#perry may not be a realistic platypus but you could not ask for a more lovable representative of the species

[pnfc]

Did u get into pnf for the plats or did you get into pnf and then get into plats bc of Perry. This is the burning question we all have

i think ur joking but i was in fact asked this before and no i wasn't already an expert on platypuses before i got into pnf. i just really like perry so i started researching them. and they're cool! would love to see one someday, even though it's unlikely.

[i-am-perryshmirtzed]

Busting “Phineas and Ferb Get Busted”

“Phineas and Ferb get Busted” isn’t a considered a canon episode, as the entire thing takes place inside of Perry’s dream, with only one real scene at the very end. But the events in that episode give us valuable insight into Perry’s psyche and his relationship with his family. The latter has always been difficult to see, as Perry spends most of the average episode with his nemesis. By analyzing this episode, however, we can see what Perry’s fears are, what he thinks of his family, and the things from his life that have bleed into his subconscious.

What can we infer about Perry’s psyche? First of all- the obvious. We see some of his fears. I have a headcanon that this episode took place the night after “Cheers for Fears”, and that Perry was thinking of what his fears really were (he was quite scared when the -inator was firing up, probably wondering if something would happen to his family) and that this all got reflected into his dream. Perry is scared of his boys’ spirit and imaginations being crushed, and them becoming dull and average (as we again see in “Phineas and Ferb Interrupted”) because he loves their imaginations and ingenuity (“Across the Second Dimension”). We also see that he cares very much about Candace, and about her relationship with her brothers. More on that later. And last, but certainly not least, the O.W.C.A. team breaking into the Flynn-Fletcher residence to wipe the family’s memories and relocate Perry. We see his fear of losing his family several times in the show’s run- most notably in “Oh, There You Are Perry” and “Across the Second Dimension”. What’s most interesting is that that segment of the dream is what causes him to wake up, and Phineas realizes he was having a bad dream at this point- he could probably feel Perry moving around. So, it is safe to say that we can confirm Perry’s worst fear to be losing his loved ones.

Another thing we learn is that Perry undoubtedly knows about the talking zebra calling Candace Kevin ("The Ballad of Badbeard"). How else could he have dreamed it up? My favorite headcanon from the world of the (amazing) ‘Ask Perry Fletcher’ blog is that Candace is transgender and her birth name is Kevin. This I attach to the theory of the talking zebra being Candace’s old imaginary friend, and voila, we get Perry remembering Candace’s childhood insecurities and troubles in his dream. Another headcanon of mine is that Perry’s a source of comfort to all three Flynn-Fletcher kids, and that they talk or rant to him when they're​ having a tough time. I believe Dream-Candace’s confession that she is proud to be Phineas and Ferb’s older sister is something she actually feels in real life, and this does support her concern for her brothers and how much closer she gets to them in later episodes. The Flynn-Fletcher children assume Perry doesn’t understand anything, so he’s safe to rant to. We know this isn’t true, and all these anxieties, on top of his nemesis’s horrible backstories, end up bleeding into his dreams.

Perry seems to know his family very well.The first time I watched this episode, I seriously wondered if Heinz would have an ‘amnesia-inator’ to erase what happened that day. The characters were in character, and it seemed quite real. Even Stacy’s odd behavior at the end of ‘Little Brothers’ can be explained by subconscious symbolism. Stacy is always Candace’s voice of reason. She helps her stay grounded and focused, such as in “Robot Rodeo”. The logical side of Candace’s mind wants her to enjoy the freedom of not having to deal with her brothers every day. However, after Stacy walks away, Candace is helped by Jeremy, who is her crush and therefore the representation of her more emotional side. He even says that he’s “always liked her brothers”- Candace really does love her brothers, deep down, and what Perry knows of her emotional side is acknowledged in this scene.

Perry seems to think Linda will initially be angry at Phineas and Ferb should she see their inventions. Instead, in the bad future of “Quantum Boogaloo”, and before she got zapped by the ‘forget-about-it-inator’ in “A Real Boy”, she panics in her worry for her sons. We see this side of her again in “What Do it Do” when she acts similar to Candace when faced with something unknown that may be threatening her family.

Perry also seems to be a realistic dreamer, as the only continuity errors I could find were small- such as the dancing trophy appearing in the living room when it was previously in Candace’s room and Candace driving the flying car when Jeremy is older than her and had his licence by ‘My Sweet Ride’.

Something I noticed in my most recent rewatch of the episode is that the first few scenes of ‘Little Brothers’ are still frames, as if they were photos. We know Perry was not adopted until some time after Linda and Lawrence’s marriage (“Across the Second Dimension”), so it is entirely plausible Perry is recalling photos from albums and not his memories. In the first moving sequence in the song (the scene where Phineas and Ferb have been shown to rebuild Candace’s dollhouse) the children seem to be around the same age as they were when Perry was adopted. So, this could possibly be a real memory that Perry had from his youth.

This next point somewhat supports my headcanon that the episodes are not aired in the order they occur in the show’s universe. The haircuts the boys are given upon arrival resemble those they had in the alternate dimension in “Across the Second Dimension”. They also act somewhat similar to their dystopian counterparts, but while Phineas-2 and Ferb-2 grew up under creatively oppressing laws and were taught against imagination, Dream Phineas and Ferb seemed more robotic and brainwashed. I could go on and on about this, perhaps write a whole new meta on the second dimension, but I digress. The point is, both pairs of brothers believed creativity and fun to be wrong, though in different ways. Perhaps there’s no difference to Perry.  

When the boys are being taught to not reach for tools, they are sprayed with water. You’ve probably seen this in other cartoons- an animal is sprayed with water as negative reinforcement for bad behavior. To me, at least, this seemed odd. Considering how hard the boys fight against the Smile Away Reformatory’s imagination-crushing treatment, it seems to be highly unlikely that water is the breaking point. Of course, I am not well versed in torture techniques, and being sprayed with water is safe to show on children’s television, and repeated negative reinforcement was what probably led the boys to give up. Still, it is an unusual choice. So, why the water? Perry works with a variety of other animals, and many, especially new agents, may have bad habits due to not being properly trained by their owners or the O.W.C.A. The agency probably uses spray bottles to break bad habits in agents, and though they probably don’t go to the extent of what we saw the Drill Sergeant do, and though the purpose was certainly not the same, it must have been something that Perry’s mind inserted into his dream.

Perry has a wonderful character arc throughout the series. He goes from having little more than disdain for his nemesis and affection for his family to becoming a vital part of Heinz’s life and becoming a sort of ‘guardian angel’ figure to his host family. We see many different sides of Perry as the show progresses, and this episode helps tremendously with his characterization-something difficult to see with the secret agent’s inability to speak. Analyzing this episode has shown us what Perry’s subconscious is like, what his fears are, what he thinks of his family, and what little things stick in his brain. It’s always helpful to get inside your character's heads, and ‘Phineas and Ferb Get Busted’ helped me understand Perry more. This, I hope, can help me should I write about him. Perry is so dynamic and so intriguing, so shrouded in mystery due to his silence, and, while probably a joke or unintentional, in this episode the authors have given us a peek at what goes on inside the platypus’s mind.