History Recap / ArthurS2E3DWThePickyEaterBusterAndTheDaredevils

* AnAesop:
** Be willing to try new foods, otherwise, you could be making yourself (and others) miserable due to refusing to step out of your comfort zone.
** To add further, what matters is how you behave, if you remain gracious, or if you make a fuss about it.

* AnAesop: Just because someone dares you to do something doesn't mean you have to do it. Think for yourself. Doubles as a SpoofAesop as Buster tells this just after Brain turns his robot toy into a washing machine.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: One of the few instances of this being {{Averted}} in the series; one of Buster's dares has him kiss Francine straight on the lips.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny; Arthur at first finds it hilarious that D.W. exploded her salad all over the waiter, until his parents shoot him a DeathGlare as he recaps what happened to Grandma Thora.

* AnAesop: Be willing to try new foods, otherwise you could be making yourself (and others) miserable due to refusing to step out of your comfort zone.

* HardTruthAesop: For better or for worse, there will be times in life when you have to try and eat foods that you may not like. What matters is how you behave, if you remain gracious or if you make a fuss about it.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: D.W. loves PB&J sandwiches. Buster and Arthur try to trick her into eating one with spinach, but that backfires when she realizes what she swallowed.

* TransformingMecha: The episode is bookended by Arthur, Buster and later Brain, playing with these.

* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: When Buster turns the tables on Toby and Slink, and dares Slink to eat the bug they want him to eat, Toby asks "How stupid do you think he is?" Buster then asks them if you should never do stupid stuff because you're told; they agree, and he ditches them.

Arthur snarkily comments how D.W. "doesn't like anything" after she says most of the groceries her mother bought are yucky. Things become serious, however, when she throws a tantrum at a restaurant because her salad had spinach, and she's not allowed to go on family outings anymore. Arthur has to scramble to make D.W. behave or they won't go to the Once Upon A Restaurant.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny; Arthur at first finds it hilarious that D.W. exploded her salad all over the waiter, until his parents give a DeathGlare at him as he recaps what happened to Grandma Thora.

** Arthur takes D.W. to the Once Upon a Restaurant to convince her that she wants to go. This backfires because she goes ComicallyMissingThePoint about how they can bring the unicorn to their house.

** The final one that works is that Arthur fakes a phone call with Buster, pretending that Grandma Thora changed her mind and wants to go to the restaurant without D.W. D.W. gets incensed on realizing she'd be left out and demands the phone, saying she can go wherever she wants. Arthur reminds her that the restaurant may have spinach, which causes ReversePsychology; she shouts into the phone that she'll "be lots of fun" and goes to tell her parents she'll try something new for dinner.

* HerOwnWorstEnemy: If D.W. simply apologized to her parents for causing a tantrum, and promising to try new things, the whole episode would have been avoided. She's oblivious to the fact that while Arthur's gambits are SecretlySelfish in that he doesn't want to miss the restaurant, it would benefit her as well since she would miss out on a fun birthday party. The book had her suffer a JerkassRealization about it when Arthur shows her the umbrella he got from a Chinese restaurant.
* HopeSpot: It seems that D.W. would try to behave after seeing Muffy's example of eating spinach for lunch, except Muffy freaks out on seeing a fly on her spinach. Then Francine's plan nearly gets D.W. to try spinach, until Kate spits up her lunch.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} at the end of the episode when it turns out the Little Bo Peep pot pie D.W. just ate is a pie platter with spinach. After a MassOhCrap from the whole family, D.W. decides to lie that she loves spinach and eats up the crumbs.
* NeverMyFault: D.W. has a perfect opportunity to apologize to her parents after she tosses the spinach when Arthur is telling Grandma Thora what happened. Instead, she complains about how everyone's making a big deal about her tantrum. Jane understandably tells her GoToYourRoom and that she can't go to restaurants anymore until she learns to behave and is more open to trying new foods. It takes Arthur lying that Grandma Thora doesn't want to go to the restaurant with her granddaughter for D.W. to give the equivalent of an apology, that she'll try a new food and eat it all.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's shown David and Jane tolerate D.W.'s pickiness; they won't make alternative food for her while encouraging her to try what's in front of her like the Hawaiian Shrimp David makes. All in all, that's a fairly reasonable response but D.W. doesn't even want to meet them halfway. Then the temper tantrum happens at the restaurant; Jane gives a FullNameUltimatum, as both parents glare at D.W. for her bad behavior. They proceed to glare at Arthur when he talks about how "Her plate exploded!" and Jane lays down the line when D.W. complains everyone is making a big deal out of nothing. She says D.W. is not allowed to go to any more restaurants with the family unless she learns to behave and actually eat what's in front of her.
* PickyEater: D.W., of course. She labels the groceries in two categories: "yucky" and "yum". The "yucky" pile is noticeably larger and mainly has vegetables.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: D.W. loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Buster and Arthur try to trick her into eating one with spinach, but that backfires when she realizes what she swallowed.

** Jane and Dave tell D.W. off for her bratty behavior and tell her "no more restaurants for you, young lady, until you can learn to eat what's in front of you." Later at the restaurant, Jane reminds D.W. that she's going to try something new and eat it all.

Arthur and Buster see two kids doing cool skateboard and rollerblade tricks in the park. They try to ask for skating lessons despite getting rebuffed several times. Eventually, Toby and Slink promise to teach them, if they do ridiculous dares. Arthur backs out, leaving Buster alone.

* HumiliationConga: Buster goes through it as he says, does, and refuses to speak according to the various dares.

* {{Troll}}: Toby and Slink tell Buster to do stupid stuff to make them laugh, on the promise of teaching him cool skating tricks.

** It's unreasonable to expect a four year old to be forcibly fed foods they realistically will not like. Instead, merely offering and accepting that the child won't immediately like every exotic food is much more practical.

** Arguably, Mr. and Mrs. Read could count as this as well. Yes, D.W.'s behavior at the restaurant wasn't ideal, but considering that she's only four years old, it's rather unreasonable to expect her to willingly try foods most four year olds hate.