STANLEY PINES IS IN LOVE WITH FORD PINES HE WOULD RISK THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE FOR HIM AND YOURE TELLING

a little heart to heart

helping out a friend make a gravity falls dating sim!

- game creator @zombifedphantomdamion + his post with more info about the game

- logo by @call-me-clevy

(have the sketches too cause i think they're cute <3)

"feeling so many illnesses at once. and a new illness somehow"

-@non-bun-ary

Comic I made for the @fiddlefordmcgucketzine! Pretty old but I hope people enjoy this nevertheless! rip quality.

Thinking out loud

A few days ago I saw someone on TikTok kinda trashing how much Stancest content there is on Ao3. Most people seemed to agree, but honestly? If I see a ship with tons of fanfics, my first thought is like—wait, am I missing out on something huge? Like, maybe there’s actually some fire stuff going on there.

I'm gonna explain how I see the Stan twins romantic orientations/sexualities (but mostly romantic orientations) for a moment so bear with me here. Ramble incoming!

So a pretty...I want to say common...? headcannon/interpretation for Stanford Pines is that he is aromantic, aroace, asexual and the like. And while I can and do respect that headcanon it isn't my personal interpretation of his character and here's why:

So first of all I will admit that I do ship Ford with Bill and Fiddleford and yes, guilty as charged I am less likely to adopt an aspec headcanon of him due to that but there are other reasons and I'm going to explain but first: the character that I do consider to be aromantic: Stan Pines.

"But wait!" You ask "What about lazy Susan and Carla Mccorkle?" Ah, you see there's where the arospec identity lithromantic comes in!

Lithromantic is when you do experience romantic attraction but have no desire for it to be reciprocated. Feelings may vanish after they are reciprocated. Familiar?

So first of all, sick ass aromantic headcanon for awesome character that makes sense. Second of all, how it would fit in with his character and trauma and the like.

Stan Pines is known as Mr Mystery. But he knows himself as more like Mr. Scewup. Maybe not the best analogy I could have applied there but it gets the point across. Due to all the people in his life and the recurring narrative he has unfortunately slipped into, he sees himself fail over and over.

And that's why I feel like it's a great thing for the character. As you probably know, romantic relationships are seen as the greatest thing ever and that everyone should pursue them. Lack of a romantic relationship beyond a certain age is seen as sad for some reason.

So Stan with this romantic attraction he does feel gets stuck in starting relationships and never following through, trying to pursue this thing that's for some reason seen as just basic humanity and failing and failing and failing which goes along nicely with his already existing life story, the aromantic seasoning on the top of the shit show.

Why can't he just follow through? Why can't he just commit? Why does everyone leave him and why is it always his fault? No, no it's just that he hasn't found his big break yet, you'll see, you'll all see!

Meanwhile his twin brother Ford is facing the same commitment problem except orange, in a different flavour and baked in a different gelatin mould. Goddammit that's a second, more weird analogy.

You see I feel like he deals with some good old internalised homophobia.

Concerning Fiddleford Mcgucket- Bill Cipher too but he comes later.

You see Ford has always had something to hide from prying, judging eyes. His abnormal, ultimately harmless six fingered hands.

Fiddleford he's known since University (I'm Australian goddammit it's uni, it's university IT'S UNIVERSITY) And that's after he's already lost his best friend. He doesn't want to blow it.

And then his best friend and gay crush gets married. Yeah that's fine. That's what a respectable man does after all. Yeah. He's not jealous why would he be jealous at all he isn't at all jealous!! So he does what any sane man would do and call up his bestie to join his emo band- uh, make a giant transpolydimensionalwhateverthefuck in his basement. In his shack in the woods. Alone. Together. Great.

In my personal interpretation they didn't have an established romantic relationship. They were gay for each other, sure. They both wanted to be together, sure- but Fiddleford's married status and internalised homophobia and Stanford's unwillingness to lose his best friend AGAIN and internalised homophobia prevented them from actually entering a relationship. Also it was the 80s. And it really does fit in with the themes of Gravity Falls if you think about it, all these themes of being true to yourself and outside judgement and societal pressure and whatnot.

And so they are close, SO FUCKING CLOSE to having what they want because they have this weird alloromantic urge to be in a relationship with the person or whatever but they can't say it.

And then Bill Cipher comes along,

Bill Cipher presents himself as "safe". Oh Fordsy, you're so smart, Fordsy they were all wrong for bullying you and surpressing your genius, Sixer I'm so glad that dumb brother is out of the way so you can unlock your true potential, Fordsy I don't like your lab partner he's getting in the way, Sixer you're safe here, I'm a muse outside of societal structure and I'm an alien anyway, plus it's only in the mindscape we can do whatever you want- you see what I'm saying?

He's "safe".

So he pushes his friends away, tears himself up working on the portal and lets himself get manipulated because he's in love with him! And as the living tombstone said "Love is blind when you are staring at the sun"

And then Fiddleford leaves.

Fiddleford leaves, meaning that once again everything he's worked for is gone, once again a loved one is gone, once again Bill was right, they'll just all leave you in the end, all you need is good ol' reliable Bill Cipher!

And it all comes back to a child holding his six-fingered hands behind his back in case the bullies came.

(Gasp for air) SO!!! In conclusion, as well as mlm headcanons being a great potential for angst and kicking ass, aromantic headcanons also have a great potential for angst and kick ass!

Also I could headcanon Ford as some kind of aspec identity, go suggest something, go nuts! It's like 3am for me tho so..........I'm going to....go....now. BUH-BYE!!!!!!!

........is this even coherent?

im trying not to step on anyones toes but the fact theres ford getting jealous of stan loving a ford plushie more than him comics coming from the non-stancest likers side on twitter is genuinely hillarious to me

ive yapped about this before but fave accidental stancest moment in j3 really is how ford yaps about how baffling romance is to him and how he doesnt need anyone (though lets fiddleford knows he appreciated his presence) he then uses talking about beans to write about stan. just so classic ford to think about his brother when romance comes up lmfao

the implications of ford pulling this photo out of his trenchcoat in the last episode you guys… THE IMPLICATIONS.

look at the state of this thing!! look at its rips! the stain in the bottom right corner! it’s dog-eared, the color is faded, the paper has browned… he’s kept this photo of them since they were kids. through all the years he stubbornly swore to hold a grudge, all the years he and stan never spoke, he kept this photo.

and we can assume he probably didn’t have it dimension-hopping, since i find it hard to believe he would’ve had it on him when he initially got sucked in, but ford pulling it out of his trenchcoat here!! implies!! that he had been CARRYING IT AROUND WITH HIM for some time after he got back!

imagine if he found it in some of his old stuff the night he returned, after punching and yelling at stan, after being sure to keep as much emotional distance between them as possible, and he finds this photo. would he have stared down at it? for a little while? smoothed the creases out on his desk? thumbed the torn, loved edges while he mourned a simpler time? then pocketed the thing to always have it with him?

i dunno. maybe i’m looking too far into it. but i can’t help but wonder if ford kept it because, against all his big dreams and ambitions, deep down he always wondered what his life might have been like if he sailed away with his brother when they were teenagers. never able to throw it away because doing so would symbolically destroy the last remnants of a childhood fantasy, the last piece of him that remains young and hopeful of a future at his brother’s side.

caption bottom text

EDIT: how Ford learned Spanish