History Fridge / Arthur

* When James was playing "king" in "[[Recap/ArthurS15E3BustersSecretAdmirerTheLastKingOfLambland The Last King of Lambland]]," the password needed to enter his "throne room" was "ridiculous." Since James was "king," the password was presumably selected by him, indicating that deep down, he knew all along that [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism his behavior in that episode]] was ridiculous.
** It's also possible that the Tibbles said that James "needed" a password and that he responded by saying that the suggestion was ridiculous, which they took to mean that "ridiculous" was ''literally'' the password he'd selected.

* George's friendship with Carl Gould: Carl isn't shown to have any friends before meeting George and is established to have [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome Asperger's Syndrome]] when he is introduced. Suddenly, the two start to develop a connection and bond over the weekend, their friendship continuing into a later episode, "Carl's Concerto". A neurotypical kid like George having a close friendship with a neurologically challenged peer may sound out of the ordinary, but when one remembers that George himself had [[ButtMonkey been a victim of Binky's bullying in the earlier seasons and forgotten/ignored by the rest of his peers]], it makes sense that he'd be on friendly terms with the vulnerable.
** George has dyslexia. He is, by definition, not neurotypical.

** That was fifteen years prior; Arthur probably mocked this sweater because he thought it was bizarrely different.

* How come D.W. doesn't fully understand what a wedding is in "[[Recap/ArthurS14E2TheAgentOfChangeDWUntiesTheKnot D.W. Unties the Knot]]" (she initially thinks it's just a fancy party and doesn't realize it means actually marrying another person), even though she already attended one in "[[Recap/ArthurS1E25DWThinksBigArthurCleansUp D.W. Thinks Big]]" and saw her aunt get married? D.W. references the events of "D.W. Thinks Big" in the episode, so it's not a case of OutOfOrder, either.

* In the episode "D.W. And Bud's Higher Purpose", D.W. and Bud spend the entire episode trying to be tall enough to ride a roller coaster, At the end they're finally allowed on, but are too scared to ride it and want off. If they had stayed on, they could have been seriously injured or killed considering they weren't tall enough for the ride in the first place!
** Has the ticket taker who let them on the ride without checking their height neglected to check the height of other kids in the past? Were ''those'' kids seriously injured or killed because of his negligence?

* In the episode "DW And Bud's Higher Purpose" DW and Bud spend the entire episode trying to be tall enough to ride a roller coaster, At the end they're finally allowed on, but are too scared to ride it and want off. If they had stayed on, they could have been seriously injured or killed considering they weren't tall enough for the ride in the first place!

* Is ''Bionic Bunny'' a cartoon or a live action show? It's apparent that Dark Bunny's animated, and both take place in the same universe.
** I believe in one episode (I think it's Arthur's Eyes) we see a behind the scenes of Bionic Bunny and since I think we see Willbur Rabbit take off the hat-to put his glasses on.

* In "To Eat or Not to Eat", the Big Boss bars were extremely addictive and toxic, meaning that the main ingredient was basically a recreational drug. Which means it most likely caused brain damage when it was eaten...and almost every kid in the school was addicted to them...
** It's also rather horrific to imagine a bunch of elementary-school age CHILDREN going through the nightmare of withdrawals.

** Possibly even worse, said bars were apparently toxic to the point that their creator ran rather than eat one. And ''radioactive''. And, as stated before, hundreds of kids were eating them nonstop. And they are probably still being eaten by some. Dear Lord....

* Fern's a dog and like other female characters she doesn't have hair on her head, just ears. How come her mom has a full head of hair?

* The Brain is terrified of water... and yet one of the title cards (which is an expy of a different title card featuring Arthur) features him swimming by the audience...

* Because D.W. uses aliases when discussing her wedding plans with Muffy in "[[Recap/ArthurS14E2TheAgentOfChangeDWUntiesTheKnot D.W. Unties the Knot]]", the other characters assume that "Dee Woo" and "King James" are adults and set up an official wedding for the two of them. This means that if D.W. and James had said "I do" at the wedding party, the marriage would have become ''legally binding''. If D.W. had never discovered what a wedding actually entails before she went through with it, Elwood City would have been dealing with its first case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage child marriage]]!

* The Brain is terrified of water...and yet one of the title cards (which is an expy of a different title card featuring Arthur) features him swimming by the audience...

** While the dollar coins were never removed from circulation (and have since been revived), the United States does still produce fifty-cent pieces in small numbers. Three half-dollars plus two quarters would equal two dollars.

* Fridge-Heartwarming: "D.W. and the Beastly Birthday" puts in perspective on ''[[FreudianExcuse why]]'' she likes pestering or tagging along with Arthur, despite that they lock horns so much. If the extended ImagineSpot is any indication, she sees her friends as being (relatively) [[BirdsOfAFeather like-minded]] to her. While not necessarily a bad thing, for D.W., it gets old after a while. On the other hand, you have "Ruthra" (Arthur) who is "untamed" by her ideas of fun and does his own thing. Deep down, she [[BigBrotherWorship admires]] her brother for standing out in her little world of things going her way.

* While Brain was definitely holding the IdiotBall in "War of the Worms", his sudden belief in the giant worm invasion hoax set up by Fern and Binky actually makes sense due to a CallBack. He admitted in the early episode "Arthur's Big Sleepover" that the thing that scared him the most (at least at the time) was a film called ''Navy Versus The Nightcrawler''-which was, of course, about a giant worm invading.
* More Brain Brilliance: the season one episode "Arthur's Spelling Trubble" features a spelling bee in which Brain misspells the word fear. At first it seems like nerves caused him to misspell such an easy word, but he may have purposefully misspelled it to get off of the stage and out of the spotlight.
* The premiere episode of Season 18 is about Muffy's search for her imaginary friend. In the course of the episode, Muffy dreams about going on a quest to find that friend, complete with a ShoutOut to ''The Wizard of Oz.'' In the course of this, she runs into a doll with features so flat they are zombie-esque. The doll's name is Pretty Penny, and her dress is covered with monetary symbols. Muffy learns that money and the things that come with it--toys, gadgets, and so forth--have conquered her imagination. Pretty Penny not only stands in as a symbol for all this, but has cost Muffy a ''pretty penny'' in terms of emotional and creative development.
* The episode "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"- Binky's nightmare may seem like a simple ImagineSpot to drive the episode forward. Now, remember the thing about him getting nightmares if he sleeps without a night light that was established in the season 2 episode "Night Fright". The scene that cements it? When he wakes up, a corner shot shows the night light missing from the wall socket. Why? Because in this episode, he was trying to act all grown up.

* From "Prunella's Prediction" - Arthur is embarrassed by his snowsuit, which is based on a superhero named "Mr. Puffy" that his dad was a fan of, and indeed Arthur understandably thinks that Mr. Puffy and his two sidekicks Land Fish (exactly what it sounds like) and Legal Eagle ("half-lawyer half-bird", according to Grandma Thora) are ridiculous. He's placated when Prunella reveals that they're ''[[PoesLaw supposed]]'' to be ridiculous. The fridge brilliance comes in when you look back on the three characters. A giant green marshmallow man? A lawyer with an eagle's head? A walking fish who eats bugs? No one could take such superheroes seriously--so of course, we're not expected to!

* "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone" features Patty, who is Nigel's older sister and not his fiancee, micromanaging the wedding and insisting it has to be perfect. A sign of her ControlFreak nature? Definitely, as she admits. It could also be that with her little brother being gay, she wants to protect him from possible homophobia or TamperingWithFoodAndDrink from potential caterers. Patty is organizing the wedding to shield Nigel from less-than-happy bakers and florists. Heck, maybe the wedding took a long time to arrange because she ran into those people before.

* At first it seems like a major JerkassBall moment when Arthur [[BackhandedApology accuses Sue Ellen of overreacting in his apology note]] and continues to make the jokes in "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh". However, there might have been a reason for it-- he was probably being defensive at Mr. Ratburn's use of the term "bully" to describe his behaviour-- after all, that word has some serious negative connotations, and you can't blame him for being defensive.

* The "Giant Slime" comic in "Draw!" has all of the students cheer when the math teacher is eaten. Why is not ''one'' of them unhappy? Well, it was written by Buster, who's [[BookDumb very much not the academic type]].

** *Giggle* Don't be silly - they probably just lost contact somewhere down the line. Heck, my own parents lost all contact with their old school-friends until Website/{{Facebook}} was invented!

* In "Never Never Never" D.W. gives her toys to the Tibbles. She regrets her decision and asks for them back, but they only give back the ones they already used. Arthur comes along and demands they return D.W.'s toys and we hear an argument. When the argument ends, Arthur walks out of their house with D.W.'s toys, but his glasses are broken. What happened?

** They're not anxiety dreams in the TV Tropes sense. Our definition of AnxietyDreams is dreams based on fear of future events. And he outright says why he has nightmares in "Night Fright"-- he's [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes afraid of the dark]].

* In "D.W. and the Beastly Birthday," D.W. is transported to the magical island of Ukubonga. Monster versions of her party guests -- Bud, Emily, and the Tibbles -- meet her on the island. This is fine, but later in the special, Arthur is revealed to have went to Ukubonga when he was younger. Francine and Buster are attending the party, and yet for some reason, he encounters the monster versions of D.W.'s friends. Additionally, this happened before Bud moved to Elwood City and met D.W., so there's no reason for him to have been there as D.W. wouldn't have known him yet.

* At first glance, the main title sequence with Brain dangling his feet in the pool doesn't seem to make sense since a season two episode established that Brain is [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes pathologically afraid of]] water. However, his fear of water might explain why Brain then mistakes Mr. Ratburn for a shark and has such a frightened reaction.
** I thought he stopped being afraid of water in that episode?
** Maybe he's afraid of water ''because'' he's afraid of sharks.
* In the episode "Meet Binky" the kids meet the Finnish band Binky who turn out to be holograms. We do see them in the background from time to time, meaning the holograms are based on real people.

** In hindsight, every episode where Arthur opposed D.W. or made it clear he didn't want to cater to her whims (but tried his best to be [[PetTheDog a good big brother]] all the while), ''[[HeartwarmingInHindsight it was an investment]]''. She's come to subconsciously respect Arthur because he's proven to her time and time again that [[TheYesman agreeing all the time]] isn't the same as caring for someone or being a good friend.

** In hindsight, every episode where Arthur opposed D.W. or made it clear he didn't want to cater to her whims (but tried his best to be [[PetTheDog a good big brother]] all the while), ''[[HeartwarmingInHindsight it was an investment]]''. She's come to subconsciously respect Arthur because he's proven to her time and time again that [[TheYesMan agreeing all the time]] isn't the same as caring for someone or being a good friend.

** Even if the Big Boss bars were banned...addicts don't give up their habit that easily. Considering that [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything some children were seen buying as many as possible and hoarding them, with others even functioning as "dealers",]] there are probably quite a few Big Boss bars still floating around. That CorruptCorporateExecutive may have [[MoralEventHorizon introduced a whole new drug trade]], one [[AdultFear predominantly catering to young children]]. And no one even seems concerned about this...
** Possibly even worse, said bars were apparently toxic to the point that their creator ran rather than eat one. And ''radioactive''. And, as stated before, hundreds of kids were eating them nonstop. And they are probably still being eaten by some. [[AdultFear Dear Lord....]]