Translator's note: First of all I would like to thank the authors of this article straycat and Aveasum for letting me translate their great piece of work. I've been at the English Hey Arnold! Fandom for 11 years, wrote a couple of fanfics, but at some point decided they weren't good enough and deleted everything. I personally seen a lot of great fanfics, but in a while I started noticing that the storyline in most of them is pretty much the same (mine had the same problem, frankly speaking), that's where I accidently found straycat and Aveasum's article. After reading it I've realized it has everything which has always made me roll my eyes at), I was really impressed. And that's where I offered Aveasum to translate it, so that the English fandom could read it as well. The point of this article isn't to hurt anyone's feelings, it hardly has anything pointing to that, to my mind it's just to think that most of the storylines have been rather repetitive lately and have lots and lots of clichés.
PS – English is my second language and I'm not a professional translator, so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors, I'm doing it only from the heart and from the best of motives. Unfortunately I wasn't able to translate some idioms, which would've lost their meaning if I did and somewhere I had the impudence to put my own opinion as well, but I hope you will still enjoy the article. Since it took me more time to translate than I've expected, I'll divide the article into 3, maybe 4 parts.
Disclamer: Hey Arnold characters are the property of Nickelodeon and Craig Bartlett
Autors of the Article "How to write a perfect Hey Arnold Cliché" are Aveasum and straycat
Dear reader, if the tab with this article is right here in front of you, then in that case, most likely you're a fan of Hey Arnold! Series. Most of us have been watching this cartoon when we were children and in a while have forgotten about it, but thanks to the Internet and infamous social networks Arnold-heroes are back here in our lives. As a general matter, it should be safe to assume that after constant re-watching episodes of all seasons you want something more, some fresh impressions, to say the least.
A desire to find answers to all the questions and to bring up all the topics, which haven't been illustrated in a befitting way (those, where the veil of secrecy was only slightly lifted) is quite expectable and understandable.
To all the fans huge disappointment it's very unlikely that we'll be able to see further development of the lives of the characters, although we're eager to find out what other adventures await Arnold and his friends and where faith is destined to take them with all our heart and soul.
That's why such a concept as "fanfic" exists. It's up to fans in fanfics to express all their thoughts and to unleash their blustery fantasies and assumptions.
A HA! Fandom exists for a considerable period of time already and of course, it's a place for outstanding and neat fanfics. But, unfortunately, it's also a place for works, which can't be originally distinguished and don't have any "it" in them.
So, as you may have guessed we will try to point out the most common errors and clichés directly related to HA! Fanfiction.
Part 1 – Heavy OOC
1 – Evil Lila
Nowadays it's been "popular" to transform Miss Perfect Lila into hypocritical jealous girl, who likes to plan devious schemes and to seek for the benefit everywhere.
It goes without saying that fans don't like her, since most of the time Arnold is throwing himself at her, but, ladies and gentlemen, this doesn't mean that you should arouse an "ever-so" evil witch within this awfully nice and cute farm girl.
Does everyone remember the moment where Sawyer learned Helga's the innermost intimate guarded secret? She didn't spill the beans and moreover, let her have the leading role in "Romeo and Juliet." How she helped her become more genuine, kind and compassionate, dealing with all confrontations and stuff like that. It already means something. And if to sum it all up – Evil Lila is more than impossible.
There's also a place for the opposite option where Lila and Helga become best friends. Perhaps in such a situation, Lila even helps Helga get the attention of our beloved Arnold. But just think for a second: could so different, if not opposing characters find so much in common and be friends all of a sudden? We assume that, if to, hypothetically put such situation into the real life most of you will have to agree that it's very unlikely. That's why such scenario is no less strange than exposing Lila's diabolic identity from her ever so angelic antics.
2 – Helga – Mary Sue
A lot of authors often try to make Helga a new "Miss Perfect", disregarding Lila. But let us put all the dots above i. All of us became used to the two-faced Helga, who wears a mask of a mean bully, but in reality she's a delicate and sensitive person. The girl developed a very solid and purposeful character despite her fragile inner world, so sarcasm and assertiveness became a part of the unusual and interesting personality. If to rely upon logic, Pataki won't change who she really is, nor her attitude, habits and a bad character for the sake of society's approval. Even for the sake of Arnold's love, since Helga is too proud and arrogant in some way. Even if she gets a total acceptance among everybody, she will still be a 'good-old Helga Pataki'. There's a slight chance of her becoming more feminine, but not more than that.
And now back to the fanfiction problem. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that people have flaws and of course this fact applies to Helga. The fact that her figure is going to be godlike shaped up, so that even angels will envy her is pretty much unreal, as well as the fact that the girl who frankly has never cared about others, suddenly had an epiphany and decided that she urgently needs to transform herself into a beautiful maiden. Not to mention that she manages to do so from the first attempt without any help. (T/N: I think it's also fair to mention how all those Helga's makeovers with 'perfectly shaped two eyebrows' make me feel, how many times I've rolled my eyes at that) We don't even want mention special, hidden for the time talents such as the art of seduction of five octaves voice range.
3 – Arnold – Marty Sue
Fanfics with Arnold as Marty Sue occur not as often, as Helga – Mary Sue, but still appear from time to time. Arnold - the perfect man: handsome, physically fitted, intelligent, strong, noble, and, moreover, behaves like a tempter. Sometimes he appears as a brutal macho, an alpha male with propagation priority. Stop!
Let's think. Do we know Arnold like all those things? Of course not, he's a humble guy with a calm temper, kind, sympathetic, but alas, you can hardly call him determined. Let's recall how many of Helga's insults he took without fighting back, almost silently and only once gave her a willful resistance, which in fact he regretted doing. And, of course, if we talk about personality and behavior, Arnold is not ideal, as well as any character of the animated series. Even the "hypocrites" have negative traits and not all their actions are plausible.
If to talk about the appearance, we can agree that there are all prerequisites for the boy to grow into an attractive young man, but we shouldn't exaggerate it. And as in the case with Helga let's not make Arnold another Mr. Perfect.
4 – Parents' neglection towards Helga and the hate towards her idealized sister.
Yes, it would be a lie to agree that Helga and her parents are in a good relationship, but as in previous paragraphs lots of fiction-writers just love to exaggerate. Regardless, the canon has repetitive episodes where family roots are strengthened. For example the episode "Road Trip" shows us how Helga and Miriam were able to work together to find a way out of almost hopeless situation and become friends. In the episode «The Beeper Queen» Mrs. Pataki deliberately abandoned a successful career so she could pay more attention to the younger daughter. The episode «Quantity Time» tells us how Helga and Big Bob were forced to spend some time together without a mother and in spite of all the differences were still able to find a common language: "Finally, we've got something we could hate together".
It's also going to be fair to recall «Arnold's Thanksgiving» where Pataki family put out the police after Helga's disappearance, fearing she might be in trouble.
The same goes to Helga's older sister Olga. This character has suffered the same fate as the aforementioned Lila Sawyer. Her perfection is an obvious reason to dislike her. Fortunately, no one tries to turn her into a villain, but her character often falls into disgrace. Sure enough Helga feels something else besides antipathy. If we turn our attention towards canon series again, we can see that in the episode «Big Sis» our loveable character feels a bit jealous when Olga spends a lot of time with Lila. It does mean something, doesn't it? As well as the episode «Olga Comes Home» shows us Helga's remorse and is pushed to admit her bad deed and feel for Olga.
Thank you for your review)
Next part of the article contains situational Hey Arnold! Clichés.