TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Arthur S2 E18 - "Arthur vs. the Very Mean Crossing Guard" / "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood"

Go To

"Arthur vs. the Very Mean Crossing Guard"

  • Accidental Aesop: If you're in a position of authority, don't make jokes that seem like threats.
  • Fridge Brilliance: This or Fridge Horror; the reason Ted isn't seen again after this episode? He may have been reported for scaring two eight-year-old kids, or had a run-in with the Tough Customers.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Arthur and Brain, regarding Ted's joking around. The ending has D.W. ridiculing them for believing Ted's claim that he'll send goons after them if they don't pay up, but he sure doesn't seem like he's joking.

"D.W.'s Very Bad Mood"

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Did D.W. know about Francine's party before she invited her? If she did, this could explain why D.W. claimed that only Arthur was (allegedly) allowed to do fun things, and why she called him a dodo brain.
  • Broken Aesop: While the message tries to come off as teaching the audience about how you can't expect to be invited to every party and how to deal with disappointment, it instead ends up coming off as telling them they should try to one-up the person who didn't invite you, since D.W. ends up being invited to a party that she considers better than the one she didn't get invited to.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: This is one of the most hated episodes of the entire series, mostly due to its characterization of D.W. and its Broken Aesop, so much so that fans would like to pretend that this episode never happened.
  • Fridge Brilliance: D.W. insisting that she won't be happier tomorrow foreshadows that she's angry about something specific rather than simply waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
  • Never Live It Down: Simply put, D.W. will never live down her behaviour toward her family in this episode, and her petty reason for it.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: D.W. herself, for having a fit over not being invited to a birthday party of a classmate she hardly even knows (and who has only been a background extra until now to boot). While D.W. does eventually learn that you can't expect to be invited to every event, it's still hard to feel sorry for her when she spends most of the episode taking out her anger on everyone else and being even brattier than usual. What's worse, she receives no consequences for her actions—if anything, she gets rewarded for throwing a tantrum when Francine invites her to her own party.

Top