October 27, 2015
Hi, blogosphere, it's Neil. I posted a Top 10 list on this blog about my favorite episodes of the show I always talk about on this blog, Gravity Falls, to prepare for the three-part Season 2 and/or series finale to the show, the Weirdmageddon trilogy, but in order to more properly match the FCAs for this week's assignment, I decided to write an extra post as well. The FCAs mentioned taking a side of a debate and defending why you took the side you did. In order for it to be about media, I decided to go to the website known as TV Tropes and look up the tropes "Base Breaker" and "Broken Base". These terms are meant to describe divisions within fanbases and how people that hold different opinions on different aspects of the same thing and when it leads to people that common sense would dictate should get along fighting amongst each other for extremely petty reasons. Many things can break a base. It could be a character that is given excessive time in the story by the writers because of how much the creators or writers like them but many fans have grown to find very annoying. It could be a plot line done by a book, comic, film, TV show episode, video game, or whatever media the fandom in question is centered around that had a character do something that many fans believed was out of character, or just the very nature of the media in question leading people to like it for different reasons and believing those who do not like it for the exact same reasons as them to "not be true fans", and that's one of the nicer things said in these online debates. Because this is largely a Gravity Falls blog, I shall look into one of the base breakers for the show- the most relevant one at the current moment and who is at fault for the figurative and literal rift being opened causing the apocalypse at the end of "Dipper And Mabel Vs. The Future" that will go into "The Weirdmageddon Trilogy". Some blame Ford because of how he wouldn't tell anyone other than Dipper about the crack in the glass that held the interdimensional bubble together and for possibly trying to convince Dipper that Mabel is holding him back from his true potential, inadvertently projecting his own anger at Stan onto Dipper. Some blame Dipper because of how he didn't get Mabel's input before making a decision on whether or not he should stay behind after the end of the summer and become Ford's apprentice, a decision that would greatly impact both himself and Mabel. Some blame Mabel because she got mad at Dipper for simply exercising his right to take charge of his future and because she wants to freeze everyone in time all because she can't deal with her problems. Some even blame Stan for causing the apocalypse because of how his activating of the portal is how the rift problem got started in the first place. They ironically leave Bill out of all of this even though he's the one that caused the apocalypse on purpose. In addition, this episode got people saying that the show was better before Ford's introduction because it showed Dipper and Mabel as the ideal sibling relationship that should receive more of a focus like it did in the first season, and that the idea of Dipper leaving Mabel is awful because that was one of the main reasons why certain fans were interested at all, because it was one of the first shows to show a healthy and rarely confrontational sibling relationship without the sibling rivalry of most shows with characters that are brothers, sisters, or a brother and sister, and like many real-life sibling relationships. Those on the other side of that debate say that Dipper and Mabel's relationship has become codependent and that Mabel doesn't know how to be her own person without Dipper. She is comfortable in the idea that she's the fun one and Dipper is the smart one, and that they're an inseparable pair that compensates for each other's flaws. It's sometimes hard for twins to find self-identification because of their eternal ties to their sibling, and because of Stan and Ford's inability to to peacefully do this, their relationship as adults is heavily strained. So, what's my take on these two issues? With the first one, I think that it is Bill's fault, and that blame games do no one any good. And with the second one, I think that there can be a way for Dipper and Mabel to be close but not too close to Mabel when they're older. Maybe they try to find a balance between the amount of things they do with each other and with any new friendships and relationships they may form with other people. Designate one day a week for each other or something like that in the future? Alex Hirsch will think of something that will make sense and work for the characters, I'm sure. So when it comes to divisions in fanbases and base breakers, I only have one thing to say- can't we all just get along? We're supposed to like the same thing, so shouldn't that be all that matters, and not the little intricacies that might create rifts between fans? Let's all work together to not let petty differences in opinion and interpretations of moments in fictional works not create any more unnecessary conflicts.
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