote the live-action Scooby-Doo movies released in 2002 and 2004, and Tony Cervone, who was supervising producer on the “Mystery Incorporated” series, have confirmed that Velma’s intended sexuality in their respective depictions on social media, but they were never able to make it official on screen.

And they would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling studios!

Hayley Kiyoko also played Velma in a live-action role back in 2009-10 and is a lesbian herself. She said on Twitter, “I remember booking Velma in 2008. It was my first big role in a movie. I also remember thinking, ‘I wonder if they know they hired a lesbian as Velma’ here we are, 14 years later.”

So really, if anything, it’s surprising it has taken this long for it to be official on screen.

Scooby-Doo is a turn-off-your-brain, simple, fun cartoon. I can’t say that it was the most enjoyable movie ever, but Scooby’s not made for me anymore. It’s fun for all ages but is, at its heart, a kids’ show. And Velma being into women doesn’t change that.