#but also some analysis on Dipper and Ford and Stan too

[prettyinpwn]

Mabel Pines: How Well Was She Written... Really? (GF Writing Analysis Pt. 3)

GF Writing Analysis Series: Pt. 1 - Ford Pines: A Masterclass in Writing a Good Flawed Character Pt. 2 - How Gravity Falls Could Have Been Better + Poor Ford and Wendy

Like my previous post in my GF Writing Analysis series, I am a bit nervous to post this, to be honest. I love this fandom, but there are two main topics in it that tend to draw the most debate: A. how Gravity Falls ended and its length/pacing, and B. Mabel's writing.

I already tackled the former in my last post, so today, I'm tackling the latter: Mabel. I like to live fandom life on the wild side, what can I say?

Let me preface this post by saying that I am very neutral on Mabel as a fan. I never especially liked her, and I never especially disliked her. It's nothing against Mabel. I'm just personally more drawn to characters like Stan and Ford the most, and if I'm honest, the only reason I'm drawn to Dipper more than Mabel is likely because I relate to him more.

*Gestures at, you know, this blog's over a decade long history of theorycrafting and analyses.*

So... I'm coming at this post with a very neutral eye and an open mind, and like my other analyses, it will be based as much as possible on writing theory I learned in college and over the years in personal study.

But unlike Ford's post, where I already had a viewpoint in mind and wrote it around proving that thesis, Mabel's is going to be more exploratory, and I will reach a conclusion at the end. Is Mabel really that badly written? Is she written pretty well with just some flaws? Or... is she actually a really well-written character and just misunderstood?

Let's discover the answer together.

Mabel's Introduction + Who is She?

I will quote my general method of analyzing character writing from my Ford analysis post to start:

"When I took writing classes in college (and over years of writing in general and drooling over writing advice podcasts and blogs), I found that the best method for me, personally, when it comes to crafting characters is to focus on two major things:

1. Their want.

2. Their need. On the surface, these look like the same things, but in character writing, they can be vastly different. For example, say that you have a character that greatly desires fame and recognition. They want these things.

But what’s the real reason behind it? Is it because they had a parent that was famous and want to live up to their example? Is it because they want to be adored by people? Is it because they were told they’d never amount to anything by someone and want to prove them wrong?

This real reason behind it all is the core need. Yes, they want fame and recognition, but they need it because, say, they have low self-esteem and need copious amounts of outside validation to boost it.

Tied to this need is usually a backstory reason (sometimes called their wound). Say your hypothetical character was bullied a lot as a child. Or abused by a parent. Etc. Whatever the wound was, it caused a big, painful hole in their heart that they try to fill and fix with their want.

So they go on a journey. The want is often the external journey. The need is often the core journey / character arc. Our example character seeks fame and recognition on an external journey, but deep inside, they realize they need something else, which is to understand that their past trauma/wound doesn’t define them, and fame and recognition will not be the balm they expect it will be. Often, they realize they had what they needed all along. They grow past their flaws associated with their seeking this want through understanding and instead pursuing the need."

So... what is Mabel's core want and need as a character? And what's her wound? Who is she? Let's identify these things by looking closely at the very first episode, Tourist Trapped. Tourist Trapped establishes the following things about Mabel:

Optimistic; likes to look on the bright side of things. ("Yay, GRAAAAAASSS!", "Check out all my splinters!").

Go with the flow / easy-going / accepts things at face value. ("Yes, you can keep chewing on my sweater!", learns Norman is a bunch of gnomes and instead of punting them immediately she tries to gently turn them down).

Romance obsessed. No examples needed. *Gestures at whole series.*

Assumes the best in people / accepting of others. (e.g Norman).

Naive / overly trusting (e.g Norman again).

Cares about her family (protecting Dipper).

Clever (ever notice how she tricks the gnomes almost like how Stan tricks Bill near the end of the series?).

(Quick side note because this part always blows my mind: Tourist Trapped is a microcosm of the whole series, by the way. Two siblings get into an argument, one gets swept into the paranormal, and the other saves them from it. The former tricks the paranormal in a clever way to stop the paranormal threat from harming them both, and the two make up at the end and go on more adventures. Sound familiar?)

Back to Mabel, let's identify her core want and need and wound from her character traits. I struggled a long time with identifying this, because Mabel seems like such a laid back character that it's harder to pin these down for her compared to, say, Ford (false validation given to use me vs. honest but selfless love) and Stan (earning worth vs. knowing inherent worth). But I think I pinned it down...

Yins and Yangs

And guess what? Hers and Dipper's wants and needs match Stan and Ford's, but not in the way you think. Dipper has Stan's struggle, and Mabel has Ford's. Just like how Tourist Trapped is a microcosm of the whole series where one twin gets whisked away into the weird (Ford and Mabel) and the other needs to save them from it (Stan and Dipper)... their wants and needs are the same.

Granted, it manifests in different ways. Using Ford as an example, Ford's want is love and acceptance, but in a "praise me and my science and my accomplishments and accept me for who I am" way. Mabel's want is love and acceptance, but in a "must find boyfriend and keep loved ones close" way. Or in another way of explaining it, Ford desires introverted love, and Mabel desires outgoing love; makes sense for their characters. Ford is a Mabel if she were an introvert, and vice versa. Just like how Stan is a Dipper if he were an extrovert, and vice versa.

So... yeah. Ford and Mabel are the same character... sort of. Because as much as Ford pursues the unknown, Mabel pursues love (both romantic and familial). And Stan and Dipper are the twins that chase after them, anchoring them back to reality, sometimes even literally.

And that's where we come to the concept of balance, AKA why the twins are good for each other. You ever notice how the Pines at their worst is always when they're alone? Stan alone is a depressed criminal. Ford alone is both paranoid and naive. Dipper alone is insecure and pessimistic. And Mabel alone is also too trusting like Ford and delusional.

What fixes this? Their twin. Stan with Ford is happy and with purpose again, Ford with Stan is protected (thanks to Stan's people smarts) and grounded, Dipper with Mabel is more confident and optimistic, and Mabel with Dipper is protected (thanks to Dipper's logical smarts) and realistic.

THAT'S why the show had Mabel and Dipper stick together at the end. THAT'S why there was such an emphasis on why Stan and Ford being apart caused so many issues. THAT'S why Dipper chose to stay with Mabel over the apprenticeship. Because time and time again, the show states the thesis that a Pines without their twin is a dysfunctional Pines. Agree with it or not, that's the theme with their characters.

Because - and I say this lovingly - the Pines are kind of stupid at times without their twins. Stan's purposeless and turns to crime, Ford's too naive and trusting, Dipper's too pessimistic, and Mabel's too optimistic. Ford gives Stan purpose, Stan gives Ford some actual common sense, Mabel gives Dipper some needed levity, and... Dipper gives Mabel a reality check (GEE, I WONDER WHY MABEL'S WEIRDMAGEDDON EPISODE WAS CALLED 'ESCAPE FROM REALITY', AND WHY DIPPER WAS THE ONE TO BREAK HER FROM IT? *Cough beats people over the head with a theme but somehow people still didn't get it cough.*).

Sorry, Caps Lock rant aside, honestly, I should just make a chart to explain the Pines. We'll be using four scales: introverted (I) vs. extroverted (E), gravity (G) vs. levity (L), active (A) vs. reactive (R), and book smart (B) vs. people smart (P).

(Yes, we're gonna make our own Gravity Falls Myers-Briggs, because I'm that insane.)

This system also reflects the Pines on a layer level: Stan and Mabel's outside personas (E and P) seem more similar, but their cores are different (GR vs LA); the same goes for Ford and Dipper (shared outside persona of I and B, but different cores of LA and GR).

This is why, in the fandom, we often look superficially at the Pines and say, "Dipper is the Ford twin because smart nerds, and Mabel is the Stan twin because outgoing fun ones". No, my friends: Dipper is the Stan twin, and Mabel is the Ford twin. Dipper is just Stan in a Ford coating, and Mabel is just Ford in a Stan coating.

We'll come back to this later for the next section, but for now, let's focus on answering the main question: is Mabel written badly, or is she written well?

Well... she has core wants (fun and love and escapism and childhood). She has a need (reality and gravity and facing the future). And... well, they never really explored her wound AKA her reason why she desires these things like they did for Stan and Ford.

But... my guess is that reality has often wounded her and popped her bubble in the past (maybe bullying at school, hence her desire to not face growing up alone without Dipper), so she avoids it in order to keep her optimistic fantasy alive to avoid pain. Just like... I dunno... that whole episode that centered around that thing called Mabeland? Metaphors, people.

So so far, Mabel checks the same boxes as my earlier analysis on why Ford is a well-written character:

Want? Check. Need? Check. Realizes she had what she needed all along (Dipper to ground her)? Check. And our last point, I'll refer back to my quote from earlier: "They [well-written character] grow past their flaws associated with their seeking this want through understanding and instead pursuing the need."

Yeah. Mabel has flaws, associated with her pursuing her wants. They manifest in that, yeah, sometimes she's selfish. And that's the flaw most people in the fandom have criticized her for.

But guess what? ALL of the Pines are selfish at times.

Stan? Ford gets captured in Weirdmageddon and Stan - although we get why he's bitter - is reluctant to save him again.

Ford? Ford received a college grant and made no attempts to reach out to Stan who was poor and struggling - although we understand why Ford was bitter, too - and reaches out to Stan not to make amends but to ask him to do him a favor.

Dipper? Probably the least selfish of the Pines, but still... at times he's selfish, too. The Time Traveler's Pig explores this. He repeatedly rewrote the day of the fair because he wanted a chance to be with a girl we know he never would have gotten with anyways. Did he think about what Wendy wanted when he did that? No. Did he think about what Mabel wanted? Well, no, at least until the end, but the moral of that episode is that Dipper learned to sacrifice his selfish want to make someone else happy.

So if people dislike Mabel for being selfish, well... they should dislike all of the Pines, then. And there are times she gives up her wants for Dipper, too, albeit shown less often. She trashes her sock puppet show - her chance at impressing a guy and compromising her core want of love - to save him, inspired by all the times he sacrificed for her. She lets go of a land of perfection and her delusion - albeit one that really wasn't real - to help him fix Weirdmageddon and save Ford.

Because here's the thing: a well-written character has flaws. There'd be no story if they didn't. A character without flaws has no arc and is poorly written. Mabel - just like the other Pines - is flawed and that's great. Because it means... she's well-written. I'll quote my post on Ford again:

"This is why Ford is a well-written character. He has flaws and suffers for them until he makes up for his mistakes. They are understandable flaws, but like in real life, just because it’s understandable why we act poorly at times - be it because of trauma or upbringing - it doesn’t mean we’re justified in continuing to hurt others or ourselves because of those flaws. We must acknowledge them, grow past them, and do our best to do better in the future, as well as apologize to those we hurt along the way."

Just like Ford, Mabel has flaws - albeit understandable ones based on who she is and her history - and she suffers for them. But in Escape From Reality, she acknowledges them, grows past them, and does her best to do better in the future.

As for the other hate on her I've often seen, including the way she gave the Rift over to Blendin/Bill... my friends... she did the same thing Ford did. And the flaw Bill took advantage of to do this was the same flaw she had in Tourist Trapped: her naivety.

Bill: "Hey, naive Pines twin, I have something you want (for summer to never end / validation and knowledge). Just give me something (the Rift / possession and build this portal) and I'll let you have it. I swear I'm innocent and on your side and have your best interests at heart!"

Bill is a master manipulator. So if we don't judge Ford for the way he was manipulated at the age of his late twenties, then why the hell do we as a fandom judge Mabel for falling for the same trick as a 12 year old?

And so we return to Tourist Trapped. Mabel's flaw in that episode was the same as the flaw she had by the end of the series. Drawn into a fantasy, lacking realism and logic about it, sibling saves her, apology to sibling, and working together to fix the mess. The difference is, is scale and stakes, and at the end of the series, it's a permanent change of growth. Mabel learns to accept reality; that life won't always be love and rainbows and sunshine, and that's okay.

I also want to highlight how the Pines' flaws are often their greatest strengths, too. Dipper often pops Mabel's fun bubble with his pessimism and realism; sometimes it rains on her parade, and sometimes it breaks her out of a delusion. And vice versa: Mabel often is too optimistic and naive, and that leads to Dipper having to save her from some manipulations and delusions, but sometimes she's the one who lifts him up when he needs it and he's too pessimistic and insecure. Case in point, Gideon Rises, where Dipper insists he needs Journal 3 after Stan takes it, and Mabel tells him, "You're a hero whether you've got that journal or not.".

And as for the hate on her "holding Dipper back from his apprenticeship", I'll quote this here, said by Mabel after Dipper convinces her to leave Mabeland:

"Hey, Dipper? I appreciate what you said back there, but if you want to take Ford's apprenticeship, I won't get in your way."

She offers him a compromise; she allows him to go for it. Because she learned her lesson of accepting the reality that, sometimes, people grow apart instead of things staying the same forever. She's become selfless. And at that point, it was Dipper's responsibility and choice to take it or not.

So if you're upset that Mabel "held Dipper back", no. She gave him room to leave, and he said no and stayed. If he'd wanted it that badly, he'd have gone for Ford's apprenticeship. And remember the series' thesis on the Pines I stated earlier:

"A Pines without their twin is a dysfunctional Pines. Agree with it or not, that's the theme with their characters."

So... we've now arrived at our conclusion about Mabel's writing based on the points we've explored above:

Once and for all, and I'll bold and make this big to emphasize my point, because I hope it quells some of the Mabel dislike: Mabel is a well-written character. She's flawed, yes, but that's the point. So... Why the Mabel Hate, Then?

There have been some ideas thrown around as to why Mabel has received extra scrutiny compared to the other Pines characters. One theory that's been thrown around is her gender, as she's the only female character of the four Pines, although I would lean towards that this isn't the likely main cause, due to the fact that there are other female characters that are liked in this fandom. Wendy receives little to no hate that I've ever seen (and in fact, I mostly see wishes to have gotten more writing featuring her character). Pacifica is liked, especially when it comes to shipping her with Dipper. So... why Mabel, specifically?

I would argue it's not her gender, specifically, but more her femininity. Mabel is very stereotypically "girly". Wendy is a tomboy, and Pacifica - although "girly" - is more of an aggressive character before her growth. Mabel is feminine and passive. She also is into many stereotypically "girly" things, like romance, knitting, crafts, etc. So people that are uncomfortable with the stereotypically feminine might have a subtle, unconscious "ick" reaction to Mabel for that reason.

And... combine Wendy's tomboy quality and Pacifica's association with a male main character (at least, when shipped with Dipper), well... er... I think that may be one potential reason why Mabel is disliked more. She's A. "girly" and B. she has no inherent "value" to a male character.

Dear God, I feel ick even writing that. But when you think about it... that could be one potential reason why she's the most disliked female character in the series. She's girly and is not a prize to be won to add value to a male's life. I shudder to think that this may be the case in today's world, but that may be the unconscious bias some people might have against her, and instead of realizing that, they blame it on "Mabel's selfish / poorly written".

Or, it could be the expectation that women need to be more selfless than men. Let's take after Ford for a moment and do some science: "The reward and learning systems in our brains work in close cooperation. Empirical studies show that girls are rewarded with praise for prosocial behavior, implying that their reward systems learn to expect a reward for helping behavior instead of selfish behavior. With this in mind, the gender differences that we observed in our studies could best be attributed to the different cultural expectations placed on men and women. This learning account is also supported by findings that indicate significant differences in the sensitivity of the reward system to prosocial and selfish behavior across cultures." (Credit/source).

Translation? In society, we praise women for being selfless, and we praise men for being selfish.

Getting this back to Dipper and Mabel, many have viewed their character conflict as "Dipper's being ambitious, and Mabel's holding him back". And with Dipper being a boy, and Mabel being a girl, fans might judge her overly harshly for her selfishness yet are easy on Stan, Ford, and Dipper for their selfishness because, yes, possibly... gender bias. "Mabel should have been less selfish!", they yell, yet people who criticize this flaw of hers are awfully quiet when it comes to addressing this same flaw in the male Pines.

Another reason why I think this is a strong contender for the most common reason why Mabel is disliked, is because of the parallelism between the two sets of Pines twins. Stan does the same thing as Mabel does: wanting his twin to stay with him, not wanting him to pursue his ambitions, wanting things to always stay the same...

So why do people not criticize Stan for the same thing? Why does he get more sympathy, yet Mabel gets ire? When Stan does it, he's a loving brother who just wants his brother to stay. When Mabel does it, she's "too selfish".

Feminist literary lens aside, sometimes I think Mabel's dislike can also be defense of one Pines twin over the other. I've seen this a lot with Ford and Stan in the fandom, where people vilify Ford yet see Stan as innocent in their squabble, as was common shortly after Ford was revealed at the time of airing.

Added to that was the fact that Ford got less attention from the writers and less time in the show to justify his flaws and understand his character (see my previous Gravity Falls writing analysis here that covers this topic), and, well... of course there's a high likelihood people are going to sympathize with Stan more than Ford. The show gave us more reasons to. But that doesn't mean Ford is inherently more wrong or more flawed than Stan. It's just that... people might like Stan more than Ford, so give him more stink-eye.

So I think the same happens with Mabel and Dipper, although Mabel and Dipper got roughly the same amount of airtime, so that leads me to my next point:

I have a little side theory here I want to test (but I could very likely be wrong) regarding why some characters in Gravity Falls are well-liked by certain people and vice versa, as well as why some characters are more vilified or idolized in this fandom. Let's return to my Pines personality chart:

Please ask yourself these questions honestly:

Who is your favorite Pines?

Who is your least favorite Pines?

Now, write these letters down depending on your answer:

Are you introverted (I) or extroverted (E)?

Are you a realist (G) or an optimist (L)?

Are you someone who goes after what you want (A) or waits for it to come to you (R)?

Are you more book smart (B) or people smart (P)?

Now, create your four letter Pines personality (e.g ILRB).

With your Pines personality, count how many letters you have in common with each character.

Now, answer this: do the Pines you share the most letters with happen to be your favorite Pines, and do the Pines you share the least letters with happen to be your least favorite Pines?

Personally, my favorite is Ford, and my least favorite is Mabel (although like I said earlier, I do not dislike Mabel, I am just neutral at worst with her). My own four letters are ILA/RB, meaning I'm introverted, trend towards optimism/levity, am split on active and reactive, and am more book than people smart.

I share 3-4 letters with Ford, 2-3 with Dipper, 1 letter with Stan, and 1-2 letters with Mabel.

And lo and behold... my favorite Pines is the most like me, and my least favorite Pines is one of two least like me.

So here's my theory as to why there's Mabel hate, since we've already established why Mabel is actually technically written very well: a combination of possible unconscious gender bias and personality matchup. Because if there's one thing us humans are good at it, it's, "Ape like me, me like, but ape less like me? Me throw rock! Insert war/hate/prejudice/online fandom hate, etc here.".

Therefore, in final conclusion: Mabel is well-written, and she's criticized unfairly. Anyone that criticizes her as "too selfish" needs to honestly analyze why they might not apply that same criticism to Stan, Dipper, or Ford.

[trangenderstan]

I am not great at character analysis. My brain has thoughts that sound like a ton of static that i need to decipher, also English not being my first language isnt helping.

But it’s my blog and i do what i want so here we are

Stanley Pines has major avoidance issues

I haven’t really seen people talk about it for some reason? Sure, Weirdmageddon 3 highlighted his cowardice pretty hard, but this problem is a huge character flaw that stems from his very early childhood

Stanley’s interactions with the world and the problems it presents to him are all a product of his childhood trauma, poverty and learned behaviors. Something he had to learn early on in order to simply survive. He’s characterized as a con man and a liar, but weirdly his best lies aren’t connected to scamming people out of money. His best lies are connected to getting himself out of trouble in the least moral ways possible

If you haven’t read the Lost Legends comic, please do cause spoilers i guess??

It’s no secret that Stanley has been mistreated throughout his childhood. Being seen as the lesser twin and failing at everything his brother was succeeding at really made a number on him, leading to some form of almost abandonment issues, where Ford is his world. If Ford doesn’t love or care for him, then who?

But in order to achieve that care and love he so desperately needs he chooses a completely wrong path. Lying and avoiding the situation, instead of coming forward and being honest

He lies to his father and Ford about not stealing the chain, going on a whole adventure with him to find a culprit that he knows was him all along, all to avoid the disappointment and shame that comes from another failure. Unlike a lot of characters with traumatic backstories, Stanley is the reason a lot of it is happening to him in the first place. Not to say he’s to blame, but his actions definitely contribute to the inevitable repercussions. Just like Ford said “You like taking shortcuts, and sometimes it gets you into trouble”. Oh boy if only he knew the extent of the trouble Stan gets himself into

Anyway, this shows that from a very young age Stanley learned to lie and cheat his way out of things that bother him. Avoid the situation because he isn’t strong enough mentally to deal with it. Some of it was definitely perpetuated by his father, but something tells me most of it was Stan’s own work

Trauma only solidified those issues

I recently bought the DVD set and after far too much trouble managed to access the secret commentaries. What’s interesting is that in the Land Before Swine one, Stan mentions “Dad always taught me that the way to get people to respect you, is to punch the biggest person in the room, but if you do that in school then apparently you have “rage problems””, which is a joke for the most part, but still holds some merit and insight on what Stan’s teen years were like.

Problems. Lots of mental and emotional problems. In Dipper and Mabel’s Guide to the Unexplained, there’s a reference to Stan having to do the Rorschach test, which at the time was mostly used on “sexual deviants” and problematic teenagers, which ties in nicely with Stan being in his last year of highschool. It shows that Stan hasn’t really grown as a person. His first reaction to breaking Ford’s machine is to try and fix it without telling him, avoiding the problem. His first reaction to Ford accusing him of ruining his life is to change the topic to treasure hunting, avoiding the problem. This pattern of him trying to slip out of situations that make him uncomfortable is persisting up until the very end of the series

But who could blame him, honestly, when he didn’t really have a chance to grow, or the motivation to do so. Especially after being thrown out on the streets

Now, granted, we don’t know much about his time on the streets. What he told the kids, and subsequently us, was obviously a very watered down version of the events with no mention of darker parts like a possible allusion to suicide in the “Dead end flats”

But we still get a moment of Stanley avoiding the problem. The problem being their relationship with Ford. And we see him almost address it. Almost.

In the payphone scene we get another glimpse at these avoidance issues. It seems like Stan is about to try and fix things, try and reach out because he needs help. Serious help. He doesn’t. We can only speculate why, but it’s possibly because he was afraid of another rejection. No matter the reason, he avoids the phone call. Avoids talking. Avoids taking the final step to accomplish something, to overcome his fears and change his life for the better, because it can’t really get any worse

But the moment Ford drops him a chance at redemption, Stan latches onto it with all he’s got, getting to Gravity Falls immediately. And even then, has to calm his anxiety and try not to bolt out of there, pretending nothing ever happened

He’s doing something worthwhile in his life, truly. Turning it around, trying to change his fate because he has no other options. Running meant surviving, yet he doesn’t have anywhere to run to anymore. Facing the issue is his only way of staying alive, of saving whatever last piece of dignity he has left

Too bad it backfired miserably

And he’s back to square one, taking his brother’s identity to again, avoid calling his family and telling them Stanford is god knows where, avoid the trouble of tearing everything apart and starting over. Faking his death, i feel, was more of a symbolic move. He starts avoiding far too many things and feelings hanging in the back of his mind for decades. Loses himself in the image he constructed in order to keep everything hidden. And as the lies went on longer and longer it became easier and easier to pretend that this is how it’s meant to be

Throughout the series Stan has plenty examples of his cowardice

From his acrophobia

To him lying to Mabel in order to avoid getting judged for breaking the promise of not letting Waddles outside

But i feel like one of the most impactful and meaningful ones was the moment where he was about to tell the kids about himself and his brother

Just like in the phone call scene, he starts out fully expecting himself to finally tell the truth. Maybe not all of it at once, but at least hint at whatever he has going on. But finds himself unable to as the waiting, attentive faces of the kids make him stop abruptly, avoiding the conversation until it’s too late

And now we’re finally getting to the absolute glory that is the finale of this show. Stakes at their highest, heroes doing and failing and doing over and over again, struggling and never giving up hope to defeat Bill, and yet out of all these characters the one who’s avoiding the issue the most is the one to have his final big hero moment

Weirdmageddon 3

...is one of the best episodes in the series. Gods know i could gush about it for hours on end. But maybe another time

This is the episode where Stan’s cowardice and avoidance is impossible to ignore. He hides out in the shack, actively speaks out against the mission to save Ford. And while most of it is rooted in his feelings of inferiority and the need to feel worthwhile for once, it also continues the thread of extreme anxiety towards trying to change things

He’s actively trying to convince people to stay, almost in a panic that escalates as the episode goes on. He’s stuck in his ways and i know people who were extremely put off and surprised by how badly he reacted to the whole situation. Then, he grumbles throughout the entirety of the building of the shacktron, trying to stop it’s contruction as the life he came to endure and even seek comfort in is torn down all over again. Going to save Ford means addressing his issues with him. Going to save Ford means risking his life, the life of the kids and people closest to him. And if he’s learned anything throughout his life it’s that survival is the way to go. You can’t do anything if you’re dead, so what’s the point of risking it

Throughout his life Stan lied for nobody but himself, he conned people to get himself out of trouble. Never anyone else, because if he’s dead then he’s a failure. If he’s dead then that means he’s weak and all those things people told him when he was younger

And this is where the finale shines

It starts out with Stan twins addressing their issues for the first time since they were kids. It’s short, scuffed, but it’s there. It’s a start for something bigger. A reunion, obviously, but also

Stanley is not running away anymore. The weight of the finale hits so much harder when it’s the first time Stan lies for anyone but himself. The first time he isn’t running away and hiding like he did his entire life. The first time he’s ready to give up basically his life for a good cause. And that, among other things, is what makes this hero moment so impactful. It’s the complete 180 he does from his usual self. And that’s why i love him so goddamn much

This all being said, i don’t think Stanley is selfish, quite the opposite. And also it’s definitely not the first time he’s risking everything for someone else (cough cough Ford cough cough), but this is an analysis of this singular thread and part of his character that i’ve noticed. Thanks for reading my crazed man ramblings.

[amethyst-beetle]

Stanford Pines is autistic

This is a Gravity falls post, and I'm going to be talking about how Stanford Pines has ASD (Autism Spectrum disorder). Before I get into it I'd just like to say this is inspired by a different post on how Ford is autistic. The original post is here https://thegraftedbranch.tumblr.com/post/649573590709288960/why-stanford-pines-from-gravity-falls-is-autistic

Here are the symptoms of ASD that Ford displays throughout the show:

-Has a hard time keeping eye contact or avoids it

-Has a hard time with facial expressions

-Dislikes touch, prefers to do their thing alone

-Has a hard time expressing emotions

-Very empathic or not empathic at all

-Has a hard time with non verbal social ques

-Hurts themselves without realizing it

-Gets upset if a plan is changed and/or has a hard time adapting to change

-Is unusually sensitive to lights/touches/smells (but may not be affected by pain or temperature)

-Has hyper-fixations

-Doesn't understand certain parts of speech (jokes/metaphors)

-Makes jokes/says things that normally don't make sense

-Makes strange connections to relate to someone/thing

-Is confused by emotions

-Has inappropriate reactions to events

Here are some complications of ASD that I've noticed in Ford:

-social isolation

-being bullied

Now to the analysis

Season 2, Episode 12 is where we first meet Stanford Pines, or Ford. The first thing he does upon seeing his brother for the first time in 30 years is punch Stan in the face when Stan was clearly very happy to see him, which is a bit odd, in my opinion. In the first 2 minutes of the episode we can already see maybe Ford isn't as affected by pain, and may not be very empathic. We can see that after Stan gets punched, he rubs his jaw but Ford doesn't even touch his fist, and I can imagine punching someone in the jaw hurts on both ends.

A few seconds later, Ford sees Mable and Dipper, and Stan explains that they're his family. While Stan tells him this, Ford doesn't make eye contact while Stan is trying to.

When Ford finds out that the FBI are surrounding the shack, he's the only person to go to the journal and start thinking of a plan, showing he needs a plan to deal with large issues.

Onto the flashback. This part of the episode is extremely important because it shows what Stan and Ford were like when they were younger. The first time we see Ford in this flashback is when he's alone on his bed, drawing supernatural creatures, while Stan is running around and playing.

This tells us two things, from a young age, Ford seemed to enjoy being alone and doing his own thing, and always enjoyed the supernatural, which could be seen as a long term hyper-fixation. Ford also jumps right off of his top bunk, which may point to him not processing pain or being affected by it as much as everyone else.

When the flashback shows Ford winning the award for his science project, Stan hugs him, and Ford gives an uncomfortable smile, but goes along with it. This points to him not being very comfortable with touch and not being able to express his emotions.

Throughout the flashback he's seen having an extreme interest in science and the supernatural, and he also doesn't make too many diverse facial expressions.

When that first half of the flashback ends, Mable suggests the two hug it out. Ford looks back at Stan because he knows Stan would hug someone, but Stan doesn't look back because he knows Ford wouldn't hug anyone.

Fords half of the flashback starts, and he says something that resonates with me, an autistic person. "In a place like that I had to work twice as hard. Luckily, that's what I do best.". This stuck out to me because as an autistic person I've always felt I've needed to work twice as hard just to get the same result as everyone else.

Ford also talks about how he was ahead of schedule in his academics, and it's shown that he doesn't even look away from his research. That can all be seen as a hyper-fixation and an extreme special interest in science. Another thing to mention is that when he gets his own grant, he's not making eye contact with the person who gives it to him.

In Fords flashback, after he gets to gravity falls a large hand grabs his car and drags it off, and Ford seems very excited to see this, which I see as an inappropriate reaction.

When Dipper screams over the journals, Ford shows no reaction to this at all. One could argue that no one else reacts to this, but that may be because the others know Dipper's obsession over the journals, while Ford doesn't.

Ford is also seen drawing and writing about his findings in the journals, which is something he's been doing all his life, drawing and writing.

When Fiddleford gets sucked into the portal, Ford immediately pulls him out, but instead of asking how he is, Ford asks what he saw, which points to an inappropriate reaction and possible lack of empathy.

During this part of the flashback, Ford puts his hands on Fiddleford's shoulder and Fiddleford touches Ford's shoulder, leading to the conclusion that although Ford isn't big on touch, he's ok with being touched on the shoulders/arms, and he also avoids eye contact with Fiddleford.

When Ford has Stan come over and Stan knocks on the door, Fords first instinct is to pull a weapon on him, showing another inappropriate reaction.

Then Ford asks Stan to get rid of the journal which leads me to see two things. The first is that Ford is again showing strange reactions. The second thing I noticed when Stan tried to destroy the journal, Ford stopped him.

But why would it matter if the journal was destroyed if Ford wanted it far away from him?

I see this and thought it was because the journals were comfort objects for Ford, and destroying them was too emotionally hard for him, which would explain why he buried the first two instead of just destroying them.

When Ford tells Stan he's kicking him out of the house, he avoids eye contact while Stan tries to make eye contact.

Another thing I forgot to add is, when Stan goes to the store pretending to be Ford, everyone is very shocked to see 'Ford'. This tells us that Ford didn't go out much if at all, and he spent pretty much all of his time alone, another thing on the list.

Despite this just being an analysis of the first episode we meet Ford, it's very clear he meets many of the points above.

A few more things I'd like to add that weren't in this episode:

-Ford shows a huge amount of excitement for DD&D, pointing to another hyper-fixation.

-Ford doesn't make too many jokes, and when he does it's very clear they're jokes.

-He's seen as a very clumsy child, another symptom of autism.

[youngdumbamericanteen]

Mabel bad?

Oof sorry for never answering you nonnie! I’ve been pretty busy lately haha. But the post you’re responding to is a bit...old. I now understand Mabel a bit more now as a person, however I do still dislike her as a character because her flaws I was talking about in that post are never meaningfully addressed. 

This might get a wee bit long, oops. Click for a big Gravity Falls writing analysis/essay/thingy.

It’s good for characters to have flaws. Flaws that actually affect them and have consequences. Otherwise you have something of a Mary Sue that isn’t relatable and has a story that’s too easy and boring for the audience. The narrative punishes or addresses those flaws and they present a challenge for the character.

But at the opposite end, you have characters who have flaws that the narrative never addresses, which means the characters never have to grow. There’s two reasons this is bad. One, that you can have the same issue where they don’t face any struggle or grow as characters and it’s a boring story, or two, people don’t generally like to root for characters who they’d want to punch if they ever met them irl. You can have a story with main characters who are bad people, but you have to either make the character likable in other ways, present the situation so that the audience can gather that they’re in the wrong and either be rooting for their downfall or their growth, or have their actual story be compelling enough that the need to know what happens next outweighs dislike for the character. (And all of these things often require the story to be told from said bad character’s point of view.) Gravity Falls doesn't really do any of these things. Or rather, it tries but is ineffective for around 50% of the viewers.

Mabel is often presented as a pure soul, good of heart and just overall a good person. But she’s got flaws. She’s selfish and a bit inconsiderate, which is normal and not an unforgivably terrible thing, especially for a 13 year old girl figuring out her place in the world. All the Pines are a bit selfish, I think it runs in their genes. But the thing is, the show will treat her selfishness as perfectly fair and normal, with anyone her selfishness affects being shown as in the wrong. She often guilts people, mainly Dipper, into sacrificing things for her while rarely making any sacrifices of her own. She does it to other characters as well, but here’s a brief list of times Dipper has sacrificed something for Mabel (which I compiled with the help of this post on Quora):

 Tourist Trapped: Dipper spends almost the entire time worried about Mabel’s safety and trying to protect her, while she just brushes him off and laughs at him.

The Hand that Rocks the Mabel: Dipper agrees to break up with Gideon for her.

Time Traveler’s Pig: Mabel insists that Dipper give up the reality that doesn't break his heart so that she can adopt Waddles, and when he initially refuses she purposely endangers the space-time continuum as retaliation. 

Little Dipper: Mabel is very angry about Dipper making himself taller, even though Dipper would not have resorted to it if now for her teasing. She immediately demands and fights for the magic flashlight, causing it to fall into Gideon’s hands.

Summerween: Mabel drags Dipper out to go trick-or-treating in a costume he dislikes because she’d planned on them having a duo costume.

Boss Mabel: I shouldn’t even really have to explain this one, the whole episode is about her going on a power trip.

The Deep End: Mabel embarks on a rescue mission for Mermando, doing and using things that would lead to Dipper being fired from the pool job he loves, without consulting him at all. She hears his concerns and instead of just explaining she’s saving Mermando the first time, she completely ignores him and speeds off, destroying more pool property and ensuring he’ll be fired.

Carpet Diem: Dipper informs her of the the issues he has with her roommate habits, and she completely denies any fault, even though she and her friends had legitimately destroyed the room and the mini-golf course the twins had built. The two of them both overreact, and act selfishly throughout the entire episode, but she absolutely refuses to listen to him.

Boyz Crazy: This one isn’t Dipper but I still wanted to mention it because she is so ridiculously selfish throughout the whole episode, to the point where it’s to her and the people she loves’ detriment.

Dreamscapers: Again not Dipper or a sacrifice, but her worst nightmare is apparently losing her cuteness and becoming ugly. I dunno if that’s exactly selfish or anything but God did it make me wrinkle my nose in distaste.

Sock Opera: After promising to help Dipper with the laptop, she almost immediately abandons him for her crush of the week, then proceeds to ignore him for, and inconvenience him with, her puppet show, taking his things without asking and expecting him to be completely cool with all her actions. Bill literally mentions her selfishness to manipulate Dipper and it completely works.

The Love God: Dipper leaves Wendy and her friends in chaos to help fix Mabel’s mess.

Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: Mabel, her friends, and Stan all make fun of Dipper and Ford and insist they should have full use of the living room.

Dipper and Mable vs the Future: This is one of the big ones that people talk about. Mable finds out that Dipper might want to stay as Ford’s apprentice and becomes incredibly upset because she dreamed of the two of them having fun in high school together. She sees Dipper and immediately makes it about her and her feelings, treating something he’d been dreaming of all summer (being The Author’s apprentice) as some direct attack on her happiness. She proceeds to literally give Bill the ability to start the apocalypse to avoid being separated from Dipper, all without having any sort of meaningful conversation with Dipper or considering his feelings.

Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape From Reality: Out of all of these, this might be the one that gets to me the most. Mabel, seemingly knowing full well that she’s trapped by Bill, creates an imaginary fantasy land and refuses to leave just to spite Dipper for considering taking the apprenticeship. And despite doing all this, and attempting to convince him to stay with her, she creates an alternate “better” version of Dipper who’s “cool” and supportive and very, very, different from the real Dipper.

And this isn’t even mentioning all the times she just assumed she was completely in the right about something or had the moral high ground. Mabel frequently makes rush decisions because she thinks everything should be her way or how she thinks is right. 

And I want to say again, none of these things are unforgivable. Honestly, a lot of the things on the list are pretty standard sibling things, and like she isn’t even always in the wrong. The issue is that I’m naming at least 15 times where Mabel has been selfish or forced someone to give something up for her, and she almost never learns her lesson or is punished by the narrative. There are also only 2 or 3 times I can think of where Mabel sacrificed anything for Dipper, and they were all times he was in actual danger or someone had to talk to her and say she messed up and needed to fix her mistake. 

Dipper, on the other hand, sacrifices things for Mabel, faces consequences for his mistakes and his flaws, learns substantial lessons, apologizes, and rarely, if ever, repeats said mistakes. Now, this doesn’t mean that Mabel is awful and Dipper isn’t. I mean, Dipper does some pretty crumby things and has to be told he’s in the wrong or to apologize. And Mabel isn’t a bad person. Like legitimately, that is not what I want anyone to take away from this. She does genuinely love her brother and care about his wellbeing. She’s just a little selfish and unthinking sometimes, like anyone else.

Like I said, my issue is that it goes unpunished, and she repeats the same type of offense wayyy more than any other character. She’ll disappoint Dipper enough that he’d make a deal with Bill and then everyone will still say she’s the best and most caring person ever. That’s just annoying, honestly, or it is to me at least.

This isn’t dunking on her, this is dunking on the writers. And they aren’t unforgivable either, I mean Gravity Falls was a masterful web of foreshadowing, character building, lore, plot work, and incredibly intelligent humor mixed with jokes kids would love too. I don’t blame them for dropping the ball on Mabel, and I don’t hate her or the show or anything because of it. I just want us to acknowledge this flaw of the show, and also have people get it when Mabel gets on my nerves a little bit.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Do you think Mabel gets too much hate? I noticed when a female character acts selfish she gets hated on but when a male character does the same it’s praised

We’re free to love or hate any character with or without reason. That said, I feel sad seeing Mabel hate and agree Mabel receives too much hate. I feel like the rhetoric claiming she’s unforgivably selfish is skewed. I think people have decent criticisms regarding Mabel’s character and how she’s presented. However, I don’t think they sufficiently describe the full picture.

Anecdotally, I don’t think this is a case of sweeping sexism because Ford also receives more criticism than I think warranted. My perspective on how much hate each character proportionately receives could be incomplete, though.

But anyway. Let’s talk Mabel.

First though: please don’t try to debate this with me. If you don’t like my opinion, no worries. That’s chill. I’m just not interested in using my recreation time debating this. Thanks! :) However, if you want further clarifications, analyses, case studies, etc. I’m happy to talk more, because this is NOWHERE close to exhausting my thoughts on this topic.

Mabel’s Selfishness: The General Critique

I think everyday anti-Mabel criticism tends to use points like:

When other characters act selfishly, they’re called out and the narrative punishes them. But when Mabel wants something, she gets it, and it’s a reward (The Deep End, The Time Traveler’s Pig, Escape from Reality).

Mabel never learns how to give up something important and deal with that loss. Even when she lets something go, it’s not something that would have been good in her life. For instance, her failed puppet performance is “dodging a bullet” rather than losing something meaningful, since Gabe’s just a puppet kisser. In the end, she doesn’t have to live with sacrifice (Boyz Crazy, Sock Opera).

Mabel even selfishly causes the apocalypse by giving Bill the rift. She’s never held responsible for that (Dipper and Mabel vs the Future).

The narrative reinforces that Mabel is a good person even when she’s not (The Last Mabelcorn).

People particularly look at Mabel in S2 over S1; many claim that’s when her character began to feel selfish and insufferable. 

This isn’t everything, but I have tried to characterize the rhetoric fairly based upon what I’ve seen.

I find these discussion points understandable. Mabel can be self-focused and sometimes ignores others’ feelings. Alex Hirsch admitted in DVD commentaries that he focused on Dipper learning lessons because he put himself in Dipper’s shoes. And some of Alex’s writing intentions could’ve been clearer, like instances where the twins resolve conflicting desires. We could talk about how the show could be improved or the character is legitimately not-selfless.

At the same time, I think how fandom uses these talking points isn’t 100% fair to Mabel’s character or the show’s full narrative. 

I want to point out that Mabel hate for her selfishness covers two fronts: one claim that Mabel is selfish, and another claim that the surrounding plot doesn’t handle her selfishness satisfactorily. I think there’s fair constructive criticism when it comes to narrative framing (even if I disagree), but I don’t think the same dialogue is good rationale against Mabel’s personality. At times I see the two concepts conflated. The narrative may annoy you if you think selfishness isn’t addressed in plot, and contribute to you disliking the character, but claiming “Mabel is selfish” because of that is flawed logic. 

In this analysis, I’ll cover both fronts. I’ll tackle the four points I mentioned above and explain why I find them too harsh. I’m not going to cover all my thoughts (yes, my original draft was longer!!), but I will argue:

Mabel reverses her selfishness - and that’s the big choice sealing the climax of multiple episodes. She doesn’t get off “consequence free” either (Boyz Crazy, Sock Opera)

Mabel sacrifices for others. The narrative does show that Dipper and Mabel meet in the middle, not that Dipper feels guilty enough to ameliorate his sister’s wishes (Sock Opera, Escape from Reality)

Mabel giving the rift to “Blendin” mirrors Dipper offering a puppet to Bill. Both twins are emotionally compromised and believe they’re making a harmless deal with an inconsequential item. Neither would’ve made these choices in calmer circumstances. Sock Opera doesn’t have Dipper deal with his culpability; relax up on Mabel (Sock Opera, Dipper and Mabel vs the Future)

Mabel’s selfishness is addressed, handled, and resolved. The moral of The Last Mabelcorn isn’t defending Mabel’s goodness; it’s Mabel embracing imperfection. Mabel learns she’s a bad person and changes her perspective of herself multiple times in canon (The Last Mabelcorn, Lost Legends)

I could also have talked about how selfishness isn’t required to be resolved in her character arc, all the times Mabel does nice things for others, how she doesn’t always obnoxiously hog the spotlight, and other things, but I want to cap the length of this essay.

So let’s begin.

Can Mabel learn from selfishness if she’s consequence-free and never handles meaningful loss?

Anti-Mabel Argument: Circumstances don’t adversely affect Mabel. This means she never has to sacrifice for her brother like Dipper does for her. For instance, in Sock Opera, Mabel sees that Gabe is a weirdo over-obsessed with puppets. Her failed puppet performance was “dodging a bullet” rather than losing something meaningful, so she doesn’t learn true self-sacrificial love. Mabel never learns how to give something important up and deal without it. So, she never changes.

Boyz Crazy not only is an episode where the climax is Mabel learning to act against her selfish desires, but it’s got an explicit apology in dialogue. “I’m sorry I went bonkers,” she tells Candy and Grenda. “A catchy song made me realize that you were right. Can you ever forgive me?”

While Mabel has to learn this lesson again in later episodes, it’s to note: most GF characters are fairly static, and Dipper also has to learn multiple times not to hit on Wendy. Character progress doesn’t happen all at once. And in the next episode I’ll talk about, not only does Mabel confront her selfishness, but it’s the last time she lets her boy chasing impact Dipper. It ends after this.

I’m talking Sock Opera.

Mabel’s sacrifice in Sock Opera is big. She doesn’t get off “consequence free.” She decides to sabotage her performance before knowing Gabe’s a weirdo. Mabel is fully willing to lose her most viable romance option… for Dipper. She realizes her brother would be willing to give something up for her, and she’s going to reciprocate by giving up something big for him. 

Mabel might’ve dodged the bullet of dating Gabe, but she still gives up something big and will feel it. Sure, she makes the puppet show to impress Gabe. But she’s also entertaining a full audience. She can feel the people booing her, see them storming out and leaving. Mabel is someone who wants everyone happy, so much that seeing everyone happy except Robbie puts her in Crisis Mode. I don’t know about you, but just because I saw some guy kissing puppets, I wouldn’t think, “Yay! I had a happy outcome to this play ordeal!”

Mabel VERY much says, in the dialogue, that her brother would give up something big for her. And that’s what her Big Choice comes down to. Every episode climax in Gravity Falls comes down to The Big Choice. Here, Mabel’s Big Choice… is to sacrificially watch her hard work burst into literal flames.

Mabel apologizes to her brother, “I’m sorry, Dipper. I spent all week obsessing over a dumb guy. But the dumb guy I should have cared about was you.”

In following episodes, Mabel does put Dipper in mind. She gets momentarily distracted by crushes in The Love God, but that’s in a quest to solve her own mistake - a mistake that came from trying to make everyone, from Robbie to Thompson to Dipper, happy. She wants to include Dipper, from the Ducktective finale to her birthday party planning mission. And if you’re focusing on how she teases Dipper, why aren’t you also targeting Stan, who makes the same action without change?

Mabel Hate rhetoric focuses on how Bill was “right” in Sock Opera and she still acts selfishly in the same patterns after that episode. But, the climax is Mabel resisting Bill and demonstrating self-sacrifice, and that arguably does influence her character afterwards. It’s one step in an incomplete process. She might not be ready to handle Dipper separating off with Ford, but that’s because her arc still isn’t completed.

We do see Mabel dealing with meaningful loss like the collapse of her puppet show. She does show sacrificial love for her brother. And, as I’ll talk about more, she continues to grapple with and grow in selflessness through later decisions like Escape Through Reality.

Does Mabel ever realize she’s a bad person?

Anti-Mabel Argument: Narrative reinforces Mabel is a good person even when she’s not. Alex Hirsch wrote with rose-tinted bias because Mabel represents Alex’s twin sister. The Last Mabelcorn showcases that. Instead of Mabel learning she’s a bad person who can’t receive a unicorn’s blessing… the unicorn’s criticisms against Mabel get nullified – the creature’s lying about Mabel’s impure heart. Mabel got affirmed for who she was rather than dealing with her imperfection.

First off: if you haven’t watched the DVD commentary for The Last Mabelcorn, you should. It’s a wild story how this episode got made. Alex Hirsch trashed the script of an entire episode 48 hours before it was due. He crunched to write a new episode - by himself - from scratch. So yeah. A few lines of final dialogue could’ve been tweaked to improve the message, but the fact he wrote as successful an episode as he did in that short of time is incredible. And the message of The Last Mabelcorn is there:

Mabel learns she’s an *IMPERFECT* person. She embraces being imperfect instead of groveling for impossible perfection and meaningless approval.

Maybe that’s not the “Mabel learns selflessness!” episode you wanted, but this is a fascinating lesson, and one I don’t see touted tons in media. I love it.

Mabel spends the episode attempting to be pure of heart through kind deeds. Wendy tells Mabel they should solve their problem the dirty way. Mabel keeps refusing until the unicorns anger her. This is the moment of triumph: she punches a unicorn. Mabel forsakes the route of “pure” good deeds to do what she first considered dirty. That’s the hero moment, dudes! 

Mabel says the unicorns are “worse” than her, not that she’s good and they’re bad. Mabel comes out of the adventure declaring, “Today I learned morality is relative.” That’s because the episode’s climactic Big Choice isn’t about Mabel accepting she’s a “pure” person; it’s about Mabel accepting she can make “impure” choices.

Ford is the person at the end who tries to tell Mabel she’s good. But Mabel contradicts what he says with that “morality is relative” quote. What she takes away is that she’s imperfect, she can make non-sparkly-decisions, and that’s okay. She’s become more aware of herself and her flaws, but also accepts she can make choices others might shake their heads at. 

So. Ford and Wendy might’ve called Mabel “a good person” in key parts of the episode, which is why I say Alex (not in a time crunch) could’ve considered tweaking lines to make the point clearer. But I don’t think the episode depicts Mabel as a selfish jerk who never learns her flaws.

And frankly? If I had to choose between a standard “you’re not perfect” episode and this? I’d MUCH rather have this, where characters learn lessons, but we also get the show’s humorous, slightly subversive, slightly truthful “anti-morality.” That’s a Gravity Falls thing, after all. (For other anti-morality examples: Stan saying Summerween is about celebrating “pure evil,” Mabel deciding it’s good to lie so Stan doesn’t get arrested, Mabel deciding being an asshole to employees is productive, etc.)

So yes, Mabel realizes she’s a bad person, even if it’s not in the way you expected. And that’s still not the end of her character arc. 

Does Mabel ever sacrifice for others Dipper?

Argument: Mabel only agrees to leave her bubble after Dipper promises to drop Ford’s apprenticeship. This apprenticeship would have been huge for Dipper. But all Mabel “sacrifices” is leaving a fake world she’s hiding in, goofing around instead of helping people in literal Armageddon. 

Much of Mabel and Dipper’s relationship is about how they’re opposites. We repeatedly see the best place for both of them is the middle. Alex Hirsch talks about this tons. Whether it’s perfectly implemented is a debate for another day. I do think these concepts can be seen even in episodes like Escape From Reality where there’s been criticism of narrative execution.

I’ve seen people say Mabel “gets her way” because Dipper turns down Ford’s apprenticeship when he sees it makes her sad. Hirsch has said in commentaries Dipper was making a mistake wanting the apprenticeship. Mabel wants to avoid growing up while Dipper wants to grow up too fast.

We don’t have to take Hirsch’s word-of-god for it: the story does show that Dipper was erring with the apprenticeship. Ford intends well, but his bias against siblinghood means he’s polluting Dipper’s values. He suggests that Dipper staying with Mabel is “suffocating.” He suggests that Dipper is “greater” and should be doing something with it. “Dipper, can you honestly tell me you never felt like you were meant for something more?” And later: “Listen to me, Dipper: this town is a magnet for things that are special. And that includes you and me. It brought both of us here for a purpose! Stay here with me, Dipper. Become my apprentice. Don’t let anyone hold you [back].”

When Mabel and Dipper make resolutions in Mabel Land, Dipper says he’ll drop the apprenticeship. This emotionally touches Mabel. But being emotionally touched doesn’t mean that’s WHY she makes amends with her brother. Instead, Mabel reassures him that he can take the apprenticeship if he wants. She leaves the choice up to him and is willing to let him live in another state during their teen years. She finds his needs and desires important.

And honestly? It’s Dipper himself who realizes the apprenticeship is bogus; it’s not because Mabel is forcing her brother to change. “Mabel, I thought you were living a fantasy, but look at me! I actually thought I was gonna stay here and be Ford’s apprentice. Spend my entire teens cooped up in a basement with a lab coat? How ridiculous is that?” He sheds the idea because he realizes it’s a bad one, not because he’s ameliorating someone too selfish to accept her brother leaving her.

It’s also to note Mabel Land tempts everyone. Calling only Mabel selfish when everyone else gets pulled in… seems incorrect. Bill considers it a diabolical, inescapable prison. People like Soos, Wendy, and Dipper who know it’s a prison get drawn to Mabel Land’s temptations. Heck, Dipper gets tempted with an old vice. He might have grown more mature, but that doesn’t mean he can’t trip occasionally (we can apply the same understanding to Mabel and “selfishness,” by the way - someone can both grow and keep tripping). Mabel, meanwhile, wants to use the bubble to help and comfort her visiting friends (which is, for the record, not selfish) and thinks reality should be avoided because both her and Dipper’s lives have been adversely affected. Dipper’s pain is important, too. Mabel has been in this prison longer than Soos, Wendy, and Dipper, and the prison was designed for her - ergo she’s going to be more manipulated by it. Lots of her actions are avoidance tactics because she’s scared of growing up, yes. The court trial is a lot, yes. But we should bear in mind that this is a child scared of growing up and feeling the burn of conflict with her brother. Emotional and psychological context is important. We all get vulnerable. Do our lowest lows define our entire personality?

When Dipper and Mabel make their compromise, both reject temptations. Dipper rejects a bad apprenticeship; Mabel rejects a bad reality. They offer each other solutions where they don’t get what they originally want. They meet in the middle, and this is the best way for both to move forward in the aging process. They’re both satisfied and confident with their choice. It’s not Dipper giving up everything for Mabel, ameliorating her because she’s sad. It’s about the twins learning they can make it through life together, through thick and thin.

Potentially muddled thematic framing does not erase the resolution the twins make. It does not erase that Mabel’s depicted as someone willing to give up major things for her brother.

Okay. But that rift thing. How can you excuse the APOCALYPSE??? JUST TO HAVE MORE SUMMER!?!

The point is that Mabel is emotionally compromised and outmanipulated.

She’s a terrified twelve year old going through a Very Rough Day. She’s terrified about the future, she’s learned bad news after bad news, and she’s afraid her life as she knows it will be wrenched apart. It feels like everything she loves - from her best friends to her brother - will be distanced from her. 

Would you have handled this well as a kid? Adults have issues with this, too.

When she meets “Blendin,” she’s told that trading one inconsequential item will save her future. It’s self-focused, but it’s important to understand: she wouldn’t have made this choice in calmer emotional states.

Compare this to Dipper making a deal with Bill in Sock Opera. The twins literally make the same mistake for the same reasons, duped by the same villain.

Dipper: Decides to give Bill one of Mabel’s belongings, a puppet, without her knowledge. Mabel: Decides to give Bill one of Dipper’s backpack items without his knowledge. 

Dipper: Irritated with Mabel because she isn’t helping unlock the laptop.Mabel: Frustrated with Dipper because it feels like he’s abandoning her to be “special” with Ford. 

Dipper: This is an inconsequential bargain. Bill is just unlocking the laptop. He’s just taking a sock puppet - Mabel has plenty of those.Mabel: Nothing bad will happen. Just a few more weeks of summer. And she’s giving an item Ford allegedly won’t notice is missing.

Dipper: The laptop counter is ticking. Only a matter of minutes before the data gets erased.Mabel: Summer is ending in a week. Separation from Dipper is imminent. 

Dipper: Not thinking clearly due to sleep deprivation.Mabel: Not thinking clearly, emotionally compromised from a walloping bad day.

Hirsch and company have confirmed that only this combination of factors convinced Dipper to make a deal with a demon. Mabel wouldn’t have shook “Blendin’s” hand in less severe circumstances. It’s ironic that, in Sock Opera and Dipper and Mabel vs the Future, rhetoric attacks Mabel in both episodes.

So yes, Mabel gave Bill the rift. But yes, Dipper jeopardized the town’s safety by letting Bill into his body.

I know that, at this point, people might argue there’s a narrative difference. Dipper learned from his mistake but Mabel didn’t. However, I disagree. There wasn’t dialogue in Sock Opera where Dipper explicitly confronts his transgression and works it out with Mabel on screen. Same thing with Mabel and the rift. I know fans wanted it addressed that Mabel started the apocalypse… and frankly I would’ve enjoyed that too… but it doesn’t make Mabel’s writing as a character suddenly, “OH NO SELFISH SELFISH! AND THE NARRATIVE IS LETTING HER GET AWAY WITH BEING SELFISH!”

It’s no different than how writing handles Dipper in Sock Opera. And again, give a terrified kid a break instead of calling a large emotional low “irrevocably selfish.”

By the time Take Back the Falls comes around, Mabel encourages everyone to work together to fight Bill. Mabel risks her life to save the town and her family. Mabel works together with Dipper and puts the people she loves first.

Lost Legends: Fixing remaining narrative holes

After S2 ended, Mabel’s selfishness is head on tackled. That’s the ENTIRE point of Don’t Dimension It in Lost Legends. I suspect Alex Hirsch read Mabel criticism and intentionally reacted through Lost Legends. In this story, Mabel acts out of self-focused energy and doesn’t realize her actions have negative consequences to others. It puts the Pines family in an interdimensional conundrum. Once Mabel runs into other Mabels from other dimensions, she comes to terms that she’s self-absorbed and needs to be attuned to how others feel. Mabel realizes she put everyone in this mess. She apologizes to her family and resolves to be better.

It’s great.

I’ve still seen people criticize it. And that’s where I think Mabel hate rhetoric definitely goes too far. I suspect there’s bias in how people responded to that comic. By the time Lost Legends came out, criticisms for selfish Mabel were rampant and people were set in their perspectives, so seeing a character arc about Mabel’s selfishness got unfairly nitpicky responses. 

I’ve seen people say things like, “Well, she only learns when she interacts with herself, not with others!” But that’s a cool way of presenting story! Mabel sees herself in a literal mirror and takes away truth. Sometimes we don’t see our flaws until it’s right in our faces. This is Mabel’s in-the-face moment. The “I’m selfish” revelation doesn’t have to be with Dipper to be relevant toward how she treats Dipper. She takes away the full lesson she’s self-absorbed and needs to fix that. She immediately makes sure to talk to Dipper about becoming a better person. She owns responsibility toward how she’s treated her brother - and mentions the entire summer as the scope of her fault.

“I’m sorry for being selfish this summer,” the comic ends. “I guess it took me dealing with myself to realize what you put up with. It’s time for us to start some new adventures! And this time I won’t always hog the spotlight.”

There are other criticisms about Lost Legends, which I feel boil down to “I don’t know, still doesn’t satisfy me, not enough.” It makes me wonder what would get people satisfied. Does every possible angle of how someone could learn selfishness have to be covered thoroughly? No franchise can cover that scope. Isn’t there still lots of takeaway with Mabel? Don’t Dimension It alone is an episode’s worth of material, the same amount of content which most fans deemed enough to wrap up Dipper getting over Wendy, Pacifica being a brat, and Gideon being creepy on Mabel.

Mabel’s selfishness gets addressed, multiple times, and gets a final-final resolution in the comics.

Final Thoughts

I think it’s an interesting point you make, anon friend, that male characters get praised while women get condemned. I haven’t talked about gender aspects or other selfishly-acting male characters like Stanley (whose selfishness people perceive as lovable). I said earlier I don’t think it’s rampant fandom sexism, but there still could be a point there. Maybe you’re right it’s a factor. It wouldn’t be the first time gender perception’s done that.

I think there’s also point to be made that Dipper is the protagonist. Mabel’s a deuteragonist. It’s more common to write life lessons for the protagonist. That’s fine. Dipper learning more lessons than Mabel and Dipper giving up a little more than Mabel is a result of being a protagonist, not narrative excusing Mabel for her flaws or letting her waltz around scott free.

So yeah. I think Mabel’s gotten too much criticism for that flaw. Constructive criticism is almost always interesting in fandom dialogue, but rampant hate movements make me sad. Talking about how narrative structure could’ve been improved I find cool; pinning it on the character’s humanity bothers me. I think lots of the dialogue turns into criticizing Mabel unfairly as a person, and given as other GF characters have glaring flaws, it feels imbalanced and uncomfortable that SHE gets disproportionate attacks. 

This is Mabel we’re talking about. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she tries to rescue Mermando when that means she’ll never see him again. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she knits everyone sweaters during the Apocalypse. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she calls out Dipper when he’s leading on Candy. Mabel Pines, who risks her life in multiple daring moves to save the town, parachuting through the sky into the demon’s lair… acting as a decoy to distract Bill Cipher… and more. Mabel Pines, who spends an entire episode trying to make everyone happy, down to Robbie, whom everyone else didn’t care enough about (but Mabel did!!!). Mabel Pines, who encourages Soos to date women and find a romantic connection he’s satisfied with. Mabel Pines, who fights in Globnar and risks her life, just so Soos can have a happy birthday and forget about his dad. Mabel Pines, who decides it’s better to be friends with her enemy Pacifica than fight petty battles. Mabel Pines, whose love for her brother helps even the thirty year rift between Stan and Ford mend. Mabel, who couldn’t give up on Stan and found a way to restore his memories when all others thought it lost. Mabel. Fucking. Pines!

[littlemonstersau-blog]

Meet The Parents

Written by @jkl-fff, illustrated by me

————————————————————————————————

Bill, meticulously arranging props in front of laptop: … Okay, that looks enough like organization getting unintentionally messy … [puts cotton balls in cheeks to make them rounder, straightens tie, puts on stolen glasses, picks up pen] And now, to wait for the skyelp to come through! [bends over “homework” as if dutifully studying … holds exact pose for over 5 minutes while quivering with excitement]

*laptop chimes as skyelp comes online*

Dipper, excitedly: Will? You there? I’m here with Mom and— [registers costume (especially new additions of sweater vest, tie, and glasses) and gasps]

Bill, beaming and voice-cracking: Dippy!

Dipper, breathlessly happy: … h-hey there …

Ms. Pines, squealing softly to her husband: My gosh, he’s so cute!

Mr. Pines, just as softly and trying not to laugh: He looks like a tiny, Irish accountant. Like he’s balancing the ledgers for the Leprechaun King.

Ms. Pines: I know! I just wanna pat his chubby, little cheeks and put a pencil behind his ear!

Dipper, blushing: M-Mom! Dad! Don’t embarrass me with B-Will! [clearing throat] Um, Will. This is m-my Mom and Dad.

Bill, dripping with wholesome enthusiasm: Pleased to meecha, Ms. and Mr. Pines! I’m William Corduroy, but you can call me Will. Or even (ugh) Willy, if you like.

Ms. Pines: Well, Willy, it is sooo nice to finally meet you!

Mr. Pines, sternly: What are your intentions with my son? [gets smacked by wife while son groans] What? C’mon, I had to ask it at least once. I’m a dad!

Bill: My intentions? [flashes through everything he’s imagined doing with Dipper since the twins had to go home … it’s pretty wild; blushes; starts to sweat] hhh … HOLD HANDS! MAYBE KISS FACE! CH-CHERISH! [gestures helplessly at Dipper] I mean, look at him! What else could anyone intend with him?!

Ms. Pines and Dipper: D’awww!

Mr. Pines, still sternly: You tell me. What else do you intend?

Dipper, burying face in hands: Oh, Moses, Dad …

Ms. Pines: Dear, stop, you’re making the poor boys nervous. And teenage boys already sweat enough as it is. Just look at Dipper.

Dipper: Mom!

Ms. Pines, insistently: We can have a talk about … safety and responsibility later. [Bill and Dipper exchange a horrified look] Right now, we’re here to get to know Dipper’s little boyfriend. So stop acting out clichés for 5 minutes, please. Now, Willy … um … How’s your day been? What’ve you been up to?

Bill, relaxing visibly as things go back on script: Oh, y’know. Same old, same old. School. Now I’m just here at the library, gettin’ my homework done for the weekend. [gestures at prop “homework” like a good student] Sorry I couldn’t do this at home where you could meet my dad, but we don’t have a computer. If you can believe that. It’s also why I’m still wearin’ these school clothes.

Dipper, confused: School clothes? Gravity Falls schools don’t require uniforms. They’re public.

Bill: Oh, well … Today was … special.

Dipper: Did you … dress up just to impress my parents?

Bill, a little defensively: Golly, I just wanted to make a good first impression! So your folks’ll, y’know … like me. And let us keep being together.

Ms. Pines, charmed: Oh, don’t worry, Willy. It worked; I think you look absolutely darling!

Bill: Gee, thanks! I can see where Dippy gets his sweet personality!

Ms. Pines: Oh, you!

Mr. Pines, rolling eyes: Okay, honey, dial back the falling for cheesy compliments. Anyway, Will, what do you like to study?

Bill: Oh, I really like math. Especially … trigonometry.

Dipper, snorting: Pff! Seriously? Oh, um, inside joke.

Bill: Perpendicular.

Dipper: Hahaha! C’mon, man, be serious!

Bill: Let’s see … I also like psychology. Dream analysis is fun, ‘cause then I getta tell people that, like, I’m the boy of their dreams … analysis! At least, I getta tell Dipper that.

Mr. Pines, snorting: Okay, I’ll give you points for that one, kid. Dad Joke level of corniness. 6.5/10.

Bill, grinning: Gee, thanks!

Mr. Pines: You getting good grades in math and psychology?

Bill, playing at modesty: Oh, golly, sir. I don’t wanna brag … But it is easier to work hard when it’s fun, y’know? Unlike the way they do history classes here.

Mr. Pines: Boring teachers?

Bill: Yeah. Plus, they’re complete schills for the conservative military-industrial complex. It’s bad propaganda done borin’ly.

Mr. Pines, perking up: What makes you say that?

Bill: Oh, the usual. The don’t even teach that Ben Franklin was secretly Gwen Franklin, that JFK was killed by mobsters from the future to keep him from becomin’ a robo-dictator, and that Ronald Reagan was a mind-controlled puppet put in power by a conspiracy of billionaires to keep colonizin’ other countries for their resources and essentially slave labor.

Mr. Pines: Ugh! Tell me about it! And it’s all because they want to keep the populace uninformed and easy to pacify.

Bill, defiantly: But it’s not gonna work on me! Or Dippy! We do our own historical research and stick it to the man!

Mr. Pines: Boo-yeah! Tear down corporate capitalism! [turns to wife] Okay, I like this kid.

Bill: I can see where Dipper gets his keen judgment of character. Along with his striking good looks.

Mr. Pines: Oh, go on!

*Dipper gives bill a secret thumbs-up*

Ms. Pines, smirking: Okay, now who has to dial back the falling for cheesy compliments? [turns back to Bill] So, math and psychology and rebellious history study … Given any thought to what you’d like to do with those when you grow up?

Bill, feigning thoughtfulness: I … think … I’d … like to make video games. Coding and design and such. But ones that make players think and be creative.

Ms. Pines, impressed: Really? Has Dipper told you that’s the kind of work I do?

Bill: What? No! Gosh, Dippy, why’d you never tell me! That’s just swell, ma’am! What kind?

Ms. Pines: Indie games, so there’s a lot of side-scrolling and retro RPG elements—very basic gaming elements— but sooo much more heart. And, like, artistic integrity. The kinda stuff that really touches people.

Bill, starry-eyed: That’s the kinda stuff I wanna make!

Ms. Pines: It’s not easy … but it’s worth it. So, how’d you and Dipper meet? When’d you start dat—

Mr. Pines: Wait, sorry, hold up. Is that a freakin’ skull? [points at shelf]

Bill, genuinely surprised: What? [turns, has to take off glasses to actually see] Well, gosh, it looks like it is.

Dipper, mouthing silently: Why in the 79 hells would you even put that there?!

Bill, honestly: I’m honestly not sure why the library’d have that. I didn’t even notice it.

Mr. Pines: Might wanna get your prescription checked, kiddo.

Bill: They’re reading glasses, so …

Dipper, mouthing silently: Where’d you even … ARE THOSE GRUNCLE FORD’S?!

———

[Meanwhile, back at the Shack, Ford, stumbling around all squint-eyed: Ah, Stan, there you are! Have you seen my glasses?

Sascrotch, standing mutely like a taxidermied figure: …

Ford: It’s the darndest thing. I’d swear I set them on the end table when I laid down to take a nap, but couldn’t find them when I woke up. Of course, I’m not having much luck finding my glasses without my glasses.

Sascrotch: …

Ford: What? Oh, am I still getting the silent treatment for saying you’re too old to have hair that long?

Sascrotch: …

Ford, indignantly turning away: Fine, who needs you anyway? I’d find them without your hel—

Ford, tripping: AAA!

Ford, lying flat on his face: … I’m alright!]

———-

Bill, continuing as if to the Dad, but actually to Dipper: It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. [goes and puts a book in front of the skull] There! Problem solved!

Mr. Pines: Yeah, that’s much bet … Is that The Necronomicon?!

Bill, genuinely surprised again: … Huh. Looks like it is. [picks it up, pages through it … shakes head] Nah, it’s just The Nockoffronomicon. You can tell ‘cause it doesn’t mention Shaggy or even Bob. And instead of Cthulhu, it’s dedicated to Cthhula. [puts different book in front of skull] The best dancer among the Elder Gods, am I right?

Mr. Pines: Heh … 7/10 for that one.

Bill: Gee, thanks! Anyway, um … D’you mind if I tell ‘em, Dippy? You’re sure it’s okay? [pretending to get bashful] So, um … Dippy used to have a crush on my big sis, Wendy. And ‘cause she works at the Shack, they’d be, like, hanging out together a lot. He even came over to the house a few times. And, um, naturally I had a crush on him from the get go, ‘cause just look at him! Who wouldn’t?

Dipper, blushing: Ah, jeez …

Ms. Pines: D’awww!

Mr. Pines, grudgingly: D’awww …

Bill, making himself grin and blush wholesomely: So I started coming along to hang out. Then, before I knew it, it was just us hanging out alone together. And we were exploring the woods one day when we found some wild mistletoe—golly, I told him, “That’s wild mistletoe. That’s what it looks like in the wild.” and then he said … No, he stepped under it first, then he said, “Guess we gotta kiss now.”—and so we kissed.

Mr. Pines, slapping his son on the back: You sly, little dog!

Bill: And I was like, “Gee, that was swell!” Can you believe it?! Real lame-o line to follow a first kiss, right? And he was like, “We could do it again, if you want.” And I said, “But, gosh, we’re not even dating! Everyone’ll think I’m a boy-floozy!”

Ms. Pines: HA! Oh, that’s precious!

Bill, giggling: Y-yes, ma’am! It was! And then Dippy, he said, “Well, be my boyfriend. We’ll start calling our hang-outs dates, and I’ll fight anyone who calls you a floozy.” It was soooo chivalrous!

Dipper, beet red and with his hands in his face: Stahp …

*a while later, after the parents have left*

Dipper, relieved: That … That went a lot better than expected. And they sure loved Willy Corduroy.

Bill, self-assuredly: Natch. I’m inescapably charming, no matter the alias. [pulls out cotton balls and tosses them in the trash] If you ever call me Willy, though, I will shank one of your stuffed animals. That was me takin’ one for the team. Which is us, by the way. The team is us.

Dipper: Heh! Yeah, I gathered that.

Bill: Still, I’m surprised they never asked about my eyes …

Dipper: Oh, I “warned” them in advance. Told them you had a medical condition, and that you were really sensitive about it.

Bill: Good thinking. You’re so smart. And handsome. And sexy.

Dipper, grinning: Stahp!

Bill, grinning back: Nope. Never. Because I love you.

Dipper: Hehehe! I love you, too … Willy!

[anistarrose]

I’ve been thinking about axolotls lately — specifically, about how they experience neoteny, the delayed development of adult traits. In the case of axolotls, it means that unlike most salamanders, they don’t undergo metamorphosis under normal circumstances. In simpler words, you could say that axolotls don’t grow up.

And that struck me as an interesting parallel (or perhaps foil) to a number of different characters from Gravity Falls whose feelings about “growing up” are explored within the show — most obviously Dipper and Mabel, but I’d argue Bill Cipher as well. I don’t think the writers necessarily chose to include the Axolotl for this reason (if anything, it was probably just for the association with Xolotl, the Aztec god of twins), but I think I’m going to take a crack at interpreting it anyway.

When I talk about Gravity Falls, I often find myself approaching character analysis from the perspective of foils, of characters written to contrast so that their contrasting traits are highlighted — and who better to contrast with the Axolotl than Bill Cipher? Both are indescribably ancient, powerful entities, but as Ford speculates in the blacklight journal, they’re also opposites: one firmly aligned with good, and the other with evil.

If beings of such evil can exist in the cosmos, could there possibly be other beings of equal and opposite good?

But despite those stark differences, there's one more piece of common ground they share, one more point of similarity from which they diverge: that notion of not growing up. 

When asked in an interview why Bill was so mad at the world, Hirsch replied:

Why is Bill so mad at the world? I think there’s a lot of people where you can ask, “Why are they so mad at the world?” I think Bill is angry at the world for the same reason that anyone sometimes can get mad at the world. Everyone has days where they don’t get their way, where you have to go to bed early or you have too much homework to do or you can’t eat the candy that you want or you miss your favorite TV show and, in those moments, you just want to tear the whole world down.

Bill is a character who has been around for countless billions of eons, but he hasn’t grown up in that time. He’s a character who has accumulated many frustrations, many moments of destruction like that, and they’ve built up over time. Now he’s decided that he wants a world where there is no homework, where there is no bedtime—where you can eat any candy you want, and you can do anything you want. But because he is such a crazy guy, when he does anything he wants, it turns out to be terrifying. So I think little frustrations over thousands of years have built him into a sort of spoiled brat. And he takes it out on the world, and it’s up to our heroes to finally teach him some rules.

Bill is ancient yet immature, so powerful that he expects he can tear down any rules that stand in his way — and when he can’t, he grows incredibly angry.

[Image description: Bill has an angry expression as he looks through a hole in the roof of the Fearamid, having just seen his Henchmaniacs being stopped from leaving Gravity Falls.]

When he realizes he’s trapped in Gravity Falls, he throws a violent tantrum, and in the deleted scenes, he even takes out his anger on the Henchmaniacs. Bill is every reason why one should grow up, everything one should outgrow: the childish selfishness, the lack of emotional maturity, the throwing a tantrum every time things don’t go your way, the desire to tear the whole world down in response to the injustices (perceived or real) that it throws at you.

Then on the other hand, there’s the Axolotl. It exists in the time and space between time and space, in a childlike, unmetamorphosed form that transcends the flow of time itself — practically the epitome of eternal youth. But that said, the Axolotl is a benevolent god, and its way of “not growing up” couldn’t be more different from Bill’s.

[Image description: Picture from the Time Pirates’ Treasure book. Dipper and Mabel are wearing space suits and helmets and floating in a dimension of pink and blue clouds. They face the Axolotl, who takes up most of the page as it floats among in the clouds and smiles at them.]

The Axolotl is silly, harmlessly and delightfully so. In an often (but understandably) overlooked detail of a heavily analyzed secret page, it offers Dipper and Mabel a beanbag chair, and it laughs as Mabel calls its poem beautiful but a little wordy. 

It teases, but only in the most harmless ways, like counting Mabel’s question about whether it’s a salamander or not as the one question she’s allowed to ask it, or asking Dipper and Mabel their names when it’s suggested to already know Dipper’s name is Mason — unlike Bill, who would gleefully mock Ford for his polydactyly and role in Weirdmageddon, and Dipper for his time as Bill’s puppet and (perceived) inability to fight against a force like Bill.

The Axolotl is an almost inherently absurd and whimsical animal, yet it’s also completely gentle and nonthreatening. It represents the childhood joys that society, on an arbitrary basis, deems unacceptable for adults: the silliness, the optimism, the harmless fun. 

Or, as Stan would say:

But just because you're growing up doesn't mean you have to grow up, you know? I mean, look at me. I'm pushin' seventy and I still eat ice cream for dinner!

Bill represents the side of childishness that should be matured out of, and the Axolotl represents what should be retained. 

(Again, I doubt this was why the crew included the Axolotl in the first place, but it really does mesh beautifully into the show’s themes.)

[billnoncipher]

Wendip Week Prompt 2

Just My Luck

By William Easley

(Not part of my normal continuity and written for the Wendip Week 2018 prompt 2, "Typical Pines Luck")

Before the Mystery Twins had been in Gravity Falls for more than the first three days of June 2015, Mabel had found a new boyfriend.

"A fawn?" Dipper asked. "Seriously? You're going with a baby deer?"

"No, silly!" Mabel, who was preening at the mirror, said. "F-a-U-n! As in part hunky boy, part goat!" She narrowed her eyes and whispered confidentially, "He doesn't wear pants!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dipper said. "T.M.I! And also, no. No, you cannot date this guy, thing, whatever it is—"

"He's a faun," Mabel insisted. "And his name is Raymond."

"I don't care if he's a—Raymond? Raymond is a faun's name?"

"Yup," Mabel said, changing her earrings. "He's got the cutest little hoofs, and a twitchy little tail, and these two little curly horns."

"Yeah," Dipper said grimly. "I've read in mythology that fauns were always horny! Look, you know this guy's just gonna dump you for another girl. Or maybe another goat. Take my advice and give Raymond a wide berth!"

"You're not gonna spoil this for me, Dipper!" she said. She'd settled on earrings in the shape of little gold pine trees. "Anyway, we're just going to frisk in the meadow for a while. You can come along if you want. Hey, you could do the—"

"Don't even say it! I am not doing the 'Lamby Lamby' dance. Especially for a guy whose mom may have been one!"

Dipper told Wendy, whose response was, "Mabes can take care of herself, Dip. Besides, I give the relationship two days, tops. Just wait until they have a meal together!"

He had to chuckle. "Yeah, heh. I guess a faun would be pretty disgusting to watch eat."

"Um, right," Wendy said. "The faun . . . ri-i-ight."

Next he told Ford, who said, "That's interesting. The fauns rarely come down from the tablelands below the western cliffs. I'll have to ask her to collect a hair sample for DNA analysis."

And the last resort was Grunkle Stan, who shrugged. "Meh, she'll find out soon enough the guy don't have any money, and that'll be the end of that."

When Dipper collapsed groaning into a chair, his Grunkle gave him a sharp look. "What's the matter, kid? Scared a goat-guy's gonna elope with your sis?"

"Noooo," Dipper moaned, drawing it out. "It's just that—we've been here practically no time, and she's got a date already! I asked Wendy if she might want to go see a movie with me, and she told me, 'Wait until you're old enough to drive, and then we'll talk.'"

"So, ask somebody else," Stan suggested. "Plenty of seafood in the ocean, kid!"

"Wouldn't do any good," Dipper said. "I have terrible luck with girls."

"Give me a fr'instance," Stan said. "Maybe I can help."

"Aw," Dipper said, "there was this girl, Francine, at one of the school dances, and she wasn't dancing with anybody, so I walked over, got my nerve up, and asked if she wanted to dance. She said yes."

"See, you were in luck!"

"No, because when we walked out onto the floor, she stepped into a little pool of spilled punch and her heel skidded and she sprained her ankle! Just my luck!"

"Don't sound like hers was any too good, either," Stan said. "Come on, Dipper, that was one time!"

"Another time," Dipper said, "Mabel talked this girl, Ellen, into being open if I asked her on a date. I asked her to a movie for that coming weekend, and she said yes."

"Luck turned around, see?"

"No, it did not," Dipper said. "Because the movie was on Saturday, and on Friday her dad moved the whole family away. Turns out he was in witness protection, and somebody in the family let their real last name slip."

Stan's eyes narrowed. "Realllllly? Uh, what was the name?"

"Farghandahler," Dipper said.

"Never heard of 'em. Well, it was worth a shot," Stan said. "Kid, it sounds to me that you need a good-luck charm."

"Oh, come on," Dipper said. "I don't believe in horseshoes and rabbits' feet and all!"

"Got a point there," Stan conceded. "Horseshoes were invented so hicks could beat city folks at a stupid tossing game. And if a rabbit's foot brought luck, you wouldn't be able to buy any, 'cause every rabbit's got four of 'em! Nah, I'm thinkin' along the lines of an amulet. They really work. Sometimes."

Dipper remembered Gideon's amulet of telekinesis, which did seem to work. "Worth a shot," he mumbled.

"Come with me."

Grunkle Stan led him to the stock room. Though Soos was Mr. Mystery these days, and Melody was engaged to become Mrs. Mystery soon, Stan still kept a close eye on what the Shack offered. He fiddled around in a box and then came up with something shiny. "Aha! Knew we had half a dozen of these. OK, kid, I'm gonna make you a gift of the world's most powerful good-luck charm. It comes all the way from Niue!"

"Where . . . is that?" Dipper asked. He'd never heard of it.

"Ah, somewheres near Metuchen, I think. Anywhoo, this here is a five-dollar silver piece. No kiddin', real silver, so take care of it! Look at it. See these little insets? This here is a genuine four-leaf clover from County Cork, Ireland, blessed by a priest who's also a part-time leprechaun! And this is a miniature horseshoe, actually manufactured from a real shoe once worn by Man O'War, the luckiest horse that ever ran in the Derby! This is, uh, a preserved ladybug. Not killed, it died of old age, ya understand. Ladybugs are notoriously lucky!"

"What?" Dipper asked.

"C'mon, Dip, ya never heard of one's house actually burnin' down! And last this is a little figure of a lucky elephant. With all them on your side, your luck will turn right around! You'll see! If it don't work, double your money back."

"How . . . much are you charging me?" Dipper asked.

"Nothin'! It's a free gift! Take it before I change my mind. I could sell this dealy to a sucker for fifty bucks!"

Oh, well. The silver disk had been pierced for a thong, and Stan threw a rawhide one in for free. "Word of caution," he said. "The gals go nuts for a guy who wears a thong! Don't get yourself in trouble, kid—or them, either."

Dipper put the rawhide cord around his neck. What the heck, it would either work or it wouldn't.

And Gideon really had almost cut out his tongue with lamb shears that one time.

Strangely, that night Dipper had a vivid dream of a tourist couple parking in the Mystery Shack lot. They had a cute daughter about fourteen and a little baby not more than a year old. The weird thing was that they pulled their Grand Rover van into a slot, the dad and mom and daughter got out, and they turned to take a photo of the Shack and the totem pole—and the van rolled away backwards, because the dad had evidently not put it in Park. The mom screamed as the van rolled over the edge of the hill and then fell and rolled over and over down to the forest edge, where it collided hard with a tree.

And the baby was inside.

The next morning, while chatting with Wendy at the sales desk, Dipper glanced out the window and saw a maroon Grand Rover van—exactly like the one he'd dreamed of—just pulling into the lot. "Be right back," he said to Wendy and dashed outside.

He felt creeps all over his skin—the van was parking in the exact spot that he'd dreamed of. He sprinted across the lawn and leaped over the low fence just as the mom, dad, and teen daughter got out and the dad hefted a camera. The van started to roll. Dipper leaped into the driver's seat—the dad hadn't closed the door—and jammed on the brakes, while pulling on the emergency brake handle. The mom screamed.

The dad came running up, white-faced. "What happened?"

Dipper said, "It's OK, sir. I saw the van start rolling. I think you didn't put it in Park."

The mom opened the rear door and took the baby—a cheerful little one-year-old boy who had no idea he'd been in any peril—out of his baby seat. "He's OK," she said. "Bless you!"

The father was reaching for his wallet. "How much can it—"

"No, sir," Dipper said. "Just—I don't know, pay it forward. Help out somebody who's in trouble. And enjoy the Mystery Shack!"

The dad got behind the wheel, started the engine, and pulled the car back into the parking slot. He very carefully put it in Park and set the emergency brake.

Someone tapped on Dipper's shoulder. "You can take this, anyway," the teen girl—braids, freckles, really cute—said. And she hugged him and kissed him on the mouth. "Thanks for saving my baby brother!"

Dipper realized he had an audience. Wendy and Stan had come out on the porch. "Uh, you're welcome," Dipper said.

The girl took his hand and wrote something on his palm. "My email," she said. "Get in touch with me. My name's Laramie."

"O-OK," Dipper said.

He walked back to the Shack, where Grunkle Stan clapped him on the shoulder. "Lucky you spotted that!" he said. "Saved us from losin' some customers!"

Wendy, settling back behind the counter, asked, "You know that girl, Dipper?"

"Uh, no," he said. "Just saw their van start to roll and she was, I guess grateful or some deal."

"You mean this isn't gonna be a regular thing?"

"Gosh, no! They're probably from Canada or someplace. I'll never see her again."

Wendy grinned. "Just teasing, man. Good going."

Later that afternoon, because he really couldn't think of an excuse, he went with Mabel to meet Raymond. Raymond waited for Mabel in the bonfire clearing. He seemed skittish when he saw she was not alone, but then she introduced Dipper as her twin. "I'm Alpha, though," she confided.

Well, Raymond wasn't quite what Dipper had expected. True, he had curly little horns and a crown of curly black hair. True, his ears were pointed, and his eyes had strangely slit-like pupils. And he definitely had hoofs and a strange ankle joint. However, the fur on his legs and waist and, um, that general area, was six inches long, very fluffy and shaggy, and he might as well have been wearing pants.

And he talked normal. No baaas or godawful puns, no "I'm Mr. Satyr day night" or anything like that. He seemed interested that Mabel had a brother. He wanted to know where they were from, what Dipper liked to do, why they had come to the Falls, did they like the forest, would he like to see some secluded beautiful areas, and so on.

Mabel looked increasingly uncomfortable and finally reminded Raymond, "You were gonna show me that beautiful forest pool with a cascading creek leading into it. Dipper doesn't have time, sorry." And she led him off.

In about an hour she was back, looking mad. "You win," she said. "I broke up with Raymond. I hope you're happy!"

"Hey, I didn't do anything!" Dipper said.

"Yes, you did! Raymond asked me if you were attached. He wants to date you! Lucky!"

"Tell him I'm not into guys or goats. And especially not into guy-goat combos!" Dipper said. He was beginning to think that luck had its downside.

But he tested it. The next day he asked Wendy if she'd like to go see that movie on Friday night. "I'm still not old enough to drive," he said. "But I don't mind being driven."

She grinned. "OK, Dip, just this movie. But it's no big deal, understand? Just two friends going to see a three-D earthquake movie!"

"I understand," he said. "Just friends."

And then the next day Candy came over to visit Mabel and wound up telling Dipper he was really growing up to be a handsome guy, and she sat uncomfortably close to him. And a little later he went outside just to get away from her and found a wallet on the ground. 

He opened it and saw a drivers' license, the picture looking familiar—oh, yeah, a guy who'd gone out on the tour with a bunch of others. And speak of the devil, Soos came driving the tram back just then, and the very guy jumped off, looking anxious, and headed for his car, which he opened and checked—

"Excuse me, sir," Dipper said. "I just found this wallet. Is it yours?"

"Yes!" the guy said, looking relieved. "I must have dropped it while going out to the tram."

Dipper handed it over. "You might want to check to make sure everything's there."

The man did. "Yep, all the cards, all the money. Here you go, son." He held out a twenty.

Dipper shook his head. "I didn't want a reward, sir. My great-uncle co-owns this place, and he'd never want to make money from someone's misfortune." That was true, sort of. Of course, Stan didn't mind a bit if he made money from them any other way.

But the guy asked his name, went inside, and evidently praised him to Soos and Wendy, because they both gave him thumbs-up when he came back in. And Candy hugged him. "My Dipper is an honest and truthful man!" she announced.

Wendy raised an eyebrow at "my Dipper."

Still later, downtown at a convenience store, Dipper fed a dollar into a vending machine and bought the first and only scratch-off lottery ticket in his life so far. Back in the Shack, he scratched it off.

Yeah, it figured. He'd won $1,000.00. There was, of course, a catch. He gave the card to Stan. "I can't use it," he told his Grunkle. "You have to be eighteen or over."

"I'm eighteen or over," Stan pointed out. "I'll do somethin' nice for ya, kid." And he did. He went into town to cash in the ticket and brought Dipper back a candy bar.

That night, Dipper complained to Mabel about the amulet. "It's making me lucky," he said, "but not in any way that helps me out. And it's got you mad at me."

"I'm not mad," Mabel said. "Just disappointed that Raymond prefers you to me. That's not your fault. My irresistibility must've rubbed off on you a little." She picked up the candy bar. "You gonna eat this?"

"Don't like coconut. You can have it."

"Thanks, Brobro!"

Mabel bit into the candy bar and chipped a tooth. Fragment of coconut husk. Stan had to rush her to a dentist he knew who owed him a favor. She came back with a repaired tooth and a rueful, "You're lucky you didn't want the candy, Dipper!"

But the amulet didn't work with Wendy. The next morning, she said, "I gotta break our date, Dip. Sorry, man. My dad wants me to go with him and my brothers to visit my aunt this evening."

And without Wendy—meh. The kind of luck he was having just wasn't worth it. After some soul-searching, Dipper walked out to the Bottomless Pit and walked back a little lighter and amulet-free.

Just before quitting time, Wendy apologized again—but then the phone rang, and she answered it. "What? Oh, OK. No, tomorrow's even better. Sure. OK if I see a movie, then? Thanks, Dad!"

She hung up the phone. "Huh. My aunt called Dad and asked him to put off the visit, so our date's back on, unless you got someone else to see it with."

"No!" Dipper said. "Uh, no. No, I don't. Uh. If you want to go."

"Yeah, I guess so," Wendy said. "Guess you're in luck, Dipper."

Yeah, for a change, he guessed he really was in the best kind of luck. Seeing a three-D movie about an earthquake sitting next to a gorgeous redhead who made a practice of not dating anybody under the age of sixteen? But she would make one exception?

Hmm, maybe he shouldn't have tossed that amulet away so quickly . . . .

Nah. Typical Pines luck was better than anything it could dish up!

The End

[pokelolmc]

Gravity Falls: A Hypothetical “Journal 4″?

Okay, so Ford is one of my favourite secondary characters in Gravity Falls, but he’s one of my most nitpicky at the same time. I know that I probably shouldn’t be looking too far into it, but I seriously can’t stop thinking about this, I’m a nitpicker and I have way too much time on my hands. (Plus, the fandom is a collective conspiracy nut that thrives on theories and over-analysis). Oh, Stanford fucking Filbrick Pines, do I have some nits to pick with you!

I’ll probably post some other ones later, but this one is really long – a nitpick that turned into a speculative headcanon, so I posted it on its own (but, knowing this overanalysing fandom, I probably came pretty late to the table with this one. I have no idea if anyone’s talked much about this kind of theory/headcanon/concept. If you want to take a look, at my specific “evidence” and discussion anyway, take a look.)

THE COAT POCKET

Okay, in a moment of very belated Fridge Logic, I noticed something from his second ever appearance in the series (counting his “Time Traveller’s Pig” cameo), from the cliffhanger of Not What He Seems:

Why does he have this pocket for his Journals in the side of his coat?

I know that it’s supposed to be for the moment where we see his six-fingered hand match up with the one on the Journals for a dramatic reveal, but…really? Why?

Obviously, it was made to hold the Journals (at least, his most current one), and it even has a quill for writing, but he wouldn’t even have need for it in this coat in the first place (especially with a quill, which seems very impractical for someone like Ford when he’s written with pen and pencil so much before then, as seen in A Tale of Two Stans in his flashback of his college studies…unless he intends to only write his entries in invisible ink from then on).

Need I remind you that Ford never, as far as we know, had this coat during his time spent conducting his research in Gravity Falls (confirmed to be from 1975-1982 in Journal 3). We don’t see his full wardrobe or anything like that in his 30-years-ago flashbacks, but we don’t need to in order to know that he couldn’t have really had it:

When Ford gets sucked into the Portal, he’s not wearing this black outfit at all.

He got sucked into the Portal with absolutely nothing but the (different) clothes on his back and whatever was in his pockets…so, unless he’s secretly The Doctor and he stashes entire emergency outfits in his bigger-on-the-inside pockets, that black outfit was never something from his home dimension and he never had it before he got sucked into the Portal.

So, if he never had this black outfit before he got sucked into the Portal, why does he need to have any sort of empty Journal pocket sewed into it?

After all, by the time Ford got pushed into the Portal, he was no longer using the Journals. He called Stan to his lab, his fight with whom was the sole reason he was sucked into the Portal in the first place, solely to ask Stan to take his only Journal left and hide it as far away as possible.

(“Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat? Take this book, get on a boat and sail as far away as you can! To the end of the earth!”)

By the time Ford fell into the Portal, his Second and Third Journals were hidden, his first was with Stan, and he wanted so little to do with his Journals that he never wanted to see them again, let alone carry them anymore. Then, after going through the Portal, he spent 30 whole years on the other side with no access to them (when he, obviously, acquired his black outfit). There was obviously no need for him to sew that Journal pocket into his outfit. You could say that maybe Ford decided he needed his Journals again for his old information on Bill, and sewed it in anticipation just in case he ever made it home. However, having only one pocket doesn't make sense because all his information on Bill is across both Journals 2 and 3. Not to mention, according to the real Journal 3 (post-Not What He Seems), Ford said that he never expected he would make it home, and he was already in the middle of fighting Bill and his goons in the Nightmare Realm with the finished Quantum Destabiliser when Stan opened the Portal and brought him back out, so needing his old Journals again wasn't really necessary. So, does this pocket have a point…?

Maybe, during his time on the other side of the Portal, he decided to write another Journal about some of his interdimensional adventures (either a new volume in the existing series or the start of a new series separate from his Portal-superweapon-recipe first three volumes). However, when he emerges from his time on the other side of the Portal in Not What He Seems, the pocket is empty (allowing him to place Journal 1 inside). This means that he could have, perhaps, written a new journal, but lost it at some point during his travels, whether intentionally or accidentally. This would also explain the quill in the pocket; he obviously used it to write in some book he kept in the pocket during his travels throughout the multiverse, and the only time he ever – apparently – uses a quill to write is when using the invisible black-light ink (referring to the pictures of his invisible ink well and quill on the page of the Third Journal where he writes that he will start using invisible ink. Also, we only ever see him write his normal Journal entries with pens in the Journal-writing flashbacks in A Tale of Two Stans).

We don’t see any sort of ink container in his Journal-shaped pocket, but if he did have a pot of invisible ink on his person at some point during his travels, it would make sense; if Ford were to keep a journal about his multiverse adventures so he could go back over things like notes for the Quantum Destabiliser, he would probably put them all in code or invisible ink to hide from dangerous “prying eyes”. (Though, with the apparent advancement of other dimensions in Gravity Falls – after all, the Quantum Destabiliser’s complex parts exist only in other dimensions and the Infinity Sided Die is known, and outlawed, in 9000 dimensions – putting it in code or invisible ink would seem a bit crude, since it could probably be uncovered by advanced technology if his new journal was ever confiscated.)

However, there isn’t much solid evidence to back it up – although there is still also some (weak, but still potential) evidence from the real-life copy of Journal 3 (which, need I remind you, is canon), that could potentially back it up (or just as easily go against it).

In the third section of Journal 3 (when Ford starts to write in Journal 3 again after he gets it back after AToTS, continuing after Dipper’s entries about the summer) he writes at the end of his entry on Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons:

“I told Dipper about the rift. But when he asked me where I’ve been for the last 30 years, I had no idea how to begin or what to reveal. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but perhaps writing about some of it here will help me get my thoughts in order.”

He also writes, on the page “My Travels” (about his interdimensional travels – the page with his infamous “Rick was here” wanted poster) he writes, “To fully chronical my adventures would take 10 volumes, but here’s a catalogue of some of the most outlandish dimensions I saw…”

The fact that he had no idea where to start when explaining his adventures in the multiverse to Dipper might potentially suggest that he has no idea where to start because he didn’t pay attention, or remember, all of it in enough detail (suggesting he may not have recorded a lot of it down for the sake of memory). Or, it could suggest that, since he never wrote much of it down/put it into words (let alone in a continuous journal), he doesn’t know how to put it into words when explaining some of it to Dipper. In fact, if Ford had written a whole other Journal about his journey on the other side of the Portal, you think he could’ve just gone “Actually, I wrote a whole other volume on that stuff. Here, Dipper, Journal number 4 – knock yourself out!” However, when you look at this a little further, it could actually – instead – work in favour of Ford having an “extra journal”.

After all, if he did write in this hypothetical “Journal 4” (or whatever it was), he was writing it for himself, with little censoring of some of the, undoubtedly, extremely bizarre (or possibly traumatising) things he saw. If he ever wanted to share this with Dipper, and he did have a journal covering his interdimensional travels, he would likely not share it as Dipper is only twelve, and he wouldn’t want to outright traumatise him. Dipper may have seen some scary stuff thanks to Journal 3, but anything outside of their home dimension could be potentially far worse. This could be supported by Ford claiming that he doesn’t know “what to reveal”, indicating there was indeed some very sensitive or dangerous content in his travels that he doesn’t want to hand over uncensored records of for Dipper to read indiscriminately. Besides, if we remember the fact that the pocket was empty at the end of Not What He Seems – possibly meaning he lost the new journal somewhere in the multiverse, as mentioned earlier – then he couldn’t hypothetically show it to Dipper anyway, in that case. So, as much as not telling Dipper about his “new journal” (when it would have been easier than explaining to him) could refute the existence of another journal, there are still plenty of reasons Ford could have (or have had) one, but not shown Dipper. In fact, Ford specifically writing “perhaps writing about some of it here [referring to Journal 3]” could indicate that he had also written about his journey through the multiverse somewhere else, and writing it in Journal 3 could help him recover memories of what he wrote or experienced.

The quote that “it would take 10 volumes” to write about all of his interdimensional adventures is a bit vaguer. On one hand, you could take it literally (which most people probably wouldn’t), or you could say that he was making a hyperbole (like people say “I’ve been waiting for a million years”) or an educated guess (since he had three Journals covering six years, having ten to fifteen volumes covering 30 years isn’t a totally random guess). That it’s because he actually wrote his travels down and it actually took that many volumes is probably less likely. The “would take”, to me at least, suggests expectation, like he is assuming that writing everything out in full would take that long, either because he wrote some of it down in a journal, but not all of his travels in full, or he didn’t keep a journal of any of it at all. Either way, according to this quote, he likely doesn’t know for certain how many volumes it would take to write it down in full. Because of this, it could potentially indicate his recording in another journal – just as much as it could refute it.

Bottom line: Did I just overthink a Disney cartoon? Yes. Was this evidence pretty shaky? Yes. Was this really, really long? Yes. Is this more just speculation or an interesting headcanon than a theory? Definitely. Has someone already thought of something like this? …Knowing the Gravity Falls fandom, most probably yes.

However, at the same time I think Ford having written (and possibly lost) another journal about his travels in the multiverse could make for an interesting concept…especially if it comes back to bite him in the ass later.

[prettyinpwn]

What is your opinion on Filbrick Pines?

Oh boy... long story short, my opinion on him is pretty low, not gonna lie. I went into his character a lot in my analysis post on Ford's writing (found here), since Filbrick had a large effect on Stan and Ford's characters, even if only in subtle ways. To summarize my points on Filbrick:

Definitely abusive, in my opinion. I don't think physically, but for sure emotionally and mentally. He's the type of father who provided materially, but otherwise didn't seem very good at it.

Was way too focused on money. Now, I think it's very possible that Filbrick could have a great backstory reason for this. My biggest guess is a life of poverty and wanting to provide better for his family, but the cruel irony is that in seeking wealth, he hurt his family (e.g "Stanley, by "sabotaging" Ford you hurt our whole family, because he was going to make us millions, so I'm gonna throw you out, ignoring the fact that by throwing you out I'm currently hurting the family in the way I'm accusing you of."). He also hurt Ford. The way Filbrick treated Ford was like a Willy Wonka golden ticket. "Oh, you're smart? This college might make you a millionaire? I'm impressed!". He didn't care about what Ford wanted, he cared about what Ford's brains could get him. Case in point: he didn't seem to give a rat's ass about Ford's brains or college dreams until the principal implied it could make money.

Iirc, according to Hirsch, the quote Stan says in Little Gift Shop of Horrors ("Movies are great! You watch the movie, you scare the girl, the girl snuggles up next to you, next thing you know you gotta raise a kid. Your life falls apart. Forget that last part.") was actually something Filbrick used to say. Like DEAR GOD Filbrick said that in front of Stan and Ford? "Hey kids, my life was great until I got your ma knocked up with Shermie, and then my life was pure suck after that.". Like... who... who just says that in front of their kids? Who even THINKS that about their kids? Yikes.

The way Stan and Ford are named. The code at the end of A Tale of Two Stans is played as a joke, but when you think about it, it's... kinda sad. "A STUBBORN TOUGH NEW JERSEY NATIVE, FILBRICK WASN'T TOO CREATIVE, HAVING TWINS WAS NOT HIS PLAN, SO HE JUST SHRUGGED AND NAMED BOTH STAN.". Filbrick did not give a single f*ck. "Oh, I have twins? Eh, I'm too lazy to think about a name, just call 'em practically the same thing.". What father does this?

In the post I linked above, I also hinted at how I thought Bill's manipulations of Ford almost were a mirror echo of Filbrick (even in their character design, it's odd how they both have yellow brick and blue with hats themed designs, he's got the literal word 'brick' in his name, etc). Because when you think about it, what did Ford's father teach him but "you are a puppet to be used by me to get what I want"?

There's a reason Ford and Stan are incredibly broken people, and it all started with Filbrick. He's the one that taught Stan to believe he's worthless and a f*ckup, and the one that taught Ford that he's a tool to be used. So... nah, not a fan of the guy, if I didn't make that obvious already lol. BUT... I will say this, as this is something I did give him credit for in my Ford analysis post: a lot of Ford and Stan's positive qualities are things he passed down to them, namely their protectiveness of family and "toughness". But unlike Filbrick, who manifested that in toxic ways, Stan and Ford took a heavy albatross necklace of generational trauma and turned it around to a positive.

This goes even further when Stan passes the lesson to Dipper. Dipper learning to "fight back"? That's a family lesson that comes from Filbrick, originally, when he signed Stan and Ford up for boxing. Some have criticized the way Stan taught Dipper that lesson, but you can't argue with the end result:

TL;DR: Filbrick mostly sucks, but... like most well-written characters, he does have some gray area. Was he a good father? No. But the gauntlet meat grinder he put Ford and Stan through - worth it or not - made them the tough family protectors they are as adults. I will give him that, at least.

[artsymeeshee]

GF Fandom Meme

Tagged by @archervale​ and @choc-chip-pancakes​!! Thanks, friendos!

Answer the questions and tag 10 mutuals/followers.

When did you get into Gravity Falls? Hm. It was 2 years ago. Over the Summer before my Sophomore year, my best friend/roommate and I went shopping and while browsing through a book store we saw Dipper and Mabel’s Guide to Mystery. She was already familiar with the show and it kinda peaked my interest. I remember watching Blendin’s Game on TV one time. I think I liked it? I’m not too sure. XD I also saw If Gravity Falls was an anime on Youtube. The scene was from NWHS and I was curious what happened afterwards. I saw my roommate watching The Last Mabelcorn and I think that’s when I needed to see the entirety of the show.

What got you hooked on it? Everything is all mixed up so I’m not too sure. I remember watching ATOTS and, not knowing the context of the show at all, all I could think was: Damn. Well that’s just depressing. Guess it was Stan and Ford’s problems that got me hooked. XD 

Do you write, make art, or create content for the fandom or just enjoy being a part of it but haven’t made anything yet? Mainly art. Some ficlets and headcanons here and there.

Who’s your favorite character? Stanley Pines. Obviously. Ford’s pretty close but Stan is still my number one.

Most underrated character on the show? I have to agree with Vale and Dania. I love the Pines Family to death but I feel like the spotlight is always on them. I’d have to go with Wendy, Soos, and Fiddleford.

What’s your favorite episode? Geez, um.... NWHS. I still get chills watching that episode. Scary-oke. Weirdmageddon 3. The Stanchurian Candidate. Land Before Swine.

What’s your least favorite episode? Probably Boyz Crazy. I was never into boy bands so maybe that’s why.

What do you hope to see in the graphic novel? GIVE ME ALL THE BONDING!! I would love to see the process of getting Stan’s memory back, Sea Grunk adventures, everything. Anything will make me happy.

Favorite fan content? All the amazing art and fics and analysis. This fandom is pretty amazing. I would tag all the amazing artists and writers but the list is so long lol.

Let’s see... I tag: @renconner @keleficent @spookysummersmores Only if you guys wanna. :3

[allieinarden]

An anonymous asker wanted me to comment on a certain analysis of Dipper and Mabel’s relationship, encountered elsewhere on the Internet, which interpreted their bond as a destructive and unhealthy one. Anon shared the original analysis with me in full, but was kind enough to provide me with a point-by-point summation of the poster’s arguments, each of which I will address herein.

A) Mabel may learn lessons, but she easily forgets them later on and doesn’t actually tangibly change as a person and doesn’t actually learn anything as her behaviour is still roughly the same.

Mabel’s a more static character than her brother, I grant you that. Dipper’s the protagonist, and as such the character whose growth is the series focus; he’s an avatar of creator Alex Hirsch himself, so there’s a lot of gentle self-deprecation in the way he’s written. But I tend to think that, in terms of story, it makes sense for Mabel to maintain a certain childishness, because that part of her comes to a head during the Weirdmageddon arc, when she has to choose between eternal childhood and the hard reality of growing older.

Dipper himself doesn’t change much during the series; he learns various smaller lessons to the effect of “just let things happen and don’t try to rush them,” but, until the finale, fails to fully imbibe the larger lesson about growing up. The events of Weirdmageddon give us Dipper at his best; he sheds the pervasive need to be seen as an adult that has characterized him from the beginning and in so doing appears at his most mature. He becomes a realist. He stops getting in his own way. At the same time, Mabel relinquishes her selfishness, the world which revolves around her, and her unwillingness to move forward, even granting Dipper the freedom to stay with Ford if he so chooses. They each grow in a far more definite way than they did over the course of the series proper, in which their character flaws were excellent plot fodder. (It’s also worth noting that in the show, as in real life, maturation is a process; we tend to revert to type, and it’s rare that one definitive “lesson” alters our tendencies. We have to learn again and again.)

B) The review ... points out that Dipper has been told the entire summer and probably his entire life that his sister is better than him, meaning his relationship with this sister, no matter how stable it might seem superficially, is actually unstable and based on one of the siblings having a lower-sense of self-worth than the other, at least subconsciously.

I don’t see any evidence that he’s received this kind of treatment, then or now. Stan is tougher on Dipper than on Mabel because he thinks the nervous, noodle-armed Dipper could use the toughening up in a way that his more energetic twin doesn’t. Wendy tells Dipper in “Sock Opera” that he should roll with Mabel’s weirdness because it makes life worth living–but note that it’s Mabel who learns a lesson in “Sock Opera,” in a deliberate reversal of various Season 1 episodes (“Time-Traveler’s Pig,” “The Deep End”) in which Dipper takes the fall. The episode starts with that message rather than ending on it because this time it’s going to be subverted; Mabel is the one who will need to compromise.

Dipper’s under no illusions that his sister is perfect; he complains about her plenty, her behavior often gets on his nerves (as his does on hers) and he asserts himself whenever it’s necessary. But he loves her–loves her, in fact, in the fullest agape sense.

The fact he values his sister’s life over his own can be used as evidence to support this, as this dovetails right into him thinking he is inferior to her, and is an unhealthy thing for him. And his motivation isn’t that he wants to save as many of his friends as possible, but rather that we wants to live long enough to find Mabel, further supporting the theory. Basically, he is his sister’s “emotional slave” as said in the analysis I quoted above.

Dipper’s willingness to put his life on the line for his sister is no evidence of an unhealthy relationship or of an inferiority complex; it’s a testament to his love for her that shows his character in its noblest light. His feeling is one that anyone with a beloved family member, be it brother, sister, parent, or child, is likely to relate to. It’s not an indication that he devalues his own life, but rather that he values her life more. There’s nothing passive or suicidal in Dipper: he has dreams, ambitions, goals for his future (if anything, his flaw is to dwell in the future too much and forget to be twelve). Like Ford before him, he harbors a hope that the things that make him different are signs of a higher destiny, one he would like to get to as quickly as possible. It’s because he values his future highly that the risk he takes for Mabel carries the weight it does. (By contrast, Mabel fears the future so much that she’s willing to throw her life away and idle indefinitely in the prison bubble; for her the heroic action is not a decision to risk her life but a decision to embrace it.)

In fact, however, Dipper does want to save as many of his friends as possible; when Weirdmageddon hits, his first move is to follow Ford into an incredibly dangerous attempt to take out Bill Cipher, cutting off the apocalypse at its source. When that falls through, it’s completely natural that he should try his hardest to find Mabel; she’s his sister, she’s been missing since the whole thing started, he has reason to fear that she might not even be alive. Worse still, the last conversation they had was a fight. With Ford down for the count, his only other “surviving” relative in Gravity Falls at this point is Stan, an adult well-capable of caring for himself.

What’s more, the revelation that Bill has locked Mabel in his prison bubble comes with the idea that rescuing Mabel is in fact the best thing Dipper can do for Gravity Falls; after observing the twins in action all summer, Wendy sees their teamwork as a sufficiently potent force to topple even Bill. She throws in her lot with Dipper because she cares about Mabel, yes, but also because she firmly believes that reuniting the twins is the key to undoing the apocalypse.

C) This right here has to do with the ask you answered last time. The person above who wrote the analysis points out that, even though both Dipper and Mabel have desires that are equally selfish and mean everything to them, Dipper still has to sacrifice more of his desires than Mabel has to as a whole. He also points out how it seems that Mabel might be a bit spoiled, as she can afford to forget the lessons she has learned while Dipper cannot do that, putting her in a privileged position.

As a beautifully-written response to my original post points out, Dipper’s and Mabel’s sacrifices add up evenly. But I think it’s also worth pointing out that Dipper, while experiencing temporary pain, doesn’t lose much from his sacrifices on the whole; where it counts (when, for instance, the journal is on the line), Mabel takes the hit. Several of Dipper’s wants over the course of Season 1 had to do with his crush on Wendy, a doomed affair regardless of what he did. In “The Time-Traveler’s Pig,” for instance, he went back in time and took away Robbie’s opportunity to ask Wendy out, childishly attempting to spare himself the pain of seeing them together. Not only would this hardly have prevented Robbie from asking her out in the future, it left the root difficulty unaltered–namely that, given the chance to go out with a boy her own age, Wendy would do it. Dipper blames circumstances and timing because it’s less painful than acknowledging that Wendy wants to date someone else. (That Wendy has her freedom is a lesson Dipper is slow to learn; he grasps it in “Boyz Crazy,” around the time Mabel is learning a similar lesson about the clueless boy band she’s hiding in the Shack.) It’s an impulsive, band-aid solution and one that can hardly help Dipper in the long run, whereas Mabel will be deeply affected by the loss of her pig, a complication Dipper caused himself when his denial made him meddle with the timeline. His sacrifice on this occasion is simply a decision to let things unfold as they did to begin with. He watches the girl he likes go out with another person and suffers some pain because of it; that’s part of growing up.

Mabel is a little spoiled, but there’s no evidence that she can “afford” to forget what she’s learned in a way that Dipper can’t; she suffers for her flaws as he does, particularly when her need for control lands her in the prison bubble.

D) Mabel seems to depend on the positivity of others to make her feel she is doing the right thing, instead of learning it objectively and maturely like other characters.

That’s a character flaw, and it’s addressed head-on in “The Last Mabelcorn”–Mabel is overly-reliant on outside affirmation and reassurance. She has a very real anxious streak and wants (as seen in “The Love God”) to make the people around her happy; she’d do well to learn that it’s impossible to please everyone, but so would a lot of preteens.

E) Mabel is responsible for opening the portal in the end which causes Weirdmageddon. People should have confronted her about this, at least mildly and without anger, but nobody did. And Dipper should have been angry with Mabel about this, but he somehow wasn’t. The theory says this is because Dipper had an emotional attachment to Mabel that was destructive & unhealthy for both of them, which is why he didn’t confront her and continued caring for her more than himself.

In fact, Dipper never found out (onscreen, at least) about Mabel’s encounter with Blendin Blandin and the subsequent opening of the portal. But even if he had, I don’t tend to think that he would have been angry, nor that he should have been.

Mabel didn’t knowingly cause the apocalypse. In an incredibly vulnerable moment, when she was at her absolute lowest, she was tricked by Bill Cipher, who had taken hold of someone she trusted. She was completely unaware of the significance of the rift–she had never seen it before, and Ford had forbidden Dipper from telling her anything about it. She had not been warned about Bill’s endgame and was unconscious of any impending apocalypse save the immediate vision of her world crumbling before her eyes. As far as she could see, she was trading a worthless item of Dipper’s for something she desperately wanted: security. What’s familiar about this? It’s exactly the situation Dipper found himself in during “Sock Opera.”  He was so desperate to fight time, so frightened of losing everything, so powerless against the clock (“Tick-tock, kid!”) that when Bill seemed to be asking him for one of Mabel’s sock puppets in exchange for what he wanted, he took the bait, inadvertently handing over something far more valuable. No one confronted Dipper about this because no one needed to; the events of the episode were lesson enough.

Should Mabel have been smarter about the whole thing? Perhaps. But keep in mind that Dipper, in a similar situation, knew he was talking to Bill. He made the deal in the full knowledge that he was shaking the hand of a fundamentally untrustworthy creature. Mabel believed that she was speaking to a friend. I don’t see any reason why Dipper should have been angry at Mabel for being tricked by a force which had not only tricked him also, but which had even played their great-uncle Ford, a highly intelligent adult and the person he admires most, for a sucker--particularly considering that Mabel acted out of a desperate fear of losing him.

The reviewer also points out how it would have been much better if Dipper and Mabel had developed by “finding their own hobbies, clubs, and friend groups while still living together and staying just close enough to remain best loving friends but not be dependent on each other to be mentally and emotionally stable” instead of the way their relationship existed in the show.

According to Alex Hirsch, the twins are in fact more independent under ordinary circumstances, when they’re at home; the unfamiliarity of a new situation pulls them closer together. But even in Gravity Falls, the two are consistently depicted as living distinct and individual lives, with their own separate hobbies and groups of friends. Mabel finds “her people” in young eccentrics Candy and Grenda, while Dipper gravitates toward the more advanced high-school social dynamic of Wendy and her crew. Mabel loves boy bands, stuffed animals and the 80s; Dipper’s steeped in paranormal research, mystery novels and fantasy RPGs. Their lives and interests intersect and conflict, but never overwhelm each other; in the end there’s room for Dipper’s ballpoint pens and Mabel’s crayons under the same pointed attic roof.

Dipper and Mabel won’t live with each other forever. They’ll grow up like any brother and sister, go to college, have lives of their own, get jobs, spouses, kids. But that’s exactly why the time they have is so important. They’re not ready to be adults yet. They still have a lot of growing up to do, and it’s right and natural for them to be able to rely on each other, to draw strength from each other, to support each other through this particularly turbulent phase of their lives, just as they’ve always done.

[andrewmoocow]

Gravity Soul chapter 5: Madness of Sloth, The First Horseman of the Apocalypse? (originally posted on February 11, 2018)

AN: I'm going to enjoy writing this chapter. This is where things get really good, kind of like how Gravity Falls became fantastic midway through its first season or how Soul Eater became more serious when Medusa was introduced. This is also the final chapter of the Black Blood arc and from here on out, there's only one way to go and that's up! Anyway, let us begin.

HOLGS, TIVVW, VMEB ZMW DIZGS

ULFI LU GSVN ULINRMT Z EVIB WZIP KZGS

HBNYLORARMT Z UVD WVZWOB HRMH

GSVHV ZIV SRH UFGFIV SLIHVNVM

Finally returning to the Mystery Shack, the Pines Family and their friends were more than happy to just take a moment to relax after such a long day at the Northwests' duplex. "Feels like ages since we left here!" Stan exclaimed stretching his arms. "I'm lookin' to just flop down in my favorite chair and catch up on some Baby Fights."

"I'm feeling parched, you got any Cheetah Chug Mr. Pines?" Black Star asked. "Cheetah what-now?" Ford wondered. "Cheetah Chug, it's an energy drink made out of genuine cheetah sweat. I do not want to know how one would obtain it without getting mauled." Death the Kid explained.

"Doesn't matter, I got some Charisma Justice to read!" Black Star said walking through the front door of the tourist trap before being greeted by Soos's abuelita. "Hello there ninja man, would you like some dinosaur-shaped cookies?" she asked. "DO I!?" the loudmouthed assassin exclaimed taking an entire handful and swallowing them all in one gulp. "Yeah, my grandma makes the best cookies." Soos said. "I always do mijo."

"Well, I'm going into the woods to conduct some research on the local cryptids for Lord Death." Stein stated beginning to walk away before Dipper stopped him. "Wait doc, why don't you stay here and play a game with us?" he asked. "Wait here, I'll go grab it!" Rushing upstairs, he returned with a large game box in his hands. "We call it Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons!"

"This is Dipper and I's favorite game!" Ford exclaimed. "Interesting, how do you play it?" Maka wondered taking off her black overcoat. "Allow me to answer that for you." Dipper answered flipping through a rulebook before landing on a page and he began to read. "First, you roll a 38-sided die to determine the level of each player's statistical analysis poweroid. These orbs relate directly to the amount of quadrants that your team has dominion ov-"

"NEEEEERDS!" Patty screamed, suddenly interrupting him. "Hey, do you mind Patty, I'm trying to get them into a game I love!" Dipper shouted back. "Sorry DP, it's just that you've been saying tons of dork words." she said in her honest opinion, to which Dipper and Ford replied with a tired sigh. "Yes to be honest, some of the words in this rulebook do sound quite silly." Ford said taking the book out of his great-nephew's hands. "I mean, who in their right mind would say 'Esophagus of Timera' with a straight face?"

"You got a good point there Ford. So, anyone want to play?" Dipper offered. "I'd certainly like to go a round." Kid accepted. "Perfect, now then let's begin!" Ford declared setting the game on the table. "Now then, your party meets up at a great mathematician's assembly..."

This air of calmness continued long into the night. Dipper & Ford have gotten Maka, Kid & Stein absorbed into their game, Stan was watching TV with Liz, Patty, Crona, Spirit, Wendy & Soos, Mabel was busy knitting a sweater for Soul with Waddles resting by her side, Black Star was doing push-ups and Tsubaki was making dinner with Melody. "He put the old in Old West, but now a new kid is doing the exact same thing! They call him Grandpa the Kid's Grandkid 19: Yet Another One!" the TV advertised. "I'm tired during the day." the elderly cowpoke on the screen grumbled. "Me too." the younger boy added.

"Did they really need to make another Grandpa the Kid movie decades after the original?" Stan complained. "I mean, they've been making unnecessary sequels since '94 and they're all dumbed down for kids! The original from 1967 was fine on its own and maybe a few of those sequels were pretty okay before the double digits, but did they really need to give him a grandson?"

"And how has Grandpa not died yet after nineteen movies?" Ford added. "If you don't like it, why don't you just change the channel?" Liz stated. "Yeah, what she said." Wendy added fistbumping the elder Thompson. "Oh okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." the elder groaned changing the channel to Baby Fights. "Oh finally, this is what I wanted!"

"So Mabel, heard you took control of Soul back at Pacifica's place." Maka commented rolling the thirty eight-sided dice. "Yeah, and we worked pretty well together even though I wasn't like you, Black Star or Kid!" Mabel exclaimed. "I think it might be because your character makes your Soul Wavelength compatible with tons of people." Stein explained. "Soul what now?" Dipper wondered. "Allow me to explain."

Stein produced a sheet of paper from his labcoat pocket and began to sketch various orbs with faces on them along with distinct features like Wendy's long red hair, Soos's stubble, Mabel's eternally smiling visage, Dipper's hat, Stan's nose and Ford's sideburns. "Because of her exuberant personality and uncanny ability to make friends with pretty much anyone, Mabel is able to plug into various Demon Weapons like an amp for example. However Dipper is more introverted and his soul might only accept those he can trust."

"Wow, you think we could have our own weapons and become Meisters someday? I'd love to have an awesome sword!" Dipper exclaimed imitating fighting with a sword. "This sounds pretty cool and all, but I already have a weapon of my own." Mabel declared pulling out her famous grappling hook. "GRAPPLING HOOK!"

"Hey speaking of swords, don't you think that Bill Cipher guy sounds a bit familiar?" Black Star wondered getting up and walking over to Kid. "Yes, his choice of attire includes a top hat & cane and is a complete annoyance to whoever he meets." Kid stated. "Kind of reminds me of..."

Before he could even finish, the two's faces contorted into that of pure disgust as they were reminded of a certain Holy Sword. "Even when he's not here he still finds a way to be so lame!" Black Star groaned. "Absolutely disgusting." Kid added. "What's the face for and how can I do it?" Stan asked. "In fact, I'd rather not know."

"Okay everyone, dinner's ready!" Tsubaki called as she walked into the living room with Melody carrying a large pot and setting it down on the table on top of the game. "Careful, we were in the middle of taking down Probabilitor's monster army!" Ford shouted before Tsubaki opened the pot for the others to see what delicious meal was inside. "Is that paprika I smell?!" Spirit wondered taking a deep whiff of the pot's contents. "We made some gumbo for you all, eat up before it goes cold!" Melody said.

"Thanks you two, this sure beats steamed hams!" Stan thanked the women before chowing down on some gumbo. "Where's that cat lady? I'm sure she'd love some of this." Ford wondered before, as if he spoke of the devil, Blair walked in wearing only a small towel.

"Yoo-hoo, who wants to take a bath with me?!" she called bending over to show some cleavage. "The water's nice & warm and I'm feeling a bit lonely in the tub!" She concluded by letting her towel fall to her feet, exposing her bare womanly curves as Ford shielded the twins' eyes in alarm and Soul collapsed backward with blood flying out his nose and gumbo splattering all over her face. "Good grief, can you at least put on a bathrobe? There are children here!"

"Why is she always like this?" Stan wondered. "She's just really playful, might as well get used to it." Soul groaned still on his back. "Uh, uh..." Dipper whimpered before feeling his shorts and saying "Quiet you!"

Just then, Mabel's phone buzzed from inside her sweater pocket and she picked it up to discover a text from Pacifica saying "my place, now!" with a series of emojis next to it depicting panic. "Guys, I got a text from Pacifica and she might need our help!" she exclaimed. "Help with what?" Crona wondered before Mabel bolted for the door. "Whatever's happening with her, it must be serious." Stan commented racing after his great-niece and the others followed suit, leaving only Soos behind.

"Hey dudes, what about the leftover gumbo?" he called. "Ah well, more for me then." He grabbed the pot and gulped down the last of the food before tossing it away and running to his friends. "Wait for me!"

It wasn't long before the Stanleymobile arrived at the Northwests' home and the Mystery Meisters arrived at the front door, which was answered by Priscilla. "Oh thank you all for coming again, we have a serious crisis on our hands!" she exclaimed. "Preston hasn't been feeling himself lately and we fear it may have to do with the strange black fluid in his veins."

"The Black Blood must be getting worse, come on guys!" Dipper ordered racing into the house and to Preston's study where they found Pacifica hiding in a dark corner where her father couldn't see her. "Get away from me!" she cried before realizing who she was facing. "Oh thank goodness, it's just you."

"It's going to be all right Paz," Dipper said comforting her. "just what is going on that warranted that text to Mabel?" he asked. "That Black Blood you were talking about has been starting to take over him. Like just earlier he was ringing that bell like crazy while screaming some weird stuff." Pacifica explained. "Wait, what time is it again?"

"It's thirty-five after seven, and the sun went down an hour ago. Which means your father doesn't have much time left." Kid answered. "Liz, Patty, if you please." he ordered his twin weapons before they transformed into his pistols. "Now then, let's finish this."

The Meisters all took up arms as the Mystery Meisters slowly advanced from behind, ready to strike at any moment. All it took was a single raise of Preston's arm to provoke them into attacking before he stopped them. "No, don't!" he cried bolting out of his chair. "Please, just let this happen. I've done some absolutely terrible things in the past and I feel this is a fitting punishment for myself."

"Why are you so defeatist all of the sudden?! We can help you! Somehow." Dipper said. "He's right Dad, maybe they have some strange magic to take out that blood!" Pacifica added. "I'm sorry everyone, but there's no turning back now." Preston finally resigned to his fate as the clouds gave way to expose the shining moon above. Although it illuminated the room beautifully, there was an aura of fear as the Northwest patriarch began trembling in his feet before dropping to his knees and clutching his head in pain.

"Please Northwest, just let us help you!" Ford tried to help before Preston pushed him away. With one strained stare, he simply gave his daughter a few final words. "I'm sorry Pacifica. I love you."

The transformation was indeed a horrifying sight as the former philanthropist became incredibly deformed, his skin turning a very pale green, his back gaining a large hump, one eye turning yellow & wide open while another remained shut and above all else, his hands becoming ginormous. Gone was Preston Jacob Northwest and in his place was the Madness of Sloth.

"What even is that thing?!" Dipper screamed at the top of his lungs trying to flee. "I never knew Black Blood could do that!" Maka exclaimed grabbing the boy's arm. "Me neither!" Soul added with Crona nodding behind him. "Well what're we waitin' for, let's kill 'im!" Ragnarok shouted.

"No, he may be a giant monster now but he's still my dad!" Pacifica urged them otherwise before the Madness of Sloth grabbed her in his cumbersome hands and jumped through the window, scampering into the night. "Oh no, he's got Pacifica!" Mabel cried. "What is he going to do with her?" Soos wondered before they heard the door open to find her mother standing there looking more afraid than when they answered the door earlier. "What happened, where are they?!"

"Your husband's turned into some giant monster that looked like he came out of some mid 19th century French novel and ran off with your daughter!" Melody said. "We have to go after them immediately! Let's roll!" Spirit declared. "Wait, I'm not taking Mr. Pines's car this time." Kid stopped them as he called a skateboard to his side and leaped on top of it. "You have a skateboard?" Wendy wondered. "Not just any skateboard." Tapping it with his foot, the board's wheels turned downward and started firing jets.

"SHUT, UP!" Dipper exclaimed in complete astonishment. "This is Beelzebub, my trusted Death God skateboard. It can fly at great speeds, it's maximum being 300mph." Kid explained. "Now then, let's roll."

The Madness of Sloth swung through the forest like Tarzan with Pacifica in his hand, charging towards town. Hot on his trail were the Mystery Meisters in the Stanleymobile with Death the Kid riding on Beelzebub above them and the Pines twins clinging onto it with Mabel's grappling hook.

"THIS WAS A BAD IDEAAAAA!" Dipper screamed trying to cling onto his sister while she cheered from the adrenaline. "Quiet friends, I need to concentrate!" Kid commanded keeping an eye out for the beast. "Anything Stanford?" he asked the scientist. Just then, Preston came within Ford's sights and he pointed straight at him. "I can see him! Fire on my command!"

"Right! Ready girls?" the Demon Pistol Meister said to his weapons. "Right Kid!" Liz and Patty obliged as he began firing at the monster. Sloth was eventually knocked down, releasing Pacifica from his grasp as he fell. "Don't worry Pacifica, we got you!" Dipper cried trying to reach for his formerly rich friend, but it was too late as Sloth grabbed her once again before throwing off our heroes by tipping over a nearby tree and jumping away. "Dammit, we lost 'em!" Stan cursed pounding the dashboard. "Well, guess there's only one way outta this."

"You don't mean?" Ford wondered fearing the worst. "Driver's education, prepare to be forgotten!" his brother screamed kicking his vehicle into high gear, dashing straight through the fallen tree and driving as unsafely as humanly possible. "Has anybody ever said you drive like a madman?!" Priscilla cried clinging on for dear life as the con-artist chased the avatar of Madness. "Can't talk, trying to save your family!"

"Maybe she's right Stan, do you have any idea how many car accidents have resulted in death recently?!" Wendy shouted trying to withstand the extreme amounts of G-force pushing the crew back. "I think I'm going to be sick!" Spirit hollered about to stick his head out the window to vomit. "Okay, maybe I'll go an eeny bit slower. Is that okay with-" Stan suggested before realizing they were about to crash. "TOO LATE EVERYONE!"

The car ran into a nearby lamppost and was sent flying into the air. Everybody screamed as they braced for impact before it finally crashed onto the street and rolled to a stop. "Everyone okay? Raise your hand if you already barfed?" Stan called woozily getting out of what was left of the car. "We're okay Stanley, just reeling from the utter insanity of your driving skills." Ford answered as the rest exited. "We are never doing that again."

"Oh thank goodness you're all safe! We still got to find Pacifica and stop her father!" Dipper said as Beelzebub touched down and he got off along with Mabel & Kid. "Hey, don't any of you have some weird Spidey-Sense for tracking down souls?"

"I could try." Stein interjected. Using Soul Perception, the mad scientist began searching the entire Oregon town for Preston and Pacifica until he located a pair of souls at the local church at the very end of Main Street. "I found them! They must be at the church down at Main Street!" he declared before putting on a determined grin and his glasses shined in the moonlight. "Time to teach them why I'm called the greatest Meister."

"But what about me?" Priscilla asked them. "You just stay behind. We'll take care of your husband." Maka urged her before bravely looking ahead. "We're coming for you Pacifica, I promise!" Dipper agreed before the group all charged into battle.

The people of Gravity Falls all watched in shock and terror as the Madness of Sloth stalked around the church's tower bell with his own daughter shivering in fear of the monster. "Please dad, I know you may be an awful person but I know deep down even you wouldn't resort to holding me hostage!" Pacifica cried before Sloth interrupted her with a roar. "NO! Master Kishin Cipher wants me to serve as the first of his Horsemen of the Apocalypse, just like I wanted last summer." the Madness stated in a deep snarling voice that still barely sounded like her father. "And speaking of which, it seems your friends have already come for me." he added looking back to spy on the Mystery Meisters preparing to confront him.

"Come on down & face us you coward, and free Pacifica while you're at it too!" Mabel shouted aiming her grappling hook. "Yeah, we're not scared of you dude!" Soos interjected putting up his fists. The Madness, seeing this as a challenge, tore the large bell from its support and turned it into a weapon using the Black Blood before jumping down to face the heroes. "So, you want my daughter do you?!" he snarled preparing for a fight. "Well then, you'll have to go through me first!"

"Here he comes, get ready!" Ford exclaimed getting into a fighting stance as the beast formerly known as Preston charged at them like an irritated rhino. They all managed to leap out of the way before the monster slammed his bell to the ground creating shockwaves that threw them all off. "That's super loud!" Blair cried covering her feline ears. "Guess it's finally time for me to shine!"

Sloth prepared another attack smacking his hands together to create more shockwaves before the Monster Cat prepared an attack of her own. "Pum-pumpkin pumpkin Pumpkin Cannon!" Blair cried launching a fireball in the shape of a jack-o-lantern that blew up in Preston's face, sending him flying through the church. "Good one there kitty!" Stan complimented her. "That should weaken him for a moment, I'll take it from here!" Stein exclaimed preparing his weapon and lunging forward.

Preston was angered by the blast and zoomed out of the church before his bell clashed with Spirit's scythe form. "Geez, this guy is unstoppable!" Maka's father cried. "But it won't be impossible for us to stop him!" his partner boasted. "Let's go, Soul Resonance!"

Stein's weapon grew immensely in size and shined the colors like a rainbow before he swung it up Sloth's chest in a formation that made it resemble the letter "U". Blood started gushing from the creature's torso as he was sent backwards. "Now's our chance everyone!" he called to the others before they rushed into the church to help out. "This is where we end this! Release Pacifica and come quietly!" Dipper demanded before the Madness roared one last time, preparing for the final round.

"Try this on for size!" Wendy hollered flinging her axe at his face. "In the name of the Father and the Son and in your face!" Black Star cried smacking the monster with a nearby Bible. "I think we might actually win this!" Soul exclaimed. "Don't count on it commoner, I have the powers of the Black Blood by my side!" Preston bellowed before pounding on the church wall with his bell, shaking its foundations. "Hope you like being crushed into paste under rubble!"

"You realize that if you try to kill us by destroying this place, you're killing your own daughter too!" Maka shouted, which managed to break through to Preston as he realized what he had done. Maka was right, if he did kill them his daughter would join them as well. Then something in his mind started acting up as he howled uncontrollably and banged his bell against the wall more.

Gravel and rubble began falling on the Mystery Meisters as they realized they need to flee. "Retreat, back to the Shack!" Ford cried. "But what about Pacifica?!" Mabel exclaimed before Stein stepped forward. "Allow me." he calmly stated before leaping into the air to retrieve her. The rest of the team on the other hand decided to flee the church before Sloth blocked the only entrance. "No, you must perish for you will be a disturbance to his plans!" the avatar of Madness commanded while gazing at Stan and Soul. "Except for those two."

"Wait, why us?!" Soul recoiled in confusion. "He will find great use for you Mackerel and Piano Keys, but you will have to find out for your-" Preston was suddenly stabbed in the torso by Crona who held Ragnarok in his hands before simply saying "Ragnarok, Scream Resonance." With that, the mouth that rested on the Demon Sword's blade let out a high-pitched scream as Crona drove his weapon deeper into him with a sadistic grin. "Did you know my blood is black?"

When Ragnarok's screaming subsided, the Madness keeled over seemingly dead with a large cut in his torso where Crona stabbed him. It was also then the church finally collapsed on top of the group, sending large rubble their way. "I got this covered guys! Shield Star!" Black Star cried creating a star shape with Tsubaki's chain scythe form that deflected the remains of the building before the dust finally settled.

The team were left panting in exhaustion over the recent battle, how they nearly lost their lives during it. Just then, Stein came down from above with an unconscious Pacifica in his arms. "It's alright friends, she's safe." he declared setting her down on the ground just as her mother burst through the crowd in front of the Mystery Meisters to comfort her.

"Oh Pacifica, please wake up! I know your father and I haven't been the best to you but I promise we can change!" she sobbed begging her daughter to wake up. "It'll be okay Miss Northwest, we can help you out here." Ford assured comforting her. "And by the way, we may have killed your husband."

Ford was completely wrong as the Madness of Sloth burst out of the rubble angrier than ever and charged forward, grabbing both Pacifica & Priscilla in his arms and leaping off into the distance. "Where do you suppose he ran off to?" Tsubaki wondered. "Probably where Kishin Cipher is hiding out, wherever that is." Dipper answered. "Well spank me like a monkey, he went all Ann Darrow on those two!" the voice of Old Man McGucket exclaimed emerging from the crowd. "Old Man McGucket, so glad to see you!" Mabel cried in delight. "Anyone else find that super-convenient?"

"We can talk about that later. Let's just go home." Stan finally said limping back to the Shack and the others straggling behind.

"Okay, hold still Soos." Melody instructed her fiance as she tended to his wounds. "You got it dog!" the manchild obeyed while the others reeled from the fight. "So that giant monster was ol' Northwest?! I was wondering why he held his kid hostage!" McGucket said. "He actually had a peculiar substance known as Black Blood within his system that turned him into some inhuman creature that made off with his own family." Ford explained to his old colleague. "I now can't help but wonder what Kishin Cipher has plotted to do with them."

Meanwhile, Blair was literally licking Mabel's wounds while in her cat form as the girl stroked her fur with a forlorn expression on her face when Dipper sat down beside her. "Oh, hey Dipper." she mumbled miserably. "Hey, cheer up Mabel. We'll find Pacifica soon, I can promise that." her brother declared before embracing her. Mabel soon returned the hug and they both added an awkward "pat-pat".

"But the question still remains, where could he have carried them off to?" Stein wondered wrapping a bandage around Stan's head rather tightly, much to his dismay. "Easy there Frank, I still have a headache from the car crash!" he cautioned the scientist Meister. "I'll try Stan."

"I dunno, maybe if one of us happens to turn on the news at the right time we could get a clue on where he's headed." Black Star suggested when ironically enough he pressed on the TV remote and the set sparked to life, conveniently tuning into a news report about the recent tussle at Main Street.

"Shandra Jimenez reporting tonight, our top story is the mysterious disappearance of the Northwest family." the newswoman announced. "Well whaddya know, someone did turn on the news at the right time." Soul quipped. "Earlier tonight, a rampaging beast bearing a great deal of resemblance to former socialite Preston Northwest has kidnapped Priscilla and their daughter Pacifica and bounded away to parts unknown. It was also on that night that the Gravity Falls Church was destroyed during the creature's fight with town hero Stanley Pines, his family and a few strange individuals including a pyromaniac cat woman and some Frankenstein looking fellow."

"Hey, that's me on the TV!" Blair exclaimed pawing at a bystander's drawing of her on the TV screen. "Can you move your head Katswell, I can't see!" Stan shouted before the cat obliged. "As for their current location, some has speculated that this beast is headed for the former Northwest Mansion that currently belongs to local kook and genius inventor Fiddleford McGucket." Shandra continued as a picture of the hillbilly posing in front of the mansion appeared in her place. "Hey, that's my fancy shed up there!"

"So that's where they are!" Kid realized before turning to McGucket. "By the way, how did you happen to obtain such a fine, symmetrical manor like this one?" he asked. "I sold some of my gizmos to the government and decided to buy me a bigger shed when Mustachio and his clan went broke!" Fiddleford stated. "You would not believe some of the stuff he's made dude! Like he once built a giant sea monster robot just because he wanted attention!" Soos exclaimed before the doorbell rang. "Anyone wanna get that?"

"I-I'll go." Crona volunteered opening the door to find none other than Gideon before him. "Hey, you're that boy from the Northwests' place!" the Demon Swordsman exclaimed. "Why yes, I am quite well-known here." Gideon stated shaking Crona's hand. "Now bring me to Stan Pines."

"Who's at the door?" Stan wondered walking to the front door only to discover his old arch-enemy standing there. "You again Gideon?! First you try to kill us last summer and now you wanna inject yourself into our lives!" he cried out. "And I don't think you should be out this late at night."

"Aw don't worry Pines, I have some adult supervision with me." Gideon nodded calling for his old cellmate Ghost Eyes, an incredibly muscular man with empty white eyes hence his name. "And I suppose you must be one of his buddies?"

"Yeah, and you better listen to what he says Pines!" Ghost Eyes demanded prompting Crona to hide behind Stan as the others appeared behind him. "What's going on here, and what's up with that guy's eyes?!" Spirit wondered. "Name's Ghost Eyes redhead and my boss Gideon is here to tell you something!" the former prisoner declared motioning for Gideon to start speaking. "You see, I have heard about what happened with Pacifica & the church and, seeing how I am well acquainted with her, I've elected to join you on a potential excursion to rescue her."

"Wait, you want to come with us?!" Mabel exclaimed. "And we really aren't planning any rescue mission at the moment." she added before Dipper interrupted. "Gideon's right, we should leave immediately before it's too late!" he declared, to which Ford agreed. "Correct Dipper, everybody gather necessary supplies! This could be quite a trip so we might need to gather lots of them."

And gather supplies they did. Dipper put away stuff that he thought were necessary for this mission like his journal, a flashlight with a height-altering crystal attached to the lens, along with various food supplies in case anyone got hungry. Mabel on the other hand stuffed a few of her plushes, a Nyarf gun, her grappling hook and most of all, some of her various sweaters.

McGucket meanwhile made weapons for the others such as a raygun for Gideon, modifying Wendy's axe, shock gauntlets for Melody and a sonic banjo for himself. Soos bid his grandma goodbye as he closed up the Mystery Shack indefinitely. With preparations complete, the Mystery Meisters looked out into the woods preparing for what's ahead. "Alright everyone, we're off!" Ford declared as they all took one step forward.

The Mystery Meisters, currently consisting of Dipper, Mabel, Maka, Soul, Stan, Ford, Soos, Melody, Wendy, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Liz, Patty, Crona, Spirit, Stein, Blair, Waddles, McGucket, Gideon and Ghost-Eyes, were now prepared to find Pacifica and stop Kishin Cipher from taking over the world.

"Let's hit the road!"

And that's the Black Blood arc ladies and gents! Will this rather large crew find a way to save their friend and stop Kishin Cipher from enacting whatever plot he has?! Find out next time after this hiatus when we go on a little Quest for the Northwest.

And yes I did get the name from Gravity Falls Deep Woods, but I thought it would really fit in Gravity Soul.