i love yhis fic and i have read it about a dozen times over the years. thanks for writing it.

It's 2019. Fourteen years since it's completion. Still, this classic is the best ff ever. I come back and read it every few years when I'm looking for something good and really intriguing to read. For all of your efforts in writing this superb piece, others will enjoy it for many years to come. Hope you're well.

WHO SAID IM CRYING? PSH OF COURSE IM NOT CRYING. IM JUST CUTTING SOME ONIONS. WELL YEAH OKAY IM CRYING WTF THE STORY HAS THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ANGST AND THAT HAPPY ENDING. LEMME JUST CRY FOR A MINUTE

This whole story was so beautiful I can't believe that I am just reading it now! Thank you so much for all your hard work on this. It was simply incredible.

Soooo any chance that after 13 years we can still have the epilogue? Hahaha Beauty story!

O-M-G! Now THIS is a chapter!

It's 2017 & this is one of the best HA fan fic ever written. It's a solid classic. I've read it many times over the years. You're gifted, thanks for writing this amazing story - what a brain you have!

I agree with one of the other reviews that points out that the characterization is totally and sometimes jarringly different than what one would typically expect for the adult versions of these characters, given the positive-leaning nature of the show, but because it's anchored to the main themes, it works.

We're so used to seeing the good cartoon versions of these characters and everything working out so easily within 30 minutes that it's tough to imagine them going through continuous unresolved (or un-resolvable) messes. It's like the alternate fan explanation for the Pigeon Man episode, but expanded to engulf the entire series. Phil's more realistic/honest human side and the South America metaphor are so sad but fit so well into the story.

I kind of see this story as the dark parallel universe that could have been, had Arnold been even more corrupted by his random impulses as an adult than as a child (because he DID tend to lose his mind and go too far in order to learn his lesson in the show, like in Cool Jerk) and had Helga been more prone to obey her weaker passionately vengeful self instead of the Arnold-the-angel conscience that it was always grappling with. It reminds me a lot of the movie "Atonement" and the way it handles the destruction of something good and the painful attempt to rebuild it even though it'll never really be fixed, at least not the way everyone wants. Even the smarter version of Ruth was intriguing-it's so much easier in the show for Ruth to be vapid and dumb so that Arnold could completely lose interest in her, but this Mrs. Robinson thing adds a real life struggle to it.

However, even the worst-case scenarios couldn't keep these two apart, and the unapologetic Rhonda-Curly dynamic is so neat to compare and contrast with this messed up Arnold-Helga one. They're a modern dysfunctional Romeo and Juliet, and the tragedy is what makes it so compelling and real.

I stayed up pretty much all night to read this story, and it's really made me think! It's a few years too late, but thank you for this incredibly interesting and gut-wrenching (in a good way) spin on the Hillwood universe. It makes you want and regret things for these characters like they're actual people.

I love this story ...i wish you did more chapters I would to know how Aronld and his son got along .

You ever read something, cursing under your breath that it's completely OOC, but you can't stop reading anyway? That was basically my experience with this story. Oh-it's brilliant, no doubt. But I wasn't convinced, for a second, that any of these characters really honored the ones in the show-it just felt like a mess of OCs you later lent names and backstories from "Hey Arnold" to. I'd never believed that Helga was Helga, or that Arnold was Arnold. The whole "people change" veneer got spread a little too thin over the vast stretch between who these characters are, and how you wrote them. At no point did I really feel like any of the characters were themselves-"grown" or not, other than Rhonda and a few of the original adults from the series. It actually felt sickening-but I still couldn't stop reading, god damn you.

I have no words for i.t literally I am awe. Your portrait of Arnold was incredible. The disappointing guy, how people we met can become something different from what we expect. The ramifications of been orphan and the parents' story been all crap was so amazingly done. You really feel the evolution as in a real story. I really like the characther s and their decisions and mistakes are so human and just plainly common. The ending was just so Hollywood movie though I dont hate it nor do I think it was sudden. I love reading everu word of it.

This is one of the most amazing "Hey! Arnold" stories I've ever read. Thank you so, so much for continuing to work on this over the years. I'm so glad I stumbled across it.

Hope you are well, and that you are still a proud fan!

Thank you so much for this story! I loved it!

I really loved this story. I haven't read a good story like this in a long time. I also love the way you write, how it flows (if you understand that). It was great and I can't wait to read more of your stories. :)

Keep writing,

*Wings Forever*

-MaxandFang101

its 2015 and i still love reading this story.