“Wander, sometimes you come up with crazy ideas that I would classify as… well, bad. But I only say that because you’re my best friend, and I’m worried you’ll get hurt. You see where I’m comin’ from?”
“I sure do, Sylvia. But I have to ask you something. Do you trust me?”
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Let’s talk about Mabel and ADHD
As the title sort of implies, I headcanon that Mabel has ADHD (and I’m probably not the only one) and this scene from Sock Opera is a scene that really stands out to me as a sign she has ADHD.
Many of you are probably thinking, “Oh, she’s going to say that the fact that Mabel got so easily distracted is proof she doesn’t have ‘laser focus’ and that is a sign she has ADHD.”
No.
That’s not what I’m about to say.
Let’s make something clear, Mabel does have “laser focus.” In this episode, for example, she laser focused on making a puppet show Gabe would like. In Headhunters she laser-focused on making Stan a new wax sculpture, in The Love God she laser focused on getting Robbie a new girlfriend. I could go on, there are plenty of other examples. The fact that she can laser focus is a sign of her having ADHD.
“But the ‘AD’ in ADHD stands for ‘attention deficit.’ How is laser focus a sign she has ADHD?” you ask. Well from my own experience with having ADHD, and from research I’ve done, “attention deficit” doesn’t necessarily mean the inability to focus for long lengths of time, it could very well mean laser focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is known as hyperfocus. It’s something that is experienced by many people with ADHD (not all, but a fair amount of people) and it’s basically when someone is so focused on something it’s nearly impossible to stop and focus on something else. Take me for example, I could focus on nothing but Gravity Falls analysis and theories for hours and hours and hours. The problem is that it’s very difficult for me to get out of hyperfocus to do the giant pile of homework stacking up on my desk. For me, it’s also occurred between interests. At the beginning of the new year, I promised myself to write more GF fanfiction and draw more GF fanart, a few days later I suddenly began re-obsessing about Wander Over Yonder. For like three weeks I couldn’t think about GF fanfics or fanart, all I could think about was WOY. And I think that’s basically what happened in this scene of Sock Opera. I think that if Gabe hadn’t shown up, Mabel would have hyperfocused– or as she called it, laser focused– on the laptop. She was ready and motivated to help Dipper. The problem was that something came up that she found more interesting, and suddenly her hyperfocus switched to that.
Now, what about Dipper? Was he hyperfocusing in this episode on the laptop? The answer is: possibly. According to research I’ve done on hyperfocusing, it’s normal for someone without ADHD to fall into a hyperfocus state once in a while. What makes hyperfocus an ADHD thing is that it’ll happen more frequently. (please note that I didn’t do any research on whether or not hyperfocusing regularly is solely an ADHD thing or if this is common with other mental disorders as well.)
Personally, I think Dipper was in a flow state rather than a hyperfocus state. Flow state is defined as being fully immersed in an activity. This is something I learned a little while ago in school and I immediately had to look up the difference between flow and hyperfocus. The difference is controlability. It’s fairly easy to get in and out of a flow state, but hyperfocus is hard or impossible to control, and it’s incredibily hard to start and end it at will. That being said, the fact that Dipper was able to help Mabel with her puppet show in the day, and work on the laptop at night, and showed no signs of it being a struggle to switch between the two tasks, implies that he was in more of a flow state than a hyperfocus one.
Now back to Mabel, since she’s the topic of this post (really the only reason I brought up Dip was because I figured someone was going to ask anyway). The fact that it’s difficult to get in and out of hyperfocus is further evidence that Mabel experiences it and is aware of it. She didn’t help Dipper at night with the laptop (although part of that is probably because they have to sleep at some point, and Dipper didn’t seem to care one bit about sleep this episode) and consider maybe she didn’t because she knew she really couldn’t. She knew she couldn’t focus on the laptop until the puppet show was done. This also could be part of the reason she recruited Dipper to help her. I mean sure, she obviously needed help, but consider, the sooner the puppet show is done, the easier/sooner she can get out of hyperfocusing on puppets and start focusing on the laptop and helping out Dip.
That is why this scene stands out to me as a sign she has ADHD.
And ADHD Mabel is just one more thing to love about Mabel. 🙂
Let’s talk about Mabel and ADHD
As the title sort of implies, I headcanon that Mabel has ADHD (and I’m probably not the only one) and this scene from Sock Opera is a scene that really stands out to me as a sign she has ADHD.
Many of you are probably thinking, “Oh, she’s going to say that the fact that Mabel got so easily distracted is proof she doesn’t have ‘laser focus’ and that is a sign she has ADHD.”
No.
That’s not what I’m about to say.
Let’s make something clear, Mabel does have “laser focus.” In this episode, for example, she laser focused on making a puppet show Gabe would like. In Headhunters she laser-focused on making Stan a new wax sculpture, in The Love God she laser focused on getting Robbie a new girlfriend. I could go on, there are plenty of other examples. The fact that she can laser focus is a sign of her having ADHD.
“But the ‘AD’ in ADHD stands for ‘attention deficit.’ How is laser focus a sign she has ADHD?” you ask. Well from my own experience with having ADHD, and from research I’ve done, “attention deficit” doesn’t necessarily mean the inability to focus for long lengths of time, it could very well mean laser focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is known as hyperfocus. It’s something that is experienced by many people with ADHD (not all, but a fair amount of people) and it’s basically when someone is so focused on something it’s nearly impossible to stop and focus on something else. Take me for example, I could focus on nothing but Gravity Falls analysis and theories for hours and hours and hours. The problem is that it’s very difficult for me to get out of hyperfocus to do the giant pile of homework stacking up on my desk. For me, it’s also occurred between interests. At the beginning of the new year, I promised myself to write more GF fanfiction and draw more GF fanart, a few days later I suddenly began re-obsessing about Wander Over Yonder. For like three weeks I couldn’t think about GF fanfics or fanart, all I could think about was WOY. And I think that’s basically what happened in this scene of Sock Opera. I think that if Gabe hadn’t shown up, Mabel would have hyperfocused– or as she called it, laser focused– on the laptop. She was ready and motivated to help Dipper. The problem was that something came up that she found more interesting, and suddenly her hyperfocus switched to that.
Now, what about Dipper? Was he hyperfocusing in this episode on the laptop? The answer is: possibly. According to research I’ve done on hyperfocusing, it’s normal for someone without ADHD to fall into a hyperfocus state once in a while. What makes hyperfocus an ADHD thing is that it’ll happen more frequently. (please note that I didn’t do any research on whether or not hyperfocusing regularly is solely an ADHD thing or if this is common with other mental disorders as well.)
Personally, I think Dipper was in a flow state rather than a hyperfocus state. Flow state is defined as being fully immersed in an activity. This is something I learned a little while ago in school and I immediately had to look up the difference between flow and hyperfocus. The difference is controlability. It’s fairly easy to get in and out of a flow state, but hyperfocus is hard or impossible to control, and it’s incredibily hard to start and end it at will. That being said, the fact that Dipper was able to help Mabel with her puppet show in the day, and work on the laptop at night, and showed no signs of it being a struggle to switch between the two tasks, implies that he was in more of a flow state than a hyperfocus one.
Now back to Mabel, since she’s the topic of this post (really the only reason I brought up Dip was because I figured someone was going to ask anyway). The fact that it’s difficult to get in and out of hyperfocus is further evidence that Mabel experiences it and is aware of it. She didn’t help Dipper at night with the laptop (although part of that is probably because they have to sleep at some point, and Dipper didn’t seem to care one bit about sleep this episode) and consider maybe she didn’t because she knew she really couldn’t. She knew she couldn’t focus on the laptop until the puppet show was done. This also could be part of the reason she recruited Dipper to help her. I mean sure, she obviously needed help, but consider, the sooner the puppet show is done, the easier/sooner she can get out of hyperfocusing on puppets and start focusing on the laptop and helping out Dip.
That is why this scene stands out to me as a sign she has ADHD.
And ADHD Mabel is just one more thing to love about Mabel. 🙂
You mean to tell me after all this man has done, the businesses can’t RESPECT him
You mean to tell me after all this man has done, the businesses can’t RESPECT him
Okay so, first I was sort of annoyed that all the princesses were not only super pretty and skinny/tall, but also looked completely different from their fathers (heck, from their entire species!)
Buuuuut then I realized that it’s sort of a Disney trope and started interpreting this as the WoY crew sort of subtlety poking fun at this trope, and I was able to sorta laugh it off.
We wanted to play into Brad’s ultimate fantasy, which also happens to be a Disney fantasy. We already had a bunch of short, weird kings, so we gave them a bunch of Classic Disney daughters (labeled in the script as “Surprisingly Attractive Daughters”).
This is also why the Lamprey Princess is my favorite. Also, the cold tag for Hot Shot is one of my favorites: Brad couldn’t be happier smooching his beautiful lamprey bride for the rest of his life.
Okay so, first I was sort of annoyed that all the princesses were not only super pretty and skinny/tall, but also looked completely different from their fathers (heck, from their entire species!)
Buuuuut then I realized that it’s sort of a Disney trope and started interpreting this as the WoY crew sort of subtlety poking fun at this trope, and I was able to sorta laugh it off.
We wanted to play into Brad’s ultimate fantasy, which also happens to be a Disney fantasy. We already had a bunch of short, weird kings, so we gave them a bunch of Classic Disney daughters (labeled in the script as “Surprisingly Attractive Daughters”).
This is also why the Lamprey Princess is my favorite. Also, the cold tag for Hot Shot is one of my favorites: Brad couldn’t be happier smooching his beautiful lamprey bride for the rest of his life.
merciless
Okay sorry for the long post but this is how I set up washboard.ws (which is kinda a mobile version of tumblr savior) to be like an app, and be able to look at my favorite tags with ease. (Since washboard doesn’t appear to have a search option)
First thing you’ll need to do is have washboard set up. Go to washboard.ws and sign in with your tumblr. I signed in through dolphin browser because I think it’s the best option for setting this up to be just like an app, you can experiment with different mobile browsers if you’d like but these are instructions for how to do this with dolphin on my iPhone.
In the first picture you’ll see the dolphin browser icon, if your not familiar with it. It’s to the right of the tumblr app (bottom full row). Its available for free in the iTunes App Store and on Googleplay.
The second picture is how dolphin looks when it’s opened (it’ll be a little different your first time opening it because you can get different themes (free) for the the browser, which is how I got that purplish, blue ish blended background.) The first two rows are pre saved links that I was simply too lazy to delete. Everything else is what I’ve already had set up.
Okay now into instructions for finding/saving tags with ease. Make sure you’re signed into washboard on Dolphin. Now go to the search bar at the top and type “washboard.ws/tagged/” and then type the name of the tag you want to save, making sure to type “%20” between each word. I decided to save the Gravity Falls tag so I typed “washboard.ws/tagged/gravity%20falls%20” (see 3rd image). Now hit “Go” and make sure it takes you to the tag and not to an error page. If it takes you to an error page, it’s likely you typed something wrong, check and try again until you get to the tag. I don’t have a picture of it, but i did get to the Gravity Falls tag.
Now that you’ve made it to the tag, go back to the search bar and copy the link. (4th image)
Go back to the homepage with the saved links and tap on the big white plus. (In the second picture you can see mine is to the right of the tumblr icon that I have labeled as “notifications”) the plus will take you to the 5th image where you can name and save a link. Paste the link you copied earlier into where the link goes (image 6)
In the 7th image you can see I have the link pasted and I’ve named it Gravity Falls. Tap “Done” and as you can see on the last image, it has saved the link as Gravity Falls on my homepage. Now whenever I want to view the Gravity Falls tag on washboard, I can open dolphin and tap the circle icon labeled “Gravity Falls”
Gravity Falls and Other Related Stuff 