Fabulous Kvetchin' Inc.: Gravity Falls 2

parrotbeak:

alphabetas:

parrotbeak:

And in light of my post earlier today, Gravity Falls can now suck it…

…
I didn’t think the focus was on how Robby was unfairly treated- he’s not the main character, not someone I have any reason to care about…

I’ll make sure to remember to keep away from you for the rest of my life. You’re too self-centered for my taste.

Wow, that was uncalled for.  But I digress.

I’m not going to harp on your opinions of the end-of-episode joke, nor argue whether or not it was bullying or justified in an objective sense, but rather discuss my opinions on the statement you bolded about Dipper’s protagonist status and Robbie’s lack of such.

In the context of traditionally-structured fictional works (and I would argue that Gravity Falls does have a traditional structure, with a protagonist encountering and overcoming obstacles both within and without), empathizing with the protagonist is (unless subverted) highly imperative.  It’s not a matter of personal taste but rather form and function: if the audience cannot empathize with the protagonist, our hearts are not with them, we cannot understand their actions and comprehend both their merits and faults, and the magic is gone.  Before giving us reason to feel for secondary characters, the audience must feel for primary characters.  In this case, that primary character is Dipper (and, in a close second, Mabel).

As a cast of characters, Gravity Falls has yet to give the audience a clear-cut reason as to why we should empathize with Robbie; he is still, for all extents and purposes, a very flat character.  In a world where Dipper is the point of view character (it’s him that we hear first in the show, he whose character development we first and foremost follow, and as important as Mabel is to the story and mood of the show it’s Dipper who paints the world of Gravity Falls with his perceptions), Robbie plays an antagonist.

(Not that they give no indication of Robbie’s emotions - you can hear in his voice how upset he is when Dipper “fixes” the timeline, pulling his hood tight over his face, a objective hint to the audience that this may not be the correct solution and also more of an indication of character than he’d gotten in any of his appearances thus far.  If anything, that’s a sign that he has more character development to come.)

In other words, alphabetas does not mean that they are uncaring of Robbie as a fellow human being, but rather as a character who, in the structure of things, the audience has been given very little reason to care positively about.  It is, of course, perfectly fine to feel sorry for Robbie as a person and upset at the twins for causing him ill, but to not do so is not mean or self-centered.

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