#STOP HATING ON FORD AND USING HIM AS THE SCAPEGOAT AND THE PUNCHING BAG OF THE SHOW

[guardianoflightanddarkness]

Ford from Gravity Falls is used as the show's and fandom's scapegoat and it's completely unfair

This isn't written as a Ford defense squad post, as much as I love Ford, I know he is no saint and that he is an incredibly flawed yet incredibly well fleshed character, easily the best character of the entire series alongside Dipper and Stan. However, I think both the show AND the fandom tends to use him as the scapegoat to blame him for every little thing that has happened in the show, and it comes to a point that, honestly, it's downright ridiculous, like:

Getting mad at Stan over the project: yes, we know Stan breaking it was an accident, but that's because we, the audience, WATCHED Stan's memories and point of view, Ford didn't, and he has no way of checking that one out. It doesn't help that Stan's actions place him in the worst light posible: what was he doing sneaking into the school at night, specially around his brother's project? That was no accident, neither it was keeping quiet about breaking the project until there was no turning back, he could have told Ford to check it over, even if he kept his mouth shut about him being involved. On the top of that, he made ZERO attempts to show even the slightest remorse or guilt over it, he shrugged it off as roughhousing and completely dismissed it, as if he hadn't costed his brother's entire efforts and a full scholarship in the best college of the country. And to top it all, he immediately grinned while offering Ford to come sailing with him, you know, the thing the two had just talked about right before Ford's project was broken. See? From Ford's point of view and Stan's behaviour and actions EVERYTHING pointed at him doing it on purpose. At that moment, Ford had every single right to be furious and hurt at Stan for his betrayal. People need to stop acting as if Stan did no wrong in here when he screwed up big time. Ford had every right to resent Stan in here, and him managing to go to another college did not make it better: Ford making the best out of a crappy situation didn't make amends, specially when Stan had not apologized or tried to fix the mess or make it up to him.

Stan getting kicked out: Obviously Stan did NOT deserve to get kicked out over what happened, but that's NOT Ford's fault, he didn't kick him out, their father, Filbrick, aka abusive AH of the year, did, and considering what we know he said about Stan when he was young "He is a loser, an utter embarrassment, I just want to get rid of him" and the fact that he had his bag ready beforehand, it was clear he just used Ford's broken project as an excuse to do this earlier. You can't seriously expect Ford, a child at that time, to be the adult in the picture, specially in the heat of the moment when he was still hurt and angry. Not to mention that, had he tried to defend him, the two of them would have gotten kicked out. It would have helped no one. Should Ford had at least made sure Stan was okay? Yes, but that goes BOTH ways, as Stan left and didn't try to keep contact. Don't blame Ford for an abusive parent's actions.

Summoning Bill: Ford had NO idea that Bill was a demon, and the warning on the cave could have easily been a prank, specially cause you have to be THAT dumb to leave the spell to summon a demon next to the warn "DO NOT SUMMON", that's like me leaving my bank account in the open and write "DO NOT STEAL MY MONEY USING MY PASSWORD 1234". On the top of that, Bill pretended to be his friend by gaslighting him and manipulating him, feeding his insecurities and taking advantage that Ford was still hurting over Stan's loss, and trying to show that he was worth something through his smarts and to prove he wasn't a freak. Blaming Ford for trusting and summoning him is basically victim blaming him when he wasn't aware of any of this. The only thing he can be blamed is for, well, allow anyone in his mind, that should have been a huge boundary that should have never been accepted, but considering how manipulative Bill is...

Mcgucket's madness: While we can't deny that Mcgucket was traumatized by everything he saw in Gravity Falls and the portal, we can't directly blame Ford for this, he is not to blame for Mcgucket mishandling his anxiety and coping in an unhealthy way. Yes, Mcgucket was affected by all of this, but he was the one who created the memory gun, and who used it despite Ford offering him help and telling him NOT to use it cause it clearly caused brain damage, and told him to destroy it. And what did Mcgucket do? He used the memory gun on Ford to keep him quiet, created a cult, and used it on himself until losing his sanity. I'm sorry, but as much as I love and feel bad for Mcgucket, his own insanity is his own fault, not Ford's.

Not destroying his research: Would you guys be okay with destroying all your life work? It's not as simple. And you need to remember he was sleep deprived for weeks because Bill would possess him at any chance to torture him if he fell asleep, at that point Ford was suffering practically psychosis. Obviously he could have just burned the pages regarding Bill exclusively, but again, he couldn't think clearly at that point.

His fight with Stan: Again, sleep deprived, it's a miracle he could even say a sentence properly in his state, and it takes two to start an argument. Stan had every right to feel hurt, but calling Ford selfish for following his own life after Stan took his chances previously with zero remorse over it was also an AH move, which made things escalate when Ford did the same by claiming this was "the only worth thing he would ever do in his life", and then Stan, out of spite, tried to burn his journals, and Ford retaliated by tackling him to stop him, both twins blaming each other over Stan's life when really that was Filbrick's fault. Ford marking Stan was an honest accident, and he tried to stop the fight there and help him and heal him, it was Stan who out of pain and rage, continued the fight until Ford got sucked into the portal. BOTH of them are to blame for that fiasco for not even trying to communicate properly and jumping to physical fight.

Not thanking Stan right away: Stan was responsible for Ford losing 30 years of his life in the other dimension, taking his home, his life work, and his identity and on the top of that, ignoring the warnings of NOT opening the portal cause it could destroy the world, therefore opening the portal, creating the rift, and running Ford's plan to destroy Bill. From his point of view, Ford has every right to be pissed and not feeling like thanking his brother for it in the heat of the moment, specially when Stan doesn't show a single shred of remorse and his first words are "how about a thank you for getting you out of a sci-fi dimension?"

Not staying away from the kids: Ford LITERALLY does that, it's Dipper who comes to him, and then Stan accepted it.

Endangering the kids: Ford literally tried to keep the kids safe and the only time he actively risked Dipper's life was when he thought the UFO was safe. Stan literally got the kids in jail within the first week at Gravity Falls and almost got them killed multiple times, like with the dinosaur and the bottomless pit. And if we talk about Ford giving Mabel a crossbow, don't forget Stan allowed Mabel to play with an ax, Ford and Stan were raised in the 60s, where that was more than normal, and Ford openly asks if it's okay to give children weapons cause he has been out of this dimension for decades, which is a fair point. Stan knows better in here, and he has done far worse.

Not telling Stan and Mabel about the rift: Obviously telling the rest of the family would have been the ideal thing to do, but people forget that Ford is dealing with trauma and trust issues that are still untreated after 30 years: he was betrayed by his brother, then by his best friend, and finally by his muse, and it costed him everything, it's understandable he isn't going to trust his brother right away - specially considering Stan isn't taking him seriously, considering he shrugged off any problems with the portal and left the mess in his hands, assuming he won't be careful with it like he wasn't with the portal - or his niece, who he just met and for the little he has seen from her, has broken uncountable crystal balls in less than an hour, or who he has read from journal 3, has a terrible tendency of stealing or taking important things from others without permission, like journal 3 during Sock Opera and almost handling it to Bill. Was it a bad move? Yes, but understandable nevertheless given what he had gone through by that point.

"Neglecting" Mabel: This one is just downright ridiculous, we are literally SHOWED how Ford's interactions with Mabel are nothing but filled with fondness and how he claims to love this girl for being weird, praising her for being a good person and all. It's Stan who literally asked him to stay away from BOTH kids, which Ford complied to until Dipper literally busted into his lab, and it's not like Mabel showed any interest in spending time with Ford either, she only shows interest when there unicorns involved. Could have Ford interacted more with both kids? Yes, if it wasn't because...he was just adapting back into his own dimension after being 30 years away, and dealing with the stress of containing the rift and preparing for Weirdmaggedon, ALL while the kids barely had a couple of weeks left before returning home.When was Ford supposed to get extra time to bond with Mabel? Specially when Mabel didn't show any interest in him to begin with?

"Separating" Dipper and Mabel: This one is easily one of the most unfair points I hear so often, because not only it places the blame solely on Ford for problems that were taking place long before he even stepped out of that portal, but because it takes away any accountability on the children regarding their relationship, and implying that Ford was wrong in the past before the project incident. I won't deny that Ford was projecting a bit with the "isn't it suffocating?" comment, but other than that, he was offering his nephew a chance to study what he loved, giving him what he didn't get to have at his age, he wasn't excluding Mabel, Mabel simply never showed interest in the supernatural, as we all saw, and he simply helped his nephew to increase his self-confidence, something that, seriously, Dipper needed, after all the crap he got put through. And let's not pretend that all the kids' problems started with Ford, their problems started WAY long before Ford was around the picture, as we saw how basically Dipper has zero self-confidence and, as much as the twins love each other, their relationship was completely unbalanced: Dipper is constantly giving up for Mabel to make her happy, sacrificing his needs and wants for her, and everything Mabel does in return is not only not appreciating anything he does for her, but to mock him, disrespect his boundaries, ditch him for better plans, force her will onto him, and basically throw him under the bus whenever another plan suits him better, and getting all the favouritism from Stan's treatment up to that point, who joined into Dipper's treatment, favoured Mabel and gave Dipper the worst chores. Ford's appearance only balanced the equation by giving Dipper someone that he could connect with the same way Mabel connects with Stan. And the show tries to play that as a bad thing, really?

The "grammar" comment: This one is baffling to me, because while it's true Ford's reaction weren't the most mature one out of the two, the fact that people ignore Stan's own immature actions on that scene and blame Ford exclusively only speaks volumes of how much the fandom uses him as the scapegoat: at this point, Ford has been TORTURED for DAYS to no end, by being electrocuted and turned into a gold statue, and the second he comes back to his senses, he is relieved to find his family, but also has a very limited time to stop Bill, so he hurries up to draw the circle. He literally pleads Stanley to hold his hand to fix this and Stan refuses, openly accusing him of creating the end of the world (while purposefully ignoring his own share of the blame, since he is the one who opened the portal in the first place and created the rift that started weirdmaggedon), Ford apologizes and pleads him to help him by just shaking his hand, and what does Stan do? Refuse to do it until he forces a thank you out of him, effectively keeping the world's safety, their children included, out of pure pettiness and pride, and even after he gets that thank you out of him, he continues to badmouth Ford. By that point, to say Ford was irritated with Stan is an understatement. Yet somehow he gets more crap for that grammar comment, than for Stan throwing punches at him for it, let alone his entire behaviour in that episode. Again, both of them were being stubborn immature idiots, so why people blame Ford exclusively?

Again, with this, I'm not saying Ford is innocent on everything, he isn't, he has done his plenty of share of mistakes, he spends DECADES blaming himself over those, with trust and self-confidence issues, and spent over half of his life ready to sacrifice himself and everything to fix it, but I honestly find absolutely unfair and an insult to his character how the fandom tends to portray him as this selfish arrogant old man that people love to blame for everything that went wrong, ignoring Bill and basically to favour other characters like Stan and Mabel. I can understand that Ford, coming out so late in the show and his life story only been expanded in Journal 3 didn't help, but the bashing he gets even ten years later is just appalling and proves that many people didn't understand him, just look at what the fandom think about him just watching the fanmade episode "Return to the Bunker", which basically spits all over his character. It's a shame that one of the most fleshed out characters of this amazing show gets the short end of the stick by his creator and by the fandom when he clearly doesn't deserve it.