Come, dear friends, as Emerald tells the tale of how a certain spoiled brat got her into Gravity Falls and became her favorite character.

*opens storybook, clears throat*

Once upon a time, long ago in the year 2012, a girl named Emerald returned home after weeks and weeks of different summer camps. Exhausted, she collapsed on the coach, turning on the television to good old Disney Channel as she did so. A commercial was playing, for a show called Gravity Falls. Emerald recalled seeing the promos for the show before she had left home in the beginning of summer, the ones with the two children filming a monster in their closet, but with her being gone, she had missed the premieres of the first three episodes. She had thought that the show had been a bit intriguing, but she just didn't know enough about it to be interested enough to start watching it.

And then she saw him.

In the commercial playing, the character that Emerald would later learn to be named Gideon Charles Gleeful was clearly flirting with a young brunette girl, who was looking very uncomfortable. Emerald sat up, suddenly and strangely invested in this fictional psychic. Once the promo ended, all she could think was this...

"Why was that small old man flirting with that little girl???"

*pauses to wait for laughter to end*

Anyways, the poor, confused Emerald, who, just for the record, happened to be young and easily misled at the time, was extremely concerned for this little girl and the intentions of the person she believed to be a very short old man. When it was time for the premiere for the episode where this white-haired character would debut, she was right there watching it. And thus, Emerald watched Gravity Falls for the first time. And she became hooked. It was everything she loved all wrapped up in one: healthy sibling relationships, humor, mystery, the promise of a deeper plot than those usually offered by Disney Channel, and, of course, a good villain.

(It took Emerald over halfway through the episode to realize that Lil' Gideon was not in fact a creepy old man, but a creepy little boy. In her defense, the hair threw her off, okay? No self-respecting boy in his right mind would ever have white hair, especially if it was styled like Gideon's was.)

As the series continued, Emerald's fondness for the character who had gotten into the show only continued to grow, much to the confusion of her friends who watched Gravity Falls also. Yes, she realized that Gideon wasn't exactly a model citizen. Yes, she knew he was a huge brat. No, she did not support any of his decisions or actions. But contrary to popular belief, your favorite character can be someone that you just have fun watching, not just someone you relate to or agree with.

Emerald liked Lil' Gideon because he was a good foil to the protagonists, an originally motived villain, and great comedic relief. And also she just really liked making fun of him. A lot. Like, she made more fun of her son than her friends did. And that's saying a lot, since they made fun of him A LOT. He's an easy character to make fun of.

(When Gideon made his heel-face turn during Part One of the Season Two Finale, Emerald blew up the Weirdmageddon group chat she was in with her friends with her screaming and "IN YOUR FACES" to all those who ever doubted her saying that her son would get his redemption arc one day. She had never been more proud of her bratty son, and her friends had never been more exasperated by her love for the ten-year-old.)  

Even now, long after Gravity Falls had ended and summer was over, Emerald still finds herself thinking about Gideon sometimes. She hopes he achieved the title of Lil' Gideon: Normal Kid. She hopes he learned how to skateboard properly. She hopes he eventually learned that he isn't entitled in everything he wants. She hopes he learned to put other people before him. She hopes he got over his crush on Mabel, and they became friends again. She hopes he and Pacifica befriended each other. She hopes he fangirled over Ford when he realized that the older man was the author of the journals. She hopes he never summoned another demon ever again. She has a lot of hopes about her son that would probably take her way too long to type out.

And that, dear friends, is the story of how Emerald was introduced to a life-changing TV show by Gideon Charles Gleeful, and how she came to call him her bratty son.

The end.

*closes storybook*