#all the atots memories came back to me on this scene

[konaizumi]

A Tale of a Thousand Stars ep 8 thoughts/reaction

did i watch this episode secretly on my phone while i was in class bc i couldn’t stand waiting a whole hour to watch the new ep? maybe

tian visiting torfun’s memorial to leave flowers and tell her that he’s going to pha pun dao was sweet

also him and phupha missing each other again was just a really nice scene and phupha wondering who left her flowers

i have decided to forgive dr nam for last episode (the snooping not the flirting thing) bc i know he was just concerned about his friend and he didn’t intend for phupha to have that kind of reaction, but he still should’ve confronted tian directly before telling phupha

the way tian is looking at longtae in the beginning, seeing how supportive he’s being and knowing that he’s probably about to lose longtae as well

god this scene was so painful to watch, just knowing what was coming

but the editing that combines tian’s speech with phupha reading through the notebook

also, thank you to the writers for confirming that the tian/torfun similarities are bc he’s been reading the notebook and not because torfun’s spirit is possessing him, i didn’t think they would do that but nice to have confirmation

poor tian really did go there with the best intentions

oof, when the music goes silent when phupha interrupts his speech

also, i said this last week, but it should’ve been the rangers responsibility to tell everyone torfun had died and the fact that they didn’t only added to tian’s burden and the animosity aimed at him, and it annoyed me the way the rangers (perhaps unintentionally) let tian take on the full blame and didn’t admit that they had known about torfun’s death from the start

god and the way tian’s heart break is visible on his face as soon as phupha interrupts/confronts him and he realizes that phupha won’t be on his side

and mix’s acting in this scene (and the entire episode) is just so good, you can see the way he’s desperately trying to keep in together and not completely break down, and his heartbreak when he realizes he’s all alone

also, i made a longer post about how i understand phupha’s reaction, I think it’s pretty natural and that he’s not overreacting, however, i do wish he hadn’t confronted tian so publicly like that 

just everything about this scene is just so good in the most painful way, especially the sad orchestral version of the theme song

now i think this ep is too sad for me to say it’s my favorite, but from a narrative/cinematography perspective it is my favorite, it was just really well done

i was really hoping the kids would have a bigger role this ep and begin the forgiveness process for the rest of the village, so i was excited when Meejoo came but then p’aof decided to stab me directly in the heart when she asked what death is

(also im sorry but how old are these kids that she doesn’t know what the word death is?)

(also given that everything that happens in this ep happens within like a 30 hour period, i still hold hope for the kids forgiving next ep once they have some time to process)

at least they didn’t make me watch the scene where tian had to explain what death was, that would’ve killed me

i understand the villager’s reactions too, and i do kind of wish tian would just stay home and give them some time to grieve and process before trying to interact with them–i don’t blame tian for keeping the truth from them this long, but he does need to respect the pain they’re going through

also this scene with phupha really fucked me up, the way phupha remains stone faced even though he’s clearly in a lot of pain

“i wish i could return it to her” one of the things about this story that really fucks me up is that you can’t have both torfun and tian--torfun had to die for tian to live, and if torfun had lived then tian would have died and all the characters are in a way stuck with this moral dilemma of “choosing” between tian and torfun, even if the decision was already made for them, and tian has had to deal with this problem since the beginning and made his choice a long time ago that he would have preferred that torfun had lived instead of him bc he feels like she had more to live for and left behind more than he would’ve

also the scene is so much more painful knowing that just that morning phupha had finally said out loud that he wanted tian to stay

and i was really ton this scene between understanding phupha’s reaction and where he’s coming from but also being like “please stop talking to my son like that, he feels bad enough as is”

i have often had the emotion of “i want to walk through the screen so i can give this character a hug” and i have literally never felt it stronger than this episode of atots

also thank you to dr nam who told phupha not that he was wrong for his actions, but that he should’ve confronted tian differently, also for figuring out that tian wasn’t the driver

the fact that tian just walked through the tea field so he knows that either khama was lying to him or that longtae saw him in the field and hid from him

poor longtae tho, thought he knew what was coming then was hit with “im responsible for her death”

you know what? i didn’t realize khama would have such a recurring role from the first episode, but i really like him--he’s trying to do his best for the village and that isn’t always easy and he’s the first to try to think about tian’s perspective even when it’s clearly difficult for him

also i love khaotung, he does a really good job as longtae, and as much as i loved him as chonlatee, i prefer him in more mature roles like longtae or fong

did dr nam really think phupha would keep letting tian stay in his room?

it came as a surprise to likely no one but i am glad to have definitve confirmation that tian was in fact not driving the car

against my wishes, tul did not show up this episode to give tian a hug so i hope he’s in the next ep to provide some much needed emotional support

tian’s involvement in torfun’s death is also complicated because to say he had no responsibility in it would be wrong but to say he had full responsibility wouldn’t be right either, there was so much of the situation that was just due to chance, as it the case in any accident, so i appreciate the nuance of the narrative in that tian does take responsibility (even if he takes too much) but other characters like longtae argue that it’s not his fault, bc it’s easy from an outside perspective to say it’s not tian’s fault but it would be much harder to be in tian’s position and not feel responsible that his actions lead to torfun’s death

longtae is truly best boi

tian saying he’s okay with just longtae understanding him is so sad but at the same time it’s good that he’s not trying to force other people to understand or forgive him

now i really want to know what torfun’s wish is bc you know it’s going to be all meaningful and thematically relevant

istg if i had a fucking nickel for every time tian has tried to give me a heart attack

i spent the entirety of part 4 yelling at tian to just stop being stupid

like i get it, you don’t feel like you have the time to waste to go find phupha, but still

also im worried that maybe the reason he was so adamant about doing it himself and not finding phupha was because he didn’t feel like he could go to phupha or that phupha might not believe him

tian please just listen to longtae being the voice of reason

or at least send longtae back to the village to go get phupha if you’re this determined

as soon as he pulled out his phone i fucking knew the flash would go off bc tian can’t be smart without also being dumb

pls don’t hit my son he has a weak heart

longtae running away like “i didn’t sign up for this shit”

pls stop hitting my son

i was wondering how tian’s dad would become involved in the story again and tian name dropping him to escape being killed by poachers was not it

but sakda was clearly scared when tian first said the name so obvi they’re connected and i’m assuming the person who called tian’s dad was either sakda or one of the other men there which means that tian’s dad is doing illegal shit (surprise surprise)

tian i know you’re stressed but pls let rang provide first aid

that montage at the end tho really hit me

also the parallels between this scene and the one when tian fainted in the field, it’s literally the exact same scene but the roles are reversed

also the fucking post credits scene, the emotional whiplash, the pain from knowing phupha said this stuff literally hours before everything went wrong

the way i squealed when phupha said i do (and throught the rest of the scene), it was literally the sweetest thing, it might be my favorite phutian moment so far

so for the last two episodes, im assuming that tian’s dad coming to get him and the dad being involved in illegal stuff will be the main external conflict, i wouldn’t be surprised if next ep ended with the dad showing up and demanding to take tian back

also the next ep preview, khama telling tian to forgive himself, im weak

this episode just made me feel so much, the story is just so complex and nuanced, and the characters are real and messy, and pls more bl in the future that aren’t afraid to tell more serious stories (as much as i love the romcom style of most bls i would love some more variety)

[tehohaews]

hey orthy! i saw the 2gether the movie news and came to check on you akfbsk how are we doin? -@gremlinmetawin

AYESHA LOVE 😭😭💗💗💗 🥺🥺 HAPPY 2GETHER MOVIE!!! (still can't believe we get to say that!!) I mean bright and win did say it themselves but i have trust issues™ so when my friend sent me the trailer link I thought it was some clickbait or fmv and then i saw it was GEE EM EM?? I literally threw my phone and started walking in circles and then laid down and stared at my wall for 10 minutes before picking up my (thankfully not broken) phone and (through my tears) pressed play. I was expecting it to be a compilation of scenes from 2g and s2g but then they SHOWED WAT WITH THAT RING BOX AND DJJDJDJDJD. Anyway after I watched the whole thing and saw the poster ngl I was a little bit disappointed cause it felt a bit low quality for a movie?? 😩 idk if it was bcuz I expected this to have a similar vibe as s2g or the fact that atots has increased my expectations from gmm. So after that I became very worried that this might not reach the standard s2g had set and ruin this perfect image of sarawatine everyone had after s2g and then it would be like after the ending of 2g all over again 😩 Also i know nothing about the new director and not to judge a book by it's cover but i dont trust anyone except p'aof. I later found out that it would be from wat's perspective and that there would be a new coloring and explanations of some previous scenes and that actually made me feel a bit better cause that would mean that there would be less space to mess up. I'm not on twitter as of now so i have no idea about what's going on there but Jelly posted some bts pics of them in a couch talking and from that I'm thinking that they'll have a talk or smth where wat will say his side of the story and then we'll get the flashbacks(which I think are unused scenes from 2g and s2g from different camera angles and with a new coloring there's not much you can do with unused scenes anyway so why not add a new coloring 😁) So yeah I wasn’t feeling the best about this whole thing and was telling myself that if it goes downhill I'll just erase it from my memory and rewatch s2g for the 100th time. But after I saw p'aof's vid today I get why they are doing this. They don’t have a lot of material neither did they film "a lot of" new scenes but they wanted to do smth as a way of saying thank you and that knowledge is enough for me. I'm seeing people get excited for a wedding, earnpear and ohmfong(!!!!!) but tbh i dont think a lot is gonna happen plot wise cause 1)this looks like a tb compilation of 2g and s2g and 2)i dont think they filmed that long for it to actually have a lot of plot. Things that can happen are them moving to a new house,reminscing their old times(the flashbacks),them going to their graduation, wat singing at the event (where tine joins him later as seen from today's bts) and then a proposal scene after. We might also see how the rest of the gang are doing and I heard there would be someone's wedding and I really don't think it's gonna be sarawatine's so my bet is literally on bosspear rn 🤡🤡🤡 😭😭😭 (but not to worry cause pear runs away with earn before the wedding but that's a story for another day djjdjdjd). Anyway so yeah I'm not expecting much from this BUT FOR NOW I AM HAPPY TO GET THEM BACK in whatever way i can 😭😭😭

[haberdashing]

After The Portal (2/2)

After Ford realizes that the world he’s in is not what it initially seemed, he and Stan talk things over... eventually.

Inspired by the epilogue of @thelastspeecher‘s In Another World, and in turn by some old fan theories from shortly after AToTS.

Part 1 / Part 2

on AO3

also on ff.net (no link because filter)

Ford tried his best to ignore the newfound realization that this dimension- the one on the other end of the portal that had disrupted his fateful fight with Bill; the one in which he was now stuck, seemingly for good- was not his own. Ford threw himself into his work with vigor, focusing on saving this world rather than dwelling upon another. And there was much for him to do, much that had to be done if Bill was to be kept at bay, and so his mind was kept busy with the details of that plan all too easily. There were times that he forgot that this dimension wasn’t actually his home, that, much as the rest of the family embraced his presence, he did not truly belong there.

But when he overheard Stan telling the kids that the big party he’d thrown back on June 15th had been for his birthday all along, Ford couldn’t help himself.

He waited until Dipper and Mabel were gone, off on some errand that he was half-convinced Stan had invented on the spot, before speaking up.

“Stanley, you do know our birthday’s on the eighteenth of June, don’t you?”

Stan spun around to face Ford, who stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure whether to step forward.

“No, it’s the fifteenth- Ford, don’t tell me you forgot your own birthday!”

Ford folded his arms against his chest. “I most certainly did not. Our birthday’s on the eighteenth, and I know that for a fact.”

“Well, I know I didn’t forget our birthday, and clearly one of us must have, so-”

“Not necessarily.”

Ford hadn’t meant for the comment to come out as more than a murmur, hadn’t meant for Stan to overhear- and yet his speech came out loud enough that Stan paused mid-sentence, staring at him skeptically.

“Not necessarily? What the hell does that mean?”

Ford paused, hesitated, let his arms fall to his sides and felt his hands tremble. “N-nothing.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Ford. Just spit it out.”

Ford took a deep breath, weighed his thoughts before continuing- but the stony gaze Stanley was shooting him made it all too clear that he had to continue, one way or another. “Your-” He pointed one arm in Stan’s direction, made vague circles in the air. “-birthday might be the fifteenth, but mine-” He pointed at himself, feeling a bit foolish. “-is definitely on the eighteenth.”

“Wha- we were born fifteen minutes apart, Ford, not three days- and you’re older than me, anyway.”

Another difference there, fifteen minutes apart instead of thirteen, and Ford thought about arguing the point but instead sighed as he prepared to explain himself further. “In this world-” More circles in the air, wide circles only broadly pointed in Stanley’s direction. “-in your world, we might have been born on the fifteenth. But in my world, in my home dimension, we both were born on the eighteenth.”

Stan opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again after a long moment of silence.

“You’re saying you’re not from here.”

Ford rubbed one hand against his temple. “Yes.”

“But the portal- I-”

“You searched for a Stanford Pines, and you got one. Just not the one you were after.”

“But- this is crazy- should I- should I send you... home, then?”

Ford broke into a laugh at that one, loud harsh laughter echoing through the room. “Oh yes, let’s rip a second hole in the fabric of the universe, splendid idea there Stanley, surprised I didn’t think of that myself.”

“Wait, what-”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of two sets of rapidly approaching footsteps, Dipper and Mabel evidently having finished the chores that Stan had so haphazardly assigned.

“We’ll talk about this more tomorrow, got it?”

Ford nodded tersely in agreement. He wouldn’t be looking forward to it, but he had to admit that, now that the secret was out, there was more that he would have to discuss with Stan.

And Ford intended to have that conversation the next day, he really did. And maybe he would have if that day wasn’t the day-

or days, really, because what happened then went on for several days, perhaps for weeks even, not that he could keep track when he spent most of it either unconscious or going through seemingly-endless torture sessions in the Fearamid-

or not a day at all, really, because once it was all over it was as if no time had passed in the outside world, as if nothing had happened and it had all been just a bad dream, though the residents of Gravity Falls knew better-

If that day wasn’t the time, then, when the rift had broken open.

If that day wasn’t when Bill had tried to take the universe by force, stopped only by a fluke of nature and a missing equation.

If that day wasn’t when Ford had had to type his brother’s name into a memory gun, his shaking hands holding the gun to Stanley’s head and pulling the trigger.

If that day wasn’t when Stanley Pines, as the world knew him, briefly ceased to exist.

His memory came back. Somehow, miraculously, Stan’s memory came back, even when it should have been totally erased, even when Stan Pines should have been gone from the world for good. But he remembered things piecemeal as they combed through Mabel’s scrapbook and whatever other artifacts they could find to jog his memory- Ford remembered owning some old home videos of them as kids, found them exactly where he remembered putting them.

And as Stanley’s memory returned over time, Ford tried to forget that the man next to him wasn’t really his brother, that there should have been a different Stanford by his side helping him through this. He really, really tried.

But every time he started to feel lulled back into complacency, something would turn up to remind Ford that this world was not his own. The home videos that he retrieved, like the journals that he had perused before Bill had turned them into dust and ashes, felt right in some places, but entirely wrong in others. Sometimes it was minor things, a quote gone awry or a gesture that didn’t fit what Ford remembered from the same scene. Often it was the total absence of their brother, Shermie- Ford knew him as their older brother, a grounding presence in many childhood scenes, but in this dimension Shermie was not only younger than them, but so much younger that Stanley had left home before Shermie had learned to walk. Ford studied these videos, these artifacts from another Stanford’s childhood, looking not for what would bring back a memory like Stanley did, but for what didn’t bring back memories, what didn’t fit into what Ford remembered from way back when.

Sometimes the way Stan’s memories came back seemed logical enough, a picture or video triggering reminders of the time they depicted, but sometimes it was more haphazard, Stan remembering something new in the middle of dinner or when drifting off to sleep. Stan remembered Dipper and Mabel and even Soos well before he remembered Ford, and part of Ford felt as though he should have been insulted by this, but all things considered it was only natural, given that the man Stanley had pushed into the portal thirty years ago was a different man from Ford in more ways than one.

Four days after the world nearly ended, Ford, who had managed to fall asleep on the couch in the room that had once been his (or, not his his, but- but the couch frame still sagged in that old familiar way, from many long nights spent reading until his eyes glazed over, many long nights where he fell asleep without meaning to and cursed the sunlight when it trickled in through the window), was roughly awoken by someone pounding on the door.

Even before he opened the door, even before he heard the voice coming from the other side, Ford knew it was Stan standing there, could guess at least generally what he was so urgently needed for.

“Ford, we need to talk, goddammit!”

Ford opened the door. Stan was in his boxers, and there were bags under his eyes. A quick glance at the window showed that what sunlight was coming through was still dim and muted, a sunrise only just beginning.

“I imagine whatever you remembered didn’t include that there are children in this house, and that you therefore should avoid yelling swear words at the top of your lungs around dawn?”

Stan snorted. “That’s not yelling at the top of my lungs. You should hear me yelling at the top of my lungs.”

“No, I really shouldn’t. Especially not this early in the morning.”

“Fair ‘nuff.”

“So, what did you remember this time?” Ford gestured so as to invite Stan inside, then gently shut the door behind them as Stan promptly plopped down in the nearest chair.

“I remembered that we were having a- a fucking conversation that we were going to finish before this whole-” Stan rested one hand against his temple, fingernails digging into his scalp. “-this whole Weirdmageddon bullshit got in the way. So let’s get back to that.”

It took a moment for Ford to realize what Stan was referring to.

“Stanley, I really don’t think now is the time to discuss that, you’re still recovering-”

“Don’t.” Stan held up one hand. “Just... just don’t.”

Ford sighed, his body visibly deflating as he let out his breath.

“So... you’re from another world, huh?”

“...yes.”

Stan’s gaze lingered on Ford, and Ford couldn’t quite make out Stan’s expression. “But you still saved this one.”

Ford spoke up immediately. “I saved the world? Stanley, you-”

“Can it, poindexter. You pulled the trigger. You erased him from my mind. Everybody’s acting like I’m the only hero here, but we both know that’s a damn lie.”

“I...” Ford’s legs felt shaky, and he retrieved a chair for himself and rested one arm against it before continuing. “I didn’t save anyone. I’m the reason he was here in the first place, I can’t-”

“Were you the reason he was here? Or was that the other Ford?”

Ford took a deep breath, then let it out as he collapsed onto the chair. “...the other Ford, I suppose, but I still endangered my own world, and I- I can’t make up for that, now, can I?”

“Does it matter?”

The question lingered in the air for a long moment, Ford struggling in vain to put his racing thoughts into words, before Stan added, “Could he have sent you back?”

“Sent me back?”

“To your- home world, or whatever. Fixed what I fucked up for you.”

Ford opened his mouth, closed it again, then repeated the process before finally saying in a voice that came out more softly than he had intended, “The thought had not even crossed my mind.”

“Huh. How ‘bout that.”

Stan and Ford looked at one another, silence lingering in the air once more.

Once again, Stan was the first to speak up  as Ford grappled with what to say. “You know, maybe this whole mix-up was really a good thing. The Ford I remember could be a real jerk sometimes.”

Ford gave a quick, dark laugh before responding. “I can’t promise to be any better.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

Ford hesitated for a moment before replying, “Well, I don’t think the Stanley I knew would have spent three decades working to get me back, either. So it goes both ways, I suppose.”

Stan laughed. “That’s the spirit. And hey, about the whole birthday mix-up- maybe we can have two separate birthday parties, one on the fifteenth and one on the eighteenth. You always wanted to try that, didn’t you?”

Ford nodded silently as Stan pressed on.

“Or, hell, take it one step further and just celebrate for four days in a row, make it a real birthday extravaganza- I bet Mabel would love that.”

Mabel.

How had he not thought about Mabel?

Would she and her brother accept him if they knew-

Even before his mind could finish formulating the question, Ford knew the answer, though some dark part of him wanted to believe otherwise.

They wouldn’t care. Stan was right- to them, it would likely be a good excuse to throw bigger parties, nothing more. Besides, this world’s Ford had been gone well before they had been born, so they had no one to compare him to, no reason to reject him in favor of someone they had never met.

Ford wondered if, back in the universe where he had begun life, events had played out just as they had here so as to unite the twins’ parents, to ensure that Mabel and Dipper Pines came into being.

Ford decided that if they didn’t, that that other universe was far worse off for their absence.

“I- I never told them. You’re the only one who knows.”

“Well, do you want them to know? ‘Cause I’ve kept secrets for decades on end now, I can keep this one under wraps too.”

A flicker of doubt flared up in Ford’s mind, but he extinguished it before responding. “They should know, yes. They deserve to know.”

“Well...” Stan coughed and looked away from Ford. Ford’s gaze wandered as well, a quick glance at the window revealing that what had been a dim trickle of light from the start of dawn was now something resembling full-blown daylight. “They’ll probably be up soon, so if you want to, er...”

Ford picked up where his brother had trailed off, a tight smile on his face. “I’ll tell them while you make breakfast.”

“Makes sense. Better to do it and be done with it already.” After a slight pause, Stan added, “Guess you won’t have trouble making conversation at breakfast today, huh?”

Stan barked out a laugh as he finished speaking, and Ford joined in, his own laughter soft and shaky but still there.

“No, I suppose we won’t.”