The Secret Guardians

"The Secret Guardians"
Season/Series:	13
Number in season:	7b
Original Airdate:	April 6, 2010 February 22, 2010 April 28, 2009 December 4, 2012
Credits
Written by:	Guy Lancaster
Storyboard by:	Daniel Decelles
Episodes
Previous "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Tibble"	Next "Fernlets by Fern"
Read transcript

"The Secret Guardians" is the second half of the seventh episode in the thirteenth season of Arthur.

Summary

When Arthur, Binky, and Sue Ellen stumble upon a beautiful and private woodland oasis located near their homes, they vow to tell no one else and keep it as their secret spot. Before long, however, they start to find evidence of human habitation.

Plot

Sue Ellen and Arthur go down to the brook to test a model boat that Sue Ellen made, they run into Binky and the trio launches the boat, but loose control of it and follow it down the river and stumbled into a paradise like enclave of the woods that they name Arsubia and swear on a rock to keep it secret from the world.

For Arthur and Sue Ellen keeping Arsubia a secret from the world is hard because Sue Ellen discovers a few arrow heads and suspects that a lost civilization, the Arsubians, occupied the area. Arthur finds it hard to keep Arsubia a secret because he hates keeping secrets from Buster.

Binky takes it upon himself to enforce Arsubia's secrecy, adopting a vigilante approach and requiring passports upon entrance. Eventually, the trio stumble upon Buster, who informs them "Arsubia" is actually "Baxteronia" a place Buster discovered with his father since he was four.

The episode finishes when a sudden rainstorm starts and Buster tells them to take shelter in a cave located in the enclave.

Characters

• Arthur Read
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Binky Barnes
• Buster Baxter
• Francine Frensky
• D.W. Read (intro only)
• Norman Hedgehog (cameo)
• Jack Weasel (cameo)
• Maria Pappas (cameo)
• Mrs. Tibble (cameo)
• Luke(cameo)
• Brian (cameo)

Trivia

• Main image and title card is in 16:9 wide-screen this is very rare for that to happen.
• Moral: Keep a secret place secret.
• Timeline: Binky is still shown to have an interest in butterflies, just like he did in "Binky Barnes, Wingman."

Cultural references

• The episode and title are parodies of The Secret Garden.
• Sue Ellen's model ship is a carrack, like Christopher Columbus' flag ship, the Santa Maria. There was a famous sailing ship called the Sea Venture, but it did not look like the model.
• The butterflies mentioned are clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) and harvester (Feniseca tarquinius).

Production notes

• In the German dub, Arsubia retains its name from the original English version, despite the fact that Sue Ellen is called Sabine in the German version, which would thus change the name to Arsabia. This may have been done to avoid reanimating/cutting the scene where the oasis' name is written in the sand.

Gallery

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  Arsubia awaits!

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  Arthur on a rope swing, Binky lounging.

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  Binky watched the butterflies.

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  The name written in the sand.