Stan took the “I’m loud, look at me!” approach to life because that’s how he distracted everybody from the problems. Distracted bullies from his brother, growing up. Distracted the suckers buying his products with charm from the shams he gave them. Distracted authorities from actually catching him at anything. Distracted people from realize they were getting robbed/conned.
It worked. It worked for his entire life. And when it failed, it tended to fail hard. But still, it was his best go to.
And while everybody’s looking at the loud, boisterous, mischievous, deceptively charming Stan Pines, nobody sees the hurt, broken, lost man underneath.
He even managed to distract himself from that truth, for a long time.
No offense i didnt spend my entire childhood being made fun of for my interests, fear judgement all the way through my teens and early adulthood, and learn to love what i love free of shame so I could be made to feel bad for enjoying something harmless because “the fandom ruined it/made it cringey”
