Gravity Falls / Full Series Critique & Analysis / All Episodes Ranked

Gravity Falls is one of the best cartoons ever made most people would agree with that statement as this show even though it only had 40 episodes ended up being one of the most engaging and hilarious pieces of media you could watch in the 2010s ivory watched this show countless times and recently I decided it would be fun to jump back into this series one more time and analyze it with a critical eye to see which episodes really are the best of the best and let me say looking at this show as a writer and not just as a regular viewer completely changed how I view Gravity Falls both for the better and for the worse hello my name is jaru this video will contain Major Spoilers for the entirety of Gravity Falls and since the mystery is a big part of what made this show so fun I'd highly recommend watching it yourself before watching this before I dive into the ranking we need to establish some ground rules firstly I'm only ranking the 40 official episodes none of the shorts will be included although many of them are quite good this also means that weirdmageddon part 3 and 4 will be combined together as just weirdmageddon part 3 as that is the intended viewing experience secondly I need to establish what exactly I'm ranking these episodes on as what makes a show good will vary from person to person to me what made Gravity Falls so great can be boiled down to three categories comedy plot and relationships as such I went through every episode and rated them with a score from 0 to 5 in these categories and then ranked them based off their overall score to explain what these terms mean comedy is pretty straightforward all of Gravity Falls is amusing so none of the episodes got a score lower than one but some episodes got more outright laughs than others next is plot and this is specifically referring to the core mystery plot of the show if an episode contributes to or focuses on the mystery and story surrounding the author of the journals then it'll get a higher score in this category and lastly is relationships easily the part of Gravity Falls that I found the most engaging was the relationships between the main characters and how those relationships were fleshed out and developed over the course of the show I could do a whole video just explaining how fascinating the relationship is between Dipper and Mabel but for now just know an episode that gives development or a shift in status quo to Any Given relationship will be given a higher score with these rules established we are ready to begin oh and before I forget if you enjoyed this video consider supporting me on patreon every little bit helps keep this channel running and puts food on my family's table oh and yes I know Shaffer Ellis did a similar video but I have intentionally avoided watching his version so as to not let him influence my opinion we are also just very different people so even if you've seen his ranking I'm certain my interpretation of this show will be pretty different from his with all that said here is every episode of Gravity Falls ranked from worst to best number 40. Little Gift Shop of Horrors you're probably surprised to see this at the bottom as there are definitely much more annoying episodes but Little Gift Shop of Horrors takes this spot for one simple reason this is the only episode of Gravity Falls that is completely and utterly non-canon nothing that happens here is canonical to the rest of the Gravity Falls series which means that it automatically gets a zero in both plot and relationships as you need a story to have actually happened in order to get development in either of those categories that means this episode relies purely on its comedy to carry the weight which it doesn't really manage what with its comedy score of two keep in mind all episodes have a minimum score of one in comedy which means this is absolutely a low tier episode in terms of jokes this may be due to its structure as unlike most episodes of the show a little Gift Shop of Horrors is an anthology with there being three unrelated short stories in addition to a couple host segments with Stan in between the stand segments aren't really noteworthy but I'll briefly discuss these short stories in order from least funny to most funny with the worst segment easily being Awakenings the quality of this segment is entirely riding on how funny you find the idea of Neil deGrasse Tyson voicing a pig and as you can guess I was not amused when I was younger I regarded scientists as these awesome heroic figures but even back then I still only found the segment mildly amusing and now that I have a much more realistic outlook on scientists this whole story just irritates me I don't know anything about Tyson maybe he's an awesome guy but there's something about bringing in a real life scientist to voice a Super Genius character that just rubs me the wrong way it feels very much like ego stroking which is obnoxious the fact that this mushroom is so overpowered is also obnoxious as it practically rubs in the viewer's face just how non-canon this story is as something like this existing would be extremely helpful to the heroes in the Canon world of Gravity Falls hands off is the next segment and it was only okay it's not super funny but it's not annoying either I did smile at a couple of these handgags but it didn't get any laughs the best segment was definitely the final story clay day the use of claymation is a really unique premise and is pretty much the sole reason that this episode is memorable at all this joke at the end where they refused to show the Epic claymation final battle because it would be too expensive to animate always gets a laugh out of me however one good segment isn't enough to rescue this episode from last place it really feels like a missed opportunity to waste an entire episode of the show on non-canon gags when they could have spent that time developing the setting and characters of this world but that's enough non-canon Shenanigans it's time to find out what is the worst Canon episode of Gravity Falls and trust me there was some steep competition the next three episodes in this ranking all got identical scores so I really had quite a few options when deciding which was the worst of the worst after some careful deliberations I concluded the worst regular episode of Gravity Falls is number 39 summerween again probably not the episode you were expecting and I'll be honest I wasn't expecting this either before I wrote this script and re-watched gravity falls with a critical eye I had a number of episodes in mind as my personal least favorite and summerween was not one of them however after watching this episode again I realized just how much of a mess it is and it's entirely due to how many plot threads it has going on normally Gravity Falls only has two or three plot threads per episode with the story being divided into an a plot and a b plot the a plot typically has Dipper and or Mabel confront a supernatural problem while also dealing with some sort of relationship drama while the B plot typically has Stan dealing with a more comedic and less serious conflict however summerween breaks this formula by having the a plot contain not one not two but three separate conflicts happening all at once there's the supernatural threat of the summerween trickster the relationship conflict of Dipper trying to impress Wendy and a second relationship conflict between Dipper and Mabel over them only having a few Halloweens left throw and stance B plot with these kids and there's just not enough time in the episode for them to develop all these plot threads and a satisfying way the end result is that I take issue with literally every aspect of this entire episode the summerween trickster is the best part but even he is completely squandered he's one of the more intimidating Gravity Falls antagonists when he's first introduced due in large part to his no face inspiration but the end of the story completely undermines his Threat Level while also just being really dumb like great he's made out of candy but that doesn't explain anything how did this candy come to life and gain sentience this has never explained at all if they had at least brought this character back in future episodes then maybe I could have forgiven this lame ending but they literally kill him off soos ate his heart they introduced this cool looking character who's actually scary only to completely undermine everything that made him cool and then kill him all in the same episode The manators have more lasting impact on the world of Gravity Falls than the summerween trickster that is whack and it just gets worse from here Stan's B plot is painfully unfunny and downright nonsensical with these kids being unaffected by his skin melting because they watched horror movies yet Stan who's seen actual monsters is terrified by a YouTube jump scare in a show that's normally so in touch with modern sensibilities this whole sequence has painfully high levels of hey there fellow kids there's not many moments in Gravity Falls that I would consider cringe but this is one of them that just leaves the two relationship conflicts and unfortunately neither of these are done super well the Dipper trying to impress Wendy's story had been done multiple times in the show by this point so Not only was this getting old but it also had been done better in those other stories this Wendy party plot thread is introduced at the start it's then brought back for two seconds in order to cause Dipper to lose the candy which is a painfully contrived sequence by the way and then the resolution is just Dipper admitting to Wendy he was trick-or-treating with Wendy not caring at all this plot thread is utterly pointless and changes nothing about their relationship compare that to other episodes featuring this subwot the inconveniencing was about how Dipper's crush on her began Double Dipper was about him trying to pursue Wendy Time Traveler's Pig was about Dipper losing his chance as Wendy started seeing somebody else and boys crazy was about that relationship ending all of those episodes progressed the story and dynamic of Dipper and Wendy but summerween just waffles about accomplishing nothing while taking away screen time from the other plot threads and that just leaves the Dipper and Mabel conflict which is so mishandled it's kinda insane this conflict is given the least screen time out of all the plot threads as it doesn't even start until past the Midway point of the episode it's given like two sentences worth of discussion in the middle of them being hunted by the trickster and then the topic is never brought up again the idea of this conflict is fine with Dipper wanting to pursue new things while Mabel wants to enjoy their childhood while it lasts this actually ties in to a really important aspect of their relationship to the point that it's literally this conflict that kicks off weirdmageddon but it's given so little room to breathe in this episode that they just don't do it justice now when giving criticism it's important to provide Solutions or alternatives to show that you're actually invested in giving constructive feedback as such if I were to rewrite this episode here's how I would improve it first completely ditch the Stan B plot it's not worth the screen time second combine the Dipper and Wendy conflict with the Dipper and Mabel conflict make this about how Dipper is torn between being a good friend and brother to Mabel while also wanting to look cool for his Crush instead of having the conflict be Dipper losing the candy in a super contrived sequence have them successfully get the candy for the trickster but after taking the candy the monster knocks Mabel aside hurting her elbow just like he did in the original episode before announcing that he's off to torment more children Dipper asked Mabel if she's okay she says she is but then admits that she's really upset that their favorite holiday was ruined like this Dipper looks at a watch or a clock realizes this is his last chance to get to Wendy's party on time looks back at his sad sister and then he makes a decision he says that summerween isn't ruined just yet and he declares that they're going to get back their candy and make sure this trickster doesn't hurt anyone else they then go on to pursue and defeat the trickster in some fun and entertaining way they also don't freaking kill the trickster so that way he can actually show up again in future episodes because it's ridiculous to waste such a cool character this change to the Dipper conflict story could go a long ways towards fleshing out the core relationship conflict between him and Mabel while Mabel's flaw is that she doesn't know how to let go and tries to maintain her relationships beyond the point of it being healthy Dipper's flaw is that he just like Ford before him doesn't work hard enough to maintain the relationships he has by choosing to help his sister instead of going to the party Dipper gets to have a moment of maturity where he realizes that trying to impress a crush who is already dating somebody else isn't as important as being there for his best friend you folks listening at home might be able to think of a better way to rewrite this episode but either way it needs a rewrite with a two in comedy a zero in plot and a two in relationships summerween is my least favorite full episode episode of Gravity Falls only slightly beating this episode out is number 38 Dipper versus manliness this episode was one of the contenders for being my least favorite before I started re-watching the show and I'm not alone in disliking it it contributes nothing meaningful to the overall story and while the Stan B plot almost leads to a shift in status quo by having Stan date Lazy Susan that potential relationship is canceled by Stan at the very end and is only brought up again later to confirm that it never went anywhere combined with Dipper's main story being a super cliched narrative about how you don't need to be traditionally masculine to be a real man and you've got a recipe for a bottom tier episode however while I do agree Dipper vs manliness isn't great there is one underrated aspect of this episode that surprised me upon re-watching it I'm talking about the comedy this episode has some killer jokes in it with me laughing out loud multiple times the high-speed pancake eating blubs quit reading my mind line and the Absurd song that plays during the Montage are all great gags does that make the episode good not really if you wanted my advice on how to improve it I would have the manliness storyline be given a bit more depth the most natural way to bring this about would be by having a strong female character give Dipper advice one Avenue could include having there be female manators who could show Dipper that there's more ways one can be strong than just through traditional masculinity this would also add some much needed depth to the manator culture as well absurdly masculine cow people do make for a great gag they don't lend themselves to very meaningful storytelling you might think it's absurd to have there be female members of a species called manators but my response to that is we refer to ourselves as mankind despite being half female so I think there being women amongst the manators isn't that absurd of a concept alternatively having the multi-bear be female would also work as having such a powerful Beast turn out to be a woman would be a great way to emphasize that strength and manliness need not go hand in hand this change would also allow for a subtle message about how indulging masculinity obsessed Macho men can lead to other types of people such as Macho women being oppressed hence why the manators send Dipper to kill the multibare a woman being as strong or even stronger than the ultra manly manators would absolutely be an insult to their pride as for the stand storyline there's a couple ways you could go about improving it the biggest issue with this story is how this relationship literally goes nowhere air while also revealing very little about Stan as such I'd recommend either fleshing out Lazy Susan as a character and having the relationship between them be more meaningful or use this opportunity to shine some light on stand by exploring some aspects of his past relationships that alone would make this bee plot a lot more engaging to revisit overall these rewrites wouldn't necessarily make this episode amazing but I do think it would be an improvement at least a little bit as it stands Dipper vs manliness is a decently funny filler episode that you could easily skip without missing much the same could be said for the next episode on our list number 37 irrational treasure with a three in comedy a zero and plot and a one in relationships this is another decent but ultimately skippable episode it contributes nothing to the overall plot of the show with them even giving Dipper this awesome key that can unlock anything in America yet he never uses it again rendering this plot Point meaningless relationships aren't really the focus of this episode either so outside having some charming mystery solving from the twins there's not much of note in terms of relationship exploration as such the only real Saving Grace of this episode is the comedy and to its credit it is quite funny the first appearance of the America guy is always a riot and the gags of Dipper breaking into the museum and trembly wanting to rebuild their prison box are also great Honestly though the only reason I rate this episode higher than Dipper vs manliness is because it prominently features Pacifica Northwest who is my favorite character in Gravity Falls this episode establishes important aspects of the Northwest history but more importantly it lays the groundwork for better understanding what drives and motivates it's Pacifica as a person which is a topic that is a lot more interesting and nuanced than it seems at first glance as for how I'd suggest improving this episode the most obvious fix would be to have Quentin Tremblay and the president's key actually come back and be important in later episodes I feel like trembly if used well could have acted as a fun and interesting role model for Mabel if given just a tiny bit more depth Mabel generally lacks any sort of mentor figure in the show so giving her someone she can identify with would be a nice addition and would better flesh out her character I think that's really all it would take to boost the plot and relationship scores up a fair bit as the rest of the episode is fine the only flaw is that it has so little impact on the rest of the show now that a rational treasure has been covered there's only one more episode that I would sincerely consider subpar by the standards of Gravity Falls and that episode is number 36 bottomless pit this is the only other Anthology episode in the show and honestly I don't personally like it all that much more than I do Little Gift Shop of Horrors however it ranks this much higher simply because unlike its season two counterpart bottomless pit is at least partially canonical I say partially because while the stuff with the Pines family falling into the pit is Canon the stories they tell in the pit are much less clear regarding their canonicity Mabel story truthach is likely Canon as we see her throw the magic teeth into the pit but Stan's story about the football ball is blatantly a lie and Susan Dipper's stories are left ambiguous Seuss's pinball story may have happened but we never see or hear about this pinball machine ever again so it's hard to say and the ending of Dipper's voiceover story seems to imply it's also non-canon as they give Stan a potion that's supposed to permanently change his voice but back in the pit Stan still sounds like his normal self maybe McGucket was just wrong about the potion's permanence but again we don't know needless to say this makes ranking this episode rather difficult in the end I gave it a two in comedy a one in plot and a 1.5 in relationships being more canonical than Little Gift Shop of Horrors did not make this episode any more funny as I only actually laughed at the voiceover story with Dipper's manly always getting a chuckle out of me in terms of plot this episode gets a singular point and it only even gets that because the bottomless pit itself ends up being a somewhat important plot point in the first Bill Cipher story and lastly this episode gets a 1.5 in relationships thanks to the development of the dynamic between soos and the twins The Arc of soos basically becoming a protective older brother to Dipper and Mabel is absolutely his primary character Evolution over the course of the show so having the first inkling of that in this pinball story would normally get it a full point in this category however if this story is non-canon then it doesn't deserve any points as such since its canonicity is unclear I settled for giving it half a point side note all episodes get a single point in this category since all episodes show us the characters interacting in new scenarios now you might think me putting both Anthology episodes in the bottom five of this ranking is because I don't like anthologies but that's absolutely not the case I just think the writers of Gravity Falls didn't realize how to use this format to its full potential these mini stories that we get feel like scrapped story ideas that were too weak to get their own episodes but that just makes this anthology do you feel like a pile of mediocrity instead of something unique and memorable if I could offer an alternative why not have this Anthology move away from the Pines family and instead use it to tell brief stories about some of Gravity Falls minor characters this could be a great opportunity to explore some of the shows underdeveloped personalities especially the women outside of Pacifica and Mabel nearly every female character in the show is one-dimensional and underdeveloped which is easily Gravity Falls biggest flaw having these characters get their own short stories where they aren't just romantic interests would go a long way towards mending this issue some female characters that could benefit from more development include Wendy Grenda candy Wendy Lazy Susan Chandra Jimenez Wendy Gideon's mother Melody tambry and peck if you wanted to get really wacky you could even give a bit more more development to Wendy I know crazy concept it's just kinda insane that we never have a single scene where Wendy and her family have a conversation but I digress also as a kind of random addition I would love for the transitions between these short stories to be heralded by Gompers he's one of the most underutilized characters and while a random goat obviously doesn't need character development giving him a similar role to Stan in Little Gift Shop of Horrors in which we follow Gompers perspective as a way of reaching the next short story would be the perfect use of a character like him overall these changes would still leave this episode as a simple Anthology but instead of being dubiously can in Many Adventures it'll instead explore Gravity Falls in a unique and memorable way and it doesn't have to be exclusively female characters those just happen to be the ones that I think could use a bit bit more Exploration with all that said we've reached the end of the subpar episodes and we're now reaching the stories that got an overall score of five or higher in other words we've reached mid-tier as for which episode is the most mediocre of the mid that dubious honor goes to number 35. Roadside Attraction uh yes one of the most hated episodes in all of Gravity Falls you knew this episode would be lower than most although you might be surprised it even ranked this High the reason it's not lower is because the main issues that bothered the rest of the community didn't bother me as much namely with a plot score of zero people were frustrated to have this super irrelevant road trip episode right before the final Arc of the show as it just felt out of place then there's the fact that this story revisits The Wendy Dipper romance subplot even though everyone had grown sick and tired of it by this point however while I do understand and agree with these criticisms these flaws don't irritate me quite as intensely due to me just kind of being used to them by now is it tedious to revisit the same old Wendy Dipper relation story yes is it indicative of Gravity Falls inability to write compelling female characters that candies only focus episode is about her crushing on Dipper also yes but this has been a problem from day one it's not a new issue and it doesn't really depict Dipper in any worse of a light than he'd been depicted before him acting on Stan's advice is what gets him in trouble and Stan is well established to be morally reprehensible so this doesn't really change their characterization at all this story being between two plot heavy episodes also heard it but that's not as much an issue on rewatch as you already know what's in store at the end of the day it's a generic monster of the week story with some decent gags a decent stand Dipper relationship exploration and a throwaway romance plot that's only so disliked because it's the ninth installment in a subplot that only exists to turn the female characters into trophies to be won it's flawed but no more than the rest of the show in my opinion as for how I'd recommend fixing it that's hard as the problems with this episode have less to do with the contents of the story and more to do with the long-term systematic issues with the writing of the female characters if Wendy was an actual three-dimensional character then people wouldn't be as irritated about revisiting this subplot if candy wasn't a OneNote gag character and her crush on Dipper existed outside of just this episode then their romance would actually be somewhat interesting rather than feeling like the gimmick that it actually is however without solving these long-term writing problems it's hard to salvage this kind of plot the only easy change that I can recommend is having this episode occur much earlier in the show having it immediate after Into the Bunker would be fine as that was after Dipper's hopes of dating Wendy were put to rest although you could also easily fit this episode into the time period when Wendy was still dating Robbie as that was also a period in which Dipper was convinced he'd missed his shot at dating Wendy beyond that I don't have much to say on this episode as its flaws have very little to do with its actual storyline removed from its long-term issues Roadside Attraction is nothing more than a simple funny romance-oriented filler episode that is neither great nor terrible the exact same description could also be used to describe number 34 the inconveniencing that's right ranking just above the final installment in the Wendy Dipper subplot is the episode that started it all I actually think Roadside Attraction is a little bit funnier but this episode ranks higher for one simple reason it introduces Robbie Robbie is one of the most underrated and over hated characters in Gravity Falls which is a shame because he's also one of the most well-developed members of the secondary cast he's given a backstory Nuance a full-blown character Arc and we actually get to see a conversation with his family where they discuss their child you know who doesn't get any of that Wendy that's right despite supposedly being one of the main characters of the show Wendy is given less backstory and less development than her stereotypical jerky ex-boyfriend I sincerely wish I was joking point is Robbie is a good character and this is the episode that introduces and establishes the Rivalry between him and Dipper which is one of the better things to come out of the Dipper Wendy subplot beyond that there's not a whole lot to say about this episode the Stan beep is your typical comedy Affair and while quite funny it doesn't add anything of note to Stan's characterization as for the a plot at the store once again it mostly just exists to have some funny gags and while some of these gags are hilarious it is unfortunate that a story focused on relationships has so little impact on the characters moving forward like these kids just got confirmation that ghosts exist and their lives were put in horrific danger the fact that this has no effect on them as people is a missed opportunity and the group as a whole really should have had a more respectful and appreciative attitude towards Dipper in future appearances for saving their lives I understand that the Society of the Blind Eye exists as a go-to excuse for why these Fantastical Adventures have so little impact on the characters but just because it makes sense in Canon doesn't mean it makes for engaging storytelling as for what I'd recommend to improve this story that's pretty easy for the B plot have Stan's investment in this show actually reveal or reflect aspects of his deeper character this soap opera is about this woman having a conflict with her mother which is a relationship of stance that is woefully underdeveloped we know full well how his relationship with his dad and twin brother ended up but his mother's side of things was never really explored this could be a chance to develop that we know stand ended up having a decent relationship with his younger brother shermy or at least with his descendants so did that extend to his mother as well it would be nice to find out as for the a plot all I'd really change here is having there be a little bit more plot squeezed in having this flashback revealed nothing of importance is a missed opportunity to show us more of Gravity Falls fascinating history aside from that if you could have this story result in a greater impact on Wendy and her friends then that would be enough to make this episode pretty much perfect at least in my eyes for the beginning of the most hotly controversial subplot in the entire show the inconveniencing really isn't a bad episode it just didn't quite live up to its full potential which is true for a lot of the episodes around this part of the ranking including number 33. Headhunters Headhunters is actually one of the funniest episodes in the entire show with all of these jokes being absolutely Stellar but what holds it back is everything else with a zero in plot and a one in relationships this episode contributes nothing of substance to the story or dynamics of the characters it's a simple murder mystery plot that explores the town a bit but doesn't do much else this is another one of those episodes that I don't have much to remark upon as it does one thing really well and just doesn't bother trying to do anything else as such my only suggestion would be to squeeze in a little lower and a little bit more relationship building having Stan constantly reacting to a wax copy of himself provides so many opportunities to hint at Ford's existence but they really don't spin it that way I understand you have to be subtle here but Stan already has a full-blown funeral for this thing so having this be a little hint at the grief he's experienced over losing his brother would be nice you could also sneak some lore into this flashback sequence as these wax figures having no origin story definitely leaves room for some World building beyond that I don't have much to add Headhunters is a funny episode that doesn't try to be anything more but as a big fan of the plot and relationship elements of Gravity Falls this episode doesn't quite hold up when compared to the rest number 32. dungeons Dungeons and more dungeons oh boy talk about an episode that aged poorly this is about to get personal so let's get the standard review stuff out of the way here's the scores I gave the episode and here are the jokes that made me laugh The Mention Of The Rift was the only meaningful plot point and this story generally feels like a waste of Ford as a character the development of the relationship between Dipper and Ford is nice but it's quickly replaced with silly wizard Shenanigans so this Dynamic doesn't get much chance to shine also the humor is rather simplistic and doesn't tap into the Wellspring of Comedy that the Dungeons and Dragons Community has to offer as such if I were to recommend improvements for this episode I'd suggest having someone in the writer's room who actually knows DND have the story better develop the relationship between Ford and the rest of the family and also are just don't squander a rare Ford focused episode on such a disposable antagonist as a whole I'd consider this episode okay but not quite living up to its potential with all that professional review stuff out of the way let's get to my actual thoughts so full disclosure when I first watched this episode I only had a small amount of background with ttrpgs like Dungeons and Dragons so these jokes didn't raise any red flags for me at the time but now that I've actually been running ttrpgs for years and have found myself quite invested in shows like critical role and others coming back to this episode is rather frustrating once you've actually been in the RPG Community you realize that all of these jokes are surface level nonsense that don't reference or tie into anything even remotely relevant to the actual culture of RPGs there are entire YouTube channels devoted to using DND culture as a source of comedy and this episode really doesn't hold a candle to any of them the writers also make DND look way more complex than it really is oversimplify what makes it fun while over emphasizing what makes it silly all while constantly mocking it and generally depicting it in a super Normy way even jokes like them Banning some Monsters make no sense in the context of DnD and sounds more like something you do in Yu-Gi-Oh now this surface level comedy on its own wouldn't be a huge problem it's fine to make jokes that appeal to everyone and not just RPG enthusiasts but where things get Troublesome is with the tone of the comedy a lot of the humor comes across as laughing at RPG players rather than with RPG players and that only becomes more evident when you get to the credit sequence in a completely serious moment Durland of all people has a speech about how RPG enjoyers are actually just flawed anti-social weirdos who use fantasy as a way to escape their sad lives instead of trying to improve themselves as people I don't even really need to explain why this is offensive and more importantly why it's supremely ignorant for a man who cares so much about LGBT representation Alex Hirsch seems remarkably comfortable taking insulting pot shots at a group of people he has no experience with oh did I forget to mention that Alex Hirsch confirmed on his Twitter that he's never touched DND and that this whole episode was him faking it yeah I noticed also it's quite strange to me that you call RPG enthusiasts weirdos who need to grow up while insisting that the adults who enjoy your Disney Channel show are completely valid I'm doing my best to read this part of my script as emotionally neutral as possible as this offensive description of me and my friends was actually deeply insulting and infuriating and I really wanted to say some much harsher things here however I understand that throwing insults and ranting isn't a very kind or effective way to get your point across as such I'm just going to give a single simple piece of advice for any writers listening out there if you're going to be making fun of an entire group of people in your comedy make sure to have someone from that community in the writing room to ensure that your jokes come across as funny or clever rather than insulting or offensive this is true for all types of people groups not just RPG players you want people to laugh with you not at you also as a general rule of thumb don't end your episode with monologues about how an entire people group are cowardly weirdos who need to grow up I really can't overemphasize how terrible of an idea this really was I need to talk about something else and I'm too angry to write a segue number 31. Land Before Swine this is easily one of the most forgettable episodes in the entire show When re-watching Gravity Falls I often skip it just to get to the far more engaging season finale that happens immediately after with a three in comedy zero in plot and three in relationship this is the most mid that gravity falls ever gets the story obviously contributes nothing to the overarching plot and while there are actually two separate relationship conflicts in this episode they suffer from not having enough time to develop similar to summerween now it's not quite that bad thanks to there being no B plot this time around but it's still a bit rough thanks to the conflicts between the characters taking so long to get going Dipper doesn't blow up at Seuss and Mabel doesn't blow up at stand until they're over halfway into the episode and at this point they're so distracted by the pterodactyl that there just isn't much time spent on developing these conflicts in an interesting way and honestly that's a shame within the context of Stan's overall Story the idea of one of his only remaining family members refusing to talk to him ever again is actually a pretty serious emotional threat similarly there is a complete drought of stories in which Seuss gets into a conflict with the other major characters conflict is the spice of Storytelling and a lack of conflict surrounding soos is honestly a big part of why he's not a character I particularly love he's just too simplistic and is never involved in any interesting drama as such both of these conflicts had the potential to be fascinating if they had been given room to breathe but sadly with the way this episode is paced out neither of these storylines end up being particularly compelling as for what I'd suggest to improve it obviously inserting some lower or plot hints would benefit this this episode but the main change I'd suggest would be to have these characters blow up at each other much earlier in the narrative that change alone would make this story significantly more engaging as it would be constant drama from start to finish and that's really all the advice I have for this one I've never had strong feelings about this episode and re-watching it with a critical eye didn't really change that the ideas are good the comedy is also good I just wish it had been slightly better executed and had more relevance to the overarching narrative number 30. boys crazy ah yes another episode featuring The Dipper Wendy subplot I'll be honest this episode gets this High almost entirely off the back of the a plot with Mabel and several times and not because of the B plot with Stan and Dipper with a three in comedy a zero and plot and a three in relationships boys crazy is above average in terms of its jokes here are some of my favorites and it gets credit for featuring not only a decent Dipper Stan relationship story but also including a legitimate status quo shift as Wendy breaks up with Robbie at the end of the episode I'm also very appreciative of the characterization of Mabel in her story her compassion leading her to save several times is nice but her refusal to let them go is brilliant remember her core flaw the one that triggers the apocalypse is that she can't let relationships go so her being unwilling to part with several times is perfect for her character here all that said this episode is not without flaws the complete void of anything relevant to the plot is a shame so while I'm appreciative of this hilarious stand flashback I do wish they'd managed to sneak in something relevant to the overarching story or at least allowed us a greater insight into Stan as a character and of course my main criticisms have to be levied at the handling of Wendy's character having her be reduced to an easily manipulated trophy for Dipper and Robbie to fight over is already bad but then there's how they handle her final scene the scene itself is actually good having Wendy get angry at both Robbie and Dipper for treating her so badly is exactly what I want and Dipper absolutely deserves to be rebuked like this having Dippers self-serving Behavior actually throw a wrench into his relationship with Wendy would be a great step for the show and would have been a phenomenal turn in this subplot if the writers had actually stuck with it you see while the Robbie getting dumped plot point is persistent Wendy being mad at Dipper is abandoned almost instantly the very next time we see Wendy and Dipper together they're right back to the status quo there's no consequences for his behavior and her rejection of him during boys crazy is never brought up again they had a sterling opportunity to give Wendy some depth and to give her relationship with Dipper some Nuance but they just didn't care enough to see it through which is a shame overall this is a decent episode with a solid a plot and a b plot that was almost good but fell flat at the finish line number 29 blendon's game plan dance game is one of those episodes that has a lot of positive elements in theory but each of those elements seems to have a massive asterisk attached to them like time travel is always a fun time and getting to see Gravity Falls 10 years in the past is awesome in theory but in practice it ends up rather nonsensical and disappointing having a Seuss backstory episode that adds some trauma to his otherwise simplistic character is great in theory but the execution of that plot comes across as rather basic and cliched rather than sincerely heartwarming getting a story that actually takes Our Heroes to the distant future to battle in a gladiator arena is also awesome in theory but we are shown so little of this future that it doesn't feel as special as it should I'm getting ahead of myself let's go through this piece by piece with the two in comedy a one imply and a three in relationships this episode is a bit on the weaker side in terms of laughs that's to be expected given how much of the plot is focused on emotional drama but it is a shortcoming nonetheless then there's plot and it only gets even a single point because blendin having a positive relationship with the Pines twins is integral to his role in the series finale there was so much more room for lore in this episode that was tragically missed out on getting to see Stan 10 years in the past only for him to look and act the same while revealing nothing new about himself is a complete waste and the fact that this story the only one to prominently feature time baby fails to explore his story and his role in the universe is supremely disappointing time baby is implied to have history with Bill Cipher himself and they even have a brief confrontation in the series finale but time baby's quick death and the complete lack of exploration of his character ultimately makes this moment feel disappointing and anti-climactic having time baby actually reveal how he knows Bill and what role time baby has in this universe would have made this final scene far more impactful and blendin's game was the best opportunity to reveal all that then there's relationships and this is where the episode is at its best and at its worst exploring Seuss's relationship with his dad and grandma followed by seeing how his relationship with the twins has evolved in addition to seeing the origin of his viewing Stan as a father figure is mostly fantastic however I do not think that the emotional payoff at the end is sufficiently earned specifically Seuss's line about how you dudes are my real family is so painfully cheesy and cliche that I roll my eyes every time I hear it I have a growing disdain for the found family Trope and that is in large part because of stories like these found family being over utilized in modern media certainly doesn't help but the main issue is that it's usually utilized in a super lazy way to get an emotional response from the audience and that's absolutely the case here soos only met these people a few weeks ago so him already saying they're like family is not believable that's the sort of thing you say about someone after being friends with them for years not after one month them throwing that line in at the end feels like them desperately trying to spark an emotional response in the viewer by utilizing a Trope that they know modern audiences are addicted to but I'm not going to fall for it it's not compelling if you use tropes as a crutch instead of properly building up the relationship I said before that Zeus becoming like an older brother to the twins is absolutely his main character Arc and that's a fine Journey Journey for him but in a story that takes place over a single summer that character Journey needs to stay subtext it cannot be addressed explicitly like it is here because it's just not believable at this stage of their relationship soos doesn't have a sufficiently deep or meaningful bond with Dipper or Mabel for him to be calling them family or if he does we're not given enough evidence of it on screen to make this payoff work oh my God and I almost forgot to talk about this scene so as is to be expected with the Dipper Wendy romance subplot this scene is terrible and doesn't even make sense the writers clearly thought they were being clever by having a younger Wendy crush on Dipper as this is supposed to bring him some sort of insight into Wendy's perspective however thanks to the age gap between them this whole scene falls apart there is a two-year gap between Dipper and Wendy in the present day I've known plenty of people in high school who dated across a gap like that by contrast Wendy in this scene is five and she's crushing on Dipper who is nearly 13. that's a gap of eight years that is not even remotely comparable this is two people who could reasonably go to the same school together while this is a toddler crushing on a teenager having the Gap be so large completely undermines the point that the writers were hoping to make here if Wendy was only two years younger than Dipper in this scene then they could have tried to make this point oh but wait no they couldn't because candy is two years younger than Dipper and the writers clearly had no issue having them go on a date so yeah in its attempt to be clever this scene ends up being completely nonsensical also it is actually upsetting that they managed to shove Wendy into the role of love interest even in a scene where she is five years old Jesus Christ I'm going to have an aneurysm if we keep talking about this so let's move on overall blendin's game is a fun time with a decently effective relationship story but It ultimately fails to live up to the original time travel episode in both concept and execution number 28. boss Mabel boss Mabel is about as much of a filler episode as you can get it has no contribution to the plot it's not super funny and it's entirely focused on a relatively childish conflict between Stan and Mabel however the reason I rank this story so highly is because it emphasizes an extremely important aspect of the show's balance namely that Mabel is the heart of Gravity Falls this is extremely important because when you have protagonists as prone to ethically dubious activities as the Pines family the audience needs to have a fallback character who you can always rely on to be a good person and Mabel is the one who fills that role on a sliding scale Stan is the most morally abominable with him being super selfish and knowingly putting the entire universe in danger on multiple occasions Ford is a little more interested in helping others but he's also super selfish and has endangered his family and compromised his morals several times Dipper is a more ethical version of Ford and this results in him being a lot more interested in using his intelligence to help others however even Dipper has limits to his morality especially when it comes to his enemies and there have been several occasions where Dipper has been at risk of Crossing that moral Event Horizon and doing something so unethical that it would have made him unlikable Forever After on those occasions where his likability was at serious risk it's always been Mabel who pulls him back from the brink she's the one who insists on saving Pacifica when Dipper was willing to let her die she's the one who is determined to save Stan from Bill even when Dipper turns on him she's the one who insists on helping Robbie even though everyone else including Dipper don't want to and of course most famously of all she's the only one willing to put her faith in Stan even when Dipper thinks he's a super villain Mabel is 100 the heart of Gravity Falls and I even counted the number of stories focused on this fact just to prove it Mabel has 18 separate stories focused on her altruism whereas Dipper only has seven that's how devoted to being a good person Mabel is the reason the fans ultimately turned on Mabel was because the writers completely forgot this aspect of her character and undermined her repeatedly in the final stretch of the show that's why this finale feels so imbalanced the writers just flat out forgot that her being a good person is integral to the show working but I'm getting ahead of myself given Mabel's role as the show's heart and Dan's role as a no-good environment it was inevitable that they would come into conflict boss Mabel is one of the most prominent instances of this conflict occurring and I quite like the lessons that the two characters learned Mabel learning that you sometimes have to be firm in addition to being kind is a fantastic lesson and Stan learning to soften up a bit is a really cute way to endear his and Mabel's relationship to the audience that's why this scene at the end of Boss Mabel Works far better for me than the Sue scene from blendon's game this has no cheesy dialogue no silly tropes just a realistic subdued expression of love from Stan to his family aside from the excellent characterization of Mabel and Stan there's not much to write home about in this episode there's nothing plot relevant and the jokes are only okay that said this one joke from the grandma might be the single funniest joke joke in the entire show like this killed me the first time I saw it honestly the only recommendation I can make for improving this episode is to add some lore or hints towards the plot Mabel spends a lot of time in Stan's office during this episode which is a place we know has a lot of secrets so having a moment where we see something interesting in there would have been nice aside from that this is a decent relationship episode that does what it sets out to do fairly well number 27. Seuss and the real girl oh boy I have a lot to say about this one some of you might be surprised to see this episode ranked so low given that giffany is definitely one of the best villains in Gravity Falls in fact in my own personal rankings she's only beat out by Bill Cipher himself and at a glance this episode does a lot of the things that I've been asking for relationships are at the center of the plot it develops Dynamics gives some great drama with a great villain and gives us some greater insight into the home and life of soos which is always appreciated heck even the B plot does everything right I don't usually love these Stan comedy B plots mostly because they rarely give us any actual insight into Stan or his past but this episode is an exception Stan makes another callback to his time in Colombian prison but also reveals how he ended up there turns out he has a history as a professional heister and given how easily he steals this animatronic Badger it seems like he was actually pretty good at it this honestly only adds even more Mystique to Stan's mysterious past and I greatly appreciate that then there's giffany and dear God is she fantastic aside from her phenomenal design and concept giffany stands apart for one simple reason motivation unlike all the one-dimensional antagonists of Gravity Falls giffany doesn't want money fame or power all she wants is love and her origin story perfectly explains how she ended up the way she is upon gaining sentience gifidi's creators who were effectively her parents tried to kill her she was then forced to kill them her only family in self-defense that is a horribly traumatic and tragic origin story that perfectly explains her personality and her motivation she's so desperate for love because she never got it from anyone else and the people who were supposed to give her love tried to destroy her so of course she turns violent whenever someone promises her love only to threaten taking it away that is such a believable trauma and goal that it actually makes giffany's character super relatable and easy to empathize with everyone wants love and lots of people have had traumatic abuse from their families which makes me want to see giffany have a happy ending all the more it also makes her getting killed at the end of the episode intensely tragic as that is a really cruel way for such an unfair life to end and yes I know they later retconned giffany's death with some material outside the show but I don't consider that relevant to this analysis as far as the show is concerned this is the end of giffany and that's what leads to my main criticism of this storyline giffany was way too cool of a villain with way too sympathetic of a motivation for her to be simply killed off like this not only does it feel super cruel and unfair but it also squanders one of the show's few compelling female characters killing off giffany was a bad decision in a similar way to how killing off the trickster was a bad decision but in giffany's case it's actually so much worse the trickster was so ruined by the end of his episode that the writers successfully undermined any desire I had to see more of him whereas with giffany she only gets more and more compelling the more you learn about her and her being so awesome only makes her death that much more frustrating with a motivation as sympathetic as wanting love there's no reason that giffany couldn't have been spared and maybe even redeemed that's really my my main feedback on how they could have improved this episode spare giffany and let her be a recurring character and if you think that's not reasonable let's take a moment to compare her to another antagonist in Gravity Falls Little Gideon both of these antagonists were introduced as likable love interests for a main character only to reveal they were bad guys by the end of their episodes however unlike giffany Gideon's obsession with Mabel was only a secondary motivation for him at his core Gideon just wanted power and while he would like to have Mabel by his side he's more than willing to sacrifice her if she gets between him and his ambition hence why he tried to kill her on multiple occasions and unlike giffany who had a backstory that completely Justified her mental illness Gideon's evil is random and unexplained we are never told why Gideon is the way he is despite him being effectively the main villain of Gravity Falls outside of Bill Cipher heck even bill has little details that hinted him being a more nuanced character than he lets on but not Gideon Gideon is evil and obsessed with power for no reason which is also why his Redemption during weirdmageddon feels completely Hollow and unbelievable the idea that he'd be willing to sacrifice his ambition in the Name of Love is completely absurd as just a few episodes prior he'd been willing to sacrifice love for just a tiny amount of power if he's willing to kill Mabel just to become mayor then him sacrificing his position as the head servant of a dark God is just comical Gideon is completely devoid of anything approaching Humanity or a competent character Arc and yet they still gave him a Redemption to be clear I'm not saying redeeming Gideon is a bad choice I actually like the idea of Gideon as a sort of lawful evil Ally to the Pines family but what I am saying is that such a Redemption would need a lot more groundwork laid ages in advance before it could ever come across as believable little Gideon is no Prince Zuko if you get my drift as such if a villain has one-dimensionally evil as Gideon could be redeemed and made into a recurring character then I see no reason that giffney couldn't do the same now while giffany is definitely the focus of most of my criticisms there are also other issues with this episode that I need to address the complete lack of contribution to the overarching plot is definitely a downside but more troubling than that is the handling of Melody the girlfriend of Zeus only getting one episode to shine and then being reduced to a single Cameo later on is majorly frustrating on its own I I wouldn't be too bothered by this but what frustrates me is the fact that Melody is just the latest instance in a long-running trend of Gravity Falls mishandling its female characters this show loves to turn its women into love interests instead of giving them depth which is just super sad and I mean it when I say this is a trend amongst the recurring characters this love interest curse has struck Wendy Lazy Susan tambry candy Melody and arguably even Grenda as her only character development in the entire show was to be given a boyfriend if any of these characters had been given something approaching depth I wouldn't mind Melody's minor role but as it stands she just brings further attention to Gravity Falls biggest flaw as for how I'd recommend improving this episode I sincerely think sparing giffany is enough to improve it substantially having her be spared by Zeus would be a far more fascinating and nuanced exploration of his character than just having him kill the big bad AI also this episode having nothing to contribute to the overarching plot could also be alleviated by sparing giffany as having a super powerful AI as an ally would absolutely be a resource the Pines family would utilize simply having her do something meaningful with regards to the mystery of the author or during the fight against Bill would be more than enough for me to give this episode some points in terms of plot Melody's character can't really be improved within this episode as she really just needs more screen time that said I would highly recommend having her choose to keep dating Seuss for one of his heroic attributes and not just arbitrarily as she does in the episode specifically I'd suggest having her feel a great deal of admiration for his patient handling of giffany seeing him show kindness and forgiveness to someone with such severe mental illness would be a far more emotional and compelling Foundation to their relationship than the one we are given here overall Susan the real girl is a solid episode with a fantastic villain but its untapped potential will always be at the front of my mind every time I re-watch it number 26. stanchurian candidate this episode is not one of my personal favorites and it's generally not as good or as interesting as Seuss and the Real Girl however this episode ranks just the tiniest bit higher thanks to the plot provided by the ending Cliffhanger with Gideon and Bill now before I get to my criticisms let's cover what's good about this story first is the comedy which is pretty solid Tad strange and stand punching Eagles are both big highlights for me and every time we get a glimpse into Gideon's prison life is also quite entertaining then there's the relationship content and as one of the few episodes to weave in all four members of the Pines family I do appreciate the web of influence the characters have on one another the story for this episode which is the first Gideon episode since season one is pretty solid and helps foreshadow the finale decently well with all that said I do have quite a few issues with this storyline first of all having the Pines twins use blatantly evil mind control on their friends and family is so absurdly unethical that Gideon of all people calls them out on it as a writer if you're self-aware enough to be making this joke then you should know better than to pursue this plotline don't get me wrong I think there's more Nuance to the ethics of Mind Control than people might expect and I'll actually be discussing that later in this video but in the context of this episode The Mind Control is stated by the heroes to be Ambiguously ethical and is described by soos as horrifying the fact that they use it on Zeus in the third act despite him having such an awful experience with it earlier Paints the twins in a truly horrible light if they were planning for Dipper and Mabel to have some major consequences for stooping to the level of Gideon that would be one thing but no no punishment ever arrives sure they're nearly killed by Gideon but that has nothing to do with their unethical Behavior he's their mortal enemy and would have threatened them regardless no this episode treats their evil actions as funny at best and inconsequential at worst and that's just baffling to me this is unfortunately not unique to this episode as several stories in late season 2 seem obsessed with undermining the heroic attributes of Dipper and Mabel and I cannot fathom why I can only assume the writers thought they were being funny or clever by subverting expectations and having their good guys act like bad guys but that's not how any of this works you root for the heroes because they're good people they can be flawed or make mistakes but if they end up just as bad as the villains then you'll have no reason to cheer for them anymore it's the the selfish and villainous characterization of the twins that laid the groundwork for the fan base turning on Mabel and I really don't like that at all and to be clear the twins do apologize to Stan in the end but they don't emphasize the Mind Control aspect at all they act like their behavior was bad because they weren't more loyal to Stan not because they hijacked the Free Will of their loved ones and they never apologized to Seuss which comically misses the point how is Dipper getting rebuked by Wendy for treating her like an object in one episode only for him to receive no condemnation for turning his friends and family into puppets in this episode this inconsistency in terms of tone and morality greatly diminishes the heroes in a way that I don't think the writers fully appreciated aside from the baffling ethical issues the storyline itself is nothing to write home about it's cool to see Stan trying to find some purpose for his life now that Ford is back but the emotional weight of that Pursuit is undermined by him failing to become mayor at the end he's just left right back at the status quo the forward inclusion is also one of the most minor and uninteresting and while I do appreciate that the mind control device comes from him as that emphasizes how Ford much like Stan is not a good person the mishandling of the morality of Mabel and Dipper nullified any enjoyment I may have gotten from this Ford characterization in short the stanchurian candidate is just a decent season two filler episode and if it weren't for that Stinger with Bill at the end I'd likely rank this story several spots lower number 25. the deep end speaking of decent Filler episodes here we have one of the best ones from season one you might be somewhat surprised to see this ranked so high as there's nothing plot relevant here and the relationship content is only okay however unlike any other episode we've ranked thus far the deep end has one massive Advantage it is hilarious like this episode has some of the best jokes in the entire show and it's one of the only episodes to get a maximum score of five in comedy some of these iconic gags include raimondo screaming for way too long raimondo flopping about like a dying fish Mabel constantly coming up with ideas involving walking even though mermando has no legs every single scene with the pool check guy and of course the best gag in the entire series is the kid in solitary oh my God this is so funny the credit sequence showing him stuck in there over the course of months brings me to tears this is Peak comedy beyond the god tier humor obviously this episode doesn't have much as the maple mirmondo relationship is no more meaningful than any of her other romances and the B plot of Dipper trying to hang out with Wendy completely devolves into a story about Dipper trying not to piss off his boss which is far funnier to be sure but it has no meaningful impact on his relationship with Wendy however even with all that I honestly wouldn't change a thing about this episode sure you could sneak in some lore or make the relationship content more meaningful and that would certainly boost it in my ranking but it doesn't need all that the deep end is a simple story that's just here to make you laugh and it does that job incredibly well I love this episode and always enjoy coming back to it number 24. Double Dipper speaking of episodes I love coming back to Double Dipper is in the same category as the deep end no plot very little relationship content but absolutely killer comedy fantastic jokes include these guys being trapped Dippers jealousy fantasy them giving Dipper snacks Seuss being distracted by this light for an absurdly long time and of course Mabel's Rock ballad all of these jokes destroyed me the first time I watched this episode and they still crack me up to this day that said I do think the deep end is a little funnier I mean it's hard to beat the kid in solitary but this episode has the first appearance of Pacifica Northwest who is the best and she pushed this episode just the tiniest bit higher as for criticisms my critiques from the previous episode also apply here Double Dipper could have benefited from some more plot relevance with this copying machine being the most obvious example of missed potential it's kind of crazy to me that they never used this machine ever again not even during weirdmageddon as for relationships considering this is a prominent entry in the Wendy Dipper subplot and it introduced Grenda candy and Pacifica Northwest you'd think I'd rate this episode higher than a 2 in this category however of the four prominent women introduced or focused on in this episode only one went on to be an actual character with depth backstory and complexities as such I felt no need to give bonus points to cardboard female Side characters number one two and three also I do have two more serious criticisms for one having Dipper murder a dozen or so of his clones all of whom are fully Sapient copies of himself who posed no no threat to him is super messed up and it's not given the gravitas it deserves like this single act raises Dipper's body count to an outrageous amount and they just sort of sweep it under the rug I understand they couldn't have the episode end with a bunch of Dipper clowns running around but that's a trap the writers put themselves into and solving it with mass murder isn't a great call secondly and this is the bigger issue we have to talk about paper jam Dipper don't get me wrong I found this character hilarious back in the day but in retrospect the handling of this character is the textbook definition of problematic they introduced a mentally disabled clone of Dipper used him exclusively for comedy killed him and then said he was better off dead I don't want to be over dramatic that's why I tried to not use words that end in IST as I don't want to come across as overly sensitive but I can't really imagine something more ableist than introducing a disabled character for the sole purpose of mocking them saying they're better off dead and then murdering them on screen okay listen in defense of the writers I'm certain they just didn't think this through in fact most of the issues with this show I believe came from a place of short-sightedness as opposed to any malicious intent like they mishandled the female characters but I don't think this show is sexist I think they just didn't realize the unfortunate patterns that they were falling into similarly I sincerely don't think this character was meant to be some dark commentary on the disabled or anything like that rather it was just an unfortunate connotation that arose as a consequence of how they wrote this episode maybe that's just copium on my part but I try to assume the best about people and their intentions regardless of the tragedy that is paper jam Dipper I do still think this episode is pretty great and the episodes are only going to get better from here for the most part anyway number 23. fight fighters with a three in comedy a zero and plot and a four in relationships fight fighters isn't as hilarious as some of our previous entries and it has no plot significance but it more than makes up for it with its relationship focused storyline I've mentioned before that the Dipper Robbie rivalry is one of the best parts of the Wendy Dipper subplot and this episode is the Pinnacle of that rivalry not only does it do a solid job of characterizing Dipper and Robbie but it also has a pretty good message Mabel's suggesting to Dipper at the start that he shouldn't resort to violence only for Dipper to conclude at the end of the episode that she was right is a great message fighting doesn't make anyone happier it just gets people hurt or worse as a pacifist I greatly appreciate this moral being pursued obviously pacifism is not a central aspect of the dose of Gravity Falls as we just saw but the lip service is still something I appreciate also I am immensely appreciative of the Nuance that is injected into Robbie here they could have had him beat up Dipper at the end as he had already suffered at the hands of Rumble mcskirmish so he had every reason to want revenge but upon seeing that Dipper wouldn't fight back he refused this is a much needed moment of humanity for Robbie as it helps make it clear that he's not a Villain Like Gideon or giffany he's just a normal teenage guy who's no more or less flawed than anyone else's age he's a punk but he has a heart aside from that the Mabel Stan B plot is only okay it's cute and funny but nothing to write home about if I were to recommend any changes to this episode obviously fitting in some lore or some more knowledge about Stan would be nice like how did he end up with his fear of heights but aside from that I think this story is mostly fine the way it is although thinking about it given Wendy has no depth and we never get to see what her relationship with her family is like I do have an alternative B plot I'd like to pitch instead of Mabel hanging out with Stan why not have Mabel go on the trip with Wendy and her family that would give us a chance to get a glimpse of Wendy's home life and show that she actually has goals and desires unrelated to her romantic subplot it's a solid Bechtel test kind of Edition that would also further build the relationship between Wendy and Mabel also having the girls battling the Wilderness while the boys battle a video game character absolutely lends itself to some creative jokes and narrative parallels regardless fight fighters is just another solid entertaining mid-tier episode nothing much more to say on it number 22. the Gulf War what's better than a Dipper Robbie rivalry story why it's a Mabel Pacifica rivalry story honestly I do think Rumble is more interesting than the little punch hands but the little punchians are a lot funnier so it kind of boiled down to which story I liked more and obviously I'm going to pick Pacifica over Robbie the Gulf War is actually one of my favorite episodes in terms of effective characterization with everyone reinforcing their core character traits wonderfully Stan has no regard for the law because he's a criminal pacifica's parents have no regard for the law because they're rich Dipper is willing to cheat and abandon Pacifica to her death because he's highly vindictive towards his enemies while Mabel feels bad about cheating and insists on saving Pacifica because Mabel is a good person and of course this episode is a Wellspring a phenomenal character building for Pacifica herself self as it fleshes out her motivations while also giving her a spark of humanity similar to Robbie in the previous episode it's hard to overstate how integral this episode is when it comes to understanding Pacifica as a person in the context of her character the Gulf War is the layup to the slam dunk that is Northwest Mansion mystery I'll discuss pacifica's character a little more when I get to that episode as for this episode I don't have much to critique I mean obviously it would rank a lot higher if there were any lore tidbits or backstory for Stan but that's a standard critique for most of these episodes at this point honestly my only real criticism is the fact that they abandoned Sergey like I understand it's a joke but considering how violent the little punchians are it's pretty messed up that dipper Mabel and Pacifica were all willing to leave him to his fate I won't harp on it too much since it is a joke and Sergey only ever appears in this episode but still I would have preferred a slightly more ethical depiction of our protagonists overall the Gulf War is a solid episode with good characterization the beginnings of a character Arc for Pacifica and a lot of fun jokes always remember big Henry number 21. Gideon Rises now this low ranking of Gideon Rises may come as a bit of a shock as it is the season one finale and it seems to have a lot of awesome stuff we get an action-packed climax a ton of solid drama and callbacks as well as a huge lore reveal at the end and don't get me wrong all that stuff is great and that's why this is the first episode on this list to get a maximum score of 5 in plot however it's in the other categories where this episode Falls completely flat both comedy and relationships come in with the minimum score of one which is really what held it back the relationship score is easier to explain as this episode just isn't focused on character drama it's a straightforward conflict between Gideon and the Pines family with a full-blown Mecha fight to round it out that's fun and all but because this conflict isn't based just out of anything in the character's personalities or relationships that means I'm just not as emotionally invested as I could be then there's the comedy and this is where things get a little more interesting this episode has plenty of jokes and it's certainly amusing but I never actually laugh and I think the reason for that is entirely because of Gideon's personality this episode is easily the most gideon-centric in the entire series I mean it's called Gideon Rises for goodness sake and I think there's something inherent to Gideon that makes him tonally different from the other villains namely most other antagonists in Gravity Falls have moments where they chill out for example giffany and Rumble have their silly anime moments the Gnomes and the little patience are silly in general and heck even Bill Cipher isn't too stressful due to his humor sure he can be threatening and angry but he's just as likely to be making jokes and having a laugh Gideon isn't like that he is always intense and he always feels like he's on the edge of blind rage if he's not currently screaming or laughing maniacally he's either manipulating someone or is quietly stewing in his own malice to be clear this is a comedy show and so they do still tell jokes through Gideon but it's not the same as when they tell jokes with other characters if Bill is involved with a gag it's because it's part of his character he genuinely sees the world as one big joke which is why he's always laughing if Bill was in a different series he'd still be making jokes as that's integral to who he is by contrast Gideon feels like he's involved with jokes because of the genre he's in and not because of anything in his character if you put Gideon in a more serious show he'd fit right in and never be involved with any sort of gags he's so vicious vindictive and hateful that he sucks the joy out of any scene he's in now that's not necessarily A Bad Thing it certainly makes him feel a lot more threatening but it does hurt the comedy of episodes focused on him that's a big part of why Bill Cipher will always be the iconic Gravity Falls villain despite getting way less screen time than Gideon he is a perfect balance of comedy and Threat Level he's just as capable of cracking a joke as he is of murdering someone on the spot he just fits the tone of Gravity Falls far better than someone like Gideon as for how I'd recommend changing this episode honestly there's nothing really wrong with it my only suggestion has less to do with Gideon Rises and more to do with Gideon himself if Gideon was a more fleshed out character with even an ounce of humanity then that would make him a lot lot more engaging as an antagonist as I mentioned before him being so one-dimensionally evil ultimately ruins his Redemption story and they really needed to see the hints of his Humanity much earlier in the show for his character Arc to work if they did manage to round out his personality a little then all of the episodes focused on Gideon would improve as a result including Gideon Rises all that said for the finale of season one I do think Gideon Rises does what it sets out to do pretty well it provides an enjoyable climax while tantalizing the viewers with what season 2 may have in store and that's enough to get it to the 21st spot on this list number 20. Northwest Mansion mystery I hyped this episode up pretty hard a few entries back so you might be surprised it barely even made it to the top 20. as much as I love this episode there are a few key elements that hold it back however before I explain those elements let's talk about what makes Northwest Mansion mystery so incredible it's time to discuss my personal favorite character the best written woman in all of Gravity Falls Pacifica Northwest it's hard for me to simplify what makes Pacifica so incredible in fact if this ranking does well enough I intend to do a full video devoted specifically to analyzing her character in Greater detail but for now I'll give you the summary Northwest Mansion mystery is the episode that thrusts Pacifica into the spotlight with her absolute being the heroine of this story but how exactly did they turn a vaguely hostile rival character into a leading lady well they did so by not only giving her depth but by exploring what exactly makes Pacifica who she is after putting Dipper into a tuxedo Pacifica says this line high standards are what make the Northwest Family great this simple innocuous line is the soul of Pacifica Northwest every aspect of her character stems from this concept Pacifica is arrogant sarcastic and Views herself as better than everybody else but she believes this attitude is her just reward for living up to such incredibly high standards she has been held to absurdly lofty expectations in in every aspect of her life and yet she has not wavered every single challenge has been conquered as she has achieved excellence and that fact is something she takes enormous pride in as she believes it is her duty to live up to the Grand lineage of the Northwest family name this is why the Gulf War was so integral to her characterization when she is dropped off by her family to compete with Mabel they don't give her any encouragement or even stick around to watch this is because Pacifica has already achieved excellence in the sport of mini golf so her defeating Mabel is not an achievement in fact it is the bare minimum expected of her Winning is Everything her father says she must win not because it will be impressive to do so but because it would bring shame on herself and her family name to to lose to someone with such low standards like Mabel that is why her father's parting words were this whatever happens just remember you're a Northwest don't lose this is quite the burden to put on a child and there's certainly the argument to be made that this is straight up abusive but Pacifica carries this burden remarkably well she considers it a great honor to carry the name of a long lineage of excellent people so living up to their legacy is a duty she takes very seriously of course it's that very faith in the Excellence of her family and in the quality of her family as people that leads to the conflict during Northwest Mansion mystery as you are likely well aware the conflict in this story reveals to Pacifica the great Injustice her ancestors rot upon the people of Gravity Falls and when her father attempts to use Dipper to avoid ghostly Justice it brings Pacifica great shame to go along with their plan she knows this isn't right and that's some something that's sincerely upsets her and things only get worse once she discovers the painting room here she uncovers that not only are her parents bad people but literally her entire family line is composed exclusively of villains her family did not achieve wealth and fame through aspiring to Excellence as she had believed instead they achieved it through lying cheating and betraying everyone around them far from people to look up to these are the scum of the earth who spit in the face of the honor and dignity Pacifica had so treasured obviously this Revelation rocks pacifica's worldview and she's left in stunned despair as she tries to come to terms with all this however thanks to the timely intervention of Dipper Pacifica is reminded of something important something that allows her to reaffirm who she is and what she believes in and it is in this moment as she faces down a tyrannical ghost even the Pines family couldn't conquer that pacifica's greatness is finally revealed this moment is one of my favorites in all of Gravity Falls because Pacifica does something here that I've never seen before she has just gone through a world shaking character Journey that switched her from villain to hero and yet unlike so many other villains before her Pacifica does not change as a person her values and worldview have remained completely intact in fact instead of these revelation is causing her to alter her priorities it actually caused her to double down on them she is still Pacifica Northwest she is still devoted to achieving Excellence the only thing that's changed is her attitude towards her ancestors if they were villains without honor then so be it she doesn't care the Northwest name will still be a name of dignity and Excellence not because of those who came before but because it is held Aloft by her through the power of her own Excellence she will make the Northwest name great and nobody not this ghost not the Pines family and not even her own parents will stand between her and excellence she will rise above them all and that is why Pacifica Northwest is awesome she has everything I could possibly want in an engaging character she has positive traits that make you like her and root for her she has negative traits that inject drama and conflict into stories but most importantly of all she has agency she may be a villain in one story and a hero in the next but no matter what she will be the leading lady in any story she's in that is why Pacifica is Leaps and Bounds better written than every other female character in Gravity Falls combined heck she's probably better written than all of the male characters too that's just how good she is needless to say I adore or Pacifica Northwest and she is definitely my favorite character in this show and Northwest Mansion mystery ranks this High almost entirely because of its integral role in telling her story however that doesn't make this episode perfect in fact there are some really major flaws in this episode that I need to draw attention to something that makes Northwest Mansion mystery so interesting to analyze is the fact that it perfectly demonstrates everything great and everything terrible about the female characters in Gravity Falls obviously pacifica's story is the part that is great but it's in the other plot that we start to see this Show's shortcomings the B plot is focused entirely on Mabel candy and Grenda Mabel as a character almost ended up as amazing as Pacifica but unfortunately she had her character Arc somewhat bungled in the end leading to her being despised by a lot of the fan base then there's candy and Grenda I've mostly avoided discussing these two thus far simply because there's nothing much to discuss they have no backstory or families or depths they are a brief list of simple character traits that exist purely to be a source of jokes neither are given any real focus and the only time either of them are given something approaching relevance are in very minor roles in very shallow stories to be precise candy was given a role in Roadside Attraction while Grenda was given a role in Northwest Mansion mystery and quite unfortunately both of these stories only bothered to give them attention for the sake of giving them boyfriends with candy going on a single date with Dipper and Grenda getting a more permanent but still meaningless relationship in the form of Marius I don't think I need to explain why it's frustrating to see so many of Gravity Falls women only being given Focus as a way of hooking them up with men and before anyone gets angry at me for focusing on this so much I wouldn't even bother to bring this up if it wasn't such a prolific issue in this series Grenda and Candy Mabel's two best friends are left as basic caricatures who are some of the least interesting and least memorable characters in all of Gravity Falls but wait it gets worse while Grenda and candy are basic and forgettable they at least have the defense of being very minor characters they are not important so you can somewhat excuse the writers for not giving them depth the same cannot be said for the last woman I want to discuss in this Wendy I'll explore in Greater detail the broad failures of Wendy's character a little later on but Northwest Mansion mystery is a great spot to point out how easily they could have made her character interesting remember how this whole story is about family lineages and the sins of our ancestors remember how the main antagonist is a lumberjack ghost remember how Wendy's only interesting attribute is that she's from a lumberjack family yeah you're starting to see where I'm going with this but wait it gets worse do you know what the name of this ghost is his name is Archibald corduroy that's right he is Wendy's ancestor and yet Wendy herself isn't even in this episode this is is baffling how do you have an episode using a member of Wendy's family as an antagonist but not feature Wendy there are the bones of such a compelling story here that we're just left on the table and it's heartbreaking because Wendy being proud to be a corduroy was something she even hinted at during weirdmageddon this could have been the chance to really emphasize the most interesting aspect of Wendy's character while also having a narrative that has nothing to do with Dipper's crush on her this story is already about Pacifica overcoming the villainy of her ancestors so why not turn this masterpiece into a duet you could have had a story about the youngest members of the Northwest and corduroy families coming together to overcome the sins and failures of their ancestors and Archibald is the perfect antagonist to tell such a story he's the embodiment of trauma and he perfectly represents how the villainy of our ancestors can cause lasting harm which continues to hurt us to this day Archibald may have originally only hated the northwests but he's so consumed by Vengeance that he's become a threat to everyone around him including innocent people this makes him the perfect metaphor for how selfishness and hate hurts all of us in the long term and of course it's only through the younger Generations working together to overcome this trauma that we can move on to a brighter tomorrow which in this case could have consisted of Wendy and Pacifica working together to defeat this hatred and repair of the relationship between their families how compelling of a story could that have been especially in these modern times and it could have done all that while simultaneously rescuing Wendy's character from the two-dimensional love interest prison that she had been ensnared in throughout this show as you may have guessed I had a lot to say about this story but we've got to move on Northwest Mansion mystery is a great episode that builds upon pacifica's character has a couple decent jokes and ends on an epic Cliffhanger however as much as I love this episode I can't deny that it had the potential to be so much more there's a timeline out there where Northwest Mansion mystery is the best episode in all of Gravity Falls and I'm very sad that I didn't get to experience that version of this story number 19 the Society of the Blind Eye after the monologue of the previous entry this one should be mercifully brief with a three in comedy a four in plot and a one in relationships this episode is just a really solid season two entry the jokes are above average with Old Man McGucket always being a riot and of course this episode is heavy on the plot with us getting lower on fiddleford the author and another great teaser with Stan it doesn't contribute much of anything in terms of relationship drama but even so I do still quite like this episode as far as critiques go I do think what Dipper did to Ivan was pretty horrific and it just sort of gets Shrugged off despite him basically killing this man even the fact that they stooped to using the bad guy's weapon at all kinda undermines the morality of the heroes earlier in this episode Dipper outright states that this device ruins lives so for him to then use it on the society is rather troubling these people have families and loved ones who could get seriously hurt as a result of Dipper damaging their minds this is one of Dipper's less heinous crimes so I won't harp on it too much but just as a reminder you generally don't want your Heroes giving people intentional brain damage if you want the audience to still view them as good people side note I did see one person argue that McGucket is a harmful stereotype and that having the audience laugh at an old man's senility is messed up but I don't think I really agree with that for one mcgucket's mental state is a product of his own life choices so that already makes his story quite different second he's not really portrayed as having memory problems until this episode up until then he's just depicted as a mad scientist so I don't think people were ever laughing at his senility this isn't like paper jam Dipper as McGucket is a long-running character director who helps the heroes pretty majorly by the end the moral of mcgucket's story could arguably be that just because someone is old and has mental issues doesn't mean they can't contribute to society and even be a hero so yeah I don't really agree with that criticism honestly my biggest real issue with this episode is this line from Wendy where she states that she's not actually relaxed and that she's stressed out all the time Wendy has been in desperate need of deeper characterization throughout this entire show so this line would have been nice if it were actually worked into her character sadly it's not this idea that Wendy is a super stressed out person who suffers from anxiety is never hinted at or shown ever again so including this line only to never expand upon it is pretty disappointing I think this could have been a fascinating direction for her character that would have added some very intriguing flaws and character stories that said despite its flaws Society of the Blind Eye is a funny episode with some cool lore reveals so I still enjoy going back to watch it every once in a while number 18. Little Dipper this episode probably ranks a bit higher than you'd expect but there's a good reason for that with the two in comedy it's only okay in terms of jokes and while the various lore hints dropped by Gideon Grant this episode a few points in the plot category that's not really enough to get it this high no the reason Little Dipper reaches the top half of this list is due to the relationships this is one of the few episodes entirely focused on a personal conflict between Dipper and Mabel with Gideon's attempted takeover being more of a side plot I've already made it clear that I love episodes that focus on conflicts between the main characters as not only does it make for great entertainment but it also adds depth and complexity to their relationships and that is exactly what this episode does for Dipper and Mabel Mabel's side of this narrative is pretty great as it showcases how she often feels inferior to Dipper thanks to his intellect and this causes her to shove Petty victories in his face as a sort of immature way of soothing her own ego this of course reflects Stan's relationship with Ford to a t which I love but what's even more interesting is what this episode tells us about Dipper thanks to him largely taking after Ford Dipper's main flaws are that he gets caught up in his own world doesn't trust others as much as he trusts himself and most importantly pushes people away with his cold attitude this episode showcases that tendency towards coldness perfectly as Dipper is revealed to have been completely unaware of how much he was hurting Mabel's feelings this aspect of his character is extremely important as it was this attribute in Ford that caused him to infuriate Stan by showing no empathy towards his brother's desire to reconnect Ford triggers Stan into attempt to burn the journal a petty act designed to piss off his intellectual brother sound familiar this cold attitude ultimately triggers the plot of this entire show as such them going out of their way to emphasize that this is a flaw Dipper has as well is awesome and in a perfect world this would be the flaw that pushes Mabel away and triggers weirdmageddon although I'm getting a little ahead of myself on that one overall Little Dipper is a decently funny episode with some nice lore tidbits and a fantastic relationship story that fleshes out the dynamic between Dipper and Mabel in a really natural and intriguing way great stuff number 17. the love God the love God has nothing of note in terms of contributing to the plot but it excels in every other category the comedy is top-notch with this joke bringing me to tears the first time I saw it but of course the main draw of this episode is the relationship content and it's here where things get interesting so I mentioned at the start that I haven't seen Schaefer Ellis's video and that's still true however I did notice that after his video went up there were a handful of people in my Twitter feed suddenly discussing why this episode is Bad apparently they viewed this as being an unethical story due to it effectively being about drugging someone into a relationship and people didn't like how that was similar to getting roofied in real life I don't know if shafarillus expressed this view in his video or not but I will go ahead and say that I don't agree with this interpretation whatsoever this narrative is about a magical Love Potion controlling someone's mind which is not the same as drugging someone and it's perpetrated by a third party in the form of Mabel it's not initiated by Robbie or tambry so I don't think that comparison to roofies really works to be clear it's fine to take issue with the ethics of Gravity Falls and its characters I've done that myself throughout this video but it's important to criticize the story that's actually here otherwise your critiques will fall on deaf ears this story doesn't tackle the ethics of drugging people it tackles the ethics of subverting Free Will in the name of making someone happy and since that is a far more interesting topic let's actually talk about it to refresh you on the plot this story is about Mabel noticing that Robbie is depressed and so she wants to cheer him up Mabel is a very kind and altruistic person so this makes perfect sense for her character Dipper as you'll recall discourages this because he really really couldn't care less what happens to people he dislikes we then get to meet Robbie's parents see what kind of relationship they have with their son and even get a brief glimpse into his declining mental health then we get this awesome interaction between Mabel and Robbie which is the first time this has happened in this show seeing Robbie's negative attitude towards Mabel transform into sincere gratitude by the end is a great character Journey all by itself and the fact that this story ends with a status quo shift as Robbie gets a new girlfriend and reaffirms his friendship with Wendy is fantastic honestly this is the episode that really cements Robbie as one of the better characters in the show he is given a character Arc multiple relationships and plenty of negative attributes but they make sure to give him just enough Humanity for you to be happy to see things work out for him some people were surprised to see Robbie get a role in the Zodiac at the end but I think Robbie's earned it he's certainly a more well-realized character than Wendy but that's enough praising Robbie let's talk about the actual ethical quandary at the heart of this episode namely is Mabel's choice to use a love potion on Robbie and tambry ethical or unethical in other words is it ethical to subvert someone's Free Will in the name of making them happier before I give my two cents on the matter what does the episode itself seem to say about this question well Mabel only regrets her choice after the rest of the friend group falls apart as a consequence of Robbie and tambry dating she then tries to undo the Love Potion not because it's hurting either of the people in love but for the sake of restoring the status quo in other words she plans to kill Robbie's happiness in the name of everyone else's happiness however before she gets that chance Robbie ends up thanking her for her help before stating that to his own surprise he's actually finally happy again seeing this Mabel ultimately decides to not interfere however notably she doesn't conclude that the act of Mind Control is wrong rather the lesson Mabel learns is that she specifically is not qualified to be wielding this kind of power that is why the episode does not vilify the love God as far as the writers are concerned when he does it it's completely ethical because he has the wisdom to use it properly in other words the official opinion of the narrative is that subverting people's Free Will in the name of happiness is okay as long as you know what you are doing and that is a fascinating conclusion for the writers to reach I'm willing to bet that many of you watching at home think this conclusion is objectively wrong if I asked you if it's okay to subvert someone's Free Will in the name of making them happier you'd likely say absolutely not most people in the Western World highly value Free Will and individuality so the idea that subverting Free Will might be the most ethical choice is something us westerners typically cannot accept however I'm not so sure that's the right perspective for a little context I myself am a pacifist and thus I consider all violence to be fundamentally unethical as such when I see news in the world of people constantly slaughtering each other day in and day out it makes me question whether Free Will is worth it if it means sacrificing human lives in fact I've often considered writing stories in which the heroes conclude that complete Free Will is simply not what's best for the human race as a result the conclusion of this episode intrigued me I was curious to see how highly people prioritize Free Will so I went ahead and put a poll on my Twitter this poll contained a simple question designed to test what people value more free will or safety here's what the question was if you were presented with the opportunity buy a genie to make Humanity incapable of ever committing any kind of violence against other humans ever again would you do it you would end all war and violence at the cost of undermining Humanity cities free will is that worth it the options on the poll were yes World Peace good and no mind control bad 431 people ended up participating in this poll which is a pretty decent sample size All Things Considered so which option do you think got the most votes and which option would you choose feel free to post your answer down in the comments below I'm actually very curious to hear what people have to say I'll give you a brief opportunity to pause the video as for who won the poll in the end the winner was free will but only barely with 51.5 of the vote this topic was split right down the middle which was quite surprising to me I personally would pick World Peace over free will any day but I didn't expect so many people to agree with me what this shows me is that the general public does not consider free will to be this Untouchable good that can never be trifled with many human beings are willing to subvert it in the name of the greater good so with that context is Mabel's Choice the right one she cured Robbie's depression and brought love into his life at the cost of subverting his free will is that worthwhile I don't know about you guys but as a person who suffers from quite a bit of depression having someone magic it away at the cost of Mind controlling me doesn't sound too awful I personally think mabold made their right choice as I believe people's happiness and safety are more important than their Free Will in fact given Robbie's declining mental health over the years it's possible Mabel's decision outright saved his life of course there is no definitive answer here and whether Mabel made the right choice is a question that people will be arguing about forever however one thing I hope I've made clear is that this topic isn't as ethically clear-cut as some folks have made it out to be as a whole I think the love God is a lot more nuanced and fascinating than it's given credit for and that's why it's made it to the 17th spot on this list number 16 the last Mabel corn to be absolutely clear this episode ranks this High purely because of the Dipper Ford plot line getting all this lore while also having the character drama between Dipper and Ford is fantastic this episode also provides some of my favorite character moments and I always enjoy watching reactions to this side of the story however and I really can't emphasize this enough the Mabel storyline with the Unicorn is the single worst story in all of Gravity Falls it was supposedly written by Alex Hirsch in just two days and it shows it completely undermines not only the morality of Mabel as a character but the morality of the entire show if I could rank the Dipper story and the Mabel story separately Dipper's story would stay right here while Mabel's story would fall to last place due to it actively detracting from Gravity Falls as a series I honestly don't even want to talk about this episode as I hate it so much but I need to explain why this story is awful if only to ensure any writers watching this video don't make the same mistakes do you remember how I said Mabel is the heart of Gravity Falls and that she needs to be a good person when the rest of the characters fail to be good do you remember how her morality is key to keeping the characters ethically grounded so that the audience continues to like them do you remember how Mabel is supposed to be the good one in order to counterbalance the blatant evil of Stan do you guys remember all that that you sure well that's good I'm glad you remember because the writers clearly did not the entire story of Mabel and the Unicorn is built around the idea of undermining Mabel's morality while also undermining the other characters just for fun the writers have Wendy give this horrible speech in which she insists that women are just animals who take what they want you might be wondering uh who wrote this episode oh what's that it was a bunch of men who wrote that speech interesting good to know after that Wendy and the other girls go off to commit a variety of unethical Deeds because I guess they're just evil now their crimes include threatening people's lives drug trafficking bribery and then drugging this woman in order to steal her hair while she's asleep isn't it funny how people got mad about Mabel using a love potion on Robbie to make him happier but nobody gets mad at Wendy for using drugs to steal someone's body parts funny how that blatant evil is never brought up Mabel tries to intervene and stop all this villainy because obviously but when it's revealed that the Unicorn lied to her Mabel proceeds to assault her I repeat Mabel's response to someone lying to her someone who poses no physical threat to Mabel or her family is to beat that person so badly that she comes back covered in Unicorn Blood oh and just to top it off they ripped out a bunch of unicorn hair are covered in unicorn tears and also terrorized the unicorns so badly that they offered them treasure just to get the humans to stop stop assaulting them and just to put the icing on the cake the episode ends with Mabel turning to the camera and declaring the moral of this story morality is relative now that was a bit of a fever dream so allow me to concisely summarize the overall message of this storyline morality doesn't exist we're all just animals take what you want have no regrets from a purely ethical standpoint the fact that this lesson was preached to countless impressionable children on the Disney channel is completely horrifying but even if we ignore the ethical side of all this this entire story is just dreadfully bad writing the protagonists are supposed to be you know decent people and more importantly Mabel is supposed to be the good one so maybe don't undermine the balance of the entire Series in the name of subverting expectations I would say this mishandling of Mabel's character was unique to this episode but we all know that isn't the case also just to rub salt in the wound the wiki entry for this episode claims that this story was originally going to be about Wendy's home life with her family but that version got scrapped I don't know if this is true as I can't find any source for this online but if this is true then that's just fantastic they had the opportunity to finally fix Wendy's character but they instead decided to ruin everyone else's characters incredible I hate this episode with a burning passion and I no longer want to talk about it just remember that this maple story is the worst in the show and last Mabel corn only got this High because of the Dipper story All Right Moving On number 15. the legend of the gobblewanker as you can tell from the scores this episode ranks this High almost entirely off the back of its comedy it does have some lower tidbits as this is the introduction of McGucket and the first Showcase of his robot building abilities which would be extremely important later down the line it also has a decent relationship story about Stan and the kids although it's fairly basic regardless the real showstopper is simply the fact that this is easily one of the funniest episodes in the entire show and considering it's only the second episode that probably contributed to Gravity Falls success just a few of my favorite jokes include Grunkle stance cataracts Mabel invading Dippers fantasy the cavorting Beavers the plane of Glass on the boats and this entire sequence with Stan and these absurdly cute kids again Peak comedy this episode does feel a little weird going back to it after watching season two as the voice actors are still getting into their roles notably the ones played by Alex Hirsch and even the animation is a little different from the rest of the series still that hardly affects my overall enjoyment of this fairly simple tale I honestly wouldn't change a thing number 14. Into the Bunker as the episode that effectively acted as the finale to the Dipper Wendy subplot you can bet I've got a few things to say about it there were a handful of solid jokes Mabel in particular is very funny on this episode and this bunker Mission further explores some interesting Mysteries surrounding the author the shapeshifter is also easily one of my favorite antagonists in the show purely due to how versatile intelligent and threatening he can be I honestly would have loved to see more of this creature that said this episode does have one notable flaw you may be surprised to see the relationship score is only a three as this is the story where Dipper confesses his Crush to Wendy however after re-watching this episode I don't think Into the Bunker is a particularly strong relationship narrative sure Dipper's struggling with his crush and the nature of that struggle changes after after he confesses But ultimately this doesn't actually change anything about his relationship with Wendy she outright knew about his Crush from the beginning meaning this episode didn't change her character at all and Dipper just continues being in the friend zone and while Dipper's crush is the focal point of this drama it more so seems to be focused on telling a story about the struggle of having an unrequited Crush then it is an actual exploration of the relationship between these two characters and this brings me to one of my main criticisms of Gravity Falls as a whole this has been a long time coming you all know what I'm about to bring up so let's just cut to the chase Wendy Corduroy isn't really a character Alex Hirsch has made clear that when designing Wendy's personality their entire idea for who she is was literally just cool girl and unfortunately they never really bothered to flesh her out beyond that Wendy's list of core character traits begins and ends with cool teenage girl and Lumberjack although that Lumberjack bit isn't even really a character trait so much as it is an excuse for why she's so athletic they wanted her to do cool physical stunts so they decided she was a lumberjack meaning this is really just an extension of the cool trait we mentioned before now this lineup of characteristics isn't bad but the issue is that they are not explored to any meaningful degree Wendy is very two-dimensional she exists to be the focus of Dipper's Crush occasionally do cool things and that's pretty much it there's no real depth to her and this only becomes more apparent when you compare her to the other man characters these five are the core cast of Gravity Falls with Stan being Far and Away the most well-realized and three-dimensional character while Dipper and Mabel are a close second Seuss is less nuanced but he's still given a heartfelt relationship with Stan a whole episode focused on his tragic backstory and a whole other episode focused on his struggles finding a girlfriend by contrast when Wendy is given an episode about her finding a boyfriend the story focuses entirely on Dipper's reaction to this event rather than on what it means for Wendy as a person she is a plot device in her own story furthermore Seuss and Melody's choice to start seeing each other actually said something about who they are as people but Wendy regards dating so casually that her seeing Robbie says literally nothing about her how a character responds to someone confessing their feelings to them should showcase some aspect of that character's personality but Wendy's response to Robbie asking if they could date was yeah I guess so her approach to dating is so casual that one of the first jokes about Wendy was regarding how many ex-boyfriends she has with anyone else this would be actual characterization implying she was promiscuous which would be fine and could even be interesting but with Wendy she's so two-dimensional that this could not be the intended reading of her character also she only dates one person over the course of the entire summer so even this supposed promiscuity is abandoned almost instantly I sincerely think this joke about her exes was only included to Showcase once again how cool she is as in she's so cool that everyone has asked her out however what the writers didn't really seem to understand is that coolness has to be earned for it to be meaningful for example I found none of Wendy's action scenes particularly cool at all her defeating Gideon's gang felt like a contrived scenario engineered to make her look cool rather than one that demonstrates her talents and abilities as a human being I mean what part of being a lumberjack taught her how to do this to people oh that's right she was given apocalypse training by her dad and this fact just never came up until this episode it's almost like they made it up to explain her combat Effectiveness in this specific episode and it has no bearing on her character in any previous stories point is none of these Wendy action scenes are cool because her ability to participate in them is Justified with reasons that are made up on the Fly there's no build up and thus there's no payoff by contrast when Stan single-handedly fights a zombie horde it's one of the coolest moments in the show not because it's more impressive than what Wendy did but because of who is doing it we know who's Stan is and we know all the trials and tribulations he went through to become the man he is today we saw him struggle to be a fighter slowly grow into his abilities and then utilize them to save the day during his family's time of need that is how you make coolness feel earned Wendy is just inexplicably Unstoppable for no good reason she honestly reminds me of those terrible protagonists from 50s B movies who were obnoxiously perfect like these dupros would be Geniuses great Fighters super charismatic incredible leaders and have no flaws whatsoever this of course made them the most intensely boring characters in all of fiction Wendy is just the female version of that and newsflash flipping the gender on a terrible archetype doesn't make it good it just makes it bad in a new way back when I was discussing Pacifica I emphasized that one what made her such a great character was that she had positive traits to make you like her negative traits to cause drama and conflict and agency to actually guide the plot Wendy is overflowing with positive traits to the point of absurdity but she is distinctly lacking in negative traits the closest thing you can point to is her being a teenage Punk and her being lazy at work but these are purely superficial flaws they don't have consequences for her or anyone around her like I said the whole point of negative traits is to trigger drama and conflict but Wendy is never even Once In conflict with the other main characters in any substantial Way by contrast Mabel's insecurity about losing her brother leads to weirdmageddon Dipper's unwillingness to trust other people leads to him turning on both Ford and Stan Stan is so thoroughly flawed that he comes into conflict with pretty much everyone at one point or another Zeus doesn't really have any good conflicts stories which is why he's not as good of a character but even he was given a brief conflict with Dipper during a Land Before Swine but Wendy there is not a single episode where Wendy's flaws cause her to come into conflict with another member of the main cast and the only time she comes into conflict with a secondary character is when she breaks up with Robbie but even then that breakup was his fault for being a bad boyfriend he was the one who instigated the events of boys crazy not Wendy that's because Robbie actually has agency and that is the last major issue with Wendy as a character she is never the leading force in any story she participates in she's either a trophy being pursued by Dipper or Robbie or she's just a passive Ally doing what the actual characters want her to do she's only even in the bunker because Dipper asked her to be there Dipper has agency this entire mission is his idea Wendy is just along for the ride the same is true for any story in which Wendy plays a somewhat major role in weirdmageddon she only gets involved because she's following Dipper on his quest to reach Mabel's bubble and in the last Mabel corn she's only there because Mabel invited her now to Wendy's credit she does strike out to pursue her own plan during this episode which I do appreciate but this is the only glimmer of agency she's ever given and it's still in service to someone else's main goal also I hate this episode with a theory of a thousand suns so I don't give Wendy too much credit for being involved here my point is the reason the relationship story Falls so flat in this episode is because there's only one actual character involved Wendy is just too flat and too basic to contribute anything so it entirely falls on Dipper to carry the drama hence why it only got a three in this category aside from that the comedy in this episode is solid and the lore reveals are good which is enough to make this a pretty great episode overall I just always skip the Dipper Wendy conversation at the end because it's completely meaningless but with all that said if I'm going to complain this much about Wendy I should at least have the decency to give some feedback on how she could have been improved overall this advice can be boiled down to three simple tips first give her stories where she is the main protagonist pursuing a goal of her own choosing she needs to have agency and at least some of these stories in order for her to be compelling heck you could even have her be the antagonist of a story if you wanted so long as you have her actively pursuing a goal of her own accord and if you can fit in some backstory involving her relationship with her family all the better second give her some negative traits that actually lead to conflict with the other main characters you don't even have to invent new traits if you don't want to just emphasize that some of her existing traits are negative and cause problems for others in fact you could get a lot of mileage by just following through on some of the ideas you suggested have Wendy's promiscuity lead to her getting a lot of grief due to all the people whose Hearts she broke it's implied in this scene that many of these relationships ended because Wendy just got bored of people so having that callous attitude gets some pushback would be nice also and I really like this idea have Wendy actually suffer from anxiety people with anxiety disorders often experience sudden panic attacks that can be legitimately incapacitating and interfere with their ability to perform responsibilities this can also lead to feelings of tiredness and weakness you could easily integrate that into stories to cause conflicts an idea that that occurs to me is to have her laziness at work be a facade she's not actually lazy she's just so strung out from her anxiety that she's legitimately too tired to do her job properly she just hides her condition behind stereotypical teen laziness furthermore if Wendy being aggressive is key to her character then that can also tie into her anxiety as people who are super high strung are often much quicker to anger and lash out she certainly has an anger-fueled influence in her life thanks to manly Dan with all these attributes in mind doesn't know Wendy with flaws sound so much more compelling she can still be cool and athletic but she can also have relationship troubles and anxiety issues she can be somewhat Dipper with crush on while also being a three-dimensional character as someone who grew up with a crush on a cool older girl I can attest that said girl had a lot of stressful home life stuff that made her a much more complex person than my simple childish brain could understand at the time so having that aspect of real life reflected in Wendy's character would be perfect plus once you give her negative traits those traits can lead to drama and conflict this brings me to my final piece of advice give Wendy conflicts with the other main characters these conflicts can be based out of the other characters flaws Wendy's flaws or both I'll go ahead and give some quick examples of how this could be done with each of the main characters with Dipper you could easily build some drama between Wendy and him by actually following up on the outrage she felt towards him for treating her like a trophy during boys crazy alternatively you could have Wendy's Punk activities get Dipper in trouble with the authorities and have that lead to conflict as for Stan you could easily have her getting into conflict with him due to her not performing her job effectively and what Stan realizes it's is not a result of her laziness but a result of her anxiety the story could end with a really sincere and heartfelt talk between Stan and Wendy about her condition we could even have Stan Express empathy by painting at his past as we know that he's been in plenty of anxiety-inducing situations having Stan make the Mystery Shack more accommodating for her anxiety would be a really heartwarming development and it would work perfectly with Stan's character as we know he's willing to go out of his way to help people he cares about such as when he tried to get Seuss's birthday removed from calendars to cheer him up also there's just a general lack of relationship building between Stan and Wendy so this would be a nice addition in general Wendy's more aggressive and punk-oriented lifestyle could also lead to conflict between her and Mabel as Mabel is generally much more kind and sensitive alternatively with how excitable and random Mabel is you can have her unpredictable nature end up causing Stress and Anxiety for Wendy which in turn leads to conflict to be clear not every story has to revolve around her anxiety but this is one of the few negative traits the show suggested she might have also I refer to it as a negative trait purely within the context of Storytelling I'm not suggesting having a disorder reflects poorly on the real people who have that condition I merely call it negative because it could lead to conflict and drama in a fictional setting similarly when I say Wendy has no conflicts I'm referring to interpersonal relationship conflicts and not to actual fight scenes obviously Wendy has fights with monsters and Gideon and stuff like that as for a Seuss conflict Story one of Seuss's few established negative attributes is his clumsy tendency to break things and I am quite certain someone like that would be difficult to be around for someone with anxiety especially someone who specifically linked her anxiety to her rather destructive father these are all just me spitballing story ideas and I'm sure Alex Hirsch and even people watching this video could come up with better ones but hopefully you can see how these sorts of conflict stories could be genuinely entertaining while also enhancing Wendy's character and deepening her relationships with all that said this will be the last time I focus too intensely on Wendy Into the Bunker was a great episode and Wendy certainly had the potential to be great as well sadly it just didn't quite pan out that way which is a shame but it is what it is number 13. carpet diem this episode is definitely on the funnier side as body swapping Adventures are often filled with hijinks and we even get a little bit of lore about Stan and Ford however much like little dipper this episode ranks this High mostly because of its relationship conflict having the twins get into a fight based upon poor communication only to then have them better grasp the other's perspective through walking in their shoes is a great idea the fact that Mabel is given the puberty talk while Dipper is not is a really clever writing Choice as it culminates in this fantastic ending scene thanks to her Newfound knowledge Mabel understands the physical and emotional Troubles of a teenage boy a lot better than Dipper understands the Troubles of a teenage girl and giving Mabel the advantage and knowledge purely to allow her to better empathize with people is a great touch that's exactly how you use a big hearted character you can have Dipper be the intellectual one while Mabel is the one who is more emotionally mature honestly I would love to believe Mabel's reason for wanting to help Robbie so much stems from her understanding what he's going through as a teenage boy there's never any implication that's why she helps him but it would be an awesome bit of continuity if it were also while not a huge part of why I love this episode I do appreciate how the twins initially freak out after swapping bodies emphasizing that sense of gender dysphoria is a great touch as it helps build the groundwork for viewers to better understand and empathize with real people who experience such dysphoria I've often thought about writing stories in which a character gets magically swapped into a body with a different sex and then having that story emphasize how upsetting and taxing on one's mental health that can be and that desire of my and to write a story from that perspective is at least in part inspired by this episode overall carpet diem is a really funny story with some decent lore but more importantly it explores the dynamic between Dipper and Mabel in a fresh intriguing and character building way which is why it nearly reaches the top ten number 12. Take Back The Falls that's right the series finale to Gravity Falls didn't quite manage to make it to the top ten I know I have terrible taste but there are some good reasons for this while the plot score is obviously maxed out and the relationship conflict with Stan and Ford is quite engaging the focus of this episode is entirely on the fight against Bill Cipher that's cool and all but by having such an epic serious climactic finale with a lot of tearful goodbyes this has a bit of a dampening effect on the episode's tone which unfortunately Hurts The Comedy I love this episode don't get me wrong but I love it for its cool Mecca fight it's serious stakes and its emotional ending I do not love it for its comedy in fact I pretty much never laugh when re-watching this episode but even without the comedy there's another reason that this episode doesn't rank quite as high AI as it could and it's with regards to the handling of Stanley Stanley's sacrifice is awesome emotional and meaningful in a life full of selfishness and crime to have Stan mess up everything at the end only to redeem himself through sacrifice is beautiful it's a perfect metaphor for his life Stanley will mess things up with his bullheadedness but afterwards Hill job as hard as possible to make things right he'll banish his brother to another dimension but then spend 30 years bringing him back he'll Doom the entire world but then sacrifice himself to save it that is just who Stanley is and I love it this is a moving send-off to quite possibly the most well-fleshed out character in the show and it could have gone down as one of the most emotional finales in all of cartoon history emphasis on could have obviously everyone and their grandmother has already critiqued their decision to undo Stanley's sacrifice but at the risk of beating a dead horse I do feel the need to emphasize how unnecessary this decision was you were already using a much less blatant form of death in the form of memory wiping so keeping his memory gone could have still been light-hearted enough to go out on a mostly cheerful note you could have the story play out the exact same way as before but instead of four taking stand on world trotting adventures in an attempt to mend their fractured relationship you could instead have four take this new person on adventures this person who isn't really Stan anymore as a way of repenting for his failure to be a better brother while he still had the chance how compelling could it have been if both Pines Brothers sacrificed their Futures in the name of family Stan sacrificed his mind to save Ford and now 4 Lord can sacrifice his Twilight years giving this new Stanley the adventure he'd never had the chance to experience that would be such a poetic ending for these brothers it would also teach a beautiful lesson to the kids watching at home namely that life is short and while you may be upset with your brother or your friend or whoever if you don't try to repair that relationship now you may never get the chance and you don't want to be left with the guilt and sorrow that holding a grudge like this can lead to the fact that they abandoned such a meaningful emotional and thought-provoking ending in favor of this cheesy generic happily ever after is really disappointing if they had actually followed through with this sacrifice this episode could have easily reached the number one spot on this list overall as far as they send off to the show is concerned Take Back The Falls is absolutely a great time and while I don't agree with the handling of Stanley's sacrifice I do still enjoy coming back to this episode whenever I'm ready to leave Gravity Falls number 11. The Hand That Rocks the maple this episode has pretty much everything I could ask for it's got several phenomenal jokes it introduces Gideon and journal number two both of which are very important for the overarching story and of course this entire episode revolves around a relationship conflict seeing Gideon's relationship develop with Mabel and Dipper is great but the moment I love the most is when Dipper offers to break up with Gideon on Mabel's behalf this is a great way of showing how Dippers calm and reliable nature is exactly what Mabel needs as she can be overwhelmed by her emotions in stressful situations just as Mabel's empathy allows her to help her brother get out of his shell Dippers cool-headedness allows him to bring Mabel back down to earth when things get out of control it's a heartwarming elaboration on their relationship that I greatly appreciate as for criticisms honestly I think this episode is basically perfect the only downside is that it focuses on Gideon who would go on to be a less than satisfying character in the long run if Gideon was given a little more humanity and depth then that may have been enough to get this episode into the top 10. even so The Hand That Rocks the Mabel is still a hilarious character study that I highly recommend but now we've reached the final stretch it is time for the top 10 episodes of Gravity Falls these are the best of the best the ones that embody everything that makes this show so great and we'll be starting it off with number 10. weirdmageddon part one I think this is the perfect spot for this episode as it's far too good to not reach the top 10 but it's slightly too flawed to get any higher honestly the main question you're probably asking is how on Earth did weirdmageddon part one rank higher than weirdmageddon part three well for starters it only barely outranked it this episode is at number 10 while part three is at number 12. they're both great episodes however I believe part one outranks the series finale for two reasons the first is comedy while we're beginning in general is too serious for me to laugh frequently part three is so emotional that it completely kills my ability to laugh at its jokes by contrast part one is a little more relaxed and thus I'm still able to laugh at some of its better gags namely I always laugh at the bubbles of pure Madness the second reason I rank this episode higher is because I think the flaws in part one are less severe than the flaws in part three part one's flaw is that it focuses on Wendy and Gideon both of whom I've critiqued heavily throughout this video Wendy's deus ex machina martial arts and Gideon's sudden turn to the good side are both really lame climaxes to the stories of two highly disappointing characters however part 3 mishandled the climax of Stan and that's much more disappointing Gideon and Wendy may have been mishandled but that's nothing new they've always been mediocre characters so them being poorly written here isn't anything shocking by contrast Stan is one of the best characters in the show and he's had a ton of super interesting and nuanced depth added to him throughout gravity for laws as such I think the mishandling of two characters I don't care about is less frustrating than the mishandling of one character I care a great deal about hence why part one ranks ever so slightly higher but even with those flaws this episode is still phenomenal thanks to the presence of Bill I haven't talked much about Bill throughout this video but that's because I have nothing more to add that hasn't already been said Bill Cipher is a perfect antagonist and a perfect character and I wouldn't change a single thing about him every scene he's in is legendary every joke of his is funny and every line of dialogue is Iconic the only critique I could even vaguely throw bills away is that the rules surrounding how his deals work aren't as well explained as they could be but that's literally it Bill Cipher is amazing and this episode is elevated by his mere presence we'll be seeing quite a bit more of Bill as we proceed further up the ranking number nine tourist trapped that's right the very first episode in all of Gravity Falls is also one of the best in the entire series honestly I think a big part of why Gravity Falls was so successful was because of how well this first episode encapsulates everything awesome about this show The Comedy is some of the best in the series with several of these jokes being instant Classics the plot provided by the journal and stands mysterious secret are also perfect with the audience being given just enough mystery to get us hooked in fact the entire rest of the season is made substantially more interesting because we're constantly looking at Stan through a Different Light instead of us just viewing him as a funny old man we look at Stan as an enigma to be figured out and all that Intrigue is only possible thanks to tourist trapped and best of all the story has a prominent relationship conflict between Dipper and Mabel with both of them learning to put more faith in each other there's legitimately nothing I can add to make this episode better it's a perfect introduction to Gravity Falls and it instantly endeared me to this wonderful show season premieres are important to do well as they hold the responsibility of selling the show and season one does so marvelously but did season 2 manage to top tourist trapped well as a matter of fact number eight scary okay everything Taurus trap did for season one scary Yoki does for season two it reintroduces us to all the main characters Dives head first into the big reveal from the season one finale and introduces the main conflict of this part of the show with the secret agents trying to uncover the location of Stan's mysterious machine the comedy is absolutely fantastic with all of the zombie Seuss jokes hitting me like a freaking freight train seriously zombie Zeus is a top three funniest character also the relationship conflict between Stan and Dipper is pretty great having the status quo shift as Stan acknowledges the existence of the Supernatural is a great moment and as I've mentioned before Stan taking on the zombie horde single-handedly is quite possibly the coolest moment in the entire series scaryoki is the perfect beginning to the best season of the gray great show and I wouldn't change a single thing it is absolutely marvelous and believe it or not we still have seven more episodes to rank number seven The Time Traveler's Pig this episode is so stinking good it's hard to overemphasize it the comedy is phenomenal with all of these jokes being absolute riots and the fact that this story evolves from a Dipper Wendy subplot into a character conflict between Dipper and Mabel is absolutely perfect the way Mabel is 100 on Dipper's side until his meddling causes her to lose Waddles is often overlooked as a moment of her really being there for her brother and the fact that Mabel actually backs down from saving Waddles after Dipper asks if she wants Wendy to date Robbie is a super underrated moment Mabel doesn't insist on Dipper sacrificing his goal for her sake even though it breaks her heart and in the end Dipper chooses of his own volition to sacrifice his ambition for the sake of Mabel's happiness this is a sincerely heartwarming story and it's actually important for distinguishing Dipper from Ford Ford would never dream of sacrificing his Ambitions not even for his family but Dipper is different he knows the happiness of your loved ones is sometimes more important than your own goals and that's awesome hilariously this story is easily the best addition to the Wendy Dipper romance subplot simply because it barely involves Wendy she's literally Frozen in a moment in time throughout this episode and the focus is instead placed entirely on Mabel and Dipper that's why I love this episode in spite of it technically being involved in that mediocre subplot also as a side note It's Only By ignoring the context of this story that bill can even use this moment to manipulate Dipper and by extension manipulate the audience despite what Bill implies and despite how I phrased it earlier Dipper doesn't actually sacrifice anything for Mabel in this story Dipper just undoes the harm he did to his sister and even then it wasn't something Dipper was forced to do Mabel was willing to take this loss rather than Force Dipper to sacrifice anything that is something folks often conveniently forget Mabel was the one making the original sacrifice here and as you can plainly tell her sacrifice hurt her a lot more than Dipper's sacrifice hurt him Mabel was sacrificing a long-term friendship while Dipper was just delaying Robbie from asking Wendy out realistically Robbie would have asked her out again regardless meaning Dipper was being super short-sighted and selfish to even be pursuing this plan in the first place not to mention how creepy and manipulative he was being for trying to troll Wendy's love life that's none of your business bro to be perfectly clear this episode is not flattering for Dipper and should not be viewed as him doing anything Noble this story is about Dipper roping Mabel into his creepy plans his creepy plans costing Mabel dearly and instead of Mabel forcing him to undo all this she allows him to wound her because Mabel values him more than she values her own happiness Dipper choosing to undo his creepy manipulation of Wendy wasn't him making a noble sacrifice it was him undoing the harm he did to his sister Bill had to play heavily into Dipper's short-sightedness in order to spin this story in any sort of favorable light honestly this episode probably should have had a stronger condemnation of his behavior towards Wendy but I'm done talking about her as I haven't even discussed the time travel yet the introduction of blendin and time baby the explanation of blendon's presence in previous episodes and the sneak peek of Ford in the past is all absolutely fantastic we even get a status quo shift in the form of Robbie now dating Wendy and another status quo shift thanks to Waddles joining the family this episode honestly does everything right to the point that even improving Wendy's character would have barely enhanced this story that's how good it already is it's episodes like this that made season one of Gravity Falls so memorable and it's a big part of why I ended up Hooked despite so many of these early episodes having very little plot it's when analyzing episodes like this that I remember how I fell in love with Gravity Falls top tier episodes like Time Travelers Pig are what brought us all back for season two this in turn allowed us to see episode episodes like number six A Tale of Two stands of course I had to rank this episode super high it's not the most outrageously funny episode although this drawing of Mabel always makes me laugh however it more than makes up for that in lore and relationship content we get the entire backstory on the author and Stan how their relationship evolved over the years and how their relationship is reflected in Dipper and Mabel the fact that Dipper isn't worried about them ending up like Stan and Ford while Mabel is worried is a fantastic touch she is the emotionally mature one so her recognizing the similarities between the grunkles and them and realizing the consequences this may have is a very poignant scene to end on and while I don't love dungeons Dungeons and more dungeons I do love the way Mabel starts to get anxious as Dipper spends more time with Ford while she spends more time with Stanley as that continues building the anxiety she felt during a tale of two stands once again I really couldn't ask for anything more from this episode hearing the backstory of Stan and Ford does get a little dull on rewatch but that doesn't take away from how important this episode is the mystery will always be better than the reveal but the reveal was pretty freaking cool nonetheless and with that we're on to our top five starting with number five dreamscapers this one was a pretty obvious choice as the first major appearance of Bill Cipher was always going to rank super high but what's truly incredible about this episode is that it manages to be amazing in ways that are completely unrelated to Bill as well the comedy is phenomenal with several jokes being complete Gut Busters and we get a ton of lore thanks to us diving directly into the mind of Stan in fact not only do we get a huge pile of lore not only does this episode establish a bunch of rules and abilities surrounding bill but it also foreshadows Stan's sacrifice beautifully as Stan's Proficiency in the mindscape directly contributes to his ability to defeat bill in the series finale this also hints at one of the subtler ways Stan and Mabel are alike as their creativity and imagine nations are their greatest assets Stan may only use his creativity to help with his scams while Mabel uses it mostly for art but that subtle parallel between them is still really cool it also explains why Mabel is the one to figure out where the secret code is in Stan's mind as she and him are so alike and of course I have to talk about the relationship conflicts Stan and Dipper getting into a fight is great and the fact that Dipper leaves him to get tormented by a dream demon is very important characterization for dipper this goes a long way towards emphasizing that Dipper does not care about people he views as his enemy whether it's Robbie Pacifica or even Stan Dipper's empathy does not extend to people he dislikes at all which is an awesome character flaw it also helps showcase how he Mabel differ as Mabel insists on helping Stan regardless as she's far too kind to just let him be taken advantage of plus thanks to her emotional maturity as well as her own personal experiences she knows full well that Stan absolutely cares about Dipper I must say having all this relationship drama that simultaneously explores and characterizes the Pines family is fantastic and the fact that we get all this in addition to Bill Cipher is just insane this episode is god tier you all know it's God's here and I'm more than happy to put it at the number five spot on this list now I'm going to do something a little bit different here I'm going to be discussing the next two episodes at the same time this is because my analysis of one is entirely dependent on my analysis of the other at the number 4 spot we have Dipper and Mabel versus the future and at the number three spot we have weirdmageddon part two escape from reality both of these episodes are as far as I'm concerned equally amazing they're not the funniest episodes of all time but the plot and relationship content are extraordinary and from a narrative standpoint these two stories Go Together As the First shows how Dipper and Mabel had their falling out while the latter shows how they reconciled however as much as I adore these episodes they do have one major issue and one minor issue the minor issue is her in both episodes Wendy is reduced to the lowest common denominator with her hating high school because she's a teenager and her greatest desire being to trash the high school because she's a teenager let me remind you this is occurring in Mabel's bubble which is designed to ensnare you with your deepest desires and Wendy wanted to trash a school compare that to the other protagonists soos wanted to see his father who he had a whole episode about Mabel wanted a supportive brother which is tragic and integral to this episode's plot even Dipper wanted Wendy to date him which is easily Dipper's most prominent subplot all these desires are integral to their characters and stories while Wendy is just a piece of cardboard who wants to do cliched teenage things because that's all she is also Wendy abandoning Dipper in the middle of the Apocalypse to go do this is so horrifically shameful that said this is just a minor issue as I don't care enough about Wendy at this point to let her presence bother me no the real issue with these episodes stems from a problem I've been mentioning throughout this video Mabel's character Arc was bungled and it's finally time to talk about how it happened the exact moment that turns this masterpiece of Storytelling into a flawed work of art is this scene here here in this scene Mabel doesn't want summer to end or for Dipper to go Dipper tries to console her but it doesn't work and in her desperation to not let things change she triggers the apocalypse this is where everything went horribly wrong for Mabel's character and it's entirely because the writers made this conflict utterly imbalanced Dipper is presented as being completely reasonable while Mabel is presented as being absurdly selfish the universe is at risk and she is hiding in a fantasy while Dipper does all this hard work trying to save everyone Dipper than sacrificing his future as Ford's Apprentice in order to appease Mabel just makes her look that much more awful this situation is the real reason behind people coming to despise Mabel this two-part story undermines her completely and the most tragic part of this is that it was completely avoidable this narrative only needed to change one thing and it would go from an imbalanced story of Mabel's selfishness to a brilliant story about two very flawed people overcoming their faults in order to not end up like Ford and Stan the framework for this narrative was already there and all that needed to be changed was this scene I've mentioned before that the core trait that made forward flawed was his cold attitude as it causes him to push people away due to him not thinking about their feelings he lost his brother he lost his partner and thanks to this same coldness triggering Stanley he almost lost the whole universe during the Zodiac ritual meanwhile Stan's Corf law is that he is obsessed with maintaining his relationships and thus is willing to risk the destruction of the you reverse at the mere chance of seeing his brother again these flaws are what drove a wedge between them and in the end their inability to overcome these flaws nearly destroyed everything they cared about the story of Dipper and Mabel is designed to reflect that original narrative with Dipper playing the part of Ford and Mabel playing the part of Stan they have inherited the flaws of their respective grunkles and now the exact same story is doomed to play out again unless these kids can learn from the past and grow as people the Mabel side of this story is handled perfectly in these two episodes with her anxiety about the future growing and growing and her becoming increasingly panicked from thinking about what the future may bring the only Solace she can find is that Dipper the one who has always been there for her will still be by her side he is the cool headed one he will help her deal with these emotions just like he did during the original Gideon episode they even call back to that story with Mabel hiding in her sweater this is what Mabel does when she's overwhelmed and needs Dipper's help as such when Dipper is revealed to be planning to stay with Ford that breaks her heart this is her worst nightmare coming true the things she's been scared of all season and in her distress her flaw is brought to horrible light she can't cope with reality and thus flees to a dream world where things don't have to change and Bill Cipher is more than happy to exploit this moment of weakness everything about Mabel's side of the story is perfect which only leaves Dipper and it's here where Things Fall Apart in order for this narrative to work Mabel and Dipper need to have a falling out that reflects the one their grunkles had this is the ultimate Challenge to their relationship but in order for this narrative to function Dipper has to play the role of Ford which means he needs to embody the core attribute that made Ford flawed when Ford called Stan to the shack Stan was overjoyed at the opportunity to reconnect with his brother but upon realizing that Ford had no intention of reconnecting and worse that Ford had zero empathy for Stanley's own troubles Stan lost it this fight in this scene is entirely fueled by Ford's complete lack of empathy he is so caught up in his own little world that he has no idea how his words are affecting his brother he has no idea how much pain Stanley is currently in Stan was willing to forget the past forget all his suffering if it meant reconnecting with his best friend but Ford wasn't even aware of how desperately Stanley needed him this is Ford's greatest flaw and it's this flaw that Dipper needs to embody in this scene Dipper shows so much empathy and kindness to Mabel that everyone ends up rooting against her in the finale which is proof that this story failed they needed to make it feel like this was a story of two equally flawed people the audience needed to end up feeling that Dipper was just as much responsible for weirdmageddon as Mabel was and the only way to do that is for Dipper to be heartless Dipper needs to enter this scene so caught up in the the hype of becoming Ford's Apprentice that he is utterly unaware that Mabel is upset and when she reveals that she's so heartbroken at his choice and that him doing this will be horrible for her he cannot show empathy in fact what needs to happen is Dipper must get angry he must respond the same way he responded during Sock Opera during that episode Dipper is so upset at Mabel's selfishness that he angrily storms off and gets lured into a deal with Bill just like what happens to Mabel during this episode The Reason Dipper falls for this trap is that bill plays off of Dipper's weakness he points out how Dipper has sacrificed so much for Mabel and yet Mabel has never returned the favor Dipper's greatest flaw is that he gets so caught up in his own little world that he doesn't notice certain obvious truths and Bill exploits that the reality is that Mabel has helped Dipper a ton and even saved his life on multiple occasions but thanks to his character flaw he completely forgets all that that same scenario and that same character flaw needs to be channeled here but to a much greater extent Dipper is on cloud nine all his dreams are coming true only for him to be ripped Back to Reality by a distraught Mabel who is now telling him that all his happiness is terrible for her and Dipper needs to get furious about this he needs to believe that this is Mabel's selfishly sabotaging his future for her own Petty reasons this isn't true of course but thanks to him overlooking this obvious truth he gets caught up in his own rage remember we need the the audience to believe that Dipper has gone too far in his reaction the audience needs to believe that weirdmageddon was caused by both Dipper and Mabel making terrible mistakes and Dipper's mistake needs to be him acting unnecessarily cold and cruel in this exact moment remember Dipper regresses to utter coldness and callousness when dealing with people he views as his enemy he turned on Stan multiple times the second he thought Stan had betrayed him so him turning on Mabel even if only for a moment is absolutely in his character and I believe the best way for this to play out is for Dipper to reference Ford and stand directly Ford had his future ruined by Stan's selfishness and that is what caused the initial Schism between them Dipper knows all this he knows how Ford's future was set back by his sibling as such In This Moment Dipper should rant at Mabel about her selfishness rant about how she always does this rant about how she's always holding him back rant about how she always gets in the way of his happiness and then to deal the horrible finishing blow he should say that she is trying to ruin his future in the same way Stan ruined Ford's and that he is not going to let her do that to him this will be the final straw for Mabel's emotional state this last line from Dipper is unbeknownst to him the cruelest thing he could have possibly told her as she has been terrified of this exact scenario playing out ever since she found out about Ford and Stan's backstory she has been so scared that Dipper would angrily abandon her the same way forward abandoned Stan and now right before her very eyes that exact thing had happened Stan had threatened Ford's future so he abandoned his brother she had now threatened Dipper's future so he was abandoning her she was now doomed to live a sad miserable life just like Stanley she then runs off in tears and the rest of the story plays out the exact same way Dipper immediately regrets what he said as he's not nearly as heartless as Ford is and he even starts to second guess his decision to become Ford's Apprentice but the damage has already been done Mabel is so heartbroken and so terrified of the future that she is now completely vulnerable to a manipulative Bill Cipher and that's it all that needed to change was a couple seconds of this one interaction in this one scene and it totally changes the balance of the finale after seeing Dipper flip out at his emotionally vulnerable sister and directly attacking her worst fears the audience will be firmly against him and it's now up to Dipper to redeem himself Mabel will make all the same mistakes she originally did but now the audience's perspective will be completely different rather than seeing her as an unreasonably selfish brat the audience will instead view her as a traumatized little girl desperately trying to cope with the emotional wounds her brother gave her when Mabel created dippy fresh a lot of fans thought this was super messed up she was replacing her best friend with a copy just because he didn't sacrifice everything for her what's wrong with you however by making Dipper act so cruelly towards her this Choice won't seem unreasonable at all she's terrified of losing her best friend and yet that same best friend treated her so horribly of course she'd create a version of him that actually treated her well that's the one thing she needs to mend her wounds right now she both needs Dipper and fierce Dipper and this is a completely understandable response to the trauma she experienced it's actually really sad furthermore instead of viewing Dipper as sacrificing his future for his selfish sister the audience will view him as learning from the mistakes of his uncles in order to repair the relationship with his family at worst him losing out on the apprenticeship will be seen as a fair price to pay for his cruel treatment of Mabel at best it won't be seen as a sacrifice at all this will be Dipper realizing that some things are simply more important than one's Ambitions and one of those more important things is her I know it's probably frustrating to hear all this critiquing this deep into the list but understand I'm only saying all this because I sincerely believe this pair of episodes tells a truly beautiful story that was on the verge of being a masterpiece if the balance between Dipper and Mabel had been just a little more fair this narrative could have gone down in history as one of the most compelling character dramas ever seen in a western cartoon instead thanks to the conflict feeling so one-sided this story's only Legacy is how it ruined the fan base's view of Mabel and that's just heartbreaking I'm insisting on drawing attention to all this and describing how this story is flawed because I actually think it's underrated I think the fanbase's view of Mabel as this selfish girl has caused them to miss the incredible storytelling at play here this is like watching a marathon runner perform beautifully only to be forgotten to history because she tripped at the Finish Line it's tragic because if this one scene had been written just a little bit better the legacy of gravity Falls would have been changed forever Somewhere Out There is the timeline where the balance between Dipper and Mabel was better and Stan actually kept his memory wiped and dear God the people living in that timeline are lucky indeed again I'm only critiquing Gravity Falls this thoroughly because I sincerely love the show if I didn't care this much about it I would never have bothered to analyze it this in depth if you want to learn subtle and nuanced lessons on how to write you need to critique fantastic stories that is why I've made a several hour long video critiquing everything in Gravity Falls while I've only made a single 30 minute long video critiquing two characters in Ruby there was nothing more for me to learn from critiquing a show like that whereas amazing shows like Gravity Falls have far more interesting lessons to teach and that is all I have to say on these two episodes but we're not done just yet we've still got the top two episodes of Gravity Falls to rank so let's get to it the second best episode of Gravity Falls is Sock Opera God there are so many amazing things to talk about with this episode with a five in comedy and a five and plot Sock Opera demonstrates perfectly why Bill Cipher is such an amazing villain he is just as capable of being hilarious as he is of being terrifying he is always the center of attention in any scene as his personality is just that good I actually don't feel the need to praise Bill too much as I don't think you all need convincing he is undeniably amazing end of story but even without Bill Sock Opera is just generally fantastic the jokes are top-notch with this one destroying me the first time I saw it and it's also just absurd how much lore they sneak in during this story we learned the portal is connected to the author we learned that bill has big plans for Gravity Falls we learn of his ability to possess humans and we learn of the power that his deals Grant him this episode is integral to understanding Bill Cipher and his role in this story and just the simple fact that this is the only episode of the entire show where Bill gets into conflict with the protagonists all by himself is a huge reason as to why this episode ranks so highly it's both incredibly unique and highly engaging and if all that wasn't enough this episode is also integral for understanding the relationship between Dipper and Mabel there's a reason I brought up Sock Opera during my analysis of the dipper Mabel relationship it's because this episode is actually super important for understanding exactly how a falling out between Dipper and Mabel could occur we learn here it's destined to come about through a combination of Dippers seeing Mabel as selfish and Dipper's hyper focus on his own little world the fact that this episode is one of the funniest is the only one to feature bill as the sole antagonist while also managing to fit in some incredibly important relationship building is just mind-blowing honestly the only thing I could even think to critique about this episode is the way Mabel even considers prioritizing the show over saving dipper Mabel is consistently presented as being highly altruistic so her even considering such a selfish act feels highly out of character if you wanted to make this story avoid vilifying Mabel then just have Dipper offer to take her place in the puppet show of his own volition that way you can avoid giving her this moment of doubt and just generally having Mabel be more devoted to protecting her brother in this scene would also help her characterization but even so that's literally the only feedback I have this is an amazing episode that I simply adore Sock Opera embodies everything great about gravity falls or should I say it almost embodies everything there's one character who doesn't get a ton of focus in Sock Opera one character who is arguably the most important in the show thankfully I've got the perfect episode for him lined up the number one best episode of Gravity Falls is by a landslide not what he seems I am not exaggerating when I say this episode has everything case in point unlike most other serious episodes I still actually laugh while watching this with me still saying Kurt prank to this very day the plot is also top tier as we reach the climax of the show's core mystery and the reveal of what this has all been building towards and most importantly of all this story has Exquisite character drama with the entire main cast getting involved in a massive internal crisis except Wendy Lamar this in turn leads to the single most emotional and meaningful scene of the show with Mabel's character defining act being responsible for the most iconic visual in all of Gravity Falls everything about this episode is Pitch Perfect jokes aside I am sad Wendy wasn't a good enough character to include in this drama but I also respect their decision to acknowledge her limitations and focus on the characters who actually matter every character is written perfectly here with all their strengths and weaknesses on display Dipper doesn't trust Stan because Dipper has trust issues Seuss protects the kids because that's his character Arc Stan appeals to Mabel's heart because they are parallels to each other and Mabel puts logic and safety aside in the name of the people she loves it's so wonderful to me that the final decision on how this story will pan out Falls to her the fate of all these men of the entire universe lies in one little girl's hands that is how you write agency Gravity Falls could have ended after this one episode and I wouldn't have been too upset the writing is so good the characters are so good and I don't think I've ever been this invested in any scene in any car cartoon before this one in many ways this is the real finale to Gravity Falls as while we do have a more typical save the world finale later on this is the finale to the part of the show that made it so unique it was the mystery the character writing and the interpersonal relationships that made Gravity Falls such an icon and not a single episode demonstrates all those things better than not what he seems before I wrap this ranking up I have some closing thoughts I'm sure the comments will be a mixed bag as this is possibly the most comprehensive critique that Gravity Falls has ever received or at the very least it's a far more critical reading of the show than most fans are used to some folks will be furious I suggested it was this flawed and I fully expect comments accusing me of arrogance egotism self-righteousness oversensitivity and so on heck I may even see some people saying that I expected too much from a children's show which I vehemently disagree with as Stan so succinctly pointed out a show can be made for both children and adults and thus can be critiqued from an adult perspective as well however despite all my criticisms and suggested rewrites I hope I've made it clear just how much I love this show I would never have made this video and re-watched gravity falls for the 12th time if I didn't find it so incredible that high quality is precisely why it's worth critiquing like I said critiquing a bad show will only teach you basic lessons about what obvious mistakes to avoid however if you want to learn more advanced new launched in interesting lessons you have to critique shows that are great and there are few cartoons greater than this Gravity Falls is the undeniable proof that just because the series is family media doesn't mean it can't have a compelling story emotional scenes well-developed characters and climactic moments that will stick with you for years to come that's the end of the video thank you all for watching a massive Thanks goes out to my patrons for their very generous support a special shout out goes to e-roll Hannah brown suit number one and a switch dog a very special shout out goes to Super ckx7 and osail pons for being the only ones willing and able to support me on the Rouse say tier my deepest Thanks goes out to all of you for supporting me in this way you are far far too kind and it really does mean and my family a lot of good thank you thank you thank you like if you enjoyed the video comment if you've got something to say subscribe if you want to see more and as always have a fantastic day [Music] thank you

Channel: JaruJaruJ

Views: 33,869

Keywords: Gravity Falls, Retrospective, Full Series, Episodes, Ranked, Worst to Best, JaruJaruJ, Jaru, Wendy, Review, Critique, Writer, Not What He Seems, Gift Shop of Horrors, Every Episode Ranked, schaffrillas

Id: a-GFed2eKcg

Length: 194min 50sec (11690 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023