secretly a tree (dont tell Anyone)

Me and @glum-sheep

I’ve been listening to Alex’s podcast where he goes into the details of each episode with different storyboard artists and writers who worked on the show, and it just baffles me how… cared for the story is. Right now in media there’s been an uptick in satire, and shows making fun of themselves for existing, or taking the piss at their own content to “win” fans to their side. It’s like whimsy is gone from so many pieces of media. But Gravity Falls just doesn’t… do that. It completely embraces itself. Weirdness and all. And so does the team behind it. I’m not used to something I care about being so cared about by everyone surrounding it.

Here’s this cartoon, written and illustrated by an entire team of people saying, “no, we’re serious. we mean this. we made this on purpose and we made it important.”

Throughout the podcast, Alex discusses little ins and outs of each character, offering so much deep internal struggles and enriching the story even farther. And listening to him unpack it with the utmost sincerity just warms my heart. Each character is so dynamic because they were cared for by people who imbued them with sincerity.

That’s exactly why we get quotes like “Shame is powerful, but it grows in the dark,” as Ford realizes the trauma he’s hidden for so long is being embraced by his family, diminishing it’s weight on him through their immediate support.

It’s why we get Alex describing Stanley with quotes like; “I always in my gut thought of him as somebody with a huge well of sadness, a loss of human connection. And that need to please? That need to get laughs from the crowd, and putting on a big show? He’s trying to get from them the affection he never got from his family, and that he lost with his brother.”

Or detailing how Mabel might be a goof… but half the time she’s doing a bit, because she’s really more mature than her brother and doesn’t want him to grow up too fast. She’s trying to help ground him and bring lightheartedness into his life. Because she knows otherwise, he’ll become too self isolated.

And those two mini character studies he dropped so casually in these podcast episodes just… color the show. It’s why the show survived so well even after ten years. It’s gruff-old Stan always calling his niece “Pumpkin” and “Honey”. It’s the family always holding hands without it behind laced with a joke, and falling asleep on one another in the car. It’s Alex explaining that people toyed with other endings, other plot lines, other twists, but it was always going to end with Stan and Ford mending the family tie they severed thirty years ago. Because that was their story. Messes and family and care.

How to hang out with your bird gf? Here's some mostly useful guide. Also, don't forget about the frog 🐸 Some of the previous comics are here and here ----- Separate post about Hedwig/Yadwiga is here.

Post about Vaughn, Yadwiga and their AU is here

my the outsiders printing hcs and a little blurb about all of them 😌

ponyboy: pretentious af, absolutely tiny printing, mocks everyone else’s (except curlys), writes cringey love letters to curly in the most elaborate cursive ever even though he can’t read it, soda also can’t read it

soda: abhorrent printing, can barely read his own writing (or any writing), no one else can read it either, dyslexic af, failed kindergarten

darry: thinks the uppercase makes his printing look grown up, gets mocked by his brothers who say he doesn’t know lowercase, writes his whole name every. single. time.

steve: thinks the way he writes his ‘e’ is special, constantly asked by soda why there is a three in his writing (it’s the e), soda can barely read it

two-bit: doesn’t really care about his printing, can be really messy but only when he’s writing fast, letters really close together, soda can barely read it

johnny: somewhat neat printing, but super flat, fast writer, loves writing with pens and hates pencils, soda struggles to read it due to the flatness

dally: cannot read anything except for names of people he knows and words that are familiar to him, can write his own name and barely anything else, fucking stupid, pony tried to teach him how to read and nearly got murdered

curly: only writes in lowercase cause he hates tim and wanted to be different from him (he writes in all uppercase) hates writing cause his hands cramp, pony loves his printing

he leaves you