User blog:Concernedalien11780/Hello, Fallers!

Hello, Gravity Falls fans, this is Concernedalien11780. This is a blog post that I have been waiting to make for the past few months, because while I've spent the past few months writing blog posts on many of the wikis for various things that I like, there aren't that many that I've thought of as much as Gravity Falls. For its first few years of existence starting in 2012, I didn't care for it or really anything on Disney Channel because of the Disney Channel's reputation that not even the end of Hannah Montana and all of the other major teen sitcoms of its era truly fixed, even when it had good shows nothing like them. It's why I was never too into Phineas and Ferb, though that also had the problem of being too reliant on its gags and not mixing up the formula enough. Good thing Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh meant for it to be "Family Guy for a family audience", because if they didn't, and wouldn't find that comparison to be a compliment, they would probably be pretty ticked. Then, during my few years at boarding school, I learned of the Slenderman image and of the "weird background imagery". It wouldn't be for a few years that I would learn that the Slenderman thing was a hoax and that there was more to the show than some creepy pictures in the background- even though there are plenty of those. My roommate, who, while usually nice, had a tendency to act like a psychopath for his own entertainment, occasionally talked about someone named "Lil' Gideon", but this Gideon was a character he made up that just happened to share a name with the Gravity Falls character, and that character, my roommate said, was a little boy that drove a convertible around, seduced women into getting into it with him, then drove his convertible off of a cliff and used an ejector seat to continue to do this with more convertibles and more women for no other reason than he was a psychopath and/or sociopath. This made my roommate laugh hysterically and try to lock me in our room to laugh manaically about it at me while sometimes even pretending to be his idea of Lil' Gideon and say he was going to drive me off of a cliff. What happens at Little Keswick School stays at Little Keswick School, unless it's shared somewhere on the internet where it's completely irrelevant to the topic of the website. Again, only knew its name and didn't care much about it for most of the mid-2010s, preferring South Park in 2013 and BoJack Horseman in 2014. However, around early 2015, I started to become more serious about wanting to go into animation. While I wanted to make a comedy in similar vein to South Park, with a similar animation style, for a few years, Season 18 and the apparent direction of Comedy Central in fall 2014 turned me off from it for a little while, and while Season 19 has helped me like that show again, I now realized that my show would be too action-heavy and the manner in which I draw the characters too much like more fluid hand-drawings to work as a made-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth South Park-style show produced within only one to two weeks. South Park isn't really much about the animation anyway, in spite of having a distinct animation style. I started seeing more kids-shows-with-online-adult-followings in early 2015, and found Disney XD to be the best channel for modern family animation. While I initially preferred Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil because of its resemblence to the manga-style comic series Scott Pilgrim in its animation and for Star's adorkability, I began to watch Gravity Falls as repeats aired and found much to like. While not as fond of Kristen Schaal as I was before my dad's politics rubbed off on me (but not without my own insight and opinions making me something of a center-right libertarian with some beliefs on the left rather than the cynical conservative banker my dad often acts like, the nervous fiscal-conservative-social-liberal my mom is, or the occasionally whiny liberal-progressive my older sister was ever since she was in tenth grade, so I'm not just following what my family does because I don't know any different) because of her involvement on The Daily Show and disliking how it advertised itself as a general-audience (if you're at least in middle school and are smart enough to understand the news) topical comedy show while clearly having a liberal-progressive agenda deliberately meant to shut out any viewpoint not in line with Jon Stewart's (look up what happened between him and Wyatt Cenac to learn about Jon's need for control damaging what should've been a great relationship between colleagues), I still liked hearing a few voices outside of the traditional voice actor circle as the voices for main characters, and fortunately, not everything Kristen Schaal is in is political, which allows viewers to forget the voice and focus on Mabel as a character. Some of the first parts of episodes I saw before I understood the show were the last scene of "Into The Bunker"; the scenes in "The Golf War" with Patton Oswalt as Franz; Dipper's first conversation with Bill in "Sock Opera"; the entirety of "Soos And The Real Girl"; the "Abaconings" segment of "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson guest-starring as Smart Waddles, a guy I dislike for all of the reasons most people like him and like for all of the reasons most people dislike him; the first half of "Society Of The Blind Eye", which was the first episode to make me realize how kid-unfriendly the show can be when they want to make it so, what with the "Romance In Settlers' Times" statue (how did this not put Alex Hirsch under scrutiny for making what was, in essence, a rape joke in a TV-Y7-rated show?); the second half of "Blendin's Game", which impressed me with its ability to show to younger audiences a story about an absentee deadbeat dad, and while I've never had any direct experience with those situations due to my generally-well-adjusted parents, nor have I had any close friends with that situation, I knew that this kind of thing happened to people, and that some kids might relate to Soos while watching (I do have an aunt and cousin that are often emotionally abused by a deadbeat ex-husband/dad and deadbeat daughter/older sister, but that's not the exact same situation); "Northwest Manor Mystery", which was the first episode that made me realize just how far into the supernatural horror genre the show can go, and the last scene of "Not What He Seems", which showed me how dramatic Alex and company are trying to make the show. Eventually, I managed to watch all of Season 2, most of Season 1, and a handful of the shorts made in between seasons. I was impressed by the type of storytelling they used, making no one entirely perfect, giving everyone depth, and making most happy endings earned rather than just given, something used fairly infrequently in kids' animation. The decision to work in clever codes at the end of each episode and tie everything together with a larger mystery is particularly clever alongside the basis in speculative fiction, leading people to call the show "Twin Peaks and/or The X-Files for kids". Nearly every character is a deconstruction of a type of character that most audiences are familiar with, but made to be, for the most part, more realistic. Robbie takes the archetype of the emo and/or bully and shows that they are just as vulnerable as those they pick on, and he would be one of my favorite characters because of T. J. Miller voicing him, if I was never in a similar situation to Dipper with him (jerkwad guy dating a girl you find almost perfect for you were it not for that, the main differences are that we were all around the same age and that nothing ever came to blows, verbal or otherwise, between the other guy and me because we just aren't worth each others' time, and my friendship with that girl is barely kept together by the fact that the other guy went to college while I stayed behind to go to a technical school after I graduated, because not everyone needs to go to college, allowing me to interact with friends from younger grades a little more than most of the class of 2015, and how while she knows that I at least used to like her as more than a friend, and at least enjoys having me as a friend even while friend-zoning me, she doesn't know of my disdain for her boyfriend that she might not even be with anymore because of graduation, and if she knew that I think that she would be better off without him even if I didn't date her, she'd probably never want to talk to me again. Welcome to life, kid.). Old Man McGucket takes the archetype of the crazy hilbilly and simultaneously makes it more disturbing than before (complete with implied cannibalism and beastiality, for the enjoyment of your child) and tragic, showing how the horror of seeing the inhumanity of another dimension can drive one to destroy their own mind just to forget it. Soos takes the archetype of the manchild and turns him into a scared little boy in need of a father figure and the show's most selfless character. Wendy takes the archetype of the "cool girl" that is out of the socially awkward hero's league (and, whether intentionally or not, comes off like a stoner chick) and makes her one of the show's most heroic characters, and by "Weirdmageddon", the main thing keeping Dipper going in a world gone weird (besides his desparation to find Mabel). Stan takes the archetype of the Mr. Krabs-type cheapskate swindler and gives him depth and consequences, turning him into the kid equialent of characters like Breaking Bad's Walter White, Mad Men's Don Draper, The Sopranos' Tony Soprano, Rick and Morty's Rick Sanchez, and BoJack Horseman's title character. It's his love of his family that barely keeps Stan on the side of traditional goodness. Gideon could've been completely unlikable, but the decision to make him more sympathetic by "Weirdmageddon" turns him into a tragic character study of trying too hard to find love and admiration to the point where it turns you psychotic, and then most likely giving your life for the girl you want the love of more than anything so that she'll have at least something good to say about you. Ford is a deconstruction of the wise scientist old man, and a reminder that as smart as he may be with his abilities with the paranormal, supernatural, and psuedoscientific, he's not as smart with people as he ought to be. Pacifica takes the Regina George stereotype and turns her into a fairly disturbing example of how this would be a result of parental emotional abuse, and a hilairious romance troll. I think that Dipifica will only become legitimate canon if Alex Hirsch can emphasize the squick of preteen romance in the process. Twelve-going-on-thirteen is the age you should be learning how to talk to whatever you're attracted to while you have your awkward emotions, and you shouldn't worry about romance until you're ready, if you're ever ready, and even if you think you're ready when you're a preteen (or think fictional characters in a cartoon are ready), you're really not. I would've liked to see Dipper develop a friendship with Candy, Pacifica (if she was in Season 2 more after "Northwest Manor Mystery") or another girl his age that had room to develop into a romance when they were older, but for now, wouldn't be too different from Dipper and Mabel's relationship. I would've also liked to see Dipper have his own Candy-and-Grenda equivalents as his two best non-Mabel non-Soos non-Wendy non-Stan non-Ford friends to show that even with his geekiness, he's got social potential. Well, that's what fanfiction is for. And Bill could've just been a cross between Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Joker, but managed to become possibly the scariest and most disturbing villain to ever be on a Disney show. I'm not sure if the decision to expand on his backstory in the rest of "Weirdmageddon" and look into his family relationship that's even worse than Stan and Ford's family relationships and reveal that his psychotic nature is all part of a childish desire to live without rules will give him more depth, take away what makes him scary, or both, but I don't want the decision to give Bill a serious case of arrested development to take away what makes him my favorite character on the show (my other favorite characters, from most to least favorite, are Stan, Ford, Soos, McGucket, Wendy, Gideon, Robbie, Pacifica, and Dipper).

Ooo, boy, Dipper and Mabel. How the mighty have fallen. I don't like admitting similarities I have to Dipper, but I can't deny them. And Mabel I would like more if I didn't have Asperger's Syndrome making me perceverate on The Daily Show being too liberal and making me tie that back to how Mabel was designed with Kristen Schaal in mind and how Alex Hirsch would've prematurely pulled the plug on the show if he couldn't get her to voice Mabel. At first, they were the ideal sibling relationship, and a nice change of pace from the TV shows that present a constant sibling rivalry between siblings simply because the characters are siblings. Dipper and Mabel's sibling relationship, and by proxy Ford and Stan's relationship, actually have reasons for their various conflicts, and at least in Dipper and Mabel's case, always resolve their issues for at least a little bit. Many siblings in real life are best friends, though this usually comes from an older sibling having to look after a younger sibling because their parents are unfit to take care of them, like Katniss and Prim in Hunger Games, but not all strong sibling relationships are based on this. Unfortunately, after reading some fairly convincing opinions on the Wild Mass Guess and Your Mileage May Vary pages for Gravity Falls on TV Tropes, I've taken a look at their relationship and realized that they eventually became one of the most self-destructive codependent relationships in animated television besides Jerry and Beth's relationship in Rick and Morty. Throughout the series, not only the other characters, but the narrative, favor Mabel, and even when she learns a lesson, she doesn't really have to learn anything, because she's Mabel, voiced by Kristen Schaal, and is a symbol of indivuality for girls and that no one should force you to change who you are- even if who you are is slowly destroying you and your brother from the inside. Dipper has spent the enitre summer, and possibly his entire life, being told that his sister is better than him, so he has started to believe it himself. Throughout "Weirdmageddon", he clearly seems to value Mabel's life over his own, and won't even consider the possibility that she did something to cause the end of the world. This would be fine if it was clear that he wants to protect as many of his friends and family as possible rather than just keep living long enough to find Mabel. He's had to learn most of the lessons over the course of the series and sacrifice more of his desires for Mabel than Mabel for Dipper, even when their desires are of equal selfishness. Even when Mabel sacrifices what she wants for Dipper, it really doesn't matter because of how spoiled she is and how she can afford to deliberately forget the lessons she doesn't truly believe in, but Dipper can't. People try to say that Ford projects his feelings about Stan onto Dipper and is trying to destroy their relationship because he's, for lack of a better term, evil, and I don't think that Dipper living with Ford as his apprentice is the perfect way to solve Dipper's identity crisis, but it's better than being his sister's emotional slave for the rest of his young life. I would recommend something along the lines of the both of them finding their own hobbies, clubs, and friend groups while still living together and staying just close enough to remain best loving friends but not be dependent on each other to be mentally and emotionally stable. Will Dipper still value Mabel's life over his own when he learns in "Weirdmageddon 2: Escape From Reality" that she's directly responsible for the end of the world (along with Bill, of course, because the end of the world was his idea)? I really want Mabel to face the full weight and consequences of what she did for the first time ever, realize that her dependence on Dipper is harmful to everyone, and have to say the words "I'm sorry" to Dipper and actually mean them for once. As BoJack Horseman has proven, you can only forget the lessons you've learned so many times before you screw up and do something you can't fix. This will probably be too mean for Dipper, but if I were in Dipper's position, and Mabel were my twin sister, I wouldn't forgive her. She'd have to earn my forgiveness and trust back by proving through future situations that she can change for the better and not just depend on the positivity of others to make her feel like she's doing the right thing. That's the only way I'd go back to prasing the positive characterization of Dipper and Mabel's brother-sister relationship- if Mabel wasn't forgiven immediately. Is it wrong that I care this much about fictional characters? I don't know. Is it wrong that any of you care this much about fictional characters? What would really bother me is if Alex Hirsch deliberately didn't treat Mabel's flaws as what they are- flaws- because he just loves Kristen Schaal and his sister, Ariel Hirsch, Mabel's inspiration, too much. Dipper is based off of Alex Hirsch himself, so does Dipper valuing Mabel over himself reflect Alex valuing Ariel over himself for that very reason? What has Ariel done to deserve more love from the rest of the Hirsch family than Alex? She's not the psuedo-celebrity of the two of them. The only thing she's done for the show is voice one of Pacifica's friends in "Boyz Crazy". If Alex loves her so much, why not let her do more for the show, such as being a creative consultant if she never took any courses in writing for animation, or writer and storyboarder if she did, and voicing more recurring characters, possibly voicing Mabel herself if Kristen Schaal was unable to do it rather than cancelling the show altogether. Regardless of why, it doesn't justify making a character a Mary Sue just so that she'll be a feminist icon for little girls (which Mabel is not in the slightest, considering her obbsession with approval from men, if you're looking for a feminist role model in a Gravity Falls female character, you've got a near-perfect one in Wendy, considering how she tries not to make her relationships too serious to the point that some members of the fanbase think she's aromantic or asexual, and tries to help Mabel not worry about boys). Weird that he'd make the Mary Sue character based off of his sister rather than himself. Then again, Rebecca Sugar based Steven Universe on her own younger brother, so I guess it's not too uncommon. Doesn't make it good anyway. It's one thing to be aware of your own flaws enough to keep the character that's an author avatar from being a Mary Sue. It's another to be aware of the flaws of all your characters you've based off of real people to keep them from becoming Mary Sues, and make sure that their flaws are treated as such. No one's perfect, unlike Mabel, apparently, not even Alex Hirsch.

Alex. Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex, I want to like you, I really, really do. You created one of the more truly creative TV shows currently on the air, the only piece of media I regularly enjoy thinking of fanfiction ideas for anymore, clearly respect your fans (the ones that don't send you death threats on Twitter because they can't tell the difference between fiction and reality) and want them to be satisfied by the show you write, if not saddened, horrified, and trolled in the process, and you voice Bill Cipher with an intentionally-bad impression of David Lynch, and effectively make him one of the funniest, scariest, and all-around most entertaining villainous characters in television animation. So why are the things you do that I find bad easier to talk about than the things I find good? I'm not talking criticizing shipping culture, deliberately misleading audiences into thinking that Old Man McGucket was the Author before revealing that it was Ford Pines, or shattering BillDip shippers' Draco In Leather Pants depiction of Bill by showing him beginning the apocalypse, making Preston Northwest choke on his own eyes, turning Ford into a backscratcher, incinerating the journals, killing Time Baby (or as it might be called if the rating were raised to a legitimate TV-14 rather than the TV-PG disguised as TV-Y7 the show is known for, "performing a late-term abortion"), and treating the apocalypse like a wild hedonistic teenage party, because those things are pretty cool, albeit in a cathartic and disturbing way. I'm talking things that make him look like, well, a hot belgian waffle. The possible emotional projection of how he thinks about himself and his sister reflected on Dipper and Mabel notwithstanding, the worst of Mr. Hirsch came from his first Reddit AMA in 2013, which I only read this year because I only became a Gravity Falls fan this year. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Websites like Reddit, 4chan, and Tumblr bring out the worst in all of their users, even the ones that are considered to be nice guys when not on those websites. The first issue I had was how much he was complaining about Disney censoring him. If you don't want to be censored, then don't make a kids' cartoon. Does Alex even believe anymore that his show is a kids' show? Plenty of fans, even fans that revere Alex, have made videos on YouTube sarcastically describing how great for kids the show is while emphasizing the show's more disturbing aspects with clips shown. He thinks he won't be allowed to depict gay characters because of the kids' show status, but really wants to because, you know, progress. I'm pretty sure that if Alex just asked asked, Disney would let him, whether by sneaking wedding rings onto Blubs and Durland turning their comically ambiguously gay duo routine into the only shipping Alex supports or by making up new characters. And with Adventure Time, Clarence, Steven Universe, Legend of Korra, and even Disney's own Hannah Montana depicting semi-normalized and tasteful same-sex relationships between characters that are ambiguous enough so that if you're so inclined, you can say that they're just "really good friends" in the cases of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline and Korra and Asami, that Ruby is a boy (and Ruby and Sapphire spend most of their time as Garnet anyway, so you're not beaten over the head with it), or that the two moms in that Hannah Montana episode are sisters or something like that (though many fans would say that true progress will only come if the ambiguity is taken away and those who don't like to acknowledge non-straightness and non-cisness as things are forced to be exposed to it, ironic given the promotion of safe-space culture promoted by many of those kinds of fans that they want to take people that disagree with them out of their safe space), and Disney/Hyperion publishing the Growing Up Gay series, I think that Disney would be very open to the idea of one or two gay couples on a few of their shows. Networks standards and practices don't hate progress, they just don't want it to alienate the audience, because entertainment, when done well, should defy social, political, and religious boundaries and be something that 90% of all people can enjoy. Of course, many schools of thought nowadays think that the conservative viewpoint doesn't apply to entertainment anymore and that only the liberal-progressives need to be satisfied because of their greater support for the acceptance of "all" people. No socio-political viewpoint should be applied, especially for family entertainment, unless the only purpose is to express that viewpoint. In the case of shows like Gravity Falls, the only focus should be telling a good story that can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Alex shouldn't be complaining about the things that Disney won't let him do (or that he thinks they won't let him do) when they've let him do so much, plenty of things that even sick-minded individuals like myself think should not be on a TV-Y7 rated show. This shows that Disney really doesn't care about protecting kids' innocence either. They just stick a TV-Y7 without an FV added on the back of any cartoon that's not a Marvel or Star Wars show, even when Guardians of the Galaxy is probably more family-friendly than Gravity Falls nowadays, and have been doing so since 2012. Alex and company know this and take advantage of this to write something that they know shouldn't be for seven-year-olds, and only avoid turning heads from moral guardians that aren't from Puritian Pictures because of their avoidance of real swearing (on-screen, anyway), blatant sexual references, drugs that look like drugs, or severely bloody violence involving humans. If you know you're not making a kids' show, you should stop pretending you are and ask the network to change the show's rating to TV-PG-DV, which sounds about just right for Gravity Falls, the D meaning suggestive dialogue and the V meaning moderate violence. The show might even be better story-wise if it was allowed this creative range, and Alex could explore even deeper (but not too much deeper) things than absentee and psychologically abusive dads, and look a little more at the grittiness of Stan's criminal past and Ford's multiverse life. I've heard rumors that when Gravity Falls is done, Alex will make a show for Adult Swim, which I think will be a better use of his talents. Some other things I've imagined him doing after the end of Gravity Falls are making a new cartoon for Adult Swim, as mentioned above, but also for either Comedy Central, Fox, Cartoon Network, Disney XD, or even Nickelodeon, assuming they're interested in having a somewhat-quality cartoon on the air again. I've also imagined him doing things like joining the writing team of Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil, Adventure Time, Rick And Morty, South Park, The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, or a Seth MacFarlane or Adam Reed show, or running the revival of a 90s Nicktoon, such as working alongside John Kricfalusi for a revival of Ren and Stimpy (which would probably work better on TeenNick than the main Nick channel). I could see Alex writing an original movie for Pixar or Walt Disney Animation Studios. He might write a spinoff of Gravity Falls set in the same universe but focusing on another character, whether a preexisting character at another time within the show's mythology or an original character with connections to the show's prophecies. Or it could be something completely different than anything mentioned above. Just needed to say one last good thing about Alex before saying something about him that will probably make or break where I stand among my fellow Fallers. The worst offense of Alex's on the Reddit AMA was probably when talking about an instance of having a joke with a Satan-themed cereal removed by the network, saying that the joke's on them because Satan is imaginary and morality is relative. Well, good he knows two of the most important ideals of being a Redditor- stroking atheist egos and defining morality by your conscience rather than common consensus. I don't find it bad that he's an atheist or otherwise nonreligious. It's probably how he got a job at Disney. (OHHHHHHHHH! You want some ice with that burn, Walt, Roy, and Bob?) What I do find bad is how this ties into his belief in relative morality. I guess I have no choice but to share what I believe religiously so that what I say resonates. I was raised Lutheran, but always went to the nursurey below the main area of my family's church well into age fourteen, even though most people don't stay there past age five, because of my boredom with church. Eventually, around age fifteen, I realized that this was because of how due to my Asperger's Syndrome making me very hyper-logical in many ways, God never came to me the way he came to the rest of my family, and I realized that I was agnostic. My family refused to accept that, seeming to wish that I had come out as gay instead. Lutherans are quite accepting of gays, it's nonbelievers they have issues with. Eventually, I became to identify more as a deist- believing in God and that one god created the universe, but that it then left the universe to run on its own without its influence. So I believe in God but not organized religion, and try to live my life without religious influence, but think that others should be allowed to believe whatever they want, no matter how unscientific it is, if it makes them strive to better themselves and do good for the people in their lives and those like them. I only hate religion when my family tries to force it upon me. They still expect me to say grace with them, which I do my putting one hand on top of the other in a position that looks a little like clasped hands and mumbling in a sound that sounds a little like prayer, and go to church once a month to operate a camera that is meant to film the service to air on public access television later that night. They once said that if I don't believe in God, then celebrating Christmas is pointless. So is it selfish to pretend to share the religious beliefs as the rest of my family just so they'll keep buying me what I can't afford myself? Probably. I hate having to lie to myself for the happiness of others. It's why every time I've said "I love you" to my mom, dad, or sister since I was fourteen has been an outright lie, and why I try not to say it when I can get away with not saying it. I can't hate them, because they give me a house, food, and clothes, but I certainly don't love them. I've never really felt honest, genuine love for them or any of my grandparents, uncles, aunts, or older family friends, even when they talk about how much of a great young man I've grown into. If any of them knew some of the ways I really think, all that love would probably turn to contempt. I love my cousins, even the ones that are total psychopaths like the one I mentioned above, which is probably why it makes me so angry to hear about some of the things she does. I love my friends, especially the girls that might be good girlfriends. Heck, I love the Let's Players Chuggaaconroy, MasaeAnela, NintendoCapriSun, Proton Jon, and StephenPlays as if I knew them personally. And yet I can't bring myself to love the people I'm "supposed" to love. Asperger's Syndrome internalizing teenage angst and anger at my parents trying to impose limits on time spent watching TV and Let's Play videos at age fourteen, followed by being sent to an all-boys theraputic boarding school for 9th and 10th grade that monitored the thoughts of its students to make sure that they were as G-rated as possible, a huge waste of time when the boys are going through puberty, and their refusal to accept when someone in their family doesn't believe in God the exact same way that they do can do this to you. Maybe I should've said I was converting to another sect of Christianity, or possibly even Judaism or Islam to test their own faith in God. Catholicism and Mormonism seem like the healthiest sects of Christianity to me, so if I had to go to a Christian church, I'd go to one of those. What makes Alex's comments on religion more irritating to me is how, in a sense, fandom is a new kind of religion. Even back in 2002, Futurama satirized this with its satirical tribute to Star Trek guest-starring the original cast, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". Trekkies were the first geeky fans ever, considering how the first slash fanfictions were between Kirk and Spock and the term "Mary Sue" originated from a satire on poorly written Star Trek fanfiction back in the early 1970s when fanfiction was published in fanzines rather than the Internet. Now, being a Trekkie isn't weird at all, rather, it's praised when Trekkies contribute to modern science and philosophy. In the Futurama episode, Trekkieism becomes a real religion, and out of fear of a terrorist attack from Trekkies, everything related to Star Trek is jettisoned into deep space (nine! Had to do it!), and saying "Star Trek" in a public location is the equivalent of a bomb threat. The religion comparisons are pretty astute. People in need of guidance use a work that, while impossible to prove or disprove whether it can be based in tangible fact, motivates them to better themselves and unites people across any potential borders to be in each others' company, enjoying a story that puts you in greater touch with your own human condition. Why else would a creator personally setting the record straight on an issue of contention within a fandom be called Word of God on TV Tropes, alongside the undying praise of the creators being called Creator Worship? Isn't that kind of what the Gravity Falls fandom is now? A religion with Alex Hirsch as its idol that makes its followers feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves? And what about the people that claim to be a part of the Bill Cipher Cult? Granted, that's a little closer to Satanism than Christianity because of Bill being based in part off of multiple incarnations of the devil (Lucifer=Lou Cipher? Beelzebub= Bill Zebub?), but it's still an example of either fans with a good sense of ironic humor or fans that have taken sanity out of their brain to make room for fandom. Plenty of fangirls of anything, mostly on Tumblr, speak as if the mythology of whatever they like is real and try to pretend that none of the preexisting organized religions were ever conceived (a common example is "What in the name of Cipher?"). So to evangelical atheist fans of Gravity Falls, or really anything for that matter, keep in mind how much you care about what you like, lest you come off like you're putting faith in something imaginary. And of course, the relative morality debate. I think that Alex is correct that morality is relative. So then why am I being a butt about it? Because he doesn't believe it himself, that's why. Morality is relative to the conscience of each individual, and different consciences believe different things. Take Kim Davis for example, the cranky old lady who spent a few days in jail because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and how that became an issue of contempt of court. I don't think she should've been arrested, though I do think that she should've been removed from her position. As she said, issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated her conscience, and you should know better than to do a job that violates your conscience. So is her conscience wrong? Maybe. The only people that truly know whether or not homosexuality is immoral or not, along with all other issues of religious vs. secular morality, are all dead, so I recommend that we all live and let live and love and let love. I think it's what you do in life that makes one good or not and not who you do. Does a conscience gain its beliefs from heredity, genetics, or environment? Is what a conscience believes a choice? Or is it completely random? I don't think we'll ever come to a real common consensus on the issue, so the best you can do is follow this old Thomas Jefferson quote when it comes to people having lifestyles you don't quite agree with- "If it doesn't break my back nor pick my pocket, what difference does it mean to me?" Meaning if it doesn't actually cause you any direct problems, don't worry about it. So what is the issue with Alex lying about believing in moral realitvism? The issue is that he clearly does believe in some moral definites. Gravity Falls is often up its own butt with moral and/or coming-of-age lessons for everyone (but Mabel) to learn, and whether this is a decision on the writing team's part or something that Disney makes them do to keep parents thinking that their kids are watching something wholesome (even though we all know that the show isn't wholesome at all, at least not in the traditional sense), and while plenty of non-Disney kids' shows and even adult cartoons really aren't that different from GF in how they present their lessons, it seems like a way of telling people "You are watching a Disney show. We like beating you over the head with lessons you already know." Alex clearly believes that it's morally correct to be nice to other people in your field of work to help them get ahead. He believes that it's good to allow kids to get animated into your show as a dying wish. (remember when he worked with the Make-A-Wish foundation to give two terminally ill kids to have cameos in the show? Yeah, that was pretty nice of him. Too bad the Make-A-Wish foundation doesn't do more to actually stop child cancer and similar conditions and only turns the terminally ill into celebrities for a day to make those helping out with the kids' "wishes" feel like better people and turning family traumas into media fiascos. If I were a terminally ill kid with my current brain and got to visit Alex Hirsch before I died, I'd ask him if he believes in heaven because, you know, I'm kind of a jerk. Either that, or ask the Make-A-Wish foundation to disband and sell off its assets to groups like the American Cancer Society, MDA, and the Four Diamonds Fund, an organization that runs forty-eight hour dance-a-thons yearly to raise money to stop child cancer, and many schools in my area run twelve-hour mini-thons to assist them. I don't participate in the dance-a-thons because of how I'm pretty unathletic, but I do participate in most other Four Diamonds Fund sponsored events that don't involve such a strenuous task. I may be a little cynical, but I'm not wrong.) Alex believes that it's morally correct to depict gay people in as much media as possible to help normalize same-sex relationships, which I don't find wrong as long as those who try to normalize them aren't aggressive about it. (Hi, Bryan Koinetzko! Love Avatar and Korra! Korrasami for life!) He believes that it's morally wrong to send him death threats over Twitter simply because you want something to happen in a show, and I think he could make a very good PSA on why you shouldn't care that much about a TV show that you forget that its creator is, you know, an actual person. Unfortunately, most of those people probably don't only do it to Alex and never care about the safety of anyone if it means trying to control more than they have the right to. This is a basis of relative morality. My desires over your safety. However, the worst example of the hypocrisy in Alex's outspoken promotion of relative morality was shown in this interview he had with Animation Magazine to talk about what to expect from "Weirdmageddon" shortly before Part 1 aired. He talked about how Bill promotes the "libertarian" idea of doing whatever you want whenever you want- seeming to think that libertarianism and anarchism are the same thing- and said that Bill is a cautionary tale about what happens when someone has too much freedom and doesn't live by any rules. But isn't that what relative morality is? Not living by anyone's rules other than your own or the ones that benefit you? Is this the kind of person Alex Hirsch is? One who is only a good person when it suits them? The kind that uses relative morality as an excuse for their own problems but tries to tell others how to live their lives? Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Fame can make plenty of people act like this. Alex Hirsch's personal hero, Jon Stewart, depends on this. The most uncomfortable example of this was definitely what he did to Wyatt Cenac in 2011, which I'll let you look up. I don't want to think of Alex as this kind of person, and I'm sure you don't either, but it's pretty hard to ignore. Well, no one's perfect, not even the awesome guys that give us the shows we love so much, so it will probably do you good to accept those things about him and like him anyway while trying to focus on the good with him. He is Stan, Soos, McGucket, Bill, and most ancillary characters, after all.

In conclusion, despite my reservations about certain aspects of the show, its characters, and its creator, I think that Gravity Falls is the funniest, smartest, edgiest, most epic, saddest, scariest, most heartfelt, and all-around best thing currently being made by Disney Television Animation, the best thing they've made since Kim Possible, and the best thing The Walt Disney Company currently has going for it, at least in the television department. In the movies, it would have to be most of the films being made by Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, as does pretty much everyone. I hope that speaking about my opinions and personal life experiences that don't have much to do with Gravity Falls in a blog post at the length of a half-novel didn't alienate me too much from this fandom. I disabled comments to prevent flame wars, so if you want to talk to me about why I'm wrong, or maybe why I'm right, or just want to talk about Gravity Falls as a show or anything similar, please message me on my wall on this wiki. I'll finish this post with a quote in Vinegere code. The key is SALVADORDAHLI. "ZAGZ NR TVDR VQ XWRQZCWWFQ. YVF'TD NPQEU FVDCO TB."