Gravity Falls

Agreed, everyone should go with the much less creepy and more wholesome option of Sex Pollen.

Not even joking, aphrodisiacs are a lot less gross than "imma change your emotions now k thnx"

Edited by odafangirl on Jul 13th 2018 at 9:27:17 AM

That's easily one of my favorite episodes. It's a fun episode, it advances the plot, it features Wendy actually getting to be a part of the Mystery Team and not just a funny background character, and it respectfully resolves Dipper's Precocious Crush subplot. All around a great start to season 2.

Why would children's entertainment needs to be less aware of the messages and morals they present to their audience than adult entertainment does?

"It's just a kid's show!" does not justify toxic messages. It makes them worse, because it's children eager to absorb new information about their world and not responsible adults that are consuming those messages.

The Tom and Jerry thing has been blown out of proportion by the social consciousness. Media will not make people do things. You're not going to watch a movie about shooting people with guns and immediately go out and start shooting them with guns. However. Media does shape people's understanding of what is normal in their culture. The influences present in the media children consume help to define their perception of the world around them.

If children grew up and every film and TV show they watched told them that black people are biologically less intelligent than white, many of those children would internalize that message. They would grow up thinking that black people are biologically less intelligent than white, and this would shape the way they interact with society. That's why responsibility with the messages that media send is so important, especially children's media.

Stan Pines robbing people to comedic effect is hilarious. It works because it's absurd behavior from an amoral character, and the show never suggests that we're meant to support it. That Stan is an ugly, selfish human being but also guided by love for his family is never in question, and his many, many crimes fall into that "ugly, selfish" category while never being so far over the line that he stops being likable. His crimes are absurd rather than truly heinous, and there's no expectation that a child might come away from the show thinking, "Grifting people is a morally just activity."

Mabel has similarly amoral qualities, though not nearly to the same extreme. For her, it mostly comes out in her complete disregard for privacy and consent. She is, by her own admission, a creep. And 99% of the time, she manages to stay within that same area of never going so far over the line that it stops being likable and funny behavior.

But "The Love God" is different. The problem with the episode is that not only does Mabel cross that line, but the episode rewards her for doing it. Even most other shows that do love potion stories have the good sense to condemn the use of the love potion by the end. The love potion causes some kind of horrible shenanigans and has to be stopped and then someone learns a valuable lesson or some shit. Those episodes usually aren't quite aware of just how awful the use of a magic roofie was, but they still at least recognize that it's bad.

"The Love God" doesn't. "The Love God" straight up says that Mabel's magic roofie was a very good thing that she did. It commends her for violating Robbie and Tambry's consent to chemically coerce them into something they did not previously want to do. In sharp contrast to the wacky ways in which her efforts fail or otherwise blow up in her face in other episodes, "The Love God" applauds her for sexual misconduct. It claims in no uncertain terms that this is good behavior.

Love potion episodes are usually tone-deaf, but "The Love God" is straight up rape-culture apologia. And that's the problem. There really is no Author's Saving Throw sufficient to fix "The Love God". Rape-culture apologia is heinous at a level that fundamentally can never be fixed. The only thing one can do is to learn from it and never write something like that again.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 13th 2018 at 1:25:17 PM

Seemed more like a using a second questionable action to undo the damage of the first questionable is not a viable solution was the lesson along with sometimes you can't fix what you did.

Not sure if it is really vindication and just your lucky your bad idea didn't go horribly wrong. Things turning out ok should not be seen as justification to do it again it is simply a matter of being lucky that things manage to work themselves out.

Isn't Mabel's biggest flaw that she has a tendency to... well, get pushy thinking it'll solve everything when more often than not it gets worse?

More like, she gets an idea, jumps head first into it and keeps going against what reason and whoever is around says, often dragging others into it.

Someone on the last page said Boss Mabel was one of the less good episodes and I disagree. I watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Dipper's Stan cosplay, "Gimme with two E's," and "You've become your father" were fantastic.

Seems like that person wrong...

Not just worthy of a disagreement...

That gnome guy... I forgot their username already, but they are the worst. I SAW THAT POST!!! That was awful.

Mabel tried her best... and I gotta admit, Stan really does know what he's doing when it comes to hoodwinking people for money.

I'm gonna.. drop this video here since it's relevant and because someone said I should:

Hah, that was pretty good. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Game Grumps production.

Also, I want a Gravity Falls/Courage the Cowardly Dog crossover.

I'm thinking of The Great Fusilli now, and some of the theories... that was rough. ESPECIALLY the ending! I'm not sure about that...

On an unrelated note, there's been some teases lately! Including this:

• Pacifica in the Mystery Cart!◊
  (Side note: Has anyone seen Shmebulock?)

I appreciate the "Love God" only because it has one of the funniest dang scenes in the entire show. I actually show people that scene with the "I Eat Kids" balloon when I want to demonstrate how friggin' hilarious this show can be. That or the Smile Dip scene. Both scenes make me laugh every time I watch them.

Hey, everyone! Long-time fan, first-time forum-goer. The release of new content was finally enough for me to crawl onto one of these fan forums. Already Kindled Lost Legends, by the way. Silly question, but anyone find secret stuff in it yet?

On the question of what episodes I would skip...cliche answer, but none of them. Especially not on your first viewing. The Gravity Falls experience deserves to be taken in full, the good and the bad. And there is thankfully way more good than bad. But on a repeat viewing just to marathon it, I'd be okay with skipping the more questionable episodes here and there. (Not when I get the DVD boxset though because of course I'm going to watch every single episode with commentary.)

Hey! The most obvious one is the blue letters in the inside cover. It's something heartwarming. Though, Shmebulock might have nearly brought up a secret being hidden away somewhere...

Oh, and speaking of Shmebulock: He had appeared during the signing at The Grove! Apparently he might have done a little crowd surfing before settling down.

Also, a big surprise: one of the artists for the graphic novel was there and also did some signing! Her name's Serina Hernandez, and she did the art for "Don't Dimension It"!

Okay, so I'm now up to "Soos and the Real Girl" (what a crazy thing for a Disney cartoon to reference). So far, season two beats season one by a country mile. The jokes are coming a mile a minute and I've laughed out loud several times per episode. There's also been very little filler. I usually don't mind filler because I see it as a chance to get to know the characters a little better without the plot getting in the way, but season two of this show has balanced everything remarkably well.

Quick thoughts on season one: best episode is "Double Dipper," worst episode is "Little Dipper."

Throughout all of season one, I liked Dipper a lot more than Mabel (not that I disliked Mabel, mind you; I just found Dipper more charismatic), but in season two, Mabel is quickly catching up. Stan, Wendy, and Soos are all great, and I love that the latter two finally have something plot-relevant to do. Bill is a hecka great bad guy, especially in "Sock Opera," but I do not care one bit for Gideon and Pacifica, both of whom make me audibly groan every time they appear.

A note on Soos: he's possibly the best Mexican character I've ever seen in a non-Mexican show. As a Mexican-American person, it's off-putting to see my culture depicted as SUPER WACKY AND ECCENTRIC on American TV, but Soos is crazy recognizable without ever resorting to stereotype. Even his voice is 10/10. I love him.

"Soos and the Real Girl" is also great because it managed to predict both Five Nights at Freddy's and Doki Doki Literature Club!, which delighted me to no end.

Edited by ThriceCharming on Jul 25th 2018 at 9:11:34 AM

I freaking love Soos and Im Latin American too! Love him to bits. Also I love Wendy, underused as she is. LOL

For someone so heavily featured in the intro, Wendy really does jack shit in all but three or four episodes (so far).

But she's so aggressively likable, I don't really mind.

Strangely enough, it kinda fits her character as a general slacker, but I appreciate her willingness to join in on the adventures and kick ass when the time calls for it. And how maturely she handles Dipper's crush on her in "Into the Bunker". She won a lot of points with me for that episode in general.

I was always disappointed at how uninvolved with the events of most episodes Wendy is, so "Into the Bunker" was a breath of fresh air for me in that regard. Wendy's the most awesome member of the cast, but rarely actually gets to be around and act as part of the mystery team.

Re Pacifica: Wait until you get to “Northwest Mansion Mystery”.

I agree, even if seeing her wrap her belt around a tree trunk shattered my suspension of disbelief. She has the waistline of a pencil.

Oh boy...

No, that’s a good thing. You’ll see.

It just occurred to me how weird Pacifica's appearances in the series are. She debuts in the middle of Season 1, appears in the next two episodes straight after, then just vanishes off the face of the Earth until Season 2's "The Golf War" without so much as a cameo if I'm not mistaken. It's to the point that Dipper references "Irrational Treasure" in that episode because that's the last time he interacted with her. For an (alleged) descendant of the town founder, she sure isn't around much.

Edited by Berserker88 on Jul 26th 2018 at 6:00:55 AM

Pacifica is probably the best character that isn't Mabel, Dipper, Wendy, or Grunkle Stan if I'm being honest. Like if I had to make a top five it'd be them.

Bold statement, especially without including a certain floating nacho, but I like her a lot too. I'm a shameless Dipifica shipper, I admit it. Which made the first story of Lost Legends very appealing to me, even though its place in canon means its just more unresolved Ship Tease.