#I hate filbrick pines

[dimitri-gorelight]

Awwww look at the cuties (ignore the evil creature)

[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

[nenoname]

With Stan constantly wanting Dipper to not take his shit and him relating to the Duchess, it really feels like Stan is projecting his wish of wanting to stand up against his own dad....

And while Stan always internalised the things Filbrick said to him, the fact that Stan decided to get that "daddy issues" book shows he's definitely aware he has major issues™️ so maybe one day he'll make progress...

(+ bonus Stan relating too much to Dipper and being painfully aware that he's putting them in danger...)

(Filbrick's impact on Stan post, Soos the Sonployee post)

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

Family Photos

[dandeleon]

spirit phone is famously the ford pines album btw☝️☝️

[cryptic-underground]

The Hunt - Part 1

Masterpost | Next

It's done!!!! Yippee. This took me four months to finish, six of which were finished in the last three days. I couldn't stand staring another second at this so line art only for the remaining two-thirds.

I blame Filbrick for my lack of motivation because I would stare at his face and instantly lose my will to draw. (Probably just being overwhelmed by how much I needed to do but ANYWAY-)

This part is done now. I'll start on part 2 eventually, but for now I'm resting. It won't be coloured, just cleaned up because damn I overestimated myself on this one. I believed in my ability do long-period tasks way too much.

But anyhow. Since it's been *four months* since I intentionally mentioned this comic, i should reexplain the premise. So I had been watching an animatic on yt, and I was reading the description when it mentioned Moral Orel. It inspired me on a what-if idea of Filbrick taking one of his sons on a camping trip to beat some toxic masculinity into them. I had a poll to decide whether this supposed son would be Stan or Shermie ( I hc Shermie as older) since I could honestly see either slotting into this scenario with Filbrick. Was leaning a bit more towards Shermie just because I figured he would be a more hands-on in dictating his life choices than the twins, y'know first born debuff and all. But Stan won, and who am I to deny, right?

I picture the twins being somewhere between 13-15 during this. Like a little after Filbrick had them doing boxing. Anyway, I am going to go take a break from thinking about this comic.

[beautifulmask]

The photo

[thenocturnenarrator]

Why does my motivation kick in when winter break is ending :’)

Anyways, look at this two guys that aren’t doomed by the narrative at all

[quantumfractaler]

Lazy tired doodles

[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

[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

[inkyrainstorms]

Guilt

[silasbirchtree]

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]