Chapter 81: Back to the Falls
Art by Crash X Fusion: Well gang, it looks like we've got another mystery on our hands!
Amity's party reaches Gravity Falls, where she finds that Gus has already arrived. Meanwhile, Robbie doesn't know what to do now that he's back in town and Star makes a new friend.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Karma: The Love God, while only an antagonist due to Mabel misusing his love potions in canon, was left unpunished save for a few injuries from Stan's balloon. Here, he made the attack from the oddities worse with his potions, which leads to his mother Aphrodite preparing to scold him for his irresponsibility.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Lee, Nate, and Wendy are this, since they don't suffer from holding the Jerkass Ball like in the original version of "The Love God".
- Adaptational Sympathy: Thompson receives some of this from his friends who assure him they care about the guy.
- And Then What?: Robbie returned to Gravity Falls to drop off Amity and Star with the intent of seeing his parents before leaving again to travel upstate. Tambry questions what he plans to do afterward and shoots down all of his answers to try and convince him to stay.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Upon learning Old Man McGucket wrote the Good Witch Azura, Amity goes completely silent. Everyone thinks she's disappointed or shocked, but then she starts fangirling and begins asking how he came up with the series and its characters.
- At first, Eve acts regal and appears to have taken becoming queen of the gnomes in stride. Then when she leads her fellow witchlings and the Pines twins away and confirms there's no gnomes watching them, she bursts into tears and glomps onto Amity and Gus, telling them how disgusting that lifestyle's been.
- Big Damn Reunion: Amity arrives in Gravity Falls and reunites with Gus and the Pines family, and the witchlings later reunite with Eve after they find she's been close to town. Robbie also reunites with Wendy, Tambry, Lee, Nate and Thompson.
- The Bus Came Back: After she was kidnapped at the end of "After the War" thirteen chapters ago, Eve finally returns having been stranded in the woods near Gravity Falls all along.
- Butt-Monkey: Eve's incredible bad luck continues as she gets a few Amusing Injuries from all the oddities in the Gravity Falls wilderness.
- The Cameo: Steve the Good Samaritan appears in the dump sorting recyclables.
- Cathartic Crying: Once they're alone, Eve starts crying and hugs Amity and Gus, relieved to see them again after what she's been through in the past week.
- Coming-Out Story: Mabel comes out as bi in this chapter, having had crushes on boys until she developed feelings for Pacifica. As Pacifica is the only girl she's ever liked, Dipper assures her he doesn't have to put any specific labels on her sexuality.
- Commonality Connection: Star and Vee bond over how difficult both of their lives have been.
- Continuity Nod: Amity mentions Luz meeting Hades, who she refers as a "cheapskate".
- A Day in the Limelight: The focus is split between Amity, Gus, Star, Robbie and Eve during their time in Gravity Falls.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Aphrodite fangirling over Amity, gushing over her relationship with Luz which is practically universally loved, and mentioning that there's several fanfics based around them acts as a nod to almost everyone in The Owl House fandom considering the two a
One True Pairing. - Flight: The Fae have this power, and Amity ends up discovering it by accident.
- Foreshadowing:
- Blendin came to Gravity Falls tracking down a girl from another realm and disappears when he sees Star and learns he came too early.
- Fazio got a text from Vaggie a whole day after he and Gus arrived in town. Since Vaggie's dead, who sent the text?
- The Ghost:
- Luz, Eda and Willow are all mentioned by their friends at different points.
- The Love God brings up Ares when he questions if the witchlings work for him.
- Steve the coven scout is mentioned after Amity sees Steve, the former Blind Ivan.
- Graceful Loser: Unlike the canon episode, Nate accepts Robbie dating Tambry even though he's got a crush on her.
- I Choose to Stay: After hooking up with Tambry, Robbie decides to officially return to Gravity Falls.
- I Have This Friend: Mabel seeks advice from the Love God, without revealing that she's the one who's developing feelings for a girl.
- In Spite of a Nail: Stan and Soos's plans for the Woodstock Festival remain the same, and Robbie & Tambry become an Official Couple.
- Internal Reveal:
- The Pines family meet Star while Amity meets Vee for the first time.
- Gus sees that Amity now has her own palisman.
- Robbie is informed that the cult behind his attempted kidnapping has been dismantled.
- Amity learns that Old Man McGucket is Mildred Featherwhyle.
- Amity reveals to Gus that she encountered a winged mechanical creature and they inform the Pines twins of Hunter's visions.
- Amity reveals that she is half-Fae to Gus, Dipper, and Mabel. As such, they meet Sam for the first time.
- Dipper and Mabel learn that Bigfoot is Real After All and that Amity encountered him.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The Love God made things worse during the attack by throwing his potions at random. When one of them affects Mabel, Gus uses his traumatic re-memory power on him, subjecting him to a Mind Rape. He's later dragged off by his mother for a scolding over the viral video of him.
- The gnomes are sent flying into the sky by Acorn using pixie dust for trying to keep Eve prisoner as their queen.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Blendin speaks to her, Amity briefly mistakes him for Morty. This is a nod to the both of them being voiced by Justin Roiland, who also voices Rick.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Gus and Fazio have no idea that Vaggie was killed shortly after they left Las Vegas.
- Amity and Gus inform Eve that they still aren't sure if Willow's in the Human Realm along with the three of them.
- Luminescent Blush:
- Star turns red from staring at Wendy's biceps while she was wearing her Woodstick ensemble.
- Mabel also blushes hard when the illusion of Pacifica flirts with her.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Love God pairs Meredith with another old woman instead of a man, a nod to how there were originally supposed to be two old women kissing in "The Love God" which got cut by
Executive Meddling. - The Abominable Bro-Man and the Beard Cubs were first mentioned in the real life Journal #3. The Leprecorns, which were also detailed and mentioned in "Scary-oke", appear as well.
- Dipper notes how the previous gnome was defeated when someone guessed the answer to a riddle (what is a ghost's favorite ice cream flavor) and he and Mabel argue over the answer, just like in the Gravity Falls pilot episode.
- The Love God pairs Meredith with another old woman instead of a man, a nod to how there were originally supposed to be two old women kissing in "The Love God" which got cut by
- Odd Friendship: Timid, reserved, hates-confrontation Vee starts to form one with equally-reserved, battle-hardened, quick-to-fight Star.
- Point of Divergence: To "The Love God": Mabel doesn't get involved in Robbie and Tambry's relationship as she's too busy focusing on her own romantic strife, Robbie, Lee and Nate establish that they respect Thompson, and the Love God is given Adaptational Karma.
- Poor Communication Kills: All Eve told the gnomes in order to solve their problems was to talk to the people of Gravity Falls. They somehow misinterpreted it as launching an all-out attack during the Woodstick Festival with the help of all the other magical creatures.
- Related in the Adaptation: The Love God is Eros, the son of Aphrodite.
- Relationship Upgrade: What ultimately gets Robbie to stay is him and Tambry confessing that they like each other, becoming an Official Couple.
- The Reveal:
- Gus arrived in Gravity Falls a day before Amity did. He and Dipper faced off against the giant bat in the time she had fought the winged mechanical creature.
- Luz had told Amity about Vee at some point.
- Amity now has the power of flight and can talk to pixies, who sound like bells to everyone else.
- Vee reveals to Star that Number 4 committed suicide while imprisoned at Hieron Labs and that someone helped her and the other remaining basilisks escape.
- Eve has been in Gravity Falls the whole time after the Shapeshifter used her to test his portal door. In the last week, she wandered through the woods getting repeatedly injured before being forced to become queen of the gnomes.
- Running Gag: Ghost has developed a habit of eating sentient creatures, now attempting to eat Acorn the Pixie. She successfully does so at the end of the chapter.
- Sequel Hook: Pacifica mentions that she's helping her parents get ready for their annual party.
- Shipper on Deck: Upon learning from Robbie that Amity is Luz's girlfriend, Tambry remarks that Luz has good taste. Later, Aphrodite admits that she and all the other gods love the girls' relationship and love story, asking Amity for a picture with her.
- Shout-Out:
- After a montage of flashbacks, Eve notes that the nights are the hardest.
- Acorn is a combination of an Original Character and Glimmer "if Karen Fukuhara had been allowed to swear".
- Aphrodite is based off of her Hercules: The Animated Series appearance, even having her theme song from the series play when she makes her entrance. Ares, the God of War, is mentioned.
- Side Bet: Dipper and Mabel have been running one to see how Amity would take learning the writer of her favorite book series is an old coot. Since she reacts with glee, Mabel wins and and expects Dipper to wear a certain shirt and perform a matching song.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: After her clothes were ruined, Eve wore a dress made of leaves, a wooden mask, a crown and wooden arm guards. After being brought to the Mystery Shack, she changes into a souvenir t-shirt and sweatpants, though those may just be pajamas.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: To help Gus with his aromanticism, Aphrodite tells him that aroaces can find companionship in queerplatonic partners.
- The Un-Reveal:
- Blendin was looking for a strange girl not from around Gravity Falls. But who he's referring to is yet to be revealed.
- Eve's description of her abductor isn't described, but Amity is very familiar with it.
- Wham Episode: Amity, Robbie and Star arrive in Gravity Falls, the former tells Gus & the Pines twins she's part-Fae after she discovers she can now fly, Eve is revealed to have been sent to Gravity Falls, Robbie decides to permanently return to town after becoming an Official Couple with Tambry, and based on her reaction to Eve's description, Amity learns who the Shapeshifter truly is.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Amity calls Gus out for inflicting a Mind Rape on the Love God even after subduing him.
- Wrong-Name Outburst: Gus calls the Love God "mom" while attacking him, clearly projecting his hatred towards Jenny on him for using love potions.
