Stanley "Stan" Pines, who is referred to as "Grunkle Stan" or "Stanford Pines" until the return of the actual Stanford Pines, is predominantly portrayed as a scheming and frugal individual. His primary source of income is the Mystery Shack, a tourist attraction he manages, often employing humorous and cunning tactics to boost its profitability. Although Stan exhibits avaricious tendencies, he displays a sincere protective instinct towards his great nephew Dipper and great niece Mabel, whom he supervises over the summer at their parents' request. Stan feigns ignorance regarding the paranormal occurrences in Gravity Falls and often clashes with Gideon Gleeful, a malevolent child entrepreneur who runs the "Tent of Telepathy" and aspires to take over the Mystery Shack. Stan secretly possesses the first of three mysterious journals written by Ford, his estranged twin brother. By the end of the first season, Stan acquires all three journals, the second and third previously held by Gideon and Dipper respectively. He successfully activates an interdimensional portal whose design illustrated across the journals, facilitating Ford's return from another dimension in the episode "Not What He Seems". The Pines brothers then share their backstory with Dipper and Mabel: the sons of Filbrick and Caryn Pines, the brothers grew up in Glass Shard Beach,
New Jersey. Their relationship became strained when Stan inadvertently ruined Ford's chances of being accepted into a prestigious university. After their parents disowned Stan and expelled him from the house, he took up a transient career in sales and various illegal endeavors. During the apocalypse, Stan and an army of the series' characters rescue Ford, but Bill captures both brothers during an argument. To erase Bill from existence and stop the apocalypse, Stan agrees to change clothes with Ford so they can trick Bill—who is after a secret equation only Ford knows—into entering Stan's mind instead. As Ford begins erasing Stan's memory, Stan defeats Bill and finds that his purpose in life was to protect his family. After Gravity Falls returns to normal, Stan awakens without any memories, but his family and friends help revive them. On the last day of summer, Stan and Ford agree to live out their dream of sailing around the world to research more anomalies. Stan, now respected as a local hero, promotes his handyman Soos Ramirez to the manager of the Mystery Shack, and he is last seen fighting an anomaly at sea with Ford aboard a ship dubbed the "Stan-O-War II", in reference to a marooned ship they claimed for themselves as children. ==Character and concept==