The Only Kind Of Hero I Can Admire Is The One Who Can Defeat A Three Headed Ghast And Land In The Coolest

The stream’s Defying Gravity cover is reading like Dipper really wanted to be Glinda but Mabel insisted on duetting with Stan because she thinks it’s hilarious.

I have a theory.

This is going to be a long post, but I don't know how to do the "read more" thing, sorry.

Bear with me for a minute. So I realized recently that I don't actually see that much Mabel or Ford hate, it's mostly stuff I hear from other people. (What I see is generally more subtle, like I read a fic that was good, but Ford took responsibility for Filbrick kicking Stan out. What was he supposed to do? He's 17 too! I also saw someone say the apocalypse wasn't Mabel's fault, it was Ford's. I'd just like to say that it was Bill's fault and Ford was manipulated into building that portal.)

But I do see a lot of Billford. It keeps on showing up in my suggested communities and the "For You" thing, despite The Book Of Bill portraying it as a very manipulative, horrifically abusive relationship. (When I say relationship, I don't necessarily mean romantic. It could have been a completely platonic horrifically abusive relationship.) And I have to wonder if, because Bill is a triangle, we let him get away with things we wouldn't if he were a human and/or doing these things directly to Ford.

Say that there was a movie. In it, there are two human men. Their relationship is clearly built on manipulation, and when the manipulated realizes that he's being manipulated, he tries to leave. The manipulator proceeds to torture him. You see this onscreen and it's horrible. The manipulator drives a nail through this guy's hand, shoves spiders down his throat, humiliates him . . .

Would people ship these two characters? This is the main fandom I'm in, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say probably not. (I'd like to say that I don't have a problem with people who write them as together . . . as long as it's portrayed as the abusive relationship it actually WAS and not a good relationship.)

All of those were actual things that happened in The Book of Bill. I didn't even mention the psychological torture (He makes Ford forget his OWN NAME) and forced sleep deprivation.

But Bill is a triangle. Bill isn't doing these things directly to Ford. He's doing them while in Ford's body, which is arguably possibly more horrific than if Bill was a separate person doing these things to him, but it's not something that could happen in real life.

But in this analysis of Ford: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58698496/chapters/158032750 when speaking of the torture Ford endured during Weirdmageddon, Callipraxia mentions that the fact that people can't electrocute others "takes at least some of the realism and therefore some of the horror out of the situation." (I apologize if this quote is incorrect, I couldn't find the part where she says this in this quite long work.)

And that makes me wonder if, again because Bill is a triangle and the things he does are literally impossible, it makes people less inclined to see his relationship with Ford as abusive when I have read two separate analyses (one of them is the one referred to above) that straight up say "This reads like a domestic abuse situation." One of them (the one NOT linked above, I'll look for it later) says that Bill hits every. Single. Criteria. For an abuser.

Even before Ford learned what Bill was really there to do, their relationship wasn't good. Bill doesn't show up for months and when Ford asks him where he's been, Bill responds by basically gaslighting him and making him doubt McGucket.

And there's one more thing I noticed. I wasn't in the GF fandom when the show was airing, but I'm pretty sure Billdip didn't become a popular ship until after Sock Puppet Opera, much the same as Billford wasn't so popular until TBOB. It's a pattern of "Bill abuses someone, then gets shipped with that someone." It's quite disturbing.

I know people are going to ship what they're going to ship, but Bill x Pines family members really shouldn't be so popular imo.

Tl;dr: If Bill were a human and you saw him torturing Ford, would you still ship them?

I'm pretty sure I forgot some of what I was going to say, so I might edit this later or reblog it with the extra information.

I do want to say that I do NOT support being rude, sending hate comments or death threats to people who do ship this. Don't do that. Just wanted to say, just in case.

I also want to say that though I put "anti Billford" and "anti Billdip" in the tags, I'm pretty sure I'm not an anti, though I haven't been able to fully figure out what the term means.

Another addendum: I am NOT qualified to be talking about abuse.

This is just a theory.

Everyone needs a Mabel for their dash.

Do you think Jesse ever rebuilt his Treehouse in Beacontown? Whatever happened to it?

The treehouse was deconstructed and rebuilt in the Order Hall’s historical archives. It’s one of Radar’s favorite stops on the “History of the Order of the Stone” tour.

With such a knack for theatrics it’s amazing Ford didn’t major in drama

Btw I was planning on putting Will above them but I forgot because I don’t care about him much and haven’t quite worked out how he fits into the story. Also, I want to punch Gideon with that expression. I considered changing it but . . . It does make me feel an emotion sooo

[Image description: a hatless Dipper in a blue shirt with a black tie and pants stands with his arms crossed next to Gideon, who is wearing a suit similar to what he he wore in the show. On Dipper's other side are the words, "hates the tie and convinced them to let him get a black one instead of matching with Gideon." Above him are the words "Reverse Dipper." Above Gideon are the words "Canon Adjacent Gideon."]

It's more of my Reverse x Reunion Falls, which I have decided to name the "Half Reversed Reunion AU" which is literally just me saying what AUs it is - since it's half of Reverse Falls mixed with Reunion Falls.

Lore dump! Dipper is so done with the Tent of Telepathy shows but he does them anyway because he doesn't really have a choice. He was raised by the Gleefuls and is closer to Mrs. Gleeful (I don't think there's a canon first name for her so I'm going to call her Valerie in this AU) which Gideon is jealous of. I have several scenes of this AU planned and I think I can connect them into a story.

Here's the finished version . . . honestly not my favorite, but it's okay.

Mevia redraw,,

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60976072/chapters/158390887

Chapter 7 of my chaotic chatfic! Admittedly it ends abruptly, but I wanted to post something.

some twitter dot com shenanigans, might as well post this here too :D