Stan Marsh

} Stanley Marsh, voiced by Trey Parker, is one of the four main characters of "South Park", and is often considered the leader of the four.

Appearance
Stanley 'Stan' Marsh is nine years old, and wears a brown coat, blue jeans and red gloves. He wears a dark blue hat with a red trim and pom-pom on the top of it. Stan has short, black hair, which is usually messy because of his hat which he wears almost all the time. Stan has blue eyes.

Life and Personality
Stan Marsh was born in 1990 on October 19 to Randy and Sharon Marsh. He lives at 2001 Bonanza Street, South Park Co. 80439. Ever since Stan was in Kindergarten, he has been friends with Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick. As they grew up together, it is easy to say that Stan became the most sensible and reasonable one, often doing the right things. Sometimes this roll is reversed and Stan is the gullible one, while Kyle is the reasonable one. Stan developed a crush for Wendy Testaburger, who became his love interest through most of the shows run. Besides the fact everytime Stan tried to talk to Wendy in the early seasons he threw up, they became Boyfriend and Girlfriend. Their romance faded as time went on, to the point they wouldn't even talk for weeks. It ended with Wendy breaking up with Stan, who tried to get her back but she had already moved on.

Stan is Empathetic and sensitive, a trait his friends tend to pick on. This has been seen by his love for animals. He first showed his compassion for animals in "Volcano", when he refued to shoot a bunny. Other examples are when he tried to save calfs from a ranch, which intended to make the cows veal in "Fun with Veal". He managed to get the name veal switched to Tortured Baby Cow, thereby saving the cows lives because no body wanted to eat it anymore. When their Afghani double-gangers sent Stan and his friends a goat, they had no place to put it so Stan decided to send it back by sneaking onto an Army base and putting it in a aircraft. He travelled to Mexico to visit the Mexican space program to see if they could send an Orca to the moon, which may appear to be creul, but Stan and his friends had been tricked into the belive that the Orca was from the moon, and was dieing there on earth.

Stan has a strained relationship with his family. His father, Randy Marsh, is usually over the top and overreacts to small situations and takes things to seriously. Stan is the one who tries to talk sense to him, and clean up the messes he and the other residents of South Park cause. A good example is when a Dam breaks in "Two Days before the Day after Tomorrow", the South Park residents think it to be Global Warming, so they run to the Community Centre after they start to be 'chased' by Global Warming. Meanwhile, the broken bever dam has left a town flooded and those on the roofs stuck, with everyone to afraid to get them because they think Global Warming will kill them. Stan, Kyle, and  Cartman then go themselves to rescue the citizens in the flooded town. It is worthy to note that Stan and Cartman were the ones who broke the dam, and Stan was acting out of a guilty concious. His sister Shelly views Stan as below him, and frequently treats him like crap. She beats him up and verbally abuses him, which is very embarrasing for Stan. She has shown a side of compassion to him, like when she offered to protect him from Trent Boyett, but over all their relationship has not improved much. His Grandfather, who cannot remember Stan's name and always calls him Billy, has repeatedly tried to get Stan to kill him, pleading and tricking, because he cannot do it himself. Stan and his mother, Sharin, generally have a good bond, though she has admitted that she considers her happiness over his.

Stan has easily joined fads without a second thought. He was up to date with all the latest Chinpokomon products, and became a metrosexual for a short while in "South Park is Gay". This contrasts with his reasonable personality, but in the leatest episodes he has taken the stance as his friend Kyle Broflovki, and generally stays out of fads. Stan's moral self was tested in "Trapped in the Closet", when he became the leader of the church of Scientology after scoring the highest Thetan levels, and thought to be the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. He was then told by the church's inner ranks that the church was a scam, and if he went along with it he would have made millions. Stan was hesitant, and for a short while greed overcame him, but he didn't feel right lieing to so many people, so he told the turth, but no one belived him.

Kyle Broflovski and Stan Marsh are best friends, most of the time siding with eachother on the same issue and siding against Eric Cartman. They share the same views on most matters, and both draw a morale out of an episode. Only twice have the two been in serious conflict. When Stan and Kyle discover a frozen man, in "Prehistoric Ice Man", they both have different names for him and Kyle's is chosen, leading to an escalated conflict where the two engage in a fight over who discovered him and what his name is. Similar to this, Kyle is chosen for a school assignment to take care of an egg with Wendy Testaburger, leading Stan to grow jealous of the two, even though they were broken up. Kyle was oblivious to this. On both occasions the friendship was stiil intact.

With Eric Cartman, Stan is most of the time opposing him, but on certain occasions the two have been on the same side on small thing, such as whether Cartman pretending to be Kyle's dead gradmother was funny. The two were also once together without Kyle Broflovski, Stan's best friend,in "Two days before the Day after Tomorrow". They were playing in a boat, and appeared to be having fun together, until the drove the boat into a beaver dam. Kenny McCormick, while generally taking the side of Cartman, is on good terms with both Stan and Kyle. There is not much interaction between Stan and Kenny McCormick, but in "Kenny Dies", Stan has trouble dealing with the fact Kenny is dieing (despite the fact he dies in every episode.) In the end, Stan gets over himself and decides to visit Kenny instead of hiding, but is to late and finds out Kenny has died. He is emotionally devistated, thinking himself Kenny's worts friend. But when he discovers Cartman was no promoting Stem Cell research to save Kenny, but was actually useing the fact Kenny was dieing to legalize Stem Cell research so he could build his own restraunt. This comforted, Stan, who pointed out he wasn't Kenny's worst friend, because Cartman was, who at the moment was being beaten up by Kyle.

Talents
Stan is shown as being very talented. He is quite atheltically proficient, and is shown as the star on his school sports teams. He was the star quarterback on his football team, and was number 4 on South Park's Elementary Dodgeball team and won the world championship against China. He was a Pee Wee player when little, and atually was the best on his team (He was the only one that took a shot at the net), and later decided to coach the Colorado Pee Wee team to get his bike back so he could deliver papers. He was also captain and pitcher of his baseball team in the "Losing Edge". Stan also beat a professional skier in a race down a mountain, only two days after he started to learn how to ski (This is mostly because his opponet kept on stopping to set traps).

His friends Kyle Broflovski and Eric Cartman both have very well developed music talents, but Stan is somewhat lacking in this department. He did manage to write a song and get it on the air in "Smug Alert!" to encourage people to buy hyrbid cars. He wrote a song once called "Wake up Wendy", which he managed to get Elton John to sing. Stan is able to play several instruments, including the Violen, Recorder and most notably the guitar, which he has a knack for. He is also a good lien danver as we see in "You got F'd in the A". He created a band once called 'Moop' with his friends.

Despite being only 9 years old, Stan is able to do certain things one would not think he could. One of those things would be ale to handel a Heckler and Koch G36 in "Wing". He also handeled a rifle well in "Volcano" where he threatened to blow Cartman's head off, and in "Red Sleigh Down" when he went to Afghanistan to save Santa Claus. Stan was also able to get a hold of a hand gun and put it to Kyle's head in "Mystery of the Urinal Duece", though he did not fire. He also has driven a car on several occasions, like when they were taking Towlie back to his base, he had help from Kenny who was on the pedals at driving a pick up truck. He also drove His Fathers car whe he was to drunk to drive, and drove an armoured bus in "Night of the Living Homeless" to lure the Homeless people away from South Park.

Family
Stan Marsh is the son of Randy and Sharon Marsh. He has an older sister named Shelly Marsh, who regularly beats him up and insults him, claiming him to be sub-human. She probably does love him, though, as shown in the early episode "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig". She beats him up frequently, but when everyone is blaming him for the damage his evil clone has done, and are threatening to slay him for it, she comes to his defense. Stan also has an extremley elderly grandpa, Marvin, who once tried to get Stan to kill him. Jimbo Kern is his uncle, and the brother of Sharon Marsh. Stan once had a great aunt, aunt Flo, metaphorically meaning his mother's menstrual cycle, but she was killed by his demonic fish in the episode "Spooky-Fish". In the episode, "How to Eat With Your Butt", it was the first time Stan was seen uncapped, only in the beginning of the episode. Stan seems to be the closest to his father, although he does get frustrated by Randy's general naivete and melo-dramatic antics. Randy cares deeply for Stan, but in attempts to guide him or protect him, frequently does extremely crazy things, such as sending him away in order to avoid abducting him. Stan also seems to get along with his grandpa. The only thing in the way of their relationship was Marvin's desire for Stan to kill him. Stan doesn't seem to have a bad relationship with his mother, but she does put her happiness before his, as she tells him in "Clubhouses". She also seems to favour her daughter over her son.

Quotes
"Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"

"No, you're not the Candy Master, you're the Ass Master. There's a difference."

"No, dude. You're a douche."

"Aah, we're always running late you ugly skank. "

"I don't want to shoot the bunny."

"Haha Cartman ... You're a fatass AND your mom's a He-She."

"No, Jay Leno's chin is big-boned. You are a big, fat ass."

"One day you're gonna have to stop running and deal with what happened. Otherwise, you might as well just move to France with all the other pussies."

"Bible, Star Trek, whats the difference?"

"That's impossible. Cartman doesn't know a rainforest from a Pop-Tart."

"We can't get off. The dumb bitch won't let us."

"Kyle! Jesus is going to kill you because you're Jewish!"

"Oh my God! Jay Leno's chin killed Kenny!"

"I've had enough of your dickitry!"

"You mean there's actually people who dedicate their life to sticking their hands up somebody's ass?"

"Guys, we have no choice. We're gonna have to move away. Environmental activists don't use logic or reason."