Ok but wait. You know that compass from potc that Jack Sparrow carried around? The one that points to what the holder wants most in the world?
Imagine Ford finds a compass like that in Gravity Falls. At first he thinks it’s junk, because it doesn’t point north, but a closer look at the thing reveals it has magical properties. After a bit of investigation, Ford is fascinated to find it points towards whatever he wants most.
Except the compass doesn’t point towards any of the things Ford would have expected himself to want. Curious and thrilled to discover there’s some mystery thing he apparently wants more than anything, Ford sets off to follow the compass to whatever it keeps pointing to.
And eventually realizes he needs to get a car for the trip, because whatever his deepest desire is is quite far away, out of Gravity Falls. (How intriguing! How unexpected! Ford would have thought everything he wanted was in this anomaly hotspot he’d found.)
He follows the compass for days, making notes in his journal about it. The compass doesn’t always point in the same direction, like whatever it is Ford wants moves around. But eventually, it narrows in on a location: a rather seedy-looking casino that Ford would never step foot in otherwise.
But in he goes. His eyes are glued to the compass, so he doesn’t notice a man stepping in his way until he hears a shocked, quiet, “Stanford?”
Ford looks up and locks eyes with the twin brother he hasn’t seen in years. Stan is staring at him wildly, muttering to himself about whether or not Ford is a hallucination and he’s high. Something to come back to, perhaps. Ford isn’t inclined to deal with his brother right now, he’s so close to whatever the compass says he wants—which is apparently on the other side of Stan.
“Excuse me,” he says bluntly, stepping around Stan and looking down at his compass again.
Except now it’s pointing behind him?
Ford turns around and skirts past Stan again. The compass whirls to point behind him. Huffing, he moves around Stan yet again, but this time Stan shuffles away from him to the side.
…And the compass follows.
As realization dawns on him, Ford makes a circle around his brother, who’s watching him with concern and nerves. No matter which way he goes, the compass always points back the same way.
It’s Stan. The compass is telling him that what he wants most in this world is the brother who betrayed him. (The brother he’s missed.)
Ford doesn’t want to believe it. He thought he was finally happy. He had the degrees he wanted, the research job he wanted, and a whole forest full of strange and wonderful anomalies to study, but apparently the thing he wants the most deep down is to reunite with his brother?
He’s not sure he’s ready to forgive Stan. But he’s not sure he’s still quite as angry with him anymore. Perhaps that anger was really just a cover for the hurt he felt and the ache of missing his twin. He doesn’t really want to think about it; has been pushing those feelings down for years.
But the compass points to Stan. No matter what, it points to Stan. And now Ford has to confront all the hurt and emotions he’s been pushing away since that night. And Stan is still looking at him as if he doesn’t believe Ford is real. What a mess.
