Happy Tree Friends/Headscratchers

• Why is Splendid's evil twin Splendont? Logically according to the rules of grammar it should be splendidnt, splendont would be the evil twin of splendo.
  • He's... uh... such an opposite, that he... changes the tense?
  • Maybe because Splendidnt sounds too much like Splendid. At least Splendont has a different vowel sound to really differentiate the two names while still sounding alike, where Splendidnt is a quick 'nt' away from Splendid. And "Splendid and Splendidnt" sounds a bit awkward to say rather than "Splendid and Splendont".
• Why didn't Flippy flip out in Without a Hitch? Flaky thought he would and he had a lot of opportunities to do it, but he didn't at all. Do you think he might be cured after he defeated his evil self or he just doesn't flip out around Flaky anymore? I noticed that he didn't kill her in the last episodes and that he even returned to his normal self once after he heard her scream. So what's the real explanation?
  • This troper believes that Flippy may have a crush on Flaky. Anyway, it's obvious that he likes her the most from all the Happy Tree Friends, so it's not wrong to assume such a thing.
  • Dear GOD, you should see all the shippers!
  • Shipping aside, it might be an indication that Flippy really was cured in the TV series episodes "Double Whammy" & "Autopsy Turvy". Only time will tell...
  • Oh, hell, the Flippy/Flaky shippers are really taking over. Without A Hitch was apparently made by the creators because there were too many requests for Flippy and Flaky episodes.
  • I thought it was because after Double Whammy, Flippy is fully cured of his flipouts, correct me if I'm wrong.
  • This troper already put this in WMG, so he won't go on and on about it like he did before. In Double Whammy, he wasn't completely cured, but his flipping is much less intense now. He can still flip out sometimes (see Hear Now, Gone Tomorrow, where he flips in his sleep after an inner fight with his evil side), but he is a much less effective killer and he can go back to normal much more easily. Also, as some people say, the reason why he didn't flip out was because he was concious and Flaky is one of his closest friends.
  • Here now, Gone Tomorrow was made before Autopsy Turvy.
• The fact that Handy has bandages over his arm stumps implies that he lost his arms, as opposed to being born without them. But wait a minute, the characters lose body parts all the time, and manage to show up in the next episode in one piece. So, why couldn't Handy completely regenerate after...whatever caused him to lose his arms?
  • A common theory among the fanfics I've read is that the regenerating and returning from the dead is an effect of the setting (as in, once you leave the setting, your next death will be your last). As such, it's implied that injuries such as Handy's amputated arms and Russell's peg legs for that matter occured before the characters came to live in the setting of the show and thus those injuries could not be reversed upon their deaths. Whether or not this works for mental ills such as Flippy's remains to be seen. Granted, this theory doesn't hold for W.A.R. Journel, but whatever.
  • Or how about this theory: His arms do grow back every day, he's just so clumsy that he is constantly losing them.
• Is This Troper the only one who noticed that the Happy Tree Friends seem to have no bones? I mean, some of the deaths in the series wouldn't have been completely possible if they did have bones. I'll list examples below.
  • Mime's death in Party Animal. He is shoved into a blender and turns into some kind of drinkable fluid, because Flippy drinks it at the end of the episode. If Mime had bones, there would have been some kind of fragments of it left in the drink, and Flippy wouldn't have been able to chug the whole thing with no problem.
  • Oh they have bones; skeletons pop out (of them) all over the place. Rule of Funny is firmly in place, is all.
• This is more the fandom rather than the series itself. As a Yaoi Fangirl, I understand entirely about making the human representations of the Happy Tree Friends characters bishounen. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Japanese Fandom.) And of course, as the most prominent Ensemble Darkhorse of the series, Flippy is one. The problem is... if the theory about him fighting in Vietnam War was right, Flippy should be around 40 years old. Freaking 40 years old, not a teenager with Bishie Sparkle. I seem to be contradicting myself for saying that I'm a Yaoi Fangirl, but I'm one that don't mind an older guy in the gang. My point is, why can't they just make him a lot older?
  • It's anime. It's Flippy. The most popular character in the series and probably in the cartoon fandom. He has to be handsome, cute, gorgeous or whatever you want him to be so you can fantasy about him. The sexy psychopath is the standard image for the popular Ensemble Darkhorse - Draco in Leather Pants character. Or else he wouldn't be Flippy. That's how most fans think. Sad, but true.
  • Young fits him better to most people (I can't really picture him being a senior either, he acts and looks too young), and he needs to be handsome. He could technically still be fifty (I've seen some nice looking sixty - seventy year olds, in a non-sexual way but still pretty fit and young looking). I'd say he's in his thirties at best, most likely fifty. 40 year olds can look pretty young.
  • Also, he was never in the Vietnam War. This troper wrote more on this on the next Headscratcher. Just scroll down a bit.
• How old is Flippy? If he's a Vietnam war veteran instead of some random made-up war for the series, he should be in late 30s to mid 50s. His birthday cake had him as six years old, unless each candle refers to a set of numbers (maybe five for each? ten?). But that's in animal years. He seems pretty young, but at time acts like either a pre-70s father or a senior.
  • Okay, let's put this clear: Flippy wasn't in 'Nam. He was in the W.A.R., fighting Tiger General. They never said they were fighting in Vietnam - I don't think there is such thing as Vietnam or even the United States in the HTF universe. So, he may just have fought in a war just a few years ago, so he would be in his late twenties, since he looks very young in the W.A.R. Journal.
• When does this series take place? I get the 70s - 80s feel from it, but people say it's 2000s era.
  • What makes you think it's the 70s or 80s? It's not supposed to take place in any particular time, it's just a silly cartoon world.
  • It's Still The Eighties?
• What happened to the TV series?
  • ... It got cancelled. Google is your friend.
  • Why?
• In A Clause for Concern, if Cub wasn't in that bag that Pop took with him when he acted as Santa, why does it end up all bloody?
  • It's paint. One of the things Pop pulls out of the bag is a dirty paint pallete with a busted paint tube.
• Does Flippy have PTSD or split personalities? Or is it both? He apparently isn't conscious when he's flipped out, since he doesn't remember anything when he was on a killing spree. Also he seems to have created Evil Flippy by his desperation to live in the WAR Journal.
  • He's just crazy in general, I guess, without any particular specific illness.
  • He has PTSD.
• I agree that Flaky is most likely a girl. But why are there so many humanizations portraying her wearing feminine clothing, sporting a visibly womanly figure, having Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, and generally appearing obviously female? It's not that I think Real Women Never Wear Dresses, it's just that Ambiguous Gender is such an integral part of Flaky's character.
  • I'd say she should be more androgynous looking as a human. But fandoms don't really care about this sort of stuff - look at the South Park fandom.
  • It could be that the more artistic fans didn't really find it confusing - at least one person was surprised to hear that there was a debate about her gender.
• Why aren't there any avian tree friends? Are birds too difficult to animate?
  • Probably to avoid further Furry Confusion. That one bear is the only time a species has been on different points of the scale.