Cousin Hilda

I came up with this idea some time ago, and I'm writing a fanfiction about it, but haven't uploaded any of it on FFN.net, cause I didn't want to spoil the story if we'd want to use it for an episode..

Basically, this was my idea:

Helga's cousin Hilda comes to Hillwood City for one week. Helga's classmates don't know about it yet, so when Helga and Hilda enter the classroom, Arnold's all like O_O Turns around facing Gerald, and whispers: "Gerald! I've had a dream about this girl!"
Gerald's way too cool to believe in visions or anything supernatural, so he tells his friend that Arnold probably saw her picture somewhere before. He visited Helga's house before, a logical explanation.
Hilda turns out to be just like in Arnold's dream. And everyone immediately loves her. She's cool, tough, but sweet and caring and good looking.
When Hilda and Arnold are alone, he'll tell her that he likes her very much, but Hilda says she likes Arnie.
After school, Helga and Hilda are talking, and Helga finds out that Arnold likes Hilda O_O and that Hilda likes Arnie "You like that dweeb? Pff.. That creep.. he liked me.." And then it hit her; she got her best plan EVER!
Helga hides behind a garbage can while Hilda walks inside, and pulls out her Arnold locket, telling him about her great plan. She will give Hilda her clothes, so she can go home and pretend to be Helga to win Arnie over. So it'll look like if Helga is doing Hilda a favor. But in fact, she will (without telling Hilda) dress up as Hilda, be popular with he classmates, but most of all, with Arnold! And there's no risk. They look and talk alike, nobody would see the difference!

Well, that's how far I've written my fanfic.
But after that she'll have lots of fun with Arnold for a few days <3
She'll think to herself (or write down in her diary) that she'll tell him that it's her at the end of the week. And they'll be together for ever. But of course, she won't dare to tell him in the end XD

I drew a picture about it a while ago:


So, what do you think ^^

I'll put the fanfic online today, somewhere private, not on FFN.net yet, so you can read my story so far. But you'll have to ignore the spelling mistakes and stuff ><

I wonder if it's compatible with the canon, but of course I would like it to be

The fanfic, even apart from the HA6S project, would be interesting to see. It might be hard to make this canonical, but if it could work, that'd be pretty cool too.

I've just recently read the "An Arnold Visits Arnie Essay", and I have to confess that the symbolism of this fic kinda confuses me. If Hilda symbolizes Helga's inner soul (i.e. her romantic, kinder, artistic side), and Arnold in the end leaves Hilda for Helga, did that just mean he rejected Helga in some way? I don't know, it's just a question to ponder.

I don't think that essay should be taken seriously. I mean, there were many doppelgangers there, but I hope nobody would claim that Phoebe's inner soul is dumb, and Harold's inner soul is a fashion-crazy neatnik.

I really don't think the other side characters like Gerald, Phoebe, Sid, Stinky, ect. had any real symbolism to them. At least to the episode plot, anyway. But if you're disagreeing that Hilda did not represent Helga, I'd truly beg to differ.

Accepting Helga instead of Hilda means that he would love her-her. Flaws and all.

Hilda represents what Helga could have been, in a different life. But she's not real. And that's what Arnold truly needs to realize - there is no 'perfect girl' and Helga isn't going to suddenly open up into a girl who's filled with butterflies and happiness. She's bitter and realistic and damn mean. But she's also passionate and strong and brilliant.

Okay, I'm starting to see what you're saying. Arnold preferring Helga (the way she realistically is with her ups and downs) over "Helga" (the way Arnold would like her to be, aka perfect, but probably isn't going to happen), right?

I'm sorry, I really don't mean to look like a crumbum; I'm just trying to see this idea in a way that isn't repetitive of or contradicting "Arnold visits Arnie". Okay, so let me try to get this straight and relate it to past original episodes (pardon me when I'm slow in the head at times, I'm trying to see this in the big scheme of things):

Arnold Visit Arnie: Arnold subconsciously picks "Helga" over "Lila". He's starting to see that there's an attractive side to Helga that's better than the attractive aspects of Lila. I.e. You have Arnold subconsciously picking the person who is "perfect for you" as opposed to the person who is "just perfect".

Married: Arnold starts to realize that even if he were to date/marry Helga, it wouldn't be so bad. Subconsciously confirms that even though Helga has a mean exterior, there is still some good inside her.

Timberly Loves Arnold: Arnold from that point on stops crushing on Lila.

HATM: Arnold learns of Helga's secret, consciously confirming there's some good inside her. Also recognizes that they're not ready for a relationship yet, leading them to pretend that the confession was just in the "heat of the moment". He also doesn't reject Helga's confession (which is why she jumped in joy at the end), so the door's open for him to swallow the confession whenever they're both ready.

Cousin Hilda: Arnold picks Hilda over Helga, showing that he would prefer to accept Helga ("warts and all") than just her good side.

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I probably didn't have to waste your time writing all that, but that's for me to keep it in mind and for others who might have been confused like me. So, if you're putting the episode in that way, then I'd be totally cool with it. In fact, I'd probably be making sure that this story would work into the sixth season. We'd just have to alter it (if it's okay with you, Annemiek; I don't want to do anything that you don't want to do because it is your idea, after all) so that it'd be canonical and then it could fit into the sixth season.

But if it's okay with you all, I'd perfer to stick this one in the later half of the HA6S project, because I'd still like some interaction (even if it's minature scenes) before we show "Cousin Hilda" where Arnold tries to change Helga into a "better person" (i.e. to fit his ideal woman / to attempt to change Helga's "bad ways" all into "good ways"), but ultimately fails because he's just going to have to cope that if he wants Helga, he's going to have to accept her the way she is. I would stick this episode in the later half because this episode is kind of the confirmation that Arnold has actually accepted Helga the way she is.

Even if we have to change this idea to make it fit into the HA6S, I'd be totally willing to link to Annemiek's original fic inside the HA6S project. I still want to see what you came up with lol

I'm totally okay with it to change the story

It would be super cute if in the end, when Helga gets back (acts like herself again), Arnold would hug her and tell her that he's glad that she's back.. or that he missed her <3 Kinda like in 'Arnold visits Arnie'

Sounds really cool. But Arnold does not hug Helga, unless he is not realizing what he is doing. Do you have an idea of why he is really glad to see Helga?

Wait, so Arnold spends the whole day with Hilda only finding out that maybe he doesn't want a perfect girl, he wants somebody like Helga? Okay, cool. I hope I'm on the right track.

I can imagine them bumping to each other at the corner of the building and you know after the whole Arnold tells Helga how Hilda wasn't the 'right girl for him', Helga says 'Oh, well, I'm sorry' even though deep down she's all happy then she goes back to her mean self and walks off. Arnold then thinks to himself 'Maybe I'm not looking for a perfect girl...' and then he looks in Helga's direction or something ;s

Just for fun: maybe the Fake Hilda can confess that she was the Fake Cecile?

Wow! Helga would hack her into pieces, burn her, bury her and dance on her grave [yes, i just realised how stupid is sounds ;p] ! lol. But how did Hilda know about Cecile? Wait, so Hilda likes Arnold?

I mean Fake Hilda (i.e. Helga) to tell Arnold the truth, that she was his Valentine.

Ohh, right, sorry ;x

Omg, i finally get the whole thing xD Cool episode. But Arnold did fall in love with the fake Cecile aka the nicer version of Helga. And I've always like the whole idea of Arnold being kind and patient with Helga knowing that she does have a good side. Unless we're talking about Arnold's high expectations of a 'perfect' girl.

Annemiek wrote:When Helga and Hilda enter the classroom, Arnold's all like O_O Turns around facing Gerald, and whispers: "Gerald! I've had a dream about this girl!"

Arnold is the dude who is typically the silent observer. It might be better to have Arnold stare in shock, then have Gerald ask what's wrong, then have Arnold say his line.

Annemiek wrote:She will give Hilda her clothes, so she can go home and pretend to be Helga to win Arnie over. So it'll look like if Helga is doing Hilda a favor. But in fact, she will (without telling Hilda) dress up as Hilda, be popular with he classmates, but most of all, with Arnold! And there's no risk. They look and talk alike, nobody would see the difference!

I think that it would be super cute if, while Arnold was with Helga in disguise, Arnold implied (cuz that would be more canonical) that he would perfer to be with Helga than Hilda. Have Helga notice his hint and realize what he's implying, and immediately change back into Helga.

I think it might be funny if Helga (non-disguised) and accidently ran into Hilda (disguised) while she was with Arnie. Arnie: "There's two Helgas! This must be a dream! *snort*" (lol, I know Arnie was OOC in that one. Maybe he'll just snort. Hahaha)

Annemiek wrote:After school, Helga and Hilda are talking, and Helga finds out that Arnold likes Hilda O_O and that Hilda likes Arnie

...but in order to have Arnold's implication occur, we might have to drop out Arnold's early confession. Maybe have Arnold hang out around Hilda long enough (to find out more about her) to have Helga all suspicious/jealous/all riled up? Because the one thing that I love about Helga is that she keeps on "learning" that her "evil and crazy" plans never work. She didn't have to be Hilda in the first place to get Arnold to like her.

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ger5632 wrote:Wait, so Arnold spends the whole day with Hilda only finding out that maybe he doesn't want a perfect girl, he wants somebody like Helga? Okay, cool. I hope I'm on the right track.

I don't think this episode would be about Arnold perferring the "imperfect girl" (i.e. Helga) over the "perfect girl" (which is represented by Lila in the series), in the sense that he learns that the girl he should be with should be perfect for him, instead of just perfect. Hilda IS Helga, so she doesn't exactly represent the "perfect girl"... not as much as Lila does. Hilda is more like a distilled version of Helga's good side. In my personal opinion, love isn't all about loving a person's good points; it's also about accepting and eventually growing to love their "bad" points as well. So having Arnold prefer imperfect Helga over perfect Helga would show how Arnold has possibly grown to accept and like (not yet love) her quirks, because that's what also makes up Helga.

Hellerick wrote:Just for fun: maybe the Fake Hilda can confess that she was the Fake Cecile?

Would that ruin the canon?

But, didn't Arnold hug the 'real' Helga at the end of the "Arnold visits Arnie" episode? Didn't that prove that he liked the 'real Helga' more?

I dunno.. *scratches head*..

But he'll realize that it was just a dream, and he knows that people who turn out to be real, like Hilda, probably won't act as they did in his dream.
I think it bugged him that Hilda liked Arnie instead of him, maybe that's why he was glad to see Helga XD

I think the dream was too weird and scary for him to feel anything like jealousy. He was glad to see normal Helga, the one he knew and understood (well, sorta).

I don't think Helga should reveal that she was Cecile. That episode was perfect in the sense that it left Arnold curious, and that he will always have the option to find out who it really was since he has her other slipper. The moments those two shared might be cheapened if Helga were to reveal herself.

I have to admit though, I love the way this episode could play out with Hilda being real and showing up in Hillwood.

I agree that Cecile shouldn't be revealed. It's nicer as a mysterious childhood memory where you have inconclusive suspicions.

Even though "Arnold visits Arnie" did show Arnold preferring the real Helga more, I think this episode is more of a "drill it home" kind of episode. So I think it can be do-able.

Maybe Arnold finds out later in his 30's when they're already married X'DD (about Cecile).

rofl "Oh yeah, that was me, huh?..."

Yep, he should marry Cecile, and twenty years later he should learn that it's Helga.

That should be worked into an ep. as some sort of dream.

I think it's be cool. Sorry this comment isn't long

Cadence wrote:

That should be worked into an ep. as some sort of dream.

That would be great but, then Arnold will know that Helga was Cecile and I think that would ruin the whole point of Arnolds valentine.