Dan

Dan Mandel is the main protagonist and self-antagonist of Dan Vs series.

Dan is a short-tempered man with a mission to exact revenge on anyone and anything he deems has wronged him. While expressing a very shallow and abrasive demeanor, in reality, he is simply too overwhelmed with stress, becoming overly-sensitive to everyday pet peeves.

In the AWA fics, Dan is a student at the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Dan has messy black hair, green eyes, a poorly shaven beard, a soul-patch, and round teeth. His everyday outfit consists of blue jeans, black ankle boots, and a black T-shirt that says 'JERK' in white letters.

Personality
Dan is a very short-tempered man, who can and will become enraged with nearly anything that... well, anything really. He has very bad luck with anything mechanical and can accidentally cause major damage. He's very comical and childish, often referred to as a "big kid" by Chris. Always in a jobless state and poor living causes Dan to become rightfully raged at the things that cause his added pain. In many of his "missions" he is surprisingly often right in his outlandish assumptions. He can also be very sensitive, in both the negative and positive sense of the word. He can also be very harsh, in both a negative and positive sense as well, but the latter is only seen rarely (e.g. "Summer Camp" and "Chris").

Even with his rash behavior, Dan does have a sense of morality and will occasionally do the right thing. Examples include saving all the animals in the shelter before blowing it up, denying to back-stab his friend Chris, and let's not forget his undying adoration to his ragamuffin kitten Mr. Mumbles. Dan secretly has a strongly compassionate side in which he is willing to rescue Elise, Chris, and Elise's hated parents. He generally has a fake demeanor that he shows much in the show: he doesn't care about anyone but himself (and Chris slightly.), yet hides his real feelings which he uncovers whenever he is around Mr. Mumbles. He told Hortense at Burgerphile to do what she wanted to do, because she helped him with his strike. He started a relationship with her, but they broke it off when she was promoted and had to move. He even charmed three girls into liking him, though all these relationships were short lived, one of them have even used him in their own revenge schemes. He seemed saddened by this, but recovered each time by the next episode.

He is very fond of his car, even though it is in terrible shape. In fact, many of his revenge quests were caused because someone heavily wreaked his car, whether intentionally or not. He has said that he loves his car and if he has grandchildren he will sell it to them.

In some episodes, when Dan becomes enraged, Dan tells Chris that he wouldn't kill anyone. But in "The Wolfman" when Chris told him he expected him to kill the wolfman, Dan believed that was going too far. Dan has mentioned the Bible a couple of times. In short, Dan doesn't have much passion for killing.

He is a serious fan of Shakespeare, his teddy bear is even named Brutus. He also shows a vast knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and the English language in general, shown by his usage of unusually erudite terminology and his correction of other people's utterances.

Although Dan comes off as cold and callous, he does have a sensitive side that is rarely seen. In "Wedding" when he found out Hortence was getting married, he looked to be on the verge of tears. His despair quickly turned into rage, but it was clear that he still felt devastated on the inside. He has much difficulty expressing emotions other than anger and outrage, and doing so is even on his list. He was unable to tell Hortence that he loved her, saying instead that he, "felt very warmly towards her."

Dan is a born leader as seen in "The Fancy Restaurant" where he and Elise start a French food revolution between the cooks and dungeon people. Chris has also stated that Dan has a terrible memory, "He's like an angry goldfish." (Goldfish can only remember the last eight seconds.) According to Chris in "George Washington", he "has a very strange patchwork of knowledge, it's anyone's guess as to what he knows about any given topic." He then demonstrated this by asking Dan who carved Mt. Rushmore and where it is located. Dan knew who carved it but didn't know which state it was in. He has been shown to be very knowledgeable about many things yet ignorant of many things, as well. While he may be ignorant about some things, Dan is very persistent, which can be both a good and bad thing. Dan would sometimes look at things without reason, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, such as in "The Neighbors" when he assumed they are cannibals and trashed his car (Dan did that himself but pinned the blame on them anyway), and "The High School Reunion" where he didn't want to go, but went anyway due to the fact that he though that wasn't invited (it was later found out that he was) and Chris points out he moved five times (probably due to criminal acts).

Chris Pearson, one of the producers and the inspiration for the character Chris, described Dan as "Calvin from the comic Calvin and Hobbes as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong somewhere."

Dan has been shown to have a good natured side that he was not able to develop during childhood. It is heard by various comments and in conversations with Chris that Dan's parents were extremely harsh towards him while growing up. He has stated that most of his life has been spent in front of the TV as his parents were very neglecting, so he was "raised by TV" during his childhood. Because of his parents' mindful or unmindful awareness in his rearing, Dan was put to witness many unfortunate experiences growing up. The first of Dan's backstory is seen in the episode Summer Camp (episode), and hints of what his childhood was like have been brought up on several occasions.

Depending on the situation, Dan may be either the protagonist or the antagonist

Abilities
Despite looking all normal, Dan is extremely violent, and has the skills and knowledge to create chaos.

Trivia

 * Dan along with Chris Pearson are the first characters from Dan Vs to be introduced in the AWA fics.
 * In the AWA fics, Dan has taken Koutarou Inugami as his 'Padawan' much to everyone's ire.


 * Dan is lactose intolerant. Eating cheese or milk based products makes him roll around on the floor, clenching his stomach in pain.


 * Dan mentions he's been hit with tear gas so many times it doesn't affect him anymore. He is also immune to pepper spray.


 * Mr. Mumbles is a female cat and Dan acknowledges her as a girl. He named her before he knew her gender, and didn't find out she was a girl until several episodes after he adopted her, but still calls her Mr. Mumbles anyway.


 * Dan is shown to have an extensive knowledge of and a large appreciation for the works of William Shakespeare, to the point that he swears a vendetta against the eponymous dinner theater for "soiling the works of the Immortal Bard".


 * During the episode "The High School Reunion", it's revealed that Dan was incredibly popular in high school, since his classmates loved his revenge hijinks, but he was never aware of it.


 * Dan appears to be ambidextrous (both left and right handed), as he is seen writing or using silverware with either one of his hands.


 * His best friend is Chris.