#wendy being an adult

[thisisntneverlandanymore]

Wendy's gaze followed her direction to the horizon, a furrow of her brow denoting a mixture of concern and awe. There was a lot to unpack in the explanations that Kaban was offering, some of which she had to digest a moment before she could fully grasp it.

"Goodness," Considering her words carefully, she drew another sip of her tea, "So you live here without a mother currently? That must be quite difficult..." Though, in truth, there was some part of her who felt an aura of deja vu, of memories of playing mother to lost boys and a sassy fairy. It brought a smile to her lips still.

"Is it a relief that you do have someone you know around here, but you do seem quite young to be out here all on your own. There's nothing dangerous here to worry about?" She felt as though she was sounding much like her own mother these days. Lowering the cup of tea, she offered a kind smile. "Apologies, I don't mean to be so probing, it just seems like such a unique living situation."

"Wendy-san then it's very nice to meet you." Kaban replied with a smile as she poured herself another cup of tea from the pot she had out. She might have to make more next time if Wendy was going to be joining her again while she was here.

"Yeah, I was born over there someplace." Kaban pointed to a ridge off in the distance that like everything else in sight was just grass and the occasional tree no sign of human habitation in sight.

"I'm actually searching for Mirai-san, she was the previous park guide and is sort of my mother I think..." Kaban knew that was a strange way to phrase it but she was born in kind of an odd way.

"Ah but honestly Serval-chan is kind of my family too. She's my best friend and we travel around the park together having adventures a lot so I consider her family." Kaban adds with a smile hoping that Wendy didn't think she was too lonely being the only human around here.

[yuridovewing]

if spottedleaf’s love for firestar was intended as a “retcon” and firestar’s crush was meant to be a one sided unserious thing that the fandom read too much into, then why was it a) not treated like that whatsoever in tpb (fireheart is consistently portrayed as a mourning lover and he never reconciles with that) and b) why didnt the narrative make it explicitly clear that spottedleaf didnt love him back? these books are for 13 year olds, they dont really have “lol subtle storytelling!” as an excuse for something as serious as this, especially when warriors is notoriously unsubtle about its themes and its characters. especially when tpb also has examples of uncomfortable age gaps that ARE glorified and accepted as normal. also why would the crush being a retcon in the first place mean that fans are being unreasonable when theyre uncomfortable?

at the very least, even if the “retcon” argument is true, the whole plotline is an extremely irresponsible thing to put in a childrens book completely unchallenged and i dont think the fans are being unreasonable when theyre criticizing that

[asexual-squidward]

Another entry in ‘are the allos okay’ (/‘I’m too asexual for this’)

Apparently there’s a semi-common interpretation that Captain Hook is a coming-of-age attraction thing for Wendy and that there’s a Freudian thing about him looking like her father.

When I always thought the subtext of the Hook-Mr Darling doubling was just a symbol of Wendy (and Peter as a symbol of eternal childhood) battling her Father’s insistence that she grow up too fast.

Hook is the antagonistic force trying to take Wendy’s childhood, rather than Wendy becoming an adult naturally.

TL;DR Just because you have the hots for Hook doesn’t mean you have to project it onto Wendy.

[harmonybarmy]

I would assume that misty is going to kill and eat showtunes so I want to forgive her for everything, but since it seems like she just became showtunes 2.0 I simply cannot.

[nothingunrealistic]

DEGIULIO: All our kids are gonna end up in second-tier schools.

CHUCK: Not Eva. She’s going to Yale.

—————

CHUCK: How was it?

WENDY: Fine, after your father got done browbeating Kevin over his handshake.

CHUCK: He could probably use it.

WENDY: Right, because the tensile strength of his grip alone will dictate his outcome in life.

CHUCK: You’d be surprised.

—————

Senior gives Kevin a present.

SENIOR: Happy birthday, Kevin.

KEVIN: Thanks, Grandpa.

Senior, Wendy, Chuck, and Eva watch Kevin pick at the wrapping paper.

SENIOR: It’s a fucking slinky. Now leave us alone and make some fun out of that with your hands and some hardwood stairs, huh?

Kevin and Eva head upstairs.

SENIOR: If he’s still playing with it tomorrow, put all of your energies into the girl.

—————

WENDY: Kevin’s gonna be applying to colleges soon. And if you can’t get him into Yale, we’re gonna need them to jam him into —

CHUCK: Don’t say Cornell.

1x09 where the f*ck is donnie? // 3x03 a generation too late // 4x09 american champion // 6x07 napoleon’s hat

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

kids need whimsy, but they also need to learn about their world. so I propose that when a kid asks a question, respond with "do you want the science answer or the magic answer?"

for example "why are those flowers different colours?"

magic answer "because the faeries haven't finished painting them."

science answer "because plants have different chemicals that make them different colours. chlorophyll makes leaves and stems green. some colours come from anthocyanins, while most oranges and yellows come from carotenoids."

spruce up both answers with fun voices and analogies I'm just tired

[nov4-rocket5]

Jeez some of these details like Wendy's mom being dead and Waddles potentially dying are depressing.

The Dipper one especially. That recontextualizes so much about how him and Mabel acted around the end of the series.

No wonder Dip latched onto authority figures so much and wanted to stay with Ford. He was afraid that when he came home, his parents would be divorced.

But where Dipper looked for replacement parents in other adult figures in an attempt to find stability, Mabel clung to whatever stability/reliable family she already had, Dipper. Mable wasn't looking for replacement parents because Dipper essentially filled that role for her, a dependable, reliable family member who would always be there to get her out of trouble. But Mabel couldn't be that person for Dipper in return, so Dipper looked elsewhere for that stability and found it in Ford.

So when the possibility of Dipper not going home came up, Mabel panicked because she would be losing that stability and would return to fighting parents without anyone to depend on.

Mabel handing over the rift makes a lot more sense now. Endless Summer for her equals Endless Stability.

[ficauthor]

Well... I gotta say weirdmageddon certainly lives up to its name.

[peacerisendove]

It really is the chance mentions spark old ideas back to life.

Now I'm thinking about an old Alternate Universe Peter Pan idea I had back in 2019.

[fairytailsideblog]

(via Gridllr)

I know that in fairy tail canon every guild member lives alone regardless of age, but since I hate the idea of children living alone when perfectly capable adults could take them in, I'm picking and choosing where fairy tail members live as I see fit.

Carla and Wendy live with Erza now because I say so.

[poobit]

i have many thoughts on how Mouthwashing handles the themes of abuse and the symbolism around it especially as a survivor ... im not gnna hold back so -

first of all i think since its clear the point Jimmy is dismissive of Anya´s personhood and his perception is warped towards what he does as a Captain rather than what he does as a man, it makes sense she doesnt get her own labyrinth or such , i cant argue around that because its realistic he´s so male focused he cant even bother to truly think about what he did to her, i would love it if Wrong Organ decides to do a side story vignette of her own perspective and view in the future if the game proves its successful enough for side content like that.

Assault is something usually not handled with subtlety in games, i think what struck me the most was how real the dialogue of her coping and suicidal ideations and how Curly responded to it felt , the dancing around the subject, the deflection, the "whats next" of the ever impending consequence of pregnancy, how Anya pleads for help from the person she trusts but nonetheless a man unequipped and too emotionally attached to the abuser to be able to confront him, its so real, Curly´s lack of initiative is something Jimmy fully takes advantage of the moment things dont go his way, he turns everyone against him even as a helpless body on a bed because he needed to be in control of the situation, thats what abusers do.

A more sensationalistic game would have easily played Anya´s helplessness and assault for shock for sure, because it would be easy, she is the archetypical victim trope, shes modeled in Wendy Torrance likeness from The Shining, shes meek and unsure of herself and Jimmy shoots her down from the very beginning to make her feel unqualified and cornered, but the furthest the games goes is making Jimmy terror towards the pregnancy and the baby as a boogeyman that crawls and tramples over him. No sights of bleeding legs or her crying or screaming and much less present objectification of her body (which is something that i always think the horror genre has such a struggle not grabbing onto, sexuality is mostly always played up in assault stories especially if the victim is an adult woman), she remains a fully clothed figure and maintains the agency to her own demise, away from Jimmy and beside Curly, which is tragic and obviously still a symptom of horror´s proclivity to back female characters into corners of self inflicted punishment, but the alternative would have been that sooner or later, Jimmy would have killed her.

Its clear to me that the game used Curly´s state as a way to put a barrier between Jimmy and Anya, we dont objectify Anya, but we objectify Curly, Anya doesnt just feel pained and unable to handle Curly´s medication because shes in a sensitive state, her comments about his noises and such draws a line between her trauma and her perception of things as Her fault, she cant handle hearing his struggles and cries trying to swallow a pill because it reminds her of her own helplessness, so she leaves the task to Jimmy, someone who has no qualms in forcing someone down, the emphasis of every treatment as a repetitive process and the sound design is all very poignant and for me, a great way to handle assault as a metaphor, Curly did not consent to being in this position, it is very much still Jimmy´s fault and the fact that Jimmy is basically keeping him alive against his will even to the last moment of the game says everything, Jimmy doesnt love Curly the same way he doesnt love Anya.

The horses are not lost on me, i think horses as animals are often seen as "viril" symbols, strong and often volatile, they can be often hard to mount but when one does the rider and animal are seen as this one all powerful entity, like centaurs, which also carry symbolism of assaulters mind you, so while maybe not intentional on the dev´s part i think it still points to the Horse as a symbol still important in the game, the only spoken audio lines of dialog come from the Pony Express mascot Polle itself, and they are the first to actually confront Jimmy´s self centered line of thought and over-focusing on Curly, if the Tulpar is akin to a beast of a burden then Jimmy beat the dead horse way long ago.

All in this to say that Mouthwashing was a really good experience and i really hope the dev team is interested on expanding a bit more on it because i trust their vision.

[talekinesis]

Stan's a child hoarder and an impulsive adopter, you cannot change my mind

He collects new family because of what he lost, growing up

Soos, Wendy, Mabel, Dipper, Mabel's friends, and I'm even willing to say Gideon to an extent

Like when Gideon was being tickled by the twins, but Stan just thought he had worked himself up too much, sure he was weirded out, but he seemed to soften up a little bit

"I think this whole rivalry is getting to you. Come on, you'll get me one of these days,"

It wasn't a lot, but it was something, and I'll latch onto that

Also I think it would be cute if Pacifica started coming by the Shack more and Stan just thought, "Yeah she's part of the Pines Pack now," and just started including her in his random bullshit

Man is everybody's Grunkle

And Pacifica goes along with it because this is the closest thing she has to a good adult figure in her life so she holds on to it

Imagine teen Pacifica working at the Shack. Soos is her boss, and she gets along with Melody. Her parents have probably cut her off but it doesn't hurt as much as she thought it would, since she realized she hadn't ever really emotionally bonded with them, and now she doesnt have to live up to their standards. Now she spends her time with the Pines Family.

I am going to draw teen Pacifica in a more 'adventure/ monster hunter,' aesthetic since that's a lot of her life now, because I said so

Imagine Pacifica leaning on the porch talking to a gnome during her break on a slow day like, "You know once my break is over, I have to chase you off, right?" And he's like, "Yeah, work, I get it." She checks her watch, grabs the broom, and just goes, "Alright, back on the clock.. GET! GET!"

[picturejasper20]

Gravity Falls is a coming of age series at is core about growing up but also mainly about how we grow up.

This is represented through the Pines twins protagonist duo: Dipper and Mabel. These two characters have what could be consider almost opposite approaches when it comes to realizing that they are getting older and their problems and world are changing as well.

For Dipper, we constanly see him trying to rush to adulthood. He usually tries to hide things that could be considered childish or foolish to enjoy such as it is the case of disco girl or going trick and treat with his own sister. ( "Dipper vs. Manliness" and "Summerween"). He often tries to pretend to be older and lie about his age to get the approval of older teenagers, like trying to go to teen parties. ("The Inconveniencing"-"Summerween").

Dipper thinks that he is as mature as a young adult, and in some ways he is, but in other ways this line of thinking makes do very foolish, reckless and even dangerous things- the opposite of being immature. This mainly shows when it comes to his crush on Wendy, someone who is clearly older than him and out of his league. A good part of his arc in Season 1 is about how he tries to impress Wendy without still fully understanding that he is still a kid and he is too young for her.

From what has been touched on the ¨Book of Bill¨, this behaviour may come from Dipper seeing an ugly argument from his parents that he wasn't supposed to listen to and this left a clear impact on him to the point he often has nightmares about it at night. Maybe he came to the conclusion that he has to ¨mature¨ and be more independent since he know there is something bad going on between his parents. However, it takes him time to understand that he can't become an adult overnight and is something is going to take him some years before doing so.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Mabel. In contrast to her brother Dipper, Mabel mostly has her mind occupied with things that have to do more of her age: Reading magazines and books, boy bands, playing with animals like it is the case with Waddles, ect. She isn't in a rush to be a grown up and chooses to live more in the present.

That's not to say that she doesn't have her own moments of insecurities like feeling she isn't as intelligent as Dipper ("Little Dipper") or trying to pretend to be an adult ("Boss Mabel"). Still, she doesn't seem she has this same necessity to hang out with the older teenagers or hide her interests as much as Dipper does. She is has less issus with acting silly or ¨childish¨ in front of others.

Mabel's main problem would be she wants to avoid growing up or remain in this more childhood state. While it doesn't get the same exploration as Dipper- at least not more until later in the show- Mabel is afraid of growing up and the problems that can come with it. In "Summerween" is where we see parts of this idea of wishing to be a child longer, explaining to Dipper that that was the main reason she wanted for the two of them to go treat and trick together.

What really hits Mabel is when she gets this really bad impression of what is like to be a teenager in "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future". She gets very scared of growing up and what could happen to her. She wants things to remain the same and for the summer to last longer. This desire- along with other factors that made her feel like her world was crashing down around her- she got tricked by Bill possessing Blendin and telling her that he was going to ¨grant¨ her wish in exchange of Stanford's interdimensional rift device.

This makes her being trapped in fantasy world where she ¨never has to grow up¨. Everything is cute and smiles, bad things don't happen and she doesn't have to worry about any serious changes... But she realizes that this world is fake and that at some point she has to grow up and that things can't always stay the same.

Part of me wonders, that in spite of not having seen that terrible argument that Dipper did, Mabel is aware that something is going on with her parents and tries her best to ignore it. I think she may be scared things changing in her family after the summer ends- maybe more fights or one of her parents leaving- this gives some hindsight to some of her issues in the show.

By the end of the show and Dipper and Mabel's character arcs we have two important lessons about growing up: One is that things are constanly changing and growing older is inevitable but we don't have to rush it and maturity comes with time and learning about new things in live. It is important to live in the present while also realizing that there are going to be changes from time to time, from good to bad, but that doesn't mean it will be the end of the world if it happens. That is just part of life.

[ebbpettier]

i should clarify that i'm specifically thinking about the heart wrenching realization (this young boy and his shorn head and the bitter way he views the world, and magic, and simon) that simon had none of this. and that for all that the humdrum was a horrifying all-consuming maw ready to devour all of magickal creation to fill a hole in his starving cosmic scar of a body that would have never been filled, he's just a child.

AU where the humdrum gets pinocchio'd into a real boy (small young simon) and SOMEONE'S gotta raise him, so ... ruth. (originalsimon has complicated feelings by this child that may essentially be his son but is mostly his little brother who almost destroyed the magickal world)

[skencil-mcmooney]

One more look into the ReverseFalls Mystery Shack crew before I add in Grunkles and then move onto Gideon and Pacifica!

And some thoughts on the gang:

Wendy is the Mystery Shack’s devoted Handyman! She gets her hands dirty no problem, and keeps that Soos geekiness, just with more Outdoorsy topics. She prefers working outside, and Stan, liking his floors clean, prefers her out there too. She suggested he “Invest in a doormat.” What is he? Made of money??

Soos spends most of his time reading comics (and manga-) around the register, asking him to do anything usually ends up with Wendy taking it after little convincing.. He’s an expert in niche media topics and being an overall chill dude the Pines find themselves getting into trouble with. As a responsible adult, he makes sure the kids brains are rotting with only the finest arcade games. As god intended.

Mabel takes care of all the doves used in her and Dipper’s shows, no one is sure when the Quail showed up, but the little diva added a drama to the coop that ruffled feathers.. And Mabel is invested.

Dipper holds onto Journal 2, annotated back to front with a scary neatness for a 12 year old. He likes the attention and fans their summer shows bring in, but he can’t help but feel he and his sister are getting too old for their cute twin shtick.

[the-orion-scribe]

Points below the cut! Feel free to vote and help reblog for larger sample count!

Pros:

Dipper is always a fan of the supernatural, so its a great opportunity for him to do further research of his interests

Ford has 12 PHDs, so he's a suitable teacher and mentor for Dipper

Dipper also has friends (Soos and Wendy) in Gravity Falls rather than Pidemont (from Escape from Reality it's implied he didn't have as many friends). He would be able to craft a better social life in Gravity Falls

Throughout the show we see how their actions are dependent of each others'. If Dipper stays in GF. It not only allows him to grow independently of his sister, but similarly for Mabel. Also, Mabel letting Dipper go would be a key development of her arc, for she had mainly been selfish towards her brother during the show.

Cons:

No Mabel by his side. But they can still compromise with video chat. This isn't the 50s or 60s when the separation means more for the Stans.

The Mystery Shack would be no more as Ford reclaims his home for scientific research. Stan might be forcibly removed unless the two somehow worked out their issues.

Dipper is only 12/13 and isn't old or mature enough to be away from his parents

While a decent teacher, Ford doesn't seem to be a competent caretaker. He currently still sees Dipper as a lab assistant; essentially another adult, rather than a child who despite being mature in some ways, is still woefully underdeveloped in others.

Ford does not, currently, exist in any legal sense thanks to Stan assuming his identity for the last 30 years and faking his own death. No form of education he could offer would be recognized as legitimate until he can reclaim his identity, which would likely take at least a year if not more.

Apprenticeships in this day and age are *secondary* education, like a trade school. Dipper still need to graduate high school or its equivalent first, or resolve plenty of legalities and so on.

Thanks to @theoryofweirdness and @detectivejigsawpines for sharing more of the points for deliberation! Feel free to vote and reblog for larger sample size!