Daria and Jane

Daria Morgendorffer grew up in a town called Highland, Texas. However at some point, she and her family (father Jake, mother Helen and younger sister Quinn) moved to Lawndale, possibly because Highland was not the best place to raise children, but equally possibly because Helen (a lawyer) got a new job.

When Daria moved to Lawndale, she made a friend named Jane Lane. Jane was the youngest child of five (two older sisters – Penny and Summer, and two older brothers – Wind and Trent) whose parents (Vincent and Amanda) were “wandering artists” – they (and three of their children) were rarely at home, leaving Jane and Trent living together in a big, empty house.

Over the next few years, Daria and Jane became very good friends. This was partly because they were both a tad cynical, but also because neither of them had a lot of other good friends in their life (again because they were both a tad cynical).

However, this relationship was occasionally tested.

Soon after she moved to Lawndale, Daria appeared to develop a crush on Jane’s brother Trent. It’s unclear how serious this crush was – she used to blush a lot in his presence, and one time got a “stress rash” (for want of a better phrase) when confronted with the idea of becoming more serious.

Jane found this crush quite entertaining, and spent a fair time teasing Daria about it, which, as you can imagine, annoyed Daria to one degree or another. While it never caused a huge problem, the underlying tension was there.

Compared to the later problems when Tom Sloane came on to the scene, however, the issue of Daria’s crush on Jane’s brother was almost negligible.

One night, while out at the local club, Daria and Jane met Tom Sloane – a rich, preppy kid from a local private school – Fielding Prep (as opposed to Lawndale High where Jane, Daria and Quinn go).

Jane took a fancy to him almost at once, while Daria had a diametrically opposite reaction. She loathed Tom from the get-go, because he was taking up a lot of Jane’s time, leaving Daria on her own – a feeling she didn’t like.

But, as time went by, Daria started to realise that – although he was coming between her and her friend – Tom was not really such a bad guy. He seemed to genuinely care about Jane – something that did endear him to Daria – and he was a kindred spirit – not an air-headed jock but cynical and smart – just like them.

They eventually became friends, but then – much to their joint surprise – they realised there was more than friendship going on. They found they had a lot more in common than Tom and Jane did, and that their feelings seemed to be stronger.

So, as Tom and Jane drifted apart, Daria and Tom drifted closer together, until – one night – they kissed. Which would have been okay, but Tom hadn’t broken up with Jane, and Daria hadn’t mentioned any of this to her best friend.

Daria did do what was right – she told Jane the next day. Which lead to quite a large rift in their friendship. And while it wasn’t on the Xena/Gabrielle level of rift, it was quite a seismic event in Daria’s life – Jane was pretty much her only friend in Lawndale, and even though her feelings for Tom were growing, they were now set against the massive guilt of stabbing her friend in the back.

But for all those of you who now have your hands pressed to your mouths, wondering how this dramatic story will turn out – don’t worry. It has a mostly happy ending.

Daria and Jane made up over the summer, and while they didn’t discuss the topic of Tom very much, they got back to more or less the same situation that they were before – best of friends.

Meanwhile Daria and Tom’s relationship progressed nicely, although Daria did not start scaring off unicorns (at least as far as we know). And, a year after Daria and Tom first kissed, they broke up, more or less amicably, because they were going to different Universities after High School ended, and Daria thought it was for the best.

There is a lot of speculation about what happened after Daria and Jane graduated – some say that Daria met someone at University and they got married and had kids, some say that Daria and Tom got back together, some say that Daria became a spy for the US Government, hunting terrorists and traitors wherever she went – possibly because Quinn was killed in The World Trade Centre Attacks.

And some people – though very few – dare to suggest that Daria and Jane fell in love, and got married (or whatever the US Government calls marriage for same sex couples).

It’s the last one that I think is most realistic – and now I will tell you why.

xoxox

Daria Morgendorffer is someone who obviously doesn’t make friends easily. Even after a few years, her relationship with some of her fellow students (Jodie Landon and Michael Mackenzie, for example) is one of remote attachment, rather than true friendship.

However she makes friends with Jane Lane almost at once. Within the first two days, they have bonded and are well on their way to becoming very close friends. A somewhat unusual turn of events, but one that can be explained if you look at it from the point of view of someone falling in love at first sight.

Lawndale seems to be a relatively traditional town – more to the right side of the political spectrum than the left. And since Daria is the new girl at school – a difficult situation to be in at the best of times – it is easy to see that, even if she does fall head-over-heels, ass-backward in love with Jane, she would probably not want to proclaim this far and wide.

So instead, she makes friends with Jane so that she can spend time with her without it being obvious where her true feelings lie.

However Daria, being the smart and wise girl that she is, knows that this situation can’t last, for three reasons.

First – even if Jane doesn’t find out the truth, she might not return Daria’s feelings. And eventually Jane will find a boyfriend and move on, leaving Daria all alone.

Secondly – Jane might find out the truth, but still not return Daria’s feelings. There is also the outside chance that she might be utterly disgusted and want Daria out of her life altogether – though admittedly this is fairly unlikely. Jane seems to be a pretty free spirited girl, much like her parents and siblings, and it is more probable that she would simply acknowledge Daria being in love, but do nothing about it.

Thirdly – Jane might return her feelings and, if that’s the case. However until then, Daria would have to keep up the pretence.

So, in order to throw suspicion off her, and to make people think she is just a (relatively speaking) normal teenager, she fakes a crush on a boy. But not just any boy. No – she picks Jane’s older brother, and she does so for two reasons.

First, since Trent is Jane’s older brother, they probably have a lot in common. So she can study Trent to learn more about Jane.

Secondly, if she pretended to have a crush on someone else – say Mack or Kevin (however unbelievable that might be) – then Jane would start to wonder why Daria wasn’t trying to spend more time with her “crush”. But if Daria pretends to be crushing on Trent, then it would be only natural that Daria would want to spend as much time at the Lanes’ house as possible, but not actually spend time with the subject of her crush (Trent) because she is too embarrassed.

And for a while, this seems to work. Daria gets to hang around Jane, and Jane doesn’t really question it. There is the odd problem – when Jane tries to strike out on her own (by joining the track team), Daria throws a bit of a hissy fit (both because Jane is spending less time with her, and because Jane is looking at a boy with some intent). But, being the smart and wise girl that she is, Daria does it in such a way that Jane thinks it is HER fault, not Daria’s, and soon enough the status quo is restored.

But while a dragon lives forever, most other things must come to an end.

Despite her best attempts, Jane does find a boy that she is interested in. Tom Sloane, from Fielding Prep.

Daria’s reaction is pretty much understandable – the one true love of her life is now making out with someone else, and – just like anyone who finds themselves in that situation – she reacts badly, pouting and sulking. Although she is careful to moderate this, so Jane only thinks this is typical “best friend” jealousy, rather than “a girl in love” jealousy.

For the first few months, she does seem to be a tad adrift. She reacts badly to Tom, and comes very close to forcing Jane to chose between them. However – after a while – she realises that if she wants to win Jane, she won’t do it by sulking and whining.

Instead, she starts her campaign to separate Tom from Jane, and to bring Jane back to her side.

And she does this in a way that at first might seem contradictory to being in love with Jane, but – when examined more closely, makes a lot of sense and only re-enforces the theory.

It is clear that Jane is not falling in love with her – the fact they are still just friends is the first clue, and the fact that Jane is dating Tom is the second. So – rather than framing Tom for doing something Jane would hate, or trying even harder to break them up, Daria starts to work on seducing Tom.

Why?

Because not only will it allow her to finally get Tom away from Jane’s side, but it will also let her study Tom more closely – to find out exactly what Jane finds so fascinating and loveable about him.

And her plan goes pretty well.

She learns more about Tom, more about why Jane likes him and (most importantly) the things that Jane starts to dislike. After all – if Jane dumps Tom, she is hardly likely to want to replace him with someone exactly the same.

Secondly, she starts to show Jane why Tom is a bad boyfriend, slowly and insidiously driving them apart until Tom ends up turning to her in desperation.

At which point she delivers her master-stroke – kissing Tom behind Jane’s back.

It is a fairly risky strategy – there is every possibility that Jane could push all the blame on to Daria and make Tom out to be the innocent victim. Jane would cut her ties with Daria and then walk off in to the sunset with Tom, leaving Daria all alone.

However, it seems to work perfectly. Jane and Tom break up, but in a way that doesn’t stop them being friends (which turns out to be important to the next phase of the plan) and – after a brief period apart – Daria and Jane become friends again. Whether Alison was a part of Daria’s plan or not is still unclear at this point. She could have talked the older artist in to trying to seduce Jane for one of two reasons – first to find out of Jane had any lesbian tendencies, and secondly to make Jane realise that sometimes attraction just happens, and no one is to blame.

Either way (whether Alison was in on it or not) – Daria and Jane become friends again – a strong friendship because of what they’ve been through.

Daria continues to see Tom for three reasons.

First – for much the same reason she pretended to be crushing on Trent. Tom spent a lot of time with Jane that Daria was not present for, so she can use Tom to find out what happened.

Second – to throw Jane off the scent. Since Jane rejected Alison almost completely out of hand, it was possible she’d do the same to Daria. So pretending to have a boyfriend – pretending to be straight – was a good way of putting Jane at ease and making her not worry about Daria coming on to her too.

Third – so she could learn to kiss. Daria had never had a proper boyfriend before Tom. The one or two dates she did go on didn’t lead to anything other than saying goodnight at the end, and certainly no hot’n’heavy make out sessions in the back seat of her parents minivan. Consequently, she needed someone to practice on before she could properly seduce Jane. And who better than the one person who had spent the previous year kissing Jane?

It is telling to note that the moment Tom wanted to move things further, Daria was the reluctant one. Kissing is one thing, even letting Tom caress her was all done in the service of learning what things felt like (so that when she finally went all the way with Jane, she didn’t freak out), but sex? No – not at all.

The accident after the incident with the fridge box is another fairly telling moment – she went to the person she loved the most. Not her parents, not Tom, not Quinn but Jane. First, Last and Always.

Then – when it becomes clear that Tom wants to carry on their relationship after Daria moves away, she breaks it off with him. Partly because it is a good and convenient excuse, but also because – finally – Daria and Jane will be together in a new city.

A city that is not Lawndale, and that is going to be more open to “alternative lifestyles” (for want of a better phrase).

Which gives Daria the chance she has been waiting for – to show Jane just what she has been missing.

xoxox

I think, when you examine all the evidence, you can’t help but be convinced that Daria was hot for Jane from the moment they first saw each other. And – if all is right in the world – they will be sharing a happy home in Boston for years to come.