Alan Power

Alan Powers – commonly known as "Brain" or "The Brain" – is a third grade student in Mr. Ratburn's class at Lakewood School.

Physical Appearance
Brain is an anthropomorphic bear who wears a grey sweater with olive green pants (according to the promotional art on the cartoon's official website, he had on khakis instead) and brown loafers. In the books, he wears different-colored shirts and sweaters, and blue jeans or sometimes khakis. He has clumps of hair which are brown in the books, although the cartoon depicted the hair in thin black lines in order to simplify the animation process. He wears sneakers when playing sports. His pajamas consist of a yellow sleep shirt and orange and yellow striped pajama bottoms, and is one of the few characters to wear detailed pajamas in the animated series, while most other characters wore monochromatic pajamas in order to simplify the animation process.

On formal occasions, Brain wears a charcoal or black tuxedo with two pockets on each side of the tuxedo jacket and a white tuxedo shirt with a black bow tie and matching trousers and black shoes. He also owns a grey single-breasted suit with two pockets on each side of the suit jacket. He wears a white collar shirt with a blue tie. He also wears matching grey trousers and light black shoes. He wears briefs.

Personality
He is mild-mannered and one of the most polite characters in the series. He is an expert soccer player, despite Francine's understanding that she was great in other sports. He is one of the few characters who are usually left-handed. His usual grade is an A that ranges between 100% and 90%, as he is often considered the most intelligent student in Mr. Ratburn's class, and he often gets his work done faster than the other students.

Despite being quite well-mannered, Brain sometimes imagines vengeance when he feels defeated, as seen when he is defeated in a science fair by Muffy. He was formerly hydrophobic. He tends to be called upon a lot when his friends have technical difficulties but also is great fun to hang out with. In "The Wheel Deal," he suffers a leg injury and temporarily ends up in a wheelchair.

He is a big believer in the power of science. He has a tendency to think logically but sometimes has trouble adjusting when things seemingly cannot be explained by either, or when his emotions get in the way of his logical side. After an increasing spate of good luck, he tries to chart what's happening to him only to find that his "luck" only seems to be getting best.

In stressful situations, Brain can become very anxious. He has great stage fright when in front of an audience. He is stunned when Hurricane Sadie wrecks the Ice Cream Shop despite his family's careful plans and preparations to prevent such an outcome. His father's words that sometimes things like this happen no matter what only make him more anxious, as he begins to fear that the worst really could happen at any time and becomes jittery at the slightest sound of wind. A visit to a therapist, as well as some more words of encouragement from his father, help him to see that he can overcome his emotions about this if he tries. His father called him the smartest, bravest and most determined person that he knows.

Interests
Brain is a member of Lakewood's soccer, baseball, and track teams, and plays cello and piano in the school band. He made it to the final round of the Spell-a-thon, but didn't win because he had stage fright at the time and misspelled the word "fear". He also and led the winning team of the Arithmattack competition and he is a devout member of the school Computer Club. Brain has interest in blues music, and can even play the harmonica.

Past Life
He went to the preschool D.W. goes to and Arthur went to. He oddly enough had a rivalry with Binky that still lives on in the present. He was held back in kindergarten because he was not emotionally ready at the time.

Future Life
According to different episodes, he will become a ground-breaking scientist and invent teleportation. He will have an entire TV network named after him. If we assume the intro of the episode, "The Election" happens, he will also become a Supreme Court Justice. In "The Contest" episode, he along with the others are shown as teenagers. He essentially looks the same with a more relaxed outfit. He wears an olive shirt with a white undershirt, blue jeans, and red sneakers, similar in design to his friends' current shoes.

Friends
Arthur Read: Arthur is Brain's best friend an they regularly hang out. In "Arthur's Faraway Friend," Arthur and Brain spent a lot of time together while Buster was gone and the two even wrote a story together. Brain is sometimes looking out for Arthur and cares about his well being, as seen in "Arthur's Knee", where he's concerned over Arthur's injury. The Brain often helps Arthur with his homework and helps him study. Likewise, Arthur almost always shows complete confidence in the Brain both as an intellectual and as a friend, as he was the only one who stood up for him in "Water and the Brain" when everyone else thought Brain was a snob. Despite their good friendship, Arthur often forgets Brain's birth name of "Alan".

Buster Baxter: Both Brain and Buster are sometimes seen hanging out and Brain also helps Buster with his homework, just like Arthur. They are good friends and Buster likes going to his Ice Cream shop almost all the time. However, Buster can be quite annoying to Brain and they may end up getting into a bad argument, but they get over it anyway.

Francine Frensky: Francine and Brain are seen playing soccer with each other and they are also seen hanging out. However, they also rival one another and almost lose their relationship, which happened in the episode, "The Big Blow-Up" from Season 2, they get into the worst fight that their friends had ever seen, but they finally got over it.

Muffy Crosswire: They may not be good friends, but they sometimes hang out. Brain almost befriended Muffy in the episode, "Muffy's New Best Friend," but they managed to not be friends.

George Lundgren: The Brain and George are occasionally seen together enjoying each other's company. Brain introduces George to the blues music, and helps him understand what it is like to live with Asperger's.

Cheikh: Cheikh is Brain's cousin who moves to Elwood City. He first appears in "In My Africa."

D.W. Read: D.W. and Brain are friends. He tries to help D.W. figure out how her snowball returned after being lost. They sing In My Africa with Cheikh in the episode "In My Africa."

Binky Barnes: While Brain's intelligence surpasses Binky's, which can be a source of conflict for them, the two are good friends. When their parents are late to pick them up from soccer practice, they become paranoid and share a bonding moment together. When Brain wants to fill a time capsule, he and Binky argue over what to put inside, but they eventually reach a compromise.

Prunella Deegan: She is a trustworthy friend to Brain. She keeps Brain's secret of being held back a year in kindergarten up until he reveals the truth to his friends in "Brain's Shocking Secret."

Other Media
In the Living Books computer games, the Brain had a pale cream-colored complexion in Arthur's Teacher Trouble, which was changed to light brown in Arthur's Birthday, although the final page depicted him with a pale one. It was likely due to color and tone restrictions during the 16-bit era of computers and software. The Brain's voice sounded more mature in those two games and was voiced by Joey Edelman before the cartoon show replaced him with Luke Reid. In the later games during the 32-bit era of computers and software such as Arthur's Thinking Games, his appearance was the same as he looks in the cartoon show.

Trivia

 * In Arthur's Perfect Christmas, Brain's dad is seen carrying one of D.W.'s classmates. This has brought up that Brain has a never-before-seen sibling or a cousin/other relative (besides Cheikh).
 * Brain used to have a fear of water that he eventually got over.
 * He is very talented in soccer, on the cello, piano and academically, hence his name.
 * In "Brain's Shocking Secret" from Season 11, it was revealed that Brain was actually supposed to be in the same grade as Prunella, but due to him being a "crier", he was held back a year in Kindergarten. This is why Brain is nine years old, while most other third graders are eight, and could explain why he is slightly taller than most of his peers.
 * Brain works in his family's ice cream store.
 * He teaches in summer school.
 * Brain's goal is to be an astrophysicist.
 * Brain tends to be a "report hog", meaning he wants to do all the work for group projects himself.
 * His usual marks are either an A or an A+, but his lowest mark seen in the show was a B-, seen in the episode "Breezy Listening Blues". [Note: In the episode "Brain Gets Hooked", Brain receives a C on his Magna Carta report; however, Mr. Ratburn allows him to redo his project, and it is implied that he receives a higher grade when he presents his report the second time.]
 * Alan is called by his nickname quite often, to the point that Arthur has forgotten his first name at times. However, his parents refer to him by his real name more than anyone else.
 * In the earlier seasons, Mr. Ratburn and Mr. Haney referred to Brain by his nickname like his friends do, but in the later seasons, they refer to him by his real name.
 * According to the episode "Brain Freeze", Brain's grandfather was named Alan, so it's quite likely that Brain was named after him.
 * He is star forward and goalkeeper for the Lakewood Elementary Soccer Team and briefly played for the Elwood City All-Stars.
 * He has a Martin Luther King Jr. poster in his room that says "I have a dream," as seen in "S.W.E.A.T.".
 * His initials are A.P., which is also the abbreviation for "Advanced Placement." An AP class is a high school class equal to an undergraduate class in college.
 * In the episode "Buster Spaces Out," it is revealed Brain has family members that live in Texas.
 * He is modeled after one of Marc Brown's friends with the same given name, and being nicknamed "the Brain" for his intelligence.[citation needed]
 * Brain celebrates Kwanzaa, since he has family that are African, specifically of Senegalese descent.
 * The shoes he wears resemble the brown dress shoes that Arthur wears in episodes where there are formal occasions.
 * A running gag is that Brain will build robots such as the robotic cat and odd machines like the Tooth-Removing Machine.
 * If one combines his nickname and surname, they get Brain Powers- a clever pun.
 * Brain's IQ is somewhere in the high 140s.
 * Despite being afraid of water, Brain is still seen in the intro at a swimming pool, and has a title card where he is swimming under water.
 * He really wants a particle accelerator.Screenshot 2020-12-15 at 12.49.53 PM.png