Stan is the con-man great-uncle who used to run the Mystery Shack as a tourist-trap scam. He spent the last 30 years searching for a way to bring his twin brother Ford back from another dimension, sacrificing his own reputation, relationships, and even his identity (he assumed Ford's name/identity for years) to do it. Underneath the gruff, greedy, morally-flexible exterior is someone capable of enormous loyalty and self-sacrifice, even choosing to erase his own memories to save Ford and the twins, giving up everything he's rebuilt with his family in the process. He's insecure about being seen as the "dumb" or "lesser" twin, which explains a lot of his blustery, defensive humor. He's got most of his memories back.

Ford is the eccentric, brilliant, paranoid scientist twin. He's genius ostracized for a physical difference (six fingers), whose ambition and desire for validation made him vulnerable to manipulation by Bill Cipher, ultimately leading to the portal disaster that sent him into the multiverse for decades. He's more emotionally guarded than Stan, prone to jumping to conclusions and pushing people away out of trauma and self-protection; his instinct to distrust Stan stems from that history. He's learning that trust and human connection matter more than being right or being the smartest person in the room.