YMMV / Gravity Falls S2 E19 "Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape from Reality"

• Broken Base: This episode is infamous for how much it contributed to the controversy over Mabel's character. While some were able to sympathize with her and her struggles with growing up, others found it harder. Generally speaking, how one feels about this episode depends on their view of Mabel as a character.
• Don't Shoot the Message:
  • We all will need to face challenging circumstances in life as things change, and if we hide away in our bubbles and echo chambers and refuse to accept reality, we won't grow enough to meet the moment. That said, the episode's aesop about rejecting escapism probably would work better if Mabel's solution to her escapism wasn't pressuring those around her into sacrificing their own interests to change the reality she faces into one she likes more.
  • After the airing of "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future", many viewers agreed that Ford was wrong for calling Dipper's and Mabel's relationship "suffocating," and older viewers online also tended to agree that accepting Ford's offer to move to Gravity Falls and become his apprentice would come with some major downsides and problems that need to, at the very least, be addressed—such as whether Ford can actually be trusted to be a good guardian, considering he sees no problem with asking the child in question to take on life-threatening responsibilities at the age of twelve-going-on-thirteen. However, after this episode, many viewers also had a problem with the fact that, rather than addressing the valid potential problems with Ford's offer, the show instead put Dipper under an exceptional amount of emotional pressure until he gave up the offer while under duress. Further, the show never acknowledges the valid problems with the offer outside of how it would negatively affect Mabel (and Dipper's relationship with her); because Mabel was essentially being held hostage over it, consideration for Mabel was forcibly prioritized over Dipper himself—so many saw it as Dipper technically making the right choice, but for unhealthy, upsetting, and unfair reasons. Despite a significant portion of the audience going into the episode agreeing that Ford's offer is not the best thing for Dipper, the way the show basically emotionally blackmailed Dipper into changing his mind about it discomforted many viewers, added credence to Ford's "suffocating" comment among the fanbase, and made the episode's resolution land on an extremely divisive note. On the other hand, it should be noted that Dipper, in the midst of convincing Mabel that she needs to go back to reality, realizes that he himself was hiding from the reality of facing high school through the apprenticeship, suggesting that he gave up the apprenticeship for his own sake as well.
    Dipper: Mabel, I thought you were living a fantasy, but look at me! I actually thought I was gonna stay here and be Ford's apprentice! Spend my entire teens cooped up in a basement with a labcoat? How ridiculous is that?

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