Stanley Pines

Stanley "Stan" Pines, also known as Grunkle Stan, and formerly under the assumed identity Stanford Pines,[9][3] is Dipper and Mabel Pines' great uncle and summer guardian, and a paternal uncle of Mr. Pines. He is the deuteragonist of the series. After many years of crime and infamy, he has taken up residence in the remote town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, where he exploits local lore and the gullibility of the "dumbest people in the world" to finance himself by running a dubious tourist trap known as the Mystery Shack.

Grunkle Stan is at first sight a wise and cunning salesman being highly manipulative, very charismatic and charming, running a tourist trap in a town with enough unsuspecting customers to sell worthless knickknacks to and take on tours of so-called "mysteries." He conducts his business with surprising flair and wit. When not planning or executing money-making schemes (both legal and illegal), he's usually at home watching television. His preferred shows include Cash Wheel, Duck-tective and period dramas. He also enjoys fishing.

Stan is also manifestly greedy and selfish, even stating once that his greatest desire in life is to "possess riches". He sees tourists as easy cash and nothing more. However, this obsession seems to stem from his father's words when he kicked him out of the house, and by the harsh, poverty-stricken life he led after being disowned.

While his trickery might appear unremarkable to some, Stan's cunning transcends his Mr. Mystery persona.

Stan has a deep sense of family loyalty. He responded to Ford's request for help after an entire decade of being estranged, and was deeply hurt when he realized his brother didn't intend to make amends, even calling him out on how bad a brother Ford turned out to be. He dedicated thirty years of his life to bringing Ford back to their dimension in spite of how strained their relationship had become in the years leading up to the fight. Stan is also shown to be very protective of Mabel and Dipper, despite the morally ambiguous situations he puts them in on occasion: he stood up to hoards of reanimated corpses to protect them, telling the zombies nobody (but him) harassed his family, and ditched the elections for mayor at a crucial moment to rescue the twins as they dangled from Mayor Befufftlefumpter's monument. When he believes Ford might put Dipper and Mabel at risk, Stan has no qualms about warning his brother away from them.

Stan's dedication to his family is outright expressed during Weirdmageddon, when he offers to obliterate his own mind to ensure the twin's survival. Once he and Bill are trapped in his mindscape, Stan points out to the increasingly frantic demon that, while he's a wise guy, he made a fatal mistake: he messed with Stan's family. His final thoughts before his mind disappears are for Dipper and Mabel, even remarking that his mind was finally 'good for something' if its destruction protected them.

Despite his lengthy history as a con artist, he has a compulsion to state his honest opinions on the subject at hand. Some examples include: during "Headhunters" Stan stated to the man who sold him the cursed wax figures that he would just rob him later on for charging twenty dollars per statue, and has blurted out "non-specific excuse" to get out of a bad date. He even admits in "The Stanchurian Candidate" that he has little to no filter between his thoughts and his words.