Helga G. Pataki
From Nickelodeon
Helga G. Pataki is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series Hey Arnold!. She was and is voiced by Francesca Marie Smith for the entirety of the series and the movie.
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[edit] Appearance
Helga has bright, blonde hair tied into long pigtails without any visible hair ties (both of which are shaped like broomstick ends) and a thick, black unibrow. She usually wears a large, pink bow tied into her hair along with a pink dress over a white shirt. Helga may continue to wear the bow due largely to a remark by Arnold when he was younger age, stating that he thought it looked pretty on her. Although Helga's wardrobe features a broad variety of clothes, she is never seen wearing them. In the show's continuity though, Helga has most often dressed differently from her everyday attire, including appearances as a French girl, a hall monitor, a sophisticated lady, and others. In the pilot and clay animation shorts, Helga wore a pink dress that had sleeves and a white collar.
[edit] Personality
Helga is something of a tomboy, as evidenced by her interest in playing contact sports alongside her male classmates, blatant lack of femininity, and disregard, to near dislike, for stereotypical female behavior, as seen in the episode "Helga's Makeover". Despite her occasion disdain for more feminine things, on several occasions she tries very much to make herself appear as an attractive female, with varying degrees of success.
Helga can be very cynical and a bully, bossing around her fourth-grade classmates with an iron fist (especially her best friend, Phoebe). However, Helga also has a much softer side, which becomes apparent only when she is alone. On instances she has conformed and tried to protect her friend Phoebe. Several times in the series, she has also gone to considerable lengths to make her secret love Arnold happy. Some such episodes are "Arnold's Hat", in which she spent literal hours digging through the city dump to find Arnold's lost hat, and "Arnold's Christmas" in which she gave up a highly coveted gift in order to facilitate the fulfillment of a holiday wish for him.
Helga is heavily emotional, and able to comprehend spectrum emotions such as love and hate. This emotional extremity is a running joke throughout the series, as Helga is often the first to go into hysterics in times of crisis.
Helga is extremely intelligent. In the episode "The Aptitude Test", in which the class takes a standardized exam, it is eventually revealed that Helga achieved a perfect score on the test and the most outstanding result since her perfectionist sister, Olga Pataki, took the test. The types of grades she receives on an average basis in school, however, are low; in the episode "Quantity Time," Helga tells her parents that she failed another math test at school. Her bad grades are most likely caused by her lack of motivation, attention and academic concern. Mainly, Helga displays a remarkable gift for poetry, creating dramatic soliloquies expressing a situation or feeling with a generous use of vocabulary, especially for someone her age. These instances were more simple in the earlier episodes, but as the series progressed, grew in their intensity. Aside from poetry, Helga exhibits further aspects of cultural experience, being able to identify the work of Edward Hopper and make reference to George Orwell's 1984 in "Helga on the Couch".
Helga also posses an almost shocking ability to memorize written works. Such as when she prepared for a vocabulary contest in "Spelling Bee" or when she successfully memorized all the lines of Juliette for the play Romeo and Juliette in a single night in the episode "School Play."
It is also insinuated throughout points in the series and also stated explicitly as an opinion by her older sister Olga, that Helga is highly perceptive and a good judge of character. Though her judgment of people is often overshadowed by her feelings, her gruff cynicism or pessimism, emotions and sometimes petty irritations, in the show she has perceived trustworthiness or the lack thereof in characters correctly, including even her own family members. Some such examples are "Olga gets Engaged", in which she quickly realizes the man her sister is engaged to a charlatan, or in "Helga on the Couch" in which she realizes she can indeed trust her psychiatrist.
[edit] Relationships
Helga is secretly in love with Arnold. Various episodes have her going to the extreme to prevent her secret from being exposed. One such example is the episode “Helga Blabs it All” in which, under the influence of laughing gas from a dental filling, she leaves a love declaration on Arnold’s answering machine. After beating up and taking the clothes of a “Campfire Lass” (equivalent to Girl Scouts of the USA), she pretends to be selling cookies in order to gain entry to Arnold's house and steal the tape before he can hear it.
In one of the show's most noteworthy episodes, "Helga on the Couch", she actually discusses her obsession with the school psychiatrist (voiced by Kathy Baker). Herein it is revealed her romantic love towards Arnold is the result of transference; where her family relationships were weak, Helga subsequently transferred all feelings of love towards the one person who fulfilled her idea of care, Arnold. This is revealed by a flashback in which during Helga's first day of pre-school, her family seemed to completely ignore her existence, forcing her to make the trek to school alone in the rain and mud. Upon arriving at school, it is Arnold who offers her a helping hand and true kindness.
Helga confesses her love after being caught helping Arnold, by Arnold, in Hey Arnold!: The Movie though the two both agree afterward that it was in the heat of the moment.
It is also sometimes hinted in the series Arnold has strong feelings for Helga. Events in episodes like "Married", with Arnold's nightmare of married life climaxing with a heartfelt attempt by the dream Helga to express her love, also implies he has as much trouble as Helga has coming to terms with how deep his feelings are. Craig Bartlett revealed during a chat that he planned for Arnold to ultimately confess to have loved her and the two would be together in the Jungle Movie.
Although Helga has acknowledged her feelings regarding Arnold, she opts to keep them private as well as publicly denying and rejecting Arnold through displays of verbal and physical abuse. It is suggested in the episode "Helga on the Couch" that Helga treats Arnold as such due to fear of rejection and because of public humiliation.
In contrast to Helga's feelings towards Arnold, she is almost always followed by Brainy in each episode, where he is right behind her breathing very hard. Though it's apparent that he is in love with Helga, she never returns the feelings as mutual; on scant occasions, she has kissed him due to something going right for her. Usually every encounter with Brainy has Helga punching him between the eyes. This became a running gag for the series, so much so that when Helga on rare occasion refrained from striking Brainy, he bludgeoned himself in her stead.
[edit] Family
Helga has a very dysfunctional family. Her father Robert "Big Bob" Pataki (Maurice LaMarche), a successful pager salesman, rarely notices her existence, favoring her over-achieving, neurotic college-aged sister Olga (Nika Frost), whom Helga hates. Her mother Miriam (Kath Soucie) is often found being depressed, struggling to stay conscious, making smoothies and drinking coffee, as well as giving off hints of being an alcoholic. It is heavily suggested Helga's home situation is the root cause of her anti-social behavior.
For a brief period, a spin-off series called "The Patakis" was planned. The premise was a continuation of Helga's life into her teenage years with a joint focus on her family. Nickelodeon didn’t like the idea as it was considered too “dark” for Nick-at-Night. MTV considered the idea, but ultimately decided that it was too similar to their own production Daria and couldn’t really afford to do another like it.
[edit] Trivia
- Helga's middle name is never mentioned in the show explicitly, so while no in-show canon exists, producers of the series gave her the name "Geraldine" as a tribute to former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne.
- Olga and Helga are variants (respectively, Russian and German) of the same name.
- Helga is left-handed.
