Comment on Signs of a Life Well Lived

  1. FriendlyCybird Sun 23 Sep 2018 07:55AM UTC

    This is by far the most painful headcanon I have ever accepted, especially quite so willingly. ...and it shouldn't be that painful. Not really.

    I'm someone who believes that endings don't really exist. There's always something that will continue. A new chapter, a new experience, and sometimes, a new character. Because the thing that doesn't end is just stories. The characters in those stories are only people, after all. And People end. This is the best end Stan could have had. Literally facing death head-on, but not in the violent way that's typically implied. Peacefully, in his bed. With a bow of respect from death itself and drawing a conversation out of the most powerful force to exist. A people person to the end.

    Fords choice weighs on me. His choice to have Omen call the reaper, to greet his old friend instead of continuing alone. But then, he's already been alone for so long and his days of being alone are long over, lesson long since learned that it's better to be at his familys side. In some ways, his choice here is the ultimate fulfillmet of that lesson. Instead of assuming he was wrong, he makes the choice. To come to an end instead of continuing by using logic to force away pain.

    I've seen the AU where Stan has a pet Grim exactly once before, and I didn't understand the appeal until now. I mean, beyond the obvious "cute paranormal doggie!" That has near-universal appeal. ...but I can see it. Why the idea of the force of Stans personality, the sheer VOLUME of love he has to give, being enough to claim the loyalty of what should be an emotionless harbringer of death...it's beautiful.

    I saw the archive warning, and braced for this to hurt. And it did. Just...not as badly as I'd expected. Because it was just...right. This is the ending they deserve. And the story doesn't end. Dipper and Mabel are going to find out, they're going to grieve, and they're going to keep having adventures, and probably make little choices in honor of their grunkles that they wouldn't have otherwise.

    ...and it's all just...how it's suppose to go.

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    1. impish_nature Mon 24 Sep 2018 01:01PM UTC

      It hurts but in an inevitable way, I guess?
      Life and death happen. You're right that stories don't end. I read a passage once about immortality and it being the memories you leave behind and the people that continue to talk about you after you're gone, because that way you're never truly gone- it's always sat with me, that has.

      Mmm, Stan cheated death to the point where the reaper could do nothing but admire him. One last change to the dynamic, one last push against the worlds plan-its just the way Stan was.

      Ford's choice was... a strange one I guess. 'Wherever we go, we go together' rings through my mind. It was time for him too, being with Stan meant death was cheated of him as well- because Stan wouldn't have gone on without Ford, either? And it added him to the loop. But Ford was tired, and old- older than he ever expected to get. And really, in this AU- he'd met death many a time, this just meant that he got to choose how he went as well.
      I think of it a bit like the deathly hallows if I'm honest- welcoming and accepting. Time goes on, and it really was the end of their story.

      !!! Yes thats it. Its the thought that Stan could charm a grim. That he didn't see the difference and just saw a stray- a little thing that needed help and saw himself there. I just loved the thought of Stan amassing this group of supernatural beings - a banshee, a grim, all willing to keep him safe through hell and high water because he didn't see them as the terrible monsters everyone else saw. They weren't monsters- its like shooting the messenger. He treated them as they once might have been. And he was none the wiser cause in his mind he was just treating creatures/people with respect and kindness- things he hadn't received in a very long time.
      ...I love this au, you may have gathered XD

      Yes! The twins will grieve, of course they will, but they will go on. Life will go forward and they will continue to live and love and laugh and all the while hope that the pair are keeping an eye on them, wonder what they would have done - and maybe laugh together on whether that would have been a good idea or not. They will reminisce and talk about the good times because you need to. You need to keep the people you love and lose in your mind as they were. How they really were.
      And really thats all we can ask for- the signs of a live well lived, is what you leave behind.

      ..I gushed back, I hope thats OK <3

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