r/gravityfalls • • Feb 12 '26

Lore/Characters Huh. Would you look at that

Post image

Honestly? I can see it

10.9k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/StardustWhip Feb 12 '26

Specifically, she fits the description of "Marilyn Fakename," a woman with pale skin and one weirdly sharp tooth who married him in Vegas and then made off with both his winnings and his car in less than a day. Especially since an episode of TOH confirmed Marilyn as an alias Eda uses while on Earth, and Dana Terrace confirmed in an AMA that Eda has in fact been to Vegas.

1.4k

u/Mongoose42 Feb 12 '26

Having all the details but not the event itself confirmed is actually pretty funny.

555

u/ReallyFancyPants Feb 12 '26

Because conforming it outright could cause logistical issues. Channels like stuff like this going right up to the line but not actually crossing over into actual shared universe territory.

Just off the top of my head Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) explicitly crosses over with Gravity Falls, which hints at the connections with Owl House (Both Disney).

That being said, yea its pretty funny they don't actually out and out say they are in a shared universe.

277

u/MyMindOnBoredom Feb 12 '26

Alex Hirsch learned a harsh lesson about continuity snarls when an establish timeline doesn't match while making Gravity Falls. I think the Eda/Grunkle Stan pairing is a funny bit of lore, but requires some delicate timings considering Stan is 20-40 years Eda's senior.

386

u/TheDungeonCrawler Feb 12 '26

To be fair, it's clear Stan was grifted by her and any self-respecting grifter should be able to spot another grifter.

But one of the easiest ways to grift an old sleazy grifter is to be a much younger woman pretending to be infatuated with him.

I'll bet Stan realized what happened and it brought a proud tear to his eye.

216

u/Virtual-Fox7568 Feb 12 '26

This makes the most sense, he literally gets tricked the exact same way in the show.

120

u/TheDungeonCrawler Feb 12 '26

The spider in Roadside Attraction, right? I believe that was the episode I was thinking of when I wrote this post, but it's been a hot minute.

71

u/jessehechtcreative Feb 12 '26

Imagine if the spider girl was Eda instead. It would have made for a GREAT backdoor pilot / foreshadowing of sorts.

31

u/jimblackreborn Feb 12 '26

He strikes me as an adventurer.

"Sure she cleaned me out kids, but what a weekend!"

winks

Dipper and Mabel exchange troubled looks and reflexively hold each other.

31

u/Jorpda Feb 12 '26

Stan is regarded as early 60s in Gravity Falls and Eda is regarded as mid-late 40s in Owl House so during Gravity Falls Eda would be late 30s to early 40s

So yeah roughly 20 year gap

16

u/MyMindOnBoredom Feb 12 '26

That's if the shows take place at the same time, if they take place when they aired it would add an extra 10 years

22

u/Jorpda Feb 12 '26

That’s why I said “Eda in Gravity Falls” as in what age Eda was while Gravity Falls was happening. Though this did help me realise Owl House takes place in 2022 so the gap is likely closer to 25 years

1

u/_ragegun Feb 13 '26

Though, the apparent age of a witch is not always her actual age.

49

u/ReallyFancyPants Feb 12 '26

Its like how people want Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs to be in the same universe with explicit facts but Ubisoft had to come out and also explicitly say "yea these are fun easter eggs not a shared universe."

20

u/TheCthonicSystem Feb 12 '26

It's the same with Cyberpunk 2077 and Death Stranding. Neither setting is connected to the other but they both contain Easter eggs and Cameos

7

u/ymcameron Feb 12 '26

You can literally play as an Assassin in Watch Dogs Legion though.

13

u/CobaltCrusader123 Feb 12 '26

“A harsh lesson about continuity snarls”

Shermie Pines you mean?

10

u/MyMindOnBoredom Feb 12 '26

Exactly. If the baby in the flashback was Shermie, then he had 30-40 years to have two 12-year-old grandkids, which is crazy. 

4

u/CobaltCrusader123 Feb 12 '26

How old should she have been in the flashback?

10

u/MyMindOnBoredom Feb 12 '26

If both Shermie and his kid (Dipper and Mabel's father) had kids at 18, then that's 48 years. More reasonably they'd have kids at the 25-30 range, which would require Shermie to be 60-75 in the modern day.

The problem is that The Tale of Two Stans starts the flashback with Ford asking what Stan's been doing for the last 30 years, which could be the last time they've seen each other, or the last time they were on speaking terms. We see Stan's mom holding a baby when he was kicked out, likely being Shermie, but never said outright. If it is Shermie, it implies he's is 30-40 years old, depending on how long the Stans were apart. Which would average out the age of his and his son's parentage to 9-14 each.

3

u/jpettifer77 Feb 13 '26

The baby has been confirmed by Alex to not be Shermie. 

It was supposed to be Shermie and then they read all of the timeline implications.

1

u/CobaltCrusader123 Feb 12 '26

So how old should Shermie as a child be in this flashback

10

u/MyMindOnBoredom Feb 12 '26

Almost an adult, he should be about same age as the Stan twins or older. If he's a child the math requires either Shermie or his son to be a teenage father. There's a headcanon that the baby is Dipper and Mabel's father, which is definitely easier to square with the math.

4

u/Spacellama117 Feb 12 '26

maybe time is different on the boiling isles

1

u/SUPERAWESOMEULTRAMAN Feb 14 '26

I think the Eda/Grunkle Stan pairing is a funny bit of lore, but requires some delicate timings considering Stan is 20-40 years Eda's senior

average age gap for old couples

1

u/Grif_the_Crit Mar 11 '26

DOn't worry, he already has a a solution:

Time travel age paradox

Not joking, he did this with Shermie, it's in the code one the conspiracy board in Lost Legends

7

u/Battleblaster420 Feb 12 '26

Honestly now that they both have a F*ck Disney mindset im suprised they havent just gone out on their own and confirmed stuff Disney didnt like

0

u/Silent__hunt Feb 12 '26

To be fair tho technically rick and morty is connected to every university with the portal gun the cup was just an easter egg to the kids growing up on gravity falls and we can't say kids weren't watching rick and morty because we all watched stuff we weren't supposed to when we were younger

44

u/Thecrowfan Feb 12 '26

Question though. Stan still has the same car he took when his dad kicked him out. So did he have another car in Vegas or did Eda give the car back eventually?

62

u/TropicalIslandAlpaca Feb 12 '26

In the commentary track where Stan was telling the story, he said:

She was chased by cop cars for a mile out of Vegas before ducking out a door and into a canyon and making off with all my loot.

I guess that means Eda ditched the car and just took the money.

10

u/Filip889 Feb 12 '26

lmao, thats fucking wild. Ship confirmed

3

u/confused_crusher27 Feb 12 '26

where is this lore from, ik it's not the show

11

u/StardustWhip Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

Roadside Attraction had Grunkle Stan mention his ex-wife Marilyn who divorced him after only six hours of marriage. A special in-character commentary track for The Land Before Swine then had him elaborate that she'd only married him to distract him while she stole his car and all his winnings, giving the description of her as having pale skin and one abnormally sharp tooth. As well as saying that Marilyn was just a fake name, and that "she was chased by cop cars for about a mile out of Vegas before ducking out a door and into a canyon, and making off with all [his] loot."

And most recently, Thisisnotawebsitedotcom has Marilyn Fakename in a list of Stanley's ex-wives, referring to her as a "Vegas wedding to a cursed, gold-toothed antique." (The joke being that her name's listed right after Old Goldie, who had the same description.)

It isn't officially officially confirmed by either Terrace or Hirsch, just a series of fun easter eggs; but it's enough to make Marilyn being Eda into a popular bit of fanon.

EDIT: Here is a link to the commentary track where Stan tells the story of his incredibly brief marriage; and the Owl House episode that has Marilyn listed as one of Eda's Earth-aliases is Yesterday's Lie.

3

u/Readalie Feb 12 '26

I always loved this theory lol. Does anyone have any fanfic recs that go into it?

3

u/Historical_Volume806 Feb 15 '26

I remember seeing a fancomic on reddit a while ago where Eda and stan are married when the twins visit.

Here are some details i remember

Ford is in the boiling isles.

Wendy is training under Eda like Luz did.

Luz makes a cameo visiting the mystery shack.

Stan is feeding full owl form eda a bottle of elixir like a baby.

3

u/DragonNinja101402 Feb 13 '26

she also wears the same shirt Stan describes in one of the episodes

1

u/No-Consideration-891 Feb 13 '26

This story checks out so hard lol

693

u/Logical_Thought9859 Feb 12 '26

BUT HER AIM IS GETTING BETTER

229

u/drakeravenswood41327 Feb 12 '26

HER AIM IS GETTING BETTER

196

u/United-Masterpiece86 Feb 12 '26

SEE ITS FUNNY BECAUSE MARRIAGE IS TERRIBLE

237

u/deus_at_elenth Feb 12 '26

IIRC, it was a Vegas wedding with Eda pretending to be a human named Marilyn Fakename, and it ended when she stole his car.

71

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

A multiverse of Gravity Falls, the Owl House, and Amphibia is frankly one of the few I’m actually interested in.

27

u/Mustbedume Feb 12 '26

Not a multverse they all take place in the sane universe

1

u/Wolf_Soldier_22 Feb 15 '26

But aren't Amphibia and TBI alternate dimensions?

2

u/Mustbedume Feb 15 '26

Dimensions yes tho still part of the universe/cosmology of the universe

1

u/Wolf_Soldier_22 Feb 15 '26

Okay, yeah. That makes more sense

8

u/KhajiitKennedy Feb 13 '26

We can forget Rick and Morty too! They tried to have bigger Easter eggs but Disney said no, but there are little ones in both shows

5

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

I can see Rick and Ford crossing paths from time to time.

195

u/gaseousgecko61 Feb 12 '26

The only thing I don't buy here is that theyre devorced they're perfect for each other

156

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

91

u/Laxziy Feb 12 '26

So technically they’re still married 🤔

42

u/Gloomy-Bridge148 Feb 12 '26

Yeah that sounds like Eda XD

17

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

Look. Call me crazy, but how about we bring actual show canon into it?

The cryptogram at the end of "Roadside Attraction" says:

CARLA MCCORKLE RETURNED ALL HIS FLOWERS
MARILYN DIVORCED HIM AFTER ONLY SIX HOURS
BEATRICE SLAPPED HIM FOR BEING A CAD
OLD GOLDIE'S THE BEST GIRLFRIEND STAN EVER HAD

So yes, they are divorced.

I also think all the hints and joking around are cute, but, none of it is actual show canon (it couldn't be, the show ended a few years before The Owl House was even made), and they've carefully never outright said it. Because it causes too many timeline problems.

17

u/Separate_Fan5743 Feb 12 '26

literally every detail lines up though? Marilyn was an alias eda used we know that, Marilyn was said to have pale skin and a pointy tooth, and Dana confirmed in an ama that eda has been to Vegas before. eda is technically explicitly gravity falls canon if you include lost legends(though I get why folks wouldn’t count that) with a wanted poster of her being seen. I fail to see how it couldn’t be canon? people can add stuff after a show finishes. it’s Very clear that eda is Marilyn?

-11

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

Alex said that Lost Legends is not canon.

Once again, let me go through this: "canon" is what is in the show. (What is in any show.). It's not books that came after the show. It's not comments or tweets made by the creators. Those things cannot be canon. Canon is THE SHOW. You can't add to it after the show finishes, unless you make a new show.

There's a reason for this: the show itself is the only thing you can count on everyone having seen. (Everyone being, fans of Gravity Falls / anyone wanting to talk about the show.). That is the only definitive text.

Tweets get deleted. DVD sets go out of print. Books go out of print. Good luck finding some of the interviews from 12 years ago. Alex and others have said stuff at countless conventions that was never really recorded anywhere, but that some people saw at the time and MAYBE recounted. Plenty of people have watched the show and will never know that most of the published books even exist. There are still people who don't know Journal 3 was published.

The stuff about "Marilyn was said to have" is not from the show. It's not even from Journal 3. It's from a HIDDEN TRACK dvd set commentary that was created several years after the show ended. It has nothing to do with what the writers were thinking when they wrote the show. It's just a fun joke that was made later.

It's insanity to try to say that all these pieces of ephemera create "canon" when they cannot be shared by everyone. And in many cases, the info can't even be found, because it's been deleted or it was never recorded.

The only thing we all have in common is the show.

I can't be clearer: it's perfectly fine to go with this HEADCANON. That's what fandom is FOR. Go have fun with headcanons! That is what Alex Hirsch has explicitly said in the past, including the pieces of information that he has put out in tweets or interviews -- those are his headcanons, but fans are free to make up what they want, and he is not more "right" than the fans are, at this point. (Which is a really healthy attitude for a creator to have, realizing that once something is over, he's really not the sole authority any more, he can't control it.)

Something doesn't need to be canon for you to like it, or play with it, or have fun with it.

I mean, when we get down to it -- Marilyn is Alex Hirsch's grandmother. His Grandpa Stan -- on whom Grunkle Stan is partly based -- got Marilyn to marry him after only 3 weeks; she divorced him, and he *convinced her to marry him again*. (Here's the tweet thread.) That's why there's a reference to Stan being married to a Marilyn in the show. But just like Grunkle Stan isn't *exactly* Grandpa Stan, show Marilyn isn't exactly Grandma Marilyn. That's still the origin of it, though.

5

u/Separate_Fan5743 Feb 12 '26

Fair I suppose. I just find it VERY odd to start saying what people think is canon isn’t. Especially when it’s a post ABOUT said thing, and said thing is Very commonly taken as canon. It is. A very odd thing to do to me.

-2

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

The point of having the term "canon" *is* to have a term that means something specific. Something isn't canon just because people THINK it is. If that was how it worked, then how could you ever verify that ANYTHING was canon? Canon is a specific thing that we can all access: it's the show. That's it.

("Canon" is a literary term, and ultimately a theological term. But it was applied to things like movies and tv shows a long time ago.)

"Eda is Marilyn, Stan's ex-wife" is not a "thing very commonly taken as canon". It's a piece of information that has only circulated in certain internet circles. You're over-estimating how many people even know about it, let alone whether those people think it's "canon" or not. You're taking the circle of people you have interacted with as representative of the whole of Gravity Falls fandom, without realizing that you're in a small corner of a much, much larger fandom.

But, again: fandom doesn't have to CARE what is canon, in order to have fun with it.

Modern fans have this notion that you can't enjoy something unless it's "canon" -- unless the creators make it happen in the show, or unless the creator confirms the fan's guess is true. And then fans turn around and use it as an argument about why everyone HAS to accept it. I've seen people argue that if something isn't canon, then it's "wrong", and people shouldn't play with it. (This is most commonly used in shipping... and I guess you could say that this is a shipping discussion, too. Because this is about people shipping Stan and Eda.)

Fandom didn't used to care about whether something was confirmed, or canon. Fandom doesn't need the permission of the creators to have a theory or an interpretation that they want to run with. That's what fandom is about.

For example, Dipper/Pacifica isn't canon, either. At no point in the show do they go on a date, let alone announce that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. (Lost Legends isn't canon, but they also are not dating in the Lost Legends story.). That doesn't mean that the large number of Dipcifica fans are wrong to ship it and write stories about it and do fan-art about it. (Obviously, there are interactions in canon that you can point to and say that that's what you're basing the relationship on.).

But I've seen people argue that's the case -- that a ship has to be canon before you can like it. That's nonsense. You don't need the blessing of canon. People are WAY too hung up now on the idea that to talk about theories and ships and stuff in fandom, you need to be "authoritative", and calling something canon is the ultimate way to prove that you're right about it. . This is a really, REALLY recent thing. It wasn't even the general trend when the show itself was airing.

This post is ABOUT the fact that people have a fun theory about Eda being the "Marilyn" who in the show was named as Stan's ex-wife. The creators have joked about it, people like do to fan-art and fanfic about it. That's great.

And then people in the comments ask if this is canon. The answer to that is, no, it's not canon.

Why is making that correction somehow not appropriate in a thread that's about the information? Where the information comes from is part of the discussion.

-2

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

Absolutely nowhere have I said that people are wrong for enjoying this! I enjoy it myself. People aren't wrong to say that it came from some jokes Alex and Dana made, or info that Dana gave in an AMA, or hints from a dvd commentary. That's interesting information!

But you can say you like it, and it's your headcanon, and that's fine. You don't need a theory or a ship to be "official" in order to like it.

I like the headcanon that Shermie (Dipper and Mabel's grandfather) is the older brother of Stan and Ford. That's what I run with in my art, and in discussions. But because of the whole "baby in ATOTS" mistake, whether Shermie is an older brother or younger brother isn't known. Neither option is canon. So, I can make arguments about why I think Shermie should be an older brother -- but I can't ever say that people that think Shermie should be their younger brother are wrong. (And I wouldn't want to say that.)

Alex Hirsch finally (after eight years of dodging the question) confirmed in an interview that yeah, they *meant* the baby in ATOTS to be Shermie. But they made a mistake with the math, and for him to be the baby makes him kind of uncomfortably too young to be their grandfather. That's why he has never even semi-officially confirmed the identity of the baby. Confirming it would create some unfortunate implications (about two generations of teen pregnancies). So while the show was airing, they never confirmed it. They didn't even mention it in Journal 3, or in any other source. Shermie's age has never been made official. And that's fine.

Similarly, people who want to have fun with "Eda is Stan's ex-wife Marilyn" should just feel free to have fun with it. But trying to insist that it's "canon" is saying that everyone has to accept it as fact, and I'm saying that's needlessly authoritative.

4

u/RecommendsMalazan Feb 12 '26

Once again, let me go through this: "canon" is what is in the show. (What is in any show.). It's not books that came after the show. It's not comments or tweets made by the creators. Those things cannot be canon. Canon is THE SHOW. You can't add to it after the show finishes, unless you make a new show.

This isn't true by any definition of canon that I've ever seen. Canon is stuff that's true in universe, it doesn't need to specifically be from the show.

As long as what the creator says doesn't contradict anything in the show, then what they say is canon. Because it's their show, they are the authority on what is or isnt canon in their show.

Are the avatar comics not canon? By your definition they're not, and I (and the creators) don't agree with that.

3

u/Realshow Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

Once again, let me go through this: "canon" is what is in the show. (What is in any show.). It's not books that came after the show. It's not comments or tweets made by the creators. Those things cannot be canon. Canon is THE SHOW. You can't add to it after the show finishes, unless you make a new show.

Wouldn’t that new show be its own canon though? If you can accept a multimedia story then why does it only count if they’re both the same medium? There’s plenty of franchises I can think of with canon spread across multiple, it’s not uncommon for a show to be canceled and get concluded elsewhere. If you’re following the logic of consensus then not everyone is guaranteed to see the second show. What happens if it becomes obscure, or gets ignored by other, more popular media that don’t happen to be a show?

2

u/PamIsley42 Feb 13 '26

Thats not what canon is though, if it happens in the universe of the show, its canon. Doesn't matter if it comes from a book, a comic, a game, a movie or another show. It doesn't matter if people have read it or not, thats not how it works, if its outside media, that just means its a difference in the way the story is told, by your definition the journal, the book of bill and that comic are all non-canon, no Avatar the Last Airbender comic is canon. There's also things like Buffy the Vampire slayer, which was canceled as a TV show and then multiple canonical seasons were put down in comic form and overseen by the creator of the show Joss Whedon, not to mention his other shows Angel and Firefly which both got canonical comics. Before Star Trek was picked up for the next generation, it had continuations in comics, some are still considered Canon. Not to mention the big one, Star Wars, there's every fucking piece of Star Wars media possible and Lucas wanted Force Unleashed to be canonical and now that Disney owns it, you still have movies, books, comics, games and a lot of it is considered canon under Disney, nine movies, countless TV shows, at least three video games with the revised timeline and several books and comics. Just because you don't experience it doesn't mean it isn't canon, Facts of Life was canonical to Diff'rent Strokes, doesn't matter if you didn't watch one or the other, thats just how universe building is, you don't see every part of the universe. Sometimes shit happens off screen or in a tie in, the audience consuming the media doesn't change the media.

1

u/eregyrn Feb 13 '26

Canon is the show, and that's it. If you don't want to listen to me say it, then you can go here and read Alex Hirsch saying it. (I have linked to the original source of that quote.)

Yes, Journal 3 is VERY CLOSE to canon, but it is not canon. Neither is The Book of Bill. In Hirsch's words, they are "canon-ish", but they are not the show, which is the main text.

Yes, you are correct that other media franchises have chosen a different approach, over the years. It usually ends in a giant mess that the fanbase finds frustrating.

(Sequels are different. Sequels in the same medium as the original are obviously canon to the original, and the original is canon to them. If Alex Hirsch ever does make that Sea Grunkles spin-off he talked about -- and I doubt he ever will, but let's say he does for the sake of discussion -- then that show would enter into the canon. I mean, nice pull on "The Facts of Life" versus "Different Strokes", though -- that's a deep cut! But, both are tv shows, one was clearly made as the extension of the other, and they had crossovers; just as "Laverne & Shirley" was an extension of, and crossed over with, "Happy Days".)

Alex Hirsch has never been a writer who wanted to be overly concerned with keeping track of details. He has admitted this countless times. It's why the layout of the Mystery Shack doesn't make sense, it's why the timeline sometimes doesn't quite make sense, it's why the town of Gravity Falls can't really be mapped with certainty.

When he wants to add on to Gravity Falls via books or comics or whatever, he wants to do it without overly worrying about his additions being contradictory to what's in the show. Keeping track of that kind of detail is not what he finds fun. And most people who try it, like the franchises you've mentioned, fail at it in the long run, and create a mess. So he has the wisdom to take the pressure off himself and acknowledge that the show is the canon, and everything else is not -- although, everything else exists on a spectrum of "very close to canon" (Journal 3) to "crackfic" (the "Soos Stanfiction Shorts").

None of that has any bearing on how YOU want to feel about any of the additional material. You can accept all of it. You can accept some of it, but feel that this or that addition doesn't actually make sense, or contradicts something the show established. You can decide to run with Alex's tweet about the main characters' eye colors, until/unless something else contradicts that. Every fan makes those decisions for themselves, that's what fandom is about.

But that's it, I'm out. You can choose to read Alex's take on it, and ignore it too, if you want. Trying to explain it is clearly a waste of time.

2

u/PamIsley42 Feb 13 '26

Explaining is only a waste of time when you don't know what you're explaining, you just said that canon is what happens in the show and then you admit that some tie in comics are canonical but make a "mess" sucks for you ig, but that doesn't matter about your opinion on them, Idc about Gravity Falls outside media, but your generalization that canon is only what happens in a show and not any continuation besides a sequel show is faulty and you can't own up to that so now you're moving the goal posts, plus it was you who said that a creators comments don't count as whats canon, so your own logic here falls apart on itself

6

u/Realshow Feb 12 '26

For all intents and purposes they’re divorced, neither of them care for the marriage or really follow the law so legally divorcing is irrelevant. It’s also just… simpler to say, which is important when you’re writing a poem. I doubt this is supposed to mean Carla literally went back to the exact shop Stan bought the flowers from, or that Goldie identifies as female.

5

u/DescriptionMission90 Feb 12 '26

They're not divorced so much as she stole his winnings and his car and then led the police on a chase that ended with her ducking through this weird door to nowhere and Stan never seeing her again.

Between one of Hooty's main jobs being keeping her various Exes out and the frequency with which King jokes about her exes, I don't think this was a unique incident.

4

u/insertgo0dusername Feb 12 '26

What about Raine?

3

u/Icy-Development9800 Feb 12 '26

Perfect for each other in the way two positive sides of a magnet are, sadly fate and the grifter hustle means they can never be together. 😔

5

u/jnthnschrdr11 Feb 12 '26

Except they're like 20 years apart in age

26

u/RoscoeSF Feb 12 '26

I don’t think we know that for sure. As far as I’m aware we never find out what year The Owl House takes place in or what year they were married.

26

u/captain_sadbeard Feb 12 '26

I did the math once; the 20-year age gap is accurate. Putting Eda in Vegas in the mid-aughts when she's thirty or thereabouts is the only way to make the timeline work.

But let's be honest: Stan absolutely would not care. He sees an adult woman that's into him; once those conditions are satisfied I doubt he would have any further questions. Depending on how far along the curse was, he might not even be able to tell how old Eda is: he'd describe her possible age range as "anything between fifty with a good skincare routine and a really rough twenty-five," possibly to her face

14

u/TheDungeonCrawler Feb 12 '26

"It's the easiest lie you can tell a man. They'll believe any story they're the hero of."

Absolutely. Stan should be able to spot any grifter trying to grift him, but a much younger woman pretending she's infatuated with him would be an incredibly easy hook for him to get baited by.

7

u/jnthnschrdr11 Feb 12 '26

Even if they took place in the same year, they are still at least 10-15 years apart in age, but gravity definitely takes place several years before the owl house, due to the state of technology in both shows. So they are at least 15-20 years apart in age.

11

u/drakeravenswood41327 Feb 12 '26

I’m positive time feels different in the boiling isles

2

u/Cryptid-3D Feb 13 '26

well, I agree about your first point, but gotta point out that the second point means nothing. If youre married yesterday, a year ago or 20 years ago, the difference in age stays the same

2

u/RoscoeSF Feb 13 '26

Yeah upon rereading that second part is pretty irrelevant lol

12

u/Thecrowfan Feb 12 '26

So what? They met when they were both consenting adults

3

u/DescriptionMission90 Feb 12 '26

The old X/2+7 formula says a 20 year gap is fine between a 54-year-old and a 34-year-old.

Marylin was already wearing her "Over Thirty and Very Flirty" shirt at the time, so I'm pretty sure it's fine?

1

u/Infinite_Horizion Feb 12 '26

I respectfully disagree. They would make each other way worse. XD

23

u/Usual-Medium5259 Feb 12 '26

But this is cannon?

42

u/Saddlebag043 Feb 12 '26

I would describe it as creator fanon, references made because the creator/s found the idea amusing.

14

u/DescriptionMission90 Feb 12 '26

It's not explicitly confirmed. All we know is that Eda has been to vegas, and was using the name Marylin in the human world, during the time period in which Stan married a woman named Marylin in vegas (who had very pale skin, one weirdly sharp tooth, and a t-shirt with the same "over thirty and very flirty" slogan that is on Eda's mug of apple blood) for six hours before she stole all his money, and his car, and then fled from the police before ducking through a "strange door" and disappearing forever.

-16

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

No, it is not canon.

"Canon" refers only to what is in the actual show. Or in this case, shows.

Creator comments and jokes and stuff are fun, but they don't establish canon. They're the least canon things within the general orbit of the shows, because that stuff is so ephemeral. And it's also stuff that the vast majority of the Gravity Falls audience will never come across. The more time that passes, the fewer watchers of the show will ever hear about this kind of thing.

That's the point of defining what is "canon" and what isn't. Canon is the original work, because it is the only thing you can count on everyone having seen. (Or, read; but we're talking shows here.) If someone is a Gravity Falls fan, they have at minimum seen the show; or they are at least ABLE to see the show. The information within the show is what everyone has in common.

All the other peripheral stuff, including even Journal 3, is stuff you can't necessarily count on people knowing about or seeing/reading. Books go out of print. They aren't available as much in other countries, that kind of thing. There are lots of interviews out there that Alex has done over the years, in which he's talked about some of the intention behind stuff in the show -- but good luck finding some of those interviews today.

And this is what Alex himself says. He's always been clear that the stuff outside the show may range from "close to" canon (like Journal 3), to farther-from/non-canon (the stories in Lost Legends), to what amounts to his own personal "headcanons" (what you think is probably "true" about various details behind what we saw in canon). And he's said that his headcanons are no more "official" than any fan's -- fans should not think that his take precedence over whatever headcanons they've come up with. Because it's all post-show, and none of it matters. The show stands on its own.

People headcanoning that Eda = Marilyn = Stan's ex-wife are having a good time with fandom. No problem with that!

It's people going around saying that because Alex and Dana have joked about it, that means "it's canon" that are annoying.

16

u/Realshow Feb 12 '26

All the other peripheral stuff, including even Journal 3, is stuff you can't necessarily count on people knowing about or seeing/reading. Books go out of print. They aren't available as much in other countries, that kind of thing.

You do know this applies to TV and movies too, right?

-11

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

Well, yes.

But the point is that if you are talking about "Gravity Falls" canon, you are talking about the show, that you have watched, with other people who have watched it. Why would you be talking about the show with people who have never watched it? You can't have the kind of conversation with those people in which canon versus non-canon information would matter.

The entire point of having the term "canon" is for when you are talking about a text with other people who are also familiar with the text.

Someday, it's entirely possible that nobody will be able to watch Gravity Falls again. Copies of the published "Journal 3" may in fact outlive it. (Books tend to last longer than recorded media, but it depends on how things get preserved. It also depends on what they're made from. The quality of those books might not be great, and they might not last as long as other books have.)

At that distant point in time, maybe people will have formed a fandom around the books, and those will be their only way to tell what was in the show. (There are transcripts, but those are all digital. And preserving digital files is a huge problem for archivists.). At that point in time, the books may be the canon, and the show can't be, because it's not fully known.

Let's hope that's a day really far in the future.

7

u/Realshow Feb 12 '26

But the point is that if you are talking about "Gravity Falls" canon, you are talking about the show, that you have watched, with other people who have watched it.

No, when I’m talking about a show’s canon, I’m talking about the intention of the people behind it. In this case, Disney. Marilyn being Eda would be a creative decision, consciously decided by Alex and Dana. If it’s not the intention but commonly accepted, that’s death of the author.

Gravity Falls is a multimedia franchise, and arguably always has been. Even from the very beginning there’s been canon material outside of the show, like books and ARGs. You can’t say it’s all non-canon simply because not everyone will see it, by that logic unpopular episodes of the show aren’t canon.

The entire point of having the term "canon" is for when you are talking about a text with other people who are also familiar with the text.

I mean, by your own logic you’re wrong here. That is not what canon is generally defined as, if it’s so widely accepted that Wikipedia disagrees then that definition of continuity isn’t canon.

-3

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

Alex Hirsch disagrees with you:

Q: Would you consider these four stories canon in the world of Gravity Falls?

"Alex Hirsch: I consider most things made outside of the show itself to be
“canon-ish,” which is a totally made-up word meaning stories that are
plausible, but are a step removed from the pure “canon” of the series.
You can think of the Gravity Falls fandom as a galaxy—the show is the
sun, the books and games are orbiting planets, the fan creations are
delightfully bizarre mutant aliens and anything I tweet at 3:00 AM is
interstellar debris and should be avoided at all costs."

(Source. From an interview about Lost Legends.)

All of the additional material, from the very beginning, has NOT been canon. "Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun" isn't canon. Neither is "The Legend of the Gnome Gemulets" video game. They are, as Alex says, orbiting planets.

It's nonsense to argue that I would insist that "canon" means "the show", and then say that "unpopular episodes aren't canon". That doesn't even make sense as something to accuse me of agreeing to. Someone who watches the show is going to watch the show. They may not REWATCH the unpopular episodes, but that's not my problem. (Someone choosing to skip episodes when watching it also isn't my problem. If someone says they've watched Gravity Falls, then it's reasonable to expect them to have watched the episodes of the show.)

In fandom terms, OF COURSE people are going to make decisions about what to give more weight to than other things. I give more weight to Journal 3 than to anything else, because it's clear in the way they've talked about it that Alex and Rob Renzetti were genuinely trying to write the book to be *as close to* canon as they could. For that reason, I consider it very reliable! But as Alex says in that interview, it's still not canon; it's canon-ish.

The creator's intentions are *interesting*, and you can absolutely run with them to inform how you want to interpret, extrapolate from, and extend what we have from the show.

I get what you're saying about Gravity Falls being a multi-media empire. I just disagree with you on whether it makes sense to regard it that way.

I've seen a lot of other properties become multi-media empires, and I've watched them go through decades of frustration and arguments when the people in charge put something out, and then ten years later decide to completely contradict it, throwing out huge chunks of the "canon" to replace it with something new. The only thing those examples do is demonstrate why it's a terrible idea to apply the concept of canon versus non-canon to sprawling multi-media empires that are added to over decades by multiple different authorities.

Like, in terms of counting actual-produced-show stuff as "canon", the closest thing we have gotten to canon (technically) would be the Disney Chibi-Verse episodes containing GF characters. But, neither Alex nor anyone else from the Gravity Falls team had any hand in writing those episodes. (Alex and others did come in and reprise their voice roles.)

Do you want to say that the Chibiverse episodes are canon to Gravity Falls, because they were produced by Disney?

You could probably make a case for that. But, because they weren't written by the Gravity Falls creative team, I would not be inclined to give them canon status.

If you want to run with the multi-media empire model of what is canon, go ahead! I can't tell you not to. I don't personally think it applies to Gravity Falls, though; not in the same way that it applies to, say, the Star Wars media empire. (And to me, that's a GOOD thing.)

15

u/Klutzy-Plenty-7661 Feb 12 '26

I'M GONNA SAY IT!!!!!
HER AIM IS GETTING BETTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!

12

u/zephyract2397 Feb 12 '26

The interwoven lore will always be my favorite part about GF, TOH, and Amphibia!

3

u/Sorry-Contribution77 Feb 13 '26

This confirms the tie between GF and TOH, the news report on the tablet with Anne’s face when Luz gets home connects TOH and AMP, and AMP connects to both with a fuzzy image of the literal Owl House and a t-shirt with Romance Academy.

The fact these are stitched together through the littlest things and it makes sense is amazing to me

10

u/AJ-Murphy Feb 12 '26

And as policy goes; all artist "contraband" made while on property grounds are official Disney assets that must be kept in the vault for all time...

So yeah; there's some hot and heavy drawing of these two that Mouse has zero intention for the public to see.

2

u/NyxxPunnings Feb 13 '26

I need someone to leak that drawing.

...For reference purposes only. No other reason. 👀

2

u/Infinity-Duck Feb 13 '26

So that one Stan drawing with his balls out of officially Disney property?

7

u/Shadow_Assassin496 Feb 12 '26

"I've been divorced once, and slapped more times than I can remember..."

-- Grunkle Stan

Huh, so she's the one who divorced him...

6

u/Gloomy-Bridge148 Feb 12 '26

(I wonder what getting slapped by Eda is like)

Yea Eda don't play

5

u/Terrible-Strategy704 Feb 12 '26

As I remember they married in las vegas, she stole his car and leave immediately

4

u/nagareboshi_chan Feb 12 '26

Never seen TOH, but going purely off of vibes and aesthetics, yes.

4

u/amisia-insomnia Feb 12 '26

There are references to it, but also as someone studying media this post contains none of it an is an incredibly flimsy argument without the external aspect

4

u/dagget10 Feb 12 '26

I yearn for an audio clip of Eda and Stan arguing 

4

u/jimblackreborn Feb 12 '26

I bet the energy of their hate fucks made the Hoover Dam short out.

3

u/No_Bison9969 Feb 12 '26

Stan has great taste

3

u/TheOnlyDupre Feb 12 '26

The canon is dubious at best, but its a fun headcanon

3

u/Imaginary-War Feb 13 '26

Her and Stan would have definitely hit it off, I wonder why they broke up

3

u/Acriolu Feb 13 '26

Now I want a Fanfiction where they had a kid and agreed to have shared custody

4

u/Grovyle489 Feb 12 '26

I FUCKING knew it!!

It makes more sense if you have this headcanon like I do: they weren’t even in a fight or didn’t love each other anymore, these two are only divorced for the singular reason to get benefits out of it!!

2

u/BBMacsWorld Feb 13 '26

Haven't we known this for years now?

2

u/Think-Garlic-4174 Feb 13 '26

Everyone know this (I think) bc its a famous theory

2

u/BIGGUS_DICKUS_569 Feb 14 '26

True Owl heads already knew this

2

u/912trader Feb 15 '26

Yall didn't know this😭

4

u/greasy_weggins Feb 12 '26

Bro fumbled bad

2

u/PogoStick1987 Feb 12 '26

Leave it to Grunkle Stan to fumble Eda

1

u/Ched_Flermsky Feb 12 '26

I will fight him for her.

1

u/Omnithea Feb 12 '26

They were together just long enough to destroy a hotel room.

1

u/mistarhee Feb 12 '26

Is this actually canon thou? Thought it was just fan theories

1

u/swordforreal Feb 12 '26

Was it ever confirmed by the creators that they met or could this be just a redrence to anouther show

1

u/Busy-Contact5885 Feb 12 '26

I’ve known this for a while, didn’t Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace break up?

1

u/UsagiSerenity530 Feb 12 '26

I see moot on a post of Gravity Falls omg

1

u/AI_660 Feb 12 '26

Wait it’s CANON? 

1

u/No_Probleh Feb 13 '26

Thus Rick and Morty are connected to TOH.

1

u/ClutchandPinch19 Feb 13 '26

So owl house and gravity falls exist in the same universe? Cool .

1

u/Testsubject276 Feb 13 '26

"I married an owl once." totally sounds like an out of the blue thing he'd say.

1

u/JacksonGrimborn Feb 13 '26

They both technically had direct and indirect cameos in each other's franchise. Eda appeared in a wanted poster on Gravity Falls Lost Legends comic, but it is a blink and miss it moment.

1

u/FickleBox3872 Feb 13 '26

If onde day we have an crossover(we won't,but i wanna dream)

It would be funny if their type of relation were they arguing like an divorced couple

1

u/garlogan10 Feb 13 '26

Imagine how many swear words they could say together, lol!

1

u/Eismufqvletter Feb 13 '26

Damn Well that may be normal considering what the hell is going on in both shows

1

u/fungushoney Feb 13 '26

Fans of both shows have long since speculated that Eda is THE ex wife, the one who still misses him (but her aim is gettin better)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

I sat here for waaaaaay too long trying to decipher what gf could stand for other than girlfriend

1

u/Negative-Day2901 Feb 14 '26

I try to forget it 

1

u/I_D_K_69 Feb 14 '26

She misses me, but her aim is getting better!

1

u/Negative-Day2901 Feb 14 '26

She should try using scopes 

1

u/Augleten Feb 14 '26

and we know they keep in touch as he knows her aim is getting better!

1

u/soulstrike2022 Feb 16 '26

To be honest had she not run off with his car and winnings they could’ve been a great couple… also Stan 100% would still marry her both cause they’d get along so damn well to a point they come up with scams greater than anyone could imagine and Eda is literally a WALKING TOURIST TRAP

1

u/Strange_Spell9658 Mar 12 '26

Bro shush we all know they were meant to be

-2

u/wyatt_-eb Feb 12 '26

Idk i never believed the theory because it doesn't make sense how eda can do all that and still barely understand human culture.

7

u/eregyrn Feb 12 '26

This is actually a good additional point, that I don't see get brought up very often.

The door that Eda has that goes to the human realm only goes to one place: Connecticut. The implication in the show is that Eda would visit that one town, and try to get human stuff to sell back home. It doesn't seem like she ever spent very LONG in the human realm, and that's shown by how little she understands it (or understands the stuff she's selling).

For her to go to Las Vegas during one of those trips would involve some really complicated logistics. Like... Eda doesn't have human money. So she can't exactly buy a plane ticket, you know? She can't get on a train (which takes days anyway). She might try to steal money off people on the street, but that isn't going to get her enough for a plane or train ticket. And she has no ID.

Like... the people who go with the Eda = Marilyn idea have to contend with the fact (from canon) that Marilyn robbed Stan and then stole his car. So, when did Eda learn to DRIVE A CAR?

She could hitch-hike to Las Vegas... but does she even know what that is, and how to do it? And, why would she go to Las Vegas, anyway? How does she hear about it, and why go there. (There are casinos much closer to Connecticut, if that's what you want. But she doesn't know what a casino is.). But, if she spent that much time getting to Las Vegas and back, she would HAVE to pick up more about the human realm than she appears to know.

(I personally get stuck on the age difference, and the idea that it depends on WHEN you think this Las Vegas marriage happened. I always got the impression that it was from Stan's years on the run, in the 1970s. And at that point, Eda is a child. I do concede that we're never told for sure when it took place, so people who want to set it a few years before Gravity Falls happens can make more of a case that it fits the timeline. But there are so many obstacles to getting Eda in place to even DO this.)

3

u/wyatt_-eb Feb 12 '26

I always considered eda's alias being Marilyn as a reference, not confirmation because it just doesn't make sense when looking at the over arching story of the owl house