headful-of-feathers:

thesnadger:

snapback-gravity-falls:

theory-anon:

headful-of-feathers:

thesnadger:

snapback-gravity-falls:

Stan had a hard time lying to kids’ faces outright. He had a lot of practice with Soos (who at first after growing fond to him, he found it hard to lie to) which is why he can lie to Dipper and Mabel so easily.

Even then, he finds certain circumstances throw him for a loop. Lying about the portal and the supernatural stuff in Gravity Falls is easy enough, he made it a point to practice that. But lying when he feels guilty (say, when he left Waddles chained up outside and a pterodactyl flew off with him) is a different story–that’s when he starts babbling, sweating and acting incredibly suspicious.

It doesn’t help that guilt is an emotion Stan doesn’t feel very often so he’s not good at dealing with it. 90% of the time, Stan is immune to guilt. It’s just that last 10% that destroys him.

To me Stan actually is eaten alive by guilt over every single mistake he made ever 24/7 but he just mastered pushing it as far into subconsciousness as possible. And that 10% is when it resurfaces, the current regrets along with the the old ones that make him feel twice as horrible.

I was rewatching Land Before Swine Lately, and I found his confrontation with Mabel about Waddles very similar to another scene…

In both situations Stan says: “No, wait, if you think about it… [there’s a silver lining.. treasure hunting?/Look, he’s an animal. He belongs outside!]”

And the reaction is:

Mabel: Now thanks to you Waddles could be DEAD!

Ford: 

Why would I want to do anything with the person who sabotaged my entire future?!

No wonder he looks so broken here. Hurting Mabel would be bad enough but he’s also relieving his falling out with Ford that led to losing him for… maybe forever? (back then there was no guarantee that he could come back)

Mabel: Grunkle Stan, I am never ever speaking to you again!

Sounds pretty similar to what another family member did…

It should also be noted that in both scenes Stan’s first instinct was to try and downplay his mistakes when initially confronted about them. He seems to have difficulty handling situations where he angers/disappoints people he cares about, and therefore tries to avoid those situations entirely – even in situations where he’d be better off in long run if he faced the music and owned up to his mistakes right away.

Though it’s also interesting to that he was already doing this kind of thing by A Tale of Two Stans, which might imply that this was his go-to method of handling confrontations with his loved ones long before the science fair.

I never expected this to get such thorough analysis after only a few hours when this was a 2… okay 3 am idea I wrote down. I love it.

This is a very good analysis. But just for clarification, when I say Stan is immune to guilt 90% of the time, I’m referring to the sort of actions that the fandom (for good reason, since they mostly happen to anonymous extras) generally doesn’t care about.

Scamming customers, stealing from people, destroying others’ property, laughing at others’ misfortune or insulting people…these are the sort of things Stan feels no guilt over whatsoever. 

But breaking Ford’s science project? Putting Mabel’s pet in danger? These things involve the people he loves. The ones he cares about. When they’re hurt, he feels their pain. And he feels like the scum of the earth for hurting them, even if it was by accident, or due to short-sightedness rather than malice.

That’s why I say it’s that last 10% that kills him. When he does feel guilty over something, it absolutely ruins him. He’ll do everything he can to wriggle out of the feeling or rationalize it. (I very much agree with theory-anon’s comment that “He seems to have difficulty handling situations where he angers/disappoints people he cares about, and therefore tries to avoid those situations entirely”)

And if he can’t do that, he’ll do whatever it takes to make it right. Whether it’s punching a pterodactyl in the face, or spending thirty years trying to get an inter-dimensional portal restarted.

Oh, right. I forget about all those scams and crimes on strangers as well…