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Welcome brothers and sisters to this week's meeting of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel.
A secret society dedicated to discovering, decoding, and protecting the secrets of Gravity
Falls. I am this chapters founder and duly appointed High Exhaulted Big Fish, Douglas
Mackrell. As always, if you would like to see the minutes of last week's meeting you
can click this link - right here. And now for this week's order of business: The secrets
of Mabel's Guide to Life!
It feels good to be back, brothers and sisters. This was one of the worst colds I've had to
fight off in a long time - in fact, you can even still hear it in my voice. I know that
there wasn't anything I could do but take the show offline as I rode out this cold,
but I really appreciate everyone's patience and their well wishes. It really meant a lot
to me.
Now, before my unexpected hiatus, I had planned to breakdown Mabel's Guide to Life - which
would have been timely a week ago. But despite the shorts being old news, I decided that
it's still important for the Royal Order to acknowledge these new shorts, and for me to
break down everything we've learned from them. On the whole, these shorts don't drop any
CRAZY secrets on us, but they do expand and explore the world of Gravity Falls.
The easiest way to do so is to break these down in order, starting with Monday's short,
Mabel's Guide to Dating. This particular short is interesting, because it belies how disjointed
Mabel's filming and editing process is. Throughout the short, she's shown in several outfits
in different locations separated by hard video edits. For example. Mabel's desk set is filmed
in the kitchen - as you can tell from the pine tree wallpaper. The shot of Soos, Dipper,
and Grunkle Stan is filmed in Dipper and Mabel's bedroom, and the quiz breaks away to the living
room.
It's also important to note that some theorists are claiming that the hard edit at Mabel's
desk to the cardboard cutout of Zack is more proof of her double Lebam. This is because
Mabel is shown wearing a different color sweater and headband in that shot than she's seen
wearing anywhere else in the short. I personally disagree with this theory, because the writer
and director of this short show us visually with distinct flashes of static that Mabel
has edited in a shot. Because of this edit, there could be any amount of time real time
taken between these shots.
Next up is Mabel's Guide to Stickers - and small discoveries are made right off the bat!
In the theme song, Mabel is shown rollerskating into frame, and in the background we're shown
that Gravity Falls has a soda fountain in town. Fountain drinks, for those who don't
know, are kind of a relic of the past. Originally found in Drug Stores, they were a means of
carbonating water to recreate the restorative powers of natural mineral waters. These were
determined to be medical quackery over time, but the popularity of the soda fountain transitioned
the device into ice cream parlors and soda shops. It's interesting to know that Gravity
Falls would have a storefront business so antiquated and behind the times.
Of all the shorts, I feel like I was the most let down by Dipper in this short. Mabel went
to great lengths to lend a hand to Dipper in the filming of his show, Dipper's Guide
to the Unexplained. So to see him in this short being negative and disruptive feels
very off character to me. It's clearly done for the joke of it - much like how Mabel's
antics destroyed the Mailbox in the first set of shorts. Even so, Dipper comes across
as a real jerk in this short.
Also, this short is important for showing us four pages of text from an old book that
Mabel flashes on screen momentarily. It's a lot to slog through, but if you would like
to hear and see what that text is, I've made two separate videos where I break down what
the book says. Click this link for the pages about the Greeks, and this link here for the
pages about the Aztecs. The short version is that the Aztec pages are relate the myths
of the Aztec culture to the plots of the Air Bud film franchise. And the Greek pages reflect
a myth about a robot uprising that defeated the Gods and enslaved the humans. I go into
both in greater detail in these bonus videos - so check them both out when you get the
chance.
Mabel's Guide to Fashion brings few secrets, but Mabel's flash makeover of Soos transforms
him into Jareth from the film Labyrinth. For those who haven't seen Labyrinth, it's a gorgeous
film - but ultimately a film about a young girl named Sarah learning the hard lesson
of letting go of childish ways and growing up. Jareth, the Goblin King, is a menacing
and intimidating character - and one that wants Sarah to remain a selfish child trapped
in fantasy forever. There's something poetic about Soos, the man who seems more at home
in his childish mindset, being dressed as Jareth.
Mabel's Guide to Color holds a few secrets and references and starts out strong with
Mabel's first sweater. The symbol on her sweater is the logo from Pink Floyd's album Dark Side
of the Moon. This is a clever reference to an album with a bit of mystery. You see, a
popular theory many share about the Dark Side of the Moon is that it secretly syncs up perfectly
with The Wizard of Oz. Which ties in perfectly with the idea that this short has to deal
with Rainbows and color - The Wizard of Oz being the first color feature film ever produced
- one that starts off in black and white and transitions to vivid color.
Pushing forward - Pacifica's brief appearance proves the existence of a mall somewhere within
Gravity Falls. It seems decently sized too, as the escalator belies the fact that it's
at least two stories tall. There's no way to tell if it will be a future teen hangout
place, but I wouldn't be surprised if we we see more of that location in Season two!
Another big discovery is that the window to Stan's Office is a clear shot to a small river
and a waterfall. It seems to be the same waterfall with the cave behind it that Dipper, Mabel,
and Soos find Old Man Mcgucket in. That doesn't mean that it's nearby - light can travel a
long distance without losing too much potency, but it's good to know that Stan's office has
a decent view of the Falls.
And finally, Mabel's Guide to Art has a small reference to the Pyramids of Giza, but the
core reveal in this short is the awful caricature of of Dipper. This awful drawing tells us
two things - that dipper has a slight diastema, a gap between his front teeth, and his eye
color. Now, I see this light color as green, but according to a few our members - Alex
Hirsch stated on twitter that the twin's eye color was brown. But look at this picture.
Dipper's hair is brown. If his eyes aren't green, they're at most a light hazel... but
they are not brown.
So as you can see, there was a lot to discover in these shorts. Sure, they were mostly played
for laughs, but there's still a lot of fun character development. But what would you
like to have seen more of? Did you catch any secrets I missed? Leave your theories and
suggestions in the comments below! And now, before I close this week's meeting, I have
one last order of business.
It's time for this week's challenge! This week you'll face the Sticker Secrets Challenge!
If you can decode and answer all three of this weeks riddles, then you'll get your hands
on the some Mabel designed starter pages for your very own Sticktionary! Just print the
pages out, punch some holes in them, and set them up in a colorful three ring binder of
your choice!
With no other orders of business, I hereby call a close to this week's meeting of the
Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel. Until next time, share, subscribe, and keep cracking
those codes!
Member TheParanormalGuy asks: What is your Least favorite episode of Gravity Falls? Answer:
Dipper Vs Manliness. The episode has some of the weakest writing of the first season
and seems the most disjointed. Characters appear in the background and aren't interacted
with, and the elements and characters it does introduce aren't brought up again in the first
season.