I used to think that A Tale of Two Stans was a good episode. But after watching a 4-hour video analizing it frame by frame, I think it's a masterpiece.
Wanted to provide some relevant quotes from the creator Alex Hirsch: “Even though Stan looks like he's having a good time, I always in my gut thought of him as somebody who is a huge well of sadness, a loss of human connection. And that need to please, that trying to get laughs from the crowd and constantly telling dumb jokes, putting on a big show in the Mystery Shack, He's trying to get from them the affection that he never got from his family, and lost from his brother” “Stan's entire character from the very beginning of the series was built around this idea that he's living with this tragedy. He's a guy who, outwardly seems like he doesn't appreciate family, but infact wants it more than anything in the world. He feels like maybe he's not worthy of it, and will do anything to prove that he is.” (I believe both these quotes are from the Gravity Falls DVD commentaries, but someone correct me if I’m wrong.)
7:16 Stan's boat in episode 2 Legend of the Gobblewonker was named Stan'O War2😢 And now you understand why he was so affected by the ''death'' of Wax Stan It's like he had a twin again When he first saw it he was freaked out too In Carpet Diem you can also see him being sad about Ford's glasses
there was a lot of clues that Stan had a twin brother. First there was the wax Stan episode (1x3) when Stan is startled at seeing his wax doppelgänger, and is unusually upset when wax Stan “died”. Then in time travel episode (1x9) when Dipper and Mabel run past the mystery shack in the past and we catch a glimpse of a supposedly young Stan, this becomes clear after this episode that it was actually Ford. and then in the body swapping episode (1x16) , when they discover the room, Stan picks up a pair of glasses (Ford’s), and seems oddly focused on them for the rest of the episode. Then in Dreamscaperers, we see the swing set in Stan’s mind, but one swing is broken, and a brief image of the real Ford appears on Bill’s body when Gideon mentions Stanford Pines. Also in several episodes, we see the license plate on Stan’s car is STNLYMBL (Stanley Mobile) despite the audience being introduced to Stan as Stanford.
this episode was funny but sad at the same time, Stanley & Stanford always had each other's backs until they split. plus Stan being mad at Ford was justified even after what he's been through over the 10 years but Ford has been doing just fine
I have to stick up for Stanley here, he didn't intentionally ruin Stanford's life, it was an accident and he tried to explain himself but Stanford wouldn't let him. Besides that, Stanford saw a bag of toffee peanuts and immediately assumed Stanley had ruined his project intentionally (which is an awful thing to assume in the first place) THEN when his father kicked Stan out he just let him and what's even worse, he doesn't contact him for TEN YEARS as Stanley said. And he only contacts him to ask him to do something for him. Ford is the asshole in that situation and making Stanley homeless is not a measured reaction to what happened. The book of bill gives us more insight into his mental state and he admits in the 'lost journal 3 pages' that he was wrong but he couldn't admit that to himself and definitely didn't want to have to admit it to Stanley. It was a misunderstanding and they can both be stubborn and abrasive, but I don't want people to go around thinking Ford is some kind of saint. He's an insecure narcissist (and I say this out of love for his character).
I’m too dumb for this comment section but the pines family was so well written! the way that they see eachother in there grunckles . I hope you’re ready for weridmagiggon!
"you ruined his life" i mean, not really... stanford got 12 phd's, enormous grant and his researches, while stan was in his dead ends, started surviving as A TEEN on the streets.
Right! Ford didn’t get what he wanted and sure that’s an awful turn of events, but he was FINE! He still excelled and got so much of what he wanted! Stan lived out of his car, didn’t graduate hs, and couldn’t even get a haircut or a convenient shower they break my heart
Basically it didn't really matter, cause Ford's a genius and would figure out another way of achieving big things. I know he was really disappointed on Stanley for doing what he did and that could develop a trust issue, but bro, Stan was abandoned for 10 YEARS, he got way more punished than what he deserved
26:15 ‘for what?’ Idk, probably for wasting 30 YEARS learning quantum science, physics, he faked his own death and worked EVERY SINGLE DAY to bring him back only to be punched in the face. No he’s not perfect, but he did NOT ruin Ford’s life. He still was majorly successful even without his dream school while Stanley was forced to grift and even SELL HIS BODY (mentioned in The Book of Bill) to survive. Me personally I think he deserves a thank you. Don’t get me wrong tho he did make mistakes, this just personally stood out to me, loved the reaction
EXACTLY and his only mistake was accidentally breaking Ford's machine, which honestly should've been sturdier if slamming your fist down on the table close to it is enough to break it.
@@fearoffancy5743 and also apparently was not replicable since he didn't ever go back to completely solving the energy problem by breaking thermodynamic laws - so like every other "perpetual motion machine" it probably actually wasn't one after all.
Yeah, if you watch the show a second time, there are all these slight hints and nods toward this revelation, like the glasses they found in the room with the body-swap rug.
The amount of shit we now know Stan went through due to the Book of Bill coming out really adds a quite a lot more sadness to this episode. This has to be one of my favourite episodes
Considering Stanford basically got to do what he wanted to do I mostly felt annoyed he didn't let it go. I mean Stanley was too possessive or something and he should have apologized for that, but for me what was done to him was worse than what he did to his brother. (Lazy Susan is maybe more a person Stanley owes an apology to. Her eye thing happened at the Mystery Shack and he ducked out of their date in a pretty rude way. Also the people he gave rashes to.)
This episode has my favorite Cipher of the series: A stubborn tough New Jersey native Fillbrick wasn’t too creative Having twins was not his plan So he shrugged and named them both Stan I don’t know why this is my favorite one, it’s always just tickled my brain.
After reading Journal 3, I definitely have some different opinions about Ford and this episode, I hope y'all can find a way to do a video on the books!
And this is why Stan always knew that Gideon is a scammer and not a real medium because he always called him Stanford when his real name is Stanley. Also in the episode where we are in Stan's head we can see two broken swings (the same swings they were using as a kids in a flashback) also in one memory during Stan's first boxing lesson we can see his brother on the audience reading a book. This show have so many amazing details-you need to watch it at least two times ❤ " A stubborn tough New Jersey native, Filbrick wasn't too creative. Having twins was not his plan. So he just shrugged and named both Stan."
Some little facts revealed from this episode (so they're not spoilers :P) 1. The Pines family is Jewish, or at the very least, the Stan twins and their parents are. If you look at the scene where Stan is being kicked out, there's a Mezuzah by the door. There's a very interesting discussion to be had about this being where the revelation takes place, as it's at the exact same moment that Stan's "greed" over the series becomes retroactively justified, thus somewhat deconstructing the "money-hungry jew" stereotype that could be applied to Stan's character if this were confirmed before this. (Of course, it's a discussion, because there are some other factors to take into account, and I'm not Jewish, but the creator, Alex Hirsch, is, and I don't think he would do something like that on purpose lol) 2. Stanley and Stanford can either be fraternal twins or an incredibly rare case of identical twins. It is possible for one twin to have a birth defect and the other not to, but like I said, incredibly rare-- polydactyly can be a mutation rather than a genetic thing. Not to mention that only one of them has a cleft chin, which is also pretty rare for twins iirc! 3. McGucket's home is modeled after Steve Job's. They thought it would be really funny, but it would also hammer home McGucket's lost potential. 4. $15 is equivalent to nearly $50 today. So, "I spent $15 for this?" is a very valid point. 5. There's a deleted clip supposedly from this episode-- it's nothing special, just Ford and Stan adjusting their glasses at the same time while standing next to each other to show off their resemblance. If nothing else, it's very cute. 6. This episode created a giant divide in the fandom-- those who sided with Stan and those who sided with Ford. Many people sided with Stan, and this spawned many theories about what kind of role Ford was supposed to play in the rest of the season-- a villain or just a foil? I won't say anything, but know that if you go back to 2015 tumblr, you will find some crazy predictions and theories and alternate universes based on this very question. It's super fun to reach this point in the series and have these very questions because this twist throws a wrench in everything-- what story is this show going to tell now? 7. They did Not have everything planned from the very beginning. Alex is very open about how he knew only three things-- Stan has a twin brother, his brother is somewhere else, and Stan is desperately trying to bring him back. It's FASCINATING to see how this story comes together despite that! 8. In this episode, Ford reveals his improvisational skills! This will be important for next episode-- iykyk.
29:19 in ths episode Carpet Diem, when they discover the room with the electron carpet, Stan remarks that he's "never seen this room before," yet he grabs a pair of glasses from a table in said room & is later seen affectionately cleaning them.
Ford threw the book at Stan, screamed “Help! Do something!” and then got angry that Stan tried to do just that. Ford says Stan ruined his life but at least Ford got to finish high school. Stan was made homeless as a teenager. No wonder Stan became obsessed with making money.
@@skywatcher8893 To be fairer; Stan had no way of knowing that and Ford never told him. The last thing Ford did was throw Journal 1 at Stan while screaming for help. Stan did what Ford asked. Also, I love Ford but he wrote his Journals in a very frustrating way for anyone reading them in universe (but a very fun way for us reading them). Yes, he was paranoid near the end of writing Journal 3. However, he left the pages on how to summon Bill Cipher in Journal 2 unedited while putting the warning in another book. Warnings and the ways to deal with a lot of the creatures in the Journals were either written in codes or invisible ink. That includes the warnings about the portal! Even if you want to blame all that on Ford’s lack of sleep and paranoia, he always wrote things in a frustrating way. ‘When fighting a Gremloblin use water’ Dipper turns the page ‘only as a last restore as water will make him much, much scarier!’ Book of Bill spoilers . . . Ford does miss Bill. But his aim is getting better!
The crazy thing about this is I still don't know what was Ford's end game with giving Stan the journal initially, like, he's going to die eventually like what is he meant to do with that
@@Gumptiousfishtap oh I mean the end game with he research given to Stan, at some point Stan is going to die and if he doesn't want the books destroyed then what.... Happens to it... When Stan just isn't able to adventure anymore or dies
@@softly3359he was planning on killing bill. in TBOB ford says he tried to burn the journals but couldn't bring himself to destroy his life's work, and instead put everything he had into attempting to destroy bill. quite: "He may be a god, but I am a scientist!" his endgame plan was to defeat bill, dig up his journals from their hiding places, and publish his findings and become famous.
