When you thought you watched a video enough to get used to it and not cry anymore but then you hit reply for the millionth time and you start crying again in you hoodie:
I know it's supposed to be Stan's soul, but given that his body vanished when he died, there's a chance that he's just trapped in the mindscape, without a physical form to rejoin his family, and I'm not sure if that makes this better or worse.
Got me crying over here at 4 in the morning. Just... wow. This was truly moving. As usual you do such a great job with your animatics/art. You're doing great things for this au and for this fandom
THIS... this hurt me. How dare you be this good. Got me fricking crying at 4 pm on a Wednesday. "I don't understand this You're changing, I can't stand it My heart can't take this damage"
“Oh this, this is beautiful…..” If I could like something multiple times this video would have the most likes on TH-cam! *chef’s kiss* Edit: 2 years later, still amazing and brings many tear to my eyes :,)
I'm kinda late but... I'm I'm crying This is absolutely beautiful and sad and the music and the art and I can't really type because I can't see through tears but. Omg. This au is amazing and I love this so much. ✨ You're super talented. Thank you for creating this masterpiece.
(Long, LONG story theory ahead) Wait-- No-- Stan was supposed to figure out Bills plans to harm those he loved and work to manipulate the master manipulator and subtly weaken his defenses from the inside while giving hints to Dipper that this was the time to stage a rebellion only to find out that Bill was aware of it the whole time and was seeing how far it was going to go and almost kill him before BOOM Soos, Mable and Wendy impulsively try to save Stan and we get distracted by that. Then there's a cutaway and we find out that the surviving townspeople and the twins freed Ford and were on their way out only to discover Stan was basically being the next generations Snape to Bill's Voldemort and the spy's death was about to happen so there was a split in the rescue team, those who wanted to save Stan even though he made some REALLY bad choices for the right reason, and those who erred on the side of logic and thought Stan made his bed and now must lie in it (headed by Ford who basically convinced everyone but Soos, Wendy, and Mabel). Bill is sufficiently distracted and now that his fun little murder scene is ruined anyways, he might as well keep Stan alive (but powerless) just to see that Ford was not the one he should have made a deal with Bill to protect the kids from, but Bill himself. You know, get all that self-loathing and agonizing over the past and faulty deals Bill absolutely adores. So now Stan is powerless and trapped in Ford's prison (irony!) with Mabel, Wendy, and Soos transformed into golden, decorative statues (just to milk that self-loathing and despair for every last drop Bill can possibly wring from Stan). Cut to Dipper shivering for a split second (you know, twintuition and that) and looking over his shoulder, having second thoughts about leaving the others behind to fend for themselves. But it's too late, they're in the shack and hunkering down for shelter. Ford is trying to comfort Dipper by saying he made the right choice, but is slowly realizing that he knows nothing about how to actually raise a child. He was planning on just acting like a teacher, but the fact is he can't raise a child or give them everything they need and now he knows this. Now that he is literally forced to have people in his house he slowly but surely starts to respect Stan more for being able to put up with others and know what they want/need in order to exploit them. And that Stan had been working for 30 years to bring him back when the last thing he did was permanently scar him and get into a fistfight when he himself was only stopped from throwing everyone out to fend for themselves by Dipper. Character arc complete, Ford realizes that he really hasn't been a good person and that he literally drove his twin brother to make a DEAL WITH THE DEVIL to protect their grand nephew and niece from HIM. He makes a choice and they all start to plan. An epic battle happens, both sets of twins reunite, Stan and Ford both realize they were jerks and they promise to try to to better (not out loud, but inside, because they're both too stubborn to ever admit they were wrong. Their character arcs did a lot, but they aren't perfect enough to change their fundamental personalities). Yay, happily every after, and EVERYONE WE'RE ATTACHED TO LIVES I really like the animation tho it's great and your story is wonderful
Oh, look. I’m commenting again. Anyways, I have finished this video and recieved my dose of angst for today. The song also fits so well. Thank you for making this animatic which I call a masterpiece :D
[PART 1/3] Oh, Caleb Hyles?? Cool!! :D (His male covers of songs can be pretty useful for videos about Stan and/or Ford - I'm currently using one of his older ones for one of the AMVs I have partially finished :) 0:12 Ford staring at Stan's glasses like Stan used to stare at his :( 0:21 Wait, is "How can I have sent you away?" referring to him saying he was going to kick Stan out, telling Stan to sail away, or doing nothing while he was kicked out? Maybe all three?? D: 1:01 This transition matches the music so well!!! I like the silhouettes and the zooming on the images in this video, they make it more interesting and fun!! 1:17 I'm not sure if you did this intentionally, but the sun behind him looks like a halo, which makes him look like he's supposed to look saintly, which contrasts well to how Stan's going to join Bill who's a demon. Also, Gravity Falls (or rather, its forests, I guess?) being referred to as Ford's "kingdom" amuses me XD I mean, way to have a big ego, Ford!! XD 1:20 The silhouette use works really well here to make Ford's smile look somewhat creepy. Also, "so lovely and so well beloved as I" as we slowly move towards Bill watching Ford while he smiles obliviously works really nicely! Bill may pretend to think you're smart and think of you as a friend, Ford, but he's lying!! 1:36 Nice job hinting that, although Ford thinks the portal will bring him "glory", Bill's actually been manipulating him the whole time!! 1:51 "And grew only darker as days and nights passed" Nice job showing Stan's jealousy, and I like the zoom in on him, since we're focusing on him, and he's dark since he's in silhouette, and the zooming makes more of the screen darker because of his darkness! And now that I think about it, the previous scene, 1:44, is interesting too because the scene before that has Ford being manipulated by Bill shadowly in the background, and then in 1:44 it starts with him looking at Bill (who he now realizes was using him, since I think this scene takes place when he and Stan reunited the first time, as we'll see momentarily?), and it zooms out to show Stan (specifically, how he was dressed when he first came to the Mystery Shack), and it talks about Ford casting a shadow that "fell dark upon" Stan which makes me think of how Ford was so paranoid about Bill when he invited Stan over that he tried to get him to leave without telling him about Bill and then that kinda started their argument and then Ford fell through the portal and Stan had to spend 30 years to get him back. And then the shadow "grew only darker as days and nights passed" because after the thirty years Ford is still mad at him, probably even moreso for restarting the portal, and now he's also taking Dipper and Mabel's affection! (And planning to kick Stan out, though that isn't mentioned.) 1:57 Interesting transition here - Stan goes from being dark to light (he's not harboring dark feelings of jealousy, etc. now) and being featureless to having a face (kinda ironic since he's dead now, so he physically has less of a face than he used to). Also, his color and glow as a ghost fits with the "moon" theme (and in the song itself, "moon" fits thematically with "goodnight"). 2:07 Uh, Ford, your brother's actually right there, so your lullaby doesn't need to be borne anywhere!! And also he's only resting "in moonlight's embrace" as much as you are. (I know he doesn't know Stan's right there, which feels... ironic? I guess? Is that the right word here??) 2:22 Ford manages to wipe his eyes through his glasses, something that would be impossible in our world. However, this is not our world!!! This is the amazing world of GF, a world in which glasses regularly accommodate our uninterrupted view of characters' eyebrows, so perhaps they can accommodate a sleeve as well!!! I mean, assuming it works by the glasses partially dematerializing, and not by going partially invisible??? And that it's not the *eyebrows* that are detaching to accommodate the glasses???! (...What does it say about me that I'm actually sitting here thinking about all this, lol) 2:29 Stan smiling here is really sweet :) As is Ford saying, "you're loved [present tense!!] so much more than you know". (Although it would've been even better for them to have had this discussion BEFORE STAN KILLED HIMSELF. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, we're not at that part yet.)
[PART 2/3] 2:35 Yeah, Ford was definitely blind about Bill (and the warning not to summon him!!), which, while it did more to wreck his relationship with Fiddleford than Stan, did contribute to their argument in the house, as I've mentioned. Also, the Bill bowtie zoom is a nice callback to the one at 1:09, which both happen when we're starting a verse! 2:58 Zooming in on his featureless face only to open these unexpected eyes is interesting!! (And matches the singing well!!) And they're yellow, which is the color of Bill, which we haven't seen so far in this video... we haven't even seen yellow in reference to the sun... definitely helps make this unexpected, aiding in its bit of scariness! Anyway, we zoomed in on Stan's head, containing his unhappy thoughts, which have now 'grown' and are turning him to the dark side!! (Or the yellow side, as the case may be?) 3:02 Finally getting to see Stan's face here (in the flashbacks, I mean)... oof. Interesting implication here that Stan regretted choosing to join Bill when the transformation started... I think the pages you posted described it hurting, but not that he regretted his decision (or at least, obviously appeared to do so), per se? So that's an interesting change. This shot where he's reaching out, in addition to being one of my favorite shots in this video, is also really reminding me of Ford's desperation when he had his arm outstretched after throwing Stan the journal and he was being engulfed by the portal. 3:06 also reminds me of the portal scene: Ford's just standing there while Stan's reaching out... which reminds me of when Stan had to just stand there when Ford was reaching out as he was sucked into the portal... but Ford is *choosing* to do nothing here... aah D: 3:07 This is my other favorite shot from this video. And then he gets engulfed by Bill's cloud of eyes, with his eye/s going last!! 3:12 And then Ford just stands there, looking troubled, WITH HIS EYES OBSCURED, right after the lyrics "takes hold of the mind of its host" have played, and he's the one who originally made a deal with Bill, and AAAH 3:14 and 3:15 - man, he literally had time (and ability, because as shown, unlike with Stan and the portal, he could've reached Stan!!) to grab Stan's hand and at least try to get him back!!! Maybe he wouldn't have been able to save him but he could've at least not let his brother get engulfed knowing he was doing NOTHING to try to stop it!!!!! Ugh, I want an explanation as to why Ford is DOING NOTHING. You had better have a good excuse like being under a spell or something, Ford!!!!!!!!!! 3:20 So, it would appear that Stan has joined the blue side, I guess. Which fits the sun/moon theme! (Interesting that he also ends up blue as a ghost - I wonder if that's a coincidence or not?) He doesn't look super happy. And then we zoom in on his eyes, which are now blue. Doing that with "[the destruction of one who had needed her] most" feels somewhat accusatory towards Ford, since Stan's eyes got engulfed last and Ford stood there doing NOTHING without his eyes visible. 3:30 So, it seems Ford's got a yellow lightsaber or whatnot, to fit the sun/moon theme... (interesting that in canon Bill's colors are yellow and blue, but yellow more primarily, and Bill influenced Ford before Stan, and Stan is going to repent, and Ford was being a jerk by, as I've mentioned multiple times now, NOT HELPING him earlier!!) 3:32 Sorry, Ford, I just really don't feel sorry for you. If your brother's gonna have to fight you for you not to ignore him, I don't know what to tell you. (Tbf, there's probably more context to the beginning of their fight than Stan transforming and then immediately attacking Ford - in fact, there must be, if Stan's gonna have tried to trap Ford in the basement for thirty years - but we aren't shown it here.) 3:35 Oh, NOW you're looking up a shielding spell?!! I mean, I'm glad you're going to try defending yourself instead of continuing to fight your brother. [Actually that isn't even what he's doing] I'm happy about that, I really am. BUT WHY COULD YOU NOT HAVE TRIED TO HELP STAN EARLIER!!!! I mean I doubt the shielding spell would have been a good option, probably, but he literally did NOTHING!!!! 3:48 It occurs to me that the blood on Ford's face here is the first time we see any color in this animatic besides blue and yellow (well, and black, grey, and white, but you know what I mean. Any primary color, I guess I mean.) Sadly, this won't be the last of the color red we're going to see :( Also, it's ironic that we're shown Ford bleeding on "coldness of night" when the previous words were "peace and". It's ironic that those words were played during a fight scene, too. 3:51 "sorrow" Oh man, Ford's talking about his own sorrow but Stan's the one in sorrow at having hurt him D: ...Which I presume is why he then kills himself (we're not to that yet though), and him dying is why *Ford's* sad... it's like a bit of Romeo and Juliet or something!! D: (But like, if Juliet didn't kill herself.) 3:55 Okay, so I guess they *did* have this discussion before Stan died... well, except not actually a discussion, because it seems like Ford didn't say anything and just hugged him. 3:59 "May troubles be far from your mind" well, that's pretty dark considering that Stan's going to kill himself very shortly... which I guess isn't necessarily because he thought Ford was dying, it could also be just that he felt guilty for hurting him at all?? (And probably for joining Bill. And possibly for trying to lock Ford in the basement for thirty years.) 4:07 "And forgive me" Again, Ford's saying this but it appears to be something Stan's thinking in this scene. 4:11 They kinda form a triangle here, while it says "blind", and they were both blinded by Bill... coincidence? Probably. 4:15 Stan, how the heck did you manage to stab yourself *while Ford was hugging you*?? Okay I guess if you're materializing your own sword you could just sort of materialize it going into yourself so it does more or less make sense :( Seriously though, if I was hugging someone who apparently was suicidal and they managed to kill themself WHILE I WAS HUGGING THEM I would flipping lose it. Like, sure Ford could, and maybe should, have said something to Stan in addition to hugging him, but I'm giving him a pass on that because a) he was injured, and b) hugging someone should normally give you some, at least brief, respite from them being able to kill themself!! I mean, unless they had a suicide pill hidden on their clothes or something, but that wasn't the case here!! And just, Stan, seriously WHY ARE YOU KILLING YOURSELF. And SERIOUSLY, WHY ARE YOU KILLING YOURSELF IN YOUR BROTHER'S ARMS. I mean, I can guess the answers to both of those - guilt and not wanting to die alone and etc. but STAN, your brother LOVES YOU and is FORGIVING YOU. You're hugging it out like you're supposed to, why are you ruining it!!!!!!! D: (Also, even though I knew he was going to die in this AU, it hadn't occurred to me that it would be suicide, even though he mentioned feeling suicidal in one of those pages you posted. I thought he was mostly talking about when he was homeless, though! I guess that was foreshadowing :( Man, I guess Ford (and maybe Dipper?? He was there for that speech, but he's a child so it's not really his responsibility to deal with an adult's mental health problems) should've taken that comment more seriously, but I guess with Stan dropping the rift and making a deal with Bill and everything they didn't get a good chance to have that discussion then? They could've had it later, though! Like, again, when Ford DID NOTHING!! Although that wasn't really enough time to have that discussion completely, but he could have said SOMETHING! ANYthing!! 4:20 It's not funny, Stan :( And is this a reference to how when he's getting erased in canon (which is very similar to dying) he, iirc, goes, "Heh, guess I was good for something after all"??? Thus hinting at him being possibly slightly suicidal in canon??? 'Cause that's sad :( 4:26 Well, they're both red... cue a metaphor about war just leading to death on both sides! 4:31 I guess it's sweet that Stan's trying to wipe his brother's eye (you know what would be even better, Stan??! NOT MAKING YOUR BROTHER CRY BECAUSE YOU JUST STABBED YOURSELF), but he's also gonna be getting blood on the side of his face, considering his hand was shown to have blood on it in the previous shot. Hey, at least Stan's able to touch Ford when he reaches out for him this time unlike last time when his own eyes both ended up getting covered one by one, and at least we can see Ford's eye/s now!! And Stan's eyes are also no longer blue, as we see before and after this.
[PART 3/3] 4:34 So huh, Stan's body is just disappearing because he had turned into a Henchmaniac or whatever? Did Bill get defeated?? Did I forget about Bill???With everything else going on, you bet I did!! 4:42 I feel sorry for Ford here. Although I'm kinda reminded of 3:07, which again, if you'd tried to help Stan then, Ford, maybe he wouldn't have killed himself later?? Or maybe he still would've if you couldn't save him in time. Idk, maybe he wouldn't have fought and hurt you and then killed himself. Idk. 4:48: "I never imagined I'd face them on my own" UM, EXCEPT WHEN YOU WERE SEEMINGLY PLANNING TO KICK STAN OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!! Also, let's parallel this shot to 3:10 for fun. 4:55: Having Ghost!Stan show up while Ford says "I'd face them on my own" is nice and ironic, and that and the blurring to focus on Stan works well with the layering (I think????) of the voices in the song. 4:58 Stan's glasses sitting there and then being picked up by Ford while he talks about "may these thousand winters swiftly pass, I pray" is reminding me, again, of Ford's glasses that Stan saved for 30 years, only for them not to get a happy ending :( (Stan and Ford, I mean - I assume the glasses were happily reunited with their owner, although Ford doesn't seem to be wearing them here so maybe not???) 5:09 "I love you" Should've told him that sooner :( And that you missed him during the 30 years would've helped too, if it had occurred to you to think or say that... 5:16 "all these miles away" No, he was just here! :( (Actually, wait, what did they bury??? Anything??? His blood that got spilled on the ground???!!) (Also, it occurs to me as I'm doing the editing pass that the current events of this animatic must be taking place long enough after the flashback scenes that they had time to get a headstone made (but not so much time that Dipper and Mabel have gone home yet). 5:20 Oh, okay, so here's a thought I think I had the first time I watched this, but hadn't written down: "Son" is partially obscured because he was only a "beloved son" to his mother, not both of his parents!!!! (Also, now I know what year you headcanon them being born, so that's interesting. I think '54 is the year I'm currently headcanoning until I get around to doing the finer details of the math.) "Safe upon your bed of moonlight" He's blue, does that count? 5:44 The "Stand" coupled with Ford's expression amuses me a bit amidst all this sadness :) "And know not of sadness, pain, or care" Well, I don't think he's looked *too* sad in his appearances as a ghost, iirc, and has even looked happy at least once, so maybe you got your wish? You being an alcoholic will probably make him worry if he's capable of it, though. "And when I dream I'll fly away and meet you there" Wait, if he can go to his mindscape when he dreams... and Bill said Dipper's 'mental form would wander the mindscape forever' (or something, I don't have Journal 3 handy atm), is there a chance Ford could see Stan???!! Actually, shoot, why can't Stan show himself to Ford right now??! He's here, and the convenience store owners did it!! Is it because of his association with Bill???? Idk. 5:58 ...Wait, did Ghost!Stan just breathe??? 6:06 YOU MADE MABEL SAD, STAN!!!! :( And didn't you snap because you found out about the apprenticeship offer, and the proposed separation of Dipper and Mabel????? Doesn't all that mean that Mabel might blame herself to some degree??? Or Dipper (especially as, at least in the original story, he doesn't do much to try to help or stop you)???? You were trying to keep Mabel from getting hurt but *you* hurt her by killing yourself, Stan!!! :( (Also, idk if Mabel's supposed to be wearing her nightshirt, but if it's night, then she should sleep, yeah. Although I guess that, judging from the next shot, it's still only evening? So sleep can wait.) 6:11 And Ford needs to eat. And I just fullscreened the video and spun my screen around so I could read that message :( Things aren't going to be okay, though, are they? Well, I guess to some degree. To whatever degree things can be after a death. Unless they find some way to save Stan, maybe with time travel or something. (If his body disappeared completely it'd be kind of hard to work with that.) 6:20 I'm guessing Stan wasn't the one who put that blanket on Ford?? Unless he has the ability to touch objects but not people. But if that were the case he should write Ford a note or something. ...Okay, that's it (aside from the last paragraph which I wrote already). Well that took longer than I was expecting (not much of a surprise there). TL;DR: I was mad at Ford for just standing there while Stan was being engulfed and reaching for him, and I'm mad/sad at Stan for killing himself :( (This was definitely interesting to watch and comment on!!) ...Alright, now it's time to see if TH-cam rejects this comment for being too long and I have to split it up! Which, given the "Comment" button is grey, looks to be the case. [And as it turns out, it was (but not because of the Comment button being grey - that went back to blue when I refreshed the page, but then wouldn't work when I clicked it). Anyway, splitting TH-cam comments is something I've only ever had to do probably about a handful of times, so congrats on inspiring me to write so much, I guess, lol] But first I'm going to do an editing pass of all of this (yippee), and then save the final backup copy, because you should always, always back up lengthy TH-cam comments before hitting "Comment", kids!! (Or write them somewhere other than the comment box in the first place and then copypaste them in, if you wanna be really safe.) The description, let's see: Animatics are fun, and I really like the episodes, so I hope you do more of those!! Having the canon crew watch the videos makes for a really interesting framing device, and adds another layer to the narrative, as I've kind of mentioned before. A couple quick logistical suggestions: for videos about the Evil!Stan AU like this one, I'd put "Evil!Stan" (or something like that) in the title somewhere, like you were doing before, since it makes it easier for the viewers to tell if something is canon or the AU. So for a video like this it'd be something like "[Name of Song] - Gravity Falls Evil!Stan Animatic" or something like that. Oh, and actually for ones like this where you want the viewers to read the description before deciding whether to watch the video, I'd also add "(read description)" or "(read desc)" or something like that to the end of the title as well, since that's the most surefire way to make sure your viewers know to read the description before watching the video. I say this because I didn't see your note to read the description until after I'd watched the video, since I usually don't read the descriptions on these sorts of videos until afterwards. If you don't want to mention it in the title, you could try bolding (and maybe capitalizing) "Please read description!" so that people like me are more likely to notice it! Okay, I think that's it, aside from that maybe if you need to warn viewers about a video containing gore you might want to mention that sooner in the description, probably ideally with the word "Warning" in there somewhere (like "Warning: Gore" or "Gore Warning" or something). I mean it wasn't a problem for me, but there might be people who might need that warning and possibly might overlook/not get to your mention of it at the end of the description even if they do read the description first, since they might just think you're only warning for spoilers about your AU and stop reading the rest of it?? Idk. Oh, and I guess maybe it'd be good if there was a warning for suicide, except I don't know how you could do that without spoiling that part of the video if you want everyone to read the description??? Maybe make a list of Trigger Warnings at the end of the description that people can choose whether they want to read or not??? And then make sure people know it's there by mentioning it earlier in the description and/or bolding its title. Idk.
@@aligningducks5887 Your analysis was amazing as always! But, to even MY surprise, there were a few things you missed. Firstly, that black cloud wasn’t bill. It was, as I imagine, the physical representation of depression and mental illness. Inky, suffocating, sticky, all consuming, dark, heavy, always watching. Ford isn’t standing by and watching bill take over his mind because that simply didn’t happen. Bill didn’t possess or control him at all. He did everything he did as a henchmaniac of his own free will. His depression, fear, and desperation however did take the driver’s seat. He finally gave in, exhausted from fighting for so long, just needing it to end, in any way necessary. And secondly, though guilt and sorrow did play a part in his suicide, he’d never emotionally hurt them that way for no reason. Let’s just say he never could uphold his end of a deal. And you can’t have a deal if one negotiator is dead. Being now part demon he couldn’t complete the zodiac. And so he resorted to drastic measures to mend his wrongdoings. Without the deal that it was built upon, weirdmaggedon couldn’t survive. So it faded away with him. But bill lived on to torment a new dimension, armed with new knowledge of his victims… and we both know which was next on his list. I’ve always thought it was odd bill never tried to manipulate stan, the most desperate and vulnerable of all of them. So I gave an explanation.
@@PlayersUnitedArt Oh okay, that all makes SO MUCH more sense XD I guess I'm just used to eye symbols in GF meaning Bill (aside from the Blind Eye Society symbol, since that's just supposed to represent the eyes of the people who get their memories erased and forget what they saw, although even that's indirectly related to Bill in a way because Fiddleford started the cult after he quit his job after seeing Bill (he'd already built the memory gun before then, but if he hadn't quit I don't think he'd have had time to form the cult)). And also since Stan gets engulfed in this video (3:14) right before the scene where he transforms (3:17), I thought that was part of that, particularly since the engulfing scene with the eyes made me think 'oh, it's the transformation part from the story.' Okay, so thinking of the cloud as depression, let's see: "pony who shone like the sun" "so lovely and so well beloved as I" "So great was her reign and so brilliant her glory that long was the shadow she cast" 1:47 "which fell dark upon the young sister she loved" 1:51 "and grew only darker as days and nights passed." Okay, so now I'm thinking about people saying Ford was smarter than Stan during their childhood and their father liking him better, partially leading to Stan being kicked out which is why he was homeless (1:47). And then he's jealous of Ford at 1:51 (he was probably jealous of him at earlier points of his life too, actually yeah he was definitely jealous of his research money when he was the age of 1:47), because now not only did Ford overshadow him when they were younger and get more of their father's approval (per that scene in Lost Legends at least where Stan says he wishes his father would look at him the way he looks at Ford (which just, OOF my heart D:)), but now he's overshadowing him to his current family members (Dipper, Mabel and even/perhaps esp. Soos (actually that's at 2:46). [2:49 Huh, did I notice before that that's his fez, not his hair??] 2:48 "and neither had she loved her as she deserved, and she watched as her sister's unhappiness grew", "and that foolish pony did nothing to stop the destruction of one who had needed her most" - 3:02 depression engulfs Stan as Ford looks on unseeingly (3:06, 3:12 (his eyes aren't visible here!!)). So I guess basically Ford feels guilty that he didn't recognize that Stan was depressed and needed his help (or at least for him to just treat him nicely in general and not act angry at him because of him bringing him back). The whole engulfing/drowning scene is so much better this way than what I originally thought!! Because now I'm not looking at it like Ford's intentionally ignoring Stan needing his help, it's that he doesn't notice (or at least not enough - he does look a bit troubled in 3:12. Maybe a bit of guilt/sadness at the time at being on bad terms with Stan?). Which is partly his fault for being on bad terms with Stan, but also not entirely since you can't always tell when someone's depressed. So he shouldn't blame himself *entirely*. But aaaah, Stan wanting/trying to reach out for help but not being able to/able to get Ford (or anyone) to notice that he's drowning is just aaaaah D: The explanation for why he killed himself makes sense, and this AU being why Bill never tried to make a deal with Stan in Dimension 46'/ is pretty interesting! (I tend to enjoy canon-multiverse-compliant GF AUs because it's fun and interesting to see how they end up fitting into the canon multiverse and how a satisfying story can be written that doesn't end in the (at least sorta) permanent defeat of the main villain from the show.)
Holyshit im legit sobbin over here, and thats not something a lot of videos can do. ive been in the brony fandom since i was little and this song was my childhood, and i cry every time i here it. AND HOLY CRAP THIS ANIMATIC IS HEARTBREAKING HALP. amazing work. ps. i know that you said that your not a brony, but i would highly recommend watching the original animation if you havent already. the singing and even more so the animation and storytelling are beautiful
![Nightmare sings 'Lullaby for a guardian[Princess]'](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BhGPVLFFSlA/mqdefault.jpg)
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 89 | คู่เอก "ยอดไอคิว vs คิริลล์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3vYkHJ_5Ig/mqdefault.jpg)
- Violently drowning bill in a lake and sobbing -
XD
Join in with drowning bill in an very cold ice lake
When you thought you watched a video enough to get used to it and not cry anymore but then you hit reply for the millionth time and you start crying again in you hoodie:
Mabel’s not here right now. She’s in sweater town XD
Didn't expect a MLP song to fit these two so well!
Me neither tbh XD
Everything hurts but it's good, this was good, I'm good
Good. It’s all good XD
When Stan died I imagined what they were both saying
I'm not crying, you're crying. This was and is FLIPPING AMAZING 😭
I know it's supposed to be Stan's soul, but given that his body vanished when he died, there's a chance that he's just trapped in the mindscape, without a physical form to rejoin his family, and I'm not sure if that makes this better or worse.
Oh god. I didn’t even think about that.
I totally pictured these characters when I heard this song for the first time! This is amazing, great work!
Thanks!
Omg yess
Also hi Sheepie! Didn’t expect to see you here!
I LOVE UR VIDS
You should REALLY stop making me cry, this is your first warning :'[
YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE-
@@PlayersUnitedArt WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO WRITE A FINE WITH THAT WARNING >:[
@@manriquezmadness4493 TRY ME SUCKA-
Got me crying over here at 4 in the morning. Just... wow. This was truly moving. As usual you do such a great job with your animatics/art. You're doing great things for this au and for this fandom
Thank you oh my goshhh 😭
THIS... this hurt me. How dare you be this good. Got me fricking crying at 4 pm on a Wednesday.
"I don't understand this
You're changing, I can't stand it
My heart can't take this damage"
“Oh this, this is beautiful…..”
If I could like something multiple times this video would have the most likes on TH-cam!
*chef’s kiss*
Edit: 2 years later, still amazing and brings many tear to my eyes :,)
this legit just made my day better lol
I’m glad!
3:06 dang this got heavy I'm not crying
I am crying good job thou
Can't tell whether to be sad or amazed by this animatic T^T.
I'm kinda late but...
I'm
I'm crying
This is absolutely beautiful and sad and the music and the art and I can't really type because I can't see through tears but. Omg. This au is amazing and I love this so much. ✨
You're super talented. Thank you for creating this masterpiece.
OMG IM ACCUALY CRYING
I NEVER CRY THATS HOW GOOD THIS IS
Ahahah good ùwú
(Long, LONG story theory ahead)
Wait--
No--
Stan was supposed to figure out Bills plans to harm those he loved and work to manipulate the master manipulator and subtly weaken his defenses from the inside while giving hints to Dipper that this was the time to stage a rebellion only to find out that Bill was aware of it the whole time and was seeing how far it was going to go and almost kill him before BOOM Soos, Mable and Wendy impulsively try to save Stan and we get distracted by that. Then there's a cutaway and we find out that the surviving townspeople and the twins freed Ford and were on their way out only to discover Stan was basically being the next generations Snape to Bill's Voldemort and the spy's death was about to happen so there was a split in the rescue team, those who wanted to save Stan even though he made some REALLY bad choices for the right reason, and those who erred on the side of logic and thought Stan made his bed and now must lie in it (headed by Ford who basically convinced everyone but Soos, Wendy, and Mabel). Bill is sufficiently distracted and now that his fun little murder scene is ruined anyways, he might as well keep Stan alive (but powerless) just to see that Ford was not the one he should have made a deal with Bill to protect the kids from, but Bill himself. You know, get all that self-loathing and agonizing over the past and faulty deals Bill absolutely adores. So now Stan is powerless and trapped in Ford's prison (irony!) with Mabel, Wendy, and Soos transformed into golden, decorative statues (just to milk that self-loathing and despair for every last drop Bill can possibly wring from Stan).
Cut to Dipper shivering for a split second (you know, twintuition and that) and looking over his shoulder, having second thoughts about leaving the others behind to fend for themselves. But it's too late, they're in the shack and hunkering down for shelter. Ford is trying to comfort Dipper by saying he made the right choice, but is slowly realizing that he knows nothing about how to actually raise a child. He was planning on just acting like a teacher, but the fact is he can't raise a child or give them everything they need and now he knows this. Now that he is literally forced to have people in his house he slowly but surely starts to respect Stan more for being able to put up with others and know what they want/need in order to exploit them. And that Stan had been working for 30 years to bring him back when the last thing he did was permanently scar him and get into a fistfight when he himself was only stopped from throwing everyone out to fend for themselves by Dipper. Character arc complete, Ford realizes that he really hasn't been a good person and that he literally drove his twin brother to make a DEAL WITH THE DEVIL to protect their grand nephew and niece from HIM. He makes a choice and they all start to plan. An epic battle happens, both sets of twins reunite, Stan and Ford both realize they were jerks and they promise to try to to better (not out loud, but inside, because they're both too stubborn to ever admit they were wrong. Their character arcs did a lot, but they aren't perfect enough to change their fundamental personalities). Yay, happily every after, and EVERYONE WE'RE ATTACHED TO LIVES
I really like the animation tho it's great and your story is wonderful
That’s a fun story, but unfortunately Stan has to die in this timeline. Or else what happens next can’t happen…
My boy paragraph breaks exist, I am struggling
That is amazing!!!
Yes, yes, yes! Another upload! It’s amazing! And I wholeheartedly agree with you. This song slaps!
Thank you!
*gets very happy over the upload and the mlp song*
*watches*
Well shite *sobs* why do ya gotta be so good at this
Angst is my specialty
Oh wow, there sure is a lot of dust in my room :`)
Darn *sniff* dust
Oh, look. I’m commenting again. Anyways, I have finished this video and recieved my dose of angst for today. The song also fits so well. Thank you for making this animatic which I call a masterpiece :D
I can't stop crying now! What have you done to me?! Why would you do this to me!? It hurts so much!
I hate you SO much, how dare you hurt my baby boys?! But, also, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS PHENOMENALLY BEAUTIFUL VIDEO. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT.
This flipping masterpiece has me crying
I cried 😭
wow.... the bush covering part of the words on Stan's grave is a great detail
Oof this made my eyes teary, ouch, this is beautiful.
[PART 1/3]
Oh, Caleb Hyles?? Cool!! :D (His male covers of songs can be pretty useful for videos about Stan and/or Ford - I'm currently using one of his older ones for one of the AMVs I have partially finished :)
0:12 Ford staring at Stan's glasses like Stan used to stare at his :(
0:21 Wait, is "How can I have sent you away?" referring to him saying he was going to kick Stan out, telling Stan to sail away, or doing nothing while he was kicked out? Maybe all three?? D:
1:01 This transition matches the music so well!!!
I like the silhouettes and the zooming on the images in this video, they make it more interesting and fun!!
1:17 I'm not sure if you did this intentionally, but the sun behind him looks like a halo, which makes him look like he's supposed to look saintly, which contrasts well to how Stan's going to join Bill who's a demon. Also, Gravity Falls (or rather, its forests, I guess?) being referred to as Ford's "kingdom" amuses me XD I mean, way to have a big ego, Ford!! XD
1:20 The silhouette use works really well here to make Ford's smile look somewhat creepy. Also, "so lovely and so well beloved as I" as we slowly move towards Bill watching Ford while he smiles obliviously works really nicely! Bill may pretend to think you're smart and think of you as a friend, Ford, but he's lying!!
1:36 Nice job hinting that, although Ford thinks the portal will bring him "glory", Bill's actually been manipulating him the whole time!!
1:51 "And grew only darker as days and nights passed" Nice job showing Stan's jealousy, and I like the zoom in on him, since we're focusing on him, and he's dark since he's in silhouette, and the zooming makes more of the screen darker because of his darkness! And now that I think about it, the previous scene, 1:44, is interesting too because the scene before that has Ford being manipulated by Bill shadowly in the background, and then in 1:44 it starts with him looking at Bill (who he now realizes was using him, since I think this scene takes place when he and Stan reunited the first time, as we'll see momentarily?), and it zooms out to show Stan (specifically, how he was dressed when he first came to the Mystery Shack), and it talks about Ford casting a shadow that "fell dark upon" Stan which makes me think of how Ford was so paranoid about Bill when he invited Stan over that he tried to get him to leave without telling him about Bill and then that kinda started their argument and then Ford fell through the portal and Stan had to spend 30 years to get him back. And then the shadow "grew only darker as days and nights passed" because after the thirty years Ford is still mad at him, probably even moreso for restarting the portal, and now he's also taking Dipper and Mabel's affection! (And planning to kick Stan out, though that isn't mentioned.)
1:57 Interesting transition here - Stan goes from being dark to light (he's not harboring dark feelings of jealousy, etc. now) and being featureless to having a face (kinda ironic since he's dead now, so he physically has less of a face than he used to). Also, his color and glow as a ghost fits with the "moon" theme (and in the song itself, "moon" fits thematically with "goodnight").
2:07 Uh, Ford, your brother's actually right there, so your lullaby doesn't need to be borne anywhere!! And also he's only resting "in moonlight's embrace" as much as you are. (I know he doesn't know Stan's right there, which feels... ironic? I guess? Is that the right word here??)
2:22 Ford manages to wipe his eyes through his glasses, something that would be impossible in our world. However, this is not our world!!! This is the amazing world of GF, a world in which glasses regularly accommodate our uninterrupted view of characters' eyebrows, so perhaps they can accommodate a sleeve as well!!! I mean, assuming it works by the glasses partially dematerializing, and not by going partially invisible??? And that it's not the *eyebrows* that are detaching to accommodate the glasses???! (...What does it say about me that I'm actually sitting here thinking about all this, lol)
2:29 Stan smiling here is really sweet :) As is Ford saying, "you're loved [present tense!!] so much more than you know". (Although it would've been even better for them to have had this discussion BEFORE STAN KILLED HIMSELF. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, we're not at that part yet.)
[PART 2/3]
2:35 Yeah, Ford was definitely blind about Bill (and the warning not to summon him!!), which, while it did more to wreck his relationship with Fiddleford than Stan, did contribute to their argument in the house, as I've mentioned. Also, the Bill bowtie zoom is a nice callback to the one at 1:09, which both happen when we're starting a verse!
2:58 Zooming in on his featureless face only to open these unexpected eyes is interesting!! (And matches the singing well!!) And they're yellow, which is the color of Bill, which we haven't seen so far in this video... we haven't even seen yellow in reference to the sun... definitely helps make this unexpected, aiding in its bit of scariness! Anyway, we zoomed in on Stan's head, containing his unhappy thoughts, which have now 'grown' and are turning him to the dark side!! (Or the yellow side, as the case may be?)
3:02 Finally getting to see Stan's face here (in the flashbacks, I mean)... oof. Interesting implication here that Stan regretted choosing to join Bill when the transformation started... I think the pages you posted described it hurting, but not that he regretted his decision (or at least, obviously appeared to do so), per se? So that's an interesting change. This shot where he's reaching out, in addition to being one of my favorite shots in this video, is also really reminding me of Ford's desperation when he had his arm outstretched after throwing Stan the journal and he was being engulfed by the portal. 3:06 also reminds me of the portal scene: Ford's just standing there while Stan's reaching out... which reminds me of when Stan had to just stand there when Ford was reaching out as he was sucked into the portal... but Ford is *choosing* to do nothing here... aah D: 3:07 This is my other favorite shot from this video. And then he gets engulfed by Bill's cloud of eyes, with his eye/s going last!! 3:12 And then Ford just stands there, looking troubled, WITH HIS EYES OBSCURED, right after the lyrics "takes hold of the mind of its host" have played, and he's the one who originally made a deal with Bill, and AAAH 3:14 and 3:15 - man, he literally had time (and ability, because as shown, unlike with Stan and the portal, he could've reached Stan!!) to grab Stan's hand and at least try to get him back!!! Maybe he wouldn't have been able to save him but he could've at least not let his brother get engulfed knowing he was doing NOTHING to try to stop it!!!!! Ugh, I want an explanation as to why Ford is DOING NOTHING. You had better have a good excuse like being under a spell or something, Ford!!!!!!!!!!
3:20 So, it would appear that Stan has joined the blue side, I guess. Which fits the sun/moon theme! (Interesting that he also ends up blue as a ghost - I wonder if that's a coincidence or not?) He doesn't look super happy. And then we zoom in on his eyes, which are now blue. Doing that with "[the destruction of one who had needed her] most" feels somewhat accusatory towards Ford, since Stan's eyes got engulfed last and Ford stood there doing NOTHING without his eyes visible.
3:30 So, it seems Ford's got a yellow lightsaber or whatnot, to fit the sun/moon theme... (interesting that in canon Bill's colors are yellow and blue, but yellow more primarily, and Bill influenced Ford before Stan, and Stan is going to repent, and Ford was being a jerk by, as I've mentioned multiple times now, NOT HELPING him earlier!!)
3:32 Sorry, Ford, I just really don't feel sorry for you. If your brother's gonna have to fight you for you not to ignore him, I don't know what to tell you. (Tbf, there's probably more context to the beginning of their fight than Stan transforming and then immediately attacking Ford - in fact, there must be, if Stan's gonna have tried to trap Ford in the basement for thirty years - but we aren't shown it here.)
3:35 Oh, NOW you're looking up a shielding spell?!! I mean, I'm glad you're going to try defending yourself instead of continuing to fight your brother. [Actually that isn't even what he's doing] I'm happy about that, I really am. BUT WHY COULD YOU NOT HAVE TRIED TO HELP STAN EARLIER!!!! I mean I doubt the shielding spell would have been a good option, probably, but he literally did NOTHING!!!!
3:48 It occurs to me that the blood on Ford's face here is the first time we see any color in this animatic besides blue and yellow (well, and black, grey, and white, but you know what I mean. Any primary color, I guess I mean.) Sadly, this won't be the last of the color red we're going to see :( Also, it's ironic that we're shown Ford bleeding on "coldness of night" when the previous words were "peace and". It's ironic that those words were played during a fight scene, too.
3:51 "sorrow" Oh man, Ford's talking about his own sorrow but Stan's the one in sorrow at having hurt him D: ...Which I presume is why he then kills himself (we're not to that yet though), and him dying is why *Ford's* sad... it's like a bit of Romeo and Juliet or something!! D: (But like, if Juliet didn't kill herself.)
3:55 Okay, so I guess they *did* have this discussion before Stan died... well, except not actually a discussion, because it seems like Ford didn't say anything and just hugged him.
3:59 "May troubles be far from your mind" well, that's pretty dark considering that Stan's going to kill himself very shortly... which I guess isn't necessarily because he thought Ford was dying, it could also be just that he felt guilty for hurting him at all?? (And probably for joining Bill. And possibly for trying to lock Ford in the basement for thirty years.)
4:07 "And forgive me" Again, Ford's saying this but it appears to be something Stan's thinking in this scene.
4:11 They kinda form a triangle here, while it says "blind", and they were both blinded by Bill... coincidence? Probably.
4:15 Stan, how the heck did you manage to stab yourself *while Ford was hugging you*?? Okay I guess if you're materializing your own sword you could just sort of materialize it going into yourself so it does more or less make sense :( Seriously though, if I was hugging someone who apparently was suicidal and they managed to kill themself WHILE I WAS HUGGING THEM I would flipping lose it. Like, sure Ford could, and maybe should, have said something to Stan in addition to hugging him, but I'm giving him a pass on that because a) he was injured, and b) hugging someone should normally give you some, at least brief, respite from them being able to kill themself!! I mean, unless they had a suicide pill hidden on their clothes or something, but that wasn't the case here!! And just, Stan, seriously WHY ARE YOU KILLING YOURSELF. And SERIOUSLY, WHY ARE YOU KILLING YOURSELF IN YOUR BROTHER'S ARMS. I mean, I can guess the answers to both of those - guilt and not wanting to die alone and etc. but STAN, your brother LOVES YOU and is FORGIVING YOU. You're hugging it out like you're supposed to, why are you ruining it!!!!!!! D: (Also, even though I knew he was going to die in this AU, it hadn't occurred to me that it would be suicide, even though he mentioned feeling suicidal in one of those pages you posted. I thought he was mostly talking about when he was homeless, though! I guess that was foreshadowing :( Man, I guess Ford (and maybe Dipper?? He was there for that speech, but he's a child so it's not really his responsibility to deal with an adult's mental health problems) should've taken that comment more seriously, but I guess with Stan dropping the rift and making a deal with Bill and everything they didn't get a good chance to have that discussion then? They could've had it later, though! Like, again, when Ford DID NOTHING!! Although that wasn't really enough time to have that discussion completely, but he could have said SOMETHING! ANYthing!!
4:20 It's not funny, Stan :( And is this a reference to how when he's getting erased in canon (which is very similar to dying) he, iirc, goes, "Heh, guess I was good for something after all"??? Thus hinting at him being possibly slightly suicidal in canon??? 'Cause that's sad :(
4:26 Well, they're both red... cue a metaphor about war just leading to death on both sides!
4:31 I guess it's sweet that Stan's trying to wipe his brother's eye (you know what would be even better, Stan??! NOT MAKING YOUR BROTHER CRY BECAUSE YOU JUST STABBED YOURSELF), but he's also gonna be getting blood on the side of his face, considering his hand was shown to have blood on it in the previous shot. Hey, at least Stan's able to touch Ford when he reaches out for him this time unlike last time when his own eyes both ended up getting covered one by one, and at least we can see Ford's eye/s now!! And Stan's eyes are also no longer blue, as we see before and after this.
[PART 3/3]
4:34 So huh, Stan's body is just disappearing because he had turned into a Henchmaniac or whatever? Did Bill get defeated?? Did I forget about Bill???With everything else going on, you bet I did!!
4:42 I feel sorry for Ford here. Although I'm kinda reminded of 3:07, which again, if you'd tried to help Stan then, Ford, maybe he wouldn't have killed himself later?? Or maybe he still would've if you couldn't save him in time. Idk, maybe he wouldn't have fought and hurt you and then killed himself. Idk.
4:48: "I never imagined I'd face them on my own" UM, EXCEPT WHEN YOU WERE SEEMINGLY PLANNING TO KICK STAN OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!! Also, let's parallel this shot to 3:10 for fun.
4:55: Having Ghost!Stan show up while Ford says "I'd face them on my own" is nice and ironic, and that and the blurring to focus on Stan works well with the layering (I think????) of the voices in the song.
4:58 Stan's glasses sitting there and then being picked up by Ford while he talks about "may these thousand winters swiftly pass, I pray" is reminding me, again, of Ford's glasses that Stan saved for 30 years, only for them not to get a happy ending :( (Stan and Ford, I mean - I assume the glasses were happily reunited with their owner, although Ford doesn't seem to be wearing them here so maybe not???)
5:09 "I love you" Should've told him that sooner :( And that you missed him during the 30 years would've helped too, if it had occurred to you to think or say that...
5:16 "all these miles away" No, he was just here! :( (Actually, wait, what did they bury??? Anything??? His blood that got spilled on the ground???!!) (Also, it occurs to me as I'm doing the editing pass that the current events of this animatic must be taking place long enough after the flashback scenes that they had time to get a headstone made (but not so much time that Dipper and Mabel have gone home yet).
5:20 Oh, okay, so here's a thought I think I had the first time I watched this, but hadn't written down: "Son" is partially obscured because he was only a "beloved son" to his mother, not both of his parents!!!! (Also, now I know what year you headcanon them being born, so that's interesting. I think '54 is the year I'm currently headcanoning until I get around to doing the finer details of the math.)
"Safe upon your bed of moonlight" He's blue, does that count?
5:44 The "Stand" coupled with Ford's expression amuses me a bit amidst all this sadness :)
"And know not of sadness, pain, or care" Well, I don't think he's looked *too* sad in his appearances as a ghost, iirc, and has even looked happy at least once, so maybe you got your wish? You being an alcoholic will probably make him worry if he's capable of it, though.
"And when I dream I'll fly away and meet you there" Wait, if he can go to his mindscape when he dreams... and Bill said Dipper's 'mental form would wander the mindscape forever' (or something, I don't have Journal 3 handy atm), is there a chance Ford could see Stan???!! Actually, shoot, why can't Stan show himself to Ford right now??! He's here, and the convenience store owners did it!! Is it because of his association with Bill???? Idk.
5:58 ...Wait, did Ghost!Stan just breathe???
6:06 YOU MADE MABEL SAD, STAN!!!! :( And didn't you snap because you found out about the apprenticeship offer, and the proposed separation of Dipper and Mabel????? Doesn't all that mean that Mabel might blame herself to some degree??? Or Dipper (especially as, at least in the original story, he doesn't do much to try to help or stop you)???? You were trying to keep Mabel from getting hurt but *you* hurt her by killing yourself, Stan!!! :( (Also, idk if Mabel's supposed to be wearing her nightshirt, but if it's night, then she should sleep, yeah. Although I guess that, judging from the next shot, it's still only evening? So sleep can wait.)
6:11 And Ford needs to eat. And I just fullscreened the video and spun my screen around so I could read that message :( Things aren't going to be okay, though, are they? Well, I guess to some degree. To whatever degree things can be after a death. Unless they find some way to save Stan, maybe with time travel or something. (If his body disappeared completely it'd be kind of hard to work with that.)
6:20 I'm guessing Stan wasn't the one who put that blanket on Ford?? Unless he has the ability to touch objects but not people. But if that were the case he should write Ford a note or something.
...Okay, that's it (aside from the last paragraph which I wrote already). Well that took longer than I was expecting (not much of a surprise there). TL;DR: I was mad at Ford for just standing there while Stan was being engulfed and reaching for him, and I'm mad/sad at Stan for killing himself :( (This was definitely interesting to watch and comment on!!) ...Alright, now it's time to see if TH-cam rejects this comment for being too long and I have to split it up! Which, given the "Comment" button is grey, looks to be the case. [And as it turns out, it was (but not because of the Comment button being grey - that went back to blue when I refreshed the page, but then wouldn't work when I clicked it). Anyway, splitting TH-cam comments is something I've only ever had to do probably about a handful of times, so congrats on inspiring me to write so much, I guess, lol] But first I'm going to do an editing pass of all of this (yippee), and then save the final backup copy, because you should always, always back up lengthy TH-cam comments before hitting "Comment", kids!! (Or write them somewhere other than the comment box in the first place and then copypaste them in, if you wanna be really safe.)
The description, let's see: Animatics are fun, and I really like the episodes, so I hope you do more of those!! Having the canon crew watch the videos makes for a really interesting framing device, and adds another layer to the narrative, as I've kind of mentioned before. A couple quick logistical suggestions: for videos about the Evil!Stan AU like this one, I'd put "Evil!Stan" (or something like that) in the title somewhere, like you were doing before, since it makes it easier for the viewers to tell if something is canon or the AU. So for a video like this it'd be something like "[Name of Song] - Gravity Falls Evil!Stan Animatic" or something like that. Oh, and actually for ones like this where you want the viewers to read the description before deciding whether to watch the video, I'd also add "(read description)" or "(read desc)" or something like that to the end of the title as well, since that's the most surefire way to make sure your viewers know to read the description before watching the video. I say this because I didn't see your note to read the description until after I'd watched the video, since I usually don't read the descriptions on these sorts of videos until afterwards. If you don't want to mention it in the title, you could try bolding (and maybe capitalizing) "Please read description!" so that people like me are more likely to notice it! Okay, I think that's it, aside from that maybe if you need to warn viewers about a video containing gore you might want to mention that sooner in the description, probably ideally with the word "Warning" in there somewhere (like "Warning: Gore" or "Gore Warning" or something). I mean it wasn't a problem for me, but there might be people who might need that warning and possibly might overlook/not get to your mention of it at the end of the description even if they do read the description first, since they might just think you're only warning for spoilers about your AU and stop reading the rest of it?? Idk. Oh, and I guess maybe it'd be good if there was a warning for suicide, except I don't know how you could do that without spoiling that part of the video if you want everyone to read the description??? Maybe make a list of Trigger Warnings at the end of the description that people can choose whether they want to read or not??? And then make sure people know it's there by mentioning it earlier in the description and/or bolding its title. Idk.
@@aligningducks5887 Your analysis was amazing as always! But, to even MY surprise, there were a few things you missed. Firstly, that black cloud wasn’t bill. It was, as I imagine, the physical representation of depression and mental illness. Inky, suffocating, sticky, all consuming, dark, heavy, always watching. Ford isn’t standing by and watching bill take over his mind because that simply didn’t happen. Bill didn’t possess or control him at all. He did everything he did as a henchmaniac of his own free will. His depression, fear, and desperation however did take the driver’s seat. He finally gave in, exhausted from fighting for so long, just needing it to end, in any way necessary.
And secondly, though guilt and sorrow did play a part in his suicide, he’d never emotionally hurt them that way for no reason. Let’s just say he never could uphold his end of a deal. And you can’t have a deal if one negotiator is dead. Being now part demon he couldn’t complete the zodiac. And so he resorted to drastic measures to mend his wrongdoings. Without the deal that it was built upon, weirdmaggedon couldn’t survive. So it faded away with him. But bill lived on to torment a new dimension, armed with new knowledge of his victims… and we both know which was next on his list. I’ve always thought it was odd bill never tried to manipulate stan, the most desperate and vulnerable of all of them. So I gave an explanation.
@@PlayersUnitedArt Oh okay, that all makes SO MUCH more sense XD
I guess I'm just used to eye symbols in GF meaning Bill (aside from the Blind Eye Society symbol, since that's just supposed to represent the eyes of the people who get their memories erased and forget what they saw, although even that's indirectly related to Bill in a way because Fiddleford started the cult after he quit his job after seeing Bill (he'd already built the memory gun before then, but if he hadn't quit I don't think he'd have had time to form the cult)). And also since Stan gets engulfed in this video (3:14) right before the scene where he transforms (3:17), I thought that was part of that, particularly since the engulfing scene with the eyes made me think 'oh, it's the transformation part from the story.' Okay, so thinking of the cloud as depression, let's see:
"pony who shone like the sun" "so lovely and so well beloved as I" "So great was her reign and so brilliant her glory that long was the shadow she cast" 1:47 "which fell dark upon the young sister she loved" 1:51 "and grew only darker as days and nights passed." Okay, so now I'm thinking about people saying Ford was smarter than Stan during their childhood and their father liking him better, partially leading to Stan being kicked out which is why he was homeless (1:47). And then he's jealous of Ford at 1:51 (he was probably jealous of him at earlier points of his life too, actually yeah he was definitely jealous of his research money when he was the age of 1:47), because now not only did Ford overshadow him when they were younger and get more of their father's approval (per that scene in Lost Legends at least where Stan says he wishes his father would look at him the way he looks at Ford (which just, OOF my heart D:)), but now he's overshadowing him to his current family members (Dipper, Mabel and even/perhaps esp. Soos (actually that's at 2:46).
[2:49 Huh, did I notice before that that's his fez, not his hair??]
2:48 "and neither had she loved her as she deserved, and she watched as her sister's unhappiness grew", "and that foolish pony did nothing to stop the destruction of one who had needed her most" - 3:02 depression engulfs Stan as Ford looks on unseeingly (3:06, 3:12 (his eyes aren't visible here!!)). So I guess basically Ford feels guilty that he didn't recognize that Stan was depressed and needed his help (or at least for him to just treat him nicely in general and not act angry at him because of him bringing him back). The whole engulfing/drowning scene is so much better this way than what I originally thought!! Because now I'm not looking at it like Ford's intentionally ignoring Stan needing his help, it's that he doesn't notice (or at least not enough - he does look a bit troubled in 3:12. Maybe a bit of guilt/sadness at the time at being on bad terms with Stan?). Which is partly his fault for being on bad terms with Stan, but also not entirely since you can't always tell when someone's depressed. So he shouldn't blame himself *entirely*. But aaaah, Stan wanting/trying to reach out for help but not being able to/able to get Ford (or anyone) to notice that he's drowning is just aaaaah D:
The explanation for why he killed himself makes sense, and this AU being why Bill never tried to make a deal with Stan in Dimension 46'/ is pretty interesting! (I tend to enjoy canon-multiverse-compliant GF AUs because it's fun and interesting to see how they end up fitting into the canon multiverse and how a satisfying story can be written that doesn't end in the (at least sorta) permanent defeat of the main villain from the show.)
*sobs*
This is very good! (Sad too :c)
I love this so much
Dang, this is amazing!
We know Stan gonna do this kind of sacrifice 💔 and allways hurt me more than everything 😭
CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 YOU MADE ME CRY IN LESS THEN 33 SECONDS!
oh my god so good
Thank you!
This for real made me cry 😭
Wow, it's so beautiful! )
Thanks!
Holyshit im legit sobbin over here, and thats not something a lot of videos can do. ive been in the brony fandom since i was little and this song was my childhood, and i cry every time i here it. AND HOLY CRAP THIS ANIMATIC IS HEARTBREAKING HALP. amazing work.
ps. i know that you said that your not a brony, but i would highly recommend watching the original animation if you havent already. the singing and even more so the animation and storytelling are beautiful
So awesome - and SAD!!! Love it!
Many had a darknes that the can't escape
This is amazing also I like the song animatics and the episode approach. So I think you should decide which one you like or is easier. 😊
YOU SHOULD TURN THIS AU INTO A COMIC 😩🤚
Lol, idk if I’d have the patience for that XD but who knows
How perfectly the song fits the story! Wow! How do u do this?
oomg amazing
I love this so much! But I’m a little confused. Did Stan commit su*cide? Did Bill briefly take over? Was it an accident?
Pov:you are bill
This made me cry. Good job 👏 I plan to gacha life music video based on this. Thanks to you.😊
So sad
Could you do a reaction with gravity falls reacting to this but can it be this au please
Shut up, this is too sad
What does it say on the part of the gravestone covered by the bush?
“In memory of Stanley Pines, 1955- 2012, beloved brother, son, and uncle”
Oh thanks
Is this evil Stan?
Yep
Где стиратель памяти...
Stanley and Ford was born in 1952 not 1955.
im craying like i never did somebody stop this! ಢ=ಢ
(ouch tears hurt)