DW's Name Game
D.W. gets annoyed with how Arthur eats a large amount of food, keeps her out of his room, and out-bikes her. The Tibble Twins suggest that since she's good at name-calling, she should try that to cow Arthur into submission.
Tropes
- Art Shift: D.W's dream features live-action footage in the library.
- Berserk Button: D.W. hates being called by her real name.
- Big Eater: D.W. characterizes Arthur as this, with how he eats up all the cereal and milk in the house.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": It is revealed that calling D.W. by her full name of "Dora Winifred" drives her absolutely nuts.
- Hypno Fool: Timmy Tibble suggests that D.W. turn Arthur into her "obedient hypno-brother", who brings her cake while she just watches TV, and does her chores while she reads.
- I'm Melting!: D.W. obtains the word needed to fight Arthur, and when she whispers it to him, he melts!DW: Nobody told me you'd melt! Arthur! [scoops up Arthur with her Mary Moo Cow cup before his melted body goes down the storm drain]
Arthur: Calling people names can be dangerous to their health! - Jerkass Realization: D.W. gets it in her dream when she melts Arthur by accident.
- Literally Falling Through the Cracks: An Imagine Spot features DW accidentally melting Arthur into a puddle, whereupon he oozes down the drain. DW is able to catch his face in her Mary Moo Cow cup before it drips away, but the rest is apparently lost forever, much to the horror of both Arthur and DW.
- Mind-Control Eyes: In the Imagine Spot where Arthur is turned into D.W.'s "obedient hypno-brother", Arthur is shown with red spirals in his eyes.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We don't find out what powerful word D.W. hears in her dream.
- Opinion-Changing Dream: D.W. in her dream accidentally melts Arthur with the name that she gets from the thesaurus. As soon as she wakes up, she rushes to the real Arthur and apologizes to him.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The Thesaurus appears outside D.W.'s window as she starts to describe her dream to her family.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Catherine proves to be this in breaking up the various fights between Arthur and D.W., albeit without realizing that they're coming to her for new words to use as insults.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Arthur's Innocently Insensitive at best regarding out-biking D.W. and keeping her out of his room. Every story has two sides.
- The twins have terrible advice for D.W. because they're only four years old.
- D.W. loses the name calling game because Arthur is older than her, knows more words, and knows her hot buttons.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To The Wizard of Oz.
Finders Key-pers
After a dusty day playing baseball, Arthur, Brain and Binky find a key in the grass. They start to argue about what the key will open or run, and who gets ownership.
Tropes
- Bookends: The episode starts and ends with the boys tossing around Brain's baseball.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After they find out the key was for the field sprinklers, Binky, Brain and Arthur agree that their argument was stupid. Arthur says that if it had been a car key, then they would have been fighting for years.
- Jerkass Realization: The boys have a mutual one when they realize they nearly threw away their friendship for a sprinkler key.
- Imagine Spot: Each of the boys have one regarding the key.
- Brain opens the museum.
- Arthur saves the city.
- Binky drives a Cool Car.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: It ensues when Brain tries his simple solution to leave the key in a neutral spot. It turns out that all the boys plan to go back for the key when alone. They all stop in place and watch each other with mutual Death Glare. Then they charge for the key, which Arthur manages to grab.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Morris accepts Arthur's apology for crashing into him. When Arthur suggests that he could hold the key and be a neutral party, Mr. Morris stops their argument by revealing it's the key to the sprinklers.
- Red Herring: The boys' guesses about the key end up being completely wrong.
- Stating the Simple Solution: When the boys realize that no one can take the key home fairly, Brain suggests they leave the key where they found it, and go back in the morning. It gets subverted; the boys immediately turn around and try to steal the key from the spot.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The dust on the field makes it hard for the kids to play baseball since it hasn't been watered recently.
- A museum key wouldn't be found in the grass of a baseball field.
- The key to the city is generally a large, symbolic medal.
