History Literature / GravityFallsJournal3

--->''It's too bad time travel isn't actually real''\\

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Stan somehow managed to smuggle a dinosaur egg after "The Land Before Swine", and the twins decided to hatch it because, hey, wouldn't having a pet dino be cool? Ford also mentions a couple of alternate dimensions where dinosaurs still rule. And this is the reason why the Shacktron had its '' T. rex'' fist.

** After the encounter with Quentin Trembley, Dipper and Mabel prank Soos into thinking he himself had been encased in peanut brittle [[FakedRipVanWinkle and transported into the future]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: Fiddleford shows signs of an anxiety disorder, which worsens during his time with Ford, the last straw being the Portal test.

* FriendlessnessInsult: It is revealed that, ever since the events of the episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E8BlendinsGame Blendin's Game]]", Blendin Blandin is still shunned by others despite getting his job back, and is mocked for being friendless by his piers. Even the Time Baby, [[NotSoAboveItAll of all beings]], mocks him by calling him "No-Friendin Blandin". [[spoiler:This results in Blendin Blandin becoming an easy target for Bill Cipher's DemonicPossession, as Bill [[DealWithTheDevil promised that Blendin will not be mocked anymore]]]].

* FriendlessnessInsult: It is revealed that, ever since the events of the episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E8BlendinsGame Blendin's Game]]", Blendin Blandin is still shunned by others despite getting his job back, and is mocked for being friendless by his piers. Even the Time Baby, [[NotSoAboveItAll of all beings]], mocks him by calling him "No-Friendin Blandin". [[spoiler:This results in Blendin Blandin becoming an easy target for Bill Cipher's DemonicPossession, as Bill [[DealWithTheDevil by promised that Blendin will not be mocked anymore]].

* WhatTheHellHero: Fiddleford rightfully calls out Ford for his obsession and carelessness, but Ford dismisses him as "superstitious." As soon as Fiddleford is gone, the previous pages of praise for his partner's scientific acumen are replaced by a snappish description of Fiddleford as a useless jumped-up farmer.

** [[spoiler: If Time Baby and the entire Time Police hadn't kept on teasing Blendin Blandin for losing Globnar, Blendin would never have made a deal with Bill Cipher. Thus, Bill wouldn't have used his body to cause Weirdmageddon. On the other hand, this would have made Dipper to accept Ford's offer to become his apprentice. Mabel would have returned home all alone. Stan and Ford's relationship would still be strained. And Time Baby would still rule future earth with an iron fist]].

** [[spoiler: If Time Baby and the entire Time Police hadn't kept on teasing Blendin Blandin for losing Globnar, Blendin would never have made a deal with Bill Cipher. Thus, Bill wouldn't have used his body to cause Weirdmageddon]].

* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: After the Woodstick Festival disaster caused by Stan's shoddy hot air balloon, Stan expressed no concern about the physical and psychological damage caused by the balloon, claiming that "all press is good press".

* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: After the Woodstick Festival disaster caused by Stan's hot air balloon, Stan expressed no concern about the physical and psychological damage caused by the balloon, claiming that "all press is good press".

* AdaptedOut: For whatever reason, Dipper does not catalog the events of "Dipper vs. Manliness", "Little Dipper", "Bottomless Pit", "Boyz Crazy", and "Little Gift Shop of Horrors". However, Ford does inadvertently allude to things that would occur in those episodes (such as the Hand Witch and telling stories for 22 minutes after falling into the Bottomless Pit).

!!'''NOTE:''' Spoilers from this book are marked as usual. However, as book is meant to be read after watching [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls the entire series]], all spoilers from the show have been left unmarked. As such, Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

'''NOTE:''' ''This book is meant to be read after watching the entire series. As such, all spoilers from the show have been left unmarked. You have been warned.''

** [[spoiler: If Time Baby and the entire Time Police hadn't kept on teasing Blendin Blandin for losing Globnar, Blendin would never have made a deal with Bill Chipher. Thus, Bill wouldn't have used his body to cause Weirdmageddon]].

* ForWantOfANail: One of the dimensions Ford passed through was a parallel timeline where Stan ''didn't'' knock Ford into the portal. Its version of Ford reunited with [=McGucket=], got the portal to work without any risk of allowing entry from the Nightmare Realm, and became well-regarded for his work in the scientific community. This was where he got that {{BFG}} he tried to use in "Weirdmageddon Part 1", from [=Parallel!McGucket=].

* BlandNameProduct: All over the place with such things as "[[KitschyThemedRestaurant T.G.I. Apple Rucker's]]" and "[[Anime/SpiritedAway The Cranky Girl who did Chores in Spirit Town]]".

** Ford on the Bottomless Pit: “One day I may have the courage to leap into it out of curiosity. Although I might find myself on a plane of existence that I am not ready to handle (or just waste twenty-one minutes telling stories to myself to keep entertained).”

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Stan somehow managed to smuggle a dinosaur egg after "The Land Before Swine", and the Twins decided to hatch it because, hey, wouldn't having a pet dino be cool? Ford also mentions a couple of alternate dimensions where dinosaurs still rule. And this is the reason why the Shacktron had its '' T. rex'' fist.

* FakedRipVanWinkle: After the events of "Irrational Treasure", Soos tried to freeze himself in peanut brittle just like Quentin Trembley. The twins decided to prank him by dressing up as cyborgs, gluing a fake beard to Soos's face, and waking him up to tell him he was in "the year bleventy-billion".

** Ford's is IWorkAlone. Prior to his travels, it was his desire for fame and recognition, which results in going through with The Portal despite Fiddleford’s warnings.
** Dipper’s is his struggle to get respect for his supernatural findings, which puts people in danger. He does learn from his mistakes faster than Ford does.

** In an entry detailing the events of "The Legend Of The Gobblewonker", Dipper finds Stan’s "[=StnleyBle=]" license plate odd. It’s actually evidence of who his great uncle really is.

* ForWantOfANail: One of the dimensions Ford passed through was a parallel timeline where Stan ''didn't'' knock Ford into the portal. Its version of Ford reunited with [=McGucket=], got the portal to work without any risk of allowing entry from the Nightmare Realm, and became well-regarded for his work in the scientific community. This was where he got that {{BFG}} he tried to use in "Weirdmageddon Part 1", from [=Parallel!McGucket=]
** Had Ford actually decoded that secret message he found, [[spoiler: not only that he would have found out that Bill was just using him to jumpstart the apocalypse and stopped building the portal, Fiddleford would never have founded the Society of the Blind Eye and lost his sanity. However, Stan would have still been homeless, and running from the authorities and The Mystery Shack wouldn’t exist]].

** It’s unclear if Ford would have been able to expose the Northwests for who they were before he met Bill and worked on the Portal. But if he had, Pacifica and her family might’ve gone down a different path.
** If Ford agreed to Fiddleford’s offer to get his research published and abandon the Portal, things would have gone ''very'' differently for them.
** After the events of the GrandFinale, Dipper ponders on what would have happened if Stan and Ford didn’t fight and The Zodiac worked. Soos believes they would have gotten superpowers, but Dipper doesn’t believe it.
* FreudianExcuse: It’s heavily implied that childhood bullying for his intelligence and six fingers drove Ford to eventually be obsessed with getting fame and recognition for his work, especially after creating The Portal. Ford even says outright at one point he wants to "show them all what the "six fingered freak" had accomplished."

** Dipper reveals his first name, [[spoiler:to both Ford and the audience, in an entry set between "The Last Mabelcorn" and "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future". His real name is "Mason".]]

** A young Preston’s reaction to Ford telling him about the Lumberjacks suggests this.

* IcarusAllusion: F warned Ford not to forget what happened to [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Icarus]], but Ford simply retorted that the boy didn't flap hard enough. One coded message after the test of the Portal reads "IF ICARUS COULD SEE ME NOW"

* InSpiteOfANail: In the "Better World" Dimension, while Ford and Fiddleford’s lives are better, Ford and Stan are on bad terms, with Ford not knowing or caring what happened to him after he gave Stan Journal 1 and sent him away.
* IntimateArtistry: Most of Dipper's drawings portray scenes or creatures as they happened, but his first drawing of Wendy, before he properly realizes he's in love with her in "The Inconveniencing," notably has her smiling with her hair blown in a slight breeze, a few leaves trailing her around. Later, in an entry written after "Into the Bunker," he bemoans his "impossible crush on an impossible girl" next to a beautifully crafted picture of Wendy sitting in profile in front of a forest backdrop. Tellingly, a smaller but similar side shot of Pacifica is drawn on a page recounting the events of "Northwest Mansion Mystery," being one of couple hints in that entry that Dipper had a crush on her.
** In Soos’s entry about the events of "Soos and The Real Girl", there’s a cute drawing of Melody.

** While Ford hopes that The Portal would get him fame and recognition, Fiddleford points out that he also could do it with his previous findings instead. It’s strongly implied that had Ford listened to him, he would have indeed found fame and made millions, instead of going near insane and ending up lost in the multiverse for thirty years.

* KidsAreCruel: In Ford’s bio about himself, he talks about a time where he borrowed a shrunken head from the family pawn shop for show and tell. Every other kid brought a football, a football trophy or a book on football. They used them to throw them at Ford during his presentation. Luckily, Stan saved him.

* OnlyKnownByHisNickname: Throughout the first third of the Journal, Ford referred to his assistant as [F] instead of Fiddleford. Dipper writes his surprise that the crazed hillbilly who built the Gobblewonker and the the Author were ConnectedAllAlong.
* OnlyFriend: Fiddleford was Ford’s one friend as well as his assistant, as Ford refused to socialize with the rest of the town, considering them not worth his time. It explains why Stan was able to pass as his brother after Ford disappeared.

* PageTurnSurprise: After recounting the account of the portal test, the next two pages are [[spoiler: nigh-covered with black-ink scrawling, drawings of eyes, and red text spelling out "MY MUSE WAS A MONSTER", "I WAS A PUPPET", and "F WAS RIGHT".]]

* PoliceAreUseless: [[spoiler: In Blendin's secret message, instead of the Time Police planning out a strategy to take Bill Cipher down, [[MisplacedRetribution they all blamed Blendin for Time Baby's demise]]. This led to the Time Police chasing Blendin throughout time instead of apprehending the real culprit]].

* RandomEventsPlot: Ford’s first section starts with various entries on the different creatures he’s found, but then starts forming a plot after seeing ghosts at Dan’s cabin and then uncovering secrets about the Northwest family. But suddenly, the main plot of the Portal and Bill begins…

* SawStarWars27Times: According to Dipper, Mabel has seen "The Cranky Girl Who Did Chores In Spirit Town" eighty two times.

** Dipper's first drawing of Wendy, before he properly realizes he's in love with her in "The Inconveniencing," notably has her smiling with her hair blown in a slight breeze, a few leaves trailing her around. Later, in an entry written after "Into the Bunker," he bemoans his "impossible crush on an impossible girl" next to a beautifully crafted picture of Wendy sitting in profile in front of a forest backdrop.

*** According to a cryptogram on the entry for Level 9 ghosts, Bill Cipher once told Ford [[Series/TwinPeaks that gum he likes is going to come back in style.]]

** A movie called [[Film/BackToTheFuture "Return Backwards To The Past Again 3"]] is mentioned. Apparently, it’s required viewing in [[spoiler:the Time Police training]]

** Ford shows a drawing of one of the skeleton the alien pilots that is a clear visual nod to the "space jockey" alien corpse found in Film/{{Alien}}.

* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: In Ford's entry on his lab, which Stan turned into The Mystery Shack, Ford is rather disturbed and incensed by the changes his brother made in his absence:

* TookALevelInKindness: Ford’s demeanor and relationships with his family start improving after the events of "Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons" and he makes more of an effort to fix things with Stan after the GrandFinale.

* {{Unobtainium}}: Spoofed with the mysterious element that is the only thing both stable and powerful enough to charge the Quantum Destabilizer Ford used in ''Weirdmageddon'', called [=NowYouSeeItNowYouDontium=].

* WhamLine: In Ford’s second section, he and Dipper are discussing the real theory of weirdness about the town, and bonding over their own abnormalities: Ford’s six fingers and Dipper’s birthmark. Suddenly, Dipper says [[spoiler:''his real name'':]]
--> Dipper: [[spoiler:Mason.]] My real name is [[spoiler:Mason.]]

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:In Blendin Blandin's secret message, after Dipper and Mabel gave him back his job, Time Baby and the entire Time Police kept on teasing Blendin for losing Globnar to two kids. It got so bad that Blendin [[DealWithTheDevil made a deal with Bill Cipher to stop the teasing]]. This unfortunately led to Bill [[DemonicPossesion possesing Blendin]] to jumpstart Weirdmageddon]].

* NeverMyFault: As an excuse not to thank him for getting back home, Ford blames Stan for getting him tossed into the portal, stealing his identity, and turning his lab into what he considered a mockery of the paranormal, neglecting both the fact that he was the one that started the fight with Stan that got him thrown into the portal, and that Stan only created The Mystery Shack to pay off Ford’s mortgage and bills so that he could fix the portal. He comes to regret this after Stan sacrifices his memories in order to stop Bill for good.

* AdaptedOut: For whatever reason, Dipper does not catalog the events of ''Dipper vs. Manliness'', ''Little Dipper'', ''Bottomless Pit'', ''Boyz Crazy'', and ''Little Gift Shop of Horrors''. However, Ford does inadvertently allude to things that would occur in those episodes (such as the Hand Witch and telling stories for 22 minutes after falling into the Bottomless Pit).

* ADayInTheLimeLight:

** There’s more of Fiddleford prior to his descent into madness.

** Ford's advice to Fiddleford that, as scientists, they must use their own talents to overcome their problems, is what leads Fiddleford to create the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Memory Eraser Gun]]. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted by the gun's role in the]] SeriesFinale.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Blendin’s letter to Dipper and Mabel explaining what happened to him and that he’s okay. Ford never decoded it and Dipper and Mabel never see it, and then Ford throws the Journals into The Bottomless Pit, making his efforts moot.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: It’s never revealed if Fiddleford used [[spoiler:The Memory Gun on Ford. It’s likely that he did, but Ford isn’t certain.]]

* ArcWords: "The path is clear" is this for Ford after his return. It first refers to stopping Bill on his own, but at the end it’s referred to fulfilling his and Stan’s childhood dreams together.

** Ford’s drawings are very detailed and realistic.
** Dipper’s drawings are like Ford’s, but less skilled due to his age.
** Mabel’s drawings are more cartoony than her grunkle and brother and use more than one color.
** Soos’s drawings are fairly average but slightly more realistic than Mabel.

* TheAtoner: Ford’s storyline ends with him as this, determined to become a better person and a better brother to Stan.

** While Blendin fixed most of the changes Dipper and Mabel made to history in "The Time Traveler's Pig," their presence still resulted in the invention of the high-five over a hundred years early.

** Dipper finds Stan’s car license plate rather strange, as it spells "Stanley" instead of "Stanford"…

* CassandraTruth: Ford is warned about Bill by the Soothsquitos, cautioned about his work by The Hand Witch and Fiddleford tries to convince him to abandon the Portal and publish his research. ''None'' of it dissuades Ford until it’s too late.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Mabel says she usually associates blue hair with her grandma "but Craz makes it work".

* DarkerAndEdgier: The book clearly has looser content restrictions than the show, allowing such things as Ford mentioning abnormalities flat-out killing people, him having a near total mental breakdown, calrifying those red stains actually are blood, and Bill directly stating he was going to make Dipper commit suicide while possessing his body.

* {{Diary}}: Contains a record of events from the Author and Dipper, with some additional writing from Mabel and Soos (and one page by Agent Trigger).

** In the SpecialEdition underneath the Mothman picture there are notes about other bug creatures, one of them is [[spoiler: "Man-Spider": [[Creator/JKSimmons I've]] still never seen one of these. [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy GET]] [[Film/SpiderMan1 ME]] [[Film/SpiderMan2 PHOTOS]] [[Film/SpiderMan3 OF]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons MAN-SPIDER]]!]]

* [[AdaptationalVillainy Adaptational Antiheroism]]: In the series, Grunkle Ford was arrogant and high-handed, but everything he did seemed to be ForScience. While he still isn't exactly a villain, Ford's journal entries paint a portrait of an obsessed, arrogant KnightTemplar whose arrogance and eagerness for fame (almost as much as knowledge) led him to nearly destroy the world. His dismissal of his newly-discovered family (and contemplation of doing experiments on them) doesn't help. He does start to get better after bonding with Dipper, but it takes time.

* ActuallyADoombot: Remember when Bill vaporized the TimePolice in "Weirdmageddon Part 1"? According to Blendin's letter, those were only holographic projections which they use on dangerous missions. Time Baby really ''was'' vaporized, however.
* AdaptedOut: For whatever reason, Dipper does not catalog the events of ''Dipper vs. Manliness'', ''Little Dipper'', ''Bottomless Pit'', ''Boyz Crazy'', and ''Little Gift Shop of Horrors''. However, Ford does inadvertently allude to things that would occur in those episodes (such as the Hand Witch and telling stories for 22 minutes after falling into the Bottomless Pit).