History GravityFalls / TropesPToZ

* YourWorstNightmare:
** You get to see it if you look into a Gremloblin's eyes.
** In "Dreamscaperers," [[spoiler:Bill unleashes Mabel and Soos's personal nightmares on them after they stop him from getting the safe code]].
* YourMom:
-->'''Nate:''' Good job throwing the kid off the fence, genius!
-->'''Lee:''' Your mom's a genius.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender:
** Mabel is frequently the target of physical comedy, up to and including being mauled by cats, walking into a door hard enough to get her braces stuck in the screen, and having a microwave fly towards her face at incredibly painful speeds.
** In "The Time Traveler's Pig", Wendy gets hit by ''a lot'' of baseballs, in increasingly painful and exaggerated ways.

* ParentalBonus: '''Loads'''. So much so that it's considered one of the most ParentalBonus-ridden shows Disney has aired in a long, long time. This gets lampshaded in "Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons", where Ford mocks Stan for loving a [[ShowWithinAShow kids' show]]:
-->'''Stan:''' I'll have you know that ''Ducktective'' has a ''big'' mystery element! And a lot of humor that goes over kids' heads!

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Considering the magnitude of what lies behind that door, the code to unlock the [[spoiler:Mystery Shack's underground lab]] is incredibly weak. You simply have to enter [[spoiler:A, 1, B, C, 3]] on the [[spoiler:vending machine]]. This password includes every character on the keypad except for "2", and the characters can apparently be entered in any order. You know you have a problem when a couple of 12 year-olds can look at the code on a piece of paper and immediately figure out it corresponds to a [[spoiler:vending machine]].

* PinkGirlBlueBoy: Dipper wears a blue and white hat and a blue vest; Mabel [[UnlimitedWardrobe isn't as consistent]] but frequently wears pink/purple/red clothes.

* PlatonicValentine: We see a flashback to when Dipper and Mabel were little kids. Mabel got loads of Valentine's Day cards and was celebrating, until she realized Dipper didn't get a single one. Dipper [[RunningAwayToCry locked himself in a closet to hide how upset he was]], until he saw a card being slid under the door: a collage Mabel made of all the cards she got, with the glittery text, "For My Favorite Brother."

* PrefersTheIllusion: The finale shows the only reason Mabel hasn't [[spoiler:freed herself from Bill's [[LotusEaterMachine bubble prison]]]] by the time Dipper, Wendy, and Soos break in to rescue her is because she's aware of the nature of the bubble and has decided she'd rather stay. Leaving the bubble would result in facing the next year (and the future in general) without Dipper, she believed he intended to stay in Gravity Falls when she returned home for school. The bubble lets her live in a world filled with glitter and rainbows, populated with talking stuffed animals and a cooler, more supportive version of Dipper (a.k.a. Dippy-Fresh). [[spoiler:It takes a lot of convincing on Dipper's part to get her to leave the bubble, which she eventually does.]]

** Double subverted in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker". Old Man [=McGucket=] frantically tries to raise awareness of the titular Gobblewonker, but nobody will take him seriously. [[spoiler: Dipper and Mabel run afoul of the Gobblewonker but, in the process of escaping, discover that the whole thing is a robot operated by [=McGucket=] himself in a bid for attention. At the end, however, we see that an actual Gobblewonker does exist after all.]]

* PsychicBlockDefense: The Author had a metal plate installed in his head to prevent any [[spoiler: more]] possession by Bill Cipher. He also has a safer alternative which 'bioelectrically encrypt' one's thoughts so it cannot be read, and was installing one for Dipper before the process was interrupted.

* PumpkinPerson: The Summerween Trickster, who wears a mask with a Jack-O'-Melon type face.

---> '''Candy:''' (''climbes into the wheelbarrow'') 36. You see? Because--

** Might double as a [[StealthPun stealth pun]] with how many people seem to miss it, but both of the Pines twins. Dipper pines for Wendy, and Mabel pining for every boy her age was an early character trait.

* QuirkyTown: Even with the paranormal phenomena that surrounds it, Gravity Falls is one kooky place.
** Deconstructed in "Society Of The Blind Eye": The reason why the town is quirky is because the people [[spoiler:are suffering long term brain damage due to the Memory Gun constantly wiping their brains.]] But they’re still full of quirks even after the end of the episode.

* RagingStiffie: In "The Last Mabelcorn", we aren't shown anything, but one of Dipper's thoughts when hooked up to Stanford's mindreader machine is, if you look close enough, "MAYBE IF I CROSS MY LEGS NO ONE WILL NOTICE", which implies that Dipper has experienced this, to his apparent dismay.
* RaptorAttack: The raptor from "Land Before Swine". Like the PteroSoarer from the same episode it is guilty of possessing all pop-culture stereotypes: oversized, lack of feathers, pronated hands, and reptilian eyes. It also has two-fingered hands, a feature that doesn't correspond to any known deinonychosaur.
* RashPromise: Dipper and Mabel try to crack the passcode to the Author's laptop. However, Mabel gets busy working on a puppet show and Dipper is left to figure it out alone. Eventually, sleep-deprived and frustrated by his constant failures, he is visited by Bill Cipher, who offers him the password if Dipper promises to give him something. Initially, Dipper refuses, but eventually accepts when Bill claims to want a puppet and appeals to the boy's anger with Mabel. Unfortunately, Bill uses ExactWords to possess Dipper as his 'puppet'.

** There’s also Free Pizza Guy, several tourists, a guy dressed in American Flag clothing and a pair of kids who resemble Dipper and Mabel who are named “Smipper and Smabel”, according to WordOfGod.

* ResemblanceReveal: At the end of "Not What He Seems", we finally see the long-lost Author of the Journals in person... and as he removes his protective eye-mask and face wrappings, we see he looks just like [[spoiler:Grunkle Stan, confirming Stan's claim that the Author is his brother.]]

*** After reading the real life journal 3, some episode plots were mentioned and it changes the viewers' perspective towards the characters' behaviour when they rewatched the mentioned episodes.

* RingAroundTheCollar: Mabel always wears some colorful turtleneck sweater, whose oversized collar obscures most of her neck. Dipper's vest has its collar turned up, which serves a similar effect, even though more of his neck is visible.

* SassyBlackWoman: Not a literal case of this trope, but after Grunkle Stan drinks the voice altering potion he ends up sounding like one.

* ScrewTheMoneyThisIsPersonal: At the last episode, Bill Cypher threatens to kill Dipper and Mabel unless Ford lets him enter his mind. [[spoiler: Ford agrees, but he actually is Stan, who changed clothes with his twin brother, so Ford would shoot him with the Memory Erasing Gun, [[HeroicSacrifice destroying Stan's mind along with Bill]]. The demon panics when he discovers that he is trapped and offers to Stan's inner self riches and anything else he would want. Stan, however, is furious because Bill threatened his family and disintegrates him with a punch.]]

* SecretRoom: The Mystery shack has a fair number of them. These include the wax figure storage room (door wallpapered over), the room with the FreakyFridayFlip rug ([[spoiler:later revealed to be Ford’s room.]]) (door hidden behind a non-revolving bookcase) and the many rooms in the basement (path hidden behind a vending machine).

** As [[spoiler: Bill is dying]], he shouts out a phrase in backwards speech: [[spoiler: AXOLOTL, MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN, I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN.]] Interestingly enough, while this is a clear reference to Alex Hirsch frequently responding with a picture of an Axolotl when asked spoilery questions, [[spoiler:Xolotl is the name of the [[Myth/AztecMythology Aztec god of death... and]] ''[[Myth/AztecMythology twins.]]'']]

* SeriousBusiness: Mr. Poolcheck puts a lot of angry violent determination in making pool time safe. He, and a bar of angry men, also don't take kindly to prank calls.

** Those who were fond of Mabel/Mermando [[spoiler: felt their hearts sink when "Society of The Blind Eye" revealed that Mermando is forced into an arranged marriage with a manatee princess for political purposes. Memando himself is clearly unhappy about this based on the photo sent.]]

** "The Last Mabelcorn" implies that Dipper still thinks a lot of Wendy, though whether this was recent (post-Wendy's rejection) or far back (pre-Wendy's rejection), which started giving some shippers hope. Despite Dipper himself realizing that it is hopeless at times, the show has several episodes where the tease appears reciprocate:

** A ''lot'' between Dipper and Pacifica in "Northwest Mansion Mystery", especially the part when she [[spoiler: hugged Dipper out of joy when they sealed the ghost within the mirror. Their reaction afterwards sells it.]] This is not helped at all by Alex Hirsch's [[TrollingCreator deliberately vague but provocative answers]] to questions regarding the nature of their relationship.

** The SceneryPorn of the opening scene, as well as many of the show's backgrounds, is very accurate to actual Oregonian landscape.

** In "Northwest Mansion Mystery", the mudslide [[spoiler: that killed the lumberjack]] was the result of the deforestation that ensued from [[spoiler: him building [[DeathByIrony Northwest Manor]] ]]. Deforestation can cause mudslides, because the lack of trees destabilizes the soil, so whenever it rains in a treeless era, the ground becomes saturated and slides.

** Fans often say Dipper and Mabel have a 'heart', or more 'heart' than the other pair of twins, [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford]]. Turns out that opposite gender twins are a lot more accepting and open-minded than same gender twins.

* SiblingSenioritySquabble: [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7lhj2iSkz1r9betso1_1280.jpg According to Alex Hirsh]], Mabel often remarks that "you'll get it when you're older" due to being older than Dipper by five minutes. It often drives him nuts, since "Dipper vs. Manliness" proves that he wants to grow up and become a man because he hates being a wimpy 12-year old.

** Dipper and Mabel both have one. Dipper and Robbie strike up an enmity almost immediately after meeting which only intensifies once a LoveTriangle forms around their mutual desire for Wendy's affections. Mabel forms an enemy out of Pacifica Northwest, the AlphaBitch of Gravity Falls. Due to Mabel's kindhearted optimism, and Dipper's over-protective nature, Pacifica also serves as his rival in several episodes.

* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: Interestingly enough, the show shows shades of the comedy dominant variety. While the show mostly treats itself like a straight-up comedy, the premise of each episode frequently deals with the supernatural, with some containing scenes so creepy [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids that you have to check periodically that you're watching a Disney show.]]

* SmartCopDumbCop: Downplayed. Sheriff Blubbs is incompetent and lazy, but he's usually the one that enforces the law, even if he ignores the bigger problems with the town in the process. His partner, Deputy Durland, makes him look even smarter by comparison, as he spends most of his time shouting nonsense and playing around, is [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny easily distracted by shiny objects]], and apparently NeverLearnedToRead.

** Downplayed by Soos in "Soos and the Real Girl". He's usually pretty good at interacting in social environments, but when pressure is put on him to find a date, Soos panics and humiliates himself several times by overthinking it. As soon as he's in the comfort zone of having what passes for a girlfriend, Soos is right back to being charming and likable and gets a date effortlessly.

* SolidCartoonFacialStubble: Grunkle Stan has practically half his face covered in a solid colored grey color to indicate stubble. [[spoiler:Zigzagged, however, as his own twin brother, Ford, has a grey gradient on his face to indicate a more clean-shaven face, though later it's shown that he prefers [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} burning all his facial hair off over shaving]]]]. A flashback shows them both with grey gradients when they were younger, but one also has short lines to indicate thicker stubble since he's been driven paranoid and hasn't been taking care of his appearance.

* SpiritualSuccessor: It could possibly be considered one to ''Series/SoWeird'', an early Disney Channel show from the 90's famous for its supernatural mystery story line, dark themes, nerdy paranormal investigator-type protagonist, heavy MythArc, and focus on family dynamics.

** In "Fight Fighters", Stan spits up his cola after Mabel sneaks up behind while he relaxes in his armchair.

** In "Summerween", Stan learns the true spirit of the holiday; where the whole family comes together and celeberates what matters... "Pure evil!" Cue [[EverybodyLaughsEnding everyone in the shack laughing evilly.]]

** In "Irrational Treasure", Mabel decides not to spring the knowledge that Pacifica's ancestor is a fraud on her, being content with herself. Dipper, on the other hand, gladly does so, and declares that revenge is awesome.

** "Time Travelers Pig": Blendin Blandin is sent from the future to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by cleaning up temporal mess that was apparently started by the twins. He ends up running into them by accident, and after a series of events, the twins end up stealing his time machine. Their misuse of said time machine is what causes the mess that Blendin was supposed to clean up.

** Also in play in both episodes regarding Stan's red screwdriver. Blendin stole it during "Time Traveler's Pig" in order to fix his time machine, and had kept it until "Blendin's Game," where he accidentally drops it in Soos' yard, which prompts him to go to the Mystery Shack and get hired by Stan in the first place.

** In "Soos and the Real Girl", Soos meets Giffany, the love interest for the video game Romance Academy 7. Her clinginess and possessive become evident right off the bat. Soos is okay with it at first, but [[spoiler: when he tries to break it off with her to pursue a relationship with an actual woman, Giffany snaps. She interrupts his date and attempts to force him to be with her forever.]]

* StalkingIsFunnyIfItIsFemaleAfterMale: Averted with [[spoiler:Giffany]]. There are points in the episode where her [[spoiler:relentlessly stalking Soos]] is played for comedy, but it's not because she's a girl and he's a guy; it's because [[spoiler:[[KissMeImVirtual she's a computer program and he's a human]]]]. The stalking is otherwise depicted as very serious and disturbing. Soos himself notes the situation is one big red flag, but he's so happy for the attention he goes along anyway.

** Double subverted in the last two episodes of season 1. In "Dreamscaperers", [[spoiler:Gideon successfully get the deed to the Shack and the Pines are forced to live at Soos's grandma's. However in "Gideon Rises", Dipper defeats Gideon and everybody can go back to the shack]].

** At the very end of the theme song when the logo pops up, a backwards whisper can be heard, which, depending on the episode, is the answer to how to decode the cryptogram in the end credits. The only exceptions are "Not What He Seems", where the whisper says "Stan is not what he seems," and the GrandFinale Weirdmageddon arc, where Bill whispers "I'm watching you nerds" in the first part, and a more angry "I'M WATCHING YOU" in the second, and the third has the more appropriate "Goodbye Gravity Falls."
** In "The Inconveniancing", the speech of one of the Flavor Pups in Mabel's Smile Dip hallucination sounds like the phrase "must distrust Grunkle" when played backwards.

* SuckECheeses: Hoo-Ha Owl's Pizzamatronic Jamboree, complete with an animatronic rock and roll badger. Stan calls the place a nightmare, but is instantly seduced by the amount of money it can pull in.

** Grenda and Candy wanting to read "Wolfman Bare Chest", an obvious {{Expy}} of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', on their sleepover. Dipper ([[FreakyFridayFlip in Mabel's body]]), is disgusted.

** Defied by Dipper. In "Tourist Trapped", he finds Journal #3 which warns him to trust nobody in Gravity Falls. He proceeds to share information about his investigation with his twin sister Mabel, the shack's HandyMan Soos, store clerk Wendy, and makes several attempts to bring his Grunkle Stan in on it as well. In "Scary-oke", he takes it a step further by attempting to share his investigation with the FBI.

** In "Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons", [[spoiler: Dipper is the only one Grunkle Ford tells about the dimensional rift. Ford takes the warnings inside the Journal more seriously than Dipper. This makes sense, of course, because he wrote them.]]

** In "Boyz Crazy", Dipper and Stan think that Robbie is brainwashing Wendy with his music, so they take his CD and try to listen to it slowed down. Stan mistakes it for a vinyl record, and puts it into a record player. It doesn't work, and Stan is confused.

** [[spoiler: Ford also has very little concept of modern technology, but he at least has the excuse of not being in this dimension since the 80s.]] He asks the FBI agents for all their floppy disks and 8-tracks, and looks briefly confused when they hand him a USB thumb drive.

* ThatWasTheLastEntry: One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Author is the fact that his journal entries rather abruptly stopped and no one's seem to have had any idea what happened to him after that. [[spoiler:It's later revealed he was sucked into the portal and trapped in other dimensions.]]

* ThoseTwoGuys: Lee and Nate are two members of Wendy's circle of friends. They're fairly standard teenagers with a strong bond, but rarely interact with the plot for more than a few lines.

* TimeTravelRomance: Subverted in "Blendin's Game". Upon travelling ten years into the past, Dipper ends up running into a five-year-old Wendy. [[PrecociousCrush She thinks he's cute]], which gives him [[{{Irony}} a taste of his own medicine]].

--> ''[[spoiler:"When '''gravity falls''' and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye."]]''

*** She's also very amused (as is Stan) by the DD&MD rule-book's use of the word "buttress" in "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons".

** Conversely, Mabel is the {{Tomboy}} to Pacifica's GirlyGirl. Mabel is an unapologetic goofball with no qualms about eating an old taco from behind a car seat, whereas Pacifica is a vain AlphaBitch (later LovableAlphaBitch) who's repulsed by the idea of eating in a car, period. While Mabel does love makeovers and bejeweling her face, she isn't nearly as interested in looks as Pacifica is. She's also a rough-and-tumble GirlyBruiser who looks forward to adventure, while Pacifica (despite being a capable ActionGirl when necessary) seems to view adventuring and fighting purely as a means to an end.
** There's also Wendy and her friend, Tambry, with the former as the Tomboy to the latter's Girly Girl. While not immediately obvious, Wendy wears flannel shirts and [[OneOfTheBoys tends to be as rowdy and mischievous as the guys]], whereas Tambry wears a skirt, dyes her hair and [[PhoneaholicTeenager spends almost all of her time texting]].

* TooBrokenToBreak: The Society of the Blind Eye try to use their memory wiping machine on crazy Old Man [=McGucket=], but it has no effect on him because "you can't break what's already broken!" [[spoiler:It's later revealed that using the machine multiple times to forget the things he's witnessed while working for the Author is what drove him insane in the first place.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Invoked in "Dipper vs. Manliness". Dipper undergoes training from the Manotaurs intended to make him a real man, including weathering the Pain Hole and leaping from cliffs. His final task is to hunt down and slay the Multibear, a ferocious creature made of assorted parts of multiple bears. [[spoiler: Dipper defeats it quite handily, but refuses to kill it after bonding over their mutual love of Icelanding pop sensation BABBA. Having stood up for his principles, he returns to his life, and it's unclear if he actually kept the skills the Manotaurs taught him in later episodes.]]
* TooKinkyToTorture: Bill Cipher is a non-corporial being, so he can't experience physical sensations. That is, [[spoiler:until he tricks Dipper into letting him [[DemonicPossession possess his body]].]] He describes pain as "hilarious" and goes out of his way to abuse his new body as much as possible.

--> '''Stan''': Usually, I spend the hour aggressively scratching myself in places I shouldn't mention. Now I'm going to avoid making eye contact by pretending to read this newspaper and going to the bathroom without washing my hands. ''(Leaves)''

** Happens in "Weirdmageddon" when Ford's ray gun missed Bill and fires a hole in his hat instead. What makes it this trope is that the hole is filled with surprisingly realistic looking bone, muscle and sinew, making it clear that while it looks like a hat, it's actually part of Bill Cipher's body.

** Mabel's fantasy boys, Xyler and Kraz from Dream Boy High, appear to have stepped out of the 80's and into her dreams. They certainly talk like it.

* {{Transflormation}}: All the party guests in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" get turned into tree-statues.

** During "Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons" Candy is unusually absent, so that the team ends up still just being two girls (Mabel and Grenda) and one or three boys (Grunkle Stan at first, then Dipper and Grunkle Ford once they catch up with them)

** "Into the Bunker" opens with Dipper and Wendy enjoying a cheesy, clearly low-budget zombie movie called ''Nearly Almost Dead But Not Quite!''. It's a fitting choice of film given Dipper's nerdy, eccentric interests and Wendy's affinity for indie things. TheStinger of the episode features a selection of bad movies showing on ''Gravity Falls Bargain Movie Showcase'', such as ''Attack of the Exclamation Points!!!!!'', ''Ghost Turtle'', ''Planet People from Planet Planet'' and ''Help! My Mummy's A Werewolf'' (and its sequel ''Help! My Mummy's a Werewolf 2: This Again'').
* UnexplainedRecovery: Agent Powers and Agent Trigger surviving the zombies that dragged them into the woods in "Scary-Oke". Subverted in "Not What He Seems", when Powers explains he used Trigger as a human shield.

** It gets a sweet CallBack in the penultimate episode "Weirdmageddon 2: Escape From Reality", where Dipper and Mabel reconcile with a "sincere sibling hug". They still do the awkward back patting.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Gruncle Stan and [[spoiler: Gruncle Ford's]] unspoken final plan to [[spoiler: trick Bill Cypher with a TwinSwitch goes off with a hitch, right after they were discussing out how Bill wouldn't be interested in going into Stan's mind.]].

** Soos was this until the episode "Blendin's Game", where it's finally confirmed that he's 22.

** Bill Cipher gives on of these to Soos and the twins near the end of "Dreamscaperers", telling them that "a day will come in the future where [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore everything [they] care about will change]]".

* VerbalBackspace: This happens multiple times in ''The Legend of the Gobblewonker'' when Dipper needs to reasses the number of back-up cameras he has when they get smashed.

* TheVillageIdiot: Mcgucket is a strange, old hillbilly known for his rather broken understanding of logic and is not remotely respected by anyone in town. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out he used to be Ford's friend who became so traumatized by the town and their work that he invented a machine to take his memories, but overuse of it cost Mcgucket his mind]].

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: [[BigBad Bill Cipher]]]] rapidly loses his cool in the finale with a sequence of OhCrap moments- [[spoiler: first when he's been [[OutGambitted tricked into Stan's mind, rather than Ford's,]] second when he realizes [[TakingYouWithMe Stan's letting his mind be erased with Bill trapped inside,]] and finally, realizing there's absolutely ''no way out.'']]

* VomitChainReaction: Before the party in "Double Dipper", Dipper and Mabel pretend to puke at each other using silly string with Wendy joining in later.

** Kinda ZigZagged in "Boss Mabel", where a boy was shown puking from carsickness, but he, just like his family, was shown as wallet on legs (because Stan sees any tourist visiting his tourist trap as such).

* WebcomicTime: While the show aired from 2012-2016, the show itself all takes place during the summer of 2012.

** Invoked by the Blind Eye Society. [[spoiler: "Society of the Blind Eye" reveals that the [[AncientConspiracy titular Society]] has been acting as one, erasing the memories of people who have seen anything supernatual.]]

** And invoked directly by [[spoiler:Ford]] in Weirdmageddon. [[spoiler:Namely, the town itself is ''so weird'' that Bill and the Henchmaniancs can't escape to wreak weirdness on the rest of the world. The Weirdness Magnetism of the town functions similar to gravity, making the name Gravity Falls meaningful on another level. Bill and his Henchmaniacs are too weird to escape its "event horizon"]].
* WeWillMeetAgain: Used three times so far: the leader of the gnomes, Gideon and Blendin Blandin all swear revenge after being defeated.

** "Society of the Blind Eye" reveals the truth about the town's WeirdnessCensor: part of the reason the citizens of Gravity Falls seem so oblivious to the supernatural weirdness in the town is that a secret society has been kidnapping people and erasing their memories. The history of [[spoiler:Old Man [=McGucket=]]] is also revealed: he was not only a close associate of the Author of the Journals, who was trying to use his research to help humanity, but a founding member of the Blind Eye. [[spoiler:The character's senility was caused by abusing the memory-erasing gun he invented, in order to forget the tragic happenings that occurred while working with the Author.]]
** "Not What He Seems": [[spoiler: Stan's been stealing radioactive waste to power his world ending machine before he gets arrested by the FBI. The twins discover that their grunkle has led multiple lives, even faking his death at one point. It all leads up to a confrontation as gravity fluctuates when the portal rips open, revealing that Stan's actions were all working towards bringing back the author of the journals, Stan's brother.]]

---> '''Bill:''' Hmm, let's see. Eenie meenie mynie...[[spoiler: '''''YOU!!!''''']]

** A minor example: in the fourth episode, Mabel saves a lobster that was going to be eaten at a restaurant then bring it to the shack's tank. In later episodes, the tank is empty.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: In "Tourist Trapped", the map of Oregon shows Gravity Falls to be dead-center in Oregon, somewhere between Crook and Deshutes county. But in "Scary-Oke", a doppler map places it closer to Baker City, almost on the border with Idaho. It is off both interstates that pass through Oregon and far from the coast and Portland, so it’s almost certainly in the middle of the state or in eastern Oregon.
** Stan, Ford and Shermie’s hometown, the fictional Glass Shard Beach is somewhere along the eastern coast of New Jersey, but never stated where. It could be a stand in for Atlantic City, since New York City isn’t mentioned to be anywhere near the town.
* WhichMe: Happens between Dipper and his clones in "Double Dipper" a few times.

** Parodied in "Little Gift Shop of Horrors". Stan spends this VignetteEpisode attempting to sell merchandise by telling the wild and mysterious stories behind individual pieces, but openly confesses to having made those stories up.

* WimpFight: In "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel", [[spoiler:Dipper and Gideon]] fall off a cliff. On their way down, they slap each other a few times before getting into a slap-fight. This is a stark contrast to the more visceral fight that they have in "Gideon Rises".

* WorldOfMysteries: The Gravity Falls itself is this; enforced by the Society of the Blind Eye keeping things secret from the townsfolk, and caused by the town having a 'Weirdness Magnetism' that literally attracts bizarre events, people, creatures and phenomena to the area.

** Rumble, the Fight Fighter, was genuinely trying to kill Robbie, endangered Stan and Mabel by toppling the water tower, and beat up Dipper with a nearly lethal combo attack just because Dipper had lied to him.
** Bill Cipher would ''gleefully'' hurt children or even ''kill them''. Of note are his abuse of Dipper's body while he was [[DemonicPossession in possession of it]] and [[spoiler: the moments before [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu he was tricked into entering Stan's mind]], when he was nanoseconds away from murdering Mabel in cold blood]].

* WritersCannotDoMath: In "A Tale Of Two Stans" we finally learn that the twin's grandfather is Shermie Pines the younger brother of Grunkle Stan and [[spoiler: Stan's twin brother Stanford Pines]]. However Shermie is much younger than Grunkle Stan: He is at least fifteen years younger than him, and Stan was a young child during the 60's. Shermie was probably born during the 70's. If the series takes place in 2012 then Shermie would be a very young grandfather to have two grandchildren who are twelve.

** Grunkle Stan at one point says he's almost 70. However, if you piece together his time line, he left home when he was about 20, was away from Ford for 10 years, and then spent 30 years trying to get Ford back. That would make him around 60, not 70 (20+10+30= 60)

* YellowEyesOfSneakiness: Bill Cipher has a slitted pupil, and his sclera turn yellow when he [[spoiler:possesses a body]].

* YouCantFightFate: In "The Time Traveler's Pig," no matter what he tried, Dipper would always inevitably hit Wendy in the face with a baseball. The one time he ''finally'' figured out how to avert this [[spoiler:he needed Mabel to help so she wasn't there to win Waddles and Pacifica got him instead. For Mabel's sake Dipper had to go back and hit Wendy again.]]

** In "The Land Before Swine", Grunkle Stan gives one to Mabel's pet pig Waddles after the latter eats the former's corn-cob sculpture of a unicorn, driving away Stan's customers.

* ZombieApocalypse: Dipper inadvertently caused one in ''Scary-Oke''. In the finale, there's a very small scale one in the local funeral home where Robbie's family lives. His parents are taking it in stride though.

* PlayingGertrude: [[DescendedCreator Creator]] Creator/AlexHirsch, who's in his late 20s/early 30s, voices 60-year old Stan. He is voiced by the creator. He's also voiced other old people like Old Man [=McGucket=] and President Trembley.

* RiddleForTheAges: We never find out why Gravity Falls is located in a weirdness bubble, which both attracts anomalies and [[spoiler:stops them from leaving the area]]. In [[Recap/GravityFallsS2E17DipperAndMabelVsTheFuture "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future"]], [[spoiler:Ford]] speculates that [[spoiler:the crashed UFO]] he found underneath Gravity Falls may either have caused the bubble, or it may have simply been drawn to it, but no explanation is ever confirmed.

* RichBitch: Pacifica Northwest. She is the richest kid and always expects everything to go her way. When things don't, she (and her family) use their money to fix it. She's also arrogant, bossy, and mean to anybody who doesn't immediately bow to her whims. [[spoiler: As of "Northwest Mansion Mystery" she [[HeelRealization starts improving.]]]]

* WereStillRelevantDammit: An In-Universe example. A game called Dungeons, Dungeons, and Dungeons attempted to go TotallyRadical at one point. Dipper was horrified.

* WildTeenParty: One is alluded to (but not shown) in "Summerween," when Robbie and Wendy say that they are going to a party at Tambry's house while her parents are out of town.

* UncannyValley:
** Exploited for [[spoiler: Bill Cipher's DemonicPossession of Dipper's body.]] Not only does [[spoiler: "Bipper"]] [[MarionetteMotion move in awkward, unnatural, inhuman ways,]] but in general he treats the body like a toy, pulling at its face and repeatedly slamming its arm in a drawer while appearing to enjoy the pain. To top it off, Dipper's normally cute design is rendered in unsettling detail, complete with facial wrinkles, bags under his eyes, and detailed teeth. Even without the context of the plot, the sight itself is incredibly disturbing. Of course, [[IntendedAudienceReaction this was most likely completely intentional]].
---> [[spoiler: '''Bill''']]: Human soda! [[BlatantLies I'm gonna drink it like a person!]]
** [[CreepyMonotone [=.GIFfany=]'s]] weird [[AccentontheWrongSyllable voice]] is oddly disturbing, especially when she laughs. To make it worse, except for her brief shouting fit, she almost constantly sounds cheerful, even when she's threatening Soos. Also, from the same episode, animatronic characters she possessed.

** Similarly, almost every real-life animal seen living wild in Gravity Falls is actually native to Oregon, including the [[SeldomSeenSpecies somewhat obscure purple finch]]. See MisplacedWildlife for exceptions.

** [[StreetFighter Rumble [=McSkirmish=].]]

* RuleOfCool: In ''Gravity Falls: Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!'', Dipper describes a blue pine tree hat as the most important clothing item you can bring on a paranormal investigation, "because, well...it's just really cool."

* ThirteenIsUnlucky:
** In "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", Dipper accidentally breaks his thirteenth camera.
** Weirdmageddon occurs right before Dipper and Mable's thirteenth birthday.

** [=.GIFfany=]'s [[CreepyMonotone weird]] [[AccentontheWrongSyllable voice]] is oddly disturbing, especially when she laughs. To make it worse, except for her brief shouting fit, she almost constantly sounds cheerful, even when she's threatening Soos. Also, from the same episode, animatronic characters she possessed.

* SolidCartoonFacialStubble: Grunkle Stan has practically half his face covered in a solid colored grey color to indicate stubble. [[spoiler:Zigzagged, however, as his own twin brother, Ford, has a grey gradient on his face to indicate a more clean-shaven face, though later it's shown that he prefers [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} burning all his facial hair off over shaving]]]]. A flashback shows them both with grey gradients when they were younger, but one also has short lines to indicate thicker stubble since he's been driven paranoid and hasn't been taking care of his appearance.

* SuperiorTwinTeamwork: Dipper and Mabel on their own are quite capable, with Dipper being TheSmartGuy who loves to solve mysteries and Mabel being an EccentricArtist ActionGirl. But together, they balance out each others' strengths and weaknesses, with Mabel's outgoing impulsiveness encouraging Dipper to get out of his head and have fun, while Dipper's forward-thinking helps Mabel focus her energies and face the future. Wendy comments on this, while Grunkle Stan thinks they get along freakishly well. [[spoiler: This is especially highlighted when Ford returns, since he and Stan had a falling out as teenagers and are much more prone to arguing and dysfunction than Dipper and Mabel are. The younger twins' teamwork actually inspires the Stans to get their act together to stop Bill.]]

* SuperiorTwinTeam: Dipper and Mabel on their own are quite capable, with Dipper being TheSmartGuy who loves to solve mysteries and Mabel being an EccentricArtist ActionGirl. But together, they balance out each others' strengths and weaknesses, with Mabel's outgoing impulsiveness encouraging Dipper to get out of his head and have fun, while Dipper's forward-thinking helps Mabel focus her energies and face the future. Wendy comments on how well the two work together, while Grunkle Stan thinks they get along freakishly well. [[spoiler: This is especially highlighted when Ford returns, since he and Stan had a falling out as teenagers and are much more prone to arguing and dysfunction than Dipper and Mabel are. The younger twins' teamwork actually inspires the Stans to get their act together to stop Bill.]]

* SuperiorTwinTeam: Dipper and Mabel on their own are quite capable, with Dipper being TheSmartGuy who loves to solve mysteries and Mabel being an EccentricArtist ActionGirl. But together, they balance out each others' strengths and weaknesses, with Mabel's outgoing impulsiveness encouraging Dipper to get out of his head and have fun, while Dipper's forward-thinking helps Mabel focus her energies and face the future. Wendy comments on how well the two work together, while Grunkle Stan thinks they get along freakishly well. [[spoiler: This is especially highlighted when Ford returns, since he and Stan had a falling out as teenagers and are much more prone to arguing and dysfunction than Dipper and Mabel are.]]