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Fanfic / After the Jungle Series

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After the Jungle is a Hey Arnold! fanfic series by Flowerprincess 11. It's a collection of one-shots and side stories focusing on Arnold and Helga's relationship after the events of Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie, going all the way up until Arnold, Helga and the rest of their friends and classmates from P.S. 118 are adults with jobs and/or families of their own.

Arnold and Helga get married as adults (with Helga taking Arnold's last name) and they end up having two sons named Andrew "Andy" Phillip Shortman (their oldest child) and Henry Miles Shortman (their youngest child) and one daughter named Megan Gertrude Shortman (their middle child). The Shortmans live in Hillwood, where Arnold and Helga both work:

  • Arnold's a world-renowned anthropologist working at Hillwood University—he works with cultures all over the world, but he appears to specialize primarily in Latin American Studies. Arnold's most well-known for his work and research concerning the Green-Eyed People of San Lorenzo, the country he was born in.
  • Helga's been working for Wright & Tate Publishing ever since graduating from Brown University in Rhode Island and has long since become a world-renowned poet/novelist/short story writer (specializing in romance literature). Her most famous work is a book series called Cecile, and by the time Henry's a year old, she's on her 10th-book for it.

Arnold and Helga's parents are all still around, along with Arnold's paternal grandparents and the Sunset Arms Boarding House—Helga's relationship with her parents has greatly improved as she's gotten older (thanks in part to all the years of therapy she had), but she feels a lot closer to Arnold's side of the family (particularly his parents and grandparents) than she does to her family (with the exception of a few select relatives). Arnold and Helga also still keep in touch with (and are close to) many of their old friends and classmates from P.S. 118, most of whom have gotten married and had kids of their own. In fact, Arnold and Helga's kids and many of their friends' kids are also friends with each other and many of them are (or were) also students at P.S. 118, just like their parents were when they were kids.

Some stories focus on the lives of Arnold and Helga's children and their relationships with their friends, life lessons, growing up, etc.

General trope examples:

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    List of Stories 

These stories provide examples of:

     Tropes A thru E 
  • A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: The Shortmans are this—a lot of the future-set stories take place about 25-years after the events of the original series, and at this point: Andy's a 9-year-old 4th-grader, Megan's a 5-year-old Kindergartener and Henry's a year old (and obviously too young to be in school). Andy and Megan are also both students are P.S. 118 (and are former students at Urban Tots Preschool), just like their parents were when they were kids.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Rhonda and Curly's daughter, Courtney, has an all-too-transparent crush on Andy, who doesn't feel the same way. Unlike a lot of examples, Courtney's not ugly (she's stated as looking pretty much identical to Rhonda) and Andy does consider her to be one of his closest friends—but just like Lila with Arnold when they were kids, Andy continuously reminds Courtney that he only likes her as a friend and not in a romantic way.
    • Wolfgang (Senior) becomes this towards Helga as she and Arnold have gotten older—in "Andy's Tournament," it's stated that Wolfgang used to hit on her a lot back in high school (even though she would've been dating Arnold), and Wolfgang also tried hitting on Helga not that long after he and Mary-Jo (the mother of his son, Wolfgang Junior) got divorced.
  • Academic Athlete: Andy's passionate about sports but is also very smart for his age and gets good grades.
  • The Ace: Like his father, Andy's well-liked among his peers, is a good student (academically and athletically) and has a (mostly) easy going nature.
  • Action Mom: Helga.
  • Adults Are Useless: Very much averted with Arnold and Helga, who have both grown up to become very loving, devoted and competent parents.
  • Affably Evil: "Evil" is pushing it, but while the bookie and his goons that Wolfgang owes a lot of money aren't afraid to use physical force on anyone who owes them money, they also prove to be surprisingly cordial to Wolfgang's ex-wife (W.J.'s mom), a woman named Mary-Jo, and even tell Wolfgang that he should've been way nicer and more respectful towards her.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Just like when she was a kid, Helga still has a tendency of calling people by nicknames:
    • Arnold's still "Football Head," but ever since he and Helga became a couple back in middle school, it's become more of a pet name than anything else.
    • When it comes to their kids, she tends to add "-kins" to the end of their name—Andy is "Andy-kins," Megan is "Meggie-kins" and Henry is "Henry-kins."
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Olga can be this to her son, Logan, and daughter, Lisa.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Megan and Kiki can be this to Andy and Kiara, respectively—Megan, for example, often borrows her brother's stuff without asking, often spies on him and eavesdrops on his phone calls, and also tries to find dirt on him in order to blackmail him.
  • April Fools' Day: The story "April Fool's Day II" is about Arnold and Helga trying to prank each other during their first April Fool's Day as a couple.
  • Asshole Victim: After his son is exposed for cheating and subsequently banned from competing in any and all future karate competitions, Wolfgang (Senior) is confronted by a group of people he owes a bunch of money to—he's unable to pay up, which his creditors beat him up for (to the point of where he has to be hospitalized). But given what a terrible person he is, he totally deserves it.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite often bickering and fighting, Andy does love his sister Megan and cares about her greatly and Megan feels the same way. For example, in "A Brother's Duty," despite being annoyed by her earlier, Andy did not hesitate to protect Megan from bullies as soon as he saw that she was in trouble.
    • Megan has this kind of relationship with Henry (her younger brother)—Megan tends to get annoyed with Henry and has also been shown to be kind of jealous of him (since he ultimately took her place as the doted-on baby of the family), but just like with Andy, she does love and care about her younger brother.
  • Babies Ever After: Has its own page.
  • Badass Adorable: Andy.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Andy has very strong protective instincts towards his younger siblings, although it's mostly shown with Megan—as mentioned above, Andy won't hesitate to defend his sister when she clearly needs it most.
    • A good example is in "A Brother's Duty" when Andy attacked W.J. and Edgar for bullying Megan.
  • Berserk Button: One thing that Helga and her oldest son, Andy, have in common is that, unless you have a death wish, you do NOT mess with their loved ones if you know what's good for you—Andy, who's a karate champion, has been known to use his martial arts skills to save his friends and siblings when they're in trouble.
    • Helga also combines this with Mama Bear—to put it as simply as possible, she's got very strong protective instincts when it comes to her kids. But these protective motherly instincts also extend to Gerald and Phoebe's daughters, Kiara and Kiki (who're also her and Arnold's godkids), and to Olga's kids, Logan and Lisa.
  • Best Friends-in-Law: Since Andy and Kiara end up getting married as adults, this means that Arnold and Helga (Andy's parents) become this with Gerald and Phoebe (Kiara's parents).
  • Boyfriend-Blocking Dad:
    • Gerald. When Andy and Kiara first met as babies, Helga notes that Andy might have a crush on Kiara and points out that the two might fall in love and get married as adults (just like Arnold/Helga and Gerald/Phoebe did), Gerald immediately starts acting like this and claims his daughter isn't ready for that.
    • Ernie's like this for his and Lola's daughters, particularly when it comes to them and boys—while Audrey's talking and flirting with Morgan Jones (Suzie's son through her second husband, Franklin), Audrey's sisters witness this and bring up times when their dad would go crazy whenever they got close to boys (romantically or otherwise). Like the time when Ava and Lacey started dating a pair of senior boys from their high school or when Rosie (who's in the Drama Club at her, Heather and Millie's school) had gotten the female lead in her school's play and had to kiss the play's male lead. Fiona claims that Ernie has sometimes threatened his daughters' boyfriends with a wrecking ball.
  • Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Despite admitting to her husband that she sometimes worries about making the same mistakes as her parents made, Helga has ultimately become a very loving and devoted (albeit a bit overprotective) mother, much better than either of her own parents were when she was growing up (it also helps that she had the influence of Stella and Gertie, Arnold's mother and paternal grandmother). Helga also does anything and everything she can to avoid doing any kind of Parental Favoritism (unlike Bob and Miriam).
  • Bully Hunter: Andy is shown to despise bullies and defends his friends and siblings from them.
  • Calling Parents by Their Name: While her relationship with them has improved as she's gotten older (to the point of where she does call them "Mom" and "Dad" more frequently), Helga still has a habit of calling her parents by their first names.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: In "Andy's Tournament", Wolfgang Junior padded his gloves with coins and, as punishment, is not allowed to compete in any and all future karate competitions.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Helga...obviously.
    • Kiara (who secretly has feelings for Andy) has some shades of this.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: The appropriately named story "Jealousy" has Arnold expressing this after he learns that he isn't the only guy to have ever been romantically interested in Helga—another example of this is a chapter from "The First Year" (appropriately called "Jealousy"), where, while at Curly and Rhonda's engagement party, Arnold notices a man hitting on Helga.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Most of the adult couples in the series have known each other since they were kids, with the two most notable being Arnold/Helga and Gerald/Phoebe (the former especially).
    • "The Golden Years" reveals that Andy (Arnold and Helga's oldest son) and Kiara (Gerald and Phoebe's oldest daughter) end up getting married as adults and have at least one child together: a son named Phillip (more commonly called "Phil" for short), named after Arnold's paternal grandfather.
  • Daddy's Girl: While both Arnold and Helga are close to all three of their kids and while Megan has a close and loving relationship with her mom, Megan clearly adores her father and vice-versa.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: While Bob and Miriam love Arnold and get along just fine with him, neither of them is particularly fond of Olga's husband, Patrick (an aspiring musician who has trouble holding down a job and generally comes off as Lazy Bum).
  • Deconstruction Fic: The whole series can be seen as one big deconstruction to Olga Sherman (née Pataki).
    • In the original cartoon, Olga was a smart/beautiful/popular young woman who had many viable talents/skills/achievements and whom pretty much everyone figured would end up being the more successful one of the Pataki Sisters (even Helga herself had figured this). But for all of Olga's "perfection," she was an extraordinarily insecure/neurotic person whose happiness was ultimately just a mask that she put on to deal with the immense pressure that her parents (her father especially) put on her and was shown to generally not handle stress all that well. It was also shown that, despite being over a decade older than Helga, Olga could be rather whiny and childish (which only got worse as the show went on). Taking all that into consideration, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Olga didn't succeed in her adult life like Helga was able to.
    • When it comes to her desire to become an actress, it's obvious to everyone (except Olga herself) that she just doesn't have what it takes to make it as an actress and her determination to achieve her dream has taken its toll on not just her, but the people around her (particularly her immediate family). Also, since Olga had never really experienced failure until trying to pursue a career as an actress, she couldn't handle it well and wasn't sure of what to do if she wasn't able to become an actress (especially after quitting her job as a schoolteacher).
    • While she and Patrick really do love and care about each other, they have a much shakier marriage compared to Helga and her husband, Arnold. Also, in great contrast to Arnold and Helga (who were together as a couple for at least a decade prior to getting married), Patrick and Olga ended up getting married after only six months of dating (and hadn't known each other for long that prior to dating).
    • Olga really does love and care about her children, Logan and Lisa, and ultimately just wants what's best for them. But given the way that she and Helga were raised (Olga herself especially), Olga basically tries doing to the twins what her owns parents (particularly her dad) had done to her, expecting Logan and Lisa (the latter especially) to be little carbon copies of her and live up to her "legacy" as "the golden girl of Hillwood."
    • Fortunately, at the end of "A Perfect Disaster" (after receiving an epic verbal beatdown from Helga), Olga thinks things over and vows to change her ways and make things better between her and the twins, and her and Patrick. At the very end of the fanfic, things do seem to be looking up for Olga and her family.
  • Doting Grandparent:
    • Phil and Gertie are this to Arnold (even once he's an adult) and to Helga as well—they're also this to Andy, Megan and Henry (who're technically their great-grandchildren). They also act like this to Gerald and Phoebe's daughters, Kiara and Kiki, and even to Olga's kids, Logan and Lisa.
    • Miles and Stella become this once Arnold and Helga have children.
    • Bob and Miriam prove to be this—it's clear that they love and care about Logan and Lisa despite their dislike of Patrick while they also have a surprisingly good relationship with Arnold and Helga's kids.
  • Doting Parent: Arnold and Helga make it clear that they absolutely adore their children.
  • Drama Queen: Combined with Womanchild—Olga (Helga's older sister) still acts like this, even by the time she's well into her 40s. Helga (rather bluntly) says to her husband in "Babysitting" (a chapter from The First Year) that being a Drama Queen is the closest her sister will ever get to becoming an actress.
    • "Henry's First Birthday" shows that Helga hasn't completely outgrown this either, as she has a little Freak Out when Henry accidentally spills some milk onto a dress she was wearing and panics that it's "irreplaceable."
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: A positive example is that a 9-year-old Arnold has a dream/vision one day, of his future life and eventual marriage with Helga, though he never realizes that it's her (other than taking note of how his future wife bears a strong resemblance to "Cecile").
  • Education Mama: Olga becomes one towards her twins, Logan and Lisa—it doesn't help that she's also a teacher.
  • Everyone Has Standards: As shown in "Sixth Grade Girls II," Andy's a bit wiser when it comes to stuff like girls and romance than his dad was at that same age—he turns down Bonnie and Maritza, Connie and Maria's respective daughters through their respective ex-husbands, Burt and Tommy, after they each tried asking him out on a date, especially once they started getting really rude and pushy. He later explains to Kiara (his best friend who's secretly in love with him) that he'd rather date a nice/smart girl rather than some Brainless Beauty. Helga happens to witness this exchange and is proud of her son's actions.

     Tropes F thru J 
  • Family Man: Arnold, in spades—he's grown up to be a very loving and devoted husband and father.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook:
    • Helga's way more feminine as an adult than she ever was as a kid, and by the time she and Arnold get married (and especially after they have children), Helga's the primary cook in their family—Helga started learning how to cook more after she and Arnold got together in middle school (when she was still pretty tomboyish), particularly from his mother and grandmother.
    • Olga's still pretty feminine as an adult and is also stated to (still) be a good cook.
    • Lila, just like Olga, is very feminine and also a good cook—in fact, in Perfectly Weird Relativesnote , Helga describes Lila as acting like some "1950s housewife" that always gives her guests baked treats and drinks whenever they visit her.
  • Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Played straight for Olga and her daughter, Lisa, but played with for Helga and her daughter, Megan.
    • Personality-wise, Lisa's basically just a younger version of Helga, taking after the sports-loving/tomboyish side of her aunt. This in great contrast to her mother, Olga, who's still just as much of a Girly Girl Proper Lady as she was in Helga's youth.
    • In contrast to the Tomboy with a Girly Streak that she was in her childhood, Helga's more of a straight-up Girly Girl as an adult (but still retains some of her more tomboyish traits). Megan, by contrast, has always been a Girly Girl (but, like her mom, Megan does have some tomboyish traits). But overall, Megan's way more of a Girly Girl than her mom ever was as a kid.
  • First Day of School Episode:
    • "Am I a good mother?" takes place on Andy's first day of preschoolnote .
    • "Protect" takes place on Andy's first day of 1st-gradenote .
  • Full-Name Ultimatum:
    • The Shortman-siblings are sometimes on the receiving end of this, though it usually only when they parents are really angry with them about something.
    • Megan's rival, Roxanne Smythe-Higgins, is the on the receiving end of this when her dad, Rex III, discovers that she got a tattoo (a real one and not a temporary one) behind his back. Roxanne's full name is ultimately revealed to be "Roxanne Elizabeth Marie Katherine Smythe-Higgins."
  • Future Loser: Has its own page.
  • Generation Xerox: Andy, Megan and Henry to their parents—in the case of Andy and Megan:
    • While they may not be child prodigies, both are very smart for their age, just like their parents were—Megan, for example, can already read and write at a 2nd-grade level by the time she's in Kindergarten.
    • They can be very assertive and short-tempered (Megan can also be very sneaky and will sometimes act out to get attention) their mom, but they're also very friendly and sweet-natured like their dad.
    • Andy, like Arnold, is into (and excels at) athletics, particularly karate and baseball—however, Andy's a lot more passionate about sports than Arnold was. Andy becomes a professional athlete as an adult and even manages to compete at the Olympics more than once.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Andy is this—while he's easily just as friendly and sweet-natured as his dad was when he was a kid, he's also just as tough as his mom was when she was a kid.
  • Good Parents: Arnold and Helga, despite their own rough childhoods (especially for the latter), have grown up to be very loving, doting and proud parents to their children. While Helga can be a little overprotective, she's ultimately just looking out for her kids.
  • Grandparent Favoritism: "The Spelling Bee II" shows that Helga's parents, Bob and Miriam, have a pretty good relationship with her and Arnold's kids.
  • Grow Old with Me: "The Golden Years" features Helga and Arnold still being married (and still very much in love) well into their sixties and have since become grandparents (Andy and Megan are both married with children while Henry, who isn't married or a parent yet, is stated as having a girlfriend).
  • Happily Married: Each of the couplesnote , but the most obvious is Arnold and Helga.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Even by the time they're all well into their 30s, Arnold and Helga still have this with Gerald and Phoebe, respectively. Arnold and Gerald were even the best men at each other's weddings while Helga and Phoebe were each other's maids-of-honornote . Both couples eventually become Best Friends-in-Law when Andy (Arnold and Helga's son) and Kiara (Gerald and Phoebe's daughter) get married.
  • High Hopes, Zero Talent: Olga Sherman (née Pataki) and Summer Mitchell prove to be this when it comes to acting, the former especially. They both tried pursuing careers as actresses (theater acting for Olga and movie/TV-acting for Summer), even moving to New York City (for Olga) and Los Angeles (for Summer) in order to do so. However, they both ultimately fail to make it big as actresses, with the few roles that they were able to get being in very cheesy/low-budget productionsnote .
    • Also, both Olga and Summer eventually moved back to their hometowns and were forced to take other jobs in order to support their families—Olga, for example, went back to working as a schoolteacher (which was her job prior to pursuing a career as an actress), eventually becoming a 5th-grade teacher at P.S. 118.
    • However, Olga (even by the time she's well into her 40s) refuses to give up on her "pipe dream" (as Helga calls it) of becoming an actress while Summer, by contrast, has obviously given up any hopes of making it big as an actress by the events of "A Trip to the Beach" (where she's well into her 30s and is now a divorced single mom with four kids).
  • Housewife:
    • Helga's a downplayed example—she has a job (a very well-paying one at that), but she's able to work primarily from home and also does a lot of cooking and housework.
    • Pattie's this, at least until her kids were old enough to start school—she also apparently helps out at Green's Meats (the butcher shop that Harold took over after Mr. Green retired).
  • History Repeats: Some of the stuff that Andy and his friends/classmates went through also happened to their parents when they were at that same age:
    • "The Spelling Bee II" — Andy and Kiara compete in Hillwood's annual spelling bee, just like Andy's parents did, and Big Bob Pataki tries (once again) tries to bribe the biggest competition into taking a dive so that his family member can win.
    • "Sixth Grade Girls II" — Andy and Kiara's families are at the city pool for the day, where Andy ends up meeting Bonnie and Martiza, the respective daughters of Connie and Maria, who (just like their moms) try asking Andy out on a date to make their boyfriends, Jake (for Bonnie) and Randall (for Maritza), jealous.
    • "Cool Party II" — Just like her mom before her, Courtney throws a 'cool party' but excludes all her friends (minus her best friend/godbrother, Nate, and her crush, Andy) while inviting a bunch of snobby but popular kids from their school (and Rex III's son, Rex IV). Andy and the rest of his friends throw a 'geek party' to get back at Courtney, whose own party ends up being a complete disaster, just like Rhonda's party.
  • Identical Grandson: In "Golden Years", we see that Andy has a son named Phil, who also has blonde hair and a football shaped head, just like Andy and Arnold do.
  • Internal Reveal:
    • In "How Do You Feel About Me?", Helga confesses to Arnold about many of her actions over the years, including: sabotaging his dates, attempts to make him jealous, faking amnesia, impersonating his French pen pal on Valentine's Day, the school play, etc.
    • In "Anonymous", Arnold finds out about Helga's anonymous love poems.
    • In "Jealousy", Arnold learns about the kiss Helga gave Brainy in TJM.
    • In "The Perfect Christmas", Arnold discovers that Helga was the one who helped him reunite Mr. Hyuenn with his daughter.
    • In "Weird Cousin II", it's revealed that Arnie was aware of Helga and Arnold's faking as a couple in his debut episode (though he assumes it was to make [Arnie] jealous rather than Lila).
    • In "The Spelling Bee II", Helga finally reveals to her father that she lost the spelling bee on purpose to not only get back at him for attempting to bribe Arnold, but also for his lack of trust in her ability to win on her own.
    • In "The Spirit of Giving", Andy and Megan discover Helga's sacrificing her designer snow boots to help Arnold when they were kids.
  • It Runs in the Family: Andy, Megan and Henry share many of the same personality traits as their parents while Logan and Lisa (who're technically Olga's kids) are very similar to their aunt in many ways. To go into greater detail for the kids (minus Henry):
    • Andy's a sweet-natured kid who's popular and well-liked by his peers, but he's just as tough and aggressive as his mom was and is generally more willing to physically fight back (but only if he really needs to).
    • Megan, just like her mom, is very intelligent for her age and can even be a bit manipulative—but she can also be just as friendly and sweet-natured as her dad was, as she's ultimately a good kid.
    • Lisa, just like her Aunt Helga when she was a kid, is a tomboy who's passionate about sports, with baseball being her favorite sport (just like her Uncle Arnold).
    • Logan, also like his Aunt Helga, is a sensitive individual who's passionate about the arts (particularly when it comes to drawing and painting). Also, while he's not as into sports as his sister is, he does like baseball.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In "Jealousy," Arnold discovers that he wasn't the only guy to have ever been romantically interested in Helga and goes to confront Brainy about [Brainy's] crush on Helga—Brainy assures Arnold that he won't do anything to sabotage Arnold's relationship with Helga. He admits that while (at least for now) he does still have feelings for Helga, he also knows that Arnold's the only one that she truly loves and Brainy ultimately just wants Helga to be happy.

     Tropes K thru O 
  • Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: "A Scary Movie" involves a 4-year-old Henry Shortman wanting to see a movie called Twins on a Trip of Terror (part of the Evil Twin-series). Even though it only has a PG-rating, Arnold and Helga feel that it's probably too much for a kid Henry's age—Helga also brings up the time when Henry saw a movie called Killer Vegetables from Space III and got so freaked out by it that he avoided onions for a month after watching it. Andy (who had already seen the movie with some of his friends) tries coming to his brother's defense and convince his parents to let him watch it, arguing that it's not that scary ("You can clearly tell that the brains are oatmeal," Andy tells his parents when describing some of the special effects).
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • With his main source of income gone (i.e., Suzie), Oskar Kokoshka (who was too lazy to just go out and get a job) was eventually kicked out of Sunset Arms for failing to pay his rent. By the events of "Reunion at the Boarding House," Oskar (who's now almost 60) is living in some rundown apartment complex, has been married/divorced two more times and is still way too lazy to get a steady job.
    • Wolfgang Senior tries to use his son to win bets and, when their cheating fails, he ends up being beaten by his creditors.
  • Like Father, Unlike Son: Has its own page.
  • Love Triangle: Andy with Kiara and Courtney. He ultimately chooses Kiara.
  • Married in the Future: Has its own page.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings:
    • In "Reunion at the Boarding House," it's revealed that Ernie and Lola eventually had nine daughters—from oldest to youngest: Fiona (19), Audrey (18), Monica (17), Lily (16), a pair of twins named Ava and Lacey (15), and a set of triplets named Rosie, Heather and Millie (13). Seeing all of Ernie and Lola's daughters causes Helga to think (to herself), "Criminy! And people think three kids is too much!"
    • In "Perfectly Weird Relatives" (a chapter from The First Yearnote ), Lila mentions that a neighboring couple that she and Arnie are friends with back in their hometown (named Lyle and Lydia) are expecting another baby. When Helga notes that the last time she heard about them, they already had nine kids, Lila explains that Lydia suspects that she's pregnant with twins or triplets this time around. Hearing this, Helga thinks (to herself), "Eleven to twelve kids?! I think that Lydia chick needs a hobby!"
  • My Beloved Smother: Three examples of this trope —
    • Helga and Phoebe are this to their kids, though it's mostly shown with the former—both Helga and Phoebe are shown to have very strong protective instincts to not just their own kids, but to each other's kids as well (Helga's protective motherly instincts also extend to her sister's kids, Logan and Lisa)—but in their case, it's a more positive example of this trope, because they're ultimately just trying to look out for their kids. But they sometimes take it to the point of being overprotective, which can get on their kids' nerves (particularly Andy and Kiara). Although as stated in "Overprotective," Kiara apparently considers her godmother's protectiveness-tendencies comparably tamer to those of her own mothernote .
    • Olga can be like this to her own kids—this is one of the more negative examples in that, while Olga really does genuinely love and care about Logan and Lisa, she (as noted by Helga in "A Perfect Disaster") is basically doing to them what Bob and Miriam (the former especially) had done to Olga when she and Helga were growing up.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Arnold's grandmother, Gertie (Arnold's children's great-grandmother), is in ridiculously good shape for someone who's now technically over the age of 100—in "Andy's Tournament" (where Andy's training for a big karate tournament), it's revealed that ever since Andy first started taking karate lessons, Gertie (who Andy calls "G.G.") also helps Andy train in karate (to the point of calling him "Iko-Kun"). Gertie's also the one who suggested that Andy go to the dojo run by Master Chan, Andy's regular karate instructor.
  • No Accounting for Taste: Olga’s marriage to Patrick Sherman, an aspiring musician who has trouble holding down a job.
  • No Sympathy: When the people Wolfgang Senior owes money to find him, he begs his ex-wife to let him in her home for his protection. She instead asks the creditors to beat him up somewhere else, so she won't have to clean up the resulting mess. They comply.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws:
    • Bob and Miriam are this to Olga's husband, Patrick—Helga doesn't like her brother-in-law any more than her parents do, but she's generally more willing to put up with him than they are (especially compared to Bob). Compared to her husband, Miriam's somewhat more willing to put up with Patrick—but Bob and Patrick have never gotten along, and Bob usually doesn't even pretend to be nice to him.
    • An unintentional example in the case of Arnie, Lila and their son, Arnie Junior ("AJ" for short)—they aren't bad people and they do seem to like visiting Arnold and his family, but the Shortmans (particularly Megan and her brothers) generally dread their visits. But since Arnie, Lila and AJ are still family (and out of love/respect for Arnold), Helga and the kids are willing to put up with their visits and are generally very polite and respectful to them.
  • Odd Friendship: Despite how they treated each other in elementary school, Rhonda and Helga start becoming friends in middle school and are shown to be close friends as adults (Rhonda was even one of Helga's bridesmaids at her and Arnold's wedding).
  • Or Was It a Dream?: In "What the Heck?!", it's left ambiguous as to whether the events really were just a dream or if it really was a vision of the future (or even some combination of the two).

     Tropes P thru T 
  • Parents as People: Arnold and Helga are good parents but still retain some of their quirks, even as adults.
  • Parental Favoritism:
    • Very much averted with Arnold and Helga towards their kids—Helga, clearly not wanting things to be like they how were when she was growing up, goes to great lengths to make sure that all three of her kids get treated with equal amounts of love and attention.
    • While it depends on how you look at it, Bob and Miriam (Olga and Helga's parents) are still guilty of this to some extent with their daughters, even by the time Helga's well into her 30s—but in a reverse from Helga's childhood, Bob and Miriam now seem to favor her over Olga (although it could be at least partially because of how Helga's become the more successful one of her and Olga).
  • Parental Sexuality Squick: The Shortman siblings (particularly Andy) tend to get grossed out when they see their parents kissing.
  • Parental Substitute: Arnold and Helga (the latter especially) are this to Logan and Lisa, which is most strongly shown in "A Perfect Disaster." While Patrick and Olga really do love and care about the twins, neither of them is really the best parent (especially since Olga basically tries doing to the twins what her own parents, particularly her dad, had done to her), and Helga, knowing that Logan and Lisa have a rough home life (not unlike her when she was growing up), wants to make sure that they have a better childhood than she did (just like how she is with her own kids). Helga and her family try to include the twins in as many of their activities as possible, help them with whatever problems they might be having and, especially compared to Olganote , are much more accepting of the twins for who they are and more supportive of their interests and hobbies.
  • Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: In "How do you feel about me?," Miles and Stella once caught Arnold and Helga kissing, much to the kids' embarrassment.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Helga gives an epic verbal beatdown to her sister in the second-to-last chapter of "A Perfect Disaster," during which she calls Olga out on pretty much all of her faults and points out that Olga's current situation in life is pretty much her own fault.
    • In "Helga's Makeover II," Arnold gives one to Connie and Maria (those two older girls from "Sixth Grade Girls" and "Phoebe Skips"). He calls them out for bullying his girlfriend and argues that the two of them aren't nearly as pretty and/or popular as they think they are—he also claims that he saw their boyfriends, Burt (for Connie) and Tommy (for Maria), leave their school's annual art show with other girls earlier in the evening. Arnold's speech ultimately leaves the two mean girls totally speechless.
    • In "Cool Party II," when Andy discovers that Kiara and the rest of their friends didn't get invited to Courtney Gammelthorpe's titular party, he confronts her about it and calls her out on her treatment of people who're supposed to be her friends—he refuses to go to her party and, as a result, he's put on Courtney's "geek list."
    • After Oskar gets caught trying to steal all the cupcakes that Helga and Megan had made from the titular party in "Reunion at the Boarding House," he receives an epic one from Phil (his former landlord) and all the other tenants who lived at Sunset Arms back when Arnold was a kid (with the exception of his ex-wife, Suzie).
  • Ridiculously Successful Future Self: Has its own page.
  • Screaming Birth: Just like Stella when she had Arnold, Helga had this when she had Andy—while this may not seem like a big deal, Andy's the only one of Arnold and Helga to have inherited his dad's football-shaped head. And as shown in the epiloque of "The First Year," Helga's absolutely furious with her husband for convincing her to have a vaginal birth instead of a c-section.
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Arnold's parents, Miles and Stella, and paternal grandparents, Phil and Gertie, have been this for Arnold and Helga since they were little kids—Arnold's parents and grandparents were really excited when the two finally got married.
    • Lots of people are this for Andy (Arnold and Helga's oldest son) and Kiara (Gerald and Phoebe's oldest daughter), particularly their immediate families—Helga was probably the first supporter of Andy and Kiara getting together (ever since the two first met as babies). Andy and Kiara ultimately get married as adults and have at least one child, a son named "Phillip" (or "Phil" for short).
  • Sibling Rivalry:
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: "Never" shows Arnold and Helga (and, to a lesser extent, Gerald and Phoebe) being this, though only Rhonda seems to be annoyed really.
  • Stock "Yuck!": Like most little kids, Megan doesn't like broccoli and will go to great lengths to avoid eating it.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Has its own page.
  • Successful Sibling Syndrome: Combined with Dark Horse Sibling—if you remember anything about the original series, you might have thought that Olga (a bright, popular, and talented college student who excelled at pretty much everything she did) would've been the more successful one. If you did think that, you're wrong—to go into greater detail:
    • About five years after graduating as valedictorian at Bennington College, Olga decided to quit her job as a teacher to try pursuing a career as an actress (specifically for theater—she even moved to New York City at one point to audition for roles on Broadway). During this time, Olga met and fell in love with an aspiring musician named Patrick Sherman, who she ended up marrying after only six months of dating.
    • Unfortunately, Patrick fails to make it big as a musician while Olga fails to make it big as an actress. After moving back to Olga's hometown of Hillwood and having their twins, Logan and Lisa, Olga goes back to working as a teacher to help support her family (she ultimately becomes a 5th-grade teacher at P.S. 118). Patrick, by contrast, is often switching employment and has trouble holding down a job—this leads to Olga's being the sole breadwinner for their family at times (much to her resentment).
    • Bob and Miriam aren't too fond of Patrick (but they genuinely love the twins) and have made it clear to their oldest daughter that they don't approve of her relationship with him and that they greatly prefer Helga's husband, Arnold over Patrick. Miriam seems a bit more willing to put up with him, but Bob and Patrick have never gotten along and often argue when they're together.
    • Helga, by contrast, married her childhood sweetheart (who she had been dating for well over a decade) about a year after graduating college (and by then, both she and her now-husband had steady well-paying jobs). And rather than often moving around to different apartments every few years or so (due to Olga's family's financial issues), Arnold and Helga have been living in the same house since Helga was pregnant with Andy (prior to that, Arnold and Helga lived in an apartment together).
    • While Helga still may not be as close to their parents as Olga is (and also still has the habit of calling them by their first names), her relationship with them has improved tremendously as she's gotten older—Bob and Miriam also get along much better with Arnold than they do with Patrick and are much more accepting of Helga's relationship with him than they are of Olga's relationship with Patrick. Also, Bob and Miriam now seem to favor Helga (to some extent at least), as shown in "A Perfect Disaster," where Bob seems annoyed about having to lend money to Olga and her family (again), and mutters, "I never have to lend Helga money."
  • Supreme Chef: Helga's the primary cook in her family and is stated as being very good at it—pretty much everything she makes is always a big hit with anyone who eats it.
  • Sweet Tooth: All three of Arnold and Helga's kids seem to have a fondness for sweets—especially if it's something that their mom has made.

     Tropes U thru Z 
  • Used to Be a Tomboy: We all remember Helga as being this hotheaded tomboy in the original series—while she still has a bit of a temper and also retains some of her more tomboyish traits as an adult, she's mellowed considerably as she's gotten older (especially after she and Arnold get married and have children) and is way more feminine as an adult than she ever was as a kid (becoming more interested in things like fashion, makeup, cooking, etc.).
  • Vague Age: In a lot of the future-set stories (most of which take place when Andy's a 4th-grader, Megan's a Kindergarten and Henry's a year old), we never find out the exact ages of characters like Arnold, Helga, Gerald and Phoebe (and the rest of their old friends and classmates) or Arnold's parents, Helga's parents, Olga and Patrick. Arnold's paternal grandparents (plus Phil's twin sister, Mitzi) are stated to be 105, but are in still is fairly good shape for people their age.
    • In the case of Arnold, Helga, Gerald, Phoebe and most of their old friends and classmates, they must be in their mid-30s (around 34 to 36). In the fanfics that take place when Andy's in 4th-grade, they're stated to take place about 25-years after the events of the original series, when Arnold and most of his old friends/classmates would've been around 9 or 10-years-old. This would mean that Andy and Kiara's parents must be around 34 or 35 by the time they're in 4th-grade—this also means that Arnold, Helga, Gerald and Phoebe must've been around 25 or 26 when Andy and Kiara were born, 29 or 30 when Megan and Kiki were born, and around 33 or 34 when Henry was born.
    • For Olga, since she's (assumed to be) at least twelve years older than her "baby sister," and since Helga's around 34 or 35 by the time Andy's a 4th-grader at P.S. 118, this would mean that Olga's probably around 46 or 47 by the time her oldest nephew starts his second-to-last year of elementary school. As for Patrick (Olga's husband and the uncle-thru-marriage of Helga's kids), he's presumably around the same age as his wife.

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