I Know Im A Few Years Late To The Gravity Falls Party, But I Cant Get Over How Effectively The Ford Reveal

I know I’m a few years late to the Gravity Falls party, but I can’t get over how effectively the Ford reveal flips the switch on Stan’s character. From what little I’d seen of the show on Tumblr before I watched it, I’d always assumed Stan was a pretty one-dimensional sleazy con man. And since it was a series aimed toward kids, I kind of assumed Stan wouldn’t get that much development or story outside of Dipper and Mabel. I figured if he did have an arc, it would be the pretty common “gruff bitter loner guy who doesn’t like people gets kids and learns to love them” storyline. 

And for like the first half of the show, this kind of seemed to be the case, aside from the mystery surrounding whatever Stan was hiding in the basement.

And then the Ford reveal / backstory happens and you see Stan in a completely new light. 

Stan isn’t a con man because he wants to be. He’s a con man out of necessity - first because he was kicked out of his house and forced to make it on his own at 18, and then because it was helping him work to bring his brother back. He doesn’t just run the mystery shack because he likes to lie to people and swindle them out of their money - he does it because he needed a way to make money and keep the shack while trying to figure out a way to reopen the portal. He has a fake identity because he needed to keep people from snooping around looking for Stanford and the easiest way to do that was to take his place.

All the things that make you think he’s selfish and shady throughout the first half of the series are revealed to be because he’s a desperate, heartbroken man who wants to bring his brother back. He isn’t the traditional gruff guy who doesn’t love anyone until some rambunctious kids come into his life at all - he loves his brother so much that literally everything he does is to get him back. And he lies to the kids in an effort to protect them and keep anything bad from happening to them like it did to his brother.

Great twists / mystery reveals don’t just take the story in a new direction - they cast new light on everything that has come before. And Gravity Falls does that so well.

Just look at one of the first episodes in the series where Mabel makes a wax figure of Stan and Stan appears to fall in love with it and mourns it when it melts, going as far to host a funeral for it. Without knowing Stan’s backstory, this whole storyline just feeds into our view of Stan as a self-centered, ridiculous person. It’s ridiculous he would cherish a wax figure of himself. It’s so egotistical that he would host a funeral for it when it died and get honestly choked up about it.

But then you learn that Stan lost his twin brother and that whole storyline doesn’t really feel like the story of a selfish, egotistical man anymore. It’s the story of a man who felt like he got his brother back again momentarily and then had to lose him all over again.

That’s an effective twist. You can’t learn about Stan’s backstory and then go back and view him the same way you did before it. 

Sorry if my English isn't the best but I want to share my opinion about the monster at work s2 ending

Ok so, everyone is confused about Randall being bestie with Johnny but I have an explanation about what we see in the episode.

First if all, long time ago, I don't remember where, I saw a post about someone rewatching MI after MU and nothing how Randall was always some kind of nerd (like the random karate stuff, very nerdy)

So after that post I cannot stop noticing how right it is, Randall is evil but still a nerd, and the worst time of nerd.

Randall all he want is attention and being on the spotlight, he want the attention of the cool kids.

After Johnny save him he is in a total delulu that they are bestie, I don't know how to explain it properly but if u have ever met this kind of people you know what I'm talking about.

In his view the cool kid that barely talked to him one time (and was one of the first who recognised his potential) now want his help and also saved him.

For him that mean that even after of that Johnny still considered him.

Basically to him he is his best friend because he don't even know what an actual friend is like, so to him that's the best anyone have ever treat him.

On the other side, Johnny is using him BUT he is at least considering him a lot more that in the past.

He rescued him only because he need him BUT Randall isn't totally the same of the past, he has a dark side now and he's ready to hurt people if needed.

Johnny always have some kind of dark side (not the biggest but still) and now that he is where he is in life his dark side is huge just like his ego. Basically to him Randall is now more like someone relatable than just a random nerd. After saving him he definitely started to consider him a friend or at least actually useful.

Basically I'm saying, yes he saved him only to use him but he ended up finding some kind of friend in him, and Randall in his delulu mind think that's mean that they are bestie (and the fact that they know each other for long time mean they always were friend, BUT it could also be Johnny that persuaded him to think that, like: "Randall!! It's been so long!! Yes of course I remember you! Weren't we bestie???" To maybe manipulate him, you know what I mean.)

Ok so unless next season actualy explain if this is how it happen or if actualy something happen after MU this is what I think.

Before I end I just want to talk about one last thing about them and their relationship.

The thing I want to say is: Of course Randall is delulu about them and actually happy to work for him (he visibly is)

Remember MI? Remember how Henry treated Randall? Go watch it again because he totally didn't respect him even after all of his work, he used him but never thanked him.

He litteraly make it clear how much he liked Sully more than him.

Johnny didn't do that, because to him Sully and Mike are enemies.

Johnny, even if he's using Randall, have showed him way more respect and even friendship than Henry did. They are basically mean girl plotting together. So of course Randall consider him his bestie and is happy to work with him.

To his eyes, the cool kid isn't just finaly considering him, but think he is a cool kid too.

Ok I'm done.

Hope my English wasn't to broken (I should do this type of post way more, it help me to exercise my grammar)

I have made a keychan design (ignore the ugly background)

List of Journalists Killed During this Genocide. Say their names!

Wael Abu Fununa (18/1/24)

Yazan Al-Zouidi (14/1/24)

Muhammad Jamal Al-Thalatheeni (10/1/24)

Fouad Abu Khammas (10/1/24)

Ahmad Badir (10/1/24)

Sharef Nafith Okasha (10/1/24)

Hiba Abadleh (9/1/24)

Muhammad Abu Dayer Misbah (8/1/24)

Abdullah Breis (8/1/24)

Ali Salem Abu Ajwa (7/1/24)

Hamza Wael Al Dahdouh (7/1/24)

Mustafa Thuraya (7/1/24)

Akram Al-Shafei (5/1/24)

Nermine Haboush (30/12/23)

Jabr Abu Hadrous (29/12/23)

Abdallah Hamad (29/12/23)

Ahmad Khair El-Deen (28/12/23)

Muhammad Khair El-Deen (28/12/23)

Ahmed Jamal Al-Madhoun (24/12/23)

Mohammed Abu Hwaidi (23/12/23)

Rizq Arrouq (22/12/23)

Muhammad Al-Saidi (22/12/23)

Adel Zorob (19/12/23)

Abdullah Alwan (18/12/23)

Haneen Ali Al-Qashtan (17/12/23)

Mashal Ayman Shahwan (16/12/23)

Assem Kamal Musa (16/12/23)

Rami Badir (15/12/23)

Ali Ashour Abu Malek (15/12/23)

Samer Abu Daqqa (15/12/23)

Khamis Hussain (15/12/23)

Ahmed Abu Abseh (13/12/23)

Hanan Ayad (13/12/23)

Narmeen Qawas (13/12/23)

Abdel Kareem Oudeh (12/12/23)

Mohammed Abu Samra (10/12/23)

Doaa al-Jabour (9/12/23)

Ola Atallah (9/12/23)

Hossam Omar Ammar (8/12/23)

Hamada Al-Yaziji (6/12/23)

Abdul Hamid Al-Qarinawi (3/12/23)

Mahmoud Salem (3/12/23)

Shaima Al-Jazzar (3/13/23)

Hassan Farajallah (3/12/23)

Hudhayfah Lulu (3/12/23)

Muhammad Farajallah (2/12/23)

Abdullah Darwish (1/12/23)

Muntaser Al-Sawwaf (1/12/23)

Marwan Al-Sawwaf (1/12/23)

Adham Hassouna (1/12/23)

Nader Al-Nazli (25/11/23)

Amal Zuhd (24/11/23)

Mostafa Bakeer (24/11/23)

Mohamed Mouyin Ayyash (23/11/23)

Mohamed Nabil Al-Zaq (21/11/23)

Assem Al-Barash (21/11/23)

Jamal Haniyeh (21/11/34)

Farah Omar (21/11/23)*

Rabih Al Maamari (21/11/23)*

Ayat Khadoura (20/11/23)

Alaa Al-Nimr

Bilal Jadallah (19/11/23)

Abdelhalim Awad (18/11/23)

Sari Mansour (18/11/23)

Hassouneh Sleem (18/11/23)

Mostafa El Sawaf (18/11/23)

Amr Salah Abu Hayah (18/11/23)

Mossab Ashour (18/11/23)

Mahmoud Matar (15/11/23)

Ahmed Fatima (13/11/23)

Yaacoub Al-Barsh (13/11/23)

Mousa Al-Barsh (12/11/23)

Ahmed Al-Qara (10/11/23)

Yahya Abu Manih (7/11/23)

Mohamed Abu Hasira (7/11/23)

Mohamed Al Jaja (5/11/23)

Haitham Harara (3/11/23)

Mohamad Al-Bayyari (2/11/23)

Mohammed Abu Hatab (2/11/23)

Majd Fadl Arandas (1/11/23)

Iyad Matar (1/11/23)

Imad Al-Wahidi (31/10/23)

Majed Kashko (31/10/23)

Nazmi Al-Nadim (30/10/23)

Yasser Abu Namous (27/10/23)

Duaa Sharaf (26/10/23)

Zaher Alafghani (25/10/23)

Jamal Al-Faq’awi (25/10/23)

Saed Al-Halabi (25/10/23)

Ahmed Abu Mahadi (25/10/23)

Salma Mkhaimer (25/10/23)

Hudhayfah Al-Najjar

Mohamed Al Hassani

Mohamed El-Shorbajei

A’ed Ismail Al-Najjar (24/10/23)

Iman Al-Aqili (24/10/23)

Mohammed Imad Labad (23/10/23)

Roshdi Al-Sarraj (22/10/23)

Mahmoud Abu Zarifa (22/10/23)

Hany Al-Madhoun (21/10/23)

Mohammed Ali (20/10/23)

Khalil Abu Aathra (19/10/23)

Sameeh Al-Nady (18/10/23)

Mohammad Balousha (17/10/23)

Issam Behar (17/10/23)

Abdulhadi Habib (16/10/23)

Yousef Maher Dawas (14/10/23)

Salam Mema (13/10/23)

Ali Nisman (13/10/23)

Husam Mubarak (13/10/23)

Issam Abdallah (13/10/23)*

Abdul Rahman Shihab (12/10/23)

Anas Abu Shamala (12/10/23)

Ahmed Shehab (12/10/23)

Mustafa Al-Naqeeb (11/10/23)

Rajab Al-Naqeeb (11/10/23)

Mohamed Fayez Abu Matar (11/10/23)

Saeed Al-Taweel (10/10/23)

Mohammed Sobh Abu Rizq (10/10/23)

Hisham Alnawajeha (10/10/23)

As’ad Shamlakh (8/10/23)

Mohammad Jarghoun (7/10/23)

Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi (7/10/23)

Mohammad Al-Salhi (7/10/23)

*lebanese journalist | could not find date of martyrdom

spent the whole day confirming all of these names and looking through multiple resources. the ones with dates are journalists who’s date of martyrdom and/or exact cause of death is stated by sources besides the government media office official list.

this may or may not be a fantasy writing exercise for me. please reblog