Many times it’s been said by Alex himself that he would always want to be sure that Dipper and Mabel were written with a healthy relationship in mind. It’s been a strict rule that they always love each other like how he loves his own twin sister, Ariel. He’s said this before, and he says it again in this interview.

Yet there’s often a “Dipper VS. Mabel” mentality instead of “Dipper AND Mabel VS. ___” (like one of the episode titles itself), and I’ve seen multiple people claim the two are the ones with a “bad relationship.”

How many of these people claim this and actually know sibling relationships? If they do have first-hand experience with siblings, they probably have a chip on their shoulder or are negatively biased, but yeesh.

Dipper loves Mabel so much, that he often values her above himself because of this. Yes, he has his selfish moments too - ALL characters and people just do have those moments. It’s human, it’s normal, it happens. (Same is said for Mabel). Doesn’t mean that selfishness is their whole being and makes them a “Horrible PersonTM.”

This love for his sister is what keeps her as one of his #1 concerns if there’s danger that she’s affected by. He cares about his family, especially Mabel.

Mabel also loves Dipper so much, that she gets scared of being separated from him. She’s afraid of being alone and/or abandoned. All she wants is to continue to trust and love him like she does the rest of her family and many other people. Mabel is a character who values her social connections and wants to keep this under good maintainance. I’m sure there are many people who would understand this if they feel lonely easily? I sure know those kinds of people. They’re NOT being selfish for it, it’s just one of the typical human desires that they have.

This love for her brother is what drives Mabel to fight monsters and demons for him (even symbolically). They’re each other’s heroes!

Oh, and Dipper has this fear of separation too. Just look back at Carpet Diem! Mabel was willing to admit defeat (much to her sadness) with the situation of them being in separate rooms, but Dipper was the one who decided to reassure her that this wasn’t what he (nor her) really wanted.

“But siblings are supposed to part their ways when they mature!!”



Seriously? These KIDS are only turning thirteen. They’ve got an entire TEENHOOD to mature to that point! They’re NOT old enough to move out and have all those adult responsibilities. Much like I assume with Alex and Ariel, Dipper and Mabel will be accepting of this natural parting when they’re actually ADULTS. They’ve got years ahead of them!

As for the health of their relationship, the creator of this show himself is right about it being positive and good. Yes, there are conflicts, but that’s the POINT. That’s how relationships grow! It’s how development in stories HAPPEN! Characters NEED to have their relationships, views, goals, and even motives to be challenged in stories. Dipper and Mabel at least try and work toward maintaining their bond. The same can’t really be said for the Stan twins…

When Dipper and Mabel are together though, they’re willing to communicate their problems and find solutions (to the best of their young abilities and experience). It seemed to get much worse after AToTS because Ford came into the picture, and Dipper spent a lot of time with him instead due to idolization of this author he had been searching for that whole summer. In a sense, this is very much like the situation in Carpet Diem, but this conflict was escalated to a greater and more dangerous scale.

And, well, as someone who has 5 siblings (1 younger, 4 older), I can tell healthy and unhealthy sibling relationships from each other. I can also identify when a relationship is neutral and indifferent at best.

Healthy siblings: They love each other and have each others’ back. Even when they part ways when they’re older, they’ll still protect each other at a moment’s chance. There’s always gonna be a bit of teasing and fighting involved - and sometimes it CAN hurt badly - but the important thing is that they be honest with each other about this and learn from it.

Indifferent siblings: You can care for them deeply, but not have much a bond with them at all. The bond is just a background thing that isn’t really felt. Not much communication happens between these siblings, but not a whole effort to get closer is needed or acted on. There’s not really any desire for getting closer anyways.

Unhealthy siblings: Lots of ignoring each other and not resolving their continuously piling conflicts. This is something that can sometimes happen with any range of health in sibling relationships, but it’s a consistent and persisitant issue with unhealthy siblings. It’s rare for healthy siblings, and even then they at least make an effort to fix this issue when it arises. There can also be extremities with unhealthy siblings when it comes to bullying, manipulation, arrogance, and/or outright abuse toward each other.

I would say I only have healthy as well as indifferent relationships with my siblings, but I used to have fairly unhealthy relationships with them when I was really little. If anything, what some of these fans often see as “unhealthy” for Dipper and Mabel was nothing compared to how I was with my siblings at their age.

These two also ground each other in different ways, and it’s important that they grow up by each other’s side even after they part their own ways.

“I actually thought I was gonna stay here and be Ford’s apprentice! Spend my entire teens in a basement cooped up in a lab coat? How ridiculous is that?!” -Dipper



Even after saying this, Mabel still assures him just in case:

“I appreciate what you said back there, but if you want to take Ford’s apprenticeship, I won’t get in your way.”



And still, Dipper insists on staying with Mabel as his final decision.

“Pfft, and miss out on your awkward teen years? You wish!”

