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| “ | Jeepers! | „ |
| ~ Daphne's Chatchphrase |
Daphne Anne Blake is a character in the long-running Scooby-Doo franchise. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her red-orange hair, her fashion sense, and her knack for getting into danger. Daphne is considered to be the third most popular character in the Scooby-Doo franchise, only behind Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo, and has appeared in more adaptations than the other characters, aside from Shaggy and Scooby. She is also Fred Jones' love interest.
Personality
Daphne is the rich member of the gang and she likes to shop, fashion and taking care of her apperance. Daphne gets in to a lot of trouble which earned her the nickname "Danger-prone Daphne". Over the years she has learned to solve her own problems so no will worry about about her.
Daphne loves fashion and fancy things but also cares about her friends and will sometimes use her things she loves to help or save her friends. Daphne has an obsession for shopping, fashion and style just Scooby and Shaggy have for food a Fred has for traps. She has been known to get distracted by her obsession.
Daphne is from Scotland whereas Velma is from Germany, and Shaggy and Fred are from the United States. Daphne doesn't only have family in Scotland she also has family in France.
Though she is known as "Danger-prone Daphne" she has proven she doesn't always need to be rescued learning many skills and abilities to save herself. Even though she has become less of a damsel in distress she occasionally sometimes is still danger-prone.
Overview
Performers
- Indira Stefanianna Christopherson in Scooby-Doo, Where are You! (1969-70)
- Heather North Kenney in Scooby-Doo (1970-1997, 2003)
- Kellie Martin in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988-91)
- Mary Kay Bergman in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999) and Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000) (Following Bergman's death in 1999)
- Grey DeLisle in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001), What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002-2006), Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010), Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010-2013) and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (2015-2018)
- Sarah Michelle Gellar in Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
- Kate Melton in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009) and Scooby Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010)
- In Daphne & Velma, she was played by Sarah Jeffery.
Character description
Together with her other teenage companions, Fred Jones, Shaggy Rogers, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy's pet Great Dane, Scooby Doo, Daphne would engage in solving various mysteries. Daphne was portrayed as enthusiastic, but clumsy and danger-prone, hence her nickname "Danger-Prone Daphne" (revealed by her cousin, Shannon, being danger-prone is a Blake family trait in Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster), member of the gang, who always follows her intuition. She serves as the damsel in distress and would occasionally get kidnapped, tied up, gagged, and left imprisoned. Scooby and Shaggy usually save her, but sometimes Fred and Velma or even the whole gang do it. But as the franchise went on, she became a stronger, more independent character, who can take care of herself. Daphne's character is the most developed in the starring cast, going from a klutzy teenager to a successful journalist to an ingenuous fashionista to a black belt martial artist.
When Scooby is nowhere to be found, Daphne also yells "Scooby-Doo! Where are you?!". In later shows, Daphne is the one who owns the Mystery Machine and lets Freddy drive it due to her crush on him. During the series' fourth incarnation, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, some of the episodes focused on Daphne. In the episode, "Shiver and Shake, That Demon's A Snake", Daphne buys an idol which is cursed by the snake demon. On the sail boat, the snake demon attacks Daphne and demands an idol to return. Daphne throws it to Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy. In the episode, "The Scary Sky Skeleton", Daphne is reunited with her old friend, Wendy.
In the episode, "I Left My Neck in San Francisco", Daphne becomes ill and she's unable to help the gang to solve the mystery about The Lady Vampire of the Bay. Due to the vampire's look, Daphne's unseen reflection in the mirror, the bat flying around Daphne's bed and herself returning to bed a little later, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are convinced that Daphne is a vampire. When the vampiress is revealed to be Lefty Callahan, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy realize they made a mistake with suspecting Daphne and she's feeling well again. Her usual appearance consists of a purple long sleeved mini dress, pink pantyhose, purple shoes, and a green scarf. From Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island to Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, she wore a purple and green three-piece suit with matching shoes. In one level she is a damsel in distress being guarded by a dragon. As a child, she wore a pink sweater, red skirt, frilly white panties, pink pantyhose and white knee-high go-go boots.
In The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, she wore some other purple clothes with purple pants and purple high heels. While not as clever as Velma, Daphne would always solve her problems in a different way. The character later became more confident and started playing a more active role as time went on, a result of changing attitudes towards women during the 1970s and 1980s. In What's New, Scooby Doo?, Daphne has also been known to open locks or do other tasks with strange items from her purse. The youthful Daphne portrayed in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo would commonly call upon her butler, Jenkins, to do various tasks, such as ridding her of people, beating up a monster, freaking out, etc. The younger Daphne is shown (along with her parents) not believing in ghost/monsters/supernatual (one of her catchphases in that series was "There is no such thing as ghosts (monsters)!), a trait she lacks outside the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo series.
In the movie Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Daphne as a young adult, had a very successful investigative TV series called Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake on a fictional channel called "Americana", which the show had aired on for two seasons. The producer of the show was Fred Jones. Throughout the various incarnations of the character, there has been speculation that Daphne and Fred had an attraction toward each other. This is emphasized in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. By the time of the second season, they are shown to be actively dating with Fred showing more of his feelings toward Daphne. In the older series like The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Daphne might have a relationship because they live together ("That's Monstertainment") and share a plane together ("To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before").
Relatives
Relatives of Daphne, including her four identical sisters, shown during the series' run include:
- Barty Blake: Daphne's father, the creator of the product "Blake's Bubbles". Voiced by Frank Welker.
- Nan Blake: Daphne's mother. Voiced by Kath Soucie.
- Daisy: Daphne's sister, a doctor
- Dawn: Daphne's sister, a model
- Dorothy: Daphne's sister, race car driver
- Delilah: Daphne's sister, in the Marine Corps. Voiced by Jennifer Hale.
- Uncle Matt Blake: Daphne's uncle, a cattle rancher.
- John Maxwell: Daphne's uncle, a movie director.
- Olivia Derby: Daphne's aunt.
- Jennifer: Daphne's cousin.
- Danica LaBlake: Daphne's cousin, a famous French model. Voiced by Vanessa Marshall.
- Shannon Blake: Daphne's Scottish cousin. Voiced by Grey DeLisle.
- Anna Blake: Daphne's younger cousin
- Thornton Blake V: Daphne's uncle, owner of a Golf Course near Lake Erie
Note: Frank Welker, Kath Soucie and Jennifer Hale voice Barty, Nan and Delilah in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (currently running) series, Vanessa Marshall voiced Danica in the What's New Scooby-Doo series and Grey DeLisle voiced Shannon in the Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (direct-to-DVD) film. Welker also voiced Nedley on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. The late voice actor Don Messick voiced two of Daphine's uncles: Matthew "Matt" Blake on The Scooby Doo Show and John Maxwell on Scooby-Doo, Where are You!.
In other media
Daphne was portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the film Scooby Doo and its sequel, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Her husband Freddie Prinze, Jr. played Fred in these same Scooby-Doo movies also. In the movies, Daphne and Fred began a relationship in the first, that followed on through the second. Unlike the previous incarnation of the character, Gellar's version of Daphne is trained in martial arts during Mystery Inc.'s 2 year-long departure in the first film, as she is tired of being a damsel in distress on every case that she is involved in with the gang. Although in the first movie, she is captured by the masked wrestler Zarkos, but she beats him in a fight at the end. Daphne is portrayed by Kate Melton in the third film Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (released as a Made-For-TV movie in 2009) and its sequel Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (which premiered on October 16th 2010).
Reception
Members of the fanbase of the original Scooby Doo speculated that Daphne and Fred Jones had a romantic attraction to one another. The makers of the Scooby-Doo film originally planned to refer to the rumor by including a scene where Fred asks to stay with Daphne, using the presence of a toothbrush to imply that he wanted to stay with Daphne for the night. The scene was not included in the final version of the film.
