Dark Qiviut

(Credit to a conversation with @Captain Clark on Discord for this.)

Quote

Rainbow Dash: [gasps] Oh no! There's something wrong with the baby!

[crowd gasps]

Rainbow Dash: She's not cheering for everypony's favorite hero, Rainbow Dash!

…

…

Really, Dash? You played up the thought that the baby might've been injured in the bumpy tumble down the hill, only to serve your own ego? Her mom almost lost her, and you probably scared the shit outta her for that insensitive joke.

Quote

Scootaloo: There just aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe Rainbow Dash's awesomeness.

Twilight Sparkle: I can think of a few new words.

Applejack: And I bet 'modest' is not one of them.

Twi and AJ have a good point here. The dialogue and criticism are passive-aggressive *cough*talking behind her back*cough*, but not without merit.

Not to mention, the dialogue in this small scene is really poor.

With Boast Busters finished, here's my bottom-13 now:

1. One Bad Apple
2. Newbie Dash
3. Fame and Misfortune
4. Bridle Gossip
5. Dragon Quest
6. The Crystal Empire
7. Rainbow Falls
8. 28 Pranks Later
9. Princess Spike
10. Owl’s Well That Ends Well
11. P.P.O.V.
12. Boast Busters
13. The Mysterious Mare Do Well

BB was at #15, and Show Stoppers has been pushed off to #14.

Now, I'm in the mood to do more comparisons of good and bad episodes. I'm gonna do another bad-vs-bad comparison.

For this one, which is worse: Mare Do Well or 28 Pranks Later? The latter's so awful, I stopped watching it midway and never went back to it.

Finished with Boast Busters. Everyone has already covered it, but…oh, my GOD, this episode sucks!

1. Lethargic, thin story that makes no sense at all.
2. Unlikeable and hypocritical mane cast. AJ, Dash, and Rarity have their worst appearances of the season at this point. To this day, bottom-five (if not three) performances for each of them. The good guys behaving worse than the antagonist (and still acting like they were in the right, with the story backing them up) breaks the story's theme of "boasting vs. confidence."
3. Stereotypical dumbshit boys in Snips and Snails. They affect the plot, but are an automatic hindrance to the plot. Cutting them completely out of the story would make this story much better, though it'd still suck.
4. Trixie written as the antagonist, but was in the right to call them out for interrupting her show and trying to one-up her. Trixie's magic is unimpressive, but ponies are still enjoying her show. And now she's homeless and without her job.
5. One of Spike's worst appearances in the series, and he has a lot of them. Nagging her made me really cringe.
6. spike hypes Twi as an excellent magician, but only performed 25 tricks leading up to Act 1. If you're gonna tell us how impressive she is, show it early.
7. The moral's execution of being able to be confident in your abilities is broken, because of how the story treats Trixie and hammers in the "boasting" angle.
8. The jokes are terrible. Each of them are one-dimensional with no long-lasting value.
9. The stage show scene is one of the worst in the entire series. It lasts way too long and breaks the story before it ends.
10. The dialogue is forced, expository, and extremely repetitive. Some of the worst of the show.

For a while, I disliked this one. After rewatching it with fresher eyes, this episode's much more worse than I once thought. Right now, I hate this episode.

Now, as for whether the writing here is worse than Owl's Well…well, that answer isn't as clear-cut as I once believed. I still hold this one to be worse written, but if you think OW's is worse, I can't blame you.

Quote

Rainbow Dash: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Magic's got nothing to do with it. Trixie's just a loudmouth.

Rarity: Most unpleasant.

Applejack: All hat and no cattle.

>bashes Trixie for boasting, yet starts boasting in front of her

>their words and actions make TS afraid of performing tricks

>once again

>Dash boastfully creates rain and a rainbow over her head

Quote

Rainbow Dash: They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothin'!

*groan* Oy! The dialogue's a mess, but this awful one-liner takes the cake.

>Trixie twirls her away with rainbow, then zaps her behind with a mini-thundercloud

Trixie, thank you!

Five minutes into Boast Boogers. *groan* Can this shitty scene end quicker?

Spike…SHUT UP!

And Dash, AJ, and Rarity accuse and criticize Trixie (who was doing a performance before they blabbered) of being boastful…when they're boasting just as badly themselves. They're a buncha hypocrites.

*groan* Snips & Snails. Two obnoxious "stupid boy" stereotypes.

As for Trixie, I know she's supposed to be an illusionist, but when basically 1/3 of the pony population is a unicorn and her illusions are weak, then the Ponyville audience is so complicit, Trixie's unimpressive, or both.

Quote

Rarity: Just because one has the ability to perform lots of magic does not make one better than the rest of us.

Nice job laying thick the idea that Twilight showing off her magic is undesirable.

Now I'm rewatching Boast Busters! There's one bewildering point early. Twilight performed 25 types of tricks as practice, but it doesn't clearly indicate whether she practiced all these types in one day or a course of several days. Kinda implies the former, but you can deduce the latter.

And Spike exposits how special Twilight is at multiple forms of magic, something many unicorns can't do. From a self-contained perspective, showing off one type of magic and showing only scribbled lines on large paper hurts that point, not helps.

*turns on Owl's Well*

Damn, episode, you're really laying Spike's status on really thickly (and forced) here.

FIM, leave the hammering to carpenters.

Oh, no!

Gravity Falls tells the story it wants to tell, and it finished off with an epic finale. I laughed. I cheered. And, yes, I started to shed a tear or two at one point. Hilarious and emotional. A story of two twins coming to town, staying with Stan, and solving the town's greatest mysteries.

I won't post much tonight, and I won't post spoilers until later (and probably post a blog about my thoughts on GF as a whole). But Weirdmageddon is an amazing series finale, and Gravity Falls as a whole deserves all the accolades it gets.

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+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A
16. Roadside Attraction: D
17. Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future: A+
18. Weirdmageddon: A+
    1. Part 1 — The Weirdpocalypse: A
    2. Part 2 — Escape From Reality: A+
    3. Part 3 — Take Back the Falls: A+

Gravity Falls tells the story it wants to tell, and it finished off with an epic finale. I laughed. I cheered. And, yes, I started to shed a tear or two at one point. Hilarious and emotional. A story of two twins coming to town, staying with Stan, and solving the town's greatest mysteries.

I won't post much tonight, and I won't post spoilers until later (and probably post a blog about my thoughts on GF as a whole). But Weirdmageddon is an amazing series finale, and Gravity Falls as a whole deserves all the accolades it gets.

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+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A
16. Roadside Attraction: D
17. Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future: A+
18. Weirdmageddon: A+
    1. Part 1 — The Weirdpocalypse: A
    2. Part 2 — Escape From Reality: A+
    3. Part 3 — Take Back the Falls: A+

Roadside Attraction done. The episode's moral is to not treat a girl's feelings towards you as a means to an end. On its own, it's fine. Unfortunately, its execution is the episode's fatal flaw. How? To go over the reasons one by one.

1. The episode brings up his crush on Wendy way too late in the season (and the series). After Wendy softly rejected his crush, he wasn't only okay with it, but grew into a stronger human being more emotionally, as well. His behavior really matured since then, one of the best in Northwest Mansion Mystery. He acted like he moved on. To bring it up this late in the show is really poor timing and feels more like regression than progression.
2. Dipper wasn't written to be an asshole. Throughout the trip, he worried about how they felt if they found out he flirted with other girls on the trip in order be more self-confident in communicating with girls as a whole. Dipper's really insecure of himself and will try anything to feel more responsible, including accepting awful womanizing advice from Stan. Unlike Time Traveler's Pig, Fight Fighters, and Boyz Crazy, he doesn't need to learn a hard lesson to set himself back in line. We're seeing this episode in Dipper's perspective for the majority of the episode, so we're seeing the conflict in his POV. So, when all four girls argued and put him into the proverbial corner, you can't help but feel really bad for him.
3. All three girls he met and conversed conveniently converged at once while he was on his date with Candy. If only one girl came into the scene, then the outcome might come off a little more organically. But when all four girls converge (one of 'em calling him out for not calling her, even though she only met him yesterday *shiver*), it implicates that the writers only want to really punish him. Rather than believing he deserved the outcome, the tone becomes mean-spirited.
4. The way the episode teaches it is very hypocritical. For the first time, Dipper now feels what it's like to be written as a prize. What I wrote about the setup previously remains. But as a whole, there are four major problems here:
   1. The "prize" aspect doesn't come up at all when he converses with the other three girls. He's more worried about their feelings than his own. Therefore, this part of the episode's moral is a non-sequitur.
   2. Candy's sudden crush on Dipper is revealed to both Mab and Grenda first. Dipper has no idea about it until Candy's friends play matchmaker and then gets his space invaded by her. Grenda and Mabel's guessing game of their future nephew or niece as they watched them enter the attraction was creepy in a bad way.
   3. His conversation after all four girls left her was this:

      Quote

      Dipper *panting*: Girls! There you are.

      Mabel: Betrayer!

      Candy: Oh, you. What do you want?

      Dipper: I need your help.

      Candy: With what, some sick jealousy trap?

      That was the extent of the entire second half of their conflict, andt doesn't come up again until the resolution. Any emotional weight that the A-plot might have is lost when there's no expansion to the emotional side of the conflict, and bringing it up again at the end comes across as wanting to settle it before credits roll.

   4. Candy's manizing of Dipper was not only not called out, but also written to be in the right. Dipper was treated wholly in the wrong and had to learn the lesson all the way through, from his guilt that lasted through handing Candy a pamphlet to apologize to her to Candy using his fear of the spider creature as a half-assed excuse to "break up" with him. Candy advances on a boy who doesn't welcome them, yet this part of the conflict is treated as his fault, because he was too nervous to say "no," yet the episode contrively drops that in favor of the "be-more-comfy-around-girls" angle established from earlier. If he also treated her emotions as a means to an end, that'd be much more different.
      
      Women's feelings shouldn't be treated as a means to an end. Likewise, it's just as wrong to treat men's feelings the same, too. Toying with their emotions is wrong. When you don't apply this moral equally, you implicate that it's okay for one side to do it, but not the other. Rather than teaching a valuable moral about real feelings for the other primary gender, the moral comes off as sexist and damaging to both girls and boys alike.

That's really unfortunate, because there were some good parts of the plot. Chemistry between Stan and Dipper was really organic. The hijinks by Stan and the kids on the other Oregonian tourist traps were hilarious. The credits (Soos being accidentally left behind in the maize maze) was funny. Candy's plan to escape Darlene was crazy and clever. Dipper's unrequited crush on Wendy finally ends, and he comes out more confident.

How I wish a sorrily-executed moral and setup didn't ruin it.

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+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A
16. Roadside Attraction: D

DQ: *Citizen Kane applause*

And Mabelcorn's complete. Very well-done. Mabel had to undergo a serious internal conflict, thanks to C-Beth. Is Mabel really a good person. Even when doing a thousand good deeds in a row, is it truly enough for her to qualify as a good person? On that matter, what is a "good person," anyway? Morality's really relative, expressed by the moral. As immoral as it is for Candy, Wendy, and Grenda to hog the butterflies, and force C-Beth to sleep, who can blame them? C-Beth belittled Mabel right in front of her face, and as friends, they have every right to take it personally.

C-Beth and her unicorn kind are complete jerks. This heart scan is a complete scam, and their pretentiousness makes them really vile. Her punching C-Beth was so cathartic.

The B-Plot was also really great. For the first time, Ford and Dipper's friendship is tested. Ford's mysterious ways tested Dipper to the point of trying to know what he was like. Their fight and Dipper desperately attempting to shoot him because he feared for his safety were scary and believable. It's very understandable for him to be embarrassed for accidentally destroying Ford's mind-protection device, but yboth he and Ford were equally at fault, and the depths of their flaws help build their friendship more.

This was a great episode. Roadside Attraction, Dipper & Mabel as. the Future, and Weirdmagddon are 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+
11. Not What He Seems: A+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A

DQ: *Citizen Kane applause*

And Mabelcorn's complete. Very well-done. Mabel had to undergo a serious internal conflict, thanks to C-Beth. Is Mabel really a good person. Even when doing a thousand good deeds in a row, is it truly enough for her to qualify as a good person? On that matter, what is a "good person," anyway? Morality's really relative, expressed by the moral. As immoral as it is for Candy, Wendy, and Grenda to hog the butterflies, and force C-Beth to sleep, who can blame them? C-Beth belittled Mabel right in front of her face, and as friends, they have every right to take it personally.

C-Beth and her unicorn kind are complete jerks. This heart scan is a complete scam, and their pretentiousness makes them really vile. Her punching C-Beth was so cathartic.

The B-Plot was also really great. For the first time, Ford and Dipper's friendship is tested. Ford's mysterious ways tested Dipper to the point of trying to know what he was like. Their fight and Dipper desperately attempting to shoot him because he feared for his safety were scary and believable. It's very understandable for him to be embarrassed for accidentally destroying Ford's mind-protection device, but yboth he and Ford were equally at fault, and the depths of their flaws help build their friendship more.

This was a great episode. Roadside Attraction, Dipper & Mabel as. the Future, and Weirdmagddon are 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+
11. Not What He Seems: A+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A

DQ: *Citizen Kane applause*

And Mabelcorn's complete. Very well-done. Mabel had to undergo a serious internal conflict, thanks to C-Beth. Is Mabel really a good person. Even when doing a thousand good deeds in a row, is it truly enough for her to qualify as a good person? On that matter, what is a "good person," anyway? Morality's really relative, expressed by the moral. As immoral as it is for Candy, Wendy, and Grenda to hog the butterflies, and force C-Beth to sleep, who can blame them? C-Beth belittled Mabel right in front of her face, and as friends, they have every right to take it personally.

C-Beth and her unicorn kind are complete jerks. This heart scan is a complete scam, and their pretentiousness makes them really vile. Her punching C-Beth was so cathartic.

The B-Plot was also really great. For the first time, Ford and Dipper's friendship is tested. Ford's mysterious ways tested Dipper to the point of trying to know what he was like. Their fight and Dipper desperately attempting to shoot him because he feared for his safety were scary and believable. It's very understandable for him to be embarrassed for accidentally destroying Ford's mind-protection device, but yboth he and Ford were equally at fault, and the depths of their flaws help build their friendship more.

This was a great episode. Roadside Attraction, Dipper & Mabel as. the Future, and Weirdmagddon are 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+
11. Not What He Seems: A+
12. A Tale of Two Stans: A-
13. Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: B+
14. The Stanchurian Candidate: B-
15. The Last Mabelcorn: A

>to summon unicorn, deepest of voices must chant gate

>Grenda does it

>Wendy bets he won't do it

>does it

Wendy, fork it over!

Bill is a Ci-cho. *rimshot*

Stanchurian candidate is next! ^^

So, to run for GF mayor, you must cast a shadow, count to ten, and throw your hat into a hula hoop. Heh. I wish it was all that simple.

So, the now-deceased mayor was mayor since he was basically born, eh? Me wonder who helped keep the town in control while he was still in school…

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.

Quote

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+

Little Gift Shop of Horrors has a couple of other problems to score:

1. In Abaconings, they're much shallower than what we traditionally see in the show. Yes, Stan's making this story up just to convince the traveler to buy his merch, but Stan's portrayal of them suggests either he doesn't connect with them too well, or he's so desperate to sell that he'll reduce their portrayals to flat ones. The former makes the most sense, but it doesn't make the story any more compelling. Nonetheless, Abaconings isn't awful. Just really below average and doesn't make either of them or Waddles come out of it for the better. (And I already criticized the "pigs = stupid" implication in an earlier status.)
2. The ending is really unsettling and infuriating. Stan may be a really big asshole, but drugging and kidnapping a merchant, and nobody in GF bats an eye, including Dip and Mabel? Every attraction at the Mystery Shack is fake or an animatronic, and when they're not, there are normally big consequences. Stan may be a crook…but he's not evil. His act's really out of character here and makes him very unlikeable. Whether it's noncanon (keyword shown in one shot during "Clay Day") or not doesn't matter. And in the credits, the traveler really wanted help and out of his cage. Needless to say, the ending is awful and currently my most hated moment in the show. Whether I'll hate it or not in the future remains to be seen.

Now, the other two short stories are really good. Hands off is easily the best of the three for reasons stated earlier. All four are really good, and Stan actually learned a very valuable lesson in shoplifting, even though the witch's motivations were very different. The Hand Witch is sympathetic and human; her creepiness with the hands only adds to it. (And it only makes me hate that misogynistic caricature *cough*Giffany*cough* more.) Clay Day tackled her (genuine) fear of clay animation, but she conquers it through a creative motion. Soos becoming a real-life Gumby is a really creepy joke, but it's done really well, doesn't degrade the characters, remains confined to that one scene, and the segment doesn't takes itself so seriously.

Overall, a small improvement over Soos and the Real Girl.

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+

Hands Off is really funny and quite sweet. Yes, she's a witch, but wants to socialize and be accepted. Him shoftlifting gave her an excuse to ask him for a date. Sure, Stan deserved the hijinks, but y'can't help but feel sorry for her. Give the story (and everyone in the story) credit for making us feel for the witch and not make her a bad guy.

Abaconings sounds creepily interesting. (On a side note, bacon tastes like salty vomit.)

Finished Soos and the Real Girl last night.

This one is really conflating, and not on the good end. First, the positives:

1. Soos is in rare form. One of his best appearances of the series.
2. Dipper, Stan, Wendy, and Mabel are excellent.
3. Great humor.
4. Melody is a sweetie.
5. When Soos realized his mistake and got creeped out by .GIFfany acting obsessive, he broke up and then defended himself, his friends, and Melody against her.

But now, to the negative, and there's a real big one.

I'm nowhere close to understanding anime archetypes and stereotypes. But according to the GF Wiki, .GIFfany (I'll type "Giffany" for the rest of the status, 'cause it's easier) resembles the "yandere," an anime archetype of a girl who becomes obsessive and psychotic when she sees his boyfriend fall for another girl. I still have to research the "yandere" archetype and stereotypes attached to them. That said, her lines from the very beginning resemble the love-obsessed girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend here). When he steps one toe away from the computer, she becomes more obsessive and jilted. She exposes her evil past without remorse. How she psychotically and vaguely described "deleting" the programmers was creepy.

As a character, Giffany is very basic. Her "personality" (or lack thereof) has no dimension beyond what was there. Her villainy is straightforward, and her lines seem to follow the "obsessed girlfriend" template. When Soos declares their relationship over, she turns extremely psychopathic and becomes the "crazy ex-girlfriend" stereotype seen in a lot of Western media (and a stereotype rightfully criticized for being misogynistic). When you have a villain with motivations this straightforward from the very beginning of the story, you make her flatter than cardboard. With Headhunters, the sculptures were motivated by being stuck in the attic for so long. In Rocks the Mabel, Gideon becomes obsessed with Mabel, but doesn't want her hurt (TV Tropes uses this as a "yandere" example, BTW). In SatRG, Giffany is creepy, but lacks that creativity prior antagonists and villains have. Being a video game AI doesn't cut it. Secondly, the A-story is written to be taken seriously, so her half-dimensional manipulation and craziness hurt the story even more. So far, she's the flattest character of the series.

I don't know what could be done to improve it, but I think one way to make her sympathetic (and credit to the AV Club review for this point, as well as the criticism of Gif) is to feature her as a lonely AI. Soos is capable of living his life not being trapped. Instead of maybe being jealous of Melody and other girls capable of sharing feelings with Soos, how about be jealous of Soos or the girls because they get to be around, share their feelings, and live a life, while she can't unless Romance Academy is played. So when Soos decides to possibly break up, she doesn't want to be lonely again. Maybe a code that programmers plugged in to wipe her out and protect themselves long ago causes her to break down? Keep her a villain, but give her some complexity to not contrive the A-plot. If anyone has better ideas, please plug them in below.

I've seen quite a few stereotypes/caricatures in FIM with EQG1, Dragon Quest, Fame & Misfortune, among others. Gravity Falls falls for it, too, at times; the cover art of Romance Academy uses the "basement-dwelling, love-deprived neckbeard" stereotype as a type of joke. Stereotypes aren't clever and can extensively hurt the story. That happens here.

Swap Giffany's half-baked villainy in favor of a cleverer personality, and you got something going here. Instead, she's the fundamental flaw in the episode, and her presence cheapens the conflict. As the rest of it is real good, that's very unfortunate.

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-

Even though GF is known to be dark and plug in dark comedy often, I'm not very sure about the tonal change in The Golf War. The Lilliputtians want their war and actual war to be taken seriously, and were given an opportunity to end the war. It was so passionate that Big Henry sacrificed himself so the miners can be crowned champions of Mabel's sticker and thus end it. But when they believed Mabel favored the miners early, it all went to hell, and his sacrifice was pointless. It makes them, even as antagonists, very unlikeable for the wrong reasons. The episode was so lighthearted (minus the one scene with Pacifica being pressured by her parents) that the scene in the mine was really jarring in hindsight.

Speaking of the Pacifica car scene, insight to her family was introduced for the first time. Immediately, everything about Pacifica changes. Her family pressures her into doing their best and refuse to treat her like a child. They say little, but they're really abusive. Because of this, the humor at her expense during the Midnight Challenge (even though Mabel and Dipper know nothing about what happened) was equally funny and depressing.

But her banter with Mabel were absolutely hilarious, especially when they swung away at the Lilliputtians. "Just shut up and putt!" was a really great laugh. Her rivalry with Mabel came to their highest point, thanks to Mabel burning PC by calling her a valley girl stereotype and Mab and Dip working with the Lilliputtians to beat her. They still don't see eyes to eye, but they're not such sworn enemies now.

Pacifica's shell also begins to crack. She tries to hide her insecurities through her rich persona persona, but slowly ebbs them away when she's forced to sit together with Mb and Dip (with Grunkle Hunkle playing the radio loudly XD) and has no idea what "sharing" is.

I'm a little unsure about TGW, but it's a good one. Time to wait and see the impact of Pacifica's arc.

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/B+

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