The Crazy Series of Surreal Dreams

Before I start, I want you guys to watch this Futurama episode, called "The Sting".

http://www.futurama-stream.com/season-5/episode-9-the-sting

(Don't worry. It's pretty safe to watch. No real gore/violence/sex ect. If the link didn't work, go here: http://watchxonline.com/media/130-futurama-509-the-sting.php
And if you're really lazy to watch the episode, read the synopsis here: http://theinfosphere.org/The_sting )

Anyways, in "The Sting", the character Leela has a bunch of surreal dreams that, in a way, increased her affection for her potential love interest, Fry, without actually spending a lot of time with him, consciously, in real life. And I would really love to have a loose Hey Arnold! version of "The Sting" where Arnold has a bunch of crazy dreams that, in the end, brings him closer to Helga. Kind of similar to "Arnold visits Arnie" but more surreal, crazy, confusing, and with a HUGE twist in the end.

So here's what I'm kind of thinking:

1. We start the whole scene with at least Arnold and Helga. Let's pretend that they're interacting with each other, as usual. At the end of the day, they both go to sleep. The next day they both get up and Helga gets into what seems to be a serious accident.
   
2. Luckily she wakes up, and Helga begins to have a series of crazy scenes/dreams where she can't differentiate dreams from reality. It pretty much feels like Helga is going crazy. There are scenes where she is with her family, peers, Arnold, ect.
   
3. Helga wakes up to find that she's been in a temporary coma (from her accident in Part 1) and later learns that Arnold has been regularly visiting her. (A little bit off topic, but if you have time, read Pyrex Shards' sweet fanfic Ananda where Arnold regularly visits Helga-in-a-coma)
   
4. Arnold wakes up to find that the whole thing (i.e. the whole episode) was just a super crazy dream, starting when he slept in Part 1 of this outline. This means that everything -- including Helga's actions and such -- has been a figment of Arnold's imagination. This is the "huge" twist but, if you look at this on another level, it also shows Arnold learning to understand and perhaps respect Helga more as a person, thus improving their relationship as Arnold gains more respect for his future soul-partner.
   

What I really like about this idea is that there are so many things that we can stick in here that we wouldn't be able to stick in our normal, regular episodes, such as,

1) What if Arnold walked in on one of Helga's soliloquys
2) What if Helga confessed (again) to Arnold

Y'know, things like that that we normally wouldn't (couldn't) stick in normal episodes because of canon conflict.

I also realize that this might be a long episode, so it might be split over 2 or more chapters if it ever gets made.

Anyways, I would REALLY love some feedback and ideas for what surreal / crazy things we can stick in here.

Thanks for reading!

Weird, mostly nonsensical dream sequences? Love 'em! In fact, I'm incapable of writing a fic without including one. (Also, that ep. of Futurama was awesome).

Anyhows, this could cover a whole level of things, with all sorts of fun metaphors. Can't think of any right off the bat, but they're out there. xD Since this is supposed to look like Helga's dream, Arnold can act a lil' lovey, or maybe not lovey, but aware of loveyness? o_O Wait... What was I saying?

Oh yes, for instance, have Arnold ask Helga why she thinks he is so darn fond of hugging her/insistent on finding her inner good/whatever.

A Cinderella scene with the red shoe could be worked in somewhere.

Also, flying, ride-able pillows (<_< Because it sounds like fun...)

All of these would be very lolwhut? moments for dear Arnold once he wakes up (by falling out of bed, holding his pillow... See? It all makes sense. *nods*).

Tendra, I don't know if you've read my response on my "The Yearbook" thread, but I think it's a brilliant idea to combine yours and my ideas. So people won't be confused, is there a way to combine the two threads?

I've tried merging the two threads, but the order of posts gets all wacky and messed up. So here's what we've talked about in your thread.

coloredskies84 wrote:I'm not sure how well this idea will sit with everyone but I'm going to pitch it anyway because it's something I've been thinking about for a while. I started to write a short fanfiction about what I'm thinking of, a one-shot if you will, but I never finished it because of other things going on in my life. You guys know how it is.

My idea is this and feel free to tweak it if parts don't sit well:

It's definitely after the FTI scandal and after "April Fool's Day" but before "The Journal." I'm thinking possibly in September or August. Arnold keeps having dreams but they're not altogether bad dreams at all. Just flashback type dreams and ones that make him very curious. The dreams consist of Helga, her confession on the FTI building, the kiss and how they both agreed everything was just "in the heat of the moment" at the end of it all. Since these flashbacks are a reoccurring thing, Arnold can't help but wonder WHY he's suddenly having these dreams and WHY he can't stop thinking about them. He also wonders WHY he can't stop thinking about Helga. Thinking about all this starts to stress him out because he thinks that all she's ever really done is pick on him and bully him. Why does he care so much? Arnold decides that all he really need is a distraction.

He finds his fourth grade yearbook (before anyone says anything about this, I had yearbooks in elementary school. ) and starts to look through it, finds pictures of himself when he played basketball, baseball, even pictures of the April Fool's Day Dance. He starts to notice that in the background of a few pictures, whoever took them accidentally caught Helga watching him, playing basketball or baseball or whatever, and she has a goofy, lovesick look on her face. Arnold is like "huh?" I like to think that this is how Arnold would finally come to terms with Helga's confession and not be so completely shocked by it...like this yearbook and these dreams help him to put the pieces together. I also think it might help him begin to realize his own feelings for her on a more conscious level....though he is merely still at the tip of the iceberg.

I'm not really sure what could happen after this and that was another reason why I stopped writing my story. Could he talk to Gerald about some of these things? Could he go to Helga herself and show her the pictures in the yearbook? Could Phoebe even be of some help in this?

Wow, this was long! LOL! XD I'm going to quit now and give you guys time to give me some feedback, haha!

Retromanka wrote:Actually I like this idea but feasibly it should have its developement not so clearly for Arnold. I mean it could be a flat and short thought like "Hah...Helga's so complicated ...Heeey!What's the smell? " *sound from a closet*
"Mr. Kokoshka get out from my room! I won't give you to steal my camera for selling again!"

buckysbone wrote:ColoredSkies84, that's a pretty neat storyline that could be for an episode! I really like it!

tendra91 wrote:I like the idea of Arnold having this bunch of flashbacks of their FTi experience, but I'll admit that I'm a bit worried about having Arnold put "the two and two together" in terms of Helga's love for him. I really don't know if this would be canonical enough, so I'll need to hear some more feedback before I actually make a decision about it's canonical aspect.

I would actually really love this whole idea as a dream because with the scene with all the flashbacks, it almost sounds like Arnold is going crazy lol. And when he opens the yearbook, it gets kinda freakier. I was originally going to write a longer post because I had an idea that could relate to this, but ended up writing a new thread for it to not junk up your thread in case someone didn't want this episode idea as a dream. You can read my thread here:
https://ha6s.forumotion.com/general-discussion-f1/the-crazy-series-of-surreal-dreams-t109.htm

I'm not sure if you wanted to merge our ideas together somehow, but the option is always there. Very good idea, though. It has merit.

P.S. I deleted your bump post. I'm totally okay with bumping your thread, but I just want to let you know that they'll be deleted in the future to make the thread cleaner.

coloredskies84 wrote:I noticed that the bump post was deleted and I have no problem with it at all. I halfway expected it because I think you're right. It did make the thread cleaner. I just thought the idea might have been accidentally overlooked because there have been some rather good discussions in other threads lately. I'm going to try to avoid making bump posts in the future like that.

I read your other thread, Tendra, and I think it would be brilliant to combine the two ideas together. One of the things that I didn't like about "Hey Arnold: The Movie" was how Helga's confession was so rushed! I had seen confessions in her dreams/fantasies that were better than that one in regular episodes (for instance, her fantasy confession in "Helga Sleepwalks").

Yeah, some of my images that I had might not be canonical and that was why I wasn't sure how well my idea would sit with everybody. But they can be used in dreams! Like there was one where Arnold walks in to Helga's room when she's writing one of her poems, she's saying it outloud and he recognizes the pink book (it looks like the one from "The Little Pink Book") but then he thinks, "no, couldn't be...alot of people have pink notebooks..." I also had an image of him asking her to sign his yearbook, even though it kinda freaked him out seeing all the pictures of her being lovesick in the background, because she had never signed it. I thought the yearbook signing part would show that he is okay with everything, isn't rejecting her, but still needs time to process things.

Thanks, Tendra. I thought since there weren't that many posts on my thread that it would be easier to merge them. This works just as well.

Oh yes, for instance, have Arnold ask Helga why she thinks he is so darn fond of hugging her/insistent on finding her inner good/whatever.

A Cinderella scene with the red shoe could be worked in somewhere.

Also, flying, ride-able pillows (<_< Because it sounds like fun...)

I love these ideas alot! Especially the pillow part, haha. XD

I really like this idea. I haven't watched the Futurama episode yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
Have you ever seen the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? That's kind of what this idea reminded me of when I first read it. I'll probably get a better idea once I watch the Futurama episode.
I kind of get the feeling that if Craig Bartlett would have been able to continue HA! he would have liked to do more trippy surreal storylines like this one; so I would love to see this idea work.

This sounds awesome!! I haven't seen the futurama episode yet (I'll watch it though) but the idea seems familiar, didn't the simpsons have an episode like that? Or maybe I've seen it somewhere else.. Anyway, I think this could definitely be a real HA episode.. He's had crazy dreams before ^^

Love the pillow-ride XD
And the cinderella red shoe.. maybe a little clue that Arnold (subconsciously) realizes that Helga was Cecile?

I have probably silly thought...
Imaginably in Hillwood would appear a crazy hippy popping up in the storyline and becoming a new minor character

I watched the Futurama episode, and it gave me an idea. This is just kind of a modification on Tendra's idea. It might be a little confusing, so I'll try to make it as clear as I can.

The idea is kind of a parody of a German film called Run Lola Run (I think the German title is Lola rennt )
Anyway, in the movie Lola gets a call from her boyfriend, Manni, telling her that he desperately needs $100,000 in 20 minutes. So, she tries to run to her father (a banker) to get him the money, but he's no help so she ends up helping Manni rob a grocery store...where they're both surrounded by police and Lola gets shot.
But, suddenly the movie starts over again to the point where Lola is running to help Manni. This time Lola decides to Rob her father's bank, but by the time she finds Manni he gets run over by an ambulance.
Then, the movie starts over again with her running to a casino to win the money.

So, the point in this is that given multiple chances, small actions can yield dramatically different results.

Putting this into Tendra's HA! story idea: Helga or Arnold are both in Arnold's main dream where the audience thinks that Helga is the one dreaming.
A bunch of crazy, surreal things can happen, but at the end of each one of Helga's dream sequence (once it starts to get too weird) she wakes up to find that it was only a dream (even though it's still part of Arnold's main dream). She would wake up each time in a similar way as the previous sequence, but do something slightly different to yield a dramatically different result in the end.

For example, Helga wakes up in her own bed to the sound of her alarm clock and then decides to go to the park. She sees Arnold sitting on the bench fixing his kite. She goes into a soliloquy about Arnold. Arnold runs toward her, and she quickly puts her locket away, they get into a weird dream-like conversation and he eventually tells her to, "wake up!"

Then she wakes up in her own bed again to the sound of her alarm clock, but she stubs her toe this time. This causes her to be a little late to the park, so when she starts her soliloquy, Arnold is no longer on the bench. But, he's standing right behind Helga and he hears the whole thing. They get into this big conversation (lots of heavy emotional stuff) and he eventually tells her to "Wake Up!"

So, she wakes up in her own bed again to the sound of her alarm clock...and this could go on forever, but we eventually find out at the end that Arnold was the one dreaming.

It can also be juiced up a little bit as coma dreams, surgery dreams, or whatever; if the regular dreams don't seem exciting enough.
That was just an example to try to make things a little bit more clear.

Did this make sense? Does anyone like this idea? Did anyone understand this idea, or was it too confusing?

You know, I'm not sure about all this Arnold-dreaming-about-Helga-dreaming-about idea. Helga is supposed to be a mystery for Arnold. Of course Arnold can dream about Helga (heck, he has to!), but he does not really know her, and Helga of his dreams should be different from Helga we know.

I like to think that the writers could make Arnold's deep subconscious know everything about Helga if they wanted to.

But, if there's a major problem with that, then we could just make the episode a Helga-dreaming about Arnold-dreaming about Helga (i.e. switch the dreams around).

If Helga would dream about Arnold, she'd probably dream that Arnold doesn't like her that much, she has no idea what Arnold feels, and she might even still believe he's in love with Lila..
But Arnold on the other hand, he of course knows what he feels for Helga, and he knows what Helga feels for him ("ever since I first laid eyes on your STUPID footballhead.. every moment lived and breathed till I could tell you my secret.. writing poems about you.."), he KNOWS! He must have seen her locket sometimes, but he probably never noticed it.. but in a dream, just like in hypnosis, people can suddenly see things they never realized before. I think we should use Arnold

I've seen the film Lola rennt btw, and there's a spongebob episode like that too (with Mrs Puff going to jail) She's in a car, and causes an accident. The police takes her to jail, and when something bad happens she wakes up and she's in the car again, and everything starts over again, but the second times it's not her who's going to jail, but spongebob. And the third time she's in the boat with someone from jail. It makes no sense, but that's what we want, right ^^

Associated with the film "Groundhog Day"

I have already proposed Grounndhog Day once, and I think it would be cool.

funnybones021 wrote:Did this make sense? Does anyone like this idea? Did anyone understand this idea, or was it too confusing?

I like this idea! It can definitely be incorporated in there

Hellerick wrote:Helga is supposed to be a mystery for Arnold. Of course Arnold can dream about Helga (heck, he has to!), but he does not really know her, and Helga of his dreams should be different from Helga we know.

Exactly. So we have to be careful how we pick our scenes, dialogue, and actions. How Helga acts in the dreams should reflect how Arnold interprets her, not necessarily how Helga is in real life.

funnybones021 wrote:I like to think that the writers could make Arnold's deep subconscious know everything about Helga if they wanted to.

I actually think that Arnold understands Helga more than she thinks he does. Like, he's a very tactful person (I mean, look at how well he responded to Helga's confession given the circumstances). Maybe Arnold doesn't know everything about Helga, but certainly he knows her beyond the superficial level.

funnybones021 wrote:But, if there's a major problem with that, then we could just make the episode a Helga-dreaming about Arnold-dreaming about Helga (i.e. switch the dreams around).

I'm fine with switching it around. I only chose Helga to have the secondary crazy dreams because I think her reactions would be more amusing and that this dream will help Arnold respect (and even love/like) Helga more. Helga loves Arnold enough as it is; it's Arnold who needs to reciprocate the feelings in the future.

Annemiek wrote:It makes no sense, but that's what we want, right ^^

I think the better word for "no sense" is "confusing". We're trying to make this confusing as hell, but in no way we're trying to make the overall episode "random confusing" with no deep meaning whatsoever. It's supposed to be kind of "intellectual confusing" where if you really think about what happened in the story, it'll all make sense. Not sure if that made things clearer.

But Arnold can't have all visions and surreal dreams without any case, right?
Presumably someone could add smth in his lunch or make some king of thing.

Retromanka wrote:Presumably someone could add smth in his lunch or make some king of thing.

I don't think we should have anyone secretly drug Arnold...that would be very illegal.
It could be a dream he has after getting hit in the head with a baseball or maybe a dream he has while he's having his appendix removed (or something like that) if you don't want it to be a regular dream.

I can suggest only one idea now.
As known from the series Mr ans Mrs.Kokoshka are always arguing and once she could be throwing away his clothes, the deashes and etc. out of the window. She was very mad and didn't notice anything. Arnold was coming back from school and smth heavy hit him occasionaly nevertheless he tryed to escape. He swooned...and then dreams can come.
I haven't devised anything more yet

If Arnold is going to get knocked out by some flying object, I think it would be cool to do it in a funny, random, maybe even ironic way.
Something kind of like in the episode "Eugene's Bike" when Eugene chokes on the hot dog, and then after it flies out of his mouth it bounces off a sign and hits him in the eye. Obviously the object would have to be harder than a hot dog if it's going to knock Arnold unconscious.

I don't know exactly how we could do it, though. I'll try to think of something.

How about we try it with that jinx. Arnold sees Eugene knock into a rubbish bin and helps him out. He throws the trash can cover on his bicycle. But then a big lorry comes and hits the cover and knocks Arnold on the head, knocking him out.

Sorry, this might be a stupid question...what's a lorry?

funnybones021 wrote:If Arnold is going to get knocked out by some flying object, I think it would be cool to do it in a funny, random, maybe even ironic way.

I've got it! A bunch (package) of false coins!

Mr. Kokoshka is great liar!...

funnybones021 wrote:Sorry, this might be a stupid question...what's a lorry?

It's "truck" in British. LOL, are Anglophones that bad at understanding each other?

Hah...it remembered me about russian and ukraine LOL