Gravity Falls

[Talon87]

I finished nearly all of the shorts the other day. In addition to the six I mentioned last time, I've now also seen all five Mabel's Guide to Lifes, all two Fixin' it with Sooses, and two Mabel's Scrapbooks (the petting zoo one and the Heist Movie one). Not much to say about these. They're the television equivalent of an omake at Comiket. Fun little morsels for fans, yes, but emphasis on the "little morsels" bit. They're not very long and they're not very substantive either.

I've also seen the first three episodes of Season Two! I'll give more in-depth thoughts below, but as for general impressions so far ... I guess the number one thing I want to say is, I feel like there's a clear difference between Season 2 and Season 1. I enjoy the difference myself, but I imagine many fans might be upset with it. Season 1 felt a lot more "Monster of the Week"-ey. It did have some character development here or there, but it was sparse and small. Likewise, we obviously received some plot advancement, but your typical Gravity Falls Season 1 episode was not one which would advance the plot much at all. Season 2, on the other hand, has so far seemed to be all about the plot development and the character development. I'll discuss this in more details in the individual episode sections.

Season 2 Episode 01:

Spoiler: show

This was a really solid season premiere. I love that the writers hit the ground running, providing answers to several of my questions that I left Season 1 with. Dipper gets the book back from Grunkle Stan. Grunkle Stan photocopies it first and retains the photocopy for his own personal use. Stan doesn't let the children in on the secret of his secret base, but he does let them in on the secret that he knows all about the paranormal entities that Gravity Falls attracts or is home to.

My favorite part of the episode was when Stan arrives to save Dipper and Mabel from the zombies. It seals the deal that the kids' great uncle really does care about them. It was also fun to see a man of Stan's age being such a physical hero. (It was the pterodactyl punching scene all over again. )

Zombies are stupid imo, so I'm glad that we got them out of the way here. For me, one of the dumbest aspects of the episode was Soos becoming a zombie and yet so, so easily being restored to normal. I'm happy he's been fixed, but I would've rather he just never became a zombie to begin with. Whatever. "One man's trash is another man's treasure": I'm sure a lot of fans enjoyed Zombie Soos, so that's fine. He didn't bother me that badly.

Season 2 Episode 02:

Spoiler: show

This is the episode where Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy investigate the secret base underneath the tree where Dipper first found Book No.3. It was a pretty decent-to-good episode, made better for the fact that it did the unthinkable: it got Dipper x Wendy out of the way. :o

A lot of shows like Gravity Falls would have had Dipper not telling Wendy how he really feels about her and/or Dipper not finding out that Wendy knew how he felt about her until the series finale. A lot, a lot, a lot of Disney and Nick shows would've done that. But not Gravity Falls. Gravity Falls gets it out of the way Episode 02 of Season 2. Wendy overhears Dipper confessing he loves her. Dipper witnesses that Wendy's overheard this. And then they talk about it. And she tells him she wants to still be friends but she admittedly doesn't see him as boyfriend material because, to her, she can't help but to see him as a kid way younger than her. And that she's sorry, but that's just the way it is. I am so, so glad to have this one out of the way because now we can explore their friendship (and respective feelings for one another, romantic or aromantic or both, whatever) without having the "OMG WILL HE TELL HER!? WILL SHE FIND OUT!? DOES SHE ALREADY KNOW!? " boulder hanging over our heads. It's done. It's over. We already have closure here. Move along, people, move along!

The shapeshifter was dealt with decently well. Par for the course, I'd say. Nothing radically new happened here, but that's fine. Given that these writers appear to be super duper on the same wavelength as me, I am going to surmise that the fact that the shapeshifter assumed the form of a guy on a can of beans rather than assuming the form of the secret base's previous owner proves that the previous owner never allowed the shapeshifter to see him as he really looked.

The fact that the secret base was so, so close to the Mystery Shack would seem to suggest that either Stan knows of its existence or else someone else who used to live at the Mystery Shack (brother? sister? wife? child?) knew of its existence. It's not like it was miles away deep in the forest. It's within a short walking distance of the shack. There's little chance that it could have been built without attracting the attention of the person or people who lived in the Mystery Shack.

Season 2 Episode 03:

Spoiler: show

This was probably my least favorite episode of the first three, but that was mostly because 1) we've already had a number of episodes and shorts dealing with many small creatures piloting a much larger mechanical structure; and 2) some of the putt putt balls, particularly the leader of the Dutch putt putt balls, were just fugly creepy. >_<

But that stated, S2E03 was still a solid episode and one I really enjoyed watching. Why? Because once again, no-nonsense character development to the rescue! If the previous episode nipped in the bud the whole Dipper x Wendy drama, this episode dealt with Mabel vs. Pacifica. At the start of the episode, the girls are the rivals we knew them to be from Season 1. By the end of the episode, their rivalry has had a nice, pretty little bow tied atop it and shipped off to Resolved Plot Threadsville. Maybe not 100%. Pacifica's still pretty bitchy and so I won't be surprised to see her still exhibit some bitchiness on occasion. But the way the episode ends, it's heavily implied that Pacifica agrees with Mabel that their rivalry is stupid. And it's not just implied but flat-out demonstrated that Mabel is willing to see the humanity in Pacifica and is willing to give it a shot that they can maybe, just maybe, become friends. The shared tacos. The car ride home. These were surprising things to see happening so early in the season and (assuming we get at least three seasons) so early in the series. Most series would save the whole "Y'know, you're not so bad " + "Yeah, you're not so bad yourself " story for the end of the series. But not Gravity Falls. Rather than dwell on Mabel and Pacifica being rivals forever and having Pacifica be pointlessly mean, the writers would rather explore Mabel helping Pacifica to get in touch with the real world. I like that.

If I remember to bring up anything else, I will. And if I've left out anything important you want to discuss, feel free to bring it up first. But for now, I'll move on to some more general thoughts about the future of the story. (Spoilers through S2E02.)

Spoiler: show

While discussing what Grunkle Stan's motivation(s) could be for his research into the paranormal, Yuki brought up that some fans have a theory that Stan is a twin himself. I've kind of latched onto the theory hard, to Yuki's amusement and mild chagrin, but whether Stan is a twin or not, it's clear where we've gotta start off any discussion about Grunkle Stan's past: the past.



In Season 1 Episode 09, the children go to an unspecified date where we see a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to Grunkle Stan. In fact, my first assumption (and the assumption I assume most viewers made) is that it was Grunkle Stan from some thirty or forty odd years ago. He has the same ears, the same nose, the same chin, just about the same everything except hair, wrinkles, and clothes. Now obviously, it's possible that this person could be from any date on the calendar. We don't have any guarantees that this is a scene from the past -- hell, it could very well be a scene from the future for all we know! ("Dipper, you look just like your Grunkle Stan did at your age!") But I think the safest assumption initially is that this is Stan in the past.



Fast forward to Season 1 Episode 16. In this episode, the kids discover a room in the Mystery Shack that has been abandoned for years. Every square inch is covered in dust, there are big, thick cobwebs all over, it's clearly not been used in a long time. As Dipper enters the room, you can see a pair of glasses on a small stand and behind them you can see a calendar. The calendar shows July 4 has been circled in red marker.

A few seconds later, Stan enters the room and we get a better shot of the camera and the glasses. On the bottom right corner, the calendar says "1982." So it seems probable that something big was planned to go down on July 4, 1982 ... and that this room has not been used since that year. Season 1 holds out on us as far as giving us a calendar year to work with, but Season 2 Episode 02 makes it clear that our story takes place at some time in the 2000s: Dipper sees crates of emergency supplies that are labeled up to the 2060s and comments to Wendy that there are enough supplies here for "the next sixty years" or some such. This means that 1982 happened some twenty to thirty years before our story takes place. This fits in very nicely with the room's current dusty, cobwebby state. This isn't the sort of dust that takes only a few years to amass. Especially not when you don't have any humans going in there, shedding hair and skin and such. For a boarded-up room to get that dusty, it's going to take decades.

But the most important thing of all in this scene may not even be the calendar but the glasses. When I first watched S1E16, I assumed that the glasses were Stan's old pair and that he was pocketing them quickly in-universe so that the kids wouldn't see them and ask questions and out-of-universe to paradoxically draw viewers' attention to his action. He does it so furtively that it's clear to viewers that the glasses are important. I just assumed it was because they were a clue that the Stan we saw in S1E09 wore these same glasses.

If you compare the S1E09 and the S1E16 screenshots, you'll see that they are in fact the same glasses. We have to account for the animators' drawing practices: yes, the glasses on the stand have a space in between the lenses that you don't see on Stan's face in the past. But that's just because if they drew the glasses on his face the way they drew them on the stand then they would look awkward (given his small, close-together eyes) and might even obscure his pupils. Aside from that one visible difference, the glasses on the stand in S1E16 are the same as the glasses from S1E09.

Stan's current glasses:

• square lenses
• the rims go all the way around the lenses

The old glasses:

• round lenses
• the rims are only found on top of the lenses

When Yuki brought up the fan theory that Stan has a twin, it suddenly clicked for me: what if the person we saw in S1E09 wasn't Stan at all? What if it was his twin brother? What if the reason Stan furtively pocketed the glasses was because they are a clue to the existence of his missing twin? And he didn't want the kids asking questions about that?

The wheels kept turning. "What if the reason Stan is worried about Dipper going on paranormal adventures isn't just about worrying that Dipper will get hurt? What if he's worried that Dipper or Mabel will suffer the same fate that he suffered -- the loss of their twin?" "What if Stan's motivation for researching the paranormal is that he's trying to find a way to bring back his lost twin?"

At the end of the day, it's still just a theory. We'll have to see what Stan's main motivations are for collecting the three books. Even if it's to retrieve a lost family member, it may not be a twin brother or sister. It could be a lost wife or child. It could be bringing back the dead. Who knows. But I definitely think that the theory of Stan having a missing twin brother has legs given what we've seen in S1E09, S1E16, and S2E02.

[RealMrGame10]

>For Talon

I'm glad you're enjoying the series! Yes, Gravity Falls is a very different show, but it has a lot of charm that you eventually get used to, but I'm sure you've figured that out by now.

>Talon's Stan thing

Spoiler: show

There is an ENTIRE COMMUNITY BEHIND THIS, much of which cites the exact same stuff that you did, and then some. To be honest, it's kind of annoying, but it does make more sense than a lot of fan theories out there, and Alex Hirsch, the creator of the show, has frequently complained of the Gravity Falls fanbase knowing what he's up to. I've heard it referred to as the Stanley/Stanford Theory. Food for thought.

[dirkac]

Spoiler: show

> Stanley/Stanford theory
That name seems to fit well too, as Stan's name is, well, Stanford, but his car initials "Stnly Mbl" or Stanley Mobilr.

Little thing, but yeah. Haven't seen Season 2 yet because of bad internet, but I hopr I'll be able to do so soon enough.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 04:

Spoiler: show

This was an okay episode. Its saving grace for me was, once again, plot development! God bless Season 2 and its never-ending advancement of the plot.

Plot-wise, we pick up from where we left off in Season 2 Episode 02 with Dipper having acquired an old run-down "laptop" (that looks like an Apple IIe folded in half ^^; ) that Soos found in the secret base beneath the tree. Dipper is trying to access its contents but it is password protected. Bill Cipher shows up offering Dipper a deal: the password for a favor. Dipper refuses Bill's offer until, after trying one too many passwords, the computer tells Dipper that it's going to erase all of the data in five minutes if he doesn't immediately enter the correct password. Bill shows up, Dipper agrees to Bill's request (for a "puppet") ... and then Bill promptly removes Dipper's spirit from his body, trading places with him. Bill then turns around and demolishes the laptop. So so much for that lead. ^^; And his next target for destruction? Dipper's journal.

The other story in the episode, and the one that I guess we'd say "the episode is about," is about Mabel's attempts to woo a guy with a crazy obsession for sock puppets. Mabel bites off more than she can chew and promises the guy an extravagant rock concert pop show by Friday. So she has to turn her lie into a reality if she doesn't want to lose the guy. She actually manages to pull it off, Mabel being Mabel, but in the end she has to choose between the play and Dipper's battle with Cipher. She ends up choosing Dipper and the play ends in ruin. Mabel loses the puppet fanatic (though soon discovers she dodged a bullet ^^; ) and Dipper regains his body, Bill Cipher having exited it because [handwave time] "the body became too tired and fell over, knocking Cipher out of it for some reason, but allowing Dipper back in and not knocking him out of it." [/handwave time] I'd been hoping for a better resolution to Bill Cipher, super-powerful being, having to give puny mortal Dipper Pines his body back. I didn't get it, one of the few disappointments I've had from the writers. But oh well. At least there was still plot & character development:

• the laptop is addressed and summarily removed from the plot (destroyed)
• Bill Cipher returns
• Bill clarifies that he was not defeated by the Pines family at the end of last season (which was pretty clear, I'd say, but this makes it official)
• Mabel puts Dipper before one of her crushes for once, although admittedly the circumstances were incredibly dire for Dipper this time
• Candy speaks (had to look this one up) Korean, so we now have a probable ethnic background for her family.

It may not be too much but Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'll take it.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 05:

Spoiler: show

A yandere dating sim girl? BEST EPISODE EVER!

Nah, I wouldn't say best ever. And unfortunately there's no way to tell how much I would've loved or ignored this episode had Yuki not plopped it prominently on my radar soon after I began watching Gravity Falls. But I can say that I've been looking forward to this episode for a while now. And man if it did not disappoint. It was a really solid episode.

This was also a surprisingly adult episode. O_o The subject material was the kind of thing that is geared more towards 20-somethings than adolescents. The violence in the climactic face-off between Giffany's robot army and the protagonists was a bit much for kids. (The part where the girl robot's face melts off? O-o) And perhaps above all else, all of the sexual innuendo in this episode. The two that stood out the most for me were a shop in the mall named "Build a Beaver" and the restaurant Soos took Melody to being called "Hoo-ha's Jamboree." Both stores were obviously modeled after real stores (Build-a-Bear Workshop and Chuck E. Cheese's / Show Biz, respectively.) But yeah. "Beaver"? "Hoo-ha"? All slang terms for vagina. I'd have to go back through the episode again to see if there were any others I recognize.

Giffany is one of those villains I feel bad for when she dies. ^^; Yanderes tend to be sympathizable like that, their psychotic murderous tendencies being what put us off them. We sympathize with a girl who wants to be loved and doesn't want to lose her man to a new challenger. Even though she's clearly deranged and dangerous, part of me hopes that she's still alive despite the destruction of her CD.

Normally the writers are amazing, and I want to give 'em a free +1 credit for giving us an episode that pokes fun at dating sims. But I feel like I have to take that +1 right back because of the ending. =\ The episode had already gone out of its way to establish that Giffany:

• could operate machinery without the machines being plugged in, as seen by Soos's computer being unplugged but still working thanks to Giffany
• could operate even without her disc spinning inside of anything; Soos had it in his pocket the entire time of her rampage
• could download herself to multiple different places at once (e.g. the various animatronics, arcade games, and television screens)

So it didn't make much sense that she should be defeated by destroying her disc. Why would melting a disc have any effect on software that is already inside of another system? I'm willing to roll with it without too much fuss because this is a kids show and it's already fantastic (i.e. pertaining to fantasy) that a computer program could come to life and do the things that Giffany does anyway. But since it was explained that Giffany was created by software developers, I would've appreciated the Gravity Falls writing team figuring out a better way to have Soos defeat Giffany that could've been believed by people who know even the basics about how computer software works.

I liked the new character Melody. She's in that fun zone of "attractive yet average yet attractive yet average?", the sort of woman you can be happy to see Soos wind up with. She seems genuine, which is great. And she seems kind, which is great too. She doesn't seem to be stupid, and seems to possess a little more common sense than Soos but not so much more that it'd make her incompatible with him. I'm actually disappointed the writers decided to write her out of the story as "someone visiting the area from Portland." In fact, that feels like another bit of weak writing, a rarity for this series. Because why would a girl from Portland, who was only here for the week visiting her parents, work a part time job in a shopping mall selling deli meats? That makes absolutely no sense. It's like the writers created Melody to be a resident of Gravity Falls when they wrote the script but then at the last second something was brought up that worried them and made them decide to switch her to being a Portland resident instead. I don't know what the cause was, but whatever it is, I hope it doesn't prevent Melody from moving to Gravity Falls to be nearer to Soos soon. I know the writers jokingly had Soos exclaiming that a Skype girlfriend would be ideal for him, but even Skype couples want to be together in the physical world. Seems a shame in several ways to keep Melody so far away.

Grunkle Stan's bit with his old broken animatronic was okay but was definitely second fiddle to the Soos-Giffany-Melody story. Not much to say about it, tbh.

Enjoyed the various nods to nerds that they gave in this episode. The debate about how to pronounce the file name ".gif" showing up in Giffany's name and Soos wondering about how to pronounce it ... the Game Stop parody which had its own made-up name but which totally had the instantly-recognizable Game Stop font ... the authentic Japanese on Giffany's video game box ... it's these little touches that make the show stand out from the many other Nickelodeon and Disney cartoons on the market.

[RealMrGame10]

I'd just like to jot down a few thoughts about S2 E6 here, stealing it from Talon I guess.

S2 E6

Spoiler: show

Ehhh, one of these episodes again. Basically the Bottomless Pit one, but with a bit of a darker undertone. I personally like the former better, but yeah. Essentially, an unidentified stranger enters the Mystery Shack at night with Stan as a tour guide, trying to sell him/her some stuff by telling long, convoluted stories about their significance. The hand witch (OHHHHHH I get it) was sort of weird, but I kinda liked the tone shift to tone makeover, which surprisingly didn't have stuff go horribly wrong afterwards. Gravity Falls likes to keep you on your toes with this kind of stuff, because its brand of humor seems to be taking every cliche (for example, that mountain climber dude at the end of the first story should probably have horribly rejected her) and feeding it to Waddles. The second story was actually really really funny, and its a shame that Grunkle Stan says he made it up, because canonically that would have been amazing. Waddles for life.

EDIT: HOLY CRAP I JUST LOOKED IT UP AND SMART WADDLES WAS VOICED BY NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON I KNEW IT SOUNDED FAMILIAR

The third was great in how it made fun of claymation, but I'm pretty sure Mabel was more scared of something earlier in the series. Maybe not.

I really adored the kidnapping of the dude in the end, because we always see these weird creatures and sometimes people in the Mystery Shack exhibits, so I'd say this is a really oddball and creative way to form an episode, being around that particular topic. (How exactly does Stan get them?) Although Stan's good-guy-ness may be in question now.

You know what, I changed my mind. I like this episode better than the other one after all.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 06:

Spoiler: show

It took me a while to find the episode in its entirety. Disney doesn't provide episodes the way that Nickelodeon does. =\ And everyone on YouTube and the like seemed to have uploaded a version which mysteriously had the opening scene and the opening credits cut. No thank you! But I finally got to watch the episode yesterday, and ...

Man, what a disappointment. ^^; Or it would have been had Yuki not braced me for impact. She knows I don't like spoilers, but after several days of me mentioning how I couldn't wait to watch it once a full-length version showed up, she let me down softly. "It's another 3-in-1 episode." And yeah. That deflated my enthusiasm pretty quickly. ^^;

The three individual sketches weren't the worst things ever ... but not only were they a step or two below the three sketches in Season 1 Episode 14, they each were offensive in their own way. As I explained to Yuki, I mean different things for each of them when I use the word "offensive." The first sketch was "offensive as in insensitive." The second sketch was "offensive as in horrifying." And the third sketch was "offensive as in ..." Hmm, I don't remember quite how I put that one. ^^; Let's just discuss the sketches.

First sketch. Stan loses his hands. Stan has to get his hands back from the witch who cursed him. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah ... this story was pretty stupid. I was surprised by how offensive it was to viewers who have either lost a hand or else who have been born without a functional hand. Like, it wasn't terribly offensive. But it just felt a little mean-spirited to have Stan go, "Hands? Who needs 'em!?" and then proceed to spill coffee and food all over himself and the breakfast table. I mean, I dunno. Maybe I'm accidentally soapboxing on something I wouldn't soapbox on if it were some other disability. Anyway, the sketch was silly. Next.

Second sketch was the one where Waddles becomes a genius after ingesting a special preparation Dipper made from magic mushrooms. (Uhhhhhhh ... ) This was basically a Flowers for Algernon story. And Gravity Falls' answer to the problem of a mentally handicapped man suddenly becoming a genius but finding that he's become distant from his old friends and his old life was the, imo frankly horrifying, "BRAIN DAMAGE ME, PLEASE! I want to be mentally handicapped again!" I realize the writers were going for the emotional happily-ever-after of a girl and her pet pig being reunited once more, but goddamn if they didn't choose the path that takes us through barbed wire fences and a minefield. They had so many easier ways of dealing with this too. "The effect of the mushrooms only lasts so long. And, despite my genius, I can't think of any other way to keep the effect from reversing itself. Oh: and the mushrooms are all gone now. Dipper found the last couple, and who knows when they'll be back. So long, friends! " Something like that. Have Waddles go back to being mentally handicapped without having him inflict the wounds on himself. Despite these complaints, this sketch was probably my favorite of the three in the episode. I think my favorite part was the cameo by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who provided the voice of Waddles' artificial voice.

Third sketch. The one where the writers pay homage to stop motion cinema with a half-claymation, half-Gravity Falls animation episode. This was probably the most boring of the three sketches for me. I love stop motion stuff like Wallace & Grommet, but I dunno ... not only did this sketch fail to capture the charm of better stop motion productions, it also seemed to accidentally insult them whilst trying to pay them respect. I could go on and on justifying my perception, but this post is already plenty long. Let's just suffice it to say that I didn't much care for this sketch.

Finally, the epilogue. This was creepy. I was really surprised to see something so Saw-like or Human Centipede-like show up in a program ostensibly for children. Given the deGrasse Tyson cameo and given the epilogue, I am starting to wonder if Season 1 was made with children in mind, ended up proving more popular with teens and young adults, and so Season 2 is now being made with the new demographic in mind. I will say one thing: I have to write this episode off as non-canon specifically because of how it depicts Stan. If we accept this episode as canon, then he just went from lovably grumpy grunkle to a sociopathic demon in 22 minutes. No thank you. I like my Grunkle Stan just the way he is. (Or, if you accept this episode as canon, was.)

This was the weakest episode of Season 2 by far, and probably one of the weakest Gravity Falls episodes of all time. But despite my complaints above, I didn't hate it. Not while watching it, and not now either. And that just goes to show how Gravity Falls is a cut above most other American children's cartoons.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Season 2 Episode 06:

I will say one thing: I have to write this episode off as non-canon specifically because of how it depicts Stan.

My impression from the start of the episode was that it was meant to be sort of like a Halloween special à la Simpsons style, but the air date didn't line up for whatever reason. *shrug*

I was amused by the first sketch, though I didn't really think about the real-life implications. Second made me a little uncomfortable for the same reasons you listed. Didn't think too much of the third.

[Talon87]

Mike Inel, the artist who made that animated gif I shared a while back, had been working on another, more ambitious animation fan project for Gravity Falls. Well, he finished it. Here it is.

Spoiler: show

I enjoyed it!

Mike's style renders all of the characters much more attractive than their Disney counterparts, though there is something ... off, about the way the characters look coupled with the way they sound. Maybe it's just the bias of having already heard these voices attached to the Disney style first, though I don't think that's it.

My biggest complaint is with the laziness of the flashbacks that so heavily contrasts with the effort that went into everything else. Anime flashback scenes are almost never composed of stills like this one was. The artist admits to laziness elsewhere (e.g. Mabel's sweater) and also says that this project took him much longer than originally intended, so I'm betting that he saw the flashback scene as a prime opportunity to cut corners. But I dunno. Complaint about lack of animation aside, I enjoyed it.

Didn't really mind the burrito or pizza pocket-like shape of the tacos. Nothing in the rules says that tacos have to be made from round tortillas, does it? I could imagine a mom 'n' pop restaurant in Oregon having closed, rectangular hard-shell tacos. I could also see it being chalked up to Gravity Falls' strangeness. No problem here!

Would really love to see more like this in the future. But judging from Mike's YouTube channel uploads, his interests jump around frequently and he rarely uploads more than a couple of videos per interest. So I guess we'll all just have to be grateful we even got this much. If he decides to release another one in the future, all the better.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 07:

Spoiler: show

Whoops! Another episode I delayed writing about. Saw this soon after it aired thanks to Yuki alerting me to its release. Since we saw last night that Episode 08 comes out today, I figured I had better go ahead and get this post written first!

"Society of the Blind Eye" continues the Season 2 tradition of prioritizing plot advancement (w007 w007! ) over stand-alone hijinx. At the start of the episode, we pick up where we left off with Bill Cipher's destruction of the computer; by episode's end, we've unearthed a crapton of information on Old Man McGucket, the town of Gravity Falls, and the author of the books. I won't regurgitate the plot here; it's been several weeks since I saw the episode and it's something best seen for yourself anyway. I'm just going to dive right in and discuss what I liked and didn't like.

I was relieved that Old Man McGucket did not turn out to be the books' author. Yuki later showed me evidence suggesting that the writers might have originally intended that he would be, but given the now-locked-in events of this episode it seems that they must have abandoned that plot twist somewhere between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. Perhaps, at least in small part, that explains the long delay between Seasons 1 and 2: maybe it wasn't entirely Disney's and/or the animation studio's fault but was partly the writers' fault as well. "Fault" is a negative word: all I mean to say is, perhaps the writers were still trying to figure out what they wanted the canon of Gravity Falls to be, 100% for certain no take backs, before getting too deep into Season 2. And so it took them months of panels with fans and board room meetings to figure it all out. *shrug* No idea. All I can say is, the episode starts off with an interesting tease that McGucket is the author (the books' notorious six-fingered hand and the fact that Old Man McGucket does indeed have six fingers), takes you through a tour that is half about finding out who McGucket is and half about confirming/refuting his role as the books' author, and finally it delivers the sly little tease of a twist-within-a-twist that, no indeedy, McGucket was not the author but that he did work with the guy.

I found McGucket's fate to be both tragic and discomfiting. I can't really accept, not just on an intellectual level but on an emotional level as well, that McGucket would willingly retard himself like this. It felt like watching Flowers for Algernon only darker, more twisted. Rather than a mentally handicapped man-turned-genius fighting to prevent his regress to mental handicap, we have a genius who willfully fried his brain, and with every blast of the ray gun he became more and more enthusiastic about doing it. Pretty horrifying. Given that this is a kids show, I'd like to believe that some handwavey magic will allow McGucket to regain his lost faculties. (Possibly the magic mushrooms that Waddles consumed?)

I didn't much care for the Order of the Blind Eye themselves, either their individual members or the role they will now canonically have played in Gravity Falls. I was particularly underwhelmed by the cult leader. I guess I don't have much to complain about though moving forward: they've been disbanded, their memories of the organization erased, and the one canon consequence about their existence that I liked is still very much on the table.

And that's Grunkle Stan. I like that the Order's existence adds an extra dimension to Stanford's constantly playing dumb about the supernatural in Season 1, even at the end of Episode 20 after he had, in Episode 18, joined the children in fighting off a pterodactyl. Like, they know that their great uncle has seen some shit. And yet he still denied it to their faces and would insist that they had just imagined everything. Why? Well, with the existence of a relatively powerful Big Brother organization now in the canon, it makes a bit more sense. Stan would have wanted to remain off the Order's radar. It's a bit silly to think that after some 30 years of living in Gravity Falls he wouldn't have finally aroused enough suspicion to warrant a trip to the interrogation chamber, but that goes just as well for the FBI's paranormal activity division as it does for the Order, and as far as we know Grunkle Stan had avoided federal detection for years too, so ....

I disliked that Mabel seriously considered using the gun on herself and for such a stupid reason too.

I loved the part where Soos made the one remark about Lazy Susan that then triggered a ferocious cat attack from Mabel and Wendy. That was pretty great.

Time for some theory checklist items:

Spoiler: show

The Books' Author: I'm going with the theory that Grunkle Stan has a twin brother and that his twin was the books' author. If it wasn't his twin, then I'd go with the theory that the books' author was none of the laboratory trio we currently have (Stan, his theorized brother, and McGucket).

The Researcher Under Whom McGucket Worked: I'm again going with the theory that this is an as-yet unrevealed brother of Grunkle Stan's. If it's not him then obviously the main contender would be Stan himself, but I don't think it's Stan. I get the impression that where the researcher (said to be the books' author iirc) was probably able to create the portal technology without any help from the books -- since, duh, he wrote them -- Stan on the other hand has needed the books' help. We saw as much at the end of Season 1. To me, this suggests that Stan wasn't the scientist of the brothers: his brother was. And that now we have the used car salesman type that is Stanford Pines trying to use his brother's old research notes to recreate the portal. Why?

Stan's Motive(s): I'm of the school of thought that Stan is trying to rescue a loved one or loved ones. My original theory had been a wife and/or child but it is seeming more likely to me now that Stan is trying to rescue his lost brother. Likely twin brother. Lots of fans seem to be enamored with this idea and I can't help but to join them.

In fact, I would reject the wife/kid theory now. I realize that the theory doesn't mesh well with the fact that Stan was hitting on Lazy Susan and considering a relationship with her. Why would he simultaneously "move on" past a lost loved one who might still be alive and furiously work on a portal to bring them back? It doesn't make sense. Whoever he's passionate about saving, it probably can't be a lover. If it were, he wouldn't be entertaining other romances in the meantime.

Why Grunkle Stan Doesn't Solicit the Kids' Assistance: I think the creators have given us ample evidence that Stan genuinely cares about these kids. Perhaps none is more telling than the fact that his laboratory desk is mostly bare but that it does have a framed photograph ... of Dipper and Mabel. It's the sort of framed photograph that suggests love rather than obsessive hatred, that suggests he sees them as very much on his team, as worth protecting, rather than as antagonists. Yet he precludes them from his research. Why?

I think part of it has to do with concerns for their safety. If it's true that he's been playing dumb because he didn't want the Order of the Blind Eye to erase his memories, then it stands to reason that he didn't want the children to fall victim to the Order either -- and that he worried that they would if they could see what crazy things he was doing downstairs. If it's true that Stan is trying to rescue someone who was sucked into the portal, then it stands to reason that Stan recognizes the portal as dangerous and doesn't want to risk that either Dipper or Mabel might get sucked into it too. How would he explain that to their parents? We saw at the end of Season 1 that he takes seriously his assigned role as the children's caretaker; that, when he could no longer afford to keep them well-fed and taken care of, he was left with no choice but to send them back home to Piedmont. Of course we've also been given evidence in Season 2 that he cares for the children's well-being. (E.g. S2E01 where he fights off a zombie horde, risking his very own life, in order to save the kids.)

I can't rule out the possibility that he is keeping Dipper and Mabel out of the loop for less noble reasons. (Example: he's after treasure and he wants to hoard it all to himself.) But I just don't see that as being likely at this point. I think his reasons are mostly if not entirely noble. Only time will tell.

Unanswered Questions: Better list these off ...

• Who or what exactly is Bill Cipher? Was he formerly human? (And if so, who was he?) Is he even from our plane of existence?
• Is Cipher just a spritely villain, a Rumpelstiltskin of sorts? Or does he have human-like goals he is hoping to achieve? Is he more than an avatar of chaos / mischief / riddles / what have you?
• If it's true that someone built a functioning portal in Stan's basement years ago, then why did he have to acquire the books to (re)complete its assembly? How did it become disassembled or broken?
• To where does the portal lead?
• If Stan does indeed have a brother, are the children or their parents aware of this fact? Or did the Order of the Blind Eye get to them? How many people besides Stanford remember his brother's existence? (This assumes he even has a brother!)

Probably a few more I'm forgetting, but this is a good enough record for now.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 08:

Spoiler: show

I thought that this was a pretty great episode. I found the first half entertaining but had a number of concerns. The second half not only I found entertaining but it also addressed all of my concerns in superb fashion.

I liked that the writers acknowledged that Blendin isn't really a villain beyond being a victim of circumstance who grew to hate the Pines kids for understandable reasons. I also liked that they gave the Pines kids an opportunity to make amends to Blendin and that Blendin was willing to accept their offer. We don't know how many years he spent in time prison but I have to hope that it was short enough that he's willing to let bygones be bygones.

I also thought it was cute how they pleased both sides of the fandom regarding Soos's wish. "For those of you who don't want to see Soos messing with his past, we'll give you that he does indeed choose to not use the wish that way. But for those of you who would resent his squandering of an all-powerful wish, we'll give you the infinitely-regenerating slice of pizza." Cute. haha I was more in the first group myself, but I enjoyed the consolation prize given to the other team as well.

I also thought it was really sweet that:

• in contrast to Season 1 where he was still somewhat vacillating, here in Season 2 Dipper has acknowledged that Soos is so selfless towards the Pines kids that they frankly owe him their lives
• and then right around the corner we've got Soos rewarding the Pines' selflessness with his declaration that they are family to him

'Cause like, when they agreed to do the Globnar, I was like, "Really though, guys? I know you like Soos, but you would seriously risk your lives over this one thing?" And they decided to. And then they get that great reward (Soos's proclamation; not the time wish, haha), with no expectation of it either. It was just really great all around.

About ten minutes into the episode, I realized that the two time cops' names are Lolph and Dundgren. This is a play on words of Dolph Lundgren.

[RealMrGame10]

Okay, so I just want to say that I loved the episode 7, but there was so much RIGHT with episode 8.

Spoiler: show

That scene with young Wendy was very interesting. Dipper's reaction indicates to me that he's not actually over Wendy, but this was a huge step, not only in that, but in his maturing process. He finally sort of has this moment of empathy in a really weird way. That's ridonkulously cool how they accomplished that.

AND THE PLOT WAS PERFECT THERE WAS LITERALLY NOTHING WRONG AT ALL ESPECIALLY WUT GRUNKLE STAN TRIED TO REMOVE IT FROM THE CALENDAR.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by RealMrGame10

Okay, so I just want to say that I loved the episode 7, but there was so much RIGHT with episode 8.

Spoiler: show

That scene with young Wendy was very interesting. Dipper's reaction indicates to me that he's not actually over Wendy, but this was a huge step, not only in that, but in his maturing process. He finally sort of has this moment of empathy in a really weird way. That's ridonkulously cool how they accomplished that.

I also liked that scene.

Spoiler: show

Who was the girl with Wendy btw?

[RealMrGame10]

Originally Posted by lilbleucorsola

I also liked that scene.

Spoiler: show

Who was the girl with Wendy btw?

Spoiler: show

Remember that girl who wouldn't stop texting during the Inconveniencing?

[dirkac]

Originally Posted by lilbleucorsola

I also liked that scene.

Spoiler: show

Who was the girl with Wendy btw?

Spoiler: show

Tambry, the other girl in her teen group, the one who was textjng the entire time and had her birthday party in another episode.

[Talon87]

There's been a lot of fanart of S2E08, but this one in particular out of the ones I just saw is worth a share.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

There's been a lot of fanart of S2E08, but this one in particular out of the ones I just saw is worth a share. Source.

Cute. (Your picture link only shows the first two panels though, just so you're aware.)

One thing about Ep08 I forgot to mention that I liked is how:

Spoiler: show

Dipper and Mabel joked about the trope of changing vs. causing the past, and their intervention turned out to be the reason for Grunkle Stan hiring Soos.

Edit- Lol at this one.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 09:

Spoiler: show

I enjoyed this episode. My only complaint is that the love between Robbie and Tambry is, at least for the time being, influenced by the love potion.

If the anti-love potion (despite its name) had been used on them to merely cancel out the effects of the previous potion rather than making the two hate one another, and if after that occurred it was revealed that Robbie and Tambry, while not 100% head over heels in love with one another, are still mutually attracted to one another and want to continue to date, then that would have worked for me. But as it stands, we can't know for certain to what extent Robbie and Tambry love one another because of the love potion. And that kinda ruins their relationship for me.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the episode.

The subplot with Grunkle Stan, while brief, was entertaining once we finally got to see the fruits of Soos's labor. I like the smile and a wink from the writers in the form of the ambiguity surrounding Stan's status amongst deities: was the Love God's line about a "greater being" only meant to be comical and was referring to the balloon? or did it legitimately signal that Stan Pines is considered a greater being by the gods than Cupid is?

Mabel was in top form this episode. She felt her "Mablest" without feeling forced. Difficult to pull off, so kudos to the writers for a job well done.

Robbie's parents were great. I loved how they were sort of a hybrid of the Pleasantville parents and the Addams Family parents, the former in almost every other way while the latter in all of the macabre statements they'd make or things they'd do. (Using a casket as a resting place for a tray of snacks ... laughing at the prospect of people having died at the festival ... ^^; ) Given Robbie's obvious-since-Day-01 pimples on his neck that look an awful lot like vampire bite marks, it was a fun addition to the canon that his parents deal in preparing bodies and have caskets all over their house. Whether they're ever officially revealed to be vampires or not, I think this provides an easy route for the youngest fans to get excited and join in on fan speculation. (A lot of the other stuff is way too above kids ages 6-10, I think, but the vampire conspiracy theory is super easy to understand and predict.)

The whole episode, I was worried that the Love God was going to use his potions against Mabel. Have her fall in love with him, have her fall in love with Dipper, have her fall in love with Robbie, have her fall in love with whoever or whatever. I was relieved to see that that didn't happen.

Along similar lines, before the plot reveal that Mabel's target for matchmaking was Tambry and before she said anything about who wasn't eligible, I saw that figurine of Pacifica and thought that we were totally going in that direction. It was a neat surprise to see the writers shy away from Robbie x kids Mabel's age, one made all the more surprising by everyone's comfort in and out of universe with Dipper x Wendy. (Speaking of Pacifica, I am still waiting on some fodder for the Pacifica loves Dipper fanship following that putt putt episode. )

All in all, this wasn't one of the greats but it was still enjoyable. Now that I've been caught up with the series for the past month and a half or so, it's been a real worry I have with each new episode that we're going to hit a dud. Duds aren't so bad when you marathon, but when you watch while the show is airing and when the show only airs one new episode every two weeks, duds really suck. So yay for the last three episodes in a row all being good rather than bad. Here's to hoping that the writers can keep it up.

I noticed some fans making remarks about the season going on hiatus after Episode 10 or so airs and then resuming airing in the spring. Is this speculation based on Season 1 or is this something that's known for a fact to be happening with Season 2? It'll really suck if we only have one new episode a week and a half from now followed by months of nothing.

[CyberBlastoise]

I did at least pull off one accomplishment in this episode

Spoiler: show

I was able to ACCIDENTALLY find the key that is used for decoding the thing in the end credits...hey I'm proud of that, okay?

Spoiler: show

It's in the graveyard near the beginning. After Robbie comes out of the grave, you can see some of the others including one that says something like 1989 - 1975 or something. Basically the dying date was earlier than the birth date.

...other than that, the episode was pretty solid and hopefully Robbie will stop being a jerk to the Pines' family.

[Talon87]

This comic of Moringmark's is pretty awesome.

[Talon87]

This fake Twitter tweet is pretty great as well.

Spoiler: show

Oh God, and this play on the classic Christmas tale, The Gift of the Magi is priceless.

Also, this just in: word of God confirms that the Pines are not Jewish. I lightly assumed that they weren't but this was definitely an on-again off-again assumption for me and so I welcome the clarification so I don't have to wonder about it anymore. (I mean, I know the kids are based off of Hirsch himself and his own sister, but with a name like "Alex Hirsch" I really can't tell whether they are or aren't Jewish, y'know? Not that it should even matter, but still.)

[lilboocorsola]

I didn't get a Bill on my poster. ;-;

Tried to see if a walrus showed up anywhere prominent, and this is what I get. (From the episode Into the Bunker.)

[Talon87]

Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 2:

Spoiler: show

Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 10 (the next episode to air; airs February 16, 2015)

Spoiler: show

Yuki brought this to my attention last night. Suffice it to say, I am excited. #dreamsdocometrue

Spoiler: show

Even if Dipper doesn't reciprocate, Pacifica crushing on Dipper is too cute not to ship.

[Talon87]

Yuki was telling me the other day about a fan-made Mabel sweater, and now I see this one here. Not sure if the same or different, but this one's a great effort for what sounds like a cosplay beginner.

We've heard about Gravity Falls crossovers before, but this one is both delightfully obvious and yet one I don't believe I'd seen before. It's kind of a shame that Disney and Hanna-Barbera aren't likely to cooperate to make a crossover episode with these guys happen. Oh well. Probably for the best.

[Talon87]

Season 2 Episode 10:

Spoiler: show

This. episode. was. in.credible.

Dipcifica shipping fodder that goes beyond "fodder" and enters the realm of "quality character development for both parties"? Check.

Plot development, and on multiple plot threads no less? Check.

Humor? Check.

Drama? Check.

Awws? Check.

Well animated? Check.

Well directed? Check.

The episode was just plain good. Possibly my favorite episode of all time, but I think that even if I didn't care about Dipper x Pacifica as much as I do I'd still feel it was a solid 8/10. Really, really great way to kick off the second half of the season.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Let's start with the obvious: Dipper's and Pacifica's relationships with one another. It was great to see the writers provide a natural evolution towards the possibility of a Dipper x Pacifica coupling that didn't toss the S1 baby out with the bathwater either. Dipper still hasn't forgotten that the Northwest clan's ancestor deceived the town of Gravity Falls, rewrote the history books to make himself the town founder instead of Quentin Trembley, and produced a lineage of scheming rich assholes that trickles on down to this very day. Nor has he forgiven the family for it: even Pacifica Dipper continues to hold in contempt for siding with her parents instead of breaking away from them and doing the right thing. It's easy to be judgmental, and the writers do a wonderful job of showing things from Pacifica's side as well, exploring how she would like to do the right thing -- wouldn't we all? -- but there are numerous factors which stay her hand, from a deeply-engrained fear of going against her parents' wishes to that phenomenon common to almost all children of placing family before strangers/outsiders. She understands that what her parents are doing is wrong ... or at least she thinks she does ... but she's also, like all children her age, subconsciously aware that her parents tend to be wiser and more aware of the world's workings than she is and she just sort of goes along with what they tell her to do. There's this conflict for Pacifica where she's being forced to choose between her parents who love her (even if they're twisted people) and this new kid on the block who she totally has a crush on now and who is stretching out his hand and bidding her to join him on Team Light Side.

I also liked how the episode was written with Pacifica being in the know that she was using Dipper, but then finding herself falling even more hotly and heavily for him than before, and by the end of the mission she really truly likes him and doesn't want him to think ill of her. So then when he inevitably finds out the truth about how the Northwests were just using him, Pacifica is lumped right in with her parents by an angry, hurt Dipper ... and you can just see how it breaks her heart. Excellently explored later in the episode when we see the heartbroken girl retreating to her newly-discovered secret room amidst the chaos of the logger turning everyone in the ballroom into wood. It's like nothing even matters to her anymore -- not the guests, not even her parents. She just wants to be alone right now -- the boy she likes has just (paraphrasing) declared her to be a piece of filth he wants nothing to do with ever again. When he shows up asking for her help, I felt it was realistically explored: she outwardly gets angry with Dipper and expresses no desire to help him out even though you can tell that inwardly she's very confused and hurt right now, wanting to help him but not if there's still no chance of the two of them patching things up. But she likes him too much (and you could say he's a bit too physically persuasive ) and she ends up helping him in the end. It doesn't hurt that his very life is at stake and she's in part doing this to save his and everyone else's lives, not just to help him ghostbust and get back in his good graces.

While the ending felt a little too cliche, a little too Team Disney Kids Shows, I still liked how things ended for the two of them. Pacifica makes a pretty bold declaration of loyalty towards doing the right thing rather than placing her morally bankrupt family first. She chooses to trust in Dipper's words -- that just because she was born into the Northwest family, it doesn't have to mean that she's destined to be as immoral as her ancestors.

I also love how things work out for the Dipper side of the equation. The episode's first half sees Dipper starting to like Pacifica -- maybe not romantically, but definitely placing her on his list of potential friends. Then the majority of the second half of the episode sees him going back to his original position on Pacifica -- she's a Northwest, she's not to be trusted, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," etc. And then finally we have the episode's final few minutes, where Dipper seems to have returned to an ever-so-slightly weaker version of his position that he held mid-episode. He's back to being amicable towards Pacifica, but it's not like the episode sends us signals that he's crushing on her or anything. While it's clear to viewers that Pacifica is now being written to have a crush on Dipper, it's not clear that the same is true in reverse. The relationship will hopefully be built up gradually. If Gravity Falls is to be a two-season affair, then I guess we'll see a lot of gradual developments over these next few weeks such that we can arrive at a Dipcifica ending by Episode 18 or 20 or whatever number it is that we're going to get. If instead we're planning on three seasons (or more), then I could see the developments in their relationship being taken at a slower pace, with the fandom being supremely aware of Pacifica's feelings by the end of S2 but with Dipper being a clueless idiot well into S3.

I'm interested to see if the writers will write Dipper gradually falling in love with Pacifica independent of the knowledge of how she feels about him (preferred route) or if they'll have him be clueless of her feelings right on up to the point where she confesses to him how she feels (less preferred route but still fine).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I thought that this week's antagonist was really neat. Great backstory, easily sympathizable with, loved the plot twist, etc.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The part with Mabel, Candy, and Grenda was neat. I was disappointed that the girls never made the connection, but to this viewer it was clear that their behavior was an alarming mirror of S1 Pacifica and her cronies. The girls were basically behaving like rich princess bitches, scheming and plotting to get their man even if it means betraying their best friends. I also liked that Grenda, easily the least attractive (and I think also the least popular) of the three friends, was the one who got Prince Charming in the end. Again, slightly cheesy and Disney Kids Show-esque, but whatever. This is a Disney kids show, after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I almost forgot! McGucket at the very end of the episode. So yeah -- looks like we'll be getting even more plot development with the next episode.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I felt like I had a lot more I wanted to say but all I can keep thinking of to discuss is Dipper x Pacifica. HRNGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I love this so much. I love this so, so much.