The Corruption Theory

[Deleted]

It's not the Disc that corrupts an individual and takes away his good nature, or "yin", for short. This is how I think it works.

1. Curiosity.

Out of all the stages on the list, it's the least risky one. Unfortunately, this is how the victim's path toward permanent corruption begins. I still think it is possible for the individual to lose interest in the Treasure (especially if the individual is far away from Crystal Cove) before it's too late. However, if he or she doesn't stop, it leads to...

2. The Urge to Do More Research and Search for the Treasure.

Once the victim reaches this stage, she cannot go back. The Evil Annunaki trapped beneath Crystal Cove knows when someone is looking for him. He begins to manipulate his victim. Remember, El Aguirre and his men were "overtaken" with the desire to find the being they mistook for "treasure". The Evil Annunaki stripped them of their yins and placed them in the Red Room, leaving his victims with their negative nature. For the victims who came after El Aguirre, they kept seing the Monstrous Freak until their yins finally become imprisoned in said room.

3. Greed & Violence.

The yang is the dominant force and his negative traits usually smother the little good that remains within. His purpose is to find his manipulator and free him, regardless of the consenquences. Key items, such as the Disc pieces, only taints the yang further. He will become an amoral individual, and kill whomever interferes with his self-centered goals. Why else would Mayor Jones threaten the original Mystery Inc. with a cutlass?

4. The Emergence of a Guilty Yang and Resistance or Remaining Loyal to the Evil Annunaki.

El Aguirre hated what he had become and fought back. Unfortunately, his guilt drove him mad, whereas Cassidy's yang did more good. This must be the reason why the Evil Annunaki allows the yang to keep some positive traits: to ruin his pawn if she resists. If the yang remains loyal, she grows more evil like Judy and Brad did.

What do you guys think?

[groovyscooby]

I agree with you. In the case of Cassidy, she realized that the treasure had ruined her life and was trying to prevent that from happening to the current MI. With El Aguirre, he felt that he and his men should still have to pay for what they did, so he realized that the treasure had corrupted them too. Also with Brad, Judy, Ricky and Pericles, we see that they will stop at nothing to get to the treasure. Should be interesting to see what happens next.........

[jeepers]

It's an interesting theory. I view the corruption a little differently, but there's just so many cool ways to interpret this one.

I agree about everything starting with curiosity. I think though that even with the urge to do more research, it is still possible for a person not to be cursed. Cassidy, Brad, and Judy were all adults in The Sitting Room. If that pinpoints when they were cursed, if doesn't correspond with the time when they were searching for more clues and actively investigating in their teens. The gang has been in the "doing more research" stage since season one, and none of them are cursed so far. I think it is entirely possible for them to not be cursed at all even after reaching this stage.

I think the point where the curse really takes root is once there is an opening for greed or some kind of weakness that the Annunaki is able to exploit. Mayor Jones was looking for some kind of glory and excitement initially. A treasure was right up his alley, and he quickly fell prey to the corruption of greed. That's when he began to dream, I think. As soon as he succumbed to the darkness, that's when I think he became cursed and lost the best part of himself.

I think the main point we differ on in how we view the curse is in what happens after one loses the best part of himself or herself. I don't see it as a yin and yang kind of dichotomy. The person doesn't lose ALL their goodnes. I view it more as:

There is the best part of yourself. And then there's everything else that's left.

What's left isn't necessarily bad or corrupt. You can have many good and bad parts of yourself. Exactly how corrupt one becomes at this point is all in how much good and bad they allow in the rest of themselves. I don't think the entity can create amoral tendancies that weren't there before, only manipulate and feed upon the darkness that it find's inside individual's hearts. If the person fights their darkness, there's less for the entity to feed on from them. There is an element of free will that the entity has no control over, and that's why some cursed individuals are better than others. It's all about their choices. I also think that people can at any time break free from the curse/the Annunaki's influence.

For example, Cassidy although cursed remained a pretty good person. The main ways that she was manipulated had nothing to do with greed. She was manipulated through love and fear. She had some feelings still for Ricky, and she cared deeply about the gang and tried to help/protect them even if it meant that "when the needle was in the red, she had to dance with the devil." I think she was the least corrupt of the original Mystery Incorporated to start with, so even without the "best" part of herself there was ample good left. She said no to the corruption and fostered the better parts of herself to the end.

Extending this theory to Mayor Jones, Freddie is another "best part of him" who has been mitigating the darkness over the years since entering Fred Sr.'s life. Raising Freddie allowed him to nurture more goodness than he may have initially had, and I think he has become a better man as a result. Even though he threatened the original Mystery Inc with a cutlass, he didn't do any physical harm to them. I'm not sure that he'd have ever been capable of murder, even if he was capable of blackmail and kidnapping. While the Fred Sr. of twenty years ago would have done some really bad things for the treasure, the Fred Sr. of today would chose his son's safety over the treasure. That's why he came back to save Fred even if it meant getting caught and going to jail. At that point he said "enough" and he's turned his back on the entity. He was not destroyed by that action, and if Fred breaks the curse Fred Sr. will get that part of his self back.

Horatio Karon is a unique case. He wasn't searching for the treasure. He found his way into The Sitting Room through hypnosis, and the best part of him was trapped there. He had nightmares about the Freak, but he did not begin to search for the treasure or become corrupted by the Annunaki. He simply withdrew from society and was a rather rude individual. He apologized for his bluntness and knew that he wasn't his best self. He was pretty moral individual even without his happy/friendly side.

Even Danny Darrow, who was corrupted from a very young age wasn't completely amoral. I'd place him in the middle ground. He didn't kill his family once he got the disk piece (though the greed depicted in how they turned on one another could easily have led to such actions), and he allowed the present gang to go from his mansion. He saw his own corruption and said "no more", but he seemed to always have some limits. I'd be very curious to know about his meeting with the original Mystery Incorporated, and what caused him to set all those traps. He might have had some reason, considering just how corrupt Pericles, Brad, and Judy are.

Now let's extend this to the most corrupted individuals.

Ricky lost the best part of himself years ago. My pet theory is that Pericles had already become corrupted before Ricky chose him over Cassidy, and it resulted in Ricky choosing Pericles's dark influence over Cassidy's good one. That's when Ricky began to transform from the boy who helped injured animals to the man who would ruin everything he could with Destroido. I think we saw the best part of him in the flashback with Pericles. Ricky was once a person with a great capacity to give to others. Now he's a man who only takes. He's never fostered any of his other possibly good traits, and he's basically turned into a greedy, gluttonous blob. He's done the most evil of any human in this series from environmental destruction and poisoning his customers to complicity in the murder of the woman he once loved. Even he's shown to still have some heart/morals. Look at the way he was looking at all those pictures of Cassidy before trying to turn against Pericles. I think he sees at least in part what kind of monster he's become compared to how she lived up to the name Angel in the end. At this point the only measure of redemption that I can see possible for him is to sacrifice himself to help the gang stop Pericles and the evil Annunaki. With the mutated cobra larvae in his spine, it's pretty much guaranteed, imo.

Finally, there's Brad and Judy. These two are like the anti-Fred Sr. When they returned to Crystal Cove, they had the option to reunite with their son. Cassidy encouraged them to put Freddie first, but she knew them well enough to know they really only wanted the treasure. Their threat against her probably wasn't empty. Instead of finding another best part of themselves inside their son, they greedily concentrated on the treasure, even while living with him. As a result they lost him and don't even know enough about Fred for Brad to pretend to be him. They willingly shot a rocket at a helicopter that Fred and the gang were aboard. Doesn't exactly mesh with Judy calling, "Don't hurt him!" in Man in the Mirror, but I suspect that while they don't WANT to hurt Fred... they will if the have to. If they really cared about Freddie, it would have been more strategic to align with Ricky over Pericles. Pericles is still their best shot at getting the treasure though, so that seems to be what they value most. Their future in the show is something I'm still very curious about.

[russm]

You corrupt people one baby step at a time. With some it is relatively easy as you can play to/on their bases instincts (power, greed, fear) whereas with others you make each small step seem sensible and logical. If you had taken the original Mystery Inc as they were at school and shown them as adults in the cave about to stand back and watch or be accomplice to cold-blooded murder (the killing of Marcy was none other than that) then they would have run screaming into the night.

[Deleted]

True, very true. Your theory makes a lot more sense than mine, Jeepers, and you were right about Ricky sacrificing himself to save the Gang. Also, Mayor Jones turned his back on the Entity. By staying out of his son's way, he demonstrated resistance as Cassidy did before him and the others.

"I'm not sure that he'd have ever been capable of murder, even if he was capable of blackmail and kidnapping. While the Fred Sr. of twenty years ago would have done some really bad things for the treasure, the Fred Sr. of today would chose his son's safety over the treasure."

He was capable of murder. I talked to Mitch Watson on Facebook and the comment below confirmed my thoughts.

"The Freak did indeed threaten the original Mystery Inc. with a cutlass, and nearly killed them with it."

Fortunately, Fred's existence turned him into a better man. Imagine how he would have been like if his son had never entered his life...

"You corrupt people one baby step at a time. With some it is relatively easy as you can play to/on their bases instincts (power, greed, fear) whereas with others you make each small step seem sensible and logical. If you had taken the original Mystery Inc as they were at school and shown them as adults in the cave about to stand back and watch or be accomplice to cold-blooded murder (the killing of Marcy was none other than that) then they would have run screaming into the night."


That, too.