Dreams of Laur

*This post contains spoilers for Gravity Falls*

*It basically ruins all the surprises. You have been warned.*

Grunkle Stan said it and I have heard it a thousand times. I am extremely close with my sister. Some would say too close. We often say to each other that we don’t feel like the other is another human (a great compliment) because we just live inside each other’s brains. We constantly talk in inside jokes and no one understands what we are saying. We are often mistaken as the same person or as twins, even though we’re not. It is seemingly so unnatural for siblings to get along so well. I don’t know how many books I’ve read and movies or TV shows that I have watched that have portrayed siblings either as indifferent, annoyances to each other, friends to enemies, or are burning with extreme hatred for one another. This is all contrasted with the love and support the Mystery Twins, Dipper and Mabel Pines, have for one another in Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls is an animated show that first aired in 2012. It is about twins Dipper and Mabel who are dropped off in Gravity Falls, Roadkill County, Oregon at their great-uncle (“Grunkle”) Stan’s tourist-trap, the Mystery Shack for the entire summer. While trying to enjoy their summer, Dipper and Mabel begin to experience strange supernatural occurrences in the town. It is packed full of mysteries, and clues are scattered throughout the show (thanks Alex Hirsch), always keeping fans engaged and passionate even years after the completion of the show. Despite the show’s killer plot there is one thing that shines even brighter: the emotional relationship of the characters.

Dipper and Mabel Pines are 12-year-old twins who are each other’s best friends, but here’s the twist, they stay best friends throughout the entirety of the show. I know right?! There is no backstabbing, no lying, no doubt, just plain old love. This shouldn’t seem that exciting, but it is! It is so rare for me to see a sibling relationship that so fully supportive and loving. Anyways, let’s dive a little deeper shall we?

Dipper and Mabel are opposites, but they use these differences to help each other out rather than hindering their relationship. Dipper is the brains – the level-headed twin that keeps things together. He is realistic and is always there to keep people safe. However, sometimes his anxious logic gets him into trouble. Mabel on the other hand is all emotions, love before logic. She trusts her heart rather than her brain, but that is why she needs Dipper. They balance each other out and are always there to protect one another. They catch each other’s mistakes and welcome the feedback, as it makes them a strong team. As viewers, we are introduced to the way the Mystery Twins operate right at the start of the series in the episodes “Tourist Trapped”, “The Legend of the Gobblewonker”, and “Headhunters”. They are always a team and never search for individual glory.

Both Dipper and Mabel are willing to give up things in order for their sibling. Above all else, they want each other to be happy. They both make sacrifices for each other, but I would argue that Dipper ends up sacrificing a little more. That being said, Mabel is usually in the right. For example, in “The Time Traveller’s Pig”, it is more important that they save Mabel’s new pig and best friend, Waddles, then Dipper being able to sabotage Robbie. There are trivial things and then there are important things, just like in “The Deep End”. Dipper, isn’t it more important to help Mabel get Mermando home than keeping your illegal 12-year old slave labour job at the public pool so you can hang out with your crush? That being said, Dipper is integral for keeping Mabel grounded when she needs to be as she has a tendency to be dramatic. “Sock Opera” anyone?

That isn’t to say that Dipper and Mabel never have disagreements, because they do. In the episode “Carpet Diem”, they fight over a newly discovered room in the Mystery Shack. They each want a space to call their own and after having magically switched bodies due to the questionable carpet in the room, they proceed to sabotage each other in gaining Stan’s favour to obtain the room. This all started because Mabel was always hanging out with her friends in their shared room and Dipper was feeling left out. He was starting to feel like Mabel didn’t need him anymore. When you are so close with someone, it is easy to feel left out when they gain new relationships. That isn’t to say that one should never try and make new friends, but we should always remember those who stick with us through thick and thin. In the end Dipper wins the new room. He moves out of their attic bedroom and sets up his new space. When night comes, he realizes that he is not where he wants to be and wanders back to the attic room to find Mabel also awake. “Hey”, they say to each other and with that, the new room is entirely forgotten.

Dipper and Mabel are truly better as a team as opposed to when they work alone. Some might view this point negatively, but I don’t. I think that the people around me help make me into the best version of myself. Without them I would never be able to express my full potential. As stated before, Dipper and Mabel’s differences in attitudes and ways of thinking really help fill in each other’s weaknesses. Dipper is logical and Mabel is emotional. They need each other in order to see the truth.

In “Not What He Seems”, faced with what seems to be a portal designed to rip the universe apart, Stan pleads with the twins to believe he is a good guy. He begs them not to stop it, that everything he did, he did for his family. Dipper is convinced that Stan has been lying to them this whole time and cannot be trusted. When the portal sends out a powerful gravity flux that causes everything to be unstable, Mabel is the only one that is in range of shutting down the machine. I have to say that every time I watch this scene, I get so nervous I feel like I’m going to be sick (even though I’ve seen it so many times).

Who does Mabel believe? Her brother yelling at her to shut it down or Stan with his pleading eyes? Throughout the series Mabel and Stan get very close. They are both ruled by their hearts rather than their heads, something I can deeply relate to. Mabel never thought that Stan would lie or hide anything from her. But here it is, the biggest reason to doubt him; because in the simplest terms, Stan did lie. Why should Mabel trust his word now? All the evidence points to Dipper’s logic.

“I trust you Grunkle Stan.”

And with that, Mabel lets the doomsday timer run out.

It turns out that Stan had spent 30 pain-staking long years to build the portal to return his twin brother home who got trapped in another dimension. If Mabel has not listened to her heart than Stan would have not been reunited with his brother (though I can’t say it was a happy reunion as they parted on… bad terms would be an understatement). Luckily, Dipper and Mabel are able to pick up what the other misses. Without their twin’s insight, they would be operating with only half of their potential.

However, having such a close bond with someone can be heartbreaking as well. Especially the threat of them leaving. “Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future” is when their relationship really starts to be tested. It is a heartbreaking episode to watch as it speaks to the reality of growing up especially when you have to leave someone like your best friend behind. Dipper and Mabel have been shipped off to Gravity Falls for the summer by their parents and were expected to come home to California by September. They often talk throughout the series about what it will be like when they turn 13 (technically a teen) and start high school together in the fall. Suddenly, Dipper is given the opportunity to stay in Gravity Falls with Ford (Stan’s twin brother) as his apprentice in researching the town’s supernatural anomalies long after the summer is over. He is so happy because he has finally found someone like him. Mabel was always more like Stan so when Ford turns out to be so much like Dipper, he feels like he found his calling. Mabel, on the other hand, had already begun to feel like Dipper was losing his need for her and when she overhears that he he wants to stay while she goes home is enough to break her heart.

As mentioned before, Stan and Ford parted on terrible terms, however, they used to be as close as Dipper and Mabel. Their strained relationship becomes a threat to Dipper and Mabel’s happiness as Mabel fears they will fall apart just like their grunkles. Unlike the incident with the portal, here Mabel’s emotional heart is her downfall as she is tricked by the evil Bill Cypher, unwittingly allowing him to enter their world with the promise of an endless summer. Mabel was not ready to face a future without Dipper and was able to be tricked into giving Bill what he wanted. Without her brother, she used her heart when she should have used her head in that situation.

When Bill takes over Gravity Falls, a task he was trying to accomplish all summer but had been repeated defeated by the Pines siblings, the first thing he does is separate them. Even Bill, a crazy multi-dimensional demon, fears their sibling relationship. He knows that together they are much stronger and he stands a better change at world domination without them.

Dipper and Mabel share an all-encompassing love. They would rather save each other and their family than save the world. That isn’t to say they would completely let the world burn, but it is not their top priority. When Dipper realizes that Bill has Mabel trapped, he does everything he can to get to her and get to her he does. Bill created a prison for Mabel which, at first glance, doesn’t seem like one. She is in her very own “Mabel Land”, a place where her imagination is the limit; it is designed to make her want to stay.

In the penultimate episode of the series “Weirdmageddon 2: Escape from Reality”, Dipper braves this land to find his sister. Here he discovers a colourful and slightly off-putting world were there are hug lights instead of stop lights and beefy waffle guards. Everything seems just a little too cheerful, until you try to resist and Bill’s nightmare creatures start to leak through. It is nothing more than a trap, but Mabel refuses to go with Dipper. In “Mabel Land” she can do what she wants and does not have to worry about the scary future of growing up, especially in a world were Dipper won’t be there with her.

So, Dipper wants to leave and Mabel wants to say. How are they going to decide what they are doing to do? Why a trial of course! Dipper and Mabel are called to a colourful court room where Craz and Zyler (Mabel’s imaginary dudes) present the case of how cruel and unfriendly reality is. They bring forward some of Dipper and Mabel’s most awful childhood memories. At first, Dipper is taken aback by them until he realizes that Craz and Zyler are not telling the whole story. The conclusion to all these memories were Dipper and Mabel remedying the situations by being there for each other. It is when Dipper reminds Mabel of this that they are able to escape. Now I know that sounds cheesy, but it is honestly so heartwarming. Imagine having someone with you who just always understands you, no matter what. They know when to ask the right questions and always have your interest at heart. These selfless relationships are difficult to find in a lot of pop culture creations, especially in when it comes to sibling relationships.

“Weirdmageddon 2: Escape from Reality” is extremely tough for me to watch. Change and uncertainty in the future is really scary and this episode does an amazing job of bringing all those fears to the forefront. I don’t know what the future holds, but sometimes I just wish time could slow down for a little while. I understand that sometimes it is easier to hide than face the future, but that is why you need someone in your life the way the Pines siblings do.

This show honestly gives me so many feels. It touches my heart and soul in so many ways and one of the reasons why are the Mystery Twins. Their selfless love and support for each other is one that I am blessed to experience myself and I hope that one day you will too. If you are still reading this then a congratulations is in order. I could speak on this topic for days, but frankly I just don’t have the time right now. I do hope that you find someone you can be fully yourself with as Dipper and Mabel are with each other. It is difficult to find, but once you do it can change your life forever.

Love,

Lauren

♥ This post is dedicated to my sister. The Dipper to my Mabel and the Mabel to my Dipper. I love you. ♥