Stanford Pines vs Reagan Ridley (Gravity Falls vs Inside Job) VS Prediction Blog

“What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.” - Dana Scully

Stanford Pines, the six fingered researcher discovering the secrets of Gravity Falls
Reagan Ridley, the antisocial roboticist covering up the dirty laundry of Cognito Inc.

How much do you think you know? Even with our modern understanding giving way towards many scientific discoveries, there are many who believe there are hidden truths within the world that most are unaware of. Though these two did not come from the happiest home lives and have generally spent their lives being socially isolated, they’d end up dedicating their lives to work involving mysteries like these, finding a sense of family in these paths. But while one’s goal is in uncovering the truths behind these mysteries, the other became dedicated to ensuring they would remain unsolved forever. So, can the author of the journals expose this conspiracy, or will he be silenced like the many others who knew too much?

Before We Begin

For Stanford, this will be discussing all canon information for Gravity Falls, including the original show, the shorts, Journal 3, Lost Legends, and the Book of Bill. Secondary sources such as the games or the other books will also be considered, but only if they can be safely considered to be in line with the main show’s continuity, which means no weird crossover scaling stuff. As for Reagan, that’s a bit simpler, as all of her show and any supporting sources will be included. Also content warning, as Inside Job is an adult show that covers plenty of mature and controversial subject matter.

I’ll also preemptively note that this is not the first blog covering this match, as Frisk’s Blogs beat me to the punch. I would recommend reading that if you’re interested in another take on this match, but there are new details to discuss with the match as well as points where I disagree with where they put it, and I have strived to ensure my take remains distinct to theirs.

Background

Stanford Pines

"Remember: in Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust."

Born in New Jersey with an abnormality that gave him six fingers at birth, Stanford Pines was always obsessed with the weird. With help from his twin brother, Stanley, he’d spend much of his young life uncovering mysteries in his small town. But their bond did not last into their teenage years, as after Stanley accidentally ruined his brother’s shot at his dream college, he’d the two would split. After finishing his time in college, Ford would use his grant money to move to a mysterious town in Oregon called Gravity Falls, as it had a massive concentration of odd creatures and objects which made it perfect for his theories on weirdness. He’d establish a laboratory deep within the woods of the town and spent many years studying and documenting his findings within the town, recording many of his discoveries in 3 journals emblazoned with his hand. However, after some time, his studies would hit a roadblock, as he was no closer to figuring out the source of all these creatures. He’d then make a fateful discovery, finding various hieroglyphs within a cave that warned of an ancient deity of ultimate knowledge. Desperate for answers, he’d ignore the warnings, and would perform an incantation to summon the entity, the mind demon known as Bill Cipher.

The two would form a pact, with Ford gaining knowledge and companionship from the demon. But after his lab partner quit due to being exposed to the demon’s plans, Ford would find out that Bill’s true intentions were far from benevolent, as Bill was simply using him as a pawn to escape into our reality to wreak havoc and chaos. Horrified, Ford would deactivate the portal he had created to link the universes and take efforts to prevent Bill from looking into his mind again, becoming a paranoid recluse in the process, as Bill tormented his mind with nightmares and possessions. Eventually, he decided the best course of action was to hide his research, and to do this, he’d reach out to his estranged brother, who had become a road travelling scam artist to make ends meet. The two would meet, but after the reunion turned hostile, Stanley would end up accidentally sending Ford into the portal to Bill’s dimension. After narrowly escaping his former muse, he’d end up travelling the multiverse, trying to put together a way to end Bill.

30 years would pass on this journey, with Stanley taking up his brother’s identity to run the shack and try to fix the portal back in his home dimension. That is, until one fateful summer where the two’s grand-nephew and niece, Dipper and Mabel, came over to visit. Dipper would end up being as fascinated with the mysteries of the town, which eventually led to Stanley finally getting the chance to open the portal and bring back his brother. However, the reunion was icey, as Stanford feared that reopening the portal would give Bill the chance to return, so he’d work to seal up the passage for good. During this, he’d find a kindred spirit in Dipper, who he saw as a younger version of him. However, he’d end up inadvertently damaging the bond between Dipper and his sister due to projecting his own issues, which led to Mabel getting manipulated into unleashing Bill.

Stanford would try to stop Bill but this ended up failing, and he’d wind up captured by Bill and transformed into a solid gold back scratcher. Dipper would end up putting together a resistance against Bill to rescue Ford and try to take down Bill for good, but ultimately they ended up failing in direct combat. But Stanford managed to pull one last gambit to take Bill down, tricking him into the mindscape of his brother as he ended up erasing his memory, ending Bill’s threat for good. After Weirdmageddon was reversed, he and the rest of the family would end up reversing the effects on Stanley’s mind. And after Dipper turned down the apprenticeship, the two brothers would end up setting off into the world to solve mysteries elsewhere. While Stanford’s brilliance and technology were something he viewed as all that mattered, ultimately he learned that his family was far more important.

Reagan Ridley

“Guys, we are shadow-running the free world here. Let's try to take this job seriously.”

If you’ve been on the internet long enough, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of wacko conspiracy theories on how every government in the world is secretly controlled by a shadowy organization. While as far as we know these are just unsubstantiated theories made by crazy people, one would have to wonder what actually working at such an organization would be like, Would it be a dark and disturbing life of people who are convinced to make the world worse for no one’s gain but their own, or would they be benevolent and trying their best to guide us to a brighter future from the shadows? Well, in Washington DC, under the cover of Cognito Incorporated, there exists one such organization, and while there are many people within it that have many different roles, one among them had intentions to rise to the top of it. That being their head of robotics, Reagan Ridley.

Reagan’s life did have its fair share of struggles, as for much of her life she struggled with social isolation, a father who was pushing her to be his successor, and a mother who had been falling out of the marriage. But she’d end up joining her father’s former company, at which she’d start her goals to become its CEO. She’d end up working with plenty of other people at the company, including the constantly high biochemist Andre, the half man half dolphin military specialist Glenn, the gossipy head of propaganda Gigi, and the perverted walking alien mushroom Myc. She’d act as the team leader in their exploits alongside the eternal yes man Brett, and the group has had to deal with plenty of Cognito’s dirty laundry, whether that be JFK clones combining to be an Akira blob, chemtrails that turn people into 80s nostalgia obsessed monsters, or robot duplicates trying to isolate the country.

However, through it all, Reagan has still been dealing with plenty of personal drama. Right when she was about to become CEO, her father would end up retaking control of the country, casting her aside due to her biting back at his attempts to ruin her childhood. Though in the fallout of this, she’d end up finding love in a man named Ron, who was a fellow conspirator working with the Illuminati, with the two bonding over their shared dissatisfaction with their careers. But this was not meant to be, as when her father ended up on the wrong side of the wrong people and got another shot at the CEO position, he had put together a way to erase his memory to get a life free from the shadow world. Unable to walk away from her goals, she’d end up letting him leave the life and her for the sake of her future ambitions. What the future holds next for her is unknown (thanks Netflix), so whether she truly ends up becoming a benevolent shadow ruler or if she ends up corrupted by this power like many of her predecessors has yet to be seen. But regardless of what she does, there’s no question that if something threatens to uncover this, she’ll be right there to silence it. After all, there’s nothing to see her, right?

Intelligence & Skill

Stanford Pines

Stanford is remarkably brilliant. Just as a teenager he had created a perpetual motion machine, and he’d go on to move from undergraduate to PhD three years ahead of schedule, before writing a nationally-ranked thesis and earning 12 PhDs. He is fluent in 13 languages, and is incredibly studious, having researched all of Gravity Falls’ mysteries during his time in the town, during which he learned the formula to break the weirdness that was keeping Bill contained to the town. He’s also invented various technologically advanced gadgets, including a lightbulb that can last 1000 years, a sealing chamber for an interdimensional rift, and a gun capable of blasting Bill Cipher into non-existence. To build that last one, he ended up stealing parts from various other dimensions, becoming a multidimensional criminal in the process. This also shows his skills in adaptability and survival, being able to survive decades of dimension hopping with little in the way of resources.

Reagan Ridley

From a young age, Reagan has been considered to be a genius. She was a child prodigy who was at the top of MIT at the age of thirteen, and her joining Cognito Inc was able to single handedly increase productivity at the company. She’s a very skilled inventor, as she’s created an advanced robotic duplicate of the President, robotic dinosaurs, biologically engineered frogs, and a working recreation of the Matrix. And even without a lab, she’s managed to put together a functioning laser gun from a laser sight, a drone with a Simon machine, and a working proton pack. This intelligence has even rivaled her father, who was able to create a machine that could reset timelines and which she was able to reverse the effects of. She’s also not a slouch in combat, as she’s been able to regularly outpace various guards and has kept up in a fight with Keanu Reeves, who is skilled in kung fu and is actually a centuries old vampire. Yes, really.

Equipment

Stanford Pines

The Journals

During his research into the anomalies of Gravity Falls, Stanford would end up recording much of the information he learned within these books, which also include some hidden information only visible with the use of a black light. While these are mostly used as encyclopedias of his findings, they also include several incantations and spells that activate when read aloud, and as Ford chronicled these himself, he should likely have knowledge of them himself. These include:

Shotgun

Sadly we don’t get to see it visualized, but the Book of Bill establishes at a few points that Stanford has a shotgun, most notably when he took out some zombies Bill created. Guess his brother isn’t the only one who appreciates the second amendment.

Laser Gun

It was in fact a match. He has also been seen wielding a similar pistol in the comics.

Magnet Gun

This is a device that can send out electromagnetic pulses that will attract him to other metal objects within 100 feet, as well as being capable of disabling electronic devices.

Quantum Destabilizer

Created by Ford himself to deal with Bill Cipher, this is a weapon capable of blasting whoever it hits into non-existence. While most of the materials were stolen from other dimensions, the power source of it was a unique element called NowUSeeItNowUDontium, which is inert when visible but highly radioactive when hidden. This was given to him by a parallel version of McGucket, who discovered it within a dimension that had been destroyed in a paradox. He’d attempt to kill Bill Cipher with it, which was able to take on his minions. Bill did seem to be wary of it, so it likely would have defeated him if given the chance. Though after coming back to earth, he only had enough material to fire a single shot that he proceeded to miss.

Memory Gun

Originally invented by McGucket to try and erase the memory of events he did not want to see, the gun was later taken by Dipper after stopping the Society of the Blind Eye, and as Ford returned, he would utilize it a couple of times himself. The gun can be programmed to erase specific events up to entire minds, and has an output jack to send the signal out to a wide area. It also seems to have multiple methods of outputting, whether that be a laser, a radio wave, or a blast of radiation. The memory will then be stored in a tube connected to it. It’s possible to reverse the effects of it by witnessing the events in the tube or giving proper stimuli to remind them of events within a week, and enough overexposure to it’s effects can immunize you to it.

Freeze Gun

This device shoots a ray that will freeze whatever it hits solid into a block of ice, which he used on an evil monster that had stolen Mabel’s face.

Shock Gloves

Ford used this to violently electrocute a squid monster that he seemed to be using as ink.

Infinity Sided Dice

This is a dice that Ford won in a dimension where everything was decided with gambling, and it exists in a state of quantum uncertainty and has infinite possible roll results. Obviously there’s a lot it could potentially do, but what we’ve seen it be capable of includes just rolling numbers, bringing the wizard mascot of a board game to life, and permanently changing the color of a world’s sky. Though it is not reliable as it is quite literally a dice roll what could happen.

Mind Control Ties

Originally made during Ford’s college years for a government program in “political persuasion”, Ford had apparently kept around several other prototypes for his own use. How they work is that one needs to be placed onto another person, and then they will be forced to mimic the actions and words of whoever puts on the other tie.

Alien Adhesive Gun

A gun that fires adhesive that can seal things, which Anti-Mabel later demonstrated can be used offensively. They’re later shown patching up an interdimensional wormhole with it, as it uses the same adhesive that he intended to use on the rift. He claimed it could seal up all the orifices on someone's face, it was used to seal patches in a spaceship’s hull, and it can also seal up wounds, though it also melts when exposed to fire.

Infinity Belt

Stanley also has access to this, which is a belt capable of emitting a likely never ending stream of cable, as the name implies. He used it as a tether to keep him and Stanley connected to their home universe through a dimensional portal, so he clearly learned from his experiences with his own portal.

Distress Beacon

A wrist mounted watch that emits a signal, which can summon either an interdimensional good samaritan or an unimaginable beast that feeds on fear. Thankfully it only summoned the first.

Cloak of Occasional Visibility

This is a cloak that allows those who don it to vanish from sight half the time. The other half of the time it flickers a bit and requires finding a specific “signal” to be invisible.

Dimensional Translator

Gained during his travels throughout the multiverse, this would allow him to understand the languages of other universes. He does mention learning other languages during his travels, which could imply he lost it, but he doesn’t make mention of if he lost it for sure, and if he was traveling for 30 years across an infinite multiverse and only had to learn 13 languages, I’m guessing there’s some other context to that than just losing the translator for good.

Cursed Comic Chest

This is a cursed chest Stanford owns that can curse people into hearing comic narration and seal them within comic books. Others can enter it from outside the comic, during which they’ll find constantly shifts between art styles and locations. Those within it have a level of medium awareness and were even able to gain superpowers when it shifted to a superhero story, but only within the comic. The comic itself seems to be sentient, directly threatening those within it, but it’s possible to escape it by getting blown out of the panels into the margins and using whiteout to destroy the narration box.

Miscellaneous Equipment

Reagan Ridley

Taser

Useful for giving shocks to annoying fathers.

Productivitron

These are a set of 4 robotic arms which are attached to Reagan’s back and allow her to make movements with them automatically due to biocranial implants. They’re rather strong, able to rip off arms and shove aside boxcars, and she’s shown enough skill with them to take out enemies approaching from behind. They’ve also been shown to be able to retract to form buzzsaws and laser cannons.

Laser Gun

Her main weapons of choice are typically lasers, which are strong enough to slice holes straight through metal. She should also have access to her company’s standard guns, which are stated to be able to vaporize targets.

Energy Rifle

She’s also been equipped with stronger energy rifles, which are powerful enough to blast a hole straight through the building sized Moon Worms.

Proton Pack

After an 80s movie binge, Reagan was able to throw together a makeshift version of the Ghostbusters’ proton packs, which could launch energy blasts that were able to clash against the power of nostalgia.

Also the new Ghostbusters films are fine y’all are just mean.

Shoe-Marang

During a stint where she was dating British spy Rafe Masters, she invented several gadgets that he used. One of them was this, which was a hidden blade launcher that took out a room of goons via homing in on them.

Aviation Fuel

This can be used to emit fire, though it probably isn’t strong enough to melt steel beams.

Nanobots

By using a glove which can send out swarms of nanobots to enter other’s bloodstreams, she can manually puppet their actions. This is similar to another gadget originally made for Rafe, which was able to dismantle a machine.

Sedatives

Reagan has shown to have several notable methods of knocking people out, including the above shown pen that shoots knockout darts, and a watch used by Rafe which could send out knock out gas.

Memory Eraser

As you’d expect from an organization trying to keep everything under wraps, Reagan has had experience with a few memory erasing methods, including the above one which her dad tried to use on her because he’s a dick and one used by her boyfriend that he eventually used to free himself from the shackles of being in a conspiracy. She’s also been shown to possess a gun which can scale mental states to reset them in the case they’re compromised.

Energy Cage

To help deal with possible intruders, Reagan has been shown to be able to create an energy cage via a device hidden in her watch.

Mech Suit

Cognito Inc is also shown to have access to these mech suits, which are strong enough to knock down doors and bust holes in walls.

X-Ray Phone

Her phone has been shown to emit a beam that could see through walls to investigate the inner workings of a trap.

Blazer Gun

This is a device which utilizes nanoparticles to adjust her outfit into a more fancy one.

Hologram Suit

She can utilize this to disguise herself as another person, even if they happen to have a different body type to her. Though it also didn’t seem to have a built-in voice changer.

Vampire Killing Gear

When trying to kill Keanu Reeves, she was equipped with several weapons, including wooden stakes, a garlic launcher, and a sword hidden in a cross which could emit electricity.

Tinfoil Hats

Thanks to the chronoresistant elements of aluminum foil, if you fashion it into a stupid hat, it can protect your memory from the effects of changes to the timeline, though removing it can cause you to snap into where you would be in the timeline normally.

Reality Scanner

When her father made a bunch of changes to the timeline, she adjusted Robotus to peer into the past of each alternate timeline to track changes they had, which also allowed him to detect when they were about to happen. After the timeline recovered, she later used this to look into alternate futures based on her upcoming choices to try and judge her best course of action, which she was shown to be able to directly project with her watch.

Abilities

Stanford Pines

Metal Head Plate

Implanted into him by a mysterious oracle, this metal plate in his head prevented Bill Cipher from entering his thoughts directly without his consent. Though Bill states he could have just done that with just a tinfoil hat. He also mentioned that it would protect him from the effects of the Memory Gun, so it likely offers immunity to other sources of mental attack as well. Though it does not protect his dreams from being interfered with.

Extreme Will

Beyond that, his mind had been shown to be very disciplined. He was able to calm himself down to the point of being undetectable to robots that monitored adrenaline, and he was able to survive repeated visits to the Nightmare Realm, which had been shown to cause people to go catatonic just from a brief exposure to it.

Mindscape

While Stanford hasn’t done this himself, in Gravity Falls it’s been shown that entering mental worlds as a soul can allow those who do it to have some control over the mental space. On his visit, was able to look into other’s memories, regenerate damage to his soul, summon portals to banish hostile entities, and other powers to directly fight, which Mabel and Soos were also able to do. As Ford is more knowledgeable than him and has experience with this mental space himself, it should stand to reason that he could do similar tricks if given the chance.

Resistances

Mind / Memory Manipulation - See section on Metal Head Plate
Madness Manipulation - Has survived exposure to the Nightmare Realm, with just a glimpse rendering Fiddleford catatonic
Cold Manipulation - Was relatively fine after he was left out in the middle of the winter after Bill possessed him

Reagan Ridley

Stealth

At a few points Reagan has shown herself to have a pretty good level of stealth, managing to sneak into a high security prison and disappear from the sight of guards that were actively chasing her. This is apparently in part because her looks are so unremarkable that popular people naturally tend to avoid her, to the point of even seeing her as invisible.

Hacking

With various methods Reagan has been able to hack into various devices. She’s turned several Echo Dots into explosives, disabled the power and security of a prison, and was able to hijack the images on a projector using her watch.

Resistances

Perception / Illusion Manipulation - Her subconscious was able to help her break out of a shared hallucination caused by the psychic mushrooms.
Time / Memory Manipulation - See section on Tinfoil Hats

Feats

Stanford Pines

Overall

Authored the Journals, which chronicle many of the mysteries of Gravity Falls
Survived 30 years of traveling the multiverse
Created gun that could kill Bill Cipher
Helped with the plan to defeat Bill Cipher for good
Reconciled with his brother after years apart

Strength

Speed

Durability

Reagan Ridley

Overall

Became Head of Robotics at Cognito Inc
Has created many gadgets and robots
Kept up in a fight with her own robotic duplicate, Nostalgia Max Brett, Buzz Aldrin, and Keanu Reeves
Eventually kicked her dad out of Cognito Inc to become CEO herself
Potentially in the running to join the Black Robes

Power

It was implied it could also do it on people (0.068 - 0.073 Tons)

Speed

Durability

Scaling

Stanford Pines

Mystery Shack Denizens

Given Stanford has been shown to be comparable to his family and the other humans in the Mystery Shack, it should be safe to assume he can scale to their notable feats.

Oddities

Gravity Falls is home to many weird creatures and antagonists that Stanford has documented, so it stands to reason he should be able to take them down. Though obviously there are plenty who he can’t really be argued to compare to on his own.

Reagan Ridley

Cognito Coworkers

Reagan’s fellow conspirators at Cognito Inc have often gone on adventures with her and are generally on par with each other in combat situations, so it should stand to reason she could scale to their notable feats.

Anomalies

Reagan has had many encounters with weird monsters that are at the heart of the conspiracies that need covering up, and as she’s managed to survive her many encounters with them, she should scale to their notable feats.

Robotus was able to put up a fight with Bear-O

He was able to blast a hole through multiple walls (44.37 Tons)

Buzz Aldrin was able to momentarily rein it in himself

Weaknesses

Stanford Pines

While Stanford has a lot of impressive tech, he’s still fundamentally human under it all, so without his tech he’s a lot less impressive. He’s also very paranoid and distrustful of people due to his experiences with Bill, and can be very prideful of himself, though he did grow out of these a bit. Finally, he is a bit headstrong and very willing to put himself into danger if he thinks the world is at risk or if his family is in danger.

Reagan Ridley

First off, Reagan is… kind of a mess personally speaking. She’s fairly emotionally stunted and has typically made rash decisions when in high stress situations. She’s also still a relatively grounded human physically speaking, with her tech being the main thing that lets her get the leg up on those she ends up fighting. Finally, she’s also noted that she’s spent a lot of her time at a desk job, so while she has kept up in fights with more skilled opponents, her own experience with combat is overall low.

Before the Verdict

Town Level Gravity Falls

The most controversial feat in Gravity Falls comes from the end of Season 1, in which a giant robot Gideon was piloting exploded hard enough to make a big explosion. And as Dipper was able to beat him up, he should scale to it. This blast has been previously calculated to be 32 Kilotons, but this calculation uses an incorrect value in it’s calculation, as it assumes it vaporized rocks, despite the area affected looking like soil and there not being a good reason to assume it literally vaporized the area. So I recalced it using the value for pulverization of soil, which downgraded it to 7 Kilotons, as well as calculated the size of the explosion itself which would get to 880.972 Tons of TNT. Another issue people have with this feat is how much of the energy Gideon was taking, but given the blast was emitting from the robot he was inside of, it’s not likely he was completely protected from the blast, so I feel it’s fine to assume he took the brunt of it. The final issue is the question of if it’s an outlier, since it is a bit of a jump from characters otherwise consistently being in the Building-City Block range, but I personally think it’s far from an egregious enough gap to make this invalid.

There are 2 more debatable feats at this level from the games which I’ll also discuss here. The more valid one is from the 3DS game Legend of the Gnome Gemulets, in which Dark Jeff, who is the final boss that Dipper and Mabel fight and can damage, is shown to be able to create fog over the whole town. (See the difference in the map screen from here to here, as well as the background of the final boss fight). The energy needed to create the whole storm would be city level, but as this was something it took a while to create, the energy Dipper and Mabel should scale to would only be 27.969 Kilotons. It is worth noting that this game does fall into the “questionably canon” section of the series, but as the game doesn’t directly contradict any story elements and isn’t a particularly big jump in numbers to the best feat from the main show, I feel it’s reasonable to see it as the high end for stats.

The less valid argument in my opinion is from the Take Back The Falls flash game. This is a beat 'em up game in which Dipper can personally throw hands with a bunch of Bill’s henchmaniacs. Already this game has the issue of being a lot less valid continuity wise to include given this is blatantly contradicting the original finale’s events, but the real issue comes from how these minions have clones that are visible onscreen. Some have argued Dipper beating them up means he can scale to their full strength, which is notable given one has been stated to be able to burn cities, but the issue is that we have no context for how strong these clones actually are compared to their original selves, who also have not been established to be able to clone themselves in the first place, so there’s no reason to assume this means Dipper scales to their full strength.

The Continental Coloring Book Feat

A more notable feat that has been brought up rather recently involves the official Gravity Falls coloring book Don't Color This Book! It's Cursed! In this, Dipper ends up sucked up inside a cursed coloring book which is eventually revealed to be sucking up all the color from the world. But after Mabel ends up overloading the book with a bunch of clashing colors, the book ends up launching Dipper out of it along with all the colors it sucked up to bring everything back to normal. Some have calculated this feat to be worth 1.087 Petatons, which is a good deal stronger than other feats in the series. That would be enough to write it off as an outlier and move on, but I feel there are multiple issues with the feat beyond that.

First off, there is the issue that this book’s events are in the “questionably canon” part of the series. While on the one hand there isn’t anything in the book’s events that directly contradict the main story of the series, on the other hand it’s also not ever been called back in any media that’s more definitively canon and was made after its creation. It is also worth noting that Gravity Falls is generally a series that has a lot of cross media cohesion with many of them hiding secrets the show didn’t tackle. However, this book in particular has no real relation to any of said mysteries, as it's just another wacky adventure that could be slotted in anywhere. The only secret to be found in it is a short audio of Soos making a podcast which has no real relevance to any lore within the series. So treating it as a big piece of the puzzle which is hiding the best feat in the series for non cosmic entities doesn’t make too much sense on the face of it.

However, the bigger issue with this feat is that I feel the logic for the impact being that strong is pretty flawed. The calculation assumes that Dipper was launched out alongside enough ink to cover the entire planet, and while it is true that Dipper was physically launched out of the book, the other assumptions made here are ones I feel are more unfounded. For one, the idea that it had sucked up all of the color of the world at the time is not a fair assumption, as we just see the surrounding area lose color. Mabel does directly state the whole world lost color, but she’s in the middle of a high pressure situation, has no real way to confirm that as literally true, and is someone who tends to over exaggerate stuff in general, so taking her word literally isn’t too reliable. It’s also clearly a long process, given she earlier indicated it was a gradual thing that had just started to take effect on her surroundings, but since this was a mere 5 pages from the one where she posts the picture showing what’s going on, it’s hard to assume that the entire world lost most of its color in that time, especially since you can see in the picture with her statement that even just the area directly around her was not fully affected yet.

The other big issue is that the assumption that the return of all this color involved a massive output of physical ink isn’t really supported by anything. Sure, the effect looks like that's what's happening, but in the context of the rest of the book it’s hard to draw that conclusion, as the magic of the book consistently takes the form of a liquid ink visually even if it’s clearly not outputting that literally in the moment. Even then, the fact Mabel was physically holding the book the whole time and yet did not notice color had been sucked up until page 51 of 69 clearly indicates that how the color sucking process worked was not using some sort of physical process, but rather was a hax based ability. So the assumption that it just arbitrarily created a bunch of ink to bring color back to the world even when it clearly did not need to physically drag ink out of those objects in the first place is fairly unsubstantiated.

Bill Cipher Scaling

First off, yeah obviously Stanford has no business actually scaling to Bill Cipher’s power personally to put him at universal / multiversal / wherever Bill’s at now. But with the Quantum Destabilizer, it’s a different story. Stanford directly designed it to kill Bill, Bill was shown to consider it a threat, and it blasted a hole straight through him just with a glancing shot. I could break down how strong Bill is to go over how strong it would need to be to kill him, but I’m just going to assume that you don’t need to see a whole cosmology section to agree with the statement “yeah the gun that could kill Bill Cipher would definitely kill Reagan lmao”.

However, I have seen some people argue that people Ford scales to could compare to Bill in terms of speed, thanks to the mindscape fight, Dipper and Mabel briefly managing to run away from him, and the Shacktron more directly taking him on. This can be fairly impressive given Bill can range from massively faster than light to immeasurable. But I don’t think these arguments really stand up against scrutiny. All the cases of the twins outpacing him can be pretty easily handwaved to be just a result of his arrogance, given he easily ends the fight in the mindscape with his power nullification once he calms down, was pissed off and distracted with gloating when Mabel blinded him, and was able to easily catch them off guard once he starts flying in the chase. It’s also worth noting they only kept pace with his giant form’s running, not his faster than light interstellar flight speed or immeasurable reactions, so there’s not much reason to actually scale them to his best speeds just from their running away from him in the first place. As for the Shacktron, it keeping up with him had nothing to do with its speed, it was just something he had trouble actually harming thanks to the unicorn hair bubble, and he was pretty clearly able to take it out faster than it could react when he ultimately figured out how to take it down.

The Bill Proof Suit

In the Book of Bill, it was shown that Stanford had made plans to create a cool suit with several interesting gadgets. The issue is that these are just plans, as literally 3 pages later he says he was not able to build it himself at the time, and we have no way to confirm if he got around to making anything mentioned as part of it offscreen. So as cool as it is, there is no reason to treat it as standard.

Moon Worm Scaling

A notable feat that could imply a high level of power is from a statement stating the craters on the moon are made by Moon Worms. As Reagan’s weapons have been shown to kill them and she compares to characters who could directly hold them back, she should likely scale to this feat. The issue is that this feat is impossible to actually put any kind of solid numbers on given the lack of details. We don’t know how long it took them to make a crater, the exact size of it, how many worms were needed to do it, or even the exact method on how they actually make them. So there’s frankly not much of a way to actually apply numbers to the feat without making multiple assumptions.

For the calculation, I opted to use the average size of a fresh crater on the moon, and then assume just one worm would be able to make a crater like it over the course of a day, which would clock in at 15.525 - 415.299 Kilotons, depending on what destruction value you’d want to use. And as mentioned there is a lot of ambiguity with this feat so higher or lower interpretations of it are definitely possible, this is just the most reasonable assumption you could make of this feat in my opinion. This is of course a pretty big jump in numbers meaning you might argue it’s an outlier, but it’s already a bit questionable on it’s own merits so I won’t harp on that.

Brett’s Nostalgia Max Storm

Another notable feat from the series which could imply high power involves when Brett was high on chemicals that made him obsessed with Nostalgia and gave him a lot of power that he went mad with. Rather notably, the final confrontation with him has a storm seen over the town, which when combined with him creating a lot of wind around him, could imply he created this storm. And as Reagan was able to clash with his power with her proton pack and directly take a hit from him in this state, she should likely scale to this.

However, the big issue with this feat there’s not really anything to suggest he’s responsible for actually making the storm, which you can tell by tracking the sky of the various scenes. The storm doesn’t seem to have formed in the immediate aftermath of going mad, and in town there’s already some overcast in the background before Reagan has a montage of watching a bunch of movies, only after which Brett comes in. And the scene also then cuts to the surrounding woods, which have a relatively clear sky until the scene transitions back into town. Finally, even after he ends up calming down, while the windy effect in the town square goes away, the overcast sky is still unchanged. This all seems to suggest that Brett was not actually creating a whole storm over the town in this scene, but rather was creating a lot of wind displacing some clouds that were already there.

Even ignoring that issue, the above scenes also show that we don’t have a lot of reason to assume it was actually over the whole town, but rather it was just at the central part of it, since it’s only directly stated to be affecting the town square. This means that even if you were to treat this as him creating a storm, it would only clock in at 7.723 Tons - 4.37 Kilotons, which doesn’t really make it that game changing, as Reagan can scale to better feats at both ends.

Verdict

Stats

On the low end both of these two were pretty close in terms of strength and durability, as they could compare to a lot of scaling. Just looking at their direct feats, Ford has survived explosions that blew up the top of a building at 1.265 Tons and an alien ship crash landing at 4.186 Tons. Reagan’s own best feat of durability was a good deal lower than this at 3.167 Megajoules, which was 1671 times weaker than the latter. She did have an arguable feat which was a bit more in line with the barge explosion at 1.78 Tons, though it’s a bit unclear if she actually tanked the blast or if she was pulled out of the way offscreen before it could go off, and the space crash would still over twice as strong regardless.

With scaling, things get more complicated. Without including the more questionable town level feats for both, the best you could scale Ford to would be in the city block tier, as via scaling to Dipper he’s scale to him surviving a grate explosion at 68.84 Tons and getting crushed under the Island Head at 236.64 Tons. This was better than Reagan scaling to Bear-O’s blast through walls at 44.37 Tons, making him about 1.5 - 5.3 times stronger than her if you don’t include debatable feats. With them though, things do turn around, as even with scaling to Gideon’s mech blowing up at 7.432 Kilotons and Dark Jeff’s fog creation at 27.969 Kilotons, Reagan scaling to the Moon Worm’s crater creation at 15.525 - 415.299 Kilotons would make her 2 - 14.8 times stronger than Stanford at best.

Speed was a bit more complicated, as both universes did have quite a few notable cases of dodging projectiles that potentially moved at light speed. While Gravity Falls was a bit more consistent about it, with Stanford’s best feat in this regard clocking in at 1.433 c, Reagan could claim to be a bit faster, through scaling to the Pope’s mirror reflection at 2.88 c, making her about twice as fast on the face of it. And these are both values you could argue both can upscale, given they were done by a child and an elderly man respectively. So Reagan was about twice as fast, but that was far from enough of a gap that Stanford couldn’t keep up.

Arsenal & Abilities

Both of these geniuses did have a lot of gadgets to use in a fight, and actually had a lot of comparable capabilities. They had access to plenty of energy weapons, melee weapons which used electricity, a variety of more haxy gadgets, and even a couple ways to disable the other’s technology. Though to start things off, Ford did have the better method in that regard, as a single shot with the magnet gun could likely disable basically all of her gadgets in a single blast, which was an issue given a lot of her options would be vulnerable to it. Meanwhile, most of Reagan’s options for directly hacking tech were options she needed time to do, and while the nanobots have been shown to disassemble machines, them being a swarm she needed to directly control would make them a bit more unwieldy than Ford just pointing and shooting her. He also had more options for continuing the fight if he did lose all his gadgets, something Reagan had in far shorter supply.

Beyond that, Ford had quite a few options that could be used to end the fight quickly. Most notably, he had an easy way to keep her trapped and helpless with the freeze and alien adhesive guns, and her getting trapped in a comic would be a good way to keep her trapped for a while. And the journals’ spells also include options for transmuting her, or sending her to another dimension, which she didn’t have an easy way of countering. The most obvious trump card Ford had was of course the Quantum Destabilizer, as a weapon capable of taking out the dimension wrecking dorito would be more than enough to blast her apart even with a single shot. Though whether it’d be in character for him to use this on her was a bit questionable, given from his perspective he’d be wasting his one shot to end Cipher on a random human. And some of his options, such as the mind control ties or taking the fight to the mindscape, were a bit too situational to be reliable as win conditions, and some like the infinite sided dice or the cloak had equal odds of being helpful or a hinderance. But generally he had simpler methods of making the fight go his way.

Reagan of course had her own fair share of notable points in her favor, but generally they wouldn’t be as useful. She had access to her own method of immobilization with the energy cage, but this being a cage meant Ford could still be free to shoot at her, unlike with getting frozen solid, which would be more effective. She could use one of her sedatives, but the watch would require her to get close to him, and the darts were something Stanley definitely had the speed to dodge. She could use a combination of stealth and the hologram disguise to get the opportunity to slip away and catch him off guard, but not only has she never used this as an actual strategy, the fact the disguise wouldn’t work on her voice or any equipment she’d be carrying meant the odds of him falling for it enough to let him get close were slim. And while Reagan did have some gadgets that seemed broken on paper, it was unlikely for them to net her a win here. The blazer gun utilizes nanoparticles, which could imply it’s capable of affecting foes on an atomic level, but it’s only ever been shown to work on clothes, meaning it was unlikely that would be a good way to blast apart Ford. And while the reality scanner being able to look into potential futures could imply she’d be able to figure out an optimal path to victory in a win akin to clairvoyance, it’s not an option she’s been shown to be able to actively use to her advantage in the middle of a fight, given it took her a while to figure out the optimal path to do with Ron even with relatively more time.

Finally, both did have access for options to erase memories entirely, which both could resist. But this was a resistance Reagan could only get if she was wearing a tinfoil hat, whereas that was something Ford had in his head at all times. This is an important distinction since it meant Reagan would have no reason to assume he could resist it, meaning that even with her speed edge, it was likely for her to waste her shot at ending the battle by hitting him with something she wouldn’t know he could resist. And even if she was wearing the foil, not only is the fact it was used to counter timeline changes specifically make it a bit questionable to assume it was something that could counter a more direct attack to her memory, tinfoil doing this was something that works similarly in the Gravity Falls universe, meaning Ford could likely recognise she’s wearing it and not waste that shot until he got it away from her head. And while she did have a gun that could reset her mind, she’d still have to actually remember to use it in the case he blasted her with the memory gun, meaning it wasn’t going to let her come back from this attack.

Tertiary Factors

Both of the two are certified geniuses in their world who have been shown to be child prodigies and possess a lot of knowledge on various subjects. Though Reagan did manage to edge out in terms of general intelligence, as while both have made plenty of gadgets, generally Ford needed help from other geniuses like Fiddleford or Bill for his more impressive creations, whereas Reagan was a lot more independent. However, in terms of more combat relevant intelligence, Ford had more of an edge. Not only is he a good deal older and more experienced, he’s also generally had more time actively being willing to fight. Reagan has been shown to go on the offensive and keep up with skilled opponents herself, but it’s been implied this is a lot rarer for her overall. He’s also generally willing to actually use a lot of his more broken options in a battle, whereas a lot of Reagan’s broken options are stuff she’s used either in more casual settings or for ending fights before they even begin. Even with an arguable edge in strength and a slight speed edge, it’s a lot more in character for Ford to know when it’s time to use these methods, whereas Reagan can be a lot more impulsive.

Speaking of which, the final point to bring up in his favor would be Ford just being a lot more put together. Reagan has often been shown to panic or act impulsively when backed into a corner, and generally tends to stick to her guns if she doesn’t have others to rein her in. Meanwhile, while that was also an issue for him in the past, a lot of the more negative issues Ford has are stuff he eventually learned to move past. And for general stability, he’s been able to keep a cool enough head to reduce his own adrenaline, which would require an insane amount of self control. This all would mean that, even if he was on the back foot initially, he’d have a better time actually managing to figure out how to deal with his potential losses in strength and speed, which meant him figuring out a proper way to win was all but assured.

Conclusion

“Trust No One? What an absurd and paranoid idea. Trust shouldn’t be given unconditionally, but it should be given a chance to be earned. There is strength in having the humility to work with and sacrifice for others - a strength I now realise was in my brother all along”

Advantages:

Stronger with low ends
Magnet Gun gave a good way to instantly shut down Reagan’s tech
Had plenty of options for ending the battle
Better counter to getting memory erased
Better experience and skill
More stable personality
JK Simmons
Actually got an ending
The Gravity Falls Fandom

Disadvantages:

Weaker with high ends
Slightly slower
Certain options were likely unable to work
Not as smart
Disney
Toxic Yaoi
The Gravity Falls Fandom

"Alright, Reagan. You made your choice. Because humanity needs someone to make the hard choices. And as long as the person you love is happy, maybe you can be happy later. Till then, you have a job to do..."

Advantages:

Stronger with high ends
Slightly faster
Could counter certain options of Ford’s for a time…
Generally smarter
Inside Job is a great show please watch it
Bisexual icon
She’s just like me fr

Disadvantages:

Weaker with low ends
…but all of them could be very easily nullified with the Magnet Gun
Vulnerable to quite a few methods of Ford winning
Couldn’t reliably counter getting memory erased
Less experience and skill
Less stable personality
Netflix
Lost a rap battle to a water cooler
Has a way worse life like goddamn

These two were certainly geniuses and could compete in many ways. But in spite of her edge statistically, Ford had the options and brains to quickly work around this disadvantage, giving him all he needed to ensure he was one leak Cognito Inc could not plug. You would probably say this was rigged or that I’m lying to you about this conclusion, but unfortunately, this is the truth that is out there.

The winner is Stanford Pines

Sourcelist:

Dipper vs Dib Prediction Blog by Fiction Fights
Reigen vs Stanley Prediction Blog by Toxin's Death Battle Corner
Stanford vs Reagan Prediction Blog by Frisk’s Blogs
Stanford Respect Thread by u/LambentEnigma
Thanks to @zeeone75 for many of the Inside Job Calcs (yes I did fact check them to ensure they were accurate)
The Gravity Falls Wiki
The Inside Job Wiki
VS Battles Wiki

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