the-fourth-journal:
dontforgetcat1:
the-fourth-journal:
dontforgetcat1:
the-fourth-journal:
headful-of-feathers:
the-fourth-journal:
nearsightedgirl:
headful-of-feathers:
nearsightedgirl:
headful-of-feathers:
headful-of-feathers:
llttledipper:
headful-of-feathers:
daylighteclipsed:
Ford says the journals should be hidden, Ford praises Dipper for having them.
Ford conducts experiments and focuses on writing the journals and building the portal, Ford implies that he’s been saving people and protecting the town like some kind of action hero for years.
Ford says a metal plate in his head will protect him from Bill, Bill invades his dreamscape at the start of the TLM.
Ford knows all someone needs to see is another’s pupils to know if they’re possessed by Bill or not, Ford takes forever to show Dipper his pupils in TLM despite seeing how terrified the kid is.
Ford says that he’s been underground countless times and is well aware of the adhesive down there, Ford acts surprised when Dipper locates the adhesive.
Ford says he’s studied the security drones when they attack, Ford does not warn Dipper about the security system before they go down there.
Ford says that it’s imperative that the rift be sealed, Ford doesn’t even care that the rift isn’t sealed at the end of the mission.
Ford says that Dipper should focus on protecting the rift, Ford praises Dipper for ignoring the rift and saving him.
Ford praises Mabel’s ‘magnetic personality’, Ford never attempts to bond with her.
Ford reminisces about his childhood in the journals, Ford wants Dipper to lose his childhood completely.
Ford hates Stan for seeming to ignore his dreams and keep him from attending his dream college, Ford ignores Dipper’s dreams and tells him to skip school and college altogether to be his apprentice.
Ford says he read Dipper’s additions to the journals, Ford continues to try to separate Dipper and Mabel despite Dipper writing about how Mabel’s on his adventures with him, saves him, and is the one person he wants to always have his back, a statement Dipper is shown to be writing at the end of the first episode about the gnomes, which is also the page Ford flips to when trying to convince Dipper he does not need Mabel.
????????
your guess is as good as mine. all i keep coming back to is the shapeshifter’s warning that the author ‘hasn’t been himself in 30 years’.
+ if Ford originally planned to seal the Rift back at the lab when WHY did he take it with him on the mission?? wouldn’t it be 1000 times safer to leave it in the basement?
+ tells Dipper about how dangerous the Infinitesided Dice is and keeps it in a “cheap plastic container” and then in a sack with other normal dices… ??
+ puts the Rift in a LITERAL SNOWGLOBE. Also couldn’t he just layer that glass or put it in some vaccuum chamber as all sane scientists would?
+ “the most important thing is to stay in the Shack” – yo, Dipper, let’s go into a field trip and also also allow Mabel to go alone to the town 😉
+ when he falls into the portal he shouts at Stan to “Do something!!”, throws him Journal 1 and then when Stan saves him he’s angry at him??
+ if how extremely empty his mindscape is doesn’t concern you, you need to rewatch the Last Mabelcorn and also Dreamscaperers, even Stan’s one is less depressing and certainly less empty
yeah and how about how Ford even managed to harness and contain an entire inter dimensional rift to Bill’s dimension on his own like i know he’s smart but THAT is hard to believe
#I FUCKING DONT TRUST HIM AT ALL #IS IT ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE TWIST IN DUCK-TECTIVE IS THAT THE DUCK HAS AN EVIL TWIN BROTHER?? LIKE FUCK (via @llttledipper)
(that ultimate struggle: is it a blatant red herring or the truth?)
+ I recommend rereading all he messages from searchfortheblindeye website because it’s certain it was him behind them, and in these you can see how he is transforming from the Ford that fell into to portal to the Ford that came out of it. And it’s pretty disturbing
+ on this website he wrote that each image of Bill acts as a window into his world = why didn’t Ford immediatelly get rid of all the items with Bill from the shack??
+ “you didn’t tell me there were children down there” (aToTS) – ummm… how could Stan possibly TELL you it??
+ Fiddleford said Ford was a “visiting researcher”, why did Ford need to lie about him being his college buddy who lived in Palo Alto? also if Fiffleford was that important to him, that he cradled him in his arms in his memory in the Last Mabelcorn, why didn’t he express at least a little curiosity about what’s up with his old friend?
+ “is it okay to give childrens weapons?” – really? REALLY?
+ why didn’t he say anything about how Stan’s fez has that symbol from Bill’s wheel, about Soos’ questionmark??? Dipper’s hat?? I could go on forever
Everything about this man is sketchy.
This is an old, post-TLM thing and now I trust Ford more but the inconsistencies still CONCERN ME SO MUCH. So let’s bring it back.
Overview:
- Ford keeps info on how to stop Bill to himself, though spreading knowledge of Bill’s weakness would mean if he failed others could stop Bill thanks to his information so why didn’t he share that info?
- Ford questions himself out loud a lot, I feel like he’s not being rhetorical but nobody answers his questions so he goes with what he thinks is appropriate for the situation (which is usually not always appropriate).
- Whether Ford knew each image of Bill was a way Bill saw other dimensions is unknown. That info was in Bill’s AMA not the searchfortheblingeye codes.
- Metal plate is probably real though whether it works is questionable. It probably only bars Bill from possessing him and reading his thoughts which Bill can probably do for most animals (according to Dipper’s and Mabel’s Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!) including humans hence Ford’s machine to encrypt thoughts to prevent Bill from reading them. However the effects may make his own thoughts inconsistent or some other side effect messing with his brain chemistry.
- Bill knows Ford well enough from being in his mind so much he probably doesn’t need to read his thoughts and just needs to nudge small things into motion to get Ford to act the way he wants.
- Sleep deprived Ford is the most inconsistent Ford and the Ford who put important safety info for stopping zombies in invisible ink.
- We have no idea what happened to Ford in those 30 years he was missing. Who else hurt you Ford? Who hurt you besides Bill?
- Where did everything else in your mindscape go Ford? What happened to all the graphs, floating books, and artifacts you had going on in that outer space stuff in the 80s?
The plate is working and preventing Bill from controlling Ford’s mind or body (but not from appearing in the dreams like he can with other people – essentially the plate is protecting Ford from fulfilling his end of the deal… )
“Whether Ford knew each image of Bill was a way Bill saw other dimensions is unknown. That info was in Bill’s AMA not the searchfortheblingeye codes.” He knows because Ford used images of owls to observe the Shack/town – so to know this works he must have been aware of how Bill uses it.
It seems like all Ford seemed to know about Bill’s weakness before falling into the portal and during the early sftbe website times somehow got lost in his mind?? Maybe this is why he was shown flipping through his Journals with such a weird expression in the Stanchurian Candidate?
(I don’t have a representative screencap just believe me). Maybe he doesn’t fully recall what he wrote before? Or his memories got altered? (I am chanting now *Ford’s Bubble*)
Honestly I don’t buy into the owl theory, Ford is a human not some magical or supernatural entity. I haven’t seen evidence for that theory outside of the poem on searchfortheblindeye which is a famous poem about shutting up and listening to things in order to learn better. It’s more symbolic of how Ford tries to act as a person (honestly this poem sucks because it ignores how asking questions can lead to enlightening answers. Ford makes the mistake of believing the shit he is told like unicorns and their ability to see if he’s pure of heart or not and thus doesn’t ask the right questions all the time). I’m not saying he doesn’t know about the images but just that we have no concrete evidence that he does know.
As for memory manipulation I could definitely see that. His memory of Bill’s weakness may have needed some more links for him to find so it makes sense he wanted to read the journals over again to jog his memory.
IDK, everything about Ford’s personality doesn’t add up. It almost seems as though he’s not sure how to act, or is acting in two completely different ways.
Like let’s start from the beginning-
- In AToTS, Ford starts off angry at Stan and a mysterious figure. As the episode progresses, we learn he was a total geek and really smart scientist. At the end, he shows he is a fast thinker by stopping the agents. And at the VERY end, he protects the twins by letting things stay mostly normal until the summer ends, but shows he has no intentions of making up with his brother.
- In DDaMD, Ford shows a bit of his badass, mysterious side when he tackles the octopus thing, but spends much of the episode geeking out with Dipper and finally having fun for once. He transitions back to fierce trenchcoat man when he is captured by the wizard.
- In the Stanchurian Candidate, he goes back to being a mysterious, dangerous researcher by giving Dipper the mind control tie.
- In The Last Mabelcorn, he stays in the mysterious, dangerous, antisocial side to his personality by sending Mabel on a dangerous quest and putting Dipper in a dangerous machine. He ends by seeming even more unstable and out of character when he feels betrayed. He asks for the rift in a way that makes it seem as though he is possessed, and takes a long time to reassure Dipper and fall back into the awkward, loving persona by showing his pupils. He stays in this when he tells Mabel she is a good person.
- In DaMvtF, he goes back and forth between being a loving role model for Dipper and being a badass mysterious figure. He has so many flipfloppy actions that go back and forth between the two sides of his personality that are being laid out. When he gives Dip a magnet gun and twirls around the pole, he is in his mysterious personality side. When he tells Dipper he wants him to be his apprentice, he falls into his sympathetic side. This continues throughout the episode and into Weirdmaggedon 1 until he is turned into a statue.
In short, Ford seems to have two personality sides that become more distinctive as the show progresses. On the one hand, he is the “mysterious author” who’s a badass monster fighter who will break every bone in your face. On the other hand, he’s a sympathetic, geeky, somewhat awkward guy who loves science and mysteries. He seems to switch between these personalities without warning, and multiple times per episode. Yet these personalities are distinct.
Ford’s more questionable actions and seemingly constant lying (as pointed out above) can all be traced to him acting in the “mysterious author” role and not the “stan’s bro bro” role. Also, if you take the information we have from AToTS, as a child and teen Ford acted more as a curious researcher and seems to have no sign of the badass and dangerous author we see sometimes in “present day” S2. The only times Ford acts like that in flashbacks are when he is possessed by Bill or talking with Bill, and even then not all of the time.
In conclusion, I think that Ford has a second personality that is overwhelming his “natural” personality. Most of his questionable actions occur when he seems to be acting out of his dangerous personality, which is not seen until after he meets Bill. Something happened after Ford met Bill, or potentially after he entered the portal, that caused him to start acting differently. He doesn’t act this way all the time, but does it enough for it to be a major concern.
Is this the result of Bill tampering with his mind? Living in the portal (which caused McGucket to go insane) for 30 years? Something else tampering with Ford? Or is this just characterization? IDK, but something is real fishy.
A side note, I think the shapeshifter’s warning referred to Stanley taking Ford’s place and taking over the shack. The author “hadn’t been himself” because Stanley took his name. Though how the shapeshifter knew this, and why he would choose to say such a thing, idk.
Also that “mysterious author side” makes him act all dramatic. (the whole octopus scene, how he sometimes seems to speak to the audience??? Like in Weirmageddon part 1). It’s so weird and looks as if he was acting to some invisible camera.
–
Also, as some people already jokingly pointed out: he seems to make the “deer in the headlights” face pretty often could it be it’s when he’s switching personalities? Or when he’s neither of them?
aha true. It’s like someone is making him act like a dramatic hero or something. IDK, it’s weird. When he acts like that, he seems less human. All his emotions are either exaggerated (to act like a hero/dramatic) or hidden and made mysterious. This is just more proof that his second personality isn’t really Ford.
I like where this is going but I’m not sure it’s 100% realistic. I like the idea of Ford having a separate, less Ford-y personality, but I feel like some separation is natural based on his unique situation.
Let’s look at how Ford’s personality has been developed over the course of his life. We start with a childhood in a good home, with hopes and dreams and a twin brother he loves. A healthy childhood, helping to develop the loving and nurturing traits based on the way his family treats him.
We move on to college and post-college Ford. At this point, he’s moving away from his family (and it’s questionable whether or not he has friends) and is becoming more independent. He did the same thing most people do at that age; he struggled to find himself and where he fit into the world. Still a fairly natural and healthy teen/young adult.
His adventures in Gravity Falls helped him develop a taste for adventure. It seems that nothing really burned him or made him fear for his life very much, so we can assume he gained a healthy amount of trust and confidence in his capabilities.
Then, his deal with Bill. An unhealthy relationship. Obviously, he was betrayed, taking that healthy trust and smashing it on the ground, leading to the paranoid, “trust no one.” His confidence probably took a hit, as well.
Next, we have Ford in the portal. While we don’t know exactly what was going on while he was seemingly hopping dimensions, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he didn’t have any healthy relationships in there. From lack of social contact, he built a wall. In a world that we assume is a ‘kill or be killed, fight for your life’ kind of place, he became street smart and badass (a character trait obviously). He pushed back the nurturing and loving pieces of his personality as they had no place in his current life.
Finally, we have post-portal Ford. He is still slow to trust, because he’s been burned. He still has those loving traits, but they’re a bit set apart from his other more stand-offish ones. He is still a badass, and knows how to take care of himself. He still has a lot of confidence, likely from his survival in a dangerous world. Still a bit socially unhealthy, because he has likely for the most part been without social contact for 30 years, plus his time in GF before that.
I like a good theory as much as the next guy, but I feel like this is just the way Ford has become over the years. The awkward mesh of his loving and mysterious sides stem from the fact that he’s been in “mysterious mode” for thirty years, and is still trying to adapt to life with other people. He does badass things because he has been doing them for decades. Or maybe he wants to impress these new folks in his life (overconfidence)? He is nurturing and caring, and we can see that, but I think it’s just a bit buried.
Also, to be fair, I have no refutation for the first half of these points (like the whole college friend/visiting researcher thing) so I could be very, very wrong. But I don’t know; it seems fairly natural, and healthy even, the way Ford is continuing to develop.
Yeah, some of the different sides of his personality could just be different sides to his personality and not have supernatural origins.
However, there are ways Ford acts when he’s acting mysterious that don’t make a lot of sense, like the college buddy/visiting researcher thing, and they can’t be explained by simply having a complex personality. Also, let’s not forget how empty his dreamscape was. If we were seeing his dreamscape instead of just a weird dream, then it’s disturbing that the only things that exist are a wheat field, a swingset, and the portal until Bill enters. That alone is a large sign that something is terribly wrong in Ford’s head.
It’s good to put things into perspective though. Although small hints often point to major plot points (such as the glasses in the secret room) not every single thing in GF points to a major mystery. Let’s try not to have another Tad Strange incident by theorizing too much without backtracking and looking for other explanations.
True, he has done some stuff that makes me question his motives. Although, in his defense, what if Fiddleford was the one who lied about the visiting researcher thing? I feel like this should be brought up because a lot of people are slower to trust Ford than anyone else in the show. I swear, I’m not trying to undermine your theory and I don’t doubt that Ford has a lot of secrets that are yet to be explained. But in this case, I feel like there are several reasons for an inconsistency without anyone being directly “at fault.”
And I agree, Ford’s mindscape was disturbingly empty. But, isn’t it possible that all the doors were hidden somewhere? Remember that he wanted to “encrypt” Dipper’s thoughts; maybe that’s what it looks like, essentially? He is obviously a man with many secrets who keeps his cards close, so why not allow the possibility that someone like him would hide the important things in his brain, like Stan did with the code to the safe?
Honestly, I don’t know what to think here. I’m following this theory, but I also really want to give Ford the benefit of the doubt. When I look at him, I don’t see his flaws; I see his pain and regret. I see an adorable nerdy old man trying to cope with all the things life has thrown at him. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised either way, but I’m hoping it turns out more “complex personality” than “psycho” or “supernatural influence.”
That’s the thing, the idea that something else is influencing him does give him the benefit of the doubt. Rather than him having some seriously messed up parts to his personality, if something is controlling him, that means Ford is actually a better person. I’m all for complex characters, but Ford is edging further away from believability.
Although I’ll admit, I never thought that him encrypting his mind/installing the metal plate explains why his dreamscape is extremely empty. Though, wouldn’t he hide the portal beneath the metal if that was the case? IDK, but that’s something important to consider.
I want Ford to be better than the person who randomly demanded Dipper hand over the rift. And someone/thing else controlling him gives an explanation that frees Ford from the blame for that event, and so many other questionable ones.
TBH I think some people are reading a little too much into this.
I always got the impression Ford doesn’t quite know how to act around Dipper and Mabel, but he wants to make a good impression. I think the badass stuff is totally his true personality. And he does care for them, he just isn’t quite sure how to show it, so his behavior comes off as inconsistent. Its nowhere near inconsistent enough to warrant suspicion of multiple personalities. Also, while he does care about Mabel, and recognize her ‘magnetic personality’, he probably feels more comfortable with Dipper, since they are very similar and share the same interests. And they’re both awkward, its easier for awkward people to get along with other awkward people in my experience.
He doesn’t say much about what he went through in the portal, but from the few things he has said, I got the impression he was doing a lot of exploring, and possibly dimension hopping? (Which makes me wonder about how he happened to be close enough to the portal when it reopened…? but that’s unrelated) So he probably had to toughen up a lot in there, and he probably has forgotten a lot of things. Maybe in other dimensions he visited, it is perfectly normal to give children weapons? Also, regarding his journals, if he had perfect memory he wouldn’t need to refer to them so often, right? So he likely has forgotten much of what he wrote.
I think he is being secretive because he is both ashamed of his past, and because he wants to protect his family. It wouldn’t have been easy to smuggle out all the stuff with Bill on them, so he opted to just cover it up. And, at first, he likely was more concerned with the rift than for Dippers fear. He really is a
person who concentrates on the ‘greater good’.
As for the ‘mindscape’ part, there is literally nothing that suggests that the location was actually Fords mindscape. The only thing that ties it to him at all was the ruins of the portal. I just assumed it was a randomly generated landscape Bill made for their meeting. It was just a dream. Bill couldn’t access any part of his mind apart from his subconscious. So why would they appear in the mindscape, with doors and windows to memories and fears and etc? At most, it was the very top layer of his subconscious mindscape, not anywhere as deep as the gang had gone into Stanley’s mind in Dreamscapers.
I think Fiddleford referred to him as a ‘visiting researcher’ because he wanted to forget his relationship with Stanford. So of course, he wouldn’t reveal that relationship in the logs he was keeping about his memory wipe experiments.
As for taking the rift with him on their trip, I think the reason for that was he had intended to seal it up as soon as possible. But, the security system, (which he didn’t warn Dipper about because, as he had said earlier in the episode, he believed it was deactivated), interrupted them. Then in the aftermath of his
‘holy shit I almost got shipped off to another planet to die in jail’ and Dippers ‘I almost lost him I could have died’, they just went home first.
OP mentioned being surprised by the adhesive, he wasn’t surprised, he was like ‘Oh hey sweet you found it’. And as for him touching it, I figured that was just lazy animating. Or, since the thing it was stuck onto wasnt welded to the floor, nor did it stick to his coat when he put it in his pocket, it probably has a sort of force field on it, or a cover (like saran wrap? lol).
May's Gravity Falls Blog 