Gideon Gleeful

"Li'l" Gideon Charles Gleeful (born early July 2002 in Gravity Falls, Oregon ) is a fraudulent child psychic, whose hunger for ultimate power motivates him to manipulate and intimidate others into giving him what he wants. A sworn enemy of the Pines family, he serves as the series' main antagonist throughout season 1, until his eventual defeat and incarceration in the last episode. He was largely absent from the first half of Season 2, but returned during the latter part of the season.

Season 1
Gideon is first shown (as a cameo) in an advertisement on the back of an issue of "Wacky News" in the episode "The Legend of the Gobblewonker," with the words "Child psychic."

After Soos shows the twins Gideon's commercial in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel," they decide to test him as a psychic. They go to one of Gideon's shows at the Tent of Telepathy, even though Stan forbids them from doing so due to Gideon often causing him trouble.

At the show, Gideon meets Mabel, and quickly develops a huge crush on her. He shows up at the Mystery Shack the next day, and asks her if she wants to go to his dressing room so they can perform makeovers on each other. Mabel accepts the offer. Gideon then reveals he wants to be more than friends with Mabel; however, she doesn't feel the same way. He manages to convince her to go on a date with him. At the date, he convinces her to go on yet another date with him, after announcing it to everyone at the restaurant they were dining at. Mabel really didn't want to, but many people in the restaurant expecting her to say "yes" put pressure on her, and she gives in to him.

Dipper sees that Gideon has become a problem for Mabel and offers her the idea of him breaking up with Gideon instead of her, causing Gideon to believe that Dipper had come between them. Gideon gives Toby Determined Shandra Jimenez's phone number. In exchange, Toby calls Dipper, telling him to go to Gideon's factory. Gideon confronts Dipper there, and nearly kills him with his amulet and lamb shears. However, Mabel shows up to tell Gideon that she just wants to be friends, and she sees Gideon trying to kill Dipper. Mabel then formally breaks up with Gideon, and uses the amulet to defeat him, destroying it afterwards. Gideon is then seen backing up into the forest, saying "This isn't the last you'll see of widdle ol' me."

Afterwards, he creates a little playset of the Mystery Shack (including crude wooden dolls of Dipper, Mabel and Stan), and starts planning revenge. It is then shown that he owns Journal 2.

Gideon makes his next appearance in "Irrational Treasure." He dresses up as a tomato farmer on Pioneer Day and teases Stan by throwing tomatoes at his eyes after Stan insulted Gideon by saying he looks less girly than usual in his costume.

In "Little Dipper," Gideon is playing with his Mystery Shack set, and decides that taking over the Shack would be the perfect way to get revenge. He first tries to get Stan to sign over the Mystery Shack, but Stan is not fooled. He tries to set termites on the Shack, but Stan smashes the jar, and the termites go after Gideon's bat and his hair instead. After failing twice, Gideon discovers Dipper's crystal flashlight, which can grow and shrink things. He shrinks the twins and brings them back to his house. He calls Stan and tells him he has the twins in his possession, but Stan doesn't believe him. Deciding to use the flashlight to shrink Stan instead, Gideon heads over to the Shack while Dipper and Mabel escape. Gideon catches them again and shrinks Soos, believing he was Stan. He then corners Stan in the Maze of Mirrors. Dipper and Mabel tickle his armpit, immobilizing him and allowing the twins to take back the flashlight. Stan then teases and literally kicks Gideon out of the Shack.

Soon after, he paces around his house. His dad tells him he'll get his revenge one day, but Gideon angrily tells his dad that it's not just about revenge; he wants the Shack so he can find something.

Gideon is mentioned in "Bottomless Pit!," when Mabel threw all of his love letters into the Bottomless pit. He is even shown on a picture in same scene in the same episode.

In "The Deep End," he is seen at the local pool, taking the best spot right before Stan can get to it. Stan's efforts to get the spot back end in failure, even when he sneaks into the pool at night to sit on the deckchair until the pool opens; Gideon, having anticipated this tactic, reveals to Stan that he put glue on the chair.

In "Dreamscaperers," Gideon summons a mind demon by the name of Bill Cipher to enter Stan's mind in order to retrieve the code to a safe holding the deed to Mystery Shack. His plan fails, so Gideon resorts to Plan B; dynamite. He blows up the safe, takes the deed and has his father use a wrecking ball to destroy the Mystery Shack's sign.

Gideon plays a prominent role in the season finale, "Gideon Rises." He reveals the purpose of the journals, and tells his father (and the viewing audience) that he still requires the other one, Journal 1. Upon stealing Journal 3 from Dipper, however, he discovers that there are 3 journals, and he pursues the Pines twins (who were forced to leave town around this time) in a giant robot under the assumption that Dipper kept the first one for himself. He catches them, attempting to reclaim Mabel as his bride, and almost succeeds. He is stopped at the last moment by Dipper, however, and the robot crashes after a brief skirmish in the control center.

He attempts to have the Pines twins arrested, but Stan reveals the falsehood of Gideon's supposed powers: his special pins are hidden cameras. The scorned townsfolk turn on Gideon and arrest him, but not before Stan reclaims his deed and secretly steals journal 2 from Gideon in order to finish creating the machine in his secret laboratory.

When taken to court, he plans to use his "cute" act, but unfortunately for him Manly Dan is in the jury. He is then sent to jail. Fortunately for him, the inmates at the Gravity Falls jail love his psychic act and have been looking for a new leader.

Season 2
He briefly appears in "Scary-oke," seeing the light from Stan's machine in his jail cell.

Later in "Society of the Blind Eye" a picture of him is seen in Mabel's scrapbook.

In "Blendin's Game," he is briefly seen as a baby on Bud Gleeful's advertisement poster and in a baby stroller as his parents take him down the street.

In "The Stanchurian Candidate," he has Bud run for mayor, so he can pardon his son and get him out of prison. During the campaign, he communicates with his father from a screen in prison. When Bud starts falling behind in the race, Gideon decides to take control of his body with a spell from a page from Journal 2  he kept in his hair. During the final debate, he reveals himself to Dipper and Mabel, and tries to blow them up with fireworks, but fails. His actions cause his father to lose the debate and the mayorship. Later, he rips a poster off the wall of his cell and draws an eye on the Bill Cipher Wheel, saying he's ready to make a deal with him.

In "The Last Mabelcorn," Gideon is mentioned when Bill is explaining to Ford that he's been making deals and chatting with old friends for his eventual return.

In "Weirdmageddon Part 1", Gideon and his fellow inmates break out of prison and are recruited by Bill to protect the cage of Mabel. However, Dipper manages to convince Gideon that Mabel would not love him should he not let the trio free her, and in the end, after being promised Dipper would tell Mabel what Gideon had done, he leads his inmates to fend off the oncoming minions of Bill Cipher.

Personality
Li'l Gideon is a self-proclaimed television psychic whose real mission is to take down his competition, the Mystery Shack. He uses his "cuteness" as an advantage to get what he wants, and admits that people have a hard time saying "no" to him because of it. It seems that he can be kind when he needs to be, as seen with most of his dates with Mabel.

He is cunning and sly, tricking Stan in "The Deep End" into getting glued to the deckchair. He speaks with a Southern American dialect. He is spoiled, ungrateful, bratty, selfish, and abusive toward his parents in ways such as throwing ice cream, yelling at them, making a fuss, and breaking lamps. His mother appears to fear him.

He can also be very rude and obnoxious; an example is shown in "Little Dipper," where people are buying cars from his dad and he talks behind their backs calling them "Mouth-breathing fools," and when he shrinks Mabel and Dipper.

He is enemies with Dipper because of Dipper getting in between Mabel and him "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel." He is also enemies with Stan Pines, being a competitor towards the Mystery Shack.

He also seems to be completely obsessed with obtaining the power that the journals would give him, going so far as to attempt to track down Dipper and Mabel when they were leaving Gravity Falls and ignoring their claims to not have the first journal.

He is extremely manipulative, lying to the residents of Gravity Falls to get them to do what he wants, such as telling them Dipper and Mabel blew up his "statue" with dynamite to try to get them arrested.

However, in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" after Dipper explains to him that he can't force Mabel to love him he decides to be less selfish and is determined to prove himself as a "hero", later remembering that he's no one's servant.

Appearance
Li'l Gideon is a short, stout kid with white pompadour hair bigger than his head. He has an upturned nose, blue eyes and three freckles on each of his cheeks. He wears a baby blue suit, a black shirt, and an American flag pin on the left side of his collar, with brown, polished shoes. He wore a jade amulet on his bolo tie until Mabel destroyed it in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel." In "Irrational Treasure," it is replaced by a white tie. Also in "Irrational Treasure," he makes his hair curly to look like a "humble tomato farmer." In "The Deep End," Gideon goes to the pool and wears swimming trunks with the American flag on them, and swimming goggles that reflect sunlight.

In "Weirdmageddon Part 1" his outfit changes again, as Bill has made him "Sheriff" of Gravity Falls he is dressed in a blue suit, similar in color to his original, however with yellow fringes on the sleeves, pink buttons and a white outline around the collar of the blazer. Underneath he wears a white frilled shirt with a yellow bow tie, he has a brown belt with a bull on it and white fancy boots.

Mabel Pines
Shortly after his first encounter with Mabel, Gideon fell head over heels for her, and continually attempts to get Mabel to return the feeling through various schemes, but to no avail. Despite his crush, Gideon seeks revenge on Mabel and her family (whom he views as the only thing standing between him and a successful relationship). Mabel, on the other hand, finds Gideon to be creepy and unattractive, totally evil, and despises him and every attempt he makes to enact his vengeance.

Dipper Pines
Gideon and Dipper are mortal enemies, and are frequently in combat. Gideon sees Dipper and the rest of his family as a threat to be dealt with, so as to get revenge, win Mabel's love, and seize control of the Mystery Shack and its secrets. Thus, he spends his free time plotting and executing complex schemes, none of which succeed. At the same time, Dipper dislikes Gideon just as much and is the frequent victim and stopper of his young enemy's evil plans.

Stan Pines
For unknown reasons, a rivalry has existed between Stan and Gideon for years, ever since Gideon moved into the town. Business rivals to begin with, their rather competitive personalities fuel their feud further. Gideon wishes to eliminate Stan for numerous reasons, namely to take control of his business and a strange secret it possesses and to remove the "obstacle" to winning Mabel's affection, and he plots day and night to figure out a means of revenge, though he is sometimes satisfied with simply irritating Stan. Stan doubts Gideon's abilities and constantly teases him and calls him names.

Bud Gleeful
Though a father traditionally has authority over his son, Gideon's and Bud's situation seems to be the complete opposite: Gideon bosses Bud around and Bud submits without a second thought. While Gideon just utilizes his father as a tool to help him reach his goals, Bud nonetheless loves his son and is willing to do much for him, seeing the boy as "precious." However, he is quoted as saying that Gideon "could use a time out" in an article about Gideon's arrest.

Mrs. Gleeful
Due to her son's sinister and intimidating nature, Mrs. Gleeful is submissive to Gideon and fears him, trembling at the mere sight of the young boy. Gideon lacks respect for her and treats her abusively.

Abilities
Gideon's greatest talents are charm, deceit, and scheming. In "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel," he attempts to maim Dipper Pines using lamb shears after he "turned Mabel against him." Later in "Little Dipper," he formulates many plans to exact vengeance on the Pines family, ultimately leading to shrinking the twins to take possession of the Mystery Shack. He also once possessed 2, a prequel to Dipper's 3 that appears to contain mainly alchemical secrets, and therefore knew of and had access to many supernatural items, such as a Mystic amulet that gave him telekinesis – an ability to control objects with your mind (which was destroyed by Mabel), and cursed Egyptian super termites. He also has used several spells and incantations from 2 to further his ends, such as a ritual to summon Bill Cipher and a possession spell to temporarily inhabit the body of Bud Gleeful. He can make people love/like him very quickly and usually gets what he wants.

Quotes
"Face it kid, you're nothing without that journal. No muscles. No brains. What are you gonna do kid, huh? What are you gonna do?"

- Li'l Gideon to Dipper

"Dipper Pines, you don't know what you've done! You've just made the biggest mistake of your life!"

- Li'l Gideon

"I can buy and sell you, old man!"

- Li'l Gideon to Bud

"This isn't over. This isn't the last you'll see of li'l.... ol'.... me...."

- Li'l Gideon

"Finally after all these years, after every humiliation! Your business, your family, everything will finally be mine! You have no one to protect you now!"

- Li'l Gideon to Grunkle Stan

Trivia

 * Gideon's appearance is based on Benny Hinn, a famous "Christian" televangelist. He also bears a striking resemblance to child preacher Larry Hal Larimore.
 * Gideon goes to Gravity Falls Elementary School.
 * Gideon's school ID number is 618, which is also The Mystery Shack's address and Alex Hirsch's birthday.
 * In "Rumble's Revenge," a cryptogram references Gideon searching for an object of some sort, later revealed to be Journal 1.
 * The reason why Gideon's skin is so soft is because he steals Wendy's moisturizer.
 * Gideon has been to summer programming classes.
 * Despite his age, Gideon was sent to an adult prison due to Gravity Falls' arcane charter laws due to their legally insane founder, Quentin Trembley.
 * Gideon thought he'd be able to talk his way out of his sentence, but the jury included Manly Dan.
 * Gideon's full name, "Gideon Gleeful", is a play on the phrase "Giddy 'n Gleeful."
 * Gideon's birthday can be presumed to be in July, as a poster for his father's business announcing his birth is seen in "Blendin's Game" on July 13, 2002, which would make Gideon 10 years old in Season 2.
 * Also this poster has been defaced, apparently by a young Robbie Valentino, denouncing Gideon as a demon, hinting towards his future personality.
 * In Creepy Letters from Lil' Gideon, Gideon explicitly states in a letter to the Pines family that he will be breaking getting out of jail soon, this was foreshadowing of the events of "Weirdmageddon Part 1."
 * In an old deleted scene Gideon can be shown as an innocent and normal kid playing in the woods by himself when he discovers Journal 2.
 * Matt Braly said in an AMA on Reddit that Gideon was corrupted by power when he found the journal and that is why he is like he is.
 * The cryptogram in The Stanchurian Candidate was a reference to Gideon, saying "BE WARY OF WHOM YOU BELITTLE, BIG PROBLEMS CAN START OUT WIDDLE."
 * According to Alex Hirsch, Gideon serves a dark reflection of Dipper; while Dipper utilized Journal 3 for benevolence and to solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls, Gideon harnessed Journal 2 to gain power for his own nefarious purposes.
 * During the production of the "Mabel's Good Deeds Montage" Gideon was meant to receive an apology letter from Mabel for putting him in prison.
 * Despite being a main antagonist previously, in "Weirdmaggedon Part 1" he acknowledges he's been wrong in the way he's treated Mabel and decides to fight Bill and his army, even if he wouldn't survive.

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