Medical problems (more and less) are actually an ongoing theme in Daria. There's 'Through A Lens Darkly' and 'Ill' (Daria has dealings with the medical profession that aren't exactly satisfactory), 'Jake of Hearts' and 'The Big House' (Jake and Mr. DeMartino have both had heart attacks), 'Too Cute' (a quack plastic surgeon tries to ply her wares upon the Sisters Morgendorffer), and even 'Psycho Therapy' (what certainly seems like a low-level psych evaluation of the entire family).
There has always been a healthy (pardon the pun) interest in medicine and
Daria fanfic. I won't even try to start naming the stories that deal with medical issues and the characters (although I would suggest that
Falling Into College #50: A Matter Of Priorities and
Nemo Blank's 'Blast From The Past are excellent starting points. With the recent interest in the health-care debate here in the U.S., this might be a good time to write a fic on the problems that some of the characters have in that area - for example, what would happen if Trent or Jane were in some sort of awful accident? Would they get the best available care? Could they afford it - or even better, how about Trent develops some of ailment, and medical marijuana actually would be beneficial to his condition? Could he get it legally - and if he got it from the usual sources, what would happen if here were busted with it? What if Daria needed it? What if it were Helen, or Ms. Li?
Along those lines - why hasn't DeMartino or (most certainly) Barch been railroaded into a stress- or anger-management course, or prescribed medications to deal with the stress? I mean, the game in 'The Big House' was annoying and all that - but isn't it more likely that DeMartino would have had that heart attack during a class session, yelling at Brittany or 'Kevvie'? (Along those lines, imagine the mindfrakking that could occur if DeMartino were to suffer a severe attack in class, and his last words were (as he grasped Kevin's jersey) 'I curse you. No more wins...'? Would Kevin be so screwed up (as some eps have shown) that DeMartino's death that he couldn't play football again? (Galen Hardesty might say 'yes' to this, from what he did with Kevin and 'Ratboy' in his
'Blood Oath of Patriots' franchise. ) In anyevent - why do some of the teachers go around like they're in need of a lithium cocktail an hour before school? Maybe Li's security expenditures are such that she's been cutting corners with the teachers' employment pachage, and their health coverage. (I can see her saddling them with a program that has a deductible in the thousands of dollars. The wench.)
Just something to think on.
