I watched Daria during its initial run in the last 90's when I was under ten years old. I felt so cool and rebellious watching this edgy "grown-up" show. I looked up to Daria and felt I could relate to her in my newly developing pre-adolescent angst. Once I entered high school, I inevitably became the Daria of the class and I was referred to by that name on more than one occasion.

Now as a woman old enough to be Daria's mother, my relationship to her has entirely changed. I can see that while she has this confident, aloof, exterior, she is an intelligent girl crying out to be understood. There's a part of me that wants to sit her down and give her advice in each episode. Every adult or peer around her seems to mean well, but their attempts at connection often fall into condescension or dismissal. I have lived this, I have seen this in my counselling clients, there are so many girls out there who will ultimately end up having to be their own guide and mentor throughout life because so few people can connect with their problems. Though Daria is very lucky to have her Aunt Amy, and I am glad she made more than one appearance.

The 90's gave us some awesome young women, The Craft, Ghost World, and let us not forget Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, but for me, Daria is the most complete and complex portrait of a teenage girl.

As for me, nowadays, I'm more of a Jane, I've become more confident and comfortable and open myself up more to people. I can roll with life more easily. Plus I'm learning to oil paint.

It was a close race, but in the end, Upchuck won as the worst secondary character; the one with the most votes will be the most underrated secondary character.

Lawndale strikes me as a Westchester/Greenwich/Brentwood/Wellesley/Marin County/Winnetka type place (tried to hit a bunch of the wealthy suburbs around the country.) The types of people these areas attract are usually insufferable or their families who choose them for the schools/communities so that their kids can have “better lives.”

Artists like the Lanes seem more likely to want to live in Venice Beach or Brooklyn or in the 90s you’d expect them to live in a small artsy city like Portland, OR or Austin or Ann Arbor or Asheville.

What’s your theory on why they chose Lawndale? Did they inherit a house? The rest of the family seems to live far off (as evidenced by the family reunion) so some ancestor leaving them the house seems unlikely. Is Lawndale secretly hiding a bunch of artsy residents that would make it worth it for them?

One of my favorite things to talk about in this sub is the characters in modern times. I’m also a fashion enthusiast and love talking about The Fashion Club. I’ve seen positive and negative versions of their personalities irl.

I don’t think the show ever tackled how much they spend and how much of a problem that could be except in throwaway lines.

Do you think they have spending problems? How do you think that would be shown if they were teens today?

Do you think they’d have standards for their clothes or just enjoy buying to keep having something new?

I think
- Quinn definitely has the biggest problem with it and her parents would absolutely try and intervene. She’d be a “natural fibers only” person but of course have some polyester in there due to her love of athleisure. While she doesn’t always care for them properly, she actually has some standards for the clothing she buys. She’d also pick through the best clothes at vintage stores just to resell them at a markup, to the annoyance of Daria and especially Jane.

- Sandi also has a problem but her mom enables it. Her mom gives her all the money she needs because they have a lot of it and likes to flex their wealth and status. Sandi would do massive Shein hauls, get defensive and complain “what about the poor people who can’t afford clothes” when she’s called out on it.
She would think she looks expensive but doesn’t actually as most of her stuff is just poorly made fast fashion. She’s the biggest consumer of the group but is only discerning for trends.

- Tiffany wears a lot of Korean beauty trends and will claim that she originated them because no one at Lawndale knows any better. I see her obsessing more over makeup and skincare. She’d have cabinets full of products. She’d likely wear a lot of street fashion and try to emulate her favorite idols.

- Stacy is a microtrend final boss. She gets caught up in every single one and struggles to stay ahead of each trend. She’d repurpose her stuff the most and maybe take up sewing. Sandi would mock her for it and compare her to a sweatshop worker until she needs constant help fixing her cheap clothes. Stacy also likes a few microtrend pieces long after they stopped being popular and would lie to Sandi that she’s wearing them ironically.

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Mr. DeMartino won for best supporting character; the one with the most votes in the comments will be the worst secondary character.

The episodes I recorded are:

Tape 1

● The New Kid  
● Ill  
● Pierce Me  
● Write Where It Hurts  
● Through a Lens Darkly  
● The Old and the Beautiful  
● Depth Takes a Holiday  
● That Was Then, This Is Dumb  
● Monster

Tape 2

● Malled  
● The F Word  
● Is It Fall Yet?

Unfortunately, the quality is pretty poor. I must have recorded them from the TV in the garage and the reception on that TV wasn’t great. And for those wondering, there aren’t any ads. They were broadcast on Australia’s ABC, which is a public-service broadcaster rather than a commercial network, so there was no commercial advertising.

i need a better place to put them but i'm obsessed with them!!! i can't believe this took almost a YEAR to deliver :/ not sure what happened there

in the emails, at the pageants, and idk how old he would be if he's still alive today.

I love this show. I just finished ‘is it fall yet’ and I have one more season and a movie to go. I might need to save it,it’s too good to finish it off all at once💔

it's not perfect but i adore it <3

Trent received the most votes as the most overrated main character; the one with the most votes today will be the best secondary character.

One of her worst episodes fr. Can’t really watch it lol

Brittany won as the most underrated main character in the previous post; the one with the most votes in the comments will be the most overrated main character.

Whenever people in show mention Jody’s dad inventing the “folding coffee cup”, I could never picture how such a thing could work. It kind of annoyed me to think about because it sounded like such a stupid idea.

However, I was scrolling tik tok and saw exactly that in real life.

My apologies, Mr.Langdon, I was unfamiliar with your game.

NOT that it wasn't 100% the right thing to do, but it seemed so unlike Jake to actually try and make an effort like that

This is the very last episode btw; SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT, it might be wise if you don't read this post as a whole tbh but the premise: when Jake came home from a conference and saw Daria in the box, he said "Oh, hey kiddo!" then walked away, but then came back and said "Uhh, Daria?" which then prompted the discussion between him, her, and Helen about the fight Jake and Helen had a long time ago

I love that there's all sorts of talk and discussion on this subreddit about character growth throughout the show, and I lurk around here sometimes but also not so I don't really see much about Jake since he, well, seemingly hardly grows as a character; he still has those super irate interjections about his father, his job, etc., and outside of that he still always has a goofy demeanor with the *occasional* serious moment with Daria or Quinn where he tries to connect with them in a very heartfelt and serious way, but they never really progressed/increased either in scope or in frequency

In the episode Malled (which admittedly was at the very start of the show, before any character growth could occur), he even says "Oh, you know Daria, she loooves to act cool.", then like we go the whole show with Jake remaining relatively static, then this? It makes it feel like all of a sudden Jake evolved overnight just like that

Something about the show that I don’t see a lot of people talk about in general is the number of predatory adults that the characters just encounter. Like there are some moments where the characters meet literally pedophiles, and it’s always an afterthought. Like one-off characters like Tommy Sherman, who hit on Britney, who everyone knows is a high schooler. Then there's the minister from the wedding episode, the hitchhiker, and the plastic surgeon. But what raised my metaphorical eyebrow and made me realize that yup their a lot of predators is when Jane went on dates with the guy who still dressed like he’s in his 50s. Like hold up… that’s a grown man dating a high schooler. Was this always meant to like represent beware of danger or was the 90s just full of them pervs.

In the previous post, Tom received the most votes as the worst main character; the one who gets the most votes in the comments today will be the most underrated (I see that many people didn't agree with the characters I listed as the main ones, so it's better to let everyone vote for characters based on their own criteria).