if the thing needs to be powered with a paradox, why not write "this sentence is false" and use that?
Powering the thing isn't a problem. They can already power the machine with any paradox:
Fiddleford pointed at the trash can. "And in here I've recreated the environmental conditions of the Dontium's native paradox universe."
"Amazing," Ford said, crouching down to inspect the pipes. "How did you do that?"
"I stuck a cat in a box and stuck the box in the trash can."
They're gonna switch out Schrödinger's cat for another paradox—but that's the easy part, they're not even concerned about that. They aren't struggling to power it; they're struggling to make it generate fuel. That doesn't require just "a paradox."
"Now! Dontium's properties change dependin' on whether it's observed or not. To synthesize it, it needs to be observed, and not. You followin' so far?" [...] Now, in the paradox universe, I reckon one fella could just doublethink his way into producin' Dontium. But we've got to do it with two brains that are as near to identical as possible. [...]
Fiddleford turned to Ford. "I need you lookin' right at the particle accelerator, at all times, to keep it under observation—but not think about it! [...] "And Stan, I need you to not look at the accelerator at all costs, but don't stop thinkin' about it once. You 'n' Ford's thoughts and non-thoughts will work like the plus 'n' minus poles on a magnet; it'll attract the mental energy outta Ford, into the accelerator between you two, and jump start the matter synthesizin' process."
They need, specifically, for a single person to both observe the experiment without thinking about it and think about it without observing it—or at least something as close as possible to that. "Have two twins do it" isn't as-close-as-possible enough.
I was busy fawning over some fictional men and this question suddenly hit me…Has Dipper ever really got into a celebrity or a character or something similar like that? And how would Bill react if he did, would he tease him about it or be jealous?
I think it would be amusing if there was, say, a demon hunter type, a colleague of Ford's, who gained some celebrity! Dipper, when he was younger, would easily be swayed by the 'charismatic heroism' of some Cool Young Guy in the profession he admires.
Bill is obviously jealous, as is his nature.
I can't decide, however, if it's funnier if Ford regrets not introducing Dipper to that guy when he had the chance, or if he's appalled. That man? His scientific rigor is terrible! His results are shoddy! Dipper should find a partner who respects science, damn it.
27 your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
I'll give you two here, anon. One for Gravity Falls and one for SPM. (I tried to think of something Star Wars, but I honestly need to reread and rewatch a lot of content before being able to dig something up that I haven't ranted about before...)
Gravity Falls
While I don't think this is necessarily ignored, it certainly gets looked over in the greater commentary.
Bill and Stanford had off and on communications in the Mindscape for two years before Bill escalated their interactions to literal bodily possession.
That's...that's a lot of time. Not Palpatine-grooming-Anakin amounts of time, but still a significant portion of Stanford's existence and research in Gravity Falls, and this is before Fiddleford and the Portal and all of that jazz.
Ford had it...bad. However you want to interpret that statement. And Bill, apparently, found the perfect mark in Ford, considering he stayed with this plan for so long (although 2 years is probably an hour to a being who has existed for trillions of years).
Nonetheless, from Ford's point of view, this was the third-longest relationship we see him have, outside of his brother and Fiddleford. That's no small thing and I can't imagine the complexity of emotions (not even to mention the mirroring with his situation with Stan when they were 17) Ford experienced after learning of Bill's true intentions. It's...wild.
Super Paper Mario
Just how unbelievably fucked up this part is:
Luigi's decapitated head, animated with the power of Dimentio, is foretelling all of their dooms despite Mario and the gang seemingly defeating the Big Bad. It's a fascinating moment as it undercuts our usual expectations for the Big Boss Battle. Mario wins the battle, but loses the war. His brother is as good as dead, the world is still ending, and there is nothing he can do about it.
Mario fails.
Mario doesn't save the day.
It's in the subsequent cut scene where Bleck and Tippi resurrect the Pure Hearts one last time to save all of existence. Which is...a fascinating choice, both narratively and from a game play perspective. Something about free will, something about doing all you can and the final decision, your final fate, still being out of your hands.
It's one of the gazillion reasons I adore this game so.
Guys hear me out, I saw this fandom for something called "fundamental paper education" and there's a character called Miss Circle which people in the fandom call her a pine tree, yknow who else gets called pinetree? DIPPER PINES FROM GRAVITY FALLS and it doesn't end there, Miss circle also has only one eye that is slit JUST LIKE BILL CIPHER!! Also Miss circle is 2dimentinal, JUST LIKE BILL CIPHER !so I had a theory: what if Miss circle is Bipper in another universe?
But that's just a theory, a GAME THEORY!
(I had this thought in the middle of the night btw)
Small comic my friend made for a class assignment😭 we had to draw a comic on either malleable intelligence or static intelligence (if that’s what it’s even called)