'Who cares who wins? We're all going to Hell'

[dolorosa_12]

Day Two: Favorite supporting female character

Jane Lane (Daria)

Back in the '90s, if you were a nerdy, socially awkward teenage girl, you watched Daria, you wished you could respond to the absurdity of high school and surburbia with as much wit as Daria Morgendorffer, and, above all, you wished you had a best friend as awesome as Jane Lane. Where Daria was an A grade student, well-read and misanthropic, Jane was a bit of a slacker, artistic and slightly more of a people person than Daria. Despite these differences, the two were on the same wavelength, intellectual equals whose façade of ennui and detachment was always being challenged by their ethics and deep sense of (in)justice.

The writing on Daria was always razor sharp, and the IMDb page of quotes shows that Jane got many of the best lines. Her dialogue was always bristling with pop culture references, acerbic observations and self-deprecation. But under all the witty posturing, like Daria Jane was an insecure teenager with a great deal more empathy for her fellow Lawndale High students than was immediately apparent. The duo's observations were as keen as if they had come from a pair of investigative journalists, which was only possible because Jane and Daria were possessed of a deep and forgiving understanding of their fellow students' fears, foibles and failings. (To digress for a moment, this is one reason why the show worked so well: it satirised the '90s suburban adolescent experience while retaining respect and compassion for the teenagers it portrayed. No one — from the overworked, overachieving sole black teenage girl in Daria's year, to the apparently airheaded, big-breasted cheerleader — is without depth.)

Jane and Daria occasionally fell out (most divisively, in terms of fandom, over a boy), but their friendship was rock solid, based on a foundation of gallows humour, alienation and industrial quantities of pizza. Jane brought out the best in Daria, and grew herself as a character over the show's many seasons. What more could you ask of a supporting character than that?

Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I never watched Daria, though that's kind of a shame because looking back I think Daria would've been my hero in high school. And I like the sounds of the show, though it is kind of sad that Daria and Jane had a falling out over a boy when really, that cliche seems a bit much for a show that otherwise tries to combat them, but from the sounds of it it doesn't destroy Jane and Daria, which is nice. And it's great that the show did try so hard to combat those HS stereotypes, even giving the cheerleaders depth. And yes, maybe make a bit of fun of the suburban teen shows. (Which I hated, even though I didn't watch them. One reason I didn't watch Buffy was because I just assumed it was Dawson's Creek with vampires. I mean, it kind of was at first, but it was on purpose because it was another suburban teen high school parody.) Maybe I'll watch Daria.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh, the falling out over the boy doesn't happen until the later seasons, is eventually resolved, and absolutely divided the fandom, with the majority of fans thinking it was out of character for both Daria and Jane (it didn't help that the boy in question was very unpopular even before he caused the falling-out).

However, I would highly recommend Daria. It's '90s-tastic, so is good for a bit of nostalgia, while at the same time being razor-sharp in mocking suburbia, high school politics and the popular culture of the US. But, as I say, it's done with a great deal of affection, and always walks a careful line between satire and outright viciousness, coming down on the side of empathy and understanding for what '90s suburban teens in the US experienced. The one thing that's a real shame is that in order to produce DVDs, the whole show had to have a new soundtrack added as it originally aired on MTV and the original soundtrack was too expensive to license (in fact, that was the excuse they used for over a decade as to why they couldn't make DVDs, and for a long time, there was a roaring trade in fan-made bootlegs, with fans sticking them up on Youtube with deceptive titles to avoid having them taken down, or circulating them surruptitiously via eBay. These bootlegs had the original music). Being an MTV show, it had had this amazing soundtrack of '90s pop, pop-punk and so on, and it really did add a lot to the show. The dialogue and plots are still hilarious, but the music would've made it extra amazing.

[malinowy.livejournal.com]

You suddenly made me want to rewatch Daria. To be honest, I was probably too young to understand and appreciate it when I spent my afternoons watching it when I was younger, but it's always one of those shows I think of fondly.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Do iiiiiit! Daria is the best!