I feel like there's a significance to Stan doing the "one-paddle-paddle-paddle two-paddle-paddle-paddle" thing again when Bill went into his mind. Like it was the moment just before he lost his relationship with Ford the first time he did it, and then the moment when he got it back.

Oh I’d definitely agree with you there.

Bill, as a whole, can be seen as a symbol. Go with me on this. For a very long post that spiraled out of control.

There are a lot of parallels you can pull between Bill’s plans and Mabeland:

He’s chaotic. He doesn’t care about responsibility, or loyalty, or anything difficult. He’s fun incarnate. Terrifying fun, but fun.

Bill’s defeat coincides with the end of the summer, when the twins fully accept growing up. You could draw the parallel that defeating Bill means defeating holding onto your childhood. Which is true, in some ways.

But then there’s the fact that it’s Stan who defeats Bill in the end, not the kids.

Does he have a childhood to grow out of? I mean, you can say that he has been holding onto it for a long time

But at the same time he gave it up.

First he is forced to grow up way too fast, living on his own, feeling betrayed.

And when he does see his brother again, he basically tells him he never wants to see him again.

He tries, 30 years to bring him back, bitter with no family. But there is some hope for him. Soos

and the kids, of course.

When he finally succeeds? Ford punches him in the face, and they avoid each other basically the rest of the series.

The fact is, we (and they too, sort of) forget about all this hate they have built up until that one line:

One, tiny thing like that, just reminds Stan of all this, of all the work he’s put into this and how Ford doesn’t even care and how he still has the audacity to look down on him. So they fight again. And almost destroy the universe.

It’s not until they’re both caught by Bill and watch the kids working together do they realize that they’ve both messed up their relationship.

But here’s the interesting thing: what does Stan say, in regards to Mabel and Dipper?

And then they make up. And that’s how they defeat Bill.

Hence the paddleball.

Hence them going on the boat trip.

They’re reclaiming their own childhood.

But doesn’t that go against the whole message here, that defeating Bill means defeating your childhood?

I’d say there are two extremes in the show: Bill who grew old and never grew up, never changed, and the Stans who grew old and completely grew up, and changed a lot. In the end, it’s a balance between the two that wins out. Dipper and Mabel learn to grow up, but not at the expense of each other.

And Stan and Ford learn that too.



It’s too easy to say Gravity Falls is a series about putting your childhood behind you; about realizing you have to grow up and become an adult. Because it’s not. It’s a series about growing up, yes, but not growing out of who you are.

It’s about taking the best things from your childhood and letting them grow, realizing and changing as you get older.

It’s about love, and not letting anything get in the way of that love.