#TLDR; Stan's possum is a symbolic representation of his own personality/character

[rubydracogirl]

Hey guess what? Time for another talk about Stanley Pines. I have not looked to see if anyone else made this connection, so, if I'm just repeating something that's already been established, please disregard 🤣

Anyways, I was thinking about Stan's pet possum, Shanklin, from the 'Lost Legends' graphic novel and how funny it was that he had a possum as a pet, of all things. I also thought it was very interesting how Shanklin is mentioned in the preview of The Book Of Bill (Stan drew a picture of a possum with a knife tied to its back, that has to be a reference to Shanklin). While I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that it's a strange detail for Stan to have a possum as a childhood pet.

Don't get me wrong, having any kind of undomesticated animal as a pet is pretty wild, but I think possums are generally more loathed than other critters? (That's just conjecture since I've heard possums get called ugly while racoons are cute.) Plus, I don't know, that just seemed like a strange choice for Stan.

Myself, I love possums. They're shy, they eat SO MANY TICKS HELL YEAH (fuck ticks, I hate ticks), they're North America's only marsupial which is very neat, they're practically immune to rabies and they do that thing where they play dead.

And who faked their death for thirty years?

Stanley.

When this crossed my mind, I had a moment of like 'hold on a second' because it suddenly struck me that Stanley's possum might be more than just a quirky pet.

Please bear in mind that this is all just speculation on my part 😅

So what kind of guy is Stanley? He's actually not an aggressive person at heart. In Dreamscaperers, when he talks to Soos about what he was like as a kid, he describes himself as weak until boxing lessons toughened him up. Even so, Stanley usually only fights if someone he cares about is in trouble. (We definitely see that repeatedly when it comes to Mabel and Dipper)

When he's on his own however, it seems like his default is to bluff his way out of trouble or run, such as evading the law and Rico, amongst other instances. (I submit his repeated tactic of using smoke bombs as a distraction for his getaway.)

Possums are not aggressive animals. They hiss and growl, but that's more of a defensive display than an actual threat, and again, they play dead as a defense technique.

Now, I wanna bring up the fact that Stan tied a knife to Shanklin's back to make him an 'attack possum'. Doesn't that seem a bit symbolic considering how Stan had to make himself tough?

So, there you have it, I think Shanklin was meant to be a representation of Stanley's character.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Here's a meme my friend made after I talked to her about this

(You're the best, S, thank you for listening to me ramble about Stan and his possum)