The German born house keeper of the Thornton's, Helga has been in the Thornton household for a few years. Helga came to the Thornton's by way of a recommended agency from Liam's mother to Mary Thornton. Helga is kind and gentle. It can be said that she has been more of a motherly influence in Red's life.
Red was a boy until a new genie tried to get Melvin a girlfriend. That's when the genie turned Red into a girl so Melvin could practice talking to girls, and forgot to turn her back before disappearing. Red is hopeful that her situation is only temporary.
Honestly, some English words are very easy to catch in most languages of how used they are, Magic being among then. I am even willing to bet that it’s as easy for German as it’s for Spanish speakers as myself: Magia for Spanish, Magie for German, is really easy to find the link with Magic.
Other thing, though this is mostly going for my own experiences, is way easier to learn how to understand English, than speak it naturally, so we can assume Helga understand mostly fine when spoken to in English, but still doesn’t feel comfortable speaking the language herself.
English is also one of those languages that has a lot of other European languages rolled into it too, especially languages like German, because, had a fairly large German emigrant population and only missed the vote to have German as our native languages by just a few votes. Even many of our English words come from other languages like Kaput, which means broken is a German Word.
I don’t think it’s that she isn’t bright. It’s that she isn’t in on the secret of magic, so she’s just applying real-world logic to Red’s teenage craziness.
@Jacqui As for Helga, very much what Robert said, adding Mary’s lies to the mix. As for Mary being a drunk, before my run, we only saw her twice, and one was on Jeanie Bottle, while she was at her worst here at MC. As I have said before, we may never know what was the original plan for her, but there wasn’t enough for me to call her a drunk in those two pages. I can say at least that drinking doesn’t put her in a good mood. Nor Ida, for that matter.
Even them, she clearly didn’t seem like the world’s best mom at the time and Ida was sober when she called out Mary for being uncaring towards her child.
@Jacqui Well, what I mean about Ida is that she doesn’t put Mary in a good mood! I may haven’t express it in the best way, but Helga isn’t the only one here with a broken English… she is surprisingly easy to write in that regard for me.
Also, yeah, I am not making Mary pass of as a good mother, I just don’t give much of a thought to the fact that out of two times she show her face, she had a drink in one, it’s wasn’t really that relevant IMO. It’s not like she was being a specially stelar mother on JB either!
I don’t think Mary had anything to do with hiring Ida, because, she doesn’t own the modelling agency that either Mary or Ida work at and now Tiffany also works at also. I think it was a management decision from hire up in the modelling agency that made the decision that Tiffany needed some coaching to do her job and Ida being former model herself was selected for the job of coaching her. I am sure of the way Mary and Ida don’t like each other, they if Mary had a choice in the matter, she would have picked some one else to coach Tiffany. Mary is the boss over Helga is Maid, but, she not the boss over modelling agency or over Ida either. Ida can kind of thumb nose Mary and pretty much do her own thing with Tiffany, Helga can’t or she would get fired if she did.
@He Who Abides and @Jack Slowly but surely I am trying to tie together all the clues in regards the backstory of the Thorntons. But it’s still takes some time, with the Clarck family having their own issues taking priority on the plot.
Something I can say without much Spoilers, going through Helga’s original description on the site (which at the moment of writing this, remains the same), she has being indeed close to a mother to Clarence, but she actually use to work for Liam’s family, so she hasn’t been there for Clarence all his life. And this in my current canon means that she has been there for Clarence for only six years, still a good part of her almost sixteen, but not long enough for Mary’s attempts to make Clarence pass for a tomboy with a weird “boyish” name, who just got hit by puberty, not sound as absurd as it should.
According to the Cast section up above, Liam is actually nerd that Melvin and crew nemesis. But, his family was Helga original employer. So I suppose that Helga made a slight employer improvement when is comes to getting Mary as her new employer and better behaved child to deal with, with Clarence. Well, Helga was with the family for six years and Red became a girl when she was fifteen. Red was nine years old when Helga came to work for them. This would be a few days at most with as fast as Mary and her husband were working to get Red out of boy cloth and into girls cloth after Jeanie’s magic trick on Red. Red when from flat chested to one with double D knocker on her chest. I’m sure that Helga suspects something up. Now she may not know what up, but, I am sure she has her suspicions of what going on. But, Mary still her boss and she must do what the boss want her to do.
Perhaps Helga isn’t a longtime employee and was hired recently, as in shortly before or after poor Clarence’s transformation, to help keep an eye on “Tiffany” for Mary. She might have been like a lifeline to the confused, unwillingly transgendered boy and grown close to him rapidly because of that. Just an alternate take on things.
It already been established that Helga was picked off from the Liam family when Clarence was about 9 years old. Helga acted more like a Mother for Clarence than mother was. Indication are that Clarence seemed to gravitate to Helga for that tender tough that associate mother. Basically, Mary treated Clarence like he didn’t exist and wasn’t a part of her life and was even ashamed to call him her son and even many or her closes friend didn’t even know she had a son. Now Helga wasn’t around in Clarence younger day where she might have done the dipper number on Clarence and see his junk down under, but, she saw enough other stuff, that she should have known that Clarence was a guy and not a girl. Helga is a maid. Maids do house work, like do the laundry where she would be doing Clarence cloths, which were guys underwear, shirt, jeans and no girly things like bra’s or such things in his stuff, which he would have had to have even as a tomboy girl. Even his entire body is different from just a few days ago from the last time she saw him. He has a body that look more like a girl than a guy she saw a few days ago. Let go down the list of differences, he got an hour glass figure instead of straight shank body type. Two double D knocker in of a flat chest with a slightly expanded rear end and instead short hair that two or three inches long, his hair is half down his back. She also probably met Melvin and BJ a few times and seen them interaction with each other and she would see three guy playing with each other and not two guys and a girl playing with each other and then there Mary attitude to Clarence and the name change to Tiffany.
In the fifth panel Clarence or now Tiffany give us a hunt to what might be going on with Helge. That Helga should know better and should know that he was a guy a few days ago. I say a few day ago, because, he isn’t a guy now. But, in the fifth panel Clarence is asking the question to himself of what Mary his mother did or said to Helga to get her to act and behave the way she is right now. There are several things that Mary could have done to motivate Helga to act the way she acting and this is just some of the things that she could have done to motivate Helga too.
1. Remind Helga as to who the one that pay’s her wages or give you your money.
2. Clarence had an accident or got some experiment drug that turned him into a girl or some other BS kind crap or lie. We now have to deal with the present reality of Clarence being a girl, so we changed his name to Tiffany and send him to another school as a repair operation to fix things up and make everything better for him or should I say her.
3. Mary could have played off of Helga motherly side which she seem to have for Clarence and which Mary doesn’t seem to have herself, but, she can work off it to convince Helga to go along with her plan and for Clarence best interest of course and Helga may even think that too and right so also.
4. Helga knows what kind of person that Mary is too. She been watching her for six years and watch how Mary has been treating Clarence too. But, if Helga want to stay in Clarence life, because, she has a motherly type of feeling for Clarence, she going to have to operate below Mary radar or she get fired. She still has to deal with Mary her boss.
Helga, knows something going on that should not be going on. She can’t do anything to stop it or has limited control over what going to happens in the future. She was not given much information, but, only on a need to know bases. So that make Helga an unknown factor here that might choose to side with Clarence or now Tiffany when and if the opportunity arises, because, she probably on Clarence or Tiffany side when every she get an opportunity to do something, but, she doesn’t have that opportunity now and if she trys some here, she get fired and removed from any future involvement with him.
This is a nitpick, but the trope of people only speaking in third person in a second language is grating. There is no way Helga can understand what Red is saying yet not know basic pronouns. I don’t know a single language where people commonly refer to themselves without pronouns, let alone a Western language.
I agree, though I am just keeping the character as we last saw her, but speaking as someone who has to learn English, yes, I know that “I” is something Helga should have learn first.
I now it’s a tired trope, but if you would like a possible in lore explanation, we can say that for Helga it’s kind of an old habit more than anything, maybe even intentional.
Or possibly a defense mechanism, if you act like you don’t know what going on, you can avoid conflict and not be drawn into some conflict you don’t want to be drawn into. It a very effective tactic, especially when your just a maid and you would end up on the short end if you say anything.
the fact that she understood the word Magic in her native tongue, I’m impressed.
Honestly, some English words are very easy to catch in most languages of how used they are, Magic being among then. I am even willing to bet that it’s as easy for German as it’s for Spanish speakers as myself: Magia for Spanish, Magie for German, is really easy to find the link with Magic.
Other thing, though this is mostly going for my own experiences, is way easier to learn how to understand English, than speak it naturally, so we can assume Helga understand mostly fine when spoken to in English, but still doesn’t feel comfortable speaking the language herself.
English is also one of those languages that has a lot of other European languages rolled into it too, especially languages like German, because, had a fairly large German emigrant population and only missed the vote to have German as our native languages by just a few votes. Even many of our English words come from other languages like Kaput, which means broken is a German Word.
This conversation makes me wonder how Red will look when she reaches the same age as her mother….
So Helga isn’t very bright? And is Red’s mom still a drunk?
I don’t think it’s that she isn’t bright. It’s that she isn’t in on the secret of magic, so she’s just applying real-world logic to Red’s teenage craziness.
@Jacqui As for Helga, very much what Robert said, adding Mary’s lies to the mix. As for Mary being a drunk, before my run, we only saw her twice, and one was on Jeanie Bottle, while she was at her worst here at MC. As I have said before, we may never know what was the original plan for her, but there wasn’t enough for me to call her a drunk in those two pages. I can say at least that drinking doesn’t put her in a good mood. Nor Ida, for that matter.
Even them, she clearly didn’t seem like the world’s best mom at the time and Ida was sober when she called out Mary for being uncaring towards her child.
@Jacqui Well, what I mean about Ida is that she doesn’t put Mary in a good mood! I may haven’t express it in the best way, but Helga isn’t the only one here with a broken English… she is surprisingly easy to write in that regard for me.
Also, yeah, I am not making Mary pass of as a good mother, I just don’t give much of a thought to the fact that out of two times she show her face, she had a drink in one, it’s wasn’t really that relevant IMO. It’s not like she was being a specially stelar mother on JB either!
If that’s true, i wonder why Mary hired Ida then.
I don’t think Mary had anything to do with hiring Ida, because, she doesn’t own the modelling agency that either Mary or Ida work at and now Tiffany also works at also. I think it was a management decision from hire up in the modelling agency that made the decision that Tiffany needed some coaching to do her job and Ida being former model herself was selected for the job of coaching her. I am sure of the way Mary and Ida don’t like each other, they if Mary had a choice in the matter, she would have picked some one else to coach Tiffany. Mary is the boss over Helga is Maid, but, she not the boss over modelling agency or over Ida either. Ida can kind of thumb nose Mary and pretty much do her own thing with Tiffany, Helga can’t or she would get fired if she did.
Okay, so my headcanon of Helga being the one who raised Tiffany just got shot to pieces.
That was my take from her first appearance too. Seeing as how Helga seemed more concerned with Red’s injury than Red’s own mother.
Even Ida called out Red’s mom for being indifferent.
@He Who Abides and @Jack Slowly but surely I am trying to tie together all the clues in regards the backstory of the Thorntons. But it’s still takes some time, with the Clarck family having their own issues taking priority on the plot.
Something I can say without much Spoilers, going through Helga’s original description on the site (which at the moment of writing this, remains the same), she has being indeed close to a mother to Clarence, but she actually use to work for Liam’s family, so she hasn’t been there for Clarence all his life. And this in my current canon means that she has been there for Clarence for only six years, still a good part of her almost sixteen, but not long enough for Mary’s attempts to make Clarence pass for a tomboy with a weird “boyish” name, who just got hit by puberty, not sound as absurd as it should.
Okay, cool. Thanks for the explanation, Carlos.
According to the Cast section up above, Liam is actually nerd that Melvin and crew nemesis. But, his family was Helga original employer. So I suppose that Helga made a slight employer improvement when is comes to getting Mary as her new employer and better behaved child to deal with, with Clarence. Well, Helga was with the family for six years and Red became a girl when she was fifteen. Red was nine years old when Helga came to work for them. This would be a few days at most with as fast as Mary and her husband were working to get Red out of boy cloth and into girls cloth after Jeanie’s magic trick on Red. Red when from flat chested to one with double D knocker on her chest. I’m sure that Helga suspects something up. Now she may not know what up, but, I am sure she has her suspicions of what going on. But, Mary still her boss and she must do what the boss want her to do.
Perhaps Red should think of all the things he has. Maybe it’ll help him not think of the things he used to have.
Perhaps Helga isn’t a longtime employee and was hired recently, as in shortly before or after poor Clarence’s transformation, to help keep an eye on “Tiffany” for Mary. She might have been like a lifeline to the confused, unwillingly transgendered boy and grown close to him rapidly because of that. Just an alternate take on things.
It already been established that Helga was picked off from the Liam family when Clarence was about 9 years old. Helga acted more like a Mother for Clarence than mother was. Indication are that Clarence seemed to gravitate to Helga for that tender tough that associate mother. Basically, Mary treated Clarence like he didn’t exist and wasn’t a part of her life and was even ashamed to call him her son and even many or her closes friend didn’t even know she had a son. Now Helga wasn’t around in Clarence younger day where she might have done the dipper number on Clarence and see his junk down under, but, she saw enough other stuff, that she should have known that Clarence was a guy and not a girl. Helga is a maid. Maids do house work, like do the laundry where she would be doing Clarence cloths, which were guys underwear, shirt, jeans and no girly things like bra’s or such things in his stuff, which he would have had to have even as a tomboy girl. Even his entire body is different from just a few days ago from the last time she saw him. He has a body that look more like a girl than a guy she saw a few days ago. Let go down the list of differences, he got an hour glass figure instead of straight shank body type. Two double D knocker in of a flat chest with a slightly expanded rear end and instead short hair that two or three inches long, his hair is half down his back. She also probably met Melvin and BJ a few times and seen them interaction with each other and she would see three guy playing with each other and not two guys and a girl playing with each other and then there Mary attitude to Clarence and the name change to Tiffany.
In the fifth panel Clarence or now Tiffany give us a hunt to what might be going on with Helge. That Helga should know better and should know that he was a guy a few days ago. I say a few day ago, because, he isn’t a guy now. But, in the fifth panel Clarence is asking the question to himself of what Mary his mother did or said to Helga to get her to act and behave the way she is right now. There are several things that Mary could have done to motivate Helga to act the way she acting and this is just some of the things that she could have done to motivate Helga too.
1. Remind Helga as to who the one that pay’s her wages or give you your money.
2. Clarence had an accident or got some experiment drug that turned him into a girl or some other BS kind crap or lie. We now have to deal with the present reality of Clarence being a girl, so we changed his name to Tiffany and send him to another school as a repair operation to fix things up and make everything better for him or should I say her.
3. Mary could have played off of Helga motherly side which she seem to have for Clarence and which Mary doesn’t seem to have herself, but, she can work off it to convince Helga to go along with her plan and for Clarence best interest of course and Helga may even think that too and right so also.
4. Helga knows what kind of person that Mary is too. She been watching her for six years and watch how Mary has been treating Clarence too. But, if Helga want to stay in Clarence life, because, she has a motherly type of feeling for Clarence, she going to have to operate below Mary radar or she get fired. She still has to deal with Mary her boss.
Helga, knows something going on that should not be going on. She can’t do anything to stop it or has limited control over what going to happens in the future. She was not given much information, but, only on a need to know bases. So that make Helga an unknown factor here that might choose to side with Clarence or now Tiffany when and if the opportunity arises, because, she probably on Clarence or Tiffany side when every she get an opportunity to do something, but, she doesn’t have that opportunity now and if she trys some here, she get fired and removed from any future involvement with him.
So does this page help or hurt the “Red’s mom is a fae/of fae descent” argument?
This is a nitpick, but the trope of people only speaking in third person in a second language is grating. There is no way Helga can understand what Red is saying yet not know basic pronouns. I don’t know a single language where people commonly refer to themselves without pronouns, let alone a Western language.
I agree, though I am just keeping the character as we last saw her, but speaking as someone who has to learn English, yes, I know that “I” is something Helga should have learn first.
I now it’s a tired trope, but if you would like a possible in lore explanation, we can say that for Helga it’s kind of an old habit more than anything, maybe even intentional.
Or possibly a defense mechanism, if you act like you don’t know what going on, you can avoid conflict and not be drawn into some conflict you don’t want to be drawn into. It a very effective tactic, especially when your just a maid and you would end up on the short end if you say anything.