Heyarnold - Blog Posts

Finally something Hey Arnold related that has nothing to do with my fan character! I l know it's not near Valentine's day yet, but I’ve been making shipping art of underrated to nonexistent HA ships that I figured I might as well make it into Valentine's day thing. Plus I go back to my college course on the third of February so wanted to put this out quickly. I wanted to do this because I see no art for SidxSheena, ArniexGloria, and LorenzoxNadine that I wanted to do my part so I can say there is at least one. I suppose the wording of some of these cards I have a feeling it shouldn’t be used as actual cards, but I prefer attempting to be funny over being overly mushy with Valentine's stuff. Either way, I hope at least one of these gave you a chuckle or two. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Credit: Hey Arnold - Craig Bartlett

Finally! people can finally know who Debora has to live with on a daily basis!

I won't give them all intense descriptions like I did for Debora herself. In fact, given the fact I changed the gender of a sibling different from what I had planned, I might even consider changing some parts of her backstory. I don't think I would do anything too big, maybe just the age she moved to Hillwood be slightly older. That way she can have a taste of the first grade in her birth town or something. I don't know, I'm going to have to think about it. So this is a warning if you have read Debora's backstory a long time ago, it may be slightly different from when you last read it. I might not change it though because that's a lot of copying and pasting and I should just make a new image just for her backstory like everybody else.

Anyway, onto the brief descriptions.

Zachary (Zack) Marcus Blaney:

MBTI Type: INTP

Height: 5'2 (when is a full-grown adult)

Zack is 7 years younger than Debora, but think he's ten years smarter than her. He loves getting under Debora's skin to get a rise out of here just to prove how childish her outbursts are compared to his calm demeanor in their arguments. He does not like affection and rejects any notion that Debora has anything in common in him because that would only make her clingy because she desperately craves conversations over shared interests. Zack hates bonding with his sister because she always goes overboard and is too obsessive with her own interests that he wants no part in. Zack also feels that if he does hang out with her it would just enable her and reaffirm her belief she doesn't need friends when she has her family. Even though as he grows older he becomes more cold, deadpan, and aloof deep down he cares for his sister and doesn't want her a sniveling crybaby anytime somebody calls her a mean name.

Leslie Winifred Blaney

MBTI Type: ISFP

Height: 5'3

Leslie is the overprotective mother that loves her children way too much. She's the kind of person that keeps her children homeschooled to keep them safe, security cameras all over her house, and discreetly hides tape recorders in her children's backpacks because she watches way too many real crime shows. Despite her over-protectiveness of her children, she herself is actually pretty reckless and nobody can talk her out of something because she does whatever she wants without any regard for other people's concerns. She is a very optimist person and a strong person because she needs to be for the ones she loves. Debora tries to talk to her about her interests because she is the most supportive out of everybody else in the family, but even then Leslie doesn't understand her passion and rarely gives feedback. On the plus side, she still listens to Debora, even if her special interests will never be anything that she would be interested in.

Elias Nathaniel Blaney

MBTI Type: ISTP

Height: 5'81/2

Elias is a hardworking man that loves his family and likes to make rude jokes to get raises out of people. He's usually grumpy and it's hard to talk to him without hearing about the horrible day he's had. He hates his job and when he's not working on something he spends the rest of the day watching tv or fixing the house and then complaining about having to do it. Like Leslie, he is also reckless, but his type of reckless is more dangerous because he craves excitement in his life. For example, he may adopt a potentially dangerous hobby until it, sometimes literally, blows up in his face and then he stops. It's hard for Debora to talk about her problems with him because more often than not he'll compare her problems with his and point out how worse his problems are, making her regret opening up to him at all. What makes it worse is that there are days when it is easy to talk to him, but then Debora realizes it's because he was able to eat his candy today and it's only a matter of time until he runs out and gets in a bad mood again. He's not a bad guy or a physically abusive person. He does love his family, he just hates everything else about his life. Debora and the rest of her family need to constantly make sure that they aren't cracking any eggshells that will set him off and have a reason for him to complain... again.... today. Though if there's anything good you can say about him is that he is not and never was ashamed of the fact his daughter had a mental illness. He loves Debora and just wants her to be happy and people to see her for the sweet, empathetic person she really is.

I had this witch made for a while now, but I only had her high school age and wanted to wait until I had her preschool age. Basically, she is Debora's old bully before she moved to Hillwood. She is a manipulative gas lighter and an all-around very toxic person. If she starts acting all nice and seemingly innocent with you, it is best to run far away from her as soon as possible. She takes pleasure in having people wrapped around her little finger and crushing their spirits when she reveals that she never liked them in the first place. So yeah, I hope you like the design of this terrible, terrible person. XD

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope everybody had a good one. Anyway, awhile ago a few friends on another site suggested that I do Edmund and Debora in a dancing pose, so I did it for the sake of cuteness. I don't really have a story behind this image atm, this is just sugary fun. Edmund belongs to Craig Bartlett and Debora belongs to me.

I know 2 out of 5 is art you already have seen on my blog, but I just have them there for size comparison. I wish I had enough time to make new models for the two, but I’m a slow artist and I don’t have the winter off until the 21st.

On the plus side, I get to show the other three cuties for everybody. You have preschool age, Debora, before she realized how cruel the world can be to somebody like her. You have depressed, thirteen-year-old Debora awkwardly adjusting to her teen body. Lastly, you have content, mellowed out, adult Debora finally accepting herself and happy with her life.

I hope that you like my design choice for these new ages for Debora. I hope to update this soon maybe.

Edit 1/192020:

I added a new age to the chart. It’s the 10-11 age.

Edit 6/112020:

I added a new age to the chart. It’s the 17-18 age.

Request 11-20-19 by kelseyleah (aka splungecoyote)

Commissions  Patreon  RedBubble  Ko-Fi 40+ minute quick color study of @qilin-crusader’s Hey Arnold! OC Debora Winifred Shirley in the A Hue! Requested by @qilin-crusader - I hope it brings you joy! If you’d like a request, please read all the guidelines on the top of this journal entry first

Debora in a Fancy Getup:

For context, on the Hey Arnold Amino, I was in a private chat with some people and I wanted to show a rough sketch of what I wanted Debora to look like with formal hair. Then somebody asked what dress I would have her wear and then I did a quick sketch of what I had in mind before I even finished the hair. After I finished finalizing both rough sketches, I was satisfied with what I had, at least until I can color it in. However, Leskuh dropped by and decided to make her own aggie.io sketch of my rough design because she thought it was cute. As usual, I was okay with this because how can I say no to surprise free art of my fan characters? Leskuh lent me the .psd file afterward so I could decide on what colors I wanted. So yeah, lineart is definitely Leskuh’s, but I colored it. I wanted to show this as a preview to what I have planned for her formal look whenever I get around to doing my own outfit lineup for the character.

Credit:

Lineart - @leskuh​ https://mobile.twitter.com/farkledagain

Debora and original, formal design - mine

Hey Arnold! - Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon

Debora’s Intro to “The Patakis” Universe

Debora is in the front is situating herself with her locker on her first day of high school as a sophomore. She's groaning at Wolfgang and Edmund being their usual selves and bothering poor Eugene. Before this instance, Debora was only vaguely aware of how these boys were after years of viewing the outside world behind curtained windows. She knew enough that these boys were bad news. So she's now cursing the educational authority that placed her near the most obnoxious, despicable boys of PS118. To add insult to injury, she is forced to here Edmund's insultingly dopey laugh anytime Wolfgang breathes. Debora really wishes she can be home-schooled again, and she hasn't even had her first class yet.

So, a week or two has passed (I don’t really have the timespan set in stone) since Debora has first come to the PS118 high school for the sophomore class. Debora’s grows more tired of the school due to her fellow classmates giving little to no care for her presence, except maybe very few offering to Debora come seat with them at their lunch table. Debora always politely declined however by making excuses that she likes to draw during lunch period and her elbows would just get in the way of everybody else’s space. She never let anybody see her sketchbook when they asked because she was very self-conscious of her work and feared people would think her art is bad, boring, or weird and by extension, her. This, in turn, gave her fellow sophomores the impression that she is just some emo, loner snob that thinks that she’s too good for anybody. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Even with her little excuses, one of the true reasons she declines the offer is her fear of the masses of teens into small tables. Well, maybe the tables were perfectly averaged size for a school, but to a person like Debora that doesn’t like random strangers accidentally rubbing on their shoulders with hers, they were small. Debora wasn’t germaphobic, what she did have was a weird feeling, creepy-crawly feeling anytime anybody that she wasn’t close to gave her any minor, safe, physical contact. Even with distant family members, she would always be extremely awkward giving physical affection. It always felt awkward to her and she didn’t like it. For Debora, it was just one of the “joys” of having ASD. Secondly, the background noises in the lunchroom freaked her out. Everything was so loud and so many voices to focus on that Debora can’t focus on her own thoughts. That's she prefers to be in a table with farthest from people as possible. She can't stand loud, crowded areas, so the idea being closer to the loud clutter of voices is torture to her and she would just want to shrink down into nonexistence. Lastly, her biggest worry is that nobody would even pay much mind to her anyway and the only reason they invited is to just cure some guilty conscience. Debora is not good at her words and is always somehow blocked by somebody else stealing her time to speak. Even in her own family, someone is always cutting her off when she tries to talk because she’s either too slow or not loud enough. So what is the point of even talking if nobody is even going to acknowledge your desire to finally speak?

Debora had to face facts that these people were in groups of their own and no one was going to leave their own group just to seat with one, quiet girl. It will always be to join their group, but they never consider that maybe they should just seat with her instead. No, that would be too much to ask for. Those teens have their place in this school; she was but a bee in a nest of wasps. What made this experience more unbearable was her locker being close to the juniors’ lockers and not just any juniors, the most obnoxious two of the bunch, Wolfgang and Edmund. It drove her crazy to hear these jerks harass freshmen and sophomores. They acted like poorly developed antagonists from a bombed, high school comedy. Unfortunately, Debora wasn’t the one exception to their jerky ways. While Wolfgang never tripped her with his leg… yet, he has however made her drop a tower of school books onto the floor. She thought that it was only to be annoying at first until she overheard one of the juniors; she couldn't tell it was either Wolfgang’s, Edmund’s, or some other male junior voice chortled and rudely commented of how her back end was flat as a pancake. She was embarrassed and confused because she wore a blouse that specifically covered that part, so how could they possibly tell. Beyond book dropping and rude comments, the one time that Wolfgang caused her to physically hurt was when he “accidentally” pushed Debora out of his way and onto her locker. The good news, her reflexes saved her from it being a worse impact. The bad news is that her upper arm fell onto her locker combination and she was very sensitive there due to low muscle tone from being a social shut-in for most of her life.  She still has a tiny bruise from that moment. She tries to brush off that one moment because her younger sister always berated for being a baby when it came to receiving pain. She didn’t need that kind of mocking here too. She begins to wonder what even the point of coming here in the first place was. She remembers why she came here after seeing somebody carry a football. She needed closure with Arnold; it had been so long since she had seen the closest person that accepted her for who she is. She wanted to see him again one more time before her overprotective mother transfers her to a private school away from all the bad influences and secular lesson plans. The only reason she was even at this school in the first place because she begged her mother to go there at least until spring break to see Arnold for a while, then she can put her in the private, church school her mom did with her younger sister after the sibling complained about being homeschooled. Both her mother and Debora would much rather have had her homeschooled, but colleges around the area looked down on homeschooling. Debora had no choice but to go to a “real” school for her last three years. Arnold wasn’t even here, so she came to this school for nothing. All she can do now is wait until spring break for this Tartarus of school to be over. At least on the plus side, she can leave this school without care because she never formed a close friendship with anybody at the school. Nobody will miss her and she will miss nobody. She can leave knowing that she never made a difference in anybody's life at this school; to her, it is comforting as much as it is heartbreaking.

At her locker, Debora finally takes her head out of the clouds and notices something different about one of the banes of her existence. It appears Edmund has got himself a new haircut. It seems Edmund is also trying to not so subtly get Wolfgang to acknowledge this change. Even though Debora doesn’t like Edmund, she can admit to herself that the hairdo looks good on him. It definitely is an improvement compared to his bowl-cut hair. In her opinion, his original hairstyle made him look like a blonde chili pepper thanks to his centered cowlicks. Wolfgang finally acknowledges Edmund’s hair change, but of course, he had to be a jerk about it and ask Edmund if he wanted him to compliment about his makeup and the shoes he’s wearing now. Debora’s rolls her eyes at this. She’ll never understand why Edmund seeks this guy’s approval. Edmund doesn’t back down and makes his own snarky remark. This only makes Wolfgang angry and threatens to smack Edmund upside the head. Debora was used to hearing Wolfgang treating Edmund more like a dog than an actual friend. It made her sick. It made her think of terrible childhood memories she wishes she could forget. However, even after Wolfgang’s terrible display of friendship, nothing could prepare for what is about to happen to Edmund. Debora notices a female brunette with a blue bow on top of her head. Debora didn’t know the girl's name, but she knew that the girl usually walks with three other girls to class. One is a Hispanic with a pink bow in her hair, another is a blonde with a barrette in her hair, and the last one is an African American that likes to chew gum. For whatever reason, the brunette was walking alone and Edmund took that opportunity to try to talk to her. Debora doesn’t watch as the conversation happens, but she does hear Edmund for the first time sounding a little shy and vulnerable. Debora checks it off as him just being insecure around pretty girls because he’s usually cheerful and carefree around everybody else for the most part. Debora has seen a lot of shows and reads a lot of stories, so she was very much aware of what Edmund was trying to talk to the brunette about. Apparently, so did the brunette because before he could even ask “the question” she stopped Edmund him mid-sentence. The brunette’s tone sounded angry, but Debora looked in her locker pretending not to notice because it was none of her business. The brunette wants to make to it perfectly clear to Edmund that she is sick of those idiotic juniors making a pass at her, but he takes the cake. It seems that Edmund already attempted to talk to this brunette before got his new haircut. Now that she thinks about it, Debora does remember that Edmund did ask Wolfgang why he thought girls didn’t like him. Wolfgang being Wolfgang, he gave him the suggestion of changing his because he had his mom cut it for far too long instead of pointing out the real issues. For example, his assumption that he’s entitled to have a pretty girl like him just because he’s nice to her. At least, Debora assumes that’s what Edmund thinks likes that because she feels Wolfgang would think like that and Edmund has a tendency to mimic Wolfgang.  So for a few seconds, she was on the brunette’s side because all women should be treated right without expecting compensation, not just the pretty ones you want to date. Unfortunately, the brunette girl decides to take all her frustrations out on Edmund and takes it too far. The now apparent, mean girl tells Edmund that no haircut in the world would get her to notice him. He could be lying face-first on the sidewalk and she still wouldn’t notice him. She ends her hate speech to Edmund telling him no matter what change you try to make about yourself you will still be the same dumb, annoying, ugly dog he has always been. The mean brunette leaves but not before the telling Edmund to get lost and calling him and elephant boy. Debora assumes that the girl called him that last name because of his ears, but she knew some of the contexts of who the real elephant man was, so to her that was needlessly cruel for the brunette to add on to her already cruel speech. Even Debora overhears Wolfgang tries to muster some sympathy after that mess Edmund went through. It clearly wasn’t helpful, but Wolfgang still tries to convince Edmund that watching him harass some sophomores would make him feel better. Debora felt really bad after overhearing all of that, so she decided to go to the bathroom to wash the awkward off of her.

The moment she turns her head however, her eyes meet an expression she was all too familiar with and yet it seems so foreign on Edmund. Debora moves her hand quickly to her mouth to cancel out the audio of her gasp as she views the sad look of rejection on Edmund’s face. She immediately looks back at her locker so Edmund wouldn’t notice that she was looking at him. No, this couldn’t be happening! Oh no, she couldn’t believe that she was feeling sympathy for Edmund! This is the same guy that she had to suffer through with that stupid laugh. He enjoyed causing problems just as much as Wolfgang; she has no reason in this forsaken school to feel bad for him! Even so, here she is comparing Edmund’s expression to a wounded puppy. Curse his stupid underbite for making a surprisingly convincing, puppy dog pout! So against her better judgment and all the cons outweighing the pros, she decides to follow her heart and try to cheer Edmund back up. Not in person, however, heavens no! She uses a page from her sketchbook and writes Edmund a letter, complimenting of his change in hairstyle. More than that, the letter is also to let Edmund know that appearance was never the problem. The problem was that he spends so much time in the shadow of somebody else that he lost his sense of individuality and self-worth. Before he could start a serious relationship with somebody he must first learn to love himself. Of course, Debora was aware that was easier said than done. So to start him off she listed some important, good qualities about him. Unfortunately, she didn’t know Edmund personally, so she had to guess his good qualities by finding the positive side of the things she couldn’t stand about Edmund. For example, even if she hated hearing his dopey laugh all the time, she could find that at least it shows that he has a cheerful personality. Secondly, even though she hated seeing him stick around a guy so abusive, at least it shows he is loyal to his friends. Lastly, even though she thought it was idiotic of Edmund to retort with snarky remarks when he should know by now it will only make Wolfgang want to hurt him, she finds that at least it shows that Edmund at least is willing to call people out on their bull, even if it gets him hurt. She ends the letter by saying to never forget he does have value and he shouldn’t listen to people that won’t even take the time to see beyond his outer appearance or persona.

She almost signs the letter with an anagram name she did for fun for the word, anonymous. The name is Sonya Muno, however, she realizes how terrible of an idea that is too late for she already signed it on the paper. To make matters worse, the school bell rings to tell all the students to get in their respective classrooms. In a rush, Debora scribbles on the anagram name as fast as possible, writes down the word, anonymous, shoves the letter into the little lines on top of the locker doors in order to get paper inside Edmund’s locker, and gets to class. Later on in the day, before Debora goes to her next class, she notices Edmund opening his locker and soon finds the letter she wrote. She goes to a corner of a room to hide from his view as he reads the note. Despite still not thinking Edmund is a good person and some small part of her still feeling he may not even deserve her letter of encouragement; She couldn’t help but feel warm, fuzzy, and accomplished when she saw that her stupid, little letter put a smile on that dopey face. It feels so satisfying to hear that she finally did something significant in somebody else’s life. Her being alive finally meant something to someone outside her immediate family, even if the person didn’t know it was her. She was okay with him never knowing, for she would be going to a religious, private school anyway after spring break and she didn’t want to form any close friendships at the school anyway. She was just happy she made someone else happy.

Unfortunately, that happiness died the next day after Debora overhears Edmund talk to Wolfgang with something about a “Sonya”. After she heard that name, she felt like her spirit escaped from her body. She must have not covered that stupid anagram well enough. Now he thinks some girl named Sonya that doesn’t even exist wrote him that note! So with that new knowledge being granted to her, she proceeds to bang her head on her locker door feeling like the biggest moron in the world. She should have never made that letter. She is in so much trouble!

This is just something I did before I went back to my fall semester. I wanted to expand upon my Hey Arnold fan character before time was up. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything for the main show at the moment. I hope to do so someday. I’ve been more focused on her teen version lately because she has more of a role in this spin-off series while she’s a one-off character in the main series. Anyway, I hope you like what I have to offer.

Credit:

Simone, Edmund, Eugene, and Wolfgang - Craig Bartlett

Debora and the art - Mine!

“Hey Arnold! Oddballs”

This adorable piece was a surprise gift on Amino from @leskuh. I got her permission to post it here since one of the characters is mine. There’s no deep reason why she decided to gift me with this. She just thought Debora was a cute, awkward, little character and wanted to draw her. I couldn’t be happier with this adorable fanart. So anyway, go check out her artwork on here, please. However, she is more active on her Twitter account. https://mobile.twitter.com/farkledagain

Credit:

Art - @leskuh

Debora - Mine!

Edmund - Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon

5/24/2020

I slightly edited it to be in line with some updates I made.

Request 6-25-19 by kelseyleah (aka SplungeCoyote)

RedBubble  Ko-Fi 40+ minute quick color study of Hey Arnold OC Debora Winifred Shirley + park bench! Requested by @qilin-crusader I hope it brings you joy! Requests are closed! They’ll reopen with a new theme on July 1, 2019.

“The Devil is Kissing His Girl”

 must have broken some Hey Arnold law by making this detailed image of a character like Edmund with my dumb fancharacter over Shortaki or any other better option for Hey Arnold pairs. I don't care! I was inspired to make this before my break was over and gosh darn it this picture just makes me happy. Sure the trees are awful and they look more like cotton candy than actual flowering trees, but I did my best. As usual, there is an actual context for the image. So basically, this is an image you see before you is actually an idea of a scene I would like to do in a fanfiction possibly. Without giving too much away in case I actually go along with this idea; cherry trees are very important to Debora's character and she adores sun showers. So combining the two is a dream spot for her to give a smooch. That's all I'm going to say for the context, but trust me when I say it is a bit deeper than that description. The cherry tree in the background is the same one from the episode, "Stuck in a Tree". So there may or may not be a clumsy, ginger, Jewish boy stuck in said tree... again. Speaking of the episode, credit goes to a frame of the episode that I referenced for the background of this image so my background could be slightly accurate to the source material, give or take a few trees. The title of this piece is a paraphrased version of the term they use for sunshowers in parts of Tennessee (which is where Debora was from before she moved to Hillwood at the age of 5. I think besides the trees, this kiss kind of bugs me as well. I didn't know how to convey Edmund's weird butt lip without making it look like they were slurping each other. So I have to live with the "slurping" look just so people can see that Edmund still has his huge bottom lip. Curse you Edmund and your weird face structure!

Credit: Debora: Mine: Edmund and Hey Arnold!: Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon

Edit 8/2/2019

I changed the color of some of the trees and I added on Debora’s new eyebrows.

“Homely and the Dunce”

I'll let you decide which is which. I was originally going to start off with a canon HA! ship image, but I really wanted to draw Debora. So you get her and the rare character of Edmund made. I kind of like the hairstyle I've given 16-year-old Edmund, it almost makes him semi-decent looking. However, it could be just because I chose him to do him in a side profile and not do his less than appealing 3/4 angle. I'm being too mean to Edmund though. There are worse looking fifth graders than Edmund, at least in my opinion. Anyway, here's some context for this image. So basically it's a day or two after their first introduction to each other. In between that time Debby has convinced herself that Edmund didn't really mean it when he said he'll see her later or something along the lines of that. She assumed that he was saying the thing everybody says but doesn't really mean and Edmund won't ever pay her any mind ever again. On one hand, it saddened her, but on the other hand, she figured it was probably for the best because at least she didn't have the pressure of keeping a friendship that barely started. low and behold on Monday, Edmund doesn't waste his time on going up to casually say hi to his new friend. At that instant, Debora is a flurry of mixed emotions. Mostly it's internal screaming and contemplating whether to lock herself in the bathroom before she does or says something stupid. Unfortunately, it's too late for she already performed her world famous, super forced, obviously fake smile in her attempt to act "normal". The poor boy has no idea what he has gotten himself into. Credit: Edmund and Hey Arnold - Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon Debora - Mine

@shortmania​ Thank you so much for answering my ask! (I don’t know why I even did the ask anonymously in the first place if I’m just going to reveal myself? I mean, it’s not like I asked anything necessarily awkward anyway.) I came to you for your opinions because I like how your choices for headcanons are mostly grounded within reality (at least of the show’s reality) or to satisfy the “Rule of Funny” trope. I was really in need of some help for this height headcanon thing because this definitely puts my own headcanon height chart to shame (which is what I was hoping for mind you).

While I mostly agree with your choices and reasoning for why you made your choices; however, I do have at least one or two changes in mind. I think I will make Rhonda the height of Arnold because I personally picture her to be slightly taller than Helga like she was as a child (plus I find it hard to believe that she would be the same size as Phoebe). Also, I may or may not make Phoebe smaller for petty, fan character reasons (a fan character of mine is 5′3″ at 15 but gets a 1.5″ growth spurt between the ages of 16-17). Although, I’m leaning towards not so my fc can have a petty moment of patting herself on the back for finally being a half an inch taller than Phoebe. Got to follow that rule of funny after all.

I do like the idea of short Harold given the size comparison between him and Torvald (which he is supposedly around the same age as Harold). I originally made Sid an inch shorter in my own chart. It sadistically delights me to see that proboscis monkey being in the low end of the height chart. Although, the sizes actually work in favor of my headcanon that Stinky, Sid, and Harold will take the places of Mr. Hyunh, Oskar, and Ernie at the boarding house when they are out of school. So Sid being taller than Harold actually works for me.

This is very helpful, thank you again for doing this. I’m also glad I could help by providing an extra resource for you. I don’t even remember how I found it in the first place? It was probably from a reblogged art resource post on here. Also, it wasn’t that long since I last made that ask so don’t worry about. I understand real life and mental health comes first. I’m in no hurry, take all the time you need.

Have a good day everybody!

Hi Shortmania! I send this ask for character design reasons. Do you have any headcanon heights for any of the HA! characters at their "The Patakis" age? I don't need all of them. Just Arnold and Helga will do nicely as a starting point. You can google mrinitialman if you want to look for something to have a better visual representation of what you have in mind Thank you for taking the time to read this regardless.

Well, first of all, thank you for the neat new resource, whoa. That is super helpful and I will definitely be using that in the future.

As for my headcanons, I’m a little nervous to say because I know they’re unpopular, lol. So little disclaimer there, but.

At age 15 (and likely the rest of their lives since growth spurts after 14 (female) and 16 (male) are rare):

FOR COMPARISON:US MALE AVERAGE: 5'9"US FEMALE AVERAGE: 5'4"

Arnold: 5'7"Helga: 5'6"Gerald: 5'10"Phoebe: 5'4"Harold: 5'5"Patty: 5'11"Stinky: 6'3"Sid: 5'6"Rhonda: 5'4"Curly: 5'12"Eugene: 5'3"

And those are the ones I’ve thought about and stand behind. I think most of these are pretty self-explanatory, they’re just based off their parents, but I’ll explain the ones I know most other fans are likely to be confused by. You can skip anything you’re uninterested in, Anon. ❤️I just like to be thorough. 

It is controversial to propose Arnold and Helga end up about the same height–most everybody prefer one of them to be significantly taller than the other–but it’s… just not my preference, for a few reasons. The Shortmans are a tall folk, Craig has confirmed that, but I like to think the males on Stella’s side of the family run a little smaller just because the idea of Arnold tall seems strange. He’s been consistently small throughout his childhood, and even at age eleven didn’t really grow more than maybe an inch or two since the fourth grade. Specifically, I think Arnold’s namesake, Stella’s dad, was the same. That is to say, I think he was a shorter than average dude, and I like to think Arnold strongly resembles him. That’s a baseless personal headcanon, and I acknowledge that. Arnold could be a late bloomer. I just like him a little smol.

On Helga’s end of things, my reasoning is just that… Well, there isn’t really any wrong way to calculate Helga’s height because we know basically nothing about her roots apart from Bob and Miriam. And Miriam appears to be average-ish, maybe above, Bob actually isn’t too too much taller (maybe 3-4 inches, and 2-4 inches shorter than Phil who I imagine is about 5'12"-6'0"), and Olga’s either average or below since she’s noticeably shorter than Miriam, so it’s just easiest for me to headcanon Helga as a couple inches over 5'4". It’s safe, it’s comfortable, it’s funny because it subverts expectations a bit. But I will say this: Miriam’s family is from South Dakota, Bob’s probably is as well, and South Dakota boasts some of the tallest folks in the US. Bob is also some form of Scandinavian – Hungarian, German, Ukrainian, Polish, who knows – and men in those countries tend to float around the benchmark of 5'10", and women an inch or two below the US average. So, Helga could easily be tall. Helga could also be pretty short. I do enjoy it when people portray her as this hulking powerhouse of a woman who could lift Arnold with just one arm, it’s a high quality option I would like to see more of, but my thing is that I’m always trying to a) be realistic, and b) leave room for funny scenarios. And Arnold being literally just one inch taller than Helga and Helga being endlessly salty about it is hilarious to me. 

Apart from all that, I hate to mention this, but: Helga isn’t consistently fed, and when she is fed, it’s usually with crap, so. When kids aren’t fed well or often, they don’t tend to grow quite as much as they might have otherwise. So, that is something to take into account. Moving on now.

About Gerald: thing is, there’s that stereotype of black men being absolute mountains because of basketball and I think that’s probably why most people see Gerald being like six feet, but… Gerald’s dad is a frugal numbers-obsessed business man. He’s nerdy. He’s kinda short. It makes a little bit of sense to me that Gerald might be tall-ish because for a nine-year-old boy, he is fairly big? But eh. I just try to split the difference, to honor both his genes and his onscreen rate of development, and I arrive at a little above average because the thought of Gerald being the sole Tol of his immediate family (taller than Jamie-O, especially) is funny to me, and I will always pick the option that is funny to me.

Aaaand both of Harold’s parents are tiny. I don’t really know why people always draw/write him tall–I guess it’s more attractive? he always refers to himself as big? he’s a part of the hulking bully/gentle giant archetype?–but people forget he’s 13 in-show and actually pretty small for his age. At least compared to, like, fifth and sixth graders. Wolfgang is at least twice his height, and I’m pretty sure Harold is older than him. This show is ridiculously confusing and inconsistent about age and child development, but, well. These are the only points of reference we have, so. Yep. 

I love Patty… That’s it. That’s my reasoning. Let her tower over us all as she rightfully deserves.

I hope this was helpful! You don’t have to agree with me, of course, but I hope I at least gave a fair baseline for you to form your own conclusions. Thanks for caring about my dumb opinion, lol, and best wishes on all your projects.

I’ve been wanting to post the fan character of mine for a while on here. However, I wanted to wait until I had somewhat of a proper profile for this character so people would know what purpose she serves in my headcanon of the HA! universe. So anyway, Here’s what I have for her profile so far. I most likely will edit this profile slightly every now and then if I notice I forgot something or made a typo. Either way, this is what I have so far.

Name: Debora Winifred Blaney

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Birth Date: November 24th, 1987

Eye Color: Greenish blue

Height: I suppose around the height of Helga, but I can’t be too sure because we don’t have canon heights for these kids. I have so far 4’7 for 9, 4′8 for 11, 5′ for 12, 5′3 for 15, 5’4 ½  for 17 and onward. I just went with my heights throughout my life. I only hope one day somebody can measure and headcanon the heights of Arnold and the gang.

Family: Loanne Winifred Blaney(mom), Elias Nathaniel Blaney (dad), and Molly Belloma Blaney (younger sister by 7 years)

MBTI/Enneagram Personality Type: INFP 4w5

Strengths:  Polite, kind, creative, empathetic, pacifist, idealistic, passionate, encyclopedic knowledge of specific topics she enjoys, loyal, honest, a good listener, and tries to see the good in people despite her past experiences.

Weakness: Her Asperger’s syndrome, tends to stim when overemotional, sensitive to criticism, shy, tend to obsess over the things she loves, prone to being moody, doesn’t have a good hold on her intense emotions, nonconfrontational, cynical, difficult to get to know, she finds it hard to trust people despite trying to be open-minded, tend to have a fight/flight response (which she mostly chooses flight), is a bit cowardly,  has trouble reading subtle social cues (for example, when somebody is truly interested in her conversation or just waiting for her to shut up),  Sets high standards for herself to compensate for her mental illness, tends to be brutally honest which leads her to be accidentally insensitive, and overly apologetic.

Likes: Drawing in her sketchbooks, reading (comics, manga, and regular books), creating new words with the names of people that she assumes are a couple or she personally thinks could be a good match (for example, Helga + Arnold = Gnarled Halo), musicals, Greek mythology (or mythology in general), flowers (cherry blossoms, lilies, lilacs, or any flower that fits symbolically in a situation), Chinese zodiac, Greek astrology, astronomy,  whatever the equivalent D&D in Ha! is (Kings Rule doesn’t count, that’s more of a Magic: the gathering type of game), video games, daydreaming, talking about theories, brainstorming story ideas, and Yo Ernest!

Dislikes: Loud crowds, people seeing as well as laughing at her when she stims, liars, being pinned down, disappointing people she cares about, her social anxiety, her struggle of understanding people’s true intentions due to her poor observation of subtle social cues, her fear of people are just waiting to see her fail, being talked down to once people find out about her condition, being touched/hugged by people she isn’t close to or she didn’t initiate, people assuming she is smart when she really isn’t; she’s just passionate about certain topics, revealing her elf-like ears, and math.

Favorite colors: Lilac and vermilion

Favorite animal: Hedgehogs, cats, and rabbits

Bio: Debora was a small-town girl from Tennessee that moved to Hillwood at the age of 5. She had no real ties to the place though except for her love the starry skies and all the wildflowers that grew there. Her parents decided to homeschool her at the age of 4 due to her being bullied for being different and annoying in preschool. For example, her last encounter with the group of kids that bullied her; chased her until she tripped, pinned her down, and pretended they were going to beat her with a big stick just to scare her. She doesn’t meet Arnold and the gang until the age of 11. Before that, she watched them from a distance behind her home window. However, their first, true encounter didn’t work out because Debora couldn’t take being laughed at due to a stimming incident reminiscent of the head hitting that Arnold did in his “I’m Crazy” number, only no music this time. Arnold tried to convince her that his friends were sorry and that they didn’t mean to make her sad. Debora was too afraid to try again though. Debora’s mother had her join the Campfire Lasses for a while to help with her social skills. She still kept tabs with Arnold through letters. She appeared to be making progress and had slightly better control of herself. Her birthday of 2001 however, something happened that made Debora question if she was even good enough to be friends with anybody. Would she always be too weird for people that they will never accept all of her, especially the ugly parts? She quit the Campfire Lasses at age 14; her heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

However, at the age of 15, due to events beyond her control, she had to go to public school so she can be accepted to colleges around Hillwood for they did not accept homeschoolers. Lucky for her, the school she could go to was PS118. Unlucky for her, Arnold wasn’t around to help her fit in with the sophomore class. With no one to help her fit in, she decides it would be best to just not to try at all. She’ll be polite in any way she can in hopes that people will notice her kindness, but she will not make the first move. She’s tired of being betrayed by people that claim that they want to be friends with her only to be abandoned the next day. Although, deep down she knew that this method wouldn’t work and people would be too caught up in their own groups to notice her. Besides, she needed all that time to work on her homework anyway.

However, due to some weird twist of fate, Debora somehow finds herself interacting with Edmund of all people at a party she didn’t even want to go to that Rhonda gave her an invitation to. Rhonda clearly only gave her it because Debora was a part of her class, just a plain, obligatory, pity invitation. To makes things weirder, Debora somehow can empathize with Edmund and his relationship with Wolfgang. Debora has spent so much of her life isolating herself because she never wanted to be hurt again by abusive people like Wolfgang. That time in preschool was still a trauma that she carries to this day. It was her first glimpse of reality that she was different from other kids and that people fear or hate things they can’t understand.

For one reason or another, Edmund the abused loser and Debora the lonely loser found comfort in each other and decided it might be nice if they hung out a bit more. Thus leads Debora and Edmund’s unlikely friendship having everybody around them confused, especially Wolfgang. Surely a girl that genuinely likes Edmund has to have something wrong with her. This leads to the butterfly effect of Wolfgang finding out Debora has Asperger’s syndrome, him exposing that information to the students of PS118, Debora having a break down in the supply closest, Edmund and Wolfgang’s falling out, Helga of all people come to give what Debora needs to hear in her time of need, Helga gaining a renewed purpose in an attempt to move on from Arnold, and Debora finds a true friend in Helga, Edmund, and Helga’s friends are by proxy. Sure, there are still people who treat her terribly when they found out she had a mental illness, but she’s finally content with people knowing because of all the sea of people that see her as a broken person, there are still a few good people that accept her, all of her.

Edit 8/2/2019

I gave her thick eyebrows because I thought she was too pretty and the point of her character is that she is plain looking.

Edit 11/24/2019

I changed her surname to have more of an Irish variant, even if it isn’t technically a real surname as far as I know.

Edit 12/5/2019

I decided to change her surname again so it could be a real Irish surname instead of an Irish variant of a British surname that’s only a variant on a first name basis.

Hey Arnold (Specifically Helga) Headcanon

Ever since I heard Helga named dropped  “Fortuna” in one episode I now believe that she is a big Greek Mythology buff. I want this to be true so bad because it would be so cool to have Arnold or Helga daydream that they’re in the Odysessy or any other Greek legend.

What do you think Helga’s favorite Greek legend would be? (I personally think it would be Atalanta, that girl was hardcore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjTDoXGR7-M )