Arthur, Mr. Ratburn, and Animated LGBTQ Marriages

Reader, Nigel Ratburn on the show Arthur married his sweetheart, a chocolatier named Patrick. What’s more, he and Patrick end the episode dancing together in pure bliss. They are together. As Francine Frensky says, “It’s a new world.”

I saw the episode. At least, I saw bits and pieces of it. Then I shook my head with a bit of joy. But the animation. Oh God, the animation.

Mr. Ratburn’s Origins

Marc Brown wrote the Arthur picture books, which is where we first meet Mr. Ratburn in Arthur’s Teacher Trouble. The kids complain how he makes them leaves class in an orderly line and assigns them hours of homework, but he’s truly proud of Arthur and Brain when they qualify for the school spelling bee. Arthur also gets a pretty fun assignment — making a clay replica of a continent. Mr. Ratburn after the spelling bee announces that next year he’ll be teaching kindergarten — coincidentally, D.W.’s class. She obviously isn’t thrilled after hearing Arthur complain about all the homework he has.

We don’t get much characterization of Mr. Ratburn, apart from him believing Muffy when she claims she didn’t cheat on a math…