gravity falls thoughts of the week: i've been joking about ford not knowing what's okay or safe to let children do in the past few episodes but that kind of becomes less funny in the show in "dipper and mabel vs. the future", when we see that these missions he's taking dipper along on are actually putting this kid in danger. sure he manages to survive and get them out of the danger but it's kind of concerning that ford's takeaway from this is "see, you can handle it!" and not "maybe i shouldn't invite this 12-going-on-13-year-old to be my apprentice in highly dangerous field research"
but dipper, of course, doesn't realize this because he's a kid getting to do cool stuff with an adult who respects his intelligence and doesn't treat him like a kid, even though that's the problem. this final string of episodes does a good job highlighting the theme of dipper wanting to grow up too fast and mabel wanting to stay a kid forever and how neither of those are realistic approaches, even though most of the time this isn't a show terribly concerned with realism.
(kind of wild to me thinking about it now that there were a lot of fans at the time who genuinely thought dipper was giving up a great opportunity by choosing not to take ford up on his apprenticeship offer by the end. i guess that's the difference between watching kids' shows when you're closer to the age of the main characters and watching them when you're a lot older than the characters. on most shows i wouldn't worry too much over questions like "are these kids who go on fun adventures that appeal to the target demographic who like to imagine getting to do cool things Literal Child Soldiers?" but here the point clearly is that kids shouldn't have a full-time job instead of going to school and having a normal childhood and adolescence, and also more broadly that the adult in this situation is projecting his own issues onto the kids and does not actually know what's best for them. idk i think it's pretty obvious!)
on mabel's side of (not) coping with things, there's a lot to say about mabeland and what it represents. when i first watched this i was a little disappointed that they didn't make the inside of the bubble a perfect recreation of gravity falls with mabel living out her endless summer by pretending nothing's changed, complete with eerie fake replicas of her friends and family, and instead went full fantasy land...but i did ultimately like where they ended up going with it. i like the implication that mabel doesn't actually have fake versions of the other characters there because she's waiting for the real ones to show up so they can be together (or at least that's my headcanon. dippy fresh might count but he's just the "backup" there to agree with mabel when the real dipper inevitably goes against her plans.) i like that bill isn't too concerned about the others getting inside the bubble because it's designed to keep you trapped there by giving you whatever you want, plus it's an obvious "safe" place in the middle of all the chaos outside. i should probably make a separate post for this because i realized while thinking about this episode that i have a lot of thoughts on mabeland and how the bubble works. (originally the title for part 2 was going to be "escape from mabeland" but the crew thought it was too spoilery or would set up a different expectation from the fans, so it became "escape from reality" instead. which is technically the opposite of what the original title meant but it's still accurate because that's what mabeland is! she's trying to escape from reality!)
final thoughts were that a lot of people thought the conflicts were resolved too quickly in these last few episodes but i'm forgiving of it because they are working with limited time for these episodes here and it is still a kids' show. also the long hiatuses between episodes kind of messed with the fandom's sense of time back when they were first airing. i feel like there was so much fanart of the characters becoming hardened post-apocalyptic warriors during this era but the actual apocalypse in the show's time lasts for like, a week. maybe less.
anyway, watching the finale tonight and then i'll reread my copy of journal 3, and finally read the lost legends comics which just came in from the library, and then hopefully get on the long waitlist for the book of bill, aaaaaand then i'll be done and can go back to watching shows that aren't for kids. well i'll do that after running through over the garden wall one last time, it is the tenth anniversary after all.
Ever since the Book of Bill came out, I've been pondering why Bill seems to love tormenting Dipper.
I don’t doubt Bill Cipher could find amusement in anyone and everyone’s suffering but he seems to take a special interest in hurting the youngest Pines. This even goes back to their first interaction where Bill blows a hole in Dipper’s chest before Dipper had said a single word to him, as opposed to Mabel whom he ignored despite her attempt to tackle him moments beforehand.
In Sock Opera, Bill repeatedly harms Dipper’s body with forks, drawers, stairs, drowning, and who knows what else off-screen. And in perhaps the darkest moment of any Gravity Falls media, Bill’s note from Journal 3 boasts about his ‘grand finale’ of killing Dipper, making it look like a suicide, and forcing the poor boy to wander the mindscape forever.
During Weirdmageddon Bill repeatedly ridicules Dipper after Ford’s capture, teasing him with insults, Ford’s body, and burning his precious journals in front of him before ordering his Henchamniacs to eat him. In Mabel’s Bubble he responds to Dipper’s rejection by turning Fake Wendy into maggots and delivers an ominous warning to an obviously disturbed Dipper.
This trend of tormenting Dipper has only intensified with the Book of Bill and Thisisnotawebsite.com. Every mention of Dipper in the book is an insult or mockery, including two pages dedicated to embarrassing moments of his young life. Meanwhile, on the website he tries to trick Dipper into staring at the sun until the boy goes blind.
So why does Bill seem to have a special interest in making Dipper Pines miserable?
It could be as simple as the bully picking on the victim. Maybe Bill thinks Dipper takes himself too seriously and wants to knock him down several pegs. Or perhaps Bill resents Dipper for being the closest to what he considers Lawful Good among his family, or for trying to be a hero while categorising the town’s weirdness in opposition to Bill’s desire to create chaos and misery, or because he’s the primary antagonist and Dipper is the primary protagonist?
But Bill probably doesn’t hold Dipper in high enough regard for that to be his only reasoning. In fact, Bill appears to have a very low opinion of Dipper, in comparison to certain other members of the Pines family.
In both Book of Bill and Dipper and Mabel’s Guide to Mystery and Non-Stop Fun, Bill claims to like Mabel, comparing her free-spiritedness with his desire to spread turmoil. To him, fun and chaos are the same thing and Mabel’s all about having fun and doing whatever she wants, whatever other people think of her.
Ford worshipped Bill for a time, and is the one who summoned him and created the portal. Feats Bill was so pleased by, that he apparently grew some degree of affection for Ford if the Book of Bill is to be believed; telling him about his past, ‘gifting’ him with dead rats and the like. Even though Bill answered Ford's attempts to escape him with horrific torture, Bill still offered him the position of Henchmaniac when he achieved physical form, implying he was willing to put their past aside, on his terms.
Bill’s interactions with Stan are limited to entering his mind and the final battle. Perhaps, as a fellow conman and trickster, it could be argued Bill might approve of Stan’s crimes even if he’s not exactly impressed by them. But Thisisnotawebsite.com makes it clear that any affinity he may or may not have had for Stan is gone. Now there’s only bitterness and rage at having been bested by someone he deems a joke.
Sounds familiar.
Because it was Dipper who brought the others into Stan's mind and taught them how to fight back against Bill. Dipper found Wendy and Soos, rescued Mabel and got the ball rolling on the resistance movement that led to Bill’s defeat. In Mabeland especially, Dipper proves his tenacity by being the only one capable of resisting what Bill declares is his most diabolical trap.
And when Dipper proved he had the strength to refuse his greatest temptation, Bill reacted by turning heaven into hell for a few moments. Again, a member of the Pines family had rejected his promise of granting their greatest desire. But this time, it wasn’t the genius Ford who’d rejected him and threatened his plans, it was the meek little boy - the lesser twin in Bill’s eye.
Dipper isn’t wild like Mabel, brilliant like Ford, or cunning like Stan. He’s just a kid trying his hardest to do what’s right. A concept Bill no doubt finds hilarious.
It’s one thing to be bested by a foe you respect or admire, but it’s quite another to be beaten by someone you consider a joke.
But he was. Repeatedly. First by Dipper and finally by Stan.
And it probably drives him mad.
Listen, if the final Belos fight is indeed 2v1 with Hunter and Willow? All I'm saying is if midway through the fight we start getting flashback scenes of Caleb and Evelyn vs Philip with that smooth animation and just the most gorgeous shot-for-shot fades between the two fights, like with Hunter flickering back and forth with Caleb, or a closeup of Willow's hand casting a spell circle and her hand turning into Evelyn's, I swear to god that would go so hard and I would lose my entire ✨GODDAMN MIND✨
you're nEVER going to guess who's alive!!! (me). I dont think I've logged into this site for at least a full year my BAD gang I was in the TRENCHES
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2 pieces of Would You Fall In Love With Me Again details that I discovered through tiktok that has ALTERED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY
Penelope sings waiting 8 times for 20 seconds representing the 8 sagas and 20 years she waited for Odysseus to come back to her
The melody of the "for" after these repetitions of the word waiting is sung in the same melody as "I am the reigning king of Ithica" cause you know that's who she was waiting for
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
E tu é BR rapaz?
Adoro como vocês ficam impressionados sobre isso 💅 Sim sou BR sou sangue de São Paulo capital nasci aqui no Brasil eu falo português (normal)
Eu nasci aqui ó 👇👇👇👇
Brincadeiras a parte, sim sou BR, mas prefiro aqui no Tumblr deixar tudo em ingles para que todos consigam entender ☆*: .。. o(≧▽≦)o .。.:*☆
I think each miraculous in the box might have a counterpart with a similar power set. Hear me out:
The Snake 🐍 and the Rabbit 🐇 — Time
The Peacock 🦚 and the Butterfly 🦋 — Creation from emotion
The Turtle 🐢 and the Ox 🐂— Protection/Shields
The Dog 🐶 and the Horse🐴 — Teleportation
The Pig 🐖 and the Fox 🦊— Illusion
The Ladybug 🐞 and the Goat 🐐— Creation
The Dragon 🐉 and the Mouse/Rat 🐀 — Body Manipulation
The Cat 🐈⬛ and the Tigger 🐅— Destruction/max damage
The Rooster 🐓 and the Monkey 🐒— Randomness
And that leaves the Bee 🐝 all alone (damnit we need one more with a freezing/control over other’s movement based power)
I’m still sticking by my headcanon that Sabine knows her daughter is Ladybug
I know Sabine is already a very understanding and caring person, and she entrusts in Ladybug. But, the way she just smiles and doesn’t ask questions when Marinette makes excuses just makes me feel like she knows.
She also broke out of the akuma just by seeing Ladybug keeping her promise. Ladybug has done nice things for her victims before, but this is only one of two times a victim has broken free just from her. There’s a deep trust there.
Also, I feel like there’s a lot of moms who just know everything that’s going on with their kids? And Sabine definitely strikes me as one of those kinds of moms.
TOH SPOILERS (?)
The ripped dress, the tail?? The overall witch costume? I may be overthinking but what if Willow is being portrayed as Evalyn, the witch who Caleb fell in love with
I did that edit for the lols to troll a friend of mine and now I can’t unsee how similar their faces are helppppp