I’ve had Epic the Musical on repeat while drawing the Thirty Years AU comic, so here’s a very unserious Gravity Falls Odyssey AU where Ford thinks he’s Odysseus, the clever hero under divine guidance, but the real Odysseus is Nobody, aka Stan, the misfortunate man trying to get home. To Ford, Bill is Athena. To Stan, Bill is Polyphemus.
You know, I see a lot of people like to glorify Stan and demonize Ford because of how the show handled them and it just makes me feel worse for Ford. It's just like when Ford was revealed all over again. These posts declaring "I hate Ford" will go on to pick apart his flaws and ignore the fact that Stan has those exact same flaws. Both want to play the hero, both have issues socializing and come off worse than what they are, both favor a twin, Stan with Mabel and Ford with Dipper. They also ignore evidence to paint Ford as an uncaring monster, yet use Stan's words to attest to how great of a person Stan is.
Neither is a saint, but fans are treating Ford like a villain he's not rather than a deeply flawed individual just like his brother. Ford does not need to be demonized to make Stan better. They are two sides of the exact same coin. They are the worst-case scenario for Dipper and Mabel.
Stop and think about the twin's story for a minute. Instead of looking at Stan's point of view, shift it to Ford's. This is a person who has been relied on constantly for his intelligence. Meek, bullied, and embarrassed because he has a condition no one else does. Both he and Stan are outcasts and, if Stan was to believed, were extremely close to the point that they are willing to put their lives on hold to go treasure hunting and refurbish a boat they found. They are living in a bubble separated from reality.
However, as life tends to do, situations change. Ford's interests grab the attention of his dream college. On a side note, his father now sees him like a cash cow rather than his kid who got into a prestigious college for his hard work, but don't focus on that. This is about Ford. What his parents thought is irrelevant to this.
Stan is pissed and doesn't want him to go, which has Ford telling him if he doesn't get in, he'll still go treasure hunting with Stan. Stan accepts but ends up breaking Ford's invention and doesn't tell anyone, not even the person he's so close to. Ford, rejected and humiliated when he finds the bag of Stan's snacks, now believes, 100%, that Stan sabotaged him to get what he wants. This devastates him further. Stan took Ford's life into his own hands. The fact Stan tries brushing it off and brings up the original plan while not apologizing for the incident makes things worse. Stan gets kicked out for reasons unrelated to how Ford feels. I'm willing to bet if that didn't happen, the rift would only get bigger under one roof until Ford left for Backupsmore.
Ford now goes through life with trust issues due to that betrayal and is now driven by spite. He's lucky enough to meet Fiddleford but, outside of that, doesn't make any friends and can't connect well with others. He is trying to make the best of what he has because not only one future was taken from him, but two. Considering there's barely any talk about their parents once they became adults, it seems he cut off anyone who would try to use him before he meets Bill. It leads him to a toxic relationship with an unearthly being who further alienates him from his only friend, who also tries to wipe Ford's memory without his consent.
Ford isn't the bad guy here. Yeah, he did stupid stuff and tried to fix it, but so did Stan. He's a deeply hurt individual and Stan did nothing to help fix that as Stan is the one who kicked all of this off. By Stan's own admission of past events, Ford is who he is today because the closest person to him in the world betrayed him.
These two are a lot more like Mabel and Dipper than most people realize and, of course, the more popular of the two gets a pass for acting the fool and hurting people than the other two who end up sacrificing something they want.
I think the reason we give Stan more slack than Ford is because Stan seems more self aware than Ford. Let me explain
Stan is a selfish egotistical con man/cheat, Ford like his brother is selfish, egotistical, and self-centered (you could also make an argument for him being a felon). The difference is if you told Stan his flaws he'd look you in the eye, take a swig of pit cola, and say "YUP". Whereas Ford would be a bit confused, raise an eyebrow, and go "What do you mean?"/"Why do you think that?".
Stan knows and can acknowledge when he's hurt someone—he'll feel bad about it or he'll be upfront with that fact that he doesn't give a fuck. Ford...Doesn't—he's very self-centered and is either genuinely ignorant to the pain he causes people or refuses to acknowledge it. The only time he does is with McGucket and that might be because it's honestly impossible to ignore how badly his actions affected him—remember! Him and Fiddleford are THE SAME. DAMN. AGE.
Stan and Ford mirror each other. Stanley Pines thinks with his heart—he values his emotional intelligence over his logistical intelligence. Stanford Pines thinks with his head—he values his logistical intelligence over his emotional intelligence. He's not a bad person, he's just kinda stupid when it comes to other people's feelings. I love it, excellent storytelling, plus I just like the twins who mirror each other a trope. The problem is humans are highly emotional creatures—so when people look at Stan they can give him a bigger pass for his actions because he'll acknowledge his faults and show remorse OR he'll acknowledge it and be honest with the fact he doesn't care. The key here is that he acknowledges how his actions affect people.
But Ford? Well...He can admit when he's made a slip up logically. Showing A CHILD interdimensional contraband, keeping said interdimensional contraband in a cheap plastic case, SUMMONING A DEMON and just doing what it tells him (as well as taking a trip to pound town with it). But when he's done something wrong emotionally? Yeah not really. And in the words of Tanya Degurechaff, humans prioritize emotions over logic.
So yeah, this poor man was DOOMED in the eyes of public perception. Especially because we don't really get a lot of time with him to see his more positive traits, so his worst are basically highlighted to the audience. Does he deserve it? NO, he's an excellent character! But I'mma be honest...he's the kind of person you would have flipped off at least once if you knew him in real life.
But that's just my opinion, might be wrong, might be overthinking it, idk 🤷🏿.
