Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27708312-20170202163909/@comment-31166511-20170305030502

I don't mean to say that chapter ten was sprung as a surprise with no warning. But compared to the load of hurt and confession revealed in the final chapter, there is relatively little dramatic support in the earlier sections.

Mabel denies that there is nothing wrong and begs for patience on Dipper's part. That's all there is on the other side of the scale to balance Mabel's lengthy confessional monolog.

If I had my preference, Dipper's suspicions would be slowly rising throughout the early sections. We would be given a tour of Dipper's thoughts as he tries to figure out what's going on in Mabel's head. He could go back and forth between trusting his own judgement and wanting to take his sister's word at face value.

Could you think of any reasons that Dipper would be wrestling with his own sense of guilt? If there were a break from Mabel's self-hatred, it would feel like there was more progress made on the plot.

How about when Dipper was urging Mabel to shut down the Portal, but she decided to give her trust instead. If Dipper had been at the controlls, Uncle Ford would have reached the end of his life lost out among the dimensions. Ford himself chewed out Stan for placing the world in danger, merely for his sake. Dipper's got to have some conflicting emotions over that scene--was his decision to not support Stan the right one? Both yes and no! That's not an easy issue for a 12-year-old to shake off.

Dipper sacrifies his own interests for the sake of his family many times. But when it comes to offering emotional support, he sucks a lot.

1) Dipper doesn't ever understand Mabel's strong desire to be loved--dismissing her as merely 'boy crazy' 2) Dipper is openly critical of Mabel's leadership skills and fitness to be co-captain. He's selling out her feelings for the sake of $500. Pretty cold. 3) Dipper contemptously dismisses Mabel's first two inspirations for carving a wax figure as not realistic. 4) Dipper expects saying "no" to Gideon to be easy for Mabel as it is for him. He delivers the break-up news with a "thumbs up" to Gideon that might as well be an "up yours". 5) When meeting Wendy's friends for the first time Dipper puts his sister down by saying "She's not much for first impressions." 6) Meeting the multi-bear is the first time seems to notice that other people have feelings. 7) When Dipper clones himself his first choice to apply the lesson of "just go for it" instead of over-thinking everything is when he punches his own clone and starts the clone fight instead of reasoning with them. Wrong lesson, wrong time, Dipper! "Man, you guys sound crazy!", says dismissing someone else's point of virw again, even though it's his own. This is a kid full of self conflict! 8) Pioneer Day is the second time Dipper choses to ditch Uncle Stan. Unlike the Gobblewonker hunt, he doesn't even try to apologize. Even though spending a day being tormented in the Stocks must have been far worse for Stan than a day bugging other boaters on the lake. Mabel sympathizes, "You've been through so much." Dipper doesn't even notice. 9) Dipper has to be hit with a major guilt-trip over Mabel losing Waddles before he gives up what is only a fake relationship with Wendy, anyway. 10) Dipper lies to Rumble McSkirmish about Robbie killing his father with just a "Yeah, sure." Wendy's attitude is rubbing off on him. 11) The episode "Little Dipper" has too much sibling conflict to need pointing out. 12) Dipper lies to get out of Trick-Or-Treating rather than just being honest with Mabel about what he wants. It's not as if the two events actually conflicted. Hell, they twins had THREE WHOLE HOURS to spend together. It could have been an enjoyable night all around with everyone getting what they wanted if Dipper hadn't deliberatly choosen to be a big jerk. 13) I don't have anything to criticize Dipper for in "Boss Mabel". He was actually very accepting and supportive of Mabel in an important posistion of authority. He's hardly critical at all even when Mabel blunders in a life-threatening screws up. 14) Among several other examples of Dipper being sarcastic or generally grumpy, he instantly believes Stan's claim that Soos took Dipper's spaghetti, even though Stan has an established record of fabrication as solid as Soos' reputation for speaking his mind too much to ever be a credible pervaricator.

Is there anything in the above points you think you could use to describe some issues Dipper might be wrestling with at the same time Mabel has hers? As it stands, Dipper just seems so passive and inactive. He needs far more "screen time" to balance Mabel's inner demons.

I really would like to see some purely physical adventure peppered in the plot, too.