Daria/Heartwarming

• In "Boxing Daria," when Daria and Jane meet in the diner. Actually, most of the end of Boxing Daria.
  • "It occurs to me that I wasn't the easiest child in the world to raise, and perhaps I'm quite lucky to have you for parents."
  • "Didn't know if you need this, but just in case ~Quinn." Considering how much Quinn has been complaining about lugging that box around.
    • Also, Quinn agreeing with Daria and confirming that she was right about their parents fighting all those years ago. The way she sadly admits that their parents really were fighting about Daria is a genuinely touching moment, as is the concerned look Quinn and Jane share after the news takes it toll on Daria.
• Any moment when Quinn helps Daria, or vice versa.
• Stacy and Tiffany admitting that of course they knew Daria was Quinn's sister. They just didn't say because they could tell it was what Quinn wanted.
• Ms. Barch, the man-hating harpy science teacher, shedding a tear and realizing that Mr. O'Neill is actually sensitive in "The Daria Hunter."
  • The part after Ms. Barch finds out that Mr. O'Neill is a man who actually has feelings where Ms. Barch and Mr. O'Neill make out as the storm ends and a rainbow appears counts as well (if you're not Squicked out about Ms. Barch telling Mr. O'Neill to "Watch the rash" ("the rash" being the one Ms. Barch ranted about having after 22 years of a messed-up marriage).
• In "Daria!", the song "They Must Be Worried" shows that, for all their sarcasm and complaining, Daria and Jane really do care about their families. "So while the wind does blow on our loved ones down below, we wish that we could tell them we're okay..."
• In Is It Fall Yet, Daria managing to help out a troubled child who she identifies with. Aww.
• Daria in "Gifted." When she has her conversation with Jodie who confesses her chafing at being "Queen of the Negroes" at school and wishing to be more like Daria and her fearless candor. At that Daria confesses that she occasionally wishes she could be more like Jodie and when Jodie is flattered by that statement, you see Daria respond "I'm not saying all the time," with that small smile that she grants only to the people who deserve it.
• In "I Loathe A Parade" Jodie gets fed up with the hypocrisy of her and Mack being elected Homecoming King and Queen every year, as well as how humiliating she finds standing on a float in a poofy dress waving to the crowd. Just as she and Mack decide they're sick of playing along with the charade, she sees a young black girl in the crowd waving and looking at her with shining, hopeful eyes. She smiles and promptly stands up again to keep waving.

Mack: What happened?
Jodie: Oh what the hell. We may be tokens, but we're damn good looking ones.

• Lucky Strike: When Quinn, in front of the whole class and with not a trace of shame, defends Daria to the other students and admits that they are sisters. Even if everybody already knew.
  • When Quinn asks Daria to make the test easy because she doesn't want her friends to hate her, Daria says: "Why should you go out of your way to protect the stupid? You're not one of them."
• In "Write Where It Hurts," Daria's is supposed to write a story about people she knows but can't come up with anything good. After an earlier argument, her mother notes that Daria often hides her feelings from everyone and advises her to write a scenario the way she would like it to play out, as opposed to her usual combination of sarcasm and Brutal Honesty. The story is a fluffy little piece about the family, set in the future when everybody is successful, happy and more well-adjusted.
  • And after hearing it, her mother breaks into tears and gives her a hug.
• In "Through Lens Darkly" when Daria locks herself in the bathroom stall because she doesn't want to admit to her vanity when she gets contacts, and no one other than Brittany comes in and tells Daria that she's glad that she got contacts, because it means that they weren't so different because Daria getting contacts meant that even she, a person who prized herself for her intellect rather than her physical appearance (or a "brain" as Brittany put it), cares about her looks, which made Brittany feel less shallow and feel that Daria was a human like everyone else. Her words were convincing enough to make Daria come out of the stall and thank Brittany for them - even if Brittany claimed to have gotten such words of wisdom from wearing a pair of fake glasses.
• Mr. O'Neill and Mr. DeMartino sharing a cry at the Liquid Dinner after Mr. O'Neill confesses that he's scared of Ms. Barch roping him into marriage in Is It College Yet? It's one of the rare times that Mr. DeMartino has feelings (besides frustration and rage over his idiot pupils and his miserable life).
• In the episode with old people Daria is put with a deaf person to spite her when she's complained at for reading. When she almost leaves after getting angry upon realising she's deaf, the woman grabs her arm and tells her not to leave. I got the impression that she was put in there and ignored by her family or friends and had nobody visiting her; so she was just glad that somebody was visiting her.
• In the episode, "Too Cute", Daria tried to tell Quinn that she didn't need plastic surgery and admitted that she looks great.
• When Daria comforted Quinn after she got rejected by her tutor, in Is It Fall Yet. Made even more heartwarming by the fact that the rejection actually was rather heart breaking, because at that point (and definitely in this movie), Quinn had already become much more sympathetic.
• Daria's graduation speech, where she admits that despite high school sucking, it can be improved with the help of a good friend and a loving family (and pizza).
• Daria goes on a road trip to a concert with Trent. There's an entire scene where they sit by the road and she listens to him play the guitar while bonding with him. She reassures him that he should continue being a musician, and he makes her give one of the biggest smiles in the series thusfar.
• In the episode "See Jane Run", Jane joins the track team to prove a point to the gym teacher, and get close to a cute guy she likes. During the episode Jane and Daria grow further apart, culminating in a confrontation near the end. However, when the same cute guy calls Daria a loser, the first thing Jane does is quit the track team. She knows who her real friends are.
• At the climax of the series' Wham! Episode "Dye! Dye! My Darling" Daria is quite possibly at the lowest point in her life after kissing Jane's boyfriend Tom. With no-one else to turn to she goes to see her mother at work who, despite ranting at her secretary about how she has "no time to waste" immdeiately drops everything to go out to a cafe and sit down to talk with her daughter. And she actually manages to make Daria feel better too!

Daria: You know, I had everything more or less under control. I'm not saying it was great, but I could deal with school, I could deal with home. And now nothing's under control.
Helen: It never is, sweetie. We just tell ourselves otherwise so we can function.
[...]
Daria: Don't you have to be getting back to that huge case of yours?
Helen: Oh don't worry about that! It's completely under control. <smiles>

Daria: <smiles>

• After having been apart for the whole summer, and fighting for weeks before summer started, seeing Daria and Jane smile and reconcile at the end of Is It Fall Yet? definitely brings a smile to your face.
• In Ill, all of Daria's closest classmates (Kevin, Brittany, Mack, Jodie), along with Jane and Quinn, come to visit Daria in the hospital after learning she is sick. Even though Kevin and Brittany thought it was a "brain disease" it was still nice to see them show up for her.
• The campers cheering on 'Uncle Anthony' during Is It Fall Yet? Because of the connection he makes with the children, he rediscovers that spark that made him want to be a teacher in the first place.
• Daria and Jane find out that Andrea, the goth, works at the super store, and when she expects them to mock her, the two decide not to, realizing she already hates her job enough, and they pretend they never saw each other. When they leave, Andrea smiles.
• In one episode, the Fashion Club has their caricatures done at a fair, and they threaten to sue the artist for what they claim to be "defamation of character". After failing multiple times to have any sort of legal action brought against the artist, Quinn consents to just burning the picture. But, as it turns out, neither Quinn or Sandi has the drawing. It turns out that Stacy kept it and has it hanging in her closet, because the artist drew her in a positive light compared to the others.
  • I second this entry. It's her smile at the end that does it for me. You have to smile back.
• From Is It Fall Yet?, Quinn answering Mr. DeMartino's question on Manifest Destiny correctly, with her own little Quinn-esque touch to it. DeMartino is genuinely touched that one of his students, Quinn Morgendorffer of all people, actually gave a correct answer, right after he announced that his faith in teaching was reinvigorated. His faith was rewarded and it's one of the few times DeMartino has been legitimately happy without someone suffering.