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Fanfic / Proper Discipline

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Proper Discipline is an Arthur Dark Fic written by a man called "Snape is Philosophy" that deconstructs D.W.'s infamous reputation as a Bratty Half-Pint Karma Houdini.

Arthur and his baby sister Kate are both in the custody of their aunt and uncle, their sister D.W. is institutionalized as a ward of the state, and their parents are separated. How did it come to this?

Four months ago, the Read parents were on the verge of separating due to differing views on how to raise their middle child, D.W., whose behavior had only gotten worse the older she's gotten. Only in kindergarten, she was already expelled for deafening Tommy Tibble, but she just insisted that it was an accident. While her mother was such a pushover that she believed her, her father and brother knew it was purposeful. D.W.'s behavior eventually reached a head when she reacted to missing the Mary Moo Cow Goes to Italy special by throwing a flammable object in the oven and letting the house burn down. This resulted in her grandmother Thora being accidentally killed, her family splitting apart, D.W. herself put in a mental institution, and even a major drug trafficking ring that the Feds have been searching for some time unraveling, outing seemingly-nice people as cold-blooded criminals.


This fanfic provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Heroism/Adaptational Nice Guy: The Tibbles aren't shown to be as bratty as they often are in the series (however, that might be because they mellowed with age).
  • Adaptational Jerkass/Adaptational Villainy: Where do we start?
    • D.W.'s self-entitlement has increased heavily and she's much more aggressive than she was at age four. She deafened Tommy Tibble in the middle of a fight with a teacher, and set her house on fire simply because her parents didn't record a show, and didn't show a hint of remorse until she learned Thora was killed.
    • Downplayed with Jane, who initially enables D.W. by constantly making excuses for her behavior and accusing David of being an Abusive Parent for actually trying to give her proper discipline, when she herself exhibited the exact same behavior towards Arthur, but is implied to feel remorse for that.
    • Mr. Ratburn stole the Tibbles' grandmother's identity to buy a yacht. He also attempted to murder Ed Crosswire with Millicent's help and then frame David, and confessed to possessing assault-style weaponry and high-grade explosives.
    • Ed himself is abusive towards his wife.
    • Mo's parents are involved with the mafia. By Chapter 15, they've graduated to Big Bad Duumvirate, causing Arthur, Kate, and Mo to have to go into Witness Protection.
    • The entire Crosswire family (sans Muffy, who now has to go into Witness Protection thanks to all the enemies the Crosswires made who would either want her dead or try to recruit her) is involved in a major drug trafficking ring centered in Miami.
    • Chapter 11 heavily implies that Bo Baxter, Buster's father, is involved in said drug trafficking ring. The next chapter has Buster and Bitzi swear not to tell the police.
    • In Chapter 12, Chip Crosswire sends a team of armed men to the Elwood City Police Station to assassinate his father in prison so he can take his place in the drug trafficking ring.
    • Chapter 14 reveals Bailey, the Crosswires' butler, is a double-agent working for the mafia.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: Mr. Ratburn had an affair with Millicent Crosswire. The chapter was written before Season 22 confirmed that Ratburn is canonically either gay or bisexual.
  • Affably Evil: Despite being a criminal, Mr. Ratburn mostly keeps his polite personality.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: After Ed Crosswire is murdered by Chip, Mr. Ratburn asks to celebrate his death with fireworks, toffee peanuts, and even "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" before his interrogation.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification D.W.'s Nightmare Sequence prominently features her future manifesting itself as a woman, and even a judge at the end of it.
  • Apathetic Teacher: The teacher who replaces Mr. Ratburn, Miss Strauss, is said in Chapter 15 to barely do her job at all, having the class watch video tapes instead of actually teaching them, mixes up papers, hands out the wrong assignments, and is somehow dumb enough to think Buster and the Brain are the same person. Chapter 17 reveals she's a Lazy Bum who's truly apathetic and uses the tapes as an excuse to play computer games.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 17, D.W. continues refusing to admit to having nightmares about the fire, only to be left speechless when Vanessa, one of the other children in the mental institution, asks if her nightmares are about it.
  • Attention Whore: D.W. turned up the sound system specifically to get her teacher's attention, even going as far to say that nobody's allowed to ignore her. She gets more than she bargained for, yet she doesn't care since Jane enables her.
  • Bad Liar: At the end of Chapter 13, Ben and Loretta inform Mo that they are going to Washington on a business trip. Mo sees right through their bullshit, having already found a roundtrip ticket from Elwood City to Miami, and is in no doubt that they're going there due to mafia business related to the drug-trafficking ring having been exposed to the feds. Chapter 15 reveals that they actually WERE going to go to Washington D.C. on business, but said business was to assassinate someone; they ended up going rogue and flying to Miami instead to take over the drug ring by playing multiple sides and hoping to profit from the destruction.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: In Chapter 8, Arthur is told by George's cousin Bill that nobody in West Falls is truly innocent. Mo later confirms this by telling Arthur that outside of her, it'd be better to not trust anyone, even Bill.
  • Basement-Dweller: Jane Read becomes a Gender Inverted example when she moves in with her father. Also justified, as she has nowhere else to go after the Read family home was burned down by D.W..
  • Blatant Lies: In reaction to her parents' lies, Mo is able to lie her way through the conversation, and unlike her, her parents buy it hook, line, and sinker.
  • Burger Fool: After moving back in with her father, Jane is forced to get a job at Chicken Planet, a fast food chain that specializes in fried chicken, doesn't pay very well, and is staffed by ex-farmers and kids with no future.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Samuel, one of Chicken Planet's regular customers, keeps coming close to asking Jane on a date, but never succeeds.
  • Cool Big Sis: Although she's his cousin, Mo pretty much takes on this role towards Arthur, doing things like playing Monopoly with him (Arthur wins by bankrupting Mo with a hotel on Boardwalk), making him a smoothie, and taking him and Kate to the park and looking at his new school. When Arthur finds out that West Falls is a mob town, Mo assures him that she is in no way affiliated with the mafia, he can trust her 100%, and she can barely stand the town's status and is extremely close to her Rage Breaking Point.
  • Creepy Gym Coach: The soccer coach Mr. King is said by Arthur's friend Bill to like kids "a little too much". It turns out this was just a cover story for him being an FBI agent.
  • Dark Fic: The main theme is D.W. turning into an outright Enfant Terrible, but there are also other elements such as the Reads having a messy divorce, attempted murder, and a massive drug-trafficking ring centered in Miami and involving several characters such as Mr. Ratburn, the entire Crosswire family (sans Muffy), Arthur's aunt and uncle, and possibly Buster's father.
  • Death by Adaptation: Thora dies in the fire D.W. started.
  • Deconstruction Fic: The fic deconstructs D.W.'s behavior and personality. Instead of mellowing with age, she just gets even more spoiled and bratty. It soon turns into a serious problem, culminating in her family self-destructing because of her (and inadvertently outing many people who are portrayed as nice people in canon as cold-blooded criminals).
  • Disabled in the Adaptation:
    • In canon, D.W. is a Spoiled Brat but not mentally ill. Proper Discipline has her diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
    • Tommy Tibble is rendered permanently deaf thanks to D.W. turning up the volume on a sound system in kindergarten in a fit of rage against her teacher simply because said teacher turned her back on her. As a result, Timmy is forced to hang out with Pal more (Arthur couldn't take Pal to West Falls due to him being allergic to the pollen).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: D.W. dishes three of them out in the story:
    • The plot is kickstarted by her setting her house on fire, killing her grandmother and endangering her family, just because nobody recorded the Mary Moo Cow Goes to Italy special for her.
    • It's revealed that five months before that, she was told by her teacher to stop her misbehavior before her teacher just gave up and ignored her. D.W.'s reaction was to go to the sound system and turn the volume to the maximum level, resulting in Tommy Tibble being rendered permanently deaf.
    • According to a flashback of Chapter 7, after Arthur, who was annoyed by the Crazy Bus song, took her CD, she chased him into the kitchen, threw a wine glass at him (fortunately missing him), and seemed unable to relent.
  • Domestic Abuse: Ed is physically abusive towards his wife.
  • Fainting: Jane fainted upon realising that D.W set the house on fire.
  • Faking the Dead: Mr. Ratburn planned on doing this with Millicent, after killing Ed and framing David. D.W. coincidentally burned down the family home before they could put their plan into action.
  • Heel Realization: In Chapter 9, Timmy is revealed to have regretted his initial attitude towards Tommy.
    • Certain parts of the story show that Arthur's parents are really guilty for their questionable parenting and its ramifications.
  • Hidden Depths: Chapter 16 implies that D.W. might be feeling more guilty about her actions than she's letting on.
  • Hollywood Psych: D.W. is diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder by Dr. Paula (the character voiced by Idina Menzel in the hurricane episode). It's also suggested that she might have Histrionic Personality Disorder. The problem is her age: she's only six. Children aren't diagnosed with personality disorders, and the few that are diagnosed are in their teens. A six year-old cannot be legitimately diagnosed with NPD (which generally begins in early adulthood, at that).
  • Ignored Epiphany: In Chapter 13, D.W. is told to think of something she regrets. While she initially thinks of the consequences of her anger towards missing the Mary Moo Cow special, she eventually realizes she regrets not seeing it more.
  • Inkblot Test: In Chapter 10, Dr. Paula has D.W. and two other patients look at these. D.W. isn't sure what's on one of them but sees three groups of butterflies on the other.
  • Innocently Insensitive: After Jane scolds Arthur for supposedly blaming his sister after a bad day in a flashback, Arthur replies that she ruined Tommy Tibble's life. Jane answers that he's exaggerating and that just because he's deaf now, it doesn't mean his life is ruined.
  • It's All About Me: D.W.'s modus operandi as she got older. She genuinely believes the world revolves around her, and that everyone must pay attention to her at all costs. This line of thinking ends with the deafening of Tommy Tibble, her expulsion from kindergarten, the destruction of her social life, her house burned down, Arthur and Kate in a mob town (though at least their situation is a little better off, thanks to having Mo on their side), her parents separated and on the verge of divorce, her grandmother dead, herself in a mental institution, and Elwood City slowly falling apart at the seams as seemingly-friendly people are outed as cold-blooded criminals involved in a massive crime ring.
  • Lethal Chef: The new chef who takes over for Mrs. MacGrady after she quit to protest Mr. Haney's firing (said to be damage control on the board's part) is this, preparing food that's barely edible and nauseatingly greasy or bland and tasteless.
  • I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy:
    • In Chapter 3, Bitzi, not wanting to spoil Buster's excitement about his trip to Miami, is forced to lie to him about Arthur's whereabouts, feeling guilt all the way.
    • When telling Arthur about his new school, Mo tells him it's a good school. When confronted about it by him, she admits she had to say it because she didn't want Arthur to learn the true nature of West Falls, knowing that he wouldn't take it well.
  • The Mafia: The town of West Falls is virtually run by the mafia, and most citizens, even Arthur's aunt Loretta and uncle Ben, are in the mafia as well.
  • Malicious Misnaming: D.W. has taken to condescendingly referring to her older brother as "Artie".
  • Mature Animal Story: The fic is an adult-aimed fic set in a World of Funny Animals. D.W. is an Enfant Terrible and many of the other characters aren't much better.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: Mr. King invokes this trope on himself as his cover story for being an FBI agent.
  • Nightmare Sequence: In Chapter 16, D.W. has one where a court consisting of an Anthropomorphic Personification of her future and people she knows, including Grandma Thora, sentences her to insanity for life for burning her house and killing the latter.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Brain has this reaction when Miss Strauss tells him that she wants to see him after school.
    • Chip has the same reaction when he realizes that Ben and Loretta have hacked into his jet.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: In Chapter 6, D.W. actually refers to herself as "Dora Winifred Read" during her classroom temper tantrum, even though she hates her full name in canon.
  • Pædo Hunt: Mr. King, the soccer coach of West Falls Educational Building, is all but said to be a pedophile by Arthur's new friend Bill. Chapter 15 reveals that this is a cover story to explain Mr. King's absences, as he is actually an FBI agent.
  • Patricide: In Chapter 12, Chip Crosswire sends a team of gunmen to the Elwood City Police Station to assassinate his father Ed in prison. He did it mostly so he could take his place in the Miami drug ring, but Ratburn theorizes he may have also been partially motivated by Revenge for Ed's Domestic Abuse towards Millicent and embarrassing the drug ring.
  • Picky Eater: D.W. will only eat a peanut butter sandwich if it fulfills the following criteria: one slice of bread has chunky peanut butter and one slice has smooth, the crusts have been cut off, the sandwich has been cut into triangles, a specific brand of white bread has been used, the sandwiches have been stacked on top of her potato chips, and the chips themselves have been microwaved for twenty seconds.
  • Supreme Chef: Aline Deem Kamman, who is said to be one of the most acclaimed chefs in the world, and who runs the Elwood Culinary Academy, which David starts attending in Chapter 11.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nadine gives a rather poignant one to D.W. in Chapter 8.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: D.W.'s little stunt ends up unintentionally exposing a large criminal organization in Elwood City that upends the lives of many and exposes others as cold-blooded criminals.
  • We Used to Be Friends:
    • After D.W. burns her house down and kills Grandma Thora, Nadine (who had been trying to get her to improve her behavior) has had enough and temporarily abandons her. She eventually visits her in the mental hospital, but only to give her a speech on how her behavior has affected other people and how she can only improve if she listens to Dr. Paula, before abandoning her for good.
    • After D.W. causes Tommy to go deaf, Timmy is absolutely furious at her and outright mutters to himself that he hates her after he contemplates how he can't interact with his brother anymore due to having trouble learning sign language.
    • Pal is, as shown in a flashback prompted by overhearing Timmy's aforementioned declaration, horrified and disappointed by D.W. destroying the family, and Baby Kate is implied to think the same at another point of the story.
    • Even D.W.'s canon best friend, Emily, isn't happy with her for making Tommy go deaf and shakes her head in disapproval before her teacher takes her to the principal.
  • Witness Protection: Muffy is the only Crosswire not to face any charges, due to the fact she was genuinely out of the loop. Because of the amount of enemies the Crosswires have made over the years, Muffy is put in a WitSec program. Chapter 13 reveals her new identity is Regina K. Johnson, who lives at 542 Sunset Avenue in Lihue, Hawaii.
    • Later, in Chapter 15, Arthur, Kate, and Mo are put into a WitSec program as well after Mr. King and Beatrice, who are actually FBI agents, tell Mo that her parents have gone rogue from the mafia and intend to take over the entire drug ring.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
    • D.W. often did this to Jane, implyingly telling her she tripped on a headphone while Tommy Tibble was next to it and later claiming she wasn't hungry when asked if she had asked Arthur to make her a sandwich, just to get him in trouble. Jane always bought it hook, line, and sinker because she was an Extreme Doormat who enabled D.W., but Arthur and David knew D.W. was a big, fat liar.
    • A flashback in Chapter 7 reveals that Arthur had managed to flip the script on D.W. by taking her CD, fleeing, coming home through the front door, putting everything in its place and pretending none of that happened, rightfully revelling in it.

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