Stanford Pines

Appearance

Unlike Stan, Ford's hair is dark gray with a horizontal silver streak along the sides of it and he possesses unusually long sideburns. His chin has a cleft and slight five o'clock shadow. Ford's nose is visually smoother than Stan's, lacking bumps. He is a central polydactyl with six fingers on each hand. Ford has a much narrower build than Stan. When he first comes out of the portal, he is seen wearing a large black coat with multiple pockets on the inside and an item that appears to be a gun rested on his back. Underneath his coat, he wears a black shirt and pants. He also dons bulky black boots, a brown belt that slings from his shoulder, a tattered cape and a gray scarf. In subsequent appearances, Ford is seen wearing a tan coat, a red turtleneck with a black belt that slings across his chest, black pants, and large brown boots coated in dirt. He has a gold dot on either side of his glasses and a crack on the left lens.

Intro

Stanford "Ford" Filbrick Pines (born June 15, about 15 minutes before Stan Pines), also known as The Author, or simply Great Uncle or Grunkle Ford, is a paranormal investigator who came to Gravity Falls, Oregon, to study the huge concentration of supernatural activity in and around the town. After spending years cataloging his research in a series of journals, he disappeared into an alternate dimension. His writings were left as the only evidence of his existence. Ford's identity and whereabouts were a central mystery and element of foreshadowing of the Gravity Falls series until the middle of the series' second season when he was revealed to be Stan Pines' long-lost twin brother, who vanished after a fight with his brother caused him to stumble through his own interdimensional portal.

History

Stanford was born in the late 1940s to early 1950s to Filbrick Pines and Caryn Pines in Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, 15 minutes before his twin brother, Stanley. From an early age, Ford was fascinated with the supernatural and science fiction. He displayed an abnormally high I.Q. and a rare birth defect that granted him an extra finger on both hands. Despite their vastly different personalities, Ford and his brother were the best of friends, often roaming the beach in search of adventure. Unfortunately, their youth was plagued with frequent bullying due to Ford's six fingers and Stan's wimpish characteristics, most notably from their childhood tormentor Crampelter. This prompted their father to enlist them in boxing lessons as a means of toughening them up. As the twins reached adolescence, Ford's brains and scientific achievement expanded a contrast to his brother's disinterest in academics. The two remained close, working together on their ship (called the Stan o’ War) to fulfill their childhood dreams of sailing around the globe until Ford was summoned to the Principal's office. There, he was lauded as a genius and offered the chance to show his science fair experiment, a Perpetual Motion Machine, to a visiting team of recruiters from West Coast Tech, a prestigious university on the other side of the country. With promises of fortune and success should he be accepted, Ford became less sure of his plans with Stan, revealing to his twin that he'd seize the chance to go if it happened.

Personality

Ford is an intellectual man who is considered an introverted and nerdy person, enjoying games which involve high levels of thinking, such as Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons. He would even go as far as to ignore the dangers of his research just to play such games (to the point where he would let a Cycloptopus bite his face when he became excited). Despite his intelligence, he is very behind the times when it comes to his own dimension, since he hasn't stepped foot in it for thirty years. He doesn't have a clue about the modern technology, or customs; he believes floppy disks are still in use, and had very little worry about giving Mabel a crossbow, thinking it's safe to give children weapons. Before he was sucked into the portal, he was shown to be paranoid and overly cautious, having a hard time trusting people due to being tricked by Bill. Despite being very intelligent, Ford has shown himself to be very narcissistic and self-absorbed. This is shown by his reluctance to part with his life's work and share his scientific accomplishments with loved ones, instead relishing the image of being a solitary hero. Ford has a strong need to have his intellect recognized and celebrated, which made it easy for Bill to trick him by claiming to be a muse who chose "one great mind" every century to inspire. Ford is seen as a serious person when it comes to his work in researching the paranormal. However, he genuinely enjoys his research, even in the face of danger. His years of researching the paranormal both in and out of his realm have made Ford a strong, brave individual who will face danger head on in order to ensure that the world is safe. However, after all of his years of researching the paranormal, Ford's excitement for confirming things such as the existence of extraterrestrials have dulled.

Early Life

However, on the day of the visit, Ford and the West Coast Tech team simultaneously discover that the Perpetual Motion Machine has stopped moving, defeating its sole purpose. A distraught Ford discovers an empty bag of Toffee Peanuts next to his display, and mistakenly believes Stanley has sabotaged him. He angrily confronts his brother back home and doesn't interfere while his father kicks Stan out of the house, disowning him until he could pay back the potential millions he cost the Pines family. He is seen sadly looking out at his brother from the window of their shared room, before a glance at a West Coast Tech pamphlet gives him the strength to close the blinds on him. Ford reluctantly enrolls himself in Backupsmore University, a low-ranking college whose most notable achievement is clean dorms. Despite the drawback, he set himself to the task and worked hard, entering a doctoral program three years ahead of schedule. It was during this time that Ford met and befriended Fiddleford McGucket, a genius mechanic aspiring to build personalized computers. Following the completion of a nationally ranked thesis, Stanford was awarded an enormous grant of one hundred thousand dollars, which brought an end to his studies at Backupsmore. When thinking of how to employ the grant, Ford recalled how he'd been antagonized by his six fingers all through childhood, and decided to dedicate his life to the study of oddities. He chose the sleepy hamlet of Gravity Falls, Oregon, believing it to be an area of high concentration of supernatural occurrences.