#alex hirsch high school days

[hkthatgffan]

Alex and Ariel Hirsch's High School Yearbook photos from 2003 just scream chaotic Dipper and Mabel energy!!

These were found as part of an ongoing effort to locate lost media related to Alex Hirsch, Dana Terrace and Matt Braly.

Someone please draw Dipper and Mabel in these scenarios, lmao!

[juniemunie]

Don't you have anything better to do?

Just let them go.

(Yes its based off that pic from Veil)

[disneytva]

"Gravity Falls: The Book Of Bill" Panel Brings Insight In The Nightmares.

Gravity Falls fans went trought behind the secrets of The Book Of Bill who took the internet by storm, the panel also had the book artists Ian Worrel ("Gravity Falls", "Amphibia") and Joe Pitt ("Gravity Falls", Disney TVA pilot "Park Poppers")

Photos by Karla Garcia and Disney Publishing Worldwide

-Ian Worrel, Joe Pitt and Alex Hirsch all met in an Animation summer camp in High School

-Adrian Molina (Pixar Animation Studios "Coco", "Elio") was also one of the fellow classmates of Alex, Ian and Pitt at CalArts

-One of the reasons to make The Book of Bill was to work again with the former Gravity Falls crew

-Bill started as an inside joke in the Gravity Falls production as Alex wanted him to be a foil and to make Dipper crazy with his conspiracy theories and the crew decided to put it on every episode and the opening credits sequence

-Bill was almost a meme before it was a character, the zodiac was made up at last minute

-The Book Of Bill has been a New York Times Seller for 3 months in a row

-One fan who owns a book store told Alex, Pitt and Worrel that The Book Of Bill sold out on his book store

-Alex Hirsch reaction to the reception of The Book Of Bill has been terryfing and surprising as he thanks the fans for still loving Gravity Falls after all these years

-Ian Worrel's favorite pages where the "Dream Statues" page and the Pines Family group photo who didn't knew it was going to be burned at the end

-Alex Hirsch favorite joke was Bill playing the Xylophone apologizing for Weirdmaggedon

-Ian Worrel's process for the statue page was made all in VR

-Joe Pitt's favorite page was the bad end alternate universes of Dipper and Mabel

-Alex being asked about an Alternate Reality we’re Dipper was trapped in a Bubble rather than Mabel with the awnser being Dipper's Bubble being him and Ford having an X-Files show and Mabel saving him by the same way he saved her.

-Alex being asked if Bill loves The Duchess Approves with Alex awnsering that he loves it and likes fan-art on his alt-account

-Alex being asked what were Bill and the Axolotls’ prior relationship? Alex awnsers that he dosn't want to give lore for free

-Alex being asked for some more information on Bill’s Home Dimension? Alex had two pages with many information on Bill's Dimension but he kept it secret and decided to release them as of yet.

-Alex being asked before creating the Book of Bill did he ever consider creating something on his own or continuing Gravity Falls? Alex is very open to make more Gravity Falls books after the explosive sucess of The Book Of Bill that surprised Disney Press, Ian Worrel, Alex and Joe Pitt.

-Alex being asked about the process of editing and adding all the Ciphers and Codes into Gravity Falls? The codes and ciphers where added at last minute on the episodes for Alex the codes where so much fun.

-Alex being asked if he could tell us any additional canon about the secrets of Dipper and Mabel and anything beyond the Book of Bill? As of yet Alex cannot speak on Mabel and Dipper's backstory

-Alex being asked to elaborate more on Stan’s Nightmare? Alex talks about a story of Bill entering Stan’s mind to try and strike a deal with him with Stan not being fooled by Bill's tricks.

-Alex being asked since originally The Book of Bill was meant to be more of a “Bible of Bill” did he at one point want to lean more into the idea of “Ciphertology”? There's more and maybe one day he will reveal it.

-Alex on Billford relationship on The Book Of Bill: If anyone in your life is like Bill Cipher RUN AWAY FROM IT!

[kyri45]

Hello I am a big fan of your lmk au comic even tho I don't realy think shadowpeach is my teaste but still it is awesome the way you make them tying to forgive each other and give us angst at the same time (this means your comic HAVE TO BE CANON!)

But my quastion will be about your profesional artist life like how was it to working with the creators of the most populer Disney tv shows? (they are MORE than just tv shows for me)

Do yo have a website that you have your portfolio?

How did you make the firs contact with those creators (especially with Alex Hirsch)

Sorry if I sound to curious but i am at middle school and next year I will go to high school and I want to become a storyboard artist or a comic illustrator and finding you and seing your sucses and your awesome comics just fascinated me. Thats why I wanted to ask you those questions. (Btw I am the person who has birthday tomorrow)

Sorry if there is any gramatical mistaces my main language is not english.

Hope you have a good day!

Heyyy (this will be queued so most likely it will be already too late but happy birthday anyway!)

Working alongside them is awesome I think. Like, I said this multiple times, but my brain hasn’t processed the thing yet (and it’s been almost 2 years now) one day I’ll explode bc I’ll finally finish all the projects I have with them and realized that I literally worked for my tennager years idols.

Like all those shows are the reason I started to draw cartoon characters in High School in the first place so.

I didn’t got contacted by them directly. I got contacted by a studio that organise collaborations with them to work as the graphic /illustrator for the projects. Then everything that I draw is sent to them for approval and they send me back their feedback and corrections (sometimes they just write what needs to be changed or the draw over the sketch)

Never stop drawing what you love! What you draw is what your future proposal will be based on, so if you like something keep drawing that.

[cosmicpines]

There are a lot of things I'm thinking after watching the Alex Hirsch interview but a lot of it really is how much I appreciate how much I have learned about storytelling and emotion and how much of that was through GF. I'm sure most of the people who were around back in the day aren't here anymore, but there was a theory called Grunk4Gramp that arose in the hiatus after NWHS and before ATOTS. It was essentially that, since we knew Stan had stolen Ford, (god, he was still Stanley at the time)'s identity, that Grunkle Stan was the twins' grandfather. And I don't remember my exact opinion at the time but then when the "Shermie's grandkids" line and the fandom exploded again. I don't remember exactly when I realized that, yeah, that is a bit of a sloppy solution, but emotionally, yeah. It can't be Stan or Ford because that would retroactively make one or both of them really, really bad. It would be heavy and super complicated to cover in half a season. And then hearing Alex literally say that, practically word for word, just makes me really happy.

It makes me think more about just the prevailing attitude of "oh they're geniuses they must have had a plan for everything!" level of deep scrutiny. Which like, honestly? Fair. Most of us were in high school or younger. GF was a show like no other. It encouraged this kind of behavior. In retrospect, the moment that started falling apart for me was when a lot of people were so deeply insistent on the slit pupil maybe-still-possessed-Bipper thing after NWHS that I just... It's like Grunk4Gramp. What kind of storytelling would it be if Dipper wasn't making any of his own decisions? What would we even gain from the story then?

Being a creator is very difficult. Even as creators, we often forget that people who make things are still human and make mistakes. We sometimes forget that things can't be perfect and shiny and are just going to be good enough. We fight for those emotional beats and sometimes it'll make something inconsistent. Or sometimes something will fall a little flat. Or sometimes something will fall really flat. And that it happens to everyone, even creators we really love and respect. The best we can do as people is fight for the story we want to tell, not filling every plot hole and demanding an answer for every little thing. It's fun to be the second -- god, don't I know it. It is SO MUCH FUN overanalyzing things, ask literally any of my friends -- but knowing that something being complicated and intricate doesn't mean its good and vice versa.

Anyway I just really respect the GF crew and how much they put into this show, even now, 12 fucking years later. I really respect and love the fandom and all the wild shit that came out of it. My main creative project right now wouldn't exist if it wasn't for an offshoot fandom of the GF fandom, which is really a weird thing to say out of context. I just miss it.

oh also I found this on my blog while trying to find grunk4gramp things and lmao

8 years ago...

[sinfulauthor]

Tagged by @alectricblue!

1. Were you named after anyone?

I named myself after Alex Hirsch and my first theatre director! Alex is a very gender-neutral name, so that's why I picked it!

2. When was the last time you cried?

For sad crying, probably a couple weeks ago, but I was laughing so hard I was crying last week!

3. Do you have kids?

Nope. Hate them, never want them, and yeeting my uterus as soon as I can.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I did tee-ball as a little kid and absolutely hated it.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Yeah, but not like all the time.

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

I know this sounds vain, but a lot of the time I'll notice (unintentionally) how much acne they have. Idk it just kinda happens.

7. What's your eye color?

Hazelish, but when doing character creators I usually use grey!

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings 110%. I HATE horror movies, except for campy musical ones (LSOH and RHPS, for example).

9. Any talents?

I can make Perler bead sprites without tweezers! I can do them with just my fingertips.

10. Where were you born?

Chicago suburbs!

11. What are your hobbies?

Sewing, crafting, cosplay, writing, reading, playing video games, performing on stage, and learning Japanese!

12. Do you have any pets?

Not at the moment, but my moirail and I want to adopt a Selkirk Rex cat once we get our own place!

13. How tall are you?

5'4"! Or about 163cm for those in metric.

14. Favorite subject in school?

Currently, I'm minoring in Japanese, and it's a lot of fun! But for high school, cooking classes were my favorite!

15. Dream job?

If I can work abroad and be a part of the costuming department for the Takarazuka Revue, I think I can die happy XD

Tagging these people, and anyone who wants to participate!

@nursal1060writes @madangel19 @celestialvocalist @cicada-days-of-summer @remornia @pellaeas @sterlexa-queen-of-the-nymphs @dirkjaye @in-the-heart-of-the-vampire @adaleim @elunoir-unlovable @dumpster-lizard @pekasairroc @aahrima @lavleyreblogs @quantumkaworu @knightofhylia-sageofthetriforce @monochromayhem @alleightbits @articulately-composed @kolchekss @gingerreggg @aliensaresupergay @twelvelemons @spoopybananel @emmi-kat @lostwoodstarryskies @faux-fae @adobephotoslop @blatterburystreet @jensteed @meefling @rozendorkface @bee-whistler

[konkonvt]

It's not even been a decade since we had to remind people to not get angry about Gravity Falls "queer baiting" because Alex Hirsch had made it explicitly clear that he wanted to have openly queer characters but the censors had pulled it so the only thing he could do was to queer code.

I'm not saying you can't feel frustration over the way queerness was handled in "older" shows, I still to this day feel deeply frustrated by the bi erasure that was just constant in OITNB but I do so with the understanding of just how monumental the show was for putting a black trans woman in front of a mostly cishet white audience and making them not just like her, but sympathize with her unique struggle (among the rest of the cast at least.)

Glee was many young Sapphic women's first experience with openly queer women in a show aimed at them. Yes it had a LOT of problems with it's depictions of queerness (among so many other topics) but I cannot express to kids how monumental it was to be in high-school and feel seen by a popular teen show at the time, to look at Kurt and Blaine or Britney and Santana and see yourself, to realize that queerness was finally pushing into the mainstream, before that we still had queer shows, we've had them since the dawn of TV but most shows with openly queer casts were only ever about being queer, were often short lived, aimed at adult audiences and usually much more niche. Queer as Folk might be fondly talked about now as the community can more easily share influential media for whole generations of us but I didn't know it even existed til I was in my mid 20s.

When we urge baby queers to learn our their history this is why! We've come a long way in the acceptance of some of us in media, media aimed at young audiences especially but it's not been a long time since we got here, we need to know where we came from so that we can appreciate where we are and so when people try to force us backwards we know what we're fighting against. People like Rebecca Sugar are the reason you can have an openly queer Owl House, she's important to our history!

Steven Universe: Eh, I don't really feel like saying "girlfriend" or "wife". Maybe they're together. They have a special connection...

(gets violently shoved aside)

The Loud House/Craig of the Creek/The Owl House: Pfft, amateur. "My GIRLFRIEND Sam and I..." "I'm texting my GIRLFRIEND, mind your business." "Luz's new GF showed her..."

[andrewmoocow]

What You Never Knew About Fooly Falls (part of it just being stuff I just came up with)

Ian Ramirez gets his name from Ian Worrel, art director of Gravity Falls.

Jorgé's real name is Joseph, but everyone calls him Jorgé because that's what Pacifica called Soos back in the day.

The idea of Soos and Melody having seven kids came from the Mabel's Guide to Dating short, where Soos says he'd ideally have seven kids for each day of the week to love.

For the epilogue scene of Ride on Shooting Star, Stan Jr. is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo Kurosaki, Adam Park, Izaya Orihara, Giyu Tomioka, Lelouch vi Britannia, Rossiu Adai) and Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Kamado, Ken Kaneki, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, Cuphead, Tai Yagami, 9S), while the older version of Abby is voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard (Erza Scarlet, Monkey D. Luffy, Princess Hibana, Marie Mjolnir, Riza Hawkeye, Momo Yaoyorozu) and Nana Mizuki (Ann Takamaki, Hinata Hyuga, Tamao Tamamura, Lan Fan, Michella Watch, Cheelai, Sana Sunomiya).

At some point prior to the beginning of Fooly Falls 2, Waddles unfortunately passed away from old age. He lived a pretty long life too, so Mabel made sure her precious piggy would be forever immortalized in a stuffed pig she made for Tyrone, which is where Waddles II came from.

I recently learned that according to Alex Hirsch in 2020, the 45th President of the United States in Gravity Falls was Old Man McGucket. Thus, I shall retcon my Donald Trump joke to be that Trump still became president after McGucket and Joe Biden but before Maki Kitaki, making him president between 2025 and 2029.

Dipper and Pacifica maintained a stable romance with each other throughout their teenage years until they were 18 years old, when Pacifica realized that Dipper still held a torch for Wendy and didn't hold it against him. Besides, she planned on dating Mabel just in case.

Ezra Chiu was the product of Candy experimenting on an anonymous sperm donation to effectively create her own super-soldier, as I revealed in A FLCL Christmas in Gravity Falls.

As I implied in Ride on Shooting Star, Haruko came from a broken home on her dystopian home planet of Wasprus, but it wasn't always that way. Wasprus was yet another planet enslaved by Medical Mechanica to do their bidding, and Haruko's mother Rihanna Raharu led the resistance against the company's top brass to free their home planet from MM's tyranny. Unfortunately, the rebellion failed and Rihanna was later killed by her drunken husband Reagan. All of this shall be further elaborated upon in Rick and Haruko.

Speaking of which, when Haruko was saved from Wasprus's destruction by Atomsk thanks to the timely intervention of Rick Sanchez, back when he was a member of the Flesh Curtains alongside Birdperson and Squanchy, that was when Haruko's obsession with Atomsk began developing. This, combined with Rick being as bad an influence on her as he would eventually become with Morty, would cause Haruko to betray Rick during an undercover mission as an officer of the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood. In the process, a Naked Focal Point sucks Haruko up and drops her off in Gravity Falls, where she would meet a younger version of Commander Amarao. The rest will be revealed soon.

Gwen is a skilled golf player, no doubt she was trained by her aunts Mabel and Pacifica, and also plays tennis with Arnold. She also shares her father's love of BABBA and has caught him singing Disco Girl only to start singing with him.

Much like Wendy before her, Leia also has her own friend group of rambunctious teenagers. We got Robbie V and Tambry's twin daughters Robin & Roxie Valentino, who are cheerleaders at Gravity Falls High School and the polar opposites of their parents, Clayton, a terse and aloof but easygoing cowboy-looking fellow, and Johnny, who is kind of the Thompson of the group except he has a bit more of a spine. Ezra fills the Robbie role of the group. Speaking of which.....

Tyrone and Ezra do not compete over Leia's feelings the same way Dipper and Robbie did over Wendy, I am too focused on wholesome found family dynamics to even consider a love triangle. Instead, I implied that Tyrone is Ezra's ultimate wingman.

In the era of the Fooly Falls 2 epilogue, Ford would eventually die of a heart attack at, you guessed it, 92 years old in 2045, just like Bill predicted. However, just like Stan, death isn't enough to keep Ford down and he lives on as a ghost watching over the other Pines.

Around that time, Abby would start taking home a few gold medals in high school gymnastics, while Stan Jr. would befriend a lonely & sullen boy named Masaki Aofuji, who claims he can see strange ghost-like creatures when no one else can. Junior believes him though since this is Gravity Falls we're talking about, and also relates to Masaki since he feels like he hasn't found what makes him special yet unlike his older siblings. However, things would soon change when Junior, Abby, and Masaki are taken by Harumi Araisho to the mysterious Tsuganei Tower to try and blow it up, prompting Tsukata Kanda to contact Dipper to stop their plans while a certain three-sided scourge of Gravity Falls plots to use Tsuganei Tower as a tool for revenge. (possible hints towards a FLCL Shoegaze adaptation starring Stan Jr. and Abby intensify)

Preston Northwest ultimately didn't care that Pacifica was marrying a girl, but he did take issue with the fact that she was marrying Mabel, whom Pacifica made life a living hell for, out of every girl in Gravity Falls. Pacifica didn't care however, since she had already cut most of her family out of her life aside from a few cousins she was neutral towards.

There is at least one autistic person among the next-gen characters, I just haven't really narrowed down who it could be. On one hand, Ezra gets incredibly flustered with Leia's advances on him and tries to hide it, but on the other hand, Gwen had trouble socializing or feeling anything for much of her life and even when she started feeling emotions again after getting rid of her old hat, she was still a lot more reserved than her brother and cousin. Or it's both of them. Yeah, it's both of them.

Speaking of Gwen, for the first few weeks after abandoning her hat and accepting her emotions, she was very physically affectionate with everyone. She hugged her family and friends so much, Tyrone started keeping track of how often Gwen gave hugs to feel the warmth she was robbed of for five years of her life. The highest he got was 618 before Gwen decided she gave enough hugs.

Much like how Mabel had Candy and Grenda as her people, Tyrone also has his own plucky duo of friends. They are Matthew, a boy genius who is never seen without a set of mechanical octopus arms sticking out of his backpack, and Joanie, a very masculine boy with a feminine voice.

During his adventures beyond the portal, Ford has made many powerful enemies and allies over the years. He engaged in a game of wits with Makima, had run-ins with the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Doctors, met Metron and sat in the Mobius Chair, resisted making a deal with Alastor, and many more.

Tyrone and Leia are gym buddies. They also got Haruko to come with them a few times.

While Gwen has more self-confidence than her father did at her age, there are still times where she gets pretty awkward. She gets the most nervous around a boy her age named Damian that she has a crush on.

Juan and Jorge are banned from playing dating simulators that could potentially become sentient and super-possessive of the player. Soos knows exactly how that feels from personal experience, though he was happy that was what allowed him to meet Melody.

During Haruko and Jinyu's travels, they ran into Commander Amarao at least once. Naturally, Amarao tried to resist admitting he still held a torch for Haruko and was super jealous of Dipper for managing to patch things up with her.

And finally, Stan Jr's legal name is Stanley Junior Ramirez. The name also came from a line in Not What He Seems when Soos is guarding the vending machine.

[hoodieimp]

Not me finding a new(ish) podcast and Binging it all in one go when I don't even *listen* to podcasts normally--

[opinions-about-tiaras]

Ten Years

Today is the 10th anniversary of the series premiere of Alex Hirsch’s Gravity Falls on the Disney Channel.

Gravity Falls was a harbinger; it was Disney shaking itself out of its post-Kim Possible doldrums and staking out a bold vision of creator-driven all-ages animated TV series. Legend of Korra was airing at the same time over on Nickelodeon (yeah, Korra is also ten years old; it premiered a couple months prior) but Disney, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon had all seriously ebbed back from their mid-aughts creative peaks and were sort of coasting on cheap, lousy, live-action programming, or shows that could be charming and were huge moneymakers, but made NO demands of their audience, such as Teen Titans Go! It’s not that they had nothing going on (Phineas and Ferb was airing) but it was slim pickings.

Gravity Falls would change that. In two seasons over four years it established itself as a critical, cultural, and financial sensation. Disney would follow this up with the flawed-but-still great Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the thoroughly entertaining Wander Over Yonder, the complete tour-de-force of Amphibia, and the tragically cut-short The Owl House.

All of those shows with the possible exception of Wander Over Yonder are loosely serialized creator-helmed YA shows that are invested and dripping with passion and relevance.

Gravity Falls is simultaneously a cryptid-of-the-week show about a zany sideshow attraction AND a show about the uplifting nature of even a flawed family.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil begins as a show about a magical princess from another dimension going to high school and getting into fights with the head cheerleader; it ends with an all-out civil war between people seeking to abolish a corrupt authoritarian order and fascist racists who object to all the race-mixing going on these days. A major plot point is that there’s a grand conspiracy to overthrow and erase from history an entire branch of the ruling family because the Queen boned someone from the wrong race and had a halfie kid, and the powers that be can’t have that.

Wander Over Yonder brought the same joy and whimsy we got from the Powerpuff Girls or Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends to a sci-fit setting straight out of Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century, brought to life by Jack McBrayers superb voice acting.

Amphibia and the Owl House are isekais (the anime term for “trapped in another word” series) that take what has become the most played-out genre in Japan and rebuilds it with all the strengths, all the verve, of western animators who grew up looking at the tropes and decided “I can marry this to an American sensibility and then do it better. Both shows utterly thrive on building a huge cast of interlinked characters and exploring the interiority of their lives en route to some pretty massive cosmic shit.

These are not shows you plop kids in front of to get them out of the way; these are the very definition of shows you watch and enjoy as a family. And they all had that “created by” note in their opening credits; Alex Hirsch, Daron Nefcy, Craig McCracken, Matt Braly, and Dana Terrace. One could argue that this era of shows is directly or indirectly responsible for spurring Netflix’ own forays into this kind of animation; Voltron: Legendary Defender and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power are cut from the same cloth.

This era may, sadly, be coming to an end. The Owl House is being cut down in its prime because Disney is pivoting away from serialized content of this nature; they want more “fun, bite-sized school hijinks” and less “adorable lesbians fight the evil empire.“ They don’t want a show people get into shipping wars on twitter over; they want Baymax.

This past decade and these shows will create and inspire a whole new generation of animators. Just as the people making these shows all came up under late-90s, early-aughts classic anime and cartoon series (Teen Titans, Reboot, Gargoyles, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kim Possible, that sort of thing) the work they’ve done will launch into the future the great animated series of the 2030s. Somewhere an twelve-year-old boy is watching The Owl House; in 2035 he will be given a contract for his own show by a producer who in 2012 was a ten-year-old girl watching Gravity Falls.

So happy anniversary, Gravity Falls. You’ve made a lot of folks very happy.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

I rewatched A Tale of Two Stans the other day and it’s funny because:

J.K SImmons, Award Winning Actor: I’m going to do some changes to my voice to show that make Ford sound younger and more innocent during his high school days.

Alex Hirsch: Stan has sounded Like This since he was like 17. 

[kings-of-the-arctic-sea]

Journal 3 photo + transcription dump: Stan and Ford’s reconciliation, Fiddleford’s

Hiya~

I recently realized that there aren’t many photos of Journal 3 with transcriptions out on the internet (or at least I couldn’t find any), and I thought since I have a copy of Journal 3 I could help spread some of its pages to anyone who hasn’t had the chance to read it. (Hopefully this is okay to do and won’t get taken down for copyright haha)

For today I really just feel like posting the last 11 pages, pertaining to Stan and Ford’s reconciliation after Weirdmageddon, and Ford and Fiddleford’s. I want to help spread all the canon info that others may not have if they haven’t read the Journal or found it otherwise.

At the bottom I’ve also linked to a few posts by others that show more pages of the Journal / transcriptions if anyone is interested.

(words underlined in the Journal have been bolded because tumblr isn’t letting me underline them)

(! The book pages in these images and the transcribed words are not mine and belong entirely to Alex Hirsch/Disney !)

Enough talking, here we go~

Starting from the 4th page of Dipper’s August 25th entry:

[immediately after Weirdmageddon. All three journals were found lying whole again in the woods after Bill’s defeat and the subsequent undoing of weirdness and destruction from Weirdmageddon]

“ In the end, it turned out to be Grunkle Stan who saved us all–by erasing his own mind, with Bill inside. When Mabel and I found out what had happened, I think both of us were too shocked to believe it. And luckily, Mabel refused to believe it! After tearfully showing Grunkle Stan her scrapbook, she managed to spark bits of Stan’s mind back to life–and began recovering his memory bit by bit!

It turns out that the memory ray’s effects can be undone through exposure to important images and people from your past (in the same way that McGucket began his road to recovery when he saw the tape of himself as a young inventor). The reason Stan recovered so much faster is that we began recovery while the erasure was still fresh–less than an hour after initial contact.

Still, it’s taken about a week of intensive scrapbook therapy to get Stan fully back to himself. While the townsfolk and McGucket helped rebuild the Shack, Ford, Mabel, & I have been spending almost every minute with Stan, retelling him his life story, feeding him his favorite foods (toffee peanuts & bacon), playing songs from when he was in high school, and driving through town to revisit every spot he’s ever seen (and every person he’s ever swindled.) We’ve even read his favorite terrible jokes from his joke book to him, and he remembers every punch line. ”

“ Ford’s been working at it the hardest. Seeing Stan’s memory erased is the only time any of us have ever seen Ford cry. There have been several nights we’ve found that Ford has fallen asleep on the couch next to Stan, exhausted from a marathon of describing their childhoods together–and from apologizing for his mistakes.

Ford even found an old film reel of them as kids, which he amazingly saved all these years. There are clips of them playing on the beach, goofing around at the dinner table and pawn shop, and dressing as explorers in oversized helmets trying to find the “Jersey Devil.”

Stan & Ford are downstairs in the living room watching the home movies right now. As much as we want to watch too, we think this is something they shoud do on their own. They’ve earned it. ”

“ August 27,

I’ll admit, I’ve been geeking out hard-core the last couple of days over having all 3 journals in my possession. Not only did defeating Bill fix the journals, but it turns out that it also restored pages that had long since been burned or ripped out. There’s countless pages in here that I never saw before, things I would have killed to know earlier in the summer. The journals even SMELL better. (Slightly less like millipedes!)

Part of me wants to keep the journals forever as a birthday gift to myself, but I know I’ve got to tell Ford about them. They belong to him. I just hope he won’t be mad that I’ve kept them to myself this long.

Besides, there’s no way I could forget the strange creatures and events we’ve both written about here. This journal was my guide to someone else’s adventure–and now it’s time I start my own.

I’ve even started my own journal to take back to California. (Do you like the cover?) I told Ford that I wouldn’t be taking his apprenticeship, and he completely understood. Apparently he’s thinking of asking someone else to be his new partner in crime. (And I think we both know someone who’s great at crime.)

I’ll never forget the most amazing summer of my life or the family and friends who made it that way–and I’ll never forget the book that first opened my eyes to the mysteries of the universe.

This is M Dipper Pines, signing off for the final time.

(Don’t be mad, Grunkle Ford!!)

Dipper Pines ”

[The next page is Ford’s first entry since Weirdmageddon, his last entry having been written as Bill emerged from the Nightmare Realm]:

“ My grandnephew’s fears are unfounded. All I feel toward him is love and pride. He is a wiser man at twelve thirteen than I was at thirty. He has an incredible future ahead of him–one in which he will hopefully avoid repeating my terrible errors.

Looking back on my lifetime of catastrophic mistakes, I realize one great pattern in all my follies. I thought being a great man meant being alone. Apart from the crowd. I bristled at the idea of sharing my accomplishments with anyone. I shunned my brother for one dumb mistake, and I shunned Fiddleford for having the sense to try to stop me from dooming the world.

Even when I was given a second chance, I still held others at a distance. If I had been able to widen my cirlce of trust . . . if I had believed in the Zodiac’s prophecy sooner . . . we might have gathered everyone together and banished Bill before he was able to strike. I just couldn’t get over the idea of myself as the lone hero . . . and it was Stanley who paid the price. ”

“ ”Trust No One.”

What an absurd and paranoid idea. Trust shouldn’t be given unconditionally, but it should be given a chance to be earned. There is strength in having the humility to work with and sacrifice for others–a strength I now realize was in my brother all along.

Stanley Pines was the man who saved the world, not me. I spent so long thinking he was a selfish jerk, and he turned out to be the most selfless man I’ve ever met in any dimension. If I’m totally honest, I must admit that he’s a hero and I’m . . . a hero’s brother.

And I’m okay with that.

Thank goodness he is recovering his wonderfully twisted mind. And I vow to spend the rest of my days making things right between us . . . 

If only he gives me a chance. ”

“ There was someone else I needed to make amends to . . . 

my old partner, Fiddleford McGucket.

We reunited during Weirdmageddon, but it was far too brief, so after things calmed down, I went to visit him. Dipper had warned me about Fiddleford’s uneven mental state, but when I saw that he was living at the dump, it became clear how deeply I had hurt this man that I had once held so dear.

He was overjoyed to see me, and we spent hours talking. He was fascinated by my tales of the multiverse, and his probing questions made it clear that his excellent mind had recovered most of its enormous capacity. My feelings of guilt returned when the conversation turned to the subject of his self-induced memory loss, but F dismissed my attempts to apologize. Not only is this man’s mind superior to mine, but he has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen. ”

“ I have found one way to try to make things up to him. During my visit, I discovered a large trove of blueprints. F dismissed them as “doodles,” but in truth they are an amazing array of futuristic machines the likes of which I have never seen. I insisted that he submit these plans to the U.S. goverment. I believe the royalties will allow him significantly upgrade his living arrangements. (And possibly wear shoes for the first time in 30 years.)

We also talked about our family members–and how his had turned their backs on him when he lost his mind. I encouraged him to reach out to them. No matter how hard it is, everyone deserves a chance at having a family. Amazing that it took me so long to understand this.

Before I left, Fiddleford insisted that I listen to him play the banjo. I could have sworn that as he joyfully played, I could see the age lift off his face, and see the Fiddleford who had been my friend so many years ago.

I bid him good-bye for then–but I know we will have much to discuss in the future. I also noticed that the Cubic’s Cube on his desk was perfectly completed–and for once I decided not to disturb it. ”

[Earlier in Journal 3, decades ago, Ford would scramble Fiddleford’s Cubic’s Cube when he wasn’t looking.]

“ August 29,

PARANORMAL HOT SPOTS

Gravity Falls is back to normal (at least, as normal as things get in this place). And although unusual phenomena are concentrated here, they are not confined to this location. There is a whole world out there that needs to be protected–and based on some strange signals I’ve seen in the Arctic Ocean, I think a new adventure might be right on the horizon.

When Stanley and I were kids, we would often read tales of the Sibling Brothers–about two boys who dedicated their lives to exploring mysteries together. (For the record: The butler stole the capers. OBVIOUSLY.) With a new anomaly to investigate, I’ve been thinking about those tales more and more lately. ”

“ Dipper is no longer my apprentice, and Fiddleford has a genuine career as an inventor ahead of him–so I think it’s time for the Pines Twins to join forces again. At least, I hope so. I haven’t discussed my idea with Stan yet. But if I know my brother, he will jump at the chance to find “money and babes.”

The path before us is clear. And it looks like this: 

[drawing] ”

“ It is a beautiful summer day. Everyone is packing for their respective futures, but I have found my mind drifting to how lovely the cloudless sky looks beneath the August sun. I’ve spent too long with my head in a book; it’s time to look at the world–and people–around me once more.

But what to do with these journals? They’re been created, destroyed, lost, found, buried, and burned, and yet, somehow, despite everything, they remain here like a curse I cannot escape.

I had suggested to Dipper that because of all the misfortune caused by them, we burn them in the last campfire of the summer. Mabel, Soos, & Stan all seemed very excited by this notion.

But Dipper had a better idea: we burn all my Bill Cipher artifacts instead. So we did. My scrolls, carpets, window … everything I’d ever collected with Bill went into the fire. We made s’mores and told stories until sunrise.

It was Mabel who ultimately came up with the best solution of what to do with the journals . . . “

“ And so here we are at the Bottomless Pit, a mystery of Gravity Falls that I still have never fully solved. Based on my investigations, tossing these journals inside could land them just about anywhere.

They made end up in the center of the Earth, being devoured by a subterranean dinosaur, or in another dimension, or somehow in the hands of another curious young mind whose adventure has just begun . . . perhaps someone who will find secrets in this book that were hidden even from me . . . 

And that brings us to you, dear reader. If you are holding this book in your hands, you hold something more than a record of the curious happenings of a town called Gravity Falls. You hold a record of one man’s folly and the kindness of a family that saved him from himself. It’s never too late to learn that growing old doesn’t have to mean growing up.

Stay curious, stay weird, stay kind, and don’t let anyone ever tell you you aren’t smart or brave or worthy enough. If you have come on these adventures with us, then you are an honorary member of the Pines family, and your adventure starts today.

And if anyone ever gets in your way–well, we have an entire section on Curses. Have at it.

For the last time, unless we meet in some distant world, this is

Stanford Pines,

signing off. ”

~~~~~~~~~~

If anyone wants more photos + transcriptions of the Journal please let me know :)

Links to more pages of Journal 3 by others:

@fordanoia​ created a text-only transcript of the entire Journal here

@fordarkisthesuede revealed the Blacklight Edition/Special Edition of the Journal in these posts: 1 2 3

[toondisneyartz]

Happy Pansexual Day of Visibility

I know this is a day late, but I wanted to wish my pansexual chums, a safe and great pansexual day of visibility. I am pansexual myself, and I super glad that I am able to celebrate a day where I can be heard. I have been hella busy, so sorry if this piece looks rushed. I am literally graduating high school in eight days so I am struggling to find time to make quality art. 💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙 If you disagree with any of the head canons/ships, please don't comment and have a nice day! 💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙 Made with procreate 💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙💗💛💙 Hilda Berg is owned by Chad and Jeremy Moldenhauer and Studio MDHR Dipper and Mabel Pines are owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney TVA Tom Lucitor and Star Butterfly are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney TVA

[isaacthedruid]

Please allow me to tell you about one of my favourite cartoons through this informal essay I did for school a couple of months back. 

Gravity Falls and How it Did The Unimaginable

**SPOILERS... KINDA**

The 2010s saw the creation of some of the most iconic animated tv shows ever made, the likes of Adventure Time (2010), Steven Universe (2013), Over the Garden Wall (2014) and The Legend of Korra (2012). To explain why this era’s shows are so admirable is honestly rather difficult. Yet, there are many factors that can be taken into consideration when looking for an answer.

The past decade was very successful in perfecting their craft and utilizing the animated format to their favour, creating some of the wackiest and fascinating cartoons ever made. With the advancements made in both 2D and 3D animation for film, this bled into the world of TV as well.

To mention that 2010s cartoons have stunning visuals would be an understatement. Everything about the animation was beautiful; the strong colour palettes, the clean and imaginative character designs, the colourful and immersive backgrounds and especially the mesmerizing worlds that can be found within episodes that are half an hour.

This era’s cartoons also led to a massive shift in storytelling, writing longer-running stories that spread out across seasons while also swapping out episodic adventures for serialization. This heavily aided in the popularization of these shows, due to the rise of internet fandoms and dropping the taboo that cartoons were only for kids. Many shows acknowledged their older viewers by leaving clues and even puzzles to be solved by the theorists who have a large appearance on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter and Tumblr. As the shows progressed, their fandoms created many theories for what they believed might happen within their favourite series. The top three shows from this era all utilized these changes, being at the forefront of the shift and helping guide the creative vision of 2010s cartoons.

Often regarded as many people’s favourite cartoon, Gravity Falls presented one of the best mysteries of the decade with two seasons and only 40 episodes. Inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, it’s considered as the kids’ version of these two iconic shows as this cartoon acts as many people’s first introduction to horror through bright colours and fun characters.

This series follows the adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines, twins, who are sent to spend their summer with their great-uncle or Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This town is full of oddities like supernatural creatures, insane and eccentric inhabitants, and many puzzles. The Pines twins must adjust to the weirdness while uncovering the mysteries and protecting their new town.

While living in Gravity Falls, the twins are forced to work in the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap created by their Grunkle Stan that overcharges unlucky tourists, teaching about fake monsters despite there being real creatures all over town. On his first day in Oregon, Dipper accidentally came across a mysterious journal written by an unknown author that explains all the oddities to be found in this strange town. This book acts like an encyclopedic of the Weird for Dipper, an inquisitive 12-year-old kid who seeks answers.

Dipper is an extremely intelligent kid, his brain being far more developed than his body. He’s rather awkward and self-conscious as he often stumbles over his words or gets embarrassed trying to talk to girls. Despite this, the boy is an adventurer at heart who just wants to grow up and skip his upcoming teenage years.

While Mabel is quite the opposite in many ways, she is loud and has an in-your-face personality. Mabel is bouncy and fun, she is so excited to start high school. She is easily excitable and for the larger part of the series, she is in her boy-crazy phase. Mabel is a girly-girl as she likes all things; glitter, unicorns, rainbows, partying and crafting. Yet, she doesn’t often compare well with many of the other girls in town, they see her as weird and “too much”.

(In all fairness through, it is not too kind to either of the characters as their personalities are more complex than just awkward nerd and artsy girl-girly.)

Dipper and Mabel’s personalities are very different but somehow, they—along with their Gravity Falls family—manage to solve mysteries and save the town, multiple times.

Gravity Falls is an honestly genius series that completely changed the way cartoons were made. Originally when writing a series, you’d create a base of your story; characters, the universe and a basic plot. Yet, when creator, Alex Hirsch (who was in his early/mid-20)s and his small team first began constructing their show, they planned out everything they could possibly think of for the first season. Additionally, outlining some answers for their biggest mysteries that would be answered at the end of the series.

Despite being rated TV-Y7, this series really pushed the boundaries of kids’ television. From the teeth being ripped out of a deer’s mouth by a demon, rearranging the functions of every hole on a man’s face to an aggressive pop-rock sock puppet show that ended in a dramatic slow-motion scene of the puppets burning. Gravity Falls wasn’t afraid to get a little weird or creepy. Or create some genuine nightmare fuel. 

From the beginning, Gravity Falls had built a mystery into its series, hiding secrets and clues all throughout the show. Most notably were the backwards-recorded message and cryptograms, using roughly nine different kinds, even creating two of their own.

The inclusion of cyphers and mysteries for fans to solve is possibly the reason why this series was so successful. As one of the first shows to do something like this, Gravity Falls used social media and internet fandoms to its advantage.

As mentioned earlier, cartoon fans have quite a presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. They create theories and share fun ideas about their favourite shows. Viewers of Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe were all included in their share of theory fun.

Sometimes, fan theories end up being correct but when you’re Gravity Falls creator, Alex Hirsch, you don’t just watch from the sidelines as your viewers figure out the biggest mystery of your show. No, you create a hoax to get your viewers off your trail and that is what he did. Around 2013, only halfway through the first season of the show, viewers had started to follow the clues, theorizing who was the author is Dipper’s mysterious journal.

Unfortunately for the Gravity Falls production crew, the viewers were right— for the sake of readers who have never seen the show, I will not mention who the author was as it would be the biggest spoiler.

In 2013, a supposed leaked image of a tv showing a younger version of the show’s crazy old man character, Old Man McGucket, writing in the infamous journal was uploaded anonymously (by Alex Hirsch) to 4Chan.

Despite the image only being on up for a few hours, it spread like wildfire. Much to the team’s success, theorists stopped searching for the answer to “who is the author” and just accepted the image of McGucket as the truth.

To further push the fake-out, three words were posted to Alex’s Twitter, “fuming right now.”

The tweet was deleted a few minutes later and fans genuinely believed that someone from the Gravity Falls team had leaked the most important part of the story.

While doing research, I came across a Reddit post from April 10th, 2013, the day after ‘leak,’ Alex’s tweet was uploaded. In this post, user, TheoDW uploaded an image of Alex’s tweet with the caption, “It seems that Hirsch got mad at last night’s leak. He already deleted this tweet.”

Seeing the reactions of these Redditors in 2013 is kind of weird and crazy to look at. “He has every right to be upset. Someone internally released a plot revealing screen shot of series breaking spoiler information,” a deleted Reddit account commented.

“This is Alex Hirsch’s biggest success by far, he spent a huge amount of time carefully planning out the series, and then in a moment someone releases a major spoiler. It would make anyone upset,” the user, Time_Loop commented.

“Seriously, this is a nightmare for a storyteller, and shows a breach of trust. I feel so bad for him–honestly, I hope whoever did the leak gets caught and appropriate action is taken. You don’t f–k with someone’s story like this. It’s unprofessional.” the user, lonelybeloved angrily commented.

In 2014, this ‘leak’ was finally disproven when viewers were given an episode on McGucket’s backstory and an amazing tweet from Alex Hirsch. 

Alex had post an image of himself playfully pointing at a monitor with the supposed leaked picture with the caption, “1) Make hoax  2) Upload to 4Chan  3) Post angry tweet about "leak" 4) Delete tweet 5) Let internet do rest”

It is so interesting to look at these comments know that all of this was orchestrated by Alex.

I wish I had been old enough at the time to follow theories and fandom stuff like I do now with current cartoons but really looking at this from an outside perspective, this was insane!

The real author wasn’t revealed until 2015 and when viewers first got the answer to this biggest show on their screens, they must have freaked out!

Following the finale in 2016, a single frame of a stone version of Bill Cipher, the show’s villain, flashed in after the credits had finished.

Alex Hirsch and his team actually created a real-life statue of their villain for their viewers to find and on July 20th, 2016, the Cipher Hunt began.

By following clues, the Hunters found themselves all over the world; Russia, Japan and then travelling throughout the United States for the final 12 clues. When the hunt took them to Los Angeles, actor, Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper Pines, also a massive fan of the series) and Alex Hirsch’s twin sister, Ariel Hirsch (the inspiration for Mabel) joined in the fun helping the search.

Finally, the hunt ended on August 2nd when someone tweeted out an image of the found statue in Oregon, the same state in which the fictional town of Gravity Falls exists. The Cipher Hunt had ended but finding the statue wasn’t Alex’s goal for the scavenger hunt, it was about the journey and bringing together the viewers, more than having them actually find the statue.

Creating its own hoax, an international scavenger hunt and quite a bit of nightmare fuel, Gravity Falls was a show truly unlike any other.

The 2010s saw some of the strongest cartoons ever made, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe acting as the leaders for multiple different changes in the medium; storytelling, worldbuilding, interaction with viewers, utilizing social media, representation and further pushing music into the cartoon world. From what was created this past decade and what has already been released in 2020, I’m so excited to see what comes next.

I have another one of these which is on Steven Universe’s representation and music if you would like to see that too!! 

[takerfoxx]

The Owl House, Season 1, Episode 1, First Impressions!

Let’s! Get! WEIRD!

Okay, so I’m noticing that all the kid’s cartoons I’ve been watching lately can be grouped into three categories sort by tone and style, with the main unifying feature being that they’re all adventure stories with casually diverse casts.

In one category, you’ve got the Netflix gang, where we have She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and The Hollow. Here, things are a blend of traditional western animation with noticeable anime influences and take place in colorful fantasy worlds with hopepunk themes.

Next is the Avatar gang, which is of course ATLA and The Dragon Prince and maybe one day Legend of Korra, which is much more anime-esque and tends to take place in mythology-inspired fantasy worlds that are very epic hero’s journey focused.

And finally, we have the Disney gang, which has Gravity Falls, Ducktales, and now The Owl House, where things are more wacky and weird with a strong focus on episodic adventures.

Like, I was very much expecting something more in the vein of She-Ra, given how much crossover there is between their fanbases, but as I was watching, I kept thinking, “Wow, this feels a lot like Gravity Falls. Luz is basically Mabel/Webby on slightly less crack, Eda gives me strong Grunkle Stan vibes if Stan was a witch MILF who was actually legit with the powers stuff, and hey, King sounds a LOT like Bill Cipher...”

Wait a minute, thinks I, is that ALEX HIRSCH?

Yup, it sure was, and I’m getting better at recognizing voice actors, go me!

Anyway, our story is about Luz, and as I said, she’s in the same vein as Mabel Pines and Webby VanderQuack, only on slightly less crack than the former and with fewer insecurities as the latter, and unlike the other two, she is the main character, so this promises to be...chaotic. 

Anyway, her aggressive...creativity (i.e. super weirdness) keeps getting her into trouble, so her mom decides to send her to a summer camp about how to be normal, and I know that’s a joke, but DAMN are the implications disturbing! Like, there’s a lot of similarities to real-life institutions intended to hammer out things that society considers deviations and...

Surely I don’t need to say it out loud. Jesus, Mom!

Anyway, before getting shipped off to be lobotomized or whatever, Luz’s favorite book is stolen by an owl, and in following it she Narnias herself into basically Weirdmaggedon world and meets Eda, a witch who makes a living hocking human goods. Which, to the incredibly weird Luz, is a dream come true! Finally she’s in a world that celebrates weirdness!

Except no, since the world is actually under the control of its own equivalent of the Weirdness Inquisition, which punishes non-conformity. Well, okay then. And Eda and her adorable Demon King buddy named...King needs Luz’s help just eking by.

Anyway, this is the pilot episode, and it’s purpose is to introduce the characters, setting, and basic premise, so there’s not a whole lot to really dig into just yet, except to say I like what’s going on and am looking forward to further exploring this world. The Warden I think is the best representation of what we can expect from this show, as there was so much about him that was genuinely unsettling and intimidating, but he was also really, really goofy.

So yeah, strong Gravity Falls vibes, and I am here for it!

Another note: okay, this is kind of embarrassing, but when we met the vampire girl who was in jail for writing fanfiction, I had to take a moment and tell myself, “I must not simp, I must not simp, I must not simp...”

Hey, we all have our types.

Also, interesting to note that Luz learning magic is less of the high school experience and more of an on-the-sly apprenticeship, and the Owl House is literally just Eda’s house. I have seen a lot of school-related screenshots, so we’ll see how that pans out.

And, uh, is Amity Blight gonna basically be Pacifica Northwest, only gay? Because that’s very much the impression I’m getting.

And Eda’s body parts falling off looks like it’s going to be one of my favorite running gags.

And finally, lol at giraffes actually being monsters who were exiled for being too weird. Are these guys also responsible for platypuses? 

[minijenn]

Universe Falls turns 5 years old this week

I was 19 when I started it and still in college, in the throes of depression bc I hated college and wanted out even during the start of my sophomore year. I was homesick and had only a handful of friends bc I was shy as fuck back then and terrified of rejection (and had gone from a small pond back in high school where I was fairly popular to being an absolute nobody in college). I really, really fucking hated it during my freshman year and in particular and begged my dad to let me come home and go to college there instead of thousands of miles away. But for better or worse he made me stick it out even though I was absolutely miserable. But if there was anything that got me through that horrible freshman year it was my discovery of two shows: 

Steven Universe and Gravity Falls

I binged SU first, having seen it when it first aired back in 2013 but then got back on the bandwagon for it around the time its first season ended, which was when I became a devout fan. GF was something I discovered through tumblr, I watched it not long after Not What He Seems premiered and fell in love hard and fast. I would spend hours watching and rewatching these episodes, reading fics and fan theories, speculating on what was going to happen next. Never before in my life had I ever discovered two shows that brought be so much joy and comfort until these two came into my life. I loved these characters, felt like they were the friends I knew I was lacking even though they were fictional. But they felt real, they felt alive to me. 

So fast forward to August/September 2015. I had just started my sophomore year and so far wasn’t having any better of a time than I had when I was a freshman. I still clung onto GF and SU as new, very exciting episodes were airing for both (that was the month we got the Last Mabelcorn and Catch and Release, for reference’s sake). And then, one night, while I was falling asleep in my cramp dorm room I shared with a roommate I couldn’t stand, the thought occurred to me: 

What if you brought these two things you loved so much... together?

It was a random thought, almost insignificant, but in the days that followed, I just couldn’t shake it. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see these characters interact, the more I wanted to see their plots intertwine, the more I knew I was the one who had to write this since GF and SU crossovers were pretty scarce back then (unlike they are now in the new wave of SUF and GF crossovers that I don’t much care for). 

I was in the midst of a writing funk at the time, my ongoing Zelda fics all on hitaus while I began a new year at college. I had more or less lost passion for most of them, with the majority of them except my HW fic receiving low numbers of reviews and feedback (back then I didn’t really know how to promote my fics like I do now). Even so, I started planning on this new project, but not without a bit of hesitation since I’d never really worked with GF or SU characters before. But I began plotting out a chapter list (the original UF chapter list has been lost to the ages, I wrote it in an old homework planner during class), and I had decided that I wanted to try my hand at making this thing a comic. A hand drawn comic. And given that my drawing abilities were... subpar at best, yeaaaaah it wasn’t the best idea....

Still, I got through two parts of UF’s “first chapter” and posted them on here (they’re still up somewhere if you wanna go back and cringe hardcore at my bad old art). Still, it had taken me a loooooong ass time to draw them and even more crazy was the fact that my laptop had crashed during that span of time, leaving me with only my shitty iPad to work with. Frustrated, I decided to forego the stupid comic altogether and write the damn thing as a fanfic, knowing I could get chapters out way faster than I ever would have by drawing it. 

So I wrote the prologue and posted it on September 29, 2015. And let’s just say right off the bat people were excited. I’d never seen so many reviews on the first chapter of one of my fics before and those numbers only started to go up the more I posted. I was jazzed up to work on this fic, pushed on by this encouragement as I decided to build my relatively reblogging-heavy blog up around it. Toward the end of the year, when I was nearing the end of arc 1, I decided to get myself a drawing tablet and download Sai so I could begin drawing my own art for the fic, leading to me first passes of character designs and UF’s old fugly cover lol

Still, I kept going with it into 2016, getting through both arcs 2 and 3 as the fic only began to grow more and more with more engagement from its fans. AUs were made, fanfics and fanarts of my fic were created, it was a glorious time to be alive, even going into 2017, 2018, 2019, and now. And all the while I kept at it, coming up with sequel plans, taking breaks every now and then to refresh and recoup, and to give the new pet project I started in 2019 (Keys to the Kingdom) some time to shine. But I’ve still never truly lost passion for UF. It’s something I tend to see through to completion, no matter how long it takes.

Fast forward again and now its 2020. I’m 24 years old and still going strong with it, having just completed RMD, an arc ender that I always hoped would be my magnum opus for this fic (and I’m so incredibly proud of how it turned out). Both GF and SU have ended, their stories both told and their endings inspiring me in so many different ways. And while those stories are over, I still strive to keep these characters, or perhaps, my own unique takes on them, living on to tell new stories, to have new adventures right alongside the canon ones. To keep their flames going in the same spirit and hopefully try to follow, even in some small way, in the footsteps of Rebecca Sugar and Alex Hirsch, two of my absolute heroes in the animation world. 

So UF turns 5 this week. It’s half a decade old and it’s nearing its 100th chapter. Its passed the 1 million word mark quite some time ago and I’m sure it’ll pass 2 million before its all said and done. It’s accumulated thousands of reviews, hundreds of followers/favorites, plenty of incredible fan interactions across the board. It’s 9th arc is about to begin, leading the way into 2 more before its all said and done. And from there it’ll only grow when I eventually write UF2 and UFF sometime way down the line. All things I could have never imagined doing as a lonely college sophomore back in 2015 when I was just starting this fun little experiment off. But as for where we are with it no, well, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

So here we are in the future. And, well, for UF at least, I’d say it’s pretty bright.