hello~

susie // (she/they) // 25+

it’s been a hot minute since i’ve been around tumblr! thought it’d be a good time to try out returning. i am here to lurk and spam reblogs of wicked cool fanart.

Realized that one of the users I see hype commenting on a bunch of Billford smut fics on ao3 is 100% undoubtedly the same user as some Billford anti that Tumblr’s recommended me a couple times

Absolutely hilarious, I love it tbqh
When you hate the ship and its shippers but the porn is still peak

i swear ford gets some of the most weirdo haters and fans

there’s a whole group of hipster ford preachers whose minds are unable to handle the possibility that people in the fandom they dislike do actually like this character and have at least some decent base understanding of him. yes, the evil ford au people. yes, the people who find ford sexy. yes, the billford people. yes, the fiddstan people. yes, the people whose idea of ford that they love is more of an asshole and morally gray person than he is in canon.
no i am not saying that every single person in the fandom or any of the above groups are flawless and media literate people, we’d be living in a utopia if that were the case, but these preachers are really “i’m not like other ford fans” about it and like to practice closing their eyes of nuance for fun

don’t get me wrong, you could fund all of a gravity falls reboot and seasons 3 and 4 for a penny each from every dogshit ford take and fanfic out there in the world, but it really looks like the people who sit around going “grrr fandom does not cater to me grrr hirsch bad grrr i will ignore bill and don’t understand why people like him and everyone who looks even slightly positively at billford is the worst scum on earth grrr fiddauthor is my otp and you are wrong to address the negative parts of it with the weight they deserve and we should have gotten a fiddleford book instead of tbob” have such a closed-minded and bad faith approach to what looks like the majority of the fandom and fanworks they interact with

they can be very defensive over ford too, for better or worse, sometimes there’s excellently crafted fantastic essays and story ideas and then they’re crying with their panties in a twist because they assume everyone who writes a fic where ford is a dickhead or selfish or full of himself must be an attack on the guy and none of these authors actually like ford because they just like shitting on him

it’s a shame because there’s some really fantastic fanart that comes out of this group

crazy how the man’s raising money for charity for a currently ongoing tragedy and people still find a way to bitch about billford

how dare the writer of billford use what has been the most popular thing in the online gf fandom for like 6 months straight to get more eyes on charity

this account is abandoned except for when fandom irritates me and i rant into the void
rad

misc ford^2 thoughts

It’s interesting seeing the different ways people take Ford and Fiddleford’s relationship and what is said about both characters through what we’ve been presented (in reference to the posts I just reblogged). I think… what I value a lot is largely the idea of both of them being able to be in a better place in the future, both in terms of themselves and in terms of each other, despite any and all awful, horrid shit they might have experienced or put the other through in the past. I like the idea that they would be in the right to never talk to each other again, and really maybe shouldn’t forgive each other, but are willing and happy to anyway despite everything because it would be cool if they could have a second chance with less of the pain and freaky shit getting in the way and you know what, things can actually work out and be positive this time thanks to the experiences that have shaped these characters and helped them grow to where they are at the end.

In that sense, trying to shine a spotlight on the less savory aspects of Ford’s character doesn’t mean that I’m trying to say that I hate him, or think he’s not an abuse victim, or think that the scale and depth of what he did to Fiddleford is the same as Bill did to him, or that I don’t sympathize with Ford’s traumatic experiences, upbringing, and the influences those have had on him to result in his later behavior. This also goes for talking about qualities of Ford’s character that put him in a position to be receptive of Bill’s behavior (and the qualities of Fiddleford’s character that put him in a position to be receptive to Ford’s behavior)— I just don’t think these are the same thing as trying to victim shame and say it’s their fault for someone else hurting them. There’s more nuance than that and I disagree with assuming that something was said when it wasn’t.

It seems like people have a kneejerk reaction to the notion of pointing out Ford’s issues and assume that pointing them out is the same as saying he wasn’t abused, when I don’t particularly think that’s what most people talking about it are meaning or trying to do, exactly…? Even with one of the posts I just reblogged, the OP further clarified in the comments that she admits she let her anger speak too much and exaggerate, and she recognizes that not all of her comparisons are really equal. Like, let’s be real, even if you do read Ford’s behaviors towards Fiddleford as abusive, or Fiddleford’s towards Ford’s as such, there’s no way it compares to what Bill put Ford through (in terms of scale, intent, scope, everything, the very basis of Bill approaching Ford in the first place is mired in his position as a manipulator and willing intending abuser from a presentation of possessing power). Ford can be an abuse victim and it can be completely not his fault, and it can still be true that what he put Fiddleford through can be considered abuse as well, despite being imo objectively not as bad or insidious.

I am late to this fandom, so I have only really heard secondhand about some of the stupid discourse there was surrounding Ford back in the day. It can be exhausting to see people repeatedly bring up the flaws you’ve already heard about a million times in the characters you love and relate to when you’re just trying to focus on their recovery and the good parts that lift you up, and it feels like too many people keep harping on said flaws for the sake of pointing fingers at the character and not being sympathetic towards them, and these same people don’t seem to do it to any other characters. On the other hand, some of the comments I’ve seen such as simply saying that Ford has an ego being considered as “attacking him” or “ableist” are… a bit much.

Sometimes it really feels like some people are more of a fan of the Ford and Fiddleford they have invented in their heads than they are the actual canonical Ford and Fiddleford from the show, let alone Journal 3 or TBOB/website, and yet they point fingers at how no one else truly understands Ford including Hirsch himself who definitely just hates the guy and shits all over him all the time, right.

I’m just thinking a lot… You could make a reasonable list of things Ford and Fiddleford did that were horrendous, either to each other or also Gravity Falls. A list of personal characteristics, deep hurts, and qualities that put them as people in a perfect situation to have terrible boundaries with each other and perpetuate a tricky whirlwind of both very good things and very bad things in their partnership with each other, even without Bill (though it may be true that things might not have ever gotten this bad without Bill’s influence; maybe they could have put the brakes on the awful train and started improving before they crashed and Bill removed that as a viable pathway?). To some degree, I think acknowledging more of these negative aspects can make the future healing, self-improvement, and self-reflection all the more inspiring and rewarding, instead of just sanding down the rough edges all the time. I also think it’s poetic that despite Bill’s abuse of Ford resulting in Ford also perpetuating some similar behaviors towards Fiddleford, it still isn’t the end of the world and a complete failure for him as a person and he is allowed to recognize how he was hurt [by others], how he did hurt [others], how he wants to improve, and be given the chance to try again when by all means it would not have been wrong for that chance not to be there, just like between him and Stan. I do admit that my personal biases for a favorite character of mine have me thinking more about Ford, his feelings on his actions, and his actions themselves, than I think about Fiddleford’s or even Stan’s, so it can feel like I’m being unfairly hard on Ford compared to the others I suppose. Know that I do it out of love and complete and utter sympathy and admiration for the tragedy that was his life and the way things got better later despite it.

Basically these old scientist nerds should have fucked back in college and that could have helped them meet each other’s freak more and figure some shit out better before they were staring at a world-ending portal and veering on the cusp of memory-wiping away the status quo of a town without better prior consent

I generally lean towards liking soft Fiddauthor content in the wake of having strong personal feelings about Ford’s POV and the tragedy and sacrifices his path resulted in, plus Fiddleford and Stan offering their hand for a second chance anyway, but it would be cool to see more angles that lean into the less savory aspects from both scientists, or even just more of both of them being complete morally dubious freaks with each other

Having serious opinions on these characters makes it scary to be in this fandom sometimes, especially when many of the very wonderful active fanartists for said characters hold different positions from mine and would block me on sight >_<