#all the adults in gravity falls do

[exhausted-kari]

It is my god given right as a lesbian to love Stanley Pines and want him to have nice things, but I'm on a budget and fiddleford is okay enough I guess

[krysmcscience]

Don't mind me, just slacking on a big Billford comic by making other far more ridiculous Billford comics and also some AU art (please excuse my slapdash human!Bill thank you please, also before anyone asks the art style is messy and all over the place because idgaf LOL)

This started out as an excuse to design a Bill Cipher-inspired "wedding" dress, but then spiraled wildly out of control. Various rambles and a bunch more human!Bill arts under the cut, including another silly little comic at the end! (Feel free to skip the rambles, I won't be offended. I know I'm bad at shutting up. XD)

I may or may not write some comedy stuff for this AU, which I'm calling 'For Better Or Worse (But Mostly Worse)'. While Ford DOES remember getting sloshed enough for one thing to lead to making out with another after karaoke, neither he nor Bill remember this wedding, At All. The Love God did nothing to dissuade them from going hog wild on their marriage spending, either, so it got...uh. Exorbitantly Expensive. As in, the grand total could probably buy the entire fucking MOON sort of expensive. (It's fine, don't worry, Bill's good enough at crime to be able to afford it.) Also, because the logic of this AU is mostly dictated by Rule of Funny, the Love God's powers are close to unlimited when it comes to matters of romance, but ONLY when it comes to matters of romance. (Like weddings!)

Want an empty human vessel to smash the soul of a triangle into for date nights or when it's convenient, or perhaps even when it's NOT convenient? Easy peasy! Want the marriage to be recognized in every corner of the multiverse from now until the end of time, thus making any potential future divorce nigh-on impossible? Can do! Want to buy an entire beach for the ceremony and honeymoon and in general, and totally not at all because it would be Super Hilarious to prevent any specific movies from being made on that very same beach in the future? Fine, whatever, it's not his finances he's ruining!

Does the Love God also provide special rings that just so happen to turn incorporeal as long as the "happy couple" doesn't remember that they barged into his dreams to bully him into presiding over their marriage? ...No comment!

He spends the next thirty years trying and failing to get in touch with either of them for payment. This is why you should always demand half the money up front, my guy!

Also it's absolutely a traditional Jewish wedding, because I like the idea of Bill demanding all the keepsakes from the marriage that he paid for, and being completely confused when one of the things he's handed is a fancy container full of broken glass. He gets it later, but in the moment, he thinks the Love God is just fucking with him some more.

Ramble over! Here's the full dress that caused the comic to happen, along with what Ford wound up wearing at the wedding (and begrudgingly agreeing to put on again later for Reasons), aaaaand also a close-up of Bill's ring:

I may have forgotten to draw Bill's hair floofier when drawing the back of the dress, lmao

Since double ring ceremonies have been leaking over into Jewish wedding customs for a while now, Ford also has a ring, but his is the much more traditional plain gold band. There's definitely a message engraved on the inside - embarrassing, cringe, or incriminating somehow - but I haven't decided what it is yet, so use your imagination for now. XD Bill, on the other hand, saw the phrase 'traditional plain gold band' and said "No Thank You" before proceeding to embellish his ring to his liking. And because he's a secret sap who adores Ford's extra fingers, the triangle points add up to twelve, as do the engraved stars. Yes, they're stars, not dots, I just got lazy. There's also six lashes on the eye gem, and probably an eye engraving on the inside with another six lashes. (Bill's got it BAD, okay? We all know this.)

Here are the initial scribbles of Bill's custom vessel in more casual attire, please ignore the wonky anatomy and the fact that I flat out refuse to ever draw him with a proper top hat:

He does actually need a cane in this vessel; since Bill tends to possess men and especially Ford more often than not, he's used to having a higher center of gravity when in a human body, so his ability to balance is pretty garbage. (He may or may not topple over with concerning regularity.) As for his empty eye socket, his bangs don't do much to hide it since he's so high-energy (dude is constantly on the move), and he also refuses to wear a patch over it, because 1.) why bother, and 2.) it's more fun to freak people out.

To better align with Ford's attraction towards the strange, the vessel was designed with super minor shapeshifting ability - Bill can look like a perfectly normal human, but he can also make the teeth and fingers sharper whenever he likes (which is mostly just when he's angry or being more of a menace than usual), as well as slit down the pupils or outright ditch the irises altogether. He can also have whatever he wants in the downstairs department, just because I'm an indecisive bitch on that front, lmao. Maybe he can have boobs if he wants them, too, but I ain't drawin' tits on no triangle, nuh-uh, no sir. His powers are otherwise limited down to what humans can do, because for some reason, the Love God doesn't trust Bill to not snap into Immediate Apocalypse Mode if he's given a physical form that's actually all his and no one else's.

Due to the body being all his and no one else's, it's also not really a standard possession so much as it is just...Bill being temporarily human. He's a lot more aware of and in tune with his human body's senses than he ever was with his "puppets", which makes things like pain a lot more intense. (He is mostly fine with this, because he's a fukken masochist.)

A bit more fashion stuff, including beach and party attire~

The beach outfit was mostly me trying and failing to nail down his body shape, which is still not bottom-heavy enough. I then decided to slap a bikini on it, before making it supremely unsexy with a pair of fugly shorts, because Bill's fashion choices are not allowed to be conventionally attractive. Meanwhile, the party outfit was mostly me looking at the casual attire I designed, asking 'how would Bill make this Worse', and then drawing the result. The mismatched thigh-highs are killing me inside! :D

No, his vessel can't actually summon fire, I just drew it for funzies before I decided on said vessel's limitations. Yes, the gold brick tattoos are absolutely a reference to the fic 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' - I simply could not resist.

I also HAD to draw Bill in one of his canonical(?) shirts, just made tank-top'd:

He is absolutely about to over-correct and fall backwards after this. USE YOUR CANE, GOOFBALL!!! (I meant to draw Bill closer to this degree of bottom-heavy in the other images, but. Alas. I am bad at anatomy, LOL)

And, last but not least before More Comic Time, I attempted to draw him closer to Gravity Falls style:

Jury's out on whether or not I succeeded, but - hey. I tried. Now have some Handyman Bill AU, but with my goofy human design, instead:

Hey, it's a 'mystery snack', and the guy wanted A BITE to eat - the joke was right there, guys!!! (Based on this post, because it just screamed BILL CIPHER to me.)

whoops i forgor bills ring and cracks ahaha too late now

I WILL SHUT UP AND STOP RAMBLING NOW K THX BYYYYYE

[pepperpixel]

Initial drawings of that old man… I literally, I haven’t finished reading the book of bill yet!!! I had to stop and take a break for a week to feverishly draw fanart of myself petting fords floofy hair and giving him attention and shit…!!!! The urge was too great….!! I’ve literally. I had a crush on this guy the instant he was first REVEALED in the show, but I did not have the artistic prowess to draw good looking old men back then… but I do now… thank god… thank fucking god

[nonbinarytoast]

I want to to do a character study on Mabel Pines soooooooo bad you don’t even know like I almost hate her in the series because she’s selfish and impulsive and thinks everything is about her when there are clearly bigger forces at play that don’t really care about her

But at the same time I love her BECAUSE she’s selfish and impulsive and I see some of myself in her at times. The hiding in her sweater, the hatred of change, she has such big fears that a 12 year old wouldn’t know how to handle on her own so she does bad things to instead avoid them thinking it’s for a good cause. If she’s not afraid, why would anyone else be?

That’s why dipper snaps her out of it. Because he’s scared. And she can see it. I would despise her if there was no reasoning for her actions, but everything she does completely makes sense and I hate when she’s described as being “the dumb twin”, “doesn’t know any better” and “just a kid” because 12 isn’t a kid anymore. Every time I see people treating her like an elementary schooler and it hurts because Alex Hirsh did a really good job of making sure she acted like an actual middle schooler during the show and people keep acting like she’s 8.

I always see people telling off people who hate her by using “she’s 12 and doesn’t know better!” And I hate it because it’s just not true. When I was 12 I brought scissors to school and cut myself in the school bathroom. 12 is old enough to know things. 12 is old enough to hurt and have empathy. 12 is old enough to despise and hate and love. Mabel is a middle schooler, not a 2nd grader.

She knows better. She’s just scared. And I don’t see enough of that. If you discount the things she does as childish acts that she couldn’t control you lose a beautiful look into the depths of her character. The depths of her character that house a sad and scared little girl that just wants to stay in the place that makes her happier than any place on earth. The place that accepts her. The place that understands her. The depth of her character that’s so scared to lose that acceptance and happiness that she’ll force everything to stay the same, even if it means hurting people. Mabel is a kid, but she understands what’s at stake. Shes just scared of letting that happiness that she felt for the summer leave.

[enchantedlantern]

Been re-reading my blacklight edition of journal 3 and I forgot the part where it's revealed that Fiddleford was using the memory gun on Stanford repeatedly to get away with stuff he wouldn't agree with.

I don't care at all about the shipping fandom (too busy thinking about the story and lore) but man, guy really got stuck between two complete situationships if that's the road you're gonna take.

[villainvillain]

im surprised there are ppl out there who still get mad about human bill cipher designs. how many times do we have to hammer it into your skulls that cringe is dead

[bvttercvp-l0ver]

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY 😭

[stupidlittlespirit]

Ford *is* kind of a bad guy though right? He did do some bad stuff.

please I can’t do this anymore dawg

[mbat]

theres a lot to unpack on this page

[shiraru]

I’ve been hitting my ocs with the Disney channelfication ray on Twitter lately

[heartshapedcreaturefromcriptoon]

Implying that Gravity Falls isn't also the ugliest ever slightly elevated Family Guy arse animation ....

Implying Hirsch and Rolland didn't set a precedent of most cartoons outside of Cartoon Network looking like a Fusion of Family Guy and Rick and Morty even when they're for kids and everyone just let them get away with it ....

Star Vs. The Forces of Evil being the least egregious example of this even when Naysaya' look like Quagmire and sound like Stewie Griffin, which may even have been part of s meta joke?

[spaceraes]

when people realize that really good cartoons are made to be enjoyed regardless of age and that “adult cartoons” are only listed as “adult” because there’s sometimes in your face sociopolitical commentary and sex jokes maybe we will finally know peace. “adult cartoons” often suck as much as they do because they are literally made to be unenjoyable to a huge demographic of people.

[chescaeli]

Introducing: Dipper Pines, Young Adult

Now a young man, he’s currently a permanent resident at Gravity Falls, living with his Grunkles on the Stan-O-War II docked at the lake. (The Sooslets are ever-growing and the Pines insist Soos and Melody need the Mystery Shack’s space. And how did they transport such a huge boat into a lake inland? Just ask McGuckett)

This stage of his life can be summed up like this:

Ask Dipper to steal Baba Yaga’s flying mortar, rip out the back hair of a raging alpha werewolf, or drink the brain water out of a Kappa’s head — He’ll do all of that back-to-back, with no hesitation, and come out unscathed.

But ask Dipper to attend a college party by himself, make some new friends his age that aren’t mythical creatures, or learn how to pay taxes — This only spells disaster.

[goblin-enjoyer]

Oh by the corpses I think I’m loosing it. Earlier I just got back from a friends birthday get together for their 21ST. I’m a bit worn out so I go to watch some background entertainment on YouTube while a get my batteries for wow back (I heard there was a new important quest chain). I see some homestuck comic dubs in my feed. Odd, but makes sense as I have been listening to the music lately. So I turn on those old 3-4 year old videos thinking: “eh this is just some old dubs from 2015-16 might as well watch em while I recharge. See what this old decaying fandom had in its heyday”. I watch for a bit until I find a comp that BLINDSIDES me with a Covid reference comic. I look at the date, 4 years ago. After the video is finished I then proceed to realize that all those videos were from 2020-2022 and then start breaking down somewhat as I realize I’m getting old and starting to think “4 years ago was 2016” . Que this post . Honestly I can’t tell which is worse. The fact that 2016 was almost 10 years ago and as much as things change, every 5 or so years they kinda just reset a tiny bit in the transition from old to new to old again Or the fact that i might be a homestuck fan now. Nonsense of a mad[WOULD PREFER NOT TO SAY] in the tags as I don’t put that crabp in the main post.

[nico-the-overlord]

I usually loathe those “I need to use the restroom irl but I’m sleeping so it’s starting to affect my dream” dreams but. Snoop Dogg stopping me from using the restroom to show me a Gravity Falls song he’s writing is the funniest of these type of dreams I’ve ever had I can’t even be mad

[stompandhollar]

Honestly the most revolutionary thing about Gravity Falls to me is its commitment to sincerity.

I’ve been listening to Alex’s podcast where he goes into the details of each episode with different storyboard artists and writers who worked on the show, and it just baffles me how… cared for the story is. Right now in media there’s been an uptick in satire, and shows making fun of themselves for existing, or taking the piss at their own content to “win” fans to their side. It’s like whimsy is gone from so many pieces of media. But Gravity Falls just doesn’t… do that. It completely embraces itself. Weirdness and all. And so does the team behind it. I’m not used to something I care about being so cared about by everyone surrounding it.

Here’s this cartoon, written and illustrated by an entire team of people saying, “no, we’re serious. we mean this. we made this on purpose and we made it important.”

Throughout the podcast, Alex discusses little ins and outs of each character, offering so much deep internal struggles and enriching the story even farther. And listening to him unpack it with the utmost sincerity just warms my heart. Each character is so dynamic because they were cared for by people who imbued them with sincerity.

That’s exactly why we get quotes like “Shame is powerful, but it grows in the dark,” as Ford realizes the trauma he’s hidden for so long is being embraced by his family, diminishing it’s weight on him through their immediate support.

It’s why we get Alex describing Stanley with quotes like; “I always in my gut thought of him as somebody with a huge well of sadness, a loss of human connection. And that need to please? That need to get laughs from the crowd, and putting on a big show? He’s trying to get from them the affection he never got from his family, and that he lost with his brother.”

Or detailing how Mabel might be a goof… but half the time she’s doing a bit, because she’s really more mature than her brother and doesn’t want him to grow up too fast. She’s trying to help ground him and bring lightheartedness into his life. Because she knows otherwise, he’ll become too self isolated.

And those two mini character studies he dropped so casually in these podcast episodes just… color the show. It’s why the show survived so well even after ten years. It’s gruff-old Stan always calling his niece “Pumpkin” and “Honey”. It’s the family always holding hands without it behind laced with a joke, and falling asleep on one another in the car. It’s Alex explaining that people toyed with other endings, other plot lines, other twists, but it was always going to end with Stan and Ford mending the family tie they severed thirty years ago. Because that was their story. Messes and family and care.

Ten years ago, watching it for the first time as it came out, I felt all that. But now, as an adult, knowing that all the other adults who made it felt the exact same way? :,) What a special story we all got to grow up with, and get to continue being apart of.