YEEEESSSSSS, SO MUCH YES TO ALL OF THIS! This is one of the most spot on analyses I’ve ever fucking read, good job. Dipper and Mabel have a fundamentally different relationship to Stan and Ford, it’s the positive example to their negative one. I’ve seen some people claim that Mabel is overly dependent on Dipper, but I’ve never seen so much as a mote of evidence for that. The only reason people say that is because of the scene in DAMVTF. No, it’s definitely the exact opposite.



They’ve always been two very individual people, with their own unique identities and personalities, and rather than try to stifle that or try to make the other feel lesser for their different way of being as sometimes happens in the relationship of the older twins, they do none of that, instead they appreciate each other’s opposite personalities, enjoy them. They allow their opposite personalities to flow together, and it’s healthy, it works.



They’ve always given each other space. There are a ton of episodes that prove this, where each goes off to do their own thing, and they spend time with other people (Mostly Candy and Grenda for Mabel, and mostly Wendy and Soos for Dipper, along with Ford later on), yet still spend plenty of time together. They encourage each other to do the things they enjoy and to spend time with their friends too.



People love to criticize Mabel in DAMVTF, but they equally love to ignore how she encourages Dipper to go with Ford at the start. And they respect, support and foster each other’s interests, like when Mabel sends Dipper off to find something supernatural in Boss Mabel (which ended in disaster, but STILL XD) or when Dipper cheered Mabel up by reminding her about her skills in mini-golf, and later encouraging her when she was down about losing to Pacifica. They also appreciate each other’s different ways of thinking. Mabel has multiple times told Dipper that he is smart and good at solving problems, and Dipper has likewise given the same support and respect to Mabel about her way of thinking, like in Irrational Treasure. Everything about their relationship is just really healthy and positive like that, you know (though some fandom people have the incorrect stance that this isn’t the case, but to hell with them).



They’ve never been treated as a set by anyone, they’ve always been appreciated as the individuals that they are by others, and they see each other as the individuals that they are. And yes, at the age they are, they both NEED to stay together, like seriously, would ANY of the people who bitch about Mabel being upset and Dipper not taking the apprenticeship have been okay if they’d been away from their loved ones at the age of thirteen? I somehow highly doubt that. Dip and Mabel have a long way to go, a lot of growing to do, and eventually they’ll get to an age where they can spend time apart, but that age is not now.



Like seriously, it constantly amazes me how people constantly ignore the very deliberate age difference between them and the Stans, IT’S SO INTENTIONAL AND SO OBVIOUS OH MY GOD NONE OF THIS IS EVEN REMOTELY SUBTEXTUAL I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CONSTANTLY POINT THIS OUT TO PEOPLE! Ahem. Scuse me for that. Eventually, when it comes time for them to go their separate ways, they’ll do so whilst being happy for each other. And if they eventually get to a point where they want to go adventuring around the world together (something I can totally see happening) or live together or whatever, it’ll be based on a healthy, mutual decision to do so rather than one pressuring the other into it. And, a big one, one of the biggest contrasts between their relationship and the Grunks’ relationship. COMMUNICATION! There’s so much of it. When one of them has an issue with the other, it might not immediately come to the surface, but it eventually comes up.

Examples

Little Dipper:

“I guess it’s just you kept teasing me Mabel, like all day. What was that all about?”

“I guess it’s that, you’re like better than me at like everything, and you always rub it in my face… Chess, checkers, ping pong. I guess I finally felt like I was winning at something for once.”

Summerween:

“Oh, so now you’re worried about the monster. I thought all you cared about was Wendy.”

“Mabel, you know that’s not true. I just felt like I was getting a little too old to go trick-or-treating.”

“That’s exactly why we need to go trick or treating Dipper. We’re getting older, there’s not that many Halloweens left. I guess I didn’t realise it was already our last one”.

Carpet Diem:

“What’s with you? Why do you need that room so bad? I never even wanted to move out!”

“Me either”

“Wait, what? Say that again?”

“I-I never wanted to move out”

“Then what was all this?”

“Everything was fine until you started bringing your friends around every night. I mean, hanging out with you this summer’s been fun. But, now you’re always with Candy and Grenda, and I’m… like… just, left behind.”

Every time there’s an issue, they communicate it. Sometimes, that communication breaks down, especially after Ford shows up and starts having Dipper keep secrets, but they always communicate again in the end, A.K.A. one of the big points of Weirdmageddon 2. Everything about Dipper and Mabel’s relationship just works so well and is so healthy, and it’s such a deliberate contrast to that of the Stans and I love that. Especially since we had all that doom and gloom foreshadowing after Ford’s arrival that, rather than coming to pass, was instead turned completely on its head and was used to show how strong their bond is and how much stronger a relationship they have than the Stans did.



Now take Stan and Ford, everything’s so different with them. Right from the start, they were always treated like a set by everyone, I mean the fact that Filbrick “named them both Stan” is very symbolic of that. There’s also the way Crampelter called Stan “the dumber, sweatier version” of Ford. And when Ford was called to the principal’s office, they didn’t just call him, they called Stan too, even though they didn’t need him (not only pulling him out of class, but also subjecting him to the verbal abuse of their principal).



Stan and Ford are two VERY different people, just like Dipper and Mabel, but they were always treated as one and the same, two halves of a set, and this stifled their individuality and ended up making Stan feel the same way. Neither of them had the space they really needed, and given that Stan was constantly made to feel like an idiot who was inferior to his brother, he clung too tightly to Stanford, believing that he only had value when he had Ford there with him. Furthermore, unlike Dipper and Mabel, there was never any communication. Ford never communicated how he felt suffocated by Stanley, and Stan never communicated that he felt inferior to Ford. So yeah, by the time they fought in the ATOTS flashback, tensions must have been bubbling up beneath the surface for a long while.



Stan’s actions and inconsideration for Ford’s feelings were, of course, wrong, and Ford’s anger in the situation was justified. However, he cannot be fully absolved of blame for the situation. He told Stan that if WCT didn’t work out, he’d go treasure hunting with him. He lied to Stan and gave him false hope rather than telling him the reality of the situation and that he needed his space. If anything, this fostered Stan’s dependency issues, and I think we can assume Ford’s probably been avoiding telling Stan the truth for a good few years in regards to the Stan o’ war at this point in time. Because of this failure of communication and understanding, their relationship fell apart.



It’s a very interesting aspect of GF, because the two relationships are a clear display of different environments producing different results psychologically. Stan and Ford were raised by an abusive father who saw no value in Stan and only saw value in Ford’s smarts, they were constantly belittled by bullies, were treated as a set and were never appreciated as individuals by their peers, all of which resulted in the disaster zone of miscommunication that their relationship became. Contrast that to Dipper and Mabel, who have been supported by Stan rather than abused like he and Ford were by Filbrick (and we can’t know what their relationship with their parents is like, but it’s probably a lot better than Stan and Ford’s relationship with Filbrick), their individual skills are given value, they are generally treated well by the people around them with one or two exceptions, and nobody has ever treated them as a set, all their friends and family appreciate them as individuals. All of this has given the proper space for their relationship to function happily and healthily the way a sibling relationship should, rather than being crushed and suffocated in an unpleasant environment.



There are those in the fandom who STILL think Dipper and Mabel could end up like Stan and Ford, that there is “already a wedge between them”, but those people are WRONG! So, so, deeply, fundamentally wrong on every possible level. The younger twins will NEVER end up like the older twins because their relationship is fundamentally better, healthier and stronger. Too strong to ever break the way Stan and Ford’s did.



This is why Ford’s projecting is so aggravating. I’ve seen people use the excuse that “it’s all Ford knows, of course he’s going to assume the same is true for others”, but no, bullshit to that. A man as smart as Ford should be able to figure out that his experience does not reflect anyone else’s. He has SEEN how well Dipper and Mabel get along. He might not have seen many of their interactions having spent most of his time with Dipper, but when he has seen them together, when has he ever seen anything that suggests suffocation? Mabel’s consistently given Dipper his space to hang out with Ford, even encouraging him RIGHT IN FRONT OF FORD at the start of DAMVTF, and STILL Ford projects his issues onto Dipper.



This is also the reason I personally don’t like Relativity Falls much. Like, I love the concept, but it’s so fucking out of character, honestly to god. The mere notion that Dipper and Mabel would fight and fall apart the way Stan and Ford did is really OOC, it’s just forcing Dipper and Mabel into roles they were never meant to take, forcing them into a relationship that is nothing like the one they really have. (Also, the mere notion that Dipper would stand by and do nothing as Mabel was kicked out of the house is so glaringly out of character that I can’t even begin to point out why). I took this off on a bit of a tangent here at the end, my apologies. Main point is, I agree one hundred fucking percent, and this is top quality, high end analysis right here, good job.

