Red and Blue make Purple

pinesonfire

STOP trying to justify Ford’s actions in Dipper and Mabel vs the Future

Just stop

Because you are WRONG

Ford did not care about anyone by himself and his own agenda in that episode

I get that you wanna defend Ford, and there are plenty of other examples for you to use

That episode is NOT one of them

Whatever you have deluded yourself into believing about his intentions in that episode are incorrect

He was WRONG to do what he did, and the entire point of the Weirdmageddon arc was to bring him to his knees and SHOW him how wrong he was

STOP trying to tell the fandom he was totally innocent in that episode and that everything he did was with Dipper and Mabel’s best interests at heart

BECAUSE YOU ARE WRONG

the-ford-twin

You know, maybe if you’d said “Defending and liking Ford is great but you know, too many wonderfully written characters have their flaws erased by the fandom _{[personal note: cough cough stanley pines cough cough]}and I’d rather that not happen to Ford” I would have agreed with you. Maybe if you’d said “Ford shouldn’t have asked/was wrong to ask Dipper to be his apprentice, he should have put more energy in reconnecting with his brother” I would have reblogged your post without hesitation and praised you for it.

Maybe if, when you claimed to be a Ford fan, you actually had some posts to back yourself up, I wouldn’t be doing this.

Maybe if your personal blog wasn’t filled with posts that not only blatantly misrepresent Dipper’s love for his sister above all else ^{[my post on the matter]}, but vilify Ford for practicing standard disaster scenario protocol_{(by which I mean Ford, knowing that Bill was threatening thousands of lives at that very moment in time, was the primary threat, and that Ford did not know that Mabel had been captured by Bill at that point, and thus assumed that if he had succeeded in defeating Bill, Mabel would no longer be in danger, chose to eliminate the primary threat to Mabel’s safety)}I would have decided the post wasn’t worth my time and and left it be.

But no.

You decided that differing fandom interpretations warrant this kind of overly aggressive posting behavior (which is, as I’ve said before, rude as fuck), a type of behavior I personally haven’t seen since the days when people were literally calling for Ford’s head over this shit _{(a phenomenon that lasted right through to the finale).}So guess what? The salt is coming right back at ya.

I’ve been vagueblogging about this shit all day because you’re in for the long haul._{(and also I don’t want to inadvertently cause you to get anon hate cause no one deserves anon hate)}

You think I (as a Ford fan) have an unfounded fascination with Ford and am placing him on a pedestal? Fine! I’ll cite my fucking sources.

So let’s start with the beginning. You claim that Ford is a narcissist, an egomaniac with no regards to other people’s feelings or emotions. Sure he set his face on fire to get Dipper to come more quickly, but let’s not be so quick to judge here. That’s not because he was (quote) using some sort of pavlovian bullshit to somehow train Dipper for nefarious purposes. He was pulling the exact same shit that Stanley’s been pulling for the past two seasons (and he didn’t have any repercussions in the fandom!). So let’s review:

Stanley has (among other things): ignored Dipper and Mabel being endangered by a gnome beast ^{[Tourist Trapped]},gotten the kids a night in the county jail ^{[Legend of the Gobblewonker]}, arranged a marriage between Mabel and Gideon^{[The Hand That Rocks the Mabel]}, and lied to Dipper and Mabel’s faces ^{[the whole damn series until NWHS]}.

Ford is doing the exact same thing as Stanley, he is pulling the exact same New Jersey bullshit as Stanley but do I have to deal with rude and aggressive Stanley posts on my dash? No!

Furthermore, when you say that Ford only cared about himself, where, exactly, are you getting this information? Because I’m not seeing it.

Let me break it down for you:

You seem to be operating under the misconception that Ford, when he said the line “And isn’t it suffocating?” that he was directly referring to Mabel.

My first point of contention is this: if Ford was referring to Mabel, why did Dipper not argue with his uncle? “Because he’s The Author” I hear you say.

Need I remind you that Dipper is the kid who raced to fight off a zombie/gnome when he thought Mabel was in danger^{[Tourist Trapped]}, that Dipper has jumped off a cliff and fought a giant robot to save Mabel^{[Gideon Rises]}? That Dipper held a grudge against Pacifica for nearly two seasons because Pacifica smack talked to Mabel once, even after Mabel herself had gotten over the incident^{[Northwest Mansion Mystery, Golf War, Irrational Treasure]}? The kid who called out Stanley on his bullshit in Land Before Swine? Are you seriously trying to tell me that Ford was stupid enough to try and badmouth Mabel to Dipper’s face? Bullshit.

Ford was referring to his own experiences as a twin. Dipper knew this, he knew that Ford was talking about his relationship with Stanley.

And you can’t deny that Ford and Stanley were codependent on each other when, during A Tale of Two Stans, it’s Stanley who says “Without Ford I was just half of a dynamic duo. I couldn’t make it without him.”

That’s not healthy! Of course Ford described his only experiences as a twin as suffocating, people literally treated them as a unit. (A Tale of Two Stans, when the principal calls Ford and Stan to his office when he only needs to talk to Ford).

Dipper, throughout the entire course of Weirdmaggedon, is never angry at Ford, that fact alone should tell you that Ford’s never so much as thought ill of Mabel.

And that’s not all!

You claim that Ford thinks Dipper is some sort of mini me. This isn’t the case, congratulations, you’ve misinterpreted Ford and Dipper’s entire relationship.

Dipper isn’t a Ford clone, and Ford knows this.

Dipper is what Ford WANTS to be. (“I should have been more like you when I was young,“ The Last Mabelcorn). Every time Ford praises Dipper, it’s for stuff that Ford wouldn’t do, didn’t do, would have done differently, or wished he had done. (Fighting back against ‘Bill’ in The Last Mabelcorn, standing his ground against the security droids in Dipper and Mabel vs The Future).

Dipper isn’t a Ford clone, he’s the physical embodiment of everything that Ford cares about.

He’s smart and nerdy, like Ford, he understands the gravity of the situation at hand, like Fiddleford, and he’s strong willed with a fierce protective streak, like Stanley. Dipper even looks like Stanley did as a child, it’s no coincidence.

Ford is nostalgic as fuck. In his dreamscape we see three things: a destroyed portal, the Stan O War, and the swing set.

The Stan O War is in the same condition Stanley and Ford found it in (the same condition as the one in his photograph), while the swing set is brand new. Ford isn’t in denial about the state of his relationship with Stan, he MISSES his childhood years in New Jersey (“There’s no place in Gravity Falls I’d rather be than this lake. It reminds me of my hometown… Glass Shard Beach” is written in Journal 3, along with a scribbled out drawing of a sailboat, the worn out childhood photo that Ford has in Weirdmaggedon Part 3, the photo that he could not have gotten after coming out of the portal, he had it with him the whole time, and when you think about the fact that he had that photo on him thirty years ago, it really makes the whole “Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat” thing from A Tale of Two Stans seem a hell of a lot less out of the blue).

And after 30 years of being trapped between dimensions, Ford’s first conversation with Dipper was about the Journals. Ford’s research, his life’s work that the man has poured so much passion and heartache into. Not only did Dipper take the time to read them, but he also understood them and was interested in them enough to make finding the author his main goal.

And Ford and Dipper’s second conversation? Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons. Ford was surprised they still made it, he likely hasn’t played it in thirty years, and yet it’s still his “favorite game in the whole multiverse!” The last person Ford played that game with was likely Fiddleford, even if he did know that DD&MD was still in production, Ford didn’t expect to find someone to play with anytime soon. And Ford was DEFINITELY referring to Fiddleford when Dipper first wandered into the basement in The Last Mabelcorn (“My work is far too dangerous for a single living soul to spend even one second in–“). And here’s this little kid, holding Ford’s favorite game that he hasn’t played in years, bravely wandering into the basement, unafraid of the dangers. Wanting to know if Ford wants to play. And Ford can’t say no, even if he wanted to.

Dipper reminds Ford of happier times. And the most important thing about Dipper? The thing that Ford DEFINITELY needs right now?

Dipper trusted and made a deal with Bill Cipher.

It’s no secret that Ford blames himself for what happened with Bill, that he’s impossibly and unhealthily angry with himself over it. (“It was the biggest regret of my life,” The Last Mabelcorn, “I’d die before I join you,” Weirdmaggedon Part 1, “I know [it’s my fault], Stanley, just help me fix it!” Weirdmaggedon Part 3, “Trust no one,” Tourist Trap, “We’re not the first two idiots to be tricked by Bill,” The Last Mabelcorn, “I personally had a metal plate installed in my head,” The Last Mabelcorn, “[devestated] We’re too late, it’s the end of the world,” Dipper and Mabel vs The Future).

But when Ford finds out about Bill’s more adverse effects on Dipper’s psyche? (As in, the actual literal panic attack Dipper had in The Last Mabelcorn?) He opens up to Dipper in an act of solidarity. He isn’t angry at Dipper, not in the slightest. It’s a coping mechanism for Ford, he’s not mad at this child, so why be mad at himself? Why not forgive myself for what happened? This child thinks I’m great, maybe I’m not so bad after all. Because Dipper is a hero, and Ford knows this. Dipper fights back.

He fought back against Gideon, he fought back against Stan during the portal incident (even though he was wrong, something that Ford never once blames Dipper for), he fought back against Bill and he fought back against the security droids. Ford tries to fight back, he tries to fight Probabilitor, he tries to fight Bill, he tries to fight the security droids, but he fails each time, he gets captured each time, he gets tortured at the hands of his abuser and denies Bill any power over him in an act of defiance.

Ford might be Dipper’s idol, but Dipper is who Ford wants to BE. Dipper is who Ford wishes he WAS. Ford knows that Dipper isn’t exactly like him. That’s why Ford wants to be around him so much.

Because, honestly, Ford isn’t very confident or egotistical.

He’s never thought himself superior for having six finers (note the closed fist in the second pic).

He throws himself in front of Dipper, risks his life for him and begs Dipper not to follow him, because it’s too dangerous to save him.

He literally never makes Dipper feel bad for his mistakes.

Bill absolutely ruined Ford’s mental health, Bill is the whole reason that Ford acts paranoid and can’t trust anyone but Dipper for the first several episodes he appears in, despite the fact that he loves Mabel and Stan.

Ford is an abuse survivor.

And honestly, removing Ford from this context, much less saying shit like “the whole point of [the arc in which all of Ford’s interactions with his abuser are malicious and abusive and literally torturous] was to bring him to his knees and show him how wrong he was” is really fucking gross.

And it’s also the flaw in your whole argument.

Because you want to know why Ford offered to make Dipper his apprentice?

Dipper is the first person in 30 years that Ford has been able to trust.

And for Ford, that is huge.

Should Ford have focused on reconciling with his brother? Yes, but that’s for later in the post. We’re focusing on Ford and Dipper here, so sit down.

Bill strung Ford along from the moment they met, achronological prophecies aside, there is absolutely no reason for Ford to believe that Bill had any malicious intent, especially when Bill was using him from the start. Ford’s desperate for answers, sure. But a five second conversation in which Bill praised him exactly once, offered him tea, told him when and how he was going to die, and invited him to play interdimensional chess in the most obvious metaphor Hirsch has ever written was enough for Ford to dismiss all warnings about Bill. Bill is someone who preys on people’s insecurities. All Bill had to do was act cordial and Ford was wrapped around his finger, and as an abuse survivor who was bullied when they were younger, let me be the first to tell you that sometimes that’s all it takes: acting cordial to someone with low self esteem.

So fast forward, Bill’s betrayed Ford and Fiddleford’s left him right when Ford needed him the most (as an aside, Ford didn’t force Fiddleford to build the portal, nothing that happened to Fiddleford was Ford’s fault, by the time Fiddleford had erased most of his memories, Ford was dimensions away) so he calls Stanley.

Stanley Pines.

The man that, regardless of your opinion on the matter, Ford fully believes selfishly sabotaged him for his own personal gain. Stan was the first person to betray Ford’s trust, even if it was on accident. And at his lowest point, when his back is to the wall and he can’t trust anyone (because abuse like that, where they build you up and then pull the rug out from underneath you, always leaves you feeling like you can’t trust anyone) Ford trusted Stanley to help him.

Fast forward even further, after Ford’s back from the portal and he’s still upset with Stan because a) Stan’s the one who pushed Ford into the portal in the first place regardless of whether it was an accident or not and b) (more importantly) Stan has effectively undone all Ford’s work and put him in a prime position to be targeted by his abuser again.

He still can’t trust anyone, but lo and behold, here comes Dipper who is in the exact same scenario. And Ford has (and this is the part where his true flaw lies) decided to push away his brother and ignore any attempts to reconcile with Stanley, in favor of trying his damnedest not to lose the first meaningful connection he’s made in 30 years.

And that is huge.

Asking Dipper to be his apprentice is an act of trying to heal, and offering Dipper an opportunity at hands on experience in his desired field.

And another thing:

Ford never says anything bad about Mabel. He doesn’t believe that Mabel can get the unicorn hair because he wasn’t able to with years of experience under his belt, because he’s encountered the unicorns before and knows what they’re like. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in Mabel, he cannot trust that she’ll return.

But when she does?

He kneels right the fuck down to her level and congratulates her on it, tells her she’s a good person (something she really needed reassurance on) he’s so proud of her.

Its not that he doesn’t like Mabel. It’s that he cannot trust her because Ford does not share the same experiences with Mabel that he shares with Dipper (in relation to the Bill thing).

Ford truly believes that Mabel would be fine on her own. If you’ll notice, in Weirdmaggedon Part 3, Ford says “Bravo, Dipper and Mabel!” even though he has no real reason to believe that Mabel’s in there, or really any knowledge of who is a part of the rescue operation aside from Soos and the Wax Larry King head. He believes in Mabel Pines.

You want to address sexism in the fandom? Go ahead! Talk about how Mabel is always sexualized (especially in the Reverse Falls AU) talk about how Mabel’s mental trauma is usually glossed over by the fandom in favor of Dipper, Stanley, and Stanford’s.

Just don’t fucking try to remove one of the only positive examples of an abuse survivor in fiction from the context of abuse. And don’t say that Ford rising up and fighting against Bill was some act of egotism, that he was only in it for himself, when he was 100% willing to put himself back into that situation of abuse, when he was willing to erase his own damn memories to defeat Bill, Ford was, is, and always has been 100% willing to sacrifice himself for Dipper and Mabel’s safety and yes, tumblr user @pinesonfire, that includes Dipper and Mabel vs The Future. Though I’m not surprised you’re of that opinion, considering you’re the one who made this post. And this one.

How dare you take an act of defiance, an act of a survivor standing against their abuser and refusing to give that person power over them again, and turn it into an arc meant to “bring him to his knees and show him how wrong he was.”

How.

Dare.

You.

Do you know how powerful that was? Do you realize how important that was? The fact that you would tarnish it with your opinion and claim that any deviation from that opinion sickens me. And to claim that anyone who disagrees with you, personally, is looking at Ford through rose colored glasses?

Ford’s actions in Dipper and Mabel vs The Future were justified. Was it the completely correct thing to do? No, I believe that Ford should have put more effort into reconciling with Stanley. Did Ford’s actions hurt Mabel’s feelings? Yes and no, Mabel was upset because Dipper took the offer, not that Ford made it.

So maybe next time you decide to go on and on about people supposedly misinterpreting a show, try watching the damn thing.

secret-tacos

Good shit!

I’ve been recommended @pinesonfire before and I looked at your blog. Some of your stuff was neat, but the things you said about Ford made me kinda uncomfortable so I didn’t follow. I wasn’t gonna say anything because it wasn’t a big deal, but…

‘’He was WRONG to do what he did, and the entire point of the Weirdmageddon arc was to bring him to his knees and SHOW him how wrong he was’’

The wording here is really fucking offensive, and I have to second @the-ford-twin here: HOW DARE YOU? Did you even read what you wrote before you posted it? How on earth can you look at all of the things Bill did to Ford and the only thing you can take away from it is ‘lol ford’s an asshole amirite’ and think that Weirdmageddon was satisfying because Ford was tortured by his abuser, or think that he deserved it? Honestly, I’m disgusted beyond belief. Get dunked on.

the-ford-twin

thank you @secret-tacos

skillfulstudio

Some great analysis here.
I have to say that I rather admire Ford for being as strong as he was through the series. He faced mistakes, failures, and outright abuse with the drive to keep going and fix things. No matter what happened to him, he kept going. And to someone who’s messed up a lot in her life (points at self) that meant a ton.

You know, I always took the “my face is on fire” thing as an extension of Ford’s trust issues. After all that time of being unable to trust anyone, he was beginning to open up to at least one person but he just had to be sure. And actually, I took a lot of what he did as sort of… veiled cries for help I guess? He suffered chronic loneliness and when you’re stuck in that frame of mind, your brain does some messed up stuff and you can say/do what others consider odd things in an attempt to reach out to others. But I know a lot of that is my own interpretation.

Also, somewhere in what I’ve been seeing today I think the “foil character” thing was mentioned and how some people tend to take that as “He’s a foil to Stan and that means he’s not a good guy and could never love his family.”
I think if people think that, they’re forgetting that Ford is a foil to a character who is a con man and a thief. (And man I love Stan for being that flawed character.) But to me that means Ford would tend to want to live lawfully and for the greater good. I could write an entire essay on the foil character thing though (and I might actually be doing that right now but I’m not sure I’ll post it as it might end up filed under personal ramblings about writing/characters)

Anyway, I won’t go too far into it here because my point is that the story and the fact that they’re twins, demands that they share common traits too, one of which is the trait required to bring them back together again - their love of the kids.

And I can never get on board with Ford being an arrogant egotist/narcissist. He was shown to have issues with self-worth as a kid and I can’t help feeling like what he did was work hard at everything to try to feel some sense of usefulness - to have a sense of validation he never got socially because he always felt like an outsider. If the intent was for him to be arrogant, they shouldn’t have shown him having so many regrets and being so willing to accept responsibility for his mistakes.

Also, if the intent was for him to be unwilling to reconcile with Stan, why did he pause during their argument in DD&MD and invite Stan to join them only to have Stan make fun of him for his nerd games?

Yes Ford is a deeply flawed character. So is Stan. That’s why they’re so great. And why I love them both. I think my concern is how some people think Ford deserved to be punished for his flaws and mistakes with the implication that Stan didn’t? Both did indeed face consequences. NEITHER deserved them. They both just needed to understand each other better. They both had their issues. They both did things because of their issues that were regrettable. What they both deserve is some compassion and understanding.
Someone get these guys some proper therapy and about a million hugs.

Edit - Re: the post portal conversation. (I’ve seen it mentioned before but here it is again anyway.) Ford was the victim of identity theft. Of course he was upset there. Personal interpretation again but I took it as a knee-jerk reaction to the situation. I mean… we all have those from time to time. It’s realistic that he would have been angry there then maybe cooled down later and thought again about things. Remember that list of crimes at the end of The Stanchurian Candidate? Those were all committed under Ford’s name. Of course he’s pissed especially if you consider him as a the lawful foil who tried to live a clean life (and failed well enough by himself without the added baggage to his name.)