Jodie Landon

Jodie Abigail Landon, better known as Jodie, is a character in the MTV television show, Daria. Jodie dates football player Mack Mackenzie. She first appeared in the episode "The Invitation."



Landon lives in the town of Lawndale. She is an intellectual girl, bound for a prestigious university; also, she is the kind of teenager who feels pressure from her parents to do well in school.

An African American, Landon is one of few black students seen at Daria's new school. Unlike many teenaged female black television characters (both cartoon and real), Landon is not a member of a group of popular girls (though she is considered "cool"), she is a rather lonely girl who maintains a casual friendship both with Daria and with Daria's best friend, Jane. Landon sometimes looks for Daria to ask her a question or an opinion on something. In return, she is one of the few people of Daria's age whom the cynical girl respects.

The president of various school clubs, Landon sees herself as a future leader of American black society. Being one of the few black students in her school inspires her to be aware of black issues although she simutaneously is bitter about having to always play the part. In 2002 she graduated from Lawndale High School.

Powderkeg Jodie
Jodie is often portrayed in fanfic as being under tremendous pressure from her parents to succeed, to the point where their only interaction with their daughter is to push her to extend herself further and further. As a result of this pressure, Jodie internalizes resentment and frustration until she eventually loses control and rebels against her parents' wishes. In some stories, this rebellion takes the form of an emotional confrontation with her parents wherein she tells them that she cannot take their demands and expectations anymore; in other cases, she acts out her frustrations more aggressively, dropping out of all her activities and refusing to accept her parents' value system (often with the help of Daria and Jane). In a few fics, her frustration is expressed in extreme fashions, such as suicide, as she sees no way out from under her parents' unrealistic expectations.

While this portrayal certainly does have a basis in canon, the series itself never shows Jodie expressing any more than a mild exasperation at her parents. Also, while her parents are certainly contributers to her overachievement, Jodie also places a great deal of pressure on herself, as well; her extreme amount of activity cannot therefore be laid completely at the feet of her parents.