I LOVE IT

Was rereading journal 3 and like. When Fiddleford and Ford are talking about their dreams Fiddleford mentions he wants to return back to California after the portals done and become a successful independent inventor, and make things that help people.

And like at first I'm like oh yeah it's another thing to showcase how kind Fiddleford is (and to also compare Fiddleford to Ford and the difference in their dreams etc). But... The thing is this conversation is right before the gremloblin incident that causes Fiddleford to make the memory gun. And Fiddleford expressly in the show talks about how the memory gun can 'help' people. And how he starts the cult as a way he can 'help' people. His invention to help people ends up being the memory gun.

And I think there's something really ironic here. That at first Fiddleford's desire to help is seen as a good thing, but underlying it, it's deeply problematic (and ends up abusive) when you connect it to the memory gun. And it comes down to that even if you believe you know best, removing people's autonomy to make decisions for others is generally not helping people. It's actually more harmful, and just because you have good intentions doesn't mean that changes the outcome.

The Pines Twins: Not Carbon Copies

Something I really love about both sets of Pines twins are that they are similar but Dipper and Mabel are not carbon copies of Stan and Ford.

Mabel is creative and chaotic, not afraid to say what’s on her mind like Stan but she is way nicer and can make friends and has this whimsical optimism and love for sweets and experiments she shares with Ford.

While Dipper and Ford are eager to solve and discover paranormal mysteries and prove themselves, leaning more into the academic nerdier side than their respective twins, Dipper is a brutally honest pessimist who wants to prove his manliness like Stan.

While they share some similar traits with their grunkles, Mabel and Dipper are still their own people and those shared traits are an endearing thing that helps them bond with Stan and Ford at different points in the series.

Additionally, both sets of twins do not have much luck in the romance department but they are adventurous brawlers and artists like Mabel, Dipper, Ford, and Stan have been shown in canon to be not hesitant to throw hands and are really good at drawing especially with personal stuff they experience and all four deeply love and value their family. They are just adorable.

The fascinating thing about having only just joined gravity falls fandom, but being previously aware of its presence on the internet; is I know a decade ago the only character with major presence out of the fandom was Dipper. Like if you stumbled on fanart or content while not in fandom most of it involved him. Dipper getting possessed, Dipper beat up, Dipper tormenting his family while possessed, him with Wirt of garden wall.

So when I watched I expected a slightly different show. Something slightly less rounded. Something really only focused on Dipper. Primarily I expected more Dipper getting possessed whump. I thought he was possessed for a string of episodes at one point bc of the sheer amount of Dipper possession art I saw roughly a decade ago.

But now the characters with the biggest presence are the old men. In particular theres alot more focus on Fiddleford than ever. Alot of art, analysis, and fic is recontextualizing the traumas these old men have been through. The way the memory gun is an analogy for addiction, the way Bill is just a shitty abusive ex (an entertaining one, but one nonetheless), the way that the show tackles generational trauma so on an so forth.

But thats still not the show in its entirety, the microscope just shifted.

What I'm saying is there is a non zero chance some poor soul will walk into Gravity Falls thinking its more about old man Mcgucket than anything, only to get wildly confused. I wish them luck I can only imagine the show that existed in their head before watching and I hope the tonal disonace was as funny as mine was when I realised Dipper was just some sweaty kid who loved his family.

oh look, I made another comic.

apparently a bunch more people are coming to the Flatland fandom / tags because of gravity falls so PSA:

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, is public domain. It belongs to everyone. You do not need to buy a physical copy to read it. It has no copyright. It belongs to everyone.

It is free to read online. There are free audiobooks.

Here's another masterpost

Here's a link to it on Project Gutenberg where you can read and download it in many formats:

Project Gutenberg

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott

Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.

Here's an amazing free audiobook on the internet archive:

Internet Archive

Flatland : Edwin Abbott Abbott : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Se

Here's where you can read the 2024 translation into modern English on the internet archive:

Internet Archive

Flatland An Adventure In Many Dimensions 1st Edition : Tinyel : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Hey look, it's done!As long as lulu.com still exists, you can buy a physical copy here! I get $5 (USD) when you buy it. You can also donate

there are some typos that I need to fix but. I have covid I'm not doing that right now.

You can also read this translation here on tumblr at @flatland-a-2024-translation

There's an audiobook version on youtube as well now.

___

Here’s an animation from 1965

Here’s a stop motion film from 1982 in Italian with English subtitles

Here’s an animation from 2006

___

I do not recommend watching the free 2007 Flatland film which you can find on youtube until you've read or listened to the book unless you want to be really confused. The movie is an absurdist comedy. The book is a political satire. The movie is better appreciated after you've already read/listened to the book.

It also has a lot of flashing lights and motion-sickness inducing spinning. The timestamps for those can be found here. Please be careful if you have photosensitivity.

do not spend money on Flatland until you already know you like it. you do not need to spend money at all. It's public domain. it belongs to all of us.

Very important edit: The creator of the 2007 film that's free on youtube, Ladd Ehlinger is an extremely racist and misogynistic conservative. He made a political ad so blatantly racist and sexist that youtube has literally resstricted it, so that you can't share the link outside the site. Simply google his name and you will see dozens upon dozens of articles about how bigoted he is.,

Please be aware of what kind of person made that movie when you watch it. His bigotry is baked into the movie, and is why he refused to actually do anything with the original political commentary from the book.

You are not a bad person if you already watched the movie and enjoyed it, but you do need to be aware of what kind of person made it and how that affected the movie, and make sure others are warned.

Brother kisser.

Omg ok I think I found another extraneous detail that I can wildly contort into something that feeds my sick Stancest needs.

Stan’s fanfiction.

So here’s an excerpt of official audio from Alex:

The setup is that the duchess cheats on the duke with this self insert “stable uncle”. Ok what you’d expect so far, he self ships himself with the attractive female lead, and his romantic rival is a very well spoken duke with whom he has some mutual disdain for (hm… well spoken and antagonistic toward him, I wonder if there’s anyone he drew real life inspiration from…?)

As a side note, I would like to point out that he describes the affair as “forbidden” implying that forbidden love is an appealing idea to him...

But what makes this really interesting is the title of his fanfic. Which is this:

The DUKE’S Temptations, not the stable uncle’s or even the duchess’s temptations. The DUKE’S. Now this is a little odd considering that this duke character isn’t his insert character but rather a RIVAL to his insert character. The assumed scenario from the audio would be that the focus is on the duchess having an affair with Stan’s insert, but this suggests that the focus would shift and that the duke himself is tempted into an affair.

Given that the duke’s speaking patterns sound awfully similar to ford’s as well the petty jabs at each other sounding just as familiar, I think it’s safe to say that the duke is the ford insert character.

And being that the title is what it is, I really don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the duke must become the main love interest for stan’s insert. I mean Stan’s character must remain the protagonist right? It would be odd for him to write an insert fic without his own romance being the main focus.

So there would be a change in attitudes on both sides. Literally enemies to lovers. Two men who come to understand each other amid their competition and develop a mutual passion that runs much deeper than their contempt ever did. A forbidden and dangerous affair. A temptation that neither can resist. Wow. Soos needs to needs to upload this to ao3 asap. I wanna read this now.

had an urge so. stancest-inspired stimboard :).

gif sources: one two three four five six seven eight nine.

Not that anyone cares, but I finally gave in and made this side account because I couldn’t resist interacting with the ships and content I enjoy. That said, I’ll probably stay quiet most of the time (if not always) and just stick to liking or reposting stuff. Part of it is because I’m shy, and the other part is that my English is almost nonexistent without a translator lol. I just wanted to leave this here to mark the start of this profile or something.

Ford "Icarus didn't flap hard enough" Pines