I recently watched the first few seasons of Hey Arnold for the nostalgia value and to see how well it held up. The character of Helga is a pretty awful person to everyone around her, which I can kind of understand, given her home life is a mess. She bosses her classmates around to feel respected and powerful because she is ignored and neglected at home. She is especially cruel to Arnold because she has feelings for him; he represents everything her parents aren’t: kind, big-hearted, starry-eyed, principled.
There’s one episode in particular in which she pulls pranks on him, then immediately berates herself and wonders why she has to be so awful to him. It’s almost like she’s compelled to act that way, and I started wondering why. My own theory is that she has such low self-esteem that she feels she doesn’t deserve happiness or love, and therefore does everything she can to alienate the one person she really does like and who might like her if she started being nice. Is there a psychological term for this kind of thing? What was your take on their strange relationship?
Yeah, I’d say that pretty much sums it up.
It’s worth noting that her childhood wasn’t exactly sunshine and roses. Her father does love her, but he’s frequently busy with work. He has extremely high expectations for her, and that isn’t helped out at all by her over-achieving older sister. It’s strongly implied that Helga’s mother is an alcoholic, and at any rate she’s often so out of it that she doesn’t understand how to care for Helga.
reaction formation. She is unable to deal with her feelings for Arnold due to her age and her home life, so she employs it as a defense mechanism for the anxiety.
I always just assumed she was insane.
Bitches be crazy
It’s because Helga loved Arnold, but didn’t want to show her true feelings. She even had to see a therapist because of it.
I always liked Helga Pataki, since was actually well-developed and interesting.
The same reason Angelica Pickles was so mean on Rugrats - she’s a brat.
Word