#or at least whatever scheme Stan is pulling is funny to watch

[bittersweet-jack-of-no-trades]

Stanley is an absolute asshole and that's one of my favorite parts about him. Like yeah we can talk about his hidden heart of gold and whatnot, how he subtly shows his care for the kids and for his brother, but, like. He's still an asshole.

He has beef with multiple children! (Gideon and Pacifica, at the very least). And he has a reason--- defending his family--- but it's still beef with children! He regularly scams travelers out large amounts of money! He doesn't pay his employees! He insults people to their face! Even if he's doing it out of projection love, he still gives Dipper the short end of the stick, like, all the time. He opens a potentially world-ending portal just to get back his brother--- that's an asshole thing to do!

And this isn't a critique of Stan at all. But his churlish asshole nature is a beautiful part of him that makes him a really fun character. Being a good character doesn't = being a nice character. I'd even argue him becoming nicer isn't--- shouldn't be--- a requirement for his character development post canon. This is a guy who's yelling at other boaters over the radio. This is a guy who undoes your boat's drain plug 'cause you insulted his brother. Stan's a rude, penny-pinching curmudgeon that his family insists is nice deep down because he is--- to them. He don't give a shit about anyone else!

Let Stan be mean, dammit. He deserves it.

[serpenteve]

The soc book fandom is much bigger than the sab one but in the grander scheme of things, neither of them hold a candle to the actual show's fandom now and even less to what it will become, from what I see on social media platforms, Tumblr but especially the bigger ones like twitter and Instagram, in terms of ships so far, darklina seems to be winning, there was even a hilarious tweet from an soc fan with like 1k likes about how they're bitter the books got made into a movie bc they knew darklina would be the biggest ship and it happened and they said we'll pay for it or something... 🤣 🤣. The soc books were/are popular but compared to big book franchises they're very very small, obviously a show on Netflix is gonna have much more exposure and so far darklina seems to be very beloved by the stans and the locals but also very hated which is quite funny and reminds me of reylo on a smaller scale, where we're busy making content and the rest of the people are holding pitchforks wanting to burn is a the altar for simply existing. My favorite thing about all of this besides the fact that we get do much great stuff and fanfiction will be our lord and savior after whatever shit they pull in S2 bc I've already read multiple with a better magic system, better characterization than lb could even muster in her lifetime, it's the fact that I am crossing my fingers that they got a review about the most popular things and it is again darklina and Aleksander if twitter/Tumblr/insta/imdb/YouTube are to go by, idk about tiktok that site is a hellscape full of the dumbest takes to ever manifest out of mankind so I do not venture there, anyway my point is, imagining lb fuming over this fact brings me some small measure of relief and satisfaction.And if these things were not based on books where we knew the ending and I've seen a lot of people unwilling to watch bc they know darklina will not be endgame, and if we weren't sliding towards a repeat of the 19th century where people but this time women are trying to tell us what to enjoy lest it corrupt our minds and we become whores (ie if this was the TVD/twilight era) the fandom would be at least twice as big and we could've been able to bully them by sheer size into a darklina endgame but more importantly a darkling redemption bc it's what he deserves.

I'm so dumb that hadn't really even thought about how many new fans would be joining from the Netflix show! I kind of assumed the only people who would be watching would be all the original trilogy fans and SoC fans and that maybe the show would spark some interest from people who've never heard of the books but that it would only be marginal ☠️

But judging solely on AO3, the number of fics for Darklina has shot through the roof. Like, I think prior to the show, we had maybe like 300 fics? And that was from the entirely of 2012-2020 and now it's surpassed 700 new fics in since the show's release 😂

The Darklina thirst is real 👀

I actually don't expect them to change the show's ending, but considering how the majority of the trilogy fandom was already fueled by a mountainous foundation of spite, tears, and rage after that garbage ending, it can really only mean MORE Darklina fics and content 🙇🏽‍♀️

[faithful-grigori]

”#sometimes character development is a mean guy becoming nicer, #but me personally I make all my pookie princesses (old men) even ruder than they were to start, #Ford Mabel and Dipper are also absolutely enablers, #Because whenever Stan is being rude they assume the 'victim' deserves it, #or at least whatever scheme Stan is pulling is funny to watch, #Ford especially is not. the nicest guy either. let's be real., #trauma paranoia and pretty much fighting a 30-yr war will do that to a guy”

Stanley is an absolute asshole and that's one of my favorite parts about him. Like yeah we can talk about his hidden heart of gold and whatnot, how he subtly shows his care for the kids and for his brother, but, like. He's still an asshole.

He has beef with multiple children! (Gideon and Pacifica, at the very least). And he has a reason--- defending his family--- but it's still beef with children! He regularly scams travelers out large amounts of money! He doesn't pay his employees! He insults people to their face! Even if he's doing it out of projection love, he still gives Dipper the short end of the stick, like, all the time. He opens a potentially world-ending portal just to get back his brother--- that's an asshole thing to do!

And this isn't a critique of Stan at all. But his churlish asshole nature is a beautiful part of him that makes him a really fun character. Being a good character doesn't = being a nice character. I'd even argue him becoming nicer isn't--- shouldn't be--- a requirement for his character development post canon. This is a guy who's yelling at other boaters over the radio. This is a guy who undoes your boat's drain plug 'cause you insulted his brother. Stan's a rude, penny-pinching curmudgeon that his family insists is nice deep down because he is--- to them. He don't give a shit about anyone else!

Let Stan be mean, dammit. He deserves it.