History Fanfic / ThreeCanKeepASecret

* WarForFunAndProfit: The Lucitors are cast as war profiteers making money by facilitating and escalating wars, who openly engage in moraly dubious practices such as creating weapons from the deceased souls that wind up in their dimension after death. It's portrayed as immorally as it sounds. Ford describes the "soul foraging" process as "grinding up the souls of the dead to make weapons to make more dead" and calls the act "completely barbaric." Queen Moon's staunch and condescending defense of the practice and claim that the fate of the souls don't matter because they've been "damaged into submewmanity during the process of death" is one of the standout moments that highlight her extremely questionable moral standing. When Ford brings evidence to her that the Lucitors may be working against Mewni and warns her that war profiteers only stand to benefit greatly from PlayingBothSides, Moon and the Magic High Commission brush him off, arguing that the Lucitors have been staunch allies in providing weapons to use against the monsters and their weapons only end up in monster hands due to the rare outlying sympathizer who smuggles overstock weapons out without the Lucitors knowing. [[spoiler:Ford turns out to be right]].

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The ForWantOfANail that sparks the plot is that Dipper ''did'' reconsider Ford's offer post-Bubble and chose to stay in Gravity Falls and become Ford's apprentice. Since Dipper received [[ParentalFavoritism Mabel's]] blessing, their parents even allow it, much to Dipper's joy and Mabel's chagrin.

* ForWantOfANail:
** WhatIf Dipper stays as Ford's apprentice after the series?
** The sequel is basically "WhatIf this version of Bill and the Pines were around for Star Vs. season 3?" [[spoiler:Dipper helps Star learn how to block out magical mental interference and Glossaryk stays dead, as it turns out]].
** Its climax is [[spoiler:WhatIf the MHC found Eclipsa guilty? And WhatIf instead of helping during Meteora's attack, the Lucitors used Mewni's weakness to conquer it?]]

* MoralPragmatist: Emperor Belo subverts this; he helps the Pines-Butterfly Coalition in their war against Bill because their agendas compliment his (for now), but he's still doing immoral things behind their backs for similarly pragmatic reasons.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Though Dipper has an element of moral ambiguity in the lengths he and his mentor take their ForTheGreaterGood philosophy and Pacifica joking calls him an "intellectual bad boy," this trope is actually a major component of why Pacifica finds Dipper admirable and attractive. She sees his strong will, work ethic, and personal moral code (however unusual the latter is) as not only refreshing but life-changing for her to witness, and hold him in extremely high regard. The trope is played with a bit in that while Pacifica loves him, she doesn't acively seek him romantically, because she's been taught to think of loving relationships as opportunities for exploitation and can't shake the anxious guilt that she'd somehow be manipulating Dipper by dating him. [[spoiler: It takes Star helping Pacifica work through her feelings in ''Three More'' for Pacifica to work up the courage to confess and ask Dipper out]].

*** Sweet: [[spoiler:Bill has been permanently defeated along with the entire Nightmare Realm, the Diamond Authority has been defeated, and everyone left is safe from them and has the chance to recover and go on with their lives. The Pines family has overcome their worst flaws for the sake of each other and is healtjier and happier than ever. Pacifica and Dipper get married and bring about a new technological revolution, improving the quality of life in multiple worlds.]]

* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler: Emperor Belos, a prominent villain of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse,'' is this to the Mewni and Earth forces standing against Bill Cipher, providing them intelligence on Bill's actions through his ability to scry across dimensions. He's authoritarian but pragmatic, and he understands the danger Bill poses to his land, so he, the Pines, and the Butterflies form an alliance.]]

* ParentalFavoritism: It's heavily implied by the first chapter [[spoiler:and all but confirmed later)]] that Mabel is their parents' the favorite child and Dipper TheUnfavorite, and [[DeconstructedTrope this had a significant negative effect on both children's development as they grew up,]] contributing to both Mabel's obliviously self-centered perspective and Dipper's deep insecurities.

*** In-between: [[spoiler:Earth has been completely unmasqued, leading to political, social, and economic chaos as Earth unceremoniously becomes host to the regulatory center of Multiverse's magic usage. Many possibilities open for wonderful things, but it goes hand-in-hand with present instability. The Pines and Butterflys become extremely politically important on Earth, with all the complexities and ramifications that entails.]]

*** Sweet: [[spoiler:Bill has been permanently defeated along with the entire Nightmare Realm, thw Diamond Authority has been defeated, and everyone left is safe from them and has the chance to recover and go on with their lives. The Pines family has overcome their worst flaws for the sake of each other and is healtjier and happier than ever. Pacifica and Dipper get married and bring about a new technological revolution, improving the quality of life in multiple worlds.]]

** [[spoiler:The planned ending of this project has one of its own.

*** In-between: [[spoiler:Earth has been completely unmasqued, leading to political, social, and economic chaos as Earth unceremoniously becomes host to the regulatory center of Multiverse's magic usage. Many possibilities open for wonderful things, but it goes hand-in-hand with present instability. The Pines and Butterflys become extremely politically important on Earth, with all the complexities and ramifications that entails.

** ''Three Can Keep A Secret'' itself has one: the last chapter is of Mabel and her first real moment examining herself and the things that make her happy without deluding herself, realizing that all of her happiest memories feel tainted now because she's become aware of how ''un''happy they often were for Dipper, and that it wasn't that she and her brother had become more distant after Gravity Falls as that they had never actually been very close; Dipper had ''never'' felt comfortable enough to confide in her; Mabel had ''never'' understood Dipper enough to respect his priorities. The story ends with Mabel realizing that the depths of the dysfunction in the twins' relationship is ''foundational''--broken from its very base--and on Mabel taking her first steps towards trying to genuinely understand her brother enough to create a new foundation for their relationship in order to replace their toxic relationship with something healthier. The fact that Dipper reacts to her sudden curiosity towards his interests and opinions with suspicion shows how far they still have to go, but it's all uphill from here.
** [[spoiler:The planned ending of this project has one of its own. Bill has been permanently defeated along with the entire Nightmare Realm, but he's taken the entire Multiverse's status quo with him: the old seat of power that used to manage and control magic throughout most the Multiverse--the dimension of Mewni--has been almost completely destroyed along with most of its populace, with only a few salvageable remnants of the dimension able to be saved by cleaving them with Earth; the Diamond Authority has been obliterated, saving countless organic species and planets but turning their vast empire into an unstable political vacuum; and Earth, for its part, has been [[TheUnmasquedWorld completely unmasqued]] in terms of magic and the supernatural and now has to manage a new role in the Multiversal community and the surviving bits of Mewni that have been added to their world, which leads to both a lot of initial chaos and the rising prominence of the Pines family and the remaining Butterflies as new leader figures in Earth society because of their needed expertise. Earth looks set to inherit a new status quo as a prominemt power in the Multiversal community, but mostly because the old status quo has been obliterated.]]

** [[spoiler: The outline for the cancelled third story in the trilogy details a surprisingly unsympathetic take on the Crystal Gems, though admittedly it would have been an in-universe opinion held mainly by [[UnreliableNarrator Mabel]] as she deals with the end point of her character development, describing them as cowards who want to hide inside their own bubble on earth while galaxies are burning, leaving the DirtyBusiness of saving the multiverse from Bill and his Diamond pawns on the shoulders of the Pines Family and their allies. It's possible part of Mabel's negative opinion is projection; after all, the Crystal Gems to Mabel represent the temptation of a Bubble and her refusal to stay with them is representative of her growth and refusal to repeat her past actions--she could easily just be assuming things about them that were true of her past self.]]

** Mabel Pines is portrayed as being outright emotionally exploitive of brother, feeling entitled to his support, companionship and trust despite treating him very poorly and secretly continuing her attempts to make him to abandon his dream to come live with her in a world he very clearly doesn’t fit into. An internal monologue outright has her realize she’s never been able to properly understand or empathize with her brother. This is mostly portrayed as the result of emotional immaturity instead of maliciousness however.

** [[spoiler: The outline for the cancelled third story in the trilogy details a surprisingly unsympathetic perspective on the Crystal Gems, though admittedly it would have been an in-universe opinion held mainly by [[UnreliableNarrator Mabel]] as she deals with the end point of her character development, describing them as cowards who want to hide inside their own bubble on earth while galaxies are burning, leaving the DirtyBusiness of saving the multiverse from Bill and his Diamond pawns on the shoulders of the Pines Family and their allies. It's possible part of Mabel's negative opinion is projection; after all, the Crystal Gems to Mabel represent the temptation of a Bubble and her refusal to stay with them is representative of her growth and refusal to repeat her past actions--she could easily just be assuming things about them that were true of her past self.]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:By the outline's planned ending, all of the three remaining Diamond Matriarchs are dead]].

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The outline for what would have been the ending doesn't shy away from the fact that the three remaining members of the Diamond Authority are genocidal fascists. It portrays them as having exterminated trillions of sapient beings and deserving of neither sympathy [[KillEmAll nor mercy]].

* BattleInTheCenterOfthemind: In the cancelled third story outline, Eclipsa and White Diamond have one of these after Eclipsa mind probes a Pearl White Diamond was controlling.

** When Mabel finally manages to make Pacifica angry in front of Dipper and gets the opportunity [[ManipulativeBastard to try to frame Pacifica as the instigator]] and thus claim that Pacifica's actually still been a bad person all along and Dipper is wrong for being closer with Pacifica than he is Mabel, Mabel pretends to be well-intentioned and sincerely apologetic for fighting with Pacifica in front of Dipper and then ''[[BeneathTheMask celebrates]]'' at the presumption that she's close to ruining Pacifica's good relationship with Dipper as soon as she leaves Dipper's line of sight. This despite the fact that deliberately escalating her conflict with Pacifica in an attempt to damage Dipper's opinion of Pacifica has clearly ''hurt'' Dipper, and he's still upset and blaming himself for encouraging them to get along when Mabel leaves the room to celebrate. Then Mabel encounters Pacifica and Pacifica [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech quickly cuts Mabel's victory high short.]]

** Most visibly when she first re-encounters Pacifica. After being told that Pacifica helps with Dipper's research and internally declaring that "No bleach blonde stereotype is going to replace me as Dipper's mystery buddy," her verbal response is described as thus:

---->"So you're helping Dippen-Dots out with all his research huh? What's he got you doing, running on a hamster wheel to power the laboratory, or are you testing new cosmetics out before they move to animal testing?" The twin asked teasingly, preemptively playing it off as a joke.
*** For the record: the first insult is straight forwardly insulting, but the second is ''far'' more clever in its offensiveness. The first implies Pacifica's as useful to their research as an animal, the second implies she has less worth than one, because in traditional (and increasingly controversial) cosmetic production, animal testing is done before products are tested on humans in order to screen for possible harmful side effects and reduce the chances of accidentally harming humans. By suggesting Pacifica would be a test subject before production moved onto animals, Mabel's basically calling Pacifica not only sub-human, but sub-''animal.'' All while deliberately using Dipper's assumed good will in order to pass these incredibly insulting statements off as jokes and make Pacifica look like an over-reacting "bad guy" in the conversation if she takes offense. The unexpected fact that Mabel's statement upsets Dipper more than Pacifica--and thus threatens Mabel's ability to convince Dipper to return to Piedmont with her--is pretty much the only reason Mabel stops behaving like this in front of him, and even then it takes a couple chapters.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Mabel has this reaction after realizing how selfish she's been, how little she's cared about Dipper after Pacifica tells her the true extent of Dipper's trauma and sacrifice, and whenever anyone brings up the consequences of Weirdmageddon in general. In response she tends to do her best to either rationalize away her realizations about her flaws, rationalize in a shallow solution she can perform to make herself feel better about those flaws, or suppress these feelings for fear of facing consequences should her perceived culpability be acknowledged. She's come to openly disbelieve in the worth of honesty in healthy and trusting relationships because she believes that if she were honest with the people in her life, she wouldn't ''have'' any relationships. As a consequence, she's never sincerely grown in response to these moments of guilt, and the resulting cyclical nature of that dishonestly, guilt, and temporary escape via further dishonesty has done serious damage to her emotional stability.

** [[spoiler:Mabel kept quiet about giving the rift to Bill for three years because she was terrified of losing her friendship with Dipper if he found out. Once he does find out, he's mad at her not for starting Weirdmageddon, but for not trusting him enough to admit her mistake, and later, for his upsetting hindsight realization that she also hid the truth because the truth would lessen her chances of manipulating their relationship back onto her terms.]]

* HonestyIsTheBestPolicy: Played with, explored, and defied by various characters. The point is made that the inability to tell the truth and the unwillingness to talk about what happened to all of them during Weirdmageddon has mentally screwed up a lot of the town from lack of outside support. On the other hand, Dipper and his friends are very open with each other about their problems and trust each other to accept and forgive their mistakes, and so despite the traumatic experiences they've endured, him and his small group of friends are mentally much better adjusted than the majority of the town. Defied by Mabel, who doesn't understand why anyone would want to confide in another about their problems, openly believes that makes things hurt ''more,'' and sincerely believes that the more honest she is with those around her, the less people will like her. It's worth noting that Mabel is by far the least mentally stable and most self-destructive of the Pines family as a result, although she's largely in denial of this. It's further worth noting that the Pines are a family of conartists and [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatists]], so deception to get ahead is actually a commonly used tactic in the family playbook. The difference is that the other family members use this pretty much exclusively on opponents, and treating those you want to be genuinely emotionally close to like an opponent you have to manipulate will only isolate you in the end. Stan learned this the hard way, and unfortunately, Mabel is in the process of doing the same.

* CombatPragmatist: When thrown into a large brawl against a gang of monsters, Dipper's first instinct is to cheat outrageously during the fight, at one point literally kicking a monster while he's down AND on fire before eventually [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere blowing the place up and running away]] when the odds turn against him and Star. It's worth noting that this is the explicit policy of all the Pines family when it comes to life-or-death scenarios; when teaching Mabel how to box, Stan tells her that since the fights she wants these skills for won't be for sport, she should weight her gloves for harder hits. It reads as a similar ShooOutTheClowns deconstructive treatment to the way the rest of this story treats its source material in general: rather than handwaving the negative implications in general and the frequent fights in particular, the point is made that the majority of these conflicts have life-or-death stakes and "cheating" is relatively meaningless if fighting "honorably" means getting yourself and your loved ones killed. The ruthless attitude of the Pines stems from the fact that they're more often than not ProperlyParanoid regarding the potential danger of their opponents and more extreme tactics said danger justifies. This is deconstructed later, as the above means that the instances at which they are ''not'' right in their paranoia highlights the negative affects of this very obviously, as demonstrated when Pacifica and Marco discuss the weird, paranoid behaviors their respective partners have displayed and still consider justified (from avoiding carrying one dollar bills to chasing away Gustav and still wanting to find him and bug his house). It's clear that this combination of CombatPragmatism and the frequent state of being ProperlyParanoid has had a negative effect on how much "honorable" leeway Dipper is willing to give a new opponent and how quickly he can find a reason to rationalize using extreme measures against them.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Mabel's not ''wrong'' when she argues that living in Gravity Falls has had some negative effects on Dipper. We see characters acknowledge in both "Three Can Keep A Secret" and in its sequel, "Three More," that Dipper has become more ruthless as he's gotten older, from Grunkle Stan sadly wondering whether he's made Dipper become "too tough" to Star outright calling Dipper "kind of a destructive jerk." His almost perpetually ProperlyParanoid status has caused him to quickly jump to the most efficient solutions possible, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill which can often seem extreme and disproportionate to the actual threat level]]. However, Mabel has deliberately kept herself ignorant of the fact that, whatever negative tendencies Dipper has gained from living in Gravity Falls, living in Piedmont was very obviously worse for him: the toxic homelife in Piedmont is ''manifestly'' the source of Dipper's and Mabel's toxic relationship dynamic as well as many of Dipper's ingrained insecurities. Gravity Falls at least gives Dipper an avenue with which to feel productive and accomplished and overcome those insecurities; the fact that Dipper is explicitly way more comfortable in Gravity Falls than he ever was in Piedmont with his sister and parents makes clear that, while Mabel isn't wrong when saying that living in Gravity Falls has hurt Dipper, she's absolutely wrong in trying to convince him that moving back to the unsupportive and toxic homelife in Piedmont would solve any of it. While she's half-deluded herself into believing that her self-interests are also what's best for Dipper, Mabel's very clearly just trying to exploit a new vulnerable spot she's found in Dipper's emotional state to promote her self-interests as a solution for him solely for her own benefit regardless of the negative effect it would have on him in actuality, which unsurprisingly doesn't go over well.

** The show depicts Dipper's possible future as Ford's apprentice to be a ridiculous fantasy that would turn Dipper into a shut-in in the basement. The show also only ever depicts Dipper as alone in Piedmont except for Mabel, and much emphasis is made throughout the series that Dipper craves approval and acceptance and fears that others consider him worthless and useless. ''Three Can Keep A Secret'' pulls these loose threads by portraying Gravity Falls as the better place for Dipper: the town that has come to adore and validate him and his "crazy" interests, he already has several [[FireForgedFriends Fire-Forged Friendships]], and he'll gain a personalized education studying his greatest interests (an education that is hardly a shut-in profession, as it involves a ''lot'' of fieldwork and community engagement) that comes with the ability to help a lot of people with his talents. Three years down the road sees him widely respected by a community he can rely on for support with strong friendships and a drive and purpose to carry him into a long and successful career. He even has a burgeoning romance with someone who sincerely returns his feelings. By the time of ''Three Can Keep A Secret,'' Dipper sees himself as living his dreams.