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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?
( The other days )
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?
( The other days )
