Collector

I'm going to start by introducing the roles I'm most excited about, and that is the fact that TEEN Stan that we encounter throughout the story and the Stan that Stanford eventually ends up dredging up from the depths are not the same Stan. Teen Stan is, in fact, a ploy set up by Bill to lure Stanford closer to making the mistake he ran away from Gravity Falls for in the first place: Reopening the portal.

Walk with me...

Stanford only gets to see Stanley after nights where he's barely slept, if he has at all. His paranoia is at an all time high and his mind is skipping like a broken record, trying and failing to work with the input from reality and the turmoil coiling around inside his imagination. The last he saw and heard from Stan was when Stan was 17 years old. It was during high school, where Stan's attitude to life was boisterous, positive and infectious, TRAITS THAT STANFORD WOULD BE MISSING IN THIS CRITICAL TIME OF HIS LIFE.

Going off of what you said, E, in a previous post about how normal Stanley is during these mornings - how comfortable, familiar and easy it is to keep conversation with him - I figured it would be the perfect angler-fish situation for Stanley to be Bill, using Ford's own memories against him in the few moments before Stanford can't stay up anymore. And your beautiful, gorgeous, haunting drawing of Stanley being washed away and washed back out to sea - Replaying the nightmare scenario Stanford's imagined happened over and over again since Stanley disappeared - could be the half asleep-half awake rendition of Bill's hand slithering back into the sea?

Now for the ACTUAL STAN :)

As you can read from my very quickly scribbled out ideas for the bottled messages, Stanley did take the Stan'O'War out for her virgin voyage, but she lasted maybe 24 hours before she gave up and Stanley stood with a very big issue on his hands. Now, does he capsize? Yes. Does that mean he drowns? No. Absolutely not. Stanley Pines manages to get himself close enough to land that he can swim the remaining distance back to shore and gets away with a scare and nothing else. Literally. No clothes, no food, no nothing. Just his wet clothes, his car keys and a wet, waterlogged photo of himself and Stanford in his back pocket.

The real Stanley Pines does not die on that day - He finds his car and he makes the heartbroken decision to go on trying his luck someplace else. "But Sunny, if Stanley doesn't die and if he continues to do his tv commercials and selling his stanvac and whatnot - Why does Ford think he died that day? Wouldn't he have seen?"

You are so right, pumpkin, but I personally see Stanford as the densest genius in human history, and he'd be so deep in grief that this man on tv with a mustache and an uncanny resemblance to his 'lost' twin brother would forego him entirely. He wouldn't immediately assume they were the same person, he'd just automatically go to avoid that person altogether and continue to grieve. They don't have the same name, ergo they are not the same person.

Now how does Stanford finding the Stanley mobile's license plate as an artifact tie into this?

Stanley does eventually succumb to the waves, although in a much less voluntary way than it would've been, had he gone down with the Stan'o'war in '72. Stanley is knocked out and put into the seat of his car put in neutral. He's essentially 'rolled off' into the sea OR he is strategically parked by a beach by low tide. Whatever the case, Stanley and his car go down together.

A captain of his ship to the end, since the Stanleymobile was more of a safe cruiser than the Stan'o'war ever got the chance to be.

Fast forward to 1982, Stanford's realized the whole mess with Bill was a sham and he nearly rips his hair out thinking of ways to get these journals hidden. Some way to get the portal non functioning and get Bill ejected from his head. His first thought is Stanley, but it's immediately and painfully shut down at the reminder - His next thought is the Stan'o'war- And oh, OH. The seaside is a brilliant place to make things go missing.

Stanford goes and gets a boat. Stanford takes off to sea with odd looks from the locals. Some eyeing him in recognition that he isn't sure he understands.

Now, just because he's now on a boat doesn't mean his issues with sleeping or with Bill ceases. And not sleeping for extended periods of time will blur the lines between wakefulness and sleep, and Stanford will begin to think he's asleep when he's awake, and awake when he's asleep.

And that's where the man in the mirror and the man in the window begins to appear:

Do you see the picture?????? Do you see my vision????

Stanford doesn't know why he keeps turning up back by the harboring town, but ends up with a small gig as a fisherman and takes to it unthinkingly.

Now for the ENDING. AS DEPICTED IN THE FIRST PICTURE AT THE VERY TOP.

THERE ARE TWO ENDINGS. One where you bring your wife back but end the world in the process, and then one where you throw the book into the sea and get eaten by a leviathan.

Now, for the ending where Ford manages to open a portal through the sea to bring Stanley back, he also manages to give Bill an opening into reality. But since Bill is technically tied to the Gravity Falls enclosure, Bill is much much more insistent on keeping his hold on Stanford's body and bringing them back to shore. For this, I haven't thought much further, other than really wanting to imagine Stanley brought onto the deck coughing and wheezing for air and being alive again. And the first thing he sees is his brother having a menty B in the middle of a storm out in the middle of the damn ocean.

The ending where you toss the book overboard, the character struggles and the book FIGHTS BACK. Because it DOESN'T WANT TO BE TOSSED. You're given the option, a last resort to take back your decision to throw the book overboard. If you don't, the first ending will happen, but if you do, there'll be a large-scale shock wave growling through the sea, before the book sinks. Moments later, your ship is eaten whole by a leviathan.

The paralell to Ford knowing he needs to get his research as far, far away from Bill as possible while also really not wanting to get rid of it is so clear here, and I really love the thought of it!

And it's bittersweet, but at least.. Y'know, he'd be with Stanley :,)

And bonus hug thing I drew before I had all these thoughts, but they're really sweet and we deserve that rn: