Fanfic / The Return to Gravity Falls

The Return to Gravity Falls version of the Zodiac.

Dipper:^note  Writing a homework assignment When people ask me 'How was your summer' or 'What did you do this summer', I'll be honest, I don't know what to tell them. The closest I have to say is 'I had the privilege to have the most exciting summer of my life with my grand uncle in Oregon'. Now, I know what you might be thinking- 'How is that exciting? Sounds like any other boring family trip', right? Well, you'd be wrong. I was lucky; lucky just being there this summer, seeing things that no one else has seen in their lives, fighting for truth and justice, and even falling in love.

— The first paragraph of the story.^note  Immediately deleted because "It sounds conceited."

The Return to Gravity Falls by EZB is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Dipper and Mabel, now living in separate homes because of their parents divorce, get a call from the Northwests telling them their Grunkle Stan passed away the night before, and that the two of them are mentioned in his will. The two reunite at the Mystery Shack, catching up with Soos and Wendy. The four attend Stan's memorial service, the twins intending to leave soon after. But because Gravity Falls is... well, Gravity Falls, they end up deciding to spend the next two weeks, and eventually the entire summer, trying to solve new mysteries of the town.

The story began September 2014, just a month after the second season premiere. As EZB himself notes, this means the show was still very active and many mysteries had yet to be solved; as such, he had to imagine what the rest of the summer would look like. Initial vagueness about the events he made up was common early on, but he tried to make it as close to canon as possible, even going back after "Not What He Seems" aired to change all the 'Stanford's' to 'Stanley's.' That being said, he has stuck to some of his biggest changes. The general rule of thumb is that everything of the summer up until "Not What He Seems" is canon to the story, but the events leading up to Ford's getting stuck in the portal and the events following Ford's return are EZB's own theories and ideas.

The story has a unique set up for the chapters. See Multi-Part Episode below for details. EZB also broke the story down into 'seasons,' with the first season being made up of ten episodes, or twenty chapters (21 if you count the first chapter, or the prologue). The second season was twice the length of the first, and the third, current and last season is three times that of the first. Each season has it's own over-arching plotlines, and each set of ten episodes focus on a specific mystery the twins are trying to solve.

In his author's notes, EZB will often kill himself in random and hilarious ways, often being crushed by something falling on him. Each episode also ends with cryptograms.^note  Not originally part of the story, but were added to previous chapters around Mammoth Problems Like the show, most of these are pointless jokes, but some do give clues to some of the bigger mysteries.

Beware of unmarked spoilers.

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The Return to Gravity Falls provides examples of the following tropes:

A-G

• Abandoned Warehouse: In After the Shadows, Zander and the twins go into the warehouse Gideon and Dipper met in in The Hand That Rocks The Mabel, now even more abandoned than before.
• Abusive Alien Parents: Yuki's father is not very kind to him.
• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: As noted above, the story began about a month after the show's second season started, so the writer had to create his own version of the events to fill in some of the gaps.
• Accidental Murder: Not murder per-say, but the twins' investigation of the glowing blue cylinders was started because of this.
• Action Girl: All the main female characters become this either in the story or before hand. Already-action girl Wendy takes it up to eleven, Mabel and her Paths master are fire-powered Avatars, and Pacifica becomes this when she gets her dragon.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: In this version, Bill takes control of Ford and tries to destroy the twins, so they have to send Ford/Bill back through the portal.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Because EZB had to invent half of the twins' first summer, early on in the story he was intentionally vague about what happened so he could later adjust it to fit the show as much as possible.
• A Day in the Limelight: The episode Home, Home on the Range focuses on Wendy and Soos as opposed to the twins.
• Addictive Magic: Why Arline's Master doesn't want the twins to use spells like the Warlock does.

• Alien Abduction: The driving plot of the first season.
• Alien Among Us: Yuki following the season one finale.
• Alien Episode: The season one finale.
• Aliens Speaking English: While Yuki's species does have it's own language, he and several others on the ship are capable of speaking English. The twins are stunned.
• Aliens Steal Cattle: They only did this because there were no people left to take care of them.
• Alpha Bitch: Pacifica appears to have reverted back to this in her first appearance, but she mellows out as time goes on.
• Alternate Continuity: As stated, EZB had to come up with his own version of events that happened in the show, so there are important differences between the show and the story.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Yes — EZB has his own version of events before Ford disappeared and after he returned. However, it's possible some of EZB's version could fit into the show's canon. It's complicated.
• Amicable Exes: After some initial animosity, Dipper and Pacifica fall into this.
• Anyone Can Die: Yeah, this happens. A lot. Except everyone's not really dead. Or something.
• Apocalyptic Montage: What the Third Ghost shows Stan in A Summerween Carol.
• Apologetic Attacker: Soos says sorry to anyone he fights.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Arline, and eventually the twins thanks to Arline's Master.
• Area 51: The twins sneak in here in chapters 71/72. They meet Ancient Romans and Ancient Chinese soldiers. The base flies away when the episode is over. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Identity-exe Not Found, upon Tambry's robotic nature being revealed, the gang has the following conversation:
  Dipper: What happens if she wakes up?
  Soos: What if someone comes looking for her?
  Stan: What if she has to erase the evidence?
  Mabel: What if she's still mean when she wakes up?

• Attractive Bent-Gender: In Fender Gender, Girl!Dipper thinks Girl!Zander is attractive.
• Back Story: The first story in the Halloween special, part of chapter 84, and chapter 86, among other moments.

• Bad Future: What Stan sees if he continues on the path he is on in Summerween Carol.
• Berserk Button: If anyone tried to hurt the twins, expect at least three people to do anything and everything in their power to stop you.

• Big Bad: Bill Cipher. Or that's at least what it's looking like right now.
• Big Bad Ensemble: There are a lot of bad guys the twins are dealing with, and just as many people they may not be able to trust.
• Big Damn Heroes: Broken Earth: Part 2, and a lot of other characters towards the end of that season, but this is the most noticeable.
• Big Secret: A LOT of people, mostly in the second half of season two, but others as well.
• Bird People: Jace and Jess.
• Birds of a Feather: The actual title of a season one episode in which the twins meet a brother and sister who have just as many, if not more, secrets than the twins do.

• Bland-Name Product: Strongholds and Serpents=Dungeons and Dragons,^note  The episode was written before Dungeons Dungeons and more Dungeons aired. among others.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Pacifica (blonde), Mabel (brunette), and Wendy (redhead).

• Bookcase Passage: The first episode of the season shows that the Gravity Falls library has one of these.
• Book Ends: The phrase "There will always be a new day," is said twice by the same character, once in their first appearance, and the other in the season two finale.

• Breakable Weapons: The mundane weapons some of the gang uses. One of the Zodiac symbols is even a broken ax.
• Breather Episode: Fender Gender and Draconic Tendencies come to mind.
• Brick Joke: In a early episode of season one, the kids make a bet about how long it would take Stan to notice a werewolf Mabel painted on the wall of the Shack. He discovers it in the last episode of the season.

• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During a rushed phone call with the Guardsman, he says that 'trying to keep the world in one piece' is an average Wednesday.
• Cabin Fever: The kids come down with this in the second story of the Halloween special.

• Calling the Old Man Out: Arline doing this to Stan is what sparks the events of Summerween Carol.
• Can Not Tell A Lie: Yuki. It's not that he can't, he just doesn't want to.
• Canon Discontinuity: The events before Ford disappeared and following his reappearance on the show are not canon to this story. Or this story's version of events isn't canon to the show. Yeah, that one. Except, they could be canon. Or not. It's complicated.
• Cardboard Prison: The Gravity Falls jail is this for the Warlock.
• Captain Ersatz: The Starter Villain of the story is a treasure hunter specialized in tomb raiding and catacomb exploring called Montana Jeffreys. Sounds familiar...
• Cast Full of Crazy: It's Gravity Falls, so what do you expect?
• Ceiling Cling: Mabel does this in the first episode of the story in order to scare Dipper.

• Cerebus Syndrome: Season two causes this with the Warlock actually intending to hurt the twins, as opposed to his first appearance which was a combination of bad timing, bad luck, and Dipper feeling like he needed to prove himself.
• Chained to a Rock: The Warlock does this to Dipper in his first appearance.
• Character Death: A lot of people, but nobody is really dead. Or something.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: The season two finale gets rid of everyone except a handful of people.

• Choke Holds: Anyone who threatens the twins can expect to be on the receiving end of one of these.

• Circus Episode: Two, the first being the carnival in Mammoth Problems, and the second being a Renaissance Fair in Ye Old Fair-Wells.

• Civil War: The creatures of the forest are on the verge of this in the beginning of Monster Politics.
• Cliffhanger: Several times, at least once literally, and at one point people were hanging on for 18 months.
• Clothing Damage: Wendy suffers from this the most on account of her rushing headlong into danger before everyone else.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Mabel, for sure, among others.
• Coat, Hat, Mask: Arline's Master's description in his first appearance.
• Collapsing Lair: The second half of season two causes this to happen to a lot of the Warlock's construction projects.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: The Sorcerer's powers are white and The Guardsman's powers are black.

• Correlation/Causation Gag: Stan and Arline are about to spar, but an explosion goes off as soon as Stan takes his first step. Mabel claims that he is on the Path of Earth.
• Courtroom Episode: Bighair vs. Bigfoot.
• Creator Cameo: EZB appears as a character in the Halloween Special.
• Creepy Mortician: How Soos views the director of Stan's memorial service. Well, Soos thinks the guy is a vampire, but he's no less creepy.
• Creepypasta: One of the options for the 2016 Halloween Special before EZB disappeared for a year and a half.
• Crossover: Chapters 80/81 imply that the story could eventually be revealed to have crossovered with Coraline.
• Cult: The Warlock forms one in Season Three.
• Curse: The Warlock's main source of power.
• Darker and Edgier: The second season compared to the first, and the second half of season two compared to the first half. Season three tones it down, but it does have its moments.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Guardsman's magic staff is solid black, and he's on the twins' side.

• Dead Fic: The story was dead for three months in 2016, returned for about a month, then died again until April 2018.

• Death Takes a Holiday: Whenever things heat up in the story, like at the end of each season, EZB stops the Running Gag of him killing himself.

• Department of Redundancy Department: How the caretaker from Stan's funeral speaks.
  Caretaker: Dearly... gathered. We are... gathered for the joint gathering of Stanley Pines, who has left this town before his time was mostly up, and we wish to remember him before he left before his time was mostly up."
• Deserted Island: The haunted island the group goes to at the end of the first third of season three.

• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Yuki. He knows it, he's just crazy strong because of his Bizarre Alien Biology.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Omir Steindorf. The only important thing he did in his first few appearances was punch-out the Warlock and say he would lead the investigation into his motives. Then he 'dies' just before things start going crazy, and in the middle of the craziness, he turns out to be alive and the Warlock's Master. That being said, a number of people were able to figure it out before The Reveal, so take that for what you will.

• Don't Go in the Woods: Stan doesn't like the twins going in the woods around town by themselves.
• Double Agent: Yuki in the second half of season two.
• Double Entendre: When the twins meet up in the first episode, they begin talking about their new vehicles, and Mabel can't help but laugh when Dipper says he got 'a ride.'
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: In season two, several of the characters are shown to have complicated alliances with the twins. Pretty much everyone that season has a secret at some point or another.
• Downer Beginning: The first chapter shows the twins' parents fighting, then a fast-forward three years and the twins haven't seen each other in a year. Also, they both find out Grunkle Stan died.
• The Dragon: The Warlock (and the monsters he makes) are this to the Sorcerer, who is this for Bill Cipher in turn.

• Drama Bomb: The end of each season/set of ten episodes. Season two, which had twenty episodes, consisted of at least half of these, and the last six/seven episodes started the end of that season, leading up to a ATOMIC bomb of a season finale.
• Dramatic Irony: The crytograms can cause this. And since it's Gravity Falls, sometimes the readers were able to figure out what's what before the characters could.

• The Dreaded: Bill is this as a result of the first summer, and the Warlock becomes this as time goes on.

• Driving Question:
  • Season 1: What's the story with the glowing blue cylinders?
  • Season 2A: What is Wendy hiding?
  • Season 2B: What is the Warlock/his master planning?
  • Season 3A: What happened while Ford was gone?
  • Season 3:^note as a whole How do we reverse the effects of the season two finale?
• Duct Tape for Everything: How Stan has the kids fix the Shack.
• Dude, She's A Lesbian: Jess tells the twins this after Mabel kisses Jace. Jace is doubtful, until he kisses Dipper to confirm it.
• Dwindling Party: Strongholds and Serpents, and the third story of the Halloween special.
• Easter Egg: Several, but that's to be expected.

• Endangered Species: Phoenixes — there is only one left when it first shows up, and they are extinct by halfway through season two.
• End-of-Episode Silliness: EZB's author's notes due to his tendency of killing himself. Occasionally these will come up in-universe, but not often.
• Energy Ball: How the Warlock uses his black flame to attack people.
• Ensemble Cast: The twins are the focus, Dipper often more so, but the other characters all get about equal focus (once everyone shows up) and their individual A Day in the Limelight episode(s).
• Establishing Character Moment: Yuki — the scene at the end of the first episode. Arline- Lighting the match using meditation/her fire powers. Zander — his entrance during the concert.
• Establishing Series Moment: The first chapter opens with the twins' parent splitting up, followed three years later by the now-separated twins discovering Stan died.
• Every Episode Ending: Almost all chapters end with EZB killing himself, and each episode ends with cryptograms. Occasionally EZB won't kill himself, or there will be a cryptogram after part one, and sometimes there will be a scene after EZB's author's note, but this is reserved for when things have gone from hell-in-a-handbasket to the handbasket has blown up.

• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Mabel's mindset, just like from the show.

• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The story title isn't the most original, but it works, especially with the episode titles being particularly awesome.
• Expanded Universe: This could turn out to be true once the story ends. Or it couldn't. It's confusing.
• Extra-Long Episode: The season two finale- part two is the longest chapter of the entire story, and the first part is nearly as bad. A lot of the episodes towards the end of that season are this, but the finale takes the cake.
• Facepalm: Dipper does this on occasion due to Mabel's antics.

• Filler: A number of episodes fall into this. But each episode, while it may not advance the plot a lot, or at all, makes up for it with character development.
• Final Boss: It's looking like it will be Bill, but things are still in the air.
• Finale Season: Season three has been marked as the last season since the beginning, but because each set of ten episodes has it's own story line, the argument could be made that the final season hasn't started yet.
• Five-Man Band: The first season, it was the twins, Soos, Wendy and Stan. The second season was the first four and any other character, often an OC. The first part of season three had just the first four, and maybe Waddles, if he counts for anything. Currently Ford is rounding out the group.

• Follow the Chaos: Whenever the gang at the Manor hears an explosion from the town, the twins, and others, run in to try and figure out what's what.
• Follow Your Nose: Mabel's doing this leads the twins to the library in the first episode.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Mabel and Dipper respectively, and well as Jace and Jess, respectively.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Jace because of Jess. Granted, he didn't even know he was in the closet in the first place, so it's not a problem.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who read the first author's note would know that the twins were never going to leave at the end of the first episode.

• Foreshadowing: When the twins are trying to figure out what the glowing blue cylinders are, one of Mabel's theories is that aliens are involved somehow. The New Circuit confirms this.

• From Bad to Worse: The second part of season two, starting with After The Shadows, everything goes to all kinds of hell from that point on.
• Funny Foreigner: Yuki's research of Earth gave him a Shakespearian perception of Earth life.

• Go for the Eye: Whenever Bill shows up, this is the best way to stall him.
• Golem: The twins meet four of these in Classic Rock that are made of Earth-y substances.
• Goshdang It To Heck: The twins use alternatives instead of real curse words to better fit the show. However, they do get away with a few of the tamer words.
• Goth: What Wendy is in Soos-Less. Also how Mabel describes her enemy in the first chapter.
• Go Through Me: Often when the twins are in danger, someone will get between them and the enemy.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Yuki's alien language at the end of season one.
• Great Big Book of Everything: The journals, even more so this time because Dipper (eventually) has all three.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As of now, it is looking like Bill is this for the Warlock and Omir.

• Group Picture Ending: A photo is taken of the gang in After The Shadows. Ford finds this picture at the end of season two.
• Guarding the Portal: Literally towards/at the end of season two.
• Gut Feeling: Wendy's are super powerful because of her wraith senses.

H-R

• Hair-Trigger Temper: The Warlock with anything that make him even the slightest bit annoyed. Also the Sorcerer in regards to his apprentice.

• Halloween Episode: Well, Summerween, but close enough. Summerween Carol is a parody of A Christmas Carol, Summerween Returns is actually about the twins celebrating the holiday, and Summerween: The Beginning, is about how the holiday started.
• Handy Man: Soos.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Done with candy, but the twins, Mabel in particular, have this following Summerween.
• Harping on About Harpies: Jace and Jess, except they're nice, and one of them is a boy.

• Heel–Face Revolving Door: A lot of characters are this depending on who you are talking too. The only ones who are definitely good throughout are the twins, Soos and Stan. The only one who is definitely bad throughout is the Warlock, and maybe Bill, if he counts for anything. Everyone else is seen to be this as some point or another by at least one, if not several characters, mostly because everyone has a secret at some point or another and nobody knows if they can be trusted or not.
• Hero Ball: Dipper comes into possession of this in Fires of Hate when he tries to get even with the Warlock. It doesn't end well.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Yeah, this happens. A lot. Especially towards/at the end of season two.
• Hidden Depths: A lot of people in season two are revealed to have these, for better or for worse for the twins.
• Hide Your Otherness: Yuki does this to cover up his being an alien.
• Hilarity Ensues: If Mabel is given a job, you can pretty much guarantee she will make it more complicated and fun/funny that it needs/would ordinarily be.
• Human Aliens: Yuki and his species can make this happen. Mostly at least- he has to wear a hat and his eye color is unique, but it's Gravity Falls, so almost no one notices anyway.
• Iconic Item: The symbols on the new zodiac became these. Dipper's hat still applies, even though he doesn't have it for a lot of the story.
• If I Do Not Return: At the end of Haunted Mansion, the Leader of the Paths tells his students to go to a safehouse if they don't hear from him by the next day.
• I Have Many Names: The twins know one body to have at least three different identities.
• Imminent Danger Clue: In After the Shadows, Dipper finds a note that starts with something like "I want to say goodbye". Two seconds later, things go to all kind of hell.
• Immortality Hurts: Wraiths can't die or really get hurt, but they can't eat, drink or sleep, and trying to causes severe pain.
• Immune to Bullets: Wraiths — they can still be shot, but the bullets don't cause any permanent damage.
• Impostor-Exposing Test: When faced with two Mabel's in Familiarity, the real Mabel, being Mabel, yells POOF and throws sparkles everywhere. The fake Mabel is confused, to say the least, but it's no contest to Dipper about who is real.
• Increasingly Lethal Enemy: The Warlock. In his first appearance, he just cuts Dipper to use his blood for a ritual. By the second part of season two, his idea of a 'warning' is detonating explosives while the twins are underground, causing the junk yard to collapse in on itself.
• Informed Ability: Mabel's paths training. We see the fighting/combat part in the second part of Familiarity, and we see a bit of the elemental part in the second part of Classic Rock.
• In-Series Nickname: Mabel, and eventually everyone, calls Uki-Dohth Yuki, and she calls Dipper various pun names (Dipping Sauce, etc.)
• Insert Song: As the twins are leaving in the first episode, Dipper hears a depressing country song about separation. Once he decides to go back, he hears a remix song about revealing secrets. The band Duskhope has songs that make a lot of sense once the season two finale comes around.
• Insomnia Episode: Dipper goes through this in the second half of season two.
• Intended Audience Reaction: EZB is really good at mysteries that have just enough information given for a very intelligent audience member to figure out a semi-accurate answer. However, very few readers ever figured out the answers, so the shock factor was not diminished.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: It looks like Coraline has crossed into the Gravity Falls universe.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Stan and many of the OC's are this to the twins.
• Internal Reveal: Usually averted, but the cryptograms could cause this.
• Interspecies Friendship: The twins et al. with alien Yuki, an Xabvri, as well as Jace and Jess, harpy siblings.
• Interspecies Romance: Yuki and Pacifica. Jess likes Dipper, and Jace and Mabel had something, but the former was ruined because of the age difference, while the latter would never work because Jace is gay.

• Invincible Hero: Wraiths are invincible, and the twins know several who are either on their side or fighting against them.

• It Makes Sense in Context: A lot of the stuff on this page will make A LOT more sense if you actually read the story.
• It's a Long Story: Wendy early on and Zander a little later realize just how much they have missed out on when the twins casually mention adventures they had on their own. This could apply to the story itself. As of now, we have 91 chapters and just over 960,000 words. It would be impossible to give a detailed account that covers everything unless you go scene by scene, and even then, good luck.

• It Won't Turn Off: The portal at the end of season two.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: When the twins discover a mole in After the Shadows, Dipper and Stan do this.
• Jaw Drop: The reaction a lot of fans have when mysteries are solved in-universe.
• Jerkass: The Warlock and any of his cronies.
• Kangaroo Court: The intent of the trial in Bighair vs. Bigfoot. Unfortunately for Gideon, the end of season two screwed him over.

• Knight of Cerebus:
  • The Warlock — EZB even says that things are going to get scary in the second half of the Warlock's premiere episode.
  • Bill shows up in episode 8, episodes 9 and 10 solve the blue cylinder mystery, and things just get more serious from there.

• Large Ham: Mabel and Bill, just like the show. OC Zander is this when he wants to be.
• Large Ham Title: When the gang plays Strongholds and Serpents, Mabel names her character Magnanimously Magnificent Masterfully Malleably Mendable Mabel the fourth, Esquire. There's really no way to respond to that.
• Last Episode, New Character: The last episode of season two introduces Ford.
• Laughably Evil: The Warlock- he's dangerous when he uses spells and stuff, but when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, he can't even manage to hit an incapacitated Dipper with a two-by-four.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Warlock, Bill, and others on occasion.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: A lot of Wendy's dialogue hint at her being a wraith. This is generally played straight, and anything that may not have been resolved could be — if the story ever gets finished, that is.
• Layman's Terms: Dipper will often have to do this for the benefit of Mabel and others.
• Layout of a Season: Going under the 10-episodes-per-season layout, the first episode introduces the mystery of the set, the 5/6th has big secrets pertaining to the mystery, and episodes 9/10 (or maybe even before nine) is the end of the arc.

• Lighter and Softer: Following big reveal episodes or episodes with a lot of drama, EZB will often give a calm, almost meaningless episode. Unfortunately for the characters, it never lasts long.

• Light Is Not Good: The Sorcerer's powers are white, and he is the Warlock's Master.
• Likes Older Men: Subverted with Yuki/Pacifica. Because the former is an alien, he can live for 700-800 years. He is about eighty, but looks the same age as the twins, and as far as his species is concerned, he's still very young.
  • 13-year-old Jess has a crush on Dipper, who is now 15 and says she is too young for him.
  • Mabel has a Celebrity Crush on Zander, whose age is... complicated, but he's definitely older than her.
• Likes Older Women: Dipper likes Wendy again, although this may not count since they are maybe, sort-of-ish the same age now. Not that he knew that at the time his feelings for her returned.
• Lilliputians: The Lili-PUTT-ians from the show make a reappearance in an episode or two.
• Limited Social Circle: This is true for the twins, Soos, Wendy and Stan. Although the circle does expand considerably by the end of season two, the season two finale reverts back to the first four and The Guardsman. A fifth member is added in the second part of season three, but because EZB has disappeared a lot lately, we haven't seen much of the new member.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: Stan does this to the traitor in After the Shadows to get the traitor out of the Manor.
• Literal Cliffhanger: The two chapters of Fight or Flight end/start with this.
• Little People: The gnomes and the Lili-putt-ians from the show, as well as an OC race of Goblins.

• The Load: Soos starts to feel like he is this in season three, which gives Kelly power.
• Local Hangout: The Mystery Manor. Justified in that practically everyone either lives/works there. The woods around the Manor and the town are this as well, although it's less of a 'hangout' and more of a place the twins et al. go into to solve mysteries.
• Lockdown: The ghost in the first episode of season two does this to the Mystery Manor.
• Lonely Funeral: Stan's funeral in the first episode is attended by just the twins, Soos and Wendy.
• Long Haired Prettyboy: Zander has shoulder-length blonde hair.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Pacifica- she even tones down the Alpha Bitch part by the end.
• Lovable Traitor: Even after discovering a mole and kicking him out, the twins and everyone who is left still love the mole and are depressed about what happened.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Draconic Tendencies focuses on Mabel, Pacifica, Candy and Grenda. Dipper has one scene early, then he is gone for practically the rest of the episode.

• Magic Eater: The Starkissed Stone — apparently, in its lifetime, it absorbed eighty percent of the world's magic.
• The Magic Goes Away: When the Starkissed Stone was created over 500 years before the story began, it absorbed 80 percent of the magic in the world. Now that the stone is gone 75 percent of magic will have returned by the end of August.

• Magic Staff: The Guardsman and the Sorcerer each have one of these.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Mabel in Classic Rock after she returns from communicating with fire.
• The Man Behind the Man: It looks like the Warlock is this until the season two finale where it is revealed that most, if not all, of the Warlock's actions until then have been a result of his master working with Bill.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Justified with Yuki and Pacifica's relationship.
• Meaningful Echo: When the line "There will always be a new day" is first said, it seems like stereotypical, meaningless encouragement. No one even mentions it afterwards. But the second time it is said... holy lord.
• The Medic: Wendy is this. Not only can she not be hurt, she practiced things like stitching up a wound on herself, and has gotten rather good at it as a result.

• Mid-Season Twist:
  • Season 1: The blue cylinders revealing Tambry is a robot.
  • Season 2A: Robbie knows Wendy is hiding something, the fact that Wendy actually is hiding something (this was hinted at, but got confirmed here), and the Warlock having a master.
  • Season 2B: The traitor the gang discovers.
  • Season 2:^note  as a whole The reveal of Wendy's secret and when the twins find out the Warlock escaped custody.
  • Season 3A: The reveal/introduction of Kelly.
• Minor Major Character: The Guardsman becomes this.
• Molotov Cocktail: The gang uses these in Operation Search and Destroy.
• Monster Allies: The forest creatures are this to the twins.
• Multi-Part Episode: Played-with. It follows the Episode Title: Part 1 and Episode Title: Part 2. But EZB said that each episode title is one episode, so it's hard to say whether this really counts. It does actually occur towards the end of each set of ten — New Circuit and Town that Time Forgot are this, as well as... really everything from After the Shadows until the end of season two, and Haunted Mansion and Spectral Revelations.

• Never Trust a Title: The episode Mammoth Problems has nothing to do with a mammoth. It's a mastodon.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The story was this when it first started- began September 2014, set May/June 2015. Real-life time caught up to story time around the middle of season two.
• The Nicknamer: Bill Cipher — Dipper, Mabel and Wendy all kept their nicknames from the show^note Pine Tree, Shooting Star and Red, respectively, and Soos is called Biggy or Big Guy, or some variation thereof. OC's Omir and Arline are called Snappy ^note because of how he dresses and Bells ^note  because Bill is Bill respectively.
• Nobody Can Die: The story follows the laconic description of this trope to a T.
• Non-Action Guy: Dipper at the beginning- Mabel (and Arline) start training him and he grows out of it.
• Noodle Incident: Some of the twins' adventures from their first summer are this to other characters (mostly Wendy).

• No Shirt, Long Jacket: Zander during the Duskhope concert.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The end of season two causes this.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Warlock at first seems weak- stuttering and running away when the twins confront him. But over the course of his appearances, he becomes a Name To Run Away From Really Fast.

• Oh, and X Dies: At the end of the first part of After the Shadows, there is a coded PS message that reads, "Next episode, someone dies." The death occurs in the second part of the next episode, Fires of Hate, but it's not who, how or what you expect. Or it is, I don't know what you expect. But like all death-related events in the story, it's a lot more complicated than the message makes it appear to be.

• Old Flame: Dipper's feelings for Wendy return about half-way through the first season.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Dipper, Yuki and the Warlock.^note The latter two's real names are known if rarely ever used (Uki-Dohth and Graupner, respectively), and while fans now know Dipper's real name, it has never come up in the story.
• Only Mostly Dead: Yuki following Fires of Hate.
• Open Sesame: Mabel tries this in the first episode- it doesn't work.
• Opposing Combat Philosophies: Students of the Paths have these- someone on the path of water would fight differently than someone on the path of fire.
• Original Character: Several — the most important ones are Yuki, Arline, Zander, Omir, Kelly, and The Warlock. Alvis could become more important later on, if the story ever gets finished. There are also Jace and Jess, as well as a team of paranormal investigators, who all showed up in three episodes each (so far), and a number of paranormal creatures who are important.

• Pacifist: Yuki for the most part. This doesn't stop him from using his strength to punch-out a werewolf that has caused more than it's fair share of trouble for the twins.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Jess and Jace- she has brown feathers while Jace's are more colorful.
• Panacea: The djinn in I Dream of Deals offers these in exchange for a special possession. They are called panacea-cillin and are shaped like a blue-and-gold pill.
• Parody Episode: Several episodes have elements that parody other works. So far there have been parody's of Jumanji, A Christmas Carol, Twilight, and It's a Wonderful Life.
• Parody Names: I Dream of Deals has a djinn named William Cardinal who has gold arm braces and who used to be a slave before being freed.^note Robin Williams/his character from Aladdin.

• The Phoenix: Actually THE Phoenix — the one that shows up is the last known phoenix in existence.

• Phone Call from the Dead: Wendy's old friends get one of these from her telling them to get out of town when things start heating up at the end of season two.
• Pinned to the Wall: The Warlock does this to Dipper in the third episode.
• Playing with Fire: Mabel and Arline, and Arline's Master.
• Point of Divergence: The story follows canon up until about three years before Ford gets sucked in the portal. There it vary's slightly, but once Ford gets trapped, the story follows canon until Ford returns, at which point EZB's theories take over. ^note EZB says it's really a lot more complicated that that, and that his events could somehow be canon, but this has yet to be explained.
• Police Are Useless: Very much so- they spend bail money on a second bouncy castle.
• Precious Photo: The picture Mabel takes in After The Shadows becomes this for Ford.
• Pre-Explosion Glow: Played with — the explosion is a glowing white light.

• The Promise: Dipper promising to find a way to bring Wendy back to life causes a lot of his insomnia in the second half or season two, and it is always hanging over his head.
• The Quiet One: The Guardsman in his first appearance. In the first part of his debut episode, he says a grand total of three words, and spends the rest of the time silently observing from the shadows and freaking people out. He will talk for extended periods when being asked questions, but he tries to avoid speaking when he can.
• Quirky Household: Even more so than in the show- In addition to the twins, Soos, Wendy and Stan, we have an Alien, a fire-master, a newly-retired rock-star, Candy and Grenda, Pacifica, and Waddles.
• Quirky Town: Gravity Falls hasn't lost this trait in the three years since the twins left
• Raiders of the Lost Parody: The first cryptogram of the first episode decodes to Raiders of the Stans Lost Underpants.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: The Portal in the season two finale is described by Stan as, "...at a level of power so high it can't be recorded."
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: This happens when the starkissed stone comes into contact with the Portal in the season two finale, causing the latter to, "have a tantrum," as Mabel put it.
• Really 700 Years Old: It is hinted at/implied that the Guardsman and The Sorcerer are this.
• Recurring Character: The Paranormal investigators from the sixth episode, Jace and Jess,^note and their phoenix Candy and Grenda, Pacifica, Jackson Fulbrow, Omir, Kelly, and various creatures of the forest.
• Regretful Traitor: Yuki once he is found out, and even more so when the Warlock fails to meet his end of the bargain.
• Retool: Because of events in the season two finale, season three no longer takes place in Gravity Falls. The twins and company are traveling cross-country to find what is needed to reverse the effects of season two.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Season three is occasionally this to season two, although it has its fair share of dark moments.
• Rewatch Bonus: Following The Reveal of Wendy's secret in the middle of season two, re-reading the story up until that point will make you realize just how many hints have been dropped.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Practically everyone in season one, as long as they aren't zapped by the blue cylinders.
• Rising Conflict: The dynamic between the twins and the Warlock goes from the latter being and admittedly dangerous but most-likely^note One of the cryptograms said he would return one-off villain to going out of his way to hurt the twins, with his idea of a warning being exploding a cave and nearly killing the twins and company.
• Roadside Surgery: How Wendy gets the bullets out of her body after a shoot-out.
• Road Trip Plot: Season three becomes this, in a way. They don't really want to go on a road trip, but they kind of need to.
• Robotic Reveal: Happens when someone is zapped by the blue cylinders. Actually, that just makes them shut down. The Reveal doesn't happen until someone says, "Plan".

• Rule #1: Arline says that rule number one of engaging in any kind of fighting is, "Don't." Rule number to is, "Play it smart."
• Running on All Fours: Mabel does this when she turns into a werewolf.

S-Z

• "Save the World" Climax: We haven't gotten that far yet, but this appears to be the ending the story is going towards. Granted, the twins are only trying to save Gravity Falls, but the world will probably be saved too.

• Screams Like a Little Girl: Dipper. In an early episode, Mabel is show to have made a list about predicted changes in Dipper since the last time they saw each other. She is happy this is still on that list.

• Shapeshifter Default Form: The old man from Baron Num Num's Beans.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: The Goblins give Dipper a necklace that, when being worn by the Shapeshifter, freezes him in whatever form he was in at the time.
• Shipper on Deck: Practically every non-villain character is supportive of Yuki/Pacifica, but Mabel is the most vocal about it.
• Shrouded in Myth: The Guardsman.
  • For the longest time, the events of the twins' first summer were this.
• Sibling Rivalry: Not quite a "rivalry", but the twins have not lost their competitive nature in the three years they have been apart, and this will occasionally cause problems.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Dipper and Mabel, as well as Jace and Jess.
• Sic 'Em: Said by Montana Jeffreys to his dogs after the twins escape his cage.
• Sick Episode: In I Dream of Deals, Yuki comes down with a cold, which, combined with his Bizarre Alien Biology and being his first exposure to an Earth-based disease, makes for some interesting symptoms until he gets a cure-all from a traveling djinn.
• Side Bet: In the third episode, Mabel paints a were-woman on the side of the building, with her, Dipper and Soos betting on how long it would take Stan to notice. Soos wins, not that they were playing for anything.

• Silent Credits: Fires of Hate: Part 2 is the only chapter that doesn't have an author's note from EZB at/towards the end of it.
• Simultaneous Arcs: Often when the twins and/or their friends have to split up, the perspectives will alternate to show everything that is occurring.
• Simultaneous Warning and Action: In After the Shadows, Dipper find a note from the Warlock that begins with something like 'I want to say goodbye.' Not three seconds later, things blow up. Literally.
• Single-Episode Handicap: In A Mabel of Perspective, after Mabel swallows a pixie, her sight switches between her vision and someone else's in the first half of the episode. In the second half, she can no longer see out of her eyes at all, and she eventually looses control of her smelling and hearing as well. All senses return once the pixie gets out of her.
  • Dipper loses function of his hands in Fires of Hate, but they are fixed by the end of the next episode.
• Sixth Ranger: The first season team of the twins, Soos, Wendy and Stan eventually expands to (regularly) include Yuki, Arline, Zander, Candy and Grenda, and Pacifica.

• 65-Episode Cartoon: If the story is ever finished, this could be the result. 60 'episodes' are planned, plus a prologue for each of the three seasons, the Halloween special, and Summerween: The Beginning would equal 65, assuming that, A) EZB doesn't add any other specials, and B) EZB actually finishes the story!
• Skewed Priorities: The twins each think the other has these, and this causes more than its fair share of trouble throughout.
• Slumber Party: Mabel has one with Candy and Grenda in the third episode.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Montana Jeffreys appears in person only in chapter 3 and agrees to leave the twins and Stanley alone and leaves Gravity Fals at the end of the chapter. However, had he not enacted his plan to hit Stan with a tranquilizer in an attempt to get the Mystery Shack from him, the tranq making everyone think Stan was dead, Dipper and Mabel wouldn't have come back in Gravity Falls.
  • Haddiya. Never seen the name before? Yeah. She's never actually appeared in the story, but she is important to the Sorcerer. Important enough that he made a deal with Bill Cipher to get her back.
• Small Towns: On more than one occasion, Gravity Falls is stated to have 'over two thousand people.'

• Smitten Teenage Girl: Mabel towards Zander, and Jess towards Dipper.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: In the first episode, the twins and Soos smell the string they found, and after discovering that it smells sweet, Soos and Mabel taste part of it, realizing it is a piece of candy floss.
• Something Only They Would Say: When faced with two Mabel's, the real Mabel yells POOF and throws sparkles everywhere. The fake Mabel is confused, which gives Dipper the chance he needs to incapacitate the fake Mabel.
• Space Episode: The Town That Time Forgot.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Upon discovering a Mastodon in Mammoth Problems, Mabel informs her brother and Soos that she can communicate with pigs, llamas, alpacas, sheep and goats, and that she is 'okay' at speaking elephant.
• Special Thanks: In the season two finale, the authors note is even longer than the scene after it because EZB thanks his readers/reviewers for letting him know that there were people who enjoyed the story he was writing.
• Spell Blade: The Warlock does this to throwing knifes when he returns.
• Spell Book:
  • The Warlock has a few of these, and occasionally they will come to be possessed by Dipper and/or another character.
  • Played with with the Journal(s), which have spells in them, along with other paranormal info.
• Spell My Name with a "The": For the longest time, the Warlock and the Guardsman were this because their real names were not known. Eventually the Warlock's real name was revealed to be Graupner Kinley, and the Guardsman's real name was revealed to be something that is a very big spoiler and therefore will not be said. Since their respective reveals, the Guardsman is usually referred to by his real name, unless he is being spoken of by someone who does not know it, while the Warlock is more commonly being referred to as Graupner in-story, although it's a toss up as to what fans call him.

• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: The Guardsman and the Sorcerer both have the power to create a staff out of darkness and light, respectively.

• The Stinger: The first episode of season three takes place in a town called Spoons. Several puns are made, but the last line of the episode is, "At least it wasn't a town named Forks." EZB even says ZINGER in his author's note.

• Strong Family Resemblance: Ford figures out Dipper is related to him because of similar physical aspects.
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Mabel and Dipper thanks to Mabel's training.
• Struggling Single Mother: Played-with. The twins' parents, Delilah and Jenson, are both well-off enough, but Dipper knows that college isn't cheap and that neither parent will be able to help him, or Mabel, that much financially, which is why he was so anxious about going home to take the job he had lined up in the first season.

• Stunned Silence: When the Master of the Paths reveals that he can fly, his students are left behind staring at the spot where he was for a full minute before any of them do anything.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Stan and Ford had the same relationship they had in the show as far as success goes, at least until EZB's theories start to take over. At that point, Ford is still a success, but Stan is now more of one, even if no one acknowledges it, and the inferior feelings seem to have disappeared.
• Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: Mabel being zapped by the glowing blue cylinders makes her able to speak Urlin, Yuki's alien language, which sounds like a bunch of chirps and whistles to Dipper.
• Suddenly Shouting: Mabel shouts her Strongholds and Serpents character's name when Dipper complains about it including her real name.
• Super-Detailed Fight Narration: Some occasions are better than others, but they are all high in quality. EZB even has a link to a YouTube video in his profile that shows two people sword fighting, which he claims is why he is so good at writing fights.

• Super-Senses: Played-with. Wendy is beginning to lose her 'standard' senses – taste and smell – because of being a wraith. But because she is a wraith, her sixth sense of intuition has become superpowered to the point where she was able to tell that a fake Dipper was a fake the second she looked at him.

• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Happens whenever the twins et al. are keeping secrets from one another.
• Suspicious Spending: Stan is suspicious of Arline for being willing to pay increasingly ridiculous amounts of money to stay in one of his motel rooms.
• Take Care of the Kids: Stan's last order to Soos in the season two finale.
• Take That!: An alternate title for Daybreak was Still Better Than Twilight.
• Talent Show: Is the focus of the episode Bragging Rights, replacing Pioneer Day following the Nathaniel Northwest scandal.

• The Teaser: Once season three came around and the twins went on the road, these were put in to introduce the problem the twins would be trying to solve. Not all chapters have them, but most do.
• Temporary Blindness: Played-with. When Mabel swallows a pixie, blinking once makes her be able to see through someone else's eyes. Blinking twice returns her vision to her own. But before her sight is fixed, a point comes where she cannot see out of her own eyes at all, but is still able to look through the eyes of others.
• Thanking the Viewer: Always at the end of a season, and sometimes in the middle of them.
• The Un-Reveal: A lot of fans were suspicious of Omir from the beginning, so him being revealed to be the Warlock's master came as no great surprise.

• Thunder Equals Downpour: Usually averted- on the occasions a storm does blow through, it behaves like a normal storm. The one time this trope is played straight is when the storm was generated by the Sorcerer in Ashes in the Sky.
• Time Skip: The first chapter starts with the twins' first day of school after their first summer, then fast forwards three years to the 15-year-old twins' last day of school.
• Title Drop Chapter: Strongholds and Serpents, Totally Real Paranormal Mystery Show, Duskhope and Operation Search and Destroy.
• To Be Continued: Never stated outright, but a number of the cryptograms imply this. The closest has been one from the season two finale that said Season three would begin shortly.
• To Hell and Back: The group goes here/does this when they play Strongholds and Serpents.
• Token Adult: Grunkle Stan in the beginning. More grown-ups join eventually.
• Tone Shift: The story gradually gets darker and darker as time goes on in the first two seasons. It gets lighter in season three, but it is still much darker than it was at the beginning, and things are only going to get worse- if the story gets finished.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: The cryptogram for chapter 53 reads "Next episode, someone dies," and it is repeated in the author's note the chapter before the death occurs.
• Top Ten List: Don't know for sure about the 'ten' part, but Mabel made several lists of things she wanted to do when older to 'get the full experience.' Number one was a Renaissance Fair, which was done in Ye Olde Fair-Wells.

• Transparent Closet: Jace doesn't know he's gay until his little sister points it out to him after Mabel kisses him. He then kisses Dipper to confirm it.

• Two out of Three Ain't Bad: Practically said verbatim by Dipper in Strongholds and Serpents when he asked if everyone read the rules. Mabel didn't.

• Unnamed Parent: The twins' parents were not given official names until season three. They are then revealed to be Delilah and Jenson.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Pacifica gets a dragon. It's allergic to latex. Don't ask.

• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Warlock is defeated in The Warlock Returns and is sent to jail, but escapes at the end of Summerween Returns.
• Villains Never Lie: After Bill's first appearance in the story, Dipper comments that while he technically doesn't lie, he does leave out parts of the truth.

• Waking Non Sequitur: A lot of people wake up with these, especially once the twins and co. go on the road.

• Weather Manipulation: The Warlock's Master generated the storm that made the phoenix crash in Ashes in the Sky.
• Weirder Than Usual: The twins' reaction to the truck-sized spider in Bragging Rights. They say that they've only ever seen human-sized spiders before.
• Weird Weather: The twins admit that Gravity Falls has a peculiar tendency to have storms pop up out of nowhere. Often, while weird, these occur naturally, except for once.
• We Will Meet Again: The second cryptogram from Bill's first episode is Bill saying that he will be back.
• Wham Line: "There will always be a new day," Zander Maximillion said, lowering the mask in his hands.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: After taking the Starkissed inside the Shack, Mabel says this. At first it seems like the twins avoided the curse for once in their lives, but they used up their luck when Dipper went into town without issue earlier in the day.
• What Year Is This?: After the craziness that is the almost-end of season two, Dipper and Wendy, and later Ford ask a local park ranger what the date is.
• When It All Began: Without getting too into the history of Gravity Falls and its weird properties, the story begins with Montana Jefferys wanting to use the town as a way of restarting his career and hitting Stan with a tranquilizer in an attempt to get the Mystery Shack from him. The tranq made everyone think Stan was dead, which is the reason the twins went back to Gravity Falls in the first place.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The first story of the Halloween special, and Summerween: The Beginning are this.
• Why Won't You Die?: The twins and the Warlock feel this way about one another.
• Win-Win Ending: This happens occasionally, but for every episode where this happens, another episode and then some ends with everything going to all kinds of hell.

• World of Weirdness: What the entire planet is becoming following the events of the season two finale.
• Worth It: Despite it making her very sick, Mabel still thinks eating a ton of candy after Summerween was worth it.
• Wreathed in Flames: Arline can do this, although she generally keeps it to just her arms.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Played straight with the end of season two. Everything from After the Shadows to the end is pretty much back-to-back action. After the Shadows takes place on July 27th, and the next two episodes take place on the 28th. Cleansing Rain is set the night of the 28th, and the final two episodes of the season are on the 29th. Yet when Dipper and Wendy ask the park ranger what the date is, he says it is the 31st.
• You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: Wendy is immune to practically everything she has faced so far.
• You Have Failed Me: The Warlock says this whenever someone he uses to hurt the twins doesn't do so.
• You Know What They Say About X...: In this case, X is painting. Soos tries to come up with something, but it doesn't work out that well.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The tulpa from the season two premiere turned into a ghost because a show was being produced about a ghost haunting the Manor.

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