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Have been reorganizing the notes on my computer and came across this gem that I forgot about:

Dipper and Mabel did something they were told not to do. Stan and Ford caught them

Mabel, looking cute and sweet: we're so sorry! Dipper: we won't ever do it again! Promise! Stan: … Stan: oh okay fine! Ford: Stan! They broke a rule! Stan: what? They're sorry! And look at Mabel's sweet face! Ford: Stan, they're manipulating you! Stan: I know! They did a good job! If they can manipulate their Grunkle Stan I think they deserve to be let off the hook!

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I just had the epiphany that Stan spent more of his life as "Stanford" than as "Stanley" because most of his life he was going by other, fake, names

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Alex Hirsch creating a canon timeline for Gravity Falls, whose fandom he has trained to be eagle eyed to every single detail in his show:

Me planning fanfiction, that technically I don’t even know yet if people will read, for Animaniacs, a show that absolutely does not take itself very seriously:

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I feel like if I could just nail down the exact ending for my Animaniacs fan fiction that I’ve been planning (for an embarrassingly long time) I could probably go from rough draft to starting to post the final product in like a month

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Theory(?): Bill made Ford forget his birth date

Okay originally I was going to post about how I'd like clarification on whether Stan and Ford's birthday is June 15th, like it says in Journal 3, or June 16th, like it says on thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com, but in trying to get images to show as evidence that we were given two different dates, I've come up with a theory.

Honestly, it's probably a theory that has already been thought up, hell it might even have been confirmed canon for all I know, but I haven't seen it, so I'm gonna say it just in case.

I will start this by saying I never deciphered any of the ciphers in...any of the Gravity Falls material. Scandalous, I know. The most important ciphers always seem to get back to me through the fandom so I never felt the need to put effort into it, and heaven knows these ciphers are heavily documented on the internet. So upon realizing that in Journal 3, their birthday was written in a cipher, and knowing someone else had already decoded it, I simply googled it instead. Here is my source. And as I look through the other decoded ciphers on this page, I noticed a pattern that I'm sure I am far from the first one to catch: All the ciphers in that particular code, the one that the birthday is written in, seem to be written by Bill. So it isn't Ford writing that his birthday is June 15th, it's Bill. Further confirmed by the fact that in the same deciphered code, it says "Deathday sooner than you think" which Ford should not know and I doubt would write if he did know. Meanwhile the date of June 16th, graciously given to us from thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com, appears to be an actual legal document. With this in mind, I am more inclined to believe the legal document from the website is real, over whatever potential lies Bill is spewing out.

We know that Bill was actively messing with Ford's mind and memories, in the Book of Bill there's an interaction between Bill and Ford where Bill wipes Ford's identity from his mind and makes him forget who is, and then allows him to remember, both with a mere snap of his fingers. Therefore, stating that Ford's birthday is June 15th when it's actually the 16th was likely another way Bill messed with Ford's mind. This was another tactic for Bill to keep control of Ford, advanced gaslighting him into believe he had a different birthday.

Has this idea been theorized already? Is there a canon explanation for this inconsistency? This seems like something someone would have already thought up and I'm shocked I've found nothing on it. Maybe I wasn't searching right?

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You’re not depressed. You just need $250,000 in your bank account.

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Sometimes I forget that Dipper and Mabel are part of my generation. I've been kinda hyperfixating on technology from when I was young, when I was using my ipod nano and DS Lite, and when that hyperfixation crosses with Gravity Falls, I briefly think Mabel and Dipper are potentially too young to have had such tech as kids. Or alternatively I think about the shows I watched as a kid, like Hannah Montana, and think that they wouldn't have seen those shows. And all of that is wrong. They were born the same year as my brother. Mabel was likely just the demographic for Hannah Montana while it was airing, They probably both had DS gaming systems (how do you make DS plural? DSes?) I'm not sure they would have had iPods, but maybe!

They probably played similar computer games as me and my brother did. Jumpstart, Freddi Fish, and Putt Putt (side note, you have no idea how long I was vaguely remembering Putt Putt but couldn't recall the name before finally googling it)

I always associate Mabel and Dipper with currently being the age they are in the show, as opposed to associating them with the actual year they were canonly born. Thus leading me to forget that Mabel was likely one of the first generations of young girls begging her parents for that GirlTech password journal. Or that Dipper probably wanted all the Spy Gear brand toys. This was supposed to be how I keep forgetting the twins' actual age and it ended up being a nostalgia trip, so hope everyone enjoyed that 😂

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For anyone who's seen the show "Friends" I wanna ask: What are your thoughts on Monica and Richard vs Frank Jr. and Alice? And have either or both of these opinions changed as you've gotten older? I have thoughts but I don't want to influence other people so I'm gonna share them under the cut

TRIGGER WARNING: Grooming

Okay so when I ignore the beginnings of each relationship, I don't mind either of them, and the only reason I can ignore the beginnings of each of their relationships is because it's fiction. When I first watched Friends, I really didn't think too much about either of these. However, becoming more aware of the dangers out there, the more these relationships seem...sketchy, to say the least.

The show presents the main issue with both relationship to be their age differences, but that is not the main issue with either relationship, although it does play a major role.

The main issue is that the older partners knew and spent time with their younger partners when they were adults and their partners were children. Richard was a friend of Ross and Monica's dad, and I think he might have been their eye doctor? So he was around Monica all the time when she was growing up. Alice was Frank Jr.'s home ec teacher. These are both very sketchy and concerning to me. But I am willing to give a little more grace to Richard and Monica, because there was a bit of time between Monica becoming an adult and them getting together, enough time that Richard didn't even recognize her when he was first introduced. So while still VERY weird, I don't see any evidence of grooming on Richard's part.

But Alice and Frank Jr.... It's a wonder that Alice didn't immediately get fired. She literally married her student. He was 18, according to Phoebe, when they got engaged, so basically right after he graduated and became a legal adult, they got together (and frankly....I don't recall any confirmations that they weren't together before.

Again, they're fictional relationships, and not having any personal trauma with this topic, I can let it go and suspend my disbelief, when I think about these relationships critically, each of their histories are weird and concerning to different degrees, and it's even weirder that these histories are hardly addressed as being the problem with the relationships. Also, I love Alice as a character, and if it weren't for her being Frank's teacher I'd have no issue with them together, but realistically, she probably should have been arrested....

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Every time I question how Mabel Pines can wear sweaters in the Summer, or I see someone else asking that, there is, inevitably, at least one person who says “well, it is Oregon, after all! It’s not very hot there!”

And this drives me insane because I live in Oregon, I’ve lived here my whole life, and I don’t know a single soul who would wear sweaters, in the middle of the day, under the beating sun, in JULY. Outside at night, sure, I’m fairly confident that out in central or eastern Oregon, where Gravity Falls is located according to various maps in the series, it gets decently chilly at night. Also sweaters or sweatshirts will protect you from mosquitoes at night. But wearing a sweater in the middle of the day? Only if you’re at the coast.

Granted, the past decade or so, the Summers have been hotter in my opinion, so by that logic the Summer of 2012 could be cooler. However even as a kid, when I felt like the Summers were a tolerable temperature, I never, in a million years, would have worn a sweater in Summer.

Therefore, the comment “Mabel can swear sweaters in Summer because it’s Oregon and it’s not hot there” annoys, and confuses the heck out of me.

And then…

I came across a variant of this comment that explains it, but also shakes me to my core:

(Paraphrased, I saw this months ago)

“Summers in Oregon don’t get very hot, only about low to mid 80s”

Okay, that does explain it, that is accurate to what I remember as a kid, although these days Summers seems to stick to mid 90s, leading me to spend my Summers cursing every global warming denier. And I can understand why someone who’s used to 90 and 100 degree days in Summer, would consider 80 degrees to be cool, heaven knows after a string of 90s and 100s, I think 80s are just lovely temperatures..

But now this makes me beg another question that I’m a little scared to know the answer for:

Are you people saying you wear sweaters in 80+° sunny weather??????? It stops being sweater weather for me at like 60°, if I wear a sweater above that I’d probably pass out! Are there people who check the weather, see the high is 80+ and think “that’s perfect! I can wear my sweater today!?” Do you just…power through heat stroke??????????????????

I have heard in some circumstances it's better to wear to long sleeve in heat because it essentially shades you, but I swear I've heard that you only do that in dry heat, never humid heat. Now, I've known Oregon to be particularly humid, at least not compared to what I assume Florida is or something, but I did have a coworker from Arizona say recently "I'd rather it be 115° in Arizona than 85° here in Oregon because of the humidity here." So that logic doesn't really apply here either.

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The thing about Dipper and Mabel is that they're equally as stupid as each other but Mabel jumps right to each stupid idea whereas Dipper always has a big long insane train of thought before each stupid idea so he always Thinks he's being intelligent and is then surprised to see every idea he ever has blow up in his face.

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I've seen claims that if Mabel was a boy, Mabel Haters would not be so passionate or wouldn't care as much, and that their hatred is mostly routed in misogyny, whether full on-display misogyny or internalized.

Here's the thing, anyone who says this that 100% right and there's even proof. The proof is that a male version of Mabel Pines already exists in universe, and not only is he no where near as hated as Mabel, he's one of the most loved characters.

Stanley.

We always talk about how the senior and junior Pines twins are mirrors of each other, Mabel and Stan being alike is nothing new.

It's always bugged me that Stan has done so much more, much worse things than Mabel and yet Mabel gets all the hate and blame.

Weirdmaggedon is much more Stan's fault than it is Mabel's. Mabel was emotionally distraught, Mabel was manipulated, Mabel didn't know what she was doing, and if someone had told her what the rift was, she wouldn't have done it. Stan was warned that the portal could be destructive, Stan didn't deny seeing the warnings in Ford's journal and still chose to fire up the portal. It wasn't a "in the moment" kind of decision either, he had decades to decide that restarting the portal was a dangerous thing to do, and still did it. Still opened up that portal with his young niece and nephew in the house. People will claim that Mabel acted selfishly when she gave the rift away but Stan, he was opening the portal to save Ford, he was doing it for his family. No, he wasn't. Ford had warnings that the portal was too dangerous, Stan knows his brother well enough that he should have thought that Ford wouldn't want it open. And if Stan was doing it for his family, he would have stopped after bonding with Dipper and Mabel, because the portal could have destroyed the world, including them. He was never opening the portal for his family, he was doing it for himself. He was doing it because he wanted his brother back.

When Mabel, at 12-13 years old, thought she was going to be separated from her brother, she got upset, and expressed those emotions as she has every right to do. She doesn't have the right to force Dipper to go home with her, but she has every right to openly express to him that she doesn't want him to stay and doesn't want to be apart from him. In fact, that's exactly what she should do! That's how you have healthy relationships with people in your life! By being honest with them when things upset you! And she's labeled as selfish for just having a very normal reaction for someone her age and in the mental state she was in. When Stan, at 17-18 years old thought he was going to separated from his brother, he was also upset, but instead of expressing those emotions and communicating with Ford, he lashed out and broke Ford's project, on accident, yes, but their entire conflict could have been avoided if Stan had immediately gone to Ford and admitted that he might have accidentally broken it. And when Stan was called out for having broke it, Stan basically told Ford it wasn't a big deal, because now they could go treasure hunting. And despite all the clear wrongdoings by Stan, the fandom pities him So...we're expecting a 12-13 to handle the same kind of situation better than a 17-18 year old? Got it. Even worse, I'd argue she already did handle it better than Stan did, and yet she's still despised. Shout out to @jubileebloom, who said in the notes of this post of mine: "#also#the fandom when Wax Stan: awww Stanley misses his bro so much. what a good brother :')#the fandom when Dippy Fresh: omg I can't believe Mabel replaced Dipper like that. with a version that won't talk back. what an awful sister#just. just saying." Thank you! I hadn't even considered that one! I recall seeing people getting upset at Mabel for making fun of Dipper in Dipper vs Manliness, specifically Mabel, as though Stan didn't do the exact same damn thing. It was written off as basically "well Stan is Stan, but Mabel is his sister!" Yes exactly, Mabel is his sister, making fun of your brother is sibling 101, Stan, however, is the adult in Dipper's life at this point

I feel like there's more, specific, examples. Feel free to add

Every small mistake of Mabel's is heavily scrutinized. Of course she's making mistakes, she's fucking 12, she's learning, in many situations she may not know any better.

Stan is 60+ years old, committing crimes, putting his family in danger and is damn well old enough to know better, and yet is basically labeled as a precious cinnamon roll.

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I have this metaphor for how Dipper and Mabel differ in their personal confidence, and I'm curious what others think, partly because when I try to explain it, my brain backtracks and says "No! That's not right!"

Okay so imagine people's confidence is built with a series of blocks, like those stereotypical toy cube block you see in cartoons or something, all the same size. Dipper and Mabel have the same amount of "confidence blocks" but they are building with them in very different ways.

Dipper stacks his confidence blocks with a very solid foundation, but that means he can't stack them very high, because he only has so many. Whereas Mabel stacks her blocks one on top of the other, as high as they can go. It's pretty tall, but easily falls.

So if they've built both their towers on a table, Dipper's tower isn't anywhere near as high as Mabel's, meaning, he doesn't present himself very confidently, where as Mabel seems to have sky high confidence. However, if someone or something were to come by and shake the table, because Dipper's, while not high, is more structurally sound, not a lot of blocks fall off his tower. When Dipper's confidence is shaken, he still has a bit of rebuilding to do, but it's not too much because not much was able to fall, and it wasn't terribly high in the first place. But if the table Mabel's tower is built on gets shaken up, because hers is tall with little structural integrity, it all crumbles, if her confidence gets shaken, she seems to just fall apart. Best example of this for Mabel is how she acted after Cele--the unicorn--said she wasn't a good person. She completely fell apart. Another decent example is how when Pacifica wanted to do the mini golf match, Mabel's reaction was "I guess it's time to scratch mini golf off my talents list" just jumping to the most extreme consequences of losing when she hadn't even lost yet.

But I don't know, is this actually an accurate metaphor to describe them? Because I kinda feel like this underplays how Dipper acts when his confidence is shaken, because he does seem to go out of his way to prove himself when he feels threaten in this regard. And this also implies that Dipper needs something larger to mess with his confidence, than Mabel, as this metaphor would imply that the tiniest thing could knock her whole tower down.

Thoughts? 🤔 You don't have to use my metaphor if you don't want to lol.

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One Mabel Pines criticism that I hear all the time and drives me absolutely insane is the existence of Dippy Fresh

"MABEL REPLACED HER BROTHER FIRST CHANCE SHE GOT!" They cry.

Did you all watch the episode?? She was hypnotized by Bill. That's why Dippy Fresh existed, it wasn't Mabel, it was was Bill--or rather Bill's influence on Mabel.

Mabel being hypnotized isn't even like a "well if you read between the lines and do some critical thinking, it becomes clear" thing either. It's legit spelled out for us in the episode:

Dipper yells at Mabel "Bill's got you hypnotized or something!"

After the sibling hug, Mabel blinks several times and suddenly realizes she's been "listening to the same song an entire week"

This is so damn clear, what more could you want to convince you that she was essentially under a spell????

I think the only thing more they could do to make it clearer would be to either have Mabel look straight at the audience and say "I was being hypnotized by nacho demon" or for Bill to look straight at the audience and say "I have Shooting Star in under a spell, she's completely hypnotized."

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Very curious on the answer here

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People who, no matter what crazy voice they do, I can almost always recognize their voice in cartoons (no particular order):

Alex Hirsch

Rob Paulsen

Tara Strong

Grey DeLisle

Cree Summer

Jim Cummings

Tom Kenny

I welcome, and encourage, any additions to this list!

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Been watching Kim Possible and I gotta ask, because was not a teenager yet when this aired:

Is that actually how teenagers talked? Like is that actually slang that was used by teens in that time. Because, to me, it sounds like adults writing teenagers and making wild guesses about that they talk like 🤣