starvinbohemian

Ugh. Sometimes, being a fangirl is just bad for your health. After two days of playing ship-war with my little brothers over whether or not Cloud Strife loves Tifa or Aeris more, I'm about ready to strangle them both. I usually count on their being too retarded to understand any form of subtext in anything whatsoever to justify what I determine to be canon (i.e. Ichigo/Rukia), but they surprised me this time by siding with the Cloud/Aeris team. Seriously, if people think Kubo Tite is frustrating with his ship subtexts, then try spending some time in Tetsuya Nomura land. There is not a more sadistically ambiguous author in existence. He -admittedly- did everything he could to build up the ship war and make sure that no one had any indisputable evidence on either side. If I ever get to meet that man... Well, it would be a very interesting conversation. One that I'm sure he's had many a time. Damn you, Nomura! How I love and despise you!


So, to escape the sheer frustration that is FFVII, I retreated to one of my earliest OTPs: Helga/Arnold from Hey, Arnold! Don't ask. For no reason whatsoever, I randomly became obsessed (circa three in the morning) with finding out whether or not Helga and Arnold ever had their relationship resolved on the show. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Arnold was always intended to return Helga's feelings, even if the show was canceled before there could be anything other than hints dropped that this was the case. Courtesy of a posted interview with the creator, Craig Bartlett, I also found out that there was a second movie planned that was going to depict Arnold coming to terms with his feelings for Helga (among other things), and there was going to be a -mutual- kiss that would get interrupted by Gerald. There was also an intended spin-off show called The Patakis that was supposed to air on MTV a la Daria that was going to star Helga's family. Sadly, Arnold would have moved away, but not before he and Helga dated and had "stormy times," according to Bartlett. She would have written letters to him each episode and ripped them up without sending them. Classic self-defeatist Helga. Damn but I love that psychologically damaged girl. I guess the spin-off show was deemed too "dark" for Nick at Night, who was originally supposed to air it. Funny, because I always thought their messed up family was pretty dark for Nickelodeon during the day. That would have been a damn good show though.

Bartlett is a surprisingly big Helga/Arnold shipper (he even reads the fan fic!), saying that they were "made for each other." Surprising mainly because I guess I never really thought that Arnold, once aware of Helga's feelings, would return them. Much as I love that girl and the pairing, there is really nothing healthy about Helga's love for Arnold. The shrines in the closet and the psychological transference of neediness to Arnold due to the painful neglect from her parents and all. Then again, I hadn't seen the first Arnold movie until today, and I think there's a pretty good indication in there that Arnold isn't entirely put off by that huge smooch (and sexual innuendo?) Helga lays on him on the rooftop.

Did I mention that Bartlett reads and supports the fan fic? ;)