Thinking Out Loud

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?

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

STANCEST IS THE BEST SHIP I WILL FIGHT EVERYONE ON THIS

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

Teen Stan hug adult stanford

I did it once and the author blocked me and I promised myself never to do it again :((

BTW i see these posts all the time like "ohhh i dont know what to comment on fics.." and every response is "keysmashes! or hearts!! anything works :3" and thats GREAT!! thats helpful!!

but: consider. if u genuinely like analyzing writing.. do u know ur just allowed to go through and quote your favorite parts and ramble abt what they mean to u and the author will LOSE IT WITH HYPE?

genuinely. i felt SO WEIRD the first time i did it.. but like. holy shit authors love it. its crack for authors. the first time i did it, it was on a fic that hadnt updated in half a year, give or take, and the author made 3 updates that month BECAUSE OF MY COMMENT.

LIKE. as an author every comment is INCREDIBLE!!! but also, dont feel like your comment has to be short or otherwise ur invasive or smth!! authors ADORE long comments more than ANYTHING.

contrast of stan not really getting along with his brother's best friend vs ford not really getting along with his brother's son.....

and the irony of those two becoming good friends

Inspired by shmisky's post, here's my redraw of Stan and Ford from the iconic scene from Princess Mononoke. I just HAD to get this one out of my system, I was obsssesseddd

i had been thinking

1st of all, bunny-earing someone in a photo is a fun, cutesy thing to do to a friend, a completely normal joke thing in today times.

2ND OF ALL, i also think its on purpose and might have a double meaning. it seems to me like Wendy's the only one with a 'cheeky' somewhat knowing look on her face, Soos is holding up a peace sign but when you bunny-ear someone it usually has a secondary meaning.

most likely secondary meaning:

MAN WHOSE WIFE WAS UNFAITHFUL?

Oh, so like how Ford didn't notice that his project had been messed with, he blames Stan, they 'break up', ford and bill meet, THEY have a falling out, then Stan rescued him essentially by unintentionally forcing him out of their dimension to find a way to protect his brain for his own good because Ford finally asked him for help. then Stan rescued him AGAIN after 30 years because that's enough time alone, then Stan kicks bills ass.

Since sales are officially over, here’s my piece for the @fiddlefordmcgucketzine

Working on this zine was a blast, thanks to everyone who made it happen!!