History Characters / DanVsMainCharacters

* HatesEveryoneEqually: Which is why it's amazing how Chris managed to befriend him for so long.

* RevengeBeforeReason: His bread and butter.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The manly man to Chris' sensitive guy.
* SkywardScream: How he opens [[OnceAnEpisode each and every episode]]. He currently provides the image page.

* CatchPhrase:

** His favourite insult, "JEEEEERKKK!!!!!"

* CatchPhrase: "Dan, you have done a LOT of questionable things..."

* SpearCounterpart: In a rare protagonist example, Dan can be seen as this to Elise.

-->'''Dan, dragging an unconscious Chris into an ambulance:''' Ugh, seriously, if this doesn't work, I'm leaving you.
-->'''Dan, immediately looking remorseful:''' ''(whispering to Chris)'' I would never leave you.

--> '''Dan''': Who's angry!? How dare you! I'll strangle you!

--> '''Dan:''' Some of the things I say are disturbing, even to me! [[EspeciallyZoidberg Especially to me]].

* [[SpearCounterpart Spear]] EvilCounterpart: In a rare protagonist example, Dan can be seen as this to Elise.

* BoobsOfSteel: Her rack is HUGE, and she's an amazing fighter.

* HairTriggerTemper: His anger issues and vindictiveness is the entire basis of the show. Even aside from the episodic revenge quests, minor problems and issues often send Dan into a raging rant.

* ActionGirlfriend: She is Chris's wife and a spy working for a secret organization, a fact that she tries to hide from her husband. Even as a housewife, she can put anyone down easily, which is ''why'' Dan doesn't add her to his revenge list because he's too scared of her. In "The Telemarketer" he's shown erasing her from the list after seeing her beat a man senseless.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Out of him, Dan and Elise, he's by far the kindest, having very little morally dubious deeds on his resume and often goes with Dan's vengeance-related plans.

* NoIndoorVoice: Whener Dan is angry (read: [[HairTriggerTemper very often]]), he tends to shout loudly about his frustrations. His trademark SkywardScream at the beginning of every episode is self-explanatory.

* HairTriggerTemper: His anger issues and vindictiveness the entire basis of the show. Even aside from the episodic revenge quests, minor problems and issues often send Dan into a raging rant.

* BullyAndWimpPairing: The Bully to Chris' Wimp.

* BullyAndWimpPairing: The Wimp to Dan's (and at times, Elise's) Bully.

* TheDragon: Although not technically evil, he is this to Dan.

* InkSuitActor: He looks almost identical to his voice actor, Dave Foley, only taller.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: The feminine boy to Elise's masculine girl.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Out of him, Dan and Elise, he's by far the kindest.
* TooDumbToLive: Eating a poisonous meatloaf (even after Dan had explicitly explained that it was poisoned while discussing his scheme to destroy the animal shelter across his street) was perhaps the stupidest thing he has ever done.

* UndyingLoyalty: Seriously, Chris has an ''EXTREME'' amount of tolerance to Dan given what the latter does on a regular basis.
* VanityLicensePlate: "PUSHOVR".

* ActionGirlfriend: She is Chris's wife and a spy working for a secret organization. Even as a housewife, she can put anyone down easily, which is ''why'' Dan doesn't add her to his revenge list because he's too scared of her. In "The Telemarketer" he's shown erasing her from the list after seeing her beat a man senseless.

* TechnicolorEyes: Her eyes are purple.

* UglyGuyHotWife: She's a little out of Chris' league.
* [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Violently Protective Wife]]: Hurting Chris will end with you being shipped to some unknown country, bound and gagged, (North Korea and Guatemala were mentioned) with a horrible fate awaiting the rest of your life.

* AbusiveParents: Implied heavily in "The High School Reunion", though also in other episodes. His grandmother may have also been one.

** Not to mention all of the HoYay he has with Chris.
* AngryFistShake: Whenever doing his SkywardScream

* AuthorAvatar: An interesting case where the writer's worst qualities are manifested in him.

* GrammarNazi: At times, especially if the works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare are involved.

* HeroicComedicSociopath: Dan usually flip-flops between being an AntiHero to a VillianPrptagonist when coming up with his revenge schemes, but he'll sometimes be right about his delusions, deeply cares for Chris and somewhat Elise despite his coldness, and will refuse to (intentionally) murder anyone to get in his way.

* AuthorAvatar: Same case as Dan.
* BerserkButton: [[HiddenBadass You do NOT ask Chris to make cocoa in the middle of the night, and then LEAVE before it's ready]]! '''SIT DOWN!'''

* ButtMonkey: Forced into Dan or Elise's antics, hated by Elise's parents, generally gets punished for Dan's punishments; he's this to a T.

* TheChewToy: Fate very much does this to him.

* DeadpanSnarker: Not as much as Elise or Dan, but still shows up.

* ExtremeDoormat: Is even called a doormat by the creators of the show.
* GentleGiant: He is a tall and friendly man.

* IronButtmonkey: You'd think he'd already be dead after eating a poisonous meatloaf, falling off a roof, taking a dart from a ninja, taking an epée across the eye, going in a coma after eating far too much bacon, and so on.

* OnlyFriend: To Dan.
* OnlySaneMan: He, Dan and Elise trade this role depending on the episode.

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Pretty frequently.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The sensitive guy to Dan's manly man.

* VitriolicBestBuds: With Dan.

* ActionGirlfriend: Which is ''why'' Dan doesn't add her to his revenge list. He's too scared of her. In "The Telemarketer" he's shown erasing her from the list after seeing her beat a man senseless.

* BadassNormal: To add on to this, she's also one of the few level-headed characters on the show.

* DamselInDistress:
** [[spoiler:"Technology": Where she's captured and brainwashed; she's rescued and has her mind restored by Dan]]
** [[spoiler:"The Magician": This time rescued by Dan's proxy, an amateur magician.]]
** [[spoiler:In "The Dinosaur"; this time, her brother is the one who saves her.]]
** [[spoiler:"The Common Cold"; Is captured and BoundAndGagged by a former supermodel turned supervillain. It's Chris who ends up saving her (and Dan) after he and Dan are captured, too.]]
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Elise's dad despises Chris, but she married him, anyway.

* GeniusBruiser: A female example.
* HappilyMarried: To Chris.

* ActionPet

* BadassAdorable
* CatsAreMean: Averted.
* FormallyNamedPet

* PerpetualSmiler

* AmbiguouslyBi: ...or maybe just plain confused; one episode had him actually bring up [[GirlsHaveCooties "cooties"]] unironically, and this was ''after'' an entire episode where he had a girlfriend.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Even though Dan typically treats Chris poorly, he does care about him greatly, even if he won't readily admit it. This was best shown in "The Boss". There, Dan finds a successful career as a temp, calling the company's debtors and late-fee holders and persuading them to pay their debts. His boss takes a huge shine to him after he blows up on a dense customer over the phone, providing him a huge corner office on his first day and telling him that he's going places. At her behest, Dan chews Chris out over insignificant things, and when she tells him that she's a real-life demon, he's totally fine with it and is even happy to be going into big time evil (and assures Chris that he'll make him his admin assistant after he's transformed into a demon himself). However, Chris walks in at the wrong moment and sees her in her true form, and she instructs Dan to capture him and bring him back to be killed because he knows too much. Without any second thoughts, he turns on her and all she can offer in order protect Chris, pretending to happily follow her plan only so he can attack her with holy water, showing that he truly does care about his best friend.

* DanceBattler: Not by choice, though.

* EnragedByIdiocy: The episode "Dan vs. Stupidity" is dedicated to this.

* EvilLaugh: Every now and then.

* {{Expy}}: Chris Pearson once referred to Dan as "[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong."

* GoingCommando: In "The Bank", it's revealed that Dan does this on occasion. [[HoYay Interestingly]], Chris was aware of that.

* HairTriggerTemper: The entire basis of the show. Even aside from the episodic revenge quests, minor problems and issues often send Dan into a raging rant.

* HeroicComedicSociopath: It's quite amusing to see an angry jerk like him get revenge at even the slightest thing that bothers him.

* HiddenDepths: Has a surprising knowledge of Shakespeare and a somewhat eclectic collection of other topics.

* LeanAndMean: Emphasis on the "mean" part.

* TheNapoleon: He's shorter then most characters in the show and doesn't like to be reminded of it.

* NoIndoorVoice: His trademark SkywardScream at the beginning of every episode is self-explanatory.

* PyroManiac: His first answer to almost any problem is to burn it.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: PlayedWith in "Chris", "Anger Management" and "The High School Reunion". The end of "The Monster Under the Bed" also served as this.
** Another example was from "The Lemonade Stand Gang" -- he puts his foot down at both Elise and Dan continuing to sink lower in their war against the Lemonade Stand Gang; he correctly realizes going lower will simply cause things to get worse. They need to go higher to win. His plan works and the Gang is busted by their parents; Dan actually compliments Chris afterwards.

* LampshadeHanging: To everything Dan does

** Do not hurt Chris in front of her, or else you'll be BoundAndGagged on a train to Guatemala.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: PlayedForLaughs.
* DeadpanSnarker: To a lesser extent when compared to Dan, but more than Chris.

* DistaffCounterpart: Elise can be seen as this to Dan.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter" Gal]]: She tells Dan that growing up, she could never please her parents no matter how hard she tried, even when she received straight A's, full college scholarships, and became captain of every possible sports team. She implies that this pathological desire to be the best is what drove her to become a top secret agent before quickly backtracking when Dan questions it. If her need to make everything in the house absolutely perfect whenever her parents visit because she both anticipates and dreads their inevitable nitpicking is any indication, she hasn't grown out of it.
* WomenAreWiser: Usually played straight, but occasionally subverted. See NotSoAboveItAll.

* AntiHero: NominalHero if not VillainProtagonist.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Downplayed; Chris does not wear actual shoes, just socks and flip-flops.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Reason why viewers root for him is because most of Dan's victims are usually worse than him, though Dan himself can be the receiving end of this as well.

* CutenessProximity: The reason why he can't stay mad at [[CuteKitten Mr. Mumbles]]. In "Technology", Dan refuses to buy a computer. One of workers shows that all he needed was a couple adorably odd cat videos to get him to buy one which he uses solely to watch cat videos...until it stops working and becomes obsolete, that is.

* BumblingDad: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] due to the fact he isn't actually a father, but he is still shown to be less competent than his wife.

* BumblingDad [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] due to the fact he isn't actually a father, but he is still shown to be less competent than his wife.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter" Gal]]: She tells Dan that growing up, she could never please her parents no matter how hard she tried, even when she received straight A's, full college scholarships, and became captain of every possible sports team. She implies that this pathological desire to be the best is what drove her to become a top secret agent before quickly backtracking when Dan questions it. If her need to make everything in the house absolutely perfect whenever her parents visit is any indication, she hasn't grown out of it.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter" Gal]]: She tells Dan that growing up, she could never please her parents no matter how hard she tried, even when she received straight A's, full college scholarships, and became captain of every possible sports team. She implies that this pathological desire to be the best is what drove her to become a top secret agent before quickly backtracking when Dan questions it. Judging by her need to make everything in the house absolutely perfect whenever her parents visit is any indication, she hasn't grown out of it.

* AmbiguousDisorder[[invoked]]: Dan isn't specified to have a certain condition, but it's abundantly clear he's not in the best shape psychologically. His HairTriggerTemper can provoke ''months'' of carefully calculated revenge, [[ToxicFriendInfluence his relationship with Chris is severely toxic and codependent,]] and Dan's case of BlueAndOrangeMorality implies he's operating on a moral level that other people have difficulty following (and even Dan himself can contradict). He's intensely paranoid and distrustful of others (though this is sometimes justified) and [[NeverMyFault rarely can admit to his faults without his arm being twisted.]] Then there's his propensity for violence, [[{{Pyromaniac}} love of fire,]] and [[PsychopathicManchild general incompetence in caring for himself]][[note]]he's unemployed, barely pays the bills, depends on Chris and Elise to bail him out, his hygiene is poor, and his apartment is a mess[[/note]]. It doesn't help it's all but outright stated that [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood his parents were abusive and his explanation of his childhood made his psychologist scream in horror.]] The Imposter, while reading Dan's diary, initially laughed at the entries, but then solemnly said out loud that Dan is "just not well." Therefore, you wouldn't be crazy for assuming Dan had some kind of unchecked personality disorder.

** Dan often insults and belittles Elise, but there are signs that he cares about her more than he lets on. They can and do work together when the situation calls for it, such as in "The DMV" -- Dan even apologizes for having been rude earlier and thanks her for helping him and Chris escape the labyrinth, to which she congratulates him on good teamwork and they high-five. The two of them occasionally get along very well, seen best in "George Washington," when Dan crawls into Chris and Elise's tent because he can't sleep; when he expresses anxiety that his last plan didn't work and how it's keeping him awake, she's downright motherly with how she invites him inside, assures him that he'll get revenge, and when he curls up beside her and asks her to tell him a story, she happily obliges. At the end of that same episode on the drive home, they park the car and stargaze together while Chris is in the grips of prairie madness. After feuding while stuck in the snowed-in cabin in "The Ski Trip," they both talk about their more vulnerable feelings with each other. Dan admits that he doesn't at all enjoy being as angry as he is and Elise expresses her worry that maybe she should look for a safer job (although she gets cold feet and says she's a fisherman instead of a secret agent) -- Dan tells her that not only is her job necessary to keep people alive, but that as the best in the world, she has a responsibility to carry it out; when she's genuinely reassured and thanks him for his input, he pulls his will out of his pocket and begins to add her to it (until she realizes that he's writing on the back of the map they need to escape). In more than one episode, he even refers to her as his friend.

** Dan often insults and belittles Elise, but there are signs that he cares about her more than he lets on. They can and do work together when the situation calls for it, such as in "The DMV" -- Dan even apologizes for having been rude earlier and thanks her for helping him and Chris escape the labyrinth, to which she congratulates him on good teamwork and they high-five. The two of them occasionally get along very well, seen best in "George Washington," when Dan crawls into Chris and Elise's tent because he can't sleep; when he expresses anxiety that his last plan didn't work and how it's keeping him awake, she's downright motherly with how she invites him inside, assures him that he'll get revenge, and when he curls up beside her and asks her to tell him a story, she happily obliges. At the end of that same episode on the drive home, they park the car and stargaze together while Chris is in the grips of prairie madness. After feuding while stuck in the snowed-in cabin in "The Ski Trip," they both talk about their more vulnerable feelings with each other. Dan admits that he doesn't at all enjoy being as angry as he is and Elise expresses her worry that maybe she should look for a safer job (although she gets cold feet and says she's a fisherman instead of a secret agent) -- Dan tells her that not only is her job necessary to keep people alive, but that as the best in the world, she has a responsibility to carry it out; when she's genuinely reassured and thanks him for his input, he pulls his ''will'' out of his pocket and begins to add her to it (until she realizes that he's writing on the back of the map they need to escape). In more than one episode, he even refers to her as his friend.

** Dan often insults and belittles Elise, but there are signs that he cares about her more than he lets on. They can and do work together when the situation calls for it, such as in "The DMV" -- Dan even apologizes for having been rude earlier and thanks her for helping him and Chris escape the labyrinth, to which she congratulates him on good teamwork and they high-five. The two of them occasionally get along very well, seen best in "George Washington," when Dan crawls into Chris and Elise's tent because he can't sleep; when he expresses anxiety that his last plan didn't work and how it's keeping him awake, she's downright motherly with how she invites him inside, assures him that he'll get revenge, and when he curls up beside her and asks her to tell him a story, she happily obliges. At the end of that same episode on the drive home, they park the car and stargaze together while Chris is in the grips of prairie madness. After feuding while stuck in the snowed-in cabin in "The Ski Trip," they both talk about their more vulnerable feelings with each other. Dan admits that he doesn't at all enjoy being as angry as he is and Elise expresses her worry that maybe she should look for a safer job (although she gets cold feet and says she's a fisherman instead of a secret agent) -- Dan tells her that not only is her job necessary to keep people alive, but that as the best in the world, she has a responsibility to carry it out; she's genuinely reassured and thanks him for his input. In more than one episode, he even refers to her as his friend.

** Dan often insults and belittles Elise, but there are signs that he cares about her more than he lets on. They can and do work together when the situation calls for it, such as in "The DMV" -- Dan even apologizes for having been rude earlier and thanks her for helping him and Chris escape the labyrinth, to which she congratulates him on good teamwork and they high-five. The two of them occasionally get along very well, seen best in "George Washington," when Dan crawls into Chris and Elise's tent because he can't sleep; when he expresses anxiety that his last plan didn't work and how it's keeping him awake, she's downright motherly with how she invites him inside, assures him that he'll get revenge, and when he curls up beside her and asks her to tell him a story, she happily obliges. At the end of that same episode on the drive home, they park the car and stargaze together while Chris is in the grips of prairie madness. After feuding while stuck in the snowed-in cabin in "The Ski Trip," they both talk about their more vulnerable feelings with each other. Dan admits that he doesn't at all enjoy being as angry as he is and Elise expresses her worry that maybe she should look for a safer job (although she gets cold feet and says she's a fisherman instead of a secret agent) -- Dan assures her that not only is her job necessary to keep people alive, but that as the best in the world, she has a responsibility to carry it out; she's genuinely reassured and thanks him for his input. In more than one episode, he even refers to her as his friend.