i feel like steve would be the type to do the knee between the legs while he's kissing someone but he's only ever done it with girls so the first time he does it with eddie he does it too hard and knees him in the balls
Welcome to my series on the Pines family vs the DSM 5. I will be making posts talking about each twin and my personal look at their AuDHD traits. Because I’m AuDHD. And want to spread our agenda. In all seriousness, I see a lot of these traits in these guys and want to make my opinion known. Today, I will be starting with the one I’ve related to the most growing up and watching the show and probably why I should’ve realized I was autistic before the age of 19. So here we go! My autistic analysis of Dipper Pines.
I feel like this is obvious, but I am no medical professional, this is based on my personal analysis and experience as an autistic individual. Also minor Book of Bill spoilers.
Social Communication and Interaction
I am literally going to be quoting the DSM 5 here. So let’s start with criteria A: “Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction”.
Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity: Dipper is known for scripting conversations, please see Season 1, Episode 7 “Double Dipper” and the whole checklist he made just to talk to Wendy. And when the conversation went off script from what he planned? He panics. And I’d like to throw in an early mention to his tendency to infodump here, even if he doesn’t really recognize people… not… caring.
Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction: Dipper seems to miss a lot of sarcasm or rhetorical comments, I think of a specific moment in “The Deep End” with Mabel
Mabel: Is it getting hot out here, or is it just this guy? 😍
Dipper: It’s the hottest day of the year, Mabel. 😐
Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships: Dipper has very few close friends, and most of the friends he does have are much older than him in age and maturity (Wendy and her group of friends, Soos, etc.). “Oh but what about Candy and Grenda?” Those are Mabel’s friends, do not get it twisted he is friendly with them but are any of you siblings really friends with your siblings’ friends? I sure as hell am not. The exception to the prior statements would be Pacifica Northwest, and even then I would say that’s a friendship that inadvertently started through Mabel. Let’s not forget about the subplot of Season 2, Episode 16 “The Roadside Attraction”, y’know when Stanley gave him a script for talking to the girls he’d meet on the roadtrip and how he panicked at the end when all the girls confronted him at once. He’s trying his best! He’s just very awkward and doesn’t quite get it. We also see in “Weirdmaggedon Part 2: Escape to Reality” that even in youth, Dipper had little to no friends in his class.
Behavioral Evidence
Criteria B: Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
This is some of the most noticeable evidence I could provide for this to be honest. This is also where I especially relate to Dipper so this section is definitely noticeably longer than the section before.
Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements: If you’re not sure what I mean by this, I generally mean stimming. Predominantly for Dipper, this presents as pacing- usually seen when he’s thinking, but also in Season 1, Episode 10 “Fight Fighters” as what I interpreted as anxiety regulating. Anxiety and autism are often comorbid, and it was in fact confirmed in the Book of Bill that Dipper has an undiagnosed anxiety disorder. I also throw in his little hand flappies- one of the most stereotypical autism motions, admittedly, but I do this too. I predominantly saw these in “The Tale of Two Stans” when Ford mentions the journal… with a little squeal as well. Finally, Dipper stims through chewing- something that is surprisingly common amongst autistic people. He has that whole box of chewed through pens, and is also seen in “Sock Opera” chewing on his shirt collar when he’s extremely tired or stressed… or both.
Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior: There is the cartoon logic of wearing the same outfit everyday with some small deviances, but it is lampshaded in “Carpet Diem” that what we usually see him wearing- the red shirt, gray shorts, and blue vest- are the same articles of clothing (Mabel: At least I wash my clothes once in a while!; Dipper: Washing clothes is a waste of time, I’m a busy guy!). This also goes into the common autistic experience of struggling with hygiene, something that is made well aware of with Dip.
Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus: I feel like this one is pretty obvious but the whole plot of the show is Dipper studying and researching Gravity Falls’ supernatural weirdness. Part of that is finding the author of the journals. He even got so hyperfocused on cracking the laptop in “Sock Opera” that he stayed up for two days straight working on it, something that could be associated with executive dysfunction. A smaller interest that could count for this is the game “Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons” from the episode of the same name.
Conclusion
Dipper Pines, my boy, my son. Again, the autism diagnosis is in no way canon or anything but rather my personal interpretation of his character. Dipper and really almost anyone in Gravity Falls is someone I could analyze for hours on hours, one of my planned posts is talking about the main Gravity Falls cast and queerness so please enjoy that probably after I finish analyzing their neurodivergent traits.
