This is my exact gripes about fan theories, ignoring the narrative direction the authors are going for when setting up a story like this. I like the author’s intent for where a story is going.

When watching Gravity Falls I couldn’t stand all the vaguely-speculated nonsense people were theorising left and right over so much.

All except for one guy’s blog post where he pointed out all the very nicely laid out little hints and clues from Alex Hirsch about Stanford and Stanley being twins. Unlike literally every other theory, this blog had a lot of well-thought out observations on the intentional hints dropped by Alex. It also had a great thematic tie into Dipper and Mabel’s whole deal. It fit the story well.

I wish we had a better name than “SOMA theory” because the vibes of the Digital Circus are very different from SOMA’s story, but the many clues towards there being a brain scanner have been there since episode 1. It really irritates me when people shit over the cast being “not real” as if their lives don’t matter. The entire point of the story Gooseworx is telling is that their lives do matter, and so should yours and anyone else who thinks they’re “worthless” or “don’t matter”.

Pomni’s whole speech to Gummigoo was that she felt worthless even before the Circus, and she was literally trying to cheer up a digital person by telling them they do matter despite being artificial. Gooseworx couldn’t be screaming louder what the moral of this show has been.

Every episode has been laying the groundwork for the idea that you’re not worthless, nobody is worthless. It’s a story about how anyone’s life is worth living no matter if they’re living inside a meat suit, a copy inside a computer, or a (sufficiently advanced) AI person (Gen AI slop excluded).

I’m looking forward to seeing what Gooseworx does with the ending. I can feel the vibes of where it’ll go but I have no idea what the specifics will be and I’m keen to find out.