Daphne Blake

Daphne Anne Blake
Scooby-Doo character
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Female

Daphne Ann Blake is a fictional character in the long-running American animated series Scooby-Doo. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her red 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 and Scooby, and has appeared in more adaptations than the other characters, aside from Shaggy and Scooby. She is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the first two live action films.

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)
• Grey DeLisle in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001), What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002-2006), Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010-)
• 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)

Character description

Together with her other teenage cohorts, 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 the 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 do it. Very occasionally, Daphne's rescued by all of the gang. 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?!".

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. In the episode, "The Ghoul, the Bat and the Ugly", due to the many actors posing as the monsters, Daphne lost in the mystery about the shadow creature, but Fred and Velma remind her all.

Her usual appearance consists of a purple dress, pink pantyhose, purple shoes, and a green scarf. In Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, she wore a purple and green three-piece suit with matching shoes. As a child, she wore a pink sweater, red skirt, and pink pantyhose with white go-go boots. In the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo she wore some other purple clothes with purple boots and purple heels.

While not as smart 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.

In many of the movies and episodes, it is obvious that Daphne has a big crush on Fred. She clings to him when frightened, gets extremely jealous when he likes other girls, and, in Scooby-Doo!_Mystery_Incorporated, flirts with him routinely. She often says that she is frustrated because she thinks he does not like her as much as she likes him. In "In Fear of the Phantom", Daphne's heart is broken when she hears Fred wish he did not have feelings for her (she does not hear him realize he does). She joins the Hex Girls as Crush and writes music about her heart being caged, which finally gets through to Fred. At the end, he admits he likes her, to Daphne's delight. In "Revenge of the Man-Crab", Daphne is kidnapped and Fred goes crazy with worry. When she comes back, she says slyly to Fred that Velma said he was "out-of-sorts" while she was gone. Fred then says that it was terrible and he will never have feelings again. Daphne then smiles and says, "We'll see". In Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo, when she nearly falls from the stairs in the tower, she looks scared and holds on to Fred. When the griffin appears, both cling to one another. At the end of the first live-action movie, Daphne and Fred kiss. In the second one, she is wearing an engagement ring, so it is assumed she is engaged to Fred. He calls her "Sweetheart" and "baby" throughout the movie. At the end, they kiss. In Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins, both appear to have a strong attracion to one another. When they sneak into school in disguise and Daphne sees the vice-principal coming towards them, she desperately looks for something to do and ends up making out with Fred. She also seems to strongly dislike Velma's attraction to Fred. When Velma says that Fred is "pretty cute", Daphne "accidentally" clips her with a nail-clipper. She and Fred always seems to pair up, which does not go unnoticed by Daphne or Velma, both commenting on it in Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost. In the most recent animated movie, Scooby Doo! Camp Scare, Fred has a big crush on a counselor from Camp Big Moose, Jessica, whom Daphne immediately dislikes. When Fred tells Jessica and a camper that Daphne saved his life, Daphne is very smug about it. She mimics Jessica, acts very annoyed when Jessica is around, and when it seems that Jessica does not really like Fred as a boyfriend, Daphne doesn't seem to mind.

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 believe 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 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.

In the movie Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo, Velma catches Daphne practicing ballet so as to conquer her danger-prone ways and perhaps be more graceful so as to capture Fred's attention. While exploring, Daphne stuns everyone with a display of agility and grace navigating though the forest. Ironically, Fred falls into a nearby underground chamber which the normally danger-prone Daphne somehow managed to avoid completely (a fact that doesn't go unnoticed by Fred and Daphne). At the end of the movie, Velma's younger sister Madelyn gives her first performance as a stage magician with Daphne acting as her assistant, leaving Fred with his mouth hanging open in amazement.

Extra Relationship Information

There has been controversy regarding a relationship with Shaggy and Daphne in the series. The original Scooby Doo cartoons besides the late 90's editions showcase this. One show in particular is The 13 ghosts of Scooby Doo, which seems open ended. This is an original Hana-Barbara cartoon, the rest after that are under Warner bros and we do not know how much influence the creators have over what is made, but the original series was here first, and seem more canon (the newer ones seem like an alternate retelling). There are also movies which showcase this also which are not mentioned on this page. The main point is in the original cartoon series Daphne and Shaggy "do" get paired up officially. The changes in the series come after the new editions to the series starting in the late 90's to the present.

Relatives

Relatives of Daphne shown during the series' run include:

• George R. Blake: Daphne's father, the creator of the product "Blake's Bubbles". Voiced by Frank Welker.
• Elizabeth "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: 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

Note: Frank Welker, Kath Soucie and Jennifer Hale voice George, Elizabeth 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.

In other media

Daphne, as portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

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 TV movie in 2009) and its sequel Scooby-Doo 4: Curse of the Lake Monster (which premiered on October 16th 2010).