#autistic!stan

[glfry]

Hi guys

[paintedcrows]

They're both autistic (and ADHD) 2 me

[doctorsiren]

Draw MothFord do it I dare you you should draw it it would be so funny-/silly

Just for you bestie 🫶

[autistic-crypt1d]

Gravity Falls + text posts

[thepositivefella]

Yeah, yeah, Ford dated the triangle. But now can we talk about how Ford is now openly loving and caring (at least through his notes and journals) and letting his family into his supernatural shenanigans WHILE these bunch of wacky buffoons still manage to let him have his personal space and spend hours in his room without being disturbed???

LIKE he's okay with them entering the room whenever they please when he's not there and even reading his journals and notes (cause he expresses himself better through his writing) and they're all SO welcoming when he comes upstairs after hours locked in his room having a silent meltdown???

Ford will show no reaction besides an awkward smile and just being there but will write about how his family is his universe and how he actually loves doing cute stuff with Mabel like dressing the same and I CAN'T-

Autistic old man has rediscovered unconditional love and respected boundaries. Ford is living the dream.

[monstrousmuse]

Mabel is a character that I adore with all my heart, so it was wonderful to hear Alex discuss the nuances of her characterisation with such open fondness:

“There’s just a…uniqueness to what Kristen does. There’s a sincerity. (…) When she becomes Mabel, and she is in love with the latest guy who walked in her field of view, she really is in love, like, she’s not making fun of her own character. She believes what her own character believes, and she embodies her character.”

…

“I genuinely believe that in terms of intelligence, Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford are basically equal, they have different types of intelligence. In terms of moral alignment, Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford, for the most part, are relatively equal, though I would say that of that group, Mabel is absolutely the purest of heart. She has the least to learn, because her way of looking at life, with love and sincerity and with an unashamed fearlessness about who she is, is probably the most right, and that's why we beat her up the least, because there's not a lot that she needs to change.”

-Alex Hirsch, 2023

[jellyskink]

Pay up, Stan

[sarahth2]

She only had 5 mins of screentime but I would've sided with Aaravos for what they had done to her.

[bags-of-regret]

If I was smart enough I would properly dissect the Pines family parallels and how it corresponds with how the Stans treated the twins, specifically how they treated the twin that wasn’t like them.

Stan understanding the bond the two have and encouraging them because thats what he misses, while Ford pushes Dipper away from Mabel because thats what he had at the time with Stan and thinks Dipper needs the same. Once Ford rekindles with Stan is when he grows closer to Mabel.

Stan being rough with Dipper because thats how he treated Ford, while Ford takes longer to bond with Mabel because he sees how much she’s like Stanley.

Both project themselves and the other onto the twins(Ford more so than Stan). They love and care for both of course, but seeing their brother in one of them hurts deeply in opposite ways. Stan is angry but longs for his brother while Ford can’t stand him but still loves him.

[megatronsimp]

I feel compelled to write this and I doubt I'll ever get a reply, but @maecatt never feel bad ever for creating Nightshade and having them be enby. You've made way more TF enbies happy than you've pissed off fascists. I'm so sad to hear about Earthspark's demise and really wish we could've had a longer run.

[alexthebordercollie]

Ford's autism

K so I don't think I need to defend the interpretation Ford is on the spectrum. People make jokes about him being autistic all the time. We all see it. What I want to do here is sort of connect together some character details and examine them through the lense of my own autistic experiences.

I wanna start with his hands. It's an observation I've seen from multiple people that Ford is insecure about his hands and often hides them behind his back or in his pockets. And yeah, he is obviously insecure about them. He even mentions his six fingers at times when they aren't really relevant to anything. It just showcases the space this physical deviation of his takes up in his mind. And yes, it makes sense that he's insecure about them because he was bullied for them growing up. I want to add to this observation.

Ford would have been bullied regardless.

The problem was never really his hands. When you're on the spectrum people around you can tell that you're weird. Uncanny. Something is different and feels wrong about you to NT people, especially kids. They will pick any shallow superficial thing they can find as an excuse to bully you and justify the sense of revulsion they feel around you but can't articulate. If Ford had been born with normal hands they just would have made fun of him for something else, it would have been his glasses, or the movies he liked, or hell maybe some good old-fashioned antisemitism. Literally, any excuse they could find.

I know growing up I tried for years to change the things about me that I was made fun of for and it never made things any better. The bullying never stopped. "Fixing" things about myself didn't work because the thing that was actually "broken" was something fundamental to who I am. That realization as a kid was soul-crushing. That there was nothing I could do that would ever make me "normal", that would ever make people like me. I felt like an alien born on the wrong planet.

Ford continues to latch onto his hands as a sore spot because they're something simple and obvious he can point to as an excuse for why he's so outcast. He probably knows by this point that the hands aren't actually the problem. I'd argue this journal entry and his comment about "another failed social interaction" shows that he's aware his hands aren't actually the problem. But, it is a lot easier to fixate on those than to dwell directly on that sinking feeling that at the core of you're being you are fundamentally weird, wrong, unlovable. Ford's a genius. If his polydactyly bothered him that much he could have removed the extra digits. The hands aren't the problem, they're a symbol of a more fundamental kind of pain.

Looking at it through this context also makes the gloves Fiddleford gives him an extra sweet gift given what they represent. A kind of wholehearted acceptance of who Ford is and even a willingness to adapt to his unique needs just to show him love and affection. I think something that hurts me so much about their relationship is that Ford had someone who very clearly loved him as is and would have never wanted him to be someone or something else, and Ford was too stubborn to fully appreciate that.

The same is true of Stanely by the by. He never had a problem with his brother being weird. Another relationship with someone who loved Ford as is but who Ford took for granted. He needs these kinds of relationships in his life. People who embrace and accept him for the weirdo he is. He needs them desperately, which gets me to my next point.

Ford's ego. So it's also a common observation that Ford has a massive ego. He's kind of an ass, to put it mildly. But I have had someone in conversation frame it like the pressure to prove themselves was just on Stanley and Ford just spent his whole life being hyped up and told he was hot shit. This isn't true, or at least it's a flattening of his experiences.

Ford was praised for his genius. This is true. But his own father only gave a shit when said genius showed signs of netting material gains for the family. It only mattered cause Ford could be useful. Furthermore, this genius never netted him social acceptance from his peers growing up. He was still a bullied, weirdo, loser most of his childhood. Add that seeing Stanley kicked out would have drilled into Ford's head that if he couldn't make something out of himself his family wouldn't want him either. Stan was an unspoken threat of what this family does to failures.

Gonna bring up my own personal experiences again. Having set the stage for how it feels growing up on the spectrum. That feeling of alienness that you can't really explain. I loved to write and draw from a very young age. Moreover, as I got older I realized that when I drew, people were nice to me. The only time I got social acceptance was when people were admiring or praising me for my art. So I did it more and more, I devoted myself feverishly to my art. I loved it anyway and would have hyper-fixated on it regardless but the positive reinforcement turned art from something I loved to a need. I NEEDED to be an artist. I needed to be the best at my school. I needed all eyes on my work because it was the only way I could make friends. The only way I could prove that I had value. That I deserved a place in society.

I see that in Ford. I see his ego not as shallow narcissism but as an overwhelming need to prove his value as a person. To be loved and accepted and believing that no one will want him if he isn't brilliant. If he doesn't change the world. If he isn't useful. This is also why he couldn't bring himself to destroy his research even knowing it was the safest and most responsible option. Burning down everything he worked for would mean finally giving up on the fantasy of ever being accepted or valuable.

The sad thing is he's so single-mindedly fixated on this personal goal of proving his worth to the world that when people do come along that love him unconditionally he takes them for granted. These people are statistical anomalies in his life. Nice to have around, but not enough to fix the bigger problem. They aren't reflective of society at large. They aren't enough to prove that he, personally, is loveable. Just that on occasion he meets another weirdo. For a while it's nice. Like a campfire in a barren tundra. But he has to keep moving, he can't stay. Warmer lands are ahead if he can just get to them. If he can just keep moving.

This also is why Ford was so susceptible to Bill. Bill told Ford what he wanted to hear. That he was destined for greatness. That, the fundamental wrongness he felt all his life was something incredible other people just couldn't see. Bill promised Ford exactly what he wanted, but not what he actually needed. Ford never needed the world at large to accept him. He just needed a few good people.

I also think his chemistry with Bill was connected to his autistic experiences as well. Bill is literally an alien. There's no pressure to mask around him. To try and "act normal". Ford can just be himself with Bill and not have to think about it. And sure, he could be himself around Fiddleford, but Fidds is still human. The anxieties of human social expectations are still present. Like when Fidds get him a gift for the holidays and Ford feels a bit guilty that it didn't even occur to him to do the same. He doesn't have to think about these social nuances with Bill.

That said I'm sure Bill isn't what his world would have considered neurotypical anyway. Not that Ford would know that. But Bill was also a strange freak in his own society. Just as outcast, possibly more so. I think Bill sees a bit of his own experiences reflected in Ford. I think he relates to him on a level. Not that he would ever admit it outright due to his own ego. I think Bill's fixation on him after the breakup also stems from Ford rejecting the path that Bill chose for himself. Bill still lives with some sort of deeply repressed guilt for what he did. Imagine how validating it would have been to see someone else like him burn their own world to the ground for the same reasons Bill did. But no, Ford's a better man than him, and Bill can't stand it.

Ok, I don't know how to end this long-ass monologue so I'm gonna call it here I guess. I just wanted to spill some thoughts of mine about Ford as a character. If anyone else wants to add to this with other examinations of Ford's character through this lense go right ahead. I'm just saying as an autistic person myself I understand every choice Ford made. I could relate to why he did the things he did even if I know those were mistakes and even acknowledging that he's kind of an asshole. Ford is a strange man who makes an eerie amount of sense to me.

[boomposhpow]

relativity falls comic who cheered!!!!! made this for my friend because she’s been cooking something up guys it’s actually too good oh my lord @starzarer it’s incredible guys i love it sooooo much

[doctorsiren]

Maybe you could call it Reunited Stans AU?

Also, how do you think the gravity falls locals would see those two? I think Ford would end up getting out of the cabin much more because of Stan. Maybe you could draw them going to town for drinks? I don't know.

I like to think the town locals would either be horrified of them and talk about them as cryptids in their own right, or just be annoyed by their shenanigans

I just remembered they’d be in their early 20s when coming to Gravity Falls haha

But yes they’d definitely start out as “those weird twins that live in the forest” but once Stanley starts feeling like he’s actually safe from that old life Ford pulled him out of, he starts going into the town, which then leads to him dragging Ford along

It’s probably a mix of both, where the town sees them as those odd guys and then also get annoyed by what they do, but also I think they’d think of them as a new endearing staple of their town once the whole “newcomer / stranger” title fades from them. It’d be sort of the same way Stan is in canon with the Mystery Shack, where even though people find him annoying, they also always come to the events.

Also Stanley 😭 your brother does not wanna be in that bar, let him go do nerd things

[autistic-crypt1d]

[pridebicons]

autistic gravity falls pride icons

like/rb if using + credit

[satisfiedskye]

i think that stan should be blinded by autism if possible

boom autism blast go ❤️🧡💛♾️💛💚🩵