At an early age we learned that stalkers and weirdos do exist. We were told not to help strange men find their puppies, never take candy from strangers, and to never walk anywhere alone at night. Most of what we learned was vague and fear-fueled. However, Hey Arnold gave us insight into the mind of a true stalker, and we called her Helga.
When Arnold shows any interest in other girls, she gets upset and wants to ruin it for him. Her end goal is always to have him fall in love with her, which always seems to backfire. She pretends to be his French penpal and fakes a French accent in order to go on a date with him when he is supposed to be on a date with Ruth.
She dates Stinky in order for Arnold to get jealous and carves Arnold's name into trees.
While Arnold is on a date with Lila, Helga works hard to sabotage the date. She follows them everywhere, drilling holes in boats, gluing down cans, turning up the speed on rides, and trying to make Lila have a miserable time.
There is also an episode where Helga's dad has a parrot that overhears Helga reading a poem about Arnold and repeats it. In order to shut it up she raids her dad's tool shed and comes back with a chainsaw (um.. FRIGHTENING) but the bird has already flown away. Somehow it ends up in Arnold's possession, repeating the poem over and over. She sneaks into his house and tries to kill it. Luckily, the bird is eaten by her new monitor lizard before it finishes off the poem with her name.
Throughout the series Helga's obsession becomes more elaborate and creepy. At times she does her best to make sure that Arnold gets credit for his good deeds and helps him when he is fighting for a cause of some sort. However, she remains cold and demeaning toward him. The entire storyline is a little insane for fourth graders but Helga was pretty clever, even if she was also pretty misguided.
Did Helga ever creep you out or were you fond of her? Let me know what cartoon characters you found to be creepers even at a very young age.
-Brianna