Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. Yes, I know I was supposed to review Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte starring Tuuli Takala and Siobhan Stagg as the Queen of the Night and Pamina respectively, but I was busy with other things like school, I was quite knackered, and there was a bit of public transportation repair that had to be done, which was a bit of a detriment to my attempted journey to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. So, I decided to compensate for this loss with this interesting little fanfic based on one of my all-time favorite Nicktoons, Hey Arnold!
The fanfic I’ll be taking a look at is, Arnold Betrays Iggy: Alternate Ending written by colossalblackening. It’s rated K. It’s in English and it was published to FanFiction.net on April 15 of this year.
Have you ever watched an episode of your favorite TV show, whether it’s animated or live-action, and spotted an episode that makes you sick to your stomach because of its mean-spiritedness, out of character moments, and had many moments which make you say, “What the Hell happened?” Do you also feel that you could’ve bettered the overall story? Well, Arnold Betrays Iggy is one of those episodes and it was so bad that Craig Bartlett and his crew apologized for this episode’s existence. And of course, enter a bunch of fan fiction authors who do their best to write their interpretations of how they would rewrite certain episodes they don’t particularly like into something more optimistic and less mean-spirited. My personal experience with this episode was I hated it when I was a kid, felt disinterested with it as I grew up, and I still could not stand this particular episode, especially when Sid and Stinky were at fault for forcing the secret out of Arnold and they should’ve been the ones to pay the consequences. With that said, let’s get on to my thoughts on the fanfic.
The fanfic starts off when Arnold finishes all of Iggy’s chores, yet the latter still has not forgiven the former. This is probably to establish that we as Hey Arnold fans or those who watched this episode already what happened prior, which is not a bad start, but I felt like the story could’ve started similarly to the original episode. I digress though, as after this the story then cuts to the chase of the familiar scene where Iggy forces Arnold to wear the bunny pajamas. For the record, it’s nice to read that Arnold’s grandpa is not being willing to take pictures of his humiliation and that Iggy confronted Stinky and Sid whilst the two of them were regretting that they were the ones actually at fault for what happened. I’m not going to spoil the ending to this fanfic, but let’s just say that it’s so satisfying with a few humorous moments coming from a few familiar characters, a touching moment with Gerald, Arnold’s best friend forever, plus with Iggy, yet an element that was a bit of headscratcher, but I digress, it’s still so satisfying and will leave anyone who reads this with a big smile and lots of pleasant thoughts.
There is so much good in this fanfic. Everyone was in character, the humor from Hey Arnold! is still greatly intact, and more than anything the ending is super satisfying, especially if you cannot tolerate or even abhor Arnold Betrays Iggy. The layout is really good, though I am kind of not a fan of having the transitions marked on there as if it were a script.
Even though the story was well-written, I did spot some grammar errors, in the form of missing words, and they were kind of jarring, but not enough to deter me. One noticeable one was, “how come you there with everyone else yesterday?” when it should have been, “how come you were not there with everyone else yesterday?”. Another issue was minor and once you read the ending to the fanfic, you will know what I mean.
So, there you have it. You know what I’m going to give this fanfic and it’s an A-. It had a few grammatical errors and it had a bit of a plothole, but when all is said and done, the strengths more than outweigh the weaknesses and it is a fine retelling of how Arnold Betrays Iggy should’ve ended.
Well, that’s all for now, and be sure to tune in for another fan fiction recommendation. Goodnight, everybody!
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12447777/Arnold-Betrays-Iggy-Alternate-Ending
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