Rumble McSkirmish is a video game character that appears in Gravity Falls. He protects Dipper Pines from Robbie under the belief Robbie had killed Dipper's father until Dipper confesses that he lied to Rumble. Even after he was freed by Bill Cipher in Weirdmageddon, Rumble remain sided with the resistance to save the universe and humanity, where he reconcile with Dipper.
Background[]
Physical appearance[]
Dipper giving Rumble a Taco
Rumble McSkirnish is a video game character. As such, he is made of pixels, making him seem "blurry" as Robbie said. He has a blond mullet with a red band around his head, and wears no shirt. It is shown that he is very muscular. He has tape on his forearms and wears dark blue pants that looked cut on the bottom with a red belt similar to the band around his head. He has an eyepatch, and also wears no shoes.
Role in the series[]
Rumble disappears after beating Dipper.
Rumble McSkirmish is a playable fighter in Fight Fighters, an arcade game that Dipper and Wendy like to play. In "Fight Fighters", Dipper brought him into the real world by using the ultimate power code that he found on the lower left side of the arcade game (up up down down left right left right B A). Since Dipper was his fighter in the game, Rumble McSkirmish made it his goal to protect him, and Dipper made Rumble McSkirmish think that Robbie killed his father which Dipper decided to use to his advantage in an upcoming fight with Robbie. But Dipper soon loses control of Rumble during the fight. Rumble chases Robbie through Main Street, where he destroys many things in the process, such as fire hydrants and cars. At the water tower, Rumble finds out that Dipper had lied and Robbie didn't kill his father. This leads Rumble to believe that instead of Robbie being the "boss fight" it is actually Dipper. He then does a massive combo and absolutely annihilates Dipper. Then, a game over the sign appears and Rumble disappears.
Rumble also makes an appearance in the episode "Soos and the Real Girl". Giffany shows up inside his game and then shocks him.
During the first part of "Weirdmageddon", Rumble is shown emerging from the arcade after a weirdness wave washes over the area. Later, at the beginning of the third installment, Dipper sees that Rumble, how injured and having gained a new outlook on life, is among the refugees hiding out at the Mystery Shack. Rumble assists the refugees in turning the Shack into the Shacktron and battles some Eye Demons. At the end of the episode, when Bill Cipher is defeated, Rumble vanishes back to his game world, just as Rumble manages to bids his allies a farewell by giving them a thumb’s up and gains 100 points.
Trivia[]
- The character on his back is 屁, the Chinese character for fart and butt.
- While walking on the street he pulls out a pipe and says he got it from an oil drum. This is a reference to Final Fight.
- It is shown he takes a huge offense to lying, even saying it brought him in on the path of evil.
- At one point, Rumble asks Dipper to take him to the Soviet Union, unaware that it has not existed since December 1991. This is a reference to a famous quirk in Street Fighter II. The original game, released in summer of 1991, contains a "USSR" stage. Several upgraded editions of the game were made in the following years which changed and updated various aspects of the game. Despite this, the "USSR" stage retained its name, even in versions released years after the Soviet Union dissolved.
- Rumble destroying a car is a reference to a bonus stage which appears in both Street Fighter II and Final Fight. In the latter game, successfully destroying the car will cause a character to run onscreen and say "Oh, my car," in a famously emotionless manner. This line is referenced directly in the episode.
- Rumble punching an oil drum and finding a large pipe inside, and finding a sword lying in the street, are references to video games such as Final Fight and Streets of Rage, where such weapons could be found lying around randomly or inside objects like oil drums which were lying around randomly.
- Rumble speaks in "Engrish" (broken-sounding English) commonly. This is probably a reference to poor voice acting in video games produced in the past (particularly with ones with 2D computer graphics or sprites). This fact is referenced by Mabel at one point.
- The scene where Rumble is throwing barrels at Robbie is a reference to Donkey Kong.
- Apparently, Rumble's father has been killed by Dr. Karate more than once ("Dr. Karate! You killed my father again!").
- The words Mabel Pines had him say were "Effervescence, apple fritter, riboflavin!"
Gallery[]
