10 Moments Of Unexpected Personal Growth On “Daria”
Like a lot of people, I watched a fair few cartoons as a kid.
Nickelodeon
They mostly fell under the Nickelodeon umbrella (Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life are still tied for #1), with a few Disney shows thrown in for good measure (I vaguely remember watching The X-Files for the first time and thinking it was just Darkwing Duck for grown-ups).
By the time I discovered Daria, I'd stopped watching all those shows (at least for the following 15 years or so). I thought I'd outgrown cartoons.
@cbc / Via giphy.com
There was something different about Daria, though. I like to think I had a preternatural sense that the show was something special, but it was really just me being intrigued by a cartoon high schooler who looked and sounded alarmingly like myself.
As I got older and went through numerous rewatches, I realized that Daria actually was something special.
@paramountplus / MTV / Via giphy.com
It had stakes, and the characters felt real — they evolved along with the show, and, by the end, weren't the same people they were in the beginning.
To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, here are some of the times Daria and her friends and family really grew as people:
1.Daria’s story
In the first episode, “Esteemers,” Daria says she wants to do something with her family that will “really make them suffer.”
In the Season 2 finale, when Daria’s having trouble writing a short story, her mother suggests writing about something she’d like to see, instead of what she sees.
Daria ends up writing a story about her family spending an afternoon together in the future, and while it still portrays the realistic outlook we’ve come to expect from Daria, it’s also very optimistic and sweet — a far cry from making her family suffer. It even manages to bring Helen (and me) to tears.
2.Daria getting over Trent
I vaguely remember what it was like being a teenager, and I know that getting over crushes took forever. I didn't get the ick as easily as I do now, and I didn't know to look out for red flags, so once I developed feelings for someone, it took a lot to snap out of it.
Daria's crush on Trent lasts throughout the first three seasons of the show, but she gets over him over the course of one episode (after a false start in an earlier episode). And it's for a totally legitimate reason! After he flakes on helping her and Jane with a school project, she finally comes to terms that she'll never really be able to rely on him, and that's that. When I was that age, something like that wouldn't have phased me, unlike, say, a bad haircut.
3.Any time Daria comforted Quinn
It didn’t happen all that often, but occasionally Daria managed to set aside her general disdain for Quinn and be nice to her. In "Groped by an Angel," despite not believing in guardian angels, Daria doesn’t make Quinn feel foolish for doing so (at least when it really matters), and in Is It Fall Yet? she seems genuinely sympathetic when a guy turns down Quinn because he thinks she's shallow and superficial.
4.Quinn finally acknowledging she and Daria are sisters
A running gag throughout the show is Quinn never publicly admitting Daria is her sister. In the very first episode, Quinn tells people she's an only child, and from that point on Daria becomes her "cousin," or "the maid," or "the cabana girl" — you get the idea. (It's actually later revealed in flashbacks that this habit started years ago at summer camp.)
In the final season, after the Lawndale High teachers go on strike and Daria subs in for one of Quinn's classes, Quinn is unsurprisingly not thrilled — especially when her friend Sandy essentially tries to blackmail Quinn into making Daria give her and the rest of the Fashion Club a good grade on a test.
Quinn fails, of course, but, because she actually tries (and succeeds) to understand the material, ends up passing the test — just like Daria thought she would. The episode ends with Quinn admitting in front of the whole class that Daria is, in fact, her sister (which, of course, everyone already knew — they were just being polite about it).
5.Quinn realizing she can be more than a pretty face
At the end of Is It Fall Yet? Quinn actually answers a question in class, despite the (ultimately justified) fear that she’d be labeled a brain by her friends. Instead of letting the criticism get to her, she simply reminds Sandy that knowing the answer to a question doesn't make her a "pedagogue."
(Fun fact: The question she answers is “What is Manifest Destiny?” which is the same question Daria answers in the first episode of the series.)
6.Jane getting over Daria going out with Tom
The whole Tom kerfuffle comes pretty close to being a friendship-ender (unsurprisingly, considering everyone involved are teenagers with raging hormones). After Daria kisses and then later dates Jane's boyfriend, Tom, Jane is understandably distraught. She spends the next few months stewing and not really wanting to hang out with Daria, going so far as to whisk herself away to a summer art colony in Is It Fall Yet?.
By the end of the summer, after a long-overdue heart-to-heart with Daria, Jane forgives her friend and accepts that she and her ex are a better match.
7.Stacy finally standing up to Sandi
While Sandi is constantly rude to Quinn, it's clear that it's borne from a mix of respect and fear. The same can't be said for Stacy, who regularly serves as Sandi's punching bag.
It's not until the end of Is It College Yet? that Stacy stands up to Sandi. After Sandi threatens Stacy with expulsion from the Fashion Club unless she agrees to being her unpaid personal assistant, Stacy more or less tells her to go kick rocks.
8.Mr. O'Neill finally standing up to Ms. Barch
Is It College Yet? is really all about people standing up to their bullies. After years of letting his coworker/girlfriend Ms. Barch walk all over him, Mr. DeMartino teaches Mr. O'Neill to be more assertive and tells her he does not in fact want to marry her. He sticks to his guns, even when she tries to give him an ultimatum.
9.Jane's ambition
It feels safe to say that, for a long time, Jane was the most academically unambitious character on Daria. In Season 1, while her classmates fantasized about what their lives at college would be like, she was fantasizing about spending her college fund on an art studio. The most serious we see Jane be about school is wanting to get a grade higher than a C so she can get off academic probation.
By Is It College Yet?, Jane is seen putting together a portfolio to send off to her dream art school (which she ultimately gets into).
10.Trent realizing just because Jane was leaving Lawndale didn't mean she was leaving him
Trent is one of those characters who doesn't really grow or mature in any way, but over the course of Is It College Yet? he goes from being very anti-Jane-going-to-college to moderately pro-Jane-going-to-college. He realizes he was afraid of her leaving him to go to Boston, but she assures him he's stuck with her.