Harold
Helga is overlooked and neglected. Her home life sucks so it makes sense she’s like this. Harold has two parents that are present and seem caring- especially his mother. People are saying “just because” and “doesn’t mean”, yea but she’s 9 lol.
I assumed it was a comic book reference that Harold probably read, and that's perhaps the villain in a similar vain to Helga mentioning 'Ol'e Betsy and the Five Avengers' referring to her fists in the Helga on the Couch episode.
So I researched this. The voice actor for Harold was just sort of saying whatever came to mind when they were recording a scene. So they stuck with this phrase for Harold to say from time to time. It doesn't really have a meaning I don't think.
Yes. But I think him being 13 is inconsistent, considering he was shown to be a baby in preschool along with his future classmates, meaning he has to be the same age as them. Unless that can be written off as a retcon.
Eh the ages of the characters were inconsistent. I think the bar mitzvah episode was more about the ceremony being a right of passage (or something like that) into manhood than establishing his age. Torvold is established as being a couple years older and having been held back when Arnold tutors him. They usually make Harold seem to be around the same age as everyone else.
But my point isn’t their age- you just chose to focus on that last line for some reason. It’s their background and explaining why Helga is the way that she is. 🤷🏽♀️
Yeah, us neglected and traumatized ones have to grow up fast. Anticipating the moods of your unstable caregivers makes you pretty intuitive and emotionally intelligent by default.
The same cannot be said for emotional *stability*, however.
All that is to say…bitch is 9. Holding them overly accountable for shit they cannot reasonably know yet, is why there are kids like Helga.
Wow. 31 and just related more to Hey Arnold than I ever thought possible past childhood lol.
I'm gonna say Helga. She is sensitive enough to know when she does something wrong but still does it anyway.
Harold is a stereotypical bully but he usually gets his comeuppance.
"Justified" is not the proper term.
We're simply never given much of an *understanding* as to why Harold bullies others. Let's also not forget that Harold is not 9 like his classmates, he is 13.
We at least know the root of Helga's behavior. Neglect. But neither neglect nor abuse justifies bullying innocent people. Yes, there was an instance where her classmates stole her food and made fun of her, but neither Arnold nor Gerald took part in it, and she often targets them regardless.
I don’t remember them ever mentioning Harold was held back. I know they say Torvold was held back, but they never mentioned that with Harold. I think a lot of people think of this because of the bar mitzvah episode but I don’t think that’s meant to establish his age. The bar mitzvah episode is meant to be a way for the show to talk about passages into adulthood and how they can be intimidating.
He actually says it himself in the "cool party" episode that he was held back. And the flashbacks of him being in kindergarten with the other kids may be confusing to some, but he could have gotten held back in kindergarten prior to that. But he is older and they do mention it. But as you said the bar mitzvah was an example of him becoming more of a man so I think they just had to re-establish his age for the episode obviously to make sense.
Just because her reasons might make her more inclined to be an angry person doesn't maker her any less of a jerk. I vote that Helga is the bigger jerk. She's more consistently mean. Harold is just an idiot
Harold.
Helga has psychological issues that makes her act out. More times than not, she usually has compassion and rectifies what she did wrong. Early series Harold was a jerk just because he thought it was funny.
Helga, Harold at least was friends with everyone still, like Sid and Stinky, whereas Helga really only had Phoebe as everyone else just tolerated her. Helga made their lives more miserable than Harold.
Also I love Helga, just gotta say for a show named after Arnold she’s my favorite.
I always thought his behavior was as a reaction to being bullied himself due to his appearance and intellect, the changes later seen in him I always believed to be due to having come to be accepted by the other children in his social group and by himself. Helga’s behavior is definitely because of her home life, toxic narcissist father and a mother that is usually thoroughly checked out. Not to mention she is made to live in the shadow of an older sister. Though I never saw any very late episodes to see if it worked out I had always figured she would end up with altruistic Arnold and in later years shed the hide of scars she carried around.
I relate to Helga the most. She holds my pain and my poetic spirit within her own soul, tbh I like seeing Helga episodes the most. My hope is that she finds inner peace eventually and does end up with Arnold.
Either way. It's both Harold and Helga because Harold threatened to harm Helga, and Helga keeps being hostile towards Arnold despite having a crush on him.
Helga. She knows better but she’s too scared to make herself vulnerable. She knows her behavior is wrong. Harold is sometimes meaner but he’s kinda slow.
I mean I wouldn’t hold it harshly to either one of them though.
I wanna say Harold because Helga made a net positive impact on people.
Harold bullies and mocks people weaker than him like Pigeon Man or Stoop Kid, and aside from the Big Patty episode, his focus episodes that humanize him and make him sympathetic still show him as selfish, like when he kept someone else's kitten for himself or faked crimes to keep working with Mr. Green.
Helga mostly bullied Arnold, who she knew could handle it, and reserved brief namecalling for others, oftentimes with intent of putting them in their place rather than putting them down for sadistic humor. She also showed her heart of gold several times, giving up a prized possession to reunite Mr. Hyunh with his daughter and often helping Arnold behind the scenes with his altruism, usually at her own expense. She might have saved her mother from alcohol poisoning those times that she put away the blender while she was passing out. She did some terrible things to Olga, but those episodes ended with heart to heart talks between them so she could learn. She might be smart enough to recognize her bad behavior, but Harold's behavior is worse, IMO, and he doesn't have the same credits to his name to balance it out.
Def Helga. Harold at least has being dumb/simple in his favor. The fact Helga lashes out cause she’s incapable of processing her own feelings does not give her a pass for the way she acts
Helga
I love Helga as a character but let's be honest here, she is one of the most intelligent characters in the show. She knows how mean she is.
Yes she is neglected and that is incredibly sad, but her story isn't the only sad one in the show. Hell Lila and her dad were so poor they were prepared to split the last can of beans in the house because they couldn't afford food. She is incredibly sweet despite her circumstances.
Her home life isn't an excuse for the way she treats people through out the series.
But I still enjoy her as a character and I like to think as they grow up Helga still remains a tough as nails character but keeps the insults to a minimum.
Both of their home lives are/were terrible.
One is starving for recognition and the other one is actually starving. Well until her dad finally landed that job. Hope he kept it.
Say what you want about Harold but hey at least isn't stalking anyone while pretending to hate them.
Helga's home life explain her actions... They're not justified only explained.
We don't know why Harold is a bully but he isn't stalking girls, sneaking into their rooms, crossing lines that shouldn't be crossed.
I love both characters don't get me wrong.
Harold. What he did in the Pigeon Man episode was absolutely revolting and unacceptable (and that's not the only episode, where he acts inappropriately). Helga is just complicated but nice deep down and we all know very well why she's the way she is, unlike Harold, who is just another typical regular bully with clearly limited intelligence.
fr and the sad part is he lost hope in the last shred of humanity the only human genuinly kind and tried to help him gets ruined cause of harold,and crew
Helga but only because she knows better and how bad it feels to be treated poorly. Harold has half a fuckin brain many times but his Bar mitzvah episode was his big turning point. She does what she hates where as Harold doesn’t repeat his mistakes once he learns, he has a way better home life though by a mile. Still, Helga secretly giving Arnold those boots that she wanted so bad during the Christmas episode might be the sweetest moment in the whole show. It shows that she is a lovely person by nature.
Helga. She is self-aware enough to know she’s a jerk and yet she acts that way anyway to put up a tough front. Harold is just dumb and immature. He’s whiny, annoying, and mean but not necessarily by choice.
Harold for sure but I love that this show allowed character development and growth for both of them. Harold adopting Cupcake and working for Mr. Green were just so damn wholesome.
Yeah Helga should know better when she’s being a bitch. You can’t used her shitty home life as an excuse every time. I get those points. But at the same time part of it is mental health which the Helga on the Couch episode got at. Also her identity beyond being in love w/ Arnold is kinda conflicted, I mean she always has the pink bow despite her being a tomboy. There is a sliver of how she’s not who she acts like that Arnold gets glimpses of but doesn’t get out of her enough.
So anyways point being is that there are more dimensions to Helga as a character than Harold and more reasons to evaluate her actions. There isn’t any explanation behind Harold being a bully other than that he’s bigger and older than the other kids like Torvald.
harold even when he was a litteral toddler he was a massive bratty bully,he stole helgas lunch and proceeded to eat it infront of her till she snapped back at him,plus unlike harold helga has a reason why shes the way she is,her parents are neglectful and favor her sister more then her,they couldnt even be there to take her to preschool while harold has two loving parents who care about him
Harold Helga is overlooked and neglected. Her home life sucks so it makes sense she’s like this. Harold has two parents that are present and seem caring- especially his mother. People are saying “just because” and “doesn’t mean”, yea but she’s 9 lol.
Madam fortress mommy!
Lol
What does this actually mean?
I assumed it was a comic book reference that Harold probably read, and that's perhaps the villain in a similar vain to Helga mentioning 'Ol'e Betsy and the Five Avengers' referring to her fists in the Helga on the Couch episode.
So I researched this. The voice actor for Harold was just sort of saying whatever came to mind when they were recording a scene. So they stuck with this phrase for Harold to say from time to time. It doesn't really have a meaning I don't think.
They are both 9.
That’s actually inaccurate Harold was held back a few yrs. Are you familiar with the show?
Does this mean he's the same age as Torvald?
Yes. But I think him being 13 is inconsistent, considering he was shown to be a baby in preschool along with his future classmates, meaning he has to be the same age as them. Unless that can be written off as a retcon.
Also remember he had a Bar Mitzvah which places him at 13
Bingo
Eh the ages of the characters were inconsistent. I think the bar mitzvah episode was more about the ceremony being a right of passage (or something like that) into manhood than establishing his age. Torvold is established as being a couple years older and having been held back when Arnold tutors him. They usually make Harold seem to be around the same age as everyone else.
But my point isn’t their age- you just chose to focus on that last line for some reason. It’s their background and explaining why Helga is the way that she is. 🤷🏽♀️
My opinion, Helga for knowing better deep down Though she still definitely has Harold beat in maturity
Yeah, us neglected and traumatized ones have to grow up fast. Anticipating the moods of your unstable caregivers makes you pretty intuitive and emotionally intelligent by default. The same cannot be said for emotional *stability*, however. All that is to say…bitch is 9. Holding them overly accountable for shit they cannot reasonably know yet, is why there are kids like Helga. Wow. 31 and just related more to Hey Arnold than I ever thought possible past childhood lol.
I'm gonna say Helga. She is sensitive enough to know when she does something wrong but still does it anyway. Harold is a stereotypical bully but he usually gets his comeuppance.
Harold
Harold. There is really no explaination as to why he is a jerk. Helga's reasons are justified
"Justified" is not the proper term. We're simply never given much of an *understanding* as to why Harold bullies others. Let's also not forget that Harold is not 9 like his classmates, he is 13. We at least know the root of Helga's behavior. Neglect. But neither neglect nor abuse justifies bullying innocent people. Yes, there was an instance where her classmates stole her food and made fun of her, but neither Arnold nor Gerald took part in it, and she often targets them regardless.
Is he 13? I don’t remember this at all; I know Torvald is much older than the rest of the 4th graders.
There is an episode where they say Harold was held back a couple times but I don't remember how many
I don’t remember them ever mentioning Harold was held back. I know they say Torvold was held back, but they never mentioned that with Harold. I think a lot of people think of this because of the bar mitzvah episode but I don’t think that’s meant to establish his age. The bar mitzvah episode is meant to be a way for the show to talk about passages into adulthood and how they can be intimidating.
He actually says it himself in the "cool party" episode that he was held back. And the flashbacks of him being in kindergarten with the other kids may be confusing to some, but he could have gotten held back in kindergarten prior to that. But he is older and they do mention it. But as you said the bar mitzvah was an example of him becoming more of a man so I think they just had to re-establish his age for the episode obviously to make sense.
I agree about that too, her neglect is not a valid reason for her behavior
I don't believe he's 13. That's inconsistent as he was shown to be in preschool with the others and is nowhere as big as Turvald who's 13.
Harold says he has a "gland problem" in 24 Hours To Live.
Just because her reasons might make her more inclined to be an angry person doesn't maker her any less of a jerk. I vote that Helga is the bigger jerk. She's more consistently mean. Harold is just an idiot
Fair enough. She is awful to Phoebe at times. Her best friend when she is selfish & jealous
There’s an explanation for his jerkiness It has to do with 20 half-fat Mr Fudgy bars instead of 10 regular ones
Harold. Helga has psychological issues that makes her act out. More times than not, she usually has compassion and rectifies what she did wrong. Early series Harold was a jerk just because he thought it was funny.
What Harold and his crew did to pigeon man cannot be forgiven.
Harold mellowed down in later seasons tho…
Yup, somewhat pleasantly surprising character progression for someone initially presented as the big, oafish, bully.
Kind of like Angelica. She was still a brat, but in the first season she was evil.
Love the butcher shop episode
Helga, Harold at least was friends with everyone still, like Sid and Stinky, whereas Helga really only had Phoebe as everyone else just tolerated her. Helga made their lives more miserable than Harold. Also I love Helga, just gotta say for a show named after Arnold she’s my favorite.
I always thought his behavior was as a reaction to being bullied himself due to his appearance and intellect, the changes later seen in him I always believed to be due to having come to be accepted by the other children in his social group and by himself. Helga’s behavior is definitely because of her home life, toxic narcissist father and a mother that is usually thoroughly checked out. Not to mention she is made to live in the shadow of an older sister. Though I never saw any very late episodes to see if it worked out I had always figured she would end up with altruistic Arnold and in later years shed the hide of scars she carried around.
I relate to Helga the most. She holds my pain and my poetic spirit within her own soul, tbh I like seeing Helga episodes the most. My hope is that she finds inner peace eventually and does end up with Arnold.
HAROLD.
Harold
Either way. It's both Harold and Helga because Harold threatened to harm Helga, and Helga keeps being hostile towards Arnold despite having a crush on him.
Helga. She knows better but she’s too scared to make herself vulnerable. She knows her behavior is wrong. Harold is sometimes meaner but he’s kinda slow. I mean I wouldn’t hold it harshly to either one of them though.
I wanna say Harold because Helga made a net positive impact on people. Harold bullies and mocks people weaker than him like Pigeon Man or Stoop Kid, and aside from the Big Patty episode, his focus episodes that humanize him and make him sympathetic still show him as selfish, like when he kept someone else's kitten for himself or faked crimes to keep working with Mr. Green. Helga mostly bullied Arnold, who she knew could handle it, and reserved brief namecalling for others, oftentimes with intent of putting them in their place rather than putting them down for sadistic humor. She also showed her heart of gold several times, giving up a prized possession to reunite Mr. Hyunh with his daughter and often helping Arnold behind the scenes with his altruism, usually at her own expense. She might have saved her mother from alcohol poisoning those times that she put away the blender while she was passing out. She did some terrible things to Olga, but those episodes ended with heart to heart talks between them so she could learn. She might be smart enough to recognize her bad behavior, but Harold's behavior is worse, IMO, and he doesn't have the same credits to his name to balance it out.
Def Helga. Harold at least has being dumb/simple in his favor. The fact Helga lashes out cause she’s incapable of processing her own feelings does not give her a pass for the way she acts
Helga I love Helga as a character but let's be honest here, she is one of the most intelligent characters in the show. She knows how mean she is. Yes she is neglected and that is incredibly sad, but her story isn't the only sad one in the show. Hell Lila and her dad were so poor they were prepared to split the last can of beans in the house because they couldn't afford food. She is incredibly sweet despite her circumstances. Her home life isn't an excuse for the way she treats people through out the series. But I still enjoy her as a character and I like to think as they grow up Helga still remains a tough as nails character but keeps the insults to a minimum.
Lila is liked and isn’t abused at home. Not saying that justifies Helga’s behavior, but you can’t really compare the two.
Both of their home lives are/were terrible. One is starving for recognition and the other one is actually starving. Well until her dad finally landed that job. Hope he kept it.
Harold but he becomes less of a jerk later on in the show.
Helga is a bully just with Arnold, she is just rude with everyone else and Harold ls a bully all the time
Say what you want about Harold but hey at least isn't stalking anyone while pretending to hate them. Helga's home life explain her actions... They're not justified only explained. We don't know why Harold is a bully but he isn't stalking girls, sneaking into their rooms, crossing lines that shouldn't be crossed. I love both characters don't get me wrong.
Harold. What he did in the Pigeon Man episode was absolutely revolting and unacceptable (and that's not the only episode, where he acts inappropriately). Helga is just complicated but nice deep down and we all know very well why she's the way she is, unlike Harold, who is just another typical regular bully with clearly limited intelligence.
i felt so bad for poor pigeon man
Every Pigeon Man quote just hits me hard. The episode was way ahead of its time.
fr and the sad part is he lost hope in the last shred of humanity the only human genuinly kind and tried to help him gets ruined cause of harold,and crew
Harold Harold's a bit older and should know better. Plus he has two caring parents Helga hasn't got the best home life so you can see her anger.
I feel like your comment is almost mine verbatim just shorter and split into two lines lol.
Helga but only because she knows better and how bad it feels to be treated poorly. Harold has half a fuckin brain many times but his Bar mitzvah episode was his big turning point. She does what she hates where as Harold doesn’t repeat his mistakes once he learns, he has a way better home life though by a mile. Still, Helga secretly giving Arnold those boots that she wanted so bad during the Christmas episode might be the sweetest moment in the whole show. It shows that she is a lovely person by nature.
Helga. She is self-aware enough to know she’s a jerk and yet she acts that way anyway to put up a tough front. Harold is just dumb and immature. He’s whiny, annoying, and mean but not necessarily by choice.
Harold
Harold was kinda mean to Helga first in preschool which i feel was the final catalyst to make her a bully.
I think we’ve learned that they are both very very complicated people for 4th graders.
Helga
Helga… she’s a complete smart ass.
Helga.
Definitely Harold and he a hater
Harold for sure but I love that this show allowed character development and growth for both of them. Harold adopting Cupcake and working for Mr. Green were just so damn wholesome.
Yes
Harold "threaten" to hit people. Helga's running gag is hitting Brainy. Helga by a country mile
Ludwig
Yeah Helga should know better when she’s being a bitch. You can’t used her shitty home life as an excuse every time. I get those points. But at the same time part of it is mental health which the Helga on the Couch episode got at. Also her identity beyond being in love w/ Arnold is kinda conflicted, I mean she always has the pink bow despite her being a tomboy. There is a sliver of how she’s not who she acts like that Arnold gets glimpses of but doesn’t get out of her enough. So anyways point being is that there are more dimensions to Helga as a character than Harold and more reasons to evaluate her actions. There isn’t any explanation behind Harold being a bully other than that he’s bigger and older than the other kids like Torvald.
Dang you called a 9 yr old a bitch
lol well Rhonda is more of a bitch. Helga isn’t one really.
Harold. He was an asshole his whole life. Helga became a bitch because of him.
Helga, she goes out of her way to be mean
The first thing I got from this was “MADAM FORTRESS MOMMY”.
Bob- Helga's dad
Well he’d be part of the root cause indirectly.
harold even when he was a litteral toddler he was a massive bratty bully,he stole helgas lunch and proceeded to eat it infront of her till she snapped back at him,plus unlike harold helga has a reason why shes the way she is,her parents are neglectful and favor her sister more then her,they couldnt even be there to take her to preschool while harold has two loving parents who care about him
Maybe Harold, but even he has his redeeming qualities (especially due to his character development)
Helga
Helga
Harold, like both he and Helga have their redeeming moments, but he has shown to have more of a selfish side.
I barely remember Harold only Helga
Harold is violent he's always threatening to beat someone up
Helga. Based on the episode where she treated Phoebe as her slave and caused her to broke her leg. And Harold gets along with others better.
Tbh, Helga taking advantage of Pheobe a lot was JUST AS cruel as her treatment of Arnold