My friend introduced me to a Disney kid’s show called Gravity Falls. She described it as Adventure Time meets Supernatural. The premise is that twin siblings (Mabel and Dipper Pines) spend a summer in Gravity Falls, Oregon, and weird things happen. The female sibling, Mabel, is my new hero and possibly my spirit animal.
Look at her sweater. Just look at it!
Dipper introduces her a the type of person that always sees the bright side of things. This is entirely true. She’s perky and bright and always happy – but this is never conflated with naivety or uselessness. Down with the conception that extremely happy people can’t be smart! She is actually quite clever and uses her cunning to get Dipper and herself out of tight situations.
I think the exact moment that I decided I will love Mabel forever is the scene where their uncle allows them one item from the Mystery Shack gift shop:
Grappling hook!
I also admire that Mabel is reasonably assertive when it comes to relationships. When she finds herself in a romantic situation that she is not okay with, she ends it. She is quite good at taking control of a situation. In the episode The Hand that Rocks the Mabel, she saved Dipper from being killed by the episode’s villain, all the while breaking up with said villain and taking friendship off the table for hurting her brother. Look at those family values.
I feel like Mabel is just an all-around refreshing female character and it makes me happy that this show is available to young children (that is, not a part of the Adult Swim lineup). I love knowing that young girls have Mabel and I have no shame in admitting that I will watch this children’s show religiously, not just for her character but because it’s really well-written and genuinely hilarious.
Pingback: Paper Droids – Fangirl Friday: Vanellope von Schweetz