This was sort of inspired by/recreated from a TV.com message board that I found.
http://www.tv.com/shows/arthur/forums/least-favorite-arthur-episodes-2099-3311559/It has been noted that, in the earlier seasons, D.W. often didn't get in as much trouble as many thought she deserved, despite all the things she does.
Arthur's Big Hit is a notorious example. Even though Arthur tells her many times not to touch his plane, he gets punished much more severely after he hits her. What irritated me is that some of his friends really couldn't see his side of the argument; I have to admit, when Muffy said, "Because you're wrong," I didn't understand how she could say that, so that kind of ticked me off because it's like they're trying to intentionally side with D.W. just because she's his little sister. And, at the end of the episode, D.W. plays the little girl card again.
I somehow liked Arthur's talking to Fern. Fern offered probably the most logical idea of all of his friends ("But she's just a little girl", with which I have to agree and can see some reasoning in there, as opposed to just condemning him with "Apologize to your sister" or "You're wrong"). Arthur replies with "Saying D.W. is just a little girl is like saying a tornado is just a little wind!" I thought that quote was funny.
Some say that D.W. got off scot-free, but remember that Mrs. Read said, "We'll deal with what she did. But what you did was wrong, too." So that implies that D.W. was also punished in some sort of way, but it took place outside of the time frame of the episode and it wasn't emphasized as heavily as Arthur's punishment was.
Play It Again, D.W. was another instance. D.W. constantly plays her Crazy Bus CD, much to Arthur's annoyance. When Arthur says that he's going to wreck her CD, he gets punished, while D.W., once again, gets to play Crazy Bus day in and day out. I kinda felt like they were torturing Arthur and forcing him to listen to the very song he hates. Not to mention how little Mr. and Mrs. Read do to try to stop D.W- they are practically totally OK with her playing the song over and over, and don't really sympathize much with Arthur.
So, yeah, D.W. really seems to be playing the "little girl/little sister" card at times, tends to get what she wants (also evident in
Cast Away), and doesn't really receive as much punishment as some of us feel she deserves.
What do you think?