Scooby Fanfiction: My Picks Part 2

A part of the Scooby fandom that I'm involved in that I don't talk about a lot on here is Scooby fanfiction. You've probably seen that I usually do a post whenever I release a new fanfic, but I also enjoy reading others' Scooby-Doo fanfiction. I tend to be a bit more picky when I read fanfiction, and I don't necessarily read it all that often. Fanfiction sites can be a bit of a free-for-all in the sense that you never know what you're going to get. There will sometimes be little kids that post 100 or 200 word stories they wrote, my favorite example that I've seen being a little kid who wrote an entire fanfic about how Scooby-Doo showed up to their real-life classroom, titled "Scooby-Doo Meets Emma from My Math Class" haha. There are also plenty of fanfics with truly bizarre, absurd premises that would never canonically happen in the franchise. I don't enjoy reading either of these types of fanfics.

Personally, I don't read fanfiction to see my favorite characters in utterly bizarre scenarios, and I'm also not really a fan of fanfics that are centered around romantic pairings. The fanfics that most appeal to me are the ones that explore a new element of the franchise, in a way that feels like a typical Scooby-Doo series or film would. Some fanfiction writers seem to go for the larger-than-life, cinematic approach, but that tends not to appeal to me, because it isn't consistent with the franchise I know and love. The value of fanfiction to me is that it's a chance to explore different elements of the formula and characters in a way they haven't in the actual franchise, yet still feels consistent with something that would happen in a Scooby series or film.

Back in 2018, I did a post highlighting some of my favorite Scooby-Doo fanfiction that I've read. Five years later, I thought it would be fun to revisit this idea for a part 2! Besides the ones listed on that article, I think I've mentioned or promoted others' fanfiction on the blog in other posts, so I will stick to ones that I have never talked about before. I have five new Scooby-Doo fanfics that I've read in the past year or so that I've found to be among the best Scooby fanfiction I've read, and will highlight in this post.

The Drive In of Doom by Wileyk209
As I've talked about on here before, "A Mystery Solving Gang Divided" is my least favorite episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, and one of my least favorite Scooby episodes in general. The gang constantly arguing with the Funky Phantom Crew was annoying to sit through, and it felt so out-of-character for the Funky Phantom Crew. Ironically, this fanfic was actually released about a month and a half ahead of that episode coming out, but I think The Drive In of Doom is the Funky Phantom crossover we should have gotten. The Funky Phantom Crew feels just like their characterizations in the original Funky Phantom show from 1972, and the gang's characterization also has a Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?-ish feel to it. It feels like a classic Scooby-Doo mystery with a couple of nice Easter Eggs sprinkled in. The fanfic is published on the ScoobyAddicts forum if you want to check it out.

Yabba's Parade Pandemonium by Captain Furry
I'm not a big fan of the Puppy Hour era, but I really enjoyed this fanfic! The fanfic centers around Yabba-Doo, Deputy Dusty and Scrappy-Doo preparing for Tumbleweed's anniversary parade, but they end up having to stop a couple of crooks named Ned Knicker and Pesky Pete from ruining the day's events. It's impressive how much this feels just like Yabba-Doo short from the Puppy Hour, and Captain Furry does a great job with descriptions. Captain Furry also adds a lot of warmth to the characterizations of Yabba, Dusty and Scrappy that even the actual show didn't do as good of job with. The fact that the reader gets to hear Yabba's thoughts through the prose makes him feel more endearing as a character than the seven-minute runtime allowed for in the show. Without ruining anything, I also think the ending is really sweet. I'd like to take a moment to highlight the cover art as well, as Captain Furry also drew all of the characters in the title card you see above and did a great job! I would highly recommend checking out this fic, even if you weren't a big fan of the Yabba-Doo shorts. This is the only fanfic of the bunch here that is published exclusively on this site, as Captain Furry reached out to me back in 2020 in search of a place to have this story published. You can read it here.

Scooby-Doo and the Curse of Samhain by Chauliodus
This is another great fanfic that I discovered back towards the end of 2021 as it was being published. The fanfic centers around the gang traveling to New England after they're asked to solve a mystery at a farm during a festival (centered around a real-life Wiccan festival done around Halloween called Samhain). However, they quickly discover that the farm is far more haunted than they ever expected, as dozen of monsters pop up, and an ancient deity threatens to return from the grave. While this may sound like it fits the stereotype of fanfics putting the characters in bizarre situations, I feel it works really well. Even though there is the potential threat of a real monster, the fanfic is intended to fit with the tone of the Zombie Island era films, and succeeds in doing so. The fanfic feels a lot like a Scooby DTV would, and has a more mature feel like many of the late 1990s/early 2000s Scooby films did. The characterizations are on-point and I found this to be a really interesting read. You can check it out on the ScoobyAddicts forum.

It's Terror Time, Scooby-Doo! by Bigscoobydoofan
This is a fanfic written by somebody who frequents this blog! Bigscoobydoofan's It's Terror Time, Scooby-Doo! is a nice fanfic that mirrors the more whimsical tone of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! When writing my fanfics that were follow-ups to The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, it was important to me to have them feel like a natural progression of the show/film, rather than something larger-than-life or completely not match the tone of the original. Bigscoobydoofan does a great job with that in this fanfic. It's Terror Time feels like very down-to-Earth and just like a Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! episode would. Another element I admire about the fanfic is its incorporation of humor. While serious, high-action fanfics are fun, as a writer, I feel like one of the most fun parts of writing is incorporating humor, and this fanfic's humor style excellently matches the tone of the absurdist Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! humor that I like. Bigscoobydoofan has also written some other fanfiction that I haven't had a chance to check out yet, but if you're interested in It's Terror Time or his other stories, you can check them out on Scooby-Doo Fanon Wikia.

Occult Nights & The Treasure of the Regal Hotel by The Wandering Piney
I didn't want to do rankings for these as I didn't want to play favorites too much, but I will come right out and say that this is one of the best Scooby-Doo fanfics I've ever read. Occult Nights is an eighteen-chapter Hex Girls-centric fanfic featuring Thorn realizing that she is a witch with magic abilities, and coming face-to-face with a deadly being. The vivid level of description is among the most amazing I've ever read in a Scooby-Doo fanfic, and the internal struggle present within Thorn is extremely compelling and raw. It's easily the most mature characterization of the Hex Girls that I've seen out there. There is also a twenty-five chapter sequel to Occult Nights, titled The Treasure of the Regal Hotel. As I mentioned earlier in the post, I don't tend to enjoy fanfics that are too cinematic-feeling, but The Wandering Piney does such an incredible job creating compelling characterizations for the girls that this fanfic is difficult to stop once you've started. As a content warning, these two fanfics are rated M (Mature) due to violence and language. There isn't anything raunchy, but the fanfic has an extremely dark tone that is too frightening for young audiences. You can read Occult Nights on Fanfiction.net and AO3, as well as the sequel The Treasure of the Regal Hotel on Fanfiction.net and AO3.

As an aside, I mentioned it in the previous article so I'm not going to write up a whole summary of it again, but the only other in-progress Scooby-Doo fanfic that I've been reading recently is The Gang by Bananagoose. I really like the way she characterizes the gang here, and it's a very interesting story that kind of feels a bit like the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010) show was mixed with the Mystery Incorporated YouTube series. If you enjoy Scooby fanfiction, I would definitely recommend checking this one out if you haven't.

Thanks for reading this article! If you're interested in other Scooby fanfiction beyond what I've listed here, there are additional fanfics that others and myself have written on the Fanfiction page of the site, all of which I've read and enjoyed. This was a bit of an unconventional article, but regardless, I hope that you enjoyed all of my recommendations about the Scooby-Doo fanfics been reading recently!​