#Fiddleford McGucket meta

[fiddlefordisms]

Canon Details and Analysis of Fiddleford McGucket Part 1

I'm writing a series of meta posts centering around everything we know about Fiddleford McGucket as well as what can be gleaned from those details and some theories of mine. At the very end of this series, I will also do a detailed look, analysis, and theorizing about Fiddauthor (a ship which I love) - however, this series of posts will be focusing mainly on what's actual canon (and thus written in terms of Fiddleford's friendship with Ford) and will be mainly focused on Fiddleford's character even as it stands outside of his relationship with Ford. Because he deserves to be his own character outside the context of a romantic relationship, and he deserves it in general.

Fiddleford was raised on his father's hog farm in Tennessee. We've received very few details about his family life other than that the hog farm belongs to his father, Fiddleford has a cousin named Thistlebert who believes in aliens, and Fiddleford's grandmother who does not approve of "coffee" (whatever that is). What we can glean from this is that Fiddleford is pretty familiar with his extended family. We also know he grew up "dirt-poor."

In Journal 3, Ford mentions that Fiddleford crosses himself while stepping over graves and chastises him for saying "what the devil." Tennessee is also located deep in the Bible Belt. This tells me Fiddleford was likely raised Christian and because of the "crosses himself" thing - likely Catholic. He's the first McGucket to ever go to college.

Fiddleford has anxiety issues, possibly an untreated disorder - a fact commented on by Ford in Journal 3 (knee-bouncing, a tendency towards pulling at his hair, his superstitious nature might lend to this as well, and the "SORRY" photograph mentions that he's "mighty nervous" about his first day, he also mentions having the hiccups that day - probably due to how nervous he is). Given how these things go, it's probably been with him since childhood, and he was probably belittled for it. Especially given the stigma around mental health issues, it would not surprise me if Fiddleford has been told multiple times "to get over his anxiety."

Before meeting Ford, Fiddleford had a low sense of self-confidence (and even after meeting Ford, it might still not have been the greatest). His very first day of college, after being laughed out of class, he's already arranging for a tractor (the joke is he's Southern and from a farm) to pick him up. He was going to drop out of college on his first day had it not been for Ford. This tells us that he was led to believe that he was "not right" or "not smart enough" for college. Because it's only his first day at college, he probably didn't get these ideas ingrained in him from the campus itself. Theories? A few. One: His father probably wanted him to stay and help out on the farm - maybe even take over the hog farm one day. Two: Fiddleford easily leaps to the idea that he "got his math wrong" and that his theory must be incorrect because everyone else thinks so. This tells us he does not consider himself "brilliant" despite the fact that he is HIGHLY intelligent. He's also at Backupsmore instead of a first-rate school. Because Fiddleford has a lot of anxiety, I think it's highly possible something that could have led him to believe this is test anxiety. Schools put so much importance on testing, and because of his anxiety, Fiddleford might not have been able to perform very well on tests. He probably really excelled at doing his homework, though, and probably already had a bit of an inventing streak. He might have been persuaded by a teacher to give college a try and probably had an interest in it due to his affinity for machines and likely a love of mathematics and physics (and possibly chemistry given that Old Man McGucket mixes up a voice-changing serum at one point). Fiddleford mentions in the "SORRY" photograph that he thought making a friend was more impossible than solving relativity. This is extremely sad and points to Fiddleford having been lonely through his childhood and school years up until college. It's not hard to imagine that he might have been bullied for being a "nerd" as well. People tend to look down on those who display Southern mannerisms and interests (Fiddleford plays the banjo, has a strong Southern accent, and was probably raised to take pride in his Southern upbringing) as "dumb hicks" - and this might be a cause for even more bullying while he's in Backupsmore and continued confidence difficulties.

[zephrunsimperium]

Thinking about how BillFord as a ship often gets a bad rap in this fandom as being incredibly toxic.... which isn't wrong. But FiddAuthor is often seen as the "safer" ship even though it's incredibly toxic too?

In canon, they bring about the worst in each other. And yeah, Bill had a hand in that, but he didn't create anything new in Fidds or Ford. That's what makes Bill a master manipulator. Fidds and Ford don't just have the capacity to be destructive, they actively are destructive towards each other in canon.

I love both ships, I think they can both be portrayed in a nuanced way without glorifying abuse or toxicity. Bill, Ford, and Fidds are all incredibly interesting characters and their relationships can help us as fans make sense of things in our own lives.

Just my two cents.

[tesser-rp]

oh man, I think I know what Fiddleford saw in the Portal.

I believe these are notes he wrote immediately after getting his head stuck in the Portal, and I believe that he's drawn the multiverse (it looks similar to Bill's own depiction of it on the "Universe Is A Hologram" page in TBOB). It's not clear to me whether this rupture he shows is something he learned about, or something he watched happen. The obvious focal point is THERE'S A HOLE IN SPACE, which he's also labelled "weak point" in smaller print below-- is he referring to the way the inherently unstable nature of the Portal exploits the natural weakness of the planar boundaries surrounding the Earth, to create a rift? Probably, but maybe he saw more than one hole. "Many things can break", he's written next to a scribbled out depiction of his own face.

That face is the center of what I'm talking about. He drew it and scribbled it out, like he couldn't bear to look at it. Maybe that's because that isn't how he would normally draw himself. Maybe he looked at his reflection and saw it very, very differently than usual, for a second.

I think it's possible that Fiddleford saw his own model sheet, or something like that, and understood the true nature of his own fictional being, even if it was just for a minute.

He's written "2012" in very small print in the left hand margin, near where he wrote a box around the number 20. Contrary to popular belief, Gravity Falls the show takes place in no specific year, but if it did, it would probably take place the year it started airing, 2012. Fiddleford could have looked into the Portal, and one of the things he saw was that he was not actually in the early 80s. It was the mid-teens.

"INFINITE TIME PHYSICALITY"... might accurately describe what it means to be fictional. What about that Hole in Space, then? Well, it's not typical for stories to break the fourth wall, and near every time it's happened in Gravity Falls, the break has been conspicuously related to Bill in some way, going all the way back to things like the Rumble's Revenge cryptograms, the Search for the Blind Eye ARG website. (With some exceptions.) When that hole appears in that boundary, the narrative is, as Fidds wrote, "Forever Changed". New and wild possibilities arise. After all, "Destruction is a Form of Creation".

[discofama]

Just gonna give Gravity Falls' characters from the Bill Cipher wheel a soul color like in Undertale. If you don't know what the colors mean, here it is:

Red: Determination ❤️

Orange: Bravery 🧡

Yellow: Justice 💛

Green: Kindness 💚

Light blue: Patience 💙

Deep blue: Integrity 💙💜

Purple: Perseverance 💜

Okay let's get started.

• Dipper: Purple for perseverance 💜

Perseverance, here, is to keep going besides whatever obstacles could get in your way. Even if your goals change, your pace doesn't. Dipper always has some kind of objective in mind, clear stuff like finding the author or more abstract things like impressing his crush or getting manlier. The truth is that, even if Dipper might doubt himself sometimes, he's always working for what he (thinks he) wants. Another considerable color in his soul could be orange, for bravery.

• Mabel: Green for kindness 💚

The good old kindness, no need to explain. Mabel cares so much about everyone around her, wants them to smile and does her best for them to be happy, even if sometimes does it wrong (she's still a child after all), her intentions are nothing but the best and the kindest and she always ends up rectifying the moment she realizes she made anyone sad. A secondary color to mention might be orange as well.

• Stan: Light blue for patience 💙

The needed patience, the ability to wait. Stanley has waited a lot through his life, that's no secret for anyone. Even if it took him ages, he waited and step by step worked as best as he could taking the needed time and never gave up. Even if it might not seem like it, he has an easy character towards those he cares about (that was lost when Ford came back and Stan got his last straw, but let's ignore that) and... he's just actually very patient with them, specially the kids but Soos and Wendy too since he rarely gets really annoyed by any of them, something I didn't realize until I tried to align him with any of the soul colors and found out that this... is the one trait that fits him; I literally couldn't fit him under any other color.

• Ford: Red for determination ❤️

Determination (sigh). Undertale players can feel this word's weight. You have an objective in mind for the long run and you won't let it go until you reach it. That's literally Ford Pines, the guy who worked half of his life to accomplish a successful scientific career and fame, and the other half to destroy a specific yellow triangle. Ford's eyes will focus on a goal and he won't stop until he makes it. A secondary color might be orange, cause he is almost too brave. Also maybe yellow, for his strong-but-not-always-accurate sense of justice, but I wouldn't consider that one as much.

• Soos: Deep blue for integrity 💜💙

He has a moral conscience, and stays loyal to the truth and to himself. Soos might seem a green type of person, but he won't hesitate when telling you a hurtful truth, but still a truth that needs to be said. He won't be anything but himself even if he's not perfect, without ever needing to perjudicate anyone. He is sincere, trustworthy, and a great person, who stayed loyal to Stan but then to the kids the moment they showed him he was hiding something to all of them. Definitely a soul of integrity. Another color to be considered might be light blue, for patience, or orange again. These guys are really brave, let me tell ya.

• Wendy: Orange for bravery 🧡

Could I make it more obvious? Wendy doesn't really try to get in dangerous places, but she never runs away from them. It is revealed in the Society of the Blind Eye episode that she is always stressed inside, which is a poorexcuseforcharacterdevelopment but anyway, she lives with a deep fear but is able and willing to get over it and face situations without letting it control her, and that is actually what bravery is rather than jumping to danger like an idiot. Another color to be considered might be green, since she's actually pretty kind as shown in the series.

• Gideon: Purple for perseverance 💜

An interesting aspect of the show is all the parallelisms between Gideon and Dipper, like both having a crush on an older girl or both getting a journal and more stuff I don't remember but I read that analysis somewhere, and you get me. It was also interesting for both to have the same soul color along with the possibility of orange. Gideon... keeps it going. He's always planning something to get away with his whims, doesn't matter if it's stealing the Mistery Shack or a deck chair. Gideon's vision and wantings might change, but like Dipper, his pace never does.

• Fiddleford: Green for kindness 💚

At first, i put Fiddleford here just because he couldn't fit any other color, but I realized green is actually perfect for him. I'm talking mostly about when he was sane since I don't think his attitude during most of the series should be considered to judge his real personality. He seemed a nice person and dedicated to others with things like writing a whole tesis for Ford, giving him a laptop or a pumpkin that "looked like him", and the way Ford described him talking about family and stuff, also he seems to love children by the end of Gravity Falls when he recovered his memories, his vibe just seems very kind by nature. I haven't read the journal for a while so I don't remember a lot, but definitely, green is his color. Mostly because he literally just can't fit under any other and I'm not joking this time.

• Pacifica: Yellow for justice 💛 (Why is there not a yellow text option?)

Am I judging her whole character because of one scene? Yes. Do I think I'm right? ... not really. The first time she stopped her parents' influence, she did it with an act of justice. She let the town people into the party, she did what was fair. Yes, it was because there was a ghost threatening to kill everyone if not, but I think there's a meaning behind her first... true action being something fair. Well, she cheated in the singing contest, but honestly, I'm having trouble here giving Pacifica a color. Her parents' bad influence made her a completely different person than what she really is inside, so her soul color might be actually anything, but I personally believe yellow is the one.

• Robbie:

....

....

Who is Robbie?

No, really. I have no idea what to give him. Maybe perseverance? Because of his search for ✨love✨? Idk man. Not kindness, nor patience, nor bravery (maybe? Nahh... Maybe? Naahhh), nor justice (i mean what justice yk), nor integrity, and I laugh at the idea of giving him a determination soul. Could you imagine? (Probably only Undetale fans will get me here but come on).

Though that would actually be hilarious.

Anyway I hope you liked this... something. I love Undertale and a crossover with Gravity Falls would be SO fun and I couldn't get this out of my head, so... yeah. Tell me if you think I'm wrong about any of these and why, I'd like it tho probably no one will read this but I will be happy anyway.

Also I forgot but Bill's is Determination, if he even has a soul, much less a human soul. His magic could be red tho, like the monsters with colored magic instead of colored souls.

[eregyrn-falls]

I believe the song Fiddleford is playing is foggy mountain breakdown by flat and scruggs, could be wrong

Ooooh, will have to check that out!  Can anyone else confirm?

[strawberry-smog]

I find it interesting that regardless of whether a Fidd/Ford meta post is trying to argue that they’re healthy or toxic or in between or whatever they all still tend to take the stance of “Fiddleford is such a saint for putting up with and forgiving Ford!” when the more canon stuff I see about him the more I’m convinced he’s a fucking maniac. I don’t mean this is a “wow McGucket is so problematic, I guess he’s the REAL toxic friend” way, but I do mean this in a way where I don’t find how he acts around Ford very admirable at all.

Like, this is a guy who cannot have a serious argument or disagreement with Ford, not just to the point where he hides his own feelings around him and then snaps, but to the point where he hides his own feelings around him and then snaps and then secretly uses his memory gun to erase it out of both their heads so it’s like the argument never even happened. This is a guy who moved to and stayed in a town full of dangerous monsters that gave him panic attacks because Ford asked him to. This is a guy who moved ten hours away from his wife and small child for a year, visited them once on Christmas, and then immediately flew back to work because he got into a fight with his wife over not buying her a present while he was busy hand-making Ford, a man who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, two presents. This is a guy who started a cult to cope with all of this rather than telling Ford something was wrong. This is a guy who stood by Ford even after receiving a really mean and disrespectful ultimatum from him and only left when he got irrefutable proof that Ford was about to unleash a demon that would devour the earth, and even then he just ran off to forget everything with his cult rather than try to, you know, stop Ford from doing that.

This is him bending over backwards for Ford, yes, but this is fucking insane. Yeah sure he’s pretty put upon by Ford, but he’s also putting quite a lot of this upon himself, because he can’t just have an important discussion with him and will instead martyr himself upon Ford’s disregard endlessly, to the detriment of himself, everyone who knows these two, and, tbh, Ford.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Bill Monroe challenges Mcgucket to a dueling banjo session. Who wins?

XD Here goes an unnecessarily detailed answer, as one might expect from me.

Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe (1911-1996) was a virtuosic mandolinist (also no slouch on guitar) who incorporated fiddling influences into his playing. Rather than an old-style shimmering tremelo, Bill Monroe attacked the strings in an impressive combination of rhythmic adroitness and dogged melody. His playing had rhythmic quirks bluegrass mandolinists tease on today, but I think it augments rather than detracts from his iconic sound.

Historically speaking, Monroe stepped the game up for virtuosity in American country music. Even when he was in his twenties, performing duos and trios with his brothers on the radio in a more old-time style, his technical alacrity caught attention. Monroe fashioned bluegrass with blues and even jazz influences, such as the idea of instrumentalists taking turns doing technical instrumental breaks, one after the other. Thus, not only did he have to be at a high standard, but he pushed everyone in his band to match it. This man regularly performed hundreds of songs at a whim with good ear and improv ability.

Now, Fidds, my beloved... how does he compare? We hear relatively little of Fiddleford McGucket's banjo picking in Gravity Falls. What information we could glean is contradictory due to animation and sound design inaccuracy. I apologize for upcoming jargon, but I'll explain. ;)

McGucket owns multiple banjos. All banjos he's owned lack planetary tuners, which tends to indicate a low-cost banjo beginners and non-serious players use. However, given as McGucket has dedicatedly played banjo since at least the 1970s, and is dedicated enough to own a collection, this suggests a more invested player. (Of course, you can play for years and be passionate and still suck, but there's a higher chance you're good, hah!) Looking at the meta context, the animators would have no idea they were connotating lower-end instruments, so let's go with writing intent: McGucket is the banjo guy playing with love and passion for decades.

McGucket is most often seen with open-backs, but also has had a Seeger (long-neck) banjo and a resonator. Open-back and Seeger banjos suggest McGucket plays in the old-time style, which is (often) based on repeated rhythms and chords. That we've never seen Fiddleford McGucket wear finger picks also matches old-time. Now, I love old-time, it's gorgeous. But. Old-time banjo doesn't... shred... so in a dueling session, this would be trumped by Monroe's more advanced approach.

On the other hand, McGucket has a resonator. Resonator banjos can and have been used for old-time styles, but in general: if you have a resonator, you're a three-finger style bluegrass picker. This is a very different technique than old-time and will start to put McGucket in the competition. It's also said in Journal 3 he loves listening to high-intensity bluegrass, and when we hear sound clips of McGucket playing, it's in the three-finger bluegrass style. They animate him wrong to be making those sounds, but those are the sounds they're evoking. So, given animation is always inaccurate depicting instruments and performance, bluegrass is the genre associated most directly with McGucket, the animators and maybe even composer might've had no knowledge of old-time and its sounds, and the soundtrack always evokes bluegrass-style banjo... the Gravity Falls team probably wanted to indicate McGucket played bluegrass-style banjo.

I'm not on a computer with speakers to listen to McGucket playing, but I distinctly remember A Tale of Two Stans. I can and have played that riff. I'll transcribe (more or less) it by memory rn.

McGucket is approximately playing the first few measures of Foggy Mountain Breakdown with the barcodes pulled off. He starts with the Foggy Mountain roll on a G chord, then descends to do a forward roll on an e minor chord. Without jargon, this means he's playing two very simple right hand patterns. These patterns are ones a baby banjo picker would learn in their first month playing.

And that's exactly what happened when you know how the soundtrack developed! Gravity Falls' composer learned some banjo for GF. He's doing what I would... learn baby-baby basics so you can record an instrument live. But this means that, because he learned juuuust enough to get the banjo sound in GF (S1 banjo sounds worse than S2 because of this learning curve, too), he can't depict McGucket as a skilled picker. He does an impressive job with the above measures given his inexperience (the tone is better than I'd expect), but the material itself is rudimentary.

Contrast this with Bill Monroe in one of his beloved instrumentals, Southern Flavor (he is the mandolinist who starts the song, first soloist):

Given what Gravity Falls put in the show, McGucket wouldn't stand a chance against Monroe. McGucket wouldn't get hired by Monroe. Obviously we have to do legwork to go beyond imperfect depictions - the limited knowledge and playing ability of animators and composer - so it's very fair to say McGucket is better than anything presented. But, even then, he's got zero shot competing against a professional who expanded virtuosity of a music style and forced musicians around him to get up to his level. Bluegrass had come into its own and many, many, many amateur players were playing breathtakingly by the 1960s and 1970s. But you ain't gonna beat the master who got 'em all there.

[aeon-delights]

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[tatemcgucket]

gravity falls sideblog, so i should probably introduce myself:

I'm phoenix or nix! im a disabled writer and artist who focuses on disability and queer identity in writing and meta a lot. i am silly. i use any pronouns.

ford is my blorbo but i also love stan and fiddleford to be honest. number one tate mcgucket stan.

[ahb-writes]

Fanfic expectations.

(from Gravity Falls, S2E12: "A Tale of Two Stans")

[zephrunsimperium]

I was laying down to sleep when I was suddenly possessed with a powerful urge to rant about one of my favorite things about Gravity Falls that I have literally never heard anyone else talk about and I feel like I have a unique perspective on:

I love that Gravity Falls allows tweens to be as chaotic and vibrant as they actually are.

As an aspiring middle school teacher, I spend a lot of time around tweens. It’s a special age and while I can easily understand why a lot of people would rather avoid kids in those years, I absolutely adore them. Middle schoolers are very invested in the idea of “coolness” but the secret is that being “cool” really just means being loved and accepted.

Not-so-fun fact: most kids stop drawing in 4th grade because they start comparing themselves to others and worry about their art being “good enough.” That is an utter tragedy. Every kid deserves to feel accepted and loved enough to create.

To me, one of the sweetest experiences I can have is hearing kids talk about what they’re passionate about. Because they are passionate. Stan says that you don’t have to grow up even though you get older and I absolutely love that. Kids have so much excitement about life and I think that’s something adults often lose which is a real shame. There is no better way to live than passionately.

So when I see sweet Mabel being aggressively herself and Dipper being so delighted to talk to his Grunkle Ford about what’s he’s interested in, it absolutely warms my heart. Especially because you KNOW Ford grew up being told that nobody cared about what he had to say or what he was passionate about, so you KNOW he‘ll jump at the chance to let this kiddo know that somebody does care.

And Mabel specifically really gets me. It’s so sad to me that she gets as much hate as she does. She isn’t my favorite character, but she is definitely a kid I would love spending time with. I love how sweet she is whenever she interacts with Fiddleford and I love how much effort she puts into making other people feel loved.

So yeah, I like this show a lot and tweens are wonderful.

[orikeepitasecret]

Hey Stanford, Fiddleford, guys:

why in the WORLD did you make shutting off the portal so difficult?

Like turning three keys in sync to reveal a button that's not even on the same pannel???

That means the portal can't be turned off quickly and it takes a minimum of two people to turn it off.

And then the button: its behind the safety line. As in if you want to hit it you have to cross into the danger line like?????

Like look!!!

The button is behind him!!!!!

It's behind the line when Stan pushes Ford in and when Mabel decides to trust Stan:

Then line isn't visible in those scenes but when it is animated in its consistantly behind the two glowing cylinder parts.

The button shifts in how far away from the portal but in every scene we see it in but one it is behind the safety line.

Where do we see it when its not behind the line?

When Ford trips over it. (Or when it just doesn't exist:

Anyway both Ford and Fiddleford belong in Bad Lab Safety Jail! Go to jail!!!

[trianglesimpfordpines]

Some of y’all will be like “we need more characters who are unambiguously good and heroic but also have realistic flaws!” then call Stanford Pines a villain... what’s it like to have a big blob of glitter glue where ur brain should be

[eregyrn-falls]

I posted 8,345 times in 2022

That's 673 more posts than 2021!

53 posts created (1%)

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I tagged 8,343 of my posts in 2022

#gravity falls - 4,449 posts

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i do find it fascinating that he prepared several different versions of the same theme and they must have picked between them at some point)

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

This may sound silly, but I really appreciate your openness about being genX. I feel like even within fandom, there's this underlying ageism around fandom, like you're not allowed to like things past your 29th birthday?? I suspect this is related to the post you shared about genX and milennial folks growing up when fandom was still "weird", and I'm hoping that this will change as genZ ages. I hope that when I'm 80, my retirement home will have cosplay days, you know?

Aww, thank you! I was definitely more vague about it when I first got onto Tumblr and into GF fandom, but eventually I did realize that like, if nobody actually talked about being older, then it would just perpetuate this sense that older people aren't still around and doing stuff. I hope sometimes that talking about it just serves as an example that shows a way that you can live as you grow older, without having to give up your passion or your interests.

I know that when I first got into fandom, in the early 80s, I was joining fan-groups that were, necessarily, run by adults (in their 30s-50s). I mean, because to run a fan-group, or organize a convention, you had to be an adult who could handle money and enter into contracts and stuff. I went to conventions and met a lot of older people, too.

There just weren't any distinctions based on age at that time. There wasn't any sense that fandom wasn't for adults, because fandom as it was understood at that time had *originated* with adults. I mean, I'm going back to the 30s, when Worldcon started; or like, the "save Star Trek" campaign of the 60s, which was spearheaded by adults (mainly women, many of whom were extremely into Kirk/Spock).

That was definitely still the feeling in fandom when I was getting involved in the 80s. And I benefited from adults who were really welcoming to a 14 year old, and really encouraging of my earliest efforts in fanfic and fan-art. I met plenty of people in their 50s and 60s who were clearly successful, independent adults, and this was just their thing. Genre fandom is no more "childish" than, say, sports fandom, which is extremely mainstream.

This weird undercurrent of ageism in fandom is very new. And usually it seems like it's pretty misogynist in its expression.

The thing about your life and your interests is that there's really no age at which you need to stop being You. Maybe you'll enter into a phase of life in which whatever you're doing, be it family or career or lifestyle, takes up too much of your time for you to spare much energy for the kinds of fandom activities you once enjoyed, and that's okay. It's quite a different thing from thinking you'll hit age 25 or 30 and say "welp! I'm not allowed to be a fan of Star Wars any more!"

It doesn't usually work like that. I think people who think it does work that way are overly concerned about what *they think* "society" will think of them for still having... interests. And like, man, I get that. There's a lot of social milieus out there that can be really unforgiving of deviation from their norm, and if you're trapped in that, it sucks, and it takes a lot of emotional energy to withstand it, let alone stand up to it.

I got lucky, I think. I was always open about my interests and activities. There are people in my life who haven't really *understood* it, but they don't give me grief over it. But I also have to point to those fandom adults I met as a young teen, for giving me the feeling that it was okay to be "weird", even once you were an adult.

I expect I'll still be reading fanfic and drawing fan-art when I'm old, even if I have no idea right now what new loves and passions will come along. (That's the endless fun of a life in fandom, really. You never know what wonderful thing you'll discover next.) We are *definitely* going to have cosplay in the retirement home. ;-)

123 notes - Posted April 21, 2022

#4

Very Important Shots of Stanford Pines

So I was discussing butt puns with @gin-juice-tonic​, as you do (specifically on account of his little series  from  yesterday), when I happened to comment, “granted, Ford is the one, canonically, with the ass, while Stan, bless his heart, is not.“  The sort of statement one makes when one feels sure that what one is saying is common knowledge.  I forgot that what was common knowledge in the fandom ca. 6 years ago (born of consensus through many discussion posts) is not necessarily common knowledge in the fandom today. Resulting in the following exchange:

Gin: you cant just say ford canon has an ass and not elaborate on

Me: Ford is the one with the canon ass shots!

Gin: WHEN

This took me all of 5 minutes (to call up the eps and take screenshots; no I did NOT have these saved to a folder on my computer):

See the full post

220 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

#3

Earlier I read a post (reblogged by @scribefindegil​) that was about how people criticize stories that feature children having to fight the Big Evil themselves, and often these are criticisms of “child soldiers” and “where are the parents”, etc.  I admit, I’ve had that criticism of some works, myself; and the post is making the point that the people most likely to criticize those aspects of that kind of story aren’t the actual target audience.  Which I get!

I’m mentioning that and linking to the post because I did not want to append this in a reblog of it, since this is not meant to be a refutation of the point, or anything.  It’s just that reading that reminded me of a thing that I Really Like About Gravity Falls, and it seemed like a good jumping off point for summarizing those thoughts.  (In this, a week where we’re celebrating GF leading up to the 10th anniversary.)

You all will recognize the sequence above, of course!

I came to Gravity Falls as an adult; and, while I love Dipper and Mabel, and love watching their adventures and their growth, they weren’t my point of identification with the series.  (I’m putting that as an “and” and not a “so” or “therefore”, because I think it’s perfectly valid for adults who watched  and loved the series to identify with Dipper and Mabel!  I’m just saying this from my own perspective.)

Gravity Falls, obviously, is a balancing act (in the first season especially) with allowing the kids to have all kinds of adventures, some of which are Very Hairy, while keeping the main “parental” / adult authority figure (Stan) sidelined from those events for various reasons.  And the thing is, that worked for me.  While you are watching Season 1, I think, the impression you get is that Stan might be oblivious to some of the supernatural stuff Dipper and Mabel are dealing with; and at least, that’s what the kids believe.  (Of course we know Stan has his own deal going on and we don’t know what that is; and I know people watching S1 really question whether Stan is as oblivious as he sometimes seems.)

That works better for me than “the adults all know about the Big Evil (or the Big Problem or what have you), but they feel they cannot do anything about it and so they will not do anything about it”. 

In Stan’s case, of course, we finally get an explanation for his whole deal, and THEN the show addresses his absence from some of the supernatural problems.  He hangs a lantern on it by saying that he thought pretending he didn’t know would keep the kids from finding out, and keep them safe.  (Who knows if that really would have worked, had Dipper not found Journal 3?  I mean, probably not.  But Stan did not know that Dipper had a source telling him all about a bunch of the supernatural stuff, in his hands.)

Anyway -- what we see during Season 1 is that Dipper and Mabel are very capable of dealing with things themselves.  They’re brave and resourceful.  They’re not stepping up because the adults won’t, or can’t.  In fact, despite Dipper’s protests, they spend S1 hiding most of their adventures from Stan. (Or certainly not bringing him into their confidence; until the very end.)

But what I love is that even though Dipper and Mabel are very brave and resourceful, when push comes to shove (and when circumstances align), an adult steps up, and helps them with problems they can’t (and probably shouldn’t be) handle on their own.  (See Stan’s entrance in “Scary-oke”, above.)

See the full post

281 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#2

HOLY COW! Something to look forward too! (These are super cute IMO.)

No word on price yet, I think? (The Amphibia chibi plush were $15, but they were 7", while he says these will be 10"; so they might be a bit more?)

Link to tweet.

Text from tweet by GravityFallsCipher, TheMysteryofGF on Twitter: I may have had to make a deal with a certain three-sided polygon but your favorite #GravityFalls Grunkles will soon be available in plush form starting in Spring 2023 coming exclusively to http://TheMysteryShack.com.

Made in collaboration with @kayochins alongside the chibi plush. These are a bit larger than those around 10" tall and a slightly different visual style.

(Features photos of a Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford plush in a somewhat chibi style. Stan is wearing his Mr. Mystery outfit. Ford is swearing the outfit he wore in the show, but the prototype is missing the belt across his chest.)

More info when it becomes available!

451 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Are you getting those ‘Based on Your Likes‘ posts on your dash?

There’s a toggle to turn it off now!

Apparently it got turned on prematurely, before they had the toggle ready.  The toggle was not there this morning, But it’s there now!

454 notes - Posted January 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[amigolupus]

@gingerisaspice replied:  voice changer bit non canon just something stan made up

Wasn’t it Dipper who told that story? While I’m not sure if Dipper made that story up or not. you go a point about how its status as canon is pretty questionable!

@killhitleragain replied:  I think the big reason why people like to think it was before is because he says that he made one when his wife left him and people like to headcanon that his wife left his before he went crazy because they like shipping him and Ford together at that point.

But I definitely agree that that doesn't make a super whole lot of sense. I definitely could see him *accidentally* building a death robot, but I don't think his morals were fucked up enough at this point to build one intentionally.

Ahhh, so it’s fanon based on shipping then.

And yeah, it’s why I got confused why people think Fiddleford builds giant robots before he went insane. Like it’s one thing to think or plan out blueprints in your mind, but it takes a pretty big leap to actually go and build death robots.

Like after the Gremloblin incident, it took several days of increasing mental stability before Fiddleford invented the memory gun. And even then, it was Ford’s words of science-ing their problems away that accidentally gave Fiddlleford the push to do so.

[hollycrowned]

among all this meta I’d like to bring up an inconsistency that always bothered me: how much did McGucket know about Ford and his connection to Bill? in the flashbacks in TLM, it seems that young Fiddleford did know about Ford and Bill, as we have this very telling shot:

but in Journal 3, it seems that Ford never admitted to Fiddleford that Bill was the source of all his ideas:

“I internally debated whether I should tell him about my Muse. F is a very superstitious man...Although I have always wanted to tell someone about my divine experiences, I worry that he might think I’ve gone mad all these years in seclusion, or worse--that I’m tangled in some kind of unsavory black magic. No matter...some secrets are best kept that way.”

Later, just before they test the portal, the topic is brought up again:

“Again, he questioned me about where I got the idea for this portal, and I considered telling him the truth...until he showed me something that shocked me.”

McGucket then offers the research paper for Ford to publish, Ford refuses, and the next day they test the portal. Fiddleford finds out about Bill the hard way and quits the project.

and so it seems that Ford never admitted the connection exactly, despite Fiddleford’s suspicions that something was up. if this is the case as written in journal 3, then how could the scene in TLM have happened?

I wonder this, too, because in that same episode it’s shown not only that Ford collected so many Bill-related artifacts, but that he kept them in the second level basement study:

which he presumably shared with Fiddleford while working on the portal—that’s what we see in the flashback, at least. it would make sense, then, that McGucket would’ve known all about Bill and Ford as we see in TLM.

but if we stick to what’s established in Journal 3, where Ford never admitted to McGucket his connection to Bill, then where do all those tapestries and prisms end up?

maybe the attic room wasn’t always used as storage.