What's your hottest hey Arnold take?
Shortaki needs a lot lot lot of writing to work well tbh. Yeah Helga is complex and does often good stuff, but i feel most fanon where it just ends up like some weird fairy tale where Arnold turns into a trophy husband to "CinderHelga" just feels icky. Reverse the genders and people would call out how abusive it is. I don't care that people like fans or the crew just wanna jump to them already dating or starting, with zero development. The buildup for a believable healthy romance is where it gets interesting to me. I'd love to see a whole season build up of the romance and Arnold commenting his grievances and so, also maybe just using imager can work as well (I love the Cinderella reference in hte Cecille episode for example)
I also think some of Helga's best writing don't have anything to do with Arnold.
Agreed - TJM rushed it for fan service (though there is technically a missing year of untold adventures between that movie and the main series), but Arnold and Helga would have to be a long game over many years to work realistically.
One thing I really like about the Married episode was that it highlighted how Helga likes the idea of Arnold more than anything else (at that point). In Helga’s dream he’s literally just a trophy husband. Meanwhile, Arnold is actually contending what it would be like to make a marriage and kids work with Helga. Arnold is Helga’s escapism and Helga is Arnold’s real future in that moment.
I agree that in reality it’d have to be a slow buildup. Maybe post TJM the new comedic hook would be that they are only “secretly” dating, and Helga’s diving behind trash cans to pull out of a locket with their picture now in it, and Helga monologue’s about how she wishes they could tell the world but she can’t handle it socially. Kind of a “the more things change, the more they stay the same” thing
And I’m a firm believer that they need to spend most of their high school years or so completely separated - Helga needs to develop as a person and that requires removing her Arnold security blanket. Then they have a shot at a healthy relationship