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The Reads
Dora Winifred "D.W." Read
- Voiced by: Helena Mc Anham (Living Books, Arthur's Teacher Trouble game, Arthur's Birthday game), Michael Caloz (first three seasons), Oliver Grainger (seasons 4-6, Arthur's Perfect Christmas), Jason Szwimmer (seasons 7-10, Arthur Its Only Rock N Roll), Robert Naylor (seasons 11-15), Jake Beale (seasons 16-17), Andrew Dayton (seasons 18 to 19), Christian Distefano (seasons 20-21), Ethan Pugiotto (seasons 22-25), Nissae Isen ("All Grown Up" as an adult),Voiced in Swedish by: Elina Raeder
Younger sister of Arthur and middle child of the Reads, and often the main character of episodes focusing on the younger cast.
- Accidental Hero: In "The Short, Quick Summer," she accidentally convinces Arthur that he had a great summer by reminding him of all the things he did, even though she was actually trying to rub it in that he'd wasted his summer. She lampshades it by bemoaning her failure as a pesky sister.
- Accidental Misnaming: In "The Rat Who Came to Dinner", she constantly mispronounces Mr. Ratburn's name in unflattering ways, such as "Mr. Ragworms". Justified because she is four years old.
- Adaptational Jerkass: While she was still a brat in the books, she was just a typical annoying little sister whose worst act was lightly teasing Arthur. In the cartoon, however, her actions towards him can often be downright cruel.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Her shirt and pantyhose were both white with pink stripes in the books. In the cartoon, the stripes were removed and her pantyhose were recolored a light pink. However, the stripes were brought back for Arthur's Missing Pal.
- Aesop Amnesia:
- She always comes back to create trouble for Arthur no matter how many times she sees the error of her ways.
- In "More!", D.W. finally realizes how foolish she'd been to be chasing her friends and family for money... only to be caught again asking Grandma Thora at the end of the episode.
- Affection-Hating Kid:
- Zig-Zagged in "Kiss and Tell." At first, D.W. is disgusted when Emily recounts being kissed on the hand by a boy while on a trip to France, but when she tells D.W. that the kiss made her feel like a fairytale princess, D.W. wants to experience it too. Then, after a boy does kiss her on the cheek, D.W. decides it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and that she'd rather do cannonballs with the Tibbles.
- Played Straight in "Happy Anniversary," where she is disgusted to see her parents kissing.
- All Girls Like Ponies: D.W. adores them. Her favorite idea for a holiday is Pony Day. She loves unicorns too.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Obviously not herself, but she imaginatively named her inflatable shark "Sharky."
- All Take and No Give: In "D.W. Unties the Knot," she implies this is the reason for her apparent liking of James; he's good at doing what she tells him to.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To annoyingly frustrating degrees. She constantly whines and snarks at Arthur, invading his privacy in the process, and will often try to get him to do favors for her. It's implied in "The Short, Quick Summer" that making Arthur miserable is something she considers to be her job as a little sister.
- Animal Lover: Although she is a Funny Animal herself, a few episodes show that she really likes non-anthropomorphic animals (save for octopi and mice). In "D.W.'s Deer Friend", she befriended a deer and cried over the death of a fish that Arthur and her dad caught. In "Pets and Pests", she also befriended Ladonna's pet rat General Higgings.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: In "Kiss and Tell", she apparently falls for James after he breaks the tie on the vote for what song to play at naptime in preschool by voting for her song, "Sweet Dreams with Mary Moo Cow".
- Big Damn Heroes: In "D.W. Blows the Whistle," she is just in time to save a boy from getting hit by a car with her whistle. If it weren't for her, the boy more than likely would have died.
- Big Red Devil: Wears a costume of one for Halloween in the book Arthur's Halloween.
- Big Sister Bully: Towards Kate at times; most notably when she threatens to pinch her for touching her toys, though, unlike other times, she gets grounded for once. Inverted with Arthur, as she can be downright nasty to him at times, such as in "Arthur's Big Hit" when she broke his model plane and showed no remorse for it.
- Big Sister Instinct: Although she was initially envious of Kate, she did come around to caring about her little sister when she realized that Kate would need her guidance when she gets older. Season 16's "Baby Steps" shows that D.W. is taking an active interest in Kate's development.
- Big Sister Mentor: Because D.W. is a little older than Vicita, she sometimes gives her advice on things, such as helping her cope with having to trade her crib for a big kid bed in "Tales from the Crib".
- Blatant Lies:
- In "D.W. All Wet", she tells her family she punched an octopus she was scared of at a public aquarium in the nose. Naturally, Arthur doesn't buy it.
- In "Prove It", she presents several other children her age several blatantly false scientific "facts" to trick Arthur into taking her to the real science museum so he can prove the "facts" wrong.
- In "D.W. on Ice", she tries to get out of going to Emily's ice skating party by claiming she's contracted chicken pox even though, as her mother points out, she's already had it before and is thus unlikely to get it again.
- Boyish Short Hair: Has a bob-cut. Her Traumatic Haircut in "D.W., Queen of the Comeback" is even shorter.
- Brainy Brunette: Zig-Zagged. She has light-brown hair and is occasionally very smart for a kid her age, but she can be as naive as you'd expect from her age as well.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Loves to mess with Arthur and whines or throws tantrums when things don't go her way.
- Bright Is Not Good: Downplayed. She wears a primarily pink and white outfit and is a Bratty Half-Pint who loves picking on Arthur.
- Butt-Monkey: Not as much as her older brother, but she occasionally gets some misfortunes and is picked on by the Tibble twins.
- Call-Back: Upon hearing of Kate's birth in "Arthur's Baby", D.W. does a cartwheel, a skill she worked hard to master in "D.W. Flips".
- Character Tic: The Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose is a standard default pose of hers. It even appears on her pose modelsheet
◊. - Chekhov's Gunman: After an entire episode of getting in the way, D.W. saves her aunt Lucy's wedding in "D.W. Thinks Big".
- Childish Bangs: She's a four-year-old whose hairstyle is blunt bangs with a bob cut. Notable since none of the older main characters, like Francine or Muffy, have bangs like hers, because D.W. is much more immature than even they are.
- Companion Cube: She treats her inflatable shark, Sharky, as if it were an actual living being, even bringing it to the movies in "Arthur's Family Vacation" and claiming that going to see a scary movie with people being eaten by sharks was its idea.
- Conflicting Loyalty: She's faced with this dilemma in "The Secret About Secrets". Keep the fact that James split his pants in class a secret from her best friend Emily to avoid embarrassing him, even though Emily knows D.W. is hiding a secret and wants to know what it is? Or tell Emily what she wants to know, but betray James' trust and likely cause him a great deal of embarrassment in the process?
- Consolation Backfire: She manages one in "Sick as a Dog". After bothering Arthur at the dinner table sick by telling him that they can get a "good dog" now when Pal gets sick and is scolded by her parents for her insensitive remark, she attempts to apologize to Arthur and tries to make him feel better by telling him she felt the same way when her pet parakeet Spanky died, which unintentionally makes Arthur afraid that Pal might have the same fate because of his sickness.
- Cover Version: On the "Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix" album, she signs a cover of "Brass in Pocket" by Pretenders, of all songs. Some of the lyrics are changed to fit the context of Arthur better, such as changing the term "Detroit leaning" to "Elwood City leaning."
- Cower Power: In "Arthur and Los Vecinos", she hides behind Arthur in fear upon seeing Amigo for the first time.
- Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: A common default pose of hers is to have her hands folded behind her back, to the point of being a Character Tic.
- Crocodile Tears:
- In "Cast Away", it is implied that she was using these to make her parents take her to the science museum with her dad and Arthur since she immediately stops crying when her mom asks if they should bring her along.
- In "Read and Flumberghast," she uses them to guilt-trip Arthur into participating in her pretend court session.
- In "The Pageant Pickle", she appears to be sad because none of her friends wanted to perform in her preschool spring pageant with her, which makes Arthur feel sorry for her and agree to perform in her friends' stead. Afterwards, Arthur finds out that she never even asked her friends to perform in the pageant in the first place, and was faking crying in order to take advantage of Arthur's sympathy for her and make him humiliate himself in front of an audience.
- Dead Guy Junior: It is revealed in The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur that she is named after her great-grandaunt who died prior to her birth.
- Delayed Reaction: In "Arthur's Big Hit", she takes a few seconds to start crying after Arthur punches her in the arm, likely due to the shock of being punched by her own big brother.
- Deliberately Cute Child: Pulls a "sweet kid" act on Grandma Thora in "D.W's Snow Mystery" to annoy Arthur, who remembered she had annoyed Thora when she last came to visit while D.W. remembered being told by her Grandma that she is the perfect child and her favorite grandchild.
- Depending on the Writer: Whether she actually cares about Arthur deep down or not. In some episodes, she is shown to care for and be helpful to him, while in others she seems actively willing to make life hard for him or even outright get rid of him. Occasionally this even varies within the same episode.
- Didn't Think This Through: In "Arthur's Chicken Pox", she didn't realize that taking a bath would cause the spots she drew on herself to fake the chicken pox would wash off if she took a bath, causing her ploy to be exposed to her grandma.
- Does Not Like Spam: She hates spinach to the point that she threw a tantrum at a restaurant when served a dish with it and threw up after eating a spinach sandwich. Though she apparently learned to like it after unknowingly eating a pie with spinach as the secret ingredient. In The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur, she is again shown to be disgusted by spinach, but that might be because it takes place chronologically before "D.W., the Picky Eater".
- Drama Queen: She tends to make a big production out of whatever is happening to her. Even her own mother admits this.
- Dub Name Change:
- In Sweden, her name is Lillemor. Almost all the other characters' names are the same in the Swedish dub, but "D.W." doesn't flow very well in Swedish.
- In France, her full name is Dominique Fanny Read, with "Diminou" being the equivalent to "D.W."
- Dora-Wilma in Germany.
- Marilù in Italy.
- Hugica in Hungary.
- Mala in Poland.
- Geli in Hebrew.
- Terezka in Czech.
- Ζουζούνα (Zouzouna) in the Greek STAR dub, translating to "Troublemaker".
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: In "D.W. Swims with the Fishes," she stops to help James when he gets his fin stuck on a lane marker during a swim race, despite Arthur telling her to just leave him and swim for the finish line. This costs the both of them the win to Emily.
- Early Personality Signs: It's shown in the Cold Open to "Operation: D.W.!" that she already liked to taunt Arthur as a newborn baby.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Her reaction (along with the other Reads save for Kate) to seeing a mouse in her father's banana bread in "Pets and Pests".
- Embarrassing First Name: She hates being addressed as "Dora Winifred".
- Enfante Terrible: While she's more bratty than outright evil for the most part, she does show shades of this at times. An example can already be found in just the show's third episode "D.W. All Wet", where she is shown to be smiling while having a dream about Arthur being drowned by an octopus!
- Exact Words: At the end of "The Secret About Secrets", she tells Emily that her secret is that she learned how to keep a secret. While that is technically true, it is not the secret Emily was asking for, as D.W. only learned it yesterday, while she learned the secret Emily had been inquiring her about two days ago.
- Failures on Ice: It is shown in "D.W. on Ice" that she's not exactly a great ice skater, constantly falling down during her and James' ice skating lesson, even though she's supposed to be the one teaching him. After all, she had only ice skated three times in her life before that.
- Frame-Up: In "D.W.'s Baby", she, out of jealousy at the attention her newly-born baby sister Kate is getting from their parents, puts her father's new shoes in the dishwasher and tries to blame Kate for it. However, her father sees through her ploy and tells her to go to her room. To D.W.'s credit, it was the Tibble twins who put D.W. up to this.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: In "D.W., the Picky Eater", her mother scolds her by her full name when she throws a tantrum and slams the table in a restaurant upon being served spinach, causing her plate and food to fly onto a waiter's head.Jane Read: (angrily) Dora Winifred Read!
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Arthur's Responsible. D.W. is a bratty Mouthy Kid who constantly snarks and whines in Arthur's presence, who's clearly more level-headed and reserved.
- From the Mouths of Babes: After overhearing an older boy swear in "Bleep", D.W. repeats it back to several of her friends to find out what it means. Not understanding the offensiveness of the word, she passes it along to Vicita before blurting it out to her own mother by mistake. Luckily after they set the record straight she moves quickly to stop her friends from repeating it to anybody else.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a large collection of stuffed animals and sometimes carries them around, though this seems to show up more often in the books. In the episode "Never, Never, Never", she is upset at the thought of getting rid of some.
- Go to Your Room!: A frequent punishment of hers.
- In "D.W.'s Baby", she gets jealous of the attention that the newborn Kate is receiving from their parents and (on the Tibbles' advice) puts her father's new shoes in the dishwasher and tells him Kate did it, but he figures out what she's up to and tells her to go to her room and think about what she just told her.
- In the aptly-named episode "Go to Your Room, D.W." (and its Novelization), her mother gives her this punishment for threatening to pinch Kate.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- D.W. was originally jealous of Kate but saw how important her guidance as a big sister would be.
- In "Arthur's Chicken Pox", she gets jealous of Arthur when he catches the chicken pox and is pampered by Grandma Thora as a result, and even fakes having the chicken pox herself in order to take advantage of her Grandma's sympathy. When she's found out, this gets her a scolding from Thora.
- Season 20's "That's MY Grandma!" sees D.W. getting jealous when Thora becomes the most popular babysitter in Elwood City.
- A fair amount of episodes center on D.W. wanting something Emily has or has experienced, apparently not too fond of the idea of Emily upstaging her.
- Here We Go Again!:
- The final scene in "D.W. Flips" has her begging for horseback riding lessons after she narrowly avoided both quitting and breaking her neck in gymnastics.
- At the end of "Arthur's Chicken Pox", she catches the titular illness after Arthur gets better due to having spent so much time close to him when he was sick.
- At the end of "D.W. on Ice", she goes to ice skate with James again after their previous skating lesson already showed that D.W. is not a great ice skater, reasoning that since their classmates, who are also ice skating at the rink this time, are not as good as she thought they'd be either, and thus her constant falling will look less silly because she won't be the only one doing so.
- Hint Dropping: In "Kiss and Tell", she tries to hint to James several times that she wants him to kiss her, with no success until she tells him directly.
- I Meant to Do That: D.W. tries to do a cartwheel, and lands on her back partway through.D.W.: I was doing a half - sault.
- Idiotic Partner Confession: In "Arthur's Pet Business", she gleefully tells Mrs. Wood that Arthur lost her dog Perky, whom he was supposed to be looking after.
- Inconsistent Coloring: In promotional images, her pantyhose are colored white, while they are light pink in the show proper. They are erroneously colored white in the show itself at times as well. This may be because they actually were white with pink stripes in the books. Her jumper dress is also a darker shade of pink in the show proper than in promo art.
- Infant Sibling Jealousy: While initially excited at the arrival of Kate, D.W. quickly became annoyed at having a baby around. She went as far as to try and sell her. It takes a lecture from her grandmother for D.W. to come around to embracing her little sister.
- Innocent Swearing: Occurs in "Bleep", where she overhears an older kid using a swear word and doesn't understand what it means. After being misled by the Tibbles, she tests it on the adults by telling Vicita about it, knowing she'd utter it without a second thought. Unfortunately, not only does Vicita make a full confession when she actually says the word, but by then D.W. had also uttered it not so innocently against her mother. She is forgiven as she was unaware of what she was saying.
- Instant Expert: For a four-year-old, she seems to have a remarkable natural talent for several things, usually ones that Arthur failed at.
- In "Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest", she comes up with a jingle for the titular contest before Arthur does. She also proves to be a skilled enough sculptor to create a replica of Rodin's The Thinker out of snow.
- In both "I'd Rather Read It Myself" and "D.W. Tale Spins", she is shown to be excellent at coming up with her own stories on the spot.
- In "Cast Away", she manages to catch several fish by using the unconventional but surprisingly effective method of playing a song from Mary Moo Cow on her tape recorder to attract them.
- Averted when it comes to ice skating. In "D.W. on Ice", she claims to be a natural at it, but her staking lesson for James has her fall over several times while James hardly falls at all.
- Interspecies Romance: Of the Puppy Love variety, of course. She is an aardvark, and "Kiss and Tell" and "D.W. Unties the Knot" imply she has a crush on James, a rabbit.
- Ironic Name: The name "Dora" means "gift" and "Winifred" means "blessed peacemaking". Considering her personality, she certainly isn't a gift to Arthur, nor is she a peacemaker exactly.
- Jerkass Ball: The premise of "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood" is that D.W. is acting even brattier than usual due to not being invited to a classmate's birthday party. Thankfully, she mellows back down after Francine makes her realize how mean she's being.
- Jerkass Has a Point: D.W. can sometimes be a Spoiled Brat, but she brings up valid points at times:
- In the episode "Ungifted", Arthur wanted to make up to Buster for giving away a model Buster made for him. D.W. suggests giving Buster his autographed Bionic Bunny poster; at first, Arthur doesn't want to because it's signed, but D.W. asks him how the poster is more important than his friendship with Buster.
- In "Arthur Sells Out", she points out that Arthur's hippo plush wouldn't be appealing to buyers, as it is smelly from years of use. She also later tells Arthur that using false advertising to sell products is unethical.
- In "Mind your Manners", when the Tibbles wonder why their grandmother doesn't want to go out to eat with them, D.W. flat out tells them that they are slobs and have horrible table manners. She even refuses to teach them because the last time she tried to teach Tommy to be good in "My Fair Tommy", he went back to his old ways.
- She was worried about James when he was invited to the sleepover with the Tibbles in "Night of the Tibble." She did have the right to be worried because James is a timid boy and the Tibbles are rowdy and could take advantage of him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's rude, bossy, loves winding Arthur up, and sometimes talks about how eager she is to get rid of him. But deep down, she is a good kid, and a couple of times it is shown that she actually loves and cares about her brother.
- Karma Houdini: She's gotten away with her mischief many times.
- "Prove It" has her go unpunished for knowingly telling other kids fake science facts with the intent of making Arthur take her to the science museum to prove her wrong.
- In "D.W. Unties the Knot", she is never shown being punished for having Muffy set up a wedding for herself by using a false name, forcing D.W.'s father to pay the Shockingly Expensive Bill for the preparations even when she ultimately refuses to go through with it.
- In "The Pageant Pickle", she's not shown receiving any punishment for guilt-tripping Arthur into humiliating himself in front of her classmates.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: There are some occasions in which she does get punished by her parents.
- After D.W. causes a scene over being served spinach at a restaurant in "D.W., the Picky Eater" her parents forbid her from going on any more family outings unless she learns to behave.
- In "Go to Your Room, D.W.", she is, as per the title of the episode, sent to her room by her mother after threatening to pinch Kate for taking her toys.
- It is implied that Jane punishes (or at least scolds) her for faking laryngitis and making Arthur wait on her hand and foot at the end of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", albeit offscreen.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: The premise of "The Secret About Secrets" is that D.W. hears about James splitting his pants in class and has to struggle against the temptation to tell someone about it in order to avoid embarrassing him.
- Lack of Empathy: One of her flaws. It's mostly expressed towards Arthur, but it's not limited to him — for example, "Arthur's Chicken Pox" has her take advantage of her grandma by faking chicken pox for her attention, not caring that it may hurt her feelings, and in "Prove It", she shamelessly cons her classmates out of their money just to make Arthur agree to take her to a museum. This is justified by her being only four years old.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- D.W. always likes to pick on Arthur, but then, the Tibble twins pick on her.
- Subverted in "Arthur's Chicken Pox". After spending the entire episode making fun of Arthur for having chicken pox and having to miss the circus because of it, and then faking having it too for Grandma Thora's attention, she contracts it for real at the end of the episode. However, she's actually happy she contracted it, because while she will have to miss the circus, she will get to be pampered by Grandma Thora like Arthur was when he was sick. Played Straight in the original book of the episode, where she's disappointed that she'll have to miss the circus.
- Manipulative Bitch: She has been shown to be very skilled at manipulating other people for her own benefit, especially for her age. For a notable example, "Prove It" has her pull off a Zany Scheme to trick Arthur into taking her to a museum, which actually ends up working.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Downplayed with her dynamic with James MacDonald. She is a rough-and-tumble Bratty Half-Pint but also has traditionally girly interests like ponies and unicorns, while James is a quiet, unassuming Shrinking Violet.
- Middle Child Syndrome: As the middle child of the Read family, she is sometimes jealous of the attention her younger sister Kate gets, while also envying the responsibilities and privileges that eldest child Arthur gets.
- Mondegreen Gag: Being a young child, she is very prone to this.
- In "D.W. Thinks Big", she asks her mom if she can have "the oderant" (deodorant) like her cousin.
- In "Mom and Dad Have a Great Big Fight", D.W. doesn't want to be an "organ." She means "orphan."
- Her homemade New York City postcards in "Postcards from Buster" aren't the most accurate. Her landmarks include the "Vampire State Building," "Rocks-of-Falling Center," and the "Stature of Liver Trees."
- In the episode "Tales from the Crib", she points out that the Tibbles once told her the story of Arachnar, the spider lord that haunts children that have just gotten a big-person bed. When Vicita becomes scared of sleeping in her new bed, D.W. says Arachnar is just an "Irving legend", or the kind of story one's Uncle Irving would tell, rather than an Urban Legend. When Vicita points out she does not have an Uncle Irving, D.W. dismisses him as an Irving legend as well!
- In "D.W. and Dr. Whosit", she thinks that the people who are suddently into Dr. Whosit have been "hipposized" (hypnotized).
- Modesty Shorts: While not shorts, the pantyhose she wears under her dress effectively serve as this.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In "Clarissa is Cracked", she has this reaction when she realizes that she broke her grandma's priceless antique doll Clarissa by playing rough with her.
- In "D.W.'s Stray Netkitten", she cries out of guilt when she believes her Netkitten Tickley has died because she told Emily to not feed it.
- Never My Fault: Usually passes off the blame to Arthur or her friends when she does something wrong.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The Mean to Kate's Nice and Arthur's In-Between, but the In-Between to Emily's Nice and Timmy and Tommy's Mean. When she's around Arthur, she generally annoys and torments him, but she's also friends with Emily and is hardier than her when it comes to dealing with the Tibble twins.
- Offscreen Karma:
- In "Arthur's Big Hit", her parents imply they will punish her for wrecking Arthur's model plane, but the punishment is never shown, with the rest of the episode instead focusing on Arthur's troubles that arise from punching D.W. in retaliation.
- Implied at the end of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" when the fact that she was faking having laryngitis is exposed and Jane gets angry with her. Jane then walks off with her, implying she's going to give her a punishment or at least a talking down to.
- Only Known by Initials: Nobody calls D.W. "Dora Winifred" unless it's her parents issuing a Full-Name Ultimatum or they want to deal with a major tantrum. In S2's "D.W. Goes to Washington", Mr. Read actually didn't seem to remember her full name (or maybe just didn't say it to avoid embarrassing her).Mr. Read: Her name is D.W.Secret Service member: That's it? Initials? You didn't give the kid a full name?
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Never called by her full name unless she's in trouble.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. In The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur it's revealed that she's named after her deceased great-grand aunt, who was also named "Dora Winifred Read".
- Parental Sexuality Squick: A G-rated example; in "Happy Anniversary", she is disgusted to see her parents kissing.
- Pet the Dog: There are a few moments that show she can be a good girl despite her bratty behavior.
- In "Arthur's Spelling Trubble", she genuinely cheers for Arthur at his school's spelling bee.
- In "D.W. All Wet", she swims in a lake she believes to be inhabited by octopi to save Arthur when she (falsely) thinks he's being attacked by one, despite being afraid of octopi.
- In "Lost!", she is very worried for Arthur when he gets lost outside the border of Elwood City, to the point of actually crying.
- In "D.W. Blows the Whistle", she actually saves a boy's life from getting hit by a car. Can't be said she's all bad after that, can it?
- In "D.W. Swims with the Fishes", she goes back to help James when he gets his flipper stuck during a swimming race, despite this casting her the win to Emily. This one makes sense since it is James we're talking about.
- While initially jealous of her, D.W. genuinely loves and cares about her little sister Kate, and in "Baby Steps", she's shown to be actively interested in Kate's development.
- She's an Animal Lover of the highest order; she has befriended a non-anthropomorphic deer, cat, and rat, and in "D.W.'s Deer Friend" (the same episode where she befriends the deer), she cries over the death of a fish her parents caught to be eaten. In "Buster Baxter & the Letter from the Sea", she is worried that newborn sea turtles might not make it to the ocean due to pollution.
- Picky Eater: Covered in the episode "D.W., the Picky Eater". D.W. has a long list of foods that she does not like, most of which are Stock "Yuck!" vegetables. However, she did learn to like spinach after being served a restaurant dish in which it was the secret ingredient. The Teaser for "Kung Fool" also shows that she unexpectedly loved a very green, very foreign dish her dad made, so we can safely assume she's ditched at least some pickiness.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: On one hand, she's often rather intelligent for her age and can be very manipulative. On the other hand, she's convinced that unicorns and other fantasy creatures are real, is gullible enough to believe everything she sees on TV and gets tricked by the Tibble twins on many occasions, is very prone to Mondegreen Gags, and apparently didn't realize that Arthur's model plane wouldn't actually fly like a real one or that taking a bath would wash off the spots she drew on herself to fake having the chicken pox.
- Pink Means Feminine: Wears a pink jumper dress and light pink pantyhose.
- Platonic Life-Partners: When Bud moves to Elwood City at the beginning of Season 16, she becomes best friends with him after seeing that he is able to stand up to the Tibble twins. She is very upset when he has to move away again due to his father's work in "When Duty Calls", and is happy to reunite with him as an adult in the flash-forward at the end of "All Grown Up".
- Playing House: In "Kiss and Tell", she tries to get James to kiss her by playing a mother carrying "groceries" (cookies and milk from her preschool) and a "baby" (her Princess Sneeze-and-Wet doll), inspired by seeing her father kiss her mother when she came home from the grocery store with Kate.
- Playing Sick:
- In "Arthur's Chicken Pox", she gets jealous of the attention Arthur gets from Grandma Thora because of having the chicken pox and draws spots on herself with a marker to fake having the chicken pox herself for her attention. She quickly gets found out after she takes a bath and her fake spots wash off.
- In "For Whom the Bell Tolls", she does genuinely suffer from laryngitis at first but pretends to still have it after her recovery because she enjoyed being fussed over.
- In "D.W. on Ice", she claims she's contracted chicken pox to avoid having to go to Emily's ice skating party. Her mother immediately sees through it, since she's already had chicken pox.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: After a boy kisses her on the cheek near the end of "Kiss and Tell", she is left stunned for a few seconds.
- Puppy Love: It is implied in "Kiss and Tell" that she has a crush on her classmate, James, as she seeks a kiss from him so she can feel like a fairytale princess, and gets one at the end. It's implied again in "D.W. Unties the Knot", where D.W. does not take long to choose James as her groom when planning her dream wedding (though it should be noted that D.W. did not know at the time what it actually means to have a wedding, assuming it's just about throwing a fancy party and nothing more).
- Princess Phase: "The Princess Problem" reveals that she is into a movie franchise called Princess Platoon. However, she soon discovers that the franchise doesn't feature princesses to represent everyone, like disabled people such as the wheelchair user Lydia Fox. She soon discovers that real-life princesses had diverse personalities and not just a single defining trait like the ones on Princess Platoon.
- Real Time: In "D.W. Gets Lost", Ed Crosswire asks for five minutes of Jane Read's time. This is how long she and D.W. are separated.
- The Reveal: The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur reveals that she's named after her deceased great-grand aunt, the first Dora Winifred Read.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: According to the Distant Finale, this bratty little girl will become a police officer when she grows up.
- Secret-Keeper: Takes on this role for James in "The Secret About Secrets", when she finds out that he split his pants in school and agrees to keep it a secret, though she struggles with the temptation to tell someone.
- Security Blanket: She has one called "blankie" which was the focus of both the book and television story "D.W.'s Lost Blankie"note . One of the show's title cards depicts her wearing it as a superhero cape.
- Self-Serving Memory: She has a tendency to do this.
- In "Go to Your Room, D.W.", when she gets sent to her room for being mean to Kate, she tells Nadine a bunch of falsified memories of how her parents abused her, like when they forced her to be Arthur's slave when he was sick and not allowing her to attend Aunt Lucy's wedding. Nadine doesn't buy a word of it.
- In "Mom and Dad Have a Great Big Fight", when recalling an argument she had with Arthur, her flashback depicts Arthur as incredibly stupid while their parents immediately take D.W.'s side and demand that Arthur play with his "perfect little sister". As shown earlier in the episode, that's definitely not what happened.
- Ship Tease: There are implications in the show that she and James may be in Puppy Love.
- In "Kiss and Tell", D.W. wants to be kissed by James to feel like a fairytale princess, and eventually does get kissed on the cheek by him, after which she looks slightly stunned.
- In "D.W. Unties the Knot", she actually wants to have a wedding with James as her groom (although she didn't understand that a wedding doesn't just entail a fancy party, but actually marrying and starting a life together with the groom, this may still imply that she subconsciously has feelings for James).
- Small Name, Big Ego: She's quite the little braggart when she wants to be, usually at Arthur's expense. In "Play it Again, D.W.", Arthur recalls the one time D.W. beat Arthur at Checkers, and then proceeded to rub his face into it for apparently months afterward.
- Snap Back: She's had two fifth birthdays over the course of the series, in "D.W.'s Perfect Wish" and D.W. and the Beastly Birthday.
- Sock Slide Rink: In "D.W. on Ice", she slides around on her house floor in her pantyhose in order to practice ice skating... and ends up crashing into Arthur as he comes home.
- Spoiled Brat: Although D.W. comes from a modest middle-class household, she is sometimes prone to self-entitled, bratty behavior. One episode in particular which explores this is "More!", in which D.W. tries to persuade her parents to give her more allowance after finding out her friend Emily gets more than her.
- Strong Family Resemblance: To her passed-on great-great aunt, Dora Winifred, as we find out in The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur, who she looks like without freckles. Like said relative, D.W. hates spinach, is bossy, and her relationship with Arthur is similar to her great-granduncle Theo's relationship with the relative in question (though the latter is older than Theo by a year).
- The Stool Pigeon: Most of the time she's an Obnoxious Olivia, tattling on Arthur simply because she likes seeing him in trouble. But in "Arthur's Knee" and "D.W. Blows the Whistle", she's more of a Concerned Claire, tattling on people out of genuine concern for their safety.
- Sympathetic P.O.V.: Episodes where she's the focus character tend to give her this, with the Tibble twins acting as Deliberately Bad Examples for her.
- Tagalong Kid: Whenever she hangs out with Arthur's group, she often inconveniences them with her bratty behavior. For example, in "My Club Rules", they have to make up "rules" for a "club" to keep her from hanging out with them because they consider her "dwonky."
- Take a Third Option: In "The Secret About Secrets", D.W. is conflicted because James asked her to keep the fact that he split his pants a secret, but she is tempted to tell somebody and her other friend Emily knows she has a secret and wants to know what it is. So how does she solve this dilemma? On Grandma Thora's advice, she shouts James' secret into a shell to get rid of the temptation to tell somebody, and when Emily asks her about the secret once more at school the next day, she tells her that she found out how to keep a secret.
- Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She has a tendency to be very bossy, sometimes even to her friends.
- Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed, as she isn't completely evil, but she does tend to be the most consistently mean of the five main members of the Read family. She's also this for Arthur's group of friends whenever she acts as their Tagalong Kid.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl:
- Tomboy to Emily's Girly Girl. Emily tends to have more refined manners and much less of a tendency to be bossy or take a leadership role. D.W. also seems like the hardier of the two girls when it comes to roughhousing/generally dealing with the Tibble twins.
- In "Best Enemies", she is the Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak to W.D.'s tomboy. She loves unicorns while W.D. likes race cars.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She will climb trees, play catch with Arthur and Dad, and do other tomboyish (for her age) things. That being said, she is also very into unicorns, ponies, and anything pink.
- Traumatic Haircut: In "D.W., Queen of the Comeback", her hairstylist cuts off a good chunk of her hair by accident, and D.W. gets teased by the Tibble twins for it.
- True Blue Femininity: She trades out her pink dress and pantyhose for an-all blue Palette Swap of her regular outfit in Arthur's First Day.
- Ungrateful Bastard: She certainly has her moments of this, like at her fifth birthday party after all the great things Arthur said about her to make her feel less depressed about being one year older, she still made a wish that Arthur would end up with cake in his face, which is exactly what happens in an otherwise innocent accident caused by Kate and Pal. In a much later episode, her parents assemble her a playset she had been begging them for, but after having so much fun with the box it came in she suddenly doesn't want to play on the actual set, not even managing a "thank you" to them before they walk off.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "My Club Rules", when Arthur and his friends are in the treehouse discussing ideas for their parade float, D.W. barges in, wanting to hang out with them. Arthur, desperate to get rid of her, lies and says it's a "meeting" of the "Parade Float Club". D.W. immediately says she wants to "join". They have D.W. undergo "initiation rituals", such as kicking a bowling ball (which she refuses to do) and drawing a funny picture of Mr. Ratburn. They're so distracted from talking about the float that they're actually focused on making it a real club. A little while later, Muffy makes some snobby comments about how improvements can be made to Arthur's treehouse so it looks like a real clubhouse, and how club dues should be paid in order to implement the improvements. This leads to a fight amongst Arthur and his friends, causing them to form their own separate "clubs". They make up a few days later, of course, but still. It could be argued that if D.W. wouldn't have barged in to begin with, the argument wouldn't have happened and they'd still be discussing float ideas.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: D.W. is very eloquent and crafty for a four-year-old, and has an understanding of some grown-up topics like entrepreneurship, politics, and divorce.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Saw an octopus up close during a field trip to an aquarium and was frightened by it. While recounting the trip to her family, however, she claimed to have punched it.
- "Pets and Pests" shows that she's afraid of mice as well when one gets into the Read house.
- Young Entrepreneur: Definitely one in the making, given how she already seems to have a keen understanding of finances and entrepreneurship at only four years old. She knows when she or somebody else is owed or owes money.
- Your Size May Vary: For the most part D.W. looks like a regular four-year-old girl, but some shots depict her as being tall enough to reach above Arthur's shoulder.
Kate Read
- Voiced by: Tracy Braunstein
Arthur's and D.W.'s younger sister and the youngest Read child. As she's only a baby, she's only heard babbling to most of the cast, but is able to talk to Pal and other non-anthropomorphic animals, as well as Imaginary Friends.
- Baby Talk: Kate has appeared in episodes where she can speak with other babies, non-anthro animals, and, bizarrely, Imaginary Friends.
- Dub Name Change:
- Kati in the Netherlands and Germany.
- Katilyn in the Spanish dub.
- Growing Up Sucks: In "Paradise Lost", it's shown that she's losing her ability to speak with pets, now that she's learning to talk and walk.
- Living Prop: In the episodes that don't focus on her and Pal, although it's justified due to her being a baby.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The Nice to D.W.'s Mean and Arthur's In-Between. She's a sweet baby who hardly ever causes any trouble. In episodes where she speaks with pets, she’s also shown to be a genuine sweetheart.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Downplayed. The Grand Finale shows that while she can't recall being able to speak to babies when she's older, she has written a short story about a baby communicating with pets, implying she does remember it subconsciously.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Kate can speak to dogs and cats. However, as of "Paradise Lost", it's revealed she will eventually lose this ability. The Grand Finale implies that she was able to subconsciously remember having this ability, as she's now a college student who has written a short story about a baby communicating with pets.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: Episodes centered on her and Pal have her trying to make sense of the world of her elders, even as she grows into it.
Others
Timmy and Tommy Tibble
- Timmy voiced by: Ricky Mabe (seasons 1-5, Arthur's Perfect Christmas), Samuel Holden (seasons 6-9, Arthur Its Only Rock N Roll), Tyler Brody Stein (seasons 10-11), Chris Lortie (seasons 12-13), Dakota Goyo (seasons 14-15), Jacob Ewaniuk (seasons 16-19), Samuel Faraci (seasons 20-25), Max Burkholder (Arthur's Missing Pal)Tommy voiced by: Jonathan Koensgen (seasons 1-6, Arthur's Perfect Christmas), Aaron Grunfeld (seasons 7-8, Arthur Its Only Rock N Roll), Tyler Brody Stein (season 9), Ryan Tilson (seasons 10-11) Jake Roseman (seasons 12-13), Jake Sim (seasons 14-19), Devan Cohen (seasons 20-25), Madison Danielle (Arthur's Missing Pal)
A pair of twin bear cub boys, they're often the other major characters in episodes focusing on the younger cast. They have a reputation for being unruly.
- Accidental Art: The teaser for "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Tibble" shows them as adults, still arguing with each other the same way they did as kids and flinging paint at each other and inadvertently creating art with the paint as a result. It is shown that this form of Accidental Art actually made famous artists out of them.
- Adaptation Species Change: They were both humans in the early books, but are nowadays depicted as bears.
- Alliterative Names: Timmy and Tommy Tibble.
- Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Sometimes with each other, but usually with D.W. Their web page spells it out.
- Bears Are Bad News: Downplayed. They are bears, but they aren't evil, just really annoying, and make D.W. look like a saint in comparison.
- Big Fancy House: They live in a big house that even has an actual suit of armor with an axe in the foyer, implying that their grandma is quite well-off.
- Bond One-Liner: D.W. calls to check on things in "Arthur Babysits", while the Tibbles are playing cowboy.Timmy: Arthur can't come to the phone right now. He's all tied up.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Both of them, to the point where they make D.W. seem like a complete angel.
- Brutal Honesty: In "To Tibble The Truth" after being told not to tell lies anymore, they start to tell the truth to everyone to the point of meanness (for example, telling Vicita she'll never get a pony)
- Color-Coded Characters: Tommy wearing a red scarf, and Timmy wearing a blue scarf.
- Deliberately Bad Example: They're involved in most episodes focusing on D.W. that give her a Sympathetic P.O.V., making her look less bratty by comparison.
- The Dreaded: Nobody in town wants to be stuck with the task of babysitting them, and they have quite a bad reputation with anybody else who has witnessed their behavior firsthand.
- Dub Name Change:
- Episode Title Card: The boys use fake squid tentacles to scare D.W. off.
- Everyone Has Standards: They were horrified upon hearing that D.W. got sent to the hospital because of them throwing a swing at her in "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles".
- Hair Color Dissonance: According to official art (and the books) their fur is brown, but within the cartoon, they're a greyish color, sometimes with a tint of green.
- High Turnover Rate: Their babysitters, before Arthur.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Timmy wears a blue scarf. His brother Tommy wears a red scarf. That's the only way anyone can tell them apart.
- I Know Your True Name: An "iron fist" approach will not work when babysitting the Tibbles. Tell them a story, however, and they're more likely to cooperate.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite their boisterous, pugnacious personalities, they do have a conscience and can recognize when they have done something wrong. For example, they're both in tears when they discover D.W. needs stitches after Timmy hits D.W. with a swing.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: In the original books, the Tibble twins and their grandma were drawn as humans. They have since been anthropomorphized for the television series and later books.
- Look Behind You: Timmy shouts this to Ms. Morgan in "My Fair Tommy" to give himself and Tommy an opportunity to switch scarves without her noticing.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The Mean to Emily's Nice and D.W.'s In-Between. They play rough and generally cause trouble for the other students.
- Pit Trap: In "I'd Rather Read It Myself", they make one that Mr. Haney (of course) ends up falling into.
- Raised by Grandparents: They've mainly been raised by their grandma, due to their parents traveling a lot.
- Running Gag: Them getting into a physical fight over the pettiest of matters.
- * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Tibble Twins (manly) and James and Bud (sensitive).
- Sibling Seniority Squabble: In "Whistling in the Wind", Tommy is said to be two minutes older, and it's confirmed in "Two Minutes". However, to stop their fussing over it, their grandmother backpedals, saying that they were born at the same time.
- Sibling Team: Though they often fight with each other, they also tend to team up to cause trouble for the other students.
- Spoiled Brat: Both of them were spoiled by their grandma, who continues to see them as her little angels, even though that kind of upbringing probably worsened their behavior. Their house appears quite large, and even has a suit of armor with an axe in the foyer.
- Those Two Guys: They are preschool twins, so it's rare to see them not by each other's side.
- Token Human: Were originally humans in the books, but got turned into bears in the animated series.
- Trickster Twins: They cause plenty of mischief around, and currently provide the page image.
- Twin Banter: It sometimes gets physical.
- Twin Switch: When Ms. Morgan gives them time-outs in "My Fair Tommy", after Tommy has his time in the quiet corner, Timmy shouts "Look Behind You!" to Ms. Morgan and switches their scarves so Tommy has to take a time-out twice. Apparently, Timmy always makes Tommy do both time-outs because "you're better at it than me".
- Unnecessary Roughness:
- They spend an episode basically imitating the Power Rangers, and D.W. ends up needing stitches. The boys do apologize, though.
- Otherwise a Running Gag with them, as they'll often tussle with each other over petty arguments.
- Villainy-Free Villain: They are more so mischievous pranksters than truly bad kids, but their troublesome antics tend to bring them into conflict with D.W. in episodes where she's the main character.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "My Fair Tommy" is this to My Fair Lady, with D.W. trying to teach Tommy how to be better behaved much like how Henry Higgins tries to teach Eliza Doolittle to be a proper lady.
Emily Leduc
- Voiced by: Vanessa Lengies (seasons 1-7), Sally Taylor Isherwood (seasons 8-25)
D.W.'s best friend and major character in D.W.-centric episodes. D.W. is sometimes jealous of her wealth. Her mother is a rabbit and her father is a monkey; she is implied to be a rabbit-monkey hybrid, as she has the body of a rabbit but the nose of a monkey. She's also implied to be of French descent, as her life is imbued with French culture; she's traveled to France a few times and has a French nanny named Marie-Hélène.
- Affection-Hating Kid: Averted. In "Kiss and Tell", she actually enjoyed being kissed by a boy named Pierre while on a trip to France, having felt like a princess in a fairytale at that moment.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Prior to season six, she had shorter hair. In the books, she had her current length but it was the same color as her fur.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Her debut in S1's "D.W. Flips", where she shows off in D.W.'s face how much of a novice D.W. is compared to her in gymnastics class. At the end of the episode, she mellows out, becoming D.W.'s best friend.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Part rabbit and cute.
- Call-Back: Emily beats D.W. and James in a swim meet in "D.W. Swims with the Fishes", in a nod to her initial antagonistic appearance.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Emily Swallows a Horse" focuses on her telling a series of lies to keep a rubber ball she found in the preschool playground.
- Dub Name Change:
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the first few seasons, she had shorter hair and wore a pink dress. After season 6, she was redesigned to have longer hair and a blue dress.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In “D.W. Flips” (Emily's first major appearance), Emily’s behavior borders on arrogance and D.W. resents her for it. Downplayed, since they do make up in the end and showing-off remains Emily’s greatest weakness throughout the show.
- Gender Equals Breed: Downplayed. Both Emily and her mother are rabbits, while Emily's father is an ape. Emily mostly resembles a rabbit, but she also has the nose of a monkey.
- Given Name Reveal: After being unknown for the entirety of the show's run up until that point, her last name was finally revealed in Arthur's First Day to be "Leduc."
- Gratuitous French: She tends to use random French words and phrases from time to time, thanks to the influence of her French nanny Marie-Hélène (and likely because she has some French ancestry herself, judging from her French last name).
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: In "Emily Swallows a Horse", she has one triggered by the series of lies she's been telling. In it, she's chased by a giant D.W. who calls her a liar and takes shelter in the house of an old lady, but D.W. rips off the house's roof and grabs her.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Prior to the events of "Kiss and Tel", she was on the receiving end of this by a French boy named Pierre, which kickstarts the episode's plot when she recounts the tale to D.W., inspiring her to find a "prince" of her own.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Due to her mixed parentage, Emily has the body and ears of a rabbit, but the jawline of a monkey.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The Nice to Timmy and Tommy's Mean and D.W.'s In-Between. She's generally one of the most polite and well-behaved students.
- No Full Name Given: Unlike most of the other characters, her last name, Leduc, was unknown until the the special Arthur's First Day which preceded the last season.
- Lampshaded in “D.W. Swims with the Fishes”:Buster: And the winner is...Emily, whose last name I don't know.
- Lampshaded in “D.W. Swims with the Fishes”:
- Spoiled Sweet: She's spoiled with tons of possessions, a private nanny, a tutor, and fancy food, yet she's generally one of the nicest kids in preschool.
- Snowball Lie: The premise of "Emily Swallows a Horse" is that Emily tells a lie so she can keep a rubber ball she found in the preschool playground, and then tells several other lies to embellish that lie.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to D.W.'s tomboy. Emily tends to have more refined manners and much less of a tendency to be bossy or take a leadership role. D.W. also seems like the hardier of the two girls when it comes to roughhousing/generally dealing with the Tibble twins.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Is a show-off for almost all of her first appearance in "D.W. Flips", much to D.W.'s dismay. After that episode, they're shown to be generally excellent friends.
- Toxic Friend Influence: A bit of a Downplayed example: In "The Good, the Bad, and the Binky", Binky offered to babysit her for a night and he introduced her to wrestling. She took a short-lived interest in it due to it being similar to dance, but it kind of got out of hand, necessitating Binky to intervene. She also picked up a habit of burping loudly, but only in this episode.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Her Big Buddy program file in Arthur's First Day shows that hers is pâté.
- True Blue Femininity: From Season 6 onward, she wears a blue dress.
- UltimateGamer386: At the end of "Sue Ellen Gets Her Goose Cooked", it's revealed that she was FourHand451, the almost unbeatable Virtual Goose player.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Absolutely no one in the show comments on her being a rabbit-monkey hybrid.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's shown to be scared of spiders in "The Pageant Pickle" and "That's MY Grandma!"
James MacDonald
- Voiced by: Jesse Camacho (season 8), Nicholas Wheeler Hughes (season 11), London Angelis (season 15), John Flemming (seasons 16-17), Christian Distefano (seasons 18-25)
A shy boy in D.W.'s preschool class, and Molly's younger brother.
- Ambiguously Related: At the brother and sister race in "Sue Ellen's Little Sister", he is shown next to an unnamed older bunny, implying that this bunny may be his older brother.
- Animal Stereotypes: A meek and sweet rabbit.
- Ascended Extra: He has been around since the original book version of "D.W. Flips", but was not given a name or a plot-relevant role until "Kiss and Tell".
- Beware the Quiet Ones: While James is meek and shy for the most part, there are a few times when he shows a more aggressive side of himself.
- In "The Last King of Lambland", he receives a stuffed lamb from his uncle which, according to legend, grants its owner the powers of his ancestor, King James the Squinty. As a result, he goes Drunk with Power and starts behaving like a tyrant toward his classmates. Thankfully, he gets past his tyrant phase by the end of the episode.
- In "Night of the Tibble," he angrily tells his consciense to "Buzz off!".
- In "The Last Tough Customer," he pushes Amanda away from a water fountain to drink from it while trying to emulate Molly.
- Black Bead Eyes: Has eyes like this, and it is shown in "Night of the Tibble" that this is the natural look of his eyes, rather than a side effect of wearing glasses. Off-model shots in "D.W. Swims with the Fishes" and "The Last King of Lambland" show him with normal eyes, though.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: His meek demeanor makes him one of the cutest rabbits in the series.
- The Conscience: "Night of the Tibble" reveals that his conscience is a miniature version of himself with wings. And bizarrely, his conscience is shown to have his own conscience!
- Drunk with Power: In "The Last King of Lambland", receiving a stuffed lamb from his uncle that supposedly grants him King James the Squinty's powers goes to his head, and he starts acting like a tyrant toward his classmates. Thankfully, his tyrant phase is only temporary.
- Dub Name Change: Elmar in the German dub.
- Eye Glasses: One of the few characters besides Arthur to have these.
- Generation Xerox: In "The Last King of Lambland", his ancestor King James the Squinty is said to have been shy and unable to see well, just like him.
- Given Name Reveal: He has been around since the original book version of "D.W. Flips", but was not given a name until "Kiss and Tell". Even then, his last name remained unknown until "Arthur Makes Waves" where he's revealed to be Molly's younger brother, meaning his last name is the same as hers: MacDonald.
- Heel Realization: At the end of "The Last King of Lambland", he realizes he was wrong to behave like a tyrant toward his classmates and gets rid of his stuffed lamb and makeshift royal outfit.
- Implied Love Interest: D.W.'s. She chooses him to be her "Prince Charming" in "Kiss and Tell" after he voted for her song to be played at naptime in preschool and tries to get him to kiss her in order to feel like a fairytale princess, but it's never explicitly stated she has a crush on him. In "D.W. Unties the Knot", D.W. chooses James as the groom for her dream wedding (while D.W. did not realize that a wedding means actually marrying the groom and not just throwing a fancy party, it may still imply that D.W. subconsciously has feelings for James).
- Instant Expert: In "D.W. on Ice", he is shown to be quite a great ice skater even though it's implied he's never done it before, hardly falling at all while D.W. (who is supposed to be his instructor) falls over and over again.
- Jerkass Ball:
- In "The Last King of Lambland", he goes Drunk with Power when he receives a stuffed lamb from his uncle that, according to legend, gives its owner the powers of his ancestor, an ancient Scottish Benevolent Mage Ruler. Thankfully, he comes back around at the end.
- In S16's "The Last Tough Customer", he starts adopting Molly's bullying ways and rudely shoves Amanda just to get a drink of water. Molly realizes her bad influence on her brother and vows to shape up for both of their sakes.
- Little Brother Is Watching: He later starts picking up Molly's bullying behavior, prompting her to shape up so her brother won't become like her.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
- He has this dynamic with his big sister Molly. James is a quiet, unassuming Shrinking Violet while Molly is a tough and confrontational tomboy.
- Downplayed with his dynamic with D.W. He's a quiet and unassuming Shrinking Violet, while D.W. is a rough-and-tumble Bratty Half-Pint but also has traditionally girly interests like ponies and unicorns.
- Morality Pet: Molly's sisterly love for him influences her character. When he also starts becoming a bully, Molly has a Heel Realization and tries to shape up for his sake.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Being of Scottish descent, his name obviously comes from the several Real Life Kings of Scotland named James, such as James VI and I. Presumably the case in-universe as well, as his ancestor was King James the Squinty.
- Piggyback Cute: A platonic example (well, at least on the surface) in "Arthur Makes Waves," where he lifts D.W. up on his shoulders to give her a dunk into his outdoor pool.
- Rare Male Example: Of a Shrinking Violet.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: When D.W. and Emily believe that James died during his sleepover with the Tibbles due to his absence from school in "Night of the Tibble", they go to give his mother flowers as condolences... only for the door of his house to be opened by James himself, who explains he was only absent because he had a stomachache from all the sweets he ate at the sleepover.
- The Reveal:
- The fact that he's Molly's little brother wasn't revealed until "Arthur Makes Waves".
- "The Last King of Lambland" reveals that he and his family are descended from an ancient Scottish royal family.
- Returning the Handkerchief: In "Kiss and Tell", after he saves D.W. from a spinning merry-go-round, he gives her back the handkerchief she dropped when she fell off from the sudden stop.
- Royal Blood: In "The Last King of Lambland", it is revealed that the MacDonalds are descendants of an ancient Scottish royal family, and James himself is a descendant of King James the Squinty.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: James and Bud (sensitive) and The Tibble Twins (manly).
- Ship Tease: Near the end of "Kiss and Tell", he actually kisses D.W. on the cheek when simply because asks him to!
- Shrinking Violet: A Rare Male Example. He is a very meek little boy.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: A shy, kind boy who contrasts his sister Molly's Tough Customer act.
- Surpassed the Teacher: In "D.W. on Ice", D.W. offers to give him ice skating lessons, but James turns out to actually be a natural at ice skating, while D.W. falls over and over again during their lesson.
- Toy Disguise: In "Night of the Tibble," D.W. hides him in her bedroom closet when the Tibbles come to pick him up for their sleepover. When Timmy opens the closet, James pretends to be one of the stuffed animals within. This fools Timmy since his vision is distorted by wearing James' glasses, which are not prescribed for him. This doubles as a Furry Reminder since James is an anthropomorphic rabbit blending in as a stuffed one.
- Would Hit a Girl: While mimicking Molly's bullying, James pushes Amanda to get water.
Bud Tucker Compson
- Voiced by: Julie Lemieux
Ladonna's younger brother, who moves to Elwood City from Louisiana with his family in the pilot of season 16. The only kid in preschool who can actually cope with the Tibble twins.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: A rabbit who is a cute preschooler.
- Companion Cube: He has a toy dinosaur named Rapty, who, bizarrely, doubles as an Imaginary Friend.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Bud's Knotty Problem" is Bud's first episode which doesn't give equal or greater attention to D.W.
- Death Glare: Normally done to frighten the Tibble twins, in response to their making trouble.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Bud sometimes gets this from Ladonna.
- Mr. Imagination: Bud's presence augments D.W.'s creativity, inspiring her wildest ideas to date.
- Never Bareheaded: Ninety-nine percent of the time, he keeps his hat on. We do get to see him without his hat, but those instances can be counted on your fingers.
- Never My Fault:
- Downplayed. When Ladonna accuses him of spying on her, Arthur, and D.W.'s conservation in their debut episode, he claims that it was Rapty's idea, and therefore it's only "half [his] fault".
- In "Ladonna Compson: Party Animal", he blames Rapty for his eating the pie Ladonna was supposed to give Binky, claiming he's a “pie-nivore” dinosaur.
- New Transfer Student: He joined D.W.'s preschool class after moving to Elwood City from Louisiana.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Has been best friends with D.W. since his debut episode in Season 16.
- Put on a Bus: In "When Duty Calls", he moves away from Elwood City because of his father's military service but he leaves behind Rapty for D.W.. We don't know if he'll be back. Although he does show up in the series finale as an adult.
- Replacement Goldfish: We find out in "When Duty Calls" that his dinosaur plush, Rapty, is his second one. He left the first one behind when the Compsons moved from Guam.
- * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Bud and James (sensitive) and The Tibble Twins (manly).
- Staring Contest: Bud is undefeated; he can beat all of his siblings and scare off the Tibble twins.
- Tempting Fate: In The Teaser for "Bud's Knotty Problem", Bud says that there is nothing that he and D.W. can't do together. It turns out that Bud can't tie shoelaces, and D.W. can't teach him how to do it.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Bud's mom makes a deal with him, saying that she will buy him a new pair of boots with laces if he can learn how to tie them. Once Bud earns the boots, he tries them on and doesn't like them. Bud chooses a new pair of saddle shoes instead.
Vicita Molina
- Voiced by: Alison Wener
- Adventurer Outfit: Wears an explorer's outfit in her Dream Sequence in "Buenas Noches, Vicita" where she's searching for Uaica and the sleep tree in the jungle.
- Cute Kitten: Well, she is a preschool-aged anthropomorphic cat who is cute, so...
- Daydream Believer: In "Buenas Noches, Vicita", she seems to not only believe that the storyline of her favorite storybook, The Very Magic Mango Tree, is real but also that the events of the supposedly non-fictional story are retroactively altered by her own memories of it; when Arthur and D.W. create another copy of the book for her based on her memories of the story after the original goes missing, Vicita realizes that she ended the new copy of the story incorrectly by having the protagonist, Uaica, fall asleep in a tree instead of under it, and becomes worried that Uaica may fall down from the tree and hurt himself unless she goes to get him down. Justified since she's 3 and ⅞ years of age.
- A Day in the Limelight: Vicita is usually a secondary character, but "Buenas Noches, Vicita" has her in the limelight as she has to deal with Sleep Deprivation caused by the loss of her favorite bedtime storybook.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: After having a sleepless night in "Buenas Noches, Vicita," she comes to preschool the next day with visible bags underneath her eyes.
- Genki Girl: She's quite active, perhaps even more active than D.W.
- Girlish Pigtails: Tied with green, almost turquoise hair ties.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: "Buenas Noches, Vicita" reveals that she owns a whole bunch of stuffed animals and implies that she sleeps with a different one every night.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Because she hails from Ecuador, she has a tendency to pepper her speech with random Spanish words and phrases.
- Innocent Swearing: She learned the swear word that D.W. learned in "Bleep". Needless to say, she got into deep trouble for it.
- Insomnia Episode: "Buenas Noches, Vicita," which deals with her being unable to sleep after her favorite bedtime storybook, The Very Magic Mango Tree, goes missing.
- Non-Standard Character Design: While most characters in the show are drawn with black, round eyes with whites or just Black Bead Eyes, Vicita and her family have eyes that are realistically shaped for the animals they are (cats).
- Picky Eater: Her debut episode shows that, like Carl, she's sensitive about different types of foods on her plate coming into contact with one another.
Mei Lin Barnes
- Voiced by: Carrie Finlay
Binky's baby sister. A bear cub, she was adopted from China in the season 11 episode "Big Brother Binky." She mostly appears in Kate-related episodes.
- Beary Friendly: She's a bear and a sweet one at that. However, Kate points out that Mei Lin can be very cranky if she misses her nap.
- Brainy Baby: Despite being an infant the same age as Kate, she knows how to play the piano and spell "Hello" on a calculator.
- Culture Equals Costume: She was adopted from China and she always wears Chinese clothing.
- Happily Adopted: By the Barnes family.
- Interspecies Adoption: She's a bear cub adopted into a family of bulldogs.
- Morality Pet: Mei Lin's adoption has accelerated Binky's Character Development, which began in season 1.
Wilhelmina Dagmar "W.D." Merkle
- Voiced by: Raphael Cohen Demers
- Bears Are Bad News: Averted. While she may not get along with D.W., she does not appear to be a bad cub at heart.
- Boyish Short Hair: Like D.W., but hers is spikier. It highlights her status as a tomboy.
- Contrived Coincidence: The fact that she just so happens to be the complete opposite of D.W. in every way, right down to her initials being D.W.'s spelled backward!
- Dub Name Change: Legi in the Hebrew dub.
- Embarrassing First Name: One of the few things she does have in common with D.W. is that she hates her full first name, "Wilhelmina Dagmar", and prefers to be called by her initials instead.
- Foil: To D.W. Both are preschoolers who dislike their full names and prefer to go by the initials of their double-barreled first name, both have an Imaginary Friend (W.D.'s being an elephant named Maxine), and both are portrayed by a male voice actor. However, W.D. is a full-on tomboy as opposed to D.W., who is a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, is an only child while D.W. has two siblings, and likes broccoli, which D.W. hates.
- One-Shot Character: She and her parents only appear in "Best Enemies".
- Only Known by Initials: Just like D.W. Her full name is only mentioned once in the one episode she appears in.
- Sdrawkcab Name: As if she wasn't already the complete opposite of D.W. in enough ways, even her initials happen to be hers spelled backward!
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to D.W.'s Girly Girl. W.D. likes racecars while D.W. likes unicorns.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: She wears a white-and-blue baseball cap to show she is a tomboy.
Cheikh Diouf
- Beary Friendly: He is a young bear character who is very easy to get along with.
- Fanboy: Of the Senegalese professional wrestler, the Leaping Lion. In "Citizen Cheikh", he's afraid that he will have to give up being a fan of him (along with everything else related to Senegalese culture) when he officially becomes an American citizen.
- Given Name Reveal: His last name, Diouf, was not revealed until it was shown on the class roster in Arthur's First Day.
- New Transfer Student: He transferred to D.W.'s preschool class from Senegal.
- Remember the New Guy?: Despite being Brain's cousin, he was never seen or even mentioned until S14's "In My Africa".
Amanda Hulser
- Voiced by: Amariah Faulkner (in Season 16)
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In seasons 1-15, she wore a white jumper dress over a light blue shirt, but from season 16 onward, she's started wearing a dark blue jumper dress over a light gray shirt and gray pantyhose.
- Girlish Pigtails: Held up by light blue (pink starting from Season 16) scrunchies.
- Living Prop: She mostly appears only as set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
- Suddenly Voiced: Has been a part of the series as a Living Prop since the very first season, but wasn't voiced until season 16.
Maryann
- Ambiguously Related:
- She participates in The Brother and Sister Race with Fern in "Sue Ellen's Little Sister", but subsequent episodes seem to show Fern as an only child, not to mention Maryann's father (shown for the first time in "Cast Away") looks completely different from Fern's father. It is possible she is Fern's half-sister.
- She might possibly be Kyle Fitzpatrick's brother since his father is shown picking her up from preschool in "Bleep".
- Living Prop: She mostly appears only as set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
- No Full Name Given: Her last name was never revealed during the show's run.
- Precious Puppies: A cute preschool-aged dog.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Not her regular outfit, but while ice-skating, she wears a purple skirt over slightly lighter purple tights.
Kyle Fitzpatrick
A brown dog who is one of D.W.'s preschool classmates.
- Ambiguously Related: In "Bleep", Maryann's father is shown picking him up from preschool, implying he may be Maryann's brother.
- Given Name Reveal: His last name was not revealed until it was shown on the class roster in Arthur's First Day.
- Living Prop: He mostly appears only as set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
Sarah
- Inconsistent Spelling: Possibly. "Double Tibble Trouble" has the name "Sara" appear on a postcard, which might be an alternative spelling of her name. However, it's also possible that there's another preschooler whose name is spelled without the "H".
- Living Prop: She mostly appears only as set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
- No Full Name Given: Her last name might be "Terrasini" since that's her grandmother's last name, but that's only assuming that she's from Sarah's father's side and not her mother's.
Lucy
- Anime Hair: Her bangs resemble Big Ol' Eyebrows, which certainly makes her stand out despite her being a Living Prop.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: One cute little bunny.
- Living Prop: She mostly appears only as set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
- No Full Name Given: Her last name was never revealed during the show's run.
Lisa
- Voiced by: Melissa Altro
- Birthday Episode: "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood" takes place on her birthday.
- A Day in the Limelight: Aside from her plot-relevant role in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood", she is mostly a Living Prop.
- Living Prop: Aside from her Day in the Limelight in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood", she is mostly set-dressing for scenes set at the preschool.
- No Full Name Given: Her last name was never revealed during the show's run.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood", her not inviting D.W. to her birthday party is the cause of her titular bad mood.
Fatima Diallo
- Voiced by: Tianna Swami Nathan
- Bunnies for Cuteness: She might actually rival James in the cuteness department!
- Flat Character: She has no personality to speak of, only existing as a Living Prop for scenes set at the kindergarten.
- Living Prop: Only exists to populate scenes set at D.W.'s kindergarten.
- One-Shot Character: Appears only in Arthur's First Day.
- Youthful Freckles: She has three spots in a triangle shape on both of her cheeks.
Ryan Bostler-Jackson
- Voiced by: Simon Piros
- Black Bead Eyes: Is drawn with black dots for eyes.
- Flat Character: He does not really have much of a personality aside from his seeming dislike of liver.
- One-Shot Character: Appears only in Arthur's First Day.
- Stock "Yuck!": He is disgusted by Emily's pâté because he thinks it's a liver sandwich.
- Token Minority: As mentioned above, he is probably the only notable tapir character to appear in the series. "Nicked by a Nickname" also had an anthropomorphic tapir, but only in an imaginary sequence.
