CrystalClearMist

incorrect response: write the rest of the story to be as twisty, shocking and counter to expectations as possible, regardless of whether this is a logical or satisfying way for the plot to go

correct response:

(you’re not stupid. I posted this thinking it would amuse a handful of mutuals who all knew the context and that would be about it, so I didn’t think about providing any other explanation. I had no idea it would spread this far.)

I’ll start from the very beginning just to be thorough. so this is Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, a show which had a big focus on mystery, conspiracies, codes and ciphers, etc. the whole plot is kicked off by one of the main characters finding a mysterious old journal in the woods, which detailed all kinds of weird and supernatural things, but then ended abruptly with the author saying they had to hide the journal because they were being watched. the central driving mystery of the show, therefore, was the question of who wrote the journal and what happened to them.

now, the thing about Gravity Falls is that, while it must be said that the writers weren’t always quite as sure of their plans as we tend to like to think they are, it is very much a fair play mystery, with legitimate clues to what was going on. but the writers were caught off guard by how quickly the show attracted a dedicated audience, including a lot of people outside the primary presumed demographic, who started solving the clues faster than expected. so some of the fans were able to correctly guess who the author was before it was revealed in the show, and the theory started spreading. this put the writers in something of a panic, because this was THE mystery that the whole story revolved around, with ¾ of the show building up to the dramatic reveal in the middle of season 2. they wanted it to be a mystery that could be figured out, sure, but they weren’t prepared for people to solve it so far in advance of when it was planned to be revealed, which would have really taken away from the big moment. they weren’t going to change the main story itself, but having been caught unaware by how much attention the fans were paying, they wanted to up the ante and make the mystery more complex to solve going forward–but first they needed to buy some time and throw the fandom off the scent for a little longer.

hence, Alex’s plan as described above. they whipped up a fake shot that appears to give away the identity of the author as being another character in the show, put it on a screen in the studio as if it was a real animation frame, took a picture of it, and ‘leaked’ it online. it was initially decided to be a hoax (albeit, I think, presumed to be a hoax originating from outside the production team), until Alex posted this tweet:

…before quickly deleting it (though not so quickly that it didn’t get seen, of course).

it worked well enough to distract most people for a while, and wasn’t revealed as a hoax until a year later, when an episode aired that definitively proved that the supposed screenshot could never have happened, at which point Alex owned up to the whole thing as seen in the tweet above. by then the episode with the real reveal wasn’t far off, and while people did still work it out ahead of time, it was more of an “OH MY GOD I KNEW IT!” moment than a “booooooring, we’ve known that for ages” moment, which of course was what the writers wanted all along.

personally I find this a fascinating approach to dealing with the problem of spoilers, because it doesn’t affect the story itself at all; if you watch Gravity Falls today–or if you were watching it when it aired without any significant contact with the fandom–you’d never know about it. ultimately, the problem the writers were facing wasn’t that some people might guess the answer to the mystery–they never wanted to make it completely impossible to predict–so much as it was that they hadn’t designed the story to stand up to so many people working on the puzzle together, which resulted in a sort of total output of puzzle-solving ability that far outstripped the capability of any one solo human being. so their solution is something that’s very much targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show.

plus, it’s very in keeping with the overall tone of the show.

don’t:

change the ending

do:

Link to the article

It's never done that before so I looked it up and turns out Roku TVs have added all sorts of creepy things in the privacy section since I last checked.

One of which being they take screenshots from what you're watching and send them to third parties to identify it.

Fucking hell! Remember when every fucking device in your life wasn't a spy implanted in your home and working against your interests to try and sell your data? Remember how nice that was??

Remember when the TV was just a tool that would play the things you plugged into it?

the city of los angeles

the city of new york

sex

how drinking alcohol works

how getting high works

how a child of any age speaks

how nuclear physics work

how [my job] works

how debilitating being shot in the shoulder is

how hypothermia works

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

SHRIMP COCKTAIL:

banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol

generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is

#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro

And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!

POMEGRANATES:

zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple

thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute

sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.

FRUIT TREES:

zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''

salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE

baander: #cranberry trees

DOUGH/BATTER:

maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre

livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles

lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY

Some other topics:

Until one day Bruce just snaps at them all to leave. At first they’re like “wtf u mean” till he points out this is his watchtower. Over the course of a week he takes back every single item he ever gave the other jl members and watches them freak because how are they supposed to get anything done!

Mm I've seen a post like this before and the blog made a very good point; Bruce wouldn't risk Earth like this.

However.

He decides screw it. He'll prove a point, and not have to deal with putting out fires for a week.

Slaps a binder on the table. Tells them this is everything they need to take care of the Watchtower, they can do it without him. They're happy. Smug. They think they can do it, while the Founders are cringing in the background. They can't exactly ask Bruce to stay and put up with the harassment, but they know this isn't going to end well, but resolve to intervene as little as possible. They wouldn't want Bruce's lesson to go easy on them.

Bruce explains he is removing all of his systems, his monitoring, his funding they will do it on their own for a week, and walks out.

The first few hours are fine. The rich members are contacted to up their funding for the Watchtower, and readily supply the money needed.

Then the trouble starts.

Literal fires, metaphorical ones, automated processes stalling out without constant upkeep, their tinkerers like Terrific fuming when they're called in to fix something, and it turns out this was breaking down long before they were called, any longer and they'd all be out the airlock. "Batman would've seen this," starts to grate after the first fifteen times.

Everything they need to fix it is in the binder, exactly as Batman said. But the time it takes to comb through it costs them, so a Flash is assigned to just carry it around.

The Founders are watching in the background trying to hide their amusement as their proteges and colleagues scramble to keep the Watchtower in space, and in one piece.

Superman gets sucked out the airlock, and only narrowly manages to shove the human next to him down the hall so they aren't thrown out into space alongside him. He floats ourside the bay window with such a disappointed expression everyone cringes.

Someone manages to trigger the self destruct mid meeting. When almost the entire League is on board. Diana halts the sequence and just pinches the bridge of her nose, taking a very slow breath. "Let's carry on."

An entire mission team manages to go missing because someone delayed calling someone to fix the zetas and they get beamed to the entirely wrong location.

They hit the end of the week and are glad Batman's going to come back. Only he doesn't.

The Bats are commed, and shrug that they should be prepared for plans to go awry, and the cursing they get in response is interrupted by yelling when a tile falls off the ceiling. Dick just hums: "Yeah, that was supposed to be fixed on Tuesday." And hangs up on them.

Batman returns nine days after he left the Watchtower, the most well rested he's been in a while.

It takes him two hours to get everything back to normal, and most of it is just automating systems, and reinstating regular maintenance checks. He gets out a toolkit and finds the source of one of their electric problems in a matter of minutes, when they've been shocked upwards of eight times and still couldn't find it.

Steam is literally coming out of people's ears at how easy he makes it look, when they've been running around like headless chickens for over a week.

Bruce finally walks into the meeting room and is tackled by Clark. "They threw me out of the airlock!" He cries, hiding under the cape, Bruce just laughs and drags out a snickering Clark while half the room cringes.

Bruce and the core seven are catching up while everyone else is wincing at the gleeful recounts of their mistakes by their mentors.

The attention finally turns to them and Bruce isn't mad. He's plain: the Watchtower is one of a kind machinery, and needs constant upkeep. But this catastrophe of a week just shows that said upkeep is too centralised to Bruce and the other founders, which is the perfect cue to institute training on Watchtower upkeep.