HEADCANNONS

Parallels and contrasts between Stan and Bill in the new book and website

Aka miscellaneous thoughts that I'm too lazy to condense into something comprehensible– what you see is what you get folks! (Book stuff, DVD commentaries! The website that came out when I was trying to write this out and is now making me pull my hair out! But in like a good way? That god damn poem!)

not necessarily same coin stuff but I sure am thinking about it.

It’s been said that a large part of Ford’s relationships with Bill, Fiddleford and Dipper was him trying to fill a hole that his estrangement with Stan had left, with none of them clicking in that same way. Dipper was directly compared to Fiddleford as someone who was completely charmed by Ford but is ultimately too anxious of a person to properly deal with the life he's offering nor pull him back when he starts going too far. Meanwhile, Bill is more analogous to Stan but to the extreme with all the doubts that Ford had been fed about Stan (that he was using him, he never grew up, he betrayed him, sabotaged the machine on purpose) turning out to be exactly true with Bill.

The book has Bill saying flat out that Ford wanted the charisma Bill had and then shows that at the peak of Ford's loneliness he was being envious of Stan's charisma, social skills and hands.

[STANLEY COULD HAVE MADE HER LAUGH]

(There’s an irony that Stan always thought that Ford was the popular twin even after doing embarrassing stuff like the kissing machine – if you haven’t seen the Swine Before Time Stan commentary get going, it’s great)

Then Bill swoops in with jokes and endless encouragement and the nickname only Stan used for him, all this in a way tailored for Ford to immediately like him while also reminding him of Stan but "better."

(The show rarely used it but Bill’s use of Sixer is extremely frequent in Journal 3 alone but the comics solidify it as being a pretty personal childhood nickname that kid!Stan used as his default way to call Ford.)

And then you see all of this working because Ford straight up writes Bill’s words using Stan's handwriting (and it turns out that Ford’s capital letter ‘for emphasis/angry’ font in general is the same as Stan’s handwriting too)

(It’s important to note that this is different from all the fonts that Bill uses for himself!)

All of this leads to the deja vu of Ford getting stabbed in the back by someone he was codependent on over a machine he thought was going to change his life for the better

Other things in the book that I’ve seen others point out and noticed myself:

Bill trying to reinforce that Ford would be alone without him, and threatening to tell Stan that Ford never loved him but the first thing Stan does in his letter is tell Ford that he loves him with their childhood code

Stan also only uses ‘Sixer’ in his letter when he normally tends to use a mix of nicknames post-Weirdmaggedon (sure it’s only twice but idk I find it noticeable)

Stan ripped a dollar in half when Bill taunted the reader earlier about how they wouldn’t do that

The promo photo vs the one in the book, Ford’s face being untouched vs Stan’s. While I initially interpreted this as “Bill’s book being a way to torment Ford” and then “him ending up having a meltdown at the thought of Stan”, the new poem kinda gives off an ominous vibe of "him moving on to focus on Stan instead whether he wants to or not"

Ford writing “miss you” in the bro code soon after arriving at Backupsmore which is shown in the Fiddleford photo, then Bill taunting Ford that he misses him

Bill and Stan now have another parallel of losing everything because of a genuine mistake but only Stan was willing to work to make up for it while Bill doubled down and became far far worse

The utter hatred Bill has for Stan being able to win in the end and get back his family

Both of them being institutionalized, with Stan’s mentioned in Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun (which has references to Bill liking Mabel for her chaos, silly straws, etc. Also Dipper basically came up with the Author theory but slightly wrong from theorising about the ink blot like a year before the Ford reveal)

(saturn devouring his son perfectly depicts my emotions when reaching this part of the book)

(EDIT: I was thinking about how Bill giving Ford three days to open the portal striked me as odd for some reason... and then I remembered;

Stan gave Mabel 3 days for their bet as well. Both of them specifically say 72 hours too.)

And now for the stuff we know from the website:

Bill having severe family issues with daddy issues implied since only his mum is mentioned directly with her trying to comfort him as a kid vs Stan having severe family issues with a definite focus on his dad while his mum was the only one to ask about Stan during that meeting with the principal and her being the only one to show up to his funeral

Both of them wear their dad’s hat despite of all of this

Bill starting a billion cults and has a lawyer called Multilevel Mark, Stan having his Scientology-esque cult being shot down by irl Disney and as a kid having his “technically a pyramid scheme” comic being shot down by a publisher

(I doubt that Stanentology would’ve gotten far but also you can see that a trend that the main way Bill gathers followers is by reading minds and revealing secrets only the victim would know, so let's hope that Disney-let-him-start-a-cult AU Stan never gets mind reading abilities)

Despite how we know how Stan is traumatised as hell from losing Ford, it’s noticeably isn’t referred directly in the Wheel of Shame (like you can’t tell me that the time between pushing Ford into the portal and starting the Shack isn’t as rock bottom as it gets, Bill literally recognises Stan in the first place by thinking about his brand). This probably is because Bill knows that they managed to repair their relationship and he’s fucking pissed about it.

There's further parallels between Stanley and Bill in poem; with lies and redemption and home, and further association with fire for the both of them

“Saw his own dimension burn.

Misses home and can't return.”

“Always dragged his family down.

One mistake, disowned, denied,

Only thing to do was hide.”

“One way out: the open road.

Reinvent, retry, reload.

A girdle, eyepatch, fathers fez,

"I'm a new man!" so he says”

“One way to absolve his crime.

A different form, a different time”

“His big break, it finally came,

Redemption from a life of shame.”

“Says he's happy. He's a liar.”

“Truth is just whatever sells.

When you've lost track of your lies,”

“Lie until you aren’t lying anymore”

Bill in a rotting corpse of a snake oil salesman

This triangle can fit so much self-loathing projection while being a hater

(Also it's funny that Bill is so insistent that Ford had to be the one who came up with the plan

Like look at this

See ‘em cogs turning in Stan’s head while Ford has clearly given up hope)

“How dare he dress up fancy when his jokes suck!!”

There's a parallel of Ford projecting onto Dipper in a way that makes him feel like kindred spirits with his nephew but Stan projects on Dipper in a way that causes him to be more harsh even if he has good intentions. Meanwhile Bill projects onto Ford in a more positive light in comparison to Stan, who in this case Bill wants to rip him and himself into shreds whenever he thinks of the guy. Bill’s shared love for fun/chaos with Mabel (despite them being so different at their core) is why he likes her the most out of all the Pines but that doesn’t stop him from trying to murder her (although I think most folks don’t know about that interview where Alex was like “yeah, I think Bill would’ve burnt Ford alive the moment he got the equation, he’s done playing with his toys at that point”)

Other tidbits:

I find it interesting that the full version of the Wheel of Shame has blue sparks and fades to grey scale (which automatically reminded me of his mindscape)

Stan signing off as Stanley in the book – this ain’t anything huge to chew on I'm just very over emotional about this… but also there’s Bill being called Billy by his family/in the codes

Ford thinking of Stan as childish/someone who never grew up and then we get hit by “yeah Ford always had some part of himself stuck at 18” oof

Ford underestimating Stan’s control over the mindscape, not knowing that he’s able to hide memories in Dreamscaperers, manipulate the layout of his mindscape enough to trick Bill and memory!Stan telling Dipper how to use the mindscape which Bill was genuinely surprised by

I'm headcanoning that Stan doing so bad at that history test is due to some latent bs from what Bill knows which is all crazy conspiracy level stuff

I think it's also intensely funny that all of the Pines promise that they'll murder Bill if they ever see him again and then they immediately turn to Stan and go “now it's your turn to write a letter! :D!!”

(I feel like the main requirement that the Theraprism has for Bill before he can reincarnate is mainly acknowledging his family idk which honestly would fit even better if his soul becomes Stan’s)

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION THE OUROBOROS PASSWORD (or... uh oroborous which is a typo when theres a suspicious amount on the site which may mean somethng but i digress) anyway that leads to the Shack Axolotl lore where it bluntly states that Ford released it despite it showing up 30 years later anyway

and theres....

More relativity falls-

This was only a tiny bit tricky. The only reason Sock Opera happens is because Mabel has a crush. I replaced Gabe with Carla. Stanley won’t have a new crush every week like Mabel, so instead he’s up to some stupid shenanigan trying to get Carla’s attention. Im trying to AVOID making OC’s. Any roles that can’t be swapped or replaced by a canon character will remain the same. (Note: Fiddleford will work beside Stan and Ford, Stanley will be using his inventing skills for the play so that’s why Fiddleford wouldn’t be able to help Ford.)

Again, it’s not a fic, just a...idk it’s like trying to tell someone what happens in a movie by memory.

Stanley sees Carla reading in the library as he and Ford are researching. Mostly it’s just Ford though. Stanley goes to attempt to flirt with her and sees that she’s reading a play.

“Do you like Romeo and Juliet, Stan?”

“I’ve never met em. What’re they, your cousins?”

“Haha, you’re funny! But really, have you read the play?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah I was totally kidding. Yeah! I’m like...a theater expert!”

And thus the trouble begins. Like in the original Sock Opera, a deal is made between the twins. Stanford would help Stanley with his...weird musical take on Shakespeare and then Stanley would help Ford try to unlock the laptop. Stanford mostly just made sure that Stanley’s script stayed on track.

“I may need to make a few revisions, but this is pretty close. I’m surprised, Stanley. I didn’t think you knew anything about Shakespeare.”

“Huh? I watched An East Side Tale and went from there.”

“....”

Stanley is worried about the play because some of the machines and robots have been malfunctioning, he’s worried that one mistake will ruin any future chances with Carla and that would be like...super embarrassing. He apologetically tells Stanford that the play needs a little more attention. As the story goes, Stanford is still struggling to open the laptop and also hasn’t slept. Bill takes the opportunity to make a deal with him and out of desperation, Stanford accepts. The laptop is promptly destroyed and Stanford is immediately stressed out.

Carla takes the time during intermission to tell Stanley that his take on Romeo and Juliet is really unique. She says if the rest goes well, then maybe they could go to the diner together. He takes that maybe a little too seriously, so when Ford possesses one of the extra robots in the room and urgently tells his twin what happened, Stanley is hesitant to help right away, but he caves into that hilarious auto tune voice. Stanley goes to retrieve the Journal when he’s intercepted by Bill Cipher in Stanford’s body.

“Bill Stanford! Banford!” Stanley is truly a creative. 🙏🙏 After they fall to the stage, Stanley is quickly able to overpower Banford and Ford takes his body back...as painful as it may be. Bill possesses one of the robots on stage and swears to the Pines Twins that they can’t stop what’s to come...it’s pretty scary until the robot malfunctions and explodes, setting off a chain reaction of mishap and destruction on set. Fiddleford watches in horror as his robots fly through the air...and so does everyone else, but it’s because they don’t want to get hit with metal scrap, not because Fiddleford’s masterpieces are, well, being blown to pieces.

After the show, Stanley profusely apologizes for the laptop being destroyed. Stanford expresses that he’s disappointed about the situation and is apologetically thankful to his brother for sacrificing his play for him.

“Y’all sacrificed my inventions, that’s what y’all did. There better be a good explanation for it too, d’yinno how hard it was to steal car parts for these?” Fiddleford mutters as he tries to salvage the pieces of his creations. Carla, surprisingly, meets Stanley after the show too. He’s sure she’s going to call him a failure or a jerk, but she doesn’t. She’s mostly understanding and said that having actual robots was an ambitious project for a theater play.

“I’m...not surprised it didn’t turn out well. Fiddleford’s inventions tend to blow up around you and your brother, but maybe you could just give me the script. Everything kind of exploded before we could see how it ends.”

Stanley is practically speechless until Stanford elbows him back to reality.

“O-oh y-yeah sure! M-maybe...at the diner?”

“Meet me there when you get cleaned up!” She grins.

It’s a win for Stanley...and a lose? But mostly a win. Still, Stanford reminds Stanley that their window to finding the real author is closing. They need to move quickly.

Some warm ups and break sketches to keep me inspired, consider em bonuses:

👉🏼👈🏼 if u like it, I appreciate reblogs. It was really neat seeing people like my last post. Made me wanna continue 🥺

so i said i manage otto, norman, rosie, emily and curt as friends since college? i feel like norman wouldn't have many friends after starting oscorp and that the five of them would be a great group of friends, like norman, otto and curt are discussing something about science and suddenly emily and rosie arrive from their last 19th century literature class and they start talking about the subject of their class and otto, norman and curt don't understand anything

Blind Strickler AU

Ok I am totally expanding this au because I have not been able to get it out of my head so here you have much more material from the blind Walter Strickler

strickler lost his sight in 1917 since then he has an album with photos of him throughout the years in the hope that if he ever manages to regain his sight he can see how he looked

he met barbara because they both collided once on the street she apologized and offered to buy him a coffee it was not until a week later that strickler discovered that she was the mother of his favorite student

He has very good aim, he is still quite good at throwing knives although nobody knows how he manages to hit the target and he will take the secret to the grave

Somehow I manage to have a good friendship with blinky

I had no idea what Jim and Barbara looked like until they mentioned it themselves

Thanks to his improved senses, having lost his sight did not affect him as much.

Otto and nomura helped him when bular blinded him otto helps him learn to use a cane and nomura to train

Otto, nomura and strickler are friends in this and they are that trio of quite chaotic friends

Strickler is the oldest, Otto is the middle one and Nomura is the youngest

Once in the 1950s Otto and Strickler were arrested because of Nomura

Strickler hates getting drunk because his senses are affected

After the eternal night he convinced merlin to give him a potion similar to the one he gave to jim to become human

Because of this, his senses were no longer so good, and Barbara convinced him to get a guide dog which she named Hermes.

your writing doesn’t have to be perfect. it just has to make someone feel something.

Uh uhbuh uh uh uh uh uh. Yea. Normal humans au. Well actually, it's the au where Vox and Alastor are BFs. And for their pairing, I headcanon that Alastor likes to dance and Vox doesn't mind it and they often dance alone. Vox couldn't dance at all, but Alastor taught him, even though Vox does it ineptly and often steps on Alastor's feet. Sorry not sorry 💥💥💥

I'm literally banging my head on my desk trying to find the words to finish the chapter of my fic.

I guess sooner or later I was going to have trouble writing again after having written almost 2000 words a day for a week.

ok this just came to my mind and i refuse to let go of the idea so hotch has an accident where he hits his head on the steering wheel of the car and can now read people's minds, two months later reid ends up exposed to a chemist by accident the doctors say that apparently it was nothing serious and that reid will be fine the problem is that reid now has feelings that are not his own it takes a while to realize that now he can feel the feelings of other people and to some extent influence them (now hotch knows that reid is even in love with him and reid knows that hotch is in love with him but they are both idiots so they only hang around each other for months because neither dares to take the first step)

"Harry, isn't this your father?" - asked mj who was holding a polaroid in his hand

- What? Let me see

Harry took the polaroid Mj was holding, his father didn't seem to be older than him in the photo, Norman was smiling without looking at the camera, it wasn't a cruel or trusting smile.

Harry did not think he had ever seen his father smile like that, Norman Osborn seemed genuinely happy, Harry looked in a corner of the photo, it did not take him long to recognize the handwriting of his father, there it was written "the best day of my life"

— I wonder what would have happened for Dad to stop looking so happy — thought Harry.

— HEY GUYS, HERE ARE MORE PHOTOS! — Peter called as he held a box in his arms