#Dipper should also like learn to put boundaries better and not go along with what Mabel always wants

[picturejasper20]

Looking back the ending of Gravity Falls while thinking about endings of other series like Amphibia and The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, Weirdmageddon has a message that is underwhelming when it comes to Dipper and Mabel's relationship and Mabel's potrayal in the show.

This isn't about Mabel getting tricked by Bill. She is a 12-13 years old that in that context she was feeling really bad and not thinking well what she was doing. That isn't relevant to the topic at hand and honestly it isn't a problem she did that, it does makes sense in the episode it happened.

What i have an issue is how the narrative makes Dipper feel bad about considering staying studying with Stanford. This is something that Dipper was interested in and he was very fascinated by anything that was paranormal related. Stanford himself told Dipper he had a lot of potential and the kid was digging into it.

Mabel lashing out and not liking the idea of Dipper staying with Stanford is understandable in the episode Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future. She doesn't seem to have much friends back in her home and her parents are implied to not be the best. She gets scared of Dipper leaving, that's a reasonable fear for a kid to have.

However, as i mentioned before, Dipper is made feel bad about considering choosing something he wants to do. It isn't Mabel who has to learn that things change and sometimes this brings things we don't like. She doesn't exactly consider what Dipper wants for himself, she mainly cares about how ¨she is going to be alone¨ and making her brother feel selfish for choosing his own path or do something that could make him happy.

Yes, she learns that things can't stay the same forever and they are growing up, that itself is a pretty good development for her and overall a good message to teach.

Yet her being codependent on Dipper doesn't get brought up nor addressed, in fact the series seems to praise this behavior of hers. In how Dipper has to do what she wants if not he is a bad brother. Mabel's clinginess and controlling behaviour to an extent isn't called out, which that itself is a problem.

Small edit: I want to add an extra point here that Mabel does have a short scene near the end of the episode that she tells Dipper that she won't get in his way if he wants to stay with Stanford and she was ¨acting nuts¨ in the dream bubble. This is good for her but it does still feel in part that her issues weren't fully acknowledged and it doesn't help she didn't say this until after Dipper told her that he was going to stay with her and not be with Stanford, which is rather questionable in my opinion. It would have been more appropiate in the episode to have this brought up and getting adressed better than for her to wait for Dipper to do what she wanted.

In contrast in Amphibia, Marcy Wu has a similar arc about change. The series explores how she can take her escapism too far and how she can be very selfish in plenty of ways, something that is potrayed as an aspect she has to learn from and realize that it isn't healthy.

Her being too codependent on Anne and Sasha and their overall friendship is potrayed as toxic and the series explores this relationship a lot, having the girls grow over time and think about different aspects they have to work on.

In ¨True Colors¨ it is revealed that Marcy Wu learned about the Calamity Box the same day she got told by her parents that they were moving away. Very afraid of having to leave her friends behind and having to be alone in a new city, she found the Calamity Box and told Sasha and Anne about it. Worth of mentioning she didn't know if it would work but it was a desperate act of her just to not having to move away from her friends yet.

When Sasha and Anne find out about this they are, not surprisingly, very pissed and push from Marcy away for a moment, making Marcy realize her mistake and eventually apologizes for what she did.

In ¨All In¨ Marcy finally comes to terms with how she can't force Anne and Sasha to be the way she wants them to be and that her codependency on them isn't a good thing. She realizes that has to move away to her new home at some point, that things change but that doesn't mean the three of them have to stop being friends.

As you can see, there is a clear difference between how Mabel Pines and Marcy Wu’s characters and flaws are potrayed in the narrative. While Gravity Falls makes Mabel’s codependency and controlling behaviour to be something acceptable and that Dipper should conform to, Amphibia does the complete opposite and presents Marcy Wu’s actions as flaws she has and that can hurt other people, including her friends. She is the one that has to make a change and understand she has to work on herself if she wants to have new friends and keep these relationships as times moves on.

Since we are on topic, one thing that really bothered me is how Mabel created a version of Dipper that is ¨cool¨ and says yes and goes along with everything she wants to do. (Weirdmageddon Part 2)

This has… interesting implications of how Mabel believes that relationships should work, or at least with her brother twin Dipper. A lot has to do with how she and Dipper have very different personalities and she maybe wishes that he was more like her, but expecting someone else to say ¨yes¨ to everything you want is a toxic mentality to have. And the episode itself doesn’t address this enough, it doesn’t bring up to Mabel she can’t expect people to work like this and she should try thinking more about what others wants.

Lets talk about The Ghost and Molly Mcgee. In this series Molly Mcgee often has episodes where she has to learn certain lessons. One of them she learns over time is that often she has to give up control and let what others want to do instead.

A good example of this is ¨Ready, Set, Snow!¨ in which she is constanly trying to make Libby and Scratch to go and play outside in the snow with her without considering they would rather stay inside and sit near the fire for the moment. She spends most of the episode trying to find ways to make them go outside until she gets angry and goes out on her own. She has… quite of a mental breakdown in a sequence song. Scratch goes to check on her but he tells to her that she can’t do always what she wants and what it is important is for her to be spending time with her friends. Molly realizes she was wrong, goes back to the house and she apologizes for how she acted.

Molly has quite a lot of episodes like this, and all this becomes important in the series finale ¨The End¨ when she sees that Scratch has to go back to be Todd even if that means forgetting the memories he got as a ghost, her included. She tells Scratch that she is going to miss him a lot but she knows that forcing Scratch to stay wouldn’t be right. She encourages Scratch to go and ¨live his life¨ because she cares about Scratch being happy.

Similar to Marcy Wu, Molly learns that she can’t force people to do what she wants and she has to let them choose for themselves. She knows that encouraging Scratch to do what he always wanted to do as human is the right thing to do, even if it means saying goodbye to him.

I do understand the idea that Gravity Falls was doing at with something among the lines of ¨Dipper and Mabel not repeating the same mistakes that their uncles did¨ but that doesn’t mean Dipper has to give up his dreams at expense of what Mabel wants. As Dipper said in VS The Future episode: he can still visit and they can still talk to each other. They don’t have to fall apart the same way Standford and Stan did. Just like in Amphibia, if Marcy still was able to remain friends with Anne and Sasha over the years, the same can be applied to Dipper and Mabel as siblings.

If not, it could be rewritten in a way that makes Dipper reconsider that he would like to wait a few years before joining Stanford in his adventures. That he is still a kid and wants to spend a while longer figuring himself out and be with Mabel before making a decision. That way it feels more like a decision he wants to do for himself and goes along with his character arc that he doesn’t have to rush to grow up.

As for Mabel, she has a lot of growing up to do. She has to learn overtime that Dipper is his own person and he can take is own path. That if she wants to have friends or have in general healthy relationships with others, she can’t make it always about herself and people have their own needs as well. She would have to work on her codependency and clinginess she has on others, specially her own brother. This would help her with being a more mature capable individual when she grows up.

This post on itself isn’t me hating on Mabel’s character since she has moments she can be good and i feel a lot of her behaviour comes from not being taught properly and being a teenager. The problem is that the series doesn’t address this behaviour enough and, as result, it comes off as the series giving an unintentional underwhelming message of potraying Mabel’s issues as something that should be acceptable and not her having a dynamic with Dipper that comes off as toxic. It is important to understand to learn to support others and not always make things about ourselves. That sometimes relationships change and we can’t force people to be in a specific way.

#gravity falls #amphibia #The Ghost and Molly Mcgee #mabel pines #dipper pines #weirdmageddon #marcy wu #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #molly mcgee #scratch mcgee #Dipper should also like learn to put boundaries better and not go along with what Mabel always wants #He kinda has the opposite problem of Mabel #anyways i remember this rubbing off the wrong way when i watched 8 years ago and rewatching it still does

[wendip-week]

Wendip Week: School

Hey guys, sorry for not posting these here during Wendip week. Let me give you a run-down of the background: I made my Wendip Week in context of the Kamen Rider Weird series I’m writing, which takes place in the future of SuperGroverAway’s universe (with ddp456 influence….yes, I had permission from them both). As a result, the main characrers from my series are co-hosts for this week. I’ll post more of Wendip Week here, but for those of you who want to read the main story, follow me on fanfiction.net or leave a guest review. Now, then, here’s part 1 of Wendip Week 2018:

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“So, one thing I noticed when going through last year’s picks is that we really focused on one particular era….” Ken said, throwing some papers onto the floor.

“What, their married years?” Phoebe shrugged. “”Seems broad to me.”

“Come on!” Ken scoffed “This week is about the bond they share in general. And we ended that week by reminding everyone that it goes back about 26 years…when they first met.”

Phoebe sighed. “We’d better not be going through that again. But I have a better idea. See, the Christmas after, Mom visited Dad and Aunt Mabel. At the time they gave her a key as a sign she could drop by unannounced whenever she liked.”

Ken laughed. “Yeah, how thoughtful of them. Thanks to SuperGroverAway for documenting that story, by the way, go check him out. Didn’t they give her an axe too, though?”

Phoebe glared at him. “Not the point. The point is, Mom chose to use that key as a sign of carte blanche….as Piedmont Middle School soon found out….”

#########################################################################################

“Oh, come on!”

Dipper opened his eighth-grade locker to find several hateful notes from other students. He didn’t really need to read them. He already knew what they said from the last twenty times this year that similar notes got in there. The good news is that as he picked them up they actually fit one hand. It sure was a lot smaller than when the year began.

“Whop!” Mabel poked him in the forehead as she showed up at her locker right next to him.

Dipper jumped a bit - some things you never get used to - before acknowledging his sister. “Oh, hey, Mabel. Enjoyed art class?”

“Of course, silly!” Mabel gave her signature laugh as her arms hung loosely by her side. “How about you, bro-bro, I bet you really enjoyed that lab we did!”

“Yeah. Still can’t wait for high school labs, though…” Dipper held up the papers in his hand. “Mabel, have you been through my locker lately? We had a rule about this!”

“Whaaat?” Mabel made an expression of mock surprise. “I would never do that! You know I respect your boundaries.”

Dipper snorted. “Correction. You don’t respect any boundaries.”

“Well, I at least know to not try to hide stuff from -”

As Mabel opened her locker, she was cut off by more pieces of paper falling out of her own locker, clearly labeled “pipsqueak” on the front. Dipper looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, um, those are mine.”

“Really? Not unless they’re from like two years ago. Do you even try to make those excuses sound believable?” Dipper picked them up and added them to his stack. “Huh….still a lot less than when the year began…”

######################################################################

“Well, congrats, dude! Sounds like you’re making huge headway against the people who try keeping you down!” Wendy eagerly said to her friend.

Dipper leaned back in his bed, enjoying the cell phone his parent had given him - or more to the point, the voice of the girl on the other end. “Thanks, Wendy. I’m not forgetting that at all, I’m really not.”

It was the same evening after Dipper had finished his homework. On any year before this, he’d have spent his remaining time clearing through all the homework that was to be assigned for spring break. Normally he would’ve this year, too, but he had a promise to keep. After he had gotten his new phone, he and Wendy had agreed to call each other every few days. Not that either of them needed any encouraging to do that - after the past few holiday seasons, everyday life without each other was too commonplace and boring.

“So why do you still sound anxious?”

“What?” Dipper bolted upright. “Me? I’m not -”

“I know you too well, Dipper, come on….”

Dipper sighed. Honestly, at this point he wasn’t really wanting to hide anything from his best friend - it was more out of habit that he even pretended to try. “Well, the truth is, they all came from two people. Gary and Davis. Seems they decided to double their efforts to make up for no one else backing them up anymore. Faked their signatures and everything, like they had nothing better to do, which…makes a lot of sense, given who they are.”

“It’s incredible how much some people refuse to learn. But hey, dude, you got this! Just show them like you did the last few guys.”

“It’s not that simple, actually.”

“Why not?”

“Well, the parents of those kids complained, so the district board set up a new rule. If you try and fight back, you’re considered part of the problem and punished along with the instigator. They could honestly care less if you were going to bleed out had you not done anything.”

Wendy paused before responding. “That might be the dumbest thing I ever heard.”

“Yeah, they called it the Pines statute.”

Wendy groaned. “Nevermind. That was.”

Dipper continued. “Well, at least spring break is literally a day away. For now I can just keep my head hidden and relax for awhile afterwards.”

“So what, back to plan A? Dude, if you give them that, they win!”

“No, it’s not backing out. I just need some time to think of something else,” Dipper replied unconvincingly. He looked at his books at his desk and decided it was time to get back to work. “Speaking of relaxing, I’m trying to knock out my spring break homework so I can actually have a shot at it. Talk to you tomorrow?”

“Alright, man. Just promise me you’ll keep your head up, even as you…you know, keep it down.”

“No worries, Wendy. I will.” With that, Dipper hung up, sighed, and rolled of his bed to do some math.

############################################################################

Wendy stared at the phone, listening to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up on her end. She was always glad to hear of Dipper growing into his own, figuring out how to stand up for himself. Still, sometimes it was hard to believe that the same person who stopped an apocalypse from destroying everything in the universe could get pushed around that much. She knew that those same brains were pretty much why he was bullied, but that was of little comfort. And now the board had somehow decided that it was perfectly fine for Dipper to lie down and take whatever those two meatheads wanted to give him.

She eventually sighed “That dork” before deciding that she too should get back to work. As she opened her notebooks, though, she gasped at what she saw. Immediately she picked up the phone and dialed another number.

“Hey, Tambry, how’s it going?… Remember how you said you owe me for getting you and the others out of Weirdmageddon?… Well…”

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“OK.” Dipper said to himself the next day, as he was packing his backpack at his locker. “Almost done…I just need to get out of here, and blissful spring break is - ”

“HAHA! Sup, dweeb?”

Dipper closed his eyes and groaned at the familiar voices. “So close…”

Two boys taller than him - one blonde, the other black-haired - flanked him from either side, making it impossible for him to move. Dipper just had his back pressed up against the wall as his locker door swung left and right next to him. “Oh, hey Gary, hey Davis. What’ are you still doing here?”

Blonde Gary laughed. “Well, we can’t exactly leave school for a week without giving the nerdy shrimp one last reminder that we exist.”

Davis chimed in, “Especially when that same shrimp tried pulling a fast one on our friends.” His hands flexed threateningly.

Dipper’s first instinct was to cower and apologize. But that sentiment lasted a millisecond before giving way to the words Wendy had told him last night - promise me you’ll keep your head up, even as you…you know, keep it down. He was too far gone at this point, so it was time to go all in. “Some friends they are, for them to ditch your little hobby since then.”

Gary’s eyebrow twitched, but he acted tough as he retorted. “Oh, I guess their notes got lost in the mail, then.”

Dipper snorted with fake bravado. “No, I have ‘their’ notes right here,” he replied, pulling out the notes from yesterday. “But honestly, a kid could tell you just wrote them all. If you really enjoyed it that much, at least put some effort into it.”

Gray pressed him into the locker wall. “You wanna keep talking, boy, I can - ”

At this point, however, Davis looked at the open locker and noticed something. “Hey, Gary, look at this.” With that he reached out and took the lumberjack hat inside. The hat.

“Hey! Give it back!” Dipper became defensive as his vision narrowed, only registering that the two hooligans were now fingering the precious photo of Wendy that he also kept in there.

“What’s this? Dipstick’s got a bit of an imaginary girlfriend, I see!” one began.

“And likes dressing up as her, apparently….” the other turned the hat around, laughing his head off.

“That’s my friend from the summer! Oregon, remember? Making fun of my ‘hick’ uncle because he lives ‘nowhere’? Now drop the hat!” Dipper remained locked in a fierce gaze right into Gary’s eyes, but he felt a part of his confidence flag. He had fought well, but now he was losing and he knew it.

Davis laughed. “Right. Like someone THIS cool could come from THAT kind of place and be YOUR friend? I bet in real life your friend was ugly and dumb and…”

“Keep talking, buddy.”

All three boys were caught off guard as they once again became aware of their surroundings. The taller boys turned around as Dipper’s peripheral vision cleared up. All three of them had to slowly crane their necks a tad up, traveling from the boots…to the blue jeans..to the green flannel…to the red hair….to the blue-and-white pine tree trucker hat on top. For in front of them stood Wendy Corduroy, with eyes that showed anger at what she heard, but a smirk that showed she was going to enjoy what happens next.

Gary sneered, desperately putting up a brave front. “So, having your friend come down to save you? Having others fight your battles? You really are weak, runt.”

“Really?” Wendy’s eyes at this point were screaming bloody murder. “From what I hear, you two are the last of…what, a dozen people picking on my favorite guy? He took care of them without my help, and I bet he’s smarter than all of them combined. I’m just giving him a bit of a break from dealing with you. Now then…what were you saying about me and my town?” Her voice made it clear that one wrong word would get them severely punished.

Davis spoke up. “Hey, you do know that if you attack us now, the school board will get you.”

Wendy laughed. “Really, how stupid are you? You still don’t get it. I’m. not. From. here. They can’t do anything to me because I’m not one of their students. I play by Oregon state rules, where things get a bit more…physical.” She flexed her fingers, long yet strong from days of holding her hatchet. “Wanna see?”

Davis and Gary both took one look at each other and bolted for the exit. Wendy called after them. “Yeah, you better run! Try messing with either Pines again, sucka!” With that, she turned her attention to the one boy left. “Hey, man. You ok?”

Dipper slowly stepped forward, unsure at first if it was real. Doubt quickly gave way to happiness as he hugged her as high as he could. “Wendy! You’re really here! But…how did - ?”

Wendy hugged him back. “Good to see you too, buddy,” she laughed. “It’s actually pretty funny what happened last night after I hung up…”

###############################################################################

As she opened her notebooks, though, she gasped at what she saw; the planner in front of her said “school closed earlier for Spring Break. Starts Friday.” She saw her chance to do the one thing she wanted to do more than anything at the moment; set things right for Dipper in Piedmont.

Immediately she picked up the phone and dialed another number. From the other side of the phone she heard her tech-savvy friend’s voice say. “Hi, this is Tambry? Wendy, this really you?”

“Hey, Tambry, how’s it going?”

“Wow, you never call this late. Something must really be weighing you down.”

“Yeah… Remember how you said you owe me for getting you and the others out of Weirdmageddon?”

“Calling it in already? What is it?”

“Well, I know Mabel follows you on Twitter. Do NOT post anything tomorrow about Spring Break starting early.”

“Oh, come on! I pretty much have to stay off it completely to do that! What justifies this?”

Wendy fingered the truck keys as she said, “Simply put, I need the element of surprise…”

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“Oh my God, you’re the coolest person I know!” Dipper separated from the hug to look at his heroine with awe.

She cracks a grin. “What else is new? Anyway, you’re the one who gave me a key for Christmas, you should’ve seen this somewhat coming!” She looked around. “Wait, where’s Mabel? Doesn’t she usually back you up?”

“Oh, well, we have different classes at the end of the day, so it takes her longer to get back.”

Wendy grinned ad snickered. “Oh man, Dipper, I got an idea. I’m gonna hide in this classroom, she will go NUTS when she sees me!”

As she quickly took her position, Dipper grinned. “Break begins early, then…”

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“So yeah, quite the gesture eh, Ken?” Phoebe asked. After a second of silence, she turned to check on him and was surprised. “Uh, Ken?”

Ken leaned against the back of his chair, scribbling numbers onto a notepad. “Oh, sorry, just calculating the fuel costs for such a trip.”

Phoebe looked at him with befuddled amazement. “THAT was the takeaway for you? You can’t ask for broader scope and then tune out when we get it.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I loved every moment of it,” Ken reassured his co host. “I’m mostly surprised your mom didn’t unsheath her hatchet in front of those kids for messing with a Pines.”

“Alright, that’s fair,” Phoebe conceded. “Personally, I think it’s mostly because she stayed with them when in town. Can you imagine if Granny Linda had heard about THAT when the three teens came home that afternoon?”

“Oh yeah, you’re right…” Ken chuckled as he popped another bag of chips. “Absolute bedlam…”

#wendip #School #Wendy Corduroy #Dipper Pines #Gravity Falls #WenDipWeek #fanfic #submission #wendipweek #wendip week #wendy x dipper #dipperxwendy #gravity falls #dipper pines #wendy corduroy