Little things I love about “Daria”
* When Quinn is worried that she and Daria will spend their years fighting, like Helen and Rita, Daria sarcastically tells her the only way that will happen is if Daria scares(?) people away with her winning personality and if Quinn gives her the silent treatment. Quinn immediately begins to say that she would never give her sister the silent treatment, instead of blaming the possibility of a sibling rift on Daria’s personality, implying how highly she thinks of get older sister.
* “They gave her a going away party at 65… MILES PER SECOND! Next on ‘Sick, Sad World.’” “Daria” had a total of 65 episodes.
* When Quinn and the Fashion Club are watching the fasion humanitarian awards, Helen asks in front of the club if Quinn has seen her sister Daria. Quinn does not try to cover up she and Daria being related. This is before Quinn has admitted to the Sandi in front of her entire English class that Daria is actually her sister.
* Trent opening his eyes and smiling secretly at the rummage sale when Jane teases Daria about staring at Trent when he’s asleep. According to what I’ve read, the writers say this is when Trent becomes aware of Daria’s feelings for him.
* Although Trent has his flirty moments with Daria, he neither encourages nor brushes off Daria’s feelings for him. Trent has “joked” with Daria that if she were a little older, he could have taken Daria out. He likes her, but respects their age difference more. He doesn’t mention anything too personal about himself outside his passion for his music to Daria, probably so as to avoid inappropriate intimacy, as well as to avoid hurting Daria (e.g. when Daria found out Trent had an on and off relationship with Monique, when he was staying at the Morgendorffers’ house). Furthermore, Trent never discusses romantic relationships with Daria, until after they have had a conversation about their incompatibility to work well together (on projects) due to their very different definitions of what a commitment is.
* Helen, Jake, and Quinn all have elements of a pink color scheme in their clothing. Daria does not, subtly emphasizing how she feels like an outcast, even within her own family. In fact, Daria wears an orange shirt under her green jacket, a color assigned to traffic cones, which, of course, warn people to stay away.
* “A herd of wild ponies running free across the plains.” When Daria has her psychological exam in the first episode, she tells the school psychologist that this is what she sees when looking at a non-ink blot picture of two people talking. She also says this is what the two people are talking about. Daria says that “the last time [she] took one of these tests,” the pictures could be whatever she wanted them to be. In “Boxing Daria,” the last episode of the series, we get to see that last time she took one of those tests at age 6.
* When we are introduced to Trent, he is practicing “Icebox Woman” with Jesse in the garage. The lyrics address frustration with a tumultuous on/off relationship. There is no mention of this on/off relationship of Trent’s, until Monique picks Trent up at the Morgandorffers’ in season 2.
* It is hinted throughout the series that Trent suffers from depression and abandonment issues, as the result of neglectful parenting. Hints of depression are seen when he expresses long lasting sadness from living in the tent in his backyard for 6 months waiting to be invited back into the house by his family (possibly, not even Jane did so, since Trent doesn’t specify waiting for his parents to invite him back inside); when he resents his uncle calling him a bum, implying self-consciousness about being a failure (also expressed when he and Daria talked about his band and non-conformist lifestyle on their way to a music festival, and when he thinks that “Mytik Spiral has passed its prime”); and when he saw too much of himself in the people sitting around who he hired to rebuild the Lanes’ broken gazebo. Furthermore, in the gazebo fixing episode, Trent berates a bandmate for not looking existential enough.
* Although or because Trent may have abandonment issues, he still loves and wants to be around a big, growing, and nurturing family, as implied by his disappointment when Jane told their other brother Wind that their parents were not likely to ever bring home another baby.
* After 5 seasons of the running gag that nobody remembers Jamie’s name, when he and Quinn are (temporarily) officially exclusive, Quinn begins a phone call between the two of them by saying how important communication is in a relationship. Jamie begins to share his frustration that nobody remembers about him or listens to him, only for Quinn herself to interrupt Jamie to discuss teen magazine articles and makeup.
* Speaking of this running gag, despite nobody remembering Jamie’s name, he is the only of the Three J’s to be given a last name (assuming that when Jeffy is invited to a family dinner, Quinn uses his middle name when she calls him Jeffy Lou).
* Whenever childhood flashbacks focusing on Quinn are shown, Quinn always has a different group of boys chasing after her that physically resembles the Three J’s.
* Before the animation change in season 4, there is a mauve and icy blue color scheme among the Fashion Club. Although Quinn follows the general color scheme by wearing a pink top and blue jeans, this subtle color difference seems to be a nod to what Daria calls Quinn’s “mask of superficiality,” as although she participates in the club, she is not as vapid as the other members of the club appear to be.
* On a related note, the only other Fashion Club member to change her style and break away from the club’s color scheme is Stacy, who begins to speak and stick up for herself in season 5. Sandi and Tiffany, on the other hand, still more or less wear their original outfits, sticking to the club color scheme, implying that they still need to develop their unique personalities outsids of the club and each other, and learn to think for themselves.
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