What is your absolute favorite gravity falls fic ? The one that completely ate away at your brain and wouldn't leave your head for days? It can be shipp-y or gen, both is fine! I'm just completely on the edge of falling headfirst into a Gravity Falls hyperfixation and I need just one good fic to tip me over the edge & you have excellent taste!
Oh boi, I think it really depends on what you are looking for! I personally really enjoy fics that don't shy away from our characters' less desirable traits, and one of the things I adore about Gravity Falls is how deep and complicated the adult characters are. Ford can be an egomaniacal asshole who will trade the world to satisfy his insecurities; Stan can absolutely be a slimy conman with Saul Goodman-levels of morals; Bill is an outright abuser, despite his total infatuation with Ford; and Fiddleford essentially leaves his wife and child for another man he can never have in the 80s, which adds archeological layers to his terrible decisions. Considering this is technically a Disney, Y7 children's show, it's pretty damn wild how complex and mature these situations are once you spend more than three seconds thinking about them.
But you asked me for my single, favorite Gravity Falls fic.
As someone who really appreciates the Hannibal levels of fuckery that is the Ford and Bill relationship, I have to say Statement Abnegation is in my top 5, probably top 3. My backup Billford (gen, but still dark) rec would be Bait & Switch, which is unfinished at the moment, but updates at pretty quick intervals. (As an aside, I should mention I only rec triangle!Bill fics, as I really am not a fan of human!Bill unless he's possessing someone for a defined purpose).
Because I can never give a single, concise answer to anything in my life (hellooo, commitment issues hahahaha) I'll also throw in my favorite sibling-fic recs. First would be By Any Other Name, which is mostly a character study of Stan, but features a lot of Ford and the extended Pines clan, as well, and doesn't shy away from the fact that both Ford and Stan are very flawed people with a metric ton of issues. Backup sibling fic is a new one I just discovered, also complete, titled Under the Ice, which explores the idea that perhaps some events are fixed points in the universe and can never be avoided. Again, it's another fic that doesn't avoid the elder Pines twins and their multitude of less-than-savory character traits, which is something I really value in Gravity Falls writing, given the ever-present threat of blorbofication, no matter the fandom.
Anyway! Long answer to a short question, I hope you enjoy at least one of these!
Hey, anon! I have not, but I just read a few reviews of it and it looks FASCINATING! Might have to scrounge up an ebook copy to keep me company on the series of airplanes I'll be sitting on over the next few weekends :D
Can you imagine what it would be like if, after the adrenaline wears off, Mario has to tell his adventure and gets to the part "I got there just in time to save Luigi from falling into the lava" Saying that out loud and gradually realizing that, yes, he was just in time, because if he had been a few seconds longer, it would all have been for nothing. Going from "I was just in time" to "oh god, I was just in time". I don't think he'll be letting Luigi out of his sight anytime soon.
Speaking of angst!
We've been talking so much about Luigi and his manhole cover adventures, that we've neglected to dig up Mario's PTSD.
Mario snatched his brother from a fiery, unpleasant demise by the skin of his teeth. And yes, I am certain that Mario is probably being even more overprotective than he usually is, possibly even to Luigi's chagrin. But out of everything that happened during those crazy two days, it's the nightmare of flying through the sky, reaching for his brother, only for Luigi's fingers to slip out of Mario's grasp as he falls screaming into that lava pit that shocks him out of sleep night after night, panting and sweating. And maybe Luigi catches Mario sleeping on the floor next to his bed more than once, in those early mornings when Mario wasn't able to rouse himself in time to sneak back out of Luigi's room before he woke up.
So on mobile, you have to go to someone's profile and then hold the boop button until it hits two revolutions of the cat's paw (I feel like I'm outlining directions to summon a demonic entity here, which may not be entirely off base).
out of nowhere ask but i'm currently reading macbeth and i wanted to ask what your favorite productions/adaptations of the play are? (i've watched the 2021 movie with denzel washington already but i heard it cut a lot of content so i'd like to find some more adaptations. currently have my eye on the 2018 rsc production with christopher eccleston but there seem to be mixed reviews of that)
Ooooh great question! Recs below :)
Royal Shakespeare Company (1979)
It's an incredibly spartan production in terms of the set, but when you have Ian McKellen and Judi Dench playing the leads, you really don't need fancy backgrounds. This one's my personal favorite filmed production (but YMMV) and as a bonus, The Senate himself, Ian McDiarmid plays both the Porter and Ross.
Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城) (1957)
An adaptation of Macbeth directed by Kurosawa starring Toshiro Mifune as Taketoki Washizu, set in feudal Japan. I feel like a fair amount of the cinematography in the Denzel Washington adaptation (which I have mixed feelings about) harkens back to this film.
Slings and Arrows, Season 2
I love this show and honestly, it's been way too long since I've rewatched it. The basic premise is that it follows the shenanigans of a Canadian Shakespearean theater company, each season using the production of one play as the backdrop to the day-to-day drama of an arts nonprofit (If you've ever worked in an arts nonprofit, you will cackle). Anyway, Season 2 is based around their production of Macbeth and we do get a fair amount of scenes of the play during course of the show. (Season 1 is based around Hamlet and Season 3 Lear). The show stars Paul Gross and is just absolutely delightful in the way it weaves the plays into the storylines. (You should be able to find it on YouTube).
Heyo friend, just wanted to let you know that I have once again binged all of your Mario fics (with the excuse of "to get me in the zone for more Chaos!Luigi comics") and I have discovered for the umpteenth time now, that your writing freaking slaps and gives me sonmuch inspiration and I love it so much. I don't think I've found another author that flows *quite* like you do. Not sure how else to say it 😅
(This is NOT a prompt to write more Mario fics btw, Lord knows I understand the need to throw stories on hiatus. This is just a small token of my immense gratitude for what you've already done ❤️)
It's been amazing seeing you pop up in my tags again! Love hearing your thoughts :)
-formerly LethalHedgehogs ✌️
Yaaaaaaay!
Honestly, I would love to get back to writing my SMB and other fics. I really, really miss writing and in terms of the Luigi-Dimentio story, I absolutely know where it's going and how it will end and there is such a tasty unexpected moment in there that I want publish sooooo badly and just....aaaaaargh! I need to put pen to paper again (fingers to keys, I suppose).
This semester has obliterated me (anytime I have to teach a new course it's a nonstop gauntlet of chaos), but now that we're wrapping up and getting new movie content, I am definitely feeling the urge to both replay SPM and get back to finishing that story.
So...no pressure, as this is something that haunts me at 3am when I have insomnia hahahahhaa
Do you think Ford will eventually realize that his ego is really a big problem?
I think he does realize it at this point, at least to a certain extent. He knows Bill played him like a pipe both pre-betrayal and even in the Fearamid when Bill was asking how to pop the bubble surrounding Gravity Falls. He definitely knows his actions led to having to erase his brother's memory at point-blank range and we see just how guilty he feels about that in Journal 3. We also know from Book of Bill that he's struggling with an immense amount of shame due to the nature of his relationship with Bill and just how far gone he was (and we do see him regressing a little bit, in the way he hid the book from his family for so long before Mabel found it).
So, yes, Ford's on the path to recovery. This isn't to say that recovery is linear (it never is), and I remember this quote from the Alex Hirsch interview a few months ago:
"Those [Stan and Ford] characters at sea- it was so rich. They're really really funny, because they both have major major blind spots. -I can kinda write stories about them as a duo forever, because you can always excuse them both getting hyped on a bad idea for their own reasons, and then you can always come up with a reason for them to disagree about it, and it's always sweet to see them come together again, because they're so full of themselves, but they are also both so damaged they desperately need each other."
They're both going to regress at some point, meaning Ford's ego is going to rear its ugly head again. Maybe with not the same catastrophic consequences like coming close to ending the world and almost becoming a god-king of your shattered dimension with your triangular boyfriend who is reenacting his own trauma with you - but Ford's going to have to deal with it. Luckily, this time he has Stan around to keep him in check.
But I do also think Ford is due for some big realizations as they prep for their trip at sea and just how deep his, as he puts it in BoB, "monomaniacal ambition" runs and just how far the blast zone of collateral damage from his actions really extended.
(Side note? Going back to the interview with Alex, the way he's talking about the adventures and Ford and Stan at sea...I don't want to get anyone's hopes up but, oh boy, does it sound like something we might get down the road, if we are all very, VERY lucky).
1-the character everyone gets wrong for Gravity Falls and 16-you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) for Star Wars ??
The character everyone gets wrong (Gravity Falls)
I want to preface this answer by saying that I think there are a plethora of fantastic Gravity Falls fics, comics, and metas out there that address and explore Stanley's possible mental health issues in light of everything we've learned about his backstory, which is pretty damn bleak. And yes, I do enjoy reading this angst.
The fandom tends to focus on this particular side of Stanley and with good reason - it is absolutely fertile ground for analysis and there is no doubt he is a tortured individual.
But there is a tendency to "blorbo-ize" Stan and his sympathetic history. While he was absolutely forced into some horrendous situations and had to make decisions based solely on survival probability, this is also a man who has a rap sheet a mile long, has outstanding warrants throughout the majority of the country, and is heavily, heavily implied to have been dealing in cartel business.
You don't get that far in these circles without having a backbone of steel and the capacity to do some seriously shady - and bloody - shit. Sure, Stan eventually bailed from the more hardcore aspects of his existence. And this isn't to say he's fundamentally a bad person or even liked everything he was doing - but he is a dangerous man, whether that danger comes at the end of a gun barrel or a marked ace of spades.
And I think this aspect of his character gets underplayed in a lot of fandom. (Interestingly enough, Ford is the one who is generally allocated this role, due to his dimensional hobo life on the run. And Ford is a badass, but Stan is equal to his brother in this, albeit in a different context). Stan maybe wants to forget that part of his life (understandable), but he didn't get as far as he did being a criminal (you don't get to rack up that kind of sheet and stay mostly clear of the law without some considerable feats) without developing certain skills and he'd be dead five times over if he weren't some kind of threat. Yes, by the time we meet him in the show, those instincts may have been dulled, likely intentionally, but this is the same man who admits to having 10 firearms in his household, even if his reasoning is (seemingly) ludicrous.
Runners-up: Mabel and the Flanderization of her zaniness. (Let's not forget she put the majority of the puzzle pieces together in Not What He Seems). Ford's seemingly god-like combat skills (the man gets his ass handed to him on multiple occasions in the show and is in constant need of rescue after he comes back from the Portal. Don't get me wrong - I love a badass Ford - but he wasn't exactly batting 1.000 after returning to Gravity Falls).
16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) (Star Wars)
I fully expect to get pilloried by certain factions of the fandom for this opinion, and to be honest, it's been a long-standing thorn in my side.
The Jedi were not 100% without fault and yes, some of decisions they made fed into their ultimate demise.
Was it deserved? No. Were they evil? No.
Were they a stagnant organization led by a creature who had lived long enough to distance himself from the day-to-day concerns of the majority of mortal beings under his care? Yes. Did they have an effective strategy to combat their massive, massive PR problem - a problem which ended up with them characterized as a baby-snatching cult of superbeings that could easily usurp the will of a (corrupt) Republic government? Nooooo, not at all.
They refused to play politics. Until they had to play politics. And they lost on all sides.
There was so much emphasis on tradition and purity of said tradition in the organization - even if the highest members of the Council didn't necessarily 100% agree with this - the mythology of it was present enough in the Jedi Temple, that constant, subtle pressure to do things in a certain way, to avoid wholly the Dark Side (even if the individual teachings of the Masters went against this). The Jedi wanted to change, but at the same time, couldn't budge the 1,000 ton boulder of their past until it was too late to avoid Palpatine's machinations.
The ultimate tragedy is that the Jedi meant well, but couldn't collectively nudge their organization towards change.
And they did make some baffling decisions - Anakin being allowed to train at all being peak among them. (And then letting Obi-wan - a grieving 25-year old being held hostage by a deathbed promise - to train Anakin, as per the "will of the Force..." This was not well-thought out by anyone involed.)
Dooku had legitimate criticisms of the Order, even if he ultimately expressed his grievances by betraying everyone and everything he loved and aligning himself with an ultimate evil that not even he could overcome. Qui-gon, for all of his many fault, had some great ideas for the Order and should have been on the Council - if for not other reason, than to upset the status quo (and yes, I know he turned it down, and that's another story altogether).
It feels, that in a certain way, the Jedi were crushed by their own mythology, and by the time that leviathan breached the surface, it was far too late for change.
Discussions of the Jedi have a tendency to polarize quickly, and I'd love for there to be more space for exploration of where they did fail without consigning the whole organization to the out-of-touch and evil-by-incompetence box.
(And caveat lector: post this fully admitting I haven't meditated on Star Wars lore in quite some time, so excuse some of the broader strokes of this analysis).
