Blog:Daria Morgendorffer



Daria Morgendorffer was a minor character in the American animated MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head and the main character of another American animated series on MTV, Daria. She is a waifish, bespectacled, sardonic and incredibly smart teenage girl who dresses unfashionably and speaks in a low-pitched, monotonous voice. She made her very first appearance in the first episode of the second season of Beavis and Butt-Head, "Scientific Stuff" and her last appearance in Is It College Yet?. The character was created to be a foil to the main duo of Beavis and Butt-Head, but became such a popular character, she got her own spin-off in 1997.

Why She Rocks
1. She is one of the most memorable and iconic characters on MTV.

2. By MTV standards, her personality is extremely well-written, and her character development was very well done. She started off as direct yet insecure in the beginning of Daria, but eventually gained more confidence as she matured.

3. She was given a lot more depth and likability in Daria and went from a somewhat boring foil to a realistic take on a teenage misfit in the 1990s. She also continuously became more realistic as the series went on. The clichéd misfit trope is also looked at in a different way on her character, making her an even more interesting character.

4. She is a very relatable character to adolescent viewers.

5. She was such a popular character in Beavis and Butt-Head, she got her own show. How cool is that?

6. She is incredibly smart for somebody her age, and sometimes, she even sounds like an adult.

7. She is one of the funniest characters on MTV, and in animation overall, and her sarcastic, witty comments are hilarious!

8. While she is kind of a jerk, there are several moments that show that she really does have a heart:

·In "Esteemsters", she formed an inseparable friendship with Jane Lane GCW.

·In "Pinch Sitter", she formed a bond with Tad and Tricia Gupty, even though she admitted earlier in the episode that she hates kids (even when she was a kid).

·In "Too Cute", she tells Quinn that she is already beautiful and doesn't need plastic surgery.

·In "The Teachings Of Don Jake", she called 911 when she saw her family acting crazy as a result of eating the glitterberries.

·In "The New Kid", she apologizes to Ted DeWitt-Clinton for rejecting the necklace he made for her and even formed a slight bond with him.

·In "Write Where It Hurts", she wrote a story that implied that she hopes that her family will have a great life in the future.

·"Daria!" and "Jake Of Hearts" are two episodes with moments that show how much she really does care about her family.

·In "Speedtrapped", she (along with Quinn) went out of her way and rescued Jane from jail.

·In "Partner's Complaint", she apologized to Jodie Landon GCW for calling her a hypocrite and even had a moment with her mother. "Psycho Therapy" and "Dye! Dye! My Darling" also feature her having a nice talk with her mother.

·In "Mart Of Darkness", she (and Jane) took pity towards Andrea after finding out that she worked at the warehouse store and promised never to tell anyone about her job.

·In "I Loathe A Parade", she was much nicer towards Tom Sloane LCW and she went out of her way to help Tad Gupty find his family after he was lost at the homecoming parade.

·In the first Daria movie, Is It Fall Yet?, she made an attempt to help Link, a troubled child with problems she had when she was a kid and remorsefully apologized to Jane about the betrayal in "Dye! Dye! My Darling" before the two resolved their friendship.

·"The Story Of D" and "Of Human Bonding" show her getting along better with her father. She also apologizes to Tom in "The Story Of D" after realizing he was being supportive after her story was rejected.

·In "Lucky Strike", she made sure that Mr. Edwards didn't try to hook up with Tiffany and reported it to her mother.

·In "Boxing Daria", she showed signs of maturity and remorse for what she thought was causing herself to feel like a burden on her parents and everyone else around her.

·In the second Daria movie, Is It College Yet?, she gave a great graduation speech and mentioned that she showed gratitude for having a good friend (Jane) and a loving family.

9. Heck, she can even get along with her sister Quinn sometimes, even though they seem like they hate each other. They eventually started getting along much more in season 5 of Daria.

10. She has an iconic and cool character design. If anything, her design in Daria is a huge improvement to her design in Beavis and Butt-Head.

11. She looks cute whenever she shows any emotion, especially when she made this face in "Depth Takes a Holiday".

12. Her close friendship with Jane Lane is very iconic, heartwarming and sweet.

·And let's not forget that iconic moment in a handful of Daria (1997) episodes where the two best friends go out for pizza!

13. She has a lot of funny and memorable quotes such as "I have low esteem for everyone else." and "I don't like to smile unless I have a reason.".

·"It's a guy and a girl, and they're discussing...a herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains."

14. Tracy Grandstaff did a brilliant job voicing her in her infamous, but iconic monotone.

15. Her great, unforgettable and empowering graduation speech in Is It College Yet?, as mentioned in WSR #8.

16. She is a great example of how a strong, independent female character can be well-written, as well as a female lead.

Bad Qualities
1. Admittedly, she is kind of a jerk despite being the main protagonist (as mentioned in WSR #8). She can even be unlikable at times.

2. She reacted negatively towards Tom when Jane began to date him, which angered Jane. While she did this out of fear of her friendship being destroyed (because Jane, keep in mind, is literally the only friend Daria has ever had in her life, as Daria never made any friends growing up), some felt as though this made her come off as a "bad friend".

·She also reacted negatively in "See Jane Run" when Jane joined the running track, as well as the episode "The F Word", when Jane started enjoying her conventional, "normal" look.

3. Her relationship with Tom that was slowly growing in the later episodes of the fourth season of Daria caused some serious friction between her and Jane, up to a point where it put their friendship at risk. A lot of fans argued that her relationship with Tom caused Daria to go downhill.

·There was also that infamous and extremely controversial scene in "Dye! Dye! My Darling" known by many Daria fans as "The Kiss", where Daria unintentionally betrays Jane when she and Tom kissed, which jeopardized their friendship even more (though they were able to make up and become friends again in Is It Fall Yet?).

4. Although smart and mature, there were some episodes in Daria that had moments where she acted (or came off as) self-centered, arrogant, childish or even unintelligent. Justified though, since these flaws are supposed to make her a realistic character, as it's normal for teenagers to have these flaws.

5. Her standards are so high, not even she can live up to them all the time, as she has come off as shallow and has fallen into superficiality more than once.

6. She complains a lot, and while she does complain for pretty good reasons, she doesn't take action, even though she does this because she doesn't become more isolated or be seen as a malcontent.

·However, she actually took action in the episode "Fizz Ed" after Jodie and Tom convinced her.

7. She's quite apathetic, and never cares to try new things or get involved in extracurricular activities.

8. She's very pessimistic and has negative thoughts about pretty much everything.

9. Because she's introverted, her social skills are really low, which is why she can have a tendency to be rude to others and shut them out, especially those she meets for the first time. She even admitted that she sometimes actively makes herself unpleasant to be around before anyone rejects her, because she really does not want to be alone and does this out of fear of being disliked (because she was picked on for being smart when she was a kid as revealed in the episode "Boxing Daria", and it is likely that her frequent complaints, low social skills and behavior overall comes from her difficult childhood as well as the fact that she's always been an outcast among everyone else, making it harder to get along with or relate to others, and keep in mind that she already had to deal with Beavis and Butt-Head while she was in Highland).

Trivia
·She was mainly conceived to be intelligent foil to the titular duo from Beavis and Butt-Head.

·She was also created to be a female character in Beavis and Butt-Head, as there were hardly any female characters at all.

·Beavis and Butt-Head frequently called her "Diarrhea".

·She first appeared in "Scientific Stuff", the first episode of the second season of Beavis and Butt-Head.

·Mike Judge named her after a girl in his school who had the same name, whom he also nicknamed "Diarrhea".

·Her design was inspired by Lynda Barry, according to Mike Judge and David Felton. One of the producers of Beavis and Butt-Head, John Garrett Andrews, based her first design on a girl he was dating in his senior year of highschool.

·She was listed in AOL's 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.