#tourist trapped was the 7th episode in order of production and when they got to it they were like okay lets just go with this

[dirt-grub]

oh my god thats so funny so bottomless pit originally was supposed to be an episode like phineas and ferb’s blackout (which came later im aware but its the same premise) where in order to sort of cut the work of having to produce so much animation and so many backgrounds the characters are just floating through nothingness with a black background but they realized they couldnt make a plot that was JUST that so they ended up going with three short stories but that had three times as many locations LMAO 

#god i love this #like its really interesting and kind of affirming bc i was like wow these guys are geniuses they have all these great fun ideas #but really they were just flying by the seat of their pants #so much of it was not planned at all and thats even more amazing i think #they managed to weave together a compelling and honestly mind blowing mystery without having it all planned for the beginning #thats really hard to do actually! #so many of their decisions were kind of like well lets see where this goes but they all came off as deliberate #thats like insane idk how many of you are writers but like WOW thats hard to pull off #also like the cipher wheel didnt even have a meaning at first! it was just like something one of their art guys came up with #to stick in the intro so it looks cool #isnt that nuts??? like people fucking studied that thing over and over looking for secrets #just like. holy shit man #dipper wasnt even going to have a journal originally! #tourist trapped was the 7th episode in order of production and when they got to it they were like okay lets just go with this #thats one of the fucking defining things of the show is that journal #like just. woah #connor talks