Tired Daria Fandom Tropes: Difference between revisions

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. Helen was invariably trying to push Daria into being more social and taking more of a part in school activities (re: her conversation with Daria about masks in ''[[Is It Fall Yet?]]''), but Helen became more relaxed in later seasons, sometimes giving Daria good advice and trying to help her daughter ("[[Dye! Dye! My Darling]]"), if not always successfully.

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, this characterization of Helen as antagonist was carried to extremes, with [[Helen#Evil Helen|Helen the Queen Hell Bitch on Wheels]].

Sometimes, Helen's goal in fanfiction was to have Daria be more like Quinn. (This goal is often '''not''' stated explicitly.) More that one story was written about Helen believing that Daria needed psychiatric help to change her sullen and cynical personality. These stories involved Helen committing Daria to the type of institution that was closed in the 1750s. In these stories, Helen is at her preachy and domineering worst, not willing to consider anyone else's opinion but her own, implicitly trusting in authority and giving that authority power to turn all of its force against her daughter. Helen's interpretation as the Ultimate Evil Mother has diminished since the airing of episodes such as "[[I Don't]]" and "[[Psycho Therapy]]," which made Helen a more sympathetic character.