A History of Violence, Part 3

One aspect of Brittany's violence we failed to mention concerns her younger brother, Brian, who is a little monster. Literally. An adolescent sadist who tortures animals for fun ("The Lab Brat," The Daria Database), Brian Taylor is one of the few indisputably evil characters in Daria.

Where did Brittany and Brian develop their unpleasant tendencies? Was this some kind of Rosemary's Baby deal, which is why we don't see their biological mother, Vivian Taylor, around in their lives? Is there some genetic component to this? Do the two siblings somehow feed off each other's ferociousness? Does their father have anything to do with this? Brittany did give the mouse to Brian in "The Lab Brat."

Just food for thought, there. Enjoy the week! And remember Brittany's absolute best line in "Fizz Ed":

I like red. It reflects my passionate nature.

Dr. Hannibal Lechter could have hardly put it better.

A History of Violence, Part 2

Several characters in Daria display an aggressive streak. Janet Barch beats the tar out of Mr. DeMartino about three or four times ("The New Kid," "The Daria Hunter," Is It College Yet?, and in The Daria Database), plus whales on an unfortunate disk jockey in a roller-hockey game ("The Big House"), but even she runs a distant second to Brittany Taylor.

Brit's mean streak surfaces with little warning and sometimes with little provocation. Childish teasing, a tasteless come-on, or a similar poor choice of words is usually all it takes. The most startling display of hair-trigger violence on her part did not appear in the first or second seasons of the show. It came during the interval between the fourth and fifth seasons, in Is It Fall Yet?

When the Dopey Duo are working as lifeguards over the summer before their senior year, Kevin unwisely pokes fun at Brittany's green-tinted (chlorine-dyed) hair. She boils over in seconds, stomps Kevin's foot, then chases him around the swimming pool in full view of adults and children, murder in her eyes. When she catches up to him, she re-stomps his injured foot much harder than the first time, shoves him into the pool, dives in after him, and then hammers him with her fists from behind, focusing on the back of his head. It's brutal. Once again, visual evidence of the event helps one to appreciate its full flavor, so I took the liberty of stitching the scene together in one large image for educational viewing.

Does it end there? It seems unlikely. In "Fat Like Me," mistakenly believing Kevin is unfaithful, Brittany shrilly snarls: "Ooh, I can't believe Kevvy cheated on me with Angie! Wait till I get my hands on him!" (See her expression in the image above left.) Yikes! You can feel Kevin's pain, and she hasn't even hit him yet.

At least Brittany doesn't beat up women, though she has no compunctions about face-offs with them if she suspects they are trying to steal her boyfriend ("This Year's Model," "The Lab Brat," etc.). It makes one wonder how Upchuck survived being her lab partner in "The Lab Brat." By rights, he should be in a shallow grave. Maybe she feared he had other copies of that incriminating photo. Who knows. (He does get popped by Brittany in The Daria Database, as seen at lower left.)

Other writers have taken the bad-ass Brittany concept and run with it. We have Crazy Nutso's "True Blue," an eye-popper that now (like Nemo Blank's version of Brittany in "Ring Toss") doesn't seem so far-fetched. Read the notes at the bottom of "True Blue," by the way. I've played with the idea, too, in a comedy/fantasy fic and a post-canon tale. I recall there are other violent Brittany stories, but can't pinpoint them. Maybe someone else can refresh our collective memory. Wasn't there an Iron Chef, too, about Brittany beating people up in bar fights?

Kinda wonder how the bad-ass Brittany thing got started. I bet it had something to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then took on a life of its own. She is a ferocious wild child, even if she does have a pink bunny backpack and smells like baby powder. (Thanks again to UU and Pinhead for the image at upper right. You r0OoL!!!!!)

Comments? Corrections? Arguments? Thoughts or rants? Let's see 'em. And more fanfiction, too.

A History of Violence, Part 1

It has been mentioned before that LHS head cheerleader Brittany Taylor has serious anger-management issues, but it is helpful to have visual evidence of this rather disturbing trait. As it happens, there's quite a lot of said evidence. Seriously, what is up with this chick? Everyone remembers her performance in "The Daria Hunter," but do you remember these special moments? (By the way, a special "thank you" goes out to the magnificent UU and Pinhead for some of these superb shots, which had to be shrunk down to fit on the page. The images that don't look as nice are my own. So sue me.)

Brittany can do major damage without half trying (mainly to Kevin, but any male who insults her is fair game). She elbows and foot-stomps Kevin in "Malled," smacks the hell out of the much bigger Tommy Sherman in "The Misery Chick," and (may as well show it) goes Buffy-ballistic in "The Daria Hunter." Plus, she knows squad-level military tactics. By heart. And she's supposed to be a moron. How can she do this? What happened to turn her into the teen-girl version of Nick Fury? She doesn't appear to be afraid of anything or anyone, to my knowledge.

I recall reading one of Nemo Blank's epic tales, "Ring Toss," and thinking that his view of Brittany as violence prone was taking things too far. A typical quote from that story (quoting from Kevin's thoughts):

Brittany would kill him if she found out about it. Really kill him. She was a black belt and liked to break bricks in her backyard. She was getting physical with him in more ways than one, these days.

...and...

Brittany's fists clenched and her features hardened into an all too familiar mask of rage. "You big jerk!" It came out as a scream of pure hatred. Kevin backpedaled, eyes widening... She moved so fast that he never even glimpsed the blow that felled him.

This is as good a time as any to announce that I was wrong. My bad! Nemo apparently got it right, although Brittany doesn't appear to know karate. She's more of a gymnastic but undisciplined (thankfully) dirty fighter. Nemo even explained that Kevin wears his football pads all day long to absorb some of the blows Brittany deals out, which makes sense. Then he gave Brittany a massive multi-drug addiction originally meant to contain her rage. Wow.

Okay, to be sure, the above examples (plus her spontaneous rodeo pile-driving of a striker who hit Kevin in "Monster") come from the first two seasons of Daria. Maybe she mellowed out later on.

As we will see in Part II, the answer is painfully plain.

Happy Birthday, Evolution!

It seems like only yesterday, but it was 150 years ago on the nose that Sir Charles Darwin published his first paper on the theory of evolution. Alas, it did not explain Kevin Thompson. It did lead to anger management classes for gorillas, though.

Today is also the 118th birthday of H. P. Lovecraft, whose works were crossed with Daria in Dervish's "Call of Quinnthulhu." Great story.

Just got home from work, more to come. Or, you know, not.