Stanley Pines. My Favorite Antihero. I Love Him So Much.

Stanley Pines. My favorite antihero. I love him so much.

We have all seen the concept that being in a relationship with a villain is better than a hero. The hero will sacrifice you to save the world versus the villain who will sacrifice the world to save you.

Sanley Pines decides to do that for his Estranged Brother. He decides to risk the entire dimension so that he could get his brother back. His brother who

Stanley assumed hated him.

Had already not spoken to Stanley for 10 years.

upon speaking to him for the first time in 10 years, tries to send Stanley away permanently.

Stanley will always blame himself for losing in the first place. Even tho both times it was an accident.

And to do so Stanley who

has been considered by everybody, including himself, to be "the dumb twin"

was written off by his high school as a FUTURE FAILURE,

was disowned by his family for his mistake,

spends 30 years learning quantum mechanics, welding, circuitry, and numerous other academic/trade fields to bring his brother home. All things that were originally done by Tech Genius Fiddleford McGucket or GT kid Stanford who still had help from a literal actual God/demon. And STANLEY IS SUCCESSFUL.

Stanley SUCCESSFULY fakes his own death to make sure that nobody questions the disappearance of his brother in order to buy himself enough time to get his brother back. He did this so effectively that his own family bought it.

To be incredibly clear, Stanley does become a traditional hero when he sacrifices himself to save the world. But also, Stanley didn't do it to save the world. He did it to save his family, spesificaly his brother, niece and nephew. And he does it by perfectly impersonating the brother that He hasn't known in 40 years. He impersonates him so well that he TRICKS THE LITERAL ACTUAL DEITY THAT HIS BROTHER HAD A RELATIONSHIP WITH. Because as dumb and aloof and unbothered as Stanley Pines tries to appear, he is genuinely one of the smartest and most caring characters in gravity falls. It's just not the book smarts and conventional love that everybody typically looks for. (Stanley censoring himself in front of the kids while also letting them break the law is hilarious and I love him)

This is not to say that Mr mystery did nothing wrong. There are a lot of things that he did wrong and a lot of things that he could have handled better but. That being said he is still my favorite because he is so human and still tries so hard. I don't know, man, there is something super endearing about the amount of effort he puts into his family. He's an incredibly well written character. And listen I understand that 30 years is a long time and if I was Stanford I would be mad but also, but if my supposed screw-up sibling managed to understand and rebuild a portal But I needed help from a literal actual god/demon to create I would be impressed as hell. And Ford only said thank you because he felt obligated to. (Which again is the hero mindset of all sacrifice you to save the world because Ford is sacrificing his relationship with Stanley again to save the world)(and Stanley just wants his brother back so even though Ford doesn't mean the apology Stan still takes it because at least it was said)

I know this comes off anti Ford, which is not how it's intended, I love Ford so much and I'll do a post for him later. (If I remember) I just feel like Stanley is slept on so much for being such a wonderful character. And gahhhhh this show is so good and I love these old men.