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Sue Ellen Armstrong
Sue Ellen
Age 8[1]
Grade 3rd
4th (“First Day”)
Gender Female
Animal Cat[2]
Eye color Blue[3]
Hazel[4]
Green[5]
Hair color Dark red (s1 - s5)
Dark orange (s6 - present),
Blonde (some books)
Complexion Peach (s1-s5)
Tan (s6-present)
Favorite color Olive green[1]
Residence Sue Ellen's House, Elwood City
Family Mr. Armstrong (father)
Mrs. Armstrong (mother)
Book debut Arthur's Valentine
Cartoon debut "Arthur's Eyes"
Voiced by Patricia Rodriguez (s1 - s8),
Jessica Kardos (s10 - present)
Mariana Evans (Living Books)
Mary Kay Bergman (Computer Games)

Sue Ellen Armstrong[6] is a student in Mr. Ratburn's third grade class at Lakewood Elementary School.

She was the newest kid in her class (until Ladonna), upon moving to Elwood City from abroad.[7]

The next year, she is a student in Mrs. Grimslid's fourth grade class.[8]

Physical Appearance

Sue Ellen is an anthropomorphic cat who is depicted with a tan complexion, curly orange hair worn in "messy buns" bound by lime green scrunchies and wears a teal "T-shirt"-type dress with a cream-colored vest over it, finished with red-and-white hi-top sneakers and lime green slouch socks. In the early Arthur books, she wears her hair down; she was given her messy-bun hairdo starting with the book Arthur's TV Trouble. In some of the later books, her hair color had changed from blonde to yellow-orange. She wears a two-piece green swimsuit with a purple trim when swimming. For her sleepwear, she is often seen wearing cream pajamas with red edging.

Personality

Sue Ellen is assertive, proactive, brave,[9] tough,[10] strong, a little bossy, kind, athletic, tolerant, honest, creative, open-minded, nice, mature, charismatic, well-read, lonely, artistic, and vegetarian [11]. She is an amazing storyteller and is big-hearted. She is also easy to get along with and can solve problems on her own. She is very mature and artistic for her age and interested in world culture,[12] which is the reason she makes friends with people older than herself, such as Betsy Johnson.[13] Athletic-wise, she is defender for the Lakewood Elementary Soccer Team. She wanted a sibling so she would not be as lonely, but she ends up regretting the need after she goes to Arthur's house and plays with D.W. for a few hours.[11]

Biography

Life Before Arthur

Sue Ellen's father is a diplomat, so she and her family have lived in various places around the world. It is unknown why her family has settled in Elwood City. She has lived in places like Egypt and Nicaragua, mostly for a couple of months to a year. Her family also spent a year in South Africa. Other places she has lived in include Togo and Kenya. She had never been to a place with snow before moving to Elwood City. She is skilled in martial arts, for example, Tae Kwon Do[10] making her more physically strong than the average third grader. In the Postcards From Buster episode "Buster Gets on Board", Buster meets Sue Ellen's friends who are skateboarders including Sue Ellen's pen-pal Brandon. This gives hint that Sue Ellen at one time resided Los Angeles, California.

Future Life

If the intro to the episode, "The Election" does happen in the future, she will be either future President Muffy's running mate or a member of her party. In the imagination of Arthur in "Arthur Rides the Bandwagon", Sue Ellen appears next to the Brain and with a child much like him (but with glasses).

Season 1

In "Sue Ellen Moves In," Sue Ellen moves to Elwood City. Buster thinks she is an alien because she has many strange objects. He later realizes that she has lived all over the world and they become friends. In "Bully for Binky", Sue Ellen stands up to Binky and is not afraid to stand up to someone much bigger than her. Binky becomes intimidated by her because she knows martial arts. Later, Sue Ellen says that she doesn't want to fight him, but if he ever does, she'll be ready. Binky soon stops his bullying.

Season 2

In "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary", she loses her diary in the library. She asks her friends, but they haven't seen it. They wonder what is inside. Soon, they find her diary, but they ultimately chose to not open it. Sue Ellen recovers her diary and hints that she has a crush on Arthur; this was probably to an allusion to Arthur's crush on Sue Ellen in the Arthur books. In "Sue Ellen's Little Sister", Sue Ellen feels sad that she wishes she had a sibling. She asks her friends to be their siblings and realize that older brothers won't work. She looks for little sisters and ends up with D.W. whom she can't stand. She later realizes the pros of being an only child. Her parents get her a brother-like friend from Tibet to whom she can write letters to.

Season 3

One of Sue Ellen's biggest appearances in this season is in "Sue Ellen and the Brainasaurus". She later appears in "Popular Girls", in which she is the central character with Fern, and "Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival".

Season 16

In "Sue Ellen Vegges Out", she becomes a vegetarian because she considers animals as friends and loses her taste for consuming them. It is unclear if she remains a vegetarian following this episode.

Family

Sue Ellen lives with her father, a diplomat,[14] and mother, a homemaker.[14] She is an only child but keeps in touch with her best friend Tenzin in Tibet[11] (she also has a Tibet World Girl doll.) Other family members aren't mentioned or seen. Like the Brain, her parents' given names are unknown.

Appearances

Books

Specials

Arthur

Postcards from Buster

The Arthur Podcast

Trivia

  • There are several episodes in the series that group her with Arthur, Buster and Binky such as "The Secret Guardians", "April 9th" and "What Scared Sue Ellen?".
  • She's based on Ruth Ann, Marc Brown's childhood girlfriend.[15]
  • She became a vegetarian in the episode Sue Ellen Vegges Out because she lost taste of eating animals whom she considers friends, although it is unclear if she remains a vegetarian after this episode.[16]
  • She has a brother-like friend named Tenzin who lives in Tibet.[17][18]
  • It's implied that Sue Ellen has a crush on Arthur since she said she wrote some "nice things" about him at the end of "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary," however, she might just be expressing her friendship or admiration for him.[19]
  • Sue Ellen's full initials spell out SEA. Given she has traveled around the world, the initials fit.
  • She didn't have a speaking role in any Season 9 or Season 18 episode.
  • She has a pet snail in "Sick as a Dog."
  • She went to volunteer at the hospital in "Muffy's Classy Classics Club."
  • Mr. Ratburn taught her a magic trick in "The Short, Quick Summer."
  • Sue Ellen has some similarities as Ginger Foutley from As Told by Ginger. Both characters are female, they have curly red hair and they love to write in their journals.

Gallery

Sue Ellen Armstrong (Wish You Were Here) station scene
The full image gallery for Sue Ellen Armstrong may be viewed at Sue Ellen Armstrong/Gallery.

References



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