Darren Patterson (character)
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Darren Patterson is a fictional character on Nickelodeon animated series As Told By Ginger, voiced by Kenny Blank. He is Ginger Foutley's next-door neighbour and her closest male friend throughout the show.
Easy-going and affable, Darren has been Ginger's next-door neighbor since very long ago. They are very close and sometimes, Darren appears to take a slightly fatherly role towards Ginger, trying to protect her and being forced to drag her back to Earth every now and then. Darren is also very good friends with Dodie Bishop and Macie Lightfoot.
During Season 1, Darren had to bear the horror of braces and headgear. However, in the episode "Never Can Say Goodbye", his orthodontia was removed and even Ginger noticed how attractive he was.
In Season 1 episode "Dare I, Darren?", Ginger thought that perhaps she was in love with her neighbour, resulting from Miranda Killgallen and Mipsy Mipson bothering her about her close relationship with him. Later in the episode, Ginger and Darren went to the cinema together, but whereas Ginger took it as a "date", he just took it as their usual "just friends" situation. At the end of the chapter, Ginger confessed to Darren her new-found feelings for him; however, he said that he saw her as a sister and Ginger realized that she felt the same and that her supposed "crush" on him was merely a product of her imagination because of Miranda and Mipsy teasing her about it.
Nevertheless, Season 1 kept on hinting at a possible romantic relationship between the two. In Summer of Camp Caprice, Darren found himself stuck in Military Spengler Academy ran by Miranda Killgallen's stern father. Both Darren and Miranda hated the military camp and made a plan to run away it. Although it is never explicitly said or so, it seems that both of them developed a soft spot for each other during that summer. In Never Can Say Goodbye, they become an official couple, but split up at the end of the episode. Miranda appeared to be jealous of Ginger and pretty much vice versa, again implying that Ginger's feelings for her neighbour actually might be romantic, even if she doesn't know yet.
Ironically, after saying he simply felt "brotherly" towards Ginger, Darren realized in the movie Foutleys On Ice (also known as Far From Home) that his feelings for his best female friend had actually changed, since he found himself missing her like crazy when she went away to the prestigious Avalanche Arts Academy. Meanwhile, Ginger had already developed a flippant crush on a boy named Fred at Avalanche. Darren finally decides to visit Ginger and tell her what he feels now, but finds her surrounded by her new group of friends (including Fred) and is reluctant to show up. When at last, forced by an elk, he comes out from the bushes and Ginger sees him, far from getting happy, she is embarrassed of him (which Darren notices) and they quarrel. It all ends up with Darren going off, not without fiercely accusing her of forgetting about her "old" friends.
Ginger is worried about him and starts to look for him. She finally realizes her true feelings for Darren as well and when they meet again, they share their first kiss just before Darren's train parts.
