He, I Say—I Cannot Say, I. That Child Of Hell Had Nothing Human; Nothing Lived In Him But Fear And

***Vaguely Implied J&H spoilers***

->

Rather quaint

***Spoilers proper under cut***

I thought I'd made a post about this before but I can't find it on the old blog so maybe it never made it out of my brain?? Anyway Jekyll is so very normal about Utterson.

The repetition of "good" in the Ch 3 quote reads to me either as a genuine strong reaction to how loyal and willing Utterson's comment is about his certainty he can help. Akin to a "you're too good to me" type comment. But it also kind of comes off, as repetition often does, as the speaker convincing themselves of something or refusing to hear otherwise. That's not to say Jekyll doesn't believe Utterson is Good Tm; I think he probably does to an excessive degree, to the point of seeing him as a model of restraint, reliability, trustworthiness... A way of thinking that makes Utterson's dodgy, deceitful behaviour in Ch 2 all the more unsettling.

There's a sense of that fear of how people actually act behind your back, yet the weird desire to see it too, to be sure; Jekyll gets to see Utterson for the first time without Utterson knowing it's him, and Utterson stalks him and lies to his face. That wouldn't be dealt well with by anyone. It's especially wouldn't be dealt well with by a man who is notably just the worst at dealing with multiplicity. It's Utterson's deceit that is the final straw, because it's not only a personal betrayal but a threat to who Jekyll envsions Utterson to be, and thus what he represents.

In that state, the reminder of Utterson's Goodness, the attempt to continue upholding him as Oh So Good and slide anything counter to that off to the side - it's very comforting.

It’s very late so I’m a bit delirious, but I feel like both the musical, and just ignoring details in Jekyll and Hyde have really dumbed down just how HIGH society Dr Jekyll is. He literally has an account at COUTTS (a detail which I didn’t notice until many re-reads lowk), but also the fact that he was friends with Utterson and shared him as a lawyer with a member of parliament…like! Not to mention his calculated worth and then kinda basic, but Enfield knows of him without knowing him personally despite utterson being besties w Jekyll which is also a bit crazy…

Idk I fink too many adaptations js say “respectable” and leave it at that w out saying just how much so…

The two types of Humanity majors:

-

Either way both their science major friends died

*in a confession booth* i enjoy making jekyll a pretty boy so i can watch him ruin his life and cry and scream and whither and be beautiful while doing it. i enjoy giving him features i find very attractive and distorting them whenever he transfers into hyde.

i enjoy his outer beauty meaning nothing in the face of the ugliness inside himself

this is such an unserious take for me to post but like. stan did not teach himself all sorts of super-advanced experimental physics to rebuild the portal.

stan had the portal that was already complete and functional but broken. and repaired it enough to turn it back on. which he did by following the instructions in the journals. like. cmon man. no, stan is not an epic supergenius who without any instruction, education, or outside help built an entire interdimensional portal from scratch. like. why would he even need the journals if the "stan single handedly taught himself how to build a portal" take was true. cmon man be fr

Dr Jekyll voice hey sorry for roping you into my horrors those were meant for my eyes and my eyes only

The Death of Mr. Jekyll

Like a fine wine, I devour the poison, A lusty, sweet dance with the devil inside. No longer can I Hyde the voices within, They beckon like sirens to darkness, a beautiful song. Endless heartache leaves me nothing to gain, Until all that's left is blood on these sinner's hands. My death is imminent, I fear the beast within, I must shed this skin, this mask, like a diamond under pressure, To reveal my truest self, in all its glory. Goodbye, my former self, you will not be missed, Jekyll.

*Inspired by The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Copyright Notice: © 2024 Peyton Coonfield. All rights reserved. Creative Commons License Notice: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I've been feeling particularly feral today so I'm going to go on a rant about the symbolism of the cane in Jekyll and Hyde.

Walking sticks like this during this time period would only have been owned by rich, respectable gentlemen. For this reason, it is symbolic of this idealistic, perfect man that Jekyll wants to be.

Hyde likely has it with him to keep some form of connection to the other part of him. Jekyll is struggling with his identity at this point and is torn between the two. He would choose his original persona if he had to decide (as he is relieved to do when he can no longer go out as Hyde) and wants to make sure he doesn't lose hold of it. The stick is probably his way of ensuring he is tied to it and it remains a part of him.

However, this cane becomes the murder weapon used to kill Carew. The symbol for the upstanding gentleman kills him, an interesting link to how it is Jekyll (if only a part of him) that carries out his murder. This act breaks the cane, just as it breaks that image of who Jekyll wants to be. As much as he tries to be perfect, he isn't. He cannot be good while also being capable of murdering someone for no good reason. This also represents him being taken over by the evil of Hyde and foreshadows the eventual loss of the better part of himself.

I also find it very interesting that the cane is split into two, just as Jekyll himself is. This cane is both a symbol of respectability and a murder weapon. It is broken into two parts. Jekyll is both a respectable gentleman and a murderer. He has two personas. The cane represents the duality within himself and reflects his two natures.

This is probably useless and boring to anyone other than me. I just really enjoy some good symbolism and analysis and very rarely get a chance to go into detail with these things.

What's your stance on Ford as a person? Honestly, I believe that for thr majority of canon he is a bad person. But I believe he grew. Still not great though XD

(Love him anyways obvs)

I disagree entirely! I think he's equally as good a person as any of the other main cast.*

*Except Mabel, who, as we all know, is always right about everything.**

(**This is a lighthearted joke. For the love of god, I don't want Mabel discourse in my inbox.)

His biggest sins in the show:

After telling his brother that he was thinking about changing their shared life plans, and then discovering that his brother had gone to the high school that night for no good reason and gone to the science fair for no good reason and messed around near Ford's science project for no good reason and broke it and didn't tell Ford about it... Ford believed Stan did it intentionally and held a grudge for it. You know what, it WOULD be pretty damn hard to believe it was an accident.

Hilariously ill-equipped to cope with Fiddleford's mental health. A guy who responds to "I have anxiety" with "have you tried yoga, it helps me" isn't a bad person, he's clueless. "Character cheerfully enacts a bad idea while a loved one in the background goes NO PLEASE DON'T DO THAT" describes half the episodes of Gravity Falls.

Was successfully manipulated by a professional manipulator into believing his best friend wished him ill. Man, what a terrible person Ford is for being manipulated by a manipulator and saying cruel things to somebody he'd been genuinely convinced was trying to harm him.

??? Didn't say thanks to a guy he was still mad at after the guy fixed a problem he himself had caused. This is a solitary example of stubborn bad etiquette, jesus christ. There's half a dozen different reasons why it makes perfect sense Ford wasn't in the right mindset to feel grateful, this is not something worth indicting his entire character over.

He had high ambitions, which everyone seems to lambast him for, but high ambitions that wouldn't have required doing anybody harm! (Until the professional manipulator started manipulating him into harming the people around him, but we are going to demonstrate some reading comprehension and not blame Ford's underlying morality as a person for things he never would've done if not for Bill's bullying, con artistry, and outright lies.) Like, what is it that he wanted to do with his life? Use his talents to get rich and famous? Shit, that's exactly what Stan wanted to do with his life. It's what Dipper fantasizes about doing with his life. Even Mabel, who thinks about her long-term future the least, dreams big with her art & performances and is already making big money off cheap-ass commissions. What terrible people they all are, for—let me check my notes here—uhhh... unrealistically fantasizing about achieving success in life by doing the things they're good at.

When their dad accuses Stan of lying as a child, Ford puts his entire summer on the line to defend Stan even though he knows Stan is a habitual liar and has no reason to believe Stan is telling the truth this time.

When his new college roommate he barely even knows gets laughed at for proposing an outlandish scientific theory, his first emotion is outrage at this injustice and he drops everything to convince his already-despondent roommate that he was right and help him prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

When he moves to a new town, he tries again and again to befriend his new neighbors, and fails not because he's rude or a jerk, but because he's awkward as hell, tells terrible jokes, and sucks at identifying phoenixes.

When Fiddleford gets hurt around him, he cares about it, feels guilty about putting him in that position, doesn't want it to happen again, and tries his best to help even though he's bad at helping.

When he gets kidnapped by a weird holiday folklore creature, he concludes without even thinking about it that he's now in charge of protecting and rescuing the kidnapped kids. Yeah, then he immediately starts hollering at the folklore creature for trying to impose his religious beliefs on Ford and the kids—but like, Ford was right tho, he just had bad timing.

When he discovers that the Northwest family committed atrocities against their poorer neighbors a century ago, his first instinct is to march up to their house, find the first Northwest he can locate, and give them a piece of his mind for it. Like, this won't even FIX anything. He's just THAT OUTRAGED over the injustice.

When he sees what he thinks is a fortune telling fraud conning the people, he attempts to debunk her because he's mad to see someone cheating other people with lies—and when he can't debunk her, he just leaves her alone rather than harass her about it. Typically, if assholes think somebody's doing something wrong but don't have any proof of it and fail to get proof when they look, they decide they're right anyway and keep giving that person shit. Ford doesn't give her shit. That's the opposite of an asshole move.

When he discovers his Portal To Knowledge (And Fame & Fortune) is actually a Portal To Doom (But Still Possibly Fame & Fortune, Maybe Even Godly Power), he isn't tempted for a second to keep working on it anyway. There is no moment where Bill manages to tempt him. No matter what Bill offers, no matter how long Bill offers, never, at ANY point, does Ford have a SECOND of "but what if I did make a deal with the devil?" the way so many heroes in similar situations often do.

You ever notice that? So often moral moments in the show are presented as choices the characters make. Will or won't Dipper give Bill a "puppet" in exchange for knowledge. Will or won't Stan fight a pterodactyl to protect Mabel's pig. Will or won't Mabel hand Bipper the journal. Ford is never given a "will or won't he" moment over Bill's threats, offers of friendship, or offers of infinite power—he steamrolls straight past them without a second of consideration—because, to him, the selfish, cowardly, easy choice ISN'T EVEN AN OPTION. He doesn't even SEE it as making a choice because the possibility of doing the wrong thing is invisible. A character who wavers first before turning Bill down would look more noble for "overcoming" temptation—it's harder to notice just how much stronger Ford's moral compass must be to not even feel temptation in the first place.

Greed and pride never tempt him to join Bill's side. Exhaustion, despair, and fear never tempt him to give up. He bears up under weeks, possibly months of extreme sleep deprivation, physical torture, psychological torture, emotional torture, threats of death, threats of brainwashing, threats to his family. He doesn't hold up so that he can pat himself on the back for being a hero—if that was all it was he would've gone "screw it, this isn't worth it and nobody would know I'm the one who gave up" a week in—he does it because he simply knows it must be done and because he's so isolated (half because of Bill's influence!) that he believes he's the one who must do it, all alone.

Thinking he has to do it by himself isn't egotism or pride; it's helplessness. He thinks no one else stands a chance. He thinks he's alone.

And, when he discovers his Portal To Knowledge is a Portal To Doom, he immediately feels guilty. No trying to deny the situation to protect his ego. No shuffling the blame off to someone else. No "maybe the apocalypse could have a silver lining!" No locking the door and trying to ignore the problem. He blames himself for being fooled—he IMMEDIATELY takes full responsibility for his actions—and he CONTINUES to take responsibility FOR THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS.

He takes more responsibility than is even warranted—he treats himself like he's an idiot for believing in an APPARENT GOD who's been practicing manipulating humans for thousands of years and who had never given Ford reason to believe the portal was anything but what Bill said it was. He beats himself up to no end every single time his past with Bill comes up. He even keeps beating himself up thirty years later when he's shoving warning notes to future readers in Bill's evil unkillable book!

When he falls into the multiverse, he dedicates his entire life NOT to finding a way to rescue himself, but to finding a way to permanently stop the CHAOS GOD who's still at the threshold of destroying Ford's world and countless others. He makes himself a hated criminal in the process, just to stop Bill. He's ready to spend the rest of his life trying to protect a world he doesn't think he'll ever see again. He does it because, as he sees it, somebody has to stand in between the children and the obnoxious folklore cryptid menacing them, and he's the only adult in this damn cave with the skills and knowledge for the job.

When he gets home, he doesn't tell his family about Bill and his quest because he's afraid that doing so will get them involved and endanger them too—and because he's too deeply ashamed of himself and his mistakes to stand the thought of his family knowing about the horrible things he's done (AGAIN, WHILE BEING MANIPULATED BY THE GOD OF MANIPULATION).

He loves his great-niece and great-nephew the second he lays eyes on them; he nevertheless tries to steer away from them to keep them safe from Bill; and yet he caves to the very first temptation to emotionally bond with his great-nephew he gets, because in spite of his noble "keep them safe" intentions, he wants so so badly to be close to his family.

As pissed as he still is at Stan and even though neither of them can look at each other without hissing like cats, he still makes an attempt to start bridging their divide by inviting him to play DD&MD.

When the apocalypse happens, he immediately puts his life on the line to try to kill Bill.

And when he's captured, isn't fazed for a second by Bill's offers or threats... until his family is threatened. The exact thing he'd been trying to avoid & prevent from the very start.

And when he's reunited with Fiddleford, his immediate reaction is to point out that Fiddleford's well within his rights to hate him—which isn't a new revelation, it's not like Ford had to do any soul-searching to reach this conclusion, he'd concluded that 30 years ago the instant he realized Bill had played him and that he'd been lied to about Fiddleford.

And then he tries to kill Bill again.

And then he's ready to sacrifice his own life to kill Bill—and the only reason he doesn't is because he has a metal plate preventing him from making the sacrifice... but, Stan doesn't have a plate. If Ford hadn't had the metal plate, he would have gladly done the exact same thing Stan did—and he would have thought it was right for him and only him to make that sacrifice, because it's VERY clear he feels (and has felt from the start) that this is all his fault and he's obligated to fix it.

Over and over and over, these are Ford's two defining character traits: getting so pissed off at injustice that his common sense shuts off and he goes into terminator mode until he's righted this wrong as best he can, even when he can't actually do anything about it; and feeling like he's Atlas, weighed down with the full responsibility of fixing everything he's done wrong and made to believe that, for everyone else's sake, he has to do it all alone. Even when doing so puts himself in harm's way, even when he has to put his entire life on hold for it, even if it might cost him his life. Scrape off his awkward social skills, his loneliness, his nerdiness, his endless curiosity, his zealous love of the strange, his starry ambitions, his yearning for recognition and success—scrape his personality down to the bone and that's what you're left with. A man who believes in defending the exploited so strongly that it makes him a little stupid.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that you probably don't think Stan's fundamentally a bad person, and that you probably think that isn't even worth questioning. Stan's made a whole career out of swindling people, conning them out of as much money as he possibly can, stealing, lying, committing a long list of goofily-named crimes, and attempting douchy pick-up artistry on women; and to cap it all off, he held the safety of the entire universe hostage to demand a goddamn "thank you." Don't send me any "But he had reasons—" "But it was only to—" I don't need it, I don't want the essay, I'm not arguing that Stan's a bad guy, it's fine.

But. You can look at Stan's moments of cruelty and unkindness, his uncharitable thoughts, his character flaws, and think, "that doesn't define him. He's more than his cruelest moments and worst mistakes. He's imperfect, but he cares so much and his heart's in the right place, and beneath all the flaws his core is good."

And if you can't do the same for Ford, it's not because he's a worse person. It's because we got two seasons with Stan and five and a half episodes with Ford—and while we saw Stan yearning to fish with the kids or encouraging Mabel to whoop Pacifica's butt at minigolf or crying over a black and white period drama or punching zombies to save his family, we only saw Ford at the worst moments in his life and under the stress of a prolonged apocalyptic crisis—and, it so happens, all the moments he was pissed at the guy we spent two seasons learning to love.

Ford's got moments of cruelty and unkindness, uncharitable thoughts, and character flaws. But, at his core, he's a good person, and he always has been, and he still is.

hey guys i’m here to introduce my dishevelled and crazy wives