Stanford Pines? I think you're mistaken. Did you mean the Author?

this morning im meditating on just how truly funny it is that alex went with making bill the obsessed one.

like ford was dedicated, he worshipped bill, but ford's devotion made sense. there was a logic and rationality to it and it had boundaries that were consistent and he followed. he worshipped bill for his knowledge and power, loved him for what they had in common and how they got along, left him when he learned of bill's true nature and intentions, and took it upon himself to make up for his mistake by turning that dedication from serving bill to killing bill. this is relatable and understandable.

but making your series main villain, someone immortal and with godlike powers and abilities and influence doggedly obsessed with just some nerd is like. really funny. girl go fuck a black hole, take a neutron star out for dinner, text back one of the eldritch gods on the edge of time. ford collects moths.

NO FR LIKE HE’S JUST SOME GUY. LIKE BILL. 😭 HONEY WHAT ARE YOU ON. YOU ARE A GOD GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER

THEN HE FUMBLED THE NERD! THE NERD WAS WORSHIPING THE GROUND HE FLOATED OVER AND MAKING CONSTELLATIONS AND SHIT AND BILL WAS LIKE "HAHA YEAH LET ME JUST TELL HIM I PLAN ON KILLING EVERYTHING HE'S EVER KNOWN THAT'LL GO OVER REAL WELL"

Cory Booker has been talking in the senate for over 20 hours now

He’s not filibustering. He’s protesting the current administration.

For those of you from outside the US or those of you who didn’t pay attention in government class, in the US senate there’s really no limit to the amount of time a senator can speak. So sometimes if they don’t want a bill to pass they just. Don’t stop talking. To hopefully get past the deadline to vote on a bill. This is called filibustering.

Senator Cory Booker isn’t doing that. He’s disrupting “the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able”. Just in protest. This doesn’t usually happen.

He’s less than 20 minutes away from breaking the record of the longest speech given on the senate floor

Cory Booker has officially broken Strom Thurmond’s record for longest speech on the senate floor and he’s still going

For those of you wondering what he’s been talking about this whole time, his staff wrote down a bunch of stuff for him to read like stories from people across the political spectrum opposed to what the administration is doing. He’s also been telling personal anecdotes about meeting important civil rights leaders and other democratic senators have been pausing him for “questions” but the questions have been as long as a small speech and have both served the purpose of giving him a second to sit down and updating him on the news that he’s been missing while he’s been talking.

He has yielded the floor at 25 hrs and 4 mins. His eyes are so wide they look like they’re going to bug out of his skull so I don’t blame him for stopping. He said to go out and get in some good trouble.

Addition for those unaware: Cory Booker is black. Strom Thurmond set the previous record about 70 years ago in protest of civil rights. Booker spent much of the time I was watching talking about the importance of working together for the people and the idea that it's not "left versus right but right versus wrong."

The new record speech is on the right side of history.

figure painting: dead man

something that ive found myself thinking about a lot recently is the loss of autonomy that you have over your identity and what makes you "human" when you die.

(as has been said before by multiple different people) technically ford does not die when he goes through the portal, but as many have said at this point--in a metaphysical way when he goes through the portal he is dead in the eyes of his dimension, so i find in the narrative he experiences a similar loss of his humanity and in the same way that might've occurred with his death, his memory for any that have access to any form of it constructs him into an idea rather than a person.

and really anything can be said and done with him by the people who are still "alive" when this occurs. since he is in all aspects dead people can use him to justify their actions, as a figure in their concepts, and imagine him up to be whoever they want him to be for as long as he remains dead. the audience of course also partook in these same things prior to his reveal by theorizing about what type of person he was or how he might fit into the narrative as a person but to be more specific to examples of this idea in the show is how stan and dipper see ford as an idea.

due to being absent ford had no possible way to influence what stan thought he would want him to do about the portal outside of his existing warnings in his journals so stan is able to twist ford into a justification to work towards opening the portal, and during the length of his work on it according to alex's statements about stan "expecting ford to be weak and in need of help when he came out of the portal" (i feel the likely useless need to say whatever a creator says about their work is always only as canon as one wants it to be but this is worth mentioning here and i think it makes sense contextually within the text) the ford who comes back is so jarring because in his "death" he's become an ideal of what stan wants to see in him to play into his hero fantasy and hopes of earning back his appreciation

and of course as i think about a normal amount of times per day--the duration of the show presents the author as a figure that is wrapped up in a concept of ford while presenting him in a much more mythical format--another one of gravity falls' mysteries. pretty much every main character that isnt stan views him in this mystical light throughout the show with dipper being the prime example and uses the idea of "the author" as a driving force to pursue the questions that the town begs them to ask. there is something to be said about how creators of the show refer to journal 3 as "its own character" in a way that clearly separates it from it's author. even outside of the universe of the show itself, even in the show's own writing team ford--somehow despite being already being only a concept by virtue of being fictional--is stripped of humanity and becomes an even further abstracted concept.

but even to the ford who is alive the self who had gone through the portal is also a concept. i know this idea isnt explored much in canon if at all but bear with me here while i make shit up for fun--in a way, we ourselves the way we are now are dying near constantly. when we wake up each morning we of course have access to the same memories and the same body and the same experiences as the self we were before we fell asleep, but if we were to get existential, how can we be sure that we are the same consciousness that we were before?

even if this is a bit too absurd of a concept to be applying to a messy braindump "analysis" of a fictional character theres something about how extreme change in a person (often from trauma as ford has experienced for Obvious reasons) or even just the passage of time leaves the former self as nothing more but a memory to even the body that it once inhabited.

as i said theres not much to connect this to in the canon of the text, but i do believe that ford does see his past self who wrote the journals as an idea just as much as anyone else in his life did.

Speaking of Caryn and Filbrick, the fact that Ford has a lot of childhood mementos takes on a more tragic light when viewed in the context that Ford has not spoken to his parents since he was 18.

If you're reading this and you're a teenager who hasn't moved out yet, allow me to explain: parents hold onto that shit. I am 29, and I have a few childhood photos but my baby pictures, home videos, art projects, all that shit is at my parent's house. That's the kind of thing you get in bits as you get older. As your parents need to reminisce less and as their desire to clear up storage space grows. Filbrick probably hadn't worn that suit and fez in years when he gave it to Ford, assuming he was the one giving it away and Ford didn't just take it. But usually parents, especially right when their kids move out, go through a period of empty nest syndrome where they largely spend their free time sulking and looking at baby pictures and calling their kids every day.

Ford had enough childhood memorabilia to literally reconstruct Stan's memory from scratch.

And I can't figure out which is worse, Ford taking all of it when he left for college because he knew he wasn't going to be able to come back and get any of it, or Filbrick and Caryn making him take all of it.

#stanford pines#gravity falls#here’s the thing#I WANT to think that after college when Ford moved out permanently his mother trundled a bunch of stuff onto him#but#I think that ford knew that the moment he was gone. the moment his back was turned#anything of Stanleys that was still in that house would be gone. (@aroace-get-out-of-my-face)

I am always thinking about those childhood videos/photos.... always..... between that and the photo Ford actively kept on his person literally ten years after he last spoke to his twin, I end up viewing Ford as a very very sentimental person whether he admits that to himself or not. He might've argued to himself that he had to take them because they were his records/mementos and that Stan being in them too couldn't be helped, but that would just be justification, honestly. So I could see him taking the mementos so totally because of that extreme sentimentality even if his parents weren't going to get rid of them after he left, but them being ready to toss it (or at less prune it) makes a terrible amount of sense considering how unsentimental their dad is shown to be. (Whatever Caryn's feelings on it is pretty unclear, she seemed to go with Filbrick's decisions even if she probably didn't like them, so who knows with her.)

What also gets me is that the records of the videos are from the 50s/60s, and are probably pretty fragile. They had to be stored somewhere where not much could disturb them, showing that Ford was very precious about them. I wouldn't be surprised if Stan finding them at some point later on helped fuel his decision to keep working on the portal--clearly, these videos being here mean that Ford did care about him beyond being a ferry for the Journal, mean that Stan shouldn't give up on seeing him again just like Ford didn't give up on seeing him considering he kept all of their childhood memories for later.

^ Tags by aroace-get-out-of-my-face

^ Tags by coldbronzemoon

How to Redeem the Demon (You Don't) 

“I’m here to be redeemed."

The Demon says, he's at the Old Man’s door. He should be dead, but he's here. “I’m a powerless, ugly, hairless ape just like you!” 

The Old Man is stunned but only for a moment before the words crawl out of his throat like tarantulas. 

“What makes you think you can do that?’ 

The Demon shrugs.

"God said so, don't ask me, ask them.”

But the Old Man is a scientist, since when has he wasted time waiting for a god to hand him the answers? 

“I don't care what “god” says, whoever that is. You don't get to come back into my life and ask for “redemption”, you don't get to ask me to help you find it."

“But I've changed!” cries the Demon. “I went to therapy and everything!”

The Old Man is closing the door. For once he wants to laugh more than he wants to cry.

“Well I’ve changed too,” he says, “and I’m too old, and tired to fool myself into believing I ever needed you. Did you know the boy still wakes up in the night, breathless, and scared because his body doesn't feel like his own? Or the little girl you trapped in the bubble worries her life isn't real. It rips my bones apart from my sockets all over again just to relay this to you. But I will never let you back into my life. Yes, you hurt me, but you hurt my family. You could become the most amazing man who has ever lived on earth. But I would never want anything to do with you. If you want to be better, you'll have to do it without me."

He slams the door shut and leaves the Demon outside.

"And by the way, get off my property."

Despite everything about Fiddleford's toxicity being glossed over in the fandom until very recently, and despite what I've said previously, I do think that Ford's guilt and self-blame over what happened to Fiddleford is a reasonable reaction for the character.

Like, yes, Fiddleford erased Ford's memories without his consent and violated his boundaries several times. Ford is a character who's very used to having his boundaries violated and Fiddleford is a character who was doing those things partially out of convenience, yes, but also partially to prevent the apocalypse. We've seen what Ford's like when he holds a grudge, we've seen what it takes for Ford to hold a grudge. We know, logically, that Ford should at the very least be angry with Fiddleford for what he did. But he isn't. He blames himself. And this isn't the only time he does, he also blames himself for what happened with Bill. It's his fault Bill was brought to this dimension, nevermind that he's been terrorizing 46'\ for eons. It's his fault he was tricked. Of course he'd blame himself for what happened with Fiddleford.

And if Bill had responded to Ford's accusations with "Oh yeah the portal actually leads to the decaying void where my dimension used to be. Sure I lied to you and used you as a puppet, but it was to save myself!" we'd also see "I'm sorry Bill" on the screen in The Last Mabelcorn, too.

Like Ford blaming himself for what happened to Fiddleford even though he's a grown man who was told repeatedly, by Ford, what a bad idea the memory gun was, really does say a lot about how Ford found himself in the toxic and abusive relationship he had with Bill.

Guys I just refreshed the site and everyone's profile pics went round

someone could probably make a "who do you think took your boobs?" edit out of this with discord making its server icons squarer

found these on twitter that might be helpful to all rpers who want to make sure their themes and carrds are accessible to all

consider this for themes as well

Many TUMBLR users need to learn this

PSA

if you are doing any kind of design meant to reach large numbers of people, download a colorblindness filter (i use CVSimulator, its pretty simple and free) and use it religiously

3 dollars

Like to be clear, I do think Ford and Fiddleford actually talk about their shit later on. Like maybe not before Ford leaves on his trip with Stan, but I think as they spend more time together talking about shit and healing from their trauma together, Stan and Ford are much healthier people overall by the time they go back to Gravity Falls in 2013. So, like, Ford's in a position to actually have an honest discussion with Fiddleford, and they talk and apologize and maybe kiss. I think Bill watches all this through a one dollar bill Stan strategically placed and starts seething because why does the hillbilly get forgiven even though he did basically the same thing Bill did! He actually apologized and realized why what he did was wrong and changed? Fake news.

Like for me there is no better conclusion to the fiddleford bill cipher parallels than fiddleford-- who unlike bill has changed, there's a reason his line is "I've tried forgettin', maybe I should try forgivin,'" narrative implications aside-- and ford truly reconciling and apologizing to each other and continuing to be in each other's lives and being happy, while bill throws a tantrum in a corner

THIS ONE IS EMBARRASSING FOR ME, but I spent so much time to finish it... I can't complain.

It's not just to have a "do over" that doesn't involve the original cast, it's to cut them out of the royalties. Literally the entire point is to make sure all the money made by Harry Potter goes to transphobes or people willing to work with transphobes.

If you watch it, you are supporting bigotry, hate, and oppression. That's just objective reality. All for a story that you probably have already seen in movie and book form.

#the last point is especially true since the old cast receives royalties for anything with their likeness on it#meaning the original trio still gets money for every mug with their 14 year old faces on it#if they stop making those and replace them with the new cast which they will the old cast gets cut off completely#which is again exactly what rowling wants because she cannot stand those 'ungrateful brats' as she would likely put it#and as she has last say in anything that gets made in harry potter paraphernalia this might also explain the decrease in faces on products

via @discipleofkleio

I hate Rowling so much.

There's people in the notes saying they're going to watch it anyway, and you know, I understand how you can start feeling so burned out and numb from the world that it may feel too hard to avoid things that will give you a little immediate relief in some way in order to avoid the long-term impact of funding these things.

But. If you can't bring yourself to avoid watching it, you better at least fucking pirate it.