Author notes on “Multiversity”
Note: Some of the comments below contain SPOILERS for the story.
The “by George Glass, with Eh Steve” refers to the fact that although I did most of the writing, Eh Steve wrote chapter 1, and he and I worked together on outlining the plot and thinking up the different universes that Dipper visits. Among other things, the postapocalyptic universe where Dipper and Soos are dating AIs (J-Peg and Giffany 9.0) was entirely his idea.
The mechanics of Dipper’s travel from one alternate self to another, and especially his unreliable “Swiss cheese” memory, were inspired by (read: shamelessly stolen from) the TV series Quantum Leap. Dipper’s saying “Oh boy” every time he lands in a new universe is an homage to that show, as well.
Aphrodite’s look—a cheap, overly short leopard-print dress and spike heels on a body way too aged to pull them off—was inspired by a cocktail waitress I once encountered at a low-end strip club in Germany, as well as the Love God’s slovenly appearance in his titular episode.
The title of chapter 1, “Into the Multiverse,” is borrowed from a Family Guy episode with the same title.
“Spackler’s Underground Pest Poison” is named for Carl Spackler, the gopher-hating greenskeeper played by Bill Murray in Caddyshack.
In Mexican cooking, “cabrito” refers to meat from a young goat. Because Gravity Falls is a place of mythical monsters, “chupacabrito” (the meat of a young chupacabra, a folkloric monster that sucks the blood of goats) seemed like something you might find on a menu there—and, of course, something Thompson’s friends would dare him to eat.
The abandoned church where Dipper and Wendy have sex is the one seen in the episode “The Land Before Swine.”
The Incestverse, where Dipper and Mabel are lovers, was all my idea, because I’m a pervert who is turned on by the notion of underage twincest. But I also really enjoyed writing Dipper’s inner conflict over the whole thing.
I didn’t really make this clear in the story, but in the Incestverse, most people don’t grow up to marry their siblings or cousins and have babies with them. Incest is reserved for one’s FIRST romance; after that, people date non-relatives.
The movie that Dipper and Mabel see with Mermadeline and Squatchie, Loch Ness Mobster—in which a Chicago mob informant assumes a new identity in Scotland—was inspired by the plot of the show Lilyhammer, about a New York mobster who hides out in Norway for similar reasons.
The line “Release the kraken!”—shouted by Pacifica as the sheriff and deputy harass her tentacled boyfriend in chapter 6—is originally from the cornball 1981 Greek mythology movie Clash of the Titans (and has been referenced on several occasions on The Big Bang Theory).
When Dipper and Mermadeline go to find and photograph the Gobblewonker, Dipper brings a flash that is separate from the camera. The principle of keeping the flash a few feet away from the camera lens is something I heard about long ago from a friend whose hobby was underwater photography. He said it keeps any floating particles in the water from reflecting the light from the flash straight back at the camera.
Chapter 7, “Flipping Channels” was written to insert some comic relief between Dipper’s frightening encounter with the Gobblewonker in chapter 6 and the gloomy postapocalypic world of chapter 8. It was also meant as a quick way of ruling out Candy and Grenda as potential girlfriends for Dipper (although it’s arguable that the possibility of a Dipper/Candy relationship had already been taken off the table in the episode “Roadside Attractions”).
In chapter 8, the mention of tiramisu (the Italian dessert of custard, ladyfingers, and espresso) is a reference to the one good joke (IMO) in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Sam, who is getting back into the dating game after the death of his wife, asks his friend Jay if there’s anything new in the dating world that he should know about.
Jay: Tiramisu.
Sam: What is tiramisu?
Jay: You’ll find out.
Sam: Well, what is it?
Jay: You’ll see!
Sam: Some woman is gonna want me to do it to her, and I’m not gonna know what it is!
Chapters 9 and 10, which are set in Dipper’s home town of Piedmont, California, were by far the hardest chapters to write. Whereas each of the preceding chapters included one or two original characters, ALL of the characters in these two chapters were original save for Dipper. Creating them all, as well as the places Dipper visits and the activities he engages in back home, was a huge task. But I like to think it was worth it.
In chapter 11, Dipper tells Mabel and Grunkle Stan, “I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in a week.” That’s about the total amount of time (from Dipper’s perspective) that he spent in the various universes he visited.
Eh Steve and I first conceived of this story back when Gravity Falls was still on the air, and we originally planned for Dipper to end up with Pacifica. However, after “Northwest Mansion Mystery,” Dipper and Pacifica’s potential relationship never went anywhere, so putting them together at the end of this story didn’t make sense anymore. So we ultimately decided that Dipper wouldn’t end up with anyone and that he would instead focus on the other relationships in his life, like his new friendship with Nat.