Tired Daria Fandom Tropes: Difference between revisions
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[[File:StoryOfD_01.jpg|230px|thumb|right|Daria, about to commit some tropes.]]
The '''Tired Daria Fandom Tropes''' are those identifiable and worn plots, character types, argumentative moves, and figures of speech in ''Daria'' fanwork and fandom itself. As Jesus said of the poor, they will always be with us; hence this guide. Many weary tropes are often resurrected as [[Dead Daria Fandom Arguments]] in message-board threads and chat rooms.
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==General considerations==
Just because a trope has become tired over time doesn't mean that it was always tired; for example, there may have been striking examples of stories where
Furthermore, a present-day author might still try to resuscitate a well-known tired trope by bringing a fresh interpretation - unfortunately, many of these tropes have been tried so many times that new stories in the same vein are challenging tasks.
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===The Daria & Trent shipper===
[[File:DariaTrentPierceMe.jpg|300px|thumb|right|If you were writing fanfic in 1997-9, you probably wrote this. ADMIT IT.]]
With Season One of Daria, it was clear that [[Daria Morgendorffer|Daria]] had a crush on [[Trent Lane|Trent]] that was more or less fully realized by "[[Road Worrier]]." Since late Season One, Daria fans have tried to match Daria and Trent romantically, even after it was made clear by Glenn Eichler in "[[Jane's Addition]]" that Daria and Trent would have been incompatible.
From [[Invisigoth Gypsy]] to [[Diane Long]] to [[Michelle Klein-Hass]], many of the earlier Daria writers could be considered "'shippers" or "relationshippers"—writers interested in seeing this "obvious" relationship reach its conclusion. Even after "[[Jane's Addition]]," fanfiction writers like [[Ruthless Bunny]] wrote of Daria/Trent relationships, basically as "what might have been" exercises, taking incompatibility issues into account. The "'shipper" contingent remained active until the earlier writers dropped out of the fandom and newer writers who entered the fandom later and had foreknowledge that Daria and Trent were doomed as a couple decided to explore Daria in other relationships. However, even some recent writers, such as [[Sleepy Lotus]], continue to produce Daria/Trent shipper stories.
As with anything taken to extremes, early relationship writing ranged from the lachrymose to the [[melodrama]]tic to the inept to the (occasionally) thoughtful. Most of the early Daria/Trent writing was quite poor and is frankly best forgotten, or was written in the middle of the series when the full scope of the mutual incompatibility of Daria and Trent was neither recognized nor made explicit.
Today, there are very few writers who write with an eye to pairing Daria and Trent as a couple. However, it's so well known with fans that [[Susie Lewis]] had to go out of her way in [[Catching Up With The Daria Gang]] to state she was over him.
===The Daria / Jane slash fic===
One of the long-debated questions in Daria fandom is [[Homosexuality in Daria|"Are Daria and Jane homosexual?"]] Any strong friendship between two same-sex members in the media will lead to speculation that the friendship is more than just a friendship. Even though writer [[Glenn Eichler]] and longtime fans like [[Martin J. Pollard|Martin Pollard]] have given well-reasoned arguments as to the contrary, and "[[Is It Fall Yet?]]" has Jane arguing she's heterosexual, those fans who either disagree with those conclusions
This potential pairing has been explored in a number of ways, and viewed from multiple chronological vantage points, from the coming out of one of the characters to the other to a look at both characters several years into a committed relationship. It has been written both as romance and as one-hand-typing pornography.
Still, the Daria/Jane slashing persists, instead of less obvious slashing like Helen/Amanda, or perhaps male slashing like Kevin/Upchuck, each of which sadly goes unwritten while we read the 367th variation of a Daria/Jane relationship.
===Daria triumphs over all odds
Much of [[
Most of this fanfiction was written while Season One and Two were still on the air. Very little fanfiction is now written in which Daria makes defeating an annoying presence as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, though it will still happen - especially for short comedies, where it makes a satisfying punchline.
The Daria Triumphant trope is very closely related to the [[Daria Morgendorffer#Genius Daria|Genius Daria]] stereotype, for obvious reasons.
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===Quinn gets raped===
[[Image:QuinnOHNO!!.jpg|thumb|200px|left|"YOU WROTE ''WHAT?''"]]
According to CINCGREEN, there are four components to what is called [[melodrama]] (what in some quarters might be called [[angst]]):▼
▲According to [[Roentgen|CINCGREEN]], there are four components to what is called [[melodrama]] (what in some quarters might be called [[angst]]):
:* a sensational, "movie of the week" topic
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:* a moral which more or less reaffirms the "forbidden maxims" of society. These maxims may be opposed to the beliefs to which society gives lip service.
Any story written which is centered around Quinn's rape certainly satisfies the first of those criteria: such a story would be the very definition of sensationalism. Two authors have written stories where Quinn is raped and attempt to explore the consequences: "[[So Turns the Wheel]]" by [[Michelle Klein-Hass]] and the better-known "[[Sins of the Past]]," by [[Martin J. Pollard|Martin Pollard]]. In general, the stories of both Klein-Hass and Pollard were well received.
In summer of 1999, [[Kara Wild]] wrote an essay, "[[On the Subject of Quinn and Rape]]." Although relatively mild compared to the criticism that would follow, her essay took Pollard, Klein-Hass, and [[Peter Guerin]] to task for seeming to validate the notion that rape could redeem Quinn. She argued that the reverse was just as likely, and pointed to [[John Berry]]'s [[My Quinn's Delayed Reaction]] as an example of a way Quinn could redeem herself <i>without</i> experiencing violence. In response, Klein-Hass was horrified that her work might be interpreted as a justification for rape, while Pollard admitted to Wild that he could see her point of view. Klein-Hass would later amend "[[So Turns the Wheel]]" to eliminate the "rape redemption" element.
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Pollard's position was that he certainly did not intend to make such an argument, and any interpretation contrary to his intention is an incorrect interpretation. He has declined further comment about the story, but still hosts it at Outpost Daria. Pollard, however, wrote no fan fiction since completing "Sins of the Past" until beginning "What Happens in Vegas...." near the end of 2009.
In general, "rapefic" rarely occurs in the fandom and when a character is targeted, it's often Daria.
==Tired characterization in ''Daria'' fan fic==
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===Tom is evil===
[[Image:Wealthy Tom.png|thumb|150px|"I don't need morals! I'm ''rich'', you pleb!"]]
Since the arrival of [[Tom Sloane]], there have been fans that did not care for the new character designated to be Jane's boyfriend. After [[Daria Fandom Lexicon|The Kiss]], the dislike of some Daria fans for Tom Sloane boiled over to outright hatred. Perhaps part of the hatred was in the way that Tom cheated on Jane and perhaps part of the hatred arose from the fact that a Daria/Tom relationship put a big dent in the hopes of Daria/Trent relationshippers to match Daria with her earlier crush. Part of it might have been pure disappointment in Daria, too, as she had claimed such a high moral standard before.▼
▲Since the arrival of [[Tom Sloane]], there have been fans that did not care for the new character designated to be Jane's boyfriend. After [[Daria Fandom Lexicon|The Kiss]], the dislike of some Daria fans for Tom Sloane boiled over to outright hatred. Perhaps part of the hatred was in the way that Tom cheated on Jane and perhaps part of the hatred arose from the fact that a Daria/Tom relationship put a big dent in the hopes of Daria/Trent relationshippers to match Daria with her earlier crush. Part of it might have been pure disappointment in Daria, too, as she had claimed such a high moral standard before.
A number of fans have viewed Tom as having at best malign indifference to the damage he does and, at worst, deliberately manipulating Daria while not caring about Jane. In
Recent
===Daria is omnicompetent and damn near omnipotent===
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As ''Daria'' writers explored further variations on this theme, Daria's opponents in early ''Daria'' fanfiction were not so easy to defeat as Kevin or Ms. Li. As little was known about Daria, many early writers fell into the temptation of granting Daria whatever competence it took to defeat her opponent. Daria sometimes had knowledge of firearms, obscure forms of martial arts, homemade explosives making, Internet hacking, Latin, or whatever esoteric skills that would not only ensure her victory, but make her look damn cool in the process.
However, as further was learned about Daria as the series went on, the temptation to portray Daria as an action movie heroine diminished proportionally.
==="Cold Daria"===
This is the concept that Daria is too cold and/or emotionally distant or damaged to successfully have a romantic relationship without significant changes to her personality. In the earliest years of the fandom, some fans and writers assumed that Daria had been the victim of sexual assault in the past and as a result preferred no one invade her personal space (e.g., see [[Daria: The OAV's]]). This plot twist reappears on occasion (e.g., [[TAG]]'s "[[Daria 2007: The Girl from Hope]]" and [[NightGoblyn]]'s "[[The Misery Chicks]]").
===Jane is always trying to set Daria up with Trent===
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===Helen is a vicious bitch===
Helen Morgendorffer in Seasons One and Two was treated by the ''Daria'' writers as a more inflexible character than in later seasons, one opposed to many of Daria's goals, particularly the goal of being let alone.
As writing stories about a character who wishes to be left alone is difficult, many stories have Daria forced into doing something she doesn't want, and in the early history of ''Daria'' fan fiction, the opposing force was her mother, Helen Morgendorffer.
Sometimes, Helen's goal in fanfiction was to have Daria be more like Quinn. (This goal is often '''not''' stated explicitly.)
===Daria is a supermodel beneath the glasses===
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In the episode "[[Quinn the Brain]]," Daria dresses like Quinn and pretends to seek popularity and beauty (for approximately 15 seconds) to keep Quinn from infringing on her intellectual turf. However, the sight of Daria ''sans'' glasses and wearing less gloomy clothes sparked the conceit that Daria was secretly a knockout.
Works of fiction like [[Nemo Blank]]'s "[[Retrograde Girl]]" actually had an amnesiac Daria become a successful model once away from the "
===Daria is already a great writer===
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===Jane is already a great painter===
[[Image:Jane Kahlo.png|thumb|left|200px|]]
There are much fewer stories where Jane Lane has reached the top of the artist world, or at least a comfortable position in it.
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===Mystik Spiral is a practice session away from the big time===
[[Image:HolySpiral2.png|thumb|350px|]]
Once again, the assumption by many fans is that if a character has skill in some area, that skill will lead to a successful career. However, in some cases, it is assumed that [[Trent Lane]] and his band mates in [[Mystik Spiral]] have enough raw talent to make it in the music industry, given the right breaks and the mastering of the open "D" tuning.
This view ignores a few facts:
Still, fan writers from [[Michelle Klein-Hass]] to [[Ruthless Bunny]] have written future tales with either Trent or Mystik Spiral possessing enough talent to eke a successful living from their music.
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On the other hand, later fans often see the Daria of later seasons of a much more complex and richer character than the "Daria Triumphant" character of Seasons One and Two. Many fans prefer to "write" the Daria of later seasons, which allows them to not only use Tom Sloane as a character but to provide a more flexible interpretation of characters like Helen Morgendorffer.
==="It was all downhill after The Kiss"===
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==="''Daria'' fandom is dying"===
[[Image:Gravedigger Daria.png|thumb|200px|left|]]
Now that ''Daria'' has been axed and has also been run and axed on two networks other than MTV, there is of course the perception that the fandom will in time fade away. The slow die-off of active fandom websites is also a concern. When it was announced in spring 2007 that [[Outpost Daria]] would no longer be updated (during the [[Great Daria Fandom Implosion of 2007]]), the shock was profound and served to drive a number of fans to update their own fledgling websites or start new ones.
In addition, a number of new authors and writers introduced themselves to the fandom, bringing with them a sense of renewal.
Daria fandom
Concern over this has returned in the late 2010s and early 2020s. However, it's difficult to know exactly how active fandom is. While the main message boards are certainly quieter than they once were, this doesn't mean that there isn't still activity on other platforms (message boards being rather archaic). Fandom is certainly more dispersed, but that's different from dying off. Regardless, many hope that [[Jodie]] will rouse some interest in [[Daria]] and bring in some more fans.
==="Unless a fic satisfies the set of criteria {α, β, γ, . . . } it isn't a real piece of ''Daria'' fan fiction"===
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For much of the history of the fandom, advocates of the two basic writing formats have debated the relative pros and cons of prose and script. At times, these debates have become heated and personal.
Many of the early and mid-period Daria fan fiction writers wrote in script form. [[Daria: The OAV's]], [[The Lost Seasons]], [[The Look Alike Series]], and the [[Driven Wild Universe]] are written as long form scripts, with lines prefaced by the name of a character (usually in capital letters) and followed by a line of dialogue.
Some writers have made the argument that they prefer this style to prose writing for several reasons:
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All in all, the argument is largely moot, as fine stories have been written in both script and prose; neither format needs to be excluded.
Some authors, such as [[Richard Lobinske]], have combined elements of both script format into prose writing in an attempt to capture the dialog facet of script within the prose structure. [[Scissors MacGillicutty]] had a different rationale for combining prose with script in [[Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?]]: a deliberate attempt to mimic early Daria fan fiction.
==="Angst bad, canon good"===
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Another panic broke out in winter of 1999/early 2000 when [[Michelle Klein-Hass]] pulled down [[Lawndale Commons]], right around the time [[C.E. Forman]], fandom's (then) most celebrated fanfic author, announced that he would not finish Lost Season Two of [[The Lost Seasons]] series. Fans were truly convinced then that <i>Daria</i> fandom would never recover, until Pollard and the [[Paperpusher]] established their own message boards.
The conventional wisdom that everyone was "jumping ship" really took hold after <i>Daria</i> finished its run on MTV in 2001-2002. Some fans announced that they had nothing to stick around for, while several noted fanfic authors, like [[Nemo Blank]], announced that they were writing their last fanfics ever. Many remaining fans were convinced that, with no fresh episodes, there would be nothing new to discuss, which meant <i>Daria</i> fandom would inevitably die out. While it is likely that the number of active members is fewer than when <i>Daria</i> was in its first run, fans have managed to find new topics or rally around new causes (like [[DVDaria]]). The fandom continues to pull through mass collapses (e.g., the [[Great Daria Fandom Implosion of 2007]]) and sail on, like every other fandom.
Even the death of Outpost Daria in June 2013 did nothing to stop the fandom - the bulk of it was saved as Outpost Daria Reborn and remains up.
==="The fandom went downhill after this person arrived"===
:[''That would be me.—[[The Angst Guy|TAG]]'']
==External Links==
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20110519133705/http://outpost-daria.com/fanfic/the_revised_daria_fanfic_cliche_drinking_game.html "The Revised Daria Fanfic Cliche Drinking Game"]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage TVTropes.org] is an extremely helpful website about the tropes used in many TV shows, and it even features [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Daria a page describing tropes seen on ''Daria'']
[[Category: Fandom]]
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