Attack of the Turbo Tibbles
After Arthur asks for the Tibble Twins and D.W. to quiet down so he can do homework, the boys accidentally see a violent cartoon on television. Jane turns off the television, but the Tibbles start dressing as the characters and starting fights at school. D.W. and Emily hate this, especially since the twins see them as the villains.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adults Are Useless: Miss Morgan is the only one who calls a time-out on the the Tibbles' fighting, while Mrs. Tibble does nothing to stop the boys and lets them watch the show every day. By the time she does put her foot down, the boys are already apologetic. Justified in that she is old and spoils them rotten.
- Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: The Tibble Twins become very obsessed with Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team to the point of constantly pretending to be the main characters, dressing up as them and sometimes attempting to detach their heads from their bodies like the characters do on the show. The main lesson of the episode is that you can't do everything a cartoon character does since they aren't real.
- Company Cross References: When the Tibble Twins look for something to watch on TV at the Reads' house, they come across a spoof of The Busy World of Richard Scarry, featuring Huckle Bat and his friend Loomy. The show was produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment (a.k.a. Cinar), the same company that originally produced Arthur. Timmy claims the show is "too busy and not scary."
- Another one, probably unintentional, occurs during an episode of the Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team show the Tibbles are watching at their house. When one of the robots' heads breaks into the whale villains' hideout, the shocked "Ay yi yi!" the whales cry out is recycled from The Busy World of Richard Scarry in the "Couscous" stories when Pepe Le Gangster and his Dirty Rats are captured.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- D.W. tells Arthur that if he hadn't complained about the boys being loud, they wouldn't have seen the show in the first place.
- It's also implied that the Tibbles wouldn't have done half of the things they did "in character" had they simply been told beforehand that the show wasn't real.
- Easily Forgiven: D.W. forgives the boys for putting her in the hospital after they come and apologize. It may have had to do with them crying out of fear that she was dying.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Mercifully, since this is a kid's show, we don't see D.W.'s injury after Timmy hits her in the mouth with a swing. Emily does, though, and goes Oh, Crap! before running to get help.
- Mood Whiplash:
- In-Universe, the Tibble Twins are going about their imaginary game when they shoot a "laser" at whale D.W., which takes the form of shoving a swing at the real D.W. The game quickly grows serious when this leads to D.W.'s lip being split, as Emily panics that her friend is bleeding.
- Timmy hits D.W. so hard that her lip splits and she needs stitches at the hospital. The twins are horrified that they might have accidentally killed her. Soon the background music changes, however, when Mrs. Tibble reveals that D.W. is "alive" and they owe her an apology. When the boys come to her apologizing, D.W. happily snarks that they cried more than she did.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After hitting D.W. in the face with a swing, Tommy and Timmy deeply regret their actions. They seriously fear that they killed her and hide in the garage. When they apologize to D.W., she says they are crying more than she did.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After D.W. gets badly injured and begins crying from the twins' latest shenanigans as the "Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team", they briefly try to go on with their pretend game. But after a distressed Emily runs to get help, one of them takes off his helmet during their Imagine Spot, as he's starting to realize they may have gone too far.
- Recycled Animation: When the Tibbles see the Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team show for the first time, one shot in the series reuses the Earth-Shattering Kaboom from the "Planet Smasher" video game in the earlier episode, "Arthur Goes Crosswire".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Something that D.W. points out as to why she got hurt: cartoon characters can toss each other around without needing stitches because they aren't real. Timmy was thinking that he was hitting D.W. with a laser, and didn't consider that people are squishy when a swing whacks them in the face. The boys apologize. And even with stitches, D.W. speaks in a garbled voice and complains that it still hurts.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Arthur advises D.W. that she should stand her ground against the Tibble Twins and reasonably tell them they're annoying everyone with their antics. When she tries, Timmy hits her in the mouth with a playground swing.
- Wham Line: Emily delivers it when she checks on a crying D.W.: "Blood! MRS. TIBBLE, D.W.'s face is bleeding! I THINK IT'S BROKEN!" This in-universe makes the twins run off in a panic, realizing they went too far.
D.W. Tricks the Tooth Fairy
D.W. wants to buy a clothes barn for her unicorn toy, but doesn't have enough money saved up. She gets an idea after Arthur tells her about the tooth fairy and tries to lose a tooth to get some dollars. Arthur eventually catches on, and tries to figure out how to keep D.W. and the tooth fairy happy.
Tropes for this episode include
- Call-Back: D.W. tries to emulate Arthur to get rid of a tooth. Her attempts go as south as his antics did.
- Continuity Nod:
- D.W. tells her unicorn that she wishes the U.F.O had been real so she could use the money.
- Jane takes D.W. to see the dentist when she claims that her teeth hurt. The dentist as he reassured Arthur said that D.W.'s teeth are fine.
- Continuity Snarl: D.W. doesn't have enough money to buy a toy clothes barn, when in season one she was established as good at managing money where Arthur is involved and that she already owns the barn in question.
- Maintain the Lie: Arthur swaps his dollar for D.W.'s shark tooth so that she won't be any the wiser and the Tooth Fairy won't be upset. The problem is he leaves it by her bed so she can use the shark tooth the next night.
- Sequel Episode: This episode can be considered a spiritual successor to "Arthur's Tooth", both dealing with similar themes and setpieces.
