Changes: Ruth P. McDougal

Latest revision as of 06:33, 9 April 2024

Ruth P. McDougal (surname is pronounced: mick-DOO-gull) is a minor character in the TV show, Hey Arnold!. She is approximately eleven or twelve years old, in an unknown class in the sixth grade at P.S. 118.

Ruth is Arnold's crush in the first season of the show. Arnold was completely in love with her, but Ruth had no idea that Arnold even existed. Although Ruth didn't know much of Arnold's existence throughout the show; however, in the episode "Operation Ruthless", she did indeed express some interest towards Arnold by smiling at him when they're driving the bumper cars, as well as in "Snow" when she smiled at Arnold after he scores a goal in ice hockey.

Biography

Ruthpmacdougal — Ruth from the episode "Operation Ruthless"

Ruth is a sixth-grade girl. She appears to have a tall skinny figure with a semi-football shaped head and is pubescent. Her feet seem quite large. She wears a sky-blue sweater with a pearl necklace. Her skirt is plaid, and she wears saddle shoes. She has a medium-length brown hair styled into a flip. She wears pearl earrings. Her most distinguishing feature is her smile (she had to wear braces).

Relationship with Arnold

Arnold spends a lot of time trying to come up with ways to get closer to Ruth, as well as fantasizing about her and admiring her from afar. He first fantasizes about her during "The Little Pink Book", wondering whether the book could be hers (much to Gerald's skepticism). They even hang up a photo of her on their pinboard when ruling out potential owners of the book and get a hold of her hair ribbon as "evidence". She appears in "Heat", together with the other kids demanding ice-cream from the Jolly Olly Man, right next to Helga, Phoebe and Curly. She's sweating and clearly in distress, holding money in the air for the ice-cream vendor to notice her. Arnold, in his angry state, doesn't seem to pay any attention to her, though, and she's nowhere to be seen when he riles up the kids against the Jolly Olly Man. They then share a moment together when she skates past him and smiles directly at him during "Snow," right after Arnold scores during the hockey match.

Her most prominent appearance takes place right after the next episode, "Operation Ruthless", where Arnold constantly tries and fails to get acquainted with her during the Cheese Festival, only to be foiled by Helga's plans to prevent it. Arnold and Ruth only share a moment smiling at each other when driving bumper cars, right before Helga interrupts. After failing to coincide with her on the love boat ride (she gets paired with Sid, who seems into her), Arnold and Gerald look at her leaving the festival, with Arnold uttering that the challenge only makes him like her more. Helga overhears this, and is furious as well as sad when Phoebe leaves with Gerald, realizing how alone she truly is.

Arnold later fantasizes about her again during "Spelling Bee", when Big Bob tries to convince him to take a dive; he imagines being a keyboard player at an upscale club, with Ruth lying on top of the keyboard wearing an elegant dress and smiling at him.

Arnold finally gets his chance to speak to her during "Arnold's Valentine". He gives her a Valentine's Day card signed as "Anonymous", where he tells her to meet up with him in a blind date at a French restaurant. The only issue is that Helga tricks him into thinking his French pen pal Cecile is meeting him the same night, and she impersonates her in order to seduce him. To make matters worse, the real Cecile is actually heading over there to meet Arnold in person. Arnold has to juggle back and forth between Ruth and Helga-as-Cecile (their restaurants are right across the street from each other). Ruth treats Arnold like he is not even worth addressing, confusing him for the busboy, and comes across as very ignorant, bossy, vain and shallow. She ends up falling casually for the real busboy instead, and leaves with him. Helga later shows up questioning him after catching him red-handed talking to Ruth. He never once suspects that Helga-as-Cecile is indeed Helga, and he seems to develop feelings for her. When the real Cecile shows up and Gerald pretends to be Arnold to get her out of the way, Arnold and Helga share a moment, but she never confesses her feelings or who she truly is. Arnold comes to the realization that he simply let his crush for Ruth get the best of him, and that he never really knew her. He concludes that Ruth was not who he thought she was and that they were never meant for each other, which makes Helga happy.

Ruth's role was greatly diminished after season 1, most likely due to the fact that her main purpose on the show, being Arnold's crush, concluded after "Arnold's Valentine". She is replaced by Lila Sawyer, who succeeds her in the role of being Arnold's crush and target of Helga's envy. Nevertheless, Ruth makes appearances every now and then as a background character, such as laughing and walking with Nadine during "The Big Scoop" and being shown in awe at Arnold's geek party in "Cool Party". She also makes an appearance in "Hey Harold!" where she is shown talking to Lila and then being hit on by Sid at Rhonda's party, looking rather unimpressed.

She had a prominent role in the season 2 episode "What's Opera, Arnold?", which happened well after Arnold got over her, yet the episode portrays the infatuation as still in effect. Although they never interact, Arnold is shown standing right beside her at the beginning, and Helga later spots him buying some binoculars and looking in Ruth's direction. Helga then does her traditional soliloquy whining about how Arnold loves Ruth, even though this was no longer a plot point at this stage. Arnold falls asleep when the show starts, and dreams of the opera "Carmen". Ruth as Carmen is the main focus of Arnold's romantic dream in the episode, suggesting his earlier strong infatuation with her is not entirely gone. When the show ends, Gerald asks Arnold what he thought of it, just as Ruth is walking in front of them, which prompts Arnold to look at Ruth in surprise and reply that the show was "interesting", looking slightly exasperated. He still looks slightly annoyed when leaving.

Her last direct interaction with Arnold in the original TV run seems to occur at the end of the episode "Love and Cheese". Ruth is seen with a boy leaving the Cheese Festival, walking a little ahead of Arnold and Lila. She looks back and notices them and proceed to briefly stare at them attentively with a surprised look on her face. She keeps walking and smiling with her usual self-satisfied expression, not giving it further thought, or perhaps feeling glad that Arnold found another girl.

In Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie, she's shown prominently laughing with the audience during Arnold's video.

Arnold's idealized view of Ruth

Although we practically see Ruth only from Arnold's idealized infatuated lens, we also see her from the perspective of other characters, namely, Helga and Sid (Helga often comments negatively on her out of envy, and Sid tries to hit on her on two different episodes). Her body language and the way she carries herself (quiet, kind, delicate, courteous, confident) has nothing to do with how she's depicted in "Arnold's Valentine" (gossipy, bossy, vain, shallow and ignorant), suggesting either a retcon, or that Arnold was only seeing an idealized version of her. This is supported by Arnold himself admitting he knew next-to-nothing about her, admitting to Helga that "sometimes when you think you like a person from far away, you find out they're not what you thought they were when you get up close" and "there's this girl I thought I liked, but then it turned out that, when I got to know her, we had nothing in common". The way she reacts in "Operation Ruthless" is often expressing surprise and acting submissive and confused, but in a cute, non-conflictive way, like when Helga cuts in line in front of her. Arnold says he once saw her give up her seat to an old lady in the bus carrying a watermelon, and we also see her smile intently at Arnold on at least two occasions, suggesting a kind nature. However, none of those traits show up later in any way when he finally meets her, where she is portrayed in an extremely negative light. Despite her envy, Helga was right to call her "stuck-up" since she indeed appears to be very vain, and the only times when we do see her apparent real personality self is with Sid, who she expresses exasperation at.

Ultimately, this character growth for Arnold proved very important for himself and the series, since Lila was later introduced and became the new target of Arnold's affections.

Trivia

Ruth is shown walking with Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda, Nadine and Sheena in the title sequence, even into the fifth season after she left from the show. It is also ironic because she did not interact much with the main girls of the show.
Her first-ever appearance in the series happens during "The Little Pink Book", just as part of Arnold's fantasy. However, she also appears in photo. Arnold and Gerald hang up a photo of her on their pinboard when ruling out potential owners of the book (they also somehow manage to get her hair ribbon as "evidence").
Her last appearance in the original TV run is in "Harold vs. Patty", where she appears briefly laughing at Harold after he's first beaten by Patty.
Ruth is friends with Maria. In "Arnold's Valentine", Maria is heard calling Ruth over, and in "What's Opera, Arnold?", she is seen conversing with Maria as well as Connie. She also appears to be friends with Lila, as she is seen talking in a very friendly manner with her at Rhonda's soiree in "In Hey Harold!"
Although Ruth as Carmen is the main focus of Arnold's dream in "What's Opera, Arnold?", seemingly a callback to his earlier strong infatuation with her, he doesn't seem that fazed when she walks right in front of him after the show ends. He looks at her in surprise, yet mildly exasperated, telling Gerald the opera was "interesting". Also, at the beginning of the episode, Arnold and Ruth are standing next to each other when listening to the teacher, but they don't interact. Helga, however, spots Ruth and complains about Arnold having feelings for her.
Though she's in the sixth grade, Ruth is never shown in Mr. Frank's class in the episodes "Back to School" or "Phoebe Skips". Presumably, she's in another class.
Ruth has some similarities to Arnold. She has similar shaped eyes and a slightly stretched-out face shape, and her blue shirt and red plaid skirt are similar to how Arnold's similarly colored plaid undershirt resembles a skirt. Her hair hangs down in two wisps on both sides of her head, likes Arnold's does when it is slicked back.
Sid also has a crush on Ruth, as he's the one who gets placed with her in the Tunnel of Love Ride in "Operation Ruthless". He explains he's well-known saying when messing with girls "So, nice night huh?" and puts his arm around her. He again flirts with her at the punch bowl at Rhonda's party in "Hey Harold!", saying his pickup line once again, though she ignores him and walks away. Both times she looks annoyed at him, suggesting that she hates him, or she is unimpressed by his advances.
Even though Arnold likes her, the rest of the characters (except Gerald and Sid) don't seem to know about her (or the fact that she even exists) and they seem indifferent towards her, but she is despised by Helga (due to the fact that she was Arnold's crush).
In the Valentine's Day episode, Arnold tells Gerald how Ruth gave up her own seat on the bus. For a woman who was carrying a watermelon.
It's unknown if she and the waiter from "Arnold's Valentine" are still dating, but it is presumed that they broke up when Ruth was shown in "Hey Harold" and "Rhonda's Party" (never appeared with him).
In "Love and Cheese", she's briefly seen in the cafeteria as one of the people staring at Helga for laughing very loud in front of everyone (she's sitting at the same table as Park). Also later on, in the episode near the end when Arnold and Lila are heading out of the cheese festival, she is seen walking in front of them. When Arnold asks if Lila likes him, she stares at them briefly then turns around. However, Arnold and Lila are not paying attention to her.
Ruth, in some episodes, appears to have blue eyes. She is the only character to have colored eyes. However, Arnold states incorrectly in "Arnold's Valentine" that she has brown eyes.
Helga comments in "What's Opera, Arnold?" that she has "enormous feet" and even pulls up an "anatomy of Ruth" diagram chart that spells "BIG FEET".
In the Hungarian dub, Ruth's name was changed to Roze in some episodes due to the word "rút" means ugly in Hungarian.
When Ruth is seen laughing in The Jungle Movie, however, her braces are finally removed, meaning she had gotten them off at some point before the events of the movie.
- This may be related to the fact that she did not have braces in "Arnold's Valentine" (despite Helga calling her "bracey-face" in the same episode). Also, there are many continuity errors with her braces, such as in "What's Opera, Arnold?" where she lacks braces in one scene and has them in the next (when she makes her characteristic grin with visible braces).
On her first appearance during the episode "False Alarm" (when she's sitting at the trial) she appears sporting the wrong colors for her outfit in several shots (blue skirt and red sweater with red and white shoes, rather than red plaid skirt and sky-blue sweater with black and white shoes). She appears later with the correct colors right after Helga does a neck-cutting gesture aimed at Eugene (during the same scene).
During "Magic Show," while not physically present, she appears as part of Helga's nightmare. This is the only time she appears as part of someone else's fantasies rather than Arnold's (Arnold fantasizes about her in "The Little Pink Book" and "Spelling Bee", and dreams of her in "What's Opera, Arnold?").
She wears a red party dress with red shoes and fishnets on special occasions, as shown on "Arnold's Valentine" and "Hey Harold!".
In "Freeze Frame" Arnold uses his computer to look at the video he taped with his camcorder. The interface of the video-editing program he uses has an 8-bit likeness of Arnold on the top left corner, and what appears to be Ruth's likeness in the stop right corner opposite from him.

Appears in

Ruth designs — Early characters designs for Ruth

Gallery

See Ruth P. McDougal/Gallery

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Infobox Character
+|Image =<tabber>
-|Image =File:B8C3C534-31BF-4D15-9D90-A723F5525F12.png
+Original Series=[[File:B8C3C534-31BF-4D15-9D90-A723F5525F12.png|thumb]]
+|-|
+The Jungle Movie=[[File:Tumblr oz9y6yC2l41tr6wqbo2 1280.png|thumb]]
+</tabber>
 |Nicknames = Unknown
 |Occupation = 6th Grade Student<br> 7th Grade student (''[[Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie]]'')
@@ Line 9: / Line 13: @@
 |Voiced by = [[Lacey Chabert]] ("[[Arnold's Valentine]]" and "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]")<br>[[Anndi L. McAfee|Anndi McAfee]] ("[[Operation Ruthless]]")
 |Long name = Ruth P. McDougal
+}}
-}}'''Ruth P. McDougal''' is a minor character in the TV show, ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''.
+'''Ruth P. McDougal''' (surname is pronounced: mick-DOO-gull) is a minor character in the TV show, ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''. She is approximately eleven or twelve years old, in an unknown class in the sixth grade at [[P.S. 118]].
-She is a sixth-grade 11-12-year-old student at [[P.S. 118]]. It's unknown what class she's in. Ruth is Arnold's crush in the first season of the show. Arnold was completely in love with her, but Ruth had no idea that Arnold even existed. Although Ruth didn't know much of Arnold's existence throughout the show; however, in the episode "[[Operation Ruthless]]", she did indeed express some interest towards Arnold by smiling at him when they're both on the Go-Karts, as well as in "Snow" when she smiled at Arnold after he scores a goal in ice hockey.
+Ruth is [[Arnold]]'s crush in the first season of the show. Arnold was completely in love with her, but Ruth had no idea that Arnold even existed. Although Ruth didn't know much of Arnold's existence throughout the show; however, in the episode "[[Operation Ruthless]]", she did indeed express some interest towards Arnold by smiling at him when they're driving the bumper cars, as well as in "[[Snow]]" when she smiled at Arnold after he scores a goal in ice hockey.
 ==Biography==
 [[File:Ruthpmacdougal.jpg|thumb|right| Ruth from the episode "[[Operation Ruthless]]"]]
-Ruth is a sixth-grade girl. She appears to have a tall skinny model with a semi-football shaped head and is pubescent. Her feet seem quite large. She wears a sky blue sweater with a pearl necklace. Her skirt is plaid, and she wears saddle shoes. She has a medium-length brown hair styled into a flip. She wears pearl earrings. Her most distinguishing feature is her smile (she had to wear braces).
+Ruth is a sixth-grade girl. She appears to have a tall skinny figure with a semi-football shaped head and is pubescent. Her feet seem quite large. She wears a sky-blue sweater with a pearl necklace. Her skirt is plaid, and she wears saddle shoes. She has a medium-length brown hair styled into a flip. She wears pearl earrings. Her most distinguishing feature is her smile (she had to wear braces).
 ===Relationship with Arnold===
-Arnold spends a lot of time trying to come up with ways to get closer to Ruth. In "[[Arnold's Valentine]]", he finally gets his chance. He gives her a valentine and sets up a blind date with her at a restaurant. The only issue is that his French pen pal [[Cecile]] is meeting him the same night. Arnold has to juggle back and forth between Ruth and Cecile (Their restaurants are right across the street from each other.). Ruth treats Arnold like nobody's around in the episode, and finally falls for a busboy instead and leaves with him. Arnold realizes that he doesn't really know much about Ruth and lets his crush get the best of him. He realizes that Ruth was not who he thought she was and that they were never meant for each other.
+Arnold spends a lot of time trying to come up with ways to get closer to Ruth, as well as fantasizing about her and admiring her from afar. He first fantasizes about her during "[[The Little Pink Book]]", wondering whether the book could be hers (much to Gerald's skepticism). They even hang up a photo of her on their pinboard when ruling out potential owners of the book and get a hold of her hair ribbon as "evidence". She appears in "[[Heat]]", together with the other kids demanding ice-cream from the Jolly Olly Man, right next to Helga, Phoebe and Curly. She's sweating and clearly in distress, holding money in the air for the ice-cream vendor to notice her. Arnold, in his angry state, doesn't seem to pay any attention to her, though, and she's nowhere to be seen when he riles up the kids against the Jolly Olly Man. They then share a moment together when she skates past him and smiles directly at him during "[[Snow]]," right after Arnold scores during the hockey match.
+Her most prominent appearance takes place right after the next episode, "[[Operation Ruthless]]", where Arnold constantly tries and fails to get acquainted with her during the Cheese Festival, only to be foiled by Helga's plans to prevent it. Arnold and Ruth only share a moment smiling at each other when driving bumper cars, right before Helga interrupts. After failing to coincide with her on the love boat ride (she gets paired with Sid, who seems into her), Arnold and Gerald look at her leaving the festival, with Arnold uttering that the challenge only makes him like her more. Helga overhears this, and is furious as well as sad when Phoebe leaves with Gerald, realizing how alone she truly is.
-Ruth effectively left for unknown reasons after season 2, (most likely due to the fact that her main purpose on the show was that she was Arnold's crush, but since he got over her that ended her role) but makes appearances every now and then like being shown in awe at Arnold's geek party in "[[Cool Party]]". She makes an appearance in "[[Hey Harold!]]" where she is hit on by Sid at Rhonda's party. She is replaced by [[Lila Sawyer]] as Arnold's crush and [[Helga G. Pataki|Helga]]'s envy.
+Arnold later fantasizes about her again during "[[Spelling Bee]]", when Big Bob tries to convince him to take a dive; he imagines being a keyboard player at an upscale club, with Ruth lying on top of the keyboard wearing an elegant dress and smiling at him.
-At the end of the episode "[[Love and Cheese]]", Ruth is seen with a boy leaving the cheese festival. She looks back and sees Arnold with Lila and smiles seeing that he found another girl.
+Arnold finally gets his chance to speak to her during "[[Arnold's Valentine]]". He gives her a Valentine's Day card signed as "Anonymous", where he tells her to meet up with him in a blind date at a French restaurant. The only issue is that Helga tricks him into thinking his French pen pal [[Cecile]] is meeting him the same night, and she impersonates her in order to seduce him. To make matters worse, the real Cecile is actually heading over there to meet Arnold in person. Arnold has to juggle back and forth between Ruth and Helga-as-Cecile (their restaurants are right across the street from each other). Ruth treats Arnold like he is not even worth addressing, confusing him for the busboy, and comes across as very ignorant, bossy, vain and shallow. She ends up falling casually for the real busboy instead, and leaves with him. Helga later shows up questioning him after catching him red-handed talking to Ruth. He never once suspects that Helga-as-Cecile is indeed Helga, and he seems to develop feelings for her. When the real Cecile shows up and Gerald pretends to be Arnold to get her out of the way, Arnold and Helga share a moment, but she never confesses her feelings or who she truly is. Arnold comes to the realization that he simply let his crush for Ruth get the best of him, and that he never really knew her. He concludes that Ruth was not who he thought she was and that they were never meant for each other, which makes Helga happy.
+Ruth's role was greatly diminished after season 1, most likely due to the fact that her main purpose on the show, being Arnold's crush, concluded after "[[Arnold's Valentine]]". She is replaced by [[Lila Sawyer]], who succeeds her in the role of being Arnold's crush and target of [[Helga G. Pataki|Helga]]'s envy. Nevertheless, Ruth makes appearances every now and then as a background character, such as laughing and walking with Nadine during "[[The Big Scoop]]" and being shown in awe at Arnold's geek party in "[[Cool Party]]". She also makes an appearance in "[[Hey Harold!]]" where she is shown talking to Lila and then being hit on by Sid at Rhonda's party, looking rather unimpressed.
+She had a prominent role in the season 2 episode "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]", which happened well after Arnold got over her, yet the episode portrays the infatuation as still in effect. Although they never interact, Arnold is shown standing right beside her at the beginning, and Helga later spots him buying some binoculars and looking in Ruth's direction. Helga then does her traditional soliloquy whining about how Arnold loves Ruth, even though this was no longer a plot point at this stage. Arnold falls asleep when the show starts, and dreams of the opera "Carmen". Ruth as Carmen is the main focus of Arnold's romantic dream in the episode, suggesting his earlier strong infatuation with her is not entirely gone. When the show ends, Gerald asks Arnold what he thought of it, just as Ruth is walking in front of them, which prompts Arnold to look at Ruth in surprise and reply that the show was "interesting", looking slightly exasperated. He still looks slightly annoyed when leaving.
+Her last direct interaction with Arnold in the original TV run seems to occur at the end of the episode "[[Love and Cheese]]". Ruth is seen with a boy leaving the Cheese Festival, walking a little ahead of Arnold and Lila. She looks back and notices them and proceed to briefly stare at them attentively with a surprised look on her face. She keeps walking and smiling with her usual self-satisfied expression, not giving it further thought, or perhaps feeling glad that Arnold found another girl.
+In [[Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie|''Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie'']], she's shown prominently laughing with the audience during Arnold's video.
+'''Arnold's idealized view of Ruth'''
+Although we practically see Ruth only from Arnold's idealized infatuated lens, we also see her from the perspective of other characters, namely, Helga and Sid (Helga often comments negatively on her out of envy, and Sid tries to hit on her on two different episodes). Her body language and the way she carries herself (quiet, kind, delicate, courteous, confident) has nothing to do with how she's depicted in "Arnold's Valentine" (gossipy, bossy, vain, shallow and ignorant), suggesting either a retcon, or that Arnold was only seeing an idealized version of her. This is supported by Arnold himself admitting he knew next-to-nothing about her, admitting to Helga that "sometimes when you think you like a person from far away, you find out they're not what you thought they were when you get up close" and "there's this girl I thought I liked, but then it turned out that, when I got to know her, we had nothing in common". The way she reacts in "Operation Ruthless" is often expressing surprise and acting submissive and confused, but in a cute, non-conflictive way, like when Helga cuts in line in front of her. Arnold says he once saw her give up her seat to an old lady in the bus carrying a watermelon, and we also see her smile intently at Arnold on at least two occasions, suggesting a kind nature. However, none of those traits show up later in any way when he finally meets her, where she is portrayed in an extremely negative light. Despite her envy, Helga was right to call her "stuck-up" since she indeed appears to be very vain, and the only times when we do see her apparent real personality self is with Sid, who she expresses exasperation at.
+Ultimately, this character growth for Arnold proved very important for himself and the series, since Lila was later introduced and became the new target of Arnold's affections.
 ==Trivia==
-*Ruth is shown walking with Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda, Nadine and Sheena in the title sequence, even into the fifth season after she left from the show. It is also ironic because she did not walk with the main girls of the show.
+*Ruth is shown walking with Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda, Nadine and Sheena in the title sequence, even into the fifth season after she left from the show. It is also ironic because she did not interact much with the main girls of the show.
+*Her first-ever appearance in the series happens during "[[The Little Pink Book]]", just as part of Arnold's fantasy. However, she also appears in photo. Arnold and Gerald hang up a photo of her on their pinboard when ruling out potential owners of the book (they also somehow manage to get her hair ribbon as "evidence").
-*Ruth is friends with [[Maria]]. In "[[Arnold's Valentine]]", Maria is heard calling Ruth over, and in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]", she is seen conversing with Maria as well as [[Connie]].
+*Her last appearance in the original TV run is in [[Harold vs. Patty|"Harold vs. Patty]]", where she appears briefly laughing at Harold after he's first beaten by Patty.
+*Ruth is friends with [[Maria]]. In "[[Arnold's Valentine]]", Maria is heard calling Ruth over, and in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]", she is seen conversing with Maria as well as [[Connie]]. She also appears to be friends with Lila, as she is seen talking in a very friendly manner with her at Rhonda's soiree in "In [[Hey Harold!]]"
+*Although Ruth as Carmen is the main focus of Arnold's dream in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]", seemingly a callback to his earlier strong infatuation with her, he doesn't seem that fazed when she walks right in front of him after the show ends. He looks at her in surprise, yet mildly exasperated, telling Gerald the opera was "interesting". Also, at the beginning of the episode, Arnold and Ruth are standing next to each other when listening to the teacher, but they don't interact. Helga, however, spots Ruth and complains about Arnold having feelings for her.
 *Though she's in the sixth grade, Ruth is never shown in [[Mr. Frank]]'s class in the episodes "[[Back to School]]" or "[[Phoebe Skips]]". Presumably, she's in another class.
-*Ruth is sort of like a female doppelganger of Arnold. She has a football-shaped head, the same shaped eyes, a blue shirt with a plaid skirt (like Arnold's plaid undershirt resembles a skirt.). Her hair hangs down in two wisps on both sides of her head, likes Arnold's does when it is slicked back.
+*Ruth has some similarities to Arnold. She has similar shaped eyes and a slightly stretched-out face shape, and her blue shirt and red plaid skirt are similar to how Arnold's similarly colored plaid undershirt resembles a skirt. Her hair hangs down in two wisps on both sides of her head, likes Arnold's does when it is slicked back.
-*[[Sid]] also has a crush on Ruth, as he's the one who gets placed with her in the Tunnel of Love Ride in "[[Operation Ruthless]]". He explains he's well-known saying when messing with girls "So, nice night huh?" and puts his arm around her. He again flirts with her at the punch bowl at Rhonda's party in "[[Hey Harold!]]", saying his pickup line once again, though she ignores him and walks away. Both times she looks annoyed at him, suggesting that she hates him or she unimpressed by his advances.
+*[[Sid]] also has a crush on Ruth, as he's the one who gets placed with her in the Tunnel of Love Ride in "[[Operation Ruthless]]". He explains he's well-known saying when messing with girls "So, nice night huh?" and puts his arm around her. He again flirts with her at the punch bowl at Rhonda's party in "[[Hey Harold!]]", saying his pickup line once again, though she ignores him and walks away. Both times she looks annoyed at him, suggesting that she hates him, or she is unimpressed by his advances.
-*Even though Arnold likes her, the rest of the characters (without Gerald and Sid) don't seem to know about her (or the fact that she even exists) and they seem indifferent towards her, but she is despised by Helga (due to the fact that she was Arnold's crush).
+*Even though Arnold likes her, the rest of the characters (except Gerald and Sid) don't seem to know about her (or the fact that she even exists) and they seem indifferent towards her, but she is despised by Helga (due to the fact that she was Arnold's crush).
 *In the [[Arnold's Valentine|Valentine's Day]] episode, Arnold tells Gerald how Ruth gave up her own seat on the bus. For a woman who was carrying a watermelon.
-*It's unknown if she and the waiter from "Arnold's Valentine" are still dating, but it is presumed that they broke up when Ruth was shown in "Hey Harold" and "Rhonda's Party" (never appeared with him).
+*It's unknown if she and the waiter from "[[Arnold's Valentine]]" are still dating, but it is presumed that they broke up when Ruth was shown in "Hey Harold" and "Rhonda's Party" (never appeared with him).
-*In "[[Love and Cheese]]", she's briefly seen in the cafeteria as one of the people staring at Helga for laughing very loud in front of everyone. Also later on, in the episode near the end when Arnold and Lila are heading out of the cheese festival, she is seen walking in front of them. When Arnold asks if Lila likes him, she stares at them briefly then turns around. However, Arnold and Lila are not paying attention to her.
+*In "[[Love and Cheese]]", she's briefly seen in the cafeteria as one of the people staring at Helga for laughing very loud in front of everyone (she's sitting at the same table as [[Park]]). Also later on, in the episode near the end when Arnold and Lila are heading out of the cheese festival, she is seen walking in front of them. When Arnold asks if Lila likes him, she stares at them briefly then turns around. However, Arnold and Lila are not paying attention to her.
-*Ruth, in some episodes, appears to have blue eyes. She is the only character to have colored eyes.
+*Ruth, in some episodes, appears to have blue eyes. She is the only character to have colored eyes. However, Arnold states incorrectly in "[[Arnold's Valentine]]" that she has brown eyes.
+*Helga comments in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]" that she has "enormous feet" and even pulls up an "anatomy of Ruth" diagram chart that spells "BIG FEET".
 *In the Hungarian dub, Ruth's name was changed to Roze in some episodes due to the word "rút" means ugly in Hungarian.
 *When Ruth is seen laughing in ''The Jungle Movie'', however, her braces are finally removed, meaning she had gotten them off at some point before the events of the movie.
-**This may be related to that she did not have braces in "[[Arnold's Valentine]]".
+**This may be related to the fact that she did not have braces in "[[Arnold's Valentine]]" (despite Helga calling her "bracey-face" in the same episode). Also, there are many continuity errors with her braces, such as in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]" where she lacks braces in one scene and has them in the next (when she makes her characteristic grin with visible braces).
+*On her first appearance during the episode "[[False Alarm]]" (when she's sitting at the trial) she appears sporting the wrong colors for her outfit in several shots (blue skirt and red sweater with red and white shoes, rather than red plaid skirt and sky-blue sweater with black and white shoes). She appears later with the correct colors right after Helga does a neck-cutting gesture aimed at Eugene (during the same scene).
+*During "[[Magic Show]]," while not physically present, she appears as part of Helga's nightmare. This is the only time she appears as part of someone else's fantasies rather than Arnold's (Arnold fantasizes about her in "[[The Little Pink Book]]" and "[[Spelling Bee]]", and dreams of her in "[[What's Opera, Arnold?]]").
+*She wears a red party dress with red shoes and fishnets on special occasions, as shown on "[[Arnold's Valentine]]" and "[[Hey Harold!]]".
+*In "[[Freeze Frame]]" Arnold uses his computer to look at the video he taped with his camcorder. The interface of the video-editing program he uses has an 8-bit likeness of Arnold on the top left corner, and what appears to be Ruth's likeness in the stop right corner opposite from him.
 ==Appears in==
@@ Line 45: / Line 74: @@
 *6. [[Heat]] / [[Snow]]
 *7a. [[Operation Ruthless]]
+*15a. [[Spelling Bee]]
 *17a. [[False Alarm]]
 *18a. [[Magic Show]]
@@ Line 50: / Line 80: @@
 *21a. [[Helga's Boyfriend]]
 *25. [[Arnold's Valentine]] (first lines)
+*27a. [[The Big Scoop]]
+*30b. [[Ms. Perfect]]
 *39b. [[What's Opera, Arnold?]] (last lines)
 *42a. [[Curly Snaps]]
+*46a. [[Arnold Betrays Iggy]]
 *49b. [[Hey Harold!]]
+*51a. [[Phoebe Takes the Fall]]
 *52b. [[Cool Party]]
 *67a. [[Helga's Parrot (episode)|Helga's Parrot]] (seen in picture)
@@ Line 69: / Line 103: @@
 [[Category:Characters with football shaped heads]]
 [[Category:7th Graders]]
-[[Category:Heroes]]
+[[Category:Protagonists]]
 [[Category:Characters with pigtails]]
 [[Category:Brown-haired characters]]