#I hate filbrick pines

[madbard]

Thinking about how the Stan twins were both taught from a young age that life is a matter of transactions. How they were valued only for the money they could bring their family, and how this shaped their lives in such different ways.

Ford was the intelligent one, and this made him valuable. He knew what he had to offer. He knew he was important. (He had to be. Experience had shown him that love was conditional. He had to earn it. He had to be enough.) When Bill Cipher approached him, he confirmed everything Ford wanted so desperately to believe about himself. Imagine that sense of excitement, of accomplishment, of pride and power and relief. Imagine having that final, unshakeable source of external validation - that this being that knew everything and could have chosen anyone, chose you. Imagine knowing exactly what you could do to please this being and, with the understanding that love is conditional, knowing that you could fulfill the requirements for that love. Imagine knowing exactly how to ensure you would be loved, not just by that being but by the family you uplifted and the future you created. All you had to do was satisfy your own curiosity… all you had to do was build a portal. Is it any wonder that Ford fell for Bill’s tricks?

Then we have Stan, the failure. If love was transactional, he could never pay the fee. He knew people only helped you if you had something to offer. And he had nothing to offer, so why would anyone ever help him? Why would anyone care? Of course he didn’t fall for Bill. He couldn’t. When Bill promised gifts and power and happiness, how could Stan believe a word he said? In a world without altruism, such promises could never be trusted. There was always a price to be paid - and Stan had never been able to pay it.

And so the end of the world was triggered and then averted, all because one brother thought he could earn the world’s love, while the other knew he would never earn anything good.

A+ parenting, Filbrick. Truly.

[donothello]

click for better quality/enlarged images!

and they'll be together forever! :]

foreshadowing

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

Family Photos

[tigitaldurtle]

YOU WERE JUST A KID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jellyskink]

Headcanon that one time after one of his disscociative ragers Stan tends to Ford's wounds and Ford who's still dizzy from the occurrence breaks down crying saying he "Just wants his muse to be proud of him"

At that Stan realizes two things

1 He himself went through those before

2 OH, god, their dad did a number on BOTH of them

3 Maybe, behind the blindness of rage, there's still something left of his twin's will

Even if Stan thinks this, which is plausible, he CANNOT say it. Ford projects a lot of the things he doesn't let himself feel about Bill onto his memory of Filbrick

Extra fun fact! When Ford's breakdowns involve a lot of screaming like this, he has trouble speaking the next day. Stan has learned to read a lot of Ford's wants and intentions, though, so it's less of a problem than you might think when they're together. Bill obviously isn't so kind, and likes to make Ford talk all day to make it worse. A favorite tactic of his is to ask Ford about something he's excited/passionate about, and watch him struggle to infodump about it

[quantumfractaler]

Lazy tired doodles

[a--messy--blog]

when you're having a good day and it hits you that stanley probably used to promise himself all the time that he would never become his father and he still unintentionally ended up somewhat looking like and acting like his father, filbrick's suit which was never meant to be his was his signature outfit and everyone had perceived him as a greedy grumpy old man who loves money for most of his life

[itwouldeatyoualive]

we need to kill filbrick pines

[azelmaandeponine]

Can you talk more about Ford also being an abuse victim by his shit dad? With Stan,it was more glaring,but there's something off about his treatment of Ford as well.

Well, for starters, Filbrick's treatment of Stan is inherently abusive to Ford as well. It tells Ford "this is what will happen to you if you don't live up to my expectations".

A lot of people try to apply the Golden Child/Scapegoat dynamic to Ford and Stan, but it doesn't quite fit. Stan was a scapegoat, but Ford seemed to be more invisible than anything. Keep in mind Ford was surprised when Filbrick said he was impressed at the possibility of Ford earning money with his intelligence. The only time Filbrick really acknowledged Ford seemed to be for his intelligence--which would have told Ford that that was what his worth was tied to. So I think it's less "Ford was Filbrick's favorite" and more "Filbrick just didn't treat Ford like Stan" (which Stan would have viewed as favoritism). Filbrick doesn't really strike me as the type to have a favorite child, tbh. Just one he treated blatantly poorly, and one he tolerated because he thought that child's talents could be useful. (And we don't know anything about what Shermie's relationship with Filbrick was like, but I doubt Filbrick treated Shermie great)

And once Filbrick found out that Ford could make a lot of money, he had every intent of using Ford as a meal ticket.

All of this is emotional abuse.

So Ford was absolutely abused by his father, just not in the same way Stan was.

[dreamanddraw]

[dojelofj]

I'll protect you, Stanford.

guys does anyone like petrigrof guysuygasdhfja WHEN DOOMED + DOOMED COMBINED U HAVE DOOMED

so the idea behind this is that fiddleford is protecting ford from bill (who is golb in this case) and eventually fiddleford would have to merge with golb HAHHAHA very funny right

[introvert-slushie]

Currently saw a few people joke about how Ford should take ALL the suffering from Fiddleford and Stanley. I’m keeping my mouth shut, but I can’t take it. Why do we keep blaming the victims? Some of you guys are dense, not to be mean though.

Bill Cipher deserves all the suffering he put Stanford, Fiddleford, Dipper, Mabel, and Stanley though. Filbrick deserves the suffering too of course. Please, get it in your head that victims deal with so much that they deserve to heal.

This is why Alex put Bill in Theraprism, to think about his own actions beyond after death. This is why Alex Hirsch wrote near the end of the book that Ford reconnects with his family and Fiddleford to heal himself.

The difference in their fates is interesting in the end.

I’ll be honest though, I did not like Ford either when I was younger. Once I read Journal 3 and the Book of Bill now that I’m older. I understand and love his character. People act as if they’re mature for siding with Stanley. When really you should side with Stanley and Stanford. We can argue for hours how “bad” either of them are. Really, I think after 10 years since the show ended, Alex gave us Journal 3 and the Book of Bill to wrap it up. Give us an insight of Ford and Bill, along with others.

It’s a good ending to a great show. And I love these characters and their complexities from what we were shown.

[inkyrainstorms]

Guilt

[rainy-matcha]

I NEED TO SAY. Ford I think is still a good person at his core despite his many mistakes and more narcissistic tendencies. I could never hate him

[asiuapng]

Alexa, play Like Him on repeat

[im-kino853]

planned to render these but im in an artblock🤯 so mb if these look shitty lol, anyway

smth smth about filbrick engraving the "stanley is bad" idea to ford, which imo heavily contributes to ford's grudge with stan throughout the years tw abuse? under cut

depicting them in a scenario where filbrick is hitting/beating stan but then ford rushes in to hug him and tells filbrick to stop but instead gets hit/beaten too so the next time it happens to either of them, all the other could do was watch ☹