Perusing My Photo Edit App In Ways It Was Not Meant To

The fascinating thing about having only just joined gravity falls fandom, but being previously aware of its presence on the internet; is I know a decade ago the only character with major presence out of the fandom was Dipper. Like if you stumbled on fanart or content while not in fandom most of it involved him. Dipper getting possessed, Dipper beat up, Dipper tormenting his family while possessed, him with Wirt of garden wall.

So when I watched I expected a slightly different show. Something slightly less rounded. Something really only focused on Dipper. Primarily I expected more Dipper getting possessed whump. I thought he was possessed for a string of episodes at one point bc of the sheer amount of Dipper possession art I saw roughly a decade ago.

But now the characters with the biggest presence are the old men. In particular theres alot more focus on Fiddleford than ever. Alot of art, analysis, and fic is recontextualizing the traumas these old men have been through. The way the memory gun is an analogy for addiction, the way Bill is just a shitty abusive ex (an entertaining one, but one nonetheless), the way that the show tackles generational trauma so on an so forth.

But thats still not the show in its entirety, the microscope just shifted.

What I'm saying is there is a non zero chance some poor soul will walk into Gravity Falls thinking its more about old man Mcgucket than anything, only to get wildly confused. I wish them luck I can only imagine the show that existed in their head before watching and I hope the tonal disonace was as funny as mine was when I realised Dipper was just some sweaty kid who loved his family.

im talking this over with a friend rn but its funny how i've never seen anyone headcanon that "oh dipper and mabel will go off and adventure together for the rest of their lives because all they need is each other!!" as a sort of cinematic parallel to the stans. like they all headcanon that both or at least one of those two are still going to end up with/marrying someone else (mostly pacifica) and their percieved happy endings is still kind of... subconciously defined by how they're capable of leading independent lives while still having a strong bond with each other. i have literally never seen a single headcanon where theyre just ultimately together for the rest of their lives where they dont need to be with anyone else except each other... unless its a pinecest shipper who's headcanoning it.

meanwhile the actual canon for stanford and stanley is... well.

ford's encounter with the dream hipster revealing his greatest nightmare isnt JUST stanley dying, but it's very specifically stan dying *by his own hands*. one that he is responsible for, and where he'll be a spectator to his brother's doom, caused by HIM, and HIS hands.

And you have to wonder what scenario could possibly exist where that would happen.

I mean him killing his brother, caused by something that's his fault?

something else i really like is how even the dream hipster's joke "LOOKS LIKE YOU FINALLY GAVE YOUR BROTHER A HAND" is a poke at repressed guilt ford had about not helping stan.

guilt ford tries to hide, because it forces him to ask— acknowledge if he had a choice in losing his brother. to write in code, asking himself, "have i been too harsh all along?" while dropping tears onto the drawing of stanley offering him one last high six

"who knows what could happen if Cipher stepped inside stanley's mind for even one minute?" i guess what happened is literally ford's worst nightmare. kind of funny

Kisses From Angels @cellard00rs

I love this fic so much aaaa <3

“Already tired of trying to recall when it all fell apart…I just want to love you well…I just want to learn how to somehow, to be loved myself - Sleeping At Last

Stancest codependency. They're supposed to be one, one cannot live without the other, Ford is the only person who didn't see Stan as a lesser version of him, Stan is the only person who can truly love Ford. Trying to separate them is tearing one soul into two. Do you see my vision?

when we get to an island where no one's ever been // we can get down and dirty in our animal skins

big fan of that face the twins make. they just look so distraught

also fiddlestan cause they make me insane

Shoutout to all the non-stancesters that make animations for Ford & Stan to various love songs. You confuse me but ily