YMMV / Gravity Falls

"Nacho earrings. I'm hilarious!"
"That's debatable."

— Mabel and Stan Pines, "Irrational Treasure"

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YMMV tropes for the Gravity Falls series

Tropes with their own pages:

• Alternative Character Interpretation
• Broken Base and Base-Breaking Character
• Harsher in Hindsight
• Hilarious in Hindsight
• Memetic Mutation
• The Woobie

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Related works with their own YMMV pages:

• Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained
• Legend of the Gnome Gemulets
• Journal 3
• Lost Legends

A-C

• Abandon Shipping: Any legitimate shipping of Dipper and Wendy was pretty quickly discarded once the show made it abundantly clear that it was not going to pursue that plot line, along with illustrating that a romantic relationship between Dipper and Wendy would be extremely unhealthy for both parties.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The Liliputtians are a small group of creatures that control the balls in a mini golf course. Franz the Liliputtian tells Dipper and Mabel, "We control the balls!", which would have a different meaning if taken out of context.
  • When Dipper is getting ready to fight the Multibear, he has a tattoo of a flaming cobra on his stomach... right above his loincloth.
  • Instead of genitals, the Multibear's crotches have bear heads. ^note  A slang term for penis is "the second head."
  • One of the carnival attractions that Robbie and Wendy ride after he asks her out is the Tunnel of Love and Corndogs. Complete with the latter entering into a pink tunnel.
  • Stan has a photo of a horse "riding" another horse. Arrows pointing to it say "so wrong!" and "It's unnatural". The picture itself is fairly suggestive as well.
  • Wendy fires up a blacklight for Karaoke Night and describes it as "like a crime scene in my mouth." Given that blacklight can also detect semen...
  • Hoo-Ha Owl's Pizzamatronic Jamboree.
  • When the kids are looking at the Witch's stand, a sign in the background can be seen advertising "hipster glasses". Stan walks into frame and his head covers the "gl," so all the viewer can see is "hipster asses."
  Dipper: Alright, Dipper. Time to manhandle this... man handle....
  • A visual example in "Sock Opera", when Bipper/Bill-in-Dipper's-body is heading to Mabel's sock puppet show in the car, Bipper is putting his seatbelt on but the camera angle makes it look like he's staring at Wendy's chest, which is mere centimeters in front of him. Dipper's annoyed expression really reinforces this.
• Adorkable:
  • Best shown in "Soos and the Real Girl", where Soos has a problem talking to women. Also, he loves playing video games, showing a bit of a geeky side, but he's one of the nicest people on the show and really enjoys hanging out with Dipper and Mabel despite their age.
  • Dipper often comes across as awkward and unsure, but is adorable.
  • The beyond awkward photo on Blendin Blandin's ID card depicts him smiling an incredibly nervous, toothy smile, and he's sweating profusely.
  • Sev'ral Timez's cluelessness is really endearing.
  • Stanford shows shades of this at times, such as when he obsesses over the tabletop game Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons and poses as Princess Unattainabelle.
• Alternate Self Shipping:
  • There's more than a few fics slashing Dipper with his magic photocopier duplicate Tyrone.
  • Dipper and Bipper isn't an uncommon ship. Falls under both this and Foe Yay Shipping, because Bipper is Dipper possessed by Bill.
  • On the fanon side, there exists the Reverse Falls AU where Dipper and Mabel are evil. Naturally, fans ship them with their canon incarnations.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some viewers may be surprised to hear that the Mystery Shack is based on a real tourist attraction in Gold Hill, Oregon called the Oregon Vortex.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Although this is mostly necessary for a comedic series centered around horrifying supernatural events (aired by Disney, no less), it's not so exaggerated with most characters that they find fighting enormous monsters to be fun. Intentionally taken up to eleven with Mabel, though, to the point where her bizarre and inappropriate reactions to dangerous situations (like finding the fun in "trick-or-treat or die") are sometimes called out by others.
  • Ford doesn't seem to be disturbed after having spent thirty years in what drove Fiddleford insane after five seconds. He barely reacts to being reunited to his home dimension, and besides a few quirks such as thinking it's okay to give children weapons, adjusts to its customs again very quickly. And with the way he and Stan bicker with each other, you'd think they were never separated.
  • For some reason, despite the brutalizing events of Bill's Weirdmageddon, the Pines family seemed awfully optimistic considering that they have experienced several near death experiences at the hands of Bill. This is especially the case for Dipper and Mabel considering that as kids, should probably be traumatized by their encounters with Bill.
• Ass Pull: Bill somehow making a deal with Blendin' and taking his body. Blendin' was happy in his last appearance because he got his job back and his hair, thanks to the twins.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Alex Hirsch actually ended the show after just two seasons specifically to avoid this, fearing that the show would decline in quality if it ran on for too long and wanting to end it on his own terms.
• Award Snub: In the 2016 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, Gravity Falls was nominated for Best Cartoon, but lost to SpongeBob SquarePants. While it was easy to predict, seeing how SpongeBob is part of Nickelodeon, this choice garnered far more outrage than in past years, as Gravity Falls is considered to be a better show due to the fact that it ended with a Grand Finale, compared to SpongeBob, where it endured major Seasonal Rot due to Executive Meddling. Even Alex Hirsch expressed how outrageous the decision was.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Bill Cipher is astonishingly popular among the fanbase with the fact that he's so confident in his master plans while having fun with it. He's a seemingly omnipotent being who has his grand apocalyptic plan completely mapped out, has been putting the pieces into place for years, and doesn't allow any apparent defeat to be a setback, only a delaying of the inevitable
  • Same with Probabilitor the Annoying in "Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons." He's got a bit of an ego for playing a game where he is the main villain, but you have to admit that he's fairly competent.
• Awesomeness Withdrawal: The long hiatuses between episode airings frequently caused this. It got to the point where even people who love the show found themselves hard-pressed to get hyped for it because of how Disney scheduled it.
  • Made worse by the fact that most of the time, the entire season was already completed. The only thing that caused the hiatus is usually Disney's weird algorithm for when they thought the show could get the best ratings.
• Badass Decay:
  • While Gideon averted it in his major first re-appearance in Season 2, "The Stanchurian Candidate", it was then played straight with him in "Weirdmageddon Part 1", where he is just a flunky to the true Big Bad Bill Cipher, and his usual creepiness is completely absent in favor of the pure comedy of him being a stereotypical Small-Town Tyrant sheriff (as Wendy puts it: "He's gotten folksier!"). Genuinely caring about his fellow prison inmate gang members also neuters his villainy. In the end, his Heel–Face Turn doesn't come off as too surprising as a result.
  • Despite attaining godlike power by entering the physical world and throwing the town into a living nightmare, Bill Cipher is notably less threatening during the series finale then he was as a paranoia inducing mysterious psychic menace, becoming a rather lazy frat boy of a demon who depends on goofy minions to hunt down the townsfolk while he parties, is stymied by a completely unexplained energy field around the town, puts Mabel inside a Lotus-Eater Machine that proves fallible despite his boasts to the contrary, experiences crippling physical pain when his giant, easily targeted eye is damaged, and is ultimately defeated by a fairly simple Clothing Switch after leaving a pair of identical twins alone together for a significant amount of time.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Dipper playing the sousaphone in the "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" short "The Tooth".
  • Big Henry's death in "The Golf War".
  • Candy randomly appearing with handfuls of confetti in response to Mabel's wish for a surprise party in "Blendin's Game".
  • Grenda getting a drug-dealing gnome arrested during "The Last Mabelcorn." It only lasts a few seconds, but there was no reason for it.
  • Bill singing and playing the piano in Take Back The Falls. Was it interesting? Yes. Was it nice to hear? Definitely. Did it have any impact on the plot? Absolutely... not.
• Cargo Ship:
  • Mabel and her grappling hook.
  • Sock Opera gives us an in-universe example. Gabe, Mabel's Guy of the Week, is way more into the two sock puppets he always wears on his hands than Mabel, and at the end of the episode, he actually makes out with them.
  • In-universe example again in "Soos and The Real Girl", which gives us Stan and a coin-operated machine, at least in the credits.
    "WE'RE GONNA GET MARRIED! IT'S A GREAT IDEA!"
  • Another in-universe example: Gideon complains that his cellmate took his pillow "as a wife".
  • Gideon has been shipped with a toilet.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • For anyone who's been in an emotionally abusive relationship, Soos shutting down Giffany's Hannibal Lecture that Melody will not take him back because he "ruined" their date (which was all the dating SIM's fault) is very satisfying.
  • The Time Police realizing they have a mute button they can use on Blendin’, and using it just as he begins screeching inanely again in “Blendin’s Game.” After how insufferable Blendin’ has been and proving how he royally can’t shut the hell up, it was just as satisfying for a brief moment for us as it was for the Time Police.
  • Dipper spit-roasting the ever-loving crap out of Gideon in "Gideon Rises". After all Gideon's gotten away with over the season, from trying to kill Dipper in the most brutal way imaginable, then trying to kill the entire Pines family by robbing them to their bare-bones and taking the last remaining journal to access the universal power of the Portal, to kidnapping Mabel, it's incredibly cathartic to see him get a taste of his own medicine and be the one in life-threatening danger for once. ^note  While he obviously gets out alive for plot purposes, the principle's the same.
  • Pacifica standing up to her parents in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" to save the party guests from being burned was amazing Character Development.
  • "Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls" has many moments:
    • Stan aptly points out that it's Ford's fault for inadvertently causing the apocalypse, and that it was stupid of his brother to take on Bill alone.
    • The renegade army takes on Bill's murderous Henchmaniancs, sending them flying into the air or setting them on fire in a matter of minutes. Then when Bill enters the fray, the Shacktron rips out his eye and momentarily weakens him. Mabel sweetens the deal by macing Bill with spray-paint as he tries to taunt her and Dipper.
    • It takes until Bill chases the twins down promising to turn them into corpses, but Ford finally admits he and Stan are being petty about their grudge and it's his fault that they're in this mess in the first place.
    • Bill having a complete freak-out when he realizes he's been tricked into entering Stan's mind instead of Ford's, unsuccessfully begging for his life as Ford uses the memory gun to erase him from existence, and then gets KO'd in one punch by Stan. Seeing the smug Psychopathic Manchild of an Eldritch Abomination have such an Undignified Death is VERY satisfying after everything he did.
• Complete Monster: Bill Cipher is an interdimensional demon and is, despite his appearance, his demeanor, and his twisted sense of humor, quite sadistic. A being of chaos who killed his parents and destroyed his home realm to escape its limitations, Bill sought to escape his decaying realm by invading another world he could wreak havoc on, and set his eye on Earth's universe. A chessmaster extraordinaire, Bill exploited the desperation of Stanford Pines, manipulating him into building a portal that would allow the fusion of the Nightmare Realm and the physical world so Bill could wreak chaos worldwide. In the present, Bill stalks the Pines twins after their initial meeting. At the turning point of Bill's plan, Bill goads a despondent Mabel into handing him the means in which to break the gap between the real world and the Nightmare Realm—and, after doing so, traps Mabel in a Lotus-Eater Machine and unleashes "Weirdmaggedon" on Gravity Falls. Demonstrating his random cruelty by abominating Preston Northwest's face, Bill assaults the town, which sees almost all its citizens converted into a series of statues built into a "throne of human agony", and the rest living in hiding in a horribly-mutated Eldritch Location. Bill is dismissive of the fact that his influence could lead to the destruction of existence itself, and callously vaporizes Time Baby and the Time Police squad once they point this out to him. A being who was motivated by a lust of chaos and random whims, Bill happily conducted torture and the attempted brutal murder of children to further his goals. Treating everyone like a pawn and life itself as a game, Bill Cipher devoted his entire existence to wreaking chaos and destruction on the world at large.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • The show's Myth Arc was carefully compressed and had a pretty fast pace, with the status quo being averted fairly often, each new episode leading up to a new event, and the show generally requiring the viewer to be familiar with certain characters, locations or plot points. Even season 1, which was before the show started getting deeper into its story, still needed to be watched due to introducing many elements that ended up becoming important (or at least referenced again) in season 2 with hardly any explanation about what they are, who they are, or why.
  • In the year-long hiatus between season one and season two airing, shorts of the show were released. Most fans tuned into these clips. Once season two aired, a few events of the shorts were referenced (The Shapeshifter shifts into the Hidebehind from "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" and Octavia from "Mabel's Scrapbook" is featured in the finale). These references were understood by fans who watched the show as it initially aired, but most new viewers nowadays probably don't watch the shorts in between seasons, so the comprehension is now lost.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • Mabel Pines.
  • Quentin Trembly. The guy cryogenically froze himself in peanut brittle... and it worked!
  • Old Man McGucket.
  • Bill Cipher. He's insane, and our point is that it makes him awesome.
• Creator Worship: Alex Hirsch's Nice Guy personality, responses to the fans' questions and being brave enough to show dark content on a kids' show has made him very well-liked by the cartoon community. He became even more popular after Gravity Falls started growing its beard during the second season.
• Creepy Awesome: Bill Cipher, an all knowing Eldritch Abomination prone to randomly summoning bizarre imagery is also the most popular character in the entire show.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Some of the bits on this show probably manage to squeak by through sheer audacity.
  • "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" shows that Grunkle Stan's idea of "family time" is getting the siblings to help him counterfeit money.
    • In all honesty, a good chunk of Stan's crimes, quotes, and other actions qualify for this to the point it would be futile to list all of them.
  • In "The Inconveniencing", the antagonists are the ghosts of an old couple who died from heart attacks, with their deaths being show on screen. But what caused their heart attacks was hearing a "hateful" rap song about how whack homework and rules are.
  • That poor kid in pool solitary confinement in "The Deep End". His predicament goes from funny to tragic and back again once you see he's been in there a whole year.
  • The Heroic Sacrifice of Big Henry in "The Golf War" is played for maxiumum tear-jerking drama, so much so that it would be tragic if it weren't the death of a golf ball gnome sacrificing himself so Mabel can get a hole-in one.
  • Bill Cipher enjoying inflicting pain on himself in "Sock Opera". He slaps himself, tumbles down the stairs, smashes his arm in a drawer and bruises it with forks, all with a maniacal smile on his face. It's more than a little disturbing... but he does it with such enjoyment and casualness it's impossible not to find it hilarious.
  • Pacifica's father controlling her with a bell is utterly horrifying, until he gets frustrated at her defying it longer than usual and says, "Dingly dingly dingly! Is this bell broken?"
  • Mabel, Grenda, Candy, and Wendy getting into a fight with the unicorns in "The Last Mabelcorn". Now normally animal abuse is really horrific, but the episode manages to make it hilarious by making the unicorns total dicks who absolutely deserved it. Sadly, most of the fight was offscreen.
  • Bill Cipher and his eldritch buddies treat the end of the world like a huge party and act like a bunch of rebellious teens. Their party in the Fearamid is a lot like a typical teen party, right down to being busted by the cops (or the Time Police in this case). To literally drive this home even further, they rode up to the Fearamid in a pimped out ride, and the gear shift of their car was Blind Ivan's head.
  • The original fate of Dippy Fresh was to have Dipper murder him by twisting his neck backwards. Disturbing, but also darkly hilarious. Is it any wonder Disney made them cut it out? (though that may have been the point)
    Dippy Fresh: Your hat is on backwards. (twists Dipper's cap around)
    Dipper: YOUR HEAD IS ON BACKWARDS! (snaps Dippy Fresh's neck)
• Crossover Ship:
  • Mabel and Pinkie Pie, both Crazy Is Cool Genki Girls.
    • Mabel and Star Butterfly for the same reason.
    • Dipper and Twilight Sparkle also has some popularity as well.
    • Mabel and Steven Universe isn't unheard of.
  • Dipper and Dib for obvious reasons. And Dipper and Norman.
    • How about all three?◊
    • Dipper has also been paired with John Egbert.
    • There's been some crossover art of Dipper and Wirt, nicknamed "Pinescone".
    • Plenty of crossover art exists of Dipper and Lynn Loud Jr.
    • Pairing Dipper with Tulip is not unheard of, given that they're both Deadpan Snarker nerdy teenagers, who accidentally discover the paranormal, and are both associated with number-on-hand motifs. Tulip also shares a lot of physical attributes with Wendy, making the ship more plausible.
  • Dipper/Phineas and Ferb/Mabel
  • Wendy and Marceline.
    • Wendy's also been paired up with Courtney.
  • Mabel and Marshall Lee seems pretty popular on Tumblr.
  • Randy Cunningham and Mabel. Some people think they would make a good superhero team.
  • Fan-art of an Odd Friendship between Mabel and Gwen has been popping up recently.
  • Coraline and Dipper is popular due to their desire to investigate the unknown.
  • .GIFfany from "Soos and the Real Girl" and Turbo has been making the rounds on Tumblr.
  • Grunkle Stan and Rick Sanchez has gained popularity on Tumblr. Probably due to their shared Jerkass Grandpa/Grunkle status. The fact that the creators of the shows, Alex Hirsch and Justin Roiland, are friends and like to throw in references to each other in episodes doesn't help (or does, depending on whether you ship them or not).
    • Also with Ford, since they're both inter-dimensional traveling grandpas who thrive on science.
    • How about all three?◊
  • Bill Cipher and YV have appeared in many pieces of fan-art together due to their resemblance to each other.
  • Mason: Grunkle Stan, why didn't you tell us we once had a great aunt?
    • Grunkle Stan: Because your Aunt Edith was a real witch.

D-G

• Demographically Inappropriate Humour:
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it one: One of the men has a cat tattooed on his palm◊, and is smacking it with his other fist. He's pounding pussy.
  • During Willy Badger's performance, one of the children throws their overalls on stage.
  • Right before "Clay Day", Stan says, "Movies are great! You watch the movie, you scare the girl, the girl snuggles up next to you, next thing you know you gotta raise a kid, your life falls apart... Forget that last part." Alex Hirsch insists this has nothing to do with making illegitimate children.
  • Mabel's crack about Dipper's "creepy" internet history during "Into the Bunker".
  • In "The Last Mabelcorn", two of Dipper's thoughts displayed when he's attached to Ford's machine are "Man! That red bathing suit!" and "Maybe if I cross my legs, no one will notice!".
  • The show manages to sneak in Stan drowning his sorrows with actual alcohol simply by having him order "your strongest, most expired glass of apple cider!" As cider ferments, it gets more alcoholic. There's a similar joke in one of the spinoffs, in which Blubs and Durland dress up as teenagers with one peer-pressuring the other to drink "expired apple juice."
• Designated Villain: Blendin is treated as a villain for trying to keep his time machine from being used by a pair of twelve-year-olds. This treatment actually comes back to bite them nineteen episodes later.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Bill Cipher gets this treatment a lot, especially with human versions. Has now reached the point where some fans were actually upset by the apocalypse reveal because the fanon of the cute, quirky, merely annoying or even romantic Bill had become so prevalent and the reminder that he's legitimately evil with a thin veneer of Faux Affably Evil in canon was unwelcome.
  • The episode "Soos and the Real Girl" introduced .GIFfany who is a sentient Dating Sim character. She is a Yandere who is implied to have killed her developers and tried to kill the people who played her, she also tries to force Soos to upload his brain to her system so they can be together forever. Many people found her cute and sexy and were even attracted to her yandere tendencies since she "proved" she was willing to go a long way for love, even if it meant coercing and abusing the person she "loved."
  • Arguably Grunkle Stan gets this treatment from the fans. While it's true he's a sympathetic character, many like to ignore the fact that he very well knew one of the Portal's side effects could have well been The End of the World as We Know It, and he was perfectly okay with gambling the human race and his niece and nephew's lives on the off chance his brother had survived the thirty years inside the Portal (and even pleaded with Mabel to let him continue, even though his decision very well could have killed her). Many like to ignore this in favor of treating Ford, who was angry at him for taking this risk, for not being grateful, despite both brothers having been pretty prideful and selfish and Grunkle Stan nearly ending the world.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Paper Jam Dipper, the imperfect clone of Dipper who appeared in "Double Dipper". Despite being irrelevant to the plot, he's highly popular for his mashed-up, Ugly Cute design and Verbal Tic, as well as his interactions with...
  • Tyrone, aka Dipper 2. Dipper's first clone and a genuine Nice Guy, even when he's rallying the other clones against him, it's mainly due to a misunderstanding. Even a whole season later, Dipper admits that he misses him.
  • Quentin Trembley, the Cloud Cuckoo Lander former president of the United States, who was kicked out of office for being such a lunatic and then was removed from the history books. However, despite being still around, nothing much is done with him.
  • Blendin Blandin, the time traveller who goes after Dipper and Mabel is popular for being a Butt-Monkey and thus a Designated Villain. Being voiced by Justin Roiland using his Morty voice helps.
  • Rumble McSkirmish, a Ryu Expy is popular for his unique visual style, being an Affectionate Parody of video games of different genres and also being a Deconstructive Parody on what would happen if such a character would end up in the real world. Being one of the few "monsters" to experience Character Development helps.
  • Mermando is arguably the most popular Guy of the Week for Mabel, since they have genuine chemistry and he's actually sincere in his love for her. Plus, he's a hilarious parody of a Paranormal Romance.
  • By the end of the show, Bill Cipher has had too much focus and screentime to qualify as a Dark Horse, but he counted as one for a long time while the show was originally airing. He was a heavily discussed character before he even debuted. Since he appeared as a Freeze-Frame Bonus in the theme song (along with the Mystery Shack being littered with one-eyed triangle imagery), people were curious about what his significance would be in the show; during this period people dubbed him "Mr. Pyramid". He made his debut in the penultimate episode of season one, and once again appeared in the fourth episode of season two... and for a long time, that was it. After Sock Opera, Bill didn't appear again until The Last Mabelcorn, which aired a year later. One of the most popular and theorized characters in the show was one who appeared in two episodes.
  • Big Henry, the Liliputtian who gave his life for his clan's cause. Even though he's a minigolf gnome, many cried for him.
  • .GIFfany, a Dating Sim character who gained sentience and developed Yandere tendencies towards her players. She's probably the most popular Monster of the Week, enough so that Gravity Falls: Journal 3 has her still alive and paired off with Rumble, to the rejoicing of many fans.
  • The Horrifying, Sweaty, One-Armed Monstrosity, one of Bill's minions is popular for the Running Gag of trying to get stuff into his mouth.
  • Teeth also receives this because of his appearance and his funny personality, also helps, he's the most talkative out of the group.
  • Zanthar, despite just being a purple bread with legs and being The Faceless, he enjoys some popularity for the concept alone.
  • Pyronica is easily the most popular of Bill's minions, despite her limited screentime, for obvious reasons.
  • The gnomes. For their hilarious introduction. Particularly Shmebulock gets a lot of love.
  • "Bipper" (Dipper under Bill's control) has gained a sizable fan following, despite lasting only one episode. The badass reverend outfit didn't hurt.
  • Candy Chiu, Mabel's nerdy new friend is very beloved for her cute design and Adorkable antics, like strapping forks to her fingers. Being practically a human version of BMO helps, too.
  • Lee also gets a bit of attention for being a Nice Guy.
  • Soos' Abuelita, for approaching anything weird with Dissonant Serenity. Being a genuinely good mother figure to Soos and being voiced by Matt Chapman of Homestar Runner fame helps.
  • Melody, the similarly childish woman Soos hooks up with later in "Soos And The Real Girl" gets a lot of love for liking him the way he is and them making a really cute couple.
  • "The Stanchurian Candidate" has Tad Strange, who is notable for having become an Ensemble Dark Horse MONTHS before the episode aired, due to a very popular theory that he's Bill Cipher's secret brother as well as the fact that he's voiced by Cecil Baldwin of Welcome to Night Vale fame. When the episode aired, however, he's revealed to be nothing more than a joke character, which became an Ensemble Dark Horse all on its own.
  • Shandra Jimenez's popularity skyrocketed after the last part of Weirdmageddon.
  • Carla McCorkle, who only appears in two episodes, and even then, only in flashbacks or memories, and has essentially no bearing on the plot, however she's certainly the fan favourite of Stan's referenced/implied love interests, and their relationship is often portrayed in fanworks as having been extremely significant.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • There have been several attempts by the fandom to link Gravity Falls to The Slender Man. Most of them have been misunderstanding references to other media or mythological oddities, some of them are just completely fabricated. The Slender Man does make a cameo in the Gravity Falls: Lost Legends story "Face It", though.
  • There was a theory that Bill took over Dipper's body while he was turned to wood in "Northwest Mansion Mystery", and has been subtly arranging his master plan ever since. Alternatively, while not directly possessing him, Bill was also theorized to have a subtle influence on Dipper's thoughts.
  • Another theory is that Stan and Ford's father Filbrick was actually possessed by Bill, whose manipulations ensured the twins would have a falling out and wind up creating the Rift that frees him. Of course, this theory hinges on the fact that we've never seen Filbrick without his glasses.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Possibly, if you subscribe to the theory that Stan getting his memory back so fast means that Bill is back too and is just dormant in Stan's mind, and it's only a matter of time before he comes back. Also, there is no way newly thirteen year old children can handle the horror of surviving the apocalypse, especially when their parents, as far as we know, believe them to have had a perfectly normal summer.
• Estrogen Brigade:
  • Dipper certainly has quite the fangirl base.
  • Ford is slowly gaining a sizable amount, as well.
  • Stan. His Fan Nickname is "Hunkle Stan" for a reason.
  • Bill Cipher's fanbase became so large that he practically invented the category of "Tumblr Sexyman".
• Even Better Sequel: Everyone likes season one, but season two is generally agreed to be better. It's where the plot and mystery of the show truly began.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Some fans have interpreted Soos becoming a zombie and coming back to full life as symbolism of Jesus coming back to life, since his name is short for Jesús.
• Evil Is Cool: Bill Cipher in general, due to his all-knowing ways and mysteriousness. Taken up to eleven with Bill in Dipper's body, helped by the awesome reverend outfit he wears during the climax.
• Fandom Rivalry: The fans of this show often clash with fans of Phineas and Ferb. Sometimes they'll get along, however.
  • On 4chan, at least, Gravity Falls fans and Steven Universe fans have a heated relationship, and are known to troll on threads about the other series. There are still many who will admit to watching both, though.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • While the series' main story is finished, the Grand Finale implies that both Dipper and Mabel's adventures are far from over, which leads to many fan third season ideas. Judging the existence of alternate timelines since "The Time Traveler's Pig", there's been ideas of Point of Divergence scenarios such as if Bill revealed that Mabel gave the Rift to him.
  • What if Mabel hadn't accidentally sabotaged the all-knowing mailbox just as Dipper was going to ask who the author of the journal was? Since Stan was living under his brother's name, Dipper would have more questions than answers.
  • Some fans like to wonder What If? Stan got sucked into the portal instead of Ford.
  • Speaking of which, others like to ponder about Ford's thirty year stay in the portal.
  • Another fairly common scenario for fanfics is what would have happened if Bill had really killed Dipper or Mabel during the climax of the final episode.
  • Bipper triggered a slew of fanart and fan videos mostly focused around the very dark idea of what if Bill wasn't so easy to dislodge, either focus on Dipper being trapped forever or Mabel having to kill or severely injure Dipper to free him.
  • The question "What If? Dipper accepted Ford's apprenticeship and stayed in Gravity Falls at the end of the summer?" has also gotten significant fanfic attention. Because of how wrapped up the offer is in the controversy surrounding Dipper's and Mabel's relationship conflict in the finale, whether the What If? scenario turns out to be a good or bad thing for Dipper tends to go hand in hand with the writer's opinion of that controversy.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Bill Cipher was known as "Mr. Pyramid", “Caesar,” and "ACE" before being properly introduced. After being introduced, people started calling him a "Magical Dorito", or "The Illuminacho" In a similar vein, Bill Cy the Triangle Guy.
  • "Hunkle Stan" became prevalent after the Season 2 opener "Scary-Oke" aired and many fans confessed an attraction to Stan in full-blown badass mode smashing zombie heads. It's even been addressed semi-canonically. Naturally, there's a substantial following for Hunkle Ford as well.
  • "Dipdop" for Dipper.
  • Some have taken to calling Pacifica, "Paz". "Ciffy" and "Pacy" aren't uncommon either.
  • In almost all fanworks featuring Pacifica's Girl Posse, one of them is almost always named Tiffany.
  • With The Reveal concerning The Author and a confirmation of the "Stan has a twin" theory, people first took to calling the Author "Author Stan" or "Stanley", which was the most commonly theorized name for Stan's twin... Until "A Tale of Two Stans" came in and confirmed the Author's name was Stanford and the beloved Grunkle was Stanley, having stolen his brother's identity.
  • "Mystery Twins Classic" for Stan and Ford, possibly inspired by the clones' reference to the original Dipper as "Dipper Classic" in the episode "Double Dipper." This nickname was in use well before the Stan twin theory was confirmed!
• Fanon Discontinuity: While it was never shown in the show, Alex Hirsch has said that the fan's idea of what Bill would look like if he were a human or chose to turn into one, which is usually some sort of Pretty Boy or Bishōnen as per the Light Is Not Good theme Bill has, is fairly different to what he would actually look like. He even drew it, and it does not look pretty. Most fans continue to use their own designs instead.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: There was originally a scene where Dipper snapped the much-hated Dippy Fresh's neck all the way around. For obvious reasons, the scene was rejected, but a lot of fans who know about it wish it had been left in.
• Fan Speak: There are technically only two blocks of episodes—seasons 1 and 2—but given that there was a major change in the status quo and main cast followed by a large hiatus, fans tend to divide season 2 into 2A and 2B, with 2A ending with "Not What He Seems" and 2B beginning with "A Tale of Two Stans."
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Mabel/Pacifica was a small ship, but after "The Golf War" it has gained traction.
  • Then we have Dipper/Pacifica during Northwest Mansion Mystery. It started out as an Enemy Mine situation, but the subtext was there.
  • Thanks to "Sock Opera", we also have Bill/Dipper, mainly on Bill's end.
  • Bill Cipher/ The Author, more so that in the finale, Bill chains up Ford, offers him wine and a saccharine piano medley, and offers We Can Rule Together.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Mabel.
  • Ford, who since his introduction has had more memes per episode specifically about him than nearly every other character on the show. Given that he's voiced by J. K. Simmons, this was to be expected.
  • In-universe example, Stan in "The Stanchurian Candidate." He probably counts as this in general too.
  • Soos is one of the most quotable characters in the show.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • The Fallers are also on very good grounds with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, Steven Universe and albeit in a lesser extent at times, Mortal Kombat, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and even, DOOM fans, mostly due to certain similarities between various characters. Speaking of Mortal Kombat and Doom, not only Bill Cipher himself is a very fitting Playable Guest Fighter Villain due to him being one of the perfect opponents to pit against Shao Kahn to the ULTIMATE Gorn-filled Death, but also one of the perfect Guest Fighter Bosses in a DOOM game (since the franchise is about beating up Underworld Monsters to the ground), since it would be an amazing treat for both GF and Doom fans to have Doom Slayer pit against Bill to the ground. The same can also be said with some Rated M for Manly anime series that share some elements with GF such as Fist of the North Star (as there's a You Are Already Dead One-Hit Kill performed by Grunkle Stan to make Kenshiro very proud) and Berserk.
  • Not to mention Coraline, ParaNorman, and Psychonauts. The four canons together make up a popular crossover called "Mystery Kids."
  • Thanks to the coincidentally, amusingly similar designs of Bill Cipher and Yung Venuz, Gravity Falls fans are increasing the popularity of Nuclear Throne. On Tumblr, "#gravity falls" is even at the top of the game's related tags!◊
  • Well liked by fans of Welcome to Night Vale due to the shows having similar premises and aesthetics. This was reinforced when Cecil Baldwin, who voices the main character Cecil Palmer, was confirmed to be voicing a Joke Character named "Tad Strange" in Gravity Falls.
  • Due to its focus on the supernatural as well as government conspiracies, there's a lot of overlap with the SCP Foundation, with one of the stories on the site explaining that the town of Gravity Falls is in fact a covert Foundation containment site.
  • Steadily becoming this with the Over the Garden Wall fandom, often with crossovers.
  • Anything with a motif of stars in it (including Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Wander over Yonder and the aforementioned Steven Universe) has become popular for anything involving Mabel.
  • Gravity Falls fans began the fandom for Star vs. the Forces of Evil, since the preview of the show's intro sequence at a Gravity Falls Comic Con panel led to an explosion of fanart and shipping before a single episode had even aired.
  • Gravity Falls and Steven Universe have become especially close after the premier of "A Tale of Two Stans" and the beginning of the third StevenBomb ("Cry for Help") both aired on July 13th, especially since both episodes were very emotionally charged. There were a lot of jokes that the creators did this intentionally to mess with the fans.
  • Thanks to some cross-continuity foreshadowing in Rick and Morty, and the fact that Stanford is confirmed to have traveled through several dimensions, a popular fanon has popped up that Rick and Stanford were friends if not more. The most common bit of fanon is that Rick Sanchez helped Stanford obtain the Infinity-Sided Die, and smuggle it through inter-dimensional customs. The real-life Journal 3 pretty much verifies this the fanon, including a coded "Rick was here" message.
  • The Gravity Falls fans have a close connection with the DuckTales (2017) fandom, which isn't surprising. Both are witty, have dynamic color and animation, and Duck Tales 2017 is led by Alex Hirsch's girlfriend. Furthermore, both have a supernatural adventure/family message, including multiple generations of twins/triplets, a greedy but adventurous great-uncle, a missing twin, a rift between guardians, and an arc mystery involving said disappeared twin.
  • Fans of Gravity Falls also have a fondness for Hilda, due to both shows involving a group of kids having supernatural adventures in their hometown.
  • Amphibia, The Owl House, and Inside Job (2021) have gained popularity for being Spiritual Successors made by people who worked on Gravity Falls. The Mitchells vs. the Machines is also popular because it has a GF crewmember as part of it.
  • It's also not uncommon for GF fans to have a liking for Silent Hill or vice versa, due to both works being horror-mysteries set in a town full of supernatural occurrences.
  • A lot of Gravity Falls fans tend to be fans of Bob's Burgers due to Kristen Schaal's work on both shows. Not to mention some fans find Tina to be similar to Mabel due to obvious reasons.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Each episode's credits feature a cryptogram referencing the events of the episode. The first says "Welcome To Gravity Falls." There's also one in the theme song "STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS" and in an online game "EVER SEE STANS TATTOO?"
  • Whole forums have been dedicated to trying to decipher the possible meanings behind the various alchemy and rune symbols found in the book and background stills.
  • Soos insists on pronouncing the "p" in "pterodactyl". Which is exactly what the ancient Greeks would have done.
  • In his introductory episode, Gideon sinisterly repeats Dipper's "thumbs up". Wonder if he knew he was pronouncing a death sentence?
  • In "The Headhunters", after the wax statue of Genghis Khan accidentally melts himself, Dipper remarks that he "fell harder than the... ehh... I don't know... Jin Dynasty?" Jin was the name of a Chinese dynasty that got conquered by Genghis Khan.
  • In "Northwest Mansion Mystery", a countdown begins to the full activation of the Portal, and McGucket believes that the end of the countdown signifies the coming of the Apocalypse. But in the next episode, instead of the end of the world, we are given the answers to many secrets and hidden tensions between the Pines family are revealed and come into new clarity. While the modern meaning of Apocalypse is often interpreted as The End of the World as We Know It, its archaic meaning referred not to an end but instead to a great revelation.
  • What kind of name is "Gompers the Goat"? Well, this guy liked it well enough.
  • In "Soos And The Real Girl", the chalkboard in the background of .GIFfany's first scene shows the Schrodinger Hamiltonian equation (used in quantum mechanics).
  • In "The Last Mabelcorn", one of the board games Dipper and Mabel look at is called "Don't Wake Stalin!". Doubly ironic in that you wouldn't want to annoy a grumpy Gus like him anyway, and its referral to the Karmic Death that Stalin suffered in real life.
  • The first "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" short starts off with Dipper eating some food called the Mobius Chicken Strip
    Dipper: It's infinitely delicious!
  • The Monster of the Week in "Roadside Attraction" is essentially a Jorogumo.
  • Anyone who knows a thing or two about ciphers in history should recognize the reference in the name Bill Cipher.
  • The Lilliputtians, much like their namesake, have been in an age-old war over something trivial.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show is very popular in Russia. It also has a large amount of fanart coming from Japanese and South Korean artists.
  • It's quite popular in Canada and France as well.
  • It should be noted that unlike many American comedies, it does not rely on the French Jerk sterotype as much. It does have some toilet humor, but not too much. It is a Disney made cartoon show after all.
  • Many of the characters are remarkably smart, educated and observant. Which would appeal to the French. It also pokes fun at rich snobs, rednecks and high society, who are all targets of derision in France.
  • Anti-Americanism is commonplace and rather widespread in both Canada and France. Gravity Falls takes Eagleland type 2, (America the boorish) to a whole other level. That would explain it's general appeal in both countries.
• Growing the Beard:
  • The two-part Season 1 finale is most commonly said to be when the show went from just good to exceptional. After that, the show only gotten better with Season 2, going deeper into Character Development and advancing the Myth Arc.
  • Taken another step further with "Not What He Seems" and the introduction of Ford midway through season 2. "Not What He Seems" is generally regarded as the best episode of the whole show, and currently holds a 9.9 score on IMDB - a feat only notably bested by "Ozymandias". After NWHS, several other amazing episodes showed up.

H-M

• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • In the episode Blendin's Game, Soos claims that a genius taught him how to open a vending machine. When the twins go to the past and meet young Soos, Mabel is the one who teaches him how to open the machine. Soos considers Mabel to be a genius!
  • Just watch any scene involving the portal prior to the reveal in "Not What He Seems" that Stan was doing it all to rescue his brother.
  • Soos in one of the shorts mentions he wants to have seven kids, one to love every day of the week. He wants to be a better father than his dad was!
  • Soos wearing Stan's fez and saying "Some day", in "Little Dipper" is a lot more satisfying knowing that day comes in the finale.
  • Jon Stewart's appearance near the end was already sweet enough knowing he was a huge fan of the show. Then Alex Hirsch revealed after the finale that making the first season was so exhausting that he was seriously considering ending it right there, and it was a conversation with Stewart, who was outraged at the thought of the story ending on such a massive cliffhanger, that pushed him to make the second season.
  • Disney notoriously refused to let Blubbs and Durlan be a canon gay couple until Alex Hirsch was finally able to slip in a single line making it clear in the last episode. He went on to play two major roles in fellow Disney show The Owl House, giving him a front-row seat to the first time the company allowed one of its animated shows to unambiguously feature non-hetero content and an openly bisexual protagonist.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: WatchMojo included the show at #7 on their "Top 10 Hated Disney Animated Shows" video. It went about as well as you'd expect.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Alex Hirsch himself who had mostly comedic roles before this show, delivers an absolutely gut-wrenching performance as Grunkle Stan in the climax of "Not What He Seems". He also seemed to be improving on Villainous Breakdowns for Bill Cipher. Compare his breakdown in "Dreamscaperers" where he only sounds mildly disgruntled with his breakdown in the "Weirdmageddon" finale where Bill devolves into Angrish and Suddenly Shouting.
    Bill Cipher: You! You kids can't even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I'm like...when I'm mad?
    Bill Cipher: When I get my hands on you kids, I'm gonna DISASSEMBLE YOUR MOLECULES! [...] You've tricked me for the last TIME!!
  • Kristen Schaal, a comedian, shows a greater range than just humor in "Not What He Seems", shown when Mabel starts tearing up over whether or not she can trust Grunkle Stan.
    • In that same episode, which is mentioned in the Tear Jerker page, Jason Ritter pulls out his emotional range as well, when Dipper very expressively voices his disgust and outrage at his and Mabel's discoveries of Grunkle Stan's criminal actions and his plan in the climax.
• He's Just Hiding: Many of the fans are convinced that Bill isn't dead. Given that his backwards last words are seemingly a spell to let him "return", it might be justified.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Dipper/Robbie has been dubbed Muffin Explosion, due to a gag in their first meeting (The Inconveniencing) where Dipper mistakes Robbie's explosion graffiti for a muffin.
• Inferred Holocaust:
  • In Episode 2, Old Man McGucket claims that he's gone on murderous rampages in robots many times before and hasn't been caught.
  • The pterodactyl's nest is constructed of dozens of human skeletons (mainly of miners), so it's implied that it ate a lot of people (also possible that it could've just found the bones).
  • Candy remarks that Several Timez "won't last a week" in the woods after Mabel lets them go. Subverted in that they live on garbage and have become scavengers.
  • A lot of fans on the Fridge page have speculated that Pacifica is in for hell from her parents once the party in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" is over.
  • In the end of "Not What He Seems", some of Gravity Falls was destroyed, the government agents are still after Stan and now everyone in Gravity Falls is fully aware of the town's supernatural secret from the gravity anomalies. However, it was subverted since Ford brainwashes the government agents into thinking the readings they got were radiation from an unexpected meteor show and the town believes the gravity anomalies were just one giant earthquake.
• Informed Wrongness: Dipper's behavior in "Roadside Attraction". Dipper flirts with a different girl at each stop on their road trip, and amasses a collection of e-mail addresses and phone numbers. This is treated as a lot less innocent than you'd think considering that the characters in question haven't even hit puberty. When he happens to run into all of them at once, they're disgusted and tell him not to contact them, apparently having been under the impression that agreeing to be pen pals with a guy who flirted with you constitutes a monogamous relationship. Made worse by the fact that they're writing their contact info on his arms, and he's wearing short sleeves.
  • Also, Ford in general. He's often portrayed as a selfish Jerkass who accidentally caused Weirdmageddon through his own arrogance and basically treated Stan like trash for years because he was clinging to a superficial fight they had, even though Stan was literally homeless. The problem is that for one, Ford never actually had any way of knowing Stan didn't sabotage his project (and not acting sympathetic for him didn't do favors either), and if you really think about it, that was actually far from a superficial fight caused by Ford's ego; as far as he knew, Stan had just proved himself willing to sabotage his plans for the future to make sure they would never have to live apart, which is not only a massive betrayal of trust, but also incredibly creepy—and he also had no way of knowing the dire situation Stan was in during this period; we don't actually know how he would have acted if he had. Not to mention, Ford didn't cause Weirdmageddon. When he built the portal, he had no way of knowing it was supposed to be basically a doomsday device. Bill led him to believe it was a research project that would benefit the world. It seems a bit unfair to blame Ford for what ended up happening, because what kind of super-enthusiastic scientist wouldn't want to take part in a potentially groundbreaking and (supposedly) world-bettering research project? Finally, Ford's actions during the fight with Stan that ultimately got him sent through the portal. He was being a jerk, but it's pretty clear that he was severely mentally unwell, which is never once addressed. Think of his time in the portal from his perspective; he's just been trapped in another dimension by his own brother (who, given Ford's paranoia at the time, he probably thinks did this intentionally), and is forced to spent the next three decades being hunted down by Bill across worlds. It's really no wonder he was angry at Stan, though it is a bit of a case of Poor Communication Kills on both sides. Either way, Ford just really doesn't come off as the arrogant and selfish asshole he's depicted as being.
• Incest Yay Shipping: The infamous Pinecest between Dipper and Mabel, obviously. Not even Stan and Ford are safe from this.
• I Knew It!:
  • "Gideon Rises": Stan has Book 1 and he is aware of the crazy supernatural stuff that happens in town but lies about it.
  • "Scaryoke": Soos becomes a zombie.
  • "Into the Bunker": Wendy knows about Dipper's crush on her and the author of the books has 6 fingers.
  • "Society of the Blind Eye": Old Man McGucket was intimately involved with the mysteries of Gravity Falls before he went crazy — though he turned out not to be the author of the journals, as a number of fans assumed, but merely the true author's lab assistant.
  • "Not What He Seems": The author of the books is Stan's brother and Stan was trying to use the machine to bring him back. This one in particular is the culmination of the infamous "Stanley" or "Stan's Twin" theory, which was very well known but often a hot subject of debate. (Though basically everyone assumed that the lost twin was Stanley and Grunkle Stan was Stanford, as he was called in the show itself prior to The Reveal that it was actually the other way around.)
  • "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future": Mabel becomes so afraid of the future after Gravity Falls, she breaks the Rift, something that a majority of the fandom had predicted since the reveal of its existence.
  • The slightly less-obvious symbols on the intro's Cipher wheel were confirmed in the Grand Finale. Wendy is the Ice Bag, Pacifica is the Llama, and McGucket is the Glasses.
  • Anyone who thought that Mabel and Dipper had similar names like Stan and Ford did, and proposed Mason as Dipper's real name, were validated in Journal 3.
• It Was His Sled: Who was Grunkle Stan trying to bring back to Earth? His brother Ford, who also wrote the journals.
• Jerkass Dissonance: Alex Hirsch was (rather understandably) surprised at the fanbase that Pacifica has garnered. He did say that she would receive "some development" in Season 2, though, possibly as a result of this. When he said this, he was writing "Sock Opera", so he was referring to "The Golf War". Evidently, he and the other writers came to like her as well, since she receives even more development in "Northwest Mansion Mystery."
  • Ditto Robbie, though his popularity also overlaps with that of all the teen characters on the show, who also got more time and development in Season 2 as a result of the positive reception, specifically in "The Love God".
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Rumble McSkirmmish came across as being this, because of his EXTREMELY black and white view on morality, and the fact that he was a complete fish out of water. It's obvious that he tries to do the right thing, and feels deeply regretful when he believes that he's made a mistake.
  • Robbie in "Boyz Crazy". True, what he did towards Wendy in the episode was out of line, but he seemed genuinely despaired when Wendy told him that they were through.
  • Lil' Gideon's father. He may assist his son in his evil schemes, but clearly does so because he's understandably terrified of him. It's implied he joined the Blind Eye Society to forget Gideon's abuse.
  • Pacifica Northwest in "The Golf War". Her jerkass attitude is implied to come from parental pressure, and her obsession with wealth and material value seems to be compensation for the fact that, along with their pressure, her parents are selfishly absent for most of her life. This gets worse in "Northwest Manor Mystery", where it turns out they did something to her that causes her to instantly stop any rebellious action from just the sound of a bell ringing. Thankfully, she seems to be getting nicer to Mabel and Dipper, at the end of both these episodes.
  • .GIFfany can definitely come off this way. What with her talk about being sure her new boyfriend, Soos, won't abandon her. The fact that she was returned to the video game store a total of three times, and at least one of those times someone she considered her boyfriend returned her with a note essentially asking people to kill her. And finally how desperate she becomes over not wanting to be abandoned again. It becomes a bit hard to not feel bad for her.
  • Blendin Blandin definitely played the antagonist in "Blendin's Game", what with him trying to erase the twins from existence for costing him his job, but he's just too pathetic to hate. Mabel flat-out says as much: "he's too sad to really be a bad guy."
  • Grunkle Stan, thanks to A Tale of Two Stans. His father didn't like him very much, and he did ruin his brother's future... but on the other hand, he was disowned and forced by his parents to do the impossible task of making up the money they potentially lost from his mistake while he was still in high school, and he spent almost ten years of his life in poverty, having to chew his way out of a car trunk, getting jailed three times in three countries, and becoming Persona Non Grata in most of the country after numerous failed scams. Suddenly, his bitterness makes a lot of sense.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • Big Bad Bill Cipher is universally loved by the fandom, with many calling him one of the best characters on the show, despite his end goal being bringing about the apocalypse. By contrast, Preston and Priscilla are merely Upper Class Twits and Abusive Parents to their daughter and are utterly loathed by the fanbase because of it, with Preston in particular often taking many fans's "worst/least favorite character on the show" spot. And as utterly horrific as it was, not many fans felt bad when Bill Cipher shuffled the functions of every hole in his face.
  • Nevertheless, the hate that Priscilla and Preston receive is tame compared to Filbrick Pines, to the point that a local joke in the fandom is that he's worse than Bill, who is supposed to be the main villain. If you don't believe this, Preston and Priscilla at least have some fans who Love to Hate them, but nobody in the fandom finds Filbrick likeable, and all unanimously hate him for being an abusive father to Stan and Ford and left both old men with plenty of psychological scars, above never caring about them.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Dipper has been paired with Wendy, Candy, Mabel, Grunkle Stan, Soos, Gideon, Robbie, .GIFfany, Pacifica, Tambry, Old Man McGucket, Tyrone, and even with Bill Cipher. It's probably best to just list who Dipper hasn't been paired with yet.
• LGBT Fanbase: Dipper is quite popular with trans men who identify with his overwhelming desire to be masculine and taken seriously as a man.
• Like You Would Really Do It: After all the hints that Stan would die, how many people thought that Alex Hirsch would go through with wiping his mind permanently?
• Love to Hate:
  • Gideon. An evil little guy who is psycho for Mabel, bent on town conquest, even trying to kill Dipper for being in the way of his goals, and overall one of the most depraved characters of the show.
  • Bill Cipher. A horrible being and a Complete Monster through and through, yet probably the most popular character in the show for just how hilarious and cool he is.
• Magnificent Bastard: Stanley "Stan" Pines, the Pines twins' money-grubbing "Grunkle", gradually proves over the series to be far more driven and intelligent than anyone could ever initially assume. The twin brother of the genius Stanford Pines, a long sibling rivalry between the two ended up with Stanley accidentally pushing Stanford through the latter's portal machine before they could reconcile. Desperate to save his brother, Stanley took Stanford's identity, turned his brother's isolated cabin into a tourist trap called "the Mystery Shack," and spends thirty years tracking down his brother's journals to reactivate the portal. A master of Obfuscating Stupidity, Stan pretends to be an oblivious conman to dissuade Dipper and Mabel from investigating the dangerous supernatural phenomena of Gravity Falls, before giving up the act and taking out half a horde of zombies with his bare hands to protect them. Stan outwits almost everyone in the series, from his nefarious rival Gideon Gleeful to federal agents, and pulls his ultimate gambit by tricking the near-omnipotent demon Bill Cipher by switching places with his brother and destroying Bill. Stanley Pines is a man utterly devoted to his family, even if he has to ruthlessly manipulate his loved ones to save them.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Grunkle Stan. In "The Legend Of the Gobblewonker", he uttered the line "Who wants to put on blindfolds and get in my car?" and, later in the same episode, is made to wear a tracking bracelet on his ankle after we see him harassing a young boy about fishing tips and being chased off by the boy's mother. To add fuel to this, Grunkle Stan seemed oddly comfortable to have The Talk with Mabel (in Dipper's body).
  • Lil Gideon is this to some fans, especially since "Little Dipper".
• Mind Game Ship:
  • Dipper and Bill.
  • Likewise, as of the reveal of their history, Bill and Ford have a similar appeal among fans.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • .GIFfany, a character made as a message against Perverse Sexual Lust and as a criticism of dating sims, has gained a number of fans that found her genuinely hot and even has a small number of fan fiction pairing her with a self-insert. Usually this goes in-hand with her Draco in Leather Pants treatment. And besides, she's taken by Rumble McSkirmish anyway.
  • Some people genuinely think Bill was just trying to have fun and was killed/tricked for no good reason. Asides from it being a Draco in Leather Pants-biased interpretation, this excuse is usually used to demonize the Time Police as fun-sucking assholes who are exposed by [insert Bill shipping mate here] for the monsters they really are.
  • Many fans continue to use the "Alpha Twin" comment from "Little Dipper" as a friendly, affectionate trademark phrase of Mabel's, ignoring that the phrase was actually coined by Mabel in a Jerkass Ball moment to bully her brother and she has since stopped using it.
• Moe:
  • Mabel more than qualifies, being an an absolutely energetic and adorable Cheerful Child Cutie.
  • Dipper can qualify for this as well for his adorkablity (particularly when doing The Lamby, Lamby Dance).
  • .GIFfany, despite the fact that, or perhaps because, she is so crazy. Especially when Soos compliments her, or when she's wearing her train conductor uniform.
  • Pacifica has some surprisingly adorable moments in "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Pacifica's parents cross this in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" when they would rather let all their guests, including four children, die rather than swallow their pride and let in the common people of the town. Plus, their survival plan depends on them cannibalizing their butler. They were also revealed to be extremely emotionally abusive towards Pacifica, up to and including having her trained to respond to a bell with contrition like one of Pavlov's dogs.
  • Grunkle Stan's parents crossed it when they kicked him out of the house when he was about seventeen or eighteen, all because of a stupid mistake he made, refusing to even hear his side of the story. They told him not to return home until he was rich. That's just cold. To be more specific, his father was responsible for all this, while his mother simply stood by and watched it happen. Whether she didn't care to or actually couldn't is open to interpretation.
  • Darlene is probably one of the most evil Monster of the Week villains. After luring Stan into the Mystery Mountain she reveals that she plans to eat Stan and turn his body into a mummy just like she's did quite a number of others. She later goes out of her way to chase Stan down and tries to eat him, along with Dipper, Mabel, Candy and Grenda. She makes it clear at the end of the episode that she will keep feeding on victims as long as there are guys like Stan still out there.
  • Bill Cipher crosses this in the second season. While he was never on the side of good to begin with, his actions in his first appearance could just be interpreted as him being a Punch-Clock Villain who takes his job seriously. However, him abusing Dipper's body to the point he needed to be hospitalized and almost manipulating Mabel into giving him the journal firmly establishes him as one of the main antagonists. And if that wasn't enough he threatened to murder Dipper and Mabel if Ford didn't do his bidding.

N-Z

• Narm Charm:
  • Big Henry's Heroic Sacrifice is played so utterly straight that many viewers admitted to crying over the death of a mini golf gnome.
  • Bill Cipher is a living Eye of Providence triangle with stick figure limbs and a simple top hat and tie. With that design, he shouldn't have worked as a Big Bad once the show got more serious. Yet, he's still considered one of the best villains in an animated series the 2010s put out.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Wendy's only line in the earliest promos was: "Later, dorks." This has lead to some Fan Fic writers treating the word "dorks" like it's her Verbal Tic, not unlike Kevin.
  • "Morality is relative!" has become the driving force behind all Mabel haters as proof of her "evil."
  • Mabel's detractors will never forgive her for her role for nearly ending the world, albeit unintentionally.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The term "loser candy" dates back to at least 2008.
  • Celebrating Halloween in July may seem unique to Gravity Falls, until you realise Disney's most iconic Halloween Cult Classic was in fact released in July, 20 years before the episode came out.
  • In "Boyz Crazy", Mabel and her two girl friends discover their favorite Boy Band is not what it seems. This was also an arc of the web comic Angel Moxie, where the boy band N'Tune turned out to be servants of an evil villain using Mass Hypnosis on their fans.
  • The Love God being an older man instead of a pretty young woman (like Aphrodite/Venus, Ishtar/Astarte or Hathor) or a baby (Cupid) might seem new, but the Chinese deity of love and marriage is Yue Lao, literally, 'an elderly man under the moon'.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The brain monster in the freezer in "The Inconveniencing".
  • Big Henry in "Golf War".
  • Dipper as a sock puppet. He's funny when he's mad.
  • Gideon's mother has only appeared in one scene in one episode, yet it's upsetting.
• OT3: Mabel/Pacifica/Dipper. As Pacifica has become more friendly with the Pines twins, shipping her with one or the other has become incredibly popular. After episodes like "The Golf War" and "Northwest Mansion Mystery", shipping all three has become the "everyone is happy" compromise for Pincest shippers.
• One True Pairing: While there are a lot of ship wars between the fanbase, the one pairing just about everyone agrees on is Soos/Melody, with the reasons being that they are just so cute together and that Soos deserves someone nice.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • The cipher at the end of season 1 finale revealed the name of a website, which posted many cryptograms, among them "IM WATCHING YOU" and "IT ALL STARTED WITH A MAN A CURIOUS MAN." (they have been since removed, and replaced with "A Forgotten Tale"), and features Bill Cipher at the main page. Just what the fuck is this site? Word of God says the site isn't affiliated with Disney, but it seems to be official to some capacity due to it foreshadowing an unexpected Gravity Falls flash game's release. After going on a hiatus since October, it reappeared in June and has been updating since - the wiki link above chronicles its every update until July 2017, where it stopped updating, and August 2018, where it shuts down and can only be viewed through the internet archives.
  • Bill Cipher departs from his first appearance by letting the character know that, until next time, he'll be watching them... not that he wasn't before. The whole time.
  • Experiment 210, like most creatures with the power of Voluntary Shapeshifting, definitely evokes this feeling. Fitting, considering what he's an homage to.
  • The Hide-Behind is always right behind someone, making that creepy clicking noise, but he'll always move away before you can get a clear look at him.
  • "Not What He Seems" introduces the idea that your lovable relative may in fact be a complete stranger who had stolen his identity. This thankfully isn't entirely the case with Grunkle Stan, but the scenes in which it's looking like it is are extremely unsettling.
• Periphery Demographic: The adult fanbase for the show is so large that it even receives a nod in-show, in "Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons."

  Stan: "I'll have you know there's a big mystery element [in Duck-tective], and a lot of humor that goes over kids' heads!"

• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Dipper/Pacifica has Dippica/Dipifica/Dipacifica and Dipper/Candy has CandyDip. Dipper/Wendy has WenDip.
  • Agents Powers and Trigger are Powertrigger.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets got mixed to negative reception. Praise was given to the visuals and dialogue, but the main criticism is that it's very short.
• Realism-Induced Horror: .GIFfany from "Soos and the Real Girl" is a a sentient A.I. out to kill Soos, Melody and the twins. However, the most chillingly realistic thing about her is how she tries to isolate Soos from other women so she can be the only girl in his life.
• Recurring Fanon Character:
  • Many of the characters in the Fan Verse Reverse Falls AU, a particularly popular Alternate Timeline setting for the series in which many characters swap roles and personalities, appear in several fanfics and stories; the most notable are the swaps for the show's protagonists, Dipper and Mabel Gleeful, who are used in most Alternate Universe stories even when the Reverse Falls representation is otherwise pretty minor.
  • While Bill Cipher is a canon character, two versions of him are commonly used in fanwork, sometimes even overshadowing the original: There's Bipper, a.k.a. Bill after pulling a Grand Theft Me on Dipper, who in canon is just that, with his name being a simple one-off joke made by Mabel. The fandom frequently uses this character as a separate entity from Dipper, usually one of Bill's forms, or seperate him from Bill outright. The other is Human!Bill, and while humanization and Self-Fanservice is something that happens frequently in other fandoms, it happens to Bill often enough that his human form could be considered a separate character outright, with a deliberately more sympathetic portrayal for the fangirls.
  • Another character who took off in an unusual way is Tad Strange, after a character with that name was said to be voiced by Cecil Baldwin of Welcome to Night Vale fame. Due to his unusual name and comments by Teasing Creator Alex Hirsch ^note "HE'S A REAL SQUARE", plenty of people immediately built a connection between this character and Bill, portraying him as a square-shaped, purple Dream Demon, with a bowler hat, a tie, an umbrella and a goat pupil, directly contrasting Bill (or, as described in Hirsch's words, "as much as Doctor Who and Jack Skellington as possible"). He's usually portrayed as Bill's brother, though the depiction varies if they are Cain and Abel or a Sibling Team, and if "Tad" is more sympathetic or not. However, the character became less used after it was cleared up that the character with that name was simply an extreme case of The Generic Guy. Some still use the character under the name "Dot Matrix" or outright combine him with the canon Tad Strange, by saying that "Tad" is actually his disguise or puppet.
  • Another character who was quite popular to use in fanfic is "Lebam", Mabel's "secret second twin", who came from a surprisingly popular theory after someone noticed an animation error in the episode "The Deep End", where Mabel's name was written backwards for whatever reason. With a show that's practically a plantation for Epileptic Trees, many took this simple error to be a hidden clue about a doppelganger of Mabel. What makes this especially egregious is that it actually makes sense, given that "Double Dipper" introduced a copier that can create imperfect duplicates of human beings, so it isn't too farfetched to think that someone like Mabel would duplicate herself out of boredom. Most stories surrounding her also feature Dipper's clone "Tyrone" and Sev'ral Timez, as well as other original clone characters, to give An Aesop about why Clones Are People, Too.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Wendy was derided in Season 1 for being a generic "cool teen" character who didn't fit well with the rest of the main characters. Season 2 fixed it by leaps and bounds, first by having her join Dipper and Mabel's adventures and prove a very effective part of the team, and then having her admit the "cool teen" thing is just a facade and she's actually constantly stressed out.
  • Old Man McGucket was a goofy joke character that was assumed to either be potentially evil or just some random background character on drugs. Come "Society of The Blind Eye", and not only is he given backstory, he's the main hero and savior of the episode!
  • Ford. Upon his initial introduction, many saw him as a selfish Jerkass, especially since his introductory episode was dedicated to showing and giving sympathy to Stan's side of their conflict. As episodes went on and depth was given to his character and backstory, many began to consider he has very justifiable reasons for his actions, whether due to his actions while younger coming from a lack of information or sleep deprivation, or his actions while older being his attempt at atoning for accidentally helping Bill. He remained a Base-Breaking Character for the most part though, up until the Grand Finale, in which most came around when he finally reconciled with Stan, acknowledged Stan's virtues and his own faults when it came to their relationship, and had a particularly tearjerking reaction to having to erase Stan's mind and the after-effects of it.
  • To a much bigger extent, very few people liked Pacifica Northwest in Season 1. She seemed to exist mainly as just the stereotypical "rich popular girl" and was a jerk to Mabel. Otherwise, she had few character traits and little to no relevance to the series' main plots. ^note Lampshaded in the episode "Golf War" where Mabel refers to her as a "one-dimensional-beach-blonde-valley-girl-stereotype." Then came the Season 2 episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery", where we learn more about Pacifica's dysfunctional family life and why she acts the way she does. The episode has Pacifica finally manage to overcome her family's manipulation, saving the day and promising to fix the family name, becoming a much nicer person in the process. Notable in that the creator admitted in one interview that this episode was written expressly to pull off this trope.
• Retroactive Recognition: This series would help launch the animation careers of various people such as Matt Braly, Dana Terrace, Chris Houghton, Chris Sonnenberg, Jeff Rowe, Shion Takeuchi, and Mike Rianda.
• Ron the Death Eater: Depending on the fan/writer/artist, Mabel and/or Dipper occasionally get this treatment. Stan isn't immune either, as you can see from the troll fics listed in the Memetic Molester bulletin.
  • Doing this to Dipper has shot up in popularity since the emergence of the many Villain!Dipper headcanons on tumblr following "Not What He Seems." To the point where there is an actual theory called "Dipper4TrueVillainOfGF."
  • Parts of the fandom will often exaggerate Mabel's flaws, portraying her as, among other things, a Manipulative Bitch. As well as not remembering she herself was manipulated into causing Weirdmageddon (and it's arguably just as much Dipper and Ford's fault for not telling her about the Rift) while otherwise treating the incident like it was otherwise.
  • Some also exaggerate Ford's selfish tendencies, portraying him as a heartless man who'd protect his Journals over the safety of the world and his family, or a malicious one deliberately trying to break up the twins' good relationship.
  • Robbie is frequently depicted by the fandom as much more vicious than he was ever depicted on the show and is usually shown as failing to get over Wendy. Whilst that depiction made sense before the second season, during which the show paired him up with Tambry, he's still used as an antagonist trying to prevent Wendy and Dipper's relationship from progressing, especially in Wendip fanfics where the characters have been aged up so that the age gap is no longer an issue.
  • While Preston Northwest is a controlling scumbag of a father, he is never shown physically abusing Pacifica. Just about every fanfic with him has him hit her at some point in the story.
• Sacred Cow: This cartoon, along with Adventure Time and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, is considered one of the best and most influential cartoons of the 2010s, and is considered to have rescued Disney Channel animation side after a slump in the late 2000s, so it's hard to see any negative thing said about the show. The fact that WatchMojo received an overwhelming amount of backlash for including it on their "Top 10 Hated Disney Animated Shows" video cements this status.
• Self-Fanservice: When it comes to drawing Bill Cipher, fandom likes to draw him not only as his adorably evil triangle form, but also as a tall, suave, handsome young man in a yellow suit. The looks vary from lanky teen to Alex Hirsch, but he is almost always paired with Dipper in a lot of these pictures. And this isn't even accounting for all of the suggestive and bloody art Bipper gets...
  • And all the borderline NSFW fan-art of Mabel, Pacifica, or Wendy who are usually aged up.
  • Stan commonly suffers from this, many fans even call him "Hunkle" and swoon over him, you can even see many drawings featuring Stan with fanservice, specially due the episodes "Double Dipper", "Boss Mabel", "Scary-Oke", "The Golf War" and "The Stanchurian Candidate". In fact Stan is a perfect combo, because not only many find him handsome, but also helps he has a sad backstory, a great personality and hidden depths. Ford isn't safe either. In fact a group of fans created a dating sim named Swooning Over Stans: A Grunkle Dating Simulator, where you can date Stan and Ford. It's quite obvious that Alex and his crew never intended Stan to be a silver fox, but they still rolled with it.
  • In fanart, Wendy is often drawn brawnier (and bustier) than canon due to her lumberjack heritage.
  • Robbie's receives this from time to time. In canon, he is scrawny Perpetual Frowner with a goofy-looking nose but some fanfiction writers (particuarly those who write Robbie x reader fics on sites like Wattpad) will describe him as having "abs" or "strong arms". In addition, in fanart, Robbie's Gag Nose will often be replaced with a normal one.
• Ship Mates: Billdip (Bill/Dipper) shippers are usually pretty friendly with Mabifica (Mabel/Pacifica) shippers. There's a lot of crossover in their ranks, and they're both warring against the canon-teased (albeit in one episode) Dipifica (Dipper/Pacifica).
• The Ship's Motor: Most Bill/Dipper fics age up Dipper and give Bill a humanoid form to lessen the squick of pairing a 12-year-old with a triangle-shaped Eldritch Abomination.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • There is a huge broken base between people who ship Pinecest (Dipper/Mabel) and those who don't, to the point where big clashes have occurred between fans on the internet.
  • The same for Billdip (Bill/Dipper), with detractors saying it's unhealthy, abusive and/or pedophilic, and supporters saying that it's just fiction and has no real life implications and/or that they are using it to get over past abuse. Each side for the most part scorns the other.
  • Both Wendipper (Dipper/Wendy) and Dipcifica (Dipper/Pacifica) have split the base even without the shipping wars. The arguments for these ships ultimately boil down to whether or not Dipper has enough chemistry either girls. Wendipper supporters claim that Dipper and Wendy have more shared screentime while Dipcifica supporters claim that Dipper and Pacifica have a relationship that's more overtly romantic. Wendip and Dipifica were both canonly teased in the series; Wendip was essentially a subplot from season 1 until Wendy declined Dipper's feelings for her in season 2. Dipifica first received Ship Tease in the episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery"; after that, the Dipifica ship was also teased outside of the TV series through the video game Legend of the Gnome Gemulets, the "Relationship Shipping" episode from Conspiracy Corner, Gravity Falls: Journal 3, the coloring book, and finally Lost Legends. As the sibling bond remains core to the show and romance being a potential detractor from the main themes, Dipcifica was never mentioned again in season 2 as the story focuses on building up to Weirdmagaddeon.
  • Oh good lord, the coloring book. Released at the tail end of pride month, it included a handful of gay and heterosexual crack ships. On one hand, people are upset that there are zero lesbian couples and the other half tries to argue that there aren't enough female characters within the same age range. Another complaint is that most of the ships are very poorly thought out, and the other side accusing them of being heterophobic or ungrateful of the content they were given. And finally, there are people who have no strong shipping feelings that claim the gay couples were slapped in solely because Disney wanted to get gay people/allies to buy it up in droves.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The entirety of "Not What He Seems". Stan continues work on his mysterious portal project and counts down the hours until something happens, and throughout the episode, the gravity reverses (even recreating a scene from the opening). Stan is then taken into custody by the government agents for having stolen radioactive waste, and while the twins try to prove his innocence, they discover that the real Stan Pines is dead. Whoever their great uncle is that they've been living with all summer, is an unknown, nameless criminal who has multiple fake identities to throw people off. The twins are both torn up over this, then they discover the portal and Stan comes back to confront them, telling them not to stop the portal. Mabel reluctantly trusts him, while an anguished Dipper and Soos try to stop Stan. And just to kick the episode into overdrive, the author of the journals emerges from the portal. And he's Stan's brother.
  • The following episode, "A Tale of Two Stans", is also pretty heavy. We find out the backstories of Stan and the author of the journals, Stan's brother. Stan really is the twins' great uncle, but he faked his death and took on his brother's name and identity and became Stanford, because Stanford got flung into the portal. We learn how Stan and Ford lived before Gravity Falls, and we also learn how the portal even came to be and what traumatized McGucket enough to drive him to wipe his own mind.
  • The ending of Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future, where Bill, possessing Blendin, tricks Mabel into giving him the rift and then smashes it, creating the tear between the two worlds.
  • With the arrival of the Apocalypse and the show appearing to enter its end game plan, all of "Weirdmageddon" is guaranteed to be this upon viewing. Pick any part.
• Signature Scene: While many one-liners and scenes have left an impact on the audience, the images in "Not What He Seems" of Mabel hovering in the air, arms out after refusing to press the Portal's shut-off and the unmasking of the Author not long after has generated immense fanart.
• Strangled by the Red String: Many fans, especially adult fans, feel this way about Robbie and Tambry's Relationship Upgrade in Season 2. Before they became an Official Couple in "The Love God", we didn't see them interact too much due to Tambry spending most of her time on her phone. They spend the first half of their first date fighting with Tambry even calling Robbie a sociopath at one point. It isn't until they get drugged, that they are instantly smitten with each other.
• Squick:
  • In "Little Dipper" Mabel and Dipper save the day by, having shrunk down to the height of about an inch, crawling into Gideon's armpit and tickling him. And he'd apparently been sweating like a dog too...
  • To a lesser extent, in "The Deep End", there is a kid stuck in a pool filter as if it's prison for a prolonged period of time. Very disgusting for anyone who's had to clean a pool—every single bit of water and trash goes through the filters. And public pools are notoriously gross.
  • Old Man McGucket eating through a baby pterodactyl in "The Land Before Swine".
  • Bill telekinetically removing a deer's teeth in "Dreamscaperers". Even Gideon finds this disgusting.
    Gideon: Agh! You're insane!
    Bill: Sure I am! What's your point?
  • The pages regarding Bill in Book 3 are covered in blood.
  • What Bill does to Preston Northwest's face in Weirdmageddon, Part 1. Click at your own risk.◊
• Starboarding: There are fans who find Dipper's Precocious Crush on Wendy adorable without shipping them.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • In the episode "The Golf War", given Big Henry sacrificed himself for it, the miner Lilliputtians do have a point that they earned the sticker.
  • Dipper and Mabel's actions in "The Stanchurian Candidate" are ethically reprehensible but arguably justified by circumstance. Bud Gleeful all but threatens to destroy their home and possibly do worse and Stan refuses to take things seriously in spite of the looming threat posed, which has a very real chance of coming to pass before Gideon even gets involved.
  • The main unicorn from "The Last Mabelcorn" is truly an awful person for scamming and deliberately sabotaging the emotions of a child, but despite actually being unable to scan a person's heart, she has a point when she brings up how Mabel truly isn't pure of heart, just selfish and desiring for others to see her that way. In addition, she also points out doing good deeds to make yourself look good rather than to actually help others really isn't all that noble.
  • In "Roadside Attraction", Stan's advice to help Dipper get over Wendy (that Dipper should practice talking to girls while on their road trip) is treated as being "kind of a jerk" and Dipper's actions while following said advice are treated as morally reprehensible, but Stan's right in that the more you do it, the better you get at it. In addition, Stan encouraged Dipper to show confidence, which was exactly what Dipper lacked around girls. Stan's advice was also more specific with Dipper's situation rather than Mabel's advice, which was to just move on despite her knowledge of Dipper's awkwardness.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "Disco Girl" by girly Icelandic pop sensation BABBA sounds an awful lot like "Dancing' Queen", huh?
  • "Double Dipper" features a sound-alike of Spandau Ballet's "True", probably the most popular slow dance, as well as Mabel's crowd-pleasing karaoke song "Don't Start Unbelieving".
  • The song playing at the Summerween store in the cold open sounds like "Monster Mash".
  • Whoah-oh! Livin' on a pra- I mean, "Takin' over midnight!"
• Theme Pairing: Dipper has been paired with Wirt (Over the Garden Wall), due to both being Adorkable nerds with goofy siblings. Dipper has also been shipped with Norman (ParaNorman), given they're both teens involved in the supernatural.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This was pretty much the reaction everyone, including Hirsch, had regarding the controversy of the removal of the symbol from Grunkle Stan's fez from the first few episodes when the series first appeared on Disney+. Thankfully, the symbol was restored.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • 8 1/2 President Quentin Trembley could've shared a role with Ford as the Big Good but only appeared in the Grand Finale as a cameo in the credits.
  • Xyler and Craz do not appear at all in Weirdmageddon Part 3 outside of being wiped from reality.
  • Despite being part of the main cast and appearing prominently in season one, Wendy didn't go on many adventures with the twins. Season 2 mitigated some of the fans' complaints by having her participating more with the twins' journeys. However she never gets a focus episode like the rest of the main cast and remains a supporting character in other people's stories.
    • On that note, Manly Dan never goes beyond being a Bit Character, and even more curiously, Wendy has not a single bit of on-screen interaction with either her father or her brothers during the entire run of the show. The best the fans get is a bit of Dan's backstory in Gravity Falls: Journal 3, back when he was known as "Boyish Dan". And what the heck happened to her mom, anyway?
  • After receiving so much Character Development in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" and befriending Dipper, Pacifica is then left Out of Focus during the rest of Season 2 and only reappears during the final three episodes with very little interaction between her and the Pines twins, especially Dipper. She isn't even there to say goodbye to Dipper and Mabel when they are about to leave Gravity Falls in the last scene. ^note  Behind the scenes material suggests that Pacifica's role was expanded in Season 2 based on fan requests, so she wasn't originally supposed to have the little development she got.
  • Wendy's brothers don't even get names, let alone characterization or focus.
  • Gideon's mom. It's clear something traumatizing happened to her and she isolates herself from her husband and son but we never learn what her deal is.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • While it appears that Dipper made amends with Wendy off-screen after the episode Boyz Crazy, it would have been nice to see an episode where Dipper actually earns Wendy's forgiveness.
  • "The Last Mabelcorn" could have taught the more widely applicable lesson that it's okay to have flaws and that no one will ever be perfect, but at the same time, the fact that everyone has flaws doesn't mean you shouldn't be held accountable for your own. Instead, Mabel's lesson and conclusion from an episode about her being called impure of heart is that her critics are "lying jerks" and that morality is relative. Small wonder that this episode caused a Broken Base.
  • In the Grand Finale the revelation that the ten symbols constantly seen throughout the series are part of a ritual to vanquish Bill becomes an Anti-Climax when Stan and Ford get into a fight and ruin the ritual before Bill captures everyone the symbols represent, forcing the Pines to defeat Bill through different means. Some argue this was a brilliant subversion of expectations, while others find it a cop-out.
    Also, the sloppy matching of the characters to the Zodiac Wheel (like McGucket as "someone scholarly" for the glasses) was a disappointment to some who were expecting more after all the foreshadowing it got.
  • Also in the Grand Finale, nobody ever learns that Mabel gave the rift to Bill (while he was possessing Blendin); even though it would have been perfectly in-character for Bill to use it to shatter the resolution of The Resistance and it was an opportunity of Character Development for Mabel. This may have been because of lack of time, as the Stans' subplot needed a resolution too.
  • Dipper/Pacifica shippers were disappointed that their Ship Tease in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" never developed into anything more.
  • The episode "Stanchurian Candidate" made it look like Gideon's father Bud was becoming a Dragon Ascendant, only for him to get (literally) hijacked by Gideon. Bud becoming an independent villain probably would have been interesting in its own right.
  • During the flashbacks of "A Tale of Two Stans", while on the surface Filbrick is an Abusive Parent to Stanley by kicking him out for ruining his brother's college dream, it's clearly shown from his dialogue that he is also emotionally abusive to his favorite son Ford as he clearly saw the latter as nothing more than a Meal Ticket to get his family rich. It could potentially add some sympathy to Ford considering the way his father treated him but none of this is elaborated upon and simply looks as if Ford got the spoiled treatment compared to his twin.
• Tough Act to Follow: This show ended up setting high standards for its successor series on Disney Channel, Disney XD and other Western animation channels and other cartoon channels, such that many fans tend to compare any show remotely similar in any way (overarching Story Arc, Darker and Edgier content and Cerebus Syndrome, mystery element, and style of humor) to Gravity Falls, such as Amphibia, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, DuckTales (2017), The Owl House, among others to the series. While some Disney television series lacking in such elements, like Big City Greens, do receive some attention and praise, they rarely receive the same level of attention. (Incidentally, Amphibia, Owl House and Big City Greens has some of the same crew members as Gravity Falls, and Hirsch has made guest appearances on Big City Greens and Amphibia, and has a regular role on Owl House, as well as serving as a creative consultant on the latter.)
• Toy Ship: Mabel and Mermando.
  • Dipper and Candy, as of "Summerween".
  • Dipper and Pacifica as of "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
  • As well as Mabel and Pacifica.
  • For those people disappointed with Dipcifica not happening, Gideon and Pacifica.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Dipper questioning his masculinity and desire to be taken seriously as man in "Dipper vs. Manliness", particularly the scene where he misinterprets a woman looking for the mailman as her not seeing him as a man or even a male, has led to a fairly popular headcanon that Dipper is a transgender boy.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Grenda. She may have the voice of a pro wrestler, but she's also a boy-crazy preteen, and quite adorable.
    Grenda: Please turn off your cellphones! Unless you're texting me, cuties!
  • The candy monster from the first "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" short, especially after it stops wreaking havoc when it gets distracted by the television.
  • As disturbing as he is, seeing Bill as everyone in the Mystery Shack at the end of the twisted rendition of the show's intro in Weirdmageddon, is oddly adorable, especially with him as Mabel.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The girls in "Roadside Attraction" are supposed to be justifiably upset with Dipper for flirting with multiple girls behind their backs in an allegory for infidelity. But each girl only had one simple, non-romantic interaction with him, gave Dipper their numbers to keep in touch, and really had no expectations to ever see him again, making this reaction come off as grossly excessive. Mabel angrily calling Dipper "Betrayer!" when he tries to apologize is hypocritical, not only because her Establishing Character Moment of the pilot is her aggressively flirting with multiple guys and because of her multiple simultaneous crushes throughout the series, but also because as she had previously made Dipper a list of possible rebound crushes. Candy's more justifiable anger due to her crush on Dipper is hurt by her failure to see how clearly uncomfortable Dipper was with her very forward advances.
  • Blendin Blandin loses his career with the Time Police and arrested due to causing the time anomalies he was supposed to fix due to Dipper and Mabel "borrowing" his Time Machine. But this happened because Blendin was bad at his job; failing to stay hidden, easily tricked into removing his time machine, causing the anomalies trying to get it back. When Dipper and Mabel learn what happened, they feel sorry for Blendin and make the Time Police give him another chance, with which he's tricked by Bill Cipher into helping bring Weirdmageddon. Gravity Falls: Journal 3 reveals this was due to the Time Police taunting him which he was promised would stop, but Blendin ultimately brought much of this upon himself with his ineptitude and bad judgement.
• The Un-Twist:
  • The twist in "Boyz Crazy" was set up rather obviously by Dipper and Wendy early on.
  • The Reveal that Stan was using the Portal to rescue his brother (the Author), could be this for some fans who had already speculated and predicted this months before "Not What He Seems" aired.
    • This got a nod in "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons", where Soos said that he predicted Duck-tective having a twin brother a year before the episode aired.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The show's creators really stretch their TV-Y7 rating; the show is positively rife with Nightmare Fuel, bizarre imagery, and touches subject matter that is normally taboo in children's programming, whether it be for the sake of drama or for a joke. Adult jokes are prevalent and the show can get quite violent, compounded by the fact characters visibly shed blood, red or otherwise. The show's characters are shown to be quite flawed for Disney protagonists as well; Stan and his brother are far from ideal role models and even Dipper and Mabel have engaged in unsavory behavior (although they usually learn from it). The show's a lot more mature than one would expect from it. By the time of the Grand Finale, the promos apparently terrified some adults.
  • In Asia, the series is rated NC16 on Disney+ despite airing as PG on the regular Disney channel.
• Win Back the Crowd: Gravity Falls is beloved for its excellent animation and writing, helping Disney get the trust of its viewers back with regards to its cartoons.
• Woolseyism: Dipper and Mabel's names are traditionally translated as "迪普/Dí-pǔ" and "梅宝/Méi-bǎo" in Chinese, however certain translations (such as the Cantonese Dub) tend to twist their names into "弟宝/Dì-bǎo"^note (Younger) Brother-Child and "美宝/Méi-bǎo"^note Pretty-Child in order to provide them a Meaningful Name Theme Naming. This however causes the fact that Dipper has an actual name that already fits the Theme Naming with Mabel (Mason) to become Lost in Translation.

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