Quinn Morgendorffer

Quinn Morgendorffer is a fictional character on the MTV animated series Daria.

Background
Quinn is the younger sister of Daria and a freshman (later sophomore and junior) at Lawndale High School. At the age of 14½ years, Quinn was the chief nemesis for Daria for the bulk the series. The polar opposite of Daria, Quinn was perky, popular, and attractive in the eyes of her fellow classmates, much to Daria's horror and disgust.

Personality
Quinn Morgendorffer is a stereotypical self-absorbed teenage girl who is concerned mainly by clothing, shopping, and being popular. Her interest beyond such trivial things are minimum save for getting into a "Party College" with her friends. However, in spite of this Quinn does have some depth, though it's hidden by a great deal of low self-esteem in terms of her value. As she confesses to Daria in the season two episode "Monster", Quinn feels that looking pretty and being popular are the only things she is good at, hence why she focuses on them exclusively. Also she does feel some ambition towards doing better, though her efforts almost always end up getting her in trouble with her friends, who all deride the notion of intellectually bettering oneself. Still, despite Quinn's refusal to show her intelligence, she is shown to be as crafty and manipulative as her sister on rare occasions, particularly when she can get something out it.

The later seasons of the series have Quinn reconsidering her priorities and coming to value her intelligence and her family in her own way.

Relationship with Daria
Quinn has a rather adversarial relationship with Daria; the two are very resentful of the other and that their differences regarding social standing and personalities drive a large amount of the conflict in the series. Both sides love to antagonize the other (though Quinn is less open about admitting to do so) though in spite of these differences, there does exist a level of sibling love between the two, even if they refuse to openly admit it. When not openly annoying or insulting Daria, Quinn's dealings with her often resemble a business transaction such as laying out terms of requirements, expenses, exceptions, and final payment. A recurring joke involved Quinn refusing to even admit to being Daria's sister, and her friends thinking Daria was her cousin or some other vague relation, often referring to her as "that girl who lives with you." However, by the final episodes, their relationship warms considerably.

On some rare occasions the two sisters have worked together to achieve some goal, usually to get out of trouble or to avoid it. Most often these instances are dealt with in a rather business like fashion, such as when Daria incites Quinn ("That Was Then, This Is Dumb"), with an offer of some form of payment or benefit, to gather scandalous blackmail information about their parents from the son of visiting family friends. Later, when Quinn begins to uncover such stories, her response is "These have got to be worth at least twenty bucks to Daria."

Social life
Socially active, Quinn immediately became one of the most popular girls at Lawndale High, much to the horror of her fellow members of the Fashion Club, a clique of teenage girls with whom Quinn was friends. While she had many boyfriends (even going as far as to come up with a ranking system for the men she dated), her only consistent followers were three teenage "jocks" from her grade level: Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie, classmates who constantly followed her around and were being manipulated by Quinn for her own purposes.

Sexuality and Conservatism
Even though Quinn refuses to be tied down to one guy (for reasons of wanting multiple men to serve as proverbial slaves to her every whim), and is perfectly comfortable flirting with other guys while on dates and stealing other girls' boyfriends, Quinn is rather conservative in terms of sex itself. She has on multiple occasions rejected the sexual advances of older men and was quite shocked when she believed that Daria had lost her virginity to her boyfriend Tom Sloane. Indeed, Quinn is extremely squeamish regarding anything overtly sexual, to the extent of refusing to participate in a lesson in sexually explicit posing with men during a modeling workshop class she was involved in. Pertinent comments about the show's creator's views on Quinn and sex appear in two fan-conducted interviews on DVDaria.

Quinn has also shown conservatism regarding other social activities of her peers. She does not drink, which put her at odds with co-worker and friend Lindy in the series finale movie, Is It College Yet?.

Brainy Quinn
Quinn's vapidity in the TV series is forever played upon in Daria fanfic. However, certain personality quirks she reveals are elaborated upon at times. Most notable of these is "Brainy Quinn," so-called from the episode "Quinn the Brain," in which Quinn turns out to be smarter and more competent than anyone had ever guessed. This possibility was hinted at in the movie Is It Fall Yet? and the episode "Lucky Strike," but the extreme is reached, albeit through a logical and well-grounded process, in Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe with the glasses-wearing math-genius Quinn, who thinks pi is "cute."

Sexually Ambiguous Quinn
A slight variation on Quinn has been seen throughout Daria fan fiction; that being Quinn, even with her heavy dating schedule and many male admirers, somehow seems unable or unwilling to engage in an actual relationship with any young man, let alone have a sexual relationship. The reason for this, it seems, is that Quinn has same-sex leanings - and surprisingly, the fact that Quinn is interested in girls is not a surprising fact to the majority of individuals (except for the boys who have always worshipped her).

The subject has been explored in the following fics (incomplete list):


 * The Passion Club by Gystex (Quinn/Sandi - also, one-night stand with Stacy and Tiffany)
 * Writes of Passage by Deref - (Quinn/Jane)
 * An Overlooked Flaw and EarthFall by legendeld - (Quinn/Danielle Todds)
 * Night of the Storm by LyinTamer - (Quinn/Daria)
 * The Winters of Those Gone Before by Brother Grimace - (Quinn/Daria)

It is also suggested that the Quinn portrayed in Legion of Lawndale Heroes may have leanings in this fashion as well. This has been commented on by characters in the series, and in A Legion Halloween, Quinn and Danielle Todds share an intimate moment.

Action Quinn
A less common version of Quinn is that of Quinn who is more outgoing in a physical manner, in that she uses her fists (or other ways of causing physical harm) to settle problems. One current version of this variant can be seen evolving in Legion of Lawndale Heroes, where Quinn has always been the one out of the original three Legionnaires (Daria and Jane the others) to use her powers in a forward, aggressive manner. Since her visit to the United States Academy of Extranormal Studies, Quinn's level or power and her control of said power has grown, and she is becoming more assertive as a person. See also TAG's "Invisible Planet."