hi! i’m Billie 👋 i like to lurk around here and i’m not too confident so if you ever want to chat just say hi i’ll be so happy
admin stuff: over 18, they/he/she (just shout any name or pronoun and i’ll probably answer) please be nice!
special interest: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (talk to me about this anytime it’s constantly spinning in the brain microwave.
other interests: Sherlock Holmes, TMBG, The Mighty Boosh, The Goes Wrong Show, reading, being outside, notebooks, dnd, taskmaster/lots of panel shows, dropout (especially loving vip rn), minecraft
going to try to use #befuddled posting for any of my own posts
growing up with a psychologist for a mother was so funny because my sister and i would be like “mo-om why do we have to go to bed now” and she would respond with a long explanation of the research on the effects of sleep on the brain and body followed by another explanation on permissive vs. authoritarian vs. authoritative parenting styles, with citations
this was actually really good in some instances though because i started having insomnia and intrusive thoughts very young and when little me was like “mom i don’t like the thoughts in my head but i can’t make them go away and i can’t sleep” she replied with “oh honey. active thought suppression never works. in fact, wegner et al. (1987) tested this when they told a bunch of people to talk about whatever they wanted, and they told half of them to try not to think about a white bear. people thought more about the white bear when they were trying not to think about it! but when they told the people to think about a red car whenever thoughts of the white bear came to mind, the people had a much easier time not thinking about the white bear. so you see, you can’t force the thoughts out of your mind. you just have to let them pass through, and pick something else that you want to focus on”
and so ever since i was a very little kid i knew how to deal with intrusive thoughts, I’ve had them my whole life but never developed ocd or senses of shame about them cause my mom did her phd on thought suppression and she knows what’s up
does anyone know where i can watch the episode of pointless celebrities with Sandra Dickinson and David Dixon? can’t find it anywhere but i really want to watch it
when I was 20 I was bored in class and my phone was dead so I wrote down a bunch of theoretical shitposts in a notebook. I don't think I ever posted this one, and it's pure gold
[ID: handwritten notes on lined paper. they read: most 20 year olds go through like an emo phase or a taylor swift phase or a the office phase or something. not me tho. I'm going through a 50 year old sci-fi novel phase. because I was built different. and by different I of course mean. autistic. end ID]
I have a question, I've read all of the h2g2(guia do mochileiro das galáxias) books and like It just as much as you, but now seing the fandom I don't get why people ship Ford and Arthur. They just seen to have a confunsing friendship.
Obs1: love your drawings, would be realy cool If you made one of Tricia or of that incident with thor
Obs2: Sorry for the bad English, not my Native language🇧🇷
OH MY GOSH THANK YOU!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK IM RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY! I LOVE THIS SORT OF THING SO MUCH! I really hope this is ok. I can do another one if you’d like.
Alright now to the good bit. I am very very excited to discuss this with you! I’m going to put it under the cut because this rant is very long.
Here is why I personally ship Ford and Arthur:
• Ford, out of everyone he met on Earth, chose to save Arthur from the Vogons. He was up all night trying to plan his escape, he didn’t have a whole lot of time, so he had to make a quick decision on who to bring. Ford could’ve brought a girl, he could’ve brought a celebrity, he could’ve gone alone. Instead he chose the most basic 30 year old British man. This establishes that he legitimately cares for Arthur in some way or another and it kicks off our story by telling us that they are going to be our two main protagonists throughout the series.
• Ford forgives Arthur for a lot of things he’d never forgive anyone else for. Like nearly getting them killed by asking the computer to make him tea. Or calling the indigenous people on Prehistoric Earth “cavemen” which he actually just yelled at the Golgafrinchans for doing. Or throwing the Hitchhiker’s Guide into a river.
• During the prehistoric Earth bit at the end of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, they travel prehistoric earth together for six months where they not only raft across the seas but they also cross the fjords of the Netherlands together. During these six months they only talked to each other. Also in this part of the book, Douglas Adams specifically emphasizes that it is a recreation of Adam and Eve but with Ford and Arthur. Arthur even points out that it looks a lot like Garden of Eden. He also makes it really clear that Ford is having so much fun exploring the world with Arthur that he stops checking the devices that allow him to know if there are any spaceships nearby. Which is crazy because Ford spent 15 years checking them every single night.
• Ford always comes back for Arthur. Always. They go years without speaking and he always finds Arthur and saves him right when Arthur needs him. Or how in Mostly Harmless Ford should have no idea where Arthur is, but when he mails the new guide we learn that he actually has Arthur’s home address for the perfectly normal sandwich planet (cannot remember the name rn so sorry) memorized. Like. Doesn’t even need to look it up. Which implies that Ford has still been keeping tabs on Arthur all these years later.
• Ford’s biggest emotional crash out occurred immediately after Arthur almost got killed during the incident with Thor. For trying to “save” Trillian from a situation she actually was quite happy to be in. For trying to win over her almost at the expense of himself and openly refusing to go along with Ford for the first time. He chose her over Ford and Ford immediately has a meltdown when they get on the ship.
• In the radio show Ford and Arthur spend an additional two years on prehistoric earth and they spend the entire time living together in a cave getting drunk together off of homemade wine 24/7.
• There’s something inherently gay about two men rafting around the ocean together.
• When Arthur is being particularly autistic and taking things too literally or prioritizing unnecessary things, Ford has an absurd amount of patience for him. I’m not sure if it’s the same in the translated books, but the scene where Ford says “We don’t stand a whelk’s chance in a supernova” and Arthur gets extremely hung up on the wording of the expression rather than the point Ford was trying to make and it takes Ford like… a page and a half of this to finally give up. Or when Arthur returned the ashes to Lord’s and then wants to play cricket and so Ford sits down on the pitch and lets Arthur have fun in very much the same way my boyfriend sits down on a bench and watches me run around a playground.
• Ford, throughout the entire series never has a real love interest. But in Mostly Harmless Ford pays Elvis an insane amount of money to sing Love Me Tender. Douglas Adams goes out of his way to say that Ford and Arthur are the only ones there at the bar. Arthur sort of dismisses it and then Ford cries.
• Ford leaves Arthur in the cave on prehistoric earth then immediately goes crazy without Arthur’s company. When Arthur leaves him to settle down on Krikkit and then Earth, Ford goes to a bunch of really dangerous bars trying to get himself killed by scamming them. Like maybe not consciously, but he’s stupid and reckless about his own safety when he doesn’t have Arthur with him.
• Ford’s got three biological polyamorous moms that make him biologically related to Zaphod. He comes from a planet where homosexual and polyamorous relationships were normal. At least in women.
• If we’re completely honest, it’s more canon for Ford to have a one-sided crush on Arthur than it is for them to actually date. But. Also. Arthur almost always goes with him.
• They’d be really cute together. Like. Really cute. Autism x AuDHD. Ford pushes Arthur out of his comfort zone and Arthur keeps Ford from getting himself killed.
• Fenchurch shares a lot of Ford’s personality traits. She’s eccentric, AuDHD coded, whimsical, intelligent, she’s the only other character that makes Arthur laugh, she’s restless and bored by what Earth has to offer. Ever since he left Earth the first time, Arthur had been a wanting to settle down in one place. She changes his mind because she pushes him out of his comfort zone too. The reason they were such a good couple is the same reason Arthur and Ford keep putting up with each other.
Idk. They just have so much potential as a couple. It’s alright if you don’t agree but I just love how weird they are about each other. If you have any questions or want to discuss this further please please please let me know I love talking about them so much!
