#dipshit's guide to the multiverse

[phantom-howl]

Made a challenge to myself to draw a comic page for all my Gravity Falls AUs (bar Into the Falls bc I started this challenge before its conception). So... here's that!

All of these are out-of-context but they're either important scenes OR scenes I find fun to think about.

[journal-number-tree]

(Some doodles of this AU that I've been collecting in my files. More to come later lmao)

[omeletsforpepper]

If They Liked This, They Might Also Like...

Over at @reactingtosomething​ we wanted to get into the holidays in a way that was more or less on brand. So in the spirit of a Netflix recommendation algorithm, here are some book suggestions for what to buy friends and family who may have liked some of the same movies I did in 2018.

If they liked Wildlife or Widows: The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness

As I say in my Amazon review, this is the best applied ethics text I was never assigned. In fairness to my professors, attorney-turned-journalist Jill Filipovic hadn’t written it yet when I was a philosophy student. Filipovic is also not a philosopher. But she is a brilliant writer and a rigorous thinker, and The H-Spot is fundamentally and explicitly an Aristotelian ethical project. That is to say, it takes the starting position that political organization should be aimed at the goal of human flourishing (as opposed to, say, economic growth). From there Filipovic builds a case, or maybe it's better to say several cases, for specific ways in which American policy fails women and disproportionately women of color in this aim, and concrete ways in which it could address this failure. She does so largely through first-hand accounts of several women across America, in a wide range of socioeconomic circumstances. Although the institutions and less formal systems in play are complicated, the questions at the heart of all this are simple: What do women want? What do women need?

Filipovic asks these questions without pre-judgment, and without assuming that any answers are too unrealistic to consider. Not that anyone she talks to asks for anything "unrealistic." Partly this is because they often speak from too much experience for the unrealistic to occur to them as something they deserve to ask for, but also, the idea that woman-friendly policy is unrealistic is a Bad Take to begin with. Filipovic doesn't need to be pie-in-the-sky utopian to show how things could be much better for women (and by extension, it should but still doesn't go without saying, for everyone).

I left academic philosophy over five years ago, but I really think each chapter (built around topics like friendship, sex, parenting, and food) is brimming with potential paper topics for grad and undergrad students of ethics and/or political philosophy. Whether you’re philosophically inclined or not, if you think “women should be happy” and “the point of civilization is to make happiness easier for everyone” are uncontroversial claims, The H-Spot is the book for you -- and for your friends who loved the several underestimated women of Widows, or Carey Mulligan’s captivating portrayal in Wildlife of a woman doing the best she could within the restrictions of her era.

If they liked Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet

Though it helps to have some familiarity with the Avengers storylines that led up to Ta-Nehisi motherfucking Coates’s first year on the Black Panther comic -- as well as with the excellent opening arc of Matt Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man -- here’s all that even a new comics reader really needs to know before jumping into Nation: King T’Challa, the Black Panther, was recently unable to prevent several consecutive disasters in Wakanda. Both as a cause and as a result of these disasters, T’Challa worked with the so-called “Illuminati” (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange, and other intellectual and strategic heavyweights) to prevent the end of the multiverse itself. That crisis averted, T’Challa has returned to Wakanda to resume his royal duties.

Coates takes as a starting premise that Wakanda, the most advanced nation on earth, would only still have a hereditary monarchy if the monarch was uniquely suited as a protector of the people. In the wake of the Panther’s failures in this regard, Nation opens with a rebellion against T’Challa’s rule on two fronts: domestic terrorists with an unknown agenda on one hand, and on the other, former officers of the Dora Milaje (the all-female royal bodyguard corps beloved by fans of the movie) rallying Wakandan women who have suffered great injustices unaddressed by the crown. The leaders of the latter, lovers Ayo and Aneka, are nominally antagonists to T’Challa, but to the reader they’re parallel protagonists. You root for both T’Challa and the Dora Milaje, even though their agendas are in tension, not unlike the way one might have rooted for both Tyrion Lannister and Robb Stark in early Game of Thrones. (Shuri’s around too, though she’s quite unlike her movie counterpart.)

When he’s not fighting or investigating, T’Challa does a lot of soul-searching and debating about his responsibilities as king, the ways it conflicts with his career as a globetrotting superhero, and whether and how the government of Wakanda must evolve. Though Wakanda is too small to be considered a superpower, the domestic terror angle, an interrogation of historical injustice, and the struggle between moral idealism and political reality make Wakanda a proxy in some important ways for modern America. (You may have noticed that Ryan Coogler did this too.) Coates’s meditation on leadership and political power made A Nation Under Our Feet not only a great superhero comic but -- this is not an exaggeration or a joke -- my favorite political writing of 2016.

Nation is illustrated mostly by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse, with colors by Laura Martin; some of Stelfreeze’s designs clearly influenced the movie.

If they liked Thoroughbreds: Sweetpea

When a clever, mean-spirited would-be journalist with airhead friends learns that her boyfriend is cheating on her, old traumas bubble to the surface and she becomes a serial killer who targets sex offenders. Darkly, often cruelly hilarious, Sweetpea is what you’d get if American Psycho was set in southwestern England and for some reason starred Amy from Gone Girl. Protagonist Rhiannon is a self-described inhabitant of an Island of Unfinished Sentences, de facto Chief Listener of her “friend” circle, and a maker of lists. Lists of the things her friends talk about (babies, boyfriends, IKEA), signs she’d like to put up at work (please close doors quietly, please do not wear Crocs to work), and oh, the people she wants to kill. Like her boyfriend, at the moment. Or ISIS, when news coverage of a terror attack pre-empts her beloved MasterChef.

Author C.J. Skuse smartly chooses not to have Rhiannon wallow in her traumatic past as many superheroes do. We get glimpses for context, but Rhiannon is committed to moving forward, to escaping her demons rather than being defined by them. It matters that she wants to get better, even if she also hates that she’s bought into society’s definition of “better.” (#relatable)

It’s worth noting that Sweetpea leans seemingly uncritically into a lot of dated gender tropes, in Rhiannon’s assessments of the women around her. (Body positive she is not.) Then again, she’s an unreliable narrator -- one of the best demonstrations of this is a scene in which she’s convinced of her ability to fool the world into believing she’s normal, then overhears her dipshit co-workers talk about how unsettling she is -- so arguably we’re supposed to laugh at how terrible she is without necessarily agreeing with her. This is, I think, a perfectly legitimate approach to a protagonist, even if some find it unfashionable.

The book is not quite as thematically rich as it first appears, at least on the topic of sexual violence; it indulges a “stranger danger” picture of rape that doesn’t feel entirely contemporary. (For a more nuanced treatment of rape culture, see the sadly short-lived but wildly entertaining vigilante dramedy Sweet/Vicious.) But as a portrait of a vibrant, layered, genuinely Nasty-and-you-kinda-love-her-for-it woman -- given Oscar-caliber-portrayal-worthy life by Skuse’s wickedly sharp voice -- Sweetpea is too fun to pass up.

Upgrade or Infinity War: The Wild Storm

Castlevania showrunner Warren Ellis helped redefine superhero comics with 1999’s The Authority, which at DC’s request he's given a Gritty Reboot (along with the WildCATS, whom some of us remember from this extremely 90s cartoon) in The Wild Storm. Ellis has always been interested in The Future, both its potential wondrousness and its probable horror. Fans of Upgrade’s refreshingly unsanitized (and unsanitary) take on human enhancement through body modification will find much to like in Ellis’s spin on the trope of second-skin powered armor. (He semi-famously wrote Extremis, one of the comic arcs that inspired Iron Man 3.)

art by Jon Davis Hunt, from The Wild Storm #1

Angela Spica, a reimagining of Ellis’s old Authority character The Engineer, is a cybernetics expert who stumbles onto a sort of shadow government conspiracy related to her employer, and goes on the run with the armor she’s designed for them. (When not deployed, the armor is stored inside her body.) Angela is quickly targeted by multiple covert organizations, one of which rescues (?) her and brings her in on a secret history of technological arms races and contact with extraterrestrials. The Wild Storm is full of big action and bigger ideas, and for smart, generally curious superhero movie fans who find the decades-long continuities of the DC and Marvel universes intimidating, it’s a great entry -- with a blessedly planned ending -- into sci-fi-comics.

Happy holidays, and have fun shopping! Hop over to the full post for @supersnarker3000’s gift guide.

[ghosty-schnibibit]

taz liveshow liveblog :D

i cannot believe i downloaded an rss feed reader specifically for the purpose of knowing when taz updates only for it to not work, smh. at least i didn't see any spoilers lol. here we go! :D

i still really need to listen to commitment...

hells yeah, another liveshow on the 28th :D

HYPE HYPE HYPE

"don't naruto shame them" pfff

"i am prepared and a good good dnd boy!" ilu travis

this is just the "and ___ walks over to ___" scene from the finale all over again, poor griffin lol

the story hasn’t even started and already i’m feeling super nostalgic... i wanna do a fourth re-listen so bad, fuuuck

"the THREE OF YoOoU" griffin is so salty already this is gonna be good

i like crush already 

fantasy burt bacharach lol

"sleeveless tuxedo" MAGGIE

"tuxedo sleeves!" M E R L E

merle the beach dwarf in his swimmy trunks :')

he sounds like gundren omfg

LUP LUP LUP :D

THE BREAK IN MUSIC YEEEAH 

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO GOOD AAAAAAAAAA

"played by al pachino" B)

"it's a little assertive" pfff

i love the idea of lup and taako both studying transmutation together as lil kids and lup just being like "nah, this can be your thing koko i'll be over here blowing shit up"

"greg FUCKIN grimauldes" ilu lup 

"my moral guide, merle highchurch" merle continuing to be the dad of ipre

"maybe?" IT'S YOUR HOME PLANE, YES IT PROBABLY COUNTS

FUCKIN CHARACTER VOICES

so we're looking at a null suit situation here, cool, cool

this raises so many questions though, like... could they visit other planes that got fucked over by the hunger? like the animal kingdom? taz knights? legato? would those planes have heard the story and song broadcast since they were inside the hunger at the time, or no? are they still super fucked up or are they just plugging along like they would have been otherwise? because the set up for this show implies time has passed in their home planar system after the hunger disappeared and jeffandrew put everything back in order, and that lup somehow knows that this has happened in their absence... has she used the belt before, and that’s how she knows? are the planes where they escaped with the light (fungsten, the beach, tessaralia, etc.) accessible too, or did they just get left behind in the multiverse after the hunger passed over them? i'm assuming lucas made the belts (or probably a combo of lucas and barry? planar studies nerd buddies), so how do they work? magic? bonds? what would happen if they broke mid-use? would they be stuck in their old plane with no way to get back? this is such a weird but good setup and it makes for a shit ton of fic possibilities

i have no idea what that means but it sounds bad

oh nooo, maggie, oh nooooo

"well... slam" griffin what is it with these names

aww, crush :(

i ship crush and slam

magnus what the fuck

i can't wait to see how that table flip works later lol

TAAKO ILU 

"NINETEEN!" aww travis i love you

ewwwww, this is worse than the beach episode :(((

TAAKO WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK

"old blue eyes...?" griffin said that with that 'are you sure?’ dm voice and that makes me super nervous

"i don't know 'cause i wasn't expecting him this early" i'm calling it know, griffin's either gonna do his super gruff gundren voice or his bad new jersey accent marvey voice

IT'S THE MARVEY VOICE, I CALLED IT

AND NOW IT'S JUSTIN DOING GRIFFIN'S MARVEY VOICE

NAT 20!!! :D

"THE REAL NICE CHOICE MOPS" I’M DEAD

they never would have thought to do that on their own lol, lup playing the part of competent woman this adventure

continuing the trend of magnus being mr. fanservice lol

"lots of beautiful scars" nice

okay i have to know tho... was the tattoo pre or post stolen century??? because i love the idea of it being something he got in his youth without realizing he'd be stuck with it for 100+ years, but i also love the idea of him and julia getting matching tattoos together at some point

MERLE WHAT THE FUCK

"I CAST PUNCH DAD" 

"WheEeEREe?"

lup and taako just chilling in the corner playing pokemon go

magnus turns himself in samus lol

clint continuing to be the worst at rolling, aww

"i had no muber prepared for... this" poor griffin lol

"it... worked?" pfff

IS THAT CATWALK BOY JERALD

okay, it's not catwalk boy jerald then :T 

good to see griffin's not defaulting straight to jerry like he always does lol

wait shit, if they're in their original plane... is terry gonna recognize them from the IPRE mission???

"GEORGE CLUVEY" 

TAAKO WHAT THE FUCK

"THE THIEVERY KID" T A A K O

this is just like jenkins with the voice lol

merle doing his accidentally insincere voice again

"oh shit we did do this in the mining one” did griffin forget his own puzzle?

oh no... this can't be good

#I'mWithTerry

are you really casting arcane eye for this taako?

T U R K E Y  B O Y

clint the pun master strikes again

i take it griffin’s been playing evil within 2 with the whole chip mechanic

"i could kill him" MERLE WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

welp, they're all dead :T

BARRY WITH FUCKIN HOT CHOCOLATE, I’M D Y I N G

LUP I FUCKIN LOVE YOU HOLY SHIT

"THAT'S MY SISTER!" TAAKO ILU

"my words are my pictures!" griffin you are precious

this is the tomb of horrors all over again with the puzzles

justin's killing it today witht the nat 20s damn

"rouge perversions" pfff

all i can imagine is magnus telling carey about his sweet chest trap diffusal later and her being proud of her bff

travis the music boy strikes again!

oh jesus this is going to take a million years

"it's not the letters" then what is it?

i’m a dipshit too than lol because i have zero idea what this is

so it's just like the scene form the bank in refuge

GO MERLE! :D

"yeah, elevators, fuck yeah" nice

so now magnus just has a workshop full of gold :/

GLASS SHARK, GLASS SHARK

“NOT SOMETHING MY DAD SHOULD KNOW ABOUT” PFFFFF

"oh fuck" my thoughts exactly travis

OH SHIT 

OH CHIRST IT'S LIKE UPSY MECH

LUUUUUP FUCK YEAH, THERE'S MY GIRL :D

i missed the ad break music :')

i can't fuckin wait til the candlenights show omg

yay, initiative time!

DELLA!!!!! :D

what would that even look like holy fuck

yikes holy shit, can't wait to see how lup reacts to her brother getting dunked on so badly 0 _ 0

MAGGIE YOU CANNOT RAILSPLITER THIS SHIT IT’S NOT AN ACTUAL TREE, THIS HAS BEEN FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

apparently he CAN railspliter that shit, nevermind :o

awww, this is so freakin cute omg ^u^

"that's taako's fire" maggie plz :T

i thought his ac went up after story and song though?

taako's gonna fucking die holy shit

YES YOU CAN TAAKO YOU DUMBASS

"but he WAS at magnus's bedside" FUCK NOW I'M SAD :’(

"WHO, LUP?" STOP ZAGGING ON PLANT DAD

"as a sentient being who want's to preserve it's own life" pfff

griffin always forgets to make enemies beefy enough for magnus and/or taako to not kill instantly lmao

everyone loves lup so much lol

SAME HAT? SAME HAT! SAME HAT...

"awww... no, no... do i have to specify?" i love the idea that merle would be tempted to heal the monster, he’s such a sweety

OH SHIT

OH FUCK MAGNUS’S IS TOAST

I T ' S�� T H E  S E X  N U M B E R ! ! !

"what? chicken butt" griffin ilu

yikes trav holy fuck

YAY WORD PICTURE TIME

YEEEAH THAT'S SO FUCKIN GOOD, THAT'S SOME GOOD SHIT

"COTTON!" omg you silly boy

what are you about to do merle

ZONE OF TRUTH YEEEEEAH

clint is crushing it on the merle voice today

"i liked the ending of lost" pfff

WHAT THE FUCK MAGNUS, WHAT THE FUCK

WAIT WHAT

TERRY HOLY SHIT

OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK

GRIFFIN WHAT THE FUCK OH MY GOD

that was super feckin good omg, i loved every minute of that. that was exactly what i needed to de-stress before my world history final tomorrow, gods bless

[journal-number-tree]

HELLO INTERNET! I finally got this thing working. I am Dipper Pines. I have been stuck in an alternate reality with another version of me who is also not from here.

Here's a picture of us!

He claims his name is Dipshit. Seems fake but I'll call him that for now.

I'm going to use this as a record of our time stuck here. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later.

I also opened the weird inbox thingy so feel free to send in... email? Not sure what you guys can send but send it!

This is Dipper Pines, signing off

[journal-number-tree]

hi

Uh... hi? Didn't think Dipper's idea would work but here we are.

Dipper asked me to answer this one because he says I "don't talk enough". I'm just an ancient interdimensional entity of few words!

Anyways, again, hi

[phantom-howl]

Drew this on a whim. Here ya are, a fuck ton of Dippers! Most of these guys are canon to my fic Journal Number Tree, though a few are just for fun ^^

AU names, nicknames I use for the Dippers & the original chart under the cut!

If yall wanna hear more about an AU, feel free to ask!!!

A1: Gravity Stalls/Journal Number Tree, Elza

A2: Defying Gravity Falls, Ghipper

A3: Lifeline, Puppet

A4: Eerie AU, Keeper

A5: Aftermath AU, Fighter

B1: Fall Gravities, Dibel

B2: The Parenting Book of Bill, Mason

B3: Lost Doors AU, Direction

B4: random dipper, Echo

B5: Love High, Lover

C1: Timestuck, Timer

C2: Monster Falls, Deerper

C3: Reverse Falls, Cedar

C4: self-insert dipper, Dippeo

C5: Musical Falls, Mixer

D1: Spy AU, Dapper

D2: Not on My Watch, Stan

D3: Werewolf AU, Wipper

D4: Relativity Falls, Doc

D5: Ford Apprentice AU, Dird

E1: Headcanons, Prime

E2: Alien AU, BD/Big Dipper

E3: Cult AU, Nosam

E4: DD&MD-ish AU, Reppid

E5: Into the Falls, Oswald

F1: Stranger Falls, Sweaters

F2: Dipshit's Guide to the Multiverse, Dipshit/Dips

F3: Drifting Stars, Sticker

F4: Transcendence AU, Alcor

F5: Unaired Pilot, Pilot

[phantom-howl]

Shared this around to different servers but fuck it we ball

All my aus in a little line up. Yes they are all Dipper oriented. Can you tell who's my favorite yet lmao