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…