Good Omens, staying skeptical, and the mystery and the lie at the heart of Gravity Falls
-Neil Gaiman, 29 June 2023
I recently came across this post by @apathetic-revenant, which goes into extensive detail about a whole secret meta lie generated by Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, midway through the show.
It went like this: the show was very focused on mysteries, codes, ciphers, etc, and early on a character discovered a mysterious journal with an unknown author, and this drove the plot. There were clues placed in the show so that people could solve the journal author's identity, or more probably so that it would all make sense in hindsight after the big reveal. However, the show ended up with a larger-than-expected fandom who started organizing online in a way the creators hadn't expected or planned for, and they were worried everyone would collectively solve the mystery too easily, too soon, and the suspense and appeal of the story gradually unfolding would be lost.
So they took a fake BTS photo that appeared to reveal the journal's author and "leaked" it online. To give it credibility, the show's creator posted "Fuming right now" and then deleted the post soon after, once they were certain it had been seen and screenshots taken. The Gravity Falls fandom then stopped trying to solve the mystery, as they believed the answer had already been revealed. It was a solution "targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show."
Ok, Good Omens fandom. Are we Gravity Falls all over again? Are we also experiencing meta lies?
Is it possible that Amazon's marketing department has just released a new promotional video about Aziraphale & Crowley's "timeline of interconnectedness" (discussions here and here ) where they honestly:
got several of those timeline dates wrong, including labeling the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 as belonging to the same year?
mixed all the season 1 and 2 clips together so they're completely interconnected and out of the order they were presented to us so far?
didn't consult with Neil Gaiman for even a moment to be sure they had their facts straight? (Or literally anyone else who's spent years working on it? Or even someone who has just watched it once while paying attention?)
didn't understand the way most series tell a story by moving through time in a realistic linear fashion?
When Neil said today that "time is fine" in response to questions about the timeline of interconnectedness video, was he trying to misdirect the fandom away from the mystery that's clearly hidden throughout both seasons (and especially season 2)?
The Good Place seems suddenly more relevant than I'd imagined:
Neil has told us that his Tumblr posts aren't canon. He's also said:
"Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story."
"Writers are liars, my dear, surely you know that by now? And yet, things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."
-Both quotes are from The Sandman [link]
So here's my plea to whichever part of the fandom might read this: Stay Skeptical. It's wonderful to talk to Neil about his characters, the worlds he's created, his writing process, his views on world events, his sense of humor, his kindness, his compassion and empathy, and his good advice & encouragement for the entire range of the human experience. I respect him very much, and I'm thrilled he's here on social media talking to all of us. (Except he doesn't have social media, obviously. He's like Schrödinger's Social Media Neil-cat.)
I'm looking forward to all the surprises I'm certain are in store for us (and Aziraphale and Crowley) in Good Omens season 3. I trust Neil (and Terry!) to deliver our beloved characters to a very satisfying ending. But I don't trust Neil to honestly answer all of our questions on social media - and neither should you.
Especially not when he's already blamed obvious season 2 changes to the Bentley on the "lighting" (as just one example).
With lots of thanks to the members of the @ineffable-detective-agency - including @bbbitchvibbbez, @kimberleyjean, @maufungi, @noneorother, @theastrophysicistnextdoor, and @thebluestgreen for all their excellent fact-checking, ideas, and discussions!
Interested in diving further into all the Good Omens mysteries? I have more posts plus Clues and metas from all over the fandom, here.
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For the ask thing: Damian?
ty anon ^_^
Pick a character I am likely to have Feelings/Opinions about and I will give and explain the top five ideas/concepts/etc that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.
Damian
Compassionate - if you don't get that damian cares about other people you can't write him, do not pass go do not collect 200 dollars. i don't care about arguing whether it comes easy for him or not because that doesn't really matter to me as much as his actions. we see him being willing to extend a hand out to kids who are in the same or a similar situation to the one he was in (demon's fist, mara, suren, maya). Also whenever he gives gifts, he like thinks of something SUPER meaningful for the person and then spends a bunch of effort hunting it down. He must make everyone else look like chumps at birthday parties :P
Competent - yes he's 10-14 years old in his canon main timeline appearances. that doesn't make him any less competent. don't forget he was trained since birth both to fight and in many other fields little dude canonically has a phd level education in economics*. "but it's unrealistic" maybe you are in the wrong genre if you are looking for incredible realism.
also even outside his skills he is still good at adapting and thinking on his feet, it's not like he only ever fights. he keeps himself alive against deathstroke via all the traps in the tomb that he memorized where were, he KOs jim gordon's boring bat suit by leading him into a trap and frying him with electricity, he freaks zsasz out by mimicking his fighting style back at him.... if he has a superior opponent (ok idk if jim is really a superior opponent i can’t remember how tough he was portrayed as in his boring batman run but whatever lol) he still tries to find ways to win that aren't just "punch it"
Confident - what makes Damian so fun to read is that he either acts like he’s the shit or knows he’s the shit (Depending on the point in his character development). there is ZERO fanboying on his part (yes he has people he respects) and he insists on being part of the room he is impossible to ignore. Even if he desperately craves someone's approval, he will never act like he needs it. He does definitely have some insecurities, especially when he just joins batfam, but I feel like overall especially post character development he’s pretty confident and sure of himself (and when he is not, he will still act like he is :P)
Reserved - Damian is extremely unlikely to just spill his feelings out to anyone he just meets. It takes him a VERY long time to open up to people.
still just a kid ffs - this doesn’t mean he wants to be treated like a kid, and he’s obviously not like a “regular” kid who wasn’t raised by assassins, but he's going to interact with things from the lens that a kid does. like I know this definitely wasn't intended by the author, but I think it's kind of interesting how Damian just seems a bit more... irritable and disagreeable when he just joins batfam than when he was working with the League of Shadows and like... his entire world changed! he moved from being the heir to ra's al ghul and presumably commanding around grown men assassins to having to follow dick's orders, live in a completely different environment, and be told the way that he was raised was wrong. any kid I think would be irritable and have a hard time juggling that new situation
*this is too a fun detail to ever leave out
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Recap on the Book (+ a theory on Atsushi)
The Book is an element that received little attention compared to the character drama in Bungo Stray Dogs, but it's actually the element instigating it, as the thing almost everyone desires. This time, I want to make a recap on it, and take a look on an interesting theory regarding the connection between it and Atsushi.
The first one to mention it is Fitzgerald. He describes it as pretty much Aladdin's lamp from the original fairy tale: something to make all wishes come true, in his case the resurrection of his daughter. Appearently, Atsushi is the 'guidepost' to the Book, and that's why there was such an hefty bounty on him at the start of the series. Whatever that means, we are all still waiting to know.
It also mentions that it is 'impervious to fire and all abilities'.
But Fitzgerald was in cahoots with two other amiable fellows who were after the same thing: Fyodor Dostoevsky and Agatha Christie. While the latter has not appeared since except for Dead Apple, the former has given us new infos on the prized Book.
He too wants to use the Book, but in his case, the goal is a little more lofty: he wants to recreate the world, one without the 'sin' of ability users. So, the Book's powers aren't limited to just bring back the dead, they really have a reality-altering scale.
(translation by @akai-koutei)
At the start of the Decay of Angels arc, Chief Taneda gives Ranpo a few more informations about our object of interest.
It is in the hands of the government, and it has been studied, via a single page extracted from it, that holds the same power as the whole Book (like a Death Note).
Moreover, we find the first limitation to the power: 'the written content must conform to the rules of karma'. In other words - and we're going deliciously meta here - it must have narrative consistency, unlike the 'real world' in which accidents of any kind and without any meaning happen all the time. Of course it does! If a book had inconsistent plot development and characterization, wouldn't we all be complaining about bad writing?
Lastly, it's suggested that it was created by an ability user, which set its rules to prevent excessive and senseless destruction.
This rule begs the question - do Fitzgerald or Fyodor know about it? 'A girl suddenly springs back to life' doesn't have much narrative consistence, and neither 'all Ability users suddenly vanish'. A way to work around this limit would be rewrite history itself: Fitzgerald's daughter never died/Abilities never existed in the first place. It would erase the timeline in which these events would be impossible, and create another in which they have consistency.
This would also be the reason for the initial plan of the Decay of Angels, using the page to depict the ADA as terrorists ... but before that, they had to 'create' their crimes by killing relevant people that had spoken against the Agency, giving them plausible actions and motives.
It also fits with the Sky Casino: a building that was woven back in time with a complete backstory, instead of just popping out from nothingness. Still, this also show us that there's no need for the details to be absolutely accurate: Dazai managed to figure out that the building had been written from the Book because the 'top secret' details of its creation didn't exist in the first place. Still, these details are ones that do not 'disturb' the flow of a story: it's a freaking flying casino, who is going to think about the funds? Just enjoy the story!
But then we find an outstanding exception: Sigma. A whole human being brought into existence by the Book, without any past that he can remember. He appeared three years ago, in a desert, with only the clothes on his back and a train ticket. No backstory from him.
How was this possible? It's not very narratively coherent, a person popping into existence.
Well, we must consider that we know only what Fyodor says about it. He might be withholding information from Dazai and the audience, or even lying to confuse his opponent; or maybe he doesn't know the answer himself. He recruited Sigma, likely after hearing about his Ability, but did not create him personally.
Maybe Sigma's 'parent' actually did have a backstory and purpose planned for his 'character', but for some reason, they weren't received. Or maybe they knew some trick to circumvent the limitations of the Book. Maybe the government was experimenting with it, and for some reason someone was like 'hey, let's see if we can make a person pop out in the desert, without anyone being around to check if it happens or take care of the eventual human being!'.
Yeah ... this part is rather confusing. I look forward to an explaination on Sigma's origins.
The last time that the rules of the Book are mentioned, is to show us a way to circumvent them. Fyodor had written that 'no police officer will believe the Agency's innocence' ... but he didn't factor Tachihara in. As a member of the Hunting Dogs, he is a police officer; but during his infiltration of the Mafia, he acquired this second identity. He is an officer, and at the same time, he is not. As soon as he inquires other mafiosi on the matter, he becomes clear to him the ADA's guiltlessness, in which he couldn't believe when talking with the othe Hunting Dogs.
And Ranpo in later chapters used a similar strategy, bringing his proofs to a group of journalists to make the masses think; and in turn, this divided the police between those who still obeyed the rule and those who adopted a new perspective.
The human ability to put ourselves in other points of view is the uncontrollable variable that can break the Book's powers.
(By the way, I wonder if that was actually Fyodor's plan. He seems too smart and well-informed to not take this possibility into consideration. Considering that the clashes among the police resulted in riots and chaos; and he commented earlier, talking to himself, that he didn't create the 'perfect' plan his colleagues required because that would be boring ... maybe this is his own plan to undermine Fukuchi's power and get him out of his way, to be the one who will actually puts his hands on the Book?)
After that, an interesting comment was made: the Decay of Angels planned to use the Book 'the next full moon'. It's uncertain if it's because it can only be used in this time frame, or if it can be just be found (in both cases, the Book has another rule that limits its use)
The last time any piece of the Book made an appearence, it was with Fukuchi dangling the famous page, and the possibility of rewriting it, in front of Atsushi and Akutagawa; but that was also the first sound defeat for the Shin Soukoku. Fukuchi still has the page, and now our hopes reside in Tachihara, currently about to face him.
Then, there is supplementary material: the BEAST AU. I haven't read the light novel or manga, so any information I can provide is from the wiki and @looking-for-stray-dogs 's summary.
In this AU, Dazai has managed to obtain the Book, but thanks to his Ability, he retains his memories even in different universes. But didn't Fitzgerald say that the Book is immune to all Abilities? Or only those which try to destroy it?
Still, Dazai used the Book to create his own pet universe - kind of like Fyodor wants to do, but with a much more personal goal: creating a universe in which Odasaku lives. This appearently can happen only if he never becomes Dazai's friend.
However, the definition of 'make what is written in it into reality' is not exact: it is more like a 'container' for every possible universe in existence, and what is written in the pages will not 'rewrite reality', but 'call forth the universe in which it happens'.
Think of it like Michelangelo's ideas about sculpting: the statue is already in the block of stone, the artist merely brings it out.
Beast!Dazai then mentions another clause: if three or more people know the truth about a world created by the Book, the stability of said world gets compromised, and it gets higher possibilities of ceasing to exist. Which is pretty much what is happening in the canon manga.
And this is all we know insofar. Is it enough to make theories? Of course! Anything is enough to make theories!
One I've seen circulating, and that I really like, is 'Atsushi is a creation of the Book'.
Supporting it:
• Atsushi is considered so valuable because he is a 'guidepost' to the Book; it would actually make sense that someone created by the Book mantained some connection to it.
Contradicting it:
• There already is someone who was for sure created by the Book: Sigma. And he is already in the Decay of Angels: if all sentient beings created by the Book mantained a connection to it, wouldn't that mean that they don't need Atsushi? Instead, not only they are still looking for tiger boy, but Sigma needed to threaten and use his Ability on Taneda to find out just where one page was.
Solution: maybe Atsushi was specifically written to be a 'tracker' for the Book, while Sigma wasn't?
Supporting it:
• Atsushi doesn't have any certified past, someone threw him on the streets without giving him anything that could lead back to a birth family. And appearently, nobody noticed someone had a suddenly missing child, or tried to investigate on the abandonment of a toddler.
Contradicting it:
• Who the hell creates a supernatural being that can lead to an even more supernatural book and then throws him in the trash?!
Solution: who the hell creates a supernatural being who can exchange informations and throws him in the desert?! Whatever the keeper of the Book is on, it can't be legal, or even well-cut for the matter.
More seriously, we are told that Atsushi's parents abandoned him, but it was the Headmaster that said it, and he's not the most reliable guy around. Atsushi not only does not have any proof for that, but he also has a faulty memory due to trauma: if he forgot Shibusawa, what else could he have forgotten?
Supporting it:
• The Book can appearently be used - or maybe retrieved, the phrasing is a bit ambiguous on that - under the full moon. Atsushi's Ability is called 'Beast Beneath the Moonlight', and he himself is called a 'weretiger', derivated from 'werewolf', a creature that has a traditional connection to the full moon.
Contradicting it:
• It might be a coincidence?
Supporting it:
• Shibusawa took a very specific interest in him, even going to the point of torturing him to make the 'Beast under the Moonlight' manifest
Contradicting it:
• Shibusawa was obsessed in finding the 'ultimate ability'. The fact that appearently Atsushi has it does not mean that it is related to the Book, or even that it is an objective statement.
Supporting it:
• Fyodor took a very specific interest in him. He was the one who directed Shibusawa to him, as far as six years ago, when Atsushi likely hadn't manifested his Ability. So, how did this rat, who is very interested in the Book and probably spent a lot of time finding ways to get it, know about him?
Contradicting it:
• Dazai appearently knows nothing about it. Considering how smart and careful he is, it would be expected that he did his research on why everyone was so fixated on the Agency's newest recruit. Instead, he looked genuinely shocked when he's told about Sigma's birth. So, whatever Atsushi's connection to the Book is, it's not of that kind. Moreover, Fyodor hasn't had a single interaction with Atsushi insofar. Wouldn't be more logical trying to somehow secure his willing cooperation if he needs it? From his side, Atsushi doesn't seem to know how he looks like (when he thinks about him, the face is always obscured), nor he acts like he vaguely recognize the name before - something that instead happened with Shibusawa
Possible solution: maybe Dazai isn't God the All-Knowing for once in this manga?! Or maybe he was lying to keep a margin of advantage. And Fyodor rarely acts in a very direct way, usually putting other people and convoluted plans between himself and anyone who could be involved. Sending Shibusawa to Atsushi might have been such a case.
Contradicting it:
• Fukuchi has no problem attacking Atsushi. The whole Decay of Angels's plan put the life of Tiger Boy in danger multiple times. An odd thing to do, if they goal is something that can be reached only through him.
Possible solution: they know he has regenerative abilities on a nearly Koro-sensei level? I admit, I'm not very sure on this point.
All in all, I think it's a very plausible theory. And do we want to talk about the drama character development it would bring about? Atsushi already questions his right to live, how would knowing that he had been created for some purpose decided by someone else impact his worldview?
In conclusion, I think that the Book is a very interesting, mysterious element, and I really look forward to see if it will be used, by whom, and why Atsushi seems so connected to it.
Thanks to anyone who bothered to read my ramblings!
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hi so i saw you comment on someone's post a way to get photoshop for free and i installed it and everything so i have now managed to download it for free! but whenever i try to make gifs it just doesn't really work? like after saving the gif, when i try to open them they're stuck on one frame and aren't moving. so idk maybe you'd know why or if i did something wrong?
Hello! There could be many different reasons as to why this is happening to you, so I'll just give you a brief run down of my gifmaking process, and show you where you could've made a mistake. It helps to show me your layer settings and export settings when you're asking me these questions, since it would be easier to detect where you went wrong. If you want a good giffing tutorial (the one I learned from), check this out!
under the cut!
disclaimer: i am in no way any sort of experienced gifmaker, and many of the methods i use might have an easier way to go through it, so if anyone wants to correct me on these methods, feel free to add the post!
so here's basically how i make my gifs:
↠ Okay, so first of, make sure that the clip you're using to make a gif in in .mov format. I use vaporsynth to sharpen and denoise my video clip and export it into .mov format, the process of how to do so you can see in that tutorial i've linked above.
↠ I’m unsure of what method you used to import your frames, so i’ll just tell you how I do mine:
1) go to file > import > video frames to layers
2) select the file you want to import (in .mov format ! .mp4 does not work for this.)
3) so basically use the sliding bars things to select the part of the clip you wanna gif (if there’s any extra bit that came by, if not just import from beginning to end.) check image:
↠ now that your frames are imported, it’s time for the actual coloring and exporting part, in which you might’ve made a mistake. So basically go to window > timeline, and make sure the timeline is visible. On the right side, you’ll see a layers panel, having each frame as a layer. make sure that the “make frame animation” is checked! Next, select all the frames from the timeline and all the layers from the layers panel:
↠ right click on that timecode > other... > and then set your delay to whatever you prefer. I usually set the delay to 0.05 since i prefer slow gifs, but if you prefer faster ones, you can use 0.03. check image (this is called a frame animation):
↠ now select that little symbol in the bottom that i’ve circled, and then right click on your layers (make sure that they are all selected !) and select “convert to smart object). This is a common area on mistake! People tend to convert into smart object first and then click the small button thingy (which is called changing to video timeline from frame animation), which could be one of the reasons for why your gif appeared as a still image.
You may ask me, dawn why do we need to do this? Isn’t it easier to simply color using the frame animation timeline. Well, yes. Technically you don’t have to do this step, but i’ve found that i tend to make a lot of mistakes in frame animation, and it’s harder to overlap layers on each other in the frame animation, especially if you’re coloring and use multiple adjustment layers.
↠ So now your timeline will look like this. Now that the base gif has been adjusted. it’s time to add our other adjustments, aka coloring.
↠ Another mistake: check the layers panel and make SURE that your layer is a smart object and NOT a rasterized layer. A smart object looks like the above image, while a rasterized layer looks like this:
Rasterizing will change the gif into a still image, which might lead to your mentioned “gif appearing as a still image”.
↠ Now that that’s done, simply add all your adjustment layers (aka coloring). It should look like this.
↠ It’s time to save the gif. so now go to file > export > save for web (legacy). so now you’ll find a popup window like this:
take a good look at the settings i’ve used. Another reason your gif may not be playing is because you didn’t switch the mode to gif or you used a different export method. You can choose between selective and adaptive diffusion, both of them have different looks to it, but personally, i prefer adaptive diffusion. Then what else, click save, and select a folder to save it to.
but wait! The gif looks like this:
see that white delay at the end? (I’m only explaining this since i told you to convert your frames into a video timeline, so this part is an important one.) I don’t want that. The reason why it’s going white at the end is because of:
this. see how the gif layer only occupies a small area between those two placeholders and the adjustment layers occupy a bigger area? That’s the reason of the delay, which is why i will adjust it to:
this, in simple words, make sure that the two placeholders are perfectly touching the ends of the base gif, so that it doesn’t show that white bit at the end. So now our gif looks like this:
see? Now there’s no white bit in the end, since our gif duration is exactly same as our base gif duration. You can also see how much of a different coloring makes!
There you go! I’ve basically run you down on how to use photoshop, since you said you just installed it and are probably a beginner. Photoshop does take some time to master, but keep trying ! Next time if you do wanna ask anything though, please do attach a screenshot of how your canvas looks, since that way it’s easier for me to understand what kind of problem you’re facing.
There’s a lot of complicated wording in this, so if you don’t understand it, feel free to a) ask me or b) check that tutorial i linked in the introductory paragraph! It goes into a lot more detail and explains very well along with use of vaporsynth if you’re interested in that, so give it a go and tell me how it goes !
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