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- For this character's movie counterpart, see Lydia Deetz.
| “ | Though I know I should be wary, still I venture someplace scary! Ghostly haunting, I turn loose! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!! BEETLEJUICE!! |
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| ~ Lydia Deetz summoning Beetlejuice |
Lydia Deetz is the deuteragonist of the animated television series Beetlejuice. She is Beetlejuice's best friend.
She is voiced by Alyson Court who also played Loonette the Clown from The Big Comfy Couch and Jubilee in X-Men: the animated series. She also voiced Clair Redfield in Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
Appearance[]
Her regular outfit at home is a long dark purple top, a pair of black leggings, a light purple and pink sash tied around her waist and black slipper-shoes. Her Neitherworld attire consists of a large spiderweb pattern red poncho, over a full-body black Unitard (the ends of the sleeves are like finger-less gloves, and the bottom of the legs double as footwear). She also wears school attire consisting of a blue blazer jacket over a light blue button down shirt and black tie with a black skirt, Grey socks and black shoes. She also has her hair down with shoulder length hair.
Personality[]
She is established as being a creative, bright, lively, sharp, yet eccentric young girl, but otherwise Lydia's unique outlook on life makes her stand out from most of the other school-girls, which leaves her feeling out of place and alone in the real world, finding it difficult to fit in well with most of her classmates—leading her to frequently visit and seek out reassurance with her closest best friend, Beetlejuice, in the Neitherworld, where she is accepted and loved for who she is as a person.
Lydia is a talented photographer, seamstress, and artist with an innate affinity and love for all things gross, scary, weird, surreal and macabre, and who celebrates all that is (in the words of her film incarnation) 'strange and unusual'. Despite her love of all things 'strange and unusual', Lydia is also a positive, well-mannered, friendly and patient girl (being best friends with Beetlejuice is a testament towards Lydia's saint-like patience), and aside from also being emotionally mature for her age (given what her best friend and her parents are like), Lydia can be accredited as being very responsible for a girl in her age group. Lydia is also shown to be a naturalist, shown to feel very strongly about environmental issues (in Spooky Tree, Lydia cut school and chained herself to a tree in protest of the workmen who were about to chop it down).
History[]
She has also shown that she is extremely gifted with anything mechanical and understands a lot about cars (she knew what to do to build Doomie, while "Bee-gor" Beetlejuice did not know very much, such as what a carburetor is). In the series, Lydia attends "Miss Shannon's School for Girls" and is in the seventh grade. Lydia is Beetlejuice's best friend; in the events of the pilot episode, Critter Sitters, both she and Beetlejuice have already known each other for a year, as they are celebrating their first anniversary of friendship. Beetlejuice frequently addresses her as "Lyds" or "Babes" rather than "Lydia" though he does use her full name from time to time, like when he is scared, amused, or worried about her; for example: in "Worm Welcome" when Beetlejuice found out that "Worm Your Way" deodorant causes baby Sandworms to go crazy, he was scared Lydia would be eaten by the baby Sandworm, this in turn makes himself shout her name.
Lydia knows how to summon Beetlejuice to her presence or make her own way to his: by calling his name aloud three times. (Occasionally she is shown making use of a longer, more elaborate ritual using the aforementioned four-line chant to bring him out of the Neitherworld or send herself into it, but this seems not to be a necessity.) Unlike Beetlejuice himself, Lydia is almost universally loved by the Neitherworld cast of the show (although some of them are amazed that she hangs out with Beetlejuice of her own free will), and she once won a Neitherworld award for Cutest Mortal to Ever Visit the Neitherworld. In the pilot episode, Critter Sitters, she is shown summoning him through the longer ritual; as part of the ritual, the color of her clothing changes, possibly merely by her choice. (Her invariable Neitherworld costume—unless she is in disguise—is a full-length red spiderweb-patterned poncho worn over a black, form-fitting body suit). Lydia is the only person he will heed.
Having found herself a kindred spirit in Beetlejuice, Lydia looks up to Beetlejuice in certain ways, admiring his outrageous sense of humor (as she would constantly be seen laughing at his jokes or gags). In one episode, Beetlejuice lent Lydia his funny bone so she could be funny as part of a school show, but without his funny bone Beetlejuice became much more serious and normal; this change in him even disappoints Jacques and Ginger. When Beetlejuice gets his funny bone back however, he becomes his abnormal self again much to Lydia's delight as she hugs him. In some respects, Lydia sometimes has been seen virtually parenting Beetlejuice. It is frequently made clear that Beetlejuice's dedication to her is a source of Lydia's own self-confidence.
Although most of Beetlejuice's antics are motivated by self-amusement rather than malice, he can become genuinely hostile if Lydia is threatened, and any who might conceivably threaten their relationship (such as Prince Vince) are the objects of Beetlejuice's profound jealousy and resentment. In the episode "Out of My Mind", it is learned that Beetlejuice actually has a working shrine to Lydia in his mind. Lydia never shows any romantic interest in anyone else except Prince Vince, and that quickly turns into a straight-out friendship. She has hugged Beetlejuice a few times. When Lydia was inside Beetlejuice's head, she gave a donation towards the maintenance of his shrine to her.
Trivia[]
- Her main hobby is reading literary classics such the collective works of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King and others.