AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
So what represents the culmination of his character arc? After all, reductively thinking of him as Ford’s shadow would only represent most people’s (and his own self-) perception of Stan in the first (admittedly long) part of his character arc. So, this interpretation is a little more likely to me, and I headcanon that Bill’s nickname for Stan would be something like “Shadow,” because it’s not only thematically appropriate, it’s snide and hurtful.īut this still doesn’t seem like it’d be an appropriate symbol for Stan’s character. Stan, with his long-standing self-esteem and self-worth issues, saw himself as just “part of a dynamic duo,” essentially Ford’s shadow, not capable of accomplishing anything on his own. Now what does it look like? A bit like the portal casting a shadow? Who lived (figuratively and literally) in the shadow of the portal for 30 years? Yeah. Notice the symbol in canon art is always represented with these proportions. I personally don’t think this is it, though. If you’re a subscriber to the Same Coin theory, this interpretation might work for that. Mystery, Stan wore an eyepatch (and so had just one eye visible). It’s a cool interpretation, considering how important the idea of the “beast with just one eye” was, and the fact that, as Mr. The least likely theory is that the symbol has something to do with Stan’s character being connected to Bill’s in some way. Looking at the symbol, there could be a few different interpretations, so I’ll present the three most interesting ones I came up with, in order of what I think is the likelihood it’s the real meaning of the symbol.įirst, another look at the symbol as it appears on the fez: So I think it’s more likely this is just a superficial meaning for Stan’s symbol. Alex’s old DeviantArt account is reportedly holymackerel, so it’s possible it’s just something he thought was funny and that’s that.īut, we all know how much Alex loves to misdirect people – almost as much as he likes to have multiple layers of mysteries and meaning in GF. The clearest direct mention of the symbol is in Journal 3, when Ford writes that Stan’s fez is from Filbrick’s membership in the “Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel.” It’s totally possible this is all there is to it, it’s a funny fish symbol. So, ultimately, thinking about what Bill’s nickname for Stan might be sort of helps clarify what Stan’s symbol might mean vis-à-vis his character. Their nicknames are based on what the symbol IS, and the symbols (at least roughly?) represent who they are as characters. Fic authors usually get around this by having Bill call Stan “Fez,” which makes sense given that’s where his symbol is and it’s a pretty distinctive element of his appearance.īut Bill doesn’t call Dipper “ballcap,” or Mabel “sweater,” or Soos “t-shirt,” even though that’s where their symbols are found. One of the things that I’ve always hoped would get an explanation from Alex (but possibly never will?) is the meaning behind the symbol on Stan’s fez/the Cipher Wheel.įirst, a bit of a tangent, but I hope a productive one: in GF fanfic, a common issue when Bill and Stan appear together in a fic is that we never canonically heard Bill’s nickname for Stan (assuming he would have given Stan one, which, given Bill’s character, seems like a safe bet). First of all, thanks to for listening to my ramblings and giving some feedback about this a few days ago and to for talking about Alex’s Q&A, which reminded me to write it up and post it.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |