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** As kids, this is even [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience reflected in the color of their shoes]].
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* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler: A Tale of Two Stans shows how he went from a cheerful and optimistic kid to a disillusioned wreck]].
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* BitchInSheepsClothing: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, [[SubvertedTrope his motives are quickly made clear]].]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
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* EvilAllAlong: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, [[SubvertedTrope his motives are quickly made clear]].]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
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* EvilAllAlong: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, [[SubvertedTrope his motives are quickly made clear]].]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
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* HeroAntagonist: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, his motives are quickly made clear.]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
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* UsedToBeASweetKid: Growing up, he wasn't much of a troublemaker. However, [[spoiler:getting disowned by his family]] forced him to become a criminal just to survive, resulting in the bitter old man that he is today.
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* UsedToBeASweetKid: Growing up, As a kid, he wasn't much of a troublemaker.was nice and cheerful. However, [[spoiler:getting disowned by his family]] forced him to become a criminal just to survive, resulting in the bitter old man that he is today.
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* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:In their childhood, Stan and his brother Stanford were each other's OnlyFriend and did everything together. Because of an accident and their father throwing Stan out for costing their family a fortune and Stanford his dream school, their relationship was strained. Over 10 years later, Stanford called Stan to Gravity Falls. It wasn't to reconcile, but to ask him to hide the last of his journals and he still blames him for ruining his chances, despite Stanford managing to still gain a [=Ph.D.=] and a large amount of money. Their fight landed Stanford in another dimension that Stan has been trying to free him from 30 years, only to receive no thanks and a demand that Stanford get his life back at the end of the Summer. As shown near the end of "A Tale of Two Stans", it seems the two want to reconcile (particularly Stan), but are too bitter over how their lives have gone, and Stanford being trapped in another dimension, have made this near impossible. Dipper seems to have hope they can repair this]].
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* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:In their childhood, Stan and his brother Stanford were each other's OnlyFriend and did everything together. Because of an accident and their father throwing Stan out for costing their family a fortune and Stanford his dream school, their relationship was strained. Over 10 years later, Stanford called Stan to Gravity Falls. It wasn't to reconcile, but to ask him to hide the last of his journals and he still blames him for ruining his chances, despite Stanford managing to still gain a [=Ph.D.=] and a large amount of money. Their fight landed Stanford in another dimension that Stan has been trying to free him from 30 years, only to receive no thanks and a demand that Stanford get his life back at the end of the Summer. As shown near the end of "A Tale of Two Stans", it seems the two want to reconcile (particularly Stan), but are too bitter over how their lives have gone, and Stanford being trapped in another dimension, have made this near impossible. Dipper seems to have hope Luckily, they can eventually manage to repair this]].
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but in season 2, [[spoiler: after it's revealed the Author is his brother]], it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but is AmbiguouslyEvil, in season 2, [[spoiler: after it's revealed the Author is his brother]], it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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** In "Weirdmageddon Part 3: Take Back The Falls", [[spoiler:he, a selfish con man, has saved dozens of humans and monsters that aren't family. And we all know about his HeroicSacrifice.]]
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** In "Weirdmageddon Part 3: Take Back The Falls", [[spoiler:he, a selfish con man, has saved dozens of humans and monsters that aren't family. And we all know about then there's his HeroicSacrifice.]]
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has an [[spoiler: identical twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has an [[spoiler: identical twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] is in significantly better shape[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
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** In the end, [[spoiler: he gives the hat to Soos]] and replaces it with a different hat.
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* ArtEvolution: His head is differently shaped in Season 2.
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It needed a little more context.
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* SadClown: Stan certainly admired the portrait of the sad clown, and he's quite the funny guy. [[spoiler: It's not a coincidence: he's actually emotionally burdened for decades after he overheared his principal ''literally'' refer to him as a clown as he spoke with BrutalHonesty about Stan's bleak future—the moment where Stan's entire life crumbled. It's made more evident during Stan's spontaneous response during a ''certain'' [[TrollingCreator juggling clown]]'s act on the TV in "Bottomless Pit!"]]
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* SadClown: Stan certainly admired the portrait of the sad clown, and he's quite the funny guy. [[spoiler: It's not a coincidence: he's actually emotionally burdened for decades after he overheared his principal ''literally'' refer to him as a clown as he spoke with BrutalHonesty about Stan's bleak future—the moment where Stan's entire life crumbled. It's made more evident during Stan's when Stan makes a spontaneous dour response about life during a ''certain'' [[TrollingCreator juggling clown]]'s act on the TV in "Bottomless Pit!"]]
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That word looked out of place..
Changed line(s) 217 (click to see context) from:
* SadClown: Stan certainly admired the portrait of the sad clown, and he's quite the funny guy. [[spoiler: It's not a coincidence: he's actually emotionally burdened for decades after ''literally'' overhearing his principal refer to him as a clown as he spoke with BrutalHonesty about Stan's future—the moment where Stan's entire life crumbled. It's made more evident during Stan's spontaneous response during a ''certain'' [[TrollingCreator juggling clown]]'s act on the TV in "Bottomless Pit!"]]
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* SadClown: Stan certainly admired the portrait of the sad clown, and he's quite the funny guy. [[spoiler: It's not a coincidence: he's actually emotionally burdened for decades after he overheared his principal ''literally'' overhearing his principal refer to him as a clown as he spoke with BrutalHonesty about Stan's bleak future—the moment where Stan's entire life crumbled. It's made more evident during Stan's spontaneous response during a ''certain'' [[TrollingCreator juggling clown]]'s act on the TV in "Bottomless Pit!"]]
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I've been holding back on adding this for a while!
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* SadClown: Stan certainly admired the portrait of the sad clown, and he's quite the funny guy. [[spoiler: It's not a coincidence: he's actually emotionally burdened for decades after ''literally'' overhearing his principal refer to him as a clown as he spoke with BrutalHonesty about Stan's future—the moment where Stan's entire life crumbled. It's made more evident during Stan's spontaneous response during a ''certain'' [[TrollingCreator juggling clown]]'s act on the TV in "Bottomless Pit!"]]
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* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly and Stanford as well as their brother Shermie (Mabel and Dipper's grandfather).
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* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly Stanley and Stanford as well as their brother Shermie (Mabel and Dipper's grandfather).
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* ComicalOverreacting: Ties into cloudcuckoolander - he's known to frequently engage in LargeHam actions, and he apparently considers having a mullet to be [[FauxHorrific incredibly horrifying]].
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* ComicalOverreacting: Ties into cloudcuckoolander {{Cloudcuckoolander}} - he's known to frequently engage in LargeHam actions, and he apparently considers having a mullet to be [[FauxHorrific incredibly horrifying]].
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* DarkIsNotEvil: He wears an all-black suit, and while he may be a crook, he's one of the good guys.
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* DarkIsNotEvil: He wears an all-black suit, and while he may be a crook, he's one of the good guys.guys and is ultimately responsible for [[spoiler:Ford's return and the defeat of Bill.]]
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* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly and Standford as well as their brother Shermie(Mabel and Dipper's grandfather)
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* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly and Standford Stanford as well as their brother Shermie(Mabel Shermie (Mabel and Dipper's grandfather)grandfather).
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Stan and Ford are identical twins, not fraternal twins.
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a [[spoiler: fraternal twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a an [[spoiler: fraternal identical twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
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* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in time.
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* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in time.the process.
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Never mind; only applies to villains.
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* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in the process.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Stan certainly deserves his HappyEnding and has [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned]] it, but he has gotten away with conning people for their money and risking the destruction of the entire universe to save his brother, as well as having not apologized for both of those wrongdoings (though Ford has called him out on the latter).]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Stan certainly deserves his HappyEnding and has [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned]] it, but he has gotten away with conning people for their money and risking the destruction of the entire universe to save his brother, as well as having not apologized for both of those wrongdoings (though Ford has called him out on the latter).]]
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* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in the process.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Stan certainly deserves his HappyEnding and has [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned]] it, but he has gotten away with conning people for their money and risking the destruction of the entire universe to save his brother, as well as having not apologized for both of those wrongdoings (though Ford has called him out on the latter).]]time.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Stan certainly deserves his HappyEnding and has [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned]] it, but he has gotten away with conning people for their money and risking the destruction of the entire universe to save his brother, as well as having not apologized for both of those wrongdoings (though Ford has called him out on the latter).]]
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Minor edit for the character index!
Changed line(s) 1,3 (click to see context) from:
![[center:'''[[Characters/GravityFalls Index]]''': [[Characters/GravityFallsMysteryShack The Mystery Shack]] ([[Characters/GravityFallsDipperPines Dipper Pines]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] | '''Grunkle Stan''') | [[Characters/GravityFallsMysteryShackTheAuthor The Author]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsMainAntagonists Main Antagonists]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsBillCipher Bill Cipher]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsAdults Adults of Gravity Falls]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsYouth Youth of Gravity Falls]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsCreaturesAndOtherOddities Creatures and other Oddities]]]]
!!"Grunkle" Stan Pines
!!"Grunkle" Stan Pines
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* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Stan certainly deserves his HappyEnding and has [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned]] it, but he has gotten away with conning people for their money and risking the destruction of the entire universe to save his brother, as well as having not apologized for both of those wrongdoings (though Ford has called him out on the latter).]]
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* ShootTheShaggyDog: If Dipper and Ford actually managed to seal the rift which directly prevents Bill from unleashing Weirdmageddon, Stanley would have surely suffered this fate. Basically, the entire reason he worked for 30 years in the Shack is that he hoped that he could bring back his brother from the other dimension, after he accidentally sent him to it following a fight. He hoped to make up with his brother after all he had done. What he gets instead is Ford greeting him with a punch and outright refusing to forgive, thank or even reconcile with him, completely ignoring the fact that he wasted 30 years just to save him. Instead Stan is demanded to relinquish ownership of his identity and house and abandon the whole Mystery Shack forever. As a result, everything Stanley had done felt like a complete waste of his time and he disowns his brother in the process. Weirdmageddon helps subverts this by having Stan finally reconcile with his brother, the very thing that he strived to do in the first place and go out into the sea with Ford as his childhood dream.
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* ShootTheShaggyDog: If [[spoiler:If Dipper and Ford actually managed to seal the rift which directly prevents Bill from unleashing Weirdmageddon, Stanley would have surely suffered this fate. Basically, the entire reason he worked for 30 years in the Shack is that he hoped that he could bring back his brother from the other dimension, after he accidentally sent him to it following a fight. He hoped to make up with his brother after all he had done. What he gets instead is Ford greeting him with a punch and outright refusing to forgive, thank or even reconcile with him, completely ignoring the fact that he wasted 30 years just to save him. Instead Stan is demanded to relinquish ownership of his identity and house and abandon the whole Mystery Shack forever. As a result, everything Stanley had done felt like a complete waste of his time and he disowns his brother in the process. Weirdmageddon helps subverts this by having Stan finally reconcile with his brother, the very thing that he strived to do in the first place and go out into the sea with Ford as his childhood dream.]]
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Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering. [[spoiler:In the finale he stops thinking like this as when Ford is prepared to help Bill conquer the rest of the universe just for a chance to save Dipper and Mabel, ''Stan'' convinces him to try another way.]]
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* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering. [[spoiler:In the finale he stops thinking like this as when Ford is prepared to help let Bill conquer know how to break the rest of the universe barrier around Gravity Falls just for a chance to save Dipper and Mabel, ''Stan'' convinces him to try another way.]]
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** In "Weirdmageddon Part 3: Take Back The Falls", [[spoiler:he, a selfish con man, has saved dozens of humans and monsters that aren't family. And we all know about his HeroicSacrifice.]]
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Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering. [[spoiler:In the finale he stops thinking like this when Ford is prepared to help Bill conquer the rest of the universe just for a chance to save Dipper and Mabel, ''Stan'' convinces him to try another way.]]
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* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering. [[spoiler:In the finale he stops thinking like this as when Ford is prepared to help Bill conquer the rest of the universe just for a chance to save Dipper and Mabel, ''Stan'' convinces him to try another way.]]
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* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering.
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* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering. [[spoiler:In the finale he stops thinking like this when Ford is prepared to help Bill conquer the rest of the universe just for a chance to save Dipper and Mabel, ''Stan'' convinces him to try another way.]]
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* ConMan: Not only does Stan fool tourists with the fake attractions at the Mystery Shack, but he also has a long record of financial crimes. [[spoiler: However it comes in handy in the finale when he manages to out-con ''Bill'']]
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* ConMan: Not only does Stan fool tourists with the fake attractions at the Mystery Shack, but he also has a long record of financial crimes. [[spoiler: However it comes in handy in the finale when he manages to out-con ''Bill'']]''Bill''.]]
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but in season 2 [[spoiler: after its revealed the Author is his brother]], it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but in season 2 2, [[spoiler: after its it's revealed the Author is his brother]], it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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Changed line(s) 140 (click to see context) from:
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but in season 2 [[spoiler: after its revealed the Author is his brother]] it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, but in season 2 [[spoiler: after its revealed the Author is his brother]] brother]], it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and their protection.
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Changed line(s) 140 (click to see context) from:
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, deep down he truly does care about his niece and nephew.
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, deep down he truly does care about but in season 2 [[spoiler: after its revealed the Author is his niece brother]] it turns out that everything he has done was really for his family, for their safety, their love, and nephew.their protection.
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* BookDumb: Academically miles behind [[spoiler:his brother]], [[spoiler:considered useless by his father]], no college education…still a brilliant scammer who can wring money out of anyone [[spoiler:and managed to fix the portal on his own]]. [[spoiler:In the finale, this trope ends up working to his advantage, because he literally had nothing Bill wants, which is what made his mind the perfect vessel to defeat Bill in]].
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* BookDumb: Academically miles behind [[spoiler:his brother]], [[spoiler:considered useless by his father]], no college education…still education…still a brilliant scammer who can wring money out of anyone [[spoiler:and managed to fix the portal on his own]]. [[spoiler:In the finale, this trope ends up working to his advantage, because he literally had nothing Bill wants, which is what made his mind the perfect vessel to defeat Bill in]].
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![[center:'''[[Characters/GravityFalls Index]]''': [[Characters/GravityFallsMysteryShack The Mystery Shack]] ([[Characters/GravityFallsDipperPines Dipper Pines]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] | '''Grunkle Stan''') | [[Characters/GravityFallsMysteryShackTheAuthor The Author]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsMainAntagonists Main Antagonists]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsBillCipher Bill Cipher]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsAdults Adults of Gravity Falls]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsYouth Youth of Gravity Falls]] | [[Characters/GravityFallsCreaturesAndOtherOddities Creatures and other Oddities]]]]
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a [[spoiler: fraternal twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a [[spoiler: fraternal twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.Shack.
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[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sounds like something a responsible parent wouldn't want you doing... Good thing I'm an uncle!"'']]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/AlexHirsch\\\
''"When life gives you lemons, you call them 'yellow oranges' and sell them for double the price."''
Stan Pines, also known as Great-Uncle Stan and Grunkle Stan, is Mabel and Dipper's sly great-uncle. He runs The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap full of questionable oddities. When he's giving tours or asleep on the couch, Dipper and Mabel sneak out to explore the town’s secrets.
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* AbusiveParents: About the worst thing you can say is that he occasionally overworks the twins and frequently mocks Dipper (partly because he feels the need to toughen him up and make him capable of fighting his own battles, but mostly because child labor has low overhead). But he still shows them a lot of affection, even if he is cheap. However, come "A Tale of Two Stans", and in hindsight there's something deeply unsettling about Stanley basing his treatment of Dipper off how his father treated him (most likely down to him misinterpreting Filbrick's abuse as simply trying to toughen him up).
* {{Adorkable}}: Surprisingly at times. Particular examples include his overeager attempts to make friends in "Legend of the Gobblewonker", and shyly attempting to flirt with Lazy Susan in "Dipper vs. Manliness".
* AdultsAreUseless: Subverted. When he's first introduced he's set up as your classic useless comedic cartoon adult who seems [[WeirdnessCensor practically blind]] to all the Weirdness going on in Gravity Falls. Later on, he would prove himself a lot more shrewd that you'd expect when dealing with Gideon, and even assist the kids on a few adventures like in "Boys Crazy" or "A Land before Swine"(where he ends up kicking major ass). In season 2, it's all revealed to be [[spoiler: an act he put up to discourage the kids from investigating the supernatural for their own safety, in part because of [[GoMadFromTheRevelation what happened to his brother]]. Turns out he knew all along, has his own share of dangerous secrets, and is generally more of a complex multidimensional character than you'd ever have expected from him.]]
* AgentScully: He adamantly doesn't believe that there is anything weird going on in Gravity Falls, telling Dipper that it's all drummed up by guys like him to sell merchandise to gullible tourists. Despite this he is willing to accept the existence of living dinosaurs, with the caveat of insisting that they "don't count" as supernatural because they're just big lizards. [[spoiler:However, this is just a ruse to hide his knowledge of the journals and all of the oddities related to it.]] As of the start of season 2, [[spoiler:he's dropped the ruse and admitted to the twins that he knows about the supernatural things going on. But he still hasn't told them about his secret room or his ultimate plans, although in "Not What He Seems", the twins discover the room on their own and Stan begins to confide in them.]]
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Was a victim of bullying in his youth, which, along with his father's mistreatment, contributed to the insecurities he carries to this day.
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: It does not help that one of the cryptograms in the show's ''opening'' reads "[[spoiler:STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS.]]" It only gets even more ambiguous in "Gideon Rises", where [[spoiler:his underground lab, equipped with a large portal generator,]] is finally shown. "Scary-oke" implies he's using it to search for something, and feels confident that he won't "get caught", implying questionable safety/legality at best (which is standard for Stan) or outright villainy at worst. "Society of the Blind Eye" leans towards the former in a WellIntentionedExtremist kind of way, as both a symbol substitution cipher in the Journals and [=McGucket's=] video logs reveal [[spoiler:the Author of the Journals believed that the portal could benefit all of mankind]], while Stan acknowledges that [[spoiler:[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the risks of activating the portal]]]] mean little to him in light of the possible rewards for doing so--specifically, [[spoiler:seeing his brother again.]] Taken UpToEleven in (the admittedly non-canon) "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" -- he apparently [[spoiler:drugs a customer and put him on display in the shack because he didn't buy anything]].
* AmbiguouslyJewish: Like the rest of the family. Creator/AlexHirsch originally stated that [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/547218052178145280 the Pines family is not canonically Jewish]], but after being questioned about Journal 3 stating that Stan had a Bar Mitzvah, he [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/758547032554344448 suggested that Stan was raised Jewish and became an atheist later in life]].
* AntiHero: He may be a greedy jerk and con artist, but he does have a soft spot in his heart for the twins.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: In "Bottomless Pit!" Grunkle Stan still states that everyone's stories are far-fetched, even though he is falling through a bottomless pit even as he speaks, and even ''lived through'' one of the stories. [[spoiler:In "Scaryoke", it's made clear that this is an act, and he's very much aware of the strange goings-on around Gravity Falls.]]
* AttentionWhore: As seen in "Headhunters". The below quote is also the page quote
-->'''Grunkle Stan''': But enough about me. Behold, me!
** Also, in "Boss Mabel" when he's on Cash Wheel. In fact, he got on the show by using his "old man powers" to fake a heart attack.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Spent thirty years working to bring his brother Ford back from the portal, which Stan himself accidentally knocked him into during a fight.]]
* BadassNormal: He's just a normal guy with no special powers or cool tech, but he still punches pterodactyls in the face and kills zombies by punching them with brass knuckles.
* TheBarnum: Most of his revenue seems to come from swindling rubes in really obvious ways.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: In an epic moment of his career as a shyster [[spoiler:he gives [[DealWithTheDevil Bill Cipher]] a lousy deal of his own]].
** Very literal when he defeats Probabilitor in "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons".
* BerserkButton:
** "Irrational Treasure" shows that he ''really'' doesn't like Pioneer Day.
** Also he doesn't like being questioned about the tattoo on his back that he keeps denying, and will go nuts if someone tries to uncover it and video record it. [[spoiler: It's revealed it's actually from a burn on his back that he got in a fight with his brother, ending in his brother being sent into another dimension, which goes a long way towards explaining why he's so angry about it.]]
* BewareTheHonestOnes: Turns out Stan is much harder to deal with when he can only tell the truth as seen in "Bottomless Pit!".
* BigBrotherInstinct: He's shown to care a great deal about his twin just like Dipper for Mabel. [[spoiler:The last half of season 2 reveals that he invested a ''lot'' of time into bringing Ford back from another dimension.]]
* BigOlEyebrows: Has a practically huge grey pair.
* BookDumb: Academically miles behind [[spoiler:his brother]], [[spoiler:considered useless by his father]], no college education…still a brilliant scammer who can wring money out of anyone [[spoiler:and managed to fix the portal on his own]]. [[spoiler:In the finale, this trope ends up working to his advantage, because he literally had nothing Bill wants, which is what made his mind the perfect vessel to defeat Bill in]].
* BoxingBattler: His father made him take boxing lessons as a child, and he's shown to still have some moves in "The Land Before Swine" and "Scary-oke".
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He comes across as rather bumbling and silly over-the-top at times, but make no mistake, he's actually very sharp when he puts his mind into it, particularly as a salesman (and [[TheBarnum Con artist]]).
* BrainsAndBrawn: [[spoiler: Was the Brawn to his brother Ford's brains when they were children. Downplayed in the present, as although Stan is still the stronger of the two, he's also pretty bright in his own right and Ford is no push-over in a fight.]]
--> [[spoiler:"Good thing you got your smarts, Poindexter. I got the other thing. What's it called? Oh, right. Punching!"]]
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: His savings are stuffed inside a duffelbag hidden behind a painting in the Shack.
* BrilliantButLazy: Stan isn't stupid. He is, however, very good at making things up as he goes along, and managed to pick up enough know-how to [[spoiler: repair the portal in his basement.]] "A Tale of Two Stans" shows him being able to sell several of his con-products and later hold his own business, which is basically just one big con, which shows that he is an amazing salesman. If he had gotten a legitimate sales job he'd probably gotten rich a lot sooner.
* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: Stan's fez vaguely resembles those worn by the Shriners. He also remarks how "the boys from the lodge" won't go fishing with him.
** Journal 3 reveals that it's his father's fez, from "The Order of the Holy Mackerel".
* BruiserWithASoftCenter: Stan may be a bruiser, but he's as soft as a marshmallow when it comes to his family... not that he wouldn't threaten to punch you for pointing it out.
* CarpetOfVirility: Shown off at the end of ''Dipper Vs Manliness''. Mabel attempts to trim it as part of her makeover for him to impress Lazy Susan, but it immediately grows back.
* CerebusRetcon: It's hard to look at him the same way again when you learn that [[spoiler:his love of money is the result of being disowned by his family after accidentally sabotaging his brother's future.]]
* TheCharmer: How he manages to get customers into the Shack despite it being nothing but junk. He's a fast-thinker, and can make a joke about just about anything, and the crowds love it.
* CloudCuckooLander: While certainly not as spacey as other examples on the show, you can tell where Mabel gets it from.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: It's a given when you own the Mystery Shack.
* CombatPragmatist: His fighting advice to Dipper is along those line.
-->'''Stan''': Just bonk him over the head. It's nature's snooze button!
** And when outnumbered by zombies, he's got no problems using a grandfather clock to even the odds.
** Best demonstrated by his method of [[spoiler:taking on and defeating three government agents]] in "Not What He Seems".
* ComicalOverreacting: Ties into cloudcuckoolander - he's known to frequently engage in LargeHam actions, and he apparently considers having a mullet to be [[FauxHorrific incredibly horrifying]].
-->'''Stan''': "You think you've got problems? I've got a mullet, [[spoiler: Stanford!]]
* CompanionCube: He becomes a bit overly attached to a wax statue of himself in "Headhunters", and the end credits of "Soos and the Real Girl" show him ''marrying'' the Old Goldie statue in Las Vegas. His concern over the wax statue took a bit of a darker turn when [[spoiler:we learn it was because Stan had lost his real twin to the Portal.]]
* ConMan: Not only does Stan fool tourists with the fake attractions at the Mystery Shack, but he also has a long record of financial crimes. [[spoiler: However it comes in handy in the finale when he manages to out-con ''Bill'']]
* ConsummateLiar: He's an inveterate shyster and proud of it. This trait comes back to bite him ''hard'' in "Not What He Seems". [[spoiler:Only Mabel, who bases her decisions primarily off emotions instead of facts, is willing to trust him still after the extent of exactly ''how much'' he's lied to everyone is revealed. Even ''Soos'', who sees Stan like a father, doesn't trust him anymore.]] This is also apparently one of the reasons his father threw him out of the house as a teenager. Eventually, however, this is subtly proven to be a subversion--even though Stan is excellent at lying, even he has his tells: [[spoiler: in situations that involve his missing brother or him trying to hide something he knows a lot about, Stan crosses his arms and looks up to the side.]]
* CoolUncle: For starters, he punched a pterodactyl in the face to rescue his great-niece's pet pig.
* CounterfeitCash: Has been shown paying for merchandise with "Stan Bucks", crudely drawn fake dollar bills with his face on them. A cutaway gag shows that he also roped in Dipper and Mabel into hand-painting actual counterfeit bills.
-->'''Mabel''': The county jail was ''so cold.''
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: A silly and lazy conman he may be. But, in "The Land Before Swine" he punched a pterodactyl in the face. ''Repeatedly''. Come Season 2, he continues to show how much of a badass he is by fighting off an entire horde of ravenous zombies, half of them with his ''bare hands''. In "Not What He Seems", [[spoiler: he takes out three government agents while he's handcuffed to a chair, using a gravitational anomaly to get the drop on the agents, and manages to steal one of their wallets in the process. He's even the one that deals the final blow to Bill in the finale of the show.]]
* CuttingCorners: How Stan operates ''all'' his business ventures. Especially his carnival.
-->'''Stan''': There she is, the cheapest fair money can rent! I spared every expense. (cable car falls from the sky next to the twins)
* CurtainsMatchTheWindows: Before his hair became gray. Due to the art style it's usually impossible to tell the characters' eye colors, but Stan's are brown as [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/260514979969646592 confirmed by Alex Hirsch.]]
* TheCynic: Much like Dipper, Stan is somewhat cynical and not up for idealism and wonder, which makes his conflicts with the similarly cynical Dipper and bonding with the upbeat Mabel especially humorous. It's later revealed in "Dreamscaperers" that he's harder on Dipper ''because'' Dipper reminds him of himself.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Bullied during his early childhood, was an academic failure, [[spoiler:accidentally cost his brother a scholarship to his dream school,]] was disowned by his parents, and was forced to go on the road to fulfill the impossible task of making up for what the Pines family lost because of his horrible mistake. He spent time as a SnakeOilSalesman and failed at it miserably, getting run out of towns all over the country - and possibly in more countries, considering he claimed to have been thrown in jail in three countries. He was also forced to somehow chew his way out of a car trunk, and before [[spoiler: going to the Mystery Shack to meet his brother]], he was in a rathole apartment with only a peso to his name, and he was behind on his rent. [[spoiler: Then he accidentally threw his brother into another dimension and spent 30 years trying to get him back. Oops.]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: He wears an all-black suit, and while he may be a crook, he's one of the good guys.
* DeadpanSnarker: Much like Dipper, Stan posses a quick wit and never misses a chance to mock the silliness of those around him.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler: The real Stanford Pines, AKA The Author, has been trapped on the other side of a portal for 30 years. The Stan Pines we've been following is actually his twin brother, Stanley Pines.]] However, see "FakingTheDead" for more. [[spoiler:After Weirdmageddon was foiled, it's implied he's going by Stanley again, as the news refer to him as such]].
* DentedIron: He can throw some mean punches and is quite spry, but age has impaired his senses and a lifetime of bad eating habits has turned his body into a hot mess from the shoulders down.
* {{Determinator}}: When Stan puts his mind to it, nothing can stand in his way, be it pterodactyls, government agents, child psychos, or his own lack of knowledge of physics. The best example being how he [[spoiler:spent thirty years working on bringing his brother back from the other dimension he accidentally knocked him into. For this he completely self-taught himself how to maintain and work the Portal (all from his brother's Journal, with ''a third of the instructions'') and went as far as stealing toxic waste from the Government to pull it off.]]
* DidNotGetTheGirl: And trying to get her back didn't work out so well either, since according to him, [[spoiler:he deliberately ran his rival's car off a cliff.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the Series Finale, [[spoiler: he punches Bill in the eye while they're both inside his mind, causing him to shatter into a million pieces.]]
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: [[spoiler: Nobody out-cons Stanley Pines. Not even Bill Cipher.]]
* DiscoDan: He still uses vinyl, doesn't understand texting and the interior of the Mystery Shack is straight out of the 1970s/early 80's.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: "Road safety laws, prepare to be ignored!" He also has cataracts and broken headlights. And then there's the time he let a bear drive the car... though [[BlatantLies he had a prescription from Doctor Medicine for that]].
* DumbassNoMore: Compared to how he was in his youth, where he relied on his GoodOldFisticuffs to stay ahead and [[spoiler:was unequivocally the Brawn to Stanford's Brains]], Stan's main strengths in the present is easily his craftiness and silver tongue. There is also the fact that he [[spoiler:taught himself enough theoretical physics to successfully repair the portal Ford was working on]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: ''Hot Belgian Waffles, did he!'' [[spoiler:After 10 years living on the streets, 30 years of working on the Portal, and Weirdmageddon, Stan finally reconciles with Ford, is named the town hero, and the two decide to travel the world together on the Stan-o-War II.]]
* EasilyForgiven: Despite the fact that Stanley outright lied to them about his intentions and deliberately withold information from them, as soon as Dipper, Mabel, and Soos heard his story, they immediately forgave him without any signs of distrust towards him. This is especially the case for the former considering that Dipper isn't really the type to let go of grudged easily as shown with Pacifica.
* ExactWords: Stan says he doesn't have a tattoo. He's not lying. [[spoiler: It's actually a ''brand'' burned into his back by accident.]]
* EyepatchOfPower: Wears a superfluous one while the Shack is open.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Stanley faked his own death and is the Stan Pines the headline "Stan Pines Dead" was about.]]
* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly and Standford as well as their brother Shermie(Mabel and Dipper's grandfather)
* FanDisservice: Rips off his shirt in "Dipper vs. Manliness". Not pretty. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Dipper moments after.
* FatSlob: [[PlayedforLaughs Played for Laughs]] in "Dipper vs. Manliness". After telling Mabel she had to marry Gideon in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel", to which she ran out of the room screaming, he assumed she was upset by his appearance.
-->'''Stan''': (calling after her) Bodies change, honey! Bodies change...
* FatalFlaw:
** In a way surprisingly similar to Dipper, it becomes apparent that Stan has issues with trust and confiding in others. He often lies to avoid having to do so, which comes back to bite him in ''Not What He Seems''. If he had trusted the twins with the truth earlier, the episode probably would have been far less traumatic for all of them.
** Stan's temper also proved to be another one, [[spoiler: it led to him accidentally destroying his brother's science project, ruining his chance of getting into his dream college, and severely damaging their relationship. It was this again which caused him to accidentally knock his brother into the Portal, meaning the two didn't see each other for thirty years. And this ''again'' very nearly led to Bill winning after Stan broke a magic circle to attack Ford over his grammar being corrected.]]
** The flashbacks in "A Tale of Two Stans" shows that he has (or [[CharacterDevelopment had]]) a familiar problem with oblivious selfishness. [[spoiler: He automatically assumed that his brother wouldn't want to go to the best college in the country, so they would stay together as they did as children, completely oblivious to what his brother actually wanted. When he finally realized Stanford was seriously considering the offer, he felt extremely threatened and hurt because he saw this as his brother choosing to leave him behind. His acting out over this is what started the collapse of their good relationship, and being reminded of this old pain is what causes his fits of anger listed above.]]
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: [[spoiler: Adding more parallels with Dipper and Mabel, flashbacks to their youth show that Stan was the foolish to the Author's responsible, showing The Author studying diligently on a test while Stan kicks his feet up on the desk one over. It's a bit more complicated in the present; Stan recognizes that the weird stuff in town is ''highly dangerous'', and that the kids should stay away from it. However, his method to do this was to put on an act of SelectiveObliviousness, shrugging any claims of monsters as imagination, while at the same time tinkering with the Portal, the most dangerous thing in Gravity Falls. Ford actually calls Stan out on his recklessness.]]
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Cynic. Stan is a reasonably cynical man, not one up for wonder and idealism, he prefers to focus on practical matters. It's down to his experiences he is like this, as a "Tale of Two Stans" shows he used to be lot more optimistic before [[spoiler:he lost his relationship with his brother]].
* FreudianExcuse: He's greedy for a reason, namely that [[spoiler:he got kicked out of the house before graduating high school, told he couldn't come back until he made his family a fortune, and left to fend for himself.]]
* FriendlessBackground: The only friends he seems to have made in life are [[spoiler: his twin brother]] and two Colombian criminals who hoped he died. Which might explain some of his {{Jerkass}} behavior.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric: Ambitious with a hair-trigger temper.
* GagNose: His nose looks like it belonged to a [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet]].
* GeniusBruiser: Although old, Stan is still a powerful figure and likewise proves he can tangle with the best of them, being a brilliant fighter. He's likewise very strong and very quick for his age. However Stan also shows on multiple occasions he's highly intelligent, being an incredibly shrewd and cunning man, able to match wits with the likes of Gideon and Dipper, and win. Business skills aside, he's also clearly got a pretty good understanding of advanced science considering [[spoiler: how well he was able to operate and maintain the portal]]. Made all the more impressive with the reveal he [[spoiler:is completely self taught, in both science and showmanship.]]
* GoshDarnItToHeck: Suddenly having to hang around with two kids [[NotInFrontOfTheKid has forced him to tone down his language]]. This is addressed and parodied in a scene in "Not What He Seems".
* GottaCatchThemAll: [[spoiler: Stan's got Journal #1, and he's been looking for #2 and #3 for years to complete the set. He finally got all 3 at the end of Gideon Rises.]]
--->'''Stan''': After all these years... [[spoiler: Finally, we have them all.]]
* {{Greed}}: His desire to make money is the driving force behind his work ethic.
-->"''My one and only dream - which was to possess money - has come true!''"
** Played with in that it's revealed that a lot of the money he makes goes toward [[spoiler:repairing the portal in order to save Stanford. And he spent about ten years in continuous poverty.]]
* GrumpyOldMan: Very fond of complaining.
* GunNut: We never see them, but he claims to own ten guns [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext due to his fear of ladders.]]
* HairTriggerTemper: Stan has a quick temper, to the point he near ruined his commercial over him constantly mispronouncing a word. It is not a good idea to be on the receiving end of his temper.
* HeroAntagonist: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, his motives are quickly made clear.]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
* HeroicBuild: Had one as a younger man and uses a dapper suit to make it look like he still does.
* HeroicBSOD: Had one after he [[spoiler:accidentally flung his brother into another dimension]]. He could have been in the shack for anywhere from weeks to months.
* HeroicComedicSociopath:
** His {{greed}} verges on this now and then, but his RefugeInAudacity on-screen criminal behavior and his ChildHater tendencies (toward Gideon - not his family) place him firmly in this territory.
-->'''Stan''': "Yes, yes... ''Burn the child''..."
** The various crimes he manages to pull off [[RefugeInAudacity on-screen]] also cross into this.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: He sacrifices his mind in the finale in order to trap and weaken Bill enough to destroy him. Thankfully, as shown with [=McGucket=] and having not been mindwiped long, he managed to regain his memory just due to being reminded of it thanks to Mabel's scrapebook.]]
* HeyYou: He often addresses Dipper and Mabel as "kid", apparently simply due to his gruff personality.
* HiddenDepths: Despite being considered an idiot by his parents and teachers, he was able to [[spoiler:secretly repair Ford's dimensional portal by himself with nothing but his brother's journals to aid him.]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: Most of the exhibits in his House of Mystery are fake. It's deconstructed, as "Boss Mabel" implies that while he could get real oddities for the Mystery Shack like Dipper did, they would be difficult (if not impossible) to control and would terrify and/or hurt customers.
* IHaveNoSon:
** [[spoiler: After it becomes clear that Ford has no interest in reconciling with his brother and won't even say "thank you" for bringing him back to our dimension, Stan point blank tells him that Mabel and Dipper are the only family he has left as far as he is concerned.]]
** [[spoiler:Stan himself was also disinherited because he accidentally ruined Ford's chance to get into his dream college]].
** Played for laughs when Stan warned the twins that if they started talking like pioneers on Pioneer Day, then he would disown them.
-->'''Stan''': "You're dead to me. DEAD TO ME!"
* IJustWantToBeLoved: [[spoiler:Stan's family disowned him when he accidentally broke Stanford's science project, so he treasures the relationship he has with Dipper and Mabel. He initially wanted to reconcile with Ford, but their combative behavior and mutual stubbornness makes it impossible for now]]. This is a driving force behind many of his decisions, such as announcing his candidacy for mayor.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: In "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", he spends most of his time looking for fishing buddies.
* IndyPloy: Stan is almost preternaturally good at this. He survived for years with nothing but his wits and a baseball bat, has apparently escaped by the skin of his teeth ([[LiteralMetaphor perhaps literally,]] [[NoodleIncident given that he somehow chewed his way out of a car trunk]]) multiple times, and managed to turn his brother's house into a passable tourist trap and thriving business by making it up as he went along.
* IWasQuiteALooker: So much so that tumblr fans are calling his his younger self [[FanNickname "Hunkle Stan"]]. For reference, here's a flashback to him in the 70's. Hello, [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_s1e17_stan_and_carla_dancin2_6100.png Handsome]].
* IconicOutfit: Grunkle Stan is usually seen in a fez and a black tuxedo. When sitting around the house, he is almost always dressed in nothing but a tanktop, blue-striped boxers, and the fez.
* ItMakesSenseInContext: InUniverse, he claims the picture in "Gideon Rises" of him in a devil suit in front of a wall of fire is this.
-->'''Stan''': That picture's taken out of context.
* JacobAndEsau: Downplayed. [[spoiler:His father seemed cold and resentful toward his "wimpy" sons in general but valued Stanford as his talents might make the family money, while his mother - possibly because of their similar personalities - seemed at least ''somewhat'' fond of Stanley, calling him her "little free spirit", but ultimately didn't lift a finger when her husband decided to throw him out of the house.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: In "Boss Mabel", it is shown that his iron handed rule over the Mystery Shack, use of fake exhibits in the museum and strict no-refunds policies are in fact necessary to run the Shack properly. When Mabel attempts to run things her way, Soos and Wendy either take advantage of her lax attitudes or screw up their jobs, putting real monsters in the Shack proves to be a disaster that hospitalizes two visitors, and Mabel's liberal refund policies ends up costing them nearly all their earnings.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, deep down he truly does care about his niece and nephew.
** In "Double Dipper", he claps for Mabel when everyone was voting for her via applause. Granted, the other candidate, Pacifica, is a {{rich|Bitch}} AlphaBitch, but it goes to show that he really cares for Mabel and wanted to support her, even if he usually doesn't show it.
** And in "Dipper vs. Manliness" he's the one to tell Dipper that standing up for what he believed in was a manly thing to do.
** And in the very first episode, he let Mabel and Dipper choose something from the shop to cheer them up.
** Really shows through in "Boyz Crazy", where he not only immediately agrees to help Dipper expose [[spoiler:Robbie's mind control of Wendy through subliminal messaging in music (even if partially motivated by his own experiences as a young man)]], but also tells Dipper, [[spoiler:after Wendy angrily brushes him off, that he can just hang out with him until things sort out with Wendy.]] This is the best father figure moment for Stan in the series thus far. Plus, he was more than willing to give Dipper TheTalk in "Carpet Diem", when you'd think he'd be the kind of character to avoid doing that. [[spoiler:Even if it was Mabel in Dipper's body. [[ItMakesSenseInContext It's an odd show.]]]]
** In "Land before Swine" he [[spoiler: saves Waddles from a pterodactyl]] out of sheer love for Mabel.
** "Dreamscaperers" shows that even though Stan is tough on Dipper by making him do terrible chores like cleaning the toilet and chopping firewood, [[spoiler: he does it to toughen him up so he learns to fight back.]]
** In "Gideon Rises", when he feels like he finally lost to Gideon, he's very disheartened that the kids have to suffer with him too, and while down on his luck and almost out of money, with what little he has left he buys bus tickets to send the twins home. Thankfully though, it got better, but still.
** "Not What He Seems" and his back story show [[spoiler: his conman career was ten years in barely surviving poverty without even a high school diploma trying to earn his way back into his family,]] and that the only reason he's even been living in Gravity Falls for the last thirty years is [[spoiler: to fix the portal his brother built and bring him back to atone for accidentally sending him through it in the first place.]]
* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in the process.
* KleptomaniacHero: Stan will gleefully and shamelessly steal anything he wants or needs. [[BrutalHonesty Often while outright saying it straight to the rightful owner's faces.]]
-->'''Man''': These wax statues come at a ''terrible price!''\\
'''Stan''': $20? I'll steal them while you're distracted.\\
'''Man''': What?\\
'''Stan''': I said I'm going to rob you.
* LaResistance: [[spoiler:Though he only gets one brief scene in "Weirdmageddon", in "Weirdmageddon Part 2" it turns out Stan was alive and well, hiding out in the Shack and leading a holdout against Bill]].
* LanternJawOfJustice: Though the "Justice" part is definitely in question.
* LargeHam: Part-and-parcel of being a showman, he tends to ham it up during tours of the Mystery Shack... of course, not that he doesn't display similar tendencies ''outside'' of that.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Despite [[spoiler:the reveal of him knowing all about the general weirdness of the town, he still seems to have no idea of Bill Cipher's existence, or that it's why Ford was so angry at him for turning the portal back on. Stan ''chose'' not to care because of personal grievances against his brother]].
* LovableRogue: While immoral, shady and sometimes outright criminal, Stan remains a beloved character, and makes it clear that he is good at heart- to the audience. The people in-universe are far less lenient; It's stated as early as the second episode that Stan has no friends ("The guys at the lodge don't 'like' or 'trust' me."), due to his dishonest business practices. His campaign for mayor was torpedoed by his own crime record, [[spoiler: "A Tale of Two Stans" strongly implies that his amoral tendencies were the reason he got disowned by his family, the accidental ruining of Ford's college admissions being TheLastStraw. His attempts to get rich through various scams and swindles all ended in failure. The only place a blatant criminal like Stan can operate more-or-less unhindered is Gravity Falls with its stupid populace.]]
* MadeOfIron: In "Not What He Seems", he gets slammed into a metal pipe hard enough to buckle the metal and crack the stone wall behind it, and he's ''completely unharmed''. Its shown in "The Tale of Two Stans" he's had this from childhood, as he didn't even notice the multiple splinters in his hands (from breaking a plank) until he saw them.
* MeanBoss: He yells at his employees a lot, [[JustifiedTrope but his strictness is how he can keep things in order]]. When Mabel acted as the BenevolentBoss, she was taken advantage of by Wendy and run up the wall by Soos' ineptitude.
* MessianicArchetype: [[spoiler: He sacrifices himself to save everyone from the resident SatanicArchetype, and he gets better soon after, but he will forever be remembered for it]].
* MiserAdvisor: Stan sometimes takes this role with the twins, especially Dipper.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: [[spoiler: Stan's belief in this is why he's so tough on Dipper. It's also why Stan's father had him take boxing lessons.]] Starting to move towards a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]], as it's shown that [[spoiler: his father's treatment of him gave him huge and long-lasting emotional scars. Not only that, but him singling Dipper out to give him this treatment made their relationship crash so badly Dipper was convinced Stan legitimately ''hated'' him and it nearly drove him to [[StoppedCaring stop caring]] about Stan completely. Despite Dipper now knowing that Stan is trying to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this, it still causes major underlying emotional tensions that haven't been entirely dealt with.]]
* MoneyFetish: Stan's love of money, sometimes borders on obsession, he shamelessly (and unnecessarily) strips when he get an opportunity to go in the money shower.
* MysteriousPast: He claims to be from the east coast originally, and that Gravity Falls is the only town where the police don't know where he is. "Not What He Seems" shows that he's accrued a number of false [=IDs=] over the years. It's revealed later on that he's from New Jersey, in "the lead paint district." [[spoiler: That said, there's still things we don't know, like how he was jailed in three countries and escaped, what he did when he "went around the world", and why he escaped a car trunk by chewing his way out.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:He accidentally sent his twin brother through an interdimensional portal during the middle of a nasty fight. He had spent years living with that memory on his mind. He had been collecting the Journals, hoping to one day be reunited with his long-lost brother.]]
* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: [[spoiler: After losing his twin brother Stanford to an alien dimension 30 years prior to the series, Stan took on his name and identity so as not to arouse suspicion. As of the real Stanford's return, he has been given until the end of the summer to return his identity to its rightful owner.]]
* NeverMyFault: Shows shades of this in ''Land Before Swine'' when he claims "It's not my fault your pig's potentially delicious!". [[spoiler: That said, it's still an improvement over how he used to be, with him telling his brother he ruined his life, only for his brother to shoot back that yes, Grunkle Stan ruined his own life.]] He's [[CharacterDevelopment grown out of this as the show's progressed]], being fully willing to acknowledge that he's screwed up. As proof of this, [[spoiler: he doesn't even end up blaming anyone for his own misfortunes in ''A Tale of Two Stans''. In the present, anyway. However he constantly blamed Ford for causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Yes, Ford ''did'' build the portal and it was a huge mistake and was a potential for disaster, but Stan is equally accountable for blatantly disregarding ''every single written instruction'' by Ford ''not'' to use the portal for any reason whatsoever, even if it was to save him, and Stan's one use of the portal led to the left over rift that Bill was able to open. That said, after ruining the destiny circle which almost gave Bill complete victory, Stan does come to realize this and even blames himself after seeing Bill nearly kill Dipper and Mabel]].
* NerdGlasses: Started wearing glasses as part of [[spoiler:his attempts to impersonate Ford. Since he never ''stops'' wearing them, it's probable he legitimately needs them now.]]
** [[WordofGod Alex Hirsch]] [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/651585206982348800 has confirmed that Stan has always needed glasses]], [[JustifiedTrope he just refused to wear them]] ''[[JustifiedTrope because]]'' [[JustifiedTrope he thought they made him look lame]].
* NiceHat: He's never seen without his fez, except in "Little Dipper" and when he goes on vacation in "Boss Mabel".
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** [[spoiler: He manages to get enough material to re-power the portal and bring his brother back into the main dimension. But unwittingly created a dimensional rift in the process which is why Ford was angry at him upon returning as he knows Bill needs the rift to cross over. However Stan is never told this.]]
** In the finale, [[spoiler: Ford manages to make a destiny circle that could potentially defeat Bill. However Stan was needed for it and, just as it was being powered up, got into an argument with Ford over grammar. This gave time for Bill to return and stop them, nearly costing everyone. Luckily Stan made up for it.]]
%% * TheNicknamer
* NotInFrontOfTheKid: As revealed in a security tape from "Not What He Seems", his frequent use of "GoshDarnItToHeck" actually stems from him making an effort to watch his language when Dipper and Mabel are around. He's quite gleeful when he gets a chance to ''actually'' cuss when he's alone.
-->'''Stan''' ''(drops a barrel [[spoiler:of radioactive waste]] on his foot)'' Gah! HOT BELGIAN WAFFLES! Wait... I'm alone! I can swear ''for real! (takes deep breath)'' SON OF A-- ([[MoodWhiplash Dipper pauses the tape]] [[CurseCutShort while Mabel]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny covers her ears]])
* NotSoDifferent: From Bill. Both are theatrical conmen with tons of charisma and guided by a ''ruthless'' personal objectivity, to the point where in the Weirdmageddon version of the show's intro, Stan is replaced by Bill predominantly. [[spoiler: It's this very shared trait that spells the end for Bill.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: "Boss Mabel" hints that Grunkle Stan might know more than he lets on. [[spoiler: "Gideon Rises" confirms it. Stan has had Journal #1 the whole time, and in this episode manages to obtain #2 from Gideon and #3 from Dipper. He uses them to activate some sort of machine, which began to use to search for his brother as of "Scary-oke".]]
* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Stan, a man old enough to be a great uncle, vs Gideon, a psychopathic child, though admittedly Stan usually takes a unwitting backseat to the twins when fighting Gideon.
* OneManArmy: Wipes the floor with the zombies attacking the Mystery Shack.
* OneSteveLimit: Subverted - [[spoiler: his name is actually Stanley (see DeadPersonImpersonation) and his brother's name is Stanford, though his brother has thankfully dispelled any confusion by preferring to be known as Great-Uncle Ford.]] The show chalks this up to his father being unimaginative.
* OnlySaneMan: [[spoiler: He's the only one in Gravity Falls who recognizes that all of the weird and supernatural happenings are '''highly dangerous''', which is why he tries to dissuade Dipper from investigating them.]]
* OutOfFocus: Rather jarringly too considering he is one of the main characters, but after [[Recap/GravityFallsS2E12ATaleOfTwoStans "A Tale of Two Stans"]], most of his appearances aren't tied to the MythArc of the series and his two focus episodes are {{Filler}} at best. Averted in the series finale where he gets a ton of focus regarding his resentment of [[spoiler: his brother. He is even the one who comes up with the plan that ultimately defeats Bill by performing a HeroicSacrifice.]]
* PapaWolf: Despite having very questionable morals and standards, he does obviously care about Mabel and Dipper. Enough to [[spoiler: drop some heavy, extensive research it took him ''years'' to find,]] in order to protect the twins from a group of hungry zombies, and ''winning''. He also tells [[spoiler: his brother Stanford]] to stay away from the Twins, mainly because [[spoiler: his research could put them in danger]].
** In the series finale he [[spoiler:pulls the old TwinSwitch with Ford on Bill, allowing him to trap the demon in his mind when Bill enters his head while Ford uses the Memory Eraser gun to delete both Stan's mind and Bill. He even manages to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu deliver a punch that destroys Bill]] before his mind is fully erased.]] Why? Because [[spoiler:Bill]] made the mistake of messing with his family.
* ParentalFavoritism:
** Was at the less fortunate end of this as a child.
** Subverted with Dipper and Mabel. Because he's more permissive and openly affectionate toward the latter, both kids assume that Mabel is his favorite, with [[TheUnfavorite Dipper even doubting whether Stan cares about him at all]] at one point. The truth is a lot more complicated as [[spoiler:Stan's own father figure was emotionally distant and Dipper strongly reminds him of both his estranged brother and his own younger self, leading Stan to be harder on him to toughen him up and spare him both his and his brother's mistakes]]. He has actually got a real soft spot for the boy as we see whenever he tries to give him advice, or when Mabel (in Dipper's body) tries to annoy him to assure Dipper doesn't get the new room, only for Stan to react with ''fondness'' and praise "Dipper" for finally standing up to him.
* ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler:After Soos realized that [[DisappearedDad his father]] [[ParentalAbandonment ran away from his family]], Soos began working for Stan so that he can have a new father figure in his life.]]
* PermaStubble: Never grows a beard but never seems to shave.
* PetTheDog: Grunkle Stan gets a moment like this after feeling guilty for insulting Dipper and Mabel and lets each of them take anything they want from the Mystery Shack. In true Grunkle Stan fashion, he tells them to do it before he changes his mind. He also saves Waddles because he wants Mabel to talk to him again and in "Dreamscaperers" when we find out why he's so tough on Dipper.
* PlayingGertrude: Stan is 60+ years old. His voice actor, [[DescendedCreator series creator]] Creator/AlexHirsch just turned 30 in 2015.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Stan is a greedy shyster, [[spoiler: contrast his super-genius brother, Ford, who appears to be well-intentioned.]]
* PreMortemOneLiner: Delivers a fantastic one in the series finale [[spoiler:to Bill.]]
--> '''Stan''': You're a real wise guy, but you made one fatal mistake. [[PapaWolf You messed with my family.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: His claim [[spoiler:to have denied the existence of the supernatural in Gravity Falls was because he believed it to be dangerous. Considering how many of the strange things and oddities have tried to hurt the twins, he's got a point.]]
* RageBreakingPoint: He goes through one when Gideon takes the best pool chair in "The Deep End".
--->'''Grunkle Stan''': '''''GIDEON!''''' '''GET OUT OF MY''' '''''CHAIR, KID!!'''''
* RealityEnsues:
** Stan gets away with A LOT of crime, mostly due to RuleOfFunny, but the buck decidedly stops at [[spoiler:stealing toxic waste from the United States Government. Theft of government property NEVER goes unnoticed]].
** Also, [[spoiler: his criminal record gets him disqualified from the election of Gravity Falls' new mayor]].
** Despite Stan's good intentions, his treating Dipper as TheUnfavorite to [[ToughLove toughen him up]] (by mocking Dipper whenever the opportunity hits, making Dipper do most of the hard and dangerous work around the Shack, and refusing to express any positive feedback towards him lest he "get a big head") drove Dipper to dislike him immensely and almost destroyed their relationship entirely.
* RealMenWearPink: After the BigNo, Stan gets really into ''The Duchess Approves'' (think ''Series/DowntonAbbey'') in ''[[GravityFallsS1E5TheInconveniencing The Inconveniencing]]'' (to the point of throwing the TV out the window out of rage at one of the plot elements).
* RedOniBlueOni: The red to [[spoiler:his twin brother Ford's]] blue.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: His real name is Stanley, and he has a twin brother named Stanford, who is the author of the journals. When Stanford got flung into the portal, Stanley faked his death and took on Stanford's name and identity.]]
* RockBottom: Has ended up at this ''[[JerkassWoobie three times that we've seen]]'' in the show - [[spoiler: the first was when he was disowned and kicked out of the house while he was still in high school, the second was when he threw his brother into AnotherDimension, and the third was when Gideon kicked him out of his own house.]]
** It is hard to say whether the Colombian jail sentence was one of those, as he seemed pretty chipper about something that would be the low point of anybody else's life.
* SandInMyEyes: Two of the times we've ever seen Stan get teary-eyed (once during the funeral for his wax replica and the other when Mabel knit him an "Our Hero" sash), Stan has the tendency to say he's got something in them rather than admit he's crying.
* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler:His tattoo is actually a burn scar he received during a scuffle with his brother Ford 30 years ago.]]
* {{Schemer}}: Stan is a very cunning man, and normally concocts a variety of schemes, normally to help him make more money.
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: He's rude, grumpy and money-grubbing and makes no secret of it. He's also old, so he can get away with it.
* ScrewySquirrel: In "Little Shack of Horrors".
* SelfMadeMan: [[spoiler: Was disowned by his father before he even graduated high school, he spent years trying to enter personal sales himself, and after many failures finally found one that worked, namely the Mystery Shack.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Manly Man to Dipper's Sensitive Guy. Of the two Stan's more gruff and unfeeling, preferring to focus on more practical matters, also when working or doing something serious he is highly dedicated and a no nonsense figure. Unlike Dipper, he's also far better at hiding his fears and concerns, though he has his tells.
* SharpDressedMan: His default outfit.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: If Dipper and Ford actually managed to seal the rift which directly prevents Bill from unleashing Weirdmageddon, Stanley would have surely suffered this fate. Basically, the entire reason he worked for 30 years in the Shack is that he hoped that he could bring back his brother from the other dimension, after he accidentally sent him to it following a fight. He hoped to make up with his brother after all he had done. What he gets instead is Ford greeting him with a punch and outright refusing to forgive, thank or even reconcile with him, completely ignoring the fact that he wasted 30 years just to save him. Instead Stan is demanded to relinquish ownership of his identity and house and abandon the whole Mystery Shack forever. As a result, everything Stanley had done felt like a complete waste of his time and he disowns his brother in the process. Weirdmageddon helps subverts this by having Stan finally reconcile with his brother, the very thing that he strived to do in the first place and go out into the sea with Ford as his childhood dream.
* SitcomArchNemesis:
** With Gideon; until the events of "Gideon Rises", Stan never treats Gideon as a serious threat (except to his bottom line), but rather an irritating little pest who has to be occasionally swatted out of the Shack with a broom. Whenever they meet casually in public, they're shown to antagonize one another in exceedingly petty ways, and Stan's dialogue in "Dreamscaperers" implies that he's been foiled off-screen as well.
** Bud, as Stan's direct business competitor when it comes to scamming the townspeople, also gets this treatment; when their "truce" falls apart, Stan even steals a velvet clown painting from Bud's home and runs off. It only gets worse in "The Stanchurian Candidate", when both run for mayor and Bud immediately resorts to cheap shots.
* SkywardScream: In "Irrational Treasure" after going through a HumiliationConga:
-->'''Stan''': '''PIONEER DAY!!!!'''
* SmallNameBigEgo: Generally not liked among the town, despite playing himself up as this grand mysterious figure. The town eventually [[spoiler:warms up to him a bit after the events of "Gideon Rises".]]
* TheSmartGuy: Much like Dipper, Stan is a lot smarter and more cunning than he lets on. Scenes from "Not What He Seems" even show his report card with consistent As, except in Gym class. [[spoiler:However, it seems that report card was actually his brother's, with a flashback in "A Tale of Two Stans" presenting him as a comparatively lazy and poor student in comparison. Never the less, through pure effort he managed to teach himself nearly everything he knows.]]
* SmarterThanYouLook: Managed to outwit Gideon in "Little Dipper", Dipper in "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained: Stan's Tattoo", and even [[spoiler: Bill in the finale]]. [[spoiler: He also managed to teach himself enough about theoretical physics and the fringe science Ford was working on to restore the portal to working use. He only really needed the journals in order to figure out how to turn it back on when he had done so.]]
* SmokeOut: He enjoys using smoke bombs, in his showmanship with the mystery shack, to further entertain and con the masses into giving him money.
* SnakeOilSalesman: Once tried to market shards of broken glass as rare and valuable crystals, and sells spray-painted rocks under the guise of them being gold nuggets. It's later revealed that he spent a lot of time as this before he came to run the Mystery Shack. It went horribly wrong, with him managing to become BannedFromArgo in almost every state in the country.
** [[spoiler: It's this quality that makes Ford believe Stan would've seen right through Bill Cipher's trickery at the very first moment.]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: The one Pines Bill never took interest in was the one Pines he should have always watched out for.]]
* StealthMentor: Making Dipper do difficult chores is Stan's sneaky way of preparing him to fight back as revealed in "Dreamscaperers". It seems to be working.
* StepfordSmiler: A minor case; Stan seems to genuinely love most aspects of his life, such as scamming people and spending time with his young charges, "A Tale of Two Stans" [[spoiler: hints that underneath it all is a man who's haunted by the guilt of sending his brother into another dimension. After Ford comes back and makes clear his intent to take back his house and name after the summer, Stan covers it up with his usual gruff nature.]]
* StreetSmart: As expected of any self-respecting carny, Stan is shrewd, has a knack for deception, and is good at thinking on his feet.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: "Dreamscaperers" shows that Stan looks a lot like his father. Kid Stan even looks a little like Dipper. [[spoiler: Stan and his brother also look extremely similar to each other, to the point where in the past it was possible to confuse them. And, as Bill discovers to his chagrin, even in the modern day after a clothes swap.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Especially when it comes to [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Soos]] and [[TheSlacker Wendy]].
--> I'd fire all of you if I could.
* TallDarkAndHandsome[=/=]TallDarkAndSnarky: Believe it or not. It's more noticeable in "Little Dipper", when he's seen without his fez.
* TechnologicallyBlindElders: He mistook a CD for a record player, and doesn't know what "texting a photo to someone" is. When Gideon claims to have kidnapped Dipper and Mabel in "Little Dipper" and offers to send him proof, Stan can't even understand him.
-->'''Gideon''': I have them in my possession! You don't believe me? I will text you a photo!\\
'''Stan''': "Text me a photo?" Now you're not even speakin' English!\\
'''Gideon''': But-\\
'''Stan''': (hangs up)
* ThemeTwinNaming: [[spoiler: He and his twin brother (The Author) are named Stanley and Stanford, respectively]].
* ThickerThanWater: Stan would risk causing the apocalypse to [[spoiler: bring back his brother.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: In his youth, he was severely picked on; Stan's dad had him take boxing lessons, and in his senior years, he still knows how to fight.
* TookALevelInKindness: He becomes a much nicer person in season 2, which must be due to his [[spoiler:confession knowing about all the weirdness in Gravity Falls all along.]]
* TopHeavyGuy: Cuts quite a triangular figure while wearing his tux; even without it on, he's been shown to have [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gravityfalls/images/f/fe/S1e17_stocking_up_for_apocalypse.png a very broad chest and shoulders, thick arms, and skinny legs]] (it all just happens to get a little overshadowed by his gut).
* ToughLove: A [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]]. Stan's father, Filbrick Pines, was an [[ParentalAbuse emotionally abusive]] {{Jerkass}}. Stan, however, seems to have read his actions as tough love even if it most definitely wasn't, and decided that following dad's example was the best way to toughen up Dipper. [[RealityEnsues It made their relationship crash so badly Dipper became convinced Stan hated him and wanted him gone]]. Even with knowing Stan does care, there are still signs Dipper's keeping a lot of bad feelings about this bottled up.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He's shown in one episode to like Toffee Peanuts. It's to the point where, [[spoiler: in the very same episode, in a flashback to back when he and Ford were in high school, a bag of Toffee Peanuts at the scene was all Ford needed to incriminate Stan for sabotaging his science experiment]].
* {{Tritagonist}}: Stan gets the third largest amount of focus, after Dipper and Mabel.
* {{Tsundere}}: Shows shades of a platonic form of this towards the kids at times. He tries to continue this act during the series finale (in a [[TearJerker gut wrenching]] kind of way).
--> '''Stan Pines''': (tearfully) [[BlatantLies You kids were nothing but a nuisance and I'm glad to be ridda ya.]]
* TheUnfavorite: Was this in his family since he apparently didn't contribute to them as a teenager. And really got strengthened when his father threw him out of the house after he [[spoiler:accidentally broke Stanford's machine and ruined his chances to go to his dream college]]. His father even accused him of [[spoiler:riding on his brother's coattails]].
* UnreliableNarrator: In a number of his flashbacks, [[spoiler: he's designed to look like a composite between himself and Ford (not to mention his memories painting his dad as being not a heartless jackass).]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:All of Stan's efforts to bring his brother back (after having set in motion the chain of events that trapped him offworld in the first place) created a chain of bad events that lead up to the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. His efforts to bring Ford back left behind an unstable dimensional rift, every subsequent event related to that MacGuffin slowly created tension between Dipper and Mabel, especially with Dipper spending more time with Ford. Mabel's broken emotional state over the idea of being apart from Dipper made her vulnerable to Bill Cipher's manipulations. It doesn't help that Stan disregarded every warning against using the portal, and now everyone, including himself has to suffer the consequences of his foolishness. He also agitated the first signs of an emotional rift between Mabel and Dipper by joining with and at times even encouraging Mabel to pick on Dipper for the sake of "humorous" jokes. This alienated Dipper emotionally from both Stan and Mabel, adding to the reasons Dipper would choose to spend most of his time with Ford when he arrived--since not only was Ford his idol, but he also didn't pick on Dipper like the rest of the family. It's this choice that convinced Mabel her paranoia over their relationship was legitimate, which built until she reached her breaking point in "Dipper and Mabel Vs. The Future".]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Growing up, he wasn't much of a troublemaker. However, [[spoiler:getting disowned by his family]] forced him to become a criminal just to survive, resulting in the bitter old man that he is today.
* VanityLicensePlate: If you look closely, the plate on Grunkle Stan's car says "STNLY MBL." Which is odd, since according to Gideon, his full name is 'Stanford'. [[spoiler: His real name is actually Stanley, but he faked his death and took up his brother's name Stanford while he went missing in the portal]].
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving:
** He used to have a crush on Lazy Susan. But when he finally went out on a date with her, he decided that she looked "weird up close", and quickly bailed.
** [[spoiler: He spent thirty years desperately trying to rescue his brother from the portal, only to be reminded of how strained their relationship was once Stanford was back. It's not a total loss however, as Stan does want Dipper's happiness, and if his brother can make that happen, he won't stand in their way.]]
* WeirdnessCensor: [[spoiler: {{Subverted|Trope}}. If the end of "Gideon Rises" tells us anything, he knew about all the weird stuff. In "Scaryoke" he all out admits to knowing, but claimed otherwise in an attempt to keep Dipper and Mabel from getting too close and being in danger.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Disowned by his father for accidentally ruining their chance at a fortune, Stan spent years trying and make money to be accepted back. Fittingly, one of the books he owns is called ''Daddy Issues'']].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Was willing to [[spoiler:risk [[DivideByZero the destruction of the universe]] if it meant seeing his brother Ford again. He did, but as a result created an inter-dimensional rift capable of bridging the physical world with one of pure nightmare, which was why his brother was uncomfortable with Stan using the portal to save him in the first place. While Ford managed to contain the rift at first, Stan having saved him at all set off a chain of events that threw the Pines Family dynamic into disarray, ending with the rift getting released into the world anyway]].
* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:In their childhood, Stan and his brother Stanford were each other's OnlyFriend and did everything together. Because of an accident and their father throwing Stan out for costing their family a fortune and Stanford his dream school, their relationship was strained. Over 10 years later, Stanford called Stan to Gravity Falls. It wasn't to reconcile, but to ask him to hide the last of his journals and he still blames him for ruining his chances, despite Stanford managing to still gain a [=Ph.D.=] and a large amount of money. Their fight landed Stanford in another dimension that Stan has been trying to free him from 30 years, only to receive no thanks and a demand that Stanford get his life back at the end of the Summer. As shown near the end of "A Tale of Two Stans", it seems the two want to reconcile (particularly Stan), but are too bitter over how their lives have gone, and Stanford being trapped in another dimension, have made this near impossible. Dipper seems to have hope they can repair this]].
* WhatTheHellHero: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper comes to his breaking point when Stan [[spoiler:begs them to trust him about the Portal despite having lied to them about everything else.]]
-->'''Dipper''': And I should trust you ''why?!'' After you [[spoiler:stole radioactive waste?]] After you [[spoiler:lied to us all summer?! I don't even know who you are!]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He was afraid of heights, though he has since been cured.
* WouldHurtAChild: He has no compunction with smacking Gideon around with a broom, although Gideon [[EnfantTerrible more than deserves it.]]
-->'''Stan''': Soos, broom.\\
'''Gideon''': Oh no, not the broom!
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a [[spoiler: fraternal twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sounds like something a responsible parent wouldn't want you doing... Good thing I'm an uncle!"'']]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/AlexHirsch\\\
''"When life gives you lemons, you call them 'yellow oranges' and sell them for double the price."''
Stan Pines, also known as Great-Uncle Stan and Grunkle Stan, is Mabel and Dipper's sly great-uncle. He runs The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap full of questionable oddities. When he's giving tours or asleep on the couch, Dipper and Mabel sneak out to explore the town’s secrets.
----
* AbusiveParents: About the worst thing you can say is that he occasionally overworks the twins and frequently mocks Dipper (partly because he feels the need to toughen him up and make him capable of fighting his own battles, but mostly because child labor has low overhead). But he still shows them a lot of affection, even if he is cheap. However, come "A Tale of Two Stans", and in hindsight there's something deeply unsettling about Stanley basing his treatment of Dipper off how his father treated him (most likely down to him misinterpreting Filbrick's abuse as simply trying to toughen him up).
* {{Adorkable}}: Surprisingly at times. Particular examples include his overeager attempts to make friends in "Legend of the Gobblewonker", and shyly attempting to flirt with Lazy Susan in "Dipper vs. Manliness".
* AdultsAreUseless: Subverted. When he's first introduced he's set up as your classic useless comedic cartoon adult who seems [[WeirdnessCensor practically blind]] to all the Weirdness going on in Gravity Falls. Later on, he would prove himself a lot more shrewd that you'd expect when dealing with Gideon, and even assist the kids on a few adventures like in "Boys Crazy" or "A Land before Swine"(where he ends up kicking major ass). In season 2, it's all revealed to be [[spoiler: an act he put up to discourage the kids from investigating the supernatural for their own safety, in part because of [[GoMadFromTheRevelation what happened to his brother]]. Turns out he knew all along, has his own share of dangerous secrets, and is generally more of a complex multidimensional character than you'd ever have expected from him.]]
* AgentScully: He adamantly doesn't believe that there is anything weird going on in Gravity Falls, telling Dipper that it's all drummed up by guys like him to sell merchandise to gullible tourists. Despite this he is willing to accept the existence of living dinosaurs, with the caveat of insisting that they "don't count" as supernatural because they're just big lizards. [[spoiler:However, this is just a ruse to hide his knowledge of the journals and all of the oddities related to it.]] As of the start of season 2, [[spoiler:he's dropped the ruse and admitted to the twins that he knows about the supernatural things going on. But he still hasn't told them about his secret room or his ultimate plans, although in "Not What He Seems", the twins discover the room on their own and Stan begins to confide in them.]]
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Was a victim of bullying in his youth, which, along with his father's mistreatment, contributed to the insecurities he carries to this day.
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Has a history of going great lengths to assure that he and [[spoiler:his brother]] stay together, or get reunited, at great personal costs but also at the expense of everything else, including [[spoiler:what said brother himself might want]]. Stan even [[spoiler:spent 30 long years working to repair a portal that could destroy the universe]]. Unlike most examples, this winds up having serious repercussions as [[spoiler:the portal's reactivation ends up creating a dangerous rift in spacetime that gets his whole family targeted by Bill and is ultimately used to unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].]] Ironically, [[spoiler:said brother]] is very much a TheNeedsOfTheMany person and as such, absolutely ''furious'' at Stan for [[spoiler:reactivating the portal]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Stanford]] also finds this trait of Stan's unbearably smothering.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: It does not help that one of the cryptograms in the show's ''opening'' reads "[[spoiler:STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS.]]" It only gets even more ambiguous in "Gideon Rises", where [[spoiler:his underground lab, equipped with a large portal generator,]] is finally shown. "Scary-oke" implies he's using it to search for something, and feels confident that he won't "get caught", implying questionable safety/legality at best (which is standard for Stan) or outright villainy at worst. "Society of the Blind Eye" leans towards the former in a WellIntentionedExtremist kind of way, as both a symbol substitution cipher in the Journals and [=McGucket's=] video logs reveal [[spoiler:the Author of the Journals believed that the portal could benefit all of mankind]], while Stan acknowledges that [[spoiler:[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the risks of activating the portal]]]] mean little to him in light of the possible rewards for doing so--specifically, [[spoiler:seeing his brother again.]] Taken UpToEleven in (the admittedly non-canon) "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" -- he apparently [[spoiler:drugs a customer and put him on display in the shack because he didn't buy anything]].
* AmbiguouslyJewish: Like the rest of the family. Creator/AlexHirsch originally stated that [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/547218052178145280 the Pines family is not canonically Jewish]], but after being questioned about Journal 3 stating that Stan had a Bar Mitzvah, he [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/758547032554344448 suggested that Stan was raised Jewish and became an atheist later in life]].
* AntiHero: He may be a greedy jerk and con artist, but he does have a soft spot in his heart for the twins.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: In "Bottomless Pit!" Grunkle Stan still states that everyone's stories are far-fetched, even though he is falling through a bottomless pit even as he speaks, and even ''lived through'' one of the stories. [[spoiler:In "Scaryoke", it's made clear that this is an act, and he's very much aware of the strange goings-on around Gravity Falls.]]
* AttentionWhore: As seen in "Headhunters". The below quote is also the page quote
-->'''Grunkle Stan''': But enough about me. Behold, me!
** Also, in "Boss Mabel" when he's on Cash Wheel. In fact, he got on the show by using his "old man powers" to fake a heart attack.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Spent thirty years working to bring his brother Ford back from the portal, which Stan himself accidentally knocked him into during a fight.]]
* BadassNormal: He's just a normal guy with no special powers or cool tech, but he still punches pterodactyls in the face and kills zombies by punching them with brass knuckles.
* TheBarnum: Most of his revenue seems to come from swindling rubes in really obvious ways.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: In an epic moment of his career as a shyster [[spoiler:he gives [[DealWithTheDevil Bill Cipher]] a lousy deal of his own]].
** Very literal when he defeats Probabilitor in "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons".
* BerserkButton:
** "Irrational Treasure" shows that he ''really'' doesn't like Pioneer Day.
** Also he doesn't like being questioned about the tattoo on his back that he keeps denying, and will go nuts if someone tries to uncover it and video record it. [[spoiler: It's revealed it's actually from a burn on his back that he got in a fight with his brother, ending in his brother being sent into another dimension, which goes a long way towards explaining why he's so angry about it.]]
* BewareTheHonestOnes: Turns out Stan is much harder to deal with when he can only tell the truth as seen in "Bottomless Pit!".
* BigBrotherInstinct: He's shown to care a great deal about his twin just like Dipper for Mabel. [[spoiler:The last half of season 2 reveals that he invested a ''lot'' of time into bringing Ford back from another dimension.]]
* BigOlEyebrows: Has a practically huge grey pair.
* BookDumb: Academically miles behind [[spoiler:his brother]], [[spoiler:considered useless by his father]], no college education…still a brilliant scammer who can wring money out of anyone [[spoiler:and managed to fix the portal on his own]]. [[spoiler:In the finale, this trope ends up working to his advantage, because he literally had nothing Bill wants, which is what made his mind the perfect vessel to defeat Bill in]].
* BoxingBattler: His father made him take boxing lessons as a child, and he's shown to still have some moves in "The Land Before Swine" and "Scary-oke".
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He comes across as rather bumbling and silly over-the-top at times, but make no mistake, he's actually very sharp when he puts his mind into it, particularly as a salesman (and [[TheBarnum Con artist]]).
* BrainsAndBrawn: [[spoiler: Was the Brawn to his brother Ford's brains when they were children. Downplayed in the present, as although Stan is still the stronger of the two, he's also pretty bright in his own right and Ford is no push-over in a fight.]]
--> [[spoiler:"Good thing you got your smarts, Poindexter. I got the other thing. What's it called? Oh, right. Punching!"]]
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: His savings are stuffed inside a duffelbag hidden behind a painting in the Shack.
* BrilliantButLazy: Stan isn't stupid. He is, however, very good at making things up as he goes along, and managed to pick up enough know-how to [[spoiler: repair the portal in his basement.]] "A Tale of Two Stans" shows him being able to sell several of his con-products and later hold his own business, which is basically just one big con, which shows that he is an amazing salesman. If he had gotten a legitimate sales job he'd probably gotten rich a lot sooner.
* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: Stan's fez vaguely resembles those worn by the Shriners. He also remarks how "the boys from the lodge" won't go fishing with him.
** Journal 3 reveals that it's his father's fez, from "The Order of the Holy Mackerel".
* BruiserWithASoftCenter: Stan may be a bruiser, but he's as soft as a marshmallow when it comes to his family... not that he wouldn't threaten to punch you for pointing it out.
* CarpetOfVirility: Shown off at the end of ''Dipper Vs Manliness''. Mabel attempts to trim it as part of her makeover for him to impress Lazy Susan, but it immediately grows back.
* CerebusRetcon: It's hard to look at him the same way again when you learn that [[spoiler:his love of money is the result of being disowned by his family after accidentally sabotaging his brother's future.]]
* TheCharmer: How he manages to get customers into the Shack despite it being nothing but junk. He's a fast-thinker, and can make a joke about just about anything, and the crowds love it.
* CloudCuckooLander: While certainly not as spacey as other examples on the show, you can tell where Mabel gets it from.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: It's a given when you own the Mystery Shack.
* CombatPragmatist: His fighting advice to Dipper is along those line.
-->'''Stan''': Just bonk him over the head. It's nature's snooze button!
** And when outnumbered by zombies, he's got no problems using a grandfather clock to even the odds.
** Best demonstrated by his method of [[spoiler:taking on and defeating three government agents]] in "Not What He Seems".
* ComicalOverreacting: Ties into cloudcuckoolander - he's known to frequently engage in LargeHam actions, and he apparently considers having a mullet to be [[FauxHorrific incredibly horrifying]].
-->'''Stan''': "You think you've got problems? I've got a mullet, [[spoiler: Stanford!]]
* CompanionCube: He becomes a bit overly attached to a wax statue of himself in "Headhunters", and the end credits of "Soos and the Real Girl" show him ''marrying'' the Old Goldie statue in Las Vegas. His concern over the wax statue took a bit of a darker turn when [[spoiler:we learn it was because Stan had lost his real twin to the Portal.]]
* ConMan: Not only does Stan fool tourists with the fake attractions at the Mystery Shack, but he also has a long record of financial crimes. [[spoiler: However it comes in handy in the finale when he manages to out-con ''Bill'']]
* ConsummateLiar: He's an inveterate shyster and proud of it. This trait comes back to bite him ''hard'' in "Not What He Seems". [[spoiler:Only Mabel, who bases her decisions primarily off emotions instead of facts, is willing to trust him still after the extent of exactly ''how much'' he's lied to everyone is revealed. Even ''Soos'', who sees Stan like a father, doesn't trust him anymore.]] This is also apparently one of the reasons his father threw him out of the house as a teenager. Eventually, however, this is subtly proven to be a subversion--even though Stan is excellent at lying, even he has his tells: [[spoiler: in situations that involve his missing brother or him trying to hide something he knows a lot about, Stan crosses his arms and looks up to the side.]]
* CoolUncle: For starters, he punched a pterodactyl in the face to rescue his great-niece's pet pig.
* CounterfeitCash: Has been shown paying for merchandise with "Stan Bucks", crudely drawn fake dollar bills with his face on them. A cutaway gag shows that he also roped in Dipper and Mabel into hand-painting actual counterfeit bills.
-->'''Mabel''': The county jail was ''so cold.''
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: A silly and lazy conman he may be. But, in "The Land Before Swine" he punched a pterodactyl in the face. ''Repeatedly''. Come Season 2, he continues to show how much of a badass he is by fighting off an entire horde of ravenous zombies, half of them with his ''bare hands''. In "Not What He Seems", [[spoiler: he takes out three government agents while he's handcuffed to a chair, using a gravitational anomaly to get the drop on the agents, and manages to steal one of their wallets in the process. He's even the one that deals the final blow to Bill in the finale of the show.]]
* CuttingCorners: How Stan operates ''all'' his business ventures. Especially his carnival.
-->'''Stan''': There she is, the cheapest fair money can rent! I spared every expense. (cable car falls from the sky next to the twins)
* CurtainsMatchTheWindows: Before his hair became gray. Due to the art style it's usually impossible to tell the characters' eye colors, but Stan's are brown as [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/260514979969646592 confirmed by Alex Hirsch.]]
* TheCynic: Much like Dipper, Stan is somewhat cynical and not up for idealism and wonder, which makes his conflicts with the similarly cynical Dipper and bonding with the upbeat Mabel especially humorous. It's later revealed in "Dreamscaperers" that he's harder on Dipper ''because'' Dipper reminds him of himself.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Bullied during his early childhood, was an academic failure, [[spoiler:accidentally cost his brother a scholarship to his dream school,]] was disowned by his parents, and was forced to go on the road to fulfill the impossible task of making up for what the Pines family lost because of his horrible mistake. He spent time as a SnakeOilSalesman and failed at it miserably, getting run out of towns all over the country - and possibly in more countries, considering he claimed to have been thrown in jail in three countries. He was also forced to somehow chew his way out of a car trunk, and before [[spoiler: going to the Mystery Shack to meet his brother]], he was in a rathole apartment with only a peso to his name, and he was behind on his rent. [[spoiler: Then he accidentally threw his brother into another dimension and spent 30 years trying to get him back. Oops.]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: He wears an all-black suit, and while he may be a crook, he's one of the good guys.
* DeadpanSnarker: Much like Dipper, Stan posses a quick wit and never misses a chance to mock the silliness of those around him.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler: The real Stanford Pines, AKA The Author, has been trapped on the other side of a portal for 30 years. The Stan Pines we've been following is actually his twin brother, Stanley Pines.]] However, see "FakingTheDead" for more. [[spoiler:After Weirdmageddon was foiled, it's implied he's going by Stanley again, as the news refer to him as such]].
* DentedIron: He can throw some mean punches and is quite spry, but age has impaired his senses and a lifetime of bad eating habits has turned his body into a hot mess from the shoulders down.
* {{Determinator}}: When Stan puts his mind to it, nothing can stand in his way, be it pterodactyls, government agents, child psychos, or his own lack of knowledge of physics. The best example being how he [[spoiler:spent thirty years working on bringing his brother back from the other dimension he accidentally knocked him into. For this he completely self-taught himself how to maintain and work the Portal (all from his brother's Journal, with ''a third of the instructions'') and went as far as stealing toxic waste from the Government to pull it off.]]
* DidNotGetTheGirl: And trying to get her back didn't work out so well either, since according to him, [[spoiler:he deliberately ran his rival's car off a cliff.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the Series Finale, [[spoiler: he punches Bill in the eye while they're both inside his mind, causing him to shatter into a million pieces.]]
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: [[spoiler: Nobody out-cons Stanley Pines. Not even Bill Cipher.]]
* DiscoDan: He still uses vinyl, doesn't understand texting and the interior of the Mystery Shack is straight out of the 1970s/early 80's.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: "Road safety laws, prepare to be ignored!" He also has cataracts and broken headlights. And then there's the time he let a bear drive the car... though [[BlatantLies he had a prescription from Doctor Medicine for that]].
* DumbassNoMore: Compared to how he was in his youth, where he relied on his GoodOldFisticuffs to stay ahead and [[spoiler:was unequivocally the Brawn to Stanford's Brains]], Stan's main strengths in the present is easily his craftiness and silver tongue. There is also the fact that he [[spoiler:taught himself enough theoretical physics to successfully repair the portal Ford was working on]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: ''Hot Belgian Waffles, did he!'' [[spoiler:After 10 years living on the streets, 30 years of working on the Portal, and Weirdmageddon, Stan finally reconciles with Ford, is named the town hero, and the two decide to travel the world together on the Stan-o-War II.]]
* EasilyForgiven: Despite the fact that Stanley outright lied to them about his intentions and deliberately withold information from them, as soon as Dipper, Mabel, and Soos heard his story, they immediately forgave him without any signs of distrust towards him. This is especially the case for the former considering that Dipper isn't really the type to let go of grudged easily as shown with Pacifica.
* ExactWords: Stan says he doesn't have a tattoo. He's not lying. [[spoiler: It's actually a ''brand'' burned into his back by accident.]]
* EyepatchOfPower: Wears a superfluous one while the Shack is open.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Stanley faked his own death and is the Stan Pines the headline "Stan Pines Dead" was about.]]
* FamilyThemeNaming: Stanly and Standford as well as their brother Shermie(Mabel and Dipper's grandfather)
* FanDisservice: Rips off his shirt in "Dipper vs. Manliness". Not pretty. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Dipper moments after.
* FatSlob: [[PlayedforLaughs Played for Laughs]] in "Dipper vs. Manliness". After telling Mabel she had to marry Gideon in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel", to which she ran out of the room screaming, he assumed she was upset by his appearance.
-->'''Stan''': (calling after her) Bodies change, honey! Bodies change...
* FatalFlaw:
** In a way surprisingly similar to Dipper, it becomes apparent that Stan has issues with trust and confiding in others. He often lies to avoid having to do so, which comes back to bite him in ''Not What He Seems''. If he had trusted the twins with the truth earlier, the episode probably would have been far less traumatic for all of them.
** Stan's temper also proved to be another one, [[spoiler: it led to him accidentally destroying his brother's science project, ruining his chance of getting into his dream college, and severely damaging their relationship. It was this again which caused him to accidentally knock his brother into the Portal, meaning the two didn't see each other for thirty years. And this ''again'' very nearly led to Bill winning after Stan broke a magic circle to attack Ford over his grammar being corrected.]]
** The flashbacks in "A Tale of Two Stans" shows that he has (or [[CharacterDevelopment had]]) a familiar problem with oblivious selfishness. [[spoiler: He automatically assumed that his brother wouldn't want to go to the best college in the country, so they would stay together as they did as children, completely oblivious to what his brother actually wanted. When he finally realized Stanford was seriously considering the offer, he felt extremely threatened and hurt because he saw this as his brother choosing to leave him behind. His acting out over this is what started the collapse of their good relationship, and being reminded of this old pain is what causes his fits of anger listed above.]]
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: [[spoiler: Adding more parallels with Dipper and Mabel, flashbacks to their youth show that Stan was the foolish to the Author's responsible, showing The Author studying diligently on a test while Stan kicks his feet up on the desk one over. It's a bit more complicated in the present; Stan recognizes that the weird stuff in town is ''highly dangerous'', and that the kids should stay away from it. However, his method to do this was to put on an act of SelectiveObliviousness, shrugging any claims of monsters as imagination, while at the same time tinkering with the Portal, the most dangerous thing in Gravity Falls. Ford actually calls Stan out on his recklessness.]]
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Cynic. Stan is a reasonably cynical man, not one up for wonder and idealism, he prefers to focus on practical matters. It's down to his experiences he is like this, as a "Tale of Two Stans" shows he used to be lot more optimistic before [[spoiler:he lost his relationship with his brother]].
* FreudianExcuse: He's greedy for a reason, namely that [[spoiler:he got kicked out of the house before graduating high school, told he couldn't come back until he made his family a fortune, and left to fend for himself.]]
* FriendlessBackground: The only friends he seems to have made in life are [[spoiler: his twin brother]] and two Colombian criminals who hoped he died. Which might explain some of his {{Jerkass}} behavior.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric: Ambitious with a hair-trigger temper.
* GagNose: His nose looks like it belonged to a [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet]].
* GeniusBruiser: Although old, Stan is still a powerful figure and likewise proves he can tangle with the best of them, being a brilliant fighter. He's likewise very strong and very quick for his age. However Stan also shows on multiple occasions he's highly intelligent, being an incredibly shrewd and cunning man, able to match wits with the likes of Gideon and Dipper, and win. Business skills aside, he's also clearly got a pretty good understanding of advanced science considering [[spoiler: how well he was able to operate and maintain the portal]]. Made all the more impressive with the reveal he [[spoiler:is completely self taught, in both science and showmanship.]]
* GoshDarnItToHeck: Suddenly having to hang around with two kids [[NotInFrontOfTheKid has forced him to tone down his language]]. This is addressed and parodied in a scene in "Not What He Seems".
* GottaCatchThemAll: [[spoiler: Stan's got Journal #1, and he's been looking for #2 and #3 for years to complete the set. He finally got all 3 at the end of Gideon Rises.]]
--->'''Stan''': After all these years... [[spoiler: Finally, we have them all.]]
* {{Greed}}: His desire to make money is the driving force behind his work ethic.
-->"''My one and only dream - which was to possess money - has come true!''"
** Played with in that it's revealed that a lot of the money he makes goes toward [[spoiler:repairing the portal in order to save Stanford. And he spent about ten years in continuous poverty.]]
* GrumpyOldMan: Very fond of complaining.
* GunNut: We never see them, but he claims to own ten guns [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext due to his fear of ladders.]]
* HairTriggerTemper: Stan has a quick temper, to the point he near ruined his commercial over him constantly mispronouncing a word. It is not a good idea to be on the receiving end of his temper.
* HeroAntagonist: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel discover that Stan has been hiding a lot from them. [[spoiler: He has acquired multiple fake [=IDs=], assumed the identity of a dead man, stole radioactive waste from the government, been in possession of Journal #1 the entire time they've known him, and both constructed and activated the Universe Portal, a device capable of annihilating the entire planet. For the first time, the kids have to fight Stan himself. However, when Mabel chooses to trust Stan and allow the device to activate, his motives are quickly made clear.]]
--> '''Stan''': I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!
* HeroicBuild: Had one as a younger man and uses a dapper suit to make it look like he still does.
* HeroicBSOD: Had one after he [[spoiler:accidentally flung his brother into another dimension]]. He could have been in the shack for anywhere from weeks to months.
* HeroicComedicSociopath:
** His {{greed}} verges on this now and then, but his RefugeInAudacity on-screen criminal behavior and his ChildHater tendencies (toward Gideon - not his family) place him firmly in this territory.
-->'''Stan''': "Yes, yes... ''Burn the child''..."
** The various crimes he manages to pull off [[RefugeInAudacity on-screen]] also cross into this.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: He sacrifices his mind in the finale in order to trap and weaken Bill enough to destroy him. Thankfully, as shown with [=McGucket=] and having not been mindwiped long, he managed to regain his memory just due to being reminded of it thanks to Mabel's scrapebook.]]
* HeyYou: He often addresses Dipper and Mabel as "kid", apparently simply due to his gruff personality.
* HiddenDepths: Despite being considered an idiot by his parents and teachers, he was able to [[spoiler:secretly repair Ford's dimensional portal by himself with nothing but his brother's journals to aid him.]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: Most of the exhibits in his House of Mystery are fake. It's deconstructed, as "Boss Mabel" implies that while he could get real oddities for the Mystery Shack like Dipper did, they would be difficult (if not impossible) to control and would terrify and/or hurt customers.
* IHaveNoSon:
** [[spoiler: After it becomes clear that Ford has no interest in reconciling with his brother and won't even say "thank you" for bringing him back to our dimension, Stan point blank tells him that Mabel and Dipper are the only family he has left as far as he is concerned.]]
** [[spoiler:Stan himself was also disinherited because he accidentally ruined Ford's chance to get into his dream college]].
** Played for laughs when Stan warned the twins that if they started talking like pioneers on Pioneer Day, then he would disown them.
-->'''Stan''': "You're dead to me. DEAD TO ME!"
* IJustWantToBeLoved: [[spoiler:Stan's family disowned him when he accidentally broke Stanford's science project, so he treasures the relationship he has with Dipper and Mabel. He initially wanted to reconcile with Ford, but their combative behavior and mutual stubbornness makes it impossible for now]]. This is a driving force behind many of his decisions, such as announcing his candidacy for mayor.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: In "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", he spends most of his time looking for fishing buddies.
* IndyPloy: Stan is almost preternaturally good at this. He survived for years with nothing but his wits and a baseball bat, has apparently escaped by the skin of his teeth ([[LiteralMetaphor perhaps literally,]] [[NoodleIncident given that he somehow chewed his way out of a car trunk]]) multiple times, and managed to turn his brother's house into a passable tourist trap and thriving business by making it up as he went along.
* IWasQuiteALooker: So much so that tumblr fans are calling his his younger self [[FanNickname "Hunkle Stan"]]. For reference, here's a flashback to him in the 70's. Hello, [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_s1e17_stan_and_carla_dancin2_6100.png Handsome]].
* IconicOutfit: Grunkle Stan is usually seen in a fez and a black tuxedo. When sitting around the house, he is almost always dressed in nothing but a tanktop, blue-striped boxers, and the fez.
* ItMakesSenseInContext: InUniverse, he claims the picture in "Gideon Rises" of him in a devil suit in front of a wall of fire is this.
-->'''Stan''': That picture's taken out of context.
* JacobAndEsau: Downplayed. [[spoiler:His father seemed cold and resentful toward his "wimpy" sons in general but valued Stanford as his talents might make the family money, while his mother - possibly because of their similar personalities - seemed at least ''somewhat'' fond of Stanley, calling him her "little free spirit", but ultimately didn't lift a finger when her husband decided to throw him out of the house.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: In "Boss Mabel", it is shown that his iron handed rule over the Mystery Shack, use of fake exhibits in the museum and strict no-refunds policies are in fact necessary to run the Shack properly. When Mabel attempts to run things her way, Soos and Wendy either take advantage of her lax attitudes or screw up their jobs, putting real monsters in the Shack proves to be a disaster that hospitalizes two visitors, and Mabel's liberal refund policies ends up costing them nearly all their earnings.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Even though he's a greedy con artist and can be a bit of a {{Jerkass}} overall, deep down he truly does care about his niece and nephew.
** In "Double Dipper", he claps for Mabel when everyone was voting for her via applause. Granted, the other candidate, Pacifica, is a {{rich|Bitch}} AlphaBitch, but it goes to show that he really cares for Mabel and wanted to support her, even if he usually doesn't show it.
** And in "Dipper vs. Manliness" he's the one to tell Dipper that standing up for what he believed in was a manly thing to do.
** And in the very first episode, he let Mabel and Dipper choose something from the shop to cheer them up.
** Really shows through in "Boyz Crazy", where he not only immediately agrees to help Dipper expose [[spoiler:Robbie's mind control of Wendy through subliminal messaging in music (even if partially motivated by his own experiences as a young man)]], but also tells Dipper, [[spoiler:after Wendy angrily brushes him off, that he can just hang out with him until things sort out with Wendy.]] This is the best father figure moment for Stan in the series thus far. Plus, he was more than willing to give Dipper TheTalk in "Carpet Diem", when you'd think he'd be the kind of character to avoid doing that. [[spoiler:Even if it was Mabel in Dipper's body. [[ItMakesSenseInContext It's an odd show.]]]]
** In "Land before Swine" he [[spoiler: saves Waddles from a pterodactyl]] out of sheer love for Mabel.
** "Dreamscaperers" shows that even though Stan is tough on Dipper by making him do terrible chores like cleaning the toilet and chopping firewood, [[spoiler: he does it to toughen him up so he learns to fight back.]]
** In "Gideon Rises", when he feels like he finally lost to Gideon, he's very disheartened that the kids have to suffer with him too, and while down on his luck and almost out of money, with what little he has left he buys bus tickets to send the twins home. Thankfully though, it got better, but still.
** "Not What He Seems" and his back story show [[spoiler: his conman career was ten years in barely surviving poverty without even a high school diploma trying to earn his way back into his family,]] and that the only reason he's even been living in Gravity Falls for the last thirty years is [[spoiler: to fix the portal his brother built and bring him back to atone for accidentally sending him through it in the first place.]]
* JerkassRealization: After his petty grudge with Ford ended up ruining the chance to truly stop Bill, Stan realizes just how much of petty jerk he is to Ford and blames himself for it. The latter, having the same realization, reassures him that it's not entirely his fault and in the end, they finally decide to bury the hatchet in order to stop Bill in the process.
* KleptomaniacHero: Stan will gleefully and shamelessly steal anything he wants or needs. [[BrutalHonesty Often while outright saying it straight to the rightful owner's faces.]]
-->'''Man''': These wax statues come at a ''terrible price!''\\
'''Stan''': $20? I'll steal them while you're distracted.\\
'''Man''': What?\\
'''Stan''': I said I'm going to rob you.
* LaResistance: [[spoiler:Though he only gets one brief scene in "Weirdmageddon", in "Weirdmageddon Part 2" it turns out Stan was alive and well, hiding out in the Shack and leading a holdout against Bill]].
* LanternJawOfJustice: Though the "Justice" part is definitely in question.
* LargeHam: Part-and-parcel of being a showman, he tends to ham it up during tours of the Mystery Shack... of course, not that he doesn't display similar tendencies ''outside'' of that.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Despite [[spoiler:the reveal of him knowing all about the general weirdness of the town, he still seems to have no idea of Bill Cipher's existence, or that it's why Ford was so angry at him for turning the portal back on. Stan ''chose'' not to care because of personal grievances against his brother]].
* LovableRogue: While immoral, shady and sometimes outright criminal, Stan remains a beloved character, and makes it clear that he is good at heart- to the audience. The people in-universe are far less lenient; It's stated as early as the second episode that Stan has no friends ("The guys at the lodge don't 'like' or 'trust' me."), due to his dishonest business practices. His campaign for mayor was torpedoed by his own crime record, [[spoiler: "A Tale of Two Stans" strongly implies that his amoral tendencies were the reason he got disowned by his family, the accidental ruining of Ford's college admissions being TheLastStraw. His attempts to get rich through various scams and swindles all ended in failure. The only place a blatant criminal like Stan can operate more-or-less unhindered is Gravity Falls with its stupid populace.]]
* MadeOfIron: In "Not What He Seems", he gets slammed into a metal pipe hard enough to buckle the metal and crack the stone wall behind it, and he's ''completely unharmed''. Its shown in "The Tale of Two Stans" he's had this from childhood, as he didn't even notice the multiple splinters in his hands (from breaking a plank) until he saw them.
* MeanBoss: He yells at his employees a lot, [[JustifiedTrope but his strictness is how he can keep things in order]]. When Mabel acted as the BenevolentBoss, she was taken advantage of by Wendy and run up the wall by Soos' ineptitude.
* MessianicArchetype: [[spoiler: He sacrifices himself to save everyone from the resident SatanicArchetype, and he gets better soon after, but he will forever be remembered for it]].
* MiserAdvisor: Stan sometimes takes this role with the twins, especially Dipper.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: [[spoiler: Stan's belief in this is why he's so tough on Dipper. It's also why Stan's father had him take boxing lessons.]] Starting to move towards a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]], as it's shown that [[spoiler: his father's treatment of him gave him huge and long-lasting emotional scars. Not only that, but him singling Dipper out to give him this treatment made their relationship crash so badly Dipper was convinced Stan legitimately ''hated'' him and it nearly drove him to [[StoppedCaring stop caring]] about Stan completely. Despite Dipper now knowing that Stan is trying to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this, it still causes major underlying emotional tensions that haven't been entirely dealt with.]]
* MoneyFetish: Stan's love of money, sometimes borders on obsession, he shamelessly (and unnecessarily) strips when he get an opportunity to go in the money shower.
* MysteriousPast: He claims to be from the east coast originally, and that Gravity Falls is the only town where the police don't know where he is. "Not What He Seems" shows that he's accrued a number of false [=IDs=] over the years. It's revealed later on that he's from New Jersey, in "the lead paint district." [[spoiler: That said, there's still things we don't know, like how he was jailed in three countries and escaped, what he did when he "went around the world", and why he escaped a car trunk by chewing his way out.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:He accidentally sent his twin brother through an interdimensional portal during the middle of a nasty fight. He had spent years living with that memory on his mind. He had been collecting the Journals, hoping to one day be reunited with his long-lost brother.]]
* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: [[spoiler: After losing his twin brother Stanford to an alien dimension 30 years prior to the series, Stan took on his name and identity so as not to arouse suspicion. As of the real Stanford's return, he has been given until the end of the summer to return his identity to its rightful owner.]]
* NeverMyFault: Shows shades of this in ''Land Before Swine'' when he claims "It's not my fault your pig's potentially delicious!". [[spoiler: That said, it's still an improvement over how he used to be, with him telling his brother he ruined his life, only for his brother to shoot back that yes, Grunkle Stan ruined his own life.]] He's [[CharacterDevelopment grown out of this as the show's progressed]], being fully willing to acknowledge that he's screwed up. As proof of this, [[spoiler: he doesn't even end up blaming anyone for his own misfortunes in ''A Tale of Two Stans''. In the present, anyway. However he constantly blamed Ford for causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Yes, Ford ''did'' build the portal and it was a huge mistake and was a potential for disaster, but Stan is equally accountable for blatantly disregarding ''every single written instruction'' by Ford ''not'' to use the portal for any reason whatsoever, even if it was to save him, and Stan's one use of the portal led to the left over rift that Bill was able to open. That said, after ruining the destiny circle which almost gave Bill complete victory, Stan does come to realize this and even blames himself after seeing Bill nearly kill Dipper and Mabel]].
* NerdGlasses: Started wearing glasses as part of [[spoiler:his attempts to impersonate Ford. Since he never ''stops'' wearing them, it's probable he legitimately needs them now.]]
** [[WordofGod Alex Hirsch]] [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/651585206982348800 has confirmed that Stan has always needed glasses]], [[JustifiedTrope he just refused to wear them]] ''[[JustifiedTrope because]]'' [[JustifiedTrope he thought they made him look lame]].
* NiceHat: He's never seen without his fez, except in "Little Dipper" and when he goes on vacation in "Boss Mabel".
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** [[spoiler: He manages to get enough material to re-power the portal and bring his brother back into the main dimension. But unwittingly created a dimensional rift in the process which is why Ford was angry at him upon returning as he knows Bill needs the rift to cross over. However Stan is never told this.]]
** In the finale, [[spoiler: Ford manages to make a destiny circle that could potentially defeat Bill. However Stan was needed for it and, just as it was being powered up, got into an argument with Ford over grammar. This gave time for Bill to return and stop them, nearly costing everyone. Luckily Stan made up for it.]]
%% * TheNicknamer
* NotInFrontOfTheKid: As revealed in a security tape from "Not What He Seems", his frequent use of "GoshDarnItToHeck" actually stems from him making an effort to watch his language when Dipper and Mabel are around. He's quite gleeful when he gets a chance to ''actually'' cuss when he's alone.
-->'''Stan''' ''(drops a barrel [[spoiler:of radioactive waste]] on his foot)'' Gah! HOT BELGIAN WAFFLES! Wait... I'm alone! I can swear ''for real! (takes deep breath)'' SON OF A-- ([[MoodWhiplash Dipper pauses the tape]] [[CurseCutShort while Mabel]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny covers her ears]])
* NotSoDifferent: From Bill. Both are theatrical conmen with tons of charisma and guided by a ''ruthless'' personal objectivity, to the point where in the Weirdmageddon version of the show's intro, Stan is replaced by Bill predominantly. [[spoiler: It's this very shared trait that spells the end for Bill.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: "Boss Mabel" hints that Grunkle Stan might know more than he lets on. [[spoiler: "Gideon Rises" confirms it. Stan has had Journal #1 the whole time, and in this episode manages to obtain #2 from Gideon and #3 from Dipper. He uses them to activate some sort of machine, which began to use to search for his brother as of "Scary-oke".]]
* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Stan, a man old enough to be a great uncle, vs Gideon, a psychopathic child, though admittedly Stan usually takes a unwitting backseat to the twins when fighting Gideon.
* OneManArmy: Wipes the floor with the zombies attacking the Mystery Shack.
* OneSteveLimit: Subverted - [[spoiler: his name is actually Stanley (see DeadPersonImpersonation) and his brother's name is Stanford, though his brother has thankfully dispelled any confusion by preferring to be known as Great-Uncle Ford.]] The show chalks this up to his father being unimaginative.
* OnlySaneMan: [[spoiler: He's the only one in Gravity Falls who recognizes that all of the weird and supernatural happenings are '''highly dangerous''', which is why he tries to dissuade Dipper from investigating them.]]
* OutOfFocus: Rather jarringly too considering he is one of the main characters, but after [[Recap/GravityFallsS2E12ATaleOfTwoStans "A Tale of Two Stans"]], most of his appearances aren't tied to the MythArc of the series and his two focus episodes are {{Filler}} at best. Averted in the series finale where he gets a ton of focus regarding his resentment of [[spoiler: his brother. He is even the one who comes up with the plan that ultimately defeats Bill by performing a HeroicSacrifice.]]
* PapaWolf: Despite having very questionable morals and standards, he does obviously care about Mabel and Dipper. Enough to [[spoiler: drop some heavy, extensive research it took him ''years'' to find,]] in order to protect the twins from a group of hungry zombies, and ''winning''. He also tells [[spoiler: his brother Stanford]] to stay away from the Twins, mainly because [[spoiler: his research could put them in danger]].
** In the series finale he [[spoiler:pulls the old TwinSwitch with Ford on Bill, allowing him to trap the demon in his mind when Bill enters his head while Ford uses the Memory Eraser gun to delete both Stan's mind and Bill. He even manages to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu deliver a punch that destroys Bill]] before his mind is fully erased.]] Why? Because [[spoiler:Bill]] made the mistake of messing with his family.
* ParentalFavoritism:
** Was at the less fortunate end of this as a child.
** Subverted with Dipper and Mabel. Because he's more permissive and openly affectionate toward the latter, both kids assume that Mabel is his favorite, with [[TheUnfavorite Dipper even doubting whether Stan cares about him at all]] at one point. The truth is a lot more complicated as [[spoiler:Stan's own father figure was emotionally distant and Dipper strongly reminds him of both his estranged brother and his own younger self, leading Stan to be harder on him to toughen him up and spare him both his and his brother's mistakes]]. He has actually got a real soft spot for the boy as we see whenever he tries to give him advice, or when Mabel (in Dipper's body) tries to annoy him to assure Dipper doesn't get the new room, only for Stan to react with ''fondness'' and praise "Dipper" for finally standing up to him.
* ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler:After Soos realized that [[DisappearedDad his father]] [[ParentalAbandonment ran away from his family]], Soos began working for Stan so that he can have a new father figure in his life.]]
* PermaStubble: Never grows a beard but never seems to shave.
* PetTheDog: Grunkle Stan gets a moment like this after feeling guilty for insulting Dipper and Mabel and lets each of them take anything they want from the Mystery Shack. In true Grunkle Stan fashion, he tells them to do it before he changes his mind. He also saves Waddles because he wants Mabel to talk to him again and in "Dreamscaperers" when we find out why he's so tough on Dipper.
* PlayingGertrude: Stan is 60+ years old. His voice actor, [[DescendedCreator series creator]] Creator/AlexHirsch just turned 30 in 2015.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Stan is a greedy shyster, [[spoiler: contrast his super-genius brother, Ford, who appears to be well-intentioned.]]
* PreMortemOneLiner: Delivers a fantastic one in the series finale [[spoiler:to Bill.]]
--> '''Stan''': You're a real wise guy, but you made one fatal mistake. [[PapaWolf You messed with my family.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: His claim [[spoiler:to have denied the existence of the supernatural in Gravity Falls was because he believed it to be dangerous. Considering how many of the strange things and oddities have tried to hurt the twins, he's got a point.]]
* RageBreakingPoint: He goes through one when Gideon takes the best pool chair in "The Deep End".
--->'''Grunkle Stan''': '''''GIDEON!''''' '''GET OUT OF MY''' '''''CHAIR, KID!!'''''
* RealityEnsues:
** Stan gets away with A LOT of crime, mostly due to RuleOfFunny, but the buck decidedly stops at [[spoiler:stealing toxic waste from the United States Government. Theft of government property NEVER goes unnoticed]].
** Also, [[spoiler: his criminal record gets him disqualified from the election of Gravity Falls' new mayor]].
** Despite Stan's good intentions, his treating Dipper as TheUnfavorite to [[ToughLove toughen him up]] (by mocking Dipper whenever the opportunity hits, making Dipper do most of the hard and dangerous work around the Shack, and refusing to express any positive feedback towards him lest he "get a big head") drove Dipper to dislike him immensely and almost destroyed their relationship entirely.
* RealMenWearPink: After the BigNo, Stan gets really into ''The Duchess Approves'' (think ''Series/DowntonAbbey'') in ''[[GravityFallsS1E5TheInconveniencing The Inconveniencing]]'' (to the point of throwing the TV out the window out of rage at one of the plot elements).
* RedOniBlueOni: The red to [[spoiler:his twin brother Ford's]] blue.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: His real name is Stanley, and he has a twin brother named Stanford, who is the author of the journals. When Stanford got flung into the portal, Stanley faked his death and took on Stanford's name and identity.]]
* RockBottom: Has ended up at this ''[[JerkassWoobie three times that we've seen]]'' in the show - [[spoiler: the first was when he was disowned and kicked out of the house while he was still in high school, the second was when he threw his brother into AnotherDimension, and the third was when Gideon kicked him out of his own house.]]
** It is hard to say whether the Colombian jail sentence was one of those, as he seemed pretty chipper about something that would be the low point of anybody else's life.
* SandInMyEyes: Two of the times we've ever seen Stan get teary-eyed (once during the funeral for his wax replica and the other when Mabel knit him an "Our Hero" sash), Stan has the tendency to say he's got something in them rather than admit he's crying.
* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler:His tattoo is actually a burn scar he received during a scuffle with his brother Ford 30 years ago.]]
* {{Schemer}}: Stan is a very cunning man, and normally concocts a variety of schemes, normally to help him make more money.
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: He's rude, grumpy and money-grubbing and makes no secret of it. He's also old, so he can get away with it.
* ScrewySquirrel: In "Little Shack of Horrors".
* SelfMadeMan: [[spoiler: Was disowned by his father before he even graduated high school, he spent years trying to enter personal sales himself, and after many failures finally found one that worked, namely the Mystery Shack.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Manly Man to Dipper's Sensitive Guy. Of the two Stan's more gruff and unfeeling, preferring to focus on more practical matters, also when working or doing something serious he is highly dedicated and a no nonsense figure. Unlike Dipper, he's also far better at hiding his fears and concerns, though he has his tells.
* SharpDressedMan: His default outfit.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: If Dipper and Ford actually managed to seal the rift which directly prevents Bill from unleashing Weirdmageddon, Stanley would have surely suffered this fate. Basically, the entire reason he worked for 30 years in the Shack is that he hoped that he could bring back his brother from the other dimension, after he accidentally sent him to it following a fight. He hoped to make up with his brother after all he had done. What he gets instead is Ford greeting him with a punch and outright refusing to forgive, thank or even reconcile with him, completely ignoring the fact that he wasted 30 years just to save him. Instead Stan is demanded to relinquish ownership of his identity and house and abandon the whole Mystery Shack forever. As a result, everything Stanley had done felt like a complete waste of his time and he disowns his brother in the process. Weirdmageddon helps subverts this by having Stan finally reconcile with his brother, the very thing that he strived to do in the first place and go out into the sea with Ford as his childhood dream.
* SitcomArchNemesis:
** With Gideon; until the events of "Gideon Rises", Stan never treats Gideon as a serious threat (except to his bottom line), but rather an irritating little pest who has to be occasionally swatted out of the Shack with a broom. Whenever they meet casually in public, they're shown to antagonize one another in exceedingly petty ways, and Stan's dialogue in "Dreamscaperers" implies that he's been foiled off-screen as well.
** Bud, as Stan's direct business competitor when it comes to scamming the townspeople, also gets this treatment; when their "truce" falls apart, Stan even steals a velvet clown painting from Bud's home and runs off. It only gets worse in "The Stanchurian Candidate", when both run for mayor and Bud immediately resorts to cheap shots.
* SkywardScream: In "Irrational Treasure" after going through a HumiliationConga:
-->'''Stan''': '''PIONEER DAY!!!!'''
* SmallNameBigEgo: Generally not liked among the town, despite playing himself up as this grand mysterious figure. The town eventually [[spoiler:warms up to him a bit after the events of "Gideon Rises".]]
* TheSmartGuy: Much like Dipper, Stan is a lot smarter and more cunning than he lets on. Scenes from "Not What He Seems" even show his report card with consistent As, except in Gym class. [[spoiler:However, it seems that report card was actually his brother's, with a flashback in "A Tale of Two Stans" presenting him as a comparatively lazy and poor student in comparison. Never the less, through pure effort he managed to teach himself nearly everything he knows.]]
* SmarterThanYouLook: Managed to outwit Gideon in "Little Dipper", Dipper in "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained: Stan's Tattoo", and even [[spoiler: Bill in the finale]]. [[spoiler: He also managed to teach himself enough about theoretical physics and the fringe science Ford was working on to restore the portal to working use. He only really needed the journals in order to figure out how to turn it back on when he had done so.]]
* SmokeOut: He enjoys using smoke bombs, in his showmanship with the mystery shack, to further entertain and con the masses into giving him money.
* SnakeOilSalesman: Once tried to market shards of broken glass as rare and valuable crystals, and sells spray-painted rocks under the guise of them being gold nuggets. It's later revealed that he spent a lot of time as this before he came to run the Mystery Shack. It went horribly wrong, with him managing to become BannedFromArgo in almost every state in the country.
** [[spoiler: It's this quality that makes Ford believe Stan would've seen right through Bill Cipher's trickery at the very first moment.]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: The one Pines Bill never took interest in was the one Pines he should have always watched out for.]]
* StealthMentor: Making Dipper do difficult chores is Stan's sneaky way of preparing him to fight back as revealed in "Dreamscaperers". It seems to be working.
* StepfordSmiler: A minor case; Stan seems to genuinely love most aspects of his life, such as scamming people and spending time with his young charges, "A Tale of Two Stans" [[spoiler: hints that underneath it all is a man who's haunted by the guilt of sending his brother into another dimension. After Ford comes back and makes clear his intent to take back his house and name after the summer, Stan covers it up with his usual gruff nature.]]
* StreetSmart: As expected of any self-respecting carny, Stan is shrewd, has a knack for deception, and is good at thinking on his feet.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: "Dreamscaperers" shows that Stan looks a lot like his father. Kid Stan even looks a little like Dipper. [[spoiler: Stan and his brother also look extremely similar to each other, to the point where in the past it was possible to confuse them. And, as Bill discovers to his chagrin, even in the modern day after a clothes swap.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Especially when it comes to [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Soos]] and [[TheSlacker Wendy]].
--> I'd fire all of you if I could.
* TallDarkAndHandsome[=/=]TallDarkAndSnarky: Believe it or not. It's more noticeable in "Little Dipper", when he's seen without his fez.
* TechnologicallyBlindElders: He mistook a CD for a record player, and doesn't know what "texting a photo to someone" is. When Gideon claims to have kidnapped Dipper and Mabel in "Little Dipper" and offers to send him proof, Stan can't even understand him.
-->'''Gideon''': I have them in my possession! You don't believe me? I will text you a photo!\\
'''Stan''': "Text me a photo?" Now you're not even speakin' English!\\
'''Gideon''': But-\\
'''Stan''': (hangs up)
* ThemeTwinNaming: [[spoiler: He and his twin brother (The Author) are named Stanley and Stanford, respectively]].
* ThickerThanWater: Stan would risk causing the apocalypse to [[spoiler: bring back his brother.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: In his youth, he was severely picked on; Stan's dad had him take boxing lessons, and in his senior years, he still knows how to fight.
* TookALevelInKindness: He becomes a much nicer person in season 2, which must be due to his [[spoiler:confession knowing about all the weirdness in Gravity Falls all along.]]
* TopHeavyGuy: Cuts quite a triangular figure while wearing his tux; even without it on, he's been shown to have [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gravityfalls/images/f/fe/S1e17_stocking_up_for_apocalypse.png a very broad chest and shoulders, thick arms, and skinny legs]] (it all just happens to get a little overshadowed by his gut).
* ToughLove: A [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]]. Stan's father, Filbrick Pines, was an [[ParentalAbuse emotionally abusive]] {{Jerkass}}. Stan, however, seems to have read his actions as tough love even if it most definitely wasn't, and decided that following dad's example was the best way to toughen up Dipper. [[RealityEnsues It made their relationship crash so badly Dipper became convinced Stan hated him and wanted him gone]]. Even with knowing Stan does care, there are still signs Dipper's keeping a lot of bad feelings about this bottled up.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He's shown in one episode to like Toffee Peanuts. It's to the point where, [[spoiler: in the very same episode, in a flashback to back when he and Ford were in high school, a bag of Toffee Peanuts at the scene was all Ford needed to incriminate Stan for sabotaging his science experiment]].
* {{Tritagonist}}: Stan gets the third largest amount of focus, after Dipper and Mabel.
* {{Tsundere}}: Shows shades of a platonic form of this towards the kids at times. He tries to continue this act during the series finale (in a [[TearJerker gut wrenching]] kind of way).
--> '''Stan Pines''': (tearfully) [[BlatantLies You kids were nothing but a nuisance and I'm glad to be ridda ya.]]
* TheUnfavorite: Was this in his family since he apparently didn't contribute to them as a teenager. And really got strengthened when his father threw him out of the house after he [[spoiler:accidentally broke Stanford's machine and ruined his chances to go to his dream college]]. His father even accused him of [[spoiler:riding on his brother's coattails]].
* UnreliableNarrator: In a number of his flashbacks, [[spoiler: he's designed to look like a composite between himself and Ford (not to mention his memories painting his dad as being not a heartless jackass).]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:All of Stan's efforts to bring his brother back (after having set in motion the chain of events that trapped him offworld in the first place) created a chain of bad events that lead up to the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. His efforts to bring Ford back left behind an unstable dimensional rift, every subsequent event related to that MacGuffin slowly created tension between Dipper and Mabel, especially with Dipper spending more time with Ford. Mabel's broken emotional state over the idea of being apart from Dipper made her vulnerable to Bill Cipher's manipulations. It doesn't help that Stan disregarded every warning against using the portal, and now everyone, including himself has to suffer the consequences of his foolishness. He also agitated the first signs of an emotional rift between Mabel and Dipper by joining with and at times even encouraging Mabel to pick on Dipper for the sake of "humorous" jokes. This alienated Dipper emotionally from both Stan and Mabel, adding to the reasons Dipper would choose to spend most of his time with Ford when he arrived--since not only was Ford his idol, but he also didn't pick on Dipper like the rest of the family. It's this choice that convinced Mabel her paranoia over their relationship was legitimate, which built until she reached her breaking point in "Dipper and Mabel Vs. The Future".]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Growing up, he wasn't much of a troublemaker. However, [[spoiler:getting disowned by his family]] forced him to become a criminal just to survive, resulting in the bitter old man that he is today.
* VanityLicensePlate: If you look closely, the plate on Grunkle Stan's car says "STNLY MBL." Which is odd, since according to Gideon, his full name is 'Stanford'. [[spoiler: His real name is actually Stanley, but he faked his death and took up his brother's name Stanford while he went missing in the portal]].
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving:
** He used to have a crush on Lazy Susan. But when he finally went out on a date with her, he decided that she looked "weird up close", and quickly bailed.
** [[spoiler: He spent thirty years desperately trying to rescue his brother from the portal, only to be reminded of how strained their relationship was once Stanford was back. It's not a total loss however, as Stan does want Dipper's happiness, and if his brother can make that happen, he won't stand in their way.]]
* WeirdnessCensor: [[spoiler: {{Subverted|Trope}}. If the end of "Gideon Rises" tells us anything, he knew about all the weird stuff. In "Scaryoke" he all out admits to knowing, but claimed otherwise in an attempt to keep Dipper and Mabel from getting too close and being in danger.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Disowned by his father for accidentally ruining their chance at a fortune, Stan spent years trying and make money to be accepted back. Fittingly, one of the books he owns is called ''Daddy Issues'']].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Was willing to [[spoiler:risk [[DivideByZero the destruction of the universe]] if it meant seeing his brother Ford again. He did, but as a result created an inter-dimensional rift capable of bridging the physical world with one of pure nightmare, which was why his brother was uncomfortable with Stan using the portal to save him in the first place. While Ford managed to contain the rift at first, Stan having saved him at all set off a chain of events that threw the Pines Family dynamic into disarray, ending with the rift getting released into the world anyway]].
* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:In their childhood, Stan and his brother Stanford were each other's OnlyFriend and did everything together. Because of an accident and their father throwing Stan out for costing their family a fortune and Stanford his dream school, their relationship was strained. Over 10 years later, Stanford called Stan to Gravity Falls. It wasn't to reconcile, but to ask him to hide the last of his journals and he still blames him for ruining his chances, despite Stanford managing to still gain a [=Ph.D.=] and a large amount of money. Their fight landed Stanford in another dimension that Stan has been trying to free him from 30 years, only to receive no thanks and a demand that Stanford get his life back at the end of the Summer. As shown near the end of "A Tale of Two Stans", it seems the two want to reconcile (particularly Stan), but are too bitter over how their lives have gone, and Stanford being trapped in another dimension, have made this near impossible. Dipper seems to have hope they can repair this]].
* WhatTheHellHero: In "Not What He Seems", Dipper comes to his breaking point when Stan [[spoiler:begs them to trust him about the Portal despite having lied to them about everything else.]]
-->'''Dipper''': And I should trust you ''why?!'' After you [[spoiler:stole radioactive waste?]] After you [[spoiler:lied to us all summer?! I don't even know who you are!]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He was afraid of heights, though he has since been cured.
* WouldHurtAChild: He has no compunction with smacking Gideon around with a broom, although Gideon [[EnfantTerrible more than deserves it.]]
-->'''Stan''': Soos, broom.\\
'''Gideon''': Oh no, not the broom!
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mild example. He's possibly 58 or, at most, in his early sixties. Darlene mistakes him for over seventy. It's only that noticeable as he has a [[spoiler: fraternal twin brother]] who looks exactly as you'd expect it from a reasonably active 58 year old[[note]] though it is possible that time moves differently beyond the portal and that Stanford is actually younger[[/note]], while Stan wound up with a lot more grey hair and health issues due to a life of stress, [[spoiler: on-and-off poverty,]] and the resulting bad habits. On top of that, he has FatSlob tendencies and has a tendency to be extremely lazy around the Shack.
