Timothy O'Neill: Difference between revisions
→Character Overview
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In "[[Cafe Disaffecto]]", he said he identified with Daria's essay about "being a big misfit whom everyone hates" and "[[The Daria Diaries]]" have him say he identifies with Daria (see below). This implies interesting things about his childhood days. We learn more in "The Daria Diaries" when he says Daria reminds him "of myself at a young age, before I discovered Gestalt and the writings of M. Scott Peck". He doesn't specify what this means, but it comes after he says he believes Daria has deep rooted issues and is detached from people. It's possible that the younger O'Neill had problems with loneliness. We know two other things about young O'Neill: he wanted more than anything else to join the high school gymnastics team, he tried and tried, and then didn't make the grade after all ("[[Quinn the Brain]]"); and he joined a fraternity at college, where he had to recite the Gettysburg Address while wearing a rainbow wig and panties that said "Tuesday" ("Cafe Disaffecto").
His teaching beliefs, according to "[[Quinn the Brain]]", are that any student can achieve academically if their imagination and interest are engaged, and he clearly attempts to do this - he just proves unable to pull it off. When a problem student ''has'' improved in class, he has been known to 'reward' this by displaying the student or their new work to the school... which mortifies the student in question. ("[[Esteemsters]]", "[[Quinn the Brain]]") He is really eager to be seen by students as their friends and not just have a teacher/student relationship. This leads to things like him inviting himself to student parties. ("[[Groped by an Angel]]")
In "[[Fair Enough]]", for the first and only time he snapped at a student who was acting up ([[Brittany Taylor]]) to get them to pay attention, but immediately went back to his usual style after he'd got their attention. Later, when Kevin never turned up, O'Neill showed a brief glimpse of anger in referring to him as "sabotaging our play".
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O'Neill suffers from an allergy to pollen, and carries an inhaler ("[[Antisocial Climbers]]").
The series finale/made-for-TV movie, ''[[Is It College Yet?]],'' featured O'Neill accidentally becoming engaged to Ms. Barch, and being coached by Mr. DeMartino on how to break off the relationship. The results are amusing.
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