The thing I love about Journal is how Dipper is willing to share pages for documentation, mainly with Mabel and her additions to the journal.

Just look at all of these amazing entries!

For Mabel, what essentially started out with forgetting her diary’s combination code ended with her being Dipper’s go-to co-author. Her entries usually range from anecdotes from her escapades to jotting down important information on the supernatural phenomena/conspiracies of Gravity Falls.

Even in the Carpet Diem page, she states how despite teasing her brother, she appreciates all of the things he’s done and acknowledges how wonderful she thinks he is.

But the most evident example of Mabel’s love for Dipper is highlighted in the Bipper section, which has some disturbing content.

That note alone is one of the most unsettling acts of atrocity Bill has ever accomplished. I could not begin to imagine how this twelve year old girl must have felt while reading something this traumatic. And even though she felt incredibly guilty about the whole fiasco, she apologizes to her brother a second time and does whatever she can to make it up to him. She loves her brother that much.

Speaking of Dipper, all throughout the summer, this kid went through trials and tribulations, big and small, to prove himself that he is a person of strength, value. He strove to be someone worthy of being loved. Mabel’s note on that page emphasizes how much he means to her. I’d like to believe that the morning after the sock opera, he opened up his journal, and after reading the sickening details on Bill and his equally unnerving note to find her entry, illustrating her remorse and how much she wants to owe it up to him. After reading that last section, Dipper must have felt personally moved and motivated by her words, to the point that his self-esteem must have skyrocketed.

Another aspect of this that makes this so important is that Dipper readily accepts her compositions and sketches and doesn’t dismiss them. In fact, he finds her notes more than welcome to be included in his supernatural documentation.

In the beginning of Dipper’s section of the Journal, he makes this statement when mentioning his sister.

“She’s smarter than people give her credit for, and often acts the way she does just to drive me insane.”

He clearly respects her intelligence and creativity, and allowing her to jot down on the Journal shows how much he genuinely loves and trusts his sister. To top it all off, Dipper writes down the many awesome things she accomplished; using the leaf blower to defeat the gnomes, her unconventional methods of discovering the real founder of Gravity Falls, saving him with the grappling hook when they fell from the Gideon-Bot, using her scrapbook to ignite Grunkle Stan’s memories.

Unlike Ford, who, for a brief period of time, gave sole praise to his grandnephew, Dipper gives credit where credit is due. He knows his sister’s cleverness and creative ingenuity, and highlights it in their shared accomplishments. There’s a good reason why he and Mabel are called the Mystery Twins.

On a lighter note, Dipper also makes room in the journal to include some of his and Mabel’s more ‘normal’ narratives.

In this story, Dipper and Mabel discover that Soos has encased himself in Peanut Brittle, with only a bendy straw to breathe through. Finding the perfect prank opportunity, the twins take advantage of the situation to fool the handyman into thinking that he has awaken centuries into the future. Dipper and Mabel dress up in amateur cyberpunk outfits and address Soos that he is needed in an important battle.

Even in the more mundane situations, Dipper and Mabel know how to have fun and come up with creative ways to do so.

tl:dr - Journal 3 places a huge emphasis on family, and it warms my heart to know just how much Dipper and Mabel love each other.