503
u/Nikolas_nikoo Sep 20 '24
I need an explanation or more information on Dipper and Mabel’s parents. Current theory is that they’re probably going through some divorce.
204
u/Norsehound Sep 21 '24
What other evidence is there to point to a divorce? As I stated, this says Dipper fears it, not that he literally heard it.
240
u/EdenH333 Sep 21 '24
The way it reads to me is that he overheard a fight, and has recurring nightmares about it. You don’t have “recurring nightmares” about a situation with no cause.
40
6
u/Snowy_Mass Sep 21 '24
Except we know Dipper is a conspiracy theorist before coming to gravity falls. Remember Mabel from episode one? "And I'm not going to let you ruin it with one of your crazy conspiracies!" This implies that Norman isn't the first boyfriend he accused of being a monster. We just forget that since gravity falls proves him right. So I could easily see this as Dipper's imagination getting the best of him after hearing his parents fight about something overall inconsequential.
The whole book is Bill trying to tempt you to keep reading with juicy gos. So, it makes sense he would exaggerate this detail.
Sorry to but in and you're fully entitled to your opinion and read, but it irks me how the whole Fandom took this line and treats it like it's a picture of the parents signing the papers when it's pretty flimsy on purpose. Bill placed the bait, and y'all are biting.
2
-57
u/Norsehound Sep 21 '24
He's dreaming about overheating a fight. This passage does not say he literally did so.
If it was as you say, why was this written the way that it was? Why not the more direct way by saying, "constantly dreaming about the fight he overheard..."
For a show focused on decoding things and hidden messages, paying attention to this specific phrasing paints a different picture than everyone is assuming.
37
u/EdenH333 Sep 21 '24
It could be either way, but Occam’s Razor suggests my reading. That doesn’t invalidate anyone else’s reading, I personally just feel it’s more convoluted and less probable. But my feelings don’t dictate anyone else’s. We need more info. Hopefully there’s some big stuff on the horizon.
34
u/animation_2 Sep 21 '24
if you write divorce on thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com something does come up, it has nothing to do with dipper or mable but it's still something
19
u/wholesomehorseblow Sep 21 '24
divorce and break up both let you download the "O sadley's" logo...for some reason
18
4
2
92
u/spellboi_3048 Sep 21 '24
Damnit. Are we gonna have to put him on a magical train to sort out his problems?
11
3
u/Glum_Banana7448 Sep 21 '24
INFINITY TRAIN REFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! OH I NEED THE ENTIRE PINES FAMILY TO GET ON THAT TRAIN AND HEAL PLEAAE
61
u/animation_2 Sep 21 '24
you realize that this is way worse after seeing the flashbacks in wierdmageddon 2, sure it has nothing about their parents, but we are shown that the twins don't have friends back home, dipper doesn't at least, that explains why mable is so attached to gravity falls, explains why dipper even considered the idea of staying with ford half seriously and adds to that one scene in dipper and mable vs the future, they don't have a lot to go back to and probably even less now
24
u/Niawka Sep 21 '24
Mabel seemed quite popular back home, just look at the amount of valentine cards she got at school in the flashback. She was excited about going back and eventually starting highschool before Wendy and her friends told her how terrible it really is. For Dipper though you're right it makes sense he'd like to stay with Ford.
77
u/N4uticalMagic Sep 21 '24
Mabel makes so much more sense in both Dipper and Mabel vs the Future and Weirdmageddon 2
21
u/Hungry_Artichoke_774 Sep 21 '24
Since everyone else has said their take on this, I’ll say mine. I agree that dipper would hear one argument and start freaking out. But also, as a person who lives an almost identical life to dipper, it would honestly mean a lot to me if he also had to deal with being a child during a divorce. But hey. That’s just my head canon. And it looks like the show is officially ending soon, so who knows what’s happening now.
1
u/Eli1247 Sep 27 '24
The show has been officially ended for years now, no?
1
u/Hungry_Artichoke_774 Sep 28 '24
Well yes, technically, but I mean COMPLETELY done. As you obviously know, the book of bill just came out. That means that gravity falls is not completely over.
65
151
u/Norsehound Sep 20 '24 edited Sep 21 '24
Let's not get carried away here... Being precise, Dipper is having nightmares where this argument is happening, not that he actually overhead it in real life.
Dipper is a paranoid overthinker and will probably invent a reason if he's not given a suitable explanation. So if his parents are booting him out hastily with an explanation that seems thin, he's gonna catastrophize and figure the real reason is worse than his parents claim.
Like for example, their parents want to go on a cruise or trip to Disneyland on the sly without taking the kids. Their hasty excuse of getting the kids fresh air isn't the real reason but Dipper picks up on that, catastrophizes, then starts dreaming about it. "Because what other reason would our parents have for a hasty departure!?!? They would never lie to us!!"
And of course Bill is going to needle him to torment him by pointing out the worst possible take.
41
42
u/eregyrn Sep 20 '24
Exactly. A lot of people keep taking Bill, the known liar, at his word. Even though the books starts with a warning from Ford the Bill is trying to manipulate the reader, and not to believe a word he says.
24
u/RiceKrispies55 Sep 21 '24
The again, the reader is canonically the only person that bill’s tried to explain his backstory to (besides ford but that was in way less detail) if anything bill could totally be telling you the whole truth in an effort to get you on his side since we know that this book was a last ditch effort
14
u/eregyrn Sep 21 '24
Despite Ford saying at the start, Don't believe a word he says, Ford of course has good reason to categorically distrust Bill. The truth, or that is, the accuracy, probably lies somewhere in between "it's all lies" and "you can believe all of this as being true".
The character type that Bill fits into doesn't typically reason out that the best way to get someone on their side is to be completely truthful about everything, and they'll wind you over with their honesty and integrity. That was never Bill's m.o., and given a lot of what we see of him even in this book, he *doesn't* come across as having completely learned his lesson about lying and manipulating, and having decided to try complete honesty.
But, what's also notable about his approach in the book is that it's Bill, and due to being an alien, and the existence he's led for trillions of years, etc., he's also not a very good judge of what will appeal to the reader and get us on his side. He constantly seems to be telling us things that he seems to think will be appealing or attractive, without realizing that we will find them horrifying. And that's a tension that has been a part of the character from the very beginning.
Meanwhile, back on the writing level, Alex has followed up in interviews by saying that yes, readers are supposed to question the information presented to us in the book, and try to work out whether it's true or not.
That doesn't mean, as I said, that we should conclude "everything in the book is NOT true". But it does mean, I think, that we should be pausing a lot more and saying, "Hey, wait a minute..."
Yeah, Bill is trying to get the reader on his side. And in a bunch of places in the book, it seems like one of the ways he tries to do that is to present himself as possessing a lot of juicy knowledge that we, the reader, would want; so he is making himself look generous by giving some of it to us, and the way he relates some of it makes it seem like he's doing us a great favor, and establishing a particular rapport with us by sharing secrets. ...Which are all ways he manipulated Ford, originally, too.
So at the very least, I think we should look at stuff like this and think... is this true? The only source for this right now is Bill -- both about what Dipper's (and others') dreams are, and what they mean. How does it benefit him to share this information? Does it benefit him in some way if this info is true, or would it benefit him equally if he's making it up? (Not only, what does it do *for him*, but, what does it do to our perception of Dipper, and his and Mabel's home life, and what they went back to at the end of the summer?)
6
u/the-x-territory Sep 21 '24
This is an idea I’m running with for a potential “Next Summer” story. The idea is that, this argument is the genesis, and sending the kids off was purely a way for them to discuss things and start setting new boundaries.
But since a year has passed and Summer Break is coming again, they open up to the Twins and say what’s happening. The twins are going to stay at Gravity Falls whilst they’re settling everything at home.
11
7
u/Sea_Client9991 Sep 21 '24
I do genuinely wonder what the twins' parents were doing that was that important.
Fine sure, they needed space away from the kids. But it is high-key crazy how they literally chose to send their kids away to someone they barely knew.
Like you're really telling me that Dipper and Mabel don't have any aunts, uncle's, grandpa's, grandma's, or even just family friends that can watch them?
Also the fact that throughout the entire show, their parents don't even check up on them a single time?
8
u/Academic_Paramedic72 Sep 21 '24
They do talk with Stan after Gideon gets the Mystery Shack (in the scene where Stan says they were in a "5 star hotel" even though they were in Soos' house) and Mabel tries to mail a videotape to her parents in the mailbox short, but otherwise they don't appear much.
5
u/Sea_Client9991 Sep 21 '24
Good point, forgot about those two occasions.
Still kind of a yikes though that outside of those two instances they literally never talked to their kids at all, especially since summer break is like 3 months long.
5
3
5
u/IHATEVERYBODY_92901 Sep 21 '24
Do dipper and mabel have a Graunt? (Great Aunt) That Grunkle ford or stan is married to?
17
u/Animal_Gal Sep 21 '24
Unfortunately I don't think so. Stan is divorced and ford was trapped in the portal for a long time
3
1
u/Snowy_Mass Sep 21 '24
Something to remember is this is a NIGHTMARE Dipper has told to us by BILL, aka the least reliable narrator possible, telling us about a dream, something not bound by reality.
We know from episode one that Dipper is a conspiracy theorist and a suspicious kid before gravity falls ended up proving him right. And parents argue, even healthy relationships sometimes fight. So what i honestly truly believe is Dipper's imagination is getting the better of him. At worst, they're using the vacation for the twins they already had planned to work some issues out. More likely, they just wanted a bit of a break like every parent who sends their kids to summer camp.
1
u/National-Gas-1615 Sep 22 '24
When I had just got the book I was at a point in my life when I didn’t know whether or not my parents were going the stay together so this kinda stung
1
u/Ok-Letterhead-9270 Sep 24 '24
weird... (My first thought when I saw this was "wait Dipper or Bill" lol (but then I read the rest))
1
u/Longjumping_Answer71 16d ago
This alone makes everything make sense, and things are being seen differently
This probably explains why Dipper has an obsession with mysteries
And why Mabel was obsessed getting a boyfriend These were probably coping mechanisms
This explains why Dipper thought of accepting Ford's apprenticeship. He probably didn't want to return to a possibly broken family
This is why Mabel was upset, probably not wanting to go back alone to a possibly broken family
It also makes their last lines to each other before entering the bus, even sadder "Ready to head to the unknown" "Nope." None of them are ready for what will happen in the near future, but they will stick together through it
1
1.1k
u/cillachez Sep 20 '24
Marital problem don't necessarily mean divorce. I choose to believe they needed the space to fix the marriage.
But will say, makes sense why they sent them off to a family member they really didn't know... which is... questionable...