Daria : 20 Years Later. Save FB Tweet More. Pinterest Email Send Text Message. Jake and Helen Morgendorffer. Continued on next slide. Replay gallery. Pinterest Facebook. Up Next Cancel. By Caitlin Brody. Share the Gallery Pinterest Facebook. Skip slide summaries Everything in This Slideshow.
All rights reserved. Throughout most of the series, Helen's attempts to chat with her daughters often sound over-friendly, rehearsed, or insincere. This is probably because her daughters are growing up very quickly and due to her fast paced and demanding career, she has not been able to keep up with their lives in a way she feels comfortable with.
Furthermore her daughters, while rarely openly hostile or resentful of their mother, almost never invite or seek to converse and discuss teenage issues with her. On the MTV websites, Helen was so desperate to keep in touch with the kids that she resorted to Broodbeat , a web service that allowed her to keep in contact with them online: "I can parent on the run, without having to eat up a lot of time hanging around my husband and children waiting for them to say something worth paying attention to.
Oh, that sounds awful, doesn't it? Despite her difficulties, Helen unyieldingly and continually attempts to enrich her relationship with her daughters. Her efforts are sporadically fruitful throughout the show and go horribly wrong at other times , and may be fruitful in the long term. Her original production bio, seen on the Completed Animated Series DVD, says Helen "took a total of two weeks maternity leave with each of the girls"; this never made it into the show.
As early as " The Invitation ", it is shown that whenever she actively wants to get involved with her daughters' personal lives or after school activities, Daria and Quinn are united, often shouting a unanimous "NO! Usually, Helen is supportive of Quinn and often cheerleads Quinn's actions and decisions, viewing her as well-engaged and sociable. Sometimes, she's tried to take action where Quinn is being too shallow or likely to be taken advantage of; she is more concerned about this with Quinn than Daria.
As shown in " College Bored ", she was more concerned about Quinn's welfare, presumably figuring that Daria was more capable of taking care of herself; in " Quinn the Brain ", she was quick to undertake action when Quinn's grades were beginning to drop because of Quinn not putting in any effort. In an unguarded moment in " Psycho Therapy ", when listing failures in her life she revealed she thought of Quinn was one of those: "[as for] Quinn She was horrified when she realised she'd said this out loud.
Helen's obsession to be the best described with her relationships with her children and in particular, her relationship with her oldest daughter Daria. Helen is constantly pushing her daughter to be more involved with school activities, to make friends or "network" with the more popular students at Lawndale High , to open up to her and be positive, and generally be more of a conformist.
Often Daria finds herself pressured or bribed with money to go along with her mother's demands. In " Is It Fall Yet? Daria tends to speak with her mother more often than her sister Quinn Morgendorffer does, and usually the conversations are of an adult level of maturity.
At times Helen will succeed in getting Daria to talk about whatever current trouble she is dealing with. On occasion Helen demonstrates a deeper understanding of her daughter's habits than most of the family gives her credit for, such as in the episode " Write Where It Hurts ," where she succinctly explains Daria's cynical habits and offers some help and sage parental advice.
In " Dye! My Darling ", Helen was who Daria turned to in one of her darkest hours and Helen immediately dropped work to help. In "Psycho Therapy", Helen admitted to thinking she'd emotionally shut Daria out to the point where the girl rarely talked to her; Daria reassured her that she doesn't talk because she knows Helen would hang on her every word and she'd find that embarrassing. Despite this understanding and her personal history, Helen also develops a profound fear of Daria becoming sexually active.
Why she would have this concern when she knows her eldest daughter is not given to impulsive acts is not explained. Helen's perception of Daria is made clear in the final regular episode, " Boxing Daria. At this fear, they firmly explain that while her cynical and sardonic loner personality has been a concern, they consider it worth the price for having a gifted and perceptive daughter of deep principles.
One of the main aspects of Helen Morgendorffer's character is her feminist beliefs, which are rooted in her involvement in the s counter-culture. A firm believer in gender equality, she has tried to instill the same sort of beliefs in her daughters.
This often puts her in conflict with her youngest daughter Quinn, over her daughter's belief that her looks are the most important aspect of her life. Helen has taken stances in past episodes against beauty standards for women, whilst simultaneously trying to get Daria to look less off-putting. In " Of Human Bonding ", after lecturing the Fashion Club about how a few lines and spots aren't sins and how women shouldn't be pushed aside just for age, she abruptly asks Sandi if her mother knows "a good collagen man".
She keeps trying to hide her exact age. Glenn Eichler has stated this isn't a comment on Helen "so much as a comment on the pressures the working world exerts on women and on middle-aged adults in general". In lieu of calling me on the phone, please click on the item below that interests you and read the informative, personally composed paragraph. If you need direct assistance, click on Virtual Marianne, my cyber-assistant. Helen's workaholism affects her ability to be a good mother, a character defect that was explored in the episode " Psycho Therapy " but is visible as early as " Esteemsters " [ to Daria ] "We tell you over and over again that you're wonderful and you just What's wrong with you?
This stereotype was especially strong in early fanfics, as revealed in " To Helen Back ," by C. However, it persisted in later ones as well, such as " Darius " by The Angst Guy , an alternate-universe story in which grave marital and family stresses have overwhelmed her motherly instincts and made her quite ruthless.
See also Tired Daria Fandom Tropes. Season Two and Season Three episodes would have a softening effect on fanfiction portrayals of Helen from onward. Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe portrays her as not just stressed out and well-meaning, but also in search of missing satisfaction with her life.
Admonisher 's " A Mother in Spite of Herself " has her reduced to tears because failed efforts to connect with Daria, while in Jon Kilner's " On the Outside ," Helen gingerly tries to get closer to Quinn. Quinn Morgendorffer is a stereotypical self-absorbed teenage girl who is concerned mainly by clothing, shopping, and being popular.
Her interests beyond such trivial things are minimal save for getting into a "Party College" with her friends. Often, she seems unaware of basic facts that are not connected with looks or fashion. She has also become afraid and insecure when she thought her looks were not good enough. Quinn displays a highly manipulative and mercenary personality, especially around boys: she'll date one for a brief period to gain a material advantage and then dump him for another, while stringing along Jeffy , Jamie , and Joey so she can use them as regular tools.
The idea of boys competing for or fighting over her leaves her visibly happy. She often gets her way with her parents, and is often shown playing a knife-edge game of subtle undermining and reassurances with Sandi to protect her Fashion Club position. She shares her manipulative and crafty tendencies with her sister, though neither of them ever noticed or admitted this on-screen. In spite of this, Quinn does have some depth, though it is hidden by a great deal of low self-esteem in terms of her value.
As she confesses to Daria in the season two episode " Monster ", Quinn feels that looking pretty and being popular are the only things she is good at, hence why she focuses on them exclusively, even though she sometimes feels disgusted that this is all her and her friends talk about.
She also has muted academic ambitions, though her efforts almost always end up getting her in trouble with her friends who all deride the notion of intellectually bettering oneself. In " Daria! As she realizes people would think this was mad, she never admits to it Daria sums up her sister in " Psycho Therapy " as focusing on shallow things because she's afraid that she hasn't got any depth. The later seasons of the series have Quinn reconsidering her priorities and coming to value her intelligence and her family in her own way, starting with " Is It Fall Yet?
She starts using a tutor, David Sorenson , who forcibly points out to her that she's bright enough to understand the subjects but just isn't trying, and that she's a boring person who will only be popular while her looks last.
Quinn, rattled, admits she wants to do well and ends up showing greater academic ability, as she's now putting in the effort. This continues into " Lucky Strike ", where her better grades again clash with the Fashion Club; Daria would also tell Quinn in this episode that she was not stupid.
Quinn ends up trying to make Lindy realize that she has a problem, even though she knows it may and it does cost her the friendship. In an earlier scene, she had also started to put down a college student for wearing an alternate dress, and was surprised and a little ashamed to find that Lindy assumed Quinn was in favour of it, as she didn't seem "the type" to put others down.
This was the only time someone she'd viewed as a friend had told her this was considered distasteful. Quinn has an adversarial relationship with Daria; the two are rather resentful of each other and their differences regarding social standing and personality drive a large amount of the conflict in the series. This animosity goes back to infancy. Each side loves to antagonize the other though Quinn is less open about admitting to do so though in spite of these differences, there does exist a level of sibling love between the two, even if they refuse to admit it.
When not openly annoying or insulting Daria, Quinn's dealings with her often resemble a business transaction such as laying out terms of requirements, expenses, exceptions, and final payment.
A somewhat sinister moment occurred in " The Daria Hunter " when Quinn thought she'd spotted Daria at a paintball range; her response was a rapid-fire paint barrage, followed by a creepy smirk. A recurring joke involved Quinn refusing to even admit Daria was her sister, telling her friends that Daria was her cousin or some more distant relation, often referring to her as "that girl who lives with you. However, nothing Daria or anyone else does to Quinn throughout the series seems to have any ill effects on her popularity.
Occasionally the two sisters have worked together to achieve some goal, usually to get out of trouble or to avoid it. Most often these instances are dealt with in a rather business like fashion, such as when Daria incites Quinn " That Was Then, This Is Dumb " , with an offer of some form of payment or benefit, to gather scandalous blackmail information about their parents from the son of visiting family friends.
Later, when Quinn begins to uncover such stories, her response is "These have got to be worth at least twenty bucks to Daria. Quinn has turned to Daria for help or advice in some episodes--even over her parents, suggesting that she knows Daria is the most levelheaded member of the family.
In these situations, Daria is often serious in less serious - to Daria's mind - situations, her answers deliberately take the piss. Both girls agreed to respect bedrooms as sacrosanct and to have equal access to "essential resources" in the bathroom and kitchen "the refrigerator and the bathroom.
No one wants a replay of the bitter Cold Cream War of ". By the final episodes, their relationship warms considerably. In " Lucky Strike ", Quinn even takes Daria's side against Sandi and finally admits she's her sister. In " Boxing Daria ", Quinn is greatly concerned for her sister and even retrieves the cardboard box Daria had been sheltering in, in case she still needed it.
In " Aunt Nauseum ", she also expressed fear that she and Daria would be fighting into adulthood, like their mother and aunts did. In the final film, she actually gives words of comfort to Daria and tells her she will find her place in college.
Throughout the show, Helen and Jake are shown as supportive of and happy with Quinn, and cheerlead many of her actions; they seem from ours and Daria's POV to be ignoring or unaware of Quinn's shallowness. Jake particularly is easy for her to manipulate, and she often can get money out of him. Despite their approval of her , Quinn never introduces them to her friends " Daria Dance Party " and at one point tried to pretend she didn't know who they were " Fire!
Helen has noted Quinn's shallower aspects and has tried, usually gently, to steer her away: trying to get her more organized in " Pinch Sitter ", trying to get her to not consider her value as coming from looks only in " This Year's Model ", " Too Cute " etc.
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