Melody Powers
Melody Powers is a fictional spy character developed by Daria Morgendorffer and included in stories featured in the episodes "Cafe Disaffecto" and "The Old and the Beautiful." The character's stories appear to be set during the Cold War, as she uses sex appeal and bloody brutality to fight Communists. What little we know of Daria's writing indicates that her Melody Powers stories are rather over-the-top with death and violence, almost parodying the genre of spy fiction.
Melody Powers in Fanfiction
Having Daria write Melody Powers stories has become a staple in fanfiction writing. In Richard Lobinske's Last Summer and Falling Into College stories, Daria published a total of four Melody Powers stories with an action pulp magazine called Literature in Action. Daria has a Melody Powers story published in "Prayer for a SAINT" that causes unexpected problems.
Fanfic writers occasionally try their hand at writing Melody Powers stories as they imagine Daria would do them. Galen Hardesty probably gave the best rendition with "Blood Oath of Patriots" and "Blood Oath of Patriots II: By Any Other Name." Mystik Slacker's "Melody Powers in 'Butcher, Baker, Cancer-stick Maker'" and Wyvern337's "Academic Imprisonment" are also excellent, and Mahna Mahna's "The Last Words Heard" has a perfectly wicked ending. Other tales in this vein worth reading include Bob Marley's "Melody's End."
Sometimes in fanfiction, Melody is written as a self-insertion or Mary Sue of Daria herself. Melody might even be Daria in disguise (e.g., "Alias: Melody Powers," by Kendra Steiner; "Melody Powers a.k.a. Daria Morgendorffer," by James Scanlan). Mystik Slacker's True Cynicism tales have Daria make a shocking discovery that leads her into a life not unlike Melody's. (This also happens in "Prayers for a SAINT.")
In a few stories, Melody is a real person in the Dariaverse or is brought to life therein.
This article is a stub. You can help DariaWiki by expanding it.