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Bill and Frank’s marriage is even more meaningful in that context.

In the game, Bill and Frank were almost nothing. Bill was a joke character, he shows up, he’s a doomsday prepper, he helps you fight zombies, gives you a truck battery, and you leave. Ellie steals some comics and a gay porno magazine from him, and he’s never seen again.

Frank WAS nothing. You never see him. You find his BODY, he got bit and hung himself, and he got bit trying to escape Bill because he hated him so much and the note says he’s happier dead than living another day with Bill 

And then the show. The show took that shallow, mean storyline, and made it beautiful. 

Now Bill and Frank are real characters. We know them. Really KNOW them. And they don’t hate each other. In fact they’re in love. They’re really IN LOVE. And yes they argue and disagree sometimes but they’re a real couple who really love each other while still being two people so sometimes they fight. That doesn’t change that they’re in love 

And they GET TO BE IN LOVE, the whole time, they’re doing things for each other. They’re living in their little gated paradise and it’s beautiful. They make it pretty. They grow food. They’re eating gourmet meals. They’re not just surviving. They’re thriving. They’re living

They took that mean spirited game story, and they made it the point, the heart, the example of what people are still fighting for. The proof that yes, even in the middle of the apocalypse, you can still live a good life. Not an easy life, you will still have bad days, you’ll have bad days with the ones you love, but you will still love them, and they will still love you. And then, with all these grizzly, horrific deaths we see two deaths that are peaceful. Painless. Two men who die old, satisfied, and in the arms of their purpose. 

Don’t you see? It’s about hope 

Bill and Frank are hope  

Bisexuality

Velma is your typical nerd who's interested in true crime. She started off solving small mysteries around her neighborhood, like where someone's missing cat went or who stole someone's bike. Then, some sort of really big mystery happens that the police completely overlook. Maybe students are ending up dead or missing or something like that.

She goes to the same school as Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy, but never talked to them due to personal assumptions. Fred is a popular jock, and a lot of his teammates bully Velma and force her to do their homework for them, so she doesn't trust him either. Daphne is a pretty rich girl who hangs out with a group of mean girls who also make fun of girls like Velma. Even though Fred's group and Daphne's group overlap, the two of them have never really spoken to one another before. Then, there's Shaggy who always shows up to school late, never knows the answer to teachers' questions, and sleeps through half of his classes.

Eventually, one of Daphne's friends get kidnapped. So, one night, she sneaks into the school to find some clues at the same time as Velma. Fred's there because he forgot his uniform, and Shaggy just likes hanging out at the school to do his homework in peace and quiet. They all team up for a while until security gets involved, and Fred helps them into a speedy getaway as the only one with his driver's license.

With Fred driving them home, the group decides to at least have a temporary team-up. Daphne and Velma have a shared goal, Fred likes having friends for the first time in forever, and Shaggy doesn't want to be the odd man out.

They get closer as they solve the mystery together. Fred isn't a jerk, and is super sweet and amazing at building all sorts of things, especially traps. Shaggy always brings the gang food he made, and eventually introduces them to his talking dog who may or may not be immortal. Daphne invites everyone to her house for sleepovers, helps Velma explore her style in a way that's still comfortable to her, and reveals her endless knowledge about every single person in the entire town.

Fred is the charismatic face of the group and the strategizer. Later adaptations made him a massive himbo who chugs respect for women juice and those have become necessary parts of his character.

Shaggy is cowardly but also incredibly resourceful; let us not forget his skill at ventriloquism. Make Shaggy the skill monkey, who every episode mentions some weird skill he has that's previously unmentioned; that'd be an amazing running gag. Also, bring back the dry humor Casey Kasem injected into the og character.

Scooby is Shaggy's best friend, the other half to his two-man comedy routine. Independently of Shaggy, Scooby is also prone to be a bit mischievous and just kind of a little scamp. Play up both of those things.

Velma is the smart nerdy one, who also had a really dry sense of humor. I don't know why she was turned into the "I'm surrounded by idiots" character because, while as I stated, she always had a dry sense of humor, she was never mean to her friends and never talked down to them, or anyone else. Bring back the chipper Velma from like Witch's Ghost or Zombie Island. Let Velma be a little cutie pie. Also keep her as a lebian

Daphne was... originally really just "The Girly One" but later adaptations have fleshed her out, like making her essentially the muscle of the group, which is just amazing and should continue. She's also been cast as the oddly resourceful one. Shaggy is the skill monkey, Daphne is the one who has a tool for literally any job. Human Swiss Army Knife, which again, would be an amazing running gag.

Have Shaggy and Daphne bounce off-the-wall ideas for a plan together, Fred steps in to ground them, while still using their ideas, and incorporating Velma's theories about the case.

Make references to Flim Flam and Hot Dog Water

Freddie and Daphne start it all. Instead of showing up at boot camp when drafted, Fred Jones got the van he bought with his summer job and ran off. Daphne, his girlfriend (who frankly has the least strong feelings about Vietnam but for gods sake are they not taking Freddie there) runs along to be supportive and to get away from her strict, stuffy family.

Velma catches wind of Fred and Daphne’s plan a few days before it happens. They invite her along but she has to consider it. A staunch feminist and the brightest girl in school, she has the most to lose if she leaves. However, she grows embittered by the fact she’s never gonna get into her dream college since it doesn’t admit women, and decides to go along. Besides, if Fred and Daphne leave without her, there won’t be anyone like minded in their hometown for Velma to be friends with.

Shaggy wasn’t originally part of the group, but they find him and Scooby hitchhiking and pick him up. The gang learn he has similar circumstances to Fred for running away from home, being a conscientious objector who ran off when they tried to put him in a non combative position instead. He opposed even this as it still meant he would be part of the war machine. He comes bearing plenty of 8 track tapes and some real good pot, so he’s welcomed along happily.

1) Tommy calls Joel to bail him out of jail. It’s a small scene but it does help establish that Joel is the older, more responsible brother while Tommy is the younger, more reckless brother. It gives more dimension to Joel’s line of “I bring you the cure for mankind and you wanna play the pissy little brother”.

2) Joel possibly being a Desert Storm veteran. Because if he was, then his line “you have no idea what loss is” becomes even more tragic since it’s not clear which part of his life he’s talking about. Is he talking about Sarah, surviving the post-apocalypse, or the horrors of the Gulf War? Technically speaking, he could be talking about all three events, which is just incredibly sad.

3) As an add-on for point 2, either Joel or Tommy being a Desert Storm veteran works better for the story since it makes it more believable that the Miller brothers were able to survive for 20 years in the zombie apocalypse.

4) “Che Guevara of Boston”. It’s one line, but it tells you all you need to know about Marlene and the Fireflies. Honestly, I got a better understanding of Marlene through that one line than the explanation in the original game.

5) Tess telling Joel to calm down and that going after Robert will make him go into hiding. I know that might seem trivial but the show is subtly telling us that Joel is incredibly dangerous. In the game, this was established by going into combat as Joel. The show can’t just rely on action scenes since that would screw up the pacing and tone, so the next best way to establish Joel’s badassery is through dialogue. “Robert is scared of you because you’re a dangerous motherfucker, that’s why I need you to chill”, that’s basically what Tess said.

They don’t hate each other. Maybe they get annoyed and cause they’re together all the time it might get a bit much sometimes but at the end of the day, they really deeply care about each other. They live out of a van most of the time and are on the road constantly out of CHOICE. TOGETHER. for crying out loud.