Gravity Falls

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Fandom
Name: Gravity Falls
Abbreviation(s): GF
Creator: Alex Hirsch
Date(s): June 15, 2012 – February 15, 2016
Medium: television, cartoon
Country of Origin: USA
External Links: Official Site
Wikipedia
Gravity Falls Wiki
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Gravity Falls was an animated adventure/comedy/mystery/fantasy series on the Disney Channel (also, it was aired on its close sibling, Disney XD, alongside dedicated programming blocks on affiliated international TV networks/stations).

Canon

The series revolves around 12-year-old twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, who are sent to spend the summer with their Great Uncle ("Grunkle") Stan, who runs a tourist trap called the "Mystery Shack" in the remote town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. After Dipper finds a mysterious journal in the woods, the two begin investigating the paranormal secrets surrounding the town.

Characters

Main

Supporting

Antagonist

Fandom

Since its creation, Gravity Falls has had an extremely devoted fandom. Because the show is full of secret messages, codes and clues, the fandom originally grew based on decoding and theorizing the future of the show. Since the show's ending, the fandom primarily focuses on fanart, fanfiction etc.

TPTB engagement with fandom

The staff of Gravity Falls was very communicative with the fandom, particularly show creator Alex Hirsch. Hirsch proved to be very familiar with modern internet culture and fandom, and engaged with fans about the show itself and fanon activity.

Some events:

  • Alex Hirsch AMA on Reddit in August 2013.
  • Bill Cipher AMA (run by Alex Hirsch in-character as Bill Cipher) on Reddit in April 2015.
  • Cipher Hunt -- a scavenger hunt created by Alex Hirsch that ran in July-August 2016; considered a coda to the
  • Not S&P Approved (original tweet) -- for the 10th anniversary of the show (June 2022), Hirsch released a video featuring some of his tangles with Disney Standards & Practices over lines in the show. This became a meme that spread beyond the Gravity Falls Fandom.

Tropes and Fanon

  • Anthropomorphized Bill Cipher[1]

Most fans have a tendency to draw humanized!Bill Cipher to be young and usually attractive, despite the later confirmed appearance of a human Bill Cipher (drawn by Alex Hirsch himself) to be an old and grotesque looking man.

  • Trolling Creator[2]

Many fans like to extrapolate on the fridge horror the show hints at.

  • Possession by Bill Cipher

Many fans enjoyed seeing Dipper be possesed by Bill, and a large amount of fanwork has been created for it. Bill!Dipper was given the nickname 'Bipper' by Mabel in Sock Opera, and fans adopted the name as a way to refer to possessed Dipper. Fans also liked the idea of Bill possessing other characters (such as Mabel, Grunkle Stan, and Ford) and made content off of the idea.

  • A common headcannon/theory is that Dipper is transgender, based on the idea that he and Mabel are identical twins, and also several scenes in the show that some fans interpreted as evidence to Dipper being trans. This theory was unfortunately disproven by the confirmation that he and Mabel were not, in fact, identical twins, but fraternal instead. However, fans still enjoy this idea as a headcanon, and sometimes in AUs as well.

Fan Theories

Crossovers & AUs

  • Mystery Kids: Crossover with Norman from ParaNorman, Coraline from Coraline, and sometimes characters from other series such as Psychonauts, Invader Zim, and Danny Phantom.
  • Reverse Falls: AU where Pacifica Northwest and Lil’ Gideon are good guys, and Mabel and Dipper are evil twins who enslaved Bill Cipher, who is a good dream demon.
  • Monster Falls: AU where all the citizens of Gravity Falls are monsters. Dipper usually is a cervitaur (a deer centaur), while Mabel is usually a mermaid, but sometimes is portrayed as a unicorn centaur. Grunkle Stan is a gargoyle, Ford is a Sphinx, Wendy is a werewolf, and Soos is usually a wax or slime person. Pacifica is mostly portrayed as a gorgon or naga, and sometimes has Medusa like hair. Robbie, when included, is a zombie. Bill Cipher is usually a human in this au, and a common trope fans also like to add is that Bill would be a hunter.
  • Relativity Falls: AU where Grunkle Stan & Stanford and Dipper & Mabel's ages are switched; the Stan twins are staying with Grauntie Mabel for the summer. Other older characters become younger (and vice versa) in this AU as well.
  • Reunion Falls:[[1]] AU where Dipper and Mabel were separated at birth, and meet for the first time during their summer at Gravity Falls.
  • Transcendence AU: A shared universe where Dipper becomes Alcor, a dream demon. Mabel is his human counterpart, Mizar, and is constantly reincarnated into new forms. "The Transcendence" refers to the in-universe event where magic became commonplace. Dipper is also known as "Alcor the dreambender" and Mabel as "Mizar the gleeful" in some fanfiction and art for this au. Alcor also has a semi official summoning circle[[2]].
  • Timestuck: AU where Mabel time-travels to shortly before the accident and travels with Stan, usually causing a reunion of the brothers to go earlier or differently than canon.

Shipping

Popular ships include:

Popular crossover ships include:

Fan Fiction

The fan fiction output is largely Billdip-centric, often with Mabificia written as a side pairing. There is a decent body of gen, followed by Stancest and Fiddauthor.

  • Dipper Goes To Taco Bell by MASTAofTehcitrusFruits, one of the most famous shockfics ever written
  • An Outsider's Look at the Pines Twins by iguessso12 - "The Pines twins have been steeped in mayhem, mysteries, and magic every summer since they were 12 years old. Coming back home to Piedmont, going to high school, acting normal? All those things make them stick out like a sore thumb. When you ask outsiders about the Pines twins, you get a mix of strange stories and casual observations."
fan design of an Aged Up Dipper by life-writer which gained over 60k notes

Fan Art

Fan Games

Zines

General Communities

Decoding Communities

Resources

References

  1. ^ human-bill-cipher, Archived version on tumblr (Accessed 4 March 2015)
  2. ^ the leak was a fake, Archived version
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