#I might rant about gravity falls a fair bit for the foreseeable future

[madbard]

There’s something to be said about how Stanley Pines was treated his entire life as a lesser echo of his brother.

Stan was the failure. He had no value. He was never told he could thrive on his own, so he never tried. He balanced the weight of his dreams on remaining at Ford’s side, and when Ford revealed he had other plans, he spiraled. He lost his home, tried desperately to make a name for himself while spinning from identity to identity, losing more and more of himself as time went on. After years of running, his brother finally reached out to him again and Stan grabbed onto that lifeline, only to realize Ford didn’t want him to stay. Ford wanted Stan to do something for him. That was all.

Stan would never be anything without Ford. He would never be anything more than Ford. He took his brother’s identity while sacrificing decades of his life, but it wasn’t much of a life anyway, so what was there to lose?

Ford returned, and didn’t even thank him.

Stan had done all of that for nothing. His brother looked him in the eye and (from Stan’s perspective) decided he deserved nothing.

Stanley Pines deserved nothing because Stanley Pines was nothing.

And yet, at the end of everything, when everything else was lost, the world was saved.

Not because Stan pretended to be Ford, fulfilling his role as echo and shadow and double.

No.

Because, in that moment, Bill made a deal with Stanley Pines. The conman, the grunkle, the failure. The defender.

Stanley Pines, who would always protect his family, even if it meant sacrificing himself.

Stanley Pines, who was so very valuable, after all.