Arthur and his classmates are shocked when Mr. Ratburn reveals that he's getting married. They worry, however, when it seems his fiancée is a Control Freak named Patty, and scheme to make Mr. Ratburn fall in love with someone else.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Ambiguously Gay: Patty Ratburn. It helps that Jane Lynch voices her. Perhaps it runs in the Ratburn family, hence her brother Nigel marrying Patrick.
- Aesop Amnesia: The kids have forgotten the past few times they've seen Mr. Ratburn have a life outside school. Heck, he stayed at Arthur's house for a few days when his roof collapsed.
- Big Sister Instinct: In hindsight, Patty's micromanaging of the wedding ceremony comes off as this when telling Nigel she wants him to have the "A+" wedding. Nigel's response comes off as less Henpecked Husband and more that she's the sibling equivalent to Amazingly Embarrassing Parents.
- Brick Joke: When Muffy shows off an app on her phone that turns people into New Age Retro Hippies with a picture of Buster, Buster takes a liking to how the app makes him look. He later wears the exact same outfit to Mr. Ratburn's wedding.
- The Bus Came Back: Ms. Rodentia Ratburn, from "Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble," appears at the front of the wedding aisle sobbing Tears of Joy. This is the first time she has appeared in over twenty years.
- Call-Back: Muffy had previously written a letter with terrible grammar in "Francine Goes to War."
- Chekhov's Gunman: The chocolatier who gives Francine and Arthur free samples ends up being Mr. Ratburn's fiancé and then his husband.
- Cool Big Sis: For all her Control Freak tendencies, Patty ultimately just wants what's best for her brother and his fiancé and wants the wedding to be perfect for them. She promises to do the same thing for her sister, Rodentia.
- Faux Horrific: At the end of the episode, Francine says there is one thing teachers should never do. She then points to Mr. Ratburn and Patrick dancing like dorks to Disco music.
- Gasp!: The kids do this twice; once when Mr. Ratburn announce he's getting married, and second when they see him and Patty talking.
- Imagine Spot:
- Buster tells his friends that teachers don't have lives as he imagines Mr. Ratburn eating kale and plotting an assignment where students have to write a 600 word essay on the color gray.
- Fearing that Patty is going to toughen up Mr. Ratburn, Arthur imagines him turning into a Hulk-esque monster the next time he turns in a wrong assignment.
- It's All About Me: At first, the kids decide to stop the wedding because they're worried that Patty will make Mr. Ratburn tougher, which means more schoolwork.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Muffy has an app that turns people into this.
- Not What It Looks Like: Patty makes her appearance micromanaging Mr. Ratburn's wedding and berating the Sugar Bowl wait staff. The kids fear that she's his fiancée and will "toughen" Mr. Ratburn up. It later turns out that Patty is Mr. Ratburn's sister and is the one helping him plan his wedding and ends up officiating it as well.
- One-Steve Limit: There is a Patty and a Patrick; Patty is Mr. Ratburn's older sister and Patrick is his fiancé.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mr. Ratburn is normally a Stern Teacher. He actually picks up his phone when it rings loudly in class, right when he's about to administer a pop quiz. Understandably, the kids are shocked. After he's done with his phone conversation, Mr. Ratburn apologizes for taking the call. He reveals to his students that he's getting married.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Mr. Ratburn marrying a man is the first instance of the series making it clear that he is gay.
- Relative Error: The kids initially assume that Patty is Mr. Ratburn's fiancée, but it later turns out that Patty is his older sister and that she was Mr. Ratburn's wedding planner/officiator.
- The Reveal: Mr. Ratburn is revealed to be gay.
- Shout-Out:
- Mr. Ratburn has a book of love poems by Pablo Neruda.
- In one of the episode's Imagine Spots, Mr. Ratburn transforms into a Hulk-like monster when he sees that Arthur has misplaced a comma.
- Students Playing Matchmaker: The episode's main premise revolves around Arthur and his friends attempting to get Mr. Ratburn together with another woman, intending to lure him away from Patty.
- Sucks at Dancing: Mr. Ratburn and his new husband, Patrick, have this in common at the end of the episode, dancing to Disco music no less! Francine lampshades that teachers should never do that.
- This Explains So Much: The kids have this reaction when they discover that Patty is Mr. Ratburn's sister and not his fiancée.
- Very Special Episode: Homosexuality can be a tough topic to discuss to kids. You gotta give props to the show for tackling such a topic to normalize lesbian and gay relationships.
- Wham Line: Patty was believed to be the person marrying Mr. Ratburn until she says this in the climax.Patty: Nothing's too good for my baby brother, Nigey!
- Wham Shot: When the kids learn that Patty is Mr. Ratburn's older sister, they wonder who Mr. Ratburn is marrying. Cue Patrick and Nigel walking down the aisle together.
Arthur and Buster fight over a video game, and have "teams" backing them up. Even after Arthur and Buster get over the argument, everyone else wants to be mad anyways.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Call-Back: Just like in "The Squirrels," Binky is late to a class-wide panic.
- Easily Forgiven: Arthur and Buster quickly make up when they meet up in their teams' snow forts, and after rebuilding the barricade.
- Feud Episode: This is expected from the title of the episode.
- Game Night Fight: Arthur goes over to Buster's house to play a Fictional Video Game. When the game crashes, Buster unplugs the console despite Arthur's objections, and Arthur insists that he only quit because he was losing. This argument gets recounted at school, where everyone begins to take sides and divides their friend group.
- I Lied: There was no snow castle-building contest judged by the mayor. It was a ruse to get the two groups to stop fighting.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: When Binky finds out why his friends are split into different groups:Binky: You won't even have lunch together, because of a...game?
- My God, What Have I Done?: Arthur and Buster both have a very subtle one when they realize venting their frustrations about the video game to their friends causes the entire friend group to split into separate groups.
- Nonstandard Character Design: One of the characters in Buster's game is an anthropomorphic aardvark that has a long snout like a real aardvark, instead of looking like Arthur.
- Only Sane Man: Binky is the only one who didn't get caught in the feud and he, along with Arthur and Buster, wants both groups to stop fighting.
- Out of Character: Brain, the more sensible one out of the main cast, gets involved in the whole "Arthur vs. Buster" plight.
- "Rashomon"-Style: Arthur claims that Buster unplugged the console on purpose, while Buster thinks Arthur intentionally froze the game.
- Stopped Caring: Both boys stopped caring about the video game incident and leave their respective teams to join Binky, who wants this whole feud to stop.
- Take a Third Option: Fed up with the other kids arguing over a coin toss to decide which group Binky will stay in, Binky decides to form his own team. "Team Binky."
- What the Hell, Hero?: Francine and Muffy tell off Buster and Arthur for accepting food from the latter and giving said food to the former. That is until both boys leave their teams to join Binky, the only one not participating in the fight.Francine:: (to Buster) What are you doing?! Accepting food from Arthur?!Arthur: What's wrong with that? He was hungry!Muffy: Is that what he told you?Francine: Next time, if you need a sandwich, come to someone on you're own team.Arthur: This feud has gone on too far, when I can't offer my friend a grilled vegetable with goat cheese sandwich.
