![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lately, I've been getting heavily into Chappel Roan. I'm late to the bandwagon, I know, but hey, better late than never, right?
The reason I got into her, and am currently listening non-stop to "Good Luck, Babe!" is due to a stunning Gravity Falls fan animation on Youtube.
The video is called "GOOD LUCK, BABE! : Gravity Falls Animation" by achromaticEgoist and can be found here
It is absolutely tragic and ripped my soul in half when I first watched it. Mind you, I hadn't listened to any Chappel Roan before that, so this was also my first time hearing the song. It was soul-crushing. The stunning vocals (is Chappel Roan an angel?) mixed with the tragic lyrics tapped right into my very soul and anxieties. Especially the lyrics "When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night / with your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife" chilled me to my core. And when Chappel Roan immediately follows up with "And when you think about me, all of those years ago / you're standing face-to-face with 'I told you so'" I was ready to just lay down and cry my eyes out. It made me shockingly aware that I have to hold onto the people I love (my parents, my friends, my partner), or face losing them forever and carrying the grief for the rest of my life. It's also tragic because of the subject the song talks about -- a woman who is talking to a past lover who denied any feelings for her, who denied her queerness and went on to marry a man. And now she's this empty husk, 'nothing more than his wife' and looks back in grief and regret to who she could've become if she hadn't denied (and keeps denying) her queerness. It is a stunning song on repression of one's sexuality and the pain it can cause oneself and others.
But now, what does Bill Cipher, a dream demon from the second dimension, have to do with this? Well, let me tell you all about him and his tragic story.
Bill Cipher, after he was defeated in the finale of the show Gravity Falls, was sent to infinite therapy. It sounds silly at first, but if you think about the context of the show and Bill as a character, it is a perfect fate for him. The necessary context: Bill destroyed his home dimension (the second dimension) because he was the only one who could see the stars due to his eye -- no one else could -- and he wanted to show them to everyone. What exactly happened is unclear (Bill himself says he blacks out whenever he tries to think about the incident) but it resulted in the complete devastation of his home dimension, killing everyone (including his parents) and forcing Bill to flee to a different dimension. The only thing left over of Euclydia is one singular atom Bill keeps in his top-hat. This incident forever scars him, and he represses everything and anything in relation to it. The only time he openly talked about what happened is when he told Stanford Pines that 'a monster' destroyed his dimension and that it would 'eat [Ford] alive' in The Book of Bill, a newly released Gravity Falls book from Bill's POV where it is shown what happened to him after the show ended. Talk about horrible repression and guilt! Stanford Pines is also worth noting here, because in the same book it is heavily implied that Stanford and Bill had … something going on. Their relationship ended horribly, and after Bill was defeated and sent to prison, Bill spends a great deal trying to win Stanford back. Holy toxic old man yaoi, Batman! It's glorious, and adds soooo much to the story of Gravity Falls, and has spawned so many incredibly fanfics and fanart.
One of those is the above mentioned fan animation. In it, Bill Cipher's time in theraprism is coupled with Chappel Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!". And it works soooooo incredibly well. The song talks about repression -- Bill is the most repressed being in the whole universe! He can't even think about what happened to Euclydia without blacking out! When the line "when you wake up…" is played, Bill is shown in his cell, waking up from some kind of nightmare, sitting up and staring out the window before taking out the singular atom of his home country he still! has! after all that's happened! When he stares at it, the line "And when you think about…" kicks in. This is followed up beautifully when the line "You're standing face-to-face…" follows that, and a flashback of Bill talking to the Axolotl (the god-like being that sent him to theraprism) is shown. God, it kills me every time. In this animation, the Axolotl is the one to tell Bill "I told you your repression will only lead to bad things. Now you have to atone for your crime and stop repressing your grief and guilt," which is EXACTLY what Bill needs. Stanford is also shown in the animation as another subject Bill is trying to forget. I especially love the "shoot another shot / try to stop the feeling" line being coupled with Bill thinking about world domination. He's literally using 'taking over another dimension' as a distraction to not have to think about what happened to his home dimension and his parents! The same imagery comes back with the line "You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling," and Bill holding a miniature earth in his hands, desperately grasping it -- literally trying to stop the world so he won't have to feel anything. It's a nice throwback to the finale, when Bill took over Gravity Falls and made time stop -- literally stopping the world. God. My favourite part is when the chorus hits, when Chappel Roan sings "Good Luck, Babe" and Bill is shown next to the words, looking all happy and chipper (a front he puts on). The animation is wishing Bill "good luck" when it comes to him trying to repress everything, all his memories, feelings and grief. The last frame of the animation shows Bill's hand holding the atom of Euclydia. God, it really does always go back to Euclydia, to the worst thing Bill ever did and the thing he tries desperately to repress. Fuck, it's so poetic and beautiful and TRAGIC!
I want to mention a comment on this animation that blew me away when I first read it, and still continues to blow me away:
The reason I got into her, and am currently listening non-stop to "Good Luck, Babe!" is due to a stunning Gravity Falls fan animation on Youtube.
The video is called "GOOD LUCK, BABE! : Gravity Falls Animation" by achromaticEgoist and can be found here
It is absolutely tragic and ripped my soul in half when I first watched it. Mind you, I hadn't listened to any Chappel Roan before that, so this was also my first time hearing the song. It was soul-crushing. The stunning vocals (is Chappel Roan an angel?) mixed with the tragic lyrics tapped right into my very soul and anxieties. Especially the lyrics "When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night / with your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife" chilled me to my core. And when Chappel Roan immediately follows up with "And when you think about me, all of those years ago / you're standing face-to-face with 'I told you so'" I was ready to just lay down and cry my eyes out. It made me shockingly aware that I have to hold onto the people I love (my parents, my friends, my partner), or face losing them forever and carrying the grief for the rest of my life. It's also tragic because of the subject the song talks about -- a woman who is talking to a past lover who denied any feelings for her, who denied her queerness and went on to marry a man. And now she's this empty husk, 'nothing more than his wife' and looks back in grief and regret to who she could've become if she hadn't denied (and keeps denying) her queerness. It is a stunning song on repression of one's sexuality and the pain it can cause oneself and others.
But now, what does Bill Cipher, a dream demon from the second dimension, have to do with this? Well, let me tell you all about him and his tragic story.
Bill Cipher, after he was defeated in the finale of the show Gravity Falls, was sent to infinite therapy. It sounds silly at first, but if you think about the context of the show and Bill as a character, it is a perfect fate for him. The necessary context: Bill destroyed his home dimension (the second dimension) because he was the only one who could see the stars due to his eye -- no one else could -- and he wanted to show them to everyone. What exactly happened is unclear (Bill himself says he blacks out whenever he tries to think about the incident) but it resulted in the complete devastation of his home dimension, killing everyone (including his parents) and forcing Bill to flee to a different dimension. The only thing left over of Euclydia is one singular atom Bill keeps in his top-hat. This incident forever scars him, and he represses everything and anything in relation to it. The only time he openly talked about what happened is when he told Stanford Pines that 'a monster' destroyed his dimension and that it would 'eat [Ford] alive' in The Book of Bill, a newly released Gravity Falls book from Bill's POV where it is shown what happened to him after the show ended. Talk about horrible repression and guilt! Stanford Pines is also worth noting here, because in the same book it is heavily implied that Stanford and Bill had … something going on. Their relationship ended horribly, and after Bill was defeated and sent to prison, Bill spends a great deal trying to win Stanford back. Holy toxic old man yaoi, Batman! It's glorious, and adds soooo much to the story of Gravity Falls, and has spawned so many incredibly fanfics and fanart.
One of those is the above mentioned fan animation. In it, Bill Cipher's time in theraprism is coupled with Chappel Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!". And it works soooooo incredibly well. The song talks about repression -- Bill is the most repressed being in the whole universe! He can't even think about what happened to Euclydia without blacking out! When the line "when you wake up…" is played, Bill is shown in his cell, waking up from some kind of nightmare, sitting up and staring out the window before taking out the singular atom of his home country he still! has! after all that's happened! When he stares at it, the line "And when you think about…" kicks in. This is followed up beautifully when the line "You're standing face-to-face…" follows that, and a flashback of Bill talking to the Axolotl (the god-like being that sent him to theraprism) is shown. God, it kills me every time. In this animation, the Axolotl is the one to tell Bill "I told you your repression will only lead to bad things. Now you have to atone for your crime and stop repressing your grief and guilt," which is EXACTLY what Bill needs. Stanford is also shown in the animation as another subject Bill is trying to forget. I especially love the "shoot another shot / try to stop the feeling" line being coupled with Bill thinking about world domination. He's literally using 'taking over another dimension' as a distraction to not have to think about what happened to his home dimension and his parents! The same imagery comes back with the line "You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling," and Bill holding a miniature earth in his hands, desperately grasping it -- literally trying to stop the world so he won't have to feel anything. It's a nice throwback to the finale, when Bill took over Gravity Falls and made time stop -- literally stopping the world. God. My favourite part is when the chorus hits, when Chappel Roan sings "Good Luck, Babe" and Bill is shown next to the words, looking all happy and chipper (a front he puts on). The animation is wishing Bill "good luck" when it comes to him trying to repress everything, all his memories, feelings and grief. The last frame of the animation shows Bill's hand holding the atom of Euclydia. God, it really does always go back to Euclydia, to the worst thing Bill ever did and the thing he tries desperately to repress. Fuck, it's so poetic and beautiful and TRAGIC!
I want to mention a comment on this animation that blew me away when I first read it, and still continues to blow me away:
