Martha Peters

Martha Peters is a fictional character in Doggieboy's Apocalyptic Daria. She is the mother of Martin Peters and wife of John Peters.

When Martha is first shown in the story, she is polite to Daria and Jane - but not particularly friendly, as the prevalent rumor in the church was that the teen girls are lesbian lovers. But when Daria and Martin first start showing attraction to one another, her reactions go from dismayed to horrified to furious, and she took several steps to keep them apart.

It was revealed in the story that when Martin was eight years old, Martha dreamed that an angel told her that her son would grow up to become a famous preacher. She took that dream as a sign from God and actually a "calling" for her son. As an after-effect of the dream, she believed that Martin’s romance with Daria - or any female - would disrupt that calling.

Martin mentioned to Daria that he had told his mother many times that he didn’t want to be a preacher. It was also revealed that Carthage UMC’s previous minister Glen Bates, cautioned her not to project her dreams and wishes on the boy. It was also implied that John told his wife to let their son live his own life. At the same time, though, Martha’s belief that his "calling" was real and would be fulfilled never wavered.

Martha also had a problem with Martin being exposed to secular entertainments, and she had a heated discussion with her son over his viewing the film Logan’s Run, due to the brief nude scenes with actress Jenny Agutter. It was also revealed in the story that Martin was grounded once when he was caught listening to Mystik Spiral’s Icebox Woman.

It was later revealed that Martha suffered from some form of mental illness, and probably had for many years. This illness may have fueled her beliefs about Martin and caused her to act out in as-yet unrevealed manners to drive female admirers away from her son. At one point, Martin mentioned a rumor of something "nasty" that his mother had done to his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Dalton, but that he also had no idea what exactly it was.

When Martha first confronted her son about Daria, she did so in front of a group of parishioners, and that experience ended with Martin being slapped - twice. She later tried to “reason” with Daria to keep them apart. That failed, and when the two teens went off alone again, she tried to find them. In the process, she burst in on a married couple having sex because she believed that it was Daria and her son. That incident, coupled with a physical assault on Daria the next morning, resulting in Martha being censured by the church elders and being put on warning.

The woman’s mental illness manifested itself then, and she was caught up in a psychotic episode where she shot and killed both her husband (setting the family home ablaze and leaving him inside to die) and Glen Bates. She also shot a woman and assaulted and nearly killed Daria before being shot herself by Odell Jones (an act which would have later repercussions.)

Martha managed to escape from the area, but was attacked and killed by a pack of feral dogs in the wilderness. Her body was later found and buried by an armed posse from Carthage; it was strongly insinuated that the dogs fed upon Martha’s body after killing her.

Martha has a sister, Mary, who is a professor at George Washington University and had planned to attend a field trip with her students to Mount Vernon on Black Saturday. Her fate is unknown.

Trivia

 * Despite appearing in only one fan fiction, Martha is considered one of the most recognizable female fandom characters ever created in Daria fan fiction. She shares this honor with Lynn Cullen, Veronica Morgendorffer and Karen Myerson.


 * It was revealed that Martha's sister Mary and John Peters were deeply in love and had planned to be married, but Martha (who not only was the victim of a severe, long-term mental illness gone both undiagnosed and untreated, but harbored a deep jealousy/resentment of her sister) somehow managed to scheme her way into bed with John. The result of that was her becoming pregnant with Martin, and the breakup of John and Mary's relationship so that he could marry Martha and raise the baby.


 * In the Tales of the Ringbearers multi-part fic Michael, Martha is a highly-ranked (and highly feared) member of the Ringwraiths, who has been assigned the task of locating Michael and returning him to their superior.