Fanfic / Harbinger (Finmonster)

Harbinger is a Danny Phantom, Gravity Falls, and ParaNorman Fusion Fic by Finmonster.

---

Harbinger provides examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo: Stan uses shotgun cartridges filled with rock salt to hurt ghosts.
• Accidental Misnaming:
  • Neil calls Dipper and Mabel "Dropper and Maple", which even Tucker, who doesn't know them at all, can tell is wrong even before Wendy corrects the boy.
  • The bus driver that brings Ember to Blithe Hollow misreads the tag on her luggage as "Amber".
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Downplayed and Inverted with Norman Babcock and Mr. Prenderghast.
  • Like in canon, Norman is an outcast because of his ability to see the dead, but in this story it appears that he has a much closer relationship with his family than in the beginning of the movie. His sister Courtney, in particular, is much kinder and closer to him in this story, where in the movie's beginning she was almost as dismissive of him as the rest of the town. Also his new friendship with other characters (especially some with supernatural abilities of their own) helped alleviate some of his angst.
  • Like in canon, Mr. Prenderghast is an outcast in the community and estranged from his family, however his friendship with Stan Pines implies that he is not completely alone like he was in the movie.
  • Gideon plays this straight. In Gravity Falls, he was well off and loved by the town before his villainous nature was revealed. Here, he's practically an outcast and is seen as a weirdo on the same level as Norman. It's also stated that his parents fight a lot, which no doubt adds to the angst pile.
  • Played straight with Dipper and Mabel. In Gravity Falls, the Pines Twins were just staying with Stan for the summer. Here, their parents died in some kind of accident, and Stan was the only relative available to take them in. Mabel later reveals that their parents were killed in a car accident, and that the twins were in the car.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Mike Penderghast. In addition to having the Sight, he can apparently banish more hostile ghosts back to the afterlife.
  • Wendy is an excellent swords-woman. Her father was also apparently skilled with it as well.
  • Mabel seems a bit better at combat than in canon from what we've seen so far, giving Alvin a Groin Attack when he grabs her shoulder.
  • Dipper Pines tries his hand at magic in this 'verse. And he successfully imprisons two enemy ghosts inside Danny's body.
  • The Box Ghost gets this treatment, of all ghosts, being more like his "The Ultimate Enemy" Future Badass version.
• Adaptational Friendship: In the film, Courtney had a crush on Mitch and it was their first time meeting. Here, they're childhood friends and she doesn't have a crush on him.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Ember McLain is one of the heroes here and not a villainous ghost who seeks to control others. She also came to Blithe Hollow to help Danny and Norman because fate guided her.
  • The Society of the Blind Eye is now the name of Stan, Mike, etc's group, and was so-named because everyone else in Blithe Hollow was turning a "blind eye" to the trouble going on when they founded the group, not because they were erasing memories.
• Adaptational Job Change:
  • Soos has gone from working at the Mystery Shack to working at a juice stand.
  • Walker was changed from a prison warden to a sheriff.
• Adaptational Nationality: Ember is Irish in this story. In the show, she was American.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Mitch. While he's already a nice guy in the film, here he seems to be fine with his brother Neil's friendship with Norman. He even tells Danny personally that he appreciated him saving Norman.
  • Courtney is nicer to her brother. She's also shown to be upset when everyone, including her boyfriend Dash, ridicules Norman.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Jazz is confirmed to be a lesbian in this verse.
  • Ember also apparently likes girls given how she reacted to the possibility of Jazz wanting to go out with her, while her canon counterpart was dating Skulker.
  • Courtney is implied to be bi-curious, as opposed to canon where she was strictly straight.
• Adaptational Species Change: Ember is changed from a ghost (deceased human) to a banshee, which in this universe is a person chosen as an agent of the Fates.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • While the Lunch Lady Ghost is already a bad guy in the series, she was nowhere near as vile as in this universe. To put things into perspective, this Lunch Lady is an outright cannibal.
  • In the show, the Box Ghost was a Harmless Villain who rarely hurt anyone, though mostly because he was barely a threat. Here the Boxcar Butcher was a Serial Killer and also a cannibal before he came back as a ghost.
  "Beware."
  • In the show, Walker, while a villain, was mainly focused on inflicting order on the chaos of the Ghost Zone via his "rules", even if he would make new ones up to justify imprisoning Danny. Here, he kidnaps Dipper, Mabel, and Norman to use as hostages against Danny, fully planning to hang them if Danny doesn't show up.
• Adaptation Name Change: Sort of. Stanley was Grunkle Stan's real name in Gravity Falls, but he used his brother's name, Stanford, as an alias. Here, he's called Stanley from the get-go.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the movie, Mitch and Courtney meet for the first time. In this story, they're childhood friends.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the movie, while Mitch does not heavily dislike Norman and is not mean to Norman directly, he disapproves of his brother's friendship with Norman and advises him not to hang out with Norman because of his reputation. In this story, he approves of Norman's friendship with Neil.
  • In the movie, Courtney is at first uncaring and aloof to Norman and is not above mocking him and trying to prove he's a liar. In this story, she is much kinder to him from the start and is upset when everyone, including her boyfriend Dash, ridicules Norman.
  • Gideon and Wendy were childhood friends, and she still looks after him even though he's become more of a loner. A later chapter reveals that he's developed romantic feelings for her, but she doesn't reciprocate. In canon, they didn't know each other well and were enemies due to his antagonism toward the Pines family. Gideon also had a crush on Mabel in canon, while here, in part due to the age difference, he seemingly doesn't even know that she exists.
  • Soos in this story runs a coffee shop and juice bar, with no apparent connection to Stan, who he viewed as a father figure in canon.
• Age Lift: Gideon is in high school in this world, being roughly as old as Wendy.
• All Myths Are True:
  • The Reapers include several death gods and goddesses, like Anubis and Baron Samedi.
  • Ember is a banshee, which is an agent of the Fates (who have numerous identities in different cultures) in this universe.
• Amazon Chaser: Danny briefly gets Distracted by the Sexy when he meets Wendy Corduroy in the canteen.
• Ambiguously Bi: Courtney is dating Dash, but she blushed when she saw Ember giving her a wink.
• An Arm and a Leg: Rhody O'Brian's tale ends with her dying in a sanitarium after chewing her left arm off. Her ghostly form mirrors this in several horrific wounds around the offending limb.
  • Wendy's father is missing his left leg.
• Beard of Evil: The Box Ghost, in addition to carrying a butcher's hook.
• BFS: In this story, Wendy has a double-edged sword for a weapon that Danny describes as being almost ridiculously large.
• Big Sister Instinct: Jazz noticed that Danny was talking to Ember by the school gates and asks him who she is, out of concern for him.
• Body Horror:
  • Danny transforming into his "Phantom" form is more disturbing than it was in the show. The ghost of his ancestor needs to climb inside him through the mouth, causing his body and jaw to contort into disproportionate angles straight out of The Exorcist. This, naturally, terrifies anyone who sees it and isn't pleasant to look at.
  • The Lunch Lady Ghost. She's described as a hulking, obese ogress, with a lip-less grimace for a mouth, beady black eyes, a disturbingly long tongue and horrific wounds around her left arm, most likely from where she chewed the offending limb off in life.
• Breather Episode: Chapters 16 and 17 are much more low-key and calmer than the previous chapters after the Lunch Lady and Box Ghost are captured, particularly 17, which features a musical number from Ember at Soos's juice shop and everyone dancing, though someone is staring at Danny at the end...
• Brick Joke: When Ember learns that the strings of her guitar are called "Strings of Fate", she thinks that it wouldd be A Good Name for a Rock Band. When she actually starts forming a band in Chapter 17, it's implied that "Strings of Fate" is what she's going to suggest when Scott wonders what they'll call themselves.
• Chekhov's Gun: Tucker briefly manages to stun the lunch lady ghost with the stun gun Neil brought.
• Chess with Death: Danny's ancestor did this to save his wife. He couldn't win but made it so he couldn't lose either.
• Clark Kenting: In addition to the hair and eye color change from the source material, Alistair is able to hide Danny's features via supernatural means.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 10 ends right in the middle of the fight with the Lunch Lady, with Rhody bringing her cleaver down on Danny's neck right as it ends.
• Closet Key: It's implied that Ember is acting as this for Courtney.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Unlike the show, Danny never goes by his codename: Danny Phantom. Instead, the public simply names him "The Phantom".
• Cold Ham: The Boxcar Butcher is less screaming and raging than his female partner, but his constant creepy whispering of "Beware..." makes him come across as over the top.
• Cool Sword: Wendy's sword, besides being a BFS, has runes running down the middle, and Danny notes that it's not a normal weapon, given its ability to harm supernatural entities. In a later chapter, she mentions that it's a family heirloom.
• Crossover Couple: Dash Baxter and Courtney Babcock, though the latter might be developing feelings for Ember McLain.
  • Mike and Lydia Deetz in the past.
  • It's hinted that Mabel has feelings for Norman.
  • Additionally, Danny appears to be growing a crush on Wendy Corduroy.
• Curse Escape Clause: In this story, the Witch can only be resurrected if it's both Halloween and the town is filled with fear.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: How Danny's ancestor won his Chess with Death. Basically, he knew he couldn't win against Death (who couldn't just take his wife's soul due to the seal he had set up before committing suicide so he could try to keep her alive) so he tricked Death into a draw, knowing that the Reaper had other duties and couldn't take any longer than he already had.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: In Gravity Falls canon, Manly Dan Corduroy has all four limbs intact. Here, he has an artificial leg, presumably from losing his real one at some point in his career in the Society of the Blind Eye.
• Doing in the Scientist: In the original series, Danny became half-ghost when he walked into his parents' ghost portal. Here, he becomes the Phantom by being sent to the afterlife and being possessed by the soul of his ancestor, Sir Alistair Fenton.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Hitting Danny with a bus aside, the Reapers and Death seem to be largely okay beings.
• Death by Adaptation: Dipper and Mabel's parents were killed in an accident, resulting in Stan adopting them. It's also implied that Ford is dead since Stan says he's "no longer with us.", but subverted when he shows up alive at the end of chapter 18.
• The Dreaded: When Bill shows up at the Mystery Shack, Ember's powers cause her to start crying inky black tears, and Stan and Norman's uncle Mike are terrified.
• Dream Walker: Alistair is able to enter Danny's dreams by phasing his arm through the sleeping Danny's head, allowing them to see the Lunch Lady and Box Ghost chained up in Danny's subconscious mind.
• Everyone Has Standards: Dash is his usual Jerk Jock self from the series, but he defends Mitch and Scott from a group of homophobic jerks. Even getting himself beaten up in the process until Danny (in Phantom form) came to the rescue.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Manly Dan Corduroy doesn't approve of his daughter being in the Society of the Blind Eye like he was, since he blames the Society for costing him his leg and his marriage.
• The Ferryman: Charon himself appears as one of the Reapers. We never see his boat, however, only a bus that he runs Danny over with.
• Funetik Aksent: Baron Samedi's Haitian accent. The Grim Reaper's Jamaican accent. And Ember's Irish accent.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Danny assumes that the key to understanding what's coming and how to stop it lies in Blithe Hollow's history, given how that tends to be the case in movies and the like. Unfortunately, as Tucker points out, Blithe Hollow, even excluding the whole witch mess, has a lot of dark history to go through.
  • When Danny tries to tell Norman and not to go with them when they’re checking out the school at night, Neil asks to just skip that, since they’re going to ignore them and show up anyways. Danny is forced to agree when Ember points out that there's not much they can really do to stop them, but stresses that they be careful.
• God's Hands Are Tied: The Reapers and Death are unable to directly stop the upcoming threat, hence the reason for empowering Danny.
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: When Ember hears that the strings of her guitar are Strings of Fate, this is her reaction.
• Good Is Not Nice: The Reapers are on the side of good, but they still forced Norman into a situation where he would have been seriously hurt if not outright killed in order to get/see if Danny to push him out of the way and die long enough for Death to speak to him and see if he would accept and stop the coming threat, and got him to agree by implying that he would try the same thing with Danny's relatives until one said yes. The heroes even openly wonder about their morality.
• Groin Attack: Alvin gets one courtesy of Mabel when he grabs her shoulder when she's trying to leave.
• Gut Feeling: How Ember apparently gets guidance from the Fates, like when they led her to the Mystery Shack.
• Hand Blast: After he absorbs the Lunch Lady and Box Ghost, Danny gets a strong enough energy boost to shoot ecto-beams.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Discussed when Danny meets Baron Samedi in the afterlife.

  Baron Samedi: I imagine ya've heard of voodoo, though?

  Danny: Uh yeah, I guess. Zombies and dolls with needles. Things like that, right?

  Baron: Dat's da part Hollywood likes to tell ya about, yes. But it is much more dan dat.

• I Always Wanted to Say That: Danny says this right before performing a 'kick open the doors'-style Dramatic Entrance.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • In this universe, the Lunch Lady was a human lunch lady by the name of Rhody O'Brian, who killed several students and fed them to the others as "mystery meat", and was caught chewing on an arm when they figured out what she was doing. When she's summoned back, the group has to stop her from cooking the school janitor.
  • The Boxcar Ghost was once Wayne Jefferies, who was a struggling butcher during the Great Depression and resorted to killing and eating body parts from his victims. Since he's the second cannibal ghost they have to fight in a row, Danny lampshades this.
    Danny: How many cannibals are we going to have to deal with!?
• Improvised Weapon: How does Neil fight Walker? By throwing extra salty potato chips at him.
• Ironic Name: If Gideon's last name is Gleeful, as per Gravity Falls canon, then he doesn't have much to be gleeful about, what with his Abusive Parents and all.
• I Owe You My Life: Or rather, my brother's life. After Danny saves Norman from getting run over, she and Mitch go out of their way to prevent Dash from bullying him and Tucker.
• I See Dead People: Danny gains this ability, just like Norman, after being revived.
  • Ember can also see ghosts.
  • Rhody/The Lunch Lady is, unusually, visible to everyone.
  • Lydia Deetz could also see ghosts.
• Innocently Insensitive: Dash innocently makes Courtney uncomfortable by calling Norman weird in chapter 6, and again when he tries to defend Mitch and Scott from a group of homophobic jerks. He says that Courtney is twice as hot as their girlfriends.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: Anyone who shows up in the afterlife waiting room displays signs of what killed them. Danny looks as beaten up as you'd expect someone who got rammed by a bus to look, the receptionist has scarred wrists, presumably from suicide, and the man who briefly fights Danny for a ticket has a bullet hole in his head. Later, shortly after he gets out of the hospital, Danny catches sight of a ghost in Prohibition-era attire with a bullet hole in his head.
• Kick the Dog: It's heavily implied that those homophobic drunkards who started beating up Dash, Mitch, and Scott were also going to rape Courtney, just because they could.
• Large Ham: The Lunch Lady Ghost is constantly prone to roaring, screaming, and shouting about fresh meat. Pretty hammy.
• Ludicrous Gibs: The fate of one of the Lunch Lady's minions, when Dipper botches a pronounced spell.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Whatever spells were used to bring up Rhody O'Brian were apparently strong enough for her to appear before the living regardless of whether they have the Sight, and make it difficult, if not impossible for Mike to put her back down.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: In addition to the Danny Phantom and ParaNorman elements, there's also characters and elements from Gravity Falls, with a few other series having been hinted at, like Lydia Deetz.
• Mistaken for Gay: When Danny first tries to tell Tucker about his new powers, the latter initially thinks the former's coming out to him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When talking about living in a macabre town like Blithe Hollow, Tucker says "some people turn goth, I research murders." Possibly a nod to their goth friend Sam Manson from the series, who has yet to appear this story.
  • In chapter 17, Ember sings her signature song.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • The Lunch Lady is named Rhody O'Brian.
  • Hoss Delgado's real name turns out to be Horrace.
  • The Box Ghost is named Wayne Jeffries.
  • Walker’s full name is Josiah Walker.
• Necromancer: Gideon's book apparently allows him to summon spirits from the dead.
• The Nicknamer: Ember nicknames Danny "Danny Boy", and Stan nicknames her "Lucky Charms". You know, because she's from Ireland.
• Noble Bigot: Alistair initially distrusts Ember because she's Irish, though he tones it down after Danny explains just how wrong that kind of talk is considered in the present, and how science has outright disproved a lot of it.
• Not Quite Dead: Lampshaded by Dipper when Ford turns up in town, given that Stan's comments had led him to believe that he was dead.
• Not Wearing Tights: Danny doesn't have his hero outfit and instead has Civvie Spandex. The only major changes to his appearance are his hair and eyes, which turn white and green respectively.
• Odd Friendship: Lampshaded regarding Wendy and Gideon, as she's his Only Friend.
• Original Character:
  • Scott, Mitch's boyfriend. Playing With, though in the film, Mitch mentions having a boyfriend who likes Rom Coms.
  • Danny's ancestor Alistair.
• Organ Autonomy: The Lunchlady Ghost is able to detach her left arm and have it move by itself.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: According to Ember, banshees are not ghosts or fairies, just people chosen by the Fates. She herself appears to have some skill at Magic Music, and can detect evil supernatural presences via her creepy black tears, but she doesn't appear to have a deadly wail yet.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Natch.
• Paradox Person: Since one of Danny's ancestors cheated death to save his pregnant wife, Danny's entire family line is like this, basically both having and not having a soul at the same time. This is what allows Death to send him back with the ability to be possessed by the said ancestor to gain ghostly powers.
• Police Brutality: Apparently, when the Boxcar Butcher, Wayne Jeffries, showed up at Blithe Hollow, the police shot him because he was too dangerous to be left alive. Given that he was a murderous cannibal, they were well justified to do so.
• Politically Correct Villain: More like Politically Correct Jerk Jock. Dash Baxter is as big a jerk to the nerds at Blithe Hollow's high school as ever, but he's not a homophobe, and defends his Straight Gay friend Mitch from a bunch of these. Or at least, he tries.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Alistair is one of the heroes, but he starts off with a prejudice against the Irish due to coming from an old era where such a mindset was not uncommon. He starts letting go of this after he gets called out on it.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The homophobic jerks in chapter 6.
• Power Perversion Potential: When talking to Norman and Neil, Danny jokes that Alistair might be using his powers to spy on girls. Alistair is not amused.
• Psychopomp: The Reapers.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Anubis has these color eyes.
• Right Behind Me: Alistair after Danny makes a comment about him possibly being a perv.
• Salt Solution: A common weakness for ghosts, which Stan has weaponized as shotgun rounds.
  • When Walker comes to try and kidnap Neil, he's able to fend him off by throwing extra salty potato chips, and later a container of salt, the latter of which surpresses his intangibility powers enough for Mitch to deck him across the face.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Since banishing the Lunch Lady didn't work, Dipper looks in one of Ford's old journals and finds a spell that allows a ghost to be sealed inside a person, but leaves them at risk of Demonic Possession. But since Danny can undergo Symbiotic Possession with Alistair without being taken over, Dipper brings up the possibility of sealing the ghosts inside of him. It works with no apparent side effects for the Lunch Lady and Box Ghost. When Danny falls asleep, he finds the two ghosts confined to his subconscious mind, prevented from attacking him by chains.
• Secret-Keeper: Only Tucker, Norman and Neil knows Danny is The Phantom.
• Secret Test of Character: The Reapers force Norman into the path of a bus to get Danny to push him out of the way (or at least see if he would).
• Shipper on Deck: Ember, Tucker, Maddie and Alistair all think that Wendy Corduroy would make a good girlfriend for Danny.
• Ship Tease:
  • Danny and Wendy, starting around Chapter 16.
  • Courtney and Ember, especially during Chapter 17.
• Shirtless Scene: Mitch sleeps in only his grey sweatpants.
• Shout-Out:
  • Death having numerous Reapers serving to escort the deceased into the afterlife. Stan also uses salt shotgun cartridges against ghosts.
  • Unless it was intended to be the character, Death speaks with a Jamaican accent.
    • One of the founding members of the Society of the Blind Eye was Hoss Delgado.
  • The afterlife waiting room is similar to the one in Beetlejuice.
  • Death calling Danny, among other titles, a Sin Eater.
  • Death apparently holds a similar philosophy to the G-Man.
  • Death's method of returning Danny to life is similar to God from Bruce Almighty.
  • Danny's transformation into The Phantom is compared to The Exorcist by Tucker.
  • While summoning the Lunch Lady Ghost, Gideon speaks the Damballa incantation from Child's Play.
  • The Lunch Lady Ghost heralds her first appearance by singing an Ironic Nursery Rhyme version of Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Later, the minions she summons sing it in a way where they repeat the word 'everybody', just like in the trailer.
  • The Society just called the demon, who might or might not be Bill, who was trying to resurrect the Witch in the past Him, because he never told them his name.
  • When being chased by one of the Lunchlady Ghost's minions, Dipper tries to use a banishment spell that sounds like the one from Army of Darkness. He even flubs the last word, but with a thankfully more beneficial outcome.
  • Ember refers to the Lunchlady Ghost's disembodied arm as Cousin Itt, before Wendy corrects her and says she's thinking of Thing.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Dash mocks Ember, saying that most bands end up breaking apart after only performing in dive bars, she points out how he's basically a walking cliché, and that he won't be the big man on campus forever.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Alistair managed to save the life of his wife Katherine, who was unknowingly with child at the time. Shortly after that, he was taken by the reaper, leaving her behind with his child.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Alistair got Death to agree to Chess with Death by basically holding his and his wife's souls hostage with a ward that made it too risky for Death to try and just take them by force.
• Straight Gay: Jazz. We only know because she asked about Ember after seeing Danny with her and he wondered if she wanted Ember's number.
  • Also Mitch, as per canon. His boyfriend Scott, less so.
• Straw Nihilist: The Lunch Lady Ghost. She thinks all people are animals, so she cuts them up and serves them as meat like animals.
• Symbiotic Possession: In this universe, Danny gets his powers by being possessed by his ancestor Alistair, remaining mostly in control. The transformation process, compared to overshadowing in canon, is a lot more disturbing.
  • This also allows the two of them to exchange information and learned skills with each other. For example, in preparation for their first fight in chapter 6, Alistair gives Danny his extensive knowledge of combat...in exchange for the latter's knowledge of video games.
  Alistair: This does not strike me as an even exchange.
• Tagalong Kid: Neil invokes this when Danny tries to forbid him and Norman from joining them when investigating the school to get him to agree.
• Tears of Blood: The "black icky stuff" version happens to Ember when what is implied to be Bill comes to the door of the Mystery Shack while the heroes are inside it.
  • It also happens earlier, when the Lunch Lady Ghost first appears.
• Thanatos Gambit: Sir Alistair Fenton poisoned himself before his game of Chess with Death, because as the Reaper points out, "What he meant to do was not a task for de livin'."
• Town with a Dark Secret: In addition to the whole mess with the witch, Blithe Hollow apparently has a long history of murders and grisly business.
• Unexplained Accent: Lampshaded by Danny. He starts to ask the Grim Reaper why he has a Jamaican accent, but the Reaper sends him back to the living before he can find out.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Gideon doesn't thank Danny for getting Dash to back off. And when Tucker picks up his book for him, Gideon shouts at him for touching it.
• Unwanted Rescue: Wendy didn't like that Danny meddled in her fight with Dash, downplayed as she appreciates it anyway.
• Vagueness Is Coming: The upcoming threat that Death empowers Danny to fight against. There are hints that it is related to Bill Cipher.
• Valkyries: Brunhilde the Valkyrie is one of the Reapers.
• Victory by Endurance: Alistair won against Death by forcing him into a situation where trying to gain his (he had committed suicide as part of his plans) and his wife's souls was unfeasible by exploiting the fact that Death had other duties that he needed to take care of and couldn't take the time to really stop him after he forced a draw in his Chess with Death, while Alistair being dead at the time meant that he didn't have that problem.
• Weirdness Censor: The Society of the Blind Eye got its name because they were the only ones willing to do anything about the supernatural stuff going on when it was formed, with everyone else "turning a blind eye".
• What Does She See in Him?: Courtney is going out with Dash. She may be wondering the same thing, as she doesn't like it when Dash makes offhand remarks against Norman. In Chapter 21, Ember even nearly quotes the trope name word for word when talking to Courtney. It's pretty telling that Courtney struggles to name any positive qualities besides his looks.
• Would Hurt a Child: Walker captures Norman and the Pines twins (but failed to capture Neil) and threatens to hang them if Danny doesn't show up. Gideon was pressured by Him into summoning Walker since Norman and Dipper are valuable assets.
  • Walker was like this in life as well, he became a ghost because he chased a pair of escaped slaves and their child to Blithe Hollow and ended up killing them trying to bring them in. The people of the town ended up trying and hanging him for that.
• You Are Not Alone: Norman's reaction to Danny having the ability to see ghosts too. He starts becoming more cheerful because of this since people just like him are "coming out of the woodwork", as Danny puts it.

---