Dark Qiviut

Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons is an episode that, for the most part, doesn't take itself so seriously. The tone for most of the episode is quite relaxed. Course, that changes when Stanley accidentally let shit hit the fan.

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Ford: Hey, at least I'm not all keyed up to watch a kid's show.

Stan: I'll have you know that Duck-tective has a big mystery element! And a lot of humor that goes over kids' heads!

Stan has a point.

Also, one word, Ford: Disney. Hopefully, you watched Darkwing Duck or Gargoyles in a dimension.

Probabilitor's voice (thanks, Weird Al! ;P ) is really funny and has delicious ham in it. XD

I'm REALLY laughing my ass off here. XD

Do you know what DD&MD reminds me of? Ogres & Oubliettes from Dungeons & Discord and the IDW comics. It has that intriguing fantasy setup with the villain to beat.

That green octopus monster just bit onto Ford.

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Ford: That's…gonna leave a mark.

Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons now.

Mabel called Dipper's favorite board game "Homework: The Game." Well, with the complicated and encyclopedia-sized rules, can't blame her. XD

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Mabel: And what happened between you and your brother?

Soos: I hope all this aligns exactly with my fanfic, Stan. If not, I will be very disappointed.

This stereotypical joke sucks badly, and to have Soos (who behaves like a child) say that is even worse. As a whole, the jokes (when given) are a little weak collectively. Soos explaining to Wendy what happened at the Shack at 3am was hilarious. XD

There were also other flaws here. The three bullies who mocked Stanford for his six fingers (a birth defect that does occur) are one-dimensional and exist to only serve the plot of their NJ town being rough and terrible. The backstory was also quite expository and sometimes didn't breathe when letting the visuals alone handle the flashback could've done better.

That said, the rest of Tale of Two Stans was very good. It was sometimes quite hard to watch, because their paths were so sad. A mistake in anger by Stanley led to him being abandoned by his family, separated from his bro Stanford, and damage to a relationship that lasted since they were high school teens and remains. The flashback answered so many questions to Stan's character, the Mystery Shack's origin, and the compiled collection of anomalies in Ford's journals. This episode is cast in gray tones: Stan's mom's habitual lying ebbed off him, and he was eventually able to succeed, yet retained his secret and mass dedication of trying to uncover the secret to reopen the dimensional warp and rescue his brother.

Stan's final lines to Ford was emotional. He's been the bastard child in the Pines family for so long that he doesn't have anyone to talk or go to. He's left alone in Oregon to pay to run it. Mabel and Dip are pretty much his only ones left and will do whatever it takes to keep them alive and safe.

Despite some hiccups, another well-done episode.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+
18. Land Before Swine: A+
19. Revenge of the Gid: A+
    1. Dreamscaperers: A
    2. Gideon Rises: A+

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1. Scary-oke: B
2. Into the Bunker: A
3. The Golf War: B+
4. Sock Opera: A
5. Soos and the Real Girl: C-
6. Little Gift Shop of Horrors: C+
7. Society of the Blind Eye: A
8. Blendin's Game: A+
9. The Love God: F
10. Northwest Mansion Mystery: A+
11. Not What He Seems: A+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-

Excuse me. A great Thanksgiving meal plus a literal mind-blowing episode exhausts you.

Everything here is going to be confined to spoilers, and even then, my mind is still processing everything.

Spoiler

This episode is as perfect a mystery episode as you can find. Everything builds up to this moment. What started innocently catapulted through very cold action. Everything about Stan's life is thrown in your face. We thought we knew him from Dreamscaperers, but NWHS throws you in a loop.

Many of GF's great mysteries led you guessing, but this mystery eclipses all others. Why? Because the conflict was personal. Everything they knew about Stan was thrown away. So many clues and facts about Stan's life made them believe he was a lifelong conman who'll lie at every turn. While we saw hints in S1 and this one, this is the first time the Pines and Soos know about it. We had a guess, but nothing more.

Every reveal outs Stan as a liar and bad guy. Stan looked like to plan Earth's destruction, and the audience can easily believe it. For the first time, you don't know whether to trust him or not. Stan had no reason to be trusted other than because he says so, and for good reason. The stealing, fake ID's, finding out he owned Journal #1, Stan Pines dying (and Grunkle possibly impersonating him), working on a universe-paradox device that risks wiping out time as we know it.

The fight scene under the shack is the best one. Everything they learned about Stan and otherwise culminated to here. While Gideon Rises was for survival and Mabel's rescue, this one was personal. Stan fought with his nephew and employee. Dipper would do whatever it takes to have that portal shut down. Soos has to protect his surrogate family.

Mabel being the center of the final outcome works perfectly. No matter where she goes, as cheery as she is, she's a very deep character who sees the good in everyone. For the very first time, her moral is tested. She continues to trust Stan, but her postures and voice breaks tell the audience it's breaking. Seeing the other two journals in Stan's lab sealed it. She was 100% right to fully believe Dipper, and her cracked voice proved it. At the last second, she had to make a choice: trust Stan or not. It's her most important decision of her entire life.

I can pop in the next episode at will online, but at the time this episode aired, you don't know what will happen to the Pines family and Gravity Falls as a whole. It's so investing, and this fanart is among the many that reflects the viewer's emotional conflict. Credit to the Nostalgia Critic with this piece of brief analysis.

It'll take a few more rewatches for me to fully understand the gravity of this episode. Right now, it's probably Gravity Falls's best.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+
18. Land Before Swine: A+
19. Revenge of the Gid: A+
    1. Dreamscaperers: A
    2. Gideon Rises: A+

--

1. Scary-oke: B
2. Into the Bunker: A
3. The Golf War: B+
4. Sock Opera: A
5. Soos and the Real Girl: C-
6. Little Gift Shop of Horrors: C+
7. Society of the Blind Eye: A
8. Blendin's Game: A+
9. The Love God: F
10. Northwest Mansion Mystery: A+
11. Not What He Seems: A+

NO! WAY!

Over halfway through Not What He Seems.

So far, so good. Really good so far, and now I'm heading to the really good stuff.

Well, time to watch Not What He Seems!

*ponder* I wonder if it has something to do with the old laptop McGucket fixed…

What does Northwest Mansion Mystery remind of? Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Good. Like LM for FIM, this is among the best episodes of the series.

Until The Golf War, Pacifica was a one-dimensional bully. But two little moments indicate otherwise: her family threatening her if she lost the miniature golf challenge and not picking her up at 2 AM in favor of a party. This episode dives deeper into the Northwest family history and her "relationship" with her parents.

The Northwest family is pure evil. After agreeing with the lumberjacks to build them and grand them a party for everyone in Gravity Falls, they turn the jacks away, and one of them decide to curse them on their 150th anniversary. The family knows it, yet they rather uphold their rich-bitch reputation and leave their past with the 'jacks to wither away.

Pacifica doesn't want to be like them. She wants to have fun and feel more like those at GF, but she doesn't because her mom and father brainwash her. The second she disagrees with her, Preston wags his bell, forcing her to shut up. The Northwest family treats her not as a daughter, but property. She's their slave to their clan, and she's ashamed of it, but she can't push herself to step up, do the right thing, and change the NW family's future.

Speaking of that bell, the Nostalgia Critic is completely on point. It is absolutely unnerving, and the more you think and see their past when Pacifica explains it to Dipper, the more disturbing it is.

The scene inside the old heirloom room is one of the best of the series. There, her gloves figuratively come off, and she reveals to Dipper even more about her family. She knew about the curse, but never her family's long, vile history. Seeing everything in that room for the first time made her realize nothing was all she seemed. The lying, cheating, and maybe even worse shamed her. Dipper calling her a part of the family chain (along with seeing their proud record) hurt her. The voice acting when she reiterated his accusation — when she got close to crying — was amazing, and the sad music accentuated the emotion.

How much her family lied to her and abused her for so long makes it so amazing when she has to confront her ghost (and, consequently, her family's evil) personally. In order for him to rest in peace, a Northwest must open the gate. But she had to battle that damn bell and her family's mind games.

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Mr. Northwest: Dingally dingally! Is this bell broken?!

Pacifica: *stomps foot* Our family name is broken! And I'm gonna fix it!

It's not a Dipper episode, but this is maybe his best characterization yet. Everything he does and says works so brilliantly, and his chemistry with Pacifica was so natural. The continuity from previous episodes, including Golf War, come into fruition here. When the 'jack (who was great, too) explained that Pacifica and her parents lied, he was furious, and who can blame him?

If there was one weak link, it's the B-plot. It works fine (and the jokes are great), but lacks oomph. That said, their argument over the hot Austrian hunk makes more sense than what happened during Boyz Crazy, and they all made up.

Nevertheless, the A-plot is absolutely flawless, and the episode as a whole is amazing.

Oh, and Not What He Seems is next.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+
18. Land Before Swine: A+
19. Revenge of the Gid: A+
    1. Dreamscaperers: A
    2. Gideon Rises: A+

--

1. Scary-oke: B
2. Into the Bunker: A
3. The Golf War: B+
4. Sock Opera: A
5. Soos and the Real Girl: C-
6. Little Gift Shop of Horrors: C+
7. Society of the Blind Eye: A
8. Blendin's Game: A+
9. The Love God: F
10. Northwest Mansion Mystery: A+

Halfway through Northwest Mansion Mystery. This is just too good so far.

And suddenly, I'm beginning to really like this lumberjack ghost.

As bad as Love God was, it's NOT an atrocity. It'd have to do much, much more to get that low. Secondly, it's just one. With Northwest Mansion Mysteries, I wipe the slate clean and move onward.

And I'm already done with Act 1. So far, so great. Lots of great humor, great animation. The chemistry between Dipper and Pacifica's hilarious. XD

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Dipper, maybe we shouldn't do this. I mean, every time we play with peoples' fates it's only made things worse.

Mabel, you played with their fate when you poured his love potion onto their fries! You made them fall in love with each other, and they never developed their relationship at all! Because of you, they're now brainwashed into thinking they're compatible as a couple. They never grew their relation. We should just accept it, because it's more lovey-dovey than previous? Hell, no!

--

And Thompson is hanging overhead, but they're only cheering him on and doing nothing to help him escape. What kind of friends ARE these people?!! Jesus Christ!

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And that ends The Love God. What the hell happened here? What caused Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and their gang to suddenly act so stupid? Like, pre-S1 levels of dumb?! I don't know what happened with Wendy, but whoever was in that group is NOT Wendy, but a replacement. I don't care if she's a teenager. She's much more caring and responsible than this. What made Mabel forget the moral she stated just two episodes ago?

Continuity had to be handwaved just to make it work. All that character growth Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy obtained was thrown away in favor of unlikeable, selfish, stupid, out-of-character versions of themselves.

The C-plot of Soos and Stan trying to attract young people was really funny, but it doesn't save TLG from being complete shit!

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+
18. Land Before Swine: A+
19. Revenge of the Gid: A+
    1. Dreamscaperers: A
    2. Gideon Rises: A+

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1. Scary-oke: B
2. Into the Bunker: A
3. The Golf War: B+
4. Sock Opera: A
5. Soos and the Real Girl: C-
6. Little Gift Shop of Horrors: C/C+
7. Society of the Blind Eye: A
8. Blendin's Game: A+
9. The Love God: F

Apologies for the angry statuses towards Love God. As you can see, I REALLY hate it.

Unless the last five minutes can REALLY save it, this is, by far, the worst Gravity Falls episode.

On top of it, Wendy, Nate, and Lee are willing to waste $100 apiece because they're so pissed at Tambry and Robbie together? I can understand the two boys, but, Wendy, you've gone through much bigger shit than this!! Why are you acting so selfish?! If you value Thomson so much, be with him!! Make him feel better!

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Thompson: What did you just do? I've let these guys pick on me for years to keep this group together. And now they've totally fallen apart.

…

Well, unless you can break up Robbie and Tambry immediately, there is no gang. I have no more friends and neither do you.

…

…

…

What. The. Fuck! IS THIS?

Thompson lets the gang pick on him to keep the group together and remain friends with them? You hate how they're picking on you. You clearly don't like it, but you let them continue going and act like it's okay? There's a term for this: Stockholm Syndrome. Sure, they may not know you hate it, but should there be *someone* out there who sees this is not and call them out for it? Hell, Dipper and Wendy witnessed two of them spray paint and slur McGucket because it was "cool" to mock the crazy. Don't they have some morals, or is that conveniently forgotten for TLG's sake?

And why the hell does this episode tolerate it? It doesn't matter if he faintly tolerates it. *It's not okay* under ANY circumstances, period!

Act 2 over.

*groan* This episode's going further and further down to Hellville.

>Mabel steals his potion

Mabel, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! Didn't you forget about your lesson from Society recently?!

And both of them eat the chili fries, even though his potion is completely piled on top and easy to see.

Anyone with some logic knows chili fries aren't pink on top! I don't know for Robbie, since he was zapped by that gun once before, but Tambry was aware of her surroundings, and we can guess she wasn't.

>cook lets Mabel pour the potion on without question

That cook's a fuckin' idiot.

And The Love God arrives.

Damn, his power to make two people fall in love instantly is creepy…  Don't know if he's a good or bad guy yet.

Started Act 2 of The Love God. I'll be really blunt. The way Thomson's treated by Wendy's gang is really uncomfortable to watch. He clearly hates being the buttmonkey, but seems to be doing it to "take one for the team" and be included.

Began watching The Love God.

*groan* Robbie, your whining over Wendy dumping you is annoying already, and we're only three seconds in.

One more thing to add for Society (and credit to a comment by @A.V. in a earlier status reply for it). The moral Mabel iterated at the end is absolutely amazing. Often, we teach ourselves that "ignorance is bliss." That lesson isn't universally applied. Everyone watching McGucket's past before that constant usage of his invention driving him into insanity was raw, harsh, and uncomfortable for everyone. Everyone's "most annoying hillbilly" had a deep, dark secret that he couldn't remember, and McGucket watched it, too. Even though what they saw disturbed them, McGucket felt more complete. Additionally, even if they hurt her, Mabel knows that the negative memories can help her improve. Had she went for it, she might've permanently damaged her relationship with so many people she loved had she went for it.

Done with Blendin's Game!

The biggest strength of Gravity Falls, aside from Dipper and Mabel's chemistry, is the chemistry between the Mystery Five. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, Stan, and Wendy are so tightly knit as a team that they can consider each other family. Their communication is so natural together that their relationships with each other is very believable. Dipper and Mabel are really close, and it shows so well here, but where else do they get along so well with? Soos. Both Dipper and Mabel value him as an older brother and want to do anything to make him happy.

The time traveling shenanigans gives the writers a great excuse to revisit his old memories without doing the Dreamscaperers route. But because they're so close to him, seeing him up close and personal also allows them to connect to him even more. His happiness and eagerness to see his dad after so long ebbs onto them, but when a postcard reveals his dad broke his promise again, his heart is broken again, and for them to see it only a few yards away turns the conflict personal. The nuances from Act 1 (Soos excusing himself, walking away to the point of crying, and staring at his dad's final postcard with pained eyes) come full circle here. They saw their older bro's biggest wish: to see deadbeat dad again after so long.

But, it's amazing how GF ties up Soos's deep conflict with Blendin's thirst for revenge. TTTP is an amazing episode, but it left one question hanging: Why would Blendin be arrested for a crime he didn't commit? This answers that question, and those who watched his previous episode will understand why he wants to erase their existences. For them to not only show mercy on him, but also give him his job back and pretty hair, is a sign of maturity from both of them since the Trapped.

Soos's decision to not see his dad again, but instead clean up the Pines's wounds (and the infinite pizza slice ) is anticlimactic, but it's a good one. He's been so close with them all summer that he realizes that he doesn't need his deadbeat dad in his life. He has them, and that makes him feel whole.

This is an amazing episode. So far, S2's best one.

Grades:

1. Tourist Trapped: A-
2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker: C+
3. Headhunters: A
4. The Hand That Rocks the Mabel: A
5. The Inconceiving: C+
6. Dipper Vs. Manliness: A-
7. Double Dipper: B
8. Irrational Treasure: C
9. The Time Traveler's Pig: A
10. Fight Fighters: A
11. Little Dipper: B-
12. Summerween: A
13. Boss Mabel: C+
14. Bottomless Pit!: B-
15. The Deep End: B-
16. Carpet Diem: A-
17. Boyz Crazy: D+
18. Land Before Swine: A+
19. Revenge of the Gid: A+
    1. Dreamscaperers: A
    2. Gideon Rises: A+

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1. Scary-oke: B
2. Into the Bunker: A
3. The Golf War: B+
4. Sock Opera: A
5. Soos and the Real Girl: C-
6. Little Gift Shop of Horrors: C/C+
7. Society of the Blind Eye: A
8. Blendin's Game: A+