Daria Morgendorffer
For the TV series of the same name, see Daria (TV series).
| Daria Morgendorffer | |
| |
| First appearance | Scientific Stuff (Beavis and Butt-head) |
| Last appearance | Is It College Yet? |
| Voiced by | Tracy Grandstaff |
| Episode count | 16 (Beavis and Butt-head) 65 (Daria) 2 Daria TV movies 2 Beavis and Butt-head TV movies (one non-speaking) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 14-5 (Beavis and Butt-head) 15-18 (Daria) |
| Occupation | Student at Highland High (Beavis and Butt-head) Student at Lawndale High Student at Raft College (by the end of the show) |
| Family | Jake Morgendorffer (father) Helen Morgendorffer (mother) Quinn Morgendorffer (sister) Amy Barksdale (aunt) Rita Barksdale (aunt) Erin Chambers (cousin) Ruth Morgendorffer (paternal grandmother) "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer (paternal grandfather, deceased) Grandma Barksdale (maternal grandmother, name unknown) |
| Significant other(s) | Tom Sloane (ex-boyfriend) |
Daria Morgendorffer is a fictional animated character from two of MTV's animated series: Beavis and Butt-head and Daria. In 2002, Daria placed at number 41 on TV Guide's list of the Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time for her role in the two shows. She was voiced in both incarnations by Tracy Grandstaff.
| “ | I don't have low self esteem ... I have low esteem for everyone else. | „ |
Character Overview
The character is a smart, snarky, sensitive teenage girl in an otherwise "normal" environment. This is to say that she doesn't fit in all that well, and was often subject to ridicule - and would ridicule back, poking at the idiocies of her peers, her elders, and herself. Though the outcast of her school, she appears to have earned a degree of grudging, nearly surprising respect from her fellow students. (Surprising because there's little evidence that they are capable of appreciating her.) She attempts to fly under the radar and blend into the background, but keeps getting drawn in to situations against her will, where she either restores sanity or causes things to descend into further chaos.
A career aptitude test in "It Happened One Nut" said she'd do well as a mortician: "Your lack of interest in personal interaction makes you an ideal candidate for working with the dead." She was not happy with this result.
She has described Jane Lane as basically the only real friend she's ever had.
Her starsign is Scorpio ("Beavis and Butt-head: Chicken Soup for the Butt").
Daria has a high intelligence for her age group, knowing about a wide variety of subjects and noted to be both at the top of many classes and getting repeated A grades. Daria is also shown to be quite lazy and apathetic: she manages to get her high grades despite, as far as we can see, not working that hard.
Her experience with romance appears to have been limited for most of her teenage life, until Tom Sloane consisting largely of a few dates and odd flirtations (see Robert, Ted DeWitt-Clinton, and Trent Lane).
Her parents try repeatedly to make her more sociable and 'normal', usually in ways that are clearly unsuitable for Daria or outright idiotic; Daria attempts to get out of these at first opportunity.
Daria enjoys reading classic literature from a variety of eras and genres - including Catch-22 ("Quinn the Brain") and beatnik novel Howl ("The Old and the Beautiful") - and arty foreign films ("Monster"). She also enjoys incredibly trashy junk culture, including B-movies and Sick, Sad World, and is frequently attending Punk Rock and Alt. Rock concerts ("Road Worrier"), ("Ill"), ("Pierce Me") and playing incredibly violent video games ("The New Kid", "The Story of D"). She collects medical teaching supplies and replicas of medical oddities. ("The Daria Database", "Of Human Bonding")
She is often viewed as miserable and gloomy by her peers and by adults, something she states annoys her in "The Misery Chick": "I'm not miserable! I'm just not like them."
Beavis and Butt-Head
See also Character design of Daria
| “ | Daria's [concept]... was the only note from the network, a development note, and I actually agreed with it that it'd be a good idea to have a female character who didn't necessarily like [Beavis and Butt-head] but kinda tolerated them. | „ |
—Mike Judge about Daria's genesis in the Beavis and Butt-Head DVD boxset, | ||
In Daria's first incarnation as a recurring character on Beavis and Butt-head, she formed a female, intelligent foil to the two male dunderheads. (She was, a producer/writer for the show stated, "the smart girl who hung around with Beavis and Butt-head because it annoyed her parents.) Often, the two would openly mock her and refer to her as "Diarrhea." Daria was named by Mike Judge after a girl at his school who'd had that name... and also been nicknamed "Diarrhea". He cites David Felton as coming up with her look ("like Lynda Barry").
Beavis and Butt-head took place in a small town called Highland, whose state is never named but presumed to be Texas, where Daria, Beavis, and Butt-head were in the ninth grade at Highland High.
Tracy Grandstaff's voice for Daria starts off sounding normal and gradually become deeper and flatter, though the full monotone version from her own series would not be completed until "Esteemsters".
Though she is not amused by their antics, she does not have the passionate hatred for them that Principal McVicker and Coach Buzzcut have nor does she really believe there is any hope for them either as Mr. Van Driessen had. At times, she would also make fun of the two for their stupidity. In the episode U. S. History, she turned around to talk to the duos and said they'll never graduate, and she told them that "to graduate" means to be all done with the final year of school. In It's a Miserable Life, it is stated that Butt-Head had been responsible for giving her a negative outlook on boys. In the final episode of the series when the boys "died," Daria expressed the sentiments that Beavis and Butt-head did not have very bright futures to look forward to. She was one of the few characters that the duo never managed to drive crazy as they had with many other students and teachers. In the Marvel comic books, however, the duo did manage to push her closer to the edge than they did in the TV show.
This early version of Daria was not as sarcastic or cutting (at least not to the lads) as she would be in Daria, and in a number of episodes would be shown trying to explain simple concepts or solutions to them, sometimes without any jokes at their expense at all. This side of Daria would be played down in her own show. (In the Beavis and Butt-head comic book, Daria was more prone to sarcastic remarks.) Butt-head was more willing to listen to her (and usually called her by her real name to her face), while Beavis appeared to irritate her more than Butt-head.
In one episode, Daria's snarky mouthing off to then-President William J. "Bill" Clinton earned her some amused, and probably unwanted, respect from Beavis and Butt-head. "Daria's cool," Butt-head informed Beavis.
In an off-canon canon interview on the CBS Early Show (January 2002), Daria was asked whether she still keeps in touch with the duo, and replied: "I'd like to but first, they have to figure out that when the telephone makes that funny sound, you're supposed to pick it up and say hello."
Daria
In her eponymous series, Daria became more angsty; to some, she's the poster child for "teen misfit." Daria is a bespectacled, plain, unfashionably dressed, but highly intellectual and seemingly cynical teenage girl who is portrayed as an icon of sanity in an insane household, with her vacuous, fashion-obsessed sister Quinn and career-obsessed parents Helen and Jake.
Unlike most animated characters, Daria and her counterparts aged during the duration of the series. When the series began, Daria was a sophomore in high school and would graduate by the end of the series. (Depending on when she moved to Lawndale, as a Scorpio, she could've been fifteen for the first couple of episodes) When she graduated from high school in the show's final TV movie, she was 18 years old. According to the episode "Lane Miserables," her height is 5'2". Her hair, by general fan agreement based on color matching screen captures, is auburn (red-brown). Her eyes are brown, per an interview with Glenn Eichler and general implications made in "Through a Lens Darkly."
While much of the show is a vehicle for Daria's droll deadpan monotone one-liners, a recurring plot element in early seasons is Daria standing up to misused authority, leading some fans to conclude that her apparent cynicism is only skin deep (or at least that she is only cynical in the classical sense).
An oft-quoted line from "Esteemsters," the first episode of Daria, sets the tone for Daria's attitude: "Don't worry, I don't have low self-esteem. It's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."
Daria's personal views on politics and religion are subject to intense debate. Because she so often speaks with a sarcastic or cynical twist, one cannot always be sure she means what she says.
Series
During the series, Daria attends Lawndale High School, where on her first day she meets Jane Lane, the artist and classmate who will be her first real friend and her best friend through the rest of her high school life. Their strong friendship and mutual endurance of gloomy adolescence was a motif of the series, which survived despite Jane's boyfriend, Tom Sloane, becoming Daria's.
The final two seasons of Daria made a departure from the "static world" that most animation series occupy, giving all of the characters opportunities for growth, and crises to manage.
Movies
The first Daria movie, Is it Fall Yet?, gave the principal characters time apart from one another in parallel narratives which foreshadowed further changes in their relationships.
By the time the finale movie Is It College Yet? arrives, Daria's character has undergone noticeable growth. She graduates from Lawndale High, winning the Dian Fossey Award "for dazzling academic achievements in face of near total misanthropy", and crowning her acceptance speech with the assertion that "...[T]here is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza."
Daria's Growth
Though the series was a rich one, replete with interesting characters and multiple points-of-view, it was mostly the story of one character, Daria herself, and her evolution.
At the beginning, she can be fairly characterized as smart, cynical, and a little ruthless. She is not afraid to physically rough up her little sister when the latter clearly deserves it (note the ending of The New Kid). She is not afraid to take a series of very risky, manipulative actions to call attention to her school's principal's unethical behavior (This Year's Model). She has, by her own admission, never had a real friend until Jane Lane; She has, however, alluded to her own consideration of Beavis and Butt-head with some slight affection. During her freshman year at Highland High School, Daria was seen as spending time with the two boys for the purposes of her own amusement, to manipulate them as subjects for a science class project and a school newspaper photo-essay, and because her association with the two boys bothered her parents.
As time went on, Daria would have to face the flip-side of her high standards and cynicism: an ugly judgmental streak (Partner's Complaint), problems with living up to her own standards (Through a Lens Darkly), fear of trying (The Story of D), and excessive unpleasantness at people who didn't deserve it (Camp Fear). She also became vicious and unpleasant when Jane had boyfriends, fearing that Jane was going to be taken away from her; Tom Sloane would tell her how stupid this was, citing that Jane was constantly talking about Daria. By the time of "Psycho Therapy", Daria was quite calmly stating "I'm so defensive that I actually work to make people dislike me so I won't feel bad when they do", showing she was aware of this flaw within herself.
Flashbacks to Daria's earlier childhood would also show that she'd been a loner since a very young age, preferring to read rather than play with the other kids because she couldn't get them to understand her and was getting picked on over it; she decided to stop trying, claiming the other kids didn't interest her. She was a voracious reader ("Boxing Daria") and mainly only liked people who were in books, irritated by a world she found to be idiotic ("Is It Fall Yet?"). She would openly state she'd prefer to read than try to meet people. ("Camp Fear") She also had a questioning nature, responding (at age 6) to an explanation of Rorschach blot tests with the question "then why don't I just draw my own picture?", and would avoid taking part in activities she didn't enjoy unless she was forced into it. She has ended up with a reputation as a gloomy "brain" as a result - however, in "Quinn the Brain" she admitted she was stuck with this reputation because others had put it on her, and she didn't actually like it. As per "The Misery Chick", she is irritated that people keep assuming she's upset or wrong somehow because she's not like them.
Daria usually attempts to avoid engaging with the world, preferring to mock and snark at the things that annoy her rather than take action. She is often drawn into situations against her will, either by circumstance or because her parents/school forced her. In Highland, she was pushed into working for the school newspaper by her parents ("Sporting Goods") and while she did take part in a charity walk-a-thons ("Walkathon"), she used it as a way to extort money out of Beavis and Butt-head and cause them physical pain. Sometimes, she decides on her own that she's had enough and is going to sort something out ("This Year's Model") and other times she needs to be prodded ("Fizz Ed"). Sometimes, in order to force things to a head, she will deliberately make things unpleasant and difficult in order to get an opponent to back down ("The Big House"). She has said on several occasions ("Fizz Ed", "See Jane Run") that she avoids action in order to avoid becoming more isolated and seen as more of a malcontent, and that she disengages because she's too sensitive to put up with the world she's in ("Gifted"); she admits this last point causes her to miss out on things, but she believes it "works for me now".
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Daria started the series with an unspoken crush on Jane's older brother, Trent Lane, an attractive and cool twenty-something rocker. While Jane and Trent were aware of this, Daria never dared speak about it out loud (with the possible exception of "Depth Takes a Holiday", in which Daria, under the spell of Cupid, admits as much); eventually, after over a year (show time), she admitted a relationship between the two of them would never work. This was her only real experience of romance, and this inexperience and naivete would cause problems in S4 when she found herself becoming attracted to Jane's boyfriend Tom Sloane - and needed to have Trent bluntly point out that Tom had a crush on her and that this needed to be dealt with ("Fire!"). Her inability to handle the situation would cause the temporary dissolution of her friendship with Jane: she badly handled Jane's problems with her and Tom, ended up kissing Tom (and was horrified afterwards and near-immediately admitted it to Jane), and later took Jane at her word when she said she'd be okay with Daria dating Tom (Jane responded "and you believed me?!" when Daria pointed it out). While Daria managed to salvage her friendship with Jane, her own actions could easily have ended it and throughout Season 5 there would be moments where she "jokingly" brought the events up. Despite this, in "Boxing Daria", Daria states than Jane is the person she trusts the most.
Daria dissolves her relationship with Tom in 'Is It College Yet?', citing that they're drifting apart and will be taking two different paths in college. It can be argued that this shows greater emotional maturity (as she's recognizing things won't work) or that this shows she's still not fully matured in regards to romance (CINCGREEN argues this position in an essay on the character's development across the whole of the series). Notably, Tom and Daria are still amiable after the breakup.
In Is It College Yet?, the series' finale, Daria outlines what could be considered her own personal philosophy during her acceptance speech for the Dian Fossey Award:
- "I'm not much for public speaking, or much for speaking, or, come to think of it, much for the public. And I'm not very good at lying. So let me just say that, in my experience, high school sucks. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have started advanced placement classes in preschool so I could go from eighth grade straight to college. However, given the unalterable fact that high school sucks, I'd like to add that if you're lucky enough to have a good friend and a family that cares, it doesn't have to suck quite as much. Otherwise, my advice is: stand firm for what you believe in, until and unless logic and experience prove you wrong; remember, when the emperor looks naked, the emperor is naked; the truth and a lie are not 'sort of the same thing'; and there is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza. Thank you."
Daria and her parents
Her parents had been trying to get her to be more sociable and conventional since a very young age, both out of concern and out of frustration. While their intentions are noble - "Boxing Daria" made it clear they did this because they were upset that their daughter was unhappy, and "Is It Fall Yet?" had Helen admit she was afraid of Daria becoming permanently antisocial - their methods have mostly failed, only causing Daria to become irritated and clam up. Early attempts were shown to be asking Daria to just keep trying to play with the other kids and simply taking a book away from her at Camp Grizzly so she couldn't hide behind it, both options being crude and having the opposite effect.
Most of their modern-day attempts had the same effectiveness, and usually showed them to be somewhat clueless about how to deal with their daughter. Despite that, she's sometimes recognized they're trying to help and she does love them: she's attempted several times to help her parents, usually sounding uncomfortable at the prospect of talking frankly to them, such as when she encouraged her father in "Jake of Hearts" and consoled her mother in "Psycho Therapy". In the latter, she admits she deliberately clams up around them because she knows they'd be attentive and she'd rather they weren't; in "Of Human Bonding", she tries to convince her father not to try bonding with her for the same reasons. In the latter, she also showed problems with opening up to him.
In one of her darkest hours, "Dye! Dye! My Darling", Daria turned to Helen for help and comfort. In "Write Where It Hurts", Helen also showed some sharp insight into parts of her daughter's psyche. IIFY? shows that Helen believes her daughter isn't naturally antisocial but uses it as a mask, and wants to stop this; in "Boxing Daria", she says she and Jake know Daria withdraws from the world as a way of dealing with things.
Jake has a pet name, "kiddo", for Daria and will sometimes turn to her if he needs help or advice, like in "Aunt Nauseum". As he rarely pushes her to do things, she seems to get on more amiably with him than with her mother. In "Of Human Bonding", Daria thought: "he's afraid to be afraid. That's what's so heartbreaking. He's my father; shouldn't I let down the barricades for once and tell him I think he's a hero?" (She didn't.)
Relationship with Quinn
This can be summed up with two words: total war. 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; Quinn won't even admit for most of the series that Daria is her sister (which irritates Daria). This goes back to Quinn's infancy: flashbacks to toddler Daria who her angrily wanted to "punish" baby Quinn for being loud, angrily yelling "Why can't I be an only child?!", and trying to stop footage of Quinn being filmed. Photos in "The Daria Diaries" even show Daria opening a door so Quinn, taking her baby steps, may wander outside!
Both sides love to antagonize the other. Daria goes out of her way to go to places where she knows Quinn doesn't want her to go and embarrass her sister by existing in front of Quinn's friends. In "The Invitation", Daria sounded mildly impressed when Quinn got in a really vicious dig at her.
When they're not insulting or irritating each other, their dealings often resemble a business transaction such as laying out terms of requirements, expenses, exceptions, and final payment. On some rare occasions the two sisters have worked together to achieve some goal, usually to get out of trouble or to avoid it; these earlier team-ups were also done in a 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.
In spite of these differences, there does exist a level of sibling love between the two, even if they refuse to openly admit it. Daria has, to her discomfort, sometimes found herself helping Quinn: she backed her up against the Fashion Club in "Just Add Water", guilted herself out of embarrassing her sister in "Monster", and openly told Quinn "there's nothing wrong with you physically" in "Too Cute" when her sister was obsessed with (imaginary) imperfections. When Quinn has come to Daria for serious advice, Daria has given it to the best of her ability.
Daria has shown some sharp insight into her sister. In "Psycho Therapy", she stated Quinn "wears superficiality like a suit of armor, because she's afraid to looking inside and finding absolutely nothing"; in "Lucky Strike", she snaps at Quinn that she knows she's not stupid.
By the final episodes, their relationship warms considerably. In "Aunt Nauseum", she even says to Quinn that they won't be arguing as adults like their mother and aunts do.
Relationship with Aunt Amy
While she only appeared in three episodes, Aunt Amy was highly significant for Daria's character: she shows a possible way an older Daria could turn out, something both of them were aware of in "I Don't". They share similar intellects and sarcastic humours, and were shown to get on extremely well. Later, Daria would be shown turning to Amy for advice and assistance.
In "Aunt Nauseum", however, Daria was disillusioned to find Amy was just as flawed as her mother and Aunt Rita, and was only contributing to a problem. Daria and Quinn had to solve it themselves, and Amy recognized that fact.
Relationship with classmates
| “ | Maybe that [essay] about feeling like a big misfit whom everybody hates. The other kids will really relate to that. | „ |
—Timothy O'Neill, talking with Daria in "Cafe Disaffecto", | ||
- Brittany Taylor: A popular, bubbly, air-headed cheerleader, another antithesis of Daria. Despite their wildly different... everythings, Brittany appears to view Daria as her friend and is constantly approaching her to chat, even though Daria views her as an irritant and often makes derogatory comments to or about her. Daria will sometimes find herself helping Brittany ("The Invitation", "The Misery Chick"), while Brittany will sometimes go out of her way to help Daria ("The Old and the Beautiful", "Through a Lens Darkly"). She sometimes mentions Daria's unpopularity or plain looks, but unthinkingly (as if they're simple facts) rather than maliciously. When she found out Daria was dating Jane's old boyfriend, she sounded both amused and impressed.
- Kevin Thompson: A popular football player and Brittany's boyfriend. Daria enjoys manipulating his stupidity like she did Beavis and Butt-head, and often insults him: he doesn't understand most of her insults. Despite this, as with Brittany, he seems to view her as a friend: often seeking her advice ("The Misery Chick", "Too Cute") while unthinkingly bringing up her unpopularity at the same time, and in "The Big House" and "Ill", being concerned for her welfare. In "Partner's Complaint" though, he panicked at the idea of hanging out with Daria for any length of time. He once thought Tom was joking when he said he was Daria's date. ("Is It Fall Yet?")
- Jodie Landon: She's one of the very few students that are on Daria's level intellectually. She and Daria sometimes clash over their divergent viewpoints or over Daria's misanthropic attitude ("Gifted", "Partner's Complaint", "Fizz Ed"). Despite their personality clashes, Jodie often starts conversations with Daria and will often seek her advice (Daria will sometimes snark instead). Notably, in "Gifted" both girls admitted they sometimes wished they could be more like the other. She is socially friendly with Daria: she has invited her to the Landon 4th of July parties; she is concerned with Daria's welfare.
- Upchuck: The school's horn-dog. He first met her in "The Invitation" and has repeatedly crossed paths with her ever since, nearly always trying to flirt and get a date. Daria responds to this with horror and put-downs; Upchuck views her as "fiesty!", and in "The Daria Diaries" we find out he has included an unnamed outline of Daria in his website's "Gallery of Feisty Babes", implying a genuine crush.
- Fashion Club: Quinn's fashion-obsessed friends. Daria's path has crossed with theirs several times, much to the horror of both sides; they'll only deliberately seek her out if they're desperate. The Club used to pretend they didn't know Daria was Quinn's sister. Daria and Jane once casually bet on whether the Club would dissolve, and then tried to nudge events ("Fat Like Me"). Sometimes, when Sandi Griffin is clearly trying something against Quinn, Daria will take minor action to help her sister ("Just Add Water").
- Andrea: A moody Goth. Her one encounter with Daria was in "Mart of Darkness", when Daria and Jane caught her in an embarrassing situation: she angrily challenged them to "cut me up like you do everyone else". (This led to embarrassment all round when Jane admitted she just wanted to buy a shoelace.) This shows Daria is unpopular even with other outcast kids, seen as an unpleasant figure to be avoided.
Despite all these people she knows, and the clear signs that the former three view her as a friend, Daria has referred to Jane as her only friend. She has also referred to being isolated - and most of the school doesn't talk to her - and has made mention of going for days without being approached by anyone. ("Write Where it Hurts")
Outside of Jane and (briefly) Ted, Daria never had any real contact or attempts at contact with the other outcast students at Lawndale. (Glenn Eichler has stated this was deliberate: "[we didn't want to] create a comfortable alternative world where Daria and Jane could be stars among their misfit peers... to do a show about the misfits finding happiness through solidarity.")
Relationship with teachers
Any teacher that has Daria for any length of time develops strong opinions of her, and she often finds herself being drawn into their subplots:
- Timothy O'Neill, her Language Arts/English/Drama Horizons teacher, first met her as part of the self-esteem workshop she was stuck in. He recognises and admires her writing skills and grasp of literature & art, and often calls on her to give answers in class & volunteer extra work and will sometimes be 'inspired' by things she says to do class assignments (he seems to come up with them himself while she protests). Ever since she graduated from self-esteem class early (by cheating), he's viewed her as someone he's mentoring (and says he's her "writing mentor" in "The Lost Girls"); he never seems to acknowledhe that he's irritating her and that she'd rather he stop bothering her. In "The Daria Diaries" he says that dealing with Daria is emotional bruising for him but he sticks with it because she reminds him of himself as a child. For her part, he's one of her main foes: in "The F Word" she's barely bothered that he's had a major crisis of faith and only helps him to use him against Quinn; she deliberately goes for the jugular in "Cafe Disaffecto"; expresses contempt for his rewriting in "Arts 'N Crass"; and when talking to troubled kid Link, she says that even if O'Neill asked her to talk to the lad "I would never tell him anything anyway".
- Anthony DeMartino, her History teacher, initially distrusted her because she, alone in his class, knew the answers and snapped at her to not show off. He later warmed to her, as she actually paid attention in class and was competent. She makes him want to kill himself "a little less", he tells her in "Just Add Water"; by the end of the series, he's cheering her as she receives an award for her academic achievement. Daria is quite happy to make sarcastic comments about his angry outbursts but otherwise seems to get on well with him.
- Claire Defoe and Diane Bennett have little interaction with Daria but do note that her work is good.
- Janet Barch is a teacher who is in favour of Daria's academic skill (and her being a woman). Daria finds Barch's rabid misandry laughable and is often willing to snark about her (out of Barch's hearing). "The Lab Brat" shows that Daria is adept at manipulating Barch when she so chooses, preying on her hatred for men to achieve her own ends.
- Ms. Morris was a minor antagonist in "See Jane Run", with Daria finding herself clashing with the gym coach when she tries to sneak cheerleading practice into class. The two dislike each other and Morris thinks little of her, and does eventually force Daria to engage in the practice.
- Principal Li is Daria's other main foe and, unlike O'Neill, deliberately malevolent: the two have clashed, both verbally and all-out, on occasions. Li is eager to use Daria's academic achievements for the benefit of the school and, along with every other student, force and threaten her into "volunteering" and schemes. Daria will sometimes push back and sometimes brings down Li's schemes outright ("This Year's Model") and a number of times has had to clear up or navigate a mess Li's made ("Just Add Water", "Antisocial Climbers"). The principal had to begrudgingly give Daria an award for academic achievement at graduation and was very unhappy about it, while Jane was surprised Daria didn't assault Li with the award.
Daria and Romance
While a simplistic view of Daria's personal view of relationships with boys can be seen as being summed up in a single line, spoken to Jane in Dye! Dye! My Darling: "Can you picture me making out with anyone? Ever?" (this view made even more so when taking Trent Lane into the picture from his very first appearance in the series) - an in-depth observation of the character reveals her to genuinely be interested in romance. However, she's:
a) Soured by by what she perceives as the idiocy of the young men around her in both Highland and Lawndale - "It's a Miserable Life" outright states exposure to Butt-head destroyed her interest in men (and shows her with a boyfriend in a world where Butt-head never existed). She has developed very high standards for men.
b) Unwilling to open up emotionally, and possesses a fear of physical intimacy
Her crush on Trent was never acted upon, even though Trent was aware of it and would sometimes gently play up to it; this was most notable in "Pierce Me", where he told her how "hot" a piercing would make her and in a clearly flirtatious way. She'd try to cover up her crush but sudden loss of speech ("This Year's Model") or outright blushing ("Pierce Me") made it obvious. "Pierce Me" showed a dream about Trent, which turned into a nightmare when she dreamt Trent would have no interest in her at all and find the very idea laughable. She would eventually realize they just wouldn't be compatible ("Jane's Addition"), thought she'd realized before that he would make for an unreliable partner and what made him seem cool now would be pathetic in later: when trying to visualize their future together, her first vision was Trent as an unemployed, lazy failure whom she had to support ("Lane Miserables"). After the end of the crush, her relationship with Trent developed into a good friendship with a lot of trust; Trent even came to her aid with some well placed advice in "Fire!", showing that he isn't as oblivious as he puts on, and was still friendly and helpful towards her even after she was on the odds with Jane.
She had a brief sort-of relationship with Ted DeWitt-Clinton, who showed interest in her and which she found herself interested in back; however, she automatically tried to push him away and was highly nervous of the idea of hooking up with him. She eventually decided to give it a try, but it was too late and they drifted apart.
Tom Sloane was her first real boyfriend and she initially tried to push him away, as with Ted; while guilt over betraying Jane played a part, Daria was clearly rattled by Tom's angry point that she was afraid to have a relationship in case it made her "vulnerable". Tom's different class would go on to cause problems, as would her recurring inability to verbalize any problems she had (such as her concerns he was taking her for granted, "Sappy Anniversary"); Daria tended to have a lot of problems, being nervous and edgy on many occasions as she tried to navigate unfamiliar territory. Despite problems, she was insightful enough to notice and eventually apologize when she was being difficult with Tom; the two would usually talk through these issues by the end of the day. Daria would sometimes turn to Tom for advice.
The relationship managed to last for almost a year, but came under clear strain (again) during the college application period, partly due again to differing views & social circumstances, and partly due to actions by Tom that Daria didn't properly challenge: she ended up losing out on visiting Boston campuses after Tom decided, without asking her first, to stay at Bromwell longer to network with a professor (to get "influence" sent both their ways), and didn't view it as a big deal that they'd have less time (and, when they were hideously late, joked it was a good thing they didn't get to Bromwell this late, pissing her off). In one scene in "Is It College Yet?" (cut from the DVDs) Daria had abruptly called off a date a few seconds after agreeing to it. She was also initially put off by his offer to try and use family influence to get her into Bromwell, saying to Jane it felt like "some crappy romance novel where the troubled young viscount decides the lowly stable girl is good enough for him after all" and that she didn't see why their word should mean more than her own abilities.
Soon after, Daria ended the relationship herself, stating they were taking two different paths and becoming bored of the relationship. (She spent the next few days despondent and fearing that "opt[ing] for honesty" was going to leave her alone and unloved) She would admit to Tom that, on reflection, she had enjoyed their time together, and the two agreed to remain on friendly terms.
When her romantic fantasies were shown, they were often classically romantic ("Lane Miserables", and "Pierce Me" has her briefly dreaming that Trent wrote a song about her). Her actual relationship with Tom wasn't like that at all: as noted in "Sappy Anniversary", they usually stayed at each other's homes watching TV and rarely went out, and they rarely made romantic gestures. Daria was only bothered by this in "Sappy" when, after a discussion with Quinn, she became worried that the lack of outward romance meant she was being taken for granted.
In "My Night at Daria's", the issue of sex came up: it was said it had previously done so, and Daria hadn't been ready. When she decided to try with Tom, she was annoyed that he was more ready and verbally attacked him for keeping condoms in his wallet; she then bottled it at the last minute, and assumed Tom would want to break up with her over it. She would admit to him that the idea of that much physical intimacy was too overwhelming and scared her, with a secondary fear that Tom would be "disappointed" with her performance. In the earlier, off-canon canon IIFY Post-Movie Chat, Daria - shortly after IIFY? - said she found Tom sexy "in a "don't come near me, I'm not ready yet" sort of way".
Personal Style and Decor
Daria's personal style is considered off-putting by her mother and sister; Helen thinks she might be more popular with a less formidable look, and Quinn was delighted when she thought Daria had come to her for fashion advice in "Through A Lens, Darkly". In an 'interview' with Women's Wear Daily, Daria remarked "my signature look reflects my belief that you should not be judged by your clothes" and that "my boots send a clear message: "I can kick you" ". She also notably wore no makeup, causing confusion among the Fashion Club in "The Invitation". However, in "Lens, Darkly" she tried going without her glasses out of a desire to look more conventionally attractive; in the end, after accepting her bit of vanity, she decided to go back to glasses and "to hell" with people who found them a problem.
From Season 4, she began wearing light lipstick. She had previously worn it in "Road Worrier" (because of Trent's presence) but denied she was wearing it. This is the only bit of makeup she has worn.
Aside from lipstick, Daria had - also in "Road Worrier" - changed her look by just wearing normal denim jeans and a black T-shirt, wore a zip-up gray fleece in Season 5 a few times, and has worn hiking gear in "Antisocial Climbers". Otherwise, she has to be forced into wearing or obliged to wear other clothes (such as "I Don't").
Daria's room at home has padded walls, railings, and cut off bars in the windows. She explains that the previous owner of the house had a family member with schizophrenia. Her mother wants to redecorate the room, but Daria manages to keep it the way it is, telling Jane that she "stumbles form time to time" whenever her mother brings it up.
At Lawndale High the only decor in her locker is a photograph of The Hindenburg Disaster.
Daria's writing
Throughout the series, we're told by other characters that Daria is a good writer. We rarely see any examples of Daria's writing, with the following exceptions: "The Daria Diaries" has part of a creative writing homework assignment, "Cafe Disaffecto" and "The Old and the Beautiful" have excerpts of her Melody Powers stories, and "Write Where it Hurts" shows multiple examples.
Outside of "Write", all of the above - as well as the "The Story of D", references to writing "violent revenge fantasies" in "Boxing Daria", and a mention of a story she was writing in "Is It College Yet?" (cut from the DVD) - show that Daria enjoys writing violent, disturbing fiction with a black sense of humor. They appear to be somewhat lurid as well, the first Melody Powers story (and likely the homework assignment in "Write") was deliberately over the top to get back at Mr O'Neill. The virus story in "The Story of D" used a variety of writing styles.
"Write Where it Hurts" has Daria writing a realistic light drama about her own family, depicting how she'd like their future to be. While idealized, she showed an ability to write realist scenes.
She has also written non-fiction, usually articles that launch a blistering attack on things she doesn't like: these include an article about her alienation (where she compares her class to "barnyard animals") in "Disaffecto", an article called "My So-Called Angst" in "The Lost Girls", and an attack on the idea of begging for scholarship money as part of a scholarship application in "Prize Fighters". In all three cases, this material was well-received but in the application's case, the intended readers - Wizard Computers - didn't really understand it.
"The Lost Girls" and "The Story of D" have work by Daria (non-fiction and fiction respectively) submitted for publication; in the first case, O'Neill did it without telling her, and in the latter Daria did it after pushing from Tom. She was highly reluctant in "The Story of D", stating she felt she wasn't good enough for publication and being afraid of trying only to face rejection. The article in "Lost Girls" was going to be published in Val Magazine (until Daria annoyed Val); her virus story in "D" was rejected by the magazine Musings as not being suitable, but they encouraged her to submit again, something they rarely did.
Daria's future
All we know about Daria's post-canon life is that she goes to Raft College. We don't know what course she did there. We do know how Daria and other people viewed her future as turning out, at different points:
- In Highland, Daria is interested in becoming an investigative reporter/enquiring photographer combo and is left frustrated when the Highland Herald will only let her be a fashion photographer "because I'm a girl". ("Sporting Goods") Later on, in "Career Day", she was hanging around the booth for an educational publishing company.
- In "The Daria Diaries", she expresses a desire to be a writer... "a bitter, angry hack who starts fights fistfights at cocktail parties."
- "Write Where it Hurts" shows how she wants life to be, circa S2: in her story, she's a married woman and a crusading writer whose columns are influential. She's also getting on well with both her mother and Quinn.
- "The Daria Database" and other points reveal that during S2, Daria was saving up to buy herself a remote cabin in Montana.
- Her career aptitude test said that she has the perfect personality to be a mortician. ("It Happened One Nut")
- While imagining how life with Trent would be, Daria sees herself as a lab technician working with genetics. (Interestingly, she sees herself with a son here, where she was proudly childless in her previous fantasy)
- Helen tells her that she's in serious danger of becoming incapable of human interaction in "Is It Fall Yet?". A year later, after her relationship with Tom failed, Daria was briefly afraid that she'd be lonely forever ("Is It College Yet?").
- A gag "future ego" at the end of IICY? showed her and Jane as breakfast TV hosts on a self-titled show.
Fanfic Stereotypes
Daria Triumphant
Daria Triumphant (see also here) is the Daria of seasons one and two, the Daria who always wins at the end of the episode or, at worst, breaks even. She is the one most in tune with what's really going on, the one best able to detect hypocrisy, duplicity, idiocy, pretension, and doomed enterprises—and avoid them. (Jane can do this 90% of the time, but her libido screws it up a little, as with Evan in "See Jane Run.") Daria does all this while being a lazy, irritable, smart-mouthed teenager unencumbered by self-doubt or fear of authority. She is nobody's fool and is the master of her own ship.
The third season drifted away from this characterization (in "Just Add Water" this trope never appears), and The Kiss and The Triangle largely spelled the end of it. However, the trope reappeared once in a rare while (e.g., "Fizz Ed"), though Daria had to struggle harder to win out in the end, or at least break even. This change appears related to Daria getting older and having to deal with a more complicated world than before, especially in series 5: "Prize Fighters" even has her and Jane noting that they're dealing with problems they never used to because they're getting older.
Genius Daria
That Daria is quite intelligent is a given, but exactly how intelligent she is has been a subject for intense debate. It is usually the case that she is exactly as intelligent as a fanfic author wants her to be, and in some cases she can be a savant on almost any topic imaginable. Extremes tend to portray Daria as knowledgeable about everything from the proper use of high explosives to calculus. It is not often that Daria admits in fanfic that she doesn't know the answer to a particular problem.
Bitch Daria
In contrast to the standard fanfic portrayal of Daria as a persecuted hero who overcomes the stupidity of others, an increasingly popular fanfic portrayal of Daria is of Daria not as the persecuted, but the persecutor. In such stories, Daria is portrayed not as the only intelligent person in a world given to shallowness, but as a woman of harsh standards applied to others with a judgmental and intolerant attitude. Usually, this intolerance is given as the reason for Daria's social unpopularity; in other words, Daria's outcast status is her own fault, because she sees herself as better than her peers, either knowingly or unknowingly. The amount of blame cast on Daria and her opportunities for redemption vary from writer to writer and story to story. The line between protagonist and antagonist is often blurred in such fics, as Daria can be seen as both or neither, as at least some of her behavior and character is cast in a negative light. (See Evil Daria.)
"Bitch Daria" notably appeared in canon as well, usually after the debut of Tom Sloane, as the show made the character (and viewers) acknowledge her more negative traits: examples would be "See Jane Run", "Jane's Addition", "Partner's Complaint".
Intimations of this viewpoint can be seen even in some early fics, such as Admonisher's "Daria's Christmas Carol" and Austin Covello's "Otherwise Known as Quinn the Great," but the genre was first fully developed in Brother Grimace's fics, "The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow" and "It's All About Respect." See also The Angst Guy's "Prisoner of Hope."
Sexy Daria
According to some fans of Daria, there are episodes such as "Quinn the Brain" that indicate Daria is just as physically attractive (if not more so) than the majority of girls at Lawndale High. Because of these episodes, a fanfic stereotype has arisen in which Daria actively resists making herself sexually desirable to the opposite sex for several reasons. Paramount among them are her admittedly high standards and her fear of being hurt emotionally after putting her trust in others. Thus, she refuses to put herself in situations where romance is a possibility.
In some of these fics, Daria is either passive or actively working towards maintaining her facade of unattractiveness for the reasons stated above; in some cases, she lowers her guard to devastating results. Fics of this nature include "The Beaches of Barksdale" by Galen Hardesty. A second subset of this trope involves Daria lowering her defenses, including the changing of her canonic garb and manstopper glasses, as she finds a person worthy of trust; in stories of this nature, Daria (when allowing her physical nature to assert itself) is usually seen as a woman with a extraordinarily romantic and passionate nature, as she has found someone to express her inner desires and feelings with without fear of rejection, betrayal or abandonment. Such fics and serials include the works of Richard Lobinske, The Other Side of Time series by The Sidhe, the I trust you Dariarotica comic by Wouter and the Pause in the Air series by The Angst Guy.
One notable inversion of this trope is found fics such as Galen Hardesty's "Kidnapped", "Turnabout Confusion" by Dennis, "The Devil in Miss Morgendorffer" by Brother Grimace, and the Legion of Lawndale Heroes series. In this subtrope, Daria is discovered to be attractive, but not willingly or by her own choice, and still comports herself as before while also how having to fend off the slavering attraction of young men (and some women). BlackHole's "Size Does Matter" may also fall into this subtrope, as well.
Some fans also feel that the use of depictions of physical intimacy within such fics can be seen as a barometer of the quality of the work; these fans believe that with a greater use of graphic scenes of intimacy within the work, there is a equal decrease of the overall quality of the fic involved. These fans believe that the best fics depicting this Daria trope illuminate Daria's blossoming or aroused sexual/romantic nature without the need for such intimate details, and by not using them, project a more arousing image of the character.
Cold Daria
This is the often-seen trope that Daria is too cold, emotionally distant, or emotionally damaged to successfully have a romantic relationship without significant changes to her personality. In the early years of the fandom, some writers supposed that Daria had been sexually molested as a child in Highland, perhaps by Beavis and Butt-head, Todd Ianuzzi, or other lowlifes. As a consequence she does not want to be touched, hugged, etc. (For one example, see Daria: The OAV's.) The concept is still used in fanfiction in various dramatic ways.
Violent Daria
In the series, Daria rarely showed an inclination to hit anyone, and then it was only in childhood sibling fights with Quinn (not counting the time Daria punched Quinn at the end of "The New Kid"). Still, her attitude and obvious anger issues have led some fanfic writers to assume Daria is violence-prone and willing to strike out if pushed far enough (or if pushed even a little bit). She has even shown this attitude toward Jane at times, which is rather startling to read. One shocking example of this variation is seen in "It's All About Respect," when Daria verbally decimates Trent Lane and Jesse Moreno, and then, in a memorable scene, tears through three rogue bikers (one of whom, among other injuries, loses a testicle) who attempt to rape her and steals their valuables afterward. "Heroes" by Lew Richardson features a montage where Daria, after being pushed past the brink, manages to severely brutalise drunken thugs without even being fully aware of what's going on.
This can also be linked in with Bitch Daria, and especially linked to Evil Daria. It can sometimes be the end result of a Shattered Daria situation, where Daria has undergone some trauma and comes out of it more violent and dangerous: NightGoblyn's "The Misery Chicks" is an example of this.
Daria the Telepath
Although there are many stories where Daria and her friends are superheroes or possess powers, it seems that there is a subtle bent in fanfic towards Daria possessing psychic abilities (usually telepathy or some form of mind control). Among those stories are:
- Estrangesters, by Ostragoth
- It's All About Respect, by Brother Grimace
- It's All About The Mission, by Psychotol
- Legion of Lawndale Heroes, by Roentgen and Brother Grimace
- Hell Hath No Fury, by Danny Bronstein
- Avalon, by Legendeld
- False Starts by thatLONERchick ("The Psychic One," appropriately enough)
Autistic Daria
Since 2005, the idea has been periodically raised as to whether Daria might be a high-functioning autistic person or have Asperger's Syndrome. Numerous threads on PPMB have been spun around this idea, as well as one notable fanfic.
- Daria and Asperger Syndrome (2010)
- Thanks, Shinai, whoever you are... (2008)
- Is She or Isn't She? Autistic, I Mean (2008, DFB2 post with comments)
- How intelligent is Daria, anyway? (2005, segment)
- Is Daria Autistic? (2005, the original thread)
- "Pieces of the Rainbow" by Shinai (fanfic about Daria having autism)
Shattered Daria
Episodes like See Jane Run (where Daria talks to herself when Jane seems gone) and Boxing Daria (where she mentally & physically retreats into the box) show Daria at risk of nervous breakdowns when under extreme stress. A large number of angst-based fics have run with this, with Daria having breakdowns, developing strangely, or always having been psychologically disturbed. This trait is sometimes related to the Cold Daria and Violent Daria traits, and is sometimes the basis for Evil Daria.
Examples of Shattered Daria include Daria 2007: The Girl from Hope by The Angst Guy.
Notes
About Daria's Intelligence and Knowledge