Another post on Gravity Falls- What I have learned about it and what has happened since I last wrote about it here.

September 1, 2015

Hello, blogosphere, this is Neil Rush again. I took the summer off from blogging for Communications Media Technology, but now it's back and will be published on an almost-weekly basis. As you could tell from one of my previous posts, Disney XD's Gravity Falls has become something of an obsession for me. Even while liking cartoons genuinely intended for older audiences rather than kids, their parents, and animation-loving young adults, sometimes you get bored with the same old things and want something new (or, in my case with South Park, decided that the environment of the fandom was becoming too contentious and that it was losing its identity in order to keep it in line with the ideology of the rest of the majority of Comedy Central's programming), and that new thing was initially Star vs. The Forces of Evil, but then became Gravity Falls due to its deeper story, actually pretty surprising edgier jokes (especially in Season 2 Episode 7, "Society of the Blind Eye"), and heavy use of meta-humor that is much more modern than most other "adult" cartoons. Maybe I'll grow bored with the show, but hype is still up for it, so that does not seem likely for a little while.
I would like to make a few corrections from my previous posts about the show. The show premiered on Disney Channel on June 15, 2012, and the first season ended in July 2013. The show was formally moved to Disney XD because of Disney realizing that cartoons worked better on that channel so that older fans don't have to endure ads for their sitcoms intended for mostly pre-teen girls (yet still have to endure ads for live-action action shows produced on a sitcom budget intended for nine-year-old boys, and even worse than ads, cross-promotions between the animated and live-action shows on the channel). For the year between that, multiple micro-series of three-minutes shorts aired- Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained, Mabel's Guide to Life, and Gravity Falls Public Access TV. Season 2 premiered on Disney XD on August 1, 2014, and episodes have aired a few weeks apart to build up anticipation, and therefore viewership, and so that Alex Hirsch can let fans make theories about what will happen in coming episodes and the backstories of various characters. Also, "Not What He Seems" was not Part 1 of a two-part Season 2 finale, but rather the mid-season finale of Season 2, with the episode afterwards, "A Tale of Two Stans," serving as the Season 2 mid-season premiere. This episode was half an hour long without commercials, requiring subsequent airings to be forty minutes with commercials.
It's still a little weird how we're seeing the events of the show take place all in the summer of 2012 yet be shown over the course of 4+ years, but the bold mystery of the story kind of requires dragging the story out. Alex Hirsch said that he is unsure whether or not the show will last for two seasons, three seasons, two seasons and a movie, or three seasons and a movie, but he knows that he intends on telling a story with a legitimate end.
The past three episodes of the show were some of the best ones yet. "A Tale of Two Stans" aired on July 13, 2015 and was one of the biggest bombshells of the series. Grunkle Stan's twin brother, the real Stanford Pines (voiced by famous actor J. K. Simmons), came out of the destructive portal and the brother's pasts were revealed. In the 1960s, Stanley and Stanford Pines were twin brothers and best friends, looking for mysteries in their beachside town and always looking out for each other. However, when Stanford had the chance to earn a scholarship to a prestigious university, Stanley was afraid of losing his best and only true friend, so he "accidentally" sabotaged Stanford's project. Upon learning about what Stanley did, his and Stanford's parents abandoned him, and with few options, Stanley became a conman, selling scam products under multiple aliases, getting arrested for every crime that it would be OK to mention and play for sort-of-dark humor on a show with a high TV-Y7 rating, and becoming forbidden from entering thirty states and a few countries. Meanwhile, Stanford was studying bizarre occurrences in the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, and wrote the journals that were key McGuffins throughout the series, drawing outlines of his trademark six-fingered hands on them to signify them as his work. In the year 1982, he created a portal to the multiverse and tested it out with his college friend, Fiddleford McGucket (who would later become the town's crazy hillbilly, Old Man McGucket), but one brief look in the portal scarred Fiddleford for life, and he tried to wipe his memory of it all. As shown in "Society of the Blind Eye," he began to use the memory-wiper gun on himself so many times that it damaged his mind almost entirely beyond repair and turned him into the crazy hillbilly seen on the show. Realizing what horrors he had potentially unleashed on the world, Stanford sent an anonymous message to Stanley to come take the journals and hide them where they can never be found. Offended that his twin brother would call him for the first time in years only to tell him to run away from him, Stanley attempted to burn the journals, which led to a brief argument and physical altercation about who ruined whose life more of the two twin brothers, ending in the portal accidentally being activated and Stanford getting sucked in. Wracked with guilt and shame over getting in a fight with his brother that got him sent to who-knows-where, Stanley needed a way to make money to keep the portal going, so he took the name of his brother, Stanford Pines, and turned his brother's lab into a tourist trap/museum-of-the-macabre/gift shop known as the Mystery Shack, entertaining some and disgusting the rest with his cheap monster models and overpriced merchandise. Every night for thirty years until the events of the "Not What He Seems", Stan checked the portal's progress to see if he was any closer to getting his brother back. Stanford, who chose to go by Great-Uncle Ford to avoid confusion between the two Stans, had not forgiven Stan for getting him sent into the portal, let alone taking his house and turning it into a tourist trap and using his name to cover his hide, and demanded that he close the Mystery Shack and give him his house and name back at the end of the summer. In response, Stan told Ford to stay away from Dipper and Mabel, saying that they were the only family that he still had as far as he was concerned. Mabel expressed concern that she and Dipper might turn out like Stan and Ford, but Dipper advised her not to worry about it. While I do think that this episode tossed the dramatic weight of "Not What He Seems" aside so that the show could go on as humorously as before but with Ford living with them now, it was still good to learn about Stan's past and part of why he appears to have such gray morals, and it makes sense that things don't immediately get better between Stan and Ford, when most kids' cartoons would just have things like that improve with no payoff.
Then came "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons", which initially aired August 3, 2015. In this episode, Dipper gets the newest version of the titular parody of "Dungeons and Dragons" in the mail, but Mabel and Stan don't want to play a game that involves extensive math and long-winded fantasy terminology, and Soos prefers FCLORPing (Foam, Cardboard, and Long Object Role-Playing), a parody of LARPing (Live-Action Role-Playing). Ford, however, is more on the same page with Dipper about tabletop RPGs, and is more than willing to play with him. Dipper and Ford's love of D&D&MoreD creates a conflict of interest with Mabel and Stan's love of the cartoon "Duck-Tective", which leads to one of the funniest meta-references ever done on the show.
Stan- Can't you play your nerd-game in another room?
Ford- Hey, at least I'm not keyed up to watch a kids' show!
Stan- Duck-Tective is not just a kids' show, Ford! It's full of mystery and a lot of things go over kids' heads!
Grenda (Mabel's best friend)- I don't get a lot of it, but I like seeing animals doing human things!
When another physical altercation breaks out between Stan and Ford (they really have too many of these), Ford's Infinity-Sided Die, an artifact he found during his travels in the multiverse that allows for fantastical occurrences whenever rolled, gets knocked onto the game board and brings the game's wizard, Probabilitor (guest-voiced by comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic) to life. Probabilitor captures Dipper and Ford, takes them into the Gravity Falls Woods, ties them to a tree, and prepares to eat their brains to gain their knowledge, forcing Mabel, Stan, and Grenda to go on an "epic wizard quest" to save their fantasy-loving family members. Mabel and Stan must play a real version of D&D&MoreD, in which Ford and Dipper are shrunk, dressed in fantasy clothes, and used as game pieces, to defeat Probabilitor. Dipper tells Mabel and Stan of the imagination and risk involved in the game to motivate them, and they create creatures such as a Centaur-taur, a centaur with another centaur body in place of a head, to fight things such as Probabilitor's Ogre-Nado, made to be a parody of Sharknado. Probabilitor summons an Impossi-beast, which can only be defeated by rolling a perfect 38 on the game's 38-sided die. Stan manages to do so by sticking a wad of gum to the die before rolling it, defeating Probabilitor and sending him back into the box art. Stan apologizes to Dipper for belittling him about his geeky hobbies (but not Ford, even though Ford probably needs it more), and Dipper says that with everything that has happened, he really would rather not play anything like the game for a while, prompting everyone to go back and watch Duck-Tective. The twist at the end of the Duck-Tective episode about who shot him at the end of the last episode is his twin brother. Ironic, huh? Everyone is underwhelmed by the twist, and Soos even says that he knew about this a year ago, referencing that the Stan's-twin-brother theory was first thought of over a year before "Not What He Seems" even aired. In essence, Soos has become a personification of the Gravity Falls fandom, and Duck-Tective is the in-universe equivalent of the show. Ford shares with Dipper that he dismantled the portal and contained its multiverse energy to a bubble, and makes him promise to not tell anyone, not even Stan or Mabel, out of fear that they may try to mess with it. With the exception of the announcement of the multiverse bubble, this episode is not too important in the overall scope of the show, though it has plenty of funny jokes and references and was one of the more accurate depictions of a Dungeons and Dragons-type game in media.
Lastly is "The Stanchurian Candidate", which initially aired on August 24, 2015. It begins with various things showing Stan feeling down-on-his-luck with bad luck constantly getting in his way, getting insulted by Wendy's teenager friends Robbie (a recurring character voiced by comedy actor
T. J. Miller, who dresses in a sort-of-emo-sort-of-goth style and was a rival with Dipper for Wendy's affections until Season 2 Episode 8, The Love God), Tambry (Wendy's best friend since childhood and Robbie's girlfriend since The Love God), Lee, and Nate for being old and thinking he pays for everything with "pennies and war bonds", and Dipper, Mabel, and Soos thinking that Ford is cooler than him for doing things such as making lightbulbs that last a thousand years and make your skin softer when touched. When Stan tries to forget his sorrows by watching TV, the news comes on and announces that Mayor Befufflefumpter, the 102-year-old mayor of Gravity Falls, had passed away the previous night, and due to the extremely lax nature of politics in this universe (for humorous sake, satirical purposes, simplicity for kids' understanding, and a need to avoid being blatantly ideological in order to invite as many audiences as possible even though most people working on the show are generally socio-politically progressive), the position of mayor is open to anyone interested. Bud Gleeful, Gideon Gleeful's dad and the town's used car salesman, is the first to throw his hat in the ring (literally, as you signify that you're running by throwing your hat into a hula hoop in the middle of town hall), and after hearing Dipper and Mabel say that if Ford came to the town hall meeting he would run and win because of his intelligence and likability, Stan dares to compete against Bud and convinces some of the other townspeople to do so as well. Knowing that Stan will say and do plenty of dumb things on the campaign trail, and desperate to keep Bud out of power out of a fear that he'll somehow get Gideon released, Dipper and Mabel try to mold him into the perfect candidate. They try writing a speech for him to read, but he refuses to say anything that isn't his words, which makes his first radio interview go totally wrong and recommend very bad ideas to solve educational issues such as get kids to learn survival tactics by stranding them on an island and teaching kids swears. Desperate to keep Stan's image alive, Dipper goes to Ford for help, who gives him a mind-control tie he invented years ago and claims to have used to help Ronald Reagan's campaign managers with the 1980 presidential election. Dipper and Mabel get Stan to wear the tie and control him into becoming the perfect candidate, gaining support from almost everyone in town and costing Bud approval ratings. Gideon, whom Bud communicates with over a video screen from prison, is making Bud run to bust him out of prison and help him accelerate his plans of getting revenge on the Pines family, forcing Mabel to be his girlfriend, and ruling over the town. Bud asks Gideon to just be patient and wait until he can find a way to regain approval ratings, but patience is not in Gideon's vocabulary, and he uses a spell on a page he took from one of Ford's journals back when he had one in Season 1 before we knew the identity of The Author (which is just the phrase "spooky evil spells" said backwards) to take control of his father's mind. Stan is confident of his victory now in spite of not even truly knowing why he's leading the polls, and Dipper and Mabel try to convince him to wear his "lucky tie" for the next debate, but Stan is so confident he doesn't feel the need to wear a "lucky tie." When Dipper gets mad while trying to convince Stan to wear the tie, he lets slip that it's a mind-control tie, and upon that revelation, Stan fires Dipper and Mabel as his campaign managers and announces his intentions to win on his own. Dipper and Mabel then try to turn Soos into their perfect candidate, but that doesn't turn out so well. The final speech involves an old Gravity Falls tradition of throwing birdseed at the best candidate and releasing a bald eagle to bestow a "birdly kiss" upon the candidate with the most birdseed, declaring them the winner (as Dipper says when this is first described at the beginning of the episode, "I could not make this up if I wanted to", but Alex Hirsch and the writing team clearly can, so...). Mabel and Dipper argue over how Soos should act while in control of Soos, so that ruins Soos's chances, Stan recommends even more bad ideas like waging war against neighboring cities to stimulate the economy, and Bud, now being controlled by Gideon, does a song-and-dance routine to win over the audience. In between segments of the debate, Gideon discovers Dipper and Mabel's plan and ties them to chairs in the monument being built in honor of Befufflefumpter in the side of a cliff full of explosives set to blow. Learning of the danger the kids are in, Stan throws the debate to save them, and the heroic actions he performs make the townspeople like him enough to shower him with the most birdseed and gets the eagle to kiss Stan, declaring him the winner... until the Gravity Falls Parliament disqualifies him after performing a criminal background check and learning of Stan's laundry list of crimes, including but not limited to first-degree "llamacide", a crime he invented called "burgle-bezzlement", and unlicensed possession of pogs. "At least they didn't say any of the bad ones", says Stan after turning off the TV while his crimes are being listed. The winner of mayor is the only candidate who actually bothered to fill out the paperwork, Tyler Cutebiker, a man who is known for his catchphrase, which is different variations of the saying "Git'em, giiiiiiit'em!" With nothing better to do, Dipper, Mabel, and Stan go off to vandalize Tyler's newly-christened City Hall. Meanwhile, Gideon, in his cell at night, says to himself that this "motivational" cat poster is the only thing keeping him going... except it's not the cat poster, but rather a Bill Cipher Wheel he drew that he hides under it. The Bill Cipher Wheel is a variation of an alchemy circle, with Bill Cipher drawn in the center and various symbols representing the main characters surrounding him (another major mystery of the show is which characters represent each symbol, which has been revealed for some but not all of the symbols). Gideon draws an eye in the center to finish the wheel off, announcing that he's finally ready to make another deal with him (besides the one he made in Part 1 of the Season 1 finale, "Dreamscapers") as the wheel begins to glow. This episode is one of my favorites because of the soft political satire and other modern pop culture references such as Stan being turned into various Internet memes in response to his gaffes on the radio such as "One Does Not Simply Teach Kids Swears", a parody of the "One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor" meme, the return of Gideon, and the last-second twist that no one saw coming and is meant to set up the next episode.
So where does the show go from here? As of this writing, the next episode is set to air on Labor Day, September 7, 2015 and is called "The Last Mabelcorn." The two plots, according to most early synopses, are that Mabel learns that unicorns are real in the GF universe and sets out with Wendy and her two best friends Candy and Grenda to save them from extinction, while Dipper learns of Ford's history with Bill Cipher and a potential weakness as he returns to the physical world to prepare to bring the apocalypse to Gravity Falls. Other possibilities for this episode are Bill possessing Gideon, an epic battle between Ford and Bill, and Mabel losing trust in Dipper and Ford after learning of the secrets they're keeping from her and Stan. Many things are supposed to happen as Season 2, and possibly the series, ends this year. Alex Hirsch said in a tweet that someone will die this season. Was Mayor Befufflefumpter the death he was speaking of, or will a death with more emotional weight occur later in the season? And who would it be? Also, Hirsch announced at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015 at the Gravity Falls panel that contrary to popular belief, Bill Cipher will not be the main antagonist of the season, even though he will still be a major one. Many people believe that Ford will end up being the main antagonist because of his attitudes about various things and continued refusal to forgive Stan for what happened between them in 1982, and that spite could turn him into a threat to the Pines family. Dipper and Mabel, similar to Stan and Ford, may also have a falling out that the usual Disney-style end-of-episode apology won't be able to fix until possibly the series finale. As Dipper and Ford as well as Mabel and Stan become closer, Dipper and Mabel will drift farther apart. Nothing is certain in Gravity Falls, everything is open to interpretation and questioning, and no matter what happens this season, Fallers will get hit in the feels (look that up if you don't know what it means). Thank you for reading, and watch Gravity Falls Monday nights at 8:30 PM on Disney XD, as well as on Xfinity On Demand, the Watch Disney XD app available on the iTunes app store, Google Play Store, and Apple TV, and individual episodes are available for purchase on iTunes and Google Play.