"D.W. Thinks Big"Aunt Lucy is getting married, and D.W. is excited. The thing is that, due to her being too little, she has no part in the wedding, and Cousin Cora is annoying her with her arrogance. D.W. wants to prove that she's big enough to help, but everything she do makes the adults angry or annoyed.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Cora is much more spoiled here than she is in the book, where the worst thing she did was make D.W. drop her purse of pennies in her excitement. Also, she offered to go into the vent where the ring fell in the book, but was still too big.
- Break the Haughty: Cora likes being the center of attention and showing off that she's the flower girl. Due to revealing her spoiled attitude, D.W. gets the spotlight and her flower crown, with Aunt Lucy saying her name to stop her from complaining.
- Fatal Flaw: Cora's is her arrogance. She breaks her necklace while showing it off to D.W., causes Arthur to lose the ring by yelling at him mid-ceremony, and loses face when she refuses to go into the pipe organ and asks if they can get another ring.
- Hate Sink: Cora is meant to be a despicable Spoiled Brat, even in comparison to D.W., so that the audience can root for the latter for once.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Arthur wears a much nicer greenish suit for the wedding than his usual blue suit and purple bow tie. D.W. also wears a much nicer solid red dress than the polka-dotted one she wears for special occasions.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Grandpa Dave tries to stick his hand down the pipe organ where the ring fell, but his arm gets stuck. He manages to pull himself free.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Cora's been nothing but a spoiled brat even worse than D.W. and she unwittingly caused Arthur to lose the wedding ring. When asked to retrieve the ring, she turns her nose up at helping because she's afraid to get a little dirty. Later, her position as the flower girl is delegated to D.W. for helping to retrieve the wedding ring and Aunt Lucy stops her from complaining about it by saying her name.
- Logical Weakness: Arthur volunteers to go into the pipe organ to get the ring. He's too big though.
- Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: Lohengrin is featured several times in this episode, even discounting the actual wedding. It is used as background music several times, Mrs. Read plays it on the piano, and D.W. humming it is a Running Gag.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Cora is particularly excited about her pantyhose, half-inch heel shoes, and her deodorant, as she feels very grown up with them. The latter even impresses D.W. to the point of wanting to wear deodorant for the wedding as well.
- Never My Fault: For once, D.W. didn't do anything at all, and Cora has the nerve to blame her cousin for breaking her locket when she accidentally snaps it herself.
- Not Me This Time: While D.W. has a tendency of getting herself into all sorts of mischief, she's surprisingly not at fault for breaking Cora's necklace.
- No Name Given: Aunt Lucy's husband is never stated in the episode.
- One-Shot Character: Mrs. Read's sisters Lucy and Jessica only appear in this episode, along with Cousin Cora (thankfully).note
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Aunt Lucy shares her name with one of D.W.'s Living Prop classmates, specifically the rabbit girl with a light blue dress and orange hair in a ponytail.
- Running Gag: D.W. humming "Here Comes the Bride".
- Spoiled Brat: Cora is even worse than D.W.; she blames D.W. for breaking her necklace even though D.W. didn't do anything, complains about how she hates D.W.'s room, and says they should get another ring when Arthur drops it into the pipe organ.
- Stock Sound Effect: Mrs. Read's usual gasp gets used for Cora twice; first when she runs into the Reads' house and is about to collide with D.W., and again when she pulls out the half-inch heel shoes she will be wearing the next day.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: D.W. volunteers to go into the pipe organ because she's small enough and isn't afraid to get dirty.
- Wedding Episode: The episode focuses on Aunt Lucy getting married.
"Arthur Cleans Up"Arthur accidentally inspires his dad to organize a kids' clean-up crew when he complains about how dirty the park is. Now all his friends make it clear they don't want to take part, but Francine's dad has the tools needed.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Arthur's dad ropes him into weird activities for community service. The Clean-Up brigade is the only one Arthur actually likes.
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with Arthur playing frisbee.
- Cold Open: In this one, Arthur complains how his dad either likes to spend time with him doing weird stuff like eating live bait or signing him up for humiliating community service.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Arthur's dad in the cold open takes him to a fishing breakfast where everything is alive.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: It's the only episode where Arthur's dad takes him along to strange activities. In the other episodes, he's too busy.
- While her devotion to studying martial arts is in character for her, Sue Ellen angrily refusing to clean the park and other people's trash is wildly out of it, seeing as she soon becomes more thoughtful, introspective, and wanting to help others.
- Everyone Has Standards: As much as they bully Arthur over the Clean-Up brigade, it's clear that the Tough Customers feel terrible when Pal chokes on the trash they threw on the ground, even before Arthur chews them out for it.
- Heroic Bystander: The kindly grandfather playing chess in the park saves Pal from choking.
- Jerkass Realization:
- The Tough Customers get one when Rattles's litter makes Pal choke. Arthur reads them the riot act and makes them volunteer.
- Francine gets it when she realizes she sent Arthur to clean up the park alone and that no one volunteered to help him. She rallies his friends to come help.
- Misblamed: Arthur's friends blame him for their parents forcing them to clean up the park, when it was his dad's idea to form the Clean-Up Brigade. Even Buster blames him, despite Arthur himself pointing out that when his dad came up with the idea, Buster was there, and would know full well that cleaning the park wasn't Arthur's idea. Thankfully, they get over this in the end.
- Someone Else's Problem: Arthur mentions someone should clean up the park. His dad overhears and says that it should be a group effort.
