I think one of the reasons stanford pines appeals to me is that in most other cases he would have been a villain. Hes an angry abuse survivor. Hes visibly traumatized. He has a physical abnormality. Even before the stuff with Bill or the portal hes socially inept, he has trouble taking care of himself, he has trouble expressing himself and connecting, he has strange interests he fixates on. Hes weird. He’s different than other ppl. Hes alienated. Hes flawed and hes angry and hes dysfunctional and his problems and differences arent always pretty or charming. Hes the kind of character I would normally have to settle for picking through villains or bad caricatures or both to find.
But the cool thing about Ford is hes a protagonist. Not only that, he’s got genuinely a good heart. He cares about people, hes kind and sincere. He messes up but he admits being wrong, takes responsibility for his actions, and tries to fix things. He perpetually means well. Hes not only defined by his flaws or differences and we arent supposed to hate him because of them. Hes complex and imperfect and divergent and good all at the same fucking time, and it matters so fucking much to me